fireflies

We drove through the park tonight and I saw some fireflies. Tom slowed way down and turned off the headlights and it was magic! Thousands of them...it was like being in a fairy world. Soren and I both gasped. Just gorgeous.

words

Jude doesn't really have words yet, but he says 'uh!' for UhOh (no OH! yet LOL) and mamamamama and he knows it's ME now :). Very exciting!

He also stood alone for ten seconds today.

front to back, left to right
Andrea, Julia, Lauren, Natalie
Jessica, Molly, Steph, Myra
Emma, Mariah, Lindsey, Danielle, Katie, Nikki, Jessie, Brittani
??, Stasi, Allison, Crystal

banquet

On Thursday night, the gym held a team banquet. It was really great. The food was good and the speeches were so moving!

We had such a good year as a team, and it was fun to get together socially and see all the girls out of their sweats and in skirts!

Blogger is giving me problems with posting a picture, but I'll get it up later.

In other news, it's HOT. 95F today supposedly. we're headed to the lake and maybe swimming at my friend Lynn's after that. Tom is working :(. I miss him. He's grumpy with the heat and the overwhelming amount of work he needs to do, but next week will be a catchup week and we'll finish getting ready for the shore.

I need to price a minivan rental, as the a/c in my car died and it's going to be hard to get everything in my small car. We had planned on taking the Suburban, but it's yes, you guessed it, *still* in Syracuse ;).

Oh, and this is the camera I got.

new pics up

As promised ages ago, new pics up here

camera

I got a digital camera and am out of the dark ages! woot!

summer

Summer has arrived! Weird weather though. A week of 90s, then 50s, now beautiful, beautiful 70s and 80s. I love it! We went swimming on Tuesday, and then E. and I went to see Star Wars while Soren went to a Summer Solstice picnic with the Lilac Children's Garden crew.

I *loved* the movie. I didn't expect much, since I thought the first 2 sucked, but I was pleasantly surprised. Emma adored it. It was great to have a night out with her.

Tonight we get another chance, as it's the Team Banquet. Should be fun! Not to mention I get the night off. Which is good, because it's my least favorite class that I teach tonight.

Gymnastics news - Soren got her round off backhandspring by herself last night! Woot! She was so excited :). And Emma did 3 giants on the strap bar. Very cool. Proud happy girls.

8 days and counting till vacation. I can't wait. Must pack.

I seam sealed one of the tents the other day. Have to put up the other one and clean stuff up to go. It's going to suck to travel 7 hours with all of us and our camping gear crammed in my car but with the truck still out of commission there is no help for it.

I go to see the attorney today about finalizing the bankruptcy. Can't wait, as I have to drag all 3 kids with me ;). Joy!

And we go to the dentist today. More joy!

Happy Father's Day

Happy day to my darling husband, the best dad around. He loved the gifts we got him - a tshirt with the girls' handprints and Jude's footprints on it that says "Best Dad in the World, Hands Down" and I got him fatigues cargo shorts and we all got him cards. He got all teared up when he got the shirt. That's why I love him so much!

The girls also made one for their dad, so happy day to him too.

Tom and I went out to bkfast with his mom, which was lovely. I had a breakfast burrito that was fantastic. Then we ran errands all day. Dropped film off at Wallyworld, perused digital cameras and work boots, then went to Dick's Sporting goods to do more of the same. I climbed their 47 ft. climbing wall and made it to the top and hit the buzzer. The guy said I climbed fast! I loved the harness they had. I want one!

Then we went to Sears and gandered at car top carriers since we won't have the truck to get to the shore in after all. Oh, and we bought a new canopy for over the picnic table while at Dick's.

We also stopped at Babys 'r Us and replaced the carseat that was in the Suburban. The insurance will reimburse us, so I need to send that in tomorrow.

Oh, and we went to Petco and got a training collar for Sully and some treats. Lots of errands!

Now Tom is finishing the dreaded screen project he is doing for my friend Jenny. It will finally be done today. It took way longer than expected and would cost her a lot, but she and her dh are pissed that it's taken so long, so he's not going to charge them. So much for 3 weekends of work ::shrug::

Anyway, we'll have leftovers for dinner and the kidlets will be home pretty soon I imagine. Nice for David to have them for Father's Day. I got screwed on Mother's Day this year :(.

Happy day to MY dad too. Love you dad.

movies

Emma is begging me for a date. She wants me to take her to see Star Wars III, Revenge of the Sith. I hope I can work this out for her.

I can't wait until September so I can see Mirrormask. It looks really great. I rarely get worked up about going to a movie and am just as happy to wait for it to hit Netflix, but this time, I'm determined to go!

accident

I haven't had time to update for a while, because Jude is just SO busy and it is really hard to get on the computer unless he's nursing and then he tries to type even while he's nursing!

I took 8 kids with me in the truck on Saturday to Utica to go to a meeting on the new gymnastics routines for next year. But we didn't make it. Or at least I didn't. The Suburban blew out a back tire near Syracuse (about 1.5 hours from Rochester) and I lost control of the truck and hit a WalMart tractor trailer when I spun.

Thank God all the kids were belted in and nobody was hurt. The semi didn't even stop. The state trooper said he may not have even known that I hit him. We got the girls in the other 2 cars that were traveling to the meeting, double belted, and 4 of them rode with the trooper to the next rest stop. I wasn't able to get a rental because every place closed at noon on Saturday. I spent the afternoon waiting with Jude to get picked up by another parent.

We managed to get all the kids home again because there were two other parents there with cars, but it was tough. We were SO lucky. I really thought we were all going to die when the truck started to spin. It is a miracle that it didn't flip.

I think that the damage is pretty minimal, all things considered, but because it's an '84, I'm afraid that the insurance company will total it. Which sucks, b/c we just spent $1600 to get it inspected. Ugh.

I'm just so grateful that we were all safe. The trooper was there in minutes. A truck driver stopped behind us and radioed for help and to tell the other rigs behind him to slow down. He helped me pull the truck off the road and get the kids all out. The girls ALL screamed when it happened and then Jude started to shriek.

I've never been in an accident before. I hope this is the only one I ever have to experience. I'm still afraid to drive.

emma

I forgot to mention that Emma got her back walkover on the high beam by herself last night! Go Emma!

hee

Jude's newest discovery is that he can say pbbbbttttt! You know, when you take your finger and wiggle your lips while making a sound? Yep, he does it with his whole hand. Then he wants to do it to my lips, then he wants me to do it to him ;). He's sooo cute!

He was yelling for an hour at the gym tonight! Too funny.

heat wave

It's been so hot this week! I'm glad, but the kids are melting. I took them swimming at a friend's house today and it was great. Very laid back, we brought lots of snacks and they had friends to play with. I'm worn out from doing nothing!

Tom's making dinner (what a guy!) and then we're going to Abbott's at the beach for ice cream. I can't wait :).

fun!

Jude's new favorite game is to unroll the toilet paper!

He was up all night nursing. I realized this morning that we hadn't fed him anything last night. He ate a ton of oatmeal and a jar of fruit this morning! Who IS this baby?

Champions!

Emma's team won the Level 4 State Championship by 3 whole points! OMG, we were all screaming and laughing and crying and took a million pictures. I am sooo happy for all of the girls and the coaches. Emma had a *spectacular* meet, which really made me feel much better about how things have been going with her and gymnastics the last few months. I was so impressed with her routines and all of the girls, really!

Woohoo! And the Level 4 coach talked to me about starting Soren on pre-team in a month, for summer session. David and I are discussing it.

Recital

The ballet recital was amazing! I know that I bitch endlessly about the studio that we go to, but my boss' wife was right when she told me that I'd know why they stick with them when I saw the performance. It was so professional. The lighting and music were great. The kids were very talented.

Soren did great! She was nervous but looked beautiful and remembered the dance and of course was the cutest girl there :). I'll post pics soon, I promise!

David's dad even came up for the weekend to see the girls' events. Tres cool!

It was 3 hours long though. She got a trophy at the end before the finale. She loves it and is so excited :).

Tomorrow is Level 4 States. God help us ;). It will be a long, long day, but I hope it goes well!

Short week

4 more days. Saturday is Soren's ballet recital. Sunday is Level 4 states. Then we're free, free, freeeee!

Well, we have one more rock climbing class and 2 more Irish stepdancing classes, but then it's nothing but work and team and Soren's dance workshop in July. And baseball when/if we feel like it (which David will transport to). Yay! And it's hot out :).

And I had off Monday, so only had to work WRF. And I'm trying to schedule myself for MTW for the summer and that's it. Then I'd have off RFSSu. Go me.

Dog

The dog dug up the hole that I filled in and seeded. Damn dog ;).

Jude woke up early this morning, but he went to bed early too. I didn't sleep much last night. We have to make something for our homeschooling YMCA picnic today, and then rock climbing and then we have to go to work. Back to the grind! 4 more weeks after this one and then I will hopefully have a slimmer work schedule.

Of course by then, maybe I won't dread going to work so much.

Jude is becoming much more sturdy. He's going to be standing by himself soon I think. He seems so much more solid. He's relying on his hips to balance himself more, not his toes. He takes steps when I hold his hands. ::;sob::: He's getting so big so fast. And he has such big hands. He smacks them down when he crawls, as if to annouce to the world, here I come!

He had a great time playing with Sullivan yesterday. They rolled around on the floor playing with a piece of cloth, crawling all over each other.

And Jude's favorite new fun thing to do is to bite me! Augh! It hurts, with that one little sharp tooth. I am trying to discourage it, but boy does he think it's funny.

Well, the girls are up, need breakfast, and I need to shower and eat and get moving. What I really want to do is stay in bed all day, and eat bonbons. heh.