Behind the Scenes

National Champs!

We are back from Nationals and the 13-15 team placed 3rd in the Nation! Of course it wouldn't be Synchro without some drama! Shelby, one of our top figure swimmers came down with the flu right in the middle of the competition. She ended up in the hospital for fluids and meds. Unfortunately we had to scratch the trio routine that was in Th place before figures but the team went ahead and switched to a 7 man formation at the last minute and pulled it off:).

Here's a picture of the girls with their coach, Jessica McMahon.

Another highlight of our trip was seeing the Olympic Synchronized Swim team perform at the 13-15 final event. They are simply amazing!!! I need to make sure I have Oxygen on my Cox Cable before the Olympics start. I also need to order DVR!!! Oh, another little tidbit, Coach Jessica's old duet partner is a member of the Olympic Team and congratulated the girls after their team swim.

In other news.....the house is moving right along.....interior painting will start later today and then we have the ceramic tile going in on Friday. The outside is still looking pretty poor but we're working on it! I will try to post some pics soon. 

New York, New York

Tomorrow morning, crack of dawn, Mackenzie and i are off to New York. We're hoping the Aqua Stars have a good showing at the National event in Binghampton, New York. You can track their progress on line at USA Synchro. We will be heading home on Wednesday. Here are some fun pictures from the last meet that I never got around to posting. P.S. These were taken with my new little Cannon pocket camera I finally got around to buying. Felt I deserved it with all the man hours I've been putting in at the rental house!

Steven has spent the last two days with his friend Drew who's celebrating his 10th birthday. We are all very sad we aren't heading down to Mexico on our annual trip. Next year if Mackenzie chooses to swim we are leaving her in the States and heading south! I can't live without my beach fix every year. There's no place like San Carlos for private white sand beaches, margs, snorkeling and lots of Echre playing:)

Our Latest Project

 

Well, the last two weekends I spent my time ripping very ugly ceramic tile out of John's latest aquisition. He owes me big time! John's back can't take the stress. Good thing I've been hitting the gym on a fairly regular basis and actually think the roto-hammer is a fun tool. "Demo" is almost as good as shopping as far as the endorphins go! lol  So far what we've accomplished is the yard is now free of all clutter, flooring is out of the house completely, spreadsheet and budget are complete. Furniture is all donated except for one last truck load, paint colors for inside and out are picked and landscape design is complete.

Here are a few of the before photos:

 

Notice the very ugly floor tile, the garbage everywhere! These guys were total pigs!!! There's basically no door that can be salvaged.......but the price was right!

So now after a couple of weeks and a 4yard dumpster......this is what we've accomplished.

After two weeks:

The back yard is actually clear of debris....AMAZING!!! 

Next on the list is getting bids for replacing the following:

RV Gate, Windows, Garage door, vanities and kitchen cabinets. Can you say "cha-ching"?

I can't wait to see how it all turns out. The house already smells better just by getting all the old furnishings and carpet out. I swear the carpet was 30 yrs old:)

In other news.........

I was pulled over Saturday morning on my way to the Grand Court Knitter's Club meeting. I was just leaving my neighborhood and knew I wasn't speeding or doing anything else illegal. Turns out the cop ran my license plates and they come up invalid. Sweet eh? Yes, wonders never cease with the DMV. Once the cop found out this was a brand new car with mail in license plates he was very cool and told me to go get it straightened out at the DMV. Well, they ended up being closed today so that's on my never ending list of things to do tomorrow.

As far as the knitting club goes......they are teaching Mackenzie and I to knit and purl and hopefully some other fancy moves! We are both making a wash cloth for the newborns in need group. The group meets on Saturday mornings from 10-11am and there are a couple woman who remind me of my Grandma Dahl. It's so fun to go sit and talk to them. One of the ladies named Jo, looks like she's about 70 and she's 93 years old with lots of spunk. She was the one who begged me to bring Mackenzie over so she could teach her all there is to know about knitting! Next week we are bringing the baby rattles for them to see along with some Synchro pictures.

We've had an extra house guest, Abby, around lately. Steven has been busy keeping her entertained in the pool. She loves when the boys go off the diving board and she dive bombs them. Kelsey has also decided that she can go completely underwater and stay there for  awhile especially if she has a hole in her ball and it starts sinking. Everyone has been hitting the bed hard these days with lots of activities.

For Father's Day we bought John Wii Fit. We've all been checking it out. Let the games begin......COMPETITION is the name of the game. I presently hold the record in the downhill skiing! We also bought him a two pack of pool floats. One for sitting up and one for laying down. They are very comfortable.

Well, I need to run Mackenzie over to Hobby Lobby. Love that it's only 1/2 mile from the house.

Later!

Thank God it's Monday!

Don't usually look forward to Monday's but I have to say the weekend has been brutal. John and I purchased an investment home and have been busting out butts trying to haul all the items the prior owner had decided to abandon. What fun! It's been some what of a treasure hunt actually. Steven has decided that he's really not into this action. Mackenzie pitched right in and really helped out on Friday night. John and I got up early both Saturday and Sunday morning. My job was using a special tool resembling a mini jack hammer to rip up the ugly, poorly installed ceramic tile. I managed to demo one bedroom, the kitchen/ dining area and the hall bathroom. I still need to do the master bath and entry way and I'll be done. The good news is I'm only sore in the forearm and have a blister on one hand. That says a ton about what working out on a regular basis can do for you! John has been ripping out all the old carpet and pad. The home is 30 years old and I think some of the carpet was that old too! Need I say more as to how absolutely gross it was in this house??? Mackenzie did take some before pictures and also some progress pics but she hasn't downloaded anything yet. I will share when she gets them ready.

In other news........Steven did a class all week long at USA fitness and really enjoyed it. Not only did he work out really hard and want massages every night....he had a fabulous time! They had crazy hair day one day and I swear he was a cross between Jimmy Neutron and Elvis. See what you think.

Hair is by Mackenzie! She wanted me to make sure I gave her credit:)

The weather here has actually been pretty nice and our new plants are growing like mad. We have a tomato plant that we didn't even plant ourselves that's doing fabulous. It sprouted up by the side air conditioning unit. We picked our first tomato off of it this week.

Happenings.......

Here's what's happening in the Florence's world this fine Sunday-

1. John is back home from Reno. He ended up taking an early flight home due to the fact his team was out of the tournament as of last night.

2. Mackenzie woke up with 102 degree temp. Not really sure what's going because there are no other symptoms. She did complain yesterday that her knees were killing her after practice. Let's pray her body fights off whatever this is. A few of her teammates have had the ugly puking virus going around.

3. Steven is still trying to cope with the fact his two little friends down the street, Matthew and Christine are moving on Friday. To make matters worse their parents sent them off to a camp today. Christine informed Steven she had a crush on him this past Friday. I've not talked to the parents yet about how far away they are moving. The kids are hoping they can still keep in touch.

4. I've been making some cards for the charity called Newborns in Need. This is the charity Mackenzie is doing her service hours for this Summer. I was originally hoping she would work at a place where she had some one on one contact with needy people however, with her swim hours it was very hard to come up with things that would work with her schedule. Newborns in Need services 15 hospitals in Arizona providing items to needy families. They prepare anywhere from 3500- 5000 kits per month to hand out.  Mackenzie and I went and spent the morning at the Presidents house learning about the organzation and their needs.......let me tell you there are plenty of items they can use! Mackenzie has also been making cards, sewing baby blankets and is going to meet with a few of the ladies from the Grand Court knitting club to learn how to crochet in hopes of making baby washcloths. Mackenzie got back out the knitting needles and has been polishing up her skills. Here are a few of the cards she made last weekend.  She made 4 cards in one hour!!!

Oh, I'll also show you a picture of the baby rattles she's been making using plastic sheets and yarn.

5. I have finally started back to reading and am reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I'm only 50 pages into it but so far it's pretty good!

That's all for today......I'm heading out to the pool for a bit of R & R.........just in case I'm up with a puking kid later today.....c-ya!

This is a test.......

I've tried posting about 3 times today without any luck. Not sure what is going on....here's a few of the latest cards.

A long overdue Thank you!!!

Last Monday or Tuesday I received this beautiful card from Karrie's sister, Trina and never acknowledged it! Let me tell you it's even more impressive in person! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In other news this week......Steven had his final violin concert. Of course he neglected to inform me of the event until the night before! We survived...he did have to stick his feet into shoes that are getting a bit snug. No sense in purchasing new ones that aren't sandals until the fall. The orchestra did a fine job and should be very proud of themselves. Here are a few pictures before the concert started. This first photo is of Steven's friend, Parker.

Steven getting his instrument tuned.

Last night John took off to go to Prescott for the weekend to play softball. The rest of us headed to the Regional Synchronized Swim meet to watch Solos & Trios. This morning was the figure portion of the meet and then this evening we are going to watch duets and team. This morning Mackenzie also went and had her physical for Mesa High Swim Team this fall. I still am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact she'll be a Freshman in the Fall.

As you know from my prior posts.....I'm working on organizing my photos and setting up my Library of Memories system. All I can say is I'm shocked at how fast time has gone. It just doesn't seem that long ago when Steven came to live with us. Even the dog is getting older:). Whah!!!!!! That means I'm getting older too!

Off to work a bit on some graduation cards as well as my library of memories system. Have a great day!

Proud Parent Moment

Just a quick post to tell you about last night's proud parent moment. Last night was Brimhall Jr. Highs year end awards ceremony. We pretty much knew Mackenzie would be getting an academic achievement award due to the fact she's had straight "A"s all year long. What we didn't know, was she was one of five 8th graders selected to receive the Mayor's award for outstanding citizenship, community service and academic achievement. To say the least, John and I were very proud of her! Here are a few pictures of the event.

Knee deep in photos.........

Well months ago I signed up for Stacy Julian's Library of Memories on-line class and bought her book called Photo Freedom. Well this week started week 8 and I'm just now getting around to assignment #1. I know......I'm way behind. I've been reading the message board and listening to the audio and just haven't had a moment to think about it until this weekend. I started yesterday and dug out all my photos....or shall I say all but the heritage and pre-children photos! Here's a picture of what my office counters look like at the present time.

Really doesn't look too bad until you add these:

At times I was feeling a bit overloaded yesterday.......I'd walk away and come back and start over. Remember these are only the photos that aren't on my computer!!!! Yes, I still need to print everything and categorize those too.....baby steps. This will be my project for the Summer. I may need to fine tune to fit my needs but it's already making good sense to me. Maybe I just couldn't see the reasoning in the beginning......but this will work! I'm sure of it!

In other happenings......I've got a few more items for the family room. Not sure I shared a photo of the new TV console. Here it is..........

Notice the scroll finials on the left...I really love these things. John, on the other hand isn't too sure about them. Here's a close up of them.

I've also hung some mirrors above the fireplace. Not sure you can get the full effect from this shot.

I've also picked out the fabric for the Roman shades and curtains for this room. I need figure the measurements and go purchase the fabric. I've enlisted Aunt Darlene to help with the project since she's the expert in the sewing field.

In other news.........

Kids are out of school in 9 days.

Alyssa graduates in 9 days!

Steven has informed me that he's always going to be my boy no matter what! He gave me some flower cookies for Mother's Day with gum drop centers and a nice letter telling me about myself. Did you know my favorite place to go out to eat is Mike's Tie? (Thai). The best thing I do for him is support him! LOL This morning when Mackenzie was making me breakfast in bed (waffle with fresh strawberries and whipped cream) Steven was in bed snuggling with me.

Mackenzie made it into AA English and AA American Studies for next year. She's also receiving an award Monday night at school. She's also decided to do swim team for Mesa High next year. I'm just hoping she's able to balance all of this!!!! It was somewhat stressing me out the other night. Yikes....

Still trying to come up with an activity this Summer for Mr. Steven. He's so tough when it comes to finding something of interest for him. He's possibly going to do the cartoon drawing class with Michael and the Mesa Center for the Arts. For my sanity I need him to do something besides be the social director of the neighborhood. There is a reason I didn't have 6 kids! LOL

This morning the boys went to see Iron Man while Mackenzie and I went to see Made of Honor. Both were good........

I'm off to Fry's Electronics to look at video cams.

Thought I'd post my last card for this week.

It's a Sympathy card. Karrie told me not to put the swirls on the background, but I didn't listen to her. Not sure if I really like the card or not but here it is.

While I'm waiting around for Mackenzie to call me to come pick her up from the dance I thought I would fill you in on the story I promised about my "favorite child", Kelsey! She wasn't so favored on Tuesday when we were hanging out in the front yard. I was trying to pick all the grapefruit off the front trees. It seems to be never ending this year! Kelsey wondered down to the park. Not really anything unusual for her. Then a lady pulled up in her car with two large dogs and asked if the grapefruit were still good. I said " sure please take some". Then out of the corner of my eye I see miss Kelsey coming up the yard with something on both sides of her head. A lovely shade of yellow. I'm thinking to my self "is this paint from a paint ball". As soon as she got close enough to smell, I discovered she'd rolled in poop! I couldn't believe she had it all under her collar and on both sides of her face up to her shoulders. URGH!!!! I was not happy. I took her collar off and sprayed it down and put her in the backyard. Adding a bath to the long list of chores already scheduled for the day. Then after finishing my yard work in front I go into the backyard and she's got a dead bird in her mouth:). Thank god she doesn't pull this stuff every day!

Steven has moved on to another little girlfriend named Caitlin. When he popped into the car the other day he told me they now had nick names for one another. He calls her Kit Cat and she calls him "Stephan". (with an accent!). This is at 10 years old people.......what am I going to do? He goes through girls like water.

Another quick Steven story......I was dropping him off at school on Thursday and as we pulled up to the drop off point Steven says, " mom I'm pretty sick of the 4th grade girls who talk about all their bling! It's fake MOM! All they say is they need more........I just can't take much more". My reply- Steven, try playing with boys! Have a great day!!!

I've been summoned by the queen. I must run.

Heading down to Tucson tomorrow to watch Senior Nationals.