Ah-oh! Another two weeks has just zipped by without me blogging. I have some sad news to share. Zoom passed away Monday evening. We finally made it to town to buy crickets for him (it had only been three weeks since he'd eaten) and when I went to feed him, I found him laying in the bottom of his cage, on his side, definitely dead. Very sad. He was such a good lizard, as long as we kept him confined in his cage. He will be missed but the saddest part of the whole thing is that now I have 2 dozen crickets and no lizard to feed them to. Now we'll have to go buy another lizard so that the purchase of the crickets won't be in vain.

We've officially come to the end of both our local school and our Internet school. However, I do not like little brains to sit idle so we try to do a little bit of school every day. I know, I'm such a mean mom. Although, no one has practiced the piano in about 2 weeks. Seila did play in church last Sunday and did a really nice job. She is turning into quite the pianist.

Our anniversary was on Monday, the 14th. We decided that because it was on a Monday we'd include the kids and make it into a family night. We took them to dinner at one of our family's favorite restaurants and then we came home, after a little food shopping and cricket shopping, and we watched our wedding video. At dinner we answered questions about Justin's proposal, our wedding day, little wedding trivia tidbits. Seila and Kai knew almost everything there was to know. Hadley seemed to be filled with questions and Kale loved listening. There was one piece of info that the kids didn't know and that was that the person who married us was my Grandpa. I couldn't believe they didn't know that. At home, the kids had fun laughing at the video of our reception and the video slide show that was shown at the reception of us as kids and us dating. They thought the clothes were funny. They were surprised to see their uncles and aunts as teenagers. It was fun to point out loved ones who are now gone. Really though, it makes us feel old. Happy, but old. 16 years older than we were then.

Swim team has been cold this week still. When is the weather ever going to warm up? It's the middle of June and it feels like March, still. Okay, maybe April. We had blue lips and more tears this week. The pool heater even broke one day. The longest they could endure was 1/2 hour. Yesterday was better than the beginning of the week and today was even enjoyable. So, we're hoping things shape up. Last night was the first swim meet that we competed in. Hadley didn't get to go because she had a softball game. Seila was able to compete in 2 different relays and the team got first in both of those. She also brought home some 4th place finishes in individual events. Kai didn't get any ribbons but I was so proud of the way he swam. Once, he dove in and his goggles came off. He just kept swimming even though he couldn't see which way was straight. They seemed to enjoy themselves and the team spirit. If it had just been a little bit warmer. . . . Dare I complain? It wasn't raining or blowing! Hallelujah!

Justin has been fishing this week and the grand total so far is around 15, I think. That's a lot of salmon for one week. He has to drive about an hour each way and the fish apparently bite early in the morning. The day he was up early is the day he caught the most. Today he went a little later and some of the other boats already had 3 or 4 fish in their boats. He's going to go early again tomorrow. Today he said there were two guys who were kind of arguing over fishing grounds and one guy actually bumped the other guys boat with his boat! Then they did a little chasing around the river. He also said there was a lady in a bikini fishing on one of the boats. Weird.

Despite the cold weather, we've been to the pond twice this week and a backyard barbeque. We've had hot dogs three time for lunch in the last 5 days and we're already rubbing aloe vera on shoulders. Lots of fun.

Happy Birthday Hadley!

Hadley is officially 10 years old now. We had a friend party yesterday and today we had our family dinner with the closest family we could find (Jen and the boys) and some friends that we love (we are very blessed to have lots of those). I'll upload pics soon. I've exceeded my free storage space and had to buy more space.

One stamp of approval.

Swim practice was good today. Not one headache. He did get sick to his stomach and thought he might throw up near the end of practice so he got out of the pool. I wasn't there. I left with Justin to pick up some things at WalMart. He really had a great time today and we even heard him tell Hadley (who used to be so excited and now that she's seen some of Seila and Kai's practice is scared to death and doesn't want to anymore) that it's really fun and she's going to like it. Seila, however, is stubborn like her mom (and her dad) and is not ready to relent to the fact that it is even somewhat enjoyable. After I mentioned that I had seen a smile on her face the other day while she was in the pool, she has been very careful not to smile in the pool again. Today at dinner when I commented that I have already seen improvement in her swimming after just 3 days, she curtly asked if she could quit now. She didn't really mean it. Just her teenage self coming out. I totally relate. I still haven't completely shaken my teenage self and hate to be told what to do, especially if it isn't something that I want to do. I didn't reply to her remark and she quickly softened and changed the subject.

Tomorrow is Hadley's birthday party. She'll be 10 on Sunday. I hope I'm not too emotional this weekend but she caused us quite a few problems 10 years ago. I can't believe that 10 years have passed since then. I learned so much from that experience and I've learned so many things from her, as I have from the others too and continue to. Funny how as a mother you have big hopes and dreams of all the things you're going to teach this new precious heavenly spirit. They end up teaching you just as much about all the things you've forgotten along your way.

By the way, one goat died. Not sure why. Too much rain?

Kindergarten program

Kale's kindergarten program was the 27th. They sang all the ABC songs that they had learned throughout the year from their teachers. They had a couple of costumes too. This video is the bee costume and they are doing the "Wiggle Waggle Dance". I was having a hard time getting pics with my camera so I switched to the video.

I took the two older kids to Othello to begin practicing with the swim team on Tuesday. They weren't very excited but Justin and I want them to do this for the summer. This week is not actually practice, more of a conditioning week. Kai only lasted about 20 minutes before he was out of the pool with a massive pounding headache. He ended up not even being able to put his goggles back on because his head hurt so bad. I found him an Advil and sent him to the car to stay warm (overcast skies and breezy wind). Seila made it about 1 1/2 hours before she had to get out with a cramp in her calf muscle. I think they were both dehydrated and tired. We had some late nights over the weekend. We are working on water intake as well increasing the calories a bit. We are also going to bed a little bit earlier that we usually do. Really though, 2 hours of swimming is a lot! We skipped yesterday and we'll try again today.

We've had crazy weather the last few weeks. We've had a ton of rain and wind. The wind is not really all that crazy; we always had wind. The rain and clouds are driving all of us crazy though! Rain, rain, go away, come again next spring!