I'm supposed to be napping....

 

But, this was more fun (swimsuit on head)! So let's go swimming instead!

The worst piano recital ever!!

This was one of the more embarrassing experiences of my parenting career.  It was Skylar and James' piano recital morning and JT, Marilyn, and Jim were all out of town.  Therefore, I had to bring all of the children along.  After hurrying to get all of the children dressed and out the door, I was going to be just on time. I was told the recital was at the church, so I went to the church where it was last year.  I had no idea that the piano teacher had changed churches, so when I showed up at the old church, there was no one there. So then I called her husband, found out where the new church was and arrived 10 minutes late.  Right before we get to the church, Brennen tells me he does not feel good from all the crazy driving.  I was hoping once we got out of the car, he would feel better.  Since I had to unbuckle Charlotta and Brennen, I was the last one to walk into the church (in the middle of another child playing).  Skylar had decided that the front row was the place to sit and so we made all that commotion getting to the front.  Of course, James had missed his time to play so he was all flustered, but he got to play as soon as we got there.  It was awful.  It sounded like we had never, ever played the song before.  It was so bad I had to stop recording.  He finally got it together at the end, so I have the last 10 seconds.  He did pretty well in his solo song.

http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/7982

http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/7983

As soon as James was done playing, Brennen starting puking all over the front of the church--a lot!  I just picked him up and ran down the aisle of the church, leaving four children unsupervised at the front of the church.  After he is done and cleaned up, I have to clean up the puke at the front of the church between different kids playing.  Meanwhile, Kellen and Charlotta start arguing over who gets to hold The Bible and they rip a page.  Everyone is looking at me with daggers in their eyes.  I just want to leave, but Skylar is the last person to play so I have to wait.  Torture!!!!!!!  Anyway, Skylar did a nice job and finished with a beautiful song.  I hope you enjoy--I know I didn't!
http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/7984

http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/7985

After the humiliation of the recital, it was time for some soccer.  This, I can handle.  The kids can run all they want and bother no one!  Charlotta loves to play soccer.  She runs the whole time after her ball!

 

Brennen tolerates it for about 15 minutes, then he gets bored.

James (bright orange shoe laces) loves to play.  He seems to have some skill at defense, but on offense, he kicks the ball, then falls down.  He is always on the ground.

Here is a nice block by James!

And a great kick!

When we got back, the girls decided to be bathing beauties!

Lotta felt so special to be one of the girls!

My little pre-teen!  A LITTLE SCARY!

Besties--Jessica and Skylar!

Best sisters!  Skylar really does a good job of including Charlotta.

Next disaster of the day--the mud pit!  While I was busy putting Charlotta down for a nap, the kids decided to break out the water and make a mud pit.  I have no idea if grass will ever grow there again!

I have to admit--I was really glad when this day was done!

Finally!!!! A nice day!

And not a day too soon!  Today is Prom in Sioux Center and they have a grand march where all the kids parade down the street in their evening wear.  This is the fabulous Breann Kragt who comes and sleeps on my couch three days a week while JT is out of town so that I can go and do my swimming in the mornings!  She stopped by to say hi and so all the kids could see her in her dress!

 

 Then Skylar decided it was time to climb a tree.  She got up really high--I caught her on the way down!

 Charlotta in heaven!  She loves to swing and swing and swing and......

 Mommy gets tired of the swinging after awhile!

(photo courtesy of Brennen)

Another swim meet for Mama!

I did another meet today and I think I swam even better than last time!  It is hard to truly compare times because this was a meter pool and the last time was yards.  But, if you convert my meters times down to yard times, they were faster swims:)

If you are interested, here is a link to my 100 backstroke:

http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/7980

and my 100 IM:
http://thedeanslife.shutterfly.com/7981

It is so fun to swim the 100IM again!  You have to stop swimming that at 12, but get to do it again when you are old:)

Where in the H**L is Spring?

Snow, snow and more snow!  It is still snowing on April 19.  I can not believe this....

April 9--Huge Ice storm starts.  We did not think that this tree would make it through the night, it was so weighed down by ice.

  

The tree did survive, though it is now touching the ground.  The rest of Sioux Center is a disaster area.  You absolutely could  not  drive around because there were tree branches and huge limbs all over the roads.  Not to mention fear of a tree limb falling on your car as you drive under it.  I don't know how many trees will survive the loss of most of their branches.  It is really, really sad!

 April 10-Eight inches of snow on top of all of the ice spells more disaster for the trees,  Of course, school is cancelled and more trees are down.  A true wreck!  But the kids love it (even if they have to make up the snow day in a month).  It was the perfect snowman snow, so out the kids went and built a whole family!

 April 10-Another ice/snow storm and the kids have another snow day.  Of course, this time it was on the day that Kellen was supposed to go to the circus with his class.  He was so sad that his circus trip was cancelled that Skylar decided to put on his very own private circus.  She tried so hard to make him happy--it was the sweetest thing!

Unbelievable!  Two snow days in a week and we had not had one all year!  Please, no more snow---we want spring!

Finally, working again!!!!

I have been unable to blog anything for the past two weeks.  Everytime, I tried to publish a post, it kept saying "whoops, that's an error!"  Anyway,back at it again:)

My first swim meet in 15 years!!

So, I have been doing Triathlons for a year now, but my passion has always been the swimming.  I swim three mornings a week with a group of master's swimmers (anyone over the age of 18) and they all decided to go to a meet to compete.  I thought, oh why not?  It's been 15 years, but let's see what I can do. Here is the group that I swim with.

 

This is my good friend Katrina, who is one of my biggest supporters!  She helps keep me going in the mornings (literally getting out of bed to go to the pool and working hard in the pool).

 

 Getting reading for my first swim...

 Take your marks, GO!!!

 Happy to be done:)

I did not quite make my goals I had set for myself, but I did something else I never thought possible.  I qualified for US masters swimming national championships and Masters swimming world championships in Montreal, Canada next year.  I'm thinking maybe I should step up my training a little to see what I can really do at Worlds next year:)

Last day in Chicago:(

We have to head back home today since school starts up again, but we thought we would finish our trip with one last museum-The Field museum.  This place is awesome and we wish we could of had a whole day here.  The kids (especially Skylar) were really into the evolution of life exhibit and were completely fascinated with the dinosaurs.

 Charlotta sitting in the footprint of a Brontosaurus.

 James and Skylar playing with the "tar" pits and the fossils found in them.  Very interesting stuff!