Finally

In the Water

You can see how Joe is improving...

The boys play during diving practice in the shallow end.

 

And Joe jumps off the diving board and swims back to the wall by himself!

A trip south

  We finally had a weekend where we could head south to TN.  We haven't been to Grammie and Grandpa's since June of 2012.  (Josh...since Feb 2012...)

   Friday morning in Indiana found us hit with ice and cold wind.    Friday night found us (around 11 pm) in 50 degree weather and no wind.  WOW!  I couldn't remember how to pack for that type of warmth with the week of cold weather we had.   (so the hats, gloves, layers...weren't really necessary...needless to say)

  It was a whirlwind trip.  Two days is just not long enough to do much.  But it was a good trip.

We did get to hear and see (and Joe got in) a real drag racing car at my parents' neighbors.

  I found it interesting leading up to the trip that Jake asked..."Can we go to G and G's in the summer instead of now so we can swim in their pool?"  I had to explain that this trip wasn't a one time shot...we could go now AND then!   I guess they had forgotten that last year between Dec and June we went about 4-5 times! :)

   Joe seemed surprisingly shy in the new surroundings...!  Things weren't unfamiliar, but he definitely seemed to be pulling details back into his mind instead of comfortably remembering all that he saw...even in G and G's house!  I guess I thought he would easily recall more.  But that wasn't the case necessarily.  And it didn't keep him from having full-fledged Joe fun!

  So...we came back yesterday to 45 degree weather in Indiana.  But the wind chill had to have been 10 degrees less (I didn't dare look...I just bundled up in my thickest hoodie and went out to play golf and basketball in the sunshine with the boys! )
  Next day (today)...even worse...35 degree rain/ice mix...with incredible wind from the east.  (again...didn't check the wind chill--for mental sanity...but did watch the rain travel parallel to the ground as it came down for an hour this morning...amazing!)

Spring is on it's way...to Indiana...just around the corner...right?!?! 

Nap time stories

  Jake was eager to read some stories to Joe.  So, Jake chose his "readers" from last school year...all 12 of them! :)

Tangled teeth

 You can see from these pictures that Jake has quite the problem in his upper teeth.  The top two are loose...but are so loose now that they are tangled up with each other...which is anything but comfortable!   We think Jake looks a lot like Mater! :)

 Well, one came out.  Jake marveled that there was no blood and no pain.  (It just popped out while he was playing at the gymnastics place!)  
   I explained that this was b/c the poor tooth was so dead it had fully detached and allowed healing before even coming out of his mouth! :)

   Now it just looks like he lost both teeth and one grew back wrong in the space.  Don't you just want to yank on that thing?

It might be February 12th...

...but we were able to have a picnic lunch outside!!!!  We found a warm spot on the driveway that was out of the wind.  It was perfectly warm for us to sit for lunch...!

  And it even provided that "post lunch nap" feeling as we sat in the sun after eating!

YEAH...can't wait for spring!!!!!

Normal?

   I'm not really sure what's normal.  And I'm pretty sure no one has a real "normal".  But for whatever reason we refer to things as "normal".  And I can assure you that after a year and a half of living a very unsettled life, there are some recent signs of "normal" around here. 

1.  I have been able to go places with the boys....of which they are grateful.  How do I know this?  They say so.  "Mom, thanks for taking us to do..."  Multiple times they say thank you.  :)

2. We haven't worked on the house since Christmas break.    (I'm currently somewhere between "couldn't care less if we ever finished the house" and "really want to finish stuff around the house so that it's not hanging around on the to-do list constantly"!)

3. We made pizza as a family again...!  Jake made his own and Joe made his own and Josh and I made ours.  Haven't done that in a year and a half (after doing it every week). 

4. Spring is around the corner.  So, every chance to be outside on a "warmer" day...we are enjoying the outdoors again.  The other night...after Jake worked on his jumping rope, we took a walk before dark....because we COULD!    Can't wait to do that more often once it's warmer...!

5. I finally had time to change pictures in the frames around the house.  Since 2012 seems like it didn't really happen (it truly is just a blur of working on the house non-stop), it took a bit for us to figure out how old most of the pictures were.  Since I enjoy photography, I enjoy changing the pictures often.  So, 2 years later...they got changed!  Such a fresh view now...


So....I've decided I like "normal"....whatever that means!  :)

Finally...the big day...

   Jake's first swim meet.   Jake told me about 4 weeks ago that he was nervous about his first swim meet.  So, you can tell he has been mentally preparing for this...for weeks...literally.  

Jake's 25 back...in the lane closest to us.

Jake's 25 free...in lane 2 (farthest swimmer away from us)

(The video of Jake's 50 free won't upload.  We'll try another time to see if it works...)

   Meanwhile, poor Joe has asked before every swim meet in the last 6 weeks..."Is this the one where Jake swims?"  So, this morning was all the more entertaining as at breakfast, Joe says to Jake, "Today is your swim meet, Jake!"  This was followed later (in the car) with Joe saying, "So he is going to swim?"  (I thought we had cleared that up about 6 weeks ago...but apparently it suddenly had a slightly different meaning.  If only I could get in Joe's head to find what he was thinking...)

  Anyway...Jake swam the 25 back, 25 free, and 50 free.  The result...
25 back...13th out of 18 boys...in a time of 34.51
25 free...15th out of 19 boys...in a time of 30.67  (from a push off the wall in the shallow end)
50 free...9th out of 11 boys in a time of 1:07 (which is 12 seconds faster than when he swam it in practice a few weeks ago)

If you want to watch the videos, sorry in advance for the jostling.  Joe videoed the latter two so I could take pictures. But my videoing wasn't much more steady!  :)

What else would Joe be doing?

Pre-swim talk from Coach (Dad)

Jake's biggest fan!

Talk from Coach before his first event

Ready for 25 back

Waiting for the 25 free

Ready

Set

GO

second in his heat

Post-swim praise from Coach

checking overall places and times

Pre-swim talk for the 50 free

Ready

 And he scored 4 points in the 50 free with his overall finish in 9th place.  As Coach pointed out...he swam each 25 of his 50 free almost as fast as his 25 free race (30 seconds in the 25 free and 33 seconds each in the 50 free).

His favorite race was the 50 free.  And he had a lot of fun overall!  Excited but not nervous he said!

Reading

Jake has been getting better and better at reading.  It is especially fun to listen to him read from his Bible reader.  This video cuts off the story b/c the camera battery died.  But hopefully I can get a chance to record his reading of a whole story.  :)

Woody and airplanes...

I want to catch up on the last couple of weeks.  It's been full of "stuff".

Starting last Monday...
  We drove to Dayton, Ohio, to look at an old Ford flatbed truck (with a snowplow and 4 wheel drive) that Josh can use to plow the driveway and to haul firewood.  He's been using the back of the Tahoe for hauling firewood...which the cleaning lady doesn't care for too much!!! 
  The price was right on this truck...so we took the trip.  Either way, we planned to stop at the US National Air Force Museum in Dayton. 
  Long story short...we bought the truck...which has been named (after great deliberation and a variety of names).  How much wood could a wood truck chuck if a wood truck could chuck wood?  was also brought up by Jake.  Needless to say, we settled on Woody.  And as you'll see, it is the same color as most of the other vehicles Josh has purchased!

  The Air Force Museum was unbelievable.  We couldn't even pretend to scratch the surface of what was in this HUGE museum.  (If you'd like to get an idea...go to their website and check out the virtual tour!)  So, we will have to make several trips back in order to begin to take it all in.  It was a great overview at least!