Birthday Eve

May 18, 2008...it was a Sunday and I was "doing Katie Glynn pregnant"...meaning I was overdue for the 4th time with no sign of labor.

We were ready to go to the hospital the next morning to meet our precious babe...and we were sure that we'd get to meet another girl.  After 3 girls...what are the chances of a boy?

We (Andy and I) were so sure baby Glynn was a girl that I had proactively filled the dresser with washed girl clothes.

About 9pm at night, Andy pulled a Sweetie Pies pie out of the oven--it was to be our celebratory pie at the hospital.  He then ran downstairs to the basement to put something away.  When he came upstairs, he said something that I never expected:

"90% sure...I bet it is a boy!"  

WHAT?!?!?!  I remember saying "I thought we agreed it was a girl!" (as if that was a deciding factor!).

He then said "Grandma's picture!  I just saw it for the first time in years...come see it.  It's 3 girls and a boy."

So...we went down to look at it and sure enough, it was 3 girls and a boy.  We had been storing the above picture in our basement for a few years.  Andy remembers it from his Grandma's house--it always hung over the couch where he would sleep when his family would visit his Grandma.  When she moved out of her house, that picture was the one item Andy requested.  

Then Andy said "We should hang his over the fireplace."

My response was "It's not really our style...."

And that was the END...or so we thought.

Baby Glynn was stubborn.....labor took FOREVER, it felt like.

Finally, at 7pm on May 19, baby Glynn was born.  When the doctor said "It's a boy!", I said "Are you sure?!?!?!" 

A short time later, I looked at Andy and said "The picture.  Go hang it over the fireplace!"  That has been it's home for 4 years now...and now you know the story of "the picture"!

4 years later, I still shake my head at "the boy"....how "boy" he is...yet how tender he is: "Kieran, you look beautiful!" (We caught him saying this to our little neighbor girl prior to her dance recital last week!).  What a blessing Colin Maxwell is to our family!

Rockstar Of The Week!

Jayna was the Rockstar Of The Week in 3rd grade the week of February 5th.
This is something new for the 3rd grade, as Ellie's class did not do anything like this.

The agenda was as follows:
Monday, the Rockstar brings in 12 photos of themselves to put up on the class wall. They also get to bring in 3 special items. The next 3 collages show which photos Jayna shared with the class. It was quite the task, finding just 12 photos. It was fun though, as we uncovered a lot of old, cute photos of the family. Memories...

Jayna's 3 special items included: 1) The Blog Book 2) A Hairbow, made by Grandma and 3) Her Blanket.

Tuesday, a special book is read to the class. Jayna LOVES this book...loves it so much that I wonder why we don't own a copy of it! Thankfully, it was at the library when we went to retrieve it!

Wednesday, a special letter is read to the class about Jayna. This was hard for me. Every year, on the kids' birthdays, they receive a letter from me. I wasn't going to do THAT kind of letter for the class, and I did not want to embarrass Jayna...but if you are ready to read, there is the letter:

Dear 3^rd Graders,

I was just on your class website reading about “Rockstar of the Week” and how TODAY, *I* get to tell you how special Jayna is!

I realized that there are some things you don’t know about Jayna….and you know what? Sometimes it’s the unknown things about a person that make them most special.

Do any of you know what James 1:12 says in the Bible? This is the verse that Mr. Glynn and I chose for Jayna’s “life verse” when she was dedicated as an infant in our church. It says “¹² Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. “ I remember Jayna’s dedication day clearly—she was 6 months old and our pastor made a comment about it being a “heavy” verse for a small infant. We chuckled and explained that she was SMALL, but she had been through a lot in life already. We then had to tell our pastor how to hold her during the dedication service because if he held her wrong, she would scream at the top of her lungs for the entire service, ruining the morning for many people. Jayna was crier when she was little—she screamed nonstop and she did not spend a lot of time sleeping, like most babies. During her first year, Mr. Glynn and I felt like we were the only ones “persevering”, but Jayna was persevering too. You see, everyone is born with bones in their head that actually move when you are young. Jayna’s bones were LOCKED; they could not move. One doctor explained to me that she probably screamed all the time because her head hurt so bad. Isn’t that sad? It is…but it was Jayna’s first round of learning to persevere. (I think you have learned about this word in 3^rd grade haven’t you?) She eventually did stop screaming…she doesn’t scream all day at New Hope does she?!

Well, when Jayna was almost 1 year old, we were on a family walk. Jayna was in the stroller with her big sister Ellie and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, came this really BIG, wild dog! It was not on a leash and suddenly, it had jumped onto Jayna! She was buckled into her stroller seat and was trapped under this wild dog. From that time on, for about 6-7 years, Jayna was very afraid of dogs. She couldn’t even stand seeing them walk by our house from inside the window. But again, she had to persevere….many friends and family of ours had dogs and eventually, Jayna learned that not all dogs would jump on her like that one did when she was just a baby. This summer, we were at a reunion and she LOVED holding a medium size dog!

Around that same time, Jayna also had to persevere through some other things…one thing that she just could not do as a toddler was stand up! Can you believe that? She sure stands fine now, doesn’t she? Well, she had to have special plastic boot shaped inserts put into her shoes to hold her legs stable so she could learn to stand, learn to walk, learn to navigate steps and run around like a toddler. It was hard work…and Jayna persevered. During that time as a 1 year old though, Jayna made up for not walking and moving around by TALKING. Have you ever heard her fasting talking talent? She can talk VERY fast! She didn’t just say baby words like “mama” or “dada”….she opened her mouth and huge sentences came out. And then she started singing. Have any of you heard her sing? I think she prefers to keep that talent hidden, even though we tell her that if God gives you a talent, you need to use it! She LOVES singing and often, her happiest moments are when she is singing, usually at the top of her lungs!

There are more times in Jayna’s life that she has had to put the word “persevere” into action, but I’m sure you have other things to move onto. Before I finish this letter though, I wanted to tell you a few more things about Jayna that I bet she hasn’t shared with you. Do you see that picture of her wearing the Snow White dress up clothes? When she was young, she was OBSESSED with wearing dress up clothes and high heeled dress up shoes. She especially loved the Snow White costume—but she couldn’t really say “Snow White”…instead, she said “Fo Feet”. It was pretty cute.

You probably know that Jayna doesn’t like chocolate AT ALL and she doesn’t prefer cake, if given the choice. When Jayna was 2, I took her strawberry picking with me and she became obsessed with strawberries. Every year for her birthday, she gets a huge strawberry pie, as her cake! She loves pink and when we moved into our current house, her Daddy painted the room she and Ava share—it is BRIGHT pink. So bright that he called me on the phone when he was painting it and said ‘I don’t know about this…we might need sunglasses in this room—it is super bright!’

She also doesn’t like to be left alone. When Jayna was a baby, she had her own bedroom. But, by the time Jayna was 2, she started sharing a room with her sisters. To this day, she talks of wanting to have her own room, but she really doesn’t like to be by herself. I think that’s kind of special—she LOVES company and is happiest when other people are around.

I mentioned that Jayna loves to sing, but she also loves to play the piano and listen to classical music. When she started taking piano lessons, she was quite the stinker—she didn’t want to learn to read music, so she played everything by ear! To this day, she practices piano daily as if she is playing a concert for our family—it is a joy to listen to her music.

3^rd graders, sometimes the hardest things we face in life make us strongest, developing our most special qualities. Remember that verse in James as you grow up and find yourself facing hardships.

As I look back on Jayna’s life, I know that God created a very special little girl and I know that God is helping her persevere through hard days. With each passing day, she is passing on a little specialness to everyone she encounters.

Jayna, you are loved….and to all of you 3^rd graders…thank YOU for loving Jayna and making her feel special too!

Love,

Mrs. Glynn

Thursday, the Rockstar gets to pick their seat for the day. Of course, if you know Jayna, you know how worried this made her. She LOVES where she sits now...and if she moved "here", then this friend would be mad. If she moved "there", then another friend would be mad. Guess what she did? She stayed in her own seat! :)

And Friday, the entire class works on a coloring page of what they like about the Rockstar. The teacher then has those pages bound in a book and the Rockstar brings the book and the trophy (1st picture in this post) home to share.

What a fun week!

Valentine's Day

We LOVE Valentine's Day in this house.

The Christmas decorations come down and BAM, up go the Valentine hearts and wreaths and flag...Valentine's colors go so well with our house....the hearts go so well with what we want to show to all...LOVE! It's also extra special as Jayna celebrates her 1/2 birthday at school on the 13th and she ALWAYS takes Valentine sugar cookies for her treat!

Anyway...it was quite the busy Valentine's Day Week...as are many weeks with a family of 6. We've survived busy weeks before, and I'm sure they will come again. However, this year, I completely missed the importance of NOT being busy on Valentine's Day.

(Just a side note...so disappointed in all the activities scheduled for the actual Valentine's Day. We must be "odd" in that we love to celebrate it as a family. Ellie alone had 4 activities that were at the same time or overlapped. Insane.)

So let's back up....Monday the 13th was no school for Ellie and an appointment day for Jayna as well as her 1/2 birthday. I did not know that during her appointment, she was dwelling on the "bummer of the 14th" when we'd be so busy that we would not truly celebrate as a family. I figured, if we had a special breakfast time in the morning, all would be well. It wasn't. After the kids got to school, I was on the phone with the woman Jayna had lamented to the day before and it hit me hard... the 14th was special to the girls and we had to change some things. Andy and I text'd back and forth a few times and decided to yank the kids from EVERYTHING other than piano lessons that afternoon and we were celebrating as a family in the evening. Since I know Jayna stews on things, I even called the school to have the message passed on: "No choir tonight...we're celebrating Valentine's Day!"

That morning, though, we had to deal with the mini-snow storm that blew through the area. While Colin rode his bike in the paths, I shoveled the strange white stuff that has been absent from our state....yes, it may have melted in the next couple of days, but the piano teacher was coming and I hate for people to have to walk through the snow if they can avoid it!

Next order of business....the balloon decorating. I LOVE Pinterest. I had seen an idea of helium filled balloons floating above a bed with notes of love attached to the bottom. I knew I wanted to do it for Andy but I was scared of the balloons. For some reason, a certain 3 yr old toddler still loves to put strange things in his mouth! Anyway, when I went to the party store to order the balloons, they had a deal for the mylar heart shaped balloons. Sweet! I had the kids each take a heart note and write what they loved about Andy. As they got so excited about blessing Andy with these balloon-cards, I realized that Andy would be fine with 4 less balloons...I was going to bless the kids as well! When it was all done, there was a balloon love note in each child's room as well as 6 balloons in our bedroom. Andy LOVED it, as did the girls....as for Colin, I'm quite sure he didn't "get it" yet.
So after school, we told the girls the surprise....we were going to leave RIGHT after piano lessons and go to Stevi B's for pizza and we'd even play games. We never play the games...never. They were over the moon excited...it's the ONLY place that all 4 will really eat a decent meal. We were ready to "love" the kids by taking them to a crazy restaurant! It was very successful...everyone's love tank was filled...especially Colin's, when he got to play the "car game", as seen below!

Until next year....Happy Valentine's memories...know that you are loved, friends and family!

Cabin Fever!

This was a weekend of true cabin fever.

My parents came to visit from MN...and apparently just 5 hours west, the weather was much different than our forecast. You see, my mom didn't bring any of her winter stuff (boots, coat, mittens) and instead, had her little windbreaker! I'm quite sure they were surprised the night they arrived when it was blustery and cold....and then the next morning when they woke up to snow!

By the last day they were here, you can see that even Grampy had cabin fever...he had gone crazy!

This particular weekend, Ellie had a project at Spring Road....a group of 5th graders got together with the music teacher (have I ever mentioned how much I love the music teacher!??!?!) to make a music video! They are singing a song called 'It's About Respect' for their concert in March and for the first time, tried doing a video to the music. I can't wait to see it. When I went to pick Ellie up after lunch, I saw this sign posted on the music room door...and then I saw it posted AROUND the music room too:

Now, how does a Neenah, WI teacher quote a music teacher from Austin, MN? Well, my mom, "queen of newspaper clipping", cut out an article about MY band instructor from 5th grade and his famous quote that he is STILL saying today! I showed the article to Ellie, she took it into her music teacher and the teacher LOVED it and posted it around the room!

When Ellie returned home from the music video making, we cracked open a new game we had gotten for Christmas...Scrabble Flash. Thank you, Aunt Rebekah for this game...it is a family favorite!!!! We had a couple hours of just playing...and playing...and playing...and playing! We were all getting into it. Well, everyone except Colin and Ava...and they were entertaining those who were waiting their turn for Scrabble Flash!

On Sunday, Ava went to the Valley Academy for the Ballet Exam. She was #5 and by far the smallest little ballerina there!

She told us "It was just like a class but there were 2 extra people watching and writing about us!" The next week, we received her exam evaluation. Go Ava...way to use your talents!

And finally....to get an idea of the entertainment we have been blessed with by Colin, click HERE. Colin has been doing a long pull up study at Wild Air in Appleton. It is funny because when the Wiggles music comes on, he stops what he is doing and re-enacts the Wiggles dance moves. Here he is at dinner trying to show the girls and Andy what I meant!

Winter Concert & More

This year, the choir had a winter concert, the first Saturday in February.
I have to admit....I was not all that excited about this concert. I had been told by the girls that ALL of the songs were in Latin! Add to that the fact that I wasn't hearing much practicing at our home, I figured it would be a non-event, nothing to write home about.
Boy, was I ever wrong!!! It was BEAUTIFUL!!! The concert was wonderful to listen to and the orchestra and singers that accompanied the choir were outstanding!
(Isn't it funny...we live right smack in the middle of music-land with Lawrence University just 5ish miles northeast of our house and we easily forget about the quality of local talent...until we are faced with a concert like this one!)

This was an interesting concert though....

On the day of the concert, Ava and I woke up feeling flu-ish. We had no babysitter for the little Glynn kids, so I told Andy 'Sit us on an aisle in case I have to rush Ava out if she gets sick!'. Shortly after the doors opened, he called me and said "What do you think about sitting in the balcony?" BRILLIANT! It was sparsely populated, Ava could lay on a church pew and we had our mega zoom lens, so we could still capture photos and video!

So, Andy is at the church early to get us seats and I'm struggling to get Ava out the door--she had been napping, she woke up fine and then felt bad again. Poor little girl! We did make it to the church though, and as we walked up to the balcony, we were met with pale Ellie saying "I don't feel good!" Ugh. Our new phrase is "Give it your best shot." (Maybe someday I will blog about that phrase...), so we encouraged her and sent her on her way...worrying that she'd quickly become the "star" of the concert, in a way that no one wishes to be.
(By the way...all Glynns made it through the concert just fine.)

Now, about that mega zoom lens on our camera. It was great....but yikes, the video is REALLY shaky. In fact, so shaky that I won't subject you all to feeling sick with too many video postings. HERE is the opening song "Gloria" and HERE is Jayna's Prima Choir singing their song.

The concert really was fabulous...2 songs in, Andy turned to me and said "I feel like I'm at a concert at the Performing Arts Center!" So true, it was a wonderful afternoon of music.

The rest of our week was "weird winter wonder". Honestly. I received an email from a family member saying "I hope the kids are having fun enjoying the winter weather!" Uh..no. Our yard was full of puddles, it was too windy/cold to enjoy the driveway...and, all of the bikes were put up for the winter, and our trampoline lost it's walls and is covered by a tarp (because we KNEW that living in Wisconsin would provide ample snow, so we do those types of things in preparation for the winter!

We did however have some memories:
Upper left: Best buddies Colin and Ava playing while the big girls were at choir...They set up all the cars and then they had "Bible Study". Precious.

Upper right: Colin and his beloved tools...and check out his glasses! Andy went on a 1 day trip to a Kimberly Clark Distribution Center and came back with safety glasses. Colin is very good about wearing them whenever he is working.... ;)

Lower left: Is this drawing too much or what? This is from Ava, to Andy and I. What a treasure. It's going to be framed for our bedroom...she is such a romantic, and such a fantastic artist.

Lower right: Perhaps this is the only snowman we will get built this year. Red, sparkly, and completely clean-up-able!

Treats of all kinds...

We had one full week of treats....treats of all kinds!

The biggest "eye treat" was this book that arrived in the mail, a full 2 weeks earlier than planned!
The children went NUTS...inside this book was the entire blog of 2011. Andy and I went a little "nuts" too...reminding them to be careful with it--it is not easily replaceable. Jayna read it cover to cover, Ellie may have finished it by now and Ava and Colin looked for their favorite parts of the year. Yes, you all are right...Colin was fixated on the entries of the Wiggles concert!

Those of you who are wanting to print your blog...we are very happy with the quality--it's a nice hardcover book. HOWEVER, since I use a lot of collages with the blog, they often appeared a bit small. You can still see them, but photos with captions written IN the photo are hard to read. Easy fix though--just attach a magnifying glass to the book! :)

We also got another "treat" in the form of recognition of our little ballerina!

Ava was selected as one of 3 "purple girls" from her ballet class who get to attend an "exam" in February. Two professional ballerinas will be at the Valley Academy for the Arts and for 30 minutes, will critique the ballerinas. We don't quite know what to expect, but we're pretty proud of Ava...she's already in a class with 2nd-3rd graders and for 4 weeks, has been bumped up to the next level with 3rd-4th graders as she prepares for the exam in February! Go Ava! She does love ballet!

And finally, treats for the tasting...
Before Christmas, we made a LOT of treats. At first it didn't seem like it would be that much...but once we got started, it was a huge project. We dipped pretzels (not pictured), Oreos on sucker sticks, marshmallows for hot chocolate stir sticks, and we made sugar cookies. I was more than happy to forget about dipping with bark and non-perils...

until Jayna came home from school with an assignment to create a new candy or candy bar. The 3rd grade had just finished "The Chocolate Touch" and it was very funny to us--Jayna *HATES* chocolate! In trying to come up with an idea for the new candy, we realized that Jayna likes bark, and Jayna LOVES Sweet Tarts. SO...we dipped pretzels in bark and then rolled them in crushed Sweet Tarts for....drum roll please..."Sour Sticks"!

She shared them with her class and told me that everyone loved them! I'm telling you...the world needs more "non chocolate" treats! :)

The letter "S"...

This week's wrap-up is brought to you by the letter "S".

No, this is not a new preschool-type theme with the blog...
No, we have not been watching too much Sesame Street...
No, we are not re-enacting last year's week brought to you by the letter "S"...after all, THAT blog post included the Packers playing in the Super Bowl..and THAT is not happening this year!
It's just how it's working out :)

We continued to LOVE the snow.

This photo below is how Colin posed himself...in a hole of snow. I tried, I really did, to get his happy face. So either we've been taking too many pictures, or he was just really cold and not thinking straight...

The kids have been outside every chance they can get, we love it! On Saturday though, they ate breakfast and immediately got their snow gear on and all 4 went outside. Andy and I looked at each other and said "Now what?!" We're not quite used to having all 4 playing outside yet. We also thought back to life on S. Berry Drive...this type of thing would never have happened...we have the best set up for winter playing and it is so safe...we are surely blessed with where we live!

This photo is Ellie and her friend Janey from down the street. They were working hard on their fort and worked at it a good couple of hours after I snapped this photo!

Andy had asked the big girls to climb on the trampoline and move the snow off...and the next thing we knew, we looked out and Ava and Colin were on top of it moving the snow around! First instinct was "The little kids are on the trampoline with no walls!" But they were fine and had a blast jumping and 'shoveling' the snow.

And what do you think about Colin's rosy cheeks? I can't get enough of this look on the kids--it makes them look so healthy in the middle of the winter!

We also took a day to go skating.
NHCS was renting out the roller rink for the entire school to go skating during spirit week.
Sounds fun huh?
Not to the 2 little Glynn Girls.....for various reasons, they did not want to go.
Then the DID want to go....then they did NOT want to go...then they DID want to...you know how that works.
So we did a test run...Ellie got to invite a friend from school and I skated with the 2 little girls.

We all had a really fun afternoon and the little girls approved big time of Ellie's friend from school. Jayna's comment was "She's nice and doesn't just care about Ellie!" (How's that for a middle child comment?!) And she was right..Jayna took a fall on the rink and Savannah was almost the first one to Jayna to see if she was ok...gotta love compassion in 11 year olds!

Of course, in a family of 6, there was more to the week than just snow and skating...but for now, consider this IT!

Happy WINTER!

Happy WINTER?!

Can you tell what the above picture is? January, in Wisconsin.....we went on a family walk one evening this past week. It was spring-like!!! Of course, it got dark early, so we banked on flashlights and reflection off the kids' jackets...and we stayed on the sidewalks! The above picture is of the children laying on the sidewalk, gazing at the moon and sky full of stars! It was a fun end to our warm weather...the next day, the snow started!

But before we get to the snow, let's back up a few days....

I've written before how much we love our babysitters.....and 2 of them are related by marriage. I still haven't accepted the fact that they are moving onto the next stages of life and that they don't exist to babysit the Glynn kids whenever needed....(I'm working on that acceptance!). Perhaps they have not accepted that either, because again, this Christmas season, they had a fun afternoon planned for the girls....they wanted to teach them how to scrapbook!

The above photo shows what the girls created during their 2 hours with Amy and Cindy. They loved it. Ava especially loved it...she came home and you could hear all sorts of scissors hitting the table, tape being torn off the roll and markers rolling around. When she came out of the gallery, she said "MOM! THIS is scrapbooking and I made it for YOU!" Precious.

Thank you, Amy and Cindy....we LOVE you!

This past week, the 5th grade band students from 2 Neenah schools provided "pre-meeting" music for the Neenah Public Schools School Board Meeting. This was something that was rescheduled from just before Christmas. These children have only been playing their instruments since October and had NEVER played as a collective group before! Ellie LOVED it. Looks like we're on the "buy the flute...not rent it" plan now.

If you are interested in hearing the students play Good King Wenceslas, click HERE.
To hear Jingle Bells, click HERE.
To hear Jolly Old St. Nick, click HERE.
I love Ellie's music teacher/band instructor. From the first correspondence with her, I was impressed---she is passionate about music and about teaching the kids to love music. Prior to the school board meeting, I was reading the posters that were outside the administration building...Mrs. Shebesta was voted teacher of the year! Looks like others have noticed her passion too!

Finally...we get to the snow that "Snowstorm Angela" dumped on us! Oh, it was so exciting to see it fall down and so exciting to anticipate finally getting to play in it. We had lots of talking about what snow can be eaten and what snow should be avoided! Ellie came up with an awesome idea, seen here below--she filled a soccer cone with snow and then turned it over--perfect clean "snowcone" for Colin to enjoy!

Since the snow last week, the kids have been out playing in the snow almost everyday. Our house is in the perfect location--we get a lot 0f the cul du sac snow dumped in our yard and there is very little traffic from the 5 houses in the court. Currently, we have a stage created for a Wiggles type show, a fort, and a path forged in the snow. There are a lot of rosy cheeks coming inside looking like this:

We love winter!

RRRRrrrrrRRRRrrrrr!

This 1st week in 2012 was brought to our family by the letter "R"!!!!

We returned to work/school....we returned items that didn't fit...we swam a relay and had record breaking times (personal best times...this was Ellie...not the entire family!)....we read books....we wrapped ribbon....we ripped open our upper gum...we had a very eventful week!

We must pause though, to all remember and enjoy that beautiful snow we woke up to on New Year's Day! What a joy it was to hear the 4 children say " Can we shovel for you, Dad?!" Sweet! Our drive was the only one cleared for hours...even days! Since this might be the only snow photo we get this year, here it is for your enjoyment...

Now...about that really fun ribbon activity. Colin was so sad when I started un-decorating the Christmas tree and he found it very funny as I walked around and around and around the tree unwrapping the beautiful plaid ribbon. As soon as I finished, the phone rang and I dropped the ribbon....as I was talking on the phone, I just started laughing...Colin was running through the rooms of our main level, weaving and pulling ribbon while singing "Follow The Leader"! I don't enjoy un-decorating, and Colin's happiness definitely put a smile on my face!

Enjoy these photos I captured...all while talking on the phone (scheduling another pull up study, of all things!)...he didn't even know I was snapping photos, it was wonderful! The middle photo here shows Colin holding onto a drawer pull saying "It's tight Mommy!" as the ribbon was caught on something in a different room!

And the end result:

We also had a scare on Friday night...when Colin RIPPED his upper gum open! He had piled pillows on Ellie's bed and then plopped onto them...but instead of plopping onto them, he plopped into her headboard! Ouch. Mouths bleed A LOT...and we had no idea what to expect. After a few minutes, he was running around like nothing had happened, asking for his sippy cup and ready for dinner...it was at that point that Ava just started sobbing, she had been so scared that something really bad was going to happen to him. 2 peas in a pod, let me tell you! :)

This photo is a tad bit graphic:

And yes, he is 100% fine, and his mouth is almost fully healed 24 hrs after the injury!

Finally, we finished the week out with the first swim meet of 2012 for Ellie. I told a friend that when I ran races, it was all about the free tee shirt each runner received. Well, with this meet, if you tried a new event or won your heat, you received a free swim cap! We were all over that one! Ellie tried 2 new events today--the 100 yd backstroke and the 200 yd individual medley. Let me just say that she rocks the backstroke but does not enjoy it--she hit her head once and that was the end of her desire to enter these events! She did wonderfully today though--had the lead the entire race and then got 2nd by just .49 of a second! It was a fun swim to watch. Also fun (and tiring) to watch was the 200 IM. Yikes. I surely could not do THAT one. She said that she was so nervous, she was shaking as she waited by the starting block. BUT...it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be and she established a new time to work off of on that event.

BUT...by far, THIS result was our highlight of the day:

This was the first meet of the new age bracket and we did not have high hopes for anything since Ellie is a young 11 and isn't very tall. She did amazing in the 50 yd freestyle, shaving 5 seconds off her previous best time AND winning her heat! It was a fun swim meet, for sure.

If you are into swimming, here are 3 of the 4 events she swam today:
50 yd freestyle, click HERE.
100 yd backstroke, click HERE.
200 yd IM, click HERE.

And one more "R" for you....it was a week of resolutions! Jayna said she wants to try new foods this year....this week, she tried sushi and banana muffins! I want to make new recipes...52 this year...and I completed 2 new recipes, that the family LOVED!

Happy 2012!