Swimming break-through!

I finally did it! I figured out how to keep swimming, indefinitely, without choking for air. Been working on this forever, it seems. It's one of my "New Year's" goals. What was I doing wrong before? I think I was trying to get too much "bang" out of each arm stroke. Today I was taking more moderate strokes, and kicking really small. My muscles got tired before my lungs gave up...the way it should be, I think. The two guys swimming in the lanes on either side of me both pooped out before I did, and I like to think they felt upstaged by my amazing skills!

Annie makes me smile

We watched "Annie" last night with the boys. This is a movie my siblings and I watched a LOT as kids. If you haven't seen it lately, it's worth re-watching! I couldn't stop smiling throughout the show...unusual for me, I'm a pretty stoic movie watcher.

Another movie I react to...Elf, I laughed (side-splitting style) at the scene at the dinner table where he chugs a 2-liter of pop, produces a 20-second belch, then says, "Did you hear that?" to his brother. I'm laughing out loud right now typing this.

Oh, and can't forget Twilight...another "smiling" movie for me...for entirely different reasons.

Entrepreneurship?

I came home from a church meeting this morning, and Ben was swinging, enjoying the warm weather, and singing at the top of his lungs ("We will rock you"...I think) ...

Ben: Mom, it's a good day to earn money!
Me: Yes! How do you want to do that?
Ben: My songs.
Me: Who is going to pay you to sing? Do you want to knock on some doors and tell them you'll sing a song for 10 cents?
Ben: No, they'll come here....later today, in the backyard...maybe people, if they're passing by, and they brought money, and they appreciate my music, they'll give me money.

A few of my favorite things...

Power Ranger adorned Brownie Cake (Grandma McDavitt's recipe)
Skippy Natural (I like a little sugar in my healthy peanut butter
Twilight :-)
Baker's Inn Bread (so soft and healthy too!)
Lubriderm "Intense Skin Repair" (Just started using this and LOVE it)
Mineral make up (this is Cover Girl, other's I've tried are too cakey, but I love this one)
Sam
My favorite hot wheels (school bus...so cute, utility truck with drill and basket...awesome, garbage truck...with operable crusher, tow truck with a real hook to tow your other hot wheels
V8 Fusion (a full serving and fruits AND a full serving of vegetables in every serving...and yes, Ben does drink it!

What are your favorite things?????

If you take a dragon to school...

...you'll have one proud dragon keeper! Mrs. Petet invited our Bearded Dragon (Dr. Jones) to visit Ben's Kindergarten class today. I don't have to tell you how proud Ben was to show him off...you can see it on his face. Thank you Mrs. Petet for letting us share!

I LOVE my IPOD

I bought an Ipod on Ebay and it came in the mail yesterday (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Blazin!). This morning I ran 3.33 miles in under 30 minutes...my best time ever I'm sure. All the way from my house to Walgreens at the 291/152 intersection and back. It was awesome. I wanted to keep running, but was out of time. I need bigtime help with my running playlist (Emily and Savannah?? Rebecca? Peter? Anyone?). I loaded these random 11 songs that I struggled to think of last night...some good for running, some not really. I never listened to the Jonas brothers before, read someone's blog post who likes to run to them, and I agree. A couple are from "Another Cinderella Story", a teen dance movie I rented a couple of months ago. Not my usual movie genre, but I loved it, watched it twice, can't really explain why. Can you help me with some more running songs? What are your favorites?

Long Way to Run Peter Breinholt

Queen Ole Peter Breinholt

Express Yourself Madonna

We're All In This Together The Cast of "High School Musical"

Tell Me Something I Don't Know Selena Gomez

New Classic Drew Seeley & Selena Gomez

Free Ride Edgar Winter

Peace Train Cat Stevens

Moonshadow Cat Stevens

S.O.S. Jonas Brothers

Pushin' Me Away Jonas Brothers

Babysitting

We babysat our friend Stacey's two boys for three days last week while she had surgery. Here is a cute picture of baby Kaden. He is three months old. The boys were so fun to have. There was always something to do...diapers, feeding, picking up, playing. Both so calm, and both sleep through the night.