4th of July

My friend Bernadette and her husband Larry put on quite the shindig for July 4th. They buy an enormous assortment of fireworks and put on a really good show!

She looks like she's laughing but she's really saying,"Ow, ow, ow!"

A thunderstorm chased everyone out of the pool and I was trying to get a smile out of Mr. Grumpy.

Goofball.

Remember when fireworks were this exciting? I don't.

In which we see a deer

A couple of weeks ago, I waked to hear ReSet barking. The kind of there's-something-out-here bark. So I looked out my bedroom window and ReSet was bouncing around about 5 feet from a doe!Then my neighbor comes out of her house and approaches the field and the doe approaches her and my neighbor ends up petting it.
The Daisy got some blueberries and ran outside, approaching the doe slowly. It took the blueberry and licked her arm.

The Boo and I sat in the yard, taking pictures. We tried getting close to her but she took off. Boo said the entire experience was not cool because he didn't get to pet it.

Cigar store cowboy & Indian

These wood sculptures are outside the feed store near my house. The Boo insisted I take his picture. Insisted!

Swim training, week 5, or what would have been the week I started making $

We swim out of a hotel pool so we are at the mercy of the hotel management whenever something happens to the pool. The heater broke. We swam in water that was 80 degrees. Optimum temperature is 88 and it gets dangerous for the babies to swim in water so cold. I wore a wetsuit and would lose feeling in my hands and my lips would turn blue after 7 hours in the water.
Nadyne went to the pool on a Monday and the water temperature was 75. We couldn't swim. The hotel manager said he was getting quotes on a heater and should have it replaced within 10 days.

Three weeks went by. No heater. The hotel drained the pool somewhat and filled it with hot water, raising it to 84.

We started back Monday and the water was 79 degrees. Both of us thought we would cry. I went into the maintenance room, found a hose, found a wrench and unscrewed the shower head for bathers. Attached the hose, turned on the hot water full blast. (Nadyne said,"Damn. I need some things done around my house!) After six hours, the pool temp raised a degree. We did this everyday and by Thursday, the pool was actually comfortable.

It was frustrating to lose three weeks when we didn't have to. I would actually be teaching now with my own kids instead of going backwards in my training. Nadyne told me yesterday that I had been right on schedule, if not more, when we stopped. Getting back in this week was like my second week of training - I messed all sorts of stuff up, forgot how to do things.

Most of the kids came back doing pretty well. Their skills hadn't suffered and, in fact, some of them came back a little stronger than when we left.

This coming week, my first baby will be done. I think two of my swim-float-swim kids will be done. But I still have at least two weeks of training to go if I keep on schedule. Then summer will be over and people won't be thinking about swimming lessons anymore.

Sunflowers

There is a nearby farm where there are nothing but sunflowers. It is so beautiful! So we HAD to take a picture on our last day together here.

Georgia Aquarium

We took an awesome field trip to the Georgia Aquarium July 1.
We rode the train down and I'm amazed at how the kids took over my iPhone and know how to work it and I still hang up on people because I don't know how to use the thing.

For The Boo, the train was one of the best parts of the trip.

On our short walk to the aquarium, we found all these dolphin statues. There were horse statues in Lexington, Ky., so now we were on a mission!

Ah, finally! Fish!

The main highlight came at the end.

This is what she's pointing to: the whale shark.

We sat at the large viewing window for the longest time.

The belugas are in another tank and are, by far, my favorite. I could spend an hour just sitting there watching them. They look like angels to me.

Ok, so the whale sharks were the biggest hit but up until that point, it was the albino gator.

The Daisy enjoyed the aquarium more than The Boo, but she is a water girl after all.

Blueberry pickin'

We stopped off for lunch and saw these HUGE prickly pear cactus bushes. My Aunt Susan makes the BEST prickly pear cactus jelly so she said I must go back when they fruit so I can make my own jelly.

The kids look like that cactus is going to jump out and get them.

We heard about this blueberry farm and were astounded. We got a huge bucketful of blueberries for $6. The bushes were about 8 feet tall and some of them are more than 30 years old. We had a ton of fun there.

A conversation

The Boo walked in today and announced,"Unitsi, I know where the Tooth Fairy lives."
"Where, because I always wanted to catch her by the leg."
"Up in the clouds."
"Oh, guess I have to take a plane then."
"You have to go up into the sky, hop on the clouds and she lives in a castle.
(bit of a pause)
And she's bigger than you."
Off he went.