The Swim Lessons Have Begun!

So as requested by Melis, I thought I'd post the latest happenings with Miss B. Swim lessons are in session! Some may be wondering why I am not teaching her. (I worked at Steiner Aquatic Center during my college years as a pool manager, lifeguard and was WSI certified to teach swimming lessons). Well, last year I started working with Bentley here and there--nothing serious she was only 2. We went swimming a few times and got her adjusted to the water. Well, I decided this year we need to push her a bit more and I decided it would be best if she took lessons from someone else--rather than mom--at least until she is really comfortable submerging. She is doing private lessons with Walker's Swim Kids and we've been taking her before heading to work and the pool is close so it works well for our schedule right now. After 5 lessons, she is fully submerging, can "swim-ish" to the steps and is floating on her back all by herself. She does really well and only cried briefly at the start. Way to go, Miss B! We have 2 more lessons in the session and then I plan to work with her once a week after these are over. We'll see how that goes...

First lesson--just a little traumatic but not too bad.

Isn't this the saddest look? Like, "Why aren't you saving me, mommy?"

And...she's under!

Loving those goggles and lookin' goood! We just have to laugh, she looks like a kamikaze pilot!

Here she is at her fifth lesson...backfloat unsupported, yeah!!

Cause for Celebration

Over the weekend, we had Szuzsa, Matt, Tony and Jen over to hang out. These are Ry's good friends from school (which by the way, this group is extremely smart, I once joined them for lunch and one could have mistaken their math conversation for a foreign language--ha ha!)Anyway, congrats to Szuzsa, Matt and Tony for graduating with their masters! It is a great accomplishment. Also, we wish Ssuzsa and Matt well in Chicago where they will continue their education working towards PhD's. Jen is also working on her PhD at the U.

Ryan is totally finished with classes (YAAAAHOOOOO!!) however, he will be working on his thesis for the next several months and will get his degree at the end of the year. I must say, I'm not quite sure what to do yet...I actually get to spend time with Ryan now. No more "all day Saturday's at school and those all-night study sessions". This is great! We're almost there and it is a great feeling--we can see the light at the end of the tunnel...unless he too decides to tack on a PhD. I would die! Actually, studying for the actuary exams will take a lot of time but oh well, we will enjoy this time right now. Good job, Ry!

So, I just have to mention about when the guys went to pick up the pizza. The gals decided to stay and chat--ya know the girly conversations. We covered pretty much everything and laughed. But we started to realize it had been a way long time since the boys left and they still had not come back. Just then Ryan called. I was like, "are you lost?". Apparently, they drove to the wrong location so as you would expect, there was no order for us. So they drove to Brickyard to pick it up and were home soon after that. Hmmm, so how many mathematicians does it take to pick up pizza? Apparently more than three. Ha ha...so we teased them about that one.

Good times!

The Only Good Laker is a Salt Laker!!

Wahoo! Go Jazz! Ryan and I were lucky enough to have been given tickets last minute to the game tonight. It was a nerve-wracking one but a great one, so thanks Gary! We had the family over this morning for breakfast and the kids played. I will have to get some pics of that up later. Ry surprised me with a new point & shoot camera--loooove my Rebel XTi but sometimes it is too big to carry around. Now I have an itty bitty one I can carry in my purse. Happy mom's day everyone!

Where, Oh Where Have My Blogging Days Gone?

Alright, so I have just a snippit of time to catch up on my blog tonight. As you may have guessed from my lack of posts lately, I have gone back to work. My first day back was April 28 (Monday) and since then, it has been super crazy. I have had a ton of projects with a due date of next Monday so my brain has been entirely consumed with trying to come up with new ideas. One may not believe this but yes, it can be a huge stress coming up with cards and scrapbook pages. Anyway, my first week back was a bit rough. I could barely make it 5 hours some days and I would come home, crash on the sofa, get up to eat some dinner and go back to sleep until I had to wake up the next morning. It is going to take time for me to get my stamina back. This week has gotten easier thank goodness. Otherwise I don't know how I would make my deadlines. I have finished all 6 projects plus 2 more today and now I have one left. PHHEWWW! Oh well, at least I have stayed fairly caught-up on the Bachelor (hoping for Chelsea), American Idol (loving little David Archuleta), Oprah DVR-d (Tom Cruise episodes), which are all very important to me right now. Ha ha! So, I will just post a few pics--some of the happenings the last few weeks.

My desk when I came in the office on Monday. Cute huh? This is just where I check my email and do computer work (which is not that often). My art room desk is in another room where I spend most of my days. I'll have to post that fun one another time.

My friends Julie and Melissa. These gals are just the best friends a girl could have. I have known Julie literally forever. I have tons and tons of memories growing up with her--from making home movies all the time, doing fashion shows in my living room, sleep-overs, trying to sell things in my front yard that we'd put hours and hours into making and never actually selling any of it! Disneyland and Vegas, Obon festivals, the list goes on and on. I even have in my posession a cassette tape when my dad recorded the two of us when we were 3 years old!! (That is how old Bentley is! Crazy!) We have stayed close since then and I feel so lucky for that. Thanks for the trip down mem lane, Ju! Anyway, these gals are awesome and I am glad we got to go to dinner and talk and laugh. We stayed at Chilis until close and could have stayed 3 hours longer!

Luckily, I took the video IPod for B and Kaden. They watched Little Mermaid (Sorry Melis) and were so good! Then the night ended with a sweet hug and kiss for those two love birds. Actually, with all of the little women competing for Kaden these days, I am thinking he is gearing up for a season of Bachelor star-dom 25 years from now!

We also had an opportunity to have the Martinez family join us for dinner last week. This was a family in Ryan's mission who he got to know well and Jared's parents came out to visit he and his wife and little boy.

Bentley loves to come home after playing at Narda's because then she gets to play even more with the neighbor kids. We love the Miles and Barnard's and are so glad to have them living next door. They are great kiddos and B just loves playing with them. It is going to be a fun summer! Here they are enjoying thier ice cream from the ice-cream man. (Now that we bought once from this rickety old truck, the dang thing comes chiming by every dang day, hoping we will make another purchase. It was a bit creepy, but oh well...they loved the experience.)

I also want to add that mom is doing well. She has not returned to work yet, she plans to go back in a couple of weeks. She continues to go twice a week for labs and so far, those look good. She has an excellent doctor who keeps in close contact with her so that her levels and meds are where they need to be--there are little adjustments each week.

Lastly, (and I don't have a picture but you'll thank me for that) Ryan dislocated his finger this last Monday night. We quickly went to the ER where they had to cut off his work glove (he was doing yard work), give hime 2 shots in the finger, and then pulled it back into place. SICK! He was in quite a bit of pain sitting there when I suddenly looked at him and said, "You're complaining over a jacked-up finger? Try donating a vital organ!". Of course I was kidding but, anyway....so there ya go.