Swimming Lessons

Merrilee's in pink, Jacob's in orange. Both are doing great and having a blast. This week was their first time taking formal lessons, and Merrilee was moved up to level 2 within the first five minutes of the first class. She's built for swimming and I think she has a future of being a very strong swimmer. Jacob loves to swim and can swim underwater just fine, but the moment he stops moving he sinks like a rock. Lessons will do them both good.

Learning to tread water in the deep end

Swimming on her back the second day of classes

Learning to have confidence on his back

Safety lessons before each class

Practicing the back stroke --Notice, she's the smallest kid in the class.

147 Years in Dog Years

That's 21 years for you humans. Our anniversary was yesterday. If our marriage were a person, it would just now be able to drink legally.

In 21 years we've done more than most people do in a lifetime. The really interesting thing is that most of the stuff we've done was accomplished in the first 11 years of our marriage. The last ten years have been spent in the same place.

We have lived (in the first 11 years of marriage) in

1. Indianapolis, Indiana

2. Bloomington , Indiana

3. Garrisonville, Virginia

4. Pensacola, Florida

5. Kaneohe, Hawaii

6. Morehead City, North Carolina

7. Naples, Italy

8. Lexington Park, Maryland

We have traveled internationally to

1. Japan

2. Australia

3. Italy

4. Spain

5. Austria

6. Ireland

7. Germany

8. China (three times!)

9. Mexico

10. Lots of little Caribbean islands

Jay has been to lots of other places, but these are the places we went to together.

Tidbits of info you don't really care about:

We have had five cats. Three have died, one is MIA --still unaccounted for and presumed dead, and one is still present and yacking on the carpet. The longest-lived cat died this spring and would have been 18 years old this summer.

We have had two dogs. I am not a good dog owner. I was glad when we got rid of them. The second one, a stray in Italy, had a cancer of the vagina. It was gross and I had to take her to get chemotherapy until her tumors shrunk. Blech.

We've had lots of fish. The last ones were outside in a little barrel pond. A snake ate them. We're done with fish.

We renewed our vows on our tenth anniversary in Naples, Italy. Seemed like ten years was a long time to be married back then. We haven't renewed them again. I think they stuck the second time.

Combined, we've spent at least four years apart while Jay's been deployed or on travel. That's actually a very good rate of togetherness for 21 years, as far as the military is concerned.

Our honeymoon was a cruise. We've taken two more cruises since then.

We've never gone camping together.

Jay was a guinea pig in a government experiment when I met him.

I always make Jay sleep on the side of the bed closest to the door when we're in a hotel.

We don't cook or do dishes together. Jay hates having me help him in the kitchen if he's in there. He'll quit if I try to help. We need a much bigger kitchen with more elbow room.

Since we've been married, between the two of us we've had a Ford Mustang, an Oldsmobile Cutlass, two Chevy Blazers, a Chevy Silverado, two Honda Civics, a Volvo, a GMC Yukon, a Jaguar, and two Honda Odysseys. I think we've had eight cars in just the past 11 years.

We've climbed Ayers Rock in Australia together.

We were both certified scuba divers when we lived in Hawaii.

It's been a quick 21 years. It seems like a long time, though, because we've done so much. When we get through our next 21 years, we'll look back and think the first 21 years was so long ago and our marriage was so young.

Love you, Jay. Here's to many wonderful years ahead of us!

Love,

Petrie

Quick vacation recap

A couple weeks ago the girls and I took a trip down to NC to visit Daddy and then headed futher south to see Grandma and Grandpa in SC. Since Cousin Patrick was also at Gram and Gramp's house, we got the added bonus of getting to visit him, too.

Merrilee and Katie Mei thoroughly enjoyed the evenings we got to go to the pool. Katie Mei is really a little water hound and just loves to swim...even when her head goes under. She hasn't quite mastered jumping yet, so she can't really jump off the side into my arms. But she does allow me to pull her into the water from a standing position. Even though she goes under, she comes up happy and wants to do it again.

We took a day to go to Magnolia Plantation in SC and enjoyed a tram ride through the swamp and old rice fields; a little visit to the petting zoo; a walk through the gardens; and a stroll through a small portion of the boardwalk over the swamp. The kids were tired, it was hot and muggy, and we all wanted to head home after awhile, but it was a wonderful day.

I do have to admit, the trip was a bit stressful for me. Between nasty road construction on I-95 in NC and me taking a couple wrong roads on the way down, the six-hour trip took 8.5 hours,and a bout of food poisoning for me when we returned to Jay's place after our SC portion of the trip, I felt like I needed a vacation after my vacation.

The trip was a good deal for me, though. Jay traded in my van for a new 2009 Odyssey EX, and I have to say I'm mighty impressed. The thing linked right up to my cell phone so I have hands free bluetooth while I'm driving, it has a GPS/navigation system, XM radio, built in DVD entertainment system, and backup camera and sensors (if you recall my little mishap back in November) which Jay thought would be prudent.

So we're back home and Jay is here for the holiday weekend. It's nice to be in our own house altogether, and just enjoy hanging out. And I get to look forward to a night out with my hubby on Sunday evening...some friends offered to babysit for us! Woo-hoo!

Enjoy the photos!

An Uninvited Guest at Our Picnic

And a very rude one, too. This zebra swallowtail manged to invade our little lunch at the beach on Tuesday. For some unknown reason (actually, I think I do know the reason), it really wanted to sit on Katie Mei's swimming pants and wouldn't take no for an answer. Katie Mei was patient, but less than pleased at having this clingy friend. Merrilee, on the other hand, was very much wanting the butterfly to come after her, but it just wasn't going to happen. It made for an interesting ten minutes, but eventually I had to pick Katie Mei up and take her away from the scene because the butterfly was really getting annoying. I never thought I'd see the day I wanted to swat a butterfly.

As to my guess why the butterfly was so obsessed with Katie Mei's pants.... Well, she had peed in them before we got to the beach (notice the crotch hold in the first photo), and my research on the zebra swallowtail tells me that they like to drink livestock urine to obtain salts and minerals. I don't imagine a butterfly would know the difference between livestock and my daughter, so I'm going to go with the theory that our unwelcome friend was looking for a little nutrition. Ick. Kinda makes you want to swear off butterflies, doesn't it?

Enjoy the last few days of spring.

Petrie

Li'l Swimmer and More

Katie Mei has taken to water like a little duck. She's just the right height that she can stand in the pool without aid, and she seems to be perfectly comfortable even when the other kids are splashing all around her. She's taken a couple accidental dips when her face has gone under, but she doesn't get upset and cry.

In this video she was pushing her fish around on a float, and Merrilee started coughing in the background. Katie Mei decided to mimic her for the rest of the video.

This is pretty much more of the same, but she's too cute not to show another video.

Merrilee has been doing very well in her gymnastics class, but unfortunately we're not allowed to take photos during class. A couple weeks ago I was talking to a friend during class and looked up just long enough to see Merrilee dangling in the air. I grabbed my cell phone and managed to snap this photo from the parents' waiting room doorway. Not a great photo, but I was so impressed that I had to at least try to capture the moment. Seconds later, she let go and dropped into the cushioned pit below.

And finally, a photo of Jacob with his handsome smile. Daddy took Jacob on a little vacation to NC this week. See you next week, Jacob!

Hugs,

Petrie

Good-Bye, Grandpa John

Jay's dad passed away last night. It wasn't a total shock to us; he's been in and out of the hospital a few times already this year. His health, or what there was of it, was failing. But no matter how prepared you are for a death, it's never easy to let go and say good-bye.

John, or JB to many of us, was a bit of an enigma. He put on a show of being tough and mean, but he was a tender, caring man when he was put on the spot. There are family stories of how he provided Christmas gifts for a child who wasn't his own, but was in need. He offered advice to Jay throughout his healthier years whenever Jay called on him, especially when Jay and I were first married and were trying to get ourselves established. He could cook too; JB would whip up a great pot of chicken and dumplings when we came to visit, and often made the potato salad for our family reunions. There are so many sides to this man, whom I only knew for 22 years. Unfortunately, when I first met him, his health was already declining, so I never got to know him in his more robust days. But I do love to listen to the family stories.

My two older children remember their last visit to Grandpa John in 2007. Merrilee has prayed for him and laments his passing. We will miss him, and I am thankful I got to know him.

Good-bye, Grandpa John. We love you and will cherish the time we had with you.

Love,
Petrie and the kids

Nothing new going on

I don't have anything exciting and fun to add today, but wanted to just post a few photos from the past couple weeks. I don't feel motivated to blog lately; I think I'm getting tired and need some time of refreshment, but that's going to have to wait a few more weeks. Merrilee has one more week of school and then we're going to call an end to first grade. She can finish the few pages in her math book over the summer, and can read her one last reading book at her leisure. She reads so much for pleasure now that I don't see much benefit in forcing her to read that last reading book according to a schedule.

Since I last blogged, we've had warm days and cold rainy days. The kids have been able to get in the pool a few times and the water was really beginning to warm up, but after the past two day of rain and temps in the 60s, the water is cold again. This is a very frustrating spring as far as weather goes. Even my vegetable garden is suffering for it despite all the rain.

Anyway, here are a few photos to keep my blog audience coming back for more.

Sunny day--crafts outside

Rainy day--Katie Mei helps Jacob work the joystick on his V-Tech game

Sunny Day--Jacob still can't blow up balloons, but he sure can fill them with spit!


Rainy day--Play-doh makes mighty fine jewelry for a two-year old

Sunny Day--Getting used the the cold water in the kiddie pool.

Hope to have better blogging entertainment for you in the next week or so.

Love,

Petrie