Oh man, I had every intention of blogging this at the end of last week, but we had a storm last Wednesday night and apparently some lightning hit very close b/c it blew out one of the ports for the internet and my internet has been slower than dial-up. Let’s put it this way, I went to download something and it said it would take 5 plus hours!!! Forget that—I’m not that patient! So, guess what’s on my to do list today?
Anyway, Payton finished up her swim lessons last week and Shealyn and Carter started and finished their private lessons last week. So we spent a lot of time at the pool and one evening even returned to play at the water park. Shealyn continues to improve in her stroke technique and now needs to work on the endurance part of it. Her instructor made sure they swam in a lane that was over her head so her feet never touched the bottom for the 30 minute lesson. She had the same instructor she had for her group lessons, so he already knew where her ability was, which was helpful to all of us. Shealyn has always been our little fish, but now with her new found confidence in her swimming ability she is even more so and loves to be the first one in the pool.
Carter also had the same instructor that he had for group lessons. She is awesome! She knows how to handle him perfectly. She has the perfect balance between seriousness, fun and play. Out of all 3 kids he has the most “panic” in his swim and manner when in the water. He has come a long way and really likes the front crawl, however the back crawl is another story. I think he likes knowing what he’s looking at as far as the water is concerned and water coming up over his face makes him very uncomfortable. He has no problem going under water as long as he can go in face first and face down.
Payton finished up another group lesson session and continues to get more comfortable in the water. She loves to jump off the edge into the water whether there are open arms waiting for her or not 
) Oh yeah, because she can swim to the edge ALL BY HERSELF (which until Thursday was pretty much a vertical swim)!! On Wednesday of last week I convinced her to go off the diving board! The pool rule is NO life jackets off of the diving board so we had been hesitant. But, I decided I could tread water out in the deep end and wait for her to jump off and help her swim back to the edge. SHE DID IT and now that’s about all she wants to do. I have to limit her because after a half a dozen jumps or so I need a break from treading water! So we take a break for a bit and then head back to the deep end.
The kids had a special treat on Thursday. Daddy came to watch Shealyn and Carter swim on his lunch hour and got to see Miss P. go off the diving board! So, Clark, Payton and I are watching Shealyn and Carter finish up their lessons when all of a sudden EVERY life guard in the building (with the exception of the one guarding the shallow pool) went running to the deep end. As my eyes followed all of the commotion my heart started beating in triple time. The deep end life guard was in the water with a very UNconscious teenage girl on his bouy! It was so scary! Not even being trained I knew something wasn’t right—this girl was completely limp –you know her limbs were just kind of hanging. My first thought was did a life guard not see her in time? And then as the situation unfolded it was discovered that she had had a seizure (and has a history of them) in the water and the life guard was immediately in the water when he noticed her floating face down. Every mother’s worst nightmare was unfolding in front of me. Byt this time all of the kids are out of the pool in their towels and nestled safely between Clark and I. She came around and after 20 minutes or so was able to walk out of the building with her mom and friend! Praise God for that! But, as we reflected throughout the day a lot of questions were asked about seizures and if that girl would be okay. So we talked about seizures, how they happen and how exhausted you are afterwards. I told them this girl probably went home with her mom and slept the rest of the afternoon. Thankfully this situation ended on a happy note!
Oh yeah, I had a first this week. I went and did water aerobics. I had been reading about them in the flyer and wondered what they would be like. So, as I was talking to Carter’s swim instructor, Miss Lindsey, one day she happened to mention that she was teaching aerobics that night and I should come and try it out. SO I DID!! Deep water aerobics for 55 minutes. If anybody tells you it’s easy and doesn’t hurt and you don’t sweat-don’t believe them! I felt the burn in the warm up and YES you can sweat in water (I didn’t believe Clark)! I don’t LOVE to work out anyway, but I really enjoyed this and it went by so quickly. I’m hoping to maybe figure out how I can do this 2 or 3 times a week.
Then on Friday we were up early to go pick Grandma McNulty up from the airport! She’s here for 3 weeks! Right now she’s spending a week in Florida with her sister and nieces, but then it’s back to hot ole Texas and Grandpa will be joining her for the tail end of her trip. So, once we picked Grandma up, dropped her luggage off, got her hair cut, and had lunch then it was time to spend the afternoon with one of her longtime friends. The kids were especially looking forward to this because it meant more SWIMMING!! So we swam and played and guess what—————————————————————————————————————————————————Carter worked up the courage to go off the diving board!!!! By the end of the day the 2 youngest were jumping off by themselves and did not need mom’s assistance to get to the edge. Yes, this is the day P. discovered swimming under water!!! Shealyn mentioned to Carter that now he would be ready to go off the diving board at the natatorium (where lessons were taken) and he quickly let her know that he probably would not do that because the diving board is too high off the water. One step forward 2 steps back (SIGH). Really that’s okay; I don’t want him to do it until he’s comfortable with it. So, anyway it was a week of discoveries and fun for the kids.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we found a babysitter!! Carter’s teacher (Miss Lindsey) came right out and asked me if we ever needed a babysitter because she loved my kids! How cool is that—-she is forever programmed into Clark’s cell phone! You have to remember we have high expectations of our babysitters, we’re used to Shauna and Jessi!
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