Sunday, June 28, 2009

Our adventure weekend in Granbury

This weekend Kat had a swim meet in Granbury. She swam her heart out! Butterfly, freestyle and backstroke.


It was one of those "car" weekends, but we managed to turn it into some quality family time. Kev had to be in Weatherford, we were in Granbury and the next day all of us had to be in Stephenville together. So we met in Granbury after Kat's meet-- and had a little family overnight.

The girls were super excited about staying in the hotel. A little refrigerator! A microwave! Big fluffy pillows! And one extra-frozen-indoor swimming pool with a tile shark on the bottom!

First, we got our fill at Hanks, a really fun family eatery on the square. Each table had a dfiferent set of novelty salt and pepper shakers. (The girls had a blast before it was busy, checking each checking each table to see what their shakers were.) Also, hanging from the ceiling is a plethera of screen doors-- fun! Top it off with good food and Dr. Pepper cake for dessert, how can you lose?
Then we took a dip in the lake at the beach park. White sand, gently waves and warm lake water were perfect! The girls had fun chasing ducks and walking the boardwalk. Kat built a giant sandcastle.

Life is usually full of rules, and a child's life has a few too many no's... so we took a little time off from that and just let chaos rule a little. They jumped on the beds... opened and closed the fridge... changed the thermostat..... all those things you can't always do at home.

We all came home a little recharged. Life is good.



Tuesday, June 23, 2009

@ the swim nazi's...



Today little bit did one heck of a backstroke! She was tearing it up. You go girl!
Kat also had a great day, improving her racing dive and her butterfly- I'll try to get a better photo of it tomorrow. I was too busy cheering!

Cheerleading



Kat starts a Cheer / Tumbling class today.

Most true Texas cheer moms would tell you-- the "tumbling" is redundant. But not being fully indoctrinated yet, I feel a little weird still saying she's taking a cheer class.


Kat's been wanting to take a tumble class ever since she learned to cartwheel- so tonight she starts. SHe had begged for the clinics, but it's actually cheaper to go ahead and let her take the class.

I hope she loves it! It brings back all sorts of wonderful childhood memories of me and my sisters- and flat expanses of green lawn, and the occasional band-aid.



She loved cheering last fall, especially being the flyer- and doing cartwheels this spring in her dance routine.

Yes, Lisa S- sometimes the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.

Monday, June 22, 2009

kaylee's a poser..

Never content to have sis steal her spotlight, Kaylee begs for a photo

The Swim Nazi

I love, love, love the girls swim teacher. So please take that title with a grain of salt. It, I assure you, is meant as a total term of endearment!

For 4 years, the girls have had swim camp in her backyard, and under her loving care they have blossomed into what I consider remarkable swimmers. (Hold off on those Olympic trials just a wee bit longer...)

With Kat in both swim team and lessons this year, her progress has been especially noteable. Her teacher has worked on her with diving starts, backstroke push offs (real name?) and form-- while her coach has worked on endurance, endurance and endurance.

Her swim teacher, with her sweet, southern accent.... does not take any excuses. She is so drippy sweet and confident, but she just won't accept failure. (This is why we have coined her the swim Nazi. ) Today I was reminded of again, how special she is to us. Heaven help me the day they outgrow swim camp... it will be a sad, sad day.

Friday, June 19, 2009

When they cry..

There were tears today. Again. Kat has figured out she can cry, and they won't make her swim all her swim team laps.

This is completely maddening for so many, many reasons.

Because she is capable. Because it is manipulating. Because it is so.... dishonest. She's robbing herself of the experience. And..... and this is a really, really tough one for me... she's getting to be known as the (gasp...) "cryer".

I tried to explain this on the way home. I hope some of it sank in.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Old Switcheroo! Is this not the blog you expected?

I keep 3 blogs.

One, http://rubberdollar.blogspot.com is dedicated to being cheap.
Then They Keep Me In Stitches about adventures with my girls and how they make me giggle, and finally Keeps Me In Stitches which has my tutorials, reviews, my own projects, and links to free embroidery designs.

I had to rearrange a bit-- in an effort to allign the keepsmeinstitches.blogspot.com name with my business related stuff.

So if you are suddenly finding yourself wondering "why am I linked to this person's children???" the blog you are realy looking for is here.

Sorry about the mix-up. You'll need to "re-follow" (okay, that's not really a word...) to be following the correct link from now on.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Fall on the Mound September 26

Fall on the Mound, September 26

Mark your calendars north Texas for my favorite craft fair of the year. This year on September 26. Everything has to be homemade, and there is always a huge variety! You can look for me (& possibly ubermomof4 (etsy) to be sharing a booth in the Ministry center.

See you then!
September 26, 2009
Trietsch Memorial United Methodist Church
6101 Morriss Road
Flower Mound, TX 75028
(just north of DFW airport)
9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The New Website



Wow! That took a while!

Complain about the job someone else is doing and you get... to do it yourself. This is the curse among crafters (C'mon... you know you do it...)

I spent a little time learning about style sheets. (I am still far from an expert!) but after the fiasco of trying to buy a website I needed to take a little control.

...go ahead, call me a control freak...

The lady who built my site is no longer operating her site. Perhaps she took a step back to educate herself. I hope so, anyway.

I did learn about a SUPER DUPER web tool that is (trumpets blaring dunt-dunt-dunt-dahhhhhh!!!!--- FREE!) Now those of you have ever checked out Rubber Dollar know that very few things get me as excited as the sign of the free.

The program is called zencart and it's everything you need to run your on-line store. You still need to know some basic style sheet knowledge-- but it is leaps and bounds above what I overpaid for last year.

I also learned how to add some really great features like the ability to save your cart (the whole thing is SSL-- never fear..) and mail to another person if you'd like to send a gift. You can even sign up for my newsletter and get fun discount codes! The whole thing is incredibly feature rich and run by the most remarkable group of very helpful, downright friendly people. You should definitely check it out.