Friday

 

Oh, Friday!  I sure do love you.

 

I am busy getting ready for a weekend away with my sister.

 

(Yahoo!)

 

Have a magical weekend, friends.

XO,

Vicki

Project Life Update//August 20-26

 Hi Friends--

Another week's worth of memories is in the book!  The *best* part of last week:  John painted our bedroom!  I am so excited about my new "Morning Sunshine" walls.  The whole room is so much happier now that the walls are brighter.  I love it!  Now I just have to fill the walls! : )

 Of course, there was a whole lot of swimming activity last week--a team triathlon on Tuesday, a meet on Thursday, a blanket party on Friday night, and the team car wash on Saturday morning.  Unlike last week, though, I remembered to take pictures of Jack and John this week between all the swim stuff.  : )

Jack and I cleaned out his closet, and made room for all of his new school clothes.  And yes, everything he picked out was blue.  Gesh!  He's such a boy!  : )  I also took a picture of Jack and Buster on his bed.  Jack loves having Buster sleep with him.  I'm not sure how much longer they will both fit on the bed together, but for now, Jack is willing to work around Buster so that he'll stay. 

I love that this project makes me think of documenting things like Jack's closet, and the triathlon course.  I love Project Life!

XO,

Vicki

446

 Hi Friends!

We are four weeks into pre-season high school swimming, and we've already had 3 meets.  Last night was our first dual conference meet against Appleton East, and we won (yahoo!).  Three meets in four weeks, and school doesn't even start until next Tuesday!  : )  While the girls swim, and I coach, John's job is to take pictures and capture all the fun.

Last night, Jack stayed home, so John came by himself to cheer and take pictures.

 I told him to take lots of pictures of the girls in the water, but I also wanted him to capture some of the action on deck.

 As I was coaching, and the girls were swimming, John clicked away.

 And clicked and clicked and clicked.

 He captured so many awesome moments.

 And just to be sure I would be happy, he kept clicking.

All told, he took four hundred and forty six pictures (446!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) from last night's dual meet.  Now, you know I love, love, love all things swimming, but even I was overwhelmed with 446 pictures.  : )  It was kind of like watching a video of the meet, but in individual frames.

I completely love my overachieving husband.  Thanks for capturing every single moment! 

You rock, John!

XO,

Vicki

Potted: Finally!

Hi Friends!

Just in case anyone was wondering:  it really is hard to kill succulents!  Just ask the poor little cuties that have been sitting in their teeny-tiny little plastic farmer's market containers for the past 6 weeks waiting for me to get my act together.  : )  Yesterday, the girls and I were out running errands and I decided it was high-time that I got those plants re-potted.  Don't they look great?!?    I found the big bowl and river rocks at Hobby Lobby and the sand at Menard's.  I stole the potting soil from the big planter outside my front door.  The hardest part of the whole project was getting the stickers off the bottom of the bowl. : )  I'm not quite sure why I put this off so long!

Hooray for a big bowl of succulent goodness!

XO,

Vicki

Right Now

(source)

 

 

Watching: The Golf Channel.  But I'm not really watching it, John is.  The man loves watching people play golf.  Sigh.

Listening To:  John chopping up a green pepper for lunch.

Smelling:  The crock pot fajitas simmering on the counter for dinner.

Feeling:  Happy that I'm done with my shift at the swim team car wash.  : )

Hoping:  To get out on the boat later today.  It's a scorcher outside--a perfect day to be out on the lake.

Loving:  Maxi dresses.  Best invention ever.  I live in them when I'm not in my coaching clothes.

Looking Forward To: Getting together with my Bible Study ladies on Monday night. 

Excited About:  Spending the weekend with Christy next weekend.  We're doing a spa getaway--I absolutely can't wait!

Not Excited About:  The pile of towels that need to be washed every day.  Two girls on the same swim team = mounds of towels.  Every day. 

Reading:  Shadow of Night--the sequel to A Discovery of Witches.

Craving:  Smoked string cheese.  Love it.

Grateful For:  A patient husband and son.   Swim season is crazy.

 

What's up with you right now?

XO,

Vicki



 

Quote Love

I absolutely believe this.

XO,

Vicki

30 Days of Lists

Hi Friends!
It's almost that time again--time to begin September's 30 Days of Lists class!  Are you a lister?  I love making lists, I really do.  I had a whole bunch of fun last year completing this class.  The object of the class is simple; make one list a day, each day, for the month of September.  There is a different prompt for each day.  At the end of the month, I had a cute mini-album filled with 30 different lists.  Awesome!  From time-to-time, I will post some of my lists.  Want to see last year's album?  Click here.  Want more information about the class (it's only $8! {what a deal!})?  Click here.

XO,

Vicki

Project Life Update//August 13-19

 Hi Friends!

Woo-Hoo!  Another week in the book, and I'm still loving this project!  Last week pretty much centered around swimming pools, for all intents and purposes.  I coached in the mornings and spent every afternoon at my life guarding class.  This week's layout definitely reflects that.

I have a feeling my layouts are going to feature a whole lot of red, white, and black during swim season. I decided to group all the swim team shots together on the right-hand side, and try to introduce some other colors on the left side. I wish I coached for a team whose colors were orange and yellow and aqua. : ) After seeing this layout, I realized that I'm going to have to intentionally focus on Jack and John during swim season, or they won't make PL at all.  : )  Poor boys.  I'll try to do better next week!

XO,
Vicki

This Is Going to ROCK!

Hey Friends!

Guess who's going to see her beloved CHICAGO BEARS play the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field?!?  This girl, that's who!!  I am so excited!  Of course, I'll have to be on my best behavior since I'll be sitting smack dab in the middle of all those Packer fans.  : )  I have a good feeling about this year, and nothing would be sweeter than seeing my Bears win in Lambeau! 

XO,

Vicki

I Passed!

Hey Friends!

Yesterday was the last day of my life guarding class, and I'm proud to say that I passed with flying colors! As part of my coaching job, I need to be certified as a lifeguard and in CPR/AED.  I've done this class before, but never all in one week and never with an instructor like the one I had this week;  she was a toughy!  I guess that is what you want when you're training lifeguards, but seriously???  That lady scared the you-know-what out of me!  : )  I found myself thinking, "Man!  I am getting too old for this" about 852 times this week.  I am bruised and battered.  On the plus side,  I am confident that if there was an emergency at the pool I'd be able to handle it.  So, thank you, Kelli, for being so hard on us.  Hopefully I'll never have to use any of the many skills you (re)taught me this week!

XO,

Vicki

Nice Quote

(source)

True Story: I'd rather be described as "nice" than any other adjective.

XO,

Vicki

Project Life, August 6-12

 Hi Friends!

I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that I survived last week!  : )  The bad news is that I'm late (again!) with my Project Life layout.  Oh well, right? 

On Tuesday, I switched gears and started coaching at the high school again.  I love the beginning of a new season--everyone is so excited, and every goal seems attainable.  I have a fantastic group of high school swimmers, including a whole bunch who swam with me all summer.  On Thursday, I hosted a whole-team party.  Yup.  All 54 girls were invited, and most of them showed up (bottom right picture above).  I planned a carnival theme, and served all kinds of sweet treats, including make-your-own-sundaes.

The best part of hosting an all-girls party is that I got to use all my fun girlie-girl party stuff.  The girls loved drinking fruit punch out of my vintage bottles, and the striped paper straws were a huge hit.

 I also put together little paper cups with dip and veggies (an idea I found on Pinterest).  They were a huge hit, too. 

Thursday was actually a pretty rainy day, but the sun came out during the party and most of the girls headed out to jump on the trampoline and just hang out.

The girls also took over my office and made a whole bunch of posters for Friday's brat fry.  The poster below was so...odd that I had to take a picture.  They said they were trying to include the divers on a poster...

Of course, I had to include a shot of John grilling at the brat fry.  He was so awesome--all day!  On Friday night, Tom, Tommy, and Christy came up for the weekend.  We made plans for this weekend months ago, before I knew it was going to be during my fabulously-crazy swim team week.  I actually didn't even see them until around 10:30 am on Saturday because I had the summer swim team breakfast and awards ceremony Saturday morning.  Crazy, right?

The good news is that I knew if I survived all the craziness, my big reward would be having the three of them to hang out with for the rest of the weekend.  And you know what?  It was awesome!  We spent Saturday doing a Bourne marathon before we all went to see The Bourne Legacy Saturday night.  It was the perfect end to a wild week!  I love hanging out with them.

Hooray for fun, busy weeks!

XO,

Vicki

He Loves Me

Yet Another Reason I Love John:

He is willing to do whatever he can to make my life easier.

In the past week alone,

1.  He got up at the crack of dawn so he could drive me to a triathlon

to cheer on two of my swimmers. 

Neither one of those swimmers were related to him.

2.  He helped me clean the house for a party he was not invited to.

3.  He took a day off from work so he could help me with the team brat fry. 

He set everything up all by himself while I was at practice and then manned the grill all day. 

He stayed to work the afternoon shift even after I left. 

And then he helped clean up.

4.  He cooked breakfast for my brothers and Christy while I was at a swim team breakfast. 

Also?  I had the electric skillet and all the good utensils with me at the team breakfast,

 which left him with the wonky pan and a batter scrapper to make a feast with.

My husband ROCKS!

I love you, John.

XO,

Vicki

Goodbye Olympics

(source)

Hi Friends!

It's so hard to believe that the Olympics are coming to an end!!  I am busy watching the wrap-up show right now.  Gosh, there were so many great moments from this year's Olympics, weren't there?  Of course, I love, love, loved every swim race.  I am so proud of each and every American swimmer.  I'm also happy for the gymnastics team, Missy and Kerry, the talented track athletes, and the women's soccer team.  Our US athletes really made us proud, didn't they?

My very favorite moment, though, didn't have anything to do with the Americans.  It was the moment pictured above--when Kirani James of Grenada won his heat, and then asked Oscar Pistorius for his bib number.  I loved the spirit behind that moment.  

Sometimes it's hard to remember that our Olympic heroes are just people.  Incredibly talented, dedicated people, but nevertheless, people just like you and me.  Mr. James embodied the spirit of the games with his gesture.  But I'm pretty sure he was just being himself--a person, like you and I, who was amazed at Oscar Pistorius' remarkable accomplishment.

Thank you, London, for hosting such a spectacular Olympic games. 

XO,

Vicki

Project Life Update//July 23-August 5

 Hi Friends!

Oh boy!  I got totally behind on Project Life again.  Darn that real life getting in the way of recording life!  : )  The past two weeks have been filled with goodness.  Summer swim came to an end, and my parents were here all last week visiting.  There's a whole lot of pictures of both of those things in my layouts.

I also added a picture from my Sonic run (cherry limeades are the best!), and one of Jack in his UT shirt.  For the pictures of the team's Ultimate match, I used one of my fancy new inserts (Design J).  I love the new sizes of the plastics! 

 Last week centered on my parent's visit, and the last day of summer team.

 I love the picture of the kids with my parents--it's definitely a keeper! I also love the shot of the (small) sampling of my mom's old photo albums.  

And of course, I love all the water pictures.  Underwater cameras are fun, aren't they?

And now, for the next 4 days or so, anyway, I am all caught up. : )  Thanks for taking a peek at my pages!

XO,

Vicki



Road Trip//Back to School Shopping

(source)

Hey Friends--

I had a super-duper day today.  Did you?  The girls and I headed down to Milwaukee for some back-to-school shopping. The girls needed a few things for swim team (the high school season starts tomorrow!!!!), and Maddie wanted to do a bit of shopping at Urban Outfitters.  Since we don't have a swim store, or an Urban Outfitters in town, we decided a road trip was in order.   I love shopping expeditions, don't you?  I love to drive, too, so the hour and 45 minute trip was no problem.  The girls loaded up on goggles, practice suits, caps and kick boards, and then we headed over to Urban Outfitters.  Have you been in an Urban Outfitters?  It's definitely one of those stores that makes me feel old.  The music they play--oy!  : )  Maddie got a few cute things and her first pair of Toms.  She was beyond thrilled.  Emily was excited because she found a sweatshirt at American Apparel that had long enough sleeves (it's hard to fit sleeves when you're 6-feet tall and have the arm span to match!).  

Hooray for a fabulous girl's day in Milwaukee!

XO,

Vicki 

Another Thing That Makes Me Happy

*A good Saturday morning harvest!

XO,

Vicki

Feeling Happy

(source)



A Few Things That Are Making Me Happy Right Now...

*Emily just walked in from the farmer's market with a big bunch of blueberries for me.  Love her!

*I got to sleep in until 9:30 this morning.  Heavenly.

*I had the best time with my parents this week.  I miss them already.

*High School swim season starts on Tuesday.  Can't wait!

*John and I are going on a date tonight.  Hooray!

What's making you happy right now?

XO,

Vicki

More Pictures of Matt Grevers, Just for Mom

Dinner conversation last night centered around the Olympics and the blog I wrote about my favorite moments (so far).  Apparently, my family didn't like the picture I posted of Matt Grevers yesterday.  I didn't even remember what it looked like, but I couldn't imagine that I had posted an unflattering picture of him.   She told me he looked like a chipmunk.  Jack, Emily, and Maddie all made the same face to show me what it looked like.  They definitely looked like chipmunks.

When we got home from dinner, I checked the blog.  They were right.  But, in my defense, I think it is an awesome picture of him.

I decided maybe I needed to post some more flattering pictures, just for mom.  Not bad, right?  : )

XO,

Vicki