Hanging out at the pool.....

Took some time in the last couple of days to enjoy the pool in the neighborhood. The kids all had a grand time jumping in and splashing around.

Here's Derek and Aric jumping into the 5ft together!!

Here they both are smiling. Thanks goodness!!!

Here's Aric jumping inot the 2 feet area of the pool. He has gotten so confident this summer at the pool. He will walk around in the shallow end and play. He grabs his float and will jump into the deeper parts of the pool (with us around of course) and will even jump in to Derek or I too. We let him go under water when he jumps in and everytime he comes up smiling. Glad that we have one not afraid to get his face wet!
Here's Dehlia jumping in too. She has done really well this year. She picked right up from the end of the season last year swimming. She has now gotten strong enough to swim across the pool. ALL underwater!! We have been trying to work on swimming above water now.

Here's Madison walking on water. I couldn't believe that I got the picture at this point in her jumping in. Lately her favorite thing to do is to jump into the 5 ft straight like a pencil and touch the bottom of the pool with her feet and spring back up towards the ladder. She is getting along really well this year too. She has gotten stronger swimming underwater this year and she is beginning to come up for breaths holding herself above water for a little bit swimming forward.

It gives me a little bit more confidence going to the pool without Derek since the kids can swim better this summer. I still watch them like a hawk, but I feel like I can sit on the side of the pool and enjoy my time there a little bit more than I used to be able to.

The kids are tracked out right now. They tracked out last week. We've been busy around here with soccer and the like. Madison has practice 3 days a week and Dehlia has started in on practices too. Games start this weekend for the girls. I started softabll last week and Adult League for Derek should be getting ready to start right after Labor Day. Looking forward to a great season all around.

Derek's had another phone interview with one of the companies in SC. They seem to be really impressed with him. They want him to come and work for them. We should eb expecting to hear from them in the next few days with info on an offer. We'll see. Derek has heard back from the people within Deere about the positions that he applied for. so the ball is rolling forward on these too. I know that the one in Cary he should hear back from by weeks end if he is still in the running and the one in Charlotte has asked him to come down for an interview. Time will tell.

Been doing some work around the house lately too. Trying to touch up paint and repair the floor by the back door. We had some laeking going on by the back door upstairs and thought that we had fixed it a month or so ago when Derek replaced the board beneath the door outside and sealed everything up really good, but the floor inside too the brunt of it. We finally had to break down and cut a hole in the floor inside to replace the water damaged board.


We have gotten the board back in now, just trying to level out the floor so that we can put the linoleum back down. Hopefully we can get that done tonight since we don't have anything going on.

Will try to update on how things are going soon.

As you can tell....

Sunflowers reign supreme around here. I've had another bloom that I really like finally open up.
This one really strikes my fancy. I LOVE sunflowers in all of their yellowy goodness reaching up to the sun. But this one with it's red's and orange's and burgandy's, I just can't help myself. I almost think that it is my favorite!

Nothing too mcuh going on around here. Derk has been looking around for a new job. It is amazing how just putting your resume on Monster that you can have so many people contact you. His cell phone and our house phone rang all the time for about 2 weeks. Has finally started dwindling down to about 5 companies interviewing him, etc. He has gone to VA near where our parents live and now he's in SC interviewing with 2 other companies. Still has 1 more in VA, but not right near where our parents live. Trying to apply for jobs with Deere too, but they aren't at his factory.

I am not sure how I feel about all of this going on. He keeps asking me if it is ok that he is doing this and I tell him yes. I think I tell him that so that he can finally get back to the Derek that loves his job. It has not been an enjoyable time around here lately when he comes home from work. The project that he is working on has some extreme problems and the system for promotion where he works has pretty much laughed in his face. Derek is an employee that gives you his all and then some. He can't do anything half way. So his staying there is just putting a BIG damper on his being. He comes home frustrated and his temper is so short. The kids and I are taking the brunt of his unhappiness and I don't know how much longer we can to take it.

That being said, am I ready to be a "single" parent in the near future that is trying to sell a house so that we can move? I don't know the answer to that one either. The scheule that we keep around here is CRAZY to say the least. I don't know how I will be able to manage it by myself if it comes to that, but hopefully I willl find a way.

To better things........

Since Derek went on an interview in VA right near where our parents live, he stayed at his parents the night before and then went by my parents after the interview. Had him stop by there on the way out of town to take a peek at the fence that is at my parents house that had fallen down 6 months or so ago. Luckily, 2 hours later, he had it fixed and my mom was happy to have that taken care of. Then she came up with another project, but we will save that one for later. Since he was there, he picked up all of the goodies that my parents had gotten the kiddos. Madison recieved the rest of her birthday present from them, a Vera Bradley purse.

And Aric got a John Deere Bear that you stuff yourself. I didn't realize how hard it is to stuff a teddy bear! Those arms are skinny!!!

Dehlia got a dinosaur book and they kids all got 2 boxes of legos that we all enjoyed building with that night.

That being said, Deere things are a fixture in our house. Having Derek work for them created a monster. Whenever people in our family sees items that are Deere, they magically think of us needing them and therefore we have a LOT of Deere things. From tractor toys, to clothes, to salt and pepper shakers, to pictures, to blankets. I even made a quilt that had sunflowers (what are the odds there) and the entire back is Deere fabric. Gosh, even our house has Yellow siding with Green shutters!!! So I am always looking around for things that are Green and Yellow. I definitely perked up when I saw that Jen on CraftyGiveaways was giving away Irish Chain pieces that were green and yellow. Go head over there and register yourself for her giveaway. I really hope that I win though!! :)

Will keep everyone posted on how the job search goes. We've been straightening up around the house here in preparation. Not that straightening and purging is a bad thing. Figure that even if the job search thing doesn't work out, we got rid of a whole bunch of junk that we didn't really need was definitely a good thing!!!

My Sunflower Creation

My Sunflower Creation
Originally uploaded by nclangs99

This is the sequence of the growth of the sunflower that is in our front flowerbed.
Picture 1 - 7-26
Picture 2 - 8-2
Picture 3 - 8-4 - 9am
Picture 4 - 8-4 - 4pm
Picture 5 - 8-5 - 9am
Picture 6 - 8-5 - 4pm
Picture 7 - 8-6 - 9am
Picture 8 - 8-6 - 4pm
PIcture 9 - 8-7 - 9am
Picture 10 - 8-7 - 3pm
Picture 11 - 8-8 - 9am
Picture 12 - 8-8 - 5:30pm
Picture 13 - 8-9 - 10:20am

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Top is DONE!!!!

Top is DONE!!!!
Originally uploaded by nclangs99

Derek has gone to VA for a interview with the shipyard tomorrow morning, so I figured that I had the top and bottom borders on, so I would work on the sides. It didn't take too long. Probably spent more time ironing than anything! :) I was able to finish the top. I am pretty happy with how it has turned out.

Going to start on another top. Going to make the same star patterns, but will probably change up the colors some.

Birthday Girl.....

Well, the oldest is 9 now! How did we get here again????



4th grade, playing soccer at the PDP level, Academically Gifted, what more can you ask for from a girl???

Ok, maybe having a little bit more patience with her sister and actually giving 100% when she is doing her school work instead of less than that. One can only hope.....