Quick Note from Vacation

OK...we're on vacation, but I wanted to get this written before I forgot about it, and it's too precious not to memorialize. With all the goings on about Michael Jackson's death recently, Julia has discovered that I have several of his songs on my iPod. And she is thrilled.

So, the other day as we were listening to "Beat It", she asked a very interesting question about Michael Jackson. A question that really is relevant to her understanding of MJ, but at face value seems ridiculous if not insensitive (so glad she's an innocent child).

QUESTION: Mom, was Michael Jackson black or white when he sang this song?

This was also quickly followed by: He was white when he died right?

My answers went like this: Well, he was always a black man - he just did something to make his skin look white. And when he sang "Beat It", he was somewhere in between.

That seemed to satisfy. Oh, the innocence of children!

P.S. I will post some cool spider pictures after vacation.

Wedding Weekends are Busy

This weekend one of Bryan's cousin's was married. Early on Bryan offered to sign for her reception to be at the Yacht Club and we have had a lot of contact with her and her family since. It was great getting to know her so well - she is a beautiful girl inside and out.

She asked our daughter to be her Jr. Bridesmaid - of course Julia was thrilled. She doesn't live here in town, so she made the most of getting to know Julia on the few times she did come into town for planning and visiting family. We were able to go to lunch several times and of course attended a great engagement party. This past week, Lofton even invited Julia to go out to for lunch and ice cream. We all went to the rehearsal dinner and Lofton included Julia in the Friday manicure/pedicure appointments. She even gave Julia a beautiful Felice Designs necklace at the bridesmaid's luncheon on Saturday. The necklace was just like the bridesmaids, no separate gift just 'cause she was "Jr.". Lofton including Julia like this made her feel very special and it warmed my heart to see her treated so kindly. It also saddened my heart to see her acting so grown up - ugh - slow down Father Time, please!

During the wedding, Julia was escorted out of the church by two groomsmen due to the uneven numbers and it was precious. These 20 somethings were very sweet to my almost 11 year old. They actually talked to her like she was a 20 something herself. Because she was a child I was afraid that they would ignore her, but they treated her every bit the part of a young lady.

The reception was wonderful and didn't get over until sometime after 11:00. Julia and Legare were going strong. Julia had danced ALL NIGHT long and even got invited up by the band to dance with the bride and one of the other bridesmaids who knew the band because they played at her wedding. All three girls did a really cute rendition of "the jerk", "the swim", and "the twist" while the leader singer was leading the dance moves.

We got home and put the children to bed (a few minutes past midnight) and woke Sunday to start yet another busy day. It started with 9:00 swim practice for the city meet Sunday afternoon. After practice ended at 10:00 we went straight to the Charleston Aquarium for a wedding brunch and then back home to rest before the 2:00 warm up at the meet.

Ah, the city meet. Some 20 city teams meet for the championships. Both of my children swam. Legare swam freestyle and back stroke and Julia swam backstroke, butterfly and IM (Individual Medley - one lap of each of the four strokes). I was really nervous at how the children would perform after such a busy weekend but they did fantastically. I wonder how they would have done on a full night's sleep???

Each event had 6-8 heats (6 swimmers per heat) for over 40 swimmers competing for each age group's stroke. On his stokes, Legare was the heat winner and finished 24th 23rd.

Julia finished her strokes at 20th, 15th, and 23rd.

And when we left the city meet around 8:00, it could be said that our weekend was finally over - whew! We do have one more day of swimming at the City Meet on Tuesday for the relay races. Then we're off to Kiawah on Saturday for a week with Bryan's family - this is always a lot of fun!

Eeewwwhhh!

You know that sunburn I just posted about?
Well, it's getting ready to peel (and that's not what I think is eeewwwhhh, by the way). Wanna know how I know? Well....

Turns out that the cocoa butter has done a pretty good job. Bryan's back is very itchy and as of last night didn't look like a peel was coming any time soon. He checked mine out and thought the same thing. He actually even stated that mine had totally soaked in.

And then, just now, as I'm sitting reading all of the blogs I like reading like magazines (moose in the kitchen, nothing but bonfires, etc.) I felt as if I was itching at the base of my neck just under the collar of the shirt I'm wearing. So I reach back to give it a good scratch - thinking to myself,"self, the peeling has got be going to start soon - Bryan must not have had good lighting".

And just as that thought was clearing my head (here comes the eewwhh) I realized that the spot I was scratching was kind of wet and gooey. It then dawned on me that I must have popped a blister (as of last night there we no blisters). And sure enough, there was a bit of peel-ish skin that I could get off my back, and now it's kind of stinging. And itching. I can't wait to get Bryan to look at it and report. Maybe I can figure out a way to see it in the mirror (more eeewwwhhh I know, but you have to admit it's like a car accident - you don't really want to know all of the gross details but you look in spite of yourself).

A Bunch of Rambling

Been up for a while at this point.
Not quite sure why.
I have been playing some mean games of Gin Rummy over at games.com. I think it could even be said that I kicked some computer ass!

I used to go online and play LINGO. That was a fun game too - especially when Bryan and I would sign on and play against each other. But I can't ever find the old LINGO anymore. They've re-tooled that website.

Don't know why I'm boring you all with this drivel about games, just seems to be what was on my mind I guess. I could have written about the 4th. That was a fun weekend, but nothing really earth shattering or particularly fun to share.

oooh - except that I burned the fool out of my back. Yep. Not that this is fun to report, but funny and may make you laugh. I lotioned up everywhere but couldn't reach my back. And there was no spray sunscreen around. Everyone was on the boat tubing so I didn't think it'd be a big deal to wait for a while - I was just in the chair reading. Then I forgot to ask anyone when they came back to lotion me up. But I was still mostly in the chair reading. Guess is doesn't provide as much SPF as a good 'ol T-shirt does cause I am FRIED. Cocoa Butter actually soothes it pretty well.

Last night was the last swim meet of the season. We only won 2 meets this season. But that's to be expected with a roster of only 57 swimmers. Last year we had over 80. And when everyone's at camp and your numbers are down in the 30's for meets, you just have a bunch of holes in your heat sheet and there's no way to win. The children that have been swimming have been doing a great job though. And our coaches are fantastic.

One of them has called Julia, "Julia Gulia" since she started the team in the 6 and under age group (reference to a character from The Wedding Singer and what her name will be when she gets married). Anyway, he and Julia want to register as Julia Gulia next year. That will be pretty funny until she goes and has a city record with back stroke or something and gets listed in the paper and the record books forever as Julia Gulia. But kind of a funny thing, none the less.

I think tonight may be the first night I actually prepare supper (more than the left overs and yummy casseroles everyone brought us after the surgery). I'm craving Mexican, so I may do burritos, I may have a taco night. We'll see. Pretty sad that at 6:30 in the morning I'm already day dreaming about supper.

I'll come up with some better topics later - right now I'm going to go lay back in bed until Bryan gets up. He's been getting up pretty early lately, so by the time I get there it may be no time in bed at all.

Have a great day everyone. Oh, in case you haven't seen it already, enjoy the little you tube parody that T-Pain did with Taylor Swift at the CMA's to help fulfill her dream of rapping with T-Painl Pretty Funny!