This summer has been so much fun. I kind of feel like this
will live on as one of the best summers of my life. I am also the tannest I have ever been in my life. (the picture above shows my tan face and some yummy Ukrainian candy sent to me for my birthday from Viktoriia.)
On Monday Rocklond Starts Kindergarten. This will
usher in a new era of life as we know it.
Some highlights of this summer have been.
Boys went to Utah
Rocklond and Knoxx Went to Utah to stay with their Grandma
and Grandpa Pickett. They were gone for
11 days. John and I reverted to our
college days staying out late and working a lot. I think john has 2 days off the whole time
they were gone. I worked hard on my
newest endeavor which is becoming an Author.
While the boys were gone I worked on my book 5+ hours a day and FINALLY
after working slowly on it for the past 3-4 years I finished my rough draft of
my Book. It is called Hermit, and is
based on a game that my siblings and I invented one rainy day while I was in
college. Now this is all great, but if
you have been reading my blog at all you probably notice that if this book is anything
like my blog it is going to require a lot of editing before it is ready to be
published. I hope to have it almost
perfect before my sister Hillary gets home from her mission. She has been the
biggest cheerleader keeping me writing this whole time.
Family Reunion and wedding in Utah.
The plan was for just me to go and pick up Rocky and Knoxx
in Utah, but then I found out that there was a family reunion and wedding the
same weekend and so I convinced John to come with me. We so much fun seeing all of John’s Extended
family. Some of his cousins he hasn’t
seen since we moved to Texas 5 years ago.
We hiked to Timpanogos cave which I remember vividly
hiking with my Aunts and Uncles when I was 4.
Rocklond and Knoxx have never been on a hike and it was a little rough
on their Sea level developed lungs. Thankfully we had a good supply of aunts
and uncles to help carry them the rest of the way.
We had a huge get together at John’s Aunt Kayla’s house. I
couldn’t believe how many people were there. It was so much fun we played a lot
of great games and even had a cake decorating party.
Then we also go to go to a Temple Wedding at the Provo
Temple. I feel like this temple gets a
bad rep about not being very Beautiful. I was amazed by how absolutely breathtaking
it was! The gardens were so full of colorful flowers and the Mountains behind
it were so Huge.
Inside the temple was
one of the most beautiful I have seen! It was also really big inside. And everyone
fit comfortably in the sealing room. It was a beautiful wedding. We had fun
taking pictures before and after. Some of
us more than others.
We got to stay with my parents while we were in Salt Lake.
Sunday morning we went to hear billy in Music And the Spoken word.
We went to church with them on Sunday and I got to see them teach Sharing time
in their Spanish Branch.
All to soon we had to head back to Houston. Rocklond and
KNoxx were really good while we flew home. It was one of the smoothest flights
I have ever had.
Texas Educators Exam.
I took my 1st and 2nd teXas test a few
months ago to start the process of getting my Texas teaching license. I have my
Utah license, but since I don’t live there it doesn't do me a lot of good. Well after getting home from Utah I took my
final test. I am happy to report I
passed all 3!!! I am so glad that I didn't
have to retake any of the tests. It was really motivating to refresh my memory
on all the teaching theory that I learned back in college. My Texas license will be good for 5 years and
so I am planning to get a full time teaching job sometime in that time frame.
SOS
I did Summer Of Seals Last year and placed 1st
with my team and 3rd in my age group. This year my goal was to place in my age
group again. John and I both signed up and
we worked really hard all summer on the training. John only missed 3 days for
his workouts all summer! I didn’t do that well but I usually only missed one
day a week. (There are 12 weeks and you
can earn 6 workouts per week)
I set some goals for the competition and today was the big
day. John and I have the same swim time and
so we got into the pool at the same time. We both did extremely well on the
swim. John was swimming a 17min swim at the beginning of the summer and today
he did a 11:03. My swim was 11:30 this
was for swimming 500 meters. Since we
started at about the same time we stayed together through the whole
competition. I must say it was really
motivational. We have trained all summer together taking turns watching the
kids, It meant a lot to compete side by side.
Here are our stats (these are just from memory)
Lindsey 500 meter swim 11:30min
Push ups 25
Sit ups
53
Pull
ups 1
Run
11:30* 50second penalty
John 500 meter swim 11:03min
Push ups 66
Sit ups
53
Pull
ups 8
Run
11:30* 50second penalty
John also pulled a big shocker by having a 21lb weight
loss. My weight stayed exactly the same.
We are both really proud of how we did. We improved so much
this summer. Last summer my run and my swim were both 14 min long and so I was
proud to get to shave off a good 3 minutes from each. However the competition was a lot harder this
year and they changed a few of the scoring rules. So I didn't place in my age division.
I got 25th place over all.
My
team was totally different than last year, We were Very happy to find that we
had made 5th place. We were
really proud of all the hard work we had put in over the summer. John’s team had fallen apart so he ended up being
the only one there from his team. He did get 11th place over all. What we
cared about though was that we both did really well and beat some personal
records.
Kids:
And here are some cuties from our kids.
Knoxx getting into some butter
and Knoxx playing with his “Batman
& Superman”
I find hundreds of these pictures on my phone every day.
Soon I will be posting some back to school pics.
