Reaction...

I love this series of pics. The top left, Mia and her coach are looking at the board with the times. The next 3 are Mia realizing that she tied the state qualifying times in both the 50 freestyle (24.70) and 100 freestyle (54.06)!!! She is one-step closer to State! Saturday she has to swim the same times or get first place to advance! Someone correct me if I am wrong, but that is how I understood it. I'm new at this swimming stuff! :) I will post Saturday's results after the meet.

Thur. swim meet

Mia had sectionals at Concord tonight. She swam great! Here are some candid shots of her fans along with some of her swimming. The nervous grandparents in the top right, top middle is Dawn, the designated videographer and Austin, Mia's brother, posing for his shot! :)

Grp. Pottenger

Today would have been my Grandpa Pottenger's 85th birthday! Wasn't he such a handsome man? This is the only picture of him that I have on my computer. I took a picture of a picture of him. On the back of the picture Grandma has written May 20, 1944. He was just 21 in this picture. He is the only other person in our family who was diabetic...I bet he had a piece of pie in heaven for his big day! :) You know us diabetics...we L.O.V.E our desserts! ;)

Cutie Bug

Isn't she just so adorable?? This weekend is her baby dedication at church. April needs a recent picture of her for the program...let me know what you think of this one? I think she's soooo cute!! :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is Mama Jeri's birthday! Isn't she beautiful??

Today while I was watching Janae, Brenna and Senica I was thinking of my mom. It started off I was just thinking of her because it's her birthday. I was thinking, I hope that she had a good day...she deserves it!

Then, as the 3 little girls were playing downstairs and I was upstairs cooking supper I got to thinking about how when my mom was about my age, this was her life. 3 little girls every night to take care of. Working full time and raising us. Some nights I get home from work and have to take a nap b/c it was a long day. How did she not take naps?? How much she sacrificed for us!

I am so thankful for my mom...and so very proud of her too!

Love you ma!

Tractor Cake

Anitra bought a tractor pan for me to make Ty's cake. It turned out ok. I was a little disappointed with the tires, but overall it was alright...I thought. I made cupcakes for him too since Anitra likes white cake (the tractor) and Seth likes chocolate cake (the cupcakes).

Anitra had John Deere decorations and they looked really cute! Anitra and Seth's friends came over and helped them clean the house and get ready for the party Friday night. Thanks Barry and Brenda!! That was so sweet of you guys and really helped Anitra I know!

Chuck E Cheese

We went to Chuck E Cheese for Ty's birthday. Everybody had a blast except for Ty. Anitra started to play basketball and Seth thought he could beat her. So they played. Anitra won. So some guy (we didn't know) comes up and wants to play Anitra. He played her. Anitra won. He was like...we're playing again. 1/2 way through their game, his girlfriend/wife says to him... "Give it up. She is kicking your butt. How much money are you gonna waste trying to beat her?" It was quite hilarious. Anyway...Anitra won. So I wanted to play. We played. Anitra won. Then it was Brian's turn. Anitra won. Papa played next and...he won!! BUT...he got a 10 second advantage on her and he still only beat her by 1 point! :) I think the bottom right picture is hilarious...I didn't realize Anitra and I both need to stick out our tongues to shoot the basketball!

Oh - the other funny part of the night was mom trying to make the stranger Antira played twice and beat twice feel better about himself. Mom says to him after both losses...."Don't feel bad, she played basketball". Anitra in her own defense showing no mercy to a stranger says "Yeah mom! 12 years ago!!!" Ruthless I tell ya! :)

Happy Birthday Ty!

Ty turned 1 year old today!

Janae is helping me blog tonight so I have asked her to help me say some things about Ty!

Ty is cute. He is fun. When we get out toys, he ends up putting them away. He is kind. He acts like a gentleman by being nice. He is so fun. He is cute in all these pictures even in this one where he is crying. He is a wonderful cousin. We spends lots of days together. Sometimes we will hang out together...our parents will get together and we'll all get to see each other. Ty is just wonderful in so many different ways. That's all I want to say.

Isn't that so sweet?

Ty just started walking and he is loving it! When he falls after walking, he claps for himself. It's too cute! He likes to carry around socks. It's the funniest thing. He finds them and then hides them. The other night, we couldn't find his sock/shoes and he had put them in his diaper bag! :)

He is such a joy and wonderful little boy!!

We love you Ty!!

last one!

I had so much fun tonight...I am so proud of Mia...she did a G.R.E.A.T job!

more swimming

So I took 267 pictures tonight....it was really hard to pick which ones to post!

Runs in the family

Everyone at work is always teasing me about knowing everyone...and if there is someone that I don't know, I know someone related to them. One day I said something to Leah like "Hey, you know you're 1:00 appointment today...and she said "Um, let me guess, you're related to them?!"

Mia knows more people than I do! She stopped and talked to EVERYONE! So, I tried to get pictures of her talking to everyone. As you can see, she is a social butterfly! Hugging girls from Elkhart Memorial and Concord. Chatting it up with the Northridge coach. Talking to some Concord dad. She even walked up to the Plymouth relay team when they were in a little huddle and put her arms around them like she was their teammate...and they hugged her back!

Intermission

 

Break time...Anitra and Senica went for a walk and Uncle Fred took Ty. Senica and Ty loved to watch Mia swim! I brought Anitra ice cream from ColdStone and Senica didn't want any because she was too busy watching the girls swim!

50 Freestyle

 

These pictures are Mia's first swim from when she is warming up...to diving in...to being even with some other girls...to where she is the only person you can see in the picture...to WINNING!!! See the scoreboard. She won by almost 2 seconds! It was so A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!! She did great and we were all yelling!! She had her own little cheering section with 11 of there!

Mia's Swim Meet

 

I went to my first swim meet tonight and LOVED it!! My little or should I say younger cousin, Mia swims for Goshen. My mom's brother, Fred's, daughter's, daughter. :) Got that? Anyway, this picture is of My Uncle Fred and Aunt Marie's shirts! And of course, Mia! ;)

Eat your beans...

 

Tonight Senica didn't want her green beans, chicken or peaches! She only wanted her BREAD! What family does she come from??

So Anitra, who had eaten all of her food, got to have cake and ice cream...these pictures are Senica giving Anitra "that look" of "mommy, please pity me...I would really like some ice cream and cake". So, the next thing you know, Senica was back at the table eating her beans, chicken and peaches! :)

McGraw's exciting evening!

 

Tonight when I got home from work, McGraw was in a very playful mood! I was cutting coupons, so I crumbled up some paper and tossed at him. He batted that around and was hitting it into my shoes sitting by the front door and he was just having a ball!

Well, we had invited Anitra and her family down for supper. Well, Brian opened the front door and McGraw heard Senica's voice and ran to the door to be her welcoming committee! :) How cute is that!??

Well, that was our excitement for the night!

Here kitty, kitty...

 

April, Janae, Brenna, Adria, Anitra, Senica and Ty all came down for dinner last night. Anitra took her kids to the Bethel game after dinner and April's girls wanted to stay for a little while to play with McGraw.

I knew he would learn to love the camera...and what a great job he did! He left them handle him anyway they wanted, like a football, like a baby, by his tail. Ok, teasing...not by his tail, but honestly he didn't try cry one time while they (Brenna) were posing for the pictures. :)

Janae told me anytime I need her to clean the litter box, she will come and help me. I am sure April (not a cat lover) is ready to drive from Syracuse to my house so Janae can clean the litter box! ha!! How sweet is that though? When we were kids, April used to gag at the smell of the cans of wet cat food. Never thought she would give birth to 2 cat lovers (probably 3 someday) that are volunteering to clean litter boxes! ;)

All the way from Ct!

 

How cute are these pictures?? Aren't the ADORABLE??? The Connecticut part of all my nieces/nephews!

Clockwise:
Sadie
Billy
Bobby

Sadie in her chair, how beautiful! Didn't Ben and Krista do a good job!?! I think so!!
Billy goofing off! What a ham, huh? Wonder where that comes from Jamey? ;)
Little Bobby, poor little guy had a hospital stay due to pneumonia/RSV. After many prayers, he's home and Karen reports he's laughing again!

Thanks so much to Ben and Karen for sending the pictures of the kids! I wish we were closer so I could come down and take some with my camera! But thank goodness for the internet and email!

Finally...a name!

Ok, mom's name won....

my kitty is going to be named McGraw! :)

I'm a Mom! :)

 

Introducing the newest addition to the family....

Ok, I was planning this big introduction, but I can't think of a name for him. Isn't he adorable though? Right now, he is sitting on my lap attacking the keyboard. It is quite funny! I l.o.v.e him!

I found him on Petfinders.com and called about him last week. I got him from Heartland Small Animal Rescue. His mom was dropped off with her liter of kitties when he was only 2 days old. He is 7 months old now. We share the same birthday week. He was born May 14th, 2007. I love it! :)

He is really, really cuddly! Tonight everywhere I walk, he is right there under my feet! Did I mention I LOVE him!?!! :)

Senica and Ty love him too! Ty wants to poke his eyes out and Senica was constantly saying last night, can I hold your kitty, Addi? (2 minutes later) Can I hold your kitty NOW....please, Addi? HA!

So, that is my exciting news! Oh yeah - bonus...he came potty trained! I got home and after being locked in his bedroom all day he had not tore up the room and everything was in the litter box!! I love him!

Ok, so...I am trying to figure out a name for him. Right now I am just calling him kitty.

So, I have been trying to take his picture for the last 24 hours and he isn't so cooperative! He doesn't really like that camera. I will cure him of that though. :) The one picture is so you can kinda see his markings on his back. The other one is his up close and personal...the portrait and the one where he's chillin'!

I love him!

My snow angels

 

Anitra, Janae and Senica shoveled off the trampoline tonight. Look how rosey their cheeks are! Brenna was too cold and wanted to go inside with the babies. When I got inside, she was singing to Ty on the karaoke machine.

Kristi met us at Cici's (kid's 3 and under eat for free) and then came over to play cards. I built a fire and the kid's played while us adults played cards. April and the girls decided to spend the night since Seth is gone and Brian was working a 24-hour shift at the fire dept. My Brian had called and was spending the night at his parents house and going to Ft. Wayne with his dad Sat. morning, so we had a slumber party. Really I just stayed until the fire went out since Janae and Senica wanted to sleep downstairs. It's nice that I live so close, I got up at 2:30 and closed the flue (sp.) to the fireplace and went home and slept in my own bed. :)

I love my sisters and nieces/nephew so much! I really love nights like tonight when we all get to be together!!

That's mine!

 

Two things about Ty...Ty loves his pacifier! This is a well known fact! Anitra has been taking it away from him at certain times so he doesn't become addicted.

Two. Ty is quick! You can sit him on one side of the room, and turn around for one-second and he is already on the 4th step going upstairs.

Well, we had taken the pacifier from him and the next thing we knew, he had stolen Adria's pacifier from her!! He thinks he's so smart!

Happy New Year...and SNOW

 

Well, we woke up this morning to over 8 inches of snow! At 12:30 this morning we had 7.25 inches! Anitra called this morning to let me know that they were going to build a snowman if I wanted to come and take some pictures...so I trotted down, still in my jammies! :)