More Sweet

The weekend of March 20th, Sweet Liberty won the state championship.  They also won firsts in three of their routines, but the biggie for Jessica was being the Overall State Champions.  That has been her goal all year!  It was such a great joy to watch her achieve it.

We are currently in Anaheim CA. for dance nationals.  Actually, they are over and I know how it turned out, but I will do a full post with pictures on Thursday.  We leave for Boise tomorrow.  Gordon came with us and we stayed a few extra days for some fun in the sun.  He has been so great to chauffeur us around, schlep our bags and so many other things.

The other day we frolicked on the beach in 80 degree weather (I'll post pics of it) and had swordfish at this really quaint little restaurant by the water called, "Mahe". 

But...we're getting tired of all the sunshine and happily heading back to 'raining cats and dogs' Boise, home sweet home.

You're probably getting tired of this, but.....

Sweet Liberty won again today.  We won 1st in Hip Hop, Military and Prop, 2nd in Dance and Kick and 3rd in Novelty (the routine that shall not be named).

It was a fabulous day and when I got home tonight, I became teary-eyed at how close we are to being done with this - for good.  I've set a goal to enjoy and milk everything I can out of it and not think of the end. 

Back on track now.

I don't often pat myself on the back for my parenting (I give Gordon the credit for that) but today, two things happened that warmed my heart.  Something about watching your own children serve each other makes you know that something must have been done right.  At the conclusion of PNW competition today, James walked up and handed Jessica these beautiful flowers.

Little Cam-doggie ran a mile race downtown today that he's been planning for quite sometime.  He was so excited about it.  The gun sounded and he took off running as fast as he could and didn't let up for the mile.  Along the way was his Uncle James with a big green sign (Cam's favorite color) that said, "Cam can run fast!  Go Cameron".  Tonight when I called Cameron to talk to him about the race, he told me all about it and about seeing the sign. 

When I asked him what he did after the race, he said, "We had these shakes, they were sooo big." 
"How big?" I asked.
Hesitation....
"About 9 - or maybe 12."

That's big.

For more on Cameron & the race, go here.

And what did I find? (See update below)

Last week we got weather into the low 60's.  Couple that with the end of February and it's rose trimming time!  One of my favorite things. 

But while I was raking out another bed near the door, I found this little green beauty, hiding under everything; incubating, gathering strength and color for what is to come.  And I thought....

That is me!  In the winter, that is.  I bury myself under something WARM and safe and ride it out until it is time to reveal my strength and color for the spring, summer and fall.  You can probably tell from my blogging that I struggle in the winter.  It is just not my best time. I have to make a concerted effort to stay positive and upbeat and sometimes the cloudy, cold days win out.

But no more!  I have reared my little green  head and even have some transplant ideas going on in there. 

The roses are trimmed  I'll have to post how things transplanted turn out.  Until then, SPRING is on it's way!

Update:  As soon as I posted this, the weather turned dark and it began to rain.  It has rained all day long.  Snow is predicted for tomorrow morning.  What's a person to do?

Birthday Celebration

Last Saturday was James' birthday.  He and Suzanne celebrated by moving into their new home and afterwards we had pizza, cake & ice cream at our house (with match stick candles again - I'm hopeless). 

When Eli found out they were coming over and that it was James' birthday, his mom tells us he had to "make a card" for him.  Jo makes wonderful, beautiful cards and Eli wanted to do the same.  So he colored a card for James and burst through the door ready to give it to him.

Don't you just love the car in his hand?  Seems like every other picture we take of Eli, he has a car or plane of some sort of toy he's holding. 

I know...I'm a bragging Baca, but who can help it?