Straight "A" Swimmer...I Mean, Student

After the PCS Awards Day and holding certificates for Honor Roll all year, memorizing weekly Bible verses, and her final report card.

Well, she's both a straight "A" swimmer and student, in a sense...Caroline finished up her first grade school year officially with all A's. Also, she swam for Sunkist in their annual team fundraiser last week, and within the two hour time limit, she swam 101 laps! We are so appreciative to our family for their donations to help make her swim-a-thon a success. This girl is in the pool four days a week, and she stays on top of her grades all the while! I just hope that the values she is learning through her hard work and commitment will always be a part of the person that she is and is growing into. As a parent, I couldn't be prouder.

Just finished up swimming 101 laps for Sunkist swim-a-thon! The pin she's holding goes on her swim bag and says Swim-a-Thon 100 laps.

JM's Signature Trademark

This is just inside our back door, where JM instantly took off his Crocs, then his shorts. This is a common sight in our household - he literally walks in the door and sheds his clothes.

John Michael is quite the funny little man, and he has many quirks about him. This particular one happens to be one of the funniest...

As soon as we walk into the house, within the first 60 seconds, he sheds his pants and shoes. Most of the time, he wants his sippy cup of chocolate milk. Regardless of the milk, he never wears pants or shoes in the house. When drinking his chocolate milk - which is his major food group - he has to be pant-less and rubbing the shiny/smooth side of his blanket, "bankie."

The first words out of his mouth every morning...not "Good morning!" Not "Hi mom and dad!" It's always, "I want some chocolate milk." He easily drinks close to two gallons of milk per week, and we just buy those two jugs at a time. What in the world would we ever do without that brown (not white) chocolate milk and blanket??

1st Long Course Meet

Our family traveled to Memphis last weekend for Caroline to compete in the Olympic Swimmer Gil Stovall's Long Course Swim Meet at the University of Memphis facility. This pool was the olympic regulation size, and it was SO incredibly long! We have been accustomed to the short course meets and the 25 meter pools, so when we walked into the natatorium and saw this pool, it nearly took our breath away. I couldn't even fit the entire pool into my camera lens.

Caroline competed in four events each day. Saturday, she swam in the 50 meter freestyle, 50 m butterfly, 100 m backstroke, and the 50 m backstroke leg of the medley relay. She was competing in the 10 and under age group, so most of the girls were older than her; however, Caroline held her own against those big swimmers! I was very impressed with how her butterfly looked - her back and shoulders are SO muscular and strong, and she is really starting to get the rhythm of the stroke. Unfortunately, after all the hard work of making to the end of the 50 meters, she got there, and touched the wall with only one hand instead of the required two hand touch. After all of that great work on the butterfly, she was disqualified at the very end. She ended up getting a ribbon for her 100 m backstroke for placing 4th, which was awesome! She swam the two laps in about 2 minutes, 3 seconds.

On Sunday, Caroline swam the 100 m freestyle, 50 m breaststroke, 50 m backstroke, and the second leg of a 200 m freestyle relay. She finally made the breaststroke all the way without getting disqualified! That was a first for her, as the stroke and kick has always been very difficult for her to perfect, yet she did it for an entire 50 meters! When she swam the 50 m backstroke, she did incredible! She was actually in the lead for about halfway, and it was SO close all the way to the end. She came second in her heat, again with kids her age and mostly older. The coolest part is that she was only one second away from qualifying for the State time in that stroke. That is actually a huge deal for a 7-year-old to achieve for a 10 and under age group. We are SO proud of our little backstroker!

Toothless grin just after finishing her fabulous 50 meter backstroke