Where has the summer gone?

It seems like since summer started the days have just flown by. June was ridiculously HOT and shockingly, so far July has been a bit cooler. Grandma C has been visiting for the past couple of weeks and it has been great having her around. Not only has she been entertaining Marin, but she's been doing yard work, helping with meals and laundry, helping maintain a bit of sanity and of course, squeezing in a few minutes of Fox News viewage each day :) Aunt Sara is coming to town again today for another weekend visit!

A big portion of each day for me is spent on the pool deck and in-between morning practice and afternoon practice I've been doing my best to teach Marin how to swim and keep myself in shape. My team is doing really well. We had a "last chance" meet in Tuscaloosa this past weekend and had a few more swimmers qualify for the big state meet, which is July 23 - 26 in Cleveland, MS. It's TAPER TIME right now and the kids are getting really excited! Tom was able to meet me there as he did a X-Country flight with one of his students who is now becoming an instructor, so that was pretty cool! Even though I had to spend most of each day at the swim meet, we were able to check out a couple of good restaurants and at least enjoy civilization (aka Target and Starbucks) at least a little. On an unrelated note, a photographer from the paper came out to practice the other day because she was told to get a "weather" photo. We had one ridiculously "cool" day this week (it was in the low 80's, which is absolutely unheard of for July) and for some reason she decided to take a pic of me helping one of the younger swimmers with his goggles. Here's a link to the page. Maybe someday we'll get some press coverage for actually being a good swim team, but for now, I guess we'll take what we can get.

It's been three weeks exactly since the dreaded bike ride that resulted in my left elbow being broken. How many people can say that they have broken their left elbow twice in a span of 24 years? I feel like such an idiot! Luckily, this time around is MUCH better than last time. I only had a cast on for 5 days and I'm functioning almost normally with little or no pain. My doctor, who also happens to be one of my masters swimmers, told me I could try to swim this week, so I did -- it was not pretty! BUT, I have set my mind on competing in a triathlon in Tuscaloosa, AL on August 22nd, so I have 5 weeks to get ready! I can't get back on the bike for another couple of weeks, but hopefully that won't be too bad, as long as Tom isn't there trying to push me over ;)


This is the first year that Marin and I have been in Mississippi for the month of July. In the past, Tom has shipped us back to California so that we can have a break from the heat and the sticks. But honestly, even though I would always rather be in California, it hasn't been too bad! Staying busy and having visitors helps a lot and knowing that soon enough we'll be gone from here helps too :)

Here are a couple of pics of Muzzy's new hair cut. It pains us to have to do this to her, but the heat is just too extreme to keep her hair long during the summer. The last one is from the fourth of July at Bonita Lakes -- it's a shot of Marin with one of my favorite (and definitely HER favorite) swimmers, Thompson. Yes, he has a mohawk!