Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Be safe and have fun!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Uncle Shucks


The HomerHouse has started the tradition of going to the corn maze every Fall. We try a different one each year and we LOVE them. The day we chose to go was after a swim meet and we were so tired but the weather was SO beautiful. Since I am actually blogging this in December, and it snowed this morning, I am longing for those gorgeous Fall days!

Last year I had a shot where Ryan looked 80 feet tall, this year Kevin is in the shot with her. I think they look HUGE in this picture.

My rotten little monkey urchins

Kevin taking aim. He would do well with a red rider...

Ryan thinks guns are icky. Look at her face!

Aim a bit lower Jared ;)

What cute kids! :)

On the hunt, here we go!

Found it!

Taking a break half way through. This is my favorite one.


On the hayride, more group pictures--Smile kids! "Hey look kids, Corn!"

Can it get much sweeter then this I tell ya? What a great day!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Jonesboro recap

Wow, what a weekend. Last weekend we had a swim meet with a 5:30 am wake up. We did the corn maze on Sunday afterward and I have yet to post those pictures. Here we are a week later and I need to post more updates, where did the week go?!

This weekend we had to split up again. Kevin had a football game on Saturday morning. Rob was doing the chains so he had football duty. I again went with the swimmers. I am looking forward to next weekend, no meets and I get to watch Kevin play!

Rob said the game was fantastic. Kevin got a lot of play time and they came so close to winning. Apparently the kids on this team were HUGE, remember the "oak tree"?? There were three on this weeks team. Oh, and they were undefeated-well, they still are undefeated. BUT, the Kell team gave them a run for their money. Way to go boys! Coach sent over this shot that someone took on Saturday.


The swimmers had a great meet as well. Considering they had a meet last weekend (back to back meets are for the birds) their times were really good. Most of thier results shaved time off their seeded times and are right about what they did last weekend. Oh yeah, and Ryan got a trophy. She came in 5th place overall for the 8 and under girls. This was a 14 and under meet so there were no 25's, just 50, 100 and 200's. She swam a TON but hung in there. It's really weird to hear people yelling, "go Pinkie" from all over the aquatic center. Folks from the other team were cheering her on today. What an awsome thing! She has so much spunk and is so stinking cute when she swims. She didn't do her breast stroke pull out yesterday, she said she wasn't comfotable doing it so I told her to do whatever she could to post a time. I didn't want her to panic on the block since this was her first 100 breast. Coach Karen asked later why she didn't do it and she said, "mommy told me not to". Whoa there girly, not my words. Anyways, she did the pullout today and shocked quite a few folks. I had people coming up to me saying that she really did a great job and that she looked fantastic. That was really neat. :)


Jared is working on his endurance and Coach says he's doing great. He's making new friends and is having so much fun. He is getting closer and closer to a state cut. Not sure if he'll make it this year but he's trying. He was 18th overall in points today-top 15 got a trophy. He was SO close :) Here's the recap:

Jared:
200 free-3.20.14 took 8 seconds off seed time
100 breast-1.52.35 took 5 seconds off seed time
50 fly-50.55 took 1 second off
100 back-1.41.35 took 6 seconds off
50 free-38.81 1 second over seed time
50 back-46.35 took 6 seconds off
200 IM-3.45.42 28 seconds off previous time
50 breast-50.68 took 3 seconds off seed time
100 free-1.36.24 right on seed time (1.36.29)
100 fly-1.51.93 took 6 seconds off

Ryan:
100 breast-new event, posted a 2.12.48
100 back-2.04.24 took 20 seconds off
50 free-51.34 took 5 seconds off seed time
50 back-57.47 took 7 seconds off
50 breast-1.02.05 took 14 seconds off
100 free- 2.01.63 took 22 seconds off seed time


Ryan with her first year round swimming trophy. I remember my first trophy...

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Sunday Swim Update

Did I really wake up at 5:30 am or was I just dreaming all day? The kids swam so fast today it must have been a dream. First up was Ryan and her 25 free style. All summer she was dropping her times and I was hoping that she would break 20 seconds and she DID!! I went nuts, seriously nuts. Next time I act like that will be WHEN Jared makes state. He has decided this year that it's worth going (all his friends are making state cut times) so I guess we have something to work for now. Here is the recap of their times. NO DQ's this weekend-awesome!!
Out of the 17 events the kids did, only one, ONE, event was an added time and it was only (+.20)--that makes me so happy!

Ryan:
25 Free, 19.36-dropped 4 seconds! Woot Woot!!
50 Back 55.98-broke one minute-YAY!! dropped 9 seconds off her time
25 Breast 31.63-dropped 2 seconds.

Jared:
50 Free-right on his time (swam Friday and same thing on his time)
100 Back-1.39.18 dropped 8 seconds-awesome!
50 Breast-50.41-dropped 3 seconds
200 Free-3.22.00 dropped 6 seconds-wowza!

Great job guys! Let's see what next week brings out of Jonesboro. I'll have pictures from that pool, it's easy for the camera.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Saturday Sports Update

No pictures today, too hectic. Last night we started off with Jared swimming two events and me timing. Jared did well on his 50 free, right on his time. He also swam the 200IM to which he has never posted a time. I think he's tried it two or three times and he always gets a DQ. This time he posted a time which was very close to his friends seed times. I thought he did great!

This morning we had to split duties. Rob took Kevin to football in Canton and I took the swimmers to Mt. View. I H.A.T.E to miss my kids playing sports. It tore my heart out to not be there for him. Stupid schedule conflict. Kevin's team lost but he said he had a great time. He played defense for the first quarter and only one offensive play. Maybe he'll start next week...we will have to wait and see.

Jared and Ryan we up at oh-dark-30 for a 7am warm up. We had many guest appearances today, Grammy, Auntie Nancy, Mrs. Havird (Ryan's teacher) and her hubby Scott. Mrs. Havird used to swim for Gold so that was fun for everyone. Many thanks to everyone that came out to cheer on the kids! :)

Jared's times:
100 Free dropped off 2 seconds
50 backstroke dropped 5 seconds
100 breast right on his time (+.20) AND he was in a last heat.
50 fly dropped 4 seconds....AWESOME JOB today Jared!

Pinkie's times:
50 free dropped 14 seconds
25 back dropped 3 seconds
25 fly dropped 2 seconds AND was in the last heat (the fastest swimmers)
100 IM she dropped13 seconds....GREAT JOB PINKIE!!

Off to watch some football and catch a snooze!!!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Homecoming videos of Kevin


This video cracks me up. I love how excited Kevin gets at the line, watch him take his down...then he followed the play, great job Kevman.

This is Kevin and another Longhorn taking on the Oak. They had to double team him since he was so big! Kevy did stay with him though...

Another shot of Kevin and the oak. Loving the follow through!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

one-one-oh baby!!


Kevin was lined up as a starter when the first game of the season rolled around. Due to rain the game was canceled and we didn't get to play. The next two weeks we were at Disney and Kevin didn't get to play. The following Saturday we were on the fields but Kevin lost his starter spot. He was so disappointed to only get to play 8 plays that game. We told him that he had to work twice as hard and double his efforts at practice. Last week was a bye week so he had plenty of time to show the coach he was ready to get his starter spot back. Today came and we were pretty sure that he was going to be a sub again since he didn't practice as a starter. But guess what?!? He ran in for the first play of the game!
We were so excited, he got to play the entire first quarter (and most of the rest of the game). Kevin kept looking back thinking the coach was going to pull him. He finally settled in and totally rocked the house. There was a kid on the other team, I kid you not, as big as Rob. He was H.U.G.E! Kevin called him the oak tree. I was taking all kinds of pictures and I actually caught one of Kev and another kid double teaming him-take a look:

Kev had an awesome play where runner fumbled the ball and Kevin made the recovery. Sadly the ground caused the fumble so it was a dead ball but it would have been a stellar play had the ball stayed in play. Way to be there Kevy!
When we got in the car on the way home he said it was the 1-1-0 that made the difference. I kept telling him after practice, "if the coach want's 100% from you, give him 110". Whenever he would look over at me I would give him a one-one-oh hand sign and he would thumbs up. He said it was the extra 10% that did it. Wow-he does listen! AWESOME! Here are some more shots of the boy, we are so proud of him!! :)


p.s. Kell lost 12-6 but as Kevin said in the car, "I won so much more today"...


look how he's watching that ball!

look at that hustle! Go Kev!

reviewing the plays...

heres a shot of the oak tree. Look at Kevin in the top left, great block dude.

will post video tomorrow, Auburn's on!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Changing colors


This is a fun post, our kids are now famous. Just kidding. They were chosen from a long list of qualified applicants to become web models for the Changing Colors website. Kidding again, Sorry. They really are models but the short list was really, really short ;) You have to know people I guess. hehehe

My girlfriend Eva owns a couple stores down in the Ft. Myers area. Years ago we met and each time we went into her store we talked a bit more. I know, I never talk, right? So anyways, she has this awesome store with really cool clothes, jewelry and nail polish. YES!! I L.O.V.E. nail polish!! We have such a hard time going into her store and finding shirts. One design is cuter then the other and it's so hard to make a choice. I think we own them all...seriously, no kidding here. In the shade the shirts are in black and white and in the sun they turn into full color. Super Cool! Go to her website and check it out. The kids pictures just got to Eva today so they will be up after her hubby works some technical magic. Stay tuned!

Ryan looked a bit stiff so I told her to, "put some sass into it". What do you think?