The Pool, My Camera and a Foot Injury

Kansas summer in my teeny tiny town is awesome mainly because the town pool is only a block from our house. Heck I can see it as I'm typing this! For the last two summers, when we've set records for high summer temps and consecutive days over a 100 degrees, the kids and I spent a LOT of time there!! Thankfully this summer, so far, has been much more pleasant. Can you believe that this week our SW Kansas temps have only been in the mid 80's?? And greener than I've ever seen it at this time of year! 

We've still been at the pool plenty this summer though. The boys especially have enjoyed it because this year they are old enough to go to the pool all on their own...no Mom or annoying sister! (And boy have they been annoying one another lately!! How many days until school starts??) Why is it that when there is TONS of room at the pool (or in the house, outside, etc.) they INSIST on being RIGHT NEXT to their sibling and bugging the heck out of one another?? 

Usually I spend pool time in the pool playing with Yahoo. I'm not the average Pool Mom. I LOVE getting in and playing with all the kids. Wrestling with the boys, and them trying to dunk me, has gotten a bit more difficult this summer though. Whoa, my boys are getting big...and STRONG! One of these days, not too far in the future, they'll be able to just pick me up and throw me in the pool! 

OMG, just found this image of Yahoo from two summers ago. Wow!! Didn't realize how much she's grown!! 

As much as I love playing in the pool with the kids I've had to take a break from the pool (more about that in a minute) but the upside is that Yahoo can go in the pool on her own and I've been sitting poolside playing with the zoom lens on my camera. It's got a manual focus on it that I'm still trying to master and I found the pool is a great place to practice! 

I can't believe I got this shot of Yahoo!! LOVE IT! 

I just love watching how confident my boys are in the pool! I don't think there's much they aren't comfortable doing in the water. 

Yip was such a great brother (one day at least) while I was sidelined he played with Yahoo and as he said, "took over" for me. 

I'll have to keep this image for when they get older as proof that they do love one another!! 

So, why am I sidelined? Turns out I've overdone it wearing my Vibram Shoes!!  I was having some major pain in my feet and turns out I have a heel spur and patellar fasciitis which means the tendons across the bottoms of my feet are inflamed. OUCH!! Which makes walking barefoot on the bottom of a concrete swimming pool practically unbearable! 

So no running for a while! Honestly, it's driving me nuts too. Doc did say I could bike or swim, which I've been alternately doing. I don't know how Lance Armstrong does it though. Those bike seats!!! OUCH! And  I've been trying to swim laps at the pool in the mornings but most of the time I feel like I'm flailing and drowning. Michael Phelps sure makes it look easy! I REALLY miss running but I'm trying to be a good girl and do exactly as the doc says. Hopefully by the first day of school I'll be back on the track! 

Do you like my duct tape feet? Ha!! I know it's hillbilly but it sure works better, and is cheaper, than athletic tape! Has anyone out there had a heel spur before? Is there hope for me and my sanity? 

Yip's Swim Lessons...finally!

Finally, Yip finished his swim lessons! He couldn't take them with Yap during the first session because he thought it would be a good idea to cut a deep gash in his finger. 

All my kids are good swimmers but Yip is a fish. 

Going off the diving board at the end of every lesson was what he looked forward to the most. At the beginning he just jumped off but by yesterday he was showing off and diving headfirst! He's crazy! He thinks it's the coolest thing that he can dive and touch the bottom of the pool at the 10 ft. end. 

I'm so glad for all the wonderful swim instructors that my kids have had this summer. Living a block away from the pool has been a blessing, especially in 106 degree heat, and we've spent about every other day swimming. We've been taking full advantage of it because who knows how long we'll be here and if we'll ever be this close to a pool again. 

I wish that I could have swim lessons too because my boys are far better swimmers than I am. Do you think they'd notice if I slipped into the class with the five year olds next summer? 

Yahoo and her Personal Assistant

It's summertime and that means swim lessons! 

Our town pool is only a block away from our house and last year we practically lived at the pool. I was accused by one of the teenage lifeguards of being there all the time last summer...like that's a bad thing! 

Hey, I think I can justify "living" at the pool when we our first full summer in Kansas was one of the hottest and driest on record. I mean, 104 degrees was an average temperature last year!! (It seemed to me anyway.) 

Moving on...swim lessons. If we are going to live so close to the pool I would just feel a lot more comfortable if my kids are taking swim lessons. Not that my boys would agree. They think swim lessons are too much like being taught something, heaven forbid, and swim lessons cut into their playtime! 

Not Yahoo though. Yahoo is in LOVE with the water! 

She has. no. fear.

She's the only one in her class that doesn't mind getting dunked. She can't wait to get to her swim lessons everyday which makes it kind of difficult since her lessons are right after lunch. She gets so excited it's tough getting her to eat. And after every activity they would do Yahoo would pipe up, "That was awesome!" LOL...I'm pretty sure the lifeguards are tired of hearing that! 

The funniest thing about lessons is that Yahoo gets so excited about swimming that she ends up talking and bouncing all the time and drifting around the pool, not paying attention to the instructor.

Therefore one lifeguard has the job of holding Yahoo's hand and keeping her still and listening. 

Well look at you Miss Thing! Aren't you special? You have your very own Personal Assistant by your side. 

(Hmmm. Where can I get one of those?)

WATER BOMBS!!

Kansas summer has already arrived in the SW part of our state. The temps have been in the 90's for most of the last week or so. Curses to the heat because our town pool isn't open yet!! 

How to cool off? Even though we've received rain this spring the Ogalalla Aquifer levels have been dropping for the last three years, at least, so I don't want to go wasting a lot of water just to cool off. I've become quite the water miser since living in Kansas. 

I found the instructions here to make these sponge ball water bombs at home from regular old kitchen sponges. All you need are sponges and zip ties! Yip and Yap cut up the sponges for me and I ziptied them all together while they were searching the garage for buckets. All together we had these put together in 10 minutes tops! They're cheap, they're durable and they're LOTS of fun! Best of all we didn't use a whole lot of water while playing with these, two buckets kept us busy for an hour. 

We only had yellow sponges at our little grocery but that didn't detract from the fun! 

Yahoo only wanted to sit in the water while her brothers attacked each other and me! 

Trust me, I was plenty wet after an hour of playing! 

Ha ha! The t-shirts didn't last long. 

Yip kept yelling as he threw the bombs, "Who's the king now?" 

Not sure what that was all about. 

I'm thinking these will be a lot of fun in the pool this summer too! 

Has your summer started yet? How are you cooling off? Or how are you planning to once summer does arrive? 

My Summer Pet Peeve; Pool Moms

We are spending a lot of time at the town pool this summer. I can justify soaking up the sun because it's a block from the house, most of the Kansas summer has been above 100 degrees and it's never crowded. The kids love it and it's good exercise too. Who doesn't love going to the pool?

What bugs me about going to the pool are the other moms. I mean, we spent three hours there today and out of ten moms there were only about three that ever got into the water with their kids! Okay, I get it....going to the pool is a chance for moms to relax and sit while the kids entertain themselves. But 3 hours?? And never playing with your kids? I like playing with me kids, don't other moms? It's not like these kids are teenagers or anything; they are all elementary age.

It's not like this kids don't want adults in the pool either. I'm in the pool the whole time (because if I'm not on guard Yahoo would jump off the diving board....seriously, she fears nothing)...anyway, every time I get in Yip and Yap want to play sea monster. Sea monster involves Yip and Yap attacking me in an attempt to dunk me. Kinda vigorously too...which I love!  My own kids aren't the only ones to play either. A bunch of other kids are always asking me to watch them jump or swim or flip in the water. Kids ask for help in the deep water and they love splashing the grown up. These kids love adult attention! Moms!!! Get in the water with your kids...THEY WANT YOU THERE!

And don't use that excuse that you look terrible in a bathing suit!! First of all, the rest of the moms look the same way you do. We all have stretch marks, varicose veins, saggy boobs (or in my case no boobs) and chubby butts. Okay, yeah, there's always the lady with at least two kids, no stretch marks and the audacity to wear the yellow bikini in front of the rest of us but be comforted in the fact she's getting way too much sun with all that exposed skin and will break out in terrible wrinkles by the time she's 50. Okay? Get over it, get in the pool. Secondly, your kids don't care how you look. They just want you around and playing with them!  

This issue probably wouldn't bug nearly as much if there wasn't this one mom hadn't been reading the book The Five Love Languages of Children every time we're at the pool. How to show your kids you love them? Ummmm....oh, I don't know....how about spending time with them?? Has our culture gone so much to pot that we have to read a book in order to show our kids that we love them? Hey! Call me old fashioned but my parents spent time with me and told me they loved me and were proud of me and that worked just fine for me!

Okay, rant over. But really why don't moms want to get in the pool with their kids?