First Day of Swimming Lessons!

{RANGER'S SWIMMING LESSON #1}

Yes, Ranger had his first swimming lesson today! Whoohoohoo!!! We had brainwashed him since last night, asking him "Ranger will swim with coach, ok?" And we'd tell him to answer "yes!". Hehehe. Apparently, it worked, because when he woke up from his nap, he was excited to go swimming with (an unseen) coach!

He was still excited when he got to the pool. I led him to coach...and that was when he started making excuses, hehehe. Like "I want to go to Riley...I want to sit down..." etc, etc, etc. Of course, none of those held any water with me, and I carried him to the water kicking and flailing his arms and legs. Once he was in the water, he stopped for a bit then started crying again. But I could tell he was crying just for the sake of crying, so I left him with Coach and went to the side of the pool where he couldn't see me or Yaya Coset.

After about 30 minutes (yes, it was a bit long, but you have to understand that he was crying crocodile tears, so I was immune to that), he finally calmed down. He was still following Coach's instructions so at least I knew he was paying attention.

Obviously, Ranger had NO nice photos during his lesson, hehehe. That pic on the far right, bottom? That was the little goober AFTER his lessons, jumping in the small pool! The good part about it all was that he was actually applying his lessons when he was in the small pool! He would submerge himself for a few seconds, he would hold the side of the pool and sort of kick. Now how COOL is that? :)

{FIRE!}

I forgot to mention yesterday that there was a ginormous fire behind the village, sort of. It was in the squatters' area, not even a half-mile away from us! Mom called us a little bit after lunch asking if we could see the smoke; I thought she was talking of a fire at the office! And then I went cold all over when she said it was in the direction of the village. I mean, ALL our kids were at home AND no driver to boot!

Before I panicked full-scale, I called home and asked if someone had checked out the fire. One of the guards had and reported that it wasn't that near....but it was huge. It was starting to raze the squatters' shanties, the whole shebang. I felt bad for them of course, but I was relieved that my kids were going to be safe.

This got me thinking..what IF the fire had been close to home? Were we prepared? Safety-wise? Did we have fire routes? Did we have fire extinguishers? Did we have insurance? Home insurance, fire insurance, life insurance, death insurance (knock on wood!)? Scary thought, and morbid to think about that last one, but really, we MUST be prepared no matter what, shouldn't we? Better to be safe than sorry, definitely.

Tomorrow, while at the office, I'm going to check our documents to see what kinds of insurance we DO have. Just to make sure, just for my piece of mind. To be safe, to feel secure. And what we don't have? I'm going to ask for a quotation! :)

{HOT, HOT, HOT!}

It has been so HOT here, it is unbelievable! Whether I'm inside our outside the house, I can feel the sweat rolling down my back. It was in the very high 90s today and humid, too! Ugh! Not only do I hate it, I ABHOR it! Ugh, ugh, ugh! Give me cold weather anytime!

I love the cold. Wait, let me re-phrase that...I love it when it's cold and I'm indoors, in my bed, wrapped ----better yet, COCOONED--- in a great big, warm down comforter. I'm always on the lookout for great deals, and this site offers great prices on down comforters, the kind that you see in department stores!

Yes, I know, I live in a tropical climate, but at nights, because of air conditioning, our room is so cold, I can easily imagine myself in the States during the dead of winter. Inside my comfy, warm down comforter! :) Anyway, this site has a 25% discount on ALL their comforters. It looks like the discount applies to prices already BELOW those of department store prices! Now how awesome is that?

I love sleeping on down pillows too. And don't even get me started on featherbeds! Ahhhhh.......relaxing, comfy, just enough softness for my bad back, but firm enough because I can still feel my mattress underneath me. For some reason, every time I have my down comforter over me, my sleep is restful...and long, hehehe. Love it!

Oh, and before I forget, you get free shipping, too, on orders over $50! Suh-weet!

{SCRAPS}

MY REDEEMER

This is for the SBE Scripture Challenge.

Credits: kit - Whispered Promises by Rina Kroes at SBE; word art - provided by Rina Kroes for the Scripture Challenge; curled border template/action set - by Marcie Reckinger and Traci Murphy; layered template - by Nikki Beudreau

sun-BLOCK
My mother, grandmother, and aunt. All covered up against the sun's rays.

Journaling reads:
sunscreen
sunglasses
big floppy hats
long-sleeve shirts

...Giving new meaning
to the word
“sun-BLOCK.”

Credits: Idea from Katie the Scrapbook Lady’s May Amazing Month of Memories Class: May 27 - Sunscreen Day; kit - A Song in My Heart by Amy Bleser at SBB; sun doodle - by Meredith Fenwick; vintage frames - by Nancy Comelab; chicken scratch alpha - by Amy Bleser at SBB; photo action filter - All That Pops by Holly McCaig; layered template - Starting Blocks 1 by Amy Bleser at SBB; fonts - Times New Roman, DJB KeelyB by Darcy Baldwin at Blue Flombingo

For those of you who know me, I am a rectangular scrapper. I've been doing square pages for my Cebu layouts so that when I have enough, I'm going to have an album done. :)

TTFN!