Weekend & Random

***blogger is making me very angry right now and it isn't doing my spacing how I want!! So sorry if some of the paragraphs just run right into the next one. Everything should still make sense, but it is driving me nuts that I can't get it to LOOK how I want! Grrr!***

On Thursday morning Matt and I got up and drove to Arlington to go to the Rangers game! Mom was able to get the bank tickets for us so we had really good seats! We invited my friend Jessica from OC (one of my roommates) and her boyfriend, Jody, to join us since there were 4 tickets. I realized that it had been OVER A YEAR since I had seen her last!!! So needless to say we had a great time visiting and enjoying an AWESOME game together! Most of the game was actually pretty boring - but the 9th inning made it all worth it!! The Rangers hit a home run, then a double, then a 2-run home run to win the game!! It was so exciting!

All four of us at the game:


Matt and me:

Rangers dugout:

After the game, I headed to Gainesville and Matt headed to Athens for the weekend. As soon as I got home, I headed back out to meet up with some friends from high school. There were five of us total and we had a great time visiting and catching up. We laughed most of the time and I'm sure the staff at Chili's couldn't wait for us to leave... :) but we had a great time!

Saturday was Elijah's 5th birthday party! I have missed his last two birthday parties so I was happy to be able to be there this year! Last year Matt and I were in Colorado so we couldn't make it. The year before that we were just getting back from our cruise and I made it there just after the party ended. You can check out Summer's blog for more pictures from his party. Here is a quick look at my two cute nephews... :)

Elijah eating pizza - and his cute new short haircut!

Here I am trying to hold on to Judah! Now that is a walking machine he is hard to hang on to sometimes! :)

Later that evening we went out to Moss Lake for our friend Kourtney's graduation party. We stayed for a couple hours for supper and to visit with everyone but we left before the REAL party began. :) They were starting the jello shots as we were leaving, haha!

All of the weekend events made the time pass pretty quickly! My original plan was to head back to Austin after lunch on Sunday, but Matt and I both agreed that we weren't quite ready to leave our houses, so we stayed until late afternoon then met up in Waco for supper then drove back to Austin. It was a fun weekend and mom is already bugging me to schedule my next trip home. :)

Oh and Matt got a suit for the wedding while he was home!! It took them a little while to find a brown suit so I think Matt was getting frustrated and tired of shopping, but they ended up finding one! He got a suit, an ivory shirt and a tie! He sent me a text message saying "I got the suit, shirt and tie - I'm ready to get married. You?" Haha!

RANDOM--------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, on a different subject, I start work at the YMCA next week! I finally met with the Gymnastics lady, Lisa, and we got all of that squared away! It looks like this will be my schedule for the summer:

Monday-Thursday:
8am-12pm Swim Lessons
1pm-3pm World Bible School (just a few minutes away)

3:30pm-6:30pm Gymnastics Lessons

Friday:

8am-10am World Bible School (or any two hours on Friday)

I think it will be a fun summer working with the little kids at the Y. I am excited about getting started! I know I will be a little nervous at the very beginning, but I'm looking forward to it!

Again, on a different subject... and very random... I am trying to grow my hair out. It is at a stage right now that is driving me crazy, but I'm not going to give in! I want to grow it out for the wedding so that I will have some options as to what to do with it then. Who knows, I may grow it out then decide that I like it much better short and chop it off again before the wedding! But I want to have that option. So I'm sure that it will look kind of crazy in the next couple months as its growing out into these awkward lengths... so just be prepared. :)

Unfortunately, I am going to be moving out of the Bright's house soon. They are putting their house back up on the market (which I knew from the beginning was a possibility) so I am going to be moving in with another family from church for the summer. I will probably move in the next two weeks or so... so I will keep yall updated on that. I hate to have to move because things have been so WONDERFUL here, but the other family is a great family too so I'm sure it will work out just fine as well.

Again, random, did you know that it costs $57 to go to SeaWorld?! I had NO IDEA it was THAT expensive!!! I got some coupons from Sonic that say you can get adult admission for the kid's price, but even that is $49!! I just had no idea... Matt and I were talking about how fun it would be to go, but forget that! I think I have been to SeaWorld once - I have a few select memories of it, but I wanted to go again now - but forget that! Haha!!

The thing that first started the SeaWorld conversations is that Matt's parent's are coming to Austin this weekend and we are going to go to San Antonio for a day or two. I'm not sure what specific things we'll be doing, but it will be fun to spend the weekend with them. I'll TRY to take pictures this weekend and I'll give an update sometime next week.

Ok, well I know that is a lot, but that is what all is going on right now. There should be a lot coming up next week since I'll be starting work, so stay tuned! :)

Swimming: Test Completed

Whoops! I forgot to post last night... sorry!

I arrived last night to teach the class and was informed that the lady who usually teaches the class was gone to a wedding so I had it COMPLETELY by myself... so I didn't even have anyone there to grade me. It was difficult because it was the second to last class for these kids, and I didn't know anything about them, or what they had learned or anything! I had one 3 year old who was terrified of the water and would cling to me and press his face against mine every time he touched the water. I had another 3 year old who was overly confident and would keep jumping in off the steps. He could keep his head above water for about 5 seconds before sinking... so needless to say, I was CONSTANTLY pulling him out of the water and pulling him back over to the steps. He just wouldn't listen. Then I had a 4 year old girl who wanted to do everything and kept yelling, "I want to do that! Can I go now? Is it my turn? I want to do that!" Occasionally, she would just jump to me even if I wasn't looking. I would hear, "I'm going to jump to you," then turn around just in time to catch her. Another boy would say the same kinds of things, but he was still afraid to do it on his own. He would latch on to my hands then just come flying into the water. There was a girl who was probably 3 or 4 and I would get to her and say, "Ok, are you ready to float on your back?" She would step back and give me the sweetest grin and twittle her fingers and give me a look like, "If you can catch me..." Oh man, it was exhausting!! Now, I know that with any class of 3-5 year olds the situation will be the same. Each child will be at a different level. BUT, it was hard coming into the class at this POINT of the class not knowing what each of them can/can not or will/will not do. All in all though, it went pretty well.

The written test was much harder than I thought it would be. I feel confident that I PASSED it though. From the way this course has gone, I doubt that I will get any "official" word letting me know if I passed it. I imagine they will only contact me if I failed... which, hopefully I did not. :)

I have a meeting with YMCA on Wednesday and on Monday so I should know what all is coming up and what more to expect.

Swimming - Tonight!

I am so nervous about swim class tonight - imagine that! I have to be there at 4:10 to lead a class. It really isn't even that I am nervous about not leading the class WELL, I am just nervous about having someone watch my every move and grade everything I do. THAT is what makes me nervous! It will only be a 30 minute class and luckily I get the 3-5 year olds. They are pretty fun and do some of the easier things, so hopefully it will go smoothly. In the class we observed (same age group) some of the children were still very afraid to jump in the water and it was quite an issue to get them in... I hope I don't have anything like that!

After the class, I will take the written part of the test. I think it is around 45 questions from what the director said. I have been studying for it this afternoon so hopefully I will do well on that part. The only thing I hate about the written part is that all of the things I have to study are LISTS... and I'm pretty sure the test isn't multiple choice or even matching. So I am trying to memorize these lists right now!

I should be back fairly early this evening so I will be sure to post how it all goes. Wish me luck!

Express Games

Matt and I went to Round Rock Express games on Friday and Saturday night. They were both really exciting games, and the Express won both of them! Saturday night's promotion was that the first 3,000 fans to get there got a free duffel bag. We didn't figure we would miss out on it, but we got there early just in case. :) However, when we pulled up (just about 15 minutes after the stadium opened) we arrived to see about 5 school busses pulling away after dropping off hundreds of elementary school children. We had to wait in line for a little while, but we got our bags! We found out later that there were over 500 people in that group! It was a whole school, I think. We just took a couple of pictures, so here they are...

The little girl behind us thought she was real funny for getting in our picture. When we realized she was in it, we turned around and showed her but I think that embarrassed her some. ;-)


We got seats in the "home run porch" this weekend. They are cheaper than the box seats ($7 compared to $12) but we really liked it up there!

We had a great time at the games! We are going to a Rangers game this week on Thursday, then another Round Rock game the following weekend with Matt's parents! Baseball, baseball and more baseball! :)

Swim Class: To Be Continued...

I ended up feeling awful on Thursday and wasn't able to make it to swim class. I don't know what the deal was, but my body was sooo tired. Not sleepy tired, or even sore tired - just tired. I walked downstairs to start laundry and I was completely winded and wasn't sure how I would make it back up the stairs to my bed. Needless to say, swimming was not an option.

SO, I am going in tomorrow (Monday) to take my written test and to teach one of the classes all by myself. Apparently that is my "in water" part of the test. I don't think I will have to do the strokes in order to pass the class and receive my certification. Now, I still need to learn the strokes, since I will be teaching others how to do it, but at least there is not quite as much pressure on me to master them RIGHT AWAY.

I will post tomorrow evening after my tests and let you know how they went...

Swim Class: Part III

Tonight was pretty fun. We got to get in with some of the classes that were going on and actually observe a class and help out the instructor. This was GREAT for me because it showed me that this whole thing is actually doable. It was fun working with the kids and the things we worked on were simple things like floating on their back, or freestyle or something like that... no butterfly. We also did a few rescue drills in the pool then worked on textbook stuff. Tomorrow we will be teaching our other classmates as if they were our real class.


Now the bad news. Tomorrow will be our last day of actual class (good) so she told us we would be in the pool the entire time and would be working very hard (bad). So, I will probably have a pretty stressful night tomorrow. After tomorrow, we can pick a time to come back and take the written test and the physical test (doing the strokes).

I was feeling pretty good about tonight's class when I got to observe what I would actually be doing, so hopefully I can carry on those positive feelings into tomorrow. :-)

Just keep me in your prayers!! I am going to need them!

Swim Class: Part II

All that nervousness and we didn't even get in the pool tonight! We just talked about the lessons and the different age groups and classes, etc. Matt came with me tonight because he was going to watch me swim and he just had to sit there the whole time and watch us talk! Tomorrow, we are going to be leading an activity with different classes of children. I will be leading something in the "Pikes" group. They are 3-5 years old in the beginning class. So tonight was very easy.

I still can't swim though. The GOOD thing about tonight is that the director set me up to meet with the very nice lifeguard who helped me last night to work through some of the strokes step by step. (she did all of this after I sent her a very nice email expressing my concern about learning the strokes, haha) The BAD news is that I am meeting him tomorrow at 5:30am!!!! We are meeting to practice the strokes and diving. He is VERY kind to do that for me... but 5:30!!! He even asked me, "Do you have anything going on from 5:30-6:30?" Ha! Well... SLEEP! But really, I am very thankful for his willingness to help.

SO, we'll see how the practice goes, and how the class goes tomorrow night. Oh - the other good news is that the director expects that we will be finished with the class completely by Thursday! That would mean I wouldn't have to go Friday or Sunday. Then again, I might NEED that time! We'll see...

Anyway, I'll keep up with the updates and hopefully I'll have a better outlook on things after tomorrow!

Nervous

Apparently the swim class affected me more than I thought... I am absolutely dreading going tonight. So much so that I am feeling physically sick. No fun. I emailed the director earlier today and asked if there would be an opportunity for me to work more one on one with someone (whether it be her, another classmate, another swim instructor, etc) so that they could teach me the strokes and dives step by step so that I don't have to hold back the entire class. I was hoping for a really encouraging insightful reply but instead I just got "I think we can help you. Lets talk tonight." Whereas, YES, that is a positive email, I was hoping for a little more reassurance.

Anyway, I am even more nervous about tonight than I was about last night. So if you would, pray that God would ease my nerves and that my physical sickness will go away before class tonight... and I guess that either 1. class will go better, or 2. I will do better.

Swim Class: Part I

A few weeks back I talked with a lady, Abby, at the YMCA here in Cedar Park about a summer job. The more we talked the more I just didn't feel like it was going to work out, so I expressed that to her. In her response she asked if I would be interested in the Swim Instructor position. Now, any of you who know me well know that this is pretty funny. I told her that it interested me, but that I wasn't sure I was qualified. I explained that I could swim to save my life, but that I am certainly not graceful by any means. I proceeded to tell her that, yes, I am that 22 year old girl who still has to hold her nose when going under water. Surprisingly, she explained to me that that would not be an issue, and that I would take a training course to teach me all of the different strokes, etc. etc.

So, I am going to be a swim instructor this summer.

THEN, after looking at the hours for the job I realized that I really needed more than what I was getting. So, being as kind as she is, Abby worked hard to find me another position with the YMCA to get me a few more hours during the week. Those of you who thought the swim instructor thing was funny... brace yourself. It appears that I will also be working as a gymnastics instructor. AGAIN, I told Abby that I wasn't even sure if I could still do a cartwheel, but that I would be willing to learn again, and surprisingly they still want me. All of this is completely 100% yet, but I think it will be. Oh what am I getting myself in to?!

Back to swimming. I started the course tonight. It is Monday through Friday from 5:30-9:30 (technically - although I don't think we will usually go the full time, we got out at 8:30 tonight), plus Sunday from 10am-4pm. I was so nervous about my class because I knew how limited my skills were. I went on and on about it all to Matt and he kept saying, "Lauren, don't worry about it! It is not like they are going to just throw you in the pool and expect you to do everything. They will teach you step by step just as you will teach the kids in lessons." Well guess what, Matt?

YOU WERE WRONG!

That's right, they basically threw me in and said, "Go!" I explained to the instructor that I had no experience and didn't know how to do the different strokes and would need some guidance. She wasn't mean, and I don't think her intentions were to not help me, but I don't think she quite understood how bad I really am. Luckily there was a guy there who was just watching who is a swim instructor and life guard and I feel pretty sure that he saw the fear in my eyes and he came over and said, "Do you know how to do this?" He was so kind and he jumped right in and started helping me and explaining how to do the strokes. Even so, my attempts were pretty pathetic - but it would've been even worse without his help.

So, tonight in swim class I (un)successfully did the following strokes: freestyle, backstroke, elementary backstroke, side stroke (both sides), breast stroke and butterfly stroke. I also (for the first time ever) dove into the pool. I did a sitting dive, kneeling dive, standing dive, and a dive from the block. None of which were a complete belly flop, but the last one came close. I also had to tread water for a few minutes, then tread water while holding another person.

I know it is silly, but my main problem is holding my breath. I just can't do it. As soon as I go under water, it just rushes up my nose. But when I do those strokes and those dives, my face is supposed to be IN THE WATER... I am pretty sure I inhaled about a gallon of water tonight.

It was an exhausting night to say the least... and I get to do it all over again tomorrow night. Don't get me wrong, I really didn't have an awful time (though I know it sounds like it) I just have a looooong way to go! I am hopefully going to have some time to practice a little tomorrow on my own before going to class again.

Ahh....why did I decide to do this again? ;-)

Anyway, I will keep you updated on how my classes go and if I am able to make any progress! Maybe when it is all said and done, I'll even get up a video of me diving or something... Or maybe I should video me diving NOW so that you can see the process! ;-)

Either way, stay tuned for the traumatic stories from swim class...

Round Rock Express Game

Matt and I went to a Round Rock Express baseball game last week. We both bought new hats and Matt surprised me by buying me the shirt that I really wanted, so we were all decked out for the game! The pictures are in reverse order, but here they are.

At the game....

Matt enjoying his $4 cotton candy... ;-)

Me showing off my new gear outside of Chicken Express before the game...

And again...

We had a blast at the game. Tickets are pretty cheap, so we plan on going to a few more games this summer! Maybe next time we'll actually get some pictures of the game.... ;-)