Chloe had her first swim lesson today and it went really well. I forgot my camera but will take it on Thursday for her next lesson. She at first didn't want to get in the water but the swim instructor is our good friend Jamie and she helped her get comfortable right away.
They have the kids loop their arms around a pool noodle and practice kicking and treading water for a few minutes to get warmed up. Chloe wouldn't let Jamie let go, but did well. Then they separate the kids into groups depending on how much they know. (The whole class is considered beginners but each at a different level) Chloe's group had to sit on the steps while each took a turn with the instructor holding them and practicing simple strokes. Breast stroke = Rocket (hands in front one on top of the other), Airplane, and Chicken. Get it? Then Backstroke = Monkey, Airplane and Chicken. Then the last is freestyle. They didn't do that one in too much detail.
After that they have all the kids practice jumping into the pool and catching their arms around the noodle and kicking back to the stairs. Chloe hates going underwater but did really well. I made sure to make lots of GREAT JOB! and AWESOME! shouts her way with a big smile so she was reassured. It seemed to work because she didn't want to leave.
At the end of the lesson they have the kids sit in the hot tub to warm up before going home. Chloe hates hot water and would barely put her feet in but overall the experience was great.
Hopefully after a few more lessons I can leave her in class and go workout. That would be the best. I am hoping by the end of the year (summer is probably too much wishful thinking) that she can keep herself above water without help.
Now we are going to try Gymnastics and Dance when we can.
Pictures to come soon!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
UP!
So I highly recommend the movie UP! It was adorable, and while I didn't like paying the extra $ for 3D, I am glad I went. Chloe slept through most of it and I was able to get my $ back for her ticket.
Chloe says she liked the movie too, but since she was only awake for the previews and the first 10 minutes I don't know what she saw that she liked. Except the preview for Ice Age 3. She is super excited for that and keeps asking to see that next. We'll see.
I am excited for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. That is one of my favorite children's books so it will be fun to see the animated movie.
This week I also signed Chloe up for swim lessons at the local gym. Her preschool offers them during the day but only to kids 4 and up. So I had to take care of it myself. No big deal. Gold's Gym offers a Kids Klub account for $30 a month and that gets the year round classes. 2 swim classes a week plus unlimited access to the other classes like, martial arts, gymnastics and dance. She is super excited because the teacher is our good friend Jamie. Her first class is Monday and I will try and get pictures.
Hopefully she learns enough to be comfortable in the water when we go to the family reunion in August.
Chloe says she liked the movie too, but since she was only awake for the previews and the first 10 minutes I don't know what she saw that she liked. Except the preview for Ice Age 3. She is super excited for that and keeps asking to see that next. We'll see.
I am excited for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. That is one of my favorite children's books so it will be fun to see the animated movie.
This week I also signed Chloe up for swim lessons at the local gym. Her preschool offers them during the day but only to kids 4 and up. So I had to take care of it myself. No big deal. Gold's Gym offers a Kids Klub account for $30 a month and that gets the year round classes. 2 swim classes a week plus unlimited access to the other classes like, martial arts, gymnastics and dance. She is super excited because the teacher is our good friend Jamie. Her first class is Monday and I will try and get pictures.
Hopefully she learns enough to be comfortable in the water when we go to the family reunion in August.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
$20 fun!
So I wore a pair of jeans to work yesterday and while I was taking payment from a customer for their furniture, I felt something in my back pocket. When I checked later it was $20! Woohoo!
I hardly ever find lost money and when I do it is usually a buck or two. So this was a pleasant surprise.
So I decided to use that for a fun day with Chloe today. We had made a promise to her Grandma Anne that we would go see her today, so after a lazy early morning of a movie Chloe and I showered and headed out. I was dreading the visit for the simple fact that I didn't have any other plans besides visiting Anne (shopping was out because I am broke) and Chloe usually wants to leave from her Grandma's pretty quickly. Which is why I was dreading it because it's a long drive with no other plans.
So as we were turning off the highway on my usual exit the sign for the Tautphaus Park Zoo caught my eye. I asked Chloe if she would like to go and she said yes. So we pulled in and went. It was only 11:30 so it wasn't to hot yet and was quite enjoyable, plus Chloe is still 3 and that meant she was free so only $5 to get in! :D Chloe had a lot of fun (since this was spur of the moment I didn't bring my camera) and is at the age where hanging out at the cages watching is not fun, so we jumped from exhibit to exhibit quickly and then went back to her favorites. It was actually quite enjoyable. Her favorites were the Lions and the snakes.
Then across from the Zoo is the Tautphaus Park Funland. So we went to check it out. Well there are 5 rides total and they were selling tickets 15 for $12 so I went ahead and purchased them. Chloe first wanted to ride the Octopus. Well not really thinking too much about it I agreed because she would be sitting with me and I could hold her pretty tight. HA. Chloe's bravery and excitement went out the door before we made one full rotation! The poor girl screamed bloody murder! So the ride operator let us off and gave us back our tickets. I did have a little chuckle over it though.
Then she rode alone the planes and train and then we both rode the Merry Go Round and Ferris Wheel. That used up our tickets and Chloe had a lot of fun.
After that we went to lunch at Chuck A Rama. I usually don't go there but I knew Chloe would eat a wide variety of foods, plus she was free! So the $2o I found covered the Zoo, Funland and $3 of our lunch. It was great.
After lunch we went to Anne's and visited for a little while. Chloe was good and then slept for the drive home. We then watched Horton Hears A Who and played outside for a bit. Now she is working on falling asleep. All in all a good day!
No photos from today but I will attach a few from the last couple weeks.
The first warm day of the year Chloe insisted on her bathing suit for the sprinklers
Mother's Day Weekend - Chloe getting attacked by her Uncle Mike
Mother's Day Weekend - Chloe and Anna playing with Uncle Mike
Mother's Day Weekend - Chloe and Anna with Uncle Zack
Mother's Day Weekend - Messy girls being silly
Cheese!
Chloe with our neighbors, it's been nice to have kids her age for her to play with after work
More with the kids
Blowing bubbles
Waterballoon volleyball at FHE
This was the last shot I was able to pull off before that black balloon came heading my way..notice the sneaky smile?
I hardly ever find lost money and when I do it is usually a buck or two. So this was a pleasant surprise.
So I decided to use that for a fun day with Chloe today. We had made a promise to her Grandma Anne that we would go see her today, so after a lazy early morning of a movie Chloe and I showered and headed out. I was dreading the visit for the simple fact that I didn't have any other plans besides visiting Anne (shopping was out because I am broke) and Chloe usually wants to leave from her Grandma's pretty quickly. Which is why I was dreading it because it's a long drive with no other plans.
So as we were turning off the highway on my usual exit the sign for the Tautphaus Park Zoo caught my eye. I asked Chloe if she would like to go and she said yes. So we pulled in and went. It was only 11:30 so it wasn't to hot yet and was quite enjoyable, plus Chloe is still 3 and that meant she was free so only $5 to get in! :D Chloe had a lot of fun (since this was spur of the moment I didn't bring my camera) and is at the age where hanging out at the cages watching is not fun, so we jumped from exhibit to exhibit quickly and then went back to her favorites. It was actually quite enjoyable. Her favorites were the Lions and the snakes.
Then across from the Zoo is the Tautphaus Park Funland. So we went to check it out. Well there are 5 rides total and they were selling tickets 15 for $12 so I went ahead and purchased them. Chloe first wanted to ride the Octopus. Well not really thinking too much about it I agreed because she would be sitting with me and I could hold her pretty tight. HA. Chloe's bravery and excitement went out the door before we made one full rotation! The poor girl screamed bloody murder! So the ride operator let us off and gave us back our tickets. I did have a little chuckle over it though.
Then she rode alone the planes and train and then we both rode the Merry Go Round and Ferris Wheel. That used up our tickets and Chloe had a lot of fun.
After that we went to lunch at Chuck A Rama. I usually don't go there but I knew Chloe would eat a wide variety of foods, plus she was free! So the $2o I found covered the Zoo, Funland and $3 of our lunch. It was great.
After lunch we went to Anne's and visited for a little while. Chloe was good and then slept for the drive home. We then watched Horton Hears A Who and played outside for a bit. Now she is working on falling asleep. All in all a good day!
No photos from today but I will attach a few from the last couple weeks.
The first warm day of the year Chloe insisted on her bathing suit for the sprinklers
Mother's Day Weekend - Chloe getting attacked by her Uncle Mike
Mother's Day Weekend - Chloe and Anna playing with Uncle Mike
Mother's Day Weekend - Chloe and Anna with Uncle Zack
Mother's Day Weekend - Messy girls being silly
Cheese!
Chloe with our neighbors, it's been nice to have kids her age for her to play with after work
More with the kids
Blowing bubbles
Waterballoon volleyball at FHE
This was the last shot I was able to pull off before that black balloon came heading my way..notice the sneaky smile?
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
FRUSTRATION!
WARNING THIS IS A MAJOR RANT AND THERE IS NOTHING HAPPY IN IT
It just never ends! I am so frustrated with the system and how they collect child support! Wesley gets away with not paying on time or not paying all that he owes because the system is screwy! Because he is "self-employed" (not that he'd ever tell anyone if he had a job) they say they cannot garnish his wages!!
It's ridiculous. He is now over $1000 behind in support money that I need for clothing, food, shelter, etc for Chloe but he doesn't care. All the Idaho child support office will do is call him and say he needs to pay or they will suspend his license. So what does he do? He pays $100 and they leave him alone for another month.
He knew what he was getting into financially when he made the decision to divorce me. However he doesn't see it as supporting Chloe he sees it as his bitchy ex-wife trying to take his money. In addition to that I send Chloe for visitation in clothing that never comes back! Just one more expense that he is costing me because he and his high maintenance wife have to find ways to "stick it" to me!!!!
Also I am supposed to be able to talk with Chloe everyday between 6 and 7 pm. Do they answer the phone? Nope. Now when his phone rings it doesn't even go to voicemail, which means he probably hasn't paid his phone bill either. Chloe probably thinks I disappear for the whole week, because you can bet they don't let her talk about me and make sure that if I am mentioned they say something nasty.
Now with their new baby on the way things are bound to get worse! Chloe is already 2nd to his new family, just wait until one of those little brats shares his bloodlines. Which means that child support and daycare fees that he owes will become even less!
Why can't he just let me and Chloe be if he doesn't want to live up to his responsibilities? Let me get the hell out of Pocatello, Idaho and go somewhere that I can support us both without his help?! I had a great thing going for me with an amazing guy but it came to a halting crash because of the crap that Wesley puts me through! He didn't think he could handle it with all the things going on in his own life. So now I am stuck here without family, few friends and not even someone to date and share my life with!
I am so FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!
It just never ends! I am so frustrated with the system and how they collect child support! Wesley gets away with not paying on time or not paying all that he owes because the system is screwy! Because he is "self-employed" (not that he'd ever tell anyone if he had a job) they say they cannot garnish his wages!!
It's ridiculous. He is now over $1000 behind in support money that I need for clothing, food, shelter, etc for Chloe but he doesn't care. All the Idaho child support office will do is call him and say he needs to pay or they will suspend his license. So what does he do? He pays $100 and they leave him alone for another month.
He knew what he was getting into financially when he made the decision to divorce me. However he doesn't see it as supporting Chloe he sees it as his bitchy ex-wife trying to take his money. In addition to that I send Chloe for visitation in clothing that never comes back! Just one more expense that he is costing me because he and his high maintenance wife have to find ways to "stick it" to me!!!!
Also I am supposed to be able to talk with Chloe everyday between 6 and 7 pm. Do they answer the phone? Nope. Now when his phone rings it doesn't even go to voicemail, which means he probably hasn't paid his phone bill either. Chloe probably thinks I disappear for the whole week, because you can bet they don't let her talk about me and make sure that if I am mentioned they say something nasty.
Now with their new baby on the way things are bound to get worse! Chloe is already 2nd to his new family, just wait until one of those little brats shares his bloodlines. Which means that child support and daycare fees that he owes will become even less!
Why can't he just let me and Chloe be if he doesn't want to live up to his responsibilities? Let me get the hell out of Pocatello, Idaho and go somewhere that I can support us both without his help?! I had a great thing going for me with an amazing guy but it came to a halting crash because of the crap that Wesley puts me through! He didn't think he could handle it with all the things going on in his own life. So now I am stuck here without family, few friends and not even someone to date and share my life with!
I am so FRUSTRATED!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Easter fun!
My brother and his family arrived today for some Easter fun. We are super excited to have thme here. Here are a few snapshots of today. They are in reverse order, but oh well.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Behind
I am super behind in blogging and I will get to it soon I promise! In the meantime here is a cute photo of Chloe. She too this herself on the Photo Booth program on the computer. What's funny is that was set to take 4 consecutive shots too...
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