Swensen Sentral

Today officially felt like the first day of summer. Hot, muggy, sticky, and hot. I've been waiting so long for winter to be over and summer to finally arrive and well, I think I like Spring and Fall the best. Today was a quick reminder of the inescapable sticky heat (technically called humidity but I think sticky is more descriptive) here in New England. I am reminded of the many days ahead of me where I can enjoy 15 dry minutes after getting out of the shower before the sticky sweat sets in, as well as standing in front of the a/c unit, contemplating whether or not turning it up is worth the increased electricity bill. Since the a/c is not currently situated in our window, I didn't have a choice today (this is one of our budgeting tips, don't offer yourself the choice to spend money). How do we get through it? Lots of popsicles and lots of swimming.

Chase brought me a one dollar bill today and said, "Look mama, a ticket! I found some tickets!" I think he was somehow equating them to Red Sox tickets or something. I can't remember the last ticket he had but it must have come from somewhere. Silly kid.

The first week of May, my sister flew out to watch the kids while Rick and I went on another all-expense paid company trip to Florida. I know what you're all thinking, "another trip?" Well, we just want you to know that we did something in each of your names so you would feel a part of the experience.....lounged on the beach, lounged on the beach and....oh yeah, lounged on the beach ;) Dinner on the harbor (unfortunately it's too dark to see the pretty harbor in the background). My favorite thing to do, lounge on the beach..... .....and collect seashells. Even though you can't see them, we saw dolphins swimming about 50 yrds out. It was so neat!

Our computer has been broken for a while and Rick is trying to fix it, and in the process he had to delete all our pictures and document files from the computer (he saved them elsewhere of course). But because of this, I haven't been able to post any pics for a while and will not be able to until he fixes it. With that said, I can tell you a cute little story about Amelie. Tonight we had family home evening and we started with a prayer. As usual I said "ok, it's time to fold your arms for prayer" looking directly at Chase. He didn't obey immediately (can you believe it?) and so Rick and I proceeded for the next 10 seconds to try to get his attention and get him to fold his arms. In the meantime I glanced over at Amelie and she was standing there like a little angel, with her arms folded, watching us. She's NEVER folded her arms for a prayer before and we haven't even tried teaching her yet, so we were amazed that she actually did it for the first ti...

Ok, so I'm one of those people that's obsessed with this new book series by Stephenie Meyer about vampires. Her 4th book comes out in August and I CAN'T WAIT to read it! And I just came across this MTV clip about the movie they're making which comes out in DECEMBER! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME! Take a look and you'll want to see it too :) MTV Music Videos MTV Shows Entertainment News

Last Monday, I took the kiddos downtown and sat at the 19 mile mark to watch the annual Boston Marathon (a 26 mile run!) It was one of the most inspiring things I've ever done. To watch people run by, knowing they've already run 19 MILES! and still have 7 more to go was just amazing. I could hardly cheer because I kept tearing up just thinking of how much their bodies must be hurting, and how much discipline they must have to keep pushing themselves to run. Call me crazy but it made me want to do a half marathon someday...key word HALF marathon. Sittin' on the sidelines, watching the very first runners go by. Do you see the "mile 19" marker? Do you see the time? That equates to an average of 5 minutes per mile for these guys, and they're on MILE 19! Incredible! The male winner ran it in 2:07:46, that's 4:54 per mile!!!!! The female winner ran it in 2:25:25, that's 5:35 per mile!! Here's all the crazy people running this race. Do you see t...

in P U E R T O R I C O !!! So Rick (along with his other teammates) received a reward trip from work to vacation in Puerto Rico for 4 days! Since I constitute his other half I got to cash in on the reward. So we spent a 4-day weekend get-a-way at a huge resort on the coast of Puerto Rico without the kiddos (thanks mom for flying in to care for them while we were away:). It was fantastic! We stayed at El Conquistador Resort , which was situated on a sloping hill facing the beautiful Caribbean ocean. Our room was right there in the middle (2nd floor) and our balcony opened up to a view of the blue blue sea. That little island you see out there in the distance is Palomino Island . That's where the beach was located and we had to ride the ferry out there to play in the sand and get some sun (unless we wanted to lounge around the pool, but I'm more for the authentic beach feel). Approaching Palomino Island on the ferry. Cute ain't it? We took the El Yunque Rain Forest tou...