What resolutions? and Isaiah's Music Video

So I stink at keeping New Year's resolutions. Let's move on....

We are enjoying the swimming offseason and while Rachel and Eli are playing spring sports, Isaiah is not and has some extra time on his hands. So he used some of that extra time to create this masterpiece:

I still can't decide on my favorite part. It's a toss-up between the singing to the bear on the swingset and "riding" on the RC Hummer. We have had quite a few laughs over this. I absolutely love his creativity!

So back to the swimming offseason...it's glorious! I pick up Eli from school and then actually come home and stay there! It's a bit of a change from the taxi service I operate during the swim season. But it is worth it. Isaiah and Rachel both made it to Y States at the end of March and both of them finished in the top 12 and got ribbons! I'm one proud Momma!

So I'm not making any promises about when I will take the time to write again. Even though I haven't written forever, I want it noted that I did keep taking pictures until the end of February. But then that resolution bit the dust. Oh well, I'll give it another shot in 2014.

Rediscovering Passions

So it's quite obvious that I am not going to be an every day blogger...or even an every week blogger for that matter. So I'm going to just lower the bar right now and be OK with that.

So in the past few weeks I have recently fallen in love...fallen back in love might be a better way to put it. One of my favorite things to do before I got married and had kids was read. I remember spending hours on end with a book in my hand as a kid. And that didn't stop when I got into high school and college where I read pretty much every Stephen King book along with many, many others. But for some reason once my last name changed, so did my reading habits...until about 2 weeks ago.

Isaiah had been asking to read "The Hunger Games" after hearing about the books from his friends. I was hesitant because of the few things I had heard about the books. So I told him I would read them first. It took a few days too many for his liking for me to finally pick up the first book. But once I did, it was less than a week and I had finished all 3 books. While I became completely wrapped up in the lives of Katniss and Peeta and the rest of the characters in the books, I noticed a change in my mood. I have been pretty busy with work and other commitments and had been a little on edge. But by allowing myself to just sit and read I rediscovered something I really, really like to do and at the same time felt the stress of life melting away. I was sad to reach the final pages of the last book, but I am ready to re-read this series and enjoy some time to myself reading other books as well.

A Bit of a Slacker

Wow, has it really been over a month since I posted anything on this here blog???? Apparently so. Let's go with a month in review!!! So what have the Bells been up to in the past few weeks? You mean besides swimming? Because yes, that is our life :) We have dedicated 3 very long weekend to the sport since the end of February. But it has been AWESOME!!!! Isaiah and Rachel both swam like crazy people at the YSCAP championship meet and qualified for Y Districts. Rachel made it in the 100 free and Isaiah added the 200 free to his list of events. He could only swim 2 individual events so he picked the 200 free and 50 free. He also swam a PR in the 50 free at YSCAPs and earned a spot on the 200 medley relay team. It was really a great weekend. I'm trying to block out the part where we spent 26+ hours at the pool to watch less than 10 minutes of actual Bell kid swimming. So 2 weeks later we headed to Philly for Y Districts. We took Mom with us and headed to King of Prussia to shop on Saturday. Then we were up early for Rachel's session on Sunday. She swam her 2nd-fastest time ever in the 100 and only two 9-year-olds finished ahead of her. Pretty impressive! Then Isaiah's age group swam in the afternoon. He got a PR in the 200 free and his medley relay team finished 4th and qualified for Y States!!! This was a new adventure for us in swimming -- States!! So we headed to Penn State last Sunday to enjoy the experience. The boys were seeded 4th (no teams from the west were faster than the top 4 teams from the East) and were able to hold onto that. They dropped over a second and Isaiah swam his fastest spit of the season. We celebrated by eating ice cream at the Creamery afterward....it was heavenly! That has pretty much been the story of the Bells since I last wrote. Add in some work and Rachel starting softball practice and there was barely anytime to sleep :) We now are enjoying a break from swimming and I am especially glad to have a break from driving the swimming taxi every day after school.

11-12 Boys 200 Medley Relay Team
Devon, Isaiah, Alejandro and Will

I am really going to try to do a better job with updates...I promise!!

Swag Dragons

Soooo......it's been a few days since I've written last. I can't disappoint the masses, so I'm back in action! We had a break from school last week and into this week for conferences and President's Day. Isaiah and Rachel had a swim meet on Sunday. Several bribes incentives were offered throughout the meet to encourage good performances. Yes, you read that right people, we are not above bribing our children to try to get the best out of them in sports. If that's a problem for you, go ahead and stop reading now. One of our current swimmers is a little more self-motivated than the other. However, the less self-motivated one really thrives on the outside motivation we are so eager to provide. So who are we to mess with what's working?!?! I was the only parent at the meet so I was the lone deal-maker. Several offers were left on the table for both kids. Lucky for me, everyone is still loading and unloading the dishwasher this week. Only one bribe came to fruition. Anytime we have this many days off school, my kids immediately realize the potential for a sleepover. So I told Isaiah if he qualified for YMCA Districts in the 50 back he could have a sleepover. Of course at the time I had no idea if any of his friends could even come over, but he was pretty pumped about it so we went with it. Sure enough, he dropped some good time and will get to swim the back again at districts in a few weeks! Woo-hoo!!!! This is good stuff! So he was very chipper and couldn't wait to get home to see if his friends could come over. Sure enough it worked out so Caleb, Coby and Nate joined our family for the night. But they didn't remain "Caleb, Coby and Nate" for long. They quickly evolved into the "Swag Dragons" as they rocked out on Lego Rock Bank for the majority of the night and next day. Here's a little taste of the budding rock stars.

Saturday of Swimming

If you notice in the "about me" section I say that one of the things I like is swimming. Funny thing is I'm a horrible swimmer. But for a non-swimmer I have watched an insane amount of swimming in my life. Today was one of those days where we spent a big chunk of our day inhaling chlorine fumes while Isaiah and Rachel swam for the Carlisle Family YMCA swim team. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love watching my kids swim. But when you compare the total amount of time they are actually swimming to the amount of time I spend at the meet, it doesn't take a math genius to figure out that's a huge chunk of my life I'm never getting back. But all that aside, today was a good meet. They both swam some of their best times, which is always the goal. Since I just started this blog, I really planned to take my camera to the meet so I could post some action shots of the swimmers. But I forgot it. Alas there will be no mother of the year award for me again this year. But I DID get a picture of the mountain of laundry they brought home as a post-meet present to me.