The Past 3 Weeks @ the Arnold House

It's been a while since my last post, but I have good reasons. My laptop has a virus, and I've been extremely busy. My last post was on the 7th so I guess I'll just start there. Cam left on the 8th for work in St. Petersburg, FL. I should add that I hate his work trips to Florida and they seem to be getting more and more frequent. I guess you've got to do what you've got to do though, especially in these times. I should probably just be thanking God that he has a good job. We made it through the week with cheer practice, basketball practice, AWANA's, grad school, and some parent teacher conferences. On Wednesday our dog, Lola, got out of the back yard, but luckily our neighbor had her when we got home from school. On Friday we had our Valentine's parties at school, which you fellow teachers and mothers that come to these parties know are wild and crazy. I survived and got way more chocolate than any person needs. Mom and Nana came up for the weekend and brought Sydney and Carson V-Day presents. Carson and Davis both got basketball goals and Sydney got a bead kit and a 3 lb. Hershey heart. Yes, 3 lbs!!

That heart's as big as her! And let me tell you, it's solid.

Here's Carson trying out the new goal. Look at that form already...his chances of being tall look pretty slim so he'll definitely need to be a good shooter.

Here's a pic of his V-Day shirt - Mommy's lil' Love Bandit
Sydney and Carson also got V-Day cards in the mail. Thanks Lolli and Pop, Sydney loves getting mail.
I think we're headed for the Gifted program with the Carsy-Man. After a few misses he got his sister's stool and put it right in front of his goal. It's much easier that way.

Cameron got in from Florida about 8:30 Friday night.

Sydney had a basketball game on Saturday. She had a big audience for this one. Aunt Ashley, Uncle Ryan, Davis, Doe Doe (Aunt Kelly), Nana, and Mimi were all there to watch. Thanks for coming guys...Syd loved having a fan club! I have a quick disclaimer before telling you how many points she scored in this game. The team they were playing this week didn't provide much competition. That being said, Syd scored 32 points. And for those of you now saying to yourself, "What a ball hog," she's really not at all. Most of her points were scored on fast breaks from rebounds or steals and I can't blame the girl for not passing it off in that situation. She has really improved her passing skills over the season and does a good job getting the ball to open people. The only problem is that sometimes others have some trouble getting open. Below are some pictures from that game.

Davis and Uncle Ryan - Ryan has since lost the beard.

Sydney's defensive skills have really come along. She's pretty scrappy, but that's okay. I used to know a few girls that played that way too. ;) Right Sarah and Boni?

This is evidence of the fast break scoring I was talking about.

Cameron and I got to go out for dinner on Valentine's Day thanks to Mimi, Nana, Ryan, and Ashley. No, it doesn't require 4 adults to keep our kids, they just all happened to be cooking dinner together. We had a wonderful dinner at Loca Luna, one of our favorite places to go. We had crab cakes for an appetizer, which are the best crab cakes I've ever eaten. I tried them several places in FL this summer but none compared. Cam had Treasure's of the Sea - alfredo pasta with all kinds of seafood, and I ate garlic shrimp with 4 cheese ravioli. Of course we had to have desert for the special occasion - Chocolate Creme Brulee. If you've never eaten there you should definitely give it a try. I must also say that I have an amazing husband who is my absolute best friend and it was great to have some quiet, adult conversation with him on Valentine's Day.

The following week we had dog drama. We figured out that our chocolate lab was in heat for the first time. You may recall from above that she had gotten out of the backyard while Cameron was in Florida. He figured out how she got out and fixed the problem, so we thought. She got out again Wednesday night right before we went to bed and we couldn't find her anywhere. Cam drove all around the neighborhood calling her but had no luck. We tried again Thursday morning and still no luck. We found her "getting out place" which was a plank of the fence that had been pushed in by another dog...a boy I'm assuming. We put up signs and got 3 calls first thing Friday morning. Needless to say we got her back only to get out again Saturday afternoon. Cameron put her in the yard to get some fresh air while we took a nap. He tied her up where she could move around the yard but hopefully not get out. She broke the hook on what he had her tied with and hit the road. He and Carson put up signs and found her later that night, again!! We've seen 2 stray, boy dogs hanging around and are hoping that she isn't pregnant. She's getting fixed Monday and we're hoping this will help with her wanting to get out.

*I want to say THANK YOU to Stephanie and Anna Carol for watching Sydney Friday and Monday while she was out of school for parent teacher conferences and professional development. She had a blast with each of you and I really appreciate your help!!

Cameron had to go back to Florida this past Tuesday for work. I had my online class while he was gone and had no sitter. Sydney did an AWESOME job helping with her brother during my class. She is such a good big sister.

We had another basketball game this morning, one I was really looking forward to. Sydney has some friends from school that play on a different team. She missed the first game against them when she had strep throat. I've seen them play and knew this would be much more challenging for Syd. If you're unfamiliar with Upward, the players are all given a colored wrist band and that's their girl to guard. If they didn't do this it would probably be a kill-the-man-with-the-ball type game. Each quarter Sydney was paired with her friend Anya. Anya is a tiny little fireball. She's very aggressive and plays very well. Her and Sydney were a great match for each other and it was really fun to watch. She played so hard and did a great job guarding Anya and vice versa. She only scored 8 points today and was surprised when I told her that it was the best game she'd played. I had to explain to her that it's not about how many points she scores, but whether or not she does what is needed to help her team. She made some really good passes to the "big girl" on her team, played great defense, and got lots of rebounds. Boppy drove up to watch her play and loved it. We were so glad to see you Boppy, and Syd was so excited that you were at her game.

I'm sorry if it seems that all my post about basketball are just bragging, but we're so proud of Sydney. I have to say that I was even more proud at practice on Thursday. Upward is a Christian organization and they have a devotional time halfway through each practice. When the coach asked if anyone could tell him how to build a relationship with God, Syd piped right in. Her answer was something like this:

You should start going to church to learn about him and then ask him into your heart. After that you should be baptized so the world will know. You also need to pray to God and read your Bible to learn more about him.

Is that awesome or what?! I'm so proud of all that she's learned about her faith from her family and our amazing church.

Finally, we had a much needed, very relaxing afternoon!