A few things ...

First of all ... Jenna and Nathan had a swim meet today. They both did well considering the fact that they didn't swim pretty much at all the month of December. Jenna got first place in 2 of her events and second in the other two. I'm not sure what place Nathan got in the two that he raced. He's very good at swimming, he just lacks the confidence. One time last year he was the first one in his event to get to the other side and he got out. However he needed to do a flip turn and come back to the starting blocks. It is my opinion that he is worried about if he is doing it right. When he got to the other side he was first, turned and started back but stopped because everyone was behind him and he thought he was supposed to get out. So that added a ton of time and then when he tried to catch up he was too busy looking at everyone to see where they were instead of just sticking his head in and swim, he had his head completely out of the water. He did well though. I think he took 5th or something like that in the 50 Free and I'm not sure what he did in the backstroke.

Jason doing his officiating.

Jenna waiting for her turn.

Nathan with the few times he wasn't looking around, it still looks like he is looking underwater to see where everyone else is.

So then we got home and somehow the back door to our house was opened. Both of our labs (one is still a puppy mind you and chews on everything) came bounding out of the house just so happy that they got to spend the whole day in the house. I was afraid, very very afraid. At the backdoor lay a wad ... and I mean a wad ... of my yarn with a big string leading into the kitchen. A dog leash was tangled in it (somehow). The leash was in the dog's toy basket and my yarn was in my yarn basket before we left the house. Following the string of yarn into the kitchen, into the computer room and finally resting in our living room and tangled with a bunch of bird feathers, rabbit fur, shoes, slippers, dog toys, etc. We had a pheasant wing that my husband uses for the dogs to play fetch and etc so that is what the bird feathers were (scattered all over). The rabbit furs came from Nathan's room. Shoes/slippers came from my closet. I was so ticked! They ate all of the cat food (so now they will be sick all night long). AGH! I just had this vision of the show Beethoven when that big St.Bernard gets into their house and gets mud on their bed. (Which I'm pretty sure they got on my bed because the bed is all rumpled (but they weren't muddy) They apparently wiped their feet upon entering the house (it has been snowing all day here, lucky dogs) because nothing is dirty like that. But here is a picture of the mess they made in the living room. It was nice and clean before I left. Dang dogs!

It's funny how they brought all of the stuff to the living room rug and their bed.

And after we cleaned all that up, the family (minus me and add Payton) sat in the hot tub!

Jenna relaxing after a hard day of swimming

Nathan after a hard day of swimming and having fun with his friends.

Payton after a hard day of being cute and cuddly.

Nathan, Payton, Jenna and Jason in the hot tub and it is snowing. No Payton wasn't cold in this picture, it was after when we had to run back to the house. But she warmed up quickly and had fun. No the hot tub was not that hot either. She liked it.

And on a different note ... our little dog Ebony has died. We found her last night in the garage. Yesterday morning, Jason let her out, we didn't see her all day, although that isn't that unusual because she sneaks in and out of the house and often times she so small that you don't see her. She'll lay on one of the chairs and just lay there all day without you ever even knowing she was around. So I just figured she was in the house in her spot although I never looked. When it started getting dark we realized that neither one of us had seen her all day. We went out in the garage and there she was laying on the pellets where the cats and her sometimes lay together. It didn't look like she had been mauled or hurt by anything. It looks like she just layed down and died. There was no look of pain on her face at all. She was about 6 or 7 years old. But she will be missed. It was a sad night and weird day for sure without her around.

Ebony with the crown that Nathan had made her. She definitely was a princess.