Staying Busy

Ryan and I are staying busy this summer. Ryan has been playing softball, teaching summer school, attending camp with the youth group, and next week football starts! I have spent the majority of time at the pool. I was supposed to start a new graduate class on Monday however I made the decision to drop the class for now and postpone my master's graduation. I think it was the best decision I have made all summer!!!! I feel much more relaxed and now I don't have to stress about how I will manage a pool, get ready to teach, write papers, and take care of the house!

We have been working on our house a bit this summer and so far I have painted our bedroom and bathroom. We have the paint for the kitchen but I just can't get motivated to start it. Maybe tomorrow :) Ryan and I plan on doing a couple more things this summer such as finishing the office and maybe painting the guest bathroom and downstairs bathroom. I guess we should get started on a couple more of these projects considering it is JULY.

I'll take some pictures soon and post them so you can see all our lovely projects in their completed stage!

A Day At The Pool

I know many of you are curious as to what I do all day at the pool so I thought I would give you a quick day in the life of Maria at the pool. Please enjoy!

*This is a true account of a work day this week.*

7:13 am - Phone rings waking me up. Who is it? Lifeguards who have been at the pool since 6:30 am to guard for swim team just wanting to say "Hi" because they love me so much :)

7:18 am - Phone rings again. Who is it? Lifeguards trying to be funny by blocking their number and talking in strange voices. Again, because they love me!

7:25am - Text message. Who is it? Lifeguards telling me they are hungry and asking if I'll go to Chic-Fil-A to get breakfast (On a side note I did leave them a note that said I would pick up breakfast for them and to call me around 8:30am). They apparently think 7:13am is around 8:30am

7:30am- Shower and Get Ready for the pool (this includes black bathing suit, black shorts, white polo shirt, and sandals)

8:15am - Head to Chic-Fil-A to pick up breakfast

8:45am - Go to Bank to get Start-Up $ for the Pool

9:15am - Arrive at Pool with breakfast, start-up $, and a happy face

9:40am - Go to pump room to adjust chlorine and acid along with turning on water to fill up the baby pool and slide pool

10:00am - Realize that I wasn't supposed to be at the pool until 10am :( not 9am. Stinking Lifeguards :) Make sure things are out for the day (backboards, hooks, buoys, umbrellas, etc...) and check/clean the bathrooms.

10:30am - Give cashier the money, explain to the patrons standing outside the building that we don't open until 11am and no they can not come in to just sit until 11am.

10:35am - Listen to patrons complain because we don't open until 11am.

10:50am - Check water for chlorine and pH levels. Go to pump room to adjust levels. Turn on water features.

11:00am - Pool Opens to Public

11:10am - Lifeguard calls me over to mention that the baby pool is overflowing with water. Run to pump room to shut off water.

11:30am - 2:00pm - Things run smoothly :) Very Busy (around 400-500 people at the pool). I check the chlorine and pH levels every hour and go to the pump room to continously make adjustments. Help with swim tests for large groups. Pick up trash. Check bathrooms.

2:30pm - Three lifeguards get off work (because they have been at the pool since 6:30am) leaving us with only six guards. Call pool coordinator begging to send another guard.

2:45pm - Health Inspector shows up to test baby pool. I pray very hard that the chlorine and pH are correct. We Pass!

3:00pm - Guard arrives and is wonderful (Thanks Southland!).

3:10pm - Guard at baby pool motions for me to come over. I go and see poop in the pool. Get everyone out of baby pool. Make announcement that pool will be closed for at least 30 minutes. Fish poop out of pool with skimmer net while lifeguard sets up vacuum.

3:15pm - Go to pump room to super-chlorinate the baby pool. Go to office and make announcement that the baby pool will reopen at 3:45pm.

3:30pm - As I am walking around the main pool deck a kid calls out "Hey, there is poop in here too." Get everyone out of main pool. Make announcement that pool will be closed for at least 45 minutes and will reopen around 4:15pm.

3:35pm - Wonderful lifeguard gets into the pool to get out poop and vacuum.

3:45pm - Reopen baby pool

3:50pm - Kid pukes in baby pool. Get everyone out of baby pool. Skim water for puke. Lifeguards vacuum puke out of pool and scrub pool deck where puke has landed. Tell patrons baby pool will reopen around 4:30pm. During the annoucement at least 200 people leave the pool :(

4:10pm - The sun is shining and then THUNDER out of nowhere. Announcement: "Attention patrons thunder has been heard in the area. We will be closing all pools for 30 minutes. Please gather your things and come to the front entrance or to the concession area."

4:15pm - Patrons complain because of thunder. My response, "I am not God. I do not control the weather. I am sorry it is about to storm. Try and come back tomorrow." (Disclaimer: I did not really say all that but really people)

4:30pm - Thunder again. Monitor patrons waiting it out.

5:00pm - Reopen all pools for the 25 people who stuck it out. Check chlorine and pH levels which are all out of whack considering I had to super chlorinate the baby pool twice and the big pool once.

5:30pm - Sit down

5:45pm - Check bathrooms. Clean bathrooms. Pick up trash everywhere.

6-7 pm - Pool runs smoothly.

7:15 pm - People for pool party from 8-11 pm show up. They bring their own DJ :)

7:30pm - Help pool party people set up.

7:45pm - Fabulous lifeguards working the pool party bring me a milkshake!

8:00pm - Close pool to public, Open pool to Pool Party. Music completely inappropriate and very loud.

8:30pm - Realize this pool party is going to be like nothing I have ever seen before (ask me later if you would like details)

8:45pm - Sit on pool deck amazed that people dance like that in public

9:00pm - Watch pool party go from being somewhat controlled to AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

9:30pm - Thanking God that the pool party is half way over. Get pushed into pool. Freeze. Lifeguard who pushed me in offers his sweatpants. Look ghetto but now I fit right in!

9:45pm - 10:30pm - Sit and watch in amazement. To stunned to do anything.

10:30pm - Call pool coordinator to ask for police non-emergency number. Reassure pool coordinator that we are in no harm just concerned about getting everyone to leave by 11:00pm

10:35pm - Person in charge of pool party asks if they can stay until midnight. Me - ABSOLUTELY NOT!

10:40pm - Call police non-emergency number and ask for a police car to stop by the pool around 11:00pm to make sure that all Pool Party members have left the pool

10:50pm - Begin cleaning up and putting things away.

10:55pm - Police Arrive, Pool Party members leave :) (and pretty quickly)

11:00pm - Finishing cleaning up. Make male lifeguard go to pump room with me to turn off everything :)

11:10pm - Lock all doors and get into car.

11:15pm - Drop pool deposits off the at bank (opposite direction from home). Remember I left phone in desk drawer at pool. Say "forget it" and drive home.

11:45pm - Arrive at home. Say hello to husband and walk upstairs.

12:00am - Fall asleep in bathing suit and sweatpants that I borrowed after getting pushed into the pool.

WHO WOULDN'T WANT A SUMMER JOB?????

SUMMER, SUMMER, SUMMER

So, it has been awhile and that seems to be the common theme with this blog! Oh well, life is busy. School is over and the summer has been in session for a couple of weeks now. Ryan and I have managed to stay pretty busy these last couple of weeks. I have been working at Tates Creek Pool. I really love it; even in the stressful moments that happen just about everyday. Ryan has been coaching in football camps and he is headed to PassPort Camp with the church youth group in a week.

We had the good fortune to go on a mini-vacation to Florida last week. Ryan's aunt and uncle along with his cousins live in Ormond Beach, Florida and his cousin, Katie, got married last Saturday. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was truly amazing. The vacation was fun because we were able to spend time with family along with time at the beach and shopping at the outlet mall! Ryan and I made some shopping compromises while in Florida: I got a Coach purse and he got Oakley sunglasses! We both left very happy.

We are working on doing some home renovations this summer. Today we bought paint for the kitchen, our bedroom, and our bathroom. We are doing a golden color in the kitchen, a palm green in the bathroom, and a blue in the bedroom. Next week we will be completing a painting marathon! After that we need to finish the office above the garage by buying some furniture and hanging pictures, completing some backyard landscaping (everything Bella has dug up), touch-up the living room paint, clean out the garage, hang curtains... I think the list is never ending!

It has been nice not having graduate school during the month of June and I wish it could stay true for the rest of the summer but unfortunately I have a class in July. The good thing is that Gayla and I will be back together again! I'm sure we will be getting into all kinds of trouble while making sure to stay focused on getting the 4.0 GPA master's degree!

Maybe I'll be back next week to add some more details from our lives, but hey I can't make any promises :) I think I'll post funny pool stories too!

Gayla is a NERD

So, I have this friend Gayla. We do just about everything together... grad school, pools, Clays Mill, etc... Well tonight I realized she is a nerd. Our professor told us we cannot work on assignments during class so she posted on her blog about what we are learning. NERD NERD NERD. But then I am posting about her so what does that make me?

One Day

One day soon I'll update this thing for real !!!!

4 1/2 hours till December - That's CRAZY!

Well, we have had a crazy couple of months and time is still flying by. It seems that we have just been running around doing a million things. I think the best way to fill everyone in is to just give a run down of each of our lives since September!

Ryan:
Ryan finished the football season with his Bryan Station Defenders a couple of weeks ago. This always keeps him busy from mid-summer until early November. It was a good football year but a tough one too. Ryan is the head freshman football coach and his team didn't end up on the winning end very many times. Though football takes up a lot of time it is something that Ryan loves and I have come to love too. He also is a dedicated teacher and this year he has gained even more responsibility at his school. Ryan is headed to Seattle in February for a national math conference. I think it is a ploy to get out of town with his buddies! Aaron T (better known around our house as Timmons) and Ryan W (better known as Winders) will also be headed to Seattle for the very enjoyable math conference so I know he'll be in good hands. Right now I believe he is totally immersed in the 3rd book in the Twilight series. He should be grading papers but hey so should I!

Bella (our precious puppy):
Bella had a rough September and October. In early September she started acting funny and doing things (ex. peeing in the house) that we had her trained not to do. She would be laying down and then all the sudden just pee without even getting up. At first we thought she was just being rebellious. Ryan and I had just started the school year and she was staying in her cage from about 7:15 - 4:00. So, we thought she was just trying to tell us she was angry about the change in her schedule, but then one night when I was playing with her in the floor she starting peeing while just laying on the floor. At that point we had a feeling something else was wrong so we began the vet visits. The vet ran several tests and came to the conclusion that Bella was diabetic. They sent test to the University of Tennessee and Texas A&M just to be sure. Diabetic dogs are fairly common however diabetes usually happens later in life. Bella, at the time of her diagnosis, was only 7 months old. She is the first juvenile diabetic dog that our vet has ever seen, and his professors/friends at UT have only encountered 4 other dogs under a year old that have developed diabetes. So, this has led to lots of vet visits and bills and the most important 2 insulin shots each day. Bella has been great through the whole thing and she seems as happy as ever. We have only had one big scare where she had a seizure and we had to rush her to the emergency vet clinic at 10:30 at night. Everything turned out fine and we are blessed to have such a sweet puppy dog. Her 1st birthday is coming up, December 24th! We can't wait to celebrate.

Maria:
Things this year seem to be going great at school. Our team is working wonderfully together and all of our kids are working hard and making us proud! This year has been a little hectic but I can only place blame on myself! I find it hard to say no to things/people especially when it comes to working with the kids at Clays Mill. Some of the things I have committed to this year are: academic team, academic challenge team, extended school services, leadership team, book theater club, and then I am also working on my master's degree at Georgetown College. So, to say I have kept myself busy is an understatement! I love it though. I would rather be busy than bored any old day. My master's class this fall went very well. I had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful third grade student and working with her weekly on reading skills. I get to continue next semester to implement some strategies that will hopefully bring her right up to grade level with reading skills. I love working one on one with her because it is something that teachers in the regular classroom rarely have the opportunity to do. So, the next three weeks should be a little more relaxed for me because grad. school is done for the semester and school is pushing ahead toward winter break.

One big thing that Ryan and I decided a while ago was to switch churches. We had been feeling that God was calling us to a new church home in Lexington. We love Porter and the ministries going on there but we felt like we were being led to find a new church home. We have been to several churches in Lexington but we are still looking for our niche.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with Ryan's family in Ohio. However, it isn't quite the same without Michael and Joe Joe (plus Sawyer). We miss them sooooooooooooooooo much and we can't wait till they make it back home. Ryan's family is wonderful and we had a delicious meal or I should say meals since Ryan's mom is a fantastic cook.

So, that about sums up our life to this point. I will now vow to update the blog at least once a week from now until forever... well that may be a bit of an exaggeration but I promise to do much better!

Where does the time go?

I am not sure where the month of August went. It seemed like it was here one day and gone the next. September is following suit. It is hard to believe we are in the middle of the month already. Ryan and I have been staying pretty busy. We were able to travel to Henderson before school started to celebrate this little man's 1st birthday (this is our nephew Bryce). Too cute! Then school hit full force! Ryan has high school football everyday of the week except Saturdays (which is when we spend the day at UK games or watching games on television). I started my fourth graduate school class a couple weeks ago. I got a big surprise when I walked in! One of my very best friends from high school, Carrie, was sitting at the table. We have had fun and I really enjoy the professor.

Two of our greatest friends just had a little girl, Rylee. She is absolutely precious. We were able to go see them the day they came home from the hospital. We also got to visit with them during the UK vs. Louisville football game (GO CATS!!!).

So I was trying to upload pictures but apparently the computer is not my friend so I will go now but don't worry I'll be back later!