The season for our summer swim team, the Devil Rays, came to and end last night after defeating a team our kids had never been able to beat.

Our team is very popular around the neighborhood so we have 120 kids on the team out of a neighborhood with right under 300 houses. Since we have so many swimming, they swim mostly against biggest teams - country clubs, larger neighborhoods, swim clubs instead the neighborhoods with the general same number of houses.

That makes their feat of going undefeated and winning the division title all the more sweeter. The children were insanely excited and the celebration will continue tonight at a party.

My child isn't the fastest swimmer nor was she essential to this season but she showed up for practices and meets, she swam hard and she was a good teammate so this is an accomplishment for her too. She had so much fun this season and her times got so much better than last year and from the start of the season. In her third year, she has gone from a flailing armed swimmer to a very smooth swimmer. We are so proud of her and all her friends.

The team is coached by college kids and older teenagers in the neighborhood. In the day and age where we hear so much negative about teen drug use, sex and other negative issues, we are so lucky to have these kids. They are all the kind of people you love as an example for your children. They are all good-natured, responsible, polite kids who work very hard for this team. They are tough coaches but they also love these kids. The children clamor to them, hang on them. Don't get me wrong - these kids are all good looking, popular and fun kids who clearly could have made other choices than to go to school or work all day, run four swim practices a week and then a swim meet.

Some of the coaches still swim in the 15-18 group at meets - two of them are graduating seniors and adored by all. I really hope that Hayley turns out as nice as kristin and Frank. I love that she has these role models of teenagers, both male and female. I'm a firm believer in sports and the lessons they teach you on and off the field. Our swim team reaffirms that belief every year.

I wrote in the past about my daughter having her friends give her donations for the SPCA instead of gifts for her 10th birthday party. They all had great fun getting gifts and we didn't feel guilty about throwing a huge party again.

We got in touch with the volunteer education coordinator at our local SPCA in Raleigh and she gave us a personal tour of the facility when we dropped off our donations.

Lots of photos and notes from things my daughter learned and wanted to share:

The new lovely SPCA center in Raleigh:


Hayley loved that the cats live in an open room with other cats and their own little cubbies:


A staff member's husband made PVC pipe additions for the cats to have places to perch and roam:


Our SPCA doesn't allow people to adopt animals they don't intend of keeping outside all the time. They have an indoor/outdoor room to show the pets enjoying both:


Kitties:




The SPCA also has bunnies:


Microchip investigation:


Happy dogs with space to play:


Puppies:



We have lots of donations:


Oooo a certificate for Hayley!:




Other neat things she learned:

-Our SPCA loves to have people to come visit the animals because it helps them get ready to move to new homes.

-Our SPCA is a no-kill shelter, so the animals aren't put to sleep.

-Our SPCA has a neat volunteer program for kids and parents.

-Our SPCA tries to keep most animals in group rooms because most people adopting from the SPCA have more than one pet.

-Our SPCA keeps kittens and puppies in more open cages because they are often young and new arrivals.

The Jonas Brothers and Avril Lavigne are coming to town in nine days and yours truly is taking the kiddo and a horde of her friends. That's right, I'm going to risk my hearing and sanity to escort a group of tweens to gaze longingly at the hot boy band of their youth.

Yes, I'm the cool mom. Hayley has been to a number of concerts with me but the past year we've been going to ones she wants to see like Drake Bell, Corbin Bleu, Ally & AJ and Gwen Stefani.

I love sitting outside on the lawn, relaxing to good music. It is far scarier than I remember when you are in charge of your child and others but at least there is a family section on the lawn. We sit there so I won't have to go through the routine I did at Steely Dan telling the guys in front of us to stop smoking copious amounts of weed so close to us that my daughter would have a contact buzz.

I'm already preparing for the big event. I'm having random people scream into my ears for extended periods of time and I'm herding squirrels.

When my daughter was heading off to her grandparents, we packed up and hit Dunkin' Donuts on the way out of town. I needed caffeine for the drive to the halfway point (and then drive back home alone) so I grabbed some coffee and to save time, Hayley ate breakfast in the car - a donut and 16oz Chocolate milk.

My jeep isn't the tidiest of vehicles, I admit that freely. It is the car we use to travel in, the shuttle from school to soccer to horseback riding to every other darn thing my child does. It has camp chairs in the back, jackets for everyone and enough junk to plan for pretty much any disaster that could befall us.

I dropped off Hayley with my mother-in-law and headed back home. Two hours later, I plopped down the couch and didn't move for awhile. In fact, I didn't get in my car for TWO days - after all I work from home and with Hayley away, no carpool to school, sports or camp.

Well I've paid for my vegging.

I went out to the car and smelled something repulsive. Hayley had loosely put the top on her chocolate milk and left it in the back seat. On the way back, it opened up and spilled everywhere. And then it cooked for two days into a foul paste that lined the carpeted backseat of my SUV.

The stench was horrible. I have no idea how I cleaned chunks of it up with our green machine cleaner. Two days of scrubbing did very little but gross me out.

The car was too bad to drive anywhere much less two hours to get our daughter so I sent my husband to get her and I found a car detailer who could work on my car on a Sunday.

I managed to find a place where the owner answered and was thrilled to have the business - only a car wash owner would be happy about that.

$180 late my car now smells like citrus and old baby formula. And beleive me, that's a step up.

I'm 35 years old and I'm a single mother to a 5-year-7-month-old energetic boy. It has always been the two of us since he was conceived. That been said, let me just say that our relationship as mother and son is I guess weirder than most people. My son is extra-attached to me simply because from the moment he has seen light in the world, there was just me as his parent. Of course he was loved from the very beginning by my whole family and friends.

His world revolved around me and mine revolved around his. Maybe that is still the case, though we moved back home to live with my mother and 2 younger brothers (going to college, but still lives at home) more than 2 years ago. Moving back home to become a work-at-home-single-mom was made mainly to save my own sanity so to speak.

Looking back now, our life then was just crazy really. I worked an 8-5 job that at times had to extend late and to the weekends while i shuffled my young son to various sorts of daycare and nanny arrangements. There were times on weekends I had to bring him to the lab where I used to work because I just couldn't afford a nanny or daycare on weekends.

Since then the two of us have conquered too many hurdles. Though we are still both working on many things, we each are a work in progress. It doesn't end I guess, well maybe until he leaves for college. I think that's when I can breathe more freely. He he.

It's a long way to go. Until then we'll gonna have to go through the ups-and-downs, the love-and-hate moments and the other stuff that makes me smile and grimace all the same time.

On thing's for sure. He loves me to death. I love him to death. We have that, and each other always. Even if sometimes I want to fast forward the years to 20 years ahead, as any mom would agree with me. You have those moments too from time to time. Then once you see the big smile plastered on you child's face, and the big hug he gives you at the end of the day - you just shrug a tired shoulder and savor the moments while he's young.

My only complain really is I that I can't keep up with my boy's energy.

[Photo is mine]

My daughter is off with her grandparents (my husband's folks) for five days. I hardly know what to do with myself.

It started out really fun but eventually it was too quiet and too lonely for us.

Day One:
Sleep really late because no children to wake me up.
Play video games
Eat one course meal from a bowl in the living room, without a napkin

Day Two:
Stay up really late because no kid to get ready in the morning
Play video games
Leave clothes randomly around house
Eat fast food (feel sick)

Day Three:
Sleep really late
See R-rated movie on opening day!
Snuggle with dogs because no child needs me to snuggle
Sadly look at judy blume novel, consider if I'd be a dork if I read it without a child.

Day Four:
Sleep less late and wake up Saturday morning without a small arm tossed around my neck.
Consider watching a new Suite Life with Zack and Cody, conclude maybe H20 would be better.
Feel sort of guilty playing children's video games without a child.
Look sadly at the pile of sports clothes in the downstairs bathroom - no one to yell at to pick them up.
Call child and make plans to retrieve her

Day Five:
Listen to the too quiet house
Sit at home and wait until we can go get her
Go get her.