Chlorine Is His Cologne

Have I ever mentioned how cool my siblings are?  I mean, seriously!  Taylor is like the hot shot on campus, Austin is freakin smart and knows exactly what he wants, and Katie...well, you know all about her.  And to top it off, they are all on the Student Council.  So everyone knows them, everyone loves them, and they all love each other.  It's so much fun to hear their stories from school: guess who I saw today!!  ...and they were all, ya know your the only freshman I talk to.  your cool.  Or Austin talks about how most of the people he talks to and sits with at lunch are the seniors.  I think Taylor really enjoys the whole school (teachers included) referring to Austin and Katie as "related to Taylor."  Apparently, Taylor is known at school as "Webb" or "T Webb" Austin as "little Webb" or "little T Webb" and Katie as "little little Webb" or "little little T Webb".

So about Taylor.  He is a star swim champ.  A new High School in the area opened up this year and any junior or senior who wanted to go it, could.  So most of Timberview's swim team switched over to Lake Ridge.  The entire senior class at Lake Ridge is maybe 300 at most.  I think I remember Taylor saying something like 240 seniors.  And 12 of them are swimmers.  It's soo cool because this makes the most well-known kids on campus the swimmers.

Anyway, so districts was this last weekend and Lake Ridge made it to Regionals!!

But let me back up about three days.  The swim team began this journey by tapering.  Which basically means they didn't lift a finger for the whole week.  Besides going to school, coach tells them to sit around and do nothing.  Even at school --  they take the elevator.  Can you believe it??

Day of districts.  Practice starts at 4.  His two races begin at 6.

A good family friend of ours was afraid he wasn't going to do so well in one of his races then he took first.  Another family friend just plain out rocks.

As for Taylor.  Just amazing.  He did so well!!  As proven by the following pictures.

And just to note: Lake Ridge made it to Regionals as did a select few including Taylor and our two family friends.

Congratulations!!

Cleaning-The-Garage-Saturday

I forgot how much fun a cleaning-the-garage-Saturday could be.  Dad starts early in the morning -- blasting his country music.  Of course I hardly do any of the work.  Rather, I find "old" things and oogle over them.  Some times it's pictures that we haven't seen for years and other times it's the softball bat dad bought me junior year of High School because I said I wanted to try out.  Even though I never did, my ambition brought the family closer in ways we never expected...

I remember some Saturdays we would spend a good few hours at the park down the road playing catch and hitting.  And it wasn't just me and dad.  Taylor, Austin, and Katie would join and we would laugh and have such a great time.  Dad always "worried" about hitting the ball too hard, hitting it into the forest that touched the park.  We would indulge him and stand on the edge of the forest then jet forward in an attempt to catch the flying ball that only made it about half way to forest edge.  He would run run run claiming a "HOMERUN!"  Katie would only hit.  Don't even bother asking her to catch or throw; it wasn't her thing.  She fancied the swing where she cheered us all on.  Taylor and Austin were good.  They tried to out do dad every time.  And though they came close, dad is still our farthest hitter and thrower.  Maybe now things have changed...

Today was a whole different story.  We didn't even make it to the park and we were missing half the gang.  Katie was at color guard practice (follows after me!) and Taylor was preparing for Districts.  So Austin and I did our best while dad cut off branches that he was sure needed to be "trimmed" off.  Afterwards, he thought the tree looked a little bare on the left side (or right side or however you looked at it).  Dad taught me how to catch again.  That's how bad I had gotten.  I was pretty okay in High School but things have changed since then. A lot apparently. 

Like A Great Bra

So about my sister -- Katie.  We always say: we are so much alike!  Then today I said: we are so different.  And then she said: and yet so similar.  Let me just say, I almost cried.  I'm the oldest so I don't really know what it's like to have someone a few year older that I absolutely love and adore.  Now I'm not just talking myself up.  I know she loves and adores me because of everything she says and does.

When I first arrived back in Texas at the beginning of January, dad took me and Austin to pick up Katie from color guard.  I was so excited to be back in that environment; see some of their show and watch Katie throw around the flag and rifle.  But when I got there, I experienced something much greater.  Katie ran up to me and threw her arms around me.  She was so happy to see me!  And she pointed to me and said: this is my sister! (in a loud whisper even though everyone had stopped what they were doing and they were all watching us) Then I heard some of the other girls say: they totally look the same! and things of the sort.  Katie always tells me how she tells everyone how alike we look and they don't believe her.  Then they see Taylor and/or Austin and say: wow!  The fact that she's even proud to look like me and the bro's makes me so happy.  I love that she loves me so much.  In that moment and ever since then, I have been so glad to not have someone older than me to look up to because if I did, I'm afraid I wouldn't know how lucky I am to have Katie look at me that way.

First Post - New Blog - My Way to Happiness

It's fun to write a blog.  Because anyone can write, but only a few want to.  I want to write.  I would love to one day write a book, a novel; I want to wow readers with my words; I want them to quote me and my perfect words.  It's on my bucket list.  One day I will write for the enjoyment for all to read.  Real paper that can be flipped in anticipation for the next words.  But until then -- I'm writing online.
I also need somewhere to post my emails from when I'm in Brazil.  So, here it is.  
A new start.

My first writing business is my sad goodbye to my last blog.  Something about it just never felt right.  I felt that I couldn't really create it and make it me.  Which made it hard to want to write in it.  And then there are those awfully embarrassing posts from when I was younger and naive.  I just needed a fresh start and here it is.  After many hours of research and discovery I have found that Blogger is the blog spot for me.  I also finally found a name that is just right.  

On my journey to happiness, I start here.  Preparing to serve as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Brazil, Cuiaba.  

So follow me.  Grow with me.  Find your happiness.

"You should be able to undertake and complete anything you desire."