Beavers MIA

Sarah update: the Beavers have been otherwise occupied and unable to make blog posts. Oh, and their computer is in the shop! Hopefully we will get some new and exciting posts in the next week or so.

colleen was here

HEY
Today was the last day of school so I'm so excited. but not so much of swimming every morning and night.


Tonight we are going to spend the night at Gram and Papas house and help them put up their tree so that will be fun.
BYE
Editing: Susan Beaver (she doesnt like how i spell words)

Annapolis-marathon swimming weekend

Thank God it is over. Annapolis is the worst pool ever for parents....a fast pool for swimmers, so we suffer. Conlan did a FANTASTIC JOB! He dropped time in 7 out of 8 events. The most exciting part was he made it thru his 200 free! Conlan has had a major mental block when it came to swimming over a 100 yards. He was so proud of himself when he completed the 200. Colleen had a mixed meet. She added time in 5 out of nine events. BUT she kicked butt in 3 events. She made it back to finals in her 100 breast and 50 free. She ended up 4th in the breast and 5th in the free. She was led off on her 400 free relay, so her time counted and she got a 1:00.08. She so bad wants to swim it under a minute, but she is getting closer every meet.
We were very appreciative of Sherry and Vic letting us stay in their home. Wonderful food and company....Karen came to visit us at the pool this afternoon. It was nice to see her. She always makes me laugh.
Also a special thanks to Gram and Papa for keeping Donavan. He had the time of his life. He ate a lot and shot his new BB gun.

Happy Birthday to our little boy!

Donavan is 8 years old today! He has brought many smiles to the Beaver family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DONAVAN

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LOL

Cough cough cough

I am having my annual Lets see if I can cough up a lung. After a couple of nights with no sleep, my children showing concern, and Ray comparing me to Quinda I went to the doctor today. After a 2 hour wait, I got my antibotic for a sinus infection. Hopefully I will be back to new in a couple of days.

Holly Ball Dress Up

Donavan and Conlan

Conlan had his football end of the year party!


Donavan enjoyed the first snow fall last night. Today he got a wild hair and tried to clean his rooom!

400 IM

400 IM

Colleen and Alexa swam the 400 IM for the first time today! They both did an excellent job. It was great they were side by side, they push each other to do their very best. Colleen did it in 5:33 and got first place!

Getting ready for Christmas

First FCA meeting

The first FCA meeting was today. YEAH! Unfortunately it was arranged at the very last minute, but there were 11 girls that showed up. They have already got the next meeting planned and the girls were excited about telling their friends and even inviting boys! It not only warms my heart that Colleen has taken this project on, but also that her group of friends all have a love for Jesus.
Another mom and I have taken on responsibility of helping the leadership team. Maybe one day I will be Jane like and have all kinds of teenagers talking to me:)

Poison Ivy

Only Conlan can manage to get poison ivy in December. Apparently it was on the tree that the deer stand was attached. If you saw the pics from the hunting trip you can see Ray had him covered from head to toe. Conlan is now covered head to toe in a nasty itchy rash. He got steroids today so hopefully in a couple of days he will be back to new.
Colleen and I went dress shopping tonight, for her dance this weekend. We got super lucky and got a great dress for cheap. We went into this shop and the two chinese ladies got all excited. They treated Colleen like royalty, which she ate up. They were so nice I almost felt bad that I got the cheap dress:)
A special thanks to Sarah for making my blog look festive!

Hunting on the Maryland Shore

Ray and Conlan went to Maryland for a little hunting trip

Thanksgiving with the Youngs

In Memory of Riley

The Vinson's best pal died on Wednesday. Riley was truly the world's best dog. He will be missed by all.

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Youngs are in Virginia

The Youngs made it to Virgina. We are excited that they are here. The Beaver family is full of loud voices and laughter. I did make the kids channel the Farine quiet gene on the way home for a couple of minutes. We are looking forward to spending the next few days with them.

Swim and Rock

Colleen's cheering squad!


Colleen had a super duper meet. She made it back to finals in 5 out of 7 events. Finals are always exciting because you march out and they announce your name.
these were her times and after the event is what she placed.
Beaver, Colleen (12) F
1:09.04Y AA 100 Fly 6th -4.84
2:50.67Y A 200 Breast 5th -0.19
1:09.80Y AA 100 IM 7th -2.01
27.85Y AA 50 Free 4th -0.47
31.43Y A 50 Fly 9th -0.07
1:00.77Y A 100 Free 4th -1.94
1:23.68Y BB 100 Breast 23th --- 3.31

Conlan also swam. He struggle in taking off time but he did a good job.

Swim and rock

Conlan's awards

Conlan got 4 awards! Honor Roll, Positive Referrals, Good citzenship and perfect attendanca.

Quick Wrap-up

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a couple of moments to download some pics....
Happy Belated birthday to Ellie and Russell.

We came back Sunday night from a 3 day swim meet. Colleen was on fire! More details later....

The YOungs are coming to town, so we will have pics of relatives soon.

Donavan's awards

I gave birth to a Sarah clone

Colleen is proving to be just like her Aunt Sarah. The obvious traits..tall, skinny, smart, and of course beautiful on the inside and out. I am learning they also have another SCREAMING likeness...they both go NUTS when put in a closed in space. Earlier this summer during a dentist appt. Colleen came out in tears b/c they left her in a room by herself for too long. I thought she was being a bit of a drama queen. Today she had a eye doctor appt and I got to witness her first hand. Colleen was a mess, she couldn't believe we had to wait so long, the room was too hot, the room was too dark, she was bored, and she was going to explode in little bitty pieces. Living as a Farine child, I know the signs of just complaining and actually not being able to deal with close in spaces. I told her to go and walk in the hall, go to the bathroom or do something . She did get up and open the door. Thankfully the doctor walked right in. Colleen then was fine. We called Sarah on the way home. I don't understand them, but they both seem to understand each other. It is always good to find someone who understands your pain.

Conlan did it!

Conlan made the honor roll! Conlan who works harder than anyone made all A's and B's this 9 weeks. I have to give credit to his wonderful teacher who is keeping him organized and stays on top of his progress. Conlan has really came into his own at the new school. We are so proud of him.
Colleen, not to be out done, got straight A's. I do have to give her props for keeping up with her school work while she averaged 4 hours of sports a day. She is enjoying her "free time" that only consist of swimming 2.5 hours a day.
Donavan also did well, he doesn't get letter grades yet. His main problem is keeping up with his stuff. HMMMM wonder were that gene comes from????????

Job Musing

I am starting to actually enjoy these little four year olds. Even the group that yells, kicks, and hit have a sweet side. I do not enjoy anything that involves my supervisor. It literally makes me sick to my stomach. I am learning I am to speak to NO ONE unless it has been approved by her. Of course I have to learn the hard way. No talking and joking in supervision meetings, definitely no talking to the principal and I found out on Friday not to accept phone calls from the Head Start director. I am to direct all inquiries to her. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will become more use to this new world of mental health, b/c it is sure taking a toll on mine. I can say I have been praying lots more:)

Weekend Update

Colleen went hunting with her dad. She has her own hunting license.

Conlan's football season is over:( They lost their playoff game 19-14.

Wyoming beats Tennessee

Conlan was all excited WY won today. More exciting that we have actually been to the University of Wyoming and walked on their field. Memories of a great vacation.

Future Wall Hanging

Uncle Jon picked up the deer head today. Now they are trying to figure out how to get it to VA. FYI- Ray killed this poor little buck in Colorado last fall. It has taken a year for it to become a prized wall hanging. JOY OH JOY

Who are these kids?

Colleen had her sport's banquet for basketball. The coach couldn't figure out how to get them to win a game, but she made them all dress nice. The basketball girls were much prettier than the winning soccer team girls!

Conlan was waiting to go to football practice. I do not always recognize this tall boy with a book in his face.

DATE NIGHT

Ray and I handed off our lovely kids to the grandparents last night. We went and saw the movie W. It was pretty good. We are trying to be more serious, than our typical teenage boy movie watching. Of course we did not laugh as hard......We also checked on the opening night of the new Capital ALE Restaurant in Fredericksburg. It is a beer lover's dream. All kinds of different beers. I was adventurous and tried two new ones. One was Full Nelson which is Virginia beer. It was great, if you like hoppy beers. The other was Breckenridge IPA from Colorado. I liked it also. Ray went for the Starr Hill Amber which is made in Charlottesville, VA. It wasn't nearly as good as mine. His 2nd choice was the Full Nelson. I think it will be a big hit for the downtown area.
This morning after lots of extra sleep, we went and voted. We actually had to stand in line for about 45 minutes. But only the A-E part of the alphabet had a long line, the rest of the abc's just went right on in. Nader was looking pretty good, but I took a deep breath and prayed I was making the right choice and hit the McCain button.
I have to go in for meeting this afternoon for work. YUCK! Those meetings are 10 times worst than being abused by the short people.

Things I have learned this week

* Four year olds can hit hard. I have a darling one that bites, slaps, and hits. I have managed to avoid bites, but he has gotten in a couple of good slaps and hits. No wonder his classmates cry when he attacks them.
* Teenage girls no longer wear dresses to church. Colleen is doing this cotillion thing and has to wear a church dress. We have had little luck in finding dresses that would classify as something you would wear to church. Colleen also has the trouble of being taller than the average size 5 girl, so finding a dress that goes to her knees is IMPOSSIBLE!
* Donavan can live off of candy. Must be kin to Brooke somehow:)

halloween

Jealous

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My mom is very jealous of this turtle because it shows her personality before she got her job a sparkly relaxing fun life now she said she is a "old crazy loon"


By: Colleen

Weekend Update

We were all terribly sad that the Devos family didn't come for a visit. We were looking forward to having the kids all to ourselves. But we carried on with our other activities.
Donavan had his last flag football game. They never won but you could see great improvement over the few weeks. Donavan has also been working hard (plus everyone else in the family)on his seed project. He had to find 20 different seeds and also have a picture of the plant they would turn in to. We are still working on it. It is due tomorrow!
Conlan's game was canceled b/c of the rain. Him and Ray tried to go hunting but the rain wouldn't let up long enough for them to get outside.
Colleen had a busy weekend. She went to FEARFEST, an amusement park turned into a scary place. Bless Mr. Jankovits for having to listen to 3 12 year old girls scream for 4 hours. ON Saturday night she went to a Halloween party sleep over. One of the moms made her spider legs and had her daughter be the fly that was caught up in Colleen's web. Colleen won the prize for best costume. Thank Goodness for Mrs. Pilson. She wouldn't have won with her own mother's creativity!
The best part of the weekend was we got together with the Garrison's and West Families. We all went to preschool together. It had been two years since we had all three of our families together at one time. I will hopefully have pics up b/f too long.

Happy Anniversary!

Louis and Ann have been married for 16 years!

Happy Birthday Tony!

Tony is getting younger and more hair by the day:)

The Big Revealing

Metal Mouth

WOW WHAT PRETTY TEETH YOU HAVE!

Colleen has been smiling nonstop!

Back on the pool deck

Colleen swam this morning at George Mason. Colleen is trying to get 10 Junior Olympic qualifying times(also known as AG cuts) by Christmas. She has three already. The first meet in October is always a rough one, b/c they took off the whole month of August and then Colleen is also always doing another sport on top of swimming. She did a good job today. She took time off of her 200 free(10th), 500 free(7th), and 100 fly(3rd) and added about a half sec on her 100 breast(5th). Tomorrow her and Conlan are both swimming. Conlan is doing the 200IM for the first time. Ray is going to the swim dad and Donavan and I are going to church, get a Halloween costume, and play Wii Fit.

Saturday Football

Conlan's team got back on the winning track and won 18-0. Ray said he played great. He had a great hit that caused a fumble and blocked well. He is starting to really enjoy playing center.

Poor Donavan, once again the left out child. We didn't look at the time for his game correctly, so by the time his game started Ray had to take Conlan to his game. Thank God for the Robinson's who have adopted D-man. At least one family out there pays attention to him:) They lost their game 14-6. Donavan said he did a terrific job at quarterback. # 4 is his best buddy Kendrick. I couldn't even find a picture of the Donavan. Oh well...tomorrow we are having a mommy and D-man day and maybe I will get back into his good graces.