changing gears ...

Hard to imagine, but our little ladybugs have officially hung up their sails after an incredible season of growth and accomplishments on the water. Both optis have been pulled off the floats, washed down, sails wrapped, rudders and centerboards rinsed, and everything is back in the garage for the winter ... a very sad day for the manbug! Me, on the other hand, I'm ready ... when I see their little boats back in the garage, it indicates to me that I'm in the home stretch of summer - time to make a run for it and head out of town to spend the last of our free time with my family. This year, things will go a little differently since my brother's beautiful first-born baby, my goddaughter, is being baptized this Sunday in Florida. Tomorrow, the girls and I hop a flight down South to take part in the celebration - and I just can't wait to get a piece of that adorable baby! When we return late Monday night, I'll kick it into overdrive and get ready for our annual end-of-summer road trip to West Virginia (leaving Thursday for the 13-hour drive) - I love road trips because you always find surprises along the way ... like this one:

... and of course regional treasures like this one:

Then once we get to our little slice of heaven in West Virginia, this is what I have to look forward to in our home stretch ... it's a complete change of gears from what the summer is like here at home - a change of pace that we embrace 100% ...

... can't you feel the peace and quiet just looking at last year's photos? Not sure when I'll have time to post again since my turnaround at home is so brief next week ... and I'll be totally unplugged and offline while in West Virginia, so I'm guessing I'll have a lot to say once we return in 2 weeks! Bye for now ...

little bug at the JO's ...

Today we completed the 2nd (and final) of our junior regattas this summer ... the 2-day junior olympics regatta! My littlest ladybug didn't sign up for Junior Race Week with our big bug - but when this smaller regatta opportunity came along later in the season, she decided to go for it! Not only were there 20 fewer boats in the Opti Green fleet this time around, but by now little bug has had a few more weeks of experience under her belt and that confidence makes all the difference ...

She had a blast doing this race with her little sailing posse - these kids have been together since their very first intro class 3 summers ago, so they're thick as thieves ... and this year is their 'senior' year at their junior sailing program (for ages 5-9) - next year they will all graduate into the 'big kid' program for ages 10 and up. As a 'senior', little bug was required to have her own boat this year in order to make the leap from co-skipper to skipper. So what do you think my littlest ladybug named her pint sized sailboat? ...

A ladybug boat for my ladybug girl ... my heart melts ... In any event, she had a great time taking part in this regatta - the wind was perfect, 42 boats in her fleet, and she finished with a very respectable 18th place, so there were lots of smiles and high fives today! What a fitting way to leave her junior sail program ...

past the fulcrum

Every summer, the week of Race Week is our official halfway point - it's like standing on the fulcrum of summer's see saw, the point at which you have just as much summer ahead as you have behind ...

Sadly, when I see that it's now August 7th, I have to admit that we've gone past the fulcrum and our summer is officially fleeting ... boooooo! But while time may be fleeting, at least it's not being wasted - this past week both of my ladybugs enrolled in a one-week session of a local arts camp ... this particular session was entirely about video production ... so the girls spent the week writing, directing, and editing their own stories from scratch.

Yesterday was the final day of the 5-day camp session, so they held a 'film festival' for the parents to come and watch the end results - each child had produced their own 3-5 minute movie, totally impressive for having spent just 5 days at it! Big bug did a very funny Cake Boss spoof (with her sister playing the title role) and little bug made a music video. It was set to a fun song and showed kids getting in and out of a row of tall hallway lockers, but through clever editing it was never the same kid getting out of the same locker - the concept was somewhat like a magic trick with vanishing kids who reappear in different places. Great day, great movies, great kids, great week ...

But today I'm sad as I realize how fleeting the remainder of summer really is - Labor Day weekend is just 4 weeks away ... nooooo! There's still a lot of summer to squeeze in around here: the junior olympics regatta this week, the baptism of my precious baby niece (and goddaughter!) next weekend, then another grueling 4-day regatta for the 'Manbug' (thanks for that fitting nickname for the mister, swooper!), and last but not least a week-long road trip to West Virginia ... and all of this in the next 3 weeks!

So yes, although we're past summer's fulcrum, I'm not ready to look ahead to Fall just yet - September be damned, I'll stick with summer for as long as I can ...

my peeps in blogland ...

Almost a week later and I'm still amazed at how a fellow blogger in my teeny tiny circle here in blogland turned out to be a neighbor living right around the corner - not only that, but she also turned out to be a great person as well. Score one for me! But having swooper come to life, while certainly the biggest surprise, it isn't the only surprise to come out of blogging for me ... the fact that I actually have readers is definitely one more thing I never anticipated. And you all are people who I really enjoy seeing here - and people whose blogs I enjoy following as well. It seems a little crazy that I'm making friends I'll never meet, but here are some examples of why I love my peeps in blogland ...

• I love that after my Lilly Pulitzer jeep post a few weeks ago, Kim from What am I going to be when I grow up? sent me a photo of this amazing Marimekko car that she knew I'd fall in love with:

Was she ever right about how I'd react ... this car is B.A.N.A.N.A.S!! Thank you Kim!!

• I love that out of the blue last week, Kimberly at Yep they're all mine emailed me this phone photo just because she passed it at Trader Joe's and thought of me ... Thank you so much, Kimberly, this made my day!

• I love that Kerri at The Pleasures of my Life! passed a blog award on to me a few weeks ago ... that was a great opportunity to get to know everyone better with the "7 things about you" rule - and also a great chance to get to know other blogs as well via the "pass it on" rule. Thanks, Kerri!
• I love that my first reader ever, Lisa at Lists in my Pocket, has asked me to write a guest post for her 'simplicity series', I feel so honored to be included. But what I love even more is how incredibly patient she has been while I struggle to finish it ... I'm so embarrassed that I have needed extension after extension as I juggle my busy summer schedule and try to think of something that even Martha Stewart would approve of! Thank you so much, Lisa, you won't be sorry!
• I love that Jess from ccbella is someone who also loves the scorching summer temperatures and, prior to the discovery of swooper, she was my closest neighbor-reader, located right in Western Massachusetts.
• I love the feedback that I got from my last post re: real life vs. blog life. It was really reassuring to hear that both Jen and Kerri understand where I'm coming from in wanting to keep them separated. Not only that, but I also learned that Jen from Jen's Ink Pen! is yet another who, like me and Kim, lost her father to cancer - a sad truth, but at the same time it's something deep that we all really understand about one another.
• I love that I can engage in email conversations with readers like Cindy from ...Loving Life's Little Things... Cindy and I are both former teachers who are now full time moms to daughters - she is super approachable and sweet, and we've been trading emails about how to balance it all. She and Steph from Our Life on the Hill live in Illinois, a long way from my life on the New England coast ... it's been really great to get to know them!
• I also love learning about the lives of readers who I have less in common with, such as Mary Katherine from Five Girls the Army and Me and Jen from Denton Sanatorium. Mary Katherine is single handedly home-schooling her 5 amazing daughters, while Jen is the proud mother of an incredible 7 (!) children. Then there are blogs like Kristin's Bringing Pretty Back and Kimberly's Kimberly's Korner. Both of these mommy bloggers have grown children who are starting lo leave the nest ... all four of these women are like the Obi-Wan Kenobi of motherhood (also known as 'Obi-Mom Kenobi') - bravo!

So a big thank you to everybody in my little blog circle of friends ... it's been quite a journey, and you've all made me feel so welcome here ...

talk about a small small world ...

I almost don't know where to start with this story ... but the bottom line is that we all really are only separated by just a few degrees - it's just amazing how small the world can be at times ...

(image courtesy of miki travel, uk)

I've said before that I live in a very small town - a beautiful postcard-perfect coastal New England town. For some, like my husband who grew up here, this small town is his Mayberry - for him, there is a wonderful comfort to living in a town where his roots are deep and everyone knows everyone. But when I say that I live in a small town, I don't always mean it in that same endearing way - I have to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with this town. Maybe it's because I don't have the same lifelong history as my husband, or maybe I'm just bored by the small town cliques and politics, or maybe it's because I'm still a Florida girl at heart and will never fully embrace New England life. Either way, I'm not inherently comfortable in a place where everyone knows everyone - the gossip and the chitty-chat can get pretty ridiculous here. Comparatively speaking, I'd say I live a fairly private life and stay away from the drama that so many others thrive on.

This preference for privacy is probably a big part of why I like it here in blogland - blogging is a relatively anonymous forum where I can drop that small-town self-consciousness - that guardedness that I carry with me each day. Since no one in my 'real' life knows I'm here, I'm free to share, vent, compare, ask questions, and connect with all sorts of different bloggers from all over the place ... risk free. Here, I could potentially bitch and moan about whoever and whatever I want because it would never cross paths with my 'real' life - or so I thought.

Back in the late winter, as I was just starting to find my way as a blogger, I introduced myself to Kim at What am I going to be when I grow up? ... I just love her blog and we have very similar stories - both former teachers and moms of 2 girls, both lost a father to cancer, and her theme of 'what am I going to be' really speaks to me. While following Kim's blog, another reader's name popped up a lot in the comments, someone whose personality stood out to me ... her screen name was serial swooper, which linked back to her blog Confessions of a Serial Swooper. So of course I checked out swooper's blog and loved it - her writing style had me laughing out loud, I just loved the way she could retell a good mommy story with so much sharp wit and humor. So as I began to read swooper's whole blog from start to finish (7 months worth at that time), I realized that she too was in coastal New England ... what a coincidence. Then a few entries later, I realized, wait a minute, she's near Boston?! And then ... wait for it ... the light bulb moment ... swooper is ... in my same small town?!?!? What the???

So what am I supposed to do with this info? I wanted to comment, but I could see that swooper has a strong local following, people I actually know ... and even if I were to comment without linking back to my blog, the name Sloan isn't exactly anonymous (damn, why did I use my real name?!)! Either way, commenting would instantly broadcast me to swooper and her readers alike - a total exposure of my covert operations as a mommy blogger! So what did I do? I did what any deer caught in the headlights would do - I froze. I thought, maybe if I freeze she won't see me standing here, right? Wrong.

Swooper found me a couple of weeks ago, via crossover readers, just as I had found her 2 months earlier. Given the personality that shines through in her writing, it's no surprise that she was just as warm and funny as she could be when she had the same light bulb moment as she discovered we're both right here ... I laughed out loud when I saw those first comments and knew the jig was up - I'd finally been outed. I reached out to swooper via private email and we hit it off in a flurry of emails back and forth, so much to say to one another that I could barely type fast enough.

Today we met face to face at a local coffee joint and let me tell you guys ... this girl is the real deal. She is not at all a part of that small town drivel that scratches at the inside of my head like nails on a chalkboard ... she is real and funny and layered and an all-around gem of a gal. Here we are together:

Ok, no, just kidding ... it was really more like this:

So that's how small the world is, folks ... within a few months of entering the 'anonymous' world wide web of blogging, my great escape from small town nonsense, I discovered a neighbor right in my own backyard. An amazing neighbor ... someone I can now call my friend. Isn't that a small world?!

the big weekend ...

This past Thursday through Sunday was all about Senior Race Week - 177 sailboats raced in 10 different fleets, with my husband's fleet being the largest group at 33 boats - how did he do? The photos say it all ...

This ..

Plus this ...

Equals this ...

Congratulations to my amazingly talented husband and his incredible sailing partner-in-crime for bringing home the #1 spot in their fleet for the second year in a row ... 32 other boats left in their wake ... amazing!!

Junior Race Week ...

So the big ladybug - the one who just had a birthday on Sunday - decided to take her new-found middle school britches and sign up for her first Junior Race Week ... a huge deal in this sailing-centric town! Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday belong to the junior racers and Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday belong to the grown ups - people travel in from all over the country to compete. All week long, the streets around the 3 local yacht clubs are literally clogged with boats on trailers and dollys, waiting to be plunked in for a day of racing - hundreds and hundreds of boats and without a doubt our busiest time of the year.

My big ladybug's fleet was the "opti" fleet, named for the Optimist sailing dinghy she captains:

It's like a 7-foot bathtub with a single sail, a rudder, and a centerboard. A total of 61 boats competed in the "opti green" fleet of first-timers just like herself, they had to divide the group into two halves just to stay on top of them all - 3 days of racing, 9 races in all, filled with everything from wind delays to crashes on the start line and everything in between. Here she is in action:

And here's what it looks like from further away:

68 more optis raced in the championship fleet (the more seasoned kids) located further offshore. Also offshore were older kids who raced in either a 2-person boat called a 420 or a very fast single sailor boat called a Laser. The 420 fleet was the next biggest, 25 in the green fleet and 60 in the championship fleet, you can see them all beyond the rock:

Here are a few 420's coming in from a day of races past the opti greens:

So this is what the entire week will look like around here - it's all about the wind! Junior Race Week ended last night - our big bug was thrilled with her 17th place finish, you can bet that lots of high-fives were had after such a big accomplishment ... fast forward 30 years and she might be just like her dad, who today begins his Race Week (yes, this is actually him) ...

(photo courtesy of Leighton O'Connor)