"This would never happen to me."

Hello everyone. This past Thursday was one of the scariest days of my life. That day was an

eye opener and a reality check for us. It's something I never want to go through again and

it's something I'm struggling to get past.

Thursday morning, I dropped Nico off at school and walked home. I had a couple of errands

to run so I left right away. I came home briefly @ around 10:00 a.m. I left again because I forgot

something but I returned an half hour later. As I was driving past my home to go park in the garage, I noticed a black kid walking past our home. I didn't think much about it. We have cameras mounted in the front and in the back of our house and they are taping 24/7. We

have a sun porch that is connected to the back of the house. There is only a screen door,

so it's easy to enter the sun porch. So, I came through the back way. I locked our main backdoor

but not the screen door. I put my stuff down on the kitchen table and went

down to the basement to do laundry. When I finished I turned to walk up the stairs when

I saw this black guy staring @ me. It was the same black guy I saw a couple of minutes ago walking down the street.

He was in the sun porch for a minute and a half before we came face to face.

He was wriggling the door handle, trying to open it when I saw him. I ran up the stairs,

screaming " GET THE F**K OUT OF HERE!" " I'M CALLING THE POLICE!" etc.

He mumbled twice about how he was looking for his buddy. He finally left. I stood there for

a couple of minutes. just trying to process what just happened. Wondering if it

really happened. I finally snapped out of it and went and locked the garage door and closed

the gate. I then called Vince and told him what happened. He told to call the police, which

I did. They came right away. When we viewed the tape, I was in for another big shock.

The cameras showed him walking up the FRONT door first and looking in and wriggling

that door knob. He continues to try but fails. So, he walks away but immediately gets on the phone. But what is really crazy is as he was walking away from the front door, I was walking in the back door. Seeing that, everything changed. The cop took my statement and told me

he would be in touch. That night 2 cops came over to look @ the tape. They wanted to see if

they recognized him. Surprise!!! They did. He has been arrested twice, ( one was last week )

for breaking and entering and theft. They caught him and a buddy walking down the

street carrying a big flat screen T.V. We made copies of the tape and handed it over to

the police, which will make this a " slam dunk" case, as Vince would say. He was the same guy

3 weeks ago that came to the front door trying to get in. Montana spooked him off then. We think he was " casing out the place".

They targeted us for the T.V. I thank god that he was alone and that I had that main

backdoor locked. I'm going crazy with the thoughts of " What if". Well, as our

luck would have it, that wasn't the end.

Friday, I left to pick Nico up for school when, I SAW him. He was on the school

playground. Needless to say, I freaked out!!!! I called 911 right away. He was with 2

younger kids, roughly around Nico's age. But as the cops were coming he took off.

He ran across the street and into the alley. The cops got him. They arrested him, but

was free that night. Ready for another shock???

He lives down the block from us and those kids were his family members. They go to Nico's school!!!

We have spent the weekend rearranging the living room and installing dead bolts. We are having someone come out to give us an estimate on a steel door for the back. We still

have to buy shades or blinds for our french doors so no one can look in.

This was our " dream home " and now I don't want to be here anymore. I'm jumpy and very

nervous. I haven't slept since this happened. I'm hoping with time I'll start

feeling better and secure again. I don't want to be the " victim " and give him that power over me.

Of course, Nico does not know about any of this. I guess the next step to take is

to work on feeling better.

We hope everyone is doing good. Lots of love to all of you.

March 13, 2010 Swim Conference.

Hi everyone. On Saturday the 13th, Nicolas had his swim conference. It was a crazy but

exciting day. I guess it was a little nerve racking as well. We swam against 6 other

teams from all over the city. All the teams had to stay in the gym until it was their

time to swim. It was kinda of cool because each team had their corner where

they got ready or just hung out. We were able to meet and socialize with the parents

from our team. If the kids were not swimming, they were eating, playing with

their DS or other games. Some kids took naps while they waited. We had to be there

at 9:00 and practice time was 9:30. The conference started at 10:30. There were 86

events and 178 races. In the beginning it was somewhat confusing reading the 6 page

event sheet, but we got the hang of it. Some of the events were cancelled at the last minute because of "no shows". So Nicolas swam 3 times instead of 4. He was disappointed with that,

but after awhile he was fine.

The young guy walking with Nicolas in the above picture is one of his coaches. Now the way

this was scored is a little confusing. It took us a bit before we got it. The judges take the

kid's best overall time and compares it to the time he swims there. Also, if a kid comes in

1st place in a race doesn't mean he will get a ribbon. The judges reward only their overall scores. Only 1-3 received medals and 4-6 received ribbons.

So our team came in 2nd place this year!!! Riverside took 1st place.

So here are his times.....

He swam the 25 yards Backstroke. His best time for that was 26.70. At conference he swam 28.75

and took 3rd place. Overall, he took 9th place.

He swam the 25 yards Freestyle. His best time for that was 2.98. At conference he swam 23.56

and took 4th place. Overall he took 10 place.

Finally, he swam his 100 yards IM. His best for that was 2.40. At conference he swam amazing

2.21 and took 5th place!!! He took an amazing 19 seconds off his best overall time!!!!

We and his coaches were over the moon to say the least. At first, Nico was upset that he

came in 5th place, note knowing his time yet. But once he found out his time, he was

speechless!!! He did receive a 5th place ribbon for his IM! So, now we are done with swim.

We go back after Easter.

Last Saturday, Vince and I got to have a " date " night. We didn't know what to do with ourselves. But we figured it out and decided to go to dinner and then we caught a movie.

We saw Bounty Hunter. Great movie!! We certainly recommend it. I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend. All the running around is done and now it's time to do some spring cleaning.

I've been neglecting my house a little lately because we've been so busy.

So, we wish all of you a wonderful spring and lots of love!!!

Happy Easter!!

Rawson Ave. Spring concert!

Last night, Nicolas's school had their Spring concert. This year the theme was

Broadway Beat. Each grade sang 4 songs. All the kids did great. Nicolas's grade is the biggest

grade in the school with 92 kids. Each year it keeps on getting bigger. This year he got a little solo part. He

introduced the 3rd song, Gary Indiana.

He practiced for 2 weeks everyday. He had his part written down and in his pocket,

just in case he would freeze and forget. But his music teacher wanted him to do it by memory.

All 3 of us were nervous. But he got up there and did it like a pro! Vince and I were cheering

and acting like a couple of fools but that's okay, we're proud parents!!!

He surprise us everyday. Here is his speaking part.....

Gary Indiana

This song describes the loyalty a person can have for a town, or for us, a school!

We hope you enjoy "Gary Indiana."

Well, that's it for now. We wanted to brag some more. We hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather. We are as much as we can before the rain and snow come back.

Lots of love to all of you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Last swim meet of the session!

Hi everyone! Well, we had our last swim meet of the session on Friday 3/5. It was

suppose to be a home meet but it got changed at the last minute. We were

suppose to swim against the Boys & Girls Club, but they lost all of their funding.

So we ended up at Riverside High school. Lets just say, we were not welcomed with

open arms. They treated our kids poorly. Our kids barely got to swim. When they did,

Riverside acted like it was such a hassle. Our coaches were pretty angry. They

tried to talk to them about all of this, but it fell on deaf ears.

It was a nightmare!!

Nicolas did swim 2 heats. He swam the Backstroke and the IM. Here is an

example of how Riversides' attitude was. There were 7 kids competing in the

Backstroke. Instead of splitting up the kids, they made Nicolas swim alone.

Needless to say, it was the worst time he ever had on his Backstroke. It's

hard to go fast when you are the only one in the pool. We are happy that night is over.

So, here are his times...

IM, 100 yards. 2.43! He took 4th place.

Backstroke, 25 yards. 32.03! He took 5th place.

This past Friday was the last night of practice so the coaches let the kids have some fun.

As the pictures above show, they did have alot fun. The kids managed to throw 3

coaches in the water. This coming Friday is the pizza and awards party. We are

looking forward to that. This past Saturday was the big swim conference. So, the

awards and times from that will be given then.

Well, that's all for now. We hope everyone is doing good. Lots of love to all of you.