"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.

Nico loses his tooth during practice.

Hi everyone. I just had to blog this because it's to funny not to tell you. Last week Nicolas was at swim practice

and he was doing the backstroke and swimming towards the deep end when.....

he lost a molar!!!!!! Now that's not the funny part. A girl that was swimming behind him

and hearing all of the commotion, decided to help. She dove to the bottom , in the deep end

mind you,

and FOUND the tooth!!! AMAZING!!!!

Needless to say, it took awhile for everyone to compose themselves and resume practice.

What are the odds of finding a tooth in the deep end of a pool?

When I took Nicolas to the dentist last month, the dentist was amazed at how many adult teeth he has already. He has 6 baby teeth left and all of them are loose. He is always doing

something to make us laugh.

Well that's it for now. We hope all of you are doing good and we send our love to you.

Nicolas's Swim Meets

Smile!!!

Swimming Breaststroke.

Swimming Freestyle.

Ribbons from 2/18 meet.

Hi everyone! It's been a little crazy here this month. Nicolas had double ear infections

on the night of his 2/13 swim meet. We just didn't know it until he spiked a fever

Saturday afternoon. SURPRISE!!!!

With that and birthday parties and Vince being on "call" for 5 days, we're ready to bid

February goodbye.

He did pretty good for being so sick. Here are his times.

- Butterfly, 25 yards. 34 seconds. 2nd place!

- Freestyle, 25 yards. 25 seconds. 2nd place!

- The IM, 100 yards. 2.40. Incredible being sick, 2nd place!!

- The IM is 25 yards doing the Butterfly,

- 25 yards doing the Backstroke,

- 25 yards doing the breaststroke, and

- 25 yards doing the Freestyle.

He has been training real hard on his IM. It shows!

He also did 2 Relays w/ 3 other team mates but, came in last on both.

The other meet was this past Thursday. We had him only swim 2 events because of his ear infections.

- Butterfly, 25 yards. 43 seconds. 4th place.

- Freestyle, 25 yards. 23 seconds. 2nd place!

He beat his own record for the Freestyle by 2 seconds!! We are so excited. We are still " giddy" over this. He has one more "Home meet" in a couple of weeks then we go to Conferences. His coaches has taken a real liking to him. So much, that they are personally working with him.

Alot of these kids don't really take this seriously, but he does. He is really working his butt off.

The coaches are real impressed with that and so are we. We really hope he sticks with this. It has been so much fun watching him grow into this strong, confident,determined and fun-loving little man. We are so proud of him. We can't say it enough. We have one more birthday party to go to and then we should be done with

birthdays for awhile. On Valentines day, Nico gave me 2 beautiful cards and chocolate. He

going to make a wonderful husband someday. Ha! Ha! Vince made a beautiful disc of us

through the years and ending with.. " I love you and I want to spend the rest of life with you!"

Other things too, but I keep that just for us. We gave Nico a book that we could record us

reading the book to him. It's called " All the ways we love you." So that was nice. The rest

of the day was spent watching T.V. and playing games.

We hope all of you had a great Valentines as well.

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi everyone. I know it's been awhile since I posted anything. Things have been

pretty crazy around here lately. But, I wanted to let everyone know about

Nico's last swim meet. We survived the water main break from this past weekend.

We also had a little scare with my back problems. I was having problems with

my bladder. I wasn't able to pee. The doctor fears the remaining discs are deteriorating

faster than expected. The fear is that a nerve could be pressing against my bladder or a nerve is pressing against something that it effected my bladder. I could see a surgeon & do a couple of very painful tests to

maybe find out what is happening or just keep going the way we have been & hope for the best.

We are still talking about what will be best for our family. We'll keep you posted.

O.K. now about Nico!

On 1/21, Nico had a swim meet against the Boys & Girls Club.

It was a small group this time so it didn't take as long. Because of that, Our kids, So. Milw. Sharks, swam just about all of the races. Nico swam 5 races which is alot for a meet his age.

Also, he was swimming against kids that were older than him. So, it was an interesting

meet. For the very first time, Nico swam the I.M. O.K. that is the Individual Medley.

Which is swimming 4 different kinds of strokes back to back, 100 yards.

The stroke you start with is:

- the Backstroke, then the Butterfly, then the Breaststroke, and the last one is the Freestyle.

He took 1st place with a time of 2:19!!

The second event was:

- the Butterfly, 25 yards, with a time of 26.79.

He took 1st place!!

The third event was:

-the Backstroke, 25 yards, with a time of 23.87.

He took 2nd place!!

The fourth event was:

-the Freestyle, 25 yards, with a time of 19 seconds.

He took 3rd place!!

The last event was a Relay. 4 teammates swim this event. Each one swims a stroke twice or 50 yards.

Nico swam the Backstroke, 50 yards. The team came in 2nd place with a time of 2:44.72!!

These meets are so much fun. The best part of this is that Nico is having a great time. He

has another meet on Friday, wish us luck!

We would love to hear from you, so reply if you can. Take care & stay warm.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!