Foaming Hand Soap

We all love the foaming-style hand soap.  It is easy, smells great and the kids can tell when the foam is all washed off.

But, I have yet to find a large "refill" bottle of the foaming soap.  I hate to add to the landfills by not reusing these great dispensers (and, if they can be reused, why not try before recycling.)  So, I decided to try to use the regular soap refill in the "foaming pump" dispenser to see if it worked.  It does not work when full strength, but if you add 1/2 soap and 1/2 water - IT WORKS PERFECTLY!

I've tried several brands of the foaming pump dispensers to find that some work well and some simply don't.  My favorite is Tone.  Any of the Tone Foaming Hand Wash dispensers work great, don't stick, etc.  Take my word for it, just choose Tone.

After this discovery, I bought one Tone for each household sink. 

When the Tone dispenser ran out (within a week), I bought the cheapest bottle of store-brand regular refill handsoap (this one is Kroger brand but anything works.)  Fill the dispenser about 1/2 full with soap.  Fill the rest of it up with water.  Shake.  Pump.

This is a total money saver!  The big bottle of Kroger Hand Soap is about $1.75 while one single pump of Foaming Hand Soap can run over $3.  The refill lasts us about 3 months!  Big savings.

Got peppers?

Yesterday was another successful and fun day for the veggie stand.  The weather was yucky so we were in and out with thunder and lightning.  But, it was fun to share the beautiful vegetables with our friends and neighbors.

okra, serrano peppers, jalapeno peppers, hot banana peppers

tomatoes, habanero peppers, cowhorn peppers (?), green bell peppers, mild banana peppers

green bell peppers & mild banana peppers

piles o' peppers

A table of tomatoes

I believe these are cowhorn peppers but I'm not positive

Aimee Valiquette nabs a 'mater

Carse and Aimee shopped and visited with us!

High school friend, Sarah Huddleston MacIntyre stopped by with her three beautiful kids

Sarah's son, George, loves okra

And then the Brentwood Po-Po came by...

...but thankfully it was our buddy, Rob Thomas! 

2011 Swim Team Party and Banquet

The Seven Hills swim team season has come to a close.  But here are some great pics from the recent team party and banquet.  Way to go, Barracudas!  What a great season!

With the TENTH consecutive City Meet win, the Seven Hills hillside reads: 7HX (Seven Hills 10)

As not to break tradition, the kids fill it in!

Cooper off the high board

Coach Amy gives her celebration speech after winning both the City and League Championships

Coach Amy's Retirement Gift: a quilt with every team and city meet shirt from the past 15 years

Cooper and his buddy Quinn with Coach Garner

The victory dance

Ivy and sweet Sydney at the banquet

Cooper gets his City Meet medal: 3rd place in the boys' 6 & Under Freestyle Relay

Ivy and her "feather" she got at the team party.  The older girls thought she just HAD to have one!

Cooper and the 6 & Under boys at the team banquet

A retirement cake for Coaches Amy and Garner

Cooper and one of his favorite junior coaches, Rocky

 

NSL City Swim Meet - 7/23/2011

Barracudas, Barracudas, Chomp Chomp Chomp!

This weekend is the Nashville Swim League City Meet which is being held at the Centennial Sportsplex.  10 & unders swam yesterday and the 11 & ups will swim today. 

It was an amazing (and very long) day and Cole & Cooper both swam their tails off.  Seven Hills has been the City Meet Champion for 9 years in a row and is going for win #10!  We were the AAAA League Champions this year, as well, so we have a good chance of pulling it off!

As usual, "Giddy" was there all day - arriving at 6:15am - and grabbed the best seats in the house

(right under the air conditioner!)  The meet didn't end until 6pm so it was quite a long day!

(Thanks for being there, Ma!)

Cooper and Giddy at the top of the bleachers.  What?  You don't feed your kid Pringles for breakfast?

Coach Amy and Coach Garner (who are, sadly, both retiring after this season)

  

To kick off the meet, the National Anthem was sung while a team of 6 & Unders slowly carried the American Flag down  each lane of the pool.  TEARJERKER!  Don't they know that, with as little sleep I had and only ONE gulped down cup of coffee that they can't do that to a patriotic gal such as myself at that ghastly hour?  Anyway, I appeared to be the only one crying (Giddy was outside or she would have flooded the place) but had no shame given the awesomeness of it all.

  

 

COOPER

The 6 & Under portion of the meet started at 8am - requiring all swimmers on deck for warm-ups at 6:50am.  WHEW!  Cooper, being 5, had his work cut out for him since he is young for his age group.

BUT, he was amazing and the results are as follows:

• 6 & Under Boys 25 Freestyle (heat #9, lane #3)
• Time: 38.44
• Ranking: #70 out of 116 boys

• 6 & Under Boys 25 Backstroke (heat #6, lane #6)
• Time: 38.93 (a personal best down from 46.02)
• Ranking: #43 out of 104 boys

•  6 & Under Boys "A" Freestyle Relay (heat #3, lane #8)
• Ranking: #7 (he'll get an award for this at the banquet tomorrow night!)

Event number/Heat number/lane number

Cooper at the Clerk of Course.  Shocking green cap makes our swimmers easy to spot!

Cooper has a question before, during, and after every race.  He is our inquisitive child.

 On Friday, Coach Amy told Cooper to stay under water as long as he could after diving in before coming up to swim.  What she meant is to "streamline" after his dive which they have been working on in practice.  But, Cooper's little ears heard "stay under water" so he swam 3/4 of the pool

under water before surfacing to finish the freestyle race.

Here he is (lane 3 from the top) right before he surfaced for the first time. 

Cooper gets a participation medal after his first race!

Cooper at the Clerk of Course before backstroke

Ready to race

Backstroke (the green cap is Cooper)

Cooper (lane 6) nearly won his race...but was just out-touched by the dude in lane 2 (top).

COLE 

 

The 7-10 age group portion of the meet started at 12pm - requiring all swimmers on deck for warm-ups at 10:30am.  Cole moved up to the 9-10 division this season so, like Cooper, is at the bottom of his agegroup.  A strong competitor in every sport, Cole did very well and his results are as follows:

• 9-10 Boys 25 Freestyle (heat #16, lane #5)
• Time: 16.40
• Ranking: #23 out of 144 boys
  

• 9-10 Boys 25 Backstroke (heat #12, lane #8)
• Time: 22.15 (a personal best down from 23.16)
  
• Ranking: #35 out of 117 boys

• 9-10 Boys 25 Breaststroke (heat #9, lane #7)
• Time: 24.93 (a personal best down from 26.91)
• Ranking: #35 out of 106 boys

• 9-10 Boys 100 Individual Medley (heat #11, lane #5)
• Time: 1:45.06
• Ranking: #24 out of 102 boys

•  9-10 Boys "A" Freestyle Relay (swam the 3rd leg)
• Ranking: #3 (he'll get an award for this at the banquet tomorrow night!) 

•  9-10 Boys "B" Medley Relay (swam the butterfly leg)
• Ranking: #8 (he'll get an award for this at the banquet tomorrow night!)
  

Cole in the center with a strong start for 25 Freestyle

Lots of competition in the backstroke.  He looked great the entire way!

 Though the competition is amazing and the exercise is even better, our favorite thing about being at Seven Hills are the friends we've made!  The core of summertime: SWIM TEAM!

Cole with his buddy, Tom

Cooper with his pal, Sam