Thanksgiving in the Hassle

Early this summer I visited our local school uniform store to pick up necessary school uniform pieces that Wyatt and Julia will need in just under two weeks.  My plan was to buy the pieces during the store's only summer sale and then try and get them at the used uniform sale returning whatever I did not need to the store.  I realized immediately that my plan would not work.  The store has a 30 day return policy, and the used uniform sale fell 32 days after my purchase.  Once the kids hit middle school, I find very little that I can use at the used uniform sale, so I opted to just hang onto my purchases.  I only buy uniforms about every other year anyway.  I only bought Julia one skirt last year, and she wore a second skirt that was a hand me down using a pony tail holder to rig it so that it fit.  This year I bought her a second skirt, and I have not ruled out picking up a third - the third being a skirt that she can continue to wear into high school provided she stays at the same school and experiences little growth (both unlikely at this point).  I do laundry frequently enough that my kids usually do not have more than three uniforms, but I can't say that will be the case this year with only two kids at home.

This week I took Wyatt to see the doctor, and the doctor noted that Wyatt seems to be on the brink of a growth spurt and has, in fact, started growing.  Last night I had him try on his uniform pants, and he cannot button them.  They fit great in June.  Yikes!!! I know I can't return them per the store policy, but I am hoping I can exchange them.  They have the tags, and I have the receipt.  It's a hassle to go to this store so close to the start of school.  It's crowded, and getting a dressing room is hard.  I am torn between two sizes for Wyatt, so he needs to go and try them on.  

But-----he grew!  He grew, and he did it quickly.  Within two months, Wyatt can't button pants?!  I will give thanks for that.  

We are the Champions!!

Julia arrived home from cheer camp with just enough time for one more practice before champs.  While she did not make it in any individual events, she did make it into a relay, and there was sliver of a chance that she could move into an individual event because of the possibility of scratches as the champs meet conflicts with a state meet.

The night before champs the team hosts a pep rally.  Throughout the season swimmers receive speeding tickets for beating their own times in races.  They then get to put those tickets in buckets for a variety of prizes.  Between dive dollars and speeding tickets, Julia had six chances total, and she put them all in the $50 cash bucket and won.  As you can imagine, she's already spent every penny of that.  

The coaches and seniors always do skits at the pep rally.  This year's seniors did a great job.  The girls did a synchronized swimming routine on dry land using a tarp to portray the water.  The boys coordinated a dance to girl band songs and performed it very well.  It was a fun evening in the park.

last warm-ups in the home pool before champs -yet another very early wake up call for this girl (meaning me)

pre-champs cheers

fun with a friend while trying to cool off in the brutal heat
pressures off when you either don't swim or only have one race in the second half of the meet

lining up for the race

awaiting results

Our team maintained the championship for 16 years straight before another team took it last year.  This year we took it back and did so solidly.  It is rumored that our coaches went ahead and printed the championship shirts after quals because we did so well that it would have been almost impossible to beat us.  I suspect that is true because the coaches had those shirts on at the potluck dinner after the champs meet.  Let me just note that the potluck dinner occurs just hours after the champs meet.

Tradition!! The winning team jumps in the pool dragging the coaches in with them for some fun and speeches.

#1 again

The day after champs we attend the banquet and dance party.  The swimmers get a record of their times throughout the season, and one of the co-head coaches speaks about every. single. swimmer.  Coach H noted that Julia rocked that butterfly (her best stroke in his opinion) in quals and that she will really rock it next year. Speaking about every swimmer makes for a long banquet, but I would not have it any other way.  So many kids don't ever have someone speak positively about them in front of a crowd, and I am grateful for coaches who do that. They are a class act.  When it became apparent that we might not land on top last year, our coach spent the last few practices reminding the kids that they were to be gracious in defeat because that's how champs act.  This was did not go unnoticed as the team who beat us reached out to our coaches in appreciation of the class shown last year.   

Andy and I observed a teenager get angry with a parent who happened to have his daughter on his shoulders at the champs meet.  The teenager really had no right to be angry, and he cussed at the dad dropping an f-bomb.  The dad handled it well telling the teen not to speak that way to him when he had a young child on his shoulders and then walked away.  That kind of stuff goes right through me, and I told Andy that I would have had to say something if that kid had been on our team.  However, I realized that it would be difficult for any of our swimmers to act like that at a meet. Our team is big enough to take over the poolside, and we do-cheering on the smallest to the biggest swimmers.  Parents are everywhere, and many of them would call out a kid for representing us that way.  

After the awards, the dance party begins.

A notable moment from the dance party went like this:

The DJ says: "Hold up your phones."

I hand Julia my phone so that she can participate.

The DJ says: "This song goes out to anyone who has ever had a mullet."

Julia hands my phone back and says: "I am not supporting this."

The team song started playing, and it just happens to be one of my favorites from my all-time favorite band - Journey's Don't Stop Believing.

photo booth fun

Julia's dive coaches make fun awards out of paper plates.  Julia received the "Stick it" award - a nod to her gymnastics background and because she always has clean entries into the water.

When swim season ends I get my only real freedom of the summer.  Bummer this year that it ended and two days later Andy went out of town for work for nine days.  It makes for a busy summer, but I love swim team.  This team has terrific coaches and so many wonderful families.  I wish Wyatt had liked it more, but we will find his niche.  I really think he should return to martial arts, but I have to pull him away from Minecraft. 

Cheer Camp

The day after quals Julia and I hit the road at 6:00a.m. so that she could join her cheer team for the rest of camp.  Two days later Savannah and I were on the road again at 6:00a.m. to pick her up.  It was grueling.  (A side note here: so thankful for Savannah, I could not have done that drive without her.  She took the wheel for a good chunk on the way home).

We arrived at camp to find an exhausted team.  Their first cheer for the evaluation was not so peppy.  Everyone looked like they would like to lay down on the floor and just sleep.  They had practiced morning to night and often in a gym without air conditioning in July.  The heat and non-stop activity was too much.

The team earned many awards at camp, and Julia received a couple of individual awards.  She won the jumping contest - surprising as that is not her strength.  She also earned an All-Star award for sharp movements, leadership and being a good cheerleader in general.  Apparently, she can earn that yearly, and if she gets it her junior and/or senior year, it becomes an All-Amercan award.  I don't know how that is chosen, but it's not like one cheerleader per camp gets that award.  There were two other recipients at this camp.

One thing that Savannah pointed out to me was that it was so obvious how much Julia loves cheerleading.  The girls managed to get a second wind, and Julia was just beaming when they cheered.  Savannah certainly took note of that.

Oh, so tired!!

Julia slept much of the way home, but she was up and ready to help Andy replace a light fixture that very evening.  She wanted to help with that so badly that he had to await her return to do it.  She loves renovation and has decided that she wants to major in mechanical engineering and minor in Interior Design.  If I know Julia, she will do it!

Cheer camp caused Andy to send me one of the sweetest texts I have ever received.  Julia talked and talked about camp and showed us her dances and cheers.  Andy was hanging out with Julia when I received this text:

Thank you for sacrificing sleep and washing it down with bad coffee to bless Julia.  You are an amazing mom --an amazing woman!!

Andy is too kind.  I mess it up far more often than I get it right.  However, he knows I don't like driving.  Cars make me drowsy, and I don't like coffee.  In desperation I stopped at a gas station and picked up coffee after dropping Julia off at camp.  It was bad, but I choked it down because I could not find a Starbucks.  It was then that I understood all my friends (including my husband) who are coffee snobs.  Andy is right about one thing.  Some of the best moments in parenting come when your child shares their excitement over an experience with you.  

Finish Strong

Julia entered swim season this year fully aware that this year would be tough. She landed on top of the podium in her freestyle last year, but moving up to 12U comes with 50 meter swims instead of 25 meters.  On top of that she would be a younger swimmer in this age group.  

In spite of that, Julia drives herself hard.  She did not realize that this would also be the year that year-round swimmers would really start pulling ahead of the pack. In addition she's in an age group that has many swimmers- many of whom are quite competitive.

Julia wants to win.  She accepts nothing less than the best in herself whether it's in swimming, her grades, or cheering.  

Going into quals brought an additional struggle.  Months ago we realized that there was a conflict with the date of quals.  Cheer camp also started that day.  Both her cheer and swim coaches were cool about the situation and recognized her need to be in both places.  When Julia looked at the schedule for cheer camp, she was disappointed to learn that she would miss the tumbling contest because that's where she really shines.  

By the time quals rolled around, Julia realized that making it to champs would be a long shot.  The point of swimming quals is to be able to swim in champs.  Julia swam the butterfly, free, and the backstroke and finished just outside of the champs range on all three.  She admitted before quals that while she loved our vacation, it bothered her that it messed up her trajectory on swim team.   We are looking into a developmental team so that she can practice twice a week and get some good coaching during the school year.  She needs to work on her starts and turns, and her summer coaches are amazing, but there are many, many (292 to be exact) swimmers on her team, and not much time.  She missed the practice where they worked specifically on turns and was disappointed by that.  I think she probably needs a private lesson or two, and a friend has recommended a college student for the job.

Despite not making it into champs, I am so proud of Julia.  She fought hard in her races and brought in PRs in all three.  Two coaches gave her some pointers on her butterfly, and she tried to follow all of the advice she received.  She came out of the pool exhausted and shaking after putting her all into that race.  Even though she is not a year round swimmer, she should be fine to make it into champs next year.

Even better, she deepened some summer friendships and made new friends, and next year (God willing) we will try and keep the disruptions to swim season to a minimum.  

Of course I got to have some fun with the camera ;)

Dive Team

Julia tried and enjoyed the dive team this summer.  This made the first six weeks of summer a bit more hectic with two meets (one for swim and one for dive) a week and daily back to back practices.

Her season was disrupted by two camps and vacation, so she only participated in two dive meets before champs.  She learned two new dives the last week of practices and debuted them at champs.  Her warm-up dives were beautiful at champs, but her competition dives could have been better.  She finished 8th which I think is great for the first season.  Dive is kind of heartbreaking.  Julia finished ahead of a teammate who is an excellent diver.  S just had a bad meet.  They only get one shot for each dive in front of the judges.  I really wish they had two.  It would make the meets insanely long, but these are kids, and I think they put less pressure on themselves if they know they get more than one chance.

Her beautiful warm-up dive.  This is actually a still shot from a video.  I think it is so cool that you can do that- the dive is pretty cool too.

Dive team pep rally.  They played a game in the pool where they collected ping pong balls for tokens at the restaurant where they gathered after champs.

After champs dinner - some of the 12U girls.  They become better friends every summer.

Warning: my next few posts are all about Julia.  Our lives have revolved around her this summer.

What's That?

The following tutorial is based on a real conversation with one of my children. I have added the humor.

This, my children, is called an ice tray. I know you have never seen one, but this is how we made ice back in the day.  Since the unfortunate demise of our ice maker, you will need to learn about these. It works like this: You fill the tray up with water and place it in the freezer.  Since it has been close to a decade since your mom last used one of these, she forgot one very important ice tray necessity.  They must not nest in each other.  Yes, I purchased the wrong ones.  This means that to stack the trays which is necessary in our small freezer space, you will have to put them slightly off center of each other.  This is the hardest part as it takes some coordination.  After some time in the freezer, the little compartments in the trays will hold ice cubes.

This is very important:

Remove the ice cubes and put them in the appropriate bin in the freezer.  Now, nobody will die if you don't do this- at least I've never heard of anyone dying because of this.  However, you can take it from me that if you take a few cubes at a time and leave just two in the tray, somebody will get angry.  There will be arguments, blame, and possibly the gnashing of teeth.  It can get ugly.  Refill the trays and place them back in the freezer after you remove the ice.

The moral of the story is this.  We no longer have an automatic ice maker.  These trays don't fill themselves.  Everyone must do their part.

Remember that this is what we call a first world problem.  There are many children who do not have running water in their homes-much less ice to keep their drinks cold.  Keep calm and fill the trays.

July 23rd update:  I actually had to show a certain red-headed adult (who shall remain nameless) how to use these today.  I am very worried about the problem-solving skills and resourcefulness of this next generation - very worried.

Disclaimer

We are a hurting people.  I am burdened for my country right now, for other countries.  We desperately need mercy, understanding, wisdom, and love--I know of only one source for all of the above. I am drawn in to the point of drowning in the heaviness of continual social media posts of varying opinions of the events taking place in this troubling time.  I lose focus and easily forget that I have a Prince of Peace, and the problems of this world should seem dim if I am truly chasing Him as I should.

I can't fix it, but I saw a social media post about a movement to set an alarm on your phone for 8:00p.m. and to pray for our nation for one minute at that time.  I have been doing that.  I can't fix it, but I can try and love people right where they are.  I will be intentionally doing that next week with a really cool service project, and I will share more on that later.

Right now, we are coming off of a crazy, busy week - more on that later.  This post is my warning that my next posts will be humorous and celebratory.  That does not mean that I have buried my head in the sand and forgotten that we have work to do to be united in my country or that I am not grieving the events of the past days.  I just have to take a break from the heaviness.

I lied, just one more - maybe

He's like a kid in a candy store.  Oh wait...

My happy place

I think I was born to live on a coast- except for the hurricane stuff.  Andy loves the mountains.  Fortunately, both of us enjoy both places.  That's all the vacation stuff for now.  I have to work on getting these photos organized and into a book.  Julia says she'll do it, but she spent about an hour on it and gave up.  Bummer, because it was looking great with her creativity.

More portrait attempts

I am pleased with the bokeh in photos like this one.  That is one thing I really wanted to work on this year.

too much sun on one side, not pleased with this

also too much sun on one side, grr, wish I'd noticed and adjusted at the time