picture explosion -vacation 2017

Lots of pics and words coming to the blog.  We returned from vacation two days ago.  

Vacation starts with the planning and scheduling.  Stop the mail. Arrange a kennel stay for the dogs. Pack.  This year we actually dropped the dogs off the day we left which meant a later start time for the drive.  We were caravanning with my friend Kim who was staying nearby, so it helped her out to have a later start for a long drive.

This first post is about our road trip traditions.

We always play "Sweet Home Alabama" when we head South.
We usually play "Vacation" by the Go-Gos, "Holiday Road" from National Lampoon's Vacation, and we often throw in "I'm Diving In" by Steven Curtis Chapman.

I had to laugh when we found this quaint town on the drive.  Andy noted that they had a patriotic looking building but that the town itself looked over the hill."  That was the first of our memorable vacation quotes.

first palm tree spotted

If only our travels took us to the Welcome Center where photo ops were an option.

Road trippin'

the bay

He drove the whole way!!

Trying to get our toes in the sand for the first time - turns out this is not our access point - oops

Finally!

That sand is powder soft!

Some of our first looks --more to come.

Our computer is old and slow, so it literally took hours to load all the pictures.  Blog posts are scheduled to post daily approximately 24 hours apart until August 10th.  Rather than a day by day description of vacation, this one will be daily themes.  

Trades of Hope

Hi Friends,

I am hosting a Trades of Hope e-party this week.  I love that this company helps women leave a life of sex trafficking and/or poverty and provides them with gainful employment and a hope for a future. The link is below:

Trades of Hope

not the best pic, but these are some of my favorite things from Trades of Hope

Of course they also offer scarves, handbags/totes, home decor and even some personal items for men.  Check them out if you are interested :)

Processing

Warning: I haven't blogged much this swim season, so this recap of the season, and especially this last week, will be lengthy.  I am using the blog today to process my thoughts on an interesting season and on sports and parenting athletes in general.  It will be long, and there will be lots of pictures.  

2017 Swim and Dive Season

A little team history to start: Julia swims for a huge team.  What started as a big team some 20 years ago has grown into, well, a hurricane with 325 swimmers.  This team connects with each other like none I've ever seen before.  It's a true community.  The older kids show up for the younger kids at their quals to cheer for them.  The team has a list of team cheers that they do regularly.  It's a six week summer swim team in a city league, and for 15 years straight, this team sat atop the league.  We were unseated in 2015 and became runners up. We regained our championship title in 2016 and ended this season as runners up again.

A little bit about our coaches: My kids have experienced coaches whom I believe should be banned from coaching for the way they treat kids, okay coaches, and great and phenomenal coaches across several sports.  This team of coaches is phenomenal!  They not only are great swim coaches, but they are great life coaches (more on that later).  It is important to know before reading my thoughts further on this season that our coaches make a point of teaching the kids how to be gracious in defeat.  "You will get out of that pool and tip your hat to the opponent and congratulate the winning team."

Enough team history- onto the season.

Julia has loved summer swim in the past.  This year has been different.  Entering the teen years left her feeling like the team is less fun than it has been in the past.  Because she only swims in the summer, and her opponents are often year-round USA swimmers, she gets less and less competitive every year.  That puts us and her in a difficult spot.  Julia is competitive by nature, and her coach has pointed out to me numerous times that her potential in this sport is amazing. This has led to many discussions between Andy and me.  What would God have us do with this?  He has gifted her with athleticism.  Do we push her to pursue it when she's feeling burned out? Do we back off?  What is the right thing to do?  This year Julia commented many times that she thought this would be her last season.  When pressed, she expressed that it's competitive and no fun anymore.  Julia is willing to work hard for a sport.  She wants to compete, but she feels like, unless it is school, nothing in life is worth doing if there isn't some fun involved.  

This team is a super fun team, but Julia is caught in the age group where they are beyond the fun of seeing what they can do with swim and not yet to the fun the crazy teenagers get simply because they've earned more freedom.

Julia's season report card:

Julia's top three strokes are back, free, and butterfly.  The way the league works is that the kids work all season for times that will get them into quals.  The top 14 in each event advance to champs.  No athlete can swim in more than three individual events at champs.

50 back - 1st meet of the season: 43.34,  best time 41.18  finished 11th in champs holding her spot from quals with a PR (personal record)

50 fly 1st meet of season: 40.99, PR at quals with a 39.11, finished 6th at champs holding her spot from quals

50 free 1st meet of the season 36.17, best time 35.28, finished 12th at champs moving up two spots from her 14th place finish at quals and with a PR

100 IM She swam that once all season with a 1:33.07

50 breast 1st meet 54.48, best time 53:00

Julia was also part of the medley relay in champs.  That team was DQ'd, and I have to give it to these girls.  It was their first event, and they all rallied in spite of it and did well for the rest of the meet.

She also raced in the free relay.  Her team moved up from their 7th place seed to 5th place in the champs meet with a strong last race.

I chased a good shot of the butterfly for three meets.  I never expected to achieve it at the champs meet because of the crowds, but I got three!

Relay teams trying to rally each other and themselves after hearing the announcement that made it pretty clear we would not win this meet.

Julia got extra coaching on her starts and turns this year.

I love this pic from the dive pep rally.

Goofing off with a  friend at the dive pep rally.

Fly, baby girl, fly!!

coaching advice at dive champs

Quals: 

As I mentioned before, quals is split into two meets.  The older kids swim on Monday night of champs week, and the younger kids swim on Wednesday.  We hosted the older quals, and it was pretty standard stuff.

Our older kids showed up for the younger quals, and I immediately thought there might be a problem.  The older kids took up about 1/4th of the pool deck and were there to cheer for every swimmer on our team in every race where we had swimmers.  It was announced before the meet started that because the pool deck was small, parents needed to watch their events and then leave the pool deck. Um, that's a problem for a team that brought a cheering section.  I have mixed feelings on how this went.  I don't want any parent from any team to miss seeing their child swim, so I understand the frustration with having teammates on deck to cheer for the younger kids.  However, the parents were nasty to our kids.  Physically moving them, telling them to leave, basically stating they weren't welcome.  Our parents had to become a shield and actually engage in some altercations with parents from the other teams over this.  As Andy pointed out, "what are you hosting?"  Are you hosting a sporting event?  Some people love sports and will watch every race because they love the sport.  Or are you hosting an event for parents to watch their swimmers and nothing more?  If you are not equipped to host a sporting event, then don't call it one, and definitely don't host it!

Let me add that our kids do not boo other teams or kids.  

quals night - swim fast, ladies!!

A small part of the cheering section for younger quals.

Champs:

We came into champs hated by every other team.  For the teams that knew they could not take one of the top two spots, they cheered for our toughest opponent.  I am no pollyanna.  We have 325 kids on our team, and I am sure that we probably have some poor sportsmanship and meanness among that group.  Our team, however, is not characterized overall by that.  Again, we do not boo the other teams.  Our team has been booed every time they took the top spot at champs.  We are a loud force.  Parents and swimmers fill the stands and cheer for our swimmers.  Sportsmanship is not a characteristic of some of these other teams.  I offer a few examples of what we experienced at champs.

1. A parent approached two of our older kids as they were getting places to cheer the races and told them that we could not win this meet and that's all our team cares about.  She went on to say we were obnoxious and should not bother to cheer since winning is all we care about, and we and could not win this meet.  

Seriously? This is how an adult talks to kids?  She was apparently relentless and did not stop at a couple of short jabs..  Baiting them perhaps, trying to get a reaction out of them that she could call poor sportsmanship?  It did not work.  She happened to be talking to a very respectful and polite girl who simply told her that our team is not all about winning, and that we cheer for each other because we are family.

2. Andy timed for half of the meet and had to listen to opposing coaches call us cheaters, claim that we recruit kids and offer discounts to strong swimmers.  Um, where's my discount?  I am the parent of one of those strong swimmers, and we are swimming for a public pool, so any kid can join the team.  Some of the other teams only allow members of their neighborhoods to join.  If that puts them at a disadvantage, then they need to talk to their neighborhood association.  Andy did say that the coaches of the winning team were a class act. 

3. In an unprecedented move, the hosting team announced the team results right before the relays started.  Maybe that was always planned, but it certainly did not look good on them.  Here's why...

in years past scores were announced at halftime and at the end of the meet - not any other time. This announcement was made just prior to the last 10 events which were all relays, and our kids were lining up for the relays at that time.  The point spread between us and the winning team was great enough at that time for us to realize that we could not win the meet.  I witnessed in that moment the deflation on the faces of our relay teams.  Just because of the way we were being treated anyway that day, it seemed like a jab aimed at our team and an attempt to discourage our kids from swimming their best in their last races.  It almost worked - except we had the fans in the stand encouraging and pushing our kids to do their best, and our kids did swim their best!  

As Julia's team headed to the pool, one girl in particular was really struggling.  I racked my brain for some way to encourage them.  I believe God gave me these words to speak over them as they headed to the pool.  I said to them, "You are the reigning champions! Go out there and swim like it!"  I have to hand it to the parent (from an opposing team) who was leading them to the pool.  She said to them, "That's right, girls!" She raised her fist and started pumping it while chanting, "Champs! Champs! Champs!"

4. As the results were being announced, the winning team held up the "L" for loser directed at our team.  Kids will be kids, and while that can't be addressed this season, they have coaches who are typically pretty classy, so hopefully, that will be addressed going forward.  In fact, their coaches sent our coaches a letter commending the team on how our kids acted in the face of defeat when they beat us two years ago.

medley relay ready to race at champs

the banquet

Per tradition we gathered for our banquet on the day after champs.  The banquet is a nine hour event complete with senior speeches and a dance party.  What I love about this team and sports:  one senior after another acknowledged that the unity of this team makes them winners regardless of their standing at the end of the season.  They were not bemoaning the fact that we did not land on top.  They celebrated years of success, camaraderie, comedy, and fun.  The seniors admonished those following them to soak up every minute and noted that they regretted the things they missed whether practices or events.

all grown up and beautiful for the banquet

Mom, I am tired and don't want any pictures!  Stop already! 

Dive awards -most improved and subtle sass award.

I will cooperate if you will just let me go to bed.

Final thoughts on swimming/sports

I encourage every parent to allow their child some time on a swim team.  I paid for session after session of swim lessons before finally putting Zach on a team.  One thing I learned was that a swim team is the best way for a child to learn to swim well.  In my opinion swimming is a necessary life skill.  Of my four children, one of them did not swim and is not a strong swimmer and regrets not having a swimming background.

My only regret regarding this team is that I did not discover it in time for Zach to join as a sixth grader.  It would have been very good for him on many levels.  

Swimming requires a big commitment, but the other nice thing about it is that the team runs from three year olds to eighteen year olds.  The swimmers get the best of both worlds because they can enjoy the sport as spectators and as athletes - all in one meet!  Swimming is also great cross-training for just about any other sport.  It's probably my favorite sport in which my family has been involved.

Sports have much to teach our kids. I realize they are not for everybody, but they encourage a healthy lifestyle.  They encourage kids to persevere even when it's tough.  Sports encourage kids to work together, and sometimes they are a reminder that there are bigger things in life.  Just in the past year, I have witnessed opposing teams come together to let a hurting child experience the thrill of getting a touchdown and love on him days after he unexpectedly lost his mom.  I have witnessed a team raise money to research juvenile diabetes in honor of a teammate living with it.  I have seen older kids on a team be excellent role models for younger kids.  If done right sports can teach kids how to graciously accept success and graciously accept defeat.  Many lessons are learned in sports' arenas.

Sometimes...

Sometimes you line up the perfect shot for the butterfly (my favorite stroke to photograph), and then the coaches and stroke judges stand in your way, and you miss it. Then you get home and realize you have a back stroke photo that you love.  Sometimes a girl enters a meet anxious to PR in the freestyle and does not do so, but then she PRs in the back and butterfly.  Sometimes two kids who you drew into this whole swimming adventure can't swim on May 31st, but they both win their freestyle heats on July 5th.  

Sometimes an ordinary day with an ordinary meet makes you smile :)

God Bless America!

Happy birthday to the land that I love!  Yes, we have some family problems right now, but we have persevered through family problems before.  We need to work on unity because united we stand.  Hopefully, we can let God lead and learn to love and encourage each other.  We still have much to celebrate, so we did just that!

On Monday the 3rd, we enjoyed a terrific neighborhood celebration with a live band and a fireworks show.  We met up with friends and had such a nice night.  Julia and I did this for the first time last year.  Andy joined us this year, and I think we now have a new tradition.

On Tuesday John and Tessa graciously hosted a family celebration.  The kids did a little swimming and enjoyed sparklers and fireworks.   I was once again impressed by the big cousins.  As kids will do, they decided to get the pool water moving in a circle.  That was sometimes overwhelming for the little ones, so the big kids (really young adults actually) just scooped up the little kids and carried them.  Reagan just learned to swim, and the water was over her head.  When she lost confidence and struggled, they scooped her up without making her feel like she failed.  So precious!

I came at Kallie with the camera, and this is what she did.  What a ham!

When this guy arrived, the first thing he did was climb up on my lap.  We had this conversation.

Isaac: I am a chameleon

Me: Does that mean you are going to become the same color as me, and nobody will see you?

Isaac: Yes

Who knows where kids get this stuff?  Funnier still is that Isaac usually has little to do with me.

We probably should not have put sparklers in the hands of such little people, but I promise they were heavily supervised.  We always keep a cup of water for the sticks, and everyone watches the kids to take the hot sticks from them when they burn out to make sure they are properly disposed of.  The grass was wet, and if one of the kids got scared, they simply dropped the sparkler out in front of them, and an adult picked it up to dispose of it.

Parted in death and reunited in everlasting life

My parents married 48 years ago today.  I will always miss them, but I will never worry about them again.  I know their future is secure in Christ.  Is yours?

I remember my mom talking about marrying Dad.  They met just three months prior to saying their vows to each other.  After a fight they broke up, called everything off then reconciled and pieced it all back together in short order.  Mom also told me that she married for life, no turning back.  She learned later that Dad married with the idea in mind that they would just end it if it did not work.  I always found that interesting.  Dad came from a two parent home while Mom was raised by a single mom.  I always wondered if her exposure to the pain of divorce in extended family factored into her determination that she would wed for life and if Dad's lack of exposure to that pain left him unaware of the devastation and thus comfortable with a back out plan.

It occurred to me recently, as I talked with a widowed friend about how it's hard to find a good thing in the loss of a spouse, that my mom was raised by a widow. Mom's dad died when she was only two years old.  At the time of his death, Mom's family was living near her dad's side of the family in Mississippi. I am not sure how long they stayed, but I don't think it was long before my grandma packed her children up and moved to Indiana to be close to her side of the family.  That move changed the course of family history.  I think it unlikely that my parents would have met had my mom been raised in Mississippi.  It's still possible, I guess, since it was one of my mom's maternal aunts who introduced them, but Mom would have been a different person.  She would have had a different group of friends and may have already been committed to someone in Mississippi.

The twists and turns of life are sometimes fascinating.  I highly doubt my parents married expecting to raise six children.  While both of them loved being parents to such a big bunch, I have always been under the impression that my dad was the driving force behind choosing to have so many children.

My parents own moves changed family history as well.  While living in South Carolina, neighbors led them to Christ.  Even that played a part, I am sure, in the number of siblings I have and certainly in the faith of my family all the way down to my own children.

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  My parents spend this anniversary in Heaven, and I can only guess at what they might be doing.  They may not even be aware of the date.  They have a child and two grandchildren there, and I am guessing both of them have spent some time with them.  Reunions are so precious.