Last day of school!

That's a wrap folks! We are officially on summer break after the successful completion of 7th and 10th grades. Anna has pretty much not been back to school since last week, with the exception of the parade at the school to celebrate their track victory. Paige, in true Paige fashion, went until the very end. Today she had a half day where she helped/harassed her teachers and picked up Senor Banana to babysit over the summer. Thankfully, Senor Banana is not a real, live animal, which is a real, live possibility coming from her school. It's just a stuffed animal that she shares with one of her fav teachers. 

After a coffee date with a friend as well as dropping off and picking up Teddy from the groomer, I headed to pick up Paige from school. We went straight home to grab Anna for donuts, but Anna had different plans and managed to surprise us with a water balloon and water gun battle. She was sweet to write a Summer Break message on the driveway for Paige and then all chaos ensued with water balloons flying. Needless to say, my people are pumped for summer break. 

We headed off to grab some lunch at Moe's and then donuts at Krispy Kreme, as tradition dictates. We even had time to pop by the library for some books. You know I printed out my summer reading bingo sheets and waited until yesterday to put them up for the girls. Of course, Paige already had two squares marked off before the end of the day! Good thing they love reading. We're also the mean parents that make them do math over the summer too and I'm especially proud of Anna for working on some SAT prep before she takes it this Saturday. Don't worry....there's plenty of fun mixed in there too. Here we come Summer Break Bucket List! 

7th grade awards and graduation

Yesterday was a doozy! First up was Paige's awards program. I'm so glad it was early in the morning because we needed to get it done and finished before attending the BHS graduation. Paige excelled in all of her classes this year and has grown so much. As always, I am impressed by her time management, independence, work-ethic and ability to manage many things at once to include personal reading, coaching, volunteering over 50 hours, cross country, musical theater, homework, youth group, being a good friend and family member as well as supporting people in her life. She was awarded 5 outstanding awards this year for academics, Spanish and musical theater. I'm pretty sure she would have earned 2 more had those teachers actually nominated anybody. We were glad to attend her program and celebrate all she has achieved this year. She also looked lovely and so grown up!

Patrick and Anna split from the awards ceremony to get downtown ASAP for graduation. Anna was bumped up from Sophomore usher to Junior Marshal (or Jophmore Marshal as she liked to call it). She was excited to serve and attend the graduation to support many friends. I was really proud of the job she did because she kept her seniors in line and doing what they were supposed to be doing. I could tell she was giving them clear instructions and suffering no fools! As faculty, Patrick was on the floor and able to get a picture of her doing her thing. 

Patrick and Rusty

Graduation was really sweet this year. We heard Madison sing as one of the class performers and I definitely teared up. We got to sit with the Powells and ride with the Soongs. I got lots of good ideas on where to sit, meet up afterward, party plans and details to think about. It was good to have a practice run for Anna and know what to expect in just two years!

After graduation, we scarfed down some late lunch and then went back to the church to help prep for another grad party. Annabelle is a friend of Anna's Madison's as well as one of Patrick's students and runners. Her family dynamic is a little tough and her older sister recently passed away unexpectedly. So, we were happy to help her by hosting her graduation party at BPC. It was a sweet gathering and then we cleaned the church (second time in a week) and set it back up for Sunday service. I sure do appreciate our property manager and all he does to make things happen in that building. Plus, he is willing to say YES, we can do that! I was also grateful to the youth who came over to reset chairs for us after their gathering. 

We managed to wrestle the balloon arch into the trunk of my car and then drive it to the high school, hopefully using it again for the track banquet on Friday. After that, we were all exhausted and crashed. It was a fun day of celebrating!

Celebrations

As Anna has gotten older and firmly entrenched in high school, I have found that we are more involved with senior graduation activities. She now has good friends who are graduating (with much sadness for her) and of course, we now have friends with kids graduating. That means the end of the school year has been even more celebratory than it usually is. 

This weekend we spent time helping the Powells prepare for Madison's graduation party on Monday. Megan and I asked if we could help so we met up with Ashley and Madison at Sam's to do some party shopping. I've also put together a few items over the last couple of weeks as I had free time. On Monday, we met at the church to set things up, including cleaning the church and getting it ready for another grad party we are helping to host on Wednesday. I am happy to report that my balloon arch frame worked well and is HUGE! I'll be using it for the track banquet on Friday so it was good to have a practice run. With so many helping hands, our chores didn't take long and after the bad weather went around us, we could set up at the pavilion according to the original plan. 

It was such a fun event and I am so glad Madison felt loved and celebrated. Ashley had lots of cute touches. Plus there was A LOT of food so now I am trying to give away some of my veggies to other grad parties, ha! I didn't get many pictures because I was busy helping, but I did manage to snag this one with my girls. 

Anna was also busy with celebrations this weekend. She went out to the lake to celebrate Eva and had fun on the boat and hanging out with other high schoolers. This Wednesday she will be helping with graduation as well as attending some other grad parties. Now if only her annual doctor's appointment was as much fun! I don't blame her though as this year we did a blood draw. Let's just say I am not on the much loved list for right now. I'm so close to getting all the paperwork complete! Yay!

These two are ready to hit summer break! 

Random stuff

Anna has had a couple of weird days at school where she didn't need to be there the whole day. So we hung out a couple of mornings, went to breakfast at Le Peep and ran errands together. I am putting together a couple of smaller things for Madison's graduation party, which meant a trip to Hobby Lobby. Anna couldn't believe the aisles of random Christmas ornaments, although secretly I know it made her happy. 

Patrick also ordered sneakers which means it must be getting close to summer conditioning. Look at all those Asics lined up for my running people!

And Anna has a couple of job shadowing opportunities coming up which means we really needed to find some more professional attire for her to wear. This is so HARD! She is petite even for the petite sections. We managed to find a well-fitting blazer and ordered some pants that might have to have a little bit of altering. I even convinced her to try on and get a Loft shirt that was dressier. She wanted to go with all pink and I said that maybe we should hold off on the Barbie outfit for now. When she becomes ruler of the world, she can break out the pink!

If anybody is keeping track, this coming week is the last week of school! It will be a busy one with doctor's appointments, 7th grade award ceremony, graduation, graduation parties, cast parties, state championship parades, etc. Lots to celebrate!

Happy 20th Anniversary!

How in the WORLD has it been 20 years since Patrick and I got married?! I just don't understand how time works these days. You sure do live a lot of life in 20 years, but it also feels like just yesterday when we were planning the big day and saying "I do." I have lots of thoughts and ponderings about all this, but I shared most of them with Patrick. I think it's good to reflect and see where we've been, how we want to move forward and adjust based on what we've learned. I'm grateful I get to do this with a partner who selflessly loves me through all of life's adventures-good and bad. 

Patrick took Wednesday off so we could spend the day together. I really can't remember when that has ever happened! The girls went to school, we ate breakfast and watched a show together (in the middle of the day!). Then we headed off for some adventures downtown: checked out our old house, walked around a neighborhood we used to walk frequently, grabbed some lunch at Di Prato's and went shopping at a boutique where we bought a print to frame and hang. On our honeymoon we bought a piece of art to commemorate that time and thought it would be fun to do so again. It's a print of downtown Columbia, since that's been our life the past 20 years. The girls went to youth and I made Patrick some salmon for dinner before we walked Teddy around the neighborhood. It was a great mix between the routine and the reflective. Plus, it was nice just to have a day to the two of us. 

On Friday, we went to Mr. Friendly's which is our fav restaurants and holds a lot of memories. We've had some special dinners there through the years. Plus the food is delicious. When we got home, there was a huge thunderstorm happening in our area which meant the dog and girls were all in a tizzy and the internet was out. I told Patrick we should have stayed at dinner longer, ha! But we played some family card games and laughed out heads off until those teenagers had to tuck me in bed. In July, we've planned a trip away to a bed 'n breakfast in GA. 

Happy 20th Anniversary, babe!

More pics of runner girl

I got the official photos of Anna at the race and of course her new school record. She's finished up her last final for her sophomore year and her grades are pretty much set at this point. She's got a couple more days to attend for seat time purposes and then it's a wrap. Halfway through high school! It's been another successful year of academics and sports for her. Some might think it comes easily, but we see all the work and effort she puts in behind the scenes. There are successes and failures along the way, late nights, tears, laughter, triumphs, as well as many tired mornings and afternoons, but she continues to put her best foot forward even when it's difficult. 

I'm so grateful we have a parent who manages all of our photography and social media posts. He happens to be the dad of one of our sprinters, but also the middle school principal for a school in our district. This man is BUSY! But through it all he supports his daughter and our team (boys and girls). I really admire all he does for his school and BHS. Plus, it means I can cheer and not worry about getting the good shots!

We are the Champions.....again!

What a night! All week Anna has been a buzz with energy leading up to the state meet on Friday. There's been lots of other activity at the house and school which meant good distraction, but still she was like a little bolt of electricity every day. Paige and I tried our best to ignore it and also be super low key to help balance it out. Patrick wasn't here to help us as he left for NAGB in DC on Wednesday. It seems this particular trip always lands the week of state and he is having to rush back to town. Fortunately, this one was in the same time zone and he was able to leave on Friday morning to make it back in plenty of time. 

On Friday, Anna set off to school early for the Senior Assembly where she served as a Junior Marshall, even though she's a sophomore. I was a little nervous about her wearing her wedge heals because I didn't want any tripping to occur, but she managed just fine. She was able to leave school early after that and I actually went to the school to help serve lunch to the track teams. They were able to hang out in a room until they needed to leave later for the meet, but Anna has her own routine so she came back home to eat her specific food. That's when Patrick arrived home from DC and I came back from the school. Even more fortunate, Paige decided she didn't want to attend the 7th grade field trip to Carowinds so I allowed her to stay home. Are you following all this back and forth?!  

Paige and I managed to clean and do chores that morning so that my parents could stay with us over night. They called up Thursday night to ask if they could attend the meet and I was glad they could make it! All that to say, we were all wired by the time the meet came around at 5pm. I managed to fuel up with some coffee and Paige and I wrestled up some Publix subs to get to the gate and realize they were not allowing re-entry OR food. Ugh. No worries, Patrick snuck it in for us later. We also grabbed our umbrellas and rain jackets, expecting some storms that night. Having made it in with just a bit of time to spare, I frantically texted with my parents and the Powells to give them all the info they needed to come watch. 

OK that sets everything up. Anna's first race was the 4x800 and it was the second event of the meet. This group has different 4th legs come in and out throughout the season. There was always disappointment in that our fastest leg left us controversially at the beginning of the season, but they were slowly putting things together. I knew they couldn't really touch first place like they did last year, but I was hoping for top three if they did their best. Anna had been switched up to the first leg just recently, so she started the race for us. Each time, she's run this race, she's gotten faster and this was no exception. She fought to gain the lead and then held on for two laps, running a PR of 2:19! The other girls also ran well, doing exactly what they needed to do, especially our anchor leg who tracked down the third place runner and passed her for a medal finish! They were 3rd overall and the other two teams actually beat the state record which we almost set last year. It was their fastest time with this group of girls at 9:31. So it was a great race and we were all pleased with the finish! We definitely were not expecting Anna to lead the first leg and run as well as she did. 

After that race, my parents and the Powells met up with us. The Powells managed to get there just as Anna started and my parents just missed her, but they were able to see the end of the race. We set up camp in the stands and then just as the track events went to a pause to wait for the field events, the skies opened up for about 15 minutes. I headed to the merch line to get Anna's overpriced sweatshirt and waited there for 45 minutes. She got a good rest in before her next race at 8:15.

We cheered on each of the events and tried to keep track of our ever growing number of finishers. Patrick knew we had a great shot of winning the whole thing again by a sizable lead, but some of the runners didn't quite finish where we thought they would, meaning our last runners needed to really step up, including Anna. It's always been a goal for her to qualify for state in an individual race, especially the 3200 and then score points for the team. She didn't have a good qualifying race, but it was enough to get her to state. Again, I thought she has the capability of being 5th or 6th based on her times this season so that's what I was hoping for but didn't tell her. 

The clouds were starting to glow with the sunset when Anna stepped up to the line, seeded 10th. She had a waterfall start and had to stay in the outside lanes for a bit before coming down to lane 1. The front pack was really closely packed and managed to run a "slower" first couple of laps, set by the lead girl from Chapin who had runner earlier. She set the tempo and I think it helped Anna not go out too fast. Anna kept positioning herself well making some good moves to stay with the front runners. They had run sub 11 before so we knew she couldn't quite keep up with them, but she had to run her own race. She and another girl kept battling it back and forth around the 6th lap when the top four started speeding up. Anna hung in there tough, not letting her get too far out front. On the last lap she started tracking her down, closing the gap until the last 200 when she surged ahead and left her behind. Anna finished 5th overall, with a new PR of 11:15, 5 seconds faster than her old time and she had negative splits. Patrick told me later she ran exactly what they had talked about all week and it was such a smart race for her. We were beyond thrilled! Anna earned All-State in both races. Woohoo!

With the pressure off, we watched a thrilling 4x400 race where the Blythewood girls came from behind to win and then we waited and waited for the jumps to finish before they called out the overall champions. We knew we had won and it wasn't that close, but it was definitely closer that we thought it would be. The girls basked in their back to back championship, taking all the photos and doing the ice dump on our head coach.

It was such a fun and late night as we all dragged back home. Poor Teddy has been couped up for 6 hours and was ready to play. With my parents in town we had to move him to our bathroom for bedtime and he decided he was actually ready to play instead. In fact, with all his antics and barking and needing to be close to us, I got 2 hours of sleep. He's just lucky he's still alive today. My parents headed back home, Patrick and Anna went back to the 4A state meet to cheer on a friend and now we are all taking naps. I just might be humming "We are the champions...." in my sleep.