Senior Night at Blythewood

Even though it's only a couple of weeks into the track season, we hosted the Senior Night at Blythewood last night. There are only two home meets and I think they both might kill us just because it makes for a very busy week. I went straight from teaching to get home to let Teddy out and eat some lunch before picking up Paige at school and heading straight to the high school. We set up shop and were there until 9:30. I will brag though because it could have been a lot worse. We had over 500 athletes registered with 13 heats of some events. Patrick was adamant it would run quickly and efficiently, especially after the Saturday's meet was so terrible. 

I showed up at the snack table for my duties. I thought it was just to keep the snacks flowing, but when I announced to the fam earlier in the week that this was what I signed up for, they all gasped and said: why would you choose that job?! Little did I know, it was more a Bouncer job than anything. I was supposed to keep all the thieves and sneaks away from raiding our stash. I did have to tell some some non-track runners nope, but for the most part it was good. The amount of food out team eats is crazy so I did a lot of replenishing. I also managed to welcome other teams, check in on how they were doing, help stake some tents, clear and raise hurdles, keep kids off the track during events and any other random duties near the tent. Patrick was in the sound booth calling out events, so I yelled what he was saying to our runners so they would be on time. It was a full evening!

In between all of that, I watched my two girls run the 1600. Anna and Paige were seeded 1st and 2nd in the same race and it was precious to watch them line up next to each other. I was imagining them chatting each other up at the line, but apparently it was a quick "good luck" and that was it. They both blasted out of the group when the gun shot off, Anna in the lead and Paige hot on her heals. I was actually surprised to see Paige going with her for a bit, until she eased off. Later Paige told me she could have stayed with her for longer, but chose to back down a bit because she wasn't sure what it would do in her later laps. She's learning!

Meanwhile, Anna was on fire, cruising around people and going for a new PR and school record. She got both coming in at 5:11. I think she was just to finally have a 1600 time that matched up with her open mile, neither of which she runs very often. She did take the school record away from her bestie, Mal, who got it just a week earlier. I loved hearing spectators say things like "whoa!" and "did you see her run that?"

Now that far behind was Paige who was far in front of the pack behind her. She was solidly in 2nd place with no challengers, and she finished with a new PR of 5:45. She looked strong and finished well, telling me later that she could have given a little more. It's hard to know how much to leave out there when you want to be able to finish strong, but she's doing a good job figuring it out. 

We finished up the meet, giving hugs to Madeline, Paige's bestie who was celebrating her birthday that day. It was nice to cheer for her in the 3200 and she also had a PR. Everybody finally got home just before 10 to eat dinner, do homework and get into bed. Paige was supposed to be up extra early for a field trip this morning, but I decided being at the school at 6:15am was not worth it for a 6 hour bus ride to a college in NC. So I let Paige stay home. Anna also came home a little early, not having slept well the night before. Let's just say we're pooped!

I've been busy teaching this week and getting my students to buckle in. I also ran over some debris on the highway coming home from work and it knocked off a part of trim which meant tracking it down at my dealership. Fortunately, it was an easy fix. I've also been working hard on getting information together for our grant applications and fundraising for the park project. At one point, I thought we only had two weeks before speaking to a big donor, but that got pushed back and I'm glad to have the extra time. 

And lastly, heading into the week, we had a brief visit from my parents who were swinging through town to pick up my nieces in some last minute hatched Spring Break plan. We kept waiting for them to arrive in Blythewood, but that didn't happen until 9:30 so it was just me and Anna there to give hugs before they left for Seneca with my parents. We did have the afternoon with Grammy and Grampy and took them to Chubby's for dinner. 

I leave you with Patrick as a hand model. Nothing like seeing your husband's hand on the news!!

Coach's Classic Qualifier

The girls were so happy to have a shorter school week. Paige got off on a half day on Thursday. I took her and Madeline to Tropical Smoothie Cafe in the pouring rain and then somehow when they were hanging around the house together, I fell asleep for a whole hour! It must have been the rain. Then on Friday, Anna and Paige had the day off which was nice because Anna has been working her tail off to finish up the 3rd quarter strong. She also had to take a Seal of Biliteracy test for Spanish and is prepping for the SAT next week. Let's just say she was happy to be able to sleep in on Friday. I took both girls to the mall to do a little dress shopping for Easter and other special occasions like promotion and track banquet. Anna ended up finding a few things she liked and chose her graduation dress for next year! Paige was in denial about that, but managed to find a cute dress herself. 

I'm also happy to report my part for my oven arrived and I was able to fix it on Thursday night. Woohoo! I actually had ordered three parts but two were on back order and I wasn't quite sure which one was the problem. So when I got the one part in, I installed it and it ended up working! I'm using the weekend to make sure nothing else needs to be replaced before cancelling the other parts. It was a relay board and it wasn't too hard to replace thankfully, but I did end up with one extra screw that I'm not sure where it went at the end. 

On Saturday, we all headed to Westwood High School nearby for the Coach's Classic Qualifier. It's a meet that gets you into an elite meet later on, but funny enough I don't think we're running in the elite meet. Instead, we might be headed to Charlotte for even tougher competition. In any event, we all showed up at different times since it's just 15 minutes from the house. Paige and I watched some of the other girls run their events and it was evident this would be a really poorly run meet from the beginning. things didn't get started on time and took forever. Finally, Paige was up for the 1600. She's never run this one and was entered in the 2nd fastest heat based on a made up time that I knew she could blow out of the water. 

Her race was fun to watch because she ran it so smart. She settled with the front pack in the beginning and they ended up going out way too fast. So I knew they would die, but Paige just cruised along with them waiting. Patrick told her to pass and she passed a girl. Then the next lap, he told her to pass again and she did. By the 3rd lap she was out front and then opened up the gap, finishing 10 seconds ahead of anybody with a time of 5:50. I knew that wasn't all she had in her tank and the time could be faster, but Patrick was also coaching her for that race. So, I'm excited to see what she can do in a faster heat. 

5th place

4th place

1st place

waaaay 1st place

Meanwhile, we waited and waited for Anna to run her 3200. It was getting windy and then at the last minute they crammed the heats together (which was actually asked of them at the beginning of the meet but they didn't listen). So Anna's timing with eating and warm-ups was a little off, but she got up to the line and then helped line everybody up because the dang starters were so inept. 

It was clear from the start that she would dominate the race. She was strong out front and then kept going until she started lapping people. Her first mile looked great and I could tell she was a bit fatigued in the 2nd mile, but she was on pace for a PR and missed it by 4 seconds. I think without the wind she would have had it. I also learned after the race that her shoes were falling apart! We quickly ordered new ones when we got home. In the end, she was happy with the race and she feels like the PR is coming soon which is a good mindset to have. 

total domination from the start

After some Chick-fil-A dinner (and then a trip back to CFA when they forgot to give us a shake), we got taxes done and I did a ton of prep for the week. My schedule is jam packed right now because of classes and I have exciting news....our 501(c)(3) for the park project I am working on at my church was approved! That means that we can start our fundraising. I honestly thought I had more time to get some things ready for that process, but now I've got to get rolling with pulling together information. I'm also meeting with another company that does sports courts and we have a potential donor coming in two weeks that we need to prep for. It's going to be a busy but exciting time!

Also I got these pics of the girls handing off to each other from last week and I'm in love with them!

Uncle St. Patrick's Day and more oven drama

Yesterday we celebrated St. Patrick's Day, otherwise known as Uncle St. Patrick's Day to my niece, Morgan. She thinks it's a day all about him and let's just say Patrick is not stopping that sort of thinking. My people wore green, pinched me when I didn't have green pajamas on and generally spread leprechaun cheer (i.e. Paige pinched her friends and shared lots of facts about St. Patrick). Despite my oven being down, I managed to make colcannon soup and used my bread maker to make some Irish soda bread. Both turned our great even if it was some extra effort to cook it at my friend's house. After all of that, I realized Patrick wasn't even going to be home for dinner! He was traveling to Anderson and had dinner with Madison. At least the girls enjoyed it and even complimented the meal. 

I also got to meet my new students for my last term this school year. I was actually impressed that many of them were present considering it's hard to come back from spring break and start a class. But most of them were there! They didn't seem to be too amused with my St. Patrick's Day welcome. Oh well. 

After class, I raced home to let out dogs. It was our last day of dog sitting for our neighbors and Paige did great. And then I headed down to Ashley's to celebrate Megan's birthday. The funniest part was that I had my calendar printed in December and put her birthday on the 14th when it's really on the 18th. So my family has been texting her Happy Birthday on the incorrect day! We laughed and laughed. I did make sure to text her today on her real birthday!

In between all the shenanigans a Monday brings, I managed to get an appliance repair company scheduled to look at our oven. I do NOT like admitting defeat, but this one seemed too complicated for me. I also did some more digging online which wasn't helpful because of the lack of info on my appliance. But I did manage to track down somebody from an appliance repair store who did some digging for me and identified a relay board as a potential problem. I was guessing she was right because the relay switched kept clicking every time I turned it on. Gary tried to walk me through a couple of things, but in the end neither of us wanted to damage anything further. 

As I was debating whether or not to order the parts myself and call off the technician, they called to say they could come on Tuesday. Woohoo! When Sherod called to tell me he was on his way, I warned him that I was a bit of a novice repairwoman. I think he was a bit surprised when he arrived and started troubleshooting with me. We got on a phone call with a GE tech, but he could only guess that it was the relay boards too. So Sherod checked a few more things, asked a few more questions and we determined it was best to order all three relay boards and return the ones that weren't needed. He assured me I could replace them (and I have before so I wasn't worried about it). The only issue is that two of them are on backorder for 2 weeks! So yeah, still no oven. I'm being creative with cooking methods. Who knew you could do pasta in the instapot!? 

I leave you with some fun running pictures!

#1 mile time in the state!

Cavalier Relays

 It was another great day of track! Today we were local at another school in our district which was nice at one point I had to leave to let out Teddy and the dogs Paige is dog sitting this weekend. It's always nice when we can be in town!

We left pretty early this morning because Paige and Anna were in the 2nd event of the meet....the 4x800. Anna was especially glad to have her friend and fellow runner, Hayley, back. She has run with Mal and Anna in this event for a couple of years, but just finished playing basketball. Nothing like coming from winning the state championship and rolling straight on into the track season. Let's just say she was awesome and showed no signs of slowing down despite the long basketball season. Hayley passed the baton to Paige who then ran her leg, matching her PR and then passed it off to her sister. That was fun to watch! Anna ran the anchor leg and finished the race in 1st place for her team! One race down and 4 medals earned. 

A little while later, Paige participated in the Distance Medley Relay, running the opening leg of 1200. She's never run this particular race as it's not offered at every meet. She stuck with the front pack which had some experienced and older girls. I didn't realize how fast they were going because Paige held third position and then slipped to fourth. Turns out she finished in 4:09 which was only 10 seconds faster than one of our best runners ran it last year. In other words, Paige held her own against some great competition. The other girls on the relay did great and caught up one spot, holding on at the end to finish in 3rd place. Two races down and more medals. 

While all this was happening, Anna made sure she was resting and staying in the shade. Ha! My set up this track season has expanded to include the beach tent (which isn't used that often at the beach). I call it the VIP tent and the distance girls enjoy hanging out in there between races. Why they call it the hobo tent, I'll never know. 

Finally, Anna was up for the open mile. She's had a challenging start to the season, not meeting her personal goals while still having what I consider good races. She's ready to move to the next level, but I told her it takes time and patience as well as a good mental mindset. She took that to heart this week and decided to step up to the line telling herself that she wouldn't settle for anything less than a school record. Well, ok then! 

She led the race from the very start and didn't let up. One thing she finally realized is she can use her upper body strength she's been building through weightlifting this past winter. She's built some good strength, but up until this week forgot that she could use that instead of just her legs. It worked! In her last lap, she surged and finished the race in 5:14 with a new school record and PR! I could tell she was finally pleased and I know this boost of confidence will carry forward into the 3200. Third race done and another medal. 

I brought Anna home right after her race so she could go babysit. And Paige came home shortly after to go let out dogs. This has been a busy weekend for my runners/workers. All in all, everybody was happy and glad to wear their new bling. Both the boy's and girl's teams won the overall event!

Spring (not so) Break

Well, I didn't sit around during Spring Break and eat bon bons. Funny enough, I had a friend ask if I was going to travel when they found out my Spring Break was coming up. I was like "um, no!" My people are still full on doing work and school so I use the time to get a couple of things done. 

First up, my oven broke on Sunday so I was hard at work trying to figure out that issue while also being creative with the cooking this week. Thank goodness for a microwave and grill. The part finally arrive on Friday and unfortunately, it didn't fix the issue which I was afraid was going to happen. This new oven is so electronic now that it's harder for me to diagnose and actually get to the root of the problem. I'm guessing it's a thermal sensor or fuse, but I'm still researching and I did reach out to a repair person. We'll see what happens, but this no oven/stove thing is not easy!

I also did a TON of yard work, filling three tarps with leaves and debris. I was able to pick weeds in the beds, trim out dead stuff, get my garden back in shape, repair my drip line and other tasks that mean spring is here. I was happy to be able to plant some lettuce and snap peas in the garden. I sure am hoping we don't have that really hot weather again this summer. 

In the midst of the errands and chores, I had three playground meetings for our church. There's much to prepare as we will start out fundraising efforts once the 501(c)(3) is finalized. We are also working with our landscape architect to finalize their plans in order to pull permits and create a grading plan. I'll be prepping our marketing package for donors and grants in my spare time over the next few months. It's exciting with lots to do!

On Thursday, I helped chaperone Paige's orchestra CPA. This is where they go and get assessed as a group. The kids were behaved for the most part and easy to work with. My issue was the lack of preparation. Two of them showed up not even wearing concert black and I had to find things in the costume closet at school. Then the other bassist who Paige has to play with couldn't even do the scales in warm up. They earned a "Good" rating which was disappointing to Paige, but I had to remind her that her fellow students have some obstacles they have to overcome that are by no means their fault. She will have an opportunity to shine at a solo CPA later in May. 

After running my errands on Friday morning, my friend Emma and I went to have high tea at Laura's Tea Room. She's the British version of me and we walk together every week. When I saw the fun St. Patrick's Day menu, I knew I wanted to take her! We loved getting dressed up and doing something for us as we are both usually running around taking care of our families. She and I have been focused on making good health decisions and finding one thing each day that feeds our soul. It's been nice to have the accountability! 

So my classes are prepped for Monday and my Spring Break is done. It was definitely busy, but I'm glad I wasn't teaching at the same time many of these things happened. In other words, I guess it fell at just the right time because I was needed in other places! 

End of class, DC, track and oven

It has been a full week! I wrapped up my last week with my students. They had the Expo on Wednesday, so I didn't have to teach them on that day, but definitely responded to lots of email and then graded their summaries. The exam was on Thursday into Friday. After that, I put their final grades in and bam, done with my first spring group! Now I'm on Spring Break which sounds delightful except suddenly I have a ton on my to-do list. All of a sudden, I have three playground meetings and the darn oven stopped working. I think I've figured out that it's a switch associated with the cooling fan and I've ordered the part which will arrive later this week. Of course, this particular part is buried requiring me to take apart practically the whole oven. Yeesh! I'm not sure why it always happens this way, but it seems like my Spring Break is always filled with some sort of unexpected repair. 

In other news, Patrick went on a quick (as in 36 hours) trip to DC last week for NAGB. It's normally a two day trip, but DOGE cut that short and made his trip in May virtual instead of in-person. I'm not too upset about that because Paige's 8th grade promotion was at the same time and now he can make it to that. His meeting this time around was jam packed as they had to get a lot done in a short time. Apparently, Patrick made the career staff cry when he stood up for them in the face of cuts. I'm proud of him for making a difference where he can. 

He got home late Thursday and then on Friday he and Anna went to watch the girls' basketball team in the state championship game. It was in Florence so I was sure to pack up Anna's pre-race pasta dinner and off they went. Anna's track teammate, Hayley, plays basketball so she was excited to cheer for her and they won! 

When the girls aren't busy cheering for friends or doing homework, they are at the track. Sidenote: the third 9 weeks is almost done and the girls only have one quarter left! We had a meet in Charlotte this weekend. Patrick left early in the morning to watch the 4x800 which our two girls were not in. So we girls slept in and off he went, only to discover two of the girls did not show up. Let's just say it was a long day for him. 

It was another really windy day at the track so I brought some bungee cords and our beach tent. Both were handy! Paige enjoyed the tent with her friends and Anna posted up in the car to stay in the shade and AC. Plus my wagon came in handy again. Yay! 

Paige was up first to run the 800. She was in the third heat of five. It was a great race for her and she fought hard not to get boxed in and stay toward the front. By the 3rd 200 she was in 5th place, hanging close with the front pack. Apparently, that's when she said she woke up and told herself: time to go! So she passed the three runners in front of her, one at the line and came in 2nd place with a new PR of 2:40. We were all so excited for her!

Anna was up later in the 3200. They combined both heats of the girls which made for a HUGE race. She was seeded 2nd and the 1st place seed was crazy fast. It was amazing to watch her look so comfortable and win the race in 10:45. Anna also looked comfortable and held second place the entire time. Unfortunately, she had a goal of getting a new PR and wasn't quite there. It wasn't a bad race at all, and she's certainly ahead of where she was last year, but this next jump will be a tough one and will take some time. We also talked about a positive mental mindset so it was a good race to get straightened out. 

We all headed home and Paige took over her weekend dog sitting job. It was a long day and then the time change happened. Why are we still doing this time change thing?! Up this week: orthodontist, orchestra, CPA, hopefully an oven repair and more track!