Where the White Things Are: Flooring, Selecting, & Running

Another week has flown by in such a busy blur, it's hard to remember specific things that happened.

Our future backyard, grass pending.

Here's what comes to mind:

On Monday, I cleaned melted crayon out of our dryer and replaced the towels it destroyed. That task made my top 3 list of all time worst household chores of all time, second only to cleaning up vomit and cleaning all of the various horrific messes that happened during the toddler potty training phase.
Also on Monday, after cross country practice we did the routine-yet-still-tricky quick dash home to grab food (10 minutes at home max) and then straight to piano lessons while Rose and Amber ate their dinner in the car.
On Tuesday, I met with our contractor and got a list of selections to make for our house: countertops, cabinet handles, doorknobs, etc. Can I fully recognize the massive blessing it is to have a custom home renovation while also stating that being the only decision maker for the zillion details in this process is not easy and not my favorite? So many decisions = exhausting!
On Tuesday, the workers started installing the kitchen cabinets in our new house. So exciting!
On Wednesday, I had my last physical therapy appointment and officially "graduated" to a strength and conditioning program to continue rehabbing my wimpiest muscles into functional buff-ness.
On Wednesday, the landscapers finished planting grass in our new backyard. They did hydroseed, which is supposed to grow super fast. Fingers crossed it works!
On Thursday, I went to the tri cities to pick out all of that house design stuff. So much decision fatigue!
On Friday, all of the hard flooring was finished in our new house! Beautiful blond laminate planks, wall to wall. Now all that's left for the flooring is tile in bathrooms and carpet in bedrooms! Our contractor says everything is on schedule to be finished by mid October. That is soon! I am mentally braced for it to take longer, but still--so soon! Because what this busy tiring cross country season needs is a move. Hah!
We had cross country practice in 85+ degree heat every day after school: draining.
On Saturday, we took 45 high schoolers, 17 middle schoolers, 4 coaches, and one Amber to the Wenatchee Invitational for our weekly cross country meet. It was a 13.5 hour day, with 5 of those hours on a school bus.
In Wenatchee, Rose ran her 1.55 mile race in a PR of 11:37, finished 5th, was awarded a "top ten" t-shirt, and snagged another middle school record for that distance.
In Wenatchee, Jay ran a JV boys 5k race in the heat, with a PR of 21:06, finishing 57th out of 177 runners.
The Wenatchee meet was enormous (1400 runners total) and competitive, and a ton of fun to watch and coach. Jeff and I both got hoarse from all of the cheering. 33 of our 45 high school runners got personal records on an unseasonably hot day (85 degrees--gag). That is a huge number for this early in the season when we are training them through meets. (In other words, they ran fast on tired legs.)

Pictures:

Amber and Rose do a fair amount of waiting around while we finish up high school cross country practice. One day they dug a small hole and made a miniature mud mixture in the middle of the grass, using a pencil and a discarded water bottle.

Microwaved leftovers for dinner in the van on the way to piano lessons!

Permanent blue crayon stains in our 6 month old dryer. Seriously. Ugh. I followed Crayola's instructions and scrubbed it all with a Magic Eraser, then ran a clean old towel with the dryer on high to make sure nothing would get stained. It worked. The mental toll was weighty, though. Ugh.

The Crayon Incident seeped into my daily artwork.

Replacing the ruined crayon towels.

Rose found 16 four-leaf clovers while waiting after cross country practice one day! Apparently four leaf clovers grow in patches. Rose felt extra extra lucky.

I love seeing what Amber chooses to wear to school every day. On this day, she tucked her rainbow shirt into her floral shorts and said she was ready to run.

Getting into the car after my last PT appointment! I always feel ridiculous taking selfies in public, but I had to document this milestone. It took 3 months of weekly appointments and 3 months of twice-a-week appointments to mend/strengthen my injuries/weaknesses. Now I will do a 2 month strength and conditioning program with my physical therapist to really lock in and build on what I did in physical therapy. It has been a LOT of work, time, and energy, but I love learning and doing this stuff. It is empowering to take control of weaknesses (hip, glute, hammy, shoulder) that have plagued me for years.

Saturday, September 16th: the Wenatchee Invitational

The beginning of Rose's 7th grade race. (that's Rose in the white hat, slightly to the left in this picture)

Rose, heading for the finish line!

Rose proudly wearing her top 10 finisher t-shirt!

Jay, running with his teammate Manuel during the second mile. Jay ran in the JV 11th/12th grade race because the meet director asked coaches to shift some 9th/10th graders up to even out the race numbers. These high school races were massive, with 170-245 runners in each race!

Jay, happily heading to the finish line!

Our team, melting in the sun while waiting for the awards to begin after the meet. For high school, there were 3 boys races (2 JV, 1 varsity race) and 2 girls races (JV and varsity). Our varsity boys team placed 4th out of 26 teams!!!!!!!!! And one of our top five guys was sick! This is new territory for us, having a team strong enough to compete together against some of the best schools in the state! Our two JV boys teams placed 12th/23 teams and 5th/13 teams, so very respectable showings all around. Our high school girls all ran the JV girls race and placed 7th out of 17 teams.

Long 2.5 hour bus ride home from Wenatchee. It was hot. I sweated the entire day nonstop. Misery is having sweaty legs stick to too-small vinyl school bus seats.

The team loves bus rides! Jay got a game of Dungeons and Dragons going with several guys.

Jeff and I squirmed and shifted positions all the way home, trying to minimize the no-shocks school bus damage to our musculoskeletal systems. With a low success rate, haha.

Jay was amused to get yet another tank top sunburn.

Progress on our new house:

At my request, the landscapers moved a random pile of rocks that was in the middle of the driveway and spread the rocks out on the north side of the barn. It turned out looking quite nice, even though this picture has dramatic shadows that make it hard to see the full effect.

The smooth smooth backyard, ready to be planted.

I almost didn't post this picture because it makes my head spin. This is SOME of the countertop options on display in the store. It was nightmarish to walk in and see all of the options! Thankfully there was a designer there to advise me, but STILL. It was a lot.