Where the White Things Are: Birthdays and State

November 4th was Amber's 9th birthday, my 37th birthday, and the state cross country meet. We did our best to help Amber feel celebrated and special while sharing her birthday with her mother and the state cross country meet. I did MY best to help myself feel celebrated while sharing my birthday with my daughter and the state cross country meet. Doing our best was the theme of the day. Our boys cross country team did their best with what the day gave them at the state meet, which included rain, a slick muddy course, injuries, inexperience, and sickness. We finished 16th out of 16 teams, but Andrew Garcia, our number one runner, finished in 11th place and got All State honors, a personal recruitment invitation from the Gonzaga University cross country coach, and a sweet medal. All in the cold pouring rain.

In preparation for giving my birthday over to my daughter and the team I help coach, I did some early personal celebrating throughout the week. I bought myself some new piano sheet music, a merino wool dress, and a kindle book. Books, music, and merino forever and ever. I also got myself some bright cheerful yellow flowers at the grocery store. On Thursday night (Nov. 2nd), Jeff took me out on a birthday dinner date at the nearest Thai place 2 towns/25 minutes away from our house. It was a treat to eat a meal all alone together and spend the entire drive there and back alone together. On Friday (November 3rd), my sweet friend Danae brought me flowers and we chatted for an hour. My BFF college roommate friend Laurs (who shares my birthday) mailed me some protein powder after a conversation we had a week ago. My dear Mom sent me three birthday cards and a cute new apron. These are my people and I love them.

Amber decided to open her birthday presents on Saturday morning (Nov. 4th) and have her birthday dinner on Sunday evening. So she opened her presents on her birthday morning and was very happy with her Pokemon cards, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and the various books that she wanted. Simple pleasures. Jeff and I put each item, no matter how small, into a separate large bag, so Amber had six bags to open, but only a small stack of gifts once she opened them all. One of our favorite parenting tricks.

I wish I could say that my sweet kids gave me heartwarming birthday cards, but they didn't. I wish I could say that my husband gave me a birthday love letter like I always want and a gift or something in addition to our birthday dinner date, but he didn't. To be fair, I didn't specify what I wanted for my birthday this year, but also, nobody asked. It's not like I was sitting around judging and waiting for my family to DO THINGS for me; I simply didn't have the energy to spell out to them exactly how I wanted my birthday to go. My whiny inner voice says "if you love someone, shouldn't you actively try to think of ways to help them feel special on and around their birthday?" Alas, it was up to me. So I chose to give myself gifts. On Sunday I did suffer from a large dollop of birthday angst. It seems like birthday basics within a family should include a meal, a card, and a gift, but alas. I am the invisible woman after all. I am doing my best to be happy with the birthday celebrations I eked out for myself, because depending on other people for my personal happiness is pointless.

The bus left for the state meet at noon on Saturday, with a police escort! It was fun having a police car in front and behind us, letting us through the two red lights and across the railroad tracks without stopping. I felt an unexpected swell of emotion as cars pulled over to let the flashing police lights past. It was the first time a non-family member of us coaches or of the kids on our team showed support for our Sunnyside High School cross country team. We are always forgotten, underfunded, and shoved aside even by the high school itself, so having the town stop and watch our big yellow bus drive past with police cars on both sides felt extra special.

It had rained a lot over night and throughout the morning, but while we were at the state meet, the rain held off until after the boys finished their race. While we were waiting for Andrew's name to be called for his medal, the clouds lowered and suddenly we were standing in a 48 degree downpour. Packing up the team tents and tarps in the downpour was slippery, muddy, and memorable. We trudged/swam our way a third of a mile over to where our bus was parked and arrived looking half drowned. We went to Denny's in Sunnyside after the meet with 15 kids and five adults (3 coaches, 2 parents). Jeff and I got home around 7:30pm. It somehow was an 8 hour day!

Rose and Amber stayed home while we were at the state meet. They played ping pong over at the barn, played video games, and Rose made a big pancake dinner: pancakes from scratch, sausage patties, eggs, and OJ. With carrots on the side, haha. Rose texted me a picture of their dinner and said "Better than Denny's!" She even cleaned everything up, including hand washing and drying the griddle and putting it away. She told me later, "It is a lot of work to cook AND clean everything up all by myself!" Welcome to my world, daughter. I didn't love being away from Amber for 8 hours of her birthday, but I love that she and Rose had such a good afternoon and evening together.

The next evening was the much-anticipated birthday dinner with the local extended family. Except Jeff was in bed with a fever and only Grampa Dan and Grama Leslie ended up coming, so it was a much smaller gathering than we expected. Amber was rather sad not to see her cousins, and I very much missed the support of my husband while cooking and hosting and cleaning up afterwards. Jay and Rose helped with everything I specifically asked them to do, and Amber enjoyed her mac and cheese and donuts.

Happy birthday to Amber!

Happy birthday to me!

Amber loved her birthday book, card, and $9 from Grama Meri and Grampa Charley. I let her open them early a few days before her birthday, right when they came in the mail.

My happy flowers.

My warm hug of a merino wool dress.

Thai food birthday dinner! Jeff's hair was still in its awful shaved patchy mullet at this point; hence the hat.

The progression of Amber's white board countdown about sums it all up, haha.

Friday night we went to do a preview of the state course. Thankfully it was in Pasco, which is only an hour away from Sunnyside.

Birthday girl, birthday presents! Not sure why the Rubix cube made it to the gift table...it's not new.

Amber with her stash of presents: books, cards, and markers.

Police escort out of town on our way to the state meet! I wonder how many of those cars pulled over on the left knew why there were two police cars guiding a school bus through town, haha.

Our boys, walking it back after a stride out at the starting line.

The boys 4A state cross country starting line. The last race of the day was ours. The course was beat up and mucky from rain and hundreds of other feet churning it up.

Andrew was three across leading the race at the one mile mark!

Love this group: Garcia, Cisneros, Osorio, Castilleja, Gutierrez, and Condie. And Coach White.

Andrew in the 11th place spot on the podium! In the pouring rain!

Snorkeling through the rain back to our bus. These kids are great--10+ kids from the team came on the bus to support our boys varsity team at the state meet.

Denny's dinner. Everyone was so wet.

Here's the picture that Rose sent me while I was at Denny's with the team with the caption "Better than Denny's." She was proud of her homemade pancakes. (no pancake mix!) And she was totally right--her pancakes were better than anything we got at Denny's. Denny's food is generally underwhelming.