Blind Voodoo plus two

Last weekend, Jeff and I went to the Nike Track and Field Coaching Clinic in Portland, Oregon. We rode in a school van with three other Sunnyside track coaches and stayed overnight on the school district's dime, just like last year. This was my second coaching conference and it was eye-opening to see how far I have come in my "coaching journey" in the past year. Last year at this time, I was a freshly hired, slightly overwhelmed, first-time head middle school track coach. I took frenzied notes at every clinic session I could attend at the conference. This year, I was able to think more critically and use my previous track season of experience to filter information from the conference into what would actually help me coach the team I have, in the town we live in. It was nice being less frenzied and more "seasoned," even if my head track and field coaching experience is only one 7 week season long. 

On Friday (Feb 9th) in Portland, after a coaches' meeting lunch, we walked over to the Adidas Employee Store, where we received a 50% discount on everything. Since Sunnyside High School has a uniform contract with Adidas, that makes us Adidas Employees (somewhat peripherally), and eligible for an annual deep discount trip to their store. Generally Adidas apparel is to "averaged out" for my height, frame, and build, but I do love their super shoes. Last year when we went to the Adidas store, they didn't have any of their super running shoes, but this year, we scored! There was an entire isle with all of the latest greatest Adidas super shoes (next-gen ultralight running shoes with carbon plates that put an insane spring in each step). And they were all 50% off! Needless to say, we stocked up.

After Adidas, we went downtown to Portland's famous Voodoo Donuts, where I had the best maple bacon donut of my life. It was my first time at Voodoo, and it lived up to the hype. Voodoo Donut is so popular that they have railings outside for customers to line up zigzag style on the sidewalk while waiting for their turn. Thankfully we went at a less-crowded time (3pm) so we only had to wait a few minutes. Only two parties were allowed inside the tiny donut shop at a time, and there was an actual security guard manning the door. A bouncer at a donut shop! This country is awesome.

After Voodoo Donuts, we checked into the hotel (the conference was held at the Portland Airport Sheraton Hotel). The conference began with a few sessions right after dinner. The highlight of the night for us was the elite athlete panel. We knew that four time Olympian distance runner Galen Rupp was going to be there, and when we walked into the conference room, suddenly THERE HE WAS. My first thought was "he looks like Michael Condie!" (Michael was the first high schooler that Jeff coached all the way to the state cross country meet back in 2018). At the conference, we walked right past Galen before double-taking and U-turning back to say hi. What do you say when the four time Olympian just ran in the US Olympic Marathon Trials less than a week before and didn't make the team? Haha. Galen graciously thanked us for our "it was a tough race" type of comments, and said "that's the nature of the sport." We shook hands and told him he reminded us of a kid we coached. Coach Winger took a picture of Jeff and me with Galen, and Jeff told Galen "no wonder you look like a monster on the starting line! You're tall for a distance runner!" Galen laughed and said "yeah, the guys I run against are pretty small." That was it. This paragraph is longer than our actual interaction with Galen, but it was my first time meeting an Olympian, and it was cool!

The elite athlete panel was divided into two sections: half an hour with three female track and field Olympians and half an hour with two Olympic Marathoners (including Galen Rupp). It was fascinating to hear what they all had to say about running and training. LOVED IT. All five athletes were incredibly well spoken. Being in a room full of coaches listening to five Olympians talk about running was the ultimate running nerd session, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Wow, I was not planning on writing that much about the coaching conference. It was fun! We left a bit early on Saturday afternoon so we could make it home in time for Rose and Amber's ensemble piano recital, which was at 7pm on Saturday, February 10th. Rose and Amber played a duet in the recital and Rose played a song with five other kids on 4 pianos (2 kids per piano). They did well! I was so relieved that we made it back in time! Grama Leslie drove Rose and Amber to the church for their last rehearsal, and we pulled in not long before the actual recital. 

The other musical performance of the week was Amber's 3rd grade music program, which was actually on February 8th, the night before Jeff and I left for Portland. It was 26 minutes of kids singing and doing arm motions. Their music teacher did an impressive job teaching the kids all of the words to five songs, plus actions to go along with them. Amber was so happy to perform for us. It was cute, even though sitting through this type of program is not my favorite. I reminded myself that as a parent, I only have two more years with an elementary school child, so I can handle all of it because it will be over in no time.

The 3rd grade concert: Amber is the 6th kid from the right on the back row.

We had the Sunnyside track coaches' meeting at a pizza place in Portland, but I forgot my lactase dairy digestive aid pill so I had to order the only cheese-free item on the menu: a vegan pizza. It tasted great, but there was zero protein on it so it was like a thin piece of bread with leaves and veggies on top. Not exactly filling!

Vegan pizza left me with plenty of space to enjoy a large maple bacon Voodoo donut. 

We got the Voodoo dozen (pre-selected donuts) so we had plenty to share with other coaches and to take home to our kids. My dreamy maple bacon bar is on the bottom.

Chatting with Galen Rupp. He was so nice!

On Saturday morning in Portland, I enjoyed a glorious Saturday morning sunrise run along the Columbia River, with Mt. Hood popping on the golden horizon. 

We were right by the Portland airport, so planes kept taking off right over my head. It kind of tempered the zen-ness of my riverfront sunrise run, haha.

Slowly the sun crept over the slope of Mt. Hood.

For the first few minutes after the sun came over the horizon, the landscape was lit in molten gold. It was magical. It was gone as quickly as it came.

One lame picture from the back of the ensemble piano recital--that's Rose in the blue floral dress kind of in the middle.

A few more pictures from the past week:

Jay worked and slaved on his science fair project all week, which was creating a type of plastic from eggshells and a few other ingredients. His fourth or fifth attempt was cohesive enough for tensile strength testing, and he was very glad to be done with crushing eggshells, mixing ingredients, and waiting while it baked three nights in a row. 

In her science class, Amber studied pill bugs. Each kid got to bring their pill bug and habitat home after the unit ended, which was this week. Amber now has a pill bug named Sora (after a dragon in one of her favorite books) living in a jar in her bedroom. For a girl who fears spiders as much as Amber does, I was surprised she wanted Sora the pill bug in her bedroom.

There Sora is, crawling on a leaf underneath the bottom of the number 5. Sora's companion, Phil, died at school.

I did battle with our clothes dryer attachments for the third or fourth time in the 3 months since we moved. I think I finally got everything firmly attached. That stretchy metal duct kept slipping off! I had to climb back behind the dryer and get serious this time. I think it worked. That type of finnicky fiddly project is my absolute least favorite type of household work. It takes forever, it is incredibly frustrating, and it MUST be done, so there's no way out but through. 

The Blind Guy came on Wednesday and installed blinds on all of our windows! The actual business is called Blind Guy. The guy was super fast and did all of our windows in barely 2 hours! It is so nice being able to close the blinds at night.

Blinds! No more fishbowl windows at night!

Speaking of blind, all three kids had eye appointments this week, and Amber needs glasses for the first time! She picked out some frames and we ordered them.

Wednesday was the 18th anniversary of mine and Jeff's first date (also known as Valentine's Day). Jeff had an appointment two towns over in Prosser, so he took the day off and we went out for Thai food after his appointment. Prosser is a tiny town without much restaurant variety, but thankfully there's a good Thai place!

Date picture! Even though we don't have a picture from our first date for comparison, we've been dating for 18 years!

There was no school on Friday, February 16th, so we had a pre-track-season conditioning workout at our barn with twenty or so kids. We went on a run with most of the kids, and a few stayed in the barn to do some weights with Jeff's dad Dan, who is coaching the high school throwers this year. It's been pretty fun having Grampa Dan involved in track with us so far! Since the high school track coaching staff has Coach Dan White and Coach Jeff White, Jeff has decided to have the kids call Dan White "Coach Dad." Haha, we'll see if the name sticks. ANYWAYS, this picture is of Jay and his friends piling into our van after practice on Friday. Jeff drove them to another friend's house where they had an intense Nerf gun battle.

It was a gorgeous sunny day on Friday, so while Jeff, Rose, and I worked on organizing the barn and shed, we gave Amber a job that was right up her alley: she started knocking down gopher mounds and mixing Mole-x into the dirt. The battle has officially begun! Hopefully Mole-x is enough to get the rodents to leave our yard. All it does is make the dirt taste bad to the creatures though, so we may have to resort to less humane methods in the future. Amber was very industrious and really enjoyed digging up the mounds with her mini shovel. She kept working when the rest of us had found a stopping point! Go Amber! I just hope she never actually sees a gopher or mole, because then she may never go outside again...

Jay brought home his bass over the long weekend to get in some practice that he missed while working on his science fair project all week. He usually finds time to practice while he's at the school because the bass is rather cumbersome to bring home, and it doesn't even fit in Jeff's car so we have to remember to bring the van to load it up.

I snagged this picture of Rose in the hallway because I realized I only had taken one picture of her since her birthday! I love having photo memories from every day of the year, but this past week was not very photogenic so it will be a bald spot in my photo memories in the future.

On Saturday morning, Jeff installed a new doorknob on the barn, with a keypad. As he was heading out to get started, I told him good luck, to which he responded "It says SIMPLE DIY installation. This should be quick and easy." I laughed and said, "Famous last words!" and then took this picture to commemorate his good mood pre-project. It turned out to be relatively easy after all, and he didn't run into any major issues, thankfully.

The girls made our "Brain Flakes" building toy into color-coded clusters. Classic Rose: organizational play.

Next, Rose and Amber built a flowery dome out of the Brain Flakes.

On Saturday, Amber wrote a talk to give in primary at church. I was off driving either Jay or Rose to or from a friend's house, so Jeff was in charge of giving Amber cues on what to write. He is better at letting kids keep it short. I tend to push for more details and a personal story, but I loved how simple and true Amber's words were. "When I keep the commandments I feel comforted and happy. We all are free to choose the right and to choose the wrong. God will always love us no matter what." I like how she OWNED her words in her sign-off: "Talk written by Amber White." 

On Sunday morning I saw her sitting on the couch writing in a notebook. She told me "I like to write scripture notes every week." She basically summarizes the scripture summary in the picture scripture book, but it makes her happy and she is super sweet trying to learn scripture stories.

Life is busy and often frustrating. (Will the workers ever actually finish all of those little random items on our house? Why can't my fingers untangle that line of piano music? How many times do I have to turn off the lights, push in the chairs, and put away the milk before I actually do go insane?) Winter weather is usually cold, dark, and gloomy. Even amidst the busy frustrating cold darkness, slivers of happy light keep peeking through. We have one week of inter-season bliss before the final grind of the schoolyear begins: high school track season.