Middle School Track week 1

 Week one is done! My second season as head middle school track coach began on Monday, March 18th. I learned a lot last year and I'm doing my best to apply it to my team this year. In the first week of practice, we had no concussions, no broken bones, and no faceplants. Nobody even needed a bandaid until Friday, and that was a minor scrape. 44 kids signed up for my middle school track team, but only 31 have showed up total, and only 23 came on thr first day of practice. I was underwhelmed by the numbers because last year we had 39 kids who came relatively consistently. But small groups are easier to manage, so I can't complain! 

Sunshine

The week started out chilly and windy, but mellowed out into several back-to-back glorious 60-70 degree sunny days. We basked, and then got a bit overheated and thirsty at the high school track meet on Saturday because we weren't used to all of that sunshine and warmth--by Saturday afternoon it was 76 degrees! 

On Monday, we signed all of the last papers to close on our house! It was definitely backwards because we moved into the house 3 months ago, but since we were purchasing the house from my parents, that's just how the timeline worked out. We feel so humbled by and grateful for this house, especially for the large portion of its value that was a gift from my parents. Our mortgage is exactly what we can afford, but it does not cover the entire value of the house. Hence the immense gratitude at the gift!

Three concerts and a meet

 While looking through the small handful of pictures I took this week today, I felt a little pang of nostalgia. We are out of the "cute" stage. Jay, Rose, and Amber are growing up more and more, and I can't just snap cute pictures of them playing, eating, and sleeping anymore. It made me miss having endless opportunities to take and treasure up pictures of my younger children. I realized yet again that we really are out of the little kid stage. I don't miss messes and diapers and crying AT ALL. But even though I will always think my kids are cute, this teenage phase is less photographically cute and therefore I take less pictures in general each week. I'm not sure where I was going with these musings, but those are my thoughts right now.

Track, Glasses, Dahlia

High school track practice began this week. Even though track did mostly take over our life, we did have a few other things happen too.

• High school track practice started with spectacular spring weather: hail on day one. 
• I went to high school track practices all week long to help sort the new kids into event groups. It was fun, but also yucky uncomfy weather. I did get to see a whole bunch of our dear cross country kids at the beginning of practice each day, which was a highlight. Love those kids.
• Amber got glasses! Rose got new glasses frames, and now they almost match.
• We went to Burger King with Grampa Dan and Grama Leslie on Thursday to have whopper hamburgers for dinner in memorial of Great Grandpa White (he loved whoppers).
• Trying to learn hard piano songs reminded me yet again that in spite of all my practicing, I am a very basic unskilled unlearned piano player at best.
• 15-20 mph WIND attacked us every day at track practice. At home, we staked down our trampoline so it wouldn't blow away.
• Jeff hosted a high school track team time trial on Saturday in the WIND, setting up the complicated automatic timing system in just 90 minutes. Jay ran a 1600 PR of 5:42! I was the clerk, reading out names and lane assignments for all of the races. We were only at the track for 4 hours, but it was exhausting!
• During the time trial, my important high school athletics key fell out of my pocket, and I didn't notice it was gone until I got home. With the help of a few slightly desperate prayers, I went back to the track and miraculously found it a few hours later. 
• We drove to and from Seattle on Sunday, March 3rd for our sweet niece/cousin Dahlia's baby blessing! Starting at 6am, we did the 3 hour drive, stayed in Seattle for 5.5 hours, and then drove home 3 hours. (Bonus points to Jeff for driving the entire way!) It was a special day to gather with family to celebrate a new baby. Everyone loved taking turns holding Dahlia. HAPPY family day. I was so glad to be there for it.