Sun, snot, & swim

It was sunny every single day this week--a pure anomaly for January in Sunnyside. The sun was COLD, though, with temps in the teens every night and frost on the ground every morning. It would warm up to the mid-30s by afternoon though, so the ice on the canal never got firm enough for skating--much to mine and Amber's dismay. The words sun, snot, and swim pretty much sum up the week, but I'll add in a few journal entries to round it out. 

Monday, January 20th: Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! No school. It was also Trump's presidential inauguration today. Such a terrible juxtaposition of events. Four years isn't that long, right?? No, it is pretty long. Rose will be a senior in high school when Trump's term ends. I didn't watch the inauguration, but instead chose to read about it in an NPR article. That felt better for my sanity.

This morning I woke up at 3:30am and never went back to sleep. It was maddening. Having a cold wrecks my sleep every time! NyQuil is too heavy for me, but apparently I can't stay asleep without it? 

I ran and lifted in the barn this morning because it was 22 degrees outside. I placed an order for Costco same day grocery delivery, which saved me a trip to the store...except the delivery guy only brought half of the milk I ordered, so I'll still have to go to the store this week. 

I played my beautiful Steinway piano for an hour, but my fingers were not very cooperative today and it was one of those uphill practice sessions with very little satisfaction. 

Tuesday, January 21st: Today I forgot to take the 12 hour real Sudafed early enough for it to wear off by bedtime tonight, so I had to survive with just the weaker fake decongestant all day. My head was throbbing and so stuffed! I am ready for this head cold to end. Sigh. It was sunny today, so I felt happy in spite of my pulsing sinuses. I had to do battle with the barn wall heater. It was making an alarming noise so I turned it off and called the HVAC guy (after getting his number from our contractor). The HVAC guy is coming tomorrow to fix the heater. 

I had to postpone my temple appointment AGAIN so I can be here for the HVAC guy tomorrow. The first two times I postponed this temple trip was over Christmas break when it was going to be a date with Jeff. Jeff was feeling sick the first week, then my period started and the weather looked questionable all in the second week of break. Mom was here for the week following that, so I scheduled a new temple appointment for the week after she left (last week). But I got sick the night before that appointment (and I'm still dealing with the snotty fallout from that). So I scheduled an appointment for this week (tomorrow), but had to change it to Friday due to the unexpected HVAC fix. My hopes are at half mast for a successful temple visit on Friday. I don't exactly feel guilty when I keep postponing a temple trip, because I know that I am trying and the Lord loves and sees effort. But I do feel sad that circumstances keep getting in the way! I want to spend time in the temple and soak in that peace.

We started reading in the book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon for family scripture tonight, since we finished the weekly D&C verses yesterday. We chose Jacob because why not? We don't have to start at the very beginning, and this way we're already past the Isaiah chapters--haha. Reading the Book of Mormon always feels like coming home. 

Jeff and Jay have a swim meet in Wenatchee tomorrow until late late late. I'll be lucky to see them at 11pm...but I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake that long! Even though I don't have to go to Wenatchee, I don't even want to go out in the dark cold and drive the girls to and from the church for their activities tomorrow night. Why can't I just be ok with going out at night? I'm not scared of it, but I really really don't like going out in the cold pitch dark! And it's been so cold at night for the past 4+ days! In the teens! It makes my face hurt. 

Wednesday, January 22nd: This text that I sent to Mom this morning pretty much sums up my day today:

Mommmmm! Jeff and Jay have a swim meet in Wenatchee tonight so I won't see them until after 11pm which I might not even be awake for, and I feel lonely already! ☹️ And I had to cancel my temple appointment today so I can be home for the HVAC guy to come fix the barn heater. And "clean bathrooms" is on my to do list today. 

I could've added this to the text too: Annnnd, sleep will be rough again tonight, thanks to my stuffy head.

Ok, I typed all of that this morning when I was feeling forlorn and daunted by the day, but I managed to salvage my day after the HVAC guy finally came and left. 

When I picked up Rose and Amber from school, they were bursting with News: Rose gets to play the piano with her orchestra for one of their songs. She got the music today and she's excited to have her piano abilities recognized, and also glad she doesn't have to play the cello part to that song which "is so boring." Amber said "I overcame one of my fears today." She went on to tell how she was scared to do a flip/spin on the bar on the playground, but she asked a friend to hold her glasses, got her courage up, tried it, and loved it so much she did the flip spin on the bar over and over! My cute cute girls. 

On the way home from school, I asked Rose if she wanted to go on a run together. She said yes! In order to make the most of the last sunlight of the day, we quickly changed clothes right when we got home. We went on a 3 mile jog in the golden late afternoon sunshine together. Our steps were totally in sync for at least half of the run-- our legs are similar lengths. We talked and basked in the day's last rays of sunshine. It was a balmy 40 degrees-- quite the temperature swing up from 17° this morning. We both felt rejuvenated and happy when we finished our run. It was a happy mother daughter outing. I love my Rose. 

Meanwhile, Jay was acing his swim meet in Wenatchee. Jeff sent me live updates via text message as the meet progressed. Jay swam 2 relays, plus 2 individual events (200 yd freestyle-- 2:26, and the 100 yard backstroke-- 1:15), and he got PRs in all four races! Bonus: all of those PRs were also new school records! Go Jay!

I drove the girls to and from their church activities tonight. Usually Jeff picks them up at 8pm but he was still gone at the swim meet so I drove both legs. I had one hour and 12 minutes at home between drives. Going out at night in the cold darkness is one of the worst parts about winter.

Thursday, January 23rd: I did not sleep well last night. It doesn't take much to mess with my sleep, but having stuffy sinuses is extra disruptive. This morning once everyone was at school, four friends came over to do a workout with me in the barn. I had a workout written on the white board with careful calculations estimating it would last one hour. I was right! Woot! It was fun having friends to work out with. My arms are so dead!

I got totally absorbed in piano playing today and played for over an hour before I realized what time it was! It felt like 20 minutes at most had passed, but it was an entire hour! I don't know if I'm improving a ton right now, but I'm interested and engaged and I do see small improvements here and there every now and then. And it's fun. 

So. Tired. It's not even 9pm yet...zzzzz...

[end journal entries]

I didn't write in my journal on Friday or Saturday. I was too tired and not much happened on those days. We had family movie night on Friday, and Jay had a swim meet on Saturday. Rose, Amber and I went to the meet. Jeff asked Rose and I to be timers at the meet, since the team managers didn't attend. So I packed my sandals and dressed in quick dry leggings in preparation, and felt like a total swim meet veteran even though this is all still pretty new to me. When we arrived at the meet at 10am, one of the officials asked me if I would shadow a stroke judge to start learning how to do that job, so I agreed. Rose wielded a stopwatch and I followed a short woman around while she explained what flaws in each swim stroke looked like. It was exhausting. I got soaked from splashes, since we were situated at the starting blocks. But I learned a lot about swim strokes, and it was very interesting. 

Jay swam so well, but ended up getting flagged for his start in the 500 yard freestyle. When the starter says "on your mark," swimmers have to crouch down and be still on the blocks. If they aren't still, the starter has them stand up and try again. At the start of Jay's 500, the starter didn't have the swimmers stand up again when Jay wasn't fully situated and still on the blocks. So Jay was still moving slightly as the starter sounded the starting beep. For some reason they chose to DQ Jay for that even though it seemed to us that it was a starter error, not a swimmer error. Jay did not get a head start; if anything his start was hampered because he didn't push off the blocks from a still, loaded position. Oh well. Jay swam his fastest 500 ever! He placed 5th in the fast heat with a time of 6:29--another 6 seconds off his PR, although officially it doesn't count due to the lame call at the start. Swimming is so technical, and the stroke judges at this meet were quite strict. I think I might not be a great candidate for stroke judge because I feel far more likely to cut the swimmers some slack than the average judge, because swimming is hard! 

PICTURES: 

Family scripture on Monday: we listened to a huge chunk of Joseph Smith History, and this view made me laugh.

Rose and Amber made a huge fort on Monday. 

Peeking inside the mega-fort.

A very crisp cold morning on my way back to the house after a barn treadmill run. Even dashing that 15 feet between the barn and house felt COLD.

Boring pictures of the outdoor portion of the barn mini split heater--water had dripped off the roof and frozen in huge frosty icy chunk inside and on top of the fan unit. The HVAC guy replaced the defrosting mechanism and advised us to protect the unit from roof runoff. I researched some options and hopefully found a good solution. I was dying to talk to Jeff about it and get his thoughts, but he was at the swim meet by this point so I called my Dad and then did some research and felt relieved when I figured out the solution. Instead of texting Jeff a summary of all that, I simply texted him "In case you're wondering, I am awesome." Jeff's response was pretty much the best:

Basically what Jeff's response really shows is how AMAZING JEFF IS!

My live update text stream straight from the head swim coach on Wednesday night.

Post run sunset selfie with my Rose girl.

Amber sometimes reads on the way to school. Other days she chatters endlessly about playground games and kid-imposed rules and all of the injustices and fun that entails.

I went for a morning run before heading to the swim meet on Saturday, and had to take a picture of the clear beautiful [COLD] view north on Cemetery Road--one of my favorite running routes.

Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy! I was too tired for this run, but I couldn't resist getting a quick jog in the fresh air in the sun under the bright blue sky.

Home sweet home. Even though it was cold, I walked up our long driveway as a relaxing transition out of exercise mode. Normally that transition is called a "cooldown" but on a 25 degree morning, that just sounded too harsh. Haha.

Mt. Adams has been clear on the horizon all week--I love seeing it out my back window.

I exercised my "stroke judge shadow" privileges and took this picture of Jay and his buddy Noah right before they swam the 500 freestyle on Saturday. I try my best not to take too many pictures at meets because I'm a parent and a coach and I don't want to drive my kids crazy. But I'm glad I got this picture. Jay is totally flexing.

The second elbow from the left is Jay's elbow! Swim pictures are not easy.

Again, second elbow from the left is Jay in the 500.

Yay, Jay!

Rose, Amber, and I stopped at Costco on our way home from the swim meet. It was an absolute madhouse. Costco on a Saturday afternoon was not a good idea, but Amber really wanted a hot dog for her lunch (Rose and I got Panda Express but Amber convinced us to stop at Costco too). Our hair is all frizzy from spending three hours in the humid chemical-spritzed air of the pool at the swim meet.

Amber got to take the three extra carnations home after the swim meet. It was senior recognition, so each senior on the team got a flower to give to a family member. Amber got to hold the bag of flowers and help hand them out, and she was overjoyed to take home the extras.

Mt. Adams on the clear clear horizon at sunset last night. This view fills all 8 of the south and west-facing windows of our house in a glorious panorama.