Flowers, sugar, and track meets

Flowers, sugar, and two track meets defined our week: Our lawn is polka-dotted with happy yellow dandelions, and our pear trees are blooming fluffy white blossoms. In a mid-season, tired-and-maxed-out effort to celebrate Holy Week more fully, I got a variety of sweet treats from the store and we had one every time we read some Easter-related scriptures as a family. Hopefully it made the week and the scriptures sweeter on more than just the tastebud level. And of course, there were two track meets this week: our first middle school meet and yet another high school meet. I spent nearly 14 hours at track meets this week! One was cold and windy; one was hot and sunburn-y.

The pear trees in our front yard bloomed beautifully.

Monday and Tuesday I felt very dull and tired (thanks to hormones plus the intense previous Saturday of working our home meet). I didn't take any pictures on those days, so let's skip to Wednesday, which was the first middle school track meet of the season. Yes, it was halfway through week 5 of our 9 week season before we had our first meet. I am contract-bound not to speak ill of my superiors in the athletic department, so no juicy opinionated paragraphs will follow. This season of middle school track is teaching me how to find joy in the daily journey at practice rather than relying on the destination-- track meets. 

The middle school track meet went well, but it was so long! Door to door for me, leaving and returning to my house was 2pm-9:05pm. 7 hours. And the meet was nearby in Grandview, just 15 minutes down the road. On Saturday when I worked at the home HS track meet, I was only gone for 8 hours! 

The kids on my little track team had fun. While we were standing waiting for the next event at the meet, one girl asked me, "Coach, why can't the baton touch the ground?" Then she told me about a coach from another team yelling at her for putting the baton on the ground. The other coach said, "if you were on my team, you'd be doing push-ups as punishment for letting the baton touch the ground!" After she told me that story, this cute girl on my team said, "I just walked away and thought to myself, 'well my coaches are nice!'" The handful of other kids on our team were nearby when she told this story nodded and agreed with her. My heart warmed and I felt seen by kids on my team-- they actually recognized that I am a nice coach. I must be doing something right!

At the meet, I noticed that someone put the kids on the wrong line for the 800m race start, so I dashed over and told the starter, "I think they're on the wrong line--the green line is labeled for the 800m one turn stagger start." The starter patiently thanked me and switched the kids to the correct line. Jeff noticed my efforts from his vantage point in the bleachers, and he texted me "good job fixing the stagger." I replied with "it's what we do!"

Rose defended her title as best girls discus thrower on our MS track team with a 6th place throw of 46'6''. I actually got to watch her throw in a meet for the first time because we didn't have anyone in the relay that was on the track while she threw. It was fun to see her throw! Rose got 3rd out of 7 in the 8th grade girls 1600m with a time of 6:52. She came back and finished 3rd out of 9 in the 8th grade 800m in 3:21 (super hungry with a side stitch). She finished the meet with a 4x100m relay for fun. Go Rose! 

It was colder and cloudier than expected, with medium strength wind, so I was cold and ready to come inside when the meet finally ended. But our bus was nowhere to be found! I ran all over the parking lot with no success. Then I ran down the hill, across the track, and across the street to finally find the bus. I rode the bus back to where our team was waiting up the hill on the opposite side of the track. I was very glad I didn't go for a run before the meet today! I did 10,000 steps worth of walking, running, and sprinting at the meet. 

On Friday after track practice, we went to the church for an Easter egg hunt and potluck dinner. We brought a pizza and a bag of carrots. Jeff came to watch the egg hunt and then he took the girls home since he was tired. Jay and I stayed the whole time, and then after cleaning up the gym, I helped some sisters set up decorations for our friend/Relief Society president Tina's surprise 60th birthday party. I was at the church from 5:30-8:30pm. My introvert batteries were in the red.

On Saturday morning, I made a cake at 7:30am: a peanut butter Texas sheet cake. It was my first ever Texas sheet cake, and it took forever to make. But it turned out great! A birthday miracle for Tina's surprise 60th birthday party that night. I dropped the cake off at the church at 9:15am on my way to Prosser for the HS track meet (25 minutes away). I parked at Prosser HS and ran from there all the way up Lincoln Grade--8 miles roundtrip. Up in the hills, the birds were singing such pretty songs in the sagebrush and the wildflowers were beginning to bloom amidst the scrubby desert foliage. It was a  beautiful run that filled my soul. 

When I finished my run, I walked right into the track meet and I spent the next 6 hours there, getting sunburned legs because I only remembered to put sunscreen on my arms and face. Jay raced the 3200m at the end of the meet and got his season best time of 11:23! Only 8 seconds off his PR from last year. He ran strong after waiting all day for his race-- his race ended up being at 5:15pm. I was so proud of Jay and all of the awesome lovable kids on our team. I went straight from the track meet to Denny's for Tina's decoy birthday dinner, and straight from there to the church for her surprise party-- still in my running shorts! She was surprised and we didn't even make her upset, although she did admit to thinking it was odd that we kind of cut the dinner at Denny's short (in order to get her to the church for the surprise party). I stayed at the church to clean up afterwards, and got home at 9:15pm.

Sunday was Easter! We had a lovely music-filled sacrament meeting at church. Easter hymns are so moving and meaningful. Christmas songs and sweet and joyful, but Easter music is profound and meaningful on a different level. The gift of Jesus Christ's atonement is so personal, I don't have words to express what it means to me. I am so thankful that He lives! 

My introvert batteries are dead, but it was an epic week and weekend full of beauty and love, and it made me feel extra thankful.

Rose, 5th from the left, on the starting line of her first 1600m race of the season.

Run, Rosie!

Rose, winding up for a discus throw.

A brilliant sunset broke through the iron cold clouds during Rose's 800 meter race.

When we were on the bus, one of my assistant coaches told the kids to text their parents for a ride home. Rose followed his instructions and sent me messages from the back of the bus. We thought we were pretty funny.

We broke our yard down into five pieces. Since we usually pay Jay or Rose $45 to mow the whole yard (it takes 2.5-3 hours to mow), it made sense to divide it into five $9 sections. That way Amber (or anyone) can mow smaller pieces each day after school and still get paid. This has worked well so far, because nobody has 3 consecutive hours to mow the entire yard at once right now, but Amber can go out for 30 minutes after school and knock out a section every day! I have to admit, Amber with a regular cash flow is formidable.

Making a cake on Saturday morning. I hated the entire process. I had to use the stove twice? What finnicky ridiculous recipe is this? I forced myself to follow every single step in the entire recipe, down to measuring the peanut butter in a measuring cup AND even measuring the vanilla in a teaspoon (both things I usually just eyeball while cooking). It worked, but whew, what a process!

A fresh warm shiny peanut butter Texas sheet cake. I am still in awe that it actually turned out and tasted really good! Prayers are answered. I actually did pray for success making this cake, because I only had that one hour on Saturday morning to make the cake--there was zero other time to do it, so my first attempt HAD to work. It was an arduous process with irritating endless measuring and mixing. Ugh, I am no baker. Anne Shirley said it best: "There's so little scope for imagination in cookery. You just have to go by rules."

Pictures from my Saturday morning run up Lincoln Grade in Prosser, WA:

White patches of wildflowers dotted the hillside, with Mt. Adams on the horizon forever and ever.

Looking down at the Yakima River, winding around the small town of Prosser.

I didn't even listen to music, even though I wore my headphones. The birds and the breeze and the tranquility were too beautiful to mar with electronic sounds in my ears.

Sky hug--the angle ended up looking like a Mt. Adams hug, haha. They put even more barbed wire up at the top of the climb, so my traditional viewpoint was inaccessible. I made do with this fence area with ugly plastic barrels. I balanced my phone in a sage brush bush to take this picture--it was tricky.

Ground-hugging wildflowers! I think it's phlox. Some deep old memory is telling me that ground-hugging wildflowers are phlox.

I could see the Prosser High School track from my vantage point! It was a long quad-burning downhill run to get back there from here.

Zoomed in--that tan building almost straight up from the righthand fence pose is the high school, with the track in front of it.

Switchback peek-a-boo with Mt. Adams. I couldn't help but think that the person who parked their white car more than halfway up this hill was cheating a bit on the 3 mile climb.

Jay, on the starting line of his 3200 meter race!

Go Jay!

Friends: We have served in the relief society presidency together for 3.5 years now--3 of us have been together in various relief society presidencies for 6 years. I love these sisters. It was a little odd to be at the church in my dried sweat, sunburn, and running shorts, but I was also just happy to have made it there in time!

My tripod likes to tip over in the wind, so I got a nice picture of the sky while we were trying to take a family Easter picture.

Jay kept teasing Amber by telling her there was a bee or a bug, so she was completely uncooperative for the picture.

Happy Easter!