Finales

Even though there are somehow still 3 weeks of school left, this was a week of finales. Jay and Rose each had their last track meets of their respective track seasons. I finished my third season as middle school head track coach. Rose had her last orchestra concert of middle school. Jay turned 16 and got his driver's license. Jeff and I learned firsthand how expensive it really is to insure a teenage boy driver. My brain is foggy and sluggish from end-of-track-season fatigue, but I'll do my best to expound a little on these finales!

Finale #1: Rose's last middle school track meet was Tuesday, May 20th in Selah, WA (just west of Yakima, less than an hour away from Sunnyside). This meet was rescheduled and delayed by an entire month, so our middle school track season was extended by a week. Six out of the 28 kids on my team didn't come, so we brought a rather small group to Selah. Rose threw the discus and ran the 1600m and the 800m. She threw a PR of 55'4'' in the discus--her first official throw over 50 feet! The 1600m was her nemesis all season long, but she managed to survive the warmer weather and squeezed in a mile in just under 7 minutes (6:54), just five seconds slower than her season best time. Rose cruised in the 800 and snagged a 6 second PR of 3:05! It was an excellent finale to her middle school track career. High school is just around the corner for our Rose girl!

Rose looks so cool when she throws the discus! She defended her title as top girl discus thrower on our team all season long. She placed 4th in this meet.

I made a collage of Rose's discus wind-up. There are so many details to pay attention to when throwing the discus; I am so impressed that Rose has stuck with it and worked so hard at improving. She is very graceful when she throws. Next year on the high school track team, we'll see if Coach Grampa Dan will be able to teach Rose to do a full discus spin and improve her distance even more!

Rose, rounding the bend in her sunny toasty mile race. The Selah track was nothing fancy, but I loved the bright blue color because it reminded me of my high school track, and it also mirrored the exact shade of the sky that day.

Rose and I lounged on an old gross high jump mat while watching the high jump competition and 200 meter races. It has been so sweet to coach my Rose girl for her first ever two track seasons. We had lots of quality time together at practices and meets.

Rose, sprinting to the finish in the 800 meters. She said the girl next to her was so nice, she felt a little bad passing her and beating her at the last minute. It was a great last race of Rose's middle school career.

At the end of our last meet, the kids wanted to pick up us coaches. I'm not sure why...in triumph? In celebration of the end of our season? It was silly, but I allowed one girl to pick me up. I graciously declined the offer from this boy (Sebastian), on grounds that it wouldn't really be appropriate. I directed him to go pick up Coach Freddie instead. He was happy.

Finale #2: I finished my third season as head middle school track coach! High school track still has one more week for the four athletes who qualified for the state meet, so I can't officially say Jeff completed his 4th season as head high school head coach (and his 8th season coaching high school track), but he's close! We collected most of the team uniforms and school-issued sweatshirts at the meet on Tuesday. It seemed easier than collecting them at the team party the next day, which is what we've done in the past. Kids don't have time to wash their uniforms between the meet and the party, so they don't bring the uniforms at all and I have a headache trying to figure out how to collect the uniforms. So this year, I collected the dirty uniforms at the meet, brought them home, and washed them myself. We did get a good percentage of the uniforms back that way, but there were still several missing parts. And washing the sweatshirts was a serious chore. They are such thick cotton that I had to divide them into several loads to wash, and they would not dry completely in the dryer. I had damp sweatshirts draped all over my laundry room and the railings of our back porch. I managed to fluff and fold them all in time for the team party on Wednesday afternoon.

Confession: I was ready to be done with middle school track on May 13th, the original end date of our season, so the last week of practice before the rescheduled Selah meet felt like exhausting overtime. I was just tired, and the kids were a bit antsy and attendance was low (like less than 50% most of the days during that last week). I persevered, though, and survived up until the last day--the team party--which was the day after our last meet. I was so worn out that this team party felt like extra mega bonus overtime where the only pay is of the altruistic pay-it-forward variety. I loved my cute middle school track team, but I was so tired after getting home after 10pm from the meet the night before, and I felt like we had sufficiently celebrated the end of our season during our dinner stop at Miner's Burgers in Yakima on the way home. 

But the team party was happening too, and I had promised to bring otter pops and water squirters for a water fight. Before leaving for the party on Wednesday afternoon, I folded and sorted the freshly washed uniforms and sweatshirts into their allotted bins. The uniforms went into size-labeled plastic grocery bags and then into one bin; the sweatshirts went into two bins--one for size medium, one for size small. The size large sweatshirts I stacked on top of the closed bin so I could put them in their bin at the school. I loaded the heavy bins into the back of my van and then filled two five gallon water jugs for the water fight. I lugged those into the trunk as well, bracing them against the bins to prevent tipping and spilling during the drive to the school. Then I headed towards the school. About half a mile down the road, I realized I had forgotten the otter pops and the water squirters! So I turned around, drove back home, dashed inside, and grabbed them. 

En route to the school the second time, I had to brake quickly. My sudden stop sent the bins of laboriously washed and organized sweatshirts and uniforms sliding across the trunk, which freed one of the water jugs so it tipped over and started glugging water out through the poorly sealed lid. One of the bins popped open and my carefully organized uniforms tumbled out. The three size large sweatshirts slid off the bins. I couldn't tell if the uniforms or sweatshirts were getting wet! I spent all day drying those blasted thick sweatshirts! Glug, glug, glug. I stopped at a red light and groan-yelled in frustration. Sweatshirts aside, I couldn't have five gallons of water sloshing around soaking the floor of my van! I threw the van into park and crouch-climbed into the back, where I righted the tipped water container and repositioned the bins to brace it again. 

Then I climbed back to the front and continued the drive to the school, whereupon I got stopped at railroad tracks by no less than five school buses as they trundled up to the tracks, stopped, opened their doors to listen for trains, closed their doors, paused a bit longer to let the bus sigh and rumble a bit more, then drove onward. It was maddening! I called Jeff to vent and ask for some encouragement, but ended up feeling peeved at him too because he had no words of sympathy beyond "it's almost over." Suffice it to say, I was a hot mess by the time I arrived at the school late for the team party. Bless my assistant coaches for seeing my SOS text and coming to the parking lot to help me lug all the big heavy things. 

I managed to act kind and patient and allow the kids on my team to enjoy their celebration, and to get over my foul mood eventually, but it was not an easy day! I was so exhausted emotionally and physically.

On Monday, the last day of practice before our last middle school track meet, the infield of our track was being watered by massive jets of irrigation that soaked the track and misted us even when we were standing behind the bleachers! I spoke with two athletic directors and finally got the water turned off so we could actually practice. It was only 62 degrees that day, with a stiff wind, so it wasn't warm enough for getting wet in sprinklers to be fun. Come to think of it, that was our last cool day. The temperature climbed higher every day after.

This is the team picture that's going up on the wall in the barn: I kind of love it. We are missing 6 kids, but this has way more personality than the stiff row-by-row team pictures that the photographers take. This was the most fun team I've coached so far. They weren't perfect; on the way home from the meet I walked to the back of the bus and sat down in the middle of the kids. "Why are you sitting here, coach?" someone asked. "I'm hearing lots of four letter words that I don't like so I thought I'd sit back here with you guys," I replied. So I sat there for the rest of the drive, and the kids stopped swearing.

This ordeal made me not want to hand out sweatshirts at all next season. What on earth are these sweatshirts made of? It was not normal fabric. It just stayed wet endlessly. And the mixed smells from all the various detergents that had been used to wash them in kids' homes filled my house. My unscented laundry detergent did nothing to remove those potent perfumes. I detest scented laundry soap, especially the stale weird cocktail that is created when several different soaps combine.

The collapse. I took this picture to remind myself to tell this tale in full. This picture is what it looked like after I salvaged the water jug, when I arrived at the school. At the end of a season it's easy to get sentimental and nostalgic about all the good times, and there were plenty of really fun good times this season--I especially loved coaching my cute group of hurdlers--but the end-of-season fatigue and frustration is very potent and real too! I just want to remember the grinding intense WORK that I poured into this job as well as the highs.

I took one picture of the team party water fight, from afar. They tipped over my carefully filled water jugs after about 5 minutes, and ended up abandoning the water squirters and going straight into the field next door to fill the buckets in the powerful irrigation sprinklers that were on.

Rose lived it up!

Finale #3 was also a beginning: Jay turned 16 and got his driver's license! His days of depending on others to drive him places are over, and the days of his sweet licensed independence are wide open ahead. Our days of reasonable car insurance rates are over and the days of paying double what we used to have begun! We love our calm, kind, thoughtful, fun, witty, hardworking Jay. 16 is a big number. Two years from now and he'll be graduating high school and going on a mission! Sniff.

We did Jay's birthday presents at 5:50am, before he left for seminary. Then Jeff sat in the car while Jay to seminary--Jay's last drive with his permit. After I dropped Amber off at school on Jay's birthday, I picked Jay up from the high school and took him to the DMV to get his license. Everything went smoothly, thankfully, and after I paid the $74 (expensive!), Jay had a piece of paper saying he was licensed, with the official license coming in the mail in 2-3 weeks. Jay drove me home, then got into his car and drove himself back to school. He may or may not have stopped at Taco Bell on the way for a crunch wrap to celebrate. 

The birthday boy. We will fill out his birthday interview soon!

I gave him some windshield wiper fluid because Jeff's old electric car, which Jay has inherited, hasn't had wiper fluid in it for at last five years since we never have had to take it in for maintenance and we didn't care enough to refill it. Jay got a kick out of the gift.

Jeff wrapped Jay's big gift in a quilt, so Jay didn't even know it was there until we told him. He had opened some running shorts, body glide, a keychain lanyard, and wiper fluid, and pretty much thought he was done with gifts until Jeff told him to lift up the quilt. This is a computer part--a graphics card--that Jay really wanted but it was going to take him a long time to save up for. Jeff put a note on the gift that Jay had to sell his old graphics card and also put in another $100 of his own money for this gift since it was so much more than the average birthday gift budget in our family. Jay was completely fine with the plan.

His face was priceless! We have hardly ever managed to surprise Jay this well. That disbelieving delighted expression was so fun to see.

Sitting at the DMV. Jay was a good sport with my desire to document his big day.

He's official!

Getting into the car to drive away by himself for the first time! I even took a video of Jay driving down our long driveway, but I'll spare you that riveting footage.

I cobbled together 16 candles for Jay's birthday brownies. We had mac and cheese, pulled pork, and brownies for Jay's birthday dinner. Then he drove himself to a youth service project to weed for two hours with the young men from church. He picked Rose up from her young women's activity on his way home--his first big brother taxi duty! It was nice. 

Birthday selfie with my firstborn at sunset! I love my Jay!

My baby!

Finale #4: Rose performed in her last orchestra concert of middle school on Thursday, May 22nd. Her cello section was excellent, and the small but mighty 11 person ensemble played so well! Rose has loved taking two music classes every day--band and orchestra--for the past two and a half years of middle school (she had to take PE for part of the year during 6th grade). Her understanding of music is impressive and she thrives on the challenge of playing instruments in a group.

The middle school gym isn't exactly the greatest concert venue, but they made it work.

These two pictures look the same, but one has the two cellists on an up bow, and the other has them on a down bow. I was impressed with how Rose and her stand partner kept their bowing in sync for the whole concert! 

Bowing at the end. My favorite song they played was the Indiana Jones theme song from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Rose's 8th grade orchestra!

Finale #4: Jay finished off his sophomore track season by running the 3200 meter race at the high school district meet on Saturday, May 24th. This is the pre-state meet that athletes have to qualify for. Last year Jay squeaked in and qualified on the last of 24 spots. This year, he was seeded 18th out of the 24 runners in the race. Improvement! It was the first truly hot day we've had all year, and most of the distance runners felt it like a brick wall after the first lap. Jay held on for dear life and ran an 11:24 two mile, which was 25 seconds slower than his PR, but only .05 second behind the guy in front of him. Jay finished 19th in the race under a brutal blazing hot sun. Since the five guys seeded around Jay were all within one second of Jay's seed time, his 19th place finish was just right for the conditions. We are so proud of Jay for all of his hard work!

I definitely had to tell several disappointed Sunnyside 2 mile runners that the last race doesn't define the entire season, and they all worked so hard and had huge success and PRs this season. The PRs just happened in the cooler weather two weeks ago!

I had Rose take this picture of The Dream Team: me, Jeff, and Coach Winger, in our matching shoes and coach shirts, hanging over the fence watching races at the meet because the district meet doesn't allow coaches on the infield.

We always enjoy admiring our matching Nike Zoom Fly shoes with red flames on them at every chance we get.

Family picture! Amber was off playing in a tree by the team tent, so we didn't see much of her during the meet.

Jay, all warmed up for his race, coming over to have me help spray cool water from the water fountain all over his head.

The 300 meter mark of the first lap: Jay's teammate, our beloved Andrew Garcia, 50 meters out in front--where he stayed for the entire race. One guy did manage to reduce Andrew's lead a bit, but everybody let Andrew GO from the start because they know him.

Jay in the chase pack! He's right on the lane 2 number in the blue near the back of the pack in this picture.

A few laps later, the pack had strung out.

Go Jay!

Almost done!

One more family selfie--with Coach Winger as an adopted member of our family. I teased Jeff's dad that Dan Winger has the same initials and the same first name as Dan White, so we used him in our family picture since he was nearby.

This is not important, but one of the sinks in the bathroom at Red Robin was SO low, it was knee high on me. Countertops tend to feel low to me, but this was next level low. Maybe it was a child-friendly bathroom? I think even a person in a wheelchair would find this sink awkward.

Finale #5: the last full week of May had a few other happenings, not all of them with accompanying pictures. I WISH I could say that we had a finale with the gophers in our yard, but instead they seem to have build a gopher resort underneath our lawn. I spent a backbreaking 90 minutes combing the yard for gopher mounds and holes and dumping poison peanut pellets down them on Saturday morning, but by Sunday I spotted at least half a dozen new mounds right next to the ones I knocked down the day before.

Amber worked for several days on her big project for school: a posterboard map of Washington state. She liked listening to an audiobook while she worked, but the rest of us didn't want to hear her story, so she plugged her headphones into our Alexa device.

At the track meet on Saturday, Amber was running after a stick she had thrown for herself when she fell. We wrapped her wrist in an ace bandage and hoped for the best. It's painful but so far we don't think it's broken based on what she is able to do and her levels of pain. I really hope it's just a sprain! 

Amber, working on her project and listening to a story. She alternated between listening to audiobooks and music, sometimes singing along off-key through her headphones. 

Amber, with her finished project. She glued rocks from our driveway onto the map with Elmer's glue for the Cascade and Olympic Mountains.

I had one amazing run this week. I like running along the canal. It's peaceful (for the most part--there are a few assorted dog-houses that I generally avoid). I've been doing physical therapy for my hip and glutes, so my legs have been tired and dead for most of my runs lately. But on Friday morning, I ran before doing my PT exercises and I felt springy and spry. It was a good feeling. Then I went to my next PT appointment that afternoon and got thrashed again, haha.