The days that got away

Track season may be officially over as of Monday, but this week was still go, go, go! We just didn't have 2+ hours of track practice in the mix everyday. It felt like every day got away from me and I was just along for the ride, going from one task, location, or event to the next. Thank goodness for my journal, which refuses to allow days to completely get away. Each day this week could have been its own blog post, but instead I matched journal entries with pictures from each day of the week. 

A zoomed-out view from the kitchen of the track awards banquet in our backyard.

Monday, June 2nd: Deadly tired. I woke up at 3:30am thus morning for no discernable reason and could NOT get back to sleep. So I got up at 5am, ate a little snack, and did a 45 minute pre run workout, including a bunch of hip PT. Then I ran 3.5 miles out in the fresh morning countryside. All of that was done before 7am. Even though I would prefer to sleep all night, at least I had a nice productive morning workout! I did manage to take a 30 minute nap today, which was much needed and very helpful. 

At 10am, I had my first ever massage with a massage therapist. I was feeling silly for going because I didn't really feel like I needed a massage, but I've always wondered what it's like, and I've always thought a massage would be a great reward for the end of a coaching season, so I tried it out. It was nice, but honestly not really worth the trouble to me: making the appointment, driving to the office, stripping down to scanty clothing, and lying on a  table while a stranger rubbed scented oil all over me. The massage lady was very nice, but it was not my favorite scene. I can see how it could help with a very sore or tight neck and upper back like I get sometimes, but all in all not an experience I want to repeat anytime soon. Jeff does a perfectly good job whenever I ask him for a massage, and I don't even have to leave our house. I'm probably a little bit spoiled.

I weeded around the back of our house for 45 minutes this afternoon before heading to a cross country conditioning run at the high school--my second run of the day. It took at least 10 minutes of running for my sweat to come through all the massage oil that was still in my skin, haha. It felt so good to shower and scrub the rest of that scented oil off of me. It wasn't exactly oil; it was some kind of emollient or lubricant, but the effect was slidy and oily. 

We hosted the end of high school track season potluck awards banquet in our backyard tonight. 100+ people came and it was so awesome to have plenty of space for everyone. It warmed my heart to see our big happy track team family laughing, playing, and talking together in our yard. I had a deep sense of fulfillment as I cleaned up afterwards, with the sunset painting the sky to the west, and an intense impromptu soccer game going on farther back in the yard among a dozen of the boys. Jeff announced that the sprinklers would come on at 9pm, so everyone knew they had to grab their stuff and go by then--a nice clear ending point for the festivities. The boys played soccer down to the last few minutes though! Other kids went into the barn after dinner, and it was a whole big White Family welcome to our home.

Amber was in heaven, drinking too much soda (I didn't have a minute to police her at all) and playing hard with her BFF Kamila, whose older sister was on the high school team. Jay got his awards (scholar athlete and 2nd year varsity letter), enjoyed some time with his friends, and then slipped away inside our house by 8pm. I did most of the cleanup myself because Jeff was talking with parents and the other coaches. It was fine because he's the head coach and it was a good thing. This year we ended up with 4 huge black bags of trash--a 25% increase from last year's banquet leavings. Jeff is going to take it to the school dumpster tomorrow, because this was a school function and our family trash can will not fit it all. 

I am still kind of in awe over how fulfilling, fun, and satisfying it is to have this space for our teams. All of the sweat and blood we pour into maintaining our yard and barn is so worth it every time the teams come over. We've only lived in our house for a year and a half, but it just feels so GOOD to be able to comfortably and willingly invite 100 people into our backyard. That feeling shocks me every time, because this does not seem like something I would enjoy! But it is! I don't want to have track banquets every week, but it is wonderful to be able to easily host them whenever we need to.

Awkward pre-massage picture in the dimly lit massage room--I had to document this very novel experience! Hah!

View from our kitchen sink of some of the track families in our backyard during the banquet. I opened the window shades while I was inside getting more napkins, and this view met my eyes.

Amber (in the pink spotted dress), with soda and friends.

Our favorite distance-runner-baker Daniela from the team made these adorable turtle-shaped conchas for the banquet. This darling happy turtle was too cute to bite, but I eventually ate him from back to front. Best concha I've ever had.

My photography skills were on vacation during the track awards. This is the group of distance runners from the team, with all the coaches standing behind them. (Jay is third from the right). This was a lovable group of kids.

Tuesday, June 3rd: This morning I was so surprised and pleased to be woken up by my alarm at 6:15am rather than by my brain at 3:30am like yesterday morning. I felt so much better rested this morning even though I went to bed a bit later than usual last night due to the track banquet.

Jeff took the van to work today so he could transport the 4 massive black bags of trash from the banquet to the school dumpster, so I drove his car today. The van's garage bay was open and empty without the van there, so I took advantage of it and swept the whole garage floor. (Usually I just sweep around the van.) The garage felt so big and clean without the van there! When I was done sweeping, I rode my scooter around the garage a few times to enjoy it. 

After I took Amber to school, I found myself diving deep into unplanned housework. I washed the sheets and duvet covers, and dried them one by one so there wouldn't be any crumpled wet patches. I made bread and vacuumed the floor (I vacuumed and started the bread before I took Amber to school). I made the last minute decision to full-on MOP the whole main floor of our house with our actual mop and bucket, not just the placeholder spray-mop. The floor had lots of stains on it that probably only I noticed, but once I started noticing them, I couldn't un-notice them and they started bugging me more and more. I put Jeff's birthday brownies into the oven for 40 minutes, cranked Handel's Messiah at full Alexa volume, and started mopping. My hope was to finish mopping in the 40 minutes it took for the brownies to bake. It took closer to an hour because I had to do so much scrubbing in the kitchen area. Worth it! Our floors are silky and smooth and so clean now! 

I listened to Handel's Messiah for about 20 or 30 minutes of mopping, and then Mom called and we talked for another hour and a half or more while I continued my housework. I folded two baskets of laundry and put the clean sheets back on Jeff's bed. I started getting hungry around noon, and I ran out of energy to put the clean sheets back on my bed. So I left them in a pile on the bed and ate lunch. I finished the nonfiction book I started like 6-7 weeks ago. I am on my last available library renewal for it, and I realized that a bunch of the pages at the end were references, so I read the last ten pages or so while sitting on the couch before tipping over for a restorative 20 minute couch nap.

When I woke up, I played the piano. Then it was time for cross country conditioning run. (It was unofficial practice, since this is the off season!) It was hot again today. After running in the heat, I went home and made Jeff's birthday dinner. I don't normally cook for an entire hour at 4:30pm, and it felt weird. I made Jeff's favorite bacon mushroom creme fraiche pizza. I took one lactase pill per piece of pizza I ate (3 pills for 2.5 pieces of pizza), but my stomach still felt iffy after that. We sang to Jeff and he blew out his mismatched candles (a number 4 and three single candles to represent 43). I was on a dairy roll, so I had a small scoop of Reese's peanut butter ice cream with the chocolate pieces picked out, while my family ate brownies and ice cream. My poor tummy is asking me why I fed it such difficult substances. It's just this heavy feeling of discomfort in my stomach...for now...hopefully nothing worse happens! Maybe I won't run with the team tomorrow...

When I walked into my bedroom after dinner, I noticed that my bed was beautifully made, with the freshly washed sheets, pillowcases, and duvet cover all in place. Jeff did that for me while I was in the bathroom! Without being asked! I was astounded and so pleased. It is incredibly rare for anyone in my family to do a chore without being asked, especially a chore that I dislike doing so much. To have it done well too was amazing. No notes. I went straight down to the basement to thank Jeff. He said "I know what my woman likes." haha. 

My parents closed on the 2 acre triangle lot property in front of our house today! So it's go-time to get it mowed and figure out how to run hoses out to water the poor thirsty trees until we can find a more permanent irrigation solution. We were trying to work with the previous owner of the lot to get our driveway easement figured out when he randomly decided to sell it. So my parents bought it back from him (this lot was originally sold along with our house, and my parents sold the lot to this guy two years ago). After dinner tonight, Jeff and I walked down the driveway together to get the trash can from the road and to assess the lot. It will be intense...

I had to document my too-rare full-on mop job.

Birthday boy--a few days late.

Jeff is 4,111 years old. Or 4+1+1+1. 

Jeff waded out into the prickly stickery grass to see if the cherries were ready to pick.

A short driveway date walk in the long evening shadows.

Wednesday, June 4th: This afternoon was the first time in the entire school year that I stayed home and didn't pick Amber up from school or go to a practice (not counting the times I was out of town). It was luxurious. I have been feeling so heavy and tired for the past week, so I opted to run in the cooler morning temperatures today after I took Amber to school. After that, I put my overalls on top of my running clothes and got started mowing around the fruit trees. Yesterday Dad closed on the front triangle lot; today it recorded with the county. So I mowed a swath of it (one full mower battery charge-worth) and then ran a hose out there to start watering the poor parched cherry, apricot, and peach trees. I was SO incredibly allergic to the dry grass bits and dust that blew around me in clouds while I mowed! I was sneezing and snot rocketing and spitting and itching like crazy! 

I had to finish yardwork by 11:15am to go to the church to pick up a food order to deliver, but when I got to the church (still in my sweaty work clothes and still exceedingly itchy), the truck from the bishop's storehouse was nowhere to be found. I texted and called around and learned that another member of our relief society presidency had already picked up the food and delivered it. Sigh. Nothing like a pointless errand that interrupted my yardwork! 

It felt so nice not going to the school this afternoon. I want to stay home again tomorrow. I feel bad skipping out on running with the kids though! But I don't want to run in the heat. Ugh, how to decide. 

Tonight Rose did blow-up sumo wrestling at her YW activity. She was the champion! Jay's group mixed sodas into interesting beverages. Jay drove Rose to and from the church, so Jeff, Amber, and I stayed home all evening. That was lovely. Having a licensed teenage driver is still a novelty. Jeff watched an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show with me and we gave each other foot rubs. Then Jeff played some Super Mario with Amber. Jeff is the best and I love him. 

Mowing this crispy dry lot required full farm worker PPE: long sleeved hoodie, nose/mouth bandana, overalls, boots, sunglasses, hat. After not wearing this costume to mow on Tuesday, I started wearing it for subsequent mowing sessions.

I mowed for one charge of the mower batteries and got a good amount done each day.

More of my mowing.

Thursday, June 5th: Today was nonstop. This morning Jeff's car had one tire that was low on air, so he asked if I would take it to Les Schwab to get fixed today. I agreed with a groan, knowing that the errand was going to invade my day, but slowly resigning myself to it. I ran a pathetic tired 3 miles and moved the sprinkler in the fruit trees before driving Amber to school in Jeff's car. On the way, the car dashboard display showed the PSI for all four tires. The regular tires were at 37, but the low tire went from 18 down to 13 PSI by the time I arrived at Amber's school! It was so flat. Thankfully the tire place, Les Schwab, is across the street from Amber's school, so I was able to get air in the tire. I didn't have time to get the tire patched right then, so I resolved to come back later.

On my way home, I dropped Jeff's bag off at the high school since in his rush to switch vehicles this morning, he had forgotten it. At home, I did a nice 90 minute strength workout in the barn with my friends Liz and Danae. From there, I drank a protein shake and donned my farm worker PPI on top of my workout clothes: my running hat, a sun hoodie with the hood cinched and tied up to my chin, my noise cancelling over ear headphones on top, sunglasses, a bandanna tied over my nose and mouth, my work overalls, and my tall rubber boots. I was ready for the tornado of allergens when I started mowing the crispy dry front lot today! My preparation helped a ton, but didn't completely negate the allergens swirling in the air. I mowed for a little over 90 minutes, slowly bouncing and jouncing along the rough field, until the mower batteries were used up and ready for a charge. I got a good amount done today and it was satisfying. 

I showered and ate a quick bowl of leftover rice and meat before heading out to take the car to get its tire fixed. The tire was completely flat--hubcap on the ground flat. I texted my sister Em in dismay and she reminded me of the time years ago that she and I pumped up her van tire with a manual bike pump so we could get it to the shop for a patch. So I dug our bike pump out of the barn and figured out how to attach it to the car tire. The car was parked outside in the blazing sun, and I sweated all over my freshly showered skin while crouching there working. Once the pump was finally in place, I pumped vigorously up and down, up and down, wishing the whole time that I had lifted a little less during my strength workout earlier.

While I pumped, my phone sent a notification to my watch that the middle school Presidential Education Awards were happening in half an hour. Rose was getting an award for having a GPA over 3.5 for all of middle school. I had forgotten about that! I kept pumping, hoping that I'd be able to make it to the school in time.

At first I couldn't tell if I was making any progress at all on the tire, but soon I could definitely see that the hubcap was raising higher off the ground. After five minutes of intense pumping that felt like 20 minutes under the blazing sun, the tire's PSI was at 31. BOOM. I went inside and changed my shirt to a non-sweaty one before driving to Les Schwab. They said it would take about an hour to patch the tire. Perfect! I walked the quarter mile from the tire place to the middle school and arrived just in time for the awards. 

After the awards, Rose and I walked to Les Schwab together and ended up waiting for another 45 minutes before the car was ready. It was long, but I did get out of the demotion zone in my Duolingo league. We finally drove out of there just after 3pm, 2 hours after I dropped the car off. We stopped by the high school so Rose could jump out and join Jeff and the small group of XC kids for a run. Jeff leaned in the car window and told me how amazing I am in about a dozen adjectives, for dealing with the annoying flat tire situation. I was so tired and blah from waiting and not having any rest today after a not great night of sleep! I did not run with the team, and drove myself home soon after.

At home, I wrestled with an Amazon return label that would not print for 20 minutes. Arg. I bear this relentless curse that prevents any printer in my possession from being reliable. I was so sad that I did not have even an ounce of energy left in me to play the piano at all today. Tragic. I had an early dinner at 4:30pm and when Jeff got home, I told him that I needed an early night, and to not make any more decisions today. So at 5pm he watched an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show with me and gave me a foot rub. Then we had family scripture and prayer. Jeff turned the TV towards my bed, and told me to text him when I was ready for our bedtime prayer. Bless him.

It's hard to see in this picture, but mowing that dry land coats my entire body in dust and grass bits.

They said it was a very tiny nail that caused this flat tire.

Hand pumping a car tire is no picnic, especially in 85 degree sunshine.

But it worked! The hubcap raised off the ground!

It was hot enough outside that the tire pressure actually increased while I drove to get the tire fixed, and by the time I arrived at the shop, the PSI warning had turned off. That was a huge relief because while I sweated and pumped, I had visions of pulling over every mile during my drive to the tire shop to pump the tire up again.

The huge long line of 8th graders who earned a GPA of 3.5 or higher for all three years of middle school.

Rose is on the end, second from the right. Her orchestra also played "prelude" for this awards ceremony.

Rose with her award! Her days as an 8th grader are numbered. High school is coming in fast!

Friday, June 6th: This morning I did yoga for the first time in years! It was a 20 minute morning yoga video on YouTube, and it felt so good. I am so tight, but the yoga felt wonderful.

Amber knew she was going to watch a movie at school today, and the teachers said kids were allowed to bring a snack and a drink for the movie. So Amber planned ahead and got her clothes and backpack ready the night before so we could leave 15 minutes early and stop at Maverick gas station for her snack and drink. Amber packed $21 of her own hard earned mowing money into her purse and purchased a soda, a bag of gummy bears, and a bag of chips for herself, a soda for Rose, and a candy bar to share with Rose. It was very sweet that Amber wanted to use her own money to get her sister a treat too. I love how open handed Amber is. She even gave Jay $20 of her own money for his birthday two weeks ago! I had to be cool and just let Amber choose what to buy, ignoring my motherly inclination to cringe and admonish the unhealthy snacks.

After I took Amber to school, I mowed more of the front lot for an hour and then took it easy the rest of the day: piano and k drama and a nap. No run. No cross country practice. Just rest and recovery.

Tonight I went to a multi stake Relief Society meeting an hour away in Selah, WA and listened to Sister Ruth and Elder Dale Renlund of the quorum of the 12 apostles speak. It was so good! I loved Sister Renlund's spunk, faith, and practicality. I loved Elder Renlund's sincerity, tenderness, and testimony. I carpooled there with friends, and we sat together in the back of the extremely crowded church gym. 

My group arrived an hour early, but even then the room was already packed with women. We took seats near the back of the room and waited. The pulpit was a tiny speck in the distance, and a video feed was projected onto the nearby wall. “It's going to be just like watching General Conference at home, except I'm in a dress instead of my pajamas,” I thought. 

It was not like watching General Conference at all! Elder Renlund joked and told stories while also bearing a sure shining strong testimony of Jesus Christ. He said the gift of knowing that Jesus Christ lives and loves us is available to everyone, not just apostles. All of us can come to know that Jesus Christ lives and loves each of us individually! I felt the truth of that in my heart. He also said that he's on the committee over creating the new hymnbook, and he's convinced that the war in heaven started over a new hymnbook. HAH! That was one of many lighthearted jokes that were sprinkled throughout the very meaningful meeting.

Sister Ruth Renlund spoke. As part of her talk, she tied on an apron with the body of Wonder Woman drawn on it--cartoon briefs, bare legs, bustier, and all. “Aprons are basically superhero capes on backwards,” she declared. Then she listed three gospel superhero powers that we can develop: eternal vision/perspective, power to connect to heaven, and strength in the Lord. 

After his wife finished speaking, Elder Renlund got back up and said, “She won't let me wear her apron.” It was a sweet funny moment, but as I reflected on it along with the wise words of faith that this amazing couple shared, I realized that we really can't wear each other's superhero capes. We each have to create our own through personal spiritual work, and each of our capes will look different. The Lord loves each of us right now, through all of our ups and downs, no matter how small or unfinished our capes may be. As we put in our best efforts, He will help make each of us into spiritual superheroes with the most awesome, unique superhero capes! 

We got to stand in line for 20 minutes to shake Elder and Sister Renlund's hands at the end! Elder Renlund was very sincere. He looked me in the eyes said "thank you for being here." I think that's what he said! I said "thank you so much," and then had to keep moving so the next person could shake his hand. I was taller than both Renlunds and Elder and Sister Hall, of the 70, who were also there. I don't normally let it get to me, but I just felt so tall shaking hands with these small-in-stature spiritual giants! I was very thankful for their sacrifice and service of shaking hands with a couple hundred women. It was so special. 

I left home at 5pm and got back a little after 10pm. 

Amber, making her purchases. Apparently she did this on her own when she was walking from Jeff's high school classroom to her elementary school last month while I was out of town in Virginia. Miss Independent!

Waiting for the Relief Society devotional to start. They turned the video feed around so we could see how many people were crammed into the stake center. Fire codes must surely have been violated.

Friend selfie while waiting in our row: Me, Danae, Danae's twin daughters Annie and Maddie, Camille, and Liz. We managed to snag padded chairs, even though we were in the back. It was pretty hot in there with all of those bodies, but our soft chairs helped a lot.

Someone offered to take a picture of our whole row, so Chantel and Robin could get in the picture too.

Saturday, June 7th: There's a heat advisory for the next few days, so we did yardwork early (mowing and cherry picking!) and then hid inside for the rest of the day until 5pm, when we left for Yakima for the Yakima Mile race. This event had eleven point-to-point one mile races, down the arrow-straight Yakima Avenue in downtown Yakima. The course is flat with a tiny downhill at the beginning, and the race organizers went all out. The homestretch was electric, with several city blocks packed with spectators. In Yakima of all places! I was so surprised and impressed! Kids age 18 and under were free, and they also had elite athletes come run for prize money at the end!   

It was a blistering hot 91 degrees when we arrived in Yakima (a 45 minute drive from Sunnyside). We got our race numbers and then waited in our air conditioned van until the races got closer. 

First up was Amber at 7:15pm, in the kids age 6-11 race. 20 minutes later, my "Open Mile" race started. 10 minutes after my race started, Jay, Rose, and an assortment of kids from Sunnyside ran the 12-18 year old race. Last up was Jeff, in the Master's race. Amber was pleased to get under 8 minutes, even with a walking break. Rose got a side stitch during the second half of the race and hobbled in. Jay felt not as race-sharp, but had a great finish. Jeff knew he gave everything he had in him to run his time, which was all the more impressive because he only just started running regularly again one week ago. I had no clue what to expect from myself and my number one goal was not to re-injure my recently physical therapied muscle(s). My second goal was to run under 6:30. I thought a stretch goal would be to go under 6:20. I haven't run a race this short since college! And I definitely haven't done any speed workouts in two months. So I felt pretty satisfied with my finish!

White family results from the Yakima Mile, with gender placement in each race: Jeff-- 5:16 (16th place), Jay--5:17 (17th place), Shaina--6:22 (14th place), Rose--7:05 (26th place), Amber--7:58 (48th place). 

Also, we saw darling Allie Ostrander warming up for the elite women's mile race as we were leaving! Her YouTube and Instagram videos are hilarious and fun, and she is a great role model for girls who run. It was so cool to see her in person! She dashed over to the port a potties right before the elite women's race started, and when she was jogging back to the line on a side street, I called out "good luck, Allie!" and waved at her. She looked at me and smiled! We watched the 10 elite women start their race and then left, since the finish was a mile away and there was no chance we could get down there to see them finish. It was so cool to see a pro in person that close! I'm a total fangirl! On our walk back to the parking lot, we passed several of the elite men as they headed to the starting line. Jeff said "good luck" to each man we passed, and they all reacted the same, quickly turning their heads at attention and then nodding when they saw Jeff. I teased Jeff that he has such a coach-voice that even these male elite runners all snapped to attention when he spoke! It was great.

Amber got creative with her Saturday morning cherry picking, using our claw toys to reach higher.

How did these trees produce cherries in that crispy not-watered field? The Rainier cherries are about half the size of regular Rainiers, but still tasty!

Peachy-red cherries against a blazing blue sky.

Amber listened to an audiobook while she picked cherries.

Can you spot the two cherry-pickers?

The start line! We were melting, and went to hide in the air conditioned car right after this.

Some of the Sunnyside contingent from our teams--I didn't get a picture with everyone in it.

Amber's race, all lined up--Amber is in a gray shirt and floral shorts, facing the camera, shading her eyes, about 6 people from the left.

Jay, heading to the finish!

Rose, toughing it out through her side stitch (white hat, third person from the right).

Jeff, cruising to the finish! We agreed that this race felt so short, but if it had been longer, it would have been awful in that heat.

Jeff is in red on the far right shadows, booking it to the finish line.

Family finish line selfie! Logistically this race was tricky, since the start and finish were a mile apart. Jeff met Amber at the finish line after her race and then told her to wait for me while he jogged back to the start for his race. Amber found me pretty quickly even in the crowd, and we waited for the rest of our family to race past.

Rose and Amber, posing in front of the elite women's race starting line. The Elite runners had much cooler weather for their race, since the sun had sunk lower by their 8:30pm start time.