October'd

If October were a verb, it would mean: "to expend 99% of one's energy on cross country season and then squeeze out that last 1% for all other autumnal activities." As I draped myself into a cold hard metal chair in our church gym during the ward harvest party last night, I felt in my bones (and my many sore muscles) that we have sufficiently October-ed. 

This picture sums up our mental and physical state at the end of October: Jeff brought his backpack out to the garage on Monday, but forgot to put it inside his car before he left for work. This juxtaposition of tragic and hilarious is not lost on me. I dropped Amber off at school and then dropped Jeff's backpack off at the high school.

My journal entries were patchy and basic this week--I had no energy for creative writing! These journal excerpts are heavily edited and added to for coherence:

Monday, October 27th: So. Tired. Jay and Rose happily got up for seminary this morning and said it didn't even feel hard. I peeled myself out of bed to say goodbye to them before seminary and it was so incredibly difficult! I'm still tired from it, haha. It was a day of slow motion battles. The bread I made took a twice as long as usual to rise. I did get to run today, which was very nice, even though it was also quite hard since I'm not in as good of running shape as I am used to being in. I got out my violin for the first time in nearly a year and played it for 20-ish minutes today. My violin dexterity and skills are rusty, so it was hard and creaky, but it was also fun. Since we're resting the team up for the district meet, XC practice was over by 4:30pm (an hour earlier than usual). Having that extra hour in the evening was so nice. I took the girls to the library before piano lessons. The dinner I made turned out well, and my stubborn bread turned out soft. We had family scripture and prayer tonight for the first time in a week!

Tuesday, October 28th: It was a gray chilly day here in Sunnyside. After I took Amber to school, I donned overalls and my flannel work shirt over my wool base layer and went out to finish excavating and moving rocks from the front of the shed. I finished moving the heavy rocks, weeded, and planted 17 tulips on the left side of the shed door. It took me almost 2 hours, but I still haven't cleared out the rocks and weeds from the other side of the shed door yet, so the front of the shed looks unevenly groomed. 

The neighbor goat had its head stuck in the fence all night last night and all day today. The owners don't come every day and I tried to free the dumb creature when I was done with my yardwork, but it wouldn't bend its neck properly for me to unhook its horns from the fence, and I didn't want to spend more than 10 minutes trying, so I left it there. Later, the owners freed it and I saw it stuck in another part of the fence. Goat brains must be microscopic. 

Wednesday, October 29th: I took it easy during the daytime today. I outlined a lesson plan for my Sunday school class first thing this morning. After I got home from dropping Amber off at school, I played piano for a full hour. It's been a while since I got to play for that long. It was nice, but even while playing for an entire hour, I didn't have time or energy to play all of the songs I wanted to. I have learned enough songs over the past 8 years that I can't keep them all practiced up at the same time. It's kind of discouraging! 

Once I ate second breakfast, I decided watch a k-drama. It was decadent watching a show before noon, but I enjoyed the rest and relaxation. After that, I folded laundry, did my ankle physical therapy, and went to cross country practice. Today was the last day of regular season at cross-country practice. I ran with the girls team for the first time all season! It was SO nice to be back out there running with those girls. I have missed it so much for the past 2 months. I was so happy when I got back from our 20 minute run. The district meet us tomorrow! Jay and Rose are all geared up to run. They they stayed home from church youth activities tonight so they could go to bed early. Tomorrow the bus leaves for the 2.5 hour drive to the district meet in Wenatchee at 10:30 a.m.. It's going to be a long day. 

Thursday, October 30th: The district meet was today in Wenatchee. It was a long day. Door to door, it was 14 hours. The district meet is my favorite meet of the season! So many PRs and emotional successes! Jay and Rose both got PRs! Jay ran 18:07 (an 11 second PR) and Rose ran 23:48 (a 33 second PR). My kids! I love them. I barely have gotten to talk to them about their races since it was so hectic at the meet, but Jay looked a bit tired and he said it was so hard. Rose said she was happy to go under 24 minutes for the first time, and she wished she could've gone faster. 

Our freshman Kaylee broke 20 minutes for the first time and made it to state with a 12th pace finish! Seniors Nacho (Ignacio) and Anthony also made it, in 12th & 13th place! And our unified runner with autism, Sal and his partner Iker also qualified. Dozens of our runners ran faster than they've ever run before, and it was SO FUN watching their hard work pay off! It was the best day to be a coach.

Amber came to the meet after spending only an hour at school. I wasn't going to take her to school at all today, but she was in charge of reading the announcements at an assembly first thing this morning, so she went to school for an hour and then we left for the meet. She played on the playground for most of the meet. 

We went to Red Robin as a team after the meet and they seated us quickly, but then took forever to give us food. We were there for THREE HOURS, and I didn't get my hamburger until 8pm, 2 hours after we arrived. They were so pathetic and slow with everything from service to letting us pay, and they bungled so many of the kids' checks, then tried to get Jeff and me to pay for 2 meals after they told the kids they could leave. Jeff told them to mail the receipts to the school and he would pay them later because thanks to the terrible service, we were extra late getting home. Ridiculous. Jeff and I were so peeved. (and I was so hungry!) We do not plan to go back to Red Robin again. 

Our bus left Sunnyside at 10:30am and got back to the high school at 11:07pm (I had to sign the bus driver's green paper and write the arrival time on it, so I know the exact arrival time). We got home to our house at 11:45pm, but still had to shower and get ready for bed. I am so tired. It is 12:34am.

Friday, October 31st I did not write in my journal, but we had the cross country awards banquet and bonfire at the Condies' house (the home of a boy on our team). I did not take a single picture while we were there because I was too busy socializing, helping Jeff hand out awards, and beating Rose in an intense game of foosball. Jay and Rose both got scholar athlete awards and varsity letters, and as a team captain, Jay also got a coaches' award plaque. Coaches' awards go to the all around best, nicest, most helpful kids on the team--basically, the captains, since we have to limit it. 

Jeff got the school ASB office to issue a new, one-time award plaque for Iker: The Ultimate Comeback Award. Two years ago as a freshman, Iker ran on the varsity team that made it to state. He was a strong varsity runner last year too. During practice one day this summer, Iker started feeling horrible and had to walk back to the barn, where he started throwing up. A few days later, we learned that he had a brain hemorrhage and was in the hospital, where he stayed for weeks. On the white board in the barn, where we sketched the map of roads we run on, one of the kids on the team labeled a dot "Iker almost died here." and it wasn't a joke. 

Iker could have died, but he survived and miraculously came back to school in September, and then was cleared to run (gently) and came back to practice a few weeks later. He couldn't run like he used to, but when Sal, who has autism as well as a decent running ability, joined the team, we asked Iker to be his partner in the unified division. Jeff ran the first few races with Sal, and when Iker was able to run more, he took over and started running races with Sal. He was with Sal every step of the way at the district meet and they are going to state together. Jeff got choked up when he told this story at the awards night, and that's saying something because I have only ever seen him cry ONE other time in my life. I get choked up several times at every meet over all of our runners, but Jeff's passion and emotion doesn't usually come out of his eyes.  ANYWAYS, I always joke/grumble about how our school district has low  coach pay (which it does), but this job is so much more than a job and it is worth every queasy bumpy bus ride, every dollar we put back into the team, and every exhausting hour on our feet.

Saturday, November 1st: So tired. I ran again today! It was my 4th run of the week! I hope my tendons and calf/back of knee muscles recover well and keep improving. I got to run with Kaylee and Rose at our short XC practice this morning, and it was so nice to chat with them after so much time without being able to. 

Last night was the XC awards banquet, and tonight we went to the ward harvest party. I missed the memo that it was a chili cook-off, and instead brought our hot dog buns (leftover from the cross country banquet last night) with 3 dozen hot dogs. It worked great though, because hot dogs go with chili. Jay wore my orange pumpkin T-shirt. Rose wore Amber's Camp Half-blood T-shirt (a character from one of their favorite book series, Percy Jackson). Amber wore Rose's witch hat and my old black dress. We share because we care, haha. After dinner in the church gym, Jay and Rose each helped run carnival games in different classrooms for the kids. It felt so weird not to be involved in any of the planning or prep for this activity. It was nice but also a bit of a lazy feeling, haha. I guess I am still adjusting to life outside of the Relief Society presidency!

This morning after the XC run, I donned my overalls and finished excavating the rocks from the front of the shed. Then I planted the remaining tulips on the right side of the shed door. This week I'll start working on the east side of the shed. Rock excavation is slow exhausting work! My lower back is so tired from it.

While I worked, Amber went on her run. The triangle made by our driveway and the canal road is a perfect 400 meters, so Amber runs four laps around the driveway to get her one mile run in. After a little while, I noticed that Amber was running longer than her usual one mile. She just kept going. She started calling out to me as she ran past "I just ran 2 miles! I just ran 3 miles!" She kept going and going, until when she finally stopped she had run 5.5 miles! That's 22 laps of the driveway. Without stopping--she ran it in 53 minutes. It was her longest run ever by 2.5 miles! She turns 11 years old on Tuesday. 

When I asked Amber what made her want to run that far today, she told me "I wanted to see how long I could run!" Later I also found out another motivator: Amber wanted to earn $10 this week--we give her $1 per mile, and she needed 5.5 more miles to get up to 10 miles/dollars for the week. That was $10 very well spent! Amber said "I think I could have kept going, but I really had to go to the bathroom." We were all very impressed. Rose said, "my sister is amazing!"

 PICTURES:

Amber's library LOAD.

Sunrise in our front yard.

I love the sunrise reflection in the barn windows.

Our dumb goat neighbor, stuck in the fence.

Left side: done, right side: still gnarly.

The Big 9 district meet at Walla Walla Point Park in Wenatchee, WA on Thursday, October 30th:

The girls varsity race starting line. Rose is on the second row, about five heads from the left, with her tall knee socks and neon orange spikes.

Go Rose!

Flashback to freshman Shaina... I look like a tiny little baby compared to my tall graceful daughter!

Cruising down the homestretch for a PR!

The starting line of the boys' varsity race: this was such a cutthroat race! I was anxious for my calm kind gentle son running amidst all those flying spikes and strong elbows the whole time.

Jay with his teammate and buddy, Johnny. Jay beat Johnny at most races all season until the district meet, when Johnny eventually managed to pull ahead by 20-ish seconds.

Jay wasn't feeling his very best, but he pulled off a modest PR anyways. A PR is a PR!

The moms of the Moses Lake cross country team made school logo-frosted cookies for all seven teams in our league! A group of five or six Moses Lake boys found Jeff and me on our way to the coaches' meeting before the meet and gave us several boxes of these fancy cookies. It was such a kind gesture of good sportsmanship. I was touched. We took the 60+ cookies back to our team tent and hid them in a big plastic storage bin until after everyone had run their races. [It's amazing what kids will randomly eat right before a race--we've been coaching too long to leave food unattended that close to start time!] 

As the sun set in Wenatchee, it cast the brown hills above with yellow and shadow.

Brother and sister, staying warm after their races.

Rose (on the back corner of the bench) with her sweet teammates at Red Robin. I love these girls.

After school on Halloween: a pumpkin and Annabeth from the Percy Jackson book series.

Rock removal, round 1,000: The rocks in that massively full 200+ pound wheelbarrow all came from that small bit of earth between the ramp and the corner of the shed. And that pile of Bermuda grass also came from that one spot. Nearly 2 hours of backbreaking labor and I forgot to take an after picture... and it was such a tiny section of ground that I cleared!

Amber, running the triangle driveway track.

I took a break to get a better picture of her.

Five miles for this ten year old! I'm not even sure that the sky is the limit for this girl.