State, etc.

Journal excerpts from the past week, edited for coherence as usual:

Monday, November 3rd: It's 10:12 p.m. I'm so tired. Tonight Jeff and I went to Ellensburg the district cross country coaches meeting. It was pitch dark and raining for 80% of the 80 minute drive there and back. Jeff almost ran a stop sign where there was a car crossing the intersection. That's a stop sign and I squealed, and Jeff slammed on the brakes just in time. It was scary because it was so wet dark. Thankfully we were okay, but my car anxiety was pretty high for the rest of the trip. I was dreading the gross diner food at the cafe we met at but this time I managed to get the massive plate of spaghetti that was pretty good. It wasn't $18 good but at least it didn't make me feel ill like the weird thing I ate there last year during this meeting. We left at 5:10 p.m. and got home at 9:35 p.m. It was so long and tiring.

It was cloudy and dark and wet all day today. The weather app says we got .63 inches of rain today. Our driveway is muddy mess with giant lakes of puddles. I went to the chiropractor and got my body cracked this morning, then came home and went on a 4 Mile run in the 41° drizzle. It was my longest run in almost 3 months, and I felt pretty good. It was a good farewell to age 38. 

Tuesday, November 4th: It's my birthday! And Amber's birthday. And Laurs and two ward members, Jared Condie and Tawnya Ibarra. So many birthdays today! But we focused on our two today. (see separate post here.)

Wednesday, November 5th: It's late. Today was quiet. I really don't have much to say. 

Thursday, November 6th: I got to do an hour of lifting with my friends Danae and Liz for the first time in 2 weeks today. It was so nice to be together again, struggling against gravity and iron while laughing and talking. I introduced them to my new Nordic curl bench and they were suitably shocked at how hard that exercise is. 

Whew, my left shoulder is more sore than my right after lifting today. That makes me paranoid. Is it a chiropractor problem? Is it because I'm still working on equalizing the strength between my shoulders? I don't know. I was able to run with the xc kids today-- my third run of the week! 

Friday, November 7th: This morning when I went out to do yard work, I saw one of our neighbors out feeding their cows. So I went over to talk to them about our driveway situation. I asked if the guy preferred Spanish and he said yes, so I switched to Spanish and explained the whole driveway situation to him, mainly how the road that looks like a driveway is nobody's easement and could he use his private driveway instead... I felt so rude asking that, and also super awkward doing it in Spanish! He was very nice, but I still felt awkward asking. I used a few English words here and there when I couldn't remember the Spanish word. This neighbor taught me the word for driveway (camino) because yes, I went out to talk to him about driveways and didn't even know the Spanish word for driveway. I used the word easement and the word pavement in English. Thankfully he knew enough English to be fine with my Spanglish. My heart was pounding with adrenaline and after I finished talking with him, even though it was only about a 5 or 6 minute conversation.

This afternoon I checked Amber out of school and no we went to the mall in the Tri-Cities to pick up the state cross country race packet, which was at Dick's Sporting Goods instead of at the golf course because Dick's is sponsoring the WIAA (state athletic association). It was an hassle, but we made it work. We went and jogged the state course with the five state qualifiers and a few other kids who came to do at time trial. Amber ran with me and Kennedy the whole way. A whole 5k! We jogged it in just under 30 minutes, but still, it was a very good run for Amber. 

We came home by 5:45 p.m. and had family movie night. We watched K-pop demon hunters as a family--even Jay sat through it--just to experience the cultural phenomenon. It was an experience. I did laugh several times, and I also cringed several times. 

Saturday, November 8th: Jeff and I did a little lifting in the barn this morning before we left for the state cross country meet. I even had time for half an hour of piano playing before we left! We left home at 10:20am and the bus left the high school at 11am. The state meet went well. Our five qualifiers ran strong. It wasn't a PR day, though, even though the weather was great: sunny and 50 degrees with a light breeze. Our beloved Andrew Garcia traveled down from college to watch Sunnyside run. We did not go to Denny's together after the meet like we usually do because 3/5 of the kids who ran in the state meet went home with family, and we only had 6 kids left to take the bus home (9 kids including our own 3).  It was so nice to just come home before 6pm to shower, eat, and rest. 

We finally have all 3 school pictures:

5th grade Amber.

9th grade Rose. She was unhappy that the photographer made her slouch (more than usual, haha) because he didn't want to raise his tripod to her height. 

11th grade Jay wore the first t-shirt he could find on school picture day.

Our driveway is getting spruced up and paved soon, and the heavy machinery started arriving on Tuesday. Soon Lake Jay will be a thing of the past.

Amber is interested in learning how to play the violin, so I gave her a brief lesson on Monday. She was surprised at how hard it was to even hold the violin and the bow.

Jay made dinner on Wednesday: grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Amber, doing her laundry before school.

Dirty muddy yardwork: I had to haul various things off the driveway in preparation for the upcoming paving project. This random metal barrel has been sitting outside the barn since day one. I finally removed it.

Picking up the race packet at the mall at Dick's, which was a 15 minute drive from the course.

Jeff enjoyed running a time trial with this small group of kids on Friday afternoon at the state course. I jogged the course with the state qualifiers and Amber, as well as the 2-3 kids who didn't want to do a time trial. Jeff ran a speedy 18:30-something 5k with zero warm-up and minimal training. That man. Jay ran a 20 minute 5k coming off of a sickness. The rest of us jogged it in 29:50.

Amber and I stopped at Krispy Kreme for apple fritters on the way home from the state course pre-meet run on Friday.

Jay and Rose both had some practicing to do over the weekend, so they brought home their instruments. Jay's bass is school-owned, and a few weeks ago we paid off Rose's cello.

After lifting weights, Jeff bravely climbed the ladder to fix the speaker wires in the barn.

I barely took any pictures at the state xc meet, but I got this good one of our freshman Kaylee on the homestretch! It was so awesome that she qualified for state as a freshman, but sad that she didn't have any teammates on the starting line with her at state. When I left her alone at the vast starting line packed with the best 154 runners in the 4A state, I felt pangs reminiscent of dropping my child off on the first day of kindergarten.

Kaylee, with her three teammates who came to support her at the meet: Kennedy, Rose, and Jimena (who doesn't like smiling for pictures but is actually the funniest, sweetest, coolest human being). I forgot to get pictures of coaches with our state runners, but that's Jeff in the black hoodie chatting with alumnus Andrew Garcia in the background.

Our last hike back to the school bus of the season.

This is a slightly better attempt at an end of season picture, taken on the school bus ride homeward. This was our 8th season of coaching cross country together! Jeff's eyes look a little wild due to fatigue. We need sleep.