MS Track Begins

Middle school track season started this week! While I made the spreadsheet with all 65 kids who signed up for MS track, I officially crunched the middle school track numbers. 86% of last year's 7th graders on the track team joined the team this year. 66% of my 8th graders last year joined the high school track team. Retention is looking pretty snazzy, but that's not all: middle school kids kept registering throughout the week, so by the end of the first week of the season, 77 kids were on my roster! I believe registration closed on Friday, so that should be it. 

50 of those kids attended practice at least once this week, with a daily average of about 40. That's a 44% increase in attendance since last year! 8 more kids have COME to track practice this year than the total number of kids who REGISTERED last year! I don't know why numbers are up so much this year, but I am here for it! Every afternoon during and after practice, my neurons were exploding with the effort of learning and remembering so many new names. 

Monday, March 16th was on my mind for months as Day One, and now it is over! We didn't have track practice on Monday; instead we met in the middle school gym with all the other spring sports so the athletic director could talk to the kids. Then we gathered as a team, made introductions of coaches and top returning athletes, and talked about the season. After the meeting, us 3 track coaches had a brief powow to plan our week. I was done by 3:30pm. Whew! 

My head was bursting with logistics after all that. I felt the heavy burden of being in charge, but while I was standing in front looking at the faces of the 34 middle school track kids that showed up to the meeting, I felt so happy and excited to get to know them and be their coach. They're so cute! They chose to join my team and learn from me! It melted my heart and made me happy. I think this means I'm in the right place. But that head coach burden is still pretty heavy! I spent all of Monday evening marveling at the opposing dual emotions: heavy burden of leadership mixed with the joy of coaching and teaching those eager kids.

This is my 4th season as head MS track coach, and we are trying some new things, so it should be interesting! I can do this. It won't be perfect, and it will be chaotic and tiring, but I like this job and I am getting better and better at it. I can do it!

As usual, Amber walked to the track after her elementary school ended each day, arriving about 10 minutes before the end of middle school practice. Since I stay on for an extra hour of high school track practice after middle school practice ends, Amber had time to burn. She ran 2 miles around the high school track on Monday afternoon, weaving around high school runners in just shorts and a sports bra. That girl is Confident. I love it. She also made friends with a high school girl who also likes Legend of Zelda videogames. It was funny and cute--Amber was a little bit taller than the 15 year old girl and they talked enthusiastically about the good music in the games they like.

On Monday the seminary teacher texted me a list of upcoming dates that they need a second adult in seminary. I found myself signing up to go to seminary 3 days in the next 3 weeks! I'm not sure why; I just did it. It's going to be brutal. But I'm already up at that time, soooo oh well. I went to seminary on Tuesday morning.

Jeff thinks he has turned a corner with his health--he felt like his "normal self" for the past two weeks--his dysautonomia symptoms have evaporated. It seems that his body has recovered from its prolonged reaction to his latest bout of Covid! Yay! We are cautiously optimistic! Jeff thinks that removing nightshades from his diet helped him recover way faster this time. On Tuesday, a kid came to Jeff's first period class wearing clothes drenched in marijuana smoke, and Jeff started having an allergic reaction. So he called the office, waited 10 minutes for a sub, and then came home to take Benadryl and sleep it off. Soooo if it's not one thing, it's another! Seriously! Thankfully he recovers from that particular allergy within a day. 

Tuesday was the first day of MS track practice! It went pretty well! 28 girls and 14 boys came -- twice as many girls as boys!! I'm loving this girl momentum we're building with track! I practically had smoke coming out of my ears from trying to learn so many new names, but hopefully the kids keep coming back. I had fun teaching the kids the sprint drills. In my smaller group at the end of practice, we worked on band resisted bounding, and it was awesome to watch the kids improve visibly from the beginning to the end of the 25 minute clinic. Woot! My throat is a bit scratchy from trying to talk loudly for 90 minutes. After MS practice ended, I spent 45 minutes with the high school track kids. I love knowing so many kids! My heart just expands when I see all of them. 

Amidst his marijuana allergy and subsequent double dose of Benadryl on Tuesday, Jeff somehow went to track practice Tuesday afternoon but then hit another Benadryl wall and stayed home from the high school orchestra concert that night. I was pretty bummed and sad that he didn't come with me. I go to more concerts alone than with Jeff, and it is such a lonely feeling to arrive alone, especially when this time it wasn't his ongoing health condition; it was stupid secondhand marijuana smoke. Jay and Rose played so well in their concert! Rose played cello for 2 songs and piano for 1 song. It was very impressive. Jay played bass cool as a cucumber for all 3 of his group's songs. I really liked the music they played. We learned that the email about solo and ensemble state performances was misinterpreted, so as alternates Jay and Rose don't know yet if they will go to state. But their musical abilities are blossoming and blooming!

Day 2 of middle school track practice (Wednesday) was a bit hectic, mostly because I was tired from the previous long day, so I felt a bit frazzled and unorganized at a few junctions. Practice itself went well; I just mistimed the box jump plyometrics portion of our practice, so we didn't have time for the running because we had to go straight into field events. It was fine, I just felt frazzled and tired. I did learn 10 new names though! Hopefully they stick long term! 

On Wednesday night, we ate leftovers for dinner in overlapping waves, so 4/5 of us were at the table together. After dinner before showering, Jeff and I went out to the shed to do a little bit of work: Jeff changed the two front tires on our mower (one was flat), and I hoed weeds around my sweet little tulip sprouts right outside the shed. We were out there for about 20 minutes, and it was kind of crazy to do outdoor work AFTER practice and AFTER dinner! I was surprised that we both had energy and inclination to do it, but I have been really wanting to get started on yardwork. 

Rose had science fair part 2 in the tri cities all day on Thursday. The bus left at 7am and got back to the high school at 7:30pm. Rose was so tired! She accidentally dropped a container full of rice by the fridge while getting dinner, and several tears of frustration and fatigue leaked out. I had mercy and cleaned up most of it. Rose said tons of judges viewed and liked her science fair project. She said she overheard some kids she didn't know very well talking at the science fair:

"Are you friends with Rose?" one of them asked the other.

The first kid answered: "Who isn't friends with Rose? She's one of the nicest people I know!" 

Rose said that was very gratifying to hear and made her very happy. It made me happy too! 

There were two high school track meets this week: Jeff was hired to time the JV meet in Yakima on Thursday night. He was out till nearly 11pm, and he had tales to tell of troubleshooting and clever rigging of the sensitive timing equipment afterwards. I was half asleep in bed when he called me on his way home. Jeff uses the funds from this paid timing gig to get more gear for the track team--the high school team is so big this year that he needed to get more uniforms. It's crazy.

Track practice went well on Friday. The team had fun playing capture the flag for game day, then we divided into two groups: throws and yoga. The kids doing yoga with me giggled and laughed the whole time, talking and joking with each other. It was happy. At the end of practice each day, we gather as a team for final announcements and positivity. I called on 5 kids to say a positive that they saw at practice, and they willingly volunteered, giving each other compliments. I love ending practice on a positive note like that, and I can tell the kids like it too, which makes me happy.

Jay and Rose competed in the varsity high school track meet on Saturday in Wenatchee. Both ran a DMR--distance medley relay--and Jay's team qualified for a big meet in Pasco next month! Jay also ran the 1600 in a season best of 5:14. He is shredding away at that 5 minute barrier that he wants so badly! Rose threw a huge 7 foot PR in the discus. She threw a PR of 62 feet in the prelims and then threw an even bigger PR of 69'4'' in the finals! Having Grampa Dan as her throws coach is working great! Rose placed 7th overall in the discus--2nd place freshman in the meet. She was so happy! 

Since the meet was far far away in Wenatchee and since our yard was looking shaggy and desperate, Amber and I stayed home to kick off the yardwork season together on our 3 acre patch of earth. I worked for almost 5 hours straight, and Amber mowed for 3 hours. Our homestead is looking far more trim, but I paid the physical toll of jumping into that much yardwork headfirst with bone-deep fatigue on Saturday afternoon. 

One of our two nights of family scripture this week--I had to document it so I remember that we tried.

Rose, playing cello on the front right first chair position at her orchestra concert on Tuesday.

Rose laid her cello down and went to the piano for the second song of the concert!

Jay played bass in the upper classmen chamber orchestra.

Jay is the bass player on the left.

The chamber orchestra, receiving applause.

Rose's driving log: she got her 25 hours in by the end of driver's ed! Driving 25 hours in just 5 weeks is no small feat for someone as busy as Rose! She did her last drive with the instructor on Friday evening (March 20th), and passed the test. Whew!

This is the only picture I have of my first week of middle school track practice--I took a screenshot of a Marco Polo message that I sent while walking across the track to the middle school before practice one afternoon.

New front tires for our lawn mower! Jeff got solid state tires so we don't have to worry about them going flat anymore. The back tires need to be pumped, but the front tires are safe from punctures forever now.

I set my new gopher trap this week, but I think I put it in an old tunnel, because after a few days it still hadn't caught a rodent. Now I can't figure out how to un-cock the spring loaded trap...so gopher maintenance is pending. As usual.

The apricot trees bloomed this week! It seemed to happen over night. Two days later, the peach trees started blooming. All of this blooming reminded me that we really need to prune these poor scraggly trees. It's on my long long list of yardwork!

The apricot trees were a bit sparsely blossomed, so hopefully we can prune effectively to help them in the future. Pruning fruit trees always seems easy when I read about how to do it, but it is not easy deciding which branches to cut once I'm standing under the tree!

Pigeons live, love, and poop under and on our solar panels. It is nasty and they are idiotic pests. I don't know why the solar company didn't try to upsell us on some bird-proofing when they installed these panels 18 months ago. I would have said yes. Since the barn roof is so high and steep, the only way to access it is with a motorized lift machine, which makes pigeon-proofing too expensive for a DIY project (if it's close to $1,000, it's not worth the risk of our unskilled hands attempting to fix the problem). So the pigeons flourish happily in their paradise under the panels.

I got paid for jury duty! $120.

Here's a screenshot of a Marco Polo video message that my friend Danae sent me from the JV track meet on Thursday night. One of Jeff's innovations was using athletic tape to hang the tripod holding the finish line camera from a ladder. He said he used almost a whole roll of white athletic tape to rig various cords and cameras at the meet!

My watch thought I took it easy on Thursday because I didn't run or record an activity. I guess 90 minutes of lifting in the morning and 90 minutes of demonstrating drills and sprinting back and forth across the infield yelling out 200m times in the afternoon at track practice means nothing to Garmin if I don't record it.

Thursday night rice explosion. Poor tired Rose. I usually make my kids clean up their own messes, but she was so exhausted from the day that I only made her pick up the big chunk of rice in the middle. I swept up the rest.

Amber, reading her spiral bound kids Book of Mormon over breakfast. She has a goal to read her scriptures more frequently, so we keep this book on the counter to remind her to read. It doesn't always remind her, so I often push it right next to her bowl of cereal while she's eating. That helps.

I went on my longest run since last summer on Friday morning! I ran 7 miles! I parked in town and started running to the "superman tower" (a water tower painted with the superman symbol) but it's on private property up in some orchards and I chickened out after I saw the second no trespassing sign. So I re-routed to visit the Darigold map cow mural closer to town.

I love this giant cow on the wall of the Darigold factory! I am a little bashful of taking selfies while running by myself, so this was the best I could do with the cow.

Two workers were doing something outside the factory, and they provided a nice scale for my picture.

I ran back into town and my legs were talking to me by the end of that 7 miles. Whew! My right ankle, both Achilles, and both calves were talking to me by the end of the run, not to mention all of the muscles that were sore from lifting the previous day! I ran longer on Friday and took Saturday off of running so I could focus my energy on yardwork.

My nemesis side flowerbed. Seriously, it is in prime growing location: full sun, and the warm wet winter invited some luscious grass to grow. It is a tangled mess. Hoeing it is enough to break my shoulders completely off. I ended up excavating as many rocks as I could and mowing the grass in the flowerbed really really short. Then I covered it in thick landscaping fabric...but I ran out and only got half of the flowerbed covered.

My unlovely attempt to smother the grass and prevent more weeds in my nemesis flowerbed. I plan to plant a few things here in May, but I need to manage the weeds until then. I ordered more of the thicker landscape tarp, so it will at least look more even when I put that down. DIE, grass and weeds!

I mowed along one side of our driveway all the way out to the road. About 10 minutes into mowing, one of the blades completely fell off of our mower. (that's the blade on the ground in front of the mower) Yeah. I gathered up the pieces and figured out how to re-attach it. I was a mess by the end, from lying down and reaching under the grassy gross mower.

Amber took this picture of me putting the blade back on the mower. It got loose one more time, so I tightened it even more and thankfully it lasted for a solid 3+ hours of mowing.

Amber, starting her massive mowing job. She was excited to earn money to spend at her school's book fair this week, so she willingly mowed our entire almost-3-acre yard. It looked so good when she was done! She listened to an audiobook while she mowed.

Rose and Amber, reunited on Saturday night after a day apart. They walked arm in arm to the basement stairs. Adorable sweet sister friends.

Stake conference: the only Sunday we can drive to church all in one car!

We crammed into Jeff's little electric car because gas is $4.89 per gallon. Rose drove us.