Gorge-ous

October, week 2 was very October-ish. On Monday I worked in the yard mowing and weed hacking and mole hill flattening. No matter how much working out I do and no matter how many different types of strength exercises I master, yardwork still makes me sore. My skeleton was sore from rattling along atop the bumpy lawn mower, and my arms from shoulder to wrist were sore from using the scissor hedge trimmers for an hour. When I asked Jeff wryly "what form of exercise would get me ready for yardwork?" He replied, "more yardwork." 

John Payne-ful

We knew on Monday that coming off of last week's two cross country meets plus overnight trip would make this week harder, and we were right. The knowledge that the John Payne Invitational on Saturday (October 5th) was our last weekend meet of the regular cross country season did not make the days leading up to it any easier. In fact, it was a rather painful week.

It was the second week of Jeff's recovery from his latest bout of covid, and joy of joys, it yielded a variety of familiar intense symptoms--a different one every day, from vertigo to digestive issues to elevated heart rate to a near- panic attack. Jeff missed cross country practice on Wednesday and left practice halfway through on Thursday. With my encouragement, he took the day off of work on Friday and was able to feel well enough to attend both the homecoming pep rally and cross country practice that afternoon, as well as the cross country meet on Saturday. I was relieved.

A two-meet week

Theoretically we avoid scheduling two cross country meets in one week, but it's unavoidable and every year we end up with one two-meet week. This year's version of that was extra because our second meet was an overnight trip. Since the first meet was on Thursday, and the overnight meet was Friday through Saturday, I felt a time crunch to get all of my usual work done during the first three days of the week. Even though by now this is redundant, I'm saying it anyways: it was a busy busy week! 

Head, cello, knees, and bus

With a second round of head colds hitting during the thick of this busy season, I am keeping a nostril or two above water, but just barely. I didn't proofread this post because it seemed too tiring, so here's a raw edit of our week:

Monday I picked up groceries, went to the chiropractor and mowed the lawn. This time I refined my mowing technique and managed to mow the whole almost 3 acres in 2.5 hours! Still, that took up almost half of the school day and rattled my skeleton. Partway through mowing, I was wishing that my chiropractor appointment had been after I mowed the lumpy lawn! 

Sunnyside September

This week was our first full five-day week of the school year, and it was definitely FULL. School and cross country season are in full swing. Jay leaves for seminary by 6am, and we don't get home from cross country practice until 5:30pm. Together-at-home time is brief at this time of year, and this week we were all so tired when we were at home together that we didn't have energy to do much more than eat dinner and drape ourselves around the family room while listening to the gospel library app read scriptures to us. My husband and kids were all tired from work and school, and I was tired from doing everything else that they weren't doing while they were away. And I had to get it all done before 2:30pm so I could have time to get ready for cross country practice. 

A year of strength building

Three years ago (during fall of 2021) I trained for a 5k and ran it in 20:17 on the track. After that my right glute and hammy were aching more than usual so I took a few weeks of rest and then eased back into running. Two years ago (in fall of 2022), I decided to train for that elusive sub-20 minute 5k again. I made it one month into the thick of training before that same glute and hammy started giving me more grief than before. So I used what training I had in my legs and ran a 5k on the road in 19:53--my first time ever going under 20 minutes! It was awesome to reach my goal, but my glute was hurting. So I took more time off to heal. But the issue wasn't getting better; it just stayed the same for months until I decided to take more action. I got a referral and went to physical therapy for the first time ever, (starting in March of 2023), with a physical therapist that I met at a cross country meet: Daniel Hernandez. 

Ultimook 2024

 This weekend we went to Tillamook, Oregon for the much-anticipated Ultimook cross country meet. But first we lived through a whole week of school and all that entails. Thursday was my busiest day, due to back-to-back appointments and obligations: After dropping Amber off at school in the morning, I drove to the tri cities, where I went to the temple (initiatory work). From there, I then ran three errands on my way to my final strength workout with my physical therapist Daniel Hernandez at his clinic. I changed from my dress into my workout clothes in the clinic bathroom, and then got to work. After that very hard good workout, I snacked on the 45 minute drive back to Sunnyside, grabbed a few things at home, and then left 10 minutes later to do my assistant coach duties in preparation for the upcoming overnight trip with the cross country team.

Here we go again!

Cross country season began on Monday, August 26th, and the first day of school was the next morning on Tuesday, August 27th. Jay is in 10th grade, Rose is in 8th grade, Amber is in 4th grade, and Jeff is in his 14th year of teaching high school French. It is also Jeff's 8th year coaching high school cross country and my 7th year as his assistant coach. Here we go again! Even though it gets so crazy, busy, and exhausting, I love this time of year so much! 

Our cross country team started the season with 6 girls and 34 boys at practice most days this week. It was a shock to the system, switching from running in the cool fresh summer mornings to running at 3:15pm in the heat of the day. We have been chugging water all week to keep up! Cross country season is my favorite. 

Change and Certifications

It was the kids' last full week of summer break. Jeff went back to work on Wednesday (August 21st). Even though I have lived with these seasonal school year changes for my entire life, it is still a surprisingly bumpy adjustment every time! And it's not over yet: the first day of cross country season is Monday (August 26th), and the kids' first day of school is Tuesday (Aug 27th). Throughout the day while Jeff was at work this week, I took mental notes of things to tell him or ask him later when he got home... and then mostly forgot those mental notes for a day or three until something jogged my memory hours or days later. Mid conversation at dinnertime or during family scripture time or other random times, I would suddenly remember to tell Jeff something. Sometimes I managed to tell him before it left my brain again; other times it had to wait even longer. It was much easier to keep Jeff up to date during summer break when he was home all day! 

Nice dogs

 The last full week of Jeff's summer break was full of morning runs with the cross country team, afternoon naps, and a surprising number of nice dogs. In just six days, we were visited by five nice dogs. It all started with a very sweet husky-German-shepherd-blend dog that ran five-plus miles with our cross country team every day all week and then hung out at the barn with the team afterwards. Some detective texting up and down the street revealed that the dog's name was Luna, and she lives a few houses down the road from us. She joyfully joined in on our runs all week. 

Olympic Peninsula Date Week

Jeff and I stayed closer to home for our annual date trip this year. Since we didn't go to Paris for the Olympics, we decided that the next best thing would be to go to the Olympic Peninsula. We were right; it was a marvelous trip! On Saturday, August 3rd, my Mom flew in to stay with Rose and Amber at our house while we journeyed. On Monday, August 5th, we drove Jay plus four other teenagers 3 hours to Seattle University for FSY church camp. We deposited them at the edge of campus with their bags, offered hugs to any kid who wanted one (Jay plus one of his friends accepted our hugs). Then we continued driving west for two more hours until we reached Sequim, WA, a small bustling town on the northeastern corner of the Olympic Peninsula (pronounced "skwim").

The Olympic Mountains are stunning!

Lazy & Hazy

We finally had a lazy relaxing summer week! It was the first week after summer swim season ended, and not having kids at the pool by 6am felt decadent--we didn't have to be ready to roll until 7:30am for cross country practice. On the other end of the day, there were no late night swim meets to slowly drain my life force. Each day, we basically ran with the cross country team in the morning, did some yardwork, and then vegged the afternoon and evening away watching Olympics and various other screens. The morning runs and workouts were intense enough to make the afternoons feel extra necessary and luxurious. My legs are sore after our relaxing week!