Coach Conference & Music

I coughed my way through the week, grinding my gears back into regular life routines as my body slowly worked on recovering from the flu. Journal excerpts from the week: 

Monday, January 26th: So. Tired. I went back to normal life post-flu today, and it was exhausting. I cleaned bathrooms, cooked dinner, played piano for an hour, did a pull-up prep workout, ran 30 minutes, and drove the girls to piano lessons, the library (Amber, for fresh books), and the hardware store (Rose, for science fair supplies). I am so sleepy. My slow run felt hard thanks to my cough and my feeble legs. Hopefully I can get all the way healthy again soon! I don't have anything else to say. I need sleep most.

Weak week

 It was a weak week for me. On Sunday afternoon, I came down with the sickness gifted to me by my family, and it was a rough one. I haven't been that sick in years. We think it was the flu. That fever was so painful! Once the 48 hour acute fever phase subsided, the cough-n-snot phase hit with full force, compounded by bone-deep fatigue. I barely did anything all week long. I was too weak to play the piano for more than 20 minutes at a time, and I definitely couldn't run. I didn't even start driving Amber to school until Wednesday, and I spent most of the week sitting: on the couch, in my recliner, in bed. I drove Amber to school and then existed until she needed to be picked up.

Sickness and sunset

About the same time that freezing fog descended on our valley, some sort of sickness struck my family hard this week. The sky was sick; my family was sick. Was it the flu? A cold? Covid? Who knows! All I know is that it was a rough one: prolonged high fever, chills, and congestion, with a body-wracking cough. Jeff fell first, on Tuesday afternoon, followed by Jay on Wednesday night. But Rose was definitely in the mix, coming straight home from school and taking a 2 hour nap every day this week. The full-on fever didn't hit Rose until Saturday. Amber remained unscathed and went to school every day this week. I haven't gotten it yet either, but there's a telltale tickle in the back of my throat... so I feel haunted and hunted, since seemingly inevitable suffering is in my near future. 

After all that, this GLORIOUS sunset from Monday night feels like a lifetime ago.

Grinding gears

We survived our first week back in the school routine after Christmas break! It will involved some grinding gears as we adjusted to getting up early again and being busy all day, but we made it. Jay came down with a cold on Sunday, and stayed home from school on Monday. His lingering cough and congestion plagued him the rest of the week. Rose already had a cough from who knows what, but when she fell asleep for two hours after school on Wednesday, we figured she had come down with the cold as well. Between Rose and Jay, our house has a chorus of coughing and a NyQuil/DayQuil habit. So far the rest of us are fine...famous last words, I know. Yay winter! 

A New Year

 2026 is here, ready or not! I love seeing a few basic stats from the past year. It's fascinating to see where I spend my time. This year I had a piano practice app which allowed me to track exactly how many hours I spent playing the piano. It was a lot this year, and I like to think I have improved my piano skills since last January. I spent over 40 hours practicing scales in 2025, so that has to mean some sort of improvement, right?

My 2025 stats:

Visitors and an invasion

We had visitors after Christmas! Mel, Braxton, 2 year old Dahlia, and Pancha the dog came from their home in Seattle and stayed from Saturday-Monday. My parents came at the same time and stayed till Wednesday. It was so special and fun having my family here! I love them. 

Petting Pancha

Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We enjoyed a lovely relaxing day in our own house with just the five of us. No practices to attend/coach, no company for dinner, no schedule to follow. We did our Christmas morning gift opening in about 45 minutes, and then completely melted into the day, each person eating and doing whatever they felt like eating and doing for the rest of the day. That involved lots of cookies and sugar and computer/TV time. I didn't even set foot outside for the entire day! I did toss a beef roast, carrots, and potatoes into our two crock pots in the morning, so we had a divine hearty winter warming dinner on Christmas night.

After church on Christmas Sunday: Dec 21st.

Nineteen & 1300

Our marriage turned 19 years old yesterday! I love living and laughing with Jeff. I love the busy, meaningful, interesting, teenager-laden life we have together. It's so much fun! This week we've been wondering if we're actually old enough to hit 19 years of marriage. Physically I definitely feel old enough, with my cranky creaky tendons and the ever-thickening white streak in my hair. But there's something about working with so many teenagers year-round that really keeps our brains from feeling old! Aging is just leveling up every year. It's the best. I love looking back and seeing how much we've done and how far we've come individually and together.

A quick anniversary selfie by our Christmas tree.

Wind and Sun

Wind and sun are not usually features of December in Sunnyside, but this year was full of both! We had an epic windstorm on Wednesday that whistled and whipped us for 24+ hours. The wind was revving up for that storm on Monday and Tuesday. It was also weirdly warm, with temperatures in the 50s. Jay said it felt like March outside, and I agreed, although March is often colder! Nothing like a nice weather report for a gripping intro. But the unseasonal weather made the week feel rather foreign and wild! We enjoyed some gorgeous sunrises and sunsets painted across the expressive sky--an unexpected joy during this usually dark time of year.

You'd think after owning a trampoline in the Yakima Valley for over 13 years we'd be more vigilant about staking it down. But Jeff had to move it for the Spectrum guy to do some wiring a few weeks ago, and it never got re-tied down. Thankfully it didn't blow far or sustain or cause much damage! During swim practice one day this week, Jay got some guys to help him flip the trampoline back over. 

First meet, first swim, first parade

The first swim meet was also the first swim of the season for the Sunnyside High School boys' swim team! Our school rents the pool at a fitness club for swim practice. The various parts of this pool's pump, heater, etc. are notorious for malfunctioning. The pool was out of commission for the entire first three weeks of the swim season! The first time the boys got into a pool this season was at their first meet in Moses Lake on December 4th. Jeff got in the pool with them during their team warm-up time and started teaching new kids how to swim. The really crazy thing is: this wasn't the first year that the swim team's first swim of the season was at the first meet, and it wasn't the first time Jeff has gotten into the pool at a meet during warm-ups to teach kids how to swim. So none of these obstacles are new, but that doesn't make them any easier or more fun to deal with! Somehow, these guys still broke several school records at the first swim meet of the season!

Go Jay!

The Clog

Tuesday and Wednesday this week were a comedy of errors. Journal excerpts tell it best:

Tuesday, December 2nd: I am snuggled on the couch underneath two blankets, in the glow of a Netflix fire and our Christmas tree. The house is quiet; Rose and Amber are in their bedroom talking and playing, and Jay is doing French homework by playing a computer game with the language set to French. Jeff just left for a track coaches' meeting in Ellensburg. I just ate a bowl of homemade soup with a piece of homemade toast on the side, and a cup of apple cider to drink. I am freshly showered and cozy. This moment feels like the reward for my trying day.

Behemoth Tannenbaum

Our Christmas tree this year is a majestic beast! The weather forecast for the mountains looked slick and dangerous, so this year on black Friday (Nov 28th) we opted to go to the Triangle Christmas Tree Farm in Zillah, WA to cut our tree. Since Zillah is only 25 minutes away, the net time we spent obtaining our Christmas tree was cut from 4+ hours down to less than 90 minutes. It almost felt too easy! That is, until Jeff fell in love at first sight with one of the biggest trees on the farm. The time we spent wrestling with our massive tree far exceeded our past mountain Christmas tree expeditions.

Posing with our enormous tree, before it was cut.