Summer Swim League in the NVSL...Another Great Season!

Awesome Foursome Relay

If you've read any of my past summer blogs you know I love summer swimming and in part because of the incredible opportunity here in Northern Virginia with the Northern Virginia Swim League (NVSL www.mynvsl.com ).   This summer was no different and I was able to enjoy watching my 10 year old and her 3 relay teammates achieve the (before now) unthinkable in July.  They not only went out and won every time they swam their medley relay, missing the pool record by .08 hundreds of a second, but at Relay Carnival they won the 100 free relay too and qualified for All Star Relay seeded 15th out of 18 teams.  We were beyond shocked and so proud of them.  This was the icing on the cake since our team, Springboard Barracuda's went undefeated and also won the Relay Carnival!

Us posing and Brad working

Before the season began though, I had to attend a few official classes and qualified to work not only as a stroke and turn official but also a starter and meet referee.  Frankie even let me run one of our B meets as the referee! To be honest I thought for sure I'd be going to recurrent training two years from now never having worked a single meet as a referee, ha ha.  The picture on the right is me the night I did work as a referee, a better one would be Frankie (a good friend and someone I can work and have a drink with, all around good guy) and myself but it was just a crazy summer with a lot of rain. Not a great photo opportunity when you're just trying to keep the paperwork on your clipboard dry and the starting system too.  I do love working the meets, it keeps me calm while I wait to watch McB swim, if it weren't for that I would be a nervous wreck every Monday and Saturday...and sometimes Wednesdays!






 I think the Monday night meets were warm and sunny and all the Saturday A meets were rain and ponchos for us.  Despite that McB had her best times in everything but the 50 breast this summer and kept getting faster as the season went on.  She rocked her fly again and really, even though her Divisional meet wasn't what she wanted it to be and we were all disappointed for her, the swims she had in the relays and the All Star Relay meet really made the season the best ever.  I will say in this picture to the left, she is a mini me.  The swim suit, cap and ears out but most telling is her stance and her hands on her hips, exactly the way I've always stood prior to a race.  When I saw her standing like this that night it brought tears to my eyes.  I know she loves to swim and I can only hope she continues improve and enjoy the rewards that come from hard work in the pool.  




Around this time in July my folks were here to visit and honestly they came to see McB swim and compete.  They got their money worth because they flew in the day before All Stars, and left after seeing 4 meets in 4 different pools and getting to hang out at Raft Night at our pool too.  Here is my dad her McB after the IM Carnival Meet.  I'm so glad they get to see her do these things. I'm sorry we did have so many meets that we didn't take them to a Nationals or Potomac Nationals baseball game or down to sightsee but I think they got to do what they wanted to and that was to see a small slice of McB's summer and all her friends.  I will also add that all my girlfriends are my mom's too, I swear she has a very busy social life here in DC!



Let's get back to the Awesome Foursome 10 year olds.  Like I said earlier they were seeded 15th but at the All Star Relays but they dropped 3 seconds and jumped up to 8th overall! It was the first time a relay from Springboard had ever made the All Star meet and to get 8th was huge.  They were the only relay to qualify out of Division 14 and the lowest division to qualify at all.  It was so great to see them do so well. 

Before the race with Coach Kellee

They were cool and relaxed during the meet and I think really just enjoyed it and took it all in.  Meanwhile, I was a total mess on the inside and I think Vicky was too.  We appeared to be calm on the outside though and managed to keep the girls focused.  Tiffany did an awesome job of securing seats for us as well as the rest of the family members that were there.  (She had her folks, my folks and Kaitlyn and Erin- nothing says love like sitting in 90 degree heat on a pool deck to watch your girlfriends little sister swim for about 15 seconds and have a crazy mom screaming like a freak above her head-that would've been me).  Yuko and her family were over to the right from us and managed to get a normal video of the swim without a crazy mom screaming in it.  Thank goodness the moms all work as a team too!

The girls and Sarah and the Relay
Carnival Trophy

So there you have it, just a little snippet of our summer swimming this year.  It's hard to put into words the fun, laughter, races, workouts, movies, bowling events and all the victories we enjoyed seeing McB and her friends experience.  As an adult it's fun to relive our summers through our kids eyes these days and to really appreciate these beautiful days they are having.  I say it every year, I feel very blessed to spend these summers with these awesome parents and kids at Springboard Pool. 

 

So here, for a good laugh, is the video I referred to above.  It also shows why I'm better off being on the deck working the meet than sitting in the stands watching. 

Finally, you can't have summer without at least one picture of McB and Ry!

 

Dubya ~ the newest member of the family

A girl needs a puppy

It wasn't in the plan, at least the plan I had, to adopt a puppy at the beginning of March. I had been following an organization called Last Chance Animal Rescue on Facebook for about six months and kept seeing these adorable litters of puppies, many were labs mixes.  So many cute little loving faces and even though I wouldn't admit it to the rest of the household I was ready to adopt a new family member.   That said, I wasn't planning to adopt one until AFTER our Spring Break trip in early April.  I should have thought of that before I took not only McB but Brad, the older daughter and her girlfriend to see a sweet looking batch of puppies that were billed as 'Lab/Australian Shepperd mix' on Saturday March 7.  At one point all four of them were holding puppies from the litter and they were all sweet and cuddly.  I thought we'd love Hades, I loved the name and he was very cute in the pictures but when we saw him in person, cute as he was the little guy laying next to him was cuter.  That puppy's name was Zeus.  He is now called Dubya and he is our puppy.  As you can see from the two photos he knows how to snuggle.  In the pictures from Last Chance Animal Rescue he is all of 10 weeks old.  They were fairly sure he was born around December 19 or 20 so with McB's birthday being on the 19th we just gave him that birthday too. 

Age 11 weeks 7 pounds

Age 14 weeks 12 pounds

We brought him home and thus began my readjustment to having a puppy.  I had to get him outside before accidents, picking up poop every day and saying NO a lot! I have also enjoyed buying numerous beds (little pistol chewed up two of them before I bought out an old one of Myles that he'd never used and told him the last dog that laid there died and he'd best watch it, so far no chewing on that bed), at least two extender leashes and we are now on the third collar.   The collars are due to him growing...a lot...in the past 4 1/2 months.  I had forgotten about puppy teeth and how they are small, sharp and fall out, until there was one just dangling and I had to gently tug it out.  I don't even do that with my own kid!

Age 12 weeks, size comparison

Just like having children, things and products change a lot.  When I adopted Myles over 19 years ago they didn't have near as many bed options, kennels or even food and toys.  Dubya has two large kennels with two doors, one on the end and one on the side and they fold up.   He has two different kinds of beds and just this weekend our friends brought over an unused one from their dog that's probably too small for Dubya but he likes it because it's cool on these hot days. 



Dubya met Mazie before he even made it home to his own new house.  We had to stop and borrow a kennel since I had two on order but they weren't due in for a few days.  I will say that Mazie is good with Dubya, she tolerates his puppy energy and that's good because I still remember her as a puppy being all over Myles.  She will occasionally give us the look, like the one in this picture.  I'm sure she is thinking, "what is HE doing here and when will he get off my bed and stop chewing on my bones?"

Another new item to add to our house, a new dog door.  After debating quite a bit where to put it, our friends, Maurice and Mercy, came over to meet the dog and they are the ones that helped us decide.  Maurice is a fabulously talented contractor who has made our home beautiful.  He made the dog door decision easy, it was pretty much the only place we could cut into wall to install. 

Puppies sleep a lot, it's due to them being puppies and that they seem to be growing non stop for the first six months of their lives.  Here is a classic shot of him at almost four months.

He is still small enough to hold, but in this picture, taken in early May, he was only 25 pounds.  His ears were growing and his baby teeth were falling out and sometimes it seemed he'd grow overnight.  This leather chair used to be McB's but Dubya decided it was his chair and he snuggles up in it all the time. It's as if he is playing and running and then decides he needs a time out so he hops up and just sits.  Or he watches TV in it.  McB sat in it a few weeks ago and he came running over and barked at her until she got out and let him have it.  I would like to say there is no 'only puppy' syndrome going on but I'd be wrong.  Otherwise I'm giving Brad and myself an A for puppy parenting again at our age.


 

I thought Dubya just liked the chair because it is his size but now I'm starting to think he just likes leather furniture.  He also made our coffee table his nap mat.  He can sit on it and sleep or turn around on it and watch TV with us.  I have to admit the dog's got personality.   Here are two pictures of him, about six weeks apart, look at how much and how fast he has grown!

This pictures of Dubya is him at age 5 months, in May.  He was weighing about 40 pounds by then.  I did the genetic testing called Wisdom Panel to see what he really is.  I decided to do this because of his markings (all the white) and the fact that he showed no remorse at all when he'd have an accident in the house.  A lab would self punish for sure!  It was fairly easy to do, just swab the inside of his mouth and send it off to a lab.   Turns out he's got no lab at all! Dubya is a good mix of English Cocker Spaniel, Siberian Husky, German Shepherd, Rottweiler, and a touch of Bull Terrier.  He should get up to 65-80 pounds and clearly he's got Shepherd ears!  He's smart and he listens and he learns so he brings us a lot of happiness and laughter.  He's unsure about swimming but has a small wading pool he goes in since it's hot.  He loves playing catch and brings the ball back and drops it.  That has been an unexpected surprise for me. 

He loves his little girl and she is becoming really good with him.   We've enrolled in a beginning obedience class and even though Brad and I are there it's all her and Dubya.  Both are learning to listen to each other. 




Here Dubya with McB in June.  He's about 45 pounds now and almost 7 months old. 

Stay tuned because I know he will show up in more blog postings. 






 

Summer Solstice and Father's Day

I like to record Summer Solstice every year, it's the longest day of sunlight and it's summer, two things worth celebrating right? This year it was also Father's Day, so my first two pictures are of Tripp and Brad.  Tripp was photographed feeding Dubya at midnight and Brad was still asleep a few hours later.  For those that don't know who Tripp is I jokingly refer to him as 'the guy that lives in our basement', but in real life he's the manager of the Potomac Nationals, the single A affiliate of the Washington Nationals in Woodbridge.  He stays with us during the season and it allows his family to come and go and visit when they can.  It's fun for us and we enjoy going to P-Nats games and seeing the younger next generation of major league players.  Dubya loves it when Tripp is around since he feeds him goldfish.  Two fun dad's to start the summer solstice documentation for 2015. 





Of course once everyone is up it's all about the posing , unless your Dubya then he sneaks onto the bed for a few minutes of extra comfy shut eye.





McB was up early and having finished her breakfast decided she and Brad should try a new piece of fruit she'd found at the newly opened Wegmans.  This particular fruit was called a Kiwano Melon and with great trepidation they both tried it.  I just took pictures but was told it tasted a little like banana.  Here is a good description of what it was; Its fruit has horn-like spines, hence the name "horned melon". Ripe fruit has yellow-orange skin and lime green, jelly-like flesh with a tart taste, and texture similar to a cucumber. C. metuliferus is native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is now grown in California, Mississippi, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand. 

 After the trying of something new, we moved onto the practicing of the piano.  We decided to keep playing through the summer and keep up with lessons.  At least that's what I thought 'we' wanted, but as you can see from her super happy look practicing piano wasn't exactly in her plans for this sunny laid back Sunday.  That said she powered through and allowed me to take one picture.  We found a used piano this year and it's been great except it needs tuning so finally this week I'm getting it tuned. 




I have to admit that one of my very favorite 'holidays' is my birthday, for those that know me know I celebrate it all month long.  You can just imagine my jealousy over my good friend Vanessa's June 21 birthday! All those extra daylight hours to celebrate! Luckily she gets it documented now almost every year.  Here we are at the pool where, as you can see below, so many of our friends were on the same day enjoying the sun, warmth and easy laid back feeling that always hits you when you walk into Springboard Pool. 

Here I  am going down the slide.  It's still just as fun in your forties as it is when you're ten!  To the right are our 'triathlete' friends, they tend to workout more than us all look really good in swim suits.  But then again, they workout A LOT to do those events!

 Then we have McB and Nicco enjoying one of the many drumsticks they will have this summer from the Cuda Shack.  Between these ice cream treats and ice pops these two help keep the Cuda Shack in business.  





Everyone enjoyed Father's Day at Springboard this year.   Brad was happy, he'd been in the pool with the other dad's and then he'd taken a little nap in the chair.  McB shared a bit of her ice cream with him, very generous of her.

Then low and behold the unimaginable happened! Marcia GOT IN THE POOL!! This was a rare site and it's worth noting that as soon as she was in, Brad was up with the camera to get a shot.   This only happened because a bee was flying around her and wouldn't go away but we all celebrated and joined in for the picture!





Here are a few more fun pictures from our afternoon at Springboard pool, Sarah, who is the assistant manager this year, as well as an intern coach and super fast swimmer.  She is awesome and always has a smile and a great attitude.  Sarah is part of what makes our pool so great. 

Here is my friend, Tiffany and our fantastically talented Barracuda swim coach Kellee, hanging out in the pool and getting a few minutes of adult time away from the kids.  Like all the mom's at the pool on Sunday we wanted our kids to enjoy their dad's and get some good quality father child time in. 

 


Another BFF and smart mom who brought kids and husband to the pool for Father's Day, Tama! She also found a few minutes of quiet time hanging out in the lounge chairs.   

McB found Cheech and Gong (her awesome local godparents, they are so cool that she gets to stay over at her 'apartment' in their house once in a while) so we got a picture with Auntie Cheech too.  How many times can I say it, a beautiful sunny warm long Sunday??


After all the fun at the pool during the afternoon it made total sense to go home and hop in Dubya's new pool and see if he would follow.  It came with mixed results but the following day he did go in and out on is own.  He'll get it, but it just shows that clearly he has next to no lab in him at all.

Dubya eventually got in the next day and loves splashing around.  He also loves running in through the dog door all nice and wet, spinning out around the corner onto the wood floors of the kitchen and seeing how far he can slide.   We can hashtag that 'things I failed to consider' when we bought the pool for him.  But in our house, everyone has to learn to swim right?  






Our Summer Solstice was fun, relaxing and quiet.   We were able to enjoy the day with friends and there wasn't one place we had to be at any given time.  We could swim, eat ice cream, jump off the diving boards or go down the slides at the pool, hop out, chat and get back in to do it again.   The best part was McB and I spending the day with Brad for Father's Day.  I hope you had a great summer solstice too. 

 

So...it's been a while...

I've had a sticky note on my computer for probably four months now, it reminds me to do touch up painting around the house, more urgent things like tie up loose ends regarding my volunteer position at school and blog.  Imagine my surprise when I finally took five minutes and saw I hadn't put anything on since October! How will I document my life, right?


It's been a whirlwind and yet I hope to catch up on a few events over the coming weeks.  Here is a preview:

Sunset in Key West, FL

We enjoyed a much needed pre Christmas break in Key West, Florida.  It was warm, sunny, happy and we took it all in.  I hope we can return someday and spend more time there.  We did the drive from Miami and ended up adopting a turtle, Bubble Butt at the Turtle Hospital on the way.  We just help support it's care but I highly recommend stopping there if you do drive to Key West. 


Swim meets, lots of good swimming for our girlie during indoor short course season.  Not so much for me, but I did become starter certified in USA Swimming.






Spring Break 2015~ cruising with our friends, we gave ourselves a joint last name, the Spend-wells!

Met this cutie in Cozumel

Age 11 weeks in this picture.

Oh right and we adopted this guy, at 10 weeks old from Last Chance Animal Rescue, in March.  He is sweet, playful, cuddly and finally losing those baby teeth.  We love our newest addition to the Buzz Shack, Dubya!


 

 

 

Just a Thought...

I'm sitting at my laptop, with my second cup of coffee in hand reading the article below.  I'm icing my knee (that I'm pretty sure I reinjured in the spring training for a 5K and I don't even like to run) and waiting for Target to open.  I want to get that errand out of the way before my 90 minutes of once a week hard core Barre Strength class from Kim happens.  That's because I'm also doing laundry, the carpet cleaners are coming and the list for PTO follow up, subbing tomorrow and tests my daughter needs to study for is growing.  I could go on, but you get it.  This article made me smile and honestly made me rethink what I need to justify too.  While I only have one to worry about and do enjoy the freedom of staying home, I rarely sit down in my family room to 'take a break' during the day.  My new luxury is wireless speakers that pipe the radio through the house so I can listen to Mr. Tony on sports talk radio. 
http://www.babble.com/relationships/being-a-stay-at-home-parent-is-a-luxury-for-your-spouse/

The End of Another Fun and Successful NVSL Swim Season!

It's that time of year again, my now 9 year old has finished another summer of swimming in the Northern Virginia Swim League (NVSL) and we are in the dog days of summer with a new school year in sight. I will be honest I think I love summer more, now that I'm a mom, than I ever did when I was her age.  Many things are different for her, we belong to a summer neighborhood pool where we can spend hours every day playing, swimming, being with friends and eating dinners there.  We also have a vastly different type of summer league than where I grew up.  Our meets were at the minimum 90 minute drives away on a week night and in 50 meter pools.  Hers are maybe 25 minutes away and in 25 meter pools on Saturday mornings or Monday evenings.  Her swim practices are at 8 am, mine were at 6 am for two hours each day in the summer.  But, as a mom and a swimmer I love it all and I love the opportunity to be a part of the NVSL and watch McB's success. 

McB and her pal Ryan

Coach Kim with her 9-10 girls
and Mason, Peter & Nicco behind

This year I spent time as a stroke and turn judge and the hardest part was keeping from yelling when my girlie was swimming.  The funniest moment was during time trials when I did something I never thought I'd do, I disqualified my own daughter in the 50 back! But the reality is, she did it herself I just happened to be the judge that was standing over her and raised my arm.  She was a little miffed at me for a while.  I took a few jabs for DQing my own daughter, but then again I wasn't the first one to take out their own kid. 

One of the things I really love about summer league swimming is that you never know who you will run into, like a college friends brother who was with another swim club in our division.  Or other mom's from school who are team reps or their kids are on the team you're swimming against that week.  A few times during the summer there were many of us that were friends because of masters swimming long before we were parents and now our kids are all competing!


This year we were blessed to have my folks visit in the summer and they saw McB compete in two meets, a B meet and an A meet.  They saw her swim her best 25 fly time up to that point and she didn't go faster until Divisionals!  We were also lucky to have Kaitlyn and Erin see her swim.  Kaitlyn was just a few weeks post jaw and mouth surgery and still not getting out much.  It was one of her first big outings and McB loved having them both there too.  We were just grateful that Kaitlyn could make it for the whole meet and Erin being there to help her made it possible.  I can totally see Erin being a swim team mom some day, she got into it, team hat and everything! Kaitlyn would be more like me and need to be working on the deck or else she'll drive her kids crazy too. 

What was really wonderful this season was seeing my little 9 year old compete like a veteran.  Watching her behind the lane waiting to swim there was a calmness about her and a confidence too.  She had goals and raced to achieve them this year.  She didn't let the fact that some of the girls swimming fly against her were actually 11 (NVSL rules state the age you are June 1 is what age group you swim in all season) she went after them with even more determination. 





The summers also give us a chance to bring many friends in our life to one place, our school, swim, neighbors and gym friends, many of them belong to our little pool.  It is fun for us as adults to spend Friday nights having a glass of wine together and then Saturday mornings coffee at swim meets.  Wednesday night raft nights for dinner and just being at the pool during swim practices or for fun.  It is fun for us and for the kids. 

 I just feel like we are in the right place when it's summer and I think McB does too.  She is going to grow up and have all these fabulous memories and friends from Springboard Pool.   She will have many more swim meets with her friends and as she continues to complete in USA swimming she will know even more of the swimmers she is competing against in the summer league meets as well.  I just love that she has such fun at the pool and I have really loved this summer that she is at the pool and is 100% self sufficient and walks in, drops her bag and has at least one friend to instantly go play with.  I also love that she still wants to play with me and will spend hours diving for rocks in the deep end with me or doing hand stands or jumping off the diving board.   All those things are still fun for me too.  But it is also quite nice to walk onto the pool deck and see where she dropped her bag and I see my friends too and I get to chat in a lounge chair or just hang in the pool. 



Did I mention that some of her friends aren't her age? I get a chuckle over how she can have a full conversation with Mason (who will be a freshman at ODU this year) about the Calgary Stampede Rodeo, or how she totally holds her own when chatting about a variety of things with Francisco (Franny), who will be a senior at Edison High School.  But I really love how she just snuggles up and hangs with Sarah that and the fact they both wear their swim suits the same way.  Sarah, McB and Franny even dress alike at times. 

Record breakers at Championship
Relay Meet

Most of the time she is with her 9-10 crew either in swim practice, a swim meet or playing in the pool.  This summer the girls all really bonded and cemented their friendships.  The four girls on the right, McB, Lisa, Kayla and Paige also put together a pool record 100 free relay and for them it was a pretty sweet victory.  For this mom, as I stood on the corner of the pool, being a relay take off judge, it was all I could do not to jump up and down and cry at the same time.  I was so proud of them all and so happy for their victory.  I know their coach, Kim Case was proud of them too.  They all worked hard for the chance to be on the relay and the chance to get a record and their names on the Springboard wall. 

 Here she is with the coaches, what a fabulous and talented group we had coaching our kids this summer.  They bonded too and I think if they all come back next year our summer season will be one of the best ever.  It was Claire's first year as our assistant coach and she brought experience both from racing and also from coaching. Our intern coaches had double duty as swimmers and coaches and handled it well, really well and a couple also were the head cheerleaders as Cuda Man and Cuda Man's side kicks. 


This blog entry was a little long but this summer was more than just our little 9 year old competing in summer league again.  It was the realization that the pool friends we've made have become our own little family and the times we share are going to be some of the most cherished memories I will ever have (including the summer solstice trip~ one big long bruising memory!).  This summer of swim competing was wildly successful though and I don't want to end without saying that McB not only got to swim on a winning and record breaking free style relay but she was also named Cuda of the week. As her coach said, she earned it not only for handling the pressure she put on her but also having to deal with the pressure I put on her.  (I only give her what I know she can take and I only push her when I know she has it within her to be better).  The next day after being named Cuda of the Week, at Divisionals she surprised us all by taking second in the 25 fly and dropping another .7 seconds! She rocked a 19.37 and essentially dropped 4 seconds from last summer! Those are the swim moments you remember and when it gets tough and you're tired and don't want to go to practice, those are the memories that get you through.  She still has a few seconds to drop to make All Star cuts and hopefully get into that meet but who knows what she can do between now and next summer? She can do anything she wants in the pool and out.  I expect her other events to come together this year as well and I hope to say next year she swam in more than one event and hopefully did make All Star cuts. 

It's been a great summer and even though we've got a few weeks left, school and regular life is starting to nudge it's nose into our blissful summer.  The warmth I feel on my face in the mornings when I walk outside, won't last much longer nor will the early morning swims with the sun in my eyes when I turn to breath.  But they will in my memories and they will tide us all over until next year.