Happy Mother's Day and Roller Coaster Ride

First, Happy Mother's Day to all those special mom's.  Thanks for all you do.

The I am not happy pose

Sidney was in her first swim meet this weekend. This is really her first sport and real competition.  So it was a steep curve for us both. We left at 5 am yesterday for Corpus Christi and she swam three races yesterday. This meet was only about getting any sort of time on paper and the experience. About half the time she wasn't sure what to do when the various whistles and words were used to indicate get ready, get set and go.  She wasn't alone in this. Many of the youngest swimmers struggled.

I was a timer for an hour both days which is a pretty fun job but means you get wet and can't keep track of your kid. The bench moms help a ton and the older girls are responsible for helping the small one. Each small one gets a tall one.

There are two parent volunteer timers for each lane for every event, heat, and lane. So there are 4 ways a swimmer can get a time. The best is from he start horn and the pressure pads you swim into to stop your time. But in addition there are the two times from each timer and the pressure pad stop time from a button connected to the pad.

Some work to do on entries

Oh and there is body marking. Didn't know that one. You write a grid with E, H, L, and S.  Then you list each event by number, the heat number and lane number and stroke. Then the swimmer or anyone else can look at the arm and know what's supposed to happen and when. Actually pretty brilliant. I have attached a photo of Sidney's skinny little arm.

The suits are crazy tight. I had to pour her in. She swam three races today as well. She did a 50 meter freestyle as part of a 200 meter relay, a 50 butterfly and a 50 free yesterday. She did 50 backstroke, 100 free and 50 breast today. She won her heat on the backstroke and she was thrilled.  She got disqualified in the breast stroke probably for scissoring her feet. She'll learn. Many of the experienced swimmers had a DQ of some sort.

Start of backstroke

I really enjoyed watching her start to become part of the team over the two days. There is still a way to go but she was happy with her work and willing to continue working and rattled off the entire teams results one by one to me in the car not he way home. Oh and she's really tired so she'll crash.

Now the roller coaster. Kirk moved Monday to the assisted living and seemed to have a pretty good week. I got a call this afternoon that he had left the facility. He was found a mile away by the police at an apartment complex. I have already been looking for something different for him but this will motivate me more. He is getting fed and a bed at the facility but he can't stay in the Alzheimer's and dementia unit. And he can't stay in assisted living. They just don't know how to take care of him.

Body marking

Please pray for me to make some right decisions. I don't feel like I am doing such a good job with anything but particularly in making choices that affect him.  And please also continue to pray for peace for Sidney.  She is still struggling with this new reality and her whole world feels out of control.

She's in the middle - warm up