Proud Mom, Bad Squirrel

Sidney swam in her first long course meet this weekend.  She swam two events Saturday and three today.  The meet was at the pool where we swim which is a really nice pool with a 50 meter pool (it's actually about 75 meters long).  The meet was hosted by the biggest swim club in San Antonio, the Alamo Area Aquatic Association.  They didn't bother to inform us of the meet but we found out anyway and got in.  We are but a tiny team.  AAAA had 300 kids a at the meet, we had 24.  But Sidney had the best phrase, #getoutofmyhouse.  Getting into the meet was much harder than it should have been and due to a comedy or errors yesterday, we arrived at 6 for a 6:30 am warm up.  But we didn't swim until almost 2 pm.  And we swam with the 13 and older kids rather than the 12 and under kids.  Somehow the meet organizer put all but three of our 12 and under kids with the 13 and overs in the afternoon.  We didn't know until we got there.  It was such a long day.....

Saturday Events

Sidney swam 100 back and 50 fly Saturday.  She cut 45 seconds off the 100 back and 10 off the 50 fly.  Today brought more of the same with big gains in the 50 and 100 free and 50 back.  And she got her B time in the 50 back.  I have never seen her swim so hard.  Hence the proud mom.  The whole team did really great today.  Another on of the best parts was watching the bigs (that is what we call the 13 and ups) walk beside Clark, the smallest team member and youngest at age 6, during his 100 freestyles.  All of them were walking beside him cheering him on.  It made his parents and the sappier mom's like me cry.  I will also admit I cried when Sidney got her B time.  She has worked really hard and wanted it badly.  And I am sad that her daddy isn't there with us to see and understand what and who his daughter is becoming.  These big accomplishments make me miss his presence for her....

Coach and Motivational Speech

On a lighter note, for me anyway, the bad squirrel.  We came home yesterday and there were the small remains of a green tomato on the porch.  I planted two tomato plants for Sidney in a trough on the porch.  There were 4 large green ones and 10 little ones.  Half are gone.  Evidence points to bad squirrel.  I put net around the plants today.  We will see if that helps.







The neighbors brought over some strawberries this afternoon from the strawberry festival south of San Antonio.  They are nearly as good as Norway's strawberries.  The best we have had in a long time.  We might at ourselves sick.

We are looking forward to sleeping to normal time tomorrow.  It's bad when you have to go back to work to recover from the weekend.

I am making plans for Sidney's summer.  So far there is a week at Mo Ranch and a week with the junior high kids from Katy.  There is also a 3 day bug camp, a week of synchronized swimming lessons, and a week of fencing.  We will be in Florida for a week and Peru for a week.  She will be a busy bee...