Kelly has had remarkable improvement in the month of October. At this rate, I told her she would be able to run 3 miles in 0 minutes 0 seconds sometime in June. Her goal is to get into the top 20 so she can be Varsity. She thinks she is top 27 right now and needs to get down to about 23 minutes.
(And yes, this was another non-throw-up race. Thank goodness.)
Kelly had to get up at 6:00 am this morning to catch the 6:30 team bus for a cross-country meet at Marist. I dropped her off and made sure she got checked in. Then Claire and I headed down to Decatur for a soccer match. It was cold and foggy, but the sun came out in time for the game. Claire’s team did not play well, and 3 balls got by Claire who played goalie most of the game. Towards the end of the game, Claire came out to play forward. The good news, is Claire got some things happening. At one point she was threatening, and the opposing goalie came out to challenge her along with two defenders. The ball suddenly popped out of the group of four players, and Katie, one of Claire’s teammates, kicked the ball over the group of four and scored. So at least it wasn’t a shut-out. Final score 3 to 1.
Meanwhile, Kathy headed over to Marist to watch Kelly. This course was the the most “country” so far with lots of hills and woods. Kelly ran well and did not get nauseous this time. Even though the course was tough (and a lot of her peers lagged behind) Kelly was able to finish with her best 3-mile time yet: 26:19. Improving her time and improving her stomach control. Good race.
Claire and I ended up going over to Ted’s house, since we were in the neighborhood, and we got to meet Austin. Austin is smaller than Katie, which I did not realize. Austin likes to jump up on Ted and let Ted hold both of his paws. Dogs aren’t supposed to like having their paws held this way, but Austin doesn’t mind. Both dogs seemed to really enjoy Claire and I coming over. Ted didn’t seem to mind either.
Excerpt from this week’s electronic progress report:
Total possible points for Mathlympics 1st 9 weeks was 55. Congratulations to Claire Cashel who had a class high with 52 points. — Ms. W
Each week, Claire’s math teacher hands out a sheet of 5 problems that are part of “Mathlympics”. With the final 9 week progress report, it looks like Claire is going to win.
Most of these word problems are pretty tough. Kathy quickly resigned from the coaching position, and recruited me to be the math coach. Reminds me of when Danny’s throws got too hard for Kathy to help him warm up. Claire and I will work on 2 or 3 problems two or three nights after she has done all of her homework. The sheet is due each Friday.
I help Claire think about the problem and think of ways she could solve the problem without doing the problem myself. Ms. W. provides clues mid-week, but Claire tries not to use those. Instead she works the problem until she gets and answer. She then looks to see if the clue is similar to the way she solved it. We’ve spent as much as 20 minutes on some of these problems.
As the weeks have gone by, she has gotten quicker and better at solving the problem and understanding any suggestions I give. In fact, on this last round, she solved one problem before I even had an idea of what the answer would be. (She bragged about this to her mom.)
From 50 whole numbers, 1 to 50 inclusive, choose the X and Y that will make the largest fraction:
X + Y
Kelly competed in her second cross-country meet determined to finish and she did! This event was at the Olympic horse park in Conyers and included some hills and woods. It was very crowded and the meet got behind, so the JV girls passed the time giving each other massages in a giant circle.
Kelly paced herself better this time, and at the 1 mile mark I was able to snap a picture of her smiling:
She was feeling pretty good at the 2 mile mark as the course went from open field into the woods. She liked running in the woods because it was in the shade and it felt more isolated. It helped to be isolated when at the 2.5 mile mark her stomache became so sloshy she had to throw up. She didn’t have any food in her because she had not eaten anything for breakfast and reported being very hungry before the race.
She quickly recovered and finished the race very determined to finish (and not throw up again.) This is a photo of her approaching the finish line, and as you can see, she is ahead of everyone behind her.
The next photo shows her on the left crossing the finish line including a “zoom” of the time clock showing 26 min 36 sec, which is her best time for a 3 mile run. After finishing she had to bend over and throw up again, so this is a pretty rough sport. (Other girls throw up before the race because they are nervous!) However, unlike her last meet Kelly was back up and quite chatty and very happy about her race. The two of us went to a waffle house (her choice), and she ordered a table full of food.
Photos from the boys’ get-away. We missed Bob and said so several times, although Ted did a pretty good job of cooking bacon.
Click to view: Photos
Drink: Lime Beer
Phrase: “You idiot!”
Come backs: UGA, ND
Loser: Falcons
Winner: New Orleans
Crossword: Irony vs. Coincidence
Driver: Grant
Before Dinner: Alligators
Center of Dinner: Hole / Trashcan
Snack: Peanuts
Dessert: Susan’s Brownies
Nourishment: Mom’s soup
Forgot: Beach towels, sunscreen, bug spray, beach chairs, PAL
Frustration: Cemetary Geocache
Danger: Swim to pelican sandbar
Distraction: Biting flys
Irritant: The guy from Jersey
Find: 4 bottles with messages
Excess: Sand dollars
Lost: Michael’s football
Disputed: Definition of lost
Pew buddy: Aunt Margie
Most missed: Bob E.
The game: Bocce
Saved this voicemail since July 12 2005. It was not my “big five oh” as the singer suggests. We would all head down to the beach for vacation the following week.
I’ve saved this in my voicemail for over a year-and-a-half.
Kelly participated in her first cross country meet this morning. This was a county meet, so there were hundreds of kids participating. While the morning was cool at first, it warmed up, and unfortunately for Kelly, the JV girls ran last.
The course wove in and out of a huge soccer field complex and included a couple of tricky hills and bridges. Kelly started off strong, pulling well ahead of her Brookwood peer group. In fact, she pulled too far ahead and clocked a 7 minute 16 seconds on her first mile. While she has been able to run 3, 4, and 5 miles in practice fine, by the time Kelly passed her second mile mark, she was in bad shape with a terrible side ache. Getting dizzy, she sat on the side of the course almost about to pass out.
A kind dad (not me… I was waiting to photograph her around the bend and didn’t see) carried her to the Brookwood tent to recover. She felt awful and took about 15 minutes before she could even try to stand back up. She napped all the way home (with air conditioning turned on to max.)
It probably didn’t help that she had been sick earlier in the week, and was still a little on the mend. But we are still proud of her, and doesn’t she look like the real athlete with her race number and her uniform? For at least a mile-and-a-half she looked like a pro!
The Start
Going Strong At 1.5 Miles
Earlier in the summer, Mary Claire asked if she could mow the yard when Danny left for college. I told her I thought that would be fine, and we even had a training session where she mowed the top part of the back yard. She learned how to open the shed, back out the mower, check for gas, adjust the wheel height, prime the engine, and start it.
I also showed her how the blade worked under the deck so she had a sense of what was spinning under there. Before actually mowing, she wanted to practice without the engine running. That was a pretty good idea. She “mowed” several rows, practicing how to turn the mower. Finally she started it up with only three pulls, and mowed the practice session. She put the mower back up, and ran in to report to her Mom what she had done. That was several weeks ago.
With Danny off to Spring Hill, Claire mowed the entire front and back this weekend. She really did a very good job and earned full pay. Grandaddy and Mr. Pink both reviewed her work and were impressed. Grandaddy wants to know if she will learn to edge.
Over the past several months, the family has watched Kathy’s Cow develop from a white canvas to, based on her announcement Friday, a finished painting. Carol put in a request that we post a photo of it here. It will likely get hung in the dining room, which is a fitting place of honor for beef.
She is considering the rear end of a greyhound dog or two chairs on the beach as her next project. I favor the latter.
