On Saturday, we drove to OKC for the Short Course Division II Championships. Sounds like a big title, but it really was a last chance for swimmers to make their times for Age Group, which is this coming weekend.
Anyhoo, my daughter's coaches have nicknames for many of the kids, but none for my kid. For example: one little girl is called The Baconator--her little sister is Bacon Bits. And yes, their last name is Bacon.
We're lucky if they even pronounce Golla correctly. It has a hard 'o' sound, people! Go-la. Simple, right? Not so simple for the majority of people it seems.
As I watched my kidlet swim, I decided she needed to be called, "The Shark". Now, I don't know if sharks have this particular behavior, but she would bide her time in an event and then during the last 25 yards, she would strike.
Da-dum . . . da-dum . . . da-dum-dum . . . da-dumdumdumdum . . . *think theme music from JAWS*
I've seen her do this in a couple of events over the last few months, usually the longer ones, and she almost always creams her victims. It makes for an exciting meet!
That said, we only made time in one event to qualify for OAG (Oklahoma Age Group), but it wasn't from lack of trying. As I mentioned, they made almost all the girl's times really tough to make--they were so fast--but she did qualify for the 200 Freestyle during this last meet. She also made 100 Fly, and 50 Back times from previous meets. She would have made the time for the 100 Medley, but she texted me that she messed up her turn from Breast stroke to Backstroke and drank some water. If her turn had been good, she would have qualified. She was that close.
She also swam the 200 Free Relay and had her fastest time of 31 seconds for a 50 yard swim. She was the lead-off on this event and kept pace with the big dogs. Their team was fourth out of nine teams.
Here's a breakdown of Saturday's meet, the times are 'unofficial', since I wrote them down from the scoreboard and didn't get them off the swim site:
100 IM -- 1:17.58 -- missed qualifying by 0.74 seconds
200 Free -- 2:30.79 qualified--this was the shark race. She paced herself right on her teammate's pace and then, *snap* ate her during the last 25 yards. It was an AWESOME race!
50 Free -- 31:72 -- shaved two seconds off her time, but missed qualifying by 1:32 seconds
100 Breast -- 1:32.0 -- shaved 12:25 seconds off her time, missed qualifying by 0.86 seconds--Wowzers!
Though Age Groups are next week, she already has a plan for next year--Aim for the 13-14 year old times. This makes perfect sense since she'll age up in November will will have to make those times to qualify.
All I can say is how proud this momma is of her Shark Baby!
Later, Peeps!
Showing posts with label kidlet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kidlet. Show all posts
2/25/13
1/7/13
Painted Nails
Today the kidlet will go back to school, the hubs will go back to work, and I will start a new story.
And with a new story, one must have new fingernail polish, right?
Sometime over the holidays, my daughter had the polish on the floor of her play room. This is a 'normal' bottle of polish.
This is a bottle of polish after the almost three year old 'puppy' thought it was a chew toy for her.
Sometime over the holidays, my daughter had the polish on the floor of her play room. This is a 'normal' bottle of polish.
See the difference?
Yeah, I'm just glad she didn't 1) manage to get the lid off, 2) break the glass, 3) swallow the darn thing, 4)spill polish everywhere!
Talk about a doofus dog, geez. And you might actually think Old English Sheepdogs might be smart, but you'd be wrong on so many levels!
Anyway, I painted my nails.
Poor little things have been a stubby mess since I went with the kidlet to get gel manicures right before her birthday. It might have had something to do with my peeling the gel OFF my nail instead of paying $5 to have it removed, or the cold weather which makes my nails brittle anyway. Whatever.
So I decided to use my pinkie's as an accessory statement . . . at least the newspaper said that nail polish was now considered an accessory like jewelry or whatever. So I painted my pinkie fingers green and blue, respectively.
Just because I could.
Believe it or not, my hands are actually considered small, though they look old, rough, and workworn . . .and I have a busted middle finger on the bottom hand. Kiddies--this is why you ALWAYS drop your reins when you jump a fence and your horse doesn't! Actually, it was a water element (known as a liverpool), but still! The reins twisted around the end of my middle finger. I never had it x-rayed, but it was swollen and hurt like the devil for about six weeks and then developed a knot along the joint. I have full mobility, so I'm guessing it was a just a 'greenstick' fracture--a crack, but not a full break.
Anyway, back to doofus dog, despite her ability to fart constantly, chew and eat everything in sight. This next picture is why I love my doofus dog, Maggie . . . yes, we share a name, scary, huh?
Later, Peeps!
Sorry about the picture placements, but Blogger in it's infinite wisdom has made it difficult to upload images from my computer. I have to switch to HTML, blah, blah, blah and then do a couple of handsprings to get it to work.
10/15/12
Swim Meet
This last weekend, we attended the kidlet's swim meet at a local venue.
Yes, I used the word 'venue'. Because it's an Olympic-regulation sized pool at a local high school. This place is amazing with 8-50 meter lanes, state of the art air circulation system, and the water uses 'cutting edge' technology for sanitation.
It doesn't seem to be chlorine because the kidlet didn't smell like she'd been in a swimming pool all morning! It's really, really nice. . . though it still has bleachers in the balcony for the parents to sit on.
Alas, it's not the pool she normally swims in. :-(
Which meant we went to the local Academy to buy some sproingy stadium chairs with backs.
It made all the difference. In between heats, the hubs worked on his computer and I crocheted. Usually when I crochet, my hands will start to sweat because the humidity is so high, but not at Jenks.
Anyhoo, last year was the first time the kidlet swam competitively and Jenks was her first short course meet.
What is short course?
Good question. In fact it was one that I asked when we went to our first meet. Short course season starts in September and ends with Age Group finals/Sectionals during the first of March. Then water polo season starts, March-April. Then long course May-July. August is usually Long course Age Group finals and Sectionals.
Short course is 25 meter or 25 yard pools. Times will be higher because there are more turns involved.
For example: the kidlet raced her first 500 Freestyle race. She psyched herself out about it. Trying to tell her that she routinely swims that in practice didn't matter. She was freaking . . . and it took place right after the 200 Free relay. In the 500 Free, you have to swim 20 laps, which means 19 flip turns. I can imagine the counting must be tough. Luckily, her teammates helped out. At the non-starting block part of the pool. they had a plastic placard that they put in the water to let the swimmer know how many laps they did (1,3,5,etc) When the red square is up, then it's a 25 yard race to the finish!
For her first 500 ever, she had a very respectable time of 7.20.37 minutes, and ended up 15th out of 20.
This year, they had the boys compete on one end of the pool and the girls on the other end. Thank goodness! Because we would have been there all day! Every day the boys finished about 1-2 HOURS before the girls did. Yes, there were that many girls.
Many of the events had around 21-23 heats with 8 girls per heat. Do the math.
That's a lot of kids!
Even with separating out the 10 & Unders, there were still up to 73-78 11/12 year olds.
Last year, the goal was to establish times in the events. This year the goal is to shave time off her previous times. Here were her events:
Saturday:
500 Free--first time to ever swim this.
100 Free--remained the same--paced with kid next to her instead of pushing past.
100 Back-not timed previously. Only 2 seconds off 'B' time goal.
200 Medley (IM)--took 5 seconds off time
Sunday:
100 Fly-- took 9 seconds off previous time
50 Free--took 1.5 seconds off previous time which put her at "B" time. Now goal is to get "A" times.
100 Breast--took 13 seconds off previous time
200 Free--took 23 seconds off previous time
The kidlet didn't win any ribbons, but she shaved seconds off her every time she'd been seeded in. In many events she was barely out of 'B' standard times by only one or two seconds, BUT she did make "B" time for her 50 Free. That was an exciting heat since most of the girls were neck-and-neck the entire race!
I don't know when she'll have another meet. We have to look at the schedule to see what works for us.
I'll post about it when it's relevant!
Later, Peeps!
Yes, I used the word 'venue'. Because it's an Olympic-regulation sized pool at a local high school. This place is amazing with 8-50 meter lanes, state of the art air circulation system, and the water uses 'cutting edge' technology for sanitation.
It doesn't seem to be chlorine because the kidlet didn't smell like she'd been in a swimming pool all morning! It's really, really nice. . . though it still has bleachers in the balcony for the parents to sit on.
Alas, it's not the pool she normally swims in. :-(
Which meant we went to the local Academy to buy some sproingy stadium chairs with backs.
It made all the difference. In between heats, the hubs worked on his computer and I crocheted. Usually when I crochet, my hands will start to sweat because the humidity is so high, but not at Jenks.
Anyhoo, last year was the first time the kidlet swam competitively and Jenks was her first short course meet.
What is short course?
Good question. In fact it was one that I asked when we went to our first meet. Short course season starts in September and ends with Age Group finals/Sectionals during the first of March. Then water polo season starts, March-April. Then long course May-July. August is usually Long course Age Group finals and Sectionals.
Short course is 25 meter or 25 yard pools. Times will be higher because there are more turns involved.
For example: the kidlet raced her first 500 Freestyle race. She psyched herself out about it. Trying to tell her that she routinely swims that in practice didn't matter. She was freaking . . . and it took place right after the 200 Free relay. In the 500 Free, you have to swim 20 laps, which means 19 flip turns. I can imagine the counting must be tough. Luckily, her teammates helped out. At the non-starting block part of the pool. they had a plastic placard that they put in the water to let the swimmer know how many laps they did (1,3,5,etc) When the red square is up, then it's a 25 yard race to the finish!
For her first 500 ever, she had a very respectable time of 7.20.37 minutes, and ended up 15th out of 20.
This year, they had the boys compete on one end of the pool and the girls on the other end. Thank goodness! Because we would have been there all day! Every day the boys finished about 1-2 HOURS before the girls did. Yes, there were that many girls.
Many of the events had around 21-23 heats with 8 girls per heat. Do the math.
That's a lot of kids!
Even with separating out the 10 & Unders, there were still up to 73-78 11/12 year olds.
Last year, the goal was to establish times in the events. This year the goal is to shave time off her previous times. Here were her events:
Saturday:
500 Free--first time to ever swim this.
100 Free--remained the same--paced with kid next to her instead of pushing past.
100 Back-not timed previously. Only 2 seconds off 'B' time goal.
200 Medley (IM)--took 5 seconds off time
Sunday:
100 Fly-- took 9 seconds off previous time
50 Free--took 1.5 seconds off previous time which put her at "B" time. Now goal is to get "A" times.
100 Breast--took 13 seconds off previous time
200 Free--took 23 seconds off previous time
The kidlet didn't win any ribbons, but she shaved seconds off her every time she'd been seeded in. In many events she was barely out of 'B' standard times by only one or two seconds, BUT she did make "B" time for her 50 Free. That was an exciting heat since most of the girls were neck-and-neck the entire race!
I don't know when she'll have another meet. We have to look at the schedule to see what works for us.
I'll post about it when it's relevant!
Later, Peeps!
8/25/12
Picture Day 2012
Yesterday was picture day.
School started about 7 days ago. The kidlet had to have her syllabuses signed and returned by day 2. She had homework (3 hours) on day 3. A Geography quiz on day 4 and homework took about 2 hours. Day 6 she had a test over the book they read over the summer--Woods Runner. Day 7 she had a Latin test. Whew!
And to top it off, she had picture day. Of course, I thought we could wait to purchase a blazer. But no, after a slight freak-out, blazer purchased and sleeves were altered. And THEN they send out a note--the night BEFORE picture day--that blazers could be 'borrowed'.
Thanks for the advanced notice! But one less chore is done--re: blazer bought and fitted . . . until the next growth spurt.
Erm, if I stood next to her, I'd be shorter. Just an FYI, yanno. Yes, I flat-ironed her hair.
Later, Peeps!
I discovered a few broken links on the Weighty Wednesday page and will try to fix them over the weekend. If you notice a broken link, please comment and let me know where it was. Thanks!
School started about 7 days ago. The kidlet had to have her syllabuses signed and returned by day 2. She had homework (3 hours) on day 3. A Geography quiz on day 4 and homework took about 2 hours. Day 6 she had a test over the book they read over the summer--Woods Runner. Day 7 she had a Latin test. Whew!
And to top it off, she had picture day. Of course, I thought we could wait to purchase a blazer. But no, after a slight freak-out, blazer purchased and sleeves were altered. And THEN they send out a note--the night BEFORE picture day--that blazers could be 'borrowed'.
Thanks for the advanced notice! But one less chore is done--re: blazer bought and fitted . . . until the next growth spurt.
Erm, if I stood next to her, I'd be shorter. Just an FYI, yanno. Yes, I flat-ironed her hair.
Later, Peeps!
I discovered a few broken links on the Weighty Wednesday page and will try to fix them over the weekend. If you notice a broken link, please comment and let me know where it was. Thanks!
11/21/11
Happy Birthday, Baby!
Today, my kidlet turns eleven. Happy Birthday, Baby!!
I will always remember your entrance into the world . . . after hours and hours of waiting, numerous bags of saline solutions and an extra shot of epidural drugs.
But, I have to admit that it was worth it, 'cause I have the bestest kidlet in the whole world!
Love,
Mom
I will always remember your entrance into the world . . . after hours and hours of waiting, numerous bags of saline solutions and an extra shot of epidural drugs.
But, I have to admit that it was worth it, 'cause I have the bestest kidlet in the whole world!
Love,
Mom
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