Meeting Goals

It was an exciting weekend for the Underwood clan. A few weeks history will tell you that Soren made a goal to have one "A" time this year. Her coach challenged her to show him how serious she was over this past month and she has worked harder than I have ever seen her work. She has been extremely dedicated and has sacrificed other things to make this her top priority.

This weekend was the YM*A Championship meet and was a great opportunity for Soren to show what she is made of. She did not disappoint.

Soren swam 6 events and scored 4 "A" times and 2 "AA" times! I can hardly believe it. It is so exciting to watch your child work so hard for something and then have it pay off. Over the course of the 2 days you earn points for each race you do and they award the overall meet winners with the most points. Soren tied for 3rd place and when she was called to the podium they said that they only had one trophy, which she immediately said the other winner could have. I could not be more proud of her character.

Here are her race times:

50 yd back stroke :37.73 (previous best = 39.97)

50 yd free style :31.27 (previous best = 33.32)

100 back stroke 1:21.22 (previous best = 1:25)

100 butterfly 1:19.88 (previous best = 2:12)

100 IM 1:20.76 (previous best = 1:25.8)

200 IM 2:45.81 (previous best = 3:11.43)

Wow. You go, Soren!

This is a video of her 50 yd freestyle race. She won 1st place in this event.

More bragging

Another report card for Soren today. That kid amazes me. With her level of activity she has still managed to maintain straight A's, and not just barely; her lowest grade this year has been a 94. Her sweet spirit along with her accomplishments makes her pretty easy to like. I think I will keep her a little longer.

She has a big weekend coming up with the Y champs swim meet. Grandma and Grandpa are here to support her since much of her cheer squad will be up in OKC to see Aunt Danna run her first marathon!

Lucky little Reese gets to stay in the motorhome at the super cool RV park (those places are nice!) with Grandma where she is getting plenty of swim and play time. Yesterday she asked to swim in the outdoor pool - not heated, mind you. It was 95 degrees outside, so we took her over. At Reese's urging, Grandma threw in some coins to dive for (grandma and I were not swimming; not wearing swim suits; absolutely no intentions of getting wet). After a while, Reese was getting quite cold and did not want to retrieve the rest of the coins so Grandma was helping her scoot them to the edge of the pool with a stick when Reese bumped her and she proceeded to swim as well. What can ya do.

I am looking forward to my weekend in OKC with my sisters. I hope the weather cooperates so we can have lots of good stories about the race.

Roll with it

In Texas you gotta just roll with the weather. On Friday it was rainy, so Reese enjoyed some puddle fun. She has been waiting for some rain that is not too cold and has no lightning to play in. After a few hours (yes, hours) she came home shivering and asked for some hot cocoa.

Yesterday it was 85 degrees, so we enjoyed some fishing and LOTS of park time. I think we logged 4 hours at the park. The fish eluded us. Reese decided that they were taking a nap.

Easter, Easter, Easter

What a wonderful holiday weekend! Here is a recap of our Easter celebration.

It is only appropriate for my kids to hunt eggs in water, and the Y offered the opportunity with their aqua egg hunt last weekend...

On Thursday, Reese's mother's day out had their egg hunt.

Easter day promised stormy weather, so Pete and I decided to let the girls hunt their eggs from us on Saturday. Pete set up a scavenger hunt with clues that lead to all of the eggs and the girls had a great time deciphering the hints and running to the stash of prize filled eggs.

On Easter Sunday after church we raided Pops and Nana's house, which again proved very profitable :) The adults were given the name of a song and in that song was the clue to where we could find our egg. Pretty fun. Some of us are better than others at unraveling hints!

The kids had eggs hidden all over the house (the rain kept us inside until the afternoon) and then ventured out to the garage where Nana had set up a table full of craft projects.

When the rain cleared and the sun came out the guys decided that we needed to have a friendly game of croquet in the front yard. We ended up playing until evening while our rag-tag kids ran around the neighborhood bare footed setting up squirrel traps. Classic Easter fun, right? I did not take a single picture, but hopefully pops will share some of his! (Pops, I need some of the pictures that you took!)

We had such a great celebration of the resurrection of our Lord! Happy Easter, all!

Randomness

My Family

Last weekend a large number of my family showed up at my house unexpected. I knew mom was coming to pick up her NEW BIKE!! but I was not expecting Zach, Jodi, Avery , Alissa, Granny and Granddad. While Pete was fitting Nana on her bike the guys were standing around with nothing to do. It was 50 degrees outside with about a 50 mph wind. I have needed gutters over my flower bed for 3 years. Dare I ask them to oblige? Why not?!

So I was off to Home Dep*t with the boys, returning shortly with the supplies THEY needed to do the job :) It only took a couple of hours for them to complete the project because I made sure there was no loafing on the job.

Finally, after 3 years of a huge, ugly square of dirt in front of my house, I can plant flowers! Yea! Thanks guys. I am sure they will never show up again. Too bad, because I am wanting some wood floors and stuff...

how many men does it take to hang a gutter? I guess 2 with 2 "supervisors"

Yesterday was beautiful with a break in the wind (sort of) so Reese and I got started on the bed. Zach (my official landscape advisor) suggested that I make it smaller, easier to maintain. I think he knows that my thumb is the farthest shade from green and didn't want me to lose hundreds of dollars in a flower bed catastrophe. So I scaled it down. Now my problem is finding a place that will sell me some squares of sod; everyone wants me to buy a whole pallet.

here is a "getting started" picture and I will update it when we are all done.

Soren

A swimmer? Yes. A scholar? For sure. A runner? She was the 1st 4th grader to reach the 20 mile club at school (boys and girls!). And now she is setting more records during the tests in PE that are required by the state of texas. I think these tests are kinda funny, but it is interesting none the less. They do sit ups, pull ups, push ups, stretching, etc.

Last year Soren was labeled "average" by the state for being in shape. I looked over the test to see how a kid who swam 10+ hours a week could be only average. It turns out that she far exceeded the standards on all of the tests except for one. Flexibility. She is like her dad. You can't bend her very far. So because of that low score (she can't touch her toes without bending her knees) she is only average.

They are in the middle of these tests right now and so far she is doing great. To score "commended" you must do 30 push ups (I can only do 15). She said that if your knees bend, you put your head down, or any part of your body touches the ground then you are done. She did 50! It was the most push ups done by any student in her grade. The next day she could barely move her arms but that did not stop her from swimming 5,050 yards in practice that afternoon! Next was the long jump. In this event one boy tied her distance but because his foot was just past the line when he jumped, Soren was declared the winner for 4th grade with a jump of over 9 feet!

I just laugh everyday when she comes home with these feats of accomplishment. She is so excited and really wants to do track, but when in the world would she do that? This is Saturday morning, 7:30 am, and where is my child? At a special back stroke practice! I don't see where she gets her motivation.

Sorry. That was a lot of bragging. There is just so much to say about her. She is the best and I am so happy for her success in all areas of her life.

Reese

Yesterday Reese and I went to have lunch with Soren. And it was time. Time to sign up for kindergarten registration. We had to make an appointment; it is not just some paperwork you fill out. She will meet with the nurse, counselor and a teacher before being admitted. Wow. I was sad. She was ecstatic.

She asked about the tests that the nurse was going to perform and now she is concerned about passing them. "What if I can't hear good?" she asked. I told her that they would put a hearing aid in her ear and she would be fine :) So funny.

So that is what is going on in our world. Same ole same ole.