That pretty much sums it up. However, I have been busy: let me give you a snapshot of my last semester!
Spring means track, which means heading to California for Spring Fling! This year we competed at Northridge, UC Irvine, and PLNU. It was probably our best trip ever weather-wise, and an all-around awesome time. Santa Barbara was made better when Tori showed up for a few days.
The only drawback to the trip was that Lisa tore her ACL during our first weekend. Even though her Nationals goals were lost, she remained such an inspiration to the rest of the team with her work ethic and attitude. She came back and scored in two events at Conference a month later! Here's Lisa and the group at Magic Mountain the day after it happened.
We had such a great group of freshmen this year! Here are two of them (Rachel and Beth) hanging out with Emily, Cindy and I in the pool in San Diego.
Mom and Ryan during the meet at Point Loma
Conference at the end of April was one of our best showings in recent years, although the guys side was plauged with setbacks. The girls had a great run, with three first place finishes (including Emily's!); here is our 4x1 team going up to get their medals.
The Coaching Staff at Conference: Me, John, Doug, Jeff, and Greg
In April Mom took on a new project: flowers. She joined a floral design school in Portland and brought home gorgeous arrangements nearly every night! If anyone knows someone in the area in need of flowers for a wedding or other occasion, please give Mom a call - she's excellent. This is the nosegay she made for Emily for Spring Formal.
Ryan and Emily before going to Spring Formal
In March I also put together a sleepover at the middle school I work at for our 8th grade girls. It was part of their Drug, Tobacco, and Alcohol Free unit - they did the planning and fundraising - with the dual goals of learning how to put together a wholesome party and giving them the experience of something fun without any alcohol or drugs. It went really well - I chaperoned along with a fellow Christian teacher, and the girls had a great time sleeping in the hallway, dancing and playing Mafia in the gym, and watching movies and playing RockBand in the classrooms.
Two girls defeating Lauren, my fellow teacher and chaperone, in a pillow fight.
May was full of fun times with the track team:
Girls Night Out (during which the guys, per tradition, pranked one of the girls' apartments by filling over a thousand connected Dixie cups with water.)
A pre-meet dinner at our home (that's Casey, a freshmen, standing on the tree)
Our crazy intra-squad heptathlon (where the girls payed back the guys' prank by freezing their underwear into a massive ice cube)
Me throwing the shot
Wine Tasting with friends in Carlton
Nationals!
This is the only shot I have of Ryan competing - I was running around constantly because all of our athlete's start times coincided. He did awesome - he had a bunch of season's bests, plus PRs in the shot and pole vault - all while dealing with being sick and having to have an IV in the middle of the second day!
Ryan with John and Joel - who has been at Nationals with him all four years
The team posing with John's new "West Region Coach of the Year" Award
And that's basically it! I recently finished teaching and have been searching for and applying for jobs, as Gaston cut my position due to economic woes. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, staff and students, but I'm hopeful that God has something better for me coming along the way!
I will try to be better about keeping this up to date in the future. :)
