Swim Team and Bugbites

I can't believe it's the end of June! The girls go back to school next Monday, July 7th. Darrin will be gone Wed-Saturday to assist at Scout camp, so the kids and I are trying to make the most of their last week of summer break by visiting some museums and the celebrating the 4th holiday with another fatherless family.

I'll review the month with asking, "Why can I not even pretend to keep up with the housework lately?" and then replying, "Oh, yeah, the kids are home to mess it up and then we spend all my free time away from lessons at the POOL!" It's been lots of fun to swim or sit in the shade and actually read a book, but I'm ready to take a break from summer. The heat is draining and we're only home long enough to make a mess, it seems.

OK, about swim team: The Olive Chapel Otters are priviledged to have added the swimming skills of Haylee and Hannah. (I won't claim whether I'm joking or serious.) Haylee is showing improvement and a competive side that we rarely see. She improved by 5 seconds from our practice meet to the first real meet just 3 days later. She has difficulty blowing out her nose so she wears a nose plug. Well, it broke at the meet last week before her last event- butterfly. I told her she would just have to do as we've practiced and blow out her nose as she swam. Being quite nervous with what she claimed "her worst stroke", she swam her heart out and actually came in 1st place in her race!! I told her to forget using a plug from then on, but she went home and found a replacement in the swim bag! What can I say, the kid hates to blow her nose with a cold!

Hannah has improved her time by 8 seconds over 10 days but isn't confident with her breathing and grabs the rope constantly. I've attached videos from the last meet of their breastroke. Not a strong stroke for either, but it's the only video I could get that day. They've had two swim meets so far. I doubt we'll attend all of the remaining 4 or that we'll sign up again next year. You have to show up at 4:30 or 5:00 (but earlier if you want a seat) and the meet doesn't begin until 6. We have been getting home around 9:45 p.m., thoroughly exhausted. We're just not that serious about it!

If nothing else, the girls have learned the strokes and it has inspired Preston to learn to swim. In the last month, he's gone from just playing in the shallow end to actually jumping off the diving board and swimming to the ladder with little assistance. He refuses to wear floaties and wants to "practice" diving now! It's been so fun to watch him throw torpedos and swim down to get them. I thought he'd be more into watching the races at the meets, but it totally bores him. I only took him to about 30 minutes of this week's meet, but made friends with a group of mosquitoes while I was filming. I've counted 18 bites on his little body! Poor thing!