July 2014 - Misc

For July 4th, we hung out with friends and did little fireworks in our front yard. (The end of the video is upside down for some reason)

She can sleep anywhere. The first photo she's in Andrew's closet and the last she's in the doorway to our bedroom.

The kids like to have sleep overs together on Friday nights.

Sticker face!

Andrew and Bailey took swim lessons at the YMCA. (They wouldn't let me teach them). It's not much, but it's progress.

Andrew swim lesson 

Speaking of swimming, I have been swimming with Masters at the YMCA for a few months. Masters is an organized swim program with a coach and set workouts and times. Master swimmers can compete in completions against other Master swimmers or just attend practices.

The Masters coach, Steve, is really fun and I enjoy swimming with him. He does this competition within our group of swimmers called the Tour de la Pool. Steve is a big fan of the Tour de France and when the Tour de France is going on we compete in the Tour de la Pool which consists of 15 stages (practices) and trivia each day. Masters practice is offered twice a day, so swimmers can double up on a couple days to earn more points, but can't go to more than 20 practices in the 3 week period. Each day right before practice swimmers answer trivia questions about the Tour de France. The questions can be random, easy or quite hard. Some questions asked:
Who won the previous stage?
How many athletes are competing this year?
When was the first year of the Tour de France?
How many French riders have won? What years?
What color jersey does the sprint winner wear?
What team is John Smith from?
What number bib does team x y or z wear?
What is the abbreviations of the American teams?
How many Swiss riders are competing? What teams are they on?
Who is known as "super cool nickname"?
What bike does team X use?
What flag is this and what is the country's team name?

Seriously! This is not simple trivia! It is hard and I have to STUDY! The points are broken down by trivia points and swim points. I'm usually one of the better swimmers so you'd think that I would get more points right? Steve makes it fair so the better swimmers have to swim more to get the same points as the less competitive swimmers. This means I really do need to study the trivia. It usually takes me the first week to figure out the pattern and know how and what to study. After that I can catch up.

I won stage 9. :)  (meaning I got the most points for swim and trivia)
Steve takes a photo of the stage winner and they win a yellow cap and a chick fil a cow and coupon. (Similar to the stage winners who get a colored jersey and there's a stuffed lion they win in the Tour de France.)

 The leader board after my stage 9 win. I was in 4th overall.

 I won stage 10. (Back to back wins!)

 After stage 10 I had the most trivia points and second most swim points but was first overall. 

 After stage 14 (of 15) I was at the top of the leader board by a good amount. :)

Just as the Tour de France gives out Jerseys, we win colored towels. The yellow towel is for the overall winner of the Tour de la Pool. (below is the email from the coach)

THE FINAL RESULTS!

I WON THE YELLOW TOWEL! 

If you can't see, it is embroidered with "2014 Tour De la Pool Overall Champion, Sarah Kearns"

I would be lying if I said this didn't mean a lot to me. It was a highlight of the year. I have missed being competitive and swimming is the way I can compete, win, have fun, and make friends.

The towel is hanging in our bathroom so I see it everyday. I am reminded that I can do hard things, and that I enjoy doing hard things. "I can do hard things" is a motto/phrase we're teaching our kids. I'm glad I can show the kids the towel and photos and remind them that even mommies and daddies do hard things :)

The end.