Week five in the summer was one of the rare weeks that we didn't have much going on. It was actually quite nice. Ivory had gotten home from camp and we didn't have to go anywhere until the Fourth of July.
We still had some of our regular activities. Robyn had another swim meet. I was glad I got to go to them this year. She did a great job. She isn't the fastest swimmer, but she is consistent and usually would beat her own time. There were never a lot of girls in her age group. Often there were only three girls swimming, and I'm think that once she did a race by herself. (I'm pretty sure she won that one.)
This was the week we discovered new filters on the phone, so you get an impromptu fisheye photo shoot. There are some other filters like cartoon and sepia, but the fisheye was the big hit.
We rounded out the week with a blood donation. The boy who used to live next door to us (back in the old hood) did his eagle scout project which was a blood drive. We were more than happy to help out. Here is Tyler doing his thing.
It was funny because Ivory almost cried when she found out I went without her. She sure does like the snacks you get at the end. (I wonder if she will like it as much when she has to give blood to get the snacks.)
Welcome back. (I'm really talking to myself here.)
The adventures the last few weeks have been non-stop. I have barely had time to breathe and it has all been amazing. That is great because it gives me a lot to blog about and not great because...you may have noticed how behind I am.
So, I'm sorry for my tardiness, but not sorry for having so much fun.
At this point it is just daunting trying to decide where to start or what to focus on. There is so much. So today, I'm going to wrap up April. You know, that month way back there, when kids were still in school, parents were cruising, and we only had an inkling of what summer might hold. It will be nice to check off a month and not have to worry about anything before May. (Baby steps.)
I have to preface this though. Moxy passed away in July. Seeing pictures of her makes my heart hurt. She was such a good dog. She'll get her own post of course, but it felt weird to put pictures on here and not mention that she is no longer with us.
Back in April, she had a run in with a cat. Moxy wasn't at fault at all. She wasn't even provoking the cat, but it went to town on her. Robyn raced in and took a couple of scratches to rescue her dog. Moxy was okay, but she did have a wicked scratch in her ear.
Dishes are broken around this house with a fair frequency. I don't feel like my kids are any clumsier than others. It just happens. This time around, we lost a bowl that Tyler and I bought when we were newly married. I remember shopping with him and picking out this silly bowl. I was sad to see her go. She has carried more cereal and soup than I can count.
April still has come cold snaps. One sunny morning, our chain froze over with ice. It looked so cool, I had to get a couple shots.
Robyn finally was student of the month. We had a moment a few weeks earlier when we got all excited, but turns out there was another seventh grader with the name R. Caza. But this time it was officially Robyn. Yay!!
Got this silly picture of Daisy during her no teeth phase. I'm not sure how she bit into anything for months.
Here is Ives sporting the tattoo mustache. It looks fuller than her Dad's.
Granny V was with us for much of April because of the cruise and Tyler's ankle surgery. Pip was a staple around the house, but she was teaching Moxy bad habits. I caught them both sitting on the couch one day. Pip didn't know better, but my sneaky Moxy was always finding an excuse to crawl up there.
Pip was punished for her bad influence by simply being the 'new' dog. The kids loved to dress her up and tote her around. One such example can be seen here.
We changed our window in March. I think we might have washed it off on St. Patrick's Day. Robyn was kind to share the window and let the kids paint tulips with her.
Tyler came to check out my chiropractic adventures. I've been going since March. I'm trying to fix my spine after some damage done in college. It is a slow process, but I feel like I am making progress. Tyler came and took pictures of me since there isn't much I can do about it when I'm in traction. Not much to do except stare at the ceiling.
One more of Robyn with the dogs. Looks like a nice lazy Sunday.
I think my Sundays won't be too lazy for a while. I should probably be organizing pictures. Here's to more frequent blog posts. Just enjoy them as they come. I shouldn't make any promises, because I never realized how busy it is with teenagers and multiple children in activities. Plus, I'm already back at work making copies for the start of school. Life isn't chill in the least, but I really have few complaints. I love my organized chaos!
When we last left our benumbed hero, he was returning, triumphant as it were, to the Elk's Lodge. It was around 5:30 in the morning. I think the party ended at 6:30, but, to be honest, my memory of that morning is a little fuzzy.
My fellow party goers were eager to show their concern, though they were also eager to sleep. I had many wellwishes from people who I suspected, correctly, I would never see again. The boot had a moderate effect on sympathy, but I found the crutches to be much more effective at inspiring sympathy amid random acts of service. Eventually I packed myself up and found myself settling into my own bed in a sort of codeine-induced afterglow. Sleep found me quickly.
Through squinting, heavy eyelids I perceived the "I'm graduated" sunlight filtering through my window, which was odd as my bedroom was not on the east of the house. I had little time to ponder this incongruity and upon opening my bloodshot eyes, the brain dumped the pent up pain that had been building all night.
My grandfather used to throw wet washcloths onto the faces of those he was waking for farm chores. Apparently this had the intended effect of quickly rousting the dreamer into consciousness. As I never endured this particular flavor of alarm clock, I can in nowise compare it to the instant wakefulness and dogged determination of a post-codeine head-and-ankle-ache.
The doctor had plainly said, "Make sure you stay off it for 6 weeks," as he handed me a prescription for codeine. "Take these if it hurts, but make sure you listen to the pain." This was the first injury in my life that had come with a "real" painkiller. The pain that now greeted my recently graduated brain seemed like the kind of pain the doc was talking about. I staggered upstairs, grabbed my pain pills, and settled into the couch to take mental inventory of my situation.
Sitrep:
ankle in pain (hard to ignore that)
just under two weeks until BYU summer term starts
I'm registered for my physical education credits at BYU...so I can take them and get them out of the way before my mission
I spent much of that day sprawled on the couch trying to find good tv to watch. I may as well have been on a quest to find a mythical unicorn.
The two weeks passed quickly, it seemed it me. At first, I spent a lot of time hopping around on one foot. Then I baby-ed steps on my ankle until, gradually, I could support more and more weight. The doc had encouraged as much physical activity as possible without causing undue pain. I wanted to get back to a walking condition, so I pressed hard. I figured that's what you do: you push through the pain, and on the other side there was the old me, waiting to go walking. All I had to do was keep pushing.
I should point out at this point that my upbringing focused a lot on determination. My father had build a business, clawing his way into the business community through unflagging determination. In my case, pain was just "weakness leaving the body."
Only, in reality, pain was really painful. It didn't seem like weakness leaving the body at all. I kept pushing, though, because that's what would get me through it.
After a couple of days, I added to my sitrep:
crutches are annoying
Within a week, I was hobbling around the house, able to attend to my own needs. I was trying to talk normal steps, focusing on full range of motion through my ankle. It hurt like the dickens (which, incidentally, has nothing to do with Charles Dickens). So, while halting, I was actually walking one week after the incident.
A few more days, and I found myself in Utah, preparing to attend BYU. I had left the crutches at home, insisting that I didn't want them as a crutch — literally. The psychology was simple: I wanted them to be as far away as possible because that would make my brain become independent and heal the body.
I didn't say the psychology was right.
On the first day of college, I learned that I would be keeping a running journal indicating when and how long I ran each week. I spoke with the teacherprofessor coach and informed him of my recent injury. He seemed to subscribe to my "crutches" psychology. "Run on it, it will make you stronger. You're in this class like everybody else. You'll run, or you'll fail."
Welcome to college.
I hadn't been running since the staircase, and I was a little hesitant to try. But the words of the coach returned to my mind, "You'll run, or you'll fail." My first runs were filled with inspiration pain. They were short, and they were not enough to make the grade at BYU. At the end of the first week, we found ourselves at the Smith Field house, running laps around the track there, setting our beginning of the term pace. I would have to show improvement by the end of the term: my grade depended on it.
Well, let's just say that it wasn't going to be difficult to beat my time.
I continued my runs. The overall pain subsided, though there was an annoying stubborn pain in my ankle that just wouldn't relent.
And so it was, about 3 weeks into BYU, about five weeks post originally injury, I found myself jogging down the sidewalk on the east side of campus. I lived at Deseret Towers, and I would bend my run south through Heritage Halls, where I had observed a most-intriguing collection of freshman females in a study group. They met often on the grass as the base of a great hill, just where my running path came down. There, in the shade of the trees, 12 or 15 girls would sit in a circle and throw biology vocabulary at one another trying to ensure they were ready for whatever exam may be upcoming.
I was one day running, on path near Heritage Halls, certain I would impress this little harem of BYU freshman. As I approached, I puffed up my chest and put on the best running form I could muster. I tilted my chin up, as if I were looking at something down path. I was a fine specimen, and I had noticed a few of the students watching me on previous runs. How could they not? It was at this precise moment, lost in self aggrandizement, that my right foot found the edge of the concrete. For any other fine specimen this probably would not have been an issue, but this particular fine specimen suddenly and forcefully remembered that relentless, tenacious pain and my ankle gave way.
If I had attended physics, I would have been able to run the calculations and formulas about mass and momentum. I could have calculated my velocity and how many freshmen it would take to slow the moving object that was me.
But I hadn't attended physics, and the best I could do was watch it unfold in slow motion. My right ankle rolled under, causing the altitude of my right hip to drop. This caused an immediate shift in course. My heading would have taken me within a foot of the co-ed nearest the sidewalk. Now I was on a collision course with the co-ed seated about 3 in from the sidewalk...or maybe her friend seated at number 4. The shift in altitude also caused the effect of essentially laying out in mid air. If bowling balls had the option to extend their entire mass horizontally — wings of destruction style, I'm certain everyone would want that option.
So there I was, virtually horizontal, hanging in the air like a pompous horizontal bowing ball. All physics needed was a little momentum to finish this recipe. Oh, wait, physics had plenty of momentum: I was running downhill afterall! On the leading edge of the circle, I hit three heads already bowed in books. I sailed into the center of the circle, where friction helped me expend most of my flying potential energy. The roll wasn't so bad until I hit five or six co-eds and the way out of the circle. Books, girls, backpacks, and my pride lay strewn about the grass.
I ended up draped over two very charitable young ladies who immediately attempted to ascertain if I was ok. The short answer to that predictable question was, "No," but I couldn't say that. Through pursed lips I uttered, "I'm fine," as I attempted to collect myself. I tried to look as few of them as possible in the eye as I tried to stand. The pain was searing, but physical pain can be coerced into submission to embarrassment. As quickly as I was able, I beat a hasty retreat up the path I had just glided down. I retreated to my room and spent the entire weekend there.
I adjusted my route for the rest of the term. It wasn't the danger of the hill, but the danger of potentially encountering one of the co-eds.
I re-began the painstaking process of range of motion exercises. I logged a lot of time hopping on one foot. I listened to the pain a little more, and gave myself a little more time to heal properly.
When I brought news of re-injury to the coach, his face softened as he saw the immense struggle I had going on. My plight was apparent, and he seemed to really "get" my situation. He nodded and then offered as mercifully as he could muster, "You run, or you fail."
I didn't get an "A" in Physical Wellness...but I also didn't fail. And my end-of-term run was much faster than my begining-of-term run.
Tune in next week to learn how womens shoes put and end to our hero's moving service!
Ivory has been taking gymnastics since she was six. She is
such a short, strong girl, that we thought gymnastics would be perfect
for her. And it has been an amazing road for her. I have only blogged
about our experience here and there, so today I'm going to try to cover
five years. (It's doable.)
We put Ivory in gymnastics
at a place called Arete. It is actually quite a good facility. (Robyn
even did gymnastics for a few months but didn't have the passion that
Ivory had.) Ivory moved up quickly through the small classes. Each time a
girl moves up, two things happen: 1) She goes to the gym for more time.
i.e. from one day to two, or two days to three. 2) Naturally, it gets
more expensive.
Gymnastics is a money sucker, for any
parents out there who don't know. There is an annual fee for having your
child enrolled. (Small, but always surprising when you are paying
monthly and suddenly there is an extra charge.) There is a monthly fee
which starts small, but builds until you could be making a car payment
instead of watching your child do cartwheels. Then, there is the
competition fees. Wow. There is a reason that we avoided those for so
long. They are more along the lines of a mortgage payment (or two).
At Arete, Ivory was bopping along, enjoying her time. She even did a little mini competition
that she did really well in. They seemed to bump her up to the next
level faster than I thought she needed. I decided this was simply
because the higher levels cost more, so why not put girls up there? Ivory eventually reached a level where she could compete, but there was
no way we could afford it, so Ivory just went to the practices three
times a week. We were content, but only to a point.
Because
(I did mention the financial leeches, right?) every year, the gym got
more expensive. They raised prices EVERY YEAR. Of course, we couldn't
compete; we could barely pay the monthly fee. Then one summer, they had
this strange parents meeting. I had never been to one before, but I
dutifully showed up. It was basically a break down of cost and
volunteering. There was a team fee (regardless of whether the girls
competed) and then a minimum number of hours parents had to help at
meets. (Also regardless of whether their girls competed.) This didn't
make sense to me. And I knew our gymnastics time with Arete was coming
to a close, which was too bad, because Ivory was really enjoying
herself.
I went in to speak with the owners and
withdraw my daughter. Not surprisingly, they sang a different tune. I
now could be exempt from the team fee and volunteering hours. But I
wasn't fooled. That other shoe was going to drop eventually, and I knew
prices were going to go up again the next year. So, I took her out
anyway. It was a sad goodbye. We took a couple pictures with her
coaches. (This was in August 2015)
(I know Ivory was sad to leave, but two years
later, she can't remember the name of these coaches, so it wasn't too hard on
her. Her favorite coaches had left the spring before. She does remember
Ron's name. He used to call her Iverson at the gym. She still doesn't
like me to call her that because it has tender memories for her.)
That
meant we were out a gym. I started looking around for a place where
Ivory could continue to develop her skills without the excessive price
tag. (I know...good luck.) A friend of mine had moved her kids from
Arete to High Altitude, so I went to check it out. High Altitude was a
tumbling and cheer gym, and they were just starting a gymnastics
program. And because Ivory was new, it was back to once or twice a week
instead of so much time at the gym. (I was really starting to miss Ives
around the house.)
I signed her up for tumbling and
gymnastics. Ivory found out two things: 1) She didn't love tramp and
tumbling as much. A lot of this was because of coaches. If Ivory doesn't
love the coach, she doesn't love the sport. The regular coach was not
her favorite. Here she is practicing one day with a sub -- who she also
didn't like.
2) She was pretty darn good at gymnastics
after all her time at Arete. Ivory gave up the tramp and tumbling side and focused on gymnastics. She quickly moved up to the advanced
class. In fact, she was the only one in the class for quite a
while, since it was a new program. Her coach Kiki was great and Ivory
loved going.
We hit a good groove. Ivory was learning
new skills, she wasn't gone too much, and our pocketbook could feel the difference.
Here is a video we made in 2016.
Ivory had a talent night with the girls in her ward. She wanted to do
gymnastics, but it is hard without the gym part. So we went to a park
and she did a bunch of tricks. Props because it is much harder to do
those things on grass than on a springy floor.
A
year later after coming to High Altitude, Kiki made a gymnastics team. Team meant
extra practices and the gym was talking about doing competition. After
all, a gymnast can't feel fulfilled unless they have medals and can say
they are the best. (Sense the sarcasm.) But it is what most gyms
eventually go to - competition. (And I get it. Competition is a healthy way to test your skills. I just can't stomach the cost.)
Kiki was a little slow
getting things moving. I actually figured they wouldn't get everything
organized for another year, but then Jess was hired. She has been
coaching for a while and she knew her stuff. Although the girls were
already practicing three times a week, she made the practices longer.
Ivory was suddenly missing dinner three times a week. But Jess made
competition happen. We were right back in the boat that we had bailed
from two years ago.
That said, it was time to let Ivory
try it out. She had practiced hard and it was high time we saw if she
wanted this to be her life. As her mother, I had already chosen for her.
I wanted my Ives back. She was gone all the time, and my money with
her, and when I picked her up, she was often gloomy or disappointed. The
smile that came with gymnastics was fading. That was partly due to
harder workouts, and partly to Jess, who was the bad cop to Kiki's good
cop. I talked with Ivory quite a bit and together we decided that Ivory
would compete, but then she would reevaluate with the possibility of
quitting.
So, we did it all. The warm ups, the leos, the
sparkles, and the practices. (I do have to hand it to Jess. Ivory's
skills improved quite a bit under her coaching. Watching that video from the year before I
could see that Ivory had gotten much better at bars and most of her
tumbling skills.)
Ivory's first competition was right
before our cruise. We were all excited. We were experimenting with hair
dos because she needed her hair off her neck. (Her hair was different at
every meet.) I also sent her up with her teammates because I didn't want
to be that mom who shows up late. Plus, Ivory wanted to go with them.
It worked out well. I think Sofie's mom took her to all the events. Cute
Sofie and Ives.
I have videos of her routines on each
apparatus, but I'll put them with the meet they were in. I would like to
apologize to my blog book. I know videos don't work in you, but
sometimes I just need to put them on here regardless. So, kids, if you
are reading this, you'll need to go to the blog to find these videos.
Unless the zombie apocalypse has already happened and there is no
internet. Then you should stop reading this and find a shotgun.
Meet
one was called the Flower Power Meet. They get some kind of bling with
each meet. I believe they got knee high socks with flowers on them.
Strange, but unique, I guess. This was the first meet we had ever
attended. I probably drove the other spectators crazy asking questions,
but I had most of it figured out by the end.
Each gym
starts on a different apparatus, but they always go in the order of
vault, bars, beam, floor. In this case, our girls started on bars, which
means they would do vault last. I was not very good at getting pictures
throughout. I was either watching or taking video. I did get this fun
picture of Ivory doing a practice routine on bars. I'm very sad because
when I went to record her bar routine, I took a still instead of video.
It was the best view and best routine she would do all season and I
missed it. (Thanks Karma.)
Tyler got a great video of
her floor routine. All the girls do the same routine to the same song.
Trust me that you want to shove cotton in your ears after only listening
to it a few times. It goes the entire two hours.
This was a strange meet. For some reason, the judge on floor did not like our team. They scored everyone so low. Her teammate who didn't complete her tumbling pass scored higher than Ivory. I was a little bugged. But there isn't much you can do. I would say that she performed about the same at each meet and never was her score that low again.
Ivory's scores: Flower Power Meet
Vault: 8.2
Bars: 9.0 (awesome job)
Beam: 6.4 (She fell off on her cartwheel)
Floor: 6.75 (lame judge)
All Around: 30.35
The awards ceremony is always super long. They call out every event for every age group. But the smiles are priceless.
These girls worked so hard. They did a great job. (Kiki is on the left, and Jess is on the right.) There are only four girls on the team: Ivory, Sofia, Kaitlin, and Ashley. All the girls are genuine, nice girls.
Off to dinner afterward. A gymnastics competition can sure work up an appetite.
Ivory reminded me of a little German girl with her braided buns. I really liked how her hair looked when she took it out. It looked so soft and wavy right before bed. What a cutie pie.
Ives got a bit of a break after the first meet mid April. She didn't have another until May, but then the next three were back to back for three weekends straight. The second meet was Fun in the Sun. (They got towels.) At the beginning all the teams line up and they call roll so to speak and each team waves. It is one of my favorite parts.
I tried to redeem myself here by taking a video of Ivory's bar routine. She does a good job although she wobbles just a little while doing her squat-on (That is when she stands on the lower bar and gets ready to jump to the high bar.)
It was a very fun meet, made even more fun because Grandma Dargan came out to watch. My mom has always enjoyed gymnastics. I remember watching the Olympics with her when I was little, so it was a great time for her to watch a granddaughter at one of these events.
More smiles and medals. Fantastic job girls.
Ivory's scores: Fun in the Sun Meet
Vault: 8.15
Bars: 8.2
Beam: 7.575
Floor: 8.55
All Around: 32.475
Ivory was at level 4 for these meets. The cut off score in order to continue to level 5 is a 32. However, Ivory's coach wanted the girls to get a 34 in order to start level 5 training.
By this time, Ivory and I had already decided that she would not by continuing in the summer. Practices were going to increase to four hours a day, four days a week. It was going to be her entire summer. Not to mention the schedule in the fall when school started again. I love that Ivory has done well and become strong and confident (heck, she has a six pack) but this is not what I want her to do forever. I don't want this to be her life. So many times friends have called or activities have come up that she hasn't been able to do because she is at the gym. I feel like her youth will slip away and she will have a handful of medals to show for it. I would rather she have a wider range of memories to choose from than just the four walls of the gym. I do think the skills she has learned will be precious to her in many areas. I hope she stays strong and loves to do hard things. I think she will be amazing at anything she tries.
The third meet of the season was at Arete, so Ivory was familiar with the gym. That was one of the craziest meets in my opinion. May was the month of my driving everywhere. (Tyler hasn't quite got to that part of the ankle narrative, but he couldn't drive for a month.) We all went out to be supportive, but Tyler couldn't sit still long enough. (Ankle pain, blah, blah, blah.) Luckily, Arete was not far from home base, so I drove him back home. Sadly, I realized too late, that I should have taken the littles home as well. So I made another trip to get them home to go to bed. All this driving meant I missed Ives' bar routine and I barely made it back for beam. Here is a fun picture Tyler took of Ivory through the binoculars.
This meet was a Co-op Championship. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but there were girls from different levels there, and glory be...some of them had different music for their floor routines. It was a nice break, I can tell you. Ember, Ivory's friend, came along as well. It was fun to sit in the stands (when I was there) with her. I realize this next picture is truly awful, but that is Ivory up there on the third place stand. That is pretty great.
Everyone did very well at this meet. Ivory had some of her best scores of the season. Look how close she got to 34 points.
I love this picture. These two girls look so different, but I love that they are great friends. We had a fun time going out to dinner after the meet.
The last meet of the season was State. Once again, I really don't know how this all works. I think you have to compete in at last three meets in order to go to the Utah State Championships. The day was also divided by age, so Sofie competed earlier in the day and the other three girls competed in the afternoon. That is why not all four are waving here. (Sofie is quite tall for her age. I believe she is only 8.)
State was very fun. I took video of all her events. Robyn and June came to cheer Ivory on. She did very well. I was particularly proud of her vault. I have never seen her make a large mistake on vault, but on her first vault, she fell. They only take the best of two vault scores, but it is very hard to compose yourself after a mistake, but you can see here how she does...
Pretty awesome. She ended up getting an 8.5 on her vault. She also had one of her most solid routines on the beam. I was very proud of her.
Overall, it was a great day for her.
Ivory's scores: Utah State Championship
Vault: 8.5
Bars: 7.775
Beam: 8.5
Floor: 8.35
All Around: 33.125
She missed a skill on bars, so her all around score wasn't quite as high, but I think she did a great job. However, at state there is fierce competition. Ivory didn't even place in any category. That was also the evening that we had to tell her coaches that she wasn't continuing on. But we still had a great ending to the evening. We went out to eat and enjoyed being together as a family and looking forward to more time to spend together. These girls mean the world to me.
Gymnastics has been such an engaging activity for Ivory. If I could go back, I would do it all again. The smiles and growth have been more than worth it. But I'm also excited for other memories we will make in the future.
