Last weekend was full! (Actually, aren't they all!)
On Saturday, the girls and I spent the ENTIRE day at E's track meet.
She had her personal best for the season in both the long jump (8'8" 3/4) and the 800m (3:20) and scored a bronze medal in the high jump with a jump of 3'0" (her personal best is 3'2").
It was a doozie though...hot, hot hot!!
That evening, our dinner guests from Lincoln, beat the girls and I home.
It was so nice to catch up and just be together.
Don't you just hate it when too much time passes between seeing good friends/family? I know I do!
Sunday was just awesome!
191st Ave has had an annual Fourth of July Block Party for the past five years.
But this year, the party was moved up to wish our dear, sweet friends/neighbors farewell.
It was a bittersweet day.
The street was blocked off. The kids played. The adults relaxed. We ate. We drank.
And most of all we enjoyed each other and reminisced about the memories we've all made together the past 5 years.
p.s. due to the large amount of wild children running crazy in the street, Bob decided it was best to stay indoors :)
It is playing over and over and over in my head lately.
"why you gotta be so mean?"
There have been a couple of incidents lately that makes my mind go directly to this song.
Another parent making rude comments and giving me 'death stares' because I have young children (who they obviously find annoying....even though we are outdoors playing). Ummm...weren't your kids little and full of energy once?
A co-worker trying to bully their way to the top? Ummmmmm.....people perform better and show more respect when you praise, coach and encourage......not demean and blame.
A little girl telling my daughter that she's better than her, so she doesn't want to play.
In the midst of each of these incidents.....my mind plays...."why you gotta be so mean?"
Why? Why does annoyance and disgust have to be where people go first? Why?
Why are we so dang judgmental of others.
What happened to "treat others like you want to be treated"?
Now, don't get me wrong....I am NO SAINT. I'm not perfect. I've done/said the wrong thing.
I have said mean things before and will likely do it again (just being honest people!).
I'm not proud of it.
But IT IS bothering me A LOT lately.
I literally want to cry, when I experience it. (and no...it's not just because I'm PMS-ing)
I don't want my children to grow up in this mean world. Where, thanks to social media, comment sections and blogs (like this one :) people can say what they want with NO CONSEQUENCE.
I want them to know love, feel love, experience and show kindness, be givers.
I'm asking you to jump on board and help me CHANGE. Choose to BE THE CHANGE.
Instead of asking.....Where did kindness and understanding go?
CHOSE to be KIND and UNDERSTANDING of other's lives, situations, etc.
Instead of over analyzing....Why are others MEAN?
CHOSE to be HELPFUL and PATIENT.
SMILE.
LEND A HAND.
GO OUT OF YOUR WAY.
PAY IT FORWARD.
Try it today and share with me how it feels.
I'm going to stop singing this song.
Stop asking "why you gotta be so mean"
And instead
Be Kind
Be Patience
Be Grateful
And p.s..by the way....the intent of this blog is to bring awareness to this issue.
Challenge you to think about your words and actions.
Not point fingers, no complain about others, and certainly not blame them.
My heart runneth over with...................PRIDE
(this happens a lot when you have kids as rockin' cool as mine!)
While E and I practiced high jump, running and the shot put....
Ed took advantage of the time to fine tune H's bike riding skills.
Last year was kinda tough.....H seemed to need just a bit more coordination and strength.
WOW...one year did the trick.
Within 5 minutes, she was on her own...off to the races.
This upcoming weekend, our track club is sponsoring a multi-team event.
Instead of doing individual events, they can only do specific events for their age group. They are doing triathlons, heptathlons and a decathlon.
E's age group is a triathlon......shot put, high jump and the 400.
So....since E has never done the shot or high jump, we thought we better get up to the track and practice.
Thank GOD, my sister Abby was a stud high jumper, so I know a good deal about it, but actually teaching an 8 year old how to flop is a totally different beast. Then I started to question if I should even be teaching her that approach and instead just teach her to jump forward over the bar?? What do you think?
I ended up deciding to teach her the 'right way'.....figured she could of course jump higher going straight in....but why teach her the wrong way and have her have to learn the correct way later, right?
I'm pretty sure she's got the body of a high jumper. We might be on to something.
TOTAL side note here: Isn't it CRAZY to think they can/do high jump in the 9-10 age division! I think it is.
Then, we decided to let Bob take a turn:
Pretty good, considering his approach was slow as heck!
E thought she better show him how it's done:
Bob just might have to accompany us to the meet this Sunday!
As I previously mentioned, E is participating in her first season of club track.
She's doing the long jump, 400 and 800.
Let me tell ya...this girl is naturally athletic but just needs to work on the focus-part....just a bit :)
She's had 3 meets so far this season.
We couldn't be more proud of her! She is tough and determined.
She goes out there with all her gusto and gives it literally her all.
She knows the length of her jumps and her the times of her runs. Smart little cookie :)
Here's a few snap shots from one of her meets:
She needed to rest her tootsies after all that jumping :)
Here she is running the 400:
The age division is based on what age the child will be on December 31st of this year.
She competes in the 9-10 division (even though she's 8) and some of her competitors are almost a full two years older than her.
It's good though....it pushes her a little and let me tell ya, she means business!
This last Saturday, the second she was done long jumping, she asked if we could go to the track at home and practice.
