Swimmer of the Week

I hadn't planned on posting so soon, but I just had to. Eric and Natalie got "Swimmer of the Week"! They've been giving it to sibling pairs, probably so more swimmers would get a chance to get this honor. There are four of these signs given out each week. There are no set criteria or anything, just swimmers that the Coach wants to call attention to, usually because of their hard work and dedication. Natalie had never gotten this award in four years of being on the neighborhood swim team. Her friend Maya used to get it every year (except for this year since she decided not to swim with the team this summer). Natalie hasn't really expected this in the last couple of years, because she mostly goes to her other swim practice instead of the neighborhood swim practice. Still, she hoped she would get it, probably because you get this cool sign to put in your front yard!

When I texted Patrick about the award. He texted back that Natalie smiled at the news and said, "Technically Eric got it." It's true that Eric deserved it. He has gone to two practices a day almost every day in June and he's gone to most of the practices period. Tonight he was the only child in the swim lane where they usually have the 5- and 6-year-olds. I told the Coach Michael to work him hard! Coach Jesse made the announcement that Natalie had achieved her TAGS time in the 50 meter backstroke today (more on this later). He made the announcement to everyone else at the practice when he announced the swimmers of the week. On the way out of practice, Coach Michael (who likes to kid around with the kids) told me to tell Natalie that it was Eric who got the award. I told him that's what she had said. Coach Jesse said, "Yeah right. She's the one who got the TAGS time." He sounded proud of her too. :)

I have one more cute story. When we got home with the sign, Eric said he wanted to put it in the closet. I had to ask him why, of course, and I explained that no one would see it if it was in the closet. He said, "What if someone takes it?"

Patrick left with Natalie for Austin this morning. She has a swim meet there at the University of Texas Swim Center tonight and tomorrow morning. She could have had the opportunity to swim on Sunday as well, but she wanted to be back home to swim in the neighborhood swim team Championship Meet. She swam in three races today, her results are as follows:

200 IM--3:25.34 (dropped 2.23 seconds off her previous time of 3:27.57)
50 Fly--40.50 (added 1.41 seconds to her previous time of 39.09)
50 Back--39.00 (dropped 1.34 seconds off her previous time of 40.34)

Patrick texted me a few observations, since I couldn't be there. He said that her breaststroke was "very rough" in the 200 IM. He wondered, as he usually does, whether or not he should tell her about it. She is always looking for how to improve, but sometimes she takes it as criticism rather than helpful tips, even when the info comes from her coach. Patrick felt that even though she dropped 2 seconds off her previous time, she could do much better. To me this is encouraging because she keeps getting better and faster. Patrick was sitting far away from where she was sitting, but she was very happy where she was--sitting next to her friends. He expected that she would be unhappy with her 50 Fly time because she added so much time, but she had to recover quickly because her next race was only about 15 minutes later. When she dropped so much time on her 50 Back, we were ecstatic, and so was she. She said that when she saw her time, she almost cried. Patrick said that she even slowed down as she was coming into the wall again, so she may have some room for improvement. :)

Patrick took Natalie out to eat at Chili's as a reward. Her very favorite dish there is the "Salmon with Garlic and Herbs". He texted me that she ate almost all her broccoli before she started eating her salmon. She was a hungry and happy girl.

I took this second picture at HEB, our local grocery store this evening. Anthony is filling out a health form so he could get the meningitis vaccine, which is required for admission to most colleges, nowadays. Of course, he texts me earlier today while I was at work to tell me that he had to get this done by July 1st. HELLO--JULY 1ST IS ON MONDAY!!! Sigh, my soon-to-be college-bound boy has been enjoying his summer going to London with his father, playing on the PS3 for six hours at a time, going to theme parks and such with his friends. This week he had to send in his course selections already, with almost no information and now this. He told me that the school has been sending him emails through his new school email address. He isn't used to this email address, of course, so he doesn't check it often. I shouldn't be more tech-savvy than my soon-to-be college-bound boy, should I? Even I know that there is a way to get those emails automatically to his iPhone and that he can set it up to give him alerts when he gets certain emails. He just hasn't done any of that yet. Sigh, so meantime, I had to drag Eric with us after swim practice was over at 7pm, to go get Anthony his vaccination. I wondered if he really had to get the vaccine by July 1st or if only the preliminary information had to be turned in by July 1st. I couldn't take the chance since he couldn't figure out which way it was, so we did it tonight. ACK! I'm on call 24 hours tomorrow, so this was just one more thing I had to do today before packing my stuff and working at the hospital for a whole day.

Just because I've mentioned the other three children in this post, I have to add a small mention about Alex plus mention what the boys were doing all day while I was at work. Anthony took Eric to his morning practice today then took Alex to his friend Dylan's house to spend the night. Anthony took Eric to Wendy's for lunch and somewhere along the way met up with his friend Alejandro. Alejandro is here tonight and he and Anthony are of course playing on the PS3. Anthony will pick up Alex tomorrow then Alex wants to spend the night at his friend Jeremy's house. Alex is really taking advantage of his big brother this summer.