m.o.M - mother of Michael

Sanctuary! Sanctuary!

I feel like Quasimoto. I may even be developing a hunched back.

The theme for the high school swim banquet is "The Beach". Okay, I thought, this shouldn't be too hard. Sun, sand, shells and surfboards. There: a beach. That's where I should have left well enough alone. But noooo, I just had to keep touching the idea.

That's when I got "The Big Idea". Sand castle center pieces! That's it! Each table will have a sand castle center piece! Off to the internet I dashed and lo and behold there was my answer. Take a child's castle toy, coat it with tacky glue, sprinkle with sand, spray with varnish and Viola! a sand castle.

The local dollar store had the perfect ceramic pieces: Notre Dame, seven inches tall and already sand colored. Throw in some dollar store mirrors as bases and I was in heaven. This idea was going to fly!

Five days later...

Still gluing and sprinkling. My floor is sandy, my counters are gluey and when Michael took a bite of the PBJ I made him he said, "Oh Mommy! It's not just the house that feels like the beach, my sandwich tastes like the beach too!" Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Well, the banquet is tomorrow and my sandcastles are finally done. Like a marriage, for better or for worse. All in all, I don't think they look all that bad...except perhaps the one that reminds me of Mr. Potato Head.

The next time I have a big idea, please, lock me in the belfry!

I am Thankful For...Swimming

Ever since Lizzy was four or five years old, all she wanted to do was swim. When she began swimming competitively at eight, we never imagined it would take us this far.

This morning began, as most swim meet days do, with a pre-dawn start to the day.

The day ended with a dusk drive home.

In between these daily bookends was swimming, swimming, swimming!

 

I honestly feel that swimming has saved Lizzy, kept her on track. Through each of our three moves, there has always been swimming. In each school and each new town there has been a group of kids with the same interest for Lizzy to immediately join and become a part of.

Swimmers are a special sort. They spend hours swimming from point A to point B and back again: miles and miles without getting anywhere. For the most part, these are kids with high GPAs and solid values. They get up at 6:00 am without complaint, swim for an hour and a half, go to school and then swim again in the afternoon.

Swim coaches are extended members of the family. They are the "third parent" who can say "do it until you puke" and the kid does it without question.

Swimming has taken us to Alabama and Virgina. I have met wonderful, caring parents and Lizzy has made lifelong friends.

This is a sport that will carry her through college and beyond. It's a sport that she can participate in no matter how old she is.

I will always be indebted to this sport and no matter how many mornings I see the the sun come up long after we've been on the road, I'll always want my car painted like this car:

Fan Frenzy

Another early wake-up call, another pre-dawn drive, another swim meet. A  "more often than not" weekend morning of a swim mom and her swimmer. I never thought I'd say it, but as these trips near their end, I'm going to miss them. Lizzy and I have seen a lot of sunrises from the highway and eaten our fair share of ice cream on the way home. By this time next year she'll be gone to college and riding buses to meets with her new team, creating new routines and swimming in a different realm.

Well, as Bogart said to Bergman, "We'll always have Paris."

Sunday's meet in Daytona followed the same routines as other meets with one exception: There was a celebrity in our midst! The swimmers were a-buzz and t-shirt sales were through the roof as the rumor spread that Ryan Lochte would be on deck signing autographs and showing his medals from the Bejing Olympics.

All the good parents (not me) stood in line while the kids swam their races. As the parents approached the front of the line, somehow, the swimmers would appear from nowhere to have shirts, dollar bills and even skin autographed by Ryan.

One of the things I did notice was that it didn't matter if there were 10 shirts to sign or 10 questions to be asked about either himself or the Olympics, Ryan took time with each and every swimmer.

I wanted to take of picture of him holding my knitting, but when I said this, a resounding "NO!" came from each and every kid on our team. You'd think it was planned, it was such a perfect and loud NO!

And, yes, I too swooned just a little.

It's Gonna be a Bright, Bright Sunshiny Day!

Sure, I groan when that alarm blasts at 6:00 am on Saturday morning. Of course I moan as we back out of the driveway in the pitch-black darkness. And you better believe that I complain about spending three hours driving for a two hour swim meet.

Then the sun peeks over the horizon and I am thankful for being in that spot at that moment and having the good fortune to see the beginning of another day.