DONE

Big sigh of relief- the Regionals meet is DONE.

Everything went well and we got a lot of compliments from other teams/parents about how smoothly everything ran.

I also felt very honored, because someone came up to me yesterday and told me that our co-host team’s Meet Directors were “raving” about what an awesome job I did coordinating everything. They said they actually want to make some changes to how they handle all the volunteer jobs (for future meets), based on some things they saw me doing. That was an unexpected compliment and was really nice to hear! Our Board’s president also told me they are meeting soon and want to “do something special for me” to thank me for all my work. Given the many hours I put into this, it is comforting to know that at least people a) notice and b) appreciate it! (But also unnecessary- I don’t need a reward! I appreciate the gesture, though.)

So, everything wrapped up and I sent the bins of volunteer t-shirts, name tags and all of that back to the team’s storage unit….until at least next OCTOBER!! That will be the first time our team will host another meet. Spring session is much lighter/ fewer kids swim, so we don’t host. Same for summer.

Asher swam his 2 events yesterday and did well, swimming best times in both events. He just missed the state cut time for the 100 back by 0.25 seconds, but, he won the event. And if you win an event at Regionals, you automatically get to swim it at State. So that was a nice bonus and filled out his state roster now to the full 6 events.

Last night Ivan’s brother asked if the boys/Ivan wanted to go to a movie with him and his son. I was very happy to send them out of the house for the evening!! I was so tired out, the idea of having the house to myself sounded so wonderful. They left around 5:45 and I went straight out to soak in the hot tub by myself for a while. Ahhhhhh. My whole body felt exhausted- even though I did NOT swim, lol- but I guess just the mental drain and also a lot of standing on the hot pool deck, too.

I spent the rest of the evening just puttering around a bit, catching up on filling out my planner, etc… and then I half read/ half watched the Olympics closing ceremony by the fireplace. Unfortunately, I was so TIRED that reading wasn’t going so well. My eyes felt heavy. By 8 pm I decided to go crawl into bed and kind of watched the end of the ceremony from there/ half dozed. It was nice.

(Side note on Olympics- the upcoming 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics in Italy look cool!! They had a preview of the venues and wow! Beautiful. That was one thing I missed with these Beijing Olympics…I think given covid/ politics/ world culture right now there was just not much of the usual “TV coverage” of the host nation. There were some frequent aerial view shots of the Great Wall, but that was about it! Normally they have tons of reporters on the ground covering lots of personal interest stories about that nation’s culture/ locale, but not this time. Not at ALL. I remember the Vancouver Olympics some years back- it looked amazing!!! They covered that location in so much depth, I was ready to hop on the next flight over. Haha. So, I hope that by the Italy Olympics we’ll get to see more of that type of coverage again. Because who doesn’t love to see beautiful images of Italy?!!)

Now, onto a new week. Ivan has the day off for President’s Day, but, I do not. Boo. It’s a short week for me though, anyway, because I’m taking Friday off. Asher’s State competition starts on Friday afternoon already and we need to head to Milwaukee.

Thought of the Day:

“Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted. Be patient…your time to grow is coming!”

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for a quiet evening last night. That was perfect timing.