I know, I keep saying and saying I'm going to post a swim update and then I never sit down and get with it! Maybe someday I'll write the swim experience over the past year, for now there's more important swim news...
It's been a lot of work for him (and me!!) but this weekend he swam in Fairfield at the Last Chance Qualifier meet for the Sierra Nevada Jr. Olympics and he made it! He qualified to attend the Sierra Nevada Swimming Short-course Jr. Olympics in the 50-yard backstroke event! I think he could have qualified for one or two more events, but he ended up not feeling well on Sunday. He still swam and mostly improved his times, but not enough to qualify for other events.
But he's happy to be able to say he'll be attending the JOs (and this year, they're being held here in Folsom March 14 - 16)!
Back in September Christian reviewed the list of clubs that Gallardo offered and without hesitation he picked the Running Club as something he wanted to do. So twice a week they've been meeting after school to get ready for the California Internaional Marathon's MaraFUNrun. As they worked on building up their running mileage they received ribbons as they surpassed the 5K mark, the 10K mark and the half marathon. Coming into today's MaraFUNrun they were just shy of marathon mileage - and after today's run, they completed the equivlent mileage of a marathon (or more) and received a medal.
Christian said he really enjoyed doing it and wants to do it again next year. He did jog the whole 2.62 miles during the MaraFUNrun. Would be nice if he had the competitivness in him to RUN the mileage, but I am very happy and proud of him for just participating and completing the mileage.
The Gallardo Running Club:
The start of the race was chaotic, so many people. Who knew some many kids would get up at the crack of dawn when it's 28 degees outside to run, but there were a lot of people there! If you're in the back of the starting pack (and the Gallardo group was in the back) you're screwed out of a good start. Good thing we're doing this for the fun of it :)
Over 2 miles completed! Nearly done!
The race is over, good job!
And during the race I saw the flag and had to capture it:
(and, yes, I know I haven't posted a swimming update yet... Soon I will...)
It was 4.5 years ago that I was diagnosed with Cancer, quickly had surgery, went through radiation treatment (treatment ending 4 years ago) and have been doing semi-annual check-ups since then --- until this past year when the check-ups were moved to an annual schedule!
Well, it's been a year since I found out I wasn't pregnant (find the story in the archive on the website if you're interested in more) and everything continues to be good Just one more check-up to go next year and if everything is well that will be the end of it!! As you can imagine, I can't wait...
Happy Halloween everyone!! I hope all the little ghost, goblins, ghouls, zombies and superheros had a great time!
As for my "Zombie" he decided to stay home to hand out candy and he said he really enjoyed doing that!! He got to see all sorts of people in their costumes and a lot of friends stopped by so they got to visit a bit, etc... We closed the door 15 minutes early as he asked to head over to knock on a friends door, we did that and I surprised him and went to another house or two of some his good friends close to home! He really had a good time.
Now for his costume - I was told I would be in trouble if I didn't post these pictures TONIGHT (no, Christian didn't say that :) )
When talking about a costume he didn't want to buy a full costume, he just wanted to be a zombie and nothing else ever came up. We made a trip to Spirit Halloween and looked at all sorts of Zombie stuff and he settled on a Zipper faced Zombie! Now, what's a zipper faced zombie --- let me show you:
First, you apply the zipper with spirit gum:
Then you work on the make-up, starting a coating of blood, add more blood and add some skin discoloration to his face:
Some more touch-ups and here's the final product... It looked great. Probably could fill in a bit more with the make-up. but overall it looked great and he got A LOT of comments. Everyone loved it and so many kids (including some of his friends) were trying to figure out how we did it!
Of course, heading up to Halloween we did get some pumpkin carvings done with a friend:
The solar panels have been live for a while now... It feels good to be generating most/all of the power I use... Interested to see how much savings there is over the course of a year.
So looking at this graph of power generated through most of September - Can you tell which day it rained If you're interested in learning more about Solar, feel free to ask!!
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Just one more check-up to go next year and if everything is well that will be the end of it!! As you can imagine, I can't wait....JPG)
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If you're interested in learning more about Solar, feel free to ask!!