This weekend was the last and biggest swim meet of the season --- the 2011 SSL Champs! In the past this has only been a single day event for us – really a ¾ day as Christian would swim the short freestyle and backstroke and that was it. No relays, no finals… 2 events and we were done by 2pm. Last year we hung out and watched the finals and relays.
This year everything changed. As a 7/8 Christian can add on breaststroke and butterfly to his events which means attending Sunday as well as Saturday. He has also been swimming well in his age group which means he is swimming on the relay teams – the last event held each day! So we had 2 long, but fun, days out at Champs. Of course, we had our issues while there too!
Saturday was the team parade and cheer, a fun event. Then backstroke in the morning and freestyle in early afternoon… And then came our long break! We probably should have left for lunch and came back later, but I wanted to film our Coaches kids swimming in the finals. They also allowed parents in the water for adult swim time – nice and cooling! Finally, 4 hours later, the relays were up. So how did he do on Saturday? He did not beat his best time on backstroke, but did on freestyle There were 110 swimmers in the backstroke event and Christian came in 65th… Out of 85 swimmers in the 7/8 Boys Short Freestyle he came in 26th place. The top 20 make the consols/finals so he was just out of the range there. For the medley relay Christian swam the Butterfly leg and they ended up DQ’ing. I was unofficially told that it was because the swimmer after Christian dove in just before Christian touched the wall. Oh well.
Sunday we were able to show up a 30 minutes later then we did on Saturday, but he swam first thing in the morning. He warmed up and then went straight to the ready bench. He swam breaststroke and came out of the pool thinking that he DQ’d – though he did swim his fastest Breaststroke. We did find out later that he did DQ An hour or so later he swam Butterfly and beat his best time again! Out of 83 swimmers he came in 39th. Then we hung out, ate lunch, I filmed the coaches kids in their finals and finally the freestyle relay came up. Christian swam on the ‘A’ relay team since we didn’t have a lot of swimmers attending and did well. We beat our calculated best time and came in 7th place, so that was good. He earned a medal with the relay team
The only issues we had were on Saturday Christian was heading to the ready bench and a teammate cut his hand – but of course Christian was doing things he shouldn’t do… Sunday Christian was bugging a teammate and his teammate elbowed him --- crying ensued, but he got what was coming to him. He was tired Sunday, as a result of the elbow he decided to act out a bit and started to scratch up his goggles and things like that. Whatever… Get over it. In the tent he continued to sulk, barely ate lunch though he got exactly what he asked for etc… Later in the day he got his second wind and changed his behavior and all was good.
So he swam fine – some good, some okay. Overall he’s had a great season and I’m very proud of what he’s accomplished!
For the past several years my work has given us tickets to go to the State Fair. It includes 2 admission tickets, a parking pass and 2 ride or monorail tickets. Before going I reminded Christian that I was NOT a fan of rides so that means that he would have to go on rides on his own and it would limit what I would let him go on. We went to swim practice in the morning and then to the fair. We got there around lunch time, but I put it off a bit and we went to look at the youth exhibits. Christian got to a make a shrinky dink artwork, and we loved the various exhibits. We then ate lunch, and I really need to remember to NOT get the sausage! It’s good, tastes good, plenty of onions and peppers but it’s like $15!!!! I keep forgetting to look at the price before I order! UGH! Christian downed his corn dog and was still hungry – so he got another one. They’re only $3 – eat up my boy!
We did the tour around the farm, went through the county building, saw the new big bugs exhibit, circled through the horse arena and ended up in the kids park. We got some Dippin Dots before he attacked the rides. Spent an hour or more walking through the kids park rides area and as it was getting late we started to head out. Picked up a raspberry funnel cake and ate that. We realized we missed the exotic animals/floral area which was right next to where we were sitting at. Went through the exhibit and started the trek home stopping at McDonalds for dinner.
Today was the Cub Scout Day Camp… It’s actually a 2-day camp, but we have a swim meet tomorrow so we only signed up for today… Yes, I signed up to attend as well – I would have to have a volunteer job at the camp but as it turns out we’re the only Wolf/Bear cubs attending from our pack which meant my job would be to walk along with Christian and the rest of the scouts assigned to his company (along with parent volunteers from the other packs). On the schedule for the day for our company was opening flag ceremonies, BB-Guns, lunch, Swimming, Games and then closing ceremonies.
The BB-Gun rotation was comprised of 3 stations, so our company of 45 scouts was split into 3 groups of 15 each. Our first station was the shooting station. They had 10 stations setup, desks with BB-Guns, safety goggles and down range was a target. With only 10 stations and 16 scouts they split our sub-group into 2 groups. Unfortunately, this also meant they had half the time they should to shoot. So the first part of the station was everyone learning gun safety, point it downrange, etc… Then Christians half of the group went down to shoot first. They were sitting in school desks using BB Rifle guns and he couldn’t get the butt of the gun into his shoulder making it really hard to aim. And before you know it, it was over. I think he shot 10 BBs or so, I was disappointed in the amount but thankfully he didn’t really care. The second half of that station they entertained themselves by trying to toss a bean bag into a bucket. It worked at keeping them somewhat entertained.
The second part of the rotation was a Gun and ammo history lesson and shooting positions, but no actual shooting. The final station was a water bottle rocket station where they got to launch bottles filled with a little water and then pressurized into the air. They spent a lot of time doing it and had fun with it. I was assigned the task of sending each group of kids over to their station – they were a great group of kids that listened well and were all excited to launch their rockets.
The afternoon was spent swimming. They offer the swim test in the Lake (Lake Jenkinson, aka Sly Park). I asked Christian if he wanted to do it but let him know that he didn’t need to since he’s on the swim team and that basically means he gets both the belt loop and pin. He wanted to anyway, but he took it a step further. There are 2 swim tests – the elementary swim test and the BSA swim test. Christian went for the big one, the BSA swim test and did great. It’s basically a 100 yd swim test, 75 yards doing any stroke, 25 yards of an elementary backstroke and then finish it off with a survival float. He had minor problems with the float (lacking body fat) but did do it in the end. He passed the test. After swimming they had various water crafts, making a sailboat, etc… We went home tired, but had fun!
Well, the hard part is over and I survived... So far...
So as most know 2 years ago I was diagnosed as having Cancer. Had surgery to remove the cancer, had a choice of low-dose radiation treatment for 1 month with 5 years of follow-up screenings with a 2% chance of reoccurrence or no radiation with 10 years of follow-up screenings with a 20% change of reoccurence. Well, I went through the radiation treatment to reduce the odds of reoccurence. That was 2 years ago.
So my next follow-up screening is coming up and in preparation for it I have to get various tests done... And the one I always dread is the CT Scan... I know, for most people this is no big deal. But it is to me. Whether it's the radiation, the lack of control, the clostrophobia, or what - I don't know and it doesn't matter - I don't like going in for a CT Scan. I also have to get a chest X-Ray and Bloodwork, but that's nothing and I have to meet with the Doctor once he has the results. I'm fairly optimistic so for me the hardest part is that dang CT Scan.
I got through the radiation treatment after they gave me Xanax as an anti-anxiety drug. I had some leftover so for my last CT Scan I took one of them and it helps. Doesn't leave me loopy, just prevents the anxiety from causing problems. Well, those tablets expired so I didnt feel good taking them anymore. I talked with my Doctor's office and they said the Radiologist would give me anti-anxiety meds, but when I talked with them they could only give vallium and I didn't want to go that route --- so I grinned and beared it.
So the scan itself is a small pass through the scanner (local scans), then 1-2 bigger passes through, then an Iodine contrast is administered and a 3rd pass through the CT Scanner is made. The whole process would be much easier if between the 2nd and 3rd pass there wasn't a 10 minute delay waiting for the machine to "cool down" --- ugh.
Anyway, I got through it, even without the Xanax... Not easy, but managable. Yea! 6 more months until the next one...
Well, I was going to post stories about Christian's first sleepover and another one about the 4th of July, but there really isn't too much to say...
The sleepover went fine, he had no issues, had a good time, was never nervous or scared. He was the last one to fall asleep (just after midnight) and the second one to wake up (who knows what time)... Didn't eat dinner - but I'm not surprised, when he gets excited and is having fun he has hard time focusing on eating. Picked him up the next day and put him to bed early
As for the 4th of July, after taking a nap we went on over to the Estelita's, swam, had dinner, swam and lit off fireworks. A good time was had by all
So I am now declaring myself to be up to date!! Yes, I still plan on posting stories about the trips to Disneyland (2 years ago) and San Diego/Legoland (last year), but otherwise, I'm all caught up and moving on...
There were 110 swimmers in the backstroke event and Christian came in 65th… Out of 85 swimmers in the 7/8 Boys Short Freestyle he came in 26th place. The top 20 make the consols/finals so he was just out of the range there. For the medley relay Christian swam the Butterfly leg and they ended up DQ’ing. I was unofficially told that it was because the swimmer after Christian dove in just before Christian touched the wall. Oh well.
An hour or so later he swam Butterfly and beat his best time again! Out of 83 swimmers he came in 39th. Then we hung out, ate lunch, I filmed the coaches kids in their finals and finally the freestyle relay came up. Christian swam on the ‘A’ relay team since we didn’t have a lot of swimmers attending and did well. We beat our calculated best time and came in 7th place, so that was good. He earned a medal with the relay team 
