Cooper got 15th IN THE WHOLE FREAKING NATION in 1-meter springboard at the USA Dive national tourney. HOW AMAZING IS THAT??!!!
There were twenty seven divers in semis, and he missed the final round cut (12 divers) by FIVE POINTS.
FIFTEENTH IN THE NATION THO YOU GUYS. Omg. This tournament is really hard to qualify for (regionals and then zones), so it is one of those things where just being there is cool and then! FIFTEENTH PLACE. Last year, he was a preliminary round only competitor (which is still really cool).
He and Ben are having an excellent time in West Virginia, and he has semifinals for 3-meter springboard TODAY and platform prelims on Thursday. YOU KNOW I WILL KEEP YOU POSTED.
On Monday, Dorothy competed in her very first All City dive meet. There were sixty-eight girls in her age group, so we (Dorothy, Jack, Minnie, and me) were at the host pool for four hours for warm-ups and prelims. The girls all did 4 dives, and then the top 16 got to do 2 more. Dorothy did not make the cut, but she was AWESOME. Check out this inward:
She is going to start doing the rec group at Wisconsin Dive Club a couple days a week and next summer she claims she will consider wearing the team suit (lol).
As always, Minnie lived her best 5th baby life in the team tent, the super hot baby pool (90 degrees so the divers could stay warm LOL as if they wouldn’t be warm in 87 degrees and so much humidity), and the mist tent.
While Dorothy was warming up, Minnie and I ran into the Clay on the Move van at the park across the street, and just like that, we have checked off the Art Cart, the Play on the Move van, and the Clay on the Move van, and we still have thirty days of summer left!
Of course after a long day at the pool, we went... to the pool
On Tuesday night (a night that Harry worked late OF COURSE), Jack had his All City age group. Last year was his first year in the 15-18 category, but he skipped the meet for camp, so we have never seen the 15-18 boys category, which is the very last category of the meet. Over 350 Madison divers competed over 2 days, so by the time the volunteers, coaches, and judges got to the last event of the tourney, they were all punchy. The pool deck was trashed. The fans were rowdy. There was an exhibition portion after the final round but before awards for coaches and kids to throw their weirdest stuff. And! The diving did not START until 7pm. Minnie usually goes to bed at 7:30. I was braced for disaster, but it was… the best night of the summer so far!
Jack was FABULOUS. Here’s his first dive:
And to give you a taste of the vibes, his second:
Meanwhile, Minnie and Dorothy raided the team glitter stash
The sun set right as the final 16 divers were announced (Jack made the cut), and Minnie moved her personal party to the baby pool. I snapped one (awesome) pic of final round warm ups and then resigned myself to watching from the other end of the pool deck, knowing Jack was having basically the best time ever.
Instead of the crowd thinning after cuts, which is what usually happens, all the lifeguards and swimmers from most of the area pools showed up to watch prime time diving under some truly dad-rigged lights (that cut out for about 30 minutes until a host pool dad arrived with a comically large extension cord).
Harry came straight to the host pool after he closed down our pool, so he joined the throng of bros behind the diving boards, while Dorothy and Minnie had their own night swim:
Shout out to Dorothy for hanging with her sister instead of the slightly bigger kids from the team, which is where she really wanted to be.
In the final round, Jack’s back 1.5 somersault with a twist was the best I have ever seen it, and he ended up in 9th right behind a high school teammate and with his 3rd best score ever.
His friend from our pool won the meet with a monster score, and he and Jack scored 457 points between the 2 of them, meaning they won the division’s high point trophy. Our pool has not won one of these in YEARS, and it usually happens when a team has 4 or more people in finals. NOT JUST TWO! They were so proud.
Then! Jack joined the final exhibition doing a belly flop so lavish that Ben got videos of it texted to him in West Virginia from other dive club parents.
It was a WONDERFUL night. We got home at 10:30, and everyone was in bed by midnight.
YOU GUYS! My class agreed that doing their final speeches a day early would make the most sense, so now I only have to fill 26 days of dresses! I will probably wear my bonus dress on grading day, but the challenge! Is almost over!
23/26: My favorite thing I even kept from Stitch Fix
24/26: Lands End comfy dress for an exam day (IT HAS POCKETS)
Let’s start with some disconnected tidbits, yes? You know, just to catch you up on the end of last week.
In political news: luckily, we had a Kamala Harris doll lying around.
(Also Hillary).
And they both love playing qwith Barbie, so that's a bonus.
Speaking of the Olympics (were we?) Minnie made herself a gold medal at camp. The kids go to camp in swim clothes because the playground is full of water toys. Then they go inside and have snack and put on dry clothes. But Minnie stays dry in her swimsuit and then just doesn't change. It makes me laugh every single time I pick her up.
File under THINGS ARE HECTIC: I had to pick Dorothy up during swim lessons once last week, and both Harry and Jack were working (at the pool), so I asked Cooper to make sure he left summer dive practice at 5:30 and hang with Minnie for the 5 minutes it would take me to get back to the pool;. He tenxted me I HAVE THE PACKAGE and this pic:
On Wednesday, Jack had an appointment to take his road test and get his drivers license after completing his 12 hours of driving school lessons (clogged system; takes forever, etc). Only I had to teach, and Ben was in Peoria. Sooooo Harry took him. AND HE PASSED THE TEST! Only he couldn't actually get his license because you need a guardian with you, not just an adult (which makes sense, but also the driving school said anyone over 18 could take him **shakes fist at them**)
Minnie and I returned with him on Thursday and waited FOREVER and probably got Covid.
But it was all worth it because HE GOT IT! We have another licensed driver in the HOOOOUUUUSE!
He took his first solo ride to dive team practice in the good old 2010 Prius on Friday morning:
Harry is not taking the Prius to school (the Prius has almost 200,000 miles on it-- could it even go to school?), so we will deal with adding a fourth car to the family in May. Can't wait to watch Harry and Jack battle it out for car access for the next 30-something days and over winter break.
Teaching outfit 22/27 another ANCIENT Old Navy dress
LOLZ YOU GUYS. READ that paragraph about buying a car in May again. NOW BRACE YOURSELF and read on. I wrote the above post on Friday afternoon and scheduled it for this morning. THEN NEWS BROKE.
We took Dorothy, Jack, and Coop to their last dive meet of the summer season (except for All-City) on Friday night, and Harry called while we were there to say the brakes felt funny on the Prius all the sudden and the brake light and the ABS light were both on. Ben left the meet (Coop won! Jack got second, continuing his streak of beating everyone but one dude in the city! Dorothy got scores for all her dives!!) to meet Harry at a car service place where he could leave the car, book an appointment for Saturday, and stick the keys in a drop box.
The next morning BRIGHT AND EARLY, Cooper and Ben left for USA Diving Junior Nationals in West Virginia.
About an hour after they left, the car place called to say the brake system in the Prius was totally dead, including the ABS main cylinder and replacing the whole thing would cost a lot. Ben and I had a number in mind for repairs to the Prius and had decided awhile ago that if the repairs exceeded that number, we'd think about replacing the car. This number did exceed our ideal number, but WE JUST BOUGHT A CAR, YOU GUYS, and we have not had a Prius payment in NINE YEARS, and we have REALLY LIKED not paying for that car. We talked all morning about options, but, finally, we decided to replace it. (Because what if we buy brakes today and then next month a new computer or an engine and what about the transmission, etc etc etc).
SO. For the second time in about 5 weeks, I went to a car dealership while my husband was out of town AND BOUGHT A CAR. LOL. Sort of LOL.
(Can't find the Prius title, either-- which means BACK TO THE DMV FOR ME MY GOD)
Some farewell Prius pics
Stuff in the glove box that's NOT A CAR TITLE
Best 3 y/o ever happily playing in the dealership toy room in clothes she sure did tie dye herself
Harry had fun test driving a cute sedan and a just adorable (and exactly in my price range!) Kia Soul. I sort of liked the sedan (blue like all of our cars!) and was going to buy it even though it was a little bit more than I wanted to spend, but the sweet car salesman sensed my ennui (I was going to buy it though, you guys, because we barely got the Prius to the dealer, and I wasn't going to take that car home again LOL) and pulled out the Soul (a car I really never even considered) out, and I just fell in love with it!
Read the sign!!
Harry was like MOTHER. THIS IS THE ONLY CAR EVEN MORE DORKY THAN THE PRIUS, but then he drove it and was charmed. It has color-changing LED lights inside and a horn that makes a truly silly beep, and it looks like it is smiling. There was an ad campaign calling it a party in a box, and I agree.
1. Curling my hair with a flat iron: I have made YUGE progress toward this end, but I have a long way to go. After literally YEARS of watching tutorials (don't judge-- it's hard to be lefty in these instances) THIS ONE finally did the trick. (Seriously, I spent a WHOLE SEMESTER in my office with the flat iron I keep in my desk watching one hair YouTuber after another and burning the eff out of my hair in office hours).
2. Using little pockets of time to read books and not SCROLL ON MY PHONE. (Or burn the hell out of my hair-- why not read a book during office hours, huh?)
3. Passive aggression. I mean, I have learned the art from some seriously sneaky bitches (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE), but Dorothy? Has taken this midwestern state of being to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL, and I aspire to be as passive aggressive as she is. BEHOLD THIS MASTERPIECE OF A NOTE to Minnie that she left outside her door on a pile of Calico Critters. MINNIE IS ILLITERATE and THE ACTUAL INTENDED AUDIENCE OF THE NOTE had to read it aloud-- that is the best freaking part.
**chef's kiss**
4. SAVING MY DOLLARZ instead of sending them on DUMB STUFF. I have been LOVING Stephany's re-caps of her no spend month because even when you "aren't spending" money, YOU ARE SPENDING MONEY-- at least I am, and it's nice to read her account and note that living is expensive. Bah humbug. LOOK AT THIS COSTCO CART, PEOPLE.**
5. Taking advantage of free stuff to do with the kids around town. We ran into the MSCRPlay on the Move van while making a random park stop the other day, and now I have big plans to find the Art Cart and the Clay on the Move van, too!
Teaching outfits 20/27 and 21/27
** Actually? I am kind of into the Costco shopping lately. I go in cycles with that place-- sometimes I am a devotee and actually shop in store like a sheep (that's where I am now) and sometimes I grumble that the whole place is a waste of time and money and never ever go and sometimes I get Instacart every week. We are BUSY right now, and some of their food is saving us. Like the giant bags of salads (I love the Caesar in the cold room in a bag and also the everything chopped and the med crunch), cheese tortellini, and a variety of non-meat burgers. Plus I can get eggs in a quantity that sustains us, and the produce generally lasts a whole week.
Plus I found THIS DIP! It is too garlicky to be a dip IMO, but I made grilled cheeses with havarti and jarlsberg sliced cheese (from Costco) and garden tomatoes and basil on (you guessed it) Costco french bread and spread this on the bread and YOU GUYS. YES YES YES.
