Tuesday evening, after our late LATE youth night, Bill and Mar invited me to take a drive with them. Our favorite 1999 Nissan Maxima was oh-so-close to rolling over to 200,000 miles, and it was Mar's dream to be the driver when it did. Bill was planning on working in CoSprings the following day, and knew it would roll over on the trek to and from work, so they (Bill and Mar) had the dandy idea of going for a ride. We only needed to go around 50+ miles or so. Did I mention that we STARTED after 9pm? Bill rode shotgun, as it was dark, and not only do I have horrendous night vision, I just wasn't up to the strain of training a new driver on unfamiliar roads. I hopped in the back seat.
Then we drove. And drove. I responded to a few text messages and perused fb for a few minutes. Before long I was nauseated and carsick as we drove the long winding back roads to Castle Rock.
After careful timing (and over an hour of driving), we ended up back in our neighborhood just as the odometer read:
then:
We stopped the car and I made Bill and Mar jump for an "oh-what-a-feeling" picture (remember the old Toyota commercials?).
It would be a dream for this baby to take us another 100,000. Not sure if it's possible, but we'll stretch it as far as we can. Seriously, this car has been the best vehicle deal of our lives to date.
At 10:50pm, as we drove up our street towards home, Bill snapped a selfie of him and Mar. Mar said she couldn't stop smiling. It's nice when a dream comes true, isn't it?
Last night (Wednesday) was Mar's swim banquet. It was held at the school, just like Lolo's first one.
We snapped a few pictures afterwards. All the girls in the picture below are freshman except for Kayla (second from the left), who is a senior, and was on the team with Shi a couple of years, too.
From my careful, quiet observation, I think she is one of the nicest girls on the team. She has never been a star, but, as my mom would often say (which I have repeated to my own children), "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice." Just had to throw that in there because I watched as the senior girls stood up to receive recognition and several of the loud, popular, it's-all-about-me girls literally kept grabbing their loud, popular, it's-all-about-me buddies and pulling them up the line of girls to stand with them, moving Kayla farther and farther down the line until she was at the end.
When we were cleaning up, Kayla showed some of the freshman girls her letter jacket so they could see how she put her pins on her letter. I chatted with her mom and admired the stitching on the jacket. Sometimes the quiet, unpretentious, unassuming people are the nicest.
Becca, another a senior, is also a super nice girl. She was the carpool queen for Mar this year, which this mom appreciates sooooo much. (Shi carpooled Becca quite a bit, so I'm grateful for the reciprocation.)
It was fun to get a few pictures of Mar with some of the same girls Shi swam with (or their sister haha).
Mar came home with a letter. I remember being surprised when Shi got one her freshman year (reminder here), and maybe even a little more surprised Mar got one after this crazy season. She put it up on the bulletin board in her room and hopped in the bath before I could snap a picture of her with it.
I'm so proud of her for making the best of the season and enduring to the end with grace. She talked excitedly about how she plans to letter in academics and choir, and her strategy for pin placement. I love that girl and her dreams!
I quickly looked up this pic of Shi the night of her freshman swim banquet. I only wish I had seen it before we left last night, as Mar requested my help picking out an outfit. The skirt Shi wore that night (circa 2011) is hanging in Mar's closet at this moment. I glanced at it briefly as we looked through her clothes. Because I'm such a sentimental gal, I totally would have made Mar wear that same skirt had I only known.
Post post: We got Mar's swim team pictures in the mail yesterday... might as well post them here:
No comments:
Post a Comment