MAC

My Lily Grace.  My gorgeous, fun, athletic, and strong daughter.  I am in awe of her.

This young woman has found her passion.  The pool.  We have always known she was a fish.  She can be in the water for hours and hours and hours.  Its like a second home to her.  BUT, this year, she decided, of her own volition, "Mom, I want to be a swimmer."  So we made the call and had her try-out for the Mesa Aquatics Club Swimming Team.  She easily cruised onto the Novice team and has been swimming her little heart out 3 days a week since August.  

Last weekend was her first big swim meet and look at her!  She's amazing!

The world of competetive swimming requires a bit of a learning curve.  I learned in short order that everyone looks the same so you have to put a defining something on her!  I sharpied a lily on her back......seemed appropriate, and now I hope it becomes a staple for her.  

Lily started her day anchoring a 4 man relay.  The girl can swim, and she pulled well past the remaining teams at the end.  She is all power.

She rested and then competed in 2 different back stroke events, 2 freestyle events, and one breast stroke event.  She loved looking up at the board to see where she placed in her heat.  The passion, drive, and joy she found was really delightful to watch.  

My kid is an amazing swimmer.

The week of this event Coach Jenny met with all of us parents to discuss some team basics.  She also let us know the requirements for moving up into the next level team.  Most kids stay in novice for 6 months to a year before being promoted.  The next level requires 200 meter competency in all 4 legal strokes.  Its a big leap.  Jenny emailed me to say that Lily had already proven herself ready for the next team after 6 weeks on novice.  Not kidding.  Her words via email were "Lily is strong and determined, but what makes Lily amazing is that she is coachable.  She always looks me straight in the eye, listens to what I tell her to do, and then does it.  Lily is going to have a very successful swimming career."

I could care less if Lily wins all the medals, she has already won top prize in my book.

Lily, I am so dam proud of you! Go Baby Girl, GO!

A Wee Tee Pee!

Arizona is one of those states that is honestly so surprising.  So many people get stuck on the "hot as hell" valley and forget that Arizona is AMAZING and varied and full of spectacular places as spaces. Flagstaff is one of those amazingly beautiful spaces.  A mere 2 hours from the valley it boasts gorgeous forests and cool temperatures.  Its beautiful.  

We usually find ourselves in the White Mountains so we jumped at a chance to spend a couple of days in Flagstaff.  One of our good buddies, Josh Blake, came out and wanted to hike Mt. Humphreys peak so Bob and I decided to make it a little vacay and head out of the lingering Summer heat.

Lily was at a birthday party for the weekend so it was just the Bee.  What a treat.  I heart this little girl and she and I got to spend some real quality time together.

Given the fact that we were only going to be there for about 36 hours, we decided to try our luck at "glamping" at the Flagstaff KOA.  Camping is all fine and good, but when you have to pack everything, set it up, tear it down, and re pack it, that is a lot to do mostly by yourself.  Given that the boys would be out hiking for most of the second day I voted for glamping so that Evie and I could play and not pack.  It worked perfectly and we all had a blast! The teepee had a double bed with a twin bunk on top and a big sleeper chair in it.  It was perfect for the 4 of us!

The guys were out early for the trek up to Hmphreys and Evie and I had a blast hiking and checking out the campground area.  Our really big thing was that I planned to go to the local ski resort and ride their chair lift!  After a treat at Starbucks and some working, Evie and I headed to Snowbowl!

Meanwhile, the guys were in the middle of the challenging hike up the mountain.

They, of course, made it and I am only a wee bit jealous of the gorgeous view they were able to experience.  What a cool reward!

Evie and I had our own view from the top of the mountain after we got to ride up on the chairlift.  So much fun to do that in shorts!

Arizona is full of old and ancient volcanoes and Snowbowl is no exception, it is literally a ski resort on a volcano and the volcanic rock is just astounding.  Evie and I got to the top, pottied in the "highest bathroom in AZ," and then had a little geology camp looking at all the different rocks.  Such fun.

I think our favorite part was getting to ride the chair lift down the mountain.  The views were spectacular and in between a heated game of rock paper scissors, Evie and I had such a special time.  Gosh I love that kid.

The trip was wildly successful all around.

And we brought home a very tired Daddy, and and Evie who cannot wait to go back to our TeePee!

The Art of Undersharing

So right now I am sitting in the atrium of Skyline pool while my incredibly passionate and talented 8 year old is swimming her little heart out in preparation for her first swim meet.  I have been horribly ill for the past 2 weeks, we are still neck deep in remodeling our bathroom, and we are carefully handling the logistics of being 2 travelling and working parents.  Guys we all-go-no-quit Longmires are doing life, taking names, and making memories.

During the past couple of months though I have found myself less in the sharing mode.  I don't think it is anything other than sheer busyness, and the fact that there simply isn't enough time to actually fully experience all that we are doing, let alone share it while doing so.  I have missed blogging something terrible and I have multiple blogs that just sit in the "draft" tab waiting for me to get to them.  I promise I will, but the chances that I won't post everything I once deemed important enough to write are high.  I am so grateful for this time in our life because we are just doing it.....that living thing, and for the first time in a while I have the confidence knowing that sharing every little thing simply isn't as important as living every little thing.

I am in a good place.  No......a really good place.  The injury to my foot changed my life and in great and immeasurably beautiful ways.  I dare say it, but I am grateful for it.  It quite literally gave me my life back all while I thought it was taking it from me.  My focus has shifted back to what is truly important and my marriage  and children are thriving.  Ill say it now and repeat it often, I am madly in love with my husband and cannot get enough of him!  Man I picked a good one.

My girls are absolutely thriving in school, swimming, karate, friendships, and life.  My kids are freaking amazing kids and even on the days when I want to duct tape them to the wall I just sit in awe of them.  Such boldness and beauty.  I am just proud.

My foot is healing slowly but beautifully and I am back in my MHPC gym.  I love Crossfit and I look forward to all the physical changes I am making.  I also find such joy in yoga at Exhale YOGA and have even found my running shoes again.

I just might be cleared to run a half marathon in early 2020.  I am ecstatic.  The injury was a long storm, but the sun is shining and the growth after the rain is huge.  I am grateful for life's storms.   When not being active I am working with Bob, doing photography, running our house, and playing chauffeur to my girlies. Mine is a good life.  A really good life.

But I am not sharing as much as I have in the past.  It's an art.  Truly, it takes a lot of intentional thought to not share everything,  after all, if nobody "likes" your happenings, did they really even happen?

YES they did, and they are special, and our life is so full of so much and frankly I am really loving just living it.

Dental Drama

So many times in our marriage Bob and I have made decisions based on whether we want current Bob and Bethany to handle them or future Bob and Bethany to handle them.  Its really a sound way of handling many of life's stuff. 

Well, the problem is that time has this funny way of moving from current to future and many of the things 10 years ago Bob and Bethany put off,  the now current Bob and Bethany have to handle it.  Damn..........future Bob and Bethany are here......

5 years ago after having Evie, I started to have problems with my teeth.  Long story short, I am a grinder, my teeth are moving, and I really need braces......AGAIN.  We consulted with an orthodontist who gave us a cool $4500 figure for the work.  Funny.  Brand new baby, one car, one income, rent a house family.  Nope.......that was going to have to be future Bob and Bethany's problem.

You might be wondering why it was even an issue. Well because I grind, I run the high risk of breaking teeth.....and if we start down that road......$4500 looks like pocket change.  Still we couldn't afford it so we put it in the future's hands.

Welcome to the future!

This summer it all came home to roost when, upon going to my yearly check up, realized that.  TADA.....I had cracked my first molar just as predicted. Thank the Lord it only required a crown and not a root canal, but $1500 later, it was time to fix the problem. So we added $3500 on to it for Invisalign, and gulp, time to pay the piper.

Add to this drama the realization that Lily is now ready to start the orthodontia season of life and we started with some expanders!

I kid you not, in one week I went from, hey we are going to plan a big trip overseas to.....no I am going to give $7000 to my dentist.  I mean everytime I went in there was more money to be spent.  You are welcome future Longmires!

Ah adulting.......so fun.  And yet, I am grateful.  We can do this, we can make this happen, and we have the ability to make it feel like we are only loosing an arm, and not 2 arms, 1 leg, and a foot.  God is good and here's to the amazing smiles we are changing!