New PR

New time for the 1600. 

Now he is looking to break 4:50. 

Progress

I have been working out three times a week for over a month. Before that I was doing some weights and push ups at the house. Even though I have felt stronger and more flexible, I still look the same. And I haven't owned a scale in over 20 years. 

I bought a shirt back in December and it didn't fit. I kept it in my closet and today I tried it again. It fit!  I must be changing, even though I don't see it. It was a happy moment. 

Exploding Springtime garden

I think spring has arrived in my backyard. 

This poor tree has been bare for so long, I was afraid it might be dead. 

Then there is this happy bush. 

And the roses. I need to go in and clean then up a bit. But they look happy. 

And I still love the bottle brush bush. 

800

At the track meet yesterday, Josh ran one race. He usually runs two, but there is also a meet tomorrow and the coach didn't want the kids to give everything for one and not have any for the second.

So he ran the JV 800 meter. He was expecting to do well, since it was his only race.

He dropped two seconds. Excellent! 

He came in first in his race. I think he would have been in the mix in the Varsity race.

Field Trip for Seventh Grade

Boaz's STEAM class had a field trip yesterday. I went along. I was the only parent there. A bit odd, but I had fun.

They were citizen scientists and collected data on a boat that will help in an ongoing study.  There were three projects going. The class was divided into teams. Boaz was on the water quality team. There was also a plankton collecting team, and a digital fishing team.

We got on the boat in Newport. I took a screen shot as we were headed out to sea. 

We ended up past the Newport Wedge and a bit north. We still could see the coast clearly. Just a mile or two off the coast.

The ocean was wonderful, a warm day with a slight breeze. I ended up wearing my jacket. Boaz opted not to. Crazy boy would rather be cold than admit he is cold. 

I took a few pictures of them practising with the Van Dorn Bottle.

This clever bottle collects water at a specific depth. They collected water at 1 meter, 2 meters, 10 meters, and 12 meters. The other teams collected at different depths. They analyzed water temperature, salinity, and Ph. The rope had a black dot at every meter so they knew how deep it was. There was a weight that they slid down the rope to close the stoppers at both ends. Boaz loved it.

We watched the other teams gather plankton. I remember they found flat worms which sounded gross to me. They also had a lot of something pods. Very scientific, I know.

We missed the third  group with identifying the fish. They sent a camera down and we're looking for specific fish species. Between the three groups, they located their assigned species.

After the samples were gathered, the captain spotted some gray whales and we chased them (followed them) for a bit. We saw them breath several times. I was enchanted. Then the captain said some dolphins were out playing a bit further out. So we went out to see them. Most of the kids left the front of the boat and there was just a small group to enjoy the dolphins bow surfing. I was afraid for them, they were so close to the ship, and we were going fast. But they gathered and swam in groups up to eight on one side. I loved it when they would tilt a bit to look at us. They had the same markings as the dolphin on my quilt, except I made my dolphin blue instead of gray. But they had the eye stripe. 

I was nervous about loosing my phone, but gained courage as I saw 13 year olds taking pictures. They were the favorite part of my day. I felt incredibly blessed to be on the trip.

The cute teacher took a picture of Boaz and I.

We headed to land for lunch. It was a fabulous day. And this lovely guy posed for pictures. 

He was totally unconcerned about the 30 seventh graders that were talking about him. He stood there politely until those who wanted to took his picture.

I hope to steal a few pictures from the teacher as she posts them later. Maybe she has better pictures of the dolphins and one of the whales.

Saturday track meet

I had an incredible idea. Sitting at the track meet I realized I could take a screen shot of my stop watch. 

Josh ran the mile, or the 1600.

I forgot to hit the lap button for the first lap. He ran about 1:17 for bothe the first and second lap. He broke 5 minutes. This is not his official time, but very close. 

He also ran the 1/2 mile or the 800. 

This is very close to his PR. He was happy with this race as well. 

We are gearing up for meets every week. We are excited to see him progress. 

Bread for those I visit

February was a bit crazy. I let some things go. One of those was my visiting teaching. So I tried to make up for it. 

This is the lid pop. 

For some reason this sight always makes me happy. Two loaves safely delivered today. I'm pretending this makes up for just texts last month.