Lightning and Downpours in Mars

Yesterday we had a huge invitation in Mars (Pennsylvania, not the planet hahaha)!  It was really chilly and soggy, and we had two thunder storm delays...putting the lengthy meet behind by about 2 hours.  I left a little early to get a head of the buses and got home around 9:30 p.m....it started at 1:00 p.m..  Today we are off to the Hempfield HS Track (my alma mater) for an away meet.

For this invitational meet, I was only allowed to run two hurdlers in the boys and girls races.  One boy hurldler was hurt and didn't run...the other took a nose dive over the last hurdle and is covered in brush burns now and unfortunately didn't finish!  The brush burns gave me flash back to the time I ate some of Jeannette's cinder track and sprained my ankle...luckily he walked away with just brush burns and bruises.  I still have cinders in the scars on my knees and elbows!

For the girls 100m hurdle race, the girl who is usually my lead hurdler ran some other sprinting events to try to help us get some team points.  Each athlete was permitted to run in only three events...AND she placed second in the 100m dash and also earned medals in the 400m relay and 1600m relay.

So my 2nd and 3rd place hurdlers ran.  The 2nd place girl ran her best time ever in both the trials and the finals...17.5 seconds.  With that performance the student beat the teacher...since the best time I think I had was 17.6.  Unfortunately she hit a lot of hurdles in the finals and ended up in 7th place and missed a medal by one...or as Mr. Colland used to say "x+1".

Overall the team did pretty good winning lots of medals...especially in the relays. Happy Friday!

Quick Update

Yesterday we competed in our first big dual track meet against a formidable rival team.  I'm very happy and proud to announce that my girl hurdlers swept the race winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd places!  My boy hurdlers also won 2nd and 3rd places in their race. The rival boy who won the race amazed us all and smoked my boys...an eye-opener for all of us.  But, five out of six ain't bad for my second meet!  Some of my hurdlers showed incredible improvement, and several of their performances really surprised me. Overall the girls dominated in the meet winning by over 40 points.  Our boys put up a good fight, but lost by 5 points in the end.  Our next meet is not for a little over a week so now we have some much needed practice time.  Stay tuned...

One of my blogging friends suggested this prompt, so I thought I'd give it a try...

I Believe...

I believe in God...a god of love, compassion, forgiveness and mercy...a god that does not discriminate and does not favor one child over another.  I believe in a god that is ever-present in every molecule in the universe and dwells in each of us.  I believe in a god that is the light and the force that drives every moment and action in the universe.  I believe this God does not belong to one religion but to all of us.  I believe we are all brothers and sisters in one human family.  I believe the content of one's character is more important than one's skin color, age, gender, ethnicity sexual orientation or religious association.  I believe people like Jesus, the Gospel writers (Matthew is my favorite), the Buddha and the Dalai Lama should be our spiritual guides and teachers...spiritual wisdom comes from many sources.  I believe we should try to model our lives after teachers like Jesus, the Buddha, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, and so on.

I believe everything happens for a reason and that which does not destroy us only makes us stronger.  I believe nothing is given to us in life that we can't handle and every challenge is a lesson, every enemy a teacher.  I believe that faith can get us through anything.  I believe in Karma.  I believe Gandhi was right..."an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind."  I believe in turning the other cheek and forgiving others.

I believe in giving without expectation of anything in return.  I believe in paying it forward and giving back.  I believe in compassion.   I believe in being truly grateful for the many blessings--big and small--in my life.  I believe that there are much more valuable things to be given and received than material items...time, charity, kindness, compassion, love, forgiveness, empathy, and open-mindedness to name a few.

I believe in the power of love.  Love can heal and save us all.  I believe a family should  be a source of unconditional love. I believe that we all should love one another.  I believe: "blessed are the peacemakers."  I believe that we are not here to judge each other but to learn from and help each other.

I believe learning is a life long process...and that we become wiser with age.  I believe in reading books...the tangible kind that I can stack on my shelf.  I believe in learning and embracing new ideas and lessons everyday.  I believe our children should be taught how to thing...not what to think.  I believe knowledge, learning, and understanding empower us all.

I believe in being kind to animals.  I believe pets improve your quality of life.  They can always make you laugh at unexpected times and ease the stresses of daily life.

I believe lots of fresh air and sunshine are necessary for our souls...being outdoors is healing and sustaining for our bodies, minds and souls.  I believe that growing plants is as good for us as it is for the environment.  I believe that home grown food is irreplaceable.

I believe in the power of a good home cooked meal.  Homemade chicken soup really does heal!

What do you believe in?



"The blog... sends out blog prompts so that we as bloggers can get a sense of what one another is like, this is in response to their recent prompt, "What do you believe in?"  If you are a blogger that follows here, please feel free to write a post about what you believe in, so that I can get to know you better as well."