County Swim Meet

 The final middle school swim meet of the year was this past weekend.  Bode swam four events--two relays, the 200-yard free, and the 50-butterfly.  There were swimmers from all the local middle schools attending--the meet was the "county" championships.  Bode did great.  He placed third in the 200-free and fourth in the 50-fly.  I think a number of the boys that beat him were 8th graders, so next year, Bode might get up on the podium :-)

First, here are some shots of Bode just relaxing before the meet.

Next, we have Bode swimming the 200.  He took three seconds off his personal best times (and note the boys that got first and second were very fast and very strong swimmers).

Finally, here's a video of Bode swimming the 50-fly.  He swam it in 29.6, which is another personal best for him.  The boy that won this race is just a freak of nature.  I think he's only been swimming for nine months (compared to seven years for Bode), and the kid is just amazingly fast.

We are very proud of how hard Bode has worked, and we are also grateful that we don't have to get up at 0430 morning anymore :-)  Pleasant week to all.

Band Concert Addendum

 I managed to steal Ashley's phone from her and get some of the pictures and band movies.  First, we have one of the selections which I didn't record.

Ashley also got a nice picture with Bode and Ms Noe, the band director.

I remember the good old days when Bode was shorter than his teachers :-)

The Garden

 My garden has really come alive the past few weeks.  The peas, which I started from seed, are now taller than me, and there are some little pea-pods forming.

The cucumbers are starting to get some nice leafs on them, as are the water melons and honey dew, but I'm not yet sure if I'll have any success due to all the fungi issues I had last year.

The corn seems to grow some every day.

I have two sets of beans--black beans and green beans.  The are a lot of green beans growing right now.  The black beans have a lot of green, but I've never done these before, so I'm not sure when to exact the beans to form.

The broccoli is actually doing quite well.  I had to put up some chicken wire because it seemed the broccoli leaves were being eaten; now, there is some good growth.  Hopefully we will get a stalk or two before it gets too hot.

There are probably 20 or so blackberries that have formed, and I'm trying to keep the birds away from them, but I think it might just be a matter of time before they figure out how to get at the fruit.

Not sure when I will start harvesting, but it should be soon.  I think the peas will be the first things picked.  I also planted some tomato plants, some pepper plants, and some basil, so hopefully come June, we'll have some fresh food to eat.  Pleasant day to all.

Final Band Concert

 The Meigs Middle School Band had their final performance of the year last night.  They sounded amazing, and it was great to being in a theater with a lot of people.  Before we headed out, we took some pictures.  Note that Bode is really getting tall.

Before the start of the concert, I embarrassed Bode and got a picture of him and his friend, Brendan.

The band played, and they sounded great.  I recorded two of the selections...sort of.  The first recording is tilted 90 degrees the wrong way, while the second recording ends abruptly because my phone ran out of memory.  From now on, I am using my camera for the important movies :-)

Ashley has a video of the third song, and I'll try to get that from here if I can pry her phone from her hands :-)  Pleasant weekend to all.

Kelly Plantation

 Grammy is in town for a couple weeks.  Ashley played hooky from work yesterday, and we all headed out to Kelly Plantation for some golf.  We had a lovely time.  Here's Ashley dusting off the rust on the driving range.

Note the perfect form :-)  Before heading out, the starter took our picture.

The course was in great shape and was very scenic.  I took some movies, but the focus isn't very good--I guess I need to go back to using my camera instead of my phone.

Here's an action shot of Ashley, again with the perfect form.

Here's a shot of Mom hitting what certainly was a perfect drive.

Finally, a good shot of Ashley crushing one way out into the distance.

We had a lovely time out at Kelly.  We didn't set any records, but I think Ashley parred a par 5, and that is something she'd never done before.  The weather was perfect, and best of all, we didn't see any snakes :-)

Odds and Ends

I forgot that I had taken some Easter-egg coloring pictures on my phone.  Here are a couple shots of Bode McGuirk, master egg-dyer.

Bode had a swim meet yesterday.  The weather was crazy--horrific thunderstorms to start the day, and I thought there was no chance we'd have the meet.  However, a little after noon, the rain subsided, and the weather started to improve, so we headed out to Destin.  Bode swam in the two relays, and he also swam the 100-yard free and the 50-fly.  His 100-yard free time was a personal best, finishing in 1:01--a little faster and he'll break the 1-minute barrier.  The race was amazingly close, and we're very proud of the little man for finishing strong and getting the win.

We thought he was dying there towards the end of the third lap, but after his turn, you can see his kick really "kicked in." He got second in the 50-fly with a time of 30 seconds; this race was right after the 100-free, so he was a little winded.  I think if Bode were fresh that the race between the two boys would be very close.

Nothing too exciting going on here.  The dogs are doing well.  Both dogs got kennel-cough last week (basically a cold for dogs).  The docs put Joey on an antibiotic because with his weakened immune system (due to the chemotherapy), there was a small chance he could develop pneumonia.  We are happy to say this did not happen, and both are doing fine.  Joey will go back on Wednesday for another round of chemo, and we will hope we continue to see good progress.

Here is a close-up of Barkley.  Look at those pearly-white teeth, likely the result of the brushing we do :-)

Here is a cute one of Joey and me.

Bode will probably spend the day playing on his Oculus.

Maybe I can convince him to come out to the carriage house and lift with me.  Happy week to everyone.

Happy Easter

We have had a nice relaxing Easter weekend.  Bode had a swim meet on Saturday.  Meigs swam against Ruckell Middle School, and there are probably 10 - 15 kids that swim on Ruckell's team that also swim on Coast; hence, they are very strong.  Additionally, they have this one kid that is only twelve, but he look likes he's sixteen (start of a mustache, hair on his body, etc), and he is a very strong swimmer.  Bode swam against him in the butterfly and took second (the kid was three seconds faster, which is just amazing).  Here is Bode on the block getting ready for the race.

I think Ashley has a movie on her phone, but I don't want to go through the hassle of prying the phone from her hands :-)  In the 50-fly, Bode beat another teammate from Coast, and I was really proud of him for doing so, because when we first moved here, this other kid was a much stronger swimmer than Bode.  Bode also swam the 200-free, and he wasn't thrilled about it.  There were three other Coast swimmers in the race; one of them is an 8th grader, and he is in the lane next to Bode; Bode did great keeping up with him the first couple laps, but I actually think this was a mistake. Bode swam the first 100 in ~1:05, which matches his best 100-free time.  Thus, I think it was too fast.  Still, he took second place, and he beat the kid in lane six, which was another kid that was faster than Bode when we first moved here.  Bode swam the 200 in 2:18, which is by far his best time (probably because he had not raced it in a year or so).

After the swim meet, we got Buffalo Wild Wings and enjoyed an evening at home.  We also colored some Easter eggs, which the Easter bunny came and hid early this morning.  Ashley and Bode had a contest to see who could find more eggs.  I took a picture of the two competitors before they headed out.

I also took some action shots of the Great Hunt.

I think Bode finished with slightly more eggs than Ashley, probably because he was a little bit more aggressive.  After the hunt, we went out and played two rounds of Goofy Golf; Bode won the first round fair and square, while I took the second round.  For the rest of the afternoon, we have lazed around the house and enjoyed a day off from all activities.  Happy Easter to all!