swim banquet and buzzer beater

Last night, our family went to the RFHS swim banquet. Anders was presented with another varsity letter, received a state participant and qualifier certificate and had two nice speeches delivered by his swim coach and his dive coach. His dive coach thanked Brad and I for raising a child who was accustomed to sarcasm.

photos from when he was having his speech and with his certificates

Senior swimmers--Seth, Anders and Nate

with his dive coach, Kym

After the banquet, Osten and I went to the final RF Boys Basketball game of the season. The pep band was HOT! Several of the swimmers went to play--Anders opted to stay home so he missed out on that opportunity.

The Wildcats were ahead most of the game then the Chippewa Falls cardinals came back with some hot three point shooters. With just a few seconds left in the game, the Cats made a drive as they were down by one point. Mike Johnson was dished the ball with just one second remaining and he made the buzzer beater. I happened to be sitting near his mom and my friend, Michelle when he made the hoop, so I went over to hug and dance around with our friend Sharyl. What a night!

Here is a photo I got of the pep band--just happens to be Nate from above and his sister, Jenna playing pep band together. They are both Anders and Katie's ages:

sunny February morning

I have been working at getting up a few minutes earlier every morning in preparation for Daylight Saving Time. It's really noticeable how much earlier the skies are lightning each morning as I'm returning from my workout at Anytime Fitness.

This morning the:
nautical twilight--5:50am-6:58pm
astronomical twilight--5:16am-7:32pm
civil twilight--6:24am-6:25pm

Spring is ALMOST here--the length of visible light is exactly 12 hours.

Tonight we have the swimming banquet. It's going to be a good day!

ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is traditionally a holy day of prayer and fasting...I was not aware of the fasting part or just chose to not to remember, not really certain. It is the first day of Lent--which is the six weeks of penitence before Easter. Western Christians observe Lent.

Tonight, our church is having a soup supper (I'm preparing Vegetarian Chili for a chili cook off) and worship. Looking forward to our worship and Lenten season. I did bring friend, Ester along and the chili was a hit...it ran out. Our whole family worshipped together and it was good.

hiking Tuesday

Today was step day! Workout this morning at Anytime, then off to school and went on a nature walk. Ended up putting on 22,000+ steps today. Feels great.

Our amazing 18 year old gave me a short foot massage this evening when asked. I'm a lucky momma.

quiet Monday

I got to talk to my incredible Mom this evening on the phone while I was driving home from work. When I arrived home, I noticed Anders' vehicle was not parked and thought hmm...he no longer has swim practice, maybe he's working. Got inside and discovered both our boys were gone. Anders went to dinner with friends at Culvers and Osten went with Culvers with Uncle Bruce. Uncle Bruce also took him to the movie downtown called The Call of the Wild.

We had grilled cheese and tomato soup with Katie, now she's downstairs doing homework. Brad and I went for a walk and now we're quietly sitting by the fireside. Kind of weird being so quiet and peaceful! I guess that will be the norm in the years to come.

sledding day with our sweet dimpled boy

We had a great Sunday. I dropped Osten at Sunday School and proceeded on a really nice walk around the Kinni--past our school and snapped a few photos of the progress:

My old classroom is on 2nd floor--2nd set of window from far left. My new classroom will be 2nd floor windows on the far right.

After my invigorating walk, I picked Osten up from Sunday School and our family went to church together. The band was outstanding and Osten and I colored some butterflies to put in a faith chest to open at the end of Lent. 

After church, we went to Mariachi Loco with Uncle Bruce. Upon returning home, Osten and I opted to hit the Hoffman Park slopes for some good old sledding time.

In the evening, we had soup for dinner and then started watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I started falling asleep, so we headed to bed pretty early, but it was a really fun day.

celebrating Dionne's 48th

Today Osten, Katie, Brad and I drove into Crystal, Minnesota to celebrate cousin Dionne's 48th birthday. We dined at Perkins and enjoyed our time together.

Today, Anders should be home--Osten is looking to head over to his buddy Wil's house, Katie is cleaning her room, Brad is getting caught up on work and I look forward to taking a nice walk outdoors and also getting some good old fashioned scrubbing done...the bright February sun is revealing the need to scrub the hardwoods and walls from a winter of burning wood and dust accumulation.

state swim and dive

What an experience! Yesterday, we drove from our beautiful Cambria Hotel to the Natatorium at UW Madison campus. On the way, I realized we could stop for lunch at an interesting Madison spot. Thankfully my phone navigated us to a restaurant called Manna in a humble strip mall near the isthmus of Lake Monona in Madison. It was packed! Retired people, Mom's with small children, university aged students; the audience was varied.

Brad and I split a Chicken Shawarma plate and a bowl of carrot, sweet potato coconut milk soup, Katie had a grilled cheese and Osten ordered an oat pancake with chocolate chips and fruit. I ordered a cafe au lait and Brad had an octane filled espresso. Amazing food and company:

The moment we decided to leave, a couple quickly swept in and helped us bus our table so they could sit in our spot. Very popular place and now we know why!

Then we drove to the Natatorium--parked and found our spot in the venue. We all were so excited to show the new posters we made and signed the poster the Baar family made:

We hung out with Connor's family including his fun grandpa Waco who took a fun photo of Osten and Anders:

Then the diving began. Anders dove 8th of 16 divers. He looked strong and athletic in his performance. When they started diving in order of last place to first place--Anders was diving third. He kept his position when they announced the final scores--Anders placed 13th of 16 and once the scores are published, I will share. I was yelling loudly when they announced yesterday, so I didn't hear the official score.

After the meet, we tried to meet up with Anders, but there was a huge rush of people who arrived to see the swimming portion so we exited while we could. On our drive home, we stopped at a Pizza Ranch near the Dells and I slept pretty much the entire ride home.

Thank you to Brad for being our chauffeur and to the kids for being great sports on our adventure.
Biggest Thank You goes to Anders for his achievement of making it to state. It was a thrill of a lifetime.

02-20-2020

Another satisfying number day in my lifetime! A big surprise too...I was planning on taking off Friday with Katie and Osten to watch Anders dive. Brad just got home from a big trip and is behind on work, so wasn't feeling like he could attend. As I was in the classroom late on 02-20-2020, Brad called and said "hey let's head down tonight, stay in a hotel, I can work for half day and then we can go to the diving!" What a great idea and we are all together!

So we quickly packed and jumped in the Prius. We recently woke at the beautiful Cambria Hotel near UW-Madison campus. Osten and I are heading down to the pool, Katie is lounging in bed and Brad is working hard on getting ready for a couple of calls.

Katie snoozing with her big beautiful braid--Osten enjoying our hotel view

ready to hit the pool

we heard a tremendous children's book author Margi Preus at our school on 02-20-2020

86 years ago today

One of my favorite people made his earthly debut. Love you Dad and miss you much.

overwhelming applause

Our 18 year old exercised his right to vote in the 2020 Spring Election in Wisconsin today. He voted for a Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice. It was really fun and he was registered by our family friend, Cal Zalusky's grandmother and turned in his card for a ballot to Cal's other grandmother. Pretty awesome day.

After he cast his ballot all the people at the poll gave him a generous round of applause.May you always make your voice heard, son!

president's day

Today, we have the day off school. Anders has diving practice, Katie is at a friends house working on a Social Studies project, Osten is at a friend's house playing. Brad is in Florida meeting with clients and I just back from in service activities.

Very soon, I will be picking Katie up from her friend's house and then will head to high school conferences.

The purpose of our day off today is to observe President's Day. President Trump is our 45th president--that is pretty incredible that our country has been existence since 1789--231 years. Thank you to our president's for your representation and dedication to our country.

snaps make me smile

The filters that are used in snap are just so adorable. Makes me smile.

he's heading to state diving!

On Valentine's Anders qualified for Wisconsin state diving. Two of his teammates also qualified to swim so he, Connor and Seth will be heading to state Thursday evening. I'm taking the day off on Friday and am thinking of having Katie and Osten join so we can make a little get away.

Anders had his season best times in the 200 Medley relay, 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay.

First series of photos is from Anders's leg of the 200 Medley relay

River Falls placed 5th

Here's his diving platform placing 2nd and qualifying for state

getting ready for his 100 breaststroke

first split 31.48

2nd split 36.43

on the podium for 100 breaststroke

Here's Anders first split on the 400 Free relay 27.53

and his second split 31.96

River Falls won their heat and placed 8th overall

Here they are taking 8th place

and here is Anders' biggest fan hugging him after the meet