First Swim Meet and a Bit of Bragging

Last week was crazy, hectic, chaotic, and all about swimming. It's amazing how you suddenly become an "expert" on something once your children become involved with it. For me, it's swimming.

I can swim, at least I thought I could until I tried to swim several laps last summer. When my children laughed hysterically at me, I realized that my previous "swimming" had consisted only of diving in, splashing around to cool off, and hanging out by the pool. I'm proud to say that Curly Girl and Car Guy can really swim, though. Their father swam year-round growing up and in a Division I program in college, so, thankfully, the kids inherited their dad's swimming gene.

With Curly Girl on injured reserve because of her knee, Car Guy marks our family's only competitive swimmer for the summer. He debuted this past week in two swim meets, and our only goal for him was to make it across the pool without stopping to hold onto the lane rope.

After warm-ups, I was a nervous wreck worrying about Car Guy getting to his event, being in the right place, having his goggles, keeping his swimsuit up, etc. He was cool as a cucumber, though.

His first event was the 25 meter backstroke, and he looked so tiny holding on to the wall before his start.
He chugged on along and made it down the pool, though. Unfortunately, he turned over onto his stomach at the end and got disqualified. He remedied that problem at the week's second meet, however, and seemed quicker, too.


The 25 meter freestyle was his second event. I couldn't stifle a giggle as he strutted (Yes, he really strutted.) to the block and curled himself into a diving position. Regardless of how he looks at the beginning, he always just steps into the pool. We're still working on that diving thing.

25 meters is a long way for a seven-year-old. Car Guy's stroke looked great for the first twelve meters before devolving into a mix of Australian crawl and doggy paddle for the second half of the lap.

He finished without holding the lane rope or touching the bottom, though, and was all smiles to boot.

Now for a bit of bragging...

Anyone who has known me for more than fifteen years knows I never planned to develop any domestic skills. Heck, I had trained Patrick to do all the laundry and mending around the house until my mother messed up my plan by telling my new husband that I could actually sew on a button and wash my own laundry.

So I am as shocked as anyone that I now enjoy cooking, and I really adore baking which allows me to indulge the bread-and-sugar lover in me. My parents came to our house last night to toss some burgers on the grill for Father's Day, and I decided to try out a new peanut butter cake recipe. It was amazing, really sinfully amazing. I don't even want to tell you how many times I licked the beaters, bowl, and spoon after completing the cake and homemade peanut butter icing.


Here is the recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peanut-Butter-Cake-II/Detail.aspx. The Reese's Cups were Curly Girl's addition. She chopped the candy, and we sprinkled the chocolate-and-peanut-butter morsels between the layers and on top of the cake.

Sinfully good, amazing, but with way too much sugar for my comfort level. After eating the cake, I spent an extended time with Wii Fit today and will also be running tomorrow. If I could swim laps without looking like an idiot, I would do that, too. For now, I'm going to leave the swimming to Car Guy, though.