Today began with running several church errands, getting my girls situated with their school work and then more church errands. We had an outreach, school assembly, scheduled today at one of the local elementary schools that we visit. Our friend, Kumba the capuchin monkey, was suppose to join us. Our lesson for this month's outreach is on self-control. We had a nice script explaining how these monkeys are trained to help others and must have self-control to do what they are told. Ha! Our sweet friend Kumba was not exhibiting that today. He was a grouchy monkey today and would not let his owner Ms. Sandy Knefel put his leash on him. So Sad:( The children always love to see Kumba. Unfortunately, he did not make it to school today. When Mrs. Sandy Knefel called I could hear Kumba barking loudly in the background. But never fear, there was still plenty of excitement. Mr. Kemp Brown joined us and taught them all about self-control with his cool Karate moves :)
After the outreach, I was very tired and grouchy. Why?? Why am I tired & grouchy?? Oh yeah! one small detail had been overlooked today. It was nearly 4 PM and I had not eaten! oops. The girls and I ate a lunch filled with carbs, grease and cheese with Ms. Sandy, Camen & Gavin. Yes, It was indeed cheese pizza. I must eat better... and more often. After all those carbs I traveled home for a short nap before heading to the pool.
I did not want to go swim tonight. I just wanted to lay under my electric blanket where it was warm and cozy. But alas, my 10 year old alarm clock (that would be my daughter Macey) forced me out of bed and into the cold air. I did not have a partner in crime tonight :( Ms. Sandy could not swim because she had to take her son Camen to Kung-Fu. Imagine her putting Kung-Fu before swimming a torturous 300 meters. Ha! I am just kidding, I love it that she puts the needs of her family first. But I did not want to swim alone.
When I arrive at the pool there was yet again several children from church with their parents watching from the bleachers. I set my mind to swimming exactly the way I needed to swim the laps for the test. I swam 4 laps of the front crawl, 4 laps of the breast stroke, and 4 laps mixed crawl and breast stroke. Yeah! I swam all 12 laps continueously; I did not stop to rest. But on my last lap, the instructor told me I needed to start wearing goggles and I needed to swim with my head under the water. I thought to my self "Hey! I'm doing good to actually know I can swim 12 laps without a rest!"
Swimming with the brick was next. While waiting on the instructor to bring me the brick, I had a chance to talk with Hannah. She is a student from church and can swim quiet well. I asked her how old she was, as I was plotting how long it would be before she could lifeguard for me. She replied "12, How old are you?" I laughed and said "too old." Hannah swam off to do another lap and then returned. She said "I think you are probably about 20." I laughed and told her to times that by two and she would be pretty close. "That's ok my mom is forty-two, so you are 40" she said. "39 to be exact, I could be your mother" I replied with a smile and a wink. I think she was trying to comfort me as she said "Well, you have one more year left so live it up and then you can live it up with the old people like my mom does." I laughed and told her that was good advice. I was going to live it up and get back to my brick work. Swimming with the 10 lb. brick still proved to be a challenge. It was hard to hold onto the brick and make it to the end of the pool. I would sink, take in water, spit the water out, and try again. I repeated this process until I decided I should save some water for the rest of the swimmers. I dried off and sat for a minute watching all the young children swimming laps like it was as easy as having a conversation.
After I had changed, I approached the instructor and asked if he had an extra "official diving brick" that I could borrow or rent to take to Florida to practice with. He said he only had one and he could not lend it out. I told him I felt pretty good about swimming the 300 meters but the brick was killing me. He said I would do just fine and encouraged me to continue to come in and practice. He said he would watch me swim with the brick next time and give me some tips. I explained I was a bit worried because I was going out of town for a week to attend the Children's Pastors Conference and I was worried I would not be ready for the test on Jan. 19th. He laughed and said that he was giving eight classes and the last class was in February. He said, "Just keep practicing, you will be ready!" "Ok!, maybe I can be ready." I mumbled with some encouragement as I began putting on my shoes. I looked up and saw a parent looking right at me. The parent asked why I was swimming and I explained that it is often hard to find a lifeguard to go on all our trips and to be at camp for a week. I chuckled as I told him we (Sandy & I) were just trying to keep the children safe at camp and prevent a possible drowning. Then the strangest thing happened. He offered to pay for our lifeguard classes! How sweet, I thought, and how embarassing. I thought maybe he was entertained at my skills, swimming with the brick, or maybe he just felt sorry for us. But he continued and said that he and his wife saw us swimming last night and they admired what we were doing and wanted to pay for the classes. He said he would work everything out with the instructor. God really does have a sense of humor!
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