Katelyn's Baptism

Katelyn was baptized this past Sunday! What a sweet blessing!!

2010 Gladiator Games

Last Saturday we participated in the Gladiator Games again. This was Robert's third year and my second year. The Gladiator Games are sponsored by the Knoxville Leadership Foundation, which is a Christian organization that works a lot with area teens and does a variety of other ministries. The Gladiator Games is a fundraiser in which teams compete against each other in a series of events. A team can consist of 2, 3, or 4 people, and there are three different division (family, female, and competitive). In 2008 Robert's team won the competitive division. Last year, my team won the female division. We must have scared off the competition from last year because I'm pretty sure we were the only female team in it this year! We won first place again!

The events we competed in were:
*100 yard swim relay (2 person relay - 50 yards each)
*kayak
*weightlifting
*shotput
*sprint
*3 point basketball shot (2 people shoot for 2 minutes)
*obstacle course (2 person relay)
*football throw with a field goal attempt for bonus points
*one mile relay (2 person relay - 1/2 mile each)

One of my teammates from last year was on my team again this year (P-nut). Our other teammate from last year competed on her husband's team this year. P-nut recruited one of her best friends to make our 3rd person. I felt like the old woman! P-nut is 18 and Ashley is 16! I'm old enough to be their mother!!! We had fun and did well.

Robert's team included him, Lloyd, and a guy from church (Beau). I think they had fun. We got a good laugh out of Robert flipping his kayak!

Rachel's Early Birthday Present

Rachel's birthday is next week. We decided to let her have an early birthday present and get her ears pierced! She was so excited!!! We figured we'd go ahead and let her do it now instead of wait til her actual birthday because since she's already in a cast, she'll be out of soccer for a few weeks. She chose blue daisies as her earrings of choice. I think she looks extra cute!!

Rachel's New Cast

Rachel went to the orthopedic doctor this afternoon after school. Officially she broke her radius - that's the bone in your arm that is on the thumb side of your arm. She broke it right below the wrist. So technically, she broke her arm. She is in a cast almost up to her elbow. She was able to choose the color of the cast and she chose her favorite color - green! We go back to the doctor next Monday for him to check to make sure it's healing properly. Then we'll find out exactly how long she'll be in a cast. For the next week, she's not supposed to do anything in which she could fall. We asked about soccer and he said if she's healing well next week, then maybe she can play in a couple of weeks. She did great at the doctor's office and is just continuing to be a trooper through this. She went to school today and had to take 2 tests left-handed! But she did just fine! She didn't even want any pain medicine this evening, so all she has had today was one pill this morning at 7:00, half a pill at 12:45, and another half a pill at about 3:30 (on our way to the doctor - just to make sure she wasn't in too much pain when he examined her arm).

Pretending to pout!

Smiling because she has a GREEN cast!

Don't Wrap Up in a Towel!

Okay, so here's the reason for the title of this post. We're always telling the girls when we're swimming to dry off with their towel, but not to walk around with it wrapped around them. We tell them it's dangerous. After all, we have a friend whose little boy tripped and fell forward and knocked out his front teeth. Anyway, we went to a pool party last night for one of Katelyn's friends. I should've realized it wasn't going to be our night from the beginning. We hadn't been there maybe five minutes when Katelyn comes over crying. She had been standing on the top step of the slide and turned to look for her friend when she somehow lost her footing and slid/fell down the steps. The fall scraped up her backside a little bit, but after a few minutes, she was back in the pool. Within a few minutes I heard thunder. Now for those of you who don't know me very well, I HATE STORMS!!! And I strongly believe and heed the Weather Channel's warning: "If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning!" So when I heard the thunder, I got my girls out of the pool. They were still sitting out when it was time to eat pizza. The girls got something to eat and were sitting at the picnic table. I thought all was well until I heard screaming and it's Rachel laying face down on the concrete. Evidently she had tried to get up to go get more pizza and got tripped up in her towel and fell down face forward. I asked what hurt and she told me her wrist. I looked at it and immediately thought it was broken. I got her sitting back up on the bench and went and got some ice. It immediately began to swell. Bones weren't out of place or anything, but I could just tell it was broken. Of course, everyone was checking on her and all the kids were looking at her wondering if she was okay. I'm sure the birthday girl was thinking to herself, "Why did I invite those Scheffer girls?!!?" Anyway, Robert had come with us to the party, but he had brought his bike so he could go ride and run. While Rachel was holding ice on her wrist, I told Katelyn we were leaving and I started getting our stuff packed up. About that time Robert got back and I filled him in on what had happened. I knew Rachel was really hurt because she was begging to leave and go to the hospital. We went home to get her into some dry clothes and then headed to the ER. Sure enough - she broke her wrist! It appears to be a "good break" so hopefully it'll be as good as new! They just put it in a splint and sling for now. We have to follow up with our "family orthopedic doctor" this week. Since Katelyn had knee surgery in March, we actually do have a family orthopedic doctor! I'll be calling him first thing tomorrow morning to get an appt. Once she seems him, she'll get a cast.

Yes - it is her right arm, so writing could be a little difficult for the next few weeks!

Yes - we had just signed her up for soccer! But luckily, you don't use your hands in soccer! So hopefully she can at least do drills and stuff in practice and she may miss a couple of games. But thankfully swim season is over and she doesn't have any triathlons coming up.

She has done great so far! She is taking her pain meds, but not near as often as she could take them. She slept great last night! She woke up at 5:30 asking what time it was. After I asked her if she was in any pain she finally admitted that she was hurting a little bit, so I gave her some pain medicine. But she hadn't had any since around 8:30 last night, so I thought that was really good! She went back to sleep until around 7:30 and then informed me she wanted to get up and get ready for church. We got up and got ready and made it to church around 8:10! She's being a real trooper and doing just wonderfully! She plans to go to praise team and choir tonight and to school tomorrow! So it looks like she's going to be just fine!!!

Here's a picture I took last night at the ER. This is after she had x-rays and got the splint and she was just enjoying a popsicle while we were waiting to make sure she didn't have any kind of reaction to the pain meds.

First Day of School 2010

Another school year has begun! Rachel is now officially a 4th grader and Katelyn is a 2nd grader! They both have wonderful teachers and are excited about this school year. Rachel actually was moved from one class to another on registration day, but I think it was worked out just fine! She has lots of friends in her class and adores her teacher. Katelyn has several friends in her class also. She has the same teacher that Rachel had for 2nd grade, so Katelyn already feels comfortable and at ease with her teacher. It's going to be another great year!!

Triathlon

Last Friday night we were eating with Lloyd & Wendy at O'Charley's. I was stuffing myself with chicken tenders and yeast rolls when Lloyd starts trying to convince me to sign up for the triathlon on Saturday. You see, Robert & Lloyd had just signed up to do the triathlon on Saturday. It would be Robert's 4th one this summer and Lloyd's 1st one ever. They kept hounding me and saying stuff like "You know you want to do it." I finally caved in and went and signed up at the last minute Friday night. So Saturday morning we headed over to Springbrook Pool for mine and Lloyd's debut as a triathlete! This particular triathlon is called a sprint triathlon because the distances are shorter than a true ironman triathlon. This one consisted of a 200 yard swim, 8 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run. I hadn't trained AT ALL for this, and you could tell!! I was about dead when I finished, but at least I finished! And the good news is I wasn't last overall and I wasn't even last in my age group!!! Speaking of age group, for triathlons they base your age on the age you will be on 12/31 of that year. So even though I am 39, since I turn 40 before the end of the year I had to compete as a 40 year old. They paint your age on the back of your calf for everyone to see! It's kind of disheartening when you're out there biking or running and see some overweight 68 year old woman go flying by you! (Yes - that actually happened to me!) Lloyd & Robert were giving me a hard time about having the big 4-0 on my calf!

I can now say I have completed a triathlon! Robert did well in his 4th one of the season and Lloyd did well in his debut!

End of Season Swim Team Party

We had our end of season swim team party on Tuesday night. We grilled out, handed out awards, and the kids swam. Each of the swimmers were given a trophy and a t-shirt. Then all the finalists from the GKAISA meet were called to the front to be recognized. They were also given towels that will be embroidered with City Meet Finalist on them! They talked about this being a year of firsts for our team. It was the first time that our team had anyone win 1st place at the SMI meet (Rachel & Dylan both won 1st); it was the first time that we won our league; and it was the first time we had anyone win at GKAISA (it was Rachel!). They called Rachel up in front of everyone and recognized her for winning 1st place at GKAISA! Next they awarded plaques to the male & female swimmer who earned the most points for the team this year. The female winner was Rachel and the male winner was Dylan.

Here are all the finalists from the GKAISA meet.

This is Rachel being recognized as the only swimmer from our team to ever win 1st place in the GKAISA City Meet!

Rachel & Dylan with their plaques for earning the most points for the team this season!

GKAISA City Meet Finals - 25 yard backstroke

Rachel swam in the 8 & under 25 yard backstroke. Coming into the meet, Rachel was seeded 1st out of 189 girls. After the prelims yesterday, she was seeded 2nd. She was not very happy about that! But I tried to tell her that today was what mattered! The top 16 competed in the finals today. Rachel won 1st place!!! She did awesome!!!

Here is the video from today. She is in the 5th lane from the top.

GKAISA City Meet Finals - 100 yard co-ed freestyle relay

Rachel competes in the 8 & under division. However, our team is so small that we don't have enough kids 8 & under to make a relay team. So Rachel swam with some of her 9 & 10 year old teammates in the 9 & 10 co-ed 100 yard freestyle relay. This is not an event that is in our typical local meets. It's an event that is just in the two big swim meets of the season. Rachel & her teammates had only practiced this relay a couple of times over the past 2 weeks. They came into the meet seeded 14th out of 41 relay teams. After the prelims yesterday, they were seeded 12th. The top 16 got to come back and compete in the finals today. Rachel's relay team took 2 seconds off their time from yesterday and came in 10th!! Way to go guys!!

Here is the video from today's relay. Rachel's team is in the 6th lane from the top. She is the second leg of the relay. You'll see her diving in from the left of your screen. She has on a black swim cap.

GKAISA City Meet Finals - 25 yard freestyle

Rachel competed in the 8 & under girls 25 yard freestyle. She went into the meet seeded 10th out of 245 girls. After the prelims yesterday she was seeded 7th. The top 16 advanced to compete in the finals today. Rachel swam a personal best time of 17.20 seconds today in the 25 yard freestyle and finished 7th overall!! Way to go Rachel!!

Here is the video of the event. Rachel is in the 1st lane at the top.

GKAISA City Swim Meet Finals - 25 butterfly

Rachel went into the meet seeded 5th in the 8 & under girls 25 yard butterfly. After the prelims yesterday, she was seeded 4th. The top 16 advance to the finals. Rachel swam a personal best time of 18.50 seconds today in the 25 yard butterfly and finished 4th overall out of 49 girls (there aren't too many girls that age who compete in the butterfly because it's fairly hard to do, especially without getting disqualified). Way to go Rachel!!!

Here is the video of her race. She is in the 6th lane from the top.