this is cass

About Us

Sunday, July 13, 2008

3 Weeks and Counting



3 weeks till the NLR 50th reunion. 3 weeks till I'm done coaching. 3 weeks until we get to relax.

Every week we lead off with an MSM that seems pretty normal. No big bumps, a few busy nights, maybe a weekend adventure. But by Thursday half our hairs have been plucked out and we lay melting into the coach well before 10. Are we old already?

But we're in this for the long haul, so here's how we're going to make it... wake up, pray for a moment before leaping out of bed and stumbling bleary eyed off to work with a quick wink at the babysitter and a sly sneak out the back door to avoid elephant tears and break-your-heart goodbyes. Then a whirlwind of activities and bust-your-eardrums mealtimes in the dining hall, with entertainment to spare, to a quick dip in the quickly-becoming-bathwater feeling NLR pool and a chilly rinse in the outdoor shower before sliding between the sheets dog tired to rest up for the next day. And if you're lucky we'll have a moment or two of complete silence while we stare each other in the eye and marvel at how in the heck we got this far (almost 7 years now!) with so many blessings.

The Lord is good. Before we know it, the 50th will be here and Cass and his beautiful patchwork band will be playing their hearts out and the rest of us will be standing there, swaying in awe of all that God is and all that he has been for us and all that he has brought us through, knowing that there is so much more grace to come.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Omaha...somewhere in middle America

So we just got back from the USA Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha. Never been to Omaha, but I won't dread a return trip; it actually wasn't too bad of a town. They had a big storm blow through the night before with 100 mph winds that caused a lot of damage, so it looked a little like a warzone when we first rolled in.
We attended the 2nd day of the trials. If you aren't familiar with the trials it's pretty easy to understand: if you want to swim in the Olympics for USA, you have to swim and place in the trials. All the big names were there. It was really cool. We saw 2 world records beaten which was awesome. The place went crazy. Brandi took some cool pictures of some of the athletes from our nose-bleed seats. I was impressed with the zoom on our camera.



Above is a shot of Michael Phelps getting ready to take the block
Below is Katie Hoff