The Olympics

Well, it turns out that my 10 year old broke her finger. We had a one week follow up to have another x-ray but I took her back early because something was seriously wrong. Even after the swelling went down, she couldn't move it at all and she had crazy bruising on the underside of her hand. Down the palm, along the knuckle and up all the fingers. It freaked me out. She never complained that it hurt. Sometimes she remarked that it was pulsing but she didn't whine or a cry about it. This kid is tough as hell.

We took her to an orthopedist who confirmed that she had a buckle fracture at the growth plate. She doesn't need surgery but it needs to be buddy- taped for 8 weeks and she is only allowed to lift a fork and pencil in that hand. "After 8 weeks can I do my gymnastics?" she asked.

She won't sit on the sidelines for 8 weeks. She had boot camp all week and will do conditioning and some stuff on the balance beam and the floor. She has so much more discipline than I'll ever have. I pick her up from practice and she'll say, "I did 200 crunches today, 40 burpees, 50 push ups and then tumbling for 2 hours...." I'm like, "I ate 2 and a half cupcakes today, so...."
                                  
She has been so excited to watch the Olympic gymnasts. She's been talking about it for months. The problem with the Olympics is that we are cord cutters. We were cord cutters before it was cool to be a cord cutter. We can access NBC through out internet package and we have Chromecast, so I thought we would be good.

We streamed the Parade of Nations and Opening Ceremony but then we couldn't stream the gymnastics. We called our cable internet provider and were like, "What the f**k?" Their response was, "You can watch NBC but not NBC Sports. You can upgrade your package,"
"Can we do that for 1 month?"
"No, it requires a 12 month commitment."
NO. JUST NO,

So I figured out that we can stream NBC Sports by doing a subscription with SlingTV. We can subscribe through the Olympics and then cancel. So I signed up BUT their streams suck. They show gymnastics at either 6am or 2 am. They show 2 hours of canoeing in the middle of the day. SlingTV is basically a bag of d**ks.

My sweet friend offered to let us watch at her house. However, finding the schedule on the NBC website is crazy and confusing. I want to send NBC like, 1,000 hate letters. I saw that they were going to be showing the US gymnasts on Thursday at 8. Perfect.

My 10 year old was so excited as she walked down the street to the neighbor's house with her gymnastics pillow under her arm. We settled in and started watching the gymnastics. Then NBC was like, We are now going to interrupt the gymnastics finals for 2 hours of swimming. Damn them. Damn them to hell.

Spoiler alert: Micheal Phelps won a gold medal. Again.
                                   
They didn't show the rest of the US women's gymnastics until 11 pm. We were at the edge of our seats. I think they should just do a live stream of Ali Raisman's parents. They are the funniest. These girls are unbelievable. We were amazed. They didn't do the medal ceremony until midnight. We were tired but my daughter was so excited we got to watch it. FINALLY.

We made our way home after midnight. I remembered about the meteor shower that was supposed to happen that night. "Want to see some shooting stars?" I asked. She nodded. We were greeted at the front door by my 12 year old and her friend who was spending the night. They wanted to join us. We spread a huge blanket out in the back yard and laid on our backs, looking up at the sky.

After 30 seconds my 12 year old declared, "This is stupid. I don't see anything."
"Just wait, your eyes have to adjust."
After a while the sky got darker and we could see all the stars. We saw the first shooting star. We SQUEALED with delight. "WHOA! Look!" the kids said, pointing to the sky.

It was AMAZING. I've never seen a shooting star and it was on my bucket list. Check.

As we watched and waited, the girls pointed out some of the constellations. They are both interested space, stars and planets. "Let's see if we can find cancer." I can't see any of the constellations. Just looks like a bunch of dots to me.

                                      
                          Does that look like a crab to you? No, no it doesn't.

We saw another shooting star and then another. "Make a wish on each one," I reminded them. We laid out there for almost an hour before I shuffled them up to bed. It was after 1 am. I know we should be getting them back in the routine of school and I totally fail.

We folded up the blanket and my 12 year old said, "Besides our trip, this was one of the best things that happened all summer." I had to agree. I hope their wishes come true.