Dr. Pepper

I love Dr. Pepper. All things Dr. Pepper. It makes me happy when sad, satisfies my strange and outrageous cravings for sugar, and helps me sleep at night. My love affair began in high school during numerous nights hanging out with my good friend Jen and swimming teammates in the hot tube making Dr. Pepper towers with our empty cans. Yes, Jen, I blame you for this addiction and at the same time I can't help but be grateful that Dr. Pepper is will always be in my life.

Here are some interesting products I found from fellow Dr. Pepper lovers...

My Hair :(

Today I went to have my hair cut at a premier salon. I had received an amazing deal on it and therefore was extremely excited. A couple friends had already had their hair done at this place and loved it so I had no fear. I brought in a picture of Reese Witherspoon's hair that I absolutely love:




I also specifically pointed out exactly how I wanted my bangs. The whole experience was wonderful. The cut was amazing, perfection...until he did my bangs. I couldn't see what he was doing because he was standing in front of me the whole time while doing them. When I saw the final product I almost cried. I have always dreaded having bangs that looked like a bowl top and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that it would be possible to get them at 25 because that's only supposed to happen when your 12. After I left I spent an hour trying to play with things or pin certain sections up, but the damage was done. They were so thick and cut all the way back to my ears. Pushing it all back is nearly impossible and when done it looks pretty bad. I was so traumatized I couldn't even take a picture, but here is a good idea of what it looks like.





I have never had a hair cut that I have hated and the worst part is that it really is an amazing cut, I absolutely love it except for the bangs. I can't wear my hair down at all because I can't stand my bangs and it looks bad even when they are pulled back so I can't even take advantage of the otherwise amazing hair cut. Such a shame! Am I over reacting? Probably, but I feel like I have a mop on the top of my head and nothing anyone says changes that feeling. I feel like a hair don't and do not wish to be seen in public.

The clouds have parted

I finally received my grades for the semester. I took 4 masters classes which is considered death since it is recommended that a student only take one or two. The one class I was worried about was a stats class that involved a majority of work to be done in groups. Unfortunately I was put in a dead beat group. By the end of the semester I had resigned myself to a B because of the the many difficulties I had trying to do the entire groups work. I had to get a 95 on the final in order to get an A. I never thought it possible, but I was able to get that 95 exactly and also the highest grade in the class on the final. Therefore my 4.0 is still in tact!! I was so shocked. Me, the worst test taker in the world got a 95 on a stats final?! My professor emailed me with his congratulations on my achievement and I can't help but want to ask him if me made some kind of mistake but i won't. If it was a mistake I am happy to leave it that way :). I feel perfectly content thinking I am amazing.

Currently the Torpedo's are looking for a pool to move to. We are growing and need more sophisticated/larger facilities. I absolutely love coaching the Torpedo's and hope that everything works out. I have a ton of ideas that changes that I will be making for the upcoming short course season and just hope I survive the summer with the 5 classes I am taking along with coaching 2 teams. People think I am crazy, but I actually like being kept so busy.

I got the job :)

The great news I have been waiting to officially tell everyone is that I am the new head coach for the Torpedo's. I am so very excited and can't believe this happened. I have big plans for next season and I just hope that all goes smoothly my first year at the helm. I have been working with the UT women's team quite a bit over the past few months and Kim (the head coach) has become the only coach I have ever actually admired and not found anything remotely bad about. She recently attended the national coaches convention at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. They have this once a year and only coaches with athletes on the national team are invited. Kim told me that only 5 women were in attendance. I couldn't believe that there weren't more. It actually works out better for me I think because women are in high demand and I work so much better with men than women. Kim told me she would email me her notes. My jaw dropped, i couldn't believe she was going to give me something that less than 1% of the coaching population gets to see/hear. She has 30+ pages of notes on everything from all the top coaches and athletes in the world. Its complete genius. I only wish I had an opportunity to swim for Kim or at least meet her much much earlier in my career.

The UT men won the national championship this year quite amazingly. Half the team was in the emergency room from some kind of virus. All the guys I trained with when i was swimming for Randy are still there. My kids had a meet at UT a couple of weeks ago and one of them told me that they wanted to meet their idol, Aaron Piersol. So I brought her over to Aaron (practice ended as the meet started) and asked him to meet one of my kids. He did so, but was not happy about it. I was hoping that little Victoria wouldn't notice his bad manners, but of course she picked up on it. I tried to make excuses for him when she asked why he wasn't happy to see her. Aaron is no longer her favorite swimmer. I keep losing more and more respect for the UT men's team the more I am around them. Guy swimmers in general are not the best people in the world...they aren't the best coaches in the world either.

Some pics :)