Jaime and her mom have made the cake for the past three years. So cute and creative! Jaime is a senior, however, so this fun tradition may go by the wayside next year.
The team captains this year: Allison, Shi, Jaime, and Peyton.
It was fun to have our neighbor Mayah on the team this year. She's a little smart smartie and skipped a grade a few years back. It's kind of strange (but awesome) that she is in high school. Can you spot her in this pic taken at Mar's 5th birthday party?
It was a long lovely evening celebrating the girls and the swim season.
Shi and I got a chuckle about how the coach, during his rambling speech highlighting each swimmer, went on and on (and on) about her. It might have had something to do with a disgruntle email I sent to him earlier in the day when a moment of righteous anger and hormones clashed. The email was deserved, but perhaps stated in a less than what-would-Jesus-do way. And it probably could have waited until AFTER the banquet to spare any parent/coach awkwardness at the dinner.
Today I have resolved to try a little harder to be a little better.
Awesome season, Shilo! You know it, and I know it. That is enough.
I love the quote:
"The Savior has promised angels on our left and on our right to bear us up.
And He always keeps His word."
Not only does it help me put things into perspective (my trials are so tiny), it strengthens and motivates me to be better. Live happier. Stress less. Awesome.
Life has been busy. I have been on the usual roller-coaster of feeling like I can manage whatever comes my way with happiness and grace one day, then feeling... I'm not even sure what... Frustrated? Incompetent? Overwhelmed? the next.
I am so blessed:
with an amazing family
awesome children
a diligent, compassionate, spread-so-thin-but-giving-it-his-all husband
a comfortable home with food on the table
and access to divine guidance
(still learning to "tune in" to it as often as possible)
Today I'm trying to recognize the streams of mercy, never ceasing, despite:
back pain (going on a month now - thinking about seeing a chiropractor)
restless nights (hormones or anxiety? can't decide)
work (trying to help Bill out in the office - at home - not all it's cracked up to be)
a {tight} budget
whiny (at the moment) pups that need check-ups and shots (a hit to that tight budget)
a spread-so-thin (but-giving-it-his-all) husband
Recent mercies:
missionaries for dinner - they bring a great spirit into our home
two days off of school in the past week - we all caught up on some much needed sleep
Shilo welcoming Mar into Young Women's at New Beginnings - so sweet
temple sessions - especially with my dear friend and fellow bishop's wife, Marci
green lights
bargains
bursts of energy and days lived with zest - recollected during bouts of low points on the coaster
morning walks with Rebecca - few and far between, but the support and listening ear are oh-so-appreciated
a giving-it-his-all husband who allows me to be a wimp at least once a week
(You Lift Me Up by Josh Groban comes to mind)
Sometimes I am frustrated with myself. I know better. My heart is too often in need of tuning. I seem to be in constant need of a reminder.
I am so grateful that, regardless of my imperfections and the need for daily repentance and regular tune-ups, I have a friend in Jesus. It is through him that I CAN be perfected. I can keep trying.
Another swim post. At this time of year it's a bit all-consuming around here. And since I was up late last night shedding tears over it (not the first time I have cried buckets for one of my children - in fact, as I was blubbering away to Bill, I could clearly recount similar evenings spent for each of my oldest three), I thought it best to get it off my chest here and now.
The State Championship Meet was held at EPIC in Fort Collins. This is about an hour-and-a-half away in light-to-moderate traffic and good road conditions. Mar and I headed off with Shi and a couple of her swim buddies Friday at about noon (Mar and I had to sneak out of the funeral of a dear ward member - Bill's first to officiate - early, so as to leave on time; and of course, due to the timing of that sad/happy event, Bill was unable to attend the State meet at all).
I had stress and panic attacks the entire drive, worried about getting there in time. Shilo and her friends were following in a car behind me, making last-second maneuvers and speedy driving off limits. Once we arrived, the girls were not stressed in the least, as they had 5 minutes to spare before it was time to warm up. Thank heavens we didn't encounter any freeway delays or heavy traffic, something I had feared the entire drive, since we were cutting it so close.
Mar and I had front row seats here:
We discovered this to be a blessing and a curse. We were in a great spot in front of the 8 competition lanes, with some extra room to occasionally stretch out our legs, but we looked through these lovely bars the entire meet, and had oh-so-many people constantly walking in front of us.
Shilo was competing in the Medley Relay, the 100 Back, and the 400 Free Relay. (FYI, the Medley Relay is always the first event at a meet, the 400 Free Relay is always the last event. Shilo has competed in these two relays the entire year, necessitating that we be present before each meet begins, and stay until the very last heat of the last event. Phew! It's been a long season.)
Here is Shilo's 100 Back (she is in the silver cap in lane 3):
I am so proud of her!! She swam her best time, placed second in her heat, and placed 28th (out of 49) overall - only 12 places away from being in the finals. This is amazing progress considering that last year she came into the meet in last place, and left the meet in last place. A 21+ place improvement, in conjunction with the fact that the qualifying time had been adjusted faster this year, will not go unnoticed by this mama. She is AWESOME. (The program listed all the past State winners and times, and we giggled about how Shilo could have won State back in 1973-75 and 1979.)
This is her 400 Free Relay team, just before they were heading to the blocks.
Those girls swam fast, knocking three seconds off their fastest time, and made it back for finals. They are the first relay team from Legend to compete in the finals, and I was so excited for them. Finals were Saturday afternoon, and I hadn't planned on staying overnight, so Mar and I headed back home with plans to catch the finals live online the following day.
So why did I spend last night crying a river?
Yesterday Bill and I periodically watched the finals online as we waited for that final event. We cheered on the two team members that had made it to finals in their individual events. We watched Missy-the-missile do impressive swims, helping her team win the State title (which wouldn't have happened without her). Finally it was time for the final event. Legend was in the consolation bracket, having placed 15th in the Prelims, swimming in lane 2. My heart was racing as we saw them prepare to be announced on their way to the blocks.
Long pause.
We noticed the coach (OUR coach) messing with something on one of the girls' ears. The commentators started talking about how the official must have seen an earring, which is against CHSAA rules, and requested that it be removed before the race or a DQ would be issued.
Long pause.
I guess they only give a team 2 minutes to deal with sudden issues, so they began announcing the teams. Legend was going to switch up their relay order because the coach was still working on the earring. The three remaining girls got behind the blocks and the race began. The announcers thought that Shilo was perhaps the lead-off swimmer with the order-change, so she got a lot of name air-time, however, I knew it wasn't her :-) After the first leg, Legend was in the lead. Shilo swam the second leg, after which they were still holding on to 2nd place. The third leg took off. The girls were swimming hard and fast. When the swimmer finished, there was no one to swim the final leg.
Automatic DQ.
I felt sick. Angry. I wanted to yell. At the girl with the earring (a ring on the upper cartilage that could only be removed with pliers). At the coach. They both knew the rules. They chose to disobey. They thought they could get away with it, since they had all season. Even the commentators said it was a little bit of a late discovery - the last event of the last meet. And because of their choices, my daughter gets to pay the price. She doesn't get acknowledgement for her great efforts. Instead she gets humiliation. The only DQ given at the finals. Dashed hopes. Embarrassment.
Why couldn't the officials have seen the earring when that girl swam her individual race earlier in the day? Then she would have been the only to suffer from her poor choice.
I suppose it's a lesson.
Life isn't fair.
Bill caught the drama on his phone, which I will share once it's downloaded, hopefully in the next day or two.
Today I will be going to church with puffy eyes. I hate that.
Here's the drama. It's a bit long, but you get the details.... if you're interested ;-)
My last swim locker tags - I didn't get them posted (or did I? Honestly, I can't remember) back in January:
This is the tag I made for the divers:
The high school A-League meet was this past Friday (prelims) and Saturday (finals).
Here is how a prelim/finals meet works
(in case you didn't know - which I didn't get for a long, LONG time):
The prelims are barrel seeded. Swimmers are placed according to their seed time coming into the meet, but, unlike a single competition meet where seed times descend or ascend (determined by if it's a "slowest to fastest" or a "fastest to slowest" format), swimmers in the final three heats are mixed up, with the three highest seeded swimmers in separate heats. It's called "barrel" or "pyramid" seeding because when you watch the final three heats, swimmers are typically in a barrel or pyramid formation more pronounced than a regular time-seeded heat.
Regardless of what heat you are in, finish times are critical in the prelims because they determine whether you make it back for finals (which are seeded only by prelim times), and what heat you will be swimming in. If you qualify at prelims in the top 6 (or 8, depending on the number of lanes) in your event, at finals you place and win a medal (or ribbon), even if someone in a previous heat achieves a better time than you did. No medals for the consolation heats. Period. I have always thought this was such a complicated way to do things, but it's finally making sense. I'm a slow learner.
That all being said (whether you wanted to know or not), here are the results I cared about at the meet:
Shilo didn't make her State qual time in the 50 Free. We decided that this is a darn hard race, since even with her respectable 26.8 time, she placed 28th (52 swimmers in all). Just to show you how close the times were in this race, there were 19 girls with times between her 26.8 and a flat 26-second swim (the State qualifying time). Nano-seconds count! If she could cut off a mere second, she would be towards the top. Something to shoot for.
She placed 11th in prelims in her 100 Back with a 1:03:94 time, putting her in the consolation heat.
Here is her finals swim (she is in lane 1):
Her 1:02:30 time was the best she's ever done, placing her 8th overall. Her goal is to make it to the championship heat next year. Way to go, Shi!
Her 200 Medley relay placed 7th overall (seeded 9th), and her 400 Free relay placed 5th overall and cut 5 seconds off of their best time. We didn't have the best spot to grab pictures of the awards ceremony, since crazy parents from another-school-that-used-to-be-ours were being total spot hogs, because their team won League for the first time ever. Understandable, I suppose.
Overall, Legend moved from 10th place (out of 12 teams) last year to 5th place this year. Considering the schools that were in the top four spots, all of which have long-standing swim traditions with numerous State team titles (except for Chap, but they could win it this year) - and one even has an Olympic Gold Medalist on the team (I was bummed that Missy wasn't at League - possibly why her team placed 2nd instead of 1st - but hopefully we will see her at State this weekend), I couldn't be more happy.
I am so grateful for thinkers and writers and sharers and inspirers.
I'm heading off to take Mar to swim practice, during which time I will run to Walmart to purchase frames for certificates and licenses for Bill's office, after which I will return to the practice to observe and support Mar (she's been stressed lately because she is moving up a practice group), followed by a drive home to make my family dinner, read scriptures, and get to bed in time to have a decent conversation with my husband.
Drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. Happy Anniversary to Britt and Austin. I can't believe it's already been a year!
I love Dr. Seuss' book My Many Colored Days. I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm too darn lazy tired to try and find where. Doesn't matter anyway. After all his crazy made-up creatures and words (I've always been a big fan - we share the same b-day, you know), this book is a healthy shot of reality. AND, after subbing for two weeks at a local elementary school, part of which time was spent in "flooding" sessions with kindies, I can make all kinds of connections to the text. Today, for example, has definitely been a brown day.
"Some days, of course, feel sort of Brown.
Then I feel slow and low, low down."
We know what he's really saying, right?
You know what brown is the color of, right?
And slow? I know what that means. Constipated (figuratively, btw). Stuck in a rut.
Yep, I'm feeling a little lot like that.
Probably because it's 4:08 am on a Thursday morning (I know... this won't post until Friday - I'm sure things will be much better by then), and I have not slept a wink. I tried until about 2 (I even listened to this talk on my ipod in hopes of encouragement or sleep - I'd take either!), then decided I had better be some kind of productive since the sleep fairy apparently skipped over me. I have to work tomorrow today. UGH.
