The Last Race I'll Ever Win

Last night was my last high school dual meet. Districts is still two weeks out, but essentially the swimming season is winding down. Last night we swam against Ridge. Jodie and I were the only two girls swimming, and so CFLS didn't have any relays, just four individual races. I was entered into 2 races, the 200 IM and the 100 Free. 200 IM has been my favorite event for as long as I can remember, and even as I have gotten WAY slower this season without swimming club, it is still the one race I love to swim. Maybe because of it's length? Not a sprint, but not long distance. Maybe because of it's complexity? All 4 strokes combined into one single race. Maybe because of it's difficulty? Starting off swimming fly is never fun. Maybe because it's not favored? Nobody really enjoys this event because everybody has a speciality stroke and a weak stroke and it's not great to combine them. Maybe because it was meant for me?

Anyways, so I swam the 200 IM last night. I'm swimming it at districts, so it isn't like it was the last time I would swim this event. I started out strong on the fly, forgetting that I haven't been training club at all, and ended up exhausted by the breaststroke. I ended up winning the event though, the last time I would ever win an event, the last time I would win the event that I was made to swim.

It is definitely bittersweet, but I know that I am teaching kids to swim and helping give them that love too. Maybe one day one of the kids I taught how to swim all four strokes will be in the same position I am, winning for the last time that event that they were made to swim.

Survivin'

So... I realized I hadn't blogged since the 2nd Semester of Senior Year started... whoops!

On the bright side, I'm survivin'. Nothing too challenging academically wise has been happening. Economics K is definitely a breeze. I didn't even know Word Bank Quizzes still existed! Oh the bright sides of not taking AP :). I'm actually understanding calculus... that never happens. Hmm? Anatomy is the biggest joke known to man. Although, it really shouldn't be a joke b/c I'm not all that great at science. Nor does it even semi-interest me. The teacher teaches it like we are freshman since she is a predominately freshman bio teacher. Everything is a cinch until we get to the tests because then we all realize we were never taught anything. Hmm... Eh, that can be worried about at another time. English is going okay, we haven't done anything yet so I can't really complain. We're reading Hamlet and writing a research paper over military interventionism. ICK!

RST is interesting. We started going to the elementary school again today, and we all have different grade levels. I knew I had been placed in a 4th grade classroom and was trying my best to be positive. It ended up being a 12 student ESL class, who spent half the time at large groups (PE, art, music, etc) while the teacher planned. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I wanted to be with the kids the entire time, I'm not going to learn anything through watching them do warm ups and then listening to teacher's plan. So... hopefully when I go back tomorrow I will have been replaced to a different class. Cross those fingers!

Swimming has been going okay. I only have 10 more practices till this season is over, and ultimately, swimming is over. That'll probably get hard when I realize that that chapter of my life has closed, but we'll get to that when that comes.

Swim Lessons on the other hand have been going exceptionally! One of my children who was so scared the first night a few months ago is now swimming all by himself! Even if it's only a few yards, it is so rewarding! Then there are the kids that don't wanna be there, but whose parents force them. They are a different story and a struggle every week.

Now, for the non-academic, non-athletic, non-working part of my life. (I didn't know that existed either!) i have been fortunate enough to have spent so much quality time with Megan and Renee and that is slowly slipping away now that reality is picking back up. Megan goes back to College Station on Friday which is going to be a bummer. I have grown accustomed to being able to stop over at her house at all times! A friend of mine from camp's brother has gotten some nasty infection and is in the hospital. We have been told he will be in ICU for another 2 weeks, and then the hospital for a month. It isn't good. Camp friends form a family, so it has been a trying time for a lot of us to try and be there for each other and rally around Cameron and his brother (Kendall) and their family. You don't realize how much of an emotional battle it is when some of your closest friends are struggling, it causes you to struggle to maintain that happy upbeat personality as well.

So yeah, there's my past week! Whirlwindyish right? Yeah. Tell me about it!

Tomorrow's a NEW DAY!

LET'S GO!

Remember 3 locker combos... check!
Remember how to set an alarm clock... uh... check!
Remember parking spot number... umm... it's on the sticker in my window. phew!
Remember the bell schedule... nope.
Remember lunch number... nope.
Remember ANYTHING about calculus... nope.

Ready for the LAST semester of high school? LET'S GO!

Regardless, there is 151 days till we graduate. We can either make them the BEST 151 days, or we can make them the WORST 151 days. But either way... there are 151 days. I'm ready to make this last semester better than the previous 25!

^^Geesh... that makes me feel like I've been in school WAY too long!

Second Semester of Senior Year... LET'S GO!

Climbing with Trust

As usual, our youth group started this year off with our Annual Rock Climbing Adventure at Texas Rock Gym. Last year, if you can recall, I learned a lot! (If you don't remember, here's last years blog post) This year was no exception!

I recently got glasses and since the prescription is more accurate in my glasses, I tend to wear those more often than I do my regular contacts. So, not thinking, I wore my glasses rock climbing today. At one point Renee scratches hers, and tells me I should try climbing without my glasses. Umm... yeah, I'm almost blind without my glasses. But, being one for competition and challenges, I tried it.

Do you know how challenging it is to climb a 30 foot tall wall when you can barely see 6" in front of you? VERY! I couldn't see the rocks below me... or above me for the most part. I was relying SO much on Renee who was belaying me to tell me what to pull up on and what to step on. It was very difficult, but so life-like to me. (I thoroughly like relating experiences to real life). How often in life are we blind? Do we have no realization of God's plan, but are just trusting Him to pull us through, to guide us to where we need to step?

It was really neat to have this physical challenge to accept and complete that could relate to the spiritual challenges we face everyday. Everybody should try to go rock climbing with vision where they can't make out the "Big E" on the vision chart (it's now a "W"... who knew?) and learn to rely on the belayers with more faith than before. And more importantly-- relate it to God!!

two zero one zero

From tears to giggles,
From valley-moments to top of the mountains,
From heartaches to love,
From timidity to confidence,
From quiet to loud,
From nervousness to peace,
From enemies to friends,
From ignorance to knowledge,
From dark to light,

From low's to high's, I have learned so much from 2010! Bring it on 2011 :)

ChristMAS

As Dad and I began the De-Christmazation of the house today, this thought came into my mind... Christmas. ChristMAS. Christ/Mas. 2 words...

Christ... obviously the first part of the world "Christmas" is easy to comprehend. It's the second that is more difficult.

...mas. A tad bit trickier. According to dictionary.com mas means "music played for a carnival, or a band playing this". Well that makes TOTAL sense... not. Then I got to thinking of what else "mas" means. In Spanish it means "more".

That started making sense. Christ more. More Christ. Obviously Christmas should be oriented around Christ, but MORE than Christmas should be centered around Him. MORE Christ!

Each day should be centered and lived for God, Christ should be in more than just Christmas, he should be in every single day we live!

Christ MORE!

Thanks To...

While up in Iowa I found it funny while looking at my aunts and uncle how I could pick ourcasticness and attitude definitely mimics Aunt Amy! And we don't like to be told what t just wait traits I got from who. And although technically they didn't give me the traits, I know it came from that half of the family!!

Aunt Amy -- My sato do... like sitting at the kitchen table... we are just FINE sitting on the stool right next to the table! I was laughing to myself, because I can totally see myself in that aspect of my aunt.

Aunt Becky -- We are both very creative! What my mom considers "Crafty Crap" we both enjoy. We love making gifts/things for other people, and enjoy being crafty and creative when we get the chance.

Uncle Doug -- This one was kind of harder. Kole thought that we were both "loners"... WRONG! We both enjoy being outside and being a kid. I think that was the similarity I finally came to, we both love to be a kid! Whether it is sledding or giving airplane rides or whatever, we share that aspect!

My mom and I are both VERY stubborn. EXTREMELY stubborn. Playing a new game entitled "5 Seconds" definitely determined that.

I think it is funny how we can look at different members of our family and figure out what traits we get from each side of our family. Definitely was for me!