that awesome travel meet...

And so here it is: the swim meet in South Carolina aka YMCA Regional Meet.

Sorry for so few and such blurry pictures, but it's all Dad got since he wasn't there very long. (I don't know if I told y'all, but Mom and Dad actually drove all the way down to SC on Saturday to get us to Mass on Sunday morning...'cause no matter how you put it, Jesus always comes before swimming...)

The awesome thing was, we were ready to miss our first events on Sunday morning to get to Mass, but we didn't have to! We got there; we changed; and I got behind the blocks pretty much just as the heat in front of me was going. God rocks, doesn't he? :D

(you can't really see it, but I think I'm in a far lane swimming breast stroke...)

(Gab and one of our coaches talking...)

(Me and other people cheering...)

But...we left on Thursday, had a very long and loud bus trip, got to the hotel around 9, and went pretty much straight to bed.

The next few days were (1) wake up, (2) eat breakfast, (3) go to prelims, (4) eat lunch, (5) take a nap, (6) social time :P, (7) go back to the pool for finals, (8) eat dinner, (9) go to bed.

And then do it all over again.

Our team won out of 40-something teams! So that was awesome.

My best place was probably like 16th. But I improved in 6 out of my 7 events. (200 IM, 400 IM, 100 breast stroke, 200 breast stroke, 100 free, 200 free, 500 free...the 500 being the only thing I didn't improve in)

And, though the bus trips were long, it was still fun to travel as a team. :D

Overall, I had an awesome time that weekend. I would totally want to do it again...:D

...and off we go!

Gab and I are headed to South Carolina this afternoon for a team travel meet!

I'm swimming:

100 free

200 free

100 breaststroke

200 breaststroke

200 IM

400 IM

and 500 free

Please, please, PLEASE pray that it'll all go well!

Love you guys!

~Vivi~

P. S. I have a special post scheduled for tomorrow, while I'm gone, so watch for that. :D

tomorrow, being sick, all that other stuff...

I have a swim meet tomorrow.

And I'm sick today.

Bad. Very bad.

I feel really awful...please pray I'll feel better and be able to swim well tomorrow afternoon! I don't know what I have, but it makes me feel miserable. And I have a 200 IM, 200 free, and 100 breast stroke tomorrow. So I'm gonna need a lot of prayer.

Thanks!

Love you guys. ;)

u.n.b.e.l.i.e.v.a.b.l.e.

Guys, we did AMAZING.

So, before I get into how we placed and stuff, here's how it works:

There are 16 teams in JSL. The 16 teams are divided into 3 divisions. The 1st division has 5 teams; the 2nd has 5; and the 3rd has six.

For the past....VERY LONG TIME....FLST has been in the 2nd division. Usually we come up short of even winning that. Last year at Champs we placed 9th out of 15th. Not good. But this year?

Guys, we got 3rd out of 16 teams. This is INCREDIBLE. The fun part was, nobody expected it (not even us). So all of a sudden this teem that's supposed to be just OK pops up and places 3rd. SURPRISE! ;)

I don't know how many pictures we got. But I'll see and if we have a bunch I'll get a bunch posted soon...until then,

~Vivi~

P. S. It's my birthday! I'm 14!! ;)

Life comes at you fast...

...SO DOES FOREST LAKES.

That's what our sign said at JSL's today. Gab and I swam...and swam...and got wet...and swam some more. We're tired. Exhausted is a better word. But...summing up today in one word:

WORTHWHILE.

More later...

~Vivi~

FLST vs. GHG - pictures

I promised I'd give Gab credit for these...(I'll admit, she got some pretty awesome ones. :P)...so here you go, Gab. She took most of them. Dad took a few, but I'll just say that most of the ones I'm putting up here, Gab probably took.

So here they are. Starting with the cutest, because they deserve to be first.

Josie--gotta love her. :P

Bug climbing a pole. :P

closer up...

our head coach

Annette swimming freestyle...

Gab swimming butterfly (obviously she didn't take this one. :P)

me swimming breast stroke in our relay

one of those great pictures Gab took of me while I didn't notice her...:P

one where I did notice...;)

I think Gab's in the water here...

Annette by the block...

Gab swimming backstroke

again.

And one I just *had* to post again...it's my personal favorite...:)

Undefeatable!

Yes, we are! Guys, we we are the 2nd division champions!

Final score last night:

FLST - 565

GHG - 526

Yay!

Gab got a ton of great pictures last night. Don't really have time to get them all up right now, but I'll probably have them posted tomorrow. ;)

What *not* to do on the Sunday before a meet...

...particularly a meet that you're super excited for...

So, don't do what? Don't. Sprain. Your. Ankle.

And me, being me, of course, had to go out and do just that. And I couldn't settle for the usual ankle sprain. No, I have a high ankle sprain, which also tends to take longer to heal.

But don't worry, you two, I'm still going to be swimming Wednesday; I'm almost positive. Even if it means I'm going against doctor's orders. :P So don't get your hopes up. ;)

Please pray I'll get well soon, guys!

life defined...

Haven't done this forever, so...


Excitement is...going to Hollymead meet! It was exciting at the beginning...but it was even more so at the end.
Exhilaration is...the feeling of having finished your IM and gotten 1st in it! Plus finding out that your coach says he thought that it was the best race of the evening (even though we were at the beginning of the meet :P)...
Exhausted is...how you feel after every single race. But who cares? :D
Pressured is...the feeling when I stepped up on the block to race breastroke and knew that my team and coach were counting on me to win it....
Amazement is...finding out I totally crushed my heat. :P
THE BEST was...last night's meet. Guys, it was awesome. Gab got 4 first places! And I got 3 firsts and a third! It was so much fun! Plus we beat Hollymead by 39 points. :P That just added to the fun.

1st meet!!!

Tonight's our first swim meet! I'm terribly busy today, so no more posts coming up yet. But I'm gonna try to get the last 2 days of DC and the swim meet up soon.

Wish us luck at the meet! ;)