Thanksgiving 2022

 Thanksgiving came and went in the blink of an eye. We were so fortunate to have Mr. Don next door smoke a turkey for us since Mitch was gone. We made a few sides and Kiersten made the pumpkin cheesecake. Gigi brought a few sides and we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. The next morning we packed it up and headed South. 

We got busy making memories in Nashville!! Gigi treated us  to a weekend away with Aunt Cynthia and Macy. We shopped at Opry Mills, Fifth and Broadway, enjoyed Spanish Tapas at Boqueria, listened to lots of live music and loved every minute of Brett Eldredge “Glow” at the Historic Ryman Auditorium. Now we’re feeling full of Christmas Cheer!

Leah’s Holiday Champs

I don’t think it would’ve been physically possible for this girl to fit any more into this weekend!!! Wow!!!

Friday night we hauled it over to Indianapolis. She swam the 500 Free for the first time in probably close to 18 months…she dropped a lot of time and got the Y state cut. Hopped in the car and drove to Charleston, Eastern Illinois University. Where she had to be at Dvorak Hall at 8am to rehearse all day for the ILMEA Orchestra concert. That included seven hours of practice and a concert at 4pm. I was sad to miss but the videos I got were fantastic and they sounded so good!

Saturday evening she hopped in the car and drove back to Indianapolis…arriving around 7:45, just in time to get a quick dinner and get ready for bed.

Sunday morning at 7am she was back at the pool. She wasn’t feeling very confident. It has been ages since she swam a meet with prelims and finals, but somehow she got it done. A huge drop in the 200 free and a trip to the finals. She followed it up with a 5+ second drop in her 100 back and got a trip to the championship heat of the finals. Her last race of the morning, the 50 free, she finally got in under 30 seconds. She’s not a sprinter so it was a great drop for her. 

In the finals she dropped another 2 seconds in her 200free to get the Y state cut. And at 8pm she’s FINALLY heading home after an amazing couple of days, with some great successes. So proud of her and all her hard work this weekend.

And a special shout-out to Gigi because none of this would have happened if she hadn’t been willing to help drive back and forth. Cheers to Coach Lauren for pushing her to be better and helping to make sure she can do all the things. And a big thanks to Coach Christa for being one of her biggest cheerleaders, sending me updates from tonight’s finals and for chauffeuring her home. She loves her talks and rides with you! 

Holiday Champs Hattie

 Oh my Hattie girl…she has so much heart!!! She is having her best swim season yet!!! She had huge time drops in EVERY race last weekend in Jacksonville. And this weekend she had some pretty great swims too. She finished her first 200IM just shy of a state qualifying time…we’re confident she’ll get it by March. And dropped in her 100 freestyle which she was dreading, but actually looked pretty good. She was an alternate for the finals in two races. She was pretty proud and we were proud of her. But what I love the most is she just wants everyone to have fun! 

Holiday Champs in Indy, Kiersten

 This girl is always keeping us on our toes. I’m not sure how it happened…because she swam these races LAST weekend, and showed up with huge time drops today in Indianapolis. AND she got two USA regional times and made it to the finals in her 50 breast. For the last month I’ve been telling her you just need to drop .22 in your 50 breast. So she went off the block today and dropped 2.28! I may have promised her a Boba tea if she did it. Her text to me promptly arrived after the race “you owe me boba”…what a fun day watching this girl in the water!!! 

IHSA Swim

 Mt. Zion doesn’t have a swim team…or at least that’s what they say, but if you saw these girls today they were a team and more. They cheered each other on in every race. They counted laps for one another, and there were more high fives than I could count. We had some huge time drops in several swims from the lady Braves. New PR’s for Leah in all her races. Our 200 medley relay took 3rd and our 4x100 relay took 3rd, too! 

Leah swam both the 200 individual medley and the 100 fly last month at our YDSC meet and she still dropped 8.5 seconds in her IM taking 6th, and 3.3 seconds in her 100 butterfly taking 7th.

They wanted 3rd place so bad but we didn’t have the numbers swimming against teams at least twice our size. They fought their way into 4th place out of 31 teams…with just 5 swimmers. 

And on another note, we’re so proud of our Senior, Eva Griffith. Eva was an office aide for my very first year at Mt. Zion Jr. High. I took her to her 1st IHSA sectional in 2019. I told her big things were in store and that senior year she’d be swimming relays. Today was the day. So proud of her effort today with 4 podium finishes. Way to go, Eva!

After the meet we went out for sushi and attempted to teach Carla how to use chopsticks, LOL!