Marissa's 17th Birthday (Weekend / Week Long Celebration)

Our Marissa Joy turned 17 on Tuesday, December 20th but...

....if you've known our family for a birthday or two, you can probably figure out that we are hardly ever able to celebrate any of our birthdays on the actual birth dates and this birthday was no different.  The girls had a home swim meet and senior night on the 20th, which meant that they would get home later in the evening and too late to plan any sort of dinner, so we started looking at the calendar to see when we could all get together.  I suggested celebrating on Saturday after the swim meet.  Melayna was suppose to play in the pep band at the home basketball game and she would need to be at the school at 6:00, but I figured we would still have a couple of hours in between.  Maybe we could do something then?  Well, on Thursday they changed the time of the game and now she needed to be at the school by 3:00.  We'd barely be home from the swim meet by that time and we definitely didn't have time to squeeze in a birthday party of any kind.  Next, I thought we could do something on Sunday in between church and youth group but Melayna reminded me (again on Thursday), that she had to play in the Annual Arts Gala that was on Sunday and although the Gala itself didn't start until 4 p.m., she would have to be there at 1:30 to practice and to get ready.... so now Sunday was also out because we definitely wanted to celebrate as a family and not leave anyone out.  

Uuuuurgh!  How do you try to make someone feel special for their birthday when you feel that you have to celebrate them in 15 minute increments?  LOL  So frustrating!!  Knowing that ultimately there was nothing that I could do about it, I decided that I would just start acknowledging Marissa's birthday in small ways as early as Friday night and then try to add little details each and ever day leading up to her birthday so that she would know that we remembered and were trying to make an effort.

On Friday I started by hanging the banners and a few other smaller decorations and I put out a birthday tablecloth for the team dinner.  It was subtle.  No one else on the team seemed to notice but I knew that Marissa saw.  

On Saturday, we went to the swim meet and Aaron rode up with us.  A couple of weeks ago, Aaron had  mentioned that since the 180 days has passed since he had gotten his license, he could take passengers now and he really wanted to take Marissa out on an official date for dinner for her birthday if that was okay with us.   Well, on the way to the meet on Saturday, he confirmed his dinner plans that he had made for them later that evening and then mentioned that they would probably also stop by to see the lights in town if that was okay.  Since Melayna was suppose to be gone all day, we agreed to that plan.  A few hours later we found out that the pep band had been cancelled and Melayna would now be home so Aaron said that he thought that they would probably be home early enough in the evening that we could still eat dessert and open gifts if Marissa wanted to.

As it turns out, she did decide that we could eat the ice cream cake and open presents later Saturday night so after they left the house for dinner, I finished hanging up the balloons and adding a few more decorations to the house.

The big "17".  Wow!  Who can even believe that?!

She gets so embarrassed when people sing to her...

"Oh Marissa, if I could give you only one gift on your 17th birthday, I would give you the ability to see yourself as I see you every day.  Your strength and fierce determination amaze me.  You are loyal and protective of others.  You are kind and you have such beauty, both inside and out.  I also would want you to know how happy you make Dad and I and that we are so very proud of you!  Always follow Jesus and keep shining.  The world is a better place because of you!"

You would think that we would know better than to buy blue frosting and then take pictures!!

After we ate cake, Marissa sat and opened her presents.  She received a fuzzy "sloth" blanket and fuzzy socks from Aaron and he also made her a flower in his welding class.

She received money from the grandparents and then she received a new devotional from Noel and I.  She also received a designer swimsuit, new weight lifting shoes, and some new Nike running gloves.

We would finish out Saturday night by watching the 2022 NCAA volleyball championships on ESPN - (that was Melayna's request and not Marissa), but we actually all enjoyed watching that together.  Then we planned to carry on the birthday celebrations a little longer by getting up on Sunday morning and going to breakfast together as a family of six.  Marissa asked if we could eat at Maria's because she loves their chocolate crepes and so we quickly agreed that it was a great idea.

The rest of Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful on the birthday front, but I made sure to hang up streamers and to blow up the birthday balloons on Monday night after everyone went to bed so that Marissa would wake up to them on Tuesday morning.  Then I have to give a shout out to Morgan for jumping in and ordering a Starbucks drink for an early gift on Monday night and then helping Marissa feel special even in the midst of her birthday falling on senior night.  Morgan had reached out to many of Marissa's friends, family, and teammates and asked if they would bombard her all day long with birthday greetings and many of them did just that.  Marissa was blown away by the number of people who surprised her with videos, texts, and cards.   Even the swim team wished her a public happy birthday on Instagram and both teams sang to her after the meet was over.  

Morgan also made sure to put her own "shout out" on Instagram.

And then the swim team's message:

-- and then Marissa came home to a box of doughnuts and flowers from Noel and I after the meet on Tuesday.

Hopefully although we have been really busy, she feels celebrated in a special way.

NorthEast Divisional Championships // 2020 Divisional Weekend

Indiana Swimming NorthEast Divisional Championships 2019-2020 began this past weekend.  

With seven individual standards (of which she could only swim six due to meet rules) and a relay team standard, Marissa would have a very busy weekend full of competitive swimming.  The entire team has been working hard the past three weeks and she really couldn't be more ready.  Plus, her new personalized WAC jacket came in just hours before we were suppose to head out so she was super excited about that.

I picked Marissa and Morgan both up from school on Friday afternoon and then we all drove up to the Helen P Brown Natatorium for her 4:45 warm-ups.  (She was slated to swim the 500 freestyle at the end of the night and Morgan would be her counter.)  She had a good warm-up with the few others that were swimming Friday night and she said that she was feeling pretty strong.  We enjoyed cheering her teammates on as they competed and she even counted for her teammate who was swimming the 500 in a younger age group.  I sat near the girl's parents and visited for a while.  (Even got to see a newborn bunny rabbit that had just been born that morning and had been stowed secretly away in the mom's purse).   

Here is Marissa getting ready to count for Elena.  She gets so nervous and has so much nervous energy before her races, it's always good for her to have distractions.  

And then finally, after a long wait, it would be time for her heat of the 14 & under 500 yard freestyle. You could see her nervous energy as she jumped around behind the starting blocks and went through her normal "pre-race warm-ups", but then she was all ready to get down to business and do what she does best... swim.

And she's off.  

20 lengths to the end.

I love it when Morgan is able to count laps for Marissa.  She has always swam better when her older sister is counting the laps.  It's like they have this unspoken language and Morgan is able to help Marissa know whether she needs to speed up or stay steady in her time.  She's at least a calming presence for sure.

I don't think Marissa can even see the hand signals, but Morgan was telling her that her split times were right on target.

Thankfully her split times stayed very consistent the entire race - and even were way lower than what she had planned for.  And it paid off with her final time for sure!

She cruised into a 10th place overall finish in the girls' 500.  (Out of 21 swimmers)  But more importantly, she got a PR but over 12 seconds and got sub 6:00 for the first time ever.  She was super excited about that and it was fun hearing her chatter to Morgan about it all the way home.  

We got home about 10:30 on Friday night.  She ate a quick dinner and then headed off to bed with a smile on her face.  She and Noel would be up and gone by 5:30 the next morning so she could be at the pool and ready for her 6:45 meet start.  On Saturday morning, she would swim the prelims for the 50 freestyle, the 200 freestyle, and a 200 relay.

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Here are the four girls that made up the 200 relay team.  Marissa would lead off the race, followed by Azlynn, Ariel, and Kayla.  Marissa said that when she touched the wall after the first leg, they were in the lead.  They would eventually finish in 6th place and would give Marissa her first medal of the championships.

During the morning session individual preliminaries, they take the top 16 and then 2 alternates to the afternoon finals.  The top eight places will compete for the top 8 final places - no one can do worse than 8th place in that heat.  The places 9-16 will compete in the consolation heat and can't do any better than 9th place.  It's just one of the "quirks" of Indiana swimming and by this point, the girls are use to the format, even if it seems unfair at times.  Marissa was actually seeded around 23rd or 24th in her Saturday individual events though so Noel and I were planning on an early time going home as we didn't think she'd be able to make the cut into the afternoon finals.  (Sorry Marissa, we love you, but we just didn't think it would happen for you on Saturday.)

Apparently Marissa wanted to prove us wrong and she started Saturday morning off exactly where she left off Friday night swimming a new PR in the 50 prelims with a time of 26.68.  (She had a seed time of 27.72 going in) and moving WAY up in the standings.  That time placed her 9th and swimming in the afternoon consolation round.  She would now have to come back in the afternoon to swim it again and on her consolation race, she one again swam a new PR with a final time of 26.4 and finishing in 10th place overall.  (Although the 9th place competitor and her 10th place final time was faster than the 7th and 8th place finishers, they couldn't move up and she would have to settle for her 10th place finish.)

She would also race in the 200 freestyle during the morning prelims.  Once again, she had an AMAZING prelim race, entering her race with a time of 2:14.14 but finishing with a time of 2:08.29! She took off 5.85 seconds for a 12th place prelim finish.  'Looks like she would be coming back to swim the consolation race of this as well.

Who would have thought that she could better her time one more time after swimming so much, but she finished off her Saturday swims at 6:23 PM by swimming a 2:07.55 and finishing 10th overall in the 200 freestyle.  

It would be after 8:30 before Marissa and Noel arrived home that Saturday but she was really still pretty excited about the two days.  She ate another pasta filled dinner and then headed off to bed to repeat the whole process once again on Sunday.  (I did find out that during their four hour break between sessions, they ate lunch, took a nap at a local park, and found time to visit Three Rivers Running Company and buy Marissa's track / XC shoes for the upcoming seasons).

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Sunday morning was much the same.  The event start 30 minutes later on Sunday because of the hour time change and all of the swimmers already losing an hour of sleep.  She still left the house by 6:30 on Sunday morning in order to make the 7:45 start time.  On Sunday she was slated to swim in the 200 IM prelims (where she was seeded around 29th out of 40 once again) and the 100 freestyle.  (Another 23 seed).  We knew that she would have to come back on Sunday afternoon however to swim the 1650 final which would be the first event in the afternoon session.  If she didn't make it out of any of the prelims on Sunday, she could come home around 4:00.

Surprising us all yet again, Marissa swam the 200 IM, (which has been her weakest event all season) in another PR swim finishing with a preliminary time of 2:34.37.  She took 4.21 seconds off of her best time and finished in 20th position.  Believe it or not, due to so many other swimmers scratching from that event, they actually invited her back to swim in the finals but because the mile was the event just right before the 200 IM final, she also scratched her name from the event and sat that one out.  

A few events later in the Sunday morning session, she was scheduled to swim the 100 freestyle prelims.  She had an entry time of 59:75 but somehow busted off a PR of 58:38 and making her way to an 8th place finish.  She would finally swim in an event final and couldn't do any worse than 8th place.  She happily went to lunch knowing that she would go home with another medal on the weekend.  Once again they had three or four hours to kill so they found a bookstore and rested there before eating lunch and then taking another nap at an area park.  At 2:30 they headed back to the natatorium to warm up for her 1650 final and then the 100 final which would come just a few events later.

She swam in the finals for the mile swim and broke away with another PR and finished 4th overall with a time of 20:05.50.  (She entered with a seed time of 21:08 so she took over a minute off of that race).  Not only did she finish with a 4th place medal, but she also qualified for the state open water swimming event in June, should she choose to compete.

Her former coaches had a great view of the medal ceremony and sent us these pictures later.  I am so thankful for them and their thoughtfulness as Noel couldn't get close enough up in the stands to get a good angle.

After the medal ceremony for the mile swim, Marissa had to do her cool down laps before getting ready to swim the finals of the 100 freestyle.  I was at home wondering if she even had anything left to even swim the 100 finals -- I wouldn't have been surprised if she had swam a much slower time but she had one more PR in her and although her seed time in the 100 was 58.38, she improved and finished with a 58.10.  Everyone else in her heat also improved so she finished with an 8th place finish but she medaled all the same!

Getting close enough to get a shot on the 100 freestyle was a little harder.  This was the best that Noel could do from the upper railing.  After the 100 freestyle was complete, she was finally able to go home and rest after a long but productive weekend.  (After a couple more pictures)

Congratulations Marissa!

We are all so super proud of you!  

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And now she runs off into track season....