So close....

It's so close. That day I'm waiting for. The day when I get to drive five hours with some friends across the pass, listening to awesome music and having great conversations.....The day when I get to see some familiar faces that I've really wanted to see for a long time. This year has been pretty interesting with certain events that have tested my character and shown me a small glimpse of the person that I want to be and who I'm becoming. I am so glad that God is always working on me. With many events to reflect upon in my drive home, I anxiously anticipate greeting my mom and dad with a massive hug and a big smile. This past weekend was long with being involved my first ever car accident and the Northwest Invite swim meet. But God was good through it all. I got in the accident on my way to my swim meet Friday morning, then went to my meet where I momentarily bawled to my poor coach. :/ The poor guy. Anyways, we tried to experiment with my swimming a little bit this time. Instead of resting a lot before my swim like I normally did, I instead got in the water an event or two before my race and would sprint to get my pulse up and my muscles warm....It worked! I went my best time in the hundred free and went my fastest time ever in my leg of the 200 free relay! Needless to say, I'm gonna be doing that method from now on. :)
After the meet this weekend, the team went to the guys house and watched Elf, a little bit of the Office and once the number of guys outweighed the number of girls at the house, we watched the Simpsons. I however only watched from a distance, I was cutting hair in the kitchen. I'm really enjoying this hair idea. It's becoming more and more of a place where I feel I can improve and meet new people and get to know them. I'm so content and happy with what I get out of it. It's a beautiful thing. Really, I love these people and being able to do this for them for free. I love, love, love it.
I am so excited to go home...I have enjoyed my time here at Whitworth very much, but since every year the swim team has to stay at school way longer than other students, it'll be good to finally get our chance to see family. I am particularly excited to see my mom, dad, sisters and brother-in-laws. My mom and I, and even my dad and I have been getting a lot closer lately as I'm getting older and they can talk to me about more things. I am very excited with this development. I can't wait to go home and have some decent food too! haha! Saga does not exactly contain athlete-friendly food....in fact it doesnt really contain food that should be eaten by anyone, but anyways, the point is that when I come home, my mom said that I get to have good fruit! I'm so excited! I just love the Thanksgiving atmosphere at my house when I come home. The weather is always windy and rainy and cold so it's not like you really care to be outside, so everyone stays inside where it's warm. My mom has candles lit everywhere and she decorates very extravagantly for every season or holdiay so there are autumn colors everywhere. It is beautiful. I hope when I have my own house I can acquire her decor skills. There's also the smell of cider that she's making, pumpkin pies, mashed potatoes, turkey, the works. She even makes one of my favorite deserts, grape-tapioca.....mmmm! (Don't diss on it until you've tried it...it's amazing.)
I am also suprisingly excited to be able to train on my own when I am home. Me and my dad usually interact mainly on sports and school subjects so I always get excited when he works out with me. He will normally go to the pool with me and swim laps while I do my workout. I love that he loves it when I swim....he's actually one of the main reasons why I even swim. Doing sports is something where my dad is proud of me and I try to do my best to excell in it so that it will stay that way. I know he works extremely hard and has done so much to provide for our family; he spent so many years in school working his butt off to provide for his family I try to find something that I can do to thank him for it. Swimming is one of those things with me and my dad. I know I'm no straight-A student and am not good at all that science and math stuff like he is, so when my dad is proud of me for something, even if it's only in playing sports, by-golly I'm gonna work my butt off to show him I learned something from him and appreciate him.
So anyways, I got a little personal there, sorry, but anyway, I think we all have people in our lives that we are very thankful for. For what they've done or how they've treated us. I have so many people in my life that I feel that for. Some things I've learned about myself this year from God is that all I can do is be myself...I can be no one else. I have gifts that God gave me, that even though I might sometimes wish that I had gotten his/her gift, I didn't, and it's for a reason. I can improve on the gifts that God assigned to me which he didn't assign to another, and in that way, I am a person whose relationship with God was made like no one elses. No better or worse than anyone elses, but just different. God has made everyone in a special way, with very unique strengths and weaknesses; what a beautiful thing...that we can encourage and help one another in a way that no one else but you can do. I've noticed that when I focus on those things, I really appreciate the people I am around and am so thankful for our differences. There's always something to learn from a person. :)
I am also really excited to see and be around my sisters...I just like being around them. I don't even have to be talking. This seems to be the case for me in a lot of situations. I just love the hum of people around me talking and having fun, which is a common occurance when the family is together. :) I can't wait for thanksgiving....but good thing its never too early to be thankful for what you've got, and I've got LOT'S to be thankful for. :)
Have a wonderful thanksgiving everyone!