PROM!

Saturday, April 9th, Eliza went to her very first prom. She loved it and had a really great time! Her prom date was a good friend of Eliza's best friend's boyfriend. She was afraid it would be awkward since they had only met a couple times before, but he was really nice and by the end of the night they were good friends. No... no plans to date any further. Just friends! After pictures, they went out to eat at a new Steakhouse, then went back to Waverly-Shell Rock High School for pictures, and then there was the dance and Afterprom.

Eliza looked absolutely gorgeous, as you'll see in the following pictures! She looks like a princess!

Birthday Cards from the Girls

Mom and Dad had us over for dinner on my birthday to celebrate mine and Tim's birthdays. Mom, of course, made an amazing dinner! She made yummy fried catfish and pan-fried potatoes. Mmmmm!!

Amanda made cards for Tim and I and drew the pictures on them. They are beautiful!! The first one is Tim's and the lighthouse one is mine because Amanda knows I love lighthouses.

Can you believe how great they are? She's amazing!!


Eliza bought me a gift and a really beautiful card! And she also gave me probably the best gift of the day...laughing hysterically for about 20 minutes! Read the card and then her note to me at the end and you'll understand... Keep in mind that she was REALLY hungry when she wrote the note.




I wish you could've seen how hard Dad laughed. It was so funny. Eliza felt so bad. I was reading the card out loud and when I came to that part and read, "Mom, this card describes exactly how I feel about dinner." She looked at me and said "Wait. What?" So I showed her the card so she could see that I wasn't joking, that's what it really said. She saw it and then we all just busted up laughing! It's funny to read the card again and think of it as if she's saying all those things about dinner! Anyway, it was so funny and totally made my day!

AMANDA GOES TO STATE IN VOLLEYBALL!

March 26th was a big day for Amanda - her first time in Junior High at the State AAU Gold Championship Volleyball Tournament, held in Indianola, Iowa. It was a long, exciting, heart-stopping, emotional, wonderful day!!!

Tim set his camera to black and white and took this shot...I thought it was so cute...Amanda just relaxing between games.

Amanda and her team relaxing between games...


Enough with the relaxing shots - now we get in to some game play! These next two videos happened during the first part of the tournament - the "Pool Play", which was held at the Elementary School in Indianola. We were the only pool playing there on one court in this little gym. Pool play is where there are five teams in the pool and they all play 2 matches against each other. Then they determine ranking in the pool by win-loss record. The 1st and 2nd place winners from each of the 12 pools move into the Gold Championship Bracket. 3rd place goes to the Silver Bracket and 4th place goes to the Bronze Bracket. Then the teams in each bracket play each other to determine the winner of each bracket. The team who wins 1st place in the Gold Bracket wins 1st place in the whole tournament since the Gold Bracket is the highest-ranking bracket. So in the pool play, Amanda's team played 8 games and won every single one of them, placing them 1st in their pool! It was SO exciting! There was one team that was very equally matched to us and those 2 matches were nail-biters - super close score all the way through, but they pulled it out in the end and won!

I love this video...she does a great serve and then does a really cool sideways bump.


Amanda and another girl on her team rotated in and out with each other. Amanda plays the back 3 positions for 3 rotations, then goes out and the other girl comes in and plays the front 3 positions. Whenever they went in and out for each other, they did this cute little...thing...I don't know. You'll see!



Once the girls were done with pool play, we moved over to Simpson College where we were in a GINORMOUS Stadium with 5 volleyball courts set up and games going on simultaneously on all of them. Now, we're in tournament play, which means you play the first team you're matched up against and if you win, you advance...if you lose, you go home. You win the match by winning best 2 out of 3 games. The first 2 games are to 21 points, the 3rd game is to 15. Obviously, if one team wins the first 2 games, no 3rd game is played. EVERY game during tournament play was heart-stopping! All but one were played in 3 games and were all very close, but Amanda's team always pulled it out in the end and won! They just kept advancing up the bracket. It was SO amazing! And by the way, we had four 7th graders on our team (in an 8th grade tournament), all who got plenty of playing time and they did a great job!!

Before a game or during a break in a game, the girls would often "huddle" like this. I love it...I just think this is so cool! I have no idea what they talk about, but what a wonderful way to bond as a team! I love that Amanda was the libero cuz she's in the white jersey, which means you can always tell which one she is!

Here are some great action shots! Amanda and another player crash into each other going for the ball.

Amanda going down for the bump. If you look close you can see the ball coming toward her.

Dad took this one and I thought it was cool because of the "ball blur" coming up from her arms after she bumped it. Way cool!

Amanda is in love with this picture. It is so AWESOME!! One of the Dads was taking tons of pictures throughout the tournament with a really nice camera. He gave us this one and a couple others. I'm so glad, I never would've caught this! If you can't tell, she is diving to get her hand under the ball. I don't know if she made it or not since I didn't take the picture. I don't remember. But it looks COOL, whether she got it or not.

This is a great shot that Dad got. Victory pose after winning a game!!

Can you see the huge smile on Amanda's face?? They just won the game that put them in the TOP FOUR!!

Once they got placed in the top 4, they played Dike-New Hartford who ended up winning 1st place in the whole tournament. They are an amazingly good team...like varsity high school level. Our team has beat them a couple times in other tournaments, but we went into this game straight off another game, while they had almost an hour to rest. We lost 2 games in a row to them. It was very discouraging and disheartening to the girls. But they got to play another team for the 3rd and 4th places. They lost the first game against them and I remember thinking, "That's OK, 4th place is still pretty awesome." They were so discouraged at this point, I just didn't know if they could get their momentum back.

Here's a video of Amanda during that last game.



Here's Amanda serving during that last match. Look how focused she is!!

Well...they got their momentum back! And they got it back in full force! They won the 2nd game and then the 3rd. It was unbelievable! All us parents were on our feet, some standing on chairs even, and screaming at the top of our lungs! It was SO amazing! Here's an awesome picture of the team celebrating after they won that last point!! WooHoo!!!!!

The Awards Ceremony...our team cheered the loudest!!



The coaches and team with their medals on. In case you haven't done the math yet, there were 12 pools with 5 teams in each pool, so there were 60 teams in the state of Iowa who qualified for the State Tournament. Out of 60 teams, we placed 3rd!!!! We were very proud!

Of course, we had to have a goofy pose!

Amanda with her medal on. Right before this, Amanda came and hugged me and was literally crying happy tears!! It was so sweet.

Amanda with her teammate she substituted with.

Here's a picture of that cute little...thing....they do!

Eliza congratulating Amanda.

Eliza had to be at a Band Solo/Ensemble that day from morning until mid-afternoon. (We were so upset they happened on the same day since we didn't get to go see Eliza perform!) She wanted to come to the tournament sooooooo bad, so Tim, Amanda and I rode with Grandma and Grandpa, leaving our car with Eliza. And then, when Eliza was done at the Festival, she drove, all by herself, all the way from Waverly to Indianola, about 2-1/2 hours! Once we knew she was on the road, we were a big ball of worry. Except for Tim, who is always cool, calm and collected, of course! He had total faith that she would make it just fine, while I started imagining the worse case scenario! It was a very happy moment when we saw her walk into the gym! All day long I was hoping and praying that Amanda's team would keep winning so that when Eliza arrived, she would still get to see at least a few games. And, as you know, my prayers were answered! Eliza got to watch her last 4 games.

We stayed at a hotel Friday and Saturday night. Saturday morning, we left the hotel at 6:45 a.m. Saturday night, we arrived back at the hotel at 11:00 p.m!! LOOOONNNNNGG DAY! But SO worth it!! We drove home Sunday morning and relaxed Sunday afternoon at home.

Eliza and Amanda - crashed!! Exhausted after such an exciting weekend!!

ELIZA GOES TO STATE SPEECH CONTEST!

On March 12th, Eliza went to the State Speech Contest. She worked very hard putting together a speech in the category of "Literary Program" and then practicing it over and over so that she could read it flawlessly and with expression. A Literary Program speech is where they pick a theme or subject and find things from literature - books, stories, articles, poetry, quotes, etc. - on that topic and then put it together into a speech. Eliza's speech was called, "Perspectives on Marriage" and she contrasted two very different perspectives. She started out reading part of an article by a lady who was very VERY against marriage with her reasoning being, basically, that men are so horrible, women shouldn't have to be put in a position where they have to put up with a man for so long. Then she contrasted that with a story of a young couple very much in love, and that story was from a poem called "Annie's Light" by Eliza's great-grandmother Genevieve Putman, or Gaga, as she is affectionately called by all of her family. For those of you who don't have the privilege of knowing her, she is alive and well today, and she is a tiny little woman with a huge heart and a great spirit! She has written beautiful poetry in her life and put together a little booklet of her poems for family and friends. That is where Eliza found this poem that she used in her speech. Here is part of the poem:

ANNIE'S LIGHT

It was the month of June, In 1922,
And Annie and Jim, Were beginning life anew.
They were married, In a little country chapel,
Then left for their home, Near the town of Rosy Apple.
They were a handsome couple, And very much in love,
And very sure their marriage, Was blessed by God above.
They lived in a lovely cabin, Built with logs and stone,
And it was filled with so much love, You'd never feel alone.
Their love was very special, And grew with each passing day,
And they vowed that it would last, No matter, come what may.
They were blessed with children, Two girls and a boy,
And their little home was filled, With happiness and joy.
It was during the Depression, And work was hard to find.
Then Jim decided to go and seek, Work of any kind.
He kissed his wife and children, At the kitchen door,
And promised that he'd soon be back, And hoped he'd leave no more.
His Annie promised every night,
In her window, she would light,
A lamp, and let it burn,
Until her Jim made his return.
He had heard about the coal fields, In Southern Tennessee,
And so he hopped a freight train, And headed down to see.
If there was any work for him,
But he knew his chances would be slim.
Luck was riding with Jim that day,
For they put him to work in the fields right away.
He worked in the mine with shovel and pick, From dawn to setting sun.
He wrote Annie a letter each week, After his work was done.
Annie kept her lamp burning, and wrote Jim every day, Sending the news and her love,
And thanked the Lord for blessings, Sent from God above.

One day when Jim was leaving the mine, At the end of his working day,
A sudden explosion ripped through the mine, And knocked Jim a distance away.
He lay there stunned for a very long time,
While rescuers frantically searched the mine.
It was dark when he came to,
The ground was damp with the fallen dew.
He still was dazed and didn't know,
Who he was or where to go.
He searched his pockets, but didn't find,
Identification of any kind.
He wandered off to the woods nearby,
And searched for someone, and wondered why,
He had been lying back there on the ground,
All alone and no one around.
He wandered deeper among the trees,
And fervently prayed that someone would see
And recognize him, and he could find
If he had a family and ease his mind.

Meanwhile, Annie began to worry about Jim,
It had been many days since she had heard from him.
Then one day she received a letter, From the mine in Tennessee,
Written by Jim's boss, Telling of the tragedy.
He wrote Annie, That Jim was never found,
And was assumed lost, Somewhere underground.
But Annie knew in her heart, That Jim was still alive.
And she still lit her lamp, A little after five.
She washed and ironed for others, And sewed and mended clothes,
To take care of her family. She was busy, goodness knows!
But each night she'd light her lamp, And pray for her darling Jim,
Never losing faith, That she would hear from him.

The weeks and months passed slowly, And all thought Jim was dead,
They tried to tell Annie, But she would just shake her head.
One night after supper, And she had put her children to bed,
Annie lit her lamp in the window, And then she bowed her head,
She asked for God to bless, And bring her Jim back home,
She felt very sad, And very much alone.
She was sitting in her rocker, Near the burning light,
Mending a basket of clothing. It was late into the night.
When suddenly a footstep, sounded at the door,
And a voice that called her, She'd remember evermore!
Her heart was pounding and racing, As she ran to open the door,
And there, haggard and weary, Was the one she'd been longing for.
She ran into his outstretched arms, Her eyes were full of tears,
Happier than she had been, In going on two years!

The poem goes on to explain that while Jim was stumbling through the forest, he came upon the house of a trapper, who took him in, bound up his wounds and fed and sheltered him until Jim regained his memory. Jim then headed back home and was grateful to see Annie's light still burning in the window, guiding him home.

The poem is very sweet and emotional, and at the end, as all of us Swallows do, she got a bit choked up and cried a little, but she composed herself and got through it. She made most of the audience cry. She was upset with herself for losing control afterwards, and unfortunately, the judges didn't look too favorably on that either. The best score is a 1 and she received 2's from all 3 judges. She was frustrated because at the regional competition, she read it flawlessly and showed just enough emotion without losing control, and she got 1's and qualified for State. But then at State, she struggled. I think it was because I was there! I wasn't at her other one, so I think I jinxed this one. She disagreed with me. She decided it was probably just nerves and she was just happy that she made it to State this year! We are all very proud of her. It was awesome that she made it to State and all 2's her first time at State is really great! I listened to two other speeches before Eliza's and while they delivered it well, the content of their speeches was definitely lacking. One was very hard to follow and the other one seemed really disjointed. Our friends who were with us told Eliza that at least they understood her speech and what it meant and loved the contrast between the two perspectives. She really did a great job. I wish you all could have seen it. Unfortunately, they would not allow us to take any pictures or video, and Eliza hasn't wanted to do it again for me to get on video, so we don't have any of that, but I wanted to share this anyway, so everyone knows what a talented and amazing daughter/niece/granddaughter/cousin we have!!! Not to mention, our also talented and amazing Gaga! Happy birthday, Gaga!