The Amazing 9s

 Do you know the 9s trick?

2x9=18   1+8=9

3x9=27   2+7=9
4x9=36   3+6=9
5x9=45   4+5=9
6x9=54   5+4=9
7x9=63   6+3=9
8x9=72   7+2=9
9x9=81   8+1=9

Also, look at this... the answers to all of them just switch around. 
18, 27, 36, 45, - 54, 63, 72, 81

Wow!

Pumpkins!

Hello!  I hope everyone had a fun, spooky, treat filled great time this Halloween!  I did!  Friday we carved our pumpkins.  We have skipped out for the last few years, (we don't let our parents forget it) so I was very excited!  Here are the pictures we took-

MY BRAIN!

Hello!  We are studying the human body right now, and for this part we are learning about the brain.  Today we  made salt dough models of it.  It was a lot of fun!  Tomorrow we will paint them for art :D  These are the pictures we got------->

Just Keep Swimming...

Hello! Here is my follow up post on Friday's. I wish I could just fast forward to the post about how I did, but then everything that went along with DOING the times would be lost. I'm going to keep writing now.

First off, I had 2 meets in one weekend. 2. (Hold the shocked gasps}
On Saturday I had the Peg Neal Pentathlon- because I'm still 12 I only had to do the 4 50s and IM. I did well, not as well as I wanted or expected, seeing as it was only easy sprints. I placed well taking 3rd for the whole meet (for 11-12 girls)grabbing me a trophy :D I wasn't overly pleased with my performance that day but I am happy with how the cards fell this week over all. We had a tough week at practice, fast sets, F or F, and pace, it was one of the peak weeks of our work outs.

Today I also competed in the Mile Meet. Guess what we did there? I was heat 6. I got my favorite lane, 10! The mile was a long event. Matt was at the other end taking splits. I was looking for his signs for my race, but when I looked over he either had his hands up or sometimes out. Me, being far away, swimming, wet, and having goggles on, thought that they were the same so I swam the whole mile thinking how much I sucked and how mad Matt was going to be at me, how far off pace I was and just how freaking long it was! My coach owes me a cake. It was a good event, and I had a faster pace than what I was holding at practice for a lot of the 50s. I am very happy I swam it. After swimming the mile it puts a little different perspective on other events. I think this is somthing everyone should do at LEAST once. I made a AAA cut in both the mile and the 1000 (at the turn) and broke the team's 1000 record. I also took second place overall for 11-12 girls. I swam a 19:27, very much where I want to be. Even though I swam 5 other events this one seems to amount to more, I mean come on! It's a 1650! 66 laps! 19 & 1/2 min swimming!

Lastly but not least, we have the Swim Champions! That rocked! I got to meet 4 Olympians! Not only that, I got to hold a gold medal, swim and race with them, and get their autographs! They were so cool! The 3 guys just seemed like guys- having fun and loving what they are doing. They worked on drills and raced in all 4 strokes, and then we did a relay! The people were in the water with us doing the stuff! It was great, a once in a life time experiance. Oh yeah, hey coach, they had us do LANE LINE PULL as one of the drills. ;D I also made sure to tell Peter Vanderkay that Matt was my coach- he knew him, lol.

While we were waiting to go for our large relay, this one girl intruduced herself to me.
"Hi! What's your name?"
"Hey, I'm Amber."
"You're the girl who beat (girl be left un-named) in the 50 free yesterday! She was so so ticked."
"Oh wow, that wasn't even a best time!"
"It wasn't for her either!"

I'm sorry but that is the best. :D :D :D :D :D :D Bye!

2 Meets in 1 Weekend... Spooky!

Hi! Well, this is it- two meets in one weekend! Tomorow I swim the 4 50s and a 100 IM (scoff) baby swims. Then, don, don, don, I swim the....... MILE! I am really excited for both meets. First mile, and then the 50s are just fun. We have been doing hard sets all week, and been working on pace. I am ready! YE-AH!

Attitude at meets is not all but mostly everything. If you are sitting there about to puke doing nothing but thinking about your event, that kinda makes you suck. If you are having fun, talking, cheering, doing things you like to do(music, reading, cards, etc.) Then you are far better off. If you are like me, then you might want to dance a bit if you are really nervous... or not it is a good excuse for random dancing! Over all, JUST HAVE FUN AT MEETS AND IT MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER. And if it doesn't help you it will help people around you. Do you think that if you are all moopy and sad that it will make everyone want to be sunny and cheery? NO! Attitude is contagious, and you have to be carefull what you are passing around.

Now here is the fun part, after swimming so many years (1), I have found my favorite things in swimming and have dubbed them magical- here they are...

First heat
End lanes
Funky hats
Speed stripes
SWEET suits
...and...
Singing!

Good luck to everyone swimming this weekend!

CCS Age Group and Open

Hiya! To all that participated in this meet- good job and congrats!

This meet was good but I am glad that it is over. I dropped a lot of time in the 200and 500 free today, and dropped .06 from my 200 back yesterday! Yeah! I was really close to my 50 times but they weren't bests. I guess this was my distance meet though :D

Here are my results -

25.83 50 Fr
2:06.45 200 Fr
5:41.91 500 Fr
29.62 50 Bk
2:23.82 200 Bk

My Favorite Person

Hello! I would like to talk about my favorite person now. Benjamin Franklin. He did so many amazing things over the span of his long, long life. Did you know he was the only person to sign all 3 documents, the Declaration Of Independence, the Constitution, and the Treaty of Paris? Through his experiments, he invented the lightning rod, saving countless lives and buildings over the past years. He went over to England to try to make peace with the British... then later went over to France and talked the Frenchies into helping out the "'coon hat hick town" Americans in the Revolution. Did you know he invented flippers? He was an avid swimmer throughout his life. Did you know that 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away.' and 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.' come from him? Over all, he rocked. And those are just some of the reasons why Benjamin Franklin is my favorite person!

For more quotes from one of the best people ever, look at this great quotes site I found... really! They are funny!

One Year and Counting

Hello! The first meet of the season was this weekend! It was really cool for me because this was my first USA meet last year. I have completed one full year of USA swimming :D Last year I would have freaked out, but this year I had fun, was calm, cool, and collected! Among other things, what I really am happy about is that I'm not nervous about meets anymore. I go, have fun, swim the events I have swam so many times before, and go fast! No more freaking out about an event. Not this year baby!

I think that helps a lot. My coach was talking to me about swimming scared at one of the first meets of long course. I was scared over the 100 fly I had last that day, and that affected all of my other swims a lot. They definitely were not the best I could be.

So I think that not swimming scared helped me set the LE district record in the 50 fly with a time of 27.00.

That kinda rocked. I was so happy, I had the Michael Phelps finish with the fist in the air! That's the first time I have ever done anything like that! That was the new district record, and the "any person who swam their time in LE" record, best time and the USC record by almost 2 seconds!

I dropped time in a lot of events from last year so I was very happy about that. I set USC records in three other events too, that was cool. One event that I was most proud of was my 100 fly. I dropped 3 seconds from last year and got the zone cut I didn't have before, and set the new team record. The reason I was so happy about that was 100 fly was one of my struggling events. I hated it mostly because I was scared of it, I thought it was long, and HARD! But I think I swam it right for the first time and I went fast without dying!

I even placed in my breast and dropped time!

The one thing I was disappointed about was the medley relay. The judge lady deeked me because SHE thought I did a false start. NO ONE agreed with her. People in the stands didn't know what we did! My head coach was really mad about it, he got up in one judge's face and told him what he thought about it. Matt was great too and said that whatever random lady said to me he still thought that was the best relay start I have done and 100% legal. When we were walking back, the lady told us that I false started. We just stared at her. As soon as she turned around my friend said loudly, "I hate that woman, always have. She's an idiot!" I felt so bad but my team was so sweet about it, they said that they didn't care, it was a dinky relay at a dinky meet and they knew it was a bad call. I'm just going to say we made 1st in that one though :D

*My friend has been trying to make some A cuts for a while now. Well, she made it by a chunk of time! She was super happy, and I am so happy for her too! She did amazing, and now hopefully she can go to Braun with me! She can go to golds too! If you're reading, YOU ROCK! You don't need onions and garlic anymore!

*Iman also did great, breaking into a 59 for the first time in the 100 free! Congrats!

*Mason's relay team took first in the medley relay, good job you guys!

*Michael and Matt also ROCKED! Placing and shaving time! YEAH!! :D

This meet was a great starter for the season, everyone did well! Great job to everyone who swam!

Matt also did a really nice overview post about the high lights of the meet... check it out at USC Twinsburg.

Bye!