HOORAY!!

Jopes comes home tomorrow night!!!!! I can't wait. AND, I have some fantastic news for him!

I took Joseph with me and went to the swim meet this morning to support Becca and the rest of the team, even though Jopes, their coach, wouldn't be there. I was a little late, but when I got there, I found out that half of our team hadn't shown up! PLUS, neither the coach nor the assistant coach were in town! So, I went up to a couple of our guys and asked who all had and hadn't shown up, and found out that only 6 of our guys were there. I also found out that those who were there were totally willing to jump into the other events wherever we were missing someone. :) This gave me a great idea, so I started telling every one of our swimmers that they were MORE than welcome to jump into whatever they could to make up for all our absent swimmers. We just had to tell the meet manager so he could make sure it was all recorded and scored right. It was insane. Poor little Joseph was lugged all over that pool area as I ran around trying to get swimmers into each event, and work it all out with the meet manager. Joseph was so good though! He didn't whine a single time. About half way through, we found out that we were only behind by 20 points. We still had a chance of winning! So, our guys kept jumping in to everything they could, and our girls stepped it up too. They started making up the relays that we were missing, and swimming extra individual events as well.

When we got to the last event of the meet, the 400 free relay, I sat down in a chair with Joseph and thought, "whatever the outcome is now, we did good." Then I noticed the meet manager say something to the coordinator... and the coordinator freaked out. Then he went to the coaches of the Spartans (the 'undefeated' team we were competing against) and they freaked out. I had to know what was going on. So I went and asked the meet manager. He said that we (the Knights) were only down by 2 points. 2 POINTS!!! And all we had left was the guys final relay. At this point, our guys were ahead, but it was still possible for the Spartans to pull ahead. Our last swimmer, who swam 8 events out of the 11 and placed well in all of them, had everyone on our team swarming around him just before he jumped in, telling him he had to swim fast. (DUH!) He did. He was dead tired, but he swam fast and hard and took 1st. FINAL SCORES: Spartans had 1072 points. Knights had 1076. WE WON BY 4 POINTS!! WE BEAT THE SPARTAN'S WINNING STREAK! WE WON THE MEET!!!!!! I almost cried tears of joy. I was so proud of all our swimmers there who stepped it up and did what needed to be done. I don't think I've yelled so much or put so much energy into any sporting event before. But I'm glad I did. It was amazing that we won, and I know Jopes is going to be so surprised and happy when he finds out, and that's the best part for me! Anyway, I can't wait for my wonderful husband to get home tomorrow night. I have really missed him. But I am so grateful to everyone who helped me be a little less lonely while he was gone. Especially Becca, who has been over every day to keep me and little Joseph company. Thanks Becca!

P.S. Joseph has been a perfect angel. I am so glad to be his mom!