State Qualifier Meet @ SMHS...

Katelyn had her State Qualifier Meet (the one and only qualifying meet for the WHOLE season) today. GCC is closed due to Covid, so it was at our SMHS pool! (Dilworth was in charge again.) You had to have a provisional time to even go to the meet. It was sort of like Districts, but there were no team awards. They gave out individual medals after each event (so swimmers could have a chance to warm up and still social distance in between each event, especially since our pool only has competition lanes). Katelyn swam the medley relay, the 50 free, the 100 fly and the 400 free relay. She really regretted swimming the 50 because she ran out of steam on the 100 fly. (The fly is right after the 50.) She managed to get PR’s on both of her individual events though—she got a 26 on the free! I don’t think she’s ever swum it that fast! Coach was super happy for her. She missed the medal stand in the fly—her good friend on our team got 3rd place. Katelyn has always been faster than her the whole season, and last, but everyone came on strong and had really good swims!! Katelyn was bummed, but happy it went to our team at least. Another girl beat the school record for the 100 backstroke! That was awesome. A bunch of boys school records got broken—one of them twice in the same meet! (One of our boys got a record in the 500 and then Daniel Matheson beat it when he swam—it was his record to begin with—so dang cool!) The medley relay got 1st—we beat Liberty and the 400 Relay got 2nd—Liberty beat us! The boys swam in the morning and the girls swam in the afternoon, so the meet went pretty fast. Dad was the announcer and I timed—the only way we could attend the meet! Everyone else had to watch it on TV—the district broadcasted it, so that was neat! They were on the roof of the guard hut!)  It’s so crazy because you could only choose 2 individual events and be in two relays to qualify and they’re only taking the top 32 for State. They will swim ONE championship finals and that’s IT! (The state qualifier today was also a one and done as well!) Katelyn DID get to swim first in the 400 relay, so she had the opportunity to qualify in the 100 Free as well. We’ll see what her results are tonight when coach sends out the list! Fingers crossed! I don’t have her official times because there was no scoreboard… and I forgot to look at the scoring sheets. She got like a 58.26 on the 100 free, a 26 something on the 50 and a 102.99 on the fly. Idk what the relays were. It was a very fast moving meet and kinda chaotic! Whew!! What a crazy SEASON!!!  But I am so glad that we HAD a season!  I'm so grateful to Coach Dilworth for making it a memorable season even though the kids weren't allowed to do MOST of the meets and traditions that make it so wonderful!  It was a great meet today!  LOTS of kids swam personal bests and time was dropped!!!!

Chillin' with Paisley!

Hanging around visiting with Marilyn, Jim and Beckie on this eve of Halloween!  Paisley is a good sport to put up with this!!  

Army Soldiers for Halloween!!

 Here's what these cute girls dressed as for Halloween!  Pretty cute soldiers, if you ask me!

Are You Game for a Date to Sadies?

Katelyn asked Cameron Estes to Sadie's tonight in such a cute way!  Sarah Harris is putting on a small Sadies Date in her backyard for a few couples, since they didn't get to have the dance this year-- back in August.  She has a really cute idea for it too.  They are going to have a competition making card board box cars to take to a "Drive in Movie" in her backyard!  There will be different awards for the cars.  I think this is such a cute idea and wish I'd thought of something like this!  Cameron and Katelyn will get together sometime and make their "car".  We have a few ideas...  But for now, Katelyn caught her bear!  Cameron will be a fun date and they will have such a good time!  It's November 21st, so they have a while to plan their car and get to work!!  Good times!!!  (The picture of the mustang is Dad's rental car-- he's got a Mustang and when you open the door it shines a light with this mustang in it-- pretty stinking cool!!!)  Hannah and Sammy came along to watch from the car... they were so excited that Katelyn was doing it in person and not ding dong ditching.  This way... there's no opportunity to say no!  I think Katelyn's pretty smart!  Hahahaha!!!  And BTW-- there was a LOT of giggling from the car!  They are so funny!!!!

Ryleigh Livingstone's Temple Endowment!

The long dearth of going to the temple ended today!!  I have not been able to attend the temple since MARCH!!  I was so excited when Jamie texted me and said that Ryleigh had invited us to go with them on her special day!  (Right now the temple is ONLY open for living endowments and sealings!)  I probably won't go again for another (hopefully) little while, but it was sure nice to be back!  It felt like I was HOME when I walked into the foyer this morning bright and early at 7:30am!  It was a very unseasonably cold morning (in the 40's) and it was so warm and welcoming as we walked in!  The session was so beautiful.  I find myself paying attention in a different way when someone I know is going through for the first time.  I think about what they are learning and might be thinking and what they're taking in.  We had a really nice visit in the Celestial Room afterward.  We got dressed and Jamie, Aimee (Ladd-- Jamie's sister), Ryleigh and I went to Kneaders after for brunch!!  It was so fun!  What an amazing morning and 3 of my relatives FINALLY got some work done for them!  They are grateful for this window of opportunity I'm sure, as well!  I can't wait for temples to reopen again SOON!!!!!!!

The Beast (Brooke's Letter)

Hello beautiful friends & family!!

It has been quite the week! So many good memories! Here's a couple of 'em!

>Singing with Pee Haw Paw! Okay so I don't remember if I talked about this last time but sometimes we sing over the phone with a little grandma in the ward and this week we picked a song that we thought we knew... yeah nope especially not in Karen so we are singing to her and just BUTCHERING it so hard and so we finish the first verse and it's just quiet and then we just can't hold it in so we just burst out laughing and then she started laughing so hard too!

>The snow has actually started sticking... It's winter... yay...

>Our mission started a running thing called the 100 mile club where we are all trying to run 100 miles before Christmas? Something like that. So we are running 2 miles every day--all us Karen peeps and that has actually been super fun! Even in the snow and slush and freezingness! 

>We had to go somewhere we've never been and it was dark outside and so my comp was giving me directions. We turned on an off ramp that we thought was the on ramp... that terrifying moment when you see headlights and hear honking... oh boy I felt like Indiana Jones or something trying to turn around and the adrenaline man... but we survived so it is all good. 

>Finding!! We have been finding a lot of new friends and a lot of people with a lot of potential! It is exciting to see the work move forward!

>We got to go to some kids birthday party bahywah! We had to stay outside but it was so fun! We got to play with the kids outside in the snow and it was an absolute blast!

>2 of our Karen friends came to church! Which is awesome but this week almost NONE of our Karen members came! Then one showed up a little late and she was our saving grace! She said hi and befriended them and it was just so good!! It was also our first week meeting back together as a whole ward so there were a LOT of people there! It was so fun to see everyone! After sacrament we got to do a spontaneous church tour with them and it was just so wonderful! Happy day!

>Haha funny story this week.. one day I had a pretty bad headache and so I went to lay down real quick and then the next thing I know I wake up to Sister Norton bursting into the room yelling, "Sister Freeman do you know how to give the Heimlich?!" Apparently they had been telling jokes and she made Sister Moeck laugh so hard that she choked on a lemon head haha and she couldn't stop laughing even though she was choking and coughing! It was quite the scene and what a thing to wake up to! I love my companions hahaha!

>We had the coolest lesson with two of our Karen friends and a Thai missionary who got reassigned to our mission! They speak Karen and Thai so it was super cool for them to be able to communicate and deepened their understanding using a different language! Man languages are so cool! I couldn't understand the Thai but I could feel the spirit! So cool! We taught one of the coolest restoration lessons I've had and our friend who we have been teaching for a long time seemed like things were starting to click! It was really cool! And she was able to bear her testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon to her friend who we recently started teaching! It was so cool! Lessons like those are what make this all worth it!!

>I was reading a talk the other day called, "Harmony of Body and Spirit: A Key to Happiness" and it talked about how our physical bodies and our spirits are connected. He told the story of Beauty and the Beast and talked about how the Beast hated his body and it made him grumpy and asocial because he was unhappy with his life. But through the soothing and loving influence of Belle, his heart changed and he was able to recover his joyful and sociable nature, and with that, in the end, his physical appearance also changed! It stood out to me how many people are like the Beast, and maybe don't super like how they look and maybe feel like they have the personality of a beast sometimes but our divine nature is always within us and maybe just needs to be refined and nurtured and given place to bloom! I think sometimes we do need someone like Belle to help us rediscover who we are and that could be a friend or family member, but when all else fails and we seem to be alone in the middle of an abandoned castle in the woods and all our friends and family have "abandoned" us, there is always one person who can and will help us rediscover that divine identity. He is someone who knows us and understands us and gave His life so that He could see through all that grumpy meanness to the true beauty within. He is Jesus Christ and He is the perfect healer and comforter! He can show us the beauty within us and bring joy back into our lives!

You are all BEAUTIFUL and I pray that we can all see ourselves as God sees us and find the Beauty within :)

Have a grrrrrrrrreat week!!

Love, Sister Freeman ဖီပြံဝါ

Pictures:
1. I found this picture this week and I think it is so cute!
2-3. Snow... I don't miss randomly slipping and falling in snow when I'm literally just tryina stand but it's funny so eh... 
4-7. On our way to 100 miles! (700 miles between the 7 of us which sounds way cooler!)
8-10. Elder Lundstrom's Birthday!!
11. Bahywah food outside!
12. Church!!!! :)

Ward Trunk or Treat!

Our ward had our annual Trunk or Treat tonight, but it was different this year.  Instead of parking in parking spots, we all formed a HUGE circle (like the pioneers did with their wagons)!  We decided this was a great idea for next year and to do all the time because it was much safer for the little ones!   The ward council had made goody bags for the children and teenagers that got passed out.  Then they had a costume parade and judging (the priests judged with dad) and the kids walked all the way around the big circle so everybody could see their cute costumes.  It worked really nicely because we could social distance but still be social!  I went around and talked to all my good friends that I haven’t seen in SO LONG!!  It was fun to visit with people.  You have no idea how much you miss people until you can’t see them on a regular basis anymore!  I realize I have taken that for granted!!  Everybody just brought their own dinner to eat and socialized while we were eating.  Dad brought his big screen and projector and showed a movie and people just visited.  If there’ one thing we’ve all learned through this is that it’s OK to simplify!  It was so fun and yet so simple!  McKenzie and I went and got Chipotle for our family to eat before it started.  Went home and grabbed Katelyn and headed for the party!

Here's some cute pictures of Katelyn-- she and Dad were the only ones to dress up in our family.  (I'm a Halloween scrooge!)  Below is our cute minion and Dad went as a referee!  Complete with a whistle!  It was a fun night!  

SMHS Senior Night and Purple v. Gold Meet

Tonight was Senior Night for swim team. Instead of doing it during a normal swim meet, to cut down on numbers, coach did a gold v. purple swim meet and recognized the seniors then. When coach finished all the seniors who weren’t the full 4 year graduates, and got started doing the 4 year seniors, she got emotional. She couldn’t finish, so Coach Kruppa had to finish for her! She has really gotten attached to these kids and is really going to miss them! It was sweet! I didn’t get emotional AT ALL and kept it together until the very end, when the team did their team chant. I got emotional, because that is the LAST time I’m going to hear it and the kids did it so enthusiastically!! Everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves and the little bit of normal the night was! It was a fun night too. The seniors got to draft who they wanted on their teams—Katelyn was on the purple team, and the purple team ended up winning! It was fun to watch the kids all having so much fun together! And Katelyn FINALLY got her basket of candy! She was happy about that! As far as events, Katelyn did all the relays and the 100 Fly!  It was coed and she was swimming against mostly boys... and she beat more than 1/2 of them!  It was fun to watch her do that!  She's a strong flyer!