You go girl! I was you this time last year.

I'd recommend you get a Total Immersion DVD. Team Estrogen doesn't seem to have any at the moment but they're about $25 on amazon. They'll take you from being able to float to being to swim freestyle with great efficiency without a coach. After working w/ 2 swim coaches with very little success I used this DVD everyday for about 6 weeks and developed a very clean stroke that will allow you to finish the swim with tons of energy left.

The Total Immersion method breaks it up into little bite sized skills that you learn through very specific drills. Once you master the set of drills you're good to go. The instructor on the DVD is very good at giving specific instructions on what to focus on and what to feel in your body. For me this made the whole thing easy.

My main advice is to swim as many days of the week as possible. For me if I miss 1 day in the pool I can TOTALLY tell. 2 of 3 days and its like I'm starting back at the beginning. My first year I didn't really understand this so I didn't really ever make great progress in the pool.