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How to Replace Worry with Joy
6 hours ago
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Weekly Wrap Up ~ when mom is sick, wk 17
By Tuesday morning, I was completely wiped out. My whole body ached and I was sneezing 6, 7, 8 times in a row. We did a half day of school, just the basics and called it a day. I was so thankful when our carpool friend came and picked up the girls for practice.
Wednesday my sister, Allie, and I narrowed down our timeframe for running our first 5K together. I am pretty excited about it and so is she. I plan on starting to run next week when the weather is not quite so frigid. I am not a big treadmill runner but there is no way I can run outside when it is 18 degrees. I also roped Marie into being my running partner, because the way I see it, the more the better. Plus we can motivate each other and the bonding time will be great. She likes the idea of getting some snazzy new running shoes too :-)
Thursday was to be a marathon day and luckily the Lt. came home a day early from his trip. Marie had cheerleading pictures at the main gym over 1hr away plus the girls have gymnastics. I was able to get everybody home and to their perspective places so all in all it was a good day. I am excited to see how her pictures turned out.
Friday morning my gymnasts had morning practice again and we were expecting a snow storm. On my way to pick the girls up I was held up by the train and a school bus disturbance. Lights and all 4 police cars came blaring to the intersection and escorted 3 teenage boys from the school bus. . The behavior of the escorted boys was appalling as they cheered and jeered at the situation and made me just that much more thankful that my girls are home. The bus then proceeded to back up a driveway so that the rest of the traffic could go through. The whole ordeal took 25 minutes and I was late getting the girls, thankfully I was able to call the coach and let her know what was happening so they were not to worried.
We did end up getting snow on Friday afternoon just as the weatherman predicted. It was quite distracting for the girls as we were trying to get our Friday schoolwork done. I ended up calling it a day when my head started hurting again. I am not sure what bug I have but it struck again Friday evening and I was out for the count by 7PM. I am hoping to be back healthy again by Sunday evening so we can get our lessons done back to normal.
How was your week?
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
A little helping hand
Back in 2011 we were given the opportunity to review for Emealz (they have since changed their name to Emeals). It was fantastic to have all the legwork done for me as far as meal planning. After awhile I had built up a good rotation for meals and felt comfortable letting them go.
Well, life has me spinning and I feel as if we are eating the same old food and often times I am scrambling to figure out what we are going to have for dinner on the drive to practice, at 330PM. Not the best planning on my part, especially when the Lt. calls and asks for dinner on his way home. Not to mention the mad dash I make to the grocery store and then rush home to cook before having to head back to the gym.
I recognize the need for a little helping hand right now, so I am heading back to Emeals to help me. I was quite pleased to find that they now offer breakfast and lunch menus too. I got a great coupon in my inbox this morning offering 33% off a combo of their breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus and I jumped on it. Right now for a 3 month service of the 3 menu combo costs just under $30.00. Money well spent in my book.
I also plan on implementing having dinner for lunch. I stopped doing this in the past because I felt that the girls were not getting a good after practice meal and were losing weight. Now that I have the lunch menu to choose from, I feel that they will get that balance of food they need to fuel their bodies after practice. It’s worth a shot in my book to add a bit of simplicity to our lives.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
VIGs New Year’s Opener
Before I forget I wanted to document the girls scores for the VIGs New Year’s Opener held the weekend of January 5th. It was a L-O-N-G weekend and we traveled up and down the highway both days because initially Marie also had a cheer competition that Sunday. It ended up getting cancelled on Wednesday or Thursday of that week.
We headed out for the meet at 530AM Saturday morning. I normally do not sleep well the night before meets. I have this fear of oversleeping even though I have 4 different alarms set. Yeah, I know…I am weird :-) Anyways, I was up at 330AM and got myself dressed and ready, breakfast made and snacks to take to the meet. Mikayla woke up at 4AM and I had to send her back to bed…she was excited for her meet later in the day. At 5AM I woke everybody up and they got dressed and headed to the van. The funny thing is that Montana thought we were taking a train because my friend Amy and I were talking about the “train” (van) leaving the station at 530AM. Traffic was not bad at all and we ended up getting to the meet site at 715AM. Check in was not until 745AM, but I like to be early and give the girls a chance to get settled and whatnot.
Montana was in the first session at 8AM in the 6-8YO group. She ended up competing on vault and floor. For her first ever meet we were so proud of her to just get out there and show us what she can do. She had a few wobbles and bobbles on floor and she did not throw her round-off back handspring but all in all it was a great start to the Level 4 career. Next meet she will be competing 3 events (4 if we can get her back hip circle down on bars). Montana was so happy to get her first USAG ribbons a red and a green. She has her eye on the Blue ribbons which you get for a 9.00 and higher and also a individual event medal. She will get it, she is very determined!
Vault ~ 8.450 (9th in session)
Bars ~ DNC
Beam ~ DNC
Floor ~ 6.775
AA ~ 15.225
Mikayla competed in the session immediately following Montana’s in the 8-11YO group. She had not fueled her body or gotten enough rest and it showed. I blame myself and I will make sure she is prepared better from now on. First up for her was beam where she uncharacteristically FROZE. From a mother’s standpoint it was horrible. The room stopped and I sat there in my seat praying for her. To move. All around me I could hear the encouraging cheers from our teammates parents and the Lt., but I was locked in a tunnel on the edge of my seat about to vomit…seriously! Her series on the beam that she had so solid had stumped her that day. I was expecting a horrible score because she was way over time, but was pleasantly surprised at the 7.100. When she dismounted I gave her an encouraging smile and nod of the head for her to regroup and move on. Floor was next. It was a nervous day for me as I worried about her music not playing correctly as they had issues with several other gymnasts. A small mistake was made in her pirouette but otherwise floor went well. Vault was vault with no surprises. It is the same vault she has been doing since Level 5 so her and her training mate are chomping at the bit to do something harder. Lastly, She went to bars and during warm up she kept cast-handstanding over the top bar. From past experience I never know what to think of this. Normally she has that out of her system come performance time…but not this day. She tried valiantly 3 times to do her Giant, Giant, fly-away dismount, she just did not have enough strength to make it over. On the last attempt she made it to about 99.8 degrees, if the wind would have blown she would have went over. Another nod and smile from me in the stands. The hardest part of the day was telling her that she did not qualify for the State meet like she thought. She missed it by 0.425 points. It was a valuable learning experience for us all…she will be ready next meet.
Vault ~ 9.250 (9th)
Bars ~ 6.800
Beam ~ 7.100
Floor ~ 8.925
AA ~ 32.075 (16th)
We got home on Saturday around 630PM and I knew I still had to curl Madison’s hair. I was physically spent but I pushed through so that she would be ready for her day on Sunday. Thankfully, she was in the 3rd session in the 12YO age group that started in the early afternoon so we did not need to leave for the meet until 2PM. We slept in which did a world of good for everybody. I was still a ball of nerves as I knew that Madison was not going to be doing her back walkover on the beam or the fly-away dismount on the bars. She had a deadline to get one of these skills by mid-January or she was going to be moved back down to the Level 5 team. There was nothing I could physically do for her but just to be an encourager and help her get over the mental block. I think that is the hardest part because you know your child can do this skill, you have seen them do it before hundreds of times. {I will say that Madison is a very strong willed child. She will do something on her own time. You can not persuade her, which made the waiting even harder. I am happy to say that she has conquered the fear of the the back walkover on the high competition beam and will be staying a Level 6 for the rest of the season. YAY!} Okay, back to the last meet. She started on Vault first which is her specialty since she grew a three inches last season. With her long, lanky slender lines her vault is beautiful and effortless to me. Of course the Judges and Coaches see the corrections she has to make, but it is perfect to me :-) and she could very well be in contention for a title at State. I held my breath as her group moved on to bars and beam. There again I sat praying that she would release the Bar and flip over in the tuck position and/or do a back walkover on the 4-inch Beam… but it was not to be at this meet. She was especially wobbly on the beam which cost her a qualification to the State meet. Rounding out the meet was the Floor exercise and again those beautiful long lines came into play. Madison is quite graceful on the floor and a powerful tumbler. Her round off backhandspring back tuck is really high and fun to watch especially because she sticks the landing 9 times out of 10. Like Mikayla she missed qualifying to the State meet by 1.225 points, however, this is the second meet in a row where she has placed 1st on Vault and Floor and she was on cloud 9 the whole way home.
Vault ~ 9.400 (1st)
Bars ~ 6.100
Beam ~ 6.700
Floor ~ 9.075 (1st)
AA ~ 31.275(8th)
This coming weekend Madison & Mikayla have another shot at qualifying for the State meet, and Montana a chance to qualify for Sectionals. They have been so focused at practice this week and working hard. I am praying for calmness for me this weekend as I sit in the stands.
*team photos taken during practice by Publicity chair
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Weekly Wrap Up ~ back in the saddle, wk 15
We started back to school this week after the Christmas holiday. Our week went really well. I think we were all ready for some structure to our days again. Monday morning McKenzie had a minor melt down when she could not watch Dora, but other than that our week was smooth sailing. Mikayla turned 10 on Tuesday so we took off the day and spent it celebrating her. I made some changes to our school curriculum and I hope to share that with you early next week. I have run out of time to finalize my thoughts this week, so please bear with me. Here are some random pictures from our week. I am off to finish planning the Ice Cream Social Sleepover for 14 of Mikayla’s friends for tomorrow night!
How was your week?
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Happy 10th Birthday, Mikayla!!!
Happy 10th Birthday Mikayla!
Time sure has flown from when you were this little girl. You are growing into a fine young lady.
We started off the day with your favorite breakfast of choice, Eggs & Bacon. Daddy came home early and you opened presents. You were so blessed by each of your gifts.
Next we loaded up and went to Chuck E. Cheese and played
Once we arrived home we sang “Happy 
All in all you had a great day! Your Ice Cream Social Sleepover is on is on Saturday with 14 of your friends! The Lt. and I are so proud of the little lady that Mikayla is turning into… we are blessed daily by her!
Happy Birthday Mikayla & many more!!!
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