I Got Nerve

This is Becca's Beta Solo, again from Worlds.

Someday My Prince Will Come

I finally have the video of Worlds and figured out how to put it online! This is Becca's Character Spotlight. This was the first time she did this program and she got a touch confused and had a fall, but I think she still did well.

Lots of stuff going on!

Ah- we just got off a busy week at ISI Worlds in Denver! Becca skated really well and made some new friends along the way. She got first in Couples Spotlight, Light Entertainment Spotlight, and her Solo skate. She skated really well in her Character Spotlight until an unfortunate fall on her catch foot and that dropped her to third. She got the dreaded :) "also skated" in her least favorite event, stroking. We keep putting her in stroking and she never does very well- this time she didn't really even try. After calling her coach I think we may skip the stroking events from now on. Depending on what level her coach decides to compete her in the fall, stoking may not even be an event that she can sign up for.

Cameron stayed at home and took a vacation with Grandpa around town. They hit the zoo, a movie, and he went swimming with his cousins. He was *much* happier here then he would have been in Denver. Now all that is left is to ponder a trip to San Jose next July for ISI Worlds...............

I thought I might have a minutes rest when I got home, but I immediately went to a baby shower and for the rest of the week we have skating, cheerleading practice and drums, the first synchro practice of the season, and Synchropalooza- the yearly synchro skating camp that Becca has to be at Friday and Saturday. Throw in my nephew Andrew's birthday and David playing in the pit band for a show that runs this weekend and I won't know which was is up by Sunday! I love these end of summer weeks where we try and cram in every last thing possible before school starts!

Just as an aside, Cameron still has an area the size of a dime on his cheek that is bruised. I am not sure it is ever going to go away!

My birthday passed rather uneventfully, although we did go to Benihana with some of the other people that went to Denver to skate. I am getting to know the figure skating parents more and really enjoying it.

I'm off to bed- I have not quite gotten it together since I got back. I didn't get enough sleep in Denver and I am not getting enough here yet. Lack of sleep makes me forget things! I did finish the last book in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. The movie comes out in December- I don't usually have good luck with movies made from books I have read, but I think I will give this one a try. I think now I am going to read "Dead Before Dawn". I am kind of on a vampire kick right now. It will give me something to do when the kids go back to school in a couple of weeks. Have a good night!

Pint Sized Pyros

We had a great holiday with wonderful weather. David even convinced me to let Becca light a few things- highly supervised of course. All in all, a successful 4th of July for our family!

 

 

 

 

Not much going on

It's been pretty low key around here lately. Cameron finished his baseball season on Monday, his team won 7/8 and they beat the team they played Monday night 20+ to 2. Cameron had 2 good solid hits, but struck out his last time at bat. All in all, it was a good season.

I am reaching near crisis mode with my trip to Denver. I have so much to do and I am quickly running out of time. We are still in process with the Snow White Dress, but I am not making it, so it isn't a big concern. The seamstress knows when I need it, and she has come through for me before, so it's a back burner worry at this point. I still have to come up with a dwarf/Prince Charming thing for her to push out on the ice, and put together her Laverne costume for her Laverne and Shirley program. I am having a hard time finding a cardigan sweater in the middle of summer, plus we have to have a matching one for her partner. Then I have to stone the sweater- I swore that we would not be doing this program again, but I am putting so much work into it that I may make her do this program forever.

I hope you all have a happy 4th- I will be at the same concert that I have been at for the past 8 years or so. I plan on hitting things hard this weekend, I have a quilt to get finished before next Saturday and and a lot of other stuff that just plain needs to get done. Yay!

Happy 4th!

The past couple of days

It's been an interesting couple of days around here.

Yesterday Becca had power skating and group lessons, and ended up taking an open spot for a private lesson with her coach. I guess in the middle of power skating she was in hysterics and the coach went over to see what was wrong. She has previously not had trouble during power skating, so it was a bit perplexing, but she is five and sometimes things she has been fine with are suddenly too hard. Come to find out, the pull on the zipper of her club jacket had come off. Coach Debbie put the pull in her pocket and everything was fine. I am hoping that she passes her group lesson class this session. She is so close and most of her friends moved on last session. If she doesn't, I am sure that it will only take one more session to get through. The summer sessions are 4 weeks instead of 6, and sometimes those extra 2 weeks are just what she needs to get the skills. She started working on her salchow last night as well. I can't believe that my baby is working on her first full rotation jump!

She also took her first dance class today. Of all the things she has done, she has never taken a dance class. I think she had a good time, but dance is just drop off so I don't know. There is a small recital in July, and she is pretty excited about that. Becca asked me on the way home why she was doing this, and I told her that it was because I thought she would have fun. What she really meant was "when do people get to watch me do this". Once she found out that there were recitals, with costumes no less, she is ready to sign up for life.

Tonight was Cameron's next to last baseball game. They beat the other team 14-2 or something lopsided like that. Cameron had a triple with 2 RBI's and was walked at his only other at bat. They put him out on first base right away, but I guess there were no runners for the other team so it wasn't very exciting- not like Saturday at any rate. His last game is Monday night, and I think he will be pretty sad for the season to be over. I am going to call and see if I can find a place for him to play fall ball. It can be hard to find a team since most leagues only accept full team registrations, so I feel like I really need to get on the ball (ha ha) with this.

Not much coming up in the next few days, I think I am just going to hang out at home!

I swear this is the last of the black eye!

 

 

These pictures are from last night- it actually looks worse today! The swelling is going down, and all that is left is bruising. There is a pool of blood in the white of his eye, and I freaked out when I saw it. I called the doctor and he told me not to worry about it, but that he thinks it will take quite a while to heal itself. I am just happy that it's going to heal! :)

We are headed to the rink in a few minutes- power skating and group lessons tonight. I contacted the lady who makes Becca's costumes and we are getting started on a dress for worlds and then right into dresses for fall. This figure skating thing never ends!

I did a research study today for Hallmark- I got to pretend like I was shopping for birthday party items and then give them my opinions. And they gave *me* money! It's a win win for me!!! It was an interesting way to spend an hour of my day for sure.

Not looking better........

Here are today's black eye pictures. The swelling has gone down some(and Cameron got a haircut today)but the black and blue seems to be worse rather than better. He has bruising under his eye, on his cheekbone, and lower on his cheek. I think by the time it is all said and done most of the right side of his face will be bruised.

 

 

I knew there was a reason I don't go to baseball practice!

 

Cameron loves baseball- I am more of an "indoor sports" kind of girl. It always seems so hot at baseball and I get whiney in the heat. I faithfully go to baseball games because I love my son, but I avoid practice like the plague.

Now I know why. HA!

Cameron was on first base and our pitcher was playing third. He threw it to Cameron and I guess he lost it in the sun. Cameron moved his glove to find the ball and it smacked him right in the cheekbone. The poor kid felt terrible, but sometimes things like this happen. David and the coaches made sure he had all his teeth (and to think that most people ask me if I worry about him losing his teeth in hockey) and then asked him if he wanted to rest a bit. He decided to keep playing and the rest of practice was uneventful.

If I had my way, we would have headed straight to the doctors office when he got home. Heck, I probably would have freaked out and called an ambulance or something if I had been at practice. Baseballs to the head seem so dangerous to me. Aside from the fact that the swelling is making it difficult to understand his speech a little bit he is fine- without mom running him to the doctors office. I can't wait to see what he looks like today!

Baseball pictures are Wednesday- I am sure he will look lovely by then!!

1880 Train

After we went to Bear Country we took the kids (and especially the biggest kid, Grandpa) on the 1880 train from Hill City to Keystone. It was an hour ride with a 15 minute stop at the Keystone train station and an hour ride back to Hill City. The ride was pretty and very scenic, but Becca wasn't all that interested and slept most of the way to Keystone.

 

 

 

 

Bear Country USA

On Wednesday we all headed to Bear Country USA. It is a drive through animal park that is really pretty neat. There were quite a few different kinds of animals to see- bears, of course, but also reindeer, timber wolves, buffalo, and goats. There were more than those, but they are the ones that stick out in my mind.

 

I learned quite a few things- like the fact that at least during the late spring reindeer antlers are fuzzy.....

 

 

After driving through the animal area you could get out of your car and go to a place called babyland. They had all kinds of baby animals in fenced areas so that they were safe from the other species but could still interact with each other. We spend quite a while watching a group of baby bears playing with each other. They flopped around with each other and climbed trees. They were the cutest things I had ever seen. I could have stood there and watched them all day.

 

Bear Country was one of my favorite things that we did on this trip. It was a bit touristy, but it was a lot of fun. I had never seen a bear up close like that, the closest I had ever been was at the zoo. These bears were just roaming around the car! It certainly made for an exciting morning!

Lighted memorial picture

 

Apparently I can't post 5 pictures at a time, so here is the lighted picture that I said was in the last post.

Mt Rushmore

 

Since half of my pictures are stored on David's computer, I will start with our trip to Mt Rushmore. We decided to visit in the evening so that we could see the progam and lighting of the monument. We took a beautiful drive up the back side of the mountain and we couldn't see the monument until we were in the parking area. We even saw a mountain goat along the way. It was quite cold and it rained off and on the entire time we were there!

 

When you first enter the park there is a long line of flags that leads up to the viewing area for the monument. There is a flag from each of the states with a marble plaque that says what number the state was and the year that it entered the union. It is really neat to see and adds quite a bit of color to the area, which is mostly made up of different kinds of white and grey marble, so it really stands out.

 

David, Cameron, and I took a walk around the Presidentail Trail. It is a 1/2 mile trail that goes to the base of the mountain and gives you some very interesting views of the monument. The first 1/4 mile is very easy and paved to be wheelchair accessable. Then you start walking the stairs down. Stairs down, not such a big deal. :) Unfortunately, what goes down eventually ended up coming back up- ACK!! It was really quite strenuous- I think it said something to that effect on the sign that I ignored! LOL

 

I was unable to get a good picture of the memorial after it was lighted because I really needed a tripod, but this was the best of what I got. The program leading up to the lighting was about a 10 minute talk by a park ranger and then a 20minute movie about the making of the monument and information about the presidents that are on it. Cameron's favorite was Teddy Roosevelt- he is such a good little conservationist.

I think that all of the kids had a great time at a place that I was afraid would be a little boring. It truly is a beautiful place!

Yes, I did look up George Washington's nose!

 

We had a wonderful vacation last week to the black hills of South Dakota! I am now threatening to move to Spearfish, SD and buy a nice house somwhere along the Spearfish Canyon. I just have to find David a job........... :)

We only had 3 full days to see everything, but we seemed to get it all in. We saw Custer State Park and the Needles Highway, plus part of a roaming buffalo herd that lives there. We went to Crazy Horse monument, and then headed to Mt Rushmore- that was the first day! LOL We went to Bear Country USA and rode the 1880 Train, and then finally we went to Deadwood and Spearfish. While we were in Spearfish we went to an historic Fish Hatchery, and traveled along the scenic Spearfish Canyon. We caught a gunfight in Deadwood, and the kids met "Wild Bill" Hickok and Calamity Jane. I played the slots for the first time ever in Deadwood and walked away a winner- I started with $1 and ended up with $2.50.

Once I get everything sorted out I will post more details of our trip. I came home to a birthday party and have jumped right back in to the rink.

The Gradute

 

 

Last night Becca graduated from Pre-school. It's a silly thing, really, to graduate before you even start school, but I think for Becca it was a significant step in her eyes. Almost like a validation that she is ready to go to school. I can't believe that she is going. It seems like yesterday that I sent Cameron off to Kindergarten and now I am sending Becca. She is more than ready to go- she can read, do simple addition and subtraction in her head, and count to 100 by ones, fives, and tens. If anything, Kindergarten isn't ready for her.

It seems harder for me this time. I think it's because when Cameron went to school I still had a tiny baby to distract me. Now I am left with life altering decisions- do I go back to work? What will I do all day by myself? Should I go back to school?

I won't be making any decisions right away- fall is the beginning of the skating season, plus we are going to DisneyWorld in December so it will be after Christmas before I can really do anything. By then some of the decisions will make themselves. Right now I need to concentrate on getting the roof replaced and planning our trip to Mt Rushmore in June.

I think I have had enough deep thinking for the evening. :)

Fun Friday

 

 

 

 

Today we tried out Paradise Park with Beth, Adam, and Lucas. It was a really neat place to play- a big ball pit and tunnels to climb through, a water play area, an art area, a career area, and a school area along with do it yourself face painting. Becca really enjoyed painting her own face. One of the stations was a cooking making station. That was one of Becca's favorites. The kids got to press out balls of dough, cut them with a cookie cutter, and then decorate them. Fun! We had some lunch and then finished our day at Paradise Park.

After Paradise Park we headed to Becca's last Friday skating lesson until after we come home from vacation. The rink will close on May 18th and doesn't open again until the day that we leave for our trip to Mt Rushmore. She was working on the 2 skills that kept her from passing Pewter Freestyle, and I am pretty confident that she will move up after the next set of group lessons. She was pretty heartbroken that she didn't pass the last session, but I really think it is for the best. I would rather she stick in each class longer and make sure she has the skills down the be moved on when she is not quite ready.

Tonight was the first annual kickball game between the school Cameron went to for K-2 and the new school that he attends now. His old school has always had the teacher kickball game and I really missed it last year. I thought it was a really fun idea to play the 2 schools against each other, and it was neat to see his 2nd grade teacher again.

Not much going on this weekend- it will be interesting to see what Mother's Day brings!

Destruction

 

 

 

Wow we got lucky. A week ago an F3 tornado dropped down in my neighborhood. It was 2 streets up and to the left of my house, so while we had roof damage and lost our "shady tree" (Becca is very sad about the loss of her tree) we are still happily living in an intact house. Becca is still a little bit upset about the "broken houses" and asks me every time we drive into the neighborhood if they are fixed yet. It is probably a rough thing for her to process, but hopefully as the summer goes on and the repairs start she will feel better.

Many updates- it's the end of the season!!

I can't believe that I haven't updated since the end of January! We have had quite a few activities around here since then!

Cameron has finished his hockey season and has his first baseball practice tomorrow. We decided that he would not be playing spring hockey this year, and I am hoping that will mean an end to hockey in general. He participated in a chess club for 5 weeks and really seemed to enjoy it. He finished 10th out of 16 in the K-12 tournament but he was really one of the youngest kids there. I can't wait until her gets into middle school and there are school based activities that are not sports related. He is still playing his drums and seems to really be having a good time.

Becca has had her big birthday. She is quite proud to be 5 and is eager to let anyone know that will listen. She was in 2 skating competitions- one in Jefferson City and one here at home. She is skating really well! We have our last competition of the "season" next weekend, it is synchro only. We are going to ISI worlds in July, so we have quite a while to prepare! Becca is skating in the ice show at the end of April, plus training will continue this summer, so it's not like we ever really leave the rink. We went to Kindergarten Round-Up at the end of March and she is so ready to go. Our first day of school is August 19th.

We are going to take a family vacation to Mt Rushmore this summer with David's family, and we are excited about that. Other than that, I don't think there is a lot going on here. :)

A few of my favorite pics

 

 

 

 

The first one is Becca with Pocohontas. We finally found her at Rafiki's Planet Watch in the Animal Kingdom. Becca loved how beautiful she was and the way she wrote when she signed her autograph book. We had breakfast at the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom and Daisy Duck was there. We only saw Daisy 2 times in the entire 8 days we were there. The next one is at MGM studios. It is at the Osbourne family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. I am a Christmas light fan and all, but wow that is a lot of lights!! The last two are from the first night we were there. We had to be at the airport by 6am so the kids (and the parents) had an early morning. Becca fell asleep at dinner and we could not wake her up.

Random musings

Well, I guess it has been a while since I updated. I didn't think it had been that long. Oops! We had a wonderful trip to Disney and a nice Christmas. Our family expanded by 4 feet, we got a new puppy when we came home from Disney. He is a black Cocker Spaniel named Coal. It has been interesting adjusting to a new dog after 2 years without one. He is a pretty good boy, but I forgot how much work a dog can be. His favorite food is paper, and with 2 kids dropping stuff behind them he gets to indulge quite often with things that our other dogs never got.

I have about 800 pictures to sort through from out Disney vacation. Even David had fun- despite the fact that he was adamant that he wouldn't. Not "wear around a Goofy shirt" kind of fun, but I think it is pretty guaranteed that we will return in a few years. Going in December was perfect!! There were no lines and we were able to basically walk on every ride. I can see how waiting in a lot of line could really make you apprehensive about going back.

Becca has added a couple of extra competitions to her schedule. We went to one last weekend and she will be going to another one in about 4 weeks, in addition to the ones scheduled at the end of March and mid April. School is going well and she is very excited for Kindergarten roundup in March.

Cameron is almost finished with his hockey season and is still playing the drums. he enjoys school as well and is currently working on a project about famous black Americans. He chose Matthew Henson the explorer. I don't know much more about Matthew Henson, so I look forward to reading his report.

I am going to try to go through my pictures and get some up in my shared pics folder.