We interrupt this regularly scheduled program! Well, sort of....

Tori-bug had her first gymnastics meet of the season yesterday. Sort of. Technically her season starts in January every year, but we had the chance to do a "brush up" meet yesterday. Really just to see where the girls were and what they needed to work on before the season begins. BUT..... it was a sanctioned meet and the scores counted. The girls have to have at least two 32's to go to the STATE meet every season so if they scored at least a 32 yesterday it only helped them. If they didn't, it really didn't go against them. Well........ my Tori-bug got a 35.55 all-around!! I am so proud of her. I would be proud of her even if she didn't make it, but she did her best and ended up with great scores. A little stress for sure. She doesn't get nervous at all before meets, but I usually am for some reason. I just want her to have fun and do it safely. In fact, that is what I tell her before EVERY meet. I am still nervous for her b/c she sets such high standards for herself. I want her to enjoy gymnastics for years to come so I am so thankful that she doesn't feel pressured to "perform" at someone else's standards. She came home with two 2nd. place scores in beam and bars. She got 4th. in vault and floor. Her floor routine was really good (according to her mama anyways). She got all the skills and bonuses, but she didn't end spot-on with the music. All of the girls music was cut short 3 days before the meet so she didn't have a lot of time to get the beat down pact. She was scared she would finish after the music ended so she rushed and ended up ending a few seconds before the music. They apparently count off big time for that b/c she ended up with a 8.950 and 4th. place. Still a great score, but for landing all the skills--- round off double back handspring and a front handspring, not as high as I thought. She definitely needs to work on "selling" her song. I was a really bad mama and didn't take my video camera with me to the meet so I don't have video to post. One of these days I am going to get a video posted though. The rest of the scores were: Beam- 9.050, Bars- 8.7, Vault- 8.8. She got second place All-Around.

Joy left her a note and 30 treat bags for her gymnast teammates. The note said to take the treat bags filled with hugs and kisses and a candy cane to the meet with her. Joy also said she wanted to go to the meet. The same day she left all of our clean underwear all over the undecorated Christmas tree. We don't have our tree decorated yet b/c we haven't been able to get to our Christmas stuff b/c we are finishing our basement. It was supposed to be done when we got home on Saturday, but he needs about 3 more hours to finish on Monday. Hopefully he will get it done tomorrow and then we can get on with getting our Christmas stuff out.

Tori-bug's 2nd. place All-around trophy and four medals!! She loves coming home with SOMETHING!! We should be back to Joy adventures this week so I will post when the mischief continues tomorrow.

Proud of my baby girl,
Wendy

Joy got into the Fritos

Tori-bug ended up sleeping with Joy last night. I didn't get a picture of it, but she promptly wrapped her in her big coat and snuggled her in the bed beside her. She thought she needed to rest after her long journey from the North Pole yesterday. She placed her under the tree this morning with a jelly bean when she left for school. I think this is the better plan so we don't have to worry about her getting into "messes" when we are sleeping at night ;-)

Tori-bug had wrote to her in the journal yesterday asking her how old she was this year. Joy wrote back some time today when we were gone saying that elves don't age so she was still 9. She had gotten into the Fritos and left a big mess on the counter. She said she was hungry or something because of the long trip from the North Pole.

Tori-bug: "Mama, some kids on my bus said Santa isn't real. It's your parents".

Me: "Really? What do you think?"

Tori-bug: "I told them that I knew Santa was real b/c my parents can't afford all those presents!"

Me: "You are EXACTLY right!!"

Oh how I love that girl. She makes me smile :-)

Oh Joy!! Oh Joy!!

Today is December 1st. and Joy has arrived!!

She was under our undecorated Christmas tree when we got home from gymnastics.

She came with a pair of new Christmas pajamas, her journal, and a box of jellybeans.

Tori-bug wrote a note to her underneath her note that said she was back.

She said, "Hey Joy. I was scared you would not come back but you did! How old are you now?"

I'm 9!

Joy told Tori-bug last year that she was 9, so I have a feeling she is going to reply that she is now 10 years old, but we will see.

Either way, Tori-bug was ecstatic that she was here for the month. I don't know how much she is going to be getting into, but I think I have finally convinced Tori-bug into feeding her jelly beans in the mornings when we leave for school and work instead of at night. When we come home in the evenings we can clean up the mess. I don't have time to do it in the mornings. She is only allowed to feed her jellybeans two days a week too and the other days she has to give her oatmeal flakes so she will sleep ;-)

Tonight, b/c Joy has been traveling from the North Pole all day, Tori-bug wrapped her up in her coat and put her in her bed to sleep with her. She wanted her to have a good night of rest all snuggled up beside her!

Spreading Christmas "JOY",

Wendy