First Gymnastics Meet of the Season- Pre-op Silver

Tori-bug had her first gymnastics meet of the season on Saturday. She was geared up and ready for a great meet- Pre-op Silver. She worked really hard the past 4 months and was really excited.
Monday, I had strep.
Tuesday she had strep.
Wednesday I had walking pneumonia.
Saturday at the meet she fell off the mat and pulled a ligament in her foot or her ankle.
I am not sure which. She did vault first. Our coach made a HUGE mistake and had them warming up on 5 mats instead of 4. Tori-bug couldn't even reach the 5th. mat. Three of our girls had already vaulted before the head coach realized that Tori-bug was struggling and realized that there was 5 mats instead of 4. She stopped everyone and fixed the mats, but three of our girls had already vaulted and got stinky scores. Well, one of the girls got a stinky score b/c she is the same size as Tori-bug. Tori-bug did vault on the right amount of mats, but it was still a semi-bad score. She has never been great on vault. No big deal. She got to bars and during warm-ups stepped off the mat and twisted her ankle. I didn't even realize anything was wrong. She mounted the bars fine and then fell right before she jumped to the high bar. She was trying to balance herself on the low bar with a hurt foot and couldn't balance, I guess. I still didn't know that she was hurt though. She got a stinky score on that too b/c she fell. She almost never falls on bars. She got to beam and started tearing up. THAT's when I realized something was wrong. She tried to motion to me that she couldn't do beam or floor b/c her foot was hurt. Her coach sent her over to the sports medicine people that happened to be on hand and they were acting like they were going to be keeping her/observing her for awhile. If you have never been to a gymnastics meet, you don't know that parents are not allowed on the floor. No matter if your child is hurt or not. She was being looked at on the far side of the gym. I am a nurse and her mother and it was driving me crazy. Her coach told them to tape her foot and ankle and send her back to him. The sports med. lady said, "no, I don't think she should finish". He said, "oh yes she is. I said wrap her up and send her back to me". I was able to run down to the side of the floor and give her a dose of Motrin (thanks Carmen) and my Tori-bug got right on that beam and did her full routine without ONE fall. She didn't get a great score b/c she couldn't jump high on the beam, but she did it. She ended up placing 4th!! She went to floor, but I didn't let her warm up so she could save it for when it counted. She did her routine, round-off double back handspring too, but only got a 8.4. I have always told her at these meets to do her best and have fun. She did the best she could do with it!! She put on her big girl panties and finished it. I am one proud mama today. I can't get my pictures to upload on here for some reason, but I will keep trying.

I am feeling a lot better. Not coughing my head off at least so much now. Just finished some strong antibiotics and hoping I will continue to get better. Thanks for checking in!
Wendy

Double the trouble

It is a sign.

I posted yesterday on having strep and walking pneumonia. Um yeah, DOUBLE the trouble.

After I left a comment on The Park Wife's blog AND added her to my Facebook she DOUBLED the chances of winning the PW T-shirt!!!

Pioneer Woman sent her another one and she is giving it away too......

Ooooh, I hope I win!! At least it would help me to feel better.

No, really, it would!!!

Just kidding. I am feeling a good bit better today. I at least was able to sleep last night and not hack my brains out. I think I am up to going to work tomorrow. I am definitely not 100%, but I don't believe I am contagious since I have taken two (that is DOUBLE) highly potent antibiotics. One yesterday and one today. Since it is so potent you only have to take it once a day and it is only for 5 days. Now, here's hoping to sleep again tonight.

Wendy

The Park Wife and Pioneer Woman

A couple of years ago I ran across a blog (which is why I wanted to start one myself). Then I found another blog, and another blog, and another blog. I started reading and following lots of blogs. I don't even realize how much time I used to have. I surely don't do great at keeping up with this blog. Besides the amount of time it takes, I love reading blogs. I feel like I know some of these people. I stumbled across PW at www.thepioneerwoman.com. She has the coolest site and has great contests. I even won a random contest a while back. It was a $100 gift certificate to Snapfish. Still haven't used all the money. Hmmmm...... reminds me that I need to print my pictures and make a photo album of Tori-bug's gymnastics meets last year. Anyway, Pioneer Woman or PW, or P-dub has a brand new cookbook out. It is the best cookbook ever. The recipes have ingredients that anyone could find in a local grocery store. PW lives in OK on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. Kinda like my little small town I guess.
From PW's blog, I found another blog, www.theparkwife.blogspot.com. She is married to a park ranger. I have been following along on her blog for a few months. PW was doing a Griswold Book Signing Tour. She was going to a bunch of different places signing the cookbooks. She did come to Atlanta about a month ago, but I live an hour from Atlanta and she came on a Monday. I couldn't get out to meet her, but I soooooo wanted to get to and have her sign my cookbook. Plus, she was giving away specially made "PW t-shirts". My blogger friend at The Park Wife received thus said T-shirt in the mail b/c she was able to meet PW when she came to her hometown, but didn't bring the shirts. She got it in the mail. I want that T-shirt. She is giving it away. I think the reason is b/c it doesn't fit her, but it WILL fit me!!! Anyway, her requirements for possibly winning the T-shirt was to blog about her website, add her as a friend on Facebook, and leave her a comment. I didn't even know she was on Facebook, but I will be adding her as soon as I finish this post. Everyone please visit these two blogs. I promise you won't be sorry. It is two of the three that I have listed as following on my blog. I visit these three blogs almost daily. Sometimes I visit Pioneer Woman's blog several times in a day b/c her blog is so big that I have to read in spurts. She has a cooking blog, homeschooling section, home and garden section, etc.

I am off to go add The Park Wife to my Facebook,
Wendy

P.S. The other blog is www.notquitewhatihadplanned.com

P.S.S. I was diagnosed with strep on Monday. Today I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. Yeah me!! :-(

WOW, where did the time go?

Sorry folks for it being so long in updating. I didn't realize until a few days ago that I have not even been on this laptop for quite some time. No facebook, no reading others blogs, etc. I don't know what happened to the time. Christmas, New Years, etc. I guess. Needless to say, Joy got quite lazy the last few days before Christmas. She didn't do much in the way of making "Christmas Magic". Tori-bug didn't even complain. We were all just so busy. Christmas Eve when she placed her under the tree she told her sister that at least she didn't have to be good anymore b/c Joy was leaving. WHAT???? I tried to tell her that she has to be good all year, not just the month of December. We had a wonderful holiday. Lots of gifts, time with family, and all that jazz. Much more low-key for us this year and I loved it. The girls really enjoyed their gifts. I will try to post some pics soon.
We went to the GymDogs Meet and Greet last night. Lots of pictures and autographs from the gymnasts. Thanks Amy!! It was a blast. We are going to the season opener meet today at 4pm. If you live in Georgia and have never been to a GymDog meet it is definitely worth the time. So much fun. We bought season tickets this year for the first time ever. We didn't get great seats, but hopefully we will next year.
Tori-bug has her first meet next Sat. at Gwinnett Arena if anyone is interested in coming. It starts at 10:30am I believe. She should be ready. They had a little bit of time off for the holidays, but now are back in full practice mode. I hope she does well. No matter what I am proud of that little girl. I hope some day she is standing in Stegman Coliseum for her first GymDog start. If she doesn't, I will still be proud. She has a new GymDog favorite this year. She is a freshman named Christa. She told Tori-bug last night that she has a sister named Victoria that was also called Tori. We thought that was so cool. Of course, she still likes Hillary and Grace Taylor too. It should be a fun-filled day. First I have to drop the dog off at the groomer, take the cats to the vet for a well visit, get mom's prescriptions filled, and then come home to get ready.
Take care and enjoy your Saturday. We sure will!!!
Wendy

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