Merry Christmas!!

Well - I have a video from the Holiday competition that I really want to share. But I can't get it to play in our dvd players nor on my computer. So - I'm hoping I can get some technical help from my sister she's kind of good at that stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to share but even if she can help it will probably be after the holidays before I can post the video. At any rate, I wanted to wish anyone checking out the blog a Merry, Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah or whatever else you celebrate this season. And check back soon and you can see my baby fall down a LOT in her program. Its really, really cute. I don't think in over 4 years of competing she's ever fell that more than once in a competition. Trust me - its absolutely adorable. And it'll make you smile I promise. Such is life though - a series of falling down - and getting back up and moving forward. I noticed a poster at our rink some time ago that said "There's nothing like ice to teach children about standing on their own two feet." I was reminded of that poster as I watched her skate.
Happy Holidays to everyone.

High School Musical on Ice - the Aftermath

I have to say that I was really impressed by the West Coast Cast of High School Musical the Ice Tour. What a great group of people. They skated with our kids (and moi) for about an hour. We took loads of photos. I took pictures with two of my daughter's friends' moms' cameras. And zero pictures with the camera I brought. It was hard enough juggling two cameras without adding a third. My daughter's best friend had to work their camera for me. I'm sure I looked real intelligent needing a 9 year old to operate a camera for me. And constantly having to say - "hey honey, can you fix this for me?" Not quite as bad as when I mowed down a 3 year old girl about yea big. I saw her dart out in front of me. And well I have crappy reaction time. When I see something about to happen I tend to think 'oh that's gonna hurt' and before I get to 'that' - its already hurting. To add insult to injury I apologized by saying "sorry, baby." If you want to really piss off a 3 year old try calling them a baby.

Did I tell you how great the cast was? Everyone was so friendly and they posed for lots of pictures. They showed off their skills for the kids. Even better they let our kids show off for them (and cheered for them too). After skating with the kids. They sat at a table and a line formed for autographs... some of the kids went thru twice. A lot of kids were getting their skates signed and some of them who were near the front wanted to go back thru again to get theirs signed as well..:) They have some really cool looking signatures. We grabbed some pizza at our rink before heading to the show.
The show was great. They combined two almost 2 hour long episodes into two 45 minute acts. Kelsy played the Playmaker/Narrator. She did a great job. I only saw one fall the entire show. The guy who played Chad dropped the ball twice during "Getcha Head in the Game" - but hey nobody is perfect. There was tons going on on the ice. I think it was a show I could've watched several times and got something different out of it each time.

Crazy Skating Dreams

I want YOU to share your crazy skating dreams. The other night I had the weirdest dream that caused me all kinds of stress. Now I don't know about you, but I stay stressed enough in real life without having to be stressed in my dreams. So we are at this really big competition. I don't know if it was a big Open or supposed to be Regionals. But we were in this huge arena. It didn't look like any rink my daughter has ever done a competition at. It was more like a professional Hockey Arena. I'm stuck way up in the nosebleeds about as far away as possible as I can get from my child. Some of the competitions she has done have No Parent Zones. I'm SO not a fan of those. My daughter is down on the ice and the music begins to play. And she begins to skate. But the music isn't right. It is her music from 2 years ago. The length is just about a minute long from the level that she was in then. The music sounds different than her current music so not conducive to the moves (jumps, spins, spirals, etc) that she needs to be able to do. Think Cinderella, IMO a great cut of music, it ended with the actual ending with the music to "I'd rather rescue myself" (sans vocals which was good for current level but was allowed 2 years ago though it was cut without vocals per then coach's request). Because this is music she recognizes as 'hers' she begins skating. And skates program to music that's not long enough, not working with her current program. I'm hyperventilating up in the nosebleeds. And then running down the bleachers. I didn't think the judges would let her reskate as she didn't know it wasn't right. And because I wasn't even sure we had the right music at all.

Now what causes crazy dreams like that. The season has ended. We've been taking the off-season pretty relaxed this year with no shows or anything. There is a small competition that our rink is having at Christmas. The program is pretty much her old program from the Fall so no new cut of music or moves to learn. A few minor changes but nothing to stress over.