Catching up, Cheer America Nationals....

Ok, I'm majorly behind... so sorry!!! I left off last Thursday... so Mac was suppose to have her last practice before Cheer America Nationals but the flu was apparently not through with her and her temperature rose again so I drove her all the way to practice so she could learn the new 8-count of the dance in the routine and recorded Coach Michael doing it on my phone and went back home! She was still feeling bad the next morning so I stayed home from work with her and got some good sleep in myself!! We left for Houston that evening around 4. We stayed at the Indigo Hotel in Houston, right next to the Galleria and it was SO cool! Felt like being on a tropical island! We got to the hotel and I went to have some drinks in the bar with Courtney and Michael... Mac found some of her teammates and I later found them at 10:00 in the exercise room running on the treadmill!! I don't get on the treadmill, even though I need to and these crazy girl are on there for fun!! LORD!! *rolling my eyes* So I finally get the girls up to the room to get ready for bed and Mac passes out in bed smothered in pillows! We get to sleep in a little Saturday since we don't have Pre-lims until 12:30. So I'm cool, calm and collected (remember this because I don't stay this way!!) and mom and I go take a seat to watch the others in our division while the girls are in warm-ups. I'm shocked to see there are some really good teams, and also felt a little down because I didn't think we'd be able to place high against teams with more girls on the team than us. Our girls were the last to compete in the Junior Level 2 Division. All us parent's went to the front with our "clappers" and blow horns and loud mouths to yell for the girls! At this point, my stomach gets a little tight, but still doing well! Our girls performed like they had never before!! We were like WOW!! So we knew they weren't in last and that they had made a good showing and off we went to eat some lunch, etc. I told my sister, and head coach, to text me when they got the score sheets and let me know what place we were in. So we went to lunch, went to Harwin street in Houston (the Chinese area of Houston to get lots of cool stuff for cheap... jewelry, knock-off purses, etc.). So we're looking at jewelry and my phone rings... I know it's my sister bc of the ringtone and I'm thinking to myself "this must be good news if she's calling instead of texing!".... so I answer and she's crying and proceeds to tell me our team is in SECOND place by .005 after Pre-lims!!!! Undoubtedly I am FREAKING out and am running to find my mom on the other side of the store! She of course freaks out too! We watched the teams we were against so we knew how amazing this was, plus, we are 3 teams up on the team that won Cheer Power Nationals the weekend before!! I believe the whole store knew what had just happened by the time we left!! It was just such an amazing feeling to be at the top with this first year gym and team!! Remember, only 4 of these girls had ever done cheerleading before in their life and my 8 year old was the most seasoned veteran with this being her 3rd year and we were now beating teams that have been competing for some time now! So, we go back to the hotel... watch a little Blue Collar Comedy Tour (yea, we love that redneck comedy!) then decide to go to the Galleria to check out Dylan's Candy Bar (this HUGE candy store owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter)... I got some dark chocolate covered oreos, dark chocolate almonds and some almond toffee while my mom got dark chocolate coffee beans and Mac got WAY too much sugar that had her wigging out by the end of the night to the point I couldn't get her to sleep!! There aren't many Dylan's in the country but if you ever get the opportunity to go to one, go and see it, it's WAY cool!! We also met Courtney, Michael and Brandy and Cami (Cami is a teammate and Brandy's her mom) at Ninfa's in the Galleria to eat... had a margarita and headed back to the hotel. By this point it's 10:30 and we have to be up at 5 the next morning bc the girls compete Finals early. Mom and I can't get to sleep so we watched Bill Engval (comedian) who was hilarious! Then we're about to go to sleep when Courtney and Michael decide to come up to the room and have us laughing like CRAZY! We finally get to sleep around 12:30! Ugh, and 5 AM came REAL fast!! And Sunday, I was NOT calm and collected, I was so sick at my stomach and my nerves were real bad!! Being at the top and trying to stay there is much more nerve-wracking than being at the bottom!! Another parent tells us 2 teams before ours that we're on a different floor, so I'm on the phone calling Courtney as we RUN to the other floor and see our girls lining up, then they find out they're suppose to be on the floor we parents were originally at! UGH!! So we all run back! The team did well in Finals, but did have a couple bobbles and Mac's basket toss didn't go as high as usual BUT we were done and had to awate our fate for 2 hours!! That was the longest 2 hours ever!! So finally it's time for awards at 11:30... there were 9 teams in our division so we pull out the sheet where we had written down everyone's places after Pre-lims and they start at 9th place.... us parent's were getting more and more excited as they went down the line! And we can see Courtney and Michael with more and more tears of happiness rolling down their faces as each team gets announced and we get closer to the top! Finally it's time for the top 3 and luckily, we haven't been called yet!! The top 3 teams stand get recognized.... we get called out for 3rd place but we were so happy with that!! It was by far the best the team did all season and it was the best way to end the season!! Courtney and Michael are bawling, as well as, some of the girls.... everyone's overjoyed!! And as we're walking out a lady from an opposing gym stopped me and asked if Mac was my daughter then told me they all watched her perform and how amazing they thought she was! That really made my day!! So.... that was the fun-filled weekend! Now, I'm so exhausted and I've gotta work!! The girls had Monday practice off but Mac's gonna take a tumbling class on top of her regular classes so she can get her full and compete individuals next year so we'll be going Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays now... oh, and my son's soccer season just started too!! Better find me some good meds! LOL