MacKenzie

So tomorrow is the big day when my baby has her surgery!! She's having a second set of tubes put in her ears and an adnoid removal. She has been pretty much freaking out all week.... giving me attitude at home, behavior issues at school. When she's stressed or upset, this is what happens. I was about ready to kill her earlier in the week but had to take a step back and realize she's upset. I talked to her for a long time last night and she had lots of questions about her surgery and I think I was able to ease her mind a bit. So, we have to be there at 6:30 in the morning and it shouldn't take too long and we'll be able to go home and rest... I'll let her eat lots of ice cream!! Oh, and in just a little bit, I'm going to buy a "scrubs" outfit for her pink poodle build-a-bear, Pixie, to accompany Mac to the operating room (ugh, those two words make me nervous). Anyhoo, please keep Mac in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow!! Will give an update tomorrow afternoon!!

The pictures from Cheer America Nationals were finally posted so here are a few of my favorites....

A cheer radio station... REALLY?!?!

Ok, this is FREAKIN' awesome!! There is an actual cheer radio station! I'm listening to it online at: http://www.cheer1.com/. It has nonstop routine music... LOVE IT!!!

Relaxing weekend, Tumbling Class, Open Gym

Sorry I haven't written in a few days, I was enjoying the weekend of no cheer competitions and taking advantage of doing whatever I wanted!! So Mac decided to take a power tumbling class on top of her already 2 hour, twice a week cheer practices. She decided to take the Wednesday night class since Open Gym (a two hour time where the kids can work on whatever skills they want and the coaches are there to spot) is right afterward. She did very well in class, worked on her roundoff backhandspring tuck and her standing tuck. She's sooo close to having both, just trying to work technique. She acted silly in Open Gym, as I knew she would, because the kid HAS to have structure and Open Gym is not structured. She did work on her standing tuck and I finally got her out of the gym around 8:30 so we could make the 40 minute trek home. I made her stay home from her regular cheer practice time on Thursday because she had so much make-up work from missing school the week before. She spent literally 4 hours straight Thursday night on school work! Oh, and did I mention my mom forgot to take her to her violin lesson that day?? Nani lost track of time and missed the lesson.... oh well! Anyhoo, finally got through the week and I was soooo happy to have the weekend to chill out! I got lucky and Mac spent the night at a friend's house Friday night and my son, Mekhi, was with his daddy so I slept in until 11:15 Saturday and it was fantastic!! I got up, drank some coffee, watched Sixteen Candles for the bizillionth time, at some lunch, then took another nap! LOL There was no one at the house so I took advantage of the quietness!! Yesterday did some cleaning, made a great lunch of meatloaf and mashed potatoes, watched some TV, took a nap then watched the Oscars. Now, back on the grind! Mac's got cheer tonight and Mekhi has soccer... luckily we carpool to cheer and tonight isn't my night to drive!! Mac has surgery on Friday to have tubes put in her ears and adnoids removed so I'm getting a little nervous about that! Til next time.....

Cameron

I fogot to mention in the last post that Mac's teammate, Cameron, won the Best Cheerleader Individual and got herself a National Champion jacket!! That's the first National title for our gym!! Congrats Cami!!! Here's a pic of her last pose during the routine, awesome pic!

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

Back to school, V-Day parties, etc...

Well, Mac's back at school today after 3 days home with the flu.... I'm praying I don't get that dreaded call from the nurse to pick her up!! She's got her Valentine's party at school today so last night we were home making out Valentine's for her class, as well as my son's class. I had the bright idea of making chocolate mice for them to take for their parties today... why do I always have these grand ideas during the day when I know I'll be exhausted when I get home?!?! Anyhoo, after dinner and a glass of wine, I thought I could get it done!! I snuck into the kitchen, hoping the kids wouldn't hear me so I could get the mice done quickly and without help... didn't work!! They both came to help!! So I had Mac pulling cherries out of the jar and Mekhi unwrapping Hershey kisses for me while I heated the chocolate and we got to work. They turned out adorable and I'm sure their classes will love them.... the things you do for your kids!! So today Mac has violin and cheer. Cheer should provide for an interesting blog tomorrow... coaches always get a little stressed the practice before Nationals... last week was a mess and a half!! Until tomorrow......


Oh, here's a pic of the little mice critters we created for the kid's Valentine's party...

Cheer Power Nationals 2009

So, we just returned from San Antonio, TX, for Cheer Power Nationals 2009. I was a little nervous because we would be seeing the gym I coached for last year and my daughter's old teammates. But all was well, the kids were happy to see us!! So, I'm not a coach this year but my sister, Courtney, and her best friend (who may as well be my brother and the absolutely gayest man I know and love him even more for it!), Michael, run their own gym this year. I had planned to sit in the stands and be a parent but Courtney and Michael asked me to go backstage as a coach so I could help out so, even though I knew it would make me ten times more nervous, I went ahead and went. Warm-ups went great and MacKenzie's stunt was hitting, thank God!! We got into the "tunnel" to line up for pre-lims and I was doing well until they announced we were on deck and I thought I would vomit right there in the tunnel! The team was, amazlingly, very calm and ready to go! Then they called our name next onto the floor... Courtney, Michael and I proceeded to the coach's box to watch the 13 6-12 year olds do their routine by theirselves after six months of long practices! The routine went by like a flash! All MacKenzie's stunts hit! I was overjoyed!! Michael jumped on Courtney, we were screaming and hollaring (yea, we're a little crazy but that's how cheerleading is in Texas!). And luckily, finals went just as well! The girls placed awesome at the National competition and for a first year gym, that's all we could ask for! That evening (Sunday) on the drive home, MacKenzie wasn't feeling well and I chalked it up to the long weekend but when we got home I took her temperature and it was 103 degrees! I about freaked out! I kept an eye on her all night and took her to the doctor the next day and she has the flu! She's been out of school for 3 days now and had to miss cheer practice Monday night. Normally, missing practice wouldn't be a huge ordeal BUT they have another National competition this weekend in Houston! Because I'm a "psycho cheer mom" I normally would've still made her go to practice and do as much as she could but I didn't want to get the rest of the team sick so we stayed home. Hopefully she'll have shaken this flu by tomorrow because she's got violin at 3:30 and cheer at 6:30. Ok, this was a long blog but had to get you all up to speed, I'll start writing each day, especially practice days!! Done for now... see you tomorrow!

Here's a picture of Mac's basket toss...

And here's a pic of Mac and one of the girls i coached last year, who cheers for another gym, Kelcey...