Karissa got to compete this year for the Steelers cheer competition. I got to see the parent showcase the Wednesday before, but unfortunately, I was on my weekend getaway the day of the actual competition. I was really upset at first at the poor timing. I had planned my trip late, which meant we found out the date for competition even later. In the end, it was all for the best. Karissa got a ride with Olivia, since it was an all day thing for her, and Jason was able to take the boys to their last day of soccer and then meet up with the Steelers later in time to watch their performance.
After watching the parent showcase, I decided it was better for me not to be there at the competition. Having been a flyer myself, I get really anxious for Karissa when she stunts, especially since this is her first year with "real" stunting. There's so much involved in a stunt and at least four people working together to make it happen. It doesn't matter how many times you "stick" it at practice, if you get a little nervous in the big moment, it could mean the entire stunt is messed up. Being the flyer, you do get more of the "glory" because it's your face everyone sees, but you also feel the worst when a stunt doesn't go up. That's not to say the flyer is the most important, because they're not. The bases and the spotters are even more important.
That said, she did fantastic at the parent showcase and the competition. She nailed all her stunts at the showcase, but didn't look as polished. At competition, she looked very polished (they all did!), but missed one stunt. Jason commented on how even though she missed one, it didn't even phase her. She just kept her great smile on and kept going. The team took 3rd place for round one. That was the cheer round. They took 4th for round two, the dance/stunt round, so they didn't medal for that one. I thought they looked great in both and am very proud of their efforts. Go Steelers!
(Here's the video from competition. In round 1, she's the shortie on the middle towards the right. In round 2, she starts on the X in the middle and is the flyer on the far left.)
This last weekend I met my college roommates in Atlanta for Time Out For Women. We've been talking about getting together for a long time now. When Sarah got married, 11 1/2 years ago, Cathy, Synthea, and I went, but it wasn't the same since Sarah was getting married. We didn't have that quality time together like we did at BYU. Plus, I had brought 1 1/2 year old Victoria, and Synthea brought her 6 month old.
This was a very memorable weekend! The last time I even went anywhere without kids (besides a one-night stay with Jason at a hotel here and there to celebrate our anniversary), was when my friend from high school, Jessica, got married. I left my girls (2 and 4) and went for a quick weekend on some red-eye flights. This was a needed "time out" for me!
My roommates and I were pretty close as freshmen and then lived in the same apartment for two years after that. We prayed together, read scriptures together, cooked and ate together, and even celebrated holidays together a little early so we could have our own Christmas and Easter before being with our families. We were family! We had some super fun birthday celebrations together as well. After getting together this weekend, I could see that we all have very similar views on many things, like politics, religion, and finances, which are big areas to have four people agree on! We spent some great moments creating more memories and reminiscing about the old ones. Sarah, who's from the Atlanta area, picked us all up and booked a hotel near the convention center where TOFW was. She packed snacks and lunch items to make, as well as her very good scrap book from our time at BYU. We laughed very hard at times looking at some of those pictures!
At Chick A Biddy for a Sounthern lunch.
Sarah and Cathy shared a room.
After Cahty and I got married, Synthea and Sarah shared a room for another year.
Synthea and I shared a room.
Some icing on the cake for the weekend that, I already knew would be great was, first of all, I had no idea how awesome TOFW is! I highly recommend it! Not only were there great speakers who uplifted and inspired me more than I thought possible, but there was fabulous music! I didn't pay much attention to the happenings at TOFW before I left. I knew it would be fun with my roommates and that was all I needed. A couple days before I left I decided to see what the program looked like. When I saw that David Archuleta was going to be there, I got even more excited! I don't think I ever voted for anyone on American Idol, but I believe I actually picked up the phone for him. He was so talented and had such a great spirit about him at such a young age. Then, he served a mission and I was just so impressed! I own one of his CDs and have some CDs with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that include him singing with them as well. I wanted my kids to enjoy his music and learn about this talented musician who put his career on hold to serve the Lord. It has worked! My kids all say he's one of their top favorites. I didn't tell them he was going to be there, so when I returned to tell them he was and that I had gotten his autograph, they all screamed, even Austin! And yes, I was a little star struck myself while we were there. We sat in the fourth row to get better shots of him, though that was still hard because of the bright lights. Also, when I heard the first 200 people to buy his CD would get a ticket to get it signed, I quickly picked up a CD and the DVD about his mission. Since I bought two things, I got 2 tickets! Synthea and Sarah got to stand in line with us to the end, but Cathy got the other ticket, so Synthea snuck some shots of us as we got his autograph, since we weren't allowed to take any pictures with him.
The best on stage pic I got.
That's me getting his autograph and acting very star struck!
I'm sure all these moms were amusing to him, the way we were bubbling about.
David sang beautifully and surprised us with some good insights and uplifting words and experiences. His speaking wasn't quite as polished as his singing, but really, when you sing like that, how can it be?!
More exciting people to meet included Michael McLean, a very talented composer, musician, and speaker. I grew up on his Mormon music and videos (Together Forever and Mr. Kruger's Christmas). You're Not Alone and The Forgotten Carols are some of my absolute favorite uplifting songs! Since he's not a "rock star" as he called David Archuleta, we were able to just go line up to meet him. It was was a long line, but we still waited and got a picture with him. He made a joke about us posting it on FB as being his Mormon wives. He shared his amazing story about his 9 year struggle with his faith. Look it up and read it, it will strengthen your testimony!
Michael McLean
Mary Cook, Emily Watts, Lisa Valentine Clark and a local Atlanta sister shared wonderful messages about overcoming their unique challenges and how they strive to live better and "Arise", which was the theme for the whole event, in their eloquent and hilarious descriptions. I learned about Timothy Ballard, who was there, and is an extremely talented man who is currently rescuing children from trafficking. His story was heart wrenching, as was Alyssa Parker's, who had lost her daughter in the Sandy Hook shooting. Her daughter was an angel before she was even taken from her family! Alyssa's words were so uplifting and comforting. She's an inspiration to all!
Two more favorites of mine before the event were Brad Wilcox and Hilary Weeks. David was the musician on Friday night and Hilary on Saturday. I own some of her CDs as well and "knew" her from my high school days. She has had some #1 hits in the religious music genre and is so beautiful and talented. We got to meet her and take a picture with her also.
Hilary Weeks
Brad Wilcox is like my friend. I first saw him speak to my ward when I was about 14 at probably my first Youth Conference. He was so funny and entertaining then and still is! He is such a great speaker! He can have you laughing so hard one moment, and the next you can feel the Spirit so strongly that you're in tears. He is an educator and worked many years with the McKay school of education at BYU, so I saw him in many class settings and own a children's book written by him. Of course we had to shake his hand and I guess we didn't take a picture with him, looking back on it (boo). We told him we had all met up from different states to attend the TOFW event and he was so impressed that the next morning in his opening welcome remarks he announced how great it was that four college roommates met up from Georgia, Virginia, Michigan, and Virginia to be there. We felt like movie stars after that!
Last, but not least, as I walked in from the restroom during the first break on Saturday, I came in a different way and I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw my mom's brother Craig and his wife Jill at the Southern Virginia University booth! I knew the booth was there, but didn't think they would be the ones manning it! It was such a sweet surprise! I had to keep walking over to chat with them every chance I got, after I realized they were there.
Craig and Jill!!
Final group pic
Under a magnolia tree
I can't get over what a great weekend I had. I'm still on a high from it! I guess I need to do that more often!
(Here's two short clips of David Archleta singing. My battery was running low :(
Believe it or not, but Victoria is now a teenager! There are times when she really acts like one, for the good or the bad, and times when she's still a young kid. She really has gotten into Our Generation Dolls (the spoof off of American Girl). That's when she seems really young to me still. She loves to do their hair, but she also loves playing with them, setting up some very large area of the basement with every room in a house an OG girl doll could want. She has 3 of them and received a real American Girl doll from my mom, that she bought off of my niece, for a birthday gift. She still wants more! More accessories too, and a kitchen, and a doll house for them. I'm not sure how long she will still like playing with them, so I'm dragging my feet about buying more. Though, I am pleased that she has such a good imagination still! We're not to the point yet where she needs to get off her phone to get something done, it's, we need to get her away from her dolls to get something done!
When she got Kit.
Besides playing with dolls and doing their hair or anyone else's hair, including her own, which she has now taken over fully and I don't have to anymore, (she can do her own dutch braid 100 times better then I can!) she is loving cross country and is talking about doing it again next year, really enjoys dance, even practicing at home, more into piano, and also enjoying the violin. She is friends with everyone and definitely likes social interaction. We had a great group of 12 girls at our house for her party, and we could have invited more.
This was a couple of months ago. She does even better now.
A recent meet.
It's been a very warm and dry fall here. We thought we'd take advantage and hold her party the Friday before her birthday to make sure the weather would be nice so we could have it mostly outside. Well, that was the first really rainy day. They were able to go out to jump on the trampoline for a while and play capture the flag (Victoria's favorite game) for maybe an hour, but it was wet and it started raining again. I did have a fire going in the hopes that we could enjoy it, but it was going while they were playing. Then they got tired, then it started raining. Oh well! I had a good spread of party food for them to enjoy and they played some games in the basement like Twister and Truth or Dare. We did "Minute Makeover" (makeovers in a minute) as well as longer ones. I had a movie ready , in case we needed it, but when the party seemed to be winding down, there was a half hour left before parents would come, so we watched Studio C, another favorite of Victoria's.
Party people!
Trampoline tricks
Capture the flag.
Gift time!
Pulling candles out of the brownies.
Doing hair, what she does best!
Some make-up arists.
Just in time for her birthday yesterday, it rained even more! She was supposed to run in her cross country meet, but they cancelled due to "unsafe weather conditions". I had planned on Los Tres Amigos take out for our busy evening (after cross country there's only an hour before Karissa's cheer practice), so we had some of her favorite food before I had to run the cheerleaders off and Victoria could get ready for YW. I think she had a good birthday with lots of opportunities to see people and them make her day by wishing her a Happy Birthday. She has a great smile and a cheerful disposition!
Every year each ward holds their Young Women in Excellence night where the 12-18 year old girls are recognized for the goals they have accomplished as part of the Personal Progress program. Victoria got to attend her first one last night. It was a movie theme. They had popcorn and candy for everyone to enjoy while we watched a "show". The show was basically a talent show, though not every girl performed something on their own, but all of them were in their class skits, which were hilarious! I encouraged Victoria to sign up and choreograph a dance to perform. She has never performed anything but our funny family dances at a talent show and I thought she could use it as one of her goals to pass off. She put her dance together so easily and enjoyed figuring out the costume and music. However, she did get nervous when she found out she was performing it in front of all the parents too, and not just the Young Women.
The other few acts were a tae kwon do demonstration, a violin player, and a dramatic monologue. The rest was each class' skit and honoring the girls who completed all their goals to earn their medallion.
It was a great night!
Here's her dance to Lost Boy.
Here's the Beehive skit. It's a copy from Studio C. They did a great job, though you can't hear everything. The parts you can hear are hilarious!
