First and last

This weekend was very busy for us. We had Thomas's last soccer game of the season. It was a chilly morning, but bright and sunny. Thomas finished out his season with four goals in the game and a win for the Panthers.

Soccer mom in Ethiopian gabi.  It was chilly, but I was warm.

A blurry phone picture of the mighty Panthers and their participation medals.

 We also had a big first this weekend: Candace and Sarah had their first real meet competing for Nebraska School of Gymnastics. We traveled to Ankeny, Iowa for the Jump Jivin' meet hosted by Triad Gymnastics. The girls had some rough routines on beam, but they had some bright spots and the meet went okay on the other three events as far as a first meet goes. Most importantly, they had a blast! Looking forward to watching them improve over the course of the season!

Sarah performing an arabesque...

... and a nice handstand in the first half of her beam routine.

Candace prepares for her handstand...

... and overshoots it, but look how nice and tight she is!

Sarah starts her floor routine while her teammates look on.

 Candace on floor.

 Sarah got fifth on vault!

Gymnastics redux

My last post about Spears family gymnastics was written in January of 2009.  With both the big girls no longer competing and my last day of coaching behind me, I thought we were done.  Competitive gymnastics is a huge time sucker, and although we all missed it terribly it was also a relief and a necessity with the arrival of three new littles during the next two years.

But then, Gabby Douglas happened.  And Candace and Sarah went gaga for gymnastics.  So, here we go.  A couple of weeks ago, they had a Holiday Showcase at their gym... an opportunity for the rec kids to show their parents what they have learned.  I thought the twins did pretty well.  Not sure if competition is in their future or not... coach Paula is cringing a little over some of that form, but as a mommy I was pretty proud.  :)

Disclaimer:  I have no idea which twin is which in most of these pictures.

Sarah stretching

More stretching

Sarah (top) and Candace waiting to start.

Marching to first event... Sarah left, Candace right.

 On the big beam

 Cartwheel on the low beam.

 Cartwheel on the floor.

Kickover

 Vaulting

 Finished!  Candace blocking Sarah's face...

Olympic dreams

I love the Olympics. The first one I remember seeing was the Munich Olympics in 1972. The one where I fell in love with all things Olympic was Montreal in 1976. And this little girl is the reason why:

With Nadia Comaneci and her perfect 10's, I was swept into the world of gymnastics, a place where I hung out for many years as a gymnast and later as a coach.  Her routines still give me goosebumps.

Now my little girls are being enchanted by a new gymnastics princess, Gabrielle Douglas.  It was so fun watching her and seeing the twins get excited by the success of a "brown girl" like them.  It seems gymnastics lessons are again in our future.

We have some other Olympic favorites too, like Purdue University diver David Boudia (right).  He and partner Nicholas McCrory won a bronze medal in the 10m platform synchronized diving.  Boiler Up!

And finally, we were thrilled today to see Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba win the women's 10000m race in convincing style.  Go Team Ethiopia!  And let the Games continue.  :)

Long ago, at a university far, far away...

...this young lady competed for the
Purdue University Gymnastics Club.

A taste of summer

With temperatures in the upper eighties today, we got a summer preview... well, okay a late spring preview, it will be much hotter in the middle of the summer! Summer at our house means swimming, boating and playing on the trampoline. The lake is still far too cold for swimming and the boat isn't quite ready, but Daddy put the "jumpoline" up today.

Jumping!

Anna does a back tuck flip

Candace does a straddle jump

Sarah's front flip

Sarah's straddle jump

An evening out

This evening, we went to dinner at the aptly named Ethiopian Restaurant with our friends, Coree and Roger and their three daughters Ellen, Libby and Emma. I used to coach Libby and Emma in gymnastics. They were having an out of town visitor, another of my former proteges, Skye.

Here I am posing with two of my favorite little gymnasts,
Skye and Libby:

And here, Skye and Emma amusing the twins
by pretending to be horses:

I can only hope that the very kind restaurant owner was equally amused. Thankfully, we were the only patrons still in the dining room at this time. :)

The end for Emily :(

Some of you probably remember back in early November that Emily sprained both of her ankles, one of them quite severely. She just finished physical therapy a couple of weeks ago, but she is still having some pain and limited mobility. Her meet season is already half over, and there is no guarantee that she will be healed enough or prepared enough for even the last two meets in March. She spends 23-25 hours a week practicing, which leaves virtually no time for other activities. That's a lot of work for the possibility of no competitive season, and this is her senior year. So Emily made the tough decision to hang up her grips. She will keep her part time coaching job; she enjoys that very much and the hours are easy.

She had a wonderful career. She was a very late-starting competitor at 12 years old, but still went on to compete for five years in levels 4-8. She was a state champion in every level she competed at, and qualified and competed in regionals as a level 8. She was a member of two state championship teams, level 6 in 2005 and level 8 in 2008. She was on the top qualifying team for Nebraska for the Region 4 regional meet in 2008.

I think she is absolutely making the right decision. Her stress level is already way down. Now she can focus on school and family before leaving for college in the fall.

But I still feel a bit sad. Gymnastics was a wonderful thing that my two daughters and I shared, and now we are just... done. It feels strange. But life moves on, doesn't it?

Good-bye to coaching

It was an eventful last three days on the Spears gymnastics front. Saturday was our state meet. We managed to get fourth place, despite missing two of our best gymnasts from earlier in the season. It was a frustrating meet because it was in two sessions, and we only had one girl in session two. And as happens in gymnastics sometimes, the scores escalated a lot in the second session. I think we were really the third best team at state, but that second session hurt us a lot. Anyway, we ended our team season with two first place finishes, two seconds and a fourth. Here we are at the state meet: we definitely get the first place award for cutest team.

In other news, yesterday was my last day coaching. I am quitting to be able to spend as much time as possible with our twins when they get home. Many tears were shed by me, my girls and some of my favorite parents. The girls and parents gave me a little farewell party and I got some very nice cards and presents and these beautiful flowers. Daisies are my favorite! Thank you so much to all of you. I will miss all of the girls so much, as well as my friends on the staff. But I will still be hanging around the gym in my parent capacity, and I'm hoping to test to qualify as a judge for next year.

Good-bye, Premier Gymnastics... I will miss you.

Second place again!

My level 4 team at Premier Gymnastics had their last regular meet of the season on Sunday. We got second place with a respectable 109+ score. Alas, we were way outgunned by the first place team, Solid Rock Gymnastics of Lincoln. Next week is our state meet; my last meet for the foreseeable future! Tears! :(

Shout outs to Jessica H. for finally hitting that beautiful beam routine in a meet for a 9.45, our individual high score of the meet; Jaime C., the most improved all-around gymnast in level 4 and to everyone on bars... most improved event!

Changes are hard

Nothing much is going on today. I had an emotional week. I turned in my resignation at the gym. My last day will be December 15. Most of the staff knew I was planning to leave due to the upcoming adoption, and also to free up some time to get Anna to and from her after school activities. It was just a matter of making a decision as to "when". I thought after the state meet would be a good time... but I am so sad! And I made little girls cry! I know it will be for the best in the long run, but changes are always hard for me. It is a great job and a wonderful part of my life. I will miss all of my little girls so much. So sad... :(

We're 2 and 0!

My gymnastics team, Premier Gymnastics Level 4, had their second meet of the season today. We got first place again with a fabulous score of 113.05, ahead of the second place team by .065. All of the girls were great today, but I would like to recognize and congratulate my top scoring girls in each event: Vault, Sarah L. 9.75 (highest individual score of the meet!); Bars, Brooke S. 9.3; Beam, Alexis H. and Brooke S. 9.5; and Floor, Madeline W. 9.55.

I'm very proud of the entire team and I'm looking forward to our next meet!

A bad day for Emily

My poor baby. As you may know, we are a gymnastics family. I am a coach, and both of my daughters are or have been gymnasts. (Tom and Kenneth get quite tired of gymnastics conversations.) Anna quit in February after sustaining several broken bones in her hand/arm: she's dislocated an elbow (required a cast), broken a finger and hand bone (required a cast), broken her thumb (required a cast) and the final straw was a stress fracture in her wrist just one week after getting a cast removed. So she moved on to high school cheerleading and diving and is very happy.

Emily, however, is sticking it out for one last year of competition before going to college next fall. Today was a "show day" at Premier; a deadline day for the optional gymnasts to demonstrate certain skills for the upcoming meet season. Alas, while warming up her front tumbling pass, Emily managed to roll both ankles. After a couple of hours in the ER, the verdict is a nasty sprain of her right ankle; at least there is nothing broken and no cast required. But my girl is on crutches for the week and who knows how long it will take to get the ankle back to full strength? She now has two bad ankles... Her first meet is New Year's weekend and includes a much anticipated New Year's Eve trip to Times Square in NYC. So please say a quick prayer that Emily will heal well and quickly. She's worked so hard for almost six years!

Way to go, Premier Gymnastics Level 4's!

This is just a shout out to my great level 4 team at Premier Gymnastics... you girls rock the gym! We had our first meet of the 2008 season today and got first place with a team score of 110.0! That's a great way to start off our season. Congratulations Jessica, Madeline, Isabel, Alexis, Brooke, Sarah, Jaime, Emma, Kassidy, Sammi, Regan, Lauren, Emily, Caroline and Rylee!

I am so proud of all of you!

Pie In The Face

Let me begin by saying I have nothing adoption oriented to talk about today.

So, on to other news. Yesterday was the annual pep rally at Premier Gymnastics, where I coach the level 3 and level 4 teams. After some skits and cheers by each of the teams, we have the highlight of the evening for the kids which is the "pie the coach raffle", a fundraiser for the booster club. I guess getting pied in the face may have its charms, but they have been lost on me for a couple of years. Of course, I'm always ready to see others get a pie in the face! Here, for example, are a couple of photos of beloved oldest daughter Emily taking a hit from one of her teammates. As a part- time coach (on her day off from practice), she is fair game in the high stakes of pie the coach. Note the enthusiasm with which Emily's teammate smears the pie all over her face and head. These were yummy pies, too. Emily's featured jello, whipped cream and green peppers.

I was feeling pretty good at the end of the evening. There are usually eight pies, and all of the raffle pies were done. I was pie-free for the first time in four years. The last pie is coaches choice. Usually, we pie the senior gymnasts if we have one... Emily. However, I was tricked! The coaches opted to pie the senior gymnast's mother this year, since the gymnast already got hers. My pie was red jello, whipped cream and broccoli. I didn't know about the broccoli until I found some in my shower after washing my hair

Well, it's probably my last pie in the face. And gosh, that actually makes me a little sad.