I love retro

Pedal cars, record players, and a coke cooler. I LOVE retro. My kids are too big for the car, and we already have an awesome vintage turntable. So the cooler is my favorite. It also helps that I collect Coca Cola. 5minutesformom is having another awesome give away and these are the prizes you can win. Don't like these well you can also choose a cash voucher to purchase something from the retro store. See what else you can win here I so hope I win. TTFN, Miki

Don't dress in the dark...

Or at least don't own more than one pair of the same style of shoes. I had to have one of my kids to school much earlier in the morning than normal, and then was off to sort nuts for the Girl Scouts. I dressed and went off to do my business.
After sorting nuts my husband, who had agreed to join me suggested that we go to DSW, because he needed new running shoes. I don't know that he needed them, but it sounded good, and he is OBSESSED with shoes, and coats and watches, and belts. I swear if I didn't know better. Anyhow, while shopping for shoes, I glanced down at my own feet, and happened to be wearing two different shoes. OMGoodness! They were both Saucony running shoes, but one was my much older relegated to yard work and other messy things shoes, and one was my new pair. It looked awful. I simply had to have new shoes so I wouldn't look so stupid. Unfortunatley, they old pair I could find were these cute little mary jane clogs by MUDD. They would have looked bad with the yoga pants, but I bought them anyway. My husband also bought two new pair of shoes, but neither were running shoes. Hmmmm see how he manipulated that situation? TTFN, Miki

One Down Three to Go

Yesterday was the first of four Cheer competitions. It was the very first ever one for my youngest. She hadn't really ever even seen a competition. It was fun on one level and frustrating on another.

My youngest daughters squad went for out of our groups. Her squad looked better than they have, but it is a big squad (21 girls), and they have some young ones on the team. My daughter is a back spot. This means she helps the flyer get in the air from behind. She has two bases on either side that are supposed to help her get the girl up and then back down again safely. This never happens. She is the only one ever "catching" this child. Now they don't throw her or anything, just lift her to about knee level, but for one girl to catch and the other to back away that is just not good. The other stunt group, actually dropped their flyer. Not good. This team got 7th place out of 9 or 10 teams. A nice first outing.

My oldest daughters team, for which I am a coach, went on a few groups after my youngests. My team has spiral curls in a high pony tail. I roll my daughters hair. Some people buy hair pieces. Actually on our team of 10 girls, it is split about even. I prefer rolled hair for many reasons. First it looks more natural. If you have ever seen some of these hair pieces you would know what I mean. It is just WAY too much hair for a head, let alone a childs head. The second, and probably biggest reason is that they can fall out. You can think they are is secure, and then BAM! right in the middle of your preformance it falls out. Sometimes it only falls part of the way. It will just hang half off the head, and the girls will just have to ignore it, or lose more points. Other times it will fall clean off and just lie there in the middle of the mat. This is what happened to us yesterday. One of my daughters closest friends hairpieces fell off in the middle of a jump. EVERYONE in the audience gasped and then laughed. My girls just kept going as if nothing had happened. Yeah for them! We had coached many times on what to do if something doesn't go right. Our biggest example was a flyer not being able to safely get in a stunt. We always say pull them down and pose. Keep going as if it were planned. The girls did this on Sunday. I am very proud. Other than this problem, their routine looked GREAT. I have reviewed video and there are some areas that need work, but all in all they did a good job. However, our scores didn't seem to reflect all of that. We took 6th out of 9. The girls were frustrated. I spoke with an offical after. What we didn't know was that we were a "true" junior squad, and many others weren't. We had all girls of the same age group and some of the squads we competed against weren't. They only needed one girl of that age to be at that level. Yes they would have to preform better, but you could do some great stunts if you had 11 year old girls lifting 7 year old girls. It is much harder to lift someone who weighs close to what you do. I thought our stunts were challenging, but what we could do if my youngest was on my squad would be amazing. This was one of the frustrations. Not all of our competitions will be like this.

Another frustration was that the gym was too crowded. The fire marshall wanted to shut it down. And then the air turned off. This crowded gym turned into a sauna. Then just before the awards ceremony we were "treated" to a performance by J. Randall. He sang several songs, and then said, " How about one more" He of course expected screams, and what he acually got was silence mixed with some "no's". How embarrassing. I will get our scores today so we will know what we need to work on for this Sunday. TTFN, miki

A Zombie Situation

44%
In honor of Halloween and of course, Bubba, I took this quiz. I really thought I would have done better on this one. TTFN, Miki

Miki here...for some strange reason, the link isn't showing up, but if you click on the empty space it will take you to the quiz. Wierd. Anyhoo....I scored 44%. It is a quiz to see how well you would survive a Zombie attack. -M

Ravelry

My Ravelry invite came today. Huray! I have looked around a bit and think it will be a nice resource. I am not sure I will get way into it. I really don't have the time. We will see however. TTFN, Miki

Are cheer moms the worst?

Is it just me, or are cheer moms the worst? This has been the MOST stressful coaching experience EVER. This morning a got an email from another mom, telling me that her daughter could no longer fly. We have one week left in the football season, and 4 weeks of competition. This next week is all about tweaking the little things and making sure they always have their cheeleader smile on, not about replacing a girl in a stunt group. This mom has been searching for cheer accidents online and has decided that it is just too risky. Now mind you, this is her second year flying. The stunts are basic at best. The accidents she is refering to are extreme. Yes cheer is dangerous. But we are very limited on what we can do. The accidents she is refering to, involve extreme height, and flips. I spent the better part of an hour "talking her down". I let her know that a flyer oould not be replaced a week before competition, and that major changes in the routine that would accomodate her daughter not flying would keep the girls from being successful. She didn't want the girls or parents mad at her, but also didn't want her daughter a parapalegic. This is valid, but I told her that people would be mad. They paid good money, and spent countless hours practicing only to have to "start over" at the end. I assured her that her daughters saftey was the most important thing to me, and that I would not let the girls preform something that I felt was unsafe. I have told this to all the girls from day one. We loose more points in competition failing at a stunt, then not doing it at all. Not to mention I do not want anyone hurt. The guilt would be way too much for me. In the end, she relented for now. I told her that I appreciated this. I also ask her to stop researching accidents, because the stress was too much. The numbers just don't work. That is like saying flying is dangerouse because if the airplane crashes you have a high likelyhood of dying. Yet, when weighed with how many planes fly every day, and land safely the risk in flying in an airplane is low. Are cheer accidents extreme? Yes. But I think weighed against how many stunts are successful, especially basic stunts, the risk is low. Would I let my daughter fly? Yes. My oldest daughter wants to fly, but she is too tall. My youngest is petite, and will most likely be a flyer if she continues cheering. As a side note though, I would rather they do something else entirely. I wasn't a cheer leader. The societal roles attached to this sport are not something that ever intersted me. I had friends who cheered. It worked for them. I chose other sports. Two of my daughters are however interested, and so they cheer. This is not the way I wanted to start my Sunday. TTFN, Miki

October is breast cancer awareness month

Please do yourself a favor, and make sure you check yourself monthly. Take some time this month to learn more about breast cancer. I have not been personally affected by this disease, but I know that it is only a matter of time. The numbers tell me that. I also learned about a new kind of breast cancer a few months ago. If I can figure out how to link the news story on it to this site, I will. If you havent had a mamogram get one. I recently learned that at my age, they are now wanting to get a "bench mark" mamogram, so they can see easier any changes. Not really something I want to put myself through, but I know it is WAY better than cancer. I will be doing my own research and posting it here, so you will all be better informed too. Also, 5minutesformom, and casio are giving away a cute little camera in honor of breast cancer awarenss month. Check it out. TTFN, Miki