National Junior Honor Society

Carissa was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society this week. She had been nominated by her teachers, and then she had to fill out an application and submit an essay on how she uses the 4 qualities of Leadership, Community, Character, and Citizenship in her life. A few of her friends were also inducted: Sarah, Terra, Allyssa, and a few others. Sarah and Terra are also in her Girl Scout Troop. You can click on the picture to make it larger.

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Track Meet #1

Carissa's first track meet was on Wednesday. For some reason, Carissa's name got removed from the list of girls running the 400. So she only competed in the 4x400 relay. She was the first one to run, even though she is the fastest on her relay team. In the relays, you only run against your grade level. Her team lost, unfortunately, but she was happy with her time: 1.16. She knows she has to improve it, though. It was a good experience for her. She has 3 more meets left. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

Jazz Under the Stars

Carissa was part of a night of jazz with her school's jazz band. It was a fundraiser for the feeder high school, and they invited both middle schools' jazz bands to perform, too. It was a nice night, included a pasta dinner, and was a success for the high school. Both Jazz Band 1 and Jazz Band 2 from the high school (I think it's like 1st string and 2nd string) were amazing. One of the high school kids played 4 different instruments (tenor sax, alto sax, flute, and clarinet!). It was fun. Carissa looked VERY small!

News?

Not much is happening lately. Carissa has her first track meet this week (I'll post about that after it happens) if it doesn't get rained out. Ed was in town this week and came over for dinner on Saturday. They are thinking about extending their stay overseas. Steve and the boys golfed on Sunday in the crazy winds. My brother had given Steve a little statue of the Bill Murray character from Caddyshack for Christmas. When you push a button it gives movie lines. Steve used it as a trophy for when they all golf! Jody was the winner this time and gets to proudly display the trophy until the next time they play!

The biggest news for Steve is that he shot a 78 when he played golf a few weeks ago. He was convinced he should quit teaching and go pro. I'm hoping he holds out a little longer!

As for me, I bought new cute white sandals. They're white with a strap between my toes and a buckle. They're cute:



We had an "open house" at the cheer gym on Saturday where all the teams performed to try to get new people interested. Reports say 20 new families signed up. Tryout clinic starts next week and tryouts will be on May 11.

Another Season Gone . . . But . . .

Yes, that's right. Cheer season is officially over. We had our last competition this past weekend in Orlando. All of our gym's teams did well! Carissa's squad did score 2nd place, BUT . . . she hit her lib! This is a stunt that she's been working on for a while and has had difficulty doing - not entirely her fault. It was partly because of her stunt group. Here is what a lib looks like:



However, this weekend, right before they went on and were in warm-ups, the coach put the libs back in. He had them doing just an extension:



but I think when he saw their competing squad doing MUCH harder stunts, he decided to put the lib back in. On Saturday, Carissa hit the stunt but bobbled a little. That's a deduction. On Sunday, though, she it it perfectly! It was awesome! I was so proud of her. The coach even came over and hugged her and told her he knew she could do it!

Okay, now the most exciting news . . . the parent squad. We had 3 squads competing against us. We were all listed as "Exhibition Teams." Come to find out, the reason is because 2 of those squads refused to compete against US! hahaha! They were afraid! We went on last on Sunday. We hit everything! Even the pyramid of death hit! It was awesome. So . . . at awards they start to announce places! Even though we were told we weren't competing. 4th place - Aero Elite All-Stars, 3rd Place - Gemz All-Stars, 2nd Place - Stars Athletics! So YES! We WON! It was quite exciting, especially since last year we lost to Stars because they cheated. It was very rewarding to take 1st place over them this year!

Congrats to all of our cheer teams. Minis, Juniors, Senior All-Girl, and Senior Co-Ed all won 1st place trophies. Our gym also won the "Program Award," with the highest combined point score of all the teams combined.

Yes, we're awesome.