Cute picture

Carissa had a friend, Shelby, spend the night and this is how they occupied themselves! I don't know what I love so much about this picture . . . but I think it's awesome!

Summer Time and the Livin' is Easy

Yes, school is out. Steve and Carissa are now out for the summer. Steve will be doing his usual summer gig, and Carissa will be trying to keep herself busy, too. She might do a summer daycamp for cheer, and she'll definitely have some cheer camps for teambuilding and for choreography. Me? I'll be working. But I'm also looking to go back to OCPS. I am hoping for a resource position, but I would be willing to teach middle school. I love my job at Harcourt, I'm just frustrated with the pay and promotions issues there. If something falls in my lap that I'm happy with at OCPS, I'll take it. I'll keep you posted.

It's True

I now have a myspace. So does my kid, but her's is set to private. You also have to have a myspace to see my myspace. If you do, I'm at http://www.myspace.com/kcz Come be my friend!

It's pretty cool!

A New Do!

Carissa decided she wanted shorter hair. She actually decided this during cheer season, but because she had to put her hair up in a VERY high ponytail, we had to wait. About a month ago we went to get it all cut off, but the lady was a little conservative and didn't take enough off. She probably cut about 4 inches off of it, but Carissa wanted about 8 inches off! We went this Friday to have her hair relaxed again, and Carissa got the haircut she's been wanting. She is very excited, and it looks really cute!

Before:





















After:

All Dressed Up

Carissa was invited to a birthday party this weekend that required that she dress up. We had to go buy a dress (and shoes, and accessories, of course) for her since she didn't have one. She looked great!

West Orange Habitat For Humanity 5K

Carissa was invited to run in a 5K this Saturday in Oakland, which is in west Orange County near the Lake County line. Sarah's dad has helped organize this event for a couple of years. Since the county track meet was cancelled this weekend, Carissa decided to participate. She spent the night at Sarah's, and they got up at 6am to get to the race on time to help Sarah's dad set up. At race time, Sarah's dad ran with Sarah and Carissa for the first mile and a half. They were doing well, so he left them to themselves. Carissa finished in 31 minutes and 26 seconds! She did great - especially since it was her first race. The most exciting news is that Carissa won 1st place for her age group, 12 and under! There was only one other kid there in her age group, but at least it wasn't a 6 year old or something. The other kid was an 11 year old girl. Congrats, Carissa!

A New Gym, A New Team!

Carissa had tryouts this week. She did AMAZING! She landed her standing tuck (a back flip in the air from a standing position), had great running tumbling and jumps, and solid stunting. The results were posted on Wednesday and she made a senior team! The girls are a little bit older than she is, as they can be up to age 18 on a senior team, but I trust that the coach/owner Brian knows what he's doing and knows Carissa. He was her coach at the old cheer gym for two years. Each squad at the gym has a nickname so they don't have to be referred to as "Senior All-Girl level 4," etc. The gym decided to go with a baseball theme, and each squad has a different baseball team for a nickname. Carissa is on the Dodgers.

We're very excited and glad that we made the decision that we did. Everything is very positive and running smoothly with the transition of the two gyms combining.

Yes, there will be a parent team, too. The team nickname is "The Old Milwaukee Brewers." hahaha! I like it! My dad's favorite beer was Old Milwaukee. It makes me think of him. =)

New Cheer Gym!

What an exciting and stressful couple of weeks with cheerleading! A new gym opened up in town, and 2 of the coaches from our gym decided to go over there. The bad thing is they didn't tell the owners of our gym until the day before they left! It was very ugly. So our gym's owners got a little nervous because so many kids were going to the new gym, wanted to make sure their business would continue to be successful, and decided to merge with the local rival - OFC. It's been tough on everyone. It really divided our old gym. Probably more than 1/2 of the kids went to the new gym with the coaches (called Cheer House) because OFC had a pretty bad reputation at one point. Several people didn't want to go there because of that. We're trusting the owners of MAC and hoping for the best. So farewell MAC All-Stars. We are now Orlando All-Stars. Be Ready.

Steve is 42!

Today was Steve's 42nd birthday! We had to go to Carissa's track meet and she also had cheer tryouts. We bought Steve a bunch of Spiderman stuff and he also bought some recording equipment to use for his summer job. He's pretty excited about it. He said he had a good day.

Happy Birthday, Honey!

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.

Comments

I've added a feature to my blog where you can leave comments about the posts if you'd like. You can just click where it says "(Number) Comments" and it will give you a screen where you can submit a comment. Type your comment and click publish. That's it!

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.

All Grown Up

We just got Carissa's school pictures for this year. I can't believe how different she looks with her straight hair and braces off!

Here is a picture of her at about 18 months:




And here is her 7th grade school picture:





Where did our baby go?

Updates

Cheer season is ending. We have one more competition (parents, too!) next weekend - March 31 - April 1 in Orlando. Tryouts for next season will be at the end of April or beginning of May. As of right now, she is required to move to another squad next year because of her age. They are talking about changing the age rules again next year, though. If so, she could be on youth another year. If they don't change the rules, she'll either be on Senior All-Girl or Juniors.

In the time between now and tryouts, she is continuing to work hard in school. She is still playing the trumpet and is in Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble (concert band). She enjoys it. There will be a few concerts before the end of the school year.

Finally, and the newest addition to her busy schedule, she has decided to run track. She had tryouts last week and she starts practice next week. She is interested in running middle distance, which is one lap around the track. She feels she'll be the most competitive there. The track practices are every day after school, with meets on Wednesdays. She's enjoying it so far, and it's definitely good for her. It makes me question her maternity, though! hahaha!

Atlanta

We just got back today from a VERY long weekend in Atlanta. All of the squads from our gym had great performances, but still didn't fare well in the standings. Carissa's squad got 7th out of 8. It was quite disappointing, as they were in 6th after Saturday and had an AMAZING performance on Sunday. We were hoping they'd move up, but instead the team behind them moved up further due to eliminating some illegal tumbling. The other teams' standings:

PeeWees - 6th out of 8
Juniors - 4th out of 5 (but they beat Flames)
Seniors - 4th out of 11
Co-Ed - 2nd out of 3
Open - 2nd out of 11

It was great to watch all of the teams put on such great performances. I'm tired and glad to be home!

Carissa is 12!

February 8 has come and gone, and my baby is now 12! I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing home our little bundle. She's turned into quite the young lady. I'm very proud of her!

What did she do on her birthday? She had school, Jazz Band District Assessments, and cheer practice. But we took cupcakes to cheer practice. After all, it's not a birthday without cupcakes! =)

She had a few friends over on Saturday (after a trumpet lesson and ANOTHER cheer practice) to spend the night. It was fun.

One of our family's traditions is to go out for a birthday dinner. This year Steve was in Vegas working, so we will be going out for the birthday dinner soon. I wonder where she'll pick this year? Colorado Fondue or Melting Pot? hahaha!

Cheer, Cheer, and MORE Cheer!

Well, it's the middle of February already. Things have been busy since my last post. Carissa has been at 2 competitions since then. At the local one they didn't have anyone in their division, so they took first. The exciting news is that at the most recent competition they DID have competition. They won! It's the first time in the 2 years she's been with this squad that they've taken first in a competition where they had someone to compete against. Usually they have someone in their division "cheering down," which means they compete a level lower than they should to win. It's like cheating. This time both teams were pretty equally matched, and our girls won! They also got jackets, to which Carissa promptly declared, "It's hideous." It's not THAT bad - it's a little windbreaker with "National Champions" screenprinted on the back. Well, next weekend is Atlanta and the biggest competition of our season. I'll post again about cheer after that.