Today I had two gymnastics practices. Julie's and mine. Mine started out really awesome on beam. I did my warm-ups, as usual and then I did cartwheels, handstand and dismounts. Then Terra had me do back-walkovers. She first had me do one with her spotting on the low, fat beam. We moved up to the low, skinny beam. Finally, she had me do one on a beam, a foot above the ground, with spot. I wasn't going to do it at first but then she mentioned how I could show other girls how to do them. I am guilty, that pumped me up. I didn't make it but I tried.

I went with Gergely on bars, after that. I did kips with nearly straight arms. You probably don't know how good nearly is, nearly straight is what most of the good girls in my class do. It is really really hard to do a completely straight arm kip. What I found ironic is that Gergely's girl, Mara, who demonstrates the straight arm kip, didn't do as well as usual and my arms were actually straighter than hers.



On floor I did a roundof- back-handspring back flip! With one handed spot. Terra estimates that in a week of working on that I could be doing that by myself! I let my head lead, so that's a problem. I am used to back-handsprings so I let my head lead. Terra says that if I could get the roundoff back-handspring. I might be better at the rondoff- back-handspring-back flip then the roundoff-back-handspring-back-handspring. I am to high in my second back-handspring.

I came for Julie's practice but it was just a usual practice with nothing interesting.

Would those of who voted on the last poll, What is your favorite womens gymnastics event, put in the comments section of this post what you voted on and why.

Thank you.
Theresa

My optomotrist appointment was today. It went well and the contact lenses I were now are the type I should keep getting. It was still good that I went there because I would have gotten a different prescription if I hadn't. This optomotrist is a contacts fitter. On my usual visit with doctor Freeman, he made my contacts prescription higher. However, doctor Haman lowered it back down.

My second dentist appointment was after the eye doctor's visit. They filled in my cavities. I was very still but yet amused. What hellped was that I pretended it was a high surgery operation. I know that real surgerys are no fun but in this case it helped. It gives you the challenge of making every thing that is going on into something in a surgery. It's the playful game of make believe. I pretended that the beeping noises of this machine they used the heart reading. It was turning the boring into the fun.

Gymnastics went well yesterday. Consistent running this time. Beam was painful yesterday. I tried to do a leap and it was terrible, because I had slipped and I fell on chest and chin. I scraped my arm on the beam too. My coach, Caroline said "ah are you all right". Of course I said fine, my usual reaction to that question. I walked to the coach's room to get an ice pack. The coach's room is just a room where the coach's put their stuff and where the refrigerator, microwave and medical supplies are. I only teared up twice, wiped them up and walked back out. Then I sat down and iced myself for five minutes then went back to beam. I think the beam I used was cursed because Bren made the same mistake I did on the leap. It is still my favorite beam, though.

On floor Gergely decided to have us do dive-rolls, front-handsprings and roundoff- back-handsprings. He would watch them and say either yes or no. We had to get three yes's before we could move on to the next skill. My dive-rolls took one and a half turns (we got to do each one twice a turn (except the roundoff back-handsprings)). My front handsprings took three turns and I never finished the roundoff back-handspring back-handsprings.

I did vault on floor and I did wonderfully. Straight and tight, my vaults were successful.

Fury of the wasp, behind the story.

Now the story was true but only that was the middle of the true story. The wasps were there for two weeks before the incident. Their nest was in the crawl space between the first and second floor. They would come, die and then more came. Dad called a exterminator, hoping it would help. The exterminator made the nest impossible for the wasps to live in and my room was the next choice. He said they'd be gone in three days. It's been six. Dad called and he said that those were the larva of the time he'd been destroyed the nest. Now my thumb is still sore and I feel like I have only four fingers usable. Considering how painful it is to use it! I am glad I didn't do any bar today.

The Fury of the Wasp.

I was asleep at four thirty in the morning. Awake and yet asleep, knowing what I was doing and yet not knowing and doing but not knowing why I did. Laying on my back, I moved my left hand to the right. Ahh! The sting was strong, as though I had stuck my thumb deep into a tack. My mind was racing. There was no wall or anything to hurt my thumb like that. My room, plagued by wasps, It was possible I had stuck my thumb into one. However, I thought, It is unlikely. The sting was worsening and then, I heard a faint buzzing next to me. I got up, throwing the covers off of me, half ran, half walked, to my parents room. It was stinging like mad. Whimpering, I said "a Wasp stung me.". My mom first had me rinse my thumb in cold water until it was numb. She trashed around, looking for something that would numb the poison of the wasp. She then found some Windex, containing ammonia, which would heal the acid of the wasp. I then could not sleep until six forty-five.

Gymnastics was Awesome. We we ran two laps around this thing of grass they put in the streets and parking lots. I ran nice and consistant at that same speed, I finished first but after I finished the last two yard sprint the coaches asked me If I was all right. I was so tired I answered "I'm fine. My side just hurts." It hurt like it does if you just finished hard aerobics. Floor went through smoothly with improvements. Conditioning I appreciated. I did everything correctly but I got frustrated when during sit ups I would have to hold someone down but she kept stopping every two of the fifty. When it was my turn I got to thirty without stopping rested a second and did the rest of the fifty in a minute!

Vault was awesome! It started out poorly but then took a turn for the best! I sared without Caroline spotting me so I kinda' freaked a little so I didn't go but when she spotted me it was really bad. I dived down causing me to pike. My arms were bent, too. My second one was spotted (due to the other terribleness). My hands were so close to the bottom edge of the vault it was a wonder I didn't hit my back against the vault. On my third one it was decent. My arms were still bent a little but I wasn't too piked and there was no danger involved. Then Caroline stopped the vaulting and said that we were done and we weren't concentrating and working hard. I was pretty mad. Vault was all I had been thinking about in the seven-people line. She then brought out a conditioning list Gergely had made and told us to do it. Then, she said for Rachel, Saylor and I to keep vaulting. My next one was awesome. I wasn't very pike my arms were almost straight and stuck the landing. My next one went fine and the third one I hurdled to soon so I didn't go anywhere and tried the run again. It was really good. The next one was for score. I got a 7.9. Actually pretty good and if the judges are that generous I will have a good first-meet score.

On bar I did 33 kips out of 38.

Yesterday Mom decided to take Leah, her friend, Steve and the rest of the family to the Original House of Pancakes. It is my favorite breakfast restaurant. They have good bacon and eggs and I got a dutch baby, a European pancake. It is kinda' sour first and then sweet.

After we returned a mowed the lawn. Julie was riding Joey's scooter and Thomas wanted to ride a scooter too. To keep Thomas out of trouble I looked for a good scooter substitute, then I found the children's lawnmower. I thought that Thomas would enjoy copying me mowing the lawn. it was very cute.
On Sunday Leah went home and I played with my friends for the rest of the day

Floor awsomness

Today it was floor, floor, conditioning and then break. Gergely was really helpful on the back-extension roll. A back extension roll is a backwards roll to a handstand (not my strongest point in the floor routine).
I injured myself doing a front handspring. I landed on my foot incorrectly, landing on the left side of the foot. This hurt the foot and I cried maybe for two seconds then grabbed a ice pack and sat down to ice my foot. I guarded the gummy bears for Gergely. He has some sweets he has and he gives them to us at diffrent times. Sometimes it's for having the best half way hold (holding a push-up halfway for a while) :~) I came back into action for the routines.
My floor routine was awsome. I was sharp and smiling. Gergely wanted us to do two routines in a row for endurance. My mistakes were corrected (e.g. on the back-extension roll with my legs together....). Then because it was a Friday and there were less then ten gymnasts, we went out to icecream at the nearby gas station. Then we conditioned for the rest of the class. So it was pretty good.

Gymnastics wasn't the best today. I got tired and wasn't that good on bars. On vault it wasn't wonderful like yesterday. We started with vault on floor and then we went to the real vault. On my first vault my arms were bent and I was really piked. On my second vault I was just a little ways away from hitting my back on the vault. The last was for score, 6.8. Not too bad. On floor my routine was off. So not my best day.

Yesterday I pulled my groin muscle doing a mount yesterday and three weeks ago I pulled it rolling over. This is the worst time yet but icing it helps.

My dentist appointment was today. I had some tartar in the back and two cavities:~(. My next appointment for the fillings is this Wednesday. I got a ring as the treat you get when it's done.

When the dentist's appointment was done, we went to the St. Louis park recreation center. Their pool was awesome! There was a huge slide and you could go into one line and do the body slide or go into the tube slide. You could have a double, triple or single tube. I went down a few times with Joe and Julie, in a triple tube. I also went with just Joe twice and I went down once with just Julie. I think the two most fun ways to go down the slide were with all three kids and by yourself, in a tube. I think going down by yourself is fun because you can have the lifeguards turn you around backwards. I like going with all three kids fun because there's this thing called whipping. When you whip on the turns you lean towards the curve and you go up it a little and when all three riders whip you go really high (you can whip when your by yourself but not as well as with three). You also go faster because their is more weight. I learned by talking with kids in line that if you whip at the last turn you might hit your head as you enter the water. We ignored this and I sit in the back because I'm the heaviest kid, so it was my head, right. We found it is better if you whip at the last turn. The body slide was OK, you get wetter but it isn't as good as on the tube.
Thomas enjoyed the water park a lot. He would just walk in at first but I got him hyped up by splashing him and he laughed when I did. I would also go underwater and sneak up on Thomas and pop my head up to surprise him. He fell in once when he was knee deep and then he came up and laughed. He was pretty brave in the water. Once, he got up to neck deep. Then he fell and he never went that deep again. When he fell, at first Dad and I let him lie there for half a second (we thought he might come up by himself) and then Dad pulled him up. He coughed a little. He then played in the sandbox. I didn't play in the sandbox but it looked interesting. There were some water works for the toddlers to play with.
Joey would appreciate you all to look at his blog to see his side of the day (he would also like you to enter some comments.)

Gymnastics went wonderfully today! On beam my routine was definitely improved. Unfortunately posture is the biggest thing this year.

On vault (on floor witch means that I vaulted over a giant block on a mat, with a springboard,) I did it with straight arms vaulting over it like a pencil vaulting, I was so straight, witch is the goal. Most of my vaults were like that.

My floor routine was excellent. Nice and sharp.

My bar was good but we only did pit bar so no jumping at all. Dad attached my bar to the play set.

Gergely was sick today. Today, at gymnastics we did bar, first. I didn't make the jump (though that wasn't really my assignment) and my kips were off. That happens sometimes, you have trouble on a skill. However, on some days your really good at them.
On vault I have definitely eliminated the fear part of vault but my arms were bent and I was piked. Being piked means that your upper half is fine but your legs are being dragged along. You're supposed to kick your heals up so your feet are leading but I kick my heals at the end.

On beam I did a nice, graceful and steady routine and on floor my routine was Ok. In the end before the last tumbling pass I had some trouble because my foot work was Ok but my arms were kinda' limp.

My coach, Terra, injured herself. She was sitting on the pommel horse, examining the other groups beam work and she fell of the pommel horse and she tried to avoid the mirror so she landed on her right shoulder. Later, she was icing her shoulder and my group was having our turn on beam Terra examined her shoulder and it was kinda' dented so she went to the docter and Gabor, one of the two owners of the gym, took over beam.

It was an good practice

I just got finished mowing the lawn it's sooo tiring. Today it took me an hour and for those of you who have seen my yard that is pretty difficult. I had a sleepover with my friend, Gabby. I met Gabby through gymnastics and we play around quite a bit, especially during break in gymnastics. We actually didn't follow tradition and stayed up late all night. Partially because Gabby's mom didn't want us to be tired in the morning, and partially because Dad had a game night (game night is the second Saturday of evrery month and Dad invites everyone we know to come over and play games) and by the time we were ready for bead it was past elleven. We talked about gymnastics and other topics and we just kinda' hung out and just played.

Here are some modern (five minutes ago) pictures of me. I thought you might want to see what I look like

Good. It just cleared up outside but the ground is so muddy because in our neighborhood, water doesn't really absorb into the soil. However, it is sunny and a beautiful day. I really don't know what I want to do today, any suggestions. Dad also accomplished "phase one" of cleaning the garage. There's actually enough room to put both of the cars in the garage.

Brain Storm!

I just had a brain storm. I will be putting a activity on a every month at the bottom of my blog. This month's is Soduku.

Goldfish and polls

How do you like the goldfish. I looked at the gadgets with Mom this morning and I found the goldfish and the polls. The goldfish follow the mouse and you can click and food comes out and the goldfish eat it! The poll is just a poll. It ends in a week from now at five o'clock. They also have countdowns which is really cool. It is a screen and it says how many more days to an important event. There's also a calender and a bunch of cool things but the goldfish and the polls are my favorite.

Really rainy day

Today is so rainy you wouldn't believe it! The wind is really bad. I left my shoes outside so I had to go get them. My umbrella only helped a little, because the wind blows it into you. No playing outside today.

For your information on the side bar are comments you can still find comments below the posts. I hope this is convenient for you. There is also a rating note at the bottom of the post.

Gymnastics report

Today I did not make the jump, I made it with spot though. Although I did not duplicate the process. I did something else, I made a front hip circle cast. The front hip circle is a move where you basically do a forward roll while hanging on the bar. The only difference is that you try to get your nose to your knees, if you don't you won't be able to come back on top of the bar. The result is quite different though. A front hip circle immediate cast is difficult because you must build momentum from the front hip circle and let it go in a cast (let your hips swing of the bar). The nice thing is that you can just let your hips go an inch off the bar and the judges will call it a cast.

On beam Gergely tried to get me to do a back-walkover on the beam. A back-walkover is when you arch your back, keeping your legs in a split and just keep your back arching. Soon your arms will be touching the beam and then you make your legs go over to land. He said I could do them without spot on the low beams but it felt so unnatural that I was nervous to do it. He not spottin me did not help.

I did a wonderful floor routine without music (with Caroline, one of my other coaches). I was all smiles and it was good. I put a few small flairs onto it that make it look unique. However, when I had the music it wasn't so good. I didn't take my time at some points and at others I was behind the music. I also missed a step before my back-walkover (on floor). I could tell because if I didn't switch my legs I would be attempting a balk-walkover on my wrong leg!

Also with Caroline, I did my beam routine. I didn't warm up so I was wobbley. I'll have to practice smiling on beam so I can hide the look of despiration, frustartion and fear and I'll need to practice my handstands. The full handstands (all the way up) feels unnatural to me. I probobly won't be surviving in the jungles anytime soon if I'm trying to delete my natural senses. My handstands aren't all the way up so I won't be surviving the wrath of the judges anytime soon if I don't delete my natural senses. Oh well, I'll go with trying to destroy the natural sense. So over all it was a good practice.

Oops! my mistake, Joey, Dad and Thomas didn't see the movie. Dad says because I was crying he didn't go to the movies. He was immediately corrected by Mom and I. He didn't go to the movies because Julie didn't want to and with Tivo you can watch some movies on demand. He thought he could save some money by watching movies at our house.

rainy day

Today is very rainy. I have a Girl's club meeting today too. So that might not work out. Girl's club is a club two of my friends and I made. It's clubhouse is in my play-set. We put outdoor furniture into the clubhouse, theirs even a rug in it! The rug is actually a picnic blanket. Also Dad is taking Joe, Julie and Thomas to see a movie, Night at the Museum two. I don't get to see it because I am going to Gymnastics. Dad said "you can't go because you get to go to gymnastics." My reply "Can I see it later in the theater?" Dad "No." I have two arguments to that. Argument number 1. Julie goes to gymnastics and she gets to see it. Actually I just got news that she will be going to her friends house instead. She got the choice though! That argument still stands. Argument number 2. When I'm invited to go to the movies with my friends Joe, Julie and Thomas get to see it later!

Game on.

Today I finished a game called Small World that Dad, Joey and I started last night. I got second place ahead of Joey and behind Dad. Joey had a let down because I counted my victory points wrong, putting to tens together and called it a group of ten. So Joey was celebrating because he beat me until I realized that I had miscounted, so you could see the disappointment. I will admit I was guilty of gloating. Joey did a lot of during game gloating but I did the end game gloating.

Gymnastics practice started on bars but I did not make the jump to the high bar. Gergely (pronounced gear,gay), my coach, decided to have us work on routines. My freind and I had to do five of the first half of the routine then do five of the second half of the routine. On the jump I was scared because Gergely had moved the high bar really close. Being tall, I had to just lean to it. If I jumped I would knock into the bar. The team support was no help. E.g. Theresa just lean don't jump, Theresa if you jump you will kill yourself. See, no help. Nothing really exciting happened today at practice.

The Kelley farm trip

Yesterday Dad took us on a field trip to Kelley farm. It is a farm in the style of the eighteen fiftys. I dressed myself in the most out dated stuff I had, a dress and kercheif. The dress was purple and it wasn't that old fashioned but it was pretty good and the kercheif really pulled it together. I brought my freind Eliana with me. The first thing we did once we got there was fixing a wood fence. A man, dressed as a farmer had some of us kids fix the fence, it was made out of some logs. It was actually pretty sturdy. Then we fed some oxen these little white flowers. You would hold up some flowers and they would take them with their tongues. One oxen licked Eliana and she was not happy about that. We also petted some horses. Then Eliana and I went inside a big house. We explored the rooms and we especially liked the bed room. It had a comb, some nice glass pieces and an armoire. The armoire had some real books (they were quite old)! Then we went in this wagon to go to the feild where we would gather some oat bails. A farmer went up to me and said I could go help with the oats if I would ride in the wagon. I said "You drive a hard bargain but Ok!" It was tiring work. we would pick up a bail of oats and put it in the wagon. Soon the wagon had so much oats in it that us kids couldn't put the oats in! So then the pitch forks came out. People would stand by the wagon with pitchforks and others would put the oats next to the wagon and the people with pitchforks would put it in the wagon. Joe liked the pitchfork job best. Then I went to the kichten in the big house and helped clean some pickles. Dad then said it was time to go but got distrated and we got to play some more. Then I took some squashes to be preserved. Then I was told to help weed the garden. One of the women who worked their helped me or really I helped her. We accidentally pulled a onion. Then I helped them finish off some all-wheat bread:-) It was delicious.

Gymnastics info

Today I got up at seven thirty and got all my chores done at eight forty-five. That gives me two hours and fifteen minutes to play. Child's honor. Then at eleven I'll have my lunch and leave for a four hour gymnastics class. Two days ago I learned a new skill on bars called a long-hang kip. A long-hang kip starts with a tap swing under the high bar, then you pull your toes up to the bar and pull up (with straight arms) using the momentum of the swing. However to compete on bars I need to figure out how to stand on the low bar and jump to the high bar. I intend to learn that today. What I usually do is jumping to the high bar but just touching it but I need to grab it. To compete I also need to improve my vault a lot. My vault is a front handspring over the vault. You need to run, hit the spring board, put your hands on the vault and stick it. I need to reach and kick my heels up but I dive into it and it is really slow. Besides that I'll definitely be competing this Fall.

Kelley Farm trip

Today we went to the Kelley Farm!
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