Exciting News!!!

I am SOOOO excited!!! I was named the May Guest DT member for a VERY COOL site, ScrapWords! I love the whole concept of their site. Instead of galleries, they have blogs. Members present their artwork in their own personal blog. By doing this, they are able to elaborate on the creative thought process that went into their designs. ScrapWords emphasizes journaling, which is an important component of scrapbooking that I don't always take time on. I'm so excited to be working with the talented bunch over there...what an honor!!! I'm really going to learn a lot there.

Scenes from the 2008 World Cheerleading Competition

We all had an AMAZING experience at Worlds. We're already looking forward to going next year! I'd like to share some scenes from our trip with you:

The girls, as they arrived at the Orlando International airport.


Celebrity Hall, the place they set up at the All Star Sports resort for all cheerleaders to check in. We have NEVER seen so many cheerleaders in one spot before!!!


The resort had SUCH a cool pool...the biggest I've seen at a resort.


I just loved this shot of the large star against the beautiful Floridian weather.


The buildings were fun to look at!!!


My girlies just before we headed to Epcot the first night.


The team (most of it) posing at Epcot.


A little blurry, but the big sphere at night was so pretty to look at.


Some of the girls, as we were touring the countries at Epcot.


The team practicing at out hotel just before leaving for the competition.


Alex and her team walking up to the Milk House (at the Wide World of Sports Center), where they competed.


The most exciting stage they have ever competed on!!!


Alex playing up to the crowd!!!


The end of the routine. Alex is the one in the air.


We had an amazing team dinner that night. A picture of our personalized menus. We had our own banquet room and the food was incredible!!!


Team picture at the Magic Kingdom


By this time, I left Alex with her teammates while Samantha and I spent some quality time together.


MGM Studios. We saw an awesome car stunt show there.


Leaving our hotel the next day.


The resort may have been more economy than other Disney resorts, but we loved it!!! So much to do there and nice comfortable rooms and good food.


Samantha putting on her saddest face on the plane ride home. All she is missing is a big tear running down her cheek!!!


Alex's sad face is pretty convincing, as well!


I had such a great time with the girls!!!


Thank you for looking at my pictures! I am so happy to share my fun moments with you. What a great trip!!!

Updates...it's been a long time!!!

We're back from Worlds! We had such a good time!!! Alex's team executed a great clean performance. They came in 40th out of 57 teams in their division...which is excellent, considering the caliber of talent we were up against. We couldn't be happier! As I've said before, our gym has only been around 2 years...no other team at the Worlds is newer than our team.

Stay tuned for some scenes from Worlds, as I post some pictures tonight!!!

Speaking of pictures, I'm sorry to say that my life has gotten so crazy busy that I've decided not to continue with Picture of the Day. Yes, it saddens me and I wish that I could have continued it for the year, but at least I did it for 3 months!!! I'll still post plenty of photos from exciting events and other random occurances. :)

Exciting things have been happening!!!

Hi all,

I've been horrible about updating lately...I know. I've just been so crazy busy...not much time for anything! I am very late on posting my Week 14 pictures. I have decided to post Weeks 14 and 15 together this coming Monday, so you will see 14 pictures at that time. Stay tuned.

I wanted to share some exciting news with you all.

1. I won the $1000 Grand Prize in the 2007-2008 "Heart of Winter - Serendipity" contest by Close To My Heart!!! I created a layout, using their beautiful Serendipity kit and it was selected as the first place winner! I am over the moon about this and now have the very pleasurable task of selecting $1000 worth of CTMH goodies out of their catalog!!!

Here are some pictures of my layout:












2. Alex is going to the 2008 USASF World Cheerleading competition!!!
Alex went to VA last weekend to compete in a cheer competition, where bids to the World competition were handed out to the top two teams.

Now I didn't go and see the performances for myself, but apparently they did awesome and stuck every single stunt and tumbling pass. All of the other teams were telling them how awesome they were and were amazed at the level of difficultly of their routine. So they were all stunned when they came in 5th out of five teams!!! Very disappointed, but chalked it all up them being a new and obscure gym. Cheer can be very subjective.

Fast forward to this morning, when I get an e-mail saying that a math error had been made...Alex's team came in 2nd!!! They are now going to Worlds in 2.5 weeks!!! They are held in Orlando, FL! There will be 300+ Level 5 teams from all over the world (22 countries, I think). Now Nationals are held everywhere and really don't mean too much. But there is only ONE World Competition and it is by invitation only!

Very, very exciting and such a wonderful opportunity for my 12 year old!!! I'm so proud of her and her team.


I promise to show you Weeks 14 and 15 on Monday!!! :)