They Went, They Cheered, They Won

Saturday morning, M, J and I left for Orlando ... OK, we were about 2 hours late leaving thanks to me oversleeping but all was well. We made it down to the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort in just about 2 hours. Plenty of time since the girls weren't due to perform until 12:55.

Traffic was pretty steady and boy, were the troopers out with their radar guns. All was lost on Emma as you see ..... she was ready to continue her ZZzzzzz's on the way down.

Once we got there I was able to call Ms. K who had graciously watched L overnight. It turns out the girls had to be downstairs and ready to go by 11:10 .... a little earlier than I had thought. Perfect timing, though, because we got there just as the group was heading outside to get their stars on.

I was very impressed because the stars looked a lot better than I thought. This has to be the poor man's way to do this but very effective. Glitter, Glue, and Stencils were all we needed to apply Shining Stars to each of the girls faces.

Thanks Moms, Brittany, and Kalyn who all did the work. It was the finishing touch ... oh, one more, glitter spray courtesy of Ms. Melissa.

Both squads did GREAT jobs on stage .... The competition was held in a large conference hall, I cannot even imagine how many seats were there. Suffice it to say it was big enough to include a Hummer in back of the room. The Lil Starz did Great! Just one bobble but they recovered and finished. The Starz did awesome and were definitely in command of their performance. I was amazed at how many groups were there and some churchs had multiple age groups. I think they said 27 groups performed from Kindergarten to 10th grade. That was just the impact groups. Then in addition, they also had the Christian schools compete afterwards. I think the Christian schools also had competed Friday so the groups that performed on Saturday could have just been the finalists, I'm not really sure. Our whole group is below:

Lil Starz won 4th place in the 4th grade and under category. The Starz came home National Champs in the 8th grade and under category plus GRAND CHAMPIONS from the whole event! Wow! This was everybody's first year! How proud we are of ALL the girls, coaches and Ms. Melissa our sponsor.

Our final stop was Macaroni Grill to complete our trip ... then we headed home. Ellie was out before we even made it out of Orlando. It was a great day and it was nice to have all three us back under our roof last night as we slept. Thank you God for a wonderful day!

Nationals - here she comes

There she is ... little Miss L about to leave for Impact Nationals with the rest of the Starz and Lil' Starz. Wow! I miss her already. I barely made it out of the parking lot before I started to cry ... just a little ... it's hard to let them grow up sometimes ....

They were all so excited to be leaving and I'm thankful she was able to ride down with another mom. I'm going down tomorrow morning with M and my sister J. After the competition we'll eat at our favorite place ... Macaroni Grill .... Here's hoping for a great competition! Go Starz ! ! ! !

With L off on her adventure, M and I are left with a Mom and Me day ....

Welcome to 2009

Wow! Two wonderful days and we were fortunate to spend the last day of 2008 and the first day of 2009 with our favorite friends.

Yesterday was the perfect day! I mean perfect for December in Florida. Sunny, bright, clearest, bluest sky! The girls and I picked up their best buds K&C and off to play tennis we went. This was going to be interesting because K&C know how to play but L&M have only logged about 3 hours with the new rackets they got for Christmas. No problem, K&C were great teachers and by the end of the day they played a pretty good match.

In addition to tennis, we all had lunch at the Loop, looked for the missing snapping turtle in the creek and played at the park. A very good day! Everyone in the van was saying the same thing on the way home, "It's been a great day!"

Last night, we celebrated with a quiet night. We were going to the pier for fireworks but I didn't really want to drive back ... there is just something about being on the road on New Year's Eve that I don't like so instead .... I read, something I'm planning to do more of in 2009, M watched her favorite TV shows and L spent the night watching the new year ring in. By 10 I was probably asleep but L made sure to wake me up with her excited voice calling to me at midnight "It's 2009 Mommy, it's 2009!" Oh, the excitement. She is truly the light of my world.

We welcomed 2009 by cleaning the house ... my room looks so nice today .... but the living room and kitchen still need some work. See, we took a break to go bowling with the whole G family and J. After a great afternoon with we made it home in time for dinner .... and ice cream.

Quite a nice way to end the day ... Hello, 2009! What goodies will you bring?

Dreaming of Dublin

Well, I can't go to Dublin right now so I'm making the socks. I absolutely love this pattern and while my J Knits was originally purchased for Monkey socks, I'm loving the way these are coming along, proof it was the perfect combination! Don't you love the colorway? It's Connecticut and the bright blue and brown mix is delicious. It reminds me of a bright blue sky and chocolate ...

Looking ahead to 2009 .... The word is Discipline .... not in a bad way, but rather, in the way I need to be more disciplined in my approach to life .... you know, the treadmill that we all seem to get on and move day to day? Before we know it, a week has gone by, or a month, or even a year and we haven't gotten to the things that pop into our head, contacted the people we need to stay in touch with or taken care of ourselves they way we should. Sometimes I wonder if all the technology is such a good thing? It sure makes it easier to stay in our own world and not venture out like the generations before us. My goal is to do better, knowing I may not get there all the way but do better.

Perhaps, that's how I got on this topic from the socks. My relatives are Irish and I come from a big family and well, just because I live in the present and like everyone else have technology all around me, my goal for 2009 is to step back, simplify and focus on what's important, family ... people ... relationships ... the things that matter

Steps to get there:

1. Call friends regularly

2. Send cards or calls when someone comes to mind, right then, do not procrastinate

3. Get out and knit - not just knit at the house

4. Make a goals list for projects at the house

5. Family nights with the girls

6. Read every day

7. Manage finances better

8. Exercise everyday

9. Rebuild my MK Business

10. Have fun and look for blessings everyday, be thankful

It's been a great 2008 ... ending on a very thankful note so here's to a wonderful knitterly start to 2009 ....

So, here's to my O'Dublin socks - yarn from my favorite LYS and the pattern from a friend who makes me laugh. A perfect combination. What more could I ask.