House of Estrogen

Junior Olympics, 2015

This year, Elise qualified for and chose to compete in the Amateur Athletic Union Junior Olympic Games in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  Junior Olympics is a huge, multi-sport 9 day event with over 12,000 amateur athletes competing in sports like swimming, track and field, gymnastics, jump rope, wrestling, field hockey, and karate.  This was Elise's first time competing in a national level jump rope competition, and I think we were both excited and nervous as we donned our purple team tees and hit the road.

 

We had fun imagining what conversation led to this sight that we passed on the road.

"Honey!  I told you to pack Junior's play structure from the backyard, remember?"

"Crap. There's no space in the truck. We'll just leave it here and buy a new play structure on Craigslist after we move."

"Um. No. Junior loves his play structure. Repack the truck and make space."

"Fine. Happy now?"

 We got checked into the hotel, picked up credentials at the competition venue, had a nice dinner with friends, sat through a tense team meeting, and tried without much success to get a good night's sleep before the first day of competition.

Braids ready...

Glitter very thoughtfully and seriously applied to hair as a group effort...

Let the games begin!

It was an intense four days of competition. Elise jumped in 3 singles events, 3 pairs events, 5 double dutch events and team show.  She came away with 7th and 9th place finishes in double dutch power and double dutch single freestyle. She was thrilled to have two top 10 finishes. There was a lot of tough competition there.

The team had been hoping for a podium finish for their cool Beatles team show routine. They came in a disappointing 6th, but I still think they did a great job. It was a very creative routine.  Elise struggled with this one all year with her breathing, so on a personal level, she was just thrilled to have it behind her and never have to jump it again!

Most nights, we hung out with the team,

but one night, Elise decided she had had enough togetherness and needed a break. The two of us took off to the coast and had a nice seafood dinner.  It was good to have a little quiet mother/daughter time in the midst of all the chaos.

 

There was coloring and sleeping going on in the bleachers,

lots of silliness at the hotel,

and hugs during competition.

It was all bittersweet though. This was the last competition these kids will have together in purple as a team. Our team had a rough year and was actively imploding during this last competition of the season. We got the news yesterday that the team will be shutting its doors and will not exist next year.  It leaves 40 kids without a jump rope home for next year. We are all scrambling to find other options. Unfortunately, jump rope isn't like soccer, gymnastics, or cheer where there are plenty of other leagues, gyms, or teams in the area. It has been a hard pill to swallow, and we have no idea where we will end up next year. My hope is that Elise will find a place to continue jumping to keep that big jump rope smile on her face. I'm not sure what we would do without it.

The Lesser Known Benefits of Jump Rope

Jump rope has done a lot for Elise. The most obvious benefit is that It keeps her active and physically fit. It also provides her opportunities to perform and challenges her in competition.

What people may not realize is that skipping rope requires some serious development of people skills too - negotiation, collaboration, communication, and compromise. Being in a double Dutch group is hard work. Three to four people are put together by the coaches with their different ideas, different skill levels, different strengths, and different personalities and are expected to work together for nine months to create, practice, and perfect a one minute routine. It can get ugly along the way, but when it all comes together, it is amazing.

Jump rope is also a team sport. Elise has all the camaraderie and team pride that comes from being part of a team. Unlike many sports where teams are grouped by age though, she learns from and has role models in the older athletes on the team, and she is able to mentor and be a leader to younger athletes on the team.

Every now and then, the really special moments come along when jump rope allows her to share her love of the sport, give back to the community, and create great memories all at once. Earlier this week, Elise's team spent an afternoon with a group of special needs middle school students. I'm honestly not sure who got more out of it or had more fun - the jumpers or these kids. The smiles in these pictures really tell more than I ever could in words.

What a fantastic day... and what a great experience she had through this crazy little sport called jump rope!

Mr. Clean

I've been MIA. I know. If you've stopped checking in, I get it. I don't blame you. I'm still here... just quiet.

I had a proud mama moment though and had to share. In jump rope, a clean routine is defined as a routine where all 10 judges agree that there were no misses. Jumping a clean routine is a big challenge for a single jumper. The more jumpers you add (pairs, double dutch), the odds of getting it clean are even smaller. At the end of the season, Elise's team awards jumpers who jumped clean in competition with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser box. It sounds crazy... it isn't a medal or a trophy, but for many athletes, receiving a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is their proudest moment of the year.

Elise's double dutch group earned a Mr. Clean a couple weeks ago. It was the first competition of the season. Out of 80 athletes jumping singles, pairs, 3 person double dutch and 4 person double dutch, their group had the only clean routine of the day. They came in 2nd, but knowing they jumped it clean was all the recognition and reward they really needed. Their faces and reaction as soon as they finished says it all. Happy. Proud. Thrilled. Hard work that paid off.

You go girls!

Weekend Odds, Ends, and Observations

1. Yesterday, I was behind a car with not one, but two Piggly Wiggly bumper stickers on the bumper. Who puts a grocery store sticker on their car? Why does a grocery store even have bumper stickers? Why would a grocery store have more than one design for bumper stickers? Who would buy one? Who would buy two? Does Harris-Teeter, Albertson's, Lowe's, or Publix have bumper stickers? These are the questions that now haunt me.
   
2. This evening, we had dinner at a cafeteria. Addison was telling us how great her zucchini muffin was. She said, "I pointed to the muffin, and then the lady told me it was zucchini. I thought "ick", but I had already pointed to it, so I thought, 'well, I'll just roll with it.'"  Love that... just rolling with the zucchini.
3. I am not a fan of sleep-overs. I relearn this at least once a month.
4. I ordered our Christmas cards, and I was sent a proof. My pictures looked fine. My text looked fine. The card itself has stripes though, and it was randomly missing one stripe in the middle of the card. How does this happen? Aren't the stripes part of the card template? I contacted customer service, and they agreed the stripe was mysteriously missing from the proof. They are now sending me a new proof. I'm so puzzled though. How does a background stripe go missing?
5. Elise tried out for and made "team show" for jump rope. This is exciting news for her, but we now have jump rope a minimum of four days per week instead of three. I wonder if I just leave her at the jump rope gym with a sleeping bag and some food if her school bus could start picking her up and dropping her off there instead.
6. We ran into some neighbors at the mall this afternoon. They said, "We saw all kinds of craziness at your house this morning! One of your children was outside in her underwear, two of them in their pajamas. The car alarm was going off, and they were all running around, slamming the car doors. It was quite comical."  Nice. This is how we impress the neighbors. J.C. walked up a minute later, and I said, "Did you know our child was running around outside in her underwear this morning?"  He said, "Yeah, I got in my car to leave for a bike ride, and I saw her in underwear and a bikini top in 40 degree weather. I thought, 'well... nothing I can do about that,' so I just drove off."  Clearly, we have completely given up on sane parenting.

"I Am From" by Elise

Elise wrote this poem in language arts. I loved it so much that I asked her permission to share it here. She gave me the obligatory eye roll but consented nonetheless. It makes me smile.

 

I Am From

I’m from glasses

From Target and iTunes

I am from the house painted blue

Green, Purple

Smelling cookies

I am from ever greens

From tulips

Whose smell makes me all happy inside

 

I’m from Christmas Eve PJ’s

And Pizza and a movie night

Nina and Addie

I am from dinner with the family

 

From school before jump rope

From practice makes perfect

I am from treat everyone the way you wish to be treated

 

I am from Pocahontas

Apples and bananas

From the glasses I lost in the front yard

To the scares my dad gets from biking

 

My hard jump rope practices 2 days a week

The thrill of performing in front of people who have never seen jump rope

The breath taking experience of competing

 

 

Single Rope Freestyle

Over the past two months, Elise has competed in two jump rope competitions. I had planned on one big blog post with videos, results, and details. Unfortunately, my video editing skills are as bad or worse than my video taking skills, so that's just not going to happen in any sort of timely manner. At this point, I have one video to share. It is from Elise's single rope freestyle routine at the USA Jump Rope Region 2 Qualifier. I had the good video camera with me, was set up in a good spot, ready to record. I judged for most of the day, but was fortunate enough to be on a judging break while Elise was jumping freestyle, so I could record it myself. That was my first mistake... assuming that I could successfully operate the video camera.  Nina had been using it earlier in the day and set the camera on "still photo" mode. That should be enough explanation to know what happened next. Thankfully, at the last minute, I had the foresight to ask Elise's friend to take a video using my iPhone as "back-up". Whew. I should always have a back-up. So, as you watch this video, imagine it is the one I took horizontally, with a nice video camera, zooming in on her opening smile, and capturing the coach's reaction after she finished. Of course, all of that came out as a single still photo of her opening pose. Sigh. I will never learn.

Anyway, this was a great competition for her. In the March competition, she came in 6th out of 18. In the weeks between the two competitions, she added more difficulty to her routine, and this time she came in 3rd in single rope freestyle out of a competitive group of 20 twelve year old girls. Technically, that placement qualified her for nationals, but she was competing as a non-qualifier because she chooses to participate in only the local competitions. I haven't figured out exactly why she doesn't want to do the bigger competitions, but it saves me thousands of dollars in flights to California, hotel rooms, uniforms, and practice time, so I don't push the issue.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the not-so-great iPhone video with the wrong date in the title. (The competition was April 12, not April 22. Oops).

Simple Woman's Daybook, April 7, 2014

 

For Today...

 

Outside my window... Addie helped me plant some flowers this weekend.

   

   I am thinking... about issues at work. Things are a bit hectic there, to put it mildly.

   

 I am thankful for... a supportive manager.

   

 From the kitchen... Domino's Pizza.

     

 I am creating... nothing. I'm spread too thin this week for creativity.

   

I am going... to the beach on Thursday. Yea!

 

I am reading... nothing right now. I just finished Red Velvet Revenge by Jenn McKinlay, and I haven't started anything else yet. I also finished Whisper Falls by Elizabeth Langston. It is a very well written, engaging young adult novel. I highly recommend it. I also finished Everyone Wants to Be Me or Do Me: Tom and Lorenzo's Fabulous and Opinionated Guide to Celebrity Life and Style by Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez. This was so bad. I adore Tom and Lorenzo and consider myself a faithful bitter kitten, but they really blew it with this book. 

 

 I am hoping... that Elise does her best at competition this weekend.

   

I am hearing... a quiet house. Everyone has gone to bed.

 

Around the house... laundry. lots of it.

     

One of my favorite things... an afternoon nap on the weekends.

 

A few plans for the rest of the week... insanity. Swim lessons for Addie Monday and Wednesday. Jump Rope for Elise Tuesday and Thursday. I am chaperoning Nina's class field trip to the beach all day Thursday, and I'm judging at Elise's jump rope competition all day Saturday. Throw in a birthday party, Easter egg hunt, Girl Scout meeting, and party for a coworker, and the week is maxed out.

 

Here is a picture thought I am sharing... this is a short video (5 seconds) of a new trick that Elise taught herself at jump rope. When she showed it to her coach Thursday at practice, he said he had never seen anyone else do this trick before. It is possible Elise made it up. He said he has seen one jumper in Germany do something similar, but not exactly the same as what Elise is doing. Kinda cool, eh?

 

 

 

 To read more Daybook posts or learn how to participate, visit The Simple Woman's Daybook.

Talent Show, Middle School Style

I have written previously about elementary school talent shows. I have all the respect in the world for the kids who choose to perform, but that doesn't change the fact that watching group after group lip sync to Taylor Swift gets a little monotonous. Now that Elise has moved on to middle school, I was anxious to see what sort of talent one finds at a middle school talent show. There were certainly a few squeaky, off-key performances, but overall, there was quite a lot of genuine talent. There were a couple of singers who looked ready to hop on stage at American Idol. It was fun to watch how the kids (along with their talent show acts) grow and change from elementary to middle. The hit of the night was a kid who danced to a Michael Jackson medley. He was amazing. He WAS Michael Jackson - the hair, the sparkley glove, the moon walking, the crotch grabbing, the signature dance moves. It blew me away. He was committed and nailed it.

I don't think anybody could upstage the Michael Jackson act, but Elise did a great job in her own right. She even got a bit of a standing ovation at the end. She made this mamma proud!

 

Letter to Elise, Age 12

Dear Elise,

I think this is my favorite letter that I've written to you so far. As you turn 12 today, I will remember this year as the year you became you.  I reread my last letter to you before writing this one, and at the time I was so worried about the pending move to middle school - the academics, the social pressures, finding the right school, meeting new friends. All my anxieties were wasted. You have thrived in middle school. I can't think of a time when I've seen you happier. You are confident, self-assured, happy, and love the you that you've found inside.

You are at a wonderful middle school. It is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) school, and much smaller than many of the middle schools near us. It has such a neat campus. There are 8 buildings, so you get a breath of fresh air each time you change classes. There are picnic tables for eating lunch outside too. You came home the very first day of school with a huge smile on your face and declared, "Band is my favorite class!" That sentiment hasn't changed at all since the first day.  You initially chose band because you deemed it the least offensive of the elective options. You weren't interested in any of them, and band was somehow the least undesirable. What a great decision that turned out to be. You come home every day from school and immediately pull out your clarinet to start practicing. Your dad and I had been anticipating all sorts of nagging to get you to practice your instrument. Instead, we find ourselves having to tell you to stop practicing to ensure you have time for the rest of your homework.

As for academics, I think school has finally "clicked" for you. You are more organized, dedicated, and committed to doing well. You are keeping up with your assignments and doing so much better in middle school than you ever did in elementary. I think the higher demands and increase in responsibilities forced you to grow up and rise up to the expectations. I couldn't be more thrilled with your school performance so far. I know you are proud of yourself too, as you should be. You've come a long way.

Where you have really blossomed this year is in your personal life. You have a great gang of friends and have found your niche socially. In elementary school, none of the cliques really fit with your personality. You had friends but not best friends. Now, you have it all. You are enjoying the attention from boys and your self-esteem has soared. You come home every day with tales of funny antics with friends in the cafeteria or a boy who flirted with you on the bus. The move to middle school has done wonders for you.

Band is your new found love, but you are still very active with your jump rope team. Over the past year, you have done performances at NCSU and Virginia Tech as well as many performances at festivals, schools, and parades.  Despite dealing with a broken ankle for a big chunk of the season, you kept going to practice, working on rope release skills and double dutch turning. You are definitely dedicated to your sport.

At the end of the year jump rope team party, your squad was awarded the coveted squad cup, and you received the "Cool as a Cucumber" paper plate award. The paper plate awards are just a bit of fun that the team captains do for the end of the year, but I thought it was neat that they described you as cool, calm, and someone who always helped others work through their conflicts.

Girl Scouts is still a part of your life as well, but you have definitely scaled back your participation. This past year, your troop put on the area Cookie Rally for younger scouts and took a trip to Earthshine Mountain where you participated in all sorts of great adventures -  a high ropes course, low ropes course, zip lining through the treetops, and survival exercises. I love the teamwork skills and independence you gain through scouts. I hope you will stick with it even as it becomes less and less "cool" the older you get.

If we were to ask anyone one word that best describes you, they would probably say "reader." You spent the entire day yesterday reading Divergence by Veronica Roth from start to finish. Some of your favorites lately have been the Matched series by Ally Condie and the Tunnels series by Gordon Roderick. You never leave the house without a book.

These letters that I write to you and your sisters are usually filled with a bit of good, a bit of not-so-good, proud moments, struggles, and my bit of commentary on all of it. I feel like this letter is heavily weighted toward the good and the moments of pride, but that is honestly how this year has been. You've gone from a slightly insecure girl who struggled with school and friendships to a fun, outgoing, happy girl, full of energy and great friends. I know the teenage years will bring about lots of ups and downs, but for now, we are rejoicing in what has been a great year for you. As peer relationships get more confusing, seeds of self-doubt begin to be planted, and you start to wonder how you will survive being a teenager, I hope you will remember this year, remember how great it felt to be a sixth grader, and keep those feelings in your heart.

I love you. Happy 12th!

Love,

Mama

An Appalachian Weekend

This past weekend, Elise's jump rope team had plans to perform at the Cyclo.Via Festival in Boone, NC, so we decided to make a family trip out of it. We drove up Friday afternoon with our friends the M family. Our first stop on arriving in town was the Dan'l Boone Inn which had come highly recommended by several friends. All I can say is... um... YUM... and... YUM again!  The restaurant placed third in Southern Living Magazine in the reader's choice awards for country cooking restaurants. I can't even imagine how good the first and second place restaurants must be!  If you ever find yourself in Boone, NC, a trip to the Dan'l Boone Inn is a must. I'm already regretting the fact that we didn't go there one morning for breakfast as well.

We had to wait a while for a table, but the gardens outside the restaurant are so lovely, we didn't mind the wait.

Of course, Elise is never without a rope.

It was getting dark as we approached the cabin we had rented. We were rambling along a gravel road, following directions like, "turn right at the little white church, then take a left after the bridge over the creek."  We got to the "turn left at the tree with four blue reflectors on it" and started up the hill. Then we got to the part in the directions that said, "gun it!"  I hit the gas hard, spun the wheels a bit, but made it all the way up to the cabin. The M family was behind us in their minivan. They gunned it and spun, gunned it and spun, gunned it and spun. They finally gave up and left the van parked halfway down the steep driveway. They had a bit of a hike with the suitcases, but fortunately, the cabin was great.

We put the four girls in a room with two bunk beds. That led to a late night of whispering and giggling before the start of a busy weekend. The show must go on though. The next morning, we got up and headed to Tweetsie Railroad.

Tweetsie Railroad is kind of hilarious. It is a Western theme park that opened in the 1950's. I'm pretty sure nothing has changed since then. That is part of what makes it fun though. There is definitely no "Disney Magic" happening at Tweetsie, but it is quaint, old-fashioned, hokey, and fun. Picture the Brady Bunch episode, "Ghost Town, U.S.A.", and you've got the idea.

See what I mean?

There is no shortage of fun photo ops at Tweetsie, and the kids tested all of them.

The main attraction at Tweetsie, as you might imagine, is the train ride.

(Totally unrelated side-note... it was not until I saw this photo that I realized all of my kids have very, very (almost obnoxiously) bright colored sneakers. How did I not know that?)

The train ride is fun. It stops along the way for staged gun fights and bank robberies.

Is there anything more politically incorrect than this "Indian" (I realize he should be called a Native American, but in the 1950's, you know his character was created as an "Indian") with his face painted red?  It is in scenes like these when you realize that Tweetsie is a true relic. I doubt this show has changed a single line, costume, or set in over 50 years.

Besides the train ride, we also took a ride on the chair lift (love the view!)

saw a couple shows, ate some fudge, and went gem stone mining.

This little guy was pretty well soaked by the time we left. He had a ball though.

The Tweetsie plans mostly came about because the little guy is a big Thomas fan, and Addie fancies herself a cowgirl these days. We had the little kids in mind as we planned the outing. It turned out the big kids had a blast too though, so what a success!

The next day was Cyclo.Via. We timed our lunch horribly and ended up having to ask the waiter to hold our table with our food on it while we ran out to watch the jump rope performance. The performance was great, but we returned to soggy, cold food. We failed proper trip planning that day.

Since our lunch was a little less than satisfying, we stopped for some ice cream before heading out of town.

After that, we left Elise with her team for their other performances and headed back home along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It is like a little drive through Heaven up there.... so beautiful.

I'm glad we took advantage of Elise's team trip to take a little weekend vacation. I think everybody had a good time.