Tweed Carnival

Well, it's official...the Tweed & District Figure Skating Club is finished for another season! We've held our two year-end events - the carnival and our awards banquet - so, the 2010/2011 season is history. And, as much as I've been looking forward to having my Saturday's back, I think I'm going to miss it in a few weeks.

Carnival - AROUND THE WORLD - Saturday, March 26th

Our theme this year was 'Around the World' - I had to choreograph four group numbers, and chose music from Holland, India, South Africa and Canada!

My Holland number actually ended up being a lot of fun - and the costumes came together perfectly. The little hats were so cute! I just wish I could have thought of a way to create skate covers that looked like the Dutch wooden clompen (clogs)!

Left - Right: Kiley, Sierra, Shelby, Alyssa and Kendal

I was a little nervous about choreographing the India number - I selected the song 'Jai Ho', from the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire', and wasn't sure how the group would respond. They were great though - I kept it pretty simple, and they picked up most of the dance steps pretty well.

No picture :(

The South Africa number was probably my favourite - no surprise there, right?!? I'm a little biased when anything African is involved. This was a small group number, it was just my four Senior STARSkate girls, so that in itself was fun. I can only take credit for half of the choreography though; the number was only about half done, so when I had to miss skating for my Nana's funeral, I asked the girls to add a little of their own stuff....and, they did! And, they did an awesome job! The costumes for this number were pretty fun, too. Especially their head pieces. The girls really wanted to have face paint, too, but we were afraid it wouldn't come off and they would be stuck with it for their solos and other group numbers.

Left - Right: Britteny, Jillian, Kate, Leah

And then there is the Canada number - it was my 'something different' this year. This was a Father-Daughter number - I had about 15 fathers come out and skate with their daughters! I knew I was going to use this idea before we came up with our theme, and at first, wasn't sure how to tie the two together. Then, I thought of Anne Murray's song 'Could I Have This Dance' and thought it would be perfect - cute for fathers and daughters to skate to, and a good Canadian classic song.

It was difficult to schedule practices, due to the fathers' busy schedules, so, I ended up having only one practice with dads and daughters together! I practiced with the girls two or three times, so they knew what they had to do; once the fathers stepped on the ice, they just had to follow their daughters lead. I was nervous about doing it this way, but it worked in the end.

And, it didn't really matter what happened with the choreography, this was a crowd pleaser just because the dads were out there. It was also a tear jerker, according to most of the moms. The number ended with the fathers down on one knee, and the daughters sitting on their other knee - and when a few girls leaned over and hugged their dads when it was all over, it even brought a tear to my eye!

It proved VERY difficult to get this picture! It was only a few minutes after the show wrapped up, and yet when we tried to get everyone back together, we discovered some dads had already left, some had changed, and I think all of them had their skates off. So, this is the best we could do - there are a few people missing!

Funny story from the practice with fathers on the ice. Part of the choreography had the fathers doing a waltz jump (a jump from forwards to backwards) and then a spiral (gliding on one foot while raising the other leg to hip level). Well, the waltz jumps proved to be a little harder then expected - they looked horrible and resulted in multiple falls. After a few minutes of practice, one of the fathers came over to me, and, looking me straight in the eye and with all seriousness says "Mary Beth, you might better just take that waltz jump right out" Ha! I laughed out loud, but also realized he wasn't joking, so, I took a vote and went with majority - I removed the waltz jump! But, I told them there was no way I was taking out the spiral. And, when the fathers did their spirals, there was a roar of applause, so I'm glad I stuck with it.

As always, the carnival was a great day and it seemed like all the kids really enjoyed themselves. It wasn't without some hassles behind the scenes, and leading up to it, but most people don't know about that stuff. One of those hassles was discovering multiple errors in the program at 11:30pm the night before the carnival! Ugh! But, those details aren't the things I want to remember about the carnival, so enough about that.

A Few Things I Missed

Well, I let myself get way behind again...so, I'm going to cheat, and back date a few posts.

There are a few things I want to mention, so that when I look back over this in a few months (or years), I will be able to remember them. And, I want to keep things in the correct order - so, bear with me.

First of all, back on Monday, March 7th, the newest Vreugdenhil entered the world! Curt's brother Dave, and his wife, Sarah, welcomed their FIFTH baby boy! Owen David weighed 7lbs 4oz. when he was born, and wow, did he ever seem tiny when I met him a week later!

I stopped in to meet him one Saturday after skating, so I didn't have a camera with me, but here is a picture I'm 'borrowing' from facebook...


The other 'event' worth mentioning is that Curt has officially started his own engineering company...AND, completed his first job!

Three Hills Engineering, at your service...



Poor Curt, I see this picture and I feel so bad for him. First, he's working at our dining room table - that was his 'home office' for his first project. I think I had skating stuff spread out all over the workspace in our actual home office. And then there is the fact that he looks so tired here...I took this picture on a Saturday morning - I was on my way out the door for skating, and decided I should take a picture for the blog - and, because he's so tolerant, he went along with it.

So, there you have it, a few of the noteworthy events from mid-March!

Little Reminders

Last night at curling, I was talking to Patsy, the lady on our team, about my Nana's death. During our conversation, Patsy was talking about the death of her parents, in particular, her father. She mentioned that it will probably be hard for awhile, and that certain things will trigger memories of my Nana - she said that just after her father died, she would hear certain country songs that reminded her of him, and she would get all teary-eyed at the memories.

Well, Patsy didn't know it, but I had already experienced a little of that myself, and had it again this morning.

Music was really important to my Nana - and one of the things I spoke about at her funeral, something that I have great memories of, is that my Nana led the Junior Choir at our church for years...and I was part of that choir, for years!

On Sunday, I had to go into town to run some errands, and I was listening to our local Christian radio station...a song came on that I've heard before, but I can't think of the name of it. Anyway, there is a portion of the song, a bridge, that sounds a lot like the song 'Lord of the Dance' (it's just the music, not the lyrics, to the song). Well, like I said, I've heard this song before, but when I heard it that day I had to choke back tears. You see, we used to sing 'Lord of the Dance' in Junior Choir and I immediately associated it with my Nana.

And then this morning, another song that I've heard before, and always really enjoyed, came on during my drive to work. The lyrics of this song have always been very moving, but today they seemed to have a whole new meaning.

The song is by Matt Maher, and is called 'Christ is Risen'.

Here is the part that really got me...

Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave

Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
Our God is not dead, he's alive! He's alive!

Powerful, right? Anyone else crying? ;) What an awesome reminder that we should not let death have a 'sting', because we will all be together again - and, what a great day that will be!

A Week of Mourning

One week ago tonight, on Sunday, March 6th, I received a phone call from my mom - a call in which my mom had to tell me that my Nana had passed away earlier that evening.

I knew the call was coming - my Nana had been sick for awhile, and last Friday, my mom called to tell me that things had deteriorated, and my Nana would soon lose her battle.

It didn't matter, nothing could have prepared me for that call.

It's been a long and tiring week. Curt and I left for Acton Monday morning, after getting things at work and skating organized for the week. We spent the week at Tom and Krystle's - it was good, and necessary, to be surrounded by family for the week.

Visitation, or the wake, for my Nana was on Wednesday. The weather was horrible, wet snow and then freezing rain, so we didn't have as many people as expected.

The funeral was on Thursday. I have always been really close to my Nana, and really wanted to speak at her funeral, to share some of the special memories I have of her. It was really hard, and when I got behind the pulpit, I actually didn't think I was going to be able to do it. I got through it, but I did a horrible job - there were a lot of tears and sniffles - and there were times people probably couldn't understand what I was saying. But, I'm still really glad I did it...I know I would always regret it if I had backed out.

Following the funeral, we went to the cemetery for the burial. Again, horrible weather - there were huge puddles, it was muddy, and it rained the entire time we were there. You know that old saying, that rain is the angels in Heaven crying - if that's the case, the angels were crying happy tears on Thursday - they were celebrating the arrival of my Nana in Heaven, while those of us on earth all mourned our loss.

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Lyrics from the hymn 'Great is Thy Faithfulness' - one of the hymns my Nana had selected for the congregation to sing at her funeral.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4

Beaverton Competition

Last weekend I traveled to Beaverton for the last skating competition of the season. Where is Beaverton you ask? Good question, I had no idea either. But, it's near Orillia - which is about three hours from Belleville. So, it was a long way to go for a competition, but I made a bit of a mistake earlier this season, so we had no other choice. A club nearby (as in 40 minutes away) usually has a competition in early March, so I was planning on taking my skaters there - however, they weren't hosting the competition this year, and by the time I realized that, I had missed the registration deadline for the only other competition in our area. The girls are used to going to two competitions a year, so the options for our second one were either Beaverton or Ottawa - I figured when the parents heard our options, they would decide one would be good enough, instead, they all wanted to go to Beaverton...so, we did.

I drove up on the Friday night because I had to be there for 8:15am. The drive was fine, better then I expected it to be - on the way out the door, I grabbed a few old CD's, and it was kinda fun to listen to old favourites from my university days. I spent the night at a local hotel, and discovered that I don't sleep well when at a hotel without Curt. I think every little noise woke me up, and it was cold without him in the same bed.

The actual competition went really well though, and my skaters all did really well and I was a very proud coach!

Hannah, who struggled at the competition in January, did very well with her solo, and ended up placing fourth. She really liked the ribbon that she won, it was multi-coloured and she thought it was perfect, she even thought it was better then a medal. Unfortunately, she had a hard time with her elements, and placed last in that event. I have a really hard time deciding where to register Hannah for competitions, and I felt really bad for her as she was doing her elements - it was obvious that the other girls were much stronger, and that she wasn't going to do well. She knew it too, and was in tears by the time she came off the ice - it broke my heart. But, she's a good kid, and after a little reassurance from me that she would do better in that stage next year, I think she was feeling better.

Little Ella did amazing, again! She won her first medal back in January at Shining Waters, and she must have liked how that felt, because she did it again in Beaverton - and this time, she won medals in both events. And, not just any medal, but gold medals! She was so happy with herself, and enjoyed being up on the podium - so much so, that she spent a few extra seconds up there making sure everyone got pictures of her.


Love this girl!


Ella and I, after her two medals!

Alyssa also did really well, again, and took home two medals. This girl always does well at competitions, and she deserves too, she's a hard worker. This time, she took home gold in her elements and bronze in her solo. Her mom told me that she was a little disappointed with the bronze, but she denied it - and she better not have been. I'm usually pretty quick to set my kids straight if they're too hard on themselves.

And Naomi, another skater who didn't do very well at the competition in January. She's actually struggled all season, and hasn't been making a lot of progress. Her mom and I had discussions about her not coming back to skating next year. So, going into this competition, I did something I would never usually do. Naomi is right on the fence in terms of what stage she should compete at; usually, when I have skaters like that, I bump them to the higher level, and that's what I did with her in January, but then she didn't do well. So, this time, I decided to bump her down, but only because I didn't think she would be coming back, and I wanted her to end on a good note. And that she did - she ended up first in her elements and third in her solo! She was so excited, and so was her mom. And, now they're talking about skating next year?!? Ooops, that kinda kicked me in the butt...it could be hard to explain to them next year that I'm not going to hold her back just so she wins medals, that is NOT my style.

Oh, and one of my Quinte skaters made the trip to Beaverton, too. Unfortunately, Kailtin didn't have a very good day - she finished last and second last in her two events. She didn't skate her best solo though, and she knew that; she actually got a little confused and lost her spot at one point - you see it all the time, but none of my skaters have done that before, it was stressful. She had to do some tough elements too, things we hadn't worked on prior to preparing for the competition (I only starting giving Kaitlin lessons in November, and only give her one lesson a week).

And, to finish the day off, I got to drive home in a snow storm, and the three hour trip turned into four hours! Luckily, I left at the same time as one of my Tweed families, and they made sure to keep me close, which I appreciated! Even though I was still driving alone, it was good to have someone I knew in a vehicle right in front of me.

So, competitions have wrapped up for the season, and now it's on to carnival preparation. We started practices for that this week, and although it's a busy time, I'm already excited for the big day!