Sick Day = Blog Catch Up

I'm home sick from work today - nothing serious, just a cold - I could have gone to work, but I have NO energy, so I decided to use my first sick day. It's been a good use of a sick day - I slept a lot this morning, watched Ellen, spent too much time on Pinterest, finally got things cleaned up from our Super Bowl Party (more on that later), and now I can catch up here!

This past weekend was a busy one - I was at a skating competition all day Saturday; and although I only had two skaters competing, they each skated in four events, so it was a full and busy day.

Ella had a good day and skated her best, unfortunately, the judges didn't really reward her for her great skating?!? She came in fourth in her first event, individual elements, and although that is great, she was pretty disappointed with that - she even shed a few tears :( I don't like it when my older girls cry when they get their results, but with little ones, it breaks my heart.

Look at this little cutie, it obviously makes me sad when she cries! This picture is from the end of the day, she was done crying and kinda hyper by this point!
I'm obviously biased, but I really think she should have been second or third - I think the judges mixed up the skaters when they did their marking. I felt like my point was proven throughout the day because the same girl that came in second in this event, competed against Ella in two other events, and she came in last and second last in those events!?!

Ella placed fourth in two of her other events as well, her format elements and team elements. When she got the results for her final event, and found out she was fourth again, all she said was 'AGAIN!?!'

Ella with her older sister, Hannah, who came to cheer for her fellow Tweed skaters.
Keegan, my dramatic boy skater, also had a great day and stepped up to a big challenge - there was only one other boy registered for the competition, and he was two levels higher than Keegan; skaters can 'skate up' in levels, but can't skate down, for obvious reasons - so in order to have the chance to compete, Keegan skated up and had to learn all new elements just weeks before the event! He did a great job, and I'm sure that a lot of people watching wouldn't have known that he was actually two levels lower - the other boy was a lot more 'polished', but judges and coaches are probably the only ones to pick up on that kind of thing.

Keegan finished second in the two events that he had to 'skate up' in - which I think we all expected - and finished fourth in team elements, which he did with Ella.

The other event the kids competed in, a new one this year, was called 'Challenge Elements' - it was another individual element type event, but with a different format. The big difference is the way the kids are marked/rewarded at the end - rather than ranking the kids first, second, third, fourth, etc., kids are awarded gold, silver, bronze or merit certificates. So, all the kids in the flight may end up getting a gold certificate, or some may get gold while others get silver, etc.

I was a little unsure about the event going in, and still have mixed feelings - I didn't like the way the warm up was conducted, but I do like that they get a report card afterwards, so you know exactly how the judges came up with their results. Both Ella and Keegan ended up with Silver certificates, but despite that, they didn't like the event :) It's new, so we'll give it a try at the next competition and see how it goes there!

This is a horrible photo, taken with my phone, but it's the only one I have of Keegan. It's a group shot of everyone from Tweed (L-R: Kristin, one of the other coaches, Keegan, Leigha - Kristin's skater, Ella and myself)
So, that's another competition done for the season - only three more to go!

Finally!

I probably had y'all excited at the beginning of the month, right? What, with my two posts in one week! You probably thought I had made a New Year's resolution to get better at blogging. Well, I didn't make that resolution...but, apparently I should have!

I haven't really had anything going on that's been blog worthy over the last few weeks. But, I was at a skating competition yesterday so I FINALLY have something to blog about.

The competition, which was held in Prescott, was the first competition of the year for two of my girls - Hannah and Alyssa. And, due to some changes that Skate Canada made this year, both of these girls had to move up TWO levels this year. They went from competing at the Stage 5 level of CanSkate, to competing at the Pre-Preliminary level of STARSkate - that probably doesn't mean a lot to most of you, but that's a pretty significant jump!

A pre-competition picture, this was taken as the girls waited for their warm-ups. Alyssa is on the left (she just went south on vacation, so her hair is in braids) and Hannah is on the right.
Alyssa was the first to skate, and she had a really good skate - she had fun and was happy with how she did, that's always what I am concerned about. She ended up placing 5th out of 7 - to which she shrugged her shoulders and said 'I'm OK with that'. She's a mature little girl!

Hannah struggled a bit with her skate. She had a rough warm-up - first, she stopped in the middle of her solo, thinking that the warm up was over, and then she took a fall when practicing her grab - those two things threw her right off, and as a result, she forgot the second half of her solo! She was the first to skate in her flight, so when they announced that the warm-up was over, I only had time for a quick pep talk - she was freaking out because she was afraid she was going to forget the whole thing, I told her that once her music came on, everything would come back to her...and then I hoped for the best?!?! She ended up forgetting only a small section, and she was smart enough to put in a jump and do some turns with arm movements - I was really proud of her for that!

As we watched the flights after her, we saw two other girls go out and forget their solos! However, neither of them handled it as well as Hannah - one just quit and skated off; the other stopped, started to cry, skated to her coach, remembered what she was supposed to do, went back out and finished her solo...all while crying! So, Hannah was able to see for herself that she handled the situation VERY well.

But, despite that, she still placed 7th out of 7 :( It breaks my heart, this poor little girl just doesn't have great luck at competitions.

So, it wasn't the greatest competition, but, it's part of skating and I'm still glad to be a part of it with these girls.

And another pre-competition picture - I told them to be goofy, and this is what I got? They're both doing the started position of their solos. I guess they were 'in the zone' and didn't want to be too goofy :)
We have a 'fun' competition coming up in a few weeks, and these two will be doing a similar pairs number together...I will start choreographing that with them later this week, so we'll be able to have some FUN with that. They deserve it!

Just Call Me 'Skip'

Last night was our curling night; due to a little scheduling mishap (meaning a recent change to the schedule that a few people didn't notice) our skip didn't show up for our scheduled game. So, we were down a guy...since you have to alternate players, one of the girls had to be the skip...our other girl, Maria, made it clear that she didn't want to do it, so that left...ME.

I was pretty nervous at first, but the skip from the other team was very helpful. We played this team earlier in the season, so they knew that we were all relatively new to curling and were willing to help us out a bit. So, the first two or three ends, she helped me call the shots and gave me pointers along the way.

Then she realized that Curt really knows what he is doing, so she stepped back and let Curt call the game. Curt made all the decisions, and just told me where to put the broom :)

We all played really well, and managed to keep ourselves in the game. It also helped that their skip wasn't playing as well as she could have been - every time she missed a shot, it was like she was giving us a little gift.

And then, in the last end, we were down by one and I have to throw last rock...Curt tells me to throw take-out weight - if I make the shot he wants me to, we will score three...the pressure is on, right?

So, do you think I cracked?

NOPE, I made the shot! We scored three and won the game 8 to 6!

We were pumped, to say the least!

Our skip showed up after the game (he thought we played the late game), and we gave him the play-by-play. I think he was jealous that he missed it.

Twenty-Twelve!

Happy New Year - so long 2011, it's been great, but here's to 2012 being even better!

Curt and I rang in the New Year with some friends at a small house party this year - there were nine adults and six kids! The friends who hosted are Jane and Brian, and whenever I say their names together it seems weird because those are my parents names! The evening was pretty low key, lots of good food and conversation, and wasn't really all that exciting...until we broke out the game Taboo! ha! I haven't played that game in ages, but it was a lot of fun and we all laughed A LOT!!!

Considering that almost everyone at the party has kids, it was a pretty calm night, and it ended relatively early. Apparently it was too early for Curt, because when we got home he decided to join our neighbours party! I was too tired, so I just stayed at home - but that decision led to drunk phone call from one of the neighbours, wondering where I was and why I hadn't shown up for a drink! :)

So that was Saturday, and Sunday and Monday have been nice relaxing days.

Sunday, we didn't even leave the house!

Today, we went to see the movie 'We Bought a Zoo' - it was a great movie, and I would recommend it to anyone! Be prepared though, it's a tearjerker.

So, it's going to be hard to face reality when the alarm goes off tomorrow morning.

Speaking off the alarm, it will be going off for good now...I received an early Christmas present at work, I am now a permanent employee with the Ministry of Community and Social Services! The hiring process is referred to as a competition, and involves two parts, a written test and an interview - I wrote the test the day before we left for California, and I had my interview two days after we returned. I felt pretty good about both parts, but there were 32 people competing (including five other internal people), so I couldn't be too sure. I was told the good news on December 22nd, and needless to say, it was pretty exciting. No more worrying about whether or not my contract will be renewed!

I guess that shows that 2012 may be even better then 2011!

Christmas in Acton

We were in Acton for almost four days, arriving late Friday, December 23rd and leaving to come home around lunch time on Tuesday, December 27th. I'm really behind in posting, so this is going to be a quick rundown of our time away.

Our first day, Christmas Eve, was pretty low key. We hung out with Tom and Krystle and the kids; since both kids were pretty sick, we wanted to give them a bit of down time before all the Christmas activities were in full swing. I spent most of the day in my pajamas, playing with the kids, watching TV and catching up on blog posts. It was actually a really nice way to start the holidays, and even though I wasn't sick, I too enjoyed the down time :)

After dinner, we all got ready for our traditional Christmas Eve - going to church and then gathering at my parents house with family.

Nolan, all ready to go to church...
Krystle got Abby all dressed for church, and then had her sit on the couch so she could go get ready herself...it wasn't long before this happened...

Christmas morning was at Tom and Krystle's as well, and my parents and Aunt Mary joined us for the chaos ;)

I was taking a picture of Nolan in his new nightgown, I mean his new hockey jersey, and Abby got up and ran over to be in the picture too!

Another Christmas tradition in Acton is to go to my Uncle John and Aunt Jody's house for brunch on Christmas day. Brunch was amazing, as usual, and it was great to spend time with some extended family - our visits to Acton are usually quite busy, so we don't always get to see extended family.

We had Christmas dinner with my parents and Aunt Mary, and it was another great meal prepared by my mom!

Boxing Day has become shopping day - Curt and I didn't really get anything too exciting, but my mom got a new TV! My dad stayed home to look after Nolan, so he and mom decided on a TV they saw on a flyer, and then Curt and Tom made sure she got what she needed.

Tuesday morning we enjoyed our last few hours with family - Curt and I got Nolan a hockey game for the Wii, and he wanted to give it a try. Once Curt and Tom got the game all set up, this is what happened...
Curt and Tom playing the game while Nolan, dressed in his Blackhawks jersey, goalie pads and goalie helmet, watches and cheers on his dad! ha! Curt did try to get Nolan to play, but he just wanted to watch.

Curt and I ended up making a shopping stop on the way home, and had better luck on this second round of Boxing Week shopping then we did on Boxing Day!

The 17th - Birthday and Christmas

December 17th was a big day - it was my birthday AND we got together with Curt's side of the family to celebrate Christmas!

The day started out like any other Saturday, coaching. I'm not big on my birthday, especially now that I'm getting older, so no one at skating knew it was my birthday :) It was our last Saturday session before Christmas, so Santa visited the little kids - it was nice because I didn't have to worry about an actual lesson plan, once Santa gets on the ice things get a little crazy, and after he leaves we just play games with everyone on the ice. The rest of the day was lessons as usual.

After skating, I made a quick stop at home to get changed and gather things to take to the party. Curt and I had agreed that we wouldn't do birthday or Christmas presents this year because of our trip -then, before we went away, we found out that a local jewellery store was having a liquidation sale so we went to check it out. Curt ended up getting a new wedding band (his original band has two diamonds in it, and they keep falling out; after it got fixed this last time, he decided not to wear it so he doesn't loose the diamonds). While in the store, we found a beautiful tanzanite ring and Curt insisted that we get it! So that was supposed to be it, however, he went back to the store and found a blue topaz pendant (December's birthstone), and got that for me too! I know, I'm spoiled.

After opening my gift, we were off to Curt's brothers house for our early Christmas. This get together was just for the immediate family - Curt's parents, his two brothers and their wives, and our five nephews.

Once we were all there, the first thing on the agenda was opening presents! We stopped exchanging presents with everyone a few years ago, but my mother and father in-law still buy for everyone, and the aunts and uncles buy for the nephews.

I forgot my camera, which is really unfortunate because I would have loved to take pictures of the boys opening their gifts. Curt made some really cool gifts for them - they are big fans of superheros (Spiderman, Batman, Superman), so he printed some images from the internet onto transparencies and framed them...the boys were pretty impressed!

My in-laws gave me, among other things, some coffee for our new Cuisinart Keurig, and the storage drawer that I wanted for keeping the K-cups handy and organized.

After presents we had a great dinner - turkey and ham, and all the trimmings! Thanks to my MIL for preparing everything, and to my BIL and SIL for hosting, again!

Once the boys were in bed, the adults had an really nice evening - the boys always end up in the basement playing poker, and the girls end up upstairs chatting. This year, our girl chat revolved around Pinterest and blogging :) It was a great evening, and as always, both Curt and I reflected on how much we enjoy hanging out with his brothers and their families - we really should do it more often!

San Diego - The Other Stuff

Road Trip to Los Angeles

On Tuesday, we took a little road trip and went up to Los Angeles to visit friends. You may remember that one of Curt's friends, Peter, lives in Pasadena - our last trip to California was to be at Peter's wedding. So, we went to visit Peter and his wife Shauna and have dinner with them.

We arrived downtown L.A. around 3pm, and after a quick visit with Pete at his office, we went to check out some of the different districts downtown.

Right across from Pete's office is Pershing Square, home to 'Downtown on Ice'. Although I would never actually skate on one of these 'ice surfaces', I can't help but stand and watch the 'skaters' for a few minutes, and it's always a good photo op!

We ended up checking out the jewellery district and the fashion district while we were downtown. I wasn't impressed - I'm just not a city girl I guess.

We went back to meet Pete at 5pm, when he was done work - then we went up to check out the rooftop bar and patio at his office building. It was chilly, so we didn't stay for a drink, but again, there was a good photo op.
We had a really nice evening at Pete and Shauna's - they made us a delicious dinner and then we played some cards and visited. It was great to have a chance to visit them, especially because they're not coming to Ontario for Christmas.

Coronado - The Hotel

On Thursday, following our round of golf at Coronado Golf Course, we went to see the historic Hotel del Coronado.

Whenever we travel, I check the book '1000 Things to See Before You Die' for local attractions - Hotel del Coronado was one of the places listed for the San Diego area. I didn't know much about the hotel before reading about it in the book, and online, but it did look familiar when I saw pictures of it (it has been featured in movies and books).

Does it look familiar to you?

The place is HUGE, so I had a hard time getting a good picture.

While checking out the grounds of the hotel, I found the perfect spot to coach figure skating...

Not too shabby, right? Finish skating and you're steps from the beach and ocean! However, you can see how wet it is...it was a beautiful sunny day, so the ice was getting pretty soft.

Downtown San Diego

Thursday was a pretty busy day - after spending a good portion of the day in Coronado, we then went to check out downtown San Diego (well, parts of it anyway).

We had talked about checking out the U.S.S. Midway - an aircraft carrier turned floating museum (it has over 60 exhibits and 25 restored aircraft) - but our time was limited, so we just took some pictures from afar.

We also got to see the statue 'Unconditional Surrender' - a 25 foot statue that commemorates a famous WWII photograph.

After taking a few pictures of Curt and I standing beside the statue, I admitted that I wanted to be one of the typical tourists and take a picture of the two of us re-enacting the kiss...

I didn't do a very good job of matching the nurses pose.

And with that, I'm done my posts about our trip to San Diego! I'm way behind in posting these, but I know I will be glad to have these to look back on. I LOVED San Diego, and I know I will always have fond memories of this trip!