Emily has recently experienced some of what life has to offer as far as highs and lows...well, as high and low as they can get when you're only 8. To her though, the low was devastating.
This past winter she didn't play indoor soccer but she did do a developmental skills program. When it finished, tryouts for the rep soccer team started. This was the first opportunity to play on a rep team, girls turning 9 are the youngest team. She decided she wanted to try out, that she was going to work really hard and she knew that not everyone would make it. Almost 50 girls tried out for 28 spots (two teams of 14). In total, they spent about 7 hours trying out. The last practice was a Wednesday night and they said they would phone by 10 p.m. the following night to let everyone know whether or not they had made it. I was hoping they would phone after she was asleep, in case she didn't make it, I didn't want her to be upset right before bed. Of course though the phone rang at 8 o'clock and one of the assistant coaches (not even the coach which I wasn't terribly impressed about) was sorry to let me know that unfortunately, they didn't have a spot for Emily this year. She was so upset when I told her, it broke my heart. Then to make matters worse one of her friends called her right away hoping she had made the team because they had. Em had such a hard time talking to her without crying and at the end of the conversation she told her friend "good job". I was so proud of her.

Thankfully though after the low point came quite the opposite. One day at work I got a phone call "on behalf of ...... School, we're calling about your daughter". Ok, they really need to find a better way to start their conversations when it's nothing bad because I think my heart did a couple flips in the few seconds it took for her to continue and tell me that she was very pleased to let me know that Emily had won the grand prize in the Jump Rope for Heart draw.
Well, this was the grand prize.....
The reason they called to tell me was so that I could go and pick it up, instead of her having to carry it home on the bus.
The best part of this whole story, and it could only happen to me, was that I had purchased a Wii before Christmas. I got a good deal on it and an extra game was also included but I decided to save it for their birthdays since they're three days apart. So there it was, sitting in my closet, with only a few more weeks to go. When I started laughing and told the lady the story she said that was no problem, that I could return it and get a store credit for the amount they paid for it. So I brought the one out of the closet, passed it off as the one she had won, took the new one back and used the credit to buy some accessories and games for their birthdays! Perfect!

This is not the first time Emily has been lucky enough to win something. Actually, she has probably won more in her eight years than most people win in a lifetime (me included!). This year at school alone, in addition to the Wii she won the main draw at their Scholastic book fair which was $40 to buy books and she also won a Webkinz in another fundraising draw.

When Em was 2 my mother-in-law was selling tickets for a draw their church was having. She bought some and put all her grandkid's names on them. That year Emily won the grand prize....

yes, this beautiful quilt AND she also won third prize which was $100!
The next year, same draw, mother-in-law puts grandkid's names on the tickets again and (I'm not making this up!) Emily wins the grand prize again...ANOTHER quilt!!

That fall when Emily was 3, Tim's Lion's Club was selling hockey pools for the NHL season that year. It consisted of 16 boxes with 4 players in each box. You wanted to pick whoever would get the highest amount of points in the regular season. Just for a joke, I sat down with Em and got her to point at one name in each box and submitted the form in her name even. You see where this is going don't you? Well, she got 39th place out of about 2000 pools and received a cheque for $50! I think it cost $5 to enter.

So, yes, sometimes she's definitely a lucky little girl!

The weekend before the Mother's Day weekend (yes, behind as usual!) had to be THE busiest weekend we've had in ages...well, Emily and I. Ok, mostly her...I just did a lot of prepping and driving.

Friday night we had a little of this...dance recital dress rehearsal...


Followed by driving her to a friend's birthday party for a little of this...


Saturday morning began with 2 hours of this...cheerleading practice...



Followed by the dance recital...show #1...


Followed that evening by the dance recital...show #2...


Followed by...oooohh...this one was for me...

If you enjoy this type of movie then this is one you do NOT want to miss! Robert Downey Jr. was amazing, this role was perfect for him and the entire movie was entertaining right from the minute it started until the very end! I LOVED it!

Sunday morning started at 6:30 (now wishing late movie hadn't been so late!), driving 45 minutes to participate in this...the Cheer Alliance National Championships...

In the photo above Emily is in the group on the left. She's the "base" (as she calls it) on the right.

This was only Emily's second competition since she started cheerleading and my first time getting to watch her (my weekend away ended up conflicting with the first one after they changed the original date). This was so much fun to watch and what a huge competition! There were over 150 different teams from Canada and the U.S. and in Emily's division there were 11 teams competing. Her team did a great job and she had a blast so she wasn't terribly disappointed when she found out they had placed 11th. She knew they had, as she put it..."messed up their ending and hadn't done their somersaults together". She was hoping that since there was so many of them that maybe the judges hadn't noticed! Too cute!

Then we headed back home, changed from this...

back into this for one more dance show...

...and then it was early to bed for everyone that night! We were exhausted! Listen to me, like I really did anything!
I was so proud of Emily, she had so much fun going from one event to the other and she did a great job dancing and cheering.

Please excuse some of my pictures. That's part of the reason this post took so long. I kept trying to fix and tweak, obviously without much luck and finally I just gave up. I really need some Photoshop lessons and I really shouldn't have used my new camera. That really wasn't the best time to experiment!

I can not stop laughing at this...



(Shamelessly borrowed from Mrs. G.!)

Dear Self,

As "we" are definitely a Gemini, debating, conversations with ourself, even arguments are definitely a common occurrence but this is where I draw the line and feel that it's time to go over some of our previously established guidelines.

1) The only alarm that should be going off at 5:30 in the morning is some sort of alarm warning of impending doom, NOT one designed to wake us from a peaceful slumber. We are not now, never have been nor ever will be a morning person in any way, shape or form. Yes, a beautiful sunrise and birds chirping are things of wonder but couldn't they occur after 8 a.m.?

2) Said alarm should never EVER be heard on a Monday.

3) Body parts should never be expected to bend or hold in extremely uncomfortable positions for varying lengths of time before noon on any given day.

4) Partaking in a fitness class that's described as Intermediate to Advanced level AND being taught by an extremely perky, obvious morning person is just cruel.

5) Don't take it personally when said fitness instructor says "work those hams!" She's referring to the hamstrings, not that thing resembling 2 small hams you call an ass!

6) We don't like to sweat first thing in the morning...EVER...not for ANY form of exercise (if you get my meaning!).

Love,
Me.



Dear Me,

Until said time when we actually *are* 5 months pregnant again or become 5 foot 11, we will be endeavouring to become the weight of a woman whose BMI falls within the safe zone of someone who's 5 foot 9 and NOT pregnant!

Love,
Self