Gymnastics

Well it's Tuesday night, and what does that mean? It's gymnastics night!! The girls are getting ready for their recitals, and they are doing great! Ciara was scared of doing the beam, which I understand because she got hurt the other time. She was on one of the higher beams and she wasn't doing that well. She was scared to do a full handstand, her jumps, and her dismount. She changed beams for one that's closer to the ground and she did so much better! I guess she just has to take baby steps until she feels comfortable again. Ciara just got put into a competition level, and she is way excited that she gets to start to compete to earn medals and trophies. Ciara was doing her bar routine tonight and she did awesome, it was a perfect routine! She had it down pat for a while, but then something happened, I don't know what, but she got sloppy, but not anymore :)

Allison did great tonight also! She was working on the vault and the bars tonight. Usually when she does the vault, she either only jumps with one leg, or she completely jumps over the spring board onto the mat. Well not tonight! Every time she was up she did it perfectly! Then on the bars she did a back hip circle without any help! She was on a roll tonight! Her coach was so impressed and so was I! She is so close to moving up a level.

I am so proud of my girls! They are so awesome!

Friendship

This is awesome! Now that's what I call a true friend! :)

Spring Has Sprung

Spring has sprung.....in Ciara's mouth that is! Hahaha no not really. The other day she had to go back to the orthodontist to get her braces changed/fixed. They gave her a different wire that hold her braces together, and she got to change her band colors. This time she went with a pastel purple and a pastel yellow for Easter. Her teeth are coming along quite well. They're not angled anymore which is awesome! This new wire will help pull them together so she won't have huge gaps in between her teeth. You can compare this pic with the one where she just got them put on, I see a BIG difference :)


As for the real Spring, I wish it would hurry up and get here already. I'm tired of the snow and cold. I can handle rain, but I really don't like when it snows, especially when it snows after the first day of Spring. I'm looking forward to warmer weather, flowers, and of course more photo shoots with my girls. I'm so lookign forward to all those nice things :)

Foot Update

I know y'all have been dying to get an update on the progress of my foot, so here it is :) I have officially been wearing regular shoes to work, and and the weekends...yay for me!!! It's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still not 100%. The thing that hurts me the most is my pinky toe. The scar really isn't healed all the way like my other scares. I got a total of 4 incisions, one on the side of my foot, one on my 4th toe, one on my pinky toe, and one under my pinky toe (that one is to fix my tendon) I still wear tape on my toes because first it pulls my pinky toe straight, since it wasn't before (it was kinda curled under), and when I wear regular shoes, the tape acts as a barrier from my shoe to my scar, so it's not as painful. Granted there are time at work when I'm sitting at my desk and I have one shoe off, but hey, at least its not that stupid ugly surgical shoe thingy :) So here are some pics. This first one is a side view so you can see where they did everything.


This next one is just of the incision on the side of my foot, hasn't it healed nicely? And how about that tape job?!? I did it all by myself :)


This last one is of just my toes. You can't even tell that I had been cut open on my 4th toe...at least I think so :) I have to admit that my pinky has a long way to go, but hopefully it will get there soon.


The only scar that I don't have a pic of is the one under my pinky. First, I just can't get a pic of it, and second, if I did take a pic of it, you couldn't even tell that I was cut open there. Which is a very good thing by me :)

I have to say that I really, really miss wearing high heel shoes. I just love how they look, they make me look taller, and I also love the noise that they make on tile or concrete. So right now I'm stuck wearing flat shoes, but at least I got a cute pair at Target, and they were on sale. Because why would I ever pay full price for a pair of shoes that I will only be wearing for a short period of time :)

First Injury

Well I knew it would come sometime or another, Ciara got her first 'real' injury from gymnastics...she hyper extended her knee and twisted her foot. Her little foot is swollen, and she really can't straighten her knee. She was on the beam and when she was dismounting, something went wrong and her leg got stuck on the beam while she came down and that's when it happened. She tried her best to finish the rest of her practice, but she just couldn't. After the beam she went to practice the vault, but she couldn't run that fast. I feel so bad for her. She was already scared a little of the beam because one time when she was doing a handstand on the beam, she lost her grip and fell face first onto the beam. Ever since then she has rushed through her routine, and because of that, she's been sloppy on it. I really hope that this doesn't make her more scared. She has a recital coming up at the end of April and another one in June. Sure she has gotten bumps and bruises before, but nothing that would make her coach, or herself, sit out the rest of practice. She has it wrapped up and she ices it when it really starts to bother her.
I guess one thing good happened from this, when we went to Walgreen's to get an ace bandage, Alli saw a new candy that she just had to have. That new candy is coconut M&M's. Let me tell you this, they are SO good! If you like chocolate and coconuts, you really need to try them! I just can't get enough of them :)

Parent/Teacher Conference

Well, once again it's that dreaded time of the year. It's Parent/Teacher Conference time. Every single time I hear the same thing over and over for Ciara. Ciara needs to work on not talking so much, Ciara is a social butterfly and doesn't know when to stop talking. Granted that's like the only thing that is a very big problem. So once again as I was walking to her classroom, I was for sure that I was going to hear those exact same words, but boy was I wrong! Ciara got the highest scores she can get, and she has learned to stop talking and focus better! At least at school anyways :) Ciara has always been a good reader. I had her reading when she was 4 years old. So I really wasn't surprised when her teacher told me that she's above reading level, I was surprised at what reading speed and level is is on though! She's at a 6th grade speed and level! That's a ginormous leap! See for yourselves:

She is also on a 5th grade level for math:

Ciara also had the privilege of taking the IOWA test this year. I remember those days. Here are her overall scores:

The grey in the middle (if you can see it) is the Nation's average score. Granted she is average in some parts, but she is above average too!
I am so super proud of my little Ciara!

Allison's conference usually goes something like this: Allison has a mind of her own. If she doesn't want to do something, there's no way of making her do it. Yeah tell me about it! That's been the story of my life for the past 5 years. Allison now does what her teacher asks her to do, and she has become a good little friend. Her teacher told me that there was a new little girl, and she was having the hardest time adjusting to her new class. Allison would go over to her, hold her hand and told her that everything was going to be OK, and that she would be her friend. How cute is that?!? I have to admit that I kinda slacked with Allison. I didn't have her reading until she was 5. So going into kindergarten she was only ready a little bit. Now she is at a 1st grade reading level! The school really doesn't do that many tests in kindergarten, so I don't have a lot of pics on how well she's improving. But here is her reading improvement:


I forgot to mention that the solid bold black line is where the school would like the kids to be at. For both Ciara and Alli.
I am so very proud of both my girls, they are so very smart! I hope that this is the start of a new parent teacher conference trend. :)

It's Been Awhile

Wow, I can't believe that it's already been over a month since I blogged! Time sure flies by fast! So I'm going to give you guys a little update :)

Since my foot surgery, my foot really hasn't stopped hurting, but it is getting better. I had my stitches removed 2 weeks after surgery, which is kinda weird since usually they only leave them in for a week. I have to say that I didn't like getting my stitches out one bit! It hurt super bad and I tried my hardest not to cry....my eyes got super watery, but not one tear dropped out. That is until I got to the safety of my car. The top part of my foot is still super tender and it still swells up, and only my pinky toe hurts, other than that things are going good. I tried to wear 'regular' shoes last week, but that didn't work in my favor. I went home on my lunch break to get my 'special' shoe. I tried again on Sunday, but once again I couldn't handle it.....oh well at least I'm trying right?!?

Nothing really hasn't been going on with the girls besides the usual. They are both doing super well in gymnastics, in fact they have a recital thing at the end of April, so pics will soon follow. Ciara rushes through her beam routine because a couple weeks ago she fell so now shes scared. Shes been doing better, she just needs to get over the fear of falling. Ciara is in the top of her class for her spelling and reading! I am so very super proud of her! She still is quite a talker and will talk your ear off if you let her :)

Allison has been sick off and on for awhile now. Today I stayed home from work because she wasn't feeling that well. Her fever is down and she's not complaining that much anymore that her tummy hurts. So I guess that's a good thing. She just moved up a reading level at school and she is super proud of herself, as she should be. She has a SAG movie casting to go to later this month. If she gets the part, she will die in the movie, and believe it or not, she is super excited for it.

I officially moved to my new position in the collections department at work, Monday was my first day all by myself. I really like working up there, but its kinda weird having my own office, and being on the 'professional' level. I shared an office with someone for the past 3-4 years....I really can't remember, it's been that long, but it was fun :)
Its going to take me awhile to get used to being by myself, but I work with a lot of great people up there, and I can always still talk to my people in my old department.