The scholarship

I know its been forever since I have blogged so here's an update: my tendonitis has gotten much worse so i'm now going to physical therapy; i'm not allowed to do any excersise on my feet running walking etc. except skating. Thank goodness cause I have another test in 2 weeks. Yikes! School is getting much harder and history is getting more and more boring.
 I am skating in my rinks Christmas show in about a month so thats something to look forward to.  The amazing thing about this is that I got a scholarship to be in the show. Last year, it cost about $300.00 for me to be in it. I couldn't be in it this year cause no way can my parents afford it. Or as my mom likes to say ' we don't want to afford it'. So I wasn't going to be in it. Untill my coach came to the rescue and said that she talked to person in charge and was able to get me into 2 group rountines and all I had to do was help out with the hockey boys number and pay $30.00! Yes I know the boys can  be really unruly but its worth it and sometimes kinda fun. 

Short post.

I know, I'm sorry. I haven't blogged in like a week.
I have family in town so I get to see my new 5 month old baby cousin. She's is so adorable!!! They will be here through the weekend but they're leaving tomorrow.
My tendonitis is finally getting better!! It has been taking a lot of physical therapy but its getting much better.
My competition is on the 29th and I have an exhibition on Saturday and next Wed. on my B-day! I will be turning 14. I'm really looking forward to it, but the competition in what is practically occupying my mind. I'm really nervous. My stomach flip flops and churn whenever I think about it. I just really don't want to fall. I know this post is short, but there's nothing exciting going on in my life. Sorry. Wish me luck!!

What now? Oh I know, Tendonitis!

There's really not that much left to post anymore. School has just about started and skating is still my passion. It seems like everybody else always has cute ideas for a post. Me? Nothing. 

Although I have a competition on the 29th, and I skate like 2 1/2 hours a day 5x a week, I still feel like I'm never going to be ready.

Oh! Here's something worth while; I have tendonitis in my left knee. It really stinks. I have to ice it every day, work my hip muscles every day and rolling pin my leg. Not only that, but some days it REALLYS HURTS. I've probably had it for months and only 2 weeks ago finally went to the doc. I made the mistake of not telling my mom until like 3 weeks ago. So far, I've gone through 2 knee braces, and none seem to work except this thing called Rock Tape. I kind of don't know what it does, but all I care about is if it helps or not. Have a wonderful day!!

Show biz

Last Friday was a very wonderful day. I was able to be on camera. Our next door neighbor is in the entertainment industry and my dad's best friend. He needed a couple actors for a movie/ video thing, so he asked my little brother Cody(he is 8 years old). They(the film crew) started out at the Harbor and filmed Cody fishing and hanging out with his actor family. It was easy to see who the director was since he was wearing a directors trademark, a short-sleeved black shirt with glasses hanging off it. He was also the one shouting out orders and whatnot. After about two hours of baking in the sun watching Cody act, we could finally go home.
Later that day, my older brother Cameron was supposed to also be on camera but he had to back to school. So I was recruited in his place to be an extra. My job was to play basketball in the background. I'm a figure skater, not a basketball player unlike the other extra who was Cameron's good friend. Whenever I made a basket it was a big deal to me. Of course they got out the big camera's and such so it was a neat experience. And I will be getting paid, no idea when, but someday. It was really neat being on film.

Cause I had a bad day

Sorry I haven't been blogging! I have my skates now, they are perfect except the breaking in process requires a bunch of blisters and band-aids.
Today has been so warm and not the greatest day. I saw a car crash happen right in front of me at an intersection. Everybody was fine but it really shook me up. A couple other personal things happened. And all of this really shook me up. Then at skating practice I was right in the middle of take-off for a difficult jump and all of a sudden, the skin peeled right off a blister making it impossible for me to skate. So my coach gave me a blister pad which required me to take off my 3 pairs of tights and putting a hole in my brand new ones. I was in tears. $20 does not grow on trees. Yes. Skating tights are expensive.  So after I got myself back together, I resumed my lesson only to fall 20 more times. Time and time again I fell on my butt on the same stupid double Salchow. After 3 run-throughs in my program with music, It was taking up all of my willpower not to burst out in tears. I went home after a unsuccessful practice. Oh the drama. Tomorrow I am helping out at our rinks competition that I will not be particapating cause there's not a level high enough for me to compete at. :(

New carpet!!

We got new carpet! It took many hours to unload the entire house besides the kitchen. Thankfully it was a beautiful day, with typicall SoCal weather.  After a very long couple of days, the carpet was in and and looking beautiful.   Before and after photos:

Joup!!!

Today is my mom's 5th day on a 'joup' diet. Joup is a word we made up for juice and soup. A joup diet is when you have lots of liquids preferably soup and juice. My mom has a juicer, so she juices anything she has (spinach, celery, cucumbers, carrots, kale, apples, and oranges.) I just finished drinking my carrots and orange only juice, a big step up from the spinach drink she made last week. Addition to our 'joup diet is running around 3 miles every other day and bike riding not to mention my 2 1/2-3 hours of ice skating almost every day. Its not like we have any weight to lose, we just want to be healthier. We will be on a 'joup diet' for only 2 weeks but yesterday my body was very tired and sore. So, we went bike riding instead. Today, we will be going swimming at my mom's friends house, and probably go running in the evening. Wish me luck!

The Good, The Bad, and the Even Better

Bad news: Moneys tight so I will not be doing the competition in August.
Good news: I will be doing a competition in Valencia late September.
Even Better news: My skates got shipped out from the the warehouse earlier this week, so I should be getting a call any day now.
Other news: I started my 10th grade Literature yesterday, and I will be studying Shakespeare. I know it sound weird that I'm already starting school, but I would like to graduate from school by Christmas next year. I'm really excited to learn about Romeo and Juliet.

Did you enjoy reading Shakespeares plays?

A Day off From Skating

Today is my day off from skating. I've been skating for 5 days straight, 2 hours a day plus I went running on Friday and Sunday. So, as you can imagine, I'm a little tired. I will be spending my one and only day off painting my toenails and just hanging out.
I have been working my program for a competition in Valencia in September. I will be skating to The Training from the movie Mirror Mirror. Have you seen it yet? I have not. Anyway, my program consists of an Axel, 2 double Salchows, a camel spin, a layback spin, one back spiral, and a back spiral called a Charlotte. In this element you skate backwards, bring your leg straight up like the splits then you bring the rest of your torso down to your skating leg. Its not as difficult as it sounds, okay, maybe a little.
Its so beautiful outside today. I woke up with the sun streaming in just like the movies. It was kind of cool. Its also going to be a warm day, just like every other day.

Have you seen Mirror Mirror?

I passed my test with duct tape on my skates

I passed my Preliminary test! Now I can focus on my jumps and spins, at least when I get my new skates.

We ordered my skates in around Feb. before the accident, and around May we called and asked if we could pick up my skates. The order had been lost. So, we had to drive back down to LA (my mom was not happy) to get fitted again. And that was in May; here and I am in July and I have to put duct tape around the ankles of my skates so they don't collapse on me!! Anyway, my coach is really upset that the skates haven't come in yet. I'm going to call on Tue. cause their closed on Mon. Grrr.

Anyway, I passed my test with flying colors. And my mom wants me to take the next test at the end of September. We'll see about that.

I'm back (again)

Sorry I've been away! I have been a little busy this week.
This week I have been hanging out with my friend Nikki. She my age and so much fun to be around.
This Saturday is my premlimanry test, so here is a video of my freeskate program that I will be skating.
Despite a couple mistakes due to people in the way, I skated a decent program.

Marbled Chocolate Meringues

Just yesterday, me and my cousin made some amazing 'Marbled Chocolate Meringues'. They only required 3 ingredients: melted chocolate, 4 egg whites, and 1 cup of sugar. I know this is not a cooking/baking blog, but I'm very proud of them.
This is how they were supposed to look:

 And this is how they ended up looking. Even though they didn't look like the picture, they still tasted amazing! Crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Family and skating

Once again I had a wonderful practice session at the rink. Today was the first time it was actually busy there since its summer. Earlier this week has been really nice, there were only a couple skaters here and there, but today was crowded.
 Also on the subject of summer, my mom is watching my two cousins (14 & 16). They come over at 8:15 or 9:30 the morning and leave once their mom gets off work at around 4:30 or so. My cousins are very funny and are fun to be around.
My mom's cousin and his wife and daughter along with his mom (my great-aunt) were visiting yesterday from Sacramento area. Their daughter, I'll call her Kayla for her privacy, is 3 years old and a fun ball of energy. I happily spent some of my day watching the adorable toddler yesterday. Kayla had a blast shooting my brothers pistol Nerf guns, she was very good at aiming for a 3 year old.
This weeks weather has been very overcast and warm, kind of unusual for late spring. Maybe tomorrow will be beautiful and sunny for Fathers Day.

A Fantastic Practice Session

       How was everybodys weekend? Mine was quite uneventful. Today's practice session was fantastic, I did my program a couple times and successfully landed many axels and 3 double salchows. I finally got up the courage to try some sit spins(I fell on my head during a sit spin) and I did much better then I had expected. During my lesson, my coach and I worked hard on the arm movements for program ( I am skating to I Do Believe In Fairies from Peter Pan). The whole program is choreographed except the for the arms. I will post a video of it as soon as my program is decent enough to show you. We are dumbing it down for my preliminary test in July. You need to have a program with a flip,(no, not the kind were you turn upside-down, sorry) a sit spin, a forward scratch spin to a backward scratch spin, a single jump-single jump combo. I have, of course, all those, an Axel and my single jump-single jump combo is a flip-toe loop. Tomorrow is my second lesson with my stroking coach and I'm quite excited.  :)

What a Beautiful Day!

Today is such a beautiful day. I woke up to birds chirping and the sun streaming through my window. Seeing I was awake, Lilly jumped up on my bed, begging to be pet.
Skating pratice yesterday was awesome! I landed many axels, and completed some really nice camel spins. I even went through my program three times! My program has 2 axels, 1 camel spin, and a long step squecence. Of course there are some other jumps, but those are simple single jumps. I can't wait to tell my coach tommorrow at my lesson, she will be so pleased.
The rest of my day is busy with a chiropracter appiontment in 45mins, and a babysitting job from 10:30-3:10. So, I'd better get going!

A Great Practice Session

Here are some videos of today's practice session. I finally got up the courage to try a camel spin, a double salchow, and an Axel. I landed the first couple Salchows, then the ones we got on video were just OK. The Camel spin is definitely not perfect, but hey, its a start. The Axel, I'm especially proud of, and I hope you will be too. My headaches have been great most of the day, I did feel like my head was going to throw up after 10 Camel spins but they went away quickly. I also had my first lesson with a stroking coach and I had a blast. He works me very hard and I'm proud to say did my best. Tomorrow is another early morning practice at the rink and I'm so looking forward to it. 

Bad Dog!!

How did you wake up this morning? Did you wake up to birds chirping and the sun streaming through the window? I did not. I woke up to a gloomy morning and the neighboring dog howling for what seemed like hours. The darn dog howled for at least an hour I think, and it was not a small dog howl that was short and piercing, it was a big, long, husky howl that seemed to echo through the neighborhood. Anyway, I have a chiropractic appointment in 25 min. Apparently, the acupuncture wasn't helping enough so we decided to try this tactic. He ( the chiropractor) said that there were lumps, I guess, in my brain muscle so he stretched the muscle out and yesterday, it never hurt! One of my first headache free days!! I'd better go get ready, Bye!

Off To The Beach!!

On Tuesday, I went to the beach with my family and my dog. It wasn't quite warm enough to go swimming, so instead we just walked along the beach; occasionally dipping our feet in the water. The water was so beautiful and blue, and there was hardly any breeze, so the sand didn't get blown into our eyes. At times the sand was so hot that it scalded part of our feet, especially when we were walking back to the car It took a long time for Lilly (a golden retriever and cocker spaniel mix)to get used to the water. Well, sprinting was more like it. I was so hot!! It was like running on hot coals I imagine. And now back to the blue water, and crashing waves. As we were walking, three Labs of different colors came running after a ball, splashing in the waves. Lilly, of course, was thrilled to see so other dogs, but she was to scared to go in the water so she would just wait for the dogs at the waters edge and once we got to far from her she would forget the dogs and come running to us. She did very well at the beach; she never was aggressive torwards anyone or any dog, she would always come when she was called, and she stayed right next to most of the time. We walked for about an hour and then we came to some rocks. Some rocks had sea anemones covering them and others had muscles or limpets. We took a bunch of pictures, but it was on a big heavy duty camera so I'm trying to figure it out. I will post them very soon.

Why I love to homeschool

Now that my homeschooling year is coming to a close, I realized that next year I would be going to a public high school.(I'm will still be home schooled throughout my high school years, after all I'm already in 9th grade.) That thought made be appreciate how fortunate I am. I was in public school for kindergarten and first grade so I do know what I'm talking about.

-I have the opportunity to finish school early and go ice skating so I can work toward fulfilling my dream of qualifying for the Winter Olympics in 2018 or 2022.

-What if one day I graduate high school and move to a far off land and realize that I never really knew the person a couple doors down in the hallway? What if I didn’t know the person that I sat across from at the breakfeast table every day? What if I didn't know what made him laugh? What the name of his friends are? What if because I didn't know the person, I didn't care about him or what he did with his life? If I was in regular school I wouldn’t be able to know the answer to these questions are. I would have school from 8:00-3:00, then I would get home by 3:30, then I would still have homework for 2-3 hours a day, and then I still have to eat dinner, call a friend or two, get some exercise, and go to sports. Being homeschooled allows me to know my family inside and out. Being homeschooled also allows me to know the ‘person down the hallway’ what makes him laugh, what his dreams are and concerns are.

Homeschooling is a wonderful part of my life. I will be homeschooled all through my highschool years, and I will surely homeschool my children so that they can enjoy learning and pursue their dreams.

Mailman Sprays Pepperspray on Dog

Yesterday was awesome. I had an 1/2 hour lesson with my coach. We worked on footwork, jumps, and spins. I figured out after my lesson that I won't be able to spin for a while. A painful headache started to hi after my spins. So now, I have to say good-bye to my spinning to keep the headache from coming back. I have a lesson on Friday at 2:30, so I'm very excited.

Does your dog hate the mailman? Over the weekend, my sweet dog Lilly was hanging out in the front with my dad and his best friend. They were doing construction on the bathroom so the were cutting wood for the counter tops. And all of a sudden, Lilly tore across the street  like a bullet where the mailman was getting out of his truck, and loading his bag with mail. Lilly was seriously going to kill the guy if it wasn't for pepper spray. Yes. My dog got pepper-sprayed by the mailman. As my dad tells the story, he doesn't think that even the pepper-spray would have stopped her from biting his butt off. Afterwards, I had to go up to the mailman and apoligize, hoping that he wouldn't tell the city people.  How was yours?