· March 23, 2004

Hi Everyone -

   It seems like I just wrote something but I guess it has been a long time already.  All the days seem to be the same with school, gym, school, gym - maybe a little sleep - and then school and gym again.  So, I don't usually realize how long it's really been since I wrote something.

   It seems like I just got back from my last camp and already have to go again in two weeks.  This last camp was really hard for some reason.  I was still not able to do everything (no vault and only about 1/2 of beam) at the last camp, but my coach had me verify bars and floor anyways.  Bars is the only thing that I was 100% ready to verify because I had only been doing full floor routines for about 2 or 3 days before we left for camp.  Well, anyways, I fell on bars.  I haven't fallen on bars in a very long time at a meet, so I was really mad at myself.  Maybe if I was 100% on everything I wouldn't be so mad at falling because I could still do good on the other things.  But when you only get to do a couple of things and you can't even really do them yet and then you fall on the one that you should be able to do, well you get pretty mad!  But that was the bad part about camp; I also had some fun.  I got to room with Grace Taylor, who everyone knows is soooo nice, but I also got to meet a new person named Morgan Dennis who is also soooo nice!  And Morgan is so fun to watch on floor and vault - she can leap on floor and her leaps are so high they look like they are over your head - they are over my coaches head and he is over 6 feet tall!  And her vault is just amazing!  The best part about camp was spa day.  We each got to choose two things that we wanted to have done at the spa.  I chose to have a massage and I also got my nails done by Corey Hartung.  Oh, and we also got to have steak again for dinner!  As long as we keep getting steak, I will be glad to keep going to camp!

   After the camp, I competed in the American Podium Meet.  I was originally supposed to be on a team with a girl from my own gym and Haily DeProspero.  But the girl from my gym got injured and I was put on a team with Ashley Priess, Sam Sheehan, and Alicia Sacramone.  This was my first real meet since last year at Championships and I was so ready to compete!  I did bars first and kind of messed up my routine pretty bad but I didn't fall and somehow managed to get second place.  My coach was still mad though, he wouldn't care if I got last place as long as I did a good routine but my routine wasn't very good.  I had to sit out on beam because my coach still wasn't letting me do some of my old skills that used to hurt my leg yet.  Then I went to floor and had so much fun doing my routine on the podium!  It is so bouncy on a podium and you feel like you are able to do any tumbling pass out there and it seems so much easier.  I actually got first place but I didn't get my dance bonus and I went out of bounds so hopefully at Classics and Championships I will do better and score higher.  Now vault was pretty funny because I had only vaulted three days before the Podium Meet and was only allowed to flip two days before the meet since last October!  Warm-ups were pretty bad and my vault wasn't the greatest but I landed on my feet and scored pretty well.  It's a pretty easy vault though, I did the Yurchenko full on.  I can't wait until I am healthy enough to train the Yurchenko 1 1/2 again!  Oh, and the best part that I almost forgot to tell you - OUR TEAM TOOK FIRST PLACE!!!

   Well, I'm off to camp again in two weeks and I am going to try my hardest for a spot on the Pacific Alliance team.  Neither me or my coach have ever been to Hawaii before so wish us luck!  I will have to verify all four events at this camp if I want to try for a spot and I'm pretty close to 100% ready so I'm kind of excited but I am also pretty nervous.

   Thanks for visiting my site and signing my guestbook and thanks for all the good luck wishes that everyone sends my way!