· November 28, 2005

Hi Everyone -

    Well, okay - wow. Today I had my last practice at Flytz with Terry. I just love him and Flytz so much and it really makes me sad that now I have to leave. I always thought that I would be at Flytz forever. I was going to graduate from Flytz and then go to Kent State so I could still train at Flytz and then come back to Flytz after college to coach. I can't believe that everything is so messed up now. I would definitely just stay at Flytz and not even compete, just train if Terry would come back, but he is already packing to move to Las Vegas. He gave me the most wonderful ring today. It is white gold and has a blue stone and two diamonds and it says Flytz on it. I absolutely love it and will have it forever!

    Oh, I got my first drug test on Saturday! It was really weird because Terry was in Las Vegas and I haven't actually started at Cincy yet so I didn't have Mary Lee either. Well, we didn't have a full workout on Saturday and we would have already been gone from the gym when the testing guy came but my friend's little sister was taking so long at her locker getting ready to go (I went home with them) that luckily we didn't miss the tester guy. If she would have been ready to leave when me and Tiff were ready, well, I would have already had my first "miss" for my test! You are only ever allowed to have three misses and I would have had my first miss on my first time and still just a junior (Martha and Kathy would not have been too happy about that!). Well, anyways, I guess the drug people thought that I took Thanksgiving vacation to just sit home all day and do drugs - ya right, that's really me! Well, it went okay. How hard is it to pee in a cup? It didn't even take long because I had to go anyways. So, no biggie.

    Mary Lee has been really great getting me ready to come to Cincinnati. She sent me a big box of t-shirts and sweatshirts and a binder with stuff in it that I don't really know what everything is but it has my picture on it. And it has all kinds of gymnastics stuff about skills and what they are worth. I'm kind of nervous training there my first day because I'm not sure if Mary Lee will let me keep doing all my skills. My hindorff is really good right now - I never fall on it because, trust me, you DO NOT want to fall on a hindorff!! And my hop full is getting really good too. Plus my Yurchenko doubles are getting better every vault day. So, I don't want to think that I wasted all this time working on skills that I might not get to compete. I'm pretty sure that I'll get to keep my Arabian doubles though because she has had a lot of girls doing that skill so she probably likes it. But I guess I just have to wait and see what she will let me do. I know that Cincinnati has a great tramp and I hope Mary Lee lets us come to practice early and just play on the tramp every day. We used to do that every day at Flytz - we always played add-on.

    One of my other teammates is coming down to Cincy with me tonight and hopes to try out tomorrow. And I have another one who is coming down on Wednesday and then Tiff is coming down on Friday. A lot of girls want to go to that gym! So - that's pretty cool. I get to have some of my old teammates with me and I also get to see Ash, Monica, Hilary, and Jack. I really hope that Tiff's mom lets her move down there with me and Jasmine. We can all get an apartment together and be like "Friends" or something! Well, except we'd have to have a mom around at night.

    We're still not really sure what to do with me when I'm in Cincinnati. It's about three hours away from my house so I can definitely come home on weekends, and my mom will come up during the week to see me, but we can't really all move because my brother is going to be a senior in high school next year and there is no way that my mom will make him move his senior year. I don't think she'd even let him move if he was just a freshman. He has too much other stuff that he does and it would not be fair to make him move just because I have to. But, anyways, it shouldn't be too bad. My mom will spend every Wednesday night with me because I get done with practice at 10:30 in the morning and then I'm done until Thursday morning. She can't stay with me every night because she has to work and Zach can only stay by himself one night a week - plus she'd miss him too. I really, really want Jasmine to move to Cincinnati too because then we will get an apartment with them and her mom can watch me when my mom is back home. I really like her mom and her older sister.

    Oh, this is funny. I haven't even started my first day at Cincy yet and I already have to take a day off!! I am coming back home on Friday night to go see the Trans Siberian Orchestra on Saturday in Cleveland. I am so excited and Tiff is coming with me and we are going to dress up and go out to eat. We got two extra tickets for Terry and Annie but obviously they won't be coming with us so we gave them to Zach's band teacher. I also wanted to take off Monday because my brother is playing at a really nice concert hall, called Severance Hall, but we decided it wouldn't be too smart to take off two days on my very first week of training! So now I have to wait to watch him play until February.

    Well, I'm packing for Cincy now. I will let you know how practices are going and if I get to keep all my new skills! Please wish me good luck because I am kind of scared and nervous and sad - but also maybe a little excited. I finally get to have teammates that I can travel and compete with!!

   Bye, bye