· October 28, 2004

Hi Everyone,

   OMG I am sooooo glad to be back home!! I had no idea that it would be so hard to be away from my computer for two weeks! I seriously had headaches all week from not being able to stare at the screen. Okay, I also missed my family, friends, and gym a little too. I felt so bad for my dad though because I hadn't seen him for two weeks and as soon as I got home on Sunday night, he had to walk out the door to leave for work. He's only home on weekends, and so he had to wait another whole week just to see me.

   You are not going to believe how stupid I was when I packed for this trip! Okay, you know how USAG always sends us all the clothes and leos so that we always look alike? Well, anyways, I have two pairs of flip flops that they sent me two different times and they are exactly the same. (We also get underwear and socks when they send us stuff!! LOL) Well, I wasn't thinking so when I was packing I just grabbed the first two flip flops I saw. When I got to the ranch - well, I only had two left ones! I had to spend the entire time wearing nothing but tennis shoes everywhere I went. It was such a drag to have to keep putting on tennis shoes and tying them and stuff for every little time I needed shoes. Plus, I looked pretty stupid at the party with a skirt and tennis shoes on! Anyways, about the party - it was so much fun!!! :) I got to wear makeup!! !:) Shayla told me that I had to wear it for the competition and so she did my makeup. Well, we didn't go back to the room after the meet so I still had makeup on for the party. My coach doesn't like makeup so he wasn't too happy about it and my mom got pretty mad when she saw my pictures because you could tell I had makeup on - oops! But I don't care because everyone else really liked it and I am going to wear it again when I compete! I got to wear green eyeshadow, mascara, and blush and it really looked good (especially with my tennis shoes!) If you look at some of my pictures maybe you can even see it.

   Oh, and about the meet - I guess that's the main reason for going out of town, right? LOL Well, anyways, I did really, really well at the ranch with the Canadian team. I was a little upset because I couldn't do my new vault. It was feeling really good at home but not at the ranch and Martha wanted me to just do a full and not the one and a half. So, I guess now I just keep working on the one and a half and at the next camp I can show Martha that I can do it really well! Oh, and I really liked how we got to start from a higher score at this meet - it really made my scores look good! The meet in El Salvador was really good too. I LOVED the floor!! If I had a floor like that at home, I could do great tumbling every single day! I actually liked the whole gym. I didn't like the bars though, so I didn't do my normal dismount but I still got to start from a 10 at this meet. Plus, I got two rips on my hands at the ranch so that made the bars even worse! I fell off beam and it was such a good routine so that kind of stinks! :( But at least I got to make two finals and did good on both finals. I really wanted to make beam finals also though. The girl who beat me floor finals - OMG she was sooooooo good, you wouldn't even believe it!!!! Her tumbling was so hard and she landed everything so perfect, too. My floor routine was really good too, but hers was just too perfect. I didn't see her the first day so I don't know why she didn't beat my score on day one, maybe she just saved all her good stuff for finals. Oh, and Natasha's beam routine was really good, too. She definitely deserved to win with her routine! Oh, and we were also on TV in El Salvador. When we were getting ready to leave in the morning, they showed some of our routines. They showed my floor routine from day one and my bar routine from day two. They showed Kassi's floor routine and also Natasha's beam routine. And I got this really great shirt from a girl from Brazil. It is her club shirt but you can't understand anything on it. I traded her a USA shirt for it. I actually got a lot of pins and little stuff from different people. I got a really neat little wooden box that holds worry dolls. There is this story behind the worry dolls - well, if you have a worry, you are suppose to tell it to the doll and then put the doll under your pillow when you sleep. In the morning, your worry will be gone! Sounds good, huh? Well, the box has about 6 dolls in it, so I should never have another worry - I love that gift! My coach got me some really cool maracas (those things that you shake and they make noise) and he had my name engraved on them. I'm glad he got them for me because I have a pair from when I was in Mexico and now I can have a collection. Oh, and we also got some great bracelets that have our names and different stuff engraved on them. BTW Shayla, Tasha, Morgan, and Kassi - have you guys been wearing your "gracias" bracelets yet?!! LOL Oh, and there was a volcano where we were and it was blowing steam or smoke or something when we got there, I have a picture of it. And finally, at least the food was okay on this trip! The food in Mexico was so bad but here we got to stay at a Holiday Inn in El Salvador so they had mostly normal food.

   I don't think I am going to be doing anything for awhile so hopefully I can just work on some of my new skills. Oh, and I get my new floor routine in a couple of weeks! It's official - Nancy Roach is going to do it for me and I am sooooo excited!! And the best thing that's coming up, well - We Get To Go To SCATS Meet!!! My whole team is going and I will get to compete with them. I am so excited, it is so much fun when I get to travel with my whole team (not just boring mom and coach!! LOL) We are trying to get a beach house for while we are at that meet so hopefully I will get some time to just enjoy the ocean. Not too many chances to see the ocean in OHIO!

   Well, I'll write again when something exciting happens - Oh, something did happen. BERNIE IS GOING TO MICHIGAN!!! She gave her verbal a little while ago. She has been my teammate since I was about 7 years old and she is so great (I get all her old clothes and leos!) Plus she is so nice and has the best bar routine ever - she does the most amazing hop-full ever. So, anyways, I'll write again soon!

   Bye, Bye