I had my best friend Anna’s birthday this weekend. We went bowling and I had so much fun!
He said
After having not the results she wanted last weekend in her second competition, Emelia was right back at it Monday night for practice. There was no time to dwell on the results and disappointment. And by then, we had her coach look at the videos and had a much better idea of where the deductions came from and what needed tightening up and working on. She is determined to have a much better result at her third – and final – qualifying competition at the end of the month in Whitby. She has set a goal of 36 or higher overall and really hopes that she can put on a personal best to qualify for the Provincial Finals in June.
For me this past week was about finishing strong for the Wellness Close The Rings Challenge we do at work. It’s focused on closing all three rings (Move, Exercise and Stand) every day for the month of February. It got exercise back into my repertoire more regularly which is always a bonus, and it got me back to the gym which doesn’t hurt either. And I am proud to say that I reached my goal of Gold on last Saturday at Emelia’s gymnastics meet. I had a full week to be lazy if I wanted to (but thankfully and for my team, chose not to).
Last weekend I also didn’t talk about the fun thing we did at work on Sunday. For a few years now anyway, I have been trying to get the few of my coworkers that play hockey organized enough to rent the ice and play some hockey. When one of the Manager’s from our store, Michelle transferred to the Conestoga store in Kitchener, I had an in there to make this hockey game a little more fun. Sure enough a game against their store was hatched at a town about halfway in between in Woodstock. Well, last Sunday night that game happened despite the crappy weather. It was a ton of fun and all my coworkers that played were talking about it all week which was great too.
The other thing that surprisingly cropped up this week was the talk of expanding our camping footprint. What made it surprising was where that conversation generated from: Danielle. Yesterday while out and about with Danielle & Emelia, Danielle got a message from our friend Leanne about the new trailer they had upgraded to. Leanne & Chris were a large part of what got us to the place of recognizing as much as we loved Wolfie (One) that we had outgrown it as a family and how we ended up getting Wolfie Too. We have never regretted that decision in the slightest, but certainly a lot sooner than with trailer number one, have the conversation of what the next size trailer would need to have.
Add that we have a daughter that has now hit puberty and – rightfully so – in the last year needed more privacy. And literally minutes after that text came through from Leanne and telling us what model they got were we looking at, and talking about (more seriously) what we would want in the next size up. And so it seems we might be looking. I know the two things I would really like are an outdoor kitchen, and some sort of division between our bedroom and view from Emelia’s bedroom area. The good news is that we’d only have to add about 6 feet in overall length to get that which is still very manageable and doesn’t get us into behemoth length.
So, tomorrow morning Danielle is going to reach out to Campkins where we got Wolfie Too and see what it looks like to upgrade. The good news is either way we’re happy. If it works out and we can work our way into a model with the features we’re looking for and a little more space and privacy we’ll be happy. But, if it doesn’t work out, we still love Wolfie Too. And I won’t have to worry about replacing all the stickers I had just started to replace from Wolfie!
She said
With competition #2 under Emelia’s belt and a chance to reassess where she needs to work on things our focus this week was shifted a bit to work on Emelia’s overall health. With all the hard work and training Emelia and the other girls it is very hard on their bodies. Emelia with puberty hitting had a massive growth spurt last fall/early winter. Since then Emelia has been battling lingering pain. We have tried various approaches to get things under control, but at the end of competition last weekend I reached out to one of the coaches at the gym. Anna who coached Emelia years ago is now a competitive coach and an RMT. Anna is amazing to work with and has given us some help with Emelia. This was a more serious conversation about what is going on with Emelia’s pain. Anna agreed to take on Emelia as a patient and even better for our not so flexible schedule does home visits!
On Thursday Anna arrived and was able to give us a much better assessment of the problems Emelia has been having. Problems with pain but also changes in her gymnastics routines. Emelia with her last growth spurt has her pelvis out of line and this is causing a lot of problem with pain, balance and a few other important things that impact her. Thankfully Anna has a treatment plan and hopefully with a bit of work can get things back on track for Emelia.
Emelia felt pretty good after her session but the real pain from treatment hit her the next day. She was very sore for 2 days but felt better today at least her leg did. She is already feeling better at training and with the help of her coaches she will hopefully be back on track for everything soon. Her next competition is coming up fast so we are in a real crunch time to get her healthy and in top shape.
This weekend with the never ending snow we have started dreaming of camping. We have booked camping already for July and are chatting with our other camping friends to find as many trips out this year with as many of them as we can. The chat last year between John and I would be what would we need in another trailer to make the leap. We modified our list to make sure things were in line for trailer size but the conversation had already started. We really adore our trailer but there are three things we would love different – bed size for Emelia, privacy for us/Emelia, and an outdoor kitchen would be a real bonus.
The conversation started and then we pushed the idea back in our minds over the winter – well that was until yesterday again. I got a text from our good friend Leanne who bought a smaller version of our current trailer just ahead of us, the same year we bought ours. Well they surprised us with the news that they had upgraded, and to the size and list of must haves we have had for a year. This started the conversation again between John and I. We spent the better part of last night again looking at models. But the real question will be can we make the numbers work – that will be a conversation for tomorrow with our RV dealership. So who knows we might be upgrading this year.
Today was a shift back to reality and getting back to the gym for Emelia. Thankfully she was feeling better and ready to kick some butt at the gym. I was able to see the last hour of her training today and was happy to see that she was back in the groove and even trying some level 5 beam skills. Even more impressive was to see her not only attempt but land the biggest level 5 beam skill – a back walkover! Would say our girl is back!