Having To Move

Today is Preliminary Day, and instead of taking the time in the morning to meet, focus on their routine, and maybe get in some last minute practice, Ali’s team had to move hotels.  HAD TO is a relative term I guess because they didn’t actually HAVE to move hotels.  But since the team had to stay in the Wyndham off the Disney grounds, they are not able to utilize all the Disney perks; mainly being the transportation.  So instead of having to have the parents shuttling the girls around from the hotel, to the competition, or to their practices and the parks, the coach is moving the girls to a Disney resort/hotel.  So we are getting the girls all loaded up and shuttling them from the Wyndham to the Disney Pop Century Resort.

The move actually went pretty smoothly.  We ran into a little problem when we got to the Pop Century because I followed the instructions from the guard at the gate, and we ended up in the wrong place.  Luckily we figured it out and got the girls to the main lobby with the rest of the team right away.  The bad part was, however, that they couldn’t get to their rooms right away.  They were going to have to drop their stuff off, and then after their round, they’ll head back to the resort and get moved in.  But I guess that at least having their things there is the important part.  So now they have about 4 hours to prepare.  I hope this doesn’t throw the girls off.

2nd Place

In preparation for the UCA Nationals (not exactly) Alison had her Brookfield Blast cheer competition today.  The team always (or at least always has) attended this competition, and it just so happens to be the week before Nationals, so it serves as a good warm up.  I will say that this is the competition I absolutely loathe.  That is because this is a competition that last the entire day.  I think the competition starts off at around 9:00 AM, and because there are so many teams that do it, there are several sessions.  Part of the reason is that they include individual cheer routines and stunt groups.  It takes FOREVER!!!!  It is the equivalent of a dance competition doing individual solo routines.  This year there were three sessions, and we were in the final one.  Oh, and Brookfield always “honors” their seniors since it is their last competition, and they do a big thing for all the seniors too.  It really does make things take forever!

This year there were something like 4 or 5 teams in Ali’s division, and they weren’t bad.  There were a couple of flaws/mistakes with their routine, but there was another team (I am not going to name them) who ended up being better.  I can’t say that I disagreed with the results.  I was hoping that I missed something or there was something that the judges saw that your average spectator would say, “huh”?  But no.  So congratulations girls!  Let’s build on this and go tear it up at Disney!

Ankle Issues

Kris got a message today from Alison’s cheer coach.  She wanted us to know that Ali was in tears today at practice when they took their break because her ankle was in so much pain.  She said she wanted to know if Ali had said anything to us about it (which she hadn’t).  And also wanted to make sure we were aware because she wanted to make sure that Ali didn’t end up causing any permanent damage to her ankle.  She recommended taking her to the doctor to get it looked at.

Actually Ali had been complaining about her ankle hurting for some time, but whenever we suggested taking her to the doctor, she refused.  Now she doesn’t have a choice.  We have bought several different types of ankle braces for her and she refuses to wear them because “they feel weird”, or she doesn’t like them.  Well it looks like now she isn’t going to have a choice.  We’re making an appointment to see the doctor this week.  Let’s hope there isn’t anything permanently wrong.

Healthy

I finally got in to the doctor for my “annual” check-up.  I as actually due back in October, but I had forgotten to schedule it, and then due to my schedule, and the doctor’s, I decided to simply push it back to the new year.  I didn’t really have any concerns so I figured it wasn’t a problem.

Everything was cool.  All my blood work was normal, there was nothing new or concerning found on the once over, well, almost nothing new.  The doc did tell me that I have a hernia, but I knew that already, or at least I was pretty sure that I did.  I have had it for almost a year, I h\just haven’t had the time to take off to go and get it fixed.  But other than that, all I have left to do is schedule my 50 y/o guy test, which I am actually dreading.  I am going to put all those things off until we get back from Ali’s Nationals trip.  Then I’ll see about scheduling appointments for all that stuff

Winter Cleaning

Today was winter cleaning day.  That’s sort of like spring cleaning day, except in the winter.  I have needed to get at cleaning the basement for at least six months, ever since we moved things down there during the kitchen demolition.  Then during the stages of the remodel, things just got stacked on top of bins, and other things moved around, and nothing was ever cleaned up because I didn’t want to take the time.  Today it was finally time. 

I had actually started trying to clean off my workbench a couple of weeks earlier, but now it was really time to dig into it and start throwing things away. It took a total of about 10 hours, but at least I can walk around now without tripping over boxes, or bins, or stepping on screws.  I threw our two large, yard trash bags of things that were no longer needed (items from bins that I don’t know why I was saving, scrap wood that came from the remodeling of the kitchen, etc.).  It was a long stressful day of climbing around and cutting up my fingers digging thru things, but I am done for the time being.  I think Kris and I will still need to do some more rearranging since we still have some to store a couple of bins and boxes of Christmas items.  I have a door down there too that I bought years ago to replace the one in the front entry for the closet.  If I can get a free couple of days/weekend, I’d like to rip the old one out, finish putting vinyl floor and new baseboards in the closet, and put the new door up.  But that means having a whole weekend to work on it.  And I would need to get the door and frame sanded and stained first, which would take at least another whole weekend.  I would also eventually like to do some remodeling in the basement and get rid of the folding table where everything is stored right now.  But for now, being able to move around and get at the things I need to get at is a win in my book.

Greenfield X-treme

Today was supposed to be Alison’s first cheerleading competition since their performance at Waukesha South.  I was looking forward to seeing how they are since they have had about a month now to work with their “alternate” who has taken over for the girl who was suspended.  Additionally, I wanted to see the changes to the routine.  They need to start getting some experience with their routine in a competition setting to prepare for Nationals in a month.  Unfortunately, they had to scratch today’s competition.  One of their girls (a flyer) came down with the flu and has a 103 fever, and unfortunately, they don’t have an alternate to take her place.  So the choices were to perform minus one girl, or just pull out of the competition and focus on the next one, which is what they did. 

I feel bad because my mother was driving down just to see her compete and then has to find out that it has to be canceled.  I guess on the plus side, that left an afternoon to sit around and visit, instead of sitting in a gym listing to music that could rival the sound of a jet landing.

CNA Exam

Last summer Sarah completed a CAN course thru the Waukesha Area Technical College.  However, due to changes in testing, and other program issues she didn’t take her final licensing exam at that time.  The program director sent her information on taking her test a few weeks later, but by then her semester at UWL had started and she didn’t want to take time off from her regular classes to study for her CNA test and just planned on going to take it once her semester was over.  She was able to do it at WCTC while she was home over Christmas break.  

Well that day was today.  She had been studying for it for the past week or so.  I don’t know how heavily, but I know she was.  When she graduated from the program, I think she had somewhere in the neighborhood of 97% on her exams, so I thought this would be pretty easy for her with just some minimal refreshers.  Not quite.  I asked her to send me a message when she was done and let me know how things went.  I got a message around lunchtime that said something to the effect of, “it could have been worse, so we’ll see how it went”.  Later when I got home Kris told me that she got a message from the school saying congratulations, so I guess that meant she passed.  She found out later that she passed by about one percentage point.  But she passed, which is the important thing.  People always used to tell me when I graduated, no one is going to ask you if you just barely passed, they just want to know if you passed, which I did.  Same for Sarah. 

Now when she goes back in the Spring, she can see about picking up a job someplace in LaCrosse as a CNA to start banking some patient contact hours.  She has a roommate who works as one at a nursing home, so maybe she can see about getting a part time job there.  That would help with some extra spending money and get her some patient hours.  Congratulations Sarah!  You’re halfway there!