Crop Stories: Code Red

So, this last weekend I got to hang out with some great ladies at a Scrapbook Retreat. They will only be known by their aliases - to protect their true identity. Ok the name thing really took place at the delirious sleep deprived hour of like 4:00 am where some of us thought it would be funny to give each person a scrapbook retreat name at one of our previous retreats. Now, not all of the names have been nailed down - and one or two I made up on the way home, so they are by no means set in adhesive.

Anyway......we arrived at our exotic location on Lake Texoma Thursday afternoon. We decided to venture out for some dinner, and Paper Madam insisted that we try some local cuisine at Merlene's. We did a drive by - where we were caught by Mr. Merlene checking the place out. When I stepped through that door into the dimly lit dining establishment I was a little scared. Merlene's was the local bar, where every bar stool was occupied. They were very friendly, but poor Merlene was worn out making all of our dinner while Mr. Merlene told not so funny jokes to us.

Now I admit I never watch the news and I do not check the weather - seriously does it matter in Texas? The weather changes all the time, and usually the weatherman can't keep up. So I was unaware of the coming storms to the area we were staying. But our kind hostess was diligent in her efforts to make sure that we were kept abreast of the worsening weather conditions (translation: she wouldn't stop calling to tell us that we were in for it). Poor Scrapbug (I am still working on a new name..but think of it as a cute little ladybug holding her adhesive in one hand and her scissors in the other) took the brunt of these calls, over and over again. Most of us were like...whatever, bring it on mother nature. That's about when the phone rang and it was the local fire department issuing a CODE RED alert which demanded that we take cover due to the tornado's. Luckily our hostess had already advised us on where to go....the smallest freaking room in the house - the spare bathroom. Six ladies in one bathroom w/closet for about 30 to 40 minutes. It was fabulous! Lucky for us Scrapzilla had located the mother of all flashlights before we closeted ourselves in there, and I had grabbed my camera for proof!

Obviously we all survived.....and I will be back later with more Crop Stories.

'At your age.....'

So I went for my anual Dr. visit last Thursday. Let me first say, I love Dr. M. He is the total opposite of me - he is very calm and collected. If by some chance aliens take over my body and I give birth- I really hope he is around to be calm and collected, as opposed to my hysterics. However, I really think that there was some sort of hidden camera in the office last Thursday, or they were having an office contest to see how many times Dr. M could refer to my 'ADVANCING AGE' in one 20 minute office visit. Every sentence either started with or ended with a reference to what needs to be done at MY AGE! Really? I know....they were playing a round of stupid office pranks/tricks. That has to be the only reason he would torture me about my age for 20 minutes while I was being violated all in the name of 'yearly testing'. You ladies know what I am referring to. I do not need to be reminded of my age - since my lovely daughter so kindly reminded me in my moment of age amnesia of my actual number. Ugh!

Redline Nationals 2009

This last weekend was the Redline Nationals in Shreveport. Rylee's team moved up a division, they went from Mini to Youth. (Translation: they were competing with older girls, the age for Mini tops out at 8 and the age for Youth tops out at like 11 or 12, our team has 7 & 8 year olds.) This was a bold move, and one the parents were a little skeptical about. The mini division has been stiff competition this year - and those 'Cheerbots' have been hard to beat!

After the preliminary round on Saturday, all of our teams were in 1st place - with large leads. The Mini's scored a 7.4, with the 2nd place team scoring a 6.6 (they also outscored the mini division, so they would have been in first place no matter which division). At National Competitions they also have a high point award, which is an award given to each level (1-5) to the team with the highest score. We have three level 1 teams, and after prelims our teams were in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for high point (the Mini's being in 3rd). Our level 4.2 team was in 2nd place for high point by .02 points.

On Sunday you have finals. Prelims count for 1/3 of your score, and finals count for 2/3's of your score. The Mini's did a good job - they completed all of their stunts, but were a little sloppy. The other teams were no better than they were in prelims. Our other teams all nailed their routines! Before awards they had a Guitar Hero competition, and one of our mom's, Gina, got to represent out team! It was hilarious - she didn't win though! Then we had awards, and well as you can see on the video - they took home National Champions!!! All of us crazy mom's started to cry - even me! It was a well deserved moment for our girls! As I said, all of our teams won their divisions, and our Senior 1 team took home the High Point award for Level 1. We don't know the final scores because our coaches were so excited (can you tell from the video, the red flash running up is the gym owner/coach) they forgot to get our score sheets. So, every girl in the gym received a National Champion Jacket this weekend!

We had a great time this weekend! The girls got to swim at the hotel. They were so funny because it was the first time they could really brag, and they were in the hot tub with some girls from another team, and I heard them asking those girls 'what place are you in?' and the girl said 'I don't know' and our girls said 'we are in 1st!'. We also took a trip to Build-A-Bear where they all got a stuffed animal, and most of them got matching outfits. It was a stress free, fun weekend!

And the Champion Is........

Not a lot of time, just got back from Shreveport......check out the video!

I will be back later with lots of pictures and the full scoop on what went down!