Two weeks and counting...

Two more weeks to go!!

Allyson gets out of the cast and goes into a hard splint on October 11th. She's excited. Mainly because the cast is already starting to stink...gross!! She also participated in practice tonight - working on some one-handed tumbling on the air track. She was excited about that...ticked that the new gym rule is SHOES ON. We've been plagued recently with foot and ankle injuries. Even working through that, they still all complained. The fliers got to snicker a bit...they always have to wear shoes :O) We also started working on a new pyramid that is looking VERY promising. We should be good to go by the 21st (next competition). Exciting stuff in the land of cheer today!!

The Real Deal

Since I've gotten some comments about Jillyan, I'd like introduce you to the "real" Jillyan...

Jillyan is 9 and this is her 4th year in cheerleading. She has cheered year round for the last three. If there is something that she needs to work on - she works on it. End of story. Some may say that she cheers to be with me - but this sport is in her blood. Jillyan is a 4th generation cheerleader, and I'm proud to say that the talent is strong with her. With this sport evolving to be more athletic, Jillyan has taken it on herself to better HER athleticism. She is inspiring to watch as a parent - and as her coach. Jilly has already made plans to cheer in college, and has already asked to start visiting colleges where cheerleading is available and competitive. Again, she is 9.

I'd love to tell you that this is an artsy shot that I took in out front yard - but the truth is she finally talked me into going outside to critique her tumbling passes. In this shot, she's getting up from stretching...and to add a little fat to the fire, her shirt really says CKB (cheerleaders kick butt). With Jillyan - Cheerleading isn't just a sport, it's her life!

First Competition of the season...

Well - it's over. Our season has kicked off to some excitement, some disappointment, and overall excitement. I know it's blurry, but here is Jilly's 1st hands-free Chinny (for Purple). The flexibility and control that this takes is pretty amazing for Jilly to execute. Now - if she could just get her actual chin DOWN!!

Allyson was unable to compete, throwing her squad off at the last minute. Having a cast on your arm really tends to limit what one can do - and basing was entirely out. She's usually on our Silver Squad - competing as a Junior Level 2.

The Purple Squad placed 3rd in their division, the Silver Squad placed a heartbreaking 4th. Wednesday's practice will be TONS of FUN!!!

Jillyan pulled double duty, competing on both the Purple Squad (Youth Level 1), and the Silver squad. This means two routines, and double the work! I thought that she did a great job for competing twice in one day, and did an awesome job remembering which routine was which (for the most part)! It was a long day for little Jilly...

Trying to stay hydrated between performances...


A little disappointed spirit...yep - that's a 4th on that trophy...

Wishing for luck!

Jillyans 1st Full Extension Lib - the Lib is too loose...

Just when your life just SUCKS, along comes a friend that you rarely get to hear from...and makes you laugh when you just want to cry...

Allyson will be in the cast for a month, and be ready to compete - even as a base - by our October 23rd competition. She has a purple cast, and is managing nicely. At this point, she's excited that she figured out how to shave her armpits without getting it wet. Ahhhh...vanity.

Rest in Peace Ares...

Today was a sad day...after limping along for a year with epilepsy, we allowed Ares the dignity he deserved. He passed quietly and peacefully in my lap this afternoon. We will all miss him. Our "God of War" is at peace....

sisters...

Sisters

Many faces, many personalities...individuality. My girls...from left Allyson, Jillyan, Melyssa and Ellyzabeth (Elly).

In honor of this, I'd like to wish my sister a Happy 30th Birthday!!

Sears Tower in the clouds...what a beautiful sight from street level...

House...

Well...no house for now. It was "clicking" right along, and then...nothing. I'm suprised I'm not more disappointed. I guess it puts it into perspective when you are dealing with a homeless cheerleader. Feel blessed with what you have. Feel blessed with what you are. Feel blessed with what could be. The dogs are taking this in stride...

Be careful what you wish for...

For those unaware, we are now seriously on the hunt for a real house. Intrepid hunters that we are, one smacked us in the face.

Now, this house is a wee bit out of current price range, and we'll probably never sell our townhouse - but all signs are pointing in a favorable direction. Included in this colonial style house is 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths with a master-lux bath (Jacuzzi tub - anyone?), a two story formal living room, formal dining room, a family room with fireplace, stainless appliances and corrian counter tops in bowed out eat-in kitchen with bar, ceramic tile, and endless upgrades. Beautiful landscaped property on a cul-de-sac with a fenced in backyard big enough for a pool, trampoline, garden, etc. All new carpet and professional painting done. Did I mention that it's across the street? We could literally move with the Radio Flyer, and the kids wouldn't even change their BUS. Needless to say, I have turned into the whiny child - BUT I WANT IT!!!!!

Now, we were pointed at this house about a week ago, and with living slightly above our means (meaning we have a roof), the prospect of me working full time has - let's say - "come up". (It ain't easy living with an accountant!) Excited that we may be able to get the house, I start dreaming of where to put furniture, and who gets what bedroom...all the stuff you do when faced with a potential move. I'm doing all this by pictures, fruitcake that I am.

The full time job thing is something that I have been avoiding going back to, alas to get this house...well, you get the idea. Job hunting has been sporadic at best (like anyone calls you because you type monster.com in your browser), but I'd like to tell you tale...

Like all good little girls, the first thing I do is call my Mommy. I decide to manifest a positive approach to us getting this house. I told her that I wasn't asking for someone to hand me $50K for a down payment (just to help out, see...), I just wanted things to "click". For us to do this on our own as this will be THE house that we retire in, and the kids all come back to for holidays (quit laughing Chelle). She told me that she would put it on the prayer chain at church. This was Monday.

Friday afternoon, Chelle and I were having a good money woes chat (between call waiting and cell phones ringing), when we were interrupted by the school calling me for something (money). While waiting for the phones to calm down so we could really get into the job hunt bashing we were both SO enjoying, I looked up a job online. While it didn't list the hours, I was interested. Same job I had in Ohio, same industry, same everything.

When I called to inquire about the hours, I accidentally got "hired". Click.

Our mortgage broker called Saturday to discuss what we need to do to get the house. Click.

We see the house in person at 11am on Sunday. Click.

I am freaking out at this point, as I am a planner and things MUST be done on schedule. So I am manifesting that my salary will be wonderful, day care will fall into place, the house will fall into our laps, and we will live comfortably within our means in a beautiful new house. Wish me luck...

Turning Flips

Life's kinda like that, huh... Seemingly pulled in all directions, turning flips to make every end meet. Exhausting yourself over what you may not change. Cursing yourself over every sacrifice you make to complete the whole... How I long for the simplicity of childhood, the innocence of a sunrise and late summer humidity. Not the looming thoughts of another day to live through with minor catastrophes and another season soon to end. To freely think that I am the only one. How can a mother lose herself, keep herself, save herself yet damn herself in the space of a thought? How can a woman be starved, be fed, be armored yet nude through said thoughts? How is this accomplished? How can we look through our jaded eyes and see the absolute perfect flaws of life? Men sometimes call our foresight a gift, yet we curse it as our heart and soul get wrapped and warped around an idea or notion. Our very being bleeds through each step, marking the universe with the stained footprints of our painful thoughts. Invisible to all but ourselves, yet especially void to ourselves. How can we step through life with the knowledge that we will be used, broken, hurt and tortured? This question is an easy one to answer. It is because of the simple and pure love of a child. This love has the ability to muffle the scream of our thoughts, to redirect our most negative decisions, and most importantly, to gently cleanse our footprints from the universe; but hold our footprints in their souls. Tread lightly...as the tears of a heartbroken child are most difficult to cleanse...

Damn Camera...

In keeping with my theme of life here recently...my camera is back from repair. Naturally, I was very excited and made arrangements to pick it up IMMEDIATELY. Now - before I rant, I would like to state the the camera shop that I deal with - Ritz/Wolf Photography - is AWESOME, and their customer service is second to none. I love them. The repair shop that they sent my camera to...not so much.

The repair shop conveniently FORGOT to ship my battery. Think about this...that's right...no pix for Emily until the battery comes in. I am unable to even check if the repair WORKED. Now, since they've had my baby Nikon for 6 weeks now, and a week before it went in this time they had it for 3 weeks - I'm a little PISSED!!

Photography is becoming an important hobby of mine (tied in with the whole scrap booking thing), and you know I've got it bad when I pick up my friends similar model and start snapping off shots. Sad, I am. I didn't even ask her. After hearing her laugh for about 10 minutes while I shamelessly filled up her memory card with pictures of our DOGS - I took the hint and sheepishly handed her camera back. I'm an addict - but I'm OK with that :O) When the camera is back FULLY, I'll post more pix...I promise

MORE NEW LAWS!!!

If the school bus is due to pick up your child at 6:30AM - it should come to a complete stop and CHECK to see if your child is coming - NOT just slow down to 25mph then floor it on down the road.
courtesy of Michelle

National Freedom Day should be enacted ASAP. This holiday shall free us of watches, bras, jeans that hold your butt in place, teeth and other restricting but necessary items that we require to make an appearance in public.
courtesy of Michelle

Laws to Seriously Consider...

Since most of these really get our panties in a bunch, we tend to block them out. I say VENT YOUR FURY! Leave your "Oughtta be a Law" here. Ideas to get you started:

1. Nobody should sell an item IF the nescessary parts to make said item work are discontinued.
courtsey of Emily

2. School should be ALL YEAR, with a few more allowable tardies for slacker Mommies.
courtsey of Michelle

3. Christmas trees AND decorations should be removed from your neighbors yard, and NEVER plugged in after January 15th.
courtsey of Michelle & embellished by Emily

4. Grocery receipts should NEVER be longer than you are tall. I KNOW I bought a lot of shit, make it in smaller font or something!
courtsey of Emily

5. Schools should NOT make you fill out contact information for EVERY child that you send to the same school. Have some brains. Look it up on another siblings form, or >>gasp<<>
courtesy of Emily

6. Older cars should not cost more to keep running per month than the original car payment. We can engineer silly putty that lasts forever even stuck to carpet, but not car parts that will work for 10 years?!? CRAP!
courtesy of Emily

7. Panhandlers who beg all day, then drive off in a BMW should face life in prison.
courtesy of Emily

8. Cleveland sports should win AT LEAST one major championship event every 5 years. They've been around long enough and have PAID their dues.
courtesy of Emily

9. 24 hour grocery stores should not close the deli at 9pm. 24 hours is 24 hours. Hire some people!
courtesy of Emily

10. The last of the chocolate syrup should be easier to get out of the bottle and never make all of the fart noises.
courtesy of Emily

OH NO!!!

I have a white board - but it's black. You have to buy special markers for the "black board". They don't make them anymore. I found a back up. Now they don't make those anymore either. This board is the master family calender. I'm up a creek...
Why the hell would they sell the boards if they're NOT gonna make the markers?!?!?!?!?!?!? There oughtta be a LAW!

I'm Emily. I'm 32 - eeeeeekkkkkkkkkk - and have 6 kids. I'm out of my everlovin' mind. They range in age from 17 to 4. I'll have a senior and a kindy the same year. We live in Cary, IL, about an hour northwest of Chicago, and about 20 minutes from the WI border. We llike it up here, but really miss family and friends. We're VERY crowded in our townhouse, but still have a while 'til we can move :O( Such is life. We have an epileptic St. Bernard named Ares, a Bug puppy named Gooti, two cats (Cookie and Mango) and Allyson had a hamster named CatChow (ok...it's really Cashew). I think there's a fish here somewhere too...

Busy can NOT describe my life. There isn't any such word to describe this. Each child has at least one activity at least 6 days a week. We try our hardest to keep the family unit secure and functional through mandatory family dinners at least 5 night a week. OK...so I'm a little physco about that, but we always make it happen. The kids are also required to support one another in their activities - meaning the WHOLE family goes to track meets, competitions, recitals and concerts. Hopefully this will pay off when they are deciding which nursing home to put me in!

I have a lot of little jobs that I do to help with finances, but for the most part, I'm building my gym - Cary Cheer Elite to be the best it can be. I also coach for the Park District, consult for two rec leagues and am looking VERY forward to a call from one of the high schools on the area. It is a dream of mine to coach at a high school (even though I have older girls on my gym, weird, huh). Competitve cheer IS different though. I love EVERY minute of it.

With just getting started, have patience with me, and keep checkin' back!!

Thanks!
Emily

The baby...number 6...Elly (short for Ellyzabeth)...she's all flash and sass. Her life is a musical, and she's been dancing for two years. Beautiful girl...

Evan - 5th in line up - dealing with being in school all day (WHEEEEEE!!!), we call him Rain Man. Seen the movie? That's why. Brandon tossed a 15 times 7 question at him this summer, and he answered it - even though none of us thought he could. He frightens me.

{---- Manny, soon to be 17 - 1st in line. I'm a little ticked at him right now...so we'll leave it at that.

{----Melyssa, 3rd in the lineup. Also has a touch of weenieness - but is the musician, so I guess this is expected. She's starting band this year, and will play the sax. Expensive little instrument...

This is Allyson...she can be a weenie...but hey - she's almost 13. We get this face a lot now. She is also a competitive cheerleader, and is a STRONG base. Still working out tumbling :O) Allyson is 2nd in the lineup...God help us all...

Emily's on her way...to the nuthouse!

{----- Is what I do...I'm a competitive cheer coach. I can now say that I am co-owner of my gym. This is Jillyan (4th in the lineup) pulling a scorpion. Since she is 9, and this is one of THE hardest tricks to pull in the air (OK, from a full extension) - sorry...I'm just proud. And the hair...yeah...that's a wig. Jilly's hair doesn't grow much...