Here we go again...

Look! I have time to knit again!

That can only mean one thing.

Meet season is upon us!

On Saturday we drove four long hours to New Castle, Indiana, home of some high school fieldhouse that's apparently pretty big. It was all set up for a gymnastics meet.


We sat for four more hours on bleachers that weren't that comfortable, trying to keep Becca amused,


and watching Kathryn compete for a total of maybe 5 minutes. More good knitting time (when she wasn't competing, that is).

Good pictures were a little hard to come by - we were more interested in watching the action.

Start of floor routine:


Some move on the beam whose name I don't remember:


Getting ready for the run to the vault (which happens so quickly that we've never managed a picture):

No good pictures on the bars, because the bars are always in the way.

At awards, she won the judge's award (a package of candy!) for "best scale". My (bad gymnastics mom) reaction - "What's a scale?!"

Here's the scale.


My back hurts just looking at it.

She also got a few other awards. I think she did pretty well.




The team did great too - note all the little girls with the same leotard also receiving awards. The team took 3rd place overall, but we couldn't get a picture of 7 screaming, excited little girls.

Here's the haul.

Becca needed to get in the picture too.


Full results:
Level 5, 9 and under age group:

• Vault: 9.100, 2nd place
• Bar: 8.000, 12th place
• Beam: 8.550, 5th place
• Floor: 8.900, 2nd place
• All-around: 34.550, 3rd place.

One down, a bunch more to go! There'll be a lot of car-riding, bleacher-warming and knitting in the next few months!

(P.S. I don't know why some of the pictures are off-center. It's the upload, not the photographer.)

Quotes from the four-year old

Yesterday was picture day at preschool.

"The picture-takener was SO funny. We all laughed and laughed. My GOD she was funny. She was 100 pounds of funny."
_________________________

I had gotten a notice about a field trip they were going to take, to watch Rainbow Fish. I think it's a play. Not sure. Anyway, at pickup on Monday:

"We saw a movie today. Rainbow fish."

I was suspicious. I hadn't gotten any reminders about the trip. And I didn't think it was a movie.

"What's the movie about?"

"There's a shark, and a rainbow fish.
And the rainbow fish is in his house, and the shark says, "little fish, little fish, let me in."
And the fish says "Not by the hair of my finny fin fin!"

( I checked. No field trip, but they did read the book. And no, that's not the plot either.)

World Communion Sunday

Today was World Communion Sunday. Frankly, I don't know how many churches celebrate it, or what denominations. I had never heard about it before I moved to Indiana. I might not have been paying attention.

In Southwestern Indiana I'm a bit of an anomaly. I stand out. People remember me wherever I go, which is terribly embarrassing when someone says hi to me at a store and wants to make conversation and I have no idea who they are.

I have only been attending my church for a few months. People know (of) me though, because I stand out. I got an email earlier this week asking me to read a few verses of a Psalm in 'my language' for today's World Communion Sunday service. I assumed she didn't mean that I should read in English, although I really can't read much of anything in any other language.

Thanks to Google I manged to find a Chinese translation of the Psalm in which I could recognize more than half the characters. I found a nifty Chinese to Pinyin translator so I could actually pronounce the characters, even if I didn't know what they meant. And then I found a Chinese to English dictionary so I could actually figure out what I was saying.

Then I read the passage this morning, butchering it, leaving out words because I was nervous and because my tongue just isn't accustomed to making those sounds. I consoled myself that nobody knew what I was saying anyway.

World Communion Sunday. A day to celebrate our oneness in Christ and to remember the world that the Prince of Peace called us to serve. I loved that we ended with an old hymn from my childhood (with lyrics changed to be more inclusive):

Let there be peace on earth
and let it begin with me
Let there be peace on earth
the peace that was meant to be
With God our creator
children all are we
Let us walk with each other
In perfect harmony
Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment and live each moment
in peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
and let it begin with me

Yes, indeed. Let peace begin with me.

...and in a non-sequitur but not really, I love what Michael Moore had to say about capitalism today. Read it. It's a good one.