Sunday, April 19, 2009

Kelly is a Memphis Elite Pom Dancer!

Yeah! I'm so happy for Kelly! She made the Memphis Elite Junior Pom/Dance Team. She is soooo excited! I haven't seen her this excited about an extra-curricular activity in a long time. Of course, that is subject to change at any time, but she really does love the kind of dancing/moving that the pom squad does. AND naturally, she gets all that rhythm and talent from me! Ok, anybody who really knows me and has seen me dance can get off the floor now and quit he-hawing! I have a lot of coordination for sports, but don't ask me to move my hips one way and my shoulders a different way and by the way, where in the world would my mid-section be going while my hips and shoulders are moving in different direction???? Why, I can't even clap to a beat, much less dance to one!

Anyway, back to the point....My understanding is that the owner and coaches of this team are very talented and they win a lot of National Championships for both cheer and dance. Matter of fact, one of the Mem Elite dance teams got their expenses paid to Worlds because they did so well. The dance coach is also the coach for the U of Memphis Dance team as well. Because of this, Kelly will most likely get a chance to perform a half-time show at a U of Memphis Tigers home game at some point and I KNOW she will be very excited about doing that.

My niece, Ashley, wanted to know what Pom is since a lot of schools just have Cheer. Pom is a lot like Cheer, but they do not usually do the "stunts" or gymnastics/back-hand-springs/pyramids, back-tucks, etc. that cheerleaders do. They usually perform with pom-poms (cheerleaders do sometimes when they aren't doing heavy stunting) but POM incorporates more dance moves rather than stunts. They will sometimes do hip-hop and jazz performances and sometimes they will look a lot like cheer performances with just slight differences (like adding dance techniques minus the stunts). I'm not a Pom "guru", that's just what I've gathered from VERY FEW observations. Anyhoo.....I'm just happy because Kelly is happy!!!

Grandmother (Mama Anne)

My Grandmother (Mama Anne to us, Mimi to the other grandchildren) is not doing very well at all. She has had Alzheimer's disease for many, many years but her over-all health has been very good until the last year or so. Really until the last 6 to 9 months ago. My aunt called a couple of weeks ago to tell us that she had basically stopped eating, talking and walking and was just drinking liquids and lying in the bed. Friday she called to say she was even worse, then today she said it was possible that she wouldn't make it through the night.

We went to see her tonight (Saturday) after Kelly's soccer game and it was sad to see her in that condition. She has episodes where she will stop breathing for about 15 to 25 seconds; enough to get you extremely concerned, but then she will start breathing again. She is a fighter so it is possible that she can hang in there for another couple of days, but you hate for her to suffer. We plan to see her again tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Pom

Never thought I would be posting about this, but Kelly has become interested in Pom. She tried out for Collierville Middle school Pom but only 2 5th graders made it (for 6th grade next year). They had 43 or so people try out and 25 girls made it. They are usually the National Champions for Pom (or so I'm told) for that age group. We heard about Memphis Elite in Cordova and she is trying out for them this week. The coaches from Memphis Elite are also the coaches for Collierville Middle School Pom so she should at least be more prepared next year for CMS POM if she makes the Mem Elite team. Of course, all of this costs money, so if she doesn't make it....well, just less money to be spent for our one income family!

Mom's Cancer Update

Mom has been in Houston at MD Anderson since last Monday. She had to be at the hospital at 6:30 this morning (Tuesday) for surgery pre-work and her surgery was scheduled for around noon. The surgery was delayed until around 3:15 and she was starving since she wasn't allowed to have anything to eat or drink after midnight the night before. They performed a lumpectomy and it went well. They tested the lymph nodes and we will know the final results of those later but initial signs look good. She was out of surgery around 5:30 and into the recovery room after that. She was very hard to wake up after surgery; it took quite a bit longer than expected before she "came to" around 7:45. By 9:00 she was able to eat and sit up and watch t.v. but they are keeping her overnight. So all in all, the surgery seems to have been successful. Angela is with her and says that MD Anderson has been just wonderful to them and does an excellent job.

Truman - large paint pony for sale or lease

If any of you know anybody looking to buy or lease (full lease or half lease) a large paint pony for jumpers or hunter/jumpers let me know. My girls aren't riding him enough to keep him and I was layed off from my job. The combination means he needs to go! He is beautiful and sweet so I really don't want to sell him but....tough times call for tough decisions! Let me know if you know of anybody!