The last several weeks have been busy and eventful. I went to watch my school's Mock Trial team one Friday at the courthouse. We had a team advance to finals and lots of individual award winners. I snapped a photo of the plaque that shows Sara's winning team from 2023!
I was so excited and surprised one afternoon when Seneca Wallace stopped by to see me at school! He had been coaching in my district, and on his last day before leaving for a new XFL position, he swung by and let me fangirl!
Steve, Emma, and I went to Ticketstock to see Dirk. Steve got there early to get a spot, and Emma and I ran in after a soccer game. Here she is in a picture "with" Dirk.
It was really fun to be up close and personal as he discussed his time on the Mavs as well as discussed current issues with the Ticket guys. It was fun for Emma to put voices to faces.
Emma's first volleyball season ended. The girls came in 2nd in their end-of-season tournament, and Emma's coach pulled her aside for some special words when he handed out medals. He said, "This girl - she wants every ball and she always wants to win." He summed her up pretty well after just one season! It's been so fun to watch Emma's progress in a short time, and she's looking forward to playing with Coach Walter again in the spring.
I was so thrilled to have the chance to have dinner with my very first teacher friend, Christine. We taught together at Congress Middle School in KC, and I hadn't seen her in twenty years. She was in town for a conference with her husband so we met for Mexican food and margs. SO many laughs and such a wonderful time catching up!
A couple nights later, my uncle was in town. He hung out at the house with Steve and Emma for a bit while Sara and I were at a cheer meeting. Then when they left for softball, Sara and I met him for dinner. We had a really nice time catching up, and I'm thankful he got in touch!
Emma's skills coach, Diogo, earned his US citizenship, so the girls dressed in red, white, and blue for skills practice one night to celebrate him!
Last weekend, rain got in the way of soccer games, so Emma and a teammate burned off steam at Urban Air. I snapped this pic when I went in to pick them up!
Outside of the rainout, spring soccer is in full swing. Emma has also been getting in lots of futsal games. They are fun and fast-paced, and we enjoy watching them from the "upper deck" with a cold bev!
Softball season has also started again, and I managed to get a video of Emma's homerun last week!
The past several weeks, Sara has been putting in lots of extra hours at the gym to prepare for cheer tryouts. I have been in awe of her work ethic as she will leave one practice and go directly to another, and she's been squeezing in as much time at tumbling as possible. She's attended clinics and just gone above and beyond to prepare herself for tryouts.
This past week, the girls had regular practice early each morning and tryout clinics until late in the evening. On Friday, they had their last pep rallies at Jasper.
Tryouts were last night ... and it was a long night. The moms gathered in the high school parking lot while the girls finished tryouts and waited for results. We had food and drinks, so they hung out after tryouts (which ended close to 9:00 pm). It was a really nerve-wracking night. Because of the way Plano structures high school, 9th and 10th graders can only be on JV sideline (they can be on Varsity comp like Sara was this year), and 11th and 12th graders can only be on Varsity sideline. So that basically means you're either in or out. There were A LOT of girls trying out and we all knew the coach was only planning to take 24-26 girls. What a long wait for those results. I was SO thankful to be there when they were posted - and Sara looked through the numbers, then looked at me and said, "I made it!" with a big smile on her face. We hugged and it was such a special moment.
Her best friend, Ally, also made it. Several others did not, and it was a hard balance between celebration and sympathy. Still, I know how many extra hours Sara has poured into being prepared for this tryout. She made sure she could do the tumbling she wanted to be able to do, and she absolutely earned her spot.
In the end, 24 spots went to 13 rising seniors and 11 rising juniors. We cannot wait for FNL next fall! These next couple of years will go quickly, and I know they'll be so special for Sara. We are SO proud of her for working to achieve this dream!
Today we took in one last futsal game and tomorrow we are headed to Florida for spring break!
The rest of our spring will get busier and busier ... so this week, we plan to enjoy a sunny, beachy, relaxing vacay!
