TWELVE ALREADY?

Can it be? Can she really be TWELVE? Wow how time flies! Wes and I are so proud of the young lady Calli is becoming. She's smart, focused, hard working, determined, beautiful, caring, compassionate and loves to be the center of attention. I wouldn't say today was the greatest celebration but once 5 o'clock came she was right where she wanted to be...in the gym!

She had school which took up most of her day obviously. I surprised her with a few double doozie cookies that she could pass out to her friends that I slipped in her lunch box. She had her first school cheer meeting tonight but she also had her Level 4 clinic at Woodlands Elite. They try out Saturday for next seasons team so this week they have work out clinics. During the clinic the coaches will work with you on the skills you need for that level. SHE DID NOT WANT TO MISS IT! So I told her if she went to the school cheer meeting that she might be late to Woodlands Elite. SHE DID NOT WANT TO BE LATE! So, much to her happiness, I sent her with a cookie cake and dropped her off at the gym at 5:15 and picked her up at 9. Such the life of a girl who loves to tumble!

Lots of birthday well wishes to her but the cutest HAD TO BE this one....

BMS

We now have a Brabham Junior High cheerleader in the family. Last week Calli stayed after school to learn a dance, cheer and how to be spirited. They don't really do the spirit thing at Woodlands Elite so that was something she had to learn last week. She was a little nervous to tumble on the dead gym floor and wouldn't do her tuck even though I really, really urged her to. I knew it really wasn't a determining factor since tumbling only accounted for 6 points (and everything else had a 10 point weight). She ended up doing a front walk over, front walker over, round off and 3 back hand springs.

I don't have any pictures of the occassion because we had a church party at our house that night. When numbers were posted at 8:30, we still had people at the house. So of course friends texted her so she could see that her #9 was on the list. At 10:30 when the last people left, I told her I'd take her up to the school but she said "Na".

She's excited! And so are we!

IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HAD ENOUGH CHEER

One of the girls on Calli's team made this video highlighting the year. I thought it was cute.

And these are some of the professional shots that were taken at NCA Dallas competition.

Calli's main coach this year is also part owner in the gym. I joke that he's a man of many words. He often would gather the girls together and talk about how they feel or what they want to do or spend practice time with the girls writing encouraging notes to one another. He sent many texts throughout the season telling the girls how awesome they were or how proud he was of them. I think he's the true definition of a COACH! Here was his final email to us....

Sergeant’s families,

Tonight will be Sergeant’s final practice as a TEAM for the 2011-2012 Season!  It’s with bittersweet thoughts that I write you this email!   I can tell you that this group of young ladies did a FANTASTIC JOB of becoming a TEAM and group of FRIENDS these last 11-12 months!  It was amazing to watch the “younger ones,” look up and follow the lead of our “older girls!”  It was fulfilling and aWEsome to watch the “older ones,” LOVE ON and TRULY mentor our future!  With the age gap… THIS TEAM OVERCAME!  With the turnover… THIS TEAM OVERCAME!  With the injuries… THIS TEAM OVERCAME! 

Your support and their trust in one another made some wonderful memories… not to mention the fantastic life lessons ALL 21 learned this year! Thank you for your commitment to your daughters!  Supporting “her,” in this passion called competitive cheer allowed this Sergeant’s Team to be successful in SO MANY areas!  Thank you for the MANY stunt practices… Thank you for your patience with personnel changes… thank you for trusting our staff and most importantly thank you for your loyalty to Woodlands Elite!  

If we don’t see you tonight… please make sure you attend the Saturday TEAM Party and/or Sunday Allstar Banquet!  I would love to visit with each of you individually over the next 10-12 days to close out the season!  Feel free to grab me ANYTIME or simply call!

Thanks again!

Brian Barnhart

Oh how I'll miss Coach Brian next year as we move on to another team. Lucky for us he lives at the gym so we'll still see him all the time :)

win, win, win, WIN, win!

So Calli's Sergeants team finished out their national season UNDEFEATED!

There was a win in Ft Worth  in January

  A win in Houston in February

A win in San Antonio in February

This competition also awarded us with the program award...meaning we had a great gym program, good sportsmanship, good coaching, etc. The big check in front is $10,000. Every one of our 12 teams got first place at this competition.

A WIN in Dallas in February

and a win in San Antonio in March

Let's go back to that Dallas WIN!!! Since Calli started cheering in the 3rd grade all you hear about is Dallas. Even her rinky dink gym in Willis categorized Dallas as the BIG DOG! In my opinion they place too much emphasis on Dallas so when they get there, the pressure becomes too much and mental takes over physical and something goes wrong. But it is what it is.

Woodlands Elite has a REALLY good program and we seem to always come out on top in most of our competitions with most of our teams. Nationals season is really more like a Regional season to me. In the Fall when it's just Regionals we usually only face teams from the Houston area. During Nationals we usually face teams from around the State...occassionally a gym from Louisiana will be thrown in there but for the most part they are teams from Austin, Dallas, Larado (who knew Larado would have a good gym?!?) etc. BUT at DALLAS, they come from all over. This year I happened to be in Dallas for work for the 4 days prior to Calli coming up with her friend. As I sat in my hotel room on Friday, I pulled up the schedule online and realized we may not have a fun weekend. There were 9 other teams in Calli's division. 6 were from out of state...Colorado, 2 teams from New Jersey, California, Louisiana and Maryland. I'm thinking 'you don't come that far unless you are good....or just stupid...or loaded I guess'. In Dallas you have to hit both days to even have a chance.

So after day one here was the scores for our division....

Sergeants were the ONLY Woodlands Elite team in FIRST PLACE after day 1. And as you can see, we weren't ahead by much (.32). Honestly our difficulty level (weighed score) being .47 above 2nd place helped us. You'll also notice that we had one deduction...they had none. But because our difficulty was higher, we were able to stick that first place spot.

And then day two came. I was hoping the girls wouldn't let the nerves get to them. I wouldn't say it was flawless in execution but it was enough to call themselves NCA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

They do this really cool ceremony in another hall where they girls show off their jackets on a stage as they are announced and the papparazzi  parents take all kinds of pictures.

Sergeants and Majors (the team Calli originally started the season with before they moved her to be a flier) both took FIRST and that's it. It was close for many of the other Woodlands Elite teams but in Dallas we truly meet our match.

It was very exciting but a very LONG weekend! Awards were at 7 and at 9 o'clock we were still taking pictures. As silly as Calli looks here, I would have given anything to look just like her if only it meant I could sleep.

The girls were on a high for a week. And that high only subsided a little because we were preparing for our next and final competition in San Antonio. We all felt like we really didn't need to go. I mean they just won the SUPERBOWL and now they were sending them back to Little League...that's what it felt like.

But oh well...we really needed one more jacket!

RING RING

Colson loves the telephone. Once he learned our phone number, he constantly calls us. I gave him a prepaid minutes cell phone at Christmas just to show him he had noone to call but he proved me wrong because silly me...he had ME to call! Even when we are in the same house. Almost every Tuesday night, when I have to travel down to The Woodlands at 9 to get Calli from cheer, Colson is in bed. But of course it takes him a while to fall asleep. So in his boredom he calls me. And because once isn't enough...he calls multiple times. "Where are you mom?" "Well Colson, I'm at the same place I am every Tuesday when I leave to go get Calli." "Well, when will you be home?" I always tell him, "when my car pulls in the driveway". 10 minutes later I get the same call.

He also likes to call when I'm at the gym and asks if he can have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (or something that I would not really care about). Well sure Colson, go ask your DAD who is probably in the next room!

And sometimes he likes to call when he's mad at whoever he is with and wants an earlier escape. On one of my recent work trips he stayed on a Wednesday night at my mother in laws. Wes plays Bass guitar on Wednesday nights at church and is there from 5:30-8:30 so it makes for a much easier night on everyone if they go with one of the grandmas. (Well I shouldn't say everyone...probably not on the Grandmas). This particular night he got really mad at his Grandma and thought she was being mean to him. He called Wes' phone SEVEN times in ONE song. When Wes finished his set he called Colson back and heard the sob story. Wes apparantly told him that he would call after he got out of church. Colson heard that he was going to come get him when he got out of church. So he called me and told me (I really didn't care). And then he went and told his Grandma. She probably didn't care either. He then went and pulled down all of the clothes that she keeps at her house and folded them and put them in his suitcase. Not only was he leaving that night but I think he never planned on coming back!

After his Daddy didn't show up after church I guess he decided to go to bed. Grandma went in there to try and rub his back like she normally does and he told her he didn't have anything to say to her and he needed her to leave. Grandma said "Really? You don't even want me to scratch your back" Colson said "Ok but don't you talk to me Grandma!"

SLOW DOWN LIFE!

So obviously I'm still alive...my life has just been consumed by cheer and work. Thankfully cheer ended this past weekend. But no lazy time for me yet...baseball tournaments start this weekend. While we were in San Antonio last weekend winning another jacket, Colson was in Willis making 3 point baskets in his All Star game. Luckily Grammie was there to snap a picture for me.