It was so fun! I got to go see my baby sister compete with their dance team in the state finals last night! She was so amazing... even as a freshman!!!! Their routine was so cute and she did so well!!! I cannot use enough exclamation points for this one! Here's a cute photo...
The other 5 teams they competed against in the finals were super lame I thought :-) All of them were lyrical (slow, ballet type for you non-dancers) and many of the formations were poorly executed much less together. I was really shocked when the Marshfield Upbeats got 4th! Actually, I was pissed!! In a nice way of course. Their routine was very different from the rest and their costumes actually went well with their theme (Nora Jones song about sinking under) and all the girls were pretty together. I am still in shock! I feel bad for Shanny b/c they did so well and there's no way the teams that beat them should have.
This happens often in competition though. If a judge just doesn't "like" the theme or the moves, the team's score suffers more for every ding against them. I did like the Sherwood routine, although I would have done things a bit different if I were coach, they did a pretty good job... but they still got 3rd! This other team that danced to the song "I want to rock your soul" (country, slower song) got 2nd and I barely remember the team that got 1st! I could go on and on about the technical things that were wrong with these other teams, not only in the overall performance, but in the choices of moves, formations and transitions, but I'll try and stop now :-)
All of it really got me thinking about becoming a dance team coach. I LOVED my years on the dance team. My mom said she thought I'd be a great judge b/c I am really technical, detail oriented and critical (don't worry, it was said in a good way). McMinnville has a dance team but I've heard they aren't very good. So maybe, in a year or 2 I might pursue that again. My senior year as a captain, I pretty much got to run the show with the other captain and I really enjoyed it. As a leader, I had so much influence on the younger girls on the squad and I love the problem solving aspect - how to get someone who's not very good, to be better! Plus, the teen years are tough and dance team was such a support for me... I'd love to be that support for more young girls! We'll see :-) 2 kids will be enough challenge for now, but maybe once this baby is born I'll take a few dance classes and see where that leads. One thing for sure, I miss how nice and limber and lean I was while dancing. Most of my athletic injuries were suffered after not dancing for over year... it would be nice have my body feel good again!
One more thing. The horse we used to own with my parents died yesterday. Pray for my dad, this is so hard on him. McLaren went into surgery for his front knees (bone spurs) and never woke up. After a while his heart had a couple funny palpitations, then his heart rate was dropping and after trying more oxygen and the "jumper" paddles on him for almost an hour he was gone. Gladly, he didn't seem to suffer and he never woke up thrashing around. The Dr. said she has NEVER seen a horse she's ever helped have this happen. Ususally, they wake up, go crazy and wild, thrash around and hurt themselves so badly they end up needing to be put down b/c of injured legs and stuff. They'll do a necropsy (animal autopsy) and see if they find anything, but they Dr. didn't think they would. Either way, pray that my dad doesn't feel guilty for all the choices he's made... he's been wise and done the right thing so there is absolutely no need for guilt. We have good memories with the horse and hopefully dad will get to have more experiences with horses and our family can look back and see that God had a plan in all this. Thanks so much!
