Katie has been trying to land her Double Salchow for months.   She did land one a few weeks back,  but then we have never seen it again since,  and she had convinced herself that she couldn’t do it.

She wasn’t feeling particulary confident tonight,  but something must have clicked because she did it!  and not just once,  but over and over again. In fact,  once she’d done it,  she couldn’t miss.

The video is pretty grainy because I only had my mobile on me,  but it was  a moment that definitely needed videoing.

Technology has arrived to school photos, I don’t actually have a pack of 8×10s and wallet sized, just this emailed image.

Still, it’s quite nice, don’t you think?

We have been over to Dumfries today,  so Katie could compete at the Scottish.  It was a good day with a very high standard.  Katie had a really nice skate,   and we think she came in about 8th.    We had a long drive back,  so we didn’t wait around for the official results.

today I went to a class at the scrapbook shop, nothing unusual in
that, except today the class was for the kids and Mum’s just had to
be the helpers.

Originally I was only going to take Katie, but Gill said Molly was
welcome to give it a try if she wanted, and she really surprised me
and did a lovely job, and Katie was amazing and made an absolutely
beautiful album.

Tomorrow they went to spend the day scrapbooking at home. They both
have big plans for things they want to make, and if they are going to
work carefully and make lovely things then I am all for that.

I’d love to share a video of her skate with you, but while Phil followed her round the rink with the camera, unfortunately he forgot to press record…

I do have a couple of lovely still shots though. The first is just as she starts, and then later her pickup spiral which isn’t the most elegant of positions but she really liked the photo, so obviously we had to buy it!

She skated really nicely, and came 4th out of 10 which was quite respectable.

Katie in Telford yet again

Originally uploaded by BevS97

I know I have blogged about Telford a few times, but what can I say?
I am a proud mama. We just got her professional photo through and I
am dead pleased with it. I made this dress, and I think it looks
pretty good, if I do say so myself. I was a little worried it
wouldn’t look upto scratch but I’m quite pleased with it. It doesn’t
sparkle though which is frustrating as it has got tons and tons of
rhinestones on it, but for some reason they just don’t seem to catch
the light.

Next week we are off to Bradford, so I’ll stop talking Telford and
probably start talking Bradford instead!

Katie has been working on her axel for a very long time. She landed it just before Christmas and then it hasn’t been seen again for some time, but here is the evidence that she can do it. She just has to do 1 1/2 rotations in the air,  starting forwards and landing backwards on one foot,  so not too tricky then!!!!

Katie and I have been to Telford for the past 2 days. She was skating in the Telford Open along with a number of her friends from our local rink. Most of her friends skated on Wednesday and they all did really well, they took a number of firsts, a second and some third places, so as I commented to Katie, “No Pressure then”.

Katie has been to a few open competitions now, and she normally places somewhere in the middle of the group, with anything above the midpoint being considered a pretty good result. So after the brilliant results of her friends on Wednesday, I was more than a little nervous for her on Thursday. She was, of course, cool as a cucumber!

Well, I don’t know why I was nervous – she was brilliant!!! She had the best skate I’ve ever seen her do, everything was spot on, and even her coach couldn’t come up with a suggestion (although I’m sure he’ll have thought of something by Sunday morning practice!). When her scores came in I was stunned, Figure Skating scoring is very bizarre (certainly in the lower levels, the scoring they use in international competitions is now different) so we really had no idea where she would place, but I had a good feeling she would be on the rostrum.

Katie wasn’t bothered, she went off with her friends for some chips, but I was pacing the floor in the area where the results get posted and once they were finally up I was thrilled to see she’d come 2nd. What a great result!!

I’d love to show you the video of her skate, but my heart was pounding and I could hardly breathe, so I didn’t actually manage to video her. I do have a nice clip of the wrong girl warming up! I spotted a girl in a blue jacket warming up and videoed her for a few minutes before I realised Katie was at the other end of the rink… Cool and Calm I was not!

the only minor downside to the trip was the traffic coming home.

My father in law was 80 on Friday, and since 80 is an extra special birthday we had a party. Phil’s sisters flew in from abroad, and it was lovely to see everyone. We don’t get to see them often enough.

Katie, Molly and Jolanda enjoyed spending the weekend together. Once they heard there would be speeches, they decided they wouldn’t be left out so they got together and wrote a speech of their own. It was a really lovely tribute to their Poppa Bill and I am sure he was thrilled to hear it.

Unfortuanately it was a very fleeting trip and they have headed back home now. We shall have to make arrangements to get together again, in the meantime hopefully we can keep in touch with our blogs.

Katie’s school are studying Jamaica and last Friday they had a Jamaica Day. Katie and I were struggling to come up with a suitable costume, but in the end I think we did ok!

Mum’s were invited to visit school, so I stopped in for a very brief visit and got to see her class doing some raps “We will, we will rap you!” and then trying their hand at limbo dancing.

Later on in the afternoon they had a steel band play for them. It sounded like it was a really fun day.