Congratulations to Monique!!

Mo sent a text after saying, "Hard work does pay off..." Does it ever... what an accomplishment!

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike



Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike

Updates From March: Arizona

March started with a trip to Arizona to be with Grandma during her recent surgery.  Despite being there for something other than just fun, I still ended up having a great visit.  On Monday, Grandma took me out to Mexican with some of my Grandpa Vehling's twin relatives, Bill and Bob Franklin, who I've never met.  They were great fun and shared some amusing stories that left me smiling.  Poor Grandma was under doctors orders to not eat a thing, so she had to watch while we all chowed down on chips and salsa and Margaritas.  I let you in on a little secret though, she did sneak in one glass of wine, assuring us it was ok since she was allowed to have "clear liquids"!

As most of our family already knows, Grandma was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer in the summer of 2008, a scary time for us all.  One of the reliefs we had was her doctor, Dr. Roberts, who is simply stated one of God's finest.  He spent so much time with her and with the family, explaining her next steps and taking time above and beyond the norm (especially now-a-days) to answer our questions.  To make him even extra special in our eyes, my Grandma underwent kidney surgery to remove the tumor under Dr. Roberts' hand and is now completely cancer free.  As we waited in Pre-Op for this surgery, we noticed Dr. Roberts (who was not involved in this situation) walk in to the waiting room and address his surgery-patient's family with the same care and personability he showed towards us.  Amazingly, after he finished debriefing the family across the way, he walked over, sat next to Grandma and asked by name, "Now Pat, why are you here today?  Everything ok?"  I was FLOORED that this doctor remembered my Grandma by name.  He even remembered me as her granddaughter and that I had worked in hospitality.  Now if we could all do our jobs that well, and treat each other with such kindness, the world would be such a great place.  In the meantime, I'll stand in awe of Dr. Roberts and try to learn from his example.

The doctors and nurses laughed as Grandma reminded them that she would also be needing a tummy tuck, with a wink.  Anita also aiding in lightening the mood when she brought this book into the back room for group discussion: 

The doctors did mention that Grandma's colon resection surgery would result in a loss of 10-15 pounds.  There were no takers to switch places with her.  The surgery was very successful, and in typical Grandma fashion, she is recovering well and already bored of being ordered to sit around and do nothing.

While out in Arizona I was also able to see former bridesmaid Mariah, who is going to be getting a special shout-out next week on the blog. 

I also had a quick chance to stop by North Valley Gymnastics, where I got to see some old coaching friends and even bumped into some gymnasts I used to coach. Last stop for this trip was Oasis Gymnastics, where I was thrilled to see Janine Thompson, a role model of a coach and owner who taught me just about everything I know about gymnastics during my first year at Flames, and Bekah Gher, another favorite gymnast of the past who now trains with Janine and will be attending Boise State next year.

Bekah was our first kid to make a TOPs National Team, was a Region 1 team member at Level 9 Nationals and was in the first group we had that tested Elite, I believe all by about 13 years old:

  

Boise State is coached by Patty and Neil Resnick.  I am so excited for Bekah to get to train under my gymnastics mentor and all-time favorite coach, Patty Resnick.  She is simply the best.  Congrats to Bekah, and to Oasis for getting her there!

Seeing Mo at UCLA

From time to time at Rolland's course, golf clubs will get mixed up.  When they do, Rolland will deliver the clubs back to their rightful owner, and I get a little road trip out of it.  This time we were headed into LA for this very reason. When we checked a map, our destination was only a few miles away from UCLA.  We gave Mo a quick call and got to take her and her very nice UCLA soccer-playing boyfriend Eder out to dinner in Hollywood.  It was a lot of fun to see her, having not for quite a while.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back out to LA sometime this year to catch a meet.  Here is a clip of her doing her thing at UCLA.  It makes me happy to see, as she wanted to go there as long as I can remember. Being a pretty neat kid and my first Elite gymnast (in and of itself a huge learning experience) she'll always be special to me.

Weekend in Vegas

Rolland and I spent this last weekend in Vegas, and it was our first trip there together. We stayed a little off the beaten path at the Silverton, which is attached to Rolland's favorite place, Bass Pro Shop. I don't think Rolland was too thrilled when our first stop was shopping for me, but soon enough we were out having fun. It was a nice change of pace to get dressed up and go to Tryst at the Wynn on Friday night. I definitely can't remember the last time we've even been out past midnight, so it was nice to get to spend some time together, boggie down on the dance floor and get to experience the excitement of the strip at night. To sit down, you had to buy a bottle at a minimum price tag of $495, and my feet were killing me in my 5" heels. At one point, I disappeared to the bathroom were I sat down for at least 5 minutes. I was up early the next day for a great Region 1 gymnastics clinic that lasted most of the day. We spent the next night in the room with room service and the Michigan game (which they lost in OT). The next day was more clinic, and then we stopped at the seafood buffet at the Rio before making the 4 hour treck home.