Competition Results

Yesterday was the day of Jessica and my skating competition.  We were more excited than nervous this time.  When our parents drove us to the rink I took a deep breath and headed indoors.  When we got to the front desk a woman said I would go second and Jessica would go last.  (Jessica had always wanted to go last for some reason.)  But I was really scared I kept saying "Am I really going second?  Mom am I seriously going SECOND!?"  "Yes, yes you are." she said over and over a little annoyed from me saying that a million times.  "This competition is going to be a very special competition girls, so I brought you girls these."  Jessica and I smiled big until my mom took the surprise out from behind her back.  "Oranges?"  I asked.  "Yes oranges" she said happily.  Then our mom told us the story of her competing and an orange.  "The one time I competed, my coach brought me a couple of slices of oranges."  She said "oranges are probably the best things you should eat right before a competition.  I was annoyed by this because I thought this was complete nonsense" she told us.  "But after I ate those orange slices and was finished with my competition I got first place!".  So Jessica and I pulled an orange slice out of our moms hand and took a big bite.  Soon we got on the slippery ice to practice and warm up.  When warm up was over I was the second one out like I said.  It was a success. (I just was a little slow, your nerves can really mess with you out there!)  Then Jessica did an amazing job it was the best I've ever seen her do!  And guess what Jessica took first and I took second.  So heres a tip to all skaters................ Eat those Oranges it really helps!
Coming soon... me at competition on YouTube (I'll tell you the link later.)
Thanks
Alyssa

Another Upcoming Competition!

Well, like usual I have another ice skating competition coming up on the 23 of January.  I'm skating to the song "Reflections of the Earth".  (It is a Disney song.)  I'm wearing a purple dress with pink under it.  I can only skate on the ice for 1:30 minimum and 1:40 max.  My song is exactly 1:38.  I am going to be competing at an ice rink that I have never competed at yet, so I'm pretty nervous.  But luckily my grandparents are coming to see me skate so that makes me less nervous for some reason.  I know sometimes when your relatives  are watching you, you usually get more nervous but not me.  Just another thing you might want to know I am competing against 6 girls and actually my sister is competing in the same one against me (sad).  It's hard when I'm competing against my sister because I also want her to win too!  Oh, and to make it even worse I'm also competing against one of my friends!!  I'm nervous but I hope we all do well.  Wish me luck!

P.S. I'll tell you what place I get for another blog post. :D

Thanks
Alyssa

Biography Love

I love biographies and for the past couple days I really wanted to read a biography. So a few days ago I picked out some library books and started reading.  I read six biographies that day.  One was about Mozart, one about Jim Henson, Amelia Earhart,  Harry Houdini, Neil Armstrong and Elvis Presley. My favorite one was about Mozart.  Most likely because I play the piano.  I liked this book because it told all about his life in great detail.  It even talked about his early early childhood days.  Mozart had a sister named Nannerl  who was four years older than he. He also had a loving mother and father.  But when his mother died his father blamed Mozart for the death, and their friendship was never the same.  This book was sad at some parts happy at others.  This was an amazing book with so many facts and details about Mozart's life.  Mozart is loved for the beautiful music he played and wrote. In total Mozart wrote 973 songs in his lifetime.  He truly was a piano prodigy!

Thanks
Alyssa

Rescuing Seneca Crane

Today I finished a book called Rescuing Seneca Crane.  This was a book about a fifteen year old pianist named Seneca Crane.  This book is a mystery.  Seneca gets kidnapped in this book after her piano performance in Scotland.  Seneca is positive that her piano teacher is behind the kidnapping. Two friends of Seneca's Kari and Lucas (who is a girl) have to use their smarts to rescue Seneca Crane.  I give this a five star book, because throughout it there was so much action and so much fun.  I recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries!




Alyssa
Thanks!

I'm in the Newspaper!

Last month a cameraman came to our ice rink and took pictures of Jessica and I and a few other kids.  We were so excited!  He took a selection of pictures and said to us that he would take his favorite one and put it in the newspaper!  Jessica and I were so happy.  I was a little disappointed that it took so long to get to our house but finally yesterday it came!  We made the second page which I think is pretty cool.  My mom cut out the article which is now hanging on our refrigerator where we put up all of our special things.  I hadn't had many chances to be in the newspaper so when I finally was again I was really glad. =)

Thanks

Alyssa

B Spot restaurant

Last weekend my dad took all of us out to a famous burger restaurant called the B Spot.  I thought it was really good.  I love spicy things so I ordered a burger called Red Hot.  It had a really hot Asian sauce called Sriracha.  Anyway when we all were finished, my dad wanted to get us something extra special.  He ordered two shakes for us all to share.  The first one was a normal chocolate shake, but the second shake surprisingly  was........  Apple, vanilla ice cream and bacon.  Bacon??!!!  "Ewww"  I said quietly trying to be polite.  "Apple, vanilla ice cream bacon? What kind of place is this?".  We waited, and waited, until what seemed like hours until two shakes were placed on our table.  Jessica, Ryan my mom and I all started drinking the chocolate one first because we were to nervous too try the other one.  After a few minutes of drinking the chocolate one we took a glance over at my dad who seemed to be engulfed by the apple ice cream bacon shake.  Jessica and I cautiously put our straws  into the shake and took a long gulp.  My eyes grew wide with delight.  "How can this taste so good?" my mom asked after taking her first try.  We had no idea.  But that didn't matter.  What mattered was that we all loved it and were having a great time!

Thanks,
Alyssa

Random facts about Yeast

One of my New Year's resolutions was to write one report or make one poster a month on any random topic.  That random topic that I chose was yeast.  I've always been fascinated by what yeast actually does.  Here I'll give you a couple of facts.  Yeast is a single celled fungus that is 50% protein and has a rich source of vitamin B (mainly niacin and folic acid.)Yeast is always floating around the air but way too small for the human eye to see.  Yeasts favorite food on the menu is usually starches or stuff with a lot of sugar.  For example yeast love fruit.  When they eat the sugar in the fruit they actually release carbon dioxide.  Thats what makes champagne fizzy and thats what makes bread rise because there is so much carbon dioxide gas in it.  The word yeast comes from an old Indo-European word meaning bubble or foam.  This is my favorite but most strange fact of them all.  Who actually discovered that yeast makes bread rise?  Well about 6000 years ago an unknown Egyptian baker took a tip from wine makers and tried using his feet instead of his hands to do the kneading of the bread.  Surprisingly that worked very well for him.  Heres how. After the baker took the bread out of the oven he realized the bread was fluffy and chewy not crispy and crunchy.  The accidental byproduct of using his feet was that the bread dough got a good dose of yeast that grows naturally between people's toes.  Gross right??  But the practice quickly spread to other bakers because they liked the chewy taste.  Luckily they don't do that kind of stuff now. I hope.....

Thanks
Alyssa