Last Competition

Sunday, March 20th was the last ice skating competition of the season.  This time I had to do an axel in it, which actually is consistent now!  I am very happy about that!  Well, anyway there were 8 people in total and apparently I was going 5th.  I was skating to the same Disney song I have been skating to for this whole year and I have been wearing a sparkly purple and pink dress that I love!  Anyway we got to the rink about an hour early.  (My sister was competing here too, we were actually competing against each other which is pretty normal.)  So we started stretching.   Bending, touching our toes (or skates), doing up and down hops and more. Just as the first girl in our group got on the ice I could tell she was really nervous.  Overall she skated a pretty good program though.  My sister Jessica was second I wished her luck by saying "May the Force be with You" because she is so obsessed with Star Wars.  I am actually too =).  Jessica landed both of her axels in her program which my mom (our coach) and I were very happy about.  The two other girls went and then it was my turn.  I slowly stepped out onto the ice but made sure I was smiling because, cameramen were taking videos so parents or coaches could buy them to inspect or just enjoy how their kid or student did.  I skated over to my spot and my music started.  I had an axel practically at the very beginning of my program which I landed with a happy smile.  I went through the whole program pretty nicely until I did my combination axel which means I had to do an axel and right after that do another jump.  I landed the axel pretty good but the second jump totally took me off balance.  I didn't fall but I stumbled... A lot.  But I got right back into the program and did my ending sit-spin into a scratch spin.  I got off the ice smiling a little embarrassed with what just happened, but at least I had fun you know?  We eagerly waited for the scores.  I ended up taking 3rd  which I was very happy about.  Even if I hadn't taken 3rd I was very happy about the way I skated and that's all that matters.

Thanks
Alyssa

The Falconers Knot

Today I finished a book called the Falconers Knot by Mary Hoffman.  I absolutely LOVED this book!  This is a book about murder and romance in Medieval Italy.  This book is literally spine tingling!!  This is a book about a boy named Silvano da Montacuto who has a very good life.  Adored and loved deeply by his noble parents, Silvano one day is accused of murder he did not commit.  He is kept safely in a Franciscan friary, where he waits anxiously for his name to be cleared.  Chiara is a  girl about the same age as Silvano, sent to the convent against her will, she loses all hope of a happy future.  Soon however she meets the exiled Silvano, who is struggling with the same fate.  The two find comfort and companionship in a home they never expected, until murder threatens to rip it all apart again.  With Silvano suspected once again, they set out to find the real killer before the crimes destroy everything around them.  This book was so good I am dying to read the Stravaganza series also by Mary Hoffman called the City of Masks, the City of Stars, and lastly the City of Flowers.  Read this book if you are interested in the history of  medieval Italy, and like spine thrilling books!!!

Thanks
Alyssa

Molasses Cookies

Last night I decided to make something good.  Something really good.  I decided to make molasses cookies.  I took out a really old Disney cookbook and opened it up and found the right recipe.   Wendy's (From Peter Pan) molasses cookies.  I got out the ingredients.  1/2 cup sugar, 3 cups flour,  1 egg, 1 stick of butter, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 tsp.cinnamon,  1/2 tsp.salt, and 1 cup Molasses!  Here I'll tell you how to make them.  First you put the butter into a large mixing bowl.  Cream the butter until it is soft an fluffy.  Add the sugar and the molasses.  Then break the egg into the bowl and mix throughly.  Then in a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Add this bowl a little at a time to the first mixture, and mix well.  Then place the dough on a lightly floured surface.  Roll it with a rolling pin until it's about 1/8 inch thick.  Put the cookies on a greased cookie sheet after being rolled out, but don't place them to close together.  Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes.  Don't be afraid to comment and say how you liked them or ask any questions about them.

Thanks,
Alyssa

Skating, Skating, SKATING!

Yeah, I know I have a whole bunch of posts on ice skating but I really want to share about this last week's competition.  This competition was at a huge ice rink.  We have only skated at this rink once before, which makes it even more scary!!  This competition was held on Saturday and Sunday.  I was competing on both days.  The first day I did my competitive program which was the music from Disney's Epcot parade.  And not to brag I took first out if seven, which I'm very happy about!!  But on Sunday I didn't do so well.  I was competing in an artistic program, which means you really have to express your emotions out on the ice.   You also should probably have some kind of prop (which I didn't have.)  I was skating to the music"Almost There" from The Princess and the Frog.  I didn't really know what prop I could use for that.  If you've watched the movie, my mom and I thought maybe a broom would be cute to hold since she's trying to clean everything up.  But then we looked into the rulebook and it said something like "If you bring a prop to skate with,  you'll have to be holding it the whole time."  No, I wasn't going to go around skating with a broom for the whole program!!  Anyway I ended up placing eighth out of ninth.  Hey, well it least wasn't last.  But this was mostly because my costume wasn't very decorative like practically everyone else's, I didn't have a prop, which makes it way LESS interesting, but mostly because I wasn't really being expressive that much when I was skating.  But you know, the place shouldn't really matter, it matters if you had fun or not, and I did!!  It was a great new experience, and I would love to try it again sometime!

Thanks,
Alyssa