NOVEMBER 2004

 

November 28, 2004:

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! 

It's snowing today!  Yea! I love it!  So beautiful!  I can't go outside because I have a bad cold so I'm stuck inside doing latch hook, reading, watching skating on TV and playing on the computer.  My mom and I put up our Christmas tree last night and it was so much fun! 

Did I tell you I am going to be skating to Greek music this year.  It is going to be awesome!  And on Dec. 10th I am testing my Juv moves.  So, I gotta get well fast so I can get practicing.

Gotta go...am watching the big beautiful snowflakes coming down!

November24, 2004:

Today I had great practices.  At my early practice I worked mainly on moves.  I had a good lesson.   Then, this afternoon I had another great practice.  I was landing my double loop double loop combo clean and consistently.  It felt so good.  My axel double loop combo and my double lutz were good too.  It was just so much fun to skate when everything was going right.  I am feeling very good about my skating right now.  Things are just falling into place finally.  I only hope and pray and I continue to skate.  Each day is a blessing because I know it could end any day because of the money.  I'm so thankful for today!  Thank you Lord Jesus!

November 23, 2004:

First of all, I am so excited because I was landing double lutz double loop combos today.  At off ice I had good double axels.  I also found out I am testing my juvenile moves on Dec. 10th.  I'm really excited!  My music for this year is going to be Greek.  I'll write more about it when the music is cut.  I think it is going to be very fun.  I am looking for a dress.

I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving!  I wish I could see my brothers for Thanksgiving.  I already miss them.  I think they are going to grandma's for turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie.  My Uncle Tom, Aunt Livia, cousin Tom and Bali are visiting from Hungary.  They came to watch me skate today.  The little ones have grown so much.  Little Thomas is so talkative and fun.  We may see them on Thanksgiving Day.    Then, mom and I are going to the "Holiday on Ice" show in downtown Omaha at night.  There will be a tree lighting as well as downtown lights.  Then there is an ice show at the Qwest Center.  There are carolers dressed in Victorian costume.   It should be alot of fun. Alot of my friends are skating in the show.  I'm not in it this year because I was in Arizona when the practices started. 

Better get to bed because I have an early lesson tomorrow again. 

Love,

Sarah Kidd

November 9, 2004:

I have so much to catch you up on.  I have had quite a journey this past month.  I hope I can remember it all. 

After regionals we had to get our car fixed so we could make it to Arizona to visit my brothers, grandma and grandpa, and friends.  I was so excited.  Our first day went by really quick.  We listened to "The Cat Who Played Post Office" on audio tape.  I love those Cat series mysteries.   They are written by Lilian Jackson Braun.  This audio book, though, is about KoKo and Yum Yum (two siamese cats) who are owned by Qwill, a journalist who inherits millions and moves into a mansion.   Koko, a very smart and clever cat, starts sniffing clues to a murder.  It's really good.  Right now I'm reading "The Cat Who Said Cheese". Anyway, back to the trip, we stayed our first night in Colorado Springs.  There was snow on the mountains and it was so pretty.   We didn't spend time there since we have been there so many times before.  The next morning we took off early and got into Phoenix that night.  Our car started acting up again when we hit Flagstaff, but we made it to my grandma's.  It was so cold in Flagstaff.  Brrrrr!  The next day we took the car into the Saturn dealership to be worked on.  We rented a car for a few days. 

My first few days I skated at the Desert Schools Coyote's Center (formerly Polar Ice) in Chandler as I prepared for the Autumn Antics competition.  I saw my Arizona coach Tammy and also friends Jennifer, Michaila, Kathryn, Sarah Kramer, and the little Huffs.  We also got to see Tammy's baby, Jasmine, who is now two years old.  She is so cute.  We had alot of fun putting my artistic program together and trying to get a quickie costume together.  The competition was alot of fun.  There were so many fun programs.  One program the skaters drove a batman car out onto the ice and another program the skaters had a Flinstones car.  It really wasn't a competition based on skating.  It was basically just artistic things, but it was alot of fun.

During the next few days I was able to see my brothers.  We all went to a restaurant in Scottsdale called "My Big Fat Greek Restaurant".  It was so cool.  JJ and Josh, my brothers, were so funny.  They should be a comedy duo, like the old time Smothers Brothers.  They are just like that, exact opposites.  We got to see their apartments and Jeremy has a new little kitty called Say Ah Tay, which is actually C-A-T if you pronounced each letter in Spanish.  The kitty is so cute but quite a terror at times.   He has those sharp teeth and claws that little kitties have.  My mom and I bought the kitty some toys and he loved them.  One toy was a battery operated mouse that would  move across the floor.  He loved it!  He would pounce on it.  Say Ah Tay has a little play house that is actually a Build-a-Bear workshop box.  He sits in that house and looks out the windows acting like no one can see him and then jumps out at you when you least expect it.  My brother has a sliding glass door as his back door and that is the way we would go into the apartment.  Say ah Tay would run towards the door and bang his head into it.  It was like he thought there wasn't a door and he could just jump through.  He was so much fun to play with.  We also got to meet Jeremy's girlfriend, Lauren.  She seems very nice.

My mom and I had to go to our storage unit that we have had for the past year and a half.  We had to go through it to get rid of things.  My brothers had practically destroyed it by going through stuff while we were gone.   We did good, though, organizing and getting rid of stuff.  Our friend, Tom Farris, has a truck and trailer and he helped us haul off the stuff we didn't want.  The rest we piled into a small U-haul to take back to Omaha.  We will go through THAT stuff later.  We can take our time with it though.  My mom wants to get rid of most everything because she doesn't want to get in that situation again where we have so much stuff to move if we ever decide to move again.  Since it is just the two of us, we really don't need too much.  I think most of the stuff is mine anyway.  I was so glad to get my collecter Barbie's that Jack gave me.  I have tons of Beanies and of course we had to get our Christmas stuff.   I have alot of toys that I need to go through that I don't use anymore.  I'm hoping some of the kids in our apartment complex can use some of them.  I was also glad to get my American Girl doll and Magic Attic Club doll.  I have missed them.  I'm going to be making a Christmas Wish List and I am hoping to get the Samantha and Nellie dolls.  I love them!  Yes, I still love dolls!  I was also glad to get my games and videos.  Whew! 

The absolute best part of the trip was skating at the Coyote's Ice Den.  I just love it there.  I think it is my favorite place to skate, other than Ice Castle.  Everyone is great!  I loved skating on the high level ice.  Everyone works so hard yet seems to be having so much fun!  I saw Katlynn McNab...Hi Katlynn!  And I finally got to meet up with Katie Polese!  Hi Katie!  I think both Katlynn and Katie are awesome skaters.  I was really impressed with Molly Aaron, too.  Douglas Razzano is getting so good.  Max Aaron really surprised me.  He has improved so much!  The pairs skated beautifully.  It was just so awesome to be on the same ice.  I took a stroking class that Doug Ladret taught.  It was great!  I loved it!  He is very funny but also a very good coach.  (Do you think Alexei would ever move there?)  Next door (attached) is a fitness center that is state of the art.   To the other side in the next building is a gymnastics center, and a dance shop as well as a dance studio.  It's great!

We stayed at my grandma and grandpa's home.  Tony, their dog, was very excited to see us.  We tried to be at their house as often as possible to take him on walks.  One night we freaked out my grandma when we told her we were walking to a haunted house that was advertised not far from her house.   It was dark out.  We didn't know how far it was and it ended up being a little ways.  Tony is a basset hound and likes to go on walks but this was pretty far for him.  But, he wanted to be with us and we finally made it to the haunted house.  It was so awesome!  There was a line of people down the street.  Tony stood in line with us as we waited to go in.  He wanted to go in!  It was so funny!  He was so good and behaved wonderfully.  He likes people.  Anyway, this place was fixed up fantastically.  I guess they worked on it for  months.  There was a winding tunnel all through the side yard, back yard and front yard.  It was pretty scary too but not so much that little kids couldn't go in it.  Tony walked right around with us and loved it!  There were all sorts of goblins lurking around.  There was a scary doll room, a doctor room with a refrigerator that had heads in it, a room with bodies hanging and one was real and tried to grab us, an exorcist room, a graveyard, a dining room with a butler that didn't have a head, and so many other things.  It was alot of fun.  After going through the haunted house we had to walk back home.  When we got back my grandma was so upset and crying  because she thought something happened to us.  We thought she knew what we were doing but she was just worried.  We felt bad.  But, Tony had a blast!  He was sore the next day from all the walking.  He just laid around.  Tony is a dog that has a schedule that he sticks by every day and if you forget something he reminds you. I mean he can tell the time.  One of his favorite things that is a must on his list is running outside around the swimming pool at night chasing the laser light.  My mom and I played and played with him doing this.  We would trick him and he would try to chase us and would get so frustrated because he couldn't catch us.  He would finally give up.   It was so funny!

My Grandma cooked alot of yummy meals.   She is a really good cook.  She came and watched me skate once at the Polar Ice rink.  Grandpa is very funny...he always has alot of funny jokes.  I think we have alot of funny people in my family.

On the way home it seemed to take forever.  The first night we stayed in Amarillo, Texas.  I fell asleep while my mom was driving and we didn't get to the hotel until after 1 in the morning.  We had a free night's stay at the Homestead Suites Hotel so that was good.  We crashed out and then left early the next day again.  I wanted to get back home in time for Halloween and there just wasn't any way we could make it.  So, when we got to Topeka, Kansas, my mom went to a nice neighborhood and let me trick and treat.  I had a pirates mask and some clothes I fixed up to be like a pirate.  It was great!  We walked around and around and I got alot of candy.  But, when we got back on the road I started getting car sick.  I hadn't even eaten any candy yet.  My head was pounding and I was so sick to my stomach.  My mom had to pull over every ten minutes all the way to Omaha to open the door so I could throw up...YUCK!  When we finally got home I felt a little better but it took a couple days before I felt alright. 

I just have to say I had so much fun on this trip!  I am now ready to work hard.  I don't have a program now because I am moving up a level.  My coach is working with me on moves and edges and jumps.  In January our choreographer, Evgeni Nemerovskii is coming and will choreograph our new programs.  Ok...gotta get to the rink again.  Will try to update this later.

Love,

Sarah 

November 10, 2004:

I just gotta tell ya that I am so sore from off ice class last night.  I think it was the "butt ups" that did it.  Those are so hard!   I'm not really a fan of moves but I am happy to be working on them. 

Sarah