This is not the ALDC

No reason to try to back up and say what all has been going on so I am just starting fresh for what all went on today.

Today was Mattie's first AOK tournament of the year, Texas Karate Heat Wave in Duncanville. She was ready.

OK.

Well...

I do need to back up a little,

but just to Tuesday.

As we were getting ready to leave, she asked me if she could to Self D a the tournament on Saturday.

Whaaaaat???

I've already signed you up!

You've never done Self D before!

Do you realize you only have like one day to practice?

No I didn't say any of those things to her, I said I would talk to Shihan and see what he said.

Well of course he said he would get her ready.

Wednesday night we left early to watch the Harlem Globetrotters (fantastic as usual!)

Thursday, her dad picks her up so she would have to be done at 6:00PM, but they will get it done.

At 5:45PM I remind him she is leaving in 15 minutes. So he get Drake to help her.

It's going great, but by the time they get organize it only leaves 10 minutes?!?!

Thank goodness, Buddy said he had an errand to run and he could leave her for another 20 minutes!

YAY! A little more time! So a total of 3 minutes to practice! Goody!!!

Sparring practice on Friday runs long and we have got to get out of town for the tournament on Saturday, so still just the 30 minutes from the day before.

We all get to the tournament and Drake grabs Mattie and her helpers and they go through it two more times!! WOW! This should be good!

I don't like going into a competition unprepared but that was happening today.

It's Junior Self Defense which means She will not only be competing against some older kids, some are literally twice her age!!

They call names to make sure everyone is there and she will be the last to go! YAY! Such a huge benefit!!

Once she goes, she does great! Not very smooth, but she remembered everything she was supposed to do.

We had talked with her about having to compete about the older kids, so not to get her hopes up about winning. And also that the others had much more practice time than she did.

So imagine how excited we all were when they called her for first 3rd!!!

What does this have to do with the Abby Lee Dance Club (ALDC)? A lot!!!

"Dance Moms" is one of my guilty pleasures. I don't know why, but I love to watch.

It's like a watching a car crash. It's awful, but you just can't look away.

Those people do more yelling in one hour than all the competitors did combined today. But I just love it! Abby Lee Miller is the dance instructor and the girls are competitive dancers. Each week they learn new routines to perform the following weekend. And the girls are very good. I just don't understand why they have to learn something new each week. The ice skaters in the Olympics this past week have been performing those routines for probably a year. It takes time for perfection.

So the other night, Abby Lee had a duet that she only spent 15 minutes with and when they performed, they placed 2nd. She was livid!!! Why??? They had 15 minutes of practice and placed 2nd! I think that's pretty good. I can't imagine not congratulating a child on an accomplishment, especially if they haven't practiced it for very long!

I was ecstatic over Mattie's 3rd place win!!!

So happy for her and all our kids that were in that division. There were 8 competitors, 4 from AMMA and AMMA took the top four spots!!!! WOW!!

Congrats to everyone that competed today!!!!

And I promise to be better at posting!!

So until next time,
God Bless.