Siver Medal On Balance Beam — With Her Sights Set On Gold!

Yep, she came in second for that routine Sunday in Dallas, with a 9.2. (The winner scored 9.3.)

Not bad for her first meet as a Level 7. Not bad at all.

She vows, “Next time I won’t have those 2 little wobbles, and will perfectly stick my dismount. I AM GOING TO GET A GOLD MEDAL ON BEAM THIS SEASON!!! And bring my floor, bars and vault up to at least 9.0s too.”

You go, Kelly-Girl, you GO!!! I KNOW you CAN do it.

And so our competitive gymnastics meet season starts…..

whoohoooooooo.

xoxooxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxo

One Time I Google Earthed You

One time I
Google Earthed you
all the way down
to a single pixel
of a butterfly’s foot
on an oak leaf
in the northeast
corner of your
old back yard.

and in that
little square
i saw you

flipping
burgers on
your grill.

you were
drinking up
the music
of summer
and wearing
the half-toga

you usually
reserve for very
special occasions
like the crowning
of Miss America,
carrot harvesting
and bottling your
dandelion wine.

But mostly I
don’t Google Earth
you or anybody
at all. I’m too

busy either out
slapping my palms
onto the big drum
of Planet Earth

or inside stitching
birdsong, cats and
a gymnast’s dreams
into stardust tea.

~~ end of poem

Happy Poetry Tuesday, even though dVerse is on break until 2014.

Happy EVERYTHING, actually!! 🙂

And Merry Christmas, in case I’m not posting again until after the 25th.

You all rock so much, you beautiful, wonderful awesome humans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All photos above from Saturday, Dec. 14th, 2013.

xoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoox

Fun I Had The Summer I Was Eleven

I found inspiring places to work on my flexibility, like the Texas State Capitol

and the Corpus Christi aquarium.

Aquariums are also great places to work on splits,

as are hotel pools,

and the beach.

Speaking of the beach, I made like a seagull there.

Dad LOVES the beach.

And I love Dad!!

I drove the harbor ferry in Corpus!

Well not really, but I toured the wheelhouse, enjoyed a cruise,

then lunched aboard a restaurant yacht.

Met a happy parrot that day too.

Back at home I met ducks

and iPhone video-chatted with my gym-mate.

LOVED the gymnastics pool party!!

I like how as the gracious hostess was taking that, Mom was catching us from behind…

The hosts’ daughter is a talented gymnast too.

Olympics, here we all come!!!

I could do it — I’ll be 18 summer of 2020.

Or I could go the college gymnastics route, where I’ll study art, design, photography, writing, and film-making.

We’ll see. My goal is to see just how far I can go with gymnastics.

What else this summer?

Hung out with E.

Got my groove on with S.

Yes, that’s a big bass and I’m very small for my age — 3rd percentile on both height and weight.

And absolutely PERFECT for me!!

Tomorrow I’ll be back in school — 7th grade.

[edit, and my mom is awesome!!!!!]

love,

Kelly Funster.

xoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxo

P.S. Mom is heading into her busiest 4 to 6 weeks of the year, and will be blogging even less than her already-light schedule of late.

And… she thinks YOU are awesome!!

(Yes, those are Mom’s toes in the last photo. She’s really weird, as you know.)

Kelly’s Newest Balance Beam Skills

I’m not sure if these are basic skills for Level 6 or 7, ’cause I’m kind of a gymnastics newbie, learning as I go.

Whatever level, she’s doing AWESOMELY — as you can see!! Only 18 months ago she was a Level 4.

Notice she lands her back handspring with both feet at once? She tells me that’s a “double down” landing. Cool!

At the gym she is known to stick all these on the high beam!

I can’t wait to see her new amazingness on vault, floor and bars too, and when I do… you’ll get more video, whooohoooo.

Hope you enjoyed watching and….. Vive Les Gymnastiques! [CORRECTION, thanks to Happiness Best Savored Hot … Vive LA Gymnastique! Merci beaucoup!! And Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler.]

xoxooxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoox

Some Of What I’ve Been Up To Since I Last Posted

Enjoying our scrapbooking gymnast.

Enjoying my new desk. I kept me a Capodimonte mug!

Enjoying The Gymnast’s ’round-the-block steering lessons.

Enjoying choosing and mailing a birthday present to my sister.

Enjoying posing a Carlsbad Caverns paperweight with a sleeping KitKat.

Enjoying the Monet print Jim got at a yard sale for FOUR DOLLARS, FRAMED!!!! That’s Mah Man!!

My man on the move — always full of surprises. 🙂

What do you think those 2 by the sea are saying, Sara? Or anyone?

Enjoying our ‘keets, Sunny & Angel. Unfortunately, Chico (the blue one who replaced Timmy) shot out past my hand a few weeks ago at feeding time, executed two backyard high loop-de-loops, soared over the treetops, and I’ve not seen him since. 🙁

Hopefully he and Timmy are out there having fun together! 🙂

Enjoying friends. Tracy Funster & Mardi Funster.

They rock!

And they jazz. And they blues.

Enjoying photography experimentation with mid-century glass.

Enjoying going through my old iPhone song idea clips. Could a song about buttocks be coming one day to a theater near you??! I think so!! 🙂 🙂 🙂

The chorus goes like this…

Everybody’s buttocks are beautiful,
No matter the shape or size.
Everybody’s buttocks are beautiful…
in God’s eyes!!

Enjoying seeing and hearing about The Gymnast’s improvement on the apparati.

Enjoying hearing the same about her team mates.

(I love how her pose mirrors the iron tree behind her in that pic!) I swear it was not planned. 🙂

Enjoying selling stuff on eBay.

Postie comes right up our walkway when I schedule a package pick-up, whoohooo!!

Posties Rock! Especially a certain poetic one I like.

And here’s a photo from this morning…

Track at 7:00 a.m. — part of summer gymnastics.

Team trains 35 hours a week during summer, what a rockin’ gym!!

Monday to Friday mornings we’re either at track or the gym by 7:00. (And up at 6:00.) Oy. 🙂

2 of the 35 hours are ballet, where she and her team-mates dress up all matchingly cute.

So…

I didn’t mean to go almost a whole month without posting, but you know how it goes sometimes.

Life’s been calling.

xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxooxox

P.S. Most of these pix are a bit fuzzy ’cause my good camera broke. 🙁

But you know what? Take pictures when inspired, no matter your camera quality! These are the moments of our love.

Now… I’m off to drink some wine!!

🙂