What an exciting week this is turning out to be for Gabby. Her 8th birthday is tomorrow. And I can tell you that she was born at EXACTLY 8:01 on a Monday morning. 7lbs, 6oz, 21 inches of a bundle of energy. If you wish to drop her a note and say Happy Birthday, drop me a note at joe.nieto@inieto.com and I'll print it out and give it to her. She will be absolutely TICKLED pink.

The other exciting thing going on for Gabby Goo is THIS weekend is the "A Salute to the Summer Olympics - Aerodrome Style". To be honest, I have NO idea what to expect. This show is not as big or as involved as the winter show for The Nutcracker. I hear that it is exciting and the kids will be ready to show their stuff. I look forward to it and I will post pictures as soon as they are in. Gabby will be part of the "baseball" theme.

We also have plans for Gabby for her birthday with her friends. Ha,ha... no details here. I don't Gabby sneaking on-line and reading what is going to happen.

Don't forget that Austin,TX (Bluebonnet Open) will be coming up in June and Tulsa, OK in July. We are still working on travel arrangements. I hope, hope, hope I can go. It depends on work and schedules.

One last thing, I was rummaging around through some old video and I have some footage of Gabby and Joel dancing to some music from wrestling and doing the worm and "some other" moves I am not sure of. It's hilarious, and of course, I will keep it safe until her teenage years at which point I'll spring them out. Ha,ha...THAT'S what dad's are for.

Until next time...

Great news to report! Gabby passed both of her tests for Pre-Pre on Friday! YES! Woo-hoo. Congratuations Gabby - we are all so proud of you.

There were a couple of things she needs to work on - backward skating edges. This is where she has to skate backwards and do little loops/curves/figure eight looking things. Imagine a straight line down the ice...you have to skate an "S" shape and as you're doing the top of the "S" you do it with one foot and so you have to "push" kind of hard so that you have enough momentum to carry you to the other side of the "S" when you put your other foot down and push with the opposite leg so that the "bottom" part of the "S" is with the other skate. Huh? Yeah...it's difficult and has more to do with precision than speed I guess.

After Gabby passed the tests, Sally, Gabby, and Dorothy all went to "Lopez Mexican Restaurant" on Wilcrest and 59. It was great and the food and conversation were even better. I was still coughing and trying to get over my cough but I couldn't resist a "Cinco de Mayo" margarita. I figured it would make my cough feel better...it did...I think...maybe I should have had another just to make sure.

Dorothy also let us know that San Antonio has a new Ice Skating rink on the Northside - Northwoods Ice. It has TWO sheets of ice and is brand new. Woo-hoo. We get to take a road trip to SA and skate in front of family. No informaton yet on when any USFSA events will be held there but you can be sure they're working on it. Here is more information on the rink.

Austin is not to far away...and after that - Tusla beckons. We are going to plan on going to Austin and then *maybe* passing through Fiesta Texas and then when we come back through Dallas from Tusla - stop by Six Flags over Texas.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Gabby had a chance to participate in two egg hunts this weekend. She got up early and looked for eggs at the local Kroger store. She did pretty well and got a HUGE chocolate bunny. Normally, kids would jump at this stuff but Gabby isn't a choco-holic - yet. Sadly, this will be her last year as she will be 8 at the end of the month and too old for the event next year. She also had a chance to participate in the egg hunt here in our subdivision. Kelly and Krew did a great job of getting the word out and eggs hidden. Gabby scored well in the egg department.

The other thing about this weekend was that those of us who tried to suffer (just a little) by giving up something we really like. I gave up beef. Big, juicy, steaks and burgers! Oh man, I was suffering. Today though, I *finally* got to savor the taste of beef. I had been surviving on Chicken and vegetarian burgers. I went to Sam's and bought a stack of veggie burgers. I don't know about you but I put enough catchup on that thing to make a decent burger but it didn't help. After dropping of Joel this evening in Rosenberg, I drove through the Whataburger for a cheeseburger - ALL THE WAY! Mmm...tasty. This beef thing was not all bad. I got to check out more salads then I would have normally. And, I got an appreciation for vegeterian dishes. Maybe that's the point.

Gabby has a test THIS Friday. She will be going for her Pre-Pre Test. Wish her luck and include her in your prayers as I am sure she would appreciate it. She also has let us know her right leg is bothering her. It seems to be cramping or something. It could be that she hurt it on a jump or something. She has been like a jumping bean and I'm not sure if jumping and spinning on concrete or carpet is all that good since it puts some stress on her tendons. We'll mention it to Catherine and see what the deal is. It's probably just a strain.

Oh well, it's late Sunday night and time to thing about the upcoming week.

Take care!

A quick report on Gabby. Her allergic reaction is just about gone. The doctor put her on some steriods to clear out whatever was ailing her and to keep her swelling down. She absolutely hates the medicine and no amount of flavoring is making it any better. Yuck! "Banana" flavor? Rrrright.

She was feeling good enough to back to physical conditioning on Tuesday and ice skating on Wednesday. She seems *almost* her usual self. The medicine is having affect with her mood swings and her appetite. One minute she's quiet and the next minute she is literally bouncing off the walls. She is eating quite a bit right now - more than her usual bird-like appetite. This PREDNISOLONE is really nasty stuff.

Today is Good Friday and she and I will spend the day together to remember Jesus. Well, I would like to focus on that but she is already after me to go do something "fun". She was up at 6am tapping me on the shoulder that she's bored. See! It's that darn medicine. On any other day that she would be off, she would still be in bed until 10am snoozing away. But, nooooo, she has to get up at 6am...

Joe.

Alright! Today, I updated some pictures to the website for you to enjoy (see the links on the side). These were done with Flash, and I set them to music - so please be a little patient because they are pretty big.

Some people may wonder why I put them in Flash. This is because the images are integrated into the software so that they can't be stolen. You would be surprised where people's pictures end up.

Also, Gabby is standing her next to me tonight as I put this together. She is ready to go play XBOX. We are also watching reruns of the World's competition on ESPN. No matter how many times I see the broadcast, I am still amazed. I just watched the pairs and it was JUST amazing. They did a bio on the chinese team. Zao's parents did not buy new clothes for three years so that he could take lessons. They didn't have money for anything. They had ONE bicycle and that is what EVERYONE got on to ride around. At age 8, he was on the ice 6 hours a day. Wow...talk about commitment. I don't know if we are ready for that...I like my Lexus, baseball, and toys. Ha,ha! Oops...sorry Gabby. ;)

Almost forgot to mention, Gabby had an allergic reaction to "something". We think it's children's moltrin. Thursday night, Sally said that Gabby was running a fever, so she gave Gabby some Moltrin. Within an hour, Gabby swelled up so badly her eyes swelled shut and her face was just awful. We called the doctor of course, and she said to get some Benedril into her. And, if she stoppped breathing, call 911. She would see her first thing in the morning. Okay, talk about a scary night, I don't anyone (except Gabby) got a good night's sleep. Friday morning, she was still looking bad so we took her into the doctor's office where she got an injection and a prescription. Today, Saturday morning, she is still swollen but is getting better. Her eyes are open and her smile is returning. What a scary, scary, thing to go through.

Gabby was disappointed she missed club ice and rehersal for the summer olympic program. I'm just glad she is still with us. Yeah, pretty scary.

Sorry I am late with the posting of Gabby's results from the Texas Gulf Coast Future Stars competition. As you may remember, this is Gabby's first competition in the new brackets. Last season she skated in Basic Skills for Free Skate and compulsory. This year, she moved up the much higher brackets: Pre-Pre and Pre. (Preliminary and Pre-Preliminary). Gabby skated very well and she held her own in the bracket but the other girls in that group are TOUGH. Some of the girls have been sitting in that bracket for a couple of seasons and pretty much skate flawless programs by now. All that being said, here are Gabby's results:

Preliminary Limited Compulsory - 4th Place
Pre-Preliminary Freeskate - 5th place
Pre-Preliminary Spins - 10th place

It was a good competition and it is encouraging to see that Gabby is keeping a very positive attitude. She knows what she has to do and she know that she has to add some complexity to her program to get higher scores. She's working on that. Her next competition is in Austin in June but she as a test in April. Speaking of testing, have you ever wondered about all the levels in USFSA?

Here is how the levels in USFSA are laid out:

Pre-Preliminary
Preliminary
Pre-Juvenile
Juvenile
Intermediate
Novice
Junior
Senior

To give you an idea how far the progression of skates have to go, here is the official scoring sheets for USFSA.

Pre-Preliminary Requirements:
Watz Jump
Salchow
Toe Loop
1/2 Flip - land on either foot
1/2 Lutz - land on either foot
1 foot spin - minimum 3 revolutions

Gabby has all this down pat thanks to Miss Dorothy's coaching.

Senior Level Requirements:
Ladies Program must be 4 minutes in length.
Jumps:
There must be 4 different double or triple jumps, one of which must be a double lutz. If the skates elects to do triple jumps, only one may be repeated in combinations or jump sequences. There cannot be a turn or change of foot between jumps.
Spins: At least 4 different spins (solo spins must be a minimum of 6 revolutions in position). One of the spins must be a flying spin. One must be a spin combination consisting of two postitions and at least one change of foot positions and must encompas at least 10 revolutions.
Steps: one serpetine step sequence of advanced difficulty with complex sequences of turns in the field which cover the entire ice surface and include rockers and counters. Connecting moves and steps must be demonstrated through out the program.

Interesting huh?