Sectionals To-Do List

"Mom, I'm thinking about videotaping our whole car ride up there," Justin says recently.

No problem I'll just add "check out video camera from Justin's photography class" to the to-do list I made.

Justin & Sarah perform at
TBSA's fall recital.

Our 15-year-old son, Justin, and his 14-year-old ice dance partner, Sarah, will compete with dance teams from 20 other states across the East Coast at the Eastern Sectional Figure Skating Championships in Jamestown, New York, in two weeks. And the list of things to do continues to grow.

We still need to:

* Rent a car because we're driving to Jamestown to cut down on costs.

* Find a tie and white dress shirt to round off Justin's costume.

* Sharpen skates.

* Get books, games, music and snack foods to entertain and nourish us on our 46-hour round trip.

* Finalize plans for a friend and neighbor to take care of the cats and turtle.

* Do a map quest so we know where we're going.

* Clean the house.

We're still trying to raise funds, too. As part of our fundraising efforts, Justin and Sarah will give a presentation to the Sunset Optimist Club of St. Petersburg. Optimist clubs do all they can to help support the youth in their community.

About three years ago, Justin was a board member on the local Junior Optimist Club. The preteen and teen club participated in projects that helped the community, such as picking up trash along the Courtney Campbell Causeway, and hosting Halloween, Christmas and bowling parties for foster children. During this time, the Sunset club presented Justin with a Youth Appreciation Award in recognition of outstanding achievements. It was at the recognition ceremony where members learned more about Justin's love of figure skating.

The Sunset club will decide if they can help support the ice dance team's trip to sectionals after the two teenagers talk about what they've learned as figure skating athletes and what they expect to learn when they compete at sectionals in two weeks. If they place in the top 8, they'll advance to the Junior National Figure Skating Championships in December and compete with the top 24 junior ice dance teams in the US.

Justin & Sarah get a vanilla & ginger hand scrub
at Friday's Arbonne fundraiser

But even if we don't raise much money to help offset all of the costs, the fundraising efforts are a wonderful learning experience. They help Justin and Sarah get out into the community and be proactive in reaching their dreams.

Since we sent out a post asking for fundraising ideas, we received a lot of great suggestions. We so appreciate all the creative ideas and the wonderful support from friends. In addition to the Arbonne personal care products fundraiser (see photo above) and the Optimist Club presentation, several people who have had our homemade Toffee Cracker Candy suggested we offer the delicious, chocolate, toffee treat for a donation. So we're in the process of doing just that. (see photo below.)

Toffee Cracker Candy

While any money raised will help defray the many expenses involved in Justin & Sarah competing at this level, we have cut, and sliced, and diced our budget so we can get them there.

And making the most of the situation is what we do best, which reminds me of something else I need to add to my to-do list.

* Sit down as a family and research the historic sight-seeing we can do on our trip home through eight states. :)

First Time Performing Their Free Dance (Video)

Justin and Sarah perform their juvenile free dance at Tampa Bay Skating Academy's Fall Recital Saturday.
They skated beautifully! Below is their performance in video.

And here it is in pictures. :)