Katie Beans visits Orlando

Katie was in town to see her brand new nephew Asher who was born on Sept 1. She stopped by and I showed her the gym. We also did dinner, and some shopping (as you can see) Katie is going back to Michigan tomorrow. Miss you Shacks!

My new fav song!

Too bad youtube wont let you embed this song :(
Damn them!

After 4 days of traveling I have finally settled into my new surroundings in Orlando. It all started Monday after a few tearful goodbyes. I loaded up DMT GLD, and headed to Ohio to visit my friends Derek and Kristi at their gym in Cinci-nasty. I showed up in time to watch the elite athletes workout, then afterwards we headed to a little sports bar called "Putters" to eat junk food and watch the uneven bar finals. (I ordered deep fried pickles in case your wondering, which later I would regret after a serious case of IBS occurred) Anyways about the gymnastics...I have to say Nastia truly deserved to be olympic champion on that event. I am not just saying this because I am American...I love Nastia and her Kommie self, but I actually like He Kexin too, and think her routine is far superior than Nastia's when she hits it. However she did not hit that night. There were a few missed handstands, a form break on the release move, loss of swing in her hect to high bar, and she looked drunk when she landed her dismount. I'm sorry but they once again crowned the wrong champion. Nastia scored higher than He in both rounds of the team competition, and since they have the same degree of difficulty it should be a no brainer! Nastia had one tiny mistake, and to the untrained eye you couldn't even tell. On top of that she had a clean dismount. I just don't get it, seems like the judging was a bit off the entire olympics. Hmmm maybe they will change the code of points like they did after the Athens fiasco we'll see.

So after that we got to Kristi's house, and I love her house...it reminds me of the house I grew up in when I was a kid. Her house is on about 5 acres of land, and you take this little dirt road down to her house. It's cute, there is even a little barn and everything. We stayed up late and facebook stalked pretty much everyone we knew in USA Gymnastics. Good times! I got about 5 hours of sleep and woke up and headed down to my second stop, Alabama.

It seemed like I was on I-75 for an eternity. I must of made about 20 pit stops to relieve my overactive bladder. I think all the Mt. dew I was drinking had something to do with that : ) Finally I made it down to Huntsville, and stopped by the Matrix Gym. This is where Joy is grooming her next group of up and coming trampoline stars. It was great to see Joy, and watch her work with her team. I got to see all the drills and exercises she does with her team, and it got me super excited to get down to Florida and start working with my new athletes. After practice was over I went over to Joy's house, and met her two HUGE dogs! They were very friendly and liked sniffing my crotch haha! We could barely keep our eyes open as we watched Shawn and Jonathan compete in the event finals. I was tired from driving all day, and she was tired from working all day. It was time for bed. I got a good 8 hrs in, which felt so good! We stopped for a coffee in the morning and then I got back on the road.

It took about 10 hrs for me to get from Huntsville to Jacksonville, which is where my mom lives. I was a little nervous since I was heading straight in the direction of tropical storm Fay :/ The rain wasn't so bad, but the wind was a little bit crazy. Fay was sending DMT GLD in and out of lanes like whoa. Thank god I had all my junk piled in the back for extra weight, or I'd be all over the place! I haven't seen my mom since I first left for Michigan and that was two years ago. So it was good to see her. Spending the night in my old bedroom was a little strange, being that it's been about a decade since I've been in there! My stay was short and sweet, because I was super anxious to finally get to my final destination.

I drove the last leg of my trip through the worst of Fay. It only took 3 hrs to get from J-ville to O-town (I know i'm so street) But I made all in one piece. I unloaded my car, and got all situated in the place I will be staying till I find my own place. I miss all my friends back in Michigan, but I'm so excited for this new chapter! Katie is coming to visit next week, and Steven, and Sandy shortly. Can't wait!

8.8.08

The moment I've been waiting for the last 4 years is finally here! Words cannot describe how excited I get when it's time for the summer Olympics. I schedule out all the gymnastics, trampoline, and diving competitions, and if I can't be home to watch them, I will record them. Watching all the amazing athletes, and following their stories just gets me all geeked! To kick off the opening ceremonies my roommate and BFF Katie went over to Steven and Angela's house for a little viewing party. I swear Steven should of considered a profession as a party planner or something because the living room was decked out with flags, chinese lanterns, and a big Beijing sign (see picture below) The set up was pretty sweet, I must admit! I have to mention the food, Steven and "Purg" really out-did themselves planning this get together. Since we are all hardcore gymnastics fans all the foods were named after gymnasts, which I thought was pretty hilarious. For the main dish we had brawts...not just any brawts though, these were Shawn Johnsonville brawts. And the side dish? Well you guessed it...Sacramone & cheese! Yum : )














Let the Games Begin!

Vote for Miss Pussycat!

I was in complete shock when I saw a girl from my gym on "America's Got Talent" a few weeks back. The judges liked her act so much that they invited her to the Las Vegas final. Which airs tonight on NBC at 8pm. Here is a Youtube vid of her performing in the audition rounds.



Miss Pussycat aka Cassie practices aerial stunts, and circus acts at our gym. Everyone should vote for her tonight she NEEDS to win!!!

кока-кола

Being that it was Friday, I was so excited to get out of the gym by 11am today! I couldn't wait to get home and do what I do best...and that was to work on my tan. So i'm laying out on the deck and we have this outdoor sound system which I will sometimes listen to if I don't feel like untangling the headphones to my ipod. Anyways it was set to the radio, and everyday this particular DJ has this contest at 3 o'clock were he states a random fact and listeners will call in and try to guess the item, percentage, number, or whatever he's talking about. Long story short, he takes all these calls, and the winner gets a concert ticket or something.

So today the random statistic was "the average american drinks ______ cans of soda per year." Well usually I just ignore his lame attempt to get callers to participate in his radio show, but this caught my attention being that I have slight addiction to Coke. Did I say slight? Haha actually you could pretty much just call me a "Coke head." Anyways, here I am on edge...wondering just how I stack up to the rest of America. Is my case really as severe as people say it is? Or could I possibly be below average? Well after about 20 minutes of call after call, commercial breaks, and maybe one actual song the DJ says "the average American drinks 603 cans of pop per year" Haha yes I kid you not...he did say "pop!"

After hearing that, I have to admit that I was sorta shocked! That's a lot of freakin calories (72, 360 to be exact) What's probably more shocking is that I can almost guarantee that I am above the average. Oooops! As I rolled onto my stomach to prevent uneven tanning, I kinda laughed to myself thinking THANK GOD they didn't survey me, I could of single-handedly put the national average in the thousands!









Drink up!

Holy Shit Batman!

For those of you headed to Three Rivers, Michigan this week for the Trampoline & Tumbling Scholarship Camp. Keep an eye out for this "clown!"



This actually made national news. Here is a blurb from the Associated Press:

These mugs released by the Three Rivers Police Department show Spencer Taylor, 20, of Three Rivers, Mich. Police arrested Taylor who they say tried to steal posters and other items related to the new Batman movie from a cinema lobby while dressed up as the Joker. Police officers were dispatched early Sunday, July 27, 2008 to the Three Rivers 6 theater arrived to find employees restraining a man wearing a purple suit, a green wig, and face paint in the style of Batman's nemesis in "The Dark Knight."

I don't know whats funnier....this punk or the thought of Three Rivers having a movie theater!

Someone's rollin in the dough...and it ain't me!

Exxon Mobil Corp. is reporting a second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion today. The biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation!

That's BILLION not MILLION folks!

You'd think they could afford to do something about the outrageous gas prices.



That's probably asking too much. Jerks!

Paul is Done-zo

2004 Olympic All Around champion Paul Hamm has withdrawn from the upcoming Beijing Olympics. You can bet that somewhere in China Yang Wei is having a major party right about now! Raj Bhavsar will be the replacement, who in my mind should of been on the team to begin with! (since he finished 3rd at Trials) The thing that pisses me off the most is that USAG built this entire team around Paul Hamm. Who is INJURED!! Knowing about his injury they named other athletes to the olympic team to compliment their beloved $$$$ cow! These other athletes are ALSO INJURED!

Red flags anyone?



It's only a matter of time before one of the other walking wounded goes down! When are they going to learn their lesson? Enjoy the bronze medal!

My Five Favorites for July

5. Monster "Irish Blend" Energy Drink

4. The song "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay

3. Gas prices under $4.00/gallon

2. Dark Knight in IMAX

1. An Olympic team without Jana Bieger

"What's so bad about Jana?" you ask....well feast your eyes on this Dancing Queen!


Hahaha! I laugh everytime I see this video! Need I say more?

It's Official - I'm moving!!!

Back in 2006 I decided to leave Orlando to focus on my gymnastics career. Moving to Michigan to train with some members of the National team/staff. While in Michigan I was able to travel the world with the U.S. Team. Competing in places like Belgium, England, Russia, and Canada. As well as making my first World Championship team were I earned a silver medal with the U.S. team, and placed 6th individually. It was really hard to leave Florida, but it was something I had to do in order to reach all of my goals.

However, looks like I'm headed back to Orlando! This time to co-own my own gymnastics facility. I had this really great opportunity come my way to buy into a gym down in Florida. After going down there a couple weeks ago to check it out and meet the owner, I absolutely couldn't resist. I've always wanted to own my own gym, and what better way to do it, than to team up with an exsisting program! I will be making the long trip home middle of August! As far as training and competing goes...I still have the desire to keep going through 2009 Worlds. It will certainly be difficult to operate a gymnastics facility, and still find time to compete, but I think it's something I can handle.

Just a few pics of the new gym. Florida here I come!!!

Out and About

Went to Grand Haven for the day. Stopped by the beach for a bit, then did a little shopping in the downtown area afterwards. Look what I stumbled across...

Being the Olympic freak that I am...you know I had to take a pic!

My First Time - Blogging That Is

So we all can thank Amy McDonald for getting me hooked on this blogging stuff. After checking out her blog the other day (http://amesmcdonald.blogspot.com/) it got me thinking about creating my own. I liked the idea of posting my thoughts, pics, and videos online. Most of the time I am pretty quiet and reserved, but from time to time I do get a little nutty and have some pretty outlandish things to say. So I thought I'd share that with everyone. Consider yourself lucky!

I know you are probably thinking "people have been blogging for about 8 years now, what a dork!" But you know what? It's new to me and I am enjoying it! So looks like you'll be hearing from me quite often here on my page as I am officially jumping on the blogging bandwagon. Say what you want about it...I could care less!

I posted a picture of Amy and I at the banquet for a World Cup event back in 2007. Not the best picture of us...we'll have to get a better one when she comes to Michigan for Camp Kumbayah.