We just got back from the Visa U.S. Championships in Boston. It was a great trip. The competition went very well and I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out. I placed third all-around and second on bars. This was my first major competition that I competed with nearly full difficulty in my routines since Worlds in 2006. I loved being out on the competition floor and feeling like part of the team again. I feel like I proved to everyone, including myself, that I belong on the national team.

The first competition was Thursday and I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous. Even through warm ups the nerves were there. But once we marched in to the arena with the entire crowd cheering for us, most of my nerves went away. The meet went really well and I finished up in third, behind Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. Saturday I felt more confident going into the competition because I had Thursday under my belt. I improved my performances on everything but beam. I finished third overall and was thrilled. Being in the top three was my goal for the weekend and I was so excited that I reached it.

Greetings from Boston!!! We got here on Monday and had our first training today. Practice went really well and I am very excited for the competitions on Thursday and Saturday. My whole family is here with me and I love that they are! They are so supportive of everything I do and it means so much to me that they are here.

I also had a great send-off at practice Monday morning before our flight. My best friend had some of my closest friends come and watch practice. It was great knowing how much they support me as well and it meant a lot that they came to see me off.

Hey everyone!

I just returned from camp and a competition at the ranch last weekend. The first few days we were there, it was like a normal camp but the last two days were a mini international competition. There were competitors from Germany, Italy, Canada, Venezuela and Colombia. The first day was individual all around, and the second day was just events and you could choose the two you wanted to compete in.

The all around competition allowed me to see where and what I need to work on to be completely ready for nationals and trials. Event finals went really well, I won bars with my first 16.0! I am finally 100% back on bars!!! I am hoping to make a few minor upgrades before championships but I was happy to hit the base routine at a competition.

Beam went well, I hit my routine but still have things I need to work on cleaning up in the next few weeks. All in all it was a great preparation for the upcoming major competitions. I can’t wait to get back out there and compete!

Things have been going really well with training. It will be nice to have the entire month of April to spend at home concentrating on my training without having to travel anywhere! I am confident this month will greatly benefit my preparation for the busy competitive months ahead.

Outside of training, this past week and a half has been a new adventure for me. I moved out of my parents’ house and into my own!! It’s a three bedroom ranch that I have been working on for a very long time (with a lot of help from family and friends), and it has finally come together. My bedroom is actually the least set-up of all the rooms, as I still have some clothes and my dressers that I need to move so I can organize and put things away (haha). Friends and family were very generous with giving me some furniture and things to fill the house, and I cannot thank them enough! It has been a lot of fun living here and seeing the house turn more and more into a home. I am not totally alone though, my roommate is a friend that I have known for a long time, a former gymnast who now works at M&M.

I just got home from another national team camp and it went really well for me. It was the first time since my injury that I was able to verify the same or more difficulty on all four events. There is a friendly international competition that will be held at the ranch in May that I am planning to compete in. It will be a great starter competition for the year because it will be on familiar equipment and surroundings.

Hello everyone! I recently returned from camp. It didn’t go quite as I had planned but I still accomplished a lot. We are paying close attention to how my shoulder is adjusting to doing bars at full strength. Patience has been hard but it seems to be fine now and I am back on track! I have a few weeks of training at home, then we head back to camp on the 19th. There are a few competitions coming up but I am not sure which ones I will be going for yet.

This past weekend I went to the Arnold Gymnastics Classic in Ohio to do a performance on floor. Blaine Wilson, Morgan Hamm and the boys team from Ohio State also came to perform. We had so much fun. They have all the gymnasts who competed in the morning session and then the ones who start a little later sit right around the floor as Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger speaks to the crowd then each of us does a little something. I did a watered down version of my floor routine to the Rock and Roll music. It was a lot of fun performing for everyone and after my routine I got to meet and shake Arnold’s hand!

Outside of gymnastics, this last week has been a lot of fun for me. I have been working hard on my house and am planning on moving in sometime soon. It is a three bedroom ranch with a big two and a half car garage. We painted the entire house inside, it was a lot of fun picking out the colors! Family and friends have been very generous helping me get it all done. I have been very fortunate to have been given some gently used furniture and other household stuff. I just love watching all the progress and seeing it look more and more like home. As of right now the living room is pretty much finished. It has new carpet, a couch and love seat, a coffee table and some end tables, and of course a TV. I am now working on putting new contact paper in the drawers and cabinets so that we can wash and put all the plates and things away.

The last few weeks have been extremely busy for me!

Right after I got home from my last training camp, I flew to Baltimore for a GK photo shoot. It’s really a lot of fun to be able to model and see all of the new leos that will be coming out next season! It was a quick trip; I was only gone for two days.

Then about a week later, my dad and I flew out to California to train at All Olympia with Arthur Akopian (one of the National Team coaching staff members). It was a great week all together, and it was nice to have someone else’s opinions and corrections. I definitely made improvements on vault and bars! It was also a treat to be out of the Wisconsin weather for a little while. We were fortunate enough to miss a massive snowstorm. Although we did feel bad for my mom and sisters having to do all of the shoveling!

Training has been going really well, and I leave for camp this Friday. This is a verification camp for some international meets coming up, so we have to be in routine shape if we want an assignment. I’m looking forward to camp; it should be a good one!

I just got home from a national team training camp. Camp officially started Wednesday evening. However, Shawn, Nastia, Alicia and I arrived on Monday for a photo shoot on Tuesday.

It was so much fun getting all made up and being on set with the girls. Tuesday was a jam-packed day. We had an early morning workout, then thankfully had enough time for a quick shower, went to the photo shoot, did an interview together, and finished off the day with a second workout.

It felt a little strange to train with just the four of us, but it was kind of nice because we got to spread out and have our own event. We are used to a much bigger group and so when everyone got there the next day, it was nice to be back to a normal camp again. There aren’t any competitions this month, so it was a great working camp.

Next month’s camp will be different, because there are a few big meets in March. I personally like training with the team for a few days because it helps push me to train harder at home. When I see the other girls and the up-and-coming juniors, it motivates me to keep improving my gymnastics!

Happy New Year everyone!

I cannot believe how quickly the end of this year came and went! Training has been going well. It was nice to take a little breather after my international competitions, but now I am working my way back to full routine shape with more difficulty. China and Japan competitions were a great starting point for me as they allowed me to see just how much harder I need to work to make my routines more difficult as well as cleaning up my form. Floor is going great. I am working on a few new passes! On beam, I have added my front half back in! Bars is coming along as well. I am training the shaposh to the bail but they are not quite ready to be put in the routine just yet. On vault I am definitely planning on competing the double twist again.

Well I almost feel like I’m back in this time zone again! I arrived home on Monday evening around 7:30 from Japan and then turned around on Tuesday to travel to a promotional visit in Philadelphia. I flew home at 6:30 am on Thursday, ran to a photo shoot with Gym Treasures and then did an interview with NBC! Friday was my first day that I was able to sleep in and have a little breather since coming home from Japan.

The Toyota Cup competition was a lot of fun. It was event finals only with bars one day and beam and floor the next. My bar routine went really well, I ended up fifth and was very happy with that since I left out two of my releases.

I was first up on beam, actually first in the whole competition, and scored a 15.65, which held for second place! I competed last on floor and won! Both of these competitions in China and Japan were a great start to my comeback for this year! During the two weeks of competitions, I hit 13 for 13 of my routines!

Japan is a really nice country. It was very clean, and the people were very friendly. We were able to go out and walk around to a few malls that were close to our hotel. It was also fun just exploring the city a little. It was interesting to see the differences as well as the similarities between their culture and ours.

On another note, I have been looking for a new car that I can drive in the winter since my car is so little and doesn’t handle very well in the snow. I looked at a few trucks and some SUVs but didn’t get to test drive anything before my trip. So while I was in Philly, my dad told me that he looked at a few trucks and test drove some but said he didn’t like any of them. Little did I know that he had already found one and picked me up from the airport in my new truck!!! It’s a silver Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab. It’s a bit bigger than my little Audi, but I love it already!