Over the last two weeks, ‘Miss A’ and I have been dress shopping. This is a very rare occurrence for her. When she was younger, I tried to dress her in skirts or dresses all the time, much to her annoyance. As she got older, and I started allowing her more responsibility in her choices she has never been out of pants (track pants, training pants or jeans) or shorts. I wondered if my little girl would ever want to do those more feminine activities.

Guess what? She is growing up and she is desiring more of the ‘feminine things’. However, being an athlete means that she needs to be in athletic style clothes every day. (Ever tried sliding into base with a skirt on? 😉 ) I thought she looked beautiful, although of course I’m terribly biased. 😉 She doesn’t always find it easy to find clothes that are trendy and modest and practical.

Some may remember our excitement when our team (QLD) won the U/16 national Tournament earlier this year in January. ‘Miss A’ was co-captain of the team. Well, following on from that…the team was nominated in the QLD Junior Sport Team of the Year award for 2007 and as co-captain ‘Miss A’ was supposed to attend and prepare a short acceptance speech on the off chance they might win.

Ugh, let me tell you that dress shopping to fit an athlete’s body yet be modest is not the easiest task! We shopped all around out local area but ended up going an hour away (still in our city) where a good friend took us to a few places that she knew of. That was fun!

Yesterday was the big day. ‘Miss A’ only loosely prepared her speech as neither of us expected that the team would win: we thought that the more high profile sport teams would win.

We took a few photos and then dropped her at the Plaza Ballroom, for this QLD Sports Night of Nights, black tie event!

They won!!!! Oh yeah, how cool was that??!! I believe that ‘Miss A’ delivered her speech, accepting the award on behalf of her team, quite well and seemed very natural. She gets incredibly nervous whenever giving speeches, as she’s only ever had opportunity to do so a few times. (I gave my first speech when I was about 25 years old so she’s doing better than I did!!) She sometimes has a bit of a stutter, but she is fine when she’s natural. She only tends to stutter when reading aloud or trying to be too precise. However, I think that years of practicing reading aloud and memorisation work, along with the oratory skills that we practiced at home are paying off.

Well now that is over, she can devote all her time and energy to training for the U/19 Women’s National Tournament which is being held in Tasmania in Jan ’08.

To have a look at the photo’s from last night, click here: