Sure doesn't seem like I have 'So Much To Say'....

I haven't written a post in over 8 months.  I lot has happened in 8 months.  

For example:

• I opened a dance studio.  If you've been living under a rock/haven't talked to me in a long time/haven't facebook stalked me/don't know me... I opened Revolution Dance Studio in September.  It has been an absolute dream come true.  We have 78 students.  Not bad for our first year!  Check out our website at www.revdance.com
• My BFF Amy got married.  I had a blast being her MOH.
• Missy and Matt got married.  'Bridesmaid' is my middle name.
• I've become a substitute teacher extraordinaire once again.  I actually really love subbing.  Most of the time.  
• I started my 3rd season coaching track at USF.  Still lovin' that gig.
• My Grandma died on Sunday.  Anyone who knew her knows that she was a really fantastic lady.  I have such great memories of her driving me to all of my activities as a child - she always had a fruit cup in the car for me.  My Grandma was a wonderful tap dancer.  Guess I have her to thank!
• I had a great last year teaching at Vaughan's.  I really miss all of those girls.  We capped off the year at Nationals in Branson, MO.  Walkaway and Candlelight both placed 3rd in their age groups!  They won some really large and in charge trophies.

Butterflies, Manipulation and Brackets....

I know I've posted before about my dancers and their butterflies. Here's a follow-up. I have a little 5-year old named Annie. Her butterly "colors" always crack me up. Usually it includes a couple of sports teams - Bears, the Fighting Illini, Cubs... and sometimes the Cardinals, White Sox, and Packers (clearly the girl doesn't understand loyalty yet). A while back I told her that her butterfly should have the Pistons on it too. I always get really excited when she remembers to put the Pistons on there and I'll give her a high-five. Now she'll yell "PISTONS!" and just put her hand up for a high-five. It's funny.

Yesterday I had 6 girls in that class put the Pistons on their butterflies. Sure they only did it to get praise from me. I'm okay with that. But I know that maybe one of them will become a true Pistons fan because of my dance class. I've manipulated my dancers and it feels good.

Annie's butterfly was hilarious. Not only did it include her usual sports teams, it also included my dog Noel, Jesus, Mary, Joseph... and yes, even the 3 wise men.

As far as brackets go... well my method of picking teams based on who had the cutest colors was a mistake. I did decent, I suppose. I had UNC and UCLA playing in the championship - seriously, colors don't get cuter than that. I'll have to think of another method for next year. Any ideas?

Happy Adoption Day Noel!

Since we don't know when Noel was born, we celebrate her adoption day. Sadly my brother is in Egypt right now, so he's not able to celebrate with us.





But here is what my brother has to say about Noel. I think it's really sweet. --





I adopted Noel when I was a 21 year old senior at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. There had been some recent break-ins in our neighborhood so I went to the pound to simply look for a watch dog. When I first arrived at the pound, Noel (although that wasn't her name at the time) immediately caught my attention. She was in a cage in which she could barely move and weighed only about 35 pounds, at which time she was already about a year and a half old. She was less then three hours away from being euthanized with nobody on the list to adopt her. Trapped in her cage, she reached her paw towards me and looked at me with a sense of saddness and desperation as if she knew that I was her only hope for being saved. As she did this, she let out a series of small whimpers that I heard as "please, please help me!"





Being a college kid I was not sure if I was ready for the responsibility that comes with owning a dog, but I knew that in this case I did not have a choice. She did not deserve to have her life end in a shelter after only a little more than year into her life.





She is not the perfect dog in the sense that she comes from a championship line or that she can do amazing tricks. She is not perfect in that she can be stubborn and can sometimes have a mind of her own. But over seven years later, she is still the perfect dog for me. She is loyal and has been with me through thick and thin. Even on the worst days, she is always excited to see me when I wake up in the morning and when I come home at night. I don't know how she will be rated on this website, and I do not care, because I know she is the best dog that anyone could ever hope to have. She is my companion for life.





To see more of Noel, you can go to her page in the "dog park" -- it's pretty much a myspace for dogs, I think. :)





http://www.longliveyourdog.com/dogpark/album/29914-11796.aspx

I Forgot I Had a Bog!

Oops. I haven't written in a really long time. As of this moment, I'm recommiting myself to this whole blogging thing.

Today's story -

I just filled out my bracket... solely based on the 'cuteness' of each team's uniforms. Good thing UNC has really cute colors.

Picking my bracket by what teams I actually think are going to win has never really worked for me, so I figured I might as well try something different this time. I'll let you know how it goes.