The Last Few Weeks....

I realize that it has been more than a few weeks since I've blogged.  But I feel like the last few weeks of my life have been pretty blog-worthy.  I feel like I've been on the craziest roller coaster of emotions that I've ever been on.  

My first recital as a dance studio owner happened last weekend.  The few weeks leading up to recital were hectic and stressful and exciting.  Turns out I have a tendency to be a "detail Nazi" when it comes to volunteer assignments.  So I was up until 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning working, sleep for a few hours and then wake up and start all over again.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep much.  

The recital went better than I could have ever imagined.  My dancers did awesome and all had a blast.  My volunteers were incredible.  I had about 20 or so friends give up their Saturday night to come out and help.  They were awesome.  I am most certainly blessed with the friends that I have.  Recital was quite the culmination of nerves, a sense of accomplishment, gratefulness, humility, and relief.  And I STILL couldn't sleep.

The day after recital was the memorial for my grandma.  She died in December, but it was the first time that the whole family was going to be in town so we had it then.  It was great to see my family.  

Then came the Rev Dance Company auditions.  The turnout was WAY bigger than I expected.  There were some nice surprises there as well.  And some great talent.  Last year, I had a small but mighty competitive team of 7 girls.  Now?  34 girls and 2 boys.  Which is exciting!  And crazy.  And just a little bit stressful. 

This past Friday one of my dancers was killed in a car crash.  She was 18, just graduated from high school, and was just an incredible kid.  She was so funny.  And kind.  And smart.  Did I mention funny?  It's been hard on me; it's been hard on my girls.  So if anybody actually still reads my blog, please pray for the Senft family and my dancers.  The wake is on Tuesday afternoon - it's going to be a hard day for all of us.  

Stress, excitement, relief, more excitement, more stress, and grief.  There's of course so many other emotions - I'm just not feeling too "wordy" tonight.  

New Years Resolutions

I'm usually not really into making New Years resolutions.  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not really into commitment.  But this year I've decided to make one.  Actually two.

1.  Take my vitamins.  I was really good about it in college.  Lately I haven't been too good.  Okay, this is boring.  I'm not going to blog about vitamins and glucosamine chondroitin (although I will say it's so good if you have joint pain).

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2.  Be more generous.  There is a really cool group on Facebook called the 365 club.  When you join, you are committing to doing one random act of kindness a day for all of 2009.  The group now has nearly 3,800 members already.  I was the 117th person to join, and it's crazy to see how many people have joined since then.  I haven't really done anything groundbreaking.  I let someone go ahead of me in the checkout line at the grocery store.  I prepared lasagna and put it in the fridge so my brother could just put it in the oven when he got home from work.  I scraped my dancers' windshields after class.  I cleaned (the kind of cleaning where you have to use your fingernail - yuck) a couple of pots and pans that my brother had used.  Like I said, not anything groundbreaking, but this group has been a great reminder that I'm not the only person that exists on this Earth.  It's really interesting to read what some of the other people have done.  To see the group click here.

What are your New Years Resolutions?

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.

Thankful...

My dancers and their parents are so unbelievably thoughtful. It's our last week of classes before Christmas and I have been absolutely showered with gifts. I'd like to think that I'm not a very materialistic person, but I have gotten some really cool stuff! I've received some beautiful ornaments (which I'm in desperate need of!), some bath and kitchen type stuff, a really sweet bag, Webkinz clothes and cards (yes I have Webkinz - blame it on my petite company girls - they got me hooked), and lots and lots of gift cards. Much needed gift cards.

I'm not doing that great financially right now, so it's really nice to have those gift cards. I'm very thankful. I met with my small group at Barnes & Noble tonight to pick out a new book for our study. I got a book, the workbook for it and a hot chocolate with a gift card I received from a few students - and still had 15 cents left. Woo-hoo! I'm also in need of a winter coat - it's kind of cold around here. I saw the exact kind I wanted at Target yesterday for $50. Definitely don't have that kind of money right now. I got a gift card from one of my classes tonight. $50. I'm pretty pumped. And like I said... thankful. Very very thankful.