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.

The Evolution of the Butterfly...

Stretching with the little ones is always really fun. And usually really funny. Every time we do our butterflies, I ask my girls what color butterfly they want to be. At the beginning of the year, they usually pick one color (typically pink, sometimes purple, and in Amber's case... brown). By the middle of the year, their response usually sounds something like this:

"Well my body is going to be tan. And my head is going to be brown. My wings are all the colors of the rainbow, pink, black, purple, yellow, pink, blue, purple, green, yellow, pink sparkles, rainbow sparkles, all the princesses, castles, Hannah Montana, Sponge Bob, Sandy, Patrick, Sponge Bob's house, Sandy's house, Patrick's house, pillows, all of the girls in the class, you (that's referring to me, their wonderful, amazing ballet teacher), ballerinas, diamonds, gems, crowns, and sparkles."

I kid you not. It's hilarious. My personal favorite is pillows.

What color butterfly would you be?

I'm back

So I just returned home from an 8-day adventure in the Caribbean. My mom and I went on a cruise. And it was nice. And warm. I hiked and did a canopy tour in Jamaica, went scuba diving in Grand Cayman, went to an adventure park in Cozumel, and layed on the beach all day in the Bahamas. Oh, and shopped. Pretty much everywhere.

The ship was nice. There was lots to do. I read a couple of books, got myself a tan, had a couple of drinks... a day, spent time with my mom, watched movies and football on the big screen under the stars, met some really cool people, and bought a couple of really nice things. It was a great trip.

I'm really glad to be back though. I heard so many people on the ship talking about how they were dreading going back to work. I couldn't wait. I love my job. I missed it while I was gone. I missed my kids.

I went to the studio last night to work on some choreography for the week. And I've gotta say, I think the break was good for me. I have really been struggling lately with my choreography. I haven't been feeling very creative. But last night I was on a roll. Which was very refreshing. Now hopefully I can remember everything I came up with last night....

My Breaking Heart...

So I'm staying with my friend's daughter this week while they're in California. It's a pretty easy gig. Really easy, actually. She's 15 and has a ridiculously busy schedule. Between dance and poms, I basically don't see her. Except when I'm driving her to where she needs to be. This week is actually pretty much cooler than the rest of my weeks. I get to drive a really cool car and I have internet. No complaining here.



My friends just got a dog from a rescue group about a month ago. Her name is Tika. And my heart absolutely breaks for her. I don't know what her past is, but I'm positive that it was rough. I'm not sure if she was abused or neglected, but I'm certain that she was not treated the way that she deserved to be treated. And anyone who knows me knows that mistreated animals kinda gets me going. Tika lays in the corner of the dining room all day. Except at night, when she comes up to their bedroom and sleeps in the corner. It's very sad. She's very unresponsive. Although today, day 2, she actually made eye contact with me. She's very sweet. She lets me sit by her and pet her and all that. But that's about it. Oh, it's so sad.



Here's the little girl. Isn't she adorable?