What Up, Weekend??? 6/23/17

It's been a while since I joined up with the lovely ladies of the Peaceful Posse for a Happy Friday post! 

1.  I'm happy to get back into the slow groove of blogging.  I've been spending a lot of evenings just sitting out on the patio with the hubby, enjoying doing nothing (my house will vouch for that - ugh!) But sorry peeps - quality time with my favorite guy is tops on my priority list. 

2.  Rain!  My poor lawn is so dry!  On the plus side, it's coming up on like 3 weeks since I've mowed and it's really not too terrible, as long as you don't look at the weird tall weeds in the one back corner. 

3.  Dance season 2017 is done!   I'm kind of excited about 2018.  The trip to Daytona Beach is somewhat iffy now, but there will be a trip somewhere "tropical"!  Louisiana's gulf coast was mentioned.....

4.  Little Daisy kitty is finally starting to accept Rusty as her new brother.  She seems more likely to growl at him when she jumps up on the bed at night and sees him already laying near me.  But other times she'll rub up against him and head-butt his chest, trying to get him to groom her. 

5. Halloween stuff is starting to show up in stores!!!!!  I have a notebook filled with plans for my Maple Grove Cemetery.  I already scored my full-sized horse skeleton so the only things I'll need to buy are details for it & the skeleton rider.  And some PVC piping to make a reinforcing stand for the horse. 

6.  I've lost at least a pound for each of the 3 weeks' weigh-ins since I've came back off vacation!  The -2.4 lbs right after I came back was a very pleasant surprise.  Seeing as how I ate such  healthy food as fried eggs & pork chops or venison sausage for breakfast; a total of 6 donuts, 1/4 cold pizza & 1/2 bag of popcorn on the drive from Hot Springs to Cincinnati. Oh and dinner one night was a funnel cake with a scoop of  apple pie filling, drizzled with white chocolate & smothered in whipped cream. 

Wow.  I could probably think of more, but I'm at work and yet again, they want me to WORK!  Sheesh.  

I've started my "Houston Chronicles" posts since there's no way I'd be able to cover a week vacation in just one post!

Dancers Only Standing Ovation 2017

So the 2016 / 2017 dance season has come to an end.  I was really expecting to be done after the recital, but nope!  We went last night and did the summer class sign ups.  These kids are all excited at one of the classes is going to be held a couple doors down at a CrossFit place, so they can work on strength & conditioning.   

The next season should be an adventure!

All of the reactions I've heard from other people at the studio has been positive - except for one crab-ass.  But her opinion don't mean beans to me.  It's not like Miss Angela demanded to do another year.  The owner of the studio asked her to stay.  She thought about it a couple weeks, then said yes.  Even tho her age may affect some of the competitions they had tentatively planned, Terina is fully aware of exactly how old she is and I'm sure she'll figure it all out. 

I'm happy with how the pictures turned out from the photographer (Northern Lights Photography, as usual).  I was pleased with the fact that she went out of her way to change the lighting set up so we could use the doors from Clue.  

 Miss Peacock - Clue (production)

 Three (jazz solo)

 Don Quixote (pointe) 

 Brume de la Mer (ballet)

 Final Song (small group jazz)

Final Song group

 Girl Power (hiphop line)

 PARTY (rec hiphop)

 They Don't Really Care About Us (small group tap)

Where Feet May Fail (small group lyrical)

Note the 3 in back with strategically placed bodies & hands?

That's to hide tattoos & belly button piercings!

I didn't get as many pics during dress rehearsal as I planned.  I forgot during a couple numbers!  I was just sitting back, enjoying the show.  

 The yearly goofy ballet pics with Ashley. 

 Ooo, art!

 Every ballerina needs to yell WOOOOO! at the end of a pirouette.  She was excited that she did a triple en pointe and let us all know!

 They're so professional.

2 weeks before the recital, their teacher decided they'd do a pointe dance, too.  So they learned their choreography in 2 weeks!  The first time they went thru it, I was so glad I was recording since it fell apart mid-way thru and it ended up being quite hilarious.  But it ended up being pretty good, if short.   

Come to find out, the guys working at the auditorium (grrr, they pissed off a lot of people!) were messing with the speed of the songs & goofing off instead of listening to instructions about lights & making inappropriate remarks about the girls.  Terina was livid! 

 This recital was her 10th with DOS!  

Alayna also got her 10 year trophy.

I really hope her knees / ankles / hips will survive another year.  She came home after dress rehearsal saying her one knee hurt inside.  By Saturday morning, the bruises were showing.   Then during the recital, we saw her land on her knee hard during Clue (the first routine) and it showed on her face.  She did OK after that until her solo when she twisted it again and really hurt it. Again it showed on her face but she powered thru.  She only had 2 dances after that and luckily hiphop line doesn't require pretty facials and the other was finale.  She had her knee brace on for those - the rest she didn't because most of her dances she's not wearing tights.  

Afterward, we went to the studio for pizza (and margaritas!)  Those goofy kids still find the energy to go do each other's dances!   The one that cracked me up was them doing the hiphop line where they switched parts - the little girls did the big girls' parts and vice versa.  It was funny! 

I think the next season will be bittersweet, knowing that for sure it'll be the last. 

Breaking radio silence....

I am still around!  

I came back off vacation last Sunday and it's just been hectic trying to get caught up at work and at home, (and fighting with my phone to upload pics from the trip) that I haven't had a real chance to sit down and open up the blog.  I am so afraid to even open Bloglovin' to see how many posts I've missed reading there!  

Anyhoo.  Pics are uploaded & organized so I'll have a Cliffnotes post on vacation coming soon.  Overall - we had a lot of fun and even tho it's been since the end of 1994 that we've seen each other....

It was like so much time hadn't passed!  

What's everyone been up to?