2015-16 Official Dance Pics

(I started this post May 11, since pics were taken May 10)

Picture night was one of the longest we've ever survived!  The last group was scheduled to be taken at 9,  but it was around 10:15pm when they finally got in front of the camera.

(grabbed from the DOS Instagram)

Angel is left side, top & bottom corners

So it was supposed to start at 4, with open slots for the solos, then duets at 5 and groups starting at 5:30.  I left work early so we could get there right at 4.  I already had the garment rack in the car, so we just needed to load up her costumes & her and go.  And do you think she was even ready??  Her hair was straightened, but she didn't have her make up done or her solo costume on her body.  Really??  At least I was able to get everything filled out for the photographer & paid for first thing so we didn't have to wait in line when all the riff-raff (aka recreation parents) arrived.

I'd say almost right away, things were running behind.  No idea what the hold up was.  The girls were ready for ballet & a bunch of them put tennis shoes & their jackets on over the costumes and walked across the parking lot to the gas station to get snacks.  And still had to wait!

Towards the end, the last hour or so, things were getting sloppy.  The kids were tired & slap happy.  It was a school night and I heard more than one say she still had homework to do.  The 4 ladies from the photographer were trying to pack up before they were done, I could see packing up the things in the lobby for sale, but they still should have kept both cameras going!  So the one with the camera was more interested in taking down the 2nd screen and fighting with a damn stool that wouldn't fold instead of taking the photo of the group of kids standing in front of her.  She was apparently also seeing spots from the flash so she wasn't getting nice poses anymore, etc.

They love taking pictures of Angel, tho.  She's never taken a bad photo.  So she was really easy and most of the time had a good idea of the poses she wanted to do.  They kept saying she was so cute and they just wanted to take her home ~snort~ !

We just got the final product in the mail. A pleasant surprise since I hadn't even started looking for them yet!  I was messing around on FB before bed Thursday night and saw one of the other Mom's posted her girls' pics so I had to run out and check the mail.  

Ballet

They haven't come up with a title for the dance yet.  The music is very dark and dramatic. 

This one is the 8x10 - all the rest I have 5x7s for the living room "Angela Wall"

The masks are cool looking, but they're metal and have a stone that stabs them in the forehead.  I put a swirl of hot glue over Angel's. 

Senior jazz Duet - Two of Hearts

 With partner Katie. 

Large Group Contemporary - Injection of the Soul

Senior Small Group Jazz - Call Me 

Senior Small Group Tap - I Love Rock & Roll

Hip Hop Line - Clique

Jazz Line - Mony Mony

Senior All Stars

Senior Jazz Solo - I Wanna Dance With Somebody

I love how her look changes.  She looks so elegant in ballet, then so tough for tap & hiphop, then cute & perky for jazz. 

It's official - She will be back on the team next year!  It was funny how Terina, the owner of the studio asked her "You will be coming back next year, right?"  And she asked me if she would be doing All Stars again, so that's when I knew a conversation had happened.  

The senior category in all the competitions we went to were ages 17-19 so she's good.  She won't be 19 until the end of September.  I had heard Katie was done - she turned 19 in March but then I heard she might be back.  So I guess we'll find out!  It looks like the team will be smaller next year - several of the younger girls want to try school sports and stuff like that.  

That's OK.  They'll still be a force to be reckoned with!

Catching up....

I really haven't posted since Mother's Day???  Sheesh.

Pictures are going to be kinda scarce in this post, since I woke up Saturday morning to find the Blue Screen of Death (dun dun dun) on my phone.  I tried to do the recovery / restore on my desktop and it didn't work.  So I took it into an Apple store....still didn't work.  They called it dead.  So I went to Verizon Sunday morning and since I had a lovely printout from Apple with the problem detailed - it was pretty quick for them to order my replacement and it's sitting at home waiting for me right now!

Saturday night was the bridal shower for one of Miss Angela's dance teachers.  They had it at the studio.  My beef is - 3 of us got her the same gift!  Either someone didn't look at the "un-purchased" part of the registry or didn't get it checked off.  And I went several days before the actual shower and picked it up.  But mine was better anyway, since it was a picture frame that said "family" and had places to clip the photos so I printed out a group picture from one of the competitions with all their trophies & awards and clipped it on there.   Neener.

This was weird - Thursday night when I went shopping, I'd stopped for gas and then at Kohl's for the gift and in the time it took to get from Kohl's to CVS about 2 miles down the road....my bank card got shut off!  I stopped in the bank the next day and asked them to check it.  Apparently, in those few minutes, someone in Illinois tried to charge $200 at a Dollar General on my card!!  I'm glad the bank caught it, but I'm still flabbergasted that someone found $200 worth of crap to buy at Dollar General!!

Randy went to Dayton for the big ham radio convention last weekend.  Sadly, he got a flat tire.  On the plus side, he brought me home a lovely sparkly pair of earrings...that he found floating around in the box with his jack!!!  He has owned this car for many moons and never had to get out the spare tire.  And he bought it used.....so a mystery!  It's not like someone lost them from their ears - they both had backings on them.  I probably won't have them checked out, but a couple people at my work think they're at least cubic zirconia.  So bling for me!  And they're not small stones, either.

I'm happy that I got a couple projects taken care of while he was gone.  One was getting the bird feeder fixed.  All I needed was something to put on the end of the wire hanger to keep the feeder from sliding off.  Apparently a squirrel or really heavy bird tried to hang on it.  The dorks at the hardware store finally figured out the piece I could use, but OMG! it costs $3.40!  I was like "gimme the damn thing".  Then the other project involved Angel's car.  Apparently when she got t-boned back in February, it bowed the door in, breaking the seal in the rubber at the top.  Which caused a leak (and mold on the seat - ew) but the one guy piped right up and told me that he drives a beater, and knew exactly what to use to seal it.  It's not like that door opens anymore, so we'll see how this works.

I'd sent her out the clean her car out one afternoon and she came in with an armload of clothes, asking if it was bad that some of them were crusty......ummmmmm yeah.  Gross!  So the crusty clothes must have been where the window had leaked.   Straight into the washer!

I've started making a list of things to remember to do / get / pack before the trip to Charleston for Nationals next month.  If I don't, we will be spending a lot of time at Walmart once we get there - taking away valuable beach time. I know we'll be making one trip as soon as we get there, but that's all I want to do!  I also found out that her duffle bag for dance is within the size constraints for carry-ons - woohoo!  Perfect.   So once the recital is over on the 11th, we'll take it home and Febreeze the crap out of it (it's her shoe bag) and set it out in the sun to air, and we'll pack all her costumes in it. Her shoes will be stuffed with dryer sheets and sealed in Ziploc bags so they don't contaminate the costumes.  Hope the TSA doesn't want to look too closely at those!

I'm kind of looking forward to the 3 day weekend this week.  I didn't realize that Randy was leaving for Arkansas Saturday or Sunday, but I knew he was going so he could take his mom to an appointment later that week.  Oh man.  I am totally going to get some of those cheap foam headstones redone for the Halloween display.  I'll cut some plywood to the appropriate size / shapes and glue the foam on.  Then repaint the whole thing and screw on a conduit hanger to the back.  That makes it slip over rebar easily when it goes into the yard.  I have a bunch of smaller foam stones so those will make some nice filler for the cemetery.

Oh look - another productive day at work!  It could have been worse - I could have let Angel bring me my phone like she wanted to do!  It's almost quittin' time so I'm gonna post this!

{insert title here}

Yeah, titles are hard.

I'm pretty content with how the progress reports look.  I keep forgetting to update my weight on the FitBit, but its done now. I was down 1.6 lbs at the meeting last night.  Party!  I was up a bit last week, but I'm sure it was from PMS.

Rosa the leader always gives us something to work toward each week.  This week's will be pretty easy, since Randy left today for Hamvention in Dayton, OH and won't be home until Sunday.  She suggested having 1 meal with meat of the 2 legged variety (chicken / turkey / ostrich / goose / etc) and 1 meal completely meatless.  I'm sure I can do that.  I wonder if my Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub from Subway tonight counts??  Heehee, I'm sure it does, but I won't count it.

 Pepino Melon.

Kinda pricey at $2 for this little thing.

Tasted like a combination of honeydew melon & cucumber. 

I have a confession to make.  I'm trying to get a jumpstart to start the scale on the downward spiral again.  Someone I follow on Instagram is a distributor for this stuff called It Works so I thought I'd give it a try.  So far....not a damn thing.  I'm in my second month so its not like I just started.

She posted testimonies of people doing the 2 days cleanse (not shown in the pictures) and losing 4-8 lbs.  It didn't change my 'movements' any and the stuff was really freakin' nasty tasting.  

The Greens are pretty disgusting, too.  I'm not even exactly sure what this stuff is for.  Here's what the website says about it...With multiple servings of fruits and vegetables and a blend of 38 herbs and nutrient-rich superfoods, Greens provides naturally occurring, bioavailable vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, and enzymes to give your already well-balanced diet a nutritional boost. It’s maximum support for your best health, all in a new delicious berry flavor.  I tried drinking it the first couple days and just no. So I've been mixing it with my oatmeal and trying to cover it up with PB2 (which actually makes sort of a tolerable PB&J flavor) or fresh strawberries.

The Wraps don't seem to be doing anything, either.  They're a bit smaller than what I'd like and the smell is kind of pungent with eucalyptus and other stuff.  But not too bad and it's sort of tingly and cool while on.  Other than that - nada.

So my second shipment just came last Saturday  I got the bare minimum, since I had to sign up for 3 auto shipments to get the distributor's sale price for the items.  I just tried the defining gel for the first time tonight on my thighs.  It smells the same as the wraps, but it doesn't linger too long. So we'll see how this goes.  

I emailed the distributor and asked her what I could be doing wrong and she's suggesting stuff like "compare measurements & pictures", etc. since I took before photos.  Well, if my clothes aren't fitting any differently, I don't think the tape measure or photos will tell me anything different. 

Oh, I have a TMI update on my female issues (part 1 here).  Besides the fact I still haven't stopped bleeding since mid-January...my IUD came out tonight!  It was installed (inserted?) on March 16 and I went in a month later for an ultrasound to ensure it was still in place.  It was.  I noticed a couple days ago I was cramping some.  Normally my cramps are in my lower back but they were in the front, lower belly this time.  I assumed it was just things getting settled still.  So when I got in the shower after Zumba tonight (I got on Monday & Wednesday) I rinsed all areas like I always do before washing, and felt a little feeling (I don't know how to explain, it was more of a mental thought and not a physical feeling) to take the shower hose and spray down there again.  A HUGE clot of grossness came out - I mean like golfball sized!  So I directed the water to wash it to the drain and went to push it around so it would go thru the holes, but I felt something in it.  Yes - gross I know, but I did pick it up.  Sure enough - the IUD was embedded in this mass of tissue.  Awesome.   So I'll be calling the doc tomorrow to see what the next plan of action should be.  I honestly wished I'd gone right with doing a hysterectomy back in the beginning of this fibroid adventure.  Maybe it'll still be an option.    

I'm still loving Zumba, tho.  The instructor, Nancy, also does what she calls Brazilly - sort of Samba / bellydance and booty work.  So she changes it up and keeps us on our toes! 

But now it's late and I'm going to enjoy hogging the entire bed tonight - unless the cats get to it first!  Later!

#SnS  (I need to change this - this is a code I made up that lets Twitterfeed know to post this onto Twitter for me)  My other blogs I have a signature and that's what TF goes by.  Just need to make an update! Soon, but not tonight.  I'm tired!

Mom's Day Weekend

It was a nice weekend. Friday was beautiful, so I hurried home from work to get the lawn mowed. I was hoping to get some sun on my pasty white skin, so I wore a tanktop. Didn't get the slightest shading of pink at all and I managed to keep all 10 fingers! 

Finally! The lilacs & crabapple are blooming! 

I have the tiniest daffodils.

We finally de-rednecked our house and took the Christmas lights down.

At least they hadn't been plugged in!

Sunday we went to the Zoo! 

It was the most perfect day ever to go. It was kind of hazy and on the cool side, so most of the animals were active! 

The new penguin exhibit has only been open a couple weeks. It was really neat. They have a 4D experience based on a ship that explored the Antarctic. The link has some better pictures of it - the building is supposed to look like an iceberg. 

Penguins!

Love these guys. 

There's a tunnel you walk thru and a clear glass floor.

My Mom freaked out at that!

I can't say why I was fascinated with the ordinary, non-zoo birds!

Like this heron that was fishing. 

There's a rookery with nests just down the road from my house so I can see them anytime. 

I had no idea swans were so huge! There was another one sitting on a nest nearby. 

It took some poking around, because we didn't know what this was.

A black-crowned night heron.

These geese and their babies were really close to the path. 

A very stylish wood duck. 

This mama wood duck had several babies zooming around her -

 including the nugget on the rock in the foreground. 

She'd just splashed around in the water, so I caught it running off her feathers. 

The fountain. 

I've never seen a red panda! 

 There were 2 out running around - the cutest things ever!!

Nap time for the tiger.

The chimp was out chilling. 

The lions were alert, scoping out the crowd. 

Randy said the male locked eyes with him! 

Rhinos

This beautiful guy hopped up on a wall right next to me. 

I was maybe 4 feet away from him!

He just looked at me. 

Love the zebras!

The giraffe was doing a lot of wandering around.  I saw a second one out later. 

The bear was neat to see roaming around. 

Angel & the boyfriend. 

We only saw one of the polar bears. 

Inuit Sculptures by the polar bears.

Inside the Ring Of Life.

This place also has an underwater tunnel to walk thru, 

so you can see polar bears & seals swimming around you. 

Bison

There is a stairway under the prairie dog yard with a tube so you can stand up and see what they see!

The gorilla wandered by as we were eating lunch. 

This is outside the amphibian house. 

Dave & Mom viewed the Zoo in style. Here they were "racing".

It was funny that sometimes Mom wanted to walk, so she'd push the wheelchair and someone else would ride in it!

Sculpture outside the reptile house. 

We rode on the train from the back of the park to the front.  Mom loves the train!

Mine & Randy's train selfie

The reason I'm a mommy.

With my mommy!

We had a really good time since it's been almost 10 years since we'd been to the Zoo.  

Did you do anything fun?