"I Want To Go Back!!!"....a Sept 2010 PTR(upd 10/12-TR Started!)

[jenny105]

Thanks so much!

I know what you mean about being hot at AK. Even in Jan we were roasting on parts of the trails and they were getting a bit crowded. I don't like it when people shove themselves against a viewing area to catch a glimpse of an animal.

Especially if that animal happens to be doing nothing but sleeping!

 

[jenny105]

At the 4 month mark! Exactly 4 months from today, at this time, I will be on my way to JFK with the rest of the crew, excited out of my mind!!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Especially if that animal happens to be doing nothing but sleeping!

Isn't that the worst?! Whenever we do KS, the male lion is always sleeping high up on his rock. I don't mind that he's resting, but could he at least sit up a little?

At the 4 month mark! Exactly 4 months from today, at this time, I will be on my way to JFK with the rest of the crew, excited out of my mind!!

Hooray!!!! Don't you love celebrating the little milestones?!

 

[jenny105]

Isn't that the worst?! Whenever we do KS, the male lion is always sleeping high up on his rock. I don't mind that he's resting, but could he at least sit up a little?



Hooray!!!! Don't you love celebrating the little milestones?!

I knew you'd share in my excitement!

I know! I've never seen that lion up close. Just the mane around his head, if that!

 

[Dancegrl624]

I knew you'd share in my excitement!

I know! I've never seen that lion up close. Just the mane around his head, if that!

I'm always excited to celebrate with my DIS buddies! On June 15th, I'll be at 99 days!

I've only seen his mane too!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Dance recital #1 is tonight and I'm super duper excited! I went and got my hair straightened this morning and it looks pretty cute. I need to be able to get it in a low ponytail, so this should be interesting. I'll be sure to take pics of my classes in their costumes so I can post them for all of you. I'm definately going to have to hold back the tears tonight. Whenever I think about my graduating girls I want to cry. I don't think I'll be too bad tonight, but the waterworks might flow after Sunday's show. My little girls have grown into beautiful young women.

I was thinking about my girls a lot last night (as I was watching So You Think You Can Dance....aka the BEST show on tv!). I feel like dance teachers get much closer to their students than school teachers do. You have a teacher in school for one year, but with dance, I've taught some of these girls for 8 years! In my head, they're still 10 years old with jack-o-lantern smiles. I can also picture them when they were preteens with braces and awkward glasses. It's amazing how quickly time passes. I don't feel like a mom to them (I'm too young to be their mom), but I really feel like an older sister.

I've never had 4 girls graduating all at once. One year I had 3 girls graduate, but I didn't teach them for very long. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but I have one girl who will always have a special place in my heart.

When I first started teaching, she was 10 years old and such a teeny little thing. She has always made me laugh and she falls down in class at least once a month. She never hurts herself, but she sometimes dances with TOO much energy and her legs slips out from under her. She always laughs it off. About 4 or 5 years ago, her father was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). It was hard to watch him slowly start to deteriorate because he used to be a pilot and he loved to ride his motorcycle. Well, two years ago, my student and her cousin (who also dances at our studio) wanted me to choreograph a duet for them and dedicate it to her father. We chose the song "Wild Horses" by Natasha Bedingfield and it turned out to be absolutely beautiful. During the first recital, both of them were crying while they were dancing as were all their friends watching offstage. Her dad was in a wheelchair then and he came just to watch that dance. I was told that he loved it.

I'm sad to say that he passed away a few months ago. My heart just breaks for that family (there are 5 kids ages 13-23....I've taught 3 out of the 5 kids). Earlier this year, I chose the song "My Little Girl" by Tim McGraw for my lyrical class. I have a few different age groups in that class and I thought it would be nice for the Seniors to dance to their final year. At dress rehersal the other night, my fav student broke down right at the beginning of the dance and had to leave the stage. I had to do everything in my power to hold back my tears. It's already a very emotional song for many of my students, but it's hard for her and her sister (who is also in the class) to listen to. She came up to my later and apologized. I told her there is no need for an apology....we all understand how she's feeling. I just told her to not pay attention to the lyrics during the recital and she'll be just fine.

Sorry if this put you all in a sad mood!!! I didn't mean to! I just have a lot on my mind and it really helps to type it all out. It's like DIS therapy!! I won't be around much these next few days, but I'll be sure to post pics of the recital and the Buffalo Feis!!!!

 

[jenny105]

I'm always excited to celebrate with my DIS buddies! On June 15th, I'll be at 99 days!

I've only seen his mane too!

I think my double digit mark is June 27 or 28?

Sounds like it is going to be an emotional weekend for you! That's so sad about the father of one of your students.

 

[vamassey1]

What a touching story. I brought tears to my eyes. I hope she is able to hold it together tonight.

 

[Dancegrl624]

I think my double digit mark is June 27 or 28?

Sounds like it is going to be an emotional weekend for you! That's so sad about the father of one of your students.

Double digits literally makes me want to dance!!!

It's going to be tough, but I'm taking my own advice.....I'm NOT listening to the lyrics of my song while I'm dancing.

What a touching story. I brought tears to my eyes. I hope she is able to hold it together tonight.

I know she'll be ok. I think she got emotional for a few reasons....1-the fact that she lost her father and 2-it's her last dance recital. I could hardly dance my senior year because I was so sad.

 

[Charlefours]

Brought tears to my eyes! I hope the recitals go well.

 

[lexmas]

Oh no, you've got me listening to sappy daddy-daughter songs on youtube and crying my eyes out!

Sounds like it's going to be a crazy weekend. Fun, but sad at the same time. I hope your student holds up fine during the song! It's so hard losing a parent.

It's strange seeing kids grow up like that, right? I used to babysit the girls down the street (they were in my wedding as Junior Bridesmaids, actually) and the oldest turns 16 this fall...I remember when she was TWO! And I remember it well! Yikes. I must be getting old.

Anyway, have fun this weekend!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

I can't listen to any of those songs! They always make me cry. So did that story about your student. How sad.

But then again, I cry at everything now. When my kids do any kind of performance - singing, dancing just about anything, I cry.

We have dress rehearsal for dance on Saturday and on Sunday they have their gymnastics show. Then the following weekend we have dance recitals. There are three shows - Sarah's in all of them (Musical theater class) and Paige is in one (tap and ballet). So we will be in the audience for the one they're both in and I will help in the dressing room for the other two. That way I can watch all of Sarah's. She has a "solo" where she runs in front of everyone and does a one - handed cartwheel! I'm so nervous, even though she nails it every time!

Hope your weekend goes well! Good luck to Madison at the Feis! I'd love to see pics of all of it! Including your hair!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

I agree Sheree~ I am a crybaby too...what saps we are!!

 

[Disneychix]

Oh, so sorry to hear of what your students are going through. This has to be a tough time with graduating and last recital. To have all this and lose your dad just a few months ago must be hard. Be thankful that you get to provide a lot of enjoyment for the family!! What a nice way of paying tribute to their father with the dance from last year.

Hope all went well last night and there are only happy tears tomorrow!

 

[xoktenox]

Hope day one of the recital went well and hope today goes even better! I remember recital time, it was always so exciting.

 

[Dancegrl624]

Brought tears to my eyes! I hope the recitals go well.

I hope I didn't upset you too much. The recitals went very well.

Oh no, you've got me listening to sappy daddy-daughter songs on youtube and crying my eyes out!

Sounds like it's going to be a crazy weekend. Fun, but sad at the same time. I hope your student holds up fine during the song! It's so hard losing a parent.

It's strange seeing kids grow up like that, right? I used to babysit the girls down the street (they were in my wedding as Junior Bridesmaids, actually) and the oldest turns 16 this fall...I remember when she was TWO! And I remember it well! Yikes. I must be getting old.

Anyway, have fun this weekend!

Oh no!!! I tend to cry at everything and I always have.

It was a very busy weekend but a lot of fun too. My girls held up just fine until the finale was over. More on that story when I post an update.

It is so strange watching my girls grow up. I guess that means I'm getting older too!

I can't listen to any of those songs! They always make me cry. So did that story about your student. How sad.

But then again, I cry at everything now. When my kids do any kind of performance - singing, dancing just about anything, I cry.

We have dress rehearsal for dance on Saturday and on Sunday they have their gymnastics show. Then the following weekend we have dance recitals. There are three shows - Sarah's in all of them (Musical theater class) and Paige is in one (tap and ballet). So we will be in the audience for the one they're both in and I will help in the dressing room for the other two. That way I can watch all of Sarah's. She has a "solo" where she runs in front of everyone and does a one - handed cartwheel! I'm so nervous, even though she nails it every time!

Hope your weekend goes well! Good luck to Madison at the Feis! I'd love to see pics of all of it! Including your hair!

Music can be very emotional and then when you add dance on top of it....forget it. I'm such a sap! My mom still cries every time she watches me dance.

Sounds like you're in the midst of crazy time too. How neat that Sarah gets a little "solo". I had a mini solo at the beginning of my tap dance in 8th grade. I got to start onstage and do 4 counts of 8 by myself. I thought I was so cool!

I will definately post pics from the weekend, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm still trying to recover!

I agree Sheree~ I am a crybaby too...what saps we are!!

I'm right there with you! I cry at movies all the time and Tony laughs at me!

Oh, so sorry to hear of what your students are going through. This has to be a tough time with graduating and last recital. To have all this and lose your dad just a few months ago must be hard. Be thankful that you get to provide a lot of enjoyment for the family!! What a nice way of paying tribute to their father with the dance from last year.

Hope all went well last night and there are only happy tears tomorrow!

That family has been through so much, but they've stuck together through all of it. I was so honored to choreograph that dance for them a few years ago. It really meant a lot to them and to me.

I'll post a full recital update tomorrow!

Hope day one of the recital went well and hope today goes even better! I remember recital time, it was always so exciting.

Both recitals went very well. Thanks!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a great weekend. I can't believe how quickly this past week went by, but that's because I was so busy!

Friday, June 4th

After I dropped Madison off at school, I headed to the hair salon to get my hair straightened. I needed it to be as long as possible so it would fit into a low ponytail for the recital. It didn't take long and then I had a few errands to run. I had to pick Madison up from school at 12:30pm because I needed time to curl her hair and get myself ready for the recital. It seriously takes over an hour to get all of her hair into curlers. She normally gets out of school at 3:05pm and I needed to be at the HS by 4pm to help set up for the recital. So, I had to get her our early.

Once the kids starting arriving, I tried to gather up all of my Advanced girls to take some pics:

These are the girls I choreographed a duet for a few years ago. The girl in red is the one who lost her father this year. The other girl is her cousin.

Here is the entire Advanced Ballet class. They danced to "Be Our Guest" and they were wonderful.

Before I knew it, the first act was over and it was intermission. I now needed to gather up my Int. Ballet class to take their picture ("Be Our Guest" opened the show and my Int class was 2nd in Act Two).

"Once Upon a December" from the movie Anastasia. They're class was at 9am on Saturdays....I always just rolled out of bed to go teach them!

Here they are being silly

The show went fairly well on Friday night. There were a few mistakes here and there but that's normal. After the show, the studio director always takes the teachers out for drinks and appetizers. We vent out all our frustrations and talk about classes for next year. We stayed out until about 11:30pm and I was so tired. By the time I got home, unpacked my bags and got ready for bed, it was after midnight.

Saturday, June 5th

My alarm went off at 4:45am. Yes, you did read that correctly. I didn't really get much sleep. After I quickly got myself ready, I woke Madison up at 5:15am. It takes just as long to take the curlers out as it does to put them in. We were done with her hair around 6:20ish. After we all ate breakfast, we headed out the door to the Buffalo Fairgrounds for the feis. We drove separately because I had to volunteer in the afternoon, so Tony picked us up some timbits (donut holes) from Tim Horton's while I took Madison to the fairgrounds.

The reason we left so early was because we were supposed to arrive before 7:30am. They wanted the kids in the group dances to get there early to practice. Well, our third member of the group didn't get there until 8:15am!!!!! After a quick run-through, I had to rush to get Madison dressed. Their group dance was first on it's stage (there are 8 "stages" at a feis...they are just made of plywood and are only a few inches off the ground. All stages run at the same time and they each have their own musician.) Her group performed very well (they were one of 4 groups competing and they were all from our school!) and they got 1st place!!! They were so cute!

We then made our way back to our "camp" (everyone brings their own fold out chairs, blankets ,etc so you have somewhere comfy to hang out all day) and waited for Madison to compete in her solo dances.

Madison with some of her friends from her dance class

Her first dances were her reel and her jig. I thought she did excellent on her reel and she had a little mishap on her jig. She forgot a step or two and she finished later than she should have. Needless to say, she started crying once she got off her stage. I told her she did great and everyone messes up now and then. We went to the result room to check to see if she got anything on her first two dances and she didn't. I knew she wouldn't get anything for her jig, but I was very surprised by her reel. Oh well...she still had two more dances to go.

Her next two dances were the slip jig and the single jig. The slip jig is very hard for her and she always seems to forget the steps while practicing. The single jig is her favorite dance. It's also called the hop jig and there is definately a lot of hopping in that dance. She finished a little late again on her slip jig and she really excelled on her single jig. We went to check results again and she got a 3rd place medal for her slip jig and nothing on her single jig. Again, I was totally surprised. I can't believe she placed for her slip jig!!! That dance always gives her problems. I thought for sure she was going to place on the single jig because I thought she danced that one the best all day.

After getting all of her results, Tony took her with him to his football game while I stayed and volunteered for the rest of the feis. It's a lot of fun working a stage (you sign kids in, bring the competitor envelopes to the judge, etc). I left the fairgrounds around 4pm and I was beat and starving. I grabbed some McDonald's on the way home and then I just crashed. I wanted to take a nap, but I couldn't fall asleep. I'm pretty sure we finished watching "The Empire Strikes Back" and we started watching "Return of the Jedi". Yes, we're on a Star Wars kick right now. Tony has now seen all of the movies and Maddie has seen episodes 3-6. They were all on tv last week so we dvr-ed the last 4 movies. Now, Maddie just needs to see the first two.

Sunday, June 6th

I woke up around 9am and had to immediately start getting ready for recital #2. I was really excited because my parents, little sister, Tony and Madison were coming to the show that day! After I repacked my bags, got myself ready and ate some breakfast it was time to head out again. As usual, I got to the school too early so I headed across the street to Tim Horton's (we go there a lot). I got myself an iced cappuccino (amazing) and a bagel with cream cheese. Here are a few pics from yesterday:

Me with my Senior girls

The girl in purple graduated 2 years ago and the other two will be seniors next year

These were the lyrical costumes. The older girls (and me) wore green and the younger kids wore purple. The girl I'm pictured with was my partner for the dance. Her mom is another ballet teacher at the studio. This dance was to "My Little Girl".

I think yesterday's show was even better than Friday's show. A lot of the nerves were gone and that's always good. After our bows, the girls totally lost it. Tears were flowing and there were hugs all around. These girls have danced together since they were really little so they were quite emotional. They even got me crying! After the sob-fest on stage, I went out to see my family. My mom and dad both were crying during lyrical....my mom cries every time I dance and my dad got choked up over the song.

My sister and I stayed to help with clean up (she teaches 2 hip hop classes) and we were on our way home before 4pm. After I got home yesterday, I fell asleep. The entire weekend had caught up with me. After I woke up and we ate some dinner, we finished watching "Return of the Jedi". I remember watching that movie over and over again when I was little!

I wanted to add 2 extra pics. These were from my cousin's shower that was held over Memorial Day weekend:

Madison with the Bride..the dresses totally weren't planned. I gave Maddie the option of 2 dresses and she chose the yellow one. So cute!

My cousin H (getting married next summer), K (getting married on June 19th), my cousin Em (she has a twin brother who is the only boy cousin on my mom's side), the Bride-E, Madison, my older sister Steph, me, and my little sister Brianne. Can you tell it was sunny out? My mom and my aunt's made us take our sunglasses off so we're squinting.

Well, that was my weekend!!! Madison has her last dance class tonight (until summer classes start in July) and I have to go to the dance studio on Wed night. The week after the recital, we have fun week. Everyone can bring a friend (if they want) and it's a nice way to say "goodbye" for the summer. This weekend, a few classes are going to competition, but I don't know if I'll be able to make it. I'm actually having my advanced girls over for a sleepover in a few weeks and I'm so excited. The girls are really excited too!!!

 

[jenny105]

Wow! You had a busy weekend. I'm glad the recitals went so well and congrats to Madison for placing! Now go rest up!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Oh my word! You were busy, busy, busy. Love all of the photos!!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

WOW...are you still tired? ha!!! I love all the recital costumes...especially the ones where everyone is a different color!! Your cousin is going to be a beautiful bride!! In the family pic..are the two girls on the left sisters? They look so much alike!! I think it's a great pic...I can not take pictures in the day without my sunglasses!!! My eyes would be pouring!!!!