Clogging Competitions Begin!

Spring is a busy time for us with dance. Our studio attends four clogging competitions between March- May. This weekend we attended our first clogging competition of the season. 

This was Zoe's first time competing on a team. Her team danced to Cowboy Sweetheart in the beginning level and they were so cute! She also competed two All-Around Solo dances. (The solos are danced by multiple dancers at the same time, but each dancer is judged individually). Zoe got a 1^st place on each of her solos and her team received a 1^st place high scoring team. Here are videos of Cowboy Sweetheart and her solos. In the team dance Zoe is on the left side of the center diamond formation.

Zach and Isabelle also clogged at this competition, but Isabelle’s camera died before we got to record their dances. We will record them at the next competition at the end of the month. They both did great though! Isabelle danced to Genie Jam (1^st place), Ease on Down (1^st ) and Grundy County Auction (2^nd). Zach danced with his boys team to Slam Dunk Da Funk (1^st) and with his mixed team to Rock This Town (1^st) and Precision (1^st). At the next competition his boys team will add another dance that we are looking forward to- Soul Man.

Books, Books & More Books

I LOVE to read. When I was a kid, my younger sister would complain that I read too much and would try to get me in trouble for it. Can you believe it?! And sometimes it worked! More than once I had a book taken away because I wasn't doing what I should have been doing (usually chores or homework). When I was a teen I started reading in the bathtub. No one could take away my book then! I still do this, but not as often as I would like. You can't get much more relaxed than that. My second favorite place to read is cuddled in my bed at night. This also rarely happens because Mike goes to bed so much earlier than me and once he hits the sack, no lights allowed. So most nights you will find me cuddled up on my loveseat reading into the wee hours.

Recently, I started back on a book binge after a couple of years of not reading nearly enough due to a busy life. But I realized that I need that time to escape and have made it a priority in my life again. Anyway, the purpose of this post was actually to mention some favorite books I've read lately. If you're looking for a good book give one of these a try.

North and South

North and South was written by Elizabeth Gaskell in the 1850s. It is set in England during the industrial revolution. Margaret Hale and her parents move to an industrial town from a small country village where her father was a parson. You get a glimpse into class differences, industrial life and the religious crises Margaret's family face. This book was first serialized in Charles Dickens periodical Household Words. It was later printed as a book, with changes and additions from the serialized version. Elizabeth Gaskell has a beautiful way of writing and drawing you in and I found this book very believable and enjoyable.

The Mazerunner (series)

This book is set in a futuristic, dystopian society. For years boys have been waking up to a new home in a place called the Glade. Their sole purpose is to survive and to find a way out of the Glade though an ever changing maze that surrounds the Glade. This book had plenty of suspense and mystery and pulled me right in. I also recommend the sequel The Scorch Trials.

Books by Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale is a favorite new author of mine. The Goose Girl and Book of a Thousand Days are both retellings of Grimm fairytales and I loved them. The Goose Girl is the first of a loose series called the Books of Bayern. The following books in the Books of Bayern series are original fairytales by Hale based off of secondary characters from the Goose Girl. I have immensely enjoyed all of these books. I will also throw a plug in for Austenland (also by Hale) which is just a fun chick-lit book featuring Jane, an Austen addict, who takes a trip to a resort that caters to Austen fans.

I could go on and on, but if you want to check out what else I have been reading you can visit my Goodreads link on the sidebar.

Photo Crisis

Today I had a photo crisis and a melt down. I got on the computer to find a family photo to upload to our new ward website. GASP! All of my pictures were GONE! We searched throughout the computer. Nada. I checked the memory card from the camera. Nope. Only stuff taken in Oct. was on there. (We won't mention that in Nov. the camera was broken by some not so innocent children and no pictures have been taken since. Except the ones the kids take on their cameras, but do those really count?).

I admit it. I bawled my eyes out. I blamed my family. (Someone deleted the pictures and it sure wasn't me!) I sobbed some more. I spent the evening feeling depressed. All of the pictures we had taken in 2010 were on the computer. Hundreds of them. And I hadn't saved them to a disc.

A ray of hope!

My neglected blog! I have some of our pictures here. Wahoo! Nothing from the first five months of 2010, but from summer on we have some pictures to salvage. Mike thinks he might have some photos saved at work. Crossing my fingers on that. So I'm still missing hundreds of photos, but I have a few from several important occasions last year. That is better than nothing.

Lessons learned tonight:
1- Save your photos somewhere besides on the computer.
2- Keep your blog updated because you never know when it might be a lifesaver.
3- Don't play the blame game. (That's harder than it sounds).

Vegecation

Typically when returning home from a fun vacation with the family, you feel like you need a few more days to recuperate from all the sight seeing, entertainment and running around. A vacation after the vacation. This weekend my two sisters and I had a fun girls weekend, which we are calling our "vegecation". This means getting away for time to truly relax and take it easy. Vegging out with a purpose. Reconnecting. Coming home relaxed.

Our weekend consisted of driving four hours (each way) to stay in a condo in St. George where we watched chick flicks, sang along to favorite songs, played games, ate our favorite snacks and talked. We stayed up late and slept in. And we talked some more. We didn't stay cooped up in the condo the whole time though. We did venture out to Snow state park where we took a long walk and played in the beautiful red sand dunes.

And then there was the main reason for visiting St. George in the first place- the Abbamania concert. This is an Abba tribute band which sings all the most popular Abba songs and dresses in Abba costuming. They were actually very good. The women had beautiful voices. We were surprised by how many men were there. I'm sure some were dragged there in duress by their wives. Those were the men who didn't get out of their seats and sat there in agony. But the majority of the men seemed to be enjoying themselves, and that was entertaining itself. It was a fun concert. But who wouldn't have fun dancing and acting goofy with your sisters while singing along to Mamma Mia, Souper Trouper and Dancing Queen?

What didn't we do? We didn't get online, go shopping or gab on the phone. Hurray! And we didn't feel guilty about vegging out.

But we certainly did talk! And that was the best part of our three days together. Getting to know one another even better than we already did, re-living favorite memories and creating new memories together.