Marshmallow Mammas

52 books in 52 weeks

2010-01-04T13:20:00.002-05:00

Did you think I had forgotten you???
Well, just didn't think I had anything interesting to say, but now I want to get back into the blogging business.
My darling daughter is still dancing, going full steam with the competitions.
I started a new job, church secretary at our church www.spirit-of-grace.org
I love it and glad I waited for this job.

Think I want to try to do the 52 books in 52 weeks. May be difficult, was able to read all week-end (over New Years) but it's a big book. Stephen King's Under the Dome.
Love his writing, he writes the characters so real that I feel like I know them!
I really get into the book so much so that when one of them dies, I cry :(

Well almost done with that one, should be able to finish tonight. That's the trouble with this though is that when it's a so/so book, I don't want to read it. When it's a good book (at least one that I like) I can hardly put it down and I don't want it to end.

Wish me luck, I will probably need it!!!!

Cream That Egg!

2009-04-05T04:40:00.001-04:00

This guy has way too much time on his hands!!!
Cool video though.

The Kid's Kicked Butt Again!

2009-03-12T10:30:00.012-04:00

Home from another competition, this time IDC in Tampa. Long week-end but it turned out well in the end.

Legally Blonde started off rough, they were the second number on Saturday. Two girls lost their hairpieces, someone lost one of the pom poms and one of the older girls lost her spin and had to stop. We all were devastated, thinking they had just lost their chance at high score or entertainment award. Later they received a Platinum and were asked to perform again in the Entertainment Challenge and Won! YEA

Then Rock'n the boat we all thought went well but they only received a High Gold. Personally I think they performed better than ever. Who knows, won't know what the judges think until the studio owners get the paperwork.

Ooh La La only got a High Gold, not sure what Shanna will do with this number, needs something I guess.

Big Bad Wolf Daddy kicked butt, they came out and wowed the judges. They received a Platinum and 2nd runner up to the Ultimate Challenge (overall high score) and High Score in their division.

Don't Fence Me In, did very well also, they received High Score in their division and received a Platinum.

The Seniors did well also, they took the tap the number that they had done a couple of years ago at a different competition to this one. Hot Chocolate and received a Platinum as well as were asked to perform in the Entertainment Challenge and WON!
Their other number I Run For Life also received a Platinum. Very powerful and all the girls were crying at the end. It's a song by Melissa Etherage about breast cancer, which one of the Mom's of the seniors just recoverd from. So as you can imagine it was very personal for all of them.

All in all it was a great week-end, long but exciting. Molly had fun and thats the thing that keeps us going. If she wasn't having fun with this we wouldn't be doing it.
Not as many good pictures of Molly, so I'll share just a few that were cute as well as the basket toss the older girls do in Legally Blonde. Bill sat next to the photographer (same one from last year that he chatted with) and told him when the shot was coming, so he also got one of Margaret in the air. They printed that up in a poster and had it displayed in the lobby!

Ooh La La

2009-03-02T12:29:00.010-05:00

Well, I finally got around to viewing all of the pictures Bill took from the dance competition. He hadn't seen the dances all the way through so he missed some key shots. We have another one coming up this week-end so he will definitely get them there.
Here are some pictures of Molly in the Ooh La La ballet. They only gave this one a gold, missed the Platinum only by a point and a half. Bill was in the wrong position and didn't get many pictures of Molly, hopefully this next week-end he will get some better shots.

This shot I can't even see Molly but it is the end pose of the number.

Legally Blonde

2009-03-02T12:20:00.009-05:00

Here are some shots of Molly in Legally Blonde which was a production number and included the juniors, teens and seniors, roughly 40 some girls. They loved this number and it received a Platinum award and Entertainment Award. Next time Bill will get some of the shots of the older girls doing a basket toss of Margaret, she got higher than the roof of Delta Nu!

This is Vanessa, one of the seniors, who played Elle in the dance. Molly is directly to the left of Vanessa. This is the part where she was "showing them the dress" and singing to them about being proposed to. The backdrop was amazing and turned into Harvard Law when it came time for that part of the dance.

Big Bad Wolf Daddy Dance

2009-03-02T12:11:00.015-05:00

Here are some pictures of Molly in the tap dance "Big Bad Wolf Daddy", she is in the blue hat. This dance received a Platinum and nominated for Critic's Choice.

Don't Fence Me In

2009-03-02T12:02:00.018-05:00

Here are the shots of Molly in "Don't Fence Me In". This was a Musical Theater dance and received a Platinum award and the Entertainment Award.

This isn't Molly but I thought it was a cute picture!

Wow What a Week-end

2009-02-23T11:25:00.004-05:00

Well, the week-end at the dance competition was a success! Our studio only took 6 routines to the competition and we received 5 Platinum, 1 Gold and 2 Entertainment awards!

Molly competed in 4 of the dances, the mini dance "Don't Fence Me In" had the judges smiling, clapping and laughing. They received a Platinum, High Score and the Entertainment Award which is the 2nd highest award for the mini.

The Can Can Ballet received the Gold and the Big Bad Wolf Daddy Tap received a Platinum.
The Legally Blonde production number was in the Teen division won a Platinum and received the Entertainment Award also. The other two numbers that the teens and seniors did also received platinum's.

So our percentage of the numbers taken and awards won was pretty good. There of course were dominate other studios but when you take 130 kids and they all do solos, duos or trios and then do numbers in each of the categories you get a lot of awards. We are happy with what we won and the quality and originality of those numbers.

Molly had a blast, you wouldn't believe it's the same girl with all the smiling and facial expressions she did. All the kids performed their best and we couldn't be prouder of them!

Will post some pictures Bill took when he has them downloaded.

Dance Competition

2009-02-15T16:52:00.002-05:00

Next week-end is one of the big dance competition in Orlando. Molly is in 4 dances and the first one is at 9:45 Saturday morning. At least she has some time in between all the numbers. We are then done for the first 3 Saturday morning. Looks like the 4th dance will be Sunday morning at 9:00 and then we have to wait around for the awards that evening. At least we will be able to see our other teams do their performances. Will post pictures after the week-end and hopefully the good results!

The Little Piggy that Could

2009-02-15T16:46:00.003-05:00

Kingsford Goes to the Beach - video powered by Metacafe

What a cute piggy! I would love to have him, but alas I'm sure I would regret it when it became a big pig.

Saturday Flashback

2009-02-07T11:45:00.006-05:00

Ok, it's not really a flashback but I had to name it something to cover the week in review.

This is NOT Cooper (although I'm sure he would do this if given the chance)

I found this picture on the website The Spiced Life. This lady has TWO Chesapeake's! Lord help her, just having one is more than enough for me! Maggie was a food hound too, we had to be careful what we left on the counter. In her lifetime she had eaten an Easter basket full of candy, brownies (more than a couple times), a 3rd of a roast, part of a Thanksgiving apple pie and that's just what I can remember of the top of my head. She only got sick off of the candy and threw-up chocolate on my carpet, twice. Cooper seems to be ok with just his food, although I dropped a piece of my cereal on the floor and now he seems to think when I have cereal in the morning I have to give him a bite. Not happen'n, we aren't going down that road. Maggie was quite the begger and we don't want Cooper to get in those bad habits.

Molly at dance

Molly in her Can Can costume for competition

Dance is going full force with the first competition only 2 weeks away. They are practicing an extra hour on Thursdays and now Saturdays for 3 hours, next it will be Sundays too (I hope not!). Molly received a complement from her dance teacher last night that she has been really working the last couple of nights. That's good to hear since she is one of the youngest in the class and she is also in the mini group as well. She is in 4 dances at competition so she is getting pushed to the max. She is in Acro as well and just told me she almost landed her front handspring. WOW, for a little girl who couldn't even do a cartwheel until last year she is doing great.

Today Bill is taking the team pictures for the Competition teams, all but the seniors who weren't all available, so he will have to take them next Saturday. It's always something, we wanted to get a full team picture so as to have one to put in the paper, now I will have to set up the rest of the team and then photoshop the seniors in. Oh well, gives me a chance to hone my skills.

Where can I get One of These???

2009-01-31T08:59:00.006-05:00

I want this, complete with kittens! Ya, that would go over well with the other animals not to mention my husband. The dog would love it, he is enthralled with the cats. Tux the male cat has told the dog in no uncertain terms that he is the BOSS, and don't you forget it! Every time Cooper comes around Tux, whether he is just walking by or actually trying to get him to play with him, Tux growls and gives him the "evil eye". If Cooper gets too close, Tux bats him with his paws, mind you he has no claws but he still gets a good slap in (you can even hear it!).

Callie on the other hand has come out from under the bed and is interested in the dog, now that we have tried to convince the dog that he doesn't have to chase the cat every time he sees her. Callie actually went up to the dog and let him sniff her and Callie was acting like her old self. She and Maggie (our previous dog) loved each other and she would rub up against Maggie and let Maggie lick her and cuddle with her. I think Callie misses Maggie and is trying to develop the same relationship with Cooper. It may take a while for this dog to get the picture but Cooper just wants to play with them, doesn't want to hurt them (at least on purpose).

Molly and Cooper are getting along well, we are trying to get Cooper to not play bite. When Molly gets on the floor with him, he thinks she wants to play rough, so we are training him to not play bite so he doesn't accidentally nip someone other than us. That would be not good so we are "Nipping it in the bud" so to speak.

Cooper's New Blog

2009-01-24T15:14:00.001-05:00

My husband has had requests to give Cooper his own blog, so here it is...
http://www.curlydog.com/cooper/

He's Ours!

2009-01-16T07:33:00.005-05:00

Yes, we were finally able to bring Cooper home, he is a lovable big puppy. He's learning his commands very fast, so someone must have worked with him a little. If you would like to read the whole saga and see more pictures, visit my husband Bill's blog. www.curlydog.com

We think he may have been a case of abandonment, they posted the notice on the door of his last residence in Orange County but the neighbor said they hadn't been there since January 1st. So they may have lost their home and dropped him off at an Animal hospital as a stray. Anyway that's what it looks like.

He seems to be settling in, he and the cats have had a few discussions, he just wants to play and the cats don't! Molly and Cooper are buddies already and he and I have bonded as well.

Now the fun begins! Here is a picture of him and Molly's drawing of that photo. For more pictures visit www.curlydog.com .

Cooper our new dog???

2009-01-09T15:19:00.013-05:00

Well, it's been a rough week without Maggie, I dedogafied (I know that's not a word but who cares...) the house a couple of days ago. The cats have been meowing for no reason, probably wondering where their friend is.

Then Bill was looking on the CBR Rescue site. There was a one year old male that was being fostered in Georgia. We had talked about it before and if we were to get another Chessie it would be a male and I really didn't want to do the puppy thing again. So he called on it and it had just been adopted but she just found out about a Chessie that was a stray about an hour away from us.

Bill called on the dog several times, we were concerned that maybe it was someone's pet and they hadn't found it yet, we really didn't want to adopt it and then the owners come looking for it. After we and the shelter were satisfied that no one was looking for him, we went up there (over an hour away, thought I would see banjos soon, that's how far out this place was) to visit the dog. We wanted to see if it was one that we could bond with and to see how well it did with Molly. They had named the dog Cooper and it seemed to fit him, he's a very rambunctious 1 year old, very strong and not fully grown yet. He did very well other than jumping up on you, which I expected. Molly was able to pet him and give him his toy without him nipping or biting. He of course was very playful and hasn't been trained to sit or stay yet, we will have to to a lot of work with him. He doesn't seem to have an aggressive bone in his body, he just wants to play.

So we pick him up from the vet's on Monday after he is fixed and bring him home. Here are a couple of shots of him that were on their website.I will have to let you know how the first night goes on Monday!

Tribute to Maggie

2009-01-02T08:51:00.002-05:00

I am finding it hard to find words to write about Maggie, so I will direct you to my husband's blog. I think he said it all...

Saying goodbye is never any fun

December Almost Over

2008-12-31T11:42:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been a long December/Christmas season! I'm glad it's almost over and life can get back to normal or at least what we call normal. My whole family came down here for Christmas and it was spent going back and forth between our house and the condo my sisters rented on Clearwater Beach. The condo was enormous so we had Christmas day and dinner down there. We also went to Disney's Hollywood Studios on the Monday before Christmas. It was very cold and windy that day but we all bundled up and had a fun day. Some of us took a little excursion on a boat which took us to a little island that the girls could go shelling. My brother-in-law and nephew went fishing and caught quite a few fish, so we took that fish to Crabby Bill's and they cooked it up for us. Very yummy! We also ate at Post Corner Pizza twice (almost as good as OP pizza back home). ANYWAY, we had a good time, Molly enjoyed having her cousins, and Grandma & Grandpa here. Especially Grandpa, who, when he found out Molly's friend Kerstin got a Razor Powerwing for Christmas and Molly didn't, went to Wal-Mart and bought her one for an early birthday present (her birthday is in April). We also went to the new Japanese Steakhouse for dinner because Molly bet Grandpa earlier in the year that if the Minnesota Gophers won against the Iowa Hawkeyes that he would have to take her to lunch. If the Hawkeyes won against the Gohpers she would let him take her to lunch (love how that works, huh!). So Grandpa suggested the Japanese Steakhouse, good thing a new one had opened up just a few miles from us so it wasn't busy and we got right in. Everyone loved the slippers I knitted, I even have a couple of more to do that I couldn't get done before Christmas. All in all we had a good time that went by too quickly. Everyone's plane arrived and got home safely only a couple of delays that didn't last too long. I'll have to post pictures when I get them downloaded from my camera. Hope you all had a safe and happy Christmas too. Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2008-12-25T08:51:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas to all my friends, family & internet friends!
I hope you are able to share this day with friends & family and those you love the most.
I hope your Christmas is filled with joy, peace & happiness!
Love
Deb

Crazy Dog

2008-12-19T08:25:00.003-05:00

What a crazy dog, reminded me of when my dad would have to shovel or snowblow a path for our dachshund who wouldn't go potty in the snow. She would also stay out too long and freeze her little paws and stand there and hold one paw up and whine until you went to get her.

It also reminded me of all the bad weather going on in the midwest and east. Glad I live in Florida and don't have to deal with all the snow, ice and cold that they are right now. Hopefully all my family makes it down here, of course they are trying to fly out today and tomorrow from Iowa and Illinois. Crossing my fingers that they make it out and all in one piece!

Holiday Spectaular and Night Parade

2008-12-17T14:17:00.023-05:00

So sorry I haven't updated in a while, been busy trying to get my house ready for company. Last week was so busy with dance that I am now able to get some things done around here. Monday and Tuesday were practice at the auditorium where the show was held, so basically you sit around there while the girls practice all evening. The dress rehearsal was a mess, at least that is what I heard from my husband who took pictures. All other parents weren't allowed to see it so that we could be surprised. Wednesday night for the performance it came off without a hitch. They had to change a few things the night before since some of the dancers weren't getting on stage because of the quick costume change. So all went well, I did however see that Molly came on stage at one point without shoes. Claimed she couldn't find them after she had taken them off earlier to put on tap shoes. Oh well, I went back at intermission and she had found them. Grandma and her sister Pat had come along and they both enjoyed the show. Pat couldn't get over how much Molly smiled and hammed it up on stage. Here are a few pictures from the performance.

How can you tell her you don't want to do this again when you see that smile on stage!

During the dress rehersal they had some issues with the glasses and wigs, was fixed for the show.

Then came the New Port Richey night parade, our dance studio was having a float in the parade and said anyone who wanted to walk along would be welcome. So Bill said Molly could do it, I had said earlier that it would be a "stay at home" week-end, ya right. Anyway, we had to be at the studio by 4:30 Saturday afternoon to get costumes and learn some choreography that they would be doing down the street as they walked. Then get the kids up to the start at 6:00 to line up then the Parade doesn't start until 7:00 pm. We buddied up with another Mom and she took her daughter and ours to the start of the parade. We found a place near the end of the parade since no one that we talked to had actually been to the parade or been in it to know what they do with the kids at the end. At about 7:45 the kids walked pass and Bill followed them to the end so that he could snag Molly and her friend. The girls then came back and watched the parade for another 45 minutes, and it was only half over! They were tired so I called the friend's Mom and let her know we were heading back to the studio (our designated meeting place). She said she was sitting at the beginning of the parade and there were still 4 floats to go. Man that was a long parade. I'm glad we left when we did, Molly was wiped and we hadn't eaten supper yet so we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings and didn't get home till 10:00. Molly had fun though so she wants to do it again next year. Yea for me! There were several Moms walking along and one of them took pictures, ours didn't turn out so I'm glad she took several. Here are a few of Molly.

Cats in Sinks

2008-12-14T16:35:00.002-05:00

Although this looks like Tux, it's not. He does however like to lay in the sink and would LOVE to have the water turned on!

That Darn Dog

2008-12-09T14:59:00.011-05:00

So, who else has a dog that destroys things? Hmm...Anyone???
Well, our dog Maggie who is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, ten years old, diabetic and blind decided to destroy two coolers. Here are a few pictures as evidence.

All that brown stuff all over the coolers is the dried blood
This is the culprit, Maggie. This picture was taken when she was younger, but just as naughty.

It was the Friday when I got my new refrigerator and we had been living out of two huge, heavy duty coolers for a couple of days and she had only sniffed at them a couple of times. She had been alone with them a few times also including 3 or 4 hours on Thanksgiving. So Friday comes and we spent all day home working on Molly's science project. The refrigerator comes in the afternoon and we put all of the food from the coolers into it. It was getting close to dinnertime and we didn't have anything to make so we went to a restaurant close by. We were gone maybe an hour, the dog had been fed so she wasn't hungry but I guess she was pissed off.

We return home to find our two coolers destroyed, blood smeared over both of them and a bag of ice out and melted all over the kitchen floor. The blood was from where she scratched her nose and probably her mouth from all the chewing. It looked like someone died and fought long and hard not to die. The thing that got me was there wasn't any food left in either of the coolers, here they had been sitting out for 3 days and she didn't touch them, go figure!?

Tub Shark

2008-12-04T15:58:00.009-05:00

Da Dum, Da dum, da dum...look out, it's the tub shark! (that's supposed to be the jaws theme)
For those of you who don't know what a "Tub Shark" is, I'll give you a hint. It's black and white and purrs.
Our tuxedo cat (appropriately named Tuxedo) thinks that the tub is his personal water dish and bed. When ever we go into our bathroom he runs in there behind us and jumps in the tub hoping that you will turn on the water for him. He sits there with only his eyes and ears peeking over the top of the tub. He is a goofy cat and is obsessed with water, ever since he fell into the pool one evening.

A couple of years ago, I was sitting in the family room with the sliders open to the lanai (a screened in pool enclosure for you northerners). The cats like to go out on the lanai when it's nice weather and lay out there or chase and catch lizards (that's another story). All of a sudden I hear the scrambling of claws and a splash. I think, great...now I have to go into the pool and save the cat. Just as I went over and opened the screen slider, in races this wet mop and dives under the bed. AHHH now I have to pull a wet mad cat out from under my bed. He's growling and hissing the whole time but I get him out and into a towel to dry off. Ever since then he loves to play in the dog's water dish and play with the water out of the faucets. I thought cats were supposed to hate water. Anyway here's a picture of our very own tub shark!

Fun day at the Park

2008-11-29T16:02:00.009-05:00

Molly and her Gingerbread House

Just a couple of Gummy Bears enjoying a campfire!

The front of the Gingerbread House

The backside of the Gingerbread House

We, Molly & I had a fun day at the park. My friend Katy gets a bunch a kids together to make gingerbread houses. Just small milk cartons, graham crackers, fondant icing and candy. The kids all had fun, beautiful day (just a tad windy), hot chocolate and snacks. Molly had fun making her house, think it will go to Grandma's as our dog would eat it in one bite. Forgot my camera but there was someone there with a digital going to send me a copy, hope she follows through. The kids then had fun playing on the playground at the park. After that Katy, I and the kids went to McDonald's to eat and they played again for a few minutes. Molly hasn't done that in ages so I was glad we could do that today. Now tonight Molly will go to grandma's to stay overnight, they have something they have been working on for Christmas so they were going to finish it up tonight. Grandma will then bring her to Church tomorrow where we will meet up.
It was nice having the whole week off, even if it meant getting sick and staying home.

Stuffed

2008-11-27T20:26:00.002-05:00

Yes, I'm stuffed from Thanksgiving Lunch/Dinner. Everything was delicious! As promised here is the recipe for Scalloped Pineapple, sorry about no picture, we were in a hurry to get out the door and I didn't want to take a picture of a dish half gone so...take my word for it, it's great. Bill says it tastes like the best part of a pineapple upside down cake (with out the cake!)

Scalloped Pineapple
3/4 C Butter (softened)
2 C Sugar
3 Eggs (Beaten)
4 C Bread Crumbs (about 8 slices of bread)
2 Tbs Milk
1 20 oz. Can Crushed Pineapple

Cream Sugar and Butter until fluffy
Add beaten Eggs
Sprinkle Milk over Breadcrumbs
Fold in Breadcrumbs and Pineapple
Pour into casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.
Edges should be brown and center a light golden brown.

Refrigerator Madness

2008-11-26T20:10:00.005-05:00

Ok, when is it the best time to have your refrigerator break down? NEVER! Anyway, Monday night Bill noticed that the stuff in the freezer section was not as frozen as it should be. WTF? We cleaned out the freezer, luckily we have a large freezer out in the garage. The refrigerator side seemed to be cold, but maybe not as cold as it should be. Bill called the repairman, Wednesday morning was the earliest they could make it. Of course I was planning on doing some errands that day, now I was stuck at home. The repairman didn't make it until 1:45 pm when they said it would be between 8:00 and 12:00, ya that's the story of my life. He didn't spend a lot of time looking at it when he stated that it would be cheaper to buy a new one than fix this one. WHAT? it's only 7 years old!!! "Well", he explained "you really should vacuum under the appliance frequently." Who vacuumes under the refrigerator? HMMM, I guess I should. So we are getting one almost exactly like the one we have except for Bill's favorite feature...THE MILK DOOR. Yes, our fridge had a covering over the milk shelf in the door with a hole connecting it to the freezer. So it would blow extra cold air on the milk. It was an extra $500 just for that feature. Needless to say we didn't get it, I may regret that one since I will hear about it for the rest of my life or until we get a fridge with that feature again.

Guess I'm luckey that my Mother-In-Law is having Thanksgiving this year. The stuff I'm bringing doesn't require the refrigerator so that's good. Bill requested we bring Scalloped Pineapple, an awsome recipe which I will post with a picture after Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a great Holiday!

"The Sickness"

2008-11-23T07:24:00.002-05:00

The sickness has invaded our house, we haven't had the "throw-ups" in years. So we've been up since 4:30 when it started. She had just gone into the bathroom to use the toilet when I heard the retching. Luckily I was sleeping in the spare room with her last night since she had a stomach ache. So we only had the mess in the bathroom to clean up. Since then she has been back to her own bed with the bucket beside her. Just was talking to some other Moms at dance about how it had been years since Molly had been that sick. Now look, I jinxed myself. It's been going around at school and at dance. I guess we were due, just hope I don't get it. I've been washing my hands like a maniac since she started "using the bucket". So about 7:00 am I thought Bill could handle it and I laid down and just had drifted off to sleep when Molly came into our bed. Of course she thought she was done being sick and Bill didn't stop her, I told her she couldn't be in there unless she had the bucket with her. No sooner that she put that bucket on the floor and got into bed, she puked again, on my sheets, on the comforter and a little in the bucket. AHHH, I can't stand that smell, it's bad enough to rinse out the bucket but to then have it in my bedroom.
I know she couldn't help it but Bill let her get out of her bed and into mine. Didn't he see what would happen, men... So hopefully we don't give it to too many people, hope we aren't sick next week either. That would be a bummer, I remember being sick during Thanksgiving one year, took forever to even think about eating pumpkin pie again!

2008-11-20T15:35:00.008-05:00

Here are a few pictures from the performance that I promised you.

Candy Cane Dance
March of the toy Solders

This picture was taken shortly after I poked Molly in the shoulder with the safety pin
that held up her strap.

Raggedy Dolls

The kids had fun (I think) and I know a lot of people stopped to watch the them dance. We had Toy Solders, Raggedy Ann dolls, Reindeer, Elves, Rocketts, Clowns and the Nutcracker performing. The Christmas Spectacular is on December 10th if you would like to see a great Christmas show.

They had fun but my back hurts, my head hurts and my feet hurt. All from standing at Publix 3 hours and changing costumes!

Christmas Spectacular

2008-11-18T13:28:00.005-05:00

My daughter Molly is in dance (as if you didn't know that already) and her dance studio is putting on a Christmas Spectacular on December 10th. They have been practicing and practicing and practicing, every week-end. Tonight they are performing at outside one of the local Publix grocery stores. I guess all the Publix in the area are having some sort of Christmas performance, not sure if it is just to get everyone into the spirit or if they are celebrating something. Have not seen anything about it in the papers or their ads. So they perform tonight from 4-7 doing their dances and singing their songs. They are excited, me not so much since I will be there from 4-7 keeping an eye out for my daughter and her little friend that I will be in charge of.
Will take pictures and post some tomorrow.

Bucs vs. Vikings

2008-11-17T09:41:00.004-05:00

Bill & I were lucky enough to go to the Buc's vs. Vikings game yesterday. Bill had a vendor that gave us tickets in a suite, and was it sweet!!! Lots of good food, the weather was coo,l great for an outdoor football game. The suite's glass windows rolled back to give it the feel of outdoors. Too bad the Vikings lost, we were the only Vikings fans in the suite so there was a lot of cheering from our fellow suitemates. It did make for some great people watching (which I love to do). Raymond James was giving out free Bucs visors so we picked one up for Molly and her friend Hailey whom she was with all day while we had fun at the game. I wish I had taken some pictures to upload here but I forgot, this blogging thing is still new to me. I will have to remember next time!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-11-10T09:29:00.003-05:00

Busy, Busy, Busy, reminds me of the magician in Frosty. The uptight gay magician who wanted his hat back, ya know the one that made Frosty come to life! What a jerk.

Anyway we had a busy week-end with dance on Friday night, dance on Saturday morning and afternoon, Molly going to Grandma's to stay overnight, Church on Sunday morning and dance again after Church. When we finally had a free moment on Sunday afternoon, Molly & Dad had to work on the science fair project. She only had about a half an hour to play with her next door neighbor friend Kerstin. She hardly has time to be a kid anymore. The dance on the week-ends will end soon, it's for the "Christmas Spectacular" show the studio is putting on. Molly originally didn't want to do it, which was fine by me but then she saw the tin solders that they bought for the show. She then got excited about it. I think she is having fun with it and it is just till Dec 10th when they have the show. We then headed out to the spaghetti supper the youth of the church was putting on to raise money for their trip to the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans in 2010. We drove by the church and the parking lot was FULL. Needless to say we drove on past thinking we could just give them some money and not make matters worse by trying to eat some spaghetti in an already full fellowship hall. There is always next Sunday when they do it again at the north campus.

As for this week, Molly has off on Tuesday, ya that's right a day off of school in the middle of the week. Genus! Go to school for 1 day and then off and then go back for 3 days, why didn't they choose a different day to take off? Veterans day??? Don't remember having off that day before. Oh well, we might go shopping or something, we have to get an outfit for one of the scenes for the show, an all white, off-white or cream outfit. You hear me correctly, in the winter. I think I found one at Macy's, an off-white velour sweatsuit, that will have to work. Also a colorful sweater or fleece shirt with a scarf and hat. I found the scarf and hat at Old Navy on Saturday for a $1 each! What a find!!! Granted down in Florida we don't have much use for the hat and scarf, maybe one or two days during December or January. We aren't going to make it up north this year so I'm glad they were only a buck.

Next Sunday Bill and I have tickets to the Bucs vs. Vikings game. A vendor of his gave us the tickets and they are in one of the suites. Origianlly Bill asked if I wanted to go or if he should take Molly. I said Molly could go, she would love it. Then I found out it was in a suite, man that stuff would be wasted on her so I'm going. Besides she has dance practice again anyway. I'm not that big of a fan of either teams, can't stand to watch football on TV, but being at a game is different. It will be fun.

Phantom Was Great

2008-11-07T13:48:00.004-05:00

We had an awesome time at Phantom of the Opera. The cast was great (although I have to say no one is as good as Michael Crawford!). Molly & her friend Lexxus enjoyed the show, Molly knew what was going on because she had seen the movie, Lexxus not so much. We didn't get to go backstage because the girl who had done the master class wasn't there that night. The girls were bummed but as we were leaving, the usher told us that some of the cast was doing a Q&A for the kids down in front of the stage. So we went down there and there were about 7 or 8 cast members that came out. Lexxus had one of her questions answered, so she was happy. Both girls got shirts that said Prima Donna on the front and Phantom of the Opera on the back. (That cost a small fortune!) The drive down to Tampa was a little hairy when whe reached 275, bumper to bumper the last 4 miles, I think that took 20 minutes of our 45 minute drive, what do you expect from rush hour. It was worth it though we had a fun girls night out. When we got home Lexxus was staying overnight and they spent an hour winding down before going to sleep. They were troupers getting up in the morning for school though. Since they go to different schools, I took Lexxus and my MIL (who went to the show with us and also stayed overnight) took Molly, since both of their schools started at the same time. I took the camera but wasn't allowed to take any pictures of the stage, forgot about taking one of the girls infront of the theater. Oh well, next time!

Phantom Phever

2008-11-05T10:01:00.007-05:00

Yipee, we get to go to Phantom of the Opera tonight! It's playing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Theater for the next couple of weeks. For some of the shows you can purchase an adult ticket and get a child's ticket for free. So that's what we did for this evening, Molly gets to take along a friend since we had the extra ticket. The girls are very excited since Elaine Matthews (who is currently in the Phantom of the Opera) came to their dance studio last week-end to teach a master class. She said she would take the girls backstage to meet some of the cast to take pictures & get autographs. I am also excited since it was the Phantom that got me "hooked" on musicals and theater. I was a Phantom Phan way back when it first came to Broadway. My roommate at the time and I traveled out to L.A. to see Michael Crawford in Phantom. I have never forgotten the feeling that first moment when the chandelier rises to the ceiling. The music, the drama and the songs. Molly has love of the theater and I hope she "gets that feeling" as well.

CHANGE

2008-11-05T07:01:00.003-05:00

Wow, I was overwhelmed by the amount of people who got out to vote, guess that says something about the current condition of our country. I'm proud that our country elected our first African/American as our president. When I talked to my friend Chris, we discussed how we want to believe in him and what he says he will do. DON'T LET US DOWN! I know that it isn't just the president who runs the country but it is the president who sets the pace, I hope with the House and Senate, both now with the Democrat majority, that he can get some things done. I know it will be a rough row to hoe, but we have hope.

Vote!

2008-11-04T07:33:00.004-05:00

This cartoon about sums it up, but it is important to vote. Prayerfully consider the candidates and choose the one that feels right for you. BTW, that's a worm who is voting!

Halloween Night

2008-11-03T11:04:00.009-05:00

We had a great time Halloween night. We trick or treated and had a bonfire in the yard. It was a chilly night so the fire was greatly appreciated by most of the parents who walked by. Molly dressed as the Genie and trick or treated with her next door neighbor and best friend Kerstin. Then when they had enough candy they went over to Kerstin's house to hand out candy.
Here are a couple of pictures of the girls.Molly doing her I dream of Jennie impression.Should have taken the camera along and gotten snaps of the neighborhood. Many go all out and have the yard all decorated. None were too scary for the girls and they ran from house to house. There were a lot of houses dark that night though. Not sure what the reason, maybe because it was a Friday night and there were more parties. Kerstin's Mom said maybe because it cost a small fortune to buy candy. She's right there, we didn't have as many kids come around this year so I have a lot of candy left. Maybe I'll just stick it in the freezer and use it for Christmas baking!

The Neighborhood Association Police

2008-10-31T13:50:00.010-04:00

Yes, I live in a gated neighborhood, not too uncommon down in Florida. Don't know why they have the gates, it's not too hard for anyone to get in. Along with the gated neighborhood comes the "Neighborhood Association". It's really anyone who doesn't have anything better to do than rat out your neighbors. Now I appreciate a well kept lawn just as much as the next person but come on, we just got a letter from our friendly neighborhood association (I won't add the name my husband gives them). Asking us to please remove the "unapproved political sign in our yard" within 10 days. Well the election is over by then, duh. They just sent out the letter this week, and if it was such a eye sore than they should have sent it out when we first put it up a couple of weeks ago. I think they are just covering their butts by asking us to take it down after the election. What a crock, isn't this the United States? Isn't there freedom of speech (Oh yea, I forgot we have a dictator for a president currently I hope that is remedied this next week, btw). Anyway, what's with all the Halloween crap out in everyone's lawn, isn't that in violation? Not to say we don't decorate for Halloween, we do and our polictical sign is right in front of our Oogy Boogy (the big green guy from "The Nightmare before Christmas" If anyone has a Jack the Pumpkin King or Sally blow-ups, let me know we have been searching for them!) Now how can our sign be that obnoxious next to Oogy Boogy? Oh well, here's a picture of the sign and our blow-up Oogy Boogy.Maybe they'll take it as "Vote for Obama or get eaten by the Oogy Boogy", guess it couldn't hurt!

Feels like I'm back in School

2008-10-29T09:01:00.004-04:00

What is with 3rd grade a ton of homework? Man, I feel like I'm back in school. I think the teachers give all that homework just to see how well the parents do. Molly brought home information on the Science Fair last night. Well I informed my husband Bill, that this was his and Molly's project to do. She has to keep a journal and come up with a hypotheses, prove or disprove it, and then create a display board with her findings (YEA for me). She also brought home a project due next Tuesday about the election. She has to create a collage including pictures, articles, editorials and headlines about the election. This too is Bill's project since he majored in poly/sci. He did state that it was my part of the project to help her put it on the paper, that I think I can do! Now my projects are the book reports and the book projects we have to do each month. This month we picked making a front page of a newspaper that related to the book. So far we picked the harder projects to do so that we can coast the rest of the year. Next month we are doing the dreaded board game of which I have heard described at dance. There are several teachers who's daughters dance with Molly so if there is any questions about school I know I have a whole forum to choose from right in the waiting area of Dance!

A side note about the weather, Molly has proclaimed it is too cold to go to school. The overnight low was 41 degrees and supposed to get up in the 60's. She put on a t-shirt, jeans, a sweatshirt, a jacket and mittens. Today at school they were supposed to wear team jerseys etc for Red Ribbon week, so Molly was in luck that the t-shirt and sweatshirt were both supporting the Minnesota Golden Gophers. (Bill's Alma matter) We are raising a Florida baby who loves Minnesota, you bettcha, don'tcha know!

Halloween

2008-10-27T21:20:00.008-04:00

It's getting a little cooler here in Florida, in the 40's & 50's in the evening but still 80's during the day. Molly is worried that she will be too cold with her Halloween costume. She is going as a Genie, (a costume from the last recital) heck if I'm going to buy a costume when we have 5 perfectly good costumes from this years recital.

(That's Molly doing the splits in the air)

I thought we could make her look like "I dream of Jennie" and add a pony tail and maybe a veil. Now she's thinking it would be too cold for that costume. Come on, I grew up in Iowa where we had to bundle up over or under our costumes. It's not that cold out, you don't know cold little girl!
We also have a reprieve from dance that night, YEA. Although we do have a class right away Saturday morning at 9:00 and then another at 12:30. Oh well, can't have a totally dance free week-end, we wouldn't know what to do!

The Happiest Place on Earth

2008-10-25T22:54:00.010-04:00

Ok, Disney is considered the "Happiest Place on Earth". I love Disney just as much as the next person but...What is wrong with this picture? Snow White looks like she is possessed. A demonic Snow White at "The Happiest Place on Earth"? Those poor kids, excited about going to Disney and meeting the princesses and they get this?

Let's take a closer look shall we?

She either is constipated or she's really is over being Snow White and needs a little vacation.
Pictures taken from Journey to Audrey blog

2008-10-25T20:28:00.003-04:00

Hello Fellow Bloggers...........

Not sure where to begin? Lets get a few things out in the open, first Deb is the level headed one! I am more the rebel. Now there is nothing wrong with either, I wish I was more of the other but that is not to be. I like to tell it how it is......whether it hurts or not! I have learned (not much) as I get older to be less blunt, it doesn't always come out that way. For example just an hour ago I was sitting in my driveway getting my hair streaked (we are not rednecks just sounds that way) by my very gay neighbor ( he likes to be referred to as our gay neighbor) when our other older 70ish neighbor came by, she has grey hair, go figure, well g.neighbor said lets do your hair......ok people it came out purple! She was a good sport about it but not me........"Oh my god if that was my hair I would be pissed off!" Needless to say she left saying it was ok and g.neighbor left in a huff telling me "I didn't need to stir the pot" Hell yes I did......thank goodness it is almost Halloween she can say it's part of her costume. See what I mean I didn't have to say anything I couldn't help it.

Ok..... for two people who are so different in so many ways, Deb and I we get along wonderful....there have been days where she has saved me from myself.

Well enough rambling for one night

Go Obama!

Ron Howard Rocks!

2008-10-25T11:01:00.004-04:00

I grew up watching Opie and Richie and have always had a fondness for Ron Howard. He seems so down-to-earth and loveable.
This video rocks, I love it, thanks Ronny!!!

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

This election can not get over fast enough!!!

2008-10-25T09:16:00.002-04:00

One more week (give or take a couple of days) of this nonsense. All those negative ads local and national are driving me crazy. I don't listen to any of them, well maybe to laugh at the ridicules claims some of them make. I just saw McCain's latest, "I'm Joe the Plumber" ad. He's grasping at straws. Anyway my husband found this clip and since we are both such Les Miz fans, it was extremely funny to us.

Our First Post

2008-10-24T21:07:00.001-04:00

Welcome, I can't believe I'm blogging, I've been a lurker to many blogs for the past year or so and finally have the courage to do it myself. So not sure what this one will be about, I'm guessing everyday stuff and a few rants along the way.
Chris (my fellow blogger) & I are friends who decided one day (today) to blog. We are both Moms of 8 year olds, I have a daughter who dances and Chris has a son who plays hockey and they have been friends for as long as they can remember.
We both are from somewhere other than Florida and both moved here for our husband's job. We met through a Mom's Club which was a life saver for us both.
So welcome again and hope you stay a while.
Deb