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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Life lately, according to my iPhone photos

Saturday, February 18, 2012

a dancing week in review...

Being that I no longer have to "study" for my exam... I seem to have a bit more free time.   That is, only a few nights a week.   Yet, not really still - St Patrick's day is looming and I'm in panic mode....

So, let's do a run down of the week -

Monday: grocery shopping and cleaning...


Tuesday: whipping the children into shape, we have 2 classes until St Patrick's Day and their routine is NOT DONE! BAH!  I'm not really sure how it's going to play out...   Truly, I'm nervous.  Maybe I can schedule an "extra practice"  <panic face>


Wednesday: covered for Mary (poor thing has a huge exam coming up and no time to study, along with the step 1 of her boards :( )  


Thursday: First class was great - those kids always make me smile.  But they POOP me out, man!  The second class went well also.  Unfortunately, I have spotty attendance due to sickness lately.  It's really frustrating, but at least their routine is done for St Pat's  - I may add on more for the recital.

Friday - I had a date.  Yes, a date.  It was scary and exciting and I had a nice time! :)

Tonight - gals night in at my place..... I better get cookin!

How was your week?


Sunday, February 12, 2012

snow day...





sundays are typically the day where i head off for my parents house and spend the day with my family. i usually get a couple loads of laundry done and eat lots of food...  you know, it's hectic getting out there but it's relaxing.   today winter decided he was going to rear his ugly little head.  well, not so ugly, i mean i've been waiting for snow to finally show up since before christmas!  now it's here and preventing me from doing my plans, and that makes me a little upset.   i suppose i'll have to settle for some random snacks, hard boiled eggs, loads of shoveling, and finishing up the millennium series books.  

what do you do when you're snowed in?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

exhaustion...




it's setting in.  i've been going, going, and going then off to california and back again.  it's finally hit me.  today was quite literally the longest day of work - i just kept starring at the clock.  then i'd turn away and look back again and only one minute had passed.  blast! 

i long for a day of nothing, my kindle and a cozy blanket...   can't i just have a slice of maeve's energy? oh, and that hat! 


Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Done!








I have arrived back in Rochester, New York.   It's 40 and raining here.  Don't get me wrong - I love winter, and the changing of the seasons.  But, it sure would be nice to be back in that California sun! 

Kelly and I arrived on Thursday.  We were testing Friday for our TCRG exams.  Luckily we each only had the one section to complete because the sun and 80 degree weather was calling our names.  
Friday morning we woke up and practiced our behinds off - went and ate lunch at Whole Foods and scored some new cute clothes at the boutique in the strip mall called Varga.   I finally got myself a pair of Toms (yay) which I'm chomping at the bit to bust out despite my love for ugg boots, and everything bundled up and cozy.   After lounging at the pool for a bit we decided we should head inside and focus.  Kelly was up first.  I walked her down to the room when it was her time and then took a jaunt across the street to grab a coffee (my time slot wasn't for another few hours).   I got myself so nervous and worked up just sitting in the room waiting for her to get back and tell me that it had gone completely how we practiced and planned!   I feel like you never really know!  Then it was my turn, I got all ready to go inevitably too early.  Had to sit there panicking while watching Mr & Mrs Smith on the tv in the room...   Kelly yelled at me several times to stop checking the time (I did the same to her just hours before).   We headed down there - BLAST!  The girl who had to teach both sections just went in, and I was only 15 minutes early!  So I waited....and waited... and waited.  Finally she came out!  Yes, it's my turn! Finally!!!  Nope, the examiners needed to order their dinner... another 15 minutes passes..  I see kids exiting the rooms!   Now, I'm really starting to panic!  Did they forget about me!????   Nope, sure enough one of my Panelists came out to collect me and bring me into the room.  She asked if I'd been waiting long - HA!  

I'll leave the details of what happened in that examination room out, however I do feel confident that I did well this round.  Until I know for sure I'll have that lingering doubt, but we'll see!

So, let's talk about the snaps above.  Saturday morning Kelly and I woke up pretty early and went out seeking the Hollywood Hills.  We hiked in Runyon Canyon Park in Los Angeles.  It was amazingly beautiful, and by 9:30-10 in the morning it was already into the 70's!   We had awesome views of LA and took some incredible snaps of the Hollywood sign. 

Then we ventured over to Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills...    We peaked into Harry Winston and starred at the outside of designer stores like Chanel...  we totally stood out like sore thumbs! 

After Rodeo Drive we hit the beach - Santa Monica Pier.  Had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp (I promised Kelly I'd give Forest Gump another go, yes yes I know it's unAmerican, she already told me. But, I've only seen parts).   We walked the pier - we saw some pretty interesting people, like the belly dancer photographed above.  Luckily Kelly got this awesome shot. 

To the beach we went!  I stuck my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time EVER! :) 
Then we shopped a bit on the promenade.   Literally two of the best days of my life!  
Back to the hotel we go - into the Hot tub!   Once we got hungry enough we went out to Manhattan Beach for dinner.   

I think that we're going to plan a Cali weekend every year!  

Friday, February 3, 2012

Cali, once more...

Hopefully the next time I come to California it's for a full on vacation! I would like to see more than the Hacienda Hotel and LAX!
We arrived yesterday afternoon, pacific time. Settled into our hotel and then went to eat. After trying to find a healthy restaurant in the area we landed at In and Out Burger... Not exactly healthy, but exactly what we needed. Picked up some groceries for the room - wine, fruit, bagged snacks... Then we headed for a place to practice teaching to each other. Ran through a bunch of our steps - I'm felling pretty good about my teaching ability. I just need to take my time and focus on the details.
Once we got back to our room there was a strange alarm going off... It sounded like the alarm clock! If there were a fly on the wall watching us, we must have looked insane crawling all over our room trying to find where this alarm was coming from. We even unplugged the alarm clock and it was still going - we thought we were going crazy! Then we decided to open the bottle of wine. I brought a wine key because I didn't want to have to buy one... Literally could not pull the cork out. I tried to hold the bottle with me feet and pull with both hands.... Kelly tried to hold the bottle while I pulled... Finally I just let it sit there for a second, tried again - Pop! It came out, thank God.

We called the front desk and asked to switch rooms. Now mind you, we have an open bottle of wine, two plastic cups full of wine (classy I know) three bags of groceries and all our belongings....
We packed up and moved all of our stuff and settled into our new room.

Now we're up early looking to tackle the longest day of our lives. We don't teach until the evening....
Off to breakfast and practice we go!

Here's some snaps from the trip so far...