Friday, January 25, 2013

concerts, spontenaity, and long weekends


This past week my wonderful students had their performance of "Peter Pan" (two nights and four shows... we survived!). It was really fun and I feel so proud of them! I am so lucky to be a teacher and to see my students succeed. It is so fulfilling. There were some crazy moments with fast costume changes for some of my dancers, but in the end the concert turned out great, and my classes specifically got compliments. It was great to hear from the director and some of the more advanced students that they were impressed with my classes and the things they have accomplished. I am so blessed to be teaching such a great group of girls and I am so proud of them! It was also fun to teach the warm up class before the Thursday night shows. All my life I wanted to be a part of the dance world. Even though the dancing part is mostly over (though I miss it dearly) I am glad to still be a part of it. I am just on the other side now. I get to be part of the director side of things doing the teaching and choreographing and planning, and it is a new joy that I am finding. Now it's time to start lesson/concert planning for the next few months ahead!
Jr Company Ballet students. They were flowers.

Mini company ballet students. They were also flowers (their costumes were the pink tutus hanging up in the background).
Also, this past weekend was a 3-day weekend because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Yay! It has been so nice to spend some time home with Chandler relaxing. We have been able to use our new Wii to watch Netflix and do Just Dance! (Only I may never beat Chandler at Just Dance - he is so good!) On Sunday, I decided to surprise Chandler with a fun dinner date. I got everything ready while he was at a church meeting. My ideas kept progressing and this is eventually what I came up with for a romantic Sunday dinner:

Crackling "fireplace", mood lighting, fresh flowers, candles (not lit since I couldn't find matches), and a table set for two. We had salmon, homemade mashed potatoes, broccoli, and some stir fried veggies (mushrooms, peppers, and onions). There was also smooth jazz music playing quietly in the background.

And Chandler was our waiter! ;) pretty good use for a cardboard cutout if I do say so myself.
 Chandler came home from his meeting and was laughing in amazement for a few minutes straight. I love our spontaneous dates!






Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Christmas break - a quick photo documentary

Christmas break pictures! Chandler and I got ourselves a camera for Christmas, and this is a little of what we did:
I made homemade pizza for everyone - the meatlovers kind. It turned out really well.
It was my best homemade pizza yet


Making pipe chimes on Christmas Eve!
Christmas Eve dinner! Such amazing food.


Me, Chandler, and his brother Landon! I got to "meet" him over Skype on Christmas Day.

Buried in the aftermath of Christmas morning - we are so blessed!
Got him that hat and the 6th season of "Fresh Prince" among other things

At the theater after Les Miserables on Christmas Day!

Making gingerbread houses - and eating our building materials


Basketball at the church! (and yes, I did play a little - and yes I made a few baskets)
Kade. Need I say more? :)
Our sleigh/wagon ride in beautiful Idaho!


At the Boise Temple


I can imagine your cheers for my briefest post yet!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

on holiday

What to say, what to say... The holidays are over, it's a new year, and it's back to work! Christmas break was such a great time spent with family. It was our first Christmas being married, and Chandler and I spent it up in Boise, Idaho with his family. Chandler's younger brother Jonah lent us his room for the week and half that we were there. It was really nice of him to do that and Chandler's family was so great to have us as guests for so long. There were times when I missed my family, but it didn't last long because I realized I was WITH family - it was just the other half!

We got up there the Friday before Christmas and we stayed until the day after New Years. And boy was it a good vacation! We drove several hours to get there and I read "Total Money Makeover" to Chandler while we were in the car. We were both about half way through on our own, and I just read out loud so we could finish it. It was so entertaining and I am so grateful Chandler and I are on the same page with our finances. We can talk about anything. That book was the gift we gave to both sets of our parents this Christmas.

While we were in Boise on holiday we... went sight-seeing in downtown Boise in the falling snow one evening, watched good movies, watched home videos of Chandler and his siblings as little kids, played dirty board (Chandler and I won 2/3 games!), played the ball game (trying to keep the beach ball up in the air with the fan going and without knocking the Christmas tree down!), watched my favorite movie "It's a Wonderful Life", went to church, got sick, stayed up late, played the couch game, played mafia, played basketball at the church (there are so many plus sides to having a big family like Chandler does - there are always enough people to play games!), went on a sleigh ride in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains, saw Les Miserables on Christmas day, ate good food, I made homemade pizza and it turned out great!, played a bunch of rounds of Ruzzle (a word game like Boggle) and I won a bunch of them!, started reading some books, met Chandler's brother Landon who is on a mission (met him over Skype on Christmas day), opened presents (more than we thought we would, thanks so much to Chandler's family!), gave presents, tried out our new camera, went to the mall (many times), got Chandler a new phone, watched youtube videos, ate sweets brought over by the neighbors, checked out the neighbors' koi fish (some of them were worth 10K), did a session at the Boise Temple, watched Chandler play some video games, taught Brooke some dance moves, made pipe chimes and practiced playing Christmas songs (so fun!), started reading to Kill a Mockingbird again (it's been years since I read it), laughed a lot, cried a little, went to the Boise State Broncos stadium, went to the candy store Powells (ate some yummy gelato and got some BYU colored sixlets candy from Chandler's dad), enjoyed conversations with family, called my family, built gingerbread houses, worked out (only once ha ha), watched the new year ring in with Chandler (everyone else had fallen asleep in the front room while we were watching the Times Square new year program), stayed up late, watched some football, and many more small things. It was a fun, and relaxing, break.

Now, since time is so good at continuing on, so much has happened already in this new year! But those thoughts will have to wait until later. I hope you enjoyed your holiday too!