52 books in 52 weeks

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!

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

The Kid's Kicked Butt Again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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???

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

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

He's Ours!

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???

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

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

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

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

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

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.