Concert (2). 11/16

Concert 11/16

Dr Pepper Museum 11/16

Mammoth Monument 11/16

Jack piano 11/16

Thanksgiving 2016 (2)

Thanksgiving 2016

Jack

Becca has been sick for over a week now. So I finally took her into the doctor. Looks like she has pneumonia! Poor kid! But she took these great photos of herself from our trip to the doctor.
That night Jack arrived!!! The kids have been so anxious for his visit and counting down the days.
First we took him to Flix to see "Doctor Strange".
He was a great sport about letting Charity and Sam smother him a lot. 
He is such a talented pianist!

I took the kids to Waco to see the National Mammoth Monument, and the Doctor Pepper Museum. We also got a sneak peek of the House Hunters shop. Eden and Hana are fans of that show. 
Jack was getting a little tired of me constantly taking his picture.  
That night Steve and I took Jack, Cessie, and Jonah to see Bob Schneider at Austin City Limits. It was an awesome concert!
   

Spinning Sonic❤️

Thanksgiving 2016 (2)

Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving Week

The weather has been so nice this week! We have enjoyed being outside in our messy jungle of a yard.
Eden and Jonah took a walk to the Square a couple of times. And I saw these photos on her Snapchat from that. Jonah's friend Lawrence came too one time.


 This is Eden with her close friend Madi. 
 This is our family on Thanksgiving. It is crazy to think about, but in the 18 years that Steve and I have been married, we have never had Thanksgiving at home with just our immediate family! Last year I think was the first year it was just us, but we were on vacation in Florida. So this was the first time it was just us, and we were home. I have never made a full Thanksgiving dinner before! I figured we better do it sometime. And it ended up being a really really great day! We all really enjoyed it.
We had all talked about what we were grateful for and it was touching to hear what the kids said.

Reviews

Ever since I have been married, I have never had a job that took more than just a few hours a week. I have taught off and on all these years, but never taught more than about 3 classes a week regularly. When we moved to Texas, I wanted to keep teaching. I found Arts Avenue and liked it for several reasons. The best part was that it was the closest dance studio to our house, and all my kids could take whatever classes they wanted, free of charge. I can drive there in as little as 5 minutes. When I got the job, I thought I would again just be teaching a few hours a week. But it quickly turned into so much more. I really love this place. I love my students, and my boss, and the atmosphere. My boss is amazing and put so much trust in me right off the bat. Within a couple of months, she put me entirely in charge of the whole dance program. And let me run it how I wanted. I was able to implement a lot changes as I saw fit, and it has been really exciting to see the place grow. I have become so invested in this place. Both physically and emotionally. It has been wonderful to have my family and children be so involved along the way too. It has been really good for all of us. As a family, we have done everything from putting up sets, to installing dance floors. Hana and Becca and Charity are growing as dancers too, and I love being their teacher!
Along the way, there have been countless wonderful things that have happened that have touched me and rewarded me in many different ways. It has meant so much to me. There have been tough times too. It is emotionally draining sometimes, because I really do love the kids I teach. And I love their families. And sometimes things don't always go as well as I would like. Or they would like. But I have grown so much as a person, in so many ways, from this experience.
Lately I have felt burned out. And sometimes I toy with the idea of not working anymore. But this week I had some things happen that got my engine going again. And it meant a lot.
One of them, was this review that popped up on our studio's Facebook page unexpectedly.
Another thing was this nice email I got from a parent. I am feeling really grateful to be where I am!

Charity Thanksgiving play

Hana spins

Hana dances

Jonah & Sonic❤️ 11/16

Eden Play 11/16

Charity Thanksgiving play

Charity's 1st grade class had a cute little Thanksgiving play they did in their classroom. I love these photos I got because I kept taking photos in quick succession and she had a different cute expression each time.   

Andy Homeschooling

So this week we had a sudden big change. I got a call from my friend Kelly, who works at the Middle School a lot. She told me that she didn't think that Andy was going to be able to pass his Spanish class. She wanted to see if we should get him pulled out of it. And she said that we could get an exception for him to not have to take a foreign language in high school. He has good grades in all of his classes. But he is just working to get what he needs done, but isn't really understanding things well. He is still really behind on his reading and writing skills and math too.
When my friend told me about pulling him out and getting him out of a foreign language in high school, I kind of panicked. I didn't want him to not be able to take all the classes he needs to get into college. I don't want to make any decisions that would prevent him from the very best possible future. And if he can't handle his Spanish class now, how is he really going to handle high school. We have been worried about how far behind he is academically for a long time.  And we have talked about homeschooling him several times. But he LOVES school so much. He loves it for his friends and the social life he has there. So homeschooling was never something he wanted. But I finally decided that this may be our last chance to really get him ready for high school. He is so far behind and despite all the meetings at the school with staff and teachers to get him the help he needs, he is still too far behind. He has too many gaps in his education that need to be filled. So I made the decision to pull him out. He was devastated!!!! But we did it anyhow, So he had his first few days at home getting taught by me. The first couple of days he was not too happy.
Part of his homeschooling, I have him help Sam with learning to read. I thought this would be good for the BOTH of them. And it has been.
I liked this moment they were having that I witnessed.

By the end of the week, he wrote this in his journal. It made me happy.

Doggies and Rodeo Clowns

The kids have really loved having Sonic. She is an awesome dog and we all love her so much.

Andy was in the local newspaper last week. :)

Eden's Play

Charity at Eden's play this week.

Eden auditioned for the Varsity Theater program last year and made it. On Monday, the Varsity Theater kids had their first play. It was one they wrote themselves. It was super cute! Eden had a great part with lots of lines and she nailed it. She is a pretty good little actress! 

Becca flute at talent show

Tradition at talent show

Supermoon

Tonight Steve and I went on a walk to look at the "Supermoon". It was very bright. Apparently this is the closest the moon has been to earth since 1948. And it wont be this way again until 2034. Kind of cool!

Another week down

First off, I missed posting this photo of Steve and Hana after she was knighted at school.

 

I took an Ambien the other night and I awoke in the morning with my phone in bed with me. And it was on. I panicked wondering what I might have done unconsciously. When I looked at my phone, I saw that I had messaged this total stranger in Pennsylvania. And this is what I told him:

 

Steve went to San Jose this week on business. I really missed him!!! I took this photo of him the morning he got back taking a nap on my shoulder. 

Arts Avenue had a talent show this weekend and Becca performed a flute solo at it. She did great. 

Ryden had his bar mitzva too. We were able to go to that and it was nice. Andy posted this photo of them on his Instagram that night. 

Charity asked me to take a picture of her in the portable dressing room for the studio. 

 

Charity getting awarded at school 11/16

Hana knighted at school 11/16

Hana Saut De Chat

Platinum praying before stage 11/16

Platinum prepping to go on stage 11/16

Hana leaps 11/16

Becca leaps 11/16

Dance Class Dallas 11/16

Dance Revolution

This past weekend, I went to a Christian Dance Convention in Dallas with all of my Company Dancers from the studio. We actually were missing one dancer from Company, but we brought a few others that were not on Company. I was the only teacher there to represent the studio, so with 20 dancers, their parents, and even some siblings, it was a bit stressful to feel in charge of that group.
But we had an amazing time.
We stayed in the Hyatt Regency at the airport. It was a huge, beautiful hotel and all the classes and events were right there. The first night they had a big dance party. The theme was "Decades" and they encouraged everyone to dress up. Which we did.

Hana with her friend Lili and Becca with her friends Brooke and Delaney.
 
Me with a couple of moms who are also friends of mine.
 
Most of our girls.
 
 
 Becca and Hana with some of their teammates.
  
Becca in jazz class.
  
The girls right before going on stage.
     
On stage.
 
Victoria did this cute hairdo for Hana.
  
My Platinum team prepping to go on stage.
   
The first night and part of the next day it was just Becca, Hana and I that came from the family. But the 2nd day Steve and the rest of the kids arrived. It was great to be together. Celeste stayed home from the trip though.
 
Charity and Jonah snuggling in the hotel room.
 
Becca in class.
 
I love my dancers!
  
And this last photo is just one that Eden took for her photography class that I thought was funny.