4-H Jr. Leaders' Dance

Last night we travel out in the howling winds and cold to go to the 4-H Jr. Leaders' dance.  I was a  chaperon which was really fun.  Someone said to me good luck with chaperoning the dance but I wasn't worried, all the teens in the Jr. Leader program are great kids and, just as I suspected, there wasn't an ounce of trouble.

 

Dancer and her good friend, they do a lot together in and out of 4-H.  There were four kids that went from our club.

Part way through the night they took down some of the decorations and started playing what we call "bop it balloon."  This was the only other picture I got of the front of Dancer.  I took lots of pictures for the county scrapbook but in every single other one that Dancer was in I got her back.
The dance was for 7th grade and up and since Spark doesn't fit that criteria he and Dad went to the nearest town.  They enjoyed supper at Pizza Hut, of which they were able to save one slice and a couple cheese sticks for Dancer and I.  I guess the smell was just too strong in the car for Spark to resist the other piece of pizza on the way to pick us up.  They also went to Walmart and check out all the things that Spark is interested in that we never, in his opinion, take enough time to peruse (i.e. Legos, Star Wars and the fish).

The next day we talked to grandma and she asked what Dancer wore to the dance.  We told her sweatpants, nice ones, and a sweatshirt.  She was surprised until we reminded her these are farm kids and none of them wear fancy duds.

Willa Cather's Death

On April 24, 1947, Cather died in her New York apartment from a cerebral hemorrhage.

This was the same day as my mother's 18th birthday.  The year and date of Cather's death will now probably become one of those odd useless facts that I will remember forever.  I will be an old woman not be able to remember where I left my purse I just set down but will be able to tell you the date of her death.  Do you have any of those odd facts floating around in your head?

This came up because Dancer has been reading "My Antonia" and several of her other short stories.  She finished up the author by writing a short paper outlining Cather's life, childhood memories that influenced her writing, themes in her major works and awards she won. 

Arts-In Who Done It??

This is the play that the 4-H Jr. Leaders put on all week.  This was Dancer's favorite thing at the fair this year.  The play was called Who Done It?? and it was about bad guys who try to ruin the fun at the fair for 4-Hers by stealing their projects and finally the sun.  It was a spoof on Despicable Me.  In the end the bad guys realize that they can't ruin the fun and 4-H isn't an elite group, everyone is welcome to belong.  We saw it six times and it got better every time!

On stage before the start of the play.

Dancing to "Help" by the Beetles.

The Cool Hat Detectives are trying to break the case.

Dancing to "Blue" by Eiffel 65.

Doing "The Robot" in the Blue song dance. 

Dancer is not buying the idea her fellow detective has proposed.

Part of the cast.

"I'm Airing"  -  They hold their arms up and air out their pits.  In their defense it was over 90 degrees with high humidity every day, we were really hot just watching the show.  4-Her's can be crazy!

Dancer Is Home - Yes!

Dancer has been gone for the last two days to learn the play, 4-H Arts-In, that they put on at the fair all next week.  I want her to go and have a good time but I miss her terrible and am happy that she is here tonight. 

She came back just happier than happy.  The temps were in the high 90's with horrible humidity but they were learning dances so she was in her glory.  They also went swimming and stayed up half the night watching movies and playing games.

Another mom picked her and another girl up from our club.  When they got to our house to drop Dancer off, after a trip to the Dairy Queen which we haven't frequented since we started our diet in February so she was happy about that too, they came in and did the dances for us.  There was lots of laughing so I know they had a good time and the dances are good.  Can hardly wait to see the whole thing all together! 

Dance recital

Dancer had her last dance recital as a show line dancer.  Next year she will be taking a tap class that only performs at the spring recital and has no dance shows, no competitions and no summer classes.  I already feel this huge weight lifted off of us.  If she finds she really, really misses it she can always try out next year for a spot on a show line.  I am excited for her to try some new activities and I really don't foresee her missing it.  It will be different though, out of the ten years she has danced seven have been on a show line.

As usual, she was absolutely gorgeous dancing and made us so proud that she was our daughter.  The flowers she is holding were from Grandma.  Grandma took the picture so I jumped in to get in a picture with the kids, something we have very few of because I usually take the pictures.  After the second show we went to Pizza Ranch to celebrate her year in dance.  Fun, fun day.

The good, the bad and the expensive

The weekend was a jumbled mess of good, bad and expensive.

First, the good:

Dancer had a dance competition on Saturday where her group did very, very well. She was so beautiful dancing. I am always in awe of her since my dance resume would list The Chicken Dance and The Hokey Pokey and I can't even brag about how good I am at those.

We cleaned out more boxes of things we don't need to hang on to anymore and got it donated to the 4-H garage sale. We had one truck and five van loads of stuff. Now we need to be vigilant not to fill those the cupboards and closets back up.

Mother's Day was wonderful, the kids gave me a cactus, bonsai tree and a bamboo plant. AND Almond Roca my most very favorite candy on the whole planet. AND we went out to dinner at really nice restaurant.

We got almost the whole lawn mowed. It is a big deal for us to have the whole thing mowed at the same time. It seems we only have time to mow it in sections, or we have the mowing done but not the trimming. It is now going to rain most of the week so I am sure it will long again by the weekend or maybe early next week since the temps are cold.

Grandma was able to pick us up and take us to the dance competition and loan us a car.

A good Samaritan stopped to help Dad push the car to the side of the road.

Spark got to ride in a police car.

Grandpa was able to rescue Dad and Spark in his car later that night.

On the way home from the dance competition, a police car pulled up behind me and put on his lights. Dang, I thought, I was going 65 in a 60 and slowed down as soon as I saw him. There was a truck that had just zoomed past me in front of him, zipped through the other traffic and I am the one he choose to pinch. As I edged to the side of the road to pull over, total dread pouring our me because I have never in my life had a speeding ticket and here I was going to get one driving Grandma's car with her sitting next to me, he sped past me and pulled over the truck. YES!!!!! I drove exactly the speed limit the rest of the way home.

Next, the bad:

On the way to Dancer's dance competition we stopped at a wayside rest and noticed there was antifreeze leaking under the car. We got back on the freeway, drove to the nearest town, pulled into a gas station to buy antifreeze and there was another puddle under the car. Pulled the car around behind the gas station to Burger King where we could get a good look at it and it was dripping so fast that it was almost a steady stream. A call went out to Grandma and Grandpa, who were shopping only about 25 minutes way, and they came to get us.

After Dad and Spark dropped Grandpa off at his house and started home, pouring more antifreeze in periodically was keeping the car going, they were crossing a busy four lane highway and the transmission went out on the car where it promptly stopped in the middle of the intersection.

When a policeman came to see what was going on, he offered Dad and Spark a ride to the nearest restaurant. When Spark was getting in the police car he banged his knee on something sharp in the back of the car and got a big cut on it.

The tow truck towed the car to a transmission place that Dad wasn't familiar with. Grandpa drove them up and down the streets of the town where they were able to find the car because the towing company didn't turn the flashers off on the car so it was sitting in a parking lot just flashing away.

Dancer's goat, Eeyore, has three seizures this weekend and that makes Dancer so upset. He is back to his normal perky self today.

Finally, the expensive:

The blue book value on our car, it is a van but for some reason we always call it a car, is $1,600. A new transmission is $1,460. That price doesn't include fixing the radiator.

New used cars, or vans, are so insanely expensive they give me heart palpitations just thinking about paying for one. Ugh, we haven't had a car payment for over a year and half and I rather enjoy it.

I wrote down the wrong work schedule for Dad and he missed the first four hours of his shift tonight. Even worse, we were up early this morning and he didn't take a nap this afternoon so it will be a really long night for him.


There's our weekend in a nutshell. Now we just have to make a decision on the car situation and hope it is the right one.

Blogging with my hands tied

Have you ever know someone that you swear wouldn't be able to talk if you tied their hands down because they make so many gestures? Well, that is me blogging without pictures. We have been busy and have lots we want to tell but without the camera to take pictures, it just doesn't seem the same and I don't know what to write. I know lots of people blog without ever putting a picture up, my hat is off to them. Since our blog is more of a diary I hope the kids will enjoy looking back on, I don't often write posts that are opinion pieces because that isn't want I want them to remember of our wonderful days together. I could write post after post of opinions without pictures but, well since that isn't what we are going for here I feel writers block without pictures. Good news is our camera has reached it's destination where it will be fixed. Bad news is it took a week, yes a week, to get there. I don't have a lot of hope in seeing it for a few weeks. See, that could be a wonderful opinion post there but it wouldn't be positive so I will just let it go.

So without pictures here is what we have been up to:

• Dancer has been sick. So sick one day that she didn't even want the t.v. on. You know a kid is sick when they don't want to watch t.v.
• We have been making maple syrup. The sap is running faster than we can cook it down. That is a good problem but it makes me feel like I am behind which in turn makes me a wee bit tense. Today we were cooking in front of the garage with the propane cooker. It is colder today so with the steam rolling off the top of the pot and hitting the cold air it looked like we were cooking up some witches brew. The syrup this year is beautiful. A creamy, light, golden color and oh so sweet.
• Spark has been cruising through his math lessons. Yeah!
• It is hard to do math or any other subject when the weather is so nice. A few time we have even been outside without a coat on. Another yeah!
• Dancer had dance pictures taken. She loves it, me on the other hand, well, she loves it. The girls wear their hair in a pony tail for their tap dance and in a bun for lyrical and jazz. We get there and I put her hair up in the bun with about 35 bobby pins, along with all but one other mother, and they decide to do the tap pictures first. Out comes the bun with the 35 bobby pins, take the tap pictures, and put the bun back in with the 35 bobby pins minutes after I just took it out. They also wear false eye lashes. Perhaps if you wear them every day they are easy to get on. When you don't they are about as easy to get on someone else who wildly blinking as it would be to knit behind your back while riding a roller coaster. She was beautiful and I am sure the pictures will be beautiful as well.
• I don't know if I have ever talked about our little goat Eeyore on here, he's is the one on the picture at the top. He is either diabetic or has epilepsy. We give him candy a few times every day and he does really well. When we don't he foams at the mouth and just lays a heap or walks around in circles in a daze like he can't see. We give him a syringe full of sugar water or syrup and he usually turns around quickly and is back to his normal self. Yesterday, when Dad went out to do chores in the morning, Eeyore was having one of his episodes and Dad had to work harder than usual to get him back to normal. Then last night he had another episode and he again didn't come out of quickly. In fact, he started grinding his teeth, fell over and started shaking. He did this twice. This is Dancer's goat so she is out in the barn crying and laying with him in his stall. The rest of us are out there trying to comfort her and figure out what to do to rally this goat back from heading towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Spark came out and prayed and Eeyore started to come back around. Sometimes I think that kid has a direct hot line to God because often when he prays his prayers are answered quickly. By 2 a.m. we felt confident enough to leave him alone and went in the house to bed. Actually Dad and I didn't think he was going to make it through the night but he did. After a sluggish day he seems pretty good tonight. It is amazing how much time and energy we have put into this goat but Dancer loves him so we do.
• Spark has a huge farm set and the kids set it up in the living room. It has been really fun to listen to them play. Dancer is the producer (goat and cow milk, cheese and ice cream) and Spark buys her products at wholesale prices and sells them retail. They have price lists and everything and are figuring out their profits. They are quite the entrepreneurs!

Those are the highlights. We have no commitments tomorrow and are so looking forward to a day of whatever we want. It will probably be cleaning the barn but at least it is our choice!

Dance Competition #1

Up at 4:45 to be ready to leave at 5:30 in the AM. We are so not morning people but we persevered.

Dancer's team did great, they won three golds, three first place trophies and placed 4th and 5th over all. They dance so beautifully that one of their dances made me cry. We are super proud of them, there are a lot of talented kids out there and the competition was steep.

Her team was done dancing by 9:30, we waited for awards at noon and we done about 12:30. With so much of the day left we were able to meet a high school friend for lunch, do some shopping and meeting Grandma for dinner on the way home.

Sixteen hours makes for a long day and we are all ready to fall into bed. Spark got a little bit of head start on us, he feel asleep in the car.

Ice pelts and disappointments

This morning the news was full of school closings and late starts in the southern part of the state. I held my breath all day before we headed into town that the bad weather would hold off here until later tonight. While we were at the YMCA for Spark's swimming lessons and gym class it started to sleet. The temps are hanging right around 32 degrees so it is coming down as sleet which is horrible for driving.



We stopped for dinner and it seemed as though we were going to dodge the really bad weather. I breathed a sigh of relief and we headed for the grocery store. We were not in there more than a half an hour and by the time we got back out side little ice pelts were falling and accumulating on the pavement. They were big enough that they actually hurt when they hit your face. The car, which was warm from driving, was completely encased in ice. Why the ice scraper is hanging in the garage instead of in the car I don't know, but I am out there being pelted with ice trying to scrape the ice off the windshields with a CD case so that I can see to drive. I will take snow any day over this ice stuff.



Dancer gets into her dance class and her teacher isn't there. The owner comes in and tells the girls that her teacher wasn't working there anymore. She came out and told me that she had to fire her for some reason or another that didn't really make a lot of sense. Dancer was just saying at diner how she was excited to see her teacher at class as she really enjoyed having her for a teacher, I think all the girls did.



As we were leaving we got a note that said that all the girls should be taking gymnastics next year for new dance routines. We also got the letter and summer schedule about auditions for next years showline, that everyone has to train year around and that not everyone will be given a placement in a show line to make room for others who are in basic classes this year. Every year there have been girls that aren't asked back or even let go during the year, but to put it in writing, in capital letters no less, just seemed so harsh.



There have been a few things that Dancer has not been happy with this last year but with her teacher being fired, the extra gymnastics class and the audition letter Dancer was just livid. She got in the car, read the papers and announced that she is not dancing there next year. She was already leaning in that direction but tonight sealed the deal. I must say that I can't blame her and I support her decision. I am actually proud to see her take a stand on something she believes is unjust. It is just a little disappointing as she loves to dance and there isn't another studio that is close enough to us where it would be very convenient for her to dance. The next closest one is about 45 minutes down the road and it would be at least two trips a week.



Since we got home Dancer has been saying every few minutes that she just can't believe that her teacher was fired, especially in the middle of the season. She shared that she even wanted to cry in class when they were told the news but by not saying anything she was able to keep it together. She came out as I am typing this and said that maybe the events of tonight and her favorite teacher moving away the beginning of this year is a sign that she is suppose to try something else. She is going to be okay. I think she grew up a little bit tonight.

Dance Recital

Dancer's songs were Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney and Wings, Witchcraft by Elvis, Come Sail Away by Styx, I Got My Mind Set by George Harrison and Dancin' Machine by Jackson 5.

Spark' songs were Fishin' in the Dark by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, La Bamba by Richie Valens and Dancin' Machine by Jackson 5.

What's a boy to do...

A dance competition can be a pretty long day for the family. We had a 186 mile round trip, left at 4:45 AM and returned home at 8:15 PM. It was a lonnnggg day for some of us. Dancer, however, commented "today went so fast". Sure. Mom and Dad spent the day sitting on oh so comfy folding chairs or pacing about the auditorium.

Spark and his friends spent much of the day playing Nintendo DS. Here they are sitting by a wall because we were there so long the batteries went dead and they had to go where they could plug in. The Picto-chat feature is always popular as groups of kids try to find each other in the crowd. Spark did behave really well at the competition and got to have supper at a restaurant he really like. The goats, rabbits, ducks, chickens and Nikki the wonderpup, thought the day was even longer for those left behind.

Nervous jitters

Dancer had dance try outs today and she has been so nervous for days. The last couple of weeks she has been working very hard to get some new tap steps, leaps, and turns looking polished and increasing her flexibility. The try outs were two hours long and when I went to pick her up she felt she had done well. Now she waits. The letter on which level she will be placed won't come in the mail until after May 11th. We thought she worked really hard and did a great job preparing so this morning Dad stopped and got her a gorgeous red rose. I was very proud of her attitude afterwards. She was telling me about what level she hopes to be placed in and how she felt she did well enough to make that level. I asked her what she would do if when the letter came she didn't make it. She said that then she would just have to work harder this next year and try again and that she wouldn't quit dancing even if she was disappointed. In my mind, with that attitude, she is a great dancer.

A little bit of fame

Dancer got her picture in a national dance magazine! It was so exciting today when the magazine came and she found her picture. We knew it was going to be in the magazine we just didn't know what month it would be.


This is her second time in a national magazine. The first time was when she was a baby in Taste of Home. The Dad's mother was one of the people they highlighted one month and we were in the picture with her.


It's not like the cover of Vogue, but hey, we are excited.

Dance, Dance, Baby!

One of the days of the year Dancer can hardly wait for came today. It was the first dance competition of the year! She has been so excited that she has spent the last two days making lists of everything she needed to bring with and then packing and checking to make sure she packed everything over and over. We went to St. Paul to the Excel Center so it was a long trip and we had to be there at 8 a.m. Early, early morning and our family does not do mornings too well but we all bounded out of bed by 5:30 a.m. at the excitement of a competition. Her dance team did very well. They won three golds and three first place trophies! Dancer was chosen to go up and get the award for their ballet dance and here she is with it. We are so proud of her! On the way home we drove by a store that had these big cement sports balls outside of it. We pulled over and she and Dad hopped out to take her picture with the basketball. It was all so fast I didn't even see what the store was. It was a long but fun packed day.

Bird Dance

We ran around today like chickens with our heads cut off. This morning started early with a basketball game at a school that is 40 minutes to our west. The driving there was fine but by the time we started home, which was only 10:45, all that had changed. There were cars in the ditches on both sides of the freeway. We get home, grab a quick lunch, get Dancer all dolled up for a dance show. The dance show is 40 minutes to the east and by now the roads are horrible. We drove 35 mph on the way to the show. There was a 2 o'clock and a 6 o'clock show. We were very fortunate that Grandma was staying in a hotel there and we were able to relax in her room between the shows. One of the dances they performed was one where they are birds. It is really quite a cool dance. Here are pictures of the costumes. This is Dancer and one of her friends from class.
Spark and Grandma in the stands during the intermission

Spark was a wonderful brother and bought his sister a rose. He even wrote her a card.

Dance show

Today was a busy, busy day. Dancer started basketball this morning. She had to be there at 10 a.m. for a two hour practice and then had to be at a dance show by 1:00 which was 45 minutes away. We were like that car ad, zoom, zoom, zoom. We get to the school and not only is there the dance show but a swim meet as well. We were one of the fortunate ones who got to park in the school parking lot but we had to walk at least a block across the tundra to the front doors. Well, it felt like the tundra anyway, the wind was howling and it was 25 degrees. They need to be at these things early to mark their spots on the floor which takes about 15 minutes and then we wait. The first show wasn't until 3:30 so it was a long time to sit but it gave us time to have a bite to eat and get Dancer ready with make up, hair and costume.

She was in two shows today so Spark and I didn't stay for the first one, we went shopping instead. We ended up at the mall and it was insanely packed, I thought the economy was suppose to be bad this year! Everyone and their dog was in the check out lines at Target or walking the halls at the mall. It was hard to even move around.

Between the shows we went out to eat with another family. It was really a treat as we don't usually go to sit down resturants. Our norm is to bring food with us if we are going to be gone over a meal time so we rarely eat out and if we do, it is the dollar menu at McDonalds were we get burger and have our own drinks with so we don't even go inside.

Spark and I went to the second show at 7:30 and it was good, we had front row seats. There are usually a few rows of folding chairs set up so we went in early to sit in those. Sitting in bleachers makes my back just scream out in pain after an hour or so and we were going to be sitting there for about three. Spark sat so wonderful during the whole show and was so patient all day! I thanked him over and over because if makes the day so much more enjoyable if he isn't jumping around and figiting. Here is Dancer before the show.

They had this cool picture frame set up that the dancers ran threw when they came out on to the floor. Spark also dances at the same studio, not in one of the groups that dances in these shows, and so I wanted a picture of him in the frame. It was pretty cool, it must have been about eight feet high. We left the show after Dancer's studio finished their last dance, which was before the show was over, and we still didn't get home until after 10 pm. That doesn't sound to bad but when we get home we still have chores to do. We can move pretty fast through them though when it is cold out!

Our bunny update is that none of them made it. Yesterday morning the four where still alive and well and then during the day they crawled away from each other and got too cold. One was still alive and we brought it and the mother in the house last night but it still didn't make it. I think that being brought back from the brink twice and being by itself was too much for it. We had them in the basement and it just wasn't warm enough for one alone. Next time we have a batch, which we hope is in the next day or so, we are going to put them in the garage and put the heat lamp we use for chicks over them.

Veteran's Parade

There was a Veteran's Day parade today at the VA hospital and our dance studio was one of the floats in it. The VA here has such a beautiful campus and the parade route was no exception. The temperatures, however, were not as wonderful as the campus. It was in the 20's with a blowing wind. Before the parade we were able to wait inside a building. Many, many people were handing out flags and the kids got a couple to carry in the parade. A lot of kids marched in the parade holding signs with the names of people who are over fighting now. Several of them said a name and then AKA Daddy. Many veterans were in the parade, some from the nursing home on campus were being pushed in wheelchairs. This man, who had lost a leg, was in the parade on a bike. There was a lot of clapping and cheering! This beautiful float said "Until they all come home keep a candle burning". We will start saying extra prayers for every family who is still missing a loved one. May God with his awsome power give them peace.This troop was made up of some very young men and women. I thought, what a big decision at such a young age since they would have made it knowing very well their troop could be called to go over seas to serve our country. As a mother it gives an extra pull at my heart. Here is the kids float coming down the route. Right after this the batteries in the camera were low and I couldn't turn it on and off fast enough to get a picture of them dancing. Bummer! Here they are at the end of the route. Not in action but at least a rememberance of them in the parade by the float. Afterward there was a huge reception with warm drinks, cake, a band, lots of guest speakers and best of all, a heated building.

The "eyes" have it - lashes that is

Today was Dancer's first dance show of the season. It was a show at a local high school where several high school and dance schools get together to show off their stuff. There is no judging or prizes, just lots and lots of dancing. Since Dancer moved up a class this year, we entered the wonderful world of false eyelashes. One of us was thinking, "oh good grief" and the other of us was thinking, "yeah! I am old enough to get to wear eyelashes." Having gone through our whole lives without previously coming in contact with a false eyelash, we have had to practice getting these little buggers on. This morning when getting her ready I was thankfull to have that bit of experience under my belt. We did mange much less effortlessly today to get them glued on straight near her original lashes. My mother use to say "you have to suffer to be beautiful" - she was right.

Here she is all glammed up with her lashes on.

Pulling them off

They do really make a big difference

Eyelash or mustache?