Sunday, July 12, 2009

What's A Girl To Do

While my dear husband is playing plumber and doing a pretty good job at tackling our waterless kitchen sink, I find myself getting all contemplative and maybe nostalgic. (i think those are good words to describe my mood) You see in just two short weeks my life is going to change. My new job will start and I will go from a relatively carefree day to day schedule to one that is based on many to-do lists, phone calls, and plunging into the unknown of directing a studio.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited and looking forward to the challenge as it has been a while and I'm ready to dive in. It's one small detail that has me feeling a little lost...what is a modern dancer supposed to do in a ballerina world?! I love ballet (most of the time-sometimes it kicks my tail and I'd like to throw in the towel!) and being on pointe, wearing pretty tutus, and the discipline of training my body. But in all honesty...I never feel more alive than when my hair is down, my feet are bare, and I can let my heart take over. Even sitting hear thinking about it makes me want to move...to release myself from the constraints of classical ballet! I will forever endorse classical training and technique-it truly is the foundation of all dance, but when I want to feel alive, to share my heart...I wouldn't touch a pointe shoe with a 10 foot pole.

So what will I do? How will I find a way to not only dance myself, but create/choreograph as well in the midst of thinking about glissades, jete's, and fouettes?!

I hope you'll pardon my rant...somehow I needed to let my thoughts out so that in the next 15 minutes when I am trying to fall asleep, I won't be laying there thinking all these thoughts and getting myself worked up into something that can't be changed at 11pm. (that already happened once this week)

Ultimately it comes down to trust...God provided this job, this opportunity and He know me best. In that I find peace and will have to actively, day-to-day, depend on Him for this area and then take the chances He gives me when they come. sigh. I think I'll try to sleep now...put these thoughts to rest for today. goodnight

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

The Dunes

Ok...at some point I'll stop posting about this trip! I just keep finding pictures that I want to put up! I still have a few more and then I'll move on...promise!

One night we headed off about 5 minutes down the road to the large sand dunes. Most of us had never been to anything like it. I had a blast and must confess that large open spaces, with the wind blowing, and the sun setting make me want to do one of two things...or maybe even both...either dance or fly! I just can't seem to help myself and if there were so many people around I might have tried to do just that!

Attacking the gigantic hill


Mr.W trying to slide down, but the cardboard wasn't too successful. Some kids were just taking flying leaps and rolling down!



It was beautiful although very windy!


Love this shot his brother captured while we were trying to get a more posed picture like this...


The most amazing thing is that the baby slept the whole time! With all the wind and the sand she simply slept only to wake up when getting in the car. We were pretty impressed.


Jumping off! Fun but note to self - don't try this again in a dress


Don't know what I am doing with my arms! Balancing maybe? Who knows but I look like I'm working on my "jazz" hands!


Finished off with a beautiful sunset...life doesn't get much better!

Cape Hatteras Adventures

About mid-way through our week we decided to take off for some time to ourselves and head south to explore a little and ended up doing one of the most "touristy" things we've ever done together.

Of course always glued to the iPhone to navigate...even when the car has a navigation system in it!

We visited the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and Museum. It was a fun experience and I'm glad we did it although climbing the, I think, 9 flights of stairs to the top was quite the workout. Apparently this particular lighthouse is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country!


Just about to climb!


Looking down at the old keepers house...now the museum


On our way down that morning we had passed a house that looked like the one from the recent movie "Nights in Rodanthe" so we stopped on the way back to check and see. Plus get a few pictures. A couple days later in a gift shop it was confirmed to be the right house! I was pretty proud of myself for guessing while driving past it and I've never even seen the movie!

It was pretty incredible and the water even came up under the house at high tide...that part is kind of scary though and probably why they were only selling it for $800k instead of over $1 million!

Right by the Rodanthe house the beach was incredible. Hardly any people were there and the waves were so big! I could have stayed there for the rest of the day, but we had to head back. Still it was a great morning together!

More of the Beach!

One of the best memories from the week at the beach was a surprise planned by my sister and brother in-law. Every night a different couple would make dinner for everyone and for Jonny and Alissa they made homemade pizza. Amazing! Afterwords they wanted us all to go on a walk and when we came back Jonny would be ready with dessert. So we headed off to the beach and when we came over the dune this is what we found....

The Masterminds!



Sister-in-law Tina and niece Selah


Nate, Tina, & Selah

My wonderful in-laws!


We had such a great time hanging out...and stuffing our stomachs with s'mores! I didn't even mind missing So You Think You Can Dance and to make up for missing "my" show, the Mr. let me do this....I am one lucky girl to have such a wonderful man who will let his wife put him through so much. He even had a little sunburn! And this is one of the many reasons I call him Mr. Wonderful!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

"I could have danced all night..."

The Best!

So this week Mr. husband and I had our first ballroom lesson together! Well...that's not totally true because we had one lesson a week before our wedding but that doesn't really count because it was such a whirlwind! And I really don't remember a thing about the lesson other than the fact the instructor was breathing on me with dragon breath.

We started off with waltz. Funny thing is, apparently ballet can sometimes work against you even in a waltz because you lead with your heal (big no-no in ballet) and not your toes. So I have some habits to break! Over all I think we both did well...and I made mistakes so I think that secretly makes my husband relieved that "the dancer" doesn't always get it first time around. I love him even more for doing this and that he actually wants too, not me having to drag him kicking a screaming!

I think we are doing Rhumba next week, but the one I am really looking forward to at some point is Tango! Not sure when that will come...in the mean time I'll work on not stepping with my toes and bringing me feet together!

p.s Sorry for the poor photo quality. It's a print I have that I scanned because all of their pictures are protected by royalties