If you give a dancer a margarita

If you give a dancer a margarita, she will need some chips and salsa to go with it.  

When you give her the chips and salsa, she devours the whole salty bowl and washes it down with the margarita. 

So she realizes she might be a little bit hungry,  

and a little tipsy,

 and should just order some food instead.   

But then she can't decide.  

Lobster macaroni, chili rellenos, and street tacos please! 

Wait a minute……what about all of the cheese? 

She will remember she can't eat that much cheese,

and figures that the cucumber lime gazpacho is a safer bet.

But the gazpacho comes out more like pico de gallo.  

How is she supposed to eat a bowl full of pico de gallo with a spoon?

She doesn't know, and chooses to chat with her dancer friends instead.  

Suddenly out of nowhere, the waiter appears behind her to refill the chips and salsa. 

The dancer has a brilliant idea. 

Why not use the chips and dip them into the gazpacho like pico de gallo?

This is the perfect match, and she finishes the chunky soup with a whole bowl of salty chips.

But the salty chips will make her thirsty, and will need to wash it all down her margarita.

But then she remembers her margarita is gone.  

So she will ask the waiter for another one.  

And chances are good, if you give her another margarita, she'll want more chips and salsa to go with it.  

Note: This is very VERY loosely adapted on the book "If You Give A Cat A Cupcake," by Laura Numeroff who has no clue who I am, but her fabulous book gets read to my kids each week!)

Teacher Gifts

So I have been struggling to figure out what to give the teachers at the girl's school as a thank you gift for the end of the year. I of course began to think about this on Monday. Last weekend my Mother and I were at a wedding in NC.

My dress is from Rickshaw Design. Very Very comfy in the humidity!

Did I mention school is out today, Thursday! Yet again flying by the seat of my pants! Work has been crazy busy with details and such. (Not complaining, just stating!) So I haven't exactly been able to put my Martha Stewart hat on and troll Pinterest for hours looking for that perfect gift. Calla loved all of her teachers this year and wanted to do something a bit more then give a bag of M&M's and a Starbucks card. Fyi, if anyone wants to give me a bag of M&M's and a Starbucks card, I would love you till the sun goes down. But she wanted it to be more personal.

Cue last nights trip into town to pick up the small child named after a large county, aka India. A stop later at Tarjet Boutique and the liquor store and we were done. Now, when I put out there on Facebook that I was thinking of giving wine and booze to the teachers it was met with mixed opinions. I decided to take the safe road and didn't give the wine and booze to the elementary school teacher, I am instead giving it to the ballet teachers! I have completely different relationships with the ballet teachers and they are my personal friends. Some for over 20 years. After I stumbled across these cute insulated wine bags, that task was crossed off the list.

 Back to the 2nd grade teacher. On the shelf next to the wine coozie thingy was a cute insulated cooler tote bag. Smaller then a giant cooler, bigger then a lunch box. The whole gift is perfect for a picnic in the park or a day at the lake……..no kids. We stuffed it full of goodies like a Godiva chocolate bar, lemon lip balm, a matching tumbler, a magazine, sunscreen, and a towel. Lastly we included a nice handwritten note by Calla, as suggested by a teacher friend, telling her how much she enjoyed having her as a teacher this year.

Sorry I wasn't able to get a picture of the bag and all of its contents but it wasn't until I jumped out of the car to let her out in the infamous drop off lane, that I thought to take a picture. I figured I deserved to hold up traffic to get my damn picture since I have spent all year fighting these crazy people who wash faces, finish homework, breakfast, you name it in the drop off lane each morning. You get the idea.

With this weekend being Memorial Day, we decided to be nice bosses and give the guys the day off. Ok, we all know I am just being selfish and want this stinkin' house final inspected. If we can get it together, we might just be able to finish off all of the nagging items to get the cert. of occupancy and get moved in and buttoned up on trim. My lovely Father has been here all week helping us finish up on the staircase. So so close.

Anyone have plans for Memorial Day? Fun plans so I can live vicariously through you? I am staying home and unburying myself from the mounds and mounds of laundry overtaking the bedrooms. It is a bit obscene. I'll spare you the photos. I also have tons of annual flowers for one of our jobs to plant. I might take the extra I order for our shop every year and get the pots planted up.

Have a great weekend!
 

Goodnight Dancers

In the great big theater there was a performance. 

And a red tutu and a cow jumping through the wings. 

And there were 3 girls dancing with chairs. 

And two little chickens, and a pair of silver mittens. 

And a comb and a brush and a dance bag full of stuff. 

And a quiet lady backstage whispering "hush." 

Goodnight theater, goodnight wings, goodnight cow jumping through the wings. 

Goodnight lights, and the red tutu. 

Goodnight girls, goodnight chairs. 

Goodnight chickens and goodnight silver mittens. 

Goodnight comb and goodnight brush. 

Goodnight nobody.

 Goodnight dance bag full of stuff, and goodnight to the quiet lady backstage whispering "hush." Goodnight snow. 

Goodnight air. 

Goodnight dancers everywhere.

The show is over. 

I am both sad and happy. Sad my body won't get the skipping workout on a regular basis, and happy my body won't be doing the skipping workout on a regular basis. Calla did an amazing job, not one bobble, and I ended up with a fat lip from smacking faces with one of my partners during a fake kiss at the last show. Pretty sure my fellow dancers won't forget me yelling onstage in our twirling flying pinwheel lift, "Is my nose bleeding?!?!" Geeze Louise ballet isn't supposed to be brutal. But we all suffer for our art right? Haha! So now it is back to regular classes and helping the kids rehearse for their Spring Recital. Back to working on the house, and hopefully finishing it sooner then later.  

For those of you who aren't on Facebook or Instagram here are a couple of pics. Sorry I didn't manage to get one of the cow, or the chicken, but you can just use your imagination. Also, it appears going through my photo feed that Dave taught India how to ride the motorcycle while we were gone. In her pjs. Wonder how she reaches the pedals? :)  

Hee Haw Train

I am not 100% certain where the weekend went, except it is long gone. I am now here swamped on Wednesday with Calla at home on Spring Break and a ton of work to do. Poor child. One of these days we will take a proper Spring Break. One involving a trip somewhere like all of the pictures I see normal families doing. But since we aren't normal and neither is our work schedule, she gets to hang out with her dear old Mom in her office at home all day. All week. 

Back to this weekend. Because I am pretty sure you would rather hear about that then all of us trekking it to the dentist to have our teeth cleaned. So Saturday I took a ride upon the Hee Haw Train. Meaning we got our costumes for the Gala for Hoedown and I can't lie, I am a little bit excited to be wearing gingham and lace a la Maryann from Gilligan's Island. Giant lace ruffle coming to the bottom of those blue skirts my friends! Not your average tutu here. 

My head is currently swimming with all sorts of large hair ideas involving braids, multiple cans of Aqua Net and a teasing comb thanks to a late night session with my dear friend Pinterest. And of course the brightest reddest lipstick I can find in my makeup bag. It might come out looking perfect or like a drag queen in training. I realize I am skating a very fine line between the two here with this look.

Rehearsal took a bit longer then expected because of the costumes.

So we did what any other dancer, young or old, does with too much time on their hands. Took really bad selfies of ourselves. My friends made fun of me when I smiled so I told them to look goofy. Yeah they didn't. Thanks people.

Moving on. The dipshit dingo dog has found himself a new home. My Dad and Dave built the newel posts for the staircase this past weekend so everyone played outside. Rusty planted himself at the top of the dirt pile and stayed there until the girls told him to move in whatever game they were playing. Pretty sure he thought it was king of the mountain.

Found him like that the next day when they were outside too. Not playing a game this time. He didn't get the memo and planted himself up there anyway.

The staircase is almost done!

The white oak treads have been handmade and are ready to be stained. Posts are primed and ready to be painted a semigloss white. There will be an oak cap on the top of the post. FYI: there is not a table in that space. Nope you didn't see any table there. You saw NOTHING in that area we don't have a final for yet. We aren't using the bathrooms either. I mean, why would we do that, we don't have permission to. Definitely don't use those. :) 

We decided to go with a white turned baluster. Bonus is they are already painted. I have NO desire to paint 100 balusters. And those are not handmade either. We are not Norm Abrams here, and since I don't have an Amish carpenter or Vanilla Ice dressed as an Amish carpenter on staff, Lowes it is.

Dave wasn't kidding when he said the staircase would be the first thing in the new addition and the last thing finished. 

Picking up new baby chickens at the feed store today.  Happy Hump day! 

Hello Spring

Things are getting crazy busy around here these days. In a good way. The house is almost done so we can get our final and move all of our junk in. We still have a lot of work to do after involving trim and doors, final touch ups etc., but we are so close. I am pretty sure the kids won't be happy to loose all of their open space downstairs once furniture goes in. But…..they will live :) 

Totally wish the floors were this clean again. Bwahhaaha who am I kidding! 

The ballet company Spring Gala is almost here. I am getting a bit nervous since I haven't been on stage for a bit, but I am enjoying getting back into better shape just by rehearsing and eating better. Even if it does involve an extravaganza of skipping  and dancing for 8 min. solid. While 8 min. may not seem like a long time, it is kind of deceiving. Just like jump roping.You think to yourself, I used to do this for hours as a kid, yet you find yourself panting after just a minute? Yeah, it is kind of like that. Besides after having 2 kids, skipping ain't easy if ya know what I mean. The piece is called Hoedown. While not the most traditional of ballets, it is a boatload of fun. Which in my opinion makes it something everyone can enjoy, even those not interest in ballet. We can be found whooping, hollering, and twirling around, even flying through the air throughout the piece. The best part of the show is that it will be the first time I get to perform on stage with Calla. There is a pre show piece showing off a group of talented dancers from the school. Calla was lucky enough to be chosen as one of them to perform.  

We are also jamming along with work and are starting to book up into mid summer for new jobs and renovations. I am hoping this year will be a great one with fun and exciting projects coming across our table to build.  

So that is where we are at friends. I will try and post some more pictures so you can get a better idea of how things are looking these days. Trying to get out of my box a bit and not just take pictures of work projects, and the dipshit dingo dog and his partner in crime India. 

I'll leave y'all with this pretty picture. One of my favorite blogs to read is The Fresh Exchange blog. It has a wonderful and simplistic tone about it. Their posts remind me to stop, slow down, and take in the world around me once in a while. The talented and creative designers, a husband and wife duo as well,  have created a cute desktop background for your computer this Spring. I just downloaded it onto mine. The fresh white background with the pop of hot pink flowers makes me smile each time I open my computer. Enjoy!  

XOXO!