Monday, January 31, 2011

Wanna dance?



Today is the first day of the dance classes.  I've dusted off my dance shoes and put a new playlist on my ipod.  I am beyond excited about this year!  I will  be teaching 2 preschool ballet classes this year and assisting 2 preschool tap classes.  Last year when the season started I was just going to be a teachers assistant. With over 20 preschoolers enrolled in one class it was decided to split them into 2 classes.  That's when I was approached about taking one of the classes all by myself.  I was honored to have the opportunity to do it.  My 8 ballerinas did a great job at recital and I was smiling from ear to ear like a proud momma during their performance.  I couldnt't have been more pleased with them.  They did such a great job.  So as we begin a new year I feel a little more prepared and confident in myself as a teacher.  I learned a lot last year and I'm hoping that I do an even better job this year with both classes.  Being a dance instructor and working for a dance studio is a childhood dream and I am so blessed to be able to have this amazing opportunity.  It's going to be a great year. I can feel it in my toes.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Put It In Writing


I was feeling crafty yesterday but never got around to making anything.  I didn't know excatly what I wanted to do but I knew that I wanted to use some of my new scrapbook supplies. So at 11pm I was struck with an idea to make a little 4x6 book to keep track of all the things I want to accomplish this year. So I went through my paper and stickers and this morning I got busy.  Here are just a few pictures of the book.  I already filled in January goals and as I complete them I will check the little boxes. I'm hoping that at the end of the year I can look back and see how much I was able to accomplish.



Fog Delays and Growing Up

Today was the third fog delay for Bella. Which means school starts two hours later. It also means sleeping in, having a nice relaxed breakfast and lounging around until it's time to put on the school uniform. I love the extra time with her in the morning. She spends most of her day at school and then a couple of afternoons a week she is at dance classes so I cherish any extra time we have together. I don't want her to grow up. I asked her yesterday if she would consider staying in second grade until she was 21. She said no and looked at me like I was crazy. She is growing up too fast and I can't do anything about it. It happens in the blink of an eye and no matter how hard I try I can't stop time or make it go in slow motion so I can enjoy ever single second. She thinks I'm silly when I tell her to stay little forever but one day when she's a mom she will understand.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Other Mr.G

This is the other man in my life. His face totally melts my heart. He is a mommas boy and I love it.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

I Don't Love Exercise


These are my new running shoes. I do love them. They are awesome.

Here I am about to cross the finsih line at Disneyland.  I did the 5k race there in 2009. I had a personal best time for a 5k this day. Finished in under 32 minutes. Yay me!!!



Here I am after I finished my 5k.  Miss. Bella competed in a race that day too.


I am not one of those people that LOVE exercise. I never have been and I don't think I ever will be. If I loved exercise then I would be an entirely different person physically.  I tried the gym thing and that didn't work out and I had to cancel my membership. I bought lots of exercise videos with the intention of working out everyday at home.  Well with a small child and a full time job at the time that didn't last either.  I've tried excercise classes but dropped those as well when my schedule began to get too busy with other obligations.  The only thing that has ever seemed to fit my schedule was running.  Mr.G became an avid runner about 3 years ago.  At the time I was pregnant with my son so the only physical activity I could continuing doing was my tap class.  So about a year later I decided that I would give running a try.  I started out slow, with walking being the main form of exercise and throwing in a few minutes of jogging until I could run a whole 2 miles without stopping.  I stuck with it and was able to run a couple of 5k races that year.  I was very proud of my accomplishments. Life became a little busy so the running was put on the backburner for awhile. So in an attempt to get myself into shape and loose some unwanted pounds I have decided to pull out the running shoes again.  I'm not an early riser so getting up at the crack of dawn is not an option for me.  I don't like to run at night when it's dark either (I'm a big scaredy cat, I think about all of the crazy things that could be out there waiting for me so I stay inside, don't judge me) and my days are filled with lots of activities (mostly checking my facebook and watching re-runs of Grey's Anatomy) so that leaves the weekends.  Since it's been months since I've hit the pavement I decided that I could ease back into running until daylight lasts a little longer and I can go in the evenings again.  So far so good. I've made myself go out in the blistering cold (okay so I'm exaggerating but it is cold) to run at least 2 miles.  I will admit that I do feel good when I get done and then I get motivated to make smarter food choices.  I have a goal to not only exercise at least 3 times a week but to lose a total of 30lbs. this year. I will keep you posted as I transform myself into a new hauter housewife. But don't expect me to post any of those before pictures of myself like they do on The Biggest Loser.  I don't want to frighten any of you away. 

Saturday, January 22, 2011

More Recital Photos

So here are the professtional photos of  Isabella taken at picture day in her recital costumes.


This is her hip hop costume. Don't you wish you had a head to toe silver sequin costume in your closet.



Here is her tap costume.  I love the fringe skirt! 

Friday, January 21, 2011

Recital Photos

Just wanted to share a photo of my favorite dancer at our recent dance recital.  I can't believe how grown up she looks.  Makes me scared to think about what she will look like as a teenager.   She danced in 3 numbers that night (tap, ballet, and hip hop).  She did such a great job and I am so proud of her.  She really knows how to have fun and give it her all on stage. Here she is. (I hope to add photos of her in her other costumes as soon as I scan them)


This is Isabella after the recial was over. She is wearing her costume for her hip hop number.










Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Getting Organized

I have been busy trying to get myself more organized. Most people who know me would say that I am an organized person. I keep a color coded daily planner, color coded family calendar, I LOVE binders, page protectors and file folders. Baskets and bins are my BFF.  So it would only make sense that I tackle the one area in our house that seems to have gone unorganized for far too long.  Our closet.  I tackled the closet a couple of weeks ago and I was able to get rid of 14 garbage sized bags of clothes. Yes you read that right. 14 bags.  It felt really good to purge so much stuff from my life. I felt lighter and less stressed out when I walked into my closet to choose an outfit the next day.  But dear blog friends that was not the end of the closet cleaning. I decided that in order to maximize the space we had I was going to buy some of those awesome Huggable Hangers.  I love them!! They really do hug the clothes and keep them from falling off and they just look so fancy.  I was on the lookout for some bins to store my purses. We found some at Ikea but when we got them home they were too big for our shelf so I am still on the lookout for the right sized bins or baskets.  The closet is far from done. I have big plans to make it a functional organized place. Which of course takes time and with a 3 year old to keep entertained all day time for big projects is rare.  But if I plan my days right I can carve out an hour here and there to get it done.  After the big clean sweep of the closet Mr.G and I decided on a rule to keep us from getting into such a mess again. Our rule is: for every new thing that comes into the house, one thing must go.  It's a good rule but one I'm sure will take some discipline to get used to.  At least on my part. I'm great at the bringing in the new stuff, it's the getting rid of the old stuff that's the problem.  I hope that if there is an area of your home that you want to get organized you are encouraged to tackle it head on.  There is nothing better than having a place for everything and having everything in its place.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

January Goals

So I'm a little late posting my January goals but that doesn't mean that I haven't been working on them.  So here they are:
  •  Exercise 3x per week (okay so I am going to admit that I am already failing this goal but it really has been too cold to get out there and run, I promise to do better the rest of the month)
  • Read 1 book (I love reading so this is an easy goal to accomplish, right now I'm reading this)
  • Try 1 new recipe (this should be easy to do too, I love cookbooks so I'm sure I can find something great to try)
  • Work on my Project Life Album (just need to make sure I take lots of photos, get them printed and and put them in my album which is already assembled, it's the easiest scrapbook album ever)
  • Blog 3x per week (again big FAIL so far but I promise to do better)
I will keep you posted as I progress on these goals. Putting them out there in blogland keeps me accountable to make sure I work on accomplishing them. There is no greater feeling than being able to cross something off of your list.  So there they are, in black and white for the whole world to see. Okay, so maybe the whole world doesn't read my blog but I know that at least a handful of people will see them and keep me accountable.

I hope you all have set some small goals for yourself to accomplish this month or even big ones that you will be working on all year.