11/21 was another busy weekend. I took a half day off work on Thursday to go to Pnut’s conferences – more on that tangent later. It just happened to work out to be the same day Randy left for Arkansas. Friday night she spent the night at G’ma’s. Saturday morning we went to the Eisenhower Craft Show. Came home for a bit then went to the Fisher Theater to see Rock of Ages – awesome show! Sunday morning I was up early & cleaned out the frig, took the shelves out & scrubbed them down. Picked the girl up, had lunch at Tim Horton’s, went grocery shopping. Then I had every intention of vegging the rest of the day – until I saw the weather forecast. Rain late tonight for the next couple days. Blah! So I went out & used the leaf blower on the front yard & as much of the neighbor’s as I could reach. Sent Angel & Amanda out to finish Lois’s front yard while I did between the houses. Picked them all up – filled the entire yard waste container & 7 bags! Glad it is done and before Thanksgiving for a change, too!
My favorite purchases from the Ike Craft Show
Rock of Ages was an awesome show! The “Sound Guy” who was the narrator sounded like he could have also played Dr. Frankenfurter in Rocky Horror. Laurie had seen in on Broadway in New York & thought we might enjoy it when it came to Detroit. She was very correct!! There were 7 of us: me, Laurie & her friend Michelle, Mom, Linda, Dave & Catie. I don’t know about Laurie & Michelle, but the rest of us sang every song & rocked out (I know Mom didn’t since she didn’t know the songs)!!
I went to conferences Thursday 11/18. Talk about embarrassing. A-, B-, 3 Ds and a big ol’ fat F. Basically all her teachers said the same thing that I’ve been hearing since 3rd grade. She has the potential to do much better, if she’d just turn her work in !!! Life Skills (the A- class) says she tends to act a bit domineering to the other girls who aren’t in her “inner group”, but is great otherwise. French (the B- class) says she’s ummm, very enthusiastic!! Basically she’s doing well (!!!) in the class but is social to the point of being disruptive. The other classes, it’s the same ol’, same ol’. Missing assignments & not doing well on tests. I really don’t know what to do with her. Especially when I know she does the assignment, but doesn’t turn it in! This has been an issue forever! She’s never gonna get into State like she wants with crappy grades. That’s OK, I’ll be perfectly fine with shipping her little butt off to bootcamp, no matter the branch! She really thinks Randy & I are kidding. Nope.
The Tremaine Convention 11/13- 11/14 wasn’t as horrible as I expected. It was foggy as crap when we left the house, and then left later than I wanted so I sort of was freaked out. But as soon as we crossed over into Detroit, it cleared up & I was able to fly then. We pulled up to the hotel right at 7:30 and luckily all the girls have black & lime green warm ups with the studio name on the back, so it was easy to see a bunch walking in. I told Angel to jump out & go in with them while I parked. I got her settled & my stuff in the room, then left for the craft show. I truly wasn’t thrilled about going, but it ended up being OK. Although I still have issues with the Hyatt marketing people who thought it would be a good idea to schedule both a dance convention with a couple hundred teenage and younger girls on the same weekend with a hockey convention with a couple hundred teenage and younger boys!! Besides it not being pleasant with all the noise, I can’t imagine how the staff liked that!!! Anyway, Terina had reserved rooms for everyone & when I said I was OK with sharing a room, I figured it would be with one other adult & child. WRONG ! ! ! ! ! There ended up being 3 adults & 4 girls in our room! And we got lucky in that we got the biggest room – I can’t imagine how the other smaller rooms were with 4&4!!! I had no desire to share a bed with another female that I didn’t know before that day, so I opted for an air mattress on the floor. I had paid extra for the observer wristband that allowed me to watch the classes & competitions.
I missed all of Saturday’s classes, but I went with Angel, Lauren & Cheryl to watch the competitions that night. And I missed Sunday’s contemporary class (that I really wanted to see) because I went to the Parent Forum with Joe Tremaine. Darn it. But I did catch the hip hop & street dance classes. The kids went crazy over street, because the teacher was Tony Bellissimo who was a finalist in 2009’s So You Think You Can Dance. I enjoyed watching him teach & interact with the kids. One of the first things he told them was to “Fake it til you make it”. If you mess up, keep going like you meant to do that. And he lived up to that, too. He had the boys out on the floor doing the dance & he was doing some break dance moves on the carpet & kicked his shoe off while he was spinning. I saw him hesitate for just a second, then he played it off & picked his shoe up & pretended it was a phone, etc. It was neat that at the end, they had a dance-off with the older kids who were doing hip hop on the other half of the ballroom. He had the teens chanting “Marty” (the hip hop teacher) while the wall was being opened and as soon as it was, they started their dance while the older kids watched (arms folded, etc – it was funny). And when they were done, the older kids danced while the teens watched. I am not biased, but the teens did better. They had a better dance & really put their all into it.
The final thing on the agenda was a faculty dance. All the teachers plus some kids from from Joe Tremaine’s studio danced. It was fun, because they female & male teachers had their own Dance Off. The guys pulled out their “secret weapon” and pulled off their sweat pants and they were all wearing black tights & basketball shorts with their tennis shoes. They danced to – of course – Men in Tights! Joe Tremaine even came out in his tights & shorts and danced with them. They did the kick line & everything It was hysterical! He can still move for being an elderly gay man!
Starting the Dance Off - Angel is in the lower left with blue & black bra on.
Men in Tights!
Thanksgiving was about the same as usual. Nothing really exciting happened. Random "Turkey Dancing" that I came up with, but that was about it. Angel figured out too late about the Lions halftime show & then got mad at me for not telling her about it. Hellooo? There are signs posted at the studio in a couple places for weeks. She could have read it for herself. Too bad. We most likely wouldn’t have seen her anyway, since it looked like most of what the kids did was hold banners to look like a giant flag while Kid Rock sang Born Free. I know it would have been fun, but too much of a hassle for me!
So anyway – the tree is up, most of the decorations are out. The clean up efforts after the Christmas tornado are almost complete. Speaking of which – our tree is an emergency vehicle wanna-be!! I should have checked the lights before getting ready to do the tree, since neither of the strands of chaser lights worked. I half-heartedly messed around with one of them & only the yellow lights come on. Angel & I looked at each other, then decided to put them on anyway with the strands that stay on. So our tree has amber blinky lights like Randy’s car! LOL! I had to get new spiral trees for the yard since the old ones had sections out. And I got a new blow-mold snowman and the most awesome flying pink pig ! ! ! I love it!
On the happier side – the same guy who made the H’ween Forum made up the ChristmasFanClub Forum. So I got into a card exchange with a lot of the same people I’d exchanged H’ween cards with. It’s pretty fun. I have made a half-hearted attempt to make some plywood gift props to put out in the yard, but it got too cold & I can’t imagine that paint would stick & dry well in 30 degree weather. So there is a random 2’x2’ square box in the garage and pieces of plywood to make several others. I’ve been PMing a girl from the boards who lives in Poland. She’s 16 and we’ve been talking about the Christmas customs we both have. It’s pretty interesting and she speaks (types) fairly good English, too. I’m consciously trying not to use any odd slang that she might not understand. She wanted to know what Angel is asking for at Christmas & stuff.
Angel "helping" build the Christmas prop. Put the lid back on that gift!!
Randy’s work is pissing him off. He went back this week after his vacation & found out he’d been demoted from Team Leader to a Software Engineer. Same pay & stuff but decreased responsibilities. Apparently there are rumors that he has a bad attitude & the CIO is a bitch anyway. As much work & time he spends there & they treat him like this! He talked to his old boss Jeff (aka a reliable source) and Jeff says they’re basically trying to squeeze him out. Neat. So this week has been a trial for him. I’m staying supportive for him. I know I’ve told him 100 times if anything happens, I’d be ready to move to Arkansas the next day. But now that it’s a distinct possibility, I just ask to stay here long enough for Pnut to finish the school year, if we have to stay here a couple months without him, so be it!! It’s scary, but I’m surprisingly not worried too much. Nothing may even come of it. I was praying about it & got the feeling that God has something planned for us. I just keep praying that it goes smoothly!
So that’s all that's up here. I got a Save The Date text from Terina that the competitions are going to be April 30 – May 1 and May 12 – 15! Woohoo!
His name is Big Mike. I got him on clearance after H'ween.
Thing!!
