My Little Ballet Class

I teach a little beginners ballet class for little 3-4 year olds because one of our friends really wanted her daughter to take ballet. I have loved doing it! I have only had two girls, June and Alexis, but since I'm doing this at home, we don't have too much space anyways. I basically move all the furniture out of our living room and use the backs of chairs as the barre. These pictures are all of June as Alexis missed this day. June is showing me 1st position in the above picture. 2nd position
Plie (doesn't she look good? Her alignment is perfect in this picture!)We practice walking on our toes with our arms in different positions, her arms are in high 5th.

For Christmas, I taught June a little Clara dance from the Nutcracker. she loves being able to dance with a nutcracker. She actually did really well at remembering everything herself until her mom and Tyler came and watched.

Dancing with a nutcracker

Thats all for now...just studying for finals...

Christmas Time is Here!

All Decorated for Christmas!
We got a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful experience, as Tyler and I drove around the beautiful country side of Virginia to get to the Christmas tree farm. I love picking out a tree, it is perhaps one of my favorite Christmas traditions. An old, 80 year old man owned the farm and he was so helpful and kind! He advised us to walk a lot and never sit down, as that was what had made him so healthy. In fact, I would have guessed he was 70 as he looked so good.
I tried to get a shot of the whole room... It almost all fit. All of our nutcrackers on top of the bookshelf.

A few photos of some of our ornaments.
We tried to get a picture of ourselves in front of the tree.

This Saturday morning it SNOWED!!!

The view from our apartment building.
Our car with snow on it!! A snowy Buena Vista.

Pictures from the little Nutcracker show I was in:

Me as the Spanish dancer in the 2nd Act variations of the Nutcracker

All of the variations (minus Russian), Spanish, Arabian, Chinese, Mazipan and the two standing in the green are representing the Waltz of the Flowers.

The SVU dancers! Sara Lamb (dew drop in Waltz of the Flowers) and Aleah Ingram (Chinese).

Kinsey Cluff (one of my beehives) and I.

I took ballet this semester and Missy (the teacher) owns a studio in town and asked the SVU students in her class to be in her Nutcracker (rather scenes from). I was in the Snow and Flower corp and did the Spanish dance as a solo. We had a show last Tuesday at W&L and then this Saturday at SVU and we have one more show this Tuesday at W&L again. It was a lot of fun and I am so happy that I have been able to dance again!!!

Tyler and I also went to the winter ball last night, but I don't have the pictures on my computer yet! I will get those soon.

Until then....we only have one more week of classes, then finals and then we are coming HOME!!!!

A Few Things...

#1: We got a new car!!!!

It is a 2003 Subaru LegacySorry... I did not realize it had gotten dark when I decided to go out and take pictures. It has a sun roof and a moon roof! Oh, and a rack, which Tyler is excited about.The interior is really pretty nice--we have cup holders!!! We do have floor mats but they are still in a bag in the back from being at a dealership.

The back is pretty cool, cause it has a special little safety feature for car seats. We love it and are super excited to have a car again. Anyone need a ride?

#2: I made a really yummy meal!

I made a delicious stew today and it made me so happy. I love comfort food!

#3: I made Aragorn's dagger from Lord of the Rings for my stagecraft class.

Here it is, but it is a little longer and less curvy than Aragorn because of the wood I had to use.It had a nice real leather (pleather) handle and I really carved Elvish into the blade. I am pretty proud of myself, Tyler only helped a little bit.

#4: I helped out with SVU's play She Loves Me backstage and also built the set for my stagecraft class.

The set turned out amazing. It was a revolving set with one side as the inside of the store and the other as the exterior of the shop and street. I painted and put up all those shelves. Cut and made the railing on the top, helped paint, put up the foam bricks, built the main structure and learned a lot in my stagecraft class.Thats all for now! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Wifely Duties

I have finally been able to fulfill some of my wifely duties! I have been working so much and going to school that I have hardly had a chance to make a real dinner (except on Sunday), or clean up the house or anything! This week I am not working at all (at Tuscany) because I am helping backstage with SVU's play, "She Loves Me". I am still gone from 7:30-11, but I was able to be home during dinner time. Tyler and I had time to do dishes and then I made Tyler a delicious Italian meal.

This would be me cooking dinner tonight...I made cookies on Sunday, so I thought i could throw this in here as counting for 'wifely duties'. The great thing is, is that I finally found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I think is just about perfect. I have been searching and trying many chocolate chip recipes over the past few months trying to find the right one (it can't be a special kind with peanut butter, or M&M's in it---just a plain old regular recipe). So, I was looking on my favorite baking website, joyofbaking.com, and decided to try their chocolate chunk cookie recipe (not the chocolate chip recipe, which is also on the website). It was delicious and the cookies looked absolutely beautiful as well. Yummm! I just had to share that, as I had been searching for the perfect recipe for a few months now and i was pretty excited.

Tyler and I are doing really well. We are still pretty busy, but now that soccer is over our life will slow down just a little bit. I am glad he played though, because they had a great season, a great team and I loved watching him play. That all for now as I better get to bed!!

Halloween

This year Tyler and I are pretty much skipping Halloween. The only chance I have had to celebrate fall is through this blog (sad, huh?). We have to work Friday and Saturday at Tuscany because it is Parent's weekend at W&L. This means we are missing the Ward Halloween party, the SVU Halloween dance and Haunted House. We did not even get to carve pumpkins because we don't have a car to go to the store and get them. Yes, I know I sound pathetic, but I love Halloween and fall time and I am so sad that I am missing it. I usually bake a variety of Halloween treats too and since I have worked almost everyday the past few weeks at Tuscany I have not had a chance to do anything. I'm just super tired of working and I need a break and I can't wait till this semester is over. Sorry that this sounds so depressing.

I hope everyone else has a great and happy Halloween!!!

Fall at Treemont

Sunshine hits Building A The view from the Laundry room The Photographer

View from Building D

Nice truck...

Sunlight on the trees and jungle gym

Walking and doing the Jessica pose

The Basketball Court and yellow trees

Treemont's view of Main Hall

For Erik:

I am home alone, as Tyler is at work, and I went up to do laundry and was struck by the beauty around me. So, I decided to grab the camera and take a few shots. The lighting was especially cool and the sky was dark, but the sunlight was hitting the trees. I will probably take more as the season progresses and in a different location. I like the pictures I took, but they did not do Virginia justice. It is really beautiful here....

My Grandpa and Vonnie Visit

My Grandpa and Vonnie flew to Virginia over our Fall Break. They got to see SVU, a few soccer games, where we work, and we all went to Charlottesville and Monticello. It was great to have them visit us in Virginia and we had fun showing them around.

This is Grandpa, Tyler, me, Ricky and Jessica on the Blue Ridge Parkway over looking our home sweet home. Ricky and Jessica

On Saturday, we showed them around SVU's campus and watched Jessica and Tyler's soccer games. Then, we went out to eat at Tuscany and had a great time. On Monday, we drove to Charlottesville and went to Monticello, Jefferson's house.
All of us in front of Monticello Tyler took this picture of me

Ricky, Jessica, Vonnie and I in front of Monticello.

We had a great time touring Monticello. It is a really neat, and beautiful house. It was a strangely very cozy house. I could live there. I also really enjoyed walking around the grounds of Monticello, even though it was pretty cold out.

After Monticello, we headed down to Charlottesville and walked around. We had a great time and we are so glad they flew over to see us. It was a lot of fun!