Oh no! I don't post anymore!

Well, I've gotten much better at reading two blogs: my sister-in-law Amy's and my dance coach Betsy's. They make such fun posts! Maybe that's why I don't post. I don't have children to post about. How fun is blog without pictures of kids?

Solution: post pictures of other people's kids. Yes! This is me holding my nephew Jonah this past April. I love this picture because it shows I love him! :)

So what have I been doing lately? I'll tell you.

1) Dance! As always. First competition with my new partner, Ben, this coming Saturday! We're not ready! Also, I'm on the ballroom team at school now, so that takes a little time. And I'm in gold 2 standard. And I'm still doing my tap company. Fun stuff... keeps me active.

2) School. Oh, the daily grind. I always have so much homework... and I constantly feel behind in everything! But I am doing all right and I will graduate with a Master's in Math Education some time this coming summer.

3) Teaching. AHHHHHH!!!! It stresses me out, yet I love it.

4) Social Dance Club. I'm the president of an on campus club. For some reason, I like to take responsibilities upon myself that I can't really handle. But it's okay... I like the club :)

5) Nursery. In my ward I'm not the longest standing nursery leader. Which means I'm the one who knows what to do! And I am in charge. Of everything. :D They're great kids though, I love them so much! By the way, several of the kids I have in nursery now weren't born when I got called into nursery. I find that amusing.

6) Maintaining a long distance relationship. 5 months ago I started dating Chris even though we live an 8 hour drive away. He's supposed to move here soon, though!

Dance!

Well~

I haven't updated this in a long time. Thought I'd do a dance update! In January, my tap company (including me, obviously) did a huge performance at the Covey Center in Provo. So many of my friends and family came. (Thanks!!!!!) I've also done several tap performances since then, and I have many to come. Here's a picture from the big show in January. I'm in the black and purple, in case you can't tell with all the makeup.

Next up, a photo of me all makeup-ified for a ballroom competition. I do lots of them. They're fun! I've finally started placing. Not every time, but I do get into the finals sometimes. In the fall I got 4th place in pre-champ standard and 3rd in novice standard. Last week I got 5th in novice standard. Yay for becoming a better dancer!

Lastly, I have realized that I haven't posted a video of me dancing for a while. I decided you've seen me all practiced and polished, but probably not when I'm learning. The following is a video of me dancing the samba the first day me and Seth got it choreographed, so I was just barely learning it (actually, I still feel that we're just barely learning it... :P). I'm dancing with Brittney (my friend and coach) who choreographed it - the whole thing - that day, and Seth is videoing us. I'm dancing with her instead of Seth because we'd just learned it and that way we'd be able to watch the video and he could see her doing the steps he's supposed to do so he could copy it. Also I'd forgotten my dance shoes so I'm wearing jazz shoes, which look kind of dumb. :P

Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Lean your ear... what?!

Apparently, I have been singing the words to "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" wrong for my entire life.

According to Wikipedia, the original lyrics are thus:

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,
Lean your ear this way;
Don't you tell a single soul,
What I'm going to say

Christmas Eve is coming soon;
Now you dear old man,
Whisper what you'll bring to me;
Tell me if you can.

When the clock is striking twelve;
When I'm fast asleep,
Down the chimney broad and black,
With your pack you'll creep;
All the stockings you will find
Hanging in a row;
Mine will be the shortest one,
You'll be sure to know.

Johnny wants a pair of skates;
Susy wants a dolly;
Nellie wants a story book;
She thinks dolls are folly;
As for me, my little brain
Isn't very bright;
Choose for me, old Santa Claus,
What you think is right.

The last verse has been changed recently to be more politically correct:

Johnny wants a pair of skates,
Susie wants a sled
Nelly wants a storybook –
one she hasn't read
as for me i hardly know
so I'll go to rest
Choose for me, dear Santa Claus,
What you think is best.

I still like my last verse the best - the one I've been singing my whole life, I mean. It goes like this:

Johnny wants a pair of skates;
Susy wants a dolly;
Nellie wants a story book;
She thinks dolls are folly;
As for me, you dear old man,
On this Christmas night;
Bring for me, dear Santa Claus,
What you think is right.

*shrug* I think I'll just keep singing my version. Haha.

This is me.

All I do is read, read, read! Sadly, the stuff I read is more difficult than what this little girl is reading... most likely. :)

Master's programs sure require a lot of reading! I have read more than 80 research articles since I started this July. Ahhhhh!

Horses, oats, and math?

So it turns out that if you set a Holly loose in your office, she will teach you a hilarious mnemonic decive (instead of SOHCAHTOA, we have some old horse caught another horse taking oats away), and once you leave, you will come back to a funny picture. Or at least, that's what happened the other day :)

Waffles, mmm!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled overdue posts to bring you a delicious waffle recipe.

Seriously. I was out of Bisquick and decided to try this recipe. I don't think I'll ever go back. It was so delicious, that even though it required a little extra effort, it was more than worth it.

I have a photo album recipe book. If you have one, here's a PDF with the recipe on it for you to print and cut out. Otherwise, here's the recipe.

Way-good Waffles
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar; set aside. Preheat waffle iron to desired temperature and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the milk, butter and vanilla. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture; beat until blended.

Ladle the batter into a preheated waffle iron. Cook the waffles until golden and crisp. Serve immediately.

Oh yeah. When I made them, it made 7 waffles (I scraped out ALL the remaining batter for that 7th one, though, and it was still smallish). So I don't know how many you want to make, but that's how many this makes (of the 2-square variety, see below).

Mmm-mmm good!

Overdue post #2

Father's Day!

For Father's Day, most of us kids (and grandkids) went to Mom and Dad's for a cookout - except those of us who were out of town. It was way fun, and I mostly tailed Jake and Elly around so I could get pictures of them. By the way, Dad, if you're reading this, I'm glad you're my father and you've taught me a lot of things! For example, when I was little, you let me do logic puzzles with you, and taught me pretty advanced deduction for a kid my age. And now I'm a master's student in Math Education... go figure.

So without further ado... the pictures!

Amy made the dessert. "Burger" cupcakes and "french fry" cookies! It was delicious.

Jake obviously agrees with me. Yum, yum!

Jake found some stuff in Grandma's garden... a baby carrot (which he ate) ...

... a turnip (which he didn't eat) ...

...and a worm, which nobody ate.

Then, Grandma took the kids on a wheelbarrow ride. They loved it, and so did she... can you see that big smile on her face?

Even though Jake and Elly have a full sized trampoline at home, they thought this one was great to jump on. Haha.

I took Jake and Elly outside to do sidewalk chalk. Elly actually made lines and circles. I was impressed! Jake made lines, scribbles, and squares.

As you can see, it looked awesome! I did help a bit, by the way. Hahaha.