Excuses Excuses...

The last time I posted was nearly six months ago. Half of a year. I feel like a failure of a blogger. But in all seriousness, the last six months have been nutso! Here's a little breakdown month by month, of why I had absolutely zero time to devote to blogging. We'll start with March, since I last posted in February, when Aaron got back from India. 

March

My plan was to secure a venue for our Conservatory Spring Fanfare (our school refuses to call and end of year performance the dreaded "r" word- for non-dance people, that would be a recital) as early in the new year as possible. And I had thought that our administrator had made contact with the manager of the Arend Arts Center in Bentonville for said event, and that we were on the books. However, sometime end of Feb or early Mar, I was told that he finally confirmed that he couldn't confirm our desired dates. We wanted to have the show the last week of school. AAC couldn't give us the stage for even one evening, any evening, until around June 6th or something ridiculous like that. And I hate having recitals in June. Ugh.

So, there I was, needing to get parent information packets out regarding Fanfare, and yet having no venue. Crud. This means that I spent my entire Spring Break contacting different venue options, and going to visit them. I went and looked at an auditorium at NWACC, asked around at the Benton County School of the Arts, and even went and looked at the fairgrounds stage. Nothing panned out. Either they weren't available, weren't big enough, or were meant for a livestock show. Crud. Oh yeah, and did I mention I was trying to do this on a really tiny budget?

Luckily, I finally came to the realization that I could have the Fanfare outside of Bentonville. I took a look at the Rogers High School auditorium (let me just take a moment to say that all of the schools around here are just amazing- everything is new, everything is really nice, and every high school around here has an amazing performing arts center; my high school had a piddly little platform for a stage; our community college had the nicest stage in town, when we still lived in Victoria; the high school pacs around here put that to shame!)

Anyway, by the grace of God, it was big enough, had enough dressing rooms, was in our budget, and was available for when we needed it. So, beginning of April, I'm finally getting the stupid parent packet out re: fanfare. This brings me to April

April

Let me start with the most important part of April- my kids birthday. They turned 5! We celebrated in Enid with my family, and did several little fun things here at home. Their big gifts were bikes. I know that those of you reading this care way more about the pictures I need to post from the 5th birthday, than all of this other mess that I'm typing right now. And you will get your pictures. I'm just catching you up first. You know me. Thats' my MO.

But I'm pretty sure I had the first pre-Kindergarten mini-meltdown around their birthday. I mean, 5 years old is just so BIG. How on earth did they get so BIG?! And how are they about to go to school? I vow to make this summer the best, most wonderful season of fun, exciting, creative activities and pure quality time that will help me feel like I can send them off to school in the fall feeling like I've wasted no precious moments with them. More on this later.

Back to my work insanity...

I'm so late getting the parent packet out, that I spend most of the month of April and the first half of May confirming which students are going to perform, and waiting for the fees. Let me just note now that after these shenanigans last Spring, I'm already looking to book the venue for Fanfare. 

I'm going to mention now, how difficult it is the first year of doing anything. Putting the documents together, etc. is so very time consuming. After the first year, you just pull up last year's doc and revise the dates. 

I also spend April convincing the administration that a recital (yes, I said it) doesn't have to have a theme to be good. It can just be classes demonstrating what they've learned. It can just be choreography, or just be abstract. It can just be cute little people in pink and white tutus, and parents will be happy. It can just be an opportunity for kids to get on a stage and perform. And it's too late for a theme anyway. Teachers have already been working on choreography since after Spring Break.

May

All month I prep for Fanfare. Cues. Music. Costume pieces. Closing out the school year. And then I'm planning for summer. Way to late, I might add. It sounds like I am really not with it. But realize that I am only contracted to do the non-teaching part of my job for 5 hours a week. I don't think I've only put in 5 hours a week since April...and maybe not even then. I planned 6 Fairy Tale Summer Dance Camps for ages 3-10 and an entire summer of regular technique classes for ages 11 and up. The Conservatory didn't want to take a break, even thought I was concerned we wouldn't sustain enough enrollment through the summer. 

We decided to offer three sessions (10 weeks total) of scheduled classes at the Int and Adv levels. Scheduling. Faculty placement.

My kids also graduated from preschool. They wore caps and processed in to "Pomp and Circumstance." I started to tear up, but kept it together. It was the cutest presentation. They sang "If I Were a Butterfly" and "Put Your Armor On." It was so sweet. Their favorite part was the cookies afterward. :-)

Fanfare happened. Dress rehearsal was a big honking mess. I was told by the Rogers School District Admin, who I had to go through to secure the rental, that the facility had a headset (for me to communicate cues to the sound booth/light guy 200 yards away). But alas, no headset. So, I had to use a regular microphone to call cues that night. Awesome. And to really top everything off, the RAD presentation, which was to give the audience a better understanding of how RAD classes are run, and how the exam process works, ended up being 30 minutes long. I requested that it be kept at 15 minutes tops. It ended up making our running time waaaaaay too long. We want to educate people, but not put them to sleep.

I got on my knees and begged God to somehow perform a miracle and cause the performance to run smoothly and be a success. He really came through for me. I've never been so nervous about a performance. But it ended up going extremely well. I got a walkie talkie to communicate with the booth. The RAD section got pared down a bit. All of the quick-changes happened just as they needed to. No glitches. It was lovely. I couldn't believe it. Total miracle. 

Whew.

June

Taught Fairy Tale Camp with my children in class. Can you say challenge? I think that most children do much better when their parent is NOT  the teacher. But after a few days, things got better. 

Decided I was done looking at real estate online. I'd been stalking zillow for at least four months, because we kept thinking it would be a great time to try to move into something a little bigger, and rent our house, but it was gonna have to happen before the new school year. I was tired of looking. 

But then, I looked one more time. And two houses that we were really considering, less than a mile away, in the next neighborhood down, in the same school district, got bumped down $10K in price. Crud. Now we should probably go look at them. 

House 1. Pros: big, big garage, big utility room, very motivated seller Cons: not big in all the more important places, don't like the kitchen, NO PANTRY! everything has to be painted

House 2. Pros: The interior is much nicer. The size is right in the right places. The trim is better.  The kitchen is beautiful. The view from the back yard/deck is priceless. We look out over a huge field and lines of trees. Sunset heaven every night. Deer families frolicking across the field. :-) Cons: The garage is not quite as big as we'd like. The floor has been trampled by the owners' indoor labrador. Needs gutters. 

We ultimately decided to put an offer on #2. We negotiated what I feel like was a really good deal. And then after the inspection...an even better deal. This is very exciting, but it also means the rest of our summer is basically gone!

July

We go to Texas to see family for vacation. We have pictures. I will post them. Hopefully, before another 6 months pass. haha! Had a great time. I worked on vacation though. On our loan. On our inspection. On our insurance. Our contracted 10 days to secure all that mess just so happened to be while we were on vacation. 

And I worked on work. Fall schedule confirmations. Faculty confirmations. Nutcracker considerations. Geez, I'm just now mentioning Nutcracker. We started that process back in May. I actually feel like Nutcracker will be a walk in the park compared to this summer. We shall see.

Back from Texas. Aaron has an accident in our Old Faithful Honda Accord. She was a 2001 with almost 300K miles. We gave our car a funeral. She was a good car- a graduation/wedding gift from my parents. She had a good run. 

Back to Texas for a wedding. 

Back to Arkansas to hire a property manager, finish buying a house, buy a car, and tie up all the loose ends from the accident. 

July 22- closing day. We literally closed on our house and then went to a dealership and bought a used car in a massive rainstorm. The rainstorm was a blessing, because the sales guy really didn't think he could sell a car that day. I told him if I could name my price, it would be a done deal. What a day. Exciting, but also somewhat painful for two people who have a hard time spending money. 

July 22-Aug 4th Moving Day. Yeah, you read that right. That's what happens when you don't really have to be out of your house for the new tenants until Aug 5th. You take your time getting all of your stuff out because, hey, you're just down the street. Oy! It was the longest move ever. Oh, we had a real moving day with a big truck, a trailer and some friends...complete with a redneck trampoline transport (the whole trampoline sans net upside down on the flat bed). Yeah, the driver took out the 3 mailboxes that are on our curb. When the Davises come to the neighborhood, they do it big! But we didn't get to all of the garage/attic stuff until my parents came the later weekend. Oh, and I didn't find a new washer/dryer for the new house until after that, so I was still doing some laundry in the rental. 

August

Last two weeks of summer classes and camps. Registration for fall. New school year now to commence. I cried over my kids going to school. I cried over not giving them the perfect summer that I'd envisioned as our last Hoorah before school. But you know what? They got a really nice new house. They got to go to work with mom all summer, and we still made memories and had quality time together. They learned how to be a little more patient waiting on me. We still did some really fun things on vacation and elsewhere. I'm almost over it.

School started on Aug. 19th. On August 18th, I choked back tears all day. But on Aug. 19th, they confidently walked into class, happy little people, ready to learn. If they're happy, I'm happy. We can walk to school from our house. 15 minutes of picking dandelions, talking about what we see, talking about expectations for the day, and being silly. 15 minutes of sunshine with my kids every morning. And I'm okay with them being in school. I get that 15 minutes of beautiful quality time, even though they're big kids now. 

So, that brings us to September. I've been working like mad on registrations, class roll sheets, and prepping for Nutcracker. I have 4 minutes of Waltz of the Flowers done with the Trainees. Football season is underway, and now it's time for the mad dash from Labor Day to Christmas. Conservatory classes started today. We have a lot of new students, and classes are full. Looks like its going to be a successful year. 

Even though I'm busy, and will probably stay busy or get busier, I am optimistic. I feel so blessed, and so grateful that the things that stress me out are good things. I promise to post some pictures from the last 6 months as soon as I am able. If you are reading this, I am grateful for your patience!