Will Bowl for a Social Life

I am not a bowler, if I break 100 I have had a great game. That being said, I am on a bowling team in a bowling league (gasp, shock, horror). I had my first "league" experience today and it was a blast. We ate, chatted, drank, bowled, and some poor person watched my child in the day care for 3+ hours. Does it get any better than this? I certainly can't bowl, but I can socialize. I met my team consisting of the two Natalie's, Jen, and Alli (my darling sister-in-law). The plus side of all of this is they aren't freakishly competetive and are there for a fun time themselves. Whew, the pressure is off, I just couldn't imagine letting them down if a trophy was their goal. I did manage to squeak out a couple strikes and a few spares between the 3 games. The crusty look on my face sipping the soda is due to Alli's lack of photography skills, she totally missed me rolling out the strike. I forgave her and moved on to several gutter balls. "The Pin Pushers"
may not be the winning team this year, but I guarantee we will be the most fun team. Keep on rollin' em girls.

Oh Brothers!

Yep, this is what brothers are for. The nephews were caught practically killing off each others chances of future procreation. Boys will be boys I suppose? In the meantime, we will just have to wait until they have girlfriends to embarrass them with this little piece of hard evidence. Love you Saucy and Eric the Red.

Think She's Ready?

Hmmm, I am not sure if she is ready for dance yet?

Top of Utah Half Marathon

Crossing the finish line is fun, but it is not nearly as fun as watching your friends cross. I trained for the Salt Lake Marathon and ran it by myself. Running alone is hard to do, especially on the long runs. I never knew this until I started running with friends. I must admit that I did not train regularly for this race like I did for the Salt Lake Marathon. On the flip side of the lack of training, I have had so much fun running several times with Laura, and occasionally Tim and Maricela. Great friends, super conversation, loads of fun to run with. I knew that the race wasn't going to be easy, I hadn't trained right, but I did know that it would be fun. I was right! It was hard and I certainly could not have ran a whole 26.2 , but the 13.1 was loads of fun. I was ble to shave :44 seconds off each mile from the Marathon to the half. If I am able to continue at this rate and actually do the proper training I think that in a couple years I will be able to meet my goal of qualifying for the Boston with an 8:30 second mile. My marathon mile was 9:51 and my half marathon mile was 9:05, so I still have a lot of time to shave off. The highlight of the race for me was being able to stand at the finish and cheer for Laura and Tim as they came across one closely after the other. Having watched how hard these two have worked, Laura with a 4month old baby and Tim who hadn't exercised in 20yrs. picking up running at the young age of 47, I was AMAZED at how well they both did. Each of them ran faster than they ever had before and finished in good times. I am so proud of them and they are proud of themselves. This is what we are here on this earth for, to help each other work toward our goals, to encourage, motivate, support, and then celebrate when when we are successful. Thanks to these two for showing me that through a bit of hard work, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to no matter what your circumstances are. Hooray for the Half!

Go T-Birds!

I feel like I should be throwing everything I own into the back of my Lavendar colored Saturn and driving to Cedar City. I can't help it, August hits and I feel SUU beckoning me like a siren. I have to say that the 4 years I spent in Cedar City at SUU were some of the most important years of my life. I gained a full education, life skills, social skills, friends, roommates, bad dates, institute dances, road trips to Vegas, Orchesis, a husband, the list could go on and on, and I am sure that you all would love for me to (ha ha), but I always feel myself leaning a bit south this time of year. Just like any co-ed, I could ramble off countless stories of mischievious acts, daring adventures, bizarre dates, and roommate wierdness, but I have spared you all of the above and selected one of my personal favorite stories to share. None of us were asked to the Institute dance. I will blame it on a lack of eligible bachelors, though I doubt that is the real reason. In our boredom and rebellion we decided it would be best to find something to distract us, occupy our time. So of course we dressed all in black and grabbed a bottle of liquid joy. Isn't that what most girls would do on a lonely weekend night of male rejection? We headed off to the Adam's theatre to perform our best monologues consisting of poetry memorized in our 10th grade Honors English class. The beautiful waterfall like fountain became the object of our mischief. Being that we were all good girls, we didn't quite know what it would take to rebel, so we settled for the whole bottle (better safe than sorry). A few monologues later and an overwhelming wafting of lemon inspired us to check on our "project." We had successfully created bubbles as tall as the waterfall including the big pool part of the upper fountain. Our response "Oh crap", we ran like we had never run before. All the way to the institute we ran stopping only to make blowfishes on the windows where the sweaty dates getting a refreshing drink of water could see our disdain. We then proceeded back to "Stadium Way", our residence. We laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. I have never been to an institute dance that quite compared to our rebellion. I have yet to go to SUU and not laugh my head off whenever I see the fountain. Good old fashioned fun. As many would say, "girls will be girls." Thanks to SUU for giving me my money's worth, I couldn't put a price on what I learned and received. My heart beats red and black for my beloved SUU, Go T-Birds.

Twilight Geek Aboard

I'm a girl, what more can I say. I know you are thinking, "you are practically old enough to be Edward Cullens mom." True!, but being that I am a sucker for all love stories, Twilight is no exception. I think that Stephenie Meyer is genius for sucking you into a hard bound version of crack. Seriously, I start reading and can't put the books down. In one of my girlfriends ward (the women) have even reserved an entire theatre for the premier. I originally thought the preview looked bad compared to the beautiful descriptions I had read. I have changed my mind. I am excited for the movie, can't wait. I know that it won't be just like the book that I love, but neither was the Master Piece Theatre version of Jane Eyre, and I still loved it. I think Twilight will be the same. Different, but still fabulous. So those of you Twilight nuts who want to go to the opening with me, let's head to the gateway on November 21st and enjoy.

Twilight Trailer- New scene!

Six Quirks...Only Six?

Maricela tagged me for 6 quirks, John would laugh and say, "Only six?"

Here I go:

1. I color coordinate my closet.

2. I do this twittery thing with my right hand fingers and twitchy thing with my eye at the same time.

3. I have to have a clean house before we can leave on vacation.

4. I have to drive certain routes each time I come home, if John goes a different way I freak.

5. I have to touch certain things or run certain distances before my run can actually count.

6. I can't stand it when my dance students put their "stuff" in front of the mirror rather than on the bench at the studio.

I tag: Angela, Sarah, Amy, and Sherri.

Sweet Revenge

I make my dancers run. It gives them strength and endurance, two essential elements in being a dancer. Each summer I practically kill myself teaching Jazz Attitudes technique and conditioning class. They start with a run, stretch, condition, technical combination, across the floor work, and then a piece of choreography that challenges them technically. As I have aged I have had to work harder to maintain the same teaching standards I had when I was 21. At 21 I would teach the 3 hours come home and do millions of other things, now I crash. Part of my keeping the same standards includes doing the same things I expect my dancers to do, therefore, I run with them. Not easy, I have to do the whole thing twice during the day rather than just once. You can imagine how I look round 2. A couple of weeks ago I was running with round 2 which happens to be the older girls, sophomores to seniors in high school. We were headed up the hill on 5400W. in West Valley when a car full of great big football players from the high school pulls up and starts to hoot and holler at the running clan of youth and beauty. You can imagine that I was more than annoyed at whoever was acting like a troll and distracting my girls. In my fury I turned to look and see who it was only to see that it was a car full of big football players. As eye contact was made I heard a "Miss Talbot?" hollered out from the car. The shock, the horror, the smile on my face. Revenge, sweet and glorious. The car sped off and I am pretty sure that the boys who were hooting, hollering, and making all sorts of animal noises, pulled over to throw up out the window. Oh yes, they had committed the cardinal sin and had hooted at a former authority figure. I laughed and laughed and laughed at just how embarrassed and totally grossed out they had to have been. Life is sweet! Lesson to be learned: you just never know who you may be hooting at, so it is best to simply not hoot.

Mamma I'm a Big Girl Now...

I guess that this is what happens when you neglect your child to watch the Olympics. Oh yes, she found the make-up! I never wear waterproof mascara, too hard to get off without removing all of your eyelashes. I decided to buy some for the Marathon just in case I wept like a baby I wouldn't look like "the Crow." I am sure you have guessed by now that the black stuff is in fact water proof and was a real bugger to get off. The funny part is that she thought she looked beautiful, and was devastated when John told her she can't wear make-up until she is big like mom. Each day she points out that her feet are little and moms feet are big and that mommy has a big big big bum. Wow, what would I do without her? I think she is looking forward to the day when her feet and bum are big, but until then, I will be locking up the make-up.

Warning: Raging Wildebeest

I know, the picture is old, but very telling of my emotions. Everything about babies scares me. From conception to birth, I am freaked out. Adessa is almost 3 and is such an only child. She cries and freaks out everyday because she wants to live at our neighbors where there are 3 other kiddos to play with. Apparently I am only cool to hang out with for so long, and day after day is too long. I have tried to fill her time with activities like the zoo, the park, McDonalds, play dates, grandma's house, everything I can think of with the exception of juggling munchkins. Not enough. So here I am, back in the infertility saddle gain. Tests, pills, doctors, waiting, watching, loads of practicing (lucky John), temperature taking, counting the days, pregnancy tests with a -, you know the good stuff. The worst part is that after the conception takes place (if it does) the fear only multiplies, I don't want another 2 1/2 pd. baby, too scary. But the things you do to make your kids happy. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have another child, but I really am afraid of having another baby. The thought of losing the baby was terrifying round 1 and then the realization of how close I was to losing my own life has become terrifying to me as well. My Dr. has reassured me of a super close monitoring round 2 should it come, and I am starting to chillax about it a little more. I swore after I had Adessa that she would be Alpha and Omega (the beginning and the ending), but I can't stand to see her sad and lonely face any longer. Wish us luck, but in the meantime, if I am a raging Wildebeest, you know why. My poor dance students! My poor Husband! My poor friends and neighbors! Pray that you don't end up seeing me on the news ;) If you do, you know that it is the clomid.

Reverting

Friday night John and I got a sitter and went to the "Pie" for their sweet delicious mountain of meat pizza. Shortly after concluding our meal we received an invite to go hike Ensign peak, and find Emo's grave with my 2 brothers and

sister-in-law. Some of you may be thinking is this 1997? It's funny how doing the spontaneous things like you did in high school can make you feel so young again. Too bad I didn't have any liquid joy, we could have really gone out with a bang. If you are looking for a good time, or are just tired of feeling old and responsible, go find gravity hill, or explore some random place (like hobbitville), you'll be drinking out of the fountain of youth in a hurry. I know I reverted for a couple of hours.

Memory Lane

I got this one from my old Roomie Wendy's blog, and thought it was hilarious.

Here are the rules:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.

Not too embarrassing please!!!