2008 UPA NATIONALS

What a great weekend we had in Minneapolis!! Oh My, it was so fun.

The girls started on Friday morning by dancing at their school with a group of guys. It was hilarious. They incorporated the guys into their funk routine. We were surprised....some of the guys did really well! Maybe they'll try out for next year's team. hahahaha

The parents started their morning by painting on the bus windows and our own vehicles. Here is the Foxy Girl all decorated and ready for the road trip.
After their assembly they loaded into the Big Purple Bus to the elementary schools to run through the halls and gave out flowers and poms to the younger kids.

Then they headed to one of the local coffee shops where one of the dancers works to fill up on caffeine and we were off to Minneapolis.

We got there, checked into our rooms then headed out to shop at the Mall of America for a bit. Another mom and I went to Chevy's for dinner and then went shopping. The girls were supposed to go to a pizza party that night but decided to skip it to play at the mall.

The next morning they had to get up early, get ready and head over to compete with their Pom routine. They did a fabulous job and took 4th place!

During the routine, one of the girls (the little chick next to Anisa) twisted her ankle really badly. It hurt, but she managed to limp back to the hotel when we were all done watching the other teams. She iced it and wrapped it and all was ok.....or so we thought. She decided to perform Sunday on her leg even tho it was still puffy and sore. She hurt it more (it's sprained with a bone chip) , but she wasn't going to let her team down. Another girl popped her shoulder out of place, and still performed on Sunday. They took 2nd place on Sunday! What a thrill! 2 trophies in NATIONALS!!
That night, the girls had a formal banquet to go to. They got to get all dressed up and sparkly. Don't they look beeeyyyyoooottteeefffuuullll??

Here is Anisa with her team Little Sister, Sarah. My girl is gorgeous, don't you think?

Now, I'm not exactly sure, but I heard the coach saying now they are qualified for nationals next year because they placed this year. Anisa has to try-out again so as long as she makes it I guess we'll be going again next year. Sara has also said she'd like to try out. We'll see! :) Exciting stuff in our house. Here is the link to the story in our local paper...Door County Daily News

Oh, and the quilt brought in about $400.00 for our team! I was so happy. The winner was the Middle School Principal. :)

Pictures of Winter in Wisconsin

The main reason I started this blog was because I am so far away from my friends and family and I wanted a place to be able to share what my life is like here. So, with that in mind, here are some pictures of what we're living in right now. :)

This is the ship canal. I was out at the CG station at the end of the canal and shot this toward town. It was really cool because the ice was shifting and cracking and sounded really neat.

This picture cracked me up. It says Private Dock. Um, I know there's a dock in there somewhere.

Here is an ice hut. I don't know the technical name for these but they're the little huts people put on the ice and sit in to ice fish. So, Ice Hut seems like the most logical name to me. This one is sitting out in the bay.

Here is a bigger picture of the bay with more ice huts. You can see the steel bridge in town.

This was just a little stream I saw on my travels a couple of days ago. I loved how the sun was shining on it and the snow was all up on it's little "bank".

This is a little Ruffed Grouse. I was just driving along and saw a couple in a tree. I thought there were only 2, then I looked again and saw 3. They were just sitting there watching me.

Here is some sort of bee or wasp or hornet nest. I was looking for some nice canal view and happened to look up and see this thing. Right now, the bugs are probably either dead or hibernating ~ if they do that. But I figured I'd stay in the car anyway.

These were taken last night. We had a big winter storm blow in Saturday night. It started with some freezing rain, then we got snow. They called for around 8-11 inches. We ended up with about 9 inches by the time it was all over. The first picture is my driveway about 10 minutes after I finished shoveling it.

This second picture is the side yard. The piles of snow are piling up high. We have had snow on the ground since Dec. 1. We had a little warm spell at the end of December and a lot of the snow melted, but not totally. Then we had another storm and we haven't had it melt since. I don't mind since I think it looks so pretty.

This is a picture I just took today. It is our backyard chairs. We're not going to be sitting in them anytime soon. :)

And now, More Weather...

Well, I figured I'd better post SOMETHING or I'd put you all to sleep. Time has been flying lately, and I'm not sure why. I don't feel like I've gotten a whole bunch accomplished, but the family is happy and the house is, well, kind of clean.

The thing that is on everyone's minds around her is the weather. We've had a pretty cold, snowy winter. Most people say it's worse than the last few years. I can only compare it to last winter, but it IS colder and snowier than I remember last year to be. Here is a picture of the bay with the Lakers in the shipyard. The bay is pretty much frozen. Every once in a while, a ship comes in through the canal and breaks up the ice and it makes me mad. The flat, snow covered ice is so pretty. Today I need to go take pictures of the little fishing huts out on the ice. They look cool.

I have some sewing I COULD BE doing, but haven't felt motivated to start the project. I bought some really cute stuff to make some summer dresses for Anisa. I have a while before I NEED to make them. I think that's why I don't feel that much of a need to get them started.

Today is sunny and cold.....7 right now. I think it's supposed to get to 10....woo hoo! I hope you are snuggly wherever you are! :) Oh, yeah. A week from today we head to Minneapolis to NATIONALS with the SBHS ROCKIN' DANCE TEAM!!! :)

Deja Vu

This LOOKS like the same quilt I made before, but this is a new quilt. I just finished it to raffle off for the Dance Team. We're trying to raise a little money for the bus to Nationals in Minneapolis in a few weeks. Everyone is getting really excited about going. The coordinators of the competition have a ton of fun things lined up for the dancers. I'm looking forward to watching our girls compete AND I get to go to Ikea, which is a huge bonus. :) Hey, I'm shopping deprived here!

The weather here today is splendid. The sun is shining, it's 28 degrees and gorgeous. There is plenty of pretty white snow on the ground to cover the mud and dormant grass. They SAY it's supposed to get colder this week, we'll see. Maybe we'll get some more snow.

I hope you are all snuggly and warm, or staying cool wherever you are. :)