Silver Anniversary and other stuff

Yep, Travis and I celebrated our 25th anniversary on the 13th of this month. I have a really hard time with the fact that I have been married for 25 years. I am old enough to have had my silver anniversary. At least I don't ACT that old. :) heehee Whatever. We're still very much in love and enjoy each other for the most part. Sure, we would like to kill each other sometimes, but who doesn't?? He's not fully trained, and I know he never will be, so I take him like he is. HA! We celebrated this year by going to Chima Brazilian Steakhouse. I have never been so full of meat in my life. :) Well, maybe once or twice. If you haven't been to a Brazilian Steakhouse (this was our first, but not last time), there are guys who walk around with huge skewers of all kinds of meats. Beef, Pork, Chicken, Fish...you name it, they have it. Plus, there is a huge salad bar with awesomely incredible foods on it. It was SO FUN, and it was nice to have a night out just the two of us. :)

This week is starting out to be pretty busy. My cousin, April, came down from New York on Monday. Our main goal was to see the butterfly exhibit at the Museum of Natural History cuz it's free on Tuesdays. So, we went into the city on Tues and it was SO INCREDIBLY packed, we didn't get to go. We had some fun adventures, tho. We saw the flooded Tidal Basin (that's the picture with Anisa on the bench. There is a sidewalk in front of that bench that goes out probably about 6 feet), tulips, the Jefferson Monument, took a paddle boat ride and went to dinner at Capital City brewing and then checked out the Postal Museum. We had a great time with the semi-truck front end in there. Here are some pics for your enjoyment. :)

WSDT

Well, Coach J did it again. Go HERE to see the incredible video that he made to promote the team in some different avenues other than just high school and college dance competitions.

He is lovingly called Buh Buh Juh, Barbara, and J. Jason King along with Tara Perez, AKA TP and Coachikins, work ALL.THE.TIME to get this team of dancers to the top. They hand picked each one because they could see that spark in every one of them. This is a FAMILY of talented kids who are all willing to literally sacrifice almost everything for dance and their team.

Once the school year starts, every single practice (Tues - Fri 3-6 and some Mondays and weekends from Sept. to March) is mandatory. They cannot miss for anything...driver's ed, studio lessons, family vacations...NOTHING. It's a sacrifice for the families too, since we have to schedule things around the team schedule, but we all do it willingly and only whine about it a little, because we know it's SO worth it. The rewards for each dancer are so huge. This is what we all hope for our kids to have in their young lives. A family outside of their parents and siblings that they can share their ups and downs with, and this team has definitely had it's share. Our Senior guy, Julian, danced for weeks with a torn ACL. He was in some serious pain, and has just gone through a painful surgery and faces some painful PT, but I know he doesn't regret a second of it. A couple of the dancers have blood pressure and asthma issues. We've seen some pass out after performing. Frustration, exhaustion and pain are a few things that they all willingly subject their bodies to for the goal of going big!

Trophies are nice, but they do it for the love of it. And each dancer is a splendid kid. Yeah, they all have their issues, but since they are all teenagers, that's to be expected. They don't take it for granted that they get awarded for their hard work. They take their awards and go back and work even harder for the next event. If our world was full of people who were so dedicated and willing to sacrifice for others like these dancers have done, it would be a way better place.

I am so incredibly proud of each one of them. I can't even describe what it's like to be called Mama No, have their trust, and be allowed to participate in the events with these awesome kids. I love them all. Keep an eye on this team....they're going places for sure! :)

Cherry Blossoms and other adventures

Last minute, Anisa and I decided to go into DC and have lunch with Travis. They have these yummy, delicious tacos at his building for really cheap. After we ate, he changed into his play clothes (jeans and tennis shoes) and we headed in to the Tidal Basin to see the Cherry Blossoms.

On the shuttle, from Travis' work to the shuttle stop, we saw cops sitting on overpasses....for no apparent reason. Then, as we got closer to the water, we saw traffic was STOPPED, cops were EVERYWHERE and a helicopter was flying around overhead. Travis said, "get your cameras ready, he's gonna drive by". The presidential motorcade came down the road. Starting with motorcycle cops, then cop cars, then the limos, then suburbans, then vans and other vehicles, then more cop cars, then more motorcycles. The girls and I have seen this before. One time in LA when I had rear-ended a Suburban, Clinton drove by with the whole motorcade. It's kinda fun to see whether you like the guy or not. :) The video is here if you want to watch it. It's about a minute long. :)

After we got done taking pictures/video, we headed over to see the trees. They are beautiful, as usual. Plus, the monuments make everything even better. :) I love this city. We took tons of pictures and walked around the water...freezing. It was about 50 out today, but it was really windy right there on the water. Once we had done the entire loop, we (I) decided we should walk to the Pentagon and catch the Metro there. After all, when you looked, it seemed to be "right there"...close. We had to walk along the 395 freeway over the Potomac River (SUPER WINDY). We had to RUN across an offramp, then walk on the inside of the railing to get over there. Next time, we'll go back to the Smithsonian stop on the National Mall. It was a fun adventure, but it would have been more fun if it hadn't been so darn cold. We survived, so all is fine. :) We caught the metro right away, and got home safely to download our pics to share with you....so, without further ado, here are some of my favorites. :) If you click on the pics you can see them bigger.

*You can see Anisa's braces in a couple of the pics. She only has the brackets on for now with the expander. Once they take the expander off (which will be soon, since her teeth are REALLY moving) they'll put the wires on. I'm already looking forward to the treatment being over...and so is she! :)

**Do you like Anisa's sweatshirt? She's liked the Fox Motorsports brand for years. We were out shopping last week and one of the stores that we love had 70% off the clearance price of all their sale stuff. So, we checked it out and found this sweatshirt. It was originally $100, marked down to $40, minus 70% came down to $12, BUT they give a military discount so we paid 11 bucks for it~ I.LOVE.BARGAINS!!! :) And it's fuzz lined, so it's super warm.

Dance update

Here are the links to the Dance Team Nationals performance.

http://varsity.com/event/1456/2011_nda_national_championship.aspx - This is the Varsity.com video. Type West Springfield into the search bar on the top right of the screen. They cut a piece of the routine out of the middle, but you can get the main idea. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDd4FdRzYxY&feature=related - This is one that someone video'd from the balcony. The sound is horrible, but you can see the whole video. When we get the DVD's I'll post the entire GOOD copy of the routine. You can start preparing now to be COMPLETELY AMAZED by these kids. They rock.... :)

Food and Flowers

Ok, so have you all seen Peepsters? They are little candies by Peeps. They look like Rolos but they are chocolate covered marshmallow creme. It's not marshmallow like what a Peep is, and not like Marshmallow Fluff...it's kind of more solid. I don't know...hard to describe, but there are different flavors. I don't like dark chocolate..I'm a milk chocolate girl, so I got these. :) Go...get them...try them. You might love them. :) You can thank me later.

Since we're talking about food, what makes a sandwich EVEN BETTER?? Goldfish bread! OH, YEAH, BABY. :) Alright, it's not better tasting, but it's more fun to eat since it's the shape of a goldfish cracker. I might not eat it if it was the shape of a squirrel, but I'm not sure and since that's not an option, I'll go with the fishie. Here is my yummy, delicious fishie turkey sandwich.. I've found that tuna is even better in a fishie shaped bread. :) Makes sense.

I got a new camera. My little faithful Canon either got something INSIDE the lens or (Travis' theory - which is probably more accurate) a pixel has gone bad inside. Anyway, I've also wanted a video camera so I could video dance team performances, so we decided it was time to upgrade to a better camera with an HD video option. I got this... a Sony Cybershot. Don't know if there is a model number or anything, I only know what it's called cuz it's printed right on the front. Heck, I don't care what the number is, I only care that it takes good pictures.

These are some of the daffodils (Anisa's VERY MOST FAVORITE FLOWERS) in our front yard. Someone before us planted them, but we are happy that they did. :) My very most favorite flowers are hyacinths. I've planted some and they're coming up. They smell like what Heaven must smell like. :)

Anisa and I are THINKING of going into DC today to see the cherry blossoms. They are in FULL BLOOM right now but will fade quickly. I need to go try out my new fancy camera AND get some good shots of Anisa with her metal mouth...I mean braces. :) For now, I need to go get ready for the day and pay some bills. ick. I hope you all are having a wonderful day!!! :)