My First Blog Award!

How cool is this?!?!? My very first blog award....I'm so excited. Thanks to Courtney from, The Nitz Family, for this great award. I have known Courtney for a few years now and she is a glamorous young woman....a newlywed, a strong woman grounded in her faith, and a former beauty queen (we used to compete with each other in Miss KY and we were even co-queens one year....yay talent awards, haha)!!

Sooooo....I guess it's my turn to nominate some of the blogs that I think are glamorous. And the nominees are:

Always in Training

Small Town Crown

Mostly MEllen

Thanks again Courtney for this sweet award!!

Let's Go Generals!

So proud to report that my girls received 1st place this past weekend and I was awarded with the Best Choreography award. I can not be any happier for my girls and for all of their hard work. They had one of the highest scores out of the ENTIRE day!!

Way to go Lafayette Generals!!!! Looking forward to our next competition :)

My New Hobby

Well....I've found a new hobby! I am going to take up knitting and I am so excited to take on a new challenge. I was actually inspired by one of my dance students, Lauren H., and I am officially signed up for a knitting class. Lauren is oh so talented and so well rounded and she shared her love for knitting with me and I've finally got my supplies and I'm ready to go!

I'm looking forward to making gifts for others....mittens, scarves, hats, baby gifts, etc,....

I guess I shouldn't jump ahead of myself...I should probably learn the basics. Haha :) I found a great knitting store, here in Lexington, KY, called Magpie Yarn. Their website is great and that's where I found a class that was perfect for me...Basic Knitting. I'll learn all the things I need to know for basic knitting...how to cast-on, knit, purl, and bind-off. After this, I should be able to do a number of different, easy patterns.

They have a wide variety of classes that range from beginner ( like me!) all the way through advanced. They even have specialized classes where you focus on how to make a certain item, such as mittens or even sweaters. I can't wait for my first class and spending some of my down time, over the holidays, exploring my new hobby!

Y'All Ready for This?!?!?!

We're ready for this!!! "This" being the Winter Jam Dance Competition that is being held here in Lexington, KY. My dance team girls have been working EXTREMELY hard this week and the hard work continues until Saturday.

This past summer, we qualified for UDA nationals. This will be held the first weekend in February and we started our two routines in September. We are competing one of our dances, for the first time, this weekend at a local competition. I am anxious to see how we do and to get the judges opinion on our routine. The girls usually compete a pom routine but when I signed on as coach I felt it was time for a change so we are taking a jazz and hip hop dance. This Saturday we will be competing our jazz dance.

This dance is....well....I guess the best word to describe it is.....unique. But....in a good way!! I choreographed the dance myself and of course I just can't help myself and I turn it into some bizarre dance with crazy music and with a crazy concept. But....that's what I hope will help my girls stand out. This is not your average, cookie cutter dance team!! These girls are here to leave a mark and to tell a story. Isn't that what dance is all about....expressing emotions and telling a story to captivate your audience??? That's how I grew up and that's what I hope to pass on to my students. Dance isn't just a bunch of movements thrown together ( well, it can be). To me, it's so much more than that and I'm looking forward to my team's first performance of this routine.

I'm keeping certain details to myself such as song choice, costumes, and choreography. I can't give all our secrets away!!! Maybe I'll post a video before we leave for nationals....don't want other teams getting any ideas right now ;)

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers this week. I'm praying all the girls stay healthy and confident this week and perform to the best of their ability this Saturday.

I can't wait to report back about how we did!!!!

Many Blessing to You and Your Family

My New Favorite!

I am a total sucker for candles! Our home is filled with candles.... I have at least one in every room but I have found some new favorites. We have a great store, here in Lexington, called the "Gift Box". I stopped in the other day to look at some of their Christmas decorations and of course found myself standing in front of 50 different scented candles,made by The Candleberry Co. I smelled them all...I'm being serious! I went down the row and smelled each one and they were all so fragrant and "homey". I fell in love with so many of them but narrowed my choice down to two. "Vanilla Crumb Cake" and "Home for the Holidays" (which is burning right now, as I write, and it is divine). These are pretty affordable and you can find them even cheaper online.

Candles are always so welcoming when guests visit and great to use when you just want to relax. This company has a scent for everyone!!

My mom surprised me with a little "Halloween treat" a few weeks ago and gave me a Scentsy. I had never heard of these before but it is a wickless candle. You get your Scentsy ( which is what you melt the wax in) and just flip the switch and you're ready to go. The wax melts and slowly releases the scent....my favorite is Mochadoodle. The wax never gets hot. You can, literally, stick your finger in the wax and it won't burn you. I know this because my mom showed me....I didn't believe her so she proved me wrong (mom's always right)! This is great if you have kids or pets and they have a TON of scents to choose from. These are totally affordable and last so much longer than a usual candle because you can keep re-using the wax. Scentsy's are great for gifts and they have a lot of designs for the upcoming Holiday season as well as designs for everyday use. Just go to their website and take a look! The picture below is my pumpkin treat, from my mom, and I'm so glad she introduced me to these.

I'm looking forward to getting my Winter Scentsy and setting it out as a decoration!

Looking forward to Spring!

We have a busy Spring ahead for us and it is time to get busy! Brian and I have come up with this crazy idea to run, not one.... not two..... but THREE half marathons. Like I said, this is a crazy idea. However, we are really looking forward to doing these and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. First up is a half marathon in our town, Lexington, Kentucky.

This half marathon is at the end of March is a month before our other half marathons. We thought this would be a great way to find out where we're at before these other two big races. March seems so far away but I know that it will be here before we know it!

Next up.....the Kentucky Derby Half Marathon/ Marathon. I'm really urging Brian to run the full marathon. He's already to the point where he can run 13.1 miles, comfortably, once a week. ( I'm a little jealous of this)!! More than anything, I'm so proud of him because he just does it....no complaining, just goes for it. I need to be more like that! I really think he could pull off running the entire length of a marathon.We'll see what he decides. As for me, I'll be sticking to the half.... I'm just hoping to make it through that.

And last, but not least, the Flying Pig Marathon, in Cincinnati, Ohio. This half marathon/marathon is the weekend after the KY Derby race. ( I told you.... this is a crazy idea)! Who knows if Brian will run the half or the full. I know I will be doing the half and hoping that my legs don't fall off!

We're really looking forward to training for these. It will keep us busy and hopefully we'll burn those extra holiday calories in the midst of all this running! We have a lot of friends who are also running these races so we know we will have a lot support and some motivational shoulders to lean on. It's going to be hard, stressful, probably painful....but in the end....it's going to feel great to cross that finish line!

By the way....I started my training today and I only made it 30 minutes.... I have a lot of work to do!!