Dance Party USA

Does anyone else remember rushing off the bus in high school, forgetting about homework, repainting their nails (freshman year, I preferred a new color. Every day. Oy.), planting themselves in front of their TV, turning on the USA network and cracking up at this show? Wondering where these people come from?? And how is it possible to have hair that big?

Just me? (And my sister. She was right there with me.)

Maybe it was a New Jersey thing. Dance Party was filmed in Camden, NJ. Proud to say.

I like a dance party. Still do. We have them at our house fairly often. E and Allie can break it down like nobody's business. Ella's future band has a name already. "Shake Your Fanny". R&B, I am guessing.

And Alice? She knows the words to "Single Ladies". Already. And requests it over, and over. She walks up to the ipod docking station and yells at me. "I WANNA DANCE!". Um, okay.

Mike's birthday was Friday and instead of the "new belt" that Ella suggested for him, I decided to give him a garage makeover. We've always wanted to be the super neat and clean and uber organized garage people, but we're just not. UNTIL NOW....

New lights, blinds, paint, flooring and it is immaculate. I love it.

So did Mike, and now instead of one car fitting into our three car garage, we can actually fit two. We broke the "Garage-mahal" as Mike is calling it, in last night with what else? A dance party.


I have to commend Mike on his robot in this shot. He is a serious robot, apparently.


Ella favors running around as fast as she can as a dance style. Me? Jumping. A lot.

It's not my fault...

...that I have not posted for almost a month.

A month.

Wow. Time flies. (And that is the last thing I want it do this summer. I want it to crawl. Not fly.)

But, anyway, it's not my fault. Someone needs to watch the new seasons of "Jersey Shore", "Mad Men", "Boston Med". And Bravo. All of Bravo. If I don't. Who will? ;)

So, what's been going on?


Since I have failed at freezing time, or making regressing Ella to her 3 year old state, we've been getting ready to embrace the inevitable. Kindergarten. (Did you hear that? My heart just sank. Thump.) She starts in two weeks. She's excited and ready, and I am, too, for her. Just sad for me and Alice and the feeling that I can't shake. That I am losing my baby. :( We are going to miss her. A lot. Especially Alice. E went to camp a few weeks ago and left a screaming, crying sister in her wake, yelling "I want Ella home!". Me, too, Allie, me, too. I know this is normal and I know it is healthy and I know it is good. None of this makes it any easier. Or makes me want to cry less thinking about it.


My other baby turned two. Wow. It is hard for me to believe it has only been two years since we had that nutjob. I honestly have to think very hard about what our life was life before two. (And very, very hard to remember what the hell we ever did before we had E. Oh yeah, nap and sleep in.) Alice continues to grow in her sassiness, self confidence, and Ella-emulation every day. Thankfully she has yet to lose (any) of her baby chub, so the feeling of holding that soft, good smelling body of hers is still available whenever I want it.

And me? Been running a lot. Biking a little and swimming none. The carpal boss pain on my wrist comes and goes and when it comes, it hurts like a mother and is triggered by who knows what? Here one day. Gone the next week. Then back again. Running is the only thing that I can count on to reliably do. Aha, but there's a catch. This old, inflexible body of mine is not so used to running 6 times a week. These legs are used to breaks. Not the daily grind of run, run, run. My piriformus is pissed and acting out. Here's to hoping a little ART and TLC will stop what I like to refer to as "drop leg" on my long runs.

I've signed up for tennis lessons and will be playing in a fall soccer league which I am pumped about. I love that I am not worried about hurting myself for a race with other sports or that I will be tired for xx workout the next day or some other reason. The half marathon training I am now doing is really just for a goal and to keep me in shape, if I can't race a half...I don't really care. I can't wait for some fun on the field and the courts.

Lobsterfest in Indiana at my brother's lake house. The cool (relative) weather was worth the 21 hours in the car with the girls. Sort of.



Oof, this is a lot of work. Note to self, update more often.