I guess this would be the silver lining.

ally, demonstrating nearly perfect form in her pique turn. look at her perfectly pointed toe. I'm so proud.

and of course you have to have a group shot.

and now on to something totally different.

I just wanted to show everyone THE most stunningly beautiful costume I have ever seen.
I wish everyone could see this in person as the pictures do not do it justice.


the colors are far brighter that they appear in this picture. the leotard is a purplish/pinkish color with spot beaded with iridescent purple beads and the tutu is made of blue, pink and purple layered tulle and tricot.

maybe I should have warned you again...

this is my living room as of 6:00 this evening.

NOTE: Notice the almost dead plant in the upper right hand corner.

the costumes on the middle rack (if you can tell which rack is which) are done and will soon be sent home. the costumes on the rack to the left are the ones I still need to alter. Hopefully you can see that I am making some (very little) progress.

Also, the only way you can get to my front door is to go under the costumes on the rack on the right. It is especially fun when UPS or FEDEX tries to deliver.

I added this to the mix because I like all these colors together!

what were we thinking?

this is the Mississippi River Kings' mascot

this is the other mascot, I took his picture because I thought he looked sad.

this was right before the... what is it called?... "puck off"? I'm not sure. I know it's called a "tip off" in basketball and a "kick off" in football. So would it be called a "puck off" in hockey?

this was the most entertaining part of the whole thing. for some reason they got a bunch of little kids out there to pick up some old hockey pucks, anyway it was adorable. immediately following this was the most pathetic fight in hockey history. I've seen cats fight harder.

i get by with a little help from my friends.

this is Logan, Juliann and myself on Juliann's birthday a few weeks ago.

this is Melissa, she is a mess! she got me fired last year and I still haven't thanked her enough. I also have neglected in tell her that I plan on keeping her child and raising her as my own.

this is me, Juliann and Logan, again. not an especially flattering picture of any of us but it was really early Christmas morning and we just got finished wrapping all of Logan's family' presents and we made a gingerbread house earlier in the day so we were pretty beat.

this is the (my) daughter I was telling you about Marissa. and no this isn't all we do at dance class, only a small portion of our time is spent doing non-sensical things similar to this.

this is us again on my 22nd birthday.

this is the gingerbread house I was refering to, it was surprising nasty

there's no place like home.

this is what my house looks like on an average day. (before the costumes arrive)

this is the little entry way into my living room

and this as you can tell is my living room

please prepare yourself for what you are about to see.

this is what my house looks like post costume arrival.

the kitchen. yes you read it correctly, the kitchen

i'm not sure what room this is, maybe the living room

DISCLAIMER: these photos were taken right after I got home from the first costume fitting and it was easier to put them in piles according to what needed to be done to them, I have since hung all of the costumes up and they are now on racks, where they will stay until I have time to alter them and do certain finishing touches.

behold, the mini-buddha.

this is my grandmother, Evelyn Ruth and my pops David. and yes he always smiles like that.

another picture of the mini-Buddha, patiently awaiting her gift from Santa, who is really my uncle in disguise.

little bitty pretty ones.

tooth fairy is working overtime with this class.

a fountain of somewhat useful information

Late late late last night I ran across this website, http://www.timeanddate.com/ while I was trying to figure out the time difference between Memphis and Lagos. Anyway, it can answer just about any question you have. Curious to see how many days older Sissy is than me? Well I'm glad you asked I was wondering myself, 774 days to be exact or 2 years 1 month and 12 days. It will also break it down into seconds but I didn't see how that was necessary. In 2056 my birthday will fall on a Sunday, that is if I'm still alive to have one. Still the most helpful thing I found was the world clock. Oh wait,And last but not least a distance calculator, it is 5856 miles and 5089 nautical miles from Memphis to Athens.

I just thought I would share the wealth of information and also announce to everyone that hasn't figured it out yet that I am a easily amused by the simplest things.

a good time to be had by all!

well I'm not any good at playing golf, but being a complete failure

at something makes you humble... and sad.

my first thought upon seeing this was "I have made fire!" from that Tom Hanks movie. Can't you just imagine Shane yelling "I beat a girl, nananana".

and here is a picture of Shane doing a victory dance.

Yes, CONGRATULATIONS Shane, you got the ball in the hole and it only took 13 tries.

just another day in paradise.

These are a few of the girls in group four.

I normally would ever wear my hair in pigtails,

but today I was forced to make an exception because I lost a bet.

this is our time-out chair... always put to good use.

lots of little bitty sequins.

Well this just about spells it out for you.