I was really a big ole tomboy growing up. To wit: I insisted on taking my firearms safety course the second I was old enough so I could go hunting with my dad and hang out with the guys in dove fields all day. Or maybe I was just boy crazy early, who knows... Anyway, I did spend a lot of time playing with my brother's Star Wars and G.I. Joe figures and it always bothered me there weren't more girls in the tough-fighting-guy-lineup. (Sidebar: Mr. Smith and I saw the G.I. Joe movie recently and I was able to correctly identify every female character by name but couldn't recall one single male character - I really loved Lady Jane and loved Scarlett so much I wanted to learn how to shoot a crossbow.) The point is - I had very few girlie vices (I'm totes making up for that now.) One thing that I thought was the bee's knees was ballet though. It didn't take; I think after a few years taking ballet classes at the Y was enough culture for me.
A few weeks ago, Booter Rachel asked if I would fill in for her husband Chris at father-daughter dance day since he's in Iraq (thanks, yo! Come home soon!) and June needed a buddy for the evening.
I think it goes without saying that I was all about it. It was very topical too, seeing as how I bring to the table a brand-spankin'-new tutu that I'm dying to have an excuse to wear. At the last minute I remembered that I took some dance courses in college, including ballet (Sidebar the Sequel: I wasn't very good at dance in college. I took Modern Dance I and on the first day of Modern Dance II the next semester the teacher pulled me aside after the first lesson and told me very kindly that I needed Modern I before I could take Modern II. She was a bit embarrassed when I told her I'd completed Modern I and told me I could stay in the class and be graded on my improvement HAHAHA. I withdrew and took Jazz instead), and had in my possession real ballet slippers.
So, here is Ballerina Megan back in the day:
plie, looking super sexy in my boy haircut (i really wanted to be a boy)
And here we have Ballerina Megan present day:
plie! yes, i realize i look like an idiot.
I met Rachel for supper beforehand and when Iris Ann saw me the first words out of her mouth were how beautiful I looked in my tutu. It. Was. Precious. Although I was dancing with her little sister June (Iris's Uncle Byron filled in for Chris in her class earlier that day) Iris had plans to ask her teacher if she could dance in June's class and dance with me. Let's crunch the numbers on this for a second: two ballerinas, one me. That's cool, I can dig it.
We showed up at the class and guess who's there! Miss Lottie Sue Mowrer! Matt was out of town on business and Jenny had planned on filling in for him, but since I was already dancing with two ballerinas, one more couldn't possibly hurt, right? Let me just say - all those daddies had one ballerina to corral and I had THREE. I think it goes without saying that IT WAS AWESOME. I did do a lot of this though:
whoopsie, i think i lost one...
me and my three ballerina girls warm up
stretching, lottie is already mia
jenny shows up as we practice pointing and flexing our feet
here i am hollering at lottie to come back and i think that's rachel's hand on the right telling her to go back to me
lottie and i shosay across the floor
please note how all four of us are never in the frame at the same time
i give up trying to make anyone do the moves and pick up june and just dance with her
iris and june take a break from dancing with me and the two of them cut a rug together
iris is asking me to put her on my shoulder like all the other daddies/trained professionals are doing... um, i was afraid i would drop her so i settled for that move
june noodles out on me
lottie sue, showing everyone how it's done
i include this photo so you can see how i'm sweating. it was like herding cats. 45 minutes into the lesson i started praying for it to end quickly.
Lottie Sue really loves cookies, and early on in the class she spied a plate of cookies in the room for the ballerinas to share with the daddies at the end of class. She wanted one, and Rachel made the mistake of promising her one if she'd dance. So, she'd dance a little and ask for a cookie. Dance a little more, and ask for a cookie. Dance even more, then please may I have a cookie? Jenny did a good blog post on it - check it out here. I think Lottie asked me six times for a cookie and Jenny says she was asked eight times. That girl loves her some cookies. Anyway, here's a photo of her tearing across the floor to check on the cookie sitch:
that girl is insane in the membrane for some cookies
ballerina lottie and cookie, june in my lap with cookie, and iris sans cookie
whew. i survived.
On Friday night, Booter Merri showed up for a visit!
woo-woo! booties! so good to catch up!
The next night we celebrated Jenny's birthday! Happy Birthday Jenny! MWAH MWAH MWAH!
jenny loves her new colts t-shirt
On Sunday morning we had brunch. I make the best batch of monkey bread I have ever made:
the secret ingredient is love. that and butter, cinnamon and sugar.
Lastly, this afternoon I called my friend John and asked if I could swing by and borrow a book. He said sure but make it snappy because he was on his way out the door. I called a few minutes later to suggest he leave the book outside if he was in a hurry and he said no worries, he was now involved in a very delicate situation. That turned out to be:
EEEEEK!!! A MOUSE!!
Well, that's all the news that's fit to tell for this week! Hope everyone's having a great day!
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