OK, OK

I've been told to update. I was trying to leave the wii post up in order to make it easier to get in on the fun, but apparently Katie needs to know what's going on at home.

The fall school, dance, soccer schedule is in full swing and seems to be manageable, thanks in large part to the car pool participants.

Last weekend I took Emily's Girl Scout troop up to Newaygo for the night. The girls planned all the activities and the menu, then rotated prep and clean-up duties. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. Especially because I didn't have to do all the work!

Maggie has been tearing up the soccer fields on weekends. She has scored at least one goal in her last three games. Last night at practice, her coach told me she was a 'little spark plug'!
GO ORANGE TIGERS!!

This weekend we will miss the soccer game, but are looking forward to the Halloween Haunt activities at King's Island with our friends. The Cedar Faire season passes have been well worth the money.

Wii!!!!

OK ladies and gentlemen.

In an effort to generate some much needed revenue for the upcoming dance season I am giving away a Wii!

That's right, I said GIVING AWAY.

How do you become the lucky recipient of this technological wonder? It's easy. Just look over to your right a bit and you'll see the CHIP IN button on my sidebar. For every $10 donation you make you will get a number assigned by me. (I'll email you with your number). Once I've got 50 numbers, I'll use a random number generator online to choose the lucky number that will receive the wii. Easy, eh? So, donate!! My girls will thank you, and I will thank you, and you'll have a 1 in 50 chance to get a wii! If you want better odds, just donate more!

Books that cause me distress

I took INKSPELL up north with me this weekend. It's the sequal to INKHEART by Cornelia Funke. The first book was very imaginitive and wonderful. I had high hopes for the second. Imagine my dismay as I neared the end of the 633 pages and realized with about 20 pages to go that there was NO WAY the book would be able to wrap up all the loose ends in a satisfying package within the remaining pages. I kept reading, hoping I was wrong and Cornelia would pull some amazing twist to tie a neat little bow. Alas, it was not to be. How can an author expect us to read through that many pages and NOT FINISH THE BOOK!?!?!

Especially when the third book isn't even available in the states yet!

Reading is supposed to make me happy.
I am not happy.

conflict of interest

I’ve done quite a bit of buying and selling on Craigslist recently. I’ve sold Katie’s Honda Spree and our pop-up camper. I’ve bought our new vacation home, many of the items to furnish it, and most recently I found uniforms for Emily to wear at Blue Lake this week, saving myself about $80.

My problem is the incredible guilt I feel using Craigslist when I know that the newspaper industry, our bread and butter, is struggling so much to survive.

Kidefinition

Inspired by Maggie after using the port-a-jons at Picnic Pops last night:

Hanitizer: A supplement or alternative to hand washing with soap and water. A variety of preparations are available, including gels, foam and liquid solutions.

Dance placements

You may have seen the waiting mailbox post a few days ago. The days before and after dance placements for the coming year are recieved are very stressful. We love our studio and all the teachers and know that they do their best with placements and have the best interests of all the dancers in mind. The follow-up 'what teams are your girls on?' and 'can we carpool?' phone calls are at a frenzy for a couple days.

This is going to be a great year for the Berridge girls, although it might be a bit hard on Emily. Emily has been dancing for longer than Maggie has been alive. She takes it very seriously and has worked hard to improve herself in all disciplines over the years. She got great placements on 3 small groups - tap, jazz and ballet, and then large groups and lines also in tap, jazz, hip-hop and lyrical and will also be in the production number.
It was a bit difficult for her to see the dances her little sister was offered. Small groups again in tap and jazz, with a ballet added. The large groups to go with those as well, along with hip-hop and production. And here's the hard part...Maggie was offered a tap trio and solo. We are very excited for her, but it did take a couple days for Emily to come to terms with the hard facts, summed up beautifully by Aunt Stacey "Cute always trumps hard work."

Projects

In an attempt to justify the large amount of scrapbook supplies I have in my basement, I occasionally whip up some sort of crafty home decor item.


Check out the sign and memo board I made for the kitchen up at the lake.


The words for the sign are courtesy of my friend Cara.

And the memo board was a kit, but it came with some dark black and red papers. I replaced with the fun, bright colors to go with the kitchen.