The long hiatus (or what I did this summer) - Part 2

Originally, I had intended for my high-top shoes to be part of my "what I did in August post", but somehow, when I started writing about them, it just got longer and longer and the next thing I knew, it was its -own- post. The Zumbamommy got carried away talking about dance shoes? *gasp* Someone alert the media! No...? Buying high-tops was certainly not the only thing I did in August, just one of the highlights. Hey, I may not be a "let's go shoe shopping!" kind of gal and I may not give a flying fig about Jimmy Choo or Manolo Blahnik (<-- did I even spell that right?), but when it comes to dance shoes...let's just say Bry wasn't totally out of line with that crack about a dedicated shoe rack.

August:
- I went to a Zumbathon for Relay For Life: I love a Zumbathon in general. I mean, who doesn't? One would have to work really hard to -not- have a good time. This particular Zumbathon was one that Jae and Rae did together. Two hours of that? Just show me where to sign up! Beyond that, Relay For Life is a great cause. At the end of the Zumbathon, there was a drawing for prizes and I won a really nice travel mug and a new bracelet. One I didn't already have. The orange bracelet says "Feel The Music" on it. It's part of Zumba's Aztec Collection of clothing. Just one of three (yes, I said three!) clothing lines that I missed blogging about during my time off. There were other colors to choose from, but I thought the orange/pink one was the brightest and the prettiest.
***Side Note: You didn't miss much with the Aztec Collection, I'll be honest. Too many pastels! The bracelet you're looking at is actually something of an oddball from that line.***
This new travel mug is the one I now use specifically for coffee on the occasions I'm in the mood. I'm a bit of tea snob, so my other really good travel mug is only for tea. I learned the hard way almost three years ago, that if I put coffee into that one, it leaves a residue that doesn't go away until it's been through the dishwasher at least five times; a residue that leaves a terrible aftertaste. Want to take a guess at how long it's been since I've made coffee to go? Heh.

- I found a new practice partner: I've written before about having a practice partner - a friend who has agreed to come over to my house periodically to be my guinea pig test subject choreography previewer, so that I can try out the new stuff I'm working on before introducing it to my class. Doing this helps me not freak out (and we all know I'm prone to freak outs) over whether or not something is going to completely bomb because I couldn't teach it well. If you're wondering what happened to my previous practice partner Rae-Mae, she and her family moved 20 minutes further away from my house in order to be closer to her husband's job. My new practice partner is Kat. She drives my older son's bus, and she went to high school with my brother-in-law and his wife. We got to be friends and when I asked her if she would be interested in doing Zumba with me in my basement, the answer was an enthusiastic yes.

- My dad and stepmom came to visit me: They usually come once a year in August to celebrate my birthday with me and this year was no exception. Like last year, we did a lot of day trips to various attractions and points of interest around Grand Rapids, even one in Kalamazoo. I did a whole series of posts last August about the places we went last year so I'm not going to go into a lot of depth about the individual days and our sightseeing this year. I will say this: My stepmom came to my Zumba class and got to see me teach. I'm not sure she had all that great a time though. My teaching style is apparently quite different from what she's used to experiencing where she lives in Quebec. I was disappointed, because I want everyone who comes to my class to have fun and just enjoy themselves. But I do know what the reality is: that my style truly won't appeal to everyone. I myself have taken classes with different teachers here and there, once or twice, over the years whose styles were not my personal preference, so I understood where she was coming from.

- We missed my friend's wedding: My good friend Tay, writer of the blog A Fresh Coat Of Paint, and I go back as far as 9th grade. When she got engaged many months ago to her long-time boyfriend, Bry and I started making plans to visit Toronto and celebrate their marriage. Alas, t'was not be. The day before we were supposed leave I started feeling sick - sore throat, and just a general feeling of being run down. We were still waffling as to whether or not I'd wake up in the morning feeling well enough to go, when our oldest promptly threw up. And so our trip was over before it had even begun. We called my father-in-law to tell him and his wife not to come to our house to watch the boys since we weren't actually going anywhere after all. That's right, Bry and I were supposed to get a weekend to ourselves. Disappointing? Absolutely, but the silver lining was that we'd paid the up-charge on the hotel reservation in order to get the cancellation insurance (don't stay home without it!). In the week that followed, the rest of the family eventually went down for the count by turns. As our oldest and I started feeling better, our youngest got sick followed a couple days later by Bry. The whole thing couldn't have been timed worse.

Best advice:
1) Coffee flavored tea tastes absoloutly dreadful - avoid this at all costs. *shudders*
2) Always always always get the cancellation insurance.