Originally posted at Paperclippings.com on Tuesday, June 10, 2008
My new favorite [Lost]...
About Me
- Kelly
- Kelly is the mother of 5 adorable kids--4 boys and a girl. The girl came in a package with a boy (twins). Kelly is married to a charming young man who lives and breathes computers. They are also guardians for three nieces and a nephew. She is active in the community having served as PTA President of a local elementary school, on the board of the Salt Lake Mothers of Twins, as a district round-table trainer with the Cub Scouts, as a volunteer for Sidelines (a support network for Women on bed rest during pregnancy) and she and her husband are active in the LDS Church.
Friday, January 16, 2009
In the Mood for Ballroom Dancing
Originally posted at Paperclippings.com on Sunday, August 17, 2008
When I was growing up I had seen people on television doing the swing, waltz, cha cha, et al. I never imagined doing them myself. In fact, I had not given the idea much notice at all.
That all changed during the summer after I turned 16. I was given the opportunity to be in a dance festival that was held during that summer. The festival was held on the football field of a local high school. By the time we arrived at this performance we had practiced quite a number of times and I was hooked on doing the swing.
One of the guys I liked, at the time, was also in this festival. So, at church youth dances we decided to show off. One of the fanciest moves we had learned was the 'Octopus' (see below). Soon after the festival, at one of the youth dances, they held a dance contest. There was no doubt that we were gonna be in it together.
Anyone who wanted to be in the dance contest just had to dance during the preliminary round. Then the judges went around holding their hands above the heads of those who would go onto the next and final round. As they prepared for the next round we thought we hadn't been picked...until the judges inticated that they had one more couple and motioned for us to come to the center of the dance floor.
We danced our hearts out in that final round. At the end of the final round the judges held their hands over each dance couple's heads one by one as they had everyone vote by noise level as to their favorite. In the end we had won with the loudest noise coming from the rest of our peers. My interest in the swing was now complete. I wanted to do it all the time.
Several years later I found a ballroom dance class offered at the University of Utah as part of the PE requirements. It was a beginning ballroom dance class. In it I learned not only how to do the swing correctly, but how to waltz and cha cha.
I later took country swing, intermediate ballroom and advanced ballroom. Now I don't claim to be very good at it, but I sure have a lot of fun doing it.
During the term that I was taking the advanced ballroom class I met the guy I would marry. No, we did not meet in the class, but on another dance floor. It was because he knew how to dance the swing that I gave him a second look.
They now teach 'social dancing' as a PE credit in the high school my boys attend. My oldest has learned how to do the swing. This mom is proud.
...now to find a good dance floor.
I found an even better video of the swing.
That all changed during the summer after I turned 16. I was given the opportunity to be in a dance festival that was held during that summer. The festival was held on the football field of a local high school. By the time we arrived at this performance we had practiced quite a number of times and I was hooked on doing the swing.
One of the guys I liked, at the time, was also in this festival. So, at church youth dances we decided to show off. One of the fanciest moves we had learned was the 'Octopus' (see below). Soon after the festival, at one of the youth dances, they held a dance contest. There was no doubt that we were gonna be in it together.
Anyone who wanted to be in the dance contest just had to dance during the preliminary round. Then the judges went around holding their hands above the heads of those who would go onto the next and final round. As they prepared for the next round we thought we hadn't been picked...until the judges inticated that they had one more couple and motioned for us to come to the center of the dance floor.
We danced our hearts out in that final round. At the end of the final round the judges held their hands over each dance couple's heads one by one as they had everyone vote by noise level as to their favorite. In the end we had won with the loudest noise coming from the rest of our peers. My interest in the swing was now complete. I wanted to do it all the time.
Several years later I found a ballroom dance class offered at the University of Utah as part of the PE requirements. It was a beginning ballroom dance class. In it I learned not only how to do the swing correctly, but how to waltz and cha cha.
I later took country swing, intermediate ballroom and advanced ballroom. Now I don't claim to be very good at it, but I sure have a lot of fun doing it.
During the term that I was taking the advanced ballroom class I met the guy I would marry. No, we did not meet in the class, but on another dance floor. It was because he knew how to dance the swing that I gave him a second look.
They now teach 'social dancing' as a PE credit in the high school my boys attend. My oldest has learned how to do the swing. This mom is proud.
...now to find a good dance floor.
I found an even better video of the swing.
...still looking for a dance floor...
Music and Memory #3
Originally posted on Paperclippings.com on Saturday, September 13, 2008.
I just got myself a cheap little mp3 player. I have had a desire to get out and walk in the mornings and having some music to accompany me would help motivate me to walk more. I gathered a number of favorites from my computer and downloaded them to my new player.
Among the songs I added to my player were a few Josh Groban Christmas songs. Now if you have never heard him sing a carol or two you are definitely missing something. I could listen to them year round. In fact, when his Christmas CD came out last fall, I quickly got a copy for myself and began listening to it OVER and OVER...it was still only November.
About the time that I got this CD a good friend sent me a book...a very good, very difficult, very heart wrenching book, in the hopes that I would read it and enjoy it as he had.
Well, as it happened, I found myself reading that book, Give Us This Day, while listening to this new Christmas CD.
Fast forward to today. I am listening to the tunes I have just downloaded to my new mp3 player. As The First Noel and Angels we Have Heard on High by Josh Groban start out I am suddenly thinking of that book I read last fall. Many of the same feelings I had as I read that book come flooding back to my mind and heart.
It is a good thing.
Related posts:
http://paperclippings.blogspot.com/2005/06/music-and-memory.html
http://paperclippings.blogspot.com/2005/07/more-on-music-and-memory.html
http://paperclippings.blogspot.com/2007/12/hardest-book-i-ever-read.html
I just got myself a cheap little mp3 player. I have had a desire to get out and walk in the mornings and having some music to accompany me would help motivate me to walk more. I gathered a number of favorites from my computer and downloaded them to my new player.
Among the songs I added to my player were a few Josh Groban Christmas songs. Now if you have never heard him sing a carol or two you are definitely missing something. I could listen to them year round. In fact, when his Christmas CD came out last fall, I quickly got a copy for myself and began listening to it OVER and OVER...it was still only November.
About the time that I got this CD a good friend sent me a book...a very good, very difficult, very heart wrenching book, in the hopes that I would read it and enjoy it as he had.
Well, as it happened, I found myself reading that book, Give Us This Day, while listening to this new Christmas CD.
Fast forward to today. I am listening to the tunes I have just downloaded to my new mp3 player. As The First Noel and Angels we Have Heard on High by Josh Groban start out I am suddenly thinking of that book I read last fall. Many of the same feelings I had as I read that book come flooding back to my mind and heart.
It is a good thing.
Related posts:
http://paperclippings.blogspot.com/2005/06/music-and-memory.html
http://paperclippings.blogspot.com/2005/07/more-on-music-and-memory.html
http://paperclippings.blogspot.com/2007/12/hardest-book-i-ever-read.html
Forgiveness
First posted on Paperclippings.com on Tuesday, December 23, 2008
What do you say to someone who says that you may write one last time but that they will not respond? For a year and a half I contemplated this very subject because I was given that directive as a long time friend had walked away.
I knew that I could not waste words. I knew that I had one chance. Then I heard a song that I had heard many times before. But this time I really heard it.
The following are from The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics:
Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thoughts
Stilted conversations
I'm afraid thats all we've got.
You say you just don't see it
He says it's perfect sense
You just can't get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defense.
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye.
So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It's the bitterness that lasts.
So don't yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different day
And if you don't give up, and don't give in
You may just be okay.
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye.
When I heard these words I realized that I no longer held any hard or ill feelings toward my friend. I knew what I had to say.
This past November I penned the words from my heart and sent them off. I wondered if they would even be read or if they would be tossed to the side without a look. But I knew that I had to send them anyway.
This last Saturday I got a Christmas card in the mail. It didn't say much. But is spoke volumes. It didn't even say how they were doing. But as I think more and more about that card I realize that my sadness has also gone away. My friend had read my words. My friend had responded.
I may not get more than a Christmas card in the years to come, but I have not completely lost my friend.
I have learned that with a little bit of forgiveness it is not the bitterness that lasts.
What do you say to someone who says that you may write one last time but that they will not respond? For a year and a half I contemplated this very subject because I was given that directive as a long time friend had walked away.
I knew that I could not waste words. I knew that I had one chance. Then I heard a song that I had heard many times before. But this time I really heard it.
The following are from The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics:
Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thoughts
Stilted conversations
I'm afraid thats all we've got.
You say you just don't see it
He says it's perfect sense
You just can't get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defense.
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye.
So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It's the bitterness that lasts.
So don't yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different day
And if you don't give up, and don't give in
You may just be okay.
Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It's too late when we die
To admit we don't see eye to eye.
When I heard these words I realized that I no longer held any hard or ill feelings toward my friend. I knew what I had to say.
This past November I penned the words from my heart and sent them off. I wondered if they would even be read or if they would be tossed to the side without a look. But I knew that I had to send them anyway.
This last Saturday I got a Christmas card in the mail. It didn't say much. But is spoke volumes. It didn't even say how they were doing. But as I think more and more about that card I realize that my sadness has also gone away. My friend had read my words. My friend had responded.
I may not get more than a Christmas card in the years to come, but I have not completely lost my friend.
I have learned that with a little bit of forgiveness it is not the bitterness that lasts.
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