Marra Frehiwot

I've been missing from the blog world for a while...more about that another day. (NOT pregnant. Come on people.) Today I need to talk about Marra Frehiwot Olsson.

Growing up, I had the most wonderful babysitter. We call her Nunny. She took care of me and five or six other kids, all teachers' kids, at her house in her basement. It was wonderful. We had school time every day, did Christmas programs, made crafts, ate our weight in mac n cheese, had little yellow plastic chairs with our names on the back...it was a wonderful, sweet place to grow up. We were loved and taken care of while our parents worked.

Nunny and her husband, Razzy as we called him, have 4 daughters. They are all at least 10 years older than me and served as "daycare staff" when they'd get home from school. They'd play with us, wake us up from naps, eat Popsicles with us. Of course, as the years went by, my family and Nunny's family became close friends. We still are! The girls grew up and babysat my sister and I, my mom went on to work at the school Nunny is superintendent of, they were at my wedding...in fact I ask Nunny all the time to give up her awesome job and re-open her basement so Rory and Trace can go. :)

Oh...one more detail. The second oldest daughter? Katie? She married my uncle sixteen years ago. That's the famous Aunt Kate...she's currently deployed. Her wedding day was the day we became "Almost Family."

That's a long introduction. Sorry. I'm not editing myself as I write this post.

Nunny's youngest daughter Amy is awesome. She and her husband Sten have been together since high school. They have 4 biological children: Ben, Abe, Eli and Jenna. They have defied many odds and stuck together through incredible life changes and scary situations. Following their lives on Facebook is comical with all the antics the boys and Jenna get in to...swallowing magnets is my favorite. Gotta love boys!

In January 2012, they finally, after a year long battle, got to bring their adopted daughter Marra Frehiwot, home from Ethiopia. The journey to get Marra was much longer and harder than it needed to be. Court battles, lawyers, intense interviews and researching, Amy spending weeks in Ethiopia by herself literally battling the US govt and Ethiopian govt just to bring Marra home.


Marra. Abandoned as a newborn, rasied in an orphanage. The orphanage she was raised in would be considered deplorable in the US. They are overwhelmed with children there and do the best they can...but there are no resources, no government programs providing for their needs. The sweet women who work there in all the pictures are doing the absolute best they can. You can tell. You can see it in the little parties they throw, the way they dress the babies up for pictures...they are trying and they walk with love.

But Marra, special, sweet, Marra...she got a wonderfully beautiful chance. She was adopted by a family who has walked through incredible odds to get to her. She was adopted in to love.

Marra's life with the Olssons was filled with love, kindness, caring and adventure. I watched her in pictures go from a quiet, very tiny baby one month younger than Trace to a bouncing, happy, joyful, perfectly normal sized toddler.

We got to meet Marra last summer when the Olssons came home to visit. We played in the basement at Nunnys with Amy and my Aunt Kate. Watching Rory and Trace play with the same toys as I did was the memory I thought would be most lasting...

Rory and Trace loved playing with Marra and the other kids. Rory especially loved Marra. Rory has always had an affinity for African American people, thanks to her undying love and devotion to Princess Tiana, so little Marra was like the perfect doll baby sized Tiana to her! :)  After we left, Rory said "I like that baby Marra. I want her to come to my birthday party." We passed on a couple bags of clothes to Marra, kissed the kiddos and told them we'd see them soon.

We were looking forward to the visit this summer, anticipating swimming in the pool and watching how differently Marra and Trace would interact this year...

Then last Saturday happened.

If you are a toddler mom, or toddler caregiver really, you know this exact situation all too well.

Marra and her dad were in the parked car at the lacrosse field, having a snack before getting out to watch the two middle boys play their games. When it was time to get out, Marra got out the door and took off running before Sten could get to her.

She ran in to a passing car and died at the hospital later that afternoon. She was life flighted and the doctors tried...but there was nothing anyone could do.

When my dad told me this story, I was petrified. How many times have Rory and Trace ran away from me? Just last Tuesday in the Subway parking lot, Rory was mad at me, ran faster than I could get to her around the van and almost in to the path of a truck. It happens. Toddlers get excited and they don't understand. This situation just as easily could have been me. Or you. Sten is a fantastic dad and it still happened to him and Amy. They are diligent, they are thorough, they are safety conscious and yet...still. An accident.

A crazy, scary accident.

Oh sweet Marra.

She was only here in the US for 18 months. But you know what? In those 18 months, that little girl learned what love is all about. She got an instant family, filled with laughter, adventure and compassion. She learned that family looks different to everyone. She became an integral part of a community and a big family. She became a beautiful example to all of us about sharing our blessings and extending our arms to those who need our love. Her journey to find her family was hard. Her life with the Olssons was much too short, but it was filled with everything a little girl could want or need.

She was blessed.

I'll never know what I get the privilege of watching Trace grow up and Marra's life journey on earth has ended. It's not my place to know that and it really doesn't help anything. What I do know is that I am honored to call Marra Frehiwot "almost family" and I'll think of her beautiful smile and sparkling eyes. I'll celebrate all of our Trace's milestones for both of them.

Spring Time is for Pretty Toes.

Spring has finally sprung here in the forest. By that I mean, there's no God forsaken snow flake graphics in the ten day forecast on Weather.com It's not exactly warm...but we're getting there! The sunshine has me thinking about summer which means time at the pool which of course means, cute toes are a must!

Here are some of my favorite pedicure ideas floating around Pinterest...

 

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Love all these colors!

 

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 I think this might be my recital pedicure...it is Studio K colors after all! :)

 

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Love the cheetah but I think I'd do it only on my big toe. Then the rest of my toes would be the color of the heart.

 

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LOVING the Chevron...but again, I'm more of a design on the big toe, plain little toes. Maybe I'll do the camo one on all the girl cousins when my aunt comes home from her deployment in June?

 

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So sunny and fun!

 

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This one is my current fave! I am going to try it out tonight...

 

Do you like nail art on your toes? Are you bold or more of a single color girl? Any fun ideas you plan to try out?

 

 

Disney World Recap 2: EPCOT

Disney World Recap Part 2: EPCOT

 

This trip was a combined present for my birthday, Dave's birthday, Valentine's Day and our Anniversary. Jan 5, Jan 26, Feb 14 and March 24 are all so close together it's difficult to keep coming up with presents...especially right after Christmas. So each year, we usually do a weekend away somewhere. Last year, we had plans to do a bigger trip for our 5 yr anniversary but ended up doing a week at Disney for dance.

 

This time around, last October actually, we started throwing out ideas for where to go...and both of us (yes even DAVE!) wanted a few days to ourselves at our favorite place on Earth: Disney World.

 

That all  being said! We spent a lot of time doing "new together" things at DHS, EPCOT and MK. Today I want to talk about EPCOT...

 

 

We went to EPCOT twice. One night late at night and one day afternoon to evening.

 

 

We ate at Le Chefs de France. It was delightful! The food was delicious, the service very attentive and we had a table right by the window. If I was thinking, I would have stretched our meal out and kept that table for Illuminations...

 

 

which, by the way, I have yet to see.

 

 

I'm pledging to see it on our dance trip next June!

 

 

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Dave getting sung to in French!

 

 

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With his birthday dessert :)

 

 

We also did a little bit of drinking around the world...our favorite!

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Dancing in Morocco!

 

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Dave...posing in Morocco. He's an embarrassment. ;)

 

 

We spent a good bit of time wandering around World Showcase. We love it in WC. There's always something new to discover, a food or drink to try, entertainment to watch...it's delightful.

 

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Dave and his favorite princess...although he will tell  you this specific Belle is not the Belle he prefers...

 

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Jasmine and Aladdin

 

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Mulan! I've never seen her out and about.

 

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Inside the Mexico Pyramid...near La Cava del Tequilla!

 

 

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EPCOT at night

 

I'm missing a whole bunch of pictures that got lost when our computer crashed in February...somewhere I had tons of pictures of the inside of Mexico, China, Japan, France and England areas...sad.

 

Guess I'll just have to retake them...June 2014!

 

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NEW TEST TRACK!!

 

New Test Track was awesome. The interactive stuff in the queue was really interesting. Dave, being a fan of cars, especially loved all the new stuff to look at.

 

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Being cute. :)

 

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Dave's Car

 

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My car...which BEAT DAVES!!! Thankyouverymuch

 

 

Summary: We love EPCOT. When it's just the two of us, we gravitate towards World Showcase, after Fast Passing Soarin' of course. We also really enjoyed the improvements to Test Track. Much more interactive and neat now. We had lunch at Sunshine Seasons and were pleasantly surprised at portion size, value and taste. The much fabled Strawberry Shortcake delivered. yummmm!

 

Next up...DHS and the Boardwalk.



Dating a Divo...

Please take this post with a grain of salt. It is meant to be tongue and cheek, a satire, certainly not a generalization. Enjoy!

Dave does not have a musical bone in his body. He can't even tap the steering wheel in time to the radio, let alone dance. He does give some hilarious renditions of kids songs to R and T before bed and can slow dance at a wedding reception like a boss...and if he's drunk enough, he'll do a mean Thriller. Other than that? He's a dance fan, will watch any Broadway musical with me and enjoys GOOD music.

He is exactly what I was looking for in a husband.

I've dated a ton of musically inclined men. Some lasted more than one date, most didn't, only a few made it in to more than a casual thing...

Here's the thing.

I think Pitch Perfect  is perfection. It cheers me up no matter how crappy the day. I listen to the soundtrack nonstep...even Rory loves it. She'll belt out Party in the USA or the "DUH DUH DUH DUH" song (Just the Way You Are) It's a great story, funny, touching, just plain lovely.

But it totally romanticizes dating a DIVO. I mean honestly.

 I was a theatre major in college. I knew my fair share of straight Divos.

What's a Divo? 

Divo: adj: a straight man with a flair for musical theatre and/or 80's/girls/early 90's boy band music. Usually well dressed, laughs at his own jokes and undeniably adorable. Do not be fooled by his shiny exterior. May ultimately spend more time looking in a mirror than you do. Will never be without chapstick though. That's a plus.

Divo is necessarily a bad thing. If you can handle that, than hey more power to you. Your BF will always be well groomed, sharply dressed and ready to serenade you at the drop of a hat. He will do the whole staring at you with tears in his eyes from the audience the way the hot dude in Pitch Perfect does. He will also try and one up you in any type of singing competition available, even drunk karaoke at the local dive bar on a Tuesday night. Some girls find that constant strive to win your affection attractive.

I find it more apropos for a fun fling, a date or two...but not a husband. Shudder.

I can't really imagine rolling over in the morning and hearing someone with dragon breath singing in my face "Good Morning beautiful how was your night...?"

Umm...unless you ARE Keith Urban, keep all musical shout outs until I've at least had some freaking coffee.

Tossing my hair back after a shower before I comb it..."She's a maniac MANIAC ON THE DANCE FLOOOOORRRR."

Me: I'm not feeling well, I think I have a fever.
Divo: Yeah? Well...YOU GIVE ME FEVERRRRRR.

You think I'm kidding? I've lived it, babe. I've been there. And I, a giant musical theatre nut job with an affinity for finding gay men to be my BFFs can't stand it.

I much prefer my sports fanatic, grounds keeper, slightly lumber jack-ish man who can't carry a tune in a bucket but claps the loudest every time someone in my studio does a back handspring on stage.

Thanks, Grave. xo

Disney World Recap 1: Animal Kingdom Lodge

Am I seriously that bad of a blogger that I haven't recapped mine and Dave's solo trip to Disney World...in January?

Yes. Yes I am.

Forgive me, friends. I'm stuck in dance jail until the recital is over on May 20. I love my job and my students, but this time of year is totally dance jail. I'm working 14-15 hour days, painting, typing, choreographing, cutting music, schmoozing advertisers, ordering shirts, sewing costumes, making headpieces...I do have a lot of help this year though which makes things SO MUCH EASIER! :)

So let's see...

Dave and I went to Disney World just the two of us for 5 days in January. We stayed in a Savannah View Room in Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

It was heaven.

We booked through StayAtWDW.com It was so easy! Kidani Village is a DVC Villa area. By booking through SAWDW, we paid the same for the room as we would have for a moderate resort. The guys at SAWDW were super accommodating, easy to work with and didn't even think I was cray when I was struggling to get our contract to email back to them. They have rooms available at all DVC resorts, Disneyland and Disney Destinations. When we booked, this option wasn't available but it is now...tickets and dining packages can be added! I highly recommend StayAtWDW.com :)

Kidani Village was gorgeous. Dave said we are spoiled now and will have a hard time going back to moderate...I agree. It was stunning. So quiet, peaceful and homey. KV is the quieter side of the resort, Jambo House is the main area and much bigger. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Animals on the Savannah, from the outlook near the KV lobby:

 

Jambo House:

Bus Area

Lobby

Artwork in the lobby...I mean wow.

Looking towards the Savannah, through iron work in the lobby.

Steps down to BOMA!

Gift Shop Area

Water Features near the pool and the Food Court.

Let's talk about the Food Court for a second...we LOVED it. We only ate there once because it was at Jambo and we were staying in KV. (We also were in the parks most of the day each day) The food was super unique and delicious. They did have standard kids' fare, which I was curious about. If I stayed there with R and T, would they have to eat African inspired foods? They'd try it but not eat it for a whole meal...and of course not! PB&J, Chicken Nuggets, Pizza, etc were all available for kids options (or adults too! :)) I wish I had taken pictures of our food...I had some sort of spicy pork sandwich with coleslaw on it and it was AWESOME. Dave had a flat bread pizza with African spices and cheeses...we were both delighted. We ate out by the pool, under a beautiful awning and it was heavenly. 

Do I prefer Port Orleans Riverside food court? Yes, I do for family trips. Bigger, more variety, more familiar foods. For when the kids are older and more adventurous? We'll be in the AK food court a lot, I'm sure!

The pool was GORGEOUS. It was warm but not warm enough for us to swim...there was also a really cool kids play area that I know my kids would have loved.

Back to Kidani Village:

Un-zoomed in (that's a technical term) view from our balcony!!

Zebras out the window

I won't bore you with the (literally) 150 pictures of the animals I took...I will tell you every time I stepped out on our balcony I saw different combos of giraffes, zebras, different types of African deer, Emus, smaller birds, oreks, gazelles, African longhorn cattle...it was AWESOME. The kids would have loved it!

Cons to Animal Kingdom Lodge? Well the busing is weird and messed up. I much preferred Port Orleans way of busing...at AKL it seemed like buses were much more spread out in arriving, never in the same pattern and totally unpredictable. Sometimes they would go to Jambo first and show up to us completely full and vice vera. My suggestion? Leave at least an extra 45 minutes for travel. We waited an HOUR one morning for a Magic Kingdom bus...in January. I can't even imagine the waits in June or July...In our opinion, it's better to kill time at a resort than sitting impatiently at a bus stop :)

Would we stay here again? ABSOLUTELY. It's top of our list right now of places to stay with the kids. 

Place Dave and I want to try on our own next? Grand Flo...we're already saving. Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian...we'll be working our way very slowly through all the Deluxe Resorts!

16 years, 12 battles, 1 dream.

Brenda Emer. 16 years, 12 battles with cancer, 1 dream: to meet Ellen.

This woman is my personal inspiration. The beautiful blonde daughter in all the pics has been my student for 8 years. They are basically my family. Went to my wedding, baby shower, baby sit my kids...she's an amazing woman and Allison is an amazing daughter. I'm privleged to know theme.

Take 10 minutes. Change your life. Then tweet this video to everyone you know.

Oh hi there.

Well after a few weeks of unintentional blog break, I'm back.

Let's talk about these last few weeks.

I've been working 12 hour days, easily, at least 4 days a week. I've been teaching every Saturday and Sunday as well. My wonderful, lazy summers and relatively calm falls...yeah I pay for it in February, March, April and May! ;) Small price to pay, for real.

Add in to marathon work days the death of a dance mom, a weekend long competition, tax season, a full and complete computer crash, plus a myriad of other things...it's just been a long month.

February can suck it. Honestly.

March is here and I'm on a roll. I started over again on my weight loss journey. I was out of control for a while there. I had no self control and didn't really care. My depression was in a full on downward spiral. My medicine was wrong, my seasonal effectiveness disorder was flaring up, my Achilles injury had me out of whack, my misophonia was at it's worse in years...I was a mess.

I WAS a mess.

I'm not anymore.

Wednesday morning, I woke up and made a decision. I enrolled in Jillian Michael's online program. It's less than $20 a month (pretty darn cheap!) and I love me some Jillian. I needed to be paying for something to commit to it. Does that make sense? If I didn't commit, I'd be wasting money and you all know I can't stand wasting money. By paying for this program, I'm forcing myself to stay the course and not give up.

Jillian's online program is a lot like all the others, except that her exercise plans are AWESOME. Every day when I log on, it's got a daily fitness plan laid out there for me. She also suggests meals and snacks for each day. I have the option of logging my own food, My Fitness Pal style, which is what I do. (Salmon? Gag.) You can also log your own work outs and she has an entire database of specific exercises to create your own circuits. It's really user friendly and a great resource.

I started Wednesday and have been faithfully logging every thing that goes in my mouth. I've switched out a lot of my Diet Coke and coffee for water. I'm mindful about what time I eat and make sure to have a small healthy snack a few hours later to keep my metabolism going. It's amazing what a difference eating breakfast makes in my day. I've never been a huge breakfast eater but I do like Special K cereal. So the last 3 days, I've measured out a proper serving of cereal, a proper serving of milk and paired it with a glass of water. I'm actually starting my day with intentionally healthy choices.

I've never done that before.

Last night at dance, I had forgotten my Special K bar or apple, my healthy snacks of choice at work. So I took 5 minutes out to run down to the convenience store down the road. They had Special K chips in sea salt flavor. The ENTIRE BAG had 110 calories. It was a perfect snack. I felt like I was eating bad for me chips (haha) but they weren't. They filled that crunch need, that salty craving and filled me up until dinner.

WIN.

I've also drank more water in the last three days than ever before. It feels good to flush my system. It's amazing how much more energy I have in just 3 days...with not even half the amount of caffeine in my system.

I am struggling to find exercises that don't aggravate my Achilles injury though. This will be an ongoing battle until summer when my Aunt's pool is open and I can swim. :) Any ideas?

Oh and get used to this weight loss posts. I'm doing it this time. So...like it or lump it. ;)

Goal 1: Lose 10 lbs by March 23. 3 down, 7 to go.
Goal 2: Lose 10 additional lbs by May 18. (20 total)
Goal 3: Lose 10 additional lbs by July 4. (30 total)
Goal 4: Lose 10 additional lbs by August 15. (40 total)
Goal 5: Hit goal weight by October 1!!!!

I am not crazy. I know weight comes off faster in the beginning. I've spread my goals out more after goal #1. I'm setting achievable, attainable goals so I don't get discouraged. Now I just need to figure out my rewards!! :) End reward? A CRUISE WITH DAVE!!!!! :)