First Rehearsal with the Band and Choir

A few of us went to the Wednesday night rehearsal to practice two of our dances with the choir and band - Hosanna and Awesome God/You are God Alone. I think we still have some work to do. Praying that God shines on us and guides our steps. Have lots of work to do yet to make it beautiful for Him!

A Season of Dance

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under Heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1

This years is turning out to be the season for dance in my life. God has blessed us with the opportunity to continue the priase dance ministry at church and many of the dancers are continuing with the program. God has lit a fire in the worship dancers at church and the church leadership has embraced the ministry! We began practice for the Easter program a couple of weeks ago and are putting together a new dance with the inspiration of our "miracle-working God." It is also a blessing to be working with Sister Shirley on chroeographing "Hosanna", and will be interesting how the dance will actually owrk when we get the streamers to practice with. Watching the Lord use her to fulfill his purpose for this ministry is inspiring.

This is also the year for our dance studio to do its performance, so we have been rehearsing every Saturday for the last several weeks (in addition to our regular classes to work on integrating the class dances together. All of the dancers are working really hard to make the dances just right. It is going to be a very good show. Our teachers are very talented and always create fun and interesting routines. After April, things will slow down, but until then, its go... go... go!

The Atomic Generation
Today, when my son was asking me which generation I belonged to, I looked it up to check, and found out that there was a "new" generation that I had not heard of before - Generation Jones. While the description Wikipedia gave was intriguing, I think we should be called the Atomic Generation.

We were technology pioneers who grew up in the Atomic Age and during the Cold War. We didn't know whether an an atomic bomb would be dropped on us and whether a nuclear winter was in our future - or the lack thereof. We dreamt of underground bomb shelters and "Duck and Cover" scenarios. In elementary school, we watched movies (not videos) of the atomic bomb tests and thought it was a normal thing. The futuristic images from the Jetsons were not what we envisioned. Our perceived future was more like Mad Max where destruction and desolation lie ahead. And that may have been why punk music was so popular - when the Atomic Generation came of age and voiced ideas from the vacuum in which they lived. Teenage angst and loneliness. Abandonment and lack of acceptance. The first batch of latch-key kids.

We were, and still are, holding onto the tail of the Baby Boom Comet where all of the attention was taken away from us due to their sheer number, and we had to stand up and SHOUT - "Hey, we're here too! We're not invisible, and we matter!"

The Chance to Honor God
I am truly blessed to be able to participate in the Church's Christmas Program this year as a dancer. It is a humbling honor to dance for God during this season. I am so thankful for our leader, Shirley, who is a phenomenal singer and has been such a blessing. The other dancers are wonderful too. I only hope I can honor him with my dancing.

Returning to School after a 20-Year Break

Why would someone want to take a break from their life to return to school while working full time and raising a family? This is the question I have to ask myself over and over now that I am halfway through the pursuit of my Masters Degree in Public Administration with a Certificate in Information Technology Management. I work for a local city government agency and have been managing the Information Technology department for about 11 or 12 years. I have learned on the job, essentially from the ground up and have developed to the point where I can make decisions based on enabled intuition. The difficulty has come with management either not understanding or not valuing the insight an Information Technology leader can bring to the organization.

I was able to bring a cohesive, lean management style to the implementation of Information Technology in the agency, but I think it was taken for granted because when the new management came on the scene, I was pushed off of the management team - a decision obviously made before I ever had a chance to talk to the City Manager. It was both humiliating and degrading. I had already made the decision to return to school to earn my degree before this occurred, and was able to draw on these events as subject matter for my school papers and to use them as a "therapy" of sorts, which helped me get through the very difficult transition. I attribute this to God's grace and His ways of "preparing the way".

I relied on God through the transition. He helped me through it, and I thank Him. It is my desire to use the insight I am learning through my education to serve Him because I think it is due to Him that I am doing as well as I am. Five classes finished; five to go. The EMPA program at Golden Gate University consists of 9 courses. I have finished 6 of them and have gotten A's on each one. The ITM certificate program consists of 5 courses. I have completed one and got an A+ in that course. This trimester, I will be working on the next two courses for EMPA and the next one for ITM. I continue to pray for God's strength through this as it is not an easy process!

Proud Mom

After a LOT of work and much studying, Addam graduated from High School with a 4.2 GPA, made Eagle Scout, and got himself a job all within the span of about a month! He was soooo ready to graduate, he had been talking about it for most of the school year, and he did it!

His Eagle journey was, at times, challenging - especially for his Mom (me!) who was trying to motivate him. I was honored that he choose me as his Mentor honoree at the Eagle ceremony. Addam's project was the landscape renovation of the area in front of the Tiny Tots playground. He led a team of boys in putting in irrigation, planting plants, and laying down mulch, and it turned out very nice.

One day after his graduation ceremony, he had his Eagle Court of Honor which he shared with two other Eagles - Kalvin and Will. This was a special day for them and one they will remember their whole lives. Congratulations Nemo!

Yes, I'm Still Dancing

The dance studio I attend had our bi-annual show in June and it was great fun! I "tap danced my heart out". Months of practice brought us to the point where we were ready to perform and everyone did a great job. The story line was really good ("And the Winner is...") touching on different awards ceremonies. Sherrie, the most creative tap choreographer I have ever danced under, writes the story line and it was a "Winner"!

My dances were Big Time Woman from Way Out West, Low Rider, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Gettin' Ready Rag, Ritz, and Boogie Tap, and the performances went well for all. Gina's jazz numbers were beautiful, Regina's hip hop numbers were "buck", and Nicky's classes were tight. Classes will start again soon and I can hardly wait!

Class Reunion

Last February I attended my class reunion for El Camino High School and it was a great time! I saw a few old friends - Joyce, the other "2 musketeers" from Jr. High - Yoly and Maryann, Patti, Dave, and Will. Had a chance to chat with Betsy, Tammy, my tap dance partner Yvonne, and many more people. Everyone looked great! We caught up with as many people as we could and it was nice to hear that people were doing well.

I missed seeing more people from Show Troupe. It would have been nice to catch up with more of them and see what they are up to now - see if anyone else is still performing and where. Well, maybe next time!

Finding the *Perfect* Pup!

It has been WAY too long since I last posted to my blog and so much has happened.

First of all, we searched for many, many months for an American Eskimo or another small dog, visiting shelter after shelter. We even visited a couple of rescue agencies, one in Berkeley, and thought we had found the *Perfect* dog. We found an American Eskimo online and we arrived an hour before the rescue agency opened, waiting patiently. When the agency opened, we found out that the pup had gone to get neutered the night before, but would be arriving "soon". So we filled out paperwork and waited, and waited, and waited. Many people came and went, and we waited. Finally, the pup arrived, about 3 hours later. When he came in, he took a look at Cooper and ran to him. Cooper sat on the floor and the pup curled up in his lap. We thought "Oh, this is the *Perfect* pup for us!" So, I went to talk to the people running the agency and someone I had not talked to, said there was a couple that had called them and was waiting for the dog too.

So we waited, and waited. The agency person read over our application and said we couldn't have the dog, so I asked them if they would let us rescue another dog and they said no. They were concerned about the time the dog would be alone until the kids got home from school, and they said since we had not had a dog before they were concerned about letting us adopt one. I was pretty surprised because I thought the rescue agencies tried to find loving homes for animals and here they were turning us away after we had been looking for a dog for sooooo long. We sadly left the rescue agency and, to add insult to injury, found a parking ticket on our car.

Nonetheless, a few months later, my stepmother saw an ad in the newspaper advertising American Eskimo pups, so we went to meet the pups and fell in love with one of them. We brought him home and he has been happy and healthy member of our family ever since.

Koda is a very smart pup and has completed his Basic Puppy Training class and is well on his way to completing his Intermediate Puppy Training class. He is 8 months old now. Funny thing - looking at my last post, he was born 4 days before that post! We are so happy to have him as a member of our family.

In Search of the *Perfect* Dog

My youngest son has been begging us for years to get a dog. My husband's answer has always been "If we get a dog, the only problem is that it will be 'my' dog" (meaning he will be the one that ends up taking care of it). So we told Cooper he needed to show us that he could take care of a dog.

The journey started about 6 years ago, when I thought, hey, maybe I'll get him one of those robot dogs and see how he does. I figured, well at least he wouldn't be able to starve the dog, and hey, the robot dog wouldn't make a mess. So, a robot dog it was, and he took care of it for about a week. So, at age 7, it wasn't time to get a dog.

A couple of years passed and Cooper continued to beg us for a dog. So, we got a cat. She was a beautiful Blue Lynx point Ragdoll kitten we called Zoe. I love cats and we figured, if he could take care of a cat, maybe we would reconsider getting a dog. So Cooper's job was to clean the cat box and feed it a scoop of food in the morning and a scoop of food at night. Well, we had to continually remind Cooper to do both. So at age 9, it wasn't time to get a dog.

A couple more years passed and along came another cat - this one was a rescue, of sorts, Gabbie - a 6 year old Seal Bicolor Ragdoll, whose family couldn't keep her. So Cooper's job continued to be to clean the cat box and feed the cats a scoop of food in the morning and a scoop of food at night. Cooper still had trouble remembering to do that, so at age 11, it wasn't time to get a dog.

Last year, Cooper gave up. He figured we were NEVER going to get a dog and wanted to stop feeding the cats and cleaning the cat box - when we reminded him. The only problem was, those were still his chores, so even though he had given up on getting a dog, he still had to do his chores.

Now, at 13, Cooper has been doing better at remember to feed the cats (cleaning the cat box is still hit-and-miss). But, a few months ago, Pete agreed that we could start looking for a dog. Imagine our surprise (read: shock!) when he said this, so I started scouring the internet to try to find a dog that might fit well into our family.

My first thought was a Golden Retriever because they are so gentle and loving, but I kept hearing my friend Mary saying "Small dog - small poop; big dog - big poop," so I wanted to get a dog that was small.

Next, we thought about a beagle. I talked to people who had beagles and they gave me the pros and cons. I wasn't sure how well our family would adjust to a hound that might howl and "follow his nose" out of the yard. So, even though a beagle sounds like a good dog, we kept looking.

Next we looked at Chihuahuas and Yorkies, but I was worried they might be too small and would easily get hurt, so we kept looking. Then we met someone with a Corgi and they looked like such happy dogs! Always smiling and with those perky ears that were so big, but after talking to a Corgi breeder, I was worried that their herding instincts might make them to try to herd the cats, so we kept looking.

Now, we are looking for an American Eskimo Dog - probably a miniature. The American Eskimo Dog comes in Toy, Miniature and Standard sizes and seem to have traits that would fit in with our family. So, we are looking at the rescue organizations and at the local breeders so we can meet the dogs and find out what they are like. We are hoping some day soon to find that *perfect* dog to add to our family.