Many Memories!

"Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things."
-Marcus Tullius Cicero


"The heart's memory eliminates the bad 
and magnifies the good."
-Gabriel Garcia Marquez


"Life brings simple pleasures to us everyday. 
It is up to us to make them wonderful memories."
-Cathy Allen 

MEMORIES from yesterday... here with
HAILEY, BEAU, MARIAH, and LOLA! 

Jana with KRISTI and CARLY...
these 3 have many memories that date way back to when
 they used to be our next door neighbors,
when they were as small as the kiddies in the above photo. 

Jana and Beau meeting Lola with Hailey looking on
and Nels and Carly in background! 

MANY MEMORIES
here revolve around the couch cushions.
Here are the kids enjoying their little
FUN FACTORY
yesterday! 

Mike, Nels and Brian gathered in the kitchen sharing memories! 

Beau and Lola enjoying their sippy cups
and a toddler moment in time! 

Mariah Friday night in the balcony of TCU at
"THE PERFORMER" Dance Competition. 

My stylin' little dance enthusiast ready to go for
another afternoon of
"THE PERFORMER"
yesterday. 

Beau enjoying some stickers here on
Friday morning when we babysat him! 

A little glimpse of Mariah in her
kindergarten play on Thursday...
she is in the red plaid with green visor! 

Jana and Beau ready to watch
the little kindergarten play Thursday. 

Friend, MANDY, at the kindergarten play
on thursday with
Jana and Beau! 

My niece ROWEN in the middle of her
TWIN friends, Faith and Shaianne,
 at the Dance Competition Thursday.
Their group placed third in their catagory
 earning them a bronze medal!


I have had a week filled with many new memories all connected to old ones in my life.Memories are really a way of threading
things together!

Since last Wednesday there has been a
dance competition on in the city at TCU,
called
"THE PERFORMER".
The studio I work for, BSOBAD , has been involved in it each day, so I have been going daily to watch bits and pieces.
So many memories for me revolve
around years of dance competitions.

I took Mariah to 3 out of the 5 day run
of the competition to watch.
For a 5 year old she had a very good attention span, too! She loved to count how many dancers were in each group and
make her comments on the dances
along the way. She also enjoyed going
back stage to hang out with the
dance teachers there and after a few bags of skittles do a few little cartwheels
in the wings, too!
We can't wait till she is ready to compete.

I also enjoyed my visits with the various
dance teacher friends I know from
the many participating studios.
Jana's friend, Mandy, was in town
from her home in San Diego,
adjudicating the jazz, lyrical and open catagories of the competition and she connected with Jana on
some of her breaks, too.
One break she even managed to attend Mariah's little Kindergarten concert
held on Thursday afternoon.

Mariah's concert was called
"How Does Your Garden Grow?"
It was a cute little play with
grades K-4 all squished onto the stage
in song and actions... with many creative colorful flowers in the background!
This brought back many memories
of my kids in their school
concert days growing up!

Our neighbors and friends from
when our kids were small were
all gathered in town for a funeral on Friday. Mike's mom passed away last week,
which brought him and wife Lynne here from Regina, along with their daughters,
Kristi, her husband, Matt, and their two kids, Hailey and Lola from Toronto,
and Carly from Vancouver.
It was nice to reconnect with them
and re hash many memories of our past.
It was fun to see the kids of our kids
playing together on the couch cushions
as our kids did when they were that age!...
AH... the memories!

Kristi and Carly were both dancers, too,
 so they not only have childhood memories
with Jana, but many dance ones as well.

I was remembering my
dear Aunt Jean yesterday
on the first anniversary of
her passing a year ago.

Last night we had a meal with
my in-laws and my brother -in-law Bruce,
in town from Vancouver and again more memories were reviewed!

Brian and I went to friend's
Cal and Julie's last night to see
their lovely new home. We have many memories that go back to my
dance studio days.
We shared many memories and
fun visits over coffees in their
little coffee shop next to my studio
called "THE JAVA ZONE".

Today is the final day of
"THE PERFORMER" dance competition,
but I felt I had supported the first 4 days
and chose to stay put on this rainy Sunday.
I was feeling badly for Jana's friend, Mandy, who just got news of the passing of her grandma yesterday.
I know it made her day of adjudicating
a little tougher for her today.
She will stay at Jana's tonight before flying back home again tomorrow.
Those two girls share many memories from their dancing shared over time.

Tonight my brother Brian is coming here for supper. I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks with all the activities I have been up to lately.
We will have some TV show memories to get caught up on as we both are following the Idol and the voice on TV closely!

He should be arriving shortly... so on that note here is my rhyme of the day...

There's always a reason
for just one more rhyme,
A reason to write about
memories in time.
So many things connect
memories together,
Lots involve trips through
all kinds of weather.
The sun may be shining,
or it might be wet.
But memories are ways
to help us not forget,
The things, the people,
and times we love most,
And thread them them all together
right from coast to coast.
Memories attach themselves
right to our heart,
And stay right inside there,
never to part.
They help us remember
the years that are gone,
As we dance our way down
memory lane... and on and on!