Dancing with Sisters

Here is the latest Zumba song I have learned. I love it. My niece Anemone and my daughters Pippi and Tabs joined me as we danced this Brazilian funk/pop song. I was on the verge of cracking up the entire song because the girls were so adorable. Hope you like it:)
 i.e. this is the song the Brazilian grad student loved.
p.s. Thanks John for your camera work!

I had so much fun teaching Zumba at UBC last night. The class was small but so rewarding. I had several new students. One of my students was a grad student I had met at a previous grad conference. She is from Brazil and studies mathematics. Two new students were also grad students from the Middle East. They said they weren't dancers but loved to try. They changed into floor to neck sweat suits and head scarves. I worried about them over heating. Also, many of my songs are seriously sexy with a lot of booty shakes and hip thrusts. Though, I needn't have been concerned. They danced their hearts out and soon even the head scarves came flying off. They obviously had never danced before in their lives but they gave it their all and I was so very proud of them. At the end of class they had darling smiles on their faces (I seem to fall in love with my students!). I do hope they come back next week. The Brazilian grad student loved the class and said she would be back. We danced to at least one Brazilian song with Portuguese lyrics and she was very pleased :)

It is so rewarding to see a room full of smiling faces. There is one song I dance to,  a Spanish song called El Amor. It means love. There is a move where one literally brings one's hands to their heart and then extends them to the audience of dancers. I love that part because it is very Buddhist. I send my love to each student in the class when I do this.

Mist gave me some interesting news today. Apparently they have no dance teachers on call. So when a high school dance teacher is sick--the students have no class :(
In swoops me to hurry up and get my BC Certificate up to date and get on the T.O.C list for the district. I will be teaching elementary P.Ed. in January so I think it is a very realistic possibility that even though the T.O.C. list is frozen (they are not hiring any new ones this year), I can sneak in with my dance experience and then it is a skip and a hop to a permanent position :) So excited about these plans as I can continue to write and publish all of my eBooks and paint (I am illustrating all of my picture books). I have great steps to work toward, doing what I adore: dancing, teaching, writing and painting.

Oh yes, and some Mommy tips. I was drowning in disorganization. Pip and Tabs share a room and all of their clothes are in total chaos, all of the time. I never know what is clean. what is dirty, whose is whose and what still fits. So, in my usual 'out of the box' style I have arrived at a solution. Separate rooms is not a possibility for some time (we need to buy a larger home for this to happen). Thus, I moved all of Pip's clothes into our room (Peter's and mine). She has a dresser in our room and one side of the walk-in closet. In addition, a separate laundry basket keeps her dirty clothes separate. Now I know what is Pip's. And let me tell you, OMG does that girl have a lot of clothes!!! With 2 older fashionista sisters, and a Granny that smocks dresses, she is set for life! Sure, our room is a little bit tighter and cluttered. But is is organized and it makes me happy :)
 Btw, I know one isn't supposed to capitalize Mommy and Granny if it doesn't specifically mean an individual but, hey, Moms and Grannys are so important I capitalize away!

Peter has been away in Vancouver again this week. He seems to go every week for a few nights lately. That means a lot of crazy running around for me. Now I am taking a wee break and attending a Zumba Class at Oranj Studio right away--must go change--I like to go as a student once a week to keep fresh :)