Vanocka

Pronounced Va-noch-ka is the Czechoslovakian Christmas bread that my family makes every year. Its a sweetbread with a touch of orange and/or lemon flavor, sweetened with golden raisins or cranberries. So good at breakfast Christmas morning. Mmmm....can you smell the yummy goodness coming outta Grandma's kitchen?

What is Zumba?!?!?

Wow, I got a lot of questions about what Zumba was-well let me tell you it is the newest fitness sensation to hit Canada!!! Why do I love it? It is great exercise disguised as FUN! The motto is "Ditch the Workout,Join the Party!". You DO NOT need to be a good dancer to do Zumba. (It does help if you plan to be the instructor). Zumba is appropriate for all ages, fitness levels, and physical capabilities. In fact, the class I will take in February is to help focus myself on accommodating elderly, "differently abled", and people that are significantly out of shape.


The concept is that it should feel like a party. There is supposed to be a 70% emphasis on Latin musical rhythms, and the other 30% are various world/international including belly dance, bollywood, rock and roll etc. The Latin rhythms include merengue, salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, cha cha, samba, and flamenco.

So, if you have two left feet but would love to do a dance workout its OK to go to Zumba, it is not a dance class so noone cares if you trip over your feet as long as you have fun doing it! Check out the Zumba website for a class near you! www.zumba.com

Another One Bites the Dust and ZUMBA!!!!

Months that is. We've hit 17 finally. I can remember when our DTC was first sent out that some people were FREAKING OUT because they had hit 17 months and hadn't had a referral yet, now its pretty much the norm to expect to wait 24 months, its funny what a person can get used to. I REFUSE to let myself be depressed about this at Christmas time. I have a Christmas concert to put on, dancing lessons to prep for, and am truly blessed in many ways...

So in the spirit of being positive let me tell you about my own NEW PERSONAL PASSION. You may have heard of it: ZUMBA!!!

I LOVE ZUMBA. I love it so much I went out and got certified to teach it! And I am going back in February for another level of certification. Now you have to imagine that I am NOT a size 2, 4,6,8,10, 12,14,16....oh yeah just keep going. So there I am in this class full of petite personal trainers all taking this training, and then me. THANK GOODNESS for my dance background- i was able to pull it off! In fact, I found out that just being a personal trainer does NOT mean that you know how to dance at all!!! Thank you to all the lovely latino men that taught me how to dance when I lived in Arizona..... yum uh I mean....that was great.

And, since I have been practicing so hard at getting my Zumba materials perfected (I start teaching a class in January) I have lost almost 20 pounds!!!! Now doesn't that make a girl happy?

16 Months Down...

5-8 more months to go. I finally worked up the courage to contact our agency. These are the numbers we have been given (not a big surprise). I just needed to feel as though they knew that we were still here. As always they were gracious.

SO, April at the earliest July at the latest for that ever elusive referral.

Anyone know where I can get a poll to put up here? I think we need some kind of pool going here...

Taking A BIG Leap of Faith

Ok folks, I'm gonna do it. I am putting up the infamous "COUNTDOWN TO REFERRAL TICKER" do you hear the dramatic voice in that statement? We are at 16 months DTC next week, and I need less counting up, a little more counting down. I am setting the little guy for June 30/2010 which would be the 23 month mark for us. Seriously, if it goes any longer than that I WILL mutiny!!! Notice the slight bit of strain to my zenness...

Oh well, we all knew it couldn't last forever...but I'm still trying. Ommmmmm Ommmmmm Ommmmmmm ahhhhhh medication uh I mean um meditation yeahhhhhh :).

Too Cool Not to Share!

Check out this link-these girls are amazing!



They are performing at the Army Navy game in Ohio as the half time show. I have never seen jumproping look so COOOOOL! Wish I could do it!

15 Months and Counting

Still holding onto my "zenness". With all the talk lately of another 6-8 month wait it COULD be depressing if I let myself wallow-which I refuse to do. The reality for me is that another 6-8 months would mean a referral between April and June- ok I can live with that. Likely will NOT make it through court before closures (lets be realistic) therefore won't be doing any traveling until hmmmm....winter 2011? Which puts us at traveling WAYYYYYY to close to my husbands retirement which means he wouldn't be allowed to travel with me....so I am simply going to "will it into being" that we get through court and have fast times on medicals and everything else and can travel before Dec. 2010. Perhaps wishful thinking but....HEY PEOPLE I AM TRYING TO MAINTAIN MY ZEN HERE!!!!