teaching dance and tiling and sweet moments

That's what I've been doing this week. Actually, I haven't been teaching dance, just trying to get a job doing it! I contacted the local park to see if they wanted to start up some dance classes. I was very hesitant to make the call because I get nervous when I have to promote myself or try something new. I didn't really know for sure if they had a space or any interest in having dance. But, last Thursday I made contact with the park manager who was very interested in my ideas. He said they used to have dance classes but the teacher left and they just didn't try very hard to find a new one. I brought him my resume and some ideas for classes and he didn't even hardly look at it before telling me to come back so I could fill out an employee packet! I was so shocked since I was so sure that this was going to be a lot more difficult. :) It's been difficult to communicate with this man. He seems to be a great basketball coach and I know the park has a big football and baseball program but I just couldn't get much information from him. I guess that's a good thing. I can just do whatever classes I want anytime I want and they provide everything--the advertising, facility, paperwork. I just get a nice paycheck. Speaking of pay, I'll be making more here than I've made in the past since my profit depends on the amount of students I have instead of being paid by the hour like in Indy. I've designed some new classes this time that will combine dance and gymnastics which should start in March. I'll be offering 2 beginning dance and gymnastics classes, 2 intermediate dance and gym classes and 1 toddler dance class for 30 mins with parent participation. The classes will be on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings. The parks advertising program has already gone out for this season but they will advertise on the web and I'll be putting up fliers. I think my biggest challenge will be getting the word out.

In addition to the dance thing, I've been putting down tile in our little master bathroom. When we first moved into the house one of the first thing I started doing was ripping up the old tiles. Not only was it horribly ugly, it was so stained and the grout was cracking. I've tiled a bathroom before so I knew I could do it! But like all do-it-yourself projects it was a lot more complicated than I planned. After ripping up the first section of tiles last semester I realized I needed to put the project on hold since we were so busy with other things like getting used to a new town. Plus I didn't want to spend any more money on it. We got a few Lowe's gift cards for christmas and I used those to buy most of the products I needed. I started working on the floors again a few weeks ago.

The first problem I had was the subfloor. It was a concrete bed and as I was pulling tiles up pieces of grout were hard to get up and the top layer of concrete was also coming up! So I had to use conrete patching. (very hard to use because it dries in 10-15 minutes so you have to do all your work that fast!) Then the cutting and laying out was a challenge. I borrowed a little tile saw from a friend and that part went pretty smoothe. It was just time consuming. That's what I did for most of Saturday. Then once I had all the tiles ready I had to figure out how to put the mortar down without mixing up the tiles. I hadn't thought of it ahead of time but as i'm spreading the mortar under the tiles i had to put sections of tiles and pieces of tiles on top of each other. That may not make sense but I was a little confused while doing it myself! My thighs and knees have been soooo sore after squatting in tight spaces for 2 days. I didn't even realize I was using those muscles so much until the next day and I could hardly walk. All I have left to do now is the grout which is actually kind of fun. It's messy and goes by pretty fast and the results are awesome.

I was going to do that tonight but I laid with the girls while they fell asleep tonight and got out of their room too late. I don't usually lie with them after we read our stories but sometimes it's just nice to be with them. They usually say the sweetest things. I can just imagine their imaginations as the rest with their eyes closed. Ellen said, "mommy, I'm so comfortable right now I feel like I'm a baby in a soft crib. . . I'm so comfortable I feel like I'm flying." Her head was on my shoulder and her arms were wrapped around mine. how sweet.

Sorry for the long post. Guess I had a lot on my mind. Hope you could make it through!