vmmmomof3girls wrote:

vmmmomof3girls wrote:

april6263 wrote:

HEY VMM   I was on youtube and I ran across this.....LOL!!!!! I couldn't resist....it reminds me of our new "R2D2" ship...LOL




OMG, that's adorable. I'm going to send this to her.





 

 

April , she said it was the "CUTEST THING EVER"

LOL.....so glad she liked it....I thought it was the cutest too  

View, unobstructed wrote:

(I think all the ugly sweaters are hanging in my closet)


I Remember when I was posting photographs of waterfalls?  I still have this one in my file.  
Must post it, it's so awesome!!

Victoria Falls in southern Aftica on the Zambezi River.  The "drop" is 355 feet !  That's twice as high Niagara I think.

Especially from this aerial view...just amazing.




a similar shot.

Hey View!! *waving*   that is AMAZING!!!!!

tangodancer208 wrote:

Hi all!  I'm am peering down on you from not Cloud 9 but rather Cloud 29!   I'm going to give you a kind of summary update on today's Bootcamp.   There are some videos on the DWM Web site.   I've seen myself in the back on one of them.   

My foot was better this morning, and I didn't need to ice it, but my back started acting up right after lunch.  More on that in a miute.

The bootcamp began this morning with Tony doing a lesson on basic movement, transferring weight and timing.  There were women (only 2 men) of all ages, shapes & sizes, and levels of experience.   There was a group of young women from a local dance studio in the a.m. who made their presence felt.   The counterbalancing group were those of us who had done the whole week (or at least part of it) + a few new DWM students who arrived just for today   Next you could chose from working with Serge or Henry.   I chose Serge in the morning.   He taught us a short choreography sequence and then had us perform it to express different emotions--anger, happiness, sadness, etc.   Following that, we could choose from Tiago + Teresa or Ilia.  I chose Tiago & Teresa.  Teresa taught us some salsa steps.  Then Tiago taught us the opening steps from his big number in Sway to which we added the salsa steps.  Then Maks came in.  He worked with us on a few steps and then took some questions.   After that, it was time for lunch.   

I would say about 1/4 to 1/3 of the group left before lunch, including the local group.   I don't know if any new people came in.  Everyone was complaining about being cold at lunch.  But when Tony started, he really warmed us up.  He taught us a lengthy cha cha combination that we then performed to a number of different songs, all of which were lightning fast!  My heart was REALLY pumping after that.   Then we could choose between working on balance with Serge or turning with Henry.   I chose Henry this time, and it was an amazing class where he showed us all the ways to turn using the rumba.   Following that we could chose between Ilia who taught the opening steps of the final Sway number or Tiago and Teresa who were teaching Kizumba.   I chose Ilia, but by this time my back was bothering me, and I really didn't care to learn the opening of the number.   I left about midway through to go to the bathroom.  Then I went in the other room where my things were and did some stretching and took some Advil while I watched the other class.   I was very glad I did.

Maks came back for the final hour and taught us some samba.   That's one of the videos you see that Staffan took.   I was doing fine for that, but I was drenched with sweat and looked like heck.   When they finished that they had the M&G, which was really much nicer than anything else I've attended.  All of them took dance-related questions for about 30 mn.   Some very interesting and useful responses.   The woman who kept asking Meryl-related questions (twice) got artfully ignored (ie. how do you dance with someone who is vastly different in height).   Then they all hung around for pictures.   I got a selfie with Eugene, Henry, Ilia, Tiago, David (who showed up near the end).   I already have selfies with the others where I look a lot better.   

I had a few seconds to change my shirt and get ready for my dream moment.   He asked what I wanted to do, and I said rumba or cha cha.  Now, he had seen me learn and do the samba steps earlier so probably had some idea of what I could do.   He held my hand (he didn't ask) and let me over to put on some rumba music. He finally chose a song--the one he & P dance the rumba to.  Fortunately, it's a beautiful song and we dance to it at our studio at home.   

We did one basic step and he stopped.  He said that I knew the basic step, I knew the hip movements, I knew the counts, but I needed to make everything BIGGER.   He then proceeded to work with me on doing so.  Your hips move in a figure 8 in Latin dancing.  He had me do that over and over and over until I could consistently do it right.  Not only moving my hips, but keeping my shoulders down, chest forward, abs compressed, back straight, all while doing the movement.  

Suffice it to say that this all required close proximity, his directing said hips, abs, spine to the correct position, and demonstrating for me to feel those positions.   OMG!  I was very tense and was trying not to cry in the beginning.   Then I was concentrating so hard to do what he was asking me to do.   I think I did all right, and I think it was much more interesting to him than someone with no experience who comes in and says "show me how to dance!"  

It was worth every penny that I paid.  I thought this might satisfy my curiosity, but it only made me want to do more!  If the opportunity every arises again, I will jump at the chance.    

He was absolutely Maks!  He was tough, demanding, encouraging, sarcastic, obviously an expert at what he does.  I have NEVER had so much FUN in my entire life being challenged to do more and better.   I hope he will remember me in a good way.   As we said goodbye, he hugged me 3 or 4 times and thanked me for supporting DWM and Sway (as did Tony earlier).   This experience soothed my heart a bit and reminded my why I've done all this over the last year, because of Maks!   If he's happy, I don't really care who he's with or who he dances with.

I'll post more as I process it all.  Have to get back to work now!

OMG!!!!! TANGO YOU GOT TO DO THE RUMBA WITH MAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! so excited for you!!!!!!! are you still up there on cloud 29??????!!!.....LOL.....I would be .....Oh and did you need Val for CPR????....LOL   so glad your ankle held out so you could experience that   it must have been an amazing time for you (((((hugs)))))  

april6263 wrote:

Hey guys  hope everyone is well   So for the Christmas party does anyone have ideas about a date that would be good?????......maybe like next thursday???????  and party idea?????.....we have the ugly sweater contest and carols already   I think this will be a blast   

also ... in my family it is a tradition to have a cookie baking party the Saturday before Christmas, so would anyone want to start a Christmas cookie recipe exchange for the next week????    I am always looking for new cookie ideas to try and I think it would be fun to make some cookies from recipes from the sisters  I might even make some to munch on during our virtual Christmas party  

gonna go catch up now  

Oh I think a "cookie exchange" would be fun....Thursday is good for me, just let me know what is good for everyone else....

april6263 wrote:

CEK40 wrote:

 Noah Galloway

Well can you believe it was John Cena I had my 1st cigar with and not Robert Herjavec?? #AmericanGrit

OK, so see......LOL....I would LOVE to have Noah hook John Cena up with DWTS for next season......LOL.....(and my daughter would flip her lid)...LOL.....no shipping because John has a long term girlfriend but I think he would do really well on DWTS with someone like Sharna or Lindsey

Kaleb loves John Cena and so does his mama...LOL
I think he would be really good on there too with Sharna!!!!