Czardas

In High School  I learned this amazing song on my Violin. Its called Czardas and it sounds very much like a Gypsy dance of some sort. Its a lot of fun to play. My senior year I competed at a Solo and Ensemble festival for Orchestra and performed Czardas for the judges. I actually made it to the State level so I was pretty proud of myself. Lately, I've been neglecting my violin and thought it might do me some good to practice something so I don't get rustier than I already am. While I was searching for the sheet music to Czardas I came across this video. This kid is a freak of nature!! I've never seen anybody's fingers move so fast.

Lady Antebellum

So this year I decided I wasn't going to sulk and have a depressing Valentine's Day all by myself. So, I bought myself a great Valentine's Gift. Tickets to see these wonderful people. 

I paid for the really cheap seats but we had a pretty good view.

Here are some more Photos courtesy of my friend Mitch who had better seats.

Here are the Reasons I love Lady Antebellum

1) They Had 2 great Opening Acts. Thompson Square and Darius Rucker

2) They Sound Great Live and are Very Talented

3) They Are Great Entertainers and Are Very Interactive With Their Audience

4) They Invited a 3 Year Old Girl On Stage And Let Her Introduce American Honey.

5) Charles Kelly is adorable

6) Hillary Scott and I share the same name. And I'm pretty sure she's spells it the same way I do.

Here are some videos of the concert. Sorry the sound on them is not the greatest. It was amazing though!

(Sorry if the videos aren't working. I'm experiencing some technical difficulties but I will get these videos up someday. 

Thompson Square. Are You Going To Kiss Me or Not

 Darius Rucker. Its All Right

Darius Rucker. Led Me Here To This

Lady A. Dancing Away With My Heart

They had everybody get lighters and cell phone lights to light up the arena. It was so Pretty

Lady A. Love Don't Live Here Anymore~Their Very First Single =-)

Lady A. American Honey Lady A. Just a Kiss Goodnight

Teaching

For one of my classes this semester we've had to creating lesson plans. We've had to use Core Curriculum Standards, websites, other resources, and its been a lot of fun. I've been creating several different plans that have to do with reading comprehension, writing, etc.  I've planned one whole lesson around fables and fairy tales that help kids map out the plot, describe characters,  and identify setting. I also created a lesson that requires my students to do a presentation on an animal of their choice. After I finished this assignment, this was the first thing that came to mind.

This just made all excited for when i actually get to start teaching!

Love Yourself

Think of your favorite person in the world. What do you love about them? What do you admire about them?

Now name one thing you like about yourself. . . . . 

Why is that second one so much harder to do? Is it a bad thing to love yourself? Is it bad to pay yourself a compliment? of course its not.

Now think of your favorite person again, are they perfect? No. And you don't have to be perfect either to feel good about yourself. Here are 10 ways you can love yourself right now.

1.    1.    Celebrate your past. I’ll be honest with you — this is one of the hardest ones for me. There are things about the me I used to be that I just don’t want to celebrate. However, I think about it like this: everything that happened to me in the past made me the person I am today so I need to embrace and celebrate that past because, without it, I wouldn’t be me.

2.   Indulge in your desires. Now, not every desire should be indulged it, but sometimes I think it’s important to recognize the things that make you happy, that inspire you, that send little shivers of delight down your spine. Doing so will help you recognize the uniqueness that is you and will help you to identify the things you can focus on, those things that truly bring you happiness.

3.   Let go of your mistakes. Mistakes happen. To everyone. No matter what you look like, who you are, what you do for a living, you’ve made mistakes. We all have and they all suck. I look back on some of my mistakes and literally cringe. But you know what? It doesn’t do you any good to focus on them. Take what you can from them, learn from them, and then move the hell on.

4.   Transform your mindset. Sadly it’s often easier to get down on yourself than it is to lift yourself up, but if you want to love yourself, you have to change your mindset. You have to believe that you’re worthy of love and you have to actively seek out positive things about yourself and your life. Believe me, if you don’t do it, no one else well. Change the way you think about yourself and the rest will fall into place.

5.   Embrace your future. Sometimes you find yourself in a tough spot, unhappy with your life and ultimately unhappy with yourself. While I’m all about living in the present, I understand sometimes that the present can be pretty rotten. So cut yourself some slack and remember that you have a deliciously exciting future ahead of you. Focus on what’s to come and remind yourself that you can do anything.

6.   Dive into your passion. Most people are passionate about something. They have things that really matter to them — whether it be a cause or a job or a loved one or a hobby. Whatever it is that gets you really excited, focus on it. Embrace it. Run with it. One of the best ways you can learn to love yourself is to zero in on the things that make you the happiest and spend as much time as you can on them.

7.   Live in your moment. While it’s not always easy to live in the moment (nearly a year after starting this blog I still struggle with it on a daily basis!), it’s important that you do so. Why? Because to live in the moment is to accept what is and to accept what is is the best way I’ve found for truly loving yourself. If you focus on the past or present, you’re not loving yourself now. Love yourself by being present.

8.   Sing your own praises. I know some people don’t like toot their own horns, but you know what? It’s okay to say how awesome you are every once and awhile. It’s okay to admit that, wow, you did an amazing job on something or accomplished something you never thought you could. Celebrate yourself and your achievements and all of that self-love is sure to find you. Love your awesomeness because, seriously, you are awesome.

9.   Listen to your ideas. Do you ever find yourself ignoring your instincts or avoiding your gut reaction? Don’t do that anymore. If you want to love yourself, you have to believe yourself. You have to trust yourself. It’s not always easy to listen to yourself, but recognize that your thoughts and ideas are always valid (no matter how ridiculous they might seem). You don’t always have to act on your ideas, but always listen to them.

10.Appreciate your life. Okay, so there are some things you want to change about yourself, about your body, about your relationships, about your life? That’s okay. We all want to change things. But what if you stopped focusing on the things you want to change and, instead, focused on the things you wanted to stay the same. Appreciating all that you have in your life is one of the very best ways to remember that you’re so very lucky to be YOU.

I Heart the 90s pt 2

You know you grew up in the 90s if. . . .
You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"

You just cant resist finishing this... "Iiiiiiin west philladelphia born and raised..."

You remember TGIF on ABC. Step by Step, Family Matters, Dinosaurs, and Boy Meets World.

"Miss Susie had a steam boat, the steam boat had a bell..miss suzie went to heaven the steamboat went to hell_o operator please give me number 9 and if you disnconnect me i'll kick you from behind the fridgerator, there was a piece of glass, miss suzie sat upon it and broke her little ***_k me no more questions, please tell me no more lies the boys are in the bathroom zipping up their flies, are in the city the bees are in the park .......................... miss suzie and her boyfriend are kissing in the D-A-R-K- D-A-R-K D-A-R-K dark dark dar dar da dark"

You remember when Kurt Cobain, 2Pac, River Phoenix, and Selena died.

You know that "WOAH" comes from Joey from "Blossom" and that "How Rude!" comes from Stephanie from "Full House" 


You can still sing the Rap from Fresh Prince of Bel Air

You Watched Bill Nye the Science Guy

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You danced to "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, Females: had a new motto, Males: got a whole lot gay-er. (so tell me what you want, what you really really want.)

You remember the craze, then the banning of slap bracelets and slam books.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence...Not...

You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record "Your FAVORITE song of ALL time"

Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? was both a game and a TV game show.

Captain Planet.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green Ranger were meant to be together.

When playing power rangers with friends you fought over who got to be who............and still all ended up being Tommy.

You remember when super nintendo's became popular.

You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos... but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching home alone 1, 2 , and 3........and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"

"I've fallen and I can't get up"

One word,"Pokemon"

When you have played and beaten mario brothers/duck hunt.

You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates

if you remeber when every thing was "da BOMB"

when they made the new lunchables so that you could make tacos and pizza!!

You wore socks over leggings scrunched down

You remember boom boxes vs. cd players

Writing M.A.S.H. notes. (and the twenty different versions of that)

Making those little fortune cookie things.. and then predicting your life with them.

"I'm just joshin' ya!!"

You remember New Kids on The Block when they were cool

And You Were Obsessed with either 'Nsync or Backstreet Boys. But never NEVER both...

You knew all the characters names and their life stories on "Saved By The Bell"

You played and/or collected "Pogs"

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet or Nano and brought it everywhere

You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.

You watched the original Care Bears, My Little Pony, and Ninja Turtles

When boys still had cooties and girls were still weird.

Girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys go to Jupider to get more stupider! Or the other way around.

All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.(pencils.notebooks.binders.etc.)

You remember when the new Beanie Babies and talking Elmo were always sold out.

You collected those Beanie Babies.

You used to wear those stick on earings, not only on your ears, but at the corners of your eyes.

You remember a time before the WB.

You owned a portable tape player.

If you even know what an original walkman is.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

"Talk to the hand" ... enough said

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You know the significance of the number 23. (go mj.)

I love the 90s pt 1

This post is dedicated to probably the best decade and the Pop Culture that made it so great.

You've Seen Most of These Movies and Loved Them
Titanic
Jurassic Park
Star Wars Episode 1
Forrest Gump
The Lion King
Independence Day
Home Alone
Sixth Sense
Twister
Men in Black
Mrs. Doubtfire
Aladdin
Ghost
Clueless
Schindler's List
Diehard
Terminator
Braveheart
Apollo 13
Toys Story
Mission Impossible
Last of the Mohicans
Shawshank Redemption
Land Before Time
Pretty Woman
The Bodyguard

TV
Seinfeld
Friends
Ally McBeal
Beverly Hills 90210
Family Matters
Step By Step
X-Files
Dawsons Creek
ER
Saved by the Bell
Boy meets World
Fresh Prince of Bel Air


Music
In the 90s you would hear a lot of
Alternative Rock: Nirvana and Pearl Jam
Grunge/Ska: Green Day No Doubt
Hip Hop: Dr. Dre, Lauren Hill, Missy Elliot
Pop: TLC, Destinys Child, Brittney Spears, Spice Girls
The Power Ballads: Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey
The Boy Bands: Backstreet Boys N*Sync
The Best Era of Country Music: Garth Brooks, ShaniaTwain, Dixie Chicks, Reba McEntire, Alabma, George Strait, Leann Rimes


Fashion
yes, people did dress like this, on purpose

Headlines

OJ Simpson

Bill Clinton is impeached

Jon Benet Ramsey

Dolly the Sheep is cloned

The first Harry Potter book is released

Princess Diana Dies

New Eponine

So I have such good news!  Venus Mars and Neptune must have all aligned or someone important may have read my rant about the casting of Les Miserables. Whatever the reason I am just glad it happened because my wish came true. Taylor Swift is no longer playing Eponine in the new Les Miserables movie.  Yes, there has been a casting change and they gave the role of Eponine to Samantha Barks.      

I'm not sure exactly what happened. Taylor Swift may just have been too busy with recording or touring or the producers finally decided she wasn't quite going to cut it. Anyway, I don't really care why, like I said before, I am just so glad they chose Samantha. Samantha  has played Eponine in the stage production of Les Miserables as well as in the 25th anniversary concert that took place in 2010.

Here is Samantha singing On My Own.