Hello!

Sorry I got the ball rolling here, then kinda dropped off a bit.   It wasn't intentional, or for lack of desire to post.  It's just that I've been sick.  I am currently dealing with a massive amount of tree pollen outside and what that does to me, combined with strep throat and a pretty gnarly upper & lower respiratory infection.

Just wanted to say I haven't forgotten the blog, I've just been sick.

Dancing with the Stars - Premiere

Warning Spoilers ahead if you are waiting to watch this online tomorrow, or on DVR, you might want to skip this post.

So first night of Dancing with the Stars....  I don't watch a great deal of television, but I was looking forward to tonight's show. I thought we were going to miss it, because the electric was out on our road for most of the day, but it came back on in time for DWTS.

For some reason my 6 year old daughter didn't want to watch it tonight. Which is odd, because usually she wants to because she "loves the pretty dresses". She loves the ones that are long and flowing and pink. Those are the ones she goes crazy for. My little fashionista. LOL

So it was mostly just my husband, myself, and the baby. My 7 year old son watched the first half or so, then lost interest and moved on to doing other things. When they introduced Buzz Aldrin my son said the funniest thing. He said (in a somewhat annoyed voice), "WHY do they always call people that go to space Buzz?!?!?! WHY?" He then went on a several minute rant about how stupid it was that they don't call him by his real name and why they call all people who go to space "Buzz". It was great.

When he first started, it took me a second then I realized what he was talking about... Buzz Lightyear, Buzz Aldrin. LOL! Then I got a kick out of it. Too cute! I love the things kids say!

Buzz Aldrin actually did a pretty fair job, in my opinion, considering his age. I'm not saying he was a great dancer. But he did a better job than many of the older men they have had on the show in previous seasons. And it was cool to see him there. He has a great attitude about life. And how can you not love the guy after this:

Ah yes, always makes me smile, now back to DWTS....

I thought Kate Gosselin, Niecy Nash, Jake Pavelka, Chad Ochocinco, and Shannon Doherty all did well considering their total lack of experience and that it was their first performance.  Niecy Nash was fun to watch!  I felt that they went awfully easy on Chad Ochocinco, in comparison to Kate Gosselin and Shannon Doherty, whose routines were far more challenging than Ochocinco's.  I can't say I've ever really been a fan of Shannon Doherty, but it was nice to see a softer side of her tonight than she typically shows the public.  Also I thought Bruno was just plain harsh when he said something along the lines of she was "swinging her arms around like a primate".  Really?  Was that necessary?  I think not.  It was just mean, considering it was night one, she has no experience, and she didn't look like a primate.  Seriously.  It was just mean.  And even though I've not been a fan in the past, I must say the tears in her eyes when he said that were hard to watch.  I mean no woman wants to be compared to a primate on national TV.  Geesh Bruno!

Moving on...
Evan Lysacek did well for a first night, and you could see he truly is struggling with the fact that all of the turns are in the opposite direction of ice skating turns.  It was so nice to see them put make-up on Anna Trebunskaya (his professional dance partner this season) that was actually flattering to her!  Typically she looks lovely in rehearsals sans make-up, then on performance night they ruin her with harsh red lips and garish make-up.  Granted her eyes were heavily done tonight, but it was appropriate for stage and flattering to her coloring.  And the more nude shade on her lips was nice to see.  She's a lovely lady, they don't need to ruin her looks with too much "stuff".

Erin Andrews and Nicole Scherzinger both did very well tonight.  Nicole by far the best technical performance of the night.  But what do you expect?  Both ladies have a lot of previous dance experience, and have discussed that publicly in interviews leading up to DWTS.  They were certainly fun to watch.  But I feel bad for the people who are truly new to all of this, being put up against people with so much more dance experience.  Even if it isn't ballroom they have in their background, it certainly gives them quite an obvious edge.

And last but not least, Pamela Anderson.  Wow, what can I say?  I'm thinking she was either a little inebriated in some sort of fashion, or she has just played the ditzy bimbo for so long that she doesn't know how to not be that way?  I dunno.  Maybe that's just her natural personality/behavior.  She was entertaining.  I'll give her that.  LOL!

I wasn't crazy about the new set design.  It's ok.  The band as usual sucked.  Seriously, why can they not get a band/singers that can perform the songs properly?  It drives me crazy when you can plainly see the band/singer mistakes affecting the dancers.  That's just wrong.  I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to practice to a song all week, then come out and have them play it off time!  I would rather see them dancing to recorded music, played properly, than hear some of those singers butcher some of those songs.  They are not all bad.  But wow some of them are just awful.  They could at the very least try to stay in time with the music.  But that is a problem every year.  It is hardly a new thing.

Former DWTS Professional dancers that are not paired up with "stars" to be included this season include Lacey Schwimmer, Kym Johnson, Karina Smirnoff, Dmitry Chaplin, Corky Ballas, Anna Demidova, Julianne Hough, Jonathan Roberts, Alec Mazo.  But I assume we will likely see at least some of them in group dances later on.  I would guess that chances are fairly high of seeing Alec Mazo and Jonathan Roberts since their spouses are competing this year (Edyta Sliwinska and Anna Trebunskaya).

This was the first season with Brooke Burke hosting (previously she competed on the show).  She did good.  I knew she would.  I've seen her on other hosting gigs and she is confident, relaxed, professional, etc.  There's something about the idea of having a female host that had not posed for Playboy that I liked.  But...  she did a great job, like I knew she would.  Tom Bergeron was great as usual.

All in all, it was a fun show.   :)

Luna turns One year old!

Our rescue pup, Luna, turns one year old today.  Someone dumped her by the road when she was approx. 5 weeks old.  So I counted back 5 weeks and made her up a birthday of March 12th, 2009.  Which makes her one year old today.  She was a sweet little pup.  She had parvo but I cleared that up pretty quickly with an herbal remedy I've used now on many rescues with great success.  She was loaded down with more worms than I think I'd ever seen a pup have - which was also quickly remedied.  Otherwise she was very healthy.  And she's a happy cute mutt. And today is her birthday.  When I let her out to potty this morning I figured I'd try to take some pictures of her today.  But she was so happy to see the bright warm weather (like all of us) that she really didn't want to hold still.  I could have made her, but she was having too much fun for me to want to.  So I took a photo of her running around with a stick instead.  LOL!

~ ~ ~

* Just for Fun *

Dancing with the Stars - Pairings

The pairings on DWTS have been announced.

Buzz Aldrin will be dancing with Ashly Costa (formerly DelGrosso).

Kate Gosselin will be dancing with Tony Dovolani.

Evan Lysacek will be dancing with Anna Trebunskaya.

Shannen Doherty will be dancing with Mark Ballas.

Pamela Anderson will be dancing with the newest pro on the show, Damian Whitewood.

Nicole Scherzinger will be dancing with Derek Hough.

Aiden Turner will be dancing with Edyta Sliwinska.

Chad Ochocinco will be dancing with Cheryl Burke.

Erin Andrews will be dancing with Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

Jake Pavelka will be dancing with Chelsie Hightower.

and Niecy Nash will be dancing with Louis van Amstel.  

I am excited for the next season.  I enjoy watching DWTS.  Not only is it fun to watch them dance.  But you also get to see sides of people that you don't typically see.  I think some "stars" behave exactly the way you might have predicted, but with others you get to see sides of them that you've never seen before.  

Dancing with the Stars - Upcoming cast

Dancing with the Stars has announced it's upcoming cast.
Signed up for this upcoming season (starting March 22nd):

Buzz Aldrin - astronaut
Kate Gosselin - reality TV star, author
Evan Lysacek - Olympic gold medalist
Shannen Doherty - actress
Pamela Anderson - actress
Nicole Scherzinger - singer (Pussycat Dolls, etc.)
Aiden Turner - soap opera star
Chad Ochocinco - NFL player
Erin Andrews - from ESPN
Jake Pavelka - from reality tv show "The Bachelor"
Niecy Nash - actress, comedian, and host of Clean House on the Style network.

Looks like it could make for an interesting season!

* Quote *

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
- John F. Kennedy 1961

Bath Time

Tonight when I went to get my 6 year old son out of the bath.  I said, "Did you wash everything?"
He replied, "Uhhh, Not really.  But I soaked really well."
I said, "That's nice, but you are supposed to wash."
He said, "I know.  But I was busy thinking."
I said, "Thinking?"
He said, "Yes, I have a sensitive brain you know."

Don't ask me what that means.  But I thought it was funny.

* Quote *

"I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all of my life."
- Abraham Lincoln

Need Inspiration to Clean House?

Ok so we all like a clean house (well most people do).  But we all have lazy days and sometimes just don't feel motivated to do things.  If you need some motivation to clean house, be it just straightening up, or tackling a bigger job like a closet, basement or garage then I highly suggest you watch some episodes of Hoarders on A&E.

If you've never seen the show it is basically a show about people that have problems with hoarding.  They go in (with a film crew) and try to help these people mentally and physically.  My husband and I really enjoy watching it.  Sometimes it is depressing, on the episodes where the person really doesn't seem to "get it" even at the end.  But sometimes the endings are quite surprising and those you thought were never going to clean up, do.  My only gripe with the show is that they try to do too much too fast.  When we first started watching it, they usually had several days to work on things.  And it seems like the last couple episodes we've seen they only had two days.   And two days to clean a hoarders house is not remotely do-able.  So it kind of set those stories up for failure, or what felt like a "start" instead of a completion.  Some of the episodes are much better than others.  But many of the episodes are really uplifting and you can see real hope return to these families eyes.  Which is super cool.

Either way, it's an interesting show.  And trust me, afterwards, you will be motivated to tackle whatever cleaning project is hanging over your head!  Because seeing those examples of such extreme uncleanliness, really makes you want to clean!

A&E usually puts up two episodes online at a time.  And they rotate them out from time to time.  You can watch for free by clicking here, which will take you to the A&E website.

* Quote *

Let Go, and Let God.

* Just for Fun *