Sports vs. Dance

Okay, time for a couple random, but related, funny stories.

#1. As many of you may know, my work is helping to run the dance camps at BYU. For any of you who know me well, you know that dance is not exactly high on my 'to-do' or 'learn' list. I enjoy watching it and can appreciate the talent and skill that the dancers put into it (though I still don't 'get' a few styles of dances, and I don't know that I ever will). But if I had my choice, I would ALWAYS choose participating in or watching a sport over dancing. I guess it's a great thing that I LOVE event planning or else I would question my current field of work.

Anyway...basically what I am saying is that my knowledge of actual dance is pretty limited (and I can accept this and my life continues on just fine). Well, a few weeks ago I was trying to collect some pictures of different styles of dance to start the work on our new brochures for the camps. I asked one of the directors for some pictures of tap dancers. I let her know that I had already requested some pictures from our campus photo department of a closing number from a performance that I had attended the year before. The email response I received said this (there was no opening address to me, such as 'Dear Chelsy', etc...just straight into the email), "That wasn't tap in Christmas Around the World...that was clogging...totally different." THE END.

I had to laugh. Watching from my seat WAY UP in the Marriott Center at that performance, the sound of metal from the bottom of shoes on a hard floor, to my 'uneducated dance' ears, sounded like tap. I stand corrected.

The first shoes are TAP, the second are CLOGGING. Yep...'totally different'.
So I don't offend all my tap and clogging friends, I will acknowledge the actual difference (after having asked another director). Clogging has a 'double toe', so it is not as 'clean' a sound as the tap shoes. I'm sure there's more too it, but that's all I got! But I do get the difference better now.

#2: I had a meeting with some of the ballet directors. As we discussed the possible designs for the ballet camp shirt for next summer one of the directors mentioned that a long time ago they had a saying on the shirts that she would love to put on again. It was something to the effect of, "Dancers are Better". They laughed and thought it was so funny. 'Sarcastic Chelsy' wanted to say something really bad, but all I said was, "well, I'm a sports person, so I can't really say I agree with that." Needless to say, the conversation of that phrase ended. haha.

#3. So I have been trying (very poorly) to get myself on a better schedule of getting to bed at a more decent time. Last night I was working on making a card while Rand was doing homework. I tend to like having something to watch while I do crafty projects, so I turned the TV on. As I flipped the channels looking for something good, I came across ESPN Baseball Tonight. It just happened that this night was the coveted Web Gem Awards night. Needless to say, my card making productivity went down, and Rand took a break from his homework. We watched beautiful play after beautiful play. If you are not a fan of watching baseball because there isn't enough action, then this may be the thing you want to see! It's sweet play action one right after the other, non-stop, for a good hour!

We also found that during this same program, on Fox Sports they were playing the Best Dang (edited for all) Sports Show...Period, Top 50 Catches Ever. It was heaven. Amazing plays and catches all over the place. It's moments like this that I love that Rand and I both love sports (and more specifically baseball. I've dated some guys that are 'bored' by baseball. It was never going to work, haha.) On my first date with Rand, we ended the evening watching Sports Center's Top Ten. This is still one of my favorite things to do with him, just chill, sit and

watch some amazing plays!

So what's the moral of this story? Well, as I sat and watched the plays last night I thought, "I may not know the difference between a tap shoe and a clogging shoe...but I know what it means to 'turn two' or 'hit for the cycle' or 'run the option', 'going for it on 4th and long', 'having a triple double', what a 'hat trick' is, etc, etc. I'm sure if I gave a quiz to some of these directors, they'd be just as clueless as I was about those shoes. In fact, in response to that email, 'prideful Chelsy' wanted to take some different cleats over and say, "which is a soccer cleat, football cleat and baseball cleat?" Or take different gloves and say, "which is catchers mitt, a middle infielders glove, a first basemens mitt, etc." But I'm sure her thought would be close to the same of what mine was when I got her email, "I really don't care to know the difference. If I was into dance, I might care. But I'm not into dance...so I'll leave that up to the dancers to know."

So in the end, I'm glad that we can all have our interests. I'm glad that I grew up in a home where my parents exposed us to different things. I love the theater, and I love even more watching my own family members up on the stage (I always have to watch Saturday's Warrior and Scrooge every year. Not the 'released on tape' versions...but the stage versions that my dad and brothers are in....MUCH BETTER! You'll never catch me on stage though.) I'm excited for the day when I have a piano in my home so I can sit down and play when I'm feeling like it (it totally cuts down on TV watching time too!), and I need to play the flute more. I love to see the things that my brother Shaun creates through his drawings, wood working, etc. His wife Lacey is just as artistically talented, and my sister-in-law Emily is the dancing daughter my dad never had in me! Kevin and I love to go outdoors and do stuff like rock climbing, mountain biking and kayaking. And my mom is the one who will sit down and watch any sporting event with her kids...and she TOTALLY knows what's going on! We have a well-rounded family and I love it and I wouldn't change it. It helps me to appreciate what other are into and realize that what I like is not 'the best' or the only thing that matters in life.

So I guess what I'm saying is, no matter what you do (dancing, sports, music, etc) just realize that that's not the only thing out there. How boring would the world be if we didn't have different things to do and be interested in. Expose yourself to other things and broaden your horizens a little bit. If you have to, bite your tongue, swallow your pride and try to learn a little about something else. You never know what you may just end up enjoying on the side! And if you don't like it (I still just don't enjoy watching some styles of dance, bores me to death!)...at least you can really know that you don't like it! haha! But understand that other people do like it and leave it be.

Oh...and a final note. All the above mentioned dance directors are incredibly nice people and good to work with. I think they immediately thought I was a dancer since I work with that area. I just thought the comments were funny!

The Latest...

Last Saturday, October 11th, one of my best friends got married!

Dan and Kim Ence

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures.

But one of my friends was the photographer and she promised to send me some pics.

Here are a few pics I did get:

Kim's dress was really pretty...very classy, simple and elegant!

(I would expect nothing less from Kim.)

Here are the two little flower girls. I think they are Dan's niece's. The girl on the left had that look on her face through the entire thing, it was SO funny!
Especially when someone tried to take her picture.



It always takes a big event for any of the old gang to get back together!
We were able to see Brad and JD, as well as Jorey and his wife.
They refuse to take serious picture, too!

All I have to say to Linds and Kim: The CURSE is finally BROKEN!

Then this last Saturday we went on a fun double date with our friends, Brit and Kyle. It was a first date for them (Brit and I play sports together and Kyle works at the MTC with Rand). Since we are all a littel competetive, we decided to have a little team competition bowling
(following a scrumptious meal at Rumbi Grill).

I'll let the picture tell you who won!

We have now been challenged to other sports like tennis (which they are both great at and we...well, we've played), table tennis, basketball, etc.
I will concure that Brit is usually the better athlete than me (yep, I actually said it!)
This is why I prefer to play WITH her rather than against her!
Currently, our sights are set on the intramural championship t-shirt for flag football!

Hmmm...what other news?
Not much! Rand and I are doing our normal routine.
On Saturday I spent a number of hours cathing up on the cleaning around the apartment that's been neglected due to busy schedules. Thanks to my handy-dandy Sonic Scrubber, our bathroom and kitchen floors are SPOTLESS!

If you like cleaning (like I do), or just like things to be clean and want an easier way to do it...I highly recommend this little contraption.

OH...and the big news:
I am no longer doing the Executive MBA program (everyone let out a sigh of relief now!)
From the beginning something just wasn't sitting right with me about the program, but I thought it was more to do with the fact that I was insanely busy with work, school and my calling. I thought I just needed to let things calm down.

But, things were still feeling off about it even after things calmed down and were more organized. So, after some contemplating and praying about it, I decided to be done. The decision feels SO right, so I'm really not feeling bad or anything about it. It's a great program and I met some great people. I had a great group that I was working with. But this is the right decision for me right now! Instead, I'm going to try to take a few other classes in some areas that I'm really interested in and will be more geared towards things I plan to do in the future (I have the benefit of taking some classes for free while working for BYU).

And yes...the stress level in my life just went down considerable with that decision!

Conference Weekend

Rand and I had a pretty enjoyable weekend. If started Friday when we attended the opening night of our friend Travis Lovell's photo exhibit at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo. It will be there thru November 1st, so go see if you are around. Travis is an amazing lanscape photographer (and a pretty good photographer all around...he was our wedding photographer!) He had been working on a project for a while of photographs of Utah Lake.

Below are a couple of them:

If you would like to see more of Travis's Utah Lake photos, you can go to: http://www.travislovell.com/

You can also see more of his photos at his photo blog (he has some great and more recent stuff there): http://modernpostphoto.blogspot.com/

The picture below is one of a group of pictures that Travis took of Havasupi (in Arizona). Rand and I dream of camping there! We've had a few friends who have and it is always highly recommended. Looking at these pictures you can see why! These pictures are also on Travis's website (along with a lot of other great ones!)

We also attended a wedding reception for a freind of ours (one of Rand's co-workers) and then went to dinner at Iggy's with some other friends so that we could see the end of the BYU game. There were quite a few people there that I'm pretty sure were UofU fans and therefore didn't want BYU to win. They were pretty loud about it, so we made sure to make a little noise when BYU won (though they played horribly! Hopefully that is out of their system before the UofU game!)

Saturday we watched conference and got some things done around the apartment. It was SO nice not to go anywhere or do anything (besides my grocery store run). Rand headed up to Salt Lake to attend priesthood session with his dad while I cooked meals (see end of post) and chilled at home.

Rand was especially excited to see that his mission president, Elder Lawrence Corbridge, spoke in the Saturday afternoon session. It was a great talk (if you missed it, go listen to it!)

Sunday we woke up and had some crepes for breakfast and watch the morning session of conference. Between the morning and afternoon sessions we decided to take a drive thru Alpine Loop to see all the leaves changing (we missed it last year by a few days and most everything was yellow!) The path was packed with cars and with people getting out and taking pictures. We were some of them! We expected to see lots of changing leaves...but we saw some other beautiful sites as well thanks to some recent storms (snow on the mountain tops, the clouds hanging over, etc). It was awesome. Hopefully these pictues do it justice (we just snapped a few quick ones with our little powershot. Some people were sporting some serious cameras up there! Sigh...someday I'll have one too!)

(I love how the above picture turned out!)

(The sky in the picture below was amazing...more so in person!)

After the drive we decided to stop by my brothers to see them (since it's been over a month). We watched the afternoon session of conference with them. I love my niece and nephew, they are so stinkin' cute. They were playing these cute little games with Rand and it was so fun. During the playing though, Ellie ran to hide in the bathroom and fell and hit her head on the toilet. We didn't even know (she walked out quietly and showed her mom). She will have a nice shiner from it! She becomes more and more like me everyday!

Then we headed outside so Ellie could show us how well she swing a bat and rides a bike. She's crazy! She flies down the street on her bike now that she learned how to ride without training wheels. She also has a nice swing with the bat (makes nice contact too) and that girl has an arm! If she chooses to play softball, I'll be excited to go watch her play!

Ellie is such a little poser!

Then there is Trevor who is shy as can be and won't even look at me!
I can't believe how big they are getting! I gave that BYU sweatshirt to Ellie when it was still too big for her! Now Trevor is wearing it...Inconceivable!

When Rand and I returned home, he helped me to finish up one more meal so that we could completely PACK our freezer. Saturday I made three big meals (chili, chicken and rice casserole, and some crock pot stew), and today some burrito enchiladas. All of these freeze really well and I am able to put them in the freezer and not worry about lunches or some dinners (when we are so busy). We (mainly Rand) can just grab it out of the freezer and he is good to go! This weekend I successfully froze 30 single serve meals! And I have other meals ready to be made to take their spots as they are eaten (pasta, stir fry veggies with rice, etc). My sister-in-law Emily introduced me to the world of pre-made freezer ready meals and it has been a HUGE time saver (not to mention Rand loves these meals and how easily they are at his disposal.) I have girls in my ward who have pre-made meals like this before they deliver their baby. Then they don't have to worry about making meals for a few weeks following! VERY SMART...I WILL be doing this!

I'm shocked we were able to get it all to fit (it took some doing). Don't mind the bottom right corner. I have two bins in there that I keep our frozen veggies, ice 'sports ball' packs and other random things in.

And lastly, we ended the evening watching some of the Planet Earth videos. Some friends from our ward had them and let us borrow them (Rand has been dying to watch them). We figure they are Sunday worthy since we are learning about God's creations (that works, right?)

These videos are AMAZING! If you ever get the chance to see them, DO IT! *You will be in absolute awe of the things they capture on film. BREATH TAKING for sure! I think we will have to invest the money in buying them one day...they are definitely worth watching over and over again throughout the years. (There's my 'plug'...you are welcome Discovery Channel!)

Over-all it was a great weekend and I'm sad I have to go back to work and homework tomorrow. I love conference weekend and hearing all the speakers and the words of encouragement and hope that they give.

Hope you all had a wonderful Conference Weekend as well!