Zumba on Good Day New York...Fox t.v.

Here's the link if you wanna watch. I have much to say about what actually happened behind the scenes. Now I know why LIVE t.v. is so difficult. There are no re-takes! If something goes wrong you just have to run with it...more on that later. I've been up since 4:30am; gotta go to bed!

EEEK! I'm gonna be on live tv tomorrow!

OK, most of you know that I teach a little something called Zumba. You may have heard me mention it at some time or another. wink
Anyway, I'm in the "in" crowd here, Zumba-wise and I've been asked to participate in a Zumba segment on Fox TV tomorrow morning. They're doing a spotlight on Zumba and the Zumba instructor who is heading it up at the Fox studios has invited me to be on air with them...I'm sure I'm just gonna be a backup dancer. EXCITING!!!!
I have to be at the Fox studios in NYC by SEVEN A.M. That will be a feat in and of itself...now the big question; WHAT DO I WEAR!!!!???
Oh, and now I have to wash my hair. Dangit!

Camp in the Poconos

Sam (almost 12) went away to camp this week. It was just for three days but it was a first for all of us. It was with a school group so he knew a lot of the kids there from school and it was held at a YMCA camp somewhere in Pennsylvania, in the Poconos. I don't really know what the Poconos are...mountains maybe? Anyway, I held my anxiety level down as much as possible as I'd had 6 months to get used to the idea of him going off to camp. I didn't even cry when I dropped him off at the middle school to get on the camp bus. Yea for me!

All that first evening I kept saying out loud, "Sam's fine, don'tcha think? I'm sure he's having a good time, right? He's not in a cabin full of bullies who are playing mean pranks on him, surely, right? Sam's OK, right Dave?" Poor Dave. He put up with me very well.

First thing the next morning, we get an email from the town "announcing" that there had been a tragedy the night before. A boy in our town was practicing with his recreational football team and collapsed shortly after the warm-up and died on the field. It was his 13th birthday and his mom was at home during the practice making his birthday cupcakes. Holy Cow. My heart goes out to this family. We live in a small town, relatively speaking, and everybody knows each other. Luckily we haven't lived here long enough to know this family but it has really hit the town hard.

ANYWAY, shortly after I read the email (and by shortly I mean within minutes), I get a call from the nurse at Sam's camp! I almost started hyperventilating but she immediately told me that everything was fine but that Sam had had a headache the night before and she had given him a Tylenol. They are supposed to call and ask permission first but since it was late at night she took the liberty of giving him the Tylenol and called to "report" it to us in the morning. She said that he was feeling fine now, was having a great time, and was a really nice kid. Whew!!! Crisis averted; it was only a headache.

We made it through the next two days (Caleb and Peter REALLY missed Sam; it was kinda cute) and he came home today. He had a grand time and said the days flew by. He felt like he'd only been there one day instead of three. They did all kinds of fun things: rock-climbing, canoeing, skits, survival training (building shelters), pillow fights, s'mores, etc. I don't think he missed us one bit; I don't think he had time to even think about us!

Anyway, I asked him about that first night with the headache and he has NO idea what I'm talking about. He swears up and down that he never had a headache, he never saw the camp nurse, and that he was never given any Tylenol! How weird is that? So now I'm thinking the nurse reported to the wrong parents...she distinctly said Sam's name and she even called Dave at work (when I didn't answer at first) and Dave said that she said Sam's name, too. Now I'm wondering really just how organized and professional WAS this camp? How competent IS this place? I'm gonna try not to think too much about that now. Especially since Caleb will be going there in two years. I'm sure it'll be fine...right?!?!?

August

Yeah, it's August and I'm sitting here in long pants and a sweatshirt. What's wrong with this?!?!? What ever happened to global warming? Why isn't it warm in AUGUST?!?!?

Oops...

Oops, I didn't realize how long it'd been since I blogged last! Or last blogged. Guess what?! It's almost 2am and I'm blogging! Why? 'Cause I'm crazy, that's why!

We've had a busy couple of weeks. For one, I got SICK. Had a terrible cold and am just now back on my feet. Of course, I never really realize just HOW sick I am until I start feeling better and then I'm like, "WOW, I feel so much better. I must've been really sick!"
For two, I have a new friend. Her name is Heather and she just dropped into my life out of nowhere. OK, not nowhere. She dropped in from Ireland. Seriously. Ireland. Long story short: she is from NJ, currently resides in Ireland where she has dual citizenship, she teaches Zumba and showed up in my class one day and it just went from there. She's also an Irish dancer (which explains why she resides in Ireland). If you're an Irish dancer and live in Ireland, are you called an Irish dancer or just a dancer? And what's with the whole Celtic thing? Are they different people? ANYWAY, she was here in NJ visiting family for the summer and hopping around to different Zumba classes to steal our awesome Zumba moves. ;-) It was awesome being with her as she #1 is always telling me what a wonderful instructor I am and #2 taught me a little about Irish dancing and #3 helped teach my classes while I was sick. Also, she reminded me how fun and informative it can be to go to other people's classes. Which I've been doing. Which, frankly, makes me even more tired. And as sad as I am to have her leave on Sunday and go back to Ireland, a small part of me will be relieved as maybe I can get some rest now. Did I mention she's TEN years younger than me?!

Speaking of 10 years younger than me, she taught me something else. It's called "text messaging". Or "texting" for short. She probably doesn't even have a CLUE that she taught me this! Dave has tried to get me to text him a few times and I'm like, "Ewww, no, I don't know how to do that. I don't want to do that. That's not my generation." Then one day a couple of weeks ago I'm sitting at the pool and my phone goes "bleep". I'm like, hmmm, that's a new bleeping sound. Never heard that before. So I look at it and it tells me I have a new text message. I figure out how to read the darn thing and then hit reply. I think it took me 15 minutes to type in my first reply which consisted entirely of "OK". Later, I learned they have shortcuts for such things but hey, I'm an old dog and I have no instruction manual here. I have learned that texting can come in quite handy. Say you're watching a t.v. show and you remember that you need to tell someone something but you don't really want to call them and have a whole conversation. You just text them; it's no big deal! Or maybe you just want to say Hey to someone to let them know you're thinkin' about them but you're on the way to an appointment and can't chat. You just text 'em...but not while you're driving!
Now the downside is that I don't think texting is included in our cell phone plan so I may be paying through the nose for all this 'convenience'. Cringe...

One funny thing. One day Heather and I were chatting about our own personal experiences with Beto Perez, the creator of Zumba. She mentioned being at a workshop with him in Houston last spring and that he coaxed her into dancing an Irish jig for him. As we were talking, I realized that I had SEEN that on YouTube. She was like, "What do you mean you've SEEN it?" Long story short, someone videotaped her and then posted it on YouTube and Heather had NO idea. She was completely mortified and embarrassed so I proceeded to email the YouTube link to her and everyone I know in New Jersey. Hey, that's what friends are for. And now I'm gonna post it here for your viewing pleasure! I'm such a great friend. I'm just paying her back for working me so hard these past few weeks. ;-)

Unexpected things...

On Wednesday, as I was getting ready for work, my boss called to tell me that classes were canceled for the morning. She said that, apparently, there had been a small electrical fire at the gym the night before and they were waiting for the fire marshall to come and clear the gym to re-open. She said they had no idea what time the fire marshall would decide to mosey on over so I didn't have to go to work! Wow! I was especially tired and sore that morning so this was like a miracle gift to me! At first, though, I didn't know what to do with myself. I wasn't prepared to have the morning off. Should I run some errands? Get my grocery shopping done? Clean the house? Decoupage? In the end, I spent most of the morning on the computer catching up on stuff and then I watched a movie! Nice!
Then yesterday, the UPS man brought me a huge, heavy package. I couldn't remember any of us ordering anything so I was really excited to see what it was or who it was from. It was addressed to ME, with MY name and address on it. Wow, this was exciting. And then I saw it was this:

A giant box of infant formula. The box says: Inside---two special gifts for you and your baby.
Hmmm...is there something I should know? Did I recently have a baby and then forget about it? I mean, I did once leave the house for work and forgot one kid at home and had to go back and get him. Where IS this darn baby? Was it a girl? Oh heaven help me if it was a girl. I've never had one of those...
On the flip side, I look dang good for someone who just gave birth. I would expect my chest to be a little fuller but if I'm not breastfeeding (apparently I'm using Enfamil formula) then maybe that's why I'm not lactating.

The Franklin Institute

Our last day of vacation was spent in Philly, the city of Brotherly Love. It really is a nice city. As far as historical cities to visit, it is #2, in my opinion. Only second to Boston, which is amazing.
Anyway, we spent the entire day at a science museum called the Franklin Institute. It is a hands-on museum targeted towards children, although Dave and I learned plenty of stuff, too! The downside, for me, was that it was very well air-conditioned and I was FREEZING the entire time in my t-shirt and shorts. I actually had goose bumps for about 5 hours straight, I think. Having goose bumps for that long is exhausting!

On the way into the museum, they had a guy making balloon animals, or whatever you wanted him to make. Sam got a spear.




Caleb got a, um, well...it's a "hat".







And Peter got a sword. Here he is throwing it up into the air.
Personally, I think it looks strangely like something other than a sword. But this is a G-rated blog so we won't go into that.









But I have to say, what IS it with little boys and their phallic symbols?!

p.s. Keep in mind that this was on the way INTO the museum. They had to carry (or wear) these things for the entire day!

Jersey Shore

Oi! I can't seem to get my feet back on the ground now that we're back from vacation. I've got everything washed (a.k.a. sand removal) but still have some bags yet to be unpacked. Ugh. I have just been too busy lounging by the pool all week to get anything done around here. Yeah, you heard right. Lounging by the pool. And I'm not even kidding. The kids beg me to take them to the town pool EVERY DAY. I don't actually mind taking them; it's just that I can't get anything done at home when I'm sitting by the pool all day. I know, I know. It's a hard life!

OK, so here are some pictures of the Jersey Shore. It was wonderful! Actually, the drive there wasn't great since everyone from NY, CT, PA, and NJ were headed there. But once we got there it was terrific. The condo we rented was squeaky clean and just right for us. We were right on the beach and had a small swimming pool right outside our door. The above picture was taken on the morning of July 4th. It started out sprinkly but then cleared up to become the most beautiful day ever. What you can't see in the picture is just a smidgeon above the top of Sam's head is where we saw many many dolphins swimming by. They weren't much further out than the swimmers were and they would sometimes flip up completely out of the water! It was a real treat to be able to watch them.
So right after I took the above picture, I switched to video mode to tape the kids playing around on the beach. Then the weirdest thing happened. All these guys that were running on the beach just dropped down right in front of me. See for yourself:

I'm assuming it was some sort of boot camp something or other. I caught a few of them cheating and wanted to yell at them to drop and give me 50 more...but I was on vacation and was SO trying to relax and let go...
During the video, Peter brings me the first of many many many shells that we HAD to bring home and that are still sitting untouched in a bucket in our garage almost a week later.
Caleb caught several live critters but knew he wouldn't be able to keep them. I think he knew they'd be much happier in their natural environment anyway.After a wonderful day at the beach, we ate giant ice-cream cones (after a healthy, nutritious dinner of course) and then stood in the rain waiting for 4th of July fireworks that never happened. That's OK, there's always next year. On the 5th, we headed back inland and stayed at a hotel near Philadelphia. We saw the movie Wall-E
which was really good and somewhat thought-provoking. I've noticed kid's movies nowadays are often slightly thought-provoking. When I was a kid, Disney movies mostly centered around the thought, "Gee, what would I do if my mother died?" Helloooo, you know what I'm talkin' about. Bambi. Cinderella, Snow White. Scary stuff. Anyway, it was a great movie and gave us some time out of the sun. I'll post about the next part of our trip REAL soon. I gotta go lounge by the pool again...

And the answer is...

So that you won't have to spend your holiday weekend wondering incessantly about what's in the package from China, I will tell you now. They are duck feet. Chicken feet is a good guess and in fact, Grandpa told us they were chicken feet but the package says in English on the back: pot-stewed duck paws. And if you play with the feet (still inside the package of course) and look closely, they are clearly webbed like a duck's. The description on the back reads:

Fresh duck paws are used as raw material and stewed with spice and bittern through the cooking of Sichuan dish. It is good in color, smell and taste. With tasty flavor and tender quality, it is a good leisure food for the old and the young.
Ingredients: duck paws, refined salt, rock candy, white granulated sugar, gourmet powder, flavoring, sodium nitrite, sorbic acid, trace amounts of bird flu.

OK, so I added that last part about the bird flu. But let me tell ya, these suckers feel SLIMY. No way, no how, am I opening this package! Incidentally, this company has a website if you are interested in any of their other "delicacies". They make more than just candied duck feet!

We are off to the "shore" for the holiday weekend so I am busy packing and trying to remember everything that I will eventually forget to bring with us. We are renting a beachfront condo that is furnished but we have to bring linens, toilet paper, etc. I'm making a nice list for Dave so that I can blame him if I forget anything! Nice, huh. Happy 4th of July everybody! Here's a fun activity for the kids.

Edge of your seats

OK, since you're all on the edge of your seats about the NYC milk expiration mystery, I will ease your troubled minds with the link to the answer here. Most of you have already googled the answer anyway!
Speaking of milk, it's darn expensive, isn't it?! We drink skim milk, which is luckily the cheapest of the varieties but we have recently switched to 2%. Why? That's crazy, right? It's already so expensive so why did I switch to one that costs even more than skim? Wow, yet another milk mystery for you to solve! OK, not really. I'll tell you why. I started buying 2% so I could mix a half gallon of 2% with a half gallon of powdered milk. The powdered milk dilutes the 2% milk to the consistency of skim milk (that we're used to) and luckily the 2% milk masks the "odd" flavor of the powdered milk that we're not used to. So far it has halved our milk expenditure and the kids haven't even noticed. Well, Caleb did raise an eyebrow the other day but we assured him it was okay.

And speaking of Caleb, here he is whiling away his first week of summer vacation. He claims that he hates reading but if you find the right book for this kid, he will sit for hours and read. He has read 4 books on WWII this past week and he also really enjoys books about weird facts or Ripley's Believe It Or Not type books. He also loves books about aliens and unsolved mysteries but we had to cut him off of those as they freak him out and he was sleeping in our room almost every night.

Speaking of unsolved mysteries, here's one for you. Grandpa Capener just got back from China recently. He sent a box of presents to the kids which they LOVED. An authentic dragon necklace for Sam, a stuffed panda for Peter (which he carries around everywhere, even the bathroom), and an Axis and Allies miniatures set for Caleb (which he collects and plays) that was technically "made in China". Anyway, he also sent this package of treats that he grabbed in the checkout line at the grocery store in China. Can you guess what they are?! Note to Grandpa and the Monsons: no guessing/revealing the answer! I will give you a hint: there is NO WAY we are going to eat these, much less even open the package. OK, so that wasn't really a hint. Happy guessing!I just realized it might be helpful to give you some perspective as to the size of the package. So here's a picture with a 1/2 Swiss franc. What? You don't know how big a 1/2 franc is? OK, me neither but it looks about the size of a dime to me.

Take a guess!!!

OK, now everybody play along...

I noticed on our milk containers that they say "Sell by" and then give a date. For example, our current gallon of milk reads,

"Sell by July 1".

And then underneath that it says

"in NYC sell by June 26".

What?!?! Does it spoil 5 days earlier in NYC? I don't know the reason for this phenomena but it's keeping me up at night, I tell you, keeping me UP all night long tossing and turning and worrying that my milk might actually be already spoiled and so on.
OK, not really, but I AM curious and I'm going to figure this out. In the meantime, take a guess as to why it's labeled like this and I'll reveal the answer soon!

Memorial Day Parade

On Memorial Day, Peter was invited to ride on a float with other Kindergartners in the town parade. It was actually a cute little parade. It felt very "small town" which is a funny feeling to me since we're right nextdoor to New York City. Anyway, the float's theme was "The Future of Waldwick" and was loaded with Kindergartners and their moms. I felt a little silly sitting there under the "Future of Waldwick" banner but I wanted to make sure my kid didn't fall off and get run over by the float or a wild elephant or anything. There were a few times we'd pass a group of people and someone would exclaim, "Hey, there's Shelley our Zumba instructor! Hey, Shelley! Go Zumba, woohoo!" And I would sheepishly wave back to my admiring fans. Maybe next year I'll have my own Zumba float. LOL!

p.s. Peter is in the green shirt and the kid next to him is his best friend. They are practically inseparable...he's the one that bought the blue origami shark!

Garage sale?

Peter has decided he'd like to earn some extra money by selling off some of his things. I told him we might have a garage sale this summer sometime but he does not want to wait for me to get ready. He's ready NOW. Here he's gathered a few things and is preparing them for sale. Notice the used post-it notes for 15 cents. Also, he has his used soccer ball there for $5. He originally had it listed at $10 and I told him that was way too much for a used soccer ball when you can buy a new one for $5. So he lowered the price to $5. Surprisingly, the blue origami shark (far left for 10 cents) has already sold to a friend of his who came over the other day. Dave made that for Peter awhile ago...I'm not sure how he's gonna feel about it being sold to another kid for a dime...

Domino fun

The other day, the kids worked on setting up an elaborate domino set. It went pretty well; only one section on the left side faltered. It must've taken time a very long time to set it up. I wonder what I was doing or where I was that whole time. Eating bonbons again, I guess!

YIKES!

Yikes! It's June 10th and I've been lazy at this blogging thing. Like everybody else, sometimes I just feel like I don't have anything interesting to share. So now I'll share all the somewhat uninteresting things that have been going on around here.

Back in May, I was in charge of hosting a Zumba "master class" at the YMCA where I teach. A "master class" is not with someone like me; I'm not a 'master' at anything yet but it was taught by international Zumba superstar and goddess Tanya Beardsley. She is the host of the new Zumba dvd series and she travels all over the world promoting Zumba and training instructors like myself. In the Zumba world, she is #2, second only to Beto Perez himself. Anyway, it was a lot of work to pull it off but it went swimmingly. We originally hoped at least 75 people would attend but we ended up having over 150 people! Many of them were my students and I had the luxury of dancing on-stage with Tanya for some of the program and then having my students later tell me that I was just as good, if not better than her. (Ha, they exaggerate). Here's a picture of me and Tanya after class when we're completely sweaty, gross, and makeup-less. Notice how I'm extending my neck so I don't have a double chin. Hey, she's 10 years younger than me; I gotta do what I gotta do. And on the right is a picture of me and Tanya with my friend Missy. Missy was a student of mine who I encouraged last year to go get certified in Zumba so she could sub for me! She is a pro now and can hardly ever sub for me because she has her own Zumba classes! I'm so proud of her...she has worked really hard. She and I have been scouring the area to find our own place teach Zumba out of. We haven't had much luck, except we have found a small dance studio that I am renting one day a week to teach Zumba. I've only had two classes so far but the second class had double the attendance from the first class (8 people, then 16 people at $10/each) so I think it is going to take off. It can only fit about that many people anyway so if it grows any more the 3rd week I'm gonna have to start looking for a bigger place.

I am also in the middle of renegotiating my salary at one of the local gyms where I work. It has been time consuming and stressful and I'm still waiting to see what's going to happen. It's hard because I'm already the highest paid instructor around these parts but other places are offering more than this place so I have to at least try. If it doesn't work out, it's OK because I know I'm standing up for myself and doing the right thing...even if they tell me to take a hike! Maybe that's the nudge I need anyway to find a bigger dance studio to rent. In the meantime, though, I don't think I slept a wink last night. I tossed and turned all night seeing images of my boss and the gym owner in my mind and with phrases going through my head like, "I'm worth it!" and "My proposal is more than fair!" Tonight I may just take a Tylenol pm.

Some other non-interesting things around here: the bus line that Dave takes to work everyday went on strike for a week and a half. When the strike began, we were completely clueless so poor Dave and a whole bunch of other commuters were standing out at the bus stop one morning wondering where the heck all the buses were! The whole thing was highly annoying and inconvenient because then he had to take the train which is slower, much less convenient, and more expensive overall. That darn strike wreaked havoc on our lives for a week and a half!

Another thing I forgot to mention before is that while Dave was gone in Switzerland, he lost a drawer. What?! I can almost hear you guys being confused. What I mean is that while he was gone for a month, I noticed one of his drawers had like 2 socks left in it. I cleared it out for Steph to use while she was here for a week and then after she left I decided maybe I'd like to have that drawer for myself! It is, after all, the biggest drawer in the whole dresser. Strangely, when Dave got home and I informed him of this, he didn't seem to mind much so I just kept using it as my own. I don't know where he put his other stuff...maybe that's why there's a pile of socks on the chair nearby, but I'm just gonna keep hogging it for as long as I can. Every once in awhile when I open it and peer in, I fear that my stuff will be gone and his socks will have reappeared. But so far, so good!

One more uninteresting thing. It has been HOT here. Yesterday was 100* and today is almost as hot. That is super hot for us at this time of year. The kids still have 2 weeks of school! They were released early both today and yesterday because of the heat. Why? Because many of the classrooms don't have A/C so it is state law that once the temperature hits 90*, they have to be released! I remember one day last year (on a day that was not nearly as hot as today) I visited Caleb's classroom to read a book to his class. All I did was sit and read a book and I was sweating buckets. It was SO hot in his classroom. They had fans going everywhere but all they did was blow the kids' papers all around! I don't know how they got any learning done in there because it was miserable. His already cranky teacher was even crankier and I found myself quite cranky after one book! The heat is supposed to break tonight with severe thunderstorms so hopefully we'll be back on schedule tomorrow, high of 85*!