1 Corinthians 4:6

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I have been thinking about this verse a lot lately and it is awesome to me how the same God who created the world and said, "Let there be light." showed a different kind of light in our hearts. The light of His glory, He never had to do that, but He chose to because of His wonderful love for us. 

200 posts!!!! (well...201 now)

After I published my last post, I realized it was my 200th post!!! That is a lot of blogging, at least for me. :D

I thought about maybe doing something special for this post, but my 200th post was extremely special. It was pictures of one of the top five things I care most about. My little minion. She is a precious little jewel and I love her dearly. I cannot think of anything better to have. :D

Adventures in Nunkeyland

A little four year old has been very busy recently. Here are her pictures from her adventures. :D

(sorry the pictures are a little out of order. They were not cooperating very well and uploaded in a weird order.)

Pointe

Pointe is a style of dance that some people think you have to be crazy to do and I have to agree. I mean honestly, who wants to purposely get blisters and have sore feet all the time? Evidently, I do. Some people have asked me what the purpose of dancing on pointe is when it is just ballet in a more painful form. They are right, in a sense. It is a form of ballet and it is more painful, but it is so much more than that. For me pointe was always the biggest goal I could have in dance. Pointe dancers are the ones the little girls look up to and try to sneak peeks of our rehearsals because they want to be just like us. Pointe means not just being an average ballerina, there are thousands of those, but being exceptional. Yes, there are also thousands of pointe dancers, but few honestly enjoy it. Even out of the thirteen in my class there are three of us who really love to come to class each week.

I got my first pair of pointe shoes last winter/spring. In order to get pointe shoes, you have to be fitted because there are many different kinds of shoes and they have to find the best kind for your feet. I remember being quite nervous to go on pointe, but once I did I couldn't stop smiling. I felt like I was flying! What I didn't realize was how much more I would learn to do. Since starting class at the end of August, I can now walk around on pointe, spin on pointe, and do a whole bunch of things in ballet that change once pointe shoes are put into the equation. Some of the simplest things in ballet are changed to accommodate the pointe shoes and make it look beautiful. I can also do several kinds of jumps, which are complicated. I don't land jumps in pointe, or start them on pointe for that matter, but it changes the weighting of your feet (not that there is a wood box on the end of your foot or anything like that!) and it makes some jumps harder and some A LOT easier.

In summary, yes, pointe is painful and miserable sometimes (okay, painful all of the time, miserable some of the time) but it is amazing. I don't know if any pointe dancer can explain why they love it and are willing to push past the pain and misery and work up to the expectations placed for them once they have pointe shoes, I love it and that is all I can say. Pointe makes me feel happy and on top of the world. Maybe I don't need an explanation for that except God gave me a gift for dance and I am enjoying it to the fullest.

Catching up

Of course, right after I say I have the goal of posting something every week at least, I don't post anything for quite a while. :) That's life sometimes.

There is not too much out of the ordinary going on in my world. I stopped guitar because it was getting to be too much in my crazy schedule and was always the last thing I practiced. I am still playing, I am just not taking lessons for a while. I have found out the theme of my dance recital and know the songs for all three of my dances. The only songs I don't know are the intro and finale, but I won't find those out until the week before show more than likely. For pointe I am dancing to the "Pride and Prejudice theme" from the 1995 version. For ballet we are doing "America" by Neil Diamond and for tap it is "These Boots are made for Walkin'" by Jessica Simpson from the "Dukes of Hazzard" movie. I only really like the song for pointe, but the ballet dance is going to be really pretty, so I cannot complain too much. I can think of a lot worse songs we could be performing to. I have the "Pride and Prejudice" them on repeat in my room most of the day because I love it so much. :)

Sharyssa spent the weekend this past week because her parents were out of town. We had a lot of fun and talked a lot! Monday morning we went to Panera and got to sit by ourselves and feel all grown up. It was quite enjoyable.

I got a new computer. It is a pinkish purple and is pretty small, significantly smaller than my old one. I love it!!! Bella named it "Raspberry" because of it's color.

Speaking of Bella, she has been doing well. Her dance for recital is a penguin dance for the theme of "March of the Penguins." I can't wait to see her costume! She has started a math book and is doing really well. In the past two weeks, she has done five weeks worth of math! I think she likes it just a little bit. We took her ice skating just for fun and it turned out the day we took her was the day after she found out about her recital piece, so we told her it was studying to be a penguin. :D She loved it, but got tired pretty quickly because of the amount of energy she exerted every time her feet started moving. It was really cute though and she did really well for it being her first time on ice skates. I might post pictures later if I think about it.

This post has been much longer than I thought it was going to be. Oh well, I guess my life might be a little busier than I thought.

Until next time!