Dancing with the [Bollywood] Stars!

I've been postponing this so that I could also include an article that Spencer is writing for the school newspaper about his experience...but I got bored of waiting.  This is worth putting up.

Spencer includes this note: I uploaded a clip captured by my buddy in the audience of us dancing with Shahrukh. Check it out on YouTube. We were a little out of sync at the beginning as I was following the sequence from the movie, but once we started following SRK's lead it smoothed out.



Here it is, the moment Spencer has waited for his whole life, queu the song, "One Moment In Time" that we sang for fifth grade "graduation".... (and then queu the Bollywood Classic Chaiya Chaiya).



Yep, that's my husband.  On stage in front of millions of screaming fans.  Strange, we expected to hear from the Bollywood talent scouts by now.

Blah Blah Black Sheep

Not once, but every time:

Cadence's version:

"Blah blah black sheep, many many wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.

One for my mastard, one for m'day,
One for the little boy, who's asleep under the haystack,

Blah blah black sheep, many many wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full."

I think my favorite is "mastard". 


BTW, Spencer has returned safely from India and pics and footage will be available shortly.  And yes, it really was as awesome as he said.

The Slurpee Down the Street

Although I'm a little more than half-way through my second Chicago winter, I had never witnessed this sight until now.  I never wanted to get close to a frozen lake with kids in tow, so while my mom was here and I was on my way home from a grocery trip where I had NO kids with me, I took the opportunity to jump out and experience Lake Michigan in slurpee form.  And that's exactly what it was.  It was weird.

I stood there at the edge of the water (well, about 10 yards back) completely alone and felt like I was in a sci-fi movie on a weird icy sci-fi planet.  A lone sci-fi girl with only her sci-fi cell phone to get photo documentation.  If you've never seen Lake Michigan, which is really only a few blocks away from us, it seems an awful lot like an ocean.  It's big.  Great, if you will.  A Great Lake.  And this Great Lake was rolling massively--up and down, and as it did so, that ocean-sound was missing.  Instead it sounded just like a really giant slurpee.  I really came home craving slurpee. 

That sorry excuse for a skyline is NOT my beloved Chicago, but actually Gary Indiana, I think.  If I had only turned my phone about 90 degrees to the left I would have gotten MY skyline, but I wasn't thinking of that.  I was trying to capture the giant chunks of ice crashing against that... thing jutting out. I'm sure it has a name.  Like Jetty or something.

I wasn't really expecting to be so amazed.  It was just crazy how the waves still rose but they were like waves of ice.  Ice waves, I call them. 

Okay, okay, I suppose I've overstated myself.  It's kind of what I do.

Rising Star

Here's the email I received from Spencer today:

Hey Babe!!


Well the show was a hit. Much bigger deal than expected. They've been running 18 commercials per day on 18 channels for the last 2 weeks to advertise the event. The indoor stadium had 3,000 fans. The bad news is that we got 6th place out of the 6 teams. The good news far outweighs the bad however, as we were the crowd favorite, and as a result won some awesome prizes, including SRK's [Sharuhk Khan's] jacket and a big-screen TV. The way we became the crowd favorite was due to 1) your line about giving him a kiss from my wife (which he allowed me to do not once, but twice (and he loved it), and 2) I made friends with a dance choreographer back stage who taught me the dance moves to the sequence from the theme song we chose for ourselves (Chaiya chaiya - look it up on Youtube). So when it was our turn to dance on stage with him, we already knew what his moves would be, so we took it up a level. You'll be able to see that part on a video from our camera [unfortunately the video clip he included does not work]. I'll explain details later, but it was great!
Love you. I really missed my girls today. Tried to skype you today but it didn't work for some reason. Anyway, we'll have a lot to catch up on. I hope things are going well for you, and that you're having a great time with your mom.

Anyway, I love you! Peace out.

Spencer

I want SRK's jacket.  And my husband back.  But I'm pretty dang proud of him.  As soon as I get any form of footage of this event, it will be available for your viewing pleasure.

Ballet, Big Words, Smiles and New Dehli

Everybody's got something to crow about around here, except me, but I'm town cryer, I don't have to have my own stuff to talk about.

Cadence:  Started her first Ballet class last week.

 It's actually called "Creative Movement", which is pre Pre-Ballet.  I thought my little spit-fire would jump right in there and rule the roost.  Didn't you?  Since it was the first week of the semester, the parents were allowed to stay in the dance room and watch.  I thought this would help her get warmed up.  She felt like she was on display and became very self-conscious.  Miss Aimee, the teacher, came and pryed her away from me, playfully brought her to the dance floor where the children were supposed to be sitting in a circle, and tried to sit her down with the class.  Cadence was frozen STIFF.  Not exaggerating.  Her toes were pointed, knees locked, arms straight at about a 30 degree angle from her body.  As Miss Aimee tried to move her down to the floor her legs just sort of spread...I hope you are imagining this as I paint the picture because it was hilarious.  The same thing happened when it was time to get UP off the floor and dance.  Miss Aimee tried to lift her to stand but when she put Cadence's weight on her feet they just slid out from under her as everything was locked up.  She spent the rest of the class clinging to me near the wall.  And then when the others cleared the room afterwards she took to the dance floor and started cavorting her pelvis in her typical fashion.

Campbell is learning words at a much quicker pace these days, which is fun.  She still has her base words, the building blocks she uses for each new word, "quack", "ish", "bub", and "bap".  But her new favorite words are "backpack" ("Bap Bapck!") and "map" (Bap!).  Can you guess which little latina they've been watching an awful lot of?  Campbell has also taken to dress ups lately.  I love it.  And she gets REALLy REALLY excited when the camera comes out.

Layla has been smiling for a few weeks now.  I love those big, innocent, sincere baby smiles.  Her eyes are turning blue, her ears are still a little furry, and she is officially sweeter than pie.  We kinda likes her.  Remember when I was scared out of my wits to be expecting her?  We're pretty glad that all happened.

Oh, and the other day, Cam and Layla both had well-child checks.  Campbell is EXACTLY 2x the poundage of Layla. 12 lbs 2 oz and 24 lbs 4 oz.

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Spencer is en route to India as we speak!  How crazy is this:  a few weeks ago he comes home with that look on his face that looks like he just found out that it's not snowing, but actually marshmallows are falling from the sky.  He has received an email that says that a business school in India is hosting a Marketing Challenge game show which is to be hosted by none other than Shahruk Kahn!  What, don't tell me you don't know who that is?!? 

Only the biggest Bollywood star!  Yup, we've enjoyed several of his movies over the years.  Anyway, so the email says that they are looking for a two person team to represent the school.  Blah blah blah, (my mature way of saying, "to make a long story short") anyway, because he is AWESOME he was chosen and today he is on his way.  Yes, he could win money.  How many Rupees, you ask?  I don't actually know.  It had better be like a million.  The whole thing is shadier than you'd think.  He didn't even know when the flight was scheduled until a few days ago, he doesn't know where he's staying, etc.  But he does know that he gets to see the Taj Mahal and a few other cool things. 

I'm SOOO excited for him, but I already really miss him.  I'm used to him being away but India is pretty dang far.  Look for a follow up about this trip.

(and don't worry your pretty little heads about me, my mom is coming tomorrow!  Bless her soul, and that of Spencer's mom, too, who used her Frequent Flyer points to help get my mom out here.  Love those moms.)