Sleep Over and a Royal Wedding.

Grateful for my darling grandparents. I love you.

Grateful that teachers exams are over. Forever. No more dance exams for the rest of my life. I've been doing them since I was five years old and now its over.
...
*squeals*

Grateful for a nice catch up and a beautiful new book :)

Snoozed through the royal wedding. Nice enough :)


Grateful for sleeping. And tea and Milo and [not]bacon and eggs.

Looking forward to tomorrow, cannot wait! Squeeeee, so very excited! Packed and planned and ready to groove :)

Goodnight beautifuls! Dream of funky things.
Lise xx

One Down, One to Go.

Grateful that Teachers Jazz is complete, and that I thoroughly enjoyed the exam, and that the examiner told me I would make an excellent teacher :) very flattered.

Grateful that it all went smoothly; I knew all my theory, knew all my syllabus, didn't run into anything and remembered to smile. I didn't say 'okey dokey!' a thousand times while teaching, like I did last year. She liked my choreography and I knew everything I needed from my anatomy and history papers. Yayayayay :)
Grateful for my lovely, cooperative students. Saff, Jordan, Talia and Madi, thank you guys! :) x

Grateful for a family gathering, for Gracie's birthday. Hope she had a nice day :)

Grateful that tomorrow, it is all over! It'll be almost strange not having exams next year. Then again, who knows if I'll even still be dancing next year :/

I hope your day was stress-free, beautiful and smelled nice. Sweet dreams and fairy cakes :)
Lise xx

Leotard, Hair Things, Lucky Bracelet, Music. Ready to be examined :)

Grateful for getting things done.

Grateful that tomorrow, one exam will be over, and then only one to go.

Bought presents for the exam children today, as you can see. Cost a little more than expected but not to worry.

Grateful for the nice feeling one gets when one smiles and waves at people one knows, and the smile and wave are returned. :) That was about my only social interaction for the day, as I had no school - lots of theory and choreography to do!

Grateful for the beautiful photos of beautiful people which I printed today. I love my friends. You guys are amazing, don't ever forget it.

...still lots of theory and choreography to do. So, I better scoot! Goodnight to you, and a lot of love.

Lise xx

Aw. And it shall keep my place just lovely :)

Grateful [I think] for a very very long rehearsal day to make sure everyone is on track for dancing exam this week. Fingers crossed I'll be a qualified teacher in a few days. No more exams, ever, after that. What an odd thought.

Grateful, SO grateful, for a darling cousin :) When I came home today at around seven, having been dancing since seven this morning, found a little package on my bed, all stickytaped and wrapped in pretty lilac paper. And she made me a bookmark. Naww! Made my day, absolutely.

Back to school tomorrow, for everyone but me. Exams are consuming this week for me. Then, a big load of UNWINDING at Groovin the Moo...so excited for that!

Best be off. There is still, as always, so very much to do.

Goodnight, sleep tight, mind the beetles!
Love.
Lise xx

Lest We Forget.

ANZAC Day today.

3 ceremonies, dawn, morning and noon. As sombre as it is, I'm always grateful for the feeling of...togetherness, and patriotism I guess you could call it, that is always in the air at these types of events. It brings people together and the services are always emotional. I teared up at least three times today.

Grateful for a long, hard, useful afternoon in the studio. Lots done, but so very tiring. Back at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning :/

Best be off. Theory to learn, anatomy to memorise. Good grief. Good night :)

Lise xx

Scrummyyyy.

Grateful for a nice Easter day with family and friends. How cliche :)

Sadly, as you no doubt guessed, during all the fun I did not take a single picture. Not one. So, here we are.

Brunch at the Clarke's (so lovely to see Britt again! Grateful we got a chance to catch up as she's only home for a little while :)). Then lunch with one lot of grandparents and the aunty and cousins (a whole lot of crazy laughs), afternoon tea with the other lot.

Grateful for some ridiculous jokes, a pretty movie, a LOT of amazing food and wonderful company.

Happy Easter, gorgeous people! Hope you had a chocolatey day :)
Lise xx

A creek bath then sun-drying & cupcakes? Yes Please!

Grateful for a grand adventure with Lizzie and Mariska :) Grateful to get back into nature, something I haven't done in much too long. Grateful for beautiful weather, clear blue skies and bright warm sunshine and cool water.

Grateful for an amazing place to be - the dam was one of the nicest spots I've been to. No phone reception, no Internet, nothing to disturb the tranquility except a bunch of friendly, amusing, intoxicated Europeans. We shared campfires and some marshmallows, they offered us some vodka, we offered them some tea, we both declined one another's offers. Nonetheless, they seemed a nice lot and we chatted to them throughout the day and night. At around eleven thirty that night, one of them, who we'd been chatting with earlier in the evening, came tearing down the hill, exclaiming in a thick English accent;
And he was like, "Did you fall over mate?" and I was like "Nah mate, I just fastly placed myself on the floor!
They were quite, quite hilarious :)

We left Lizzie's at around lunch time, the first mishap occurring before we even got to the spot - we took the mattresses on the roof, so we tied them through the windows. Guess what that achieved? So...we couldn't open our doors. ANY of the doors. Clambered in through the boot and we were on our way :)

Nice drive out, I can't get enough of the hot, dry countryside - the dust, the red dirt, that hot breeze. Makes me think of when we went camping as kids. Ah, the best memories :)

There were a group of people at the shed (where we'd planned to stay) when we arrived (after a minor 4WD experience in Lizzie's darling little car!) but they weren't staying the night. We went swimming to pass the time; there was an enormously fun rope swing a few hundred metres around, and the water was just amazing - clear and cool and so, so clean. Spent awhile in there, then went and had some cupcakes on a waterfall for morning tea when the Europeans arrived and commandeered the swing :)

Wandering and exploring down the ravine, then racing back up the hill to claim the campsite when it was vacated. Set up camp, another swim and collected firewood. Started our little fire and started on the soup. We'd forgotten the can opener but were all good to improvise with a pocket knife :) Soup for dinner, card games, toasting marshmallows, a near-full moon and some skinny-dipping neighbours. Went and sat with the European crew for awhile (their bonfire sadly outstripped our baby), shared some laughs and heard some stories.

Boggle and card games and lollies and chai.
Accents and embers and Avon catalogs.
Waterfalls and slime and an underwater camera!

We did scrunch up Lizzie's mail to use as a fire starter. And when it was burning too, just because it was fun. Unfortunately, the poor dear flames got a little smothered.

And the stars! Oh, the stars! They were magical. Actually, the word that came to mind as I looked at them was BRILLIANT. Tiny pinpricks of light shining brightly above our heads, in a dome. Like diamonds on velvet, but even more beautiful. It was one of those things that can't be captured on film, or even fully in words; the beauty of it truly took my breath away.

Bed at midnight, curled up on our mattresses in the corner of the shed, up by six to watch the sun rise over the water. Made some breakfast on the little gas stove, packed up camp and went for a morning swim. Waved goodbye to the semi-conscious Europeans, took some photos with the car and the dam behind us and off we went.
Some iced peppermint tea at Lizzie's, then homeward.

Photo exchange and a lovely chat, then the adventure was over. Grateful for the opportunity - I find both those girls intelligent and interesting, among other great things :) I would definitely love to do it again.

Sorry its so long tonight, it was an amazing weekend. This blog is an outlet for my happiness and gratefulness, and I hope you don't mind having to read a little extra :) thank you, for reading at all.

Loves, go look for adventure. It's waiting at every corner. I've had several these holidays alone. It can be a new place, a new person, a new experience. Every day is an adventure. Make it a memory too.

All my adventure-loving, campfire-scented, snug-in-a-sleeping-bag love!
Lise xx

An International Hug and Much Monkeying About. And, of course, all our Aussie love to Clara.

An amazing and emotional night.

Another gathering for a good friend, this time an exchange student, Clara. She's going back to Brazil in a few days time, and she's been here for quite a while so we all know her, and will miss her.

It was a night full of fun, and randomness, and hippie dancing, and cake and memories.

When she first came to Australia, Clara hardly spoke to anyone. It was an effort to get her to engage in a conversation, but after awhile she came out of her shell and now she's one of the chattiest people I know :) It has been so great having her here, she's just the loveliest person :) we will all miss her muchly.












We mostly all gave her Pandora charms as a goodbye present - the family she's been staying with over here gave her a bracelet for them. Our friend Bec, who she's been boarding with in Australia, also made her up a box of Australian things (TimTams, Milo, a blowup kangaroo, Vegemite) and also created a book which we all wrote a letter to her in, with her favourite Australian recipes, famous Australians, best Australian movies..etc :) I think she had a good night. Bec is going back to Brazil with her, to stay for a few weeks, but for the rest of us it'll be the last time we'll see her, so it was an emotional night.

So many grand and hilarious and utterly random goings on tonight, such fun. A game of hide and seek in the dark, as well as some game of our own creation, which involved holding hands in a circle and shouting Woo! as well as random things like 'Pickles!' 'Old Men!' and 'Snails are cool because they're radioactive!' at random intervals. There was a bit of guitar playing and singing - Joe had written Clara an instrumental piece, Jorge played a Portuguese song (Clara's first language) and Jake and Joe performed an admirable rendition of 'Story from North America' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms2klX-puUU].

We also had a skype call in which we were introduced to Clara's parents, sister and grandmother in Brazil :)
Clara's dad told us, in his broken English,
Everybody, you are my sons too. You are near to my daughter, and so I love you too.
Then, he told us that we should 'All share an international hug!' so he and his wife leaned toward their webcam, and we all leaned toward ours.
It was the most beautiful thing.

Very glad I got to see her before she left.
Clara, don't forget about us Atherton people, because we won't forget you. You've been a great friend, you're a lovely person and I hope that someday, somewhere, we'll meet up again. Much love.

The Old Gang :)

Had a really lovely night. Group dinner for an old friend who moved away a couple of years ago, and he came back up for Easter so we all got together. It was the same people, the same group, as in 'the old times'. A time before schoolwork was either our sole devotion or the bane of our life, when our time was so much less consumed by worry and stress. There was less pressure, more elbow room in our minds. Now we cram facts and figures, we learn all we can only to forget it, we do everything we can to be what we are told is best for us. It was a great feeling to just sit down with that group and share some old jokes and memories, and laugh, and dance, and just chill out and enjoy the company of others. Sit on the bench outside and not care who you're leaning on or sitting beside, or whose sitting on you, to share everyone's dessert without being concerned about germs, to just be young and free and alive. Pretty great vibe for the night overall :)

These are the retro-gorgeous moments that we'll remember. We might not remember the joke, but we'll sure as hell remember laughing. We might not remember what we wore or said or did in exact detail, but you can't lose that feeling of familiarity that comes only from knowing and trusting people. It's a good feeling, a really good feeling, and I was grateful for it tonight :)

Grateful to have gotten one out of the four required dances choreographed today. From what I can presume, I'm going to be a busy little bee til the holidays [and dance exams!] are over!
But don't worry, loves. I'll still be here every evening :)

Much love and good things and silliness to youuu!
Lise xx

Two-In-One Days

Grateful for a splendidly crafty and creative couple of days with Miss Lizzie :)

Listing seems best.
~
Op shopping.
Deep discussions.
Thinking caps! [denim hippie headbands which we wore while we were crafting! See above :)]
Creative creations.
Shiny sequins and beautiful beads.
Pineapple and red jelly and chai in the early hours of the morning.
Custard apples!  :D
Bush walks.
Beautiful views.
Omelette.
Sodastream grooviness.
Making a spectacular mess!
Finding a perfect gold frame for a photoproject I've been planning :)
~

Took hours and hours and hours to make ourselves some bags out of old jeans, but the end result was very pleasing indeed.

The whole thing was just a lot of fun, she is an amazing person to spend time with and we had some very good talks and such. I dearly hope all of your last couple of days have been uplifting, thought-provoking and amazing fun, as mine have :)
Love and love and love some more!
Lise xx

A Sunny Sorta Day.

Grateful for a long-but-nice day.

Had a very nice day out at Mungalli Falls for our Grandmother's 66th birthday - the waiter chappy was a friend of theirs, and the most spectacular character :)

Grateful for the driving hours, to Mungalli and back, then home from town.

Grateful for a hot, sweaty, confusing Debutante Ball practice in which I had to be a boy. Twas fun nonetheless :)

Grateful for Monty Python fun and Sicilian cheesecake and a gorgeous cup of chai and a friendly dog and all manner of other small lovely things :)

Sleep well! Dream beautiful!
Lise xx

Chillllllleeeeedddddd.

Grateful to have read a very grand book, given to me by a friend for my birthday :)
'The Gradual Demise of Phillipa Finch"
Gracious me. In the most cliche of ways, it describes almost exactly where I am in my life right now. Thank you Mariska, it was amazing :)

Grateful [as I didn't get the chance to post last night] for gelato and guitar and a really good chat. :)

Grateful for the gorgeous little children at dancing today, and for playing my guitar til my fingers went numb, and writing songs and just chilling! Its the strangest feeling having nothing to do or organise or anything of the like.

Hope all your holidays are so far filled with identical splendour!
Catch up on your sleep and relax and eat those things you shouldn't and do those things you love.
Let it go, have fun.

Much, much love
Lise xx

Done. Thank God.

Grateful to have spent the day in the company of a bunch of inspiring, amazing, enthusiastic people to discuss the leadership roles for this year. Very productive :)

Played a bonding game. Snails are cool because;
They enjoy long walks on the beach.
They are reminiscent of ET.
They go well with garlic butter.
They carry their house with them.
They wear ballet shoes.
They drive cars.
They eat radish with forks.
And many other marvellous reasons :)

Grateful also for the walk downtown this afternoon, with some nice company. Singing in the main street, and a very big painting, and Justin Bieber played admirably on the recorder :)

So very, very, utterly grateful that these bloody dance assignments, pictured in all their splendiferousness, are done and dusted!  Gracious me, so much work I should sell them :/

GRATEFUL THAT IT IS NOW HOLIDAYS AND I CAN SLEEP AND READ AND READ AND SLEEP AND RELAX!
Lordy, lordy, lordy. I am so keeen for holidays!

I best be off, now. So sleepy!
Fill your holiday days with love and splendour. Many happy good mornings to you, dears.
Lise xx

Not.Grateful.That.The.Camera.Batteries.Are.FLAT

So, not at all grateful for that.
Grateful for a nice stroll through the town and various paddocks [last school cross country!] and for teaching tonight.
Grateful for a chilled out lunch hour trying to make malt. Failed miserably :)
Grateful that it is holidays!
Looking forward to leadership workshops tomorrow. I really love and appreciate the enthusiasm and general awesomeness of our leaders this year and I am so proud to be a small part of the team. It'll be a great day :)

Gotta go. Dance assignment deadline looms.
Goodnight, and all my love.
Lise xx

Make some new friends but keep the old... New friends are silver, old friends are gold.

I am attempting to access the photo I want. I might add it in later :)
 
[tis a play on words, because we were using silver nitrate, see?]

Grateful for letting go, chilling out and having fun.
Senior chemistry today was all about exploding things and creating shiny stuff and generally making a mess.
SoMuchFun!

After weeks of stress about school, assessment, life, everyone can start to relax and settle into 'holiday mode'; sleep-ins all round, I think!

Grateful for the miracle-working of Miss Maree, marking assignments she only received at 3:30am today! Thank you so very much!

Grateful that tomorrow is the last day of term. Gosh, am I looking forward to the holidays! I have various holiday lists, which I will share :)

~
Work to do on the holidays;
- ancient history assignment
- tap and jazz warm ups
- two tap dances
- two jazz dances
- learn all dance theory
- clear out school books/folders/diary
- paint tap shoes and clean jazz shoes
- type and understand biology notes
- catch up on dist.ed reading and begin assignment 3
~
Various holiday missions of fun! :)
- take photos. lots of them.
- write things. lots of things!
- get creative and chill out
- go op.shopping
- play guitar, yes really.
- cook things
- print out a series of delightful photographs
- go places and do things, with people. Be social.
- sleep!
- Read! This is vital!
~

There's so much to be done, still, always, so I must go. The teacher's jazz history paper calls!
Goodnight, cupcakes. You're so pretty.
Lise xx

Old Photos, Today.

Grateful for the end of assessment! My god, I thought it would never end. Such a huge relief.

Grateful that I passed Mathematics B! Now THAT, that was the biggest relief in the world! So, so grateful. Also that I got to make up the time lost on my last history exam. Hurrah :)

Grateful that I stopped and got chai and Easter eggs on the way home, because its going to be a long night.

School Photo Day.
A few uniform changes later, and I'll never have to go through it again :) a bit sad, but its good, too. New ventures and quests to be undertaken out in the real world :)

Dancing, I was grateful for dancing.
Dancing is love.
Dancing is family.
Dancing is I've-had-a-shit-day-and-I-just-want-to-cry-and-you're-there-to-hug-me-and-tell-me-to-suck-it-up-princess-because-there's-exams-in-a-few-weeks-but-you-do-actually-care.
Its delirium and pain and amazing and special.
It is ridiculous and friendship and fun and stress and joy.
Dancing is a beautiful place, a beautiful thing, a beautiful bunch of people.

It is one of the most sacred and special things in my life and I will miss Dance Connection so, so much when I leave at the end of this year. I guess that really hit home for me today when one of the little ones I was teaching asked "are you in Grade 12?" I answered that I surely was and she said "Oh no! That means you're leaving after this year!"

Other than feeling appreciated, that they might just miss my sometimes-odd-and-wacky teaching, it made me realise that this was it. My last year as a dancer.I've been dancing all my life, pretty much since I could walk, so that's a big thing for me. I was grateful for dancing not just for today, but for every other day its given me and the people I've shared those days with. There's quite a few so I won't name you, but just know that I love you and that we all share something so very special, making our dance time what it was. Amazing and full of laughter and seriousness and everything in between. We pulled jokes and ate what we shouldn't and got in trouble and forgot the steps. But we're all just finding our feet, and most of you are off in the big wide world now. I miss the waiting room chats and the in-class fun, but all the memories are forever :)

So, a little dancing collage tonight. Nowhere near as many photos as I'd love to share, for it is such a big and lovely part of my life. For most of the photos, thanks to Jo :)

Dance on the inside and outside. You are all gorgeous, all the time. Don't let people tell you otherwise. They're just blind because they're trying to see their own loveliness. Whichremindsme.

Of all the places to be inspired, today it was graffiti on the toilet door. Written across in pencil, were the words;
You know what? Who gives a damn what they say or do or think. You are so beautiful. Please remember that.
I had the image of some girl who'd run into the toilets crying about some such thing, to read that and feel a bit empowered, like she mean something after all, and it all really was just words. Just a random little moment from the day. :)

Goodnight. It's teaching paper time, now :)
Much love, pretties.
Lise xx

~

We dance for laughter

We dance for tears

We dance for madness

We dance for fears

We dance for hopes

We dance for screams

We are the dancers

We create the dreams

~

Jazz Hands, Everyone!

Grateful for the Dance Connection Studios annual showcase.
My last one!

It is always great to see everyone else perform their solos. I teach a few of the kids, and have even taught some of them the dances they do. I know how hard they work to get everything right and stretched and dazzling, and it is a nice experience to see the end products.

As to my own solo, it felt great and my teacher told me she was very impressed. She doesn't give compliments lightly at all, so I was rather proud of myself :)

Tomorrow, Teachers Papers due, and an Ancient History exam. Eek! Better scoooch!

Lotsa jazzy love!
Lise xx