ISTE 2010

Hi guys!! I’m back from Denver, but I’ve actually getting ready to leave again (I’m heading home for a wedding and then to spend two weeks in Arkansas)!  I could do several posts on my Denver trip, but I thought you might get bored hearing all the nitty gritty details.  Instead I’m going to let you piece together the story with my highlights, things I learned, and of course pictures and captions (which tell the story pretty well themselves!)

Highlights:

• Although this was the first time I have flown by myself, it went very well.  I was worried I’d be lonely on the flights, but I made a friend on both legs of my trip.  I love having Facebook because we were able to connect right away :)
• I didn’t do any of the paid sessions, but there was plenty to do for free. 
• I met lots of fabulous people and we’ve been e-mailing back and forth since we left!  I’m so thankful to be able to make those kinds of connections
• My presentation went REALLY well.  I had about 20 people at my 8 person table (the proctor said it was the biggest group all day!) and they were all very receptive and complimentary!  I panicked a little because my professor didn’t show up until the last minute, but I did most of the discussion so it wasn’t too bad.  She even said I was a “natural presenter”.  We’re already working on a paper for next year!
• I loved, loved, loved the experience and can’t wait to go to Philly next year! :)

Things I learned:

• Always carry a credit card with a larger limit if for nothing else, but things like hotel deposits.  Apparently, my bank (which will remain nameless) decided that the 700 dollars that the hotel authorized to my account was a “red flag” purchase because it was large and I was in another state, and denied the transaction.  Thankfully my mom was able to give her card over the phone.  I hopefully got this figured out with my bank, but I’m taking a back-up card just in case.
• Carry lots of business cards I met lots of wonderful people and they handed me their business cards and I had to do the old school “write my info on a scrap piece of paper”
• Ship Stuff Home I gathered up lots of fun things at the vendor fair, but it ended up making my baggage too heavy (thankfully I figured this out the night before and packed the heavier stuff in my carry-on and luckily my bag was 50 lbs on the nose!)  Next year, I’m just going to spend the extra money to ship it from the conference.
• Get a netbook/iPad Because it is a technology conference, I need my laptop at all times, but it killed my shoulder toting my nice, big laptop around.
• Check things like altitude/weather, etc I never thought about altitude sickness, but I definitely had it!  I’m definitely drinking lots of water next trip no matter where it is!
• Get a hotel close to convention center Because this was kind of late notice, I got a hotel further away from the convention center and spent so much time riding the shuttle and couldn’t even go back to the hotel during the day (although I did once).  Definitely staying as close as possible next time!

And of course pictures!  Click on any of the pictures to be taken to my online album where you can start at the beginning and hear about the whole trip!

 

Anyway, thanks for all the sweet and encouraging messages on my presentation…you guys rock!

Have a fabulous 4th!

Maegan

Sorry…

Sorry, I’ve not been updating much…

I know I didn’t mention it before, but I’m currently in Denver for my conference…the one in which I am presenting!!

I was planning on blogging each night, but I spent all day traveling yesterday and didn’t get checked into my hotel until midnight last night and today, I had the conference the entire day and I am definitely dealing with some altitude sickness :( 

Anyway, my presentation’s tomorrow so say a little prayer for me around 12:30 –1:00 mountain time :)  I promise I will blog about my trip soon…it has been quite entertaining so far! ;)

Have a fabulous Monday!

An Alabama Tailgate and a Wedding, Part II

The big day finally arrived!! I talked to both the bride and groom before the wedding and surprisingly they were VERY calm!  I didn’t get any bridal party pictures because the photographer wouldn’t let us, but I’ll share those as soon as I get them!

Josh and I before the wedding…yes, I’m wearing an orange dress (which is so not my color), but it went with the wedding colors. (And if you read Heather’s blog, Life with Heather, she talked about getting this dress for Easter)  With my recent weight loss, it was a little big, but I’ll have it taken up later!

Didn’t he look so handsome?

When I walked in that morning, everyone told me I had on the bride’s “going away dress”.  It wasn’t exactly the same, but close (more so in person than the picture…they looked the same color!)  We of course had to get a picture!

      The happy couple on their way to Atlanta for their honeymoon!!

Congrats Tyler and Ana!! I’m so happy to be able to add another cousin to our already crazy brood!! ;)

An Alabama Tailgate and a Wedding, Part I

This past weekend, my cousin (who is 2 years younger than me, hence the “baby cousin” I so lovingly called him all weekend!), got married!  It was a bit like watching my little brother get married, as the poor kid took on the little brother role for 4 years until Josh was born!  Seriously, after all the plays and flower shops and jewelry shops we had, I’m so glad he turned out normal…at least for the most part ;)

Anyway, my sweet grandmother has been on me about getting married since I was about 20 (she got married at 14), and when I hit 25, she told me I was officially “an old maid”.  Oh well….when Tyler announced he was engaged, it definitely took some of the pressure off of me (and my two older cousins who are not married yet either) so I was happy about that ;)

Back to the aforementioned wedding festivities…

As with every Southern wedding (and most weddings in general), they had the rehearsal dinner Friday night and the wedding on Saturday (at 2:00 to be exact).  My brother was in the wedding so the poor thing had to finish up his class at 3 and drive the two hours straight to the rehearsal.  I, however, was a bit excited that I wouldn’t have to go and that I could drive home at my own pace, get my hair cut, and plant myself on the couch for the evening…no such luck!  Mom called right as I was leaving Tuscaloosa and told me she volunteered me to go to the rehearsal dinner so I could take pictures….thanks Mom!!  This meant I had to go back in my closet, and pick out a “Rehearsal Dinner outfit” and place it in my already carefully packed bag…praying that I had all of the pieces and headed out.

Back to the wedding festivities….

The bride and groom are both HUGE Alabama fans.  I would like to say that I contributed to that, but not necessarily…our family has grown up addicted to Alabama football so it was enivitable.  Anyway, for the rehearsal dinner, they had an Alabama tailgate.  They asked all of the attendees to wear Alabama game day attire (or a neutral color for the traitors) and my other cousin cooked BBQ and we had just a typical tailgate menu.  Then, each table was decorated with Alabama memorabilia.  Although I want a fancier rehearsal dinner for myself, I might steal the idea for a couple’s shower or something…It was super cute!

Some of the centerpieces

Then, after dinner, the kiddos headed in the auditorium to rehearse.  This was Josh’s first wedding ever (as in, he’s never even attended one!) so I was proud of him for following directions :)

Well, most of the time….he does like to talk….wonder where he gets that from? ;)

After the rehearsal, we went back in the fellowship hall and had dessert…everything was super yummy!  Then, it was of course, time for a few pictures!

Note:  You can’t tell in these pictures, but I am wearing my new Alabama dress (it has an A at the bottom).  Just so you know I was in the spirit as well :)

With my cousin, the groom….see, we look more like siblings than my brother and I do ;)

Brother Bear and I

With the bride and the groom…she fits in so well with our family!

 

My other cousin, Heather (the groom’s sister) and I

Up next….the big day! :)

Catching Up…

Ok, so I think I am officially caught up on my blogging! :)  I will leave the posts where they are for the next week, and then I will move them to their correct dates.  Sorry it has taken me so long, but things have been a little crazy.  Just a quick update of what is going on in my world:

• While I was at home, I started the 365 project.  If you want to check it out, visit my blog at http://365project.org/mes285/365  You’ll see the current one, but you can use the arrows or the calendar feature to see the previous ones :)
• Even though my schedule has been crazy, I have been trying really hard to squeeze in lunches and dinners with friends (usually one or two a week)  Although I’m completely exhausted cramming those in my free time, I’m LOVING spending time and reconnecting with my old friends :)
• I know I mentioned this on Twitter, but if you aren’t one of my followers, I recently just got a new job!! :)  I’ll do a post with all of the details soon :)
• I’m taking a survey research class right now that takes up ALL of my time.  We have class from 5-9 three nights a week and then tests during the day on Friday…I’m worn out!  Thankfully it ends next week!
• I’ve been helping with quite a few football events this summer so the little free time I have left has been devoted to Alabama Football.  It is exhausting, but we have a blast!

Anyway, I’ve got a few more tidbits of “news”, but they deserve their own post so I’ll get to those soon as well :)

Have a happy Monday evening! :)

House-warming/Renovation Party

While I was at home, Alex and I were invited to his neighbor’s house to break in their new kitchen and living room with a dinner party!

The renovations were absolutely gorgeous and although I am no cook, I was in love with their kitchen!

We had a great night with lots of good food, conversation, and of course friends! :)

Note:  I unfortunately did not take many pics and Alex’s brother hasn’t sent me his yet, but I will share what I did take :)

Alex’s Mom, Mrs. Goree (our hostess), and Alex hanging out in the gorgeous kitchen

Alex playing bartender…aren’t those goblets gorgeous?

My now, super skinny, boyfriend drooling over the kitchen :)

After a toast to the renovations, Alex started serving some of his homemade beer.

Us (No, we did not plan to match :))

The gorgeous table setting (Unfortunately I was too excited about the food to take a picture of it beforehand!)

       Chantilly cake for dessert…it was just as yummy as it looks!

Dance Recital - Sunday

Yes, I know I have been promising this forever so here it is :)

The second show, definitely went smoother than the first (as is always the case).  I was MUCH calmer and had the kiddie herding and quick changing down to an art form :) 

When it was time to walk onto the stage, I did have that same sinking feeling that I had 7 years ago when I walked onto the stage one final time.  It was definitely a bittersweet performance!

I’m guessing you probably want to see what the heck I’m talking about so I’ve included a video of our part. As much as I would like to say we were the fabulous dancers in the beginning, we are the dancers in blue at the end (our MC announces us as the Alumni) 

RCPA's 20th Annual Dance Revue - Alumni Dance (May 23, 2010) from Maegan Slaten on Vimeo.

And if you'd like to see the entire finale (Owners, then teachers, then current ensemble, then alumni, and then the babies :)) You can see that here :)

River City Performing Arts 20th Anniversary Revue - Teacher Dance and Finale with Alumni (Sunday, May 23, 2010) from Maegan Slaten on Vimeo.

It was definitely not our best performance, but we had a BLAST dancing together again! :) Before we left, we of course had to take a few (ok quite a few more) group pictures!

Alumni, and then alumni with our fabulous teachers! :)

Then after the recital I headed over to visit a few minutes with everyone at the cast party and snapped a quick picture with two of my favorite people:  Ms. Emily and Ms. Robin

   

It was such a fabulous weekend and I am looking forward to the 25th in a couple of years! :)

Dance Recital - Saturday

When it was finally time for the show to begin on Saturday, I was very excited, but also very nervous!  Not to mention, Alex was getting to see me perform for the first time ever! :)  In fact, look how nice he looked…

 

Us before the show

If you can’t tell…he’s lost like 30 pounds!  He’s killing me on the diet thing (although if I lost 30 pounds I would be a little too skinny)

I threw on this dress because it was A.) Easy to get off without messing up hair and make-up and B.) it was the only solid black thing I brought home (and I had to wear black to usher the babies on and off the stage)

Anyway, I LOVED being backstage!  So much goes on back there, and there is nothing like being able to watch things from the wings…I was definitely in my element :)

Hanging out with my old dance BFF’s backstage :)

 

Hanging out with the teachers

The owners’ sons…aren’t they precious?

As part of the story, they talked about how it was funny that both of their first-borns were boys and how they went through stages of whether or not they wanted to be at the dance studio.  However, when they got older and girl crazy, they LOVED being at the studio so to represent that stage, they did a dance with some of the girls to the country song “Where the Girls Are”…it was precious!  (See below – they are on stage left)

Then, it was our turn to dance!  We took a video of it, but it didn’t turn out as well as we’d hoped, so I’ll share the video from the Sunday show when I do my Sunday recap. 

Anyway, afterwards, we took lots of pictures :)

First a group shot….

Then a shot with our fabulous teachers

Then me with the older girls (some of them even taught me!)

Then with the BFF’s

Then the teachers…    

Mrs. Em – One of the owners/instructors.  She taught me jazz when I was little and then tap the rest of the time.  I also assisted with a lot of her classes growing up and helped her with a managing a junior high dance team.  I was always closer to her than any of the other teachers (not because I didn’t adore them all…Mrs. Em and I just had a lot in common!)

Mrs. Robin – Owner/Instructor – My acro teacher when I was little and my ballet and pointe teacher from then on out.  I helped her teach a few of her ballet classes and boy did I have a new respect for what she did after that :)  I love her!

Mrs. Susan (a.k.a. “Sweet Sue”)  - Instructor/Amazing Choreographer – She started teaching Jazz at RCPA when I was in the 7th grade so I had her as a jazz teacher from then on and eventually I tacked on modern with her.  I also babysat her children often and helped her with choreography for quite a few plays so we have a whole history outside the dance studio :)  She is fabulous!

  

Ms. Janet – Office Manager Extraordinaire!  She started in 2000 and is still going strong.  I had lots of time to bond with her during recital week when I helped her in the office! :)

Anyway, after we left, my family and I headed to Steak n Shake…a fun little diner type restaurant in town.  It stays open all night so we frequented often as teenagers :)

My parents and grandparents at the “adult table”

The kids’ table :)

Alex and I

Then we went home and got some rest before it was time to do it all again! :)

Sunday show recap coming up next! :)

Dance Recital Rehearsal/Alumni Reception

The Friday evening before the recital, the studio had their usual dress rehearsal and then the alumni got together for a little Alumni Reception afterwards.  It was a long and crazy day, but we had a blast!

The theme this year was “If It Weren’t for the Girls” in which the owners told their story about the life of the dance studio and how much all of the students have meant to them.  I read the script when I was at the studio and I had a difficult time holding back tears so I knew I needed to be backstage in the chaos so I didn’t have to listen to it.

To make it even better, they decided to not use our normal Master of Ceremonies and Ms. Emily, one of the owners and teachers who always writes the scripts, decided it would mean more if she was the one to tell their story.  She did and she did an amazing job! :)

Here she is being the superwoman that she is (M.C., Stage Director, Teacher, and with her daughter dancing on stage…mother)

The rehearsal was disastrous, but it always has been…somehow it always comes together before the show!  The only time we’ve come close to a perfect rehearsal is when all of our shows sold out and we had to turn our rehearsal into a show and somehow I ended up on the front page of the paper the following morning

But that is definitely a story for another time ;)

Anyway, after the rehearsal we learned our alumni routine.  Mom came and snapped a couple of pictures, but it is always tough trying to get clear pictures of us moving around :)  Honestly, it is probably a good thing because we spent much more time laughing than actually learning the routine ;)

 

Then, we headed over to the studio for our alumni reception.  It was great getting to catch up with everyone!  Our age group fell right in the middle of the 20 year span so we had danced with every one of the girls there at sometime or another….needless to say, it was very special for us!

Unfortunately I am not in many of the pictures since I was playing photographer, but I did get one picture with one of my former dance teachers turned fellow dancer, Nicole.

Sorry I look rough…it had been a long day! :)

That project I mentioned that I was (tearfully) working on…it was a photobook for the two owners with pictures from the past 20 years!  I (we) presented it to them at the reception and they loved it…in fact, both started tearing up :(

In fact, you’re more than welcome to see the book as well

Click here to view this photo book larger

After we presented them with the book, we decided we needed a little more practice on our routine…and boy did we!  By that point, we were so tired and were having way too much fun to concentrate on the dance so it was far from our best work!  See for yourself!

Note:  Yes, I know I messed up on the second time…again, it was late! haha

Note:  You might want to turn your speakers down…we’re really loud!

5/21 - Rehearsing the Alumni Dance from Maegan Slaten on Vimeo.

You probably heard our dance teachers mentioning that the young ones were in the front first….then the older ones moved up front…huge change haha

Anyway, we had a wonderful time dancing together again and I think we did pretty good for only learning it about an hour earlier (and maybe only did it 5 times total!)

Before we left, we all snapped a picture together…I love it!

Here’s the “Picniked” version :)

What a great night!!  Show recaps coming up next….

Weight Loss Wednesday

Since it has been a while since I’ve done a “Weight Loss Wednesday” post, I thought I’d catch you up!  Hopefully I can keep this up every week because I do much better when I’m being held accountable.

This is my Weight Watchers weight loss chart as of today

I didn’t start weighing in every week until later on, but it starts in January when I was at my heaviest.  The brown line is my 10% goal (I’m about two pounds away), and to get back to my HS weight, I still want to lose about 15 more pounds although I would be happy with about 7 more. :)

As I mentioned before, I can tell more about how my clothes fit than what the scale says.  When I was at home over my mini summer vacay, I threw on some old soccer shorts from Junior High and surprisingly they fit (they’ve always fit around the waist because they stretch, but the legs have been tight for a long time and they were baggy :))  I also wore, and danced in the jeans from Freshman year of college! :)

Hopefully I’ll have be able to share some more good news when I weigh in next week!! :)

DUCKS!

My mom had been telling me for a few weeks about a trio of ducks that have taken up residence on our property, particularly in our front yard.  I couldn’t believe it, so she sent me some pictures for proof…

Cute right?  Apparently the one with the long neck is the leader because Mom said they followed him everywhere (and yes, they are all three boys according to my dad and brother who are avid duck hunters).  My parents had been feeding them bread and dried corn so apparently they were perfectly content in our backyard.  No one knew where they came from exactly, but unfortunately they seemed to leave as quickly as they came.

Since they disappeared before I made it home, I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see them in person.  One day, I was hanging out by the pool while Josh was hitting golf balls in the backyard (we have a huge pasture/field and my brother enjoys hitting golf balls and keep hitting them until he gets to edge of our property then he hits them back…what can I say, there’s not much to do in the country ;)) and he calls me on my cell phone from the other side of our property letting me know he found the ducks.  So I grabbed my camera and the dried corn and headed out to see them.

Apparently, they had moved to the backyard and unfortunately it seemed one of our neighbor’s dogs had killed one of them :(  I was excited to finally get to see them! :)

and just for your viewing pleasure, I made a little video as well.  It is so cute when they dip their head down in the water to eat the corn (that’s what is being thrown into the water in the video :))

5/17 - Our new pet ducks from Maegan Slaten on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, it seems they’ve disappeared again so hopefully they’ll come back to visit again soon! :)