Land o'Lessa

So, today, the pup hit another milestone in the whole swimming lesson crusade, for it was jump off the diving board day! She doesn’t usually have much fear to speak of, and CLEARLY loves the water and I’m beginning to wonder if she has gills to go along with her long skinny feet that look suspiciously like flippers at times – but even so, I wasn’t sure if she’d chicken out or not. After all, I have never ever jumped off a diving board in my entire life and I have exactly zero plan to do so, ever. So I wouldn’t blame her at all- though I totally would let the coaches toss her in give her a nudge in the right direction. I have a ‘mean’ rep to protect, after all!

So anyway, at the end of the lesson, everyone moved to the diving board, and after letting EVERYONE ELSE GO FIRST because she was a little scared being polite and waiting her turn, she couldn’t put it off any longer – and with only the slightest of hesitations, she took the plunge!

Hurray! She also made it almost the entire way across the pull without having to stop/grab onto Coach Billy. By the end of next week, I fully expect her to pass out of lvl 2 and into lvl 3 the following week. I also expect I’ve a long year of swim mom coming up this winter. Of course, this also means I’m eying all of those KCHS Lady Kardinal records that hang on the wall at the pool, the ones that say “M.B.” from the early 90s. I fully expect the lot of them to be replaced by the year 2016 with “J.M.”

I mean, just LOOK at that form though – don’t it belong on a Wheaties box? I thought so too. But no pressure, pup. No pressure at all. *grin*

PS – anyone know where can get a set of those *points up* for my house? And padlocks to go with them? After all, it’s a step up from her box, right? hahahhaha.

Today I’m one PROUD auntie! D-man has had it rough his whole life, and we, as his stepparents, stepgrandparents and stepauntie have done our best to love him through every little step of the way – all the babysteps forward, the leaps backward, the painful starting overs. We’ve triumphed with every success, and did our best to help him through the rough patches. Days like today remind us how very far we’ve come – no matter the length of the road still ahead.

This morning, I stayed after the pup’s swimming lesson (her triumph to come in next post *g*) to watch his lesson too. He’d asked me to stay, and he promised that he’d jump off the diving board on his very own if I was there to watch him. As the last two attempts involved the coaches tossing him in when he decided he couldn’t do it on his own, I knew this was a big step for him. And he wanted me to be there for it.

I would be the crazy Auntie Voice encouraging him and cheering him on – as yes, he took that very big leap of faith all on his own today:

All the kids were tired and a bit grumpy today, and when we arrived back at Auntie Ladybug’s house so that I could pick up the dog, there was a minor meltdown, and I stepped in to deal with D-man. You know how it is – sometimes kids just listen better when it’s not the parents doing the talking too, but another trusted adult and I knew Ladybug was nearing the end of her rope.

A few minutes afterwards, we had a very good talk, he and I, with quiet words and understandings and explanations as we picked apart what happened and how it could have been handled better. He decided to clean up his room a bit before heading outside, and I went back out to talk to his mama after getting a big hug from a teary-eyed boy.

I didn’t ask him to apologize to his mom for his part in the confrontation. I didn’t ask him to talk to her at all about what we’d discussed – we’d handled it, cleared the air, and it was done with as far as I was concerned. But my man D-man, after taking about five minutes to himself, came out ON HIS OWN and apologized to his mama for the melt down and his part in it. The apology was all his doing, 100%, and so today, we celebrate this babystep for what it is – a very big deal. I could not be prouder for him accepting the responsibility and taking the steps to repair the situation on his own.

Slow and steady wins the race, Mama Ladybug. He’ll get there, as long as we keep holding his hand through every leap of faith he takes.

Seriously, so many hits tonight, and even though the judges were harsher on some dances that I thought were great, overall tonight was one hell of a good program! The judges seemed a bit nitpicky tonight, and at one point Nigel got snippy with the audience telling them to “stop booing for heaven’s sake” because they were there to help the dancers improve. He seemed a bit extra testing tonight, except when he was joking about Mia Michaels choreographing their breakup in the absolutely best dance of the night! Mia Michaels is brilliant, seriously.

Dance styles:
Jessica and Will: Jive and Lyrical Jazz
Comfort and Thayne: Broadway and Smooth Waltz
Kourtni and Matt: Hip Hop and Mambo
Chelsea and Mark: Jazz and Foxtrot
Kerington and Twitch: Paso Doble and Contemporary
Katee and Joshuah: Contemporary and West Coast Swing
Courtney and Gev: Hip Hop and Broadway

After the cut, more of my favorites!

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A poster over at Reality BBQ who has been right many times in the past couple of seasons has given Spammy his list of the houseguests! If he’s right on the money as he was last year and the year before (He gave the décor of the house days before the release, also told us of America’s Player and the pre-premiere eviction of Sharon/Jacob, among other things, all days before any information was officially released) then we have a mighty diverse group of people currently in sequester – especially age-wise. The age-range reported is 22-75!

Here’s what he said:
The casting is going to have a slightly conservative vs. liberal angle.
- A recently divorced Koren-American tomboy.
- A 35 year old gay rodeo cowboy who’s a bit prejudiced himself.
- A 25 year old who doesn’t consider himself a bartender.
- A 53 year old New Orleans socialite.
- A 31 year old who’s from a predominantly white neighborhood, she’s a black mother of 3 and an Obama supporter in Bush country. She has a pair of rare twins.
- The son of a Pentecostal preacher.
- A 24 year old teacher in an all boys Catholic school. He would move out of the country if Hillary were President.
- …and a few more. Thirteen in all. Don’t want to give you all the secrets!

Here are all the names:
Renny
Dan
Steven
Michelle
Libra
The person most likely to be an early target: Jesse (Jessie?), 22.
Ollie
Jerry, 75, is the self-professed biggest Big Brother fan in the world. Everyone will love Jerry!
Memphis
Keesha, 29, blond bombshell who works at Hooters. Reminds us of Danielle D.
Angie
April
Brian

So – if that dude doesn’t consider himself a bartender, what DOES his consider himself? And 75? Holy cow. I do remember earlier during casting for BB10 that rumors about them looking for a Gay Cowboy through the Gay Rodeo Association were flying rampant, so that one certainly seems possible. He was said to be kind of a tool, a flirt who gets along with most, and wears wranglers and cowboy hats to work all the time.

The folks over at Reality BBQ are now searching Myspace for possible, and may have found Keesha and Dan. We’ll know in a few days for sure, of course, but it’s oddles of fun to speculate while we wait!

What do you think of the rundown of houseguests above? Will we all really love Jerry?! Either way, kudos to CornerOfficeX – and keep the info coming!