Things that make me feel like a grownup:

1. People calling me "Mrs. Smith"
• I have been addressed as Mrs. Smith every day for a year, and I am just now getting used to it
2. Emails
• Using emails instead of texting or Facebook as one of my primary methods of communication, and checking my (3 different) emails periodically "in case I get anything important (and actually getting important things!)
3. Meal planning

• When my coworker sits down with me at the end of the day, pulls out her menu for the month, and asks me what is on mine so she can get ideas.  And sharing recipes with her that we found while hanging out in the computer lab with the kiddos.
4. Bread
• I have scheduled days to bake bread.  It's a good thing.
5. Landlords
• It's not a good thing, but it still makes me awfully grown up when we're fighting with our land lady about ridiculous things (and house hunting again...."but that's another story, never mind")
6. Coaching my very own group of little dancers!
• It can be stressful, and it's already been a learning experience for all of us, but I am loving it!  And this is where I will break from the bullet points and actually tell you something about my wonderfully grown up life.

So, BYC Dance Company is in full swing!  As I have told you, I have four girls, around 10 and 11, and they are wonderful, but sometimes I forget how young they are.  I made one of them cry this week...She is easily frustrated, which I can identify with.  But they are really quite wonderful, and I can't wait until we start getting a little more comfortable with choreography, because they are going to be so great together.  You know how kids tend to either all do their own thing, or they have a group, and there's a fairly clear leader in the group, and the other little girls just do what she does?  These girls aren't like that.  At the beginning of every class and rehearsal, I have them warm up (duh), and I just turn on a song and tell them to bounce around and just get warm.  I don't care what they do, as long as they are moving, jumping, getting their heart rates up, for a full minute.  So I ask them what song they want (usually All About That Bass or Boom Clap), and they dance.  But they all dance together, and for some reason, every single time it just amazes me, and makes me so happy, because one will start doing something, and all the other ones will follow her for a few 8 counts, and then another one will break off and start something else, so they all do that for a bit, and then another will start, and they just trade off, and eventually they'll get a pattern going, and it's just so cool the way that they work together without even realizing it.  I love it.  I just love watching them warm up.  Is that weird?  I don't even know.  I feel like it's not, but whatever.  Anyway.  They make me happy.
We get to go to Austin in two weeks to learn our hip hop choreography!  Needless to say, we are ALL pretty excited for that.  I have scheduled 3 and a half hours with Trevor, and I am really hoping that they will be on top of their game, and are able to learn the whole dance in that time.  They are usually pretty good about learning choreo (as long as it's not too crazy, like my choreo seemed to be this week...I thought it was simple, but it wasn't clicking with them), but you never really know what will happen.
Last week at rehearsal, I told the girls that everything was set, and all that jazz, and they were all jumping up and down, and then said "can we watch the video again?"  Well we had just finished watching the video of their last run through in practice, so I pulled it up and they were like "No!  Not us; we want to watch him!"  They're totally obsessed.  "Is he nice?  What's he like?  I forgot what he looks like.  Have you talked to him?  Yes, we want to see that video!  We don't care if it's just him talking, I want to hear what his voice sounds like!"  I guess that's to be expected...It made me laugh, though.  They're pretty darn excited.

They are also excited about costumes (and shoes, and cookies, and games in PE, and instagram, and tumbling [I cannot get them to stop tumbling in practice!!!], and hair, and birthday parties, and pretty much everything), which I ordered on Thursday!  I'm pretty excited about that, too.  Fancy that.  I'm just as bad as they are.  I managed to order these pretty purple dresses (which come with the little hair flower that we probably won't use), and all their paws, plus two extra pairs (just in case someone loses, forgets, rips, allows a dog to eat, or is in any way unable to use their original pair), and some harem pants (not my favorite things in the world, but everyone and their aforementioned dog seems to wear them), and some cute little stripey sports bra like shirt things for them to wear at practice so they can be all matchy matchy and stuff.  They were on
clearance: $3.99 each.  Leslie and I couldn't resist.  And we've only spent just over $40 per girl, so we still have $60 each left in the budget!  I am good.  We almost went ahead and ordered their hip hop shoes as well, but we decided that would be a bad idea, since we don't know anything about the dance yet.  We'll wait on those to make sure we get something that fits the dance.
So anyway....They're awesome, and I'm loving every minute of it.  Except when they cry....I don't love that so much.  It has been difficult to do all this on a sprained ankle, though.  I would probably have fewer tears if I was able to adequately demonstrate what I am asking them to do.  But last Monday I sprained my ankle, and I've been gimping around ever since.  I managed to only take one day off work, and spent 1 1/2 on crutches, and by today I was able to walk all day at work, without looking like a total tard, and it was the first day that I have come home and not had to ice my foot, and my other foot, and my knees and my hips, and pretty much my entire lower body from the awkward usage of normally unused muscles in order to keep weight off that ankle.  I still can't rock back on my heel, but as long as I stay mostly on the ball of my foot I am good.

 I got an ER visit out of the deal, and I will just say this: If you are like, sick, don't go to Breckenridge ER.  We went there because it was 6am and nobody else was open, but it was an experience.  The nurses had no idea how to put my information into the computer, so when the secretary got there she had to come in and do it all over again.  But in the process, we discovered that she is from Medford, Oregon!  It's the ssn that starts with a 5.  She sees a lot of ssns.  There was blood on the floor of the room I was in, which was like "biohazard!!!!!!!!!"  But I didn't say anything.  I probably should have, but I didn't have any open wounds or anything.  So if someone randomly contracts AIDS after going to the Breckenridge ER, I will feel responsible; I should have said something.  So the doctor came in, asked what my level of pain was ("About a 3."  Jesse: "3??  Why did I take you here for a 3?"  "Well it was your idea."  "Uh, you were crying when I called you."  "Well it hurt really bad, then!"), poked it, said "It's sprained, they'll do some X-rays."  The lady came in and did 6 X-rays.  She was super nice, I liked her.  Then she left and we sat for 20 or 30 minutes listening to the doctor hang out a the nurses' station right in front of us talking to all of the nurses loudly about patients, by name (which was like "HIPPA VIOLATION!!").  When she was done telling her story, she came in, said "It's sprained, you need to rest it and ice it and take some motrin" and just turned around and walked out.
I'm not a super needy person (I don't think), and I've done this all before, I know what to do, no big deal.  But there was no "you need to stay off it for this much time" or "do you have any questions" or "do you need crutches or an ice pack or an ace bandage or anything?"  Nah.  Just "take some motrin and get on with your life."  I half expected them to hand me a big straw on the way out.
So Jesse and I went to CVS, got some super Ibuprofen, and then he went and bought me a nice, big, soft ice pack, and an even bigger bag of candy.
Juggling crutches and purse and dance bag and yoga mat and lunch box and everything the next day was a little difficult, but I managed.
So anyway....it is time for me to go watch a flag football game.
That also makes me feel like a grownup.

Tune in next time for "Things that make me feel like a child"!