We are having revival for three days at church.  Last night was as full as the morning meeting.  I've never seen an evening service so full before.  The music was great.  The preaching was great.  Pastor Ayers was funny and thought provoking.  This is my first revival. 

The fundraiser is going well.  I'm praying people will come.  A local deejay offered his sound system which will be even better than my one speaker so I'm overjoyed about that.  Got two good women working the door.  Decided to give the water out for free.  Need to get playlists from other instructors.  Need a couple coolers with water for the ice.  Need to compose and send out email.

I had to abandon the two routines I've been trying to learn.  Sometimes I find Beto's stuff too hard to follow.  I picked two YouTube videos by Zumba instructors instead.  They're much easier and in three days I have them almost learned compared to three weeks of practicing Beto's and still not getting his timing down. 

Gee, where has the time gone.  The city had donated the use of the Civic Center for the fundraiser.  They only required a deposit which one of the ladies in my class paid.  So nice of her.  I made flyers and they turned out beautiful if I do say so myself.  Very blue.  The office supply store in town printed 60 for us as a donation.  I am keeping notes and after it's over I will run an ad in the paper to thank all the people and entities who are helping this fundraiser come together.  A t-shirt seller who is donating money from the t-shirts will have a table at the event.  A lady is offering some of her hand crafted jewelry for a raffle.

Today I did some practice with a group of about seven high schoolers who are gonna dance a routine with me.  They even choreographed a couple parts of the song for themselves.  I'm so proud of them.  They will not regret participating.  I told them today not to get hung up on technique.  The steps are secondary.  I told them have fun, ham it up, and even if I or they make a mistake keep moving.  I explained that if they're having a good time the audience will pick up on it and they'll have a good time.  If you are anxious the audience will pick up on it and they will be uncomfortable.  I think they'll do well.  I want to contact two more groups of kids and my goal is to do three routines with three different groups of kids.  I envision one set of kids running on stage for their song, then running off at the end as the next group runs in.

Checked the audio available at the Civic Center and it's quite sad.  It's only a PA system.  My music was no good on it.  Thought I was going to have to find a DJ.  But husband said to me to try my speaker out.  I didn't think my speaker would have enough power but guess what.  It did!  It's sounds way better than the PA system.  Happy, happy me.  Location, sounds, flyers, water.  The grocery store is donating water. Check, check, check, check.  Now to find donations for meals and gas for the instructors coming to town.

Got a bit of excitement when yesterday the Civic Center manager told me the 10th was double booked.  He was wrong.  Thank you for that.

Have a small glitch in that the other instructor here in town that I invited to dance has a Zumba training on exactly the day of the fundraiser.  She was supposed to do 30 minutes of routines.  Either I have to work something out or I'm going to have to do an hour instead of 30 minutes.  She does not yet realize her training is on the fundraiser day.  I don't think she's terribly organized.  Lucky for me I noticed it.

I got the church announcements done and they look pretty nice.  Pastor and his wife have both commented on how much they like it.  Pastor even used the word "awesome."  Funny thing is, I look at it and see all the parts I want to do better.  I think it's just okay.  I want to do better!  My hand is tired though from doing our flyer plus announcements video plus making tickets.  Ladies in class want to sell fundraiser tickets which is a grand idea but another thing I have to do on computer.  I need to figure out how to make a dashed line in Microsoft Word.  I tried so many ways to make tickets myself but to no avail.  Time wasted.  I can't put numbers on them that's for sure.  Too much work.

I'm developing a thick skin regarding my playlist for Zumba.  After we went to Cruces for a Zumba class and the teacher was so great I came home and hated my own playlist.  Ha.  Sad.  Some people in class want faster, some like slow, one wants more this, one wants more that.  Sigh.  Think I'll try making Mondays a faster class and see how it goes.  I can do faster it's just that my class grew when I slowed it down a bit.  It's a challenge keeping people happy and I really want to work on student retention this year.  I want to keep them coming back.

Mayela had a fab idea.  She wonders about setting up a class in a town that's 30 miles away and has no instructor.  I told her if they have 15 people who will sign up for a six week session I will do it.  We'll see what comes of it when she mentions it.

My hair.  It is about two inches from my knees!  Just noticed it yesterday.  And even better, the ends are good.

It's a small town here.  One of the girls in my class put out a flyer and tells me the boy's mama was at hospice and signed him up for hospice.  Hospice.  

He had a very, very good day today with no side effects.  He's visiting with family who came to see him and everyone is loving on him and the family very much.  He went to school one day last week and had a good time and everyone wanted to see him.  He seems exceedingly well adjusted, considering.   

The next round of chemo, a stronger chemo than before, begins next week. 

With much help from my Zumba crew, I have spearheaded a Zumba fundraiser to raise money for little JR.  I am scared and excited about doing it!  The date is set for Saturday, March 10th, 4-6pm.  We haven't yet got the location we want.  Must do it Monday.  It's not much time, but it would have otherwise had to be after May.  I've got five, maybe six instructors who've agreed to come to town from Cruces.  One is Ryan Grovey who seems to have a big heart.  The spirit of God is moving in our town.



 

My cousin died a couple days ago. Age 68.  In Vermont.  Fell on ice, hit his head, and died.  His sister got an email about it.  Usually you'd think a phone call would be in order but things are not all that they could be.  Things are broken.  So he's gone.  And it's very weird to think of that. 

Such a good night.  I had 23 people in class!  We finished with a big Conga line.  Haha!  It was fun, fun.  At my church it is the year of Double Portion so I've been prayin' and puttin' legs on my prayers and I got an answer even better than I'd anticipated.  I earned more than twice what I earned last January!  That's a double portion.  God is good, all the time.  Well, the way He works is not what I expected.  He closed Zumba at the gym for a month and made me the only instructor in town.  Still, I'm expecting good turnout in classes in the coming months.  I suspect numbers will drop when the hot weather arrives, but I'll work it till then.  Strike while the iron is hot as they say.  I also sold two sets of toning sticks and one t-shirt tonight. 

"...And Elisha said, I pray thee, let there be a double portion of thy spirit upon me."  Elijah performed seven miracles and Elisha, 14.

I bought new Zumba tops and they're duperly cute.  I needed some new Zumba threads bad.  But, I do not like how low cut they are.  They go all the way down to my bra.  I'd like them to be two or three inches above my bra.Tomorrow I'm going to Walmart to see if I can find something, not too hot, to wear underneath.  Necklines are so low nowadays.  Does everyone want to show 3/4 of their heavenly endowments?  I don't.

The pastors liked my video announcement slide show.  I have a second one almost finished.  I learned to make a reflection in Photoshop.  I've always like that effect.  It was easy.  Found a YouTube video that was a snap to follow.  I started with Windows Live Movie Maker.  I learned that the older version of Movie Maker (aka "Classic" Movie Maker) is better and a very helpful guy online helped me to find and download the Classic Movie Maker onto my Windows 7 machine.  Normally, it doesn't work on Windows 7, but he did something to it so it does work.  Smart guy.

My face swelled up yesterday.  Sad me.  It's my fault too.  It started at 11pm.  But.  I wanted to get a good night's sleep.  If I take Zyrtec before bed it makes me sort of tired yet not sleepy tired, yet if I sleep it's not a good, deep sleep.  So I thought it would go away by morning.  Big surprise.  Woke in the morning and felt my face then saw my face.  My lower left cheek swollen like a jowl and lips like Angelina Jolie.  Angelina Jolie's lips on my little face is a bad thing.

I sucked it up though and went to Zumba.  By 6:30pm class the swelling was down but not gone.  From the stage they couldn't see the swelling so that was good.  I was glad I went to class.  My face was sort of sore.  It felt like I'd been shot full of Novacaine at the dentist.  Well, enough about that.

Maybe I will fly to San Diego for the Zumba Gold for seniors training.  I want to go to California for the class so I can get a different teacher.  Vanessa Lupercio from Arizona is good, but I've had her for every single training.  I want to experience a different Zumba Education Specialist. I want to be the best that I can be.  A student tonight said she took a Zumba class in Cruces.  She said my class was so much better.  Aw, I think she's just used to me, but nevertheless I felt happy that she gave me such a nice compliment.  It motivates me to try, try, try harder.

I'm praying frequently for a little boy age 13 in town who had his arm and clavicle amputated.  Cancer.  And I'm trying to answer questions from people about why God is doing this. I tell them God is good and the devil is bad and don't ever get the two mixed up.  Disease is not from God.  It entered the world through the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden when the serpent convinced them to eat what they were told not to eat.  Here they are in paradise, clothed in shekinah glory, and they can eat anything they want except from this one little old tree. I tell them, we can't know why the young become ill with awful disease until we see God and can speak to Him and ask him ourselves.  I need a better answer though.  Is there one?