Already a failure...haha

So I had a feeling I would be really bad at updating a blog and its only been 3 weeks here and I already fail at the upkeep. Awesome I know =)
The last week was intense. Our Monday lesson with Anna kicked my butt beyond belief. We worked rumba and since I had said I wanted her to help me out- the whole lesson was basically for me... which is good for me but totally exhausted me. She is so nice in her comments and has great critiques but I still was not too happy with myself and my dancing by the end of it... ugh. To make it worse I felt like I wasn`t implementing everything she taught me quick enough when we practiced later... I ended up calling Brent not too happy. But as the great mentor he is, he gave me some encouraging words and helped me pick myself back up and just work on a few details at a time.. Thanks Brent =) My lesson with Song and his wife the next day was great. They are so cute! I can`t tell if they are arguing or not when they start talking in Korean, but thankfully she gives me a smile every once in a while so I know its okay. They are coming along great with swing. Its funny because they don`t have great english, so I have to come up with different ways to help them remember things- like the rock step and stuff. Its fun.
Wednesday was nice because it was a chance to finally sleep in (Brian doesnt have his early morning lessons on Wednesdays...thank goodness). So sleep in I did =) then I packed up a lunch and walked the 7 minute hike to the beach front... Beautiful. I meant to sit out and read and ended falling asleep for almost two hours... came inside to a nasty burn all over. I havent burned that much in forever! it was awesome! Being sunburned zapped my energy out which sucked for practice. Thankfully Bri was patient with me. When I went to teach my west coast class they all thought I was "so pretty' with my burn- I officially now know they lie to me ;) Brian had a lesson at the same time so I had to use one of the guys as my TA... you`d think I gave him a purple heart or some sort of medal, he was so happy lol.
Thursday was a loooooooong day! Brian had a lesson at 9 then we didnt have anything till 4. So since we are avoiding multiple trips out to Torrance, we had a beach day =) sooo nice. I think they were filming a surf movie...hated to tell them there were not really any waves... nor was their surfer good... haha. I went to change and when I came out Bri made a comment about me taking forever- some lady next to him retorted back that if he acted like that I would take even longer next time... haha- I like her. The next lesson I was substituting for Tom. It was a little girl named Emily. She is adorable! We went through a lot of stuff in the lesson- I definitely like working with kids most-I had fun coming up with analogies for her. Her mom loved me and said they wanted to start taking from me as well from now on. =) Then Brian and I practiced . I really like where our rumba is going- it feels a million times stronger. Then we taught our cha cha routine class. We are supposed to begin at a bronze level and work our way past gold to open by the end. So we made up the rest of the routine and as a joke added a really difficult ending with tons of spins to see the class` reaction. It was awesome!!
Friday we got up and went to our first lesson with Roman down here. I love him- he basically did to Brian what Anna did to me. It was great. But he focused so much on making sure out bodies correlated together just right. It was cool to see how he did it. And I learned alot of body movement from his time with Brian. He changed some of our routine up and gave us a new direction to work on. Then we went home for a bit before heading to the studio.  We were going to practice but Brian had two lessons and the second went over a bit... I was talking to my sister getting some great advice and we ended up with no time to practice before the party.
My sister is amazing. Sometimes I cannot see things clearly and she is really good at helping me clear my head and set things straight. Sometimes I confuse my emotions and cannot see thing clearly... Kels helped me figure out what I want- well told me to figure out what I want. Once I figure that out, everything else falls into place. Who would`ve thought Kels would have good advice ;) haha just kidding.
The party was fun. They make me laugh because I usually am the guy since we have WAY more ladies at the studio. Thank you Marci for teaching methods... It helps sooo much! I am forever glad for taking that class =)
We stayed and danced till about 11. I even had George (one of the standard teachers) teach me some tango as a guy so I can do more with the students. It was fun.
Saturday we headed up to the LA Fashion district to find fabric to finish off my dress. We found it at the first store for $1/yard... love this place. We ended up then walking around for a bit looking for odds and ends. I found and bought my little sister a present, and made a mental note of stuff to buy my family for fun... Then we went in search of this "supposed" store that sells rhinestones by the pound... it doesnt exist.ha! of course. Looks like we will still be calling up the Keck`s for rhinestones. =) We called it a day around 5 and went home to relax... Its good for us to have time apart I have decided. Hanging out only with each other drives us nuts! haha. So I called up my bestie Nicole and talked to her while walking up and down Pacific Coast Highway (highway 1) for the red box... passed it twice then found it was out of order. of course lol. It was nice to talk to her and get her opinion on stuff thats been crowding my mind lately... I realize I am totally the type of person that needs to talk things out in order to have it make sense to me. Drives Brian crazy but its the only way I can organize my thoughts.
Sunday was a fun day. I went to the Moriyama`s ward and there was a mission farewell. I didnt even know the guy but as we gathered in the Relief Society room after church to sing "God be with you till we meet again," I found myself in tears. This guy had shared his testimony about finding the gospel and what it meant to him in his talk... You could feel the spirit so strongly...maybe that was what made me cry. This young man will be an amazing missionary. We went to his farewell later that night too. His family is sooo kind and loving. and the women of the ward seemed excited to set me up with their sons or someone they knew. I "graciously" referred them to my 24 year old sister instead... you`re welcome kelsey =)
That night I had a wonderful heart to heart with my daddy =) I feel like my life has been a roller coaster of emotions as I try to figure out what is the best thing for me to do in life. I have been fasting and praying for an answer and talking to my dad helped alot. Love my family.
This week has been good but not too much going on. Business as usual I guess. We cancelled our lesson on Monday, and instead used the break to intensely go over things we have been learning. On Tuesday I got a wonderful surprise- an amazing call from Elisha =) I had forgotten that the tour team arrived home today! It was great to talk with her and catch up. Love that girl. Then I got to teach a lesson to this girl and her dad. Her sweet 16 is in the next week or so and she wants to do a daddy-daughter dance together. They are doing a waltz to My Wish by Rascal Flatts. So since we dont have alot of time, I decided to teach them the flashiest easy steps I know of =) Yesterday  we got to sleep in again. I took another walk down the PCH to the store to buy cookies =) I am so unhealthy its ridiculous lol. Then Brian and I met up to practice. We got some wonderful advice from one of the professionals here- Viktoriya Fadina (Vikki). Her and her partner
Vadim Lubushkin are so kind! They spent a while talking with us and giving us helpful competition hints. The WCS class went a lot smoother than normal. We worked on technique and fun variations. It is an interesting class to teach because there are very many levels in the class. One guy gets really upset if its too hard but then another guy is a natural thats known it for years... fun learning how to appeal to both. Which brings us to today- early morning lesson for Brian and glee catch up for me. Long break before next lesson so we will head to the beach in just a bit =) Love California