Exactly Four People Will Understand This

Source: mcconnelldancers.com via Ally on Pinterest

St. Patrick's Day is coming! And Irish dancers have their own version of March Madness -- shows, dance-outs, parades, you name it.  It's like two weeks of non stop trebling. 

So anyway, I've lately become enamoured of the Ryan Gosling Hey Girl meme, which, in case you haven't heard of this yet, consists of epically funny stuff like this -- for moms:

For my crafty peeps:

My personal nerdy fave:

Source: biostatisticsryangosling.tumblr.com via Ally on Pinterest

And if you want to REALLY live the experience check out this video from MTV here:

Well, with all this St. Pat's crazy around the corner, I thought Irish dancers (especially the SENIOR LADIES, what's up girls?) deserved a little Hey Girl love just for them. So here we go:

So to the (possibly) four people I know who fall into the bizarre niche of internet meme obsessed Irish dancer -- enjoy :)

Looking vs. Leaping

So my Facebook feed was filled today with dance friends wishing other dance friends Happy Leap Day. For those not afflicted with an addiction to Highland and Irish dance, the leap is basically the It Move.

Source: t.co via Ally on Pinterest

Source: google.ca via Ally on Pinterest

There's plenty of blood, sweat and tears that goes into the kind of thing you see in those images.  But there's also a kind of mental "letting go" that has to happen -- a willingness to trust that you can stretch yourself to your absolute limit and that you probably WON'T fall flat on your ass (although, even if you did, wouldn't it be worth it to fly like that?)

So you know what? 

Let's all play!

YES, you need to "look before you leap". YES, you must carefully consider major decisions. YES, it's crucial to evaluate your path in life. But at some point, the so-called "moment of truth", you simply absolutely have to just DO it.

There's a reason that slogan has sold a billion pairs of sneakers for Nike.

So this year, I will not just be looking.  I will not stifle myself with excessive introspection (just the right amount ;) ).  I will not forget to leap.

Happy Leap Day, friends.

Source: soapboxchatter.posterous.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

The Blank Slate

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Well, we did it.

We sold it. The "forever house" we first saw in June 2008 during a whirlwind tour from real estate agent extraordinaire Shawn Lackie (the same fella who sold it for us just now).  The house I changed careers in. The house we brought the Sprout home to.  The house where I spent many a night watching the sun go down over our neighbour's barn and many a morning standing at the same window feeling blessed just to be where I was.  The house where we raised chickens out back, grew our own wheat and Peanut used to prefer carrots she picked herself over ice cream in the summer.  When we moved in, I swore they'd have to pry the keys from my cold dead hands.

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But life changes, yeah? Phil got a great opportunity in Winnipeg, and amazingly enough it came along with an equally great opportunity for me.  So we packed up our forever house in January 2011 and moved west. And after one year on the market our little farmhouse has been sold to a lovely new family (I'm happy for it. Is it weird to be happy for a house? I hope they get chickens.)

Don't be sad! We're not. Surprisingly, inside this Ontarian was a prairie girl this whole time (who knew?) I thought I'd miss the rolling hills and hidden lakes of the Kawarthas but the sky goes ALL THE WAY to the ground out here.  And best of all the "country life" we want is more possible than it's ever been..... and now we can finally get started on it.

Selling a house made me feel like Han Solo at the end of Empire Strikes Back --- frozen in time AND kinda freaked out.

But we've got our fresh start now. Blank slate. Wait till you see what we're going to do with it.