It's Official!

'The College Life: At the Barre' is officially at college! I got all moved in Monday with the help from my mom, dad, sister, step-mom & step-sister and I'm all ready to go!

Going into this I was pretty nervous because I was placed in "temporary housing", which we thought meant that I would have to move somewhere else as places opened up. The other obvious reason to be nervous would be the fact that I hadn't really talked to any of my roommates. Turns out... They're awesome! We all get along really well and we all pretty much like the same thing. Our rooming situation was confusing to all of us so we brought our RA in to talk to her about telling our housing guy that we did NOT want to move from our oversized traditional room.. As we told her this she looked surprised but that doesn't matter because we're staying and we're all happy.

My little section of our room is all set up and everything has a place, which I love! I have a desk with two shelves and three drawers, a 3 drawer dresser with two shelves, my bed is lofted on top of that and then I have a double door armoire with two at the bottom. SO MUCH SPACE! I have empty drawers because I don't know what else to put in them! The only problem with my little set up is that the bed has a railing that drops below the end of the bed... When I'm sitting at my desk under my bed, about 50% of the time I wack my head on the thing and sit there trying to pretend like it never happened!

This whole experience is so new and exciting! Right now it just feels like I'm at a summer camp hosted by a college. I can't explain how excited I am for my dance classes to start! I get to dance 3 days a week from 9am-4:30pm!! Wooo!

Thats all for now! Here's what my roomies and I did today at Rec-Fest :)

I blinked...

A few days ago my soon-to-be-senior little sister asked me to take her senior pictures for her. This was a complete shock to me because the last I had heard about her senior pictures was that she and my dad were going to fly to Florida to have my cousin take them.

When she asked I was floored! I didn't think she really meant it until she started talking about her reasoning for not going to FL, it would be rushed, my mom and I wouldn't be able to go, she had ideas in mind of places here that she liked around town (the list went on..), and I couldn't help but give a little smirk and agree.

We got to our destination around 5:30pm, just as the sun was starting to set, which was perfect lighting for where we were. When I got out of the car and Keegs started pointing out the different places she wanted pictures taken at, it hit me. My little sister is a senior, she's graduating in May, she'll be going to college in a year from now!!! You know how parents always seem to say "Can you stay this size forever?" almost every year to you? Well that's how I feel about my little sister right now! In just two weeks she'll be walking into high school with a senior lanyard around her neck and will be the "older kids" at school! I want to freeze her right here and keep her as her 16-almost-17 year old self forever! But as I think about it I get excited too because I can't wait to see how our lives will change in these next few years.

We spent about 2 hours walking around downtown taking pictures and getting eaten alive by mosquitos, but the pictures are amazing. My sister is gorgeous and SO photogenic it's crazy. Here's a little sneak peek at some of her pictures :)

Another weird realization this week? Summer is over. I leave for college tomorrow afternoon. How weird is that?!? How I realized this, you ask? My best friend came home from her summer in New York City. After spending every summer together since I can remember it's become kind of a habit, so it's safe to say I was not ready her to be gone all summer. Although, since I visited her over a month ago all I've been looking forward to is her coming home at the end of the summer but I guess I didn't really put together that when she got here it would really be the END of summer. So yesterday when my mom and I went to pick her up I started thinking.. 'Today is Saturday, tomorrow is Sunday... Then it's Monday.. That is when I leave for college'... (Bare with me, I know the days of the week. Days just feel longer during the summer so you forget what day it is)

Thinking of this made me realize how fast this summer went by. I instantly thought of that first week I started babysitting Jack, then I thought of the random trips I took and thought how could it have passed by so quickly! If feels like just yesterday was May 27 and my friends and I were parading our way across the stage at graduation! As I babbled all of this to my mom she replied with a short answer, "Did you blink?". And I guess I did, I definitely didn't want to, but this summer is coming to an end quickly and as I try to squeeze in every last thing I want to do before I go I'm not going to let it just pass me by that fast again.

(Me, Rel, & Keegs at summer camp in 2004)

(The three of us dancing our last recital together- Spring 2011)

Summer of the Jedis!

Instead of getting a "real job" this summer I decided to babysit. It sounds like the perfect set up, right? No one is taking money from your checks, from what my friends say about their work schedule- it's WAY easier to set up my schedule, and I get to spend everyday from 9am to about 2:30pm with the coolest 6 year old (who is actually 6 and 3/4 & would hound me for just saying he's 6) ever! Another plus, he's my cousin!

I knew going into this that it was going to be an adventure. An adventure full of nick-names, cartoons, french bread pizzas, and all types of Star Wars.

I've always seemed to like 'boy' movies. I like the Fantastic Four movies, the Transformers movies, the Spiderman movies (but the 3rd is my favorite), Superman, the X-Men movies, and most sport related movies. Odd enough, I've never gotten around to the Star Wars movies until my little J-Man introduced me to them! J-Man's obsessedwith Star Wars, I'm talking action figures, books, movies, games for the Wii, costumes, statues, and 3 lightsabers, red, blue, and green. It's safe to say I'm well educated now in the subject of Star Wars. I know the difference between a Jedi and a Padawan, I know who gets killed in which movie and who it is that kills them, and last but definitely not least, I know who has what color lightsaber and why! It's some pretty important stuff to know when hanging out with a Star Wars-obsessed 6 year old.

One thing I really had to get over this summer was watching 'Phineas and Ferb'. My 16 year old sister is obsessed with the show and I never saw why, I used to think it was pretty annoying. But my Jack-Attack LOVES it. We watch at least 3 episodes of P&F everyday. For the past 3 days I've watched P&F: The Movie, it's actually pretty cute!

I leave for college in 4 days but I only have one more day of hanging out with my little man. It's sad because Jack knows that I'm going away to college, but he doesn't understand that he'll still be able to see me when I come home for breaks or when he comes to visit, which makes it kind of sweet. My aunt (his mom) told me the other day that he asked why I have to leave for 4 years and when she tried to explain to him that he'll see me pretty often he just shook his head in disbelief.

At the beginning of the summer when I was looking for my babysitting gig, I had a couple candidates. Luckily, I was telling Aunt Terri about how I couldn't decide what to do because that's when she asked me to babysit Jack everyday. I can't explain how happy I am that I got to spend almost everyday day with him. He's my little man and I'm going tomiss him SO much this year. It's a good thing Aunt Terri has a Mac now that way I can skype with him.

So, thanks AunT & Uncle R for paying me to hang out with the coolest kid ever this summer, he's 'da bomb'. And Jack-Attack, Maddie McNanny loves you a whole lot!

P.S. I would've done it without the pay :)

(My sister Keegan, Jack & I at Disney for spring break)

So, is anyone out there?

My name is Madelyn, but I go by Maddie. I've been dancing since the age of 2 and since then it's always been a dream of mine to dance professionally. So that's what I'm doing, I'm dancing through college to hopefully continue on and become a professional dancer!

So why not start blogging? It's the perfect time to start since it's the beginning of the next big milestone in my life. I'm excited! Strap in, you're officially in for the ride :)