Riot and Frolic

a mostly ballroom dance, but also a bunch of other stuff, blog

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about

I own and rock people’s faces off teaching ballroom dancing at Dancers Studio in St. Paul, MN. My husband and I compete professionally in American style and wrangle eight children in our spare time. I’ve been teaching and competing in ballroom dancing for over 25 years and have lots of opinions on it. I am an expert by any means, but there are quite a few dancers who are better than me and I have a solid knowledge of basic technique, so suck it.

Category: Domesticality

  • Holiday Cheer : Day 8

      Anybody?  Anybody? Every year I feel the same anticipation on this big day… Advent Adventures Day 8 : GET A TREE. We go to this tree farm that isn't really a tree farm, but is adorable (so adorable they don't even have a website) and family-owned and HAS SHEEP. Zoo and I didn't participate…

  • Holiday Cheer : Day 7

    Day 7 : I was super stoked about today's shindig because I had seen amazing posts all over Pinterest about SALT DOUGH [imagine a choir of angels singing that]. The idea was to have the girls make ornaments for their friends and relations.  The dough is easy to whip up:  1 cup salt 2 cups flour…

  • Holiday Cheer : Day 6

    Advent Adventures Day 6 : The girls got fancy band-aids in their goodie bag today and it might not seem like a big deal, but ZOMG WHAT IS WITH SMALL CHILDREN AND BAND-AIDS!?! I loosely tied in the "first aid supplies" with having to pack for a journey because of the census that Caesar demanded and…

  • Holiday Cheer : Day 5

      Let me tell you a secret: I'm pretty hazy on the whole Jesus story.  And all those stories that surround him.  You know, like, the Bible.  Part of the reason I'm stoked about this whole Advent thing is so I can do me some learning. Advent Adventures Day 5 : Our wee book told…

  • Holiday Cheer : Day 1 – 4

    Same bat time, same bat channel? NO! By God, it's Christmas time (see what I did there?) and sorry to get all Christian on your asses, but I'm going to share my Advent adventures with you.   In 2012, with the ladies being able to sort of kind of sometimes understand what Christmas is about,…

  • Booby Traps

      Things I Will Miss About My House Upon Completion of Renovation Dirt chutes.  Several years ago, we visited the James J. Hill mansion when my in-laws were in town (educational field trip points!).  The thing that I was most impressed by was not the ornate woodwork, the beautiful period lamps, the amazing art gallery,…

  • Let The Blonde Jokes Commence

    What many of you have been saying for years is official: I'm blonde. For reference, I started 2013 like this: In April, I made the MASSIVE decision to get bangs.     Then in June, I chopped off my 12" ponytail.  If you've read my complaints about long hair (read about it here, here, and here),…

  • List of Last Week’s Labors of Love – Internet Mumbo Jumbo Edition

    – look to the right, now back at me.  Via my Instagram feed, you'll see that I have my children doing my dirty work for me now.  In princess dresses, nonetheless.   – in related news, Amalah started following me on the Insta and I am HONORED and FREAKED OUT. She is LITERALLY the funniest…

  • List of Last Week’s Labors of Love

    – what? – I feel like I should call this category "News and Recommendations", but that sounds like a segment on CNN and doesn't have any alliteration, so… Lame.   – Firemen are great.  I'd say firefighters, but I haven't met any fireladies, so I'm sticking with firemen.   There was a house fire across…

  • Catch of the Day

    My huge network of music-loving brothers- and sisters-in-laws have an ongoing game of Show and Tell (one might call it one-upmanship) with new artists and songs.  Generally speaking, they find great Music, songs with harmonies and meaning and that will never be played on the radio.  Unfortunately, as The G will attest, I am hard…