Tap Company Performance

Here is the flyer for our upcoming performance.



Here is the press release for the performance.

Footwork: An Evening of Tap Dance

Rich sound and fascinating rhythm will ring out as Footwork: An Evening of Tap Dance takes the stage at the Post Theater on March 6th. Debby Robertson and members of SLCTap, along with Colleen West and the Foot Poetry Tap Dance Ensemble will perform on Saturday March 6th at 7:30 p.m. at the Post Theater at Fort Douglas on the University of Utah campus.

Robertson and West have shared producer duties before, in last year's RDT Sponsored "LINK" series event entitled Footwork: An Evening of Percussive Dance. Whereas that performance explored all genres of percussive dance, this will be the first ever to focus entirely on classic and contemporary tap dance. The stage at the Post Theater is especially appealing to tap dancers for its resonant wood floor, (unusual for dance performance spaces) allowing the intricate footwork to be clearly heard and fully appreciated.

Known for her technique and knowledge of classic tap, Robertson and her group will perform a 1930's vaudeville-era work, a classic soft-shoe routine by the famed "class act" duo of Honi Coles & Brenda Bufalino, as well as a complex a capella quartet. The Foot Poetry Ensemble will display their youthful exuberance and technical chops in a lively Latin piece choreographed by West, a witty disco-dance parody and a modern tap/hip-hop inspired piece.

Ouch

Personal post, continue with caution :-)

Hannah is just over 15 months old and I am still nursing her. Breastfeeding has been such a wonderful experience for me but lately it has not been so enjoyable. Every once in a while Hannah will have a day where she will bite me when I go to nurse her and continue to do so every time I offer it to her. She does have another tooth coming in so I know her gums are having a rough time but this biting thing needs to stop. Whenever I go to nurse her now I am hesitant with a finger ready to break her death grip of a bite. Any advice out there from you mother's who had/have babies who bite while nursing? I don't know what to do to discourage her because apparently my method isn't working. I'm so frustrated and I just wonder if maybe she is telling me she is ready to wean. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Dancing Hannah

A couple of weeks ago Hannah started dancing every time we turned on Body Language by Jesse McCartney. Apparently it is her favorite song. The surprising thing about her dancing is that I never "taught" her how to dance. She just started doing it on her own. Originally her dancing included walking on beat in circles to the music, then she added bouncing and head nods, and finally some hand movements. We love turning on her song to see what she will do. I can't wait to enroll her in a dance class a couple of years from now. She will be unstoppable :-)

In this first video she starts bouncing at the beginning and at 28 seconds she really starts moving to the beat.

Hannah Dancing from Gretchen Pollard on Vimeo.

In this video she dances pretty much the entire time.

Hannah Dancing 2 from Gretchen Pollard on Vimeo.

In this last video Hannah thinks I am taking a picture so she smiles for the camera. She dances for the first 45 seconds of the video.

More Dancing from Gretchen Pollard on Vimeo.

Answered Prayers

My husband is not one to boast of his achievements, therefore I do his boasting for him :-) For those of you who read my blog, you know that Jake has been in the process of applying to medical school for the past 2 years. Well....to be precise this long road began 6 years ago because that is when he first decided he wanted to pursue medicine. He went to his academic advisor at BYU and told him his goal of becoming a doctor. His advisor, you know the one that is there to help you achieve your dreams, looked at his grades up to that point (I believe he was a sophomore) and told him that his GPA was not good enough.

Jake walked away from that meeting thinking medicine was out of the question and began looking into other options. He switched his focus to predental, then he decided to go into research and become a professor, and lastly he looked into being a pharmacist. Nothing felt right. And finally he decided that doing anything else would feel like settling for something that he just didn't want to be.

He applied to medical school last year for Fall of 2009. The only school he applied to was the University of Washington. He applied late and didn't even get an interview. I was discouraged but Jake was optimistic that if he sent in his application earlier that he would get an interview. So we waited another year and he applied again. This year he has been invited to interview at 7 schools. He interviewed at 6 of them and just recently turned down the 7th. He turned down an interview because today his aspiration became a reality.

He interviewed at the University of Washington a week ago. They only select 20 Idaho residents into their school of medicine. Today they accepted their top 4/5 applicants. Jake was one of them. I am so proud of him. It has been a long road full of many prayers and dissapointments, but today he is one step closer to achieving his goal. We feel so blessed. Medical school will of course be a challenge, but I have no doubt in my mind that he will rise to the occasion just like he always has. Thank you Mr. Mean Hearted College Advisor for possibly giving my husband the push he needed in the right direction by telling him he couldn't do something. Because guess what dude, he did it.

Tap Company Performance

The Tap company I am on (Foot Poetry Tap Dance Ensemble) is performing at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo this Saturday, January 9th. There is a matinee show at 2pm and an evening performance at 7pm. We are performing with a variety of teams featuring many forms of percussive dance. The other companies we are performing with are the Rocky Mountain Express Cloggers, Extreme Rhythm Cloggers, High Performance Studios, and the Shelley School of Irish Dance. Ticket's are $10 and went on sale January 1st and are going fast. You can call the ticket office at 801-852-7007 or you can go here to order tickets online. It is going to be an amazing show. I hope all of you friends in the area are able to come!

Christmas 2009

We spent Christmas in Idaho with Jake's family this year. To make traveling easier and to avoid inclement weather we decided to fly. Upon arriving at the airport on Wednesday we were notified that our plane was delayed about 2 hours. That was super. Especially when we discovered that it was to wait for a connecting flight. I don't know about you but I have never had a plane wait 5 minutes for me, let alone 2 hours. That was annoying, but we got over it quick. It was so good to be at Jake's home again. We hadn't been there in a year, so it was about time.

The next day was Christmas Eve. At 5pm Jake's little brother Brandon got home from his mission in Chile! It was fun being able to be at the airport to greet him with the whole family. He hasn't changed at all. Well....only 2 main things have changed: He has a strong Latin accent and a tan. After we all picked him up from the airport we had to go home and get ready for their big family Christmas Eve party. Every Christmas Eve the Pollard side of the family get's together for dinner, games, and a white elephant gift exchange. It was fun to see everyone again and to see the looks on their faces when they saw Brandon was home. He wanted to surprise the extended family, so they didn't know he would be home on Christmas Eve. Hannah was shy at first, but within 20 minutes she was running around the house touching and smiling at everything and everyone. Jake's sister Aubrey and her family came over on Christmas Eve to stay the night with us all in the basement. It's a tradition that probably won't be able to continue much longer with 4 kids and counting, but it is still fun.

Christmas morning consisted of Santa Clause, opening presents, and eating scones. Jake, Hannah and I made out like bandits. I won't go into details about everything we got but the main thing was a new digital camera. Not just any digital camera. A SWEET one :-) A Canon PowerShot SX120IS 10MP to be exact. Our digital camera started taking blurry pictures around Hannah's birthday, so it was a very needed and greatly appreciated gift. Thank you Santa (aka Mimi and Papa). One other gift that I am very excited about is something Jake got me. A 1 hour massage! He knows me so well :-) For Christmas dinner we had the traditional and yummy turkey feast.

The next day was Saturday and Jake's sister and I decided to use our Macy's gift card's (Thanks Lanette) to go do some fun after Christmas shopping. I bought 2 really cute skirts and Aubrey found some adorable jean's with bling for button's and some sweater's. We only had an hour to shop before dinner so it got a tad hectic. Next time we will plan a bigger block of time for shopping. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant with the whole family sans our nieces and nephews. It was fun to hear Brandon talk to the waitress from Peru for a while. She told us that he speaks really well and doesn't sound Gringo. After dinner we went home and watched some movies. We watched Up and Star Trek. I was pleasantly surprised with both films.

On Sunday was Brandon's homecoming talk. He gave a wonderful talk on the 3 main gifts we have received as member's of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: The restoration of the Gospel, The gift of the Holy Ghost, and the most important gift is Jesus Christ. He read some letter's from people he converted to the church and referred to them as gifts he received on his mission. It was an excellent talk and it is so good to have him home again. Following church they had a big family/friend dinner to welcome Brandon home. After dinner we all played games and hung out as a family. We said our goodbyes that night because we had a 6 am flight the next morning. It is always so fun to go home for the Holiday's. Thanks Jerry and Lanette for a wonderful Christmas!

Hannah checking out her gift from Santa Clause on Christmas morning. This Winnie the Pooh ride on/pusher/airplane was a big hit with Hannah and all her cousins.
Papa wearing his new socks as earmuff's. I think he started a new trend.Hannah showing off her "cheesy smile".
Papa sport'n his new zebra print Snuggie.
Hannah loves the Tigger and Pooh board books we got her. She sat and flipped through the pages of one book and would quickly toss it and pull out the next book to read.
We found out she loves candy canes.
Uncle Brandon makes a pretty good looking present.
Cousin Macy making Hannah laugh.
Uncle Mike aka cupcake holding Hannah.
The Pollard brother's being silly.
Hannah wearing the Pancho that Uncle Brandon brought back for her from Chile.
Mimi getting snuggles.
This is a pretty picture of both of them.
Papa and Hannah.
Jake tested out the new camera on me.
Hannah and Uncle Brandon.
Aunt Aubrey and Hannah.
Macy and Hannah reading next to each other.
Cousin Katelyn and Hannah reading next to each other.
Hannah hanging out with Uncle Mike and her cousins.
Mimi with her grand-daughter's.
Hannah and Katelyn. Katelyn is 1 month older than Hannah. They are going to be best friend's.

Hannah sharing her cheerio's with Katelyn.
Katelyn pushing Hannah on the Pooh ride.

Thanksgiving 2009

I know I know, Thanksgiving was a month ago. Things have been pretty busy and my blog has been neglected. Before I post about Christmas I need to do one on Thanksgiving. We had a lovely Thanksgiving in California with my family. We got in on Wednesday afternoon and went to lunch at Mimi's Cafe before driving the 90 miles from the airport to our home town. It was soooo good to be home. We hadn't been there in a whole year. My parent's remodeled the house a bit, so it was fun to see the beautiful improvements. I hope to aspire to be as good of an interior decorator as my mom. She is very talented.

The next day was Thanksgiving. Which can be described in one word: Yum. I LOVE Thanksgiving. Especially my moms cooking. Between her turkey stuffing and my dad's cranberry salad I was more stuffed than the turkey. Justin and his family joined us for the feast, it is always fun to get together with his cute little family. After dinner we just talked and vegged out. Can't get much better than that. Later that night Jake and David and I went to see New Moon. And no it wasn't my first time :-) I was one of the crazy mom's out and about for the midnight showing with a bunch of girlfriend's. It was fun to see it again. David loved it. Jake hates to admit it but I know he enjoyed it too. He just didn't like how many shirtless men were in the movie. Which is understandable. Jacob Black's shirtless physique just happens to be one of the top reason's I thoroughly enjoyed the film :-)

Friday was the day of yummy left over's. Jake and I took advantage of the more than willing babysitter's to see another movie: The Blind Side. Which if you haven't seen it you need to. It is such a good and inspirational true story. It is so reassuring to know that there are still wonderful people in the world, who go out of their comfort zones and give those around them a helping hand. Great movie.

On Saturday Jake and I did some Christmas and Birthday shopping for Hannah. We celebrated her birthday while we were there since her birthday was less than a week away. (See previous post for more details on her Birthday Celebrations.) On Sunday we went to church and it was wonderful to say hi to everyone in my old home ward. After dinner we went to my brother Justin's place to tour his new home and say goodbye to his family until next time. That night we left for Sacramento to stay the night before our early 5am flight home on Monday morning. That was fun. Please remind me to do that again.

It was so wonderful to be home again and surrounded by family. We wish we lived closer so that get togethers weren't so few and far between.

Here are a few pictures from the long weekend over Thanksgiving:

Hannah looking out the glass doors in my parent's living room. Yes, that is our backyard. I didn't quite appreciate how beautiful their view is until I moved away. Hannah enjoyed the view too.

Hannah and her cousin's playing with daddy. The oldest is Emma and the younger one is Elissa. They are so adorable.
Elissa giving Hannah kisses. How sweet is she.
Uncle David and Elissa.
Hannah and her cousins. This is such a cute picture. I especially love Hannah's "cheesy smile".

I love this picture. All you need is a broken cell phone to keep a 1 year old entertained.
Hannah loved Grandma's Christmas tree.
Jake being attacked from all angles by the children. He is such a good sport.
This picture cracks me up. Notice Hannah in the bottom left. She is currently falling to the ground in an aggressive baby snuggle. Jake is also obviously enjoying the attention :-)
I love these kiddos. Yes David, you are still a kiddo :-)
My sister-in-law Deena with her girls and Hannah.
Justin persistenly tried to win Hannah over by luring her with Pooh Bear and Eeyore. Unfortunately it didn't work. Hopefully next time Hannah will warm up more to Uncle Justin.
Hannah playing in the leaves in my parent's front yard. It was in the high 60's and gorgeous. I love Paradise.