March Madness

The last 2 weeks of March were totally insane for the Million Family; we had 2 parties, attended 2 ice shows, & added 2 new members to our crew! Needless to say, the term "March Madness" means more than just a bunch of basketball games to us this month! Since I haven't had time to post anything on my blog lately, I will try to recap some of the insanity in this post:

A Magical Day....

I won't say that I hate ice skating, but I will admit that after spending 20+ years dedicated to the sport & retiring the way that I did, hasn't left me with the warmest of feelings towards the sport. I do not watch skating on TV, I do not go to ice shows, I don't attend skating competitions, I don't go to the rink & skate for fun, & possibly the saddest part of it all is that I have completely lost contact with over 90% of the friends that I grew up on the ice with. With that being said, it is probably quite easy to understand why I was NOT overjoyed to go to Disney On Ice with Molly this year. I wanted to say no, or send her with her Grandma, but NOTHING is as powerful as the guilt that a child can conjure up in their Mother's heart when they pout & say 'please, Mommy.'

So, on March 23 I took my little girl to see Treasure Trove at the Sprint Center. The smile on her face when the skaters took the ice in the opening act was ALMOST enough to make me enjoy the show.

Look how excited Molly was when the show started! This expression is priceless!

As I watched the brightly costumed skaters my eyes fixated upon one male skater, who looked super familiar to me, but I couldn't figure out why. I grabbed a program, looked at some closer pictures & realized that Prince Aladdin was once a very dear friend of mine, Eddie Zeidler. We had trained together for years in Detroit, and even been on the National Team together. Eddie was an amazing singles & pair skater, who had retired before I had & we lost contact over 10 years ago. I quickly grabbed my phone & started dialing the cell phone number that he had posted on his facebook page. As I am typing this I realize how ridiculous it was to call someone who was in the middle of performing in an ice show, but at the time it seemed like a good idea....At the end of the show, much to my surprise, my phone rang & it was the Prince himself calling to try to catch us before we left the arena! I was so excited, because #1 I would get to reconnect with an old friend & #2 I thought that Molly might get the chance to go back stage & spend some time with the person she admires most in this world, Rapunzel! So, we met up with Eddie after the show, took some pictures & found out that due to new union rules character meet-&-greets were no longer allowed. However, he told us that he would be able to get Molly a little closer to the long haired beauty if we were to come back for the Sunday afternoon show. As if 1 ice show in the past 9 years wasn't enough! Now, I was getting the joy of seeing 2 in the same weekend, but I will do just about anything to make Molly smile!

The girls got to meet Prince Eddie after the show!

A Very Magical Sunday Afternoon Show:
On Sunday morning, Molly & her cousins, Katie & Ally got dressed up in their favorite Disney Costumes & we headed off to the show. During intermission we were escorted down to ice level so that Allyson could help out with a very important part of the show & Molly could a bit closer to the lovely Rapunzel & Eugine. (The reason that Ally was chosen to play this special role instead of Molly or Katie, is due to age requirements from Disney On Ice.) I will let the pictures tell the rest of this fairytale:

A VERY brave, Allyson, standing up in front of a sold-out Sprint Center!

Up, Up & Away!

Big Hugs from the Stars of the Show!

Isn't that a magical smile!

It seems like everyone enjoyed their magical Disney on Ice Day!

So, that was our Disney on Ice experience! That night Brian & I decided to go out and spend some time with the cast from the show. We haven't been out for a very long time. I have actually only been to the P & L district 2 times since it opened....It was a fun evening, but a very long Monday the next day!

2 Pirates, The Queen of Hearts, A Fairy, A Prince, A CPA & A Dr. (almost) Walk into a bar!

New Additions to the Million Family

We are proud to welcome 6 new feet to the Million household this month. On March 19th we seem to have acquired an uninvited house-guest who decided to stay. According to Benjamin, this guest is a "Big, Mean, Scarey" guy named Elmo. He set up camp in Benjamin's bedroom & refuses to leave. We have tried everything we can to get rid of this pest (flashlites, nitelites, monster repelling spray...), but he really likes it here so I guess we will have to deal with him for a while. The problem is that I have never actually been able to see Elmo & Benjamin refuses to sleep in his room until Elmo is found & moves out.
In a fit of desperation I decided to try getting a "monster hunter" to take care of our little problem. This is how we came to welcome, Nanna, a 9 week old St. Bernard to our family!

The twins were sleeping when we went to pick Nanna up, but they woke up after I got out of the car to run into the petstore to get her some food. Mom brought them in to meet their new friend for the very 1st time ever. I love the expression on Ben's face "You mean, this is MY puppy!!!"

Nanna at 9 weeks old, weighing 11lbs.

So far Nanny has been an awesome addition, but she hasn't been able to get rid of Elmo, either. I am open to suggestions on this Monster infestation....

Nanna's 1st trip to the park. Who is walking who here....

There is nothing cuter than a puppy & a toddler!

Maybe, a puppy & 2 toddlers.

There is that smile again!!!

Nanny has been with us for almost 2 weeks now & she is up to 16 lbs. The vet said that she will probably be over 150 when full grown! She is very sweet, loves the kids & already knows how to play fetch. She has been eaiser to potty train than either one of the twins (who would have thought)! Last Saturday I cleaned up 7 accidents & only 1 of them was created by Nanna! I am madly in love with her. Louis isn't a fan, but he has gotten use to the idea of having another dog around.

She is not intended as a replacement for Tiffany - there could never be a replacement for that wonderful puppy! I still miss her everyday. As an aside on the Nanna story: My old skating partner, Rob, purchased a dog while we were training together in Delaware. The dog was about a year younger than Tiffany & he ended up being her best friend. The 2 of them were inseprable & taking them apart after Rob & I stopped skating together was heartbreaking! Well, Tango passed away last week, just 2 weeks after we lost Ms. Tiffany. It kind of makes you wonder about the whole soul mate thing....

More March Updates:

I feel like this post might be getting a little too long, so I will stop here for now. I will post more later about a few more of our March events ( we had a gold buying party & a suprise party for my sister's 40th Birthday). I am currently on my rural family medicine rotation & I have been collecting some great patient stories! You know you are in rural Missouri when a patient's chief complaint is "I fell off of my tractor."

     *** We have been having so much fun with our new family members that we are considering adding more feet to the Million household....more to come on that very soon!

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