As a future math teacher I am always looking for real-world example I can give my students when they ask me the question "how will this apply to me in the future?" Personally, I think that is a dumb question. You are in the class so you obviously need to know it. However, this weekend I found a wonderful example.

On Saturday I spent 11 hours (it was my day off Lin's and heaven forbid I actually get a day off) creating patterns to use for our samba dresses. Keep in mind these dresses have to be done by Wednesday and we have to make 12. We didn't have a pattern so I had to create a pattern. I followed the instructions of the costume design major in charge of the project, but once I was done she realized that people have a larger hip measurement in the back than in the front (go figure). After running into many problems with the asymmetrical hem and other things, I spent another few hours designing another pattern. This one was perfect. Perfect in a geometric, math-nerd sort of way. Even though this pattern was very difficult to come up with out of thin air, it would have worked. Then we asked our lovely costume design major/ballroom dancer (Chelsea) how much fabric we had. 13 yards. 13 yards of fabric to make 12 dresses. Is she insane? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes.

Then Alli and I went home and spent a few hours looking at the old dresses that we were trying to recreate. After measuring and studying them, we came up with a new pattern (Alli did the top and I did the bottom). This pattern is simple, easy to use, doesn't use a lot of fabric, and is also geometrically perfect. Chelsea hates it. Why? Because there is a seam down the back to allow for darts so the dresses will actually fit girls. Heaven forbid we put a seam down the back of the dress right?

I don't care though. I'm proud of myself for being able to create 4 patterns in one day. I think it was the combination of math skills and having my mother's genes. She is great at sewing. She was proud of my pattern-making skills as well. :)

Ok so lately ballroom has been crazy, hectic, and full of drama. I've spent most of my time helping plan events and running the team. While I have been dancing, I forgot for a while why I'm doing ballroom. Then my dear friend the samba came around. My team was supposed to do a west coast swing, a tango, and a night club two step, but due to a change in personnel, we aren't doing the night club two step and we are now doing a samba!!

When I had first found out this year what dances we were doing I was so disappointed because I really just wanted to do a Latin dance. Now, Latin is back! I missed it so much!

This is our samba from last year:


it rocked...

We learned the choreography last night and then had a practice this morning to clean the dance and it felt so good to do an upbeat dance again and move my hips!! If you are ever in a bad mood and just feel like dancing (I don't know why you would unless you are me), I would definitely recommend the samba...it can make everything good. Yay for samba...it reminded me why I love dancing!!

There are lots of things that I need to post about from the last week. It seems like months ago that I went home because so much has gone on since then. Lots of crazy things are happening...but I'll post about those later.

I just wanted to post about Lauren. She is reporting to the MTC tomorrow before going to California for her mission. I'm so proud of her. She is going to be an amazing missionary. I can't believe we have been friends for 15 years!! That seems like so long and I'm so blessed to have such an amazing friend in my life for so long! Even though I'm going to miss her, I'm so glad she gets this opportunity to serve the Lord for 18 months. I love you Lauren!!