Imagine If

Take a minute to imagine with me. Go a head, close your eyes if you need to. What would you do if all of the sudden the internet was taken away from you and the comfort of your home? What category would you be in? Would you be okay and live your life not really noticing the loss of it? Maybe it doesn't really affect your day to day. You can make it the library if you need to use the internet so badly. Until then go read a book if you are bored

Or perhaps you are someone (like I assume most of you are) that need the internet to correspond with family, update them in your oh so interesting blog, or perhaps just tweet or buzz. Maybe you like to watch TV shows on the internet. You could be someone who browses for new music or articles to impress your friends with your awareness. But you could live without it for a while or make a daily habit of going to the local coffee shop or bum it off your neighbors when it shows up.

But let's say that you are a person on whom depends almost entirely on the internet. You do your school work on the internet. Not just turn things in, but connect with different servers and download huge files. You also have your job on the internet. You create websites for people (ranging from CS departments to Semi trucks) and get paid by the hour. It would be hard to stay at school all day, say, when you have a wife (or husband) who is wishing to see your face. But you can't go home, because the internet doesn't exist at home. Perhaps most of your life and work is there, hidden away from you on the elusive world wide web. If only you had internet access.

The point the this long winded Imagine moment is to say, we don't have internet at home anymore. We were sharing with one of our neighbors when she up and moved and we didn't know until our internet didn't work. Quite a shock. I bet you can guess what category our family fits in. Well it has been an ordeal. We are making it through alright I guess. I spend my Friday nights hanging out in the Computer Science building basement with Jamison as he works on homework and other projects. It's 3 am right now and we are still here. I never appreciated the comfort of my couch fully until right now. The whole of my lower half is numb or all tingly from the effort of moving. Food isn't really allowed in the computer labs so our main substance comes from Cheez-its that we smuggle in and whatever we find in my purse (gross I know, but a person can do gross things when they are desperate) Woe is me!

But pray, do not pity Jamison or myself. Instead, donate to our vending machine fund. We will think of each and every one of you when we open a bag of Cheetos or Sun Chips (as we are trying to be more healthy). We will savor each Skittle and sing praises to the person who sent us $.90 in our time of desperate need. Until we find ourselves together,farewell my dear friends.

A Quick Trip

Arizona is crazy. There are cacti growing everywhere, rocks instead of grass and random trips to Mexico where Rico Suave wants to sell you a purse for $35. Oh man. Making the trip down there by myself.. not awesome. Worth it, but long. Last 40 miles took me 2 hours! I got to see my grandparents and hang with them and my mom. I feel like I could live the life of a retiree. They go from one party to the next. Well, at least we did. We either were touring old prisons or hanging out with the grandparents and their friends. Oh the life.

But we did do some work. We (my mother mainly) began the arduous task of creating a life sketch of my grandfather's 80 years. He is turning 80 this summer and we are having a huge family reunion in Idaho Falls to celebrate. We are planning many activities all centered around my grandpa and his wonderful (and quite adventurous as I found out) life. It is going to be wonderful.

The trip didn't last very long as I felt really bad for leaving Jamison to fend for himself for about a week. He had so much homework I wondered if he would ever eat :) So we left early (like 5 am early) on Friday morning and got home in time for dinner. We did take a little detour and drive over the Hoover Dam. That is an amazing structure. To think that it was made during the depression years (1933 I believe). Wow. It was fabulous to be with Mom and the grandparents. They are a party always.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy (if they aren't showing up I will have to fix it later)

You Think You Know Me!

Dear Friends,

Some of you know me, some of you don't, and some of you only think you know me, but do not know my true secret deep inner self. I recently wrote a personal bio for a scholarship application that may be my finest piece of writing ever. Under the inspiration of three hours of sleep and a rapidly approaching deadline I whipped this beauty together. Behold, the majesty:

To diminish the awkwardness of writing about myself I will pretend that I am the author of a wildly successful series of teen romance novels about a mummy who falls in love with a 15-year-old girl. This is the bio from the back cover of those novels.

Jamison Dance was born in California to Douglas and Nancy Dance. He and his two sisters grew up in Minnesota, land of ten thousand lakes and ten trillion mosquitos. The summers were spent on several of those lakes. The winters were spent alternately snowboarding or healing from frostbite and attending school. He was blessed with good friends within walking distance of his house. They were stalwart examples of righteousness and obedience. They helped him stay safe and bolstered his testimony.

In search of glory, he played guitar in a rock and roll band named The Goodsman Brothers. In search of manliness he ran cross country in his last two years of high school.

Either because of his guitar prowess or his short running shorts, he attracted the attentions of one Elizabeth Bradshaw. They courted for a year and he went off to BYU. He discovered that he was not as smart as he though he was, and that he loved Elizabeth. She discovered that she loved Jamison despite the hundreds of men swarming around her while Jamison was gone.

He served two years as a missionary in Maceió, Brazil. There he learned once more that he was not as smart as he though he was. He also learned that he was just smart enough to see miracles happen. He returned in the summer of 2008, and the next year he and Elizabeth was married. He currently lives in Provo, Utah, where he studies bioinformatics and prepares to attend medical school.

Did you catch the subtle Twilight reference? That is a complex literary device that is guaranteed to blow minds at the scholarship office.

Baltic Christmas part deux (Vilnus Chapter)

After Christmas we decided to go to Vilnus. On the way Cassie had found this really cool place where you can pay 7 lats and go bobsledding! We had to stop. I was unsure I really wanted to do it because, bobsleds are for pros right? Heck no! We got there and they handed us helmets and told us to hop in this boat looking thing with pads all over it. We didn't even have to sign a waiver... I love foreign countries! So we hopped on in and it was awesome! I couldn't see part of the time because my helmet was askew, but I could feel us go up on the sides and it was sweet! Jamison and I liked it so much that we went again! Nancy opted to sit the second ride out, but it was great. I got to sit in the front and we beat our previous time! Now we can say we have been bobsledding.

The four hour drive to Vilnus was made much more interesting because our headlights didn't work! We had no idea until a cop pulled us over and asked why our lights weren't turned on (I won't say the other reason why we were pulled over because President Dance was driving... :) ). Jamison and I got a little car sick on the drive (I think it is because I read too long and Jamison played video games on the way) and so when we stopped to eat in Vilnus I wasn't at all hungry. We stopped at a place called Chile Kimus. It is a restaurant where they serve traditional Lithuanian dishes. Now when I think traditional I think of homemade noodles or yummy apple pies. I don't think of pancake sausage, greasy mushroom soup, liver and tongue dishes, weird dressing that tasted way too tangy. I took one bit of my salad (I couldn't make myself be adventuresome) and was grossed out. Jamison couldn't stomach his mushroom soup, and poor Nancy. She picked the sausage potatoes. They are mashed potatoes stuck into sausage casing. She was doing okay until Jamison ate it and said it tasted like old gym clothes. I think she lost her appetite after that.

After the unsuccessful dinner we made it to our beautiful hotel in Old Town called the Shakespeare Hotel. Jamison and I were put in the Rousseau room while the others were put in the oh so manly Hemingway room. It was such a neat hotel. Sunday was wonderful. We spent it at the Russian branch there in Vilnus. I had to play the piano... yikes! and Jamison almost had to do a impromptu musical number. It was a fun morning. That night we walked around Old Town looking at some of the churches that were cool.

There was a live nativity in one of them. Oh man. We also found a really good restaurant to eat in. It was delicious (unlike our previous dinner).

The next day we went out adventuring (Jamison was sick in the morning) and saw more churches and also some of the Old Town that doesn't look as cool in the night as the day. We saw a bridge with locks on it and all sorts of cool buildings (if you want to see all the pictures you can go to my facebook page as I will upload them there). We had tea in a tea house. It was delicious. They brought us this fruit tea and some chamomile stepped perfectly. I never

understood why other countries drink so much tea. Now I know, it's because it so dang cold out there that they have to have something to warm them up and it is really nice to take your time just sitting and enjoying a pot of tea.

We climbed to the top of the hill in the middle of the town where part of the old castle still exists. So cool that they have remnants of castles.

Baltic Christmas part deux (arrival to Christmas)

Starting December 18th we had a wonderful trip to Latvia to visit Jamison's parents (his father is a mission president there for the Baltic Mission). The plane ride there was a breeze, only one connection! We went from SLC to Paris and then to Riga. It was weird to get off the plane the same day that we left except we left 19 hours earlier.

The Dances took us home and we began to feel the effects of jet lag. I hate changing days and nights. Yuk! We spent the next few days receiving new missionaries, enjoying nerts games, watching Avatar (sweet movie) and reading (Jamison and I got sucked into the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series again).

Jamison and I took a little moment to go the Occupation museum (it was really creepy). It is all about the 50 year occupation of the Germans and Russians and all that took place there. I had no idea of the carving up of the Baltics and the propaganda that went with it. It was crazy.

On a happier note, we went with the missionaries and sang Christmas songs in English and Latvian (I just moved my mouth and said watermelon for those).

Christmas Eve there were the senior missionary couples and sisters, the Russian tutor Svletlana?, and the Assistants. It was fun to talk about Christmases past and what different traditions everyone had. I took notes so that I could include some of them when we start having our own family.

We ended the night with singing and wonderful cake (I didn't eat any, but it looked fantastic). We put on our pajamas (can't have Christmas without Christmas PJs) and tucked ourselves in.

Not having any child anxious to see what Santa left him, Jamison and I didn't wake up till about 10 am. It was nice and relaxing. Santa brought us all wonderful things and the gift exchange was nice. The day was spent mostly lounging around in our PJs, doing puzzles and watching Christmas movies. A highlight was talking to Natalie though. She bore her testimony to us in Spanish and it was beautiful. We are very happy that two of our siblings have chosen to serve the Lord by going on full time missions.

Welcome To Our Growing Media Empire

It has come to my attention that we now have five followers and four comments on our blog. The time has come to take leverage our overwhelming popularity and announce the launch of our new Dance Family Twilight Candies™ featured in the previous blog post. We were doing a trial run in Edmonds, WA and they are selling like hotcakes! Stay tuned for how purchasing information, but feel free to preorder by mailing us cash.

-Jamison

Thanksgiving In Seattle

After the 12 hour drive from Utah to Washington (thank goodness there was no snow in Snoquamie) we made it to Abi and Arie's home around 2:00 am. They were gracious enough to get out of bed and say hello to us. I wouldn't have thought any less of them for staying in bed..I wished that I was in bed. The showed us to the front room which was set up and ready for us to plop our tired bodies down. I don't think I have ever been more delighted to see an air mattress.

In the morning Abi woke us up, oh so gently to ask us if we wanted to have today be our Seattle downtown day. Jamison laughed because we had an itinerary set out. So off we went to Seattle. We went to Pike Place Market (which was so awesome). They have fish there the size of my torso... crazy... There was this amazing chocolate place too that had white chocolate covered cranberries all covered in a raspberry dust. Oh my goodness was it delicious. That was my favorite thing that we tried (yes, different stalls gave out free samples of their stuff).

We left Pike Place after visiting the wall of gum and picked up Arie from work for some delicious fish and chips. I have never had better fish and chips.It was only the second time that I have had fish and chips, but I am sure that they would beat out any other kind hands down. We had to leave after finishing though because a weird someone-just-took-their-shoes-off smell began wafting its way towards us.

Arie had to go back to work after that and we visited the most awesome book store that I have ever been in. You walk in and BAM! books. Not in the way that Borders does either. It was all wooden and beautiful. We looked around there for a long while. I carried a pen and paper to list all the books that looked awesome to me. It is a very long list. We left and went to explore more of Pioneer Square. That's one of the coolest downtowns I have ever seen. We also ate a delicious cow pie (cookie).

Jamison saw a sign for Emerald City Guitars and had to go in and see them. He said that it was one of the most expensive guitar stores he had ever seen. One room had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of guitars sitting out to drool over. He was in awe. Not that he was planning on stealing any of them.

We picked up Arie and went home to prepare for Thanksgiving. Oh Thanksgiving. It started at 6:00 am when Abi and I got up and cleaned out the turkey and patted it down. And might I say we made a very beautiful bird.The whole day was full of preparing. It was a gorgeous meal and we all got very full. Arie's coworker, Ken came over for dinner as well. We played a game of killer bunnies and the paper bag game. It was really fun.

We then watched Casa Blanca. Oh what a great movie. I learned something about it as well. It isn't just THE romantic movie. It was made during the war, they were making a bold statement. When I found that out it made me like it all the more.

The next day was full of, well, relaxation. It was wonderful. We got to sit around and enjoy talking and being with one another. We had date night. Jamison and I went to see a jazz band named Route 66 and danced. I think that we were the only ones under 65 in the whole room, but it was still fun. Afterwards an old lady came up to Jamison and said that he had done a wonderful job and it was wonderful to see such young kids dancing. We laughed and perused the book store that it was held in. We found some really cool coffee table books and some other interesting reads. We love books!

Saturday morning we had a delicious breakfast of blueberry coffee cake for Arie's Birthday on Sunday. Then we went to downtown Edmonds (which was wonderful) and then watched the intense BYU v.s U of U game. I did fall asleep in the middle of the game... but I was up for the most important part! Hooray for BYU! It was such an awesome game. We celebrated by having a fondue party... or we celebrated Arie's birthday... I can't remember which :). Jamison had never had fondue before and it was quite an experience. It was a great night. We got up early that morning and took off. It was such a fun trip!

PS Jamison displayed his love for Twilight in the candy store.......