Goodnight Cyd

Cyd Charisse, the long-legged beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Her name was Tula Ellice Finklea when she was born in Amarillo, Texas, on March 8, 1922. From her earliest years she was called Sid, because her older brother couldn't say "sister." She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons to build up her strength after a bout with polio.

"I was so frail they were afraid to touch me," she recalled in that 1996 interview.

At 14 she auditioned for the head of the famed Ballet Russe, and became part of the corps de ballet and toured the U.S. and Europe. To appear with the nearly all-Russian company, she was first billed as Celia Siderova, than as Maria Istromena.

At one point during the European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939.

The Ballet Russe disbanded after the war broke out, and the newlyweds returned to Hollywood. In 1942, a son, Nicky, was born.

In 1948, the year after she and Nico divorced, Charisse married Martin. Her second son, Tony Jr., was born in 1950.

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Don't Hate...seriously

Dear Hater,

I am who I am and do what I do, but that doesn't take anything away from who you are and what you do. Me being smart doesn't mean that you're dumb. Me being cute doesn't make you ugly. So don't hate on me...you're revealing too much about yourself. You're hating because you're too afraid to look in the mirror. You're afraid that you may not like what you see. It's sad that my accomplishments seem to magnify your insecurities.

Maybe no one has told you the truth. The truth is that you can do anything you set your mind to (Phil. 4:13). Know that every time you speak ill of me, you're uncovering more about yourself (Job 15:6) and (Psalm 12:2).

It's time to look at yourself and make a change (2 Corinth. 3:18). Every time you find yourself starting a sentence with "She thinks she's..." or "He thinks he's..." replace that with "I think she's (he's)" because that's what you're really saying.

"She thinks she's cute"
"I think she's cute...and I don't like it" (which you know is the truth).

We were made to talk about better things (Psalm 63:3).




More to come... Stay tuned.

I am grateful

A few days ago, I decided to take a nap with my son (he just turned 10 months today!) Well, he decided that he was no longer sleepy. I tried to trick him into going to sleep by pretending that I was asleep. I got a pleasant surprise.

While I laid there with my eyes closed he grabbed my face and gave me 3 kisses and 2 hugs. Then he sang to me and rubbed my head. I was filled with so much joy that I grabbed him, hugged, kissed and tickled him.

I LOVE those moments.