Hey! I'm sooooooooooooooo sorry about the blog delay! What a crazy week...as always right? I think this week was crazier-and don't even get me started yet about next week's schedule should I make it through.

Going back to Monday and Tuesday...
Monday was a rough one for us. We honestly thought the dance was better than what they gave us credit for. But-they have their own strategies and motives that we have no control over. So we have to just move on and work even harder-although working harder seems impossible when I feel like we're working soooooo hard every week-no slacking for us!

Tuesday, all day, I was just a bundle of emotions. I'm not sure what it was, but I was more emotional than usual-and I've become a very emotional person since I started acting. My back story on that is that growing up I very, very seldom cried! I blocked off that emotion really well in order to show only a tough exterior. But when I came to LA and started taking acting classes I had to learn to take down those walls and find all of my emotions again, as hard as that was. So ever since then I seem to get emotional at the silliest things-you know-like coffee commercials at Christmas time-puppies-people winning awards-super happy moments for any random person....the list goes on and on. So Tuesday, during the day we always do a rehearsal of the show where there's a fake elimination. That wouldn't bother me because USUALLY the person getting eliminated early in the day tends to be safe that night. But good ole' Derek hadn't completely experienced the vastness of my fragile emotions and pointed something out to me and everyone. They had the spot lights on us from behind in rehearsal and you could see the circle of light on the floor in front of us. well Derek off-handedly pointed out that our circle of light was red. Red means your eliminated. So I instantly start thinking about how real it was that it could be us-that I'd danced my last dance-that this was the end of the line. I knew it was just rehearsal-but our positions in rehearsal were the same positions for that night. I sorta freaked out internally. So that set the tone for my nerves for the rest of the night. You can just imagine what kind of knots my stomach was turning into when we were one of 3 couples left, yet again, for the possible bottom 2. During a commercial break one of our producers gave us quick instructions on how he loved us all, but whoever was in the bottom 2 needed to do blah blah blah. I thought I was holding it together pretty well until that little speech! I started thinking about what I'd say if we had to give a good-bye speech. Then I could see that Derek got nervous. So then yes, I was fighting back some sadness. I tried to breathe through it and still haven't watched it back to see how sad I looked. I haven't been able to re-live it again. All in due time I guess. What a relief when they finally called our name though. And I know they're probably holding us for the final announcements to mess with me-because they know I care so much. But what's a girl to do? I've never experienced anything like this before in my life-and probably never will again.

OK-so we made it through and got the Rumba for this week-in addition to the big group dance. I was a little bummed to get another Latin dance instead of a Ballroom dance, since my track record runs better for Ballroom. But "ce la vie."

Wednesday we had practice for the group dance for about 6 hours. Then we went to a dance studio and practiced the Rumba for about 4 hours. The group number is fun to dance, but a bit chaotic to learn with that many people. And luckily we're doing it at the end of the show, so we can concentrate on our Rumba first. We actually dance second this week too, which is great for my hair and wardrobe change over!

I've found the Rumba to be in a tie with the Samba for HARDEST DANCE EVER! Derek's choreography is amazing-and it's a song I love! BUT-I am a bit too clumsy-especially in my toothpick heels-to do a dance as slow and precise as this one without some possible stumbles along the way. It's a lot to remember-a long song-and super duper slow. Sometimes we do it and it's good-ish and sometimes it's really rough. I think it'll be very hit or miss for me. Hopefully hit! We've been working really long hours-and today I think I ran Derek into the ground with how many times we went through the dance. But he's always awesome about doing whatever it takes to make me feel more comfortable with the steps. So now I'm going to sleep on it, envision the dance, see myself performing it perfectly and pray!

On that note-I'm off to an early sleep. Thank you alllllllllllllllllllllllll for voting and being fans and writing all of the encouraging comments and emails. It really does make a difference! I'm so grateful for every one of you who watches and gets invested in us and gets excited to be a part of all of this with me. I am a reality show fanatic! I know what it's like to be a big fan of something. I know what it's like to vote and scream at the TV and cry because of the TV. Yes-I cry over reality shows-you can call me a dork-it's OK. But I think TV is so fun, and a great release from the day and the hardships of everyday life. It truly is my escape. So to be at the other end of it like this is so exciting for me! And I want to make it as exciting as possible for all of you too. I hope these blogs help with that some. I'm trying to be really open and honest so you guys can get a true feeling for what happens behind the scenes to make the show what it is. I find it fascinating! There's so much more to it than I ever imagined.

I'm really going this time. Love you all! In case you need to numbers again to make, say, fliers for your area, or send out bulletins, or anything ;)...here ya go...

Voting closes 30 minutes after the end of the show in each time zone...
1-800-VOTE4-07
1-800-86834-07
AT&T customers can text their vote to 3407
AND you can vote at ABC.com for every email address you register until noon Eastern time on Tuesday

Sweet dreams and have a great, safe week. I can't believe it's almost May! I think to supplement my final thoughts of the day from my last blog, I'd like to quote one of my favorite songs by Tim McGraw and say,"live like you were dying."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox SHANNON xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo