Windy Whats

What do you do on a windy day when your kite gets blown away or broken because the wind is too strong. Well this is it, a dream come true. All you need is a pair of Croc type shoes and a sheet, and a tramp is nice. You pull the sheet corner through the middle hole of the Croc by your toes and tie a knot. Then you stick your foot in. Do the same on the other shoe and start jumping in the wind while holding onto the other two corners of the sheet. If you don't have a tramp just walk or run around. It provides hours of entertainment.

The Play

For the past few weeks I have been a little preocupied because of the school play. How did I get involved with this? Well, it's a long story, that I'll try to keep short. About 3 years ago, the school was interested in having some of the parents volunteer their time doing clubs after school. Well Drama was an option that Katelyn really wanted. Me having minimal experience in that area didn't even consider it and waited for someone else to do it. After a year and no one volunteering, Kate, begged, "Mom will you please start a Drama club? You could bring the kids and I'll watch them." Well I usually volunteer at the school anyway and it's only 1 hour a week. Also,compared to no one, I guess I could give it a try. I felt good about it and started researching. I picked every brain that I knew who had Drama experience. I taught elementary school before I had children, so I wasn't nervous about teaching, just needed some infromation and some help. We started out with the 5th and 6th graders and got about 20 kids including Katelyn and Annalisa. I got an idea from the GATE teacher to perform a book, " Stephanie's Ponytail". Taneil Serr without even having a child in there helped me. It would have been impossible to do without her. She does have some drama/singing and performing experience. We adapted 3 books into plays for the first semester just meeting 1 hour a week after school. Then the second semster we did a play written by my sister kind of roadshow style, you know with familiar songs that you change the words on. It was so fun and the kids had a blast.
The next year our numbers went up and this year we started out with 48 kids for the first semester and 32 for the second. The musical usually deters a few because it takes a bigger committment, dancing and singing.
Well, last year Heather Rhinehart joined the Drama Mama group. As you know she is a brilliant writer. We branched out and she wrote our play with the kids in Drama club in mind. It's very hard to find a play with so many parts and with no budget. Then Nancy Jenkins and I decided to try to write the music for the play. It actually worked and we had an original play and music.
This year we did it again and I feel like we're learning and improving every time we do it. So, the play is called Beverly Hills 9OZ10. It is about a girl named Zoe, Dorothy Rockafeller. The original Dorothy's grand daughter, who is a spoiled brat that only cares about what is fashionalble. She learns her lesson along the way and with a tin man, scarecrow and lion, she's off to see the wizard. It was a lot of hard work with such a huge cast of kids. It's also really hard to keep the momentum with only practicing once a week. We had to get a few extra's in. So you can see why I was a little on the stressed side. I had a lot of help with other parents, like my neigbor Tara, Suzanne, Dan and Tish, but still It's been an adventure. Kyle was one of the Jboyz. they passed there wigs around, whoever felt like wearing it. It was double cast, but the munchkins were in every performance. I had to put the picture of me smiling during the performance because I don't look stressed at all. Kiera Marrott for those in our ward played Zoe and Dillan Krupp the lion in one of the casts, but not in this picture. The wizard was an Elvis character, so I had to get a picture of him.

Kyle is the rapper in green with the yellow wig.

The wizard has entered the building

 The end.

whew!

Was Cleaning ever fun?

"Mom watch, I'm the dishwasher", as she tries to wash a steak knife. "Mom watch I clean the floors." as she pours a cup of water on the carpet." Mom I want to push" as she pushes the push vacume on the gym floor at volleyball. Look the table has been cleared off. It's all on the floor or other counters, but she appreciates a clean surface. Is this the voice of an angel or a 3 year old who doesn't know that work isn't really that fun, or is it? I know this will only last for a few more months, but when was cleaning fun. Did I ever feel that way. I have a hard time believing it.

 

Here Comes the Sun

Well, as you can imagine Jeff came home and brought the sun with him. Yesterday we were shoveling snow and today the sun came out. Conference was great as usual. So, now I am going to be a more provident provider, more reverent, more faithful, serve through my trials, and not let anything interfere with my plans to attend the temple. After the second session, we got a little vitamin D and pretended that it was kind of warm. It's been a while since we got some good tramp shots so here we go.

So, what do you think of my new hair style? I did end up just trimming it after all your advice.

 

Aint No Sunshine When He's Gone.

"Aint no sunshine when he's gone." is the lyrics to a song, but it's kind of true and in Idaho it can be literal. Jeff is on a business trip in a sunny place. Now there are always pros and cons to business trips, and I do try to make the best of it, but I pretty much can't wait until tomorrow.

When we were first married I'd always go visit a sister or family member, so I could make it fun for me when Jeff had to go on a business trip. Then as the kids got bigger, I'd plan a girl's night. Once I even stayed with Jeff's parents and they live on the west side of town. Now that I have big kids, I just get my jobs done, and treat myself to a movie, popcorn and Ben and Jerry's. It has been nice to have spring break, because I can sleep in and no homework.

The good things about a business trip is that Jeff makes sure I do something fun for myself, and he gives me a surprise before he leaves. We also go easy for dinner, corn dogs, Mac and cheese, etc.

Another line of the song is, " He's always gone too long, anytime he goes away. " So as you can imagine, I'll be counting the minutes tomorrow.

I am not obsessed with hair.

Today I woke up and realized that this girl's hair is getting too long to just let it go wild. So, I know I couldn't do pig tails without it falling out everywhere. So this is what I came up with. She doesn't even look like herself. It's like the wild hair is a part of who she is. She just looks so grown up to me. I ran into a friend yesterday who thought she was four. Well she wears size four. Livvy does not like to smile for pictures. This one was luck.

Why?

I am getting a hair cut on Monday and have been trying to decide what to do. Should I go short like the cute A-line bob or just do a long cut? This has been a dilemma because I am the laziest hair person I know. I have always had naturally curly hair, so before the straightener, my hair never quite went right. I also have this bump in my hair that is very hard to get rid of. So with the lazy hair/weird curls combo I have to be careful. Also I love a pony tail. I basically wear a ponytail holder as a bracelet or ring at all times. You never know when you're going to need it. My mother and sister always tell me that I need to cut my hair to my chin. I have tried it a few times, but my husband loves long hair. He doesn't care what I do, just secretly hopes for long. I am one of those people who needs their hair. The other thing is if I cut it short do I have to do it every day and how long will it take? Right when I was leaning towards maybe short, I saw these pictures and remembered how long it takes a girl like me to recover from a bad hair cut. First the Pixie in first grade, how could they let me out. It took about 3 years to grow out.

  

Third Grade

Who knows what the 6th grade picture was. Was I trying to feather my hair. Maybe combing would help. At least I had that cool butterfly necklace.

Oh I remember I tried Dorothy Hamill, the Olympic ice skaters in 5th. It didn't work out. Then I finally pulled it together by 7th.  

Then I had to be Lady Diana. Why didn't anyone tell me or stop me. 

By my Senior year I had barely grown it enough to look like a country singer in my Senior Picture.

I have kept it long since until 2002 when I cut it to my chin, I can't go any shorter as you can see. I even have worse pictures that didn't make it on the blog. So, this jog down memory lane just scares me into keeping it long, I might change my mind by Monday.