Thursday, December 24, 2009

Weird dream Grand Central Station

I have by far the strangest dreams when I'm really really tired. Considering last night was strike for "Christmas Carol" we didn't get to bed til about one this morning.... Hahaha

Ok, so I dreamt that I had to have some surgery, and for some reason I was at South Davis Community Hospital, and they don't do surgeries there. Any rate, so I check in and the lady says, "Do you have someone to come pick you up after?" and I'm like "No, I just thought I'd wait til the anesthsia wore off and then I'd drive myself home." She then gives me the address of where I'll be recovering.... I drive there and it's this furniture store, but they only sell lumpy matresses. And they're in the process of setting up for a wedding in the side room. And everyone there was a member of this weird "New Worm World" religion, and they had to get into the worm pose, which was like being bent over as if you had a really bad stomachache. And supposedly I was to wait there until the EMTs came and picked me up for my surgery. So there I sat, with my Mary Poppins bag on my lap, watching all these people sit in the worm position....

I must've rolled over cuz the dream changed and now I was in my mom and dad's house and I was in my old bedroom and people kept stacking shoes on the window sill. The doorbell rang and it was these two ladies carrying huge trays of little bowls of ice cream that they were giving out to everyone. And my dad sat and talked to them for so long that the ice cream started melting, and all I could think about was all this melted ice cream.... Then I was on the phone with my "Bob" (my counter-part-hubby in "Christmas Carol this year) and my mom talked to him for like 20 minutes and then Abby talked to him for 20 minutes and then I got back on the phone and he was asleep. Haha And at the same time all this was going on I was sorting out DMC floss for cross-stitch, and I couldn't tell the difference between all the colors..... LOL!!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

"Beauty and the Beast" pics

I thought I'd finally share some pics from "Beauty and the Beast"- sorry I've been a little slow on the uptake! This show was so much fun to be in- I made a ton of new friends and am so grateful for my director for casting me! A lot of the people that were cast are some of the "Playhouse elite" meaning they've been doing shows up there forever and are some of the best!! It was so fun to rub shoulders with them and get to know them better. :) And it doesn't hurt to get my name in with theirs, eh? Hahaha :) Enjoy!


The person at the bottom of the stairs is me, in a vase costume. Yes, those are flowers on my head. Haha That costume was so awkward to walk around in! I had to literally walk like Morticia Adams (the Adams family, c'mon people!) and couldn't see my feet AT ALL. On closing night some people who shall remain nameless (yes, my director was one of them) tipped me over to see what would happen. LOL! Yeah, I had to lay there til they picked me back up. ;)


This is me dressed as a napkin- on the far left. We had two fabulous women that played Belle- the one in this pic happened to be Annie, whom I was privileged enough to play Maria with in "Sound of Music". Love that lady!


My friend Kristi- a fellow napkin!


Going on a mob hunt- we never actually killed the Beast, though kudos to us for trying every night for 26 shows.....

Me dressed as a napkin (seriously LOVED that costume- I felt like a Las Vegas dancer!!) with my friend Bree- I think she's a rug, or a table runner.... not totally sure on that one. Hahaha
Gaston attempting to swan dive off the bench whilst singing about decorating with antlers. :) I think I'm looking at Lefou, since he's not in the pic but was on stage.... either that or someone had ice cream.... ;)


This was one of our cast pics- the other Belle, actually! (love ya Jordie!) Funnest show I've ever done!! Really! :)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Izzy....isms

The other day the kids were discussing what it would be like if we used real wolves in my production of "Beauty and the Beast", instead of the safer version of people dressed up in wolf costumes. Izzy's comment to that was, "That would freak me out. Like REALLY freak me out!"

I picked her up from preschool one day only to notice her crazy hair. I commented on it, knowing full well that I had styled it quite stylishly before school, and asked where her barette was. Her exasperated answer was "that barette was driving me crazy!"

One night she was playing with the Polly Pockets (smaller version of Barbies, just for your gee whiz file) and after getting one dressed commented matter-of-factly to Wade, "These clothes are not modest. They're not going to cover her garments at all." :)

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Cleaning alien

I knew it had been a while since I had cleaned the house when my husband, coming home and finding me vaccuuming asked, 'Who are you and what have you done with my wife?' and then looking deep into one eye as if searching for his lost wife in this alien cleaning body shouted, Last of the Mohican-style, 'You stay alive! No matter what occurs, I WILL find you!!' :P

Sunday, October 4, 2009

"Christmas Carol" the third

We were cast in "Christmas Carol" at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse! I am playing Mrs. Cratchit, Abby is playing Sarah Cratchit, Ethan is playing Tiny Tim, Olivia is playing Kathy Cratchit, and Isabelle is playing the cold girl ("I'm so cold, sir!") and a baby ballerina. :) We're super excited to start rehearsals!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Beauty and the Beast and some other stuff thrown in

Isabelle and I were playing Beauty and the Beast the other day. Cuz, ya know, I don't get nearly enough of it every single night!! She of course was Belle and I had to be the Beast. I told her I wanted to be Gaston (cuz he gets to belt in his songs), or Mrs. Potts (English accent, duh!) , or even one of the silly girls (they have the best costumes). She said no, I HAD to be the Beast and I had to be mean at first and then I could be nice later on. We did pretty much all of Act 2- from where the Beast saves Belle in the forest from the wolves (Izzy doesn't like the wolf part at the playhouse. It's too scary, even though she knows all the people in the costumes) all the way to the end. She was hilarious and knew all the lines. After the part where Beast sends Belle away to check on Papa she called to me from the other room, "Ok, now you have to fight with Gaston and then start to die but then I will come cry on you and you have to sing to me". So of course I fought gallantly with Gaston, taking a knife in the back and unfortunately losing Gaston behind the couch, and proceeded to start the dying process. I was in the throes of death when I was interrupted by Belle saying,

"You're doing this wrong. You're supposed to be laying on your stomach with your head turned. You need to be on the floor so I can cry. You're dying on my dress! Get off my dress!" So sorry. I died correctly and then was transformed into a handsome prince. I know. Shocking, really. She then told me we had to dance. So of course, being as excited as I was to have skin and get rid of that horrible back hair I started a jig and did a dance of joy.

"NO! You're doing it wrong! We're supposed to dance pretty and look into each other's eyes! Then you have to sing 'Look into my eyes' and we have to get married!" Sheesh! Alright! I tried to explain that Belle and the Beast don't actually get married cuz that would require more costumes and a few more dance numbers, but she wouldn't budge.

Can we all say, Prima Donna?!? Hahahaha :)

In other news, Wade had a chest CT and they found nothing. His dr decided to start him on some physical therapy to see if that helps. We'll see....

We were fortunate to be able to have one of Wade's mission companions from the Philippines with us for the week. It was so much fun! Wade and Jovel drove all over Salt Lake and Provo rekindling old friendships from the mission field- he came home every night exhausted but thrilled! This morning he told me he's started dreaming and thinking in Tagalog, he's been speaking it so much. Lol :) I love my hubby- he's such a great guy.

I passed my CNA tests!! Yay! Now I'm a Certified Nursing Assistant! I have to get a job to keep my certification, but with everything going on I'll probably have to wait til next year. We'll see. Things keep coming up... Hehehe ;)

I'm having an absolute blast with "BatB"! I don't know how else to put it. It's a fabulous cast, everyone is so fun and friendly, I love my costumes, and I really look forward to going! It's Hell Week right now and I'm already exhausted... three more nights of dress rehearsals and then we open on Friday, running until the week before Thanksgiving. Saturday morning we have auditions for "Christmas Carol" which will open Black Friday and run til the 23rd of December. Here's to living at the playhouse!

Hold on to your butts!! :)

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Furst dae of skool!!

Look at those gorgeous kids! Aren't they great? Love them to death!! :)

I have to tell you a funny story- yesterday I was walking the kids to school and we got stopped by a train. While we were waiting three other neighbor kids caught up with us and walked with us to school. So I had two fifth-graders, three third-graders, a first-grader, and a preschooler with me. As we were walking I could see people driving by in their cars literally counting the kids I had with me! You could see them- '1, 2, 3, 4, 5..., 6....., 7!! Whoa lady!! Talk about a glutton for punishment! And they're all in elementary- that's like one per grade!' Ha! It was hilarious!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

A day in the life of Isabelle & did I just?? Nope...

I was sitting in the front room the other day and Wade was in the kitchen when Isabelle came walking through the kitchen singing a song... with only one not-usually-spoken-in-our-home-except-by-me-when-in-pain word in it. We dubbed it "the dammit song". Hehehe :P

On the way up to rehearsal last night Isabelle asked me if 'Belle' would be there. "Cuz if Belle will be there then I will hug her and she will be my best friend. I love her." Sadly, Belle was busy learning her blocking. ;(

The other day I caught Isabelle and Olivia coming out of the storage room after pilchering (just made that up!) some cookies.
M: "Did you ask if you could have some cookies?"
I: "Yep."
M: "You didn't ask me. You always need to ask mommy if you can have a cookie." (yes, mommies can speak in third person and get away with it)
I: "Nu-uh. We just asked ourselves."

And lastly, when I'm in the truck I sometimes get "checked out". Hahaha I know, most of you are surprised, as am I when it happens, but it HAS been known to happen! (they're probably just checking out the truck, but let me live in my own delusion for a moment, eh?) ANY rate, so yesterday I was driving around in the VAN and I was sitting at a stop-light and a guy to the right of me kept looking over at me. So I glanced backed and smiled. I'm a nice person! I noticed he kept looking at me. I was like "Sheesh man!!" Until I looked over to my left and saw a beautiful blonde in the car next to me. Yeah. HAHAHAHA!!!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Quick update of July! Sorry! It's all you're getting! :)

Hey all! July flew by! Some quick updates and then you can get on to the pics. I was cast in the ensemble for "Beauty and the Beast" at the playhouse! I'm really really excited cuz I get to be in all the big numbers and that's always my fav thing about a show. :) I'm also the rehearsal accompanist, so I have my work cut out for me. As for Wade's medical issues, he's had an ultrasound, a hida-scan, an endoscopy, and a ct-scan, and according to the dr's there's nothing wrong with him. He's tried about six different medications, all of which have done nothing for him except one made him sicker and one makes him fall asleep. Good times. :P SO, I guess we'll try a colonoscopy next. Any rate- this was our July in a nutshell. Enjoy!

1- Making delicious hot schmoes on the grill. Livi, your hair is on fire.

2- A trip to the zoo and Gateway on Wade's b-day.


3- We took a real vacation with all of Wade's family (bros, sisters, their kids, everyone!) to Bear Lake!! We had so much fun!!




4- On our way home from Bear Lake we stopped at Minnetonka Cave. It was chilly!



5- In the middle of July we moved my sister and her family up to Idaho Falls. :( We made a weekend out of it and visited the zoo there and fed the geese at the Falls. We thought these pics were hilarious cuz in the show I did last summer I was a mama duck and had to sit on a nest full of eggs.... Get it?? My little ducklings!! Hahahaha :)

Fin. :)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Never again

Never again am I shopping at Walmart with my children. Never. Swear on my grandmother's fudge. And that's tantamount to swearing on the Holy Bible. I know I've made this threat before, but this time it's sticking. Today I bravely trekked to Walmart (who, by the way, is trying to take over the world, one city at a time. Think about it. You know it's true) with all my ducks in a row. We'd been to the dentist, a quick stop at Roberts (why do they NEVER have what I need??), a quick stop somewhere else to get a b-day present for my dad and bro-in-law, and I'd even taken them out to eat because they were being so good. Yeah, they sucked me in with their little innocent faces. I figured we could do Wallyworld in 30 minutes, max. After all, they were fed and everyone had pottied. HAHA!! Yeah. An hour and a half later, we were finally done. And I can't blame it all on the children. My Walmart is chaos right now while they remodel- nothing's ever in the same place. There's a little sign out front that says "only 26 days til your new walmart!". That number hasn't changed for three weeks. In fact, I think it's increasing. You walk back and forth and back and forth and back and forth again trying to find plastic straws, not realizing that you've passed them four times, and they're now in the hardware section next to the milk and sleeping bags. I can't blame my kids on the 4,000 other lost souls who were there with us, wondering where the eggs are now hidden. Which really bothered me- it was a Thursday afternoon. Does no one work anymore? I can, however, blame my children on climbing on the pyramids that they make out of the tp, and stopping to play every single Wii game they have advertised. I can also blame them on writing on the inside of every single door in the frozen food section, 'I was here', and jumping on and off the empty shelves, and bringing 47 things to me "Can we get this?" and then leaving it on some random shelf for some poor schmuck to pick up and wonder when they started storing frozen pizza rolls next to the finger nail polish. I can't blame them for being grumpy cuz I was grumpy, even though I think I walked a full 5K trying to find things. The kicker of the day was when we were on the way home, and Izzy was mad cuz Livi's balloon was in her face, so instead of politely saying, "Olivia, my dear sister, could you please move your lovely blue balloon out of my face? Thank you.", she decided to throw the rest of her chocolate milk from lunch at the balloon. Yes, the milk was open. And of course, I just vaccuumed and clorox wiped the entire van. So that's why now all the kids are banished in front of the tv and I'm holed up in the den on the computer and eating Ben & Jerry's right out the carton. And no, I'm not sharing. :)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Once you get behind, you can't ever catch up...

Hello all! Yes, we're still alive. :P I need to apologize to the couple of people that actually read our blog- I could say that I've been extremely busy, which is totally true for those of you that know how crazy things have been lately, but in all honesty, I could have more than likely found some time to update. Blogging, to me, is like journal writing. And I SUCK at journal writing. I do really really well when I first make the goal to write in my journal, and I'm solid for about a week. Then it slams to a halt cuz I can always find something more interesting to do, and nine years later I try it again. Do you have any idea how hard it is to catch up after nine years?? Hahaha :) So I sincerely apologize and won't make any promises, but will certainly give it a good effort. :)

Just a quick update, and I'll try and post some pics at a later date- Let's see, I finished my CNA class and did my clinicals. That was so much fun! I think I found my calling in life when I was working with rehab patients. They have such great attitudes and are really trying hard to get better. When I worked with long-term pts who were there until they die, it just made me sad. I promise I won't get on my soap-box about this. :) Anyrate, now I am just waiting to take my state tests and then off to find a really part-time job! I'm heading out for Girl's Camp this week- I've had a ton of fun preparing for this! I have some great YW and awesome fellow leaders; I'm sure going to miss them when I have to just be in Primary again! ( i know, primary is a wonderful calling. But I've been in for so long I now have tenure.)

What else? Wade's been having some medical issues; they thought it was his spleen, and then they found an ulcer, but now they think it's his gallbladder. Poor guy's been in pain for so long, and to be honest, it's starting to worry me a little. He goes in for a hyda-scan this week and hopefully they'll find out that it is his gallbladder and they can get it taken care of. If not, he has to have a CAT scan. Thank goodness for good insurance! :)

The kids are doing good. Not much to report there. They're trying really hard to have a fun summer with a mom that's as busy as I've been lately. If they hear the phrase "i've just gotta get this stuff done for camp" one more time they might start packing their bags and move in with grandma. :) LOL Oh! I did audition for "Beauty and the Beast" up at the playhouse last Saturday! This week are callbacks, of course when I'll be at camp, so I'll be putting some miles on the truck. ;) Wish me luck!

Loves to all! :) Thx for your patience with me!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Race for the Cure

Way back on the 9th of May Wade and I participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure down in Salt Lake. We've been doing this for a few years now as that Wade's mom Dorothy is a breast cancer survivor of 8 years. The first year we did it there were six of us and this year there was 21! Maybe someday we'll have all 60-some of us. :) Any rate- wanted to share some pics. Enjoy!

They have booths set up to walk around before or after the race and you get all kinds of free stuff. Free stuff is good!


The pink piece of paper on Lauren's back is a way of walking in remembrance of someone- either someone that has passed away or a survivor.


This was at the beginning of the race and literally the last time we saw Wade's parents. Lol (they're the ones turned around facing the camera) They hustled through the race while the rest of us took our sweet time.


Me, Wade's sister Crysty, and her kids Wyatt, Brianna, and Courtney. We picked them up at 6:45 in the morning! What troopers!


In front and behind us. Yes, as far as you can see up the road, that's people. We really felt bad no one came. :P


Out of all the great things I saw, this was the sweetest. :) I'm sure there were lots more stories like this, they just happened to be the people who had to put up with us. Haha


Literally being "corraled" into Gateway. We felt a little like cattle.


Wade and his mom. Wade made his t-shirt, by the way.


The whole gang!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Questions

Olivia is my question-asker. There's one or two in every family. I'm sure part of it comes with age, but Livi is mine. And it's always the really hard questions, too, like- why do we have trees, why do noses have boogers in them, how come we only have two arms and legs, why does she have to have two sisters, who is Heavenly Father's father, that sort of thing. (the answer is Grandpa God, by the way) Today was nothing new, but always interesting. :)

O: "Mom, wouldn't it be so weird if there were twins that were a boy and girl?"
M: "Livi, there ARE twins that are a boy and a girl."
O: "NO there's not!"
M: "Yes, twins are just born on the same day at the same time from the same mommy. They can both be boys, or girls, or one of each. Isn't that cool?" (thinking I'm doing such a tremendous job of explaining this)
O: (thinks for a sec) "Wouldn't it be weird if Ethan and Isabelle were twins and were both in Sunbeams?"
M: "Yeah, that would be weird."
O: "What would happen if they were like teenagers and they got separated?"
M: "We would probably be really sad."
O: "Yeah. I would sure miss Ethan."


LOL!!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

In the doll crib. Again.

Why did I even buy this kid a bed?


Ethan's baptism

Abby had her first choir concert last week. The first of many, I'm sure. :) She did such a great job! I was so proud of her! She's been such a trooper- she had to be to school at 7:30 in the morning on choir days and was always so excited to go. Ethan leaned over to me in the middle of the concert and asked if he could do it next year. YES!!! Raising these kids RIGHT!! Hahahaha :)


On Saturday my sweet little boy got baptized! Ack!! Crazy! When do these kids ever slow down in the up of the growing? LOL It was a great day and he looked so handsome. What an awesome kid. :) Thanks Julie for taking some great pics for us!




Olivia just being Olivia. :) Love that kid!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Hold on to your butts

This morning I was driving the kids to school and as usual we were crossing our busy street and I hollered out "Hold on to your butts!" (yes, I say this quite often when we cross our street. It's from 'Jurassic Park', for those of you that wanted to know). Pretty soon Izzy piped up in the back:

I: "I held on to my butts, mom!"
M: "Your butts?"
I: "Yep! All two of them!"

Later on I was sorting the laundry and she saw the toliet plunger and wanted to play with it.

I: "Can I play with that and pop things?"
M: "Um... no, we don't play with the toliet plunger. That's gross."
I: "Well, I'll just have to get my own at the store and then I can pop things."

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

'Wicked' was... Wicked!

Last week I got to go to "Wicked" with Wade! It was so awesome and I was planning on blogging about it the very next day, but had to wait until SOMEONE (who shall remain nameless) downloaded the pictures from his phone onto the computer. Sorry, that's the only camera we had with us so the pics are probably not all that great. Nonetheless, I intend to share with you. :)

Wade surprised me at Christmas with tickets (Aack! How great is that?) that he'd gotten from his cousin Rob (THANKS ROB!!). When we found our seats we were SIXTEEN rows from the stage!! SIXTEEN!! I think the closest I've ever sat to the stage at Capitol Theatre is WAY up in the balcony somewhere. It was incredible! I can't go on enough about how amazing the show was, and if you get me started, you'll be sorry. :P So I'll give you the highlights- Glinda (Galinda- with a 'Ga' haha) was incredible. She had so much energy and was ping-ponging all over the stage. I've made it a goal to be that energetic in the next character I play. I came out with a whole new respect for the song "Popular"- I've played it at a million auditions and heard it sung by countless teenagers and had gotten tired of the song. Watching it actually being performed was amazing. Fiyero (the male lead; handsome prince if you will) was dashing and swanky and everyone fell in love with him immediately. Until he sang. OH MY LANDS!! His tenor notes literally had me melting in my seat. WOW. But the best part was when Elphaba (the 'wicked' witch) walked out onto the stage and the audience went nutz. I got a big lump in my throat and started to cry- I was so excited that I was finally there! The music was incredible, the costumes and special effects were fabulous and the story itself was so touching- I of course was crying at the end. Wade was like 'sheesh, can't take you anywhere without you crying at the end' Hahaha :) All in all, a wonderful, music-filled night that re-inspired me and energized me to keep doing shows. What a great experience! Thanks for a fun night Wader! Love ya!






Monday, April 20, 2009

Escaping bird and exploding dough

Today was one of those days. Lol I was on the computer this morning and heard the flapping of wings. Not a big surprise, since we have two parakeets. The surprise was that the flapping noise was coming from the hallway. No, I don't keep the birds in the hallway, silly. I walked into the hallway and there on the floor sat my yellow parakeet, Sparkle. Recently she has become our little Houdini. Fortunately she's very tame and I was able to pick her up and get her back home. :)

Later on in the day I was fixing dinner and wanted to make some crescent rolls. No, I do not make them from scratch. Dough scares me and so I totally get them out of the can. I'm ok with this and Wade has learned to live with it. I had unwrapped the thing (can? canister? tube?) and was banging it against the counter to get it to open. Clearly there was too much pressure cuz it exploded and dough went shooting everywhere! Across the kitchen, all over the counter and floor, even in my hair. Sadly, no crescent rolls for dinner. :}

We wrapped up the day by playing outside and having Family Home Evening on the trampoline. I even jumped for about an hour with the kids without peeing my pants! Quite the accomplishment, wouldn't you say?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Easter eggstravaganza



The age-old process of Family Home Evening Fun involving coloring Easter eggs. Izzy's pretty much done, don't ya think?


The Easter bunny hid egg-shaped gumballs all over the family room. I didn't know kids could get so excited over gum. Lol



This is the annual Easter egg hunt on the Page side, usually held at Wade's sister's house in Paradise, Utah. This is most of the cousins. I think we were missing nine kids.



Izzy getting help from cousin Maicee. :)



Now you can see why we do this at Cathy's. Look at that gorgeous view!



Ethan's hat hair. Nice. :)



Easter Sunday finery and goofing-off apparently. Don't they look fab?


Egg hunt at Great-grandma Rosie's with my sister's little boy Brock. What a beautiful day for an egg hunt!