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!! :)

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!

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!!!

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. :)

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. :)

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!

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!