While you were out

Things I missed while I was busy this last month (but Bryce captured for me)

1. Felix walking around all the furniture

2. Link in disguise

3. Felix on the steps

4. Kinderhaus crowning

5. Roasting hot dogs with Amber.

6. My mom's 60th surprise party

7. Cousin visits

Nine years as family

Wednesday was our anniversary.  It was also a busy day.  We decided the best time for us to celebrate would be the morning due to after school programs and play practice.  Link had an optional field trip to Pinter's Pumpkin patch he could go to with Kinderhaus so we brought him up to that.  Then Bryce and I went the the magpie coffee house where we had some coffee and breakfast.

Yes that would be a toy on the table.  Felix did crash the date.

I had recently looked up the 9th anniversary gift and it is pottery.  Doh, we have a pottery friend but too late for that.  So instead we walked over to the clay studio to check it out.  Unfortunately wed hours were in the afternoon.  Bryce then had the idea to check out the little fashion boutique we have never been too which translates to "little sister" but is in Norwegian.  These were lots of great clothes there for women and also for kids, but not men, lots priced lower than I expected and stuff actually fit and looked good.  As a gift Bryce got me a leather cuff from there with a quote from our wedding.  

I also got Bryce (our entire family) something made out of leather though it was the wrong year.  These two living room pieces are exactly what we needed for our space.

Apple pie is our traditional anniversary food.  This year I still had lots of apples left from Shihata's so I had Link help me bake an apple pie.  With premade pie crust it was pretty easy to make.  We made it during the hour I had between work and play practice and ate it when I came home.

Plagman's Barn

A couple of weekends ago we decided to check out Plagman Barn days.  We have made ads for them for 7 years or so but have never gone to the event,  I'm glad we did.  It is a festival much like Osborne, but with even more hands on exhibits and activities, and even better features like the school house and blacksmith shop.  

I really enjoyed the barn dance.  The music was great and I loved seeing, what I assume to be, widows dancing together to still enjoy their favorite past time without their husbands.  The event was originally created to save this old dance hall barn, so to experience a dance in the barn made the event so worthwhile.

Link enjoyed lots of hands on activities, which were all labeled "not responsible for accidents".

Here he is at the corn sheller.

Writing his and Felix's name on the board.

Making rope.

Felix was on my back all day so didn't get in any shots.  Here he is when we returned home, enjoying the empty bottle of sarsaparilla.  

Clayton county extension after school programming

So besides being in musicals and raising children, I do work.  And I absolutely love my job.  I've recently received 5 different grants, 3 of which are project based, so not only do we get money, we get training.  I love going to trainings.  They make me feel like I am in school again and I loved being in school because I love to compete intellectually.   I get a rush out if being the winner in constructing the windmill that will lift the most weight (mine lifted 16 washers, second place got 4) against a room full of science and physics teachers.  Although I do have to say it bothers me a little to be the only adult to figure out how to make the gravity ca actually go when I'm not even a teacher..  Every time I go to a training, around noon i start thinking, "I should have been an engineer."  Then we come back from lunch, start collecting data and the fun is over.

1. A still from my gravity car

2.  My solar powered cave.  We were suppose to make houses, but I've been on a caveMan kick lately.

I also work with kids.  My long term goal is to train volunteer leaders to lead these groups, but finding volunteers is not easy.  So I do programming 3-4 days a week.  All the groups are considered 4h clubs and it was 4h week so many are pictured with this year's theme.

1. Puppet theater

2. Central's lego league, the cyborg narwhals.  (Not pictured is my mfl mar Mac group)

3. My Hyperstream crew learning indesign.

4. These three are all from my technical theater group in Clayton ridge.  

Blood, wrinkles, facial hair and more

Cooking up some breakaway glass

Stage sets for characters they drew out of a hat.  

Jack Skellington has arrived

I very much dislike Elf on a shelf.  For reasons like he is suppose to be caught making mischief in the house and yet he is also watching you to make sure you aren't?   But despite all that I thought of something similar that I actually love, Jack Skellington "on a shelf".  Basically I have a Jack Skellington doll that I pose with notes and supplies for activities that our family can do in preparation for Halloween.  Since the musical is currently in full swing Jack has been delivering some pretty simple activities but they have brought enjoyment to The whole family, which is what I wanted.  Plus, you know me, I love Halloween and this just lets me celebrate the holiday a little more richly.

Activity one- decorate with what we already have.

Activity two- make spider webs out of garbage bags.  A few went on the window to decorate, and a couple went in Link's toy collection so he can pretend to be venom.

Activity three- mummify a stuffed animal.  Link chose to do the cat in the hat.

Activity four- .make ghosts from cheese cloth and styraphoam balls.  Link said the face he drew was like e ghost on Marion kart.  This is him making the face as well.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

We open up Millie on Thursday and I am so excited.  My friend, Cheri, is the lead and she is phenomenal.  Everyone is doing a really great job and I am singing the songs all the time, even the ones I'm not it.  I'm so glad I stuck this show out.  I had my doubts going into it.  First of all there are two Chinese men and I was worried they were just going to act comically stereotypical.  I wouldn't go to a show with people in blackface being stereotypical so I felt the same way about this show.  Fortunately the comedy of these characters is not in their speak and action but in their actual lines.  These two men actually had to learn Mandarin for the show and they do a great job.  One "man" is 15.

I start the show in the role of Ethel Pease, a southern girl living in New York who gets abducted.  I have the unfortunate line of "white slavery" but I guess it's a smidgen better than "sex trafficking." Which is what they actually mean.  Anyway, after that scene Ethel's whereabouts are never really cared about again.  I revive her for curtain call just in case someone out there does wonder.  I like this part because I get a little bit more acting than was intended for me and my only singing where it is not full chorus.  I have to thank Cheri for being in this song.  She was a very good behind the scenes person making people remember that I existed and could pull this off.  I think I am a good addition to this song (when I get the notes right)  so I'm glad I'm in it.  Although I do feel a little guilty about it.  After talking to another auditioned about my concern with the racial stereotypes she dropped out and this (I assume) was her role.  I almost feel like I manipulated my way in without actually trying to.  

Next I am a stenographer.  This role I tap dance in.  I love dancing and this was really fun and really hard.  We started back in May with the choreographer.  I tapped at 5 years old so I thought I would be fine.  Big difference!  It's challenging but so great.  I miss the hours of Dance that really felt like workouts.  I have a lot of fun with this character, giving her a prissy face and such.  Unfortunately I must have gotten fired after this scene because there is one more stenographer scene and tap dance and I'm not in it.  I'm not sure why, but I've shed enough tears about it to not care anymore.  At first I thought it was because I had an immediate scene change, but actually I have no conflicts and barely even grace the stage in the entire act 2.  There is even an actor who can't be at all the performances in it.  I just figure I must have had one suck ass audition where people didn't get that I could act, sing, or dance. 

Next I'm a dancer at the Speakeasy.  I started with this wig but have since decided to use the black one since this one falls off.  I added the cigarette holder because I've always wanted to use one.  This scene we just dance and act drunk.  Easy.  I mostly like dancing with my actual dentist.  And if the lighting ever gets completely figured out this will look really cool with cop like spotlights and flashes for mug shots.

My final character is, Mathilde, the maid.  This is my original casted character, complete with two lines and 2 min stage time.  Like I said, bad audition.  We hardly practiced this role so it's my least developed character.  I'm still working on her.  I get to interact with my friend, Karin, which is fun.  I also put myself in the dance and started walking the stage carrying a tray.  The butler waiting in the wings always gives me weird faces like "what are you doing that is not in the script" but I'm just doing what I like my high school actors to do "think like your character."  No notes from the director means it looks fine, right?

Karin plays Muzzy and she has two stunning songs that she just knocks out of the park.  My very first musical I was in with her was Fiddler on the Roof.  She was my mother, Golde, now I'm her maid.  

I'm very excited to present this show to an audience, I hope we pack the house every night.  There is so much talent exuding from so many people.  I still love watching it and I've seen it many times now.