Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Author: Superpaige (Page 19 of 180)

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November 4, 2013 / / 1 Comment

Theater for young audiences is different than the other shows I have done. Each weekday we would do a show at 10 am. Even though it’s a short, one hour show, being there every day was challenging. Every. Single. Day. There were several times when I had to rush from the show to something else. There was a funeral that started at 11:00, and I raced straight there from the show. I’m sure I looked wonderful, removing my twirly eye makeup with a wipe in the car. And even then, I was still a bit glittery.

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After the show, the cast would come back out to answer some of the kids’ questions. The manager would have us introduce ourselves, since there was no program for the kids’ shows. After about a week and a half, I got bored with just being Paige Erickson. This should come as no surprise, since many of you know about how I changed my name to Jess the whole time we were in Illinois. First I was Jess Williams, the next day I was Lisa something, then Melissa something. I also lied about my favorite color, favorite candy, and anything else the kids asked of a personal nature. That day someone had asked how old we were, and I said 34. Hey, if I am going to be Melissa, she can be 34.

On Friday night, when I was going through the awkward process of having Kendall stick his hand down my back to attach the mic pack to my bra (after the first time or two you just get used to it, really) for the evening show, he asked, “Did you say your name was Melissa today?”
Yes.
“Why?”
Just getting bored.
“And you said you were 34?”
Yeah. What of it. I can be 34.
“Well…”
Ahem.
“It’s just that Joel’s 33, and you don’t exactly..”
Here’s where I cut him off with a witty, “Shut up,” because I am so clever and can think on my feet.
“Stop right there,” I said, “I can do 34.”

Can’t I?
Maybe not. The next day I was Christina Rose, and when someone asked us how old we were, I said I was 41. But that’s as old as I’m going.

This is Halloween, This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween……

November 1, 2013 / / 0 Comments

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What a beautiful and fun day we had for Halloween! Even though it had rained earlier in the week, the day was dry and sunny. You couldn’t ask for nicer weather, actually.

Of course, the night before Halloween there was quite a costume scramble. Everyone asking “where’s my yellow shirt? I put it on the stairs?” “Can you fix my costume? It ripped”, “Do we have fairy wings?”, and my personal favorite comment, after I spent a half hour going through all the possible costumes we have and suggesting many ideas, was “We don’t have ANY costumes. All of ours are stupid.” Oh, the joys of children who have opinions. Remember when they were little and MOM just chose the costumes and dressed them up?

Oh, yeah. Those days were fun.

Even back then (this picture is from 2005), the kids loved to go to Ryan’s work to go trick-or-treating through the cubicles. Dad gets to show off his family, the kids get a lot of candy in a short amount of time, and it’s just fun. Plus the costumes at his work are great! This year the marketing department was all wizard of oz, and even had a yellow “brick” road.

Of course, I started my day in costume. Still doing that Merlin show.
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What a fun experience. And all the kids in the audience were in costumes, too, so that made it even more fun.

Then off to do John’s class party at school. Although those darn 4th graders didn’t know I was supposed to be Rosie the Riveter. Next year I’ll go with something more recognizable, I guess.

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Fun party, though. I was in charge of Halloween Bingo.

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After school, when we went to the dad’s work, the kids HAD to make sure we stopped in the game room. I think they think that people just play games at work.
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After we got home, it was sandwiches for dinner and then trick or treating. Megan and Natalie felt a bit too old to go out begging for candy, but when I told them they HAD to go with John, that gave them an excuse to go.

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It was a lovely Halloween. I’m kind of sad that it’s over. But luckily, we get to get right into Christmas concerts, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, which will be here before we know it. I hope you also had a fun holiday, and I’ll leave you with this funny.

Costume Party!

October 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Saturday evening we hosted a costume party for the Scarlet Pimpernel crowd–or whoever wanted to come. It wasn’t my idea, but a couple of the girls from the play were discussing how fun it would be to have a sing-a-long party, and asked if anyone had a place big enough for a crowd, and who had a piano, etc. I did not volunteer because I hosted the last party we had with this group, but one of the girls asked if I would be willing to have it at my house again. They would “plan” it, and could I just provide the house. Less pressure and work for me, right?

Well, we still had to clean the house. I didn’t make a ton of food, because I wasn’t in charge, and I thought she had made it clear to people that they were supposed to bring food. Ahem. These are mostly college students we are talking about, so there was very little food that was brought.But no one seemed to mind that there wasn’t a ton of food, or if the food that was there wasn’t very great or fancy.

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Here’s Ryan. He’s thrilled about a-dressing up (can you guess his costume) and b- having a bunch of loud theater people taking over the house.

After the mingling and hugs and “YOU LOOK SO CUTE!”s, we settled in to play some games. We had apples to apples going, and then some people started singing show tunes in the other room with the piano.

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We had some fun costumes! My friend Justin picked up my camera, as he tends to do, and took a bunch of lovely random pictures.
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This was us playing “match that face” or something like that. You would look at the picture taken before yours and try to match the expression. Yeah, I know they are sideways. Whatever.

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This is my favorite picture of everyone in their costumes.

We ended with a couple of rousing games of ENCORE, and if you’ve never played that with a bunch of musical theater people, you really should. We do know a lot of songs, but the pressure! When put on the spot, the brain just seems to sputter and fart, not coming up with the requisite song, like a song with the word “KISS” in it. We went back and forth on that one for a long time, until our team finally couldn’t think of another one. Of course, LATER, every song in the world seemed to have the word Kiss in it.

It was a fun night with friends, and I’m glad we could host it at our house.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Garage cleaning

October 28, 2013 / / 0 Comments

This week was a killer, with 7 Merlin shows, two bells rehearsals for me, four chime classes, cub scouts, two junior high concerts, Thriller with the girls, a quick trip to California for Ryan…. and the list goes on.

ANYWAY, we’ve all gotten a bit behind on keeping the house clean.

And the garage was so full of stuff to go to DI, leaves, trash, bikes, grass clippings, etc, it was kind of a joke.

I came home from a rehearsal on Saturday and found the contents of our garage out on the grass. I was SUCH a beautiful day for it, but I was conflicted. Hooray! Ryan’s cleaning out the garage/Boo! He’s going to want me to help. But actually I didn’t help much at all. Natalie and Ryan did most of it, with a little help from Jenna and John.
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I did NOT take a before picture. Really, you don’t want to know. But after they were done, it looked like this.

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NICE! So thankful that Ryan took the initiative and that Natalie worked alongside him for the whole morning to get that clean.

The Grocery Game

October 19, 2013 / / 1 Comment

We are trying to get back on a budget at our house. Ryan’s got me reading Dave Ramsey and all that, and we are going to focus on getting out of debt.

I don’t always do coupons and pay attention to the sales, but TODAY I DID.
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I went to our local grocery store because they had a GREAT sale on General Mills items, with a “buy 8, get $6 back” deal. I don’t LOVE these little games they make you play to make sure you have all the right items and in the right quantity, and then to match those items with coupons makes it extra complicated, but I took the coupons I knew I would use, and not ALL the coupons I had so that I could pay attention and JUST get the things that were on sale.

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I actually loved watching the guy ring in my purchases, adding my coupons, the sales, and then the $6 back from buying the featured items. Want to know how much I paid for all this food?

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I don’t know if you can read that amount, so I’ll make that picture bigger…
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but I paid $88.84. And that includes 6 bags of candy there in the middle. I used $12 something in coupons, and my receipt says I saved $88.11. Boo-Ya. Granted, I bought a lot of packed food and no meat, but since we just bought a fourth of a cow and our freezer is FULL, I didn’t need to buy any meat. Plus, we are still enjoying produce from our tomatoes and apples right now.

I am not claiming to be the best bargain shopper there is, but it gives me a little thrill to bring home that much food, especially the snacky things like gogurt and granola bars and fruit snacks, and to save money on it.

Yes, I feel kind of smart. Now I need to see if I can rustle up any more coupons so I can get more of this stuff while it’s still on sale. And to reach around and pat myself on the back just a little bit, thank you very much.

What a week!

October 19, 2013 / / 0 Comments

We have made it through our first week of performances for the Merlin show!

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When I signed up for this gig, I was a little wary of the performing every day thing. I even asked the director if we couldn’t double cast it so that we could have some days off. He kind of laughed and said he could barely get enough people to fill one cast, let alone two, which has been true. People have had to drop out because of work or injuries, and we called some people who didn’t even audition but were maybe available to be in the show, so there are no back=ups. To do a show at 10:00 am, means we are supposed to be at the theater at 9:00 to do our make-up and hair, get our microphones on and checked, and have a cast meeting. In order to be there by 9, I need to leave my house at 8:35 at the latest. Two days a week I teach my chime choir from 8 until 8:50, which makes it impossible to get there by 9:00. I have let the kids out 5 minutes early so that I can LEAVE the school by 8:50, and then I get there as quickly as I can (usually by 9:10-9:15).

The show is only one hour, which is nice. But after the daytime show the cast comes out and we have a little question and answer session with the kids.
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These were taken after a dress rehearsal, which my kids attended, since they didn’t have school that day. When we come out for the question and answer, we bring chairs, not just sitting on the edge of the stage. The kids ask questions, mostly about “How do you do that trick?”, but sometimes they ask fun questions like “Do you guys practice magic in your other jobs?”, or “What’s your favorite movie?”

By the time we are done with that and out of costume, it’s nearly noon, and I can get home to eat lunch by 12:30. So, it takes out the bulk of my day, especially days that I am teaching, when I really just eat lunch, clean up, and get back to the school. Not that I’m complaining, because it’s quite fun.

We get to dress up, do our makeup and glitterify, and have fun.
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(This is me with Tana, who plays Guinevere)

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(Here’s me with Tiffany, who plays Morgana. She’s the evil sister and I’m the nice one)

Then on Mondays and Fridays we come back at 6:00 and get ready again for a 7:00 show. The 7:00 show is more families than just kids. Last night I think we did our best show yet, and it was fun to see several wonderful friends from the Scarlet Pimpernel who came to see the show and support us. John came again last night with a friend (he’s now seen it three times, the most of anyone in the family. I guess if we were keeping score, it would be John 3, Jenna 2, Natalie and Megan 1, and Ryan 0)

Even though it’s a fun experience, it is extremely draining. This week was especially hard as we were dealing with the death of a friend, and then had his funeral and luncheon on Wednesday. But there’s always something, so no week is going to be smooth and easy. We just need to enjoy our theater time together as much as we can, because before we know it, our 21 shows will be gone with a poof.

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Josh Groban

October 19, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I won some tickets to the Josh Groban concert, then immediately chastised myself for using my once a month WIN on concert tickets when I should have been trying to win a Disneyland trip (like Ryan’s brother won the next day). But, since I had the tickets, I wanted to go. I started asking around to see who wanted to go.

Ryan–“Eh. Rather not.”
WHAT? SERIOUSLY? Ok, whatever. I’ll find a friend.

My next door neighbor Serena, who LOVES Josh Groban and went to his concert last year–“WHAT? Are you inviting me? I wish I could, but I think I have Thriller tickets for that same night! ARGH!”

My friend Tess–“Really? I never have plans for Friday night, but we are going to a weekend conference, so I can’t go. Darn!”

My friend Michelle–“Not really the biggest Josh Groban fan. Ask Lisa.”

Lisa–(I asked her if she would rather go see Josh Groban or Michael Buble, since I had already invited her to come to see Michael Buble with me in November) “I would rather see Michael Buble, but if you can’t find anyone, I would love to see Josh Groban, too.”

I thought about who would really have fun at a concert, and decided to offer the ticket to my Bell Choir Friends, and see who wanted to go. Teresa replied right away, then also texted me to make sure I got the message that she wanted to go.

The night of the concert, I met Teresa at her house, in Draper, then she drove up to Salt Lake. We got some dinner at Crown Burger so we could park there for free (and because Crown Burger is awesome!). Then it was a short walk to the ‘Energy Solutions Arena’, which we still call the ‘Delta Center’. Once we got inside, the ticket guy said, “Go over there and exchange your tickets for better seats.” What? Ok. Sure. Our tickets were for section MM or something, so I assumed they would be way up at the top. They were FREE, after all.
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The guy gave us new tickets and directed us over to door V or something, and we walked all the way down, and then they directed us down more stairs to go down to the floor.

There we were, 13 rows back from the stage! Because this was a concert in the round, they needed to fill in the floor seats, and really, there wasn’t a bad seat! Josh would go around the round stage, performing for each of the sections, and if you couldn’t see him in person, there were those big screens to see him.

The concert was amazing!

He played the piano, drums…he was funny and charming. He did it all.

Fun for Fall Break

October 12, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Busy week. Our missionary was transferred. He mentioned it here. I was glad to hear from him, because for some reason (technical difficulties?) we didn’t get a letter from him last week. When I sent him an email on Wednesday, telling him that we didn’t get his email from Monday, he replied, “I sent it,” and that was the total of our communication for the week. I hope he likes his new area, in Virginia. I’m sure it’s gorgeous there right now, with all those trees and all those leaves changing colors.
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Speaking of colors, our own mountains are going through their annual fall transformation right now, and they are looking oh so pretty. We had such nice weather last weekend, we were able to get quite a bit done. The kids even got to ride on the mini gote a bit.
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Ryan let them drive around for a bit. They, of course, wanted to ride on the street, but we kept them confined to the back yard. Jenna asked me, “When you die, can I have the mini gote.” This old dirt bike thing was Ryan’s parents’, and he rode it around when HE was a kid. That thing is OLD. But they still like it. It could use some service and repair, however.

This week was a short week at school, for FALL BREAK. Last year we took a little trip down to Southern Utah for Fall Break. With National Parks closed and rain forecast for the weekend, I’m glad we are staying home this time.

This morning I dragged the kids along to our dress rehearsal for Merlin. They liked sitting up in the balcony of the theater all by themselves, and they took a bunch of goofy pictures.
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They had to wait a while before the show starts, since we had to get our mic’s on, get costumes adjusted, and practice the sword fighting.
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That’s me in the mushroom hat.

And in my “Lady of the Lake” outfit. I’m trying to do more fairy like makeup, but this was the first day with costumes and hair and such.

We rehearsed Friday, and Saturday, as well. Monday we open with a show at 10 am, and a 7 pm show. 7 shows a week. We will just have to see how this goes.

Friday night I went to see Josh Groban (sigh!) and

Saturday was a beautiful day for Natalie’s pumpkin party!

Hopefully there will be more about these activities later!

Picture Project

October 4, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I have this wonderful painting that my sister did of my kids. I’ve had it in this frame and on the wall for about a year and a half.
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I never loved the frame or the way I matted it. I took a frame, added a mat that didn’t quite fit, and just made it work. It cut off a little too much of the picture, and I wasn’t too jazzed about the colors, but I didn’t want to pay to have it professionally matted and framed, and I was honestly a little intimidated to take it to a place and have them do that. Scared for no reason? Probably.

Today, for some reason, I got it in my head that I was going to repaint that frame and change it. And when I decide to do a project, it’s best to just go ahead and do it.

And I’m glad I did. Although taking the glass out of a frame and getting it back in right? About impossible. NEVER take the glass out. I’m just sayin’.

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I LOVE how it turned out. That awkward maroon mat is gone forever, and I think this shows off the painting better. It was just a bit too small for the mat I had, so I just cut craft paper an inch wide, secured it to the picture with tape, and then arranged it in the mat.

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Here it is back on the wall. (Not a great picture with the lights reflecting and all, but you get the idea.)

Happy with the results.

Merlin

October 4, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I had such an amazing experience with the Scarlet Pimpernel, that when director Jerry told us about the next project he was directing, I was interested. A show in during the day that doesn’t conflict with EVERYTHING my family has going on in the evenings? That sounds like something I could get behind.

The write up on the Scera website said:

In this magical coming-of-age musical from the composers of past favorites How I Became A Pirate and Rapunzel, we meet the teenage wizard, Merlin, his boyhood friend King Arthur, and the bewitching Morgana in mythical ancient England. Merlin must choose between Morgana and her offer of ultimate magical power or friendship with Arthur and Guinevere. Performed by a cast of adult actors, this Theatre for Young Audiences production is perfect for families with children. Featuring magic tricks, slight-of-hand, illusions and more! Directed by Jerry Elison.

I went and auditioned, and was cast as Nimue, the Lady of the Lake. It’s not a huge part, but enough to be fun. We rehearse in the day, and we’ll perform every weekday for school children at ten am, with public performances on Monday and Friday nights.

So, yes, I will have to be gone for three Monday nights and three Friday nights, but that’s not TOO much of a disruption for the family.

It’s been fun working with this small cast. Rehearsals haven’t been too bad, but Monday we start rehearsing with our set, then add in costumes and other tech things, so they may be longer than just the two hours. We open a week from Monday, which worries me a little.

I think it will be a really fun show for kids, with magic and some fun special effects.

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