Category: Uncategorized (Page 50 of 118)

We like birds around here. Anyone who knows us knows that we like birds. That may be partially because our lovely Ryan has allergies which prevent us from getting any furry pets. Or it may be that I grew up with birds and have always loved having birds as pets. We have our two cockatiels, who have been with us for such a long time. We’ve also gotten into parakeets, since they are so easy to take care of, and we now have three of those. But the birds outside must also know that we are bird lovers, because they’ve taken quite a liking to us.

In the spring, we discovered this pretty little nest right outside and close to the porch.

A sweet little mother robin laid her eggs there, and we enjoyed watching those 5 little babies grow up. But then they flew away and “left the nest”, never to return. I guess that’s why they call it “leaving the nest”, but still, I wish they’d just stay close, or just one of them would return to the nest.

This summer we’ve had some fun little swallows build a nest on our front porch.

I guess it’s as good a place as any for a nest, since it’s protected from the elements and we can’t really reach up there to bother them. They also like to “swing” on the cords that are coming out of Ryan’s office window and going up to the roof. I think it’s an antenae thing for the Rhapsody satelite radio or something like that.

These little birds have kept us entertained for a month or so, what with their swinging on the sprinkler lines and swooping around and scolding us whenever we step out the front door. But recently they’ve become even more interesting. There have been little tiny birds up there in the nest. Every day we’ve tried to catch a glimpse of them way up there, and you should hear their parents complain. In no time at all they’ve grown to be almost as big as their parents, and they scarcely fit in their nest.

(Sorry about the picture quality. These little birdies do NOT want to be bothered, nor do they want to be photographed, so many of their pictures are taken through the windows.)

Yesterday, those little birds looked like they were ready to jump off that nest. They don’t fit in anymore, after all. And this morning, when we returned from our fun neighborhood Pioneer Day breakfast, there were NO birdies in the nest. “Oh, no!” I thought, “They’ve grown up and flew away!” But I was pleasantly surprised when I saw both little birds swinging from the the cords, and the parents were swooping around keeping a watchful eye. But of course, when I went outside to take a picture, they flitted away. I’m hoping they’ll stay close by and keep us entertained for a little while longer, at least.

Suessical is over. We had our last performance last night. It was wonderful!! Fantastic!! Full house, even. Now, don’t tune out just yet because I’m talking about “that dad-gum play” again. I know I’ve been a little obsessed with my theatrical pursuits lately, but that’s because it’s been taking over my life.

Really, this whole production wrapped up in only two months. But it’s been an intense two months, with 3-5 practices per week, and the last few weeks it’s been almost daily. I don’t even want to think about how many hours that’s been, but it’s been a lot. And although I’ve been having so much much fun, my family has been getting a little tired of it. Here’s what they have to say:

Jenna: “Mom, can we go swimming today?”
Me: “No, sweetie, I have to go to my play today.”
Jenna: “AGAIN?!”

My Mom: “So, what are you going to do after your play is over and all your houseguests leave?” (Did I mention that we’ve had guests staying here for the past two weeks? Oh, well, we have.)
Me: “Wow, I don’t know. Maybe clean my house of fix a decent dinner for my family.”
My Mom: “I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.”

Ryan (Saturday night after I got home from doing a matinee and an evening performance and was gone for 10 hours): “I’m tired of your play.”

John (after coming to see the show): “I liked your play mom!”
Me: “Thank you.”
John: “I liked the cat.”
Me: “I liked the cat, too.”
John: “And the elephant.
Me: “Oh.”
John: “And the monkeys.”
Me: “Good.”
John: “And the birds.”

Megan (singing): “Tell yourself how lucky you are.”

Cole: (actually Cole has had nothing but a positive experience. He kind of got volunteered into working in the booth and doing sound for the show, so he’s been there almost every night for the past two weeks, too. In fact, last night when we were striking the set (that’s cleaning up everything and taking down the set and props for you non-theater people) he said: “Mom, they might need some help tomorrow to reset all these frequencies and other technical stuff. Can I come and help?”
Me: “Sure. After you mow the lawn.”

Ryan (after I asked him if he wanted to come see the show again on closing night): No offense, but no, I don’t want to go and see your play.

Natalie: “I think I want to be in the next play.” (Hooray!)

So although I’ve LOVED doing this play, and it’s been nothing but a GREAT experience for me, I have to say I’m glad it’s over. But I’m sad that it’s over. Does that make sense? I mean, if this was my mid-life crisis, is that all I get? Can I do it again? Will I ever see these fun and exciting people I’ve spent the last two months getting to know? YES. I will. A few of the “Who” moms have already exchanged phone numbers and are planning to get together for dinner or games “once a month”. Which may in reality be once in a while, but still, I would love to get together and hang with them. They are just so much fun. And tonight we get to have our big cast party and bring our families, and that should be fun, too.

I just can’t say enough about what a good experience this has been. The people at Alpine Community Theater have been so organized, and our director, Laura, has been always encouraging, always positive. Even with all the kids in the cast, there was not chaos (well, not much) and it all ran very smoothly. Kudos to you, ACT!

I’m SO glad that I took a chance and auditioned. You may remember that I didn’t feel very good about that audition, and it was a horrible experience for me. But from that very hard thing came this very wonderful experience. If I had not done something hard, I wouldn’t have had such a good thing. I think we all need to remember that and do things that are hard or scary for us every once in a while.

Some people in the cast are all set to audition for the next production of Suessical that the Scera theater is putting on. Look, auditions are next week! That will give me just enough time to… Um, no. If I were young and single and had no family or job or other commitments, then SURE, I’d go and audition for another show. It was THAT much fun. But, I DO have a family, and it’s about time I went and fixed them some breakfast.

Oh, the play is almost over. We did a LONG LONG day yesterday with a matinee and a show at night. We were there for almost 10 hours. But it’s been such a great experience, and I’ve really loved it. It’s been fun after each show to go out to the “lobby” and meet and greet the people. At every show I’ve had someone I knew there, who comes up to give me a hug or say hi. I’m really thankful to everyone who’s come and supported me in this venture.

I thought I would take some pictures of the whole hair experience. Since everyone wants to know, “is that really your own hair?”

It starts at about 4:30 when I put hot rollers into my hair.

Then I go put on my makeup and costume and then take out the hot rollers, so they have time to curl and then cool.

My friend, Kelly, there then starts to work on the hair. She gets out her trusty comb and back-combs the heck out of my poor thin hair.

Until it starts to stand up by itself. Oh, and she sprays it. Don’t forget the spray.

Pantene outrageous hold seems to do the trick.

After the hair is about a foot high, then she gets out the curling iron and curls it!

Spray, curl, repeat.

Then when you think it’s all done and I’m ready for the stage, (Hi, Kelly!)

then come the accessories.

But I’m not the only one with crazy hair. Here’s me with some of the other Whos. Two of them are wearing wigs, can you guess which ones? And this is before our Christmas scene, when they add those little Christmas accessories. What a fun and crazy show!

Oh, the show went GREAT last night! For the first time, all the music cues were right, and we didn’t have any problems with the wireless mic’s. The other night, for example, someone answered their cell phone during the show, and the conversation was picked up by Maisy’s mic. How’s that for embarrassing? We had a wonderful audience, too. They were laughing and clapping in all the right places, and that really helps us to be energized. It was FUN!

We get to do a mic check every night before the show, and people don’t want to sing just anything, so we come up with funny and interesting songs to sing for 20-30 seconds. One guy always sings “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts” for his check. I’ve done “Oh, Holy night”, and “Amazing Grace”, and last night I did “We got together” from Grease. The Wickersham brothers, who are the monkeys in the jungle, have a little hymn book, and when they do their mic check, they sing a hymn all together. It’s a nice little moment.

We are now halfway through the run of the show. We’ve done four shows, and we have four shows yet to do. It’s been such a great experience for me, and I’m so thankful that at my old and advanced age they let me be with this fun, young cast. In the lead’s dressing room, it’s me and a bunch of young single gals putting on makeup together. They are usually all talking about some boy, texting some boy, or talking about how they were texting some boy. And then they talk about how white they are and that they need to get out and do some tanning before summer is over. I did have to speak up then and try to discourage them from the tanning–you know, skin cancer, wrinkles and all that–but I doubt they listen to an old lady like me. They talk about auditions, who’s doing what play this fall, and all that theater stuff, too.

I was sitting by one of the guys that I’ve become friends with, Jake, the other day at rehearsal, and “Little Shop of Horrors” somehow came up.
“They’re doing that at the Hale Center Theater!”, he said, “Wouldn’t that be such a fun show to be in?”
“Oh, that would be such a fun show,” I said. “But I’m not really auditioning for more plays. I don’t really do that.”
“What? Why not?” he said. He actually sounded shocked.
“Um, I don’t really do a bunch of plays,” I said sort of sheepishly, “I kind of just auditioned for this one on a whim. Because it’s convenient and so close to my house.”
“Oh, that’s a shame. You really should do more plays. You’re so good,” he said.
Well, there is the issue of my family, and the bell choir that meets once a week, and I do have five kids and a husband who I really do enjoy spending time with…. But being in plays would be fun, too.
What a sweet thing to say!
So besides being a heck of a lot of fun, being in this show has been kind of an ego boost for me. I had some lady I don’t know come up to me on Monday night and say, “Oh, you did such a great job! You have a beautiful voice.” I was surprised and so thankful for her compliment! Wow! Someone said I had a nice voice!
And it’s been fun getting to know a bunch of new people. Yes, most of them are younger than me, and most of them are single and giggly, but they are nice. And it’s fun to see people in the grocery store and have them say, “Hey, Mrs. Mayor! How’s it going?” And there’s a bunch of cute little kids in the show, and they are always fun. They’ll sit and watch me getting my hair done, and they’ll say, “I like your hair.” Thanks, I think.

My oldest two kids have enjoyed getting involved in the show, too. Cole is now working up in the booth with the sound, and he runs the music. His friend manages the mic’s. Megan sold tickets last Saturday, and will be doing that again this Saturday for the matinee. They’ve also helped a little bit with set building. It’s been fun to have them involved. So, IF I ever do this acting thing again, I’ll make sure the kids audition with me, so that we can do this together. Wouldn’t that be fun? Well, maybe. Right now one of those children is sitting right behind me nagging me about using the computer and complaining, complaining, complaining. So maybe having them in the show with me wouldn’t be that much fun after all.

Today is a day off, which is nice. I think Robin and I are going to go and get pedicures or take the kids to a water park or something.

Oh, and for those of you who knew where the title of this post came from, here you go. Enjoy

Oh, for the love of Shawn and Gus. I’m excited for the new season!

Oh to be young and skinny and not have body related self confidence issues.

What? Watermelon? I’m not stealing any watermelon.

Oh, to be on a paddleboat with grandpa–what could be better?

Silence. Blissful alone time. And it’s all mine! (Evil laugh) BWa, ha ha ha Ha!

My family and everyone staying here has gone up to my family reunion at Payson Lakes for our family reunion. And I’m here. By myself! (Cartwheels and jumping!) Of course I’m going to miss them, can’t you tell? No, really.

I wish the reunion weren’t this weekend–opening night, for heaven’s sake. I thought I could go up for the day and play and have fun and then come home and get ready for the show, but to be to the theater by 5:00 with my hair in curlers and all that, I would have to leave the reunion at about 3:00. And that would either mean drag my family out of there at that time, or take two cars (Ryan already decided he didn’t want to sleep over on the campout without some back up, and am totally ok with that. But, gosh, wouldn’t that be great if he did? Then I could have tomorrow morning by myself, too!). And driving an extra car all that way just seems wasteful. So, Ryan lovingly agreed that it would be better for me to just stay home. Isn’t he the greatest?! Let’s give it up for Ryan! Of course, my whole family will be up there, and the kids will just play happily with their cousins, but still, I really appreciate him taking them and not making feel guilty that I’m staying home.

So, since they left, I’ve done dishes, cleaned the family room, and I’m just about to sweep the kitchen and clean the stove. Then I have about 12 loads of laundry that also desire my attention, and I might just get groceries, who knows? Having an extra family living here is SO MUCH FUN, but we sure make a mess. And with me being gone every night, I’ve gotten a little bit behind on the upkeep. But don’t think I’m going to just clean all day! Oh, no! I’ve got a big old nap scheduled! Hooray! So please don’t call me because I won’t answer the phone.

With the kids out of school and guests here, I haven’t been alone in quite some time. I hope you don’t think I love my family and all, because I really do! But I also enjoy a little down time where no one is asking anything of me and I can just rest.

And just a bit about the play. We had our last rehearsal last night! We ended at 11:40. And you’ll never believe what they did with my hair (I don’t know why my hair is such an issue! I must just have problem hair) No wig, if you’ll remember. This time I went in hot rollers, and my dear hair and make-up queen Kelly fixed me up good. She had made this darling little “hat” for me!

So here’s a shot of me in all my hair glory, with the little watering can “hat”. It’s really glued onto a headband, and then the headband in pinned in there to my scalp (I mean my hair). It would have been simpler to just use a nail gun to attach the dumb thing, though. While I LOVE the hat, and I think it’s so cute and so “Who-ish”, it’s just wasn’t real practical. Try doing anything with that thing on your head. By the end of the opening number, the headband was loose and the flowers were shifting. So I tried to not move my head. But then I was worried about the head thing and then I messed up the dance. Ugh! I thought, if I can just keep it on through act 1, then I can take it off, and oh, this is squishing my brain! I did keep it on through the next couple of scenes, but there’s this little house on stage I have to go through, and it’s already something I have to duck to get through. Try it with an extra 6 inches on top. You see where I’m going with this?

After the next little scene, I saw Kelly backstage, and she was asking how it was working out. “It’s not. It’s slipping and I’m worrying about it and then I’m messing up lines.” She was very sweet about it (all that work to get it in there!) and we took it off. She said she’d figure out something else for the next night, but in the meantime, we just took out some of the flowers and butterflies and stuck them in my hair. They hardly even needed bobby pins, since there was so much hairspray there I could probably hide my sandwich in there and you wouldn’t notice. On the way to the greenroom, where she was going to “just tease it up a little bit and maybe spray it some more”, I picked up a little blue bird on the floor. “Is this a prop?” I asked the prop lady. “No, it’s just a toy. I think it was in my daughter’s happy meal or something,” she told me. I asked if she minded if I used it, then. She told me to go ahead. So, we stuck that little bird in there, and it looked GREAT! And it was much more comfortable than the headband and the constant worry of if my “hat” is going to fall off.

So, we’ll see what Kelly comes up with for tonight. We talked about getting some butterflies and just gluing them onto clips and sticking them in there, instead of one big hat thing. Hopefully we’ll get it all worked out. If not, I’m fine with the bird and the flowers we used last night.

But there’s a lot of little kids in the show, and they seem very concerned with my hair. “Aren’t you wearing the wig?”
“Wow! Where did you get that watering can?”
“Is that a bird in your hair?”
“I love your hair Mrs. Mayor”
and my personal favorite,
“Wasn’t that the bird that so and so was playing with earlier?”
“Um, yes, ” I said, ” I found it on the floor, so we put it in my hair.”

So the saga of the hair continues on. Don’t you just want to come and see the show so you can see how I end up? Well, we open tonight!

At about 11:40, we heard screaming coming from John’s room. I rushed into his room, and he was walking around, obviously very upset. I picked him up to try to comfort him, but he was grabbing at himself and kicking. In order to not wake Megan, who is sharing his room with him right now, we took him into our room to figure out what was wrong.
“Do you need to use the potty?” I asked him.
“NOOO!” he yelled.
“Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?” I asked him.
“Nooo!” he yelled again. He was writhing about, kicking and screaming. We tried to help him calm down, and he would for a minute, but then he was back kicking and yelling.
In a panic, I asked Ryan to call our friend and neighbor who is also a doctor. Maybe it’s a seizure. Maybe there’s something really wrong with him. Maybe he’s in pain! We’ve got to help him! But we didn’t call our doctor friend. It was midnight, after all. We just kept trying to comfort him.

He calmed down a little bit laying in my lap, and I comforted him the best I could. Eventually he said, “I want a blanket.” I put him down in our bed and put a blanket over him, and he went back to sleep.

I wish I could say the same for me. I couldn’t sleep all night worrying about my boy. Maybe he has some weird form of autism. Maybe he has some internal injuries that are hurting him. Maybe he has appendicitis. (And NO, I was not up all night looking up things on Web MD–this was just my mind racing.)

He slept the rest of the night, and didn’t even wake up when Ryan took him back to his own bed. Teh next morning, he didn’t mention any of this.

Well, Ryan looked things up and found that our boy had had a “night terror”, which I had heard of but never actually experienced (isn’t it funny that on the 5th kid I’m still learning new things?) and sent me a link to this.

The next morning, when I went walking, I asked my friend and my sister-in-law if any of their kids had done this, and they both answered yes. With one of their kids. At rehearsal that night I mentioned it to someone in the play and they said that yes, one of their kids had had night terrors. I guess it’s a common thing.

Night terrors are not the same as nightmares and the treatment is different as well.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: Varies
Here’s How:

1. Don’t hug or shake your child. Waking the child will only frighten him or her more. (oops, I did that wrong)
2. Stay close to your child until he or she falls into a normal sleep again.
3. Turn on the lights and talk softly to soothe and assure the child that he or she is safe.
4. Watch to make sure your child doesn’t do anything to harm him or herself, like falling out of bed.
5. Night terrors sometimes lead to sleep walking. If this occurs, guide your child gently back to bed without waking him or her.
6. Keep the room safe in case of sleepwalking. Avoid upper bunks and keep the floor free of dangerous obstructions. (his room is totally FULL of obstructions!)
7. Warn baby-sitters or other family members and let them know how to deal with night terrors.
8. Keep your child on a regular schedule of meal times, bed times and rising times. (I don’t know how to do this when we have company and it’s summer time)
9. Make sure the child goes to the bathroom before going to bed. Night terrors can sometimes cause bedwetting. (Right)
10. Check for fever or illness that may be causing the night terrors.
11. Night terrors often occur about the same time every night. Set the alarm and wake your child before the terror begins.
12. If the night terrors happen often or are particularly disturbing to you or your child, discuss the problem with your doctor.
13. Ask your doctor if he can prescribe any medication that might help. (or maybe one for me. Xanax?)
14. If you believe the episodes may be caused by emotional problems or post-traumatic stress, talk it over with a psychiatrist or counselor.

1. Remember that most night terrors end before puberty.
2. A happy, relaxed home will help chase away the night terrors.
3. Remember that your child will probably not remember the night terror episode in the morning.

But it still scared me to death and I don’t want to have to go through that again, thank you very much.

Yesterday we had a fun day planned. We were going to go to the Colonial Days celebration in Provo. We love to go to the Crandall Printing Museum.

Ryan’s dad volunteers there to run the linotype, and our kids think it’s such a cool place. And during this week, people can tour the museum for free, and see all the other fun stuff they have going on at Colonial days. My sister the artist was actually there doing chalk drawing.

So, even though it was hotter than a day should be in Utah, we had a nice time there.

Except for one tiny little detail. Oh, you knew there had to be an “Except” didn’t you? Oh, yes you did, you smart thing, you.

Well. In Provo, they have these deep gutters that are about a foot deep and a foot wide, and there is no curb to keep you out of it. Why? I don’t know why. I guess it’s set up as a trap for unsuspecting cars or something. Well, I was that unsuspecting driver. I was looking for a place to park, and flipped a U-turn. Only not quite. I had almost made it, and CLONK!!! There we are, stuck in the gutter.

Wow, I thought, that was pretty stupid. Hmmm. I guess I’ll call AAA. The kids and I got out of the car, and I called triple A and they were remarkably helpful. They told me that they would have a tow truck there within the next half hour. I felt kind of dumb, but I had to ask the nice lady on the phone what would happen. “I mean, do I pay him, or is this just it?”
“No, this is it. You haven’t used our services this year, have you? Oh, and your membership is due to expire in August, so it’s a good thing it hasn’t expired yet. This is one of your four allowed roadside emergency calls for the year.” she told me.
“Wow, so I could have three more roadside emergencies in the next month!” I said. I was joking. I really don’t want to have to call them at all, but it’s nice to know I can if I need to. And I WILL be renewing that membership in August, let me tell you.

So as not to just sit and wait, the kids went with our friends who were with us, and went to go and see the Colonial fest while I waited.

With nothing to do but take a few more pictures, I sat and waited. A guy from across the street came over and asked if this were my car. Um, yeah. I was kind of embarrassed, but he told me people are getting stuck in these ditches ALL the time. Someone this morning did the same exact thing and had to be towed out. He told me that he and his brothers had been able to lift the car up just enough to get some traction and drive out of there, and they would be willing to try, if I wanted help. “Oh, that is so nice of you to offer, but I’ve already got a tow truck on the way.” I was very impressed that he would be so kind and offer to help.

In less than half an hour, Brandon the tow truck driver arrived on the scene.
First he figured he would jack it up, but then I guess he couldn’t find a good place to do the jacking. (Don’t laugh, I don’t know what you call it!) So, he put some wood down in the gutter and then hooked up the winch to the back of the van.

A little winch action and he had that car pulled right up out of the ditch. Wow! “That was easier than I thought it would be,” he said. Once we got it parked on the road and not in the gutter, he even looked under there at the axle and said he didn’t think it was damaged. “I’m not a body guy, but I think that should be fine,” he told me. I was so grateful! Thank you Triple A! I don’t know how much it would have cost me to have it extricated from the gutter had I been paying for it, but I’m sure it would have been more than the $45 a year I paid for the AAA membership. OK, I’ll stop. (But really, it’s a good thing, don’t you think?)

I walked about a block to where my kids were, and found them happily eating snowcones with their friends.

So, we went on a quick tour of the printing museum, (which I also highly recommend! It’s so cool!) saw some other displays and exibits, and headed out of there.

THEN, as if that weren’t enough, we had to stop and buy stage makeup, false eyelashes, and a parakeet. Yes, I said a parakeet. But that’s another story for another day.