Month: January 2015

Step ball change, jazz square and then the jazz hands? Or was it jazz hands with the Jazz square and THEN the cakewalk thing?

We only have one more week of rehearsals until we open our play, Pinkalicious.

I play Dr. Wink, who diagnoses Pinkalicious with Pinkititis. I have a whole song and dance number for the doctor. It’s really fun, but with all the dancing, I can’t get the singing right. If I worry too much about the singing, or if I’m already winded from the scene change that we do right before the song, I mess up on the dancing. Ugh. I’m not a great dancer and it takes me a while to get things cemented into my brain, and even when I THINK I have them right, I mess up, still.

Today we went over all the dances, and then did a run through. Even though we had JUST barely practiced it, I skipped an element of the dancing cupcakes dance. Rachel, my fellow cupcake followed me, and so we both did it wrong. I thought Felicia had done it wrong. Turns out I did it wrong, Rachel followed my wrong, and Felicia, who had done it right, only looked like she had done it wrong.

At night, I have music, lines, lyrics and dance steps going through my head. Over and OVER. Dr Wink isn’t a huge part of the show, so I’m also a cupcake dancing and a Butterfly who dances and sings. It’s such a cute show. I LOVE the show, I don’t mind rehearsal (once I’m there) and I like the other people in the show (There’s only 8 of us). But why am I stressing out so much about it that it wakes me up at night? I need to get over myself, know that I’ve got it, be confident in myself, and stop stressing. Right.

Yesterday we had a costume fitting and I was excited to see what I get to wear. A long white dr’s coat and scrubs. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Super tight blue capri leggings and a pink top go under my butterfly wings AND the cupcake outfit. Well, here’s a picture of the costume.

Do you see how short that is? That’s on a small lady, who is maybe a size 2. Imagine what happens when I put that same costume on my body. Let’s just say that without the leggings it would be slightly pornographic. The costume lady did say she was going to add something on to that, or maybe we’ll be wearing a tutu. Something to cover up the thighs, please. I really need to lose about 20 pounds from my hips and thighs, NOW, please. But that’s not going to happen, even with all the dancing and sweating I’ve been doing.

Anyway, I’m sure things will work out. I’m going to work on my memorization all weekend, do the dance in my living room, sing the songs in the shower, the car, at the piano, etc.

And YOU should plan to come see the show. Feb 9-27 on Mondays and Friday nights (also every week day at 10 am, but those are for school kids and not open to the public)

Let me start with….My hubby is the BEST, and without him, I would be throwing things (or people) through a window.

Sunday I went in for an interview with a member of the Stake Presidency who used to be our bishop. I told him we had these exchange students and that it wasn’t the smoothest of experiences we’ve had, in our years of hosting exchange students. He and his wife have also hosted Japanese boys and Chinese girls in the same program as we have, so I knew he would understand.

“15 year old boys?” he said, “And TWO of them? Why would anyone want to have Fifteen year old boys? I would rather have 12-13 year olds or 17-18 year olds. 15-16 year olds are about the WORST.”

Yeah, and we don’t really speak the same language either.

I’m trying not to complain too much, but when they got home from soccer playing at nearly 1:00 (on a school night? Yes) and then, just as hubby was coming back to bed and was falling asleep (I slept through their arrival, of course). There was a knock on our bedroom door because one of them had lost his phone and thought it was in the car. ARRGH!

I just sent an email to one of the coordinators asking if they could speak with the boys about courtesy, saying thank you, and generally trying to act a little nicer to the hosts. I don’t know if that will help, but I HOPE so. We’re into this thing 1 1/2 weeks, and we still have 2 1/2 weeks to go.

Ryan is the one who is driving them back and forth, so really I shouldn’t complain at ALL. Yet here I am. Complaining.

OK. I’m done. (with the complaining, that is.)

One of my least favorite things is driving kids places. I try to carpool and combine trips so I’m not just driving ONE kid to ONE place, but sometimes, that’s just what I do.

Today I feel like all I’ve been doing is driving people.

At 7:20 I took Natalie and 3 others to the high school.

At 8:55 I took the two Brazilian boys to the frontrunner station in Lehi. Instead of going home, I was going to make some copies, but I forgot to bring the materials, so I stopped at Costco to fill up the tank (love that gas is only $1.72!), and then drove to Orem for my rehearsal at the Scera. At 12:00 I was done, so I drove back home. Well, I actually stopped at Kneaders and got myself a salad for lunch.

The afternoon was pretty quiet, until about 4:45, when Natalie asked if I could pick up her friend and take them both to another friend’s house.

We had dinner, then I took Jenna to a friend’s house at 7:00.

I came back home, only to get a call from the boys that they were almost home and could I come get them at the station. Yes, of course. It’s my day to drive.

We ordered a pizza for them (delivery, please. I don’t want to go pick it up).

I’m so tired today. I think I might be getting a cold. I can’t fall asleep yet because I have to pick up Jenna and Natalie from their friend’s houses around 9. Then I can go to bed.

We picked up two cute 15 year old boys from Brazil on Sunday, Arthur and Henrique. We were there with our sign waiting to greet them, and the did not come. Another lady from the group said, “Those boys must have gotten lost. They were with us, and then they went to the bathroom, and I don’t know where they are.” That was nice of her to tell us, but we couldn’t go looking for them, and neither could she, so we just waited. The group of host families and students was grouped over by the luggage thing, and it looked like many of them were missing their luggage. When our 2 boys arrived, their luggage was also missing. No luggage for you. They assured us that it would probably come tonight and someone from American Airlines would bring it to our house. Ok.

So, we brought the boys home and let them get settled while we went to meetings. (Seriously? Why so many meetings? Both Jenna and I had interviews, we had to go to a different ward’s sacrament meeting because we would miss ours to pick up the boys, I had to present at “it’s great to be 8) and then there was a court of honor AND a fireside for 11 year old. We missed the fireside.) After dinner, I took the two boys to Wal Mart to buy some clothes. There I was, in the men’s underwear isle with two Brazillian boys. Not something I would ever imagine doing. I had a little trouble understanding that they needed pajamas, but eventually they made me understand. I had to show them how to use their debit cards, swipe, sign the pad, etc. Kind of fun.

Monday I had to rush out the door to be to the school by 7, so I didn’t see them. Ryan took them to the frontrunner station in Lehi, where they were to board the 7:45 train, then in Sandy they were supposed to switch to trax, which takes them to their school. I was a little worried about them finding their way, but since there were about 6 kids all doing the same trip, and some of them have already been here a week, we hoped they could follow them. And we had a map and directions printed out for them. They left the directions home. Ryan gave them his cell number. At around 8:30 he started getting the phone calls from a Brazilian number (someone’s mom is not going to be too happy about that). They had gotten on the wrong train and where should they go? He directed them, but got another call later. They had finally gotten to the stop they needed, but couldn’t find the school. They were at AutoZone. Ryan told them which way to walk and I think he called the school to tell them that our boys were lost. I didn’t know any of this was going on, as I hadn’t checked my phone until after 9. I called the school at 10 and they were indeed there. Cold and probably miserable, but there.

One of the coordinators called me later and said it’s good for them to get lost at first, then they won’t do it again. He also said that the boys were very cold. Yes, it’s cold in the basement. We had warmed it up a bit, but I guess it needs to be warmer. Instead of telling us or the coordinators, one of the boys told his mom, so then she told the school. Oh, great. We’re being tattled on.

I tried to install the whatsapp on my phone. I still couldn’t message the boys, though. We didn’t know what time they would be coming home on the train, IF they made it on the train. But the coordinator called to let me know he had taken them to the station and they should be with the group this time.

Just a long day. And on top of that, their luggage STILL didn’t come. All the others had their luggage. Ryan tried to figure it out, and was on the phone for over an hour (most of that on hold). I offered to wash their clothes, started some laundry for them, and went to bed. I was done. Craptastic day over.

What do you know, but the luggage came at 11:00. One of the bags was wrapped in plastic and quite damaged.

Don’t know what they did to that bag, but it’s missing a wheel, cracked in several places, and really banged up.

I asked Ryan to drive them all the way to the school today. They got to sleep in a bit longer, eat a little breakfast, and take that bag to the school so they can file a claim with United Airlines.

The first day with any exchange students has never been this hard. Let’s hope that we got all our bumps in the road over with and we can all have a great experience.