First Week of Cinderella Rehearsals - Brave enough to be bad at something new

What a WEEK! Last week the most exciting thing going on in my life was the fake plant I put in my bathroom window. 

This week there were lots and lots of exciting things. The main thing was that Charlotte, Lydia, and I started Cinderella rehearsals. And I started thinking about the quote that says, "Be Brave Enough to be Bad at Something New."  Because I feel very very very inadequate to be in this play. There are so many talented people in the play and I'm just kind of there like, "hey this sounded fun."  And it is fun, but I'm also like, "What did I get myself into. The only musical I've ever been a part of was when I was in the orchestra for Once Upon a Mattress in High School."  

But then I remember that I'm Being Brave Enough to be Bad at Something New. I'll tell you more about it as we go over the week. 

Actually, Monday was the inauguration and I'm pretty certain you don't want to hear my thoughts on THAT so let's just skip over that topic and the boring stuff about work and the kids going to school and start with the rehearsal. 

First of all we have to talk about the Orpheum Building. Most of the building is the theatre, but the are some classrooms in the front of the building. The building is three stories tall. The first story is the lobby of the theatre. The second story isn't easily accessible from the lobby. You actually reach it via a staircase outside the building. That staircase takes you to the second floor. The second floor has Jarod's office where he does meetings and voice lessons. There are also some small classrooms. One of these small rooms is where the auditions happened. 

From the second floor you go up another staircase to the third floor. The third floor has a long narrow room. It has a wood floor and some big mirrors that can be moved around. This room is where Veronica has her theatre class. It's also where every play starts rehearsals. They spend weeks doing rehearsals up in this room while other plays have their sets on the main stage. It's only in the last few weeks that the rehearsals move to the main stage.

So on Monday we arrived at the theatre and waited on the second floor while the teenage theatre group did their rehearsal for Descendants. They finished at 7:30 and we moved up stairs. Everyone set up chairs in a circle. 

We were welcomed by a man named Chris. Fun back story about Chris - remember when my family went to see "The Play that Goes Wrong" out in Rupert and the family in front of us turned around and said they loved hearing our kids laugh?  Well that was Chris, his wife Karin (pronounced like Corrine), and their son Kaden. Kaden and Chris had been in the Twin Falls version of that play and Karin and Chris had helped with set design. Anyway, that's Chris. 

He explained he'd be operating as the stage manager and be something of a go between for Jarod who was directing. We were told that if we had a question we should go to Chris and he would take it to Jarod.  That way Jarod didn't get asked the same question by 7 people. Apparently, that is a new way of doing things. 

Chris had us go around and introduce ourselves really fast. Then Jarod talked about some director things. And he introduced the creative team who would be helping with music and choreography.

When all that was done they handed out scripts and music books and we started with the read through. Everyone was just kind of sitting where ever and we'd pause every so often so Jarod could assign out little lines. When we came to songs everyone sang along to the Broadway recordings.   

Even in it's rough shape it was exciting to see the play taking shape. This version of Cinderella has all the original music from the Rodger's and Hammerstein production, but the story and dialog was rewritten in 2000. All the characters have a little more depth. 

And honestly, the story felt very timely with the backdrop of the inauguration. There is injustice in the land that the prince doesn't know about. The whole reason his advisor wants to have a wedding is to distract the people from their problems. The "Prince is Giving a Ball" scene literally has the people listening to a revolutionary character and then getting distracted by the announcement of the ball. And when Cinderella meets the Prince she talks to him about the injustice. 

I was like, "Oh THIS is what I need to be a part of right now. I can really get behind some subversive art." I don't know if anyone else thinks its subversive. But I do. 

My friend Rachel is Cinderella. She was Brandon's dance partner in Spamalot. Kaden is Prince Topher. A lot of the other principal characters were new to me or people I don't know quite yet. But they are all super talented. It was fun to hear them reading their lines and singing.    

As the night went on we had to kind of hurry things along. We skipped a lot of songs in Act II and at 10:10 Jarod said that we'd call it a night. We didn't quite get to the end of the play. I was like, "Wait, what happens at the end?" 

But I was also excited to get home. I figured we'd find out the end soon enough. 

When we got home I walked in through the back door and immedately saw that Brandon had replaced the light over the stairs. It used to be just a globe fixture over the back door. Now it's a fancy hangy down light that is centered with the other lights. It looks so good and gives off a lot of light. 

The big event on Tuesday was the kids dentist appointment after school at 4:00. But it literally dominated my day. I had to work backward from that 4:00 appointment and figure out when and where I needed to pick everyone up. And that determined what time I went to work. 

So I started out the morning at Castle Therapy at 11:00 and I worked there for about 30 minutes. Then I drove over to Aspen Grove and worked there until 2:15. Then I drove to Derrick's school and picked him up around 2:30. We were at the house by 3:00 and Veronica came home from school a little after tht.. At 3:40 we went to the middle school and picked up Charlotte and Lydia. I'd already emailed my friend (and cast-mate) Kerri who is the Attendance Secretary so that she could sent the notices to have the girls waiting for me in the office.

And then we drove to the dentist and were there in time for the appointment at 4:00. Whew!

But that wasn't all. Veronica had theatre at 4:15. I knew we'd never make it by that time, but the dentist is really quick so there was a good chance she could make it to most of her class. And yes, the dentist was quick. They had everyone done by 4:30. 

So then we rushed over to the Orpheum. We hit EVERY red light so we weren't there until 4:45. I dropped off Veronica and then took the kids home. Then it was basically time to turn around and pick up Veronica again at 5:15. 

WHAT A DAY! Thankfully, no one had cavities and Brandon made dinner.  

I took a nap after dinner so I could actually have a personality at rehearsal. Rehearsal started at 7:00 this time because Descendants didn't have their rehearsal. Ensemble was upstairs on the third floor working on music while the principals were downstairs on the second floor working on blocking scenes. 

My friend Cami is the music director. As soon as I got there she said, "Valerie, I have you and your girls singing Alto." I was like, "Wait what?"

Here's the thing. My range is probably in the Alto range. But try telling that to my brain. My brain can only hear melody, it can only follow melody, and it only wants to sing melody. And that means that the majority of the time I'm a soprano. 

So then I spent the rest of the night trying to sit really close to Karin and and Carol who were strong Altos and trying to follow them. But two little altos were nothing compared to the like 10 sopranos. I'd sing the alto part just fine when we were singing along with the piano, but as soon as the sopranos were added in I found myself singing the higher notes. 

Yep, I was definitely being brave to be bad at something new.

In the end I came to a kind of understanding with myself. I was like, "Well I'm going to try my hardest here. But Cami never actually asked me what part I'd feel comfortable singing so she is just going to get what she gets here."

It was still fun to learn the songs. We are allowed to mark up our books and I'd brought a high lighter. I showed Charlotte and Lydia how to mark our parts and they had fun marking things. We all shared a book and they took care of turning the pages. I was really happy that they both play instruments because it means they can read the music notations like rests and quarter notes and stuff like that.  

We were done with our rehearsal around 8:45 when the Principals came upstairs to work on their songs with Cami. It was nice to get home rather early. 

While we'd been at rehearsal Brandon had taken Derrick and Veronica over to the church. He showed Derrick the sacrament trays and talked to him about passing the sacrament. Up to this point Derrick had been refusing to pass the sacrament. On Sunday's he and Brandon always sit behind the boys who are passing the sacrament. They always invite him and he always says no. But last week he'd seemed more interested than before. 

So Brandon talked him through the process and Derrick was like, "I know how to do it all."  He'd been watching and paying close attention to those boys for the last year. But he still didn't seem like he was interested in doing it yet. 

On Wednesday morning Derrick was reading over the calendar. He was saying something about each day of the week and then he said, "And on Sunday I'll pass the Sacrament."  And I was like, "Really!  You want to do that?"  And he was like, "Yes."

So then I was like, "Okay there are a few things we need to do." I immediately texted the contact who scheduled youth interviews with the bishop. I asked, "Is there a way we can get Derrick interviewed this week and ordained on Sunday morning?" The guy texted back that Derrick could meet with a member of the bishopric that night before young mens. 

That morning we had my second ladies scripture study group of the year. We were on Chapter 2 of the Book Restoration. This chapter talks about how we are called to restore Israel. The author, Patrick Mason, has a lot of really good points in this chapter. The final point is that part of restoring Israel is reaching out to people who are marginalized. He quoted from Luke Chapter 4 verses 18-19 where Jesus reads the words of Isaiah. 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

This scripture tied in perfectly with a post my friend had written for the Exponent on Inauguration Day. It was titled, "This Inauguration Day We Need a Little Christmas." In the post she quoted the poem The Work of Christmas by Howard Thurman. 

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

Jori was the only one who was at scripture study this week. And that was probably good because we were processing  A LOT of emotions from the inauguration. We talked for a long time. 

That evening Brandon took Derrick and Veronica to the church and I took Charlotte and Lydia to rehearsal. Derrick was able to meet with Brother Rollins. He has an autistic song too. So he's really good with Derrick. (All Derrick's leaders are good with him, but I'm always glad that a member of the bishopric gets it.) Brandon said that Derrick kept trying to talk about Godzilla all through the interview. But despite that he was deemed ready to be ordained. 

Brandon was supposed to text the executive secretary about getting a time set up for the ordination on Sunday. But he forgot and I'm the better texter anyway. So I got that all set up for 11:00 on Sunday. 

That night at rehearsal we mostly worked on "The Prince is Giving a Ball."  That was so fun! All the men were working on a few scenes downstairs so all the women were upstairs. I sat by the lady playing the evil step mother - in this play her name is Madame. She was fun to sit with. 

By the time we were done working on that song a lot of the men had made it upstairs. So we ran through the song with most of the principal characters. It was great to hear it come together. 

For some reason on Thursday I felt like my phone was constantly giving me notifications. It was like every single person in my world needed to tell me something. I was at work and trying to get stuff done, but a lot of people kept interrupting me. They were good interruptions because they were people that had insurance change at the beginning of the year but they'd only just figured out who their new insurance companies were. So I was getting things updated, but I wasn't able to do the things I'd actually planned to do that day. 

I left work feeling really frazzled. I was home in time for Veronica to get home. She brough home her recorder. Now most people say that listening to a 5th grader play the recorder is not a great experience, but I found it oddly relaxing. 

She was playing little songs that she made up. She sounded really good. Then she wanted me to play the recorder and she'd guess the name of the note. And that's how I found out that Veronica can recognize notes. She was like, "Oh that's a B" and I was like, "What the heck?"

She's been talking about wanted to play either the viola or bass next year. I've been kind of like, "Um maybe that's not for you." I worried that she wouldn't be able to learn to read the music since she struggles with reading already, But after listening to her play the recorder and talk about music notes I was like, "Oh maybe you would be good at that."  The girl already has a really decent sense of rhythm - more than I EVER had as a bass player so I guess she should try. 

After Charlotte and Lydia came home I went and took a nap. My phone was still having lots of interruptions so I turned on Do not Disturb. I've never done that before. 

That night we were back on the 3rd floor for rehearsal. I kept having the lines of the song "At The Ballet" go through my head. 

Up a steep and very narrow stairway

To the voice like a metronome

Up a steep and very narrow stairway

It wasn't paradise

It wasn't paradise

It wasn't paradise

But it was home

The stairs up to the third floor aren't exactly steep or narrow, but there are a lot of them. And the room at the top was beginning to feel like home. I thought it was kind of funny that I'm the fifth person in the family to practice for a play up here. Brandon was first, then Charlotte and Lydia, then Veronica, and now me. 

Rehearsal went well, but I was getting very tired. Nothing was really sticking in my brain. I was really glad when we were done around 9:00. But I was also proud. We'd made it through our first week!

At home we came home to a big empty space in our kitchen.  Brandon had pulled down the odd cupboard that was over the stairs. We hadn't come up with a good plan for it so we'd decided to just take it all down so we didn't have to worry about it in 3-5 years when we move the stairs and turn this area into the dinning room.

Here it is looking all open. 

And for fun, here's a throwback to what it used to look like less than a month ago.

On Sunday Lydia's sunday school teachers had given her an old green sheet to use for dress making. She'd worked with it all week and had nearly finished it by the time we left for rehearsals. So as soon as we got home she put it on and let me take a picture. I sent it to her Sunday School teachers. They were so impressed. 

I slept really well on Thursday night and so when I woke up on Friday I was like, "I'm going to get so much stuff done at work!"

And I did. 

I went there as soon as I dropped the girls off at the middle school. So that was about 8:45. I was at work nearly 5 hours. Which I know doesn't sound like much when most people work an 8 hour day. But I usually work 3 hour days and consider 4 hours to be a long day. So 5 hours was definitely a lot. I got so much done. It was really nice. 

Back at home I had a little break and then went to the school for a big-ish meeting. Veronica has been really struggling at school since the break. So last week I emailed her teacher and asked if we could meet to go over a few things. 

She set up the meeting for Friday after school. Veronica and I were both at the meeting. So was Veronica's main teacher, and her SPED teacher. We also had the new 5th grade teacher come too. The 5th graders rotate to different teachers for Math, Reading, and Social Studies. The Reading teacher had quit or been fired or resigned or something right before Christmas. So this new teacher was trying to learn like 60+ kids. Veronica had been really struggling in his class and I was like, "Does he even know you have an IEP?"  

That was one of the things I'd emailed her teacher about. She'd made sure to let that teacher know about Veronica's IEP and he read over it. So things got better for Veronica. But we still wanted him in the meeting just so he could get up to speed. 

It was a really good meeting. Veronica's teacher was Derrick's 5th grade teacher. The SPED teacher was Derrick's 4th grade teacher. So I have a lot of history with these two teachers. They are great to work with. 

Then we came home and I went straight to my room for a nap. I was mentally tapped out. 

Brandon came home and he and the kids made pizza for dinner. 

I really wanted to do nothing all evening. But we had plans to go to Sun Valley the next day. So I spent a lot of time getting things ready for that. I found the snow pants and had the kids try them on to see which ones fit who. I think all our snow pants might be hand-me-downs from Kaymie's teenage boys. 

Then I asked the kids, "Who want's to wear wool socks tomorrow?"  They all said they did. Then I said, "Okay you all need to help find the wool socks because I only have one pair right now." For context we should have had at least 12 pairs in the house - somewhere.

We figured out that Derrick had worn a pair that day and Charlotte was currently wearing a pair. So that brough us up to 3 pairs. Then Brandon found another pair in his emergency stuff he'd packed in the car in case we got stuck driving to or from Utah for Christmas.  So that brough us up to 4.

I told Brandon he needed to do a shake down of the kids rooms. The kids swore they didn't have any socks in their rooms. But he went into the twins rooms and went through the blankets on the beds and then crawled under the bed. This is what the laundry basket was looking like after he was done with the twins room. And then he went into Veronica's room and found like 12 more socks.  

We washed all the socks and had tons and tons of regular pairs and like 9 pairs of the wool socks. 

After all that I spent most of the evening reading the 4th stormlight book. I'm going though this one a lot slower because I rehearsals are cutting into my evening reading time. And because I actually don't really like this one as much as the others. This will mean nothing to most of you, but I really hate the Venli chapters. I'm always disappointed when I come to a Venli chapter and I often fall asleep during them when I'm reading after rehearsals. 

On Saturday we got up around 8:00. Brandon had already taken care of finding the sleds in the garage and getting the food packed. So really we just had to get dressed and eat breakfast. 

Everyone was really excited to go to Sun Valley. The first time we'd been to Sun Valley was exactly 5 years ago on Saturday January 25th 2020. (I didn't know it was exactly 5 years, but later in the day the first trip popped up in the Facebook Memories.) On that trip we'd gone sledding on Penny Hill and then gone skating at Christina Potter's Ice Pond in Ketchum. This was all in the "before times" before Covid disrupted everything. 

We'd come back the next year in January of 2021. Thanks to Covid the free skates hadn't been available at the ice pond. But we'd still had fun playing in the snow. 

And then we didn't come back. The winters of 2022, 2023, and 2024 had lots of snow. So we had plenty of fun with snow at home in Twin Falls and didn't really feel the need to go up to Sun Valley for more snow. 

This winter has been mild and we haven't had much snow at all. In fact, my friends in Alabama lived through a once in a hundred year snow storm that week and had like 4 inches of snow. It was way more snow than we've had all winter. Even my sister in Houston had snow at her house. But no snow for us. 

So we decided we needed to go up to Sun Valley to "Visit Winter." And we invited Jori's family to come with us. 

At 9:00 we drove over to Jori's house. Her kids were all waiting in the car and so I went to talk to them for a second while Jori and Tim got the last of their things together. The kids were so excited. They told me, "We are going ICE SKATING. This will be our first time!"

Jori's family followed our car up to Sun Valley. It was about an hour and 45 minutes away. When we got there Jori said we were the easiest people she'd ever followed. 

My kids and Jori's kids were so excited. I took them over to the racks of ice skates that were by the ice rink. They were just out there on the honors system for anyone to borrow and skate with. It was quite the production to get all 8 kids in the correct size skates and laced up. But eventually everyone was on the ice. 

Charlotte and Lydia and Derrick are really comfortable skating because they all went roller skating weekly during the summer they spent in daycare. They were far across the ice as I tried to take some pictures. 

But soon they came closer. 

I was just out there in my boots. My days of balancing on skates ended when my foot tendon decided to freak out several years ago.  I held Jori's kids hands as they got comfortable on their skates. 


Derrick is like my skating savant. He's so good at balancing and skating fast. 



Veronica on the other hand . . . . balance isn't her strong suit in regular situations. She was really struggling with skates. She ended up sitting in a chair and I pushed her around. 



And then we decided to just have her in boots like me. I walked around on the ice with her to help her practice. Here's another selfie. 

And then I took off my glasses so we could be twinners. She's such a mini me.


Here's Derrick playing on the ice with Veronica. He was holding her hand to help her feel stable. But later she was just fine and running around. 


We'd brough everything for a picnic lunch and had hoped to eat in the building next to the pond. But it was locked. So instead we moved a picnic bench into the sun and ate there. I'd been warm on the ice, but I got cold sitting there and had to get my coat. 


Then we were back on the ice. The kids had fun playing. 

Here I am taking yet another selfie. I was really loving my hat. My ministering sister Jennifer MADE it for me for my birthday last year. But I didn't get a lot of opportunities to wear it after my birthday. So I was really loving it today. 


Most of the kids had moved over to playing at a playground. One of Jori's was still out on the ice loving life with skates. I had fun just talking with Jori and Tim. 

After about three hours the kids seemed like they were done. Mine were asking about sledding and some of Jori's were getting tired. 

So we split up. They went home and we drove over to Penny Hill. I'd invited Jori to this as well, but I'd also cautioned her that it was incredibly steep. I wasn't sure if her little kids could handle it. So they didn't do it this time. 

We parked and the kids and Brandon all put on their snow pants. Then we walked over to the hill with our sleds. 


There are two parts to Penny Hill. The low front hill and the HIGHER hill in the back. We were just planning to do the front hill, but there were a few other people who braved the big hill. 


Veronica went down the face of the low hill and had quite the wipe out followed by a tumble. It looked bad and knocked the wind out of her. I was really worried that the trip was ruined for her. But she kept sledding - from the less steep face. 

Derrick kept saying, "I've missed sledding. I'm so happy!"

Here's a video of the kids sliding down. And I FINALLY remembered to film it in landscape so it would upload as a regular video and not a short. 

Here I am. I was NOT sledding because I value my spine.

Brandon wasn't going to sled. But the kids talked him into it. He went down on his stomach and that helped him not injure his spine. 


I hiked up to the top of the little hill. Here's the view. You can see Dollar Mountain back there. There's a ski lift up to the top of that. 


Here are the girls taking a break with Brandon. 


We'd left a few hats halfway down the hill. Derrick aimed his sled for them and slid down. He grabbed one as he slid past. It was such a fluid motion. 

Here's another video I took from the top. 

In that video Veronica went down on Brandon's back. She rolled off and then didn't get up for bit. When she did get up she didn't come back up the hill. She went and sat in the snow with Brandon. I hiked back down to her and she was saying she was dizzy. So she and I started heading back to the car. There had also been an off camera crash with Derrick and Lydia. And it was seeming like it was able time to go before anything super dangerous happened. So Brandon stayed with the other kids while they did one or two more runs and then they followed me and Veronica to the car. 

I handed everyone ibuprofen as they gave me their wet gloves. I was like, "You are going to need this."

Then we had oreos in the car as we drove away from Sun Valley. Before everyone fell asleep I asked them which they liked more, ice skating or sledding. Derrick liked sledding the most. Charlotte and Lydia liked them both the same. And Veronica was silent which we interpreted as she disliked them both equally. 

Brandon drove for about 40 minutes, but then was super tired. So I took over for the rest of the way home. 

At home we had a fend for yourself night for dinner. That meant Derrick had corn dogs and the rest of us had burritos. Then I crawled in bed with the book and had a lovely night reading. 

My mom emailed me about how much she liked Veronica's rock display case. That reminded me that I never took a picture of what Veronica had done to it. She's added many rocks to each little square. So I took a picture of that. 

Veronica said she was still hurting on her head her neck and her tail bone. So I gave her more ibuprofen before bed. I also rubbed her neck with my lidocaine stuff. She said that helped. 

On Sunday morning Jori and I had plans to hang out yet again. Earlier in the week we'd both been super impressed by Bishop Mariann Budde's sermon at the Inaugural Pray Service at the National Cathedral. She'd concluded the sermon with these words. 

Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people, the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, wadara and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands, to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honour the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. The good of all people in this nation and the world.

I'd read that to the kids on Tuesday night. And an idea started percolating in my brain. Bishop Budde is an Episcopal Bishop. And for the past several months I'd been thinking about attending an Episcopal service. The idea came partly from the At Last She Said It podcast. One of the hosts had started attending an Episcopal church as an experiment and had been very moved by the fact that women could be ordained. She made me want to see it for myself. And now that my ward meets at 12:00 there was time for me to attend their 9:00 AM service. 

At first I was just going to go by myself. But I decided to invite Jori along. Inviting Jori is basically my default mode at this point and she'd gone to Mass with me last year so I figured she'd want to come to this too. 

So she picked me up at 8:35 and drove us over there. I told her, "I have no idea what the political leanings of this particular church might be. They might not fully agree with Bishop Budde. But I want to see if they say anything. 

The service was really lovely. The Episcopal church is very close to the Catholic church so the service was laid out a lot like catholic mass.  There was a reading from the Old Testament. And later there was a reading from the New Testament. And what do you know the assigned reading - in a cycle of reading that is centuries old - was Luke 4:14-21.

And so for the second time in a week I read:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

So that scripture is following me now.

Right after that the Reverend gave his sermon. And in the sermon he praised Bishop Budde. I was like, "YES!!!!!!!"

When it was all over I shook his hand at the end and quickly thanked him for talking about Bishop Budde. I said, "We were so impressed by what she said. We wanted to come see what this church was like."

I came home from that feeling so good and light. It had been a beautiful experience. But it wasn't the only good experience of the day. Because about 30 minutes later we all went to the church for Derrick to be ordained a deacon. 

Someone had texted the deacon's quorum presidency and invited them to come. So three of Derrick friends were there. Two of the adult leaders were there too. Brother Rollins from the bishopric was there. (the bishop was out of town.) Brandon and Brother Rollins were the only ones who did the ordination. Brandon was the one who did it. 

When he was done Derrick said, "I'm a grown man now!"  

We had about 30 minutes before we would be there for church so there really wasn't a point to going back home. So we just went to the stage and hung out. Derrick let me take his picture. 

When it was time for Sacrament Meeting he went and sat with the other Deacons. Brandon sat on the row behind him. When they got up to pass the sacrament Brandon followed Derrick and walked right with him so Derrick wouldn't be nervous. Derrick did really well. We had lots of people come up to us and congratulate him and say he did such a good job. 

He was so happy to have finally done it. And I was really happy for him to have done it on his own timeline. 

And then as if all that wasn't enough we also had a fabulous Relief Society lesson. The teacher got really venerable and it was beautiful. 

I came home from church and had to take a nap because I was just so spiritually worn out. 

And that gets us caught up again. 

Next week we start choreography rehearsals so I get to be brave and be bad at another new thing. 

I'll tell you all about it next week. 

Thanks for reading. 

More January stuff

I'm kind of running out of interesting things to say about these January weeks. So let's just jump on in and start talking about the week. 

Oh actually we need to start out with talking about something I forgot from last week. Last Thursday my friends Kori and Chandler hosted a "We survived Christmas Break Brunch" at Kori's house. It was for moms and the people who came were either from the ward or from our bunco group. It was really fun.

Along those same lines, I've been trying to think of something fun to do for my 40th birthday. So on Saturday night I was brainstorming ideas. Everything was either not going to work with a February birthday or too complicated. Then I went to get into my pajamas and I was like, "My favorite things right now are my pajamas."  And then I was like, "THAT'S IT!"  

So I'm doing a pajama party for my birthday. It's going to be so fun. Everyone can come in their pajamas. We'll have yummy food, Brandon will make mocktails, and then we'll watch a movie. Jori is coming and we can talk for hours so there is a high chance this might end up being an accidental sleepover. It's going to be so much fun. 

So on Sunday morning I started texting out the invitations. I invited like 40 people - yeah that's a lot. But several people said they couldn't make it so I think we'll fit in the house. 

Sunday was a interesting day. We had a double mission farewell at church so Sacrament Meeting was packed. We ended up in the overflow area which is really unheard of for us because we LOVE the benches. 

It was the first Sunday with new deacons passing the sacrament and for a minute I was kind of panicking for those new deacons. But then I realized that we only had two boys move up from Primary. Most of the boys were from the giant class of deacons that have now been passing the sacrament for a year. So even though it was still complicated for those boys to get the sacrament passed to everyone they did a great job. 

Derrick meanwhile is still scared of passing the sacrament. He doesn't want to be ordained because then he will have to pass the sacrament. (Have to is a strong word. No one will actually make him do it. But in his mind that's how it will be.)  So normally Derrick and Brandon sit one row behind the deacons while they take care of the sacrament. Then they come sit down with the family when the deacons are done. That's all Derrick is comfortable doing right now and that's just fine.  

Also in Sacrament meeting they reorganized the Relief Society Presidency which was interesting and the bishop teased that there are more changes are coming next week. 

Then we had Relief Society and that was a DISASTER. The talk we were studying was by Brad Wilcox and, well I have a hard time with him. But my issues are NOTHING compared to Jori's. She can't stand the man at all. As soon as they announced the talk I was trying to catch Jori's eye. But we were sitting at kind of opposite sides of the room and at odd angles so she couldn't see me. 

In hindsight what I should have done was stood up and said something like, "I'm sorry, this is nothing against anyone in this room, but Jori and I need to leave." And then walked over to where Jori was sitting and pulled her out of there. 

But I didn't. The teacher said that she was combining the lesson with another talk so I was hopeful thing would go okay. But I really should have known better. 

Jori left after 10 minutes. I made it until about 15 minutes before the class ended. I was out of sorts all afternoon. 

After work on Monday I went over to Jori's and we spent a while processing things. My biggest issue right now is that Relief Society often feels like Young Women's in 1999, but I'm a grown up in 2025. I would like my lessons to be transformational - not a rehash of the greatest feel good hits of yesteryear. 

All I can think is that THANK GOODNESS I have my scripture study group because I would be losing my mind without it. 

Okay, that's all heavy. Let's look at some pictures. Charlotte got some more fuse beads for Christmas so she's been going crazy with those. She made all these things and put them on her wall. I really should have put something in here for scale. That sword is like 2 and a half feet long. 

I'm DEEP into trying to figure out how to decorate my house when we are done with the refresh. My co-worker/friend Jeanette just took over one of our offices and she repainted the walls. I LOVE the green on her wall and took a picture to show Brandon. And then I laughed because I realized why I love the green. It's the same green as my living room run and the green console table. So maybe my house wont look that different when I'm done. 

Speaking of the house, Brandon actually had energy afterwork on Tuesday. He started patching the drywall in the spots where the wall used to be. Charlotte helped him a lot. 

This is our current view from the living room right now. We have the microwave and a cupboard full of kitchen stuff in our living room. It's odd, but it's working. 

Here's Charlotte learning how to add drywall plaster to the wall. 

On Wednesday I didn't have work or my scripture study group. This year we are doing the scripture study group every other week. So that means I had a whole day to myself - sort of - I did have to take Veronica to therapy that morning. My big goal for the day was to deep clean my bathroom. When it was all done I planned to put this little fake plant into my windowsill. Thinking about that kept me going through the huge project. 

The main part of the project was scrubbing out the shower. You may recall that I've been trying to figure out the best way to get soap scum off of the shower. It's been a process and I haven't full figured it out - until now. 

I tried scrubbing it with a drywall sanding sheet. I already knew that those worked really well at getting hard water off of toilets without scratching the porcelain. I wondered if it would work the same on a fiberglass shower. And it DID.  It took probably an hour and a half of scrubbing, but I got it all off.  

And then we really got to admire how clean it was because in the process of scrubbing everything I accidently broke the little track that helps guide the shower doors on the bottom. In the evening Brandon and I went to Lowes to buy a new one, but they didn't actually have one in stock. So we had to order one. (It would have taken two weeks to come in from Lowes so we just ordered it from Amazon.)  But we all NEEDED showers that day. So we bought a shower curtain, rod, and rings and set all that up until the part comes in this week. 

I'd finished the 3rd Stormlight book on Sunday night and I'd been hoping to get the next one at the library on Monday. But the interlibrary loan took longer than I thought. The book didn't come in until Wednesday afternoon. I was at the library like 15 minutes after they sent me the text that it was available. I was like, "Am I an addict or what?"

Actually I had to wait to start it because I had been reading another book in the meantime. (My favorite thing is to read in bed for about an hour before I go to sleep so I always NEED a book.) I was reading The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop and it was so interesting. 

That night something that I've been dreaming of for a while came true - I was able to take all the kids to their church activities AT THE SAME TIME. For years I've been driving back and forth to the church for girls activity, and boys activity, and young womens, and young mens. But this week all four kids are finally all in the youth program together. I drove all four of them to the church at 7:00. And then we all drove home together at 8:00. 

I actually hung around in the foyer because the boys were practicing passing the sacrament and I wasn't sure how long Derrick would appreciate that. He made it about 20 minutes. Then he came out and hung out with me. But when the boys were done they had some sort of impromptu tag game and Derrick loved being a part of that. The bishops son was even giving Derrick a piggy back ride at one point. 

This was Veronica's first week of Young Women's and she LOVED it. They played games and she had a great time. 

Lydia has been having a lot of fun with her dress making mannequin. She's moved onto a second dress. It's white which means the mannequin is even more unsettling than before. I keep thinking its a person. I'll see it and think it's a kid I lost track of, I'll even try to talk to it and say things like, "Oh, I didn't know you were home!"  And then I'm like "Stupid Mannequin!"

On Thursday I had work at Castle Therapy and then Aspen. When I'm working at Castle Therapy I'm just in Ivan's therapy room while he's working at elementary schools. Most of the building is a Physical Therapy clinic. They play music really loud. Sometimes I don't really care about their music so I'll listen to my own. I'd just finished the Kelly Bishop book. She'd talked about helping create her Tony winning role in A Chorus Line. The words in the song "At the Ballet" were based on her life. So I decided to listen to that song and all the others from A Chorus Line. 

I liked At the Ballet - but I really liked the song "Nothing."  It was so interesting. Throughout the rest of the week I randomly sang, "This course is NOTHING."  And it made me feel better. 

At home on Thursday Brandon was able to do more drywall on the ceiling.  

The evidence of the wall is slowly disappearing. 

We are still stumped about what we are doing with this area. The current plan is to pull it all down. But so far we haven't done that. 

On Friday Derrick had an awards assembly at school. He "earned" all A's in first semester. So he was recognized for Academic Excellence. And yeah, that's kind of laughable, but it's been a lot of work to go to school every day and to stay all day. It's a huge improvement over last year. So I think it was worth celebrating. 

They have a big gym with bleachers at the top. So the parents sat in the bleaches and the kids sat down below. They did it by grade so here's all the 7th graders sitting for their assembly. 

And then they had the kids who got awards all stand together for a picture. 

After that we all went into the cafeteria for donuts. Here's Derrick showing off his award. 

When we were done with our donuts I checked Derrick out. I think that leaving school an hour early was probably Derrick's favorite part. 

The assembly took place a little bit before Veronica would be done with school. I'd asked Jori to take Veronica home with her daughter because I wasn't sure I'd get back in time. We made it home a few minutes after Veronica made it to Jori's. She didn't want to leave so she stayed there for about 30 minutes. 

That night Brandon and I went to Mocktail night at the library for the third year in a row. It was so fun. The options for the night were an expresso mocktail that I would have avoided anyway, but really avoided because it was not decaf and I didn't need that in my life at 6:30 PM. Another option was called the Ranch Girl and had tomato juice, Barbeque sause, and lime juice. I wasn't brave enough to get it myself so I was just sharing Brandon's. It was terrible, but I also kind of liked it. I decided that if I'd been eating fries it would have been really good. 

The one I preferred was a rosemary and grapefruit combo that was really good.  

The mocktail night was also paired with trivia. We were on a team with a guy named Kevin. That's to him we got the question about the only football team to have an undefeated season. (Answer Miami Dolphins in 1972.)  Brandon knew the name of that melting clocks painting. (Persistence of Memory.) And I knew a bunch of other ones. 

But all that was nothing because we bet it all in the last round and then lost it all.  Oh well the real fun is the friends we made along the way. Kevin was new to Twin Falls, but by the end of the night we'd nearly convinced him to try out for the next Magic Valley Rep production. 

When we got home Lydia had finished her latest outfit. 

On Saturday we cleaned the house really well. I was inspired to continue my bathroom cleaning blitz. I moved onto the kids bathroom. I spent nearly an hour scrubbing at a hard water stain at the bottom of the tub. In the past I've tried to get this off with a special attachment for Brandon's drill. But that didn't really work. The drywall sanding patches though did the trick. I finally got that stain off. And I finished the room by adding another fake plant. 

Here's a bigger view of the bathroom. I'd also taken off the shelf above the counter and stained it and then put it back. It looks so much better. 

On Sunday Derrick was the first one up. He and I were looking at the new 2025 Idaho Visitor's Guide. We had fun looking at that.  Then he was like, "Oh Mom, we should go to Redfish Lake."  So then we got online and tried to look at campsites there. But it's on National Forest Land and the sites are so annoying to try to reserve. 

So instead I was like, "Hey let's look at Yellowstone campsites." It's been 4 years since we last visited Yellowstone. And that visit was 4 years after we'd lived there. So I've been saying that it's time to go back. I've been eyeing Memorial Day weekend, but haven't really planned anything yet. 

Derrick and I got on the website and I looked at campsites at the Madison campsite - and there were some available for Memorial Day weekend. And I booked them and I'm so freaking happy about it. 

Derrick shares my love for calendars so he was like, "Mom let's write it on the calendar!"  And I was like, "Yes, let's do that."

And then everyone else woke up and Derrick and I were like, "Guess what we planned!"  Everyone else was excited too. 

Church was actually good which was important because I'd spent half the morning pre-panicking about it. I just didn't want another stupid second hour.

The primary presidency was re-organized and so was the Elders Quorum. Then they had the new President's share their testimonies.  The Relief Society President talked about how she's felt so much more love for the women of the ward. Then she started giving shout outs to people. Turns out I was one of those people. She said something like, "And I have to mention Sister Illguth. She knows the scriptures so well."  She also said that when she taught Charlotte and Lydia in Primary they always knew the answers. 

I'd had my reservations about this new president. But dang that lady knew exactly what to say. One of my love language is words of affirmation. So when she praised me like that my little soul was like, "Oh you DO love me."

So that made me feel a lot better about church. And then I blew off Sunday school and spent the whole second hour talking with Jori in the foyer. So that helped too. 

After church the kids really really really wanted to get out of the house. Before church they'd been like, "Can we go on a hike? Can we go in the canyon? Can we see a waterfall?"

And Brandon was like, "Oh I know how to do all three of those things. Let's go to Pillar Falls."

As a recap. Pillar Falls is at the bottom of the Snake River Canyon. The only way down there is either kayaking from down stream or hiking down a very steep trail. Brandon and I tried the trail for the first time back in August. It was doable and we felt confident that the kids could also do it. So this meant it was time. 

So after church we had snacks and changed our clothes and then went to the canyon.   The kids were a little concerned when they saw how steep the trail was, but we assured them it was safe. 

As soon as I started down that trail my left knee was like, "Hey remember me? I got hit by a car several years ago, remember?"  So I had to hike super slow to keep my knee happy. But that meant I got a lot of good picture of the kids ahead of me. 

The high for the day was like 34 and we were on the south side of the canyon so there were lots of ice features everywhere. 

Here's a cool picture of the bridge. 

Proof I was there. 

This waterfall is always really cool to see. 

We finally made it down all the steep parts and could walk on level ground to the rivers edge. 

When Brandon and I came down here we hadn't been able to go any farther. But the water levels were lower this time of year. We were able to walk on a lip of rock around an outcropping of rock. Then we followed a trail. Along the way the kids explored this cave. 

They went up very high. 

We kept going and soon found ourselves near the various pillars of Pillar Falls. 

The area felt so alien. 

Here's more of the big stone outcroppings. 

Those are the main pillars over there. 

The kids explored another cave. 

Then they had fun "skating" on this pond. 

Here's the actual river flowing between rock outcroppings. 

The water flowed through these pillars and then down to make the falls part of pillar falls. 

Here I am with the big pillars. 

I liked these little circles carved in the rocks. 

Here's more of the river. You can see a lot of ice falls on the cliffs above. 

Derrick liked trying to crack the ice. 

It was about 4:30 and we could have hoped over the river at an area where the rocks were close and kept exploring, but the wind was blowing pretty strong in that area and the kids were cold. Plus it had taken us about 90 minutes to get that far and I was worried about it getting dark on the way out if we stayed much longer.  So we started going back. 

There were these odd stairs on a pipe so we decided to try that instead of going up a steep portion of the trail. They were a short cut, but they were not easy. 

I was so winded by about 10 stairs. I had to take so many breaks before I made it to the top. 

Here's more ice falls. 

I was super slow going back up the trail, but I made it. At one point all the kids were waiting for me. When I made it to them they pointed out a porcupine in a tree. 

I was so hot by the end that I took off my coat. It felt so good to be in just my tee-shirt. I let Charlotte borrow my coat. But then we had about a quarter mile walk back to the car and I kind of wished I had my coat by the time we were done with that. 

We came home and everyone talked about how great the hike had been. Veronica said she liked the waterfall area, but she would NEVER do that hike again. 

Brandon made dinner. My knee was fine, but I was expecting problems from my foot. So I took ibuprofen and told Brandon I probably wouldn't be able to walk that night. But it was actually okay. A little sore, but nothing too bad. I've been trying to go for hour long walks about every other day and I think those are paying off because my foot handled that hike way better than I expected. 

I spent the rest of the night reading the 4th Stormlight book. 

And that gets us caught up to today. And today is special because we start rehearsals for Cinderella tonight!  I'm so excited!