Last Week of School

This last week has been so wonderful. For one, it was the last week of school. The kids finished school on Thursday. That feels so nice. 

Second, the weather has been PERFECT. We had a little bit of a cold spell over the weekend when the overnight temperatures were going into the 30's, but that ended on Monday and we've had just the best weather. It hasn't been too hot or cold. I've basically been living outside. (I'm writing this on the patio right now.)

And third, my hives seemed to disappear for most of the week. They came back with a vengeance on Saturday, but it was nice to have a reprieve. 

So let's go through this wonderful week. 

Monday was a pretty simple day. Work and school were all pretty typical. After Veronica was home from school I took her swim suit shopping. This is an annual tradition where I take one or more of my girls to various stores to look at swim suits. We hate everything on display. And then come home and buy something online. Veronica and I tried, Walmart, Target, and Fred Meyer. Everything was awful. And then we found what we were looking for on Amazon. The tradition continues. 

The big news on Monday was waiting for the cast list for Seussical. I checked so many times throughout the day to see if it was posted. I was also on pins and needles hoping for my friend Andrea to get cast. Brandon is part of the creative team. So even through he wasn't part of the casting decisions he was on the app where a lot of the conversations were happening. He was pretty silent about what he knew, but when he left for work in the morning he told me, "the creative team has about three more phone calls to make today. So Andrea isn't out of the running yet."

I was so happy when Andrea texted me in the afternoon saying she'd been called and offered and ensemble role. She also told me her daughter Capri had the role of Jojo. I was like, "Yay, our dreams of doing this show with our daughters are coming true."

But I still had to wait for that cast list. When Brandon was home from work he told me he could see the list, but they were getting some spelling errors in people's names corrected before they would post it. I was like, "LET ME SEE THAT LIST!!!!!"  But he was stalwart and wouldn't let me see it. 

It finally was posted that evening. It was so much fun to read over the list and see who got what parts. My friend Rachel Call who was Cinderella will be the Cat in the Hat. Charlotte and Lydia are so excited about that. Since they are Thing 1 and Thing 2 they will be on stage with her a lot. They wanted that role to be filled by someone they already knew. 

There are quite a few moms and daughters doing this show together. I'm doing it with my three girls. Andrea is doing with with her daughter. My friend Kerri is doing it with Peyton, Rachel will have her two girls in the show, and the sour kangaroo and the baby kangaroo are a mom and daughter duo. But I don't know them yet. 

There were actually quite a few names I didn't recognize on the cast list. So I'm excited for new friends. 

We don't start rehearsal until the end of June and I'm looking forward to it so much. 

On Tuesday I took my friends kids to an appointment in the morning. And then I had work in the afternoon and nothing really big stood out there. I got off work a little earlier than usual and drove over to Moss Greenhouse. I bought tomato and pepper plants because I finally felt confident that we wouldn't have any more super cold nights.  

In the evening I had another Theatre Gala meeting. We had a little group meet to get some of the particulars worked out. 

We met at Sarah's house. Natalie and another Andrea were there as well as myself. We got a lot done. We created an approximate set list for the event. We also worked on an impression form where we can record our impressions of the show. I wrote all our ideas on paper and then came home and typed them up. I created that form on Google Drive and put it up in the Facebook group so people could start recording their impressions of Annie, Anastasia, and 12 Angry Men. It's also ready for when people see Romeo and Juliet in June. 

The biggest decision we made was that we needed to talk with Jared and see if he was on board with what we were creating. He'd made it very clear that he was not interested in event that was exactly like the Curtain Calls. But he was interested in some sort of theatre celebration. We wanted to meet with him to see if what we were creating was something he - and by extension the Magic Valley Rep - could support. 

We decided to have the same people he'd already chosen to meet with earlier meet with him again. So it would be Sarah, Heather, and Me. We set up a meeting for Thursday night.  

At 8:30 I drove to A&W and met with Brandon and the kids. We were all there to get $2 rootbeer floats. It was so fun to sit in the car and eat those together. 

Wednesday was a big day for Veronica. She had a field trip to the city pool. We'd been able to get her new swimming suit shipped to us quickly so she had it in time. She wore it under her clothes. The 6th graders were all going on the swimming field trip. They watched a movie in the morning and then went to the pool in the afternoon. Veronica had so much fun. When they were done they went out on a grassy area and Veronica fell asleep. Her teacher had to wake her up when it was time to get on the bus. 

Derrick also had a fun day at school. It was a "food truck day." I sent him with $10 and he was able to order food from food trucks at lunch time. 

Charlotte and Lydia did not have as fun of days. They had to do EOC tests the last two days of school. 

I went out to Filer to work on Jump Company book keeping. When I walked in I told Chris, "I'm not going to make ANY mistakes today."  And I DIDN'T! It's taken 5 months, but I finally didn't have a day where I felt like I completely embarrassed myself in front of Chris Ayers. 

Then I came home and spent the rest of the day outside. The first big project was to get the tomatoes and peppers planted. 

Here are the tomatoes. 

And here are the peppers. 

I also just did a lot of little random projects like leveling some holes in the grass and putting down grass seed in a small bare spot. 

And I took pictures of my favorite irises. 

These are just so stunning. 

The young men didn't have an activity. (They said it was too hard to plan around graduation which had been the night before.) But the young women had an activity. They met at a leaders house and had a fire where they burned homework. It was in our neighborhood so Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica just walked there. 

Thursday was the last day of school!  We'd made it. 

I documented Lydia backing the car out of the driveway to take her and Charlotte to school.  

It's so nice that I don't have to drive them anymore. 

Then I took Derrick and Veronica to school. This is the last time I have two middle schoolers. And the last time I have to take them to separate schools. Next year this drop off will look very different. All this year we would drop off Veronica and then I'd drive Derrick across town and drop him off. This worked well, but Veronica HAD to get out of the car by 8:23 or else Derrick would be late. There were a lot of mornings where I had to be like, "Hey I love you, but you have to get out of this car." Next year that won't be an issue, and if her behavior in elementary school is any indication, she'll be sitting in the car up until the bell rings. 

And then I drove Derrick over to his middle school. This was bittersweet because that school has been wonderful for him, but I've also been counting down the days until I don't have to drive him there every morning. I'm going to have so much more time when I don't have to drive him anymore. 

Here we are together celebrating the end of a pretty good era. 

Then I went to work and worked for 4.5 hours. It was my last day when I wouldn't have kids at home while I was at work and I wanted to make the best of it. 

At 1:30 I was back at the school and picking Derrick up. He had a "Last Day of School" Hat on his head. He also had a pin wheel. He was really excited about those things. 

We came home. Charlotte and Lydia were home a few minutes before us, and Veronica came home a little after. It didn't feel real that everything was done. 

Veronica had two awards. One was from her science teacher for Outstanding Achivement. The other was from her reading teacher for Writing Growth. 

Derrick also had an award. IT was for Citizenship and Character. Which makes a whole lot more sense than "Most Creative Builder."

Derrick and I went grocery shopping and bought a lot of food. We need a lot of easy to make food in the house like burritos, corn dogs, freezer pizza, and bagels so the kids can eat when they are hungry. I don't know the last time I've made lunch for these kids. And that's just fine. 

Derrick and Veronica had a lot of plans for a sleepover on the trampoline. They'd even made a list of what to do and eat. So I took them to Smiths to buy the ice cream and candy they wanted. 

I'd put orange chicken on the menu for Sunday. But Lydia said the bags were taking up a lot of freezer space and she thought it was a good last day of school meal. So she took care of making it. 

In the evening I went to my meeting with Jared. Sarah was there, but Heather ended up not being able to make it. The meeting went well. We'd been worried that Jared would be like, "Nope, that sounds like the Curtain Calls, I'm not going to participate and neither can any other rep shows." We would have still gone ahead with the event, but the Rep makes up 5 of the 8 shows this year so it wouldn't have been a true Theatre Gala of the Magic Valley. 

But Jared did catch on to our vision of what we are trying to create. He cautioned us on some things, but was overall supportive. So we left that meeting feeling really hopeful. We'd just cleared a BIG hurdle. 

Around 8:30 Derrick and Veronica started setting up for their sleepover on the trampoline. Here they are with all their pillows, blankets, and even Veronica's beanbag. 

They made it most of the night. Veronica said she got cold and came in around 3:00. Derrick made it to 6:00. 

Thursday had felt a lot like a Friday. So when I got up for work on Friday it felt like it was really Saturday. So it was kind of a bummer to work on "Saturday."  But I powered through and was there for 2.5 hours. 

At noon Derrick and I went to the high school and met up with his new IRC teacher, Ms L. She took Derrick on a tour of her classroom, the IRC kitchen room, and the whole school. We wanted to do this at the beginning of the summer because Derrick spent the whole summer before 7th grade wondering if his new middle school would have a lunch room. This way he knows lots of things about the school and won't have to worry all summer. 

We went into the little gym where lots of teachers were playing cornhole. They had "Jack and Diane" playing on loud speakers. Later I told Brandon, "It was kind of what a little kid would imagine teachers doing on a Saturday because they lived at the school." That's where we met the Principal. She took a break from Cornhole to shake Derrick's hand. She also shook my hand and welcomed me to the hish school. I didn't tell her I already had two kids at the school. 

Ms L did know about my other two kids because she happens to be the advisor for yarn club. I thanked her for that club. It was so great that Charlotte, Lydia, and their friends had a place to hang out once a week. They didn't want to be in any clubs that were too competitive or big. Yarn club was perfect. 

The tour was great and Derrick left feeling very excited for 9th grade at the high school. 

We came home and got things ready to go to Dirkies Lake. I packed everything for Hoagies. 

When Brandon came home from work we went to the lake. First we had to pay $25 for a season pass. That's money well spent because we will come here a lot. Without the pass the entrance fee is $5. 

Then we drove to the parking lot and got all the stuff out of the car. We had two camp chairs, a tote with two big blankets in it, the food cooler, a bag with other food, two towel bags, and our red bag with the swim goggles in it. Everyone knows they have to carry things. 

We dropped that stuff on a nice grassy spot in the shade and the kids immediately went to the water. The weather was only like 72 degrees, but that didn't stop the kids from swimming. Brandon and I stayed at the blanket and hung out. 

Here I am. 

Here's the view of the lake. It was a perfect day. We had such a good time there. 

Brandon and I ate while the kids were in the water. They eventually got hungry and came up for food. The girls were cold so they spread out in the sunshine to try to get warm. Charlotte rolled up in one of the blankets. 

Derrick wanted to go look at the blue gill in the water so I went with him. We put our feet in the water and the fish came really close. It was so nice to just sit and hang out with him. 

When we got back up to the grassy area, both Charlotte and Lydia were wrapped up in blankets. 

While we were sitting there Brandon recognized our friends Dale and Amy. So we talked to them for a minute. They were getting married the next day. They had family in town and they were showing them the sights - like Dierkies Lake. 

Derrick and Veronica got back into the water and swam for a while. Then we decided it was time to leave around 7:00. First we stopped at Shoshone Falls because the water flow is pretty good right now. Apparently a few days ago it was incredible because they did a water release to help Salmon fish populations down stream. 

The kids were in their swimming suits. A few people gave them odd looks. Shoshone Falls is a huge tourist destination, but Dirkies Lake is not very well known. Not many people that come to Shoshone Falls know that a popular swimming area is nearby. 

We are kind of the opposite now that we are locals. We are like, "Let's go to Dirkies Lake! And oh we might stop by that waterfall place if it's not too much trouble."

Back at home I spent a lot of time outside weeding the front flower beds. I got a lot of grass out of the beds. 

Saturday was a fun day. I got up and weeded my raspberry patch. Then I did a few little things around the yard. 

One was planting a Black Walnut that Jori had dug out of her yard. 

At 10:30 Brandon had a production meeting for Seussical. They were figuring out a lot of things. But one of the things was whether or not the ensemble members are Whos or Jungle Animals. Turns out we are Whos. I'm excited about that. 

The kids and I cleaned the house. 

Then I took a shower and got all fancy for Dale and Amy's wedding at 2:00. It was at the Orpheum and so many of our theatre friends were there. I don't know if I've ever been to a wedding and known so many people. 

Dale and Amy met while doing a play in 2009. It was Jeckle and Hyde. Amy had been Lucy. Dale had been the pimp character Spider. He'd been considering things he would do in that role and thought it would be creepy if he licked Lucy on the face. So basically the first thing he ever said to Amy was, "Can I lick you?"

They became good friends and even dated a little bit. But Amy was still married. She'd been separated when they met, but decided to return to her marriage for her kids. So they stopped dating. 

Years later Amy did divorce her husband. And she reached back out to Dale to catch up. They went on one date and became inseparable after that. Dale proposed to Amy on stage at the end of one of the shows last fall. And now they were getting married. 

There was a sign projected on the wall that said, "At Last" and that really summed it up. 

The wedding was beautiful. It started like a play with an overture. Then the song, "Find your Grail" from Spamalot started playing. Sarah came on stage and sang that song live as Dale walked into the theatre. He was accompanied by Dusty Blackburn. (Who had played Jeckle/Hyde in that play)  They had a whole little bit where Dale was trying to back out and Dusty was helping him keep going. It was cute. 

When they were on stage a different song started playing and the wedding party walked in. Then "Rewrite the stars" started playing and Amy entered the theatre with her dad. 

The curtains had opened and there was a beautiful backdrop. Here's the wedding party on stage. 

Dusty officiated and did a wonderful job. He said so many beautiful things. Each couple had vows they had prepared. 

And then Dusty pronounced them married. Everyone cheered. (We'd already been cheering a lot!)

They had their first dance on stage. Then they went out to the marble stairs and would receive each of us. That line was long so a lot of us just mingled. That was really fun!

And then the line finally died down and we to talk to Dale and Amy.  We had costco cake and cookies and popcorn. 

We talked to our friends some more. The photographer had us all sit down in the middle seats and take a picture with Dale and Amy in the front row. I'm sure that will turn out really cute. 

There were further festivities like group kareokee to come, but we had other things to do so we said our goodbyes and left. 

Back at home I'd promised Derrick I would watch "Eight Legged Freaks" together. So I watched that with him. Really I fell asleep for almost an hour. But I saw the beginning and end and so that counted. 

We had a pretty chill evening. It was a great Saturday. 

Sunday

And now here we are at Sunday. I've spent so much of the morning writing. I took care of Exponent guest posts, wrote my post about Nahum, and then got this blog updated. For the first time in a long time I am completely caught up on writing. YAY!!!

Anyway, thanks for reading.