Fifth Week of Cinderella Rehearsals - The return of the sickness

We have to start with 3 things that I forgot to write about Derrick last week. 

1. When I dropped him off for school after his orthodontist appt on Tuesday he went into the school by himself. Usually I went with him to the office to make sure he got all checked in, but this time he told me, "Mom, I got this."  So that was a big milestone. 

2. One of his para's has been going with Derrick and some other boys to the weight lifting room. Derrick loves to come home and tell me about the types of weights he's lifting. He likes to show me his arm muscles. On Saturday when we needed help unloading wood Derrick was happy to help and use his new muscles. 

3. Derrick was in charge of passing the sacrament to the people on the stand on Sunday. Brandon goes with him while he passes the sacrament. A few people comment and say things like, "Derrick is doing so well, he doesn't need Brandon anymore."  Well this week was one of those times when it was good to still have Brandon around. Derrick almost missed passing to a few people like the Second Counselor and the ward organist and chorister. It was good to have Brandon help direct him. 

Overall though Derrick is doing amazing at passing the sacrament. And every week I hear from another person who is so inspired by seeing Derrick pass the sacrament. 

I finished the post about last week by mentioning that on Sunday night Brandon started feeling sick again. He'd only really just come back from the sickness that he had between Christmas and New Years so I was surprised and a little sad that he was getting sick again.  

He ended up staying home from work on Monday and Tuesday because he wasn't feeling well. He went back to work on Wednesday but the actually sent him home because he wasn't feeling 100% and he works in a hospital. He still didn't feel well on Thursday or Friday so he stayed home those days too. 

It was odd to have him home for so long. It was quite the change from his last job where they treated the employees as basically slaves and acted all offended if anyone didn't get 40 hours of work per week. There was no such thing as unpaid time off at that job - if you missed work you got written off. Brandon put in a request for time off for our vacation to Texas and was treated like he'd missed work for two days. Yeah that place was TOXIC. 

So it's very different to be working somewhere that is like, "oh PLEASE stay home if you are sick."

And then I got sick on Thursday and I was like, "Oh this thing is no joke."  I called it "The cold that HURT."  Because in a lot of ways it was just a head cold, but it came with body aches that were awful. And fatigue too. I'd get something done and then have to lay down for an hour. 

Anyway, let's talk about the week. 

Monday January 17th was Presidents Day. The kids didn't have school. We were planning to go swimming after I got off work. But I was super tired after work. (Because I was getting sick, but didn't know it yet.) Derrick was kind of off too. And so we decided to just stay home and rest. I promised the kids we'd go swimming at 1000 Springs when we all felt better. 

Brandon did rally enough in the evening to make the oreo pizza that I'd meant to make on Valentine's Day. The dough had been in the fridge since Friday. 

That night at Rehearsal we started at 7:00. They started with choreography for the ball - which my character doesn't go to. So I just sat against the wall and read for a while. 

I was reading a book called "Opposing Thumbs" about the movie critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel. Back when I was at Snow College I was an avid reader of rogerebert.com. This was back when he had pituitary gland cancer and had to have parts of his jaw removed. He couldn't speak, but he could still write. And he wrote A LOT. I came for the movie reviews, but I stayed for a lot of his posts about other subjects. 

I didn't know much about Gene Siskel. I don't think I ever watched Siskel and Ebert. I think I just watched Ebert and Roper (And even then I only remember watching an episode or two.) But I did vaguely remember that he'd died of a brain tumor. 

Anyway, I'd been reading that book for a few days and it just so happened that I was on the brain tumor chapter while I was at rehearsal and that was an emotional read.

And then it was time to focus on rehearsal. We went over Act II. We were still up in the classroom. I'm not in Act II until the very end, and I was super curious how the scenes all fit together. So I sat up at the "front of the stage" which was really just the the front of the room and watched everything.   

Tuesday the kids didn't have school because it was a work day for the teachers. Brandon was still sick. I had work. I went there for a few hours, but I had to leave because I'd scheduled and orthodontist appointment for Derrick. So I picked him up and took him there and then took him home and went back to work. It felt like I was at work forever. 

We'd been planning to go to Jori's so she could pierce Veronica's ears. But with all the sickness I figured it was best for us to stay home. (Part of me was pretty sure that Brandon had Covid. He kept telling me "it's just a weird cold"  and I told him, "Covid IS a weird cold."  But the only test we had was expired and so we just decided it wasn't Covid.)

Veronica had theatre so I made sure she made it to that. She's so excited about the Willy Wonka play. She likes to say, "Drama is my middle name!"

Brandon had taken the sheets off our bed to wash them. He didn't want to put them back on because he was expecting our new mattress to be delivered there that day. I joked that he was manifesting a new mattress. 

It showed up while we were eating dinner around 6:00.  We saw the FedEx truck pull up. Brandon went out and met the guy. Brandon said he had a dolly and could get the box up to the house. So the FedEx guy just left it on the sidewalk. Brandon got the dolly and brough the mattress inside. He was so excited to sleep on a new mattress that night. 

I didn't get to see the mattress come out of the box because I had rehearsal. 

We started with running through The Prince is Giving A Ball. There's a tiny section where I link arms with a guy named Paul and we kick our legs up. We've NEVER got the timing right. Paul said, "Let's find a time to practice this tonight?"

After the Prince is Giving A Ball we started going over the whole play. I sing in the Prologue and then I'm out for like 3 scenes. Paul did his knight part and then motioned for me to go practice with him. 

We went down to the classroom on the second floor and ran through our "Group B" chorography for about 10 minutes. We finally figured out the timing and the footwork to make our arm linking part work. When we went through "The Prince is Giving A Ball" again that night we did it so well! We actually were almost too quick to get into place. Yay for practice. 

We made it through all of Act 1 and a lot of Act 2. The show was coming together really well. 

On Wednesday Brandon tried to go to work. I spent my hour of cleaning trying to disinfect various surfaces of our house. I'd told the ladies in my scripture study group that we'd had sickness in the house, but that hopefully it was gone. Jori and Diantha both came over. 

Brandon came home around 10:00. He was still feeling okay so he went out to the garage and got it organized. 

Inside I was talking with Diantha and Jori. Diantha was talking about a guy she is dating named Joseph. She mentioned that he lives in Salt Lake and is 44 and has never been married. I was like, "Okay cool. That's nice you found someone."  And then she brought up that he's a choir teacher and I was like, "Wait, are you dating Joseph Cook?"  

Diantha said yes and then both Diantha and Jori were looking at me like, "How did you pull that name out of thin air?" 

Joseph Cook has been my friend for like 20 years. I first met him at Snow College when he was dating a friend of a friend. The next year we worked together at Snow Fun. I think we were in the same ward too. We even went on a date once. He asked me, "Do you want to go on a double date?"  And being the socially awkward person I was I said, "With who?"  (Meaning who is the other couple.) and he was like, "Um with me?"

That date was to Box Canyon near Moroni, Utah. And I think that was the first time I ever went there. I think I'd been to Maple Canyon before, but this was my first time in the Box Canyon part of Maple Canyon. 

After that summer we both moved to Salt Lake. I was living with my Aunt Vera and he was living somewhere near her house. We met up and went on a walk together. It was really fun. Around that same time he worked for the same company as my dad. 

In fact, the last time I ever saw Joe in person was when I was getting my bridal pictures taken. I was in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. He worked there as a banquet server (I think). He happened to be walking by as I was walking to another spot to get my pictures taken. 

Joseph and I have been friends on Facebook basically ever since I joined Facebook. I always really liked Joe and have through the world of him. So as soon as I found out that Diantha was dating him I was like, "I LOVE that man! I'm so happy you guys are dating."

And later I got on Facebook and messaged Joe and was like, "I just found out you are dating my next door neighbor."

Seriously, the world is so small sometimes. 

Scripture study itself was really good. We were on chapter four of Restoration. The chapter is called "The True Church."  We had a really good discussion. 

After scripture study was over Jori and I went to Lowes to buy paint. Jori LOVES to paint and so I wanted her expertise. I haven't bought paint since I was a teenager and I had no idea how the process worked. Jori was super helpful. 

She was saying that she used to shop at Home Depot, but has recently switched to Lowes. I said, "We used to shop at Home Depot, but we started shopping at Lowes after we moved to Twin Falls. I don't remember why."

And then one of the paint associates named Robyn asked us if we needed any help and was super good at answering questions. She even opened up two paint cans to show us the difference between Base A and Base C paint. (I had no idea such distinctions existed.)  When Robyn was done helping us I told Jori, "Oh I remember why we started shopping here. They are more helpful than at Home Depot."

Robyn recommended taking a picture of the label on my paint can so I'd have all the info in case I needed the exact shade of paint again. So I did. And because it's easy to check my blog for this kind of info I'm sticking it here for future reference. 

Jori also helped me pick out brushes and rollers. She was so happy to help and I was so happy she was there to guide me. I'd been so nervous about buying paint, but she made the process easy. 

That afternoon I worked on getting the blog updated. Brandon came in from the garage and took a long nap because he'd run out of energy. 

Veronica came home and about an hour later Charlotte and Lydia came home. I was doing the dishes when the FedEx truck showed up again. I said something like, "Oh I bet it's Derrick's Godzilla action figure."  He ordered it from Kowkis toys back at the end of January and has been eagerly waiting for it ever since. 

The FedEx guy dropped off the package and Charlotte and Lydia went to get it. They brought it in and were like, "Wow this is big."  But I didn't really pay attention because I was still doing the dishes. 

I went to lay on the couch and looked right at the package. Derrick was on the bus so I texted the bus attendant to tell her to tell Derrick that the Godzilla package had finally arrived. She'd had to listen to Derrick talk about this godzilla model just as much as I had. She texted back and said that he was so excited. 

Derrick came home and went right for the package. He stopped and said, "It doesn't say Kowkis on it."  

That's when I took my first real look at the package. It very clearly said that it had bedding in it. I laughed so hard at my mistake. Derrick was disappointed, but he laughed too. I said something like "April Fools."  And we both just laughed and laughed. 

When Brandon came home we told him what happened. He was like, "Yeah, Cool, cozy, and oh so soft definitely describes Godzilla."

The package had a mattress protector, a sheet set, pillow cases, AND pillows. They were all while. Brandon put them on our bed and now our bed feels like it's a hotel bed. 

Rehearsal that night was our singing rehearsal. It's officially called the Sitzprobe.  We sat and sang through the whole show. We were all crowded into the classroom on the second floor. The Jump Company was having their tech week for Frog and Toad on the real stage. Apparently we were too loud on the third floor which shares a wall with the main theatre.  So we were banished to the second floor where they couldn't hear us too much. 

It was really fun to sing through everything. This was the first time in about 2 weeks that I'd looked at my book for some songs - specifically The Prince Is Giving A Ball. I was like, "Oh there's an alto part here?"

And I know I'm not really talking about Charlotte and Lydia in the play very much. They basically have the same part as me so there isn't much that they are doing that's note worthy. They have made a few friends in the play though. They hang out a lot with Laney who is the 13 year old daughter of my friend Marianne. 

On Thursday I was planning to do a big stock up grocery shopping trip. Brandon was still home from work. He was feeling okay-ish. So I had him come shopping with me to help with all the stuff. We started out buying about $100 of canned goods. We really ran through our supply of cans while he was unemployed so it was good to get that stocked back up. 

We took those out to the car and then went back in and did our regular shopping. All through that trip I was like, "Oh I'm not feeling well."  I was starting to have body aches. Even my teeth and eyes hurt - that's my main tell for when I'm getting sick.

When we were done shopping Brandon drove to my office and I ran in to get the mail. Then we went home and I took a super long nap while Brandon unloaded and put away all the food. 

After I work up I worked from home. I ran all my usual reports, processed the mail and other payments, and did the deposit. I'm so glad I have the option to work from home, but its hard to do all that with just my laptop. There were some things that had to wait until I could get back into the office.  

While I was working another package arrived. This one was addressed to Derrick. It was obviously Godzilla. I texted my friend Justine who works in Derrick's class. I told her to tell Derrick that the Godzilla package came and that it was for real this time. 

Derrick was so excited to come home and open it. He took it downstairs and opened it where Veronica could watch him open it. (Charlotte and Lydia weren't home yet because they'd stayed after for cooking club.)

He really liked the box. 

And then he opened it and found GODZILLA waiting for him. 

He had so much fun showing me all the different ways Godzilla could pose. This cost $65 which is crazy, but it did have a lot of movable parts so I guess it was worth it. 

Derrick loves him. 

The best part was when he was trying to show Charlotte and Lydia that he could rip a paper with Godzilla's spikes. Charlotte was pretty done with the whole thing at this point and was like, "That's not a big deal! Look I can rip something on Marcia."  She grabbed a piece of paper and pretended to smack it down on Marcia while ripping it. The paper ripped in half and I laughed so hard. 

I was super annoyed that I wasn't feeling well, but I was actually impressed that my body had picked the BEST time to be sick. We didn't have rehearsal that night and I had nothing planned that weekend. I was like, "I'd rather be sick now than any other time."  So I let myself rest and take it easy. 

We didn't have rehearsal because Frog and Toad had a performance that night. Some of the Principals came in for (quiet) rehearsals. But most of us had the night off. 

Brandon had CSI so he went out to Burley for the evening. The kids and I stayed home and watched Young Sheldon. 

Friday was very much a sick day for me. I got the kids up and then went back to bed. I eventually worked from home, but I only did about an hour of work. 

Veronica had had a panic attack or something at school on Thursday and so I let her stay at home on Friday. (Right now that doesn't seem to make sense, but I guess that made sense on Friday.) So she was home. She helped Brandon put together another big shelf. This one was for the craft room. She was especially proud of helping cut the boards. 

And somehow I never got a picture of it. 

Eventually I felt well enough to put the wood filler and caulk on the board and batten wall. Brandon told me I was going to hate caulking, but I found it really satisfying. So now that's my designated job.  

That night Brandon and I were supposed to usher at the Magic Valley Symphony. But I'd cancelled that plan when I got sick. I was like, "We do not need to be spreading our germs to every person that comes to the concert."

But we still went to the concert because it was in conjunction with an Art Show that Lydia had entered. Her art teacher had put two of her paintings in the show. 

So we went to the Fine Arts building at CSI. We looked at all the art and saw that Lydia's painting had earned a third place ribbon. 

Lydia's teacher was there. He said that he'd heard so many people point to Lydia's other painting and say that it should have won. 

We went into the concert hall and sat in the very back. The orchestra played several numbers. One was Mars the Bringer of War. I told Brandon, "My mom didn't let us listen to this one because she said it made us fight." But then we started listening to it and I was like, "Maybe I did listen to this more than I thought, because I know every part of this song."

Later they played Aaron Copeland's Hoedown. Brandon was like, "This one sounds fun to play." I told him, "I think I did play this." I think it was in the first concert that I did with this symphony. But I also know that I sightread it once in orchestra in high school - I don't think we ever played it for real. 

Right before intermission Amy Toft got up on the stage and announced the names of the winners of the art show. It was fun to hear her say Lydia's name. 

Then after intermission she had the winners come up to get their prize envelopes. Lydia was one of two people who were actually there. So she was basically up there by herself. She got a $20 prize.

Here she is posing with her paintings in the lobby. 

Oh and one more thing. During intermission I was checking something on my phone.  Brandon saw this picture and said, "Oh that is so true. Who posted that?

I was like, "I did."

This was my latest post for the Exponent. It had gone live that morning. I'd been working on this post off an on all week, but really it was something I'd wanted to write for about 9 months.  Here's the link if you are interested. 

After all that excitement I was pretty pooped. So I went to bed almost as soon as we got home. 

But on Saturday morning I was feeling pretty good so I started working on painting the wall. Here I am taping it off. 

I'm not sure what job Brandon is doing here. 

Charlotte and Lydia helped with the first coat of paint. 

The color is not showing up right in these pictures. this one might be the closest. It's a really pretty teal.

We finished the first coat and then I went to a fruit tree pruning "class" at Webb Nurseries. I learned a few things, but the class was taught by an arborist who knows a lot about trees and not so much about giving an organized presentation.

I'm glad it was free.  

We put on the second coat and then I took a nap. Painting a wall is a good project when you have a sickness where you get about 90 minutes of productivity before you need a 2 hour nap. 

Veronica's friend Akeylah was having a sleepover for her birthday party. Normally we don't do sleepovers onto Sunday's but Veronica convinced me that since church didn't start until noon it would be fine. Plus Akeylah recently left Veronica's school and they were really missing eachother. So I let her go. This was her first sleepover and honestly part of me thought she'd call home at 11:00 anyway. But she was brave and made it the whole night. 

Brandon made dinner and we ate that. Then we put the third coat of paint on. This was the final coat so we pulled the tape when we were done. 

I'd picked up Journey 2 the Mysterious Island from the library because Derrick had seen a trailer for it. It was the sequel to the Journey to the Center of the Earth remake and it was really really really low quality. But Derrick liked it and the rest of us were mildly amused. 

After the move was over we put the hooks back on the wall. I'd been a little stressed by all the painting. I don't know how Jori likes this so much. But as soon as the hooks were back in I liked the finished product. 

And coats I really like it with the coats. It makes this area look so intentional instead of "just" being the area where we hang our stuff. 

On Sunday Brandon was feeling sick again, but it was more than just the cold. He felt like he had an infected tooth/sinus/ear. I talked him into going to urgent care and asking for an antibiotic. So he did that and they gave him a prescription for something extra strength. He's so happy he got that. He says he feels like he's had something wrong in his sinus for a while and this is finally taking care of it. 

I picked Veronica up from her sleepover. She said it had been fun, but it was also really loud. She was happy to come back to our chill house. 

Church was good. Amy Toft told me this was the first week she DIDN'T cry when watching Derrick pass the sacrament. 

After church Derrick was hoping to go on a hike below the bridge. But it has been raining off and on all weekend and everything was a muddy mess. Plus Brandon and I were still really tired. 

So we just stayed home and rested some more. 

But the good news is that we were both feeling better on Monday. Brandon was able to go to work and I made it through the day with only a little nap. 

And that gets us through another week. 

Thanks for reading. 

Fourth Week of Cinderella Rehearsals - Valentine's Day

Oh goodness, I'm starting to slip at keeping this blog updated. I really really really don't want to get behind so we are going to rush through this in an attempt to be caught up again.  

Monday February 10th was a pretty normal day. I had work in the morning and then I met with my accountant to drop off documents and get ready for him to do our taxes. Later Brandon was curious about why we have an accountant. He was like, "Didn't you love doing our taxes?" I did love doing our taxes. Back when we had like 3 W2s and could file a regular 1040. But now we have the RV business we have to file a schedule C and I DON'T like those. Plus I also have a 1099 for Castle Therapy and I don't know why but that intimidates me. Basically I just need an adultier adult to hold my hand and tell me that it's all going to be okay. And it's like the same price to use Elite Accounting as it is to use Tax Act. So it all works out. 

When Veronica was done with school we went to Walmart and bought stuff for the family on Valentine's Day. We bought giant kisses, some other chocolates, and earings for the girls. Then we went to Hobby Lobby and bought a foam glider for Derrick. 

That night we had Rehearsal for Cinderella. We didn't have to be there until 8:00 because they were working on specific scenes from 7:00-8:00. Normally we have to park in a parking lot kind of behind the theatre because there is so much going on on main street. But at 8:00 there were a lot less cars on Mainstreet. We were able to get a parking space right in front of the door that goes upstairs. 

We went through all of Act 1. Jared said he was expecting it to be a dumpster fire and that would be okay. 

It was really fun to see the play taking shape. People were starting to wear their stage shoes. The guy playing Jean- Michel had on boots. The step sisters were wearing corsets over their regular shirts so they could get used to singing with them on. 

Many of the characters were still using the script books to make sure they were saying the right lines. Half the chorography was missing from the ball scenes. 

The play was rough, but it was there. 

By the end of the night Jarod told us that it was better than he'd expected.  

On Tuesday I'd scheduled orthodontist appointments for the three older kids. It hadn't started out that way. At first Charlotte and Lydia had retainer checks scheduled about 2 weeks apart. I'd been planning to reschedule one of the appts so I could take them together. Then the office called me and told me the orthodontist would be out of town for Charlotte's appointment. So I just had them move it to the same day as Lydia's. 

Then when we scheduled Derrick's next appt it happened to fall on that same day. So I had them schedule him at the same time. 

It was really convenient to take them all in at the same time, but I hadn't anticipated how crazy it would be to drop all the kids off. I kind of wish I had a map with a little car driving on it and circus music playing. So just imagine that as I explain my morning. 

First I took Veronica to the elementary school. Then I drove the older three to the orthodontist. Then I drove to the middle school by our house and dropped the twins off. Then I drove to the middle school clear across town and dropped Derrick off.

Then I drove to winco and bought a few goceries. Then I drove home, put away the groceries and had a quick lunch. Then I drove to Castle Therapy which is about a half mile from the house. And then I drove to Aspen Grove which is kind of by the orthodontist again. 

Then I drove home. A little later I drove Veronica to the Orpheum and dropped her off. Then I drove to library and picked up more books. Then I drove home. And then I drove to back to the Orpheum to get Veronica.  

And then I put on pajamas because I wasn't going ANYWHERE the rest of the day. We didn't have rehearsal at the Orpheum because the Principals were blocking stuff. 

On Wednesday I did something I probably should have figured out a few years ago. I cleaned for an hour. I don't know what it says about my house keeping skills, or my mental health from the past few years but recently I looked around the house and thought, "Hmmmm, I should probably be dusting more."  

Like have I EVER dusted in the 5 and a half years we've lived in this house? I'm not sure. 

Anyway, I've committed myself to spending an hour every Wednesday cleaning the house. And not just the necessary stuff that has to be done like dishes and laundry. Like actually CLEANING like getting hand prints of the walls, making sure the bathrooms look good mid week instead of just on Saturdays, and yes, dusting. 

This week one of the projects was to clean off the thick layer of dust on the light fixture in my room. The light fixture faces "up" if that makes sense. So dust had been accumulating on top of the light bulb. I took it the glass off the fixture and washed it. I used a damp cloth to remove the layer of dust that was everywhere else. Now it makes me so happy to see the fixture. 

Veronica had therapy at 10:00 so I picked her up from school. It was time for her annual review. That means she's been going to therapy for two years. She's grown so much in those two years. One of the biggest things is that she can advocate for herself better. And she's not so anxious any more. She still likes to meet with her therapist monthly because 5th grade is hard. But overall she's doing great. 

After I came home I started working on a new project. I don't have a "no new projects" rule this year and . . . well . . . that might be a bad thing. On Monday I was emailed the Exponent Newsletter. It had a little blip about how they were looking for a volunteer auditor. I quickly sent off an email to the treasurer saying I'd LOVE to be the auditor and here were a couple quick qualifications. 

She emailed me back on Tuesday and we had a back and forth conversation. And by that evening I was officially the volunteer auditor. 

So on Wednesday I sat down with a bunch of info and went over the books for January. And I LOVED it. 

The commitment is like one hour a month - which is great. But it got me thinking about possible career paths. I would really like to be an auditor. I love combing through data and making sure everything lines up. I've often joked that zero is my favorite number because it means everything balances. So maybe one day that's something I'll do. (Though if I have to be a CPA first I don't want to do it.)

When I was done with that I worked on a project that seemed more impossible. I needed to refill some medicine, but I was sort of between insurances and sort of not. I was technically still covered by Medicaid. But I'd reported Brandon's new job to them a few days earlier so I knew my coverage would be ending soon. I wanted to get the medicine refilled before the coverage ended because I didn't want to need it while I was trying to get onto a marketplace plan. 

But I was stressing out about refilling the medicine. I was worried it would be a hassle. For one I wasn't even sure what my medicaid ID number was. They never sent me a card. But then I realized that's because I probably still had my number from when we very first moved to Idaho. And luckily that card was STILL in my wallet. 

I'd already called in my refill and I was a little stressed because it said it would be $300. But when I went to pick it up I gave the lady my Medicaid card and it covered the medicine. I was even still able to get my usual 3 month supply. I'd thought they'd only give me a 1 month supply. So that means I have three months to get my next insurance figured out. 

Whew. 

And because my day wasn't over yet I also had to take Derrick back to the orthodontist. He'd had a bracket pop off in the middle of the night. So I picked him up from school during the last half hour and then took him to the orthodontist. The actual orthodontist wasn't there so the tech just cut the wire to make Derrick comfortable. We'd have to come back the next week to get it glued back on. 

We didn't have rehearsal that night because they were working on chorography for the dance numbers that the twins and I are not in. (And thank goodness too because there is so much dancing in those scenes and I think my foot would not like that.)

Since there was no rehearsal Charlotte and Lydia were able to go to Young Womens with Veronica. They made cards and then stuck them on peoples doors. Derrick had young mens. They were decorating sugar cookies. Brandon and I drove all the kids to the church and dropped them off together. As all four of them got out of the car I said, "Oh this is the stuff dreams are made of!"  It was so nice to have them all attending church stuff at the same time. 

Brandon and I went to Lowes and bought a stud finder and a trim nail gun. The gun was for a project I was hoping to do that weekend. Brandon was like, "Oh a new tool."  I was like, "I have PLANS for this!"

And here are some random pictures I took on Wednesday. Marcia has become very possessive of a stuffed football. She carries it around and snuggles with it and gets defensive if you try to take it from her. Here you can see her snuggling with it like an egg.

Veronica added more gems to her display case. She'd had to wait for me to buy more sticky tack. Now all her special gems are in the box. 

On Thursday Veronica and Lydia stayed home from school. Everyone was so good about going to school this year so when those two weren't feeling well I was like, "Hey this feel legitimate. You can stay home."

A storm was supposed to come in later that day so I made sure to go grocery shopping as soon as I dropped Charlotte off at school. I also got gas. 

Then I went home and worked on the Castle Therapy stuff from home. It started snowing as I was working, but it didn't seem too bad. 

Brandon was working at CSI that night, but he'd left his bag home. I knew he needed it so I told him I'd drive it out to him at the hospital. So I left for work earlier enough to drive out to the hospital. As soon as I drove off our street I was like, "Oh this might be a bad plan."

The visibility was something like 200 feet and there was something like 2 inches of snow on the ground. But I was already committed so I kept going. 

I actually stopped at the Dollar store first because I needed to buy balloons for Valentines Day the next day. Then I drove out to the hospital. It took forever, but I got there without incident. 

Then I drove to work. When I got there my coworker was like, "I expected you to work from home."  I said, "I probably should have."  I'd come in because it was the end of a pay period and I wanted to get all the payments that came in the mail entered in. Except there weren't any payments that came in the mail. So yeah, I could have worked from home. 

I left around 3:00 and drove home carefully. Then I picked Charlotte up from school. That morning she'd told me that it sucks bad enough to walk home from school with Lydia in bad weather. She didn't want to do it by herself.  

We were supposed to have rehearsal and go over Act Two that night. But it was cancelled due to the storm. Brandon's class wasn't cancelled though. So he went out to Burley. I stayed home with the kids. We decided to watch Ever After since it's a Cinderella movie. 

Brandon made it home around 9:00 - just a few minutes after I started wondering if we have enough life insurance coverage on him. 

Friday was Valentines Day.  The kids had been hoping for a snow day, but no snow had fallen during the night. So they had to go to school. 

I'd left the balloons at my office to hide them from the kids. I made sure to take them home with me. When I got home I made rice crispies and mixed up cookie dough. 

Then I went to Veronica's school to help with her Valentines Day Party. This was the last elementary school Valentines Day EVER. I was feeling super sentimental about it because I'd always loved Valentines Day in Elementary school. 

I'd brought the cup game to play with Veronica's class. This was the same game from Christmas, but I made a few modifications so it wouldn't be as chaotic. We had the prizes be roughly the same. Everyone got a cute little plush animal key chain and a ring pop. The only different was the type of animal and the ring pop flavor. 

It was fun. After we were done with most of the party I checked Veronica out early so we could work on setting up our table at home. 

I love it so much every year. 

This year each kid got a mug. I'd picked them out at DI for 50 cents each. Lydia's was my favorite. It says, "You know what that sounds like? Not my problem?"

I'd planned to make pizza for dinner. But I'd also planned to have Little Caesars Pizza for dinner on Saturday. So I decided to just order pizza for that night instead. I went to get the pizza a little bit before Brandon and Derrick would be home. When I got back the kids obliged me by standing in line for a picture. Then they could eat the candy - and the pizza.

I took this picture of the wall in front of our front door. This was a "before" picture. The area was a disaster. It was always full of back packs and the kids shoes. But I had plans for the area. 

At 7:00 Brandon and I went to the Orpheum for the improv comedy show - the Relationship Show. This was our second year going. It was hilarious again. They always have a couple come up from the audience and tell how they met then the cast acts it out. My friend Raeleen and her husband Michael ended up being THE couple. Their story was really funny.  

Here's a picture we took before the show started. I love how it turned out. 

Everyone else got their presents on Friday. I got mine on Saturday. And what a Saturday it was!

We started the day by ordering a mattress. We started talking about buying a new mattress sometime last summer. I'd washed the sheets one day and was like, "Oh this mattress is getting dingy."  We'd had it for more than 10 years and so yeah it was time. I had the money for the mattress all ready and was planning to buy one if there was a good Columbus Day sale in October, but Brandon lost his job at the end of September. So that put any mattress buying on hold. The money sat in our savings while Brandon was unemployed. I didn't want to use it, but I also didn't want to spend it on a mattress until we were out of the woods. 

Now that Brandon was employed again and we had a few paychecks come in it finally felt safe enough to spend the money. So we took advantage of the Presidents Day Weekend sales to buy one online.  Brandon did all the research since he has a harder time sleeping. I was just kind of there to say things like, "Oh I like that." 

After we were done ordering the mattress we went to Lowes to buy wood for the shelves that Brandon was going to build in the basement. Originally I wanted Brandon to build me nice shelves in the livingroom on either side of the fire place. But then I realized that project could wait. What couldn't wait were shelves in the basement that would hold all the stuff that we used to store in that odd cupboard in the kitchen. So we bought wood for those. 

Here's the wood tied to the top of the pilot. I call this, "the continuing adventures of not owning a truck."

Brandon went to work building the shelves. I did a lot of stuff in the house. 

One of the things I did was mark off the wall by the front door. I had visions of a board and batten wall with hooks for each member of the family to hang their stuff on. So I did the math and then marked off how I wanted it to look. 

Brandon finished the shelves and we had everyone help carry boxes down from the kitchen. It was so good to see everything on these shelves. 

Eventually Brandon will make another set of shelves for the craft room. As you can see it's in DESPERATE need of more storage. 

By this point it was like 3:00 PM. I was like, "Hey do you happen to have energy for one more project?"  Brandon said he did. So we went back to Lowes and bough the wood for my board and batten idea. I'd watched a few Youtube videos that were really good at saying the products we needed to buy so it was relatively easy. And nothing had to get strapped to the roof. 

Brandon brought his saw inside and we just cut the wood in the living room. Here's a progress shot. 

The project went really fast. The trim nailer did a great job securing everything to the wall. 

We knew that there was no way the little trim nails could hold up the heavy backpacks the kids would hang from this so I asked Brandon to anchor the top board really well. He used his stud finder to locate the studs. Then he screwed in three screws per stud. That board ain't going anywhere. 

And soon we were screwing in the hooks above each section. I was so excited by how this looked!

It made such a difference already. 

Meanwhile Veronica had been doing her own projects. She took the shower curtain and rings that we'd bought when our shower doors were waiting for their new track. She used them to put a curtain up under her loft bed. 

She was very proud of her work. 

And here is the final-ish result of our living room project. I still need to fill in the nail and screw holes with wood filler, caulk around all the board, and paint it all. But it already looks so good. There's also a plan for putting in a bench with shoe storage. But this is like 1000% better than what we were living with. 

On Sunday we had church. I'm still on the "No, Thank you"  plan for Sunday school so me and Jori hung out in the foyer during Sunday School. 

After church Brandon Derrick and I went over to Kerri's for her birthday party. A bunch of theatre people were there and it was so fun. I'd wanted all the kids to come, but the girls just wanted to stay home. I was like, "But it's Sunday, I want to hang out with you."  Lydia was like, "What about when you just take naps on Sunday afternoon?"  That was a fair observation.  So I told her, "Fine, pretend I'm taking a nap."

So they stayed home and I went to the party, and we all were happy. 

Lydia had been painting up a storm all weekend. I finally got her to let me take some pictures. Here's one. 

And another. 

And another.

And then this was her MASTERPIECE. It was beautiful. That girl has always been a good artist, but this one is on a whole other level. 

That evening Brandon told me he wasn't feeling well. I was like, "NOOOOOOO, I feel like I just got you back."  We'd had such a good weekend it was really sad to have it end with Brandon getting sick again. 

But I guess that's just part of life. 

Anyway thanks for reading. 

Third Week of Cinderella - Birthday Week!

I turned 40 this week. I think I would have liked my 40th birthday no matter what. But there is a special pleasure in turning 40 while getting ready to perform in Cinderella. It's like it symbolizes that my life isn't over at 40. There are many more adventures waiting for me. I don't have to just sit and dream about how great the past was, I can go out and continue experiencing new things. 

Here's the poster for Cinderella. Isn't that so pretty?

So here's the run down of the week leading up to my birthday and the actual birthday.

On Monday at rehearsal we were able to be on the stage. Most rehearsals are up in the classroom on the 3rd floor. We'll move down to the stage for real for the last two weeks before the first performance. The reason we can't be on the stage all the time is because there are other performances using the stage for their final rehearsals. 

The stage had been in use for the last three weeks for Descendants rehearsals. And it would soon be in use for the rehearsals for A Year with Frog and Toad (that's being done by Jump Co - another kids theatre group in town because Twin Falls is cool like that.) But for one week the stage was actually free and we had a chance to practice there. 

The first thing we did was run though "The Prince is Giving A Ball."  Lauren is the choreographer. She was like, "Okay, let's just run thought it and see what happens."

What happened was we had no real idea on our spacing and ended up in tight little masses. It was a good first attempt - but obviously needed work. 

So then Lauren went over the actual spacing on the actual stage. I'm on the front row in one part of the middle and then at the end. She pulled me and the rest of the front line ALL the way to the front of the stage - we'd been trying to do our part in the section between the wings so it was very different to be that close to the edge. 

We ran through it again and things went so much better. 

Then we moved onto blocking for the Wedding scene at the end. There was a lot of standing around as Jared got us all in the exact places he wanted us. Then we practiced walking onto our spots from the wings while singing that part. 

After we had that down we practiced our bows and what order those will happen. 

And then it was time to go home. 

I'm sure there were important things happening besides the theatre on Tuesday, but I don't remember them. So we'll just skip to the afternoon when I took Veronica to her theatre class. She had such a good time. They are working on Willy Wonka Jr which is a kids version of the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie. Veronica plays Charlies dad at first, but then is an oompa loompa after Charlie goes to the chocolate factory. She is a VERY tall oompa loompa. She's naturally very tall and she's also one of the oldest kids in the cast. So yeah, she towers over the rest. My friend Sara is doing the choreography. She has to keep modifying the moves for Veronica. 

But Veronica doesn't mind. She loves that class so much. She came out of there happily singing the Oompa Loompa song from the Mike TeeVee part. 

Brandon had been contacted by Jared about doing the stairs for Cinderella. So at 7:00 he went out to the prop property and talked with Jared about that. Many people were happy when they found out Brandon was building the stairs.  

Charlotte, Lydia, and I went back to the theatre for our rehearsal. I'd talked to Chris, our stage manager, about celebrating my birthday that night. Us ensemble members weren't needed the rest of the week so this was the best time to celebrate. I brought ice cream sandwiches for everyone. 

We had them at the beginning because I wasn't sure how long they'd stay frozen. I'd brough them in a cooler, but I was only confident in that for about 2 hours. There was also kind of a lull at the beginning because we were waiting for Ian - our other chorographer to finish with the Ovation auditions for Wizard of Oz. (They were done with Descendants and Wizard of Oz is the next play for the teenage group.)

Anyway,  so while we were waiting for Ian to be done, Chris had everyone sing Happy Birthday to me. I have been looking forward to this for a while. There is NOTHING more wonderful than hearing a bunch of musical theatre enthusiasts sing happy birthday. It's so lovely. Everyone was sitting in the audience chairs and I stood in front of the stage while everyone sang. I had the biggest smile on my face. 

Then Chris and I handed out the ice cream sandwiches. 

Ian was finally done and he lead us in some warm ups on the stage. The warm up had a bunch of jumping jacks. I was like, "Um, my foot has like 4 jumps in it per night. I am not wasting those on a warm up."  So I didn't do that part. 

After the warm up he had the knights and the ladies stay on the stage while the rest of us went to the audience to wait for our part. Charlotte, Lydia, and I and about 7 other people aren't part of the ball scenes. We've started calling ourselves the "Normies."

I went and sat by my friend Marianne and had fun talking with her. I beckoned Marissa, Makeesa, and Carol over too. The five of us had a great time talking and getting to know each other better. At one point the assistant director Mathieu came over and apologized for it taking so long to get to our part. I was like, "It's okay, I'm here for the friends anyway." 

At like 8:30 we were finally brough up to the front of the audience and Ian went over our parts. There are about three different dance numbers during the ball scenes. We will be dancing in the audience during one of those songs. But we don't really have choreography. Basically Ian just went over where to stand and when we are supposed to enter and exit. 

Honestly, it could have been something we went over at the very beginning or even a different. We probably didn't need to be there for almost 2 hours. But whatever, it was fine. We were able to leave around 9:00 and everyone else had to stay another hour. 

Wednesday was my day off - but not really this week. I was planning to take Friday off for my birthday so I went into work in the afternoon. 

In the morning I had my scripture study group. We were on the third chapter of the book Restoration by Patrick Mason. It's such a good book and the ladies in the group are loving it. I'm loving it even though I've read every chapter more than 4 times. 

That night I didn't have rehearsal. I went grocery shopping. Brandon came too. We've discovered that we shop COMPLETELY different from each other and we kind of drive each other nuts. So we divided and conquered. I was shopping for all the regular food things. He was shopping for all the fun food for my birthday party.  

Thursday was a day full of work so I could slack off on Friday. I was at Castle Therapy trying to figure something out with the new Tricare system. It was kind of confusing and I was panicking that somehow payments were going to the parents of patients instead of us - but that seems to be not true - I hope. Then I went to work at Aspen and did many important things that I have completely forgot about now. 

Brandon was at CSI that evening so he went straight out to Burley after work and we didn't see him. I didn't have rehearsal so I was home with the kids all night. That was good because the basement needed a lot of work to get ready for my party. 

Charlotte has been crafting another dragon. This is Peacock. Peacock looks great, but her creation made quite the mess. So Charlotte needed to clean up that.  

Lydia had been working on yet another dress. This also created a lot of a mess. So she cleaned up her supples. 

And Veronica had been working on various projects and needed to clean her stuff up. Also there was just a general layer of dishes, trash, and random things that needed to be cleaned. 

When the floor was all clean Derrick helped me move the futon from his bedroom out to the family room. We set it up so there would be a big U of seating. Charlotte put the dragon on the futon.

We got the room all clean and it looked so good. 

On Friday morning I woke up for a little bit around 1:00. Brandon was awake too and he told me Happy Birthday. Then we fell asleep again. 

When we woke up for real we got the kids up and ready for school. Our mornings start with waking Derrick up. He's the first to leave. His bus comes around 7:30 these days. Brandon also leaves for work around 7:30. He works about 20 minutes away, but goes through several school zones on his way to work and traffic can be really bad so he gives himself a buffer. 

Veronica needs to be at school at 8:00. I've been driving her because it's cold and dark, but lately it hasn't been very cold or dark and traffic is ridiculous in front of the school. So we are going to start walking again. 

Then I come home and take Charlotte and Lydia to school at 8:20. After I dropped them off I drove over to Walmart. I was having a Pajama Party for my birthday, and I wanted new pajamas. So I found some cute ones and bought those. 

Then I drove to DI and spent about 90 minutes picking out and trying on clothes. I've done this for a lot of my birthdays the last few years. I like to load up my cart and take it all into the dressing room - in direct opposition to the "limit 6 items" signs that are posted. 

I bought a new dress, a blazer, two shorts, a pair of dress pants, two jeans, a pair of super soft joggers, four shirts, and THREE gray shirts. I'm on an unofficial mission to have the greatest collection of grey shirts ever. This time I got a long grey shirt, a fancy knit grey shirt, and an athletic style grey shirt. I love grey shirts because they are very versatile. They work as under shirts, but also on their own for any activity from hanging out to yard work. And I can pair them with anything. I love my grey shirts. 

When I got home I cleaned the downstairs bathroom. Then I went on a walk and then took a nap. 

After the kids were home I got a package from my sister Lindsey. I figured she'd sent me home made soap so I opened it up without much fan fare. I should have known better. It was an incredible present. 

She'd sent me a bag for garden tools. It had a lot of pockets on the outside and each pocket had a fun present. There was candy, there was make up, and there was soap of course. It was so much fun to open that present and look in all the pockets. Lindsey is the best. 

I had the kids do their bathroom jobs in the upstairs bathroom. They also helped straighten up the basement (again.)

Brandon came home from work and started putting together the 7 layer dip. I chopped veggies.  

We started setting up things downstairs. Here's the table with some of the food. I never did get a picture of it when it had cupcakes on it. 

Here's the mocktail table before Brandon put all of his tools and ingredients on it. He was our bar tender for the night and had so much fun making drinks for everyone. 

Here's a view of the whole room. 

And here I am in my super comfy pajamas. They had stars on them. 

Throughout the afternoon I'd been getting messages from friends who really wanted to come, but had to cancel for one reason or another. I was kind of thinking, "Is anyone actually going to show up?"

I knew Jori would be there. And Kerri had said she was coming. There were a few others I was pretty certain were coming so I was thinking that at the very least there would be 4 people there. 

Well at 7:00 about 4 people all showed up together and then more came in. I was so happy that people were able to make it. We ended up with 10 people. Here's a picture we took toward the middle of the evening. From left to right we have Marianne, Kerri, and Rachel who I know from the theatre - though Kerri is also the attendance secretary at the middle school and Rachel is married to the kids' first school counselor at our elementary school. Then we have Justine, who had the distinction of being the person I knew the longest at this party. She and I were in the same married student ward in Logan. We've been Facebook friends forever and then reconnected in real life when she started working as a para in Derrick's classroom this year. 

In this picture we have Cristianeide who I call Cris because I am too white to pronounce her beautiful Brazilian name. Olyvia and her baby Adelman (I think that's how you spell it), and Jori. I know those three from church. Then it's Beth who I know from Bunco. And then Shellien who was the facilitator for the Self Employment class I took in 2020 and has been a friend ever since. 

Carol had been at the party, but left before we took the picture. 

I'd had a plan to watch a move if there was ever a lull in the conversation. But there never was a lull. I loved hearing everyone talk around me. I mostly sat on the ottoman and rotated between conversations. It was really fun. 

Brandon was such a good bar tender and made sure everyone had the drinks they wanted. Lot's of people commented on how fun it was to have the mocktails. Kerri's birthday was the next week. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Hiring Brandon to serve Mocktails."

Several people went home around 11:00. Jori had brought her Henna kits and Kerri wanted some henna done so she stayed and that meant Rachel had to stay since she was her ride. Marianne hung around for a while too. 

Those three left around 12:30. All my girls wanted Henna done so Jori stayed until like 2:00 or maybe 2:30 doing that. Brandon was having so much fun. He even started telling some of his famous "Grandpa Stories."

After Jori went home I went right to bed. I think I fell asleep with the biggest smile on my face. It had been such a fun birthday. 

On Saturday I was in various stages of recouping. Everyone slept in until about 10:00. I got up and had some breakfast and then got back in bed. 

I'd told Brandon there was a baby shower for two women in our ward that morning. I wasn't really planning to go. But Brandon kept asking questions like, "Who is it for?"  "When is it?" and  "Where is it?" until I was like, "Okay, just say it, you think I should go."

So I pulled myself together and ran to the store to buy diapers and then hurried to meet everyone for lunch at Pizza Pie cafe. I thought the shower started at 11:00 and so I thought I was late when I got there at 11:10. But turns out it started at 11:30 so I was 20 minutes early. Go me!

The shower was for my friend Olyvia who had been at my party and my friend Nicole. This was Olyvia's 5th baby and Nicole's 3rd. So it was just a "sprinkle."

About 10 women from the ward were there - including Jori. I had fun talking to more people. My favorite part was when my friend Jamie told me the story of the TOXIC ward that she lived in before moving into our ward. I kept saying, "I love the 7th ward, I love the 7th ward."

After the shower was over I drove home and was home for about 30 minutes before it was time to leave yet again!

Charlotte and Lydia and I had to go get our costumes. My friend Britt who does the Living Nativity is doing the costumes for Cinderella. So we were going to her costume barn. I was excited to go there for something besides Living Nativity Costumes. The downside was that she was busy so we wouldn't actually get to see her. 

They had the cast divided into groups. The Principals came from 11:00 to 12:30. The knights and ladies went from 12:30 to 2:00. And then the townspeople (AKA Normies) went from 2:00 to whenever. So by the time we showed up a lot of people had already been through a lot of the costumes and knew the lay of the land so to speak. 

Someone had already found two matching outfits for Charlotte and Lydia to try on. Those fit perfectly so that was simple. 

Mine was a little harder. At first I was in a room with a bunch of dresses, but I felt a little directionless. Then Makeesa told me to come in the room she was in. She said, "I already went through that whole room. There is nothing that will fit woman like us."  She also said that Marianne had figured out that this room with skirts and separate blouses was a much better option. And then she handed me a pretty yellow skirt and said, "This will probably fit you. And if it doesn't here's one exactly like it in a bigger size."  The first one didn't fit, but the second one did. Makeesa even helped me get all hooked in. She was so helpful!  She said that she loves to help people figure out what to wear. 

So then all I had to do was find a blouse that fit. I picked out a white one that had a high collar and long sleeves and lots of lace embellishments. The skirt has a really high waste and goes down to my feet. It's going to be so fun to dance in. It's also a really pretty yellow. Normally I don't wear yellow because it doesn't go with my skin tone, but since it's a skirt I can wear it. 

Thanks to Makeesa I was in and out of there in like 10 minutes. I really thought I'd be in there a lot longer. 

Lydia was inspired by the costumes to come home and model some of the dresses she made recently. This is the one she'd been working on this week. 

And here's the one from last week. 

I came home and took a super long nap. That evening we watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty because that had been one of my possible movies for my party. 

I loved watching the movie, but I was super grumpy when it was over. I realized that I was probably just super tired from staying up late. So I went to bed. 

On Sunday I felt much better. Church was good. My friend Kori has missed the last two weeks so when she saw Derrick passing the sacrament she was so excited. Lots of people have commented on how well he does. To me it reminds me of when he was learning to walk. He would just stand and stand and stand and then sit down. When he finally did walk he took like 6 very perfect steps and then sat down. He doesn't like to do things until he KNOWS he is ready. 

(And I always have to add the story of how Veronica learned to walk which was the complete opposite. She just pulled herself up and tried to walk and fell a lot and then eventually figured it out.)

In the afternoon we went on a walk in the Auger Falls area. 

Here I am.

Derrick and Veronica climbing on some rocks. 

The view of the bridge in the distance. 

This was a cool ice puddle in a rock. 

Here it is up close. 

Then we came home and had a roast that had been cooking in the crock pot. At some point I looked up and said, "Oh yeah, it's the super bowl today." And then we all went back to what we were doing. We are so not a sports family. 

(Though on Monday I got sucked into watching and reading commentaries on Kendrick Lamar's half time show. I'd been vaguely aware of his beef with Drake and all the diss tracks that came out last summer. But if you'd played Not Like Us for me I wouldn't have had a clue what it was. And now I can't get a beet out of my head and I'm LOVING all the commentary about the layers symbolism. The memes are pretty great too.  I'm especially a fan of Serena Williams' part of the show.)

And that gets us all caught up. 

Thanks for reading!