We survived the time change (and also found an owl)

This week was rough. The Spring time change is never good and this was no exception. But we made it through and had a few good moments in there too. So here's the recap. 

But first we need to talk about two things I forgot about in the last update. Both have to do with Veronica. She had some homework that she was really nervous about getting done by the end of the quarter. The assignments were pretty big and would affect her grades a lot. But she was so worried about them she was kind of paralyzed about how to start. 

So on Wednesday night I told her that we would read 15 minutes of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and then she would do 15 minutes of homework. This worked out really well. We had fun reading and then she'd buckle down and do that homework. She was really focused and wrote a lot. And at the end of that 15 minutes we'd read more of the book followed by more homework. 

On Thursday after school we had her annual IEP. This went really really well. The staff has been super supportive of her. We went over her accommodations and found a few that she no longer needs. Back in her high anxiety days in elementary school she needed to be warned ahead of time about Fire Drills. She doesn't need that anymore. So that was taken off her accommodations. It was cool to see how she's grown up a lot. 

Okay, now we are ready to talk about Monday March 9th. 

It was a little hard to get up on Monday, but I felt like I made it through the day okay. I got everyone to school and I worked until it was time to pick Derrick up. I felt like I was winning at this whole Daylight Saving Time thing. 

In the evening Brandon and Derrick came with me to my office so we could pick up a cute blue couch. The therapist who was using it had replaced it. It had been up for grabs for any other therapist to put it in their office. My boss had sent out an email saying that on March 9th it would be available for anyone to take home. And he'd said that if it wasn't claimed by Friday he'd take it to DI. I was like, "Hey I'm still in the phase of life where I buy my couches from DI. And I'd probably buy that couch. So I'll just take it when it's available."

So Brandon and Derrick helped load the couch into the van. It stuck out the back a little bit so Brandon showed Derrick how to tie the back of the van down. Then we drove home and they put it in the living room. 

The plan was to take one of the living room couches down to the basement to replace the part of the sectional that was completely falling apart. Of the three seats there was only one that hadn't collapsed. But on Monday we did not have energy to play musical couches. Getting that sectional into the basement had nearly ruined our marriage a few years ago - I wasn't taking any chances on the first day of Daylight Saving Time. So the new blue couch went into the living room and we just had three couches in there for the next few days.  

Derrick is the Teachers Quorum Secretary and one of his assignments is to send out a reminder text about the activity each week. I kind of lobbied for him to have that assignment. I told the leaders, "Derrick's favorite thing is to remind people about upcoming things. He'll do great at this." For YEARS I've been annoyed at how terrible the young men leaders are at communicating about activities. And I'm not the only one. Every other mom of teenage boys has the same complaint. You should see our text conversations where the moms are trying to pull information out of the leaders. Here's an example:

Adult Leader: Our activity this week is a hike to the Evil Kinevil Jump site.

Mom #1: What time are the boys meeting?

Adult Leader: 7:00

Mom #2: Where are the boys meeting at the trailhead or the church?

Adult Leader (the next day): The church

Mom #3: How are the boys getting home? Should we meet you somewhere?

Different Adult Leader: We'll bring the boys home

I'm trying to teach Derrick to send texts with all the info in the first text. My goal is that he will be able to write these texts by himself by the end of the year. But for now I'm writing them out. We always fill out a whiteboard with the information so we can know we have all the info. This is the whiteboard we filled out for his activity this week. 

Then we figure out how to word it in a text. I type the text and then he pushes the send button. It's a good system and all the moms appreciate getting the info text with all the info on a Monday instead of a piecemeal version on Tuesday/Wednesday. 

I went to bed on Monday thinking that I'd made it through the time change with no problems. Tuesday morning was a different story. I got all the kids off to school. And then I came back home and went back to sleep for an hour. 

At 11:00 I met with Cassy. She's been my billing client for a year, but we are getting to the point where she can handle pretty much everything on her own. We talked about what we are going to do going forward. 

Then I went to Aspen Grove for admin meeting. And then I took care of a lot of things at work. 

That afternoon I took Veronica to theatre and then Charlotte and I went to D&B to get more chicken food. I also needed triple 16 fertilizer for my lawn so I bought that.

I couldn't find my phone after we got home and I was WAY overacting to that.  I realized I was super tired. I finally found my phone in the basket where I keep the library books and DVD's. 

I picked up Veronica from theatre. She'd had another great time. 

I though that I'd been feeling better by Wednesday. But instead I woke up in a super bad mood. I was feeling really anxious about the things I had to do that day. I had to work on Jump Company bookkeeping things and I knew that was going to be really complicated because the show had been the weekend before. 

I was also supposed to meet with my friend Brian about his political campaign that afternoon. And I think that was the thing that was making me the most upset. I'd been dumb and committed to being the treasurer for his campaign before I really knew what the plan was. I'd assumed that he'd have a campaign manager, but he still didn't have one. I'd also joined on thinking that it would be great to vote in the republican primary against Mike Simpson. However, that required changing my party affiliation for the primary. And as we got closer to that I didn't want to give the republican party the honor of having my name on their rolls - even temporarily. So I wasn't even planning to vote for Brian in the Primary. 

So while I was crashing out on Wednesday morning I decided that I had to tell Brian that I was too busy for his campaign. So I sent him a text letting him know. 

I got everyone to school and then went out to Filer to do the bookkeeping. All my anxiety had been for nothing. Yes, there was a lot to do, but I was able to figure it all out. I was there for over 4 hours!  It's good that I'd told Brian I couldn't meet with him because we were scheduled to meet at 1:00 and I was still at Jump at 1:00. 

I went home and had lunch and started working on some little projects. I was about to start working on the Exponent financials audit when Marcia started barking a lot outside. 

I ignored her for a little bit, but she didn't stop so I went out to check on her. She was barking at something in the back of the yard. At first I thought it was a cat or something. But I couldn't see anything. Then I saw a bird flap it's wings. It was a bird that was stuck in the netting around the chicken coop. 

I thought it was our littlest chicken, Seed. I assumed she'd jumped off the roof of the coop and got stuck in the netting. 

But when I got close I could see Seed on the ground. Then I thought the bird was a hawk. I thought one of the hawks that often circle the coop had dive bombed the coop and got tangled up in the netting. I was excited to tell Charlotte that the netting had protected her chickens. 

But then I looked closer and realized it was an owl. AN OWL. My day had kind of sucked up to this point, but this owl really turned things around. 

I hurried to help the owl. It was stuck upside down and I imagined that it was no fun to be upside down. I wondered how long it had been there. I figured that it had been there since the night. 

I found our dog kennel that Charlotte uses for teenage chicks. I bought that by the coop. Then I got scissors and a towel. At first I thought the owl was on the outside of the netting, so I was surprised that it was inside the netting. I had no idea how it got inside the chicken run. 

I went inside the run and wrapped the owl in the towel. Then I cut the netting from around it's foot. I took it back outside the run and laid it in the kennel. It stayed laying down while I cut a lot of the netting from around it's leg. 

I was worried that it would be thirsty so I had water for it. After I got the big pieces of netting off of his leg I went to see if we had any mealworms. I put him by the water when I left. He was so tired he just kind of laid by the water. I couldn't find any mealworms. When I came back I tried to get more netting off the leg. The owl must have been feeling better because he tried to hop away. He ended up outside the kennel. I was like, "no buddy, you can't leave yet."  So I picked him up with the towel again and put him in the kennel. I gave him some of the chicken food pellets and put the towel over the kennel to give him some shade. Then I left him alone. 

Brandon and Derrick came home a little later. I showed them the owl. When the girls all came home I showed them too. They were all excited about the owl. 

The owl was very sleepy and was laying all spread out on the bottom of the kennel. We decided that he was probably exhausted. It was also still daytime and owls are nocturnal. We figured that this was a good time to try to get the rest of the netting off of the owls leg.  

Brandon went and found some very little scissors. I wrapped the owl in the towel again. I held him with his wings in the towel. His face and his legs were free. We sat in the sun on the patio. Brandon very carefully cut away the netting that was all tangled up around the owls leg. The netting had cut the skin and so there was a lot of dried blood matted into the feathers. Charlotte and Lydia got some water so Brandon could loosen up the dried blood. 

The owl was so calm during the whole process. It's like he knew we were trying to help. He closed his eyes and seemed very zenned out. The only thing he didn't like was when Brandon tried to get between his talons. He'd click his beak and try to flap his wings. But he only did that twice. 

After about 20 minutes of careful work Brandon had all the netting removed from the owls legs.  We moved the kennel into the garage and put it on the table. We turned on the garage heat. Brandon took this adorable picture of the owl.

The owl was so tired. He reminded me of a toddler struggling to stay awake. After about a minute he basically just faceplanted onto the bottom of the cage again. 

We arranged the towel into something of a nest. Later we checked on him and he'd moved onto the towel and was sleeping. 

We had dinner and then it was time for the youth activities. Derrick and Brandon drove in one car so they could go to the church and then go to do Frisbee Golf. 

Charlotte drove her van to the church so she could get home afterward without needing Brandon to come back for her. She was basically in charge of the activity this week so she needed to go. Lydia and Veronica weren't as interested. 

The young Women decorated the Bishop's office door. Charlotte loved being in charge of the activity. She said it went really well. 

Here's the end result. 

Veronica wanted me to read her Harry Potter so we did that in my bed. We both were really tired. Around 8:45 she told me, "I'm falling asleep. We should stop."  So we stopped reading. I was so tired. I got out of bed to say goodnight to Brandon. I told him that if the owl seemed better he should let him go that night. 

Then I went to bed. I read a book for about 15 minutes and then fell asleep. It probably wasn't even 9:30 yet. 

I slept so well and felt so much better when I woke up on Thursday. The kids went out to the garage to check on the owl. He wasn't in the cage so we all assumed that Brandon had let him go before bed.  I was glad the owl was doing well. 

I got through all my Thursday things for all my billing clients. I had to leave work a little early to pick Derrick up at 3:00. Charlotte and Lydia had a dentist appt at 3:30 which is the time I usually go get Derrick. So the easiest thing was to just pick him up early. I dropped him off at home and then went to the dentist. 

Charlotte and Lydia were driving themselves to the dentist after school. It's just down the street from the high school so they were there a little after I was. 

The appointment went really well. They were assigned to my friend Sam. He and Brandon were in Guys and Dolls together and his wife is in a lot of plays. Usually we see Dr Berg. But sometimes we get assigned to Sam. They hygienists always introduce the dentist like I'm a first time client. So it's already kind of silly when they are like, "This is Dr Berg" and I'm like, "yep, he's been our dentist for 6 and a half years." But it's even more silly when they are like, "This is Dr Upton" and I'm like, "HEY SAM!"

The girls didn't have any cavities so that was good. 

I took Veronica to theatre and picked her up. I spent a lot of time updating this blog. 

When Brandon came home from CSI he asked me, "So did you let the owl go?"

I was like, "Wait, didn't you let the owl go?"

So we hurried out to the garage. The owl was sitting on the table next to the kennel. I have NO IDEA how it got out. It must had been able to fit through the bars. 

We were like, "we'll let's let it go."  Brandon found a stick and tried to get the owl to step on the stick. His plan was to take the owl outside. Things did not go to plan AT ALL. The owl got spooked and flew up into the rafters. 

We tried opening both garage doors and tried to get the owl to fly out of the garage, but he just kept flying back and forth in the roof area. He never came down.

Here's a picture of the owl perched on the rafters. 

Finally we just left the garage doors open about 2 feet and hoped that if the owl was able to squeeze out of the kennel then it would be able to figure out how to get out of a 2 foot gap. 

On Friday I checked the garage - and the owl was still in the rafters. 

But there wasn't much I could do so I just closed the doors and went to work. 

It was the end of the quarter and so the kids only had a half day of school. That didn't change much for me though. I still went to work and stayed until about 1:00. Then I picked up Derrick. 

We came home and I took a nap. Then Derrick and I went grocery shopping. 

We bought some hamburger and put that in the garage for the owl. We put it by the garage door and opened the doors 2 feet again. 

That night we went to the Orpheum to see Anastasia. I was really nervous about this show. I'd loved Anastasia when I saw it at Tuacahn, and I just wasn't sure that this show in humble Twin Falls couldn't be as good as Tuacahn. 

Well I was proved wrong. The show was wonderful to watch. My friend Alyssa who had been one of the Step Sisters in Cinderella was Anastasia. She was flawless. Preston as Dimitri was also wonderful. His voice is really good. Jared played Vlad and was so funny and so good. He normally shaves his head, but he's been growing out his hair and beard for this roll. He looked incredible. 

And the set was great too. Here are the arches that Brandon and Hunter made. They looked amazing.  

 

And here are Brandon and me. Charlotte, Lydia, and Veronica came too. They just don't like posing for pictures. 

Brandon's set worked so well. The train car looked great and nothing went wrong. In another scene the train car is spilt apart and becomes the seating for the ballet. There were people on the top level and the bottom level. 

This scene was probably the one I worried about the most. They have a ballet going on while Anastasia, Dimetri, Gleb, and Grandmama sing an overlapping quartet. It's a complicated scene. But it was done really well. They had an actual ballet dancer come out and then four members of the ensemble joined her. And the singers pulled off the quartet perfectly. 

My only complaint about the show was the way the royal family was staged. They had adults playing Anastasia's siblings - even her younger brother was played by an adult. Then they had two other men who were maybe suiters? I'm not sure what the deal was with them. The focus was that Anastasia's family was dancing in every scene. They did some amazing waltzing. But they weren't really explained very well. If I didn't know who they were I would have been like, "Are these her aunts and uncles?" I think the focus on dancing too away from the heart of those scenes. That affected the big dramatic moment at the end. I found myself thinking, "this was better at Tuacahn."

But everything else was wonderful and the show was delightful. I'm so glad I saw it. 

After the show we went around congratulating everyone. Brandon had to talk to EVERYONE so he was still working on congratulating the main actors who were in the front of the stage. I'd already made it out to the lobby and talked to everyone out there. I came back into the house to see where Brandon was. I was like, "Wait, now he's on the stage!" We were never leaving. 

But eventually we got away.

We left the garage doors open 2 feet all night. When we checked the garage the next day we couldn't find the owl. So he finally left. I would have loved to have kept him forever, but I really didn't want him starving to death in my garage.  

Saturday was one of those blessed days where we had absolutely no commitments. I loved not having to be anywhere at a specific time. 

The biggest thing we did was move the couches. Brandon and Derrick took the junky couch out of the basement. Then they took one of the living room couches down stairs. And they moved the blue couch in front of the window. 

Derrick helped me put the old couch in the van and we took it to the transfer station. Derrick said, "it smells like diapers here."

I was hoping to do some yardwork, but it was really windy. So instead I took a nap on the porch. 

One thing I did get done was to start making the packing list and our menu for our spring break trip to California. I realized that everyone needed new sandals. So Brandon helped order some for everyone on Amazon. 

Veronica spent about three days making a Hobbit house. This was inspired when she found a round ring thing on the ground and decided that it looked like a hobbit door. It turned out so cute. 

Here's the door open. 

She had even made furniture for the inside. 

This is looking in the window. 

Here's the outside from another angle. 

And another angle. 

And looking through another window. 

Saturday was 3/14 AKA Pi day AKA Pie Day. Originally we'd planned to get together with Jori's family and do fun things with pie. But earlier in the week I'd had decision fatigue and Jori had cold. So we decided not to get together. 

We still did pie day on our own. I'd just bought two frozen pies so Brandon didn't have to worry about making anything. 

Brandon picked up pizza from costco and we had that and then had pie. So that was pi day. 

And now it's Sunday. We have Stake Conference today. And our family is a solid zoom attending family so we again have a day where we don't need to do anything. It's lovely. I'm trying to catch up on all my writing projects before we go on vacation next weekend. 

Anyway, thanks for reading. 

Tech week for three shows

The first week of March was CRAZY this year. Not only were we doing all of our normal every day things, but there were also THREE theatre shows opening that weekend. 

Twin Falls has an incredible theatre scene. There are three theatre companies for adults, Magic Valley Rep, Dilettantes, and Twin Falls Theatre Collective. There are two youth companies, Ovation, and Jump Company. (And that's not counting all the theatre that happens in Hayburn, Burley, and Oakley or all the high school and middle school theatre programs)

So there were three shows opening on the first weekend in March and trying to figure out how to see them all made me feel like I was stuck in some sort of theatre themed logic problem. 

Here's what I was navigating with just the show dates.

• Aladdin was being put on by Jump Company. It ran Thursday through Saturday. 
• Annie was being put on by Dilettantes. It ran Thursday through Sunday. 
• Anastasia was being put on by Magic Valley Rep. It started on Friday and ran for three weekends.

Here were some further complications I had to take into consideration.

• Brandon was going to be in Boise for training on Thursday.
• 4th Wall Night for Annie would be Saturday night.
• My sister Lindsey would be in Utah and invited us to a family dinner at my sister Emily's house on Sunday.  
• We would be out of town for the last weekend of Anastasia's run. 
• I wanted to be at as many Jump Company performances as possible because I'm the bookkeeper for the organization and I wanted to keep track of the cash deposits. 

The end result was a very busy weekend, but it was full of good things. So here's the run down. 

On Monday Brandon took the day off of work so he could work on the Anastasia set all day. He didn't have to be at the theatre until 8:30 so he was around in the morning. I teased him by saying, "please don't sit in the chair in front of the fridge."

That's because back when he was out of work at the end of 2024 he was constantly in the way as the kids and I tried used the kitchen to eat breakfast and pack our lunches. 

And guess who STILL hasn't learned? He was still in the way. He tried putting away the box where we keep the kids' lunch stuff before Veronica made her lunch. He was using the stove when I needed to use it. And he SAT IN FRONT OF THE FRIDGE. Our marriage has survived many things. But having Brandon home after 7:00 is probably not one of them. 

Anyway, I took Veronica and Derrick to school and then went to work. I was there until it was time to get Derrick after school. Brandon went to the theatre and was there for a solid 12 hours. He was there until 8:30. The rehearsal had started and he was still finishing things up. 

But the good news is that everything was DONE. 

And then one of the cast members didn't realize that one of the wheels on the train car was locked and they pushed too hard and broke the wheel off. So Brandon had to go back on Tuesday to fix that. The broken wheel had gouged through the many layers of paint on the stage. Brandon told me that it made it all the way to the blue "Little Mermaid" layer. 

Tuesday was a busy morning for me. Veronica had a dentist appointment, Derrick had a dentist appointment, and I was meeting with our accountant about our taxes. And all that ended up giving me a ton of anxiety. 

First up was Veronica's dentist appointment. It was just a cleaning and exam so it should have been pretty routine. But one of her x-rays made it look like her wisdom teeth were about ready to pop out. Veronica's mouth has always been about 3 years ahead of a normal kid her age so even though she's 12 it's not impossible to imagine that she'd need her wisdom teeth out. 

And my brain took that to mean that if Veronica needed her wisdom teeth out then ALL the kids were probably ready to have their wisdom teeth out. So I was feeling a lot of worry about that during the appointment. 

Thankfully the dentist came in and looked at the x-rays and said, "no, she still has a few years. It's just the angle of the x-ray. So that way a relief. 

I took Veronica to school and then came home and picked up Derrick. (It had been easier to just have him stay home rather than take him to school and then have to get him later.) He was going to the dentist to have a cavity filled. 

This was Derrick's first ever filling and I had no idea how he'd react. He was also a little nervous (mostly because his entire knowledge of dental work is based on Mr Bean and Three Stooges skits.) So all during the appointment I was kind of waiting for him to freak out. 

He ended up doing great. They used laughing gas on his so he was calm and he never even noticed when they gave him a shot. He was a little weirded out by how numb his cheek was, but he was mostly fine with it. 

I dropped him off at school and went home to make my lunch and to throw some laundry in the washer. 

My friend Suzy ended up walking by my house right as I pulled up so we talked for a while and my laundry never happened. But it was fun to see her. 

Then I went to my accountant's office. I was nervous about this because Brandon and I were both working a lot last year and I'd had a raise at the beginning of the year. I wasn't sure what things would look like. But we ended up with a refund. So whew. 

After all that worry all that morning it was so nice to go to work and do boring routine things like entering payments. 

That evening Charlotte and Lydia went to Toy Town so Charlotte could buy another dragon. Here are her dragons and Lydia's dragons lined up in order. 

Wednesday was the first Bible Study Session for the month. We were studying Jonah. (If you are wondering why we didn't do Obediah - it's because Obediah is short and so I moved that book to the summer when we will only meet once a month.)

On my birthday my friend Ivan gave me this weird wooden puzzle toy. Inside is a little man. I decided that this was Jonah and the creature was the whale. So I used Jonah as a visual aid in the lesson.

I've enjoyed studying Jonah, but in some ways it's almost too familiar. There's a lot written about Jonah. It doesn't feel like I'm discovering completely new things the way it has felt to study Amos and Joel. I've actually started working on Micah because the first Wednesday in April comes up so quickly after Spring Break. I've had a lot more fun with Micah because it's new territory. 

After bible study I picked Veronica up from school for therapy. Then I took her back to school. 

And then I came home and RELAXED. I watched half of the America's Next Top Model documentary on Netflix. It was funny.

For some reason that is now completely forgotten, Brandon had to go back to the theatre for another set repair or something. But he wasn't there long. He came home and picked up Derrick and they went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for the teachers quorum activity. 

The girls were going to go to the church for their activity, but by 7:00 it was dark and rainy. And home was cozy and warm. So the girls stayed home and I read Harry Potter to Veronica. 

At some point Brandon got a text from Chris Ayers about whether or not he was available to help build the set for Jump Company's production of Prince of Egypt this summer. We were still recovering from the Anastasia set. I was like, "Um NO!" And even after we through about it more it was still a no. Brandon is committed to doing the Seussical set this fall. We really don't need another set. 

But Chris's text had some weird wording. He said, "I know you are already helping with Romeo and Juliet."  This was the first we'd heard of that. 

Later I checked Magic Valley Rep's website and saw that Brandon was listed as the set builder for Romeo and Juliet. I was like, "oh dear."  We are still trying to get that cleared up. I know that they are already planning to just use the opera seating set as part of the balcony scene. So hopefully that's what they mean. Hopefully.

On Thursday Brandon went to a training in Boise. He wouldn't be home until later that evening - this was pretty typical for a Thursday because he's usually in Burley on Thurday evenings. So none of us really noticed that he was gone. (Also he's been at the theatre so much that its actually strange when he is home in the evening.)

I had my usual big Thursday of checking in with all my clients. I was so proud of Andrea because she caught to billing errors and figured out how to fix one of them. She's doing so well!

Oh and here's a fun thing about Andrea. On Wednesday Veronica and I were talking about how she wasn't going to do Newsies during the summer. She'd been really excited to do Newsies, but then we found out rehearsals were from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM the whole month of July. That did not sound fun to 12 year old Veronica. So on Wednesday I'd told Veronica, you know what? "We should just do Seussical together." We both thought that sounded fun. 

So on Thursday Andrea said something like, "Capri is probably not doing Newsies, I told her we should do Seussical together."

I said, "That's what I told Veronica!  We should do Seussical! It would be so fun if you and I were in it with our daughters."

I'm like so committed to this idea now. I would LOVE to do a play with Andrea. It's like my bright shiny thought giving me something to look forward to. 

Anyway, then I went to work at Aspen Grove and picked kids up and took Veronica to theatre and STILL wasn't done with my day. 

It was opening night for Aladdin. And I wanted to be there to keep track of the cash. Fortunately, the show was at our local middle school. So I went over there and talked with a few people. Andrea was there and it was fun to see her again. (Seriously, how were we not friends before this. Our daughters were in Willy Wonka together!) 

The show was directed by my friend Tim. I somehow find myself involved in everything Tim does. We were in Cinderella together. He Emcee's the curtain call awards while I run the trophy table back stage. I helped him with all his costume changes for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. And now I was hanging around as the book keeper on the opening night of his Jump show. 

Tim always has some sort of food to eat before a show. He was eating McDonalds and came and sat with me on a bench near the ticket area. He'll be directing Young Frankenstein this fall. He was asking me about whether or not Brandon could build the set. I was like, "Actually, Brandon wants to be in Young Frankenstein."

Tim had to go put his director's headset on and I had to go get Veronica from theatre so we never really finished that conversation. 

I picked up Veronica and then went back to get the cash from cash ticket sales. Everyone was learning that I'm REALLY OCD about cash. Normally they just kept the cash all together and did one deposit at the end of the weekend. I was like, "What?" I've been trained with daily deposits. Daily deposits picked up by armored vehicles. So this was new for me. But over the weekend I realized that maybe they were okay to hang onto the money that way. 

I went home and was so happy to finally get into my sweat pants. 

Brandon came home a little later. Then he went to the Orpheum at the end of their dress rehearsal. He wanted to know if anything broke and needed to be fixed. Our friend Laura who is the stage manager was really happy to see him. Nothing was broken, she was just feeling overwhelmed. She asked him to do some touch up painting. He came back after work on Friday and took care of that in time for everything to be dry by the time the play opened at 7:00. 

Friday was actually a pretty normal day. I went to work in the morning and grocery shopping after work. Veronica made pizza for dinner. 

At 7:00 Brandon and I went to the College to see Annie. The parking lot was really really full. The theatre is in the same building as the concert hall where I used to play with the symphony. There was some event going on in the concert hall so the building was really busy. When I picked up my tickets they said that there was actually a THIRD event happening in the building. And there was some sort of basketball championship happening in the athletic building nearby. I was like, "oh that's why the parking lot was so full."

Brandon and I felt like we were in a completely different city when we sat down in the audience. When we go to shows at the Orpheum we usually know at least a few people in the audience. But we didn't know ANYONE. We'd known Dusty who had looked over our tickets, and Brandon recognized someone from work. But other than that we were surrounded by strangers. 

But the cast didn't have strangers. We knew a lot of the cast. Our friend Uriah who had played Sky Masterson and Lancelot was Rooster. His wife Sarah was one of the servants in the Warbucks house and was also one of the "Lovely Boylan Sisters" from the radio segment. Actually we knew all the Boylan sisters. Our fiends Natalie and Olyvia were the other two.  Sarah and Uriah's kids were orphans. Our friend Laney was an orphan too. The Orphans were double cast so Natalie's daughter was an orphan on another night. 

If we'd been there on another night we would have known Annie, but that role was double cast and we didn't know this Annie. The other Annie was a girl named Elenore. She'd been in Cinderella with me.  Coincidentally Elenore's sister Lydia was actually starring as Jasmine in the Jump company show. I don't know how their mom survived. I struggled just to see the shows. I didn't have any family members in them. 

And I've saved the best role for last. Daddy Warbucks was played by my friend Paul. AKA the Blind Knight from Cinderella. AKA my dance partner who would have walked off the stage if I'd let him. 

He did amazing as Daddy Warbucks. His bald cap gave him issues for most of the shows, but by the final day he and the makeup artist figured it out. So here's the "good" version of the bald cap.

The show was really cute and sweet. They did an excellent job. The cast was huge. They had a lot of ensemble people who just showed up in one scene. Like FDR's cabinet members were only in one scene. (I think most of them were played by the Dilettante board of directors.) My favorite part was the radio show. I could have watched a whole play with just that radio show. They had a guy wearing a mask and he was like, "I'm radio's only masked announcer."  And it was so funny because - it's radio. It doesn't matter if he's wearing a mask. At another part they had the singer pretend to tap dance. But they were just moving tap shoes around on a table by the microphone. 

My other favorite part was one of the cutest little orphans. She was like 3 years old, but was dancing with the bigger girls. She was slightly out of step, but it was adorable because she was so small. I could have watched a whole show staring her. 

At the end of the show we went out to say hello to all the cast members. The place was packed. I could see people talking to Paul and I assumed he was loving the attention. Paul is one of those people who is always joking. He'd seemed to have a wonderful time on stage and so I assumed he was having a good time receiving all the praise. 

I was standing off to the side of him. The people he was talking to left and he turned and saw me. He seemed to crumple with relief. He came over and gave me a big side hug. He said, "I needed you on stage tonight. I realized I've never done a show without someone on stage guiding me where to go."

I'd honestly never seen Paul so humble. But as I thought about working with him in Cinderella his humility made a lot of sense. Paul was so FUNNY as the blind night. He blundered around the stage and crashed into objects and people with abandon. But when it came to learning our little dance he was really concerned about getting it right. We'd done extra practicing so he could learn what he was supposed to do so that he could goof it up later. Underneath all the joking and silliness was a guy who really wanted to do things right. And I respected that a lot. 

So here he was after a big night of staring in a big show and he was feeling the weight of all the mistakes he thought he made. I assured him that he was great. I didn't notice any mistakes. (That's the truth.)  He was happy to hear that. Brandon was done talking with whoever he'd been talking to and came over to tell Paul how great he'd been. Paul was happy to hear that from Brandon as well. They had been in Sweeny Todd together and so Paul respected Brandon's opinion too.

Anyway, we finished telling everyone how well they had done and then went home.  

On Saturday it was so nice to sleep in. We made sure to keep up with the laundry, but there wasn't much we had to do to get the house put back together. 

The kids all wanted to see the new Pixar Movie Hoppers. I didn't really want to see it or pay for it. I told the kids that if they wanted to pay for it they could go see it. So at 11:30 Lydia drove the kids to the movie theatre. I drove separately and met them there because none of them knew how to buy a movie ticket. I'm glad I went because the only place to pay for tickets with cash was the concessions area and the kids would not have figured that out. 

So I helped the kids with buying their tickets and then they went to see the movie. They loved it. 

I drove over to A Taste of Thai and met up with Chandler, Jori, and Kori for lunch. Chandler's family was all skiing and she was taking the day to organize their toy room. (AKA throw away all the junky toys while the kids were out of the house.) She'd asked who wanted to meet up for lunch that morning so she could have a break in her project. It was a fun lunch and I'm glad I was able to make it.  

At 1:45 I met up with Brandon at the Jr High so we could watch the matinee of Aladdin. We wanted to see this show in particular because it's when the understudies performed and we knew a few of them. Ivan's daughter Katherine was the Genie. And Candice's daughter Kylie was Jasmine. My friend Annie's son was Aladdin. They did great and the whole cast did great. 

It's interesting how the different theatre groups have different results. Ovation is what Veronica is in. They are more interested in teaching acting skills and building confidence rather than putting on an amazing professional quality show. Ovation often has 2 or 3 casts who each put on the show on a different weekend. They do good shows, but sometimes you'll have a weaker main character since they have to cast the show based on who is in the class. 

Jump on the other hand is all about putting on a high quality show. They will only have one cast and they will only do the show over one weekend. All their main roles are solid and well cast because they have their pick of who to cast. Their shows are always impeccable. 

All of that is to say that Aladdin was really fun to watch. 

We had a lot of friends in the audience. We sat with Ivan's family. Kerri, Nate, and Peyton were a few rows ahead of them. Andrea and Tim were on the other side of the auditorium. Candice and Bryan were there. Julia was there because Finn N and her other two kids were in the show. Chris and Karin were there. It was fun to talk to everyone during intermission and after the show. 

When we got home I was like, "Wow, I'm really tired."  And then I realized that my social battery was super depleted. I'd gone to lunch and then saw a play with a bunch of friends. 

So I went and took a nap. 

Later I went back over to the Middle School and picked up the cash for Friday, and both Saturday shows. 

And then I got ready for the 4th Wall event that was happening that night. 

4th Wall had some changes for 2026. Up until now the plan had been to do an event on the last Saturday night for every musical. In 2025 that meant there was an event for Big Fish, Cinderella, She Loves Me, Godspell, Sweeny Todd, Hello Girls, and White Christmas. And some people thought that maybe that was a big too much. 

Brandon and I did not think that. I LOVED that 4th Wall was like a guaranteed fancy date night.

But there were people who felt it had lost it's specialness. 

So this year they changed it to be only once per musical per theatre company. So Annie for Dilettantes,  Come From Away for Twin Falls Theatre Collective, and Frozen for Magic Valley Rep. 

And I guess that decision worked because even though it made very little sense for Brandon and I to try to go to this event that went until Midnight when we ALSO planned to drive to Utah the next morning, we made sure to go.

The theme for this one was Opening Night New York. I wore a long black dress that I've worn before, but this time I felt like it needed gloves. I bought them at the costume shop downtown.

I did my makeup really dramatic and I put my hair in a fancy bun. 

I'm sick of feeling like I look really fancy and then having my mental image crushed by a bad picture in the terrible lighting at Redhawk so Brandon and I only took one picture and we took it with his phone. So I still haven't seen it. Nor have I seen any of the pictures anyone else took. So maybe I'll put those pictures on my next post. 

Annie didn't start until 7:30 and that 4th Wall started rather late as well. I mean it already starts late at 10:00, but this one really didn't get going until like 10:30.  Brandon and I were some of the first people there. And for a while we were some of the best dressed. Somehow some of the Dilettante people didn't get the memo about this being a FANCY event. There were people there in jeans!

After how cute and festive our White Christmas 4th Wall had been this event was feeling really different. But eventually more people arrived wearing fancy clothes. 

Brandon and I ordered while the place was still empty so we had our food pretty quick. We had chocolate cake and fried pickles. It's good we were splitting that cake because it was super rich. 

The vibes were still halfway off throughout the night. We'd sat at a big table and hoped to have people join us. But then it filled up with ensemble members from Annie who I didn't know at all. Usually I have a way into the conversation because Brandon has been in a show with someone or I've seen them in a show, but I'd never seen these people before in my life. 

And so rather than try to make small talk I just joined Ivan at the table he was sharing with our friend Brooke. That was more fun. 

Brandon was going around talking to everyone. He's everyone's favorite guy. People ADORE him. (With good reason.) He really thrives on the validation. At work he's just another cog in the machine (who helps fix the machines) but in the theatre community he's the guy who can fix or build anything. He's the guy that other guys can joke with, that the girls can confide in. On one night he'll stand in the parking lot and listen to a girl vent about her ex-boyfriend. And on another night he'll jumpstart someone's car. Everyone wants Brandon involved in their show. He doesn't cause drama off stage. He just wants to have fun with his friends. He's just the best. 

Because the night got off to a late start they didn't even announce best dressed guy and gal until like 11:45. (Usually that's done around 11:00.) I was like, "Oh we need to go home."

So we started making out way to the exit. Sarah who organizes these events was walking by and I hadn't really said hi to her yet. She gave me the biggest hug. I'm not a hugger unless I'm around theatre people. And then I LOVE hugs. She pressed her cheek into mine and said something like, "Thanks for coming."  And, you know what? They aren't lying when they call it Community Theatre. Because I felt so much comradery with Sarah. I'm so happy she is part of my life. 

We went home and were in bed pretty quick. The kids had already put themselves to bed. (Bless them.)

In the morning we got up around 9:00. All the kids ate and sort of got dressed. Then we got in the car and started driving to Utah. Lydia drove the whole way and we didn't have to stop at all on the 2.5 hour drive. It was really nice. 

We arrived at my sister Emily's house at 12:40. About 5 seconds after we pulled up Lindsey arrived too. She'd brought my parents too. 

We all went inside. Emily had lots of soups cooking and we had those for lunch. Mostly we just sat around and talked. Here's a view of the livingroom. 

And another one. A lot of the teenagers were drawing. 

Around 5:00 I pulled out the silly soda's that I'd bought at Magic Rock City. 

I'd also bought little cups. Brandon helped me pout a little bit of soda into each cup. Then the kids tried them. I'd bought these drinks in anticipation for how fun it would be to watch the big teenage boys like Rocky and Asher react to drinking Ghost Pepper flavored soda. But it was also really funny to watch little Juniper drink the sodas. (I don't think she drank the Ghost pepper one though.)  She liked the nice ones like Cookie Dough and Birthday Cake. 

Derrick had been asleep for most of the time we were at Emily's he woke up later and I let him try some of the left over soda. 

I had a great time hanging out with Lindsey. I was telling people, "My sister came all the way from Texas. The least I can do it drive three hours to see her." It was worth it to spend some time with her. 

This trip was also really chill. Last time she was in town with her kids was over Christmas in 2024 and there had been a lot going on with that. This time it was just dinner on a random Sunday in March. 

I also liked that we hadn't had to pack anything. Yes it was a little hard to drive down and back in a day, but not having to pack a suitcase really helped offset that. 

Around 7:00 it was time to head back to Twin Falls. I drove this time. We had to stop twice. Once for gas and once for the bathroom. But we were home soon after 10:00. 

Then it was off to bed. Our next week was going to be rough because daylight saving time had just started. But at least it wasn't tech week and we didn't have to figure out how to attend a bunch of theatre events. 

Thanks for reading. 

You can't start a car in drive - part 2

I follow Sharon.a.life on Facebook and she's done a couple posts about how awful the last few weeks of February can be. Here's one of her videos.  It sums up a lot of how I felt during the last week of February. 

But I survived it and now we can do this look back and think, "huh it wasn't that bad after all."

One thing I forgot to talk about was a funny thing that happened at Ward Conference. The guy from the stake was reading all the names of the people in different callings in the ward. He was doing great. He even got the pronunciation of Cristianeide correct. 

And then he came to the teachers quorum secretary - Derrick Thomas Illguth. He said it as Derrick Thom (short pause) son Ill-guhhhhhhhh and just kind of trailed off at the end. 

I think he was thinking, "what was that last name?" 

Then he got to the older young women class second counselor - Charlotte Skye Illguth. He said, Charlotte Skye and then there was a long pause where you could almost here him think, "OH NO! It's that last name again! How on earth did I say it last time? How do you say it?" And then he did his best and said Ill-uh-guhhhthhhhh. 

There were audible little laughing giggles and titters as he said the name. 

Later I said, "It's too bad that Veronica isn't in the younger class presidency. He probably would have just looked at her name and said into the microphone, "Okay, just tell me how to say this last name?"

Our ward actually has a history of really funny name moments at the pulpit. Our friend Nora Johnson was called into the presidency of the younger young women class. The bishop is a big fan of Nora Jones that singer and didn't even realize that was the name he announced for the younger class. And then he got up later and corrected himself. A few weeks later Nora spoke in sacrament meeting and the bishopric member that announced her name said, "Nora Johnson AKA Nora Jones will be addressing us."

Monday was a very typical day that would have been great except I had a very atypical headache. I woke up with it around 5:00 and for a while I think it was bordering on a migraine. (Or as Veronica calls them a Me-graine.) I took some ibuprofen and that kicked in after a while and I was able to get back to sleep. When I woke up for real around 7:00 it was just a headache. 

But all day my head hurt and the muscles on my head hurt too. I was thinking things like, "Do my temples always feel tender when I touch them? (The answer is NO.)

But anyway I made it through the day. Derrick had an orthodontist appointment after school. This was his second to last appointment. He'll have an appointment in April and then I think he gets his braces off in May. And then we can start braces for Veronica. 

Brandon was at the theatre all night. But first he went to Lowes to buy more wood. Derrick and I drove past Brandon as we drove home from the orthodontist. That was pretty much the most I saw of Brandon all evening. 

Tuesday was pretty typical. The evening was less typical. Brandon was at CSI in Burley which he usually doesn't do on Tuesdays. And Veronica had an orchestra concert. 

Charlotte and Lydia had a concert on Wednesday and Veronica was going to miss that concert to go to Young Women's so Charlotte and Lydia felt like they should miss Veronica's concert on Tuesday. And Derrick didn't care about going at all. So it was just me who went. 

Veronica's class was up first so I went up and took some pictures from up close while she was practicing before the concert started. 

She was really nervous and also excited. 

Here's her whole class. She was so far away because everything was set up for the intermediate orchestra later. 

I took a video of two of their songs. These kids have come a long way from "Jingle Bows" back in December. 

Veronica was really happy when the concert was over. 

Wednesday was a Jump Company accounting day. And it was the first time I didn't feel like an idiot while doing the bookkeeping. I kind of actually knew what the heck I was doing. 

When Derrick came home from school I showed him a big envelope that we got in the mail. He opened it up and was excited to find the license plates inside. He immediately went to the garage and got a wrench and put the front license plate on the blue van. This is TOTALLY Brandon's son. 

He would have done the back plate too, but that one has stripped out holes where the screws go so Brandon needs to do some extra stuff to that one. (This is currently on hold until the Anastasia set is complete.)

Brandon went back to the theatre and worked on the set some more. 

I went downstairs to see the different parks that Derrick has made on his Jurassic World Game. He'd made a list of all the dinosaurs in the first three Jurassic Park movies and then put those dinosaurs into various parks in his world. Here are his hand written lists. I'm pretty certain he copied these from some wiki, but this still is really impressive. (Also I just love how he writes his letter a. I don't know where he learned how to write them that way. None of my other kids write a's that way.)

As impressive as the dinosaurs were - it's still pretty boring to have Derrick show them to me. So when I checked my phone and saw a message from my friend Hanah to our ward group chat I paid attention to it. She needed a ride to the bank to pick up cash and then a ride to her mechanic to pay him for fixing her car. She hadn't realized he only took cash and that he would be done that afternoon. I was like, "I'll be there!"

Later my friend Megan commented in the chat, "Valerie to the rescue."  I replied, "I'm not that heroic. I needed an excuse to stop watching really boring dinosaur videos."

Veronica came with me. We picked Hanah up and took her to the bank. Then we went to her mechanic. His shop was a little sketchy so I went in with her. And then she had her car and drove herself home. 

It was barely a blip in my day, but I know it meant a lot to Hanah. I'm always happy to help Hanah. She's a single mom to two boys. I've told her in the past that I have a lot of things to pay forward from back when Brandon was in the Army and I relied a lot on so many people to help me with so many things. 

Veronica and I stopped at the store and bought ice cream to have after Charlotte and Lydia's concert. I took Charlotte and Lydia to the Roper. Brandon came home in time to pick up Derrick and Veronica and drop them off at the church before meeting me at the Roper. 

Derrick and Veronica went to a bonfire at some country property owned by a family that used to be in the ward. This was their first bonfire. They couldn't believe how high the fire was. I told them, "I didn't go to a bonfire until I was in college. But I also grew up in the middle of a city.)

Charlotte and Lydia's concert was really good. The Chamber orchestra had a bunch of small groups getting ready for solo and ensemble competitions. Some of them were playing in the lobby before the concert started. When the concert started they have 7 small groups play their pieces. And WOW they were good. 

Then the concert orchestra (that's the one Charlotte and Lydia are in) came on stage and played two songs. 

Charlotte and Lydia had been downplaying their songs for weeks so I didn't bother taking any videos. But I regretted that when they started playing. Both songs were really good. 

The first song was the second movement of Haydn's Symphony #94. When Mr Shipley announced that he had a little laugh in his voice I was like, "Wait a minute. Is that the . . . oh probably not."

And then the kids started playing and I was like, "It IS the Surprise Symphony!" It started out all quiet and calm and then had a surprise loud part. At that surprise loud part I made like a "boom" hand motion to Brandon. He was like, "how did you know that would happen?" 

Later I asked the girls, "Why didn't you tell me you were playing the Surprise Symphony?" They were like, "We didn't know you knew what it was."  I told them, "Hey I'm like a classical music sleeper agent."

Their second song was from one of Mozart's operas. I think it was the Marriage of Figaro, but I might be misremembering that. 

These kids are pretty great!

We came home and had ice cream after Derrick and Veronica were also home. I think this was the first time the 6 of us were all together in DAYS. 

Thursday was busy. I was doing stuff with my billing clients all day. But a cool thing happened in the afternoon - I didn't have to rush to leave work to pick anyone up. 

Charlotte and Lydia just drove themselves home from school like that have for a few weeks now. And Derrick went home with Max. And Veronica walked home. So I was able to leave work around 4:00.

At 5:30 I dropped Veronica off at theatre. She'd had to miss it on Tuesday because of her concert so she was happy to be back. I drove over to Max's house and picked up Derrick. They'd had fun together.   

At home Lydia wanted to show off her welds. She's loving her welding class. Here's her latest weld. It's a T-weld. 

See the T.

Then she got out all of her welds and laid them out for me to take a picture. 

And then she was in the mood for showing things off so she got out all of her crocheted animals. 

And stuffed animals

I went downstairs and finished looking at Derrick's dinosaurs. Here he is playing his game. He has it set so the dinosaurs can't escape. He just builds them little fenced in areas and makes sure they have enough food, water, and things like shade. It's a really calm and peaceful game. 

At 6:30 I went to my friend Amanda's for bunco. When she'd scheduled this night back in January I'd been like, "Oh shoot, Veronica doesn't get out of theatre until 7:00. But WAIT Charlotte and Lydia should have their licenses by then!"  And now here we were and they did have their licenses. So they were able to pick Veronica up at the theatre. I love that they have their licenses. 

Bunco was fun. But I was TIRED! I kept zoning out and loosing track of the counts. I had to keep asking my partners "how many do you have?"  And they would always have more than me. I was like, "Where is my brain?"   

Friday was a productive day. I worked at Aspen Grove in the morning. In the afternoon Andrea came over to my house and we worked on her billing. She'd had more questions than I could answer during our meeting on Thursday. But we got things worked out and she was feeling mostly better about things. I assured her that by June she would feel like she knew what she was doing. 

After she left I invoiced all my clients. I still don't have anything set up for Simplicity Billing. But I was able to put that name on my invoices. So that was fun. 

I ordered Pizza for Brandon to pick up on his way home. Then I was about to go get Veronica at the middle school when Charlotte emailed me. 

She told me the van was dead and so was her cell phone. I told her I'd be there. 

I had a hunch I knew what was wrong with the van. But without a cell phone to talk to her about it I couldn't really explain. 

By the time I got to the high school Charlotte and Lydia had been able to get their phone charged in an outlet in the school lobby area. I pulled up next to the van and looked inside. I could tell immediately what was wrong. 

The girls came out and Lydia said, "We stayed calm and worked on the problem like you showed us in Yellowstone."

I told them that was great. I also told them I knew what was wrong with the van. I pointed to the gear shift and said, "What gear are you in?"

They both saw the problem at the same time. They were like, "Ohhhhhhhhhh."

I told them I'd done the exact same thing with the Pilot. It was a mistake they'd never make again. 

They had the car in drive. And you can't start a car in drive. 

Also technically you shouldn't be able to turn off a car in drive either. But our old Honda's have "special" ignition coils that shouldn't exist in the real world. 

So Lydia climbed in the drivers seat, shifted into park, and then started the van right away. 

And then Brandon drove by with the pizza and Derrick and Max. I thought that maybe I should have just had him come help the girls. 

Then I went to get Veronica. That was kind of a fools errand at that point. I didn't make it to the school until about 10 minutes after middle school ended. She was already walking home by that point. But whatever. 

We had pizza for dinner. Then Brandon went to the garage to work on more set things. 

Max and Derrick played Jurassic World Evolution together for a long time. 

Charlotte had a presidency meeting for about 45 minutes. She drove to the leaders house by herself. 

At 6:00 Charlotte and Lydia drove themselves to the birthday party for the other set of twins. It was so nice to not have to worry about dropping them off or picking them up. 

Around 7:00 Veronica and I went grocery shopping. The first place we went was Magic Rock City. My friend Avery buys silly sodas from this store. She'd done a taste test activity at the Super Bowl Party. I wanted to do something similar for a family get together. So Veronica and I picked out 6 sodas. The flavors are Ghost Pepper, Birthday Cake, Dirt, Cookie Dough, Bubble Gum, and Pickle. I can't wait to see my nephews' reactions while they drink these. 

We bought a lot of stuff at the store and everyone helped bring it in when we got home. 

Right before we left I'd gone out to close the chicken coop for Charlotte who was still at the birthday party. I noticed that one of her chickens was laying in the bottom of the ground level of the coop. I was pretty certain she was dead. I had Brandon come look and he confirmed it. 

After all the groceries were put away we told Charlotte the sad news. She went out with Brandon to see. Brandon helped her find a box and they put Rosie in it. Later I dug a hole and buried Rosie next to Poppy under our big rosebush. 

Charlotte was really sad. Brandon sat with her and they watched silly reels together to help her feel better. 

Saturday was spent doing 3 things. 

1. Brandon worked on the set. There was an event at the Orpheum that day so he was out at the Curry Building. 

2. I made sure all our laundry was done. It was one of those days where I set a timer every time I started a new load and I was changing things over as soon as the timer went off. 

3. I did some yard work. My tulips are starting to come up in the front yard. I cleaned up the tulip beds so they didn't have dead plants or leaves covering up the tulips. 

At 4:00 my latest blog post about the 12 Minor Prophets was published. This one was all about Amos. I'd been working on this post all the way up until Friday night. It was over 3500 words. And I still feel like I barely scratched the surface of the book. 

That night Veronica and I finished reading the third Harry Potter book. She really liked it. I thought that she wouldn't like the books because she's seen the movies so many times. But she's loving all the details in the books. 

On Sunday Brandon was back to work on the Anastasia set. At 9:00 a bunch of people from the show moved things into the Orpheum and started painting a lot of the set pieces. Our friend Hunter was there to help Brandon. They still had three huge arches to make. I was pretty skeptical that they would ever get done, but Brandon and Hunter work really well together. They figured out how to build them and got one completely done and the other two in various stages of completion. 

Hunter is married to my friend Danica. At the end of the day I messaged her and said, "I'm so glad that Hunter was there to help Brandon today. I was really wondering if those arches would ever happen."

She replied, "Oh my gosh! He said he had fun and really enjoys working with Brandon! I’m glad they were able to make it work."

Brandon was deep in working on the set when it was time for the rest of us to go to church. So just me and the kids went to church. He didn't get home until like 6:00. 

And spoiler warning for next weeks post - he was back working on the set on Monday morning. A few weeks ago I'd looked at the calendar and at the amount of work left to do and told Brandon, "you probably want to take the Monday of tech week off of work and plan to panic build the set."  So he took the day off. And thank goodness he did. He was there from 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM. But everything is done now. Whew!

This week is crazy theatre-wise. There are THREE shows opening this weekend. Jump Company is doing Aladdin. Dilatants is doing Annie. And Magic Valley Rep is doing Anastasia. 

But hey the set is done. So that's a relief. 

Anyway, thanks for reading.