The fun part

When Brandon does these plays it's kind of like a roller coaster. Tech week is the long chain hill where you wonder what exactly did you get yourself into. Then on opening night the roller coaster car is set free and goes zipping down the track. That's when things get fun. 

The audiences make things fun because they react to all the things that the actors have become a little jaded to. And then there are the after parties. Those are my favorite part. 

Also there's actually a little bit of a break that suddenly happens. Brandon had tech week rehearsals, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then he had a performance on Friday and Saturday. And then he had a BREAK on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. He did have a pickup rehearsal on Wednesday, but he didn't have to be at theater until 7:00. It was so nice to have him home all those evenings this week. 

Then the plays started again. He had a performance on Thursday (we went to that one), Friday, Saturday, and he'll have one Sunday afternoon. (I'm writing this on Sunday morning.) 

So this week was kind of split between having Brandon home a lot, and then not seeing him much again. Let's recap. 

Monday was a pretty normal day with work for me and Brandon, school for the kids, etc etc. But we aren't going to talk about any of that because something way more important happened. 

Brandon and I took a couples dance class. 

We've wanted to do this forever. Like Brandon and I danced around in his apartment two weeks after we met and we said, "hey we should take a dance class together." And then it took 18 years to actually do that. (Looking back I cannot figure out why we didn't take one when we were both still at USU the semester after we were married. I'm sure we could have made that work.)

Anyway, I've been wishing for a couples dance class, but there didn't seem to be any offered in the area. I was so excited when I opened up my email from CSI's community ed department and saw a couples dance class listed on the fall class schedule. It was a little expensive because we had to pay per person, but Brandon had just been paid for the CSI classes that he teaches so some of that money went to pay for these CSI classes. 

The first class was Monday night. We went a little early to find the room. Turns out its in the exact same room where I took Yoga from Amy Toft so that was easy. We started with the waltz. The instructor taught us the box step and that's all we practiced for like 40 minutes. I was a little bummed we weren't doing something more complicated - she could have at least taught us a twirl. But it was still really fun to dance with Brandon. 

I took social dance in High school and LOVED it. The only problem is that I'm kind of a terrible solo dancer. So in the years that Brandon and I have been married I've tried to explain certain dance things to him, but I couldn't explain right. But as soon as we had a little bit of instruction and I wasn't the one that had to show Brandon what to do, my body started to remember. Like I couldn't have told you that I needed to step back on my right foot, but as soon as we were in the right position my foot just wanted to go back on its own. And I remembered the footwork to the box step really quick too. I was happy to feel that I still had some muscle memory. 

The teacher promised we'd learn more complicated things as the weeks went on so I'm happy about that. 

We were the youngest people in the class - I think. A lot of the other couples were talking about how they were empty nesters now and needed something to do together. One couple was saying they wanted to learn how to dance to get ready for their sons wedding. I told everyone our reason for coming was that Brandon keeps dancing with other girls during his plays and I figured it was time he danced with me. 

(Oh and that reminds me that I've been jokingly telling people that we need to take this class to "Save our Marriage" after Brandon spent 5 months at play rehearsals. Our marriage is fine, but it helps to have a scheduled event each week.)

After the class was over we walked outside and Brandon was describing the "Fish slapping dance" they do for Spamalot. He ended up just showing me. It involves holding your partner "the wrong way" so that the girls are leading and then skipping a lot. I was laughing hysterically.  Some of the other couples walked by us and were like, "wait, we didn't learn that."  And Brandon was like, "this is from my play."

Anyway, it was a great night and we are looking forward to the next class. 

And here's a picture of the chickens. This is the only picture I took on Monday. The chickens are eating some spoiled peaches. This is one reason I like having chickens. I don't feel bad throwing away food. 

Tuesday I didn't have work until the afternoon. I dropped the kids all off at school. I planned to go for a walk on the canyon rim trail, but then I decided to do the trail around Dirkies lake. 

It was a good workout with such a lovely view. 

That afternoon Veronica had her Theatre class at the orpheum. Afterwards we talked about what songs she could sing for her audition. I think she wants to sing something from Aladdin. 

Wednesday was my day off. And I made sure it was MY DAY OFF. My scripture study class is on a break for two weeks so I didn't have to worry about that. Things at Castle Therapy were going well so I didn't have to do anything for that. And I didn't even think about Aspen Grove. 

I spent the whole day just doing whatever I wanted. And the first thing I wanted was to go dig outside. 

I wish I had a before picture. But there's been a little space in front of the chicken run area that I decided needed to be a flower bed. So I dug it out and then rolled one of our old posts from the junky shed over to be the border. This picture doesn't really show it off very well. But trust me, once there are some colorful flowers in here its going to be beautiful. 

I also watched an episode of The Crown. 

I haven't had a day like this with absolutely no obligations in a long time. I felt my internal stress levels decrease so much. 

Derrick wants to be a Ghostbuster for Halloween. He is obsessed with the $250 version of the proton pack. I was like, "Sorry, that's not happening."  But I still watched the videos about it. He likes the noise it makes and the lights. I'm thinking that maybe Brandon could help put something together with lights. Not so sure about the noise yet. 

Thursday morning I went grocery shopping. Veronica came along too. She was supposed to be at school. But her school was having the barricade ALICE drill. She used to get really nervous about these drills. Last year she did fine and so this year she thought she was going to be okay, but on Wednesday she came home and was like, "Mom I'm so nervous." Part of the problem was that the drill would start while she was still at her music class and not in her regular classroom. That unknown situation was making her worry. And I was like "Yeah it's not worth the anxiety this year."  The drill started at 9:00 so I just emailed her teacher and told her I'd drop Veronica off after the drill was over. 

So she came grocery shopping with me and was actually super helpful. This was one of our big stock up trips and we packed the cart tight. We knew we'd need a second one to get all the food out to the car. So she ran and got that second cart while I was putting everything on the conveyer belt. Then she helped bag everything too. I'm not sure how I would have done all that on my own. 

It was 9:45 by the time we got back to our neighborhood so I dropped her off at the school. Then I went home and unloaded all the groceries. I got most of them put away, but left a lot of the non perishable stuff for Brandon to take care of. 

That night we went to see Spamalot - well most of us. Derrick had been REFUSING to go. Even when I took him to 30 minutes of a rehearsal he was miserable. I finally gave up and started trying to find someone who could use his ticket. My coworker Kami ended up with it. I just gave it to her and then she bought the seat next to it for her husband. So they had a date night for half price. 

Charlotte brought money to buy a popcorn and a drink. So I stood in line and helped her with that. Then we went into the theatre and found our seats. 

Brandon's parents also came that night. They met us in the theatre. Our friend Ivan was there with his buddy Tyler. Tyler was in Music Man and Treasure Island with Brandon. 

Okay, are you ready for a super long description of the show? When I talked about it on Marco Polo in my sibling group I took 11 minutes and said, "It was so funny" probably 20 times. I'll try not to do that. 

The play is based off of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So it starts a little like a movie with opening credits playing on the screen. The credits start out normal enough. All the actors names are listed. It was fun to see Brandon's name on the board. 

But then something funny starts happening. There are subtitles under the credits that start telling a story about a moose.  After that goes on for a few slides the music stops and a message comes on that says, "Sorry about that. The people responsible for the credits have been sacked." 

Then everything goes back to normal, but now there are mentions of the moose in the credits. Like Moose Handler, Moose Bite Treater, Moose assistant, and all sorts of silly things. And the people listed as having these roles are real people. Ivan showed up as one of the people responsible for the moose. He let out a big laugh at that. 

The credits are over and a very distinguished looking narrator comes out on stage and starts talking about England and the legend of King Arthur. Then the curtains open and all the people on stage are dancing and singing. This is the fish slapping song and dance. The boys slap the girls with little fish and then the girls slap the boys with big fish. Brandon was dressed as a peasant for this one. (That's costume #1)

The people have all been singing about how great Finland is. So the narrator has to walk back out and yell, "I said England!"  It's very funny. 

Brandon's next costume change happens very quickly after this scene. They literally have someone back stage assigned to help him put on his next costume over his clothes. He comes out as one of those monks that bonks their head with a board. (That's costume #2)

I won't worry about describing the "plot" because there barely is one. Arthur and Patsy do a few fun scenes that are from the movie. Arthur is our friend Nate. He's married to my friend Kerri who is the attendance secretary at the middle school. She does plays too so we watch their daughter Payton sometimes when her parents are busy and she's getting sick of hanging out at the theater. 

Patsy is our friend Heather. She was so funny. She had these bags that were full of so many funny props. I "borrowed" this picture of her from the TimesNews. 

Brandon's next scene is the one where he plays Galahad's mother. Here he is hitting on Arthur. Brandon had already shown us his wig and scarf. And we'd heard his high pitched voice doing the line for months. But to see it all together was HILAROUS.  The kids and I were all busting up from laughter.  Ivan said that he didn't even recognize Brandon until he heard us all laughing and realized that we were laughing because it was Brandon. 

My favorite part of that scene was when Brandon sat on the floor for a minute and made a point of straightening his skirt so his hairy legs were on display. It was hilarious. 

The whole scene moves on to be about Galahad meeting the Lady of the Lake and joining the quest. The Lady of the Lake was played by our friend Sarah. She was Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. And Galahad was played by Dale who had played Nathan Detroit. They had a whole song together and I was like, "Wait, there's something familiar about this."

The Lady of the Lake has "Laker Girls" who are dressed as cheerleaders during this scene. They do a cheer and then turn around to show that they have the letters G A L A H A on the bums. Brandon runs out, and lifts up his skirt to show it had the letter D on it. So funny! (And that's the end of Costume #3.)

There's a whole scene at Camelot where Brandon is dressed as a Knight (Costume #4) and sings The Knights of the Round Table. During this scene he doesn't have anything on his head and I realized how rare that actually is for him. He had a fedora on during most of Guys and Dolls, he had a police mans had for Music Man, and he wore a bandana in Treasure Island. 

Then there is more nonsense and soon Arthur and his knights are outside a castle looking for a Holy Grail. And then a man pops up with his silly hat and gloves and says, "Who is it?" in a ridiculous French accent. This is beginning of Brandon's best scene. (And costume #5)

This is a picture of Brandon that my friend Marianne took either right before or right after his scene on Friday. I love these little gloves and how they pop up just like the ones the character wears in the movie. 

And here's a picture from the Times News. (Brandon's gloves weren't quite ready that night.)

Brandon OWENED this character and this scene. He hurled insult after insult at the knights. There were so many laughs in the audience. 

At one point Brandon and his people catapult a cow at the knights. At least it was supposed to be a cow. But instead they changed it to goat and threw the stuffed goat that had been in Treasure Island at the knights. Brandon says this goat has a name (which he can't remember) and shows up in a lot of plays. 

The knight's plan is to use a giant wooden rabbit as a sort of Trojan horse. (That they forget to get into.)  The wooden rabbit was HUGE! It was just 2D, but it took up the full height of the stage. 

Brandon comes down from his tower and out the door of the castle. He says something like "French People come on out." He's followed by a few nights but then a baker (with a huge baguette), a painter, a mime, and a girl dressed like she's from Les Mis. (And knowing this community it probably is the exact same costume Epinine wore in June.) 

One of the people suggests that the Rabbit is Art. And Brandon says "We'll hang it next to the Renoir."  He also says they will check inside for chocolate in case it is some sort of Easter Thing."  These lines are all delivered with his silly accent. It's so perfect and hilarious. 

Anyway, a battle of sorts develops and the knights all sing the run away song. Brandon sings along with this too as the French people are taunting them.  

And that's the end of Act One. King Arthur comes out and sings, "Have a drink and a pee and we'll be back for Act 3."  He's corrected by Patsy that's it's Act 2. And then it's time for a break. 

My friend Kami was sitting right next to me. She was like, "I've met Brandon a few times, but I never expected him to act so silly. He is so funny!"

Ivan turned around in his seat and said, "Wow he's really come out of his shell!"  He also told me that Tyler told him that Brandon was stealing the show. 

I told Ivan, "hey we owe this all to you. You're the one who got him into this."

Veronica told Ivan that she was going to use all the French Taunter's insults on him at the next Living Nativity. 

Up to this point I had a vague idea of the "plot" and Brandon's involvement in it. I'd listened to the music a few times on spotify and Brandon had told me a few things. But Act 2 was more of a mystery. 

It opened with all the knights lost in what the narrator described as a "Very Expensive Forest." It was one tree with a sign on it that said, "Very expensive forest." (This tree had recently been in The Importance of Being Earnest.) 

Brandon's only participation in this part is as support for the Knights who say Nee. And I mean support. Rebecca is literally on stilts so that she can be a very tall knight. Brandon dresses in all black and walks out next to her to hold her up. You can't see him, but he's there holding her the whole scene. So we'll count this as costume #6.

The Knights who say Nee demand that King Arthur bring them a shrubbery. There's a whole lot of song and dance around this and then Brandon pops up on the other side of the stage dressed as the mother again. (Costume #7) She happens to have a shrubbery that she's throwing away.  

Arthur takes this back to the Knights who say Nee. And Brandon is back dressed in all black helping guide Rebecca out. (Costume #8)  He says that he's running all over back stage and down to the green room to get dressed and do his make up and then back up and barely makes it each time. 

One of the best parts of Act 2 is when the Lady of the Lake comes back on stage. She's in a fancy robe like a star would wear in their dressing room. She comes out in front of the curtain and snaps her fingers for a spot light. Then she snaps again for music to start playing. She sings the "Diva's Lament."  About how she's been off stage for far to long. Here are the first two stanzas of the lyrics. 

What ever happened to my part?
It was exciting at the start.
Now we're halfway through Act 2
And I've had nothing yet to do.

I've been offstage for far too long
It's ages since I had a song.
This is one unhappy Diva
The producer's have deceived her.
There is nothing I can sing from my heart.
Whatever happened to my part?

It's hilarious. And kind of true because the very thin plot is getting thinner. 

The Knights who say Nee have now tasked Arthur with creating a Broadway Musical. And this prompts Sir Robin to sing a whole song about how that wont work because they don't have any Jews. And the song has a whole dance number. And Brandon is playing a girls AGAIN in a wig that made him look like Spock. (That's costume #9).

Then there's a whole scene with Lancelot rescuing Dennis. By the end Dennis realizes Lancelot is gay (which is funny because in real life he's married to the Lady of the Lake) and sings a whole song about it. This is Brandon's favorite song. I knew Brandon was in this dance number. And I knew that he was going to be wearing a crop top. But I did not know that he was going to come out with just his tights on instead of pants!

You can listen to the song here. We all really like the Lazer sound effects. Brandon had so much fun dancing to this song. He was also wearing cool sun glasses. I really wish I had a picture of this costume. It was epic. And that was costume #9. 

There's a whole scene with the killer rabbit, but Brandon wasn't in that. And then they find the grail in a very unexpected place. (Hint, it's through the 4th wall.)

And then it's the end and Arthur and the Lady of the Lake get married because you need a wedding and everyone's on stage and Brandon's 11th and final costume is his knight outfit. 

Then they come out for bows and everyone - including the audience sings Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. The cast comes out in the audience and sings with us. Brandon was in the aisle right by his parents.  It was such a happy way to end the play. 

We all went out to the lobby to congratulate the actors. It was so fun. I'm not a hugger normally, but somehow I am around theater people. I was hugging all my friends and telling them they did a great job. 

The kids and I came home and Steve and Jacque joined us. I'd brought everything for rootbeer and orange cream floats. I started serving those up. Brandon came home soon after. We stayed up super late reliving all our favorite moments and hearing Brandon's stories of what was going on backstage. 

It was so much fun!

Eventually we had to go to bed. The kids didn't have school the next day but Brandon and I had work. 

I went to work around 7:30 on Friday. I needed to get off by 10:30 so I could take the kids to an orthodontist appointment. I was worried the mail wouldn't show up until I needed to leave, but it actually came at 9:30 so that wasn't a problem. I was actually able to get home around 10:30. 

Steve and Jacque had had a nice morning with the kids. They left when we left for the orthodontist. 

The orthodontist was a routine appt for Lydia - but they said that she'd be getting her braces off next time. Derrick started wearing rubber bands so that was exciting. But the best news was that Charlotte was getting her braces off!  That was really exciting. 

But I didn't get a picture because my phone was nearly dead and Derrick used up the last of it while we waited for Charlotte to be done. 

We went home and had lunch and I took a nap. Then I took Charlotte and Lydia pants shopping at DI. That went really well. 

Brandon had another play that night. I had a whole laundry basket of apples to keep me company. I peeled a bunch of them while watching King Fu Panda 4 with the kids. I thought I was peeling them so I could make Apple Butter with them, but then I checked the recipe and found out that you don't need to peel apples for apple butter. So all those peeled apples became apple pie filling. 

I chopped up other apples and filled my slow cooker to the top with them. They cooked overnight and I was able to make apple butter out of them. (But 15 cups of apples turned into only like 6 cups of apple butter so I don't know how I feel about that. 

Brandon came home after the play because he had to fix a prop. He wasn't sure if he was going out to eat. I told him, "GO! You are going to miss all these people so much next week. Hang out with them while you can."  So he went and hung out at Applebees. 

Saturday was a really fun day for me. I got up around 8:00 and started working on another flower garden bed. Once again I forgot to take a before picture. But here's the after. The grass in this area was kind of jagged. I decided to just straighten it out into one big bed. So I dug out the grass and moved over posts to be borders.  Here's the after. 

This project was small, but it took ALL day because I had to keep pausing. 

First I had to stop so I could go to my last waterwise class at the Ortho botanical gardens. It was really good. 

Then I had to stop again to take Charlotte and Lydia to Joann's so they could buy stuff for another dragon puppet. 

And then I had to wait until Brandon got back from Lowes so he could cut one of the posts with his saw. 

But anyway, I got it done eventually and it looks GREAT!

I'd hoped to get more done, but my feet were pretty tapped out. So I took a nap on the patio. Later I took a shower. 

Brandon went to the play. I took the kids to the park. Then at 8:30 we came home and I started getting all fancy. Tonight was the Good Looking 4th Wall Night. 

This is an event put together by our friend Sarah (AKA The Lady of the Lake). People dress up really fancy to go see the play. Then they go out to the Red Hawk Gastopub and eat and socialize with the cast and crew. I'd already seen the play so I wasn't going again this night, but I was still going to the social afterward. 

So I curled my hair and did my make up really nice. I'd found the dress that I wore to a military ball at Pocatello 5 years ago. I was so happy it still fit. 

I was so happy with how I looked. 

But it was also kind of funny getting dressed this fancy. I don't do it often so I was missing some things. I kept having to go down stairs and ask Charlotte and Lydia things like, "Can I borrow your nail polish?" And "do either of you have a nice purse?"

Here's the dragon that they'd been working on all weekend.  

At 9:40 I drove over to Redhawk. Brandon wasn't there yet, but I went in anyway and talked to people until he showed up. Here we are together!  He looked so good in his suit. 

We sat at a high table that only had two chairs at it. Several people came over and talked to us. One was Jared. He owns the Orpheum. Brandon told him, "I'm going to take a break from plays for a while, but let me know if you need help building sets. I'd love to help with those."

After Jarod left Brandon said, "Is it okay that I offered that?"  I was looked around at the fancy room full of our friends dressed up all fancy and said, "Um YES! Keep us connected to this as much as you can!"

The director Tim and his girlfriend Rebecca came over. I thought they were just saying hi, but then Tim said, "We need to find more chairs so we can sit with you!" Tim found two high chairs and soon the four of us were sitting and  talking. Internally I was like, "TIM IS SITTING WITH US! BE COOL! BE COOL!"

We had a great time. At some point I was distracted, and when I was back in the conversation I heard Tim say, "We have enough wigs so I think we can pull it off."  I was like, "What?"  I never did get context for that.

I ordered a hamburger and fried pickles.  Brandon and I split the hamburger. The play choreographer Avery happened to be by us when Brandon cut the burger and handed me half. She said, "Oh that's so cute!"  I was like, "Yeah, but it's also because that burger is $13!"

Jared got up and announced the lineup of the plays for next year. He couldn't announce the March or December plays but he could say everything else.  They are doing 9 to 5 in June, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare in August, Godspell in September, and Sweeny Todd in October. Each announcement was met with cheers. 

Everyone had been asking Brandon if he was going to be in an more plays. We'd already been thinking about having him take a year or so break. So maybe he'll come back for Sweeny Todd. 

They also announced who won the best dressed awards. For the guys it was Little Tim (He'd been wearing a train conductor hat and a really nice suit.) For the girls it was Alexandra. She had a very fancy dress AND gloves, but I think the thing that put it over the edge was her purse that was shaped like a piano. 

The evening wore down and we decided it was time to go, which meant we talked to like 3 more people on the way out. 

We drove home in our separate cars. The kids were still up when we got home. It was only like 11:45 so we let them finish their movie. Then we all kind of talked and eventually we made it to bed at like 12:45. 

And that gets us caught up to today. We have State Conference today which is really good timing. We were able to sleep in until 10:00 and then just watch it on a Youtube link. 

Brandon has to be at the theatre at 12:00 so we wouldn't have been able to make it through all of church if it was a regular church day. 

This is his last performance. It's good because he'll be home in the evening again for the first time in like FIVE MONTHS. But it's also sad because he'll never work with this exact group of people again. 

So its a bittersweet day today. 

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Tech eek

I had the words Tech Week written across our calendar for this week. But at some point the w was obscured. So it was Tech eek. And really that's a pretty apt description of how things were going. 

Tech week is when Brandon's rehearsals started at 5:30 PM and went until about 11:00 each night. The rehearsals are long because they are practicing with the mics and the set pieces and the lighting and the costumes and basically just trying to do the show the way it will be done on opening night. 

It's a brutal week.

This was our fourth tech week so I'd made some preparations. I planned simple dinner and planned to use paper plates at each one. I checked out a bunch of books for me to read after the kids were in bed. (I've been reading Billy Dee Williams memoir and it's been really good.) I had like zero expectations for anything big happening in the evenings. 

So with those preparations in place we were able to make it through the week without any big problems. And then opening night came and all the hard work paid off! The play was FUN again. Brandon had a blast with the two performances this last weekend. But that's getting ahead of our selves. Let's go back to last Sunday and recap. 

We spent the evening watching Back to the Future 2 as a family. This was really fun. Veronica had no memory of this movie. So she was so confused about the scary 1985 timeline. It was fun to explain it to her. And she had lots of questions about how Doc actually ended up in the Old West so she was happy when all that finally made sense. 

Charlotte worked on a painting during the movie. I figured she wouldn't let me take a picture of it when it was done, so I took a picture while she was working on it. 

And here's a slightly feral looking picture of Derrick with his new X-shot gun. X-shot is a generic brand of Nerf Gun. Derrick bought this one with $15 he'd saved up. He had so much fun shooting everything in the house. 

Monday was Labor Day and we had no big plans. I hadn't wanted to plan anything big for the weekend because I wanted us fresh for tech week. We'd briefly had plans to go hiking with Jori's family in the afternoon. But then the play people decided they needed a tech rehearsal on Monday night. (Which was a good call.) So that nixed any hikes. 

Instead we stayed home and worked on some of Brandon's costumes. He worked on creating his French Taunter helmet out of craft foam. I was in charge of making a knights coif (it's like a little hat). It took most of the day because I was working without a pattern and had to make it up and in the end it looked terrible and we haven't spoken about it since. 

After that was a dud I went and took a nap. I woke up and found Brandon working on the hole. He made a lot of progress on it. That man is a machine. 

We had an early dinner and then Brandon went to his rehearsal. The kids and I watched Back to the Future 3. 

Tuesday was a regular day so we were back to the grind - kind of. Derrick had an orthodontist appointment that morning so he didn't have to get up and get on the bus at 7:25. Instead he was able to sleep in. I took Veronica to school and then drove Charlotte and Lydia to school. Derrick came along. We stopped at Ivan's office for 15 minutes so I could do a few things. Then we went to the orthodontist and had one of Derrick's brackets glued back on. After that was done I dropped him off at school. 

I went back home and . . . gosh I don't remember. I remember it felt really short. Like I came home and basically had to get ready for work at that point. Anyway, eventually I went into work and did a lot there. I had a lot of payments come in at work so it was fun to process those. 

After school was kind of crazy. Veronica had her first drama class with Ovation at the Orpheum. So I dropped her off for that. Then I drove to Derrick's middle school and picked him up from Robotics club. Then we drove back to the Orpheum and picked up Veronica. 

She'd had a great time at the class. They are doing Willy Wonka Jr. She's one of the tallest kids in the class. When I signed her up I had the choice to either put her in the 6-10 class or the 10-18 class. We decided she'd rather be the oldest in the class instead of the youngest. But that does make her the tallest. The class is taught by our friend Sara. She's been in every play with Brandon. She was also Charlotte and Lydia's "mom" in Music Man.

Brandon was already gone by the time we got home. I hadn't even seen him because he'd been doing an RV when I came home to get Veronica. This would be a pretty common thing all week. I actually got up early several morning so I could talk to Brandon while he was eating breakfast. Otherwise I wouldn't see him at all. 

That evening I watered the garden really well. The raspberries had honey bees all over them, but they were a little camera shy and most of them flew away when I got the camera out. 

Lydia had been working on a painting. Here it is. 

Wednesday was supposed to be my day off. But I planned to go into work in the afternoon since I'd taken Monday off. I also had my Book of Mormon class scheduled for that morning. 

But I was woefully unprepared for that class. I'd hoped to be out of my funk about chapter 23 in time to pull something together for chapter 24. But that hadn't happened. I also hadn't really cleaned up the house. And I didn't really feel like getting dressed or putting on make up. 

Basically I just needed a morning without any responsibilities. So I sent out a text explaining that I was feeling overwhelmed because of tech week and I needed to cancel. I kind of tied it into that weeks lesson by saying that I was making my burdens lighter by just cancelling things. 

We have a two week break already built into the schedule so we aren't coming back until Sept 25th when we will study chapter 25. I think that break is what I'll need to get out of my funk.

Anyway, I spent the morning watching the Crown and pretty much doing nothing. Then I took a shower and went to work. 

I think I saw Brandon between getting home from work and him leaving for the play. But I know Derrick didn't. Derrick's bus didn't come home until after 5:00 and Brandon had already left at 5:00. He didn't need to be at the play until 5:30, but he was helping secure a set piece or something, so he left early. 

That morning my friend Kaymie had mentioned that her across the street neighbor had a tree loaded with peaches. The neighbor had no intention of picking all the peaches so they were up for grabs. I said we'd love some. 

So at 6:00 the kids and I went over there. Jori was also there with her kids. We all had a great time picking the peaches. Here's Charlotte picking some. 

There were also apples. Here's Veronica picking those. 

This is Derrick looking like he actually helped. In reality he picked like three and then spent the rest of the time asking when he could go home. I had a timer set for 30 minute and as soon as that went off he ran home. 

Here I am. 

And here's our bounty. Two laundry baskets full of peaches and a basket full of apples. 

And here are the peaches on the table at home. This may seem like a huge over commitment - and it was. But it was also okay. Tech weeks is incredibly busy - but also incredibly boring. I didn't have much planned for the evenings. And the kids were so burned out from school all day that I didn't really want to plan much for them. So they could relax and watch TV and stuff and I could just listen to my podcasts and process peaches for four evenings in a row. 

The first thing I did was slice a bunch of peaches and put them on cookie sheets. Then I put the sheets in our freezer in the garage. 

Young Mens that night was kickball at the church. Derrick wasn't interested. So instead I took him to the Orpheum so we could sit in on part of the rehearsals. Derrick loves several Monty Python sketches and can do every line of the "King of the Who" bit. But he has been very reluctant to actually see the play. He told me it's too silly. I think that's ridiculous because 12 year old boys are basically Monty Python's target audience. So I hoped that if he could see part of the play he would want to see the whole thing. 

Well that didn't work. 

Derrick was in a terrible mood. He wouldn't even sit in the seat and so we sat in the back and then he refused to even look at the stage. He stomped his feet on the floor and demanded to leave. I had a 30 minute timer set and that was a LOOOOOONG 30 minutes. At the end of it I was like, "Fine, don't complain to me in 3 months when you've realized you missed seeing the play."  So he's not going and we are probably giving his ticket to one of Brandon's coworkers. 

On Thursday I got everyone off to school without incident. It was picture day at Veronica's elementary school and at Charlotte and Lydia's middle school. Derrick's picture day would be Friday. 

As we were leaving the house I think every one of the kids commented on how pretty our Pompos grass is. 

It's also super tall. In just a few months it grew taller than our weeping birch that is like 4 years old. I never planted this grass. It blew in from our neighbors down the street. I love it. But I have plans to move it later this fall. I want it on the side of the house where it can grow up over my bedroom window. 

Here are some of the other flowers in the front yard. I really like these marigolds. I finally found the big ones that I've been looking for. 

The zinnia's always look nice. 

Their multiple petals look so cool.

The larkspurs all kind of shut down when things were too hot in July. But as things have cooled off they've started blooming again. 

After everyone was dropped off I went grocery shopping. My first stop was target for some make up supplies for Brandon. He was trying to figure out how to look more girly when he's playing Galahad's mother. Someone suggested lipstick. So he and I tested out the few colors I have. It was so funny because his friend called him right after he put on his lipsick. He friend was like, "Hey, what are you doing?"  And Brandon and I were trying not to laugh because there was no way we were telling him what we were really doing.

Anyway none of my colors worked so I went to target and bought him a bright red lipstick. And makeup remover. And make up applications. Brandon has a better stocked makeup bag than I do. 

Then I came home and put all the perishable food away, but I had to leave the non perishable stuff for later because I had to get ready for work. I was feeling like my life was just a bunch of half done projects. 

I got ready for work and then went to Ivan's work. I did about 45 minutes of work and then he came and we were able to talk about some stuck claims for a while. 

Then I went to Aspen Grove and worked there until about 4:30. Then I went to pick up Derrick at robotics club. 

Derrick came out to the car and told me he was done with all the lego sets and now he was done with Robotic Club. I later talked with the teacher over the club. She said that Derrick had done well with all the instructions on the legos. But as soon at that part was over things got more open ended and he didn't like that as much. She said he was always welcome there, but that she understood if he was done. 

I thanked her for letting Derrick participate. I told her that it seemed like Derrick was fine being done. Honestly I wasn't surprised. I didn't think this would last very long. So I'm happy he did three weeks. 

When we got home Brandon was already gone. This was the third day that Derrick hadn't seen Brandon. Brandon had taken care of finishing some of my half done projects. He'd put away the rest of the groceries, moved some laundry along. and kindly didn't mention the peaches that were still dominating the kitchen.

We had chicken nuggets for dinner. It was just kind of grab and go style because we still had two giant laundry baskets of peaches on the table. 

My project for the evening was making and canning peach jam. It went well, but it took a lot of time and pectin to get these seven jars. (And if you look close one of the jars isn't even all the way full. So I knew I needed to speed things up if we were going to make it through the peaches. 

That night when I put Veronica to bed she wanted to read her Willy Wonka Jr Script with me. It's a very quick version of the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Movie. It has all the same songs and much of the same dialog. 

Veronica either wants to play Willy Wonka, the Candyman, or the news reporter. 

We went over the dialog and song for the Candyman. I was so impressed by Veronica. She's always had a very dramatic flare and is good at mimicking things, and I saw it on display as we went over the script. She was trying out an accent for the Candyman. And when we sang the song together she remembered that the final line is much higher than the rest of the song.  

The way the drama class is set up is that everyone in the class will be in the play in April. Part of the class is learning how to audition so they will work on getting ready for those and then do the auditions in October. Then they will work on the play for the next six months. 

I'd been vaguely aware of Brandon coming home each night. But I didn't know when he got home on Thursday night. And I also didn't wake up with him on Friday morning. Basically the only interaction we had was in the middle of the night when I'd asked him what time it was and he told me it was 4:00. 

The kids were dragging on Friday morning. But we all made it out the door and everywhere on time. I worked for a long time and then got home about an hour before Brandon did. I washed a bunch of peaches and sorted them out. I wanted firm ones for canning. The not so firm ones went in the pile for jam. 

Brandon got home around 1:30 and I was like, "Hello Stranger."  We talked for a while, but what he really needed was a nap. So we went and laid on our bed and he fell asleep. 

I ordered pizza from Dominos and Brandon picked it up at 4:30. We ate on the patio because  . . . peaches. 

Derrick's bus dropped him off at 4:50 and so he was actually able to see Brandon. He went up to him and gave him a big hug.

Brandon left for the theater a little after 5:00. The kids watched movies and I went to work on the peaches. I was able to blanch a lot without any problems. Last year I'd really struggled with blanching, but this year I worked out the kinks.  I used the big canning pot to boil water. Then I lowered all the peaches in with the canning rack. That way they all went in at the same time and came out at the same time. 

I immediately put all the peaches into the sink that had ice cold water in it. That ice made the difference. The peach skins all came off so well. 

After the peaches were blanched I diced them and then canned 9 jars of diced peaches. While the diced peaches were in the canner I sliced more peaches. I was able to get them into the cans and canning soon after the diced peaches were done. I was so proud of all these peaches.  (And we aren't going to talk about how 8 of them didn't seal right. They will do just fine in the fridge for a few weeks.)

Around 9:30 the kids were done with whatever movie they were watching. They wanted to know if they could watch another, but we were all kind of in limbo. Brandon had said that there weren't plans to go out to dinner as a group that night. Apparently most of the cast had gone out to celebrate someone's 21st birthday after the dress rehearsal on Thursday. So they didn't plan to do anything for opening night. But I seriously doubted that. I figured all the opening night energy would translate into some sort of afterparty. 

So I was just kind of waiting for Brandon to text me to let me know what the plan was. I told the kids. "Either we aren't going anywhere and we'll all be going to bed soon, or we are going somewhere and you guys can stay up and watch a movie. But I don't know until Dad texts me."

They all ended up reading old blog posts together. They love going back over the pictures of them as babies and toddlers. So here's a picture in this blog post of the kids reading old blog posts. How meta is that?

At 9:53 Brandon sent me a text that said, "You want to go out? They are still deciding where."

I replied "Yes!!!! Just let me know where."

Then I ran down the hall while giggling loudly. I yelled back down the hall, "Kids, you can stay up and watch a movie." 

I changed my shirt and freshened up my makeup. I was prepared to drive to wherever everyone was, but Brandon came to get me. He had a few things he wanted to wash and he wanted to get them into the washer as soon as possible. 

Then we drove over to Buffalo Wild Wings. There was a big group of people at a table. They made room for me and Brandon. I was able to get to know Brian and Cami. Everyone was in great moods because opening night had gone so well.  

Brandon told me, "It was so fun to have an audience laughing at the jokes that we all got sick of 3 weeks ago. It reminded us that the play is actually funny." 

People kept coming over and thanking Brandon for things. It was kind of like that scene in Groundhog Day where everyone is thanking Phil. Bryan said that Brandon helps keep track of him. Sarah thanked Brandon for helping sew her armor. Tim, the director, said that he wanted to direct Brandon again some day. It was great to hear everyone praising Brandon. 

Brandon had a hamburger and I had tattertots. 

I'm sure you are wondering about the details of the play - so am I. Brandon had kept me in the dark about a lot of things. And I'm not going to see the play until next week so I'm still not able to describe it. But here are a few things. 

This is Brandon at an event on Saturday. That's his French Taunter costume. 

Here's a cast photo taken during dress rehearsal. For some reason Brandon isn't in this picture. 

And here's a funny bit of promotional material. Our local paper just happened to be running a story about Holy Grails in Europe and who had the real one. The Orpheum couldn't let that go so they jumped into the comments and said, "We have it."

Brandon and I got home about 11:50. The kids were disappointed because they'd expected us home at 12:00. Everyone quickly went to bed. 

Saturday was kind of a lost day. Brandon had to be at some sort of race to hand out water in character. I'm still not sure what all that was about. That took up most of the morning. Then he braved Costco for me. 

There was a stake activity that evening. It was a dinner and the stake was providing pulled pork sandwiches. They'd sent out a Sign Up Genius for people to sign up for side dishes and desserts. I wanted something easy so I'd signed up to bring a box of small bags of chips. And I'd felt very on top of things when I bought a box when I went grocery shopping on Thursday. 

But then I got a reminder email from Sign Up Genius and it said that the box of chip bags should be the kind from Costco with at least 50 bags. My box from winco only had 18. I was like, "How did I over commit myself with chips?"

So anyway, Brandon was very kind to pick up chips at costco - but that added onto how long he was away from home. 

I spent the morning trying to motivate myself to motivate the kids to clean the house and do their laundry. We all did okay with that. I also watered the lawn really well.

Here are pictures of my own peach tree with peaches that will be ready in a few weeks.  

Hopefully I'm not sick of peaches by then. 

Inside the house I chopped so many peaches. I was testing a freezer jam recipe that didn't use pectin. It called for the chopped peaches to marinate in sugar in the fridge for at least 4 hours. So I prepped all that in the morning so that I could make the jam in the evening. 

And Brandon STILL wasn't home. 

He finally showed up around 1:30. I basically turned the house over to him and took a shower. Then I went to the library. I thought about going thrift shopping or maybe picking up more containers or jars at Walmart. But what I really wanted was a nap and some quiet. So I drove over to the CSI campus and found a nice spot by the Perrine Coolee. I laid down on our picnic blanket and took a nap. 

When I woke up I just laid there and felt peaceful for a long time. That was really nice. 

I was back home around 4:15. I got ready for the stake activity and the kids got ready too. We said goodbye and drove over to the park where the Stake activity was going to happen. 

Our stake is only 3 years old so this was kind of a new thing. In 2022, and 2023 they had a car show or something at the college. We never went to it. This year the Stake did a dinner at a park in the middle of one of the neighborhoods. I don't know how well the car show was attended, but this had a lot of people. It was really fun. 

We got there a little before 5:00 and were surprised to see three big bounce houses. No one was on them yet. Derrick and Veronica ran over and started playing on them and that pretty much released the flood gates. There were kids all over those bounce houses within a few minutes.

I laid down our picnic blanket in some of the rare shade. Then as I saw people from the ward I told them to put there stuff by my blanket. We ended up with a lot of people there. Olyvia joked that we should have some sort of ward flag so people could know where we were. She asked, "What would be our mascot?"  I replied with, "Jeff."  Jeff is our Elder's Quorum President and is super friendly and enthusiastic. EVERYONE knows and loves Jeff. The kids love him, the adults love him. He's really fun. His wife heard me say that and just laughed. 

I'd told the kids were were basically just there for dinner so after about 30 minutes they were ready to go. (They'd basically just ate chips and desserts.)  I stood up and said, "Well, we only came so I didn't have to cook dinner."  Someone laughed and said, "You're saying what we are all thinking."

I said goodbye to everyone and we went home. 

The kids watched a movie and I went back to my freezer jam. I cooked it and cooked it and it never really jelled up the way it should. So I guess the no pectin thing was a lie. But it did taste good. And after I put it in the fridge it did get a little more solid. 

I still had about half a laundry basket of peaches left. But I was getting a little sick of peaches. Brandon said he'd make a cobbler on Sunday, but that never happened. Oh well, I have plenty of frozen ones for later. 

Lydia had come down with some sort of cold. At about 9:30 I realized we should probably buy some medicine so she could actually sleep that night. So we went to smiths to pick out lozenges and some other things. 

As we drove back we saw Brandon. He'd come home to see if I wanted to go out with him again. I was still really full from the dinner and also tired. So I told him he should go on his own this time. So he went to Applebees and met up with people. 

I fell asleep, but then woke back up when he got home around 12:30. He and I stayed up talking for a long time. He told me that someone had asked Jared who had played four different characters. Jared had replied, "Well, three of those characters are played by the same person - Brandon Illguth."

People were loving Brandon's parts and Brandon was eating it up. He's had so much fun being silly in this play. 

Sunday was kind of tricky. No one was in the mood to get ready for church. We were all okay with the idea of church, just not getting ready. Lydia still wasn't feeling well. So she stayed home. Charlotte stayed with her. 

They were trying to convince me to stay home too, but I said, "I want to go to Relief Society." They were like, "Really?"  They only hear about Relief Society when I'm complaining about something. So they were shocked that I wanted to go. 

Honestly, I'm feeling like maybe I should have stayed home. Relief Society was AWFUL. There were a lot of ignorant and judgmental things said.  The only good thing about being there was that I noticed another lady get really hurt by what was said. I messaged her later and she vented to me about how bad it had been. I was able to let her know that she was not alone. 

That kind of messed with my mood the rest of the day. I'd been hoping to go to church to get fortified for the week, but it felt like I got beat up. It's just so hard sometimes. 

But the afternoon was really nice. I took everyone to the CSI campus and we all laid under the willow trees and relaxed all afternoon. Brandon played some pop songs that are recorded in the style of medieval music. Apparently this is what they play as the audience is finding their seats. We had fun guessing the songs. 

Derrick started out on the bank of the stream. 

But after a while he was in the water. (And by the end he was laying in the water.)

Here are the kids looking at song titles on Brandon's phone. 

That afternoon was what we all needed after a busy week. 

And we have a little bit of a reprieve during the next few days too. There's not a show on Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday is just a pick up rehearsal. Then the shows run Thursday to Sunday. And then that's it. 

Thanks for reading!