Why tech theater is great mom training

So in honor of Mother's day this is my list of why tech theater is great mom training.



1. After so many years of cuts, bumps, bruises, and scrapes from building set, moving set, and running in the dark, you know your way around a first aid kit and always have one handy.



2. After building set, framing in a basement is no big deal. And you can paint it in your sleep. You can probably even do a little electrical and plumbing work.



3. Costume repair is not too different from regular clothes repair.



4. Because rehersal can go way late you're already used to carrying snacks and water everywhere.



5. There's what you reherse and then there's what really happens, so you already have a lot of practice coming up with plan B, C, D, ect on the spot.



6. Any one who's spent any time navigating backstage, should be able to handle screaming kids during rush hour traffic.



7. All that knot tying and building will come in handy when your sons do Scouts.



8. All that make up and costume knowledge will come in handy with your teenage daughter. Not to mention Halloween.



9. You're very familiar and even comfortable with dirt and grease. And with how to clean them up.



10. And now that your such a pro at moving set, moving your furniture from house to house is old hat.

Welcome to the party!

I had a great birthday today and thank you all for coming to my party today! (Now to really complete the experience you should go find some party food to munch on :D) So the costumes have been great and now for the awards! (if you don't see a picture click the name to go see it)

Cutest astronaut:
Ashur

Harry Potter- these were all so great I couldn't pick just one!:
H
Most of the ward
Sauers
My Mom

Cutest ninja:
Jonathan

Cutest superhero:
Little Kenny

Best hat:
Me


Best partners costume:
John and Little John


Shiniest armor:
Jessie


Most convincing alien:
Ben


Best mohawk:
Little John


Honorary mention:
Bridget's kids

Costumes that deserve awards that I can't find pictures of:
Pirates- John and Brandi
Potipher's wife- Clerie
"paper boy"- John's Dad

Costume stories:

Cutest kid costume story:
Monique (Jaxon)

Funniest costume story:
Clerie had to do a quick costume change for the play she was in. Her "dad" had just died so she runs just off stage and everyone rushes her into the next costume for the "funeral". She runs back on stage to kneel at the casket (with her back to the audience) and weeps. This is normally an emotional scene but she can hear the audience smothering laughter. She comes off stage at the end of the scene and the tell her that in the hurry, her skirt was tucked into her bloomers. (they had full period costumes obviously) She laughs about it now. Today she wears a uniform in Iraq instead of costumes. Go Clerie!


Costumes we wish we had:

Cleverest wished for costume:
Paul
I came up with this costume in high school actually, but never made it. Let me explain what you'd need first. Some blue and gray material, lots of stuffing, and a red LED light. I would have two square patches on my chest and the LED on my back. When someone asked what I was, I would say "I'm a logitech optical mouse!" Then I'd "click" my buttons and show off my LED. Geeky, but it could be cute and unique.


I costume I always wished I could have...
All of them! It would take too long to list them all, but my current desire is for "Susan's battle dress/armor" from the new Prince Caspian movie and a wig of waist long cornrow braids in black or red hair. Random, I know.

Well thank you all for coming to my virtual party. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. I think I might do it again next year, but maybe a different theme to keep it interesting. And maybe more people will "show up". The more people, the better the party. Bye.

Virtual Party!

So some time around March last year I decided I wanted to do something awesome for my 25th birthday. And since we were sopposed to be in our house by then I decided to have a costume party, because there just aren't enough oppertunities in regular life to wear cool costumes.
Well obviously I'm not going to be able to follow the plan, so instead you are all invited to my virtual costume party!
I am posting a request for people to blog about their favorite costume (have worn, are making, always wanted to wear, ect) and if possible post a pic or 2. You need to do this by the 25th of this month. I will then do an awesome birthday blog about costumes I have worn, made, seen, ect.
I may also have a second blog with non-blogging freinds email responses to this invite. (Depends on how many people follow through)
So dig through your photo albums and use your scanners, because I will be awarding prizes. Happy blogging :D

Little John is so precious!

Ok so it's been a bit since I updated you all about how precious Little John can be.
He gave me real kisses this week! I was addressing a postcard and he came up and reached for me, so I bent down so my head was by his. He closes his little mouth, pushes it against my face and opens it again with a tiny pop sound. And then he did it again a few times. My heart just melted! He's been making kissy noises for a long time, but this was diffrent. And afterwards he just walks back over to his toys and starts playing again, like he has no idea that he is so sweet my heart is puddled in my toes.
So not quite as sweet but just as adorable, he loves phones. He has loved to push the buttons for a long time now. But just recently he holds them put and talks to them. And after he talks for a minute he holds it to my head to talk. Now if I could just get him to talk when there's a person on the other end of the line! He clams up if there's really someone to talk to, but he smiles really big and waves hello and goodbye. It cracks me up.
I love him so much!

Mamma Mia!

So we watched Mamma Mia today and this is the most hysterically funny movie I've ever seen. The sound track is all Abba songs, the plot is amazingly twisted. It sounded like it might be a chick flick but John loves it and my anti-musicals teenage brother loves it too! I am totally amazed about that. And even though the guys like it this is the perfect girls night in movie, where you all sing along (it has a sing along setting:D) at top volume while eatting chocolate ice cream!

I can't wait to see what Sarah thinks of it, I bet she goes nuts. Little John loves it, he "sings" and claps and laughs and dances around. It is so adorable!

This is from our family pics at Thanksgiving, I love it 'cuz he's laughing :D

Wow its cold here!

So yesterday at church Little John had one heck of a poopy diaper durring sacrament meeting. So I fish all through the diaper bag and find a diaper but no wipes, then I remember seeing them in the car. So I ask Sarah to run out to the car and grab them and I'll meet her at the bathroom with Little John (it takes 2 people if we have to use the cold fold out of the wall changing thing). So she hurries in and I strip off the diaper and she's over there struggling to get out a wipe. I'm like his tush is hanging out here hurry it up a bit and she tells me the wipes are frozen! I try to get one and she's right- its a solid block of frozen wipes. So she makes me some "wipes" with warm water and paper towels (not the first time I've had to resort to that sadly) and we get the whole thing taken care of. We opened the wipes again after church and found that at least some of them had thawed out. Man , I thought they were made with rubbing alcohol. I didn't think that stuff could freeze. This would never happen in Arizona. In AZ I would have opened the box and probably found that they were all dry from the heat LOL.

Cause for hysteria LOL

So my youngest brother joined the army national guard months ago and since he's a senior this year he hasn't been to basic yet but he still does his "one weekend a month". So today they were supposed to do first aid stuff but instead they did "how to clear a room like SWAT". They were given a five minute shpeel about if you stand in this order these people check this part of the room and be sure to crouch down . Then they were sent on training scenarios. Usually they have 4 man squads but the numbers didn't workout so Ben was in a six man squad. So they do their thing and five minutes later everybody was killed by the "terrorists". Reset: it takes longer but the "terrorists" win again.
Take three: They do much better checking things and find 2 of the 3 "terrorists" so they split up and most of the squad takes in the prisoners leaving Ben and a guy to keep watch I guess (he was vague on these details). So they hear a noise and go in to check it out and see a very skinny cabinet is open so they check it out- empty. So Ben turns around and sees that his buddy (who is tall) is a hostage to the last "terrorist" Cadet Mowers (who is short and has the hostage bent over backwards into a headlock threatening him with a cardboard knife, the squads use unloaded m-16's and shout "bang!" to fire them). Mowers backs away using the guy as a shield all the way down the stairs (the guys feet thump down every step) while shouting in Arabic (made up gibberish really). And then the two of them disappear into the bathroom. Ben (who is also really tall) crouches down and follows them hoping for a chance to fire but hesitates outside the bathroom because the door opens into the hall and he worries about being ambushed. He finally goes in and sees no one. He checks under the stalls and sees only one pair of feet- hmm his buddy's or the "terrorist's"? So he sneaks over and gently pushes the door with the gun- locked. So he sneaks into the stall next door, climbs up on the seat, pops up over the top and...
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The poor Staff Sargent (who is not part of the maneuvers at all) has the poop scared right out of him. He yells all sorts of things and Ben ducks back down. He leaves his stall and is "killed" by the laughing "terrorist" who had "killed" his buddy (who is also laughing) before Ben came in. The staff Sargent gives Ben a cussing out and a bunch of push ups, but Mowers (the "terrorist") defends him, so Ben only has to do 50. Poor kid, he will never live this down.
When he told us we all laughed so hard we were crying and I could barely breathe. Little John thought that was great so he starts laughing and shrieking and waving his arms all over which only makes us laugh harder. In Ben's defense: they really shouldn't let people wander into active scenarios if they aren't involved.

Elder Hizer arises from the internet

So I experienced a small miracle today. (If I had been checking my email daily I would have had this miracle on Monday. I get emailed when anyone comments on my blog.) I got a comment from a guy in Wamego, KS, where Elder Hizer is serving right now. This guy's family have a dinner apointment with Nathan tonight! And they wanted to make him feel at home, so they googled for him and found my blog. They asked what his favorite foods were. (You can read the comment on my post "Ode to Elder Hizer" in Oct)
I am so excited. I told the guy what Nathan likes to eat and asked him to email me a pic of him and his companion. How awesome is all of this?! Next time I feed missionaries I'm going to have to google them, who knows what can happen. I knew God worked in mysterious ways, but I never realized that could mean google.

So I've been busy

I've been busy crafting. I made a dog sweater for the dog using those knifty knitter rings and right now I'm makeing a people sweater for a birthday present. Well I was between projects and me and little John were using the rings for crowns when he pulled on it and it got stuck around his neck. We had to grease his head to get it off! I kept my head however and made John take a picture real quick before we rescued him. Look at that sad face!

This was that same day it snowed but I only now got the pictures off the camaera so here they are.

UEA adventures

So UEA hosts a teacher confrence every fall and there's lots of booths that are fun to see and lots of free pens and notepads and other small tidbits to collect. But the best part is the 4 day weekend. We went down to UEA with Mom and looked around at everything Thursday. It was fun. The not so fun part was when we stayed overnight in Salt Lake so we could get there early before the convention got crowded.


We stayed at a nice hotel at a good rate because they were doing a dicsount if you were with UEA. So since there were 4 of us and the baby- Mom booked a 2 room suite. Well it turns out to be just one room with a king size bed. However, do not despair! Despite my love of adventure and "winging it" when we couldn't verify via room description if the couch was a pullout bed we brought the air matress and some sleeping bags. And of course thr porta-crib.


As a perk the room had a jacuzi tub, which Little John and I enjoyed since the pool was freezing and the hot tub was out of the question for him. He loved the jets. Alas the jacuzi tub is not in the bathroom, it ocupies a coner of the main space. For those of you who have not attempted to sleep 2 people on an air mattress, you spend all night rolling into each other because it dips into the center. So we got a roll-away bed from the front desk. But because of the jacuzi tub there is barely room to walk and no room for the porta-crib. So it ends up like this: John, Little John and I in the king size bed, Mom on the queen size air mattress, and Ben my 6 foot plus tall brother on the roll-away bed.


I don't think anyone got any sleep. Little John had an ear infection from his cold and had just started antiboitics that day. He was up 3 times that night and even when sleeping took up a lot of the bed squirming. Ben might as well have been sleeping on rocks there were so many springs in his mattress. John and I where hot. Mom and Ben were cold.


So after the provided breakfast which was actually really good, we check out. And Mom explains about expecting 2 rooms and only getting 1 and they finally determine that a jacuzi suite and a 2 room suite are the same price and the recently hired employee who handled the reservation booked it on price not description. So thanks to the mixup no charge for the roll-away bed.


A few few days latter and after some decent sleep we think this was quite a funny thing. But we definately learned a few things. 1 travelling with sick children is a dumb idea. 2 double check all reservations before you leave. 3 if there is a reservation problem fix it before bedtime or right at check in if possible. and we relearned the importance of this last one 4 if you can't fix it, laugh and enjoy it or you only make yourself more miserable.


But we didn't let lack of sleep keep us from having a good time at UEA the next day. And The Mayan (areaaly cool theamed resturant that can be seen in the movie The RM) was across from the convention center so we had lunch there. All the boys LOVED it.

Loading the car

This is where a picture of the over stuffed hotel room should go but I was to frustrated to take a pic at the time.

In front of the Mayan

In the lobby

By our table

Ode to Elder Hizer

So Wednesday we took John's brother Nathan to the MTC. His poor Mom was just loosing it right and left and then its the part where the missionaries go out one side and the families go out the other side and suddenly we're all crying. I'm gonna miss that punk. (And I mean punk in the I-love-him-like-a-brother-and-sometimes-hes-as-annoying-as-my-real-ones sense) But I know he's going to do great. He's going to the Independance, Moissouri mission which, as it turns out, covers most of Kansas and very little of Missouri. We took pictures of course and he told me its my job to be sure that Little John remembers him when he gets home. They have a very smooth streamlined process for dropping off your missionary. Everything from parking to luggage to tissue boxes every twenty feet, its all arranged for. I was very impressed. On the drive home everyone was missing him and sad so I was trying to cheer peolpe up with jokes. They were pretty cheesy, but I will share my favorite with you. (This joke is because Nathan is such a ladies' man)


You know how when you stop dating a person, people start telling you "well there are lots of fish in the sea". Well missionaries aren't sopposed to date, do you think thats why they go to the empty sea? (empty sea=MT C, get it?)


Yeah, nobody else really got it either. But you know you think I'm funny. (That's what Sarah says when we don't laugh at her jokes)

L to R: John, Mom/Pat, Nathan, Dad/John, Kevin
Front: Little John, Carol

Mom putting his nametag on him

Hurray for Elder Hizer

Picnics

OK so I promised a blog about picnics and here it is. Apparently picnics are an endangered species. Most of you reading this might be surprised by this news, I certainly was. While driving to Utah when we moved, we pulled off for gas and lunch. Anyone who has traveled with a small child in a car seat for more than 2 hours understands the need to let them out for a pit stop. So any time we road trip we picnic when possible (weather permitting). We just expect that's what we'll do.
So we get our sub sandwiches, haul our picnic blanket out of the trunk, and eat outside the restaurant on the grass. (For anyone road tripping I highly recommend this: you get some fresh air and kids can run and squirm and yell and nobody cares)
Well, we're there enjoying ourselves and these 2 guys come up and ask to take our picture. They are doing a research project/presentation about the decline of family values (or something very similar) for a college class. They are just gushing about how they can't believe people still have picnics and how this will get them an A for sure. We let them take our picture and if I had been thinking I would have asked them to take one with my camera too.
We just thought the whole thing was so random and funny, but apparently we are an anomaly in the world because we picnic. So since most of my readers are in AZ and this time of year is the best weather I invite you to picnic. It is an extinct tradition worthy of a "strange and peculiar people".

Shopping!

So yesterday Sarah (my sister, see the pic) was helping me get the little guy ready for a nap. You know diaper change, turn on the CD, find his nap blanket- that kind of thing. So i get all settled in the rocking chair and hold out my arms and say "Come here puppy!" We had just been talking about making sure the dog left the room when Sarah did and I guess it just came out but it made us laugh so hard I counldn't take the baby for like five minutes. He's only ten months old and already I can't keep his name straight, what is life going to be like when I have three or four kids running around?!

Today Sarah and I went shopping for bras since I'm not nursing anymore and my old ones are streched out and old. So I came home with the most comfortable bra I've ever owned! And its even an underwire. Its a Hanes all over comfort, I think they're a new product. I also got a totally cute outfit that criss-cross matches an outfit that Sarah got. We are going to wear them and match when we drive her down to school on Saturday. She is going to Snow College. I will post a pic when I blog about that. Miss Sarah Anne Snow rocks my socks and I will miss her so much!!!!