Favorite Photo Friday: "Pirates of Penzance"

"Pirates of Penzance" August 2009.
A little context.... Frederic has been indentured to the pirates since he was just a little lad. On his 21st birthday he decides, now that his indentured time is up, he wants to give up his life of piracy and become a law-abiding citizen. He is pretty darn excited to find a girl since he hasn't really even seen one.... he has been at sea so long. He is therefore thrilled to come across a whole bunch of sisters dancing and playing on the beach. He bursts upon the scene and, more or less, asks if there is any one of them who will have him. "No way" they all say. But in proper, english verbiage of course. They go back and forth for awhile, Frederic trying to win one...ANY one...over. But he is a pirate..and in his blundering, inexperienced ways, has offended them all. "Not one?" he asks. "No, no not one!" they reply. Until Mabel comes in..."Yes one!" she announces. Frederic is stunned and delighted and watches in rapture as Mabel chastises her sisters:

"Oh sisters deaf to pity's name, for shame! It's true that he has gone astray, but pray...Is that a reason good and true why you should all be deaf to pity's name?"

So it's dress rehearsal. The stage and lighting is set. We're all in full costumes and make-up. I'm fully into my character as sweet but firm big sister Mabel. I chastise my sisters firmly for rejecting this "poor wandering one." I look up at them, waiting because theirs is the next line in the song. They are supposed to sing:

"The question is had he not been a thing of beauty, would she be swayed by quite so keen a sense of duty?"

It's a line I know well. One I've heard over and over and over. The line that prompts me to reply back, "For shame, for shame, for shame!"

But on this day? That's not the line that came back at me. No. On this day my "sisters" decided to play a joke on me. Instead I hear:

"The question is had he not been a total hottie... is it her duty or his gorgeous body?"

And I lost it! I laughed and laughed. My Frederic laughing too, but at me not them. He had heard them rehearsing the new line and knew of their plans. The directors out in the audience, the pirates and policemen off stage...everyone laughing. The whole production came to a screeching halt as we all got over our moment of hilarity. But what made it even funnier...most of these "sisters" of mine were high school or college girls. And they really did think "Frederic" was pretty darn hot. I had spent all summer watching them flirt with him. Some had even expressed envy that I got to spend so much time with him since our characters fall in love.
I wrote that new line in my official "Pirates" score so I wouldn't forget. I honestly don't think that I'll ever be able to sing or listen to that song again without remembering that moment and smiling. I love being in plays. As amazing as it is to perform on stage in front of an audience, it's the little things like this that I remember most fondly.

Lunch with friends

These are my choir friends. Two of which are my sisters. These women? I LOVE THEM! So much, so dearly! We laugh, we cry, we discuss things we'd never discuss anywhere else. We can be completely direct, honest, and blunt with each other and know that no feelings will be hurt. They are wonderful. Such good friends are a blessing and a treasure.

My little champion

See this boy? This is a boy who came away with a medal proclaiming him as the 1st place overall winner in his age division at his gymnastics meet yesterday. In his past few meets he has taken 5th place but yesterday he made some mistakes on his floor routine. They were announcing the places and went past 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd...without calling his name. He glanced up at me with a resigned look on his face. A look that said he knew those mistakes must have cost him and he wasn't getting anything this time. And then that resigned look turned to one of stunned joy when they announced his name as 1st place! He bounded up to his spot on the very top of the podium and happily accepted the medal around his neck. We whooped and hollered for him...it was all rather exciting!

Favorite Photo Friday: Antelope Island

You may or may not have noticed that my Favorite Photo Friday pictures lately have been from the more recent past...mostly within the past year. This is because I am limited to the pictures on my laptop which are none too plentiful. All the rest of my pictures and the use of my scanner are unavailable right now. This is due to Bryan deciding to update and reinstall our computer. A usually wise and responsible thing to do. But our computer seems to have a mind of its own these days and keeps crashing despite everything Bryan has done. Being the computer genius that he is, I'm sure Bryan will get it figured out one of these days. In the meantime, thank heavens for laptops.
So this picture is from July 2009 on our little jaunt out to Antelope Island. We had such a fun time! Maybe we'll do it again this year when the weather gets warmer.

Masterpiece

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, "Why in the world is Sarah posting a picture of a pile of junk?" But this pile? It's not junk. Not in Lilian's mind. Because she has been very selective in her choices of what to include here. And she has meticulously and painstakingly arranged everything just so. No, this is not a pile of junk. This is a masterpiece. And I've been finding them daily. Little masterpieces all over the house.

Stress Fracture?

It's now been a week. I think it's time to come out of denial and reluctantly embrace the fact that most likely I have a stress fracture in the 2nd metatarsal in my left foot. Sigh.

A metatarsal stress fracture is a fracture that occurs in one or more of the metarsals, or bones of the foot. Metatarsal stress fractures are generally overuse injuries due to increased intensity in exercise, insufficient rest or improper footwear. The muscles can no longer absorb the stress, which puts more pressure on the bone, causing tiny fractures. Stress fractures can be difficult to identify, because they occur gradually, rather than from a specific injury or incident. They are most common in runners, basketball players, gymnasts and other athletes.

I don't remember any pain when it happened but I do remember the day. The pain came on gradually over the next few hours. I did an especially intense "insanity" workout that morning and was trying to really push myself. I'm sure that's what finally put me over the edge.
It's now been a week. I can walk without pain when wearing shoes. The pain comes when I'm barefoot or wearing my five finger shoes which are supposed to mimic being barefoot. A few days ago I was complaining to Bryan that my ankle was starting to hurt instead of my metatarsal. That's when I realized I was walking on the side of my foot to avoid stepping normally, and therefore directly, on the forefront of my foot where it is painful. Although I have taken a good 5 days off from my "insanity" workouts I have continued to keep up with my running schedule. I think the fracture is slight. However I am a little worried that if I'm not careful I may break the bone all the way through which will destroy all my race plans for this summer....let alone causing me grief just in every day living. Blah. What a pain.

"We Are the World"

This "We Are the World" makes me cry and gives me the chills all at the same time. I remember well 25 years ago when the original version came out. What a great idea to remake it to help Haiti.

Valentines Day in pictures

Being that Valentines Day was on a Sunday this year we decided to dress up festively in reds and pinks for our church meetings today. Afterwards we had our traditional fancy Valentines family dinner which consisted of porkchops, potatoes, asparagus and squash. We set the table with our "special" red dishes that we use specifically for Christmas and Valentines. And we even had a single rose at each place setting. It was really nice. Bryan got me a "flirty apron" for Valentines Day. When I told him that I didn't have a gift for him he disagreed. Because apparently, in his opinion there is nothing quite so sexy as me in an apron...which means that it truly was a gift for him as well.

14 Partying Tweens

And the party was...a success? In Julianne's book I think it was. Nothing really went according to plan or schedule but maybe that's normal for a casual, late-night sort of party. They ate pizza. They played "Apples to Apples" and "Murder in the Dark". They painted a craft...which took much longer than I anticipated and resulted in all of the girls painting black lines under their eyes like football players. For some reason they thought it would be great amounts of fun to jump on the trampoline...in the cold, dark and barefoot. They FINALLY settled down to watch a movie 10 minutes before the party was supposed to end. But I think...I HOPE...a good time was had by all. Here are some pictures:Opening gifts....

Checking out the notes that "the boys" left on the garage...


Crafting it up...

PIZZA!

Favorite Photo Friday: Cute Lilian

December 2008. Cute Lilian.

Happy Birthday Julianne

I don't cry when my kids go off to Kindergarten. Rejoicing and doing the "happy dance" is more the order of the day. But when they turn 12? Oh my. I end up an emotional mess.

Julianne turned 12 yesterday. At 6:55 AM about fifteen 12 and 13 year olds from the neighborhood came a-knocking at our door. (I had been pre-warned and was expecting them.) They woke Julianne from a dead sleep, blindfolded her and carried her up the stairs and out the door to a pancake breakfast down the street to celebrate her birthday and entrance to the Young Women program in the ward. Although she says the whole thing is a bit of an exhausted blur, she was very pleased.
Unfortunately for Julianne, she had a doctors appointment smack in the middle of the day. And seeing as going to the doctor on your birthday to start growth hormone shots is not usually on the list of fun ways to celebrate your birthday, I made sure to check her out a little extra early so we could go to lunch first at Five Guys. Big hamburgers and lots of fries. Dr. Lindsay was aware that it was Julianne's birthday. Felt kind of bad about it. Enough that they bought Julianne a little Happy Birthday cupcake to make the visit a little extra special. Have I mentioned how much I love our doctor?

And then, since Julianne and I had a rehearsal last night for "Power in His Touch," we had an early dinner with the rest of the family at Texas Roadhouse. She opened her presents there. Of all my children, she's the best at giving me detailed lists of gift ideas. Which means that she's always happy with what she receives, but not surprised. We did surprise her with a new bike earlier that morning though. Yay!So I spent the great majority of the day with my new 12 year old. Watching her, talking to her, thinking about what's in store for her now that she's turned 12. I found myself on the verge of tears all day. Happy tears. Complicated and overwhelming emotions. But good.

What game? I'm just here for the sushi!

Yesterday afternoon, in honor of Superbowl Sunday, we made our way to Bryan's cousin Russ' house for his annual "Sushibowl" party. Russ and his friend, both of whom have worked as sushi chefs, were in full-on sushi creating mode. And wow! Not only did the sushi taste as good as in any restaurant but I actually had to take a few pictures of my food before I could eat it...the rolls were THAT amazing! And yeah...the game. It was playing on three different big screen TV's. I wasn't even sure who the teams were before I arrived. I was informed that the Colts were the favorites and the Saints were the underdogs. Always one to root for the underdogs I decided the Saints would be my team. And then proceeded to more or less ignore the game. Bryan and I knew we couldn't stay long, having left the kids at home, so why get overly invested in a game we weren't planning to see the end of? (I found out later that the Saints did win. Yay Saints! Yay for underdogs! And yay for me for picking the winning team!) At the party, in-between stuffing myself full of sushi and chatting with cousins, I noticed a guy that looked familiar. Occasionally I would look up to find him looking at me with a quizzical look on his face. Obviously we probably knew each other from sometime long ago. So I walked over and asked him his name. Ha! Turns out we were kids together! Grew up on the same street playing kick-the-can. We reminisced for awhile. I wonder if he remembers that he asked me to "go" with him when we were 13 years old.... I didn't bring it up.

Blurb-ing my blog

Check this out! I turned my blog into a book! A hardback, fully bound book! I'm so excited! (As if you couldn't already tell by the overuse of exclamation points...) Any of you who follow my blog know that I am rather prolific. Blogging has more or less taken the place of scrapbooking and writing in a journal... so I am thrilled that I have a way to print out all my thoughts, ramblings and pictures that have ended up on my blog and keep them permanently. It wasn't even all that hard. I used a company called Blurb that my friend Jill told me about. (www.blurb.com) It took me a few days worth of random hours here and there to put it all together...you have all sorts of choices regarding formats, templates, fonts, picture sizes and colors. Then I uploaded it and they printed and sent it back all within a week and a half or so. I'm thrilled!

Favorite Photo Friday: Reading in the park

One of our favorite things to do as a family is go to the park. Bryan usually sets up a slack-line between two trees to walk on. Lilian thinks she's in heaven when we give her free reign of all the playground equipment. And then, almost always, we bring books to read. Because there's not many things more enjoyable than laying out on a blanket on a warm summers evening with a good book. (One step better, of course, would be sitting at the beach but we live in a land-locked state and so trips to the beach are few and far between.)
This picture was taken last June 2009. And on an overcast day like today where a qick glance out my window reveals leafless trees and ever-present patches of snow on my brownish grass...kind of makes you wish for summer.

Not again!

I have this horrible feeling I'm getting sick. Actually, it's more than a feeling...it's sure knowledge. As the day has progressed it's become fairly evident that I have something. And it worries me. Because I still have nightmares of our bout with the Swine Flu a few months ago. Somehow I completely lost the time from Halloween to Thanksgiving. I have vague memories of fevers, coughing and crying. I know Bryan was out of town for a portion of it. That's where the crying came from. And I'm sure there was extreme exhaustion...which would account for the blurry quality of the few memories I still possess. Seems like we must have come up out of the sickness induced fog by Thanksgiving because my pictures from the big day show us smiling, happy and relatively healthy looking. But it only lasted a short while because about a week and a half later I got hit again. This time it was mostly just a nasty cough (again) without all the other garbage. But oh, the terrified looks I got when I coughed in public! I kept wanting to explain, "It's okay...this isn't the dreaded Swine Flu. That was last month."
So, unfortunately, I'm feeling crappy this evening. Please let it be a cold, please let it be a cold, PLEASE let it be a cold! A short-lived one too, if I get to make any demands. And NO coughing! Oh please!!!

Vibram Five Fingers

See these? These funky looking feet belong to Bryan and me. Many of you have probably seen Bryan wear his Vibram Five Finger shoes around. He owns three pair and has been wearing them as much as the weather allows for a couple of years now. He gets questions, comments and compliments wherever he goes. But me...well, I was hesitant. Seriously, don't you think they look like frog feet? A neat concept yes, but fashionable? Not so much.
But after months of gentle nudging from Bryan, I decided to get a pair. No, it doesn't feel strange between my toes. That's always the first question I get asked. And no, I most likely will not be wearing them as my normal day-to-day shoes like Bryan does. But so far I've loved doing my "insane" workouts in them. Also I'm anxious to accept the challenge of those who claim that running in them is far superior to regular running shoes. And I can't tell you how excited Bryan is that we have matching feet!

Three for three

Julianne has lost one tooth per day for the last three days. Which makes for a mighty big gap in her mouth seeing as they were all three right in a row. At least we're keeping the Tooth Fairy busy...and in today's economy, it's always good to have job security. Ah, who am I kidding. Julianne stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy ages ago.

Oh, my aching legs!

My friend, Mylissa, and I registered for the Little Red Riding Hood bike ride today. It's not till June but we are super excited about it and determined to be ready to ride the full 100 miles. And so today, in anticipation of that ride and in celebration of the temperature reaching a balmy 45 degrees, we decided to pull our bikes down off their hooks in our respective garages where they had been spending a quiet winter and go for a ride. And it was wonderful! Such a beautiful day for a quick 16-17 mile ride. But oh! I haven't been on my bike since October and my legs ACHE!!