Sweet Child O'Mine

I went with my MIL to Meri's final performance of Children of Eden last Sunday afternoon.  

During the first act, the power to most of the town went out.  Cain and Abel didn't miss a beat and neither did the musicians in the pit!  A bit of light came in from the back door and an emergency light on the wall, but that was it.  The boys completed their scene and the director came out on the stage.  Apparently all of the town lost power.  Still not sure what caused it.

But after twenty minutes of me texting Robb to see if there was power at our house, the director came back out, the show MUST go on!!!  So the cast pulled out their flashlights and pointed them at the performers.  The power came back on for real at the REAL intermission.

I'm so glad the power came back on because Meri was the star of the 2nd act!

BTW: The end of the first act has Eve about to die and then Adam, who has passed, comes to take her hand, leaving their family singing them to heaven.

Just typing this makes me tear up.  Both times that I saw this, I cried.  This time more than before.    And this time Meri broke down crying a lot on stage.  Luckily her friends whisked her off to calm her down and get her into costume for the 2nd act.  I tried to find her at intermission but she was away in another building changing.  I don't know which of us needed a hug more.

And while this picture looked SO good while it was still small on my phone, when you enlarge it, it looks like she's saying a bad word...  DARN.  The lighting was perfect.

Then later on with Noah's son, Japheth.  Meri's love interest in the play.

Here are a couple of her songs.

With any luck, I'll get back to my normal blogging schedule.  With Leon out of school now, I'm at the pool a lot or library.  I'm working from the library right now while he is involved with a craft group.
He's going to be a regular up here this summer...

Misadventures of FS

Leon's cousin in Georgia sent us Flat Stanley to visit for a week or so.

It came in the mail when Leon was just ready to get on the bus so Stanley had to spend the day with me. 

I showed him snow.

and how to do the dishes.  oh joy!  Not like he's going to take over for me while he's here...

THEN Leon finally came home from school!!! YAY!  Although he just wanted to bury FS in the Legos.  But FS looks like he's having fun, so that's the important thing.

Leon said that he got into a little trouble at school yesterday.

"What happened?"

"Well,  I just wanted to have fun and show XXXX that I was really strong."

"and??..."

"I bent a spoon to show XXX that I was really strong."

Meri and Briar burst out laughing and I glared at them.  Leon smirked and asked why they were laughing.  Well, Meri punted and said that Briar had told her a very funny joke.  Leon asked her to tell him the joke.  

"Knock Knock"

Leon says, "who's there?"

and Meri started chasing him around the room.  She couldn't think of anything else to say.

It appears to have worked and Leon's misbehavior at school was not rewarded with laughter.

I hope.

Later, after his dad went to work, Leon and I went on a walk, starting with our Eagle's nest.

I don't know WHERE that kid learned to smile...

Meri started the walk with us, but she didn't plan ahead and got super cold about a half block away and went back.

We walked to the park and Leon would just howl like a wolf for the pictures on the jungle gym...  REALLY?

I texted Robb and asked that he come get us after ten minutes as it was cold and there were wolves.  Well, wolves in Leon clothes.

 We found over turned garbage cans, from the possible tornadoes on Thursday, so we uprighted them and put some strewn garbage back in them.  

Then played imaginary ball!

Leon hadn't planned ahead either and is wearing my mittens... 

Watch me RUN Grandma!

It must have been a tornado because look at the porta potty!  Yikes!  I'm hoping no one was in it.  What a way to go...  

I wasn't brave enough to check.

So anyway, FS is off to a good visit at our house and hasn't even blown away yet.

sigh... I have no idea how we're going to entertain him today... 

I have a meeting today or I'd take him to school and have lunch with the boy today.

Maybe tomorrow.

Meribelle Productions

It's over!  Meri survived being deaf in one ear and singing her heart out!  

 

We had family and friends attend with us on Friday night and more on Saturday night.  

Of course, we discovered that I'd sold Maddy's ticket as an extra on FB to a friend of ours.  

 Meri and my grand-niece Norah.

I had miscounted how many we'd need for that night.  My MIL had wanted to go to both nights and I had forgotten to put her name on my list.  So Robb and Maddy went an hour early and got one of the remaining ten tickets available to give to our friend who had bought the extra ticket.

 

What a fantastic show!  Everyone did so great!  The underclassmen have some big shoes to fill when the Seniors graduate!

 

 It was a struggle afterwards for Friday's show, but we got Meri up to see her cousin and her family before they had to take off.

Stunt beast.  That makeup was amazing!

On Saturday night's production, Meri gave a speech and the gifts the Seniors had prepared to the directors and she got red roses from us and lots of flowers and roses from other family and friends.

 

After the final curtain call, the cast came down into the crowd and it was IMPOSSIBLE for Meri to make it over to our rows.  She was inundated with people all around hugging her.  Photo ops with little girls who adored Belle and friends who wanted to get their flowers to her and congratulate her.

Finally, I just told my group to just go to HER!  My sister and her family needed to take off and drive 3 hours home, so they went down front and said their goodbyes.

Got some pics with more cousins, their spouses and Maddy.

 

And friends.  The boy on the far left is Meri's prom date that I'll be making the tuxedo for.

 

And the sisterly love!  Maddy came for the weekend and then headed back home on Sunday.  Matthew had had to work and she was all alone for the trip.  It was so good to have her home!

 

And Belle slept in on Sunday...  til 4pm.  Well, AFTER she took her friends home that morning.  She had an impromptu cast party for 10 or so of her closest friends where they laughed and had fun until 3 in the morning.  Just ask my MIL, who has a room just off that living room...  

Since something really disturbing had happened following the cast party last year, the directors decided not to have one.  That same party had caused so much distress, angst and pain for Meri and it's finally starting to dissipate.  She is much happier now than she had been and the mini-cast party gave her some good closure for the play.

And what a year she's had!  If she hadn't been bogged down with the drama last year, who knows what she could have accomplished this year!  She's gotten to go to All State or Honor things all year with everything she participates in.  The Midas touch.  

She told me last night that she has a great chance to be Mary Poppins in the upcoming community play too.  The upcoming director of that play told her so...

Yikes...

And the musicals/performances/dramas continue!

Deaf and the Beast

And what a week it's been!  Since Meri was given yesterday off from school, I took her to the doctor in the morning and found that there is nothing they could do for her.  The emergency room wouldn't have been able to either.  We just have to let her ruptured ear heal on it's own and not touch it.  The doctor didn't even charge me for the visit! 

SO, Meri is deaf in one ear.  She said that if she covers her good ear, it sounds like she's under water when we talk and she can hear us but not enough to understand what we're saying.  

Welcome to my world...  Well, on one ear anyway...

Professional photo.  I love this one!

Might buy a copy to frame...

Poor kid.  She still has a headache on just that side of her head.  But as I mentioned yesterday, the Show MUST go ON!  And it will.  

She went with me to visit our friend in the hospice yesterday.  G was unconscious, as she has been since the stroke but she had been looking forward to seeing the play this weekend.  So Meri gave a mini concert for her and her husband.  If you thought of D & G instead of Belle when hearing the words of the song, it would tear your heart out.  It did me.  I cried the whole way back home.  Was calmed down enough by the time I reached the school to pick up Leon.

These two had been high school sweethearts, some fifty plus years ago.  sigh.  

I'm glad Meri was able to sing for them!  

So...  lots of company coming from as far as 4 hours away to see Meri's play tonight.  We'll feed them sloppy joes before heading to the high school.  Then lots more company tomorrow, coming from as far as 6 hours away (HI MADDY!!!)  Probably more sloppy joes then too.  I've got the buns for it!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ear Popping Productions

That could be the name of a movie producing company!  Ear Popping Productions! 

Anywho...

Ryan, Leon and I attended Meri's, for real, you gotta pay for a seat, performance in Beauty and the Beast yesterday.  Again, it was great!  Leon liked Cogsworth, but of course loves Meri, after I told him he better tell her that!  He can be rambunctious.

We sat with a high school friend of Ryan's and her two kids that Leon adores.  

And I DID get a few more good pics last night with my camera but as luck would have it, it's in the van which Robb drove today.  darn.  So is my headset...  I stole a pic off someone's FB photos... ;)

JUST before the intermission, my cell phone started rumbling.  It was work.  And as quick as it started rumbling, it stopped.  My phone had just lost all it's charge and turned itself off.  uggg..  I stuck around until the intermission and then headed to my car where my laptop and charger were.  

On the way out, I got stopped by a back stage manager who said that Meri was having some issues.  I figured with her costume, but the gal wasn't saying anything further, other than Meri REALLY needed me.  Found out that Meri's ear had ruptured or something and had been bleeding out of her ear through part of the first act!  It had stopped thankfully, but  it was suggested that we get to the ER as soon as the show was over.  Another hour left...

Because the SHOW must go on!!!

Oh and she couldn't hear out of that ear...

uggg...  I went out to the car and did my work work.  I'd taken the afternoon off and work emergencies had cropped up.  When that was done, I called Robb to get his advise.  It sounded like an ear infection and we could treat it with home remedies until this morning.  Yeah, good plan.  But I did try to get her into a local doctor's office before they closed at 5, but no one wanted to see her yesterday or they just wanted to go home.  sigh...

When she found out no emergency room for the evening, she was relieved, but still anxious.  BUT she had some things to finish up for the Senior gifts and had to stick around the school.  So Ryan bought her some supper and I ran it back into the school for her.  Then headed home with the boys.  They had a fun evening of dragging couches in front of the computer and watching a movie and eating whatever they wanted.

So I leave in a few minutes to take her to a doctor.  Her director encouraged her and the Beast to both take today off from school.  They're both ill in one way or another and need to be healthy by tomorrow.  Whew!

If I HAVE to stand in for her, I'm pretty sure I could do it...  I'll talk to Robb and see if he could do the Beast part.  

It'll mostly be improv...

But EPP, here we come!!!

Belle-issimo!!

 As promised... PICTURES!!!

It turned out that only my mother-in-law and myself were able to attend the dress rehearsal last night.  AND I hadn't charged up my camera or cell phone...  Otherwise, there would have been at least 3 pics per minute of the play.  As it turned out, I was alternating between my camera and my cell phone.  I discovered that my actual camera takes SUCH better pictures!!!  At least in this lighting.

Meri was great!  I know exactly why she was picked for the part of Belle. 

1) her voice is fantastic  

2) her hair is perfect for the part  

3) She can be a bit odd.  JUST like Belle!

Here is her stage dad.  Can you just picture him saying, "MY daughter??  ODD?!"
 

Gaston was perfectly cast too.  Meri got to slap him!  Later though...

The Beast did a great job but you could tell he was battling a cold.  I hope it clears up before this afternoon or weekend!
 

Positively frightening!

Stunning costume.
 

The Beasts girlfriend is in the band pit and is the shaded head you see here.  She's also one of Meri's best friends.

 

 The Beast gobbling up his soup.

And only a couple pics of Meri in the pink dress.

Unfortunately that was when I was trying to save the battery power in my camera and got these with my cell phone.  darn it.

The ball gown, I'm sure, was still dropping glitter everywhere.  But it looked lovely and probably only me was staring at the hem, thinking, d.ang... it's exactly the length it should be!  

I'm so glad I added the length on the back again!

 

With Maurice again.  Meri sang the solo that she sang for the Musical Theater competition this past weekend.

 

 I'm so glad I got a recording of it this time!  Here you go!

And the townspeople, getting ready to storm the castle.

I had forgotten that the Beast in the castle fight was a different boy until here.  I thought, "Hmm.. Ethan is taller than this... isn't he?  But then again, he is sad and depressed... Maybe he's just hunched over..."
 

Then the prince came out from behind the curtain.  THIS is supposed to be a kiss as of today.  Because of their friendship and Meri's friendship with his girlfriend, it's a hug for now.  But the gf is aware that it will be a kiss for the actual productions.  Don't look!

 

Afterwards, Meri was greeted by three little girls who were enamored with Belle and got to meet her.  It seriously made Meri's year!  

 She is SO Belle...

One Day at a re-Belle-ious Time

Busy much?  yes please...  The story of my life.  

Today is the dress rehearsal that we get to go to for Beauty and the Beast!  

And we get to take pictures!!!  So expect some tomorrow.

WAY back at Christmas-time, I never thought it would take so long, yet only seem like a few days since we knew Meri would be Belle.  The stress has taken it's toll on her.  A deep one.  Friendships have been gained and a few lost.  But I hope after the first performance tonight, in front of a live audience, she'll realize her worth.

She got her hair dyed for the production and it's a deep deep brown.  It's only supposed to last a few weeks and then fade out.  I hope so.  It's weird to see her with such dark hair.

Before.

After.

See what I mean?  but it was either dye it or wear a wig.  She has such beautiful hair and it's so thick that a wig would look odd over all that.

Planning college visits and scheduling last minute things for the end of her senior year are coming up too.  But I can't think about that yet.  I still have a prom dress and a tux to make...  

I should probably order the fabric, huh?...

I'm looking forward to digging into that, but for now, one major event at a time.

And Sunday was the Center of it

SUNDAY...  and what a day!  

The previous night, when we got back from the Jazz competition, Meri mentioned that she had to go for a fitting for the Belle ball gown.  I wanted to go too!  So I did.

The woman who made the dress is an artist and has a studio in the next town.  It's in a building that I had no idea had rooms above it.  A steep staircase and dark hallways led to her studio full of tables, shelves, papermache animals on the walls and an elephant head.  She was covered in glitter and I soon found out why.  

The dress was covered with several cups of it as well as 3 pounds of hot glue. 

We tried it on Meri and discovered that it needed to be taken in by about 8 inches as well as hemmed by about 8 inches.  

Since the woman was swamped with making the beast's costume as well as others, she asked if I could edit the dress.  So we got it into a huge garbage bag and headed home.

Ok, NOW Sunday...

After church, Meri and I went to JoAnn fabrics and picked up some thread and a new zipper for the gold dress.  Then we got home and I went to work on it.  The hot glue did a number on my sewing machine needles...  BUT I got it finished finally by 3:30 or so.  And ready for another quick fitting for when Meri got off work that night and then had to edit even more later that night for Meri to take back to the artist to finish up the finishing touches.

My dining room is covered in gold glitter...

I may have made the back too short, so I'm planning on adding some gold fabric back on that part...  

Whoops!

Not sure if you remember but I had received the fabrics for the pink dress late on Thursday evening.  I did NOT have time on Friday or Saturday, so I started it at 3:30 Sunday.  I didn't have a pattern for it, but made a makeshift pattern from one of Meri's Sweetheart dresses, tracing it out on some butcher block paper. 

The bodice is made from a burgundy table cloth and the skirt is made from some silk cotton I had in my stash.  The other fabrics they sent weren't really suitable for a drapey skirt.  Then the flounces on the sleeves and waist band were made from remnants that I'd cut off a skirt that I hemmed for the wife of one of her favorite teachers last summer.  She's short.  The delicate netting around Meri's shoulders came from that project too, as it matched perfectly.

It pays to be a fabric hoarder... :)

So I worked SO hard on the pink dress Sunday, that when I went to bed, my body just shivered with tenseness.  Also because I'd just heard some medical news about my Mom.  

So I pushed on and lived purely on stress Sunday...

Meri came upstairs at 6am Monday for a quick fitting of the pink dress before school.

On Monday, I spent every minute that I had free on the pink dress again.  Got it done FINALLY and sent a pic to a couple of my supportive sisters whom I'd been chatting with.  

The hanger appeal is lacking...  BUT it looks great on her and that's the important thing.

Meri had picked up a white shirt on Sunday at the Goodwill, but it was a stretchy thing and after looking at it, decided that it was too dingy to have her wear under the blue dress vest.  Yikes!  I was going to have to edit it anyway and no white fabric that I had would match that dinginess anyway.  So I found the Princess Leia dress that I made at Halloween and cannibalized it.  I made a new white top using Meri's as a "sort of" pattern.  Got it done before Meri came home to pick them up on Monday night.  WHEW!  The collar looks a little crooked here but it's not as bad as you think.

When I was finishing up the pink dress, I broke something in my serger...  As luck would have it, one of my good friends from church and my sewing group, gave me her serger when she was moving last.  She just had never used it and was trying to downsize her belongings.  YAY!!!!  The timing was perfect and the new serger worked perfectly!

I heard Meri come into the house and realized that the upside down knickers that I'd made for her could be corrected quickly, so while she was changing her clothes I did it.  It took 15 minutes and NOW she could wear them better.  They did NOT fit as hammer pants would fit...  I asked her about it a few minutes ago and she said that she was surprised when she pulled them out of the bag and the crotch was the right side up!  They fit SO much better last night!

THEN since she still hadn't come upstairs and I couldn't find a garment bag to put the pink dress, I found a white sheet instead and whipped one up in about 5 minutes.  

Meri came up the stairs worried when she heard the serger..  "Mom???  Are you done yet? I need to take off.  WHAT are you making??"  a garment bag.  OH!  We loaded up all the dresses and I kicked her out the door.

It was the first full dress rehearsal and she was nervous.  Apparently it didn't go as well as she was hoping.  I plan to go with her to the next practice and sew up a few things so that the changes will go better.  

AND no school today.  It rained last night and everything froze today.  yuck.  Too bad all the dresses are at the school... but then again, GOOD thing they're at the school...

Yeah... .THAT'S The Ticket!

So Meri wanted me to stop at the Dollar Store this morning to pick up some "on sale" Valentine's candy for a sleepover tonight with friends...  And THAT'S what put me at SECOND in line for the Musical tickets this morning!

So me (Belle's mom) and the 3rd in line mom (Beast's mom) wondered how to get the 1st in line out of line...  hmmmm... 

I texted Robb where I was in line and he mentioned that we should tell her the tickets actually go on sale tomorrow.  Yeah... that's the ticket!

She didn't buy it.  my line I mean.  Her kid is LeFou so he probably knew...

Luckily she didn't buy TOO many and the chunk of seats I wanted for both nights were available.

Meri even stopped by to see me!

The Beast's mom usually grabbed the seats I chose but she said I was first so I should get the seats I want and she'll just go across the aisle.  

Actually I'm second in line...

We got there just after 8am.

Teachers that we knew walked by and started spreading rumors that Belle and Beast's parents had to camp out in tents on the sidewalks in order to be in line this early!

The principal felt sorry for us sitting on the hall floor and told us to come sit in the office.

Probably a mistake...  We were a loud laughing bunch and more parents came wandering in, some with day care kids in tow.  Well I took my work with me too, so why shouldn't she?

Not that I got a LOT done...

The tickets were to go on sale at 9am sharp, but so many of us were crowding that little high school office that I think the secretary just wanted us gone.  So we started a few minutes before.

$175 dollars later...  

boy...  I sure hope the play is good! ;)

His Boyish Charms

As usual...  my life during the week revolves around the boy.  

One of the other.  I took Ryan down to his apartment yesterday around lunch time and he treated me out to lunch!  Sons are great, aren't they?

He mentioned that whenever he goes anywhere with me, people think that I'm his special lady friend...  He said that he's not sure if he looks older than he is or I look younger than I am, but he's quick to correct them.  So I told him about Maddy's kindergarten stories and he cracked up.

"I think that's me!"

Looks like I got Ryan there just in time because it started snowing when I was on my drive home.  Wouldn't have been able to get him to work on time later on with this kind of weather.

Then the OTHER boy got home from school yesterday about the same time as Meri.  Snow was falling hard and all the school evening events were canceled.  Woohoo!  Family night!

But I still had an hour left of work so I hogged the computer while Leon filled out some of his valentines then discovered his toys again.  

He hadn't played with his Legos for weeks.  He soon got bored with even them and started climbing over the back of the couch.

HEY NOW!!!  You're going to kick my vase full of sea shells!!!  So he improvised and got off the couch creatively, cracking himself up.  Did that a few more times then ran off to do something else until Robb got home.

He came into the living room once wearing a sled on his back that Maddy had made at Bible camp YEARS ago.  He asked me, "Am I too turtley for the Turtle Club?" LOL!!!!  

He hasn't even SEEN the Master of Disguise yet!  But he's heard us quote it enough I guess.  So I was ready to rent it from Amazon for family night.

 We ordered pizzas and Meri and I ran up to get it.  Ran into one of her favorite teachers and his wife, who may or may not be having their first baby today.  Exciting times!

Got back and during dinner the mood for a family night went away.  It happens.  Meri went off to practice her play lines, Leon filled out his application for Great Clips, then got in some computer time, Robb read and I went upstairs.  I was going to sew but wasn't in the mood.  

But after a little while, Leon came up and wanted to watch a bit more of the Storks movie.  He snuggled up to me and we enjoyed more until it was bedtime.

This morning was difficult to get him out the door and he was grumpy when he didn't get anytime to play in the snow before the bus came.  Well, who's fault was THAT?!  totally his.  

He chose the red food dye for the eggs then griped when I made him eat them.  I had to actually feed them to him with ketchup.  What a BABY! Just for the record, Red eggs and summer sausage are NOT better than Green eggs and ham.  Although I think Leon would do Green eggs and summer sausage in a heartbeat...

AND did you know it takes 10 minutes to put on your snow pants?  Five to gripe that they're inside out because the dogs must have done it during the night and another five to roll around on the floor while you're pulling them on.

And in the midst of it all, I forgot to stick his lunch box in his bag again.  sigh...  SO I'll be making a trip to the school some time this morning...  That kid would rather starve than eat Crispitos.  ALL of my kids LOVED Crispitos.  I don't even know what they are but they loved them.

Isn't life grand?...  

Have a grand weekend!