Countdown to Beauty and the Beast

So, it's three days until opening night of Beauty and the Beast, Jr.  Aubrey, otherwise known as Belle, caught the nastiest of all colds about four days ago.  We have used every trick we know to shorten the duration of the cold and free up her vocal chords to sing again.  There is no understudy.

This is "tech week," which is theater speak for all actors will be at the theater from right after school until after bedtime every night this week.  Tech week takes place at the actual theater so they can run through the play on the stage, with the sets, and eventually with the costumes. Fortunately for us, all the theater classes and rehearsals (until tech week) are at our local middle school, five minutes away.  Unfortunately for us, the actual theater is almost an hour away from our home . . . each way. 

At the same time, baseball fever has begun in Vancouver, and Joseph is a Chicago Cub, Little League style. We had the rah rah rah Opening Ceremonies for Little League a few weeks ago, kicking off the season, and then the skies dumped rain (and even snow) for two weeks. So, many games were cancelled during that time. Guess when they rescheduled the games?  You guessed it - this week. Almost every night this week Joseph has to be to a game at 5 p.m., the exact time someone needs to be driving Aubrey to rehearsal.  Most days Dan can drive for either baseball or theater, but today he goes out of town until late evening.

For someone who hates to shop and tries not to step foot in the mall, I have spent way too much time buying shoes lately. For Aubrey, that is. I told the director of her play that I would find shoes to go with her outfit.  Finding the right shoes which look the part/feel comfortable/can be danced in has turned out to be a challenge!  I just purchased 6 more pairs today for her to try.  That brings the grand total to 10 pairs . . . hopefully one of the options will be perfect.

It's one of the weeks when we just focus on one day at a time. Somehow between us and all of our resources, we will manage to divide and conquer this week. Exciting times at the Porters!