Our Belle

It has taken me awhile to get to this post, because I couldn't find the time and emotional energy to sort through my memories of the highs and lows of "play week" and the huge number of pictures we took of Beauty and the Beast.  I'll just include a few pictures on the blog.  I'll make Aubrey a book soon with all of the pictures documenting her Beauty adventure.

First a little background on the goings-on prior to the play.  A warning: I am going to be detailed, since this is functioning as my journal of the events, so feel free to skip to the pictures.

The cast of the play prepared for months and Aubrey was so excited for her first leading role in the play, which was held the end of March and beginning of April 2012. One week before opening night Aubrey started sniffling.  Within a day she was pretty sick with an intense respiratory virus. And thus we began the craziness called "tech week."  That's the full week before the play, when practice is held  for four hours every night in the venue to do the final touches and practice with costumes, makeup, etc. (Unfortunately for us, the venue is 45 minutes from our home. So, every day Aubrey and I drove out to Washougal for practice and returned home very late. I don't remember even talking to the rest of the family much that week.)

Her sickness complicated the situation considerably. We did everything we could to help her recover quickly, but she lost her voice early in the week and was intensely sick and miserable.  She missed 3 1/2 days of school that week, but still had to attend the practices if at all possible. Her director told her not to even try talking/singing on stage all week, in hopes of helping her voice recover. On the night of dress rehearsal she did try to sing and wasn't able to hit anything in the upper register.  It was a challenging moment for her, but her director was amazingly good about it.  He told her that she had options. She could choose to have someone else sing her lines off stage while she lip synced, or she could just do her best, and he wouldn't be embarrassed about whatever happened.  (As for myself - sitting in the audience and watching the dress rehearsal - I was so nervous about how it was all going to work out that I ate an entire large bag of jelly beans all by myself. Sugar therapy.)

She came home that night and we greeted Grandma and Grandpa Springer, who had flown into town for the play. Dan and Grandpa gave Aubrey a blessing of healing.  The next morning I called a good friend who is a professionally trained vocalist, and she worked with Aubrey to let us know whether or not singing was going to be an option.  Amazingly, she was able to sing quite well - dramatically better than the night before.  She continued to drink lots of warm chamomile tea with lemon and honey, and we decided that the show was ON!

Oh, one more thing we had to fix the day of the first performance. The director had wanted Aubrey's hair dyed a little darker.  He had bought "Fanciful" temporary rinse and told us he was going to apply it to her hair prior to the publicity photos to test it.  That never happened and and they had to photoshop her hair darker in the newspaper photos.  

Now, the director of Aubrey's musical theater program has a lot of positive attributes including patience, great enthusiasm, and loads of musical and theatrical knowledge.  However, he is not organized and sometimes doesn't always follow through.  And yes, that is frustrating.  All "tech week" he insisted that he wanted to apply the rinse to see for himself if it was going to work, but he never did.  Finally, the night of dress rehearsal, as most of the rest of the cast was in costume and getting ready for the performance, we were still waiting for the director to show up to do the hair rinse.  It was becoming ridiculous and nightmarish.  So, another Mom and I grabbed gloves and started applying the rinse ourselves in the tiny lead's dressing room.  It was very messy, and it didn't work.  All the dye did was make Aub's hair slick and oily, but it didn't make it much darker.  We then spent 45 minutes trying to get her thick hair dry, by which time the show REALLY needed to start. So much for getting makeup and hair done for dress rehearsal.  She ran onto stage and did her best.

Getting ready after the unsuccessful hair dying experience.

So, we also called a good friend of mine who is a hairdresser, and the day of the first performance she applied a semi-permanent dye to darken Aubrey's hair somewhat.  It still wasn't really dark, but it was good enough.

Onto the performance.  I was backstage helping and the rest of the family watched the play.  Let's just say that I was a little nervous waiting for her to walk out and begin the first line . . . "A little town, full of little people . . ."

She pulled it off. Aubrey did a truly awesome job of singing and sometimes sing/talking.  It was great on-the-job experience for one of toughest situations in musical theater. She had to think ahead and choose which notes she could hit, and work around the notes she couldn't reach given her compromised vocal chords.  She did it amazingly well. And she is a great actress!  I was amazed at how she held it together emotionally during a very stressful week, even though she didn't feel her best.

Oh, another last minute thing . . . the director neglected to teach Aubrey and "The Beast" how to do their waltz for the Beauty and the Beast song until . . . the day of dress rehearsal.  Yikes!  But, they did great. Even if it was painfully uncomfortable for them to look each other in the eyes during the song.  (Oooh . . . gross!)  Aubrey managed to make eye contact better than her lead counterpart.

 

And and up close look at the ever-so-lovely Belle hairstyle!  And Bailey (who helped backstage the last day) photo bombing.
 

And another photo bomb, after the play.  Nice.

A few pics with fellow cast members.  Guess what?  The kid who played Gaston was totally like the character on the movie.  As in, a little bit surly (and Aubrey would say annoying).  Perhaps some type casting?  I had to beg him to put down his DS and pose for this picture.  Overall, though, there were so many amazing young people who were in the production. They were hard workers and did a great job!

Just for fun, after the last performance the entire cast did the Electric Slide dance to the song "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson.  It was an awesome way to end the play.

 

 Aubrey greeting her adoring public after the play.

She absolutely loved meeting all the little kids who were dying to see Belle up close. Some of the kids seemed to really believe that she was the "real" Belle!  I didn't get a picture of it, but after the first night of the play a little girl ran up to her and hugged her . . . and wouldn't let go!  It was like being a Disney princess at Disneyland!

 

Grandma and Grandpa were unbelievably helpful during our crazy weekend.  I was basically never home. I had bought lots of food to prepare but then never had time to prepare it.  So, they cooked and cleaned and kept everything running.  Thanks to them, we pulled off a decent showing of Conference comfort food.

 

Aubrey will always have fond memories of her experience with Beauty and the Beast.  There was a lot of excitement, the thrill of performing before an audience, and some difficult challenges.  But she gained valuable experience in rolling with the punches through it all.  After the play the director gave out the traditional "paper plate awards."  Aubrey received the award for "Best  Leading Lady" for her professionalism, positive attitude, hard work, and persistence even when things were tough.  Congratulations Aubrey!

Scrap Mania

Many years ago I was a scrapbooker.  I spent many hours creating scrapbook pages and had scrapbook parties with my sisters in Utah. I made huge messes, and had a great time creating.

But I haven't really scrapbooked for over six years - since before we moved to Washington.  Now memory documentation comes in the form of our blog books and other digital photo books I print out each year (one for each kid every year and one for every family vacation.)  It's been a long time since I have made a big mess with paper and glue.

Until now.  I just spent A LOT of hours working on scrapbooks for Joseph's first grade class. I estimate it took me at least 25 hours - and that was me working in "speed scrapper" mode, with pretty simple pages.  And I was only in charge of two months - October and January!

It just so happens that there is a set of twins in Joseph's class with a super sweet and over the top scrapbooking Grandma.  Let's called her Grandma Ruby (her name has been changed for her protection).   Grandma Ruby volunteered to head up the class scrapbook for the year.  She doesn't even live in the state, but coordinated it all through her frequent visits to WA and through email.

Last year I had helped with the class "scrapbook" for Joseph's kindergarten class. I was in charge of one page with two pictures on each page for a total of 14 kids.  It was all done it about two hours.  I thought it was fun to dabble in scrapbooking again, so I signed up to help again this year.  I definitely didn't realize what I was getting into.

Grandma Ruby bought big three ring binders for each of the 26 kids and started working on the books in August, before school started.  She met with all of us in October to show us her progress and what she hoped we would do also.  She had created 27 pages per kid for the month of September. I am not kidding. After I picked my jaw up off the floor and talked to the teacher and what she envisioned, I pared down the expectation to something kind of sort of manageable - a two page picture spread plus three pages of artwork per kid per month.

Now, I know that I never received a "class scrapbook" in elementary school, and none of my other kids has ever had such a thing. I thought the simple Kindergarten scrapbook last year was a nice extra - twelve pages total with one page per month.  I certainly never expected and do not expect that my children receive an entire scrapbook of their year when they finish a grade in school. I mean, isn't that the parent's job?  Just because most of us don't actually get around to putting the artwork into a binder, does that mean that some scrapper should do it for us?

I admit that I kind of liked the chance to scrap again. I like the creative process and the instant gratification of a finished project. But, when I looked at the pile of pages I finished (about 270), I selfishly wished that I had spent all that time on our own neglected scrapbooks. (Joseph will someday realize that all his siblings have awesome "baby" scrapbooks and he has a total of five pages).

This is what our bedroom looked like for the last two weeks. While scrapping I caught up on at least 40 episodes of House Hunters.

Next year, will I be signing up to be scrapbook helper?  I don't think so. But stay tuned.

Mother's Day Photos and Skyping Ukraine

I told my kids that one thing I wanted for Mother's Day was a photo with each of my children.  I had envisioned taking pictures before church, but that was way unrealistic, even with 11 a.m. church. So, we snapped photos right after church.

 

 

And a picture with my honey, who helped make Mother's Day more than perfect.

One more great moment on Mother's Day . . . after church Aubrey decided that she wanted to make treats to share. She decided to give treats to a friend who had had a birthday and to two mothers in the ward whose husbands are working far away for months (and whose children are to young to treat their mother on Mother's Day).  So, she made delicious fudge bars and beautiful cards and we headed out to deliver them in the evening.  She and Bailey visited with each of the women and wished them Happy Mother's Day.  I was so proud of them and for Aubrey for thinking of others.  What great young women they are!

On Thursday night we were able to do a Skype call with Brandon, all the way from the Ukraine!

Brandon sounded and looked great.  He was sitting in a busy internet cafe (thus the headphones).  He was calling early morning on Friday his time, which was almost 11 p.m. our time.

We had fun all visiting as a family for a few minutes (and laughing and laughing and laughing), and then we gave each kid about 5 minutes to talk to Brandon individually.  Then we sent the kids off to bed and Dan and I had a great extended visit with our wonderful oldest son.

We thought Brandon seemed the same, but was an even better version of himself.  He seems more mature and more confident, but still has his trademark grin and sense of humor.  We are proud of him for persisting through great challenges in the Ukraine.   He is an amazing young man.  Next Mother's Day he will be home with us!

March Madness, Porter style

Okay, so I'm behind on my blogging. Which means that I'm behind on my family history recording.  So, here goes some backwards-looking, to catch up some of the missed moments.

A few days after two of our three March birthdays we celebrated at Sweet Tomatoes, the kid's favorite eating out place.  These pictures are notable for two reasons.  First, both kids have a soda.  We never buy drinks while eating out . . . . with one exception.  When we eat out to celebrate birthdays, the birthday kid gets their own soda.

Also, on this night at Sweet Tomatoes (a buffet restaurant) Joseph asked to try many, many different foods.  From this picture, it looks like he ate only his standard of veggies, but he actually also asked to try pasta, sourdough bread, a different type of pizza, and even a soup, I think.  He didn't like much of it, but we were beyond happy that he wanted to try them.  We accept all progress, no matter how small.

Next up:  artwork time with Joseph.  I've decided to not hold onto all the awesome art projects.  We take a picture and then the artwork (usually) meets the recycling bin.  I am, however, keeping some of his freehand drawings (like the Mickey below), as he is getting to be an excellent artist.  He looks at a picture and replicates it amazingly well.

Dan and Joseph worked together on a Leprechaun Trap for St. Patrick's Day.  I think it's pretty cool, especially the tricky sign, "Come for Gold" to lure unsuspecting leprechauns onto the trapdoor floor of the contraption (there is supposed to be a Hershey's Gold Nugget hanging from the string, but at the time of this picture taking I had not yet run to the store to fetch the leprechaun bait).

 The finished trap at the school St. Patrick's Day celebration:

And, finally, wrapping up the March rundown . . . . indoor soccer.  Joseph has decided that he loves indoor soccer, and he made goals like crazy this season.

I'm still trying to figure out the iphone thing, and I discovered that my phone really doesn't take the best action shots, at least not with the HDR enabled.  Not that I really understand what any of that means. Anyone from the Apple corporation want to explain this to me? Anyway, I took a lot of shots of Joseph playing, and nothing turned out.  Here is a video showing him making a goal.

I was the team mom, and I organized a pizza party at the end of the season. 

 

It was an amazing March.  And yet, there was much, much more to come at the end of the month. Stay tuned . . . .

Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day. I do recognize that Mother's Day can be painful or challenging for many women.  As a young wife, I thought that Mother's Day might be a time when I would struggle with doubts about whether I am measuring up to what I should be as a Mom.

My reality is this: I wonder if I am measuring up as a Mom every day. I am constantly thinking about, praying about, talking to wise people about how to better help each of our uniquely individual children thrive. 

So, somehow on Mother's Day I have managed to temporarily let go of those thoughts and just revel in the positive accolades.  I love the handwritten love letters and crayon drawings from my children. I love the sweet card and flowers from my honey. I love enthusiastic renditions of "Mother Dear, I Love You So" from the Primary children during Sacrament Meeting.  I love having a chance to think about what I appreciate about my own mother. I love coming home from church, changing into my sweats, and letting everyone else make me a fabulous dinner. I love the fact that (for the most part) everyone feels like they need to be extra kind and respectful on Mother's Day.  It's awesome and I deserve it and please tell me more nice things.

This Mother's Day had a few extra fun moments.  Aubrey was asked to give a talk in church (her first talk in Sacrament Meeting).  Her topic was "how to show love and gratitude to our mothers."  I told her that I could give her a comprehensive list of how she can show me love and gratitude, but she rolled her eyes and said that she would work on it herself.  And she worked hard and it was "top secret." 

She did an amazing job.  For one thing, she was well prepared and shared some great points and quotes and scripture stories, but she also spent the majority of the talk sharing her own thoughts and feelings about the topic.  She looked comfortable and confident.  There were so many things I loved about what she shared, but my favorite points were these.  She said she knows she could show more gratitude for the little things and that she is thankful even if she doesn't say so. She said that she knows that she is loved and knows that her mother has a testimony "because she lives it and teaches us the gospel every day"  Wow - that was the best Mother's Day present of all. That's my utmost desire, that my children know they are loved and know that I have a testimony and that God loves them and provides a way for them to be happy.

Another extra fun moment is coming tomorrow night . . . we get to skype with our missionary son for Mother's Day!  I can't wait to talk to (and see!) Brandon!

And now, a few of the love notes from my family:

 

What made it all better

A week ago Saturday was one of those days.  Twenty things to get done before noon. Dan was in Arizona for a few days helping his parents, so I was one-woman juggling the baseball game/theater class/errands.  Top on my list was running into Portland with Aubrey to buy her new tap dance shoes. On the way back we planned to run into two more stores, to check more things off the list.

All was great until we were merging onto the freeway.  We were merging from the right, and had a long merge lane ahead of us to help us enter the traffic flow.  We were crawling along, as was the car in front of us.  I looked to the left to check out the cars we would merge into, when . . . . Bonk. Or is that Crunch.  Or is that Ouch?

Aubrey and I weren't sure what happened.  Did someone hit us?  Wait . . . did we hit someone?  Yes, we did.  It turns out that the car in front of us was driven by a fairly new driver, and she freaked out about merging and came to a complete stop on the on-ramp.  I, of course, made the mistake of looking over to the side just as she stopped.  So, it was definitely my fault. (But, I do wish she hadn't completely stopped).

Not a lot of damage and no one was hurt.  Unfortunately, my heavy-duty Honda Odyssey bumper cracked their not-as-heavy-duty Jetta bumper.  So, insurance will have to replace their bumper completely.  The next week our insurance adjustor told us it would cost $600 to straighten our bumper (it popped out of alignment a bit), reattach our license plate, and touch up a tiny spot of paint.  Lucky for us, the repair man we talked to did a "good enough" job on our damage for free!  It took him about one minute.

We continued on our way to Portland, shaken and regretful.  We were additionally delayed by a "bridge lift" on the Columbia River, when the I-5 bridge is lifted to allow a tall ship to pass through.  We got lost in Portland three times trying to find our way to the dance store/back to the freeway.  One of the times we were lost we decided to go back to the store (we were going in circles anyway) and exchange the dance shoes for the more expensive ones that really fit better.

We finally made it back to Vancouver barely in time to drop Aubrey off at her class and run home to get Joseph for his game. We definitely didn't get any of the other errands done that morning. It was one of those "take a deep breath" days, which I did.

And then Joseph came to me and said,

"Mom, I'm sorry you got in a car crash.  You can have all the money I'm saving in my bank to fix it.  Will that help?"

And I gave him a great big hug and told him that his sweetness and love fixed it completely, no money necessary.  It was a bad morning but a good Mom moment, which made it all better.

This is the note I found on the table later that day:

Go Cubs!

Life is moving along at a brisk pace at our house.  Lots of good things have happened, some hard and challenging things, and lots of baseball games.

Did you know that baseball games last forever?  They do. Literally hours and hours of sitting. I never understood why baseball fans traditionally eat sunflower seeds in the shell while watching their favorite sport.   Now I understand . . . eating the shelled seeds takes a long time, and there is lots of time to spare in a baseball game.

But, suffice it to say that we are spending plenty of time on the baseball field watching Joseph in his super cute baseball uniform doing his thing. And he has really improved and seems to love it.  Here's a few shots from the sidelines:

 

 

Because we had so many rainouts at the beginning of the season, now we are squeezing makeup games into the schedule, and there are at least three games a week. So, we are pretty much all about baseball these days.  Go Cubs!

(p.s.:  I recognize that this is a totally unfair generalization, but I would like to go on record as saying that adults who are really into baseball are more than a little crazy. There are some parents of kids on Joseph's team who are SO into the game and so worried about advocating for their little superstar that they come really close to ruining it for everyone.  Including for their own children, who are trying really, really hard to make their parents happy by being the best baseball player possible, but are more anxious about disappointing parents than happy about playing.  In my inexpert opinion, the purpose of sports for kids is to learn and be active.  Period.  Winning is a nice sometimes result, but not at all necessary. And parents criticizing the coach or other kids on the team is never acceptable.   End of rant.)