weekly highlights: new niece, Utah Theatre trip, our 22nd anniversary, and "old" niece

NEW NIECE:

Tessa Marie, Brandon and Calista's first baby (and our grand-niece), was born on Wednesday! To go to Brandon and Calista's post on their blog click here and to see photos click here. She is adorable. Congratulations Brandon and Calista. We are so happy for you.

UTAH THEATRE TRIP:

A few hours after Tessa was born (at 2 am to be precise), Glen and I boarded a school bus with some of his drama students (including Hannah) and some of their mothers for our annual trip to the Utah Theatre Association's Conference for Junior High and High School students (20 students all together, though 3 traveled in a car, and 6 mothers). In the middle of the night we were on highway 375 (it's nicknamed the extra-Terrestrial highway). Don't know if I'm happy or sad to report there were no sightings. The fact that most of us were trying to sleep may have had something to do with the lack of UFO sightings. Well, at least I was warm--which doesn't always happen on the school bus in the middle of the night, if not totally comfortable, and got a bit of sleep in.

This year's conference theme: "Make a Scene!" Glen, Hannah, and I all have lovely t-shirts to prove it. This year the conference was in St. George at Dixie State College (which has recently been bought by U of U so things'll be changing for them). Next year the conference will be back at BYU and we'll get to see Andrew there!

I only went to one workshop this weekend and it I took it that first afternoon. Juggling. I've always wanted to know how to juggle. You  know, sometimes having "juggling" written on the skills section of your resume may make the difference in getting an acting job or not.

The class was taught by Paul Draper, a magician and mind reader at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Click on his name to go to his website. (Deni, have you heard of him?). I couldn't take photos of me trying to juggle, of course, but here are a few I took during class (I only got Paul's back...he's the one in purple):

First thing in the classroom, after having us look at a ball (it's like a fat hackysack) on the ground 10' or so in front of us, he had us close our eyes, walk up to where the ball was, bend over and pick up the ball. I missed all three tries (75% got it at least once), but my hand was within a palm width of the ball, so I was "close enough." This was to prove you don't need to be looking at the ball to find it.

Then we moved outside. First we took one ball and tossed it up to eyebrow height and went back and forth between right and left hands. Then we took one ball in each hand and tossed with our right then our left and caught with our left then with our right. Then repeated it in reverse: tossed with our left then our right, caught with our left then our right. There's a pattern to it 1-2-pause-2-1-pause-1-2-pause-2-1-pause...

We sat in the grass so we wouldn't have to bend over and retrieve our balls all the time. Then we added the third ball...I'm still on the 2 ball step trying not to drop them. The most I've gotten up to was 3 1/2 sets without dropping. But with three balls, you toss right hand, toss left hand, catch left hand and toss right hand then catch right hand, repeat. Yeah, right. OK. I later bought 3 squishable balls from JoAnn Fabric's (they're supposed to relieve hand stress if you've been sewing for a long time) to use for practice. I wonder if I'll ever be able to do it.

That first night the musical that we attended was The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee performed by students from Westminster College. According to its blurb it's about "Six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn't everything and the losing doesn't necessarily  make you a loser." Just before it started we were "reminded" that it was rated PG-13. Hmm. Yep, it deserved that rating. Yikes. On the whole it was a very funny play and the casting was absolutely perfect. Too bad the boy scout with hormone problems had to be a character.

One interesting thing about the play is that they call 4 audience members up to be in the spelling bee. Two from our group were called up: Jordyn (who was our Cinderella last November) and Melanie, our dental hygienist and  the mom of one of Glen's students (who was our Anne Shirley in December). It wasn't a total surprise that they were called up. If I understand it correctly, during the day they had talked to some people from the show and were told their names might be called and if they were they were just to be themselves and not act. What a riot! Jordyn kept spelling the words correctly so they finally had to call her up twice in a row and give her a ridiculously hard word to get her off the stage. Way to go Jordyn.

OUR ANNIVERSARY:

Marsha, the bus driver, dropped Glen and me off at the St. George temple on her way bringing the kids and other chaperons to that morning's activities. We had been married there just after 9 am on January 21st, 22 years ago...and at 9 we were in the temple performing sealings for some of my dead distant relatives. Very cool. Afterwards we walked the 3/4 mile back to our hotel, changed out of our dress clothes.

While walking another 3/4 mile up to campus we stopped for a few minutes at the cemetery and saw the tombstone of one of Glen's ancestors: Samuel L. Adams.

We made it on campus in time for the teacher's luncheon. We then separated. I walked 3/4 mile back to the Family History Center and looked at some census records while Glen went to class. (Don't ask me why everything turned out to be 3/4 mile distance...the temple, college, and hotel formed a nice triangle for walking). When I was done at the FHC, I went back to the hotel to await the arrival of Melissa.

"OLD" NIECE:

Since Melissa is almost 20, she doesn't really qualify at being old, but compared to newborn Tessa, she is. Anyway, Melissa is currently attending the Paul Mitchell Cosmetology School just outside of St. George. She came and visited for a bit. After a while, Hannah and Glen showed up and we all got to chat. Here is a picture of the cousins:

Friday night I stayed at the hotel with a girl who wasn't feeling well and the others went to see The Miracle Worker performed by Dixie High School.

Saturday I took the bus and went shopping (got a shirt, a book--thanks Deni for my Deseret Book gift card!,--and my juggling balls). I read and worked on some things for Primary until it was time to board the school bus again and head for home. We left about 6 pm Nevada time and got in at 2:45 am, I think.

So, thanks to Kathy, Gary, Jackie, and David for watching the kids we didn't take with us. It was a nice trip, but as always, it's good to be home.