Just random thoughts in a rare quiet moment. . .

Just Random Thoughts (in a rare quiet moment. . .)
When I last posted, we were running like crazy from one ballgame to another, and fitting in numerous rehearsals at the same time. (I do have to say a Midsummer Night's Dream was a BIG success, and I feel much better having FINALLY directed my first Shakespeare piece). Now things are a bit quieter, so my mind is walking off on it's random little tangents! I will start, however, with pictorial updates!
Actually, maybe not! (since we didn't take any 4th of July pictures). We basically sat around home, did 'chores', ate a ton of 4th of July-type food (BBQ hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, pasta salad and soda), then made the trek to Idaho Falls to see the fireworks. Tacey had just gotten back from Girl's Camp the day before, and I had throughly de-junked, rearranged and 'teenified' her room while she was gone. (This could have been either a really good thing, or a really bad thing. Either way it needed to eb done and she was happy in the end.) It is no longer a shrine to all things pre-teen (like High School Musical and Happy Bunny) but is a lot more grown up and a lot PINKER! Which is what she would refer to as her signature color. . .
We threw a Mary Kay party for her friends and their Mothers on Wednesday; I let Tacey be the Hostess so she could get a discount on all the stuff she wanted to buy. As much as ALL women like a facial, I think they liked the chocolate fountain better! Shane was out of town, but wandered back in on Friday. Then Sunday Tacey and I left for . .

DUM . . . DUM . . . DUM!!!!!!
MUSIC CAMP!!!

I had been hired by a woman named Leslie Crafton to teach at her summer Music Camp. She hired me merely by my resume' and a phone call. I didn't think it was such a big deal that we hadn't met face-to-face yet, but I guess she did! If I understand correctly, her sister had the same position in previous years, and I was one of SEVERAL applicants for the position. I heard that there were 6 or 7 others. She met with all of them, but in the end she hired me even thought we had never officially met. It was a little weird meeting an employer for the first time on the first day of work, I guess. I taught Choreography, Begining Girl's Musical Theatre, Begining Acting, Boy's Musical Theatre, Master Class and Advanced Girl's Musical Theatre. I had a BLAST!! It just confirmed what I already know; I need a job where I can teach this creativity all day every day. More importantly, I need to teach to people who really want to learn what I have to teach. This last provision would be my ONLY complaint with my current job. I have applied, and prayed, and prayed, and prayed for my 'dream job'. I have heard nothing, which isn't necessarily bad as they usually send 'Thanks, but no thanks' letters. So I must still be in there somewhere. Last I heard my application was in front of the Academic Committee. I wish I had SOME idea, and SOME control, but as with many other things in life I will have to be patient. Anyway. . . back on topic. . .

Tacey had a 5 hour block of classes that included Choreography, Choir, Master Class, Music Theory and Advanced Girl's Musical Theatre. Every day they had a recital of some sort, the first day being the Faculty Recital. All in all I figure there were 80 some-odd kids at the camp. Tacey had an amazing time and was sad to leave. I throughly enjoyed every minute of it. We are both returning next year and will bring McCade along!!!

You will notice I have NO pictures. That is because we had other important things happening back at home with Shane and the boys! (So I left the camera with him). Pack meeting was the Wednesday we were gone, and there were LOTS of good things handed out! Dallin got SEVERAL more of his Weblos pins.

I figured it out and I think if I plan properly he can earn EVERY SINGLE THING POSSIBLE as a Weblos. (*Sigh of relief*). I am hoping he has incredible Scoutmasters when he becomes an 11-yr old Scout. We have learned through experience if they don't have that Eagle by the time they are 14, it probably won't happen. On the lucky side, Shane's uncle is a professional scouter; running one of, if not THE largest Scout camp in the nation. He said we could just send the boys down when we needed to and he would see that they got everything they needed to get done! On to McCade!!! McCade was at the point he had earned Bear as well as a gold arrow and a silver arrow. He still has 7 months left in Bears, so we will be working on our arrows!

I am very pleased with both of them! They (Shane, Dallin & McCade) came out to Music Camp on Friday and watched the final performances. Even though I AM discussing my own work, I have to say the Musical Theatre Section ROCKED! The kids sang SO loud, danced well, and learned SO much. I could not have had a better result! ESPECIALLY considering they only had 4 days to learn and perfect!

That Saturday was Hailey's first birthday party.

I say birthday party, because her birthday isn't until August 12th. (Which would also be Ben & Laura's Anniversary! *nice and romantic, huh?*) Laura and Ben (and Hailey and Rufus) were moving to Des Moines for medical school; actually as I write this they should be arriving there. Laura wanted to have her party before they moved when they could actually muster up some party guests. It was an animal-themed party. (Mostly because Hailey can only say Mama, Dada and puppy! Oh! and she growls!) My neighbor and Jilana think she looks like McCade with Ben's eyes, she definately has Tacey's hairstyle from when she was 1!
We had Cake and Ice Cream,

The Boy cousins; Josh, Dallin & McCade The Girl Cousins: Tacey, Hailey and Emmalee

then opened presents, then played pin the tail on the Lion,
(which was even funnier as Laura forgot a blindfold and creativity had to be used) and then dressed in animal costumes for a family picture. Yes, the costumes were mine, what did you expect!!!
Lets see, from left to right bottom row we have Kristie as the chipmunk, Logan as the mosquito, Emmalee as the fly and McCade as the Sky God. (That would explain the meditative position). Then in the back row we have Jilana as the python, Dallin as the Spider, Tacey as the Tiger, Laura as the Monkey, Hailey as a Bumblebee, Casey as the Goose, Ben as the Bird, Grandpa as the baby spider, Brad as the Beehive holding the little baby bee, Josh as the Rabbit and Kathy as the Leopard. Oh, and a poor, deformed multi-tailed Lion!
Sunday Shane and I spent driving. We got up at the VERY early hour of 4:00am and drove Tacey to Salt Lake to the airport. I must be out of practice, because AGAIN I forgot to take pictures!!! It was her first time flying alone, and she was EXTREMELY nervous about changing planes in Phoenix, but she really wanted to go vacation with Grandma. So, even though there were tears, she went. And, I am happy to report, got on the right plane, got to San Diego and even started to get annoyed when we kept calling to make sure she was okay! (hahaha, sometimes she is SO 13)

Monday Jilana and I helped them (Laura & Ben) pack; and said our goodbyes. I will miss them. We spent time together, not tons, but I always knew Laura would be there to help me in a pinch; like when I went to New York and had no one to watch McCade and Koda. Idaho can get pretty lonely. . .

Jilana was hanging out for a few more days so Tuesday we went to lunch and then took the kids swimming. Again, out of practice, so there are no pictures. It was nice however, to get a bit of a sunburn. Wednesday we signed Dallin up for Tackle Football; he is simultaneously both excited and scared. His Dad is VERY excited. McCade isn't old enough yet for football, but he has found another sport that he loves - gymnastics. He has been taking lessons this summer, and he likes it so much I signed him up for fall. He works harder at this than anything else I have ever seen him do, other than performing. I hope to see him flipping all over soon; hope it isn't off the funiture or the roof.

Later Wednesday night Shane left for Scout Camp, and that brings us to now. . .

I will try and scan in the baseball and dance pictures soon. . . then I should have fully repented. We are leaving for vacation soon, so I hope I can get back in the habit of posting every week before then. *sigh*, I hope.

Danielle

Yes, I have been negligent . . .

Okay, it has been awhile. BUT, I will now attempt repentance and try to bring everyone up to speed on the Matheson Family doings in what will probably take several posts!
As the last pictures posted were of Dance Recital, it is now important to discuss The Music Man as Dance Recital happened in between performances of it! Tacey once again played Amaryllis, and I am pleased to say she is finally coming to understand her Mom does have a bit of knowledge in the whole 'Theatre Area'. She let me coach her a bit this time, and has definately improved as an actress! We didn't really get pictures of the event, except for this important one:


Amaryllis trying to kiss Winthrop! Heh heh heh. Poor Sam Gold. After that, the next major event was graduation. Is Tacey really that old you ask? Nope, shes not: which is a good thing as that would reflect on my age in a way I don't really want it to! It was MY graduation. Just to remind everyone of all the 'drama' (pun intended) -

I went back to school to get my Master's in Theatre. I really enjoyed it and found out a few things about myself. First of all; I am SMART! Second; I have really original creative ideas! And third; I am exceptionally good at what I do. All of this led to two years of totally enjoyable work, a 4.0 and a snapped achilies tendon! I was supposed to graduate LAST May, but I took one final Thesis credit in the summer so that I had a little more time to finish it. I made this decision back in January, thinking with the number of shows I intended on doing, it would be a good thing to take a little more time. Then, I had to deal with the whole snapped-tendon-surgery thing in the middle of the semester, so that turned out to be a VERY good thing on my part. I am SO glad I listened to my little inner voice. I was all set to walk Commencement in August, but then found out they had cancelled it. I was ANGRY. So, to sum it all up in not a few words: I did graduate in August, I have had the Diploma in my hands since October to prove it, I paid $85.00 for an ill-fitting uni-sex black dress with dumb sleeves (THATS a whole different story), a hat that looks good on no one with a hangy thing (that said the wrong year), and a weird scarf so I could get the holder for the Diploma! Here is the very important man that PAID for that little piece of paper! About the weird sleeves: I put on my graduation robe when my Mom was here for Laura's graduation. As I did so, my hand went to the bottom of the sleeve and got stuck! I looked at my Mom, angry that I had been given a defective robe with one sleeve sewn shut! I put my hand in the other sleeve and you know what? SAME THING! Then my mom noticed it did have arm holes and the end of the sleeve was supposed to dangle off my forearm, not stop at my wrist. I would feel really dumb about this (I DO have my Master's and all), except that as I stood in line for the procession, someone commented thay had the same experience and as we took a poll: everyone originally thought they had a defective robe. Now your looking at the picture to see the weird sleeves, aren't you? I guess part of getting your Master's is learning to 'Master' the funny robe!

My Dad, Grandma and JoAnne came up for the event; that was AMAZINGLY too long. I heard other people in the Master's Section talking about how they were going to walk the line then keep going and walk out of the arena. I swear, when I get my Doctorate, I am doing just that!!! Shane held in until the very end. Hope he feels he got his money's worth!

Dad, me, Grandma!

My Dad also threw me a Graduation Party that was hosted and catered by my cousin Xochithl. This meant he went to the nearest store to help buy supplies. He saw the chocolate, and thought of me. Dallin thought that was a pretty good idea!

Xochie's house was a good choice; it came complete with a big backyard, a trampoline, a hammock, lots of cousins to play with and PUPPIES! Mac spent alot of time with the cute little guys (so did JoAnne for that matter. . . ) There were also light saber battles to be fought Some of them with Uncle Cuauhtemoc And a hammock to make the puppies stay where you wanted them and swing gently on in the nice weather!

Thanks Xochie!

While we were occupied with graduation, we also had a production most of us (Me, Tacey & McCade) were involved in. I wrote and directed a production based on the Anansi Folk Tales with a friend of mine to serve as a cultural experience for the kids at the school I teach at as well as a fundraiser for the PTO. It was a big success; making a good deal of money for the organization and presenting the kids with experiences that managed to shock the school councilor. (In a good way. . .). Here's cute little cast. By little I mean they were all young; there was a TON of them.

Tacey was the Assistant Director and McCade played several parts.There were several stories, so everyone got a chance to find a minute to shine. This particular one was 'Anansi and the Turtle'.

That's Mac as Anansi. Anansi is a spider.

This is Mac attempting to 'jump into the pool of water' to eat dinner with Turtle. Mac really liked the whole trampoline thing; I knew he would (hehe). He (Anansi) was too light to sink to the bottom so he had to fill the pockets of his jacket with rocks.

Then turtle yelled at him for wearing his jacket at the table. Sounds kinda mean when you don't know the whole story, but Anansi really desreved it. He had treated Turtle badly earlier in the story.This one is called 'Anansi and the Liar's Contest'. Mac played a fly in this one. He told a lie about how he had beaten a Tiger by flying down her mouth and grabbing the end of her tail and spinning her around and around until she was so dizzy she fell down. All in all, it was a good experience! I was also preoccupied by a nest of baby robins that were growing up before our eyes in the carport. The Mom Bird built 3 nests in all, finally deciding she liked the last one. She laid three eggs and would yell at me whenever I went outside to see how they were doing. (I didn't touch them, just held up a mirror so I could see in what I THOUGHT was a non-evasive way). I got in this habit after I went out there and was CERTAIN that one of the babies was dead. I called Shane, who was out of town, and told him about it. He asked me if I had touched it, to which I replied 'EWWWW! NOOOOO!'. He tried to convince me it was asleep. I wouldn't believe him. I mean, COME ON! What bird sleeps with it's head rolled back and mouth open? It totally looked dead! But nope, it was just sleeping; Shane was right. I was relieved. Who knew baby birds played dead so well? Not me, that's for sure!One day I went out, and there were only two. I was SO sad. I thought the little guy had fallen out of the nest and was going to starve. I went out again later and there was only one and the second guy was one the ground, standing there looking at me. 10 minutes later, number three was also gone. I assumed it must be 'flying day'. I hope they all made it, but as is wise to do with many things, I just let nature take its course.

Summer also means that we spend time with Jarrett and Cole. Our summer activities started with lunch, a trip to the library, a walk along the river to feed to ducks and a trip to Reed's Dairy for Ice Cream. There were also lots of baby 'things' there; baby ducks, baby geese and baby bugs of many biting varities.

Dallin McCade . . . and everyone!
And of cource, Baseball and Softball were in full swing (pun also intended there!)
Dallin and McCade played on the same team, Tacey is playing on two separate teams. They took official team pictures, and I have video, but blogger isn't cooperating right now. I PROMISE it will take me less time to post those!

On that note. . . More to come later!!!

Danielle!!!