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Did you see the new navigation menu? I rock at xhtml now! Well, okay - I sort of got the code from another blog template - but I did tweak it for color and everything. Anyway, I've been trying to figure out how to make a navigation menu for the blog, so I'm glad I finally got it to work! I'll be making a new header image sometime soon - it's time for a change, I think.

blocking and choreography

Is there a difference?  I know blocking refers to where you move and when during a play and choreography refers to dance, but in a musical, do you have both?

We just finished the second day of blocking for the show.  We've blocked the first two songs and the scene following them.  The choreography is pretty simple except in one or two parts where it's not really hard, but we have to be pretty quick or you get totally turned around!  The singing sound better and better every night.  It really sounds like everyone has been practicing, which is great! 

Next week we will be working on the monologues during one on one sessions with the director.  I'm excited about working my first scene with her, because I have some ideas about what I'd like to do and I am anxious to see what she thinks of them.  This is the scene that will be heartbreaking if I can manage to get it right. 

Great weekend!

Wow - I had an amazing 4th of July weekend!  I hope you did too.  I'm not even sure where to begin...

Thursday evening, I took the kids shopping to buy some fun things to play with on Friday.  We got a badminton/volleyball set and a giant frisbee.  We also got some snacks and sodas.  I knew the morning/early afternoon on Friday would be family stuff and that we would have a little time later in the day for together time, so I wanted to make it fun. 

Friday was great.  We set up the net and I played with them for awhile.  Hannah and Kohl got a phone call from their dad, saying he wanted to pick them up for some quality time, so that left Noah with me.  We convinced my parents to play badminton with us, so we had the first ever Girls vs Boys Family Badminton Tournament.  I have no idea who won, because we didn't keep score, but it was such fun!  Noah and I made lots of jokes about the "old people" but truthfully my mother is in much better shape than I am, and other than tipping over once because she reached too far back to hit the birdie, she did very well!  We played for about an hour and a half, then went inside and watched Independence Day, waiting for it to get dark so we could shoot off the fireworks Noah and I bought the day before.  Now that was fun!  I taught him all about fireworks safety and how to light the fuse and run away and he did very, very well.  He's a cautious kid anyway, so I wasn't worried.  Okay, I was a little worried - cautious or not, he's still only 12 years old!  So we had our own little fireworks show, which turned out really great, mostly due to the one that he picked out that shot big ones up into the air just like the ones they use in real fireworks displays.  We made a note of the name so we could buy them again one day.  It was called Zero Gravity, in case anyone wanted to know.  Anyway, that was really cool. 

On Saturday, she dropped Noah off again and we went to the movies.  We got about 10 minutes into Kung Fu Panda and lightening struck a major substation, cutting the power to the entire town.  We sat in the theater waiting for the power to come back on for about 15 minutes, but decided to take the free passes and go home. 

We tried again Sunday and really enjoyed the movie.  In fact, we were having so much fun that we decided to see The Incredible Hulk after Kung Fu Panda was over.  We decided we liked it better, mostly because of the great action sequences and special effects.  I'm a sucker for a good action sequence, and it looks like Noah is too!

In the midst of all this activity, I also did a ton of laundry (still more to do) and finally managed to finish inputting all my vocal parts for the show into the computer.  I made a practice CD and am listening to it right now!  It's so helpful - I've already identified about 6 places in different songs where I've been singing the part wrong!  Yikes!  Time to learn it right. 

Oh, and I took my car in for a safety recall.  They called just now to tell me it's fine, but they informed me that I need a front and rear brake job because my brake pads are wearing thin.  The cost?  $460!  I told them my daddy would change the brake pads, thankyouverymuch. 

Oh, and I managed to get some writing and some knitting done, but that's too much info for one post!

Things you may not know

I was browsing blogs on Ravelry and found this great one called Knit*Six. There was a cool meme on it that I thought I would do, so here it is!

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago, I was 21 years old. I was married to my high school sweetheart and was in college, majoring in vocal performance. Shortly after, I dropped out of school to work full time so he could finish school first. Two years later, at the age of 23, I was divorced and living back at home. I was also back in school. There are other posts on this blog that describe the reasons for the divorce, so I won't go into it here, but let's just say I'm much better off now!

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?
1. Do laundry
2. Take car in for recall and service
3. Go grocery shopping
4. Take my nephew to see Kung Fu Panda
5. Finish inputting my vocal parts into the computer and make a practice CD

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Triscuits and cheddar cheese, dried mango, candied pineapple, apple slices, movie butter popcorn, chips and salsa, chocolate chip cookies, 100 calorie packs of various cookies, baby carrots with light ranch dressing, frozen grapes.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Buy a house for my sister and her three kids, give my parents enough to pay off their loans and do some home remodeling and improving, buy my dad a good truck, buy my sister a good minivan, set up college accounts for my sister's kids and set aside some for each to get a car at 16, buy a house for myself, pay off my student loans, pay off my car and probably give it to someone who needs it and buy myself a hybrid, start my children's theatre and put some money into a scholarship program for kids in low income families to get some arts education and experience, give some money to various charities that are close to my heart: Habitat, Catholic Social Services, a local homeless shelter, the home for sexually abused children in the area, etc. There is so much I would do if I only had the means to do it!

5) Places I have lived:
I haven't really lived in a lot of places. Just here in Fairhope, then in Mobile, then back in Fairhope. I'm okay with that, though. I love living here!

6) Jobs I have had:
So many! Childcare, rollerskating carhop at Sonic, singing waitress, retail associate, medical records clerk, medical transcriptionist, public relations intern, newspaper reporter, newspaper editor, newspaper photographer, columnist, development and communication coordinator, development and communication manager.

7) Bloggers I am tagging to do this, whom I would like to get to know better:
I don't really like to tag people, but I'll copy the blogger I took this meme from - if you read this and want to complete it, consider yourself tagged! Please let me know if you answered these questions, because I'd love to read your answers!

rehearsal break

It's been nice having a break from rehearsals this week, but I'll be honest - I've missed it too. I've actually really missed it. The girls are so much fun and it's great making music with them! I absolutely can't wait until next week, when we start blocking. Talk about getting some cardio! When we start learning the choreography, I'll be thinking about all the calories I'm burning and it will make me very happy!

Dance it Off

I got a new workout DVD last night and tried it when I got home. It's called Dance It Off & Tone It Up and it's so much fun! As the title suggests, the workouts focus on using dance to get your cardio exercise and then there are some toning workouts focused on turning your body into a dancer's body - the upper and lower body tone-up are particularly good. I can really feel where I worked the muscles, especially in my arms and back. I feel like I did after the Carter project, when I spent all that time securing hurricane ties to the upper beams of the house... all that hammering really worked those arms! Anyway, the plan is to do two of the cardio programs and one of the toning programs each day, for a total of 30 minutes of exercise. Last night I did two cardio and two toning, and then I did about 15 minutes of stepping onto and then off of the step I bought for the step aerobics DVD that I can't find right now. I may have let someone borrow it. I guess I should keep track of that a little better, lol.

Anyway, I feel great about the new DVD and I think it will really help. Did I mention my reward system yet? My goal is 10 pounds a month. At the beginning of each month, I'll set some kind of reward for myself if I reach the goal. My July reward is to have my car professionally detailed, as it's been a very long time since I've done that and the amount of time I'm spending in my car these days (with rehearsals and everything) it really needs cleaning. Oh, I cleaned it out and did the basic ArmorAll and vaccuming, but I'd love to have someone with all those special cleaning tools that get into all the little nooks and crannies just really clean it so that it looks like new again. After all, it's only two years old. It should still look new! The point of this reward system is not really that it's a treat that I couldn't normally afford, because I could really go tomorrow and get it done. The point is to figure out something I would really like to do and not let myself do it until I meet the goal. It's a little sad that I need to trick myself into making healthy decisions, but that's what a year of stress eating will do to you!

Journal topic: Parents taught me...

I am glad my parents taught me…

I was almost 4 years old when Hurricane Fredrick hit in 1979. The storm is my first memory. It was dark and loud, and I remember the way the air felt heavy and the clouds looked angry. The wind hit our house with so much force that the house, a brick home build on concrete blocks, began to rock back and forth. My mother gathered us into her arms and held us in her lap. We all sat on a mattress pulled from my sister's bed into the hallway, the only area in the house without windows. Mama held us tightly and sang Jesus Loves Me, the trees outside beating a rhythm against the house that didn't match the song. My dad paced the house with a lantern - the power had already gone out. He opened all the doors slowly, looking into the rooms. I later learned that he was checking the windows to make sure they hadn't broken. When the wind calmed, we ran outside to see, but daddy warned us that we were seeing the eye of the storm and that the worst was still to come. I remember being fascinated by the concept of the eye, and wondered if the storm could see us, if it knew we were down there, if it knew that we had nowhere else to go. We could hear the cows in the pasture. They sounded afraid, but we didn't dare try to put them in the barn, for fear that the barn would collapse and kill all of them. Daddy said they stood a better chance out in the open, that they would find a low place and weather the storm like all the other animals do. And in fact, they did weather the storm just fine - better than the barn did, anyway. We went back inside before the rest of the storm came, and when it hit it was worse than before. We could hear trees snapping, and there was a crash that sounded louder than anything I had ever heard. When the storm finally passed, we opened the front door to see the damage. Pine trees were lying all around the house, but none were on it. We had survived the storm with no damage to our home. The barn did collapse. That was the crash we heard.

We checked with the neighbors - some of them didn't do as well as we did. A tree fell on one home. Someone lost a pet. A child was injured. Power was out all over the region. As a fairly self-sustaining farm, we had it better than others. A generator hooked to our well meant we had water. A gas stove meant we could cook. We opened our home to neighbors to allow them a shower and some food. They were grateful. For three weeks, nobody had power or water. We all took care of each other during that time, and I made a lot of new friends.

What I learned from my parents during that time were lessons I will always remember. I am grateful for them. During that time, I learned that it is possible to be calm in the face of a storm. I learned that faith can sustain a person through difficult times. I learned that it's important to keep an eye on weak places because they might break and ruin everything. I learned that sharing with others and showing compassion for those who have nothing are extremely important parts of being human. I try to show compassion every day because that is the example they set.