In the grocery store parking lot:
M (sniffing his nose playfully like a puppy)
X: "What does my nose smell like?"
M: "Like you...PERFECTION!"
X: "I'm gonna sniff your nose."(starts sniffing)
M: "What does my nose smell like?"
X: (giggling) "Boogies!!"
Outside working in the garden. Xander by the tree swing. Just got back from seeing Megamind at the theater.
X: "Mom! Mom! I found Jesus' weakness!!"
M: "WHAT?!"
X: "I did it! I found Jesus' weakness!!"
M: "Oh, dear. What is it?"
Xander runs over and shows me a small, orange, pie-shaped piece of broken plastic in the palm of his hand.
M: "Wow, buddy. That's really cool, but I'm pretty sure Jesus doesn't have a weakness."
X: "Mom, EVERYONE has a weakness."
M: "Yes. Everyone, except Jesus."
Xander walks off, confused. I'm thinking we need to be more careful about our superhero movies :)
Shelby and I had the amazing opportunity to play Vernon and Sonia in Neil Simon's show, They're Playing our Song at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse. 
Dennis directed it, Emily choreographed it, Piannie did the musical direction, Jacci Florence did costumes, with Andrea Scanlon on wigs, and Tara Payne was the assistant to the director.
What a ride! I've never had a role which demanded more from me both physically and emotionally. Shelby and I were onstage for the WHOLE show! Once in a while, I'd leave so he could sing a song, or he would while I did a song, but backstage we were racing to make fast costume changes and grab props.
It was unbelievable. Our characters pretty much ran the gamut of human emotion and I sang in a completely different style than I am used to. What a learning experience!
It was so much fun for us to do this show together, as well as with some of our very best friends; Ashley Davis, Andrea Scanlon, Emily Checketts, Jordanne Burgess, Dave Clegg, Brent Taft, and Quinn Kapetanov-a totally awesome and funny cast, who also happen to all be enormously talented!
I will always have fond memories of drinking gatorade and eating vitamin sports beans to keep my energy up, and doing a show with some of my favorite people, but not really, because we never saw eachother during the show! I will cherish the memory of this show as the one that really stretched me the most.
A huge thank you to my family and friends who supported us, especially Cydney who did most of our babysitting, Barbara, who made that possible, and our kids, who think that parents doing shows together is completely normal. We love you!!
Hey Y'alls! SO, let's just say, 2010 has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Things have been stressful and wonderful and everything in between. Through considerable effort on both our parts, we have finally, gratefully, begun to slow down. We have new resolve to not over-commit ourselves; a resolve we're not sure will last forever, but we are so relieved to have a tiny bit of room to breathe, that it just might.
I'll make an effort to summarize events for the year as I simply did not have the time or energy to do it until now! So, if you see summer-looking or spring-looking pictures in the fall or wintertime, that's the reason why!
Driving on our way to see The Scarlet Pimpernel at Terrace Plaza Playhouse. Girls' Night with Aria. Radio on.
A, "...Mom?"
M, "Yeah, babe?"
A, "Are there any songs besides SHOW songs?"
M, (giggling quietly), "Yes, honey. There are other songs besides show songs. "
A, "Really?"
M, "Yup! Sometimes people will just write a song, either to listen to on the radio, or to sell, or because they're feeling something they want to express through music. Some people write songs JUST to write songs!"
A, "...Why?...WHY, when you could put it in a SHOW?!!"
M, (laughing) "I know, honey. I soo know. I feel EXACTLY the same way :)"
Aria, filling out a form for school:
A, "Aria Rose Ferrin."
X, "Nooo! It's Aria LILY Ferrin!"
D, "Well, Lily is a name Aria really likes, but ROSE is her middle name."
X, "I have a next name too!"
D, "Yes, you do! What's you're middle name?"
X, "My next name is BERRY. STRAWBERRY. Xander STRAWBERRY Ferrin."
Over breakfast:
X, "I had a dream last night that I didn't have Mommy anymore."
M, "Oh, honey! Wait, was it a bad dream or a good dream?"
X, "It was a good dream!" (Me, slightly hurt....)
D, "Xander, why did you not have Mommy anymore?"
X, "Hmmm...maybe it's because I was a jelly sandwich!"
After a bit of a stressful evening....
M,"Ok, kiddos, you have four minutes to get your pjs the rest of the way on, get your teeth brushed, go potty, and be in the boys' room for scripture and prayer."
S, Matter-of-factly, "Or what?!"
M, "Orrr...Daddy will eat you."
S, "No really. Or what?!"
D, "Or you go one day without electronics."
S, "That's the spirit!...The spirit of punishment!"
So last night after dinner we had a mini social skills lesson. We taught the kids about how we can show our friends that we care and are listening to them by using our body language and by asking questions about things their friends are talking about. We role-played different scenarios and then involved them in our role-playing so they could practice.
This morning, the cute third grade girl we carpool with was telling Skyler about the movie she went to see with her family.
"We went to see this really dumb movie called Twilight. We wanted to see Toy Story, but it had already started. I mean it was already like twenty minutes into it, so we had to see something else, so we saw Twilight. There was this ugly guy named Edward and he had weird hairs on his chest and it was just disgusting. And Bella was totally in love with him, which was gross, especially because there was this other guy who was really cute and his name was Jacob. He was seriously like way cuter and Edward was like, "Oh, I love you, Bella!" Anyway, it was just a really dumb movie."
M, "Skyler, are there any questions you might like to ask about her trip to the movie?"
S,"....Nope. I think I have all the information I need."
Soooo, did any of you see our most recent show, They're Playing our Song? Our daughter did. She knew the script well...too well.
Maybe we should stop doing shows for a while....
