Let the Flames Begin!

Last night, I went to the No Doubt concert. I went because Paramore was playing with them. I absolutely love Paramore, but now, I am realizing that I had forgotten how much I really love No Doubt! The Sounds opened for the other acts. I had never heard of them before, but I really liked them. They rocked the house! I am putting a song or two on my play list by them, but I think they sounded better live. Which is quite the compliment. I usually don't like live music. At least, I don't like listening to live music on CD. I'd rather just listen to the song and not all the yelling.
Anyway, The Sounds opened and they totally rock. Then came Paramore! Oh, I was so excited to see her live! Hayley is this the lead singer and she has this bright red hair. And she flips her head all around and rocks out all over and her hair just looks like flames. It's so cool. They chose a good back drop for their stage too. It was greenish, so it really mad her hair stand out. I loved it.
Then No Doubt took the stage. What a show! Their set was all white, space agey and looked like a spaceship. They came out all dressed in white. It all looked so crisp and clean. They had two jumbo screens to watch Gwen singing all her songs, and the band members rocking out. And behind them was a giant screen where they projected videos of their songs and other pictures to go with the music. We also got to sing "Happy Birthday" to her little boy! Such a fun night! It was so awesome!
After the show, my friend and I were getting our purses out of the trunk of my car. I got out my purse and shut the trunk. Oh, crap! I shut my keys in the trunk! I was so embarrassed. Luckily, the place was swarming with cops. So we went and asked one to help us. He said to go wait by our car. As we were walking back, I said he was a sexy cop. Nicole said, "So you noticed?" Um, yeah. I'm not dead. Any way, we were standing there watching him try to unlock the car with the jimmy stick (I don't really know what it's called, that just sounds good to me) that you slide between the window and the door, he turns his cute little butt towards us. I had to hit my friend. Nicole! She's so funny. "You saw that, huh?" She was checking out his butt! It was all fun. No worries, Love. ;) Any way, he had to get the balloon thingy and blow it up and work it through the top of the door and unlock it that way. He was really nice. Very embarrassing, but he just shrugged. Happens all the time, right?

"I Hate Men! Men are Awful!"

The Women is over. Here are the pictures I told you I would post. There were a lot, so I am only doing one picture per scene. Above is the cast picture. That will be about 12 pictures. I'll give you a little description of what is going on in the picture too, for those of you who couldn't make it out to see it. It was really, really good. I miss everyone. :(


Here is where Sylvia shows Mary her new nail polish and tells her where to get it. Surely, Mary will go get hers done, too, and find out the awful truth about her husband! Sylvia:"It's called Jungle Red." Nancy: "Just the thing for tearing your friends apart!"

Nancy just gave Mary her new book and has told her that she is heading off to Africa. After telling Nancy goodbye and that she will miss her, Nancy replies, "Oh, I doubt it, Honey. Practically nobody ever misses a clever woman." This is before the manicurist (not knowing who she is), tells Mary her husband is having an affair with her friend Crystal.

After learning the devistating truth about her husband, Mary calls her mother. For some advice. Mary doesn't like her mother's advice. She tells her to do nothing. "Listen dear, this is not a new stroy. It comes to most wives." She also tells her not to confide in her girlfriends, and that they are going to go to Bermuda together. "There's nothing like a good dose of another woman to make a man appreciate his wife." (Yes, that's supposed to be funny!)

After Mary returns from Bermuda, she goes shopping, and finds out that her husband hasn't given up his mistress after all! Sylvia tells her to go have it out with Crystal. Mary doesn't want to, but when she learns that woman has met her children, she can't stop herself. This picture is during her confrontation, the women working in the department store listen to their argument behind the wall. Mary: "You haven't played fair!" Crystal: "Where would any of us get if we played fair?"

Well, in this scene, Peggy and Syvia are excersizing when Edith runs in to tell them she just accidentally told a gossip columnist about Mary and her confrontation with Crystal. Edith: "Well, it doesn't really make much difference. The divorce is practically settled - " Sylvia: (Eagerly) "Who says so?" Edith: "You did!" Sylvia: I said, Mary couldn't broadcast her domestic difficulties, and not expect them to wind up in a scandal." Peggy: "Mary didn't broadcast them!" Sylvia: "Who did?" Peggy: "You did! You - You're all making it impossible for her to do anything now but get a divorce!"

In this scene it is after midnight, Mary's maid and cook are talking about the arguement she and her husband Jane (the maid) has just overheard. Mary announces to Steven that she wants a divorce. Maggie: "The first man who can think up a good explanation how he can be in love with his wife and another woman is going to win that prize they're always giving out in Sweden!"

This picture marks the end of Act One. In this scene, Mary is preparing to go to Reno for a few weeks to finalize her divorce with her husband (that she really doesn't want). She's been waiting for her husband to tell her he doesn't want to loose her, but he never does. Steven's secretary comes and has her sign a few papers. Then Mary has to tell her daughter Little Mary the truth about her parents. The picture at the end of the scene after her mother has told her about the divorce. Little Mary: "Oh, please, please, Mother dear - Oh! Daddy, Daddy, darling! Oh, why don't you do something - do something - Mother dear!"

As Act Two begins, we find Edith in the hospital, having just had her baby. Peggy brings her flowers and they talk about Mary and how "cheerful" her letter is. Edith says there isn't anything in the letter about how she "really feels". Then Peggy begins to cry and announces that she and John are getting a divorce. Edith: "It's going to be quite the gathering of the clan. Howard Fowler's bounced Sylvia right out on her ear! He's threatened to divorce her right her in New York if she doesn't go to Reno. And name her young customer's man-" Peggy: "But-Howard's always known-" Edith: "Certainly. Howard hired him, so he'd have plenty of time for his own affairs. Howard's go some girl he wants to marry. But nobody, not even Winchell knows who she is! Howard's a coony cuss. (Lauhging) I do think it's screaming. When you remember how Sylvia always thought she was putting one over on us girls!"

In Reno, Mary has made some new friends. Miriam Aarons and the Countess de Lage. In this scene it is her last day in Reno before she heads back to New York. She's been hoping her husband would contact her and call the divorce off. But he doesn't. We find out that Miriam is the woman Howard has left Sylvia for. Thus the cat fight above. Then, Mary gets a phone call from Steven. "Oh, I knew he would call! I knew when the last moment came he would realize he needed me!" Actually, he's called to tell her he is marrying Crystal.

I love this picture of Crystal! She's so pretty. In this scene, it's two years later. Crystal is on the phone with her lover. Little Mary walks in on her and over hears part of their conversation. Crystal as it turns out is a very rude person and Mary tells her step-mother that her father doesn't like her as much as he used to. Little Mary leaves and Sylvia comes in. Apparently, since the divorce, she and Crystal have become friends. Sylvia tries to get Crystal to tell her if she is seeing anyone, but Crystal is too smart for her.

Mary has invited her friends and their husbands over to her home for a party. In this scene, they are in Mary's bedroom. Edith is pregnant again (with her fifth child). They discuss men and tell Mary that she needs to move on and forget about Steven. She doesn't want to. The Countess confesses that her husband may be cheating on her. She is quite upset. But leaves with a smile to go onto the party she is hosting at the Casino Roof Restaurant. Mary has decided not to go until Little Mary comes and tells her about the phone conversation she over heard. Mary has figured out that Crystal is cheating on Steven with the Countess's husband!

This is the final scene in the play. If Mary can get some sort of proof that Crystal is cheating, she can get her husband back. She knows Sylvia is with her and she also knows that Sylvia can't keep her mouth shut to save her life. Mary tells Crystal the Countess knows about them and that she had them followed. Sylvia lets the cat out of the bag that they have been going to the Gothic Apartments. Crystal knows she's out done now. Sylvia: "Mary, what a dirty female trick you played!" Crystal: Yes! From the great, noble woman! You're just a cat like all the rest of us!" Mary: "Well, I've had two years to sharpen my claws! (Waves her hand gaily to Sylvia.) Jungle Red, Sylvia! Good night, ladies!"

There you go! I hope you enjoyed looking at them!

"I Want to Scream I Love You From the Top of My Lungs...

But I'm afraid that some one else will hear me!" (Fall Out Boy)
Today, I have been married for ten years. Ten! That just doesn't seem right! I'm not that old am I? Well, of course not. So I just wanted to reflect on the years so far. We got married in the Salt Lake temple on May 14, 1999. It was a beautiful day. There were tulips blooming all over the temple grounds. I was so excited. Kurtis was really, really excited. After months of fighting with my mother over pretty much every idea I had, the day finally arrived. It was a wonderful day, but honestly, we should have eloped. There was way too much attention focused on me that day.
Then practically two years later (almost to the day!), we had our first baby. Zachary Alan was born May 9, 2001. It's pretty much all a blur after that. Then Riley Asher came on October 13, 2002. Kaleb Mason joined our family two years after that on December 14, 2004. Craziness has ensued ever since.
In 2002, Kurtis's father passed away. In 2003, his grandfather and grandmother left us for a better place. In 2008, my grandfather passed on. I just knew that when he got to heaven, he said, "Well, I'm here. Where do you need me?" In 2006, we moved in with my parents to get out of debt and buy our own home. We were only there eight months. That's all they could take of us. So we bought our first home in 2007, and we've been here ever since. We love our little house with all our clutter and mess. Ten years. What fun we've had.
This morning I woke up and there was a heart taped to our bathroom mirror. It said, "I love you. I will love you forever." Then I went downstairs and found little hearts with other things written on them all over the place. One on my laptop, on dangling from a string on the wall at the top of the stairs, one on the cupboard where I would get my breakfast bowl, one hanging from the chandelier, and one on the stove. I feel so lucky to have a man who understands me and enjoys doing sweet things for me. He supports me. He'd do anything for me (except killing bees and wasps). I just want to say. I love you, Babe. You're the best! Happy Anniversary!

Isn't It Messed Up How I'm Just Dying to Be Here

I have had a really interesting weekend. Friday night was the play. It felt like a weird night even on my way to the theater. My energy was a little low. I felt like I was not loud enough, so I was doing my best to up my volume. Then the girl who plays my daughter puked. Poor thing. She was so wonderful. I had no idea she wasn't feeling well in Act One, scene three. Then she sucked it up and came back on for scene seven! She's amazing. But she comes out again in scene three of Act two. Friday night, she was too busy lying on the floor trying not to throw up. So we improvised. In scene 4, she's also supposed to come out and tell me my ex-husband doesn't really like his wife any more. So, that night, my mother told me instead. All I have to say is, wow! I can't believe we pulled it off. Then the woman who plays Sylvia (love her) told me if I got sick she'd come to my house and drag me to the theater because they can't do the show with out me. No, she didn't exactly say that. It was more like you better not get sick because we can't do the play with out you. Yeah, it's true. It would be hard.
Saturday was Zach's birthday! He is officially eight years old! I'm too young to have an eight year-old! But apparently I'm not. So because he is going to be baptized in June, I decided a family celebration was the way to go (party on June 6th!). Since I had the play in the evening, I asked Zach if he wanted to go to breakfast or lunch. He chose breakfast (not surprising if you know him), and we went to IHOP. We told his waitress it was his birthday, and they came out and sang to him. It was so cute. When he realized they were singing to him, he shrank down in his seat a little and leaned on his dad. After they left, he said, "That was a little embarrassing." But you know he loved it! Then later that day, he had a soccer game and took cupcakes (that I made!) to his teammates. That was pretty fun for them. I wouldn't really know, though. I was at Riley's soccer game that was at the same time. Riley got to play on the other soccer team because they were short a player. He thought it was great because they had green shirts. His favorite color is green. His team won, though.
The show went really, really well on Saturday night. Little Mary was feeling much better (yay!) and our audience was so awesome. We love it when they laugh at the funny parts and we can actually hear the laughter. You know what I mean? Some people are quiet chucklers and other are boisterous laughers. We love the loud ones. It's awesome. Positive feedback makes you want to be great. Oh, and apparently, it takes a village to make me look beautiful. Well, my hair at least. Edith always does my hair because I can't do my own and she's a miracle worker. But Saturday night, she was running late and so I had about three people doing my hair, too. Then another woman came and fixed the back where one section of hair was poking out. Geesh! You'd think I was something special. They're all so marvelous to me. I don't deserve it. The funnest thing (yeah, I know it isn't proper grammar) is in scene four of act one, sometimes, my dress gets put on backwards. It's hilarious! It's only happened twice, but after that, I go tell off my husband's mistress. I just think it's a little funny that my dress isn't on right and I'm telling her my husband isn't in love with her. Irony or something.
Today is the greatest holiday ever invented. Mother's Day! My children were little angels the entire day. They never fought with each other, and when they had a conflict, they just said, "It's mother's day, I need to talk about this quietly with my brother and work it out." They were so well behaved during church, too. It was like I was dreaming. Oh, wait, I was. It was just another day to them. The kids still fought all day, still wanted to leave church in the middle of the second speaker (we had 3 today - kind of weird, and no musical number or rest hymn). I wanted to look pretty, so I put my hair in hot rollers to curl my hair. Then I came down to put dinner in the crock pot. I guess I didn't put it all the way on the counter because I turned away and it fell off the counter and broke into a million pieces. Sadness engulfed me. I really wanted to have my chicken tortilla soup for dinner tonight. Alas. It was chicken burgers instead. Just as yummy, but not as at the same time. Sigh. After we cleaned up, I opened my presents. Riley made me a washcloth in his kindergarten class with his hand prints on it, and Zach made me a card and an exfoliating foot scrub in his class. He said it was vanilla scented. He told me he thought pink was one of my favorite colors. That's not right. Red is my favorite color. Red and black and green. I do like pink, though. Any way, Kurtis got me a crafty crimper that makes the paper look like it is embossed with bubbles. I love it (how did he know!?), the new Keane cd and a chocolate bar. You can't go wrong with chocolate! Well, milk chocolate any way. I don't like dark chocolate. Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there, and not to you potential mothers. Geesh. Just because you might be a mother some day does not mean you get to celebrate this day! :)
It's time for my shameless plug of the week! Come see my play! All the information you need is on the Heritage Theater's website (click the colored words to go to it), but you'd better come Monday, Friday, or Saturday of this week because May 16th is our closing night! (Chanting) Come! Come! Come! It's so much fun!
And now, to make you forget completely (because we all have ADD), here are the pictures I took at IHOP! Enjoy!


In the booth at IHOP!


Mommy and Kaleb on the other side!


The balloon lady came by and Zach and Riley both asked for chiuauas.


And of course, Kaleb got a blue sword!


Of course, they had to do the old rub the balloon on your head and stick it to the wall trick!


I love this picture! It's just sooo him!

Don't forget! Heritage Theater's website There's a picture of me on there! I know! I'm shameless!

Psychoanalysis

For The Women I have to paint my nails red. If you don't know why yet, come find out. Any way, I don't know why, but fingernail polish doesn't want to stay on my nails. I've had to re-do them every few days. But this time it came off, I thought it looked cool. Like one of those blot pictures psychologists use. So tell me, what does it look like to you?

Killing Machines

So Sunday, my brother and I went to some place around where he lives and took some new head shots. He knows some good places because he looks for things like that. He's so cool. Anyway, he tells me he lives in the bad part of town and seems like he doesn't want me to come to his place to get him. Guess what. He lives where houses are a little bit more run down, and crime happens, but nothing happened to us. Not by where he lives any way. So he takes me a few blocks away from where he lives and parks his car under some over pass or something (I really wasn't being all that observant of what was above me) where all practically every parking stall had broken glass of some amount in it. I had to laugh. What the heck? I mean, are you trying to get a flat tire? I know why there was broken glass every where. I'm not as naive as I look.
Hang on, there is a bee trapped in my window. I've got to kill it before my husband gets home. Okay, so it's really a wasp or a yellow-jacket. I don't really care. But he's huge! And mad! And now he's dead!
So that was fun (no, not really). Any way, there's something strange that happens when people see a camera and people being filmed. For some reason, people driving by feel they need to honk their horns. Like just because the lens is focused on someone else, they just can't deal with it and need someone to pay attention to them. Maybe they need to get a girlfriend or boyfriend or something. Then there are the homeless drunkards. Three passed by us while he was shooting. Two guys and a female. The woman muttered expletives under her breath as she passed us. She was so talented at it I thought. She was so soft, yet perfectly loud enough that the wind carried the sound right to us. Musical. Anyway, they were chatting with each other and then the woman and one of the men left. As they did so, the other man yelled, "Take care of her brother! I am a killing machine!" Amusing really. But he kept pacing back and forth. He liked to sing too. He wasn't exactly the best singer, but perhaps if he were sober, he would have sounded better. I got some really nice head shots, though. It was really the perfect day. The sky was overcast, and we got them done just before it began to rain. I actually remembered to wear lipstick. Here they are because I know you are just dying to see them!

Too stiff. I need to relax (but what does that mean?!). But it's a nice smile...


I just don't like this one. I think it's my hair. But my posture is better.


I actually like this one, but my hair is in my face, so, Next!


Too cheesy. Move on.


I smiled, and Michael said, "Don't smile." So the next one is the one we used.


So sultry. Mr. Jones said I looked mad. That made me mad.


But Mr. Jones really loves this picture. He's going to put it on his desk at work.


Oh, and here is the wasp I killed. I told you he was big. I hope it doesn't freak my husband out! Ha ha ha! Teasing him is so easy!