Happy Anniversary Candice

Two years of happy, just remember that when you get tired of him, he is mine!!

Albert Proposes to Rosie... for real

In this link Brandon Rufener proposes to Kate Lowder... ahh

The camera gets shaky at one point because the cast came running out of the dressing room and frankly I feared for my life a little...

So this proposal was very sweet, she of course said yes, and later forgave me for the little white lies I had to tell in order to get her to play the scene before the show. Once a show opens I see no need to run scenes or give notes so it was a little hard to come up with a reason for her to come out and do it. All I have to say I one day I hope to visit Tomato Flats Nebraska.

A Handsome Handsome Man!!

The Drowsy Chaperone is currently touring in Salt Lake right now. How fantastic is this show? I laughed and laughed. Okay the premise of the show is that a man sitting alone in his apartment is sharing with the audience one of his favorite sound tracks. I loved it from the very moment the room went dark and I hear "I hate theater!" The Man in the Chair then puts on a record and the show comes to life in his apartment. He interacts with the show and pauses as needed. So funny!! The man in the chair was played by Johnathon Crombie, aka Gilbert Blythe from Anne of Green Gables. Also in this cast was Georgia Engel known from her roles on Mary Tyler Moore Show and Everybody Loves Raymond. Below are photos of Crombie with Candice and yours truly. Candice has a super huge crush on him... and frankly he is a doll! Candice was totally on a cloud after this. He was really nice and signed programs for each of us and one for her mom.

A reply from my bed

WELCOME HOME!!

A letter to my bed

Dear Bed

Oh how I have missed you for the last month, and especially the last 2 weeks. I look back fondly on the time we used to spend together. I remember laying in your with nothing to do, no where to be, no one to yell at, no one to yell at me. I remember just laying around watching movies, or sitting on you doing homework, or snuggling with ... well ... I guess I really do not have anyone to snuggle on you with. I have missed you so much that I would be honored if you would allow me to be your guest this evening in doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! Well that is not true, we might be joined by my laptop and some much needed homework. But I promise that I will put on the West Wing season 5 to distract you until I am done.

However, dear bed, now that I can spend more time with you, I am sad to not have the time I have spent with my new friends. I will miss Wretchel being 190 months pregnant in 450 degree weather; I will miss Murphy always wearing black; I will miss my leading ladies (all three of them) every day I can not get a smile from Emily, a hug from Meg, or a kiss from Kate. I will miss the Hamilton Family ALWAYS being willing to help; I will miss appendicitis and heat stroke victims; I will miss my sound dudes but oddly not so much the light guy; I will miss Skyler the best SLCC employee ever; I will miss my good friends in the potty train; I will miss the BDPAE and the BDSME; I will miss the ladies in the cast who are always cherrful and ready to help; I will miss the piano movers; I will miss the sad (ahem) girls; I will miss Brandon's giant head (I'm not kidding, that boy's head is like Sputnik; spherical but quite pointy at parts! Now that was offside, wasn't it? He'll be crying himself to sleep tonight, on his huge pillow); I will miss River and Jane; I will miss the make-up artist; I will miss the girl who stands and stares who is related to the boy to shoots everything; I will miss Patti and Rebecca scaring the marching band into never playing again; I will miss warm Bubble Up; I will miss having my grammar corrected; I will miss having different tempos every night; I will miss telling little white lies so there can be an engagement; I will miss the cancer drive; I will miss the love and the hugs and the friends.

I will not miss the drama; I will not miss the whou-aour; I will not miss the mean girls.

I will be happy when my best friend and I can be best friends and not have to worry about props or costumes or missed cues. I will be happy when she and I can go see her not so secret crush tomorrow. I will be happy when we can go on our little Park City vaca. I love my best friend!

But bed, I miss you, and I will see you soon!
Love Starbuck

Cookies

So my mom is pretty cool. She made cookies for my cast yesterday as a thank you for dedicating the show to her and for being nice to me. It took her pretty much all day and by the end of it she was so very tired. My mom is pretty cool!

A glorious nap

So I went in the lunch room a little late today and no one was in there, I ate my salad, and then opened my book to catch up on some fun light reading now that I started school again. It is a really good book and I love Jodi Picoult. But aparently I love sleep more because I woke up an hour later... there is something to be said for a 2 hour nap and no one in the office waking you up!! It is obviously busy so busy today that I was really missed!! LOL (out loud)

Deep Thoughts... by Starbuck

It's HOT!

Precious

As I was running out to work this morning we had a few visitors come to spend the day with Grandma and Grumpa. Lottie and Ainsleigh are both going to be at my house all day today. It made me sad I could not stay all day and play with them. (Starbuck wonders how to say 'work sucks' in Bulgarian... now that she knows how to say 'cancer sucks' in Bulgarian: bolesti e gluposti)

So I got to work and decided it was time to post some more recent pics of the kids. These two little girls are just so great. I would call them precious but my sister Colleen gets mad when we call them that. See at the Primary Children's Hospital the nurses have a code, I guess. They call the cute babies cute or beautiful, and the not so cute one are termed precious... like do they play rock, paper, scissors to see who has to hold the ugly ones? Sad... Well Colleen's baby had on a pretty purple sleeper with a flower and the word 'precious' on it. Frankly I thought it was rather funny that we are not allowed to call her precious but she can wear clothing that says as much.

This is Lottie in her much to large blessing dress that Mom and Colleen made for her. By the way, mad props to Colleen for getting back into her "normal" jeans rather quickly after having a baby. She can even wear a belt!! We are so proud of our Princess...
Alright so it was a big day for Lottie, so many people wanting to hold her and she kind of got tired of it and being in a dress... so I snapped this pic her of crying (I think it is way cute, but it breaks Colleen's heart every time she cries.) Then I heard Ainsleigh beind me and turned around in time to see this:
She was throwing a little diva fit because everyone was looking at Lottie (do you like how I am now a baby-whisperer? Like this is really what they were thinking...) Ainsleigh has perfected the little fake pouty cry as is pictured here where she has the face but no tears... pathetic.

Ainsleigh was at my house the other day and started that little fake pouty cry so she and I took a little trip to my room for new scenery for her and I needed to change my shirt. I sat her on my bed with a rattle I got her for Christmas ... it says Broadway Baby. I thought for sure she would fall on to her back, but instead she stayed in a sitting position for the whole time!! Soooo Big!!
Okay so I snapped too many pics of her, but this one I call Blue Steel
Ainsleigh is cutting some teeth so she is a drool monkey right now. I debated fixing the red eye... but I really think it adds something to this photo!

The bib says it all... it is so true

Rehearsal Pics

I finally got my pictures off of my camera this weekend. I also did "normal people things" like go shopping for food, do my laundry, clean my house, and bbq chicken. Not to mention taking a nap, and then a nap, and then a nap!! I thought I would share some funny moments from rehearsal:

Conrad is giving Kim "One Last Kiss" and I tried to make it look more realistic
but it ended up that Karl dropped Megan harder every time Austin came in
until finally Megan fell so hard she hurt her elbow and drew blood.

Melodie as Gloria gets a laugh every time she shakes her bootie. Not pictured is Kate looking on in horrorMel stays down there for a long time, all I am saying is it looks questionable to me

"Out of my way, you de-frakked English teacher!" I promised my brother Barry that if he came to see the show I would put a phrase in just for him. So Rosie drops the Battlestar Galactica F-bomb!

I also took a (grainy) video Saturday of the Ed Sullivan performance. I keep getting compliments on it being the funniest part of the whole show. Sad thing is I can take no credit for it as my amazing choreographer is the one who blocked the whole thing. So Chatterton, all I have to say is you are more brilliant than I could have hoped!! If I wasn't so proud I would be jealous!

An honor

On opening night the cast of Birdie gave me the best director's gift I could ever receive. They had decided to dedicate the run of the show to my mom. Additionally they are raising money for the American Cancer Society in my mom's name. Then they are matching the donation as well. I could not believe that they would do this. I am honored to have this cast work for me and they have become such amazing friends.

I have really worked the cast hard to be ready for this opening and they really have risen to every challenge I have given them. Opening night was amazing and while the second night presented challenges (I think Austin's appendix did not burst because of the prayers of the cast) the whole cast did so great. I have an amazing crew as well. I have counted on Candice, Stephanie and Rachael for so long and now Laren and Maida are doing so much work for me. It has been an honor to work with the cast and crew already; and now they give me such an amazing gift. I am touched beyond words.

Since I know a few of my cast and crew read this: THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU!!

This is your brain

This is your brain... This is your brain on Birdie...
Any questions?

Awesome Cast

May I just brag a moment? Of course I can it is my blog! I have the best, and I mean THE BEST, cast ever. Everyone is great from the leads to the little kids! There are 60 cast members in call and ... well... wow!! I am very excited that we open on Frday so the cast can finally perform. We did the show in the dark last night because the outside lights did not work (silly firemen!) and they all had fun in the dark. It was great, the cast really let go (partly I think because we could not see them.)

I am so pleased with the hard work and dedication I see from them. Doing this show has been tiring and taxing and frankly the cast really has stepped up!

Does it ever get easier to say: "My mom has cancer?"

Multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cell, is an incurable but treatable disease. While a myeloma diagnosis can be overwhelming, it is important to remember that there are several promising new therapies that are helping patients live longer, healthier lives. The estimated frequency of multiple myeloma is 5 to 7 new cases per 100,000 persons per year. Accordingly, in the United States, 19,920 new cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2008. There were more than 56,000 Americans living with multiple myeloma in 2005, the most current date these statistics are available.

Deep Thoughts... by Starbuck

Cancer sucks

T-minus 8 days: Birdie is a GO!!

Last night at rehearsal I had a friend who I trust come watch the show in order to give me feedback on what is working and what I might need to fix. All he really saw was a need to improve our transitions (which we have not worked on since we have no set yet) and some character notes for my rock star. He said he was really impressed with the cast (especially my two leading ladies) and is excited to bring his wife back to see the real production. I could not have been happier to hear this. I was a little worried, although I knew we had a great production, to have him come because he can be really critical of other work. (i.e. if he had been the director he would have done this... this... this... and this...) but he did not give any of those notes. He laughed in all of the right places, he thought the "touchy parts" were just touchy enough, he thought the music was strong, and he loved the dance!! We open a week from tomorrow and I can not wait now to show the rest of the world what a great group of people we found to be in this show.

Technical help

So you uber bloggers... I have seen blogs where the text portion is wider than I seem to have with this generic format. How does one elongate ones blog? This is a feature I would like to learn.

Let the games begin

I usually do not listen to the radio in the morning because I am not a fan of the morning show DJ's. I know there are many who like them, but early in the morning is the worst time for me to get cocky morning jock humor. So usually I just listen to CD's in my car. The other day I had my sister's car and could not figure out how to work the CD play (it is one that give you messages like: hello, welcome to your car, good-bye... and I make it a rule to never fiddle with electronics that seem to have a mind of their own.) One of the commercials was for a ‘Guitar Hero Competition.’ I am just really glad that there is finally a sporting competition that my brothers can compete in. I would be really interested in the Wii Fit Games as well.

True Colors

As I was driving to work at an unreasonable hour this morning I passed a car with a bunch of young men, probably 16 years old and younger. In the front passenger seat was a kid with a mohawk. This was not your average run of the mill “side-shaved-with-a-party-up-top” mohawk either. This was a full on “defy-gravity-make-your-mama-cry” mohawk. It made me miss the late 80’s early 90’s when they were the in thing. It also made me miss Cyndi Lauper who had the best hair in the 80’s. Man I wanted the waffle side cut with pink (yes I said pink) highlights. Once I decided I was going to just do it. So I took my fathers clippers and started in the back. I had pretty long hair at the time so when I chickened out and had to stop, it still did not show. However, it still look pretty (rad, boss, tubular) cool when I would pull my hair back in a pony and show the underside.

Might I add Cyndi Lauper still puts on a mighty fine concert! Saw her open for Cher… a story for another time!

Lottie ... the hottie

Lottie's Unlce Lane nicknamed Lottie this weekend after she was blessed. I told Colleen I needed some pics for my blog because I had put some of Ainsleigh up but none really of Lottie and I knew she would be upset if I did not post any ... oddly she was more upset I had not told her I had a blog. Who knew?

So now I have pics of her baby up, I can finally send my sister the link to my blog!! These pics were taken by our sister-in-law Kate. She is really quite good! Lottie, if I am not mistaken was the first baby shoot she did.

Lottie Rae Molen

I have decided to call her Frog

My sister's little family

Support System...

I have learned to never underestimate the power of support. If you think about it, our lives are all about support. Either we need support or we are here to support others. My first memory of support is using training wheels to learn to ride a bike. There is technical support, customer support, consumer support, support centers, support staff, and support hose (Truvy Jones: Well, these thighs haven't gone out of the house without lycra on them since I was 14. Clairee Belcher: You were brought up right.) Let’s face it support is important for many reasons.

Growing up I learned to be independent, probably too independent. I have a hard time asking for help in most instances because it is just easier to do it myself than to have someone else do it. This is not a great place to be in for the most part, although if there is a mistake I know who to blame. I have found this week that more than anything emotional support is most important to me right now. Now I am not talking about the support I can receive from on high; that is a spiritual topic for another day. I talk of the unfailing support of family and friends while in this life. Because when plans and life in general fall apart (due to a lack of physical support) it is nice to know that there are those who offer unfailing emotional support. So to those who are always there for me, thanks!

Rolling with my Homie

Look at my niece Ainsleigh and tell me honestly she could not be the Gerber Baby. Granted I am biased of how cute she really is being the proud aunt, but still that is one stinkin cute face!!

At the Zoo

At home with her new monkey

Helping (favorite) Aunt Stephanie direct Birdie

Because I do not wish to get into a fight I shall not call her the cutest child ever. Besides I do indeed have 2 nieces, I just get to see this one more often than Lottie. (Side bar on Lottie, she is a month old yesterday!! Being blessed on Sunday.) I'm just saying Ainsleigh is cute... I shall leave it at that.

I had to take her to rehearsal on Saturday because Barry and Debbie both needed to work. I was sad that she was more popular than I was!! LOL.

A letter to Mother Nature

Dear Mum,

I know you are busy and all, what with an entire globe's weather to watch over... so I thought it might have slipped your mind that it is June in Salt Lake. I know you have been having problems with El Nino (or in English: The Nino) but June 6 means it should be warmer than 60. Selfishly I should be able to walk around in flip flops starting late May until early October and not have cold feets. So I just thought that maybe it slipped your mind, or you were really busy with the tornadoes in Oklahoma (by the way what exactly do you have against trailer parks?) If you could find the time to warm us up to about 75, that would just be super great!

Respectfully - S

Deep Thoughts... by Starbuck

Failure to plan on your part does not constitute a crisis on my part.

I can count to purple backwards

I am sitting in my office trying not to fall asleep... I am not so sure it is working. So to keep me entertained I visited my favorite site for boredom days. I like them all but a particular favorite is 7, 10 is also good, and for some single humor try 12!!

Deep Thoughts ... by Starbuck

Blogging is like therapy... for the poor

Your mom goes to college

Let me start by saying that I had some finals due on Monday for a class I took because I thought it was going to be awesome. I wrong, it was NOT!! The course was Organizational Psychology. I loved psych when I was in high school. Pavlov’s dogs were a particular favorite of mine. I also really enjoyed reading the studies on human contact on the early development of children. So I was expecting... well frankly something similar in this psych class. At least I thought we were going to talk about things like organizational culture or structure and the employee/employer relationship. We did not. It was THE most useless class ever. We did not analyze relationships or how opinions are formed based on psychological markers. Rather we focused on organizational structure and change. This does me no good in my line of work because I work for an organization without structure and which does not embrace change. All I am saying is that if you are going to use the term psychology in a class title, then the least you can do it talk about psychological things.

Then shall I start in on my professor or would you like to wait for the sequel? Now? Okay, I shall indulge you. This Dr. decided she was going to take a special interest in our education by making our lives a living hell for 5 weeks. I have decided that if I do not make it to heaven, my hell will be writing discussion question responses for her for eternity. A DQ is supposed to be our way of participating in class with fellow hellmates... I mean class members. Typically we would respond to the previous comment and add our understanding of what we had read or just our opinion. This, however, was not good enough for Dr. N. She decided we needed to find a quote from the text, include that in a response to our class member, add our own insight, reference everything in APA format, find a quote from a reliable outside source, tie it to a quote from our class member, reference it in full APA, and finish it off with additional insight from our personal experience. IF she did not like the quotes you found or think your insights were valid, you were not given participation points. Currently I am sitting at a B- in the class. I know, I know at least it is a B and not a D, right? I have the best GPA I have ever had in my life and I worked harder for this B- than I did for every A I have received. There is a point where the professor crosses a line from teacher to tyranator (hey if our President can make up words, so can I!) I go to a school for working adults, ever heard of it? We really do not have time for a lot of homework. We cram a full 3 credit course into 5 weeks. So we are busy enough with a large amount of homework. I, for one, do not need the added work of making a power-hungry professor happy all of the time. Needless to say I am not thinking I am going to get a high grade from her. There is the smallest possibility, if I get all of the points remaining, that I can get an A-. More than likely, however I will finish the class with a very respectable B.

A blog for my sisters

When I lived in Chicago I had many great sister missionaries who I was able to work with. Too many, in fact, to name. Although I have recently been reconnected to a few.

Melissa and I never really fell out of contact. We have been emailing for years now, here and there. Mostly when a big event takes place like the birth of her children or a play I do. Once I went up to Ogden and helped her and Doug with some house renovation... I wonder what ever happened to that house. Then I was at a baby blessing for my cousins kid a few months ago and there she was!! Melissa to me is a rock. She has this wit that not even I can keep a straight face. I think she might have been the last sister I had before I moved. Oh man a flash back just came to me of washing a car in the drive way on P-day!!

Nutt... well her name is Sarah... or is that how she spells it? Maybe it is just Sara... maybe I just think her name is Sarah when in fact it is not. Frankly I have only really ever called her Nutt or Nutter after her mission. Maybe I should get to the bottom of this one. Since she was a Sister, I called Sister Nuttal... hm... so this one time I was in Oregon, not sure why, and that is where she hails from. I can not even remember if she was there or not, but I visited the homestead. What beautiful country. I would never leave... well except I did and now I am in a desert. So Nutt to me is joy. I found her only recently through a common blog and could not be happier to find her and I believe another trip to Oregon should be on my list of things... oh wait I am fairly sure it will be next summer.

Kristel... or as I call her Koner... well she is just special in my life for the simple reason that for 3 months once upon a time she was the ONLY person I could communicate with. I had this nasty ear infection that took my hearing temporarily. Since Kristel knows sign I could understand her when she talked to me. Melissa got pretty good too, if I remember!! Well recently I have found more than just a mission/member relationship. Kristel apparently married into the biggest family EVER!! I have 3 friends who are her cousins by marriage now: one from high school, one from Chicago, and one is my current neighbor. Crazy I say!!

So why am I blogging about this? Well these Sisters make me happy. While these are not the only Sisters from Chi that I worked with, they are the ones who I still have contact with. The other Sisters, like the one from Alaska or the one I went to high school with, are great too. These Sisters were there right after my mission, so of course I still wanted to help in any way I could. Good times.

I am sure I was thinking about them because I have been on the phone with my family in Chicago because Dylan is graduating this weekend... and I have a gift idea I wanted to run past them. I will blog about this once it is done, because frankly I am very excited about it. Really they have nothing to do with each other, but that is how my brain worked... I am complex in many ways!!