Romney Returns

As Romney started planning for luthier school, her number one concern was earning enough money to pay for tuition. She knew that she would not be able to keep living with her friends in the adorable home they had dubbed "Lola." Romney still refers to that house as if it were a person. "I'm going to visit Lola today." It's so cute. I knew she was so sad to move away from her friends and her independence, but it really showed how strong her desire was to go to the VMSA.

You know what else it showed? That Romney had become extremely adept at accumulating items. I think the total volume of her possessions increased by a factor of 5 while she was gone. And of course, when she moved away from home, our family had absolutely no problem filling up the space she had vacated with our own stuff. Getting her and her possessions back into our house was not unlike opening a tightly packaged sleeping bag for the first time and then trying to get it back into its original packaging. Nigh unto impossible. 

I felt like Emma was a really good sport - both girls love each other a lot but also had delighted in having their own rooms for a while. And here we went, squashing them back together. It was a little ugly for a minute. But oh my girls. They worked together to figure it out. Yes, they're occasionally really annoyed with each other, as can be expected, but for the most part they do such an awesome job of making space for each other. Sometimes the clothing-borrowing goes too far, sometimes they take many days to put away their laundry or tidy up enough to locate the floor, sometimes one of them gets up irritatingly earlier than the other one. And yet, our house is still standing and so far no yelling matches have taken place. I'm very proud of both of them. Even if I can't always look in their room without feeling anxious.

Here's what our living room looked like as Romney carted all of her possessions back home:

 

And here is the room with a new bed set up and rearranged. But before all that crap from the living room got wedged in. 

I don't dare take a photo of their room with all of their stuff in there because so far it's been presentable for about 3 minutes at a time, about once a month. Don't go in there. But I love them.

Sprinklings

One of my favorite podcasts (Inklings) talks about taking all of your favorite little details from something you love, like the best lines from a talk or the best moments of a day, kind of like getting a taste of sprinkles off the top of a cupcake. I think that's a pretty good metaphor for noting those sweet little moments from a month that really aren't big enough for a post of their own but deserve to be remembered. Here are some sprinklings from March.

One of those moments was a sweet reunion for me - way WAY back when I was a little kid in Boulder, Colorado, my parents made space in our house for two missionaries to live with us. We ADORED them. Elder Summerhays and Elder Alter. They were so much fun. We stayed especially close with Elder Summerhays, and he and my dad fostered a friendship that was really helpful to my dad especially as my mom was sick. I have no idea how long it had been since I had seen him. When we moved to Utah we moved into the same general area as his family and I ended up going to high school with his younger brother. By then he was married and living in New York. Then when I got married and Troy and I moved into our house we lived in the same stake as his family. I've gotten to know three of his sisters quite well. But I hadn't seen him! Then I found out he moved back to SLC and was hosting a gathering at his home, and his sister invited me. I had like two other events the same night but boy I hightailed it over there and had a five minute chat and a big hug from the O.G. Elder Summerhays. 

Also my February-birthday friends Becca and Elyse and I went on our annual girls afternoon date. Lunch, a little boutique shopping, and mostly just great conversation and a lot of love. Aren't they so pretty?

We were in Provo and decided to stroll the block a little and found the little museum of tiny things. We were so hot though. We had such a warm spring!

Another treat was taking the girls to see The Hunchback of Notre Dam at Hale Center Theater - one of their Christmas gifts. It was just absolutely spectacular.

Thank you, Internet, for helping me find some photos of the production so I didn't have to sneak photos myself during the show. It was knock-your-socks-off good.

Happy Birthday to My Favorite

With the start of March comes Troy's birthday. I think it's pretty likely that in the past 18 years (or so) of keeping a blog I've probably used this title before, but it remains true. Truer than ever in fact. He's my favorite and I'm the absolute luckiest wife in the world.

Besides Troy's birthday, we had some other interesting news happening in early March. As I think I have mentioned, Romney has not been a huge fan of college. She started out at UVU and had some good experiences her first year. The first semester of her 2nd year was cut short by the struggles she was having, and we brought her home. After that Christmas she started school again at Salt Lake Community College and ended up leaving that pathway as well. She just hasn't been happy and decided to just work for a while. Then, around Christmastime, she came to us to tell us that she had applied to The Violin Making School of America.

WOW.

Interestingly, Romney had talked about wanting to become a luthier (a person who makes stringed instruments) way back in grade school. Admittedly, I just smiled and nodded and thought, how cute! It felt the same to me as her saying she wanted to grow up to be a ballerina or a movie star or an astronaut. Well, some kids actually do grow up to be those things and I guess Romney is going to grow up to be her thing. She wasn't kidding when she was little. She went ahead and applied and got in and began plotting on all she needed to do to earn the money (it's on the pricey side). Troy and I are feeling this weird mix of hopeful and excited and scared and nervous and proud. It's a very interesting emotional stew. Mostly I'm proud. And I know Troy is too. You know how I know? Well, whose birthday did we celebrate? That would be Troy. But who opened a present? That would be...Romney. My sweet wonderful husband started looking into the tools used by luthiers and he surprised her by buying her a couple of the starter planes. Could he be any sweeter?

These photos just warm my heart. Here he is, surprising his daughter, and sending her the message that we believe in her.

Even now as I type this I've got a big grin on my face. I felt like it was a very Troy-birthday. He didn't really want anything for his birthday besides being with his family, eating Indian food (Mumbai House's butter chicken for the win!), and supporting his kids. 

See what I mean? I'm the luckiest wife ever. And happy birthday, Troy.

High School Musical, The Musical, The 20 Year Anniversary

Oh gosh where do I even start.

Once upon a time, in 2006, The Disney Channel made a tv show called High School Musical. It is shocking to me that the number 2006 is 20 years old. I thought 20 years ago was about 1995 but it turns out that is quite a bit farther back in time. This 20 year anniversary of course meant that our school would have to put on the play, and when I went to the first of the parent meetings about it and heard the director talking about the vastness of the draw this show would be, I didn't really believe him. He doubled the number of performances and asked parents to prepare for an onslaught of people all hungry to make purchases of food, swag, and mementos. He warned us that we would likely see stars from the show and surprise visits and news coverage. Seriously? I just didn't believe that was all going to happen. 

Well...I was 100% incorrect. I'll just go ahead and spoil the punchline here. That dang show was SOLD OUT most nights. I have never in my life seen every seat full with even more people standing in the back of the auditorium and around the perimeter. But it's true. I saw it myself.

Emma knew about what this show would be for months in advance and talked about her dream roles quite a bit. I'm always nervous when she does this because I know she gets her heart set on something but there are just so many variables and so many talented kids that I dread the possibility of her being disappointed. It's happened a lot to both of my girls. But also I don't want to shut down her dreams so I do my best to walk that balance between encouragement and tempering her expectations. I expect I fail most of the time. But both girls have handled their disappointments quite well when they have happened. 

I'm happy to report that in this instance, Emma was cast in the role she was hoping for most. She was called back for two supporting characters - Kelsie and Taylor - if you know the musical you know who I mean and if you don't then don't worry about it. Her hope was to be cast as Kelsie, the shy composer of great music. And happily, that's exactly who she was cast to play. The show was double cast and it was particularly fun that her counter part was one of her very best friends. Here she is in costume:

 

She was so cute. I love watching Emma on stage.

The show was everything the director had expected. I tried to help a lot with concessions and thus I had the chance to chat with a lot of people who came to see the show. There were people who had come from quite far away to see HSM performed at the HSM high school. We kept a list of where people were from and would it surprise you if I told you that the list included locations like New York, Kansas, California, Japan, and France? Admittedly some folks just happened to be in Utah for other reasons but some people did come just for the show. One cute gal came every night, dressed as a different character. Needless to say, HSM was her thing, and this was kind of a dream come true for her.

One really wonderful thing happened for me, which was that I was feeling a little sad and sorry about missing my family. My siblings are all so far away and my parents are both passed on. I had been hoping to see one of my brothers that week and it didn't work out. I was just feeling a little low. I was outside of the school, waiting for Troy to arrive with his mom, so I could walk her inside. I checked for his location on Find My Friends, and who did I see pop up? My other brother and most of his whole family. I confess, I had a little weep right then and there. They couldn't even stay in SLC for one night. They drove up early, stayed for the afternoon show, came to visit me that night at the party for Becca, then drove back home. It made me feel so incredibly loved. I mean...obviously they weren't there for ME but it kind of felt like it. I was so grateful.

Here they are standing on a piece of the gymnasium floor that Zac Efron himself actually danced on. The floor had to be torn up a few years ago after a flood but it was kept and auctioned off during the run of the show. I think it went for about $2000 maybe. There were other little pieces of the floor that you could just buy for $10-$15. Many many things were being sold. All I can tell you is that the drama teacher told us that this show by itself basically funded the next 10 years of the theater program. 

 

I took a couple of photos of the auditorium as it was filling up - like I said, I have never seen that auditorium fill up to capacity and beyond before. 

The energy was amazing. Funny - most of my coworkers are of the age that they were young teens when HSM first premiered. They were all crazy about it, especially my office mate Holly. She rounded up about 10 other staff members to come see the show, and did some cute photos as well as a tour, and they got to meet Bart Johnson, the actor who played Troy Bolton's dad in the show. He's a native Utahn and was very supportive of the show.

We were so proud of Emma. She did a great job - she's really a wonderful little actress and singer. We just adore her. She was so excited to be part of this. The cast was on the news a couple of times and had a few other cast members show up like Lucas Grabeel and KayCee Stroh. I'm sure we will never see anything like this again!

KSL Article 1.

KSL Article 2.