"Danny in Wonderland" pt 1

Last May, the Bishop called me into his office and asked if I would be the ward director for the stake roadshow that would be put on at the beginning of November. It was to be a 10 minute musical production about a character, story, or idea that came from the Old Testament.

The following week I was sitting at work and ideas just kept coming. "What if we did Daniel and the Lion's Den except that when he fell into the hole it ends up being the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland?" Thus "Danny in Wonderland" was born. I spent the entire summer writing this show, making rehearsal schedules, pre-casting it (so we wouldn't have to waste time with auditions), dreaming about it (those turned into nightmares actually), choosing music (thankfully a wonderful sister in the ward helped rewrite the lyrics to the songs), and choreographing dances. I was so gung-ho about this!!

Then we presented it to the ward council and guess what. It got shot down so fast by the YM and YW leaders. It was awful. They were worried about it taking too much "time". Don't get me started on it taking too much time. I had already spent over 100 hours working on this and we hadn't had 1 practice yet!! They weren't willing to give me the rehearsal time we needed and totally started ripping apart the idea of a roadshow. Thankfully, the Bishop was in full support and told them it didn't matter what they thought, we were going to do this and they were going to be supportive. By the end of the meeting I was sobbing. I know they weren't attacking "me" but the horrible way in which they responded felt like I had been hit by a truck. I felt so stupid for crying! Being pregnant doesn't help with the whole emotionally unstable thing! Well, let me tell you. If you ever want to make people feel bad and make them give you support just start bawling. Every time the YM's pres saw me or Jeff the rest of the day he apologized profusely. It was really amusing actually.

We started rehearsals in September and it was hit and miss with the youth. Some loved it and others were there because the leaders forced them to come. It came along slowly but surely. I really did enjoy doing it. But then they had to move the roadshow until January and eventually it got moved to February 4,5.

When that happened, we lost some steam but I'm sure we were leaps and bounds ahead of where other wards were. However with the date change, we lost our lead because he turned 19 in November, our Bishop changed and people had birthdays and changed classes or came into the mutual program. There were definitely some frustrating moments. But there were lots of fun moments as well. I really loved getting to work with the youth and just getting to know them! They are an awesome group of kids.

It definitely got harder and harder the further into my pregnancy I became! Thank goodness for my incredible husband who helped me so much every week and helped me every step of the way. Also, another younger sister in the ward, Jenny, was a HUGE help and blessing in this whole thing. Those two fantastic people never bailed on me. They were amazing helps, and really I would have died before putting this show on if it weren't for them.

Come January, because it was FINALLY going to happen, I finally had more support from the leaders and parents. Life would have been so much easier if they had been willing to help before! But at least they stepped it up. The closer it got, the youth really started getting pumped up about it. It was fantastic!
Finally, I could see some of the fruits of my labors coming forth.

Alrighty, I'm getting tired of posting right now and I'm having contractions so the rest of the story including the rockin' performances and pictures will have to be in a later post.

Summer Flies...Winter Walks

I borrowed my title from a Charlie Brown book that I have and I only partially agree with it. Yes summer flies, but I'm finding the older I get so does winter! Where does all of this time go?
This summer has flown by so fast! It seems like just last week I was packing up my apartment and coming home. Now I'm packing up my room and getting ready to fly back.
When I got home, I planned on being really social and out going, meeting new people here through my singles ward and institute. Well I never made it to the singles ward because something always kept me from going, whether it was a family vacation or one of my family members was speaking or teaching in my home ward. The peak of my social-ness was when Anna came and visited me =) Very few of my friends from home are still here and single. So pretty much all of my time this summer was spent playing (or working!) with my family. It's been a blast. Chris is getting ready for more auditions so I've helped him get his songs ready (seriously, it may be a beautiful morning, but if I hear someone sing about it one more time...); Elysse is learning to play Chess for school so I've already played probably 20 games with her and she actually won twice! I know, I'm a merciless sister, I should probably let her win more so she'll feel more confident about it, but then how would she really learn?! Dad and I have been to the ballgame, spent time together at Dancesport, and worked on my computer. With my mom, we've decorated my dad's office and it looks so much better than before it flooded, we've also sewn my latin dress and of course our favorite, played duets on the piano. My family just loves to play games and eat ice cream, so of course we've done alot of that too.
It has been a fabulous summer. I've learned so much and I've grown even closer to my family. I'm really glad that I've had this chance to be back with them because it will probably be my last time that I ever live at home. I am so grateful for them. I can definitely see why the church places such high importance on the family. The home is the MTC for life, the relationships we form there and the things we learn are what we take with us into the world.