We might not be as normal as we thought....

My daughter tries to encourage us to "Think Green". I will have to admit that it easier to think it than to actually do anything about it. But we try to do two things regularly, occasionally, okay, when we remember. We use our Big Blue tub that the city provides to recycle plastic, paper and aluminum, and we try to use reusable shopping bags instead of plastic. That's it, that's about the amount of effort I ashamedly put forth.

The big trick to the reusable shopping bags is two fold (besides actually folding them)--remembering to put them into the car after the last use and remembering to get them out of the car and into the store.

Well...last night we went to do the grocery shopping for the big girls weekend. We picked a good time, it was about 8:30 pm and the store was relatively quiet and they hadn't started unpacking the stocking crates yet. I felt encouraged that we could accomplish our task in a timely fashion. That's what I get for having a positive attitude.

We finished gathering what seems like enough stuff for an army and head to the check out. We walked right up with one person finishing up ahead of us. Now... I try to be pleasant to the clerk I appreciate the job he/she does but I also try to respect the time of those behind me in line. But my respecting their time is irrelevant if the clerk seems oblivious. She was totally telling me her life story and at the same time was determined to stuff every reusable bag to a weight so heavy that I would need Hulk Hogan to get me out of the store. Really... I have plenty of bags, I remembered to put them in the car and I remembered to bring them in the store, I'm prepared.

We finally get everything bagged and paid for and the person behind me is totally taken back by our use of the reusable bags...really?...So now the clerk remarks how wonderful she thinks they are and how much stuff she can get into them...yea we noticed. And the shopper wants to know how we thought to do that...really? I mutter my standard line "The trick is remembering to bring them in the store"...laugh... polite dismissal. Moving on...

Believe it or not two more people, before we get out the door, mention what a great idea those bags are. Where did you get? How much do they cost?...really? Are these that much of a novelty? I guess since Jenna is so into the "Think Green" that we just think of these bags as normal ...but now that I think of it maybe we have a few more than normal...

Is it Wednesday already?

The preparation for the Mother/Daughter weekend is heating up. I might as well be moving into the office for all the stuff I keep bringing with me everyday. Because we are in the midst of this wonderful remodel I have extra pieces of furniture all around me. One of the carpenters just finished a storage cabinet that will eventually have a permanent place in our room. So for now....

I'm using the lovely cabinet as storage for all my goodies for the weekend. Luckily, the office also has two full size refrigerators that I plan to fill tomorrow.

Now I have to find time to read the book club book and prepare my Mother/Daughter activity session. I'm going to need to take Monday off work to recover from the weekend.

What was I thinking?

I really may have completely lost it this time. In the effort to provide my only child a perfect tolerable world in which grow up, I sometimes over think things. Months ago I had this brilliant
not really all that well thought out idea. I thought what if I host a mother/daughter weekend for us and some of Jenna's closest friends. I really thought that I might face some resistance from the mother's who thought that I was nuts, crazy, delusional....etc. But that didn't happen. I got lots of support, the girls were really excited, the plans all came together. Now the weekend is almost here and I am wondering....WHAT WAS I THINKING????

This a great group of people and I'm sure we will have a great weekend. But as the time approaches and the reality sets in of what I have really said I will do, I get a little freaked out. We have a great itinerary planned out, we have good space to host the event, everyone has been great about pitching in to provide activities, food, and support. I have no reason to believe that it will be anything but fantastic.... I have no reason to believe that it will be anything but fantastic.... I have no reason to believe that it will be anything but fantastic....

Another Musical Moment!

More musical news. We got to see Wicked yesterday. It was incredible! It was a great story and the score was amazing, I've been hearing in my head all day. Jenna has a great music/theatre teacher who loves this musical and really got her interested in it so when it came near we had to go see. It worked out that we got to ride, have lunch, and attend with friends. That made it even better.


This is the musical the really put Kristen Chenoweth, an Oklahoma native, on the map. We had been listening to the soundtrack, with her, all week and I will have to admit I thought her shoes might be impossible to fill. But I was wrong, the young woman who played the role of Glinda was fantastic, as was the role of Elphaba.


This a picture of mine and Jenna's fingernails, which had to be green in honor of the greeness of Elphaba. We also wore green, thanks to Savanna's great idea when they went to see it. All in all a great day and another great moment brought to us through the magic of musical theatre.

The facebook group strikes again!

I'm sure many of you have fallen into what I like to call The Facebook Group Syndrome. It's that brief moment when you want to believe that this time is going to be different. This time the group will build quickly and continue to grow momentum, that you will actually find the time and energy to check back often for posts and pictures that will surely be added. This time the Facebook Group will be successful.

Yesterday it happened to me again. I am getting my hopes up for this page though. The other groups that I have joined have had various reasons for gathering. Mostly the other groups that I am part of are groups where the people only have one thing in common...ie. A summer mission trip, a show choir, loving Walt Disney World, High school...you get the picture and I'm guessing you also are part of one or two of these type of groups. They get you all excited. They entice you with the promise of renewal, but let's be honest if you really had things in common with these people other than one moment time you would've already stayed in touch.

Anyway....... Today's invitation came for a family group. My Grandmother's (Dad's mom) side of the family decided to start a family group page. I have hope for this to actually be useful and full of promise. These people have blood in common something that should actually make us care about one another. Hopefully we have more common ground to build a facebook group. I am tucking my cynicism in a corner and going to give this group a chance. I can hope!

Here's a sampling of some of the people this group includes:

Okay, maybe my hope is misplaced!

Something old...Something new.

The blog content is the same, just making some cosmetic changes. Come to think of it maybe I should take some of those same liberties with my actual person. Please excuse the mess.

Joseph...What cha gonna do?

We went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat last night. What fun!! We had never seen it but my friend Alisa loaned me the soundtrack so I would be familiar with the music...always a great idea in preparation to enjoy a new musical. It was fantastic, and so fun that it goes with the sermon series this month.

Oklahoma City has a great treasure in our Lyric Theatre at the Civic Center. They produce a whole summer season of great musicals every year and do a smaller fall season of plays and musicals in their own theatre. They bring in great talent and then use all the wonderful talent from the Oklahoma and the region. This particular production is very heavy on the vocal abilities of the leads. They brought in two American Idol finalist from years past to do the leads, I was a little sceptical about that myself but the did an outstanding job. (Anthony Fedorov and Diana DeGarmo). Then just to get the public out they combined their summer theatre camp kids into to production (80 kids on the stage, quite a few of Jenna's friends).

Another wonderful event that provided us the transportation from our hum-drum life to that of the magical musical theatre. Off the see Wicked on Sunday. Gotta go listen to the soundtrack. Kristen Chenoweth...enough said.