Childhood Pictures...

This is my baby picture. I grew up in Marysville, Washington north of Seattle. I had febrile seizures as a baby and always had bags under my eyes. I was pretty damned cute though. :)And just for fun, here is one of my mom's favorites. Don't know how old I am here...4 maybe? 4 going on 32! :)

And that's all for today's blog challenge. :)

Why "A Day in the Life..."

I had some trouble when I first picked my blog title. There are a million blogs all over the internet about a lot of different things and it was hard for me to decide on one that I liked. It may not be terribly unique, but A Day in the Life is the title of my blog because I think it's the little details and the way one lives their life that makes them who they are.

I've always been fascinated by shows and books that follow the life of a person. Looking back in my blog and in my past journals, I can see that I used to just record my day. I would talk about the mundane. What time I got up and what I did after that and then after that and so on. Maybe that's not interesting to others, but I don't blog for those who read it now. Most of the time I blog/journal because some day, someone will find it.



I recently typed up about 90 pages of typed out paper that were journal entries from my great-grandfather. As I typed (in order to make an electronic copy of the history), I read and learned so much about Hills Ralph Collins. The man I knew as a child was very different than the man on the pages I was reading. He caused trouble! He climbed fences he wasn't supposed to and swam where his parents told him he shouldn't. The great-grandpa Collins I knew (and I was VERY lucky to get to know my great-grandfather as most don't have that opportunity) was a flawless patriarch in my eyes. He had a sense of humor and I loved his laugh, but it was the little anecdotes I read after he passed on those pieces of paper that taught me about how he had become who he was. I read about how he met my great-grandmother. I read story after story about his experiences on his LDS mission. Some of these stories must have seems somewhat mundane to him, but to me, it was fascinating to learn the cost of a loaf of bread or think about life without a flushing toilet and learning in a one-room school house. These were the mundane details of my great-grandfathers life experience, but they don't seem so mundane to me generations later.That is why I chose my title and why I sometimes blog and often journal about the mundane. Ethan's baby book has an entire page of details of life surrounding his birth. How much was a gallon of milk, who was president, the New Orleans Disaster, how much the average cost was for a car, a house, and tuition at a 4-year university. Mundane? Maybe to us living in that world, but later, I am sure that it won't be.

It's the mundane, the moments, and the everyday living that make us who we are and help us develop into the people we want to be. I would do anything to have more of those pages of stories from my great-grandpa Collins. What did he do when his kids lied to him (like mine did yesterday?)? How did he manage being a husband/father/firefighter? I'm luckier than most in that I got to ask him many of these kinds of questions while he was alive, but only from the older-wiser grandpa. I want to know what he thought and did when he was 30. :)

15 Interesting Facts...

Today is the first day of my blog challenge. Here is a recent photo of myself followed by 15 "interesting" facts. :) The photo is one of my most recent headshots taken by Amberlee Harder and I LOVE how it turned out!

1. My favorite time of the day is right after work and right before dinner.
2. I love when things do things on their own. For instance, I plug in my phone at night and in the morning....viola! it's charged! I start the dishwasher and go to work and when I come home...viola! the dishes are clean. :)
3. I think it's beautiful when I pour creamer into my coffee and watch it swirl around.
4. I have worked as a wrangler on a ranch and used to spend summer after summer riding/training/caring for horses, using chainsaws, and driving a backhoe.
5. I tend to want more for others than they want for themselves.
6. I love the feeling of being somewhere safe and protected. Ex: a tent when it's raining, my house during a blizzard, etc..
7. I am usually willing to try anything once.
8. I love to do laundry. Wash. Dry. Fold. Not so much putting away.
9. I once drove across the country to train in Tennessee and live in Massachusetts trying to be a door to door encyclopedia salesperson. After about 3 weeks, I rode a greyhound all the way home having sold not one.
   
10. I don't listen to music at home and I am a closet country music fan in my car. :)
11. I have kept a journal pretty consistently since I was 4 years old. My friends gave me the super power of "able to reminisce about something before it even ends". I love memories.
12. I grew up LDS for the majority of my life and went through an amazing journey of leaving the church. I still have a deep love for the members of that church and it's ethical and morality teachings are very much ingrained in me. I love to tell my story to anyone who has the time and the interest in hearing it.
13. My husband and I spent 18 months working to get out of $23,000 in consumer debt. We are now free from the constraints of credit cards and car payments and have never felt so amazing before.
14. I am very happily married to my high school sweetheart.
    
15. I have traveled to Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Holland, England, Mexico, and Ecuador.
    

Interesting or not, those are 15 facts about me that I could come up with while sitting here thinking about it. It's been interesting sitting here thinking back on my life. I've lived a pretty full one already and I'm only 32! :)

A blogging challenge-Day 0

It seems that a lot of my friends have been doing these challenges. I am pretty sure it started with the new year. I have seen 365 day photo challenges on facebook. 30 days of reading. list of 100 books to read in 365 days. And a friend posted this list of a blogging challenge he gave himself (great idea, Ryan). I am a journal keeper, but I haven't been a great blogger lately, so I think I will take the challenge from Ryan. I have altered a few of the days to reflect things I would like in my blog. So...here goes 30 days of blogging. :)

day 1- recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
day 2- the meaning behind your blog name
day 3- a picture of you as a child
day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have
day 5- a picture of somewhere you've been
day 6- favorite super hero and why
day 7- a picture of someone/something that has had the biggest impact on you
day 8- short term goals for this month and why
day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days
day 10- songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad
day 11- write a bucket list of things you want to do before you die
day 12- 3 things that people are always shocked to learn about you
day 13- your 5 favorite books and why
day 14- a picture of you and your family
day 15- what do you consider your biggest success so far in life
day 16- a picture of yourself
day 17- someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have
day 19- write about a sweet memory from your past
day 20- write a letter to someone
day 21- a picture of something that makes you happy
day 22- what makes you different from everyone else
day 23- name something you love about each season of the year and which is your favorite
day 24- post your favorite quote or verse of scripture and why
day 25- what I would find in your purse
day 26- list 10 things that you are thankful for
day 27- my day job verses my passion
day 28- what kind of books you read
day 29 - favorite tv shows and why you like them
day 30 - movies you can watch again and again.

pushing my limits...

I do this thing. I do this thing where I expect more of myself than I am capable of accomplishing. I think lots of people do it to themselves. It's self-sabotage. I remember a while ago I asked a counselor for some advice on how to balance things in my life. "How can I be a teacher, a business owner, a mother, a wife, a friend, a sibling, and still have balance?" She told me there was no way one person could do all of those things in a "balanced" way. "It's the work of 4 or 5 people," she said. "How can one person do all of those things equally well? You can't...there has to be a system of priority." Well, she was right (just like always...). And yet, I still seem to have these times where I expect myself to be better than I can humanly be.

At this moment in my life, I am talking about being involved with the Phantom of the Opera production at Eastern Oregon University. It's been a fun experience and the cast and crew have been amazing and I am glad that I had the chance to be involved, however, I am feeling like I have failed them today. I feel like there is so much more they need before the show opens (in two days!). Again, I have done all that is humanly possible. I have worked my tail off with 4 and 5 hours of rehearsal per night for the past 3 weeks, 5+ hours of office time devoted to Phantom cast every week, not to mention the hours of score study I had to do to learn how to conduct! :) (Andrew Lloyd Webber is a madman! Who puts a 15/16 bar, 2/4 bar, 7/8 bar and 5/4 bar back to back?!? :)) Anyway...I am just feeling like there has not been enough time (5 1/2 weeks total from callbacks-instead of the normal 8 weeks) to allow me (and the students are included in this) to be successful. I was disappointed in the run through last night and disappointed with the coming together of the singers and the orchestra. Not disappointed in the effort, but disappointed in the product. I just hope that it all comes together in the end for a fantastic performance and I hope that I have been of some help to someone in this process. I think that is always the trouble with teaching. You don't know if you've made a difference until later. :(

So, I was up until the wee hours of the morning trying to shut off my mind from all this processing and no one to talk to (because it was the wee hours of the morning). Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep and I still don't have much of a solution.

My amazing husband and reminded me that I knew going into this experience that it was going to be hard and nearly impossible to do everything that needed to be done in only 5 weeks time. And yet, here I am upset with myself for not doing a better job. I need to remember that I worked as hard as I possibly could and that's all a woman can do. The show must go on....(and up!)

He's here!...The Phantom of the Opera!!!

Well, I never thought I would be directing the music for the Phantom of the Opera and yet....here we are. I thought I did a pretty good job in the past couple of terms whittling back and focusing on my priorities and not being too stressed out or busy. Then, I was asked if I was interested in directing the music for Phantom. Ummmm....YES! :) So...here we are.

Rehearsals are going well. So far, it's a lot of prep work on my part and tedious pitches and sectionals. Tonight was our 4th music rehearsal and it sounded pretty good, considering. The cast is strong and I think they are working to get done what needs to get done. Here's the crazy part: We had 5 weeks from callbacks. !!! 5 weeks isn't a lot of time for a show like Phantom. Lucky for us, most of the cast are musicians and can learn their own music. Those who aren't have set up outside rehearsal time with me and the chorus all have CD's with their parts recorded on them. It just seems a little surreal still.

The show's rights have just been released for production on college and high school stages all over the nation and so far, we are the first University to take it on. We have hired in the Phantom from our Portland Opera connections and have cast the rest of the show from either EOU students or community members. It's a cast of 30 and we have our work cut out for us.

Every spare minute that I have (that is not being spent with my family or teaching in some other capacity) is being spent in preparation for leading these rehearsals. It's a lot of pressure for me and a lot of work to make sure that I do my job to allow the cast to do theirs.

I'm excited for the opportunity. I directed the music for Little Women and just finished up with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. In truth, I'm glad I had those shows to cut my teeth on because this is not a small venture in any stretch of the imagination. The pitches have almost all been learned and then it's on to the coaching. My goal is to have all the tools to the singers that they will need to put on a successful show by the 13th of October. Not to scare myself, but that is in 6 days and 4 rehearsals from tonight.

No problem...........

Jack Johnson, LIVE in concert!

So, the last concert I went to was New Kids on the Block when I was a kid. Sam and I saw Blues Traveler play in the park in Boise when we lived there and and I have been to a lot of opera, musical theatre, and recitals in the mean time, but not any concerts.

My brother Ross called me about a week ago and asked if Sam and I wanted to go to the Gorge to see Jack Johnson with him and his wonderful girlfriend, Katie. Of course we do! :) I arranged for Ethan to be well taken care of while enjoying a camping trip with his best friend Nola and Sam and I headed out. We got to Ross and Katie's house yesterday fairly early and hung out with them drinking cups of coffee and talking and laughing.

We went out to lunch at the Ice Harbor Brew Pub at the marina in Kennewick *(Delicious!)* We had great food, beer and conversation. Then we headed to George, Washington, home of The Gorge Amphitheatre. It was amazing! It holds 25,000 people and I think we were easily at 1/2 or 3/4 capacity last night. That is a lot of people in one place!!

We had general seating tickets so we found a decent spot on the grassy hill where we couldn't see very well, but we would be out of the heat of the sun and were as close as we thought we could get. Then we moved a little closer and figured we would just look through the chain link as we watched. Then someone actually went down to the very front and asked how much those VIP tickets would have been. We were told that all seating for Jack Johnson was general seating and that we were welcome to sit anywhere by the boxes. So....we were right up front!!! We saw everything and heard everything and it was an incredible show! Jack Johnson and his crew were preceded by G.Love and he was preceded by an up-and-coming Malaysian singer/songwriter Zee Avi. I loved it all! What a wonderful experience! I was glad to have had a big lunch as hot dogs were $6. :) What great music! I don't know when I have seen that many people in one place. Maybe the last Mariner's game I attended. However, getting out of the parking lot and on the road after a Mariner's game is relatively easy compared to what we had to do to get out of the field of parking in George, Washington. It's a major venue that holds major shows during their season, but it's still in the middle of no-where and with the exception of a turn lane for a section fo time, it's a 2 lane road in and out of the parking areas to the highway/freeway connections. It was funny to listen to everyone getting into the parking lot and honking their car alarms to find where they had parked. It was a sea of cars and a sea of people and a few frisbee games. :)

What a great experience! Ross and Katie spoiled us by allowing us the opportunity to go!! It was incredible and an experience I won't soon forget! Thank you, Ross and Katie! oh...and Jack. :)