Ridiculously long weekend, Part I

I see the blog boycott is over, everyone else has updated, so I'm feeling the pressure.

Okay, so this weekend has been ridiculous. And it's only going to get more ridiculouser. So, Friday night was the kickoff for our semi-annual... wait. Bi-annual... wait. Whichever word means, "They only have it every other year" Stake Dance Festival. I had the honor of being one of two adults who were present to supervise/chaperone the whole thing. The basic gist of it is that on Friday night at five o'clock, all the youth in the ward gathered together to find out what their "dance theme" for the festival was. Our theme was "Life is a Dance". From that moment on, all chaos ensued. We worked for about 5 hours on Friday night getting a dance routine together, working on props and a set for the stage, and working on costumes. It was amazing. There were so many people there! Me and Christian were responsible for teaching them the dance moves. Bird, I'm sure you're laughing your butt off right now. Anyway, I did it. And I was good! So we were doing the dance moves, while a crew worked on the props and a separate crew worked on costumes. It was all very chaotic, but organized at the same time. So Friday night was exhausting, going over a 6-minute dance routine over and over again in small chunks.

At that point, I took the YW back to my house to spend the night. BUT - we were working on our costumes and needed to stop at Target first. So, we did. Finally we made it home and started pigging out. Then we did nails, we did hair, and then I stayed up for a while SEWING costumes. Crazy. So the girls were probably asleep by 1, and I was asleep by 2. Then I got up at 6, took my shower and prepped myself for the day before I woke the girls. Then chaos broke out again as we got the girls ready to head back to the church for another full day of rehearsal. It was a LONG day of rehearsal. It was my job to learn and do the dances with the kids and help them learn it, get the rhythm and all that jazz. So, in the last 30 hours, I've done well over 1,000 squat thrusts. My quads are burning as we speak. BUT - we finally made it to the show, did well, and had a blast!

The Dance Festival started at 7, we were the second last group to perform, and then before we knew it, it was over, we were done, we screwed up a lot of parts, but it was fun. And then I was home by 10, after dropping the kiddos off at their respective homes! So, ridiculously long weekend part II will have to be updated later, after I'm done running the 5K in Philly with Bird tomorrow.

So why, might you ask, is this poor, tired girl who's been run ragged the past two days, and who is running a charity 5K tomorrow, sitting up at 11:11 pm (I just noticed that, by the way... got my wish in on time!!) writing this silly blog? Well, Mike left early Friday morning to travel with his track team to Erie where they had a meet today. I got a message from him saying they left Erie at about 9 pm, so it will still be several hours before he's home. And it's dark. And it's raining. And the house is making wierd freaky noises. And I wouldn't be able to sleep right now anyway. So, I blog. I blog like a maniac!

Oh, and as a side note: Here are a few of the Kilgore Family Reunion T-Shirt options that I sent Anna. Please feel free to add to the list, cross some off, or vote on ones you like.

"Kilgore's: The Other White Meat"

"Kilgore's: Don't hate us because we're beautiful"

"Kilgore Family Reunion, 2007: Party Like it's 1999"

"Kilgore Family Reunion: Please don't call the cops"

"Kilgore's: We ain't no nappy headed hos"

"Kilgore Family Reunion: Celebrating and Exacerbating Global Warming"

"Kilgore Family Reunion: Bettering America's Gene Pool"

That's all for now. Stay tuned for next week...

"Musicians Got Bach"

Lyrics to "Musicians Got Bach". For the record, they got an A on the assignment. They really stepped it up during the performance, wearing huge sunglasses and lots of "bling". Lots of rap type dancing as well (but not the dirty kind). They were fearless and pretty amazing. And yes, Sara, I think I can probably work out some sort of online course for Taylor to take. Geez... in less than two years she'll be an obnoxious freshman!! How cute!!!!!

I like musical geniuses and cannot lie
You other brothers can't deny
When Bach walks in the church of Liebzig
With a piano solo in your face
You get Enlightened!
Wanna go to Europe
Cuz' Germany's where its Blarin'
Handel's Messiah got me starin'

Oh Baby, he ain't no witcha'
His music makes a pretty picture
My homeboys try to warn me
But poor old Mozart, he's so lonelyyyyyy

Oh, Child Prodigy
You wanna write Don Giovanni??
Well be a muse to me, muse to me
Cuz your music really soothes me
I like the Marriage of Figaro
But Haydn's purty cool
He's rich, got pitch
Got it going like Will Smith in Hitch
He got tired of Hungarian Prince's
Telling him what to sing
Take the average guy and ask him
He'll say England is for kings!

So fellas (yeah) fellas (yeah)
Does creation sound real good (heck yeah)
So sing it (sing it) Sing it (sing it)
Sing the Enlightenment Song

Musicians Got Bach.

brilliance

I just wanted to share with you all the works of some of my more brilliant and awesome students. Just the other day in class we did an activity called "Mission Impossible: The Enlightenment". Groups of students got various packets with different information and assignments contained inside. For example, the group on Enlightenment artists had to create a drawing/poster to explain the Rococo style popular during that time, the group with Enlightenment writers had to write a silly short story to explain popular themes and characters during the time, and so on and so forth. The group who was responsible for Enlightenment musicians just floored me, though. Obviously, their task was to WRITE and PERFORM a song about musicians and musical styles of the Enlightenment. They proceeded to write their own version of "Baby Got Back", which they instead called "Musicians Got Bach". Oh, it was such a delicious little rendition. And they actually had the guts to PERFORM it in front of the class. They had practiced, had all the parts down pat. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. I nearly peed. The lyrics will be forthcoming when I remember to bring them home.

Good, Great, Grand... EVERYBODY ON THE BUS!

Life is pretty good at the moment! I'm almost done with my first grad class, there are only 2 more months of school (EXACTLY), the weather is getting nice, the house will be re-sided soon, the yard is coming along nicely, and we just had a great week spending time with family from out of town!!

Anna is harrassing me for pictures of the new siding on the house, but alas, there is none yet. We just got word from our contractor that we have been bumped back to Mid-May. This is quite upsetting, since according to plans we should have had it FINISHED by now. But, I guess you can't really argue with a contractor, so we're just thankful that it will get done before next winter (let's cross our fingers, lest we have a scenario like mom and dad's reno!). So, sorry anna, no pictures yet. As for the new paint in the basement (Penn State Blue & White), you'll have to check out my epson site. I can't find my camera, and I only saved the pictures to that site, and not to my computer. So those pictures will have to do. You'll see some "before" pictures in there, and then some pictures with the new paint. I still need to take more pictures of the "finished" job, but again, can't find my camera. It's somewhere around here.

ANYWAY - had a GREAT time when Sara and the gang were here last week. Tuesday night we hosted dinner at our house. It was great! It was the first time we really had a big gathering here. We need more furniture. And Dishes. But that's beside the point, it was just a blast. Mason, Lydia and Gaby had a great time running around in the empty attic, hiding in the crawl space and scaring the crap out of me. They all also had fun running around the yard, and then breaking the lock on my screen door. And Chase had a great time nearly falling through the screen door in the front, and onto the front landing. It would have been disastrous if Momma Deb hadn't caught him! But, I think I can say that we all had fun.

Then, everyone took off and the pandemonium began. After Taylor sat comfortably on the couch watching me and Mike do the dishes, we watched a re-cap of dancing with the stars, and then hit blockbuster!! We spent the night watching Eragon (which I didn't get at all... good thing Taylor was there to explain it to me) and Pink Panther (hilarious more for Taylor's reaction than for the actual movie itself. "In my pocket I have une HEEMBOOOOGARE. Une HINBEEGEE"). Normally I would have been asleep this late at night, but sleep was pretty much impossible considering the ridiculous amounts of sugar we imbibed. Sour straws, bottlecaps, twizzlers, pop rocks, dots, fun dip and oh so much more. And that's on top of the popcorn and soda we had, too. I think I might be diabetic now.

So, Taylor and I crashed by about 2:00 am, her on the couch, me on the floor. We woke up in time to eat a nice breakfast, and hit 5 Below to get some cool toys and whatnot, before heading to Matt and Deb's for babysitting. Let's just say, sleeping for about 5 hours on the cold floor was not a good idea the night before having to watch some pretty crazy kids. And by crazy kids, I mean Gaby. She is just a ridiculous ball of energy. Hilarious, adorable, tooting energy. But it was worth it, I just love those kiddos! Later that night we had dinner with Matt and Deb, and I was introduced to Guitar Hero. I feel somewhat ashamed of my performance. I think I was a big letdown. The pressure was just too much, and needless to say, I am not a Guitar Hero. I'm more like Raffi. Kid-Tested, Mother Approved. I'm white milk, to Matt's rockin' Chocolate.

Lastly, the trip was great because we got to see everybody. Owen is so adorable and I love his little "I'm shy" look. Mike had a great time trying to get him to make funny noises, too. He's easily amused. Gaby is just this awesome ball of energy, and Lydia is so big since I last saw her! She also told me that my house was a very nice light pink color, and that I should keep it that way. Ha! Ta-May-May is a retainer-faced goonball! Mason and Chase were a riot, too. I loved watching Chase sit back and relax with his feet up on the table! Too cute!


Moving on, I just realized how long this blog is getting, and how ridiculously long my blogs usually are (my sister Bird told me she has to take bathroom breaks while reading my blogs, because they are too long. Sorry Bird. Maybe get some Depends.) I'll try to update more frequently so as to limit the excessive length of future blogs. Peace out to all my homies... Werd.