Saturday, September 30, 2006

Been a while...

In response to a few of you e-mailing me to find out how the dramas went...they went very well. I ended up having to try my hand at writing on some of them. Last minute scheduling changes with certain actors caused 2 re-writes, and our writer was in the hospital. So between the Pastor and myself, we tweaked them. Funny...I was only supposed to direct, but ended up having to be in 3 of the 4! Sigh, guess church drama is like any other church ministry...folks just don't seem to be really committed to it. Hopefully that will change.

The performance space is awesome. The church just finished building on a new "sanctuary" that is really a theater. Huge stage with a full catwalk and fly system, theatrical lighting and inclined audience seating. It was designed like that on purpose, so I hope that means there is a bright future for all kinds of theater there! I'd love to stage some community theater and see what happens!

The school year is off with a bang! I have 2 tutees and 1-1/2 homeschool consulting families (I'm sharing one family with another consultant). I'm also still doing stuff at the Science Museum and I am teaching science 2x per month at a homeschool coop. Whew! Already busy and it's just now October! I'm hoping some of these things will translate into clock hours for my license renewal in 2008...

I will have some more pictures of recent events posted later. I've been so busy adjusting to my suddenly busy life, I haven't been on the blog. Now things are starting to gel so I should be able to go back to posting a few times per month.

The fall is beautiful here! It simply doesn't last long enough. The smells, the trees, the cool, crisp air...AHHH. Today we got outside and enjoyed the sunshine by doing some yard work in preparation for winter. Ethan found a spider. We sat and watched it catch a small gnat. Ethan got so excited he suggested we find more bugs for it to eat. So we went on a safari for isopods. After a few attempts, we got one on the web and the spider responded quickly. It was a show well worth our money and time! Funny how it doesn't bother him at all to see a spider devour another creature, but he seems rather disturbed that T-Rex would eat other dinosaurs, or that animals such as owls eat other animals. Guess it's all in your perspective.

Incidently...all you family and friends who've been "promising" me for years to come and visit... Fall is the PERFECT time! So mark your calendars for Sept-Oct. Of course, summer isn't bad but we can get some hot, sticky days in July and Aug. For those of you looking for a true Minnesota adventure - come in January or February. I promise you will not be bored and you will have a story to tell your grandkids ("I remember when I had to walk through 10 foot of snow uphill both ways...)

Tuesday, September 5, 2006

Real Life Church

For any of you wanting to check out our new church, go to www.reallifechurch.net

I will be making my directorial/acting debut this Sunday, September 10th. I'm gonna love this church...they are multimedia FREAKS!!!!! (in a good way). I think you will see by the website.

So far, people have been very open and welcoming. I didn't expect to be acting/directing by now. I'm very excited!

Friday, September 1, 2006

The Great Minnesota Get Together!

Ah, the end of summer is traditionally marked with the Minnesota State Fair! This year we had beautiful weather...not too hot, nice breeze, slightly cloudy offering off and on shade throughout the day. Perfect. We skipped the corn dogs and cheese curds this year and went for whatever coupons were in the book - but could not pass up the traditional roasted corn! YUM. Here is this year's photo montage...

Ethan and Noah posing next to Big Foot. They both just love monster trucks!

















It's amazing how your kids change in one year. Last year, Ethan was new to rides, so he didn't want to ride anything that went too fast or too high. This year he was all about the thrill!






















Noah was too small for the rides, so he relaxed in his stroller and cuddled his bear. Cute, as always!


...or he enjoyed watching bubby have fun!


I think Machinery Hill is one of Ethan's favorite parts of the fair. He has to sit on every lawn mower, excavator, bobcat, and tractor that he can. Especially if they are BIG. This is an old restored one...he likes the sound of the older tractors. And he gets sooooo excited whenever he sees yellow and green! He breaks into the John Deere theme song from the library videos he's watched about a hundred times!


The animal barns are always fun. We skipped the pigs this year...they are just sooooo stinky. The Miracle of Birth center has been redone - bigger and better. We saw lots of chicks hatching, and a newly born sheep and pig. The kids favorites this year....horses. Especially the tiny ones!


Ethan also tried his hand at carpentry - the Home Depot booth had a kids workshop (which explains the bright orange apron). He hammered together a "really cool racecar that goes super fast". #20 for all you Nascar fans.
*sigh* Summer is officially over on the 4th. It's amazing, but up here, it's like nature knows when the fair is over to start getting colder and changing colors. I love fall, but the older I get, the more I start to dread the long, dark, winter to come. The Farmer's almanac is predicting a rough one. We've had it pretty easy the last several years, so we will see.