Unbelieveably Talented Kids!

  Yesterday Den and I spent a most amazing afternoon at the matinee of Annie, Jr., put on by the Christian Youth Theater Chicago, (CYT)… Our oldest (and so far, only) granddaughter was in the production…and let me just say, it was a  very professional production!!  These kids put on a performance of major adult theater quality!  It was held at Oswego High School East auditorium, which is one of the newest schools in the area, and is like being in a Chicago theater. The lighting, costumes, stage sets….sooooo beautiful and impressive.  The programs they handed out were amazing too, with photos of every single child who was in the production, which were 93 amazing kids, and 1 well trained Labradoodle as Annie’s dog, Sandy.

This is our granddaughter, Taylor Heiser, age 11. Her role was small, but she played it like an ace..

 

  Tim, Taylor and Terrie..proud Mom and Dad.

  This theater group is made up of kids from the Fox Valley area, age 8 through 17.  They have to audition for their parts, and have to be able to sing and dance fairly well. They all get drama, voice and dance lessons when they join CYT.  We were not allowed to take photos once inside the auditorium, though I was really tempted to get a few clicks with my Kodak during the performance…But that would have gotten me thrown out of the place, (which was filled to capacity), embarrassing my granddaughter,” Who was that old lady who got tossed out , screaming , kicking and clutching her camera?”…you get my drift.  I did get some pictures at the “meet and greet” afterward…

The above very talented young lady in red played Annie…Her real name is Lucy, and, believe it or not, she is only 12 years old…sings like a bird and acts like a veteran, and she dyed her brown hair red for this role. Taylor is 11 and had 2 smaller roles.  She was part of the Hooverville dancers and singers, and also the NYC dancers and singers…She is her first year in this theater group, but loves the “stage” thing, and I’m sure she will continue…

The next photo is the young man who played Daddy Warbucks…awesome!!

His real name is Alex.  He is 17 years old, and he actually did to have a head of thick , black curly hair..He shaved his head for this role..talk about dedication! And the next character is the young girl who played Miss Hannigan, the crabby, mean headmistress of the orphanage…Her real name is Ashley, and she absolutely carried the show!

 

I am quite sure we will be seeing her on the Chicago theater stage someday..She was great as a frumpy, mean, spinster-like character who hated her job as head of the orphanage and made their lives miserable…”It’s a Hard Knock Life!”..

 

 

 

 

At the end, they whole cast ended up onstage to sing “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow”, and grandma (me) ,was a snot nosed, teary eyed ,mascara running mess.  Actually, I blubbered, (quietly), several times..The talents of these kids moved me more than I had ever planned..They got 2 curtain calls with standing ovations…What a wonderful experience for these kids…

Tonight the same theater group is having what they call Showcase..This is where each class of kids, drama, vocal, dance, puts on a little production showcasing their talents…This is free and for family only….I can’t wait to see this!!! I think it is a smaller venue, and I HOPE I can take pictures…..As you may have guessed, I will blog tomorrow about that!  Hey, bear with me…I am a proud Grandma!!!

Adventures in Grandson Sitting….

  Friday night I was on Grandson sitting duty..Their sister and Mom were at the theater production, and Dad was in Indianapolis with my other daughter and her husband. They are all running the Indianapolis Mini Marathon tomorrow morning.  This means running 13 miles…Way too much concrete for my old feet to cover, but there are people our age that do it…(They must be abnormal.) Den and I have gone to Indy and watched the race when Chris and John ran, and it is a sea of people . They start the race downtown and have about 30,000 runners. The really cool thing about this race is that a portion of the run takes the runners around the racetrack…Now, if I could just sneak in as the runners entered the track, and disappear after they left the track, I would consider it! I guess I could walk it, but I would still need to have the paramedics right behind me.
The cute little dark haired girl in the center is our neighbor, Jessica.  She automatically shows up when our grandkids hit the door, so she is just like another grandchild to us.
  I took a bike ride Friday and got some photos of a few more interesting items here in Sandwich….The first is another one of our big older homes. This one was once owned by one of our mayors, also owned by the police chief..and some of our family friends have lived there once, too. I have no idea who owns it now, but I have always loved it…There is an in ground pool in the back.

  On the left side photo below is what used to be the Sandwich Roller Rink,  My parents ran that skating rink from 1960 to 1962…It is now home to a Chinese restaurant in one end and a bar in the other end… The other picture is the Christian Science Church. A sweet, small little church which has been in Sandwich at about 50 years. I dated the kid who played the organ in that church when I was 16. He is now a lawyer…obviously even smart enough at that young age to see that I wasn’t serious about much of anything, let alone a braniac like him. ..did NOT appreciate my humor.
 

I told you about our theater….There are 7 different screens for 7 different movies, hence the name WOW 7 , duh…(photo on left below)…  “Wow, there are 7 different movies all in one place in this dinky little town!”  Right across from the theater , conveniently, is the YumYum Shoppe…Burgers, fries, ice cream..the usual artery cloggers  ..yum, yum!!

  The kids had pizza and spaghetti for dinner last night…ya just gotta love the Hamburger Helper spaghetti dinners and cardboard pizzas.  I have learned over the years, after painstakingly preparing homemade meals for grandkids, that kids don’t have a refined palate.  They cannot tell the difference between real mashed potatoes and Ore Idas instant, so why bother?  I finally quit trying, and saved myself oodles of  time and anxiety….…..
Last evening was cold and windy, but nothing keeps Papa from his campfires.

 
…Den’s picture is a little blurry,  to no fault of my Kodak..I stuck my arm out the back door, and ONLY my arm, trying to zoom in while attempting to keep the rest of me inside , but you get the idea. 
  Our son-in-law came today about 2PM to get the boys, and brought me a beautiful Hydrangea for Mother’s Day.. (making lots of points!!)….After the wrecking crew all left, I got busy wiping up pizza crumbs, juice box spills, rescuing Cheetos from under the couch, and switching the channel from Sponge Bob to MSNBC..WHEW!!  But,!….I would not trade one Iron Man DVD for a Martha Stewart DVD…Perfection is not my forte!  Ok, time to switch the pop out of my refrigerator and bring the wine up from the basement…Thanks for checking in!!! Right now, I need a nap!

A Little Maintenance On the HitchHiker

Our TV receiver/CD player/ radio had the surround sound burn up while we were on the road this winter.  When they designed this fiver, they placed this component right over the electric fireplace and the heat from it fried the connection to the surround sound…bad planning. As luck would have it, one of my Ya Ya’s husbands, David Ikonen, is an electronics wizard.  He took it home, and ,using the schematics that Dennis found online, downloaded and emailed to him, David found the problem…and promptly fixed it!!!  Kudos to David, who saved us a lot of “pain in the you know what” to get it solved!!

  So now, our surround sound works, but we don’t want to put it back in the same spot over the fireplace.  Dennis began tearing out the TV and the fireplace trying to find a better place for this thing..

  While we had the fireplace apart, we needed to clean out the Arizona dust and the Texas pine pollen.  Another problem arose when Dennis took the TV out.  Unknown to us, the shelf holding our big TV was almost completely falling down.  We were lucky the TV didn’t fall while we were traveling over some of those rough roads!  Dennis, A.K.A. McGuyver, bought some wood, got out the ol’ tools, and reworked the shelf so it would hold the TV….

  Dennis uses the tailgate of ‘Ol Blue to work on almost every project…He had to make a run to Menards, so while he was gone, I decided to give the outside of the Hiker a bath.  The bugs were glued on the front like wallpaper, and I figured it was time to give those little carcasses my full attention.  Just for the record, I describe washing an RV (for those of your who don’t own one) similar to “diapering a dinosaur”..Those of you who HAVE given an RV a bath will totally understand.

 

Up and down the ladder one million times, but….all nice and clean…..

These next pictures are some I have taken here at our house….I love the Hummingbirds…Next is my attempt at a “black and white”…and finally a Hawk perched in our neighbors tree for a brief check on the field mice wandering through…

  

 

Big Mother’s Day this weekend. I may have mentioned before that our  11 yr. old granddaughter is in the production of Annie, put on by the Christian Youth Theater Chicago. We are going Sunday to the 2PM matinee at Oswego High School.   They actually have a total of 6 shows..They put on 2 performances today for the local schools, one tomorrow evening, a matinee and an evening performance on Saturday, and a matinee on Sunday.   We are having her two brothers overnight tomorrow night, which means I buy pizza, cheetos, juice boxes and hot dogs…Oh yes, and marshmallows to roast if it doesn’t rain, and Papa can start a campfire..I probably should take a couple extra vitamins tomorrow so I can keep up….More blogging Saturday…Thanks for checking in!!

The Cave Dwellers meet Miss Katrina..YIKES!

  Sunday evening we sat outside by the fire and Dennis got some very old wood from our stack in the back of the garage.  It was barren of bark, and you could see the tracks of many insects that ravaged that old Elm, and finally killed it…

(clik the pic to enlarge)
It could almost be sold as artwork, eh??
  Unlike most of you RV’ers out there, Den and I didn’t get started in that lifestyle until 2003.  We started with a 2004 Keystone Cougar..didn’t have a clue about what we wanted ,but thought this floor plan was a winner…

We went crazy that summer and purchased our Cougar and GMC 3/4 ton dura max diesel pick up within a couple months of each other. (Our  1/2 ton Silverado just wasn’t going to pull this thing….)  We were RV virgins, still are kinda,  floundering around in a strange land of campers..There were so many kinds…fivers, pop-ups,  travel trailers, small motorhomes…HUGE motorhomes..something they called teardrops, and another little one called a Casita, neither of which we could co-exist in for over a couple weeks.
We took our Cougar on a few short outings..and when our daughter, Chris, announced her wedding would be in Long Boat Key, Florida, just across the bay from Saratsota , we just knew we had to take our Cougar. The wedding was set for August 20th, 2005.   She and John were married at the Hilton, and we parked the Cougar in the parking lot for 4 days, opting to enjoy the ambience of a lovely hotel room. (We still prefer the RV).

  After their wedding, we figured we would head for Key West, having never been there.  Since we had been to the Northernmost point of the US in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, we felt the need to hit the Southernmost point…There was a nice state park on Long Key right on the ocean, about 70 miles South of Key West…The date….August 25th, 2005..ring any bells??
 
  We actually met up Chris and John in Key West. I know, the last people you want to hang with on your honeymoon are the bride’s parents...They actually invited us to join them for a day of pub crawling and touring…I want to go on the record and say I LOVE KEY WEST!!!



…If the date sounds vaguely familiar, we were met in the Keys by Hurricane Katrina.   That “mother” of all hurricanes made landfall on the East Coast of Florida as we left.  This is how it developed…. After our day with Chris and John at Key West, we went back to our camper on Long Key. Watching our TV weather channel,(don’t we all?), we realized that what had been a tropical storm in the Atlantic when we left that morning, was now a category 1 Hurricane, heading due West…Our introduction to Miss Katrina.  The following photos were taken the evening before she made landfall…a beautiful, but deadly storm building just off the coast…

   
  We got up the next morning in the dark.  With lightening all around us, we got the Hell out 'a Dodge…We stopped at Key Largo for fuel, where they told us the bridge was closing behind us… We put the pedal to the metal and boogied that Cougar all they way up to the Georgia state line before we finally stopped. We met dozens of electrical trucks heading South…This was our view heading North through Homestead, Florida….I kept repeating, “Camping is fun…Camping is fun….”

Little did we know at that time how deadly that hurricane would become.  Chris called us that same day from their GROUND LEVEL room at the Key West Hilton, where they had no electricity, ran out of food, ran out of beer (which was the worst crisis), and it was raining sideways…They finally waded through the water flooded streets of Key West to Sloppy Joe’s Bar.  Somehow that bar managed to have cold beer, and cold sandwiches.
Long story longer…..  Their flight out of Key West to Indianapolis was canceled Sunday, so they rented a car and flew out of Miami ..As for us, we were chased all the way back to Illinois by that ominous circular dark cloud and the rain, oh, the rain!…Our last night before arriving home was spent at Lake Shelbyville, IL..and you could STILL see the leading edge of the hurricane cloud just South of us…
For RV virgins, that was a harrowing experience…but it sure makes for crazy memories!!! As you already know, we didn’t keep the Cougar very long.  After a few tire issues (like 3 blow-outs), and realizing that Dennis’ feet were hanging off the bed, we upgraded to the Hiker, and a bedroom with a slide with a REAL Queensize bed!!
  So, there you have it…A short story that turned into a novel about Hurricane Katrina..Den and I ,AND Chris and John, will never, EVER forget their wedding!!

Just a “touch” of Mexico now and then….

  Yesterday morning we had a coffee get together with 3 other couples that we have known forever. Every month or so, we manage to congregate at someone’s house for a big “group hug”, some coffee and intelligent conversation. The hugs and coffee are always present, but sometimes the conversation wanders away from what some would call “intelligent”..I call these 3 fabulous woman friends of mine “my Ya Ya’s”. We have known each other most of our lives, raised our kids together, laughed, cried and , occasionally gotten into trouble together.  Our husbands tolerate us pretty well, and the men have become good friends too…. probably because misery loves company…

We trade gossip, recipes, travel plans and dreams.  Our husbands have trouble keeping up when we are all together, and sometimes say they get whiplash when we suddenly change the subject without notice.  We have driven to Florida on vacation together..(this was BC..before camping, for us.)..with pre-adolescent kids in the back seats , making all of us parents glad when a Howard Johnsons loomed in the distance..This meant the drive was over (at least for that day.)

McGuyver was on duty again yesterday. My coffee pot kept putting grounds INTO the coffee, not just the filter.  He deduced that the water wasn’t draining into the pot fast enough, so he “retrofitted” the coffee pot with a screw in the top to push the little spring that sits under the filter up higher . Thus allowing the water to flow more freely…Who’da thunk it??  Certainly not I!!

Last night we went to the local Moose Lodge in Sandwich for a cocktail….Yes, Dennis is a Moose..does that make me a “Moosette”?..We stopped at the KFC for a gourmet bucket o’ chicken, getting the pink bucket…which donates 50 cents to the Susan B. Kolmen breast cancer foundation…We came home to start a campfire on a really gorgeous evening.  Before we knew it our great neighbors from next door, Deb and John, came over to join us for a beer.

Den and I say we don’t smoke…We don’t need to. We inhale enough campfire smoke to char our lungs beyond reason.  These two neighbors are especailly dear to us. Deb is German and John is Greek and they are great people who have 3 super kids.  Deb is the one who made the chandelier hanging in my dining room…How lucky are we to have so many great neighbors ??

 

  I was looking back at our pictures from the times we walked across the border into Mexico on our winter trips…Gosh, I just love the country.. and the people…I became especially fond of Palomas, when we walked across the border at Columbus, NM.  I was mezmorized by the Mariachis who sang to us while we were having lunch at the Pink Store.  What a shame the drug cartels are ruining their tourism, which is their major money maker…

Sooooo…… today I made it my mission to download some great Mexican music from I-tunes..I found a super CD called “The Best Of Mexico”, by Los Copacabana…If you feel like I do, and think there is nothing more romantic than beautiful Latino music, I suggest this CD..It is playing right now as I am blogging..and I am longing to be sipping a Marguerita with the Mariachis serenading us again…..Sigh….

  That’s it for now..Dennis is beginning to wander through our yard looking for something to do…I’ll just bet I can find him something!!

Thanks for following the mindless meanderings of the Cave Dwellers….