Trikkertreet

This afternoon Leigha was getting a piece of paper from the printer to write a letter to my mom when she suddenly shrieked and jumped back. I said, "Leigha, what's wrong?" She said, "There's a huge spider!" She grabbed the corner of the sheet of paper and got out of there quickly. I went back to concentrating on the sleeve I was stitching, when suddenly I heard a "WHAM!!!" I jumped and looked over and there's Bri with a book by the printer. I said, "Brianna, what did you do?" She shrugged and said, "The spider needed to be killed." Very matter of fact. Holy cow, kid.... This evening we got the kids into their costumes and went trick or treating around the neighborhood. It's our first Halloween in this neighborhood so we weren't entirely sure what to expect. It ended up being pretty great, actually. Better than at our old house, in fact. There were less people driving 50 mph down the street weaving around kids, which was a huge improvement. We walked around the block and filled up the girls' buckets to the top and then some. Brianna's Cinderella costume was a huge hit, people thought she was so cute. She blew her own cover, though, when she walked up to little old ladies and yelled, "Trick or treeeeeeEEEEEEEeeeat!!!!" Leigha saw a little boy dressed as a cowboy and thought it was pretty great. "He's my trick or treat twin!" We came home and got them to bed, then began sorting candy and sneaking aside some of our favorites. Later on in the evening our friend Mike B. came by to borrow the furniture dolly we borrowed from some mutual friends....who borrowed it from some mutual friends. Mike bought a house and closed on it today. (Treat!) He pulled up into the driveway and said, "Guess what. I just bought the house today and it's already been TP'ed." (Ooh.....trick) At least now he'll know that next year instead of passing out candy he can just wait in the bushes with a hose to put the smack down on the culprits!

Tribal carvings

After dinner this evening we told the girls to get into their jammies, spread newspaper on the kitchen floor, and carved our pumpkins. We only managed to get three done before the little ones had to go to bed. They both have cat pumpkins (Leigha got to carve hers by herself for the first time) and mine is kind of anime-esque. Nice. Hans and Joe Stude came over this evening to work on a project with Jason, so while they did that I roasted the seeds, fed some to the kids and got them to bed. After they left Jason finally started on his pumpkin. It was one of those warty pumpkins and I thought Jason would like making a funky face on it. Little did we know those warty pumpkins have REALLY thick skin and a super hard outer shell! Jason said, "It's going to take me forever to carve this thing!" I said, "Duh, that's because it's not a pumpkin, it's a fortress." Finally he got it finished, but some of the pieces didn't come out quite right because Jason was literally having to saw his way through it. Oh well, it's pretty cute anyhow.

Participation

Today was rediculously ordinary, tonight was rediculously messed up. The contrast was so severe that I'm completely discombobulated. Today I went through my ordinary routine and managed to sneak in some time to (finally!) begin painting wainscotting for the master bedroom. Yay! This evening I went to church, had dinner, then fully expected to do music practice, but then Jarod came up to Jason and I and told us that the kids were doing some kind of activity and they didn't know how many adults needed to help and to just kind of stand by until it was clear what was going on. Uh, okay then, cool. Meanwhile I'm trying desperately to swap nursery duty with someone else, and in the back of my mind I kept thinking, "Well, if we're not going to practice the songs then I need to get to our special Wednesday night rehearsal because it's Wednesday this week instead of Thursday, and oh yeah, my car is back at home...." Finally pieces fell into place and we began music practice. We kept it short because of all the activity around us, and after about fourty minutes a herd of kids came in and we played a song for them. When they left Jarod told us we were done, so we went to look for our kids so Jason could take me to rehearsal. Apparently all the kids were running around in the dark looking for grown ups with their flashlights. We had no clue this was happening, so we got Bri and then spent a good long time looking for Leigha. When we finally found her I was like, "I gotta go, I gotta GO!" And only then did I find out that it wasn't just kids running rampant through the dark, but a planned activity. Huh....okay then. If I'd known I would have not been freaking out about where my kid was. Poor Leigha, I feel bad about that. Jason dropped me off at rehearsal and I was there for the last hour or so. John kept disappearing during that hour and I had no clue what was going on until he came up and apologized and said that Denice's cat had died (Oh, how sad!) and she was really upset. So for the most part, it was unsupervised MADNESS! (Improv is ALWAYS madness, this was just unsupervised.) At one point we were all sitting in a circle discussing what games to play at our next show and I asked everyone to put their feet in for the picture of the day. Julie put her hands in. Carl opted to try and scoot out of the way to prevent me from stealing the soles of his feet. (ba dump, ching!) Joke's on you, Carl, I got one of them in there!

What a twist!

Over the past week gas has dropped almost fifty cents a gallon. In case anyone from other parts of the country are wondering, we are sitting at $2.07 here. Yup, wow. Still, I can't help but feel the need to continue to conserve gas, so when Jason and I wanted drinks this afternoon, we decided to walk to the gas station. Bri always gets tired after a little while so Jason put her up on his shoulders. It was really cute. I'm trying once again to make myself like tea. So far I've found a couple kinds that I like (both contain fruit juice), but I'd really like to work up to the 5 calorie crap they have in gas stations and such so I won't want soda as much any more. If I'm successful I might try to force myself to like pasta...we'll see. It really stinks, I'm not a picky person at all, I just happen to strongly dislike two major staples of the American diet (and ketchup, but that's easily avoided.) Rehearsal was pretty fun tonight, I got to play the queen of Norway and I was ordering around Zak. Awesome. After rehearsal, Nifer, Patrick, Jen and I decided to go to Yard House for a bit. I took a picture of my martini (straight up with a twist. Martini glasses are so pretty!) and the wipes they gave us. The back of the package declares them to be "Awesome wipes!" I wouldn't know if they're awesome for the hands or not because the only people who used them were Nifer and I, and only as a joke. (tee hee!)

Come and knock on our door!

I finished painting our new front door today. It's a lot more of a red orange rust shade than it looks like in this picture. Goodness sakes, the flash makes it looks like something awful off a 1960's game or comedy show! Yecch! Just take my word for it......it's prettier than that. That being said, doesn't it look cool against the color of my outfit? (enough about color, Jess, no one cares.) Well nyeah to you. We went to the library today and got some foodsie items, but for the most part we just stayed home, played games, and read stories to the girls. Leigha did have v-ball practice tonight as well. It's nice to have a day to chill after running around the country and whatnot.

Do we have to, honey?

After we went to church this morning with Aaron and Areasha, we all went out to eat some lunch. I remembered that I had to get a picture of them and said, "Ooh, you guys, get together!" Aaron made THAT face, I took the picture and we all laughed. He said, "Okay, okay, let's get a good one now." So we took another. In the second picture it ended up that Areasha was making a face. Nice. I decided to post the first one to make Aaron look like the bad guy for starting it. Heh heh heh...the power! After lunch we said goodbye and drove up I-25 to Denver. We had a little extra time so we buzzed the downtown area before heading to the airport. Nothing has changed, from the highway at least. It's still hard to believe we lived there sometimes. Not really all that long ago for that matter. Funny how everything can be the same and still so foreign to me. We flew home this evening and put the kids to bed. There's a cold front coming in, for those of you who live in KC. We had pretty good turbulence as we rode over it. Just a heads up.

Thank you, Stephen Sondheim!

This morning we got up and had a nice breakfast with Aaron and Areasha before loading up and heading into the wild that is Southeastern Colorado. We did the "what has changed" tour of Rocky Ford and Swink (Oh, and hey, Mom, Dad, Lynette-they're FINALLY four lane-ing Highway 50 between Pueblo and Fowler!) before finally arriving in La Junta. We spent the day with our good friends, Jacob and Carla. Their oldest daughter, Destiny, is Leigha's age. In fact, she took her first steps at Leigha's first birthday party! The kids had a blast playing with one another and we got to see Destiny play volleyball. How cool is that that she and Leigha would have that in common? We did the obligatory trip to Wal Mart to see if we'd run into anyone we knew (yeah, it's that small of a town) and played Mario Kart on Jacob and Carla's Wii. It was pretty much perfect. As evening drew near Jacob and Carla took the girls to a fall festival and Jason and I drove to the Picketwire Theater to see Sweeney Todd. *Squee!* My friend Chad got the part of Sweeney Todd in the show and we planned this weekend specifically so we could see the show. They did such a great job, too! The girl who played Mrs. Lovett was just brilliant! And Chad....oh my goodness, Chad was incredible. I totally believed him every step of the way. It also turned out that he designed most of the sets and costumes (uh, wow!) so he proudly showed us the razors and the chair and whatnot, and was kind enough to oblige me when I asked for a picture in the chair. A stagehand asked me if I wanted to go down the slide as well and I was like, "Uh....YEAH!" So after taking the picture Chad hit the release that dropped the hinges, and I rode down the slide to the bottom level of the stage. It was great! The best part? Chad had no clue we were coming. We surprised him! He was thrilled, it was just great. I'm so glad I got to go see the show and see everybody. After getting the kids and sing goodbye to the cast of Sweeney Todd we made the drive back to Pueblo. We couldn't have planned today any better, it was just perfect.

Wigwam Mall

Jason and I have been planning this trip to Colorado for a while now, but we weren't sure what flight we were going to take. One flight was filling up fast and the other was on Southwest, which we hate. About three today Jason called and said one of the flights was late and we'd be able to get on it. Score! In order to make the flight I had to leave when Leigha got out of school at four. Procrastinator that I am, I hadn't even packed yet, so I got my butt into gear and by 3:30 I was done. At 3:40 my mother in law called and asked if we were going to be home tonight. She has an early meeting tomorrow in Kansas City and wanted to spend the night at our house. I said, "Well, we're not going to be here, but I'll hide a key for you." "Oh. Well what time are you leaving?" "In 20 minutes." "Wow....I'm glad I called you when I did!" We got to the airport and flew to Denver. This picture is the inside of the main terminal at Denver International Airport. The first time I ever saw DIA (at the age of 15) I wrote in my diary that it looked like a shopping mall that they ran out of money for and they had to resort to creating a roof out of tents, then I drew a sketch of it and dubbed it the "Wigwam Mall." I'd say that was a pretty accurate statement. We got our rental car and drove to Pueblo where our good friends, Aaron and Areasha live. We haven't seen them since Bri was just a tiny baby, so it's been great catching up. About 10 this evening Areasha and I sent the boys to the store to load up on Ben and Jerry's, and they came back with several of the 3 oz. sizes. Nice. (Jessica tired, over and out.)

Running afowl.

Tonight after rehearsal we decided it would be fun to randomly pair people up and put the smaller of the two people on the bigger of the two people's shoulders. It seemed to make sense at the time. Why not, after all? Notice the guy in the back giving the thumbs up sign? That's Justin. Tonight was his first rehearsal. He's been around for a while, though, as he's Patrick's friend and he was on one of the student teams. Jason and I both had a pretty stressful day. He blew off steam by hanging out with Hans while I was at rehearsal. Jen came by our house as well and played My Little Ponies with the girls. I came home just after they left and Jason and I just kind of looked at each other and exhaled. It's been a long day.

12 Ounces, No Baggie.

This morning Bri and I went to Bonner Springs with Melissa. They have a cute little thrift shop downtown and I managed to snag another sweet vintage pattern for twenty five cents! Since we were already there and it was raining, we decided to hit up Jet Fuel Coffee. I love love love them. They've got a great aviation theme with bright cozy colors and amazing coffee. Today was the first time I've ever tried their pumpkin spice latte and it was better than Starbucks' PSL. And Starbucks NAILED the fine art of the PSL. I gotta get back there before the season is over. When I went to the library the other day I picked up the first season DVD of The Office. I watched three episodes this afternoon when Bri went down for her nap. It was all right, I thought it was pretty funny. From what I hear it really grows on you, especially around season 2. I'm guessing I'll be hooked eventually, but I'm not there yet. I'll let you know when I am.

Noteworthy

Jason and I ran around this afternoon. We had a ton of stuff we needed to get, including a new kitty litter box, since Spartacus has outgrown his baby kitten one. (aww...) They grow up so fast! I love that Jason has three day weekends, it's wonderful having him around so much. Tonight's rehearsal was special since Tom Farnan was there to coach us. He basically turned us upside down and shook off the bad yuckable that creeps in when you forget what you're SUPPOSED to be doing, then replaced it with the good stuff, like making sure you don't invent stuff to talk about and focus more on the relationships in the scenes. I'm beginning to think you never stop finding that reminder helpful in improv (experienced improvisers, can you confirm?) After rehearsal we decided to hang out at Yard House and I gave Patrick a ride from the theater to Y.H. He was taking notes from the session (it was his first workshop!) while on the way and I was trying to help him by reminding him of things that had stood out to me. We were discussing character and I mentioned something and he said, "Wow...that's actually really helpful!" Then wrote something down. I didn't see the note but I saw in parenthesis after it it said, "(Thanks Jess!)" Glad I could help, Patrick. My pleasure!

The word of the day is: Apple!

We went to the library today. Every time we go we take the girls (or in the case of today, just Bri. Leigha was at school when we went.) to the children's section to get books. We try to help Bri pick out books since Leigha pretty much knows what she wants and Bri can't reach all the books. Today she was having none of it. "What about this one, Bri, it's about kittens!" "No! I want to pick my own book! *grabs random book off the shelf* And I want this...*pauses to look at the cover* Frog book!" She's rotten. (and we love her and blah blah....) I found out today that my 'Aunt' Deborah reads my blog, so I'd like to give a shoutout to her, hey there! Welcome! And also, I'd like to tell her (in response to an e-mail she sent my mom that my mom forwarded to me) that yes, I love love love vintage hats. In fact, the first vintage thing I ever bought was a 1950's hat. A guy had a tub of them at a garage sale we went to when I was a kid. I think I still have the hat somewhere...white velvet with bows on the side and netting...ah! Lovely. Oh yeah, we did other stuff today.

I dream of Jessie

Being one of two girls in a sketch group is a little much, especially if the other girl is mostly confined behind a sound booth. We read through several scripts tonight (one in which Joe Henley and I got to be vampires and hissed at one another. Fun!) and began talking about the name again. Still haven't got one. Oh well, maybe later this week. One thing's for sure, though-it's a good thing I'm quick with memorization, a skill I rarely use as an improviser. Jason and I have settled into a Sunday evening routine of working on various projects while within the general vicinity of the TV. A local station shows retro TV shows Sunday evenings, including my personal favorite, "I Dream of Jeannie." I love love love that show, but haven't had much opportunity to see it on a regular basis due to the fact that my parents didn't do the whole cable thing, even when we lived in a remote corner of Colorado and only got like two channels. (Yes, Mommy and Daddy, that's right. I know you read this blog and I'm totally outing you on the matter. ;-) (Yes, everyone else, I do call my parents Mommy and Daddy still. I never saw the need to change what I called them as I grew older. Got a problem with that? Deal with it. ;-) (Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause. ;-) But I digress....Thanks to "I Dream of Jeannie," and other fine programs, such as the ones featured on The Weather Channel, I finished Leigha's rag rug and am about halfway through with Brianna's. I thought those would take much longer. Woo!

A little bird told me....

Leigha had another volleyball game this morning. Same deal, three games (or trimesters? I'm still not sure) of 15 minutes each. Their team won 2/3 of the games (?). Yay! Jason got to take a couple hours of vacation time and watch her game, which was great. After the game I took the girls downtown to check out a vintage clothing warehouse I had heard about (it was incredible! I got the cutest gray fedora!) that sells vintage stuff for thrift store prices. Since I was already downtown I hit up City Market for some produce then the girls wanted to go to a book store so I swung by Half Price Books. Love that place. Tonight's shows were pretty cool, Leigha volunteered during the game "historic dance." Basically, you get a historic event then three things associated with it. Music plays and three people who have been assigned to the things come out and do a dance based on their suggestion, and at the end the person on the side of the stage guesses. The historical even tonight was the birth of Christ. John was baby Jesus, Patrick was a sheep, Julie was a reindeer (ha ha, who suggested that one?) Leigha ended up guessing the event and then baby Jesus and then sheep (after saying 'goat.' Oops.) She didn't get reindeer, though. Either way it was remarkable she was able to guess anything! So after they did it, Patrick had to guess the second time around, this time with Leigha dancing as well. Leigha was supposed to be a cannon but she didn't quite know how to interpret that, so Julie helped her by "lighting the fuse" and Leigha ran and THREW herself across the stage! It was great! She really commited and everyone was laughing. No question, she's totally my kid and she's totally got the acting bug.

From Stillwell to Smithville.

After Leigha got on the bus this morning, I hastily shellacked myself into a vague resemblance of 'human,' and headed out the door, Brianna in tow. I had heard about an estate sale in Stillwell, KS (about 20 minutes south of KC) that had antique furniture and vintage fabric. Jessica says, "Ca-CHING!" (and take your mo-nay...) I found a great yard or so of fabric for $2! Score! I also got a neat wall-hanging thingy. From there I drove north, planning on hitting up Westport for a few things, but when I parked my car it started POURING rain. No matter, I was about a block from my first destination, so Bri and I walked to Arizona Trading Company. Oh shoot...they don't open 'till 11:00 and it's only 10:39. No matter, I'll head to Re-Runs about two blocks away) since it's so close. I figure I'll give them a second shot....oh, shoot...they don't open 'till noon. No matter, I'll go to that antique store....that one right there that's closed for remodeling. Aaaaand it's still pouring. Okay, fine, I'll go to Broadway antiques. I went around for a bit, looked at a bunch of stuff, found a great "Greetings from Colorado" postcard, and headed back to AZTC. (yup, still pouring) Tried on jeans, looked at purses and shoes...eh, nothing. Aaaaaand I was late. I jumped back in the car, Brianna in tow, and headed to the airport to have lunch with Jason. It was still pouring, and it had gotten worse. Semis all across America decided to unite to thwart my efforts as I struggled against the rain and the semi-spatter (the fine mist that even the best of windshield wipers can't do diddly about) valiantly making my way up north. Aaaand of course, I got to Barry Rd. and it stopped. Hee hee, nice. Jason didn't have a lot of time by the time I got up there, so we went to a drive through and went back to the airport so he could work on the plane when it came in. That's him sticking out of the engine in the picture. I'm thinking of submitting it to www.omnomnomnom.com. (never been? Go!) After lunch I headed out into the dazzlingly radient sunshine to go to Smithville where I heard there was a great vintage clothing store. There's not any more, fyi, but there was an ARC and a great antique shop/cafe' next door that had great cookies. I got one for Bri, since she had been so good. She ate half and gave the rest to Leigha when she got home from school. Jason didn't get back from work until late due to a major traffic jam on the way (car accident) so I let the girls have a picnic dinner in front of the TV so they could watch their favorite show, 'Are you smarter than a 5th Grader.' One of the questions was, "True or false. Crawfish are fish." Leigha said (in a very knowing tone) "Pssht! False!" Of course, the answer is false and the lady answered as such. Leigha piped up once more with, "Duh...there's no such thing as crawfish."

Berrong and Bernard: Much more than a B&B.

Tonight when Jason got off work we dropped the kids of with Dustin and Alanna to see the world premiere of the 'Brownies Don't Lie' show. Jill Bernard (remember the festival?) and Trish (remember the festival?) had been at an improv class in LA for the past week. Since Jill had to come back through Kansas City on her way back to Minneapolis where she lives, she and Trish put on a show together! It was great, they were a well matched team and it was obvious they were having a blast together, and we had fun with them as well. Good improv should be exactly that, in my opinion. The performers are inviting the audience to have fun with them. Before Brownies Don't Lie took the stage, we were treated to some great performances by Spite and Babelfish. Babelfish does this format where they're 'entertaining themselves' while waiting for Jill Bernard to show. A la Waiting for Godot. Tonight was the first time they performed it while Jill was actually there (what with the 'she lives in Minneapolis' thing.) so it added a deeper level of funny since we knew full well Jill was watching the whole thing from the seventh row (or wherever. )

Unsupported arches

Today I saw the movie Casablanca for the first time. Loved it! Seeing old movies puts 99.7% of today's movies to shame. Remakes, endless sequels and TV shows from 30 years ago? What's that about? Yuck! You can keep your 'Land Before Time 17: Bigfoot Goes Shoe Shopping,' thank you very much. Tonights rehearsal was...eh, rehearsal. We're preparing for the Halloween show and one of the games is called "dead bodies." There are two people onstage, they 'die,' then a puppetmaster controls their words and actions. A third person will enter about halfway through. It's really fun to see the puppetmaster control the people, especially since we all know they are very much alive and concious. There are ghosty orbs in the picture as well, but when I pointed it out everyone was like, "It's dust." Like I didn't know that. I reject your reality and substitute it with my own, and I choose to believe they are faeries. Take that.

Save your oragami for your mommy!

I'm not the only one who's crafty in my family. Leigha got an oragami book from the library recently and has caused a small paper explosion in my living room. The white one directly above the left page of the book is a butterfly she made for Brianna. Sweet of her. I went to the doctor today to check out my foot from when I kicked Jason's fake leg. I had been concerned that I may have broken it, due to some new bruising around my toes yesterday, and wanted to make sure. The doctor looked at it and sent me to get an x-ray. She called me this afternoon to assure me that it wasn't broken or fractured, but I bruised that sucker and bruised it deep. I am really really good at injuring myself. At least I know comfortable ways to elevate my foot while sleeping. *sigh* Rehearsal was interesting tonight. We tried a different longform that I had never tried before. It ended up being pretty fun.

Knowledge is power!!

We were going to fly to Chicago today to bum around since Leigha had the day off school, but we ended up not going due to the large amounts of people flying. Oh yeah...it's a holiday weekend. Bummer. So we stayed home nearly all day, save for an outing to the library. For the most part, we spent the day cozied up on the couch watching movies. Jason had never seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang before and he really enjoyed it. I myself didn't see it until I was an adult. At the end I said, "Hey, Jason, get ready for a HUGE cinematic cop out." And then they revealed that he had only been telling a story. Why did they do that to themselves? Seriously. Building this big beautiful world that we believe in and want to believe in and then BAM, they're on a beach again and it was just a story. Lame! Leigha read a lot of books, to herself and to Brianna. Bri got the book "Twelve Princess Stories" from the library and Leigha read almost all of them to her after dinner. They are too sweet!

Heidi deidi die!

Today was the Instant Coffee Comedy Hour's show. We rocked the socks off that nursing home, I tells ya! Here's Nifer and I, Tim, Scott, and Jen is sitting playing guitar. It looks for all the world as though Tim is mugging for the camera. It was absolutely hysterical. We played a game called "Wedding shower" in which the 'bride' is given four gifts: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and she has to guess what they all are. When Jen asked for a suggestion of "something old," one of the ladies shouted, "One of us!" Niiiiiiiiice!!!! Elderly people are so cool. Jason and the girls came to watch and the show and some of the older ladies just loved seeing them. One of them told us there was an ice cream parlour at the back of the massive lobby we had played in, and sure enough, there it was. A self-served, free ice cream parlour that featured six kinds of ice cream! How cool is that? After the show Jen and I headed in to Westport. We had another sketch writing meeting so instead of driving home, killing half an hour and driving back, we decided to go vintage shopping. I found a 1950's dress pattern at Boomerang that was just peachy, and only $2! While I was looking at the hats the door to the shop opened, I heard someone gasp in excitement, and suddenly there was a skinny person hugging me. I stiffened and froze, unsure of what to do, when the skinny person stepped back and materialized into Joe Henley. I said, "Oh! Oh, hi! I had no idea who you were for a second there." He said, "Yeah, I felt your reaction and I was afraid I had just run up and hugged the wrong person." Heh heh. We chatted for a bit then Jen and I left for the meeting. It went pretty well, we read through a couple scripts and talked more about what our name should be (I suggested 'Schtick Figures') and such. I arrived home early and Jason and I bathed a very upset cat. Ah, life's little pleasures.

A volley of questions

This morning Leigha played her first volleyball game, well, games. They played three times, each lasted 15 minutes. Her team won the first two times then tied the third. They decided to play to the next point and the other team got it first. Pretty much at this age it's all about the kid managing to get it over the net on the serve. Leigha got a point! She actually did pretty well until she started being hyper aware that people were watching her. Can't imagine where that awareness comes from. I ran lights at the theater for the seven and eight o clock shows tonight. It was fun! I loved getting to pick the songlist and I loved the fact that there's a "blackout" button on the light box. Sweet. Playing Carl was fun! The nine o clock show was a Hypothetical 7 show, so we got to play. We had a pretty good first half, and the second half was and Armando. Keith Curtis was kind enough to step in and be our monologist, his first time getting to do so, apparently. I think he really enjoyed himself, and he did a great job. It was Patrick's first Hype 7 show and he did a great job as well. Our edits were super tight and snappy. I ran across that stage so many times I was sweating buckets. It was the kind of show where it didn't actually matter to us if the audience was even there because we were having so much fun with it. I love that kind of show.

A hunting we will go!

The girls and I went to a pumpkin patch today. They had no clue where I was taking them, so when I started following the round orange signs there was much rejoicing from the back seat. I found a really cool place, too. Most pumpkin farms charge admission (?????) that costs more than the pumpkin you were there to buy in the first place. Please to explain? So I searched online and found one that had a free hay maze, tractor rides to and from the field, and a playground. No admission. Yeah, baby! Here are the girls on the tractor going back to the store. Leigha is holding Jason's pumpkin because she wanted a white one but they were all by the store. Brianna wanted a small pumpkin and squeaked when she saw the one she ended up getting. We paid for the pumpkins and put them in the car, then went back and did the maze. It was cool, they didn't use dinky bales of hay, they used the big round ones and they had placed them on their sides so they stood up really tall. We went around through several dead ends before coming to a place where you could choose to either go through a small pipe or go around the hay to the other side. The girls opted to go through the pipe...and so did I. Leigha was amazed that I fit through there and she was laughing hard about it. Luckily I had worn my black cords I got yesterday, so not only did the hay cling, but the black color showed every particle of dirt stuck to me. Worth it! I let the girls play in the playground for a while then we got back in the car. Leigha said, "Mom, that was fun. Let's go back there next year." We probably will. In case you're wondering about the pumpkins we planted in the back yard, they were doing great until we got all that rain in July and they became water logged, broke, and died. Dang.

I sit down and the posts just fall out of my brain.

Today was cool. Jen and I went thrifting. Wo0t for $3 courderoys! I've been wanting a pair of non-jean pants for a little while now. Rehearsal was fun this evening. We rehearsed a couple formats we're doing for next week's show. I don't remember exactly what scene this was, but Julie and John are waiting over the border (Canada? Nebraska? I don't know, we did several similar scenes. Callbacks are fantastic.) to get Patrick should he make the decision to go back over the line there. After rehearsal we talked and played games. Julie made us some awesome yummy fried squash with garlic. Mmm. Everything is a little more magical when fried.

Oh yeah, that's nice.

You know what? My local library loves me. Mmmmm.

A fork stuck in the road

I had a good day today, the weather was perfect (yay for rainy coffee/book days!) I love fall so very much. Jason and I were goofing off this afternoon and we started wrestling in the living room. Seriously, like, the girls were running around laughing and we were jokingly swatting them and each other, and at this particular moment in time, I had Jason in an arm lock. I went to "kick" him, and at that exact moment his fake leg moved forward, and I seriously kicked his fake leg. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!!! You can see the bruise in this picture, and for a while my foot was swollen as well. Ouch. I had to go to rehearsal about five minutes after it happened so I grabbed a bag of ice and headed out the door. I did a lot of standing still on stage tonight....

Always a bride.

My best friend from kindergarten is getting married in January and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. I wonder if anyone has ever said no to that question? She told us we could pick our own dresses, it just had to be wine red in color. So, after a long search I found the perfect dress (on ebay no less!) and it arrived today. Isn't it gorgeous? The skirt is full, the waist nips in making me look super duper skinny.......and it gives me Rennaisance boob syndrome. (what the heck? It has a high neckline, too!) Perhaps I can minimize a couple things before the big day. I wouldn't want to *cough* overshadow the bride. With proper undergarments and dropping of a few pounds, it shouldn't be any kind of an issue. Jason and I ran several errands today, and while we were out and about I dragged him to a super cool modern arts and crafts store that I found in a local online directory. I was looking for vintage fabric reproductions and stumbled on their website, and began to salivate over the pictures of the store. Recently I had sketched out a few design ideas for some clothes, so I picked out a few different fabrics and I'm going to start making myself a shirt. If you're thinking to yourself, "Geez, Jess, you're already making two rugs, learning to play the mandolin, AND your hair looks cute." Remember this....I may take on ten gajillion projects at the same time, but almost all of them can be done while kicking back in front of the TV, thus un-wasting wasted time. Oh, and thanks, I think your hair is TOTALLY cute too. I mean it!

Two adorable

Today me and my freakishly disproportionately large head (trick picture.....I hope) spent a lot of time with Jen and her cute, dainty little head. At two this afternoon she came by my place and gave me a ride to Instant Coffee Comedy Hour practice. The show is next week, yay for low key lightly rehearsed shows! We had a lot of fun, I really enjoy working with Scott which I haven't gotten to do since Antiprov, and Tim who I've really never worked with. Getting the chance to play with some new folks is just great. After, Nifer, Jen, and I went to the Westport Coffehouse. Nifer and I have been invited to participate in a sketch show and Jen is teching. We had a meeting about details and writing styles and whatnot, then a quick freeform improv session to gage everyone's personal comedy styles (to figure out who to write our sketches around and how to cast them) I think this is going to be a lot of fun. Jen and I then had a quick dinner and drove to her place where the boys (Hans and Jason) were hanging out, building robots and whatnot. (it's cute that you think I'm kidding.) They had fun chillaxin', as did the girls, as did Jen and I. Nice how that worked out. Some time Jen and I have to chillax with the girls so Jason and Hans can go out together.

How to race the clock and win

This afternoon I was going about my usual Saturday lunchtime routine when I remembered that we hadn't gotten a present for the birthday girl whose party Leigha was going to attend at one o clock. It was noon when I remembered. So I asked Leigha what the girl was into and Leigha said "Bunnies." Bingo. We have tons of stuffed bunnies that the girls have been given for Easter and some still have their tags and everything. So I went searching through the boxes in the garage and found a nice one with jointed arms. I felt bad about just grabbing something out of a box so I decided I would whip up a dress real quick for the bunny. I told the girls to eat lunch and I told Leigha to make a card, and I started furiously cutting and piecing fabric together. Somehow or other, thanks to my mad sweatshop skillz I didn't know I posses, I whipped up a cute little dress just in time to send Leigha out the door (that's about to be replaced) to the party. *whew!* This evening we all went to see the Trivial Prov-Suit show at the Imp. It's one I haven't been able to catch yet. It was pretty fun and we had a good time. As we were walking out the door, to head to Wal Mart, I realized that all three of us girls were wearing skirts, which never happens. I wonder if anyone mistook us for menonites?

Who's in, who's out?

I hosted a Discovery Toys party tonight. As with the other times I've tried hosting parties in the past, it was a bit of a bust. The only attendees were Julie, Carl, and their friend Sarah. They couldn't stay long as they were on their way to something else, but they get mega huge super bonus points for showing up at all because they don't even have kids but were sweetly thinking of their nephew. Thanks guys! You rule! I've pretty much decided that means I'm free from any kind of obligation to go to other people's in home shopping parties in the future. Rachel, the consultant, was packing up her things and Leigha latched on to this hidden picture book. We got sucked in one by one until we were staring at this picture book like it held the secret of life itself. Seriously, the animals in the pictures were hidden really really well! Brianna took the opportunity to bond with/torture the cat.

Where have your fingers been?

One of the warmups we do is called "Where have your fingers been?" We all stand in a circle and do the chanting song, then someone points to someone else, gives them a location, and that person acts out a scene with their fingers. It's so much fun! Tonight at rehearsal we played an EXTREME version of that game. John set up a tabletop and had us act out scenes with our fingers, only this time they moved around and such, as you see Josh and Jeremy doing here. A few of the scenes John would say, "Okay, now do that in real life!" One such scene was one I found myself in with Nifer. We were on Mars and my finger was bouncing really high because of the lessened gravity (don't know or care if that's factual, it was an improv scene.) and then Julie's hand entered the scene as the Mars Rover and my hand representing my character rode out on it. John said, "Okay. Now show me THAT scene in real life." Whoa! So I entered jumping and out of nowhere Jeremy came up behind me and picked me up every time I leaped, so I was literally BOUNDING across that stage! Then at the end Julie entered, crawling, as the Mars Rover and I literally got to ride her off into the sunset. How fun is that?? I was giggling so hard! I don't think I'd had that much fun in a scene since Chicago, although there have been super fun scenes since. This is why I do this stuff.

Oktobreakfast

While looking through some things today I came across some old Daria videos (yes, videos) that I had taped a looooooo-ooooooooong time ago. I happily flopped on the couch and worked on my various crafty projects for Christmas while watching old episodes and laughing at how out of date the 'Fashion Club's' outfits are now. (ha ha! Late nineties babydoll shirts, nice!) That show really takes me back. Anyhow, after church tonight I went to Ihop with Elsbeth who I haven't seen in a looooong time. In fact, I think there's a picture of us....from like February. Anyhow, so I laughed at her when she unrolled her napkin and placed her silverware JUST so (look at the upper left hand corner) and she said, "What? That's how I like it." I said, "Oh, that's cute!" Then, for irony's sake I unceremoniously unrolled my napkin and basically dumped the silverware in a heap, then crumpled the napkin on top and said, "That's how I like it!" We both laughed and then she said, "You should take a picture of that. It'll be all arty and you'll probably make a million dollars and I'll be like, 'I was there!'" And that's what I did. Except for the million dollars thing.