Review the Revue

Caylie has spent a good part of the last 2 weeks performing at The Rep in 

"Review the Revue".

She loves doing the show, and even though she stays so busy during these times, she doesn't mind juggling her time around to squeeze it all in.

Corey and I took the boys to see one of the performances a couple of weeks ago, and then this past Saturday night,

mom and I attended the closing night performance.  

Caylie did an awesome job, and it was an exciting show!

Tim also came for his 2nd time, and brought her some beautiful red roses!

She loved that!

Several of her friends from her old school were also there for the show.

(Including Elizabeth, who is like a sister to her!)

They are a great group of girls!

They all went out for coffee after the show, and Caylie said that it felt like family.

She has known them all for so many years,

that she said that it just felt completely natural being together again.

Here Caylie is with her sweet director, Nicole.  

This will be the first summer in 3 years for her not to do the summer show at The Rep

It is going to overlap with her mission trip to Jamaica,

and she has decided that Jamaica is a priority.

Her mission trip last year had such an impact on her,

that she can't wait to return!  

She hopes to perform at the The Rep next fall for her last high school show.

Here is a bonus link to a news segment where
 one of the fabulous acts from "Review the Revue",
The Four Reps,
is featured...check it out!
It will put a smile on your face...I promise!

Random Thoughts

As we head into the weekend, here are some random things that I have floating around in my head this morning. 

1) Last night Corey, the boys and I, went to see a preview performance of Caylie's show.

  

She is doing another preview performance as I speak type, and the official opening night is tonight.  There are two shows tomorrow, one on Sunday, and I can't even remember what next week's schedule is.

It keeps us running, but she really loves it, and she did a great job last night.

I love to hear her sing, and watch her dance, and see her expressions as she "does her thing" on stage!

She is so expressive, and enthusiastic!

Next Saturday afternoon, Corey is going to go to the matinee performance with his parents, then on Saturday night, my mom and I will go to the closing night performance.

I am looking forward to getting to see the show again, and being there for the final performance is always exciting.

2) For the previous two years, I have attended the Arkansas Homeschool Convention in Searcy.  I have enjoyed going, but had decided not to go this year.  

A couple of months ago, I heard about the
MidSouth Homeschool Convention

in Memphis, a convention I had never even known about previously.

(How that happened, I'm still not sure!)

The MidSouth convention is much bigger, and brings in great speakers, so I was really interested, but since Caylie's show was opening this weekend, and so much craziness comes along with that, I had decided that I would have to pass on attending this year.

Yesterday drove me crazy as I kept hearing of other moms that were heading to the convention!  I pulled up the schedule of sessions, and as I read through it, I wanted even more to be there!

I went to Corey and asked what he would think of me leaving at 6am this morning, and driving to Memphis, spending the night, and coming home tomorrow evening after the convention ends.

Although he knew that it would be a juggling act, he said that he could manage it, and that

I could go if I wanted to!

He's great about that kind of stuff.
We tend to be pretty spontaneous about things like this, but even so, as the night went on, and I realized that I wouldn't get home from Caylie's show last night until after 10, and that there were sooo many loose ends that I felt I would leave hanging if I took off this morning,

I decided that I would just not go.

  It would have been hectic, and tiring, but also very educational and inspiring, so I keep bouncing back and forth about whether or not I made the right decision.

3)  In other news, I posted here about how we missed the opportunity to sign Caylie up for the

1/2 marathon in Little Rock that she had been training for.

As a result, we found another 1/2 marathon near

Galveston, TX,

and decided to make that our family's Spring Break trip...

adding in some beach time, a fun water park, and a day trip to Houston.

Caylie has continued her training, but for the last couple of days,
she has had some pain at the bottom of her calf...in the area of her ankle.

She says that when she puts weight on the ball of her foot, that it hurts.

This is obviously not a good thing.

I don't want her to hurt herself more by continuing to run if she shouldn't,
but I also don't want her to have to miss the opportunity to meet a goal that she has been working toward!

  We are hoping that taking a few days off from running, will give her a chance to improve.

We will see.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Best Christmas Pageant Ever

A couple of weeks ago, Caylie was in a play with our local homeschool drama group. She played the role of Mrs. Bradley, in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. There were lots of lines to memorize, and she did so well!

Unfortunately, Corey was out of town on business, but his parents, his sister and her family, my mom, and my sister were all able to come! She had her own little cheering section. :)

Here are a few pictures from the day..

Caylie (Mrs. Bradley) talking on the phone....

Mrs. Bradley reading from the Bible while teaching the kids about the meaning of the Christmas pageant...

Caylie with Nana and Mimi after the show...

There was a reception after the show with cookies and punch for the cast members and guests to enjoy.

It was a neat experience for Caylie, and she is looking forward to participating in the spring musical that the group is planning to do!

Way to go Caylie! We are so proud of you!

Writing the Waves,

Christi

What's Been Going On Around Here

Caylie asked me the other day to just be straight with her.

"Mom, just tell me, are you ever going to blog again?"

I assured her that I would.

But here's the thing...

With 3 or 4 months of homeschooling under our belts now, I can say that we are really enjoying it! I love it so much, and have frequently said that I wish we had started earlier! I am so happy that we made the decision to give homeschooling a try, but I've just not quite found the balance between getting all of my responsibilities taken care of, and still having time to do things like...blogging!

It's getting easier as I get the hang of things. I tweak things that need tweaking, and find ways for things to run more smoothly. Hopefully I will find more and more moments to sit down and blog. I really DO want to have a place where our family memories are recorded, and since I have decided to let blogging replace scrapbooking, I DO need to make it a priority...at least more so than I have been! :)

So here's the latest...

Corey has been out of town this week at broker classes, and so I have had my hands pretty full trying to juggle all that goes on around here. Corey is great to help me with shuttling kids around when he is able to, and without him here, I have been in and out of the house a LOT...which makes it even more challenging to get everything done!

Caylie has been preparing for a play with our local homeschool drama group. She is playing the role of Mrs. Bradley in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". The performance will be on Saurday morning, so this last week or so has been pretty focused on getting everything for the play taken care of. All of the actors are responsible for getting their own clothing together for the show, so that was on our "to do" list, and I am on the committee that organizes food and decorations for the reception, and that has needed some of my attention as well. Today she has dress rehearsal all afternoon. I am really looking forward to the play, and will try to post some pictures soon!

Christian recently started his basketball season with the homeschool team here. He has made new friends, and is enjoying it. He's been having some problems with his heel though. Whenever he plays basketball, he says his heel hurts, but then the pain goes away after some rest. We have an appointment this afternoon for him to get it checked out with an orthopedic doctor. Hopefully, whatever is causing the pain, can be quickly treated, so that he can play basketball without having pain!

Yesterday, Christian and Carson both had appointments for check-ups. The doctor said that both boys were just fine. Christian did have to get 2 immunizations, but he didn't mind too much. Carson, we were told, is in the 92% in both height and weight! We were kind of surprised to hear that. Caylie and Christian were always high on the charts as well, but we had always thought of Carson as smaller than they were at that age. Caylie is 5'7 now, and Christian is VERY close behind.

Well, that's the scoop on what is going on at our house!

Hopefully, I will check back in soon!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Playing Catch Up...The Music Man

Since today is a slow news day in our home, I decided to play catch up again today.

Last month, Caylie was in her school musical production, The Music Man. The kids did an incredible job. It was just a great show, and Caylie loved getting to participate in it.

The music was fun and exciting, and the kids that played the lead characters, had sooo many lines...I don't know how they memorized so much material!

Here are a few of the group pics that they took on the final night, after the show.

Caylie is in the pink dress below.

Here, she is the one without a hat!

And here, she is at the bottom right.

After the show, although it was around 10pm, the cast was invited to a "barn party" at the home of one of the families from school. Although Caylie only got to stay at the party for about 30 minutes, since she had a v-ball tournament the next day, it was a fun way to wind up a great time of working together on something that they all were proud of.

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Just Checking In

I haven't completely disappeared, I've just been busy. I decided that even though I don't have time to get all creative, and do a blog with pictures, and fun descriptions of all that my family has been up to lately, that at least I could check in with a 5 minute blog!

I have been consumed for the last few weeks with designing wedding albums. It is something that I have done from home for years, and is very time consuming. I like the creative part of it, but don't love having to feel so crunched for time. I have a couple of albums to get knocked out, and then hopefully I will have a life again.

Also, we have decided that we will homeschool Christian next year. I am excited about it, and he is too. I have been spending the free moments that I do manage to squeeze out, on researching and reading about homeschooling. It's really interesting. There is so much that I want to read about and find out about before we get started next year. I have also gotten to talk to some homeschool moms that have been at it for a while, and that is sooo helpful. Let me know if you have any pointers!

My sister is still in the hospital. She is expecting to get out on Friday...let's pray that things go as planned. She has been in the hospital for sooo long. My mom flew out to be with her again yesterday. This is mom's 3rd trip to DC since Christmas!

Christian and Corey are on a Scout camping trip tonight. Maybe they will take some pictures for me to post later. It is the first camping trip that they have done with Christian's Scout troop, and Corey said that it is really neat, and that Christian is learning lots of practical things.

Christian played his last Upward basketball game today. He has always done Upward Basketball, but next season, he will plan to join the homeschool team if he makes it. He is excited about that possibility. Corey coached his team this year, and said that Christian made lots of improvements this season. Yea!

Caylie is doing her final performance in her high school play tonight. She has really enjoyed it. It has been VERY time consuming, so she won't know what to do with all of the extra time that she will suddenly have after tonight!

Carson has started saying "Oh my dosh!" He puts his hands on his mouth when he says it. He is trying to say "Oh my gosh", but it is one of those things that is WAY too cute to correct, so we just laugh every time he says it!

Ok, I think I went a little over the 5 minutes that I had allowed, but at least I feel like I have done something that I have been wanting to do for a while now.

I feel much better!

Maybe this time, it won't be so long until I check back in!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

My Fun Day With Mom!

Well, yesterday was a fun day that I always look forward to at this time of the year...Holiday House! It is the Junior League's Christmas shopping blowout, and it is always so much fun. Mom and I have gone together for years, and although we usually don't buy very much, (in fact, this time, I didn't buy anything) we just love looking at the fun, creative gifts and tasting all of the yummy treats that they hand out!

After Holiday House, was Caylie's big opening night! We are taking turns going to different shows since there will be so many performances, so mom and I got to wrap up our fun time together at the theatre! It was great! When the cast sang "Oh Happy Day", I just lost my breath! Mom and I were both so proud! Mom bought Caylie one of her very favorite treats after the show...a strawberries and creme frap from Starbucks!

Here she is with some of her friends from the show...


Remember me saying in my last post, that maybe Caylie's 2nd "pre-performance" would be better than the first? Well, I guess that turned out to be kind of true. The audience was apparently the least of their problems that night...because TWELVE...yes, TWELVE of the cast members got sick...and we're not talking about the, "Oh, I don't feel quite right" sick. We're talking about the real deal, not kidding around kind of sick, during the performance! Caylie said that some escaped on time, while others barely made it off stage before...well, you know. That poor clean up crew! Fortunately, Caylie was not one of the twelve, and I'm hoping that she will prove to have what seems to be my natural resistance to that kind of thing! I'll keep you posted!
Writing the Waves,
Christi

Well, let's get started...

Well, Corey is out on the road with his partner today, and should be back soon. He is excited about both his new business partner, and their new business brokerage, and for that, we are sooo thankful! We feel blessed that he is getting to do something that he loves, and are hopeful that it will thrive.

Over the last few days, I've had at least one sick kiddo home from school, and today, they are all back up and running. Carson has a lingering cough, but it doesn't seem to be anything to worry about. He spent half of the night in bed with us, which I actually LOVE, but worry that it could end up backfiring pretty quickly. We rationalized that since he had a cough, and couldn't sleep, that we could flex a little bit. BUT, after the cough is gone little buddy, ya can't keep camping out in our bed...Daddy unfortunately, isn't as much of a co-sleeping fan, and spent half of the night on the sofa!


Caylie has her 2nd night of "pre-performance" for her musical theatre program tonight. Last night was the first pre-performance, and it was done for a tough audience apparently. (The pre-performances are done for various local organizations.) She said that some of the teenagers on the front row, looked like they couldn't have been more bored...even when the cast was sitting on the edge of the stage right in front of them! I guess it is just an example of how you can't always count on being praised for what you do, even if you put your heart into it! Maybe tonight will be better, and then the REAL opening night is tomorrow night, so I know that will offer the cast a bigger boost!


Yesterday, Christian had a little bit of a scare! He and some friends were playing in the driveway with a golf ball...they bounced the golf ball really hard, and it popped up and hit the mirror of the car, shattering it into pieces! He immediately came in and told us about it, and offered to pay for it, telling us over and again how it was just an accident. While we knew that it wasn't earth shattering, we told him that we would have to think about how we would handle it. We said that he should have known better than to be bouncing a hard golf ball right beside the car. I couldn't help but throw in this very "mom" comment..."Now, if someone is driving dangerously, and they have an 'accident', is it really an accident?" Christian seemed to get the point right away, but we still told him that we would have to think about it. A little later, after dinner, we told him that we would not ask him to pay for it this time, but that we hoped that he would be more careful from now on. I think we played our cards right. He was oh, so relieved, and thankful for not having to dish out the dough to pay for it, but I'm sure he will think twice before he starts bouncing golf balls around again!


Writing the waves,
Christi