Crazy Life

Wow it's been forever since I've even had 5 minutes to update this.  Life has been way more than hectic lately.  Between work, rehearsal and life in general, I've barely even had a minute to breathe.

I celebrated my 31st birthday last week and it was pretty good.  I'm not sure how I feel about 31, but it's not like you can go back right?  J bought me a new cell phone (horay for joining the rest of the world!) and I love it!  How did I function without a smart phone before?  Just having the calendar app has saved my butt countless times this last week.  I had a great birthday though.  We went out to see a band play on my actual birthday (after rehearsal) and Saturday we went to dinner with a ton of friends.  Sunday, I got together with my family for a little birthday celebration and the most amazing cake made by my awesome sister, D.  Thanks D!  I loved my TARDIS cake and it was super yummy too!  Oh, and I also won week one of my fantasy football!

I am in the full swing of rehearsals for Oliver now.  Stage managing a cast of 74 people is a full time job in itself.  Yes, 74 people.  The orphans are all double cast in case you were wondering why there are so many as the run of the show is 3 weeks and that's a lot of time for any kid, let alone adult.  It a great cast to work with and once we get the scheduling bugs worked out things should run pretty smoothly.  As much as I'm enjoying it, I have to admit I'm tired and can't wait for it to be over.  Plus the songs are playing on a continuous loop in my head.

Yesterday was a really tough day.  J's uncle Davey was killed the day before my birthday in a really bad car accident.  He was a truck driver and was killed by another driver who crossed the center line and hit him.  The other driver was later discovered to be texting at the time.  Such a waste.  His funeral was yesterday and I didn't think it was going to be as hard as it was, but I broke down more than once. It's weird to say, but that was one of the best funerals I've ever been to.  Everything about it was just so...him.  From the coffin that was the same color as his truck and all chromed out to the funeral procession of motorbikes and semi trucks.  His sister and daughter gave the best memorial speeches.  They made us all laugh and cry.  There was even a guitar solo of Stairway to Heaven.  The part that really was the hardest for me was after the graveside service, my feet found their way to J's grandfathers grave.  He was such an amazing man and his loss still leaves us all very raw emotionally.  I was doing ok until my oldest nephew cam up beside me and put his arm through mine.  We stood there in silence for a minute and then I heard him sniff and I realized we were both crying.  J's dad came up behind us and put his arm around my nephew and we all just kind of crumbled into each other crying for a few minutes.  When I finally had the strength to loo around, I realized that the whole family was standing there and we were all crying.  We all miss him so much and losing Davey just made us all break down again.  But they are a strong family and we will all get through it.  J's mom and sister are amazing in situations like this.  They sweep in and make sure that all the things that need to be done are completed and that everyone is taken care of.  I admire their strength.  I am so grateful to be a part of this family.

So there's a little update on my crazy life.  It's been a week of ups and downs, but through it all, I think I've found a little more strength in myself through it all.

My Vacation

Today is the last day of my summer vacation, and it's been great.  J and I didn't have any major plans but we had a wonderful time anyway.  Last Sunday we spent the day out at my mom's place visiting with the family and spending some time with my Aunt that was up visiting from Arizona.  It was a great time and some great food.  J still had to work Monday so I went in for a couple of hours to get caught up on some stuff and then went and did some shopping.

Tuesday was our anniversary - see last post for details on our day.

On Wednesday J got a call that he had a coaches meeting that night for the football team he's helping with this fall so we headed out to the farm for the rest of the week.  The first few days were pretty uneventful just hanging out at the farm with a few of my nephews.  My oldest nephew and I did sit outside and watch a pretty amazing thunderstorm on Wednesday night which was followed by a biblical down pouring of rain that only lasted 5 minutes but made me wish we had an ark during that 5 minutes.  On Friday, J's sisters both decided to pull their trailers out and we could all camp together.  It was so nice to camp out with everyone and not have any major chores that needed to be done.  On Saturday it was hot out.  One of those sweltering heats that makes you now want to do anything.  My youngest nephew was bored so we turned on the sprinklers for the kids to run through.  None of the other kids wanted to play with him so I decided to jump in even if I didn't bring a bathing suit with me.  I got really tired of the other kids being lazy and just hanging out in their great-grandma's house watching tv and playing video games so I decided it was time to do something about it.  J's dad went in the house and yelled that it was time for them all to come outside and play and as they grumbled their way out the door I got them with a bucket of water and an hour long water fight ensued.  It was so much fun!  After the water fight died down we decided to take the kids swimming in the canal.  The water was clear and moving quite fast and was surprisingly warm.  Despite dousing myself in sunscreen I still walked out with a super bad sunburn.  We headed back to camp and relaxed around the fire while my brother-in-law cooked burgers over an open fire.  They were fantastic!  We stayed up late around the fire visiting and watching J and the kids play a late night game of "war" running around the fields shooting each other and having a grand time.

Sunday we were supposed to leave in the afternoon to pick up a friend at the airport but I decided to stay while J went back to town so I could go horseback riding with my sister's in law.  Things were going well at first.  I caught Jack with no problems and got him haltered and in the round pen with no resistance.  He was acting a little funny once I put his bit in but calmed down after I walked him around for a bit.  I decided to get on him in the round pen and ride a bit in there before we went into the field just to make sure everything was ok and that's when things went wrong.  I got on him and it was ok for a minute and then all hell broke loose.  He just started bucking like mad which he has never done before.  I tried to get him back under control but I soon realized it was a losing battle.  I managed to hang on until he turned away from the fence and then I bailed.  I hit the ground hard landing on my right foot and left knee  I scrambled to climb the fence quick as he was still bucking and had just reached to top when one of the kids and one of my sister in law's rand around from the other side of the barn.  My ankle was hurting pretty bad but I walked around a bit and C and I got Jack calmed and started checking his tack to see if we had done something wrong to make him buck.  C got on the phone and called my father in law to come down and help.  When B got there he checked things over and thought things were ok so I got back on with B holding a lunge line just in case.  Things went good for a couple of minutes and then he started again.  I lost my balance and my inner thigh's slammed into the pommel of the saddle hard and down I went.  B got him calmed and lunged him for a bit and then back on I went.  He seemed much better at this point so B gave me the reins and we went to riding.  I screwed up a bit and scared him and he jumped in response which threw me off balance again and scared him even more and he started bucking again.  In my head I knew what to do, but in that moment my body didn't respond and he managed to throw me high in the air and I cam down flat on my butt and my wrist.  That really hurt and I wasn't able to get back on at that point.  My nephew got on him for a bit and I went back to the campsite.  I found out later that my nephew got bucked off as well but thankfully he's ok.  I, on the other hand, am not.  My ankle is bruised and swollen.  Both of my thighs are jet black with some of the worst bruising I have ever seen.  And I have very limited use of my right arm.  I have injured my ulnar nerve which is really making life difficult since I'm right-handed.  Work tomorrow is going to suck!

Right leg 3 days after.

Left leg 3 days post "rodeo" I love how you can still see the seam line of my jeans in the bruise.

Superbowl Party 2011

Every year J and I through a huge Superbowl bash.  Over the last few years it has really taken on a life of it's own and grown exponentially.  The first year it was just us and 3 or 4 close friends.  This year we are expecting around 30 people.  People talk about it all year and the closer it gets, the more we hear about it.  "What food are you going to serve this year?" "How many kinds of beer will there be?"  We put alot of work into this party and it seems to pay off in spades.  I love playing the hostess.  I'll give you a little preview of what will be going on Superbowl Sunday.

Kick off may be at 4:30, but things get started early here with a ton of food prep.  As one of my guests put it, it's best not to eat for a week before coming just so you have enough room for all the food.  Guests will start arriving about 2 and the fight for seating begins.  We don't have a huge place, but everyone makes room for each other.  Beer roulette has become a staple game at the party and everyone loves it.  We fill 2 large tubs with about 30 varieties of beer and cover the tubs.  You reach in and grab a random beer and the rule is you must drink it completely before pulling another.  The variety of beers included range from popular brands to foreign weirdness and plain old crap.  Everyone seems to stop what they're doing whenever anyone pulls a new beer to see what they might get.  We divide all the flavors evenly between the tubs and at half time the tubs switch side of the room to shake things up again.  But the big thing for me is the food.  I love putting it all together and try to mix things up and serve different dishes every year to keep things fresh.

My menu this year was a little hard to pin down because of the teams that made it in.  I usually try to find a theme food and do a cook off between the two cities involved. Last year I did a Indianapolis Hoosier Chili vs New Orleans Chili Con Carne and it was a hit.  Unfortunately Pittsburgh has a serious lack of good cook off style foods.  Did you know that the foods Pittsburgh is best known for are Heinz ketchup, Klondike bars and some strange sandwich with fries and coleslaw in the sandwich?  Not stuff that really lends itself to Superbowl foods so I decided to go a different route and we are doing sausage vs sausage.  Bratwurst for Green Bay and Kilbasa for Pittsburgh.  I am doing 20 of each served on s mini hotdog buns with a slice of pepper jack cheese on each and I am stacking them into the shape of a football stadium with a "field" in the center made of bean dip with sour cream lines on the field.  One half of the stadium will be the Brats and the other half the Kilbasa.  This will probably arrive at the beginning of the second quarter.  To start there is a cheese and cracker platter, potato skins with cheese and bacon, taquitos, bacon wrapped cocktail wieners baked in a vanilla burbon brown sugar and my nephew's famous cheese bung.  What is that you ask?  It's an amazing cheese dip baked in a sour dough loaf.  The sausage stadium will be accompanied with Heinz ketchup and a homemade hot mustard.  At half time I start cooking chicken wings usually about 15 different flavors and if I'm lucky, I'll see the last minute or so of the game.  It's fun though and I can't wait to do it again next year!