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Here's a very bad picture of the stage flats we are painting. Last Saturday we had a 4 hour musical rehearsal at our house and while the kids were practicing, most of their dads stayed for the morning to build these great flats for us. There's 5 of them, and they're all 8ft x 4ft. We are so thankful for our church men who built these for us, because we're not too good at that sort of thing. :) When they were finished, we got to work painting them to look like the inside of a barn. Some of the crafty, artsy ladies from church came over on Monday to help us paint (and to break our trampoline...) and we'll hopefully have these completely finished within the next two or three days. 
With 30 kids ages 4-12, rehearsing a 60 minute musical gets confusing. From week to week, the smaller kids forget where they're supposed to be, what group they're supposed to sing with, or who their partners are for certain songs. As the director, I was losing my mind trying to tell the kids over and over again what group they're in, where to stand, etc. So the girls and I made these nifty little posters that have every scene and every song drawn out, including our curtain call at the end. We've blocked out each scene and labeled where each child is so that there is no confusion as to where anyone is supposed to stand. :)
A few shots from mine and Beth's room these last few days. Lots of crafts going on...we're making props, cards, posters, costumes, etc. 
And here's a sneak preview of 3 out of the 5 book costumes! These are our 3 booklets...Melody, Harmony, Rhythm. These are all handmade by COG people. Once the bodies were assembled and glued together, they were brought over here where we've done all the ribbon, names, and the decorating is still happening as we speak. My goal is to have all 5 books finished by this weekend. 
So...yeah. If you were doing this stuff, you wouldn't be blogging either! ;)
Believe it or not, I do have some good excuses for my blogging hiatus. Life in our house has been absolutely insane these last 6 weeks. For 3 weeks straight, we have had/will have people in our house every single day. Whether it's for Bible study, Family Dinner Nights, Theology Question nights, Psalty rehearsals, craft days, game nights, or just because they have nothing else to do, families from church have been here every single day and we will continue to have people here every day until the end of the month. None of this is a bad thing at all. We LOVE having people in our home, especially our church family, because, well, we love them. But it has kept us pretty busy, which I will use as Excuse #1.
Dad and Mom have spent years building up their reputation as friendly, loving, hospitable people. Any woman who walks inside is treated like a daughter and sister, any man like a son and brother, and any children like grandkids. Everyone who knows my parents know that our doors are always open, our table always has room for more plates, our rooms always have an extra bed, and kitchen always has room for one more handwasher. :) One of my good friends was over here a few days ago and of course, other people were coming and going as well. She told me how cool it was that all these people knew they could just come in...no knocking necessary, no invitation required.
And come in they do. Tonight we had around 85 people here, and smaller groups will be here every day for the next 2 weeks. The main reason we've had so many people in and out is because we are a week and a half away from our children's Psalty musical! Beth, Shelley and I are directing it and if I'm allowed to say so, it's going to be completely awesome. We have 30 kids in the production, a few adult actors, and a team of about 15 teenagers and young adults that we've recruited to help us backstage and in the sound booth. Because we don't have a church building, we're renting a theater building from a private school for the performance. We're only allowed to have it for one day, so most of our rehearsals have had to be on our deck which is the closest we can come to simulating the actual stage. We've had practices at our house at least once but sometimes twice a week and some have lasted up to 5 hours. And in San Antonio heat, it's not the funnest (Warren word) thing in the world. Our kids have been terrific though. They are working hard, despite the heat, and their musical is coming together nicely.
When I'm not directing rehearsals with 40-something people, the girls and I are spending the rest of our time making tons of props, making lists and schedules, sending out endless emails and making tons of phone calls, decorating 5 huge book costumes (this is Psalty, afterall), building and painting the enormous stage flats, blocking scenes and making posters, doing silly dances in our room to iron out the choreography, making countless trips to Lowes, Target, and Hobby Lobby for supplies, and basically eating, breathing, and living all things Psalty. (This is Excuse #2.) The reason we have not gone completely insane is because we have fabulous people helping us with all that, and I am very happy to delegate jobs and projects to willing parents and teenagers so I don't have to worry about everything.
I've taken alot of pictures of the whole process and was going to post them, but I'm on a slow computer that won't let me. I'll try again tomorrow so you can see the book costumes, the flats, our adorable kids, and our great helpers.
If you live anywhere in Texas, you NEED to come see our Psalty musical!! Our sweet kids have been working so hard for 7 months and it will be one entertaining night! I can't wait to see them put together everything they've learned and sing and dance their hearts out. Oh, and Shelley will be wearing a huge 10 pound yellow book costume. Who DOESN'T want to see that? :) Let me one of us know if you can come and we'll give you directions.
Covenant of Grace Church Presents
Psalty's Funtastic Family!
Saturday, July 26, 4pm
So we're off to Mexico! Nathan and I have the suburban loaded down with suitcases, pillows, sleeping bags, and lots and lots of DrPepper. The 6 of us will be driving, parent-less, to the border and we are praying we can cross border patrol with no problems. We also hope that the agents will not notice that Beth's birth certificate is not an original copy. We'll be filling up the 6 road trip hours with singing, trivial pursuit (in which I will kick everyone's butts), and most likely discussing theology and politics because we're nerds. Mom is home alone, pray for no more flooding!
It's been a while. I'm not the best blogger in the world. My mom intimidates me with all her posting and I feel I will never measure up...
Ok, not. I'm just busy. Like everyone else in the world. We are super busy getting ready for the mission trip to the Mexico border. We're leaving on Friday! Dad and Mom aren't going with us, so it's up to me to get all 6 of us ready for a week in the heat, dirt, and humidity. Our friend, Blair, and I are in charge of all the meals while we're down there. This means cooking and serving 3 meals a day for 6 days for 50+ hungry people. It also means doing all the menu planning, grocery shopping, and some meal prep before we leave on Friday. I thought it would be easy because we're both really good in the kitchen (if I may say so) but it ended up being more of a challenge than I expected. It's not easy finding meals that are easy to make in bulk, don't include too many perishable ingredients, will be healthy and filling for people who are doing physical labor, cost effective, and will appeal to babies all the way to grandparents. The good thing is, I'm good at cooking in large quantities. I always say that I'll never get married because I don't know how to cook for 2 people...only 40.
Today I've been setting up my brand new cell phone. !! We've had our old, cheap phones for several years and 5 of us have had the exact same phone. The phones were falling apart after a few months and really should have been replaced right then. But AT&T wouldn't let us get new phones till this month and this time we all got different phones. Of course Mom didn't get one because she's already cool with an iPhone. Here's the one I got...
And here's the picture that Abby took of Sam and me today with my new phone. Pretty good for a camera phone, right?
Summer school starts on June 10 and I sure am enjoying the break. Even though I'm busy, I'm not busy with school which is nice.
In medical news, well there's no news. My neurologist is conveniently on a long TDY so I haven't been able to get in to see him. Normally, I'd be fine with that because I don't like him but since I am running out of time with my insurance, it would be nice if he makes it back into town soon. I've had a few bad weeks in a row as far as pain, nausea, and dizziness go and I haven't been able to feel my hands and face for about two weeks. I am always always always extremely sensitive to lights and sounds but it's gotten alot worse during this bad spell. I've been in a perpetual bad mood because everything but complete quiet and darkness makes me hurt like none other. It hasn't been very pleasant to be around people who make noise or to have my eyes open between 7am and 10pm. I'm really praying this cycle ends quickly...I have too many other things to think about.
My spellchecker just told me that "friend" isn't a word. I had to go look it up on dictionary.com to make sure I wasn't going crazy. It is, so far, still a word.
Rowan wasn't super happy that he was ditched by his parents, but he was slightly amused by Addie. Holding them both at the same time kept all 3 of us quite content!
Wherever Addie is, there a camera will be also...
The piano also helped the babies be happy about their life, although you can't tell from Rowan's face. :)
Rowan finally had enough of Addie and enough of the large crowd of children, so we had some one-on-one time to get him to sleep. I sang hymns to get him to sleep, but Tiffany informed me later that he is only allowed to listen to classical music... Too bad.
The rest of the kids ate a ton of food, jumped on the trampoline, played board games, and danced outside. When it got dark, they all settled in the living room to watch Ice Age. Notice the strategically placed weapons. :)
Late at night, these babies were happy to see their moms again!
We had fun with all the kids here and we hope the parents enjoyed their night out!
Finals are over! This is my excited face.
I have four weeks before summer classes start and right now I'm thanking God that I didn't register for a Maymester class. This gives me time to do other things like work on the Psalty musical, wash my clothes, clean our bathroom, make bread, get ready for the mission trip, and of course sleep.
I am really excited about the church family mission trip. We're going to the Rio Grande Bible Institute and we're going as a church--grandparents,parents, teenagers, kids, babies, and all. Everyone goes, everyone works. This is cool because it will give the kids a chance to see beyond our church and have a frame of reference for the larger Body of Christ. The musical we're doing with all the church kids is actually centered around the Body of Christ and what it means to be a family with other believers. We've had great discussions about this during rehearsals and it's so much fun to watch these kids grow up in a community where being a part of the Body is a way of life, not just a Sunday School topic. Because our church is so close and we are truly a Family, the kids get to see every single day what it means to live as a community and what it means to serve and be served. This makes me more excited that we're all going on this mission trip together, so they can really see that it's not just COG that is the Body, it's all Believers around the world. It will be great for all of us to take what we've learned and practiced within our own church about loving and serving, and extend that to the people at the Institute.
Tomorrow night is the Agape Crisis Pregnancy Center Banquet. Our church has been supporting Agape for years and several people in our church are either counselors at the Center, board members, or other kinds of volunteers. The annual banquet has been a great way to raise awareness and support for the Center and they've usually had famous speakers such as George Grant and Alan Keyes. This is the third year in a row my sisters and I have done mass babysitting at our house for the banquet. We really want everyone in our church to be able to go and don't want childcare to be an issue. So tomorrow night, 25-30 COG kids will be dropped off at our house so their parents can get all dressed up and go to the nice banquet. We told the kids there'd be supper, snacks, capri suns (only for outside on the deck! : ), movies, and games. Should be fun! Wish us luck!
I'm sad that my psych class is over. I mean, I'm actually relieved because I really was mad by the end, but I'm sad that there will be no more stories. It was by far the most entertaining class I've ever been a part of, and I doubt any other class will come close to that level of insanity. So, here is your last story, as it happened the final week of class.
Several people told me to ask if I could do anything to change my grade in the class. So I asked. I explained what had happened about the volunteering assignments and assured him that I was not trying to blow it off. I reminded him that my entire body of work was nothing but straight As and that he had loved all of my papers. I also pointed out that I had not missed one single class period and had been an active participant (whether he liked it or not...) in lecture discussions. I told him I hoped he would see that I was a dedicated student and that I had done my best to take his class seriously.
He said he was sorry about the fallout with the volunteering but that there was nothing he could do about those missing points. While looking at his grade book, he made some quick calculations and said, "Cathryn, if you score an 80 on the exam today (the last one) and get a 100 on your paper (the last one), that will be enough points to bring your grade up to an 89, which I would bump up to an A for you. If you score a 60 on the exam and get at least an 85 on the paper, your grade can come up to a B."
That was enough for me to hear, as I knew that I would get 100s on both of the assignments. I had already turned in both the exam and the paper that morning (the exam was a take-home) so all I had to do was wait for the grades. The next day (last day of class), I came in and was very excited to see my new grades. I searched through the stack of papers and found mine. On the front of my exam, in red ink, "50". Seriously?? Then I looked at my paper, and in red ink it said, "80/B". That time I actually said, "Seriously??!!!" out loud.
Seriously, a take home exam, how could I get a 50? I compared my answers with the girl at my table who scored 100. Our answers were exactly the same! Below each of my answers he had written "citation needed" and had marked it wrong. Ok, y'all know me. I don't get mad easily. Even at times when I should be really angry, I'm usually just laughing and very amused. Yeah, you probably would have payed money to see me right then. I was mad and wasn't doing a great job of hiding it. I took my exam and the other girl's exam up to the professor and said, "I just want to know why I got these answers wrong and she didn't. They're the same answers." He looked at me and said, "You didn't provide citations." I said, "Seriously? My answers came from my notes, which came from your lectures in this class! Since when do we need references for class lectures?? Look, this girl didn't have any citation!" He looked very calm and said, "Hm, well, I guess I didn't catch that. I'll have to get with her and change that. I'm sorry about your grade though. I know you really wanted that B. You just really need to put in more effort next time and not try to rush through things, ok?"
Seriously. Oh, and my paper? He said it wasn't as meaty as the rest of mine had been. That's just great. So he purposefully graded me down just so my class grade would stay at a C.
And yes, I'm writing a letter to the Dean, even though it won't do anything. My professor is the chair of his department, so the Dean is the only place I can go. And I know...this won't affect my life in the long run. Worse things have happened to me. But it still makes me mad. The nursing board who looks at my application to begin clinicals will see my grades and I can't very well sit there and say, "Well, it wasn't my fault, I had a bad professor!"
So that's the end of the psycho stories. Hopefully next semester will be entertaining but not so aggravating. :)
With 30 kids ages 4-12, rehearsing a 60 minute musical gets confusing. From week to week, the smaller kids forget where they're supposed to be, what group they're supposed to sing with, or who their partners are for certain songs. As the director, I was losing my mind trying to tell the kids over and over again what group they're in, where to stand, etc. So the girls and I made these nifty little posters that have every scene and every song drawn out, including our curtain call at the end. We've blocked out each scene and labeled where each child is so that there is no confusion as to where anyone is supposed to stand. :)
A few shots from mine and Beth's room these last few days. Lots of crafts going on...we're making props, cards, posters, costumes, etc. 
And here's a sneak preview of 3 out of the 5 book costumes! These are our 3 booklets...Melody, Harmony, Rhythm. These are all handmade by COG people. Once the bodies were assembled and glued together, they were brought over here where we've done all the ribbon, names, and the decorating is still happening as we speak. My goal is to have all 5 books finished by this weekend. 
