Thursday, September 18, 2008

What a week...

This past week had us a bit overwhelmed. On Friday evening, Brynn was in her room and started screaming hysterically. Now, Brynn is quite a drama queen, so screaming hysterically no longer alarms me. I went into her room and found that her ceiling was leaking. There was a washbasket full of clean clothes and stuffed animals that was now completely waterlogged. Tim was still at work, so I called my dad to see what I should do. Temporarily I have a tarp on the attic insulation (there is no floor up there yet) with a couple of towels on it. This weekend we have to crawl up there and lay down some new shingles. Not looking forward to that...I am afraid of heights!
Saturday was Brynn's ACT classes and her first audition. This was for an agency out of Los Angeles. She was a total wreck until about 10 minutes before her turn. After she came back out of the audition, she said,"wow, that was really easy". If the company is interested in her we will hear from them in about two weeks.
Sunday Mara got stung by a wasp. Her hand and arm were swollen to about twice its normal size. It was really red and itchy and she just couldn't stop scratching.
Sunday night we started to get the effects of Hurricane Ike. The electricity flashed on and off several times (during the Steeler game no less). It finally went off completely around midnight.
Monday morning, still no electricity. We had a meeting with Brynn's gifted teacher at 8:30, so we loaded up the kids and went to school. We met with the teacher and we talked about the storms and no electricity and things like that. About 40 minutes into our meeting, Tim and I found out there was actually a two hour delay for school that day! Thank goodness we had that meeting or I would have been frantic waiting for the bus.
The electricity came back on later that afternoon at our house. But, we still didnt have water... I called Tim (again) and he came home to check it out. We ended up calling a plumber who gave us a name of a well guy. We took showers at the YMCA that night and the well guy came out to the house Tuesday afternoon.
We now have water, electricity, a healed wasp bite and 1 slightly less hysterical kid in the house. We'll see what happens with the roof this weekend!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Our Anniversary Weekend

This past weekend, Tim and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. I cant believe it has been that long! I think it is making me start to sound a little old...



On saturday, Tim surprised me with tickets to go see Wicked on stage at the Benedum Center downtown. We both read the book years ago and we both heard that the show was great. well, great doesnt begin to describe it. It was unbelievable! The scenery was the best i have ever seen. The music just sticks in your head. The cast was from the traveling production and they were great. The girl that played Elphaba (the wicked witch of the west) was so awesome. She played the part so well and what a great voice. I am ready to go see it again. brynn was annoyed she couldnt go, and next time i will definitely take her. She will just fall in love with it!

On Sunday I surprised Tim and the girls with a trip to the Pittsburgh Renaissance Faire. Tim and i went to the PA Ren Faire lots of times when we were in high school but the girls have never been to one and didnt really know what to expect. brynn donned her knight costume but wasnt sure if she would wear it or not. When we first got there, Tim and I were really disappointed. The initial entry really left a lot to be desired. A lot of open space with not many shops or stages and several people who dressed up for the day but werent actual actors at the show. just people in garb loitering around the front gates. Ok, so I apologized to Tim but said, lets go explore.


We first got a bite to eat and the food? Not so good. Tim had beef stew in a bread bowl and the girls and I had really bad pizza. then we watched an elf spin goats wool on a spinning wheel, interesting to see the spinning, but not a lot of draw going on. Then we watched a glass blower. This guy was really neat and he did a good show. Every hour he would do a demonstration and he did it well. He explained each step while he was doing it and explaining it so we could understand what he was talking about. He made a tankard while we were there. Really cool.
Next we walked down the hill and saw several shops and then probably the coolest thing i have ever seen in my entire life...a Carillon. A carillon is a musical instrument composed of bells. if you can imagine a huge pipe organ, replace the pipes with bells and that is a carillon.


The name of the group was "Cast in Bronze" The music played by the mysterious Spirit of the Bells. From the pictures below, you can kind of get a feel for the show. It was haunting and beautiful. I recommend you check out his music.


Finally it was starting to get good. At the end of the day, we were all sad to leave and had a lot of fun.

Brynn was knighted by King Henry VIII and proclaimed Dame Brynn to the realm. The girls also rode a barrel ride.