Winter

So winter has hit. And all the glory that comes with it.

~I'm sick. And have been sick since Dec 14th. It hasn't gone away. Kind of sad when I miss the last few days of school before winter break because my immune system couldn't keep whatever germs my students decided to give me. Still sick. Coughing (I wish you could get an ab workout with coughing; I'd have a six pack so far), my lower back still hurts, all the loveliness of whatever it is I have. To make matters worse, when I went to the doctor, even he had no idea what it is.

~My car decided to go bonkers yet again. After I thought it was fixed, the same problem plus a bit more started happening. Coolant spilling everywhere when you stop and turn the car off, plus steaming. Hoses changed. Spilling stopped for a while but the steam kept going. Kind of unnerving when you're driving and steam is coming from under your hood. So the car has been in the shop since the 22nd because "of the age of the car, we have to custom order the part". My car is from '95. It really isn't that old, but apparently it is in car years. In the past year I've spent a large amount keeping this vehicle running. So that means I may have to get a newer vehicle soon. Yeah, not too happy especially after I found out how little my vehicle is actually worth with a trade in.

~It's snowing. Yes, snowing. Multiple days of snowing. 2 feet at least in my yard since the 24th. Poor Jakob has been shoveling the snow every day when he gets home from work. I tried it one afternoon and ended up sliding down the stairs. Yeah, not doing that again.

I guess the one good side to all this is I got to spend a lot of time in the house. I haven't really gotten anything done, but it's been nice to just sit and veg.

Book Launch Photos

Here are a couple photos from the book launch for Michelle's Bonded. Yep, the Cinder's dress came back into play (even though I've gained a few pounds) and the purple dress is from the depths of my costume closet. I think I wore it in high school for a show or something.

I tried to find another person to dress as the third character, but they couldn't commit until late and by then I was already on my way up and didn't have anything with me for them. Looks good though, doesn't it?

I think Michelle is explaining here how the dress came to be and what happened at the fabric store; long story short here, I headed for the "blue" fabric while Michelle headed to the earth tones. But you can see it's a bit tight on me but happy I could do it for you Michelle--and love the darker hair on you.

Pictures from Halloween

Here are a couple of pictures from the Halloween party we went to. I didn't take photos so these are from a friend.

 Like I said in another post, I did my take on SteamPunk--or at least the start of it. I made the shirt a long time ago--in fact, that shirt is on a book cover I helped style for--and then the rest were things I either had in the costume room or Jakob had in his leather stuff. Those little embellishments I made, including putting things on the belt. You'll find close ups of those on my costume blog. And I wasn't wearing the correct shoes (they started to hurt) and the corset isn't laced as tight as it was during the school day and I don't think I'm wearing every little detail I was wearing earlier but.

This is the Jedi costume that I helped design but Jakob did most of the sewing. I did the majority of the pinning because he still doesn't understand how to pin certain things, but he did most of the sewing and I'm proud of him for doing that. The darker fabric doesn't photograph all that well, but it looks really rich in person.

Almost over. . . already?

Wow, it's November already. Time has kind of flown this year.

Now, around our house, being dressed up in a costume is almost a daily occurrence. It really isn't all that strange, so when Hallowe'en really comes around I don't necessarily want to dress up. This year was about the same, although a faculty member at the school wanted to dress and I allowed him to borrow a couple of pieces that I had and then he asked me to do a "partner" costume to his. We Steampunked it, and of course I really didn't get any pictures. Didn't really think about it until later that evening when we were at a Hallowe'en party thrown by one of my friends. I think someone might have gotten a picture of Jakob and I, but I don't know. Oh well. If I ever want to recreate my costume I just have to go downstairs and pick everything out again. But I did have some fun putting together some Steampunk accessories. Check out my costume blog for pictures about that.

Last night we were invited to a book launch for a friend of mine, Michelle Argyle. If you remember a couple of years ago, I did a costume for a cover of a book (and happened to model it as well). It was her book. Well, 2 years later and 2 more books, she decided to make 1 big book of the 3 stories and it was "launched" last night. I'll see if I can pull a couple of pictures off her blog to put on here, but yes, I did wear the Cinders dress again (and I have gained a few inches around my midsection--the dress was tight!) But it was fun. The drive up was a bit long considering a deer had caused a 4 car pile-up on the freeway.

Jakob is prepping for a new show, A Christmas Carol. No, he's not singing--at least that is what I've been told--but he does have a big role. He's the narrator, Mr. Charles Dickens. It's for a dinner theatre company from SLC. Jakob doesn't normally do dinner theatre, but he's happy to be preforming and in a role that is more than just a bit part. Hopefully I'll be able to put a few pictures up. But the fun part about this is I can go to any show I want for free (they have a "free for spouses" clause for all their performers, yay!) and it'll be nice to see Jakob in a show that is more than just a few bit parts.

As for me, I'm just rolling along. I am sewing and designing a few things, although I don't really have a project in play at the moment. I am contemplating a new job but I'm happy that I have something right now that at least pays the bills. I'm just not happy with where I am and what is going on. I did get my results from the GRE back and lets just say that a Master's program isn't in my future. I have never tested well and especially in math (there are other things there that prevent my math stuff, but we're not getting into that here right now). The Quantitative section (or math) is what most programs look at when accepting or denying admission and judging by my "skills" in that area, I can't get in.

Life moves on. =)

Glad that's over with

For about 3 solid weeks I've been on edge. Stress and more. From having to deal with costumes for a "last minute" film shoot, dealing with 2 high-stakes tailgates, a trip to a conference with my mother to present, and yesterday with the GRE. Yeah, I'm wiped out. I can feel a cold coming on because now that my system isn't on Red Alert, it's given way to whatever I had and letting it take over.

Happy it's all done with.

Star Wars Reads Day

Last Saturday was Star Wars Reads day and I've been planning for it for a while. I've known about it for many months but I couldn't say anything until they had announced it and then . . . I just forgot about telling other people about it. Most people that were close to me knew about it and I guess that is good enough for me. 

Jakob, Adam, Michael and I were able to do 2 events yesterday, both at Barnes & Noble bookstores.  One was a bit better received and planned than the other but they were both fun. It got a good response, at least for the day. Having it on the first weekend of October doesn't work too well here in Utah, but we had an okay response from the public.

Here are some fun pictures from West Jordan and Orem.

Yes, they made me get in at least 1 picture

I don't know if you can see it too well, but Jakob has a black "Angry Birds" ball in his hand.  I don't play the game but I guess that means something to everyone else. . . . .

Adam's family stopped by. This is his pretty daughter.

The store employees strike back. . . .

Bit better

So the film shoot went off a bit better than I had hoped it would. My mom decided to come along and drive the truck so Jakob and I could get a bit more sleep before the shoot. Worked out pretty well until I started having some car sickness and I couldn't sleep anymore. Jakob was able to sleep all the way up there--until we started not being able to see the road signs and I needed Jakob's eyes to help look.

We were up in Oakley. Never heard of it? Neither had I before this. It's actually quite beautiful up there--and I had more bars and faster coverage up there than I do in town most days.

The actual filming got started a bit late and it was COLD! at the beginning. I'm glad that my mom decided to stay in the truck and let me use her large heavy coat. I just wish I would have remembered my gloves. After getting everyone dressed, the make-up girls were a bit slow but they got everyone covered. We had some Divas when it came to the make-up---and believe it or not, it wasn't the girls; it was the men! Yeah, some of the men had a problem with the fact that they were getting covered in "dirt" and "blood" and "tattoos". Most of the girls were okay with it. We even had one girl with a bloody head wound who was perfectly fine with her hair getting matted from it.

Once filming got started, I was able to relax a bit and watch. They really pushed the timing and I hope they got everything that they wanted from it because I didn't get a picture of what every individual was wearing (dropped the ball on that one) so I don't know if I could recreate it if necessary.

While I had fun, I'm glad that the shoot is over. I think I packed too many things in such a short period of time and I'm now paying for it--just a bit worn out and tired. The next couple of weeks are still kind of packed, but not as hectic as that. I have to work a football game this Friday, Star Wars Reads Day on Saturday, and next week I leave for Birmingham for a conference on Wednesday. Will I get some time for myself somewhere in there? I'll try.  :s

As soon as I have some pictures, I'll upload them.  =)

I'm Grumpy. . .deal with it

This is not going to be a happy post.

That is seriously what I want to say to a lot of the parents who I'm dealing with at the moment and the situation I've put myself in for the next couple of weekends. Right now is Parent Teacher Conferences. Something that I've always despised. I hated them when I was a student and now that I'm a teacher, I hate them even more. I've got better things to do than to sit from 1-7:30pm waiting for parents to come and chat with me. I don't want to see the parents who actually come, I need to see the parents who don't come and there is nothing you can do to get them to come. Yeah, I'm to that point. If you'd like to know more, just head over to my teacher blog. It gets a bit juicer over there.

But yeah, I think I've put too much on my plate for such a short period of time. I've got to work at the football games (which are a pain!). I have a film shoot this Saturday that I'm not at all prepared for and that I really don't feel like doing anymore (none of which is really my fault). Next weekend is Star Wars Reads day and I've got to try and get everything set for that day and very few things are coming together and it is driving me bonkers! That also means working with another group, which is normally okay, but recently it has been a complete and utter pain. I'm kind of happy that the change in command is going to happen soon and perhaps I can let someone else take care of things now and I can go back to just being myself.

That being said, I'm stuck here at the school not being able to get anything done for this weekend because I need to be home or shopping for things. And since I am at the end of the alphabet, I get to sit by the stairs and have to deal with those little pests who's parents don't care where they are or what they're doing, so they are--of course--playing on the stairs. Knocking the powercords out of the sockets,  and knocking over the chains with the signs that actually say "Stay Off Stairs". Yet do they work with it. . . no. Frustrating. And then I get the parent who comes and yells at me for telling her kids to stay off the stairs because she doesn't want to deal with them and that is the only way she can is to have them run around away from her. Yeah, not happening.

Some situations I just don't want to handle right now. I feel like I'm about to break down. . . . .

He's back!

Monday Jakob got back from a week long cruise with his family. No, I didn't go and no, I won't be getting into it here. But as I was looking through the pictures he took I realized two things:

We seriously need to take more pictures dressed up and I'm happy his goatee is back! =)

Gym buff? Not me

I have been lazy. There I said it. I have been extremely lazy. Since I stopped dancing full time, I let things go and my figure has suffered. Yes, many people who know me won't see too much of a difference, but I do (there is also a disaster of artificial hormones from 3 years ago that my body hasn't recovered from) and I don't like it. I like me and my personality but I don't like the shell that it's in. Is is alright to call it a shell? I guess that's the word I'm going to use right now. 

So earlier this summer we bought a gym membership. I never thought I'd be one of these people who goes to the gym at the end of the day but I have become that. Not after a lot of gnashing of teeth and some panic attacks. It took me almost a month after buying the membership to actually get myself into the gym. I don't really understand where my anxiety comes from but I would pull into the parking lot all ready to go in and PANIC! so I would sit in the car until it came down and when I would try to pull the door handle, the panic would come back so I would just drive home. Pathetic, isn't it. So finally I was able to take some calming tea before I went and I got myself in the gym. Luckily I think I go early enough in the afternoon that not too many people are around and that may help me in the long run. Also, Jakob is going to go about the same time I do and that may help.

But, because of almost 4 years of not really doing exercise, my body is revolting against the movement. A 30 minute moderate walk/jog plus stretching makes my hips and knees not happy for days after. Yes, I'm complaining because not being able to walk normally for days afterwards in not happy. 

My goal is to stick with it for the rest of the year and see how things go from there. 5 months should be a good amount of time to get me back into the groove of actually getting my butt moving again. Hopefully I'll be able to control these panic attacks enough to be able to attend a couple of dance classes for adults.

Wish me luck.

Springville World Folk Festival

So last Saturday night was the wrap up of Springville Folk Festival and I was able to be a part of the Springville Folk Ensemble and part of the production crew. I made the costumes for the ensemble's Charleston closing number. While we only danced twice (the opener and the closer), it was a fun experience; tiring but fun.

Some of the groups there were a bit. . . well, lets just say that it was not the "usual" goings on. The Austrian boys were a bit much at times, the Russian dancers were fun (but not the Russian you think of, they were from Siberia and had a very "asian" look to them), the Croatians were singing everywhere they went--including on stage. But it was fun to get into that environment again.

Photo by Janneke Marquez Photography

The 11 female costumes I made. I talk about them more on my costume blog.

Photo by Ananda Henriksen

Our "opening" number. We each had a country that we were supposed to represent. I was part of the Bulgarian section (and apparently I didn't get the memo on the bangs--you look great ladies).

Photo by Ananda Henriksen

After the Saturday night show they needed help taking up the stage since they were told last minute that it needed to be up by Monday morning and no one really wanted to come back on Sunday to get it done, so a few of us stayed and started taking up the stage. The show ended at 10:40pm that night and about 11pm is when they started getting it up. There were 4 other people helping besides those pictured. It was about 1:45am by the time I got home and I had to get up early to take Jakob to the airport the next day, so I didn't get much sleep. Plus, by the look on my face in the photo, I was already ready to drop when we finished.

All-in-all, it was a great experience, one that I want to do again if possible in the future.

Quick June Trip

So with a lot of planning, saving, (and help from my lovely mom) we were able to go to Disneyland for a few days. It was . . . interesting. I guess planning didn't help the fact that I had a 4 day conference right before we left. I was gone from Monday-Thursday evening (arrived at 8pm) and had an 8am flight Friday. Also, Jakob was fighting a pretty bad head cold. But despite the fact that for the first couple days I wasn't feeling all that great, it was fun to be able to spend some time with family. And a huge thanks to my dad who stayed home and house/kitty-sat for us.

DAY 1: FRIDAY

So after arriving around 10am, we dropped off our luggage at the hotel and headed to the park. And I was hungry so we went to the place that we would eat the most at: The Jolly Holiday Station. It was the Mary Poppins theme eatery at the end of Main Street. It also had the cheapest food. We ate there many times during the weekend. Tomato Basil soup and Grilled Cheese sandwich. I was happy.

Yeah, flying is not my favorite thing and it takes me a while afterwards to "relax". And after only a few hours of sleep the night before and traveling, I wasn't feeling all that great.

We decided to walk to the back of the park and look around Toon Town for a while. Jakob had fun pulling on some of the boxes that made sound.

And he expected the TNT to make a boom, but I think all it did was "meow". Yeah, not what I expected either. There were a few other things that we wanted to get pictures of, but there were a bunch of little kids running around and a few parents not caring what they did, so we decided to go away. Which is really sad because there is a water fountain back there that has colored lights so you're drinking "colored" water. It's cute.

One of the rides we went on again and again and again (probably because the longest we spent in line was 5 -10 minutes) and the fact that my mom and I get motion sickness really easily (this is something new for me) it was a fun ride to sit down on and just relax. Pirates of the Caribbean. Loved looking at some of the changes they've made.

Another ride that my mom and I went on a few times. Yeah, you can tell that Michael isn't that excited about it. One thing I learned is when you're at the station that has the telegraph going on in the background, it is actually tapping out the speech that Walt Disney gave on the opening day of Disneyland.

We stayed the first night for the fireworks afterwards. It was actually kind of cold, so I was happy that I brought with me a jacket. Jakob didn't pack a jacket so off we went to find a jacket that he liked. We ended up finding a Star Wars jacket he liked. It wasn't Disney, but I think that he liked it better than something really "Disney".

After the fireworks we decided to hit up Star Tours. The last time we went on it was before the "revamp" and I was actually able to enjoy it. This time, not so much. Within the first few minutes, I had to close my eyes and just listen to everything. It was cute with C-3PO and R2 now controlling the pod.

And afterwards we did have to do the classic Leia-With-The-Droid thing. Yes, it isn't R2, but it was cute anyway.

On our way out of the park we stopped for a picture with the castle. Yes, I look like I'm about to kill someone, but I really was enjoying my time. I was just tired.

DAY 2: SATURDAY

We decided to start off in California Adventure.

They had just opened (the day before) the Cars Land. It was absolutely crazy packed! But it was really well done. I loved the little details. It really made you feel like you were walking around Radiator Springs.

My mom is a big fan of Ferris Wheels but this one has a "sliding" feature that we didn't like. But we did enjoy the "Goofy Conducts" water feature. It was hot that day compared to the day before.

Michael could have gone on the Screamin' California over and over and over. I was a once-and-done, but Michael went a few more times. 

One feature that both parks included was a "Single Riders" line. Michael really enjoyed that. He can make friends with almost anyone so the rides that he went on by himself he came of smiling and those around him were laughing.

I had to have some sort of crafty moment with my camera and I like Michael's picture more than Jakob's. We were waiting for Soarin' Over California.

We had to do the Muppets 3D. It's just something we've always done since all of use grew up with the Muppets and it was in homage for my dad (since he didn't come on the trip).

Jakob and I had a few times we broke away and did things together. My mom wanted to go over to the other park because California Adventure is really, really, really, loud and she was getting a headache. So we were able to go into the Sorcerer's Workshop area. I really loved the details around. I took so many pictures of how the room looked.

I was trying to get Maleficent, but it just kept giving me the Evil Queen from Snow White. Eh, at least it was a villain. 

And of course I needed the classic car they had in the park entrance.

Short little backstory: my sunglasses broke while I was at the conference earlier in the week and I thought I had repaired them and they lasted for the first day, but by the second day they weren't usable anymore. So in my quest to find another set I liked, Michael found these for me. He has good taste.

DAY 3: SUNDAY (last day at the parks)

We had planned to do the Radiator Springs rides on Sunday, but found out something rather interesting:

If you clicked on the picture and looked at what Michael is pointing at, it does say "300 Minute Stand By Wait". That means over 5 hours of waiting. And all the fast passes were gone within 1 hour of the park opening. Needless to say, we didn't go on the rides out there.

But we did have fun looking at everything.

Jakob wanted a set of ears and we found a few but they wouldn't put his name on it because apparently they can only do certain styles. That's fine with me, I'll do it at home for free. =)

I am a Maleficent junkie. Favorite villain. Favorite character. I will grab anything with her on it. Obsessive? Yes and I enjoy it.

We had to do the carousel. And I learned that all the horses on the carousel are different. None are repeated.

The boys tried to pull the sword from the stone. There was a little girl who was amazed watching them. When they stopped and were laughing, she said "You aren't very strong if you can't get it out". I was laughing.

Another homage for my dad. We went on this a bunch of times, including once at night (which is completely different).

And of course you can't leave without ice cream. No matter how bad I was feeling, we had to do the ice cream.

DAY 4: MONDAY (last day)

This day was supposed to be laid back. We had been told that we could stay at the hotel past check-out since we had a late flight so the boys could swim and we could just veg out. The hotel decided to change our plans. We were told (rather rudely) that we had to leave before check-out and that they could hold our luggage. So we went out to get some food. 

Michael bought a leather Indiana Jones hat. It looks amazing on him.

But not so amazing on Jakob. Sorry hun. 

It was a fun weekend. Looks like we'll be saving up for another trip soon.