yet another busy show weekend . . . is anyone sensing a pattern here?

the last few weekends have been jam packed with shows and this past weekend was absolutely no exception.  we spent the entire weekend working a major ballet that was parked in the theatre for an entire week.

all of last week was tech week for the ballet, then we had an educational show on friday during the day for over 600 students, followed by a public performance on saturday for over 700 people, and then finally the load out on sunday.  above are a few photos from the educational performance on friday morning.

wheph!

love, laurie 

bring it on!

the theatre where i work has been completely taken over and in tech mode all week prepping for a major ballet this weekend.  today we have over 600 students coming to see the show during the day followed by a packed house of 800 people tomorrow night.  wish us luck!

love, laurie

view from the top

the weather was absolutely beautiful on monday afternoon.  the sky was clear and the sun was shinning.  my co-worker and i took a few minute break to go enjoy the fresh spring weather on the roof of our building.  i couldn't believe the views from the top of the roof!

love, laurie

napping between piles of laundry

i was thrilled to be able to carve out a moment of time on sunday evening to get caught up on laundry!  i was in the process of folding ryan's clothes and putting them on the edge of the bed when leko decided that would be the perfect place to cuddle up.  what a cutie!

love, laurie

cute, cute husband

ryan was off for a few hours on thursday morning while i was at work prepping for thursday night's show.  before he came over to the theatre, he texted me two pictures which really made me smile.  the first was a snapshot of his outfit (because we always help approve each other's attire) and the second was a snapshot of a loaf of banana bread that he made (because i kept saying for days that i wanted to use up our two old bananas to make banana bread, but didn't have the time).  what a cute, cute husband!

love, laurie

another theatre-packed weekend

talk about "rinse and repeat" . . . this weekend was another theatre-packed weekend!  we kicked off the weekend by working a live performance of the "what the fresh hell: laughing in the face of motherhood" podcast.  the show was so incredibly funny!

on friday, we worked "semi-toned" which is an award-winning all-male a cappella group from england.  i have been looking forward to this show for the past two months and it was even better than i had hoped it would be!

then on saturday, we worked the annual spring concert of our local penn state university campus.  the student performers were really great.

finally, on sunday we capped of the weekend with the load-in of "jewels" which is a huge 60th anniversary performance from a local dance company.  that show will be parked at the theatre all week long teching and rehearsing for the performances next weekend.

for those who are keeping track from last week, i'm thrilled that i was finally able to carve just a few hours out of our crazy weekend between calls to finally grocery shop and do laundry!  small victories!!!

love, laurie

ps: you can check out my photo albums from the shows on my theatre's facebook page: here, here, and here.

reduce waste for earth day

earth day is this weekend.  here are a few simple ways to reduce waste every day of the year in order to keep mother earth beautiful for generations to come:

1. use reusable grocery bags when you go to the store instead of paper or plastic

2. opt for an email receipt instead of a printed receipt when you make a purchase

3. go paperless with your bills and pay them online instead of receiving/sending paper bills

4. save old boxes instead of buying new ones to store things, move, or wrap presents

5. donate old clothes and house-hold items instead of sending them to a landfill

love, laurie

a theatre-packed weekend

this past weekend truly was packed.  we started our long weekend in the theatre on thursday night with the load in and dress rehearsal for a ballet, followed part one of the load in for the national tour of chicago.  friday morning continued part two of the chicago load in, followed by a performance of the tour of the rat pack in the evening.  on saturday we stepped out of the theatre to take a break and help ryan's parents begin to move.  on sunday we worked the performance of the ballet, and then loaded out chicago.

this weekend coming up feels like a "rinse and repeat" because we have a show tonight, tomorrow, saturday, and then a load in on sunday.

does anyone want to go grocery shopping for me and do my laundry?  ha!  even though our calendars are totally insane for spring show season, i'm not complaining at all because i'm beyond grateful that i get to do what i love in the theatre with ryan!

love, laurie

kitten cuddles

wow, the past few days have been power packed.  in addition to helping move some of ryan's parents' stuff into storage on saturday, we worked several different shows this past weekend.  this coming weekend we have three different shows plus the load in for another show that starts next week.  wheph!  last night i came home late after teaching dance class, showered, and collapsed in bed.  i was so grateful that leko jumped up to join me and cuddle.  i always love the positions he gets into when he sleeps!

love, laurie

movin' on out . . .

a few pictures taken by ryan's mom from saturday's u-haul adventure

love, laurie

packin' on up!

ryan's parents have decided to move up near us and we're excited for them to live a whole lot closer to us than they used to.  although they don't officially close on their new house until mid may, they needed to get a jump start on moving some of their belongings.  in between the many different shows that we worked this weekend, we spent part of the day on saturday helping ryan's parents with the first part of their move.  we got up bright and early, made a stop at dunkin donuts, rented a 15-foot u-haul truck, and headed down to ryan's parents' house to start the packing.  ryan (who is a tetris master) packed every square inch of that truck full before we hit the road and drove back up to our area to put everything in a storage unit.  of course, i couldn't resist snapping a picture of our truck driver for the day before we began our journey.  luckily, we were able to accomplish a lot and move a bunch of boxes . . . but there's still a lot more to go!

love, laurie

fun links

happy friday the 13th!  we're over here preparing for a whirlwind weekend with a packed schedule.  it's going to be crazy for sure!  since it's friday, here are a few fun links i found around the internet recently . . .

1. a cool ladder plant stand

2. sign me up for homemade fig newtons

3. took this quiz and i got my exact age!

4. this made me laugh

5. what really happens when you donate your unwanted clothes

6. a quick workout under 10 minutes for spring

7. talk about a view!

8. i'm not happy about this at all

9. proof that cats = liquid, very true

have a great weekend!

love, laurie

this time last year . . .

time is so funny.  something that happened days ago can feel like months ago, while something that happened years ago can feel like weeks ago.  it's hard to believe that this time last year we were getting ready to leave for our easter weekend trip to disney world.  i'm so glad that we have all of those great photos to look back on, especially when we have crazy busy schedules like we do now with no vacation in sight!  ha!

love, laurie

cuddle kitten

our schedules have been super full so i'll happily take any chance i get to sit for a few minutes with this cuddle kitten!  he is such a sweet lover!

love, laurie

my view from stage left

spring show season is well underway and we were thrilled when it worked out that ryan and i were able to work together on a show sunday afternoon.  we both ended up as deck hands back stage on sunday and it was the first time in a long time that we got to run a show together from the same wing.  i snapped these two pictures on my phone before the show during rehearsal of my favorite stage hand!

love, laurie

saturdate

a schedule change allowed us to actually have some free time together on saturday and we were thrilled about it!  we took advantage of it and went out to breakfast on saturday morning at one of our all-time favorite breakfast places, which is something we haven't been able to do together for way too long.  it was such a nice saturday date and exactly what we both needed to kick off spring show season!

love, laurie

easter tulips

ryan's parents bought us the prettiest easter tulips over the weekend.  they are so bright and colorful which is exactly what we need after that crazy winter.  we've been enjoying them and can't wait until it is consistently warm enough for our flowers to bloom in our yard!

have a great weekend!
love, laurie

a little lunch date

ryan and i both have had such hectic schedules lately that we have felt like two ships passing in the night.  on saturday we had a rare moment when we were both free for a little bit for lunch before work.  we grabbed lunch at a new-ish restaurant and it was so good.  we'll take any little date we can get since our schedules won't be clearing up any time soon as we are entering into spring show season!

love, laurie

birthday celebrations

while we were gathered together to celebrate easter on sunday, we also celebrated ryan's mom's birthday.  although our birthday celebrations were a little belated because ryan's mom was in north carolina on her actual birthday, we were glad that we still got the chance to see her to celebrate a few weeks later.

love, laurie

easter sunday 2018

we had a lovely time celebrating easter with our families on sunday.  we started the day with our traditional easter brunch and annual easter scavenger hunt at my parents' house.  in the afternoon, we headed down to ryan's parents' house for easter dinner.  it was so nice to have our families gathered together to celebrate easter.

hope everyone had a lovely easter too!

love, laurie

mother nature's april fools joke

a good majority of the winter snow had finally melted, and plants were just starting to pop up around our yard.  after a very crazy winter, it was finally starting to look like spring was on the horizon.  then mother nature played an absurd april fools joke on us last night into this morning and dumped several inches of snow again.  this is getting ridiculous!  i'm starting to think now that spring will never come!  i have officially had enough of this endless winter!

winter, enough is enough!

spring, where are you?!?!

love, laurie