17-23 November 2014

Monday was spent trying to get costumes and laundry done.  Busy but nothing very exciting to report.

Tuesday was again nativity costumes.  With Adam traveling down South for work all week I can leave the machines out and not worry about having to total pick up everything each night.  All week he will be late with work and will miss dinner.  Makes it easy with the mess around from sewing.

Wednesday Julie Brown and Miyuki Boice came and helped with costumes.  It was nice to have the help.  We got a lot done.  Miyuki stayed until 2:30p.m. She was a really big help.  This is a huge project Sis. Baird wants done. The fabric is beautiful colors but is really proving to be a challenge to sew and I think to wear.  The costumes are turning out to look way bigger then they should because it doesn't hang.  My fear is after this year the ward won't use them anymore because they are so bulky. 

Emmie has dress rehearsal till 6:30p.m. so she is not going to Mutual tonight.  To much to do with home work and dance.

Thursday I took a break from sewing to go to an Orphanage Bizarre at the American Club.  It was fun to go with Coleen and Belinda.  It was nothing like the ones I would go to in Singapore.  Everything was stuffed into a small room.  There was nice stuff but also had some cheesy stuff.  Like cone shapes covered in peppermint disk made to look like trees.  Total Cheesy!  Was nice to have a morning with the ladies but was not what I expected.  Not sure I will spend the $30US to go next year.

We got stuck on the mountain when there was a scooter verses car accident.  I was so close to getting sick I thought I was going to die.   I was really ready to walk down if I had too.  I was not going to make it if we had to turn around and go back the other way.  Luckily I had walked to the street market this morning on the way back from school to get Emmie some flowers already.  The delay didn't put me behind.

First Night of the Show is today!  After school was spent getting Emmie ready for the Dance Production.  Saw Southham's on the way to the beauty salon to have Emmie's hair braided the special way for the production.  Addy is going to meet Lacie at 6:10p.m. after her ballet class and help her save a place in line.  Bailey her sister who is 12 will get a ticket at the door and I will give Addy our extra one.  So nice of Addy to go that early and help us.  I am meeting Amanda our tutor at 6:45, luckily she showed up early and we could head to the school to get in line.  Doors open at 7p.m.

The Dance Production was so well done.  It was Emmie's favorite cast.  I am really impressed!  So grateful she has this opportunity.  Wish Lacie did.  I loved all of it and can not wait to see the rest of the performances.  It was nice to take Amanda and she really enjoyed it.  So much that she stayed the whole time instead of leaving early to catch her bus.  I just put her in a taxi afterwards.  Amanda normally doesn't take a taxi; they scare her.  Amanda said she had never been to anything like the Dance Production before.  Being in an auditorium like TAS was a first for her.  It is a very nice place to dance.  That is one of the things I loved about the show.  You could feel the music and the lighting was amazing!  So, so well done!  It was so nice that our friends the Gordans all came as a family to watch Emmie.  Coleen is Emmie's Young Woman's leader.  Glad I got Emmie some flowers. I wish I would have got a picture of the crazy HUGE arrangements given to some of the dancers.  The girl who played the nurse had 8!  She couldn't hold them all. Ladies stood all around her and held them up for pictures.  CRAZY!

 

 

We are thinking we should really check into modeling for Lacie.  Her pictures are being used all around town.  She was not excited for the almost life size one at the school that was displayed for several weeks.  It was a bulletin board of one of the visiting Authors coming to the school.  Well today he signed it and she got to take it home.  This was in front of the class which made her feel good since she was so worried the mean girls in her class would make fun of her.

 

The other picture is of her at Halloween time when Dairy Queen gave her a free Ice Cream cone!  She was so cute they gave Emmie one to just for being the big sister.  Full size cone! Friend told us to check out the Dairy Queen board.  Sure enough there was 2 pictures of Lacie and they posted it to their Facebook page too.  At least if she was modeling she would a.) know what the picture is being used for and b.) get paid for it. c.) not be shocked when she sees herself on a bulletin or bill board!



Friday So proud of Emmie for getting up and going to Seminary this morning.  She went to bed last night at about 11:30p.m.  I am dragging around I can't imagine how she feels.  5:15a.m. came very early this morning. 

 

Adam raced back from his audit in the South so we all could go to Emmie's Dance Production together.  It was not as good as the first night.  The leads didn't have the same chemistry and you could tell not as much dance experience.  They looked very nervous.  It was still nice but I really liked the other cast.  Still very well done.

 

Saturday was a super busy day for all of us.  Adam and Lacie left at 8:30a.m. to pick up kids and head up the mountain for Activity Days.  It was a hike that Adam had been asked to help with.  From there they came home to wish Emmie good luck and head off on a day of exploring around Taipei and Tamsui for Mango Ice.  It was for Lacie's Birthday date.  ALL Day long!  Things are always crazy around her birthday and this was a perfect opportunity while Emmie and I spent the day doing dance stuff.  Lacie even tried Squid on a stick for lunch!  Yep!  That is what you do when you spend the day with Dad.  You try new stuff.  Good thing she is up for that kind of thing.  Not so sure I would try squid on a stick!  Lacie had a very nice time with Daddy all to herself.  They got home so time after I left at 6:00p.m.

 Emmie had  two shows today.  The first was at 2P.m. which meant she had a 12p.m. curtain call.  I let her sleep until 11a.m..  I knew she was tired.  Then we hurried and tried to de-frizz her braid hairdo and off she went.   I went down at 1:15 because she had left her pony tails for her bun at home.  I decided to just got in line.  I saved a seat for Belinda and Allison Beck.  One of Emmie's seminary teachers Bro. Brown brought his little daughter on a date to it and sat with us.  The Allen's also came.  It was so nice to see so much support for her.  I met a mother of one of the girls that played the Nurse.  She is a senior.  Her mother is a dancer and figured I was Emmie's mom.  She said Emmie was fun to watch because she was so good.  She told me that for her to have so many up front spots as a freshman was unheard of.  The freshman are always in the back row, period!  That was very nice to hear.  The same cast as Friday night did the 2p.m. show.  They were much better.  Not as many nerves today.  I am excited to see how much the other cast improves tonight.

After the show Emmie and I walked down with a Junior friend of hers to subway.  We stopped along the way and bought Ms. Q and Mrs. Flemming flowers.  Emmie said she wished her flowers looked like this.  They were done lovely by the little gal in the corner of a hallway and only cost me $550NT.  I snuck back and got Emmie some.  This time she only charged me $250NT for a bundle.  I took all the flowers back to the condo with me till show time.

Emmie is the fifth from the left, front row.

Romeo and Juliet Dance Production Cast

 

Tonight's show moved me it was so beautifully danced.  The choreographers did such an amazing job telling the story through dance.  I loved the text message idea for the few things that just needed to be said.  The kid that dance Romeo tonight was so fun to watch.  He is a beautiful dancer.  Juliet was really good too.  You can tell she has a lot of training.  But Romeo is my favorite by far.  Emmie was so good.  It was fun to watch her dance with a confidence I have never seen in her before.  She had great facials, which is one of her weaknesses.  They dancers had to really show the emotions on their faces and act out scenes to tell the story correctly.  It was great!  Emmie has amazing lines and gorgeous feet compared to most of the Asians she dances with.

 

I got back to the school by 6:15p.m and there where already 20 people in line.  I asked the girl at the desk if she knew who Emmie Batteen was.  She asked me..."The blonde Freshman"?  I said yep that is her.  She took Emmie' secret sister present back to her for me.  I saved a seat for Dori and Colton Shaner.  It was a crazy feet!  I had to do the stand wide American thing because they began to close in on me as it got closer to doors opening.  The show tonight is sold out.   The 20 people in front of me were mostly little boys about Lacie's age saving spots in line while they played their electronics.  By 6:45p.m. I was about 60 back and hadn't moved. Everyone of them had a Mom, Dad, Aunt or two, Uncles, Grandma and Grandpa extra that joined them in line.  It was crazy.  I still got my good seat but I was texting Dori telling her to hurry or I might have to pull a crazy dance mom move. 

 

The show was even better this time around.  Truly a joy to watch!  I am excited to order the video and see photos!  I hope there are good ones of Emmie I can get my hands one.  You where not allowed to take pictures or video during the show! :(  Emmie's friend Cynthia was the nurse tonight.  Such a sweet girl.
 

Thanks to all the friends that came to the Saturday night show.  Emmie really appreciated the support from so many of you.  Dori and Colton Shaner, the Compton girl's, and the Klump girls.  So nice to know you are all willing to support her.  We have great friends!

 

Sunday was truly a day of rest around here after our busy week.  We had our usual meetings in the morning then spent the evening together.  We decided to put up our Taiwan Christmas tree tonight.  It is not quiet where we want it, but it will do for now.  It is a bit to American right now.  Hoping it will become the treasure our Singapore tree had become over the years.  A work in progress I guess.  We do have two Christmas seasons to get it looking the way we want.  I am hoping to find a lot more items at Chinese New Year for it.  Dad even gave up watching a foot ball game to play our Christmas music.  It is really hard to get in the spirit of the seasons when it is so hot and not anything holiday going on.  At least in Singapore there was a lot of special events planned to get you in the holiday spirit.  Like Singapore Snow that was every weekend all of November and December.  Nothing like that here.  There is a bit of Christmas décor up but it has been up since last year and is old and faded! Hopefully it will be replaced soon with new fresh stuff.  It did help our moods to put our own Christmas tree up and have hot coco and Christmas Music tonight.  We decided with leaving for Sun Moon Lake on Wednesday that it was better now then when we got back.  We always do it the day after Thanksgiving.  Had to change it up a bit here this year!  Hard to believe Thanksgiving is next Thursday.

 

What I love about Taiwan.... Lots of opportunities for the girls to grow in way they would never do at home.



Happy Birthday to.... Can you believe NO Birthdays in our clan this week?

{I have had to catch up the last 4 weeks of super business in two long sittings.  Thanks for over looking all the grammar  and spelling mistakes. Not my strong suit and especially in a hurry.  Thought it was more important to get these events written down then spend hours proofing.  :)}