We have a trip scheduled for the end of June/beginning of July. We will be going to a family reunion in Oregon via some national parks and Sacramento and then coming home via San Francisco and LA. It isn't for another 3 1/2 weeks but I have EVERYTHING planned out. I spend about 30 minutes a couple times a week looking for deals and activities to do.
I have our mileage and driving time charted with maps and directions to each campground/hotel we are staying in along with projected gas prices. I have figured out each activity (with the exception of Oregon because that's a family reunion and anything can go) with prices and have even bought tickets to everything with discounts I found online and made camping/hotel reservations. And all this information is printed out and put nicely in page protectors in a folder that is just waiting for us to leave on vacation. It was when I was figuring out food and which hotel gives us breakfast and which doesn't that a friend called. She asked what I was doing and so I told her. Luckily she knows me well enough and just laughed.
Did you know that other people DON'T do this?!?! I had a good laugh with her because she is so "fly by the seat of your pants" that they figure things out when they get there.
According to wikipedia, if you are a Type A personality you are "rigidly organized...push yourself with deadlines...[and] obsessed with time-management."
I guess they have me pegged! But luckily I know I'm like this and can laugh about it, most of the time. Bryan told me that we would be "spontaneous" for one part of the trip. We tried this before and to us this means not making reservations until the week of the activity! Daring, aren't we?! hahaha
Some missionaries go on missions and have to learn to stick to a schedule. I went on my mission to learn to relax about my schedule. The people in Guatemala did things on their own time. Church routinely began 20 minutes late because no one was there on time. It drove me nuts for the first few months but then I realized something. Not everyone is like me. And that's okay. I just have to keep reminding myself of that. ;)
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
FHE at Tuacahn
I got a phone call from our Bishop last week. He is the CEO of Tuacahn and they are presenting Mary Poppins this year. Some big-wigs from Disney were coming to see how well they were doing (because this is a major thing to have a Disney license to do their play) and they wanted to have a packed house. Bishop asked if I would coordinate with Scott Raine, the head of marketing, and distribute tickets to members of our Ward. I called Scott and he asked me how many tickets I thought we would need. I told him that we have a lot of people who work at Tuacahn but that we could easily use 150 tickets. He chuckled and said, "How about we block out 110 and see what happens."
I sent an email out to all the sisters in the Ward to let them know that tickets were available and that they needed to respond back to me by noon the next day (it was about 4 p.m.). Then I texted everyone and told them to check their email. By about 5:30 p.m., we had 110 tickets requested. The next morning, I had a wait list of another 29 tickets. I called Scott to ask if we could get some more tickets or if he just wanted me to cap it off at the 110. He said he would check and get back to me.
At noon, I had 140 tickets requested. Scott called and told me he could give us 140 tickets, so it worked out perfectly. I did have another 30 tickets asked for after noon, but we couldn't get any more.
It was decided that the easiest way to distribute tickets would be for me to give the email addresses of everyone to the box office at Tuacahn and they would email the tickets so there wouldn't be a huge line at will call. Two hours later our tickets showed up in my email junk folder. I thought it was so slick....but it wasn't.
I had asked everyone to contact me if they hadn't gotten their tickets by Thursday. I had heard from a few who couldn't find them but once they were directed to their junk mail folder they found the tickets there. One email address I had written down wrong, so those were re-sent and another family has automatic dumping of their junk mail each night, so their tickets were re-sent. By Thursday night I thought everyone had their tickets.
I was wrong! Monday morning I started getting a ton of frantic calls of people who hadn't gotten their tickets. It really wasn't that bad and we got them all resolved but I felt bad for the people at Tuacahn who I had to keep emailing to ask them to send more tickets. But it all worked out in the end and Scott Raine told me that night that it had really gone very smoothly. So that was good.
We got 4 of the tickets and the kids were excited...but tired. They had been swimming all afternoon with friends, so that didn't help their energy level. The play didn't start until 9 p.m. so they were already up way past their bedtimes. By intermission they were exhausted and wanted to leave. The tickets were free so we didn't feel bad leaving early, and it was a LONG show. We left at intermission and it was already 10:30 p.m. So we only saw half of the show. It was really windy so some of the props and set weren't working correctly, which was a bummer, but it wasn't as hot as it would have normally been. But it was good.
I sent an email out to all the sisters in the Ward to let them know that tickets were available and that they needed to respond back to me by noon the next day (it was about 4 p.m.). Then I texted everyone and told them to check their email. By about 5:30 p.m., we had 110 tickets requested. The next morning, I had a wait list of another 29 tickets. I called Scott to ask if we could get some more tickets or if he just wanted me to cap it off at the 110. He said he would check and get back to me.
At noon, I had 140 tickets requested. Scott called and told me he could give us 140 tickets, so it worked out perfectly. I did have another 30 tickets asked for after noon, but we couldn't get any more.
It was decided that the easiest way to distribute tickets would be for me to give the email addresses of everyone to the box office at Tuacahn and they would email the tickets so there wouldn't be a huge line at will call. Two hours later our tickets showed up in my email junk folder. I thought it was so slick....but it wasn't.
I had asked everyone to contact me if they hadn't gotten their tickets by Thursday. I had heard from a few who couldn't find them but once they were directed to their junk mail folder they found the tickets there. One email address I had written down wrong, so those were re-sent and another family has automatic dumping of their junk mail each night, so their tickets were re-sent. By Thursday night I thought everyone had their tickets.
I was wrong! Monday morning I started getting a ton of frantic calls of people who hadn't gotten their tickets. It really wasn't that bad and we got them all resolved but I felt bad for the people at Tuacahn who I had to keep emailing to ask them to send more tickets. But it all worked out in the end and Scott Raine told me that night that it had really gone very smoothly. So that was good.
We got 4 of the tickets and the kids were excited...but tired. They had been swimming all afternoon with friends, so that didn't help their energy level. The play didn't start until 9 p.m. so they were already up way past their bedtimes. By intermission they were exhausted and wanted to leave. The tickets were free so we didn't feel bad leaving early, and it was a LONG show. We left at intermission and it was already 10:30 p.m. So we only saw half of the show. It was really windy so some of the props and set weren't working correctly, which was a bummer, but it wasn't as hot as it would have normally been. But it was good.
Clean Rooms
It's Summer!! We had a family meeting about summer expectation and the kids weren't too excited. They have to do their usual chores but also some special summer chores. One of the chores that is the hardest for them is keeping their rooms clean. They both had really messy rooms!!
We made threats that they wouldn't be able to do anything else until their rooms were clean. It took all day for them to finally finish but when they did, they wanted me to take pictures to send to Bryan. Here are their clean rooms!
We made threats that they wouldn't be able to do anything else until their rooms were clean. It took all day for them to finally finish but when they did, they wanted me to take pictures to send to Bryan. Here are their clean rooms!
Biking to Piano
Courtney wanted to switch her piano lesson time to first thing in the morning. So I asked if she could have the 7:20 a.m. time slot. Her teacher was happy to give her that time and Courtney was so excited. Tuesday morning she woke up really early and got ready to ride her bike to piano. It's a few miles away so I told her I would bike with her.
She is a distracted biker and almost ran into the curb quite a few times but we got there just fine and she had a great lesson while I sat on the couch and tried to read/sleep. Riding back was a bit rough because it is all uphill, just slightly, but it's constant. She wasn't too happy about it but made it just fine!
Here she is getting ready to ride:
She is a distracted biker and almost ran into the curb quite a few times but we got there just fine and she had a great lesson while I sat on the couch and tried to read/sleep. Riding back was a bit rough because it is all uphill, just slightly, but it's constant. She wasn't too happy about it but made it just fine!
Here she is getting ready to ride:
Nerd Girl
Courtney got bored one day and decided to make herself into "Nerd Girl." I had to laugh. She got some old sunglasses that didn't have lenses and put tape on the bridge. Then she used tape to make suspenders on her shirt. She thought she was hilarious...and she was! She even did her hair into nerdy pigtails (which I didn't think were nerdy at all, but oh well).
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Courtney's Piano Recital
After Ethan's played at his recital, we all booked it from Vista Charter School in Ivins to Snow Canyon High School in St. George (it wasn't too far actually) for Courtney's duet recital. Her teacher usually has some theme for the recital and this year it was a BYU theme. Everyone was supposed to wear BYU clothes or BYU colors to the recital. We had BYU shirts so it worked out okay.
I was Courtney's duet partner and we had practiced the song until we had it really good....or so I thought. Apparently I had been playing it wrong but her teacher didn't realize until the week after the recital. But I still think we sounded good...except for the one mistake I made when I got distracted by someone moving around. Oh well. Courtney did a great job!
Here are all the piano students. Courtney is in the front on the right of center.
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Here is the video of her performance:
Grandma and Grandpa Pack had come from Colorado to see their recitals!! So after the craziness of the recital day, they took us to Icebox for ice cream. That was the highlight for Ethan!
I was Courtney's duet partner and we had practiced the song until we had it really good....or so I thought. Apparently I had been playing it wrong but her teacher didn't realize until the week after the recital. But I still think we sounded good...except for the one mistake I made when I got distracted by someone moving around. Oh well. Courtney did a great job!
Here are all the piano students. Courtney is in the front on the right of center.
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Grandma and Grandpa Pack had come from Colorado to see their recitals!! So after the craziness of the recital day, they took us to Icebox for ice cream. That was the highlight for Ethan!
Ethan's Piano Recital
I just downloaded videos from my phone to youtube so I could post them.
Ethan had a piano recital last month, on the same day Courtney had her piano recital. So Ethan played first and then we loaded up and drove to Courtney's recital. Ethan was pretty nervous because he had chosen to play 3 songs and they just weren't coming as well as he would have liked. So we talked to him and he decided to focus on just 2 of the songs. I think he did a great job!!
He was really nervous because his last recital hadn't gone too well, but he got through it and his confidence was pretty high afterward.
Ethan had a piano recital last month, on the same day Courtney had her piano recital. So Ethan played first and then we loaded up and drove to Courtney's recital. Ethan was pretty nervous because he had chosen to play 3 songs and they just weren't coming as well as he would have liked. So we talked to him and he decided to focus on just 2 of the songs. I think he did a great job!!
He was really nervous because his last recital hadn't gone too well, but he got through it and his confidence was pretty high afterward.
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