Week in Review

1. High School Musical: Kyle started Spring session at CYT Tuesday. (Christian Youth Theater) This is his second session with this fabulous organization. As I mentioned in an earlier post he was selected in February to be on the Comedy Improv Team for our city. There were ten kids chosen and they will be broken up into two teams of five. Kyle will be in a national Comedy Improv Competition in July. In addition to Comedy Improv, Kyle made the wonderful decision of auditioning for CYT's Spring production of the Disney Musical, High School Musical (HSM) which will run for two weeks in May. Kyle auditioned Friday night and had to sing a one minute song. The song could be from a musical OR be a pop song. Kyle chose the pop song "Burnin' Up" by the Jonas Brothers and practiced for HOURS. Although he has had absolutely no voice instruction or even a desire to sing....he knew that to be in the play, singing was a requirement. I think he surprised himself and I KNOW he surprised Kevin and I when we all realized that he has a good voice! I was at his audition Friday night and I was so proud of Kyle. He was the 11th to audition out of 100 kids. He sang loud and clearly and put lots of personality and dance moves in to. He did really well for his first ever CYT audition. After the singing part of the audiiton Kyle had to learn a quick dance and then perform that for the judges. After the audition we went home to await the call back list. FINALLY, right before midnight they posted that Kyle was being called back for the morning. At nine a.m. Saturday morning he met with about half of the kids that auditioned the night prior to audition some more. These auditions were closed, so I did not get to watch; but Kyle said that he had to learn another dance, sing 2 more songs from the show AND read lines. They sent some kids home right away, but Kyle was there to re-read etc until after noon. Saturday night at 8 p.m. the final cast list was posted on the CYT website. Kyle was not expecting to get a lead role, since this is his very first CYT production and in fact was not expecting to get a speaking part..but he lucked out and was cast as "Ripper" the cool skateboarding dude. He has several lines and a solo that he will sing in a cafeteria scene where his character gets up on a lunch room table and sings and dances. Additionally, he was cast as a "Jock" and will be in several scenes as a basketball player where he will dance, sing and shoot hoops! Starting next week he will be rehearsing twice a week on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. The opening night is in late May and I will keep you posted when I start selling tickets. (we are required to sell 15)
This opportunity could not have come at a better time for Kyle. As I've mentioned Kyle has been really needing more socialization, and this will give him two more days a week of it. He is getting to know his Comedy Improv kids better and several of them are going to be part of HSM, so he is sure to form friendships as they spend lots of time together rehearsing. I will keep you posted as Kyle progresses with HSM.

2. "Chiweenie":  So by now you all know about our new "grand puppy" Lily. As I mentioned, Kate received Lily free from a breeder near her college town. Kevin and I both thought that it was a little "odd" when Kate told us she had adopted a FREE "full bread" chihuaha. The breeder wanted to meet Kate with Lily at a puplic place vs her home and brought pictures of the "parents" to show Kate. The pics were of chihuahas. We were originally afraid that the breeder was pawning off sick puppies, and were relieved to hear that the Vet had given Lily a clean bill of health. As the weeks passed however, Kate noticed that Lily's body was a little bit longer than most of the chihuahas she's seen or known. In fact, when I first met her I noticed her longer body... So it came as no surprise to any of us when Kate took Lily to the vet last week for symptoms of a bladder infection and the vet told her that he is now 100% certain now that he sees her body at 14 weeks old, that she is a "Chiweenie"; which is 1/2 chihuaha and 1/2 WEINER DOG!!! (Datsun) Luckily, she has the blond hair, face, head and ears of a Chihuaha and only the longer body of the weiner dog. Kate and I were looking on line at some pics of different Chiweenie dogs and the ones that get the face and coloring of the wiener dog with the body and ears of the chihuaha are just plain SCARY looking!! The good news is that due to the "weenie dog" side of Lily...she has a sweet and outgoing personality and none of the shaking and nervousness that goes along with the typical personality of a chihuaha. Although it is unfortunate that Kate was lied to by the breeder, we are just happy that Lily is healthy and has turned out to be a good dog for her.

3. Esther and The Truth Project: Last week I started Beth Moore's Esther Bible Study with my Women in the Word group on Wednesday morning. This is my second time to do this study...I did it exactly a year ago with my women's group in Vegas. I love Beth Moore studies and love watching the DVD portion of the study each week when Beth lectures.I love her wit and wisdom. The homework is a review for me and is not as extensive as some of Beth's other studies. We also continued this past week to host a new group of people from our church in our home on Wednesday night for the Truth Project. We love the study and are enjoying opening our home. When our Pastor contacted us and asked if we'd open our house for one group doing the study...we did not want to say no! However we are finding ourselves REALLY missing our old growth group. We have been forming friendships with a group of approximately 6-7 couples that are in their 30's-s and 40's and we have grown to really love these people. We have socialized with them outside of our growth group and for the past 7 months, it just felt "right". As they continue on with the Revelation study led by our Pastor, we are now at home hosting the Truth Project. Other than the darling young couple that leads our study and 2-3 others, the group that is coming to our house are primarily in their late 60's. Although they are sweet people we feel a bit of a "generation gap" with them and don't feel friendship connections starting. I spoke to my Pastor about this and he assured me that when the Truth Project is over that we may return to our original growth group.

3. Spring: Spring  has definately sprung around here! I've planted several pots with flowers and the wisteria plant in the back yard has bloomed. It is a SPECTACULAR site to behold. I"ll be taking some pics this week of some of the blooming going on around here to post. Although Fall is my favorite time of year, Spring is a close second. The weather has been perfect and each day has been better than the next. We continue to LOVE living here in the Southern part of the state.