The Last Competition

Thankfully, this one was only a 30 minute drive from school! It was a beautiful day outside and, of course, the band got all superior ratings!

Another band did a Lion King marching show... Second best show of the day ;)

And what would a competition be without a little sunglasses sunburn?

Poor husband burns just walking from the car to the store, so he is bright red, just like every other competition where he forgets to put on sunscreen. Maybe one day he'll learn....

Top 5 Broadway Cast Recordings

As I've already mentioned, one of my passions is musical theatre. I do not possess the talent to perform onstage and much prefer to stick behind the scenes, but I do love me a good Broadway cast recording, much to the dismay of my fellow technicians. I love musicals all across the board but it takes a really good soundtrack for me to listen to every song, every time. Some of my favorite showtunes come from shows where I only care for one or two of the songs, so I will do a separate fave showtimes post another time. For now, here are my top five cast recordings!

5. Wicked

Of course, the ever-cliche Wicked shows up on the list. But how can you not? This entire soundtrack is a masterpiece. I still get goosebumps when I listen to Defying Gravity or For Good. Should I even bother putting a mini-synopsis of this show? If you don't know what Wicked is, you are seriously missing out on one of the best shows Broadway has ever seen. Please do yourself a favor and listen.

I could recommend a million different versions of Defying Gravity with various different actresses playing Elphaba, but I will first recommend the original cast, with Idina Menzel (yep, Elsa from Frozen...) as Elphaba. And I have to throw out a recommendation for the incomparable Eden Espinosa singing No Good Deed.

4. Next to Normal

This one is only so low on the list because I cannot tolerate Alice Ripley's vocals. Next to Normal is an adult, edgy show and the every single song portrays ridiculously deep, mostly painful emotions. Not a good listen with kids around or if you're having a pity party. Definitely a good listen for anyone who thinks that musicals are nothing but fluff and romance.

This clip of Superboy and the Invisible Girl shows off the gorgeous harmonies in most of the songs... and here's I'm Alive, because who can get enough of Aaron Tveit?

3. The Lion King

It's no secret that the Disney film is one of my favorites of all time, so I was really hesitant to listen to the Broadway version. I mean, how can you top the greatest animated film ever? Well, they did. I found that I love the stage songs just as much, if not more than, the original movie songs. Circle of Life is amazing with the new arrangement. My favorite song, hands down, is Shadowland. Close second is They Live in You.

Check out the new lyric video for Shadowland! And here's a TV performance of They Live in You.

2. The Last 5 Years

Here's another lovely one not for kids and not about fluff. It's a love story told from the first date all the way to the divorce, but the wife tells it backwards while the husband tells it forwards. Brilliant concept. And it's a two person cast. The original cast recording with Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott is my favorite, although the Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe revival is still amazing. I am very much looking forward to the Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick movie version. I'm about to be that person with three versions of the same soundtrack on my iTunes. Anyway. This soundtrack is a total roller coaster ride and is heartbreaking from beginning to end. It's also easy to follow along with, as the majority of the story is told exclusively through the songs with very little dialogue in the show.

It's hard to pick a favorite since they're all so interwoven, but I Can Do Better Than That would probably be it.

1. Aida

This show is surprisingly not well-known for being a) a Disney show and b) with music by Elton John and Tim Rice. It's a Romeo and Juliet-esque story set in ancient Egypt to some rocking music. The original Broadway cast is an all-star cast with Adam Pascal (of Rent fame) as the leading male and Heather Headley (original Nala in The Lion King) and Sherie Rene Scott (from The Last 5 years and The Little Mermaid) as the two leading females. I have loved this musical for 10 years and I still cannot get enough of the gorgeous ballads, high belts, and soft Egyptian undertones. 

Favorite has to be The Gods Love Nubia! But I also love Every Story is a Love Story/Fortune Favors the Brave. And, obviously, Written in the Stars. See? You can't pick just one favorite from a flawless soundtrack.

Okay, go listen to one or more of these fantastic recordings!

DIY Card Box

We're taking the DIY posts back a few months to a wedding DIY project. This was one of my Pinterest finds and I had so much fun making it - luckily, my mom was on hand to help make it look just right :) I turned on Netflix and went to it!

First I loaded up on supplies. The base of the box is made from this set of three paper mache boxes:

From Hobby Lobby - it came as a set of three but were not already attached.

I also picked up some purple and grey craft paint, two spools of silver ribbon, a jeweled silver frame, two jewel flourish decals, some loose rhinestones, a small bunch of white flowers, a jeweled "D", and a white bridal hair clip. {I wish I had started blogging again pre-wedding so I would have a more accurate photo walkthrough of how I made this!}

I absolutely love these paper mache boxes. They were super easy to cut and only took two coats of paint to cover! First, I painted each box. Next, I hot glued the base of the small box to the lid of the medium box and the base of the medium box to the lid of the large box. I wanted it all one piece but didn't want the entire thing to be hot glued together, just in case it needed to be disassembled :) Once the glue was dry, I cut a large hole in the bottom of the small and medium boxes, leaving about an inch left on the rims so that there was still enough for the bottom and lid to be glued together, but would allow the cards to fall through to the bottom.

The slot for the cards at the top was the hardest part - good thing my mom helped me out with that part :) she also got the little "cards" sign printed and in the frame. I thought it would look too bare with just the frame on top, and I love how the little bunch of flowers looks next to the frame!

I used one large flourish for the small box. The ribbon for the tops of the boxes was white with silver rhinestones, while the ribbon for the bottoms was all silver and sparkly.

I applied ribbon to the lid and base of each box, which stuck for a few days and then started to slide off - ignore my ugly hot glue attempt to fix the top ribbon! My mom had to fix that one for me too :)  I used two large flourishes to surround the "D". They're actually the same flourish - Hobby Lobby didn't have two that were mirror images, so I just turned one upside down. I think it turned out cute! 

The large white bridal hair clip got its clip removed and was hot glued to the center box. I freehanded the rhinestones in a pattern around each side of the flower.

So that's my card box! Except for the ugly hot glue part on the front {which I hope no one noticed :) } I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. The whole project took about two hours {and I'm pretty sure this was one of my post-tonsillectomy projects when I was going stir-crazy from being off work for two weeks but didn't feel up to going anywhere} and cost around $35 - less than the cost of buying a similar one on Etsy, and more personal than one you would buy at Hobby Lobby. I loved the idea of a tall card box, although I think the current trend of using a birdcage or old trunk is also super cute! It's a downer to think about, but I was also concerned that someone not affiliated with the wedding could easily access our reception and make off with the card box since it's guaranteed to have money in it, and I wanted one that would be easy to spot if someone were to take it or even try to take it apart. 

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it now. I don't have the heart to throw it away so it will probably sit in our basement for years and years unless someone gives me a repurposing idea!

Totally irrelevant side note: Taylor Swift's new album dropped about an hour and a half ago and I am addicted! It's definitely different than her first three albums but as an avid supporter of artists like Katy Perry and Britney Spears, I definitely dig the pop sound. Then again, I absolutely adore Taylor Swift and everything she does, so I may be a little biased :)

Also totally irrelevant side side note: I had my first "getting my husband out of bed because I heard a scary noise outside" moment. And I am still hearing these noises. This is why I want a dog. A very large, protective dog...

The Busy Wife

Life has been ridiculously busy lately! I started taking Zumba classes and fell in love with it. I now go nearly every day with one of my best friends from high school! We've been following the Royals through the World Series, but I've had to do homework during almost every game. My current class has an insane workload... It leaves less time for the things I want to do, like blogging and updating my Etsy shop! Adult problems, I tell ya. We're still unpacking.... It's been three weeks since we moved and we're still painting trim and unpacking boxes. What I wouldn't give for some time off work so I could get everything done that I need to do... The season started tonight for our city's hockey game and we were in desperate need of a date night. The game was so much fun, even though we lost and didn't play nearly as well as last season. Room for improvement! My stack of library books has sat untouched for far too long and our DVR is quickly starting to fill up with unwatched tv shows. Maybe one day life will slow down. Or maybe science will come up with something that will allow me to stay up for 24 hours at a time! I'm getting so run down. People at work comment almost every day on how tired I look and my memory is going. I went to the grocery store earlier to get some essentials and walked out without milk, bread, and cheese. Brilliant. I need a vacation! I also need the Royals to win... It's 11-4 right now and not looking good. I won't feel so bad about painting and doing laundry instead of watching the game. Anyway. Up this week: I have two papers, two video presentations, a quiz, and two message board posts due for school. Wednesday I'm helping out with the marching festival that the band is traveling to, and the last home football game is on Friday. My favorite Zumba teacher has classes tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday, so I will be hitting up those classes for sure! Maybe I can fit a nap somewhere in there...

How Do You Know?

I've gotten this question (and variations of it) a lot in the last year or so. "When did you know you were going to marry your husband?" "How did you know he was the one?"

Honest answer: I knew the first time we ever had a conversation that there was something special about him. I won't say I knew he was The One, but I knew that my feelings for him were like nothing else I'd ever known. I knew within two weeks that I was going to marry him. Not in an "I'm desperate for a husband and he will work" kind of way, but in a way that felt like I was finally complete. 

The above quote is exactly it. It wasn't a chick flick moment where the heavens opened up and everything was in slow motion. I just knew he was the missing part of me. 

The difficult part is getting from the "nice to meet you" to the "I do". It's hard. Really, really hard. And just when you think you have it figured out, you get married and it becomes so. much. harder. It's hard when the person you know and love more than anyone else is being hard to love - and I'm speaking from both sides of this statement. I'm very hard to love sometimes and I'm thankful every day for my husband's strengths that perfectly match my weaknesses. As much as you may want to change your partner, you won't change who they fundamentally are, and I love that my husband is patient when I am not, that he is careful when I am reckless, and that he is sure when I am faltering. I may want to change his snoring or messy laundry habits, and he may want to change my penchant for filling up the DVR with ABC Family movies, but what makes us work is that I love and respect the things that make him who he is, and he has the same attitude towards me. 

If you want to marry your partner because they are physically attractive or because all your friends are getting married or because you think you've been dating long enough, marriage isn't for you. If you want to get married because you think it'll fix your relationship problems or keep your partner from leaving, marriage REALLY isn't for you. I say this in the most positive way possible - marriage makes your problems worse. Spoiler alert: If you have ever thought "I can't wait to get married so (s)he will stop doing such-and-such", they keep doing such-and-such ever after you're married. Marriage does not change who your partner is, and if you love them enough to commit your life to them, you shouldn't want it to. Marriage isn't magical fairy dust that transforms this person into who you want them to be. If you're marrying them, you know who they are and how they act or react to situations, and putting a ring on it does not change anything in those situations. How they are now is how they will continue to be after the honeymoon wears off. 

Another spoiler alert: When you're mad at your spouse, you don't get to storm off and post on Facebook about what a jerk they are, because you took vows to honor and respect that person. {Nothing is more disrespectful to me than a person who constantly posts statuses or tweets about their partner's shortcomings or mistakes or stupid actions.} You get to sit there and work it out because this is what you promised to do. 

When you're married, you compromise on a lot of things you don't really want to compromise on. When you're first dating and you throw out the puppy dog face to get your way, that's all fine and cute. When you're married, ain't nobody got time for that. On the flip side of that, if your relationship is always about who's "winning", you will not find marriage to be easy. My husband and I don't keep track of who "wins" arguments or compromises because I would rather be wrong and have a peaceful marriage than always be right and live in a tension-filled house. It also means deferring to your partner on issues where you are wrong, and that can be a big blow to perfectionist, type-A personalities like myself. I don't like being wrong or looking to someone else to take the lead, but I've learned that the outcome is infinitely better when my husband handles certain things and I am now glad to let him do so. Marriage isn't for the egotistical. 

It's a lot of trial and error. It's a lot of making mistakes and apologies and learning as we go. And it's incredibly difficult, even when you're married to the most wonderful person alive. {Which I am.} As of tomorrow, we have been married four months, so I am not claiming to be an expert. I'm just sharing a glimpse of what makes us tick. You have to do things you don't want to do and push through things when you know it would be easier to give up. But it's always worth it if you have a relationship that is mutually healthy and respectful. 

My husband makes me the best possible version of me. He knows me better than I know myself sometimes. He is the reason I keep going when I just want to quit. I never really understood the phrase "my better half" until I met him. He is my other half, the yin to my yang, but he's a far better person than I am. We've had our bumps in the road, but we are learning how to do marriage one day at a time. 

DCOMs

This is a whole post dedicated to the lost art that was Disney Channel Original Movies. They still air ones they make today, but they're just not as good as the 90s and early 2000s DCOMS. And because I know you want to know my all-time favorite DCOMs, I have compiled a list for your viewing pleasure.

10. Rip Girls

First of all, baby Camilla Belle is adorable. Rip Girls is about a girl named Sydney, and she's inherited a bunch of land. {seems legit.} So she falls in love with the land and Hawaii as she discovers more about herself. How presh. 

9. Mom's Got A Date With A Vampire

My sister and I watched this every Halloween for years! The aunt from Sabrina goes out on a date with this guy who they think is a vampire, so they call in a vampire hunter and all is well. It sounds stupid when I describe it... it's not stupid, I promise.

8. Phantom of the Megaplex

Another of our favorite Halloween movies around my house! This one has Mickey Rooney, so it's streets ahead of the other DCOMs in terms of star casting. The kids are running around an old movie theater and convinced there's a phantom haunting it. Think Phantom of the Opera for 2000s teens, but less singing.

7. Cadet Kelly

Make way for 2000s Disney royalty! This one stars the Disney Channel darlings themselves - Hilary Duff and Christy Carlson Romano. Hilary gets her sassy self shipped to military school by her new stepdad and makes instant enemies with Christy Carlson. So they discover that they can actually be BFFs if Hil grows up and CC loosens up. This one is on Netflix right now and totally worth the guilty pleasure watch!

6. Get A Clue

I loved this one when it came out and not gonna lie, I wanted those sunglasses sooo bad, y'all. Get A Clue is a super cute DCOM featuring a pre-cray cray Lindsay Lohan and that guy that played in the Little Rascals movie and then got really cute. Pretty sure his name is Bug. Lindsay's character is on the school newspaper and is on the case when one of her teachers goes missing. If you haven't seen it in a while, go watch!

5. Alley Cats Strike

The one and only movie that made bowling look cool. Not gonna lie, I need to go rewatch because I didn't know that my fave Kaley Cuoco has a role! I don't know a single person who has seen this movie that hasn't tried that spinning bowling ball trick at one time or another. (Spoiler alert: doesn't work.) (Also, is he holding a stuffed basketball??)

4. You Lucky Dog

Back in the pre-DVR and pre-900 channels days, we watched whatever was on. This one aired probably every weeknight for at least a month, so it's a good thing my sister and I liked it! Kirk Cameron (helloooo major pre-teen crush) plays a guy who can read dogs' minds and is enlisted when this adorable St. Bernard inherits his rich dead master's fortune.

3. Genius

 I rewatched this one a couple of weeks ago and still love it! Definitely had a major crush on the main guy when I was in middle school :) and baby Emmy Rossum plays his love interest. The main character is a mega-genius who is tired of not having friends, so he fakes being a dumb, smart-aleck kid in high school so he can be popular. Also, there's hockey.

2. Double Teamed

Oh, how Disney loves their "based on a true story" DCOMs. Heather and Heidi are identical twins (what, can't you tell from the cover photo?) who are really good at basketball. But the one doesn't want to play basketball but she has to play basketball to get into college, and they both go pro. (Side note, definitely own this one on VHS. That's how much I loved it.)

1. Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century

Ceetus lapetus, is there really any other movie to take the top spot in a countdown of DCOMs? Never! This DCOM is EPIC. If you're one of the 10 people in America who hasn't seen this one, it's set in 2058 or something and Zenon finds out that the space station they all live on is in danger, but she gets sent to earth because she's grounded, then she and this cute guy and her best friend Raven save the day. Zoom zoom zoom!

Honorable mention:

This one doesn't technically count since it was released as part of ABC's Wonderful World of Disney, but we loved it so much that I would be remiss to leave it out. Will Friedle (Eric Matthews from Boy Meets World) asks out this cute girl at the mall and she happens to be the President's daughter. So he's trying to drag her to the school dance and she's only interested in being a crazy fool. This one is one I'm constantly looking out for on DVD! Pleeeease Netflix, release it on instant streaming in the meantime!

If you've seen the movie, you know this shot. That pink velvet dress, butterfly necklace, and hair toss was my inspiration for LYFE.

Progress: The Little Things

I feel like I've done so many progress posts, but we're doing things a little bit at a time, so it's easier just to post as we go along. Both of us were busy all day on Friday and Saturday, so we only had Sunday to get work done. I had a big paper due the same day, so my sweet husband did a lot of work while I wrote my paper. What a champ :)

He completed two of the projects at the top of my list! Now these were not entirely necessary except for cosmetic purposes, but the heart wants what it wants!

Light above the sink: before
Just say no to the frosted globe + brass light!

After! The brushed bronze matches our dining room chandelier and the light is frosted but not totally opaque.

Hall light: before
What did I JUST SAY about the frosted brass globe nasty thing?!

After! We originally bought this for above the sink but it was too big, so it got promoted to the hall light! 

I absolutely love photos and personal things all around the house - it reminds me of all the lovely people we have in our lives and all the things we have to be thankful for. It's been absolutely driving me nuts that we didn't have anything on the walls, so that was my small project for the evening!

I hung some of our wedding family prints! The large one is with our entire family, both sides. Top right is my family, bottom right is his. The two right frames match and the left is the same material but different pattern. This happened because Hobby Lobby didn't have three matching frames in the sizes I needed, but I like how the mismatched look ended up! 

Here's my baby pride and joy table lamp with its new friend, our trio of engagement pictures, and its other new friend, our framed photo of scenes from Savannah. I love the frame with our engagement photos - it was on clearance at Target for $15!

Two new frames also went up in the dining room!

This is probably one of my favorite things I own. I bought this to support BC/EFA when I worked on The Lion King - the actor who played Pumbaa on the tour got permission from the original director and costume designer of the Broadway show to take the old costumes they were going to destroy and take pieces from them to sell for the BC/EFA organization. Mine is only one of 100 made! The top piece is from Timon's costume, the middle is from Pumbaa's costume, and the bottom is from Zazu's costume. He was selling them individually, but I've always been the "go big or go home" type, so I had to buy all three together :)

This one is a new piece I bought from Hobby Lobby... oh, how I miss living a block away from that store. I'm not super big into the chalkboard trend, but I love it in moderation!

I can take absolutely 0 credit for this one, but it's one of my favorite features in the house - props to the former homeowners! I love these adorable spigots in the guest bathroom!

Again, I'm not huge into the chalkboard thing, but I really wanted some canisters with the chalkboard label on them. I wasn't willing to spend big bucks just because they're trendy, so I held out and picked up these three mismatched canisters on clearance at Burlington for $5 each! Our kitchen doesn't really have a color scheme - all of our plates and washcloths are random colors, and there's no room for decor, so I don't mind that they're mismatched!

I stuck a postcard from our honeymoon on our dresser while we were moving, and I decided I like looking at it every morning, so here it stays!

I also like looking at this cute pic of us cutting our cake on my nightstand :)

And another honeymoon pic is on our chest of drawers. They're just little touches but they make such a difference! It makes our house feel more like home and these pics just make me smile when I see them!

I am 100% about making an adult home for us - adult furniture, adult decor, things that fit with us being adults and not college kids anymore... but husband and I are both still stuck on his lava lamp that he's had since high school. So the lava lamp will have to be our exception :) team lava lamp!

Home Football Game : Homecoming Edition

Friday was the homecoming football game, and it was SO COLD. I am now 3 for 3 on leaving at halftime this year. The band performs the Star Spangled Banner...

They line the field as the drumline brings in the football team...

And the team took the field, dominated the entire game, and remain undefeated!

At halftime, the band performed with the pom squad:

Then the band performed their entire show for the first time! 

Huge success! Everyone loved it and I am so proud of how far they've come! They have a marching competition on Saturday, but I can't go along because I have to work, so there won't be a post about that. I'm sure they will bring back another superior rating as usual!

Too Much (clap clap) Life on my Hands

What happens when you have a 15 page paper due the week after you move into a new house and you are also working a ful-time job? No time for blogging, that's what!

This week has been insane. We moved our fish and aquarium on Monday, so all that's left at the apartment is the kitchen stuff and some decor... Including all the curtains. So it still feels slightly non-homey with no curtains! Also, no kitchen stuff means no cooking. Literally all we have for food is a pot pie, two frozen dinners, half a cup of soup, and a 6 pack of beer (not mine). I am so over fast food! Moving is hard. I've been trying to catch up on laundry and finish painting the trim in between doing homework and unpacking. We still can't fit our cars in the garage because of all the boxes still stacked out there!

This weekend will be equally busy. Husband has a football game tomorrow and is chaperoning the homecoming dance on Saturday. I work all day tomorrow and the whole morning on Saturday, then a friend's wedding on Saturday evening. Sunday will hopefully be spent writing my paper! The good news is that Monday is a holiday, so I get the day off! I'm going nuts with all of our decor sitting around in boxes and it feels so unlike our home, so one of my goals for my day off is to get pictures up on the walls! Okay, I should probably unpack a box or two as well... And probably also should finish the trim in the guest room so we can move the bed out of the garage and into am actual bedroom!

So there's our update! Hopefully I will have more exciting, picture-ful posts soon! Until then, I will spare you pictures of the heaps of laundry and piles of notecards that currently makes up my life :)

The Moving Day + More Progress!

Moving day came so quickly - we are far from done with the house projects that I wanted to get done pre-move, but what can ya do? 

Husband finally has a piano in the house again - not exactly practical for an apartment! The best part was when the movers dropped it... that definitely helped lower the stress level for the day! {end sarcasm.}

This DVD rack was my Christmas present and it took till now for it to get assembled... whoops! But it is complete and holds all of my movies! Now to bring over the DVD rack I already owned and get my TV on DVD all put away too...

This was the dining room chandelier that came with the house. Not only is it ugly, but that wire job that they did is horrendous!

So we picked up a new, modern chandelier! Thankfully, my mom was willing to install it and it looks a million times better.

Banister before. All honey wood, of course.

I honestly don't know how they ended up with such atrocious gouges in the top of the banister, but it had to go!

After its makeover! This thing was a chore. Each spindle had to be meticulously painted and the whole thing took at least 5 coats, no joke - and this is with the paint + primer! It's almost done, just need a few more touchups, but this beast of a project was definitely worth it!

We have our washer and dryer hooked up and I have two loads of laundry going while the Royals/Angels game is on. Not a bad end to a busy and stressful weekend!