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Archive for 2017

Mar 20 2017

Wonka World

Posted by Mugs @ 1:20 pm in Church,CYT,Family,Music,school Print This Post Print This Post

The Manry Clan has been residing in Wonka World since January. It is truly wonderful in Wonka World where Zeke performs Oompa Loompa dances in his light up shoes and Gabe “Thinks Positive” and sings to “Cheer Up Charlie.”

It’s a pretend world, of course, and I wouldn’t recommend telling Gabe to think positive or cheer up today. (School still starts on Monday morning at 0800 for actors and audience alike.)

CYT’s Wonka World has many bright spots and many laughs and although there are moments when the room gets uncomfortably smaller, CYT families go to sleep and wake up pretending it was all a happy dream Mostly happy, but with some drama thrown in to keep it interesting. We can convince you that life in the theater is all smiles – we are thespians after all. (James Talley always refers to Gabe and Zeke as thespians and to me as a thespian mom which makes me and Kristen laugh.)

My favorite bright spots so far were discovering a CYT dad in a velvet jacket and bow tie vacuuming the auditorium for me, watching a CYT mom take orders at IHOP when we reserved for 30 people and 76 people showed up, and listening to Dale yell and cheer when he won the cupcake raffle. Someone is always pitching in and helping out and cheering you on.

Please join us in Wonka World if you can. There are 4 more shows this weekend. And if you’re feeling adventurous, sign your kids up for CYT. You won’t regret it. (Except maybe when you are driving home from ihop after midnight in the pouring rain.)

Jan 19 2017

Keeping My Hopes Up

Posted by Mugs @ 7:21 pm in Family,Nature Print This Post Print This Post

Today I was up on the housetop (click click click) performing the Christmas lights removal. I can use Gabe’s surprise appendectomy as an excuse for not having done it before January 19th, but it was more a result of, “It’s raining and cold and I’m lazy.”

However, today was warm and sunny and a good day for climbing around on a roof. As I was sitting up there, pondering the great mysteries of life – “Why do half of each strand of icicle lights stop working halfway through Holly Jolly time?” – I looked down in admiration at my mountain laurel. The mountain laurel always looks happy in the cool and sad in the hot.

“It feels like late winter,” I thought. Followed quickly by, “Maybe the snowdrops have come!” I climbed back through the window since jumping off the roof is probably not a good idea when you are 50, and searched the garden for my first bloom of 2017.

The tiny snowdrop was blooming there – its nodding head and green markings filling me with hope.

Jan 10 2017

The Backpacks of Life

Posted by Mugs @ 8:35 pm in Family,school,Sightseeing Print This Post Print This Post

Abby has dreamed of studying abroad in sunny Spain since high school. Today, she boarded a plane with a backpack full of dreams, school supplies and a box of mike and ikes. I watched her go – happy that her grand adventure had begun and sad that our precious daughter would now be far, far away.

It recalled to mind the day I boarded a plane to New Jersey to raise my hand for Uncle Sam’s offer to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States…” I had a suitcase in hand, but the Army helpfully issued me a backpack and all the gear I would need for my grand adventure.

Abby, on the other hand, spent several days trying to decipher which items were essential to cram inside her backpack for a semester in Europe. When the backpack, looking too fat, was brought down this morning, she finally let me see inside.

How do you explain to a future Elementary School Teacher that three coloring books and a box of crayons really are not essential items for traveling?

 

Jan 01 2017

Putting the Happy in New Year

Posted by Mugs @ 11:15 pm in Family Print This Post Print This Post

Once again, the Manry Clan New Year was filled with gingerbread, family, friends, chinese takeout, puzzles, games, poppers, and the banging of pots and pans.