I have a new niece!

AND new bedding, AND a new apartment, AND a new job, AND a new show. I think that's pretty good for the span of two weeks.

I am currently working 10-hour days, 7 days a week, making up, apparently, for a much-longer-than-desired employment hiatus. In the next couple of weeks Jacob's Yo Gabba Gabba production will be wrapping and my work schedule will lighten a bit, and things will, foreseeably, resume at a more customary pace. In the meantime, I am pretty much loving everything right now. It feels so good to say that.

New Niece: Her name is Chantelle, which I am really happy about, if anybody cares about my unsolicited opinion, because it means that my sister-in-law has fulfilled a very long-held desire to use that name. And speaking of sister-in-laws, this is the little bundle of joy, looking "fetching in the arms of her aunt" Madison, who I am so happy to have grace my blog, by the way, as she so seldom does, by respect of our distances.







New Bedding: This, ladies and gentlemen, is the fulfillment of a vision board image! And not the first, I might add. After 5 1/2 years of marriage, our previous bedding has all but literally bitten the dust: the buttons on the duvet cover have long since been permanently dislodged, the right side of the cover has been sun bleached to nearly a violet shade of the former navy, it is a wee bit more than speckled with irremovable stains, and the tassles on the decorative pillows have dwindled down to "tassle," one by lowly one. It was time--a long time ago, to lay that bedding to rest. I carefully, perhaps obsessively, calculated all my bedding options for a longer time than I care to admit and finally settled on this one. I love it. I wanted fancy bedding, and fancy bedding I got! It shipped today and Jacob surprised me by having dressed the bed with it when I got home tonight! I think it's glorious.

New Apartment: You saw it already. Remember the room with the bed in it? That's it. We are, officially, living in the smallest space ever! No, I mean that in good humor. It's tiny, but it meets all of our needs. We enjoy cable and internet, an open floor plan, free open parking, an on-site gym and laundry room, vending machines, room service . . . oh yeah, did I mention it's a hotel? Because it is. And we're here for at least the next 2 months. Actually, we opted for no room service but given the fact that we don't have a vacuum, nor space for one, we're going to have to get creative. There's no dishwasher, disposal, or oven, but there is a fabulous heating and cooling unit and a microwave, which we didn't have in the last place. (Ha! After all that to-do about a microwave, I sent the one I bought home with Park and Peg when they visited last week.) I've really enjoyed decorating our widdo pwace and making it ours. We have to be militant about our organization and putting things away or we can't walk from here to there. It's certainly an exercise in efficiency. And it's amazing to learn just how much we don't really need. I feel stronger in a way because of this. It's unusual, perhaps, our current place of residence, but to us it is home, it's our home, and we're together. In the last year we have learned that is a whole stinkin' lot.


New Job: This is so funny. About 3 weeks ago on a Sunday I woke up at 5 in the morning, which I never do, by the way, and thought to look online for work. I had spent A LOT of time doing that, but this was the day after we decided to get the little suite in Brea so I had an idea, at least, of where, geographically, to look for work. I responded to an ad for a dance studio manager in Garden Grove and went back to sleep. By the time I got to church she had responded. We interviewed 3 days later and she hired me on the spot. I am really surprised by how much I am enjoying it. I am learning a lot about different online programs and marketing and I am getting to use a lot of skills in creativity and writing which I've never been able to do before. I am eager to learn these ropes anyway in hopes of opening my own performing arts studio someday, it's nice to be getting paid for it. I think I may like running it even more than teaching. Can I say that?

New Show: Yea! I'm in a show. I can't think of a time I wasn't happy in a show. I am playing "Rhoda," one of the bimbo Bobsey twins in "White Christmas" at the Fullerton Civic Light Opera and it is SO much fun! It took me three times to get in with this theater, I am so happy to be reaping some benefits from earlier this year. This theater was the first audition I had when I moved to LA; we actually drove straight there from Utah for the "Evita" auditions and I literally pulled a dress from out of the back of my trunk to change into and sang for them. I had a good feeling about this one and even though the tap dancing is temporarily kicking my trash, the end result is going to be fabulous. I just know it.

As for the rest of what's to come, I think I may say the same thing. (grin)