On the SPOT

OK, this is going to be boring without pictures. The problem is that I forgot to take my camera with me to Idaho and now I have nothing to prove what we did. Oh well, you can believe me if you want to.

My parents' stake put on a production of "The City of Joseph" musical this past week. My father directed the outdoor musical for 20 years and consequently our whole family performed in it every summer from 1976 to 1996. I have many fond memories of those two weeks spent in the blazing Illinois sun, practicing from 8am(or 6:30am when I was on the dance team) to midnight with breaks for eating only! I attribute that experience to the testimony I have today of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Anyway, my dad directed this stake production and my mom supervised the costumes, backdrop, etc. My little sister and I decided we wanted to be there for the opening night which was Thursday night. Well, my dad called us Tuesday night to ask if there was any way we could head up Wednesday as early as possible for the dress rehearsal so that we could help my mom out with all of the last minute costume issues that had come up. Sure, we could do that.

I took my first grader out of school early on Wednesday and we made good time, with only one stop for potty/diaper changes. We got right into the sewing and didn't stop until we headed over to the Institute Building where it was being performed, arriving about 5 minutes before the show was to start. Upon arrival with 4 kids in tow, my 3 and my sister's 1, my dad says "Due to circumstances out of my control I need the two of you to run the spotlights for the show tonight and the rest of the weekend's shows." What? Excuse me? Have I ever in my life done this? NO. And what about the kids? Our husbands weren't coming until Friday night, and mom was busy with costume changes back stage. Luckily that night another sister had come up to watch so she took on the 6, 4, 23 month and 18 month old kiddies and some nice ladies who had come to watch the dress rehearsal helped out as well.

As we are being handed our head sets from the nice lighting coordinator he says "So your dad says you know what you are doing," I think he meant you are familiar with the show. Sure I know the show, but I can't say I ever paid one bit of attention to what the spotlight guys were doing! We climbed up the scaffolding to our spotlights and my sister got a mini lesson. I guess he really thought I would be fine because I didn't get a thing besides "Can you hear me?" through the ear piece. So, after the first scene was over and I was doing my best he says "Do you have a filter on your light?" and I say I don't know, do I? He had told me I had the crappy light and yes, you couldn't really tell that it was on. I just figured it was really, really bad but I did have the filter on. Upon removal it wasn't much better! We got a babysitter for the next night and family showed up to help for the last shows. We did a really good job in my opinion and knowing the show did help us to know who was talking and once we figured out where they were on stage, well, lets just say that if you need a SPOTLIGHT PERSON I am your lady. And I am sure my sister would also be available... for a small fee!

The show was really good. The leads did an excellent job. My oldest was dancing and singing along and kept saying "This is my FAVORITE SONG," and then the next one would start and it was "actually THIS is my favorite song." So cute!

The kids had a lot of fun during the days playing at Grandma and Grandpa's with their cousins. We were able to watch General Conference on Grandpa's projector, which is a good thing since there were 30 of us there by the end of the weekend! We enjoyed hearing from our new prophet President Monson and the others who spoke. We drove home today. As we were eating dinner, my four year old said "It feels good to be home." I agree. It is fun to visit other places but it always feels good to be home!