Through the Woods

Well - we made it through The Woods. After 6 performances, 3 dress rehearsals and a pick up rehearsal "Into the Woods" is over. It was bittersweet. Sweet that Cali will be home more and life a little less crazy - at least for a little bit and Bitter as it was Cali's last high school musical. After 10 years of involvement with the theater department at the high school I was feeling a little sad.

Tessa did give me a little glimmer of hope at the dinner table the other night though. She mentioned that maybe next year she would try out for the musical and maybe she could be in the chorus - so there is still hope!

After watching each of the performances, the pick up rehearsal and 1 1/2 of the dress rehearsals I know the story and music pretty well. In fact I look forward to not waking up in the middle of the night with the show's songs going through my head.

For those of you not familiar with "Into the Woods" I thought I'd share a recap of the plot of the show.

The show features The Baker and his wife who are childless due to a curse put on their house by the Witch. The curse was a result of the Baker's father stealing some 'magic' beans from her garden. The whole plot of the show revolves around them breaking the curse by finding "the cow as white as milk(Jack's cow), the cape as red as blood (Little Red Riding hood's), the hair as yellow as silk (Rapunzel's hair) and the slipper as pure as gold (Cinderellas)

Jack (of Jack and the Beanstalk) and his mother, Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother and the wolf are in the story as well as Cinderella, her stepmother and stepsisters, Rapunzel and Cinderella's prince and Rapunzel's prince. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White make a quick appearance at the end.

The story is not the Disney version but the Grimm Brother's Fairy Tale complete with the following:

Cinderella really isn't all that crazy about the prince and ends up leaving him in the end because of his "Moment in the Woods" with the Baker's Wife. Cinderella's prince is quite the ladies man and eventually ends up with Snow White at the end. And Rapunzel's prince ends up with Sleeping Beauty after Rapunzel is killed by the giant.

Rapunzel is rather unhappy after her mother (The Witch) keeps her captive in a tower for 14 years, then blinds her prince and then sends her to live in the desert where she bears twins!

Cinderella's Step Mother proceeds to cut off Florinda (Cali's character) toe and the other Step daughter's heel to try and get their feet to fit into the Golden Slipper. Little did they know that the prince has quite an aversion to blood and when he sees the blood soaked slipper he gags up a storm on stage!.

The Stepsisters are also blinded by some pigeons who poke out their eyes. Oh yeah, Rapunzel's prince is also blinded at one point in the story but his sight is restored when Rapunzel's tears touch his eyes.

As a result of Jack climbing the beanstalk, stealing their magic harp and hen that lays golden eggs and killing one of the giants, the giant's wife descends on their village and begins a killing spree.

Eventually The Narrator, Jack's Mother, Rapunzel, the Baker's Wife and the wolf all end up dead. Little Red Riding Hood becomes a knife yielding little girl, pulling her knife out on anyone that comes near! The Baker and his baby (yes they were able to have baby once they broke the curse), Cinderella, Little Red and Jack all move into together at the end and "Live Happily Ever After".

Despite all of this the show does have a nice message....you might be wondering what?

The final song says the following:

"Careful the things you say, children will listen.

Careful the things you do, children will see,

Children may not obey, but children will listen,

Children will look to you, for which way to turn,

Children may not obey, but children will listen.

Children will look to you; for which way to turn, to learn what to be.

Careful before you say, "Listen to me". Children will listen.

Boy Update:

Clark is on his way back to Provo from St. George where he was with some of his buddies for the weekend. Saturday night they drove over to Las Vegas to see the BYU game. (sad game)

Logan had a week of school, work and playing catch up from being gone on 10 Day Tour. He and his buddies sponsored and ran a dance on Friday night and last night of course he was watching the BYU game!

Toe Talk

We've had a lot of Toe Talk going around here this last week.


Cali's show, 'Into the Woods" opened this week so we have spent ALOT of time at the high school. We were there (Jim, LA and Cali) until 11:00 p.m. Wednesday night, the night before opening working on the set which was WAY behind.

I had fun coloring in one of the books (large, life size books) that they use in the opener. I got to color in the design on the cover of the book with a black sharpie! Fun!


Toe Tale #1

Back to the toe - Cali plays the part of Florinda, one of Cinderella's step sisters. In one of the scenes, where Florinda is trying on the "golden slipper" (not glass) her mother proceeds to cut off one of her toes to make the shoe fit. This is the Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella - not Disney!

After squeezing her bloody foot into the shoe she rides off with the Prince on his horse, until the Prince notices the bloody foot and begins to gag (he has an aversion to blood). Cali does a great job playing up the part and Jameson (the Prince) is a good gagger - you think he's going to puke right there on the stage. This is one of the funnier scenes in the show.

Toe Tale #2 -


Several weeks ago I began having a lot of pain in one of my toes (the second smallest, to be exact) I thought maybe I had bruised it or even broken it but I couldn't remember hurting it (that is no indication though that I didn't as my memory isn't great these days!)


Everytime I put a shoe on the pain increased and it was sore to touch. I wanted to cut off my toe!


Finally I called our friend Dr. Larry, the podiatrist and I went over to his house for him to look at it. He informed me I had developed a large callous between the two toes because of the shoes I wear (high heels, pointed toes)

He proceeded to cut out the callous, creating quite a deep crater in the side of my toe. It felt better.



After a couple of days though the pain was still there and increasing. Sunday morning I woke up in such pain I could barely walk and it hurt to even have the sheet touching my toe. I found a pair of sandals I could get my foot into for church and limped my way around church all morning.



Dr. Larry then paid a housecall Sunday evening and told me I had an infection in the toe . He wrote me a perscription and then told me I could not wear any shoes that would "squeeze" my toes together for 3-5 days!



If you know me, and you know what kind of shoes I wear, you know that ALL my shoes "squeeze"my toes together. I am not known for wearing comfortable shoes! I have the scars on my feet to prove it.



So guess what I am wearing for the rest of the week - these lovely slippers!







And if the weather stays nice at least I can wear these! I need a pedicure if i'm going to wear these!



I will NOT be wearing these!

No more shoes like this for me - at least for a while!

Celebrity Look a Like - who do you look like?

This week a friend sent me a link to www.myheritage.com where you can find out what celebrities you look like - it is so fun! Just put in your photo and see who pops up!

I tried three different photos of myself to see which one I liked best. I am happy to say that the one person that came up all three times was Christie Brinkley - I'll take it. I decided not to use the photo where Alice Cooper and Neal Sedaka showed up as look alikes! When Kiera Knightly showed up with the 3rd photo I put in I decided that was definitely the one I was going to post on the blog.

Have fun with it!