It's here! Performances of Mamma Mia! start tonight and run all week long.
Mauri woke up this morning excited.
I didn't get much sleep last night {due to old people problems}, but I woke up kinda excited, too. I
have get to teach seminary all week {by myself because Bill is
MIA out of town for work}, but I have a bonus day on Wednesday (yay for carpet cleaning at the church building). It was a snowy morning, so Seminary was a little sparse today, but I am constantly reminded how amazing the youth of
the church are, and what a blessing it is that I have the privilege of
teaching learning with them.
Last week {tech week} was a killer, but we survived.
That is worthy of celebration in and of itself.
I made three double batches of my {CVHS famous} mint brownies.
You're lookin' at 1.75 pounds of butter in that pan, my friends.
I brought food for all 4 tech week meals (for approx. 120 cast and crew), and helped serve at 3 of them. Not counting the 3 double batches of brownies, I also brought water bottles (lasagna night), oyster crackers (soup night), corn tortillas, crock pot of black beans, 2 large pans of rice, cocoa rice krispies (burrito/taco night), and 20 baked potatoes (potato bar night).
(This picture is pre-dinner, which most nights we would hurry up and wait haha)
I know this isn't an appealing picture, but I literally served every black bean in that pot.
I made 2 recipes (1 lb dried beans each) using my electric pressure cooker (I love this recipe), and they were gone, baby, gone by the end of dinner. My cilantro rice was a big hit, too. I thought more kids would NOT like the cilantro in it, so I made one pan of plain rice, but the "fancy" rice was the big winner. Literally ALL the food was pretty much devoured, even the not-quite-baked potatoes someone had brought in on Saturday night haha.
Speaking of which...
I have a story to tell about that night.
I knew our Saturday was PACKED with a very busy schedule, so I had made my brownies and prepped my extra-large Costco-size potatoes the night before. Bill and I had a Temple Shift luncheon (not sure what to call it other than that... a luncheon for the all the people that work the Thursday night shift at the temple with Bill), then we had a ministering appointment with a sister in our ward, followed by an Eagle Court of Honor for a young man in our ward AND seminary class, then the dinner I was helping with at the school. After the luncheon we stopped at home to put the potatoes in the oven. I knew they needed at least 2 hours to cook, so had carefully determined how to manage our schedule and get them in the oven on time. After our nearly 2-hour visit with the sister in our ward, we ran home to grab the potatoes (and brownies) to take to the school. To my utter horror, when I opened my oven IT WAS COLD. The potatoes were RAW, and I had less than an hour to have them to the school. I totally panicked. I told Bill to call Texas Roadhouse (in Parker - 25 minutes away) to see if they could sell us 20 potatoes. They could, but for a PRICE {of course}. He called a couple of closer restaurant chains to see if they had baked potatoes, and they didn't. During this short duration {of me barking orders to Bill to call around and find potatoes}, I was frantically trying to call a few neighbors to see if they had Instant Pots, to no avail because nobody answered. I quickly pulled the foil off of the potatoes, fit 7 in my pressure cooker (following the directions I had found via the google gods), and got it started. Instead of going to the Court of Honor, Bill hopped in the car and headed to Texas Roadhouse to pick up the potatoes. In my hopes that we could buy fewer $2.50/ea potatoes, I decided to try microwaving a few while I was waiting for the pressure cooker to do it's work. Three at a time, I was able to cook 9 more potatoes. As soon as they were done, I wrapped them in foil and put them in my little cooler to stay hot.
Long story a little less long, my potatoes turned out perfectly. All 16 that I baked in my limited time frame. Bill ended up getting 14 at Texas Roadhouse (they had told us they could have them ready in 35 minutes from the time he called, but he waited another 30 minutes once he got there), and delivered them to the school after about 80% of the kids/staff at the dinner had been served. We would have been okay without them, but I didn't know that in the moment of decision.
**Notes to self: don't EVER turn on the wrong oven; pressure cooker potatoes are awesome, and cooking 3 super large potatoes at a time in the microwave for 10 minutes is a verifiable option. Had I known that information immediately, I could have had them all baked in my less-than-an-hour time frame and saved myself some dinero.
Phew. That was stressful.
The one night I hadn't signed up to help serve (Thursday), after dropping off my food, I snuck a peek through the doors of the auditorium. The set STILL wasn't finished, but it was super fun to get a brief glimpse of the performance. Can you spot Mauri?
This is going to be such a fun show.
I am attending EVERY night this whole week, so I'll be interested to see if I get tired of it.
Probably not, especially when I get to see my beloved last child performing each time.
(Btw, my precious children, you are ALL beloved!)
Another exciting thing for Mauri... on top of the endless hours of play practice she's had the past couple weeks, she was preparing for her All-State Jazz Choir callback held Saturday morning. She received the news yesterday evening that she was one of 13 females selected from the entire state of CO. Her friend Megan (who plays the role of Donna in Mamma Mia!) made it in, too.
Congratulations, baby!
