Come Home to Kanesville

My friend Angie was in the Winter Quarters Musical a few years ago and I told her Ethan would really love to do this.  He is my grandson and 10 years old… a real ham.  He likes to memorize poems and perform in front of audiences.  I tried to talk Rachael into auditioning but little did I know, she was pregnant and due in Aug.  I decided to be in it with him in the ensemble… back ground.  I went with him to auditions and he got the part out of 8.  I also got a part with singing in it and lines!
We are double cast so I  go on every other night, mostly with Ethan.  It is a pioneer story about 2 families who lived in the area before heading out west with the other pioneers in the late 1840’s.
We started practicing on July 5th and had the script and a sound track.  We only had 10 rehearsals so we had to have everything memorized by the 5th.  Then rehearsal was from 6-10 or 11PM with every minute being used with 5 assistant directors and coaches.  Intense.
Two and a half weeks of shows, 17 total and we are to our last week.  Wow what a mind blast!  The show has mostly young adults in it.  I am a mother to 3 and have struggles and trials as a family.  I sing parts (by myself- scary? yesssss.  Ethan is in the other family and has some show stopping lines.  he is great and knows how to follow directions.  I am so  proud of him.  Because of the late schedules we are keeping (home at 11:30PM last night) Ethan is sleeping over at my house and we bonded.   Kay is out of town fishing in Alaska and was able to see our first show.  Because it is the final season we are having a DVD made so that is what we are gearing up to on Saturday.  
Rachael’s kids have been able to see it a couple times and loved it.  Isaac (2) was mesmerized by the dancing. I also volunteered to help feed the cast dinner which puts me busy all day cooking.  It has been a fun month.  My parents drove out from Utah to see  me perform 3 times and Lauren, my daughter came with cousin Mitch and Even my brother Jamon made it on his cross country trek.  Thanks!     

Aspen Grove Family Camp fishing

 

Car help

  Kay was working on a car and had two guys (residents) ask if they could help.  They went and got their tools and started taking the car apart!

New friends from Saudi Arabia

 
 I met some women visiting for a few months from Saudi Arabia.  They have been exercising at Curves and I see them about 1 time a week.  They have been taking English lessons so are getting better and better at speaking English.   They will be going home next month and I asked them if they had been in an American home.  They said no, so we arranged for a lunch.  They brought their brother who has been attending Creighton and is their driver and translator.   When we saw the wonderful food they brought, we stopped making some of ours and had a nice lunch, visit and tour of the house and yard area.  They were very kind and we learned about Mohammed and Muslem beliefs and they learned a bit about Mormons.  I had them go to Mormon.org to get an overview.  Maybe we will visit Saudi Arabia some day….. you never know.          

 

       

 

                                  

 

                 

A babe is born

Tuesday I went to visit Felicia’s mom who was tending the kids while she was in the hospital and Felicia answered the door! Her mom had some unexpected things come up and couldn’t tend, so her C-section was put off until Wednesday.  I picked up grandma Tuesday night and picked Felicia up at 9AM Wednesday and we had a bouncing baby girl!  President Wilkinson thought he was visiting a mother and baby but came at the perfect  time… 30 min before the surgery.   When I told Felicia her Dr, Dr Besse is a Mormon she said “Shut UP” which now means “I don’t believe it”.  Both men were able to give her a priesthood blessing.  When Dr Besse found out she was sleeping on an air mattress on the floor he said we needed to get her off the floor sooooo   I called Open Door Mission and through some miracles… kindnesses,  employees agreeing to stay late, picking up grandma and the kids,  being allowed to use grandma’s id, bending some rules… we were able to get her a bed, stove, mats for the kids to sleep on, a dresser and a chair. It was a rewarding day.  Lauren said if I spend 20 hours a week on church service including my 6 hour temple shift, we should apply to be local missionaries... we will hit that goal this week for sure.

  She still needs a kitchen table and washer/dryer but we did good!

Conestoga Branch AP Overnight Campout

I (Janae) decided to organize the men to go to the Fathers and Sons AP camp out. Kay said if I organize it, he would execute the orders (he did a great job).  For the past several years one dad and one son had gone from our tiny branch (Sacrament meeting attendance is 30-70).

 We provided the hotdogs, smores and chips and asked Brother Caverhill (one of the many who live outside the boundries) to make dutch oven potatoes.  He added a peach cobbler to the mix. Saturday, Kay made Mountain Man breakfast to supplement the doughnuts the stake provided.

We went around in our normal interactions with branch members asking if they wanted to go Camping.   

We had a black  member come that had never been camping, 

2 young black brothers (I visit teach their inactive mother) they had never been camping or near an open fire (see marshmallow sticky hands pic).

A 23 year old tattoo laden inactive son of  one of our home teaching  ladies

3 boys that don't have dad's in the home that come to scouts

one boy whos dad works night shift

a father and 3 sons who joined the church last April

a student father (graduating) and his 2 sons

The branch Pres and wife showed up for dinner

Kay and Bro Caverhill I will call the "anchors"

.= 19!

Kay and I went to the church and picked up the 10 sleeping bags, 2 lg tents and mats and had an errand to run near the camp ground 40 min away so staked out a place for our branch and Seth's ward (2 families came from his)

all in all it was a huge success!  Everyone had a great time and we had a large group there

 The Aaronic Priesthood Camp out was held at Two Rivers Camp Ground.