Beauty and the Beast, Jr. (and more)

    The main reason Jared and I took the trip to Chicago this past weekend was to support his youngest sister in her Middle School/Junior High play. When we lived there while finishing our internships, she was debating about auditioning or not, so it was very exciting when she did and she made the play! She was the BEST villager/wolf/plate EVER! 

 Jared and Megan after the show

Megan being an awesome villager and Jared being Gaston :) What a hunk

    The whole family went on Friday night. Jared and I felt good after driving most of the day, so we were more than ready to watch the play! Laura went early with Spencer to get tickets and seats while Nicole, Jared and I waited for Tim to get home so he could take us. It was so fun getting there and seeing the lunch room filled with chairs for family and friends of the people in the play!

We were all so excited for the play to begin!

    As always, a couple things went wrong with the microphones and scenery, but the kids did a great job! Megan was the best part though! Of course!

    We are all so proud of Megan for getting into school activities and trying new things. She got sick of all the practices, but I hope she will try another play in High School.

    Other highlights from the weekend was going to some Japanese place for lunch with the family. I tried spicy tuna sushi and didn't like it. But we all had a great time being together!

Just finished our meals and were stuffed full with all the food!

    Another highlight was watching Nicole and Megan interact. Before going off on a shopping adventure with Laura, the girls and Jared, Nicole and Megan were in the car with me, talking about random things. One random thing out of Megan's mouth was "Do you dare me to run around the house?" (While it is windy and FREEZING outside.) Of course Nicole dared her but says "Run around the house backwards. Ready...Go!" Megan jumped out of the car and started running around the house backwards. We were in the car just dying from laughter when she comes around. Nicole locked the doors and yelled out the window: "I dare you to crawl around the house!" So Megan got on her hands and knees and began to crawl. Jared came out of the house in time for that and was able to get a quick picture to capture the hilarious moment!

She is such a funny person!

    Jared and I are back home in Tennessee now and still laughing at some of the funny things that happened while driving and hanging out with his family. Keep scrolling down to see some of the AWESOME billboards we passed in the car!

    The running tally of movies watched for the other person has changed to: Jared 2     Stephanie 4

    We watched The Shawshank Redemption last night. There are a lot of things I would have liked to skip, but the editing was good. I'd rather just skip to the end if I ever watch it again because that's where the good stuff is. 

 Jared driving most of Friday. So cute!

Me driving on Sunday

Hahahaha! This isn't racist at all!

Another city in the south

Can't forget about the White House sign!

Saw a great dinosaur place! Dinosaur World! With a dinosaur out front!

A warning for sinners speeding down I-65

But there is always hope and redemption!

(JESUS SAVES)

Haha we're either in the south, or in Utah :)

We saw these on another trip, but thought I would add them in here because they are fun. We had no idea there was a whole city dedicated to Jared's cousin Stuart!

Good Job Bob Dixon!

    We made the trip to Chicago on Friday and it was a great success! Made it in about 8 hours and only had to stop for gas twice! Jared drove most of the way and we LOVE our GPS Tom Tom thing. Left pretty early in the morning and I got the snacks the night before. We only went through half the treats, so we have plenty for the trip home!

    If there are any questions, Bob Dixon is the name of Jared's car. It's such a great 1998 Nissan Altima.

 (Not really his car, but it's the same make and color)

     He's been through some tough trips and it shows, but he is so amazing. We named him after our grandparents. His full name is David Bob Dixon from David Voegele, my grandpa, Bob Roush, obviously Jared's grandpa, and Dixon Call, Jared's other grandpa. 

    We also named the Tom Tom. It is Tina Tom Tom because we have the female voice and it fits in when we sing that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang song :) You can see for yourself if you want to:

    Just wanted to give a shout out to Bob Dixon! I'll put up more posts of Megan's play and the great billboards we saw on the way! I learn new things every day :)

    The running tally of movies watched for the other person is the same with:   Jared 2     Stephanie 3

    This is subject to change in the next few days because Jared got another movie in the mail that he is SO excited about.

Anticipating the Weekend!

    Jared and I are getting all set to drive out to Chicago for his sister's school play. It's her first one and we are so excited! As a former theater guru myself, it'll be so fun to see her in Beauty and the Beast! When my High School did that performance, I was the pepper shaker. Woohoo! Every night I got to shake what my mama gave me! Ok, not really, but I did have a fun few second solo with my friend the salt shaker and we got to shake some of the glitter off our costumes! :) 

    Anyway, there are still some things to do before we leave. And to Jared's dismay, they are all rather unnecessary, but I still want them done! For example. I don't want to have to do a lot of laundry when we get back, so I went ahead and did it this morning. 

 

Ta Da!! The Laundry Center is very small, but still nice.

    Another thing that is a necessity is finishing my flashcards for my Humanities 202 midterm next week. I sent in all my assignments (Thanks Rachel Scroggins for editing my papers!!!) and I had my midterm shipped to a school near here. Now all I have to do is finish my GIANT stack of flashcards!

 

Good thing I'm all set with my book, pen, Jared's lap top and some blank index cards.

    The next things on the list are the ones Jared doesn't really want to do. But he has no choice! We are going to clean the whole apartment tonight. I don't want to come home Sunday night to a messy apartment. I'd rather clean it now and have it be beautiful for when we come home! Jared gets to come home from work and find a nice little card telling him the chores he has to do (or else!!). Don't worry, they aren't anything too horrendous. And he can do them while I run out to the store tonight to get groceries that will sit in the fridge/freezer for Monday, because I don't want to go out shopping Sunday night. That's not me being lazy...it's keeping the Sabbath day holy. Even though on Sunday we will be driving and having to stop for gas, I try my best to stick to what church leaders say.

    The more things I get off my check list, the more excited I get about going to Chicago! It'll be so nice being to go and just visit, rather than live there again in the freezing cold weather. And I'm pretty sure it'll make me appreciate this little apartment so much more! :)

    The running tally of movies watched for the other person is the same: Jared 2       Stephanie 3