Miss Saigon

I love musicals. Miss Saigon has been on my list for years as one that I would like to see. I've been listening to the music for years. So last Friday I finally went to see it with the Hunters. It was playing at the Arvada Center and I wasn't sure how good the quality of the performers would be.
Most of the performers had been on Broadway or had done the Broadway tour thing. I couldn't tell the difference in the performers there with what I have seen on Broadway or at the Buelle Theater. They were AMAZING!
Not knowing a whole lot about the show, I didn't know what to expect. Someone should have given me a heads up on the first scene though.
The first scene has to do with the soldiers in Vietnam and how they'd find prostitute bars in their leisure hours to pass time while they were there. I wasn't sure whether to laugh out loud, cover my eyes, vomit or cry during the whole first 15 minute scene! It made dirty dancing look like the electric slide. Soldiers had their hands ALL over these women, who had their hands all over the soldiers and it was truly like an orgy with clothes on set to music. Overkill. Here's an example: At one point one of the soldiers had his hand on the prostitutes boob, moved it away, and the woman took his hand and placed it back all the while doing a lap dance. Seriously. And to make matters worse, the women were kind of nasty looking. They sang beautifully but ewwwwwww. The kind of ewwwww like when you see two nasty old people making out.
Luckily the musical picked itself up out of the gutter and carried forward to some better scenes.
Overall, I really liked it (other than the first scene), loved the music and will go to the Arvada Center ANYTIME to see almost ANYTHING, knowing the quality of the performers.
Early next month will be WICKED (at the Buelle Theater)! I am majorly excited about this. I have been waiting to see it again since the minute I left NYC over 2 years ago.
And Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is playing in December which we may take the family to go see.

August Rush

I've been horrible about blogging. Hor. Ri. Ble.
So here's my new goal: Update every other week.
That's pretty reasonable, right?
Here's a few things I wouldn't want to forget about August (other than it FLEW by):

• School Started! Yay! We took the traditional individual photo of our kids holding up their "first day of _____" signs. Cute as they are, I was way excited about the whole going back to school thing. Why? Because I'm a better Mom when I don't have to deal with the same problems from sun up to sun down. And the "I'm Bored" phrase was getting used all too often.
  
• BWD and I had an anniversary. Seventeen years of holy matrimony!!! I can honestly say that we're very happy too. We stole away for a night and went up to Boulder area to relax and have fun. We even brought our bikes and went for a little spin. We try to do that twice a year for at least one night and I so look forward to it each and every time. The timing of our anniversary couldn't be more perfect too. Right after the kids are back in school there's nothing like a little get-away.
  
• The kids changed rooms. Again. Now Coby is back in the basement and Katrina has his old room. They are all pretty happy now actually and so far Coby hasn't abused the privilege of having a fridge/freezer/microwave at his disposal. As far as we know that is.
  
• At the tail end of July, the boys (including BWD) went to High Adventure/Scout Camp. They hiked a 14-er and got to test out the kayaks they had built. They had a GREAT time and it was a perfect thing to end the summer.
• And last but certainly not least, our garden produced exactly 8 beans. I planted corn, watermelon, pumpkins, peas and the aforementioned beans. I am not going to lie to you and tell you that it was properly weeded. But the weeds are unbeLIEEEEEvable. Every plant was taken and treated as a POW. It's no wonder all the watering and such didn't matter. I can't do another garden unless it's indoor or hanging topsy-turvy-like.
  

And that raps up August!