Day Ten: Resting

Well...um... LecDem with K through 12, some small town history, then off to a new city and hotel. We just rested the whole time. I went swimming with three other dancers, and it was fun! I've been swimming almost every day this tour. And I HATE swimming. Guess that statement is no longer true. Okay...

This evening a big group of us ate at the Texas Roadhouse. Yum! I use to hate sweet potatoes too, but that's no longer true. DIVINE!!! I ordered a dish called Road Kill but it was just a 10oz steak sauteed with mushrooms and onions. Double Divine! Got nothing else for the rest of the night. A lot of dancers are at the pool, but I'm done with that for the night. It's a slow point of tour right now.

Day Nine: Wausau

So here we still are in Wausau and we had another LecDem and we also did a performance. It was quite a busy day! Yet, at the same time, not too hard. The venue we went to - Grand Theatre - was already set up and ready for us. Tomorrow is the Russian National Ballet so we just used the plot hung for that. It was great. Not much to really do. I sat and read a lot. I also figured out why my SFX was acting up on me. Apparently Microsoft Office 2007 takes up a lot of ram. I usually run SFX and Word together, but it was pushing the computer to the brink and complaining at me with little sound glitches. It'll hopefully be good the next show. I'll transfer my notes to SFX...I just like to see it all in one document on the right side of the screen. Oh well...

We had a wonderful dinner prepared for us by the stake. It was bratwurst!! MmmMmm! I had two. That's basically my day. The LecDem was fun with elementary kids and we actually had lunch with the kids. Cute!!! Now we move on...

Day Eight: LecDems

Another full day of LecDems. Today, I taught Melissa, one of our volunteer dancer spouse techs to run the equipment and I just got to sit and watch. Kind of boring on my part, but takes less stress of me. I sat and read a book. I also talked with Erin about work and has decided to start looking into unions. The IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) has Local 336 in Phoenix, AZ. I'll be busy looking into these things. A really good way of getting experience and pay. We'll see what I plan on doing.

We had an elementary LecDem, then a high school LecDem. This was an opportunity that these schools have never experienced and never imagined being able to experience. It was really great to give them these small previews of dance.

Our next stop was at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. It is a nonprofit organization that does the Birds in Art exhibit that is really getting known in this country. It was a great place and I found two sculptures (a pair piece) that I wish I could own. Ahh beautiful!!! It is porcelain artwork by the English artist Dorothy Doughty (1892 - 1962). But I find it would cost me over a thousand dollars at an art auction to even imagine owning it. Oh well... if I ever become rich, it's being added to my personal art collection. (and no, the picture to the right is not it - that is one of the many statues that stands outside the museum)

The evening was spent at a family's home for dinner and FHE since the Beck's were busy at work. It was really fun! When we got home, though, I was exhausted, spent a bit in the hot tub, then is preping for bed. I'm totally ready for an early night sleep. It'll be a very busy day tomorrow. Yay!

Dedication to Host Families

Why do I love host families? Each family I stay with touches my life in a different way. I have been on nine different tours. I may have had almost fifty host families. Wow ... that is hard to imagine. There are so many of those people that I still remember. When I could, we'd sit and talk for hours about anything and everything. Looking into my memory, I can picture different settings talking with different couples. I remember the family in Ashton, England. I remember several from my first tour in Northern California. I remember one vividly from Southern California. A wonderful mother from Queen Creek, Arizona. The list goes on and on. I do not have names or exact locations for these people, but they have become a part of my experience in life. I've been told so many amazing stories. I've made eternal friends - although we may never meet in this life again, our spirits are still joined. I may have only stayed with them for a day, but I love them. That is why we call each other brother and sister in our church. Our spirits recognize each other. I simply love the moments we can sit and talk. There are talks of the spiritual nature where we dig into religious topics or swap stories of experiences in our lives. There are talks about our interests in history, science, the arts. There are talks about past and present relationships. I'm sure I've probably took a part in nearly every type of discussion in the past four years. I've been in so many different types of homes and circumstances. Rich and poor, old and young, single and families of all sizes. There is so much kindness and charity. It's a reaffirmation for me on the belief that we are all spirit brothers and sisters when we are able to just show up and stay at a person's home for a day or two and be able to feel so at home and welcomed. We were complete strangers, but never had a problem coming together, talking about anything, and then pass through again. Each host family has been a treasure in my life. A star in my sky of memories. A page in my book of life. I will probably never have opportunities like this again, so I am grateful for everything I have experienced with the tours in the dance department.

Day Seven: Sunday!

Wow, has it really been a week? I hate when time flies by and so little has been done. Today was great though. We had 9am church in Minneapolis ... and my favorite part was a little boy giving his testimony. I wonder if the format has changed, for kids usually do the usual script of "I'd like to bear my testimony. I know..." but this little boy gets up there. "For those of you who don't know, my name is ... I'd like to tell a story..." was how he starts off. Then he tells a short story and puts an emphasis on that for his testimony. Always remember that kids are listening to what we say and learning from it. It was honestly a miniature testimony of what a lot of people do now. It was adorable cuz he looked no older than seven.

We stayed for the whole three blocks then got on the bus and drove to Wausau, Wisconsin to have dinner at the stake center and do a fireside. It is a small town will few members, but these are amazing members. It was wonderful! There were probably only about twenty people there, but our singing brought tears to people's eyes and the talks were really good.

The next thing was to be placed with host families. We all get a list for placements and guess what ... I WASN'T ON IT!!! HA! They used a list of an old roster before PAM (Performing Arts Management) realized I had been forgotten to be added. Sad, but really, extremely funny. I got placed with a married couple - seriously my favorite people on this team. Don't get me wrong, I love all the dancers, but these two: Eric and Cambria Graham are AWESOME!!! (Allison was living below Cambria's sister this last year. Eric is one of the volunteer techs for the tour.) We sat and talked about a whole bunch of great things for two hours, then we hit the hot tub for an hour. It's been a great Sabbath!

Some of the topics we discussed:

Schooling
Relationships
Future school/career plans
Missions

Miracles of Healing ... We are staying with President Beck who is the Associate Dean of the University of Wisconsin: Marathon County. He has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and almost a year ago was given two months to live. He has so many amazing stories of how the Lord is with him in many ways. It was simply amazing sitting and listening to all of his stories. It is such a strong testimony builder. Here's a published Patient Story from the Marshfield Clinic he attends: Nolan "Whiz" Beck.

Day Six: Shopping

Um...today...what did we do? We took another group picture at the Spoon bridge and Cherry statue because the cherry has been replaced. Yay! We also went to tour the Mill City Museum. It was very interesting. This building has been in a flour dust explosion and two fires. Bad luck! The flour tower exhibit was amazingly done. It gave a history of the flour mill. Pretty cool to learn about General Mills in its beginnings and see a past that use to be the top flour industry in the world.

After that was Mall of America. Wow...huge place, good stores, interesting theme park. We did one of the rides...the short but fun Sponge Bob roller coaster. I walked most of that mall today. Fun walking time, but I'm not much of a shopper. Oddly enough, I bought quite a bit of small accessories. Eh...whatever. I'm glad for my purchases.

Tonight is spent in a hotel. I prefer host families, but apparently it is very hard on many of the dancers because its so many unknown factors in going to a new household every other night.

Day Five: LecDem

We were able to do a LecDem at an elementary school this morning. That was a lot of fun! Small kids are the best to perform for because of their laughter! We then had a master class by Pat for the advanced high school dance class. Then we ate at a great little bread and soup place called Turtle Bread. After that I spent some time on the bus when I should have been taking a nap but actually worked on my laptop. After we were finished with classes at the high school, we headed to Uptown and walked around to do window shopping. With two other dancers, I ate at Jimmy Johns, a great little sandwich shop, considered to be the world's greatest... That was it. Dancers wanted an early night for sleep. We were back with host families at 8pm. Of course I stayed up til 1am talking with my host family. This place is amazing. The neighborhood is so close as friends! They had a children's movie night in one of the garages. Awesome!