There's no business like show business

Last week I got to see "Annie Get Your Gun," the youth production at the Angelo Civic Theatre that I got to choreograph, for the first time. This weekend I saw it three more times. I am left asking my typical post-musical question... "Why didn't I ever get involved with musical theatre?

Someday I'd love to be brave and talented enough to play a part in a musical. Wishful thinking, right? But a girl can always hope.

I am so proud of the kids in this show. I got to spend a lot of time with them between September and January and I know that not only are they incredibly talented, but they are good kids. I hope they continue to reach for their dreams while staying grounded in goodness. Congratulations to them on a fantastic performance.

"There's no people like show people, they smile when they are low. Yesterday they told you you would not go far. That night you opened, and there you are. Next day on your dressing room they've hung a star! Let's go on with the show!"

Thoughts from Morrie

Yesterday I read Tuesdays with Morrie. It was a really good book. As has become my tradition, let me share my thoughts about the book with you. It was truly touching story and left me with a lot of good things to think about. Here are my favorite quotes from Morrie about life:



"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it." p35

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." p43

"How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then on with the day." p??

"I believe in being fully present. That means you should be with the person you're with." p135

"There are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike. And the biggest one of those values... [is] your belief in the importance of your marraige." p149

The Luckiest

Dear Bret,

"I don't get many things right the first time. In fact, I am told that a lot....
but I am, I am, I am the luckiest."

Thank you for listening, being patient with my mistakes, waiting for me to finish cooking away my frustrations, watching the Office at 12:30 am and giving me hugs.

I love you and think I truly am the luckiest.

-Cami

Monday

I'm not typically an anti-Monday person. In fact, I usually like Mondays. I liked this Monday too, but it sure was a... well, a Monday! Let me share...

5:45 am - Cycling class. Hard but rewarding. It justified eating a cinnamon roll on the way to work!

7:35 am - Ambushed by another teacher as I walk into school - she tells me Ashley's dynavox is locked and has me watch her empty her email inbox for 3 minutes so she can send me an email about it. I finally tell her I'm going to go turn my computer on so I can recieve her email. (Why didn't she just tell me about it?!)

1st period - Spent most of the class period in my office trying to call the dynavox company. Turns out they and are closed for President's day (lucky!).

2nd period - HIGHLIGHT of the day! A student named Maria who graduated in December brought in her little baby boy. I care a lot about this student so it was fun to see her and see that she's doing her best to be a great mom - even at the age of 18.

3rd period - Watched Spongebob and checked emails. They were administering a test to Sophomores and Juniors - the Seniors got to hang out for the period.

4th and 5th... and then some - Sat in a comfy chair in the lobby at PaulAnn Baptist Church (Ashley's current job site) while she worked. Had a great chat with my grandma and enjoyed the quiet. THEN waited an HOUR (no exaggeration) for the bus to pick us up.

Lunch - Forgot it. Someone noticed and gave me their apple. Very kind!

6th - Walked out of an R rated movie. Never had to that before... anywhere. Didn't expect it to be at school. I've had a lot of frustrations with the inappropriate things this teacher is doing in class and need to start speaking up about it.

7th - Guest speaker from a doctors office. Feel inspired me to wash my hands more often, but not willing to adopt her germ-a-phobia.

Summary of the school day: besides changing and feeding, Ashley only needed me for about 10 minutes of class time. I love getting paid to do this, but sometimes I wonder, "Why do they pay me to do this?!" Some days require more than others... emphasis on some.

After school - 50 minutes of leading the faculty in an intense cardio workout (got so sweaty I could wring out my hair!). An hour of grocery shopping (still sweaty and smelly). Unloaded groceries and immediately went to play tennis with Bret for Family Home Evening (got more sweaty, but we had lots of fun!). Finally clean, eating dinner, and relaxing.

All in all, a very interesting Monday.

Dancing Inside-Out

Thursday was the outreach project I have been working on. Me and my 7 dancers spent all day at Ft. Concho Elementary School performing once for each grade. It was a huge success. Everyone, including the principal, was really excited about what we did... the kids loved watching it and it was fun to see the adults present realize that dance can be used to help kids understand things that we try to teach them in school every day. I hope we can continue to do more to get dance into education here in San Angelo.

The local news came to film for a little bit. The website wouldn't let me download the video, but you can watch it at this link. Its really short.

http://conchovalleyhomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=108046

Limericks

Today they started a unit on poetry in English. You'd think she had asked them to kiss a dead fish by how much they complained. And it wasn't even serious poetry they were working on! They aren't going to read a single poem by a notable author. In fact, the only poems they will read in this entire poetry unit are the six tacky ones written on the board. And are they complicated, beautiful styles of poetry like sonnets and ballads? No. This is what their poetry unit consists of: writing and decorating 6 poems (did I mention they are not READING any poetry?!): an acrostic poem, a cinquian, a diamonde, a haiku, a limerick, and a shape poem. So while everyone was whining I wrote the following...

9:30 at Lake View High
And already I want to cry!
This job is so dull,
Its draining my skull...
Can't wait to kiss this place goodbye!

Stay tuned for more THRILLING poetry from the mind of Cami Wardle.

What's New With the Wardles

MR. WARDLE:

This semester Bret has a couple classes on campus but he also spends 12-16 hrs a week at the hospital learning about doing physical therapy in an acute care setting. I think he really enjoys being able to do hands-on things and interact with patients. I love it when he comes home and instead of studying for his tests he spends hours reading up on old material or researching about questions he'll have based on someone he worked with at the hospital. Don't worry, he always gets around to the necessary studying, but I love that he gets so excited about learning for the sake of learning. He is going to be an awesome physical therapist.

Other things on Bret's schedule: co-ed basketball intermurals, boys basketball intermurals, Elders' Quorum basketball, NBA basketball watching, and ward secretary duties (which means extra meetings on Sunday plus some weekday time at church). He is also waiting to hear back about his application to be a Graduate Assistant next year. Keep your fingers crossed for him!

MRS. WARDLE: This semester I have been working on an outreach project for the ballet. The idea was originally to go into about 5 different elementary schools to perform a lecture demonstration about dance (similar to what we did in Kinnect and Dancers' Co. at BYU). We had a lot of roadblocks along the way... too many to go into detail... but in less than a month we (my seven dancers and I) have put together a great show that will be educational and fun. We will be performing 6 separate times at one elementary school, Fort Concho, this Thursday. We hope it will open doors for the ballet to bring more integrated dance into elementary schools in the future.

Other things on Cami's schedule: still working with Ashley at Lake View, teaching 7 classes at the ballet (including Adult Contemporary Dance), teaching fitness classes twice a week to the Lake View faculty, and housekeeping/cooking duties (which Bret does a great job helping with!).

What we're looking forward to this week: I get to miss work on Thursday so I can do the elementary school outreach. I get to watch "Annie Get Your Gun" which opened this weekend and will run through February. We are going to San Antonio to stay with some friends and go to the temple! Yay!

We are loving life and hope you are too!

Sigh...

Ashley's not at school today. I am. Boring. Get me out of here.

Mocking High School

Update:

Right before first period I checked out the third book, "Mockingjay." When 7th period ended I had read 115 pages. Shows you just how much was going on in Ashley's classes today... or should I say how much was NOT going on. I'll note that I usually have an hour to read at her job site and didn't today since she was working on a project where she needed some physical help, so all this reading was done during regular hours. I know that our schedule has been thrown this week because of the weather (school canceled Tuesday, late start Wednesday) and a funeral for a former student today so I can understand a lot of teachers having to adapt, but the thing is, its really not much different from what we do on a regular basis. At this rate I'd say I'm going to be frequenting the library quite often so I need to build up a good list of books. Any suggestions? Top on my list already:

* "Tuesdays with Morrie"

* the book following "Remembering Jacob, the Wise and Joyful Potter of Niederbipp"

Hungry for more...

I am not an avid reader... unless I am reading. Does that make sense? I usually wait months between cracking open a novel, but as soon as I start I am hooked and sometimes find myself confusing my life with the imaginary life I've let myself into.

Megan gave me the book "The Hunger Games" for my birthday. She took it with her to Africa and said that she could hardly wait to get home to read the next one. I seriously wonder how she did wait. I didn't pick up the book until last week, but when I finished it Sunday night I considered an entire list of plans to get the second book as soon as humanly possible. I thought of going to the book store before work... too early, they wouldn't be open yet. I thought of going to the book store on my lunch break... not enough time to get there and back. I thought of calling every woman in my ward, in hopes that at least one would have the second book... ridiculous and desperate.

I decided to go to the high school's librarian first thing in the morning to see if by any miracle she had heard of it and knew how I could get my hands on it. She had heard of it (apparently this series is quite popular) but both of the school's copies were checked out. However, this wonderful woman called her daughter's middle school and had them check it out to me. When her daughter brought it to her mom after school it was quickly ushered into the room where I was teaching a fitness class to some of the faculty, at which point I quickly stopped doing sit-ups, let out a yelp of joy, ran over and nearly hugged the librarian and her daughter... until I realized how sweaty and smelly I was.

That was Monday. It is now Wednesday night. The second book, "Catching Fire," is out of words, out of chapters, out of story to tell me. I am pathetic. And so to ease myself back into reality (until tomorrow, that is, when I check out the final book "Mockingjay") I am telling this random, pointless story to whatever unfortunate souls take the time to read it. If you, like me, get addicted to stories and characters and plots... leave this book alone. You WILL get sucked in. However, if you have more self-control or are willing to risk loosing yourself for a few weeks.... "Let the Hunger Games begin!"