Wowza, February was a blur.
Josh was in full rehearsal mode for his leading role in the Russian opera, Eugene Onegin, as well as surviving full school and work. On top of this, one of our beloved horses tried to cut off both her back legs in our fence, so the daily routine of wrapping and cleaning her legs has been an added excitement. Lucky for us, it provided Josh and I some intentional early morning dates before he drove off to another 13 hour day of school/rehearsals. Ha! Blessings and silver linings, right?!
Here's a picture of the little darling gem for who we have to thank for our morning romance. :)
Josh and I would often say, "It's just a month. This crazy schedule will be over soon -no worries." and it's actually surprising how fast it flew by. Hazel and I occupied much of our time by spending the days outside in the *beeeautiful* February weather. Upon moving to Southern Indiana, I was told that February is typically the coldest month of the year; after 2 weeks of subzero weather in January, I was ready for terror.
But oh, what lovely days we had (aside from the massive snow storm we got, obviously!). Many of the days were in the 50's and 60's, three of them even in the 70's! There is a nice gravel road that sits on the edge of a sixty-five acre forest directly behind our house, so we get some good steps in (about 2 miles both ways). Hazel loves that her kitties come along (and I secretly love it, too). She's a good little helper with all the chores and loves to collect eggs (and throw them to Coda, bahhhh).
So! The end of February came and that means PERFORMANCE time! And no, not "break a leg" like theater, but "toi toi toi" as they say in the opera world. We were thrilled to have Josh's grandma, "Phoosie" come and stay in our Airbnb palace! (Wait, you didn't know we have a guest suite in our house for visitors?? Ahhh, go check it out here!)
Josh had one performance on Saturday, but we actually got to see him twice because they allowed us in for the Thursday evening dress rehearsal! Oh, what fun! Hazel knew the moment that Josh was on stage, because as soon as he started singing, she pointed to the stage and said, "Daddy!!"
Shortly after, she fell asleep until just before his (!!spoiler alert!!) death at the end of Act II.
Funny story: I have no idea how Hazel understood what was happening in this scene, because we don't watch TV and she doesn't play with guns or anything to really know what they do. Well, anyway, the guns went off and Josh fell to the floor and Hazel exclaimed, "Oh, owieeee!" The college-aged girls next to us erupted in giggles. Then, I'm positive Hazel was trying to say something else, but it came out as an exasperated, "Daammmmmn." (insert the face covering emoji). The girls (who didn't have any idea she was only 18 months and has never heard that word and was NOT trying to swear in an opera!) erupted in muffled laughter (I know .... totally inappropriate for a death scene, right?!) and I was as red as a beet that's been boiled for an extra minute or two.
The performance on Saturday was just phenomenal. Josh is truly so talented and amazing. It's so fun listening to him sing on stage all of the songs I've heard so much at home ... and it's amazing because I can hear him just as well ... and he's projecting over an entire ORCHESTRA. No microphone, just straight lungs. I also love being able to have Hazel hear him sing and jump every time the audience claps, only to excitedly join in.
Hazel was actually very good during the whole performance. She was awake during the entirety of Act I and stayed quiet and clapped (for the most part, haha) when we were supposed to. As soon as Act II started, she fell asleep and stayed asleep until the next morning.
Bringing her to this Opera brought back so many memories of when she came to Josh's opera at UVU "Tales of Hoffman" as a 3 month old. I surprised myself saying that I think her as an 18 month old is easier and less stressful to bring to big events like this. Haha! Sure, they sleep more when they're younger, but there's also more random outbursts you can't expect or control as easily.
Crazy to see how much she's grown up! She actually smiles (or not?) for pictures now ... wild.
As we all drove home from the performance, Josh asked us, "Is everyone as starving as I am??" He doesn't like to eat several hours before he performs, and with us leaving the house at 6pm, he was pretty famished. Of course none of us had any objection to food, so we did what any normal person would do and swung through the Wendy's drive-thru.
As we each munched on our delicacy of choice, driving from the big city back to our little slice of homestead heaven, Phoosie thoughtfully said, "So ... now you go home to feed chickens and wrap a little horses leg." Josh let out a big sigh and said, "Yeah ... and I've got a lesson to teach in church tomorrow." I could feel Phoosie smirk from the front seat as she responded, "That's good. You can't just live on Cloud9 like this. It's good that you have real life things to keeps you humble."
And I just honestly love that that's how we live. Opera star, river rafting guide. Actress for film, horse trainer. Both come home to chickens and ducks and have to wrap a little horse's leg every day. Keeps us humble. Haha.
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So enjoying reading all of these and seeing the pictures! ❤️