I'm 5-0 today....really?

I can't believe I'm fifty today. I remember ten years ago thinking to myself I'll never be fifty. I'll never make it to fifty with these crazy kids and when I do...my last daughter will be graduated from High School and Jim and I will practically be empty nesters. Well here it is and as Marilaine said last night--If I weren't here now - FIFTY - where would I be?

My friends from work gave Marilaine and I a joint birthday party at Vitense Mini Gulf Range last night. I actually knew about it, but played along because Heidi spent so much time giving out invitations (secretly), planning the event, buying balloons and chocolate and a book (God Never Blinks--50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours [just what Marilaine and I need with all that's been going on in our lives]) for each of us. So I acted surprised and grateful and truly had FUN. We BOTH did!

The action shot! 

The Gehrmann Girls have never liked being the center of attention so I was happy that Marilaine and I got to celebrate our birthdays together--open up the cards and presents at the same time, blow out the candles together and be there for each others' joy.

The Birthday Girls!

The Gang--what a Motley and WONDERFUL group of people!! Thanks PEEPs!

Another Katie Musical

Katie has been cast in yet another musical for the summer. This time she is Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (try to say that three times, fast, in a row)in The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee.

The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee is a one act musical comedy. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set at Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally-quirky grown ups. Katie's Logainne character is the precious ultra-liberal political daughter of two gay dads. She has to speak and sing with a lisp (yes, she's already started practing this). Katrina will be directing the musical. The cast consists of present and former Edgewood High School students. They met for practice last night and listened to all the songs in the musical. They will present the show the first weekend in August.

Dan Fogler (Number 13) won a Tony Award for  Featured Actor In a Musical in the original Broadway show in 2005. His character William Morris Barfee uses his foot to spell out the word on the floor before he speaks it outloud for the judges. Luke will be portraying this character.

Of course I said I would help out in any capacity for the musical--costumes, make-up, props, food--whatever is needed! It's going to be a fun show to watch!!

The UW-Madison Memorial Union

One of my favorite places to visit in the summer is the terrace at the UW-Madison Memorial Union. Which Jim and I did yesterday late afternoon. We had so much fun eating pretzels (the inside bar wasn't open where they usually sell my ultimate favorite-POPCORN!) and drinking a beer and talking and people watching.  The colorful chairs just shout out THE UNION:

The view of the lake is spectacular: beautiful and soothing!

My only regret is NOT bringing my camera! (The above photos are borrowed.) I would have taken a pic of the man in front of us who was giving a speech in which we had NO IDEA what he was talking about! His speech started out in favor of Native Americans, turned angry on Fidel Castro, then turned to Iraq, followed by an angry spouting of various subjects that made absolutely NO sense. A gay man tried to gently stop him by saying, "None of us want to hear any negative things here today." The man kept giving his speech to which the G-man incuded the rest of us by asking, "am I right, how many of the rest of you DON'T want to hear this man?" I responded with a "Yeah." Speech Man went on for another half a minute and then hobbled away to annoy another group of people (he was on crutches).

I would have also captured the man on a tall bike. It was amazing--over six feet tall! The best part was when he got off and then climbed right back on.

It looked something like this.

But the man at the Union's bike looked hodgepodge and homemade, stuck together with duct tape. And the man himself was quite a character--long beard, thin and spriteley, maybe sixty. Alot of people were taking pics of the man and his bike (sigh...)

I vow from here on: BRING MY CAMERA every fun place I  go!

Monday, May 28th, 2012

To all those men and women who have given their lives defending our country=

THANK YOU!

Summer Movie Review #1

Yesterday katie and I went to see the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (for the elderly and beautiful). I give it an A!

A group of seven British (don't you just LOVE british actors) retirees travel (all expenses paid) to the "newly restored" Marigold Hotel attracted by the seemingly exotic India and with hopes of stretching their retirement savings. Upon arrival they learn the hotel is not what was promised: no telephone service, bizarre dinner fare, dusty accomodations, and run down plumbing. Nonetheless over the course of the adventure each and every one of the ragtag group is profoundly transformed by his/her experience.

The breathtakingly colorful setting of Jaipur, India is a character in and of itself. The crowded streets, the various vendors: meat, cloth, jewelry and spices, the delapidated buildings, the religious sounds that echo, all create not only a fantastico place but steer the characters on their individual and group journeys.

All the actors in the movie portray their characters beautifully. My favorite characters are: Evelyn (portrayed by Dudi Drench) who is a recently widowed housewife forced to sell her home due to huge debts incurred by her late husband. She gets a job in Jaipur as a cultural adivisor to a call center. Then there is Douglas (portrayed by Bill Nighy) who is funny and positive and extremely handsome for an "Old Guy."He eventually divorces his "biatch" of a wife (amicably).  Madge (Celia Imrie) does a good job portraying a character that goes from angry, bitter racist to dogmatic and resourceful manager of the hotel finances. Her character changes the most and we see her real personality. Finally there is Sonny (Dev Patel) the extremely enthusiastic hotel manager and overseer
 of everything. He is funny, postive and caring of the retirees.

I loved the movie and (mark my words) think it may be up for Best Movie in 2012 at the Academy Awards with some nominees for best actor! The only thing I question is that the appeal of this movie may be age related. Katie--at eighteen--did not seem to find the movie as lovable as me. She thought it was "cute." I thought it was profound, knowledgeable and life-lesson-learning.

BRATFEST

Only in Wisconsin do we have a whole festival wrapped around a single food item, a brat at that--BRATFEST!

Spectrum, formerly The Edgetones (an a capella group from Edgewood High School--don't ask about the name change, purely stupido drama) played the 1 pm - 2pm block at the big Baker Tilly Stage yesterday!

Of course KATIE was the best performer in the group!

Summer Goals, Plans, Adventures

Remember those obnoxious essays you had to write once you got back to school in the fall. They were ALWAYS entitled "What I Did On My Summer Vacation." Most of the time as kids, we had no idea what to write, we sat there in that blank space of our brains trying to think, think, think of something fun and exciting we had done. Perhaps if we had been writing things down all along or better yet, had come up with some goals, plans, and adventures, it wouldn't have been so difficult to remember.
Well here I am...a whole summer vacation looming before me...
Here's what I intend to do this summer.

GET TAN AND BUFF. This one is my favorite. I attempted this last year as well and did pretty good. I got a summer gym membeship for Katie and we spent many an afternoon at the gym pool. I also went to group exercises alot too. But I would like to expand on this one by TRYING NEW CLASSES at the gym. I basically go to two classes--Bodypump and Sculpt--figuring I get my cardio from walking Maggie everyday. But this summer is a great way to try a Step class, or Zumba dance or many of the other classes offered.  Because I keep saying I will try new classes and I never do--this summer I will!

MAKE A SUMMER WREATH. There is a big single nail beside the front door. We put a fall wreath I made on it, as well as a Christmas wreath but I would love to make a pretty, summery wreath for it.

FINISH KNITTING THE PINK SCARF AND FIGURE OUT HOW TO CROCHET THE GRANNY SQUARE SCARF. That pink scarf is sitting by the couch and I can pick it up anytime while we are watching TV. Also the granny square scarf can be knit while I sit on the deck outside!

WRITE ONE SHORT STORY. AND SEND IT OUT TO BE PUBLISHED.

READ AS MANY GOOD BOOKS AS I CAN.

GO ON DAY TRIPS: DEVIL'S LAKE, GERMANFEST, COUNTY PARKS, BRATFEST, RYTHM AND BOOMS, MALLARDS GAME, AMERICAN PLAYERS THEATER, MOVIES.

GO ON A FEW OVERNIGHT TRIPS: CHICAGO TO VISIT BECKY. LACROSSE WITH KATIE.

Well I can always add more, as I think of things I want to accomplish and do this summer....
Because the skys the limit.....

Last Day of School (work) For ME

It's my last day of work until Monday August 20th....ahhhh  SUMMER VACATION!
I've always hated endings. To me they are sad little things...that is why I try not to think of anything as an ending, HAHA. Katie and I were talking about this yesterday. She was bemoaning the fact she is in a group of friends that insist upon going to EVERY graduation party. She said she would rather pick and choose the graduation parties of friends she feels closest to. (There's another batch of parties coming up this Memorial Day Weekend!) Not go to twenty parties and spend only fifteen minutes at each one. Then she started talking about how SHE hates endings. She told me these graduation parties were't really endings, that she'll see her fellow classmates again, especially the theater people, and now with the summer theater group that Katrina is putting together, she'll see them every summer! (Obviously she does the same justifying as me.)
I've hated endings from since I was little. My grandparents would come to visit us in Milwaukee. We would watch "Lawrence Welk," take walks around the city blocks, and visit. When it came time for them to leave I would stand at the big bay window in the front of the house and cry. I DID NOT WANT THEM TO GO!

To mark the end of another school year and The End of my daughters' sojourn at Edgewood High School (where did the past SIX years go?) I bought orchids for two individuals who have impacted my daughters the most...

Aren't they beautiful?

One is for our Edgewood High School's Greatest Director of all time=Katina. She began with Katie, four years ago, and directed such greats as--The Matchmaker, 12 Angry Jurors, Anything Goes, A Midsummer's Dream, Hairspray, Our Town and West Side Story. Katie was in ALL OF THEM (mostly leads).  She was Katie's direction for theater, guiding Katie, inspiring her, and setting Katie on the path to her future. Katrina is a dynamite of a person, full of life and patience.

The other orchid is for Edgewood High School's infamous piano teacher=Ann. This women taught piano to both Katie and Becky for a total of SIX years. Ann has helped Becky and Katie choose a song for the solo competition every year, helped them with the songs and inspired both of them to play with skill yes, but also with great heart.

Over the years, both of these women have become my friends. They come through the lunch line and we gossip, we laugh, we talk about the future.

Because there will be no endings with us--we're all coming back August 20th!

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER KATRINA AND ANN!!

The Economy Hits the Lunch Room

As the final days of school (work) draw to a close for this year, John (best boss in the world) has been trying to put the schedule together (what days we  work for next year) for our contracts for 2012-2013. Unfortunately enrollment is WAY DOWN for Edgewood next year. We are fifteen students behind just to get to the average size classroom. I do believe in the education offered at Edgewood High School but I don't blame people for declining the opportunity due to financial reasons. As for ourseleves, we also would probably have opted to send our daughters to our public high school if it weren't for the financial help of G-ma. (THANK YOU G-ma!) Over the six years of education that our daughters went to Edgewood, tuition went UP every year.

You would think the decline in enrollment wouldn't affect the lunch room, but it does. John is talking about eliminating some of the extra people he puts on to staff the register (and taking the register stint  himself). Due to financial concerns Marilaine has opted to go from three days to full time. But some of our beautiful ladies may be leaving. Lisa probably will not return, instead give more time to her and her husband's sporting goods business--Prism. Linda has a new full-time job at Associated Bank and/ot might be moving to South Carolina.

So how does it affect ME? John asked me what I wanted to do? I said "MORE HOURS." He thinks he can give me three days, but one of them would be Friday. I love working Fridays. We get to take home the end of the week food, there is a "Friday" feel in the school, and Jim flies most Fridays and will  be gone anyways. But there is always a downside. I have been blocking Fridays to pick Becky up in Chicago and now Katie in LaCrosse from their colleges. But Becky has been taking the bus on Fridays to save gas and wear and tear on the car (it's been working out really well) and there IS a bus that goes from LaCrosse to the Union in Madison. So...what will I do??? Take the hours, I think if I needed to, I could get someone to work for me,if I needed a Friday off (maybe Lisa?). More hours mean more money and Lord knows we could always us more of that! Plus I like the gym routine on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the gym--Bodypump-YAY!!

Decisions, decisions. I wonder how many major and minor decisions we all make every day of our lives...

I Feel FAT

After a weekend of super indulgence I feel extremely FAT this morning.

Yeah, just like this.



As humans we're given the freedom of choice for all things. And sometimes, no always, I wish there was a higher being that would step in and say, "do you really want another Swedish Meatball?" I guess that is up to our CONSCIENCES, but when asked, mine always responds with a hearty "YES, I DO!"

For me, it's once you start the glutteny you don't stop until a natural disaster occurs or a Monday rolls around. It started with the ice cream at the gourmet ice cream shop Friday night where I had a huge Classic Banana Split Sundae. Then proceeded to an ENTIRE Papa Murphy's Pizza (large) on Saturday and onto the graduation party fare of: Swedish meatballs (four), pulled pork sandwhich, chips and salsa, Chex Mix, hummus and pita chips, lots of cheese slices and crackers and a GIGANTIC piece of graduation cake (corner-chocolate).

So I will do what I always do after one of these food binge streaks. I will declare here and now: The Diet Starts Today!

ROME and GRADUATION

Becky left for Rome yesterday. I said good-bye at home because Jim was going to try to go through security with her and wait at the gate and "put her on the plane," using his American ID (there are still some advantages for working in the airline industry--haha!) Remember the good 'ole days of going to the gate, saying good-bye to loved ones AT THE GATE, bringing flowers and greeting them when they arrive AT THE GATE (Ahhh Europe!)?

Arreverderci, Becky!

Well Jim's plan worked--he was able to wait with  Becky. He also got a perspective of the "other side of the fence." From the termnal he and Becky saw the baggage handlers loading her suticases. The larger suitcase was loaded onto the conveyor belt twice and was dropped TWICE from a distance of SIX feet. It crashed to the ground, the strap he placed around it went BOOING, and the suticase went sliding across the tarmac. And I wondered why there was a "I HATE AMERICAN AIRLINES" website!

*****************************************************************

Graduation for Katie went off without one single hitch. She and Jules got mentioned in Kate Stein's Student Speech at the commencement. Kate said Katie and Jules sang the song "Because I Knew You" from the broadway play "Wicked" at the Edgewood Talent Show two years ago and that the words of the refrain were truly appropriate--"because I knew you, I've been changed for the better." Now I just want to add here--that they would have never auditioned without me. They asked me to come in to the piano room where they were practicing after school and I give them an honest opinion of whether they were good enough to audition for the talent show. (They had also been practicing at our house during the previous Christmas break.) So I did. I told them they sounded absolutely BEAUTIFUL together. And that together their voices harmonized in synchrony (okay maybe that wasn't exactly the same word-but it sounds great here, doesn't it?). So they auditioned and got in!....And that made me tear up at the commencement when Kate mentioned the song and the lyrics because I remembered that individual memory...

The dress she picked out is SO KATIE!

I look pretty darn good for a mother of a high school graduate, if I do say so myself!

Lizanne insisted we get a picture of the Drama Mamas and their Drama Daughters....

Lizanne, Jules, Katie and me!

....Because we plan on going up to see our daughters performing in Viterbo University productions ALL THE TIME!



Endings and Beginnings

I've been showering with the graduation gown every day for the last two weeks and still there's wrinkles. I never had problems with Becky's gown two years ago, the wrinkles steamed right out. Maybe because there was a mess-up with Katie's gown. When she went to pick up hers, they said they had no record of it, so they gave her a leftover gown from last year (complete with a 2011 tassle) that's been folded and packaged away forerver, go figure. Well they were generous enough to hand her the right tassle from this year's 2012 graduating class.

See the big wrinkle in the sleeve?

We packed Becky up yesterday for ROME, or rather Jim did. Being a pilot he is a whirlwind at packing. "Leveling" he says. Level all the clothes off layer by layer, don't just put the skirts in one pile, the capris in another, put it one by one. Well it worked, we were able to get all those clothes into the mountain of a suitcase, a large camping backpack and a smaller Northface backpack.

The suitcase is HUGE, you probably can't tell by the picture!

And see how stylish the Northface gray backpack is--neon strings and clips--so hip right now!

GRADUATION and DEPARTURE to to Rome, all in one day--just slay me right now--HAHA!

Well I did make muffins yesterday after all the packing--banana chocolate chip. MUFFINS and me, but that's another post.

It's going to be a GREAT day and I will savor the moments!!

Honors Convocation; Liturgy, Buffet and Program

Yesterday was a BIG day! I worked from 7:45 until 1 pm. We were rushed preparing the sandwiches and taco bar and we opened for lunch at 9:30 AM. We were done SERVING lunch by 11:30. The Graduation Honors Convocation was at 1:20. Home for an hour and a half. Then back to school for the Graduation Liturgy, Buffet and Program...whew! But all in all it was a very MAGICAL and BLESSED day! Edgewood knows how to do up graduation. It's a week of adventure beginning with Las Vegas Night the Saturday before and ending with graduation on Friday Night. By the time the actual graduation ceremony takes place everyone is over all the emotions and just ready to see the graduate receive the diploma!

Here's the day's highlights:

Katie is standing here at the Honor's Convocation to receive accolades for her Senior Service Award in Drama.

Here Katie is receiving her ropes for The National Honor Society. Her grade point average was 3.5 or higher for seven or more semesters!!

Becky is leaving for Rome tomorrow and won't be there for the actual graduation ceremony so we just HAD TO get a picture of the two of them.

Katie sang at the liturgy as part of Show Choir. I thought the lit candle was a nice touch. All the seniors walked in with lit candles and sat together.

Katie played a piano duet with Lizzy Dorn--DUELING PIANOS--just kidding. Actually they played a beautiful rendition of "America the Beautiful."

The Edegtones rounded off the senior talent program with a medley of Walt Disney songs. Katie was Jasmine!

Here Katie is performing her solo. She's AMAZING! I can't wait to see her perform at Viterbo University!

I couldn't resist the standard photo in front of the fireplace after we got home. She looked so darn cute in that Jasmine costume!!



Katie's Last Day of High School

We celebrated Katie's last day of high school with a yummy chocolate cake from Metcalfe's!

What a school year it's been....

Here we are the first day of the school year. (Check out the Betsy Johnson glasses I'm wearing...they broke and I replaced them with a pair of Prada's)

Here Katie is the last day of high school.

The Big Freak Out

I woke at 4:30 this morning, with the birds and started freaking out. Katie's last day of high school is today. Becky leaves for Rome in three days. American Airlines is in bankruptcy. Maggie is ten July 3rd...you get the picture. I guess if you think about it, everyone can find lots to freak out about, depending on where they are in life.

Heidi is freaking out that her son is graduating from eighth grade and will be entering high school in the fall. She no longer will make the daily trek to the grade school after twelve years of automatic pilot and doing so...Lisa is freaking out about the future of their business and wants to sell their house and downsize...my mom is freaking that she has to live out the rest of her life without my dad (he died January 2nd of this year).

So how do we all stop the madness?

ACCEPTANCE

We realize that circumstances change, that we can't hold onto our loved ones forever, that we must move on.

Or we do what I do...just keep moving!
As Heidi said last week...I do better with CRAZY. Are we a society that has filled our life with SO MUCH: employment, running around, technology, workouts, walks, cleaning, family, so we don't have to stop and think?

I think sooner or later we all are forced to STOP and think.
We'll finally realize what we had.
And what could be.

The Perfect Mother's Day!

Yesterday I had the perfect (I kid you not) Mother's Day! And it was nothing according to The Plan.

Too bad Katie's not in the picture--she was taking the photo! I'm wearing the beautiful orchid corsage Jim, Becky and Katie bought me for the day!

I woke up and did everything I wanted to do. I walked Maggie at Pheasant Branch and took Bodypump at the gym. I followed the suggestions in Lisa's PRISM (gym sporting equipment store) weekly email and traded in the buffet Jim had planned for something healthy--a workout and then something beautiful. I drove with Becky to the Kopke Garden Center in Stoughton and bought two beautiful hanging baskets for the front deck.

Such a beautiful, sunny, bright place Kopke's is!!

Then I sat out on the back deck, in the warm sun and read.
We rounded out the day with a veggie delight pizza from Papa Murphy's, a bottle of lemonade Vitamin Water, and the rest of the episodes from Downton Abbey. (Katie had to study for final exams--hang in there--it's almost done!)

Like I said--The PERFECT Mother's Day!

An Awkward Moment

Last night Becky and I discovered "Downton Abbey." It's the PBS classic Masterpiece television series about an aristocratic family and its servants. It took us a couple of episodes to realize it wasn't DOWNTOWN Abbey (and that's a good thing because it's set in the country in a castle-like estate!) Now we're hooked on this brilliant series with patriarch and matriarch Earl Robert and Countess Cora! The show began with the sinking of the Titanic in which the heir to the estate was engaged to one of their three daughters. But the fiance died in the sinking of the great ship and the estate was destined to go to a male heir NOT one of the lovely daughters of Downton Abbey.

So we watched three epsiodes of this wacky, funny, addictive series and then decided to take Maggie for a late night walk around the block. Well...we stepped out of the garage and I commented on the show "how scandalous for PBS--there's even a gay man!" Then I heard voices and turned, lo and behold our two neighbors (Paul and Gary) were not five feet away in their screened-in porch entertaining company! Yes, Paul and Gary are gay (we love them), yes they heard my comment! Becky tried to recover, really tried to come up with something to save the moment, started with "yeah the series..." and just sort of petered out. "It's scandalous with the Turkish diplomat found dead in Lady Mary's bed," I tried. Well once we got past their house, across the street and far from their home we both started laughing uncontrollably. "What's the chances of that?" I said. We laughed a roaring laugh, a laugh that went on and on for blocks. A laugh that was resurrected repeatedly throughout our walk. I can honesly say it's been years since I laughed that hard. And like those carthartic cries that release a sense of sadness, this laugh released a great sense of JOY. And made me feel incredibly HAPPY!!

HOT Lunch Room Ladies!

I'm a lunch room lady and very proud of it. I started working at the high school three years ago when one daughter was a sophomore and one was a senior. My idol was Mary Beth with her gregarious attitude, her sense of humor, the way she respected, loved and bonded with the kids. Her "helloooo, how are you?" to each student as they passed through her register line made me want to bring the same type of joy to all the kids.

My job consists of arriving at 7:45. I begin my day by making 24 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on white or wheat bread cut on the diagonal and wrapped in cellophane. Then I proceed to the other sandwhiches--ham, turkey and roast beef on croissants, cibiattas, kaiser and white and wheat bread. This is the best part of the day because my counterpart is on the other side of the stainless steel counter putting together the salad bar. While we work, we talk. Many an issue has been solved over this two hour span. We have talked each other through kid problems, business issues, deaths of our parents, the bad economy, politics, the successes of our kids, but also the disappointments, and the graduation of our kids from the school.

After cutting up the fresh fruit and putting it into containers we roll out our cash register carts. Lunch Mod 1 begins at 10:25. We have three mods where kids can buy (cards or cash) a prepared meal or ala carte. We sell whole fruit, yogurt, protein bars and fun stuff--ice cream and candy!

"Lunch Room Ladies" evoke the vision of women who are blue uniformed clad, hairnetted and a little on the chubbers side. Rest assured none of us fit that profile. We are thin, beautiful and educated. I like to think we look somewhere between this--

(Can you believe the  caption under this was LET ME BE YOUR MYSTERY MEAT. Too funny!)

And this--

(Don't you just LOVE the toothpick hanging out of the side of her mouth? I wish it were a cigarette--haha!)

But my all time favorite depiction of The Lunch Room Lady is Chris Farley's skit done on Saturday Night Live. He dressed up in stereotypical gear and jammed to the song "Lunchlady Land."

Ironically he went to the high school at the school I work--Edgewood in Madison! Does this mean this is what Lunch Room Ladies looked like back in HIS day?

Well here's what we look like now. Eat your heart out Chris Farley!! (Heidi, Linda and me--far right)

The Kitchen Island

Our kitchen island is like a great big family hug. We have circled ourselves around this magnificent granite slab many a times and engaged in each others lives.
At the kitchen island we have: played cards and Monopoly, eaten numerous appetizers and snacks, shared meals, done homework, viewed Facebook separately but shared things outloud, consoled each other, laughed, written invitations and thank you cards, lamented the future, reveled at the present, worried, and engaged in plenty of conversations about the day's events.
The kitchen island has been the dumping grounds for: backpacks and library books, bags of groceries and mall finds, large bags of now "senior" dog food, purses, and of course piles of mail.
I love our kitchen island! To me this central kitchen piece is more than a gathering place, more than a place to put things, more than a place to prepare things, it is the thing we see when we first enter our house through the garage. The kitchen island is peace and calm. It welcomes us in and grounds our family soul.

A New Day

I feel like I've been in a rut using the same hair salon, the same beauty products, the same clothing stores, the same classes at the gym but I vow here and now...TODAY IS THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF MY LIFE. I ran out of my Definity Olay Tinted Mousterizing Foundation and I've been having the hardest time with it because Olay has changed it's product (why do companies do that?). So I got online--what did we all do before the internet, seriously--and researched foundation for "elegantly aging women" (I much prefer this term to "middle-aged" because that sounds like a time frame in history that wasn't exactly highly respected, haha!) I came up with the Top Five Foundations both "bargain" and "splurge." Well, not knowing if I would like the products (I am rather picky), I decided to go with the bargain product. One name kept coming up over and over again in many articles and forums--ALMAY Smart-Shade Anti-Aging makeup base.

So I decided to buy it. In researching foundations I also discovered there is a product out there called a Foundation Primer. According to more articles and forums on the internet many women swear by this and would never wear foundation without a primer because they say foundation smooths better, lasts longer and looks better. They got me on the "looks better." So when I was at Target the other day I not only bought the foundation I picked up the primer. Did I tell you that when I went to describe "primers" to my daughter she said, "Oh yeah, mom, I know all about those!" The younger set--they just know everything, don't they?

Yesterday, before work, I got up the gumption and tried BOTH products! My review for both is WEIRD but EXCELLENT! The primer looks alot like the Definity Olay Foundation in that it is in a cylinder and is green and lavender goo swirling around to the top. On the back it says--"lavender to even out and brighten skin tone, green to reduce redness." Ironically when I pumped the colored lotion onto my palm it came out CLEAR and more like a serum than a lotion. It went on my face smoothly but left it feeling tingly and FRESH, is how I would descirbe it. A nice feeling.

Then I Squeezed some of the foundation onto my fingers and that came out WHITE. I freaked out and told myself--you got a tube where they forgot to add the tint. But when I put it on my face and started rubbing it in, the color came out! The foundation glided on perfectly over the primer, added the perfect amount of coverage and looked natural. My one concern is that the "light-medium" may be a tad too light for summer. But at $10.00 a tube I can go back to Target and get the "medium" try that, or do what I did with the Definity--mix two shades! Anyways, I LOVE both products.

One more thing I'm going to try on this NEW DAY is a new hair salon. Eee ghads! Again I reserached on line salons that used Redken hair color, were modern and reasonably priced.

I came up with Shear Designs Hair Salon. I picked this because the women were young, energetic and seemed lo love what they do. Their website also said the stylists keep up with the latest techniques. I decided to go with the owner, Kayla, for a cut and color today. And if the website wasn't enough, when I called the girl answering the phone was kind, enthusiastic and seemed excited that I was coming in.
So I'll let you know how it goes....

The Katie Show

I finally got around to downloading the pictures from this past weekend onto my computer--YAY!! And as I look back the appropriate theme is you, My Darling Daughter, KATIE! First, on Friday (and Sunday), there was the tableau at the Overture Center where she stood in one pose for an hour before the Madison Opera's performance of Cinderella.

Here she is from Friday night where she was Scarlett O'Hara. Her eyes began to water because of NOT blinking. But the true actress she is, Katie used the tears to enhance her character.

Rhett Butler (Michael) joined her on Sunday afternoon. Don't they just scream Frankly My Dear I don't give a damn!

On Saturday we drove all the way to UW Platteville for Katie to perform in State Solo Ensemble for piano.

Of course she got the highest rating for her skills--a ONE!
Then on Sunday she performed in the Crusaders Show Choir.

Maybe I'm biased but she is AMAZING!
CONGRATULATIONS, Katie on performances well done!!