July 7th

Wow- the past week and previous weekend were difficult - It eased up a bit after 3:00 pm on Thursday when we finished self taping for Ghostwriters- she did such an amazing job - all the studying was worth it... at one point on the 4th I had six kids in the garage - with lines I had printed out- studying lines and taking turns doing the parts with Rainey- they thought it was so much fun- we had the dragon out there and all the puppet characters we had made - Yesterday you would think I would take a bit of a break but I decided to head over to Thousand Oaks to the mall to see about finding some perfect items for the upcoming photo shoot in August - we didn't find much in the way of clothes but we hit the jackpot on shoes... Rainey no longer wears kids shoes but rather she is a size 7 in ladies shoes and she is in love with all the options available to her !! so we went to the Sketcher store and I think the days of fussing over shoes might be almost over :)  we also went to Chuck E Cheese - for the buffet lunch which is really, really pathetic but I don't think the point for the kids is to eat but rather play- then 1.5 hours to get home (traffic accident) and finally gymnastics and Aerial class- and we got some Book Shark work done in the morning before we left- I am really impressed with Book Shark- it is so easy to just follow the instructions each week broken down by day- so organized and Rainey enjoys working through everything- well... maybe not "enjoy" but tolerates might be a better word-
 July 12th- Well now it is July 14th :) time flies when you are having fun! Rainey and I went to Candytopia on Monday with Cindy and Matthew- afterwards we had lunch at a really nice restaurant on the or next to the ocean with a great view of the Santa Monica Pier - it was called The Lobster - then we walked down to the pier and the kids got to ride some rides and play some games - it was a fun day. When I got home around 4pm an audition had just come in for Rainey for Wednesday morning at 10:30 am and it had 10 pages of lines- she was to be Cara Jean Sprule of the fifth grade -(heavy on the southern drawl) they wanted her to come in character - Cara Jean only wears pink - fake nails, fake eyelashes, oversize pink purse and pink sunglasses - and she needed to be coached !! so we skipped Tennis to start work on Cara Jean - after a trip to Target and a trip to Nordstrom Rack we had Cara Jean's outfit and accessories and then on Tuesday (Tom's birthday) we had coaching - so by Wednesday morning at 10:30 she marched into the audition did her scene  (she had learned 3 but they only had her do 1) was complimented on her outfit - her preparedness - and overall character portrayal. It was actually fun but tons of work on Tuesday - then she had two voice overs this week and an audition at Paramount on Thursday for the show NCIS- yesterday we caught up on schoolwork - We are on 37 school days this summer - finished off the week yesterday and now today and tomorrow we are working on next weeks ahead of time to get ready - and Aladdin thrown in - she has to be off book by July 28th - so there you have it- I am going to try and get out early on Wednesday the 25th - right now we are scheduled to leave at 9:25 pm but I am going to take Pepper to Tina's on Tuesday afternoon so that we can potentially leave early on Wed and have more time in Portland. - So next week is our last Make a Movie Camp- busy week but I have everything scheduled out! so we should just breeze through it unless we are hit with a bunch of auditions with lines- so right now I need to be working on my book club book - The Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts - I have chapters 3 and 4 to discuss and need to get started on my notes.... and then I have to get started on Love and Hate in Jamestown- I have 5 chapters in that book and Nancy wants us to discuss both at book club on the 5th - (as if I  have nothing else to do? right :)