Saturday, March 25, 2006

Sautrday Afternoons and Whatnot ...

Nothing beats a Saturday afternoon spent relaxing. Up to nothing in particular, Leon and I are camped out in the living room (yes, enjoying the new carpeting!) And while he works on his Powerhouse message for tomorrow night, I am sipping my favorite new coffee and paging through the newest edition of REAL SIMPLE (I love that magazine!) Bailey is napping - having recently celebrated his 6th birthday; he is fully embracing life as a middle-aged golden retriever.

It's a terribly chilly day for spring in Missouri - the heater is chugging away! After spending three days again this week in Florida, we are ready for warmer temperatures.

Leon's team had its first tennis match this week - with some wins and some defeats - generally a good experience. And the spring play continues to roll along with tremendous success. The script is rich with meaning (we are doing You Can't Take It With You - and if you haven't read it, you must!) and the students are digging into the layers and creating meaning for the message of the show in their own context. We have had some powerful interpretative moments already! Join us the first week of May to see a great show!

I am headed for the costumer's to dig through their 1930s collection - and then, wonder of wonders - Leon and I may head for the movie theater ... a deep review of "Failure to Launch" is forthcoming ~ or maybe we will just stay in and enjoy ultimate nacho night (should I share our recipe?) and catch up on Tivo. Ah, what a day.

All in all - life is strong. We hope it is for you wherever you are this Saturday as well.

Gret & Leon

Monday, March 20, 2006

A Hard Day's Work


Well - here goes my ability to make all of you out there feel sorry for my hectic, stressful work life. This is me - on location in Orlando and, believe it or not, I am actually working.

That's right. Riding a Caro-Seuss-el and working.

Being in Orlando to complete the pre Gathering DVD shoot has its rewards, I suppose. One of which was herding my DVD talent - a crew of very high energy LCMS teens and young adults - to Islands of Adventure at the end of the week's work to celebrate and say "thanks" to this core of kids who shot this sucker not just ONCE, but twice.

Our first take was in New Orleans this past summer ...

Probably one of THE best parts of my work with the YMO is the chance to be with such outstanding youth from so many different backgrounds. What a terrific future we have - what an awesome present we have - it's a good thing.

I hope you all are enjoying this Snowy Day of Spring out there across the Mid West and beyond!

Peace!

Gretchen (& Leon, too!)

Friday, March 17, 2006

Sometimes Life Is Just Too Busy - But It's A Wonderful Life


Spring means busy-ness for the Jamesons!

With Leon coaching LHS's first-ever tennis season and Gret again taking the reigns of the Spring play - we just don't see each other! Which, admittedly, is obnoxious.

The good in this is that we are both engaged in activities we truly love. That's what we have come to realize about these involvements. Some folks garden, or scrapbook, or ... I don't know collect stamps. For Leon and I, hobbies are these: coaching! We love it.

Leon is loving tennis. Since this is the first season at LHS, it is combined guy/girl this spring. He had really been missing coaching (as you might remember; he was assitant to our good buddy Paul Kollmorgen up north at Martin Luther). He has a good team - solid players and some really talented guys, actually.

He's "enjoying" seeing how sports parents have evolved. With football, which he has coached for three years, he is the JV head coach and then assists with Varisty - so the brunt of suburban Moms and Dads involvement is directed at the head coach. Now, he gets them. It creates some ... fun stories to tell.

The play is terrific. We are producing, You Can't Take It With You, and if you haven't read it - read it. It's a wonderful piece of art - and for a play to contain tremendous truths for 2006 - when it was written in 1936 ... well, that's saying something. It's a really large cast - so rehearsals are full of verve, loud teens, life and energy. I love it.

Onward and Upward +

the Jamesons