September, October, November - The months ending with "er" - ER stands for "Endless Regrouping"

This past couple of months since my last post have been a whirlwind.  Mostly, this comes from all of my responsibilities at the Hutchinson Theatre Guild.  There was also a brief relationship which had both a bizarre start and end.  And of course, the many fall activites (fair, Halloween, etc.)

September brought auditions for Other Desert Cities.  It's final performances happen tonight and tomorrow.  Here are a couple of wonderful pictures from the production.

 This has turned out to be my favorite production at the Guild this year.  It is truly a great play and all things considered the best one we've done all year.  It was a great pleasure to work with all of these actors.  The designer of the scenery and costumes, Nancy Sliker, is retiring from a nearly 50 year career in the theatre.  And she felt that this production was the one to exit with.  Very humbling I assume you.  We rehearsed from the last weekend of September to our opening on November 6th.  Thank you to everyone who came to the production (or is still coming :) ).

My next major event was Talking Tombstones.  I participated in this fundraiser for the Hutchinson Theatre Guild.  The fundraiser is literally what it sounds.  Residents of the Eastside Cemetery stand next to their tombstones and tell their stories.  I played Sheriff Thomas Jennings, the much beloved sheriff who's double funeral (his daughter and he both died in a car accident) was the highest attended in Hutchinson's history.  It was fun and the fundraiser went the best its ever gone including $2500 raised for the Guild.

Finally, the last major event was playing the Grade School Outreach events for the Hutchinson Symphony.  We played Peter and the Wolf (the real version) and I had a great time.  Katie Goodenberger, a friend and HTG Board member played the 2nd horn part and I was 1st horn.  Here's a picture of the fun.

And for those of you who want to hear what I sound like now on the French horn, here's a recording of what we sounded like at Faris Elementary - Mom was there listening. :) http://andyaddis.com/peterandthewolf.mp4

Happy fall.  Thanksgiving is around the corner and Christmas is close behind.  YAY!!!!!

Tolleson Update

Hello from Austin!

There is not much to report. James and I are really good at working :-). Most days we both get to work early and stay late. Perhaps the biggest change is visible in this picture taken at the football game today against West Virginia. We won! James has his name tag on because he was hosting about 100 high school seniors on campus today for a recruitment event.

I donated 10-inches of hair to the cancer society!

Looking downtown from the stadium you can now see four tower cranes where there will soon be UT's new medical school.

It was a beautiful 70 degrees and sunny for the game!

Mary and Kurtis came to visit the first weekend in October. It was so much fun to share Austin with them and catch up over good food and beer. Here are a few pictures from their visit.

Mary and me at Allen's Boots on South Congress.
You would not believe how many different pairs of boots they have!

Waiting in line at Franklin BBQ (yes, totally worth the 5-hour wait)!

And of course the other main event in our lives is evenings with our cats :-). Duncan is growing quickly and Rimsky has found a new favorite toy. They are both eagerly awaiting the trip to Kansas for Christmas.

Duncan - we're in awe of his tail :)

Rimsky

We wish everyone a Thanksgiving full of good food, family, and friends. 

Love you,

Hannah and James

The Crazy 'Yes' Men

Hello all!

I'm afraid that this one is going to be fairly short and sweet. It's a day late and life is just moving by too too quickly currently. We seem to be the 'yes' men at our house as we are always taking on more work and projects and generally enjoying life somewhere in between the craziness.

Kurtis has been working at a new shop in New Jersey called Siegfried's Basement. He is happy to be back in a shop, building every day. It does cause him to be up at 5am every morning with an hour and a half commute to Secacus, NJ, but on the plus side, he does get a seat on the train and tends to be out of work by around 3pm. When things are in full swing, he will often do a 7a-8p day out there and thankfully, they have been swinging left and right! He has been brewing beer like crazy as we get ready for the holidays and plan to share a lot of this with friends and coworkers as gifts for the holiday season.

I am keeping busy with all sorts of work. I have been at Jersey Boys and Aladdin leading up to the end of October with side projects on White Christmas as it got ready to go out on tour. There was even a day working at Side Show, which is a new musical. Then, this week, the Christmas Spectacular bloomed full on and I am happy to be back with my Rockettes. I think it's fair to say that I have not worked less than 60 hours per week since sometime back in July, including the weeks where we went away for the weekend. In addition, I offered up my sewing skills for Halloween costumes for the little nieces this year. Four Frozen costumes later, we had a great success! In my small moments, I have found time to brew kombucha, ferment saurkraut and do yoga.

Amazingly, we made a couple of small trips this fall. One to Kansas City for a friend's wedding, which was a great success as we saw many friends from college that we had been missing. The second trip was really our little reprieve from all the crazy busy-ness. We got the chance to sneak a weekend in Austin with Hannah and James, which was truly lovely. Lots of time outside, eating great food and chatting up a storm.

Missing you and wishing you happiness for the holidays ahead.

Sending love to all,
Mary and Kurtis

Awesome Autumn

                       A  All is well in Givan Land.  Both of us are still working!

U-  Unusual occurrences have been Tim’s two trips to Denver in two months to help his mom move to a new smaller apartment.  I have a new boss who is very energetic and full of ideas.  Some days, I’m tired just trying to keep up.

T- Tim is busy planning the Bets for Pets fundraiser in January for the local animal shelter.  Last year he came home with a real fire hydrant that someone had painted.  I’m hoping that doesn't happen again!

U- Until it’s time for Christmas decorations, we put up outside Fall decorations this year.  Our pumpkins we got from a pumpkin patch near Buhler.  It included riding on a hayrack pulled by horses to the pumpkin field.  Gus did a good job riding in the wagon.  It was a good day.

Outside Autumn Decorations.  The leaves light up.

/The railing and lattice got a fresh coat of paint this Autumn.

Some of our inside Autumn Decor.

M- More the merrier.  Even though some might think that this is the philosophy as far as pets go at the Givan house, I’m proud to report since last writing we have not acquired any new critters.  Except, if you count the mouse I've caught a glimpse of a time or two.  Tommy is not too good at catching mice-maybe if it ran across his paws he could get it.  All critters are doing well.  Shona has been going to an obedience class with Kate and loves it.  She has days though when you could tell if an open door appears she would be out it and on an adventure.  Liza accompanies Tim on his trips.  Ellie Mae sounds a lot like a pig most evenings as she snorts around.  (I guess that it is as close to a pet pig as I will ever get) Mandalay is definitely the queen canine putting the others quietly in their place.  Benny has sleepovers on occasion and seems to enjoy his time here.

N- Night times, i.e. evenings, usually find us at home (or sometimes meetings) enjoying Kate and Chris and the pets.  Most nights, we all eat supper together discussing a wide range of topics, such as politics, rockets, dogs, mental health issues and current events .  The house usually shuts down before 10 and we are in bed and getting rest to start everything all over again.

Have a blessed Autumn.

Auntie and Uncle Tim