In the Mary month of May!

Hello from the Rutherford Family!

I had high hopes of posting multiplicities of posts, but realistically one long one may be the best call for us.

The biggest news at our house is a bathroom remodel! This is our master bathroom which would dwarf in comparison to most people's regular bathroom, but to have the 2nd is incredible here.

Renovation work began at the beginning of May. We are moving the wall out in to our bedroom by 18" and redoing the whole of the inside and adjacent closet. The first week was basically all demo and then a bit more demo. This past week, we began to really see the pieces come together. We will rotate the toilet, move the sink positioning, widen the shower so that it is a double head shower and add a pocket door. The closet will be bigger with more shelving and doors that open the whole width of the closet. Below are some pictures.

Aurora has been a trouper through the whole process as this has sincerely messed with her napping schedule and been quite noisy at times. Just when we finally started to get quieter, the building façade work that is happening ramped up on her window side. She takes it all in stride and naps better on the weekend.

Kurtis continues to work here, there and everywhere downtown (on Broadway). He finished up with Kinky Boots this spring as they closed in April, but continues to work at the Hirschfeld with the load in of Moulin Rouge. Just a few days here and there so far, but a prayer and a hope that this continues to build as they solidify things there. Additionally, he is still swinging at Mean Girls and Pretty Woman. That gives him a total of around 7 tracks and keeps him pretty busy with show work. He has picked up some work at a new space called The Shed and works at a few other theatres as they load in/load out shows. All of this is great and hopefully will lead to a solid gig one day. For now, meeting people and figuring out his group of people is very very good!

Mary has stayed steady with The Cher Show. It was a year ago that Chicago happened and to think on that is certainly overwhelming. What a unique experience to lead in to the Broadway run. We are mostly settled here and looking forward to getting through all of the Tony Awards madness in the next couple of weeks. Don't know what it will be yet, but look for us on the Tony Awards Sunday, June 8! Bob Mackie, the costume designer, has been nominated so it's a big deal in our department as we have high hopes that he will win.

Aurora has grown an incredible amount in just the past few months. She is taller and talking more, connecting more pieces and quite intelligent. We are often amazed at what she picks up on. Our current favorite transition phrases are 'fu-du' which stands for stroller which she can now say, but prefers to stick to her personal strollers as fu-du. There is also the 'April Fresh' which is actually the 'A Express' train. (Just this past Sunday morning she blessed us with an 'AprilFresh' song in which the A Train went downtown and uptown - the 1 train was not working...) Her three hours of school each week have become a favorite time as she will often do yoga poses around the house, has increased her vocabulary and is noticeably better around other kiddos as she gets to spend time with other kids now. Watching someone else grow is a hoot and incredibly heart warming.

Currently, we are enjoying a lovely visit from Mom. Pretty blessed here. Hope you are all well and enjoying life!

Much Love - Mary, Kurtis and Aurora

5-19-19

A couple more pictures of the work crew.  Aunt Pam and Auntie, carrying out the benches they found that had washed into the forest.

Flooding
Hello Family:
As you know, the pasture flooded again.  The last time was just last Fall.  Luckily, it didn't get in the cabins but the restroom got it as did the little shed.  We had no warning so were unable to go and take things out of the little shed.  Today we went down and emptied the shed but didn't do much cleaning as the forecast is for another 3-6 inches of rain over the next couple of days.  The water reached 12.99 feet with the record in 2007? being 13 feet.  Lots of water.  Most pictures courtesy of Aunt Pam.

 The next batch is after the water went down.

This is the "pond" to the east of the cabin.  

Part of the work crew.

Hello from the Wichita Shooks

We will start the post with a picture from Samuel's  and Erik's birthdays.  Samuel is laughing because the castle creation we made fell over.  Aunt Pam has much better cake talents!

We went to the pasture last month.  Samuel found the red bucket!  Here are another couple of photos  from the river.  One shows a big piece of styrofoam that washed in and the other shows the leaning of the trees from the water speed.

Last weekend we visited Hannah and helped with her back yard.  

We also went to the Austin zoo which is a zoo for animals that can't stay in their regular zoo or their "parents" have had to let them go.

We're looking forward to spring!

Best wishes to all.