Adah getting into the spirit of Christmas!

So this won't be a super long post, it's just a funny story accompanied by a cute picture!  This is what happened.

On the evening of December 16th, as I was putting our daughter to bed, she became VERY distressed, and started hysterically crying and yelling, "Mary! Mary! Please! Waaaaaa!!!! Mary!... etc... etc..." Now, there are a few possible Mary's she could have been crying for, so I will begin with narrowing down the list of who she may have been crying for.

1) Grandma Ackerman, who is named Mary

2) Her Cousin Mary, aged 5 (a good choice due to the close proximity of age)

3) Great Grandma Langston, also a Mary

4) Herself, who's middle name is Mary

5) And finally, The Virgin Mary

Any guesses?  If you guessed The Virgin Mary, you are CORRECT!  Here is why:  this week we had a ward Christmas party with white elephant gifts.  The gift our family received is about a 12" tall candle shaped like the Virgin Mary.  Adah has really taken to carrying this around with her and playing with it as well as her Little Mermaid Barbie, who knew that The Little Mermaid and The Virgin Mary could be Bff's? Obviously Adah did! :)  Anyway, as I was putting her down

 for the night, I put The Virgin Mary candle on her shelf, and she wanted to have nothing to do with it, and so cried her way into allowing me to let her snuggle it tonight.  So, as you will see in the picture below, she is sleeping with both the Virgin Mary and Ariel.  Pretty sweet. Gotta love the chilluns!

And on an unintentionally sacrilegious side note, as I was helping Adah pray tonight, I said "Thanks for letting me (speaking for Adah here) sleep with The Virgin Mary".  Sometimes I'm an unintentionally funny Dad, even if my real life Dad thinks I'm intentionally unfunny :)  

And on a happy note, we get to see lots of you in just a week or so! YAYAYAY!!

"Rabbit Hole", starring myself!

Last Thursday I opened "Rabbit Hole" at the University of Idaho.  It is my first semester up here and also my first show, and has been a really great experience!  I feel really blessed that I have such a good role my first semester here, as everywhere else I've been it seems like you have to "pay dues" before you get cast in stuff :)  

The cast I'm working with is really great.  The gal who is playing my wife, Crystal Munoz-Tesch is a lot of fun, and is about the only other Mormon in the department in general, so it was funny we got cast as the married couple.  We're both married in real life though, so I guess they figured we knew how to be married!  And just as a funny side-story/coincidence, we share the same anniversary (August 11th), although in different years. 

Anyway, I included a few of the pictures from the show for your viewing pleasure.  We close the show this Saturday, and I'll be sad to see it go (although my wife and daughter will be happy to have their husband and dad back I think!).  I haven't enjoyed working on a show this much in a long time, or working with a group of people this much either I have to admit!  I really enjoy it here, and I'm learning a ton and have grown a LOT as an actor, and although I'm not supposed to say this because it sounds cocky, I do a really good job in this play. :)  

Me and Crystal (or Howie and Becca)

Howie and Becca

In the background is Lauren Fins, a professor (although not in the theatre dept) at the U of I who plays Nat.  GREAT actress! Also, if I look skinnier, its cause I am ;)

The entire cast, including understudies.  On the back row (left to right) Daniel Gerber as Jason, Lauren Fins as Nat, Jessie Taylor as Izzy, Rose Fredson as Izzy's understudy, Jordan (don't know his last name!) as Jason's understudy, and on the front Crystal Munoz-Tesch as Becca, and I, Lanny Langston as Howie.