Friday, August 22, 2008
Family Night
Let's have a family night this coming Monday, August 25th, at 6:00 p.m. Bring your own meat and a dish to share. Bring swimming suits and a blanket and any other swim gear you want....I am excited...if some of your siblings don't blog, make sure you tell them O.K.?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Family Reunion
Okay, now we have the forum to get the word out, now we need to plan it. I have spoken to so many of you lately, and what I keep hearing is every one feels disconnected to the family. We haven't had a pool party this year, and the summer is almost over. Everyone leave a date on the comment blog and let's get together...blogging is great, phone calls are cool, but it's about time we get some face time!
Monday, August 18, 2008
The Finished Project
I wanted to post the finished project. Conner did such a great job. He said we are all getting a quilt for Christmas, he even figured out an easier way to pull out the needle!
Friday, August 15, 2008
I'm Bragging About My Grandkids Again
I can't help myself, I have to!!
I had Conner and Colby on Monday and Conner was so excited because his Grandmother was going to give him her sewing machine. We had a sewing lesson a few months ago, and the "Bug" has caught the bug! Yesterday he called me and asked if he could have another lesson, so today we spent a few hours together, and he made a quilt. It was wonderful to chit chat while we sat and tied it. When he was leaving he was snuggling his quilt up to his face and said with a long sigh, "Well....all I have to do now is get my own sewing machine". Yes, honey, that's all you have to do...get a sewing machine and your life will be complete.
Now I have to blog about my crack up J.R. When James and I were in Las Vegas together, J.R. called to talk to his dad. He could hear my voice in the back ground and said, "Gram Gram???" I said Hi J.R., he said, "Gram Gram! What are you doing with my Dad!" A few days later he called his Dad, when he was just about finished with the conversation he said, "Dad, Quick Question" James and I belly laughed because if you have been around James very often, you know that he always says that. Then J.R. said, "Well...you are not going to like what I have to tell you!"
Last week in Louisiana Tauna drove past a cemetery, J.R. said "Mom, is Gram Gram in there?" Tauna said, "J.R., No! Gram Gram in not in there" J.R. replied, "I think she is, let's go see her!" Tauna had to explain that I was still alive in Utah.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Life is Busy
The day I left for Las Vegas the Doctor diagnosed Hashimoto's disease. It is heriditiary so any one who is in my delightful gene pool feeling slugglish look in it. I think Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory will have it's grand opening on November 22, so put it on your calendar. I insisted it be open before Christmas, the Architect and Developer agree it's possible to open it in November. It will be difficult to juggle preschool with chocolate, but maybe it works. The entire family will be traveling to Las Vegas in two weeks to celebrate Crystals birthday and engagement. My girl friends are planning a girls trip to New York to see Marilyn in Gypsy. We will need to move the date up, because Marilyn said that Gypsy will close in March :( Girls, we can't wait until April....
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Uncle Dee's funeral
James, Peggy, Mike, and I just arrived back in Utah. We attended Uncle Dee's funeral. It is an honor to call him my uncle. James was part of the honor guard, and presented De Anna with the flag. She said she O.K. until that moment. Tomorrow he will have a service in Utah with full military honors and a fly over. "Don't worry Uncle Dee, I will bring the camera". I want to type part of his obituary:
FLAMM D. HARPER
88, a retired u.s. Air Force lieutenant colonel, who flew as a fighter pilot in Europe during World War II and in Korea during the Korean War. He was assigned to the 479th fighter group where he participated as a pilot in the Normandy invasion, July 15, 1944. He went down in German occupied France where he spent 21 days behind enemy lines fighting with the British Special Air Service and French resistance. After World War II, Harper was one of 80,000 applicants to receive one of the 1,400 available commissions as a commissioned officer in the Air Force where he began piloting the F-86 Saber Fighter jet. In Korea, he was again shot down behind enemy lines making him one of three pilots to have escaped and evaded capture in two separate wars. He directed one of the first night fighter fighter-bomber raids in Air Force history which many believe to have contributed to the end of the Korean War. During his military career, he earned multiple decorations including two Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Purple Hearts as well as an honorary medal for his fighting with the French resistance during WWII. A quote was found on his computer which states: "The Honor of Men is temporary; The Glory of God is eternal. I wish I had served my Lord as faithfully as I have served my country". Flamm D. Harper
Well said, Uncle Dee, until we meet again.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Help! the ghost of Phantom is here!
Does someone know how to get rid of the floating Madam, I can't even get to my dashboard to fix the typos......Marilyn, you know her better than I do, help me get rid of her!
Newspaper Article
Somehow it didn't copy correctly Madam Giry is not supposed to be sitting on top of the blogg, but that sounds like Madam Giry....I never mess with her, mainly because her and the phantom are pretty tight, if you know what I mean.
The News Paper Article
border="0" />
Publication:Standard Examiner;
Date:Aug 3, 2008;
Section:Life;
Page Number:1D
Life’s ambition
Former Roy High School student Marilyn Caskey lands on Broadway in ‘Gypsy’
By NANCY VAN VALKENBURG Standard-Examiner staff nvan@standard.net Broadway veteran Marilyn Caskey found herself getting solemn recently, after being asked to write down her most magical memory. It came in about 1970, in Hooper, Caskey recalled. She was a Roy High School student marching as a Royalaire with the school’s marching band during an openair rehearsal. The vibrant music cut through the silent landscape. “I lingered in the open field as they marched away,” Caskey read, from her notes. “The whole universe was fi lled with their brassy musical joy. The sky was a canopy of fl uffy clouds that were pink from the sunrise. The Rockies were pink with the reflection. I felt pure joy and exhilaration at the beauty.” Caskey paused from her reading. “Wait a minute. Why was I standing alone in the fi eld?” she asked, suddenly confused. “The drill team was still marching with the band. I was marching to the tune of the same drummer, but I was going in a different direction !” She laughed out loud. Yep, that about sums it up for Caskey, who was active, involved, and seemed to be in step with her friends at Roy High, but who ended up in a very different place from her classmates. She took her talents a whole other direction, but still counts as close friends many Utah friends who shared her teen years in Weber County. “I grew up in Utah, and its beauty is part of my soul,” said Caskey, in a phone interview before her evening call for “Gypsy” in New York City. The show may star 2008 Tony Award winner Patti LuPone, but Caskey has been singled out for her show-stopping presence. The musical, of course, is based on the vaudeville childhood of Gypsy Rose Lee, who became a burlesque stripper known for her wit, elegance and restraint. Caskey portrays a burned-out stripper named Electra, known for her lone gimmick: bumping and grinding minimally while wearing a fl ashing electrifi ed bra-and-panty outfi t. New York Post columnist Liz Smith had this to say: “And now I want to add something about the single most hilarious performance seen all season. That is Marilyn Caskey as the stripper Electra, seen only in the fi nal moments of the show. She is there every performance, stealing the entire scene.... “Marilyn moves about the stage gingerly, as if she has already received too many accidental jolts of electricity in her time. She is so obviously stoned out of her mind that when I saw the actual actress offstage after the opening night, I was shocked to realize that she was perfectly sober. It’s a sheer performance.” Smith bemoaned the fact that the role had not won its actress offi cial accolades. “Ms. Caskey’s name came up in many awards groups, but she did not snag a nomination. The role is just not big enough, not long enough. As she tries to ‘electrify’ herself, stumbling around, Ms. Caskey gives the neat and succinct performance of a lifetime.” Electra is the polar opposite of Caskey’s last Broadway character, ballet mistress Madame Giry in “Phantom of the Opera.” “Madame Giry is a strict ballet mistress, imposing and stern, complicated,” said Caskey. “The other extreme is Electra. She speaks for herself. I love that I got two so different roles.” Early years Caskey grew up in Roy, the daughter of a Hill Air Force Base lieutenant colonel and a supportive, funloving mother who worked on base but had plenty of time for her son and daughter. Caskey remains close to a neighbor she grew up with, Melody Code Vandenberg. “We have videotape of her dancing around and singing, like all kids do,” said Vandenberg, of Layton. “She really threw herself into it. She had charisma. We always used to dress up and run up and down the street. We had a neighbor with a porch that had a few steps on it, and that was our stage.” Caskey can recall the instant she found her calling. “When the bug hit me to do theater, I was just a child,” she said. “I was looking at a hatbox my mother had, decorated like a travel box, with stickers that said ‘London,’ ‘Paris,’ ‘New York,’ ‘Broadway.’ I asked my mother where Broadway was, and she told me that was where people did plays. I think a sort of light went off in my head that Broadway was where I was going to be. I found it at that moment. It was very clear, and it was a bit spiritual. I think I was 8.” Vandenberg remembers talking about that early dream. “She told me from the time she was little that she was going to be an actress. I told her I wanted to put my family first. She said you had to put acting first.” Vandenberg has flown out to see Caskey on Broadway about six times now, and also caught her friend’s vocal act in New York City’s Rainbow Room. “I always thought she would stick with it, and she did,” Vandenberg said. “She had that kind of personality. She was determined. I got my family, and I have a preschool. I would still choose my path, and I don’t think Marilyn would change who she is.” Caskey acted in plays through grade school and on, Vandenberg said. In her junior year, Caskey and another girl alternated in the “Camelot” role of Guinevere. Michele Bingham, a Roy High grad who lives in Ogden, remembers Caskey as a talented teen. “She was darling and wonderful,” Bingham said. “She got the lead in all the plays, and she sang in the chamber choir, which was our top vocal group. Everybody loved her. She used to drive this old Oldsmobile with fins, a big tank of a car we all called the Batmobile.” A custom career Caskey graduated in 1971 and headed to the University of Utah, where she earned a degree in theater arts. Next, she sought out regional theater work, to add to her experience and range. “I was doing Shakespeare and Chekov,” she said. “I became a member of the Arena Stage, in Washington, D.C., and am proud I was part of that. It was a flagship for American regional theater.” Caskey worked with actors, directors and choreographers who have gone on to celebrated careers, she said. She still works with her old friends from time to time, but now it’s on Broadway. Caskey played a variety of roles, but became concerned when she wasn’t cast as tragic dramatic leads. “Actors think the pinnacle is huge, dramatic, tragic roles,” Caskey said. “A director who didn’t cast me helped me see that I actually had more fun singing and doing comedy. It’s a happier career for me, and I am more satisfied doing it.” Caskey has spent decades working in regional theater, and has taken shows on tour. She gained experiences and friendships she still cherishes, and she was doing work she loved. Still, she became a little weary of life on the road. “I made the decision at one point that I wanted to stay put. I wanted to work on Broadway,” Caskey said. “I decided I would give up theater if I did not get into ‘Phantom of the Opera.’ I did positive visualizations of getting on Broadway, and I took a job as a paralegal so I didn’t have to travel. I worked the graveyard shift.” On Broadway Caskey was cast in 1988 as Carlotta Guidicelli, a “Phantom” character with a major singing role, who also provides some comic relief. Caskey played the role for four years, then left for five years, returning to play Madame Giry from 2001 until earlier this year, when she was cast in “Gypsy.” “Visualization does work,” Caskey said. “I am really lucky to experience the success I have. I feel very blessed, yet I want more. I do not want to stop here. I still yearn for more.” Caskey said she loves the friendships that come with being a part of the Broadway community. She loves being an artist, and working with other top-caliber artists who have given their lives to the theatrical arts. “There’s a huge sense of pride in being able to be a disciplined and skilled performer,” she said. “Although we love the audience recognition and the success of a show, I aspire most to feel the respect of my peers and colleagues. It’s fun being around other actors, getting to know each other. You’ve got to be mighty disciplined, physically and mentally, to do a show eight times a week. There are no slouches here.” From time to time, Caskey thinks about sacrifices she made for her career, and about roads not taken, she said. Still, there’s not much she would change, she said. And she still feels the same about acting as she did as a teenager in Roy. “To me, it feels extremely spiritual, the pursuit of acting, or singing with an orchestra, or even practicing by myself,” she said. “It’s exhilarating. I like the communication with the audience. When you’re really on the mark, the experience feels so exhilarating and spiritual, I love it. I just love it.”
Joan Marcus photo
Publication:Standard Examiner;
Date:Aug 3, 2008;
Section:Life;
Page Number:1D
Life’s ambition
Former Roy High School student Marilyn Caskey lands on Broadway in ‘Gypsy’
By NANCY VAN VALKENBURG Standard-Examiner staff nvan@standard.net Broadway veteran Marilyn Caskey found herself getting solemn recently, after being asked to write down her most magical memory. It came in about 1970, in Hooper, Caskey recalled. She was a Roy High School student marching as a Royalaire with the school’s marching band during an openair rehearsal. The vibrant music cut through the silent landscape. “I lingered in the open field as they marched away,” Caskey read, from her notes. “The whole universe was fi lled with their brassy musical joy. The sky was a canopy of fl uffy clouds that were pink from the sunrise. The Rockies were pink with the reflection. I felt pure joy and exhilaration at the beauty.” Caskey paused from her reading. “Wait a minute. Why was I standing alone in the fi eld?” she asked, suddenly confused. “The drill team was still marching with the band. I was marching to the tune of the same drummer, but I was going in a different direction !” She laughed out loud. Yep, that about sums it up for Caskey, who was active, involved, and seemed to be in step with her friends at Roy High, but who ended up in a very different place from her classmates. She took her talents a whole other direction, but still counts as close friends many Utah friends who shared her teen years in Weber County. “I grew up in Utah, and its beauty is part of my soul,” said Caskey, in a phone interview before her evening call for “Gypsy” in New York City. The show may star 2008 Tony Award winner Patti LuPone, but Caskey has been singled out for her show-stopping presence. The musical, of course, is based on the vaudeville childhood of Gypsy Rose Lee, who became a burlesque stripper known for her wit, elegance and restraint. Caskey portrays a burned-out stripper named Electra, known for her lone gimmick: bumping and grinding minimally while wearing a fl ashing electrifi ed bra-and-panty outfi t. New York Post columnist Liz Smith had this to say: “And now I want to add something about the single most hilarious performance seen all season. That is Marilyn Caskey as the stripper Electra, seen only in the fi nal moments of the show. She is there every performance, stealing the entire scene.... “Marilyn moves about the stage gingerly, as if she has already received too many accidental jolts of electricity in her time. She is so obviously stoned out of her mind that when I saw the actual actress offstage after the opening night, I was shocked to realize that she was perfectly sober. It’s a sheer performance.” Smith bemoaned the fact that the role had not won its actress offi cial accolades. “Ms. Caskey’s name came up in many awards groups, but she did not snag a nomination. The role is just not big enough, not long enough. As she tries to ‘electrify’ herself, stumbling around, Ms. Caskey gives the neat and succinct performance of a lifetime.” Electra is the polar opposite of Caskey’s last Broadway character, ballet mistress Madame Giry in “Phantom of the Opera.” “Madame Giry is a strict ballet mistress, imposing and stern, complicated,” said Caskey. “The other extreme is Electra. She speaks for herself. I love that I got two so different roles.” Early years Caskey grew up in Roy, the daughter of a Hill Air Force Base lieutenant colonel and a supportive, funloving mother who worked on base but had plenty of time for her son and daughter. Caskey remains close to a neighbor she grew up with, Melody Code Vandenberg. “We have videotape of her dancing around and singing, like all kids do,” said Vandenberg, of Layton. “She really threw herself into it. She had charisma. We always used to dress up and run up and down the street. We had a neighbor with a porch that had a few steps on it, and that was our stage.” Caskey can recall the instant she found her calling. “When the bug hit me to do theater, I was just a child,” she said. “I was looking at a hatbox my mother had, decorated like a travel box, with stickers that said ‘London,’ ‘Paris,’ ‘New York,’ ‘Broadway.’ I asked my mother where Broadway was, and she told me that was where people did plays. I think a sort of light went off in my head that Broadway was where I was going to be. I found it at that moment. It was very clear, and it was a bit spiritual. I think I was 8.” Vandenberg remembers talking about that early dream. “She told me from the time she was little that she was going to be an actress. I told her I wanted to put my family first. She said you had to put acting first.” Vandenberg has flown out to see Caskey on Broadway about six times now, and also caught her friend’s vocal act in New York City’s Rainbow Room. “I always thought she would stick with it, and she did,” Vandenberg said. “She had that kind of personality. She was determined. I got my family, and I have a preschool. I would still choose my path, and I don’t think Marilyn would change who she is.” Caskey acted in plays through grade school and on, Vandenberg said. In her junior year, Caskey and another girl alternated in the “Camelot” role of Guinevere. Michele Bingham, a Roy High grad who lives in Ogden, remembers Caskey as a talented teen. “She was darling and wonderful,” Bingham said. “She got the lead in all the plays, and she sang in the chamber choir, which was our top vocal group. Everybody loved her. She used to drive this old Oldsmobile with fins, a big tank of a car we all called the Batmobile.” A custom career Caskey graduated in 1971 and headed to the University of Utah, where she earned a degree in theater arts. Next, she sought out regional theater work, to add to her experience and range. “I was doing Shakespeare and Chekov,” she said. “I became a member of the Arena Stage, in Washington, D.C., and am proud I was part of that. It was a flagship for American regional theater.” Caskey worked with actors, directors and choreographers who have gone on to celebrated careers, she said. She still works with her old friends from time to time, but now it’s on Broadway. Caskey played a variety of roles, but became concerned when she wasn’t cast as tragic dramatic leads. “Actors think the pinnacle is huge, dramatic, tragic roles,” Caskey said. “A director who didn’t cast me helped me see that I actually had more fun singing and doing comedy. It’s a happier career for me, and I am more satisfied doing it.” Caskey has spent decades working in regional theater, and has taken shows on tour. She gained experiences and friendships she still cherishes, and she was doing work she loved. Still, she became a little weary of life on the road. “I made the decision at one point that I wanted to stay put. I wanted to work on Broadway,” Caskey said. “I decided I would give up theater if I did not get into ‘Phantom of the Opera.’ I did positive visualizations of getting on Broadway, and I took a job as a paralegal so I didn’t have to travel. I worked the graveyard shift.” On Broadway Caskey was cast in 1988 as Carlotta Guidicelli, a “Phantom” character with a major singing role, who also provides some comic relief. Caskey played the role for four years, then left for five years, returning to play Madame Giry from 2001 until earlier this year, when she was cast in “Gypsy.” “Visualization does work,” Caskey said. “I am really lucky to experience the success I have. I feel very blessed, yet I want more. I do not want to stop here. I still yearn for more.” Caskey said she loves the friendships that come with being a part of the Broadway community. She loves being an artist, and working with other top-caliber artists who have given their lives to the theatrical arts. “There’s a huge sense of pride in being able to be a disciplined and skilled performer,” she said. “Although we love the audience recognition and the success of a show, I aspire most to feel the respect of my peers and colleagues. It’s fun being around other actors, getting to know each other. You’ve got to be mighty disciplined, physically and mentally, to do a show eight times a week. There are no slouches here.” From time to time, Caskey thinks about sacrifices she made for her career, and about roads not taken, she said. Still, there’s not much she would change, she said. And she still feels the same about acting as she did as a teenager in Roy. “To me, it feels extremely spiritual, the pursuit of acting, or singing with an orchestra, or even practicing by myself,” she said. “It’s exhilarating. I like the communication with the audience. When you’re really on the mark, the experience feels so exhilarating and spiritual, I love it. I just love it.”
Joan Marcus photo
Friday, August 1, 2008
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory
Well you can always tell when I am getting bored, I start a new business. It will be interesting to see if this one materializes. I was thinking of my favorite store, and thinking how sad it is that the closest one is in Salt Lake. So I went down to "The Junction" in Ogden and found my favorite location, right across from the Larry H. Miller Mega Plex. When I stand on the pad I can see the Ogden Temple, Iggys, Rodizio Grill, I Fly and many more. So far I love the location, RMCF tried to talk me into putting it in the Layton Hills Mall (they already have that site approved) but I really wanted it at The Junction. After reviewing the Boyers project they strongly agree that it is time that we open a RMCF north of the Gateway. They are very excited about the location, approved me, and they sent the papers FED EX, so hopefully I will be locking in the location of my dreams this week.
I have also been very involved in Trina's wedding, she asked me to come to her bridals with her. If you haven't received your invitation yet, watch for it in the mail, she is a beautiful bride and I am honored to be this involved. Pops was called to the Young Men's Presidency, funny enough on the day of his "near death experience". He thanked the Bishop, he contributes that to one of the reasons he was able to stay with us. I am so grateful for him, as you can tell by the name of my blog. He took me and my children under his wing at a time when I was loosing my Mother, the sole provider of my children, and had an ex husband who not only didn't support us financially or emotionally, but tried to shut down my business every way he could. It never fails to shock me when I think of the Hell that man put us through, we would have been homeless, without a penny for food, if he had been successful in all his diabolical schemes. I thank God every day for a man that would work night and day, through the worst imaginable weather, under the worst conditions, not only to give us food and shelter, but to spoil us rotten. I am grateful to the children who came running to his bed side in his darkest hour. J.R. especially was concerned over "Pop Pop". He called every day to check on him. Doug is still in a lot of pain, but has started back to work. He comes home every night holding on to his side. I hope and pray that he will be able to retire in two years...even if it means I make caramel apples for the rest of my life.
I have also been very involved in Trina's wedding, she asked me to come to her bridals with her. If you haven't received your invitation yet, watch for it in the mail, she is a beautiful bride and I am honored to be this involved. Pops was called to the Young Men's Presidency, funny enough on the day of his "near death experience". He thanked the Bishop, he contributes that to one of the reasons he was able to stay with us. I am so grateful for him, as you can tell by the name of my blog. He took me and my children under his wing at a time when I was loosing my Mother, the sole provider of my children, and had an ex husband who not only didn't support us financially or emotionally, but tried to shut down my business every way he could. It never fails to shock me when I think of the Hell that man put us through, we would have been homeless, without a penny for food, if he had been successful in all his diabolical schemes. I thank God every day for a man that would work night and day, through the worst imaginable weather, under the worst conditions, not only to give us food and shelter, but to spoil us rotten. I am grateful to the children who came running to his bed side in his darkest hour. J.R. especially was concerned over "Pop Pop". He called every day to check on him. Doug is still in a lot of pain, but has started back to work. He comes home every night holding on to his side. I hope and pray that he will be able to retire in two years...even if it means I make caramel apples for the rest of my life.
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