A vacation within a vacation

Marcus and I vowed to try and view our summer gig as a little "Vacation." Well, that's been kinda hard, considering we've worked our fannies off producing 3 shows and growing a baby! But we have enjoyed being in WV, which seems a world away from NYC. We are getting very ready to head home and get moved and start nesting for baby, though. Last week, the Lanes from Virginia came to visit, bringing a little vacation with them! We did lots of fun stuff, from visiting state parks to the WV State Fair, and lots of fishing. It was great to see the family, especially little Adam, who is growing by leaps and bounds. It's very cool that our baby's birthday will be so close to his. It's like getting a preview of what's in store!

My favorite thing we did all week was the West Virginia State Fair. It's been years since I've been to a fair, but I grew up going to the one in Mississippi every year. We looked at the livestock. We ate snow cones. We watched a sea lion show. They went to the circus, but since clowns terrify me, Marcus and I played bingo! Mostly, we enjoyed the sights, smells and free gifts, which included cardboard fans, magnets and fly swatters.

We also visited Hawk's Nest State Park, which is about an hour from where we live. They have a little air tram that goes down into the gorge, then you can get on a jet boat. Well, I did ok until about lunch time. After I ate, baby decided to act up and I got really sick for the first time in several weeks. We thought it best that I skip the jet boat, so Marcus brought me home to nap. Just another state park I've thrown up in, I guess. Perhaps I should make myself a scrapbook.

The pictures this week are of my belly, which has suddenly become round, and a really cute one of Adam, now 6 months old and wearing an Alabama onesie. (He has good taste.) We get our sonogram on Monday, so check back early next week for the first picture of baby Lane!!!!!

One more month!

Greetings to all! We are a month away from returning to NYC and are really starting to look forward to it. All the shows are up now, so we've got much more free time. Last Monday we went fishing on Bluestone Lake, which was nice. We didn't catch much. We were also attacked by a swarm of moths, which I could have done without. This week, we had a doctor's appt. and we got to hear the baby's heart again! Everything checked out and we're all doing well. I've gained a big 3 pounds. As we were listening to the heartbeat, we heard this WHOOSH sound and the midwife said "it just moved!" Very, very exciting. Can't wait to feel a kick! We go for a sonogram in 3 weeks.

And for the record, in case you haven't heard it from us before, we ARE NOT finding out what we're having! We realize that few people do it this way anymore, but Marcus wants to have the opportunity to come out of the delivery room and say "It's a...." to our families. I also think not knowing will give me a good goal for labor and delivery. Hopefully knowing that I"m just a few pushes away from knowing what kind of baby we've got will help me through the rough patches. Of course, those who know me know that I will be on as many drugs as they can give me in good conscience, SO...

We have a lead on a new apt. for when we go back to NYC. Everyone please pray that this works out, if it's the right thing for us. It's a 2 bedroom in Jackson Heights, perfectly in our price range, and it's currently being renovated. My best friend Kitty found it for us (it's her landlord's other property) and it sound perfect. We'll look at it when we get back. Woo hoo!

Marcus is making tacos for some of us today, so we'd better start chopping veggies and grating cheese! Your picture of the week is a lovely early morning view of Bluestone Lake.

Sweet relief!

The day we have all been living for here at TWV finally arrived--Grease opened on July 17! This means no more rehearsals, just shows each night at 8pm. Your picture of the week features Marcus in his Vince Fontaine costume. It is truly something to see. The show is a blast and the opening night audience went insane. It rained, so we had to hold curtain for an hour, but it finally stopped, so we got to do the show. When the crew went out to dry the stage, the audience cheered. We had over 1100 in the audience, including 2 busloads of Red Hat Society ladies. They sang along and danced to the music. It was a lot of fun. We do it again on Friday.

Just in time for the schedule to lighten up, the first trimester of pregnancy has ended! The morning sickness has GREATLY decreased, though the dizziness seems to be sticking around. At least we can get a normal amount of sleep now. The belly is growing, though my first trimester weight gain was only 1 pound. (Marcus's first trimester weight gain was 5 pounds.) I think I lost a little due to the morning sickness, so while I shaped up a little around the sides, the belly started to protrude. I'm pretty much exclusively in maternity pants now, mostly because they are SO comfortable!

Hope this finds everyone doing well. We should have a lot more time to go on adventures now, so we'll keep doing picture of the week!

Another week in WV

Yes, another week has passed. We lived through a rainstorm (or 8), our first rehearsals for GREASE, more morning sickness and a trip to Buns. We saw Buns advertised in a little article for Hinton, WV, a town about 20 minutes outside where we live and work. The other Lanes are staying in Hinton when they visit in August, so we thought we'd check the place out and have a nice "Homestyle lunch" as advertised at Buns. We even invited our friends Lee and Angie to join us. Now Marcus and I were expecting offerings like pinto beans and cornbread, spaghetti and meatloaf. We arrived at Buns about an hour later than expected, after being sent on a bit of a wild goose chase by a well-meaning lady at the Chamber of Commerce. We quickly realized Buns was more of a Roadhouse establishment (we were tipped off by the sign that said "bikers welcome") and not the Mom and Pop homestyle cafe we had been hoping for. As we walked into the dark, smoky room, a bartender in ridiculously short shorts greeted us. We sat at a table (we had the joint all to ourselves for the time being) and she took our drink order. Everyone was having Coke or Sprite. She brought over the 2-liter bottles and poured them for us. She then produced the menu, which was on one of those little stand-up plastic things that usually have the beer list on them in bars, and said "Here's what we got to eat...cheeseburgers and stuff." Indeed. Hamburgers. Cheeseburgers. Hot Dogs. Corn Dogs. Philly Cheesesteak. Ham Sub. We ordered our food and were joined by some locals who proceeded to have a heck of a pool tournament while playing country music on the jukebox. One of them tried to shake my hand on my way back from the bathroom (I dodged him) and proclaimed, loud enough for everyone to hear, "I like the one in the white skirt." I don't imagine he would like me at about 8 in the morning when Baby Lane decides to reject everything I've eaten in the past several hours. Anywho, our food came and we couldn't help but giggle. Our cheeseburgers were on sub rolls and were those frozen kind of hamburger patties. But they did have sassy romaine lettuce. I guess that counts for something. The best part of the experience was taking the picture you see above. That's me and Angie workin' the BUNS sign. OH, yeah.

Yee Haw

Hello, friends!
Our first week of shows is winding down here at good ol' TWV. Everyone's starting to get used to each other and the shows are falling into a good rhythm. Honey In The Rock is mercifully short. Hatfields and McCoys, the one Marcus directed, is looking pretty fantastic. Technically, it's a VERY busy show, which keeps me on my toes. We are all looking forward to our first day off in over 2 weeks, coming on Monday. Then it's back to it as we head into another full week of shows PLUS start rehearsals for GREASE on Friday! Marcus is getting up to go fishing at 6am with one of our electricians. I will be asleep. I wish them well.

Today we had lunch at a little Cajun restaurant we found a couple of towns over. It is the only Cajun restaurant in WV. It was all kinds of good! Authentic spices, tasty crawfish, excellent shrimp and great side-items. Nice job, Gumbo's of Fayette--we'll be back!

Baby Lane had an unhappy morning, pretty much rejecting anything Mommy tried to feed him/her. We perked up a little once we were fed Cajun food. I wore my pregnant pants for maximum expansion capabilities. :) For those keeping up with such things, Baby is now the size of a kidney bean. We get to hear the heartbeat on July 2!!!!!!

The picture of the week is my assistant, Megan, and I checking the props before Honey In The Rock opening night. It's has been voted the best picture taken so far this summer.

update

Hey, everyone! We finished tech for Marcus's show tonight and we are TIRED! We just finished a four-day strech of 10/12s. (For those not in the theatre, those basically mean looooong days.) Our first show opens on Tuesday, then Marcus's opens on Wednesday. We are VERY ready for them to be open so we can sleep.

On the baby front, thing are going well! My belly popped out a little overnight. It's the weirdest thing. We're 7 weeks along now and, according to babycenter.com, baby is the size of a raspberry, has elbows, organs, eyelids and a brain and can move around. And is making mommy sick as a dog. Seriously, the morning sickness can stop at any time. I've been trying my best to keep a full stomach, which helps, but sometimes it gets the better of me. Baby craves McDonald's and will not let me start my day without grease. I got sick in the middle of rehearsal this afternoon, then had a BBQ pork sandwich for dinner and actually felt better. SO STRANGE! But at least we get a cute baby out of the deal.

Here's your picture of the week. This was taken off our back deck. It's a gorgeous West Virginia rainbow after a rainfall. The red poles mark the ski slope. It is incredibly beautiful here and we have seen our fair share of wildlife. Tonight on the way home we saw a fox, 2 deer, a groundhog and something we couldn't quite identify. Tomorrow we are hoping to eat at Restaurant. That's what it's called. Restaurant. It's attached to an Exxon station. People say it's good . If it's greasy, Baby will be happy.

Greetings from West Virginia

Hello, everyone!!!
Yes, we are still alive. It took us this long to get internet. Seriously. But we are wired now and PROMISE to actually start doing "picture of the week" as soon as we find the little cord you hook up from the camera to the computer. :)

Well, a LOT has happened since we arrived in West Virginia! Our 3 bedroom condo is AMAZING! It's so weird to have all this space. We will go into culture shock when we get home to NY. Work is good. Jen Lane, who has not driven in about three years, got lost about twice a day the first week. Once Marcus got here, things got better. He drives everywhere...probably for the best. The scenery is beautiful and serene and it's SO quiet! We are also re-discovering things like seeing bunnies hop through your yard, smelling fresh-cut grass and going to Wal-Mart, where you can find anything. Really. Anything.

We moved to the park on Friday (the theatre is in a National Park) and have been doing some looooong days of spacing/singing/stage combat/gun safety and the like. Thankfully, the weather has been pretty kind. It poured on us yesterday for a few minutes, but that cooled it down, so we didn't mind. We head into tech next week, then open our first 2 shows the 12th and 13th. Then we collapse for a day before starting rehearsals for GREASE. The fun never stops!

The biggest news we have since last we wrote is that (wait for it.....wait for it...) we are going to
have a baby!!!! It's true! We found out about a week ago and went to the doctor on Thursday to get everything checked out. We're about 6 weeks along and are due on January 27. (Poor Marcus will have to live with 2 Aquarians.) We could not be more thrilled. For those who have met our neighbors, you understand that this is great timing so that we can be away from them for several months! We will, obviously, be moving as soon we get back to NYC. (everyone keep your ears open!) Our families are very excited and VERY ready to welcome the new addition. SO there you go! Surprise! We'll keep you posted on the ever-swelling belly. I kind of feel like I"ve been invaded by a sweet little alien. And I can't eat bell peppers anymore. Pregnancy is weird.

Hope all's well in your corner of the world!
Jen, Marcus and Baby Lane :)