Back from the dead and already sore

Hey everyone! Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and all that other stuff.  This will in all likelihood be a HUGE blog, so sorry.  But I Have to fill you all in (like anyone actually reads this anyway...)

So, Jordan left on tour in November for the Forgotten Carols and I missed him like CRAZY.  I spent Thanksgiving with my family and talked with him, but it wasn't the same without him.

Jordan and his awesome roomate, Gili Getz

So anyway, I pretty much spent the six weeks he was gone doing Annie at Broadway Palm, where I played Grace.  The secretary to Daddy Warbucks.  Also, I was playing a narrator in Aladdin, Jr.  for the children's theatre, which was tons of fun.  I had two shows a day except for Mondays and it was CRAZY!  It kept me busy though, and that was the point.  Also, I decorated our house for Christmas (pics to come), hosted a few parties, and somehow managed to not gain weight.  Here are some pics:

Our Christmas Tree!!!

"Snow" on Christmas Day-- our Stage Manager moved the snow machine to the roof for some magic!

Grace Farrell

Sarah Smith as Miss Hannigan and I

Aladdin Narrator

The cast of Aladdin

you ain't never had a friend like me...

So......Christmas was awesome.  I had my husband back and all was well.  We got to spend tons of time with both of our families and each other and I couldn't have been happier.  My shows closed on Christmas Day, and then it was Vacation Time!

We got to go to Disneyland AGAIN!!  This time with my family.  Here are some pics to document the whole magical experience:

Yeah, i couldn't decide which pic i liked better....

Main Street!!

Snow on Main Street!!

Jordan and Emily were the only ones brave enough....

My awesome Fam!  Jocey, Lindsey, Mom, Ryan, and Dad...the rest were with me.

Classic Castle Pic with my true love

So that's that.  Now we are back, after a great Christmas, a happy new year, and a new resolve to get healthy.  Cliche, but better now than never.  We are on day 2 of our P90x workout/diet plan, and yes, we are so sore we can't see straight.  However, I am about to head to ballet class again, cause I refuse to give it up.   So take that, sore calf muscles.  Eat it.  I think I feel better today since I used the massage certificate Jordan gave me for Christmas yesterday.  Thanks babe.  You know me so well....

Sorry for the lameness in my writing, but hopefully I will be back on the ball this year and writing about even more craziness.  Love to you all!

My LEAST favorite time of the day

Okay, I've been thinking about this post for awhile now, and I even refrained from telling Nikki my point of view so that she could read about it here.  Well, get ready.

Every day, I wake up, say my prayers, take a shower....etc....insert daily activity and fast forward to bed time.  My bed time ritual is the usual:  wash my face, brush my hair out, brush my teeth.  and then, like a recurring nightmare, its time.

to floss.

I HATE FLOSSING.  My teeth have the consistency of chalk...ergo I always have multiple cavities when I go to the dentist... (ugh i REALLY need to go btw).  Because my teeth are so horrible, I can't afford to skimp on dental hygiene.  Trust me.  I've tried the "well if i'm going to have cavities anyway, what's the point" route, and believe me....its not pretty.  Anyway, just to prove that its NOT MY FAULT that my mouth hates me, I have new gumption to floss and brush like a maniac.  I'm not saying I don't skip flossing occasionally, but pretty much the guilt gets to me every night.  And oh, how I hate it.  Its painful, it makes an icky sound, and most of all I find it extremely annoying.  I already take longer than Jordan to get ready for bed and flossing is one more thing that keeps me from snuggle time with my honey.  Boo.

I make sure that Jordan sees me flossing though, so that he can a) vouch for me when the dentist gives me the "look" that says..."you can's possibly be brushing and flossing...i know, because I'm a dentist" and b) so that when the bill comes for the cavities that inevitably have to be filled, he, hopefully, won't be to mad at me.  Its a two-pronged attack.  So that's that.  Flossing= hatred.

In a quick recap, Jordan and I successfully moved into a FABULOUS new house in AZ and I love it.  More posts on that to come, because there are lots of stories.  Jordan left yesterday for the Forgotten Carols tour and I open Annie at Broadway Palm tomorrow.  Let the countdown begin.  Only 17 more nights of flossing before Jordan visits.  :)

My Best Friend's Birthday

Okay, so in all honesty, Jordan is and will always be my best friend.  Sorry, but that's the way it rolls and that's the way I think it should be.  So there.  But this post isn't about him.

Its about my best girl friend, Nikki!  So last week she turned 28 and it is so exciting.  We wanted to throw her a birthday party, so we did it the night before her actual birthday because of scheduling problems.  Jordan and I drove back up to vegas that morning and then I got started on my mom's recipe of chicken enchiladas and a double layer chocolate cake. (ps i have never done the double layer thing and I was really impressed with Jord's knowledge of how to cut one top so its level.  despite my hard work, one layer came out perfectly, and the other did not....so the frosting became the glue.)  Jordan also helped a TON with the decorations--he is very creative in that way...and also very tall, so it makes it so much easier.

Lighting candles

 Anyway, they came over after dropping their adorable son off with a babysitter, and we had ourselves a good time with good food, music, games, and dessert!! Enjoy the pics!

Nathan, Me and Nikki!

The Gang with my supercute Hubby and his "party shirt"

Making a wish!

So, anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Holy Traffic Batman!!!

Okay, this will be a shorty post, but I have to get this out there and then tomorrow I can post about my best friend Nikki's birthday party (ps Jordan has my camera in Cali right now, so that's why that is not happening yet).

So, in the never-ending saga that is Jordan and I's travel log, this last weekend we were down in Phoenix as usual (doing some VERY exciting things...but you'll have to wait for that).  What is unusual is that Jordan left today instead of tomorrow for California.  He got hired to do some recording for an outside project at SKYWALKER STUDIOS!!! So just to brag a little more, this recording studio is phenomenal.  Its in Oakland and has won a bajillions awards...including 18 oscars for sound editing and recording.  The credit list is way too long to post, but suffice it to say that its done HUNDREDS of films.  Pretty freaking cool.  Congrats, babe.

Anyway, since this is my blog, I'll tell you the more boring side of the story.  I dropped Jord off at the airport this morning and then did a few errands.  I planned to drive back to Las Vegas all by me onesie today (i've never done that) and I had all the necessary tools: GPS, water, snacks, and music.  Ready to rock and roll.  I left at 10:30 am, so a generous estimate would be an arrival time of 4:30 pm.

Try 6:30.  I know that for those of my friends who live in LA, NYC, or any other large city, two hours extra probably isn't a big deal.  But a 5.5-6 hour trip should never extend to 8 in my opinion.  The culprit was the final touches on construction on the big old bridge by Hoover Dam.  I am super excited about this thing, but when I can park my car, turn the key back, and listen to an ENTIRE cd before even starting the engine up again,  you know its bad.  Ugh.  No fun.  At least the weather was good.  I even got some reading in.

As a reward for driving all the way by myself (yes i know that's silly) and for dealing with monstrous traffic, I made my self 4 huge pieces of french toast, with no crust, and I'm planning on enjoying a movie and popcorn as soon as I finish this post.  *Contented sigh of relief to be home.  If only Jord were here to give me a hug, a kiss, and maybe even a high five.  Oh well.  there is always tomorrow :)

1st Anniversary!!!

So one year ago, on September 25, 2009, I married my true love and best friend Jordan.  It was one of, if not THE, happiest days of my life and I am grateful every day that I was blessed with such an amazing husband.  Seriously, he is the perfect man for me and I can't BELIEVE how lucky I am to be married to him and that he chose me!! If I'm ever feeling down about myself, I just have to remember that Jordan chose me and I feel instantly better.  :)

So, Jordan had been planning a surprise trip for our first anniversary since mid-June.  He really likes surprising me and he's really good at it.  I also like being surprised with this sort of thing, so it works out.  The one hard part is packing.  He gave me guidelines, but inevitably, I packed way more than I needed to so that I would have options once I got to wherever I was going.  We were leaving on Friday, and the Thursday before, we were over at Nathan and Nikki's house for a viewing of the 5th Harry Potter movie before our trip.  Nikki also had a surprise trip that Nathan was planning for her on the same weekend (fishy...but Jordan had given me all the details on her surprise trip to Sedona so I believed it was just a coincidence...silly me).  Anyway, before we watched the movie, the boys went upstairs for awhile and when they came back they gave us both bags full of clues to where we were going.  In mine were disney princess bouncy balls and other disney paraphernalia.  DISNEYLAND!!! I screamed and jumped into Jord's arms and a kissfest ensued for a minute or so.  i LOVE disneyland and I've joked with Jordan that he wouldn't really know me until we had done disneyland together cause I get so giddy and excited there.  After my reveal, Nikki opened her bag.  It was full of the same stuff!! The boys had successfully duped us into believing that we were going on separate surprise trips when we were really both going to Disneyland!! After a lot of screaming and jumping up and down and laughing, we calmed down enough to enjoy some Potter action.

The next morning, Jord and I drove to California and hit Dland ourselves.  (nathan and nikki were so cool and nice to let us have some alone time on our anniversary trip as well as some slammin' fab four time).  We hit up a ton of rides and then did dinner with Nathan and Nikki at California Pizza Kitchen.

Jordan on our first entrance to D-Land, just in time for the parade!

The next day (our actual anniversary) was amazing.  We both got free Happy Anniversary pins, ensuring that the workers and characters would say Happy Anniversary to us all weekend (if you don't feel like a VIP after that, then you have no imagination).  Together with Nathan and Nikki, we blew through almost every ride at least twice--it was a record breaking heat weekend in Anaheim, so very few people were there (you know, for disneyland).  It was SO MUCH FUN!!  Group faves were Hollywood Tower of Terror (HTOT), Thunder Mountain RR (BTMRR), and Pirates.  But all were enjoyed.  It was Halloween Time in the park, so there were pumpkins everywhere, which just made it better.  Here are some fave pics from Saturday:

Jordan, Nathan, and Nicole

Yeah...we got wet on Splash Mountain

The Fab Four

This was taken at the time we were married on our anniversary!

On California Screamin' for the 2nd time in a row out of 3

That night we also watched the fireworks show (yep, I cried when Julie Andrews said, "And remember....dreams come true!"..it was my anniversary for cripes sake!!), and Fantasmic (yeah, I cried again--that pirate ship is so much fun I can't not cry).  Our bodies felt "punished" (jord's word) and so we slept in on Sunday.  

Sunday was "our" day.  We took it to ourselves.  We hit up a sacrament meeting close by and then napped.  We did all the low key attratctions--like the train and Small world and then had a nice dinner in Downtown Disney at Naples.  It was delicious, romantic, and perfect.  I love him so much.

Monday, we hit the park hard again.  By the end of the day, we couldn't think of anything to go on that we hadn't been on at least 2 or 3 times.  Or more.  Lets just say that the 113 degree heat gave us an advantage (depending on who you ask....the frozen lemonade saved our lives that day).  More pics, you ask?  No problem.

Obligatory jumping disneyland picture

NO HANDS on HTOT--try it before you knock it

yeah...we were scared

somebody get this man a corndog!!

Nathan, Nikki, and Jordan before World of Color

So after we did some souvenir shopping, we headed over to California adventure for dinner and to get our spot for the new show, World of Color.  IT was incredible.  Nikki has the good pictures from the show, so be ready for more pics when we share or she posts about it and I direct you there.  Both of us were crying (nikki and i--not Jord and I haha) because it was so amazing.  Sigh.  Disney magic again.  Seriously, its one of the only places in the world that I have found that completely relaxes my mind.  I am not worried about anything else--not bills, housing, dental appointments, or working out.  I am just happy and living in the moment.  While this happens to me everytime i get to go there, this time it was even better, because I was sharing it with Jordan, one year after we promised to belong to one another forever.  Now, if that isn't a dream come true, I don't know what is.  

Thank you and happy anniversary, sweetheart. 

the ariZoni awards

Okay, so about a week after my birthday, the ariZoni's were taking place in AZ.  The Zoni's are the az theatre scene's version of Broadway's Tony Awards.  (For my take on this last years Tony's...see here).

It's pretty much an excuse to dress up really fancy, and see all of your theatre friends in one place.  The way it works is there is a board who split up and go see all the shows that are registered.  The shows are scored for everything imaginable...from best overall production to best hair and make-up design and everything in between.  There are tons of categories and its an honor to be nominated for one.

This year I got nominated for my first Zoni award for Best Actress in a Contracted Musical--The Light in the Piazza.  That was a pretty big deal for me because I loved that show, that role, and worked REALLY hard on it.   In addition to my nomination, the show was nominated for EVERY OTHER CATEGORY, except costumes (we rented them from the broadway tour) and choreography (there was no dancing).  So pretty much, we (the cast and crew) were really proud and excited about it.

"The Beauty Is"- Me and Nick Cartell

So on September 20, Jordan and I dressed up and went to the awards show.  I didn't win for best actress, but my amazing friend and costar in Piazza Jeannie Shubitz did (for another role she did this year).  She was incredible in Piazza and deserved to be recognized.  I was a little sad I didn't win, but really, really happy that Piazza did so well and that I got to dress up and be there to see it succeed.    Here is what the show won:

"Say it Somehow"-- Nick Cartell and I 

Best Supporting Actress: Janine Smith

Best Musical Direction: Alan Ruch

Best Scenic Design: Robert Kovach

Best Lighting Design: Michael Eddy

Best Sound Design: David Temby

Best Actor: Nick Cartell

Best Director: Karla Koskinen

Jeannie Shubitz and I

AND it won for BEST OVERALL MUSICAL PRODUCTION!!!!! Yay!!!!!!

Congrats to everyone who won a zoni and to everyone who was nominated!! So exciting!

24

Hello everyone!! I have tons to catch up on--but I need to go in order or else I won't go back.

So my 24th birthday was on September 14th.  It fell on a Tuesday, but I saw my family a few days before on the closing of Music Man.  A little known (okay, a really well known) fact about me is that I LOVE pie.  Pretty much any kind, but one of my very favorites is deep dish pumpkin--which my mom happens to make really well.  So every year, I get a  birthday pie instead of cake from her.  How awesome is that? After some fun autumn/halloween inspired gifts from my family we enjoyed the pie and homemade ice cream.  Rad.

Tuesday, Jord and I were back in Las Vegas, and I woke up to my adorable husband jumping on the bed yelling HAPPY BIRTHDAY and smiling at me like a two year old.  :)  He bought me a gorgeous crystal necklace, a kohl's gift card, and a beautiful card that made me tear up--like all his cards do.  Later that night, he took me to Buca de Beppo for dinner.  Our friend Nathan joined us for delicious food (his awesome wife Nikki was out of town--but i enjoyed my itunes gift card from them the next day) and I got free brownie deliciousness cause it was my bday.  Then we went back home and Jord served me my chocolate birthday cake that he had made himself and served it with my favorite- butter pecan ice cream!!  It was an awesome day!!!

I still feel young enough to enjoy my birthdays so hooray for turning 24!!  BTW it only occurred to me at the end of the day that I should have had a Jack Bauer themed party.  Dang.   Thanks to everyone for making my bday awesome!!