Princesses and P90x

Well, friends, I find myself coming to the end of two things in the next week or two:  My show and my exercise program.  One is happy the other is bittersweet I suppose.

For the last month, I've had the best job in the world:  playing Princess Aurora in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Jr. at Broadway Palm West in Mesa, AZ.  Its a children's show, which means the audiences are forgiving and energetic, and very vocal.  I love hearing kids shout "Look out, Maleficent is right behind you!!!"-- it means they care :)  I get to wear beautiful costumes, work with awesome people, and spend my afternoons singing to a puppet owl on my arm about my dream prince.  I waltz, I sing, and I faint--and I have awesome dance competitions backstage with the goon and three good fairies.  My life is awesome.

Another part I love it autographs--because its so much fun to meet these kids!  They truly think I am a princess and I love it!  i get countless hugs from little girls dressed up like Aurora and Cinderella and it makes me so happy that they are so happy.  Also, I get to meet some mentally challenged people that come and it is always enlightening.  Last week, a charming young man with Down's Syndrome actually bowed to me and showed me his sword fighting skills, asking if he could play the prince next time.  it simultaneously broke my heart and warmed it.  I cannot wait for the day to come when he is able to express himself without inhibition by a mental and physical illness.  I know that day will come--even if its not in this lifetime.

The show closes on April 9, and I'm sure I will miss it and the people I work with.  Side note-- I am also sad that I can't be with Jordan, my dad, and pretty much everyone I know in Salt Lake City that day to sing in the Lamb of God.  On account of Sleeping Beauty, I can't sing in this incredible work.  I know it is going to be a life changing experience for many.  I was privileged to sing it with Jordan in Las Vegas earlier this month and it strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ so much.  I KNOW that He lives and we will all be resurrected again because of Him.  If any  of you are in Utah on the 9th, do yourself a favor and go.  Here's the website: Lamb of God 

Okay, for the second bit of news:  as of Saturday morning, Jordan and I will have completed P90X!!!!!!

That's right: we are done with p90x!!!
Jordan and I have been doing the program since January and I have only missed ONE day of exercise, due to the flu.  We even brought the workout dvds with us while we were performing in Vegas and exercised in our hotel room!  now that's dedication.

Truthfully, I have never been this dedicated to any exercise regime in my life, and I know I couldn't have done it so well without Jordan's support.  We helped each other get through it and I am so proud of us!!  I didn't lose much weight, but my body fat percentage has dropped dramatically and I can do about a zillion more real pushups than before.  I KNOW that I'm stronger than ever and it makes me feel good (even though my, uh, chest has taken quite a hit in the size department---Jordan says he doesn't notice, but I know it's a kind lie).  Mostly I feel totally healthy and sexy and confident and I am so happy.  Jordan looks INCREDIBLE and I can't believe I get to be married to such a hottie.

We started doing the nutrition program too, and have adapted it over time.  We are on a modified diet right now and I'm planning on keeping to it pretty much.
BUT, you better believe I will be having French toast as soon as possible-- I've been craving it for over a month.  Jordan and I are celebrating with Pizza on Sat night after Priesthood session and I'm stoked.  Mostly I'm just glad I can say I did something the whole way without quitting, even when I was so sore I wanted to cry.  Yay!!

Last note:  For those of you who want to know more about my church-- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism)-- this weekend we are having our biannual General Conference.  There are four general sessions (2 Saturday and 2 on Sudnay).  It is a meeting for EVERYONE to watch and is on television in many places.  You can also stream it live online here.

It is a chance to listen to the Lord's prophet, apostles, and leaders who are on the earth today--I truly have a testimony and know that these men and women are called of our Heavenly Father to help counsel us against pitfalls in our day.  I hope that if you have any questions or interest in what I believe, you'll give it a chance.  What harm could it do to watch it?

Anyway, that's what's going on with me in a nutshell-- lots to be grateful for and excited about!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

This will be short and sweet, but on this Valentine's day, i just wanted to be redundant and say how much I love my husband.  He is the greatest blessing in my life.  He treats me with respect, love, generosity, and kindness.  He is chivalrous without being demeaning and always takes the time to listen when I have something important to say.  Of course, I find him totally sexy and attractive (especially those forearms of his), but one of the most attractive things about him is his personality.  I love his laugh, and I love that we can talk for hours.  We've always been able to.  So go ahead, laugh at my cheesy facebook messages and proclamations of love.  I don't care.  I'll just turn my Jordan Bluth cd up louder and smile, cause he picked me.  :)

Happy Valentine's Day, sweetheart.  I love you.

Holidays

Fact:  I LOVE holidays.  All of them.  And I love celebrating them.

This has been a thing with me since I was a kid--my mom was always finding ways to make even small holidays fun and special, and I've kept that tradition alive in my adult life.

Obviously, there are the big ticket holidays that most people celebrate: Christmas (my favorite), Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, New Years, Valentine's Day, and Fourth of July.  Of course, I'm not including other religious holidays that could be substituted, like Passover and Hanukkah.  I really like decorating for each season and observing it for as long as possible.  Here is a general calendar that I like to go by:

Jan:  General Winter Decor--snowflakes, deep reds, silvers, blues--I don't usually do anything different for New Years since I leave my Christmas decorations up til the week after.

Feb: Valentine's Day!  I really love v-day, and especially now that I have a honey to celebrate with.  My home is a little more classy now (cause I don't want to be too girly when my hubby has to live here too), so I have rose shaped candle holders and red tablecloths, etc.

March:  St Patrick's Day!  Green please.  Also works for Spring

April: Easter/ Spring

May: Spring

June: Summer baby.

July: Independence Day

August: Summer

September: Autumn/ Back to school

October: Halloween

November: Thanksgiving/ Harvest

December: Christmas

These are all pretty normal for people to decorate for I think.  The easiest way for me to observe some other fun holidays are with food---no surprise there I guess.  Some ideas:

Opening day of Baseball: bbq hot dogs and burgers--this is fun even if you don't like baseball (ps I DON'T) cause you can watch a baseball movie like Field of Dreams or Sandlot and have a grand old time.

Cinco de Mayo: mexican fiesta, please.  Go all out.  Make everything.

Columbus Day: Make Italian food.

Winter Solstice:  English food.  Play Enya.  This is a big one for my mom.

Anyway--the whole idea for this post came from my delight in seeing that my movie channels--Encore, etc saw fit to pay attention and play Groundhog Day today.  THANK YOU whoever was in charge of scheduling.  Its so annoying to me to be celebrating a day like Valentine's day and having "The Grudge" on TNT.  REally?? Come on people.  Also, take note Radio dj's and ward music chairman's of the world: Pay attention.  If its After thanksgiving, SING CHRISTMAS MUSIC.  and oh, if its New Year's week, SING RING OUT WILD BELLS.  Its the only New Year's song in the hymnbook and so you only get one chance to sing it.  Plus its cool sounding, with lyrics by a great poet, Tennyson.  Let's save "Did you think to Pray" for some random week in June please.

Okay, I'm done.  Have a great Groundhog day everyone.  btw its REALLY cold today, so I'm pretty sure that the groundhog saw his shadow.  good think i live in az. :)

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 :)