Elaborate lives...

   Music, music, music! My life for the past year has been straight musical extravaganza....and I have LOVED every minute of it. I left you all with the Taffetas update and I have since produced and starred in two other shows. Anything Goes and Little Shop of Horrors. What a blast these past seven months has been. Anything Goes was a big ol' production that I never thought was going to get the attention and love that it did from the community. We doubled our income and patronage :) The Lead cast mainly consisted of my pals from St. George that I have known from past SGMT productions.
   Fast forward a few months and we are to the ending of Little Shop of Horrors which I directed up in Springdale at the Bumbleberry Theatre. What a fun experience this has been! I learned several things directing this show: Number 1, never ever ever ever ever EVER direct a show and play the lead role. Never ever. Period. Next, when you cast all your closest friends in a 'small cast' show, things are bound to get...'moody' at times...also, not a very good combination: best friends and tension 24/6. But, we have come out on top and have had the most fun I could have imagined this summer.
   Spring break this year was a blast!! I went to Disneyland with all my good friends and we had the best time being care-free college students! The best part of the entire trip was definitely the World of Color show at California Adventure...absolutely amazing!!
    I recently switched my major (hopefully for the final time ;) to Theater. I know, I know, all of you reading this are saying....FINALLY or that 'wasn't your major the whole time?,' no it was not. But, I prayed long and hard about it and decided to waste the whole Spring '12 semester and drop my Criminal Major status. Really, though, I feel really good about my decision. If I don't pursue acting I know that I will love teaching. I want to end up teaching collegiate level theater.

Well, that was a very quick update on my crazy busy life, but I plan on being better at updating this fun old blog :)

A smile is a crooked line that makes everything straight!

My, my! It's been too long since I have last updated. A load of stuff has transpired these many past months.

Took summer classes: yuck, sort of. I enjoyed not being bored, but school in the summer is never...f-u-n.

Upgraded to the new iPhone 4s: wow, how great are the iPhones? Love it! Mainly because I love having all of my music with me.

The Taffetas: what a fun, fun show! The last 4 months of my life have been drained of energy working on this show. I have forgotten what 7-8 hours of sleep feels like. But, this show has been so much fun to see come to life. This is the first show that I have directed that I am not actually in, and lemme tell ya....what a blast to get to sit in the audience and enjoy it! The four ladies in the show are great! The show is a 50s musical review that spotlights four sisters on a fictitious television show in the 50s. The ladies have been a lot of fun to work with. Lots of estrogen....but fun. I dare say that I haven't seen this much attitude and crying in a single show I've been a part of, but these ladies are so talented. I just hope people get out to see the show because it seriously is a top-notch show. Cheaper than a movie and live theater is so much more fun and magical than sitting in front of a screen....just sayin'.

Somedays I wake up and think how beautiful life is...

My my my...It's been quite a while since I last posted, eh? It's good to be back though. I believe that I am going to blame it on being busy with school and the last show that I was involved with. It's nice to see that the blogging world goes on without me :)

What I've been up to:

School is coming along great. I've started my Criminal Justice classes and I am loving it. My dream has always been to be on stage, but I know that, that isn't a practical way to provide for a family. Besides never having a life outside of the theater, you are moving every 6 months or so. So, I thought a long time what I wanted to do with my career. I thought that I might enjoy drafting, something that my grandpa does...didn't dig the idea of sitting at a computer for 8 hours a day. Then I was on to business. After thinking about that for a while, it just didn't stick. Although, entrepreneur stuff still hangs in my head....I'd like to own some business down the line, maybe some rental houses, but that is beside the point. Finally, I landed with criminal justice. Ding ding! Went on a few ride-alongs with several departments around the county and I loved it. I want to do something in investigation and/or U.S. Marshall work. Tracking high profile criminals is what sounds sooo fun.

You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. What an experience. I started this show as the director and had a ball! A few weeks before we opened one of the actors dropped and I had to step in and play the part of Schroeder. Although it was hard, it was a blast. Scott Morrise and I are really getting the ball rolling with the Community Center here in Hurricane and I cannot wait till we get at least 3 shows going a year in that amazing venue. Next up: Taffetas. I was voted in as the President of the Theater group of the Hurricane Valley Arts Alliance. I am way stoked about that. I can't wait for our next show.

Other than that, I'm not doing much. Danielle, my aunt has been here for a couple weeks which has been fun. The kids bring a life to the house which is not often seen or heard around here. The rowdiness is a bit much at times so I lock myself in my room and put on my music and disappear into a world with no mess and screaming! Speaking of music, I have discovered Owl City's new album All Things Bright and Beautiful. I wasn't much of a fan of Owl City before (his songs are over played) but this new album is pretty cool. Check it out!

What have YOU been up to?

End of Fall and on with Winter!!

How excited I am for the winter weather to be here! Nothing is more annoying than never knowing weather to dress for the cold or the hot. That is how it's been for the past few weeks. It's freezing in the morning on the way to school, yet it's hot on the way home....make up yo mind Motha Naytcha! (I felt weird capatalizing the 'gangster' version...)

I'm blown away that Christmas is around the corner and that this semester is in its final weeks. I am feelin' the Christmas spirit right about now, now that the Thanksgiving season has run its course. I'm mucho thankful for all the many blessings that I continually and abundantly receive. To name a few:

-Gospel

-Family

-School

-Car

-Friends

-My Sunday School Rascals

-Jokes

-Shoes

-Rain

I could go on and on. As I started writing those simple things, I realized how much I normally take those 'simple' things for granted. I remember the last Stake Conference talk by President Brammal on being thankful for the simple things. How we should be greatful for things that make life comfortable. Good shoes, hats, gloves, cars, cell phones, etc. Hearing him talk about people who wouldn't even think of having a cell phone as a necessity. I felt pretty dumb; there have been many times where I went through a 'mini panic attack' because I couldn't find my phone. Haha! We Americans are so pampered it's crazy! Anyway, I didn't mean to go off on that as much as I wanted to show that I am greatful for everything that I have. Amen.

I found this message after writing this blog, it's exactly what I was talking about :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi0tqhedHIU&feature=player_embedded

Double Trouble

Few of my favorite pix of the Drawe twins.

Fireflies

Stream of Consciousness:

Loving lazy days of Summer, don't get me wrong, but I think I might miss school a bit.. I thought about that last night before bed..randomness.

Music is good! One of my favorite things to do is just sit down and listen to music. And for those who may be confused I'm referring to good music.. just for clarification :) I was playing Rock Band with my little brother last night and he kept getting annoyed when I would pick the GOOD classic rock songs. He said "you are just like mom and dad, they pick the same songs." What can I say, that is the music I grew up listening to.

I love watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I will admit right here, right now bearing no defense for my manhood that every ONCE IN A WHILE that the show makes ya cry, man. There is something about seeing people drop everything to help a family in need. With all the war in the media and every other possible bad thing happening around the world, it's a breathe of fresh air to see good. That's another thing that is depressing-the news. Some of it is fun and good, yes, but most anything you hear on the news anymore is that someone was shot, or kidnapped, or Iraq, or floods, or fires, or oil spills...it's seriously getting overwhelming. Can we have a day that all we read or hear about is GOOD that is going on in the world, please??

State of Grace. I've been thinking about that phrase for a couple days for some odd reason. All I wanna do when I think of the phrase is take pictures. I love the idea of catching someone in their own state of Grace. How fun is it to look at a photograph of someone who was placed perfectly (not! school pictures disgust me) and told how to look and smile...compared to looking at a photograph of someone who is completely in their own world or who is sharing that world with someone, entirely untouched by anything but bliss?

There's a saying old, says that love is blind. Still we're often told seek and ye shall find. So, I'm going to seek a certain girl I've had in mind...
Looking everywhere haven't found her yet, she's the big affair I cannot forget.

Hallelujah!

School is over!! Hallelujah! And, one of my new favorite songs thanks to my good buddy? Hallelujah by the Canadian Tenors. Jason Castro has a good version as well. It has been the most boring week of my life!! Why you ask? Well, school is over...and I am switching jobs this week...nothing has been on my agenda! I thought that it would be heaven to stay home and not have to wake up for anything...NOT! Hate it...I have nothing to do haha! So, I am pretty stoked to start my new job this week!

So, this picture: This is one of the first shots from the new lens!! You can't help but smile or laugh when you see this picture, and that's why I chose it.

Chance left for Nauvoo this week. I am gonna miss that kid, but I am excited for him. I already wrote him a letter and it's on its way to him...his first day out..haha. What a fun summer he has ahead of him. I am gonna go see him sometime this summer. Anybody game?? Oh, and he was called to the Yerevan, Armenia mission. He was SO excited the morning he opened it up. He was smiling from ear to ear, up hugging everyone, looking up everything he could on the internet about Armenia. It was fun to see him so excited!

Forever Plaid is finally over! What a fun show! It was fun to have a show in Hurricane and get people out to it. I think our first night we had about 25-30 people. Closing night we had around 450-500 people there. The theater was full!!! It was so much fun!

I got my new camera lens and I LOVE it! I have tried it out a couple times already, it rocks! Shout out to Kenzie! She is dressing up as princesses this summer for little girl birthday parties and I took her Belle pictures this weekend..it was hilarious!

Iron Man was AWESOME! I just wanna be him! Sweet movie! Go see it! It makes you want to fly and blow things up...great fun!

The weath has been pretty awesome! Can't wait for the lake!!!!!