A Floridian Christmas

There's no snow- but I gotta admit that this is pretty cool!

Not Christmasy, but hey, The Sword in the Stone is cool.

Duck Butt Hat

A Jazz game in Orlando! (Some would call it an Orlando Magic game... but for me it was totally a UTAH JAZZ game!) And we WON! Yeeeeah!

Christmas at Disney!!!

Osborn Family Spectacle of Lights at MGM Studios

Christmas show at Magic Kingdom

WOW!!! (Finale of the Christmas show)

Disney's 20+ Event

Disclaimer on this video: Trying to run in 3+ in heels and sing= bad singing. Ha ha.

Ode to the Classics

Now that it's a freezing 40 degrees in Florida, (Yes, I am trying to make you all jealous...) I am obsessed with Christmas music. Ahhhh... I love it.

Nothing beats Judy Garland's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, (well, honestly, nothing beats the scene RIGHT AFTER the song in "Meet Me in St Louis" when Margaret O'Brian whacks all the heads off the snowmen in the back yard... does anyone know what I'm talking about????) Anyway, nothing beats that, Nat King Cole singing "The Christmas Song," and Bing Crosby crooning "White Christmas." Ah the sentiment.

... Then I get sad because it's winter, I am in FLORIDA, there is no snow, no family... nothing much to get me into the spirit. Sigh. I think I have compensated by going crazy with shopping. Hee hee. I have mailed lots of fun presents.

Tis the season. I love it.

The Insanity.

This is Chuck's step-brother, Todd.

Don't worry, last night he was awarded a MILLION DOLLARS when he won season 15 of SURVIVOR! HOW FUN TO WATCH!!!

Goings on as of Late

I did it again. Another long week at work. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I am thankful for the great paycheck, and most of all, I am thankful for a GREAT experience in working on the Disney 20+ Awards here. Since I got here in August, I have been really blessed to be pulled into other projects for the company. A month or so ago I did an awards celebration called "Partners in Excellence," and this week I was able to perform in front of all kinds of important people and cast members in the "20+" celebration. It was event with lots of food, drinks (for those who do that stuff... ha ha, and great entertainment... provided by yours truly and some other outstanding performers. It's a huge party and show for people who have been with the company for twenty or more years. What fun! I'm hoping to get some video up soon...

Oh yeah, and this week I took my hair back to it's God-given color. Hmmmm. I freaked out for the first few days because it looked REALLY grey. Luckily, I am happy to report that it has taken on the more natural, golden-but-mousy blonde color that I was born with. Even though I was born with black hair. Whatever.

Pictures from the show:

Getting ready

The cast! Jarrod, Juan, Jackie, Anna, Me, Aaron, Suzy, and Victor

Hee hee. In clothes I never wear in real life!

My Sanity After a Week of Insanity

I worked 55 hours this week.

Now, to the normal, hard working American, this really may not seem like SUCH a huge issue- but for me, being the princess that I am, and living a life of luxury (I am paid for 40 hours when I usually only work 25 hours a week), this is a PAINFUL thing! Honestly though- it was a great opportunity. I paced myself through the week, got through it, and I have NEVER been so excited for Saturday! I thought I'd be exhausted and want to veg around all night, but I played and played and it was FANTASTIC. YAY for productive, busy weeks.

Chuck took me to Bubba Gump. I am obsessed with this place. Ahhhh... memories of Hong Kong. When I was there it was the only place I could find REAL, good American food. Yup. I love me some Bubba Gump.

STEVE the Tree

Shopping for a Christmas tree with the roomies. And two boys.

Spencer analyzing the branch reverb.

This is it! Our tree. His name is Steve.

The cute little high school boys putting the stand on Steve.

Loading Steve into the truck! YAY CHRISTMAS!

More pictures to come when the tree is decorated.

Why is our tree named Steve? No reason. Just is.

Hoop Dee Doo Review at Fort Wilderness

One night after work a group of us Beauty and the Beasties went to see Zack- one of our Gaston's, in another show on property- "Hoop Dee Doo Review." It's a fun dinner theatre show and there's lots of noise and hooping and hollering and yup- I had my years of that at the Playmill. Nuff for me. Ha ha.

Noisy washboards!

Me, Zack, and Lindsey

Beauty and the Beastie people.

Friiiiiiiiiied chicken!

The National tour of

HAIRSPRAY!

And on random notes...

I was thinking about several different things this week:

* Target brand cottage cheese is MUCH tastier than Wal-Mart's brand. The Wal-Mart brand sometimes tastes like mold. Blech.

* I was excited to find a radio station akin to 106.7 in Salt Lake City here in FL. 24-7 Christmas music doesn't run rampant here in FL like it does at home, so when I found 94.9 here it was a lovely thing. The only downside is that blasted "Christmas Shoes" song was on when I tuned in... and honestly- I'm so over that kid wanting to buy shoes for his momma. Did you see the movie? The shoes weren't even that fabulous!!! Ha ha.

* OK- Christmas music IS NOT effective here in FL. Driving on the freeway at 60 mph with the 80 degree winds blowing in my hair some DOES NOT correspond with "Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful... let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" I MISS UTAH. I want the snow falling, hot chocolate, apple cider, and the Christmas tree next to the fire. Sigh.

* I LOVE BARRY MANILOW. Yep, I just admitted that online- but I DO! I grew up on Barry's music and ah... I love the sappiness and sentiment. My cousin Melissa and I used to have "Barry Nights" when we lived together. We'd shut ourselves in her room an listen to Barry songs in the dark when we were mad at men. HA HA. This thought was sparked by the music playing at Bubba Gump last night... "I write the songs that make the young girls cry..." Ahhhh.

* I will not name a child Harold. Or Mildred.

* Last night at two am- as the Christmas tree sparkled in our living room and my roommate lay sleeping on the couch, I felt the need to burst into a terrible rendition of "The Christmas Song." Thank you Jennlyn for understanding my insanity. That wasn't a thought... that was something that happened... hmmm.

* Insurance is a fun thing. I have it now.

More soon.

My Beast: The Pantless.

Live theatre is a beautiful thing.

The monotony of my life was lifted today as I batted my eyes and fluttered my fingers as Belle in MGM Studios "Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage." Every day I go to work, sit in my chair at the vanity, put on fake eyelashes and brown wigs, and every day I even get to prance around the stage in that classic gold "Belle dress." Yep, that's my life... and often times it feels a lot like that movie Groundhog Day- oh- have I mentioned that before???

It's not every day that the Beast's pants fall down. OK- it has NEVER happened. But this was my lucky morning and it made the whole day of five shows worth it. Ha.

Uh hem. So.. This scene... (this is the scene where the incident HAPPENED... not the ACTUAL incident that occured this morning at 10:02 AM)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yn3vpxYZss

Now, we all know Beasts don't wear pants anyway, but at Disney they usually have to for rating reasons. We are a G rated, family facility.

Enough of the dumb backstory... this is what happened:

Beast: I thought I told you never to come here!

Belle (played by ME): But I just wanted to find out what was in the West Wing!

(Coming down the stairs... all is well and the same as always)

Beast: It's none of your business!

Belle: Please stop!

(Oh my gosh... uh, his purple trousers are looking awfully saggy...)

Beast: You shouldn't have come to the West Wing!

Belle: And you should learn to control your temper!

(OH MY GOSH HIS PANTS ARE COMPLETELY FALLING OFF)

* Audience is roaring with laughter- and I HAVE TO SING??!?!?!?)

More dialogue... I dunno how I am going to control myself because I am DYING inside but I have to stay composed... I know! I will turn in the OTHER direction so I don't have to look at him while I sing...

Sing sing sing... Heavenly Father PLEASE help me be able to get through this song...

... but he was mean and he was coarse and unrefined...

The people in the booth are cracking up.

All I can hear is people laughing. Everywhere. Onstage. Mrs Potts, Chip, and Lumiere, and Cogsworth (HA HA HA! OHMYGOSH- only they don't say gosh...). Laughing. People off stage DYING. Techs crying they're laughing so hard.

And here I am. On stage. Keeping myself composed as the Beast, on the other side of the stage, tries to keep his pretty pants up... after all, this is NOT the AFTER HOURS version of Beauty and the Beast. Finally, the part I was nervous about comes. I had to turn to the Beast so he could give me the book...

I turn. The Beast looks at me and quickly throws his purple cape over his "parts." The parts that should be covered by his pants... but his pants are around his knees... I lost it. But luckily at this point my mic was turned off. I can't even describe it all. Please bless someone in the audience posts this on youtube. Y'all need to see it. One of my best moments on stage EVER.

OH MY GOSH.

I love my job.

TurkeyTurkeyTurkey... at The Cracker Barrel.

Yum yum. Not home cooked- but ya know... it was fine. And only $9. Happy Thanksgiving, Me.

Waiting for our Thanksgiving dinner...

At dinner with Lindsey

Ben and I went to see the movie "Enchanted" Thanksgiving morning. It was great. Go see it!

Stuffing our Thanksgiving faces at 9 PM at the Cracker Barrel

Kim's birthday cupcake. I gave her the "Amy's Song and Dance Version of Happy Birthday". Frightening.

This is the special event I did this week. It's an awards show called "Partners in Excellence," and I was able to sing with these fabulous people and even do a solo while all the Disney characters danced around me! It was great fun, but I won't lie- I was not the biggest fan of my hair. Don't get me wrong- the guy who did it was FABULOUS- but I shouldn't have let him do a tight "up-do" on me. Those slicked back do's DO NOT DO IT for me. Sigh. Good thing I am doing another special event show in a few weeks- then I can feel like I look pretty. Ha. I really looked yucky and it's hard to perform when you feel that way.

My New Favorite Site

Today at work all the girls made themselves into Disney fairies. DO IT!!! So fun!

disneyfairies.com

Register and you're on your way!

Oh yeah, I love my job. Hee hee.

Happy Thanksgiving from Orlando!

Happy Thanksgiving to You All!

For another year I am away from family and friends during the holiday season. I have SO much to be thankful for and I am extremely blessed with a great job, amazing people who love and support me in everything I do, a wonderful place to live, etc. etc. etc. But I do miss being home for the holidays. Maybe next year.

I hope your Thanksgiving is full of wonderful memories, lots of food, and a good nap. Love to you all!

Norbert Leo Butz- My Fascination.

OK- so this is Norbert. I love him. Yes, I am a Broadway freak and so I post things like this on my blog. FYI: He is the original Fiyero in "Wicked" and was Jamie in "The Last Five Years." He was also in a million other things, but hey- those are my obsessions. :-) Oh yeah- and if any of you have seen "Dan in Real Life," he plays the brother who's playing the piano during the pig song. HA HA.

He is glorious.

Sigh.

Norbert Continued...

Happy Times at Home

The weekend was glorious. While there were a million more things I would have liked to do, and sooooo many more people I wanted to see, I had a WONDERFUL trip home to Utah.

I finally met this amazing little baby. She loves me. And she has her mommy's ghetto lip.

So wow- life can't get much better.

First meeting with my little niece- November 9, 2007

McKensie's first trip to the mall!!! YEAH!

Mini golfing in the dark! Neon lights included!

Kaitlyn and Thomas

My Daddy and Diane

GIRLS NIGHT!!!

Old high school yearbooks, brownies, and root beer floats. Who needs anything else??

A "Heather and Amy Self Portrait"... something we haven't done since winter 2002.

The Ridiculously Beautiful Baby

I just think she's pretty. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think my little niece is a beautiful newborn.

I Have ADHD. ("Pretty Light Syndrome").

We've all known for awhile (Heather is going to roll her eyes at this entire post)- but I have officially decided that I have ADHD. That's why performing is a great career for me. It takes me from one thing to another, and really, the second I get bored with something I can move on. It's a lovely thing.

I am one of those people who sees a pretty light and goes running, only to see, two seconds later, another pretty light flashing in the distance. "Oooooo! I want THAT!" It is my greatest asset and fault.

My latest "pretty light" is grad school. For the last week I have been missing college life. OK- I DO NOT miss my bank account of the college years, and I really don't miss homework- but I miss SCHOOL- and the social life that comes with it. So who knows. Maybe in a year or so I will begin a masters program. HA!

Today I went shopping at the Layton Hills Mall for the first time in years.

And I have never met anyone from Delaware. Hmmm.

My Nightly Rendezvous with Mr. Flashlight

While most of you fine folk have a husband, wife, or even small child to cuddle with during the night, there are those of us who are left with- well, stuffed animals like the Binky Bear I've been sleeping with since I was three years old. Turns out, as of last night, my Binky Bear, complete with Amy's baby-teeth-chew-marks around the yellow plastic binky, was replaced.

I have this flashlight. It's a lovely black and red little flashlight used for scripture reading when I am too lazy to get out of bed and turn the lights off when my nightly ritual is complete. Thank you Wal-Mart and your 87 cent lighting deals. (Why is there no cents key on a keyboard?)

Uh hem. Last night Mr. Flashlight stayed in my bed. Early in the morning hours of November 3, 2007, I awoke to find Mr. Flashlight clutched in my arms as my cheek pressed neatly against it's handle. Hmmmmm. So I chucked it across the bed and fell back into a dreamy slumber.

Fast forward one hour- I awake again, only to find that Mr. Red and Black Flashlight has found his way back into my freckled arms. Huh.

Again, hours later, I realize that this crazy flashlight is snuggled up to me yet once again!!!

At least two more times last night I found myself wrapped around Mr. Flashlight.

I have no idea what all this means. I just wanted to share. Hmmm.