Butterflies have Healing Powers

Hi Friends!
Northglenn, Colorado.

Denver

This was definitely a week for Loretta and I. For my fellow readers, I will not go into detail about what happend with us because it is in the past and I would like to move on from that. I did feel that it would be almost unjust to not mention it since this is a documentary of my life on the road. We are getting along much better then we were in Northglenn and that is all that matters. Life on the road can be tough and our week in Northglenn was just that for our partner relationship. We did learn a lot about each other and hopefully with time it will keep getting better.

One thing that I love is when I get mail on the road. I got two packages during our week in Northglenn. One from Kelly Combs which was a late Christmas gift for Loretta and I. She specifically got me "squid fingers'' from where we were in Seattle together. THANKS SQUID FRIEND! The other package was from my Dad. It contained some very important items: my cowgirl boots and my Music Man T-shirt from college. :)

I would also like to release a statement to the Bank of America Company....
WHERE THE FLIP ARE YOU?!?!?! I have searched high and low for you and I have T-shirt money I need to deposit and I CAN'T!!!!! UGHHHH!
-I feel better. :)

On a positive note, once again the kids were awesome this week! They seriously made my week. I had soooo much fun at rehearsals and they were all super talented and cool. We nomintaed like 20 kids for the MCT camps. These kids really had a lot of fun with their characters and listened to our directions better than most casts. I have never heard the audience laugh at the Knight's lines like they did for these kids. Phenom! Oh and this was fun I almost had to play Lady of the Lake. Thankfully the girl's parents let her do the show at the last second. I was ready though.... HA!

Also I would just like to say that I ADORE working with the Minis. The Minis is a smaller version of the Knights of the Round table and King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, Taliesin, and Raven. They're smaller because they're "off in the distance". Ehhh? GET IT! Anyways I was teaching the dragon dance and there is one part where they huddle around the dragon and "whisper" to him. Normally they say things like: "Whats wrong Dragon?" and "Do you have a toothache?". Pretty innocent right? Well this week we had twin boys and IF I was allowed to have favorites, they would've been mine. One always wore a fedora and the twins asked questions like: "Dragon are you drunk?" and "Did you drink too much last night?"
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!
I have NO CLUE where that came from but I have never laughed so hard!!!!!!!! Ohhhhh woooo....
Kids. :)

After our final show, we packed up the truck, said a few "Goodbyes" and headed back to our hotel rooms. When we got to our rooms, Loretta and I both found a box of fruit dipped in chocolate from the Northglenn Recreational Center who brought us in for the week. I love chocolate covered strawberries especially if they're FREE! On Sunday, Loretta and I had to drive to our homestay which was literally only 15 minutes away. We actually couldn't get there until after 6 because they were at a volleyball tournament.

Sooo to find something to do we went to Panera Bread and to the Butterfly Pavalion. Panera and Butterflies seem to always make everything better. The Butterfly Pavalion was actually pretty cool It sounds kinda cheesy but I loved it. We wandered around and saw all kinds of gross bugs, I held a tarantula, and witnessed the release of the newborn butterflies (Insert Squeal). After a good day we finally headed towards our homestay's house. It was HUGE! I could tell after meeting the family that our week in Arvada was going to be a lot of fun. :)

-Jen

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hi Friends,
It's been awhile and there is a lot to fill you in on so I'll just get to it. :)
After our wonderful week in Greeley, Colorado, Loretta and I headed to Julesburg, Colorado which is on the edge of the state border. We might as well have been in Nebraska. I was really excited about this week because it was some place new to explore and because it was my BIRTHDAY week. So I was convinced it would be exciting. Wrong. Julesburg is SUPER small so there really wasn't much to do. We however stayed busy with workshops, rehearsals and running to the local grocery store which made it fun. Haha!

So much to do......

We were staying with this sweet old lady named Cookie who kinda reminded me of Beverly in Oroville, Wa but not quite. Cookie was so sweet and made us big homemade lunches everyday like meatloaf, smothered steak, and lasagna. Yum! She also took us out for Sunday lunch they day we left to this little trucker stop called Lucy's. We were celebs there. Everyone knew us and talked about how awesome the show was. :) Cookie was also very cute. She loved to sit in her living room and listen to songs by Sondheim. Her favorite was Phantom of the Opera. Ha! She also always talked about her kids and how they lived all over the world. One of her daughters lives in London with her family, the other married a muslim, and her son lives in Texas with his family. Good gracious Cookie!

The kids that week were awesome. We had a great cast and they really did a good job in the show. It's funny when you tour for as long as we have, the kids start to remind you of kids from past weeks. There were two kids this week that we were SURE that we had worked with them before. I won't go into details of who we thought they were but the girl we thought was a past Camelotian that was obnoxious and the boy reminded us of another chubby and clumsy Mini. We asked them about it and they said that they hadn't done it but we noticed that they picked up on their part better than anyone else. We think it's because the LIED and DID do it before. Oh well.... haha!

When my birthday rolled around I was honestly a little upset. Here I was in this town far far away from all of my loved ones and far far far away from ANYTHING. I definitely felt alone and maybe cried a little the night before. I woke up the next morning and saw that Cookie had got me a cake and a balloon for my Birthday!!!! She even made me french toast. OHHH COOKIE! I got ready, this was the day of the show. We walk into th auditorium and met up with our contact who had brought us each a Chai Latte and free tickets to go see a movie at the local movie theatre. YEA!!!!!! What made my Birthday stand out from any other wasn't all that stuff but the kids brought me a bunch of Birthday cards and candy then the ENTIRE cast of 60 kids sang me "Happy Birthday". It was sooooooo great. As of right now that has been the highlight of tour for me. It amazed me how so many strangers made me feel so blessed and so loved. Thank you Julesburg for making my Birthday so special. :)

After an awesome show that morning, Loretta and I went back to Cookie to relax a little bit. I talked to my family on the phone and colored a little bit. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! We then had dinner with Cookie and then got ready to go to the movie. Now since Julesburg is so small I was surprised that they HAD a movie theatre even if they only showed one movie a month and only on Friday and Saturday nights. I was still impressed. The movie we saw was...Chipwrecked....The Alvin and the Chipmunks movie.....HAHAHAH! Oh my goodness. Not my first or last choice but it was free and I got free cotton candy and pop so I guess that made it ok. We did however count about 48 times something was wrong in the movie. Things mostly like how many times we saw the boom mic in the scene. Hahaha!

We then decided to go see if we could find any "night life" around Julesburg. We were lookin for some Cowboys. Haha! But alas, we truly were in the middle of nowhere and ended up just driving and singing to Britney Spears. Oh well I had a dance party in the car thats all that matters. Haha! Our next stop was Northglenn, Colorado. We hoped we would find some Cowboys there. :)
-Jen

Partner Diva

Hi Friends,
SO I'm in Julesburg, Colorado right now reflecting on last week where we were in Greeley, Colorado. It was awesome! We pull into our Bed and Breakfast: The Sudbuster Inn and it was HUGE! It's owned by this British couple who were very nice. A little odd but nice. My room was totally girly and country. I LOVED IT! Everyday we were served a delicious breakfast that varied from omelettes to eggs benedict over salmon. Side note: I prefer ham instead of salmon on eggs benedict. Too fishy. :( My favorite meal was the yummy waffles they served us one day that had all kinds of fruit and powdered sugar. UGH! YUM!

So where we were staying was really nice but what about our performance space? Even. BETTER! Loretta and I are totally used to making a gym look like a theatre or performing in some run down theatre but in Greeley we were in a Civic Center. Yep. It was sooo legit. It held up to 1665 audience members and then there was ANOTHER theatre upstairs that held 222 audience members. When we first walked in and saw the place Loretta and I were in shock. When we first meet our contact we're supposed to ask all the serious questions about the week. Questions that are about the space, the check, etc but we just stood there and stared with mouths fully dropped. Probably didn't look very professional. Whoopsie!

The theatre had all kinds of rigging, space, a greenroom, dressing rooms, space, a lobby, our OWN personal dressing room, lights, space, a sound system, monitors, TWO balconys and oh yeah SPACE! They also had us featured in their season program and our own sign in the lobby. This place is always hosting celebs and travelling tours. Celebs like Leann Rimes, Sara Evans, Michael Bolton, Kenny G. Sinbad, Martin Short, Willie Nelson, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant and a bunch of others that I can't remember. We had the SAME dressing room as they did. :) Fun Fact: Michael Bolton is a BIG DIVA! They actually hope he never comes back to Greeley. He was that big of a pain in the neck. Needless to say Loretta and I were excited.

The kids were also very talented and we had over 100 show up for the audition. It was so hard to pick! The ones we did pick did an awesome job and made this week so fun for us. This was our "Stillwater week" for Spring Tour. Side Note: Stillwater, Oklahoma has been by far our favorite week and we secretly always compare each week to them. Shhh Don't tell! Burlington, Washington was our "Stillwater week" for Fall Tour. Seriously, these kids in Greeley were so awesome. They always listened and followed directions and were more than willing to learn from us which is alway a plus.

Loretta and I not only had awesome housing and performing space but on top of that the kids showered us with gifts. Not to sound greedy but gifts always brighten a girls day. Loretta and I each got flowers, starbucks giftcards, candles, chocolate, cups, lemon juice (hmm?), love letters, and necklaces just to name a few. We were so spoiled. As if that wasn't enough we had a wonderful Stage Manager named Bill. He was sooooooo great! He would help us with anything, he had a servant's heart for sure! Loretta and I both agreed that he was what made the week. Bill was the cherry on top of the giant sundae.

By being spoiled, that gave Loretta and I an excellent idea. Another tour team that we're good friends with has a little series going on of Partner Witch. It's this hilarious series where one of the girls acts like a crazy witch and gets into all kinds of trouble while her tour partner tries to deal with her nonsense. Its soooo funny! Anyways, Loretta and I have been racking our brains for one to do too. After our week in Greeley we discovered "Partner Diva". Check it out we've got some videos on youtube but there is more to come. :)

Bill and the other staff members there were sooo nice to us and told us that if we come back through Greeley to pay them a visit. We mentioned that we do have a week off in Feb and we might just take them up on that. Well one thing lead to another and the Broadway travelling tour of Mamma Mia will be there that same week. They offered us a job right there on the spot to help that day backstage putting up the set and unloading the trucks. SWEET!!!!!! Hopefully that week stays unbooked because that would be a really great opportunity. This Gig gets better and better everyday!

Our board with announcements for rehearsal.

-Jen

On the Road again......

Hi Friends,
After a wonderful Christmas break with my family and friends, I had to get back to the ole' grind. Thankfully I like my job so I didn't mind. :) Loretta being the awesome tour partner she is, once again picked me up from the airport and I stayed the night in Spokane. The next morning we hit the road. Where you might ask? COLORADO!!!! Yep I'm going to Colorado for the winter!!!!! To some that may sound like a terrible idea but I think it sounds fun. Now for every tour I set some kind of goal that I would like to accomplish and so far I've done pretty well at achieving them. I may have tiny things that I want to see/do but the main, BIG goal that I want to do for this tour is: I really want to go snowboarding in Colorado! Yea yea that may not sound like a big deal to YOU but I LOVE snowboarding and I've never been to Denver which is the number one place to go snowboarding/skiing and 2 + 2 = 4 so THERE!!!! We have a few weeks unbooked so hopefully I'll be able to go up to Denver for a day or two. EEEE! Fingers crossed.

Loretta and I drove for two days to get to Greeley, Colorado. We had to drive through Montana, Wyoming and a bit of Colorado. It was a beautiful drive. We actually spent New Years in Billings, Montana. We stayed at the Dude Rancher Lodge which was a fairly cool place. Our rooms looked like cabins and the keys the gave us were actually GIANT keys not those swipe cards that get messed up by credit cards. We got settled in, watched the ball fall in New York-time difference, and then we hit the town.

Ok so the town really didn't have much for us to do but we went out anyway. We went to this one place that made people watching interesting. Definite prowlers there. Ew. We didn't even stay 5 minutes. Hahaha! Then we went to this other place which was way nicer. They were having a best dressed contest and whoever was picked won diamonds. Loretta says that if she wore her sequin dress from when we went out in Austin, TX she would have won. I have to agree. The people who won, well lets just say they won by default. Ha! Shortly after midnight in Montana we headed back to the hotel. We weren't gone very long but it was still fun to explore.

The next day we hit the raod again for our 2nd day of driving. Not too bad. We finally ended up at our location in Greeley, Colorado. We were staying at a Bed and Breakfast. SCORE! Where we were hoping for a great week. We never thought it would've turned out as awesome as it did. :)
-Jen

Christmas bells are RINGING!!!!

Hi Friends!
So I told you all about who I got to see while at home but I didn't tell you anything about my actual Christmas holiday. Christmas Eve was a wondaful day. I got to sleep in and wake up with my little dog Gretel curled up beside me. She's just so cute and loving!!!!! I then ate breakfast with Dad and started to get ready for the day. On Christmas Eve we always have a little tradition; we go to Grandma's house!!!! Grandma likes to cook us a Christmas Eve lunch that usually consists of the same items: ham, potato salad, mashed potatos, beets, green bean casserole, cornbread, and some kind of jello salad. She added something new this year. It was some kind of poppy seed dessert that smelled and tasted kinda weird so I stuck with the usual dessert of peach cobler and vanilla ice-cream. I always help Grandma clean up the kitchen while Dad either watches TV or goes outside on the porch. We then open presents.

Grandma ALWAYS gets Gretel all kinds of toys and Gretel ALWAYS gets her presents first. Am I bitter? Maybe. . . Now what Grandma gets me for Christmas is part of the tradition as well. It usually consists of socks, deodorant and a box of cherry cordials, all very nice "Grandma" type of gifts. Ha! She also got me some purple fleece pajamas with little dogs on them which I am wearing at this EXACT moment. :) After all the presents are passed around, my Dad and I hang out for a little bit with Grandma. After listening to Grandma's usual discussion of whose dead or in the hospital, my Dad and I head to the Thomas Road Baptist Church Christmas Eve Service.

I love Thomas Road. I really miss my church family and seeing all the usual friendly faces. Theres this one Usher we know and see everytime we go there and he always gives me a big hug, asks me about my job, and we all have small talk for a few minutes. He's such a sweet man. The Christmas Eve Service is always really chill, they sing Christmas songs, have all the kids come up front and sing (I couldn't stop laughing at the two little ones tackling each other up front) and then Pastor Jonathan gets up there and does a short little sermon. It was so nice to see so many friends there. Dad and I were trying to avoid the mass crowd in the hallway so we cut through the church and ran into some very good friends that I haven't seen in awhile. A pleasant surprise. It was nice to catch up and exchange a few hugs. Michelle might have mentioned that they keep up with my blogs. Hi Scarlet!!!!!!! :)

Christmas morning!!!!! Again I wake up with sweet Gretel at my side, snorin away. She doesn't realize what day it is. I walk into the den and Grandma's already there, watching this years Living Christmas Tree with Dad. Stockings are always the first thing to be opened and boy was mine stuffed with all kinds of goodies! I gave Dad the Little Red Truck dvd which is a documentary about what I do. I think he now understands a little better what my job entails. :) I also got him a few other things, a bunch of guy movies like "Thor" and some clothes, a hat, and a few giftcards. I got a few awesome things too. Let me just say I HATE IT when boxes are taped up on the side. Justin and Tania sent me a Christmas gift and it was soooo taped up. I'm SURE Justin had something to do with it. Anyway some of my favorite gifts were Walmart giftcards (groceries for on the road!), a green coat, ugg boots, and the Breaking Dawn soundtrack.

After all the gifts were opened we headed into the kitchen for Christmas brunch which consists of this egg casserole, biscuits, bacon, leftovers from the day before, and grapefruit. Dad however broke tradish this year. We did not have grapefruit. :( He instead fried up oysters. Yea I know what your thinking, I thought it too. GROSS! I ate some anyway and with a little cocktail sauce it was pretty good. I can deal with this being apart of our new Christmas brunch tradition. We talked to Justin and Tania on the phone (my brother and his wife-they live in Florida) and we got to hear all about their Christmas so that was nice. Later that night Dad and I went and saw the new Mission Impossible movie. Eh it wasn't bad, typical guy movie.
At the risk of sounding cheesy.

What I loved best about Christmas wasn't all the gifts or the traditions. It was spending time with my family. :)
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!
-Jen

Jam Packed

Hi Friends!

Ohhh Dad!

This Christmas break was jam packed with friends and family. It was soooo nice and refreshing to see everyone. Although I didn't get to see Allison, she's in Italy. However, next time I see her which will be in May you best believe that there will be fits of giggles and squeals to be had. When I first got home I must have hugged my Dad every 5 seconds. I missed him a lot. He was so funny he must think I don't eat on the road because every meal was like a five course meal at our house. He would fix the main entre and then 4 differnet sides (no I'm not exaggerating) and then a dessert. Good grief! I didn't mind it though; I was raised to never to turn down a free meal esp. if its homemade. :) Needless to say I needed to do a bunch of situps by the end of Christmas break.

I also got to see A LOT of my friends. YEAA!!!!! I got to hang out with my Gill Micah one of the first nights I was home. We went to Geralds-it's kind of our place and then we went to The Muse for some yummy coffee and to continue in our catching up convo's. I also went to an audition in West Virginia and while I was there I hung out with Andy Harvey for a little bit. I just love that guy. He's always been so sweet and fun.

Later on in the week I got to go visit one of my very best Gills Rebekah at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Va. I actually got to see her show and see what a normal day for her is as a Barter Player. She is a pro. I don't think I could do her job it seems nuts but she's learning so much so I envy her and all her hardwork. Then I got to see her and the other Barter Players do their final dress of Romeo and Juliet before they went out on the road. All six of them played all the roles and I thought the show was just awesome. After that I got to have a little slumber party with Rebekah and we caught up on life, our jobs and of course BOYS! Haha! It was definitely a fun night. :)

Also during Christmas break I got to go to the Shortpump mall with my Dad (its a little Christmas tradish we have) and while we were there we stopped at Red Robin and had lunch with my good friend Courtney and her fiancee Danny. It was definitely nice to catch up with them. I MISS MY COURTNEY! As the break went on I got to see Shaun a lot, he's such a good friend. I also hung out with Sarah and Micah for a little gift exchange and Gill time. Gill time is just the best thing in the whole wide woyld.

I even got to catch up with some highschool friends (Kristin, Brittney and Rachel). The day started off with a little one on one lunch with Kristin's Mom at Red Lobster. It was so fun to catch up with her. She's one of the nicest ladies I know. I then met up with the girls for some bowling and afterwards some Starbucks. With our coffee's in hand we went to see what kind of trouble we could get into. After driving up and down Wards road, we ended up just sitting in Brittney's car catching up infront of the Christian Bookstore. We know how to party. Hahaha! Later that same night I went to Kathy's for dinner and game night with a bunch of friends from the Living Christmas Tree. I would just like to announce to everyone that I won the game "Pit". Well how Jennifer did you win "Pit"? Well I will tell you curious reader. It was because I was the loudest and most obnoxious one. Surprise! hahah!

For my very last day in the burg I had breakfast and coffee at Starbucks with the lovely Diane Belmont. I also got to see Meme for a bit while we were there!!! I then headed home. I needed to do some serious packing and then that night I had one last hangout with Micah and Josh at Starbucks. I just love them both. They are such wonderful people and I can't wait for their wedding in May!!!!
-Did you catch that I went to Starbucks twice in one day? Nope. I don't have a problem. :)

As you can see I had a busy two weeks and when I wasn't hanging out with friends I was at home with my Dad. After reading this you may think well how did she have time to do ALL of that, read the 4th Harry Potter book, relax, ANND  have Christmas???? Well my friends the answer to that is simple.
Magic.
-Jen