JOURNEY!!!

On Sunday my family and David Walker were fortunate enough to attend the JOURNEY CONCERT in Boise!!! We all piled into the car and after a brief argument about who would sit in the middle seats we hit the road. 6 1/2 hours in a cramped car is ridiculous and we soon grew irritated ;) We finally made it to Boise and we hit up Cheesecake Factory and the Mall!!! ( that is one thing I truly miss about Provo... CHEESECAKE FACTORY!)

After the mall we drove to the Taco Bell Arena on BSU campus. Our seats were awesome. just above the floor right in the middle. Right in front of us there was a 300 Pound women in a tube top dancing her heart out and her drunk husband screaming at the top of his lungs. That alone was worth the trip. The band "Heart" opened for Journey and they ROCKED THE HOUSE! They played for about an hour and did three encores! Finally Journey took the stage... WOW! thats all I can say... It was incredible. The new lead singer they have is even better then Steve Perry and is the most entertaining person to watch sing.

My brother Sam left the concert feeling inspired to become a rock star so we were sure to pick up his electric guitar on the way home. It was an amazing concert with the most entertaining crowd I have ever seen. I LOVED IT! I'm a Journey fan for life!

TWENTY MORE DAYS!

Can you believe it??? I am getting so incredibly antsy! I never thought this day would come! The day he came to my house and shook my hand goodbye seems like yesterday! That day I never thought that the two years would end. BUT HERE IT IS! THE END OF THE TWO YEARS!!

I got a birthday package from Jake Russell :) He sent me 19 pictures of us and his mission because it was my nineteenth birthday. I also got an amazing letter with my present!! The letter made all my doubts vanish because he told me exactly what he thought and wanted. He is wonderful. I am more then ready to have him home with me. COME HOME JAKE!

Sometimes I Don't Think Before I Do Things

There is a restaurant in the town of West Yellowstone called Sydney's Mountain Bistro. Its a cute little place with great food! They have a strawberry salad that has INCREDIBLE strawberry salad dressing that I could drink by the bottle full. This year a boy in the cast got a job cleaning dishes and clearing tables at Sydney's... so naturally I asked him for the recipe for this heavenly dressing... so after giong to the grocery store and spending $30.00 on the ingredients I began mixing it all together in my house mates blender. Because I had never used the blender before I began yanking and pulling at the glass pitcher holding my EIGHT cups of Vinegarette. After five minutes of yanking it finally came loose... WITHOUT THE BOTTOM PIECE! The entire pitcher of strawberry salad dressing exploded from the blender. I sat scrubbing the counter, carpet, and other kitchen appliances that were in the way of the blast for thirty minutes. It was all quite depressing. However, probably very funny to witness :)

MY BIRTHDAY!!!

July 15th is the best day of the year! Yesterday I turned 19 :) craziness! In the morning I went to my room mates cabin and went boating. I attempted to get up on one water ski... however, it is a lot harder then it looks, so I decided to wake board instead. I got to lay out on the dock and I got a nice little sunburn line that hopefully I don't get fined for having during the shows :)

During the show that night my dad sang happy birthday to me on tape. We have a video of me being sang to on my birthday since the summer I was born. My parents tell me they are going to put all of them together for my wedding :) cute idea.

I of course got some great presents! There is a dress I have been looking at for a month now that my mother got for me. I also got a funky purse, another dress, some lotion and perfume, and some gift cards :) After the show my mom made us Angel food cake so we went to their house and ate and talked. All in all it was a very good day. Now I have to wait a whole other year to have the best day of the year again :(

Update :)

Today the Playmill cast went to David Walker's families house in Rigby and ate LOTS of food and threw our infamous dry ice bombs under the canal bridge. My dad, brother, and David purchased over $2,000 worth of fireworks this year that we will shortly be lighting off in our drive way. Life is good :)

Lately a lot has been happening at the Playmill. Yesterday we had 3 shows... yes... THREE MUSICALS IN ONE DAY! During "Footloose" yesterday the music decided to stop working during one of the huge ensemble numbers. The poor trio of girls on stage didn't know how to cover so they began adlibing praying the sound would come back on... it didn't for a good 5 minutes. So the ensemble entered and sang "Sombodies Eyes" in about 7 different keys. HUMILIATING! Then, during the third and final show of the day the entire lighting AND sound system decided to poop out. Yes.. Jessica Pearce and Eliza sat in the dark doing a scene until my father announced there were technical difficulties... It was an interesting night to say the least.
We need a new building SO SO BADLY! This one is just not cutting it anymore.

Jake gets home in 32 days... craziness. I can hardly wait. I keep imagining what will exactly happen when I see him for the first time off the plane. I think giving him a handshake will be the hardest thing I have ever done! I will just want to grab him and give him the biggest hug ever! Im so so excited. Im sure everyone around me is tired of hearing about this so I figure I will blog about it and people can read it if they are interested and if not they dont have to :)

Family :)

Today I was talking with a friend after returning to my apartment and he brought up how awesome my family was. It got me thinking how amazing they are. I seriously have the best family ever. I have never met anyone quite like them. Last Sunday I went over for dinner and I realized how much I miss living with them... I didn't realize how amazing they were until I moved out. They are some of the funniest people I have ever met. Even little Maggie has the funniest sense of humor. Eliza is gorgeous and gets prettier every day. My brother Sam is one of the most talented guys ever! He has taught himself how to play the guitar and he is amazing at it! Last but not least... my parents. They are so generous. They are honestly the definition of a perfect marriage. They both are so supportive of the other and are so patient. I want my future marriage and family to be just like my current one. :)

Elder Thompson!

Im not sure where this post will go... I have nothing imparticular to say... just a lot on my mind. First of all I want to say that I have some of the best friends in the entire world. Im sure they are all so so tired of hearing me whine... but thank you for listening :)

Also, I have recieved some comments and questions about my wonderful missionary Jake Thompson! He comes home on the 13th of August which is only 41 days away!! He has written me EVERY single week he has been gone. I am hoping I will be able to go to the airport when he gets off the plane, but it is a Footloose night so I may have to be here for the show... we shall see! He told me that his plane will land in Idaho Falls at about noon... hopefully there are no delays or anything so I can make it. My family has assured me though that if I can't go to the airport they will still be going. haha

As the date for him to come home approaches I find myself nervous, anxious, excited, and scared to death! Two years is a long time to be away from someone... my fear is that we have grown apart. Im scared that maybe I have held onto someone that it isn't going to work with in the long run. I have had many opportunites to let go of Jake and move on... but I can't seem to do it. I love him and I think that if I did let go without seeing if it was going to work I would always wonder "What if."

I have always been so scared of the unknown. I, like most people Im sure, prefer to have a plan, and right now my life is up in the air because my future depends so much on someone else and what they decide they want their life plan to be. I can honestly say that I have made my decision about Jake. I want to be with him, which is why I am going to transfer to BYU-Idaho to go to school with him. I want to things to work out and that would be very very difficult with us living four hours apart. Besides, we have done the long distance thing for FAR to long!!

I have never met someone quite like Jake. He is the kindest person I have ever met. Jake is always thinking of others and would never do anything to hurt someone else. In the 4 years I have known him he has never done anything or said anything to offend or hurt me. I have always been so supported by him. In the letters he sends me he always expresses his excitment to watch me perform this summer when he gets home. He, a wrestler, wants to come to Playmill next summer just so I can do what I love to do. HE IS AMAZING! I honestly feel completely unworthy of such a person to love me. He is the best friend I could ever ask for.

Anyway, I will be sure to keep you all posted on what happens :)

Playmill Audience... Unlike Any Other!!

After our second show every night, the cast members all line the outside of the building and meet the audience. Some of the show goers find it necessary to give insulting compliments at this time... here are a few of my favorites!

1. A rather large women came through the line after "Footloose" and said to Jillian Wheeler, " Way to show um that us chubby girls can still shake it!"

2. Maddie Bodine has heard over and over that she looks just like a girl from last years cast... However she does not find this complimentary...

3. Creepy old man to Jillian, "You can really shimmy!"

4. To Critter, "You kinda look like a horse!"

5. An old woman shook my brother Sams hand and said, " Ah, honey are you alright? I was so worried about you the entire show! You look SO sick!"

6. A lady came through the line and shook Amanda's hand and said, "Your broach shines so much in the light!" Maddie, who was standing right next to them jokingly said, "What about my broach??" the woman replied, "Well honey, you're not on stage long enough to be able to tell if it shines or not."

7. I had a little "boy" come up to me in the line after Footloose... He shook my hand and then immediately said, "Just so you know Im actually a girl." I didn't know what to say so I replied with a "ok?" Then she came back and said," Oh, and my friends have all been arrested and we all cuss." WOW!

The West Yellowstone Bubble

Life at the Playmill is unlike life anywhere else... We have 23 people living in one house, a grease trap that stinks up the entire bottom level, five girls in one bathroom (including a mystery room mate who leaves hair clumps on the walls of the shower), two kitchens, and two love sacs. As if the living situation was not unusual enough... we are all theatre people who love drama, attention, and are at times unaware of the needs of otheres. I am woken up every morning by the sound of someone listening to their Footloose CDs trying to get their harmonies. Gotta love it!

Rehearsals begin promptly at 9 AM every morning with a lunch break from 12-1 and a precious two hour dinner break before our nightly show which currently begins at 7:30.
I don't remember the last time I was outside for more then the 5 minute walk to and from the theatre. Because of the tight living quarters and the lack of time spent away from the 23 other people performing, there is very little personal time available... everyone knows exactly what goes on in everyone elses lives. This week I have discovered just how hard it can be to live in West Yellowstone Montana.

I miss Provo. I never thought in a million years that I would actually miss P-town but I do! I mean the gift shops that sell the amazing grizzly bear and wolf t-shirts here in West Yellowstone are fantastic... but Wal*Mart is lookin pretty good right now. Civilization!

This time of the summer is always so hard to get through... We are rehearsing our third show "Secret Garden" right now and the 9:00 call seems to come earlier and earlier every morning! June 21st, our last day of rehersals, will never come!