Savior of the World - Back to the Stage

So... as if I didn't have enough to do in my life, the North Park Stake (for the non-LDS, that is the group of about eight, 300 person congregations) decided to put on a Christmas production to commemorate the birth of the Savior called, "Savior of the World." 

This play was written for the church by a group of LDS composers and playwrights and was debuted at the new conference center in Salt Lake City in 2000. We are only going to do the first act, which is all about the Savior's birth, and I decided on a whim that it'd been long enough since I performed - so I went and auditioned. I was surprised when I was double-cast as Joseph and realized that it would just add another layer to my already complicated life... Tonight, we had our first blocking rehearsal. It was fun to be reading lines again and it brought me way back to High School when I performed in Les Mis, Beauty and the Beast, and Big, to name a few.

Emily as my costumer during Beauty and the Beast, circa 2006

Rehearsal was a blast and I've already started to feel the spiritual nature (and coincidence) of me playing Joseph, the earthly father of our Savior, right before I welcome our first son into the world. I only pray that I will be as good of a father to 'Bugaboo' (Emily's name of choice for the baby) as Joseph was to the Savior. I'm excited for this opportunity to be back on stage - it is a blessing to be able to do something I love.

Sketch pads and chocolate chips

So, I'm starting to sketch again (in preparation for oil painting extravaganzas in the near future) and realizing just how long it's been since I've sat down with the old sketch pad and pencil (or pen for that matter). It's slightly depressing that things that used to be a cinch now take hours and I still finish a little less than satisfied. Makes it hard to keep trying, if ya know what I mean. But, alas, I'm working on it and (at the admonish of my husband who thinks, of course, that I'm way better than I actually am) I'll be posting some pictures when I can create something that doesn't suck. Also, I went to the gym tonight while Chuck was studying/PRSSA-ing and when I came home I was aching for some chocolate chip cookies (which I haven't had since before Fiji, I think). So, after my wonderfully hot shower (I will forever be grateful for hot water-Thank you, Fiji) I find my husband busily making double chocolate chip cookies. I'm pretty lucky :) Of course we had to run to the store to grab baking soda (which we hadn't re-bought since our return to America, land of Supermarkets and walmarts) and cocoa powder (and starbursts because they just looked way too good). So much for going to the gym. Chocolate > Will Power. Every time.

Fiji: In a nutshell...

Emily and I had the most incredible opportunity this summer - we got to live in Fiji and serve the people there for four months with HELP International. We grew to love the people (even more) and to crave the food. We hope you enjoy this video that Emily put together that should help answer some questions as to what we actually did while we were there. It is a little long - but we think you'll like it.

The songs (if you were wondering) were some of our favorite Fijian pop - sorry about the tuning difficulties, Fijians are all about the beat - the notes don't matter so much. If you have any more questions about what we did, or how to get involved yourself -- just send us an e-mail.

Hellooo Utah!

Hello beautiful mountains of Utah!

Chuck and I are pleased to announce that we have returned to our lovely basement closet in Provo after one of the most amazing/fun/difficult/crazy experiences of a lifetime. Chuck is already back in school, working at BYU Communications for an internship, serving on the PRSSA board, working in Bradley lab, serving as a Program Director for Community Outreach Day AND being an awesome husband and best friend :) Gotta say, the kid is pretty busy. Which makes my scrapbooking, buying groceries, learning new recipes, sketching, cleaning, watching movies, reading books I've always wanted to read life look a little puny. But hey, to each his own :)

I wanted to post a few pictures from this summer about our fabulous experiences, but since it was such a packed summer, it'll come in installments (hopefully. Keep your fingers crossed that I remember that we even have a blog).

So, as they say, we'll begin at the beginning :)

Approximately a week and a half before we left for Fiji, we found out that we were expecting! Even with all the awesome things that have happened in the past five months, this news is hands down the most exciting/fun/scary/happy/nerve-racking/blessed/joyous that we have to share :)

Five days before we left for Fiji, I graduated from BYU with a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science and a minor in English. Yay for school! Look for more updates soon when I can figure out this whole photo uploading business :)

Beginning Anew...

We have a blog? Oh yeah, we have a blog.

Chuck and I decided today that a blog is the best way that we can keep a family journal, so we are trying our best to actually use it!

So in order to catch everyone up on our lives, we will give you a quick run down of the things that have happened in the past six months:

January:

·       Em got an internship with the Utah County Health Department in the Tobacco Prevention and Control program :)

·       We were hired as country directors for HELP International Fiji.

·       We went to Las Vegas to see Mountain West Voices (Chuck's barbershop choir) perform at a barbershop convention!

February:

·       Chuck wrote 25 reasons why he loves me on hearts that he put all over the apartment :)

March:

·       We took an impromptu trip to Arizona for Grant's baby blessing! It was a wonderful weekend with the Krebs fam :)

·       Chuck spent his last day teaching the missionaries at the MTC : /

April:

·       We found out that we were having a baby!

·       Em graduates with a Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science! The Woods family came out to celebrate with us :)

·       We moved out of our little basement apartment and headed to Fiji!

May-August:

·       Planning sustainable programs to alleviate poverty!

Lots of crazy things have happened in the past six months, but we couldn't be happier with where we are right now. We feel so blessed to be in Fiji, to be having a baby, to be helping people change their lives here. We'll try our best to catch up on the more important matters in more detail later :)

It's March?

Okay, how come it's already March? That's weird. I could of sworn it was still Christmas time...maybe that's because I'm still eating chocolate every 35 minutes and because we just put away our Christmas tree. Sigh.
Oh well. Hello March.

Pingree Fun

So - We're officially cool, the 'newlywed' Pingrees invited us over for Christmas cookie decorating! We were honestly so excited to go hang out with the Pingrees and the Bells and it proved just as fun as you would imagine. The wives shook their heads a lot as the husbands made jokes that probably shouldn't have been made and the husbands admired their wives creativity in decorating sugar cookies. Christian made a great Turkey cookie named Kingston (he got eaten :( ). Honestly the only reason I am posting this right now if because I challenged Hayley to a blogging race (she's honestly incredible at it), if you don't believe me check it out.

http://thenewlywedpingrees.blogspot.com/

Sorry - I'm not the best photographer, but that's Hayley and Chin :) The Pingrees (and the greatest couple)

The SPREAD!!! Thanks to the Pingrees for the cookie dough (8 hours in the fridge) and the Bell's for the icing - oh and Chin… for the thumb :)

The BELLS! You should see their Christmas tree - it has bells on it… clever!

Emily's creations - who knew you could be so creative… I did one of them, if you can pick it out you get an extra Christmas present! Any guesses?

All in all - it was a pretty magical evening… minus the episode at work when my water bottle deciding to explode on me (thanks for taking the picture Elder Walton).

MERRY DECEMBER!!!