June Bride

I am in a Musical Revue of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! My Stake is putting it on and I auditioned and got in. Lorretta watched this movie a thousand times when we were kids so a cold read and singing was easy thanks to her. I will be playing the part of Ruth, one of the brides.

So far I love being apart of a musical again. I haven't been involved in one since college. My last semester in college really burned Lars out on musicals. I had to stage manage a musical, be in one, and do costuming, make up and set design for a musical/play, all the while I worked a part time job and took 15 credits. So needless today after my last semester I decided to take a break for a while so Lars and I could be married again and not just roommates. Of course a while turned into a few years. I wanted to audition for a local musical while we lived in Sugarhouse, but I used work and laziness as an excuse. SO when I received a flyer advertising the revue in our stake I jumped at the chance. The rehearsal schedule isn't as demanding as a community theatre so I can still work, live, love and also be involved in something I love.

One thing I love about being involved in theatre is that I am always growing. Honestly I went in it with a big head and quickly got thrown off my high horse. I thought I was an awesome veteran because I graduated in theatre and know so much blah blah blah. Well I am very rusty with all my dance moves and acting because I haven't done it for so long. It has made me want to work harder and prove to myself that I am as good as I thought I was. All in a good way of course. It is a wonderful feeling of challenge and accomplishment.

Another thing I love about being involved in theatre is the camaraderie. These people are in my ward and stake. I am meeting new people and getting to know them better. I love that feeling of family and friendship growing together to put on a good show. It is a lot of fun. Plus the brides are awesome. Our song and dance are the best.

I hope you will come out and see it if you can. I will try to post pictures.

Start Time:	Friday, March 19, 2010 at 7:00pm
End Time:	Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 7:00pm
Location:	Anaheim Stake Center
Street:	440 N. Loara St.
City/Town:	Anaheim, CA The Anaheim Stake is putting on a production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! The performances are on March 19th and 20th at 7pm at the Anaheim Stake Center. No admittance fee will be charged however, we are asking for a donation of canned goods to go to the Halcyon food drive. Come out and donate for a good cause! With an amazingly talented cast there will be superb singing, exciting dancing, a live band, and action packed acting, and comedy! Based extremely loosely on the Stephen Vincent Benet story Sobbin' Women," Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is one of the best MGM musicals of the 1950s. Most of the story takes place on an Oregon ranch, maintained by Adam Pontabee (Royce Butterfieldl) and his six brothers, played by Jon-Michael Bradley, Jared Dahl, Isaac Schneider,Weston Jex,Ricky Mejia, and Aaron Christensen. When Adam brings home his new bride Milly (Andrea Pinkerton), she is appalled at the brothers' slovenliness and sets about turning these unwashed louts into immaculate gentlemen. During the boisterous barn-raising scene, the brothers get into a scuffle with a group of townsmen over the affection of six comely lasses: Angie Arellano,Stephanie Barlow,Devan Lenning,Kelly Christensen,Karen Peterson, and Angela Irving. Yearning to become husbands like their big brother, they ask Adam for advice. Alas, he has been reading a book about the abduction of the Sabine Women (or, as he puts it, the Sobbin' Women); and, in order to claim their gals, Adam explains, the boys must kidnap them--which they do, after blocking off all avenues of escape. Vowing to remain on their best behavior, the boys make no untoward advances towards their reluctant female guests--not even during one of the coldest winters on record. Comes the spring thaw, the angry townsfolk come charging up the mountain, demanding the return of the stolen girls (who, by this time, have "tamed" their men). A happy ending is ultimately had by all in this delightful concoction. So come bring the whole family out for a night of laughs, foot tappin' music, and a good cause!

Stars are pretty!

Nervousness,

dry mouth,

sweaty palms,

shaky hands,

brain on autopilot,

lack of eye contact,

and numbness,

followed by a jumping high that takes hours to simmer down.

These are symptoms of being starstruck.

(If you experience these symptoms don't call your doctor,

take two reese's butter cups then call me in the morning and tell me about it)

Saturday Lars took me to see a play in LA at the Stellar Adler Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. The play was Why Torture is Wrong, And The People Who Love Them, http://www.theblank.com/

It was a political satire. It had some funny parts, a few dark parts, and some slow parts. But it was good. I liked the characters and the actors did a really good job portraying them. I loved the leading lady, the narrator, and the reverend. It was so much fun to see a play and the theatre was small and intimate. But the best part of all and probably the highlight of my birthday was that I got to meet someone awesome...Nicholas Brendon. He is a wonderful film and stage actor, but many tv watchers know him as Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was a huge reason we went to the play. He did a fantastic job. I really enjoyed seeing him live. After the show was over we decided to wait around in the lobby to see if we couldn't get an autograph and maybe a picture. We were successful and here is the play by play.

As we waited we debated how to ask him and wondered if it was kosher to get a picture with him. Either way we wanted to be polite so I rehearsed in my head over and over to say, "Hi Nicholas, I am Stephanie and I love your work and am a fan. May I please have your autograph and a picture." Then we saw him walk out in a causal green shirt with a stylish jacket topped off with a hat and glasses and carrying a brown leather book back over his shoulder. My heart jumped and I froze a little. A few people beat us to him and got his picture with him and stuff. After they left he stood before the rest of the lobby scanning the room. This was about when my brain went on autopilot. I walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. The conversation went something like this;

Me: Hi

NB: Hi there!

ME: Great show!

NB: Thanks.

ME: Umn. My name is Stephanie and today is my birthday.

NB: Hi Stephanie, Happy Birthday

ME: This is my husband and he got me the tickets to this show as a surprise for my birthday.

NB: Nice (he shook Lars's hand)

ME: Can we please get a picture with you?

NB: Sure

We then handed off our camera to a stranger who thankfully knew how to use a camera and then we huddled in for a picture. During the huddling he apologized about how smelly his bag was. I don't remember if or how I responded to him, probably just a nervous laugh. He put is arm around me and I smiled big

Picture taken

ME: Umn. Can I please have you sign something?

NB: Sure, I'd be glad too.

(I begin to nervously pull out my Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD episode guide. I flipped to a page with his picture and then handed him the book with a sharpie.

NB: Do you want me to just sign it or make a message out to you

ME: Umn. Wow, you can make it out to me....gee...thanks.

NB: Your name is spelled S-T-E-P-H-A-N-I-E, right?

ME: Yea...(then I think I babbled on for 2-5 seconds about how we love him and his work, not sure)

NB: There you go, he hands it back to me.

ME: Thank you.

NB: Thanks for coming you guys and Happy Birthday (He shakes my hand)

ME: Thanks you too. (YOU TOO, its not his birthday, silly me)

NB: (To Lars) You are a nice guy (He shakes his hand)

Both of us Thank you, have a good night.

I then skipped down the stairs and was on a cloud for a few more hours. It was awesome. We both kept replaying it out loud on the drive home and anytime I look at the autograph I get giggly. I didn't expect to be so star struck, but I was. And Nicholas was super nice. He was very humble and kind and I think he may have been a little nervous too. He was just so down to earth and nice. What a swell guy. I will remember this forever. I hope to see him in more plays in the future.

"I want people to say, 'Nicholas Brendon, he's supposedly the nicest guy in the world.' I want to do good work, but more than that, I want to stay a good human being. That's more important than any character I play."

~Nicholas Brendon

Yep, I can testify that he is the nicest guy in the world.

27

I turned 27 on Saturday!

This birthday was awesome! Last year was not as good as this years celebrations. On my 26th birthday my hand was still recovering from being broken a few weeks prior, which made very depressed. Then shortly after my birthday I had an age crisis. I kept thinking about all the things I hadn't done yet and how close I was to 30, which also made me depressed. But at the time I had no idea that what I was going through wasn't so bad. I am totally past all that now and am so much stronger because of it. Funny how life does that. You are having a tough time, but don't realize how okay you really are until after the fact. I look back and laugh.

Anyway, this was a wonderful birthday. I celebrated the entire month. I swear all month I was just on a cloud. Work has been good and its my birthday, hooray! Anytime we went out to eat we announced it was my birthday, I probably gained so much weight this month. I very much appreciate everyone's phone calls, cards, and Facebook comments. They made me so happy. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful thoughtful people in my life. Thank you for thinking of me.

What we did to celebrate the weekend of my birth.... Lars took me to lunch at Gandolfo's. I am so glad we found one in CA and it is about 10 minutes from work. The owner reminded me of an older Ray Romano, a sweet guy with a distinct voice. I was wearing a red shirt and he broke out into "Lady in Red." Which made me think of my brother, Richard, whose birthday was Wednesday. Then my dear coworkers brought in treats and gave me a darling gift bag. I also made a peach cobbler to share. Then we went out to eat with Dave Byrd, Lars brother in law who was in town for work. We went to the cheesecake factory, yum!

I dared Dave to eat a 3 inch pile of whipped cream from the dessert plate.

After dinner we went on a little excursion to get donuts. Not just any donut, a Winchell's donut. On the way there we were stopped in a road block for a DUI check point. It was our first one ever. Kind of exciting. Thankfully Winchell's is open 24 hours. We got donuts because every time Dave comes to visit we have to get the most delicious donuts in town. It is tradition. Then we went home and stayed up late talking and playing video games.

The boys with the donut box.

Seriously good donuts.

Saturday we were up at 6 am to see Dave off to the airport. :( Come back soon Dave and bring your family. Then we went back to sleep for a few hours and got up ran errands, did some shopping (We now own the Glee soundtracks Yippe!). Entertained a few surprise visitors. Then we went to Lucille's Smokehouse for lunch. We have had a lot of Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese food lately so I wanted good old American BBQ food. It was very tasty. Then in the evening we fought LA night life and drove up to Hollywood for a play that Lars surprised me with. He is such a swell guy. (I will blog later about the happenings from the play.) Then we drove home and hung and stuff.

It was an amazing weekend and an awesome month over all. Part of me is sad to see my month end because it has been such a blast. But I am so ready to face life and rock it! Stephanie is older and wiser world so look out. Bring it age 27, lets see what I got in me to give life. (I bet its gonna be a lot of awesomeness and smiles)

Favorite Things

My favorite part of weekends...

is that I get to hang out with this fellow all weekend long

He is such a goof ball and a super friend and I am loving it all the time.

Food, Glorious Food!

I love food. I feel like most of the time my life revolves around it. When we went to Utah we had a list of places we wanted to eat that we don't have in California. We went to some of them, but didn't make it to all of them. But I am glad we didn't because we ended up making and getting a lot of home cooked meals. People say there is no place like home. True for the soul and my stomach. I think I am a good cook, but there are somethings that I try to make that my Mom and Grandma make and it is not the same. Below are some samples of great food you can only get in Utah because my Mom lives there or because only these places exist in Utah.

My Mom made this carrot cake and I frosted it. I don't even like carrot cake, but this was good and her frosting is amazing. It is light and tasty, but not too sweet, unlike store brand frosting's that are either heavy or too sweet and nasty. My Mom has been making cakes since before I was born and is very talented at baking and decorating. I know other cake people that are so good and decorating but their cakes taste like sponge. Not my Mom she is the full package.

My Mom, sister, and I made a huge Italian dinner for some friends and family. We made lasagna, salad, french break, and feta thin crust pizza. It was all made with love so it tasted good.

Then there is party food which is both homemade (best cheese ball ever, chocolate fondue with all the right fixings)

and put together by some yummy party food bakers, Free Wheeler Pizza. I seriously wish Food Network would do a special on Free Wheeler pizza, it is so good. The dough is amazing. It is always crisp and full of flavor. Their chicken Alfredo is our favorite. Their garlic rolls are just to die for. Seriously they are so full of olive oil and garlic they will clog you up, but they are good.

Gandolfo's. Love, love, love their breakfast. It is filling and inexpensive. Their breakfast sandwiches have a perfect amount of cheese, meat, egg, butter, and bread: all for $3. And their lunch sandwiches and sides are very good and fresh. I really missed this place but am happy to report there is one about 30 minutes from our home and 10 minutes from work. Trips are currently being planned to eat their soon.

(Eastport-Pastrami Breakfast Sandwich, my fav)

Going to Utah in the cold you don't expect to get ice cream. But who could pass up one from JCW's. I also recommend the brownie fudge shake from Millie's in SLC (2100 S & 10th), but they are family owned and close for two weeks in December, so I missed them ;(

Mint Oreo

Juicy Burgers and some good fry sauce

But one of the best places of all is.....The Judge Cafe in downtown SLC. Everything I have every had from this cafe has been amazing, from their breakfast to lunch (only open until 3 pm). I always recommend this place to anyone flying in from Cali and everyone that has taken this recommendation has not been sorry. Royal is the owner, he is super nice and the food is the best.

Fresh and seasoned fries with 3 special sauces

My absolute fav is their chicken enchiladas served with a fresh Mexican salad and homemade chips and salsa.

No matter what you decide to eat the best thing to end the meal with is their moist, chocolaty, ooey gooey good, infamous Judge Brownie. When I worked in SLC I would have at least 2 on average a week, they are so very good. They taste good and make you happy. I actually bought a few of them to bring home and savor and unfortunately I let 1/4 of one go bad because I took to long to savor, but they are still good even after a few days. If I had only one thing I could eat before I had to die it would be this brownie. Strange you think, wait until you have one.

Utah has good food. California also has good food, but that is for another blog.

Utah Trip Conclusion

I know this post is a month old, but once we got back to Cali our normal life started up again what with work and church stuff. I am just now taking the pics off the camera. We had so much fun while we were in Utah, despite how cold the weather was. We enjoyed time with lots of family and good friends. (Sorry if we didn't get to see you, maybe next trip :)). We even managed to get some relaxing time in between all the running around. And we both got colds that we brought back to Cali with us to share with our friends here. Hooray for not being selfish with germs. All in all it was a great trip, some things from this trip I will remember the most are;

1) Singing around the piano and Brandon and Melissa's. Melissa played all our Hymn and Christmas requests while Lori and I sang. In fact, everything we did at Brandon and Melissa's house was awesome. I never want to forget a minute of it. It was fun, we were relaxed and happy and were well...ourselves which is the best feeling the world.

2) Seeing all my dear friends at HRO. I seriously spent 3-4 hours in the office just walking around and talking to everyone and catching up.

3) Hugging Rachel and Andrea, then laughing, and dancing with their kids. (Also eating Dave's amazing grilled hamburgers, your are the best cook Dave, seriously).

4) Seeing each and everyone of my siblings. We are all grown up now and have our own families. I am not conveniently located in Utah to attend all the family functions, which are usually a monthly event. So any chance I get to be with them and see their kids is appreciated. I really longed for some family time this trip and I enjoyed just being with them. I really needed to just be with my family. We didn't go crazy and do anything super special. We were just together and did what Stark kids do, crack jokes, eat, play games, and laugh. It left me feeling great!

5) Running into friends I haven't seen in years at Walmart. Amy Bethers, you are so wonderful and it was good to see you and give you a hug. You are an awesome lady that makes me smile so keep on a rocking girl!

6) Starting a puzzle with my mother in law. This is something we have started doing when we are with Lars' parents. I so enjoy talking while we try and create a masterpiece our of millions of tiny pieces.

7) Seeing some of my sweet cousins, they are amazing women.

8) Lars and his old mission companion swapping mission stories.

9) Making snow angels

10) Shopping at the DI with The Gagon's. Roy you are so cool, please marry someone in my family so we can be related for real! You make me smile and laugh dude.

11) Having some of our friends over for lasagna and just laughing at any and everything. We knew it was our last night hanging out together so we made the most of it and came up with a belly game and just laughed and laughed. Miss you guys so much.

12) Best of all, the last full day I was there my Mom, sister and I just hung out. We mostly just cooked lots of things in the kitchen, but we were together, talking, sharing, and loving.

13) Tons of more wonderful things took place while in Utah, too many to write about, but they are all in my mind and heart.

It was good to get home to the warm weather, but I won't forget the warmth I had in my heart during this trip. I am so grateful for my family and friends and being able to be with them. I get so much strength from being with them which I greatly needed. Thank you and I will see you again soon. Love you!

Happy New Year!

New Years Eve we went to our friends house, Brandon and Melissa. There we had a blast eating lots of food, playing rock band, playing many other games (one being truth or dare), and chatting up a storm. We had so much fun we didn't leave until 4 a.m. That is the latest I have ever stayed up on New Years Eve, but we are young so when we are older we will look back on that night and chuckle and reminisce. Thanks guys for a fun night that I think we will be smiling about for years to come. You guys are the best. Thanks for letting us invade your house while we were in town. ;)