Mamma's Year End Revue...er, uh....Review

No, I didn't write a musical revue about my year...though that's a brilliant idea! Next year maybe!

What I did have was a BRILLIANT year! Oh yes, this mamma has so many wonderful things to reflect on...

This is my favorite post of the year - I love to look back on my old ones and remember what wonderful experiences I have been blessed to have in years past. Enjoy!

Mamma became a Producer

I'm not gonna lie, I have mixed feelings about this one. This year, I (along with the ever impressive Drama Dad) produced 2 full fledged musicals. While I'm super proud of the accomplishments, I didn't always find the process to be my favorite experience. It's hard to even define what a producer does - and in my case I also took on other roles including costumes and production management. And while I feel like I did about a million things as a producer and it took SO much of my time, it's hard to define what those things were  - phone calls, errands, emails, checks, counseling... and dealing with the crappy stuff like people not getting along, people unhappy with this or that - the kinda ugly underbelly of co-leading 50 plus people towards a mutual goal. But it was also amazing to see things coming together (as a result of a LOT of hard work from a LOT of people) and to see audiences loving the productions and those involved having wonderful experiences. I learned SOOOOOO MUCH! Here's a bit from our shows:

In March, Huntsman Entertainment officially co-produced our first production - Next To Normal!

And in June, we produced The Music Man (with Super Summer Theatre.)

The Music Man was also Piper's first opportunity to be IN a show and she was a hit! She's a BEAUTIFUL dancer, singer and actress and was well loved by all who worked with her. I was SOOO proud of her!

Mamma got a VACATION....S!!

First of all, I got to spend 2 amazing weeks in Hawaii aboard the Pride of America where my hubby was doing a 10 week contract. We had a total blast!!!

Then when we found out Steve would be heading back out for Christmas this year (3rd year in a row - booo!) we decided to celebrate Christmas early - at the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH! Our first trip to visit the Mouse in 5 years!

After two days of Disneyland Magic, we headed south to Sea World! Our friend Jon plays Chip the Elf and we had an awesome time!!

Doing Disneyland with older kids was an absolute blast! We really look forward to going back more often! 

Mamma fulfilled her Theme Park Dreams...mostly!

As long as I can remember I wanted to do a theme park show! I even auditioned back in the day and I think I would have eventually gotten hired if the park hadn't closed...oh well! But this year I was hired to put together a little Halloween theme park style show for the Las Vegas Valley Water District's Haunted Harvest Festival! It was SO fun! We were "The Band Scary" and we had a LOT of fun!!

Mamma got COUNTRIFIED!

While we started on this endeavor last Fall, I didn't talk about it in last years final post because we were keeping it on the down low - but it's something I'm VERY excited about!

It's kinda a 2 part thing - we created a country vocal group with our friends Kelly and Brandon Albright - fellow musical theatre friends who we've know for YEARS! Our group is called GHOSTLIGHT! (A ghostlight is the light left in a theatre overnight so when you come in the next day you don't fall in the pit or anything. It's a theatrical term with a rustic sound so it's PERFECT for our group!) This is one of the best things I have ever done in my life. Not only do we sound amazing together, but we have a blast together.

Here we are singing at the Boyscouts big Centennial Celebration! (Steve missed it because he was out of town.)

And you can visit our website!


And THEN our awesome group created an awesome Country Revue show! It's called Keepin' It Country and it's SO much fun. I love doing this show!

PLEASE check out our promo video!!!




And our website!

Mamma's family ROCKED!!

We entered Rolling Stone Magazine/Hyandai's My Family Rocks contest and we were selected as National Finalists! We got SO much support from family and friends and ALMOST won a new car and a trip to the Grammy's! We took second, but we totally WON because we were completely and totally overwhelmed by the love and support of our family and friends. :)

CHECK US OUT HERE!!

Mamma got Legally Blonde!!

We had been planning to go back to Bermuda this past summer to do another show, but they decided that we needed to wait a year, which ended up freeing up my time to audition for Legally Blonde, the Musical! I love the show, it's fun and I thought it would be a great experience. Well - I got cast as Paulette - the slightly white trashy love lorn hairdresser from Boston! Oh my gosh, I had the time of my life - made incredible new friends and got to do a show with my Hubby who played Warner, the hot ex-boyfriend. Playing Paulette has been my favorite role to date and I will forever hold a bit of her in my heart. Check out a bit of Paulette below!! AND here's what the review had to say about Steve & I... "The multitalented Steve Huntsman makes an egotistical skunk of an ex-boyfriend as Warner Huntington III (“Serious”). Sandra Huntsman (his offstage wife) is a standout as the beautician Paulette Buonufonte. She sports a believable “Southie” accent and she delivers the show’s strongest vocal performance in her comically touching song of lost love and dog (“Ireland”). Evan Litt delivers as the hunk-a-babe UPS man, Kyle, Paulette’s love interest. Their precisely danced spoof of the unbearable “Riverdance” is side-splittingly funny." 

In Conclusion...

I'm SO grateful to have had a wonderful year full of many wonderful memories and experiences, opportunities to learn and a fresh desire to really follow my dreams. 

Most importantly, my biggest joy in life is my wonderful husband and my amazing little ones - who aren't so little any more. We had millions of moments of laughter and joy, some heartbreak and anger and frustration. But through it all, we stick together and keep going and the light always outshines the dark. Simply, I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!

2014 is already shaping up to be an incredible year and I'm excited to see what's to come and enjoy the journey!

Let's be friends!

I confess that I haven't been in much of a writing mood lately. Just been really sick with sick kids and it's kinda done me in mentally as well. I feel like I'm finally coming out of it so I was excited when I woke up this morning....bright and early on a Sunday even, with thoughts that just need to be written down!

But yes, the kids all made it back in school successfully - Chloe even decided to go back to regular school and she's loving it.

So anyway...friends!

In my new found child-free time during the day, I have been able to get out of the house and have some coffee/lunch dates. YAY! During one of my conversations this past week, one of the things we discussed sparked my thoughts and I've been really examining myself as a friend. The friend I was talking to mentioned that she has a hard time making new friends because she's very shy in a new environment. But she also mentioned and I have observed about her that she truly values the friendships that she has and they are very important to her. She seems to nurture her friendships and put a lot of effort into them.  That is what got me thinking.

What kind of a friend am I? I have a lot of friends but very few "close" friends. I will say that my husband is definitely my best friend - I really love the conversations we have together. I really feel like we learn a lot from each other and grow together because of each other. I'm very grateful for the relationship we have. 

I have lots of theatre friends - "show friends" if you will. People who I have good relationships with truly care about, but don't have much interaction with outside of theatre related events. I keep up with them on facebook and am always happy to see them when I'm out, but I don't necessarily plan to see them. And I am fine with that - I am in a very different place than most of my show friends. Many of them are younger and few have families. I do cherish these relationships and look forward to the time I have with show friends!

But close friends - I have very few. Again, this is fine! I'm not a huge social butterfly and with my family and life, there's no need for that. I do have a group of "show friends" I feel closer to and make time to hang out with. And I have about a handful of friends who I consider close friends, who I can talk to and what not. Of course, my sister is one of those people. We are sisters but we are also friends. 

There are some friends that I wish I had closer relationships with, but I'm just now realizing that I need to put more effort into it. As my shy friend told me that she has a hard time making new friends, I realized that I can talk to anyone - I'm good at that initial conversation. It's the followup that I stink at. The introduction is easy, it's the followup when my insecurities fall in. I start to think - why would this person want to be my friend? what if they thought I was annoying? Did I talk about myself too much? Can I trust them? It's from here that my friendships end up growing slowly. I don't think that's a bad thing, but I definitely realize that I need to put more effort out there. I remember myself as a teenager, always feeling sorry for myself when I walked into a room of girls my age and no one asked me to sit by them. I remember expressing that feeling to a church leader who said - why didn't you ask anyone to sit by you? Maybe those other girls were feeling the same way.

I didn't want to believe her - it's always easier to feel sorry for ones self than take responsibility, right? It wasn't until YEARS later when I was talking to a girl I considered to be "popular" in our teenage years that she told me she had the exact same feeling of loneliness and not being accepted by the group as I did that I realized I shouldn't be so hard on myself!

So I guess this is my rather round about way of saying that I am going to be a better friend. To reach out to those I care about and be more supportive and initiate more opportunities to spend time together. I do care deeply about my friends and just need to get over myself a little more. Easier said than done, I know! And to be selective to surround myself with friends who will also be supportive of me and build me up as I do the same for them. 

Here's hoping I can continue the writers bug...I have much to share and new projects in the works...YAY!

Huhwhawhooowayuuull....ummmm....yeah

Ok. So, I haven't been here since April.

I realize that I'm always "finding myself." Like, every 2 or 3 months. So, maybe I'm not really getting it.

I feel like there's something really great out there for me and I just haven't figured it out. Don't get me wrong, I am blessed with an amazing husband and truly wonderful children and I promise that I never lose sight of that.

So, for now, I'm content in the search and allowing myself to feel out my emotions and examine where they're coming from, and that's the best I can do for now. And not be so quick to figure it out.

Ok. Thanks for listening.