my knight in shining armor

my big sister brooke has a best friend.  her name is courtney.  she is the gorgeous blonde mommy in the picture above... compliments of the facebook.  her husband's name is shaune and they are two of the greatest people i know.  these are their adorable boys- caden and dexter.  

courtney is one of the kindest, most giving people i know.  when she and shaune found out that i needed to get to vegas to catch a flight to ny, courtney jumped at the chance to drive me to the airport.  not only that, but with caden- 4 and dexter- 2 along for the ride, she drove me to vegas (arriving at about 11:30 thursday night), stayed there until midnight the next day and drove me back to st. george on friday night so i could make it back in time for rehearsal the next day.  we got back home about 3am saturday morning and courtney was up at about 5:30 that morning to go for a long run (she's training to qualify for the boston marathon).  as if that wasn't enough, she also brought me some delicious truffles with a sweet note to help me get through my 2am-2pm annie rehearsal on saturday.  

courtney, you are my hero!  thank you for always being so interested in my life.  i had so much fun talking with to on the way home from the airport.  you are amazing! my new goal in life is to be like you when i grow up.  

welcome to my future home...

...and there she is.  in all her glory.  the beautiful nyc.  i love her.  i got to visit for 11 hours on friday.  it was heaven.  

i got to play with heidi, cy and preston after my audition and before my flight back to vegas.  presty, heids and i went to lunch (with teddy and peter- the adorable kids that heidi nannys). i just have to take a second to say how much i love heidi.  we are so similar and she just gets me.  and even though we live on opposite sides of the country, we have this uncanny way of finding excuses to visit each other.  it's happened 5 or 6 times in the last 8 months.  we're really good at it. i just love you, heids!

  cy also came to meet us after his audition.  the day i was there he had a call-back for the national tour of annie... which he booked!!!  i'm so proud of you and so so excited for you, cy.  what a guy.

it was so fun to be with friends in my favorite place.  i love you all!

presty and i always find our way to pinkberry!  we're addicted.

this is teddy and his awesome scooter.  he is one of the boys that heidi nannys.  he doesn't know it yet, but he is also my future husband.  and we will live here...

this is his parents house which he, of course, will inherit and in which we will live.

the pictures are blurry, but you get the point.  it was two stories and incredibly beautiful.  talk about a ny dream home on the upper west end. 

yes, please.

hangin' out in central park with presty, cy and heids

life lesson #1...

dream big and...

about a week ago i checked my messages while on a break from rehearsal.  i had a message that went like this, "hi becca, this is megan from telsey casting.  i'm calling to schedule you for an appointment for legally blonde.  give me a call back at..."

so, after peeing a few drops, i called her back and learned that the broadway national tour was looking for an immediate replacement for the kate/chutney track.  miracle of miracles, my director let me go.  details about the trip to follow.  who even knows what will happen.  and truthfully, it doesn't really matter.  lesson learned... dream big and expect the unexpected.  life has a synchronistic way of opening doors when you least expect it.

dear civilians...

about a week ago i was explaining to my performing friends that i prefer to date guys that aren't performers.  one of the girls exclaimed, "you like to date civilians!!?!"  it's true.  

yesterday, in the city, presty and i chatted over pinkberry about how funny it is for us to explain our broadway auditions to friends and family who don't quite understand the business.

our favorite, endearing question from such people is, "did you get it?"  what follows is an explanation of why such a question makes us giggle a little.

broadway shows are required, by the actor's equity union, to hold auditions every 6 months.  they aren't, however, looking for replacements for their shows every 6 months.  when we go in for auditions, often it happens that, if they like us, they put our headshot and resume on file.  at a future date, when they are in fact looking for replacements, they may call us in to audition for them again.  

for example, my friend michelle once went into an audition for the musical "wicked".  she sang for them and did a great job.  they smiled, gave her the usual "thank you" (unless you have an agent, you never get anymore feedback than a smile and a "thank you" at the end of your audition) and she thought that was the end of it.  a year later, they called and asked her to come to a call-back for one of the lead roles.  still months later, they asked her to come back and eventually she was cast in the broadway production (which she turned down because she was pregnant with a beautiful baby boy- what a rock star).  

as you can see, there are a lot of factors that play into a broadway audition.  getting cast in a broadway show has a lot to do with talent, timing and connections.  the road to broadway is quite the adventure!  i love it. i'm loving the journey.  and i love that there are a handful of friends who are in the same boat right now, sharing the adventure with me.

cutler cuties

this is a picture of my older sister brooke, her husband spencer and their beautiful family.  brooke and spence are amazing parents and they have awesome children.  brooke writes emails to the family pretty often sending pictures, telling of their adventures and documenting funny little happenings with the kids.  i look forward to those emails so much.  brooke is an amazing writer and my nieces and nephew are hilarious so it makes for great stories!  

if you have 30 seconds, watch this little video.  it'll make your day, i promise.

the beautiful kirstie.  she is one of the sweetest, most attentive big sisters i've ever seen. and she has a laugh that is contageous.  she is such a good girl.  she takes after her mommy.  

this is one of my favorite pictures with hanna.  i love her camera smile.  it makes me laugh.  hanna loves her brother and sister and she's such an adventurous little girl.  she attacks life with energy.  i love that about her.

this handsome little dude is thomas.  tommy t just started walking!!  i can't believe it.  what a guy.  i'm in love with him.  he's a snuggly little guy and his smile can light up a room.

bring it...

tomorrow marks our first tech rehearsal of a two weeks worth of tech here at tuacahn. bring it on!

warning!!

this morning, as i was cleaning my cereal bowl, i found this by the sink...

yes, ladies and gentleman.  that is a cockroach!!  i wanna die just looking at that disgusting picture.  it's even worse live.  one of the boys apartments are infested with them.  luckily, we live on the 3rd floor of the apt. complex, so we're hoping that they won't make it up to our place very often.  my roommate jenn was less than pleased when she found out...

some of her friends lovingly refer to her as "momma jenn".  she's always the one to make sure her friends are wearing sunscreen before they leave the house on a sunny day.  and if there's ever a problem in the apt., she's not afraid to call a roomie meeting to lay the smack down (i love her so hard.  she's the absolute best!). we've already had one about making sure dishes get washed and put away.  i love all of my 5 roomies, but some of us are better at washing our dishes than others.  so, mid-morning, this morning, this little note appeared on our fridge...

i laughed so hard when i read it!  i love you, jenn!!  hopefully our tidy little apt. will help the roaches feel unwelcome.

did you say it?

i'm not a faithful grey's watcher.  i've only seen two episodes.  they both happened to be season finales.  but i have to say that after watching the season 5 finale, i really want to see the rest.  it rocked my world.  a big group of us got together to watch it on ben's tivo and, by the end, we were a room full of blubbering fools.  there wasn't a dry eye in the room.  i am in love  with the message of the episode.  it was summed up beautifully in meredith's final monologue.  

"did you say it?  i love you.  i don't ever wanna live without you.  you changed my life... did you say it?  make a plan.  set a goal.  work toward it.  but every now then, look around.  drink it in.  'cause this is it.  it might all be gone tomorrow." 

                                -meredith grey

if you need to be reminded how precious the people you love are, or how special the time is that you get to spend with them, just watch the following clip... 

st. geezie with my smetchy

gretchy drove down from provo after school yesterday to come visit me.  she showed up at tuacahn while we were in annie rehearsal (sometimes annie rehearsals make for really long days) and i literally lit up!  it was so fun to have her here.  we had so much fun and it was so nice to be with someone who has nothing to do with performing.  i love that.  it helps remind me that there are more facets to my being than becca the performer.  gretchy helps ground me.  i love talking to her.  

we went to the pizza factory and got our favorite dessert called "only on a sunday".  it's a big, warm, not all-the-way cooked chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and caramel.  heaven.  

we spent some much needed sister relaxation time in the hot tub.  and had a good laugh about the drunk kid who hit on us and was very vocal about his frustration when we blew him off.  thanks for the excuse to get in the hot tub, gretch... i really needed that!  

as we were falling asleep in my room last night, gretch looked up at my wall and said, "um... do you see those glow-in-the-dark markings on your wall?"  i had never seen them before but there is definitely a glow-in-the-dark handprint next to a hook (yes people... full on hook.  we're talking like a captain hook/peter pan hook) and something else (we couldn't figure out what it was). creepy.  i'm kind of scared to sleep by myself now.  i need my smetchy!

thanks for visiting, gretch.  i'm excited for you to come back down so we can have more sister adventures!!

we drove by this sign and couldn't resist a benji shout-out!

your sassy sisters miss you, benja!!

life is good when gretchy's around

talk about brilliant

i know i already posted "thinking of you" by katy perry.  but i couldn't help but post this acoustic version.  she is a brilliant artist and i heart her.

photoshoot

yesterday we took publicity photos for footloose and annie so a few of us got into hair, makeup and costume for the first time.  80s fabulous...

erika, tino, troy, veronica, casey, alexis, tim and i

a few of the orphan girls. adorable.

roomies

grace.  she is one talented 12 year old.  love her.  and love our secret handshake.

kristen and josh (our aussie rooster)

ladies and gentleman, derryl yeagar.  love this man.  

10 little things that put a smile on my face...

1.  ambiance

2.  horse's noses

3.  watches with clicky faces

4.  twinkle lights

5.  palm trees

6.  pink berry

7.  ichatting with benji

8.  folded chips

9.  babies in onesies

10.  the smell of my storage room

footloose fun

yesterday i had a wig-fitting consultation and i got to play dress ups...

here's my 80's fabulous rusty wig

and here's my boylan sisters wig and dress.  love it.

our cast is bomb....

we're really good with shopping karts...

...and we frequent this place.

two people (of the many in the cast) that i heart...

my willard, tim roberts. heart. him.

my roomie jenn aedo

the whole gang at our sunday cookout

one-trip wonder woman

...this is me whenever i get home from the store or any other place from which i acquire a lot of purchases (minus the adorable bags.  maybe sometime i'll have to get me some of those).  in fact, this was me just a few minutes ago when i made a trip to walmart with some friends.

i am definitely a one-trip woman.  i hate making multiple trips from my car (or friend's cars as is currently the case- i'm car-less at the moment) to my house with bags of groceries.  so, i end up muscling all of my bags at once- even if it kills me and my fingers turn a near-amputation purple-y color.  good things and big achievements don't come easy, people! oh, the satisfaction of getting them all in one foul swoop!  yep, can't beat it.  and i will continue to do it... even if it kills me.  

my smetchy...

this is my little sister gretchen.  she is 3 years younger than me.  i call her smetch.  

i don't think she knows it, but she's one of my heroes.  smetchy is such a deep, grounded and intellectual person.  every time i talk to her, it makes me think- in a great way.  watching her live life makes me want to be better- the best version of myself.  she is also hilarious.  she's very witty an she's always making us laugh.  

one of my favorite things about smetch is that she's one of the most compassionate people i know.  she feels so much.  if anyone close to her is ever hurting or sad or excited,  gretchen is right there feeling it along with them. 

smetch and i didn't always get along growing up.  we're very different and because of that we butted heads a lot as children.  but we've started getting a lot closer as we've grown into adults.

this past year, we spent a lot of time together at byu.  i was able to be there through some of her hard times and she was there for me in mine.  

i'll never forget a special moment i had with my smetchy a couple of days before i graduated.  i don't consider myself to be a super emotional person, but one night i was overwhelmed by the emotions of graduating and leaving behind a lot of people that i love to move on with the rest of my life.  not only that, but i was also dealing with the craziness of finishing finals, moving out of my apartment and hopping on a plane to ny for a week only to move to st. george less than 24 hours after my return.  

that night,  i drove over to where gretch was hanging out with some friends.  she came out to my car to spend some time with me.  i opened up to her about all of the crazy mixed emotions i was feeling.  she let me cry and she just listened.  she gave me a hug, told me she loved me and told me what i needed to hear- that everything was going to be ok.  

it seems like a simple thing, and i'm sure you can recall more than one occasion when someone did the same for you.  but i'll never forget that special moment with my smetchy.  

i love you, gretch and i'm grateful that you've become one of my favorite, best friends!

dear mommy of mine...

this is a picture of my gorgeous mommy and me.  what a babe.  it's mother's day today and i think it's hilarious that all of my friends are trying to boast, on facebook, that their mom's are better than everyone else's.  i don't really care to participate in such meaningless banter (especially because i don't want them to face the harsh reality that all of their mothers pale in comparison to yours truly's.) ;)

i love that today is mother's day.  and i feel like, especially because of the chapter of my life i just closed and the new one i've begun, i have some things that i want to say to my mom...

dear mom...

thanks for renting a video camera when we were poor because you thought i was going to take my first steps... even though i never did that day.

thanks for reading little house on the prairie, the boxcar children, eloise, in the eye of the storm and lots of other books to us when we were little.  you always did the voices just right and listening to you read always calmed me.

thanks for teaching us kids to be kind and to respect each other so we could become the best friends that we are today.

thanks for homeschooling me in england when i had a hard time adjusting to a new country, a new school, new people and a new culture.

thanks for caring enough to call the "stupid policeman" when i took gretchen on a 3 hour walk to pick benji up from school and you couldn't find us.

thanks for being a patient mom and for creating an environment of love and acceptance where we all feel safe to be who we are.

thanks for laughing at my british impersonations when i would come home from school in england.  you're the reason i'm good at dialects.

thanks for letting me call you 15 times every time i cook to ask ridiculous questions.

thanks for singing the titanic song in your "singing bush" voice, on command.

thanks for letting me be your only child of 7 who will physically fight back and wrestle you to the ground :)

thanks for clarifying that i can't get pregnant from being mean to my brothers and sisters.

thanks for warping my idea of dating and relationships with your "friendship hill" diagram. ;)

thanks for being so well-read and knowing about everything that's going on in the world... you've inspired me to do the same.

thanks for always being interested in my dating, friends, school and every other detail of my life.

and most of all... thanks for always encouraging me to dream big and for being excited along with me as i watch those dreams become my reality.  

i couldn't ask for a better mom!  

thanks for always supporting me...

it takes a babe like this (combined with a handsome daddy, of course)...

to make a family as beautiful as this...

and lets be honest...

...what other mom could be as classy and yet as ghetto fabulous as my mom?

i win. 

 love you, mom!

my daddy's kind of a big deal...

last week my dad was in ny at the same time i was.  i was singing and dancing and he was... well, at the stock market.  he and his company rang the opening bell for the stock market last friday morning! how cool is that?  yep, my daddy's kind of a big deal.  he's the handsome guy with the white hair 3rd in from the left on the back row.  what can i say?  i'm a big fan.  love you, dad!

my favorite little midgets

have you ever felt that little kids are just so dang cute that you don't even know what to do about it?  sometimes i just want to bite them!  here are my favoritest little girls in the whole world!  from left to right this is: marta (ba), hannah, kirsten, esther (es) and mila (bubby).  aren't they gorgeous?  they are my nieces and i love them so much!  esther, marta and mila live in london and kirsten, hannah and baby thomas live in north carolina so i only get to see them about once a year.  but oh do we have fun when we're together!  i miss you my favorite little midgets.

our little girls at the beach

thomas.  my little snuggle buddy.

my new home!

say hello to my new home for the next 6 months!  i'm performing in annie, footloose and aida at tuacahn in st. george, utah.  i love this place.  the red rock is stunning.  i love driving through it every day to get to rehearsals.  it's been 87 degrees and sunny all week and i can't get over the fact that i'm finally living in a place with palm trees!!  rehearsals have been really fun so far.  a little tedious, but fun.  and we haven't started rehearsal before noon yet!  i love my life.  

our cast has bonded really quickly.  i love them and i'm excited to spend the next 6 months with them.  

stash and i in front of our apts.  i love having you here with me, stash.

stash, ben, chloe, allison and i on our first day :)

the trio and allison at our first footloose read-through.  we're already besties.  this trio is gonna rock your world!

some of the clan on the first day at lunch.  brian, terrance, jesse, tim, george, kylee, jenn, ben, stash, domonique, allison and i.  here's to making memories!