handmade dough and 729 days of married life

Guess what. I'm waiting for my first EVER handmade and hand kneaded dough to rise. Just about another half an hour of waiting and feeling my tummy growl. What delicious dough is rising, you ask? CINNAMON BITE DOUGH, THAT'S WHAT. Recipe here. Not gonna lie, the recipe is pretty much a beast and I'm very brave for tackling such an endeavor with these new baker hands. But it's gonna be balla, I'll tell you what. (:

Zac's working today until after midnight (boo) and I have the whole afternoon to myself to be a true blue wifey-poo. hahaha (: Laundry washing, kitchen cleaning, bedroom picking-upping, living room reorganizing, and book reading are all on the agenda for today (as well as blogging, because, you know, all wives do that). I'd love for the house to be spit-spot (ew) clean for our 2ND YEAR ANNIVERSARY tomorrow! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I, for one, cannot.

If you can think of any ideas for our joint blog post tomorrow, let me know! Zac wrote a guest post last year on this here bloggity blog and I'd love for him to write another one tomorrow. (: My ideas are kind of slim, one being writing a letter to the other about this last year of being married. If you have any suggestions, leave a comment. We're gonna see Gatsby tomorrow (eeek!!!) and eat dinner at Black Sheep Cafe. PUMPED.
More pictures to come shortly of my masterpiece baking experience. (:

Minerva Teichert in the flesh...kind of (:

GUYS. I'M OFFICIALLY A FILM ACTRESS.

Yesterday morning and afternoon, I was filmed for Women of Faith. !!!! It was amazing and beautiful and life  changing and scary and intimidating and a complete rush. Goodness gracious. More great and wonderful things to come, I promise! I'll post the film for sure on the bloggity blog in September when it comes out.

Free for viewing, guys. Here are some production stills of me on location yesterday and when we had a photo shoot for our art gallery portraits, as well as a picture of my finished Minerva Teichert portrait. (:

Also, sometime in the future, I will expand more on who Minerva was...but she was a famous Mormon artist and the link above is one of my favorites of hers. (:

Mrs. Who Will Do (:

17 hour day. Almost every moment of it filled with theatre. Whew.

I attended BYU's Writer's Conference this morning from 9am-12pm. The Shoelace was read and moderated at the end of the ten minute play portion of the conference and I received some interesting and compelling feedback. As this play has been ripped apart and put back together again for almost 2 years, I believe the play is in a final stage that doesn't need too many more changes. Much of what the other writers had questions and concerns I've decided can be cleared up with a director who knows how to pull and prod thoughtful and committed actors. Today the actors were kind of thrown into the reading without any direction and therefore some important lines and motivations were lost in translation. But overall, it was a huge success with all present and generated some powerful discussion.

What does it mean to have doubt? What is personal worthiness? What is faith, both to an LDS audience and to others? 

After the talkback session, several film students introduced themselves to me and asked what I wanted to do with The Shoelace now. I mentioned turning it into a film and THEY HIT THE ROOF. Immediately, they wanted my contact information and gave me positive encouragement with helping me getting it on film. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT. AH.

I had to leave for A Wrinkle in Time right then and waved goodbye. Our matinee (or manatee show as we like to call it) went pretty well. I was struggling, not gonna lie but pulled through for my cast. (: We had an hour or so for dinner and then sat outside and played "I Spy." (: And then it was time for our evening performance and IT WENT BEAUTIFULLY. The audience's energy was off the charts and I gloried in it.
Guys. I can't express just how amazing this show is. Agency, love, persistence, doubt, fear, encouragement, faith, love and more love. I get to PLAY. I get to PLAY with a cast I've come to love. How great is that? (:

One of my very good friends told me tonight after the show, "How perfect are you as Mrs. Who? You shine through Mrs. Who! It's you through Who!" hahaha! Greatest compliment of all time, me thinks.

KCACTF IS HERE. WAH.

Okay, guys. The time has come! KCACTF tomorrow through next Sunday! Look for updates throughout the week with what I'm up to in LA and what's happening with my little play. :)

Checklist for Tomorrow:
Packed? Check (Into one duffle bag, might I add)
Homework? Check (Some reading tomorrow on the van trip...maybe...)
Camera Battery, Phone Battery, Zune Charged? Check, check, check.
Cuddled with Zac? :(
Missing Zac Already? Check.

the little engine that could!

a;ljfalkdjf;alsdkjfa

(sort that out as you may)

I submitted my first play for production at The Echo Theatre. The Echo is a relatively new theatre in Provo, Utah dedicated to new art and new artists. Utah Shakespeare in the Park sent all of its members an email about a month ago saying that The Echo is launching their Echo10 Project. 

So I set to work revising and editing a ten minute play I finished last October...and I stepped into no man's land and submitted it by hand to The Echo. I walked away from the theatre feeling...relieved, anxious, blissful, and courageous. Yeah, that about sums it up. And I honestly have no idea where this little act of confidence will take me. But just putting my work in someone else's hands...for the first time...I just. I just have no words. I'm excited. I'm nervous. And I'm pretty stinkin' proud of myself.

You can read my play here.

And here are some pictures cataloging my experience. haha

this is my "excited-freaked-out-whatamidoinghere" face

and here are some completely unrelated pictures of the date Zac and I went on tonight. haha

To quote Ferris:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

this calls for a celebration!

I surprised myself in more ways than one today.

1) I made a successful hairbow.

and

2) I made the Dean's list for the College of Fine Arts.

Happeh Chelsea is happeh.

:)

Stay tuned for my next 30 Things post!

If you could have any super power, what would it be and what would you do with it first?

Preparing for Battle: The Pie Fight.

Good morning you guys! 

And Happy St. Patrick's Day to ya, too! 

(Imagine that said in a beautiful Irish trill)

I woke up twenty minutes ago with that awesome "It's Saturday" feeling. The husband is still in bed, snoozing. We've both had a long couple of days and it's so wonderful that the weekend is finally here. Lots of late nights/early mornings, tests, quizzes, rehearsals (more on that for a different post, methinks), frustrations that come with being newlyweds, and the joys of being newlyweds.

I have some pretty exciting news.

I AM GETTING IN A PIE FIGHT TODAY. 

There will be pictures. 

There will be laughter.

There will be joy. 

(Was anyone else thinking There Will Be Blood? haha I promise there won't be.)

I've been looking forward to today since last Sunday when I heard about our ward's Pi Day Activity. Plenty of people are making pies for us to eat and plenty of pies will be made for throwing.

You know wanna know what I'll be doing?

THROWING THEM PIES.

But srsly. I can't wait to have a pie thrown in my face. I hope it doesn't hurt. >< haha I hope it's as awesome and fun as I've always thought it would be. 

Just for a moment, take a travel with me down memory lane.

I'm seven.

At my dad's apartment complex.

We're watching Saturday morning cartoons together in our pajamas. 

My brother is eating cereal.

We're on Nickelodeon.

And then a family pie fight ensues on tv.

Whipped cream everywhere.

Glasses smeared with pie filling.

The Dad thinking, "This is what I call family bonding time."
The Son thinking, "My sister's so dumb looking with pie all over her face!"
The Sister thinking, "I hate my brother *cry cry cry*"

The Mother thinking, "It's going to take a long time to get these stains out."

hahha

So amazing.

I turned to my dad and said, "I want that to happen to us."

He laughed for a really long time.

:)

AND TODAY IS THE DAY.

The day I've been waiting for.

13 years in the making.

It's finally here.

I need to come up with a hand sign like Katniss gives to District 12 from The Hunger Games. 

Okay, you guys.

The battle commences in T-minus 2 and a half hours.

May the best thrower win.

24 hour theatre and i wanna dance BAM

NO HOMEWORK TONIGHT! I am a free woman!

Look out, someone's happy. And that someone is me.

Saturday night I was in BYU's ETC's 24 Hour Theatre Project! 

I planned on waking up at 6:45 am, showering, eating breakfast, looking cute, you know? Plenty of time to get to the HFAC by 8 am, right? 

WRONG.

DEAD.

WRONG.

:]

I woke up at 7:54 am. 

7. 54. am. 

My alarm decided to not make an appearance on Saturday morning. I jumped out of bed screaming, "7:54 AM 7:54 AM ZAC, ZAC!" He woke up and emailed ETC; I hopped in the shower, got out, dressed, rubbed my eyes, and opened the front door. Guess what I found? SNOW. SNOW. SNOW. Everywhere.
I kissed Zac goodbye and ran for my life, unsure if ETC would give my part to someone who took their role seriously enough to be on time.

(This was my first ETC project)

><
As I ran through Provo's first snow that Saturday morning, I imagined myself some awesome female rogue killing machine spy ninja...hahhaa It was so completely awesome! No one was up that early, so all the snow was clean and white, no footprints. My dark hair flew around me and contrasted so nicely with the snow. I could see my breath. I remember thinking, "Someone's gonna see my footprints later!" I don't know why that's such an amazing thought, but I think it is. So often, I see other people's footprints in the snow. But now they'd see mine! (I'm a lame-o.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I stepped inside the warm warm HFAC at 8:07 am.
Normally it's a 9-15 minute walk to campus.

aljfalksdjfa;lksdjfl

Yeah.

From then on (8:07am-12pm) I met my cast and director, memorized lines/blocking, and had a wonderful time. 1pm-3pm we rehearsed some more. 3pm-3:30pm we ran the show twice in the Nelke theater, where we'd perform later that night. 3:30pm-5pm we rehearsed some more. 5pm-5:30pm we ran the show three times in the Nelke. Dinner. I ran lines on my own for half an hour. At 6:50pm we met up and did a quick read through without our scripts. Show started at 7:30pm.

We were the last of five 10 minute plays to perform and ROCKED IT.

And then ROCKED IT again at the 9pm show.

Zac, Emily, and Tim came to the second show and I can't put into words how happy I was to see all of them afterwards. We walked home together (Emily and Tim live just across the parking lot from us, yay!)

The snow was covered in many footprints, btw.

:]

I will never get over the rush of finding my position onstage in complete darkness, hoping to beat the lights in 3 seconds. I will never get over the butterflies in my stomach as I realize I have the first line, it's real, we're on, we're live. I will never get over the exhilaration as I react to my fellow actors onstage. I will never get over a full house audience laughing at my ridiculous antics onstage (think a 5'2" and 103 lbs girl jumping on a demon-possessed girl's back with wild ferocity...YEAH). I will never get over the feeling of relief and empowerment after the last line is said, we take each other's hands, and bow for a standing audience.

Theatre is the best.

---

Other than that, I just been pretty busy with schoolwork and taking care of us. We're doing awesome, btw. He's been completely adorable lately, pulling me out of my chair and away from frustrating hw...hahaha We've had a lot of laughing fits. It's so unreal I get him forever.

We went to BK and Walmart today to do some errands and I DROVE. Man, you guys. It feels so good driving with my hubby next to me, rocking out to...

Party Rock Anthem

OH MY GOSH.
We had so much fun jamming to this song.

"Get up get down put your hands up to the sound! Whoa!"
I put my hands up and Zac reminded me to keep one hand on the wheel.

I totally had one hand on the wheel.

Totally.

year reviewzorz

January

My family moved from Burlington, Kansas to Buckeye, Arizona! I turned 20 two days before Zac...and broke up with him on fb to scare some people. hahahha We had some fun.

February

I was in "The Importance of Being Earnest" with Utah Shakespeare in the Park and got engaged to my very very best friend, Zac Hickman.

Gosh, I love them.

March

I had some fun in my first makeup class, found my wedding dress, and wondered if I should keep pursuing an acting major.

April

I finished up the hardest semester of my life, did my proficiency audition, and found out I was ready to move on. I said goodbye to my wonderful roommates: Emily, Amber, Lori, and Hannah. I went back to Arizona to be with my family before getting hitched!

Arizona chicken. Odd.

May

I went on a road trip with mom and Julie to Kansas to see my brother graduate high school. I got to meet up with some old amazing awesome friends, including Wooge. I went to California to visit Zac for the first time in three and a half months. I also touched a sea urchin for the first time ever! :O I then came back to Arizona to do some last minute wedding planning with mommy.

 Photo cred: Logan Whittington

I love you guys.

June

Mom and I made a road trip out to California together the week of the wedding and HAD A BLAST. We stopped by a huge outlet mall somewhere in California where I found a dress for both the honeymoon and the day of my endowment session. Lots of crazy things happened that week: dates, cake testing, reception decorating, friends flying out, and mass confusion/excitement. But it all came down to the best day of my life:

I was married on June 24, 2011 in the Los Angeles Temple to Zac Hickman.

And then four days later, on our honeymoon in Hawaii, he did a back flip into a pool hit his head and was rushed to the hospital. He didn't remember us getting married. He didn't remember me for a while. Oh, wow. Biggest scare of my life.

Do not approve.

>:(

July
I started to get used to the word "wife" and "husband." We came home from Hawaii, took a break in Arizona with my fam, and then went back to California so Zac could work before we headed off to school. We saw the 3am showing of HP7p2!

A Hawaiian cave. o.O

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

We got to watch the 4th of July fireworks on a beach in Hawaii.

Luckiest girl ever is me.

Harry Potter happy excited satisfied obsessed ecstatic faces.

5:30 am, don't judge.

August

Zac, Poter, and I went to see Ludo live in LA! AMAZING.
Zac, Karen, Stephanie, and I loaded up the car and drove from California to Utah. We stopped by Vegas and had a great time! (No gambling or booze drinking for me and Zac! haha) BYU started and I figured out I wanted to be a playwriting major and an English minor. :)

September

I was cast in a one act play, "The Stronger" by August Strindberg. 

We rehearsed for 3 weeks then it went up in early October.

Definitely changed my life.

October

We carved pumpkins with Emily and Tim!

I was a zombie for Halloween.

November

I got to see my dad for the first time in a year and a half for Thanksgiving. We rode a Greyhound bus to Colorado from Utah.

I.Hate.Buses.

December

We wrapped up our finals, celebrated Emily and Tim getting married, enjoyed our 6 month anniversary and had our first Christmas together!

I also learned how to do a hairbow.

:)

An amazing year, to say the least. The best is yet to come, methinks.

I'm ready for you 2012.