Viva Las Vegas

Having just got paid, my roommate Katie & I set out this weekend to spend a girl's day in Vegas and we splurged! We spent a fabulous day full of food, shopping and shows!

We started with the Belagio for some gelato. I got peanut butter, of course! It was delicious.Then, it was off to the mile long mall. Although I am not a big "shopping person" and Vegas certainly does not have my thrift stores, it was fun. We got 10 minute massages there at the mall which was well needed and had lunch at the Cheesecake factory. I got peanut butter chocolate cheesecake, of course.
Noticing a trend? All I write about is food! You know what makes me happy! And the food items all have peanut butter:)

Our original purpose in going: The Lion King. We had fabulous seats in the 6th row a little off to the right but in the aisle. Right from the start I had chills & by the end of the first number (Circle of Life) I was in tears. We both were. I appreciated being with Katie, how understood and felt the beauty that is theatre with me. Every moment was magical. It was absolutely fantastic. I cried several times and had chills. It was so beautiful.There were some additional "Vegas" moments that they threw in including Zazoo singing "Viva las Vegas" instead of the coconut song, Timon & Pumba dancing the Charleston instead of the hula & our personal favorite - the additional dance of the hyenas. What could only have been a Las Vegas addition, the hyenas, had a very . . . sexy vegas - style dance number with lights, heavy music &, of course, their hyena shirts off. We were laughing so hard. Only in Vegas!

Side note: while waiting for Katie who was in the restroom, I looked over in the casino and there was a full on dancing girl on a stage with lights, heavy music & very little clothing right before me. My shocked little eyes quickly diverted & then curiously got the best of me. I observed a bit more. I was appalled! Yes, because of the indecency but mostly because she was an awful dancer! She wasn't sexy it at all! There was no isolated hip movement, no rhythm etc. She did half-hearted step touches. I realized in that moment that I would make a great Vegas dancer! I could do so much better than her. Too bad I have too much decency, integrity and respect for myself. Vegas is missing out!

We happened to be in Vegas the day of the famous Miss America Pageant. We saw a lot of people there for it. We thought it might be fun to go to it and were told that tickets were something like $20 so we went and checked it out. With ticket prices at $152 we quickly agreed that it was not worth that and thought, "for $150 we might as well see another show, like Phantom or something" and then it occurred to us, "Why DON'T we just go to Phantom too?" Why not? So we did. We called the Venetian right away & got our tickets. We got the cheaper ones, but no worries, because as is my luck in life - we got an upgrade when we got there for free for the 8th row in the center section :) We were thrilled and very grateful to have had such a great view for who was the best Raoul I have ever seen. Sigh. He was dreamy.And I can't forget to include my first experience with the Belagio foundations. The water show was accompanied by a beautiful waltz.

Hawaii (coming . . . )

Ms. Thomas

I am officially a teacher. I have classes, they call me Ms. Thomas and I have a desk with brand new school supplies. Teenagers ask me permission to do things. Wow. It is all so mesmerizing and a bit overwhelming.
August 2009 I started teaching at Desert Hills High School in St. George. It is a school in its second year and I teach two subjects: Theatre & Spanish. I love the school, the faculty & especially the students. In addition to teaching I will be directing 2 plays, "Bye Bye Birdie" which will perform in November 2009 & "Our Town" which will be February 2010.

You can check out my classes' website to see what I have been up to with my students by clicking HERE

Enjoy!

Aw the Mission

Tonight I went to a fireside for the Provo Mission to despedirme de Elder Salinas who was someone I taught/worked with in Chile. It was a very emotional experience for me that left me with tears for many reasons. First, it was powerful to hear each of the departing missionaries speak of the way that their missions changed their lives as they told stories of hardships, miracles and conversions. I was filled with enormous gratitude for having had the privilege of serving a mission. I got to serve a mission. Not every girl can say that, but I did and I am eternally grateful for that experience because, as those missionaries said tonight, that experience changed my life. Also, it was emotional for being to see a small fruit of my mission and to see the powerful influence one can have. Many people supported and helped Michael Salinas and I would never take credit for what he is today, but I did get to be a part of it and I feel grateful to see fruits of that labor. There he stood, strong. He has influenced countless during these last two years and I have no doubt that there will be countless more blessed because of him in Chile where he will be a great leader.

Summer 09

This summer was one of the first times in my life that I had NOTHING! Having just graduated, and my job as a teacher not starting until the fall I had four months to play! And I played! Summer of 2009 highlights include:

• My niece and nephew visiting for the 4th of July
• Traveling to Arizona to visit Jeff & see Wicked
• I bought a new car - a 2005 Honda Accord whom I have named Maleficent.
  
• Teaching dance & directing a play at Freedom Academy (see blog post)
• Spontaneously flying to LA & sitting 7th row at the American Idol Finale Concert with Linze!
• Academy awards night with my best friends
• BBQs
• Floating down the River
  
• Lot's of cooking
  
• Going to the Kelly Clarkson concert
  
• Hosting a mystery dinner with my BYU ballroom team friends
  
• Taking up cake decorating
• Making a 90's music video
  
• Attending the temple dedication
  
• Reuniting with friends that I have not seen
• And finally - moving to St. George, Utah

Addiction

I follow dance reality shows. I proudly admit it. So You Think You Can Dance is one of those. Here is a video of one of the dances that was so powerful to me. Enjoy!

kandk1 12 @ Yahoo! Video

Chef Sarina

I don't know when exactly it happened but one day I was thinking about how I love to eat. I realized that unless I learned to cook I would not be eating WELL. Cooking is a life skill that you are ALWAYS going to need. Even if I never have a family with children to feed, I have to eat so why not eat well? This thought process has led to a class at BYU, lots of experimenting in my parent's kitchen, lots of experience while living in the mission home in Mendoza and (my favorite) informal lesson from Chef Paul.

#1 We choose a theme (yeast breads, quick breads, pastries etc.) #2 We make it together and #3 I make it on my own with little to no phone consultations with Paul.
Here we make Challah (prounounced Halla) Bread.
And here is the pie crust that I made all by myself! I went with a triple fudge walnut for the filling. Very Sarina - like no?

American Idol

I went to the American Idol Finale Concert!!!! This is my first year watching American Idol. I avoid T.V. as much as possible, but I have fallen into the reality T.V. shows. So this is how it went: Monday night 11:00 p.m. I was returning from a quick trip to St. George. I got a text from my great friend and former roommate Linze "I just won tickets to American Idol finale, too bad I can't go" I immediately called back. "Why can't you go?" "It is tomorrow in L.A. and no one is going to be able to go with me such last minute" "I can!", I said and that was that. We bought our tickets at midnight, got on a plane the next morning and went. VERY spontaneous and VERY worth it. The concert was AWESOME!!! Our tickets were only for Tuesday night and we had to scrounge to find some for Wednesday night but we did and for Wednesday's night performance I was in the 6th row!!! I was surrounded by celebrities! The concert included: Carlos Santana, Lionel Richie, The Black Eyed Peas (including Fergie), Steve Martin, Cindy Lauper, Jason Mraz, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, David Cook (last year's winner), Kiss, and Queen. It was AWESOME! What a lineup and I was sixth row! I was also on t.v. as the camera focused in on my row during Carlos Santana's song. I was, of course, up out of my seat dancing :) If you watch the video - it is at 3:01 ha ha - my claim to fame!


I also got into the red carpet interviews afterwards :) We also spent a day running around Hollywood. The trip was so spontaneous and I loved it! Love you Linze!

Post- Graduation Celebration

CRUISE
As a graduation celebration - I went on a cruise with some of my best friends. For most of us it was our first cruise and we were in awe of the size of the boat! Our Cruise went from San Diego to Catalina Island, enroute to Ensenada, Mexico and back to San Diego.
For our safety, we actually never made it to Ensenada, Mexico as it was the week the Swine Flu broke out. We had an extra day on the boat.
The highlight of my trip was getting to go scuba diving. It was the first time since I had gotten certified last year that I have been able to use it. Morgan was even brave enough to do a quick crash course and come with me. I loved it!
Closely behind scuba diving as a highlight would be the all-you-can-eat factor. The food was delicious! My favorite: chocolate melting cake

THE BEACH
After the cruise we took some time to go to the beach. J.D. lived in San Diego for a time so he took us to one of his favorite spots. We buried Jared and then myself in the sand. They did a good job - I really struggled to get out!

DISNEYLAND
You can't go to southern California and not go to Disneyland. Jeff even drove up from Arizona to join us. He is an expert in all things Disney.
Someone convinced us to go on Splash Mountain as the last ride of the night. The line was short - for good reason. We were soaked!

Freedom Academy

I was asked to help with the Freedom Academy dance festival that they had at the end of the year. I choreographed and taught a dance to the music of Zorro for the 6th grade classes.



During the rehearsal process one of my dance partners, Mark, was kind enough to come and perform with me for the kids so they could get the idea of how a Paso Doble should look/feel.