The Church and Manitoba

We arrived at the boarder of Canada and North Dakota last night three minutes before midnight... Just in time! The boarder closes at midnight and doesn't open back up until seven in the morning. We would have been really behind on our set up schedule if we had missed the boarder... but we are good. And i am currently sitting Calvary Temple church in Winipeg, Manitoba. I went to their morning service and it was a delight to worship with people of the same likeness in belief. We worshiped and heard scripture, it was great. Although Brandon and I were probably the two youngest adults in the place... it was good.

It is neat to be in Canada, although i don't really get to see the town. But it's neat to be here and be around people of a different culture. I really hope to get something very Canadian... like a maple leaf or something =-)

Okay although the following pictures aren't exactly up to date, they are recent...so fill your eyes with the lovlies of my trip.


This is us on a sweet little bus ride to our hotel one night after the show. The guy didn't know where he was going, we were delirious from so many shows and it was totally a ride to remember! "Doe a deer, a female deer..."


This is another bus ride to walmart and all of our little stops in Wisconsin two days ago. It was another one of those delightful rides...


One of biggest fans! Some venue a while back, there was this cutie. LARRY-BOY!!


This is Meredith and Karen...we got to know them well! =-)


This is Joe our Production Manager on the road. So nice! he was the one that got us the Masseus! yeah!


This is Ashley, one of our lovely Wardrobe ladies/stage hands. She's super good at what she does. This is her chillin' in between shows back stage.


This is one of our catering rooms inbetween two shows. From left to right is Karen our director (she was with us the first week of the show), beautiful Michelle, Lisa our main wardrobe lady/stage hand, then there's, Jerrad our dance captiano, then there's mr. kyle.


Michelle, Jerrad and Andrea (i'm the one taking the picture) playing some game called Civilazing Katan or something crazy like that, it was a fun game that took SO long to learn, but was rather fun when i got the drift.


Haha, this is a terrible picture of what we do before most every show...we "let the fire burn". Troy is a hip hop dance instructor so we do a hip-hop warm up before most of our shows. it's fun, but rather painful...some days i just let the fire "sizzle". :-)

Well, it's eight minutes until the show...i probably should go... haha later gator...

n

Oh Canada, Oh Canada...

Hello to one and all. Just a bit of info for you to fill your mind with for the next few days. I am entering Canada tonight around midnight and will remain in Canada for the next five days. So just to let you know, my phone will be in serious roaming mode so i will not be answering any phone calls this week. However, if you would like to comunicate with me and are unable to wait until my phone is back on, this go ahead and email me or talk to me on this lovely site. I hope your day is going well, as mine is going just lovely. Here are two pictures to close the day out....


This is Michelle and me getting ready in our dressing rooms before the show. We like to pose pretty. =-)



Larry and Bob. They are nice people...i mean veggies!


oh and ps. i know my spelling and grammer can be bad (mother) but just bare with me... =-) hehe..

Ciao

-Noodles

Say Cheese....

Okay so... i'm answering your call for more pictures. Here they are for you peoples. I hope you enjoy viewing just a few of the things i have done in the past few weeks. Although it looks like i have a lot of off time...haha, that's funny! We have had two or three "days" off since the show started. Every day other then that is full of two shows, normally mid-afternoon and then evening. Two-a-days are intense, but we are getting used to it. It's really funny when i'm off stage and we are having a break, i sometimes can't remember if it's intermission or i am getting ready for the next show.. "am i about to go on stage for act one or act two?"... i get confused. And again i tell you (just so you guys remember) i continue to love my job, the people i work around and life in general is lovely. Continue to pray for me and all of the things that i do and say while on this tour. There are so many opportunities to reflect Christ, and the opposite is the same. I'm working around all types of people and i want St. Francis' quote to reflect my life "Preach Christ at all times, if necessary use words". And so i wake up, do the show, do the show, go to sleep... and all the time inbetween and ect are the times where my life is tested. May i "pass" with flying colors. i will soon bring even more pictures to your lovely eyes... but for now, may this delight you greatly.

Peace to you all.




This is at the church in New York. They had some great costumes in our dressing room... we thought we would play a little dress up. Fun, fun!



So did you realize that the north doesn't have sweet tea... yes well... we knew that...however, try and survive an extended amount of time without it...ouch. but luckily we found a Cracker Barrel! Woohoo! Sweet tea to the rescue! This is us on our second day off in Indiana.



So it was an exciting moment for us when Brandon and i saw V-Tales in Target! We know they are sold in many places, but it's exciting to see, especially when you are apart of something so absolutly wonderful!



This is Troy De La Rosa and we are listening and watching closely as he experiences hearing his own song on the radio for the first time! WOOHOO! It was an exciting moment! Troy is on the cast with me, neato kid from Texas. This is while enjoying a day off in Pennsylvania.



This is me in a traditional Amish buggy. So this is me in Amish country on the same day off. Very fun.



This is the same buggy but with Crystalyn and Chris being our Horsey... it was a lovely day in amish country. Complete with Mall Shopping where i got a watch (surprise, surprise)



This is my first group of people that came to see me. Friends of the family that we have known for ever and probably two days! =-) They brought to kids to see the show because their own kids are grown and away. This is Ford Parents. Thanks for coming to see the show you guys. It was good to see your smiling faces! This was in the Penn state.



I honestly don't remember which venue this was...i'm thinking it was the one in New York, but it was a great venue. It was very enjoyable...at least from what i remember...haha, they seem to run together now.



This is a picture of two of the crew, Digo and Jason (our sound guy and our audio tech/stage hand) neato kids. I call Jason "Hot eyes" because he has pretty girly beautiful eyes! haha



What a cool Lobby! This is the church in uh.... okay so i don't remember what city...or even what state but i thought it was a really cool venue! Pretty ay!?



Singing out (and yes, i mean singing out)

-natalie

Rest Stops...

Day after day, the show continues, the bus keeps moving and we seem to get fed pasta a lot. haha. Today we are in Indiana, near Indianapolis. We have a stop over in this fair city for a "day off" we get here sometime in the middle of the night and then leave the following evening about midnight. So we have hotel rooms and stay here all day and do what we need to and get back on the road for the next days show. It's always nice to have a few hours off. I look forward to organizing my suitcase and all of my belongings and doing other enjoyable "restful" things. Right now i'm sitting in the hotel room watching "Big Business" with Crystalyn. Not everyone is up and out of the bus yet but it's nice to be relaxing.

The shows continue to go really well. Changing venues everyday shakes things up a little bit and it doesn't get quite as repititve. It's funny because when i'm on stage and then i hea
d off stage into the wings, i sometimes forget what the back stage looks like and where i'm supposed to go. Things just change so often. I suppose it makes things more entertaining that way.

Yesterday i met a sweet little boy named Ben in the lobby after the show. Ben was just a few years old and traveled around by his little wagon. He isn't able to get out of his house very often because of his illness. But while talking to his mother, she told Shannon and I that he has watched Veggie Tales since he was born and just loves it. So they made a special effort to get him to the show. As he was sleeping in his wagon, Shannon and I knelt next to him so his mother could take a picture of us with him. Those moments are some of the reasons as to why i'm on this tour.

Okay. I believe it's picture time...

oh my word. I have been working on getting pictures on this thing for like 20 minutes. That's crazy... okay so i'm going to wait and add pictures tomorrow... i know that you are going crazy and want more pictures =-) but just be patient and i will post them tomorrow if we have good high speed internet.

Okay goodnight everyone and we will talk soon.

natscat

Has it been a month yet?

Indeed i feel as though i have been gone for at least a few weeks. And yet today marks the one week marker of the tour. Insane isn't it! For those of you who have called and i have yet to return your calls, believe i will. I will call most likely in the next couple of days.

I will post more pictures in the next few days. My camera's battery has been dead for a while and i have yet to charge it until today. Do i sound tired? haha... yes, i am. But not terribly. I am getting a cold (although I tell myself that it's not true)... so the show drains me more then it does normally. Don't worry though, i'm doing alright. I still love it. A few minutes ago i had a really beautiful conversation with one of the cast members about Christ and it lifted my spirits. I need more of that, pray that God would allow more deep conversations inbetween me and a few more of the tour members.

Yesterday we were in Canada. Ottawa, Ontario to be exact. It was the most difficult venue as of yet, and will (God willing) be the most difficult of the whole tour. I was honestly afraid for my safety... but do not fear, our people take extremely good care of us and made things as safe as possible. No one was hurt and the show was a hit. The venue was sold out (both shows) and infact... the show was over sold by about two hundred...each show. WOW! The crowds were amazing....and LOUD! We even had little kids "rushing" the stage...well, not really but they did try and get on.

No doubt, yesterday was a day to remember. This morning we had to wake up at the crack of dawn to meet the customs man at the boarder. That was exciting..haha, half of the cast doesn't completely even waking up. Man i slept good last night! Besides meeting mr. canada boarder man... i slept pretty hard and all the way through. Yeah for good sleep!

Okay, 30 minutes until our 7 o'clock show, it's time to finish getting ready.

Alright the girls in here are taling about cookies and Gollum from Lord of the Rings... who knows. haha.. bye

nat

The Penn State for Rest

Today we get a day off! woohoo! We are four shows down and 90 something to go! haha. We are in Lancaster Pennsylvania today and our next show is about thirty minutes from here. So I am currently sitting in a lovely Lancaster hotel room with Charlene while we are both catching up on our computer jazz. I thought i would upload my new pictures so you could get a glimpse of my bus and touring life.



This is our first stop of the tour... and it just so happens that Calvary Church had a sign that said this! So we had to take pictures of it! It was a good first venue...good show and lots of fun. we had about 1,500 at those shows.



We had a lovely bouqet of flowers in the women's dressing room at Calvary in Souderton, Penn.



This was our second venue. In Lowell, Massechusits. It was a beautiful memorial theatre in downtown Lowell about thirty miles from Boston. We had a lot of professionals working with us backstage and they were good at what they do, that makes things easier for us all.



This is the front view of the Lowell show. Beautiful isn't it!?



This shot was actually taken during rehearsal... but i thought it was cool because it's taken through my "view finders" on Jimmy. As you can see i lean down a little to see well. I just thought was a cool shot.



Okay so she isn't on the tour... but this is my gorgeous sis-in-law (Leslianne) who is have a little baby girl! Baby's name is Avyn! I just thought you should see her!

Well it's time for a shower and lunch.. we'll talk soon.

Lovely time for a break.

Nat

Evangelical GoGo Dancers... Or something like it.

Not even a complete four days into the tour... I'm already tired, worn out and a bit sickly... but i love it. I love it all. Except i really don't like changing my characters battery... but i deal with it. =-)

Today we are in Lowell, Massachusetts (thiry minutes from Boston), we left Pennsylvania last night a little after midnight. We did one show this morning and have another in about an hour and a half. It's hard work... it really is, but as Crystalyn says...we have an easy job. We get to have fun with thousands of kids, dance alot, travel around two countries, visit dozens of venues, hang out with a great cast and crew, oh and we get paid for it! haha. I really do love this. And yes, i'm not even a week into it, and my sentiment may change just a bit. However, when i embarked on this adventure and said yes to my production agency about joining the tour, i had a complete peace about it, because i knew that God wanted me here. And although i may have little sleep at times, may not want to smile for one more second or just feel down right sick... I know where i need to be and... This is the time for me to feel God's pleasure as i dance and move and smile. To feel God's pleasure is so satisfying and fulfilling.

There is so much still for me to do, and so much for me to learn on this tour. I ask that you guys pray for my relationships on this tour, many of you may know specific ones that i'm talking about... pray harder. I am blessed that God has put people in my life on this tour that love Him and i can rely on and enjoy their company. there are many and it's great.

My eyes currently burn with the need to sleep... and eventually i will get it... sometimes it gets a little hard when you are on the bottom of a bus... but i will get used to it soon (at least i hope - that's something else you can pray for all of us, good rest on the bus... we will get REALLY grumpy if we aren't sleeping and are doing two to three shows a day!)

Okay... it's time for me to go set out give-a-way cards before the next show.

I love you guys... but don't be offended when i say i don't really miss you... and that's a good thing. I am where I am supposed to be.

My feet hurt, but much of me is full of joy.

the short gourd.

The Bus, The Bed, The Boarders...

We left... Finally. We hit the road last night at midnight. They said we would leave at midnight. We left at midnight it was amazing! So on time. I love these on time people!

The bus is pretty incredible! Haha. It is much bigger, roomier and nicer than I thought. I have a bottom left bunk it is delightful. I slept pretty good last night. I felt more like I was on cruise than a bus for some reason. I think because it's like a little home on wheels... and a boat is like a home on... okay never mind. You get the point. But it is nice. A few of us watched a movie before heading off to bed. A scary movie was watched, Signs in fact. It was fun.

The bed is a lot longer than i would have thought. But considering i am 5'6'' and there are 6' boys and they have to fit too... I have plenty of feet space for my carry on bags. It's so handy! I will take pictures and show them soon.

The boarder we crossed was the Virginian boarder sometime while i was in a deep slumber. We are currently parked in the parking lot of some cute hotel to let the bus drivers sleep. So we have the day to relax and do whatever we would like on our way to the good ole Penn State.

I know this may be a little sporatic in my talking... but i'm distracted. I'm sitting in the back of the bus inbetween Brandon and Michelle. Brandon working on photographs and Michelle is saranading us with beautiful music.

Okay. I'm thinking about reading some of our tour manual and getting on with the day. I'm not sure what that entails yet. But i'll get there and figure something out that will be just fantastic...and it will probably include a nap! Maybe a movie...and probably another post.

Have a beautiful day...we'll talk soon.

The traveler

A Little Breathing Time...

The intense rehearsals are over, done with, finedo! I feel weird about it being over... It's a kinda upsetting... haha, yeah that's funny to say. But it was so normal to wake up at the crack every morning and head to work. Be working until after the sun set and then go home... then repeat, day after day. I feel like i've been gone for years... ha, no i'm not going crazy... it's just been a long couple of weeks. good, great, but long.

We actually have a couple of days off inbetween rehearsal and the tour starting. So i'm home currently, sitting in my Dad's chair watching American Idol. We had dinner tonight with the fam, the preggie sis-in-law and grandparents came over and the six of us had dinner (mo and po too). We watched some of my personal home video of the crazy cast and crew during the past few weeks. It was great.

Here are a few pictures of the past couple of days. Very exciting.



This is the beautiful cast of the Veggie Tales Rockin' Tour Live. From left to right is...Archibald, Larry, Jerry, Lunt, Jimmy, Junior, Pa Grape, Bob (in size of tallest to shortest)... what a cute group we are. We love each other! =-)



That is me inside Jimmy after a run through. That's my mic and "in-ears" in my hand.



Jerry, Jimmy and I during "Ease On Down".



Bob, Junior and Larry with a bunch of cute kids who were our guinea pigs for a open rehearsal. They laughed, so they passed! =-)



Troy and his Apple... This is what we seem to do alot of on breaks during rehearsal... We have an Apple party... except there are a few left who haven't made the leap into mac world yet. You will be in our thoughts, we hope you make the cross over soon.

So rehearsal has been a blast. And now we have to rest ourselves before the tour hits. Please post hi's and hello's because it is really nice to see. Oh and you don't have to have a blog to post, you can be anyone - i accept all. =-)

Peace, love and sleep.

Nat

So Close, Yet So Far Away...

The show starts one week from tomorrow. (sigh). I'm so excited. And nervous, and ready. There are still many things that need to get done before that sweet day comes... but it is so near. So near. I can't believe that things are like they are in the show. It is so incredable all of the things we have done and are getting to do! What a blessing this whole job is! A true gift from God. From the moment I decided to audition it was God's... He made the decision, I'm just the puppet to do what He wants me to. And i love this.

Most all of our costumes are done and we have begun dress rehearsals... not completely full out, but almost. Today was a long day, given that I didn't get home until after seven. But always productive. We shrunk our stage to do a walk through on our smallest venues stage. 25x25. Tiny when your costume is over 5' wide...and there are many of us! It's challenging to do what we do, sure... but it's a flexable moment when you do what you do on 50 different stages...never really knowing exactly what you will be looking at... not to mention the fact that when you act inside a costume...you can't exactly see very well. so hopefully there will be no "crowd surfing veggies"... if you get my drift... ;-)

I will have a couple days off to go home and say a final goodbye to the fam before I leave... oh and do a little repacking. I brought too much..surprise, surprise. I think I have mainly worn the same three outfits the last two weeks... there is only so much you want to wear when you are doing these things... sweat pants and a tee. But tonight some of us went out to tgi fridays and we dressed like normal people... it was great.

Currently listening to adult music (Caedmons Call)... also known as most anything not veggie tales! =-) ha... no, i haven't gotten sick of the music yet. it's so fun and well written that i still enjoy it and still sing to it... goodgrief i hope i haven't gotten sick of it yet! I have 100+ shows still ahead of me! Veggie Tales is just fab!


Have I mentioned i like nashville? okay... i know i have.. but you get the point.

Oh..speaking of... a friend of mine and Crystalyn drove to "Leapers Fork" and through Natchez Trace on my half day off! What a beautiful day too! 70 degrees, sun setting, ice cream in hand and relaxing music to sooth. so fun!

Okay, I'm done for now.

Oh but first... who ever called me tonight acting like Jimmy Gourd. very funny. but you need a little work. =-)

-the one who just typed this.

ps- a very large congratulations to Troy! only known you for a bit, but i'm so proud! And excited, and pumped and thrilled and all of that good stuff! WAY TO GO! YEAAHHHHH!!!!!!!! I hope that God allows this to seriously grow into what you want your future to look like and fulfill the dreams you have in your heart. Austin is a lucky city right now!

pps- and a congratulations to Kyle for shaving. the hair won't be missed. :-)