Tuesday, January 22, 2008

So, I owe this and future blogs to one of my greatest friends, Ashley Drue Core Nelson. She is the best blogger I know and she has encouraged me to set up a blog since we have just recently moved to New Jersey. Now everyone back in Texas can keep in touch in a fun way, and I can look forward to posting!! Ashley and I have known each other since the first grade!!!!! That's 24 years people! She is definitely the funniest friend I have ever had, except for Chris!! Anyway, this is my initial blog and I hope you enjoy as much as I do. Some of you may be wondering how we ended up in New Jersey. Well, it was truly amazing. I taught elementary music for 7 years in Lubbock, Texas and Chris worked at Day Break Coffee as the general manager. He got tired of it and certainly was not using his talent, so he went back to Texas Tech to work on his music degree. To make a very long story short, his friend David Gaschen set up a private audition with Phantom of the Opera for Chris. David is a fellow Monterey High School and Texas Tech grad, and he went on to work for the Phantom company for quite a while. So Chris went to NYC in August, auditioned and received the call a few weeks later that he was hired!!!! He left Lubbock a week later, began rehearsals on a Monday and made his Broadway debut 2 weeks later!!!!!!! He is the understudy for the roll of Ubaldo Piangi. Piangi is the house tenor at the Paris Opera house where the musical is set. His roll requires operatic training and the ability to sing to a high C. I have seen him perform 4 times since October, the kids have seen him once. He is absolutely wonderful in his roll. The kids and I are so proud of him. He truly is the most talented person I know. As of right now he is in the audition process for the lead roll in "Shrek the Musical". He will be going to his call-back audition on January 31. He is so excited!!! Jordan and Jaron already think he is in "Shrek"!! They love going to New York City to see Daddy. He is our hero!!!!!!!!