3 days until cast arrival... seriously?!

I cannot believe I've been in Sioux Falls amost three weeks- the time has flown by. Lots of work to do this weekend and then the cast arrives on Monday- hooray! It will be a busy, but fun week- we are really looking foward to it. We are de very excited to see all of our friends again. So, as you can see from my pictures, we try to have a little bit o f fun in addition to working our butts off! We went to falls park with our host family (no, those aren't mini-advance team members- they are Linda and my host brother and sister- Sam and Sydney). We also found street signs with all of our names-how exciting, I know. But, when you work as hard as we do, you'll do anything for a little entertainment. This weekend will be very busy preparing for cast arrival. We will have a booth set-up at "Life Light", a huge Christian music festival that is in town this weekend. We will also be printing schedules, allocating host families and taking care of the bazillion little details that we need to finish up.
Hope everyone is good in Colorado, Texas and wherever else you may be reading this. I miss you all so much and can't wait too see you!


P.S. I will be back in Colorado on October 14th... hooray! I don't know for how long yet, but time enough to go out with my girls, that's for sure!

Sioux Falls Pictures

Hello Sioux Falls

Here I am in my next city... Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I've never been here before and I am finding it to be a very nice town. It is much bigger than North Platte- they even have a Target- hooray! It's kind of sad to think how excited I was to see "normal" stores like Barnes and Noble and Starbucks. Sioux Falls if very pretty- green, hilly (compared to North Platte) and lots of trees. The weather has been quite pleasant as well.
My LOC (Local Organizing Committee) here is a group of alumni, community partners and sponsors who have all been working very hard to bring Up with People back to their community. Now that I'm here, our main focus will be to promote promote promote! We have a beautiful facility which holds 1800 so hopefully we will get 3600 cheeks in the seats!
It's very strange being on my own again after hanging out with 90 awesome people for the last week. I miss the cast, my friends/family in North Platte and especially my staff. But, I'm sure the next 2 weeks will fly by and then they'll be here and I'll be with them for 2 weeks until they go overseas and forget all about Kevin, Kelly and myself...
This weekend was nice- I got to relax a little bit and enjoy some quiet time to myself. My interns arrive tomorrow and we've got lots of work to do in the next two weeks to make Sioux Falls an amazing city for our cast.
Promise I'll get some pictures up soon!

work hard...play harder

Danni and Toby
This is what working 24/7 does to us


Danni learning some new moves from Korey

Korey, Me, DeeAnn and Kristin

Show Pics

Swing (North Amercia)

Sound of Peace

Ayiko!

Goodbye North Platte...

I can not believe it has been a month since I arrived in North Platte a wide-eyed UwP "rookie". Now I've got one-city under my belt and I'm ready to take on another one. Although, the week the cast was in town was very stressful, it was a lot of fun too. It was very rewarding to see the "fruits of our labor" as we watched the cast enjoy North Platte. Especially the show- I was so proud to see the fabulous job the cast did as they brought the house down in an almost sold-out auditorium. It was an AWESOME show! Once it was over, I was able to relax a bit and enjoy some downtime with my staff. They are such an incredible group of people and I am so blessed to have them in my life- even if it is only for a week at a time! It wa s very emotional to leave North Platte. Of course, I made the stress even worse by sleeping through both of my alarms the morning we left and woke up an hour and a half late. So, I spent the morning in a level-9 panic, bawling all the way. It just hit me hard, as my host family was saying goodbye to their "daughter" how amazing it is that these total strangers opened up their homes and hearts to me and helped me so much. It is really amazing how this job is not just a job, but a life experience that I will treasure forever. Although last week was stressful, it was totally worth it to see the standing ovation they got at the show!

Front Page!

This awesome picture made the front page of the North Platte Telegraph on Wednesday! It was so fun and turned out so well. A BIG thanks to our Host Families for the great idea and making it happen.
As you can imagine, I've been crazy-busy since the cast arrived in North Platte. I have never felt so "popular" with my phone ringing about every 2 minutes. I will be so sad on Monday when its time to pack up and leave North Platte and the cast and staff once again. They are all amazing people and I am so blessed to have them in my life. Plus, I will miss all the great friends I have met here who are now like family to me. Okay, no time to get sentimental- there are tickets to sell!!!

Playing Dress Up.... I love my job

Silly boys!

Aren't we cute?

I've always liked a man in uniform...

I'll explain later why we are all dressed like this!!

Khan and I are VERY excited we found enough beds!

We gave our printer a workout Friday- printing
95 schedules! It needed some love!

This is how we celebrated finding enough beds!
Champagne punch- yum!

1 day until the cast arrives...

Well, 3 weeks down and 1 to go in North Platte. The cast is scheduled to arrive around 1:30 tomorrow. I am very excited, but nervous too. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and North Platte will be a great first city for Cast A 2006! We've been super-busy the past few days getting everything ready, but I think we are very prepared. And although I was in the office all day yesterday and part of today, I really don't mind. I don't know if its because I love my job that much or I just don't have anything else to do here. It's not like I'm missing out on seeing my friends or family. But, I do have two great new friends (Christy and Khan) and lots of North Platte "family". I will miss them all so much when I leave. I can't believe how fast these 3 weeks have gone, and now I have to go do all this again in a brand new city!!

More pictures from North Platte

Choo Choo!
The happiest interns ever!
Christy and Stu throwin' down at the Cedar Bowl
STRIKE!
Khan's first time ever bowling!!

North Platte isn't so bad

ALMOST THERE!

I'm surprised I'm actually having a lot of fun here in good 'ol NP NE! We work hard, but we laugh all day and keep each other amused. I can't wait until we get all 85 host families and can break open the champagne we've had chilling for the past week! 7 more to go!

Good things about North Platte
1. Everything is so close! Errands that would take 2 hours to run in Denver, take only 20 minutes here... leaves a lot of free time to...
2. There is actually fun stuff to do here.... the Lake is wonderful. Who would have thought by first Jet Skiing experience would have been in Nebraska! Also, we are checking out the bowling alley tonight... Khan has never been before so we need to introduce her to this great American pastime.
3. Everyone here (for the most part) is super friendly. Men go out of the way to open doors for you and everyone waves at me from their front porches and cars when I go running.
4. People LOVE Up with People here. There seems to be a genuine excitement about us being here and the show. Hopefully the show will get sold out!!
5. GREAT food. My host mom is an awesome cook... let's hope I fit in my clothes when I leave here. I have seriously never eaten so much meat in my life!
6. Rush hour here is from 5pm-5:05 pm.... and by rush hour I mean 3 people coming to a 4 way stop at the same time!!
7. Great coffee shops with wireless internet and cheap ice cream!!

My only complaints are the lack of cute men (under 50), good shopping, mountains and real restaurants!!