box trolls

Posted on 06/10/2015 by amberunraveled

O. M. G. this movie was horrible. Not only are these things totally creepy but the movie was weird and dark. Guess it was my fault for not looking at the rating before we had family movie night and watched this awful train wreck. I just assumed cartoon – kids, plus C’s mom was talking about how the daily shows were all touting that someone carved all these figurines and positioned them all individually throughout the whole movie so it wasn’t computer generated or something – that could all be rumor mill though I wasn’t interested in this enough to find out so I have no clue what the facts are…

***spoiler alert***

What I do know is the movie was creepy, the trolls were creepy and at the end during the big monologue of individuality where the bad guy smashes all the trolls with a big stamper O lost her shit and flipped the F out and I was left dumbfounded staring at the TV thinking WHAT THE F IS THE RATING ON THIS SHOW!!!???? Yes, again bad parenting I should have done my HW. Obviously the trolls were all fine and had snuck, (WTF is “snuck” not a word? Spell check keeps telling me it’s not a word. What is the problem – what is past tense for sneaked???)

Anyway all the trolls had escaped their boxes and all was well with the world, happy ending tra-la-la, but still to see O completely devastated made me want to hurt people. Whatever. Lesson learned, although the rating thing only would help with the creepy-ness of the movie because O has since had complete and utter breakdowns from Big Hero 6 and Home. It saddens me that she got stuck with my emotional instability. I just watched the latest Fast and Furious and cried like an infant. So sad!!!

AND to top it off my kids want to wear boxes like all the time. Its so annoying to try to cut holes in boxes. Big Hero and Home are totally EXCELLENT movies. I mean, who doesn’t love Jim Parsons?

fair

Posted on 06/10/2015 by amberunraveled

We took the kids to the fair last week. I am excited just thinking about it. I love taking the girls to do fun stuff. Plus I have been shooting a webseries on the weekends so I wanted to do something fun and special with them. Plus, plus I wanted to see how W did on the rides because I want to plan a Disney trip.

O being herself. Hollywood 24/7.

Look at that face! She was so adorable. I was nervous she was going to blow a gasket because she’s all in the “do-it-myself” phase which literally makes me want to throw shit. There is a lot of stuff that drives me crazy that I have been able to let go of since having kids; like order, hygiene, a clean house… but when I am in a rush, like every morning – I don’t have time to watch you take 27 minutes to put on your underwear, W. Nor do I have time for you to change your outfit 64 times, O. I am just about capped on my maximum OCD tolerance. I digress…

Anyway I thought W was going to loose her shit and fight me standing next to her on the carousel but she let me hold on to her. Actually I was pretty bummed because C bought them both unlimited ride bracelets before we realized W was too small to ride any rides!

Lucky for us this fair wasn’t too strict on rules and let W onto the rides anyway! We just watched the rides first to make sure there weren’t size restrictions for a reason… like the higher up ones.

That was her first ride by herself, she had this weird face the entire time and she didn’t move a muscle, O had the same reactions on her first rides when she was little! We were like… “is she scared?’ “is she going to cry?” “why is her face like that?”

Then she got off and wanted to do it again, and again, and again so we knew she loved it.

W reallllly liked all the rides that were horses. I think she would totally *love* to ride horses when she grows up but I doubt C will ever let that happen. I used to ride horses for years when I was younger and decided to pick the hobby back up after I met C. He would come watch me in my lessons sometimes and decided I wasn’t very good. Just because I got thrown off a lot doesn’t mean I wasn’t a good rider, I like to think I had very challenging horses – therefore I was actually an excellent rider… but anyway –

They let her on a bunch of rides she was too small for – oops!

We were safe about it though. This little kid swing was awesome.

C won a prize throwing a baseball at a wall of bottles. He had to break a bottle. He’s so manly and strong.

O and W played this game of throw a ball in a hole – win a prize. O picks a cute blow up pony. Ugh, W not so much.

She picked some crazy ass purple alien. Whats worse is the damn thing stands up by itself and she puts it in odd places throughout the house and scares the shit out of me. She also put stickers all over its face for some reason. Creepy.

Ssssso fun. I want to try Dutch Wonderland next.

snapper

Posted on 06/03/2015 by amberunraveled

I have done a garden every year with moderate success. We have great morning sun and lots of ground so it’s pretty easy to get veggies to grow around the yard. Last year C made me a really great formal looking veggie garden and we had tons of veggies that went to waste. Every year we say we are going to only plant one of each type of veggie plant like cucumber or zucchini but then I always plant two in case one dies and then I feel to guilty to pull up the other one because it’s like alive and all and I don’t want to kill it. So weird, I know.

I experimented this year and did Lima Beans and Broccoli. I have never done these before and didn’t care too much if they worked or not so I just planted them right in the ground, oh I did spinach too.

I dug a trench and put in spinach and the broccoli. The next day I saw the Guniea Hens in my garden with big holes all in the areas I planted the seeds. Ok. That round was done for. No biggie.

Well a few weeks later I planted a row of sunflower seeds and they came up all nice and neat and then a whole bunch of other stuff came up all jumbled in a group. It’s lima beans, broccoli and 1 small spinach plant.

We are working on replanting the front too because the super cold winter killed a lot of our plants out front. Ugh so much work.

To my surprise a friendly (NOT!) snapping turtle took a liking to my small zucchini also. We were all staring at this prehistoric beast and realized it was acting all weird, like in a trance. I knew from my extensive National Geographic watching (and C said he knew from that kid sea turtle movie) that it was nesting!

How crazy is that?! Like real life NatGeo. I’m scared now we will have an infestation of snapping turtles.

O did some amazing artwork at school to represent our little turtle family.

new toy

Posted on 06/01/2015 by amberunraveled

Ok, soooooo I caved and purchased a selfie-stick. I know, so lame. Just typing these words I feel a hot wave of shame and embarrassment, but I gotta be honest… It. Is. AWESOME.

I busted this little gem out in the car on the way to our camping destination and you can read C’s lips probably… he’s saying “you are such a losssser”

Oh ok, wait – Lemme get in on this – I’ll throw up some gang signs.

It is so cool. And it just made sense that I totally needed one. I never get to be in any pictures! It’s not like I’m some duck face, straw sucking, bathroom snapping selfie obsessed kinda girl. But I might become one now… joking!

or am I joking?? I actually did a little research on selfie sticks, not because they were expensive – they were all about $20 but more on the different “types”. There were some with plugs that go int your phone, some with bluetooth remotes for snapping the pic. I went for the newest 2015 MPow model. It has bluetooth so it hooks up with your phone, then on the handle there is a small button you push for snapping the picture. It folds up pretty small and fits easily in a purse. It feels really secure and safe when holding my phone too, a lot of reviews said other sticks were very flimsy. You can kind of see W’s arm pushing the picture button in out first selfie attempt of the three of us.

Actually all pix posted was the real extent of my selfie taking. It was a very worthwhile investment though and just for all you parties interested I got it off Amazon for like $20. There were a few colors available, I got Blue because for whatever reason that one was on sale for cheaper – like $15.

[New Generation] Mpow® iSnap X One-piece U-Shape Self-portrait Monopod Extendable Selfie Stick with built-in Bluetooth Remote Shutter-Blue

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UV3D24M?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

recent favorite

Posted on 05/30/2015 by amberunraveled

Favorite photo of W right now. The colors are so pretty. The funny part is she is on top a giant bag of dehydrated meal-worms. Yup, a big bag of dead worms. Guniea Hens favorite treat, shake a bottle of those worms and the Guineas will come flying to you!

moments

Posted on 05/30/2015 by amberunraveled

who else forces their kids to do photoshoots?

MDW

Posted on 05/29/2015 by amberunraveled

Went to Granite Hill MDW with a huge group this year. We call it “camping” but most all of us have travel trailers which are pretty much like driving a hotel to a campground.

Camping is so great, this years spot was so awesome too. One of the guys had booked it a year in advance! Good spots book so fast, especially for large groups. Most campgrounds consist of a million pull in spots on tiny lots, but this was around the edges of a huge field that was so perfect for the kids to play in.

The girls were in heaven able to just run around like little wild beasts. I am LOVING this daddy-daughter moment. Such a great pic.

Or this one, accidental capture of my baby being catapulted from the slide. I’m not sure how but she landed on her butt… and of course went back down a zillion more times. This is how you travel in large campgrounds, that or walk but who can walk with a herd of children? (most the kids were sitting up by me)

I don’t know about most kids, but mine usually eat better in a group. She actually ate a ham sandwich – um, awesome.

Um, there are no words. Really.

Party in the USA people, we rocked that dance party. O shut it down. Love.

Community slip-n-slide. That’s whats cool about camping too, neighbors are usually pretty social and neighborly.

This is O on her bike. She doesn’t know how to ride, she says she is scared of it – but she does look pretty cute.

***sparklers**** I didn’t know they were even around anymore!!!

barre

Posted on 05/21/2015 by amberunraveled

I’m not a runner. Or a swimmer, or a weight-lifter, body-pumepr, jazzerciser, zumba dancer… you get the point. But I do have constant disgust and guilt about not doing any types of physical activity. Especially when I wake up in the morning and my bones hurt and I’m stiff and arthritic. It’s depressing. So last year I tried Insanity and it was total torture and I hated every second of it.

This year I finally got around to trying Barre. I’ve been wanting to do it for like – ever. There is a studio down the street from where I was working last summer and when I would walk to Subway on sunny days for lunch I would sit and chew my pickles and stare longingly with all the rest of the pervs eating lunch – at a perfectly sculpted female buttox in the studio window. I would daydream about rocking a thong that summer on family vacation… just kidding. My kids would be like, uh your butt is hanging out mommy, grossss.

So anyway – ironically there is a studio by my house and my awesome MIL bought me some sessions for xmas, SCORE>>>>

Unfortunately, they don’t watch kids so it’s like impossible to ever go but when I do get there I actually enjoy it and have fun. I can’t walk the next day but I feel proud.

I found this picture online and sent it to my friend and C to show them how painful it was in class.

The irony is I was like “I’m the girl dying” and they were both like, “oh, in blue??”

“No guys. This is not a real picture and that is not really me.”

Guess the joke was on me that I picked a photo with someone who actually did look like me.

table read

Posted on 05/19/2015 by amberunraveled

I think I heave serious commitment issues. Like when I commit to something, then regret it and wish I didn’t have to do it, then stress over it and stress over it and stress over it until I get there and have an amazing time and am SO HAPPY I did it. Until the next commitment… vicious cycle, press repeat.

I had known about “table read” for a while. It was a Sunday evening-ish and about an hour and a half away, I knew I would be home late and I didn’t know what it would be like and I was stressing I was going to suck or blow or just whatever word is “in” right now for being a total lame duck.

I arrived on-time and parked right next to one of the other girls in the cast so at least the intimidation of walking into a room of people staring at me was reduced. It was still a bit intimidating walking in there, not knowing what the process was going to be like. Is the producer strict? Is she mean is she snippy??? I was nervous.

First we did a photoshoot for the promotional material. So, you know when you don’t shave and you have to lay your hairy legs all in the laps and over top three other strange women? Oh, you don’t know what that’s like? Ok, well it is embarrassing. In my defense, I wore long capris and didn’t plan on snuggeling, but whatever – we’re all friends now! How about that moment the photographer asks you to take off your shoes and put your feet up on the coffee table and you remember you have the feet of an eighty-nine year old women which are currently died black from the gardening mulch? Yes, that also happened. At least I don’t have anything to be nervous about anymore. I might as well farted at dinner.

I gotta be honest though, having a photoshoot with a bunch of girls in the park on the water ain’t half bad. Actually it was very enjoyable.

The table read was also so fun and such a great learning experience. So cheesy, I know. But I googled table reads for like three days trying to figure out exactly what I was going to have to do. Now I am totally prepped for when I land that co-star role.

How hollywood does this picture look? Damn, should have gotten a mineral water. All famous people drink that weird mineral water that comes in that I Dream of Jeannie shaped green bottle. Must remember that for next time.

Well, here’s the cast. It’s almost like I have friends. Can’t wait to post more once we start filming!!! Two weeks count down… #nervouspooping

second child syndrome

Posted on 05/19/2015 by amberunraveled

I guess I should throw some pictures up of our second child too… small dogs are so different than the big ones. Not that I don’t love my little dog, she just requires much more and is less resilient than the bigger one. And peoples kids LOVE the small ones which makes it harder.

A face (ears) only a mother (or a Papillon fan) could love.