Tag Archives: kids

timing

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Isn’t it so weird how things work out sometimes.

I was in an allllll day killer work meeting Thursday December 5. I checked my email during my lunch break and saw a same day casting call request for kids age 5-6 (with a note that said small is better). I had submitted O’s picture a couple times before and she had actually been pinned for a Health Insurance commercial but she was eventually released and didn’t shoot it.

Even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to submit O for this casting because I was in the meeting I didn’t delete the email. And she was also too young, being almost 4 – but the casting did state “small” so….

Low and behold the meeting ending early – by 4 pm so I shot the casting agency over O’s picture. She immediately responded “bring her in by 6pm“. Wow. Okay! I ran to the kitchen and grabbed some snacks for the girls and shot over to their school to pick them up. I told O we were going to her first audition and she was super excited.

When we got there the room was full of kids.

We got paired up with a lady that could pass as O’s mom and the CD came out to call O for her turn. He looked at her and said she was too young and requested the mom bring her son in. I was floored!

Luckily I spoke up and mentioned we had been requested to come in and that I was actually O’s mom. They CD was super cool about it and said O could watch this mom and her son go through the motions and he would give O a chance.

At this point I was thinking ugh i just wasted so much gas driving out here, but I wanted to see how O would react taking instructions from the CD anyway to see if it would be worth pursing this any further.

The mom and er son left and I peeked through the door crack and watched the CD work with O. He had her run through a couple scenes and then opened the door and asked me to come inside. I had W with me since I couldn’t get in touch with C so I was a little panicked W might flip her lid at any point. Lucky I had an emergency lollipop and she sat peacefully on the couch in the audition room (ugh, miracle!).

The CD said O was great a taking directions and super adorable so he was going to go with it. COOL!

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He asked me to do a couple scenes with her and then we were done. It ended up being so fun and an experience. She did so great. I was super proud.

bombshell

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Sooooo I had to promise O I would bring her with me to the hair salon next time I went since her friend at school got her hair cut. We went after Thanksgiving. Black Friday.

It was so cute. The girl who does my hair did O’s also while mine was processing.

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She had a wash.

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Then a little trim and even a blow-out. I think it made her day. Such a little diva. She probably could have gone another ten years without a hair cut at it’s current rate of growth but at least it’s all even and she had such a great time. Plus I like seeing my hair dresser she is smoking hot.

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Since this I have tried to blow-out her hair and she tells me I am awful. She said Daddy was even better at hair drying than me and honestly I don’t recall him ever blowing out her hair so I must be bad.

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Then we went to 2 Walmart’s to find hair chalk – on Black Friday. It worked out perfect though because I bought some Christmas presents for the cousins and I got the new season of Arrow for less than half price. Had I known that before I got home I would have bought some additional TV series’!

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Complete with pink hair chalk, oh boy.

OBX Family Vaca

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8/2014

I wait all year for this trip. 1 week in the Outer Banks. It’s amazing. No work, the sun, lots of shopping, never having to cook… I could get used to living like that. Too bad I’m not independently wealthy and have to work for a living.

Last time W was at the beach she was an infant so I was a little worried how this trip would be with a 16 month old running around. When O was around that age she wouldn’t touch the sand, which made it very easy to hang out on the beach since she confined herself to the beach towel. I doubted I would be so lucky again with Miss Independent pants (W). So I just planned on lots of baby pool time since it was fenced and I wouldn’t have to worry about the girls getting too far if they decided to run away.

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We did end up venturing to the beach. I may have mentioned I have slight paranoia about certain things, like the ocean, so I brought a baby gate with me for peace of mind. As crazy as we looked it was so worth it. And several passer-byers came over to give us parent of the year awards.

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O loved the ocean, a little too much for my taste but what could I do. She did wear her life jacket.

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Counting down the days until next year!

its tuesday

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camping-la-bella-vista

Yay for Tuesday. So close to Friday, yet so far. This is a nice big holiday weekend coming up and we are going camping. I love camping, the girls love camping, and even C loves camping. We have a big group going too so there is sure to be endless entertainment of the cheap and disturbing kind. I feel so close to nature sleeping out in the woods and sitting next to a campfire for umpteen hours drinking beer. While our version of camping is probably slightly different than most because it involves a travel trailer complete with a flat screen tv, full shower, toilet, microwave, heating and A/C we do park it at a campground so it is technically called “camping”. We originally invested in a small Wolf Pack toy hauler which is a travel trailer you tow behind a truck. A toy hauler is where the backdoor comes down like a ramp and men can drive their “toys” up in it. We’ve carried small boats and golf carts but often people carry motorcycles and ATVs. Our Wolf Pack was such a delight we upgraded to a Fifth Wheel toy hauler. One of those big suckers that have to hook into the bed of the truck. That was the worst mistake ever. It was an amazing condo like trailer that could sleep like 27 people and got us about 9 miles to the gallon. That hurt driving up and down the coast to the beach. This year we did an even swap with that fifth wheel and got something midgrade in size. It is awesome. I can’t wait to enjoy copious amounts of adult beverages and too many s’mores. My agenda includes parking my butt in a lawn chair and watching my kids play with sticks and rocks for three days straight.

audition time

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Well, this is it my friends. Time to see if my one improvisation class has paid off yet. Picture this; stranded woman on highway rescued by mysterious trucker who – gasp – turns out to be a ghost?! Insert shrieks, trembles, sobs and shakey hands here. This is for a legit show too. I need to go practice stat while my kids aren’t home. Somehow I also need to video tape this myself… this could get interesting. Hopefully my neighbors don’t call the police, or see me doing this – period. They already have to think I’m crazy, especially after I bought all those chickens. I’m sure the HOA just love, love, loves me.

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But, in other things exciting we have improve class deuce tonight! I am actually very – very excited. I’ve been practicing all week. Totally bouncing ideas off my three year old. She is so good. I’ll ask her something standard like “O, come over here so I can brush your hair” and she comes back at me with “It’s growing so long because I take my vitamins, it’s going to grow down my back, and out the window, and over the cliff, and over the train tracks, and then the train will just run it over.” Seriously. I can’t make that up. Like I said, she is so good!

I even ordered Whose Line is it Anyway? off Amazon. Going to get myself all pumped up before class, get some ideas and stuff so I can go in fresh. I love getting excited about stuff; like Christmas, and my birthday, and losing 3 lbs after a really bad stomach virus. You know it’s the small stuff that just adds up.

Ok. I gotta go get my scream on. I’ll keep everyone posted, unless I don’t get a call-back then I will never speak of this again. PEACE.

and the winner is…

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Preschool shopping has been, quite possibly the number one most emotionally exhausting experience in my life so far. (aside from actual childbirth, or getting pregnant, or being pregnant, I sense a theme here… I digress) So after strenuous hours of research, phone calls, emails, voice messages and yelp reviews I had narrowed the playing field. Please note I have identified decision making as my personal Achilles’ heel, so that and my highly anxious personality really make this fun on all levels.

option one: In home Provider; commuting convenience; 2.1 miles from my home, nice. highly secure; eh, she had a baby gate at the bottom of the steps but I was comfortable the kids weren’t going to be coordinating any prison break-esque escapes with all the toys and activities that were available to them in their space. clean environment; yes. price; amazing. And personal references to boot (my neighbors kids still attend so that’s kind of a big deal). Not a bad deal, but without anything to compare it to….

option two: Elitist School #1; commuting convenience; yes. highly secure; yes. clean environment; yes. price; holey. f-ing. snap. They must be paving their floors in gold because I would need to sell my house to be able to afford part time tuition there. NEXT!

option three; Elitist School #2; okay. I really don’t even know where to begin. We pull up and it’s essentially a monsoon outside. The school is a transformed historic house with a rickety pole fence around the grounds. Inside the yard is a large garden with a life-size, faceless scarecrow mounted in the middle (or as O loudly proclaimed, “oh look it’s a dead-guy!” …thanks Despicable Me for the highly awkward and ironic catch phrase), chicken coops (uh, yea. Hello? how else are the kids going to practice baking without farm fresh eggs on premises), buckets and wheel barrels are strewn everywhere and the yard is nothing but mud and standing water. The front of the orphanage, oops, I mean school, has a large bay window on one side and two single windows on the other. We see all these little faces peering out of the single windows, and in the bay window we see a lone boy watering plants. weird. Inside is a train wreck. The girls who answered the door is in her full blown fish-net best. I kid you not. Her favorite t-shirt must have gotten run over by the lawn mower and instead of bidding adieu she simply knotted all the tears together. Honestly, her shirt could totally pose a strangulation hazard for the children. I would have told her so, or given her some money for a new one but she simply left us in this tiny hallway ridden with boots and raincoats to wander the building at our leisure, how… ahem, safe. We found out rather quickly there wasn’t really anywhere to wander expect the hall, an office and two classrooms, one which was locked (by a deadbolt at the TOP of the door, very horror film-ish if you ask me). So we walked to the other classroom and a young girl opens the door and peers out with her sad eyes, wild hair and spaghetti-O stained face and inquired as to which child we would like to adopt, I mean was ours. Yes, the cat is out of the bag. The entire experience was reminiscent of some French quarter century orphanage visit and we pretty much beat feet out of there as fast as we could and called the daycare mom. They start next week! Woo-Hoo!

celebrity look alike

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Twice now I’ve been told I look like Ashley Tisdale. Actually, once I was told I looked like her and the other time a boy’s dad approached me at a cook out and told me his son had said “Look Dad, Ashley Tisdale is here and she’s pregnant!” Thankfully I really was pregnant or that would have been pretty awkward.

However, recently I was approached and asked if I had seen the new TV series Supernatural. I haven’t seen Supernatural but as this was a random stranger approaching me I patiently waited for his complimentary comparison to some relatively attractive girl on the show who probably makes a zillion times the money I do. Then he hit me with “Well, there are these demons…” Okay, whoa – never have I been compared to some supernatural demon before. (at least to my face) Not sure where he was going with that one but apparently my black as coal eyes with a lack of any humanity reflected in them persuaded him to express the uncanny resemblance I had to a straight up demon. Nice. Kind of explains a lot since I often compare my absolutely gorgeous children to demons. Guess I can’t blame everything on their daddy’s genes anymore.