go to your safe place

Posted on 01/07/2015 by amberunraveled

I sometimes feel very “techy”. I am usually good at uploading, downloading and generally figuring things out technically but sometimes I just want to chuck this computer off the deck and watch it smash into an infinite amount of uselessness. Because right now it is so useless. I know it’s probably user error but I am trying to download this video from Gmail and upload it to my fun new Youtube account and it’s taking umpteen million years to download because it’s so large.

Ugh. I will figure this out but it is making me crazy in the interim. I get so frustrated and then one thing leads to another and it makes me remember I hate winter and wish I could be sitting by the pool right now.

and yes those are my feet.

cards against humanity

Posted on 12/24/2014 by amberunraveled

Hangin’ with the fam Christmas eve is always fun. We are a pretty candid and sarcastic bunch so the laughs usually keep rolling all night long.

This year we played Cards against Humanity and I pretty much thought I was going to be sore the next day from laughing so hard. I will never be certain who thought of the answers on these cards but they are twisted. And they have a weird obsession with Harry Potter and butt holes. If your family is relatively open and you don’t have any medium age children around this game rocks.

I didn’t have any photos from this evening but here are a pair of clips of C and one of my brothers, striking similarly ridonculous poses.

four

Posted on 12/23/2014 by amberunraveled

Can’t believe this kid is 4. Everyone says Christmas babies get screwed and maybe later in life a birthday near Christmas will suck but for now I am convinced we are doing a pretty good job spoiling her – especially because she woke up and said “It’s my birthday again???”. hmmm

She’s all girl, twirly dresses, Barbie’s, my little ponies and make-up. She’s recently into acting and selfie’s, I might be in trouble…

Love her so so much! My little princess.

waverly

Posted on 12/21/2014 by amberngwin

We took Wave to her first audition. It ended up not being her thing but that’s ok. She used to be so outgoing but recently she is going through this shyness phase. Maybe we will try again in a few months if something comes up but for now she’s not interested in the lime light, at least the public one.

that’s a wrap

Posted on 12/13/2014 by amberngwin

Just wrapped the two days of Oakley’s first commercial. It’s going to be so cool! She’s already turned diva, asking why there were no pocket warmers in her coat pockets while we walked across the mall parking lot. Seriously!

She walked in and immediately won everyone’s hearts. Her happy, bubbly personality is infectious.

She has the guys helping her climb the rock wall the minute we walked in the door.

She was SO EXCITED to see wardrobe.

Lots of hurry up and wait between sets. We brought lots of entertainment for Oakley to do while waiting around; preschool workbooks, coloring books, my little ponies and we stopped at Walgreen’s and got one of those crazy cute stuffed animals with the ultra huge eyeballs. That pink owl is still a favorite in our house right now.

Super cute cowgirl boots we both loved as soon as we saw them! She sings “These boots are made for walkin’…” everytime she wears them now. I saw the same boots at Target and had to buy them for Oakley to add to her personal wardrobe collection.

Miss Cuteness in her Pool Attire!!!

These cupcake pajama’s were Oakley’s favorite.

Here’s a family photo with Oakley’s Fake Dad.

And some much needed R&R after a busy 2 days! She was a rockstar!!!! Look for her YMCA commercial starting New Year’s Day.

Frozen

Posted on 12/13/2014 by amberngwin

Party time for Oakley. She is turning 4 close to Christmas but we always celebrate early so people can do the holiday party too. It was rather small this year, I kind of slacked on preparations and waited till the last minute but O didn’t care.

Grandmom hard at work. She always helps me out, I am the worst hostess and party planner. I see 1 million ideas on Pinterest and then try to do them all at one time. They never turn out either. I’m literally about to chuck the crock pot out the window but that’s an entirely different story.

O picked a Frozen theme (surprise, surprise!) pretty sure every girl had a frozen birthday this year, that movie is pretty awesome though so I can’t blame them. Cake looks a little sideways but hey- it adds character.

balloons everywhere, like I said I skimped on the decor this year. kids love balloons though so O was happy. We still have one wrapped up in the ceiling fan. It might be there all year, it’s a two story family room so I hope its comfortable. I’ve finally accepted the fact it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

O and her cousin sharing a scarf – I know, seems a little dangerous. I took it away after the picture. I’m such a party-pooper.

We did pulled pork and a couple store bought salad sides. Not too fancy. Mini hotdogs wrapped in Pillsbury croissants – those are super easy and always a hit.

random pic of W sitting on the cooler. She so funny.

call backs – oh snap

Posted on 12/08/2014 by amberngwin

We were sitting on the couch talking and doing nothing Sunday evening when I randomly checked my phone’s email and saw that the casting director had emailed me.

oh. snap. O got a call back.

Wow. I couldn’t believe it.

They wanted to see O back for second round auditions the following day on site. C and I told O and she was stoked. I am not sure if she knew what I was even talking about but she was excited because C and I were excited.

I went to work and left early to go pick up O & C. We arrived onsite and hung out in the waiting room with all the other families and their little boys. Hmmm. We were the only family with a little girl.

The producer introduced herself and brought the sign in sheet around and basically was wondering what we were doing there, even though she was so so so nice I’m pretty sure she probably thought we were not supposed to be there. She took a few families back and even paired O up with a nice fake mom and dad that could pass as her parents. We went back to the audition room and I stood outside and watched them do all their scenes. They were in a glass room so it was so cool to see them all performing.

O was so adorable, of course. I even tried to sneak a couple pictures but to be honest I was scared I would get in trouble!

One of the men in the room came out and asked if I was O’s mother. They asked me to run a few scenes to see if O would have more natural reactions with me. It was a pleasure for me so we did our thing and went back to the waiting area.

They asked me a lot of questions about o when I was in there and my gut was telling me they really liked her – but as a mom i was afraid I was reading into it too much.

Then they asked to see O in the pool scene. I updated C on O’s performance and said we were supposed to go get in the pool for another portion of the audition. C noted that many of the other kids had left and there were only a few that stayed for the pool scene. I was a little more excited.

Right before the pool the CD asked to see O with another fake dad, so she went back in and ran a few more scenes. I wanted to be excited but I kept telling myself not to read too much into it. They even asked me to run a few more scenes! I wasn’t even here to audition!!!

Then like that the day was over. Back to reality. We left and went and picked up baby W from Grandmom’s house.

timing

Posted on 12/04/2014 by amberngwin

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!

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.

i <3 NY

Posted on 12/03/2014 by amberngwin

December 3, 2014. The real Lois and Cass adventure began.

Rose invited me to go to NY for an acting workshop with her. I have never been to NY but have always wanted to go. There was never any reason for me to go before so with a real legitimate purpose I was ecstatic. We took the train up and it was only like a little over two hours, so surreal.

We got on the train and sat down and started yapping away to realize we were on the quiet car, as the lady next to us so kindly told us.

We walked so much that my calves were actually sore the next day. I wish I had wore my Fitbit. It probably would have blown up. It’s a wonder all New Yorkers aren’t skinny – or maybe they are.

It didn’t even feel like NY, it felt like Baltimore to me. Until we saw the view from a rooftop bar. WOW. We ran around took a cab a few places, ate some sushi, then ran around some more places, had a mini photo shoot – see me as a coach model. Then we ate some hamburgers and went to our workshop.

So awesome.

Totally bombed the workshop, I was off book and was so excited to be there – obviously because the teacher said I had a “perma-smile”, which is some trendy way of telling me I was way too excited to be there reading in that room. Totally true. But whateves.

bombshell

Posted on 11/29/2014 by amberngwin

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.

She had a wash.

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.

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.

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’!

Complete with pink hair chalk, oh boy.