Guinea Pig Love

Now that it's getting warm again, looks like I'm in for my share of visits to the neighbors, Kimball's just gotta get his daily dose of the piggies!!

A shout out for Samoas

For not even being much of a coconut lover, it's funny I've been craving those "Samoa" Girl Scout cookies for about a month now. Ever since I heard someone say they picked up a bunch of GS cookies I've been on the hunt. Where are the Girl Scouts? Are they done selling? I seriously go to the grocery store every other day amongst plenty of other errands and activities and evidently I'm the only one who never saw them around. Of course every kid in the neighborhood knocks on my door and sells me cookie dough and entertainment books to help fund their band trips, football teams and choir dresses and now that I actually WANT the product, can't seem to find it. I know they sell in spring but not sure if they are done, if anyone knows a sweet little brownie or girl scout trying to sell up her stock, PLEASE let me know. I'm craving those Samoas and thin mints!!!!!

A supreme lunch date

I wish I'd had my camera with me today to show the maximum cuteness of the tiny hands and mouth gorging on this thing but this pic I grabbed from google will have to suffice. Seriously, lunch dates with friends is a staple for me, a habit I will never give up because it's just one of my favorite things to do. But I have to say, lunch dates with Kimball are increasingly more fun all the time, if I take him to the right place of course. We took a routine trip to Costco today and I promised Kimball that afterward we'd get a BIG hot dog. BIG was the key word that excited him. Now most of us know, that even if hot dogs gross you out (which is just weird to me) EVERYONE loves the Costco hot dog. And if you don't, you're missing out and you need to double check your taste buds. Not to mention the fact that the hot dog and drink total a whopping $1.50. But this is all beside the point, my point is, my 2 year old is my most hilarious and entertaining friend. We had so much fun eating our hot dogs today, he had to comment on everyone and everything around him while happily chomping away and occasionally sipping on his lemonade. He was making everyone around him laugh by flirting with them and then started fake burping so that he could say "excuse me" over and over and then start laughing. I should have stopped him, and sort of tried, but it was really funny. He's just such a little boy now, I love being able to have conversations with him and laugh with him, if anyone wants to join us for a fun lunch date at Costco, I'm sure we'll have many more to come!

Sizin' up the gorilla

Wow Kimo, you're almost the size of that crazy gorilla! Well I figure our first family trip to the zoo is quite the epitome of a cute little family blog post, the kind that makes single people bored out of their mind, so here it is ;) Kimball was fascinated with everything from the giraffes and elephants to the tiny cricket that escaped the tortoise habitat.







Kimball's great big tiger "ROAR!"








A funny story about this rare white alligator, the ghost of the bayou. As we were waiting in line in this super hot and sticky atrium to see this guy (who appears more green in the pic) there were two little boys behind us in line. They were observing "the ghost" that was not moving an inch the whole time and finally said to their dad, "He's just a statue dad, he's not even real." The dad replied, "We wouldn't wait in line to see a statue, I promise he's real." "Well fine, then he's DEAD," confirmed the little boy. So I was reading Kimball a book last night that had an alligator in it which in the past he's always narrated correctly but what did he say this time? "Mommy look, (pointing to the alligator) DEAD!"

Evidently I'm cool, but not cool enough

We've all had those days where we waited in the most insane long line for something and the whole time we keep thinking, "should I just get out of the line, is it really worth it?" But the more time you invest in that line, the more you feel it more of a waste to not proceed forward. And there's always that satisfaction of looking behind you and seeing the line build, as there's nothing worse than being last. So there I was, in the parking lot of RC Wiley at 8:30 am on Saturday waiting in line among several thousand crazies like myself for a ridiculous shot at becoming a contestant on my favorite game show, Deal or no Deal. One of those totally weird days where you end up becoming friends by default with the most random people that you've zigzagged past 30 times in line and after a few hours you just can't ignore them anymore and you feel like you're in some weird twilight zone episode of survivor cause you never would have chosen to spend your entire Saturday with these people. And believe me, I could do a whole segment of posts just describing some of the most bizarre (and excruciatingly painful, at times) conversations I got roped into. I always think I'm such a people person until I walk away from an experience like that completely drained. I have confirmed that I have a stamp on my forehead (that just doesn't show up in the mirror) that says "please tell me your life story, I'm dying to hear it."

So after 6 and a half hours of purely delightful line waiting, there I was, ready to go blurt out my 20 seconds of "selling myself" to the casting directors. They put us in groups of 10 around a table and then after each person did a 20 second "pick me pick me" pitch they just said, "you, you and you please stay, everyone else can head out that door." Luckily I was one of those "yous" and then I went to wait in another line to go in a room where the supposed "higher up" casting directors sat waiting for us. I got thrown in another group of 10 to go and do the same thing. Well since my somewhat creative pitch worked the first time I figured I would spatter off the same thing since it was a different person judging me. Lo and behold, he sent away everyone from the table except for this dude from Wyoming, and me. He sat there looking over my application and scanning my answers to the questions and asked me what seemed like 101 questions. He seemed very intrigued and was laughing at nearly anything I said. I was thinking "holy crap I totally nailed this I'm so awesome" and then he shot me a big smile and shook my hand and said, "thanks so much Denise" and that was it. WHAT???!!!? I'm so confused! Where's my yellow slip? Rumor had it there are call backs on Tuesday night and the "yellow slip" is the golden ticket. I'm so bummed, the dude was loving me and we were totally jiving and then all of a sudden, bam, no slip for Denise. I saw him taking notes on my app as I walked out and now all I can do is wonder what in the crap this was all about. I'm still somewhat hopeful that NBC may just send a call my way sometime before January, cross your fingers!

Please leave comments if you have friends/family who had similar experiences, I'd especially like to know what callbacks was like for any of you who know someone that attends on Tuesday night.

In awe of young talent

After being released from my call in the Young Women program at church last month, I will be honest to say that after 2+ years, I was able to take a small breather and relax from the job that had demanded so much energy, time, and attention from my life. This is not to say I haven't sorely missed spending time with the girls at least 2x a week but I am so grateful for the relationships I was able to develop with them and what bright and beautiful young girls they were/are. I am fortunate to have one as my neighbor who keeps me in the loop so I still get to see the girls quite often, going to their games, performances, etc.
This neighbor of mine is one person that I look up to so much. She has an incredibly fun energy about her. She has 5 brothers, all of whom are just as fantastic as her. Their family is from England, so their British accents and funny words are enough alone to entertain. But my friend Caroline has quite the singing talent for a 13 year old girl. I didn't realize her brother Talley who is just one year older (in the 9th grade) had it in him as well, we all just know he's a soccer stud. She and her bro were performing at a school awards assembly this morning and they did the song "Cinderella under my Umbrella" by Rihanna & Chris Brown. It was so unbelievable, I just don't understand how an 8th and 9th grader can exude so much confidence in front of such a massive crowd of peers. Had I known it would be so impressive, I would have taped it but luckily their mom did. I begged her to post it on youtube and she said she would so stay tuned for the cute performance, I will post it as soon as I get word...

Weekend in Mendocino

After my sisters and I took our Mom to Vegas for her 65th birthday last year we decided this would become a yearly spring break tradition for the 4 of us girls. Except every year go somewhere new to retreat. This year my mom made the great choice of Mendocino, we stayed at a darling hotel called the Little River Inn right there on the northern Cal coast. A little cold and a little windy as expected, but beautiful and relaxing all the while. I also got to spend one super fun night out to dinner with some old high school friends but stupid me didn't take any pics, the memory will have to do!

A homemade seasaw! This thing was so much fun, it doesn't look all that tough but we were seriously launching each other, Lynette always seems to seek out the fun anywhere!







My 2 cute sisters, Deanna & Lynette













Dee & me








I thought this was a cute pic of my sisters helping Mom carefully walk down to the restaurant from the hotel. She crashed on her bike the first day when we had a little mishap on the Davis bike trail (long story involving aimless children selling magazines and big purple flowers) and consequently she really messed up her knee. She was a great sport to still even go to Mendocino because her knee was in a lot of pain. Good thing there was a fireplace in our room, she enjoyed getting her r&r from the warmth of the fire and a fabulous view of the ocean.

And to top off the trip, the handsome pilot on my Delta Skywest flight was Jess Hatcher! He is a friend from college who ended up marrying my friend Keri, what a small world!!! I felt like a lucky little kid with special privileges being invited into the cockpit!

Oh yeah, and April fools on the last post, duh! I wish I were April fools'ing about the size of my stomach but that is the truth, the cat is now officially out of the bag and I've got a long way to go!!!

Things come in 3s!

Well, I kind of wondered how my belly was already getting so huge at only 9 weeks along. This morning one little ultrasound answered it all. Anyone up for a nanny position?