Broadway on Tour 20 Year Celebration

I used to be very big into acting. From my first role in The Wizard of Oz at Travis Ranch (my elementary & junior high). Our PTA would put on a play every year. It all started with a director named Dan Halkyard.

For those that knew me when I was younger, you know I had a BIG personality. Very Virgo! I like to think that I have toned it down a bit, but it's hard to take the Virgo out of a girl completely. Hehe. So acting was a great place for me to release that energy. I was only in the ensemble in The Wizard of Oz as an Emerald City Towns person but I had so much fun just experiencing being on the stage. I was hooked! I always tried out for the plays at Travis Ranch and they would always find a place for me somewhere. In my 7th grade year I finally got a main role as the Caterpillar in The Trial of Alice in Wonderland. My Mom made this amazing costume and I was transformed into the Caterpillar! Throughout this time I continued outside of school being a part of the acting school that Dan had been doing at Dance Etc and other theaters in the area. My best friend Lisa joined me in all of the experiences as we were youngsters and of course I had my sister Ashley with me as well.

Dan created Broadway on Tour and of course I had to be involved, I pretty much only had one director in my lifetime of theater and that was Dan! However, one of my last plays that I was involved in Dan didn't direct but was involved still.

Some of my favorite roles were The Caterpillar that I had mentioned above, The Clock in Phantom Tollbooth (mostly because I opened and closed the show), July in Annie (July was one of the orphans), a clown in Jack and the Beanstalk, A Clown's Play (this play was where we were dressed up as clowns and pretended that the main actor's for the show didn't show up and we had to put on the show ourselves, it was children's theater so it was very creative and fun), The Princess in The Frog Prince and Belle in Beauty and the Beast. After Beauty and the Beast I decided to leave the acting world as I was becoming a sophomore in high school and let the social life of high school take me away. Probably for the best as even though I had that itch to become more involved in acting and I wanted a regular life where it didn't revolve around theater.

Anyways, that's the little back story about me. So Broadway on Tour's 20 year celebration...I had talked to Lisa and Ashley and all three of us decided we would go together. We had planned to meet at Ashley's new place and all drive together from there.

So my day was pretty full, after Tre's nap we went over to my friend Rachel's house to visit with her for a bit, her baby shower was scheduled for this date at 4pm, but since I had plans to go to the 20 year reunion and had to be up in OC by 6:30pm, Tre and I came over early and then had to leave around 4pm. Rachel is the Mom of Ava so Tre got to see his friend Ava, they were so funny together. Ava is so mellow compared to Tre. Tre is all over the place crazy man and Ava was just watching him thinking, what the heck is he doing. At one point though, Tre tried to kiss Ava and at first Ava pushed him away (probably because he had his sippy cup in hand as well) but then she pulled him close to her and gave him a kiss on the cheek. TOO CUTE! So it was 4pm and time for us to leave Rachel's house, I got home and helped Jammer get Tre ready with dinner prepared and everything. Then off to OC to pick up my sis and Lisa for the reunion. I got to Ashley's right around 6:30pm and Lisa showed up at the same time. We went up to Ashley's new place, checked it out while Ashley finished getting ready and then we were off to the Ebell Theater in Santa Ana.

It was a funny feeling to be there since it had been about 16 years since I had been a part of the Broadway on Tour group. There were only a handful of people that I recognized but it was great being back in the mix of it all for a short time. I actually ended up sitting at the same table as one of the guys that I did the Jack and the Beanstalk play with so it was cool to reminisce.

It was a late night for and I didn't get home until around midnight. But it was a lot of fun and totally worth it.

Tre is 14 Months Old

Another month...gone in the wind...

• Tuesday, August 11th we went to Tre's friend Madi's house for a play date, play dates are a whole different thing now that Tre can walk. He can get to where he wants to go and play with the other kids that walk. He had a great time! Then he came home for a little nap and we played in the house till nighttime routine. This was also the 1st night that I attempted to put Tre to bed without nursing or any milk.
• Wednesday, August 12th Jammer had the day off and when Tre woke up from his 2nd nap we got some food and went to the park. My friend Rachel and her daughter Ava met us there. Tre and Ava wandered around the park together. Here are some pictures of them from the park: click here
  And a video of them click here
  
• Thursday, August 13th was our anniversary, to view the blog post about this click here. In addition to that fun Tre said "Tutu" for the 1st time. To see the video click here.
• Friday, August 14th Jammer's Mom, Tre and I went to lunch at Buca di Beppo and then after Tre's nap we went to Jazz in the Park. It was a lot of fun, some of the families from our play group were there so Tre had some of his friends to play with.
• Saturday, August 15th Jammer's Mom was still in town so after Tre's morning nap we met her and Jammer's Aunt at the beach. We played at the beach for a bit and then it was time for Tre to go home for his afternoon nap, then we went over to Jammer's parent's beach house for dinner.
• Sunday, August 16th Jammer took Tre in the pool.
• Monday, August 17th Tre and I went to Target to pick up some things and then when Jammer got home from work we went for a walk to the grocery store.
• Tuesday, August 18th Tre and I went for a walk around the neighborhood and then had lunch at Daphne's Greek Cafe. After Tre's afternoon nap we went over to my friend Edith's house for a little play date with her 2 daughters. We hung out at the house and walked to the park down the street from their house. She then made us dinner as an added bonus.
• Wednesday, August 19th we met a couple moms & their babies for lunch and then Jammer got home from work and we went for a walk to get frozen yogurt.
• Thursday, August 20th Tre and hung out at the house mostly. My friend Lisa came down to visit with us, then when Jammer got home we took Tre for a walk to get him out of the house for a bit since he was getting rather fussy with being in the house all day.
• Friday August 21 - Sunday, August 23rd I posted a blog post about what we did (lots went on), to see the post click here.
• Monday, August 24th I took Tre to San Elijo Park for his first run around in the spraygrounds at the park. To see a video of that click here. He was having a blast until he lost his footing and sort of took a little head skid into the ground, after that he was a little more cautious. After the park I brought him home and had to get ready for Pageant of the Masters. I was meeting my Mom and my sister's Jennifer and Ashley. Jammer was doing Daddy duty solo tonight!
• Tuesday, August 25th my friend Nicole came over (she was in town for the weekend so the day she left she came over for lunch), my friend Tiff came as well, so it was really nice to see those two! We went for a walk across the street and had lunch over there. Then that night I had a board meeting for our Homeowners Association.
• Wednesday, August 26th Jammer had the day off, we had a very busy day. First I woke up to my cat Roxy laying on the floor pretty immobile. Quite a scare, she is 19 years old so I can't help but wonder sometimes if the day she leaves me is coming. She hurt her back right leg and couldn't walk so I had to get her set somewhere safe so Tre wouldn't pick on her (he likes to play with the animals). That in itself was a stresser for the day, plus we had plans to go down to BMW of San Diego to return our old BMW and meet up with an old friend/co-worker of mine to discuss a potential job opportunity. Full day! We got home, then went for a walk across the street to get some dinner and pick up some things from the grocery store.
• Thursday, August 27th my cousin Isabelle and her son Liam came down to visit! We had plans to go to the beach, but I'm a dork and locked my keys in the car so our plan to go the beach was pretty much busted. We walked across the street and got some lunch and hung out there until my neighbors saved me and helped get my house keys. Craziness! The rest of the day Tre and I hung out until Jammer got home.
• Friday, August 28th we went over to my friend Rachel's community pool so Tre could swim with Ava. They have a cute little wading pool for the kiddies so Tre was able to walk around the pool. It was a super hot day so it was nice to get in the water. After that Jammer's Mom came over and we hung out until Jammer got home and then right after Tre went to bed Jammer's Mom took me to a movie across the street. We saw The Time Traveler's Wife. Oh and one other thing, when I got my mail this day, I found a magazine with local coupons and things in it and there in the magazine was one of Tre's pictures from his Rock'n Sprouts photo shoot, it was so cute to see it in print!!
  
• Saturday, August 29th Jammer's Mom and I went to lunch at Pat & Oscar's and then went to Costco. We thought Tre was ready for a second nap but of course after he laid down for a short while he decided he wasn't sleepy and wanted to get up. She came over after I told her he wasn't napping and we took Tre in the pool for a quick dip since it was another scorching day. In the morning Tre was being very crazy with his language skills, I tried to capture them on film as best as I could, check it out here.
  
• Sunday, August 30th Jammer had the day off so after Tre's nap (and when Jammer got home from surfing), Jammer's Mom, Jammer, Tre and I went out to lunch. Then we took Tre swimming after Jammer attempted to put Tre down for a 2nd nap which hasn't been happening.
  
• Here is where things get blurry...my laptop crashed on the 1st of September so of course I didn't have time to write what I did on the 31st and through till the 9th...hopefully I can remember some things for memory keeping sake...
  
• Monday, August 31st...the one thing I can remember happening is I was officially working full time again! I started working with a friend of mine who started his own web design & development business, as their Project Manager. Managing clients from inception of the design to completion. It is something I did before having Tre so I was very familiar with how this type of job functions. I decided to take away another nursing since it had been about 3 weeks since the bedtime nursing was taken away, after morning nap nursing was turned into bringing a smoothie into his room with me when he wakes up from his nap and give him that instead. He did well.
  
• Tuesday, September 1st I had a meeting down at the new office (Tre in tow). After Tre's nap (which has turned into only 1 nap a day as of a few days now, but I wasn't sure it was official until trying to put him down for a few 2nd naps that didn't turn out to be any napping), we got down to Pacific Beach and checked out the new office (Tre was all over the place). Got a few things done in the midst of keeping Tre occupied, quite a task to keep a wandering little 1 year old busy and focus on work in a non-child proofed office environment. Luckily the office was so new that there wasn't any electronics that he could get to yet just a room with a table and chairs (and his toys that I brought). After the 4 hours at the office we headed home and hung with Jammer when he got home from work before Tre's bedtime. Tre ended up having a smoothie after his morning nap and decided he didn't want to nurse at all in the afternoon so I figured I would just take that one away as well. So 2 nursings were taken away. This is where the sadness of my computer occured, when I got home from the office my laptop wouldn't turn on. Of course, you all know I was devastated and as soon as Tre went to bed I was on my junky old desktop trying to get in touch with Gateway for some guidance, wouldn't you know that because it was 6 months out of warranty they were no help! I decide to call it a night since I had a big day coming up the next day. MY BDAY!
• Wednesday, September 2nd was my birthday, I turned 31! I have done a post specifically about this day since it was a fun one! Click here to view the post.
• Thursday, September 3rd we went over to my friend Tina's house so Tre and her son Gibson could play. They went in the baby pool in the backyard and hung out in Gibson's play area.
  
• Friday, September 4th I took Tre to Cottonwood park for a play date. He was running around this place having a blast. A few other Moms & their kids showed up to hang with us and Tre learned one of the boys names very quickly! Kylan was his name and the Mom said Kylan's name and Tre repeated it numerous times. So funny how much of a parrot he is.
• Saturday, September 5th, I didn't take any pictures on this day, so I can't remember if there was anything that we did. Darn short term memory! The one thing that I remember from this day is Tre had a little relapse on needing nursing during the day, after his nap he cried for his nursing pillow and would point to it and then lean on me. It was hard not to give in, but I just kept showing him his smoothie and eventually taking him out of his room distracted him enough to forget about it.
  
• Sunday, September 6th we hung out over at Jammer's parent's beach house. Jammer's Mom was there with his Aunt and Sister so Tre and I went over there for a little play time and dinner.
  
• Monday, September 7th was labor day, since Jammer had to work, my sister Ashley had invited me over to my parent's house (she was house & dogsitting) for a little BBQ. Since we had nothing going on, I figured what the heck, might as well. We went up to OC and hung out at the house. This was Tre's 1st time at my parent's house since he has been walking since the last few family gatherings have been at my sister Jennifer's house. My Mom has TONS and TONS of knick knack's all over the place so needless to say, I am very busy watching Tre as close as I can. I'll be glad when Tre is a little more understanding of stairs and things so it's not so stressful a time over there.
• Tuesday, September 8th Tre and I went to Poinsettia Park for a meetup, but only 1 other Mom and her daughter had showed up. Actually we were pretty late showing up and luckily they saw us arrive as they had left so they came back to play with us. That night Tre devoured his dinner, YAY here is a video of a song that I was trying to get him to sing, click here to check it out.
  
• Wednesday, September 9th...Tre's 14 month birthday!!! Can't believe 2 months has already gone by since he turned 1 year old...literally a blink!! Truly amazing how fast things start to go when your little one is on the move!

For those of you that see Tre often, you know how vocal he is, so I was trying to keep track of the words Tre can say, but stopped writing them down because they are coming at me at a VERY fast pace that I can't keep up...here are some to name a few...
Yummy, bite, bye bye, thank you, shorts, clock, bubbles, woof woof, park, airplane, "get down" (learned from me telling the cats to get off of things), butterfly, brush (we sing a little song when we brush his teeth, so he sings with us, basically it's "brush, brush, brush" and he thinks its fun to brush while singing), happy, ocean, moo, neigh, chirp, etc....

Huge Shocker Word: Pacifier - I had told Jammer I was going to go get Tre's pacifier and immediately after that Tre said, "Pacifier" and we both looked at each other like, "Did that really happen?" If he wasn't there to witness it I don't think anyone would've believed me, actually I don't think I would've believed me! Most often he has gotten pretty lazy with it now, but you know what he is asking for.

Names: Tutu, Terje (Tre's friend), Connor (Tre's friend), Jadenn (my niece), Ashley (says Ashy, my sister), Grandma (sometimes mumbles it, but he's saying it), Ava (sounds kind of like aw-va, Tre's friend), Justin (Jammer's brother), Tre, Anderson, McKenna (sounds like Kenna, my niece), Jenn (my sis), John (Jammer's brother), Shaun (Jammer's cousin), Malia (he's said this one a couple times, but it's kinda mumbly, Jammer's sis)

I could go on and on...but from now on basically Tre is pretty well versed and VERY vocal and most often if you say it, he'll repeat it.

As usual, Tre has amazed me with his development over the past month. He is moving at a very fast pace since he got more comfortable with walking and sometimes I can barely keep up. We had to lower his crib again because now that he is trying to climb on everything he makes me nervous that he might try and climb out. He is very loving and gives hugs and kisses all the time. The best is when I am doing something and he randomly comes up to my leg and just hugs me. One of the sweetest things. He is obsessed with cats, whenever he sees a cat, whether it's in a book or in real life (fake & real cats) he says "Meow, Meow" very loudly. I think because Cyrus lets him hug him and isn't afraid of him like Noa is, so he likes that he can cuddle him. Cyrus has happily surprised me with how good he is with Tre, such a good cat! Well, my monthly pic was of course difficult and I was lucky enough to get this shot for record's sake. They probably aren't going to be the greatest picture of Tre but the growth measurement will still be there so it's added to the post as usual. :)

Well, since this post is well overdue I'll leave it as is and try to be better with the 15 month post now that I received my new laptop.
To close out here is a link to the rest of Tre's 13 month of life pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=147208&id=541262742&l=cbf1776380
Enjoy!

My Birthday at Disneyland

So my birthday was coming up and I was thinking, "What am I going to do for my birthday?" I got an email from Disneyland with a free pass for my birthday. I thought, hmmm...that could be fun. Tre would be free and so would I. I decided that was what I was going to do. I was talking to my cousin Isabelle and she told me that she had an annual pass so we decided to meet up there. Yay, I wouldn't have to go alone! After telling Jammer my plan for my birthday he was bummed he had to work and said he was going to try and get off early so he could come to Disneyland as well, since we were going to go after Tre's nap.

Unfortunately, he ended up having a training that went till 2pm so he ended up not being able to go so my friend Ashley and her son Connor came with us. We headed up to Anaheim after Tre woke up and were so excited. Connor and Tre were sitting in their car seats in the back seat just hanging out. We got to Disneyland and met my cousin there and we jumped on the tram to get to Disneyland. I was getting those butterflies of excitement just reminiscing of all the times I have been to Disneyland in the past and how much I really do like that place. I just wish it didn't cost an arm and a leg to go because we would probably take advantage of it a little more. That annual pass idea might be worth it if we lived a little closer?

So I get my FREE birthday ticket into Disneyland and we head to the gate. So exciting! First thing we did when we got into the park was take a picture of the boys in their strollers.

Then we headed towards Fantasyland...now it had been a while since I had been to Fantasyland and on some of these rides. We wanted to go on Peter Pan, but the line was SO long. So we decided to go on Mr Toad's Wild Ride first because the line was short and we were SO HOT! Well, that probably wasn't the best idea, my poor little boy had quite a scare. It was dark and the premise behind the ride is a little scary...from what I remember it starts with driving into the library, crashing through a fireplace, we go through Toad Hall with all sorts of stuff happening, then we leave the house and are going down a road and then you lose control or something and look like you are going off the road but make a sharp turn to avoid that and head into a warehouse of explosives so an explosion happens as you are crashing through a brick wall then you go through the town with more chaos and enter a courtroom where you are guilty of plenty of stuff and get sent to a dark room and then end up on some railroad tracks where you head on collision with a train and you die and you go to hell where it is hot and there are little devils laughing at you (the room is super warm which totally sucks for a hot day). YIKES! Could I have traumatized my child any more? He was not happy about the ride and started out in fright, then moved to shock and then to tears! I was taking pics throughout the ride trying to distract him from what was really going on, but it was no use, he was freaked. Poor little guy! As soon as I saw one of the first pics I wanted to jump off the ride and get outta there to save my baby from any more scariness, but no luck, we had to tough it out. I was glad to be off the ride!

We decided to go to Small World next, figuring it was pretty harmless, but the damage was done. Anytime it got a little dark (each transition from location to location) he would get scared and start to cry or get a little panicky. So sad! I just kept comforting him and singing the song and trying to get him engaged in what was going on with all the animals/characters/etc. Next ride we went on was Alice in Wonderland, it was a little rocky at times and Tre had to sit next to me instead of on my lap. He did okay on this ride because it didn't really get too dark but a lot going on. I was hoping that after a few rides he would realize that not all the rides were like the first one. :::still kicking myself for going on that one first:::

After that we decided to head to Frontierland and go on the Winnie the Pooh ride, that was new for me, I'd never seen that one before. It's right next to Splash Mountain, it's where the Country Bear Jamboree was. When we got to the ride my friend Ashley realized that her son Connor's glasses weren't on Connor and weren't in his stroller. This was a big worry because Connor's glasses are prescription glasses, pretty expensive. So unfortunately, she had to miss the ride and go back and look for the glasses. My cousin, her son, Tre and I went on the Winnie the Pooh ride and then when we were done we met up with Ashley and she was super bummed that she couldn't find the glasses.

We decided to head back towards the entrance to submit a report for the lost glasses and my cousin was going to head out from there since she had to get home and her son Liam needed to take a little nap on the way home, not too late or he would be up late that night. Ashley and I ended up staying and watching the parade they had and we were so glad we did because it made for a nice ending to the day.

It was a little difficult doing the Disneyland thing without Jammer to help because at each ride we had to take the kids out of their strollers, grab our stuff that we didn't want stolen, hold them in line and then after the ride put them back in the stroller with all the stuff and then cruise to the next ride. Quite the chore! Plus we only stayed for like 3 hours because it took a little bit longer than expected to get into Disneyland and then get situated, now that I have been there recently, I think I could go back with a better agenda. But I am SOOO...glad that I did it. It was a great birthday.

The ride home was pretty quick, but Tre was having a tough time. He had just started doing 1 nap a day for a week or so and still wasn't used to the lack of sleep in the afternoon. Connor had taken a nap during the hunt for his glasses situation so he was chill on the way home. Tre started to melt down at the end, thankfully Ashley was able to feed him food and try and keep him happy. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I was on my own so just another reason why I was so happy they came with us.

When we got home we got Tre ready for bed after eating a little more food and then as I was getting him ready for bed and stuff Jammer was preparing me a nice dinner. Tre was in bed and dinner was ready, Jammer did a great job. I enjoyed a yummy meal of chicken caesar salad (which I have been craving a lot lately), filet mignon, twice baked potato and a surprise birthday cake at the end. I was very happy that he had put it all together, it ended my birthday in a very special way!

A fun filled Disneyland-tastic afternoon with a nice birthday meal with my hubby! I feel very blessed!!

Laptop Crashed

So I have been MIA lately on this blog...well as you can tell from the title of this post it is because my laptop crashed on September 1st. The day before my birthday. The computer was only a year and a half old! Of course past the warranty time frame so I am out of luck on them fixing it. Super duper bummed! I lost some pictures and a video in the crash and hope to retrieve them soon, so here is a picture of Tre and I to hold everyone over, it was taken at Jammer's parent's beach house in the hammock they have in their backyard.



Sorry to leave people hanging with no posts for a long time now.

I do have a birthday post to post from my birthday and hope to have that finished very soon, I'm using an old desktop and it is moving at a snail's pace.

Donations being accepted on a new laptop...hehe!