Weekend Away in San Jose

For years D's cousin's have been asking us to make the trek to San Jose to visit them. Whether its been time constraints or scheduling we just haven't gotten the chance to make it up there, until now. We both made the time to take the weekend and go up for a visit and to watch our little Bella dance her heart out. Friday night D and his dad went to the Lakers game so my M.I.L. and I had an evening out with dinner and then a movie, we watched Brave on BluRay (seriously CUTE!)

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and braved the elements with a little Starbucks. After a nice drive we made our way there. Unloaded and then made our way to the mall for some shopping, Wreck It Ralph and dinner. It was a Disney movie weekend and Wreck It Ralph was really cute! We braved the pre-Black Friday crowds and had a wonderful dinner. Once home we were greeted by the rest of the family who was at rehearsal all day long. Our poor dancer was wiped out, but managed to come in and chat with us for a bit.

Sunday was performance day. We all got ready to go, went and got some flowers (after another mall shopping trip) and made our way to the Santa Clara Convention Center. We cheered on our little Bellarina as she performed in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop and 2 other numbers. She killed it on stage and we were all so proud of her! Since she had another show to perform we left and went to get dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and watched football/basketball games. We enjoyed our wings and fries and of course conversation.

Yesterday we had to come home. Once we said our goodbyes and packed up our things we made the trek home. But not before stopping at the outlets in Gilroy. We drove around and saw the Coach outlet. I have been eying a bag on Pinterest so I wanted to go in and check it out. We walk in and everything is 50% off retail and they are having and additional 30% for Monday only! Sweet! Time to shop! Unfortunately they didn't have the bag I was looking at. I perused a little bit, because you have to when it's that good of a deal. A couple things went on my wish list for another time! ;-P We had a great weekend spending time with family and look forward to going up again soon!

Congrats to The Halls

On May 27th our friends Mr. and Mrs. H finally tied the knot! Our good fried Mr. P picked us up and we headed out to Studio City's Sportsman Lodge to celebrate their nuptials. We arrived at the beautiful location as the bride and groom were taking photos. We mingled with other guests and then took our seats to wait for the wedding to start. Twinkle lights decorated the aisle and gazebo, and trees surrounded the area. Soon the music started and we got excited to witness such a great event. Despite a hiccup with the D.J., we were suggesting that we all start to hum The Wedding March, the bride made her way down the aisle escorted by her brother. They exchanged vows, and gave each other their first wedding gift. A red rose. Whenever they wish to express their love for one another, all they would have to do is purchase a single red rose and display it in their home. I liked the sentiment of that! Once they were announced we all headed inside to sign the guest book and find our seats.

We were seated with many other friends and even people that we knew outside of the bride and groom. It's funny how small the world really is. We ate a wonderful meal and drank some good beverages. Of course, my hubs cheated a bit and after the open bar was closed he just purchased soda's and spiked them with SoCo from his handy dandy flask. Once the dance floor opened up, we cut a rug. A little Salsa and some swinging hips. During the money dance I stood in the groom's line first, knowing full well that I would dance with both of them. It's my tradition. I told him that I would spin her and dip her! He was very impressed! Haha. When I got into the bride's line, her brother came up and asked to cut it. I of course told him that it was fine. He stood their for a couple of minutes before he turned around and asked why I was in the wrong line. I told him that it was tradition for me to dance with the bride. She always has to win the money pool! It was my turn and I did as promised. I spun her and dipped her and then let the little boy who was behind me show me up! We ate cake, danced some more and then said our goodbyes.

Mr. P and D

Mr. H

Mrs. H and her brother

So pretty

AWE!

First Dance

Centerpieces

Of course I don't go to any wedding without making something. This time I quilted some custom place mats. Here's how I made them:

 

Supplies:
Enough fabric to cut 5" squares to make (4) mats: total 48 squares. (I usually use a charm pack for this because they already come pre-cut at 5", but couldn't find any so I just used 5 fat quarters and it seemed to be enough.)
2 yds backing fabric (will be enough for binding as well)
Quilt Batting

Directions:

1. Sew your 5" squares using a 1/4" seam in 3 rows of 4 across. Sew all rows together to make the place mat top.

2. Baste, quilt, and bind as desired

There it is. Wedding recap and place mats! I hope they enjoy them as much as did making them! May their life be filled with love, laughter and a happily ever after!

Sunburn, Dancing, and Chicken Taco Joes

Ok so this weekend was slightly uneventful, even though I should have been finishing up all the things for the baby shower on the 5th! Ahhh! I know mom, don't hate me! I'll get it all done!

Saturday I awoke to the not so quiet sounds of the hubbs getting ready for work. I love him, but sometimes he sounds like an elephant tap dancing! Dropping things in the bathroom, turning on lights, opening and closing the door several times.....sometimes Shelby looks at me like "C'mon! It's SATURDAY!" Lol anyways, I got up ate breakfast and tooled around on the computer for a bit, then decided to get ready to lay out and get some sun on my oh so pale skin! I guess I'll never learn! Even after 2 layers of 15 SPF (I know I know!) I thought I was doing good! I got home after 3 hours and took a shower. Still didn't feel bad, finished getting myself ready and BAM! Aloe Vera time! The backs of my legs and my shins were burning! I sucked it up because I was heading out to the local high school with my M.I.L. (Mother-In-Law) for a dance show.

I arrived at her house, we packed up had a yummy salad dinner at CPK and some Mai-Tai's! (They fit in with my sunburn!) Once into the gym at the school, I tracked down my friend Mr. L who is the coach and choreographer of the team to let him know we were there, said hello to his entire family, my other family, and then found a spot on the bleachers. Now under any normal circumstance, sitting on bleachers for three and a half hours is uncomfortable. Add in sunburn, no A.C. and 500 people and I was roasting and hurting by hour two! It was a great show, and the girls did so good, but I couldn't concentrate! I HURT! As soon as I got home, I slathered on more Aloe and plopped myself in front of a oscillating fan until the heat went down.

Sunday I awoke and was a little sore so the plan of laying out got cancelled and I just lounged around with my pup. Worked out for 45 minutes, yay BodyRock!. When D got home from work I decided to go through our recipe book and figure out something we haven't tried yet. Then I went onto Pinterest and remembered this recipe for Taco Joes. Like Sloppy Joes, but with taco seasoning. Since we had some frozen chicken breasts I decided to make shredded chicken instead of ground beef to make it a little leaner.

Shredded Chicken Taco Joes

Forgive my blurry photo

Ingredients:
(2) Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts
(1) Package Taco Seasoning (I used Ortega Jalapeno & Onion and it was nice and spicy!)
(1) 8oz can Tomato Sauce
Splash of water
Whole Wheat Buns
Cheese (if you desire)

First I cooked my chicken fully in a little olive oil and shredded it. I placed it back in the pan with the taco seasoning and the tomato sauce. Mixed it together on med heat for 2 minutes. It was at this point I needed a little extra "saucyness" and added in a little splash of water. Spoon onto buns and serve!

It was a perfect hot day meal and so easy. Under 30 minutes and 1 pan! My kind of meal! This one is going in the rotation!

Carmaggedon & Bachelor Parties!

As I am sure that you heard we had a dramatic weekend in Los Angeles recently. It cause such a fuss and even coined it's own name "Carmageddon!" Caltrans workers shut down a major artery into L.A. from 8PM Friday the 15th evening to 10AM Sunday the 17th. They made this big fuss about everyone saying off the road and doing things at home. They had $8 chartered flights from JetBlue to take you from Burbank Airport to LAX and even were giving discounted helicopter rides. Everyone was expecting the worst.

However, before we even knew about it we had planned a Bachelor/Bachelorette party that Saturday, July 16th for my sister-in-law and soon to be brother-in-law. I was also preparing for the worst. There was no way I was sitting in traffic! I let the best man know our plan b options, which was to go to dinner and dancing in Santa Barbara. Saturday came around and what would you know. Everybody listened to the media and all stayed home. The bridal party got dolled up and hopped into the Esclade limo. First stop, dinner at The Yard House. Yummy eats and "Cadillac Margarita's" were on the menu. We had the best time toasting and chatting. We all then jumped back in the limo and headed to The Crocker Club. A unique nightclub in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. It is decorated like a bank vault. We danced and had a wonderful time! Alas, as the clock struck midnight we remembered that our limo was going to turn into a pumpkin is we didn't head back. So we all jumped back in the limo and partied it up until we return back to reality.

It was a great night, and we had a blast! I mean anything to do with dancing and I am there! We made the best out of a not so pleasant, that turned out to be pleasant, situation. Beside's I got to see a new side to my brother-in-law! Dancing fool! I know who I am calling the next time I wanna go dancing! Please enjoy the very limited photo's from the evening!

The Happy Couple

The girlies at The Yardhouse

The Fella's (Yardhouse)

Inside the L.I.M.O.

The Crocker Club

House of Mouse (Part Two)

I must apologize to everyone for my lack of blogging lately. Some things have come up recently that have needed my full attention but now I am back! :-) As you recall in my previous post, House of Mouse (Part One) Trevor and I had both received parts in the Christmas Fantasy Parade. We were ecstatic! We soon discovered though that we received full time parts. We both had to re-arrange our school schedules to fit in the rehearsals and our working hours.

Our first day was surreal to say the least. Who would have thought that we would not only have working jobs as dancers, but at the Magical Kingdom? We walked in and were promptly given our name badges and a tour of the backstage areas. Very hush hush. You see, Disney likes to preserve the "Magic" so at all times you are called Cast Members and are never to be out of character when guests are in your presence. We learned all the rules and a couple of the secrets! Like there are actually 5 people who play Mickey in Fantasmic.We then received our rehearsal schedules and were on our way. Rehearsals are done differently. You arrive at the park around 8PM and learn your routines in the backstage areas. Every so often a person will be pulled out to be fitted for their costume. After a couple of days of indoor rehearsal we had to go out and actually learn to travel the routine. At the time I suffered from really bad asthma and to perform the same, insanely crazy and hyper, routine over and over was very difficult. I would die by the end of our rehearsal. Then it came for us to rehearse in our costumes! 3" thick foam costume with a 24" diameter head with a mesh covered opening for air! AHHHH! Needless to say, my lungs got strong quickly and I lost a few pounds over the course of the season. Soon it was time to rehearse in the park. We waited until the park closed and the cleaning crew did their thing then we went out costumes and all and performed to a dark, empty park. It was very creepy!

Cast of "A Christmas Fantasy"

Once Thanksgiving rolled around it was time to open the show. We performed 2 parades daily for all the kiddos and their parents. It was the most wonderful experience. The cool thing is that there was a cast member family night where we soft opened the parade and they filmed the whole thing. My mom and Aunt came down to see and enjoy the parade and the completely empty park. The next year when California Adventure opened the introduced a new ride called Soarin' Over California. At the end of the ride our parade from that night is featured! I am forever emblazoned in a ride! Well at least until they change it! It was the most awesome experience and I will have these memories forever!


Please enjoy the video of our parade, you can't tell who is who; but it is me and Trev!

House of Mouse (Part One)

Source

It's no surprise to hear when somebody says that they have been to the Happiest Place on Earth. (I am referring to Disneyland in case you didn't catch the reference) But it does surprise people to hear that I actually worked for the Disney family. No not them specifically, but I did work at the park. It was a wonderful experience, and I thought that I would share it with you.

My good friend Trevor had told me about this audition that he found out about an audition for the upcoming parade at the Disneyland Resort called "A Christmas Fantasy." Now if you didn't know, every year they use the same music and just re-choreograph the dancers and re-organize the floats for the Christmas season. I had never been to an audition before so I decided what the hell, lets go for it.

We arrived in Anaheim the next morning at 6 am ready to go, when I realized that they were only auditioning men and point dancers that day. I had only been on point for a year, but decided that I still needed to try because I came all the way down there. Of course, like I knew I would be I was cut first round, but since I carpooled with Trevor I had to wait for his audition to finish. Little did I know that I would be waiting around for a very long time. He finally came out around 5 PM and told me he got a part, Ball Dancer. I was so bummed that I didn't make it that I made the decision to come back the next day for the women audition. The next day I woke up bright and early for the next audition. Hundred's of women showed up to audition. I thought to myself I am way out of my league here, but since I was there I would at least have fun. Round one was the character audition. Easy peasy. I took to the choreography and when it was time to "perform" I lathered on the cheese and smiled, giggled, and flirted with the judge. Who the entire time had his eyes fixated on me! YES! I got someones attention! I finished my set, and went back in with the other dancers. Every so often the judges would come in and call certain numbers....I was called up for a face character (the people like Cinderella and Snow White) but after height and skin tone checks they didn't want me as that. The next time they came in was to call a series of numbers, me included! These were the people that they wanted to dance in the lyrical section. We learned the choreography and did our auditions. I was so focused on the choreography that I forgot my performance! OOPS! I thought that it was over with from there. I went back into the large room and waited. Finally after what seemed like forever they called us into the audition room for part assignments.

I sat through part after part that were given away and my heart was starting to sink. Suddenly I heard my number called. I stood up and went to stand in the line of girls. They stared at us and stared, called us into smaller groups to stand together, and then back in the long line. All of a sudden they announced...."We need to break for lunch, come back in an hour." UGH you have got to be kidding me! I have been here since 7AM, its now 5PM and I have to wait! Dammit! So I went back in my car to rest for a while and went back into the audition room at a quarter to 6. We all got back in our line. In hindsight I look back and realized that I was a good 2 inches taller than all the other girls in the row. Disney has a height restriction for most parts. Mickey and Minnie have a max height of 5'2", all princesses have a height restriction of 5'4", etc. I stand at 5'5". As we stand there, they called the girl immediately to my left and immediately to my right and dismiss them. Then they started handing out the part cards to everyone in the line, including me! I look down and see Gingerbread 5'2-5'4." Apparently they liked me so much that they put aside the height limitation and hired me anyways!

So Trevor and I both got parts in a Disneyland show! We were ecstatic, but nothing compared to the experience we were about to share. Check back later for the rest of the story!