Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

Penny is almost to the 20 visit mark! I'd say she is one very lucky little girl. We headed to Disneyland at a leisurely pace and arrived around 11am. Today, we entered the park by horse drawn carriage. We caught it at the beginning of Main Street and it took us to Sleeping Beauty's Castle. After disembarking the carriage we decided to find ourselves some princesses. We found 3! Princess Ariel, Snow White, and Princess Tiana, one of Penny's favorites. After meeting the princesses we went and found ourselves some ice cream and sat and ate our treat at Mickey's Magical Map, an awesome stage show that is just new at Disneyland. The show was excellent, very entertaining with cool hard to find characters like Sorcerer Mickey, Mulan, Pocahantas, and King Louie. When the show ended a bunch of confetti fired out from the rafters and Penny and I have funny playing around with it. Next we went to "Its A Small World" and Penny and I couldn't stand the si

Thank goodness for good friends! Since we do not have any family close by our good friends Dave and Verona offered to watch Penny one weekend evening a month so that Hubby and I can have a date night or sometimes, go out with friends. Tonight we went out with friends to the movies and saw "22 JUMP STREET." Somehow the girl who never naps for us on the weekends took a big ole 3 hour nap for Dave and Verona. Here she is all conked out on the couch our little sweetie.

Today Penny graduated from her Beginners Swim Class to the Intermediate Swim Class at the Pasadena Waterworks Aquatic Center. She got a certificate and was able to select a prize from the treasure chest. She was so excited and mom was so proud! What this all means is that Penny can kick her legs in the water and float on her back. Go Penny!

Only a month until we leave for vacation in Maui!!! This will be little Penny's first trip to the islands a.k.a. mom and dad's favorite place in the world. In fact, when I was a little girl of 2, I too, took my first trip to Hawaii, where the most memorable thing that happened was me pouring a bucket of sand over a little girl's head on the beach and demanding to eat McDonald's hamburgers for each meal. Penny will mot likely throw sand at meal and refuse to eat any food made by me on the trip. I was talking to my mom today and she remarked "Wouldn't it be neat if Penny got married in Hawaii too?" I have a toddler mom, I'm not looking that far into the future!

I used to want to run a movie studio but then I actually worked at one. Fate decided to make me bump into a studio head instead. Today, I ran into Harvey Weinstein at the tiny little lunch cafe in our office building. It was the last person I expected to see in line in front of me. It was interesting to get up close and personal with the man who heads Miramax. No power suit, just jeans and a run down polo. Entertainment these days leaves the suits to the talent agencies everyone else goes casual. The lady ringing up his lunch asks his assistant to remind her his name. "Harvey" she says softly as if not to get noticed. #MiramaxindaHouse #powerlunching

This time a playdate at a local park.

So instead of getting the same boring cut I usually get over and over, I decided to do something new but not too drastic...I got bangs! I went to the salon and I so desperately wanted to tell the stylist to do something new so during the car ride over I thought and thought about what it is that wouldn't involve making my long hair short and that is when I remembered my friend, Rebe's hair and her bangs! It's fun having a new cut but the bangs do get hot on the forehead though in the summer heat.

Today was a lazy kind of day, for once we really didn't have anything planned except a haircut for me and swim lessons for Penny. After those two things were done were were free to veg at the house. It's been a busy few weeks so it was nice to relax. In the afternoon we decided to get out of the house and take Penny to the movies. We went to see HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2, a stunning animated sequel to the first, which I worked on. It was weird to watch the movie as a customer and not as a person who worked on it.

I've been trying to get out a little more to see my friends. Being a mom doesn't allow for a lot of free time to see friends but after two and a half years, I am trying to make an effort. Tonight I caught up with two of my old co-workers. Things it seems haven't change and are in fact worse. I feel so grateful I got out when I did. I'm not exactly sure I have full closure on the situation yet because I still feel hurt but I do take comfort in the fact that my work life is 100% better since leaving. I feel bad for the people left there a they just are not being treated right. It doesn't seem fair that certain people can get way with being mean and hostile while nice people just trying to do their jobs get hurt. Hopefully, something will change and free that group of the hostility that plagues it. Besides talking about old work times, we laughed about the future. It's nice being out with friends that understand you and like being with you. It's good

To celebrate Father's Day, Penny and I took Daddy to none-other-than Disneyland! Daddy's favorite place in the world! Mommy bought Daddy and Penny matching "Animal" T-Shirts to wear but Miss Penny did not want to wear her shirt. As hubby says "She has a love/hate relationship with Animal (from the Muppets)." We left the house at 9am and arrived fairly quickly. We were surprised to pull right into the parking booth. I thought Disneyland would be crowded but it was actually not which lead to us getting a lot done! Our first stop was breakfast at The Grand Californian Hotel at The Story Teller's Cafe. We sat down to a breakfast buffet full of yummy carbs and endless drink refills. I don't think I ever got more than half way with my juice before the waitress would come over and refill my glass. I had made reservations a week in advance. Courtesy of Faith's School of Disney, I now do everything in advance if it has anything to do with Dis

Happy Father's Day! Fun Times at DisneyWorld with Dad.

Okay, mommy needs to be cut off from the chocolate and the snacks, stat! It's pretty clear mom has fallen off the good eating wagon, as I sit here eating chocolate ice cream out of an ice cream container with a toddler spoon. #Ivelostmyfocus #badmommy

I can't believe my nephew Will is already in Little League! Isn't he the cutest? Every time I call my brother lately, he is always at a baseball game. Sometimes, I wish I live closer to them.

One of Penny's favorite things is getting all the millions of blankets from her room and laying them out on the living room floor, a sort of impromptu picnic for her and her favorite stuffed animals.

When it comes to social media, I can't figure out if I'm addicted or if "apps" are the modern day tools of communicating. Is FaceBook, a necessity of communicating in today's world? Some would say yes, and my two besties, who aren't on Facebook would say "no." But if I didn't have FaceBook, would I be communicating with people in high school or keeping in touch with as many people as I do? Probably not. I am constantly evualating my use of social media. I think this is because I am a girl and a girl's brain never really turns off. I am like the Professor character in X-Men, because I see so many thoughts floating around. Unlike the Professor, it's just my thoughts that I am weighing and sorting through. When it comes to social media its hard to know if I am over sharing or simply, trying to share because of the writer in me. One thing is for sure and that is I like to write. I'm not particularly good with grammar or spelling b

What does mom do when she's left with a pool with a big unfixable hole in it? She fills up the ball pit with water and introduces it as the new pool with balls Yeah, my mom energy is back! Thanks hubs for the Mother's Day, Day Off Gift! It was appreciated.

My friend, Verona's daughter, Brianne is getting married at The Olowalu Plantation in Maui this summer and we are going. Guess who made the suggestion to them? Yep, me! I am so excited for her wedding on August 1st. It's kind of cool that I will get to experience a wedding at the same venue as my own but to experience it as a guest aka no pressure. Plus, I get to take my daughter to the place where her mommy and daddy married which I am excited about. Bree's wedding celebrations kicked off this past Saturday at the San Gabriel Country Club where her Bridal Shower took place. I got to meet Bree's friend's and visit with other guests that I have met since being introduced to her family.

A few weeks ago, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies using healthy ingredients. Penny took one bite and said "I don't like, Mommy." Tonight, I decided to take another stab at it using all the normal ingredients except whole grain flour. The thing about using whole grain flour is tha tit makes the cookies look brown. So my first batch burnt from over cooking. The second batch turned out perfect. Big and gooey they were a hit with Penny. Yet still there is something not quite right about using whole grain flour in your cookies…in a word…the taste. I would have to say that if you don't eat the cookies immediately after they get out of the oven they harden and have a weird taste. I am not sure if there is going to be a third attempt at healthy cookies. I think I will just go back to using the old standby favorite and just not eat so many. But who are we kidding? I will eat a ton.

Penny pooped and pee'd in her toilet all by herself tonight! She has been doing this for her nanny's for a while but she refused to do it for me and her father, until tonight! I couldn't believe it! Are we finally on our way to ditching diapers, the very last baby thing?

There is simply not enough time in the day to do all the stuff that floats around in my head.

Somebody got a new toy!

So I've signed the girl up for some music classes at a local Music and Dance School. I've read that introducing music at a young age helps develop critical thinking and creativity. We will see, haha, for now she is enjoying being amongst kids her age and I'm told she is a very good helper. Here are some pics from this week's class.

Penny has come to realize which of her family lives close and which family is far away. It was clear to me after watching her FaceTime with hub's parents. After seeing her YaYa on the screen for a second she asked to see her. She then progressed to hand me the iPad and went directly to the back door (which she knows how to unlock) and let herself out, where she progressed to go stand by the car door. When I approached her again she asked if we could go to see YaYa. She asked quite bit that evening and over the next day that it made me want to fulfill her wish to see her YaYa. So I planned a visit the following weekend with her YaYa, NoNo, and cousins Clayton and Jaxon whom, she all asked for by name. we had a great tie celebrating Clayton's 9th birthday. We took him to a trampoline place and then treated him to lunch at Foster Freeze where we all partook in ice cream. Penny also had a good time swimming in the pool with NoNo and Jaxon. Then there was hot tubbing with J