back in the day

sad part is, the one on the right is pretty true to my real chest

tee hee

Step it up!

I am lucky enough to work for an amazing lady, Lisa J. Peck. She has EIGHT kids (just barely had her 8th and final one) and she also runs a successful life-coaching business. My friend Sarah Ward has been using Lisa as her personal life coach, and has had nothing but great things to say:

"Ever since I was a child, I have always wanted to model. I've thought about modeling for years and gone through phases of enthusiasm... without ever really doing anything about it. Until now. As I began working with Lisa, she said she could hear the color in my voice whenever I talked about modeling and encouraged me to make time for and pursue my childhood dream. It's been amazing how Lisa's encouragement has helped me move forward these last few months, not just with modeling, but life in general. With her help, I've made incredible progress in trusting my instincts, living with confidence and actively pursuing my dreams."
– Sarah Ward, entrepreneur & model


Take a look at Lisa's website, and I highly recommend subscribing to her blog, updated weekly with great advice!

here goes nothin...

Mae and were hanging out on the computer and I decided to just do a little a capella version of one of my favorite songs "Smile". You can hear Mae shushing me at the beginning, then joining in at the end.
Anyways...here it is.

can't wait!

hmmmm...

drew this on the way to cali...
its fun to see what comes out of my brain sometimes

done and done

remember this post?

check
(a cute wooden "m" will be added to that middle pane)

check

check

and moving on to the next!

On the agenda today....

*farewell, my sisters. i'm so sad our vacation is over*

disneyland day 1

We arrived in Anaheim around 6:30 and checked into our hotel. Then we headed to Downtown Disney to eat and look around.
First stop was the Lego store. It was really cool. It had a bunch of life sized objects made completely out of legos.


Tom bows to Lego Vadar

Standing under Mr. Lego Giraffe



Being silly at the Disney Store

Hugs for Mickey!

Rainforrest Cafe for dinner. Mae was really scared of a life sized gorilla near our table that would move around and make loud monkey noises every so often. It reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants when I was little called King Kwongs. They had a HUGE (to me anyways) gorilla that was anamatronic, and whenever I walked by it, the lady at the front desk turned it on and scared me to death.
They also had a "rainstorm" every 20 minutes, and that also scared her. Which was weird, because she loved the haunted mansion, but the rainstorm here and the rainstorm in the Tiki room both made her cry.


It's MICKEY! Even as an adult, it still excites me to see Disney characters.

Mae's first ride was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. She was nervous at first, but then she got into it and started shooting at everything. Before we went on, I told Tom, "I'm thinking she'll be nervous on all the rides, but afterwards she'll say she wants to go again" I totally called it. After every ride she said "I wanna go again!"


Waiting for the Finding Nemo Ride

Mae loved it! And so did we. It was awesome

Autotopia. Mae couldn't even see over the dashboard! But I let her steer, and she was pretty happy about that.



At our favorite restaurant, the Blue Bayou. We get the same thing every time to share: the Monte Cristo sandwich and crab cakes.
We went on the Pirates ride before our reservation and Mae didn't like it at all. She kept putting my hand over her eyes.



Mae was nervous around the characters at first, but then she warmed up and gave Winnie the Pooh a hug. For some reason, the person playing Rabbit seemed drunk...or really old. It was weird.

Daddy and Mae on Dumbo! I was feeling motion sickness pretty easily for some reason, so I just took pictures of this one.


Mae LOVED it. She was so distraught when we took her off the ride.
Here she is, looking through the gate longingly at Dumbo.

And here she is telling us how she really feels about it

Tom and I got to go on all the big rides, but by ourselves. It was nice though, because you just got a switch pass and they pretty much put you right on the ride. No waiting. I got off Splash Mountain, and there was Mae, still fast asleep.

Balloons! I'm surprised that the cast members that were carrying these didn't get carried away Curious George style. There were so many.

Mae LOVED Toon Town! It's such a cool place. Disney continues to amaze me with their creativity. I would love to be a part of that company.















This was cool. We went into Mickey's house and when we got to the very back, we found ourselves and about eight other people in a line. It turns out we were about to meet Mickey Mouse! So we went "backstage" to his dressing room, and we were the last ones to go in. So there we were, all alone with Mickey Mouse and a cast member. It was awesome! He even blew Mae a kiss with a kissy noise, which made me so happy, because one of my best memories of my first trip to Disneyland was when Donald Duck gave me a big kiss on my cheek and made the same noise. I was so ecstatic, and talked about it the entire trip, according to my mom. I still love that story.

This was the Go Gadget Rollercoaster in toontown. And it wasn't a kiddie coaster. It was pretty dang fast, and Mae BARELY made the height requirements. According to Tom, she screamed her head off the entire time and he thought for sure she'd be crying when we got off. Guess what she said? "I wanna go again!"

disneyland day 2

Day 2 in the wonderful world of Disney started off with visiting Pixie Hollow to meet Tink and her friends. Mae loves the movie, and so do I, so we were pretty excited. And Mae had to wear her Cinderella dress since we were having lunch with all of the princesses at Ariel's Grotto later.

Left: with Silvermist

Right: With Tinkerbell herself. She was sooo cute. And so good with Mae. That's my dream job. Think I'd make a good Tink?

Finding Cinderella's picture and Gus Gus!


Playhouse Disney live was so cute!

We headed over to California Adventure for the afternoon.
They added a whole bunch of new stuff to "A Bug's Land" like a hilarious ride on Heimlich. (The fat German caterpillar who says "I sink I vet myself!")  He takes you through all of his favorite treats, like a giant watermelon, and says funny stuff the entire time. It was so funny.

On to Ariel's Grotto for lunch! This was the best part. Mae had such a blast meeting all the Disney princesses. 

Aerial and Mae

Mae loved the princesses. She didn't even eat her lunch. She got up and started following them around, holding her dress out and trying to walk pretty.




Mae found a friend in a fellow Cinderella



White chocolate seashell which Mae made into a trumpet.

"A Bug's Life" 3D. This scared the POO out of Mae. It's a scary show! Seriously. Huge spiders coming down from the ceiling, a giant grasshopper jumping out from behind the rocks, etc. I had to take Mae out, and then she was so worried about Tom. I had to tell her that daddy was in there beating up Hopper and he was having fun doing it. Then, trying to cheer her up, I said "EW, remember when those big spiders came down?! Gross!" Mae did a little shaky laugh and said "Ya, and they sing 'the itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout'" and went on to sing the whole song.

Tow Mater Vintage disney tickets

(I took a bunch of pictures of 

this awesome parade, and I'll add

more later.)

Pictures from the old days at Disneyland

We went to a show called "50 Years of Disney" which was sooo interesting. Tom and I being not only huge fans of Disney, but also dreamers of becoming employees one day, found this show inspiring. The spirit was strong, people.

This is Mae and Tom imitating the clock at Small World. It has a face and tips back and forth.

Last night! We were so sad to leave.

What a great trip!