Tess

Our sweet little Italian Greyhound mutt- 5 weeks old. She was abandoned and we adopted her last night. The kids think they are just babysitting her for two days for someone else but we are getting her fostered until Christmas eve (if you know what I mean).

She actually fits IN the bowl- I ended up using a peanut butter jar lid to feed her.

These kids love this dog

He's in heaven. He got up a few times in the night just to lay on the hard ground next to her

Well, she didn't like the milk. i guess she's past that stage

 

It's like her own little yard... with a giant rolling Indiana Jones basket ball.  Careful, doggie!  Don't get crushed!

 Licking her lips

Trying to make Tess comfy

 Nap time.

1st day of school!

They are little buddies, these two. First day of 2nd and 4th grades. Their lives are happening before my eyes. Crazy. I'm so grateful for such an awesome family

That's our front porc.  Like their umbrellas?  We never had to carry umbrellas to school in Arizona!

Sitting by the dock of the bay...

Megan fishing with her summer school class down in Portsmouth

 And me under PBH dock- Taken by my friend, Brad Urias

Haiku Wednesday

It's Matthew's birthday (7)

been on the xbox all day

just pausing to puke

(poor kid.  I'm pretty sure it's ecoli- I always tell the kids to wash their hands after touching the turtle, but do they listen?  Well, most of the time, yes, they do)

Apple Camp

Meg went to Apple Camp this week at the Apple Store.  It was a free day camp that taught the kids to make their own video with footage they shot and they added transitions and music, etc.  Well, the video she did didn't turn out so hot because they couldn't hear the sound when they did it and ended up leaving in segments that should've been cut and cut out segments that should've stayed....  Soooo..... we did it at home on our PC with Windows Live movie maker (which really stinks) and had a blast... We used music from my music history listening quiz CDs from last semester :) Here is Meg's movie.......(as to the subject matter-she's obsessed with Greek Mythology right now- she's going to be a goddess for Halloween this year)

Some of the dialogue is so quiet in this video so I added the script (which Megan wrote, too)

Script

Narrator: One day in Ancient Greece.......
Persephone: Oh I’m all alone picking flowers in the fields
Hades: Ah Hah!
Persephone: Oh no it’s Hades!
Hades: We shall go to the underworld together!
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Demeter: Persephone! Persephone my daughter!
 ..............Hades took her!
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Demeter: Zeus look what I found! It’s Hades' ring of death- and he’s taken Persephone! Can you help me?
Zeus: Yes I can- as long as Persephone hasn’t eaten anything from Hades’ garden
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Persephone: These pomegranate seeds are so good!
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Hades: Ha ha ha! It’s too late! Persephone has already eaten from my garden.
Demeter: Noooo!!!!
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Zeus: We can work out a plan.  The first part of the year Persephone can live with Hades.  In the other part of the year Persephone can live with her mother.
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Narrator: And so every year in the spring and summer Persephone was as happy as she could be and her singing would make the flowers bloom, but for the other half of the year, when she had to live with her uncle Hades, she would cry and it would make the plants wilt and die. And so Persephone is the goddess of the four seasons.

AIRPLANE

Sorry I slacked on telling you all about the US Airways shoot. It all started on a cold dark night when I sent our (Aaron, Stephanie, Megan) headshots and resumes to a commercial company in response to an audition notice for a US Airways commercial...... lawl
We were chosen and on Wednesday we went to the US Airways building just off Rio Salado in Tempe for a costume fitting (they told me what they wanted and I had to pick out similar things in our wardrobes and bring them).  Then they played doll with us. "go try this and this on.......hmm no, lets try this and maybe that." back and forth trying on different combinations with our and their supplemented accessories and such.  Then on Friday night we went to the US Airways hangar at Sky Harbor where they dressed us in the clothes they'd picked out and some ladies from MAC with pink hair and upper lip beautymark piercings did our makeup.   There were about 5 or 6 other actors.

Here's the airplane!  The screen reflects light into the plane where we were filming.  The stairs to get up to that monster were kind of wobbly and really steep (they are not the ones seen in the first pic- they were on the opposite side.  Megan was scared so Aaron carried her part of the way. My high heels kept sticking in the little holes. ha ha

They took out seats so the camera crew could set up all their stuff.  Sorry I didn't get a better picture of the set up inside!!  If you know photography equipment, you should geek out when I tell you the whole thing was shot using the RED EPIC camera which takes like 240 still shots per second, so while they are using a "video" camera, it's taking stills and they don't have to switch between still and video shots. 

It turns out that it's not for an actual commercial (although they could still use it for a commercial if they wanted) but for all of US Airways promotional materials in airports/ website and training materials and videos.  We were told not to be surprised if we see these pictures in a magazine in the future.  No one had to speak and we just followed directions like, "Now look at the flight attendant, now look at each other, now look at Megan's book like you're reading something intersting, now look back at the flight attendant, now walk by and smile at the flight attendant... etc etc etc.."

We got to eat a lot of airplane snacks... What's your pleasure?  It was a snacky free for all.  And I don't know what was up with the orange bracelet.. sheee-oot!  They ended up changing my outfit a little in the middle of the shoot and made me wear someone's glasses cause I looked too young...  That always seems to be a problem.

Oy.  I look bad in this picture. however, I think Aaron looks awesome and it's been a while since I've posted a pic to show how thin he's gotten :)  What a handsome guy (they made him shave his full beard into a moutee).

We only had to stay until about 1:15am (because they wanted to get Megan in and out before a case of the tireds became a problem {halleluia}). Everyone else had to stay... It reminds me of the Brian Regan joke about still getting a whole sno cone even if he only played half of the baseball game. "So I'd rather play half game."

It was pretty cool to write up the invoice when I got home.  I told Meg that she has to put half into savings and pay tithing and the rest she could use however she wanted.  She's buying a parakeet and cage. She has wanted one forever and couldn't save up her money long enough to buy one.  fun stuff.
What is your opinion on that?  Aaron says that we are entitled to hers but I think that she should get all of it...tell me what you think.


Anywho, it was fun and I'd do it again in a second. woot.  BTW- if my posts get sparse I'm truly sorry- I'm in school, work, running carpool and boot camp, doing homework and bleh bleh bleh... boring, but busy.  Just shoot me an email if you miss me and I'll post some Steph candy.

PS- coming soon... singing at the Barrett Jackson Auction last week with William Joseph and a 300 person choir! FUN!  It was pretty cool..... shoot.. I don't want to give too much away....

Don't cry over spilled milk

there was just a little bit of milk left in the carton so I poured in some chocolate syrup and shook it up.... without the freaking cap on. 
milk shower!  Megan thought it was hilarious... and honestly, so did I.  It has been a few hours and I just noticed some milk on my neck that I missed with the towel. dried crusted milk. lol.  I guess that's what happens when you don't get enough milk.  err I meant sleep.  oy. I think I need a nap.

My Big Girl

Megan got her 1st grade school pictures back this week.... I am appalled at how fast children grown up. I remember 1st grade! That means she's gonna remember how crazy I am- I thought I could change before she'd remember. oh well.
Here she is!

Ha ha! She is so funny! They said smile and she smiled with her whole face! :o) I love her- what a cute girl! She's grown up so much in the last year! Here was her kindergarten pic:

And you peeps with little kids who think elementary school is so far off- this next pic seems like just yesterday:

Ok, I'm going to stop adding to this post. it's making me sad. I love my baby girl!