Oro Loma......AGAIN!!

In kindergarten Skyla was a Recycling star for The Oro Loma poster contest. She won $100.00. It was a pretty cool experience. Then last year in 1st grade, we were surprised by finding out she was a winner again! At the awards dinner we found out her poster won Honorable mention, Sky won $150.00. Pretty cool!

 

Now in 2nd grade, imagine our surprise (I mean MOJOR surprise) when we found out her poster won again! We just went to the awards dinner to find out where all the kids posters placed. Sky was dressed up and looking cute.

 

Good thing too, cause at the dinner w Sky was awarded her prize......... 1st PLACE!!!!!!!! SKY WON 1st PLACE!!!!!!!!!!! She was so excited, and her teacher, Mick and I were just as excited and so proud of her. So the prize for 1st..................$700.00!!!!

NO JOKE this kid won $700.00 for a poster drawing! If you click on the link above (Oro Loma) you can see her winning poster on the web site. As of today Sky has spent all but $60 of her prize money. She did really good with it tho. She got a new bike, helmet and bell, a whole new bed set, a new summer wardrobe, alarm clock, and a bunch of new toys. She even took Justin out for Ice cream today :). Not to bad!

Beauty and the Beast

Justin and Sky are both in Stage 1's Beauty and the Beast jr :)

Justin is Maurice (bells dad) wooohooo he is so excited!!! He had a call back for it (along with another little boy) as soon as he found out it was between the 2 of them, he worked his butt off at call backs to prove the role belonged to him. and he got it! So proud of him, he really came out of his shell and put himself out there, knowing he could have been rejected. So proud of my boy :)

Sky is a Narrator and in the ensemble :), She has a good amount of lines to remember, on top of being in the ensemble with all the music and costume changes and dances.....just what she loves. I love seeing her on stage, she just shines and you can see how much she loves what she does.

The kids are so excited to be in another play, I'm so excited they have a passion for something I love to do myself. Cant wait to see both my baby's up on stage together :)

Wow its been 6 months?!

I don't update this blog like I should, mainly because I just don't have the time and Im trying to keep up on my Weight loss one.

Photo dump :)

So back in Oct-Dec me and the kids (yep both kids) were in a play "A Christmas Carol"
Justin was Mathew Cratchit, Bells son, and ensemble, Skyla was Lucy Cratchit, Bells Daughter and ensemble (her fave part, she got to play a boy in one scene and NO one even her own dad knew it was her) that's some good acting right there hehe. Me I was Freds House keeper, Caroline, and ensemble. It was so much fun to do a play again, and best part was sharing it with my kido's.

This is Sky with our good friend Stephanie (she played the scarecrow in Wiz of OZ that sky did last summer)

 

All ready to go mic and all

 

At Freds (Scrooges nephew) party

 

Coraline and John and their 2 kids (love these kids!)

 

With Mr Scrooge

 

Dick and Bell and their 3 kids (Sky and Justin)

 

Me and Sky (dressed as a boy) back stage

 

Back stage fun :)

 

If you notice Justin isn't in many pics back stage, its because he was to busy playing with his 2 new friends, Max and Kadiance (both boys are just a year older then him) the 3 of them pretty much stuck together like glue.

 

 

 

This is our good friends Madiliyn, and Zell right before they left for New York, Madiliyn is in Matilda the musical on Broadway right now :)

 

Last show, the whole Cratichit Fam

 

 

After our last show we had strike (this is were we take the set down, separate all the costumes, and clean up the stage and back rooms) After strike we had some fun, then all went out for one last cast party.

Nothing like some arm wrestling :)

One of my best buddies Nicole :)

The funniest young man alive Brian Miller :) who right now is away at school in Las Vegas, this guy will be on stage really soon, so much talent.

One of my BFF's Christi, Love her to pieces, and man can this girl sing!!

My head shot, that was put in the lobby during the run of the show.

Once Christmas carol was over, I got a new job.......Running Dina Star Dancers!!!

Since Madiliyn was going to be on Broadway, Dina (her mom and my and skys dance teacher) had to move out to NY, I spent one month shadowing all of Dinas classes, and getting ready to start teaching where she left off. It has been the best 5 months, crazy, but fun. Dina and I have really made this whole thing work, we do choreography over the phone and Skype, and she still handles all the business stuff, I just worry about the kids. I love my job! This pics was of my first day teaching alone.

Sky had her winter concert, and was missing a few teeth :)

The girls in one of my fav classes, these girls love to be pushed in their dancing, and I have so much fun with them, best Friday nights ever!

For Christmas we went to my Aunts house, and this very crafty lady made matching PJ's for all the kids. Crazy, OMG what are you wearing PJ's are a tradition with my moms side for Christmas hehe.

My cute niece Emily even had a pair.

Along with all the other cousins :)

Left to right, Jessie, Kyele Skyla (they are all the same age, just a few months apart) Justin and Joseph (who are the same age as well)

Me, my cousin David, and my sister Niki

Me and Sky Christmas eve with new penguin pj's

 

We also had a new friend come and visit for a month, This is Holly or Elf on a shelf.

She was so much fun to have around.

 

 

 

Mick and I Christmas morn pre-coffee :)

After Christmas Carol was over I cut bangs and colored my hair red, what cha think?

I also was in the middle of training for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon,  this was after a awesome run with my friend Nicole.

Being crazy

 

A pic snapped on course at the Tinkerbell Half Marathon :)

 

I love these cups, so I had to get a Tink one at the expo

 

I also got to met Sean Austin at the Expo too, super nice guy :)

 

After the run with my Medal!!!

 

Me and my Weight Watcher buddy Roberta, she lives down by Disneyland, so we made plans to meet up, she has been a huge support. I just love her to bits.

 

A pic Mick got of my after the run

 

 

This year we went to our friends house (Star and Jose) to watch the super bowl with them and their kids, This year Star got me to play a $10 square, in a football poll, with people at her work. I bought 1 square for $10, how it works is your square determines what numbers you get like 7 and 2, So the last number of the score during the game needs to match your numbers, each quarter of the game has a different amount of money you can win, if your numbers are right......

 

Star and her fam are huge SF 49er fans, so I had to Kapernick wile I was there :)

 

Also helped that my square for the 4th quarter won and I won $400.00!!!!!

 

Just because I love her, all the girls wore niner stuff :)

 

Over spring break, the kids and I went to the Zoo, we haven't been in so long so it was nice, Justin brought my camera and took pics all day. These were some I found when we got home hehe.

 

If you haven't seen her lately, Sky now has glasses, here are some pics form her Head shot shoot with them on.

 

Both kids just auditioned for Beauty and the Beast, as of right now, we know they are both in it, just not sure what parts, Justin actually has a call back to play Maurice Bell's dad, tonight. Here are their head shots, they looks so big in these.

 

More up dates new....

 

 

Justin: Has a call back tonight, he is also very excited that he will be starting Middle school come Aug, we just went for the parent info night last week, and he filled out his elective sheet. He is sticking to music and has found (by pure accident) that he has a pretty good talent when it comes to playing instruments. Also we just found out (at his audition) when he wants to this kid can SING!! I mean he can sing, he has a great voice and from being in A Christmas carol, picked up reading music really easily. Its kind of scary to hand him sheet music to a song he never heard and hear him sing it on key. Best part he loves it, the acting/singing/being in musicals bug has bitten him good :)

 

Skyla: Has always been the go-get-her of our fam, she is a lot like me. She likes to try new things, and be out in the world. She loves doing plays, and is still a big dancer. Newest news for her, She won the Oro loma Poster contest.....again hehe, this is her 3rd year in a row winning. We don't know where she placed but she has won any were from $150-$700, yeah that's a lot of money for a 7 year old. We go to the awards dinner on the 28th of May, I will try to remember to update this blog so you all know what she got.

 

Mick: a lot has changed for Mick, his job of 10 years has now disappeared. The company he was working for was bought over and they closed his branch. Luckily the company that bought it over offered him a job. He doesn't mind the work but doesn't like working for this new company. Not to mention he took a $6 pay cut, assuming he was going to jut be one of the warehouse guys, and they have been having him do manger work since he got there. So he is basically doing the same job for less money. On the plus side, his boss from his last place is his boss here too :) so things will probably change soon, in the mean time its all working out, and he gets home earlier then he did before so that's nice :)

 

Me: Im busy as always and by choice. I auditioned for a play this past sunday, and have a call back on the 4th :) Its for Thoroughly Modern Millie, a show that's all dance, mainly tap....yep its right up my ally. Im also getting the dance studio ready for their first performance at the Fair, Still running the apartments, and still doing Weight watchers and running like crazy. So far Im down 82lbs and only 28 lbs from my goal weight. Im running a 5k on the 5th of may and getting so excited to run the Tinkerbell half again this coming Jan :)

 

Well that about does it for updates, sorry they are so far and few between. :)

 

 

 

My Boy

Justin is one amazing little guy, Ok he's 10 now so not very little anymore but still. Anyways Justin has never really found that "thing" he's in too. He played baseball for a few years and loved it but then started to lose interest. He then joined Karate and that lasted about a year before he got board with that. Justin is perfectly fine staying home playing video games, but after a wile that gets boring for him too.

Its so hard to find something this kid can get in to. Skyla is the complete opposite, she loves the Drama and being on stage, she loves dance and singing. So plays and dancing is just the thing for her. Now that Sky and I are both in A Christmas Carol, I feel bad leaving Justin home with Mick every night............

SO............................

........................I got an idea :)

Justin should audition and just try it.

The second I brought it up to him he snapped "NO MOM, I'm not going to be on stage!!! I don't like it!!"
Justin you have never done it how do you know you don't like it? Just try and see.

The poor kid was standing his ground, he flat out refused to do it. When Mick got home I brought it up to him to see what he thought, He agreed it would be a good experience for him and it would give him something to do. So mick and I literaly forced Justin to do something he didn't want to do. We told him he didn't have a choice, we didn't care if he was going to cry about it, he was going.

All 3 of us got in the car, and the whole way there I was giving Justin tips on what to expect and what they would want to see from him. When we got there he relaxed a bit and I introduced him to the Producer and she introduced him to the Director. They had him jump in with all of us with the music and as we started to learn some songs I could see Justin opening up and he was really enjoying it.

We got a small brake about 8:30pm and that was when they pulled Justin aside and had him read for them. He was in there about 10 min, when he finally came out. As soon as he saw me and HUGE smile came across his face and he ran over to tell me.....
"The asked if I wanted a part in the show"
ME: "What did you say?"
JUSTIN: "Yes of course, IM in the play mom!!!"
ME: "are you excited?"
JUSTIN: "YES very! thanks for bringing me mom, this is so fun."
ME: "Congrats baby, I'm so proud of you"

This morning Justin got ready for school as fast as I have every seen him, and was instantly reading his script, and working on some of the song we learned last night. Tonight is our next rehearsal and he cant wait. I'm so over joyed to be doing something I love with BOTH of my kids, and to see them enjoying it just as much as I do.

Who says forcing your kids to do things is a bad thing :)

What have we been up to?

Everything! That's the best word to describe it, that and FUN!!

We have been all over the place but it has been a blast. So here is a bit of an update (cause I'M so bad at keeping this blog up to date).

Mick: This poor guy has been working like crazy. One of the guys at work just had a baby and took 10 weeks family leave. We are excited for them and happy the dad gets to stay home with his new baby, but man is Mick getting the brunt of all the work. There are only 5 people that work a Micks branch, then this guy is gone so now that makes 4. The company let them hire a temp for a few months and it has helped, but Mick is still working 11 hour days. O and did I mention he is on salary so he is only paid for 8 of the 11? Yeah nice right. He's a trouper though and his company has realized they cant do this with out him, so at least he has some major job security now. Besides that he has just been enjoying his weekends with us. We always have somewhere new to go lately. Like last Sat Mick had us go to this doughnut shop he was told about.......It was so worth it (Rudys doughnuts, castro valley). He loves finding little gems like this, so our weekends have been full of exploring new place.

Justin: School has started and Justin is off to an amazing start (complete 1-80 from last year) He is still taking his meds on school days and it really has helped. 5th grade is so much harder and his teacher is determined to make sure her kids are ready for JR. High next year (Yes my baby boy is off to JR. High next year). Justin LOVES his teacher, she is very sweet and very patient, but she expects alot out of them and Justin is more then willing to please her. He makes sure to always do his best and take his time because he doesn't want to let her down. Its so nice to know he is worried about what she will think of his work. I'm really excited to cause Justin has found a love of reading. He has read all the Bone graphic novels, and is halfway though Inkheart. He even got me to read Inkheart (its really good). He has read all this in just the last month, this kid always has a book on hand or in his face it seems.
He has also gotten really tall, when I say tall I mean about 6 inchs shorter then me. He is wearing the same size shoe as me, still has his braces and looks so stinking cute with them. He has about 4-5 more months with them, then they will come off and the second set will get put on when he is about 12-13.

Skyla: This girl is living on stage at the moment and she couldn't be happier. She is doing good in school too and loves 2nd grade and her teacher. She just got glasses, we started to notice she was having some problems with her reading, so one day I was holding the book having her read and started to notice she did better when I held it really close. We took her in and sure enough she need glasses. School work, reading and homework are much smoother now that she can see it :). I don't have a pic of her with them but I'll post one soon. Dance is taking off right now our dance recital is on the 13th so Sky is at the studio all the time right now. She also auditioned for A Christmas Carol with Stage1 the same company she did OZ with over the summer........She got a part :) She had a call back on sat and we got the call that she got the part Monday night. She will be playing Lucy Cratchit. She is super excited, and a bit nerves cause this is an adult production, so its totally different then the summer time. Not to mention its going to be LONG rehearsal nights on school nights. She loves doing it though and I think she will be ok swinging both. The play opens Nov 30th.

Christal: So I am a crazy dance the theater girl right now too. This year for dance my wonderful teacher has thrown me in to a bunch of dance I never thought I would be doing. I am dancing with the young adults/teens now and the Adult classes I was doing. This year for our recital I'm in 9 numbers, 3 of which are back to back and I have to change costumes in the wings :), I can pull this off right? Sure, ether way its fun for me. Thursday evening are spent at the dance studio for me. I get there at 4pm and am home by 8:15pm, then I have a class from 4-5 on fri too.
If you caught I added "Theater" in there too, its not a typo. So far with my weight loss I have lost 68.6 lbs. I weight 186.4 which is what I weighed in high school and when I was 18 and met Mick. With this weight loss I have found major confidence, and decided I wanted to get back in to the things I love. One of which is dance, the other acting and singing. I auditioned for A Christmas Carol with Stage1 too and also got a call back. Sat was fun, sky was with me for about 2 hour then got to go home wile they kept me another 3. It was a long day but was so much fun. I loved reading with the other adults there, and the director is so funny, he had me cracking up the whole time. In the end I was offered a part :) they were still doing some Male auditions and cast so I wasn't told what part/parts I have yet. They said they will call thur to let me know, but I'm in the show :). O the pic of me was my head shot for my audition.....Mick took it for me :). On top of all of this I'm also in week 4 of my Half Marathon training. I'm running the Tinkerbell Half Marathon is Disneyland in Jan, 13.1 miles baby. Yes we are making a week long trip out of this. I mean if I'm going to run why not run in the place I love, and since we will all ready be there might as well make a vacation out of it right? :) there is always a method to my madness hehehe.





Mick and I: On August 24th 2002 Mick and I said our "I Do's". Its crazy to think just last month we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. Over that weekend my sister and b-i-l took the kids over night for us. We dropped them off early in the morning and headed down to Santa Cruz. We got a great package from Costco on unlimited ride wrist bands and attractions. First we played mini golf  we were so competitive we had the people behind us cracking up. It was so much fun. After golf we then got lunch, then headed over to the Mystery Spot.

 

 

 

 Its up in the hills so the grounds where really pretty. NOTE: I don't get motion sickness ever or vertigo, but here once I got in the house, the distorted look and feel made me sick to my stomach. I mean really sic as in I ran out cause I almost threw up in the house. So just be for warned if you ever go (Once I got outside and stared at the trees I was fine).

After that we check in to our hotel room which had a hot tub.....O yeah it was that awesome.

After dropping off our stuff we went to this really awesome place called the Crows Nest for dinner, then went and closed out the Boardwalk. The next morn we went to breakfast then headed to my sisters to get the kids. Its was such a fun trip, and I'm so happy to have married the man of my dreams. I love you baby, Happy 10 years!!!