Success!

I finally managed to get the video from the homeschool talent show uploaded onto You Tube and posted here!! Check it out! :)

Monster Chimi-- Bigger than Boy's Face!

We also went out to dinner tonight and Cam ordered a monster Chimichanga (which is basically like a fried burrito) and it was seriously bigger than his face! Not even kidding. He didn’t even get through a fourth of the thing!

Fun Times at the Zoo!!

So today, we went to the zoo!! It was so much fun! The zoo in this town is pretty small so we managed to see the whole thing in one day. Unlike the San Francisco zoo for instance, which I've been to two or three times and still have not seen the whole thing...

Some of the birds (peacocks and ducks and non-zoo birds like pigeons and grackles) roamed the pathways and you could get really close to them.

They also walked really close to the fence which was ideal for picture taking! Or maybe this one just liked me... Who knows?

This turtle (tortoise?) was gargantuine!! You can't even tell how big he was in this picture! We watched him practically trample that turtle in the bottom left corner. (I caught him in motion in this picture.) Turns out he was hungry! But seriously, it looked like he just crushed that other turtle. We came back and he wasn't moving at all. O_o I witnessed a murder at the zoo!!!

The monkeys and apes and chimps and other such creatures were one of my favorite parts. Me and Cam were singing If It doesn't have a tail it's not a monkey the whole while. And coincidentally, that's exactly what the signs said!!! My respect for Veggietales has increased that much more!

The Gibbon (pictured in the bottom of the two above pictures) was in action! He was swinging all across his little.. I don't know what to call it... Area. Back and forth. It was very impressive. Then there was a second Gibbon (which you can see at the back of the giant cage in the picture) climbed down to get a corn cob on the ground and it was too far for him to get it without walking on the ground. And it was seriously like watching someone walk on hot cement watching him get it. It was so funny! (Because their toes are designed for swinging, not walking on the ground.)

And last but not least:

 The Giraffes!! I found the Giraffes quite enthralling. There were about five of them. I took so many pictures of them!!

Nothing particularly exciting happened in the giraffe exhibit but they were still fun to watch.

And there's me!! ^-^ With a giraffe in the background. Don't I look cute? :)

So that concludes our trip to the zoo. :)

Toilet Anyone? It's Free....

So today (*cough, post options cough cough*) we had our second carport sale (which if you live where there are no carports, it would be called a garage sale or yard sale). Continued from last week!! Last friday we had one and then expected rain on Saturday (and rain it did. Drizzly dreary stuff, I'll say.) so we postponed the second day of our sale to today.

Well, it just so happened that the people on the corner of our block were having a carport sale too!! (Which was really helpful for advertising purposes.) Anyways, they were closing their sale earlier and they let us pick through their stuff to see if we could sell any of it for our sale. (Their sale was raising funds for a missions trip and they were about to take the rest of it to Goodwill.)  And guess what they had?

That's right. A toilet. And they tried so hard to convince us to take it off their hands. The girl Beka walked down and was talking to dad about it (after me and Cam had asked him and he already said 'no.') and finally Dad was like, "Alright alright, we'll take it. As long as you can get two strong boys to carry it down." And Beka laughs and says, "Oh, they're already on their way!" (She was kidding of course, but it was funny!)

Then, we were trying to brainstorm different ways to use the toilet: a swivel desk chair, a flower pot, dog bowl... In the end, we put it on the street with a "FREE" sign on it. And you know what? It was stolen in the middle of the night!! I guess someone wanted it! :)

Bribery Vs. Oppression

There are two ways of getting what you want when talking reasonably doesn't work. And those two ways are: bribery and oppression.

So I was trying to convince Cam to sing "Lean on Me" for the Chet talent show that's coming up in April. But he refused. Why? I don't know. But the fact is; he refused. And then you have me over here, desperate for him to sing with me. Because I can just picture all the beautiful harmonies and how amazing it would sound and everything in my head... And I'm trying to figure out what to do.

I asked if I could possibly bribe him and he said it depended on what it was... Then, within that same hour, he asked if he could have one of my otter pops (which Milea gave me for my birthday.) I was like, "mmmm... will you sing with me in the talent show?" And he looks at me with the I-can't-believe-my-own-sister-would-use-this-against-me face and he goes, "No!!" So I didn't let him have any of my otter pops until he said yes. (But this was just something I'd decided in my head.)

While I was discussing my dilemma with Dad, he suggested I use brute force. "Oppression!" he said. Violence. "Tickle him until he says yes!" he offered... I told him I'm too nice to do that. And he'd probably wet himself before he said 'yes.'

So I thought and thought and in the end, I convinced him by promising to buy him something at intermission. And that worked. I also might've said a certain something about a certain someone which I probably shouldn't mention on this blog... But I promise you, it wasn't blackmail! Cross my heart. It was just a little...prompting!!

In any case, it worked and he obliged me by singing with me. Ah the beauty. Oh, the harmony. The sweet loveliness of our voices blended together in (almost) perfect unison... It was angelic, I tell you.

It was a little rocky at first but it had the beginnings of something great. I sent a recording to a few people and Joe said it was "beast" (whatever that means in today's modern language.) Kerri said he did a great job sticking down the melody.

When we got up for the sound check, Cam was super nervous and he started missing some of the notes. He would get confused by my harmony and go completely flat... Dad told him to plug his ear and we sung the chorus and he sung it perfectly!! So he did that the whole time through. And IT. WAS. AWESOME!!!! I was so happy!! And it was so so SO much fun!! I bought Cam his nachos at intermission and he was a happy boy.

He really did a great job. Here's the video to prove it (if it'll load correctly, that is.)-

I would recommend closing your eyes and listening, but that's just me. I find it distracting that I keep looking right at the camera. But I swear I wasn't!! I was looking at Kerri! Because she has the most encouraging smile you ever saw. Especially when you're performing. Love that gal.

To summarize, the talent show was tons of fun and Cameron did an excellent job!! Wouldn't you agree?

note: I tried to upload the video about four times and no dice. It's just been taking forever to load!! :( I'm trying to upload it to You Tube and embed the video but even that's taking forever. I don't know what's wrong! I'm sorry. 


I did it!! I managed to get the video uploaded to you tube and posted here!! However, the video is unlisted so you can't find it on You Tube without the URL.

 

I love Post Options

Here is a comprehensive list of all the posts I recently added, using the post options to make myself look like I'm not such a lazy bum. (Which I'm really not!)

• Squid Fries!
• Sunday Afternoon Basketball with Cam!
• Hiking!!
• Something Sweet 

I also have a Something Sweet Post and Seven Falls post in process and will add them to the list as I post them. 

Check! I have finished updating!

Cam's First Zit

No pictures to protect the innocent.

Little bro is growing up!!!!! :'(

He is discovering the wonderful world of having a first zit. Today, he said funny things like:

• "Ahh!! What is it?" (initial reaction)
• "I hate this!!!" (after it hurt because he was poking it.)

and

• "When will it go away?!"

We told him that it will probably take a few days for it to go away and he needs to start washing his face. I told him not to touch it. Did he listen to me? Not really. Did he listen to Dad when Dad said not to touch it? Yep. What is up with that? (You'd think he'd listen to an expert. Maybe it's a man thing.. Who knows?)

The talent show approaches!! We practiced our singing for the old folks at Hundred Palms and it went really well. Looking forward to Friday!!!

100th post!

Also, I have now reached my 100th post!! Crazy, no?

(This is No. 101-- in case you were curious. And couldn't add up the numbers in the sidebar --> )

It's It.

It's-it is a name that will ring the bells of nostalgia for every long-time San Francisco resident. Invented in 1928. It is a part of all our memories and certainly was part of our growing up at Playland-at-the-Beach. It's-it consists of a scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two old-fashioned oatmeal cookies and then lavishly dipped into dark chocolate coating. The entire combination was frozen and it's unlikely combination of flavors was released as it slowly melted.


Thus says the wrapper on the infamous It's-It: the fabulous icecream sandwich. Mom scored good at Safeway. Yay Mom!! We decided that we are going to try to recreate our own versions of these because they are on the expensive side but sooo tasty!!

For some reason, I have associated it with old Heidi place. I also remember stopping at a truck stop on some road trip and getting these. But the association with Heidi place is the strongest one and I'm not really sure why. Perhaps, my parents ate them often then. I don't remember. It was too long ago. But Mom brought these home and they are so good!! Unfortunately, they come in packs of three. (Packs of three! Who packages food in bunches of three??)  But yeah, we love these things and they are a family favorite!

She also brought home a large box of squash from her outing with Ms. Jessica. O_o And I am talking a seriously large box of yellow squash. (basically yellow zucchini.) So for dinner, we had squash casserole, a messed up version of zucchini pancakes (I didn't think the texture was quite right but that's just my opinion.), and chicken. As Grandma Susie would say, it was not the most colorful meal we've ever eaten. But all the same, it was pretty delish.

*Note* I have some other things I haven't posted yet, mostly out of laziness but I will get to them and use the handy schedule-a-post option to post them in their respective places. So keep an eye out for those. Sorry for the delay!

Basketball with Cam

 So Cam asked real nicely if I would play basketball with him and I consented. So he led me to a basketball court at a nearby church about ten minutes away. It would've been longer but we took a shortcut through some alleys.

As you may or may not be able to tell, the basketball hoops were very... short. All the same, we had a rousing game with much yelling, fouling, cheating, and running up and down the court.

 We were pretty evenly matched. I was tall enough to dunk the ball in the hoop, but nice enough that I shot from further away. And missed. A lot.

Our game was even complete with a "halftime" break during which Cam collapsed on the ground. It was a hot sunday afternoon and we only ended up playing for about half an hour. Next time, I say we play half court.