new york city... get the rope... apparently my NYC blog never posted and I didnt know so here is a trip that happened in oct 2012

there used to be a pace picante sauce commerical that was talking about pace salsa being made in san antonio, tx & they had some that would talk bout salsa being made in NYC & they would shout new york city... get the rope. so I always say that line when I mention NYC.

Well i havent been doing a nightly blog of our travels & adventures while we are here in NYC, but im sitting at Drakeston's photoshoot and have some time, so i'll update now.

its been wild & crazy & fast. weve been here almost a week & we leave tommorrow. I booked our flight first & then hotel, wish i had known I was staying at Newark airport. We flew into Lagurdia airport. the flight was good, quick & easy, the next part not so easy. We spent 3.5 hrs on a plane nonstop from DFW to LGA, then we sat in baggage claim for an hr trying to figure out what i was gonna do. I forgot to book a car service for pick up. I found there was a shuttle between airports, we board that. We had a transfer station at Grand central, i wish we wouldve stopped & looked around, but a bus driver rushed us to board. I couldve boarded a later bus. We landed at noon. We got on bus & headed to Newark airport. i didnt know which place to get off at, so we got off at the 1st stop, which was wrong. so then we had to figure out where to go from there, we reboarded the bus & got off at the right place finally. Then we had to take a shuttle to our hotel. A plane, a bus, a shuttle, a bus & and another shuttle & 4 hrs later after getting off plane we make it to our hotel. We didnt do anything else that day. the next day I think we saw a lil bit of Central Park.

I ended up leaving my camera in Dallas in my car & My sister mailed it for us. While walking in Central park we came to a part of the park that I had seen many times before in my dreams. Ive never been to Central Park before this. I've had a dream for many yrs maybe 7-10. the dream is always gray except some green grass & green treetops a lil bit of sunshine popping through the treetops. & lots of tall buildings above the treetops. I walked right into my dream scape. We went back & later got some pics of the location.

The next day idk why but I decided to be very lazy. We stayed in the hotel all day, but I was trying to plan the next few days with the bus & subways & what should be seen. I finished reading a book I had on my phone.

& the days are starting to blur. weve done a lot of walking & a lot of bus & subway riding. Our commute from Newark to the city is any where from an hr to 2 hrs. Weve seen a lot of stuff in time square, a lil bit of Madison Square garden. We met with our manager at MMG NY our reason for our trip. Drakeston did excellant as he says. We've had a hard time getting him to talk & show his personality when we've met with agents & managers in the past. We couldnt get him to stop talking at this visit.

We got to see Newsies the musical which is what I was looking forward to the most. It was a movie that came out in the 90's. One of my favorites. I went to a dance camp every summer for many yrs & one of my dance instructors played Specs in the movie. This is the debut season of this musical & it was on broadway. I loved it. The theatre was awesome & I loved the sets & how they portrayed NYC. Drakeston didnt like it so much, he wanted to leave half way through. They did kinda change up a character or 2 but the story still went through.

We went to a famous NYC bowling alley called the bowlmor. It was pretty cool.

The ultimate rd trip 2013 Drive day Nashville, TN to chicago, IL

The Ultimate Road Trip 2013 drive day Nashville, TN to Chicago, IL

June 3 2013 We got on the road about 9:15 am Today we have driven in TN, KY, IN, and IL. While we were in TN we were confused on how long it was going to be. We couldn’t figure out the time zones. The part where we had been staying was central time, but other parts of the state are in eastern. We knew that IL is central time. We knew that it should’ve been about 3 hrs to Louisville, but it was showing arrival time of 4 hrs. We realized it was the time changing. We went from central, to eastern, then back to Central time zone.

Dusty kept trying to get me to turn the RT 66 trip into a baseball trip. I just laughed each time he suggested it. I did however look at the teams that played in Chicago, St Louis, AZ, and CA on Rt 66 to see if we could squeeze in a game. Every team was either playing the day before or the day after we would be in that city, except for the Anaheim Angels, but to see them we would’ve had to give up our beach day. I asked him if he wanted to do beach or baseball. He opted for beach (the best option in my opinion.) We realized we could go through Louisville, KY and see the Louisville slugger museum and factory. Louisville sluggers is as much baseball as any other part of baseball is. This was an awesome stop.

We parked on Museum row and the 1^st museum we came across was the Fritz museum of history. They had a sign up for Mythic Creatures exhibit. Drakeston asked if we could go there instead. We said we could see about going to both. We went inside and got general info and pricing. Eric, Drakeston and Jen went inside the Fritz and saw the mythic creatures exhibit. I was reading the signs to find out what we would be looking at and to tell Drakeston. Before I would be able to finish reading he would tell me the creature and what it did. He was correct on all of them without reading. We breezed through the british history and civil war and American history parts and then went across the st to the slugger museum.

At the slugger Museum you start with a tour thru the actual factory where they make 3000-5000 bats a day. You see how they hand made the bats when they first started. It took about 30 mins to make 1 bat. Each player would order a dozen bats at a time, times each player on a team times all the teams.  They progressed to a laser lathe with a template. There are 25 different templates that could be used. The laser lathe can produce a bat in 30 seconds. They use a different lathe for the pro bats. The factory has 2 of those machines. It takes 50 seconds to do a professional bat for more specifications. In these machines there are over a 1000 templates. The bats that were used in early baseball history are very heavy. Drakeston couldn’t hold it up on his shoulder to bat. It almost knocked him to the ground picking it up. We are arriving in Chicago as I was writing this, but now have spent a whole day in Chicago right now and about to head out for another of sight seeing. so stay tuned

the ultimate rd trip 2013 our nashville adventures

The Ultimate Road trip 2013 our Nashville, TN Adventures

June 1 We started our day by going to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The building itself tells a story, every detail represents something about country music and American history. The windows are designed to look like the keys of a piano. When looking at the building from above, it looks like a bass clef. The wood floors, remind you of barns and farms or rural areas where a lot of singers and songwriters come from. There is a rotunda that is graduated in size represents the changes of how music is stored from the large vinyl records to the lp’ s, the 45’s and then compact discs. There is a tower that represents the radio towers that music is played on. There is much more but I don’t have my information guide with me right now. It houses every album that has gone platitnum or gold in country music.

We kinda split up as we walked thru, some striding leisurely, others taking a brisk pace, then meandering back thru to catch up with the others. It’s a 3 story museum of country music history from costumes, personal belongings, guitars, cars, letters, and etc. They were having a special Patsy Cline exhibit.

There is a tv show that came out this yr called Nashville, Nana and I watch it every week. They had costumes and props from that show on display. The  pilot’s script. I think this show must’ve been playing in the background each time I set out to plan our road trip. I wanted to go a completely different route to get to Rt 66 and somehow Nashville, TN became my pre Rt 66 destination. I thoroughly enjoyed this place.

We then had to find a place to eat, Drakeston wanted food as soon as we went inside the country music hall of fame. We ended up walking to an area of town called The District which is food venues that showcase live music. We ended up at a place called Paradise Resort and had some burgers. We started walking down the District and a rain storm came in. The weather was changing as each block was walked. We made it back to the car with just a small bit of rain. Eric and I got slightly more  wet than the others cuz we stopped to wait for traffic before crossing the st by the time we got the car out of the car garage it was a gray thick mass of pouring down rain that could barely be seen thru.

We attempted to go to Opryland but we missed the part that was not a part of the Gaylord resort. We decided we would just go back to our host’s house. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with them. We learned a card game, the boys jumped on the trampoline in the rain(it was much lighter rain at this point) Jason grilled us some brats and dogs, Laura cut up some watermelon. The kids ate it all up before the adults got any.

June 2 We started our day with a visit to Berry’s Chapel Church of Christ. The bible lesson was on Joy, Joy for God, living with Joy in God’s kingdom. We then went back to Nashville. Rain threatened to end our 2^nd sightseeing day as well. We arrived and it was raining on us. We walked to a store with Umbrellas but ended up not getting any. We walked some in the rain. We walked around the Ryman auditorium but did not take a tour so we didn’t get to see much of the inside. We headed back to the district. This time we ate before we started exploring and had white castle. We walked around inside the Hard Rock Café and in Downtown. We walked around the river window shopped some of the stores, saw some funny and famous saloons. Eric liked one called Country that kicks and laughed and laughed at it. He said it made his day. They had a funny horse statue in front of it, standing up. The Coyote Ugly was next door.

The day before I had seen some stars on the sidewalks but couldn’t get close enough to see what it was, Drakeston wanted his food. We walked back towards the area where I had seen them. Its close to the country music hall of fame. It is a walk of fame that was established in 2006. It is similar to the Hollywood Blvd walk of fame with stars on the ground. These stars are red and black and have the name of the star and a guitar.

Drakeston was now tired of walking so we headed to the car. We then drove down music row, me not really knowing what it was but knew I wanted to see it. It is a st that has old houses turned into recording studios. It has Studio B which is where most Nashville singers record their work. It’s also the RCA/Victor studio with the RCA dogs. This st has painted guitars. As we were driving around I remembered I wanted to see the parathion, an exact replica of the parathion that is in Greece. We got there about 4:20 and they closed at 4:30. They let us run inside and get a look of the statue of Athena.

By this time it was time to head to the Bluebird Café and meet the Millers. We knew we would have to wait in line, seating was first come first served. The line usually starts at 5pm and doors open at 6:30pm. The bluebird Café is a 31 yr old listening Venue that showcases songwriters. It’s the jumping off point for people to get signed or have singers by their songs. Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Vince Gill, Taylor Swift, Leann rimes are just a few of the people whove performed there. It’s a small intimate venue but plays a major role in Nashville and country music, only holds 100. Its featured in the show Nashville, and some of the stars from the show still perform there. It is becoming more popular of course cuz of the recognition from the show. We got to the door and were told they just seated the seat, and we couldn’t get in. They said we could wait and see if anyone left for the 8pm show and then we could see if we could get a seat then. The Miller’s didn’t wait they have small kids. They went across the st and had The California Pizza for dinner. At this time Alex went with them. Drakeston and Eric walked to Mcd’s we were going to wait and see if we got an opening. The door guy gave us some umbrellas to block the sun off of us. Drakeston got tired of waiting, so when The Millers came out from the pizza place he went with them. They ended up going bowling. They bowled from 8pm-12midnight. We left the bluebird café about 11:15 or so. We got inside and heard a good show. There were supposed to be 10 writers but was more like 13. Each one was to sing 3 songs, and the closing feature writer got more. It was the start of The CMA festival week which is the country music awards and festivities leading up to them all week. The lines were longer than usual due to this. We stopped at Walmart to get the Millers some groceries for letting us stay with them and get some gas.  We all got to the Miller’s house about the same time. Dusty and Eric went straight to bed. The boys and Leia Miller played some cards. The younger kids finally went to sleep. Laura, Jen and Alex stayed up til 3am just chatting and visiting.

June 3 we packed up and started a drive day. We went from Nashville, Tn to Chicago, Il with a stop in Louisville, KY. When this blog was written while riding in the car between Louisville and Chicago we have driven 1300 miles.

the ultimate road trip leg 1

The Ultimate Road trip: leg 1 Stillwater, OK-Nashville, TN

May 30 we officially started our rd trip. I had to work that day in Lawton, OK and the boys met me there in the evening. We were thinking we weren’t going have enough room in my car or Eric’s car. My car is a Pontiac sunfire midsize car, He drives a chevy cruze compact car. The small drive between Lawton, OK to Stillwater, OK we only had 4 people in the car and there were 2 suit cases in the backseat. When we got to Eric’s house we put everything that was going on trip on a tarp, pulled everything out of Eric’s car. We managed to gte us, our belongings, and carry on stuff into his car like sardines.

We set out the next morning to Nashville, TN. We drove 678 miles. We went thru OK, Arkansas, and TN. We arrived at a friend’s house that we would be staying for the weekend. We caught some traffic in Arkansas which delayed us a lil. The Miller ’ s were are hosts and they had grilled us some bbq chicken.

We got settled in and talked for a bit then headed to bed. We started driving in the morning about 8am and arrived around 9:30pm. We thought we would be changing time zones when we got to Nashville, but it doesn’t change til further in TN. It was a good drive. While we stopped at chick-fil-a the cashier said “it’s nice to see families come in, where you can see the resemblence of traits in each person. Yall all look alike. I can see you in each of them.” He said that to me while Alex and Drakeston standing next to me. Dusty was close by and the guy goes he looks like you to, but not as much. 

the ultimate rd trip 2013 the 1966 car story

                                                               The ultimate rd trip 2013

On a date night in Tulsa OK with Eric Tollison driving thru Drumright, OK an idea was born. This idea was to drive the complete Rt 66 the mother road in a 1966 vehicle for 6 days and 6 hrs starting on 06/06. At this time I just put the idea as a bucket list item to do some day. When I got my tax refund I decided this was the yr to make this happen. I started looking at 1966 cars on Ebay 03/15/2013 within the 1^st week of looking I saw a car I wanted to bid on. I made my bid testing the waters to see if anybody was watching it, no other bids came. On the same day I did the same thing on another auction, they ended within a few hrs of each other, and I didn’t want to lose out. Auction 1 announced me as the high bidder, but not the winner. I asked the seller why I didn’t win, he said there was a reserve. We then went into discussions on a price that both of us would be happy with. While this was going on auction 2 announced me as the high bidder and the high winner. I liked the car in auction 1 better than auction 2 and went ahead and let the car from auction 2 go to the next highest bid.Both of these cars were 1966 mustangs. Ive always wanted a classic car and a mustang, so I thought I was getting 2 cool things in 1. The seller and I talked back and forth all the way thru 04/12/2013. The car started knocking so he took it the mechanic. They thought it was something minor, turned out to be major and they took the car apart and it was no longer driveable. Everyday thru this I was still on ebay looking at 1966 cars. We went to the DFW area to zipline on April 13 and looked at a seller of classic cars that was close by. I decided that car was a no go. Shortly after that I found what I thought would be the perfect car. A teal and crème colored 1966 Pontiac Grand Prix delux. It met my criteria for what I was looking for in a car, was within my budget and it was nice looking and in good shape with the paint and the looks.l I bid and won!

I was looking at the most cost effective means to get it home. The car was in South Carolina, I was in TX. On ebay it gave a shipping estimate of $500 to get it home based on the 2 locations, when I clicked on it to reserve it, the shipping jumped to a $1000 quote. I had spoke with the seller, he said it was driveable. The seller had a guy who he left responsible for making arrangements for the pickup or shipping of the car. I was in contact with him every day. I asked him if I could get to SC if I could just drive it home. He said yes. I made arrangements to do so.

That turned into its own little adventure full of mishaps. I decided to take a greyhound bus. There was snow in Amarillo, TX on the day that I was to board the bus in my hometown. This caused our 1^st delay of 1 hr. I get on the bus at 4:30pm on Thursday afternoon. We had a stop in Ft worth, TX and Dallas, TX. At Dallas we changed drivers. The new driver was actually a very new driver. This was his 1^st route and 1^st night on the job. He didn’t know where any of his bus stations were, we got really lost in Shreveport, LA.  This put us 2 hrs behind. So from every stop we were 3 hrs behind. It didn’t affect us too much until we got to Atlanta, GA it caused us to miss the connection. I was originally supposed to arrive in SC around 8pm Friday night. I didn’t arrive until 11pm at night. I was gonna drive the 1966 Pontiac home on sat and Sun and be back at work Monday morning. The car and GOD had other plans. I got stranded in SC and made it home by bus on Tues late night. I missed 2 nights of work. The car is still in SC!!!

Everyone asks me why I wanted to go in a 1966 car or why I had to have a special car for the trip, to me driving in a 1966 made the trip more Americana, more nostalogic, more unique, more route 66. Anyone can drive in an everyday normal car, but not everyone can go in a classic car. To me the car is what made the trip. We are taking our route 66 trip in a 2012 chevy cruze eco. I had a friend tell me well look at it this way 6+6=12 so in a weird kinda way I do have a 66. I was trying to see if I could get a 66 with the yr the road was made 1926 and the yr of the car 2012 but that came out to 86. My everyday driver is a 2002 Pontiac Sunfire. The trip will still be fun, but that extra something will be missing. On this particular leg of the trip we’ve seen several 1966 cars just out & about,but I think there are several car shows going on this weekend.

IPOP Follow up

wow its been a month since I last blogged. This is a followup to my july blogs . We are back in CA doing follow up on our results from the acting competition that we went to.

ok for clarification since my last fb post sounded complicated. We went to an acting competition in July which resulted in 7 callbacks for Drakeston & 2 for Alex. a callback means a manager or agency is interested in you & wants to see more of you. It is not a guarantee that you will be accepeted.. The 2 callbacks that Alex got offered Drakeston a callback as well. So the Crawford agency liked both alex & Drakeston. we received a email stating we were being offered a contract but it did not specify if it was for both boys or just Alex. We came to CA this week to followup on some of our callbacks. The one we came to meet gave us a no, so then we spoke with a different agency that was not a part of the IPOP competition, they also gave us a no. In the meantime we had contact with a different agency one of the 7 callbacks & it also had a contract attached. So Drakeston may be able to choose from 2 different agencies to sign with.

Drakeston's callbacks:                                                                          
1.The Crawford Agency( possible contract offer)                                                                          
2.The Chateau(waiting to hear from)                                                        
3.323 management(waiting to hear from)
4.Carol Stevens ( a scout who booked us a meeting with a manager who gave us a no)
5.MMG (may have a contract offer but must visit in New York 1st then work in CA, not sure if its an offer to be considered for a contract or is a contract)
6.agencys models & talent (we have posted pics on their website this is how bookings & auditions are given)
7.April Mills( no)

Alex's callbacks:
1.The Crawford Agency (possible contract offer not sure if it is for Alex, Drakeston or Both)
2. The Chateau(waiting to hear from)

In 2010 Drakeston participated in a different competition that didnt give much results. He received 1 callback. We visited with the Avalon artist agency last July. It served as a good experience. They told us we were to late in the summer to work us, & they did not want to offer a contract at that time. After we found out that the manager that we spoke with on this trip was a no, I took initiative to contact The Avalon Artist agency & let them know that we were in Los Angeles. They squeezed us in & gave us another meeting. They still did not offer a contract but told us we could get more experience & come back & try again at a later date.

It was not the results we were looking for but they still went in a positive direction. We are proud of them & will continue to support them. We will work on what was told us & continue to pray & pursue as long as we get that the boys still want to do this. This weekend we received 3 no's & 1 yes. on average you hear NO 10 times before you hear a yes.

on the road again...

Today we started our drive back home. We started in sylmar,ca about 10am & ended in Gallup,nm around 10ish pm.  I took a lot of landscape pics along the way. There wasnt a lot to report about, pretty un eventful. there was a lil bit of rain, not too much though.

We took a detour to meteor crater,az. We saw the sign at 6:37 pm & within the mile saw the exit, but it said it closed at 7pm. we decided to drive the 6 miles & see what it was about. We were hoping they werent gonna charge admin fees to get in with it being so close to closing time, but no luck we didnt even get a discounted fee. they charged full price & told us we had til 7:30pm to look around. they showed us a video about the crater. it ws the 1st & most perfectly perserved crater from an meteor. it helped give info & reserach for over 200 other craters world wide/ it was caused by a meteor that came in at 26,000 miles per hr, which if on a plane leaving from los angeles,ca to new york city would be a 5 min flight. it left a hole in the ground that could house 20 football games at once with 2 million watchers. we were taking pics of the setting sun in the parking lot at 7:32pm & the gate keeper was hollering at us to hurry up so he could lock the gate. Outside of the gate we took some more pics of the sunset. We didnt have a lot of time to actually look at the museum but it was still pretty cool. we said it was worth the detour.

other than lunch, which was in Needles,ca at the wagon wheel cafe & 115 degrees, a pitstop & a gas stop, &dinner at taco bell in Holbrook,az we were in the car the whole day, looking at the beautiful america along rte 66.

If we can cancel hotel res for tommorrow we may arrive TX late tues after a detour to Roswell,nm to see the alien museum, if not we will stay in roswell tues night & be in TX wed afternoon. I hope we have as nice a view as today.

the days after IPOP

The days after IPOP

Well all good things must come to an end. Friday we had to check out of our 5 star hotel. We decided to take a morning swim in the pool & hottub. Drakeston slept in & we decided to do a late check out so we had until 2pm. I was tempted to get back in the pool again, but packed instead.

 We had pizza hut when we left the hotel. We spent some time driving around Beverly Hills looking at the fancy cars & drove down Rodeo Dr. We stopped at The Beverly Hills Garden which has a cool BH sign, & a really big tree that is fun to climb on & carve initials in hearts in. I wanted to show Nana where we had stayed & been on our last visit to CA, that took us to Wilshire blvd in Beverly Hills. We visited the Harry Potter store that is across the st from the original agent we spoke with. So since we were in the neighborhood we went down to The La Brea Tarpits, since there was 4 of us this yr & we didn’t have as much spending money we didn’t pay to go in. We just walked along on the outside. The tarpits are next to the LACMA los angeles county museum. I was trying to be artistic & was taking all kinds of angled building & architect pics. I had told Alex if we ever were back in LA I would show him LA INK. So since we were on LA Brea & that’s where LA INK is we journeyed down to High Voltage Tattoo. I told her to park at the MCDonalds a few blocks from La Ink, & fear of being towed we purchased food, so we would be mcd’s customers, & since we were staying for more than a few mins we decided to connect to the free wifi for a bit. When we were finished walking around & looking at LA INK we drove to our Sylmar, CA hotel. It is only a 1 star hotel. Not bad except its small, only 1 full size bed. We bought a full size airbed for the boys. The bed is a bit uncomfortable, even though we bought the airbed for the boys to share Drakeston has still been sleeping with me & Nana. This place does have a hottub that has eased the back pain I get from sleeping on this bed. We stayed at this hotel for 2 nights before we went to Beverly Hills & have been here since we left BH.

The next day was Saturday we wanted to go to Venice Beach & see where we loved last yr. I didn’t have a specific address, so I kept picking Venice spots on the gps, & I would say it didn’t look familiar so we would drive somewhere else. We kept ending up in Santa Monica & Marina Del Ray, Venice is in the middle of the 2. We stopped for lunch Nana & I had Chinese & Drakeston Had subway, Alex didn’t eat cuz he ate left over pizza in the car. We ended up parking in Santa Monica & walked to Venice which was 3 miles. All of this caused us to get to the beach several hrs later then when I originally wanted to arrive. I wanted to see the midday tide hit the rocks on Venice Beach so we could see the big breaks. We missed that , so the water around the rocks was barely there on the front side. This meant Boo could climb on the rocks & He was crab searching. He collected 16-20 crabs from small to large, he had them in a bucket that we found at Santa Monica. He released them when we left. It was fun to see them scurry off, they left neat little tracks in the sand. I don’t know why there wasn’t as much water where it was the last yr, but there was a lot of seaweed & moss & various other stuff  washed up on the shore, but there were 4 dead stingrays on the beach, there were some big bones from marine animals washed up.  It was kinda gross cuz there were small flys all around. Even with all that Venice is still my favorite beach that Ive  been to.  It has street vendors & artists all along the beach. It’s a bright & colorful place. There are all kinds of music there from mixed cds to bongos & steel drums. The condos & lofts on the beach are all neat to look at. There was one for rent & last yr I said it would be cool to live in that unit. I was tempted to call the # & find out how it was going for but I didn’t want to be sticker shocked so I just let it be. We had to walk back to our car in Santa Monica which was 3 miles down shore, by this time it was dark, & all the st vendors, artists, & musicians were gone. Nana & The boys had walked ahead of me to get to a store before it closed. I was exchanging food we had bought I didn’t like it, & it took forever to get new food. I was taking pics of the sunset while they were eating, so I didn’t know I didn’t like the food when everyone else was eating. I walked almost 3 miles by myself in the dark. Being on the beach at night is a lot different then in the daytime. It was almost scary. We made it back to the hotel just in time to have 10 mins in the hottub before they closed it for the night.             

Today was Sunday we stopped at an In-N – Out Burger which is a famous burger chain in the CA area. It was ok, but not as good as the hype. We then drove to Downtown Disney to shop & look around. Nana & I got some Mickey ears, & the boys built a remote control car at Ride Makerz. I also had a charactercature made up of them. We went back to our hotel decided to find an eating place & ended up at TGIFridays. I hadn’t been there in a very long time. It was pretty good. Then we went swimming in the hottub again. I had checked the temperature before we got in the pool to see if it was gonna be cold, as I have done each time before we swam at a hotel or on the beach. Everytime it had always been around 64-66 & once you get in the water it hasn’t been all that bad, but tonight when I checked it was 84, so I was expecting the pool to be warm. It was 9:15 at night. I jumped right into the pool & quickly got out. It was the coldest water I had been in yet. A guy at BH told us he thought the hotel mustve been heating the water . I guess they were cuz the Sylmar pool was freezing & the pool in BH was warmer, even though the outside air was cooler.  We considered going back to Hollywood after leaving downtown Disney but decided we didn’t want to pay for more parking & just went back to the hotel.

Tommorrow we start the drive back home, we will make it to Gallup,NM.

day 3,4,& 5

Day 3 ,4,& 5

I think I left off with our adventures in the Grand Canyon. Well after visiting the Grand Canyon, we had a 6 hr drive to Barstow,Ca. the last stop on rte 66 before hitting Los Angeles. While in Barstow, we visited the Barstow,Ca train/bus station. The out side is an Mcdonald’s its actually 3 old train cars. The Starbucks was across the st. We ordered 3 frappicinos & they gave us 5. We stopped at a grocery store to get sunscreen & we gave one of the extra drinks to our cashier. We then drove to 6 flags Magic Mountain.  I have been there once before but there were new rides. So it was very exciting. Our 1^st ride out was the X2 for the movie xmen2 . it was incredibly fun & exciting way for the ride. Nana was very nervous. The chair you sit in is like sitting in a rocking chair & then they pull you up the incline backwards. The next ride we rode was probably one of the most fun ive ever been on. Nana even said it was fun & not scary. Its called the tatsu flying at the speed of fear. Its literally almost flying over & through the mountains. The chair you sit in they flip you so you are looking at the ground on take off. Everyone comes off laughing. We rode it once during the sunlight hrs & once during the night hrs. We didn’t get to hit all the rides I wanted to go on but it was still fun. We missed riding the superman, which is different than the superman in Tx, we didn’t get to ride the riddler, & a few others.

The next day we stopped at Ed davis park. We saw it coming home from 6 flags & wondered what it was. My Dad’s name is Ed Davis. It turns out it was a trailwalk in the mountains. We just took a pic of the sign & then headed off to Farrell’s ice cream since our last name is Farrell. At 2 of my jobs Ive worked out we watched a customer service video called give them the pickle, it was based out of the Farrell’s ice cream parlour.  I googled it once & didn’t think I would ever be in a location close enough to visit one, but we were. It was pretty fun. They sound a bell every time its someones bday, all the waiters come out one is beating on a farrells bass drum & they sing a different song for each guest. We had a gold digger sundae. Butter pecan ice cream bananas, pecans, caramel & whipped cream shared 4 ways. After we left Farrell’s we took a scenic drive to Malibu, walked along the pier, then drove down the Pacific Coast Hwy to Santa Monica. We played in the beach for a while then we went on the pier. We were getting Alex & Nana’s faces sculpted. We let someone go in front of us who had a baby, so they gave us their amusement park wristbands. The lines were long & it was dark & 65 degrees so nana was cold. The boys rode the west roller coaster once, then Alex & I rode it once. I wanted to ride the ferris wheel but we didn’t. This was my 3^rd time to Santa Monica, but I have never ridden the roller coaster before. It was something Ive been wanting to do for a long time.

Sunday was the start of our IPOP competiton we had to check in at 3pm, so we didn’t have a lot of time. We took a short trip to Hollywood. We wanted to see a movie at Grauman’s Chinese theatre but all they were showing was a Madea movie & not at the time we were there. We ate at Hard Rock Café instead. Walked around a bit at Grauman’s looking at the handprints, saw a few stars on the walk of fame, then we had to head to Bevrely Hills to check in. It’s a 5 star hotel the hyatt regency century plaza hotel.

Monday we had an IPOP pep rally to get the event started. The boys auditioned for the showcase which is the entertainment for the closing & awards banquets.  They wanted Drakeston to be silly & crazy & sing & dance & he said he wasn’t able to do that, so he wasn’t selected. Later today they will perform there commercials.       That’s it for now, more updates later.

ife is a hwy & I wanna ride it all night long day 2 of rd trip to ca

Life is a hwy I wanna drive it all night

That song was playing when we stopped at The Cadillac Ranch, & then it was playing as we started the leg of the trip close to the az/ca border. We were about 97 miles to the Ca border & 400 miles to Los angeles.

Wow what a quote….. the boys were in the backseat talking about an inapporiate cartoon show. Alex was trying to add lines to a famous from the show. I told him he couldn’t say that. They asked how I knew it wasn’t a part of the quote. I told them I used to watch the show when it 1^st came out when I was young, Drakeston said when was that way back in 1930. I was drinking some green gatoraide & I snorted, it was looking I was able to restrain my self from spraying it all over the computer from laughter…..

Now back to the main events  of the day. Since we got in so late last night we wanted to sleep in & we didn’t worry about setting an alarm, I did want to leave at like 7am  or 8am. I woke up when the sun started peeking through the curtains, my phone said 9am but it was still in tx time, we were in pacific so it actually was 7am. I woke everyone up & we got ready, had our hotel froot loops, packed up the car, & headed out. We detoured to the painted dessert. If I had known I would’ve made a plan to visit the petrfired forest. It was 20 mins before our hotel in Holbrook.

We then headed to the grand canyon. We stopped at bedrock city just outside the canyon. It had a really good lunch menu. & it had recreated the town of bedrock from the cartoon the Flintstones.  Pretty cute but  not  exciting.

We picked the perfect day to go the Grand Canyon. it was between 78-85 degrees at the canyon just depending where you were at. I had been talking to my bf who lives in the OKC area & it was 105 where he was at. I saw a facebook friend's status that it was 109 in Needles. im not sure which state that is in I guess AZ but we were driving through it when I saw her status post about Needles.

Our grand Canyon experience wasnt as grand as expecting & due to impatient family not wanting to listsen to the communication we had to give them, we spent a lot of time bus hopping throughout the canyon instead of actually getting to see different areas of it. It was still fun even though we spent about 2 hrs on a bus for a 4-5 hr visit. We decided we would make a whole trip just to the Canyon as our next trip. They have a lot of neat cabins there, its a nice community. IF we go back we want to take the helicopter tour & go rafting through the Canyon.

We are currently in Barstow,Ca its the final stop on route 66 before you reach Los Angeles. Our hotel is next door to a Starbucks so i will be getting some of that. The Mcdonalds is across the st & its in a train car, so we may go visit that. Today we head to 6 Flags magic mountain near Los Angeles. My pics are uploading as we speak so look for them to come. We have been through every city or town that is known for being on route 66.

i get my kicks on route 66 day 1 rd trip to ca

Well the day before any trip is always long for preparations & such, well this trip was no different. I ended up going to bed between 3:15am & 3:30am and waking about 1.5-2 hrs later. I went to work an hr early so we could leave earlier. We were scheduled to leave at 12:30pm, at 12:45 I called to see where my family was & they hadn’t left home yet. HOME IS 1 HR FROM WHERE I WORK. I could’ve worked my regular shift. We started our trip at 2pm. I was expecting it to be a pretty boring leg of the trip, but it wasn’t. they say the longest part of a rd trip is getting out of TX. That was the case here. I really thought driving through west tx would be so boring & mind-numbing as Alex’s commercial would say. It was pretty had cute painted houses & buildings. Each small town had some cool looking shops. We had planned on stopping at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo,TX,(an art project for a university in the 60’s or 70’s that stuck 10 cadillac cars up right in the ground, & then were painted. It since has become a graffiti park & you leave your mark  so the art is always changing.) but we also decided that the Big Texan steak house was a great photo op, so we turned around & stopped there as well. Those 2 photo stops took 2 hrs. we had only been driving 2.5 hrs at this point. We thought it was an 8 hr drive but we were forgetting the time changes, & it was really a 10 hr drive. I was slated for 4 hrs of driving. I pulled over just after entering into New Mexico. It was just a Love’s struck stop or so we thought. It had a free car museum, so we had to stop & look & take more pics. That 5 min stop to change drivers and get gas .  turned into an hr stop. It was well worth the time.

Our first hotel was in Holbrook, AZ. We had to drive through alberque, NM & Gallup, NM. I started driving again after driving again in Gallup & had a very scary driving rd. I had set cruise control at 75 not knowing that it was immediately gonna turn into a curvy steep area & had to drop from 75 to like 40 instantly. We were driving through canyons. I wasn’t even aware we were in canyons I thought what I was seeing was clouds, & then next thing I knew we were next door to the largest canyon ever. Then it settled back into a normal hwy. we finally arrived in Holbrook,AZ, & entered into pacific Time. Our clocks which was in mt  time said 1:15am, we went inside the motel & it said 12:15am but in TX time it was 2:15 am, so we were on the rdx just over 12 hrs. There was a slight problem with the reservation & took about 30 mins to resolve, then we had sleep finally.

stampaganza time with close to my heart

well im still learning how to cruise the internet on my new phone so ill add a pic lateer just wanted to give a quick fyi public service announcement while waiting for a friend. its my favorite close to my heart special they run. its stampanganza time which means wheny you visit my website scrappedwithakiss.ctmh.com and buy 2 stamps you get one free.you can buy 2 a sized sets get and a you can buy  2 d size setsand get  a d free. u can get any combination with buy 2 get 1 free but the best way to take advantage is to stay in the same size size set you will get the lowest price in your basket for free. go visit scrappedwithakiss.ctmh.com andload your basket up. tell your friendsfamily tell everyone. there is no limit on how many free sets you can get as long as u have buy 2 get 1.

nutella peanut butter crescent rolls

tonight i was watching cake boss, it made me want dessert so i got on my dessert board on pinterest. i made mine opposite of what the original one was made. i used nutella instead of peanut butter and peanut butter baking chips. the peanut butter chips was the best part of the dessert. my mom made preflavored bbq chicken and waffle fries,

 I was typing this from my phone. I had to get a new one over the weekend. i went into the current century & got a new 4g smart phone. ive never had a phone with data before. I was trying to attach the pic from my phone & I accidently deleted the pic. luckily drakeston hadnt eaten his yet. The 1st pic was pretty & looked yummier.

I chickened out, I was gonna make a balsamic vinegar pork tenderloin

I chickened out, I was gonna make a balsamic vinegar pork tenderloin from pinterest instead I made a pre-flavored teryaki pork tenderloin. I have never made a tenderloin, & have never had balsamic vinegar so I asked my mom if I would like it, she said she & my dad would, the boys would not & she didnt know if I would like it or not. I decided I wasnt adventurous tonight. I did use a pretty new pyrex bowl tonight. It is a divided casserole dish, so I threw in some hash browns, butter & parmesan cheese.( my mom added velveeta cheese slices.) Its actually still cooking as I type so I dont know how it tastes yet. I started cooking late about 8:15pm or so & my mom's oven isnt working 100% so it takes forever. We originally had the oven set for 425 and 30 mins, but we have since switched it over to broil & now its almost done. Success food is out of the oven finally. 9:25pm it tastes good.

cornbread casserole not a pinterest recipe

the boys grandma was a pampered chef consultant & one of the meals she liked to prepare for her party was a cornbread casserole. the ingredients are Jiffy corn bread (milk & eggs for the cornbread) i used carrots & corn, hamburger meat & a bundt pan.

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Before pinterest I didnt cook. I had bought a pretty turquise bundt pan at Easter 2011 time, I took it out of its new package when I made this meal last week. They had purple bundt pans this yr at easter, I retsrained my self from buying it.

Make one box of cornbread according to box put in bundt pan. ground & brown hamburger meat put in bundt pan, put carrots & corn in bundt pan, make 2nd box of cornbread put in bundtpan. Oh yeah when I cooked this I forgot to put shredded cheese on top of the meat. So when it had about 10 mins left of cooking i put cheese on top of the cornbread. Place in oven for about 45 mins or until golden brown at 400 degrees. I didnt do a good job of spreading the cornbread so some of my ground beef got mixed in.

 I dont have a final pic because I didnt have any pam to spray my pan with, so I dipped a paper towl in cooking oil & wiped my pan down. We were in a major hurry to get to practice or a game & we didnt let it cool off properly. So it didnt come out of the pan very pretty. It tasted fine just not pic worthy. the boys ate it. they are picky & wont eat some things.

pyrex, my latest shopping habit

it started with just 1 bowl,1 bowl thats been in the family for the last 30 yrs. Its my mom's yellow bowl thats been at every thanksgiving dinner. the big yellow mixing bowl. We thought it was from the 70;s era but its from the 1950's era.(my mom has joined the pyrex buying spree & has added some of the other bowls in this set. Until now she has only had just this one bowl.)

Well I started cooking pinterest recipes, & I wanted some pyrex bowls, went on ebay starting looking at all the fun & cool patterns. Placed a bid, stayed up late watching it so I could win a set that wasnt very much on shipping. The bowls themselves arent bad its the shipping thats crazy.

my 1st ebay win:
i thought I liked this pattern & color but after getting a few more bowls & patterns I actually dont like this color blue.

My next set I got came from my favorite vintage store.originally she just had the large loaf bowl no lid, but while shopping around a customer brought into the store a suitcase filled with various items including 2 small loaf bowls with lids & a lid for a large loaf bowl no bowl. I have actually used this set. Even though they all have the same pattern the color paint is slightly different on each bowl. (You can see the food inside these bowls)

This set came from an antique store in Bowie,Tx. I like this blue the best. I have used these already as well.

Another ebay find. I really really like this pattern, but the pattern is on the lid. I think this is my favorite one so far,

Here is a pic of my whole collection, these pics were taken 05/02/12 I have added 3 or 4 more bowls since then that are not photographed yet.

bluebonnets revisited 04/24/12

I did update this to my original post, but thought I would combine the 2 & give it its own post.

I had a laptop that died a long while ago, I gave it to my techie friend to try & retrieve my pics & such, well he had my computer from like 2005- 2011. He forgot he had it & then he wasnt in my life for a few yrs. He gave  me a disc with all the files he retrieved. It also  had a disc of pics that I had created in the computer bag. Tonight I thought I would see what was on one of  the discs. I found my 1st set of bluebonnet pics which was from 2004. I know I'm bad Alex was 4 yrs old & 1st time in the bluebonnets. Drakeston was only about 2.5-3 months old. This was actually in town, across the st from where Alex had just gotten a haircut. We were headed to the mall to get easter bunny pics. 

I had really ugly hair & glasses, but was skinnier back then.

& here are some blubonnet pics from 2012

pinterest & pampered chef dinner 04/24/12

I worked locally today, & we didnt have any baseball games, just practice, that means I got to try out a pinterest recipe tonight.

http://pinterest.com/pin/100557004150030330/ bacon wrapped chicken rollups originally posted by blogchef:

http://blogchef.net/bacon-wrapped-chicken-recipe/

It was super yummy. My Dad usually doesnt like the meals that are prepared & usually just complains, but tonight he told me twice it was excellent! The boys on the other hand who are 12 & 8 didnt like the cream cheese. I expected the cream cheese to melt a lil more & be really creamy, but it kinda maintains it original texture & doesnt really melt, but it was still really yummy.

I think our oven is going out & it doesnt cook as fast as it should. I cooked mine for 40-45 mins where the recipe said 30-35 & then i only did 7 mins on the broiler, but by this time we were getting hungry & impatient & the yummy smell was infiltrating our noses. I probably could have left it on the broiler a few extra mins, not all of the bacon got crisp

A long while ago my mom & I attended a pamper chef party. We each bought a large microwave cooker & tonight was the 1st time either cooker was used. I washed the potatos,cut them up, I didnt even peel them, covered them in water, placed them in the microwave cooker, put the lid on & then microwaved for 5 mins at a time til it was done. It was my 1st time cooking potatos so I didnt know how long they should cook. Mine cooked about 15-20 mins. I then used another pampered chef tool I dont know what its called, but I think you use it to ground hamburger meat.  Its black has a nice handle & a rounded x on the bottom. I mashed it up, put the leftover cream cheese in the center & lots of butter,some paprika & some of the liquid that came off the chicken, so butter cream cheese, chicken stuff & bacon grease.

go give it a try.

thought I would blog on my new computer

In Nov, my house was broke into, they stole my laptop,camera,gps, & keys. I had to wait til tax time to replace everything. I had to shop around & see what I wanted. I have been using my family's internet & computer, so im excited to have internet again at my house even though im not at my house yet. I picked up the new computer last night, spoke with a techie friend & she said she would help me get it going & install & remove stuff today (wed). She comes over spends about an hr fixing it up for me, she leaves. I start surfing the web, then I realized it was too quiet so I opened up pandora, & there was no sound! I txt my friend who had already left & went home, she remote accesses my computer & we learned that the speakers were showing as working but not actually working. I had to go back to office depot they played with it for a few mins & said they had another in stock so they just exchanged it for me. So new computer take 2.

baseball season is keeping us busy, & I dont feel very good, so thats all for now in the blog world.

I am having a dove chocolate tasting party on 04/27/2012 @ 7:15pm-9:15pm let me know if you want more details, through comments or email or visit my site http://mydcdsite.com/jenniferfarrell

taking pics in bluebonnets, a tx tradition

Well Ive been wanting to go get some bluebonnet pics, since they 1st started blooming in mid-march. This was not the easiest of tasks this yr. I had to replace my camera that was stolen in Nov. I was trying to be thrifty & thought I was getting a good buy & saving $20 by getting it at Sam's( a wholesale club). It turns out that it was $20 less cuz it didnt have all the features. It was missing the feature I wanted. I return that camera & begin searching again for cameras. I went to best buy 3 different times, & looked online. The original time I guess I overlooked this particular model I thought I had 2 choices $150 that didnt have the zoom & the features or $300 which had everything but I wasnt sold on the price. So I went to walmart, Target, & then Sam's. After Returning the camera I go back to Best Buy. This is when I found the 3rd model which was $200, it had all the features, & zoom & was a good price. Turns out everyone wanted that camera since it was 2 days before easter. They had to order me in one instead of just taking one off the shelf. A week later the camera finally came in. I ended up with a canon  powershot sx150 is . 


On Friday I was wanting to go out since the boys have a half day of school. I ended up misplacing the batteries & the shirts I wanted the boys to wear. I finally find the missing items, but by then daylight was gone. Sat turned into a sleep day since half the family went to relay for life from6p-6a friday night. Sunday we went after morning worship service, got some shots but the the boys werent being cooperative, went back after afternoon service & got some more. 


I guess I got more shots than what I originally thought I did.


here is my slideshow of picshttp://s51.photobucket.com/albums/f354/farrellcat/?action=view&current=1f316ed5.pbw&ps=1&t=1334535876




& no I didnt just add a cute lil girl to my family, i took my friend with me the 2nd time we went out so we could get shots of the 3 of us together. Its her little girl. My friend Jennifer said she mustve been posing for you, cuz she never sits that way. I wanted to get a pic of jennifer & mariah together but Jennifer was camera shy.


Sorry the fonts changed up, I copied something from facebook & blogger wont let me change the font. I keep highlighting & selecting a font but nothing changes.

I told the boys if they would cooperate I would take them to Orange Leaf afterwards. We enjoyed some cotton candy frozen yogurt with some sour worms on top.

edited 04/24/12

I had a laptop that died a long while ago, I gave it to my techie friend to try & retrieve my pics & such, well he had my computer from like 2005- 2011. He forgot he had it & then he wasnt in my life for a few yrs. He gave  me a disc with all the files he retrieved. It also  had a disc of pics that I had created in the computer bag. Tonight I thought I would see what was on one of  the discs. I found my 1st set of bluebonnet pics which was from 2004. I know I'm bad Alex was 4 yrs old & 1st time in the bluebonnets.