Dear Nick @ Nite,

Thank you for playing 2 hours of Friends every night for my viewing pleasure.  Even though I own all 10 seasons of Friends on DVD, I rarely get them out because I end up spending far too much time planted in front of the television.

However, the 6 people I grew up watching are exactly what I need at 11 p.m. when I can't sleep.  With every episode, I think back to the times I remember watching them in years past...good times and great memories.

Your Friend,
Grace's Mom

PS:  I also remember when I was in high school and would stay up late with my mom watching Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley re-runs on Nick @ Nite - feel free to go back to shows that first aired before I was born so that I don't feel quite so old!  Thanks!

KUWTK

KUWTK...Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

I mentioned the other day that I have a love/hate relationship with the Kardashian sisters and their men.  Here are the things I love:

1.  They are marketing geniuses.  I've heard a lot of people comment about the K sisters being famous for being famous.  What may not occur to people is that these women are flipping incredible branders.  They have created a product in themselves - and they are the hottest commodity out there right now!  Everyone knows who they are and what their latest scandal is.

2.  They are a really tight-knit family.  They bicker, fight, and argue.  But in the end, they always have each others backs.

3.  Kourtney is a really good mom to Mason.

4.  Kim is probably my least favorite, but I do appreciate that she's never been fall-down drunk in the papers and seems to hold herself to a certain standard.  Sometimes I wish she would losen up, though.

5.  Khloe is probably the most down-to-earth, and has a really nice relationship with her husband, Lamar.

Here are the things I hate:

1.  The girls are all very materialistic and can be pretty petty.

2.  All of them can be absolutely horrible to the men in their lives.  Kris deceives Bruce, Kourtney is downright rude to Scott, and Kim and Kris...well, that's for a whole different blog.

3.  They can be really raunchy and inappropriate.

4.  I don't think they are good role models for young women in many aspects, the exception being branding and marketing/promotion.

Anyway, that's where I stand with KUWTK.  I was very relieved to talk to one of my favorite cousins last night, and to find that she, too, loves to hate the famous family.  Or hates to love?  Either way.  Clearly, I'm not the only one who is fascinated by this family.

Organize Yourself: Week 2

Week 2 is about organizing your priorities.

New Year, New ORGANIZED Life!

Yes, I realize that I started this challenge a few weeks ago, but I took a hiatus from my personal growth goal to man-handle the holidays.  With two small children and a birthday party thrown in to the mix, I had my hands full creating a holiday extravaganza!  But everything went just swimmingly.  The kids are spoiled beyond belief, as am I.  Just the way we like it!

Anyway...onward!

Here is an except from the book about my challenges for this week:
If I asked you what your top ten priorities are you would most likely be able to list them.  But what if I asked you:  Are you living these priorities each day or even every week?  If you were honest, would the answer be no?  A priority isn't a priority unless you act on it.  Your priorities should reflect your values, not those of your boss, your relatives, or your best friend.

This is very interesting to me.  If you asked me to list my priorities, they would include things like time with the kids, time with the husband, time with the Jaquish family, creating a successful business, coaching volleyball, Relay For Life commitments, supporting the major life events of my two best friends (one is having a baby and one is getting married!!  happy day!), horsey time, and maybe a little time for myself.

But if I wasn't expected to have these tasks on my plate, would I?  Hmmm...yes, I think I would.  I'm very fortunate and I don't have to do a lot of things that I don't like doing.  I'm pretty good at saying "no" and staying away from the things that I dislike.

Some of my tasks for this week include making a list of my top ten priorities, and then making a list of my current activities, and then comparing them.  I feel like these lists will match up okay, but I think that I need to designate more time for the higher priority items than the lower priority items.

One last tip that is given is to not compare your life to TV, advertisements, or celebrities...but...how will I know if I am, indeed, keeping up with the Kardashians?!

My mom watched her first episode of Kourtney and Kim Take New York last week, and she has realized why Kim ditched that loser Kris Humphries.  I'll have to write another blog about my love-hate relationship with the Kardashian family.

Okie and Skyler's Winter Home

Two months ago we moved Okie and Skyler to a "winter home."  Our horse set up is not very easy to manage in the winter months - we don't have pasture, so they cost a fortune to feed because they graze all day on very expensive hay!

Anyway, here are a couple of pics of their new digs.

 The boys have a lovely view of the river.

Clearly, Skyler is getting enough to eat. 

 Nana gets a good look at the yellow horse, making sure his coat looks good and checking for scrapes and scratches.

 This is a perfect example of how Okie and Skyler interact...they are in their own space, plenty of grass and room, not even that close, really...

 ...and NO!  Skyler pins his ears and gnaws at Okie - who probably thinks this is Skyler's way of showing him some affection.

 Absolutely gorgeous property.

 Each of them has a stall in the barn and run - they are penned up at night and only let out in the pasture during the day.  Skyler always goes in the right side and Okie only goes in the left side.  I wonder who made that decision?...Skyler...

 The owner has one horse left - a miniature pony stallion she calls Rusty.  He and Okie have become good friends.  He is in a separate pasture, but his stall in the barn is directly across from Okie's so they chat in the barn.

 I can't remember exactly how old little Rusty is - but he's old - near 30?  He looks great for his age!

 Someone went in the barn...is it snack time?  Must be, to get both Okie and Skyler's full attention!

As grumpy and independent as Skyler can be, he is always the first to greet me when I show up and I can call to him from the back yard and he almost always answers back.  As we're getting ready to leave, he perks up to listen to see if I'm going to say anything of interest...like, I'll be back with apples, Skyler!

Organize Yourself, Day 1

Incase you missed it, I picked up this week-by-week guide to organizing your life, and I'm going to be blogging my progress.

This week's goal:

1.  Write out a vision for your life.  Answer these questions to help you find inspiration.  If you could do anything...
Where would you live?
How would you earn an income?
What would your days look like?
What would you do for fun?
What would you do more of?
What would you do less of?

Oh man, I'm glad my handy-dandy organization book gave me the questions to get started, or I would be overwhelmed already and it's Day 1!

Where would I live?  I'm not especially in love with the town I live in, but I am in love with living close to my family and friends.  My parents are less than 10 minutes away, and since this is where I grew up, this is where even my long-distance friends tend to come back to.  I live between two larger cities, and I have really good friends who live in both, so its handy because I can see all of them easily.  However, we have a lot of crime in our little rural town.  A lot of gangs.  Our school system has gone to pot.  That is a huge concern for me.  I wouldn't mind moving closer to one of the larger towns, but still staying in the country. Would something with room for my ponies and kids to roam be asking too much?

How would I earn an income?  By being awesome.  I said this jokingly to a friend of mine, but I'm kind of serious.  I'm hoping that I will be passionate about my new career in insurance, and that I am really freaking awesome at it.  I would love to be the rock star of the life insurance company - but that kind of goes for whatever I do.  No one wants to work at a job they are bad at, right?  But I don't just want to be good - I want to be awesome.

What would my days look like?  Equal parts Super Mom and Career Woman, with a healthy dose of volunteerism thrown into the mix.  I like to be busy and have a lot of fun things on my calendar.  And yes, I consider meetings fun.  I like having a day with my kids where I am alone with one or both of them.  I tend to do better one-on-one.  I also wouldn't mind more consistent date nights with my hubby. He can be a pretty fun guy.  I like to have fun.  So I suppose the answer is wake up at a decent hour, 6:30ish, send the kids and hubby on their way, work my tail off at my job until mid afternoon, get some me-time in in the early evening, eat dinner with the hubby and kids, and then head to volleyball/volleyball practice/cattle sorting practice/Relay For Life meeting/dinner at Nana's/etc.

What would I do for fun?  I have mentioned before, I have too many hobbies.  I play volleyball, coach volleyball, ride my horses, volunteer for Relay, snowboard, wine taste, and drag my family to every community event I can squeeze in.  I'm getting Grace started early in this stuff too - we go to gymnastics once a week, I got her in to preschool a year early so she goes to that twice a week, she loves the horses and meeting up with friends for coffee.  Yes, my three year old daughter likes to meet her three year old friends for coffee.

Being awesome at volleyball.

Grace and I are both being awesome at riding horses.

Decorating cookies with Mrs. Claus last year at Christmas - we met up with our friends Jauna (left) and Emily (to the left of Jauna) - we do ALL the community events we can!

Grace and daddy at swim lessons - I was too preggo to make that happen, so sometimes when I want our family to do something, daddy has to step up!

Community Days festival - Grace and her BFF Ellie got matching rainbow facepaint!

What would I do more of?  I feel like I should say that I would do more work around the house...but that's just because our disorganization has me really on edge.  If my house was completely in order, I would really like to do more fun things with my husband.  He works so hard, he deserves to have a fun wife.

See?  We clean up nice.  We should do more of this.

What would I do less of?  I would do less dreaming and more doing.  I would also do less spending.  I can always do less spending.

I guess that's pretty much my vision.  I don't think I'm that different from anyone else - hopefully I'm determined enough to make these things a reality.

Can I say, "Oh My Gosh?"

So, May 10 2010 was my last entry, eh?  Pretty sure my life is completely different now.

First of all, there's this little guy:

His name is Logan Patrick, and he's pretty much the coolest little guy I know.

Logan arrived on September 24, 2011.  I actually spent every minute of 2011 pregnant up until that point - probably a good thing I didn't blog during that time.  Postings about my love of chocolate pudding and hatred toward the folks in Starbucks who always wanted to know when I was due, and then give me their two cents on my size, my caffeine intake, and my plans to continue working - that's what my blog would have consisted of this year.  Keep in mind, these Starbucks people are not friends - they are strangers!  Where do people get the nerve?!?  Moving on.

Another big change:  I recently left my job at the TV station to start a career that will hopefully be a little more family-friendly.  I am going to work for a company called Northwestern Mutual selling life insurance.  This last week I did a four week course that prepared me to take my state license exam.  Sounds pretty boring, right?  It really wasn't!  I thoroughly enjoyed learning the ins and outs of life insurance policies, health insurance policies, and the laws that go with them!  I didn't expect to enjoy the material very much.  I have life insurance, but I never understood it and I didn't really care.  Now, I am excited about it!

With all of these life changes going on, I have decided I need to get uber organized.  I stumbled upon a book that was recommended in some blog, somewhere.  Here it is:

As you can see, this is a week by week guide to getting organized.  One week at a time.  Sounds pretty good to me.

The first section is Organize Yourself.  One of my goals in the first week is to start a journal.  I'm not really a handwritten journal kind of girl...so I thought I would give the old blog a whirl.  Not only that, but this is a way I can easily document the changes I make throughout the year!  And maybe this blog will hold me accountable and make me stick with this little program.  Having two kids, an adoring husband, a home, and now working for myself an essentially being a business owner - that's going to call for a pretty high level of organization!

I'm going to officially start the program tomorrow.  I can see nothing holding me back from getting my life completely organized.  

Confessions of a Disney Cast Member

You know how I like to share funny little things that I read!  I promise, I will be back to blogging on a regular basis in the VERY near future - my May from Hell is nearly over! :)  But until then, enjoy!

Confessions of a Disney Cast Member


Robert Niles spent five summers working on rides such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Tom Sawyer Island at Walt Disney World. He currently edits the site Theme Park Insider.


By Robert Niles

Excuse me, young man, are you pregnant?
What's more terrifying than the 38-foot drop on Disney's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad? Having to ask women in line if they're pregnant. It's for their own safety, but forget a woman scorned — hell hath no fury like a woman who's been mistaken for being pregnant. Once, when I was in training, I watched a coworker approach a larger female park visitor and ask, "Excuse me, ma'am, but are you pregnant?" "Pregnant!?!" the woman screamed, her voice turning heads at the happiest place on earth. "No! What are you saying? Do I look fat to you?!" She turned to her friend and screamed some more: "They think I look fat. Let's get out of here!"

I was so traumatized by that incident I crafted a plan to avoid offending anyone. Whenever I spotted a "suspect," I asked everybody in the vicinity — including teenage boys and women in their 70s — if they were with child. If the woman I suspected was actually pregnant, she left the ride quickly. If she wasn't, she just thought I was working a gag.



I sure am Randy today
Disney made the "first name" name tag famous, but the tag doesn't always match the person wearing it. One day, as I was steering the raft to Tom Sawyer Island, my name tag dropped into the river, forcing me to get a new one. There wasn't a single "Robert" left, so until a replacement could be made, I pretended to be "Randy," a name that amused visitors from the U.K. to no end. Elderly English ladies lined up to have their picture taken with me. One screamed when she saw me, grabbed her friend, and yelled, "Is that really your name?" Being a good Disney cast member, I lied and said yes. The friend said, "You know, we love a good randy man back home." But lady, even I'm not that good a cast member.



To get onstage, dress the part
A few attractions choose audience volunteers to be part of the show, but the selection process is far from random. Typically, you need to be a certain gender, size, and age for each of the different roles. You might even need to be wearing a specific item of clothing. On my off days from work, I used to go over to Universal Studios, and I would get picked all the time to play "Mother" in the old Alfred Hitchcock show. They needed a guy my height and weight who happened to be wearing the same type of plain white tennis shoes I always wore. Also helpful for getting picked: cuteness and enthusiasm. Curious kids who ask nicely and look excited often get extra attention, along with thrilling perks like riding up front and introducing shows.



Stroller relocation program
Disney's a family place, but the people who work there come to loathe strollers. It's part of a cast member's job to keep strollers in nice, orderly lines and to make sure they're only left in designated areas. But park visitors keep their strollers in an appalling condition, loaded up with dirty diapers, rotting bottles of milk, and half-eaten PB&J sandwiches. Others see no problem with parking their strollers right in front of an attraction's exit or entrance. Sometimes thoughtless individuals like this incur the wrath of the stroller police, and their precious Bugaboos and Maclarens are intentionally relocated to a place "far, far away" — at the very back of the area cordoned off for strollers.



Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of (confiscated) rum
On special Grad Nites, when Disney hosts loads of freshly graduated high school kids, the park puts extra staffers inside Pirates of the Caribbean and other rides as lookouts to monitor less-than-legal activities. Our focus was mostly on what the kids were consuming. Booze, cigarettes — you name it, and a Disney cast member has confiscated it from a 17-year-old at one time or another. One clever kid, forced to hand over his bottle, noted the irony of getting busted in the middle of a ride that celebrates a drunken pirate orgy. "Hey, don't the pirates have enough?" he asked. "They need mine, too?"



Please keep your happiness to yourself
This attraction has been camera monitored for your safety. That's the spiel Disney broadcasts over its loudspeakers for many rides. But the cameras are also meant to protect you from yourself. One night, while most parkgoers were watching the fireworks display, a couple strolled over to Pirates of the Caribbean, where I was working. They not only had a boat to themselves, but empty boats all around them. The real fireworks display, it turned out, was visible on the security cameras to all of us working that night. Let's just say the show the couple put on wasn't exactly G-rated.


This article originally appeared in Budget Travel, May 2010