Michael Jackson Memories

In memory of Michael Jackson, I have to tell a few of my most treasured (and weird) childhood stories about the King of Pop. The first it quite weird, but also completely hillarious! When I was around 12 years old my parents had to go somewhere (can't remember where) on a trip and thus hired a babysitter to stay with us for the few days that they were gone. I think they knew her through our Uncle Jay (maybe she babysat for them? Can't remember) but anyways she was a Michael Jackson FINATIC!! One night when she was babysitting us she had rented the biography of Michael Jackson and forced us to watch it with her. My sister and I kept laughing (I think because she was singing and dancing to the movie and because we were completely freaked out by her and thought her Michael Jackson obsession was hillarious). Well, about twenty minutes into the movie, when she apparently could not stand our laughing any more, she got up, walked up to my sister and I, grabbed ahold of Emily's shirt with her fist and yelled (yes YELLED) in Emily's face, "shut up you little brat!!" Emily & I were so freaked out that we watched the rest of the movie in silence and prayed for our parents to come home early from their trip!! I'll never forget the crazed look on her face (or the awful singing & dancing to Michael Jackson's ABC-123)!
My other memories are much more pleasant. I remember the days when Michael Jackson would come out with a new video and they would actually premiere them on the major network chanels like ABC or NBC. This never happens anymore! It would be a huge event and everyone around the world would tune in to watch the premiere of the video! I totally remember the premiere of "Black or White". Our whole family gathered together in the living room to watch it and we were all so excited. I remember how amazed we were with the face morphing scenes! And "Thriller"! I remember how awesome we thought that video was and how we loved to watch it on Halloween and how we knew every scene!
I also remember that my dad had a Weird Al Yankovich CD (I know) and I think it must have been one where he made fun of all of Michael Jackson's songs. It had "I'm Fat" (instead of I'm Bad) and somehow I remember that video too. Weird Al dressed up in a fat suit eating food and dancing around like Michael Jackson. Hillarious! So, in memory of Michael Jackson I would like to dedicate this post to all the good memories of his music and the great childhood experiences I had listening to his music.

Friends...

This is really quite an embarrassing post. Even as I'm writing it I am considering keeping it unposted. For some reason I have a really hard time making friends. I can't really figure it out aside from the fact that maybe I don't really ever put myself out there as far as initiating friendships with people. I know a lot of people now that we have lived here for three years and I do say "hi how are you" etc with the people I know and have no problem making small talk but for some reason I really really really have a hard time saying "Hi so and so, would you like to blank sometime?" Even with the few good friends that I have, I usually hope they call or text me to hang out rather than initiating it myself (thanks Aimee for always texting me to hang out! You're the best!). This problem has been exasperated this summer as a few of my friends moved away (I miss you Heather & Aja!). I keep thinking, ok, I really need to get out there and make some more friends but then I feel so pathetic & desperate scoping for "new" friends. How does this whole making friends thing really work anyways?! When I worked full time, I had plenty of opportunity to make friends and it really came pretty easy. We'd go to lunch together and since we saw each other all the time it was easy to transition from co-workers to friends. But now, I don't have that built in friend system. Now it seems like it takes a lot more effort and RISK to make a friend. I'm sure this comes easy to a lot of you out there (Emily, Brittany, Char, Kat, Aimee, Heather, to name a few) so I need your help. How do you go about making new friends?? Maybe I could get a shirt that says "Hi my name is Mary, would you like to be my friend?" What do you think??

Disneyland With the Smoots

We had a blast on our vacation this year with our good friends the Smoots. We spent Tuesday at Disneyland and Wednesday at California Adventures. On Thursday we met up at Newport Beach and enjoyed the sun, water & sand. Kellin & Braeden are just six months apart and they get along great. The were seriously attached at the hip almost the whole time. Kade & I loved the twins, Ethan & Ammon and had fun trying to tell them apart. It was such a great trip with such good friends, we can't wait to do it again!

Dancin' to the music!

Ethan loves to dance. As soon as he hears music his little feet get movin'! Here is a clip of him dancin' to some salsa music on our trip to Disneyland with our friends the Smoots. I love how he does a little gallop move with his feet and then tries some spins!