Garden

I've always loved gardens. Growing up my mom was always planting things and growing fruits and veggies, and I dreamed of the day when I could have a garden of my own. I wanted be the girl in The Secret Garden and have a hidden place full of plants and flowers to escape to.

When we got our house, the backyard was a horrible mess, and there were weeds everywhere that were three feet tall. It took three days and lots of help to get it all cleaned out, and I was left with a blank canvas. Everything is still a work in progress, but here'a a tiny peek at what I've been up to.

One thing I've always enjoyed growing is food, so one of the first things I bought is a tomato plant, watermelon, and zucchini. The tomato and zucchini plants have been feeding us for a while now, while the watermelon plant has continued to get bigger... and bigger... and bigger. Today I went out to water it and found THIS! Our first watermelon!!



As we move across the yard to the dog run, you'll notice a hideous chain link fence. I cringe every time I see it, so I decided to put it to better use. I grew Morning Glorys and Moon Flowers in small cups in my kitchen, and when they were big enough, I planted them along the bottom of the fence. A couple weeks later, they are three feet tall and growing more each day! I can't wait for them to flower!!!



Another thing I always wanted to grow are Sunflowers. My grandma had read a story once about Sunflowers that came down from outer space and hugged people to death, so we weren't allowed to grow sunflowers when I was a kid. Naturally. So I thought I'd give it a shot. I grew these suckers from seeds and can't believe how big they are! I'm in the process of harvesting the seeds now, so unfortunately they're coming down soon. I don't know why I didn't remember that they like to face the sun or else I wouldn't have planted them where I did, but now when my creepy neighbor peeks over the wall, he'll see these peeking right at him.



In anticipation of the sunflowers coming down, I make a quick trip to the nursery to pick out some plants to replace it, and a plant to cover up more of the hideous chain link fence. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands dirty tomorrow.



I'll post more pictures as things progress, because right now, it's not very impressive. There's still an ugly wall there and I'm doing everything I can to get those plants to grow fast to hide it, but it'll take time. Until then, I'll keep enjoying my breakfast on the back patio and I'll keep you posted as plant life progesses!

Celebrity

This past weekend the husband and I went to the D23 Expo, which is like Comin-Con for Disney Fans. We saw the people who started Pixar, the people who do the voices for different attractions, and the people responsible for creating the new Cars Land for California Adventure. Being completely submersed in Disney, it really got me thinking about my days as a Disneyland Cast Member, and just how awesome it was.

Now I have a ton of Disney stories about working there, but lately one has come to mind that I still can't believe happened. When you're a ride operator (like I was), often times you get to load celebrities on the ride you are working on. I've met everyone from Blink 182, to Kelsey Grammar, Pierce Brosnan, Dakota Fanning, and even some royalty. But there is one who rose above the others.

I was working the Winnie The Pooh ride and it broke down, and it was going to be down for a loooong time, so I was sent to stand by an open part of the queue. An older couple in matching bright yellow Chitty Chitty Bang Bang jackets approached me and asked where the entrance to the line was. I told them the ride was down because there was a "honey spill." "A honey spill?" The man asked. "How did that happen?" So I continued by letting him know that Winnie the Pooh fell asleep while eating some honey and it spilled all over the place and the beehicles got stuck in it. So now we had to gather up Heffalumps and Woozles to steal all the honey so we can clean it up. The guy was more confused than ever and his wife just started laughing and told him it was a joke. He sighed with relief and said, "I was gonna say... I worked on the ride and I don't remember there ever being real honey." "You worked on the ride?" I asked, "What did you do?" "I wrote all the music," he said. Now I was confused. My mind was reeling trying to figure out who this guy was, and the more I looked at him, the more familiar he seemed.

We talked for a while about how their day was going and what was REALLY wrong with the ride. It was a Phase C Disagreement at Zone 1A. Not as fun as a honey spill. At one point the woman introduced them as Richard and Elizabeth Sherman. It still didn't register with me. They joked around about calling Bruce Gordan and when they did, I figured it out. Richard Sherman and his brother Robert wrote all the famous Disney songs that we know today. They wrote all the music for Mary Poppins, It's A Small World, Jungle Book, The Sword in the Stone, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, of course, Winnie the Pooh, and countless others.

As Richard stood there talking the Bruce Gordan (who was the Imagineer who worked on Winnie the Pooh) my heart started racing. My mind flashed back to all the Disney special's I've watched and all the books I've read that feature the Sherman Brothers. And now, there he is on the phone in front of me telling a top guy at Disney how funny I was telling him about a honey spill. When he got off the phone I shook his hand again and told him it was truly an honor meeting him and the ride was open again and he was free to go through the exit and get right on.

It was a moment I had with a Disney Legend that I will never forget.

The Sherman Brothers with Walt Disney, (Richard is sitting at the piano.)


Richard Sherman just days after I met him. He was in town for s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang event.

Fish

It's that time again! It's time for me to give you another list of reasons why you shouldn't swim in the ocean! Many of you know that I have a pretty strong case of Ichthyophobia, which is a fear of fish. When I Googled the word, this picture came up.



Can you imagine swimming in that? I frequently have reoccuring nightmares that involve being trapped in the water surrounded by something like that, and the thought of it gives me chills.

Anyway, lets begin. I'll start off light with this one.

Sea Dragon:


Many of you probably look at this and think, "Awwww how cute! It's like a sea horse!" But to me, it's something I pick out of the water thinking it's seaweed, then to my horror it starts wiggling around and squirming, and the next thing you know it's caught in my hair dying and I have to touch it to get it out but it dies and then I have a dead sea creature stuck in my hair.

My next examples are in honor of shark week.(Even though it was a few weeks ago).

Whale Shark:


LOOK AT THAT THING!!! It could swallow you whole! WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO SWIM WITH SOMETHING THAT CAN SWALLOW YOU WHOLE?!?!? Unless of course... you're at Disneyland.



Megamouth Shark:


This is a rare shark... but there has been one spotted at a beach fairly close to the one I go to. NOOOOOO THANK YOU. It's similar to the Megamouth Shark because it opens up it's mouth really wide and swallows fish whole. It hangs out along the bottom of the ocean during the day, and comes closer to the top at night. Can you imagine swimming around at night and having this thing brush up against you? Terrible.

And last but not least....

Goblin Shark:


This is the rarest of all. It's been spotted near Japan, but I don't care how far away it is. It lives in water, and we swim in water. Enough said.

And there you have it! More reasons not to swim in the Ocean! Time to go ride my bike!

Surprises

I absolutely LOVE surprises. Getting flowers at work, coming home to a clean house, a surprise musical number in the middle of a movie or a surprise ending, and of course the best surprise ever, the night my husband proposed to me.

However, not all surprises are good. Like discovering a gas leak in the attic, a dead bird in your dog's mouth, or finding out that the awesome new nail polish you bought is Justin Beiber nail polish. Yeah... that happened. Today was no exception when it cames to bad surprises. I went on a hike and was VERY surprised when my ankle felt like it was on fire mid step. My first reaction is that I was bit by a snake, but on closer inspection it was a tiny red dot. Man oh man did it hurt. I've never been stung so I was pretty freaked, especially since I was two miles up a hill, and I have family members who are allergic to stings. But I made it down the hill safe and sound and the swelling went down and the pain went away.

When I got home, I was greeted with a good surprise.



It turns out that the tree I've been dying to cut down out front turns a beautiful shade of pink in the summer! It really made my day. Then I spent the rest of the morning in the backyard working in my garden which is coming along GREAT!

Post on that coming soon!

Invaders

When we first moved into the house, something strange happened after the first month. We had an infestation of some unwanted critters in our front planter. Gnomes.



First there was one, and I didn't mention it because I was pretty sure it was the husband playing a trick on me. A couple weeks later, there were two... then there were THREE. For a while they were moving around too, peaking out from behind plants and walls, then they came together as if they were having a meeting. We approached my parents about it because it seems like something they would do, but they swore they didn't do it.

Then one day, they stopped moving. That was a month ago.



I put them together in our planter where I can see their cute little faces each day, but today, something happened. One of them moved again...



Poor little guy... wedged between a rock and the house... so far away from his little buddies. WHO DID THIS?!?! Although it's all still pretty funny to me, it creeps me out that someone was in our planter so close to our window. Maybe it's our crazy neighbor...

But whoever you are, thanks for the laughs. :)