My Little Pony mania for GKTW

As some of you know (since I've been talking about it for months) Give Kids The World has teamed up with the Hasbro line My Little Pony. We have been getting celebrities and famous artists to design their own versions of large My Little Ponies for an online auction that benefits Give Kids The World. Well, the auction started yesterday and the ponies look awesome!!! I wanted to share them with you so you could see how cute they are! And the first pony that is purple, Twinkle Hope, is a GKTW pony that will be put into production for little girls to play with everywhere and a percentage of the sales goes to GKTW. I'll let everyone know when you can buy them. Here's the link and a few pics of my favs...

Here's my girl Twinkle Hope! They added some extra bling to her for the auction.

This one is by LeAnn Rimes. She had her nail technician help with the design. Just goes to show you really can't go wrong with a good manicure! And it reminds me of rainbow brite. :)

A Japanese manga artist (no clue what that means) Junko Munoz designed this. I like her furry bonnet and her great Geisha shoes!!

This one is done by an artist/designer Claw Money. How great are her Nikes?!?

This one by two of my fav celebs Courtney Cox Arquette and David Arquette.

Designers Maze and St. Roman best known for their clothing line Kid Robot did the pretty pink carousel pony. She has a great Farrah Fawcett shag and in my favorite color!

Long Weekend Fun

Chris had to work all weekend, but I was able to get in some fun with Jillian and her parents for her dad's birthday. Between boating around the Polynesian Resort, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, it was great! Going to Disney with Jillian is like learning all the secrets to the parks. Did you know you can ride in the front of the monorail with the driver?!?! Me neither! But between Jillian's persuasive talking and Mr. Paciello's birthday button, we were able to do it. So fun!!Captain Jillian and her crew!

Sexy glasses for Mickey's Philharmagic.

Us in the front of the monorail. The view was amazing!!!

Fay Went Away

Several people have been asking how we are with the hurricanes. We are great! Our lawn was watered enough for the rest of the year, so we are good! The winds didn't hurt us, but it just poured for days. Chris kept wondering when we moved to Vancouver. Cally did not enjoy the hurricane as much, but we did end up with some great pics of her. Poor Chris had the roughest time, though. Even after the rain stopped, the golf course was closed for days due to flooding. Chris even went out one day to find ducks swimming down the 16th fairway!

The street in front of our house.

Our little trooper. Cally is terrified of thunder and rainstorms due to a traumatic experience as a puppy before we got her. We were very proud of her although she looks a little more like Paddington Bear here.

Chris took this in one of his sad attempts to go golfing. The floaty things in bottom left of the water are birds swimming on the golf course!

Here you Go!

So once a month, I have to work a night shift. I enjoy these shifts as I get to see our awesome evening entertainment and I have waited a full year to see one of our Entertainment shows, "Safari Double Dare" because one of the staff members threatened to pie me in the face. He no longer works on Monday nights and a few people have come and gone in the department so I felt it pretty safe to finally check out the show. What was I thinking?!?!?!??!

They did find the most innocent looking little girl dressed in a pink dress with pink shoes just for me. But she was not that innocent! She got me good and then rubbed the whole thing in my hair too!And for future reference to everyone: whipped cream turns into a bit of a pomade in your hair which some volunteers had fun with. Hence the picture in the previous post. The bonus was I smelled like a candy store for about two hours. Then the dairy started to sour. Not so bonus. I washed my hair and face 3 times. When I woke up this morning, Chris suggested one more time. :)

Coming Soon....

....The explanation for this picture:

He's Back!

He's back!
Cally and I missed him and we're happy to have him after his month long excursions with Golf Channel. I know he was glad to be back too after being stranded at 2 different airports!!! The lawn missed him too- I still haven't figured out how to start the mower. I'm just glad we didn't get a letter from the HOA. :)

Boise Part 3

You can't go to any type of wedding celebration and walk away unscathed from an awkward social situation. Boise was no exception. (How many words can I use that end in -tion?) I expected something being as how I hadn't seen Jackie since my own wedding over 5 years ago and her family even longer. I knew no one else there but my own parents. There was bound to be some awkwardness among meeting of new friends, right? Well, wrong. I'm not shy and I pretty much get along with everyone, so the awkward social situation had to come from left field- completely unexpected.

So this very nice-looking woman comes and sits down next to me at the table fairly late into the evening and asks me if I am Deya Dishman.
"Um...(there is hesitation as no one has called me that in awhile)..yes."
"You hit my car."
"Excuse me?"
"You hit my car. During one of your concerts. You left a note. "
(crickets chirping...)
"I'm sorry...?"
"I know. But you hit my car."
"I did. And I'm sorry. We did take care of all of that right?"
"Yes. I've just always wanted to put a face with your name."

For the record, one of the few times my dad let me drive his car, I slid sideways in a parking lot on the ice into a parked car- 9 years ago! I know, I know, I hit a parked car, but isn't the more ridiculous thing here that this lady held onto it for 9 years!?!?!

Boise Part 2

Here are pics from the reception that night. It was held at the Boise Art Museum and of course the featured exhibit was cockroaches! Poor Jackie, but we avoided that wing of the museum. :) I kept trying to add the music, but the only song I liked was Colbie Callait's Tailor Made and I couldn't get it to work...so hum it in your head while you watch. :)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Trip to Boise Part 1

Last weekend I took a whirlwind trip to Boise to celebrate my best friend from high school's marriage. I flew into Salt Lake REALLY late on Thurs and spent the night at the parents' house- and see the petting zoo- yes they're all still alive!! :) ...the animals...and the parents...moving on......before driving Mom's new Prius the 7-hour trip(yeah Lake, it was 7, not 4 so thank Google Maps for the helpful insight on that one). They even let me drive! I love saving energy and gas with these prices!! Friday night was a really casual BBQ and I was finally able to Jackie who I haven't seen since my wedding!!!!!!!! Oh, and do you like how my parents and I all packed separately, in two states that are ACROSS the country from each other, with no spare outfits, and we were the little matchy matchy family from a catalog? Saturday morning Jackie and I were able to sneak off and have brunch just the two of us and catch up. Then she ran off to rest up for her big night and I was able to enjoy the downtown street market with Mom and Dad.Here we are checking out the duct tape purses. Yes, those are 100% duct tape! I'm a firm believer you can solve most of life's problems with duct tape (especially in florescent flamingo thanks to Paul Bodmer). I'm just not sure how I feel about my purse getting that nasty grime all over it that duct tape seems to attract....But it was creative and they were surprisingly cute!
Stay tuned to for more Boise pics and stories!

4th of July Fun

For the 4th of July we went to Eric's house and he rented a 20ft inflatable water slide. Chris of course decided this would be such a fun experience for Cally who a) doesn't really like "rides" and b) is TERRIFIED of water. Please don't call PETA on him!

Here are more pics of the day, including some of the more daring slide tricks and someone jumping off the boat house! (Do not try this at home!)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Garbage Man

Late last night I'm sitting on the couch while Chris takes Cally for her final walk of the night. I hear this strange noise, like someone is scooting a box across the floor. It continues and I finally see Cally slowly and pathetically walking towards me while dragging her leash behind her. Chris is nowhere to be seen. Keep in mind it's like after 11pm. Suddenly the front door swings open and all I see is the black silhouette of a man holding a giant judo-like stick and the moonlight in the background. Kinda creepy.
"DEYA! There is something in our garbage!" Exhale. The creepy figure with the weapon is Chris.
"And by something you mean...?"
"So Cally and I were walking and I heard a noise coming from our garbage and looked to see the lid slowly closing. So I ran over and yelled, 'I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! COME OUT! GET OUT OF MY GARBAGE!' But the dude wouldn't come out. So I grabbed this walking stick and started beating on the side of the can while I was yelling at him to come out. So I finally flipped up the lid and shoved the stick inside to poke him and he grabbed the stick and started pulling on it back! But I don't think it's a person anymore because it's too small. I could get the stick in there too far."
At this point I'm putting on my shoes knowing full well how this is about to go down and wishing the battery for our video camera was charged. So we both go around to the garbage can, flip the lid back and I step up to the can (insert yelled warnings from Chris about vicious attacks that are about to occur). Two little black eyes look up at me. "Hey Mr. Raccoon. I would really appreciate if you could please go through someone else's garbage and not ours. Thanks." I stepped back, he calmly climbed out and ran away.
I don't know why our house is such a target for wildlife, but we do enjoy all the blogging material it provides!

The Football Cake

This is for you mom...I had to hold Jillian's clothes hostage for the pics. :) Here is Eric's bday cake from Memorial Day. He wanted a football cake. It slid a little in the car (Happy turned out more demented than "happy"), but turned out pretty well.

So.....we have a new pet

That was the only text to an email I received on Friday morning at work from Chris. As many of you know, I tend to take in stray animals (learned it from you Mom and Dad!) so Chris and I constantly battle over little furry creatures I find lost in our yard. So I'm expecting maybe a puppy. He hates cats, so I knew that probably wasn't it, unless it was an itty, bitty baby kitten. So imagine my surprise when he starts discussing a lizard. Not just any lizard, but "Zeus". He had named it Zeus due to its "size and rileyness". Cally was trying to help find sneaky Zeus but was finally deterred by some thunder and Chris lost his scout. That was 3 days ago and the last time we saw Zeus. We keep hearing odd noises and assuming it was him. We even unscrewed the vent on the A/C but alas, no Zeus. Early this morning, we finally found him on the leg of the dinning room table- no thanks to the bloodhound. Apparently we didn't pay for the warranty on her sniffer. It took us about 20 minutes to catch poor Zeus as he kept running over my bare feet and legs. It tickled so much I would start laughing and lose focus. Once we'd find him, he would disappear. It was as if he borrowed Harry Potter's invisibility cloak or something. Maybe he was apparating to the other side of the room. After his weekend getaway in the Graham Bed n' Breakfast, Zeus was thankfully returned to the wild.

Insight into the Mind of My Husband

So when Chris is out of town, we completely use and abuse our cell phone family plan. I would like to shake the hand of whoever thought of that. Anyway, this last trip, Chris was away during one of our best friend's bday and naturally I was in charge of the cake (pictures to come). As I was excitedly describing Chris over the phone what kind of cake I was making, the following conversation ensued:

C: How come you never make me a cake?
D: Because when it's your birthday or any other special occasion that warrants a cake and I ask you what you want, you say 'Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake'
C: That's because it's yummy. Can't you make that?
D: No. And gross.
C: Well, couldn't you make me one of your cakes to celebrate a non-special occasion? Like me being married to you every day. We could have a cake that celebrates all my patience and tolerance.
D: Patience and tolerance?
C: Yeah! A Patience and Tolerance Cake!
D: Well then how come you've never made me a cake for all of my patience and tolerance?
C: Honey, all that is required to be married to me is Happiness and Joy!

I think I've finally met someone who can out argue me! I was laughing so hard by the end at his seriousness. We will keep you posted on the patience/tolerance/happiness/joy cake. :)

Why I'm a Wii-tard

I've never been good at video games. I think I was in first grade when we begged our parents for a Nintendo ES. I was never coordinated enough to catch up with Lake in Super Mario Bros to ever save the princess so I kept to Duck Hunt. Apparently sitting 2 ft away from the screen is cheating. Even then, I would become frustrated at the laughing dog.

A few years later my interest was renewed when I received the gift of a Barbie Nintendo game. This is sadly the only game we (oh yes Lake, I am calling you out) could never beat. We could dodge the flying fashion accessories, but the dang fountains at the mall got ya every time. I think Lake made it to the 3rd level once, but I never did make it to my dream date with Ken.

I think my problem was the fact that I didn't want to push the buttons on the controller so much as I wanted to "steer" the controller in the direction I wanted it to go. Oh, and yell at it when that didn't happen. 18 years later, someone finally read my mind and invented the Wii. I don't have to push all the buttons to go in directions, I get to move the controller! MarioKart finally has a wheel controller- the way I believe it was always "nintended" to. Sure I over-correct my pink kart (no Chris-not like in real life) and fall off Rainbow Road everytime, but I'm tons better than I used to be.

So what's my point? The point is, the stupid Wii is dangerous. Yes, it fights childhood obesity. Yes, it helps the elderly with physical therapy. Yes, it solved my own personal video gaming issues. But dangit, did the stupid bowling and tennis games have to make me sprain my knee?!?!? I popped it further at work today, so now it's all swollen. Enjoy the pic of my leg here at work today. Yes, that is ice duct-taped to my pants. Everyone there had a good laugh, you might as well share in the fun.

House Chris-tening

We had to have our first dinner party and we figured what better way than with a set of grandparents, our two best friends and two dogs? I don't know which was more exiting:

- having LOTS of counter space to cook and prep with
- not having to move the table into the living room so that we could fit 6 people in the dinning room
- or Muffin puking on the new couch :) Gotta love microfiber- it came out!!!!!!!

New Neighbors

We live on the corner, so we only have one next door neighbor. We don't know their names, but they are....how to say....good for blog postings? The dad is probably my parent's age and has met both of our fathers. As my dad worded it, "He's a good ole boy from the South". He actually tried to talk us out of buying our house because "others" were moving into the neighborhood, "you know, not of our kinfolk." You can read into that however you would like. He is very congenial to us. We can always count on him coming out of the house in his wife-beater and stonewashed jeans which is extremely complimentary to the robust shape and ruddy complexion.

Today we learned he has two daughters. The oldest, about our age, came out while Chris was power-washing the house. Being the friendly guy he is, he shouted hello. She gave a very condescending "hey" back. Trying to make friends, Chris pushed the conversation further. Noticing she was rather dressed up for 10am he asked, "Going somewhere fancy?"
"No. Just out."
"Okay." At this point Chris was going to let it go. But apparently she was not done with her snippity tone:
"So, you've been doing a lot of work for them?"
"uh, yeah?"
"That's good. The last people didn't really keep it up very well. I'm glad to see they hired someone to take care of the place."
Chris never did tell her he was man enough to work on his own house.

And for our last new neighbor, here is a picture of Mr. Long who we met at the park tonight. We apologize for the graininess, but it was taken on a cell phone!

It's Coming, Be Patient

I WILL post pics of the new house.....when it's ready. Chris has gone back to work now and I haven't stopped, so it's kinda hard to find time to unpack. As soon as I can get a shot of at least one room that doesn't look like a cardboard jungle, I will post a cool before and after shot. Okay? So thank you for the emails, comments, and Facebook messages, but I have not forgotten. They are coming.

For those of you still interested in a great new house story.....Thursday night was priceless. I came home from work about 7pm, still light out and the garage door opening wasn't working. The thing is only 3 weeks old, so there is no way the battery is dead. I was on the phone with Dad, who as the ever (please note Dad, I did not say over) protective father that he is, asked me to make sure no one was inside and had just cut the power. I wasn't scared or paranoid when I thought it was just a cheap, dead battery. Now, maybe a little. So I open the front door with my key (I know, it's sooo Stone Age! Next thing you know, I'll have to get off the couch to change the channel on the TV!) and Cally comes running out. Intact guard dog is always a good sign. So I check all the rooms and realize the power is out. I check the breaker, which is flipped to on. Hmmmm..... Then I check the water......also not on. This cannot be good.

So I call Chris and ever so sweetly and calmly ask if he did indeed switched the utilities into our name. "Oh Deya, they do that for you!"
"What?!?!"
"Yeah. Whenever they see a transfer of property ownership, they automatically switch it into your name."
"Um, I don't think so. What in the world would give you that idea?"
"That's how it works in Canada."
I very rationally and again calmly reminded him we live in America and that is indeed not how it works here. So four hours of sweet talking on the phone and $200 later, we had power and water.

Final score: New House-2 Chris-0 or USA-1 Chris-0
Either way, I think he needs a hug.

Chris' Everest

The last owners of our house decided to take all the light fixtures and ceiling fans with them as a parting gift. Apparently, the higher the cost of the fan, the better the instructions and assembling materials. Chris put together the first ceiling fan in the main room no problem. The next one, in our bedroom, was his Everest.
First of all, let me say that Chris is very handy and great at putting things together. What did not help the situation is that every bedroom is wired all weird. They all have the ceiling fan power going to the hole in the middle of the room and then the light power going to a hole two feet away. So poor Chris had to rewire the room first.He assembled (on the ceiling) and disassembled the wretched fan five times before we had to return it to the store. After returning it to Lowe's, he convinces the man to sell him the floor model- already assembled! They took it apart anyway. :( Once he got it home, he realized they forgot to give him the ceiling mount bracket, probably still attached to the store. Long story short, it took a total of 8 installs for our little fan to work! But it works!!! You can't live in Florida and not have a ceiling fan in your room. I'm pretty sure there are laws.

The Wooden Anniversary

Our 5th anniversary seemed like a big mile marker so we wanted to do something big to celebrate. For our first anniversary we got a dog, so we had to top that for sure. I consulted the traditional wedding gift list and it cited "wood" as the appropriate gift for 5 years. Wood? I don't see Chris excited about me buying an indoor tree as the last one was left with Dad when we moved to Florida along with my childhood cat. An outdoor tree wouldn't go over well with our HOA.....what's a girl to do? So you go all out or go home.................we bought a house! I waited to post this today as we finally closed on it this afternoon. It's exciting and scary as we are now officially responsible adults (I don't care, I still LOVE the Disney Channel). :) Chris' dad and his wife are here helping us fix up the house so I'll post pics once it's all fabulous.

The Big 05!

This is a week late, but I've always been a little bit late to life in general. Unless you want to take the stance that I am a princess and to quote the movie Princess Diaries, "A queen is never late. Everyone else is simply early." Not sure if I can use that excuse at work, but we'll see when the time comes.

Anyway, back on task, last week was Chris and my 5th Wedding Anniversary. So I thought I would do a then and now shot along with some fun wedding facts you never knew!
1. I absolutely HATE winter more than anything, but we were having a hard time finding a time when Chris was in town from golf tournaments, my dad wasn't out consulting, and Chris' family could come from Canada so we picked March 21 which happens to be the first day of Spring. While it wasn't super springy in Utah yet, it was officially NOT winter.

2. Our wedding rings both have cool stories. I never wanted a wedding band since I have such small fingers (for the record- really hard to find gloves without Hannah Montana on them now- glad I live in Florida), but I didn't want the same ring that everyone else had. So Chris picked a ring out all by himself and even convinced my parents to use a diamond from my great-grandmother in the ring so it is very special to me.
Chris on the other hand did not want a ring at all. This of course did not go over very well. I finally found a "hammered" titanium (for the record- this metal truly is indestructible! I can't even begin to tell you what all that poor ring has been through) ring that looks like dimples on a golf ball.

3. Chris was over an hour late. Yep. For any single guy readers out there, this is not a good rule to go by. I never thought he stood my up, but I was a little worried he was lying in a ditch somewhere (insert dramatic sigh here). I will give you all 3 guesses where he was and the first 2 don't count. You guessed it! Golfing! But he got there and to this day refuses to wear a watch. It's okay, he's pretty.

Jenna's Jeans Cake

My friend Jenna from work decided to take another job and move to Vegas to be closer to her sister. So we had her going away party the other night and of course I wanted to make the cake. Now, Jillian and I were wracking our brains trying to figure out what to make this cake out of as Jenna loves to shop. We toyed with the idea of a credit card, a Prada purse (while this is a challenge I might want to undertake one day, I was not up for it this weekend), and other things, we finally thought, what does she own more than anything? The girl must own close to 70 pairs of jeans. So she got a jeans cake.

We will miss her, but she promises to keep in touch and is already planning on coming back to visit this summer.

What has Chris been up to?

You can also find this on You Tube! Chris shot and edited this video himself, so I'm a little biased when I say I'm proud!

Me in Pony Form...

This past Monday I was able to start my new position at the Village in Development (fundraising, corporate alliances, etc). And would you believe that one of the accounts I am supposed to work on is My Little Pony?!? I remember my cousin Elisa and I playing with these like crazy when we were little. Well, believe it or not, as part of my job (you are about to feel really bad for me) I had to attend the My Little Pony Live! stage show and then escort Pinkie Pie herself at the Village during our Candy Land party. During the show, she even sang a song called "Think Pink" which is honestly the only way I know how to think!

An all new height of laziness...

Did you notice the rollerblades?

For Sale!

Sorry to blog readers, if there are any left as I am SUCH A FREAKING SLACKER! Things have been busy for us with house hunting and parental visits. So we are still here, but just haven't been blogging. :)

As we are trying to find a house, our townhouse is also for sale. That has been a huge undertaking. But if anyone knows anyone or if you are looking for a 2/2 townhouse for sale in Orlando, I can help!

Jillian's Birthday

Jillian wanted a Ballerina cake for her birthday. She wanted white cake with raspberry filling. This is what I came up with:

Here I am with the birthday girl and Jenna.