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2016 Halley Fall Festival

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So, it was an interesting night to say the least.

It started with deciding at the very last minute to take Katie as well. We hadn’t been going to do that and she was a little bummed but then the mommy guilt got to me and I changed my mind. We had a minor fight with Owen about what costume he was wearing—we bought him Squirtle because he really wanted to be Squirtle…and instead he wanted to wear some random skeleton costume with a mask (they aren’t supposed to wear masks) so we said he needed to wear his new costume.

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On our way…

So.

Then.

Every year thus far, Owen has had a sudden onset of shyness or nervousness when we approach the school for the festival but it was never anything bad or lasting—we’d just walk in and he’d be glued to our sides for about three minutes until he saw all the fun going on and saw his friends…and all was forgotten and he had a great time.

Except this year. He COMPLETELY freaked out and wouldn’t even set foot in the building. At first we thought it was just his normal routine, but when we tried to coerce him in, he refused. REFUSED. And got visibly upset. We tried to be nice and loving and that didn’t work. We tried tough love and that didn’t work. After 10 minutes or so, I went in with Katie and Tom stayed in the hallway waiting to see if Owen would come in the building. I talked to his teacher and she tried to get him to come in. Nope. A few of his friends went out to try and get him to come in. Nope. I tried again. Nope. It was absolutely maddening. He had a whole litany of reasons he didn’t want to come in, the biggest of which was he hated his costume, it was stupid, and he knew everyone would laugh at him and he’d be embarrassed. It didn’t matter that everyone who saw him said they loved it (I mean, Pokemon is ALL the rage!) and people had heard about the Squirtle costume and were LOOKING FOR HIM. 

He also said there were too many people and they’d all be looking at him. What? The kid who has no problems (anymore) of speaking in a group in front of an assembly? The kid that everyone seems to know and like? The kid who loves people? I was gobsmacked.

It didn’t matter what anyone said. He was NOT coming in and he was in full meltdown mode.

In the midst of this, I was with Katie playing the games and getting her face painted and she was having an absolute blast. (The face painter was Miss Anne, the assistant in Katie’s classroom that she also had last year and is a friend of ours.)

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Putting her name on her treat bag!

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Picking a sucker for a prize! (Bonus: notice that they reused my signs from last year?!)

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With our neighbor, Jackson (first grade).

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Getting her picture taken.

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Then Tom texted me to say he was DONE because he had just had to chase Owen down because he ran off. What the hell?! So we went out again for me to try talking to Owen—at this point he was actually in the building quite a ways so I thought I would have more luck, but nope, he was still refusing to come in to the festival. And when I tried to coerce him in again, he literally turned and ran away down the hall. Some older kids saw his costume and came up and told him how awesome it was. Nope, still not moving. Still thought his costume was embarrassing. By this point I was just done (he’d been out there for almost an hour) and told him we were done—he was either going in or we were both going to sit in the car until daddy and Katie were done. Which is exactly what we ended up doing. 🙁

So, Tom had switched places with me and had taken Katie in to the cafeteria to dance…where she had even more fun! It would have been even more fun if we were all there together. Ugh.

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A bunch of snippets of Katie dancing…and frolicking!

So, overall, Katie had an absolute blast, Tom and I had fun when we were each with Katie, and the rest was a hot failed mess dealing with Owen. We have NO idea where this all came from or why it was so traumatizing for him. Of course, now we’re worried that something else more serious is going on that we don’t know about or he hasn’t told us about…

Katie’s pumpkin field trip

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Of course, we just went to Burke Pumpkin Playground and that’s where Katie’s class took their field trip. I was really torn—the mommy blogger part of me felt I had to go but the actual mommy part of me said We were just there and this would be an extra half day for her to be at school… A friend was going so she promised to take a few pics for me…so that lessened the guilt.

Heading into school.

She had a blast!

Pumpkin Playground

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The kids didn’t have school today so I wanted to do something fun. There are a lot of fall festivals around but I didn’t want to drive to far…so we went to the same place we went for Owen’s kindergarten field trip and invited friends!

They added rolling tubes since we were last there.

Caitlin braved the tubes before I did.

The boys LOVED it…Katie didn’t want anything to do with it.

Not one picture with either of them actually looking at me!

Owen LOVED the train and spent most of his time here.

And then Katie decided she wanted to go down the slide…with Caitlin.

And this is why I love Caitlin. 🙂

Hayride!

Back at the tubes, Katie decided she wanted to try…with Caitlin.

Then I finally got in the tube and Liam rolled me down! It was much easier getting in than getting out.

My little pumpkins!

 

And two Then & Nows:

 

Lunch with some Texas peeps at Ida Claire!

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Ida Claire. Say it. Now say it with a southern accent. Listen. Bingo! I missed it the first few times, too. 🙂

This is Brad. He’s a Tivo peep I’ve known forever and met once almost 10 years ago. He’s lost 90# on Naturally Slim.

This is a delicious Bloody Mary. I learned I liked pickled okra. 🙂

This is Brad, me, and Smeek (Jeff). I’ve met him a few times before over the years but it’s always good to see him. He’s one of our resident foodies so he picked the place. I also got to try two of his fancy drinks. 🙂

And here’s a pic of me and Smeek from 2007 (that last guy is not Brad, unfortunately—it’s Peter):

Here’s Brad from that same weekend, just to complete the group flashback:

And my super delicious lunch. [Thinking about it now, days later, still makes my mouth water.]

Shrimp & Grits @ Ida Claire
Shrimp & Grits | TEXAS PRAWNS, BACON LARDONS, GRISTMILL PARMESAN GRITS, SAUCE PIQUANT

The Naturally Slim Dinner

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So we had our Naturally Slim Dinner at Venezia Pizza Cafe—there were 10 of us including Marcia, one of her daughters, me, Bryan and his wife, and then Brad (another Tivo NS person), Jannie and Rich (a married Tivo NS couple), someone from Bryan’s church, and—SURPRISE!—Andrea! I’ve been online friends with her for years now and when I knew I’d be coming to Texas and she lives in Texas AND IS A NATSLIM MEMBER, I told her she HAD to come to the dinner. She has a lot of stuff going on, but she said she’d try to make it. Then she said she likely couldn’t. So I was thrilled to see her when I walked into the restaurant!! YAY!

And Tivo friends Jannie and Rich who I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years!

The most interesting thing we got to hear was some of the backstory about how Naturally Slim came to be. NatSlim as we know it really only came to be in the last 10 years or so. We knew her mom came up with the TrueThin philosophy 30 years ago and she taught classes in person and then Marcia taught classes in person (and still does), but the online video part didn’t really start until 2003 or so. And back then it was like “We really need to put these videos online, but there’s really no good way…” (For a data point, YouTube started in 2005.) There’s more to the story that I actually heard during some of our drive times over the weekend, but of course my mind didn’t retain all the details.

Recording my Naturally Slim testimonial!

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First and foremost, I finally got to meet Bryan! I’ve “known” him online for about 10 years on the Tivo forums but we’ve never actually met. Come to find out last year—long story short—he lost 140 pounds on Naturally Slim and has kept it off for three years now. He was one of the two people who were initially responsible for me joining NS. 🙂

Bryan befire and after Naturally Slim

He is a videographer/producer by trade (617 Production Group) and had been doing the videos for the program and after many years he had an AHA moment and never looked back. His company no longer does the official program videos but Marcia does call him in for stuff like this. And especially for my testimonial since I know him!

We were recording it at Bryan’s church because it was the most convenient place. The sun was in my eyes…

…so this is apparently my look as I’m figuring out if this new spot will work.

Getting ready to start!

A pic Bryan snapped during the filming.

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The whole thing was just…odd. And surreal.

First, even though Marcia was asking me questions, you won’t ever hear her asking them…so you have to rephrase/include the question in your answer. So if she asks “What was the easiest thing about Naturally Slim?” you’d have to start your response with “The easiest thing about Naturally Slim…” Of course, not every question led to a response that was that easy to formulate and I often had to take a moment to think how I was going to respond to get the question in. The good thing (which took some getting used to) is knowing that it will all be cut and edited for the best sound bite, so even though everything was recording, it won’t all be used. That was also helpful when I was answering a question, yakking on and on, and then suddenly losing my train of thought or realizing I had veered violently away from where I’d been headed with my answer and I would just stop and say “Yeah, that’s it. I lost it.” Marcia had told me to just pretend I was having a conversation with her, but honestly, it’s a lot harder to answer questions when you know someone is counting on you to give sound bite answers. That said, every so often as I answered a question, I’d see Marcia do a mini fist pump showing she loved my response. After one (which I don’t even remember what I was talking about), she said she really wanted to use it at the end of week one! So who knows, maybe I’ll actually be in the official videos!!

Second—and I touched on this above—is that I often veered totally off course as I was answering a question. I remember a time or two when I’d be talking and talking and then suddenly I was also thinking “Wait, that is NOT anything related to what they asked.” I would ask if they wanted me to start again or try another take and the answer was generally no, because even if I didn’t answer the specific question, there was still usable sections or they liked the direction I went. I did have to retell a story once because I mentioned IKEA and they said I couldn’t say that just in case a competitor ever used the program. So then I worried about telling the story again and hoping I got all the same excitement and inflections…and who knows if I did or not. Time will tell.

Overall they said it went very well—even though I felt I was completely ridiculous and out of my element—and we talked for about 30-40 minutes. I know Bryan’s company can work magic, but I am still crossing my fingers that I come off natural.

Afterwards, I asked Marcia and Bryan who wanted to get in my pants. 🙂 Seriously—I had brought my FAT PANTS and had thought it would be fun to get two people into the one pair of pants. (This did not surprise them—they had both been forewarned.) Marcia is SUCH a good sport and agreed to do it. First, though, Bryan recorded a snippet of me trying on the pants, so hopefully I’ll get to see that in the end. And then this happened…they were stretched out a bit more than when I actually wore them, but STILL. Two of us in one pair of pants. Good times. Again, SUCH a good sport.

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I have no idea when I will see a finished product, but you know I will let everyone know as soon as I see something. And don’t get your hopes up that it will be a 20-minute piece. It is likely to be a 20-second snippet here or there in a compilation of other testimonials. Fingers crossed!!

I forgot how awesome it is to be pampered.

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My next birthday weekend treat was a massage and facial at Marcia’s spa…I hadn’t had either of these things done since Owen was six months old and Tom got me a half spa day so I was REALLY looking forward to it.

Marcia was such a good sport about me wanting to take pictures of everything. 🙂

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Post-massage and post-facial…completely relaxed and pampered. I told Marcia this was NOT a good thing as I was going to want this a bit more often than every six years now. 😆

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And lastly, my spa selfies, pre- and post-makeup (getting ready for my official filmed testimonial for Naturally Slim):

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Proof she practices what she preaches.

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It didn’t take long to get used to eating with Marcia…but I did watch her. 🙂 This was the remnants of her brunch order this morning. I told her people would love to see this as proof that she does practice what she preaches. 🙂 (I didn’t take a picture of mine because I ate everything—but I just ordered one biscuit with sausage gravy and a side of bacon. And I may have had three bites of her hash browns. 🙂 )

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Marcia spoiled me with a few birthday presents!

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First we had lunch at the Neiman Marcus Cafe with her two daughters and the two employees who helped with the Facebook event. I actually introduced them all to the delicious wonder that is Green Goddess salad dressing (it came on two dishes and no one had ever tried it so I asked the waiter to bring a sample; they all loved it) and they let me in on the secret that the little cup the waiter brought was not tea, but chicken stock. Sounds odd, right? But it was DELICIOUS. 🙂 At dessert time we hoped for something chocolate and surprisingly they didn’t have anything! But! The waiter said “Let me see what I can do” and he came back with a huge slice of chocolate cake! (Turns out he got it from another NM cafe on another level.) Then the table sang Happy Birthday to me. 🙂

Then it was off shopping at the mall. I had complimented her daughter Candace on her gorgeous necklace and she said she actually got it at Chicos…so we headed there (I usually get something “big” as a souvenir instead of a tchotchke). So I was looking at all the jewelry and Marcia and her daughter were looking at clothes. I was trying to decide between pieces to just pick one and Marcia offered to hold them for me while I was looking…and I turned around and she was buying all three for me!

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What?! I told you she’s awesome.

Then we walked around some more and we ended up at Sundance where Candace tried on a bunch of clothes. The stuff was way too expensive for me, but I tried on a few things for fun (I mean, that’s what you do when you’re out shopping with the girls, right?!). And then they both tried on this coat—which I had noticed and thought was cute but figured there was no way I would be buying it so why tempt myself—but peer pressure got me and I tried it on and it was SUPER cute…and Marcia immediately said “Excellent! I’ll get this for you, too! Happy birthday!” WHAT?! Holy crap. I told her she couldn’t but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I now own this coat. And, actually, all three of us now own that coat!! 🙂

And then it was off to get all our nails done…another birthday treat! I opted for a basic French manicure. I forgot how much I LOVE them…

And then it was off to dinner at Gloria’s Latin Cuisine with Marcia, her daughter, and another coworker/friend! It was delicious, and I enjoyed a strawberry margarita and fish and brisket tacos for my birthday!

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On the way home, Marcia said (paraphrasing) “I was going to get you dessert and have them sing happy birthday, but they get crazy with it so I changed my mind.” See? LOVE HER.

Guess which network is hers?

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We were sitting out by the pool talking after we got home from dinner and I was telling her about the kids and Pokemon and I was showing it to her on my phone and figured I might as well ask for the wifi password since I was going to be around for a few days. Of course I am always interested in what people name their networks, and hers did NOT disappoint. I love it.

Mom, this is also when I gave her your hug. 🙂

Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!

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Upon the very first second of meeting Marcia at the airport curb, I could tell she was exactly like she seems in the videos—warm, welcoming, gracious (and I could go on and on with descriptors)—and we immediately started gabbing like old friends. We went to Bistro 31 in Dallas (where I had a mouth-watering spaghetti carbonara with scallops). It wasn’t until about 10 minutes in that I quick checked my email (while Marcia was in the restroom!) and saw my mom had said “So have you met Marcia yet?!?!” I had been having so much fun with Marcia that I hadn’t even taken a picture yet. ME! Not taking a picture?! Can you believe it? So when she came back I took our first selfie!

The time flew as we talked about anything and everything. It wasn’t as nerve-wracking to eat with her as I had thought it would be, and I did take home leftovers. 🙂

Visiting her pre-k class!

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Today was the “meet and greet” for potential peer models. Even though they’ve already asked us back, they want to see her interactions with others. We had classroom play time first (during which we also happened to have a lockdown drill—Katie did awesome!) and then it was out to the playground where she got to swing and play with her friend Mason from last year.

   
   

I may or may not have fought (and won!) my first ever Póke Gym.

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I may or may not have fought (and won!) my first ever Póke Gym, thanks to the gentle prodding of a new friend Caitlin who was also fighting at the time. 🙂 It didn’t last long but I did it. Twice, even! Owen will be so proud. And yes, I may be getting slightly more hooked on this silly game. 🙂

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Of course, this wasn’t planned—we just went to the “goose park” (as Katie likes to call it) to play at the playground. There happened to be a Póke Stop right there so that was convenient to grab balls and potions and such while the kids played. Then we walked down to the marina (the geese!) and there was a gym there… After Caitlin assured me I couldn’t possibly hurt anything in Owen’s account or kill his characters, I agreed to fight the gym. I didn’t know what I was doing, but she said she didn’t, either, and nothing bad would happen. Okay, then… And she was right. We had enough potions to heal everything and it was kinda fun. But I did have to laugh knowing that Owen would totally know which Pókemon to use to fight the best and I was just pointing and poking without any knowledge whatsoever. Good times.

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