are you ready for this jelly?

the teen and i are always on the lookout for a new nail salon.  we'll find a good one, go there for a while, and then the shine will wear off and the hunt will be on for a new one again.  the service will go downhill, or one of us will get snipped by the overzealous snipping of the manicure scissors, or we'll just be bored by the color selection.  fickle, yes we are.

anyway, we discovered a really cool place that's really close to home.  it was kind of buried in a development that looked like it was either offices or apartments and we'd probably driven past it a zillion times and never noticed it.  but look at how pretty it is inside:

not to mention, this is only a portion of their polish choices - and they were organized neatly, too:

and then there was a sweet selection of current magazines to peruse.

plus, they offered something i hadn't seen at our usual places - something called a jelly pedicure.  they poured a packet of this stuff into the water:

the powder expanded into this fragrant, fluffy pool of happiness.  it felt fabulous, and i wanted to soak my whole body in it.

even better, when it was time to remove my feet from the cooled-off jelly water, i got a hot stone massage:

followed by a nice, long foot massage.

it was lovely.  a little pricier than a normal pedicure, but that's to be expected.  the teen, who'd opted out of the jelly (using me as a guinea pig instead), looked on with a tiny tinge of jealousy.  i'm pretty sure she'll be giving it a shot next time we go.

anybody else wanna come?

the plank-off: 50 thoughts

during the month of november, the instructors at xtend were helping us build our core strength with a little series they called "planksgiving."  now, i'm no stranger to the plank position.  remember last year, when i accepted the challenge of working up to holding it in full plank for five whole minutes?  so when they announced that they'd be holding a "plank-off" - a contest to see who could hold plank for the longest amount of time - i totally signed up for it thinking i had a pretty decent shot at taking home that gift basket.  hell, i didn't even care about the prize, i just wanted to win.  it was that only child syndrome rearing its ugly head yet again.

as luck would have it, the teen had to work on the evening of the contest, and the hub was at the lounge working his regular shift.  so i asked the bean if she minded coming along with me, and when i explained what i was doing, she asked if she could participate too.  hey, sure, why not?

and so here's what went through my mind from the moment we arrived.

1.  okay, here we go.  you can do this.

2.  wait.  WUT.  a lululemon trunk show??  crap.
3.  the hub's totally gonna side-eye me if i come home with new lulu gear.
4.  oh. cards only?  paper trail?  pffft.  never mind.
5.  ah, but those magenta crops...
6.  nope.  stay strong.  christmas is coming.  and you have that gift card from paypal that you're saving for black friday.  walk away.  WALK AWAY.
7.  dang it!  that pullover is super cute.  do they have my size?  NO.  STOP IT.  WALK AWAY.
8.  the bean is totally talking the ear off of one of the barre studio owners, who happens to also be one of her soccer coaches.  better go rescue her.
9.  i'm not sure if i'm rescuing the coach, or the bean.  haha, just kidding.
10. phew, the barre class is over.  time to go in and psych myself up for the contest.

11.  she totally looks like she's sizing up the competition.  who do you think you are, kid, me?
12.  better grab a couple of mats.  maybe they'll help keep me up a little longer.
13.  damn. if we're both participating in this contest, who's gonna take pictures for the blog?
14.  i'll just leave my phone next to me.  the child can take pics for me when she caves.
15.  shit.  why did i sign up for this?  i took 5am class today.  i'm tired.
16.  i hope i don't embarrass the crap out of myself here.
17.  yikes, some of these ladies look strong as hell.  serious gun show around here.
18.  WUT.  desiree is here too.  she kicks my ass every time i take her class.  i'm so screwed.
19.  huh.  even she looks a little intimidated as she looks around.  huh.
20.  i wonder how long the bean will last.

21.  wow, she has nice form.  i guess we have gymnastics warm-ups to thank for that.
22.  holy shit, what if she outplanks me?
23.  nah dude, you trained for this!  you held it up for five minutes!  never mind that it was last year.
24.  but you've been participating in planksgiving.  you got this.
25.  oh wow, there are a lot of participants here.  the sign-up sheet only had like four names on it!
26.  you're so screwed.
27.  what's that?  there are rules for this thing?
28.  WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WE'RE DOING FOREARM PLANK??  i suck at forearm plank!!
29.  yeah, i'm totally screwed.
30.  OMG, the bean rocks at forearm plank.  OMG.
31.  hey, t-minus 5 minutes till abject humiliation.
32.  well, everyone else is grumbling over forearm plank too.  maybe i've still got a shot.
33.  here goes nothing.  let's do this.
34.  okay, i'm up.  the bean is up.  everybody else around me is up.  here we go.
35.  this isn't so bad.  it's been, what, a couple of minutes by now?
36.  WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 30 SECONDS AND COUNTING??
37.  this hurts.  like, a lot.
38.  why oh why didn't we get to do full plank?  that's what i do best!
39.  whoa, my kid is still planking with great form and isn't even breathing hard.
40.  sweat is rolling off the top of my head and dripping onto the mat.  ew.
41.  my back.  owwwwww, my back.
42.  obviously that means i'm not using proper form.  maybe if i shift a little...
43.  "no, YOU keep your butt down!"  dang it.  busted.
44.  two minutes?  only two stinking lousy tiny little minutes gone?
45.  i'm starting to shake.  and my back is killing me.
46.  hang in there, girl.  don't be the first one to cave.  DON'T BE FIRST.
47.  okay, phew, someone threw in the towel.
48.  shit!  the kid is still hanging in there.
49.  i...can't...do...this...anymore.  but the bean...
50.  alright, see this imaginary white flag?  i just waved it.  child's pose never felt so good.

the bean managed to hang in there for over four minutes, at least a full minute longer than i lasted.  i cheered her on for that last minute, reminding her to breathe, telling her what a great job she was doing while i inwardly seethed a little over being bested by my 7-year-old.  because i'm mature like that.  but i was totally proud of her too, and she accepted congratulations from all of the other ladies with a shy smile.  and of course, we had to take this:

then we sat and watched the rest of the participants drop out one by one, until only two remained.  and they held that forearm plank for almost fourteen minutes before they finally collapsed into a heap onto their mats.  that's just insane.

also, i guess that's what i get for thinking i'm more badass than i actually am.  clearly, i need to keep going to classes...like forever.  heh.

a week in the life of the bean

the bean has had a busy week.  this is nothing new, but it's always fun to share, so there you go.

she kicked it off by drawing a picture based on dr. seuss' "the grinch" to enter into a contest at school.  i already know she's a fantastic artist, but every time she busts out something like this, i'm in awe at her talent.

then she and one of her longtime friends were one of several cheerleaders selected to start training as a "flyer."  that's the girl on top of the pyramid, in cheer talk.  she's not a particularly petite child, so i never expected her to be anything but a base in pyramids, and she is absolutely ecstatic at her new position.

the first awards assembly of the year was this week, and the teachers will let parents know if their child is going to be presented with a certificate for something.  i'm always super excited to receive that e-mail.  i managed to find a decent seat (which is no easy task, i tell you), but of course she was at the very end of the line and ended up being blocked by one of the teachers.  oh, well.

she won two awards - one for bible verse memorization (the whole class earned this one), and was one of two kids in the class selected for the citizenship award.

a couple of hours later, it was time for the first graders' thanksgiving feast.  they'd all decorated pilgrim hats to wear, and it was super cute.

she finally returned to jazz class after a long absence - out sick one week, at a mandatory dress rehearsal for show choir the next.  the sassy poses are always present, though.

we celebrated her triumphant return by making a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies.  she did most of the work - pouring, mixing, forming the balls of dough.

they're super delicious, in case you were wondering.  did you expect anything less?      

her beloved hula class is tonight, followed up by her second-ever meeting with the girl scouts.  and she's off all next week for the thanksgiving holiday.  almost all of her extracurriculars are cancelled for the week.  how on earth am i going to keep her busy for an entire week??  oy.                                                    

it's okay to do christmas early at disneyland

remember a few months ago, when delovely details invited the teen and me to join them as guests at their annual passholder anniversary party at disneyland?  we received an invitation for our own party, and so we registered them as our guests.  we were excited to check it out, since it's already all decked out for the holidays.

happily, we experienced no difficulties in getting in.  although that could have been because we got there a couple of hours before the official start of the party.  we checked in here and received our blue wristbands.

since the party was on the disneyland side, we decided to enter california adventure and head towards cars land to grab something to eat at the cozy cone.

because we had heard about this:

i was a very happy camper indeed.  that's a bread cone filled with gooey mac & cheese and topped with bacon.  gimme allllll the carbs.

stuffed and happy, we decided to blow that popsicle stand and head over to check out the party at disneyland.  and our timing was just right, because we noticed that hordes of folks were gathered in main street for...something.  being a tuesday night, the crowds weren't gigantic, and so we stopped to see what was happening.

a few minutes later, we got our answer.

and because it was the special holiday edition of their fireworks show, when the pyrotechnics were done, it snowed.

because the majority of folks weren't there for the AP party, we found ourselves swimming upstream as they all headed towards the exit while we scampered towards tomorrowland for our favorite ride:

cast members at several points checked for wristbands, turning away those who tried to squeak by.  we just cruised right on through, walking all the way into the ride and screaming our heads off less than ten minutes later.

i was a little sad that we were too late to meet baymax from "big hero 6," but that's okay.  we didn't want to do that without the bean anyway.

i settled for this instead (no, i didn't buy one, just borrowed it for a second).

matterhorn had zero line.  we literally walked right onto the ride - on both sides.  yay!

the vast majority of parkgoers were in the back of the park, at the beautifully lit-up "it's a small world."

the line at big thunder mountain looked a lot longer than it actually was.  it moved really quickly, and the teen and i both wondered why they couldn't make it move that fast during regular park hours.

castle photos!  i love sleeping beauty's castle anyway, but during the holidays it's extra magical.

funny enough, the line at the starbucks on main street was probably the longest one we waited in all night.

the array of holiday treats was tempting, but we resisted.

this was good enough for us.

the parade was about to start as we were guzzling our coffee, so we sat down and watched.  because why not?  i mean, who doesn't love elsa...

or aurora...

and we shouted "happy birthday" to mickey as he passed by.  he didn't seem to hear us, but he IS 86 now.  he's an old dude.

SANTA!  i know him!

the teen decided to try something new and rubbed the lamp to hear what her future has in store.

(it was a waste of $.50, by the way.  don't do that)

the last ride of the night was indiana jones.  by then, we were toast.  the caffeine didn't quite kick in, and the party was almost over anyway.  we did stop in front of the tree on main street, though.

we received a parting gift on the way out - christmas ornaments in red and green with the annual passholder logo on them.  nothing special, and i don't even have a picture of it.  sorry.

i somehow missed the registration for another special disneyland meet-up next week, but that's okay.  i'm sure there will be more, and with the 60th anniversary in 2015, there will be lots of disneyland excitement to come.