Which [...]]]> Dear friends… my stress monkeys took quite a toll on me this past month with work, and I’m really ready for August to be fun and happy and joyous. Or at least I’ll convince myself that it is, because it’s so silly to worry about so many things that are out of your control.

Which is why I’d like to share some silly photos with you today from my “way back” archives. I’ve been trying my best to put every digital photo I’ve got since 2002 (yes… that’s when I got my first digi-cam…and thank gosh it was post college!) on my FLICKR account so that I never have to panic if a hard drive crashes. I even did it with my iphone photos/videos… because I never trust my itunes account to sync properly.

So… let me present you with some silliness…

Like these two gems of an impromptu photo shoot in Palm Springs with a hand seat…

Or a “fake sick” photo from Space Mountain? (I think this was the 6th or 7th ride of that day)

Or how about the “Kim (in her gym clothes) poses with all the dressed up sorority sisters going to a party on a yacht” photo from college?

An attempt from Mr. M to artistically capture me doing “Karate Kid” poses on a rock…

What Mr. M really thinks of me…

Really cold water…

Last minute Bay to Breakers outfits… courtesy of H&M’s men’s underwear department

…and silly baby giggles.

It’s almost officially summer (June 21st) … but it’s already heating up here. Poor Miss L’s head keeps growing bigger… so even as her hair grows out, it’s not long enough to put in pigtails and keep it tame. So, yeah, this is what happens when [...]]]> summer time, summer time, sumsumsummer time

It’s almost officially summer (June 21st) … but it’s already heating up here. Poor Miss L’s head keeps growing bigger… so even as her hair grows out, it’s not long enough to put in pigtails and keep it tame. So, yeah, this is what happens when she enjoys the rear a/c in the car. I’m hoping this doesn’t get her craving a convertible at 16?

In other random news… I added the latest “social media” tool to my sharing bar.

You might see it popping up all over the ‘net shortly, as it was just created last week. It’s the “Google PLUS ONE” button. Essentially, it’s google’s way of combating Facebook’s LIKE button. This is what it looks like here on the blog:

When you like a blog article, just click the icon and you’ll be able to share that fact with the rest of the world on Google. The first time you click on it, this little window will pop up:

If you’re logged into GMail or google, then your name from that account will pop into that space. Click to “create profile” to rename your first/last name into whatever you want… (I’m not putting my first/last name out every time I want to rank something!)

Then, whenever you “plus one” something, the rank will increase and you’ll be directly helping that page’s google pagerank increase, and in turn help it show up more in Google searches!

new video games?

I feel like I’m so completely out of the video gaming loop… as we’re away from WOW again and Mr. M is content to shoot away nightly using space guns or real guns and listen to smack talking 12-year olds. Is anyone playing anything super fun and new on their Wii, DS or PS3? (I exclude the XBOX360, since it’s the one being occupied at the moment)  And no… we don’t have Kinect or MOVE, so I can’t have too much fun right now…

pre-Wimbledon meal

For Mr. M, Wimbledon is his Olympics/Super Bowl/NCAA Final Four all wrapped into one. In honor of the epic tennis tournament starting this week, I made Shephard’s Pie (and got to use up more ground turkey thanks to our Costco bulk buy last week).

Well, he didn’t think that was quite enough celebration, so he brought home some Harp’s and HP Sauce. So, now I need to stop and pick up some Sprite so that we can have some Shandy’s tonight with the leftovers and pretend we’re queuing at the All-England Club. 

Cheers to your weekend friends!

And if you have… you know that they can get kind of wacky. Stop yourself in your tracks and think, “What the heck is going on here?!?” kind of [...]]]> If you’ve happened to find yourself browsing around a toy store in your spare hours of the day, you’ve almost certainly come across the Playmobil playsets.

And if you have… you know that they can get kind of wacky. Stop yourself in your tracks and think, “What the heck is going on here?!?” kind of wacky. But also in the “I want to browse through the Playmobil section so I can see what crazy stuff they’ve come up with!” sort of way…

Here are just a few examples of what I mean:

The super collectible HazMat team! Kids will yearn to grow up and wear hazmat suits and clean up toxic sludge!

Every child needs/wants an asphalt cutter playset! I’m not even sure I could explain what this thing does to a kid…

The Police superset:  Just another ordinary day with a robbery and a police dog in hot pursuit!

The Veterinarian’s Operating Room. I think it is sort of the last place I ever want to imagine being.

Woodshop Class: at least the teacher looks like he’s a true woodsman!

The stereotypical Asian Family! Note: none of the dads of other ethnicities have cameras around their necks.

The Rose Gardener: since he’s with the house set, I’m assuming that I’m supposed to have one of him to tend to my roses.

The jewel thieves: my favorite set! My question…. are they only stealing the jewels and not the painting?

Police Headquarters: is the criminal trying to break into the station to steal all those awesome guns?

The Ghost Pirates! Including a bareback stingray riding Ghost Pirate – must I say any more?

Grave Robbers – I didn’t find the grave playset, so I guess you’ll just have to use your imagination to pillage and plunder it.

Skeleton excavation site playset

Lion’s Pride with monkeys – but whose bones are those?

Police with a radar gun – helping kids stop speeders in your own house!

The private jet – which caters to Texas oil magnets?

Portable toilet – plastic figures need relief too.

Do you have a favorite Playmobil set? Perhaps from your childhood?

Aunt Sadie’s Grass candle from Everything Smells

The most powerful memory I have from the day Mr. M proposed? The smell of the fresh cut grass at the Rose Bowl. Not sure a candle would bring it back, but maybe it’s a bit better than the GRASS [...]]]>

Aunt Sadie’s Grass candle from Everything Smells

The most powerful memory I have from the day Mr. M proposed? The smell of the fresh cut grass at the Rose Bowl. Not sure a candle would bring it back, but maybe it’s a bit better than the GRASS scent from GAP way back in the day!

]]> http://www.kimberlymichelle.com/2010/11/18/the-grass-smells-greener/feed/ 0 http://www.kimberlymichelle.com/2010/11/08/another-trip-to-visit-remys-parents/ http://www.kimberlymichelle.com/2010/11/08/another-trip-to-visit-remys-parents/#comments Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:23:00 +0000 Kim http://www.kimberlymichelle.com/2010/11/08/another-trip-to-visit-remys-parents/ On Saturday, we made another trip down to Emeryville to visit PIXAR Studio’s during their only “kinda open to the public” day with the whole family in tow. Last year, Baby M visited by proxy in my tummy, but this year she was able to play along and enjoy the whole place with us!

This morning, at 10am, I took a quick coffee break to visit the GAP down the street from my office. And, because I was incredibly lucky that most college students don’t like to wake up before noon on Fridays, I got myself a free pair of jeans due to a Facebook [...]]]>

This morning, at 10am, I took a quick coffee break to visit the GAP down the street from my office. And, because I was incredibly lucky that most college students don’t like to wake up before noon on Fridays, I got myself a free pair of jeans due to a Facebook Places promotion.

The college kids with me were ecstatic… I mean, remember, they’re poor college kids! And what about the lone “grown-up” in the bunch? Well, I was gosh darn happy as well. The main reason? I need a new pair of jeans in a bigger size… and my wallet/heart/mind didn’t want to admit it by paying for it.

I’m still up 4 lbs. from my pre-pregnancy weight (which, btw, I’ll share was 145 lbs), but all of that remaining weight and then some is stuck in my hips/thighs. So while my tops and skirts and dresses fit fine, pants aren’t cooperating. And 8 months later, it’s really hard to face the music and just buy a larger size, because this last “trim down” is going to be the hardest part of the journey. I have issues spending money in the first place, so spending money on something that is “temporary” is like slow water torture. Shopping for clothes in stores usually causes me a lot of anxiety anyway, due to 90% of the clothes being designed for someone unlike me, so I think this one size up issue has spawned some additional demons in my head that I just can’t excise at the moment. The actual weight loss (from a high of 182) was gradual and noticeable for the first 6 months, but now I know the rush is done. I’ve reached a plateau, and the only way I can change that is through lots of dedicated exercise and toning in that area. I think, that even hitting 145, I wouldn’t fit in my old pants, sadly.

But thanks to today’s promotion, I have jeans to cover my legs this early winter, and I was able to admit my needs with just the heartbreak in my head and not my wallet. And I can still totally celebrate in three months when I put these jeans in the back of the closet… right? I’m still stuck in the uncertainty window of this process, since it’s my first time down this road, but I’m not giving up hope on my old body image just yet! And if anything, today taught me to stop spending inordinate amounts of time worrying over silly things… and just do what needs to be done and get back to living.

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Can you guess what our family’s costume theme was?
I’ll give you a clue… I’m missing spikes (due to my severe inability to sew them)… .

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And Baby M? She’s almost “toothless”…
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Did you guess it yet?
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Can you guess what our family’s costume theme was?
I’ll give you a clue… I’m missing spikes (due to my severe inability to sew them)…

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And Baby M? She’s almost “toothless”…
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Did you guess it yet?
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Yup! We’re practicing the ancient art of “How to Train Your Dragon” !
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We’re proud to say that no Viking villages were damaged last night in the costuming of our family…
I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!
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http://www.formspring.me/kimmichelle

I have jury duty tomorrow, so I figured formspring might be a fun way to pass the time!