Yay for me
I've been a proud member of the Directors Guild of America since 1992 and I've been involved in the Associate Director/Stage Manager/Production Associate Council West pretty much since the time I joined. I am currently the 1st Vice-Chair of the Council and I've been the 2nd Alternate for our category on the DGA National Board for the last two years. On Saturday the 25th, it was the DGA Biennial Convention where the new officers and board are elected and once again, I have the honor of being elected 2nd Alternate on the National Board. I couldn't attend the convention because of work and apparently, there was a drop of controversy when our spot came up and another member had his name put up for nomination. My name came up next (although our strategy was for my name to come up first) and good friend seconded my nomination and sung some of my praises (two sources confirm this). The other member then withdrew his name and I was elected. It's an honor to be on the National Board and I need to make more of an effort to get to know people so they can associate my face with my name on the letterhead. That gives me something to aspire to.
On to posting pictures, which is really why anyone reads this thing anyway, if anyone is still out there. Here are the 7 month pictures of M&H. This was a big change month as the girls are now sitting up on their own. They're reaching for everything. They're grabbing things out of each other's hands. They're definitely teething although I don't feel any points yet. They're not going to sleep on their own. We're going to talk to a sleep consultant to try and rectify that. I can't deal with three lousy sleepers. Once they're asleep they generally stay asleep but the going to sleep process is ridiculously brutal. And crying it out with two doesn't quite work. One goes to sleep and if the other were to cry it out, we'd have two up and crying in no time. Anyway, here's the latest and greatest.
Look who's 7 months old...
The Official 7 months of H
The official 7 months of M
Of course, what's a lot more fun is playing with the papers.
And here are just some adorable pictures of the adorable girls. How stinking cute are these girls??
And we took the girls into the pool again today. Just to prove that M enjoys the water, here's a smiley girl in the pool.
Soon to come, C is about to lose her first tooth. She's the last of her friends to lose a tooth so it's getting exciting. She's got the adult teeth in on the bottom but, according to the dentist, those baby teeth are quite secure and happy so that the adult teeth aren't forcing the baby teeth to get loose. He told us he'd probably have to pull them but I don't want her first tooth to have to be pulled. If others have to come out that way so be it, but she should experience the first one coming out naturally. So the receptionist and our friend who works in the office, told her to eat apples, and hard stuff to pull on it and to wiggle the tooth so that it comes out on its own. It's working because we're close to having it come out. Stay tuned...
Can I just say...
That there are some really cool things about Facebook. Sure, there's tons of crap and all the requests to water my garden or feed my animals or stuff like that get overwhelming but those are just minor complaints. (actually the real complaint is that each and every time you "accept", it takes you to the application. You can't accept multiples and that's what's annoying - but I digress). The fun part of FB is reconnecting with people I haven't seen or spoken to in ages and at particular times in my life, were very significant. I'm in touch with lots of friends from summer camp, which is how I started on FB to begin with. Yesterday, I connect with a friend T who was really one of my closest friends from camp for 3 years. One year she didn't return and we lost touch. Today, I connected with a family friend who's known me since I was 5 and who my family considers family. It's been about 6 years since I've seen her so I was thrilled when she sent the friend request. I have all sorts of corners of my life, past and present, that are represented in my 400+ friends on FB - camp, high school, elementary school, flute, scrapbooking, work, family - and I love each and every one of those connections.
The babies are now 7 months old. How the heck did that happen? I'll post the official 7 month picture tomorrow since it's still in the camera at home, but this has been a big month of changes for them. They're now sitting up on their own. Playing with lots of toys of course. M has tendency to take things from H which we'll have to make sure doesn't get out of control. They're both sleeping quite lousy lately since they're both teething. Everything goes in the mouth to chew on but I don't feel any points yet. Sleeping is still an option and we're losing ground. We're giving a little slack because of teeth and we can't control them waking up screaming with pain but we've got a lot of work to do. I refuse to have two more lousy sleepers like their big sister. The other big change is they're now eating real food. We started with (after cereal) carrots, then butternut squash, then sweet potato and then avocado. Carrots were ok. They loved the squash, sweet potato was eh and avocado was a big hit. Now we have to work on the next veggie to introduce. One or two more then come the yummy fruits.
So without further ado, here are some of the latest and greatest pics of the girlies.
Doesn't M look small in the high chair?
H in the high chair. She looks pretty little too.
Mmm, avocado...
M & H with their cousin/my niece L
Daddy with his two little girls
M & H with my nephew S. Don't they look adorable??
Just Keep Swimming
We took M & H in the pool last night. The night before we put their feet in and seemed to enjoy it so it was time to get them in. G took them in one at a time. H seemed to really like it. She was all excited, splashing around with her arms and kicking with her legs. She loved it. M wasn't quite as excited but she was calm. That was funny considering M likes the bath much more than H does. Well, it won't be the last time and I'm sure they'll be little fish just like big sister C.
Happy H in the pool (is this the cutest?). Smiles in every picture.
I love this picture.
M in the pool but not so sure what to make of it all.
More Michael Jackson
I know it's been a week or so since last post but this is not the appropriate post to publish my backlog of photos that I need to share. Today was the Michael Jackson memorial service and G directed it. Words can't describe how proud of him I am. Yes, this was a job and a good opportunity to score some points with a powerful producer but it's that producer that asked G to do this historic event. Maybe it's because G's attitude is easy and he can go with with the flow with a production that would be in constant change, or maybe because he's a good director. It's probably a lot of both. Either way, I'm so proud that he was asked to do this event and what he, and the entire crew, accomplished today.
This was one of those events that's historic. MJ was a bigger than life celebrity and his musical genius has influenced every corner of the planet. Musically speaking, there's no one bigger and that's a huge loss for everyone. His weirdness, well, that won't be missed so much I don't think but I think people are remembering his musical impact at the moment. I'm not sure I'm overly emotional about this (although I'll get back after I've watched the whole memorial) but certainly I feel his loss professionally, even if he peaked musically years ago. Anyway, I was thinking this morning that this event was going to be seen all around the world, like the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. G was listening to CNN as he was driving down to Staples Center this morning and they were reporting that MJ's appearance at the Super Bowl Halftime in the 90's was the single largest viewing audience for a single event in TV history. This was expected to surpass that. No pressure there.
Anyway, it was a big day. I still haven't seen the whole thing but what I've seen looked amazing. G did an amazing job and he got TONS of compliments on his Facebook page. Mine as well. G even got text messages and a phone call from Ryan Seacrest who's in Europe. Pretty darn cool. I hope this brings good things his way as a director. He deserves it beyond belief and that has nothing to do with that being good for "us" as a family. He's a great director and deserves the work. It's a proud day for our family.
Here are a few images I found online that I thought captured some of the highlights.
A very moving moment. I hope the media will leave these three kids alone. For all his eccentricacies (and there were many), MJ was clearly, fiercely protective of his kids. I hope the media will continue to respect that and let these kids grow up as best as possible without creating a circus around them.
