it sounded like a good idea at the time

Every year for Christmas, Boo gets some cash. And now that she's old enough to decide for herself what she would like, she gets to make some of these bigger spending decisions for herself. With a little guidance, of course. Anyway... she's been talking about wanting lime green walls for a while now. I kept hoping thinking it would pass, but it never did. And with Christmas, she had money burning a hole in her wallet.

I am quite shocked she even wanted her walls to be lime green, since she LOVES pink. When she was 5 we painted her walls pink and she never looked back. She loved it. We loved it. It was perfect. And since pink is STILL her favorite color, I didn't think the lime thing would last.

But alas, it has.

So we made a deal with her. We told her that if she would buy herself some bedding, we would paint the walls. She said that sounded great. And we started hunting for bedding. We found some in two places. One is in hand. Cost a little more than I wanted to pay. Very similar one is on order. Much cheaper and from online reviews, seems to be of pretty decent quality even though it's not very expensive. (IMO, for a kids room, cheaper is always better since they aren't careful and 'live in' their space more than grown ups do)

So anyway.. we headed to Home Depot to look for paint chips. I just knew there would be loads of choices and I'd have to find the 'right' lime looking color. Nope! As it turns out, there were two paint chips that were specifically lime green only. What luck... she says with sarcasm! So we picked the lime-ier one and had some paint mixed. We started painting yesterday afternoon, and anticipated putting one more coat on this morning and being done. Weeeell... I neglected to read the back of the paint chip. Might take multiple coats to cover. Hmmm. Sorry I skipped that part! So here we are. Two coats down. And one more to go. Hopefully, just one!

I'm skeert. It's a pretty blinding color! But I think when all her pink stuff comes back in and her bedding arrives (and works and I can take the more expensive stuff back!), it will be really cute.

I hope! (she types with lime green paint under her nails!)

Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas
to all!
I hope you're able to see beyond
the hustle and bustle of the
season and delight in the wonder
of our risen Savior!

Hugs to all of you and see you soon!

better late than never, I guess...

Everywhere I've turned lately in bloggyland, somebody's been showing off their Christmas tree. I have pics I took of it the other day... but they're still in the camera. I haven't mastered the lesson on getting it from the camera to the computer and then to the bloggy.. so... this is a pic from 2006. Not much has changed, except the couch, which you can see a corner of in the photo.

Anyway, we used to have a fat tree. And yes, we're all about the artificial tree, since I've got nasty allergies and asthma. Anyhoo.. I think we had a real one once early on, and it only took once to realize it was a pain in the neck. But the old timey fake trees aren't much easier.. I'm talking before pre-lits came along, that is.

Anyway, we always had artificial trees and they were always pretty big around. But we live in a very small house and we'd have to rearrange our whole little world for the tree every year and that drove me nuts. It's hard to get into the 'spirit of things' when everywhere I turned, was a misplaced piece of furniture that stuck out like a sore thumb. I'd had my 'eye' on those skinny trees for a long time. And of course, pre-lits were making their entrance too. So we decided to go for it and get one with both. I knew if my tree was gonna be skinny, then it had to be tall to make up for it. And it is. It's 7 and a half feet tall. And every year, including this one, my dear hubby, Mr Daddyman himself, has hoisted the Boo up to put the topper on. This might be the last year for that though. Ahem.

But we love the skinny tree. I can't say enough wonderful things about it. When we had a bigger tree, it always looked sparse, no matter how many things we put on it. And now with this skinny one, it looks full of ornaments even if we only put half of them on. And it's tucked into a corner and I don't have to rearrange a single thing to have it. I love that!

One row of lights near the bottom is on the fritz, so we may have to work something out next year to avoid that striped look we've got going on right now. But other than that, I heart my skinny tree!

blah day

Today has been such a ho-hum, blah sort of day. The hubby has a nasty cold and isn't feeling up to doing much. So we've vegged all day. Of course, being the mom, vegging for me included 4 or 5 loads of laundry. Where does it come from??? And working on a Christmas calendar and wrapping some things. I finished and wrapped a calendar and a photo of the Boo that we had made over the summer.

I also wrapped a white elephant gift for Boo's church party tomorrow night. Last year she took some of those controllers that you plug into the tv directly and then play video games. Since she's got a DS and we've got a Wii, those old games were collecting dust. It was one of those gifts that everybody fought over. It was her first white elephant exchange and she got a kick out of it. So how do you top that?? That's been the dilemma. So we scrounged around the house for something 'fun' yet pretty useless at the same time and decided on this little pop gun thing she's got that shoots out foam 'bullets' with little plastic nubs on the end of 'em. Since it's multiple pieces and it's bound to get passed around, I wrapped everything in a large, clear baggie and tied it together with curly ribbon and a tag...and placed that in a box and wrapped it. I printed out a little tag that says "Don't shoot your eye out!" which we all think is funny since we watch A Christmas Story evvvvvery year, multiple times since there is an annual marathon on one of the cable channels. It's sort of an icon, so I hope the phrase doesn't draw stares. WE think it's funny. We'll see.

While I did all my work today, the Travel Channel was running several shows on going to Disney World/Land over Christmas. It was fun to see things on TV that we just saw 'in real life'...the very photos I was scrapping on calendars while I was watching. It made us smile on a blah day that didn't have very much going for it.

the big debate

My daughter has a debate today. Can you believe it?! I don't think she even knew what a debate was before this assignment rolled around. And it's not just for the sake of debating. It's her semester final! Um.. yeah. She's confident in the info she knows, but a little freaked out at the thought of standing up in front of 'evvvverybody' and talking about her stuff.

I don't blame her. I would have thrown up if I had to get in front of people and talk at her age. Shoot, I would probably be sick to my stomach NOW if I had to do that. I've reminded her that she's prepared. She knows that. She's confident in what she's wearing today as they had to 'dress up'. Her primped and flattened hair is very pretty. She cracks me up. She wears her hair in a ponytail every single day. So today she decided to wear it 'down' and was just marveling at how pretty her hair looks. I was telling her she could see her hair more often if she'd leave it down every once in a while. (the hairdresser raves about her hair and tells her ladies pay big bucks to have the perfectly colored hair she was gifted with... blonde with auburn and brown highlights) But having said that, I'm thankful she doesn't care that much....that she's not one of those girls that spends forever in front of the mirror worrying about every little detail. Just slappin' it into a ponytail is much healthier, in my opinion.

I also reminded her that her team's debate only lasts nine minutes and it will be over. And then she can watch everybody else instead. Just today and tomorrow and then she's out for the break. We can't wait!

She wore a ponytail thing on her wrist though, just in case.

it's getting close!

This is the time of the Christmas season where I realize it's getting close and begin to make mental note of what's left to do and tie up any loose ends. And along the way, it brings to mind things that I do regularly that make the season a little easier.

Sometimes I have to send presents in the mail. And what happens when things get sent in the mail... the bows get squashed. (and yes, as I sit here, I realized I forgot to wrap a gift I put in the mail yesterday. DUH) Anyhoo... how do you send a pretty gift in the mail without a bow??? A friend of mine taught me this one and I think it's pretty cool. She (and I) use plain colored wrapping paper. It can be found, but sometimes it's harder. I stock up when I see it. And I buy cute Christmas stickers (I can get cheap ones from Current) and decorate my wrapped gifts with stickers instead of bows. It also looks very elegant under the tree. (hint hint.. I've used this same technique for other things like birthdays as well. Saves me from having to buy a little bit of 'birthday' paper) Love. IT.

Another thing I did this year is use some old Christmas cards as gift tags. I had some gift bags and since I try to be frugal with them and reuse them, I hate to put a sticker on them. So I cut out the pretty part of the card, punch a hole in it and tie it on with twine or ribbon and presto... a fancy gift tag. And it's cheap.. and it's kinda like recycling.. one more use before it hits the dumpster.

Anyway, those are a few easy things I do at Christmas to make things a little easier. For other tips, visit Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in my Dryer.

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Christmas is upon us.. and so is the food that goes along with it. I'm not the baker/candy maker that my Mamaw was. That kinda gives me the grins to say her name, as she's been gone from us since I was in high school. I was talking to somebody today about Christmas candy and I remembered Mamaw making fudge and divinity every year. She kept a metal tin that would appear in one of the spare bedrooms every year.. and I'd dig in and snatch myself some goodies. I'm sorry but I don't have a fudge or a divinity recipe. I couldn't make either one of those if my life depended on it. I *am* thinking about trying out a divinity recipe possibly though. I've just got to find one first. And order a new whisk for my stand mixer. Anyhoo...

..in the meantime, I can always make some yummy quick bread. And my favorite is:

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 can whole berry cranberry sauce 16 ounce
1 can solid pack pumpkin 15 ounce
3/4 cup chopped pecans.. at our house, nuts are always optional. I leave them out myself.
2/3 cups oil
4 eggs (I've used Egg Beaters and it turns out fine)

Glaze ingredients:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup orange juice concentrate - not diluted
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. In another bowl, combine the cranberry sauce, pumpkin, pecans, oil and eggs. Stir into dry ingredients and mix well.

4. Pour into two greased 9 inch by 5 inch by 3 inch loaf pans.

5. Bake for 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Cool for ten minutes; remove from pans to a wire racak to cool completely.

7. Combine glaze ingredients (conf. sugar, orange juice concentrate, and allspice); drizzle over cooled loaves.

This bread is delicious! It's super moist. It even freezes well. I slice it when it cools and put it in a big zip top freezer bag and just pop off a piece when I want one. It reheats well in the microwave. Soo good! For other yummy Christmas treats, hop on over to visit Donna at Way More Homemade!

some thoughts on WDW

I know I've gone on and on about our trip... and well, yes it was very wonderful. But there were other aspects of it too. I noticed that everybody was in a hurry.. including ourselves. And yes, there were a lot of people there, even when it wasn't 'crowded'. And that we tended to look past the faces of those people in those crowds as just a nuisance that we must get around. A faceless, soul-less mass of humanity that was only in our way. In so many ways, that was constantly with me during our stay. I enjoyed the few moments we actually talked to people while we were there. I talked to a family in line with us. Their daughter has the same name as ours and we discussed spellings of their names and just generally chit chatted with them. You know.. treated them like they were people.. not just something to look past and get through. There was the family at the bus stop too. They were late for a character breakfast and were really anxious for their bus. Which was also our bus. Which we had been waiting for as long as they had. But when it arrived, I gestured for them to get on the bus first.. because they had to be somewhere and at that point, we were just goofing off. I felt sorry for them. And as things go, we were able to squeeze on the bus right after them. I think we even got to sit down. Score! There were the Wish families I saw. I didn't talk to any of them, but I definitely noticed them. They broke my heart a little bit. And there was the family we saw on a bus one day who's (almost?) adult son has some sort of handicap. His parents were completely patient with him as he passed them notes and they wrote notes back to him. He had a teenaged sister too. The son was the only one that smiled during our whole bus ride. I wonder what kind of life they have taking care of a child in an adult's body.

I could go on and on, as we were constantly with people for all those days. And we aren't exactly people people, if you get my drift. My husband declared it a people free weekend when we got home! (if my husband had a blog, it would be called Notes from the Behind the Wall.. oh yeah.. much more quiet/introverted than me!) Anyhoo... it was sad in so many ways. I would wonder how many of these people know Jesus. Statistically probably not very many. That huge mass of people that we'd sometimes get annoyed with are still loved by God and He longs for them, even when they don't care or even know who He is. When I think of humanity and His love for them, it's overwhelming. And that was the saddest and most beautiful part of all.

the fifth and final day

The fifth day was our last day in the parks. It was Wednesday.. the day before Thanksgiving and the traffic inside the parks was picking up. And we were tired. We decided to go back to the Hollywood Studios place. But we could barely walk. So we took in a live Beauty and the Beast show. Boo had never seen a live show with costumes etc so this was quite a treat for her. It was very sweet. After the show, we just couldn't take the crowds any more and left.

We ate lunch at the counter service place at our resort. They made really good (fancy-er) sandwiches and they were HUGE. We were basically just 'killing time' for most of the day. Which was fine. It was nice to not be in a big fat rush to get somewhere. We just piddled. After lunch, we went to a place to ride a boat to Wilderness Lodge. A friend stayed there when they went and urged us to take a peak at it, if we had the time. So we did that. It was an indoor HOtel... nicer than where we stayed. But we've 'done' the lodge look resort at Big Cedar Lodge before, so this was nothing new to us. But yes, I did have to say 'wow' at the vastness of space in the open common area of the hotel and of course, the Mickey Mouse totem pole.

After that, we went to Downtown Disney, which is a small-ER area with shops and places to eat. We had fun look in all toy and gift shops. There is a Lego store there and we all had a blast looking at the Legos. Yes, we are all little kids at heart. They had little bins where you could built your own people, so Boo built some people. That was fun. Mixing and matching heads, bodies and accessories. And the hubs bought a Lego Star Wars Darth Vader. Boo was jealous because he HAS A CAPE. Evidently this is big stuff. She has an old set and HER Vader is minus the cape. Oh well. I bought a Mrs. Puff (from Sponge Bob) key chain. She cracks me up.

We had reservations at Planet Hollywood for dinner. We were seated quickly and our food came quickly. It was an 'interesting' environment, but we were glad to leave. Too loud. Dang, I sound like 'old people'. Oh well.. maybe I am! LOL The girl that waited on us is from our area, so we chatted with her for a bit. And then we walked around some more and camped out on a bench for a while. It was fun to people watch. And we were tired of walking.

Then it was time for our final 'fun'. We were able to get tickets to see Cirque du Soleil. And it was amazing! If you are a fan of Jon and Kate plus 8, and you've seen the 'cutting room floor' episode, it features when they got to see Cirque. There just aren't words for how incredible it was. We loved it! It was a nice way to end our stay at Disney. It was chilly after the show was over. That was our latest night out. We couldn't wait to get on the bus and head back to our little oasis for one more 'sleep'.

We woke up bright and early and got ourselves together. The Disney people came for our luggage and us around 8:30 am. We checked out of our room and checked our luggage IN at the counter at our resort. Yes, we checked our luggage at Disney. Crazy, isn't it?! It made getting through the airport much quicker. Except for the dumping of everything but your undies into a bin security thing at the airport, that is. That waddle away from the xray scanner barely holding onto all your belongings and your ticket and your driver's license is just a blast.

We made our flight without a problem and were home by early afternoon. I had just about all the unpacking and laundry done before nightfall. We were tired and happy and so glad to be home. And we didn't want to be in a crowd again for a long time.

day four, WDW

On day four of our trip to Disney, we went to Disney Hollywood Studios. It was a fun day.. some of the things were quite memorable and others.. not so much. We arrived over a half an hour before it opened. As with the other parks, there is the early 'let in' and then everybody walks on ahead to a roped off area. But the fun part was, we were near the front of the line and they put on a little 'show' for ya before they let you in. There was a guy standing in the back of the truck like thing with an old time movie camera and another guy in another vehicle acting like a director. The director guy also had a 'family of the day' with him and he put them through their paces of doing things for 'his movie' and it was all very cute. And then he included 'us' in his 'movie' and told us we had to walk when the ropes went down. We thought it was a clever way to keep order. And yes, he even hollered into a bullhorn at people that did not walk. Cute.

The first thing we did was ride a Toy Story ride thing. It was one of the coolest things we did all day. It was an interactive arcade kinda thing and Boo and I competed shooting things from our ride. Pretty fun stuff. When we got off, the line just to get a fast pass was crazy long. We weren't able to ride that one again. But it was a lot of fun.

We rode a thing called The Great Movie Ride. The funniest part of it was before the ride. They put a group of 'us' in a queueing area that looked like a movie theater with a screen and it showed clips of different movies of different eras. One of them was an old movie where the ladies all swim in sequence with each other. I have no idea what the name of it is. Anyway.. what does this bring to mind to Boo and I.. but that birth control commercial.. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Everydaaaaaaay. Yep, Boo and I sang that song to ourselves QUIETLY while we waited in line. LOL The ride itself was a snooze. A bit of a disappointment.

After that we did a back lot tour. That was pretty cool. They showed how they do explosions, gunshots and fire in water environments. They also took us through a storage area for props for different movies. We saw some old muppets stuff and some of the stone creatures from The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. That was pretty cool. (and gobs of other stuff too) We rode a tram for the rest of it. It sprinkled a little, but by the time we got off, it stopped. That was our only wet weather for the whole trip. We saw a Herbie VW and Walt Disney's private plane. There were lots of interesting little tidbits on this ride.

Then we went to a car stunt show. That was pretty neat as they 'filmed' it live while it was going on and we could see parts of it on a big screen. They talked about how cars 'go fast' and spin out and all kinds of crazy stunt-y stuff. There were also motorcycles and some jet skis too as there was a moat kinda thing in front.

After that we went to a Muppet 3D show. That one was a lot better than the other 3D show we saw at another park. Very clever and funny. Not scary at all for little kids and it made everyone laugh. Then we grabbed a fast pass for a Star Wars ride thing and ate lunch. Lunch was awful and I was hungry a lot that day. lol Then we did the Star Wars thing, which was ok, not great. There was also a little 'show' they did live outdoors on a stage with little kids from the audience and Darth Vader and some good guy in a brown outfit.. can't remember who-LOL- and that was cute with the little kids and their light sabers and all. Funny. We watched that for a little bit.

Then we saw an Indiana Jones stunt show. It was fun watching them perform stunts 'live' like that. And there were a couple of unexpected little elements in that one too, which made it fun. There was a Prince Caspian character greeting and a small attraction with that.. we skipped the character thing and did the movie clip thing.. not much to it.. lots of movie clips strung together creatively and no place to sit down.

There was a big exhibit on Walt Disney himself. We found that nostalgic and interesting. We spent a lot of time looking at that stuff and really this was an education for our daughter. She didn't grow up seeing Walt Disney every Sunday night when The Wonderful World of Disney came on. See.. didn't I just make a bunch of you nostalgic just by saying that?! There was a movie about his life there too, so we watched that too. Fun and interesting.

There was a live show about animation which we did. It was ok. And there was a 'show' about sound work/foley art. All we did was listen to some stuff on headphones in TOTAL DARKNESS.. a great move for the kiddies.. and then it was over. Not a favorite. Then we ate supper at a buffet called Hollywood and Vine. I wasn't expecting much, but it was quite delicious.

And then we did the evening show called Fantasmic. It was interesting in some ways. They figured out how to make a movie screen on a sheet of water sprayed into the air. That being said, they showed movie clips on that thing for waaay too long.. and villains too.. they dragged out every spooky character they could think of.. scared the little kids to death. There wasn't much pyrotechnics to speak of. There were more characters at times.. floating by on a boat or something..but mostly it was just very dark. When we left, I wasn't feeling very fantasmic about it, lemme tell ya. (I was feeling more bummed that we missed the REAL fireworks show at Epcot! LOL)

The funny part was waiting to go into this show... they had a previous show of it, and the lady that kept coming over the loud speaker saying things about where the strollers had been moved to etc for those exiting.. but with a northern accent (no offense if you are from the north!) and for some reason, it just made us laugh. So sadly that was our cheap entertainment while we waited in line.

That ended Tuesday, which was day four.

day three, WDW

We planned a 'catch up' day or two, just in case we couldn't get everything done in a park the day before, we could go back and get it done. Well, crowds were light (they didn't feeeeel light, but they were.. it was a mixed bag), so we had a day we hadn't planned out and didn't know what to do with. We had not planned on going to Animal Kingdom, but we decided to do that, since we had the free time and all. Well..

.. we sort of liked it. And sort of didn't. It FELT crowded because all the walkways are narrow and overgrown with plants.. thus creating an exotic vibe, but also making a person feel claustrophobic and pressed in and stressed out. That's just my/our take on it. We rode a thing that I can't remember the name of that was basically a jungle safari kinda thing in a huge jeep. It was kinda neat. There were live animals walking around very close by. It was hard to snap pics because of the vehicle rocking as we rode on rutted out pathways they called 'roads'. haha. Just adding to the ambiance of 'safari' I guess. Whatever. There were also some animatronic animals added in that helped create a little back story about poachers. Could have done without that part. The real animals were the stars of the show.

There were these even skinnier pathways that led us down to areas that were like zoo exhibits with animals etc. We enjoyed that because it felt like we were off the beaten path and the crowds were lighter. I took several pictures of the signature tree inside the park called 'The Tree of Life'. I wasn't really crazy about the name of the tree. But anyhoo... we ate lunch and left. We had had enough of the crowdedynes. LOL

We rode the monorail around.. just for fun. Enjoyed the things we could see from it. We went back to Epcot and rode Test Track AGAIN. Yay! Then we went to dinner. Dinner was at our resort, as we were hoping for an early night and thought we'd skip out of the parks and enjoy a NICE meal outside the park. Well... this meal was a big disappointment. Everything on the menu sounded wonderful, but it did not deliver. My dinner had the potential of being great, but not a single item on my plate had an ounce of flavor. boring. And every dessert had milk, so that was a no go too. It was pretty sad.

The building the restaurant was in housed many things. It had a counter service place in it. That's Disney speak for fast food. And then the place we ate dinner in... table service... Disney speak for slow food. And also a gift shop. So we shopped. They had much cuter tshirts there than I'd seen inside the park. And I was bummed. So I asked the man working there if we could exchange our shirts even though we had purchased them inside the park. And he said 'sure!'. So we walked back to our room and grabbed the shirts I'd bought for Boo and I and went back and exchanged them. I was so glad they let us do that. Boo and I ended up with really cute shirts. Now it just needs to get warm enough to wear them! LOL

our 'hotel'

Our 'hotel' left a little bit to be desired. At least it did right after we made the reservation. I was kinda bummed when I figured out it wasn't a hotel at all. But a fayn-cee-fied MOtel. But it turned out ok. And yes, it looked a little better than the pic from Jungle Cruise directly below.


We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort and actually, the view and the aesthetics were kinda pretty. We enjoyed the views right outside our door. See... isn't it pretty?!



Inside the room, it was the standard cookie cutter hotel room. It had a Nemo wall border and bedspread. Cute. But it kinda felt like they'd tried to go 'tropical' in a time past, and then added the Nemo stuff. There were different shades of green in some places and that kinda bothered me. But it wasn't 'bad' at all. It had the standard motel issue 'tiny bathroom' that you've gotta step out of to change your mind, much less your clothes! Thankfully there was a curtain that could be drawn to enclose the sink area, so there was a little room to spread out and change without being in full view of everyone in the room. So that was a nice little extra. They also seemed to take into account that guests would indeed be carrying luggage and need a place to put it down upon entering. You may wonder why I say that, since it sounds kinda like a 'duh'. Well, lemme tell ya...

We usually stay at Hampton Inns. It's nice for our needs as a family and it usually works out for us. But in 2007, we went to Colorado for vacation and stayed at Hampton Inns along the way and in Colorado Springs. Weeell... I've never walked into a hotel room and just stood there holding my luggage looking around and being shocked and surprised that there wasn't a single place to put it down and get it out of the way.. until our most recent Hampton Inn stays. And they've changed the beds in those too and they're very bouncy and not very supportive. So...

...the fact that they had places for me to put my stuff down was a plus, right off the bat. And the bed was supportive and non-bouncy so I wasn't sore when I woke up in the morning. The room we were able to get had two double sized beds in it. I was supposed to sleep with Boo since the hubster is very tall and has to kinda curl up to fit in a double. So that was the plan. Until I slept with her that first night and got elbowed, knee'ed and slapped around all night long. We called for a roll away bed for the rest of the nights. I was able to get a little better sleep after that..except for the funny noises the sheets made. We've never had this one before..every time we moved or rolled over, the sheets made loud crumpledy racket. Woke me up every time any of us.. including myself moved. And the real 'kicker'...there was a brochure in the room that showed how we could order these wonderful linens for OUR HOME! Talk about 'LOL'. We did 'laugh out loud'. We thought we could skip out of the rackety, weird feeling sheets. Thankfully, we weren't there for the sheets! : )

day two, part two

So I left you all with us eating lunch on day two. We had a monster huge 'fancy' deli sandwich in the land pavilion. Some of the produce sold in meals in that building is grown on the property we saw during our 'The Land' tour. I thought that was kinda cool.

After lunch, we went to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. It was bad. Just thinking of a way to use 3D...and scare kids half to death with scary things shooting out at their faces. Way ta go Disney! And then we rode Test Track again. Yay! And then an oldie but a goodie, Spaceship Earth. That's the ride inside the big Epcot 'ball'. It surprised me that these rides that could be called 'boring' were some of Boo's favorite since they were interesting and there were things to look at and notice. And then on the way back down after the ride, there was a small touch screen and by answering a few questions, they made up a little mock up community based on your likes and put your/our heads on the tops of the people. So we got a good laugh at the pic they took of us on the ride and watched our little person doing things on the screen. Good for a silly laugh. We rode this again at some point later in the day.. it was an entertaining way to get off our feet!

Then we toured the world showcase... that's what it's called, isn't it?! I forget. We just called it 'the countries'. We saw a little street show of a couple of 'french bakery fellows' and they did an acrobatic thing with balancing chairs and standing on top. Pretty incredible and a little dangerous with no wires etc. But it was comical and fun to watch. The one fellow on the ground made all his wishes known by blowing a whistle.. gently..loudly..with feeling etc. Interesting all he could invoke with just gesturing and a whistle. We walked around and browsed and took plenty of pics of the buildings etc. At one point we rode a boat around in the waters in the middle of the showcase area.. just for fun. It was nice to see things from the water.

We watched part of the America video thing in the USA area. It was kinda boring and we were hungry. So we bugged out and went to dinner. We had a reservation at a hibachi place in the Asian section. We were seated right away. The meal was wonderful. Probably the best meal we had while we were there. And of course, the table entertainment was fun too. Our cooker guy chef was interesting and since he talks to people everyday, he could talk to any guest about wherever they happened to live. He was an interesting person. This meal was late.

Some side notes... one thing we were all looking forward to was the Hall of Presidents. It's closed... until JULY of 2009! Is that crazy, or what?! We were bummed as it's one of those things people go to Disney wanting to see. And we didn't get to. : ( Another thing, we purchased tshirts in the world area. We thought they were cute and we'd been seeing a lot of the same stuff, so we just went on and bought one for Boo and I that day.

Well, by the time our late hibachi dinner was over, so were the fireworks! I was totally bummed. I knew we would be cutting it very close... but it's a very short show and it was over by the time we stepped out after dinner. It was a disappointment at the time, and as the week wore on, I became more upset that we missed it.. just to eat. (oh well, there's a 'better' show coming at Disney Hollywood Studios, right?!)

Disney day two

Day two had us lined up in front of Epcot waiting to get in. They let folks through the turnstiles to walk up to a roped off line further inside the park. When the people, including the characters, come out, they take down the ropes and everyone is off like a shot. Although this sounds exciting, it bugged me. Everyone was pushing and crowding and in a big mass. When going through the turnstiles, it naturally spaces people out, so there is no huge mass of people pressing in at any given moment. It was craziness. But it was still fun! We got a close up of Minnie Mouse. Donald walked by but my camera hesitated, so all I got was his little hat. Oh well!
I made a list of everything we did on the second day and it blew my mind. We hustled and got a lot done! I have to also recommend the Unofficial Disney travel guide. It was excellent and we got many of our time saving tips from reading the book and following it's strategies.

First we stopped at Soarin' and got ourselves a Fast Pass. This is where you wait in a line to meet up with a kiosk and put in your ticket card and it spits out a paper card with a later time on it and you go do something else and come back during the specified time and your place is 'saved' in line and you can pretty much just hop right on the ride.. or have a much shorter wait than the 'regular line'. I have to say it's a sweet little innovation.. and isn't that what Epcot is all about?! Getting our 'FP' for Soarin' did not go smoothly though. The machine broke down with the lady in front of us so the employee 'cast member' just handed her FP's out of her pocket. We were right behind her and she told us we had to start over in another long line. GRRRR. There are a few things at Disney that are pretty uncool in the way they handle them.. that is one example! But we finally scored our tickets and bugged out to....

TEST TRACK! With no wait, I might add. Thanks to the wonderful research done by the book writers, we walked right on the ride. And it was our favorite, hands down.

We also rode a little Nemo ride.. think little kid thing. And then another animated interactive thing called Turtle Talk with Crush and yes it was very funny.. even for the grown up set! And then we went back to ride Soarin' with a shortened wait. (this was our longest FP line. This ride is insane popular) In the same building is a little boat ride called The Land... it was more informational than anything, but it was a nice place to rest the feet, which at this point were SCREAMING. And then we had lunch.

One note here about Epcot. It's original intent by Walt Disney himself seems to be lost here. Remember how it stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow? I had to remember that myself to really 'understand' the purpose of some of the rides..like The Land. Walt's vision is fading for that park and it's sad they aren't keeping his vision for it more alive or at the front of people's thoughts.

I think I will split day two into two posts, as there is a lot more info to go. And I don't want to bore you to tears! Oops.. too late.. already did! LOL

The sights! The sounds! The smells??

Our trip to Disney was, of course wonderful! There was so much to see and do. It truly kept the senses busy. But one thing that I didn't expect was just how complete the sensory experience was going to be.

Some things were expected like the smell of popcorn..or more unpleasantly, the stench smell of cigarette smoke every time we walked toward an outdoor 'smoking area'. But there were some smells that took us by surprise. One of them was when we rode the ride Soarin' at Epcot. It makes the rider feel as though they are flying... or soarin'.. get it, get it?!... above several different environments. I could feel the wind on my face, which was pretty neat.. but then something unexpected happened. I could smell things. Like evergreens and oranges and oceans and whatever else we were flying above at that time. It really completed the experience.

But then there were some even more unexpected smells. We stayed at resort on property called Caribbean Beach Resort. When we went into the gift shop area for our resort, it smelled like.. you guessed it.. the tropics and a little bit like coconut. And while waiting in line for several rides, we'd smell cinnamon rolls, of all things! And there weren't any nearby, so that smell had to be 'piped in'. It was strange, and yet it played it's part in enveloping us in 'the experience'.

In case you're wondering when is she gonna quit talking about that trip? Well.. I don't know. It's nice to document things here since this is a diary of sorts. And.... it's more interesting than saying 'bah humbug' for a while longer. Although, I have to say, this trip has lightened my mood and I'm not feeling as down as I usually do during this month, so that's a plus right now! : )

the people

One of the interesting things we saw that wasn't on any ride or attraction was the people. I'm talking people watching. This can be done on quite a grand scale at Disney! I lost count of how many languages I overheard. And the different cultures and their clothing choices. Oh my! The young Asian ladies have quite a thing going.. that's all I'm gonna say! LOL One day we decided to ride the monorail around the park. How can you go to Disney and NOT ride the monorail? Anyway... a family got on.. obviously not um from around here since their shirts had foreign words on them and they either had a thick accent or didn't speak English at all.. couldn't tell. But their little group was interesting. A set of parents, two children and their opposite sex 'friends'. Nice. One girl looked like she'd been attacked on the neck by a vacuum cleaner (a-hem) and another 'set' sitting next to me needed to seriously get a room. I was glad when they got off! LOL

But of course, the kids were the most interesting. After all.. aren't they the ones that place is all about?! We had opportunity to see little kids faces light up when they saw something wonderful. But there were also the tired, gripey kids that had been dragged around all day that were just done. with. it. (on a side note.. one of our little sayings toward the end of our stay was 'this is no place for little kids!' LOL) And there were the enthusiastic kids dragging their parents around even after a long day at the park. And there were lots of crying kids too. But the ones that stick out to me were the ones that made me smile or laugh or brought up another memory. Like the little kid at the fireworks over the castle the first night... every time there was a lull in the action, he was ask rather loudly "is it over?". Cracked us up! We laughed our heads off every time and in turn, his parents laughed with us. They were funny little moments. And so much like our little Bub. He would have asked the same thing at that age...at every single lull..just like that little boy did!

And then there was the family we met at the bus stop one morning. Every time a bus came and went and he couldn't get on, he cried. Not angry.. just sad. It cracked us up! At one point, I had to turn away and blink back tears. He reminded me a little bit of Bub too with his cute little pug nose and funny ways. And then of course, there were the wish families. We spotted three that we know of... they all had Make-a-Wish tshirts on. And of course, that has a tender spot in my heart too. Those families have been through so much.

And there was the little boy walking in front of us on a pathway at our resort. The sidewalks were made of bricks. Bricks are small. So there are lots of cracks. hint hint! I couldn't figure out why he was walking funny until his dad grabbed him by the arm and said "sorry buddy, but there are just too many cracks. You're gonna have to step on them!". LOL

People.. and kids are something else!

our first day

The first day of our trip was crazy yet so memorable. We had to get up at 5 something to be ready to go by 6 something and be at the airport by 7. Our plane left at 9am. Everything went very well with catching the shuttle and getting to the airport and finally arriving at the Orlando airport and getting on the Magical Express to Disney. Everything went flawlessly...our luggage even arrived at our room the way it was supposed to!

Anyway.. by 2 something we were checked into our room and we had ditched our carry-ons and applied sunblock and gathered all the necessary items for a half day in the park and headed out to the Magic Kingdom. By 3pm we were standing in our first line... to ride The Haunted Mansion, which we loved. We did everything on our list that day.. including Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, The Laugh Floor (interactive animated show featuring the characters from Monsters Inc), The Carousel of Progress (an old time attraction), It's a Small World (of course!), and a couple of other things. We ate dinner at a little place called The Plaza and it was directly in front of The Castle. It was dark outside by this time and Boo watched the castle through the window as she ate her dinner. It was lit up and changed colors throughout our meal. Every time she gushed about the colors, we turned and looked and commented appropriately. It really was pretty!

Not long after that, it was time for the evening fireworks to begin. We walked right up to the very last spot on the sidewalk and snuggled close together (just like the other zillion people in attendance) to watch the show. The music of course, was delightful and sweet. It was a magical time. I wrapped my arms around my little girl and held her close as we watched and oooh'ed and aaaaah'ed at the beautiful show. Before long, I found myself in tears. I can't tell you why.. other than life is so stressful and so much of the simplicity that used to be our lives, is gone forever. This just took me to a place I needed to go..even if just for a little bit. Every time I think about that, I begin to cry again. I feel so silly even saying that... but it did feel like a weight had been temporarily lifted and it was just wonderful. It was so nice just to be swept up in it all for a little bit. It set the stage for a great trip!