January 2009. . . Calling all Snowbirds ~ Part III !!!

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Hello all!

I never saw there was a snowbird thread until this one! WOOHOO! First year retired - my dates are January 5 - February 1. Staying off property until January 19th, and then the rest at OKW. I AM SO excited!

No PS yet - need to spend as little money as possible, so my plan is to eat "in" as much as possible, interspersed with counter service meals and not more than one sit down a week.

Now my MIL is going to be in Florida for one of the weeks we are there visiting her parents, and willing to drive up to stay off site and spend 2 days at Disney with us.


Thanks Remmy

Remmy, I wouldn't change any of your ps. If she's going to be in Florida for a week, she may not decide until she actually arrives and sees what the parents plans are, what days she can come to Disney. So, if it was me, I would 'hang loose' and roll with it when she shows up. At that point, you can either bag the ps, try to change it for more people, or just show up with the extra and ask nicely if it's possible they can accommodate you (Unless it's CRT, the likelihood is probably pretty good.)

Dancegrrl, since the hot bath didn't work for you, may I suggest a trick I learned from the marathoners? The girls take cool to tepid soaks when they first come off the course to get the lactic acid out of their muscles. Later in the evening they might hit the hot tub or a hot bath, but the cool one definitely comes first. Good luck!
 
Well, I'm off to bed finally...I went with some girlfriends and my older sister to see New Kids on the Block tonight...so I have Step by Step running through my head...we had a great time and a great show...laughed alot because of all the old T-shirts and people dressed like the 80's again


Amanda :)

I am so jealous of you going to an NKOTB concert! My sister and I were supposed to have gone to see them in Minneapolis on the 21st but plans changed and we ended up having to sell our tickets! I was such a fan of theirs in the late 80's and early 90's! :woohoo:

Yeah for PART III! :cool1:


Okay....add me to the "I'm so jealous" listing! I'd love to see NKOTB. I saw them when I was in high school (gosh...I remember standing in that line waiting to get a wristband for a ticket!:lmao: ) They're not coming close to me....
 
It's cool and windy here today. We carved pumpkins and then came in and I made chicken & dumplings soup! Nothing like good soup to warm you on a chilly day. I saw the forecase with the potential for flurries on Monday and a 30% chance of rain for Halloween....as I know Shelly can attest to, trick-or-treating in the rain isn't much fun. I'd almost prefer snow than the cold rain this time of year.
 
Saw High School Musical 3 today! I know most of you aren't into it, so sorry for OT, but I had a great time! My DD is WAY into HSM, so I've seen the movies and hear the music a LOT.

This made me remember why I love Disney so much. I can trust them! I didn't have a single moment of explanation or feeling uncomfortable with the movie. There was nothing inappropriate or over my DDs head. It was all good! It shows how everyone should be included, how no one is wrong for what they like or do. Nothing too adult - the kids sort of "date" but nothing more than dancing! It's just awesome.

And I'll admit - I got VERY teary at the end. I think I had strong "mom" feelings towards those kids, and to see them grow up and graduate from high school - AWW, it was so sweet.


I got a little teary at the end, too. HSM is what gave those kids their career. (With the excepetion of Ashley Tisdale since she was on Suite Life.) Speaking of her, my only real complaint is that there was not enough Sharpay. It seemed to completely revolve around Troy and Gabriella. :mad:
 


Hello all!

I never saw there was a snowbird thread until this one! WOOHOO! First year retired - my dates are January 5 - February 1. Staying off property until January 19th, and then the rest at OKW. I AM SO excited!

No PS yet - need to spend as little money as possible, so my plan is to eat "in" as much as possible, interspersed with counter service meals and not more than one sit down a week.



Remmy, I wouldn't change any of your ps. If she's going to be in Florida for a week, she may not decide until she actually arrives and sees what the parents plans are, what days she can come to Disney. So, if it was me, I would 'hang loose' and roll with it when she shows up. At that point, you can either bag the ps, try to change it for more people, or just show up with the extra and ask nicely if it's possible they can accommodate you (Unless it's CRT, the likelihood is probably pretty good.)

Dancegrrl, since the hot bath didn't work for you, may I suggest a trick I learned from the marathoners? The girls take cool to tepid soaks when they first come off the course to get the lactic acid out of their muscles. Later in the evening they might hit the hot tub or a hot bath, but the cool one definitely comes first. Good luck!

:welcome: to the Snowbirds!
 
I got a little teary at the end, too. HSM is what gave those kids their career. (With the excepetion of Ashley Tisdale since she was on Suite Life.) Speaking of her, my only real complaint is that there was not enough Sharpay. It seemed to completely revolve around Troy and Gabriella. :mad:

We went yesterday...Me, DD 9, best friend and her 2 DD's (10, 7)...I thought that it was a little racy. I thought that there was no reason to have the boys with their shirts off or open. I know that they are trying to reach multiple age groups but to me the kiss was a little too lippy and don't even get me started with the overt s*xual undertone! Oh goodness! I think I just turned into my mother:rotfl2: Now I personally did like the movie. It's just that I felt it a little too much for the under 12 crowd.

Oh, and wasn't the scene in the junk yard too cute!!!


Did the tweens in the audience totally scream when troy came on screen! You should have heard the girls yelling! so cute!


okay my rant is done...no offense to anyone who feels different than me. Just my thoughts.
 
Okay I just went back and read some of the other pages. I really did not intend to insult anyone with my HSM3 rant. Sorry Sharadoc if I went on too much.
 


Does anyone have any other options for New Years Eve Dinner? Molly

Hey Molly, hopefully you're already booked something because if you don't have an ADR by now (at least for restaurants in the parks), you're going to be VERY lucky to find one. The only exception I can think of is the Fantasia Buffet in Epcot that was announced last week. Also, keep in mind that if you're planning on being in a park for the day - get there early, and, if you do leave for dinner at a resort then there's no guaranteee you'll be able to get back in, esp. MK. At least this is what all my research has told me. We're also going to be there for NYE, plan is to get to Epcot EARLY, and ride what we can and get FP early in the day before they run out. Then stay for the whole time, and just relax and take our time soaking up the atmosphere. Luckily we do already have ADRs in place :thumbsup2 .

IT'S SNOWING IN ST. PAUL, MN!!!
:eek: :scared1:

Is it normal for it to be snowing this time of year over there:cold: ??? We're driving from WDW to Beech Mtn NC to spend Christmas with family, but if it's snowing already in some places, how much will be around by Christmas:santa: ??? I'm starting to worry that we'll drive for 9 hours and then find the road is closed :scared1: - one hour away from our destination!

Just wondering--Are any of you DIS Podcast fans?

Yep! That would be me, at least when i remember to sync my Ipod. Gotta love Kevins restaurant reviews - they crack me up! :rotfl: Just gotta remember not to take then too seriously, but it's nice to be warned in advance ;) . We're still doing CRT & want to check out TRex, but have realistic expectations - we're there for the experience and atmosphere more than the food, (and we may take earplugs to TRex).

It's cool and windy here today. We carved pumpkins...

Lucky you being able to do this so long before Halloween. We're having our Halloween Party Friday but can't carve anything until at least Thursday night because they'll go all soft and wrinkly in the heat here :sunny: . The 'traditional' orange pumpkin you guys use are really hard to find over here and are EXPENSIVE - $13+, and our 'normal' (i.e. bluey green coloured) pumpkins are really hard to hollow out so we tend to carve watermelons instead. You need to leave a bit of the red flesh inside when you hollow it out so the eyes/mouth etc. glow red when you put a candle inside, and we use all the flesh to make watermelon punch - plain for the kids, and v.nice mixed with melon liqueur and vodka for the adults.

I'm desperately hoping some codes and/or package discounts come out today, but I won't find out until tomorrow 'cause it's already Monday here. Hopefully they'll be from the 1 Jan, but I have a feeling they'll be form 4 Jan onwards, which means yet another checkout and in during the vacation - Let's hope it's worth it!
 
Here's MY countdown!

Tomorrow: surgeon. Hopefully she'll tell me what type of surgery I'll be having (major recovery? minor recovery?). Finally tell mom that I'm having surgery. That'll be fun!

Thursday: Give my first presentation, powerpoint and all, EVER. In front of people who won't listen anyway, which makes me less stressed. ;)

11/3: my Pre-op appointment. It says "leave 2-4 hours for this appointment" - ha ha what?

11/6: Fly to New England to visit my family for the weekend

11/9: Fly back to Michigan.

11/14: Surgery (major recovery? minor recovery? ;))

11/21: Hopefully, go see Twilight with the girls. After having a lot of margeritas because we know it's going to be AWFUL

11/27: Thanksgiving! Hopefully, drive to Northern IL and spend the weekend with DH's family (this year, we got a hotel, with the excuse of my surgery!)

December 1-16: Collect grant applications from reluctant grad students, attend department holiday parties

12/25: Christmas!
12/28: Mom's birthday!
12/31: MIL's birthday!
1/4: My birthday!
1/5: Semester starts
1/9: We wave bye to the chilly state of Michigan and hello to the warmer state of Florida for a WHOLE week!!!

(Yes, we feel badly for the men in our family - it gets more creative when you add in the ILs wedding anniversary on 12/26!)

+++

I ordered a camera today from bestbuy.com! They had a 7 megapixel Kodak easyshare camera that uses SD memory for $85, with free shipping, a free tripod, and I had a $5 coupon. After tax I paid... about $85! ;) Now I'm that much more set for DISNEY!!! (And DH asked if he could use it instead of his iPhone. YES!)

Okay - first - best of luck with the dr appts! Here's hoping for the minor-est of recoveries!!!

Second - I am SO jealous of your Twilight viewing plans! I love me some Twilight (my sister got me hooked on that vampire teen romance crack) and I love me some margaritas! :worship:
 
Sarbah--what is Twilight?

Sorry Sarbah - I'm answering for you!

Twilight is a book, the first in a series about, ahem, a vampire teen romance. :rotfl: My sister was addicted to them and made me read them (I told her I refused to buy them and she had them shipped to me. After that I felt it was my sisterly duty to read them and I was hooked too... They aren't great literature, but she's a good storyteller and they are fun reads... (and hugely popular - my babysitter went to the library to ask for the first one and the librarian told her she would be #184 on the waiting list.)
 
Sorry Sarbah - I'm answering for you!

Twilight is a book, the first in a series about, ahem, a vampire teen romance. :rotfl: My sister was addicted to them and made me read them (I told her I refused to buy them and she had them shipped to me. After that I felt it was my sisterly duty to read them and I was hooked too... They aren't great literature, but she's a good storyteller and they are fun reads... (and hugely popular - my babysitter went to the library to ask for the first one and the librarian told her she would be #184 on the waiting list.)

I'm trying to decide if I want to try and start another "series" book. I've finished Harry Potter, trying to get through Chronicles of Narnia. I'm on book 5 or 6 I think. My friend gave me a series of books from an author from South Carolina. I wouldn't have a problem getting through them, I love reading and if I'm really into the book I won't do anything else but read. I just don't know if I should be starting something else right now.


XXX
Anyone have any ideas for an easy handmade calendar? I'm aiming for that for a Christmas present for my friend. I have pretty much all the pictures and quotes I want to use, but I just need a way to do it, and it really needs to be easy!:rotfl:

Ok off to eat some dinner and watch the baseball game!
 
Anyone have any ideas for an easy handmade calendar? I'm aiming for that for a Christmas present for my friend. I have pretty much all the pictures and quotes I want to use, but I just need a way to do it, and it really needs to be easy!:rotfl:


Use a CD Case! You print out a 'card' for each month, sized to fit inside the CD Case (the Std sized ones, not the skinny ones). I found this link to tell you how to do it ...

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/calendar-instructions.php

I've done heaps of others, but if all you want is a photo and a quote, this is the easiest way I know of doing it. Have fun creating!
 
Sarbah--what is Twilight?

Sorry Sarbah - I'm answering for you!

Twilight is a book, the first in a series about, ahem, a vampire teen romance. :rotfl: My sister was addicted to them and made me read them (I told her I refused to buy them and she had them shipped to me. After that I felt it was my sisterly duty to read them and I was hooked too... They aren't great literature, but she's a good storyteller and they are fun reads... (and hugely popular - my babysitter went to the library to ask for the first one and the librarian told her she would be #184 on the waiting list.)

Yeah, that's it in short. It's a vampire teen romance written by a Mormon author. This is ONLY really important because, despite it being a *teen* romance, there's not much more than the occasional smooch until book 4 which was kind of terrible. :)

Okay - first - best of luck with the dr appts! Here's hoping for the minor-est of recoveries!!!

Second - I am SO jealous of your Twilight viewing plans! I love me some Twilight (my sister got me hooked on that vampire teen romance crack) and I love me some margaritas! :worship:

I got three of my coworkers and my closest female friend into the series. They're all forcing me to see the movie, which does look pretty AWFUL. In sort of a good way and aided by margaritas! And they all want to go on opening night!

I'm trying to decide if I want to try and start another "series" book. I've finished Harry Potter, trying to get through Chronicles of Narnia. I'm on book 5 or 6 I think. My friend gave me a series of books from an author from South Carolina. I wouldn't have a problem getting through them, I love reading and if I'm really into the book I won't do anything else but read. I just don't know if I should be starting something else right now.

Girls/women either love it or hate it - Twilight, that is. If you haven't read but want a top notch YA series, I really recommend the Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. After that, I recommend the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. The first series I'd list as nearly classic YA fantasy and the second may eventually get there!

++

Anyway, I'm kind of annoyed with my DH right now. He didn't actually READ the paperwork for his jury duty and given that he's 35, I didn't think I had to. He has to go in tomorrow. And whether or not he serves on a trial, he has to call to see if he has to serve NEXT week as well.

In the meantime, I have that appointment with my surgeon I have to go to alone... and if he has to go in next week, I have to go to my pre-op alone. We're also a one car household and the pre-op isn't on a bus route. My coworkers offered to drive me, but I have to be there at 7:30am and that doesn't seem like a nice thing to ask of them, you know? So I have to get a cab/rent a car/hope he doesn't go in... and then make sure I get all the pre-op instructions right, since he'll be caring for me.

It's NOT the end of the world, but he did have the option to put it off until a date of his choosing, but he decided not to. I feel frustrated and very inconvenienced by his decisions, on top of feeling entirely miserable most of the time. :(

(edited to add: I also had all these appointments prior to his jury summonings!)
 
Goodness... and I thought we were SLOW on the weekends....


We received conflicting news yesterday. My MIL has now decided to be with us for 2 days of Disney out of our 13 day trip.

Originally our trip was to be with 16 other extended family members. One by one they couldn't come due to this and that, which left only our family going. We then planned out each day and made all our ADRs, some at what others are saying hard to obtain places or times.

Now my MIL is going to be in Florida for one of the weeks we are there visiting her parents, and willing to drive up to stay off site and spend 2 days at Disney with us.

We of course are ecstatic that we can have alone time with just her at Disney. Our problem (yes DH has the same hesitations) is that she doesn't like all parks equally and can we change ADRs to add one more person even though she will be paying OOP and not on the DP? We might have to change around our plans too. This is doable, just a shock that came unexpectedly. We will hold off on changing any of our reservations until we know she is definitely going and what exact dates she will be there for.

I want to stress that we are happy to have her be with us for 2 full days of Disney. Last trip she went most often with DH's sister's family, thus we have her all to ourselves for this trip.

Thanks Remmy

If you're planning on adding her to the reservation at your hotel, and you're on the Dining Plan, then she has to be on the Dining Plan as well, which means technically you cannot add her to your ADRs as paying OOP. If she's staying somewhere else, or none of you are on the DP, then it's not as big of a deal.

NKOTB....oh I remember them..the start of my boy band obsession that would move on in the later years to The Backstreet Boys!!

Haha... I kind of wanted to go to a NKOTB or Backstreet Boys concert this year (or did the BSB tour last year?) but I just cannot afford it. Besides, it would only be fun if I went with my sister, since she went through the whole boy band obsession with me, and she lives too far away.

My little sis is only 4 hours away and I'm always missing her! I don't know if I could ever be 3,000 miles away from her! That must be so hard.

My sister lives about 1,000 miles away... it kind of sucks. My baby sister only lives about 100 miles away, but she's 6 years younger than I am, and we've never been as close. We have been bonding lately over the whole Disney thing though...
My big sister is coming in for my Bridal Shower in a couple weeks though!:cool1:
 
Having family far away is so hard. I moved to the east coast for seminary, which was about 5 years ago. It took me six months to get out of my hermit stage. While I do love the east, I miss my family in the northwest. I'm hoping some day they will all decide they love Pennsylvania and move out here!

Sisters are the best. We became so much closer once we hit adulthood. I really don't know what I would do without them. We are all looking forward to the nine days of Disney. It has been several years since we were last all together. One lives in Alaska, the other in Seattle, and i'm out here in Pennsylvania. It is VERY hard to get us all in one state!
 
Anyway, I'm kind of annoyed with my DH right now. He didn't actually READ the paperwork for his jury duty and given that he's 35, I didn't think I had to. He has to go in tomorrow. And whether or not he serves on a trial, he has to call to see if he has to serve NEXT week as well.

In the meantime, I have that appointment with my surgeon I have to go to alone... and if he has to go in next week, I have to go to my pre-op alone. We're also a one car household and the pre-op isn't on a bus route. My coworkers offered to drive me, but I have to be there at 7:30am and that doesn't seem like a nice thing to ask of them, you know? So I have to get a cab/rent a car/hope he doesn't go in... and then make sure I get all the pre-op instructions right, since he'll be caring for me.

It's NOT the end of the world, but he did have the option to put it off until a date of his choosing, but he decided not to. I feel frustrated and very inconvenienced by his decisions, on top of feeling entirely miserable most of the time. :(

(edited to add: I also had all these appointments prior to his jury summonings!)


You poor BABY! That's ROTTEN! The old lady (me) thinks she would be jerking his chain right about now. If it's anything more serious than having a mole removed, he WOULD be going with me if I wanted him there, and if you're feeling miserable, I suspect it is more serious than that. If you can't or won't draw the line in the sand with the man, then please please please let your coworker take you, and stay with you, too, if she offers. :hug:
 
My countdown!

10 days until my birthday princess:
20 days until my Bridal Shower :bride: (and I get to see my sister and my baby nephew)
25 days until my package balance is due (if I decide to change to a package)
32 days until Thanksgiving (and I get to see my little brother)
49 days until Logan's Birthday!:wizard:
54 days until the end of the semester :teacher:
60 days until Christmas
68 days until my Wedding!:bride:
and 70 DAYS UNTIL MY DISNEYMOON! :lovestruc

(I could have put in all my test and paper due dates, but those aren't happy days... so I abstained)
 
OK, I need some Snowbird help!!

I just took a look at my d's college fund. Needless to say, it's LOWWWW. Talk about scary! :scared1: :faint:

This trip is for D and me; we haven't been a vacation for several years. I had planned it for last year, but cancelled it for work reasons (hers). Now with what's going on, I'm getting really close to cancelling.

Somebody, please tell me why I shouldn't!! :worried:

Thanks! :worship:
 
Dancegrrl, since the hot bath didn't work for you, may I suggest a trick I learned from the marathoners? The girls take cool to tepid soaks when they first come off the course to get the lactic acid out of their muscles. Later in the evening they might hit the hot tub or a hot bath, but the cool one definitely comes first. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. You'd think that being a dancer my entire life I should know something about being sore!

My sister lives about 1,000 miles away... it kind of sucks. My baby sister only lives about 100 miles away, but she's 6 years younger than I am, and we've never been as close. We have been bonding lately over the whole Disney thing though...
My big sister is coming in for my Bridal Shower in a couple weeks though!:cool1:

My sisters and I are all 7 yrs apart. Yes, you read that correctly. 7 years! My big sis (who just got married!) is 33 and my little sis is 19 and a soph in college. She's away at school and I always miss her. I get to see her next Sunday because she'll be playing field hockey only an hour away from here. So exciting!
 
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