My TA will be SO glad when Nov gets here- An attempt at a Nov '12 PTR

[starann]

JOining in!!!

Adopting a 16yo!!!!! WOW, I hear of so many who adopt young kids, but good for your family for adopting an older child!!!!! (esp a teen girl, we raised my teen neice for 3 years and it was HARD!)

I feel a little lost...is DH or you military? When you get some time maybe some intros...fav chara and so on?!?!?!?

 

[PixiePrincesses]

JOining in!!!

Adopting a 16yo!!!!! WOW, I hear of so many who adopt young kids, but good for your family for adopting an older child!!!!! (esp a teen girl, we raised my teen neice for 3 years and it was HARD!)

I feel a little lost...is DH or you military? When you get some time maybe some intros...fav chara and so on?!?!?!?

Welcome!

If she hadn't been family, we never would've done it. It has been super hard, especially when none of my friends have teens, I'm like the guinea pig!

I completely forgot that y'all don't know me, lol!! Tony, my brother, is military. I'll definitely give bigger, better intros in my next post. Thanks for the input!!

 

[PixiePrincesses]

I can't come up with anything else to tell about us. lol I'm not sure what people will want to know.

Today, we're 99 days out!! We started Dinner & a Disney Movie nights tonight. I've got 15 planned for every Tuesday with the last Tuesday being the night before we leave. Makes the countdown seem a little more bearable when I can say, "Only x movie nights left before we leave."

Tonight we had Monsters, Inc. Night with Boo's Baby Meatloaf, Mike's Mashed Potatoes & Sully Sauce.

Now, Olivia's trying to watch the movie & Malynn's terrorizing the house! Somehow it came down to just the 3 of us at home tonight.

The movie theme nights came from herehttp://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1707141

 

[PixiePrincesses]

So I mentioned earlier that Tony is our resident Military person and my copilot on this trip. Well, his OCD kicked in yesterday.

I sent him a friendly reminder text letting him know how much he still owed on the trip and when it was due. 2 hours later I get a reply saying "quick, what's the reservation number?" After a few texts back & forth- him asking questions and me answering them- and another 2 hours, he finally calls me and keeps me on the phone for 2 hours going over our itinerary, pros/cons/price difference of free dining vs military discounts, and departure time. Oh yea AND he mentions that when he called Disney and gave my reservation number to the CM, his system says my reservation is no longer valid due to nonpayment!!!!!????!!!

After our 2 hour phone convo, I emailed my TA, slightly panicked about the nonpayment issue, especially since I've paid off at least half of my trip. A few hours later, I couldn't take it anymore, I had to call my TA! I hated to bother him on a Sunday evening, but the fate of my Disney trip was at stake! He reassured me that my reservation was indeed intact and promised to double check. Whew!

I talked to TA around 5pm and then went on to tend to my motherly duties. Fast forward to 11:40, I'm half asleep when I get a text from Tony asking if I'm still up. (He's 2 hours behind me, so it was still early for him.) It took everything I had to not answer him and start another 2 hour Disney conversation. DH would have killed me!

When I woke up this morning, somehow I already knew I had an email from Tony, but I wasn't expecting to find out he sent it at nearly 3am. Obviously he was up half the night going commando on my beloved, color coded, spreadsheet. He "made it easier to read," meaning he took away all the pretty colors I'd used. Boo! He also made an alternate version of the spreadsheet with his ideas, and a 3rd tab with a pricing breakdown of FD vs Military. Here we go, itinerary #....4!? I think...

I'll post pics of my sheet & the 3 he made, next post.

 

[PixiePrincesses]

My pretty spreadsheet

His "easier to read" version

His take on our itinerary

The price comparison

Oh yea, over the weekend, I found a couple of great deals at JCP!

$5 toddler pajamas

$3 Mickey shirts for Olivia & Malynn for AK

 

[vleeth]

I think I'm glad no one in my family likes to plan. I don't know how I'd take it if my brother changed my spreadsheet!

 

[PixiePrincesses]

I think I'm glad no one in my family likes to plan. I don't know how I'd take it if my brother changed my spreadsheet!

I was somewhat offended, especially after he made his own with what he thinks we should do. After another lengthy phone discussion, we've decided to do a mash up of both our plans, and we added another "new to us" restaurant to the plan.

 

[PixiePrincesses]

I've had late night 1+hour conversations with Tony about our schedule the last 2 nights. And I've probably got 15ADRS booked for our 7 day trip, when 2 of those 7 days are travel days! lol We're not using all of those ADRS, and we already know which ones we're canceling, but we're not quite ready to cancel anything yet. Now I'm thinking DH will be SO glad when November gets here!

 

[vleeth]

I think we'll all be glad when November gets here...we're going to Disney!!!

 

[PixiePrincesses]

I think we'll all be glad when November gets here...we're going to Disney!!!

Amen!

 

[momjeeps]

Love your PTR. Mostly because it makes me feel more human with my Disney planning obsession!

Your spreadsheet is quite obviously feminine and your brothers looks like a military man picked the colors. BORING! But tidy.

It does sound like you all are coming to some good compromizes. Have fun!

 

[PixiePrincesses]

I've got to get all my planning out now. If knowing there are only 13 Dinner & Disney Movie nights left isn't enough to build excitement, there's so much going on nearly every weekend between now & departure day that I'm about to lose all my planning time.
Taylor & Olivia are both officially back to school. Which means dancing 3x a week starts next week.
This Sunday is Taylor's Adoption Party.
Labor Day weekend we're going camping
The following weekend we're going to visit my sister & niece in AL
The 3rd weekend in Sept it's my mom's birthday and I think Tony will be here for a visit
The last weekend in Sept is Taylor's Homecoming dance
1st weekend in Oct is Taylor's birthday
The following week is SIL & my dad's birthdays
2nd weekend is Malynn's birthday
That following week, the big girls are out of school
Halloween
2nd weekend in Nov is DH's birthday
Then we're Disney bound!

Whew! I'm exhausted just typing all that!

 

[disneychic2]

Hi! I came over from the November thread as well. Sounds like you've got everything pretty well handled. Is your 16 year old excited about going? Sometimes at that age it's hard to impress them. How's it going being the Mom of a teen all of a sudden?

 

[PixiePrincesses]

Hi! I came over from the November thread as well. Sounds like you've got everything pretty well handled. Is your 16 year old excited about going? Sometimes at that age it's hard to impress them. How's it going being the Mom of a teen all of a sudden?

She's more excited than i expected. She & Tony get along wonderfully so they'll be trip buddies, making the trip even better for her. Going from a preschoolers mom to preschooler & infant to school age, toddler & teen has been a whirlwind! I'm the 1st of my friends & family with a teen, so i'm the pioneer and example for everyone else. We've finally settled in pretty nicely, though.

 

[PixiePrincesses]

Oops! I got swept up in my everyday life and abandoned this report!! I'll be back tomorrow with a few updates. Promise!

 

[PixiePrincesses]

So, let's try to revive this thing!

The last month has flown by! We've had a few Dinner & a Disney Movie nights, a "hurricane," a few roadtrips, and a few accomplishments on the Disney front.

Our 2nd Dinner & a Disney Movie night, Grammy came to sleep over. We watched A Bug's Life and had Flik's Fried Chicken, Princess Atta's Potato Salad, and Dot's Dirt Dessert.

The girls loved the dessert

I think the worms were Malynn's favorite

 

[PixiePrincesses]

Our 3rd Dinner & a Disney Movie night was The Little Mermaid with Ursula Dogs served on a bed of anemone, goldfish, Mermaid Bananas, & Fishbowls for dessert.

 

[PixiePrincesses]

Malynn is obsessed with Minnie these days. And pictures. I was "packing" some of our Disney stuff and found a Minnie ear headband I'd bought for her MONTHS ago. She insisted I put it on her and she spent the better part of the morning wearing it.

I've had to hide Olivia's 1st Trip Scrapbook. Malynn was climbing on the kitchen table to get it every time I left the room! But ohhhhh how she LOVES flipping through the pages shouting out the names of everyone she recognizes.

I made the girls a Disney Dollars chart, complete with Mickey Money, hoping I could talk them into doing extra chores in exchange for souvenir money. Yea, that worked for 2 days and now that school is back in full swing, they've completely abandoned that idea!

I know they've been brief, but these last 3 updates were brought to you by Taylor's 8pm dance class! I'll be back soon!

 

[disney mom of 6]

Hello, Joining in from the November thread. My hubby is not the biggest disney fan either. He is going but only for the food. He actually had my daughter make a chart of just the dates and times he gets to eat. Ha Ha!

Congrats on the adoption. I think its wonderful you did that. We have all age ranges with our kiddos. 26yrs down to 10mos.

I am the planner and very controlling I would not be happy if someone changed my spreadsheet. Its nice that you guys are able to compromise and have fun. My brother goes to Disney every year and never has a plan it drives me crazy.

I'll be reading along.

Tammy

 

[PixiePrincesses]

Hello, Joining in from the November thread. My hubby is not the biggest disney fan either. He is going but only for the food. He actually had my daughter make a chart of just the dates and times he gets to eat. Ha Ha!

Congrats on the adoption. I think its wonderful you did that. We have all age ranges with our kiddos. 26yrs down to 10mos.

I am the planner and very controlling I would not be happy if someone changed my spreadsheet. Its nice that you guys are able to compromise and have fun. My brother goes to Disney every year and never has a plan it drives me crazy.

I'll be reading along.

Tammy

Welcome!! The food chart is funny!

Thank you, i could strangle her some days, but she's definitely my daughter. We're so much alike it's scary.

We really only plan which park when and where we're eating that day, but my brother has no children, so his version of the plan was tailored more to adults. Go, go, go, late dinners, etc. Luckily, he realized afterward that we had to follow my younger girls' schedule, at least a little bit.