10/4/08-Buccaneers Take the West! Cruiser List in Post #1

[Mrs. Gumdrop]

Hello Cruising Friends!

I can't believe I have let Life and other silly things like Work get in the way of my DIS time! Now that we are past the 75 day mark it's time I get serious about my pirate costume planning (yes my DH and I plan to the THOSE people ), door graphics, FE gifts, car plans and most importantly Trip Insurance. I can't believe I have left that last item so long! As a result I have dedicated myself to catching up on all the Buccs goings-ons that I have missed out on. Mrs. Gumdrop will be absent no more!

I hope everyone is having a beautiful summery Thursday!

 

[NZMUM]

Oh my goodness, spiders, snakes & rodents . Gives me the shivers just thinking about them. Thankfully we don't have snakes in our country, our spiders aren't poisonous and the only rodents are mice & rats, which are bad enough .

Gena, glad that Quin is better. Still praying for your uncle.

Kari - do the teachers change classroom every few weeks? Or does their classroom get cleaned. We have 4 terms but our teachers don't have to clear everything out, although they do seem toi spend most of their 2 week hloidays getting ready for the next term.

Tania

 

[karibritt01]

They actually do change classrooms every 9 weeks. The way the school works is the are (for example) 3 Kindergarten classrooms, and 4 classes, each on a different schedule (called a track.) At any point during the year, there are 3 tracks in school, and 1 on break. When the class comes off of break, they take the classroom of the class that is now on break. They go 9 weeks in class, then take a 3 week break. My kids go back on Monday, and will go on break again for the first 3 weeks of Oct.

 

[mollygirl13]

Here is Ivyland, we have spiders the size of golfballs in our basement! They are Wolf spiders (so I'm told) and are furry! Yuck!
And to top it all off, Big Girl loves to eat them! AND she is HIGHLY allergic to spider bites-so much she has 2 epi pens that we have just in case she goes after them! She has gotten bitten 2x now so I'm hoping that the third time won't happen. (We did wise up and call an exterminator) Her face swells up like a huge balloon and she already has a hard time breathing because she is a Bulldog!

I swear you can see these spiders a mile away that are so big and hairy.

 

[mollygirl13]

Hello Cruising Friends!

I can't believe I have let Life and other silly things like Work get in the way of my DIS time! Now that we are past the 75 day mark it's time I get serious about my pirate costume planning (yes my DH and I plan to the THOSE people ), door graphics, FE gifts, car plans and most importantly Trip Insurance. I can't believe I have left that last item so long! As a result I have dedicated myself to catching up on all the Buccs goings-ons that I have missed out on. Mrs. Gumdrop will be absent no more!

I hope everyone is having a beautiful summery Thursday!

Welcome back, Lauren!!

 

[momofapirate]

Kari-
Don't you just love when people decide to shorten your screen name? Annny hoooo. I am intrigued by your explanation of year-around-schools. I think this is one theory that makes so much sense. But I do have one question, if you have say the 4 classes in Kindergarten 3 on and 1 off. Say in the 2nd grade you have the same scenario. Is it possible your Kindergartner is on 2 week break, but your 2nd grader is not? If so, I could see some parents being less than happy, because you couldn't go on vacations. I am assuming that not to be true, but you know what they say about assuming?

 

[momofapirate]

Is there anyway of seeing how many cabins are still available on our sailing? I guess what made me think of it, is I was booking some flights on Delta and went to pick my seats....Wondered if you could do the same for a cruise.

 

[JanDave]

Gretta:

I don't know the answer to your question. Recently, I checked our cruise on DCL and it showed not all categories of staterooms available.

Today is my Friday!!!! Dave and I are heading to western Michigan to Saugatuck for the day tomorrow. On Sunday, we're meeting another DIS couple (fireman'swife), for lunch.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Jan

 

[dvanhazel]

Kari, sure hope your bite gets better quick! I heard someone say once that you are never more than 3 feet away from a spider at any given time. I am going to pretend that it is not true.

Now on to the rodents, I think I would prefer those to what I have here in the Arizona desert ~ scorpions! They are the only thing that I can kill and not feel one bit of guilt. Saw one the other day with babies on its back...can you say hee-bee jee-bee's? What is fun though is to go hunting for them with the black light. It is amazing how they glow bright in the darkest of nights...makes it easier to squash them! I black lighted my house one time and will never do it again. Not because of the scorpions, because I did not find any, but because of the "stuff" on the carpet and walls (especially near the toilet) that you thought were clean. I thought my house was clean...but that was just gross!

Lori, we have set glue traps too and my DH will never do it again for the same reason you mentioned. We were trying to catch our scorpions, but caught many gecko lizards (which are great for eating spiders) but it is so pitiful to see them stuck to the glue. It was traumatic for my kids too because you can not get them off without ripping them up.

Welcome back Mrs. Gumdrop and thank you again for helping me with my project

Return flights got changed again so my DH said instead of waiting around in the airport all day and then spending 6 hours flying, he would rather stay the night at WDW and take the nonstop at 7:30 AM, putting us back in AZ at 9:30 AM. Soooo, I need to find a place to stay. Any suggestions? We are staying at the POFQ upon our arrival, but would like to try a different hotel on the way out. He also said we could do WDW the day we get off the ship. I actually told him he is crazy and will regret that decision, but I am going to roll with it and get it planned!

We had meet the teacher night tonight...my kiddos start school on Monday (we are modified year round). Nothing makes the time fly by faster than the summer ending and getting into the routine of school / after school activities!

We sure are an active bunch...you would think we had nothing better to do!

 

[karibritt01]

They are Wolf spiders (so I'm told) and are furry! Yuck!

Our Wolf spiders here carry their babies on their back. The furry ones are the moma with a load of babies, and the "fur" is the babies legs. Found that out the hard way trying to swat one, and babies went EVERYWHERE!!

Kari-
Don't you just love when people decide to shorten your screen name?

My name is actually Kari Britt... so it doesn't bother me at all!!!

Is it possible your Kindergartner is on 2 week break, but your 2nd grader is not?

They guarantee siblings to be on the same track as long as they are at the same school. So this year... no worries. Next year, Tucker goes to middle school, so we will have to try to get him on our track. Hopefully it won't be an issue.

Our high schools are NOT year round... too hard with changing classes, school sports, and college entrance. So when Tucker is in High school and Avery is in elementary and middle, we will only have 4 weeks in July when both kids are out of school. That will be horrible!

went to pick my seats....Wondered if you could do the same for a cruise.

I think since you are GTY, you can not pick a cabin.

We are staying at the POFQ upon our arrival, but would like to try a different hotel on the way out. He also said we could do WDW the day we get off the ship. I actually told him he is crazy and will regret that decision, but I am going to roll with it and get it planned!

If you want another mod... we love Coronado Springs! Avery didn't at first get that we weren't going there again this year. When she realized it, she decided she was just going to go there while we were on the cruise. I asked her how she was going to go to the parks by herself, and she said... "I know how to ride the bus, Mom!" Don't you just LOVE independent 5 yr olds!

 

[momofapirate]

I already have a cabin number 6528 we aren't GTY unfortunately, because I'd love an upgrade. I was just curious to see what cabins are still available. My son just came in and saw in your siggy the jedi training session. He said "Wait a second did they get to use real light sabers. We only got to use toys.
Dvanhazel- What part of AZ do you live in? My parents used to have a winter home in Scottsdale. We really loved visiting them out there, All the kids were bummed when they sold it, then they got the beach house in FL and we quickly recovered. Now my dad has no 2nd residence since my mom died, and we are all missing having a place to escape to in the winter. His new wife is not a fan of having 2 houses, she'd rather travel and explore different places. Which is fun too, but not much good to us....Which is probably the idea. Hmmmm!
Wolf Spiders are creepy. I have always heard they are good,because they are the natural predators for the bad spiders...But to be honest not a fan of anything with 6 or 8 legs.
Let's talk about fun stuff now. My kids are OBSESSED with Wipeout! It has become our Tuesday night ritual to get jammies on, pop popcorn and we all snuggle in my bed to watch it. My kids laugh hysterically. My husband and I just crack up listening to them. I have to say, I am a laugher when people fall down. Not out of meaness, it is just a really bad and innappropriate reflex I can't control. When my kids fall I even do it. I can't help myself. Good moms are always glaring at me when it happens.

 

[karibritt01]

For all you scrapbookers... Target has some cute ribbons, papers and such in their $1 bins right now. I know it can sometimes be expensive to get a wide selection!

Gretta... I have never heard of Wipeout. What channel does it come on? My kids like watching Scare Tactics on Wed night on SciFi. It is a practical joke show where they scare the bejesus out of their "victim." Scared one girl so bad she peed her pants! Sick humor!

I pretty bummed today. We wanted to go get our passports today. We spent an hour taking pictures to get a few good ones for passports. I took them to Walgreens last night to print them, and their machine was down. Had them call the other 2 24 hr Walgreens in our area, and all machines were down for some reason. So now we can't go get the passports until next Friday.

 

[momofapirate]

Kari-
Bummer about the passports. We went in Jan, because I was terrified that for some reason we wouldn't get them in time. Well got there when the post office opened. This sloth of a lady walked out and drew a line under some names and said, "These are all the people I will get to before lunch. I come back from lunch at 2:00 PM." "If you didn't make the cut before lunch try to sign up before I quit at 4:00 PM. So basically, I sat in our post office and waited all day. She quit at 3:50 PM with the family on the list ahead of me. I almost went postal myself.
Wipeout is this reality style gameshow that has people compete on Obstacle courses and basically make fun of them when they wipeout. It is on ABC on Tuesday Nights at 8:00 PM. I am going to go TIVO Scare Tactics. That sounds right up their alley as well,

 

[karibritt01]

We had money issues after paying the deposit on the cruise, and I wasn't sure if we would have to cancel. I wanted to wait and be sure we were going before getting the passports, so as not to waste money if we did cancel. If we don't get them, we can always travel with birth certificates. I prefer not to do that because I am terrified they will get lost... ID theft or something. Now money issues again has me stressed over spending money. That's the problem with home daycare... kids leaving for pre-school or kindergarten.

 

[momofapirate]

Kari-
I never thought of that aspect of home daycare. I guess that is true. We live in a neighborhood with @300 houses mostly young families. I wish you lived near here I could make you a rich woman. That is the biggest topic, what daycare do you use and what preschool waiting list are you on. I am paranoid about losing stuff too. As soon as I got my passports I put them in the safe. I actually requested multiple copies of my kids Birth Certificates when they were born. I put one set in my safe and the other set in my Dads 9 hours away. About twice a year a make a copy of all my kids pictures on our hard drive and send them to Dad's safe too. He thinks I am nuts....Don't really care. I noticed last time we were there though he had printed off a few from the disc. So I don't think he minds alot.

 

[karibritt01]

I keep 5 kids. 1 is moving, and her last day was today. Another is going to preschool, and his last day is next Friday. Mid-Sept I will lose 2 more (broter/sister) because Mom just got her degree is medical transcription, and will be quitting work and staying home. It usually takes me 2-3 weeks to fill a spot... 4 empty spots is terrifying! I would barely be able to buy groceries! It will work out... always does... but I just hope it is soon with minimal interuption to my income!

I think Gena has passed me her life drama torch. Last night Wynn was working in the garage with the drill. It slipped and went under his thumb nail at the tip, and came out at the cuticle. He is in some serious pain right now. Between my spider bite, his accident, money worries, car repairs... I'm ready for it to be someone else's turn! But no worries, Gena... I won't pass it back to you. You've had enough stress to last awhile!

 

[dvanhazel]

Dvanhazel- What part of AZ do you live

Let's talk about fun stuff now. My kids are OBSESSED with Wipeout!

Gretta, we live in Chandler which is south on the 101 about 25 minutes. We don't go to Scottsdale very often, but it is a very nice city. I used to frequent Fashion Square alot before we got our new big mall a few years back. AZ is a beautiful place to visit Oct-April...however right now we are experiencing our normal 112 degree days of July and August. We should be getting rain this weekend which is remnants from Dolly, so that will be a nice relief.

I have no idea what Wipeout is either, but I'll be looking for it!

If you want another mod... we love Coronado Springs!

Thanks for the suggestion...I'll check that one out!

I pretty bummed today. We wanted to go get our passports today. We spent an hour taking pictures to get a few good ones for passports.

The bright side is that I hear people are getting them ridiculously fast these days...so it should not be a problem for you.

 

[momm2four]

OMGoodness Kari! You guys are having your share of problems. Maybe this marks the end of it. I'm really sorry to hear about his thumb. I can't imagine how much that must have hurt.

Only 71 more days!

I get to go on a double date tonight to Bonefish Grill. Haven't been there in a long time. I foresee some Bang Bang Shrimp in my future. Yummmm

Lori p.

 

[mollygirl13]

LAUREN (MRS> GUMDROP)
If you are reading this, I need you to email me ASAP!!!!
jacquelyn213@comcast.net

Thanks!

Jacquelyn

 

[kimmcbee]

Hope everyone had a great week. I will get more active again after summer semester is over(2 weeks) Have been very busy with the boys and work, and writting my term paper. Wish I would have finished this when I was young.
If I dont get a chance to talk sooner, have a great weekend
Kim