12/09/06 Cruise Continued ~ Pirating Bananas DIS Geekorama Part 2 Part 2

[kimerinc]

We are back from WDW. Thankfully we had a very good time. The trip went smoothly, we had good weather and the kids even behaved themselves part of the time.

I have a ton of laundry, etc. to catch back up on. I also have almost 3500+ pictures DH took to sort and edit. I think it will take me a while to get to them all. Unfortunately I am wanting to make some Christmas gifts from them so I will have to get to it.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know many of you are already in WDW right now or headed there soon. I hope we left some good weather behind for you. I will check in later!!!

You deserved a great vacation Becka!! I am so glad everything turned out well!

 

[kimerinc]

ok ok call me a sap...

I was sitting last night watching POTC 3 just thinking how this time last year i was watching POTC 2 and ironing bandanas.....

so i have to post both an old pic.....and a new pic....

Kristina, Good to hear from you1


Joy, sounds like it definetly was an electromagnet.

 

[kimerinc]

We are having a great time at WDW!!! We do have a need for some prayers though. I know I can count on this group to get that going. You may have seen the flooding in the Northwest. My niece, who is here with us, got a call from her friend that is watching her house and when the **** broke it put her house under at least 4 foot of water. She lost everything to the floods in 1996 and now has to do it again. She does have flood insurance, so finacially she will get help, but the trauma of seeing all your things covered with mud, yet again, is devasting . She shed some tears on Monday, filed her claim yesterday, and then decided to just put it aside and deal with it when she gets home a week from Sunday. We would really appreciate prayers for her for strenght to deal with this again.

Prayers on the way!

 

[87Heel]

Happy Cruise Anniversary to us!

 

[becka]

Happy Cruise Anniversary to us!

Thanks Marielle! Happy Cruise Anniversary to you as well.

We are having a very far cry from one year ago. We are in the middle on an ice storm and we actually lost power for almost 4 hours this morning. Thank goodness the power came back on because it was getting cold in here. What I wouldn't give to be getting on the ship right about now instead of stuck in my house surrounded by ice. The ice storm ends later today but they are calling for round 2 to begin tomorrow night into Tuesday. Yay!

I just finished up our dining reviews from our trip. It always takes longer than you think it will but it was fun. We ate pretty well...gotta love that dining plan.

I still don't know what to do about next year. I don't want to cancel our Dec '08 cruise just yet but I don't want to get my hopes up. My boss seems pretty anti-vacation right now because work has been so crazy. I guess we will just have to wait until this summer to see what is going to happen.

We looked at summer 2009 but we can't afford a 7 day at summer rates. We saw a 4 night in August '09 before school starts for $2700 in a Cat 10 that we might be able to do but I really am not crazy about cruising or visiting WDW in August - especially for that cost. I thought about putting a deposit down on the 4 night just in case but it is a bad time to put out another $800 to DCL. We also are looking at just going back to WDW in early June '09 for a week. At this point that may be the best choice but I was so looking forward to an Eastern cruise on DCL. I will just have to wait and see what is going to happen.

 

[lbgraves]

We are having a great time at WDW!!! We do have a need for some prayers though. I know I can count on this group to get that going. You may have seen the flooding in the Northwest. My niece, who is here with us, got a call from her friend that is watching her house and when the **** broke it put her house under at least 4 foot of water. She lost everything to the floods in 1996 and now has to do it again. She does have flood insurance, so finacially she will get help, but the trauma of seeing all your things covered with mud, yet again, is devasting . She shed some tears on Monday, filed her claim yesterday, and then decided to just put it aside and deal with it when she gets home a week from Sunday. We would really appreciate prayers for her for strenght to deal with this again.

Oh, Angie. I hadn't gotten access since my last post so I had no idea about this when we saw you on Friday night. I am so sorry that your niece is going to have to deal with this but on a positive note...she couldn't be in a better place as an option for sleeping than the Magic. Hopefully being away a bit will help her to avoid some of the waiting for the clean up to be started.

 

[lbgraves]

Hey there geeks! Coming back to reality after a week at the World has been especially harsh since our CC company flagged the account for fraudulent activity...charges in another state and we didn't return the message that was left on our AM at home...go figure since we were in WDW! OY BOY! Mike couldn't use the card (the only one we take with us and ever use) when he stopped to fill up the car and we were checked into a hotel last night...thankfully on points...or we would have had to get to an ATM and pay fees to get to our money. I was livid. The first idiot I talked to had no intonation in his voice at all and then blind transferred me to CS who couldn't do a darn thing for me. I finally talked to a sup and asked him if we were just SOL about not being able to use the account and not having another card to use and he said "Yes ma'me. I have never had a company say that to my face. He wouldn't offer to overnight a new card to us at the hotel or anything...this after 15 years with them. We are not going to be using them anymore and after we get our next rebate check they are out of here! I also found out that the charges that WDW tried to run through that day were denied and noone was in the billing department to talk to. Somehow the charge was approved at 11:30 pm last night but the sup couldn't do anything at 10:15 pm for me when I told him I wanted that charge accepted because it was ours.

Anyhow, our other cards are now activated that I had at home for discounts and we will be using them now.

The week was perfect aside from the ending. It was amazing to see so many fellow geeks this week and it didn't seem like it had been a year since we had last been together.

We finally get the gas tank installed tomorrow morning so the logs should be put to good use here since the house was freezing when we got here today. The outdoor decorations were blown around a bit but they are now resecured and the laundry has been started.

I don't want to get up at 7 am tomorrow morning. WAH!!!!!

 

[kimerinc]

Sounds like you had a blast despite the stupid CC company. They are so awful!

kim

 

[lbgraves]

Kim, the only thing that would have made Kaitlyn happier is having Savannah there. She asked me when she was coming a couple times.

 

[Jhalkias]

Tired from travel today, and we are home from WDW.

Had to post this picture though.

Geek Reunion at AKL, with dinner at Boma. It was so great to see everyone who could make it!

 

[Jhalkias]

Of course, this is what happens when you use the person in the lobby as a photographer. Poor Haley lost her head on John's shoulders. I tried as best as I could to correct the rest, but far from perfect.

Hopefully it came out better from one of the other cameras.

 

[Jhalkias]

Here's Sophia with Kaitlyn, Isabella, and William at dinner on Thursday night.

 

[lbgraves]

Oh no!!! We were supposed to be chomping for Vanessa's camera. OY! LOL! Great picture none the less. Dennis had a great group shot...or I thought so at the time. We'll see when he gets back from the.....cruise.

 

[87Heel]

Your pictures make me smile!

Hope Becka and family are OK with all of those ice storms.

 

[becka]

Love the pictures...I so wish we could have been there. I am sure it was a really fun night. I can't believe how much the kids have all grown. A year makes such a big difference.

We are surviving here in Missouri but we are really tired of the ice. Thankfully we have kept our power since it came back on Sunday afternoon so that helps. School has been cancelled these past 2 days so DH has been home with the kids and I think they are starting to drive him crazy. We are just above freezing today so hopefully some of this ice will start to melt. They are saying we could get some more tonight but not as bad as it has been and we should be above freezing again tomorrow during the day.

The bad weather has prevented me from getting some of my Christmas shopping done. I feel like now I am going to be in a mad rush to get everything done which takes away from the fun. I have to get everything for my family ready so I can get it mailed out by early next week. Hopefully this weekend we will have better weather so I can finish up.

I did stop by TRU last night after work and bought both kids bikes and a few more items for Allie. I think we are just about done shopping for them with the exception of maybe 1-2 more smaller items each. Santa is bringing DS a red Optimus Prime transformer bike and DD is of course getting a Princess bike. I think they both will be so excited. I can only hope that we don't have snow or ice on Christmas day or they will be riding them in the house.

 

[lillygator]

Becka - how are things with Nathan and school going?

 

[lbgraves]

I did stop by TRU last night after work and bought both kids bikes and a few more items for Allie. I think we are just about done shopping for them with the exception of maybe 1-2 more smaller items each. Santa is bringing DS a red Optimus Prime transformer bike and DD is of course getting a Princess bike. I think they both will be so excited. I can only hope that we don't have snow or ice on Christmas day or they will be riding them in the house.

It sounds like you are all ready, Becka! I should get some things wrapped this morning while work is slow. Don't you always ride your bike in the house Christmas morning? We did.

 

[becka]

Becka - how are things with Nathan and school going?

Things seem to be going better. We have had a few minor incidents with him not listening, etc. but nothing major since DH and I got involved. I guess that is just proof that perhaps we could have dealt with the situation earlier in the year if we had just been notified, huh? We are getting daily reports from his teacher and that really seems to help. If he knows we are going to know everything that happens he seems to behave better. In return for good behavior he gets to play computer/Playstation games at home and that is something he really, really wants.


Lisa - I am mostly ready for the kids but I have not bought anything else for anyone including DH. That is what is starting to freak me out. I also have not done Christmas cards yet this year and I don't know if they will even get done at this point.

 

[lillygator]

I don't have a thing for anyone for xmas.....!

 

[87Heel]

Everyone must be busy with the Christmas/holiday of your choice shopping/baking/card-writing! Or some are suffering from post-vacation catch-up on life, I guess!

Hope all are well!