I believe
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2007
- Messages
- 410
Adventures of the "Moms" Panel
- Thread starter Twende
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NicsMom1500
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2000
- Messages
- 307
Here's my info:
Facebook - Kim LaPaglia
Twitter - DisneyWorldMom
blog - http://stopamoment.typepad.com/
Just in case anyone needs a diversion while waiting for the Dream-Makers to read all 20,000 applications
worship: 
).
You saw my little man in a photo above with Justin, see him at this article when he was only 3 -
http://www.passporter.com/articles/firsttimeparents.asp
Well, I should get some things done, answer some questions from this little place called THE WDW MOMS PANEL, and start laundry before I have to get Nicolas from school.
--Kim
Facebook - Kim LaPaglia
Twitter - DisneyWorldMom
blog - http://stopamoment.typepad.com/
Just in case anyone needs a diversion while waiting for the Dream-Makers to read all 20,000 applications
worship: ). You saw my little man in a photo above with Justin, see him at this article when he was only 3 -
http://www.passporter.com/articles/firsttimeparents.asp
Well, I should get some things done, answer some questions from this little place called THE WDW MOMS PANEL, and start laundry before I have to get Nicolas from school.
--Kim
KarenP99
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2004
- Messages
- 669
Kim - are you applying again? I would think they would let you keep your spot if you wanted it. How can they possibly say no to you this year???
NicsMom1500
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2000
- Messages
- 307
No. I'm not applying again. I could not take the stress. I just meant for all of this year's applicants that it is harder going through the process knowing what is really at stake (the magical journey that the 12 of us have shared this year). Oh, and I think ALL of us would have stayed on if they had let us. It's time to share Disney magic with more moms/dads thus we will hand over our spots (but I'm keeping my tiara. ha ha). But, hey, maybe I should go fill out an application just for fun. No, I think I'll just go answer some Moms Panel questions. --KimLaura, Oh, so true. Last year I filled out my application from the heart, no editing and pressed submit. I mentioned to my dh "I applied for this Disney Moms thing". And then...forgot all about it. Much more nerve-wracking this year.
Hang in there everyone!!
Kim
Kim - you can say that again! I can remember doing the same thing...quickly filling out the app but never in a million years thinking anything more about it. I don't even think I told anyone I applied.
Then one day, out of the blue, I received an email from Disney Moms Panel and I had to read it at least 10 times to figure out what it was or why I was getting it. Still unsure, I logged on to the internet and saw all the excitement brewing - then I realized it was from the contest I entered...but mostly everyone was indicating they were rejected. So I read the email again and decided I better fill out the next 3 essays! For round 2, I spent a little more time, maybe 30 minutes.
Of course when I received notification that I was moving onto Round 3, the entire neighborhood knew with my screaming from excitement.
Anyway, thanks to all the "Moms" who are checking in...we appreciate your support and pixie dust!
Hey Bret...do you have a backup guess? Actually, I'm surprised it's still open. I did say end of day Thursday earlier in the thread...but my estimate was based on 20,000 apps/5,000 per day = 4 days.
Well, on the bright side...if they don't hit the 20,000 mark, our odds increase ever so slightly.
DISgeeksfromDC
'Just call me "Scoopy" from the Mickey Moms Club.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2007
- Messages
- 1,835
More frivolous "filler" as we await Moms Panel news:
I just spotted this story on CNN.com, and -- while it has absolutely nothing to do with the 2009 Disney Moms Panel -- it does have a nice Disney tie-in.
(It's pretty wild and a tear-jerker to boot!)
To infinity and beyond: A sparkling survival story
To infinity and beyond: A sparkling survival story
By Mallory Simon
CNN
(CNN) -- Walter Marino shouted to his 12-year-old son, Christopher, as he drifted farther away in the Atlantic Ocean.
A Coast Guard crew found Christopher three miles away from where his father was rescued.
"To infinity," the father yelled.
"And beyond," Christopher replied.
After a rip current swept the boy and his father out to sea Saturday, darkness fell, and the sound of rescue helicopters and boats grew faint until they were nonexistent.
Despite the danger, Christopher, who has autism, was enjoying himself, his father said. The boy lacks a fear of death because of his autism and finds comfort in the water, Marino told CNN.
Marino finds comfort in his son. Their unique circumstances helped keep them alive for more than 12 hours in the open ocean, Marino said.
"With many kids with autism, the thing that is so dangerous is that they have no concept of fear or fear of death," Marino said. "In this case, though, it perhaps saved him -- that and the fact that water is one of his favorite things. Whenever he goes missing or tries to run away, we can always find him near water ... even at the mall if it is just near a fountain."
Christopher was laughing as the father and son were pulled farther and farther from Ponce Inlet, Florida. As the pair lunged for buoys -- and missed -- Christopher couldn't help but giggle. It was this spirit that helped ground Marino, the father said.
"It was a big entertainment roller coaster for him, that's what got me through it -- because he wasn't freaking out," said Marino, 46.
But after four hours at sea without a life vest, and after it became obvious that rescue operations had ceased for the night, jellyfish began to sting the pair. That began to "freak Christopher out," his father said.
While Christopher is almost nonverbal in his communication, he and his father use catch phases from Disney movies, which the boy loves, to communicate.
After four hours, the currents picked up, and Christopher began to drift from his father's reach. Because of the darkness, they couldn't see each other. So Marino shouted out part of a phrase to his son.
"To infinity," Marino shouted, referencing one of Christopher's favorite lines from the movie "Toy Story."
"And beyond," Christopher shouted back, pumping his fist in the air like movie character Buzz Lightyear.
The call and response went on for a while, with Marino choosing different phrases and Christopher yelling back. But over the course of an hour, Christopher's voice faded until his father couldn't hear him anymore.
"That's when I resigned myself to the fact that he was gone," Marino told CNN, saying he believed his son had been pulled under the water. At the time, Marino said, he thought about giving up, until he thought of his daughter Angela. She had just registered for ballroom dance classes, and he told himself over and over he would live to see her dance.
"I just kept thinking about her and how I was not going to leave her without a brother and her father in the same day -- not on my watch," he told CNN. "It was the visual of her that kept me going."
Marino used other tricks to keep his mind focused in the 81-degree water. He remembered going to the Ponce Inlet museum, which highlighted a lighthouse. He then set out to use the lighthouse as a guide for himself, so he would know how far he was from shore.
He alternated doing the "doggie paddle" and floating on his back with his ears in the water, the way his son loved to.
He would float on his back and watch the bright stars. He wished on four shooting stars that flew by and used constellations in the sky to know what direction to go if he drifted away.
Under the stars and in the dark Atlantic, he turned to his spirituality, realizing his life was in God's hands. A religious medal rested on his chest.
As morning turned, Marino tried to stay alert for sounds that might mean help was near.
Hearing a boat motor, he waved frantically.
Soon, a group of fishermen pulled him aboard their boat. A flash of light from the medallion had caught the eye of one of the anglers, who shouted at his brother at the helm to stop the boat, one of Marino's rescuers told him.
The first thing Marino asked was if the men had heard anything about his son, but they hadn't.
Marino began to grieve. It had been nearly eight hours since he had last seen his son, and he believed he was gone for good. He wept.
When the U.S. Coast Guard arrived, Marino asked them, too, about Christopher, but they said they had not found him. The Coast Guard crew asked if he wanted to go to the hospital, but he decided to stay on the boat so the search for Christopher wouldn't be disrupted.
But Marino chose not to watch the water as the search went on.
"I chose to be down below, because I didn't want to see them pull up on Christopher being face-down in the water," he said.
So the Coast Guard vessel steamed on. After more than an hour, the boat went full throttle, jolting Marino backward in his space below deck. Suddenly, the boat was idling, and Marino was asked to come topside.
"That was my personal green mile," Marino told CNN, a reference to what some people call the walk on death row from the cell to the execution chamber.
"I took three steps up the green mile to the back of the deck, and they pointed to the helicopter and they said, 'You see that helicopter? It has your son on it, and he is fine,' " Marino recalled a crew member saying.
Marino was so excited he began "kissing all the Coast Guard guys."
The father and son were reunited at the emergency room at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where they were treated for dehydration.
"We were both very weak, tired and thirsty," Marino said. "But I reached out and held his hand and could tell from the same sparkle in his eye that he was going to be fine."
While Christopher can't truly communicate what he felt during those hours alone at sea, his father hopes that one day, he will be able to tell him what he felt alone in the Atlantic.
The one thing Marino knows is that his son still loves the water and that the experience hasn't taken away that special comfort from him.
"It may be a while before we go back to a beach," Marino said. "But he still loves the water. He's already gotten back in a pool."
I just spotted this story on CNN.com, and -- while it has absolutely nothing to do with the 2009 Disney Moms Panel -- it does have a nice Disney tie-in.
(It's pretty wild and a tear-jerker to boot!)To infinity and beyond: A sparkling survival story
To infinity and beyond: A sparkling survival story
By Mallory Simon
CNN
(CNN) -- Walter Marino shouted to his 12-year-old son, Christopher, as he drifted farther away in the Atlantic Ocean.
A Coast Guard crew found Christopher three miles away from where his father was rescued.
"To infinity," the father yelled.
"And beyond," Christopher replied.
After a rip current swept the boy and his father out to sea Saturday, darkness fell, and the sound of rescue helicopters and boats grew faint until they were nonexistent.
Despite the danger, Christopher, who has autism, was enjoying himself, his father said. The boy lacks a fear of death because of his autism and finds comfort in the water, Marino told CNN.
Marino finds comfort in his son. Their unique circumstances helped keep them alive for more than 12 hours in the open ocean, Marino said.
"With many kids with autism, the thing that is so dangerous is that they have no concept of fear or fear of death," Marino said. "In this case, though, it perhaps saved him -- that and the fact that water is one of his favorite things. Whenever he goes missing or tries to run away, we can always find him near water ... even at the mall if it is just near a fountain."
Christopher was laughing as the father and son were pulled farther and farther from Ponce Inlet, Florida. As the pair lunged for buoys -- and missed -- Christopher couldn't help but giggle. It was this spirit that helped ground Marino, the father said.
"It was a big entertainment roller coaster for him, that's what got me through it -- because he wasn't freaking out," said Marino, 46.
But after four hours at sea without a life vest, and after it became obvious that rescue operations had ceased for the night, jellyfish began to sting the pair. That began to "freak Christopher out," his father said.
While Christopher is almost nonverbal in his communication, he and his father use catch phases from Disney movies, which the boy loves, to communicate.
After four hours, the currents picked up, and Christopher began to drift from his father's reach. Because of the darkness, they couldn't see each other. So Marino shouted out part of a phrase to his son.
"To infinity," Marino shouted, referencing one of Christopher's favorite lines from the movie "Toy Story."
"And beyond," Christopher shouted back, pumping his fist in the air like movie character Buzz Lightyear.
The call and response went on for a while, with Marino choosing different phrases and Christopher yelling back. But over the course of an hour, Christopher's voice faded until his father couldn't hear him anymore.
"That's when I resigned myself to the fact that he was gone," Marino told CNN, saying he believed his son had been pulled under the water. At the time, Marino said, he thought about giving up, until he thought of his daughter Angela. She had just registered for ballroom dance classes, and he told himself over and over he would live to see her dance.
"I just kept thinking about her and how I was not going to leave her without a brother and her father in the same day -- not on my watch," he told CNN. "It was the visual of her that kept me going."
Marino used other tricks to keep his mind focused in the 81-degree water. He remembered going to the Ponce Inlet museum, which highlighted a lighthouse. He then set out to use the lighthouse as a guide for himself, so he would know how far he was from shore.
He alternated doing the "doggie paddle" and floating on his back with his ears in the water, the way his son loved to.
He would float on his back and watch the bright stars. He wished on four shooting stars that flew by and used constellations in the sky to know what direction to go if he drifted away.
Under the stars and in the dark Atlantic, he turned to his spirituality, realizing his life was in God's hands. A religious medal rested on his chest.
As morning turned, Marino tried to stay alert for sounds that might mean help was near.
Hearing a boat motor, he waved frantically.
Soon, a group of fishermen pulled him aboard their boat. A flash of light from the medallion had caught the eye of one of the anglers, who shouted at his brother at the helm to stop the boat, one of Marino's rescuers told him.
The first thing Marino asked was if the men had heard anything about his son, but they hadn't.
Marino began to grieve. It had been nearly eight hours since he had last seen his son, and he believed he was gone for good. He wept.
When the U.S. Coast Guard arrived, Marino asked them, too, about Christopher, but they said they had not found him. The Coast Guard crew asked if he wanted to go to the hospital, but he decided to stay on the boat so the search for Christopher wouldn't be disrupted.
But Marino chose not to watch the water as the search went on.
"I chose to be down below, because I didn't want to see them pull up on Christopher being face-down in the water," he said.
So the Coast Guard vessel steamed on. After more than an hour, the boat went full throttle, jolting Marino backward in his space below deck. Suddenly, the boat was idling, and Marino was asked to come topside.
"That was my personal green mile," Marino told CNN, a reference to what some people call the walk on death row from the cell to the execution chamber.
"I took three steps up the green mile to the back of the deck, and they pointed to the helicopter and they said, 'You see that helicopter? It has your son on it, and he is fine,' " Marino recalled a crew member saying.
Marino was so excited he began "kissing all the Coast Guard guys."
The father and son were reunited at the emergency room at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where they were treated for dehydration.
"We were both very weak, tired and thirsty," Marino said. "But I reached out and held his hand and could tell from the same sparkle in his eye that he was going to be fine."
While Christopher can't truly communicate what he felt during those hours alone at sea, his father hopes that one day, he will be able to tell him what he felt alone in the Atlantic.
The one thing Marino knows is that his son still loves the water and that the experience hasn't taken away that special comfort from him.
"It may be a while before we go back to a beach," Marino said. "But he still loves the water. He's already gotten back in a pool."
******
DISgeeksfromDC
'Just call me "Scoopy" from the Mickey Moms Club.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2007
- Messages
- 1,835
Hmmm..... I wonder what the numbers are at this point!?!
Again, I'd love to be a fly on the wall....
(Oh, and -- selfishly -- I 'sorta like the sound of your "bright side."
Improved odds = A good thing!) 
Snoopy, what a story...thank God for miracles. So glad it had a happy ending...brings new concent to "Marco!"; "Polo!"
I hope Disney sees this...or Ellen. Would be great to give them an all expense trip to Disney! I'm assuming he must be a Buzz fan and he may love the new Toy Story Mania.
I hope Disney sees this...or Ellen. Would be great to give them an all expense trip to Disney! I'm assuming he must be a Buzz fan and he may love the new Toy Story Mania.
(Oh, and -- selfishly -- I 'sorta like the sound of your "bright side."
I knew you would.
DISgeeksfromDC
'Just call me "Scoopy" from the Mickey Moms Club.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2007
- Messages
- 1,835
Ooooh, girl! I really like the way you think!
And, they should find a way to somehow tie in the Chief Magic Official, since it's sort of his duty to help make dreams come true!
[Sigh!] If only you and I ruled the World!
Hey Kristen/I believe...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
-Bret
A birthday celebration?! Yeah! Happy Birthday!!
RatBoy
Donald Duck Dad
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2007
- Messages
- 361
Take care, and be safe.
DISgeeksfromDC
'Just call me "Scoopy" from the Mickey Moms Club.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2007
- Messages
- 1,835
Hey Kristen/I believe...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
-Bret
For real?!?
Woo-Hoo! ('Hope it has been a good one!)
DISgeeksfromDC
'Just call me "Scoopy" from the Mickey Moms Club.
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2007
- Messages
- 1,835
Hang in there Julie...last I heard this might be a cat 4 when it hits. We are all thinking of you - check in when you can. Take care.
I believe
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2007
- Messages
- 410
Thanks Julie for the happy birthday wishes, you are so sweet!
The hurricane sounds scary; stay safe and take care! I will keep you and everyone in that area in my thoughts. I hope the hurricane weakens before it hits land.
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