and we're back. [Walt, Wizards, and....Woolungasaurus?]

[bumbershoot]

I think I'm focusing so much on info I want from my cousin b/c I'm completely afraid of what comes after that! Deciding where to eat, when to eat there, what parks to go to, etc etc.

And again the refrain of "this isn't our ONLY trip we'll take there" has to come up in my head. But deep down there's this baby voice saying "but I WANNA do it all on this first trip!!!!" Shh, little voice, it's OK, don't worry.

I can't be the only one who has these conversations...right?

 

[kaoden39]

Oh I understand. I am gonna have to figure out places that are friendly to my daughter who has chosen to be a vegetarian, and her siblings that go back and forth on it. Of course ours is for Disneyland. But, that comes after ironing out all of the other plans.

 

[Sherry E]

Good - I am glad you like the quote (about celebrating Disney on Christmas Day rather than celebrating Christmas at WDW)! Use it somewhere, in something!!

I think it is good to try to cover as many bases on this trip to WDW as possible, not just because you want to see and do certain things but also because life takes many twists and turns, and that "this isn't our ONLY trip we'll take there" idea may not come to fruition when it is expected to. You just never know. I have done that before, where I think, 'Oh, I will get back to [fill in the blank] next year and can do [fill in the blank] then,' and for whatever reason, life happens and I don't get back to [fill in the blank] when I thought I would. In fact, along those lines, my very pregnant friend just squeezed in a holiday visit to WDW so that her 6-year-old son would get to have another Disney trip of some kind before they have to hunker down with the new baby for a few years (they won't take the new child to WDW or to DLR until he is at least 4 years old, I think). So I think if I am ever lucky enough to go to WD, I will try to get as much as physically possible done just in case I didn't get back there for years.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh I understand. I am gonna have to figure out places that are friendly to my daughter who has chosen to be a vegetarian, and her siblings that go back and forth on it. Of course ours is for Disneyland. But, that comes after ironing out all of the other plans.

Show her allears menus...it's pretty simple to figure out, b/c they don't hide meat or byproducts.



Robert suddenly decided to track his eating and working out! He's now a member of sparkpeople, and is paying attention to everything. I feel both: and with a little bit of , not because I'm rolling my eyes, but because now I'm sort of looking to the side, whistling, like "oh this doesn't mean I have to hunker down and get serious about it, or anything, right?????"

E had his first Homeschool PE hour today at the Y. They played basketball! And E's gymnastics teacher (not this session, it seems, because they are full) is part of it; he actually helped start the program because he was homeschooled because of his competitive gymnastics. We adore him.

It was fun to meet all these other homeschooling women...but I will admit to some silent tears during it, because I was the only one there with ONLY one child. One woman had 11 total. Another had 8, most of whom were there. And I have...one. Still. I kept wanting to hold this little baby...on my wedding day I danced with a little baby for an hour it seemed, and we called her our baby mojo...but I just met this lady and figured she'd think I was weird. He was a cutiepie little baby, too!

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh gawd, that was another waaaaah post. It gets old for me, too!

 

[Brady's Mom]

I just had to laugh - even though I have had 4 babies and have loved every minute of them - I still miss the babies!! Especially during my BIG spaces. My baby is now 5 or 21 if you want to look at it the other way and when I see the cutiepie babies I just want to squeeze them. There is nothing in the world like babies! That mommy might have appreciated you holding her baby instead of thinking you were some sort of weirdo.

Yay for homeschooling activities. I don't homeschool now - I have before, but find that Charter School works for me now - but when I did I loved the extra enrichment sort of activities that were available in my area for my boys. It made it really fun and helped us get out of the house.

 

[kaoden39]

Hey Molly there is thread of people that are Disney World regulars that we carry on a regular chat, how I ended up there I can't even remember. I have chatted with this group of ladies since 2007. They are full of wonderful advice and information about Disney World and all around great people if you are interested in visiting. Here is the link if you are interested. Anyone that wants to join a group of chatty folk here is the link. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=35000507#post35000507

 

[bumbershoot]

I now wear glasses again (though was humiliated to find out that I had only gotten to 20/30, LOL, thought I was going blind!...but the astigmatism is what is causing most of my vision floopiness) and look stinkin' adorable! Had forgotten how cute I look in them.

Got a new phone today; time for 2 year upgrade, and now have an LG Neon. Yay!

And also used my "allowance" with a coupon to get a second purse in the same style that I got at xmas, but instead of brown, I now have a green one! I love this style (Rosetti mini shopper from JC Penney, manmade not leather).


Had a good day.

OH, and we stopped at Toys R Us to get my last purchase (what the gift from my brother/SIL to Eamon got him) put onto my TRU rewards account. I messed up at the register then the employees messed up at the service desk, and long story short, THEY have to do it (we aren't allowed to do it anymore online). So while she was fighting with the computer, she also, totally surprisingly, refunded about $15 b/c of price changes from when we bought it all!

So again, a good day. And I worked out yesterday after the homeschool PE program, and today I could feel a difference in the neck/lower jaw area. WOOOOOOO!

 

[bumbershoot]

Everything has been so on hold b/c we don't know about Bay Lake, and it's driving me bonkers.

Robert has decided that I have greatly offended my cousin, and that she is fuming at me. Thanks, hubster! No worries, I'm not taking him seriously...he thought the same thing about how I behaved to my stepdad's new wife, that I was meeting shortly before my own wedding, when all I was was nervous as heck! But I was polite and kind and courteous, and had conversations with her and everything... Robert just saw that weirdly, and I think he's wrong on this one too.

But I think I'm going to start thinking about "what to do in each park". Perhaps give myself 2 days in each park, with things to do on each day. Places to see, rides to go on, places and things to eat. That kind of thing.

That'll give me a good start, don't you think?

So look for that tomorrow. After E's homeschool PE, that is...maybe I'll have a chance to hold that scrumptious little baby!



Oh, and I did have a big-heart moment last night that helped me be more OK with the current situation. E had one of his nasty leg aches in the middle of the night, though R and I were still awake, finishing up a British miniseries we have on DVD. Figured out that E's shoes are probably getting too small, b/c he ran laps before basketball, then had an hour class, and ended up with the leg ache, poor baby! So he came out, crying, from the room, and kept on crying and crying. If we had a baby in the house, I couldn't have worked my magic with the kidlet (he believes that Robert has Korean magic and I have Irish magic, but HE has Irish/Korean magic which is the best of all!) and would have had to worry about him waking a baby, etc etc etc. I was glad to be able to focus on him and him alone. So that was nice.

 

[kaoden39]

Poor guy, Loren used to have growing pains and wake up with leg pains. And there is just nothing you can do but comfort them. And I am glad you were able to be there for him.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thankfully, and oh how I wish my mom had known about it then, we've found that arnica cream helps tremendously. I found this brand called, oh gosh I always forget...something like Salmon Creek Therapeutics, and it smells yummy and helps a whole lot. When I was a kid getting horrible leg aches (still get them sometimes) *nothing* helped until I was old enough to take this crazy OTC (actually now it's behind the counter, but still non-prescription) stuff called percogesic. That helped, but also messed me up. So I really wish arnica cream had been in my mom's cabinet.

But he's generally in such pain right from his initial wake-up that he has a hard time telling us where, exactly, it hurts. There have been times where he just needs to pee, really badly, so putting arnica on his knees isn't much of a help! After that need is taken care of, if there's still crying, it takes a few minutes to get him to point to where it hurts.

Crazy followup: he didn't even remember the leg ache when he woke up! Usually he remembers, but not yesterday! Today is basketball with the homeschool group again...I hope he doesn't have the same problem. But if he does, well, next week is gymnastics so he'll get a break.


And speaking of all that, I gotta get us ready!

 

[kaoden39]

Loren still has them and it looks like I need to get some arnica. I feel so bad for him when it happens.

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

Where do you get the arnica cream? Can I find it at Walgreens and the like? It sounds wonderful and my DS still gets leg aches some nights. It was so common when he was younger, an I'd love an ointment that would help him.

Sorry about *Ethan* when it should be Eamon! My nephew is Ethan so I just had that on the brain.

 

[DLR29]

Everything has been so on hold b/c we don't know about Bay Lake, and it's driving me bonkers.

Robert has decided that I have greatly offended my cousin, and that she is fuming at me. Thanks, hubster! No worries, I'm not taking him seriously...he thought the same thing about how I behaved to my stepdad's new wife, that I was meeting shortly before my own wedding, when all I was was nervous as heck! But I was polite and kind and courteous, and had conversations with her and everything... Robert just saw that weirdly, and I think he's wrong on this one too.

But I think I'm going to start thinking about "what to do in each park". Perhaps give myself 2 days in each park, with things to do on each day. Places to see, rides to go on, places and things to eat. That kind of thing.

That'll give me a good start, don't you think?

So look for that tomorrow. After E's homeschool PE, that is...maybe I'll have a chance to hold that scrumptious little baby!



Oh, and I did have a big-heart moment last night that helped me be more OK with the current situation. E had one of his nasty leg aches in the middle of the night, though R and I were still awake, finishing up a British miniseries we have on DVD. Figured out that E's shoes are probably getting too small, b/c he ran laps before basketball, then had an hour class, and ended up with the leg ache, poor baby! So he came out, crying, from the room, and kept on crying and crying. If we had a baby in the house, I couldn't have worked my magic with the kidlet (he believes that Robert has Korean magic and I have Irish magic, but HE has Irish/Korean magic which is the best of all!) and would have had to worry about him waking a baby, etc etc etc. I was glad to be able to focus on him and him alone. So that was nice.

I'm thinking of this too! When I'm bored in class, I'll just whip out a piece of paper and create schedules for WDW! Ah, being a high school senior rocks!

Anyway, are you getting park hoppers? I highly recommend them. When we were there last time we went early to a park at rope drop, went back to our condo for a nap/lunch, and then returned to a different park for the evening. It worked great, especially to beat the crowds. I also recommend taking a whole day off because a long trip like WDW gets tiring. That's our plan for our upcoming trip. We can plan together!

 

[bumbershoot]

Arnica...you can get the Boiron brand stuff, it's more of a gel. We used that for quite awhile, and it's decent. If you have places like Fred Meyer grocery store, or if your local groceries are a bit more "liberal" in what they stock in a natural products section, it should be there. Otherwise, a health food store is going to be the go-to place.

But this is what we actually use now. A tiny dab goes quite a far way, FYI. One of the 4oz bottles generally lasts a year, and it's our go-to method of helping pain go away.

We found it at a farmer's market back in '07. We were moving to an apartment near the market, and Robert especially was so sore! We walked past their booth, and since we'd used arnica before (both as a cream and homeopathic pellet) we were drawn to it. They had a sample bottle, so I squeezed some out and put it on one of Robert's calves. By the time we had reached the end of the booth to continue on in the market, the pain in that calf had gone away. We walked right back and bought some!

Last year I ordered a bottle to be sent to my stepdad, who was about to undergo his second hip replacement. He had a lot of muscle soreness surrounding the incision area with the first hip, and he said that the arnica cream (put around the incision, once it started to heal up, NOT on the wound itself of course!) really helped with the soreness for the second hip.



Oh to be a HS senior again....actually, I wouldn't enjoy it if I had to do it the same way again. But it sounds like you have much more fun than I did! Maybe if my family had been going to Disneyland often I would have had more fun! But for some reason, San Jose to Anaheim seemed like a million miles to me then....



Eamon did not have a leg ache last night! Woo! Might have helped that they only had the "under 7s" run two laps, instead of 3. 3 might have been a bit much, considering the size of the track! He had SO much fun, and it's so neat to watch 30 or so kids from 5 to 17 having so much fun! They do split them up...under 7 and over 7.


Must go start a laundry load, then I'll start thinking of parks! If anyone reads and responds before then, you guys can choose which park I will start with.

 

[IBLarsen]

Hey Molly, I have seen your name on the DLR side of the boards as well, you have actually helped me several times! We (my family and I) have only just gone to DLR for the past two years in a row for the first time ever, and we are officially disney addicts now. We are contemplating a trip to WDW (1st time) for our next Disney trip this fall. Actually still thinking of the best time frame. Hoping they will offer the same kind of deals they did last fall. We really want to go at Christmas time, but want to avoid the crowds, so we thought we could do beginning of December, but I feel like if we pull the kids out of school (they will be in kinder and 2nd grade by then), that will make them miss a lot of school all in a short amount of time. Between them having a week off at Thanksgiving, then two weeks off at Christmas time, there is only 3 weeks of school in between. If we pull them out for 1 of those weeks to avoid the crowds then they are going to school for 2 weeks out of 6 weeks. So then I thought we would do end of October, they have no scheduled time off between the beginning of school and Thanksgiving really. AGH...what to do?! Anyways, I'm terrified of the thought of WDW...it seems so very overwhelming, which is why I have now begun to look over here, and it's oddly comforting to see familiar names from the DL side over here to plan along with! It's interesting to follow other peoples thought process, it's gets me thinking of other things I would not think about! Clearly my biggest dilemma right now is what time of year to go....I'm hoping reading the boards will give me some inspiration!

Also, one thought on your situation of wanting to rent a car to do other things. Our first trip to DLR 2 years ago, we flew into SNA and rented a car the same day and drove to the central coast (San Luis Obispo) to visit a cousin and do the beach thing, we spent 3 days there and then drove back to DLR and spent 4 days and then we were already back to the airport we needed to be at. That worked out well for us.

Can't wait to hear more details of your trip planning!
~Brianna

 

[bumbershoot]

Welcome, Brianna!

WDW scares me too. We don't have any school constraints since we homeschool, and now that DH isn't in customer service anymore we don't have to avoid holidays, but my cousin's son is in school, so we're impacted! It can't be easy to figure out; I wish you lots of luck in working it out! I think the first place to start would be finding out the school's thought-process on taking kids out for vacation!

For us, we just want to minimize our chances of broiling, and we have to have the money to go. And we have to go during our 2010 DVC use year, which means before Feb '11. And I want to see the xmastime lights, so that means Nov/Dec '10. Kinda narrowed it down!

 

[bumbershoot]

Ahhhhh.

Did some laundry, folded some (bit my own finger somehow while working on a fitted sheet), and then Robert took Eamon off to Home Depot, to help a carless friend find something there.

And then I found a bill marked with the where'sgeorge mark, and got to enter it in. That's a website where, for fun, you can track paper money that comes into your hands and then you spend.

*************************

Epcot is mentioned above. I'm going to try to not type that too often, b/c It comes out very strangely when I don't correct all errors. eptock, etpock, and so on. I'm a relatively good typist, except for that word! And, though of course there's no way for you to know this, except for when typing *about* Epcot! Weird.


I saw some posts on the Theme Parks forum about the Kim Possible adventure, and noticed that our Diser bradk had a page dedicated to it here.

There's a blip about it on the latest planning DVD, and E really likes watching it (almost as much as he likes watching the preteens (I refuse to use "tweens") roam around the park in the kids section of the DVD.

Here is what I have learned from stitchkingdom:

"The Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure is a new technology-based interactive in-park game at Epcot's World Showcase. Guests enlist with Team Possible and are dispatched to a country within the World Showcase where Disney Channel's Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable need their assistance to thwart the evil plans of a super-villain and save the world. No big."

"There are no age minimums or maximums".

You first sign up at one of "three recruitment centers: one in either Innoventions building as well as one in the World Showcase plaza area between Future World and World Showcase," or if you're there after 11am there are "three additional field stations: One right on the border of Norway on the Mexico side, one right past Italy on the American Adventure side and one next to the United Kingdom pavilion on the International Gateway side."

You sign up, get a FP type of ticket, and then later, at the time stated on the ticket, you go where it tells you to go to pick up the "Kimmunicator" and then start the mission.

This is interesting. All but 4 countries have missions. With the question about what about those other countries, the site states "Definitely not for Morocco. Although it's a prime candidate for the game, Morocco is the only pavilion to be government sponsored and the King of Morocco has explicitly said no to the project because of the installation of the electronics required to support it."

I had no idea that the actual king has a say! Wow!


It sounds like so much fun.

 

[teacherlisa1978]

Ahhhhh.



Epcot is mentioned above. I'm going to try to not type that too often, b/c It comes out very strangely when I don't correct all errors. eptock, etpock, and so on. I'm a relatively good typist, except for that word! And, though of course there's no way for you to know this, except for when typing *about* Epcot! Weird.


I saw some posts on the Theme Parks forum about the Kim Possible adventure, and noticed that our Diser bradk had a page dedicated to it here.

There's a blip about it on the latest planning DVD, and E really likes watching it (almost as much as he likes watching the preteens (I refuse to use "tweens") roam around the park in the kids section of the DVD.

Here is what I have learned from stitchkingdom:

"The Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure is a new technology-based interactive in-park game at Epcot's World Showcase. Guests enlist with Team Possible and are dispatched to a country within the World Showcase where Disney Channel's Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable need their assistance to thwart the evil plans of a super-villain and save the world. No big."

"There are no age minimums or maximums".

You first sign up at one of "three recruitment centers: one in either Innoventions building as well as one in the World Showcase plaza area between Future World and World Showcase," or if you're there after 11am there are "three additional field stations: One right on the border of Norway on the Mexico side, one right past Italy on the American Adventure side and one next to the United Kingdom pavilion on the International Gateway side."

You sign up, get a FP type of ticket, and then later, at the time stated on the ticket, you go where it tells you to go to pick up the "Kimmunicator" and then start the mission.

This is interesting. All but 4 countries have missions. With the question about what about those other countries, the site states "Definitely not for Morocco. Although it's a prime candidate for the game, Morocco is the only pavilion to be government sponsored and the King of Morocco has explicitly said no to the project because of the installation of the electronics required to support it."

I had no idea that the actual king has a say! Wow!


It sounds like so much fun.

Love, love, love Epcot! It wears me out completely-you think, 'I'm just going to stroll around World Showcase and enjoy all the little touches, stop for a latte or a rice cream in Norway along the way' (and this, that and the other, too...) and it will just wear you out, but I love every minute of it. I love the UK area-and the gardens in the Canada area. Everytime I go I decide that we simply must get to Victoria to see Butchart Gardens...it hasn't happened yet but I'm dying to go. Love Norway, too. For some reason that's the country I remember best from my visits when I was with my family, growing up. Glad they still have the rice creams-my favorite treat!

After getting back from Disneyland last month and my niece and I sitting on the couch Christmas morning talking about going to WDW all I want to do now is plan that trip. I've been jotting notes. Can't wait to hear your Epcot plans.

 

[ty&brenmom]

I love Epcot!!!! Our last trip we spent almost three full days there, and did not see/do everything. Kim Possible is so much fun, and my sons and I loved locating all the clues. We only did Mexico, because I dropped off the Kimcommunicator off in the box, instead of doing another mission. When we went to get another ticket for the missions there were no more available. We never got to try it again, to the disappointment of both my sons, almost a year later they still talk about the mission in Mexico and how they wanted to do it again.