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

[bumbershoot]

Just realized that hubby&son's Disneyland APs are now expired along with mine. Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh.

Watching High School Musical 3 right now, b/c it's on On Demand and DS likes it. But what I think is amusing is that Eamon noticed that Troy looks like "Anakin as he turns into a bad guy" in some parts of the movie.


Anyone think the HSM thing will be over by next December? Does WDW have the roving/stalking HSM thing that DCA does? Or does it stay put where you can avoid it?

 

[bumbershoot]

I feel like my concerns about when/where the cousin+family will join us are coloring my apparent excitement for this trip! But given how busy her son has been the last couple weekends with school and church, I'm guessing it's going to be more of the same next year, and I might just plan for them joining us later on.

So I'm going to go do some work around the house, thinking of all the fun things we want to do on this trip, and then come back and try to write about our excitement!



Adding....

One thing I'm excited about is what I'm already earning for the trip. I do a rewards site (two actually, but the second is merely 5 point emails at a time, so that goes slow...I expect I'll have enough on that site for a Landrys giftcard for Rainforest Cafe by the time of the trip) and I'm already close to 200, and I have about 11 months to go before cashing out for the trip. Exciting! Oh and the Disney Debit card is a slow-earner, but still, it's something. Once DH starts traveling again for his job, we *might* put the rewards program back on the credit union card in case he finds he's needing it. We canceled that b/c it was the same fee as the Disney Debit card and we didn't want to use the CC anymore, but for work, sometimes it's needed. So that wouldn't give us disney rewards, but using a "free" giftcard instead of cash for, say, clothing, means that more cash can go to the trip (or the car).

Exciting!

 

[bumbershoot]

Had a good day today...went to meet up with a friend and his kids, to meet the kids before we (as a family) watch them on NYE. Ended up ice skating at Seattle Center, rode the monorail to Westlake, went to the Carousel there, went to Pike Place Market to pick up their tree, and visited their home. LOVED the ice skating (even though an old athletic injury made itself remembered ow ow ow ow) and enjoyed their home...but the rest just kept reminding me that we're not in Disneyland, waaaah. They had some lights strung across the market and it reminded me of DCA near the Lucky Fortune area....sigh.

For anyone in Seattle, on the way down the hill from the convention center area, just up the hill and across the street from Cheesecake Factory, there's a great little streetside Crepe place! Yummo! Nutella and bananas, yuuuuuuuum.

As we went back to our car, we were extremely tempted to give up our Yule dinner money by blasting through there rest of our "family fun" money and going into the grocery money (being held aside for Yule) to have dinner and a brewskie at a McMenamins place...cooler heads prevailed (DS!) and we just got into the car and came home for dinner. Whew!


None of this has huge amounts to do with the WDW planning...but it's full of good signs of better choices, which will fill our WDW coffers while helping us pay off the car.

Realized the other day that I *could* treat my cousin and her family to a long weekend at Bay Lake Towers...could treat us to it too...could even swing a 2 bedroom if we were willing to have close quarters...then we could go cheaper with our points the rest of the time...

Best part? I would be making *that* reservation in January, instead of having to wait for *everything* to book 7 months out.

Gotta contact my cousin (or just do it...can be changed later on).

 

[bumbershoot]

Sent an email to my cousin about Bay Lake, and what weekend she's thinking about for her family.

I know that sounds like nothing, but in fact I've been working on the email for a long time! I just don't want to sound like a stressy freak about it, ya know?

 

[Brady's Mom]

Sometimes it's just hard to be the uber-planner in the group. I know, since I AM one. I get some funny looks sometimes, until we actually take the trip and then everyone is thanking me for making the trip so great and stress free.

Hooray for deciding on at least one of your places to stay. It sounds great. And good call by E. the other night about dinner and choosing to go home in order to save some money for WDW. Don't you love how pragmatic kids can be.

 

[bumbershoot]

Happy Winter!

 

[bumbershoot]

Haven't heard back from my cousin. She's busy with church and all that, so I understand. I look forward to hearing back of course, because it will let me know if I get to make our first reservations soon!

I'm now having crazy thoughts of delaying the start of the trip so that we can be at WDW over the 25th. Crazy, since we don't even celebrate the 25th. Sure, we celebrate ON the 25th, just b/c we're not willing to be that "weird", just for DS's sake, but it doesn't really matter. But it just seems like fun.

More points, though!


*********

Not at all trip related.

Hubby had an appt with a sports medicine doc today. He might have a meniscus tear in his knee. Augh. He stayed home from work all last week b/c he does quite a bit of walking for his commute, and his knee was feeling better. But the walking of his commute hurt him this morning, and then the bus stop he expected to use to get up to the doctor's office was closed, so he had to walk up the hill (he works in downtown/Pioneer Square/Int'l District in Seattle, and had to walk up to the hospitals up on the top of the hill) and of course that hurt too.

Thankfully the doc was not judgy about his weight...so many are, even when he is *blatantly* working to lose. I had to give him a big pep talk last night...if you feel judged, speak up, make sure they know you're athletic, have them look at your musculature and tell them to ignore the belly, especially with the prolactinoma, that bulk in the belly/back area LIES (if you think of a nursing woman's body holding onto squishy fat, that's pretty much what happened to him), etc etc etc. But thankfully they weren't rude at all!

And they said exactly what I'd been telling him. I have an Exercise Science degree, and I had tried to get him to do mostly cardio and NO weights early on, but he found some trainer at the Y who said the opposite, and here we are. I feel strongly that he hurt himself while getting into the leg press machine, and this trainer had him doing a 7 minute cardio warmup, an hour of weights, then 20 minutes more cardio. Even though his main goal right now is to lose weight! The gain in metabolism from working on his musculature is going to be minimal, given how much muscle he naturally has. But he got someone who knows stuff from textbooks and wasn't looking at him (or if she was looking, she was worried that he couldn't DO more cardio) and boom.

I will admit...there's been a few "I told you so" moments 'round here!

So anyway, tomorrow he goes to have an MRI on his knee, then on Wednesday the doc will have him in again to find out what is actually going on, per the scan. So fast!

Sure hope he doesn't have to have surgery, though...



So happy, I finally finished DS's baby book! It goes to and just beyond the 3rd birthday, and last night I finished filling it up with pictures and notes. There's a lot of stuff in the generic book that just don't apply for our lifestyle, so I flat out glued some pages together when I had nothing to write on them, and covered up some stock art that didn't apply. Hubby read through it as I put DS to sleep, then he wrote his "letter from Daddy" at the end, and like that it was done! Woo!

Now we can move forward, in whatever way the Universe wants us to.


We also spent the week making new stockings! Yule stockings of course. (Happy Winter again!)

I had one made by my mom. DS had one made by my stepmom. DH had one made by me, from a kit, and I obviously have NO sense of sizes, b/c it was more along the line of a tree decoration stocking.

My stocking was falling apart, DS said his was too babyish and I said it was just TOO BIG (stepmom insists that her children still "believe", she does xmas up BIG (never with me or my brother, harumph), and has a ton to put into stockings), and of course DH just needed a normal sized one.

So I made them! Hubby helped, b/c he's better with the sewing machine. It was great fun. I should take pictures.


**********
So excited for next year's trip!

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, hubby's traveling season is starting again.

It's good b/c it's what he was hired to do and these guys just sitting around in the office get bored and nervous, it's good b/c they pay to feed him and our grocery bill goes down, it's good b/c it makes me feel more confident (the start of my mothering "career" was NOT an ego boost, I was very undercut by what all happened and I've felt useless for many years, despite all of what DH has tried to tell me).

But it's sad b/c he goes away!

 

[kaoden39]

Caring for your family although not as exciting or as self fulfilling in some ways but it is still a wonderful thing to raise your son. And everything you tell us about E tells me you are doing a great job. So don't be down on yourself.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh yes, I know that, no worries. It was just the start was really rocky. I had to depend on DH much more than I ever expected. So his trips help me see that I am capable, I can even put DS to bed on my own! (bedtimes have *always* been a two-parent thing with DS...I think of my friends who have more than one kid, and especially a family friend who had triplets without trying for multiples or even A baby in any way other than enjoying some private time with her then-fiance...and I think WOW am I glad we haven't had another yet)


DH had his MRI yesterday. Today he finds out if it's a meniscus tear. Of course...travel season is starting even earlier than we thought, he has a fast but far away trip starting Saturday!


The other benefit of his trips...I book the hotels, and I go through my rewards site, and that earns money for this WDW trip!

 

[kaoden39]

And by planning it you know where exactly he will be staying and he has a say in it which is nice. I have a friend that had triplets, identical boys and they were a pleasant surprise.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yes, it's very nice.

On his first trip, he let the company book his hotel. They got him a hotel and a car.

Found out after I started researching the hotel...his hotel had a free shuttle, and was not even a *mile* from the airport. He had to take the car rental shuttle *past* his hotel to pick up his car to then drive *back* to his hotel.

And people wonder why I won't use travel agencies...this is a BIG one up here in Seattle, and his department is now researching their own flights, calling the agency, telling them exactly what flights to book. All the agency is doing is booking. That's IT. I'm hoping that soon enough we'll be able to book his flights, too. NO, I don't understand how to book a codeshare (for instance his big flight DownUnder was all "through" United, though he was only on two United planes for all 6 flights), but I also know much much better than to give him one HOUR to get from one flight to another, when you have to get through Customs and Immigration, check into your next flight, then go back through Security. By the time he hit the Qantas desk to check in to get to Canberra it was already an hour and his flight was leaving...thankfully he'd already been on the phone with them.

So we're hoping we'll be able to do his flights soon enough.


Friend's triplets are identical girls. I have never met them in person, but they are adorable, and the spitting image of their mom. I grew up with their mom; our moms grew up with each other out in upstate NY then moved out to SF in the 60s...

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh my goodness. We were on our way out to Costco for last minute food stuff. Checked the mail on the way out. Christmas money for Eamon, in the form of a check stating "fun stuff for E" and a giftcard. And so we were out for hours.... It's so much fun buying him stuff with his gift money!

 

[kaoden39]

Oh gosh I bet you had crowds every where you went. Happy Holidays.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think the parking lots were worse than being inside. Though we're not the "get to the closest spot" people, so I'll start at the back of the lot and just park. I'm not interested in fighting over a patch of concrete.

We managed to control ourselves at Costco...almost went crazy with the end of the budget for this month, but actually put those two movies away. Whew.

I couldn't believe how many took their kids to TRU on xmas eve! I thought we would be the only ones who did that. But nooooo. Definitely not alone. We spent a lot of time in the Lego section, and it was the first time we had DH's work iphone with us...my goodness were they charging a premium! There were almost no lego sets that were the same or less in the store as *anywhere* online, and we got those few sets that DS wanted. They charge CRAZY prices.

It's also amazing how many people were in the Lego section, having NO idea what they were looking for. Xmas eve, they'd done no research about the sets they were asked for!

This one lady was looking for a Batman set. This was the kid's one request. A quick wiki look shows that the line started in '06, and nothing new has been made since '08, and it's discontinued. A quick check on buying sites shows that some sets are going for over $500!

Oh and these were not people for whom internet is a newfangled invention...these were people my age, who certainly could have powered up their computers to check it out. (then again, so could the kids who were requesting these things!)

So anyway, it was a bit of a madhouse.

Heard this very Amy Winehouse looking young woman saying something like "people of my generation are very easily amused by things without, you know, harddrives attached".... That made me go "hmm", and I asked Robert in a whisper, what generation is that? is she over 50? Though in the writing, maybe she was saying that they were actually amused, as in laughing at, things without harddrives. It was very odd, no matter what.

DS now has a bike. Thank you lovely aunt and kind uncle!


Hubby is, right now, on an airplane getting ready to head off to places unknown (they just boarded). OK I know 'em, but let's not talk about it, shall we? Flight was oversold, next flight tomorrow, this is only 4 nights long, he's gotta go, got permission to buy Business Class upgrade. He just messaged me from his phone..."just got champagne, sorry you're not with me". Stinkin' companies, not paying for wives and children traveling with employees....dagnabit.

He'll be getting a couple days off when he gets back, which is nice, since he absolutely gave up his weekend for this.

But again, the agency doing his travel is just insane. On a trip like this, you do NOT book the airline that has ONE flight out per day. Another airline had 3 flights per day, and the earliest was the cheapest...they should have booked that one. But they are so into their "must book through codeshare" stuff that they can't see sanity. They saved a few bucks, but now it's cost much much more for the upgrade. Would have been much easier to book the little bit more expensive, first flight of multiple flights (just in case of being bumped) that day, flight. Although I'm intimidated by booking his flights, I think I can do a better job than their agency can!

And, of course, let me mention that January will see me buying an admission ticket for one of us for the WDW Trip! Woo!

 

[bumbershoot]

Well I still haven't heard back from my cousin. Which is fine. Ohm. She's busy. I know this. Ohm. Ohhhhhhhhhm.

But I just came across a nice idea while perusing the DVC forums. They were talking about weekends and the higher point cost, and they also mentioned they were going to Universal for Harry Potter once it's open. And someone said that instead of paying cash at DVC, and instead of the cost of finding a way to/from Universal, why not pay for 2 nights at one of the onsite Universal hotels instead?!

That gets you front of line access, and I guess it's for the day of the night you stay and the day you check out, too. That would be great! Someone else mentioned that you don't normally get FOL for new/most popular rides, but to be able to get on OTHER rides quicker would be great, giving us more time to stand in line at HP. Because we DO plan on going there, oh yes indeed.

So that's a really fun idea, and I surely do hope that my cousin tells me what week she might be thinking about, so I can start looking at deals at Universal! (doubt she'd want to go there)

 

[Brady's Mom]

Well I still haven't heard back from my cousin. Which is fine. Ohm. She's busy. I know this. Ohm. Ohhhhhhhhhm.

But I just came across a nice idea while perusing the DVC forums. They were talking about weekends and the higher point cost, and they also mentioned they were going to Universal for Harry Potter once it's open. And someone said that instead of paying cash at DVC, and instead of the cost of finding a way to/from Universal, why not pay for 2 nights at one of the onsite Universal hotels instead?!

That gets you front of line access, and I guess it's for the day of the night you stay and the day you check out, too. That would be great! Someone else mentioned that you don't normally get FOL for new/most popular rides, but to be able to get on OTHER rides quicker would be great, giving us more time to stand in line at HP. Because we DO plan on going there, oh yes indeed.

So that's a really fun idea, and I surely do hope that my cousin tells me what week she might be thinking about, so I can start looking at deals at Universal! (doubt she'd want to go there)

I love the idea of Universal. I think it is supposed to be MUCH better in FL as opposed to CA. We're actually thinking about branching out on our next DLR visit (who knows when that will be) and including San Diego and possibly Universal. It's weird to think about including the other places since we are usually so focused on DLR.

The FOL pass sounds so great. If you don't stay onsite for Universal - don't they charge for the pass? And HP - I would love to do HP!!

 

[kaoden39]

Oooh, I want to go. I love the Harry Potter books. I had a lot of fun sharing them with my kids when they were younger. And it got me so hooked.

 

[Hedy]

I like Universal a lot (it's not WDW, but nor is it Six Flags). Be forewarned-the vegetarian options there are pretty lousy. I can cope through a four night stay, but I don't have your family's allergies.

 

[bumbershoot]

The FOL pass sounds so great. If you don't stay onsite for Universal - don't they charge for the pass? And HP - I would love to do HP!!

Yeah, I just saw a post on the Theme Park board...it's something like $35 per person?

Oooh, I want to go. I love the Harry Potter books. I had a lot of fun sharing them with my kids when they were younger. And it got me so hooked.

I think it's going to be fun! They have a whole area of their website dedicated to the plans. I can't imagine how it could possibly be as cool as we WANT it to be, but it'll still be fun.

I like Universal a lot (it's not WDW, but nor is it Six Flags). Be forewarned-the vegetarian options there are pretty lousy. I can cope through a four night stay, but I don't have your family's allergies.

Ooh good point. Thank you.