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

[Silly Little Pixie]

Yay for the Passporter!! It's my very favorite. I have my 2008 one, pocket pages written in and all. I love browsing them over and over!

Used it again in 2009 and will again in 2010. I've lent it to friends going to the World as well. It is well loved! It was a good value, easy to use, and handy to carry in my backpack. Loved the included maps of the parks, and maps of where all the hotels, etc are located.

Good for you for getting organized!! It feels good, ya? I have lots I need to do...you can inspire me!

 

[kaoden39]

I have a Disneyland Passporter. It isn't as complete as the Disneyworld ones from what I understand but I love it.

 

[bumbershoot]

Basking in the Passporter love.....



Don't you hate being in the *middle* of organizing? It's so messy! Much messier than when everything is just in one big pile. Disheartening.

Plus, E has 4 days of classes at the Y again this session, and I'm finally starting to meet acquaintances that might become friends, so there's extra time spent at the Y talking. (yay!) But that's less time at home to make my space neat!

Since I'm the record/money keeper, the planner, etc, I have to stay on top of things, but it's just hard.

In the "back to school" sales, I bought several cheapie binders from, well, wherever had really excellent cheapie binder sales. So now, instead of keeping those things in files, which has never ever worked for me (once they go in a file, they are gone like in the basement of the department of antiquities building in Indiana Jones), I'm keeping them in binders. I even got to buy a hole punch and stapler during those same sales. I looooove office supplies. And also, I bought a rubber stamp with the turny things with many options and date options. I use it for E's learning work, because writing the date on pages is just so annoying; stamping is more fun.

But I could use it for bills, too.

So I have a binder for the current insurance year's stuff (EOB, bill, receipt), I have a binder of lab results for Robert, binder for car and DVC payback, etc.

Then I have miscellaneous that I need to find places for, and that's where I'm stuck o rama!

Not to mention, I'm going to have to re-pre-evaluate a bunch of CDs, because it's now pretty much too late to get the items to the places in time. Grr. I was about to wrap them up the other night when I realized I hadn't checked the CD cases, and several of them need to be switched out. Right now we just cannibalize the cases of CDs we haven't gotten ready to sell, but it's still time consuming.

I'm also in the middle of figuring out if we should stay the course with our insurance plan, or move to the fancypants plan (high premium, have to have referrals, but ONLY pay a copay and that's IT), or move to the high deductible. The latter has frustrated us when we've used it before, but I've been analyzing the past EOBs and bills, and realized why it has frustrated us. It might be the best option, even though we know that with Robert's stuff, we won't be rolling over any funds to the following year. Plus, amazon does this interesting form of a high ded plan, where they give you half of the deductible, just plunked into the account. So first you spend that, which you haven't paid for at all, then the same amount out of pocket, and then you get "into" the insurance plan.

So I'm analyzing it all, figuring that the coming insurance year will be about the same as the last one, with Robert and hopefully with us, etc etc etc.

Exhausting!


And while I'm in the middle of all of this, Robert's now decided to start talking WDW! The past few months, it's all just been "yeah, that's good, you're in charge", and now that my brain is just waiting until we're closer to the 7 months booking period for non-home-resort DVC stuff, and it's wading through this *other* stuff, he's now into WDW.


OK, enough whining/talking. Gotta do some work.

 

[kaoden39]

How exciting that Robert is getting into the planning. I am trying to nail Scotty down in the planning for June and he just says, "oh whatever you decide honey this is your trip." I won't even tell you what I think.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh you don't have to tell me; I've probably had similar feelings!

One of the feelings is...."this is starting to feel like a SOLO trip to me!"

No really...

I think one of the problems is that he just hasn't known enough about the place. I think he is going to be very surprised by how different yet the same MK is going to feel, while I'm totally anticipating feeling a bit dizzy by it. But every time we watch a travel show about it or watch a planning DVD, he gets more of a handle on the place.

And of course he does have to remind me about what he (and DS) like, how they like to travel. He keeps on talking about days off and such, and I gotta tell ya (I already told him) it's making me want to do a day off even LESS! Which is completely stupid and babyish of me; I want to swim, I am always sad when we don't swim, I want to have a drinkie by the pool and watch DS on the water slides b/c he'll be a really good swimmer by then, if his recent progress is anything to go by, and also b/c FL laws are different than CA laws, and even if he needs a life jacket, from what I've read, he can still go down the slides.

I just don't want to be reminded to plan for those days off, especially when I've even talked about those days! Grump grump grump.


A lovely (er, should say handsome as it's a guy) and kind dis'er exchanged maps with me, so I have a set of WDW maps! I haven't looked at them yet, b/c it's just too exciting for me! I want to show the family, but especially with the Olympics, it feels like we have even less time than normal to talk about things.



Brag alert!

We were at homeschool PE class, and this week is a unit in swimming. So it's a homeschool mom in the very shallow pool with the littler kids, and everyone's having fun. I noticed how much better E is doing, I mean, it's night and day just from the last time he was in the pool!

So I'm noticing, and the other mom is noticing, and yay, DS's first swim teacher was there on guard duty. Since it was mainly classes happening (built in watchers) she didn't mind casually chatting, and she just had a baby, gave him an Irish name and he's a redhead, talked about her Mickey Mouse earrings (she loves disney but never gets to go because of $$), and while watching E, I thanked her for being his first teacher, and how so much of his learning to swim is because of her.

Well...that was a good thing to say to her. She really appreciated it.

I mentioned that I'd been thinking of a private lesson or two, to help him with how to hold his breath under water, so that he didn't come up gasping and sputtering, but just in the last week he had done so much better.

And then...here comes the brag...she said that she doesn't usually give private lessons, but if we ever wanted to, that she would give lessons to him, because of how much she liked him in class. Isn't that just the most wonderful?


And then I realized that night that his current teacher (when he went up a level and the first teacher went on maternity leave) is his first teacher's sister! No wonder we like her too, because they are VERY similar! Just not similar enough for me to realize they were sisters.

 

[bumbershoot]

Ach. Grief is a funny thing.

You're going along, all happy and joyful, and then as you go through your stack of junk on the desk, you come across a bit of envelope with the address label. The one with your stepdad and mom's names, with their old address.

And then, again, you remember...this time, I remember that it's just under a month until it's the 10 year anniversary since my mom died...

And then you wonder if you might actually die from the pain in your heart (not your real heart...I'm not having an MI...the poetic heart).

And then I remember the words told to me by a patient of mine at the time. That the grief will never really lessen, when it hits, it will still be as hard. But the time between the moments of grief will lengthen. And it's so true.

Just right now, it's hard, because I'm so in tune with anniversaries of things. So the moments are happening quite a bit.

Dagnabit.

 

[kaoden39]

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks.

And then, to just pile on to my mental state, while cleaning up (doing a good job) I found the insurance/bills/etc and also the "midwife" notes from when E arrived. I thought the bills were bad enough (I'm fairly certain that the bills we paid to the collection agency were actually bills we were NOT supposed to be liable for, crap crap crap!), but the notes were horrible. Oh the lies. She describes "leaving M and R alone" when actually she was having a MASSIVE tantrum and REFUSED to come back in the room until I, the one laboring, had apologized to her.

I couldn't finish reading it. I broke out in hives just reading what I read of it. Started feeling faint.


I'm soooooo not over it. Crud. I want my mommy.

 

[kaoden39]

Thanks.

And then, to just pile on to my mental state, while cleaning up (doing a good job) I found the insurance/bills/etc and also the "midwife" notes from when E arrived. I thought the bills were bad enough (I'm fairly certain that the bills we paid to the collection agency were actually bills we were NOT supposed to be liable for, crap crap crap!), but the notes were horrible. Oh the lies. She describes "leaving M and R alone" when actually she was having a MASSIVE tantrum and REFUSED to come back in the room until I, the one laboring, had apologized to her.

I couldn't finish reading it. I broke out in hives just reading what I read of it. Started feeling faint.


I'm soooooo not over it. Crud. I want my mommy.

What a beastly person she sounds like. I cannot stand people like that. Oh and what a professional.

 

[bumbershoot]

It was so horrible. I wasn't treated well at the hospital either, my story literally takes HOURS to tell in its entirety, but I knew that I didn't trust hospitals, ya know? It wasn't as big a blow. I generally call her the "hired help" when speaking of the "midwife". And at the end, she KNEW she'd done me wrong. She sent, on her own, a check for the portion of her fee that was post-natal visits, because she knew I would never ever want her near me again (I never even let them know DS's name). That fee was NONrefundable, but she sent it back. She knew she'd done me wrong. But knowing it after the fact doesn't change the horrible things that were done to me (or DS, who was injured by the OB).


OK and then, just to pile on, I went to check my secondary email address to see if my aunt had written, or if disney movie rewards had replied to an email I sent...and got YET ANOTHER forward from my stepdad. Now...I have no solid political beliefs. I go this way and that. I have never shared my overall believes with family or friends, even, but they all think I'm a raving liberal just b/c I own two pairs of Birks and don't do much to my hair, LOL. (but seriously, that's just what they've decided despite never having ASKED me)

I'm also very much NOT of stepdad's religion and he knows it.

DH of course has a mother from outside the country, and he's Buddhist.

My stepdad's son basically stopped speaking to me forever many moons ago b/c I blasted him after he sent a nasty email forward that blasted non Americans, the "axis of evil" countries (he doesn't even know enough to know that NOrth and South Koreans used to be the SAME people, and therefore he was insulting Robert's family), people not of their religion, ALL in one fell swoop.

So I really didn't need this from stepdad. I had to reply, though, because it was about the 5th he'd sent and that's about my limit.

I almost didn't send it (I did not blast him, but I reminded him that I loved hearing from HIM and his wife, but I didn't like forwards, I poked some holes in the email that was forwarded, reminded him of Robert's mom's origin, how I wanted to be an "illegal" alien in Ireland but was too chicken, and reminded him again that I liked hearing from them personally, and also maybe that if he insisted on forwards he could at least use BCC to protect everyone's privacy), but Robert reminded me that they never seem to care about hurting OUR feelings, about putting THEIR views onto people whose views they don't know, etc etc etc, so why should we care about theirs? That convinced me!

So we'll just see the fallout from that.


I think I'm going to take my beer (I think I earned it today, LOL) into the living room and show the guys the WDW maps.

 

[kaoden39]

That sounds like my FIL. Oh my goodness. Unlike you I have made no secret of my political beliefs. I am extremely vocal. Especially since he is a bigoted old man. He used to constantly send me what I considered offensive emails. I finally told him that if he couldn't send non-political, and non offensive emails to just not send me anymore. I haven't gotten an email from him since. I feel kind of bad, this is my kids only grandpa but he is a real pig IMHO. I feel your pain.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's always good to have someone know your pain, though of course it would be best if none of us had to deal with that.

The reason I rarely talk about political and religious beliefs with family is that they don't fall into one set named system. And many people just can't deal with that. They want a name... (which reminds me of Eddie Izzard talking about chiropractors..."make the noise, make the noise"..."say a name, say a name" LOL) They "can't handle the truth!"

As I approach 10 long years without my mom, stepdad approaches his 7 year anniversary with his wife. Who he met in singles bible study at the church my mom and he had just joined before her diagnosis, and which he started going to maybe 3 weeks after my mom died (I can understand why you wouldn't want to go to *couples* groups, but you'd think he might have just had some private sessions with his pastor, rather than throw himself into their meat market, ya know?).




However, all of the above stuff PALES to finding that Eamon has been growing a 6 year molar! It's about halfway through the gum, and the gum on other side in the same place is bulging. Plus, two of his front teeth are just barely loose, and I can see a bulging in his gum between those teeth.

Exciting days, I tell you!


In addition, I ran into an old friend the other day! She's always been an interesting woman...I met her when she was only 19, but had been out of the house since 15; she has a 7 year old (who was our "baby voodoo" at our wedding; I danced with that scrumptious 1 year old for something like an hour), has since gotten married and had another scoobybaby (just the word I use) who is also scrumptious, and I met her family and it was lovely!

So all the mental anguish I was going through the other day has lifted.



Eamon is BEYOND excited for WDW, cannot wrap his mind around the time left, and has started packing. He's even packing underpants! Practical kid!

 

[bumbershoot]

Just now I finally took the money that's just been sitting there, waiting, and bought E's ticket through undercovertourist/mousesavers link. It's not a full ticket; just one that met the price requirements for now...we'll add days or turn it into an AP; whichever sounds better at the time.

 

[kaoden39]

Just now I finally took the money that's just been sitting there, waiting, and bought E's ticket through undercovertourist/mousesavers link. It's not a full ticket; just one that met the price requirements for now...we'll add days or turn it into an AP; whichever sounds better at the time.

Woo hoo!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

I still need to talk about Animal Kingdom and Universal, don't I?

Not to mention restaurants and menu items...

 

[kaoden39]

I still need to talk about Animal Kingdom and Universal, don't I?

Not to mention restaurants and menu items...

Yes, I think so. Definitely, both are things I can relate to.

 

[bumbershoot]

I really really want to think about those things! But all I can think is...brrrrrrrrrr.

And...Robert's going on an 8 night trip, starting Friday!

And...why did I think I would like all the homeschool kids and moms in the PE class? Man oh man this one kid can sass! And I almost NEVER use that word. It's one thing to be able to talk to an adult. It's another to talk to an adult as though you are a rude, nasty, jerky adult. Harumph. The rules are the rules, kid! (I actually volunteered to help with an activity, which I can barely believe)

E is currently finishing up a "scissor skills" workbook. Probably not important at this point b/c he's got the MAD skillzzzzz (ha ha ha), but ya gotta finish it, right?

He hurt his toe last night. Managed to get his little little chair slamming down onto the nailbed of his right big toe. Ouch. Lovely bruise with some swelling, bruise already coming up into the "moon" of the nail. I'm a pro at nasty nasty nail injuries, so if the nail comes off, I'll know just what to do!



OK, talk to me. Tusker House. Character breakfast for fun and food, or really interesting menu for non-character lunch? Your opinion on what you would choose, and why?

 

[kaoden39]

I think that I get very frustrated with the parents of kids like that. I know that it is their fault. I try to be patient with them it gets harder as they get older. I have always figured that my kids had better be polite to other grown ups, and thankfully they are.

 

[bumbershoot]

So, to be more clear (b/c it's bugging me that I was all circumspect), they were in the rock wall room. There was an actual instructor helping with the big, harness-necessary, wall, but they needed someone to "spot" the kids on the side walls. I was told...you have to be right behind them, arms at the ready, in case they fall. One kid on the wall at the time, they go down to the end (not up), and you can put rings on the holds to make it more fun.

This one kid, who was REALLY good, let me know I was doing it ALL wrong, that HE didn't need me to be right behind him, if another kid wanted to climb too that they could and I could just leave him alone, etc etc etc. He got to the end, and insisted on going back, even though the rule was that they get down, and back to teh line at that time. He simply would NOT get down, and I wasn't going to pull him down.

Now you have to understand...I have a sensitive kid, so I give lots and lots of range for how people deal with their sensitive kids. But I happen to know that this kid's mom does NOT consider him to be "sensitive", even though he generally leaves any and all classes in tears, yelling, if he suddnely doesn't want to do something, or feels he cannot do anything. He's sensitive. And I'm not going to bodily take down ANY kid unless they get petrified with fear (which happened with the very last kid of the hour). So...he went back, and took up other kids' time doing so. And that wasn't the last of it. I actually had to go talk to the other mom volunteer to ask "is this a skill-learning day, or is it a competition?" because this kid was SO insistent that if a kid came off the wall they HAD TO stop and get back in line. etc etc etc.

And then at the very end, the kid's mom came back in (hello, you seemed to be the alpha-woman here, why'd you leave?) and whined to me that I had let a child (last kid of the hour) go too high, and that the "general rule" is that they only go as high as they are tall.

OK, first off, that makes NO sense. The wall's bottom holds are already higher than the ground, so you're already 2" taller than you are when you are on the bottom foot holds. Second, if this is a "general rule" I would assume the staff member would have told me this. Third, YOUR kid did not conform to this rule AND he made my hour much much harder. Fourth, what the? If you have different rules, YOU need to BE HERE.

Russa frussa.....



Tusker House...I want both! I can't have both. I want the character breakfast b/c it looks like fun. I want the later meal b/c the menu looks so interesting and yummy. DH is afraid of character meals b/c of the expense (but he enjoys the characters!)

 

[Brady's Mom]

Ugh, sassy, bossy kids who are covering up for insecurities and clueless parents - what a horrid mix. It sounds to me like you handled it better than I would, but sometimes my inner drill sergeant does get the best of me.

I find it hard to have a sensitive kid, sometimes. My most sensitive kid is 13 almost 14 and that can be really hard in PE at school or some group situations. He overcompensates in some areas and seems to try too hard instead of just being himself. I think DH struggled like that when he was younger since they are very much alike. I'm just glad DS has me, and not DH's mom. I sometimes wonder how DH made it with a clueless, judgmental parent and grew up as well-adjusted as he did.