Calling all Chicago DISers #3

[Crissup]

Spent most of yesterday catching up with various online sites. I was completely out of touch on Twitter. While I had sent a few tweets from my phone, including a couple photos from London, I hadn't been reading anything.

When I got home from London, I had an email last week from Amazon that my copy of the new "Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World" was shipping. This surprised me since it was a month early. I had actually pre-ordered the book last September, so had completely forgotten about it. It was written by a good friend of mine, and fellow DIS'er, Cleo (Susan Veness). While she's been co-authoring the Brit's Guide to Orlando and WDW with her DH, Simon Veness, this is her first solo book. If you like digging into the hidden and forgotten details of WDW, this is the book for you. I did a mini review here... http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2184318

 

[momto1]

Hi gang! Sorry I have been MIA for a little while. I am all caught up on what you have been doing, what your kiddos have been doing, who had headaches over the weekend (me too!!), who is in WDW and who is going soon, tragedy in our neighborhoods and all the rest!

The tooth fairy is coming to our house for the very last time tonight. Now onto braces!

DS had 3 of 4 great baseball games this weekend. I couldn't believe I got sunburned on Saturday and sat with my winter coat on on Sunday night. We leave for the Cooperstown Baseball tournament on June 11. DS has been wanting to do this for a very long time. Should be a fun week.

My house is so dirty. Anyone want to come and clean for me? I will leave you the key.

I have a ton to do at work so I guess I better get busy.
Lori

 

[irish dancer]

Evening guys! Wow, those long weekends always mess me up. I can't believe it's Wednesday tomorrow already.

Just a quick drive by before bed, I'm wiped. Tomorrow is DHs birthday so we're doing lunch and we'll have cake with the kids after dinner.

All the end of year stuff is really piling up. DD12 has 'finals' this week, volleyball clinic, class picnic Fri and a Girl Scout overnight to Springfield next week which I'm organizing and chaperoning . DS has field day Thurs and a boat cruise field trip downtown next week which I'm chaperoning too! DD7 has the volleyball clinic too along with their class picnic Fri, poor thing is going to be farmed out most of next week due to my chaperoning. The girls get out of school next week and DS on the 9th. Can't wait to get on that plane on the 12th!

momto1 - congrats to DS and sorry my house is a dump too so I can't help you out.

Crissup - how exciting on the book! Let us know how it is.

Becky - hope DS is feeling better. DD7 is like that, throws up out of no where and then is perfectly fine but can't go to school.
*Can't help with the Disney private events, if you do one please share!

slo - glad you enjoy your leads group, hope it helps you out!

piglet - I heard about that on the news, it is so sad and scary.

to everyone else. I hope your headaches go away and that you can catch a break from all the chauffering, lol.

Have a great night!

 

[macraven]

i think i need an ark.
the rain has been pouring down where i am since 9 this evening.



hey, where are all the homies?
anyone want to play a couple of games of old maid or go fish tonight?

 

[KimRaye]

Fingers crossed Sandy!

You're welcome! Mine went away....so I must have sent it over to you. I, of course, did take a super hot shower & took 1 Excederin Migraine to have it go away but it did.

Has anyone here done any private events at Disney? I'm thinking I might look into that for next year for my kid's birthdays. My niece is planning on getting married next year and it might end up falling right on Kyle's birthday (let's hope he doesn't get sick again!!!), which means his birthday will be shot down the tubes for next year but he's turning 10. So, I have one turning 16, one turning 13 and a 10 year old -- basically all milestone birthdays....so I was thinking of doing something since we probably won't get back to Disney for quite a long time after our next visit. but who knows with work/college how things will go).

I'm not sure how private it was but, with Magical Meets, I think it's called, with a group of 8 or more, you can have some really Magical adventures!! We did the Electrical somthing? - Water Parade maybe? from the water, on a boat, loaded at the Contemporary, awesome!

I here ya on the work/college thing, too. My DS has barely had a minute for us, except eating here of course! LOL

John!

Mom, if you find someone to clean, I'll pay double. Literally, I need a dumpster tho.

ID, you are not alone on busy kids! Unfortunately. DD and DH were walking out the door tonight for her game when they got the call that the game was cancelled (rain). This is somewhat good news, but early dinner was already eaten, and they WERE leaving so, evening plans changed.

mac, I've been toweling and spinning and drying my towels all night to keep up with seepage. Please stop the rain!!!

 

[slo]

I'm so tired this morning - so so tired!!!!

The pool is officially open, which means that summer has begun at our house Now we just need some heat, and some sunshine, and it'll be all good Plus, the quicker that comes, the sooner my girls will stop asking me "when can we go in the pool"


Becky - I"m hope Kyle is feeling better today
*The private event sounds fun at WDW. You'll have to keep us posted on what you decide.

Crissup - How cool that a DISer wrote a book I will have to check it out

momto1 - I feel like my house is super dirty too The only time my house is really clean is during the winter when I'm stuck inside. When you find that person to clean it, let me know, and I'll leave them my key too

ID - Good luck with everything - you got a lot going on!!!
*Happy birthday to your DH

Mac - You got a lot of rain up north . We didn't get as much as we thought we would get.

Kim -




Well, I'm off to make Stephanie her lunch - I can hardly wait until
summer break - just 3 more weeks!!!!!
Have a good day!!

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Morning all. Hope you have a great day today. I am tired from the busy weekend followed by 12 work hours yesterday and 8 more today. Haven't really caught up yet with everyone. Just wanted to say howdy.

 

[disneygal922]

oh my have I missed a lot!

Good Morning Everyone! Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day. I planted flowers and went to the zoo with my dad, sister and nephews. That was fun! Mike came home from Germany on Saturday night. So we looked at all the pictures which were fabulous! Oh and how can I forget, yesterday, mike and i figured out when we can go down to Disney for our planning session. There is an awesome deal with the Disney Visa for trips in September. So, we will, HOPEFULLY going down Monday Sept.21 and come home Saturday Sept. 26 which means...... I'll be in Disney for my BIRTHDAY!!!! I'm just waiting to hear back from my planner to see if she's available! Please keep your fingers crossed for us that we hear soon. We need to book very soon b/c the promo is almost up.

slo ~ yay for opening the pool. I wish our's was open.

Everyone else ~ have a wonderful day!

 

[momto1]

Hi gang! I just got back from a Census kick-off event at Brookfield Zoo. Kinda of a snoozer but at the end the announced that some professional football players were part of the organizing committee particularly to get into the areas of Cook County that don't represent well in the census. We were able to get autographed pictures. Some of them were from the 1985 Bearts Championship team. I am giving the pics to ds but I think dh would appreciate them more! He loved that team.

DG - How awesome to plan your planning trip. I arrive in WDW on 9/25. I think some others are there at about the same time.

ID - Have fun chaperoning those events. It sounds fun. I volunteered to do the zoo on the last day of school but wasn't selected. According to ds, the chaperones from the winter field trip were selected because they had been "trained". Huh?

Slo - maybe the weather will warm and you can enjoy your pool. Maybe some day...

Hi to everybody else. Hopefully it is not raining where you are.
Lori

 

[disneygal922]

I'm so confused....... if i book my trip now but for some odd reason need to move it up a few weeks. can i cancel and rebook? or should i just wait and hope my offer doesn't fill up. my planner is on vacation until next wednesday and i really want to book now but am nervous she won't be available for our planning session the week we are planning on going? i don't know what to do

 

[esbrick]

Hey there everyone! Finally have a few minutes during the boss' meeting to say hi!

Slo ~ Sounds great bout the pool! I so wish that the weather warms up soon. I can't believe I was roasting the other day!

Holy headaches and business! I wouldn't be surprised if the headaches were caused by the atmospheric pressure (Yeah I like Tom Skilling) I'm hoping that with all of this rain it will pass.

DG ~ Not sure what to tell you on that one. Is there anyway there is anyone else there that could look up your planner's schedule? Sometimes when people are out they have someone who can look it up for you. Since you will be down there for 5 days that gives you some flexibility but I realize it is nerve wracking.

Well we had a great time in Disney. . . when we finally got there! We wound up being 2 hours delayed cause a fuel bunker got hit by lightening at MCO! Crazy rain storms there. Then we took ME to SSR when we got in, BIG MISTAKE. Yeah, I know, we saved some money but the headaches that went with waiting to get up and go I could have done without. We got to SSR by 11:15 PM and then had a great bell guy named Scott. Scott wound up driving us in a golf cart over to DTD which was great and just the right amount of Magic we needed to get into vacation mode!

Golf and pool on Saturday and Sunday and Emerils on Saturday night which was awesome! Sunday night we were supposed to go to Epcot and barhop around the World showcase however the rain was so bad we had to change our plans! It turned out to be another great night in DTD though and we had dinner at Raglin Road and met up with these two men and had a couple of drinks with them. Then 4 marines walked in and we bought them a couple of drinks and that was AWESOME! They all had matching Mickey camo t-s on and that was very cool. We were glad we could buy them a drink after all they do for us

Got home on Monday night and felt kinda sad cause our vacation was over until I picked up the mail and we opened a letter from the Chicago Archdioces (sp?) and we got word that Mike's Annulment was finalized! That was awesome news! We have been working on this for almost a year and a half and I'm so glad it's over. It's an awful process We are hoping to have a small church ceremony in NY at the end of the summer so that will be nice. I need to do this quick and with as little fanfare as possible as I don't want my mom to make this into an "event"! As far as we are concerned we got married in December, we had a beautiful wedding and there was love, God and joy there and that's what's important!

OK so I'm so over this weather and I'm looking for Skilling to give us a better forcast!

Hope everyone has a GREAT day!

 

[slo]

I've gotta share with how much I love my friend
She gave me 5 bags of clothes for my girls (her DD's old/outgrown clothes) and these bags were STUFFED with clothes. I bet there was a $1000 worth of clothes in these bags. Both of my girls were so excited with their new clothes, and I am so grateful to her!!!! She doesn't come on here, but I just wanted to share with how awesome she is - I am very blessed to have her!!!!


Stephanie has an early day today.
There is a special breakfast today just for student council (she is vice-president). I am so proud of her for being a part of this, because it has been a great experience for her. She has loved it, and I'm hoping that she will want to be a part of it again in middle school (this is her last year at elementary school).


TTTTTTTTTTTTTigern -

DG - I have no advice to give, because I would be confused too Maybe call Visa and see if they can answer your questions. Keep us posted on how it goes.

momto1 - Did you get to meet some of those football players, or were the pictures just there and already signed?

esbrick - I'm glad you had a good time at WDW despite the rain I thought of you when I heard the weather for Florida, and I was hoping you were having a good time.
*That's good about the annulment - now you can move forward!!!!



Well, I must go get Stephanie going, we need to leave by 7:10am
Have a good day!!!

 

[disneygal922]

Good Morning Everyone! so I have news... WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I called Disney yesterday (a couple of times actually), the first person I got was very rude, mumbling and basically annoyed that i called in the first place. I was at work and didn't want to try and get any form of info out of her if she was going to be so rude to me for asking a question. Then I was playing around on the website for a while trying to figure things out b/c the person on the phone was so rude. I got a instant messenger window pop up and ask me if i needed help... *looks around* why yes, yes i do!! That lady was quite helpful and pointed me in the right direction by providing me links and whatnot (but still really didn't answer my question about the Disney visa deal, oh well). Well at this point, I needed to get some work done so I log off and will book when i get home. Well, I was also really still confused about the cancellation policy and i had a few what if's still going through my mind so I call Disney AGAIN! I know, i'm ridiculous This lady I talked to was so incredibly nice! Her name was Stacy and I just can't say enough good things about her. I told her my situation, asked about switching dates if needed, etc. She was going to pull up a quote for me but her system went down. So we chatted for a bit while it was trying to reboot and whatnot. After a little bit, she took down my cell phone number (my dad was on the house phone) and said she would call me back as soon as the system was back up. About 10 minutes later, she called, with the quote and everything else. She wrote on the reservation that it was my birthday and we'd be there for our planning session. Also told me to go register my bday on the website! so i did! I'm sooooooooo excited! I've never been to Disney in the fall, is September really HOT? oh and she gave me the date that we can make our ADRs. We didn't get park hoppers this time so I'll need to do some research for TS restaurants in parks other than Epcot! Any suggestions? Ok, now that my post is ridiculously long....

Slo ~ That's so great that Stephanie likes being on the Student Council and so incredibly nice of your friend to give you all those clothes! That saves a bundle!

Esbrick ~ sorry you had so much rain. but glad you had a nice trip.

Everyone else ~ have a wonderful day!

 

[geffric]

disneygal922 - when in Sept are you going??? It is Free Dining!!

ADRS - not in Epcot

MK - Crystal Palace for Pooh
AK - Tusker House or Yak and Yeti
MGM - Mama Melrose

Outside of parks - Kona, Yatchman's, Artist Point, Chef Mickey's or The Wave, Wolfgang Pucks in DTD, Boma and Jako.. plus I have heard really nice things about Sanna ( sp) the new restuarant i Kidani Village..

BTW I'll be at WDW 10/3 - 10/10..

 

[Bunchkin]

Hi all!!


Been really busy.
Still have a lot of packing to do. DH will be in town tomorrow night to help pack. And then a shipping freight company comes next week to pick up about 4 pallets full of stuff we don't want to haul.
I'm still in need of 2 more pallets though!! Anyone know where I can get some?


MIL's cancer doctor called to tell her he has a new experimental drug he wants her to try. She's still too weak for chemo.


One more week of school for the kids and then they're out!!



piglet I heard of that tragedy on the news. I'm sorry your family is effected by it.


slo That's great about getting all those clothes!!

paint Hope your get away is nice!! How thoughtful of your DH to plan that!!

disneygal Sept can be still hot and humid. It will be packed though because of free dining so make those ADR's right away!!


Kim Congrats to your son for finishing school!!



Gotta run!! HI TO ALL!!!

 

[disneygal922]

disneygal922 - when in Sept are you going??? It is Free Dining!!

ADRS - not in Epcot

MK - Crystal Palace for Pooh
AK - Tusker House or Yak and Yeti
MGM - Mama Melrose

Outside of parks - Kona, Yatchman's, Artist Point, Chef Mickey's or The Wave, Wolfgang Pucks in DTD, Boma and Jako.. plus I have heard really nice things about Sanna ( sp) the new restuarant i Kidani Village..

BTW I'll be at WDW 10/3 - 10/10..

Thanks for the reccomendations! We are arriving Monday Sept 21 and leaving Saturday September 26. So 5 nights/6days... I'm super excited. Last year we were only there for 4 days.

Hi all!!
disneygal Sept can be still hot and humid. It will be packed though because of free dining so make those ADR's right away!!

Thanks for the heads up on the crowds. I thought it was slow in September b/c of back to school

 

[Becky2005]

Fingers crossed Sandy!

I'm not sure how private it was but, with Magical Meets, I think it's called, with a group of 8 or more, you can have some really Magical adventures!! We did the Electrical somthing? - Water Parade maybe? from the water, on a boat, loaded at the Contemporary, awesome!

Yes, I've heard of that but there are only 6 in my family. I did find a link for events, not really sure what we are planning.

Life is chaotic for next year that's pretty much all I know right now.

I'm not sure what is going on with Kyle either. He stayed home yesterday, I sent him today since he was symptom free for 24 hours & now he's asleep!!!!!!!! I have no idea how long he has been sleeping -- I thought he was in the basement playing until I was calling the kids for dinner & found out he was in his room asleep but he said he would rather sleep than eat dinner. I knew he looked really tired when he got off the bus but he said he felt fine and doesn't really have any symptoms of anything so I don't know if the full day of school just wore him out or ????

Only a few more days to deal with school & then I don't have to worry about it. Hopefully he's fine tomorrow as I have running around to do that is going to be complicated if he's here.

DS-5 goes to preschool, it's book return for DD, however, she can't carry all her books that we have here at home, so I'm going to go into the school with them (yes, I know she is going to want to crawl under a table that her mother is showing up at school but not much else we can do about it! It would be over her weight restriction.) They are doing the returns between finals & the only one I can show up for kid-free is after the 1st one. I would say she could just act like she doesn't know me but she has to use her student ID to return them. Her math teacher tried to return the in-classroom book but they won't let the teachers return the books. I'm nervous about Science since DD went and asked for the in-classroom book for a project they had, the teacher had no clue what she was talking about. UMMM...the teacher was IN the return to school meeting we had where it was said she would get a set of books to keep in the classroom, so hopefully it's not missing since we will get dinged with a fine if it is & DD doesn't return it herself.

 

[slo]

Can I brag about my child for a second?!
Stephanie, and other students, signed up to work the school blood drive yesterday (this was after school, and she has done this before). She was the ONLY child that stayed after school to work. When one of her teachers drove her to the store, she paid Stephanie so many compliments. She told her how awesome she is, and how responsible she is, and that she's just a great person (this isn't the first teacher to tell me this. In fact, her art teacher was in the store the same day, and was telling me how great she is too). I was so proud of her, and she was beaming too!!! School comes very hard to her, she's not a straight A student, but I've told her that people aren't going to remember her for her grades, they are going to remember her by the things she's done. She's such a great people person, and I'm always working with her on how to become a better people person, because I know that whatever she does in her adult life, will center around helping people - that's just her personality. Anyway, I just wanted to share, because I'm very proud of her!!!


DG - Hooray about getting your trip set up!!!! We used to always go in September, and it is HOT But I never minded, because I like HOT

geffric -

Bunchkin - Good luck with your continued packingI don't know about pallets. Maybe try calling The UPS Store, a moving company, or anyone else that does shipping, and they may have some suggestions.
*Is your MIL going to take the drug? I hope she tries it. I will continue keeping her in my prayers!!
*Continued hugs to you!!! I think of you all the time!!

Becky - How is Kyle today? I hope he's okay.




It's time to go make Stephanie's lunch - mother hubbards cubbard is pretty bare, so I'm not sure what I'm going to give her
Have a good day!!!

 

[geffric]

Morning..

SLO - great news about Stephanie..tell her that we are all proud of her too. congrats to you for raising her to be so good about her responsibility..
BTW any PB&J in the house for her lunch???

Well today is graduation practice for Geoff.. last day he will be at the high school.. i guess it is real, my oldest is all grown up!! .. he graduates Sunday... then off he goes to college and beyond...

such events in our house.. yesterday was Eric and his GF 1 year anniversary.. he took her to Applebee for dinner...


OOOOO my kids are growing up!!! I am feeling sad and happy all at once..

 

[Becky2005]

Slo -- that's great about Stephanie

Geffic -- I hear you about the happy/sad combo for the kids growing up! I'm just trying to wrap my head around the concept of my oldest being old enough to drive!

Kyle is doing perfectly fine today -- whatever it was, he basically slept it off. He seemed back to his normal self today. Hooray!!!

We just have to get through today -- I am so ready for the weekend and only a few short days next week for school. A couple days of relaxation and then summer chaos begins!

I'm having to try and get ready for ISYM for DD which is *early* this year. We still need to go clothes shopping for it this year & at least we will be somewhat more prepared as it's our 2nd year. I'm hoping to get a hotel room this time around vs. leaving at 4 AM or some unheard of hour to get down there around 8 AM. I just haven't booked it yet. I'm waiting until I renew my AAA membership. I hope I do it right. I want to wait until June to do that (and I just got an offer in the mail!) so that a 1-year membership will cover both now & through June of next year for our Disney trip. I figure if the hotels are full, no big deal for ISYM -- I *can* drive down that morning so no big hurry.