Cranberry or Pineapple??

[jiminyC_fan]

Speaking of Matthew McConaughey, I want to see Failure to Launch.

Me too!

This is all of us tomorrow..... just waiting for that picture. The great reveal.

 

[ImMarcik]

Me too!

This is all of us tomorrow..... just waiting for that picture. The great reveal.

Oh what an exciting, anticipating day it will be for us monkeys.

 

[cristit14]

Heidi... glad you had a good time at Fat City. We haven't actually gone skating there, we ususally go to Skate City on Lowell, but we have done laser tag, bowling, putt putt and the foam ball thing they have. Laser tag was fun, but I didn't like their bowling very much, the scoring didn't work right.

You might want to try Spot shot on the stains. It is actually a for carpet stains, but we used it once on the microfiber recliner after DH got tree sap on the arm. It worked pretty well. I have a bunch, let me know if you want to use some of mine I could probably drop some by your house, it seems like we are within yelling distance of each other....

 

[cristit14]

Karen.... sorry to hear about the possiblity of Nebraska.... DH's family is from there, I don't enjoy it very much....

Sandy...hope you feel better soon!

Jrsy... I am anxiously awaiting your picture. I have probably seen you before since you seem to shop at my King Soopers.....


Speaking of Matthew McConaughey.... He is one fine looking specimen......

 

[dreamakermom]

Sandy, I hope you are feeling better.

I LOVE Matthew!!! He is just a rugged kind of natural beauty that isn't perfect but we love him that way.I bet he is a FABULOUS kisser!!! Have you seen his body lately??

Jrsy... you are so funny. I am looking forward to the picture. I am sure you have SOME resemblence to Matt!! Ask your wife!!! She will tell us! BTW... can you tell us your wifes first name? It is easier for me when I have the spouses name.... like Ethel and ..... Fred! Lucy and..... Ricky

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

Talk about bad day... I KNEW once we got back from the cruise DH would have some changes going on... he just told me he has a job offer in Nebraska.
I am headed for some rough times. I hate Nebraska, FINALLY got all my kids settled here (because he wanted to move here) and now this. Not a good day.

I'm sorry. Have you talked this over with him? Maybe he won't end up taking it after all.

Jrsy- I am waiting for the big reveal!

This is for Heidi- http://www.sharpie.com/sanford/cons...R4ZCH0QCYW4U2CQHUBSCIIQKA4QHQJCK?faqcode=1450

Look all the way to the right for "How do I remove a Sharpie marker stain?" I don't know if it will work but worth reading. They also give you a link to a place where you can order permanent marker remover- you could always make DBF walk there and pick it up as punishment. j/k

Heigh ho, Heigh ho, it's off to work I go!

 

[Jsme]

Speaking of Matthew McConaughey, I want to see Failure to Launch.

Was it good Marcie? I wanted to see that this past weekend but we had too much going on to go to the movies.

Jrsy you are too much.


Sandy hang in there girl. I hope you feel better sson!

MacKenzie got some of this on here carpet upstiars a few years ago. I used a product called Shot Spot. It worked a miracle for me. Now she had some on some of the dressers on her chest in her bedroom. I am too scared to put anything on it because it will take the stain off of it. And my sweet son burnt his carpet in his bedroom.



Now if I could do something abou

 

[ImMarcik]

Okay, I tried to post once, but my sweet brat cat was chasing a ball under the desk and flipped off the power strip and poof I was gone.

As I was saying.....I ran to the computer this morning to see our famous JrsyBoy, but no picture yet. Hehehe

Ohhhhhh Karen.....I am eagerly awaiting part 2. Seriously, are you doing okay? Maybe writing a trip report will make you feel better. I sure hope everything works out. Maybe you can lock him in the closet and he won't be able to get to the phone to accept.

Sandy, I hope you are feeling better.

LULU GIRL....I see by your signature that you lost 2 more pounds. Congrats!!!!! I need to lose 5 pounds before the cruise or I will not be able to fit in my clothes when I gain the 10 I will gain on the boat.

Heidi, how is the couch?

Selena, I haven't seen it yet, but I want to. I doubt I will have time to this weekend too. Weekends are so short when they are one day long. Last weekend I shopped all weekend. This weekend Dane asked me if I wanted to go eat in Lousianna. We do that once a month or two. Either go to Galveston, or Houston, or Lousianna and eat at a different restaurant then we can get locally. I think we are going to eat seafood at Pats of Henderson. My DH loves to drive his racecar (okay more like a fast loud sportscar) I think I forgot to tell y'all but 2 or 3 weeks ago he raced it in autocrossing for the first time since he got it. He got 2nd place in his division. Next week he will be fixing it up some more and I think he is racing again next month.

Tomorow is March 15th corporation tax deadline. After that, only one more deadline to go before I get a decent weekend off.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Has Jrsy posted his pic yet?....Nope, waited all night to find nothing!!!!!!

Okay last night we tried a mild soap, Woolite upholstery stain remover/cleaner, oxy clean to no avail, the stains are still there and they haven't even lightened.

Cristi - I might take you up on your offer. Someone on the Dis recommended Lift off because the same thing happened to her this weekend, only it was a 19 year old cousin and this product worked for her!!!!!! It looks like good stuff and I can get it at Home Depot on my way home. http://www.liftoffinc.com/product_3.htm# If that doesn't work than I will ask if I can borrow your stuff for a night.

By the end of this, I am going to have so many different stain removers because you buy them all and only use a small amount just to get a stupid stain out.

 

[dreamakermom]

Saturday February 25, 2006


“ Heigh ho, heigh ho…. It’s off to fun we go!!!!”


The day has finally arrived and all children are here and actually they were not as crabby as I was expecting… this meant they all were very excited!!! I had bagels, coffee, and juice and desserts ready as this morning I was not doing anything except leaving!!!

The driving arrangements were, girls in one car (Ambers) and the guys in the other! We all had on our red “Kappell Family Reunion shirts” and I had my Mickey Pins along with my green Home Depot swatch for all my friends I have met over the “Dis”boards to recognize me. Valencia had her two Mickey pins I got her... the one that says “Grandma Loves Me” and her Mickey baby pin.

Doug led the pack and we followed. After about 25 minutes into driving, I had a panic attack wondering if we forgot the hanging clothes, which were all our formals. I called Doug and we all pulled over. We were in the clear. Thank goodness Doug was on the ball the night before and he got them. OK…. We are now ready to do some smooth sailing. Amber looked at me, and I looked at her and we both knew what each other was thinking. It was Mickey Music time!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!! Amittaia was in the back smiling, as she knew what was about to happen. We turned on the CD, and no sooner did the music start and Heidi was saying “OH NO!!!!” Bump bump bump bump… bump bump bump bump… “Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me?
M-I-C…K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!”

Yes!!! It was a WHOLE cd of Mickey songs that I burned just for this trip!! We ALL started singing and cheering and getting in the spirit of things. This not only made the ride more fun, but it went by real quick. Before we knew it we had seen Port Canaveral signs and then all of a sudden Amber said, “I saw it!!!! Did you see it?” We all looked up. At that point we could not see the majestic vessel. Doug just then called on the cell and suggested we taped Valencia’s reaction to the ship on Ambers phone!!! Kudos again to Doug!!!
So… we ducked her down so she could not see the ship until I got situated and then had her sit up and look. Well, we had to do this 2-3 times because the little ham kept seeing that I was going to be taking a picture of her so she kept looking at me instead of the ship! FINALLY!!! She got it!! She saw the Mickey ship!!!! Whooo hoo!!!!

We pulled into the parking lot and I must say we ALL had smiles on our faces. We had done great time and were early and we had to wait for the ship to unload before they would let us in. However, we were in our cars and waiting for the person to wave us on through as soon as it was time.

As we told the parking attendant this was our first family cruise and gave all of our ID’s, I had already started snapping photos. We all were laughing and it was great. We pulled up to drop off the luggage and man, did we have luggage! The porters were absolutely great and speedy also as they helped us on through the line. I thought Amber and Doug were going to have to go park way down the street or someplace way out, but once again, I was surprised… we parked just across the way. We were right there!!! Unbelievable!!!

The rest of us got in line and waited for Amber and Doug to come back from parking which only took a few minutes. We were now on our way!!! Eleven red shirts saying “Kappell Family Reunion 2006.” It was just great. We took the escalator up to the next floor where we got our KTTW cards (Key to the World) and this card was our money and our key to our room along with our boarding pass when we went off the ship.

As Amber and Heidi and I stood in line to check our families in, the rest of the group stood around this HUGE Mickey ship model which gave you an inside view also. When you looked up, you saw this gigantic set of Mickey ears, which was the walkway to the ship. It was becoming surreal. THEN… guess who we saw???? Goofy!!!! He was donned in his Sailors suit ready to set sail. I grabbed Valencia and went to get her first character photo. She was very shy at this point and I looked VERY ragged, (long 24 hours L) but we finally accomplished the task! AHOY MATEY!!!!!

We gathered to take pictures outside of the family with the ship in the background. As I walked around, fellow “Dis”board chat members came up to me and introduced themselves to me (remember, it was the green Mickey swatch that gave me away). One lady came up to me and asked about my family and my sister. I asked her “How did you know all this?” She responded with explaining to me how when she read my story about how my mom cruised so much and how her last wish before she died was to cruise with Heidi and I, that we decided after she did pass, to do this family cruise…. The lady said my story touched her. Well, that was all it took for me to cry. But all was well. Hakuna Matata… what a wonderful phrase! (Means no worries!!! For the rest of your days!!!!) I knew at this point my mom would have been proud of us, and that made me happy. It was totally fun watching Amber and Heidi get excited every time THEY saw a green Mickey swatch!! They all started getting excited and calling me over to introduce me to fellow “Dis”ers. THAT really got ME going, to see them get so excited. It was like meeting extended family members.

It finally was time. They called our number and we started to board. We walked through the Mickey ears and through the magical tunnel onto the ship. As we walked onto the ship into lobby, they announced, “The Kappell Family dressed in red!!!” We all screamed and hooted (got a little teary-eyed AGAIN) and smiled as we walked through the Atrium where there was a HUGE Mickey at a ship’s wheel and glass elevators on the side and when you looked up, there was this beautiful huge colorful chandelier hanging above us.

We all decided to meet for something to eat, but first, we all had some running around to do. Heidi wanted to book the Castaway Cay Cabana Couples Massage on the beach, and I had to run to the rooms to put on the door magnets, which were a surprise for everyone!!!!! We all spread out and we met for our first buffet lunch at Parrot Cay on Deck 3. We were WOW’D by the buffet. I could see Doug was going to have a wonderful week and that Amber and I were going to spend half our pictures on food.

After we ate we went to our rooms, 5016, 5014 and 5013. There they were the rooms with the beautiful door signs on with our names. When we went in, each room had received the gift baskets that I had sent for them and much to my surprise, there was a box for me!!!! I was so excited because I had no clue what to expect. The girls from the “Dis”board I had been on had sent me Cosmo to keep me company and to keep me thinking of them. Cosmo is a [Funky] monkey (made from Build a Bear) in a sailor’s suit that will be passed on throughout our little group (the Funky Monkeys). He will travel from one place to the other. I was ecstatic!!!!

I went to see if everyone else liked their baskets and they did, along with the personalized and hand made door-magnets. Everything was great and everyone was happy!!! We all grabbed our “Navigator” which they slide under the doors every night explaining everything that is going on for the next day and where it will be held. This was available to you so you can go through, see what your options are and maybe highlight what you want to do. After glancing at the Navigator, it did not take us long to decide that we all wanted to check the ship out. So we all spread out with the understanding we would meet for the Sail Away party (Deck 9) and dinner. Unfortunately, we had to meet before that for the Mandatory Boat Drill. There really was no getting out of this, as they would not start until everyone was there. It wasn’t really that bad, but we were all anxious to move on with the vacation and like I said, they would not start the drill until everyone was there (they called names). Quickly after that, I ran down to Guest Services to drop off my white pillowcases for the characters to sign. They will return the pillowcases to my room at the end of the week.

After the drill we all immediately went up for the Sail Away Party on Deck 9 where the huge screen was, because we wanted to get a good place to see everything. It was time to set sail as Disney blew the mighty ships horn. A horn unlike any other vessels on the sea; this horn was the first seven notes to the Disney song, “When You Wish Upon A Star” (I cried again….) There was dancing and bouncing and singing and laughter and all kinds of fun as we left to sail to sea. Mickey and Minnie and Donald and Daisy and Pluto and Goofy we there dancing along with us. As soon as the characters were through, we all went to the back (Aft) of the ship to wave to folks ashore and to see if there would be dolphins escorting us out to sea. Heidi and I were a tad bit disappointed because there were none, but… we would survive!

After a few pictures, we headed for our rooms to prepare for dinner. We dressed Valencia in her Tinkerbell outfit and she was awake and adorable. Everyone that saw her commented on how cute she was. On our tickets it told us where to go on which days for dinner. We would have the same servers each day. Today it was Lumiere’s with Ronald and Carolina as our servers for the week. I cannot say enough about them. We gathered to eat. Amber and Doug and I already had reached an agreement that we would each try new foods and share. This made it fun and exciting… like what? We needed MORE fun and excitement???

By the time dinner was over, Tinkerbell was sitting up fast asleep drooling at the table. She was just wiped out. After dinner, Doug volunteered to go to the room with Tink and he would “relax” with her. When we all returned to our room, we saw our beds were turned down and there was a towel animal on our beds. I had requested a frog for Ambers room the first night and they honored that request.

Everyone split up and did their own thing. Evan had met up with some friends he had met previously on the “Dis”boards, Amittaia and Tenisa went to “The Stack” (Deck 11), Amber, Jordan and Ryan went to check out the music and the bars on the ship. Heidi and Larry went off and did their own thing as Doug and I unpacked and did our own thing…. went to bed, as we were exhausted. Tomorrow was a busy day for all as we were sailing into Key West for the day and I had a lot of things planned for me to do and for whoever wanted to join me. Some of our group was a tiny bit queasy and Heidi was getting real sick… so immediately I started dishing out Dramamine and Airborne to her.
PS.

One of the smartest things I did was to get those dry erase boards with the magnets and we each had one outside of our room so we could leave notes to one another. That came in VERY handy… a MUST for the next cruise.


Stay tuned!!!

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Hmmmm, what does that mean???

It means that I will post a current picture, not the one from my very first trip to WDW.

Speaking of Matthew McConaughey, I want to see Failure to Launch.

Take my DW...I won't go see it. I went to Curious George, but I won't go to Failure to Launch. I hear Terry Bradshaw is a riot, though.

we ususally go to Skate City on Lowell

I just spent 5 consecutive Saturday mornings there while DS took skating lessons. After lessons we were able to stick around (parents included) for the next 2 hour free-skate session. I probably hadn't been in a skating rink since high school (or maybe middle school).

BTW... can you tell us your wifes first name? It is easier for me when I have the spouses name.

Sorry, no hints...just guesses.

Okay...there was something else I was supposed to do...hmmm...what was it? Oh yeah, the picture:

 

[jiminyC_fan]

He's a Greg!! Married to Julie.

Karen, hang in there. Hopefully Nebraska won't work out.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

A quote from Karen: "The girls from the “Dis”board I had been on had sent me Cosmo to keep me company and to keep me thinking of them. Cosmo is a [Funky] monkey (made from Build a Bear) in a sailor’s suit that will be passed on throughout our little group (the Funky Monkeys). He will travel from one place to the other. I was ecstatic!!!!"

Ah, gee. It was all worth it. Thanks for updating us on your trip report!

 

[ImMarcik]

My guess is Mike!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Ah gee Karen, your trip report made me tear up and get goosebumps at the same time. I am so enjoying it.

 

[cristit14]

Jrsy.... looking at the picture I would guess either Mike or Steve..... but somehow I am thinking that is wrong and maybe your name starts with a "C"...Does it count if we cheat?

 

[cristit14]

Karen, your trip report is great! I feel like I am there. You are making my eyes water though.....

 

[dreamakermom]

Jrsy..... You DO resemble Matthew!! Very good looking!!! To me, you look like you would have a different name... like Chase or.... Dean... or a name that starts with a "J".

 

[ImMarcik]

Karen your report brought tears in my eyes too. I can't wait for the next part!!!


Jrsy, if not Mike then maybe Joel.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Does it count if we cheat?

I don't know how you could...actually, I do but it would take some effort and some time. Then again, if you work at the DMV, it might be easier than the way I am thinking. Just keep in mind, if you cheat, you are not actually winning anything.