Diabetes Can't Stop Us! (no longer a Maybe Trip Report!)

MK2010

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Jun 2, 2009
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So this is a maybe report! See we were supposed to go in January 2013, but this last Thanksgiving my daughter was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. (it means her pancreas doesn't produce insulin at all- its also known as Juvenile diabetes and is different than the Type II diabetes that you mainly hear about in the news.) anyway, all of our vacation money was out the window and the plans scrapped. So I just started saving again.

Then I found out about the Disney Y.E.S program. Now, when we went before we stayed onsite and had free dining. I loved it. Was convinced that it was the only way to go. I priced out the tickets for the Disney Y.E.S. program and still couldn't make our trip come out any cheaper. Then I found out about Bonnet Creek. It will definitely be a sacrifice, but we will actually wind up staying 12 days instead of the 7 we would have stayed if we were on property. It worked out 'cause January wasn't so good for my parents who were planning on going with us. I had originally thought to push the trip back until Sept. '13. But unforunately, that's a no go for my Dad who has to be at work for the last stages of a project at that time.

Soooo, we're trying to push for THIS Sept.!!! Up 4 months from our original date! I asked my husband if we could talk about it. I felt sure he'd shoot me down, but he didn't. We haven't made the final decision yet. We're waiting to see if we can get the money for the tickets together by the end of this month/beginning of April. Our tickets are 1317.+change. That's only for my family. My parents will get their own through Undercover Tourist. We only have about $500 more to go. I'm going to cash out some PTO at work. (I accumulate it way faster than I can use it- 12 hours every month!) I can only cash out about 16 hours though. If I do more than that there is a penalty. Also, we're having a garage sale at the end of this month and I'm hoping to make a couple of hundred there. Other than that, I'm really cracking down on the grocery budget and NO EATING OUT!!

I have been following the We loooooove Bonnet Creek thread. I had planned on going through Ken Price for our unit. But I was concerned because I won't have our hotel money together until mid June. Than someone over there pointed out Vacation Strategy which will let us book the unit for $300 and then pay out the balance. (Final payment has to be in 20-50 days before our check in date, but that shouldn't be a problem.) My husband and I were just planning on covering the cost of the unit since my parents won't be staying the whole time. However, I kinda wanted to get our tickets and our unit at the same time to ensure everything would match up. So, being the irresponsible daughter that I am I hit my Dad up for the $300 reservation. I'll pay him back, of course, but I did feel bad. I've never asked my parents for money before. I figure I'm a grown adult and if I can't swing it then I don't need it! So, I feel a little guilty. Okay, I feel like a bum.

Anyway, husband still isn't 100% on board. i don't blame him. I'm a little nervous myself. So this thing may all come crashing down at the end of the month if I don't have the money for the tickets. But everything is going well so far! So we're going to think happy thoughts and in that same vein.....

Welcome to the Ingle family September 2013 Diabetes Can't Stop Us Trip Report!
 
Well, Yay! :woohoo: Dad's check came in the mail today for the deposit on Bonnet Creek. I did tell him I was probably going to hold it until April when we book our tickets. Also, I was able to pick up a couple of extra shift at work so I won't have to cash out any PTO. This is great because it gives me the option of cashing it out at a later date if I need too. AND, my friend called. We are running 2 American History camps this summer and it looks like we may have the opportunity to add a 3rd! :cool1: That is awesome because it'll bring in between $300-$500 extra dollars!So hopefully, everything stays on track. The only downside to all of this is that I am getting busier and busier! i hope I have time to get everything done. I am a little nervous on that. I am supposed to be sewing matching outfits for girls and their 18" dolls. I got off to a great start, but I've been so busy that that is kinda stalling out. I may have to start pulling some late nights/ early mornings!:laughing: I printed out our budget tracker. Its cute I should probably upload it to photobucket so I can share. I made it using Adobe Photoshop.
Budgettrackercopy.jpg


Good Gosh that's big. How do I make it smaller?Anyway, each line stand for $100. We need $1317 for our tickets. Right now we need $455 more to make it to that goal by around the first of April. So we're coming right along!:thumbsup2

Oh, and at work last night one of my nurses found me a recipe for sugar free marshmallows! I am so excited because now I can make Mickey Ear rice crispie treats to take with us for my daughter! Yahoo! I already have a sugar free/dairy free ice cream recipe for her- so she can have my favorite- Mickey ice cream bars. the chef at work told me how to make them. Don't I work with the best people?
 
Yay! So I worked an extra 18 hours this week. That should translate to about $250 extra dollars after taxes. And I saved $25 at the grocery store this week! Hopefully, I'll be able to pull $480 out of my paycheck this next Friday!!!! YAY! :banana::banana::banana: Then we'll have enough money to book! I'll still get a babysitting check for about $75 and I'm hoping to do around $200 at a garage sale at the end of the month.

I haven't decided if I'll put that money towards Disney or towards a spring retreat I'm taking with my girlfriends. We're going to Dallas to a homeschool conference and it will run around $200 for each of us for the weekend. (that includes gas and meals) But, I may just rob that money from the general account since none of that money can be used for Disney (per the husband).

Anyway, it dawned on me after reading the PTR Dumbo or Die that I never included my dates.We're probably going to be in DisneyWorld Sept. 1-12. One of the things that I don't like about these dates is that we'll be driving over Labor Day weekend. Yuck.

Right now the plan is to leave here after my husband gets off work Thurs. Aug. 30. I'll have to switch my normal Thursday night for the previous Monday, but that shouldn't be problematic. We'll drive to my parents house outside of Dallas. Then early Friday morning the 31st we'll drive to Crestview, Fla. It says on google maps that its about an 11.5 hour drive. I figure if we make it in 14-18 hrs. we'll be doing good. So that'll be a really long day for us. But the drive on Sat. the 31st is only about 6 hours. So I figure we can sleep in Saturday morning and the get to Orlando make a run by the grocery store and get checked in at Bonnet Creek. Then we will totally relax. I haven't completely made up my mind if we'll go to the parks on Sunday or not. We may just kick around the pools there.

As it stand right now, Lauren wants to take the Wild By Nature class at Animal Kingdom on Tues. Sept. 4th and the boys want to take the Physics:World in Motion class at MK on Fri. Sept. 7th. Stephen (the baby- he just turned 7) wants to take the little kid version of that class on the 7th also. I kinda want him to take the Wild by Nature class with his sister so that we can spend the 7th doing things that the boys don't want to do. Like his sister can do the Tangled Meet n Greet and meet the princesses. He can ride Dumbo. I can ride IASW and CoP. We'll see what happens. I think with 12 days at Disney certainly we can get everything done that we want to.

I guess right now what concerns me is the fact that I'm not planning on eating in the park AT ALL. Also we don't have the benefit of the Evening Extra Magic Hours or the morning ones for that matter. I can't decide if I just want to pack a cooler for lunch and leave it in the car (thats the direction I'm leaning right now) or go back to the room. The catch is my daughter has to eat 45 carbs at 12 noon. No more, no less. We can fudge about 20 minutes in either direction on the time, but that's all she gets until snack time at 3. Then she gets another 45 at 6 p.m. with a bedtime snack at 8:30. Her breakfast has to be at 8 a.m. but that doesn't concern me as much. She can eat that in the car on the way to the park or while we're standing waiting for the park to open if we choose to get there that early. (Which I usually do! I'm a rope drop kinda gal;))Oh and did I mention, that the Dr. doesn't want her immune system irritated because that unnecessarily raises her blood sugar so she eats no dairy and no non organic wheat. (Honestly, on that last bit- its easier just to go gluten free). Anyway, I know that we could find her food in Disney. They are so great about dealing with food allergies, but since this is kinda a last minute trip I don't have the money to feed all of us OOP in the parks. That was one of the trade offs for going for 12 days. (Frankly, I'd rather have the 12 days!:goodvibes)

So that is the plan. We'll reverse the whole process on Thurs. Sept. 13. Originally, I had thought to wait until Friday to drive home and do two 12-16 hour days of driving, but I figured why ruin a perfectly good and relaxing vacation by driving like that?!:laughing: So I figure we'll check out on the 13th stop by Downtown Disney for any last minute souvenirs and then head out to Crestview. Have time for a quick dip in the pool before hitting the sack for an early start to my parents the next day. Then sleep in a bit on the 15th and leave mid morning to make it home by dinner on Sat. (We can't take Sunday to drive home because DH is a minister and will already be missing two Sundays for this trip. That's his yearly limit.)

Oh, and sometime during all of that madness, my parents will show up to spend a few days with us in the parks. My Dad wants all of us to go to Bibleland. Which I think looks really cool, but I'm not sure where I'm going to get the money for the tickets. So that may not happen which would be a bummer for my Dad. I'm sure he'd offer to pay for it, but I really don't want that expense to be his.Y'know, my kids, my problem! :)

Anyway, I suppose that's enough for one day. Up next (and by next I mean in the next week or so a countdown ticker and the debate about Ridemax in addition or to the exclusion of Touring Plans. Feel free to leave your opinions!)
 

Ok silly question I bet..but must you buy YES park tickets to do YES programs? I am guessing yes..
 
Ok silly question I bet..but must you buy YES park tickets to do YES programs? I am guessing yes..

Why Y.E.S. :rotfl2: However, I need to check and see if you can just book your regular trip and then pay the $30 for the class. I talked to my Dad and he was asking how much it would cost to upgrade us to stay onsite :confused3. Poor guy, he has no clue. I told him, "Ummm, about another 4k, dad." After he recovered from choking :laughing:, he was like, "Well, okay then!" But that was for two bedrooms at a moderate. I meant to check for a value.

Anyhoo....thanks for following along. Hey by any chance do you know how to resize pictures so they don't come out so big?
 
Why Y.E.S. :rotfl2: However, I need to check and see if you can just book your regular trip and then pay the $30 for the class. I talked to my Dad and he was asking how much it would cost to upgrade us to stay onsite :confused3. Poor guy, he has no clue. I told him, "Ummm, about another 4k, dad." After he recovered from choking :laughing:, he was like, "Well, okay then!" But that was for two bedrooms at a moderate. I meant to check for a value.

Anyhoo....thanks for following along. Hey by any chance do you know how to resize pictures so they don't come out so big?

I was thinking maybe we could pay for the class..I shall do some research.

I use an offsite host.. photobucket and I use the edit tool and resize there.
 
Well Folks...Its official..
WE'RE GOIN' TO DISNEYWORLD!!! :cheer2::banana::banana::banana::cheer2::dance3::cheer2::yay::yay::yay::cheer2::cool1:

Can ya tell I'm excited? From having to scrap our plans back in December to go this upcoming January to having the trip back on AND moved up to September AND changed from 7 days to 12 days I'm :cloud9: So since its official. I've got work to do! I need to introduce everyone to you, but I think we'll start with the excitement of getting the tickets.

When I brought all of this up to my husband a couple of weeks ago we had decided to wait until April 1st to make a final decision. I worked and saved, but I was getting antsy that the programs the kids wanted would be filled. (We're using Y.E.S. tickets.) The Y.E.S. program allows your child to take a class at Disney with CMs. In our case we are taking Wild By Nature at Animal Kingdom, Physics: World in Motion at MK, and How Things Move at MK. Here is a link to the program's website:
Disney Y.E.S. Program- Individual Enrollment
You can do this program with a school, church, or scout group. Or as we did, individually.The link above is to the individual enrollment program.

Anyway, since I worked overtime last week, and because this is essentially an extra check for me, I had the money to go ahead and get the tickets. In addition to the three hour class, you have the option of adding on tickets for additional park days. We got an 8 day ultimate pass. It gives us access to 1 class for each ticketed person, 8 admissions to the 4 main parks with park hoppers, and 5 admissions to the 2 waterparks and Disney Quest. For my family of 6 it was $1317.00

David wasn't really ready to go full steam ahead. He had done some preliminary work on our taxes using TurboTax and we were going to owe the government some money :scared1:. (Not really sure how and Associate Pastor and CNA with 4 kids make enough money to owe the government, but there you have it.) Anyway, he had a couple more numbers to plug in, but was avoiding it because he didn't want to face reality. Not that I necessarily blame him. I pulled out the tax program and started inputting the additional data and being the in control macho male that he is :rolleyes1 he insisted on finishing it up. Turns out he made a mistake inputting the original data and we'll be getting money back. Not a lot, but some. At least enough to help out with the kids' curriculum for next year. (I'll get to that in a minute.) That gave me relief. He was still hemhawing around about it, but at that point I stopped listening and just went for it. If I waited on him for stuff like this it would never happen and since I'm the one paying for the trip, he only gets so much input!:lmao:

I had to wait for my check to post to my bank early this morning. My nurses were laughing at me 'cause I kept checking my bank account like every 30 minutes.Finally, it posted.:woohoo: Now, we could get this ball rolling. So I went over to the website and enrolled us, only to realize, Houston we have a problem.

One of the things about the program is that you cannot register more than two adults per family. Okay fine. Also, every child under the age of 13 must have an adult chaperone with them. Makes sense. Until... 3 of our kids classes are at the same time. My Mom and Dad who are going with us can't chaperone them because they don't have these specific class tickets. My husband and I can't possibly be in three different classes. Oh, and remember only 1 class per ticket, otherwise you have to pay an extra $28 class fee. Arrgghh...it's 3 a.m. and I can't call the Y.E.S. department because they don't open until 8 E.S.T. What to do? What to do?

Well, of course, WE all know what to do...the Disboards!:teacher: So I posted my question over in the budget thread and got an answer.:yay: The answer was to book it in two separate transactions. Me and my husband with 2 kids and my Mom and Dad with 2 kids. So it took a little bit, but done and done! I wound up having to call my Dad and explain the situation to him. he was really nice and had a check for their portion of the tickets written out before we got off the phone. :worship: He's also having to move his vacation times around a bit. They were planning on arriving a couple of days after we did, but with these tickets you have to pick them up in person and with a photo id. I look a lot like my Mom, but there is a 20 some odd year age difference! So they will be there with us the first week.

While I was waiting for all of this last night, I did reserve our 2 bedroom at Bonnet Creek. I went through Vacation Strategy and it wound up costing around $1300 for all of us for 11 nights. Oh and the tickets for all 8 of us came to $1760.64. Not bad for 11 days in the World or 12. I lose count.:laughing:
Here is a link to pictures/video of Bonnet Creek.
Vacation Strategy-Wyndham Bonnet Creek

Okay, I'll come back and post all of this in a shortened version along with everyone who is going!
 
Jennifer - GUESS WHAT?!?!?!

WE'LL BE THERE 8/25-9/04!!!!

I can't wait to see my dear friend again!! It's been way too long, like 20 years. And what better place for a reunion than the Happiest Place on Earth?
 
Jennifer - GUESS WHAT?!?!?!

WE'LL BE THERE 8/25-9/04!!!!

I can't wait to see my dear friend again!! It's been way too long, like 20 years. And what better place for a reunion than the Happiest Place on Earth?

OMG!!!!!!!!!!:banana::banana::banana::banana:It is me! :dance3::dance3:I saw the post on FB before I came over here! I am so super duper excited. I have been running around the house screaming for like 15 minutes!:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo: I totally just won the lottery!!!!:cheer2::cheer2::cheer2:OMG!I can't believe it! We are so going out to dinner and at least doing a couple of rides together or something! :cool1::cool1:This is soooooo awesome! We are doing those Y.E.S classes and Cmaeron really wanted to take the photography one but they aren't offering it while we are there. I was so going to message you on FB to see if y'all could come down for the day and see if Brett could give Cameron some pointers. I cannot tell you how excited I am!!!!!!!! Okay, back to FB to tell everyone I know!!!!!!! At some point I guess I should get in the shower before work. Lol!:lmao:

For the rest of you: Stay tuned to hear the latest of our plans. And oh yes.. there will be pictures. Before and Afters!!!!!!!! Pretty sure there will be an It's a Small World flag routine from our high school days linked to here from YouTube in the not so distant future!!!!!
 
OMG!!!!!!!!!!:banana::banana::banana::banana:It is me! :dance3::dance3:I saw the post on FB before I came over here! I am so super duper excited. I have been running around the house screaming for like 15 minutes!:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo: I totally just won the lottery!!!!:cheer2::cheer2::cheer2:OMG!I can't believe it! We are so going out to dinner and at least doing a couple of rides together or something! :cool1::cool1:This is soooooo awesome! We are doing those Y.E.S classes and Cmaeron really wanted to take the photography one but they aren't offering it while we are there. I was so going to message you on FB to see if y'all could come down for the day and see if Brett could give Cameron some pointers. I cannot tell you how excited I am!!!!!!!! Okay, back to FB to tell everyone I know!!!!!!! At some point I guess I should get in the shower before work. Lol!:lmao:

For the rest of you: Stay tuned to hear the latest of our plans. And oh yes.. there will be pictures. Before and Afters!!!!!!!! Pretty sure there will be an It's a Small World flag routine from our high school days linked to here from YouTube in the not so distant future!!!!!

MOST DEFINITELY!!


I couldn't wait to come home from school and tell Brett the great news. Brett won't mind giving a camera tutorial when we see you! As a matter of fact, I think a bunch of Brett's online Disney photo buddies will be down there around the same time, so maybe Cameron can have a bunch of private teachers.

PLEASE tell me you have that video somewhere from freshman year! All I remember is that I had an American flag and I had to wear a wedding dress when I got presented. I would love to see that again!
 
Okay, so weeks ago I promised a post with everyone who was going. however, uploading to photobucket and resizing the photos and then uploading to here is a pain in the butt! So it took me a a while. I never was able to fix the picture of my Dad. However, without further ado, here we go!

Mom.jpg

This is my Mom. Thankfully, she isn't on the Dis because shewould kill me. It isn't the most flattering picture I have, but it is the one on my computer. My Mom loves her grandkids. The last time we went she begged to go, but I put my foot down and said no. I didn't think that she would be able to keep up with us. Since then, she's dropped about 50 pounds and now, she isn't really super excited about this Disney trip. She's going because the grandkids want her to! She is a retired school teacher who now spends her free time watcing my niece.

My Dad is an electrical engineer who works for a government contracting plant. they work on military airplanes. 10 years ago he would've never agreed to this trip, but my niece has made a softie out of him![/SIZE][/FONT]

Family.jpg

This is our family in 2009 when we went to Disney. The kids have grown some. They're only so-so looking forward to the Disney trip. They would be jsut as happy going to SeaWorld in San Antonio, but Mom wouldn't. And we all know if Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!:lmao:

DH is a youth pastor. He is almost as excited about this trip as I am. Our last trip to Disneyworld was his first and he totally fell in love! He is a little wary about staying offsite1:goodvibes He'll be amazed once again!;)

I am a Nurse Tech at a small surgical center. Last time we went to Disney I was working at a Nursing Home and would've enver accumulated enough time off for this vacation. I love my job. I also homeschool the kids. Since I only work 3 nights a week it works out- for the most part :)

DS12 is the oldest. He is a Boy Scout and just started on our local swim team. He has been determined to join the army since he was 5. I'm making him aim for West Point!

DD10 was just diagnosed after Thanksgiving with Type I diabetes. She does pretty good wih it, but she is starting to enter those pre teen drama years.

DS9 is a Cub Scout. He loves flipping around in gymnastics. I pulled him out this year because he was costing me a fortune. Not to mention he was at the gym 8 hours a week. But we haven't been able to find an activity that interests him more so I'll probably let him go back to the gym after this Disney trip.

The baby in the picture is DS7. he just turned 7 and is ornery as the day is long. He gives me fits with his school. He can do way more than he will. He can read, he just won't. It drives me CRAZY!:confused3 He also is a Cub Scout.

So now you know who is going and more about them than you really desired to! And if you read earlier, one of my good friends from 5th -10th grade is going to be at Disney at the same time!!!!! I am sooooo super excited about that!:dance3:Hopefully, I can come across some photos and videos of us in high school.

So the short of it is:
4 adults
4 kids
12 nights at Bonnet Creek
8 days in the parks with park hoppers n Y.E.S. tickets
5 days to be split between the 2 Water Parks and Disney Quest
Total Cost: $3074 + travel expenses which will run around another $1000. My Mom and Dad covered the $440 for their park tickets.

The kids are each taking a Y.E.S class
DD- Wild By Nature at AK on 9/4
DS12- Properties of Motion (ages 12-17) MK on 9/7
DS9- Properties of Motion (ages 8-11) MK on 9/7
DS7- How Things Move (ages 5-7) MK on 9/7

So that's the long and short of it!
 
I'm happy your parents are going! I found the photo album you made for me when I moved away, and there is a picture of your mom in it. She was always so sweet!
 
Hey Carrie, I can't get my stupid pics to post in a decent size on here. they're always HUGE. I followed the directions on the sticky "How to post pics" Still coming out crazy big. I've been resizing the images in Adobe photoshop and saving them as a web based file then posting them to photobucket where I resize them again as a 320x240 pixel size, but then when I post them on here they are huge! Please help!
 

The baby in the picture is DS7. he just turned 7 and is ornery as the day is long. He gives me fits with his school. He can do way more than he will. He can read, he just won't. It drives me CRAZY!:confused3 He also is a Cub Scout.


Sounds like my 6.5 year old. His goal from 1-5 was to totally disrupt our every schooling moment.. he's better now but when it comes to HIS schooling forget it.. it's worse than pulling teeth..
 
Sounds like my 6.5 year old. His goal from 1-5 was to totally disrupt our every schooling moment.. he's better now but when it comes to HIS schooling forget it.. it's worse than pulling teeth..

:cool1: I'm so glad to know its not just my kid. Most homeschoolers I talk to say that when you get a boy like this, just teach 'em what you can and usually by third grade they'll straighten out and by fourth they'll be caught up with everyone else. I guess I'll find out with him!:laughing:
 
:cool1: I'm so glad to know its not just my kid. Most homeschoolers I talk to say that when you get a boy like this, just teach 'em what you can and usually by third grade they'll straighten out and by fourth they'll be caught up with everyone else. I guess I'll find out with him!:laughing:

ha ha.. yep.. my 8 year old ( girl) isn't disruptive but she learns at her own "I will do it when I want to not whne YOU tell me to"pace.. she's now only about 6 minths "behind" her peers and by fall should be all even..she'll be 4th grade..so yep..i say thats about right. My 6 year old knows things no 6 year old should know because he is around the other 2's science,history etc..but he still forget's the letter c and s..LOL
 
Hey Carrie, I can't get my stupid pics to post in a decent size on here. they're always HUGE. I followed the directions on the sticky "How to post pics" Still coming out crazy big. I've been resizing the images in Adobe photoshop and saving them as a web based file then posting them to photobucket where I resize them again as a 320x240 pixel size, but then when I post them on here they are huge! Please help!

I really have no idea! But I do think the pictures that you posted of your family are just fine, the size is perfect!

A couple of years ago, I might be able to better answer your question, but it's been a while since I posted pictures. I thought I remembered Photobucket asking what size you wanted to upload and it would automatically re-size it for you, but I just logged into my account and uploaded a picture and didn't see that option again. They must have changed something in there.
 





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