Dis Breast Cancer Survivors Part II -GAGWTA!

[Pea-n-Me]

Sorry I missed you, Laura. Yes, I'm sometimes up at that time. Were you having trouble sleeping? I remember what taking steroids felt like. You have a wonderful time on your trip, it sounds awesome.

You are in a horrible position, but one that I think many of us who have had breast cancer would be grateful for...the opportunity to kill off the beast before it can pull the first punch!

Now that is a great way of putting it!

 

[lookingforward]

Laura..your trip sounds great! I myself am BUMMED that I can't take advantage of disney's great deal. I don't have a week of vacation left to book! After I return to work on 11/17 I will be at 0 hours of accrued leave! I will have to settle for weekends there....maybe they can give locals a good deal!

Terry, I know waiting is hard. Hang in there...and think positive. No matter the outcome you are going to be WELL. That is wonderful position to be in.

I am headed to disney TODAY! YEA! I am still sore as ever but my doctor gave me the go ahead. Other than some swelling (normal) he feels I am healing well. We will be there till Wednesday. Lots of good eating and I gave up my deluxe fixation and booked the All-Star Family suite to save money and still have room to relax. We did, however, go with the deluxe dining. I will diet when I get back! HA! You are all in my thoughts and I will report back soon! (its been a LONG year since me and my kids have been to disney together). I don't count the quick may trip where I was bald, sick and tired. THis is going to be FUN!

 

[NHAnn]

Laura...I was actually sleeping soundly last night. (Not a common occurrence!)

Maureen---have fun!! (Bring frozen peas for the swelling! )

Terry...my thougths and prayers are with you!

I have next Tuesday off for Veteran's Day and am taking Monday too, for a nice loooong weekend Going to try to be productive as well as rest/relax. First on the agenda is getting some iris bulbs my cousin gave me into the ground before it's too late

GAGWTA!

 

[MerryPoppins]

Ah, I saw the deal Disney was offering and wondered if any of my GAGWTA pals would take advantage of it. Now I can live vicariously through you.

Waiting for any medical reports is tough. I hate the not-knowing and the way the days just crawl by.

I'm needing to do some cleaning up around here. Living among the boxes in a torn-up house is taking it's toll. It's easier to let things pile up when visually you don't see it for all the other mess. DH says it's time to call for estimates and I hate to have anyone see the house like this. So I'm trying to get everyone whipped into shape to share the load with me. Thing is, it's hard to know what to do because nothing is going to make it look good. I guess we just need to put away what we can, stack the rest and clean.

 

[CherylDan]

Hey all....welcome to my family drama.....

According to DD19 I am the "worst mom EVER", and "JUST SOOOOO MEAN!!!!" All this because of the two new "really unfair" rules I just implemented: 1. If DD is not home, her DBF does not need to be here either, and 2. DBF is no longer allowed to spend the night at our house.

The old rule was he could occassionly spend the night, with permission (not together, he slept in the basement). They abused that privilege by making it very frequent (1-2 times per week, and didn't even ask first), so I said no more. Then today, DD was supposed to work this morning, but she had spent the night visiting DBF at college and she brought him home with her before going to work, then left him here and went to work! I mean, WTH?!? His family lives about 20 minutes from us, if he wanted to ride home with her, she should have taken him home - not brought him here. Apparently after she got to work she told them she was sick (she has a cold) and came back home, so he was only here for about an hour or so alone, but still. Besides, I was still asleep - kinda creepy, kwim?

So, anyway, she just left in a huff with DBF in tow. Oh well.....at least he apologized after I explained the new rules to him. Kinda funny though, DD was in such a hurry to leave, she went out with her robe on instead of a coat! I assume she is just taking him home. Hopefully not all the way back to college, just to his house.

That new Disney deal sure does look good! Couldn't manage to talk DH into that, since we already have a trip planned next month. Congrats to everybody who can take them up on their offer!

Maureen, have a great trip! I know what you mean by the trip when you were bald and sick and tired not counting....mine was the same way, right in the middle of chemo. I'm soooo looking forward to the one coming up!

Merry, sending you some to help with that stacking and cleaning!

Laura, your trip sounds fabulous! You'll have to let us know how Bistro de Paris is.....I've never been there either, but it sure does sound interesting.

Terry, waiting is the pits.

I hope everybody is having a good weekend! GAGWTA!!!!

 

[snappy]

Ah, Cheryl, this age is difficult. I do think you should stand your ground or they will run right over you (I have been there and I feel your pain).

It is the ageold tug of war of wanting to be independent but not acting independent in a responsible fashion.

It is especially difficult when they come home from college after having basically free rein there.

All you can do is wait it out. As you know with your older daughter, things will improve.

I am getting better at letting go. The tendency to overmanage things was my worst issue for awhile. I find my relationship with DD18 and DS20 has improved the more I have let go.

 

[snappy]

~~~***GAGWTA sistas***~~~

I'm not sure if you all knew of this offer just out last night. I booked the the four of us at the Beach Club for 8 days with 8 day base tickets for $2660 next June!

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/special/offerDetail?id=FY09Q2ValueOfferPage

Can't tell you how much time I have spent dreaming up trips using this deal. We are doing another DVC stay in May and would love to add on some days at another Epcot resort. I am thinking either BWI or BC. There are some really nice BWI deluxe rooms that have more square footage. I think I would like those better but you can't beat the SAB pool you get when you stay BC. Heck, I would love to stay Swan/Dolphin instead. Just get me to the Epcot resort area and I am a happy camper. Although I do jhave say I feel a little weird talking about another trip having just coming back a month ago. You have to jump on these deals when they come out though.

I even talked to DH yesterday. I think he is more likely to agree to another trip than he is to buy more DVC points, which may be preferably anyway as long as Disney is forced by the economy to offer these deals.

Unfortunately, what is happening with real estate in the economy is affecting his employer. Louisiana so far has been somewhat unaffected by itall. I think that may change soon.

I am holding tightly onto my not for profit accountant gig. We gotta get our two older offspring out of college come hell or high water.

DD18 has been talking about choosing a business degree over premed which is fine with me. Chemistry, although she had a great HS Chem teacher, is not making much sense to her. I am trying to bite my tongues from telling her it might just be this teacher and that she shouldn't give it up, without taking a second chem course. She does like Biology but seems to prefer the business courses she has.

She does have an idea of combining a business degree with an environmental science degree. It appears that she is trying to guage how our country is headed. She worries that the current crisis has mande a strict business degree less marketable, thus the environmental direction, as the environmental cause seems to be all the rage and high on our president elect's priority list.

I just want her to be able to be self sufficient sooner rather than later. She has gone through all her spending money like water, and I had to bail her out of her negative balance debit card account.

Our son is doing much better in the financial department but he never buys clothes or shoes, only books.

DD18 says some of the girls on her dorm floor that she sometimes hangs with from New York graduated from boarding schools just as expensive as Tulane with no scholarships.

Made we worried she is in the wrong place. I keep hoping she makes good contacts while in college. I am not sure who she is being thrown in with, although this year Tulane did get the highest GPA freshman class in their entire history.

Maybe they are smart and rich? Or maybe WERE rich until the stock market meltdown.

 

[SeaSpray]

Thanks again for all of the good wishes, while I wait for the 21st to get here. Actually my life has been extremely stressful, but for other reasons, so I haven't had much time to dwell on this much. In a nutshell, we're facing some major issues/problems with DS20 Hopefully it'll all end up ok, but in the meantime, we're taking things one day at a time. I'm such a planner that I never liked the saying "one day at a time", but now I really understand it.

On a more happy note, we took advantage of the 4/3 deal and we're booked for next May. Whether we end up actually going or not, remains to be seen! LOL We're booked on a cruise for next April, and also want to go to Disney World next August for a party at the Polynesian resort, so out of the 3 planned vacations, I'm not sure which one(s) we'll end up actually doing. lol

I hope everyone is having a good weekend! GAGWTA!

P.S. Cheryl: I can relate to some of the issues you're facing with your DD! We're facing some similar issues with DS20. They just don't understand that it's OUR house and OUR rules. lol

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Well after reading all of your posts, I'm enjoying age 11 even more. LOL

As for trips, my biggest thing was airfares. We've all wanted to book a trip so badly but flights were too high to make it work. But I was doing my usual fare watching last week and after I played around with dates a bit, I noticed SWA had suddenly dropped a few flights to $59. I called to tell my DH @ work and he said to book them, so I did, and apparently just in the nick of time - a few hours later, they were back up to $119; then the Disney deal came out and now some of the same flights are actually up to $220! So we got flights for the four of us for under $600. I changed our room only res to the 4/3 deal (which included tix, quick svc dining w/ refillable mugs, and a $200 GC), so we're all set for a winter trip which will be our XMas present to eachother. We're very excited, it's been a tough year, especially for DH.

I was intrigued with this Quick Svc Dining, new for 2009. We'd done the regular dining plan a few times (including the first week it came out, which was a great deal back then, $90/day for the 4 of us, tips included) but things we didn't like about it were a) too much food (not that we don't love it), b) ADRs (hate watching time and/or eating when not hungry), and c) increased cost (especially now that our kids are "adults", yet still don't eat much). This gives us 56 decent meals (and 56 snacks) on our own time, at places we would normally eat anyway. Disney had a good idea there, IMO. Anyone else book it?

 

[snappy]

Linda, did I miss it, where are y'all staying?

Yep the counter service looks good to me too.

And watchout.

Eleven becomes thirteen becomes eighteen.

Where does the time go???

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

GAGWTA, Ladies!

Maureen- Have a fabulous trip! I am excited to hear all about it!

Ann - Enjoy your long weekend! This week will be pretty standard for me, but Nov. 13 - Nov. 22 I am going to be working a ton of overtime. I do have extra time off at Thanksgiving, so that will be nice.

Merry - Good luck battling your clutter! I always lose that battle.

Cheryl - Sorry your DD is angry. Hopefully she will get over it quickly!

Laurie - How is your mom doing?

Terry - I hope you can get things sorted out with your son!

Linda - YAY for a trip!

I tried and tried to figure out a way to take advantage of the "deal" but there was just no way to do it. DH doesn't have his vacation schedule for '09 yet, the only week DS has off is Spring Break, and the airfare would have negated any savings. We are booked for 9 concierge nights at AKV in August, and we already have the airfare for that, so I need to just suck it up and focus on that trip instead of trying to add another one.

Mom is doing well. She has 5 more Taxol to go! She did get her flu shot and a pneumonia shot this week, so I can stop pestering. She still says she and my sister are driving down for Thanksgiving.

Hopefully she will take some time to visit with DS. He really feels left out because she makes such a big deal about my other sister's kids. One, because they are girls, two, because they are preschoolers, and three, because my sister is selfish bonehead with no clue how to raise her children properly. Mom is inexplicably drawn to that like a moth to flame. I get that she prefers the girls, but she should work a little harder to mask her favoritism. She is the only grandparent DS has, so it would be nice if he felt like she valued him.

 

[laurabelle]

~~~***GAGWTA sistas***~~~

Maureen- Have a magical trip! I know you will enjoy it so much more this time!

Ann- I love iris! Unfortunately so do the !

Linda- That's a great rate on your airfare! Hubby and I got $78 each way for this trip. I read about the new Quick Service Dining Plan too. I am thinking about it, especially since we are going to allow the girls to go off of their own some, it would be nice to let them just use the meal plan and we are not going to do sit down every night, maybe a couple of dinners. The price is good for what you get, I'm just a little intimidated by the 56 snack credits! I have used up snack credits by bringing snacks home and freezing them. I still have fudge from Main St. in my freezer from Sept. I want a report when you get back. It's great that you can go when they are offering the $200 gift card too!

Elizabeth- I'm glad to hear your mom is doing well. I'm sorry about the family situation though. I totally understand. I hope with your guidance they are able to have a wonderful relationship. Boys are terrific...those of us with teen girls might wanna trade you!

CherylDan- I've talked to my oldest (HS sophomore) about college and the possibility of living at home and going to an in state school to save her money. We cannot foot the whole bill for school, the kids will have to earn scholarships and take out loans (now who's the meanest mom in the world???) I wonder sometimes how it will work out. I have no advice but I can commiserate with you.

Terry- Well I was hoping for more happy distractions for you. At least you have the deal booked, that's awesome!

Melissa- I hope everyone there pitches in to help and things go well with the contractor meeting and you can get the ball rolling downhill!

Laurie- My youngest is interested in becoming an environmental attorney. My oldest is loving psychology, but I told her it only works as a good paying career if you go all the way and become a dr. I hope they both get jobs working for the govt. for some security!
So did you book the 7 for 4 deal?

I'm so excited for those sistas with trips in the works! I knew it could benefit lots of us. I am sticking with my budget plans for only one Disney trip this year. With the discount, it's a nice amount of time in a great resort so hopefully it will tide us over for the year. We are hoping to be working on our kitchen in the spring. Ikea's kitchen sale ends tomorrow and we are mulling over whether we are ready to buy now and sit on the cabinets until we are ready to start. We need to either fly out to CO to visit my in laws over the summer or fly them here. My oldest dd may be taking a 1/2 credit required Health class over the summer to get it out of the way, so there goes the month of July. Then driver's ed sometime in Aug.

Four more days!!!

 

[snappy]

JSK, Mom is hanging in there.

I was sorry to hear that your DS is slighted in this way by your mom. When they are small they might not take it to heart but he is old enough to feel the slight.

Laura, you have been to the Beach Club before, right? The girls are gonna love that pool complex. And they are getting to the age where they can have more freedom. When we go we will doubtless have a friend for DD13, That really worked for us last year, although we had them stay with us as they were young with the exception of going to the pool for a while by themselves.

I am being pressure to combine a Disney trip with Universal. I was thinking we would have to STAY st Universal, but I think I have DH convinced that as I do not have any interest in Universal, that we should stay at WDW.

We need either two rooms or a villa, so I am playing with the options. ASt least I know we have 5 days in a BW 2 BR. However, nothing else looks good to me right now, and that is frustrating. I just keep comparing to BW and I am down on non-Epcot locations.

I want everyone to have fun, and I want to relax.

 

[laurabelle]

Laurie- Yes, we have stayed at BC before and loved it! I have no desire to go to Universal either...but thankfully no one else in the family does. Yeah, I'm also hung up on the Epcot resorts area. It's so convenient and I think it's the right choice for letting the kids go off on their own and hubby and I relaxing. Do you already have your DVC room booked? Maybe you can book the room package before the DVC stay then spread out in the 2br.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Thanks, Laura & Laurie.

It seems like there has never been a good time for DS to spend time with my mom. When he was born my parents were still married and my sister was only 4. I didn't want DS to be around my father, so that limited his contact with Mom, too. After my father moved out he still showed up at Mom's house all the time. That was partly her fault for not setting any boundaries.
The times DS did go to their house my sister was brutally mean to him and Mom didn't really do anything about it. DH and I very nearly left a hotel on our 10th anniversary to go get DS, but Mom assured me that she would make my sister be nice. We worried about him the whole night and didn't enjoy our evening AT ALL.

After Mom lost her house (thanks to my father) she moved into an apartment that was really too small for DS to spend the night. Of course now I wish we had made more of an effort to have DS see her during that time, because now that she lives out of state he doesn't see her unless we fly up there. Hindsight is 20/20, isn't it? If she had known what all was coming I think she would have stayed here in TX, but she didn't have a job, her credit cards were maxed out, and her sister was offering her a free place to live while she got sorted out. It never occurred to her that she would have cancer less than 2 years after she moved.

DH's parents adopted him when his mom was in her 40's and his dad was in his 50's. They both died before DS was born. MIL would have loved DS to no end, so I am sad they never got to meet. DS really got cheated in the grandparent department.

 

[annrae]

Hi Everyone: It's been awhile since I've posted - it's a busy time of the year for me. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying planning all of these wonderful trips. We are still tossing around the great "deal" that Disney is offering. We are flying to Disney on January 10 and will be returning on January 14. It is a very short trip and it was planned around our DDIL who was going to run the Disney Marathon. However, they are going to welcome a new little one into the world in March so the marathon has been put on hold for a year or two. This will be our third grandchild and we are thrilled! Is anyone planning on running the marathon or will any of you be at WDW during that time period? We will be staying at the Saratoga this trip. I love the Boardwalk also and find it so convenient with Epcot and Hollywood so close by.

Hugs to all of you. I have not forgotten any of you and think of you often.
Barbara

 

[annrae]

Hi Everyone: It's been awhile since I've posted - it's a busy time of the year for me. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying planning all of these wonderful trips. We are still tossing around the great "deal" that Disney is offering. We are flying to Disney on January 10 and will be returning on January 14. It is a very short trip and it was planned around our DDIL who was going to run the Disney Marathon. However, they are going to welcome a new little one into the world in March so the marathon has been put on hold for a year or two. This will be our third grandchild and we are thrilled! Is anyone planning on running the marathon or will any of you be at WDW during that time period? We will be staying at the Saratoga this trip. I love the Boardwalk also and find it so convenient with Epcot and Hollywood so close by.

Hugs to all of you. I have not forgotten any of you and think of you often.
Barbara

 

[snappy]

Hi Barbara and everyone.

I finally succumbed and booked 5 nights in 2 rooms at Pop right before we move over to our 2BR DVC unit at BWV.

I could not resist when I got a pin email that arrived today in the wee hours, pretty good deal as we need two rooms, and I am getting 2 $500 gift cards we can used for food all week.

Pop is not Beach Club or Boardwalk, but this is ending up cheaper than the buy 4 get 3 for us, partly because we are only staying 5 days and partly due to the gift cards.

I think this is a great promotion, if you get the pin, check it out.

Apparently there are several pin codes for 2009 out there, one for free dining, one for get kids in free.

This one is great for us.

We can go in May since now that DD13 is older, she gets out of school earlier as exams are scheduled earlier than the normal school year and there are no further classes after exams for 7th and 8th graders.

One plus for her growing up, I guess.

Anyone else get this pin for next year? It bears consideration.

GAGWTA!!

 

[laurabelle]

~~~***GAGWTA sistas***~~~

Barbara- I'm so excited about the new little one! How is your dil doing? I hope you have a fun relaxing trip! It's so nice to have something fun to look forward to after the holidays are over.

Laurie- Congrats on the great deal! I love Pop! I got one of the pin offers too and called hoping to either get a better deal than I have booked or to add on more days. Unfortunately my pin offer is for kids 3-9, free tickets and dining...great, but my kids are too old. I called to see if there were any alternate offers...nope. I hear there's a bounceback offer in the rooms right now, but the dates for the 4 for 7 are better for us. I wish I could go earlier than June. Currently the last day of school is June 18th! It could shorten if they don't use all their allotted snow days.

Elizabeth- We can only use what we've learned from this in the hopes of being the very best grandmas to our children's children if we are so blessed...

I keep repacking according to the weather report. Right now it's supposed to be 85 on Friday and 80 with 40% chance of rain on Sat. We decided since we have all day Sat. (flight leaves at 7:45 p.m.) and the weather for the pool is better on Fri. we are going to skip a fancy dinner and use the money to buy two day tickets. I even priced out doing APs or non-expiring tickets to use next June, but it's still cheaper this way since it's just the two of us. We'll go to Epcot Friday and MK on Sat.
I'm really hoping to meet Tink!

 

[snappy]

You are up early again, Laura, Are the steriods still affecting you in that department?

Happy planning on our special trip with your DH.

So good for you to have two trips in the works.

I would love to go to WDW during Mardi Gras (Febr 24) on the 7 for 4 offer but DH and DD13 both love going so much to New Orleans parades so much, I hate to bring it up. I like going but find the day so tiring as of course we never do just one parade, it is more of a day long event complete with a longer road trip that usual due to heavy traffic.

I guess DS20 and DD18 will be doing their own Mardi Gras partying from now on. Although I am hoping I can entice them over to Dh's niece's house as a location to have as a base as it is safer.

Also, DD would have to miss 3 school days which isn't very cool, although many do, she prefers not to.

I am loving how seriously she is taking school. She informed me MOnday that she has 100's this 9 weeks in 5 or her 7 subjects.

I am proud as the premier soccer practices and out of town games take a lot of time and effort. I think it helps that her friends are like minded.

I have to say the CMs yesterday who helped me get my reservation in place were great. One lovely lady in particular I really bonded with. Her sweet mom Velvia was just diagnosed with invasive cancer 2 weeks ago. I told her about out thread, and offered to "talk" to her mom. She was so touched she was or almost was in tears.

I sure hope she finds us here.