Don't be a Drag, Just be a Queen June 3-18 (MORE PICS ADDED 6/25!)

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

13 days until departure!

8 working days
8 school days

My desktop died, and it took my packing list with it. I was able to e-mail some of my documents to my laptop, but not all of them would open. The packing list is one that won't open. That means I will spend a chunk of today fighting with the computers or retyping the entire packing list.

DH's new camera lens arrived yesterday so he is happy.

DS's drama with his friends has evened out a bit for now. Hopefully they can manage to keep it that way. But I doubt it.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I seem to have misplaced my packing mojo. I did get the Packing List to print, which is nothing short of a miracle. I just don't feel like packing. Which is so far out of character for me I can't even begin to wrap my head around it.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

DS has grown another quarter inch in the past week! It fascinates me and kind of scares me at the same time. It's almost like you can see him getting taller by the day. I hope he doesn't end up with a suitcase full of clothes that are too small.

We gave DH his new watch this morning. He likes it.

There is a problem with the camera lens. It is an older, used lens and it is "sticking". Not sure what he will end up doing about that. I imagine he'll send it back.

I pulled out 2 of our carry-on bags, but I have yet to pack a single thing. I am always packed 12 days before departure. Not sure what my problem is.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

DS's carry-on is packed. One side of his closet is stuff we aren't bringing, the other side is alternating shirts/shorts paired into the outfits that will go in his checked bag. It's progress, I suppose. I think he needs more shorts. No clue when I'll have time to do that.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

12 days 'til departure
8 school days
8 working days

 

[TeresaG]

Great progress!! I can't believe you already have a carry-on packed! Yeesh. Makes me feel waaaaaay behind! lol.

All I've been doing it collecting items (diapers, wipes, cream, sunblock etc etc) and put them in bags TO be packed. Nothing has been packed yet! hehe.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I took DS to Nordstrom, Old Navy, and Macy's. We bought him 8 more pairs of shorts. I just know he is going to be putting on shorts at WDW and discovering they are too small.

The camera lens DH ordered has mushroomed into a debacle of relatively epic proportions. He said the lens "sticks", so he wanted to return it. Fine. he called them, printed off a return label, ready to go. I told him not to wait for the refund before he ordered another lens - just order it now. So he did. Only the company had a MASSIVE screw up and processed an order for TWO new lenses. AND THEY CHARGED HIM FOR TWO! So now we have been charged for 3 lenses. I have no idea how long it is going to take to get this sorted, and I have no idea how long after that it will take to get it all refunded. I am LIVID.

I did manage to throw some crap in a carry-on for myself. I am second guessing the inventory sheet for the Owner's Locker so I am worried that I will leave out something thinking we have it, then get there and realize we don't.

My eye still looks awful. I think I am just cranky in general. Hopefully I will manage to pull it together.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

11 days until departure
8 working days
8 school days

Despite the fact that there are only 8 days of school left, DS has a staggering amount of stuff to do. He has a Biology review that will take (no kidding) at least 7.5 more hours worth of work. That's due next week. He has 2 monologues that must be memorized and performed for the Theatre faculty. Last night he had no less than 100 pieces of paper on the floor that had to be organized into a binder for a binder check today. Yes, he could have done that Saturday, but 11 PM Sunday seemed like a better idea. I don't know what else he has lurking that I don't know about.

He told me this morning his toe is messed up. He has trouble with the nail on his big toe. It's not exactly ingrown, but sort of like that. He has WIDE feet. He likes to wear NARROW shoes. You see where this is going. I may have DH take him to the Dr. before we leave so we'll know what we're supposed to do to take care of it. I am SURE they will say STOP wearing narrow shoes.

I am going to try to start working on my checked bag this week.

I washed most of DS's new stuff last night and hung it with the rest of the stuff for his checked bag. I need to do one more load of light colors since I was afraid the darker shorts might fade.

I need a couple of things from Target, which I can probably grab today.

Next weekend will be serious crunch time. Those 3 days will be IT - my only time off before departure. Eek.

 

[Candy30]

Hey! I can't believe you are not packed!!! How is it things always go wrong at the last minute. How is your eyelid? Maybe once you are feeling better you will get into the swing of things.

My DD has finals all this week! She has been a studying fool this weekend and last week. I understand about the tons of work. I can't believe your DS grew some more. I laughed when you said that he may have clothes that are too small. For some reason I though of the movie ELF!

Hang in there! In a few days this drama will all be forgotten!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hey! I can't believe you are not packed!!! How is it things always go wrong at the last minute. How is your eyelid? Maybe once you are feeling better you will get into the swing of things.

My DD has finals all this week! She has been a studying fool this weekend and last week. I understand about the tons of work. I can't believe your DS grew some more. I laughed when you said that he may have clothes that are too small. For some reason I though of the movie ELF!

Hang in there! In a few days this drama will all be forgotten!

I know - it's crazy for me to NOT be packed. I am ALWAYS packed by the 12 day mark.

DS starts final exams Friday, then Tu-Th next week.

I just hope if he DOES grow that the new shorts plus some bigger ones I bought on clearance and just now took the tags off/washed will get him through the trip. It is NOT my plan to spend the whole vacation sitting in the DVC laundry room! I think he has 11 pairs that are bigger than the ones from last year.

My eyelid is "eh". Still swollen, discolored along the lashline, generally annoying. I will finish the doxycycline on Wednesday. I guess at that point I will have to decide if I want to ask the Dr. for another week's worth. The eye specialist seems to think a long course is better, but this script if just from my regular Dr.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

10 days 'til departure
7 working days
7 school days

Got the last few things I needed at Target.

It briefly crossed my mind to pack in the evenings this week, but then again, nah. DH is still under the mistaken impression that we aren't bringing a shoe bag. Silly man. In the past we have taken FIVE checked bags. We have manged to get it down to four, but there is no way we can manage with only three. Shoe bag.

He shipped back the defective camera lens yesterday. And he was shocked to discover the shipping label was JUST a label - it was NOT pre-paid. Well, I could have told him that! Now, in light of the enormous debacle this has become I DO think it would be thoughtful of them to refund the shipping. ESPECIALLY since they sent him a defective product! But quibbling about shipping seems silly when there are still charges for 3 flippin' lenses on the credit card.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Despite a song and dance about them recalling the box from UPS, the camera people were apparently unsuccessful with this maneuver. So, now we have 3 COMPLETED charges on the credit card and 2 lenses in transit. Incompetence at it's finest. It's going to be weeks before we get all this crap fixed. SO ridiculous.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I posted on the camera people's FaceBook Wall. A customer service dude said to e-mail him with all of the details and he will look into it. Um, yay? Look into it and WHAT? Apologize for the inconvenience? How about looking into it and DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT? Well, DH has all the transaction details so he will have to e-mail them.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

DS is completely packed. I just need to do his quart bag and get his contacts together, which will be a project for next week.

My suitcase is out of the closet now so I can start packing my own stuff.

We're having a bit of a tornado problem at the moment so I have stopped packing for tonight.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Single Digits!!

9 days 'til departure
6 working days
6 school days

DS left the gigantic Biology packet IN HIS LOCKER yesterday, so he lost an entire evening. He did work on other stuff last night. Well, sort of. The storms were crazy.

Hopefully I will be able to start packing my own stuff tonight.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Craptastic.

The hail dented the beejeezus out of my car. Because I needed THAT to deal with on top of all the stuff to get ready for the trip. I called the insurance already. She said I should hear back from someone within 48 hours. OK, whatever.

I decided DS needed more underwear, so I went this morning and bought more. And I got him another pair of Crocs.

He says his toe is better, but I have a feeling the Dr. will say it is not. I figured it would be smart to have some extra Crocs since the ones he has are black. Those will be very hot for WDW. I tried to look for sneakers online, but they are either too narrow or he doesn't like the style. I already told him if the Dr. says he needs to wear WIDE shoes we are going to buy plain white New Balance and he will deal with it. I am over arguing about shoes. It's a health issue now, so there really is no room for debate.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

8 days 'til departure!
5 working days
5 school days

Actually, there aren't 5 proper school days. More like 5 technical school days. DS starts exams today, but just one exam then classes in the afternoon. He has already taken some of his exams, so tomorrow he won't have to go to school. Next week he will have 1 PM dismissal Tu, We, Th. Then he's finished.

He found out yesterday that he passed all sections of the state test, so we don't have to worry about that. This isn't a "mandatory pass" year for those tests, but let's be honest - better to pass them anyway.

He got his yearbook yesterday. It is much smaller than my high school yearbooks were, but then again, it's a smaller school. The entire thing is in color, too. I was on the yearbook staff back in the Dark Ages and we had to sell a TON of ads to pay for color pages in our books. If we had 8 or 10 pages in color we thought we were hot stuff.

My checked bag is packed! Managed to get that done last night. I am having problems deciding which shoes to bring. But I can work that out this weekend.

I am starting to feel like I have a better grip on things now. My eye looks kind of normal. I don't really want another week on antibiotics, so for now I'll just see what happens. It might keep improving over the next week. At least I hope it does.

All 3 of DH's camera lenses are still in transit, due to arrive today. They better process the refund on the returned lens like LIGHTNING. I think DH said they are closed Friday and Saturday, though, and if they take Memorial Day it could be Tuesday before they even start thinking about processing a refund. And then there is the issue of a return label for the lens we DIDN'T ORDER. DH should have demanded that return label already. Because if they are closed on Friday he can't get it tomorrow! And it better be FREE OVERNIGHT SHIPPING because this was THEIR error.

We have $1000 in insurance deductibles to pay for hail damage to the cars, so now I am even more irritated about these camera people tacking an extra lens!

 

[Candy30]

GIRL !!!! Can you catch a break?!?!?!? $1,000 deductible!! I am sending dump truck full of pixie dust!

Well your packing is off to a good start. It's nice your son can find out what his grades are so fast. My DD finds out her grades on her finals tomorrow.

Isn't it funny how they can charge your card with the quickness but when it comes to refunds...it takes forever.

I am happy your eyelid is healing. Do you think you should call for the anti biotics JIC? Then you could have them if you detect any problems.

Yearbook days. I was on the yearbook too! Our books were like volumes and color pages were few and far between. I wouldn't be surprised if by the time my daughter graduates they are in 3D

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Candy, it's $500 per vehicle, and both of them are dented.

DS won't know his final exam scores until his report card arrives (while we are gone). The scores he got are just for state standardized testing (TAKS).

I am conflicted on calling for more doxycycline. It makes me very nauseous, so I would prefer to be done with it. If I need it in FL I'll have my Dr. call it in to the Walgreen's or whatever is close to WDW.

Part of the reason DS's yearbook seems so small is because there are no sports teams. By the time you do pages for every team, boys and girls, it adds a lot of bulk to the book. I haven't had a chance to actually LOOK at it - he held it out and showed it to me for about 3 seconds yesterday.

He said he finished the nightmare Biology review. I hope that is true. It would be nice not to have to pester him about it all weekend.

I went to the mall today to buy him more polos. I JUST returned 2 because I figured we didn't need them. Well, it turns out, we do. So I bought 3 today. 3 cheaper ones because I know he will wear them once and that will be it.

I stopped in to look at some sandals. As I was paying for them I mentioned to the guy that the prohibitively expensive Ecco sandals I bought last year REEK. They smell like a herd of goats. I was SUPER careful with them. Always let them air out after each wearing, sprayed them with the spray from the shop, never got them wet. And they STINK. He said if I bring them in he will give me a new pair because they should NOT stink! I thought that was so nice! I like them, but I wasn't going to bring them to WDW and have my luggage smell like goat. Hopefully the new ones won't have that problem. He said there may have been a problem with the anti-microbial the factory used on them. While I would LOVE for that to be the case, DS had some Ecco sandals a couple of years ago that smelled so bad I put them on the balcony while we were at WDW. And they were brand new when we started the trip, so they started to smell pretty quickly!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

The shorts I bought for DS today still had the sensor tag on them. So we went BACK to the mall and he talked me into buying him another pair of shorts and 2 shirts. OK, we are FINISHED shopping!

I found the box for the goat sandals, and the receipt was in the box! So now the man will have no doubt that the shoes DID come from his shop. He said I just need to bring the shoes, but I feel better about it having the box and the receipt.