Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust; searching for the magic

[Disneyland_Mama]

Can I be your 11th reader?

Sounds like a great beginning... can't wait to read more!

 

[PrincessV]

I'm still here!

 

[Angelrose]

Still patiently waiting for the next installment.

 

[Goldeelox9]

Great Trip Report

 

[S.Poppins]

Shout out to Disneyland Mama! - Haven't "seen" ya in a while!

Mousehouse - congrats on good news! (a little late, I know) So you guys do the Renaissance fair thing. Every year in a town close to us they do a huge Medieval faire. Hundreds come and stay in tents and joust and have battles and feasts. Looks like so much fun!! We enjoyed going as observers last year.

 

[mousehouselover]

Wow, I've picked up a few more readers and haven't lost any! This is so cool!

Hi DLMama! Welcome aboard Goldeelox! Glad y'all are taking a chance on me.

Here's my next installment. It's a bit late since A called when we were on our way home from dinner. She and I can talk for hours, especially if we haven't had te chance to catch up for a week or so. She had good news tonight, she got a promotion at work! I'm so happy for and proud of her. She took a few minutes to read what I had posted and she gave it a . I hope she finally bites the bullet and joins DIS instead of lurking all the time. She's got a good reason, but that'll go in my TR so keep your eyes pealed.

A side trip, out of the blue....

After the faire we were both exhausted and work was still making me crazy. It was bad enough I went to my supervisor and told her I needed a few days or I was in danger of suffering from burnout. I've had mixed feelings about my job for a while and the way thing are dealt with really drives me crazy somedays. So we decided that if I just needed a few days I could be spared the following week and I called DH to tell him to look into going to Chicago. He's wanted to go to Medieval Times near there for a while and I was intrigued by the huge aquarium that some of the girls at work talked about. A told me about a Brazillian grill that was there. She and M have one near their apartment and eat there once a week. They took me when I visited with them over the summer. I enjoyed it and wanted to take DH. So, with a few ideas, a week to make things happen and now the financial ability to do it, we started planning a mini get away. T works for a hotel chain and we can get family discounts if we stay in one of that brand hotels (nice hotels, usually named one of the top brands internationally.) DH called her to find out about using the discount and looked for a hotel. By the time I got home that day, he had reserved the hotel, bought tickets to Medieval Times and planned our travel route. This man works fast when he has a reason to.

 

[dismom9761]

Another great installment.Mini trips can really keep a person going.

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Shout out to Disneyland Mama! - Haven't "seen" ya in a while!

Mousehouse - congrats on good news! (a little late, I know) So you guys do the Renaissance fair thing. Every year in a town close to us they do a huge Medieval faire. Hundreds come and stay in tents and joust and have battles and feasts. Looks like so much fun!! We enjoyed going as observers last year.

Hi Stacey!!! I'm still around, I've been lurking!!

BTW, loved your dining report.... I changed some of my ADR's because of it!

Sorry for the hijack, MHL! Lovin' your trippie!

 

[dopeyfanatic]

What a blessing to get that money! I hope your dh is ok! Sounds like everything is taking a turn for the better for you guys!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[mousehouselover]

Many thanks for the well wishes and encouragement. I've never consdered myself to be much of a writer and bow before the TR writting gods and goddesses here on DIS. I haven't read alot of TRs but I know there are some pretty popular and amazing ones out there. I'm actually humbled that y'all are still with me.

We rented a car so we weren't putting more wear and tear on my 12yr old Chevy or even older Mazda. It was such a treat to be in a new car. We had a CD player, power everything and outlets for our brand new laptop. (DH's splurge on himself with his new found wealth.) We drove up after I got off work on a Wed afternoon. It was a nice day and we had a pleseant trip. Thursday morning we went over to Shedd's Aquarium. The weather had turned a bit chilly and I was really cold by the time we got there from the parking garage. Dh went into the gift shop and bought me a bright red long sleeved shirt; which is now one of me favorite shirts to wear. The displays were fantastic. I love ocean life and the displays were really fun informative. There wasn't a ton of people there and we got to wander at our own pace. The baby beluga whale was so cute and we loved reef tanks. We took in a trainer's show and learned about the training for thier new seal pup. I got selected to interact with him and got kissed on the cheek. I smelled 'fishy' for the rest of the afternoon but it was one of the coolest things I've done. We found a few goodies for the youngins before heading back to the hotel. Dinner at Medieval times was good. I say that because the food wasn't as yummy as we remembered from our MT expereince in Orlando. DH and I both enjoy jousting and sword play. We picked up on the choreography and staging during the show so that took some of the fun out of it for me. We saw the thrown lances, jumping from a horse instead of being knocked off, pulled sword blows, ect. I'd go back but a reenactment event is more my taste these days. Friday morning we didn't have any plans so we took our time getting up and packing. We ran to Dunkin Donuts for doughnuts and returned to the hotel to check out. We had lunch at a Brazillian grill; Sal and Carveo. We stuffed ourselves silly. It was really good. I loved the cone of fries and the salads were wonderful. We started back and got stuck in horrible Chicago traffic. I don't know if it was just construction or if there was an accident but it was bad. I fell asleep and slept for almost an hour. DH drove 2 miles the entire time. We got off the interstate and got a map so we could travel state highways to get around the problem. After getting home, we had planned a night out with my co-workers and took in a couple of really cool (and scary) haunted houses.


The snow day has helped buy me some extra time so I've been writing more.

 

[DisneyJo]

A told me about a Brazillian grill that was there. She and M have one near their apartment and eat there once a week. They took me when I visited with them over the summer.

I read that as Brazillian GIRL and wondered why M had one near her apartment!

.We rented a car so we weren't putting more wear and tear on my 12yr old Chevy or even older Mazda.

We had an 11 year old Mazda 323 and it was a great car never broke down and went on forever well until it got hit by a Dutch truck on the motorway(freeway) 2 months ago

We took in a trainer's show and learned about the training for their new seal pup. I got selected to interact with him and got kissed on the cheek. I smelled 'fishy' for the rest of the afternoon but it was one of the coolest things I've done.

Aww that must have been lovely to do!

Great report so far, keep writing.

 

[mousehouselover]

I read that as Brazillian GIRL and wondered why M had one near her apartment!

I'm not sure M & A would eat at a girl once a week....... but that just conjures all kinds of mental images... eewww

We had an 11 year old Mazda 323 and it was a great car never broke down and went on forever well until it got hit by a Dutch truck on the motorway(freeway) 2 months ago

Our Mazda is an '88, yep almost 20 yrs old. We give it normal maintence and have had a few things done to it but for the most part it's a really good car. It's just a knock around second car that DH uses when he has to go to the Dr or to the store.

Aww that must have been lovely to do!

I love animals and aspire to work with wildlife in some capacity. If I can, I'm going to start volunteering at our local zoo to get my name/face out there and to get a bit of expereince. My ultimate dream would be to woek as an animal care technician at WDW.

Great report so far, keep writing.

Thanks so much! I'm glad I'm able to entertain!

 

[DisneyJo]

I love animals and aspire to work with wildlife in some capacity. If I can, I'm going to start volunteering at our local zoo to get my name/face out there and to get a bit of expereince. My ultimate dream would be to woek as an animal care technician at WDW.

Wow what a great ambition, you can do it.

 

[Bee]

Checking in!

 

[TiggerandTink]

Just checking in to let you know I am reading. I can't wait for the next installment. That husband of yours definitely sounds like a keeper. What a darling.

 

[mousehouselover]

Thanks for hanging in with me! I've been catching up after being snowed in and I'm a bit behind posting more updates. Here's the next little bit.

*Can a girl catch a break?*

It seems fate has a way of pulling a fast one when you least expect it. I was at work on my birthday, about a week after our Chicago trip; when one of my favorite pets came in to see the Dr. She had been sick on and off for several weeks and the Dr recommended she have a few tests and stay with us for the day. While she was there, her medication was given incorrectly and she was suddenly in a critical condition. We had to have some one available every 3-4 hrs for vital sign monitoring. Every one took a time and I wound up at work at 4am for almost a week. By the time our patient was considered stable, I was so exhausted. I felt really responsible for what happened. It was harder on me because I pet sat for this dog and I knew the family. Of course, the Dr was highly angry and we heard about it when it happened and since the practice owner was out of town we had to hear about it again when he returned two weeks later. I spent almost 3 weeks on eggshells, worried if I was going to lose my job over the whole thing. (I wasn't the only person caring for the pet and all of us were worried about our jobs.) I was coming home tired and upset every day and even started looking for a new job, just in case.

 

[mousehouselover]

Maybe if I keep posting I'll keep everyone's interest....

As things were calming down, fate had more in store for us. I stated in my opening the we have a really old house and one of the problems we've dealt with is a really leaky basement. DH had the foundation people come out and they installed a drainage system and a new sump pump. Well, right after Nov 1st, we had several days of rain and everything was saturated. T came over to do laundry and hang out the first Fri and asked about the repairs and how things were going with all the rain. Dh told her things were really good and it was dry down there. She opened the basement door, turned on the light and went down a few steps. She turned around and looked at him and said" I think we have different opinions of 'fine.'" The basement had more than 4 inches of water in it. The water was almost up to teh pilot lights on our water heater and furnace. It was cold that weekend and the wind was blowing somethng fierce. It would've been a really bad time to be with out heat or hot water. By the time I got home the company had sent some one out to ***** the situation and learned that their crew had installed the sump pump too close to the wall and the float was stuck so it couldn't go up any more and the sensor though there wasn't anymore water to drain. On top of that, our siding which had been damaged in a hail storm earlier in the year was loose and several pieces had been torn off in all the wind. I had a naked patch above the second story window a the back of my house. DH was beside himself and ready to cry. I dealt with things like I usually do; buckle down and take care of the problem, collapse from exhaustion later.


That's still 2 mos out from our trip......... Y'all can see why DH adopted to motto "I need a vacation." Off to work on more of the TR, I'm almost to take off....

 

[tiggirl]

OK OK so you finally got me to sign on happy? -A

 

[mousehouselover]

Tiggirl, I'm honored that you chose my TR for your first post. Have you been lurking a while? I think it took me about 2 hrs to sign up and start posting. I was in a thread where the OP lurked for 3 yrs! before registering.

Ok, more for y'all to read:

*A glimmer in the murkiness*

Through all of this, I never lost sight of the fact that I had a vacation to plan. I started looking online and bought Birnbaum's guide so I could see what was available to us with the premium plan and all the cool things I could plan to do while we wre on vacation. Our TA was less than helpful and provided next to no prem plan details when DH asked for them. I felt like I was on my own trying to plan our trip. I was really especially nervous about ADRs. We had never scheduled one before and I was reading that a lot of things book up really fast. I wanted to try lots of different things and try to spend as much time in the parks as I could. After agonizing for several days, I took the plunge and called for our ADRs. It was early Nov, about 70ish days out from our first day and first thing on a Sun morning. We had a few 'must haves' on our list: DH wanted Mitsukoshi, Teppanyaki Dining room and I wanted to do charater meals. The CM who took my call was great. He was patient, offered a few suggestions and laughed at some of the silliness going on in our house at the time. He actually sounded like someone I'd be friends with if we ever met. I started our meals with CR, the Teppanyaki room was supposed to be closed so LC was recommended, we got Maya Grill, Spoodles, CP, I read about the F! dinner package and requested H&V but the CM suggested we try HBD, we also had WCC, Biergarten, CMC clambake, CM, TTS, Spirit of Aloha show, and I was going to finish our trip with Trail's End. The CM said that after a fantastic week, we should try something a bit more exciting and suggested CRT. I told him I figured CRT would be sold out since we were so close to our trip and asked him to check but didn't have my heart set on it. Well, knock me over with a feather......IT WAS AVAILABLE!!!! Two seats reamined for breakfast service. We were able to have a very nice meal with the princesses to cap off our Disneymoon!

 

[tiggirl]

By the way you never did send me Birnbaums!