halloween cruise/ Magic: October 28th-nov..4th 2006

[kritter]

I took off last year "unpaid" and will probably do the same this year. I was a social worker so now I am changing careers. I work now with "underperforming" freshman as an educational aide. I think to be honest, I am so overqualified that they would rather have me take off a week than hire someone else. (and I don't lack self-confidence either )

You guys are going to the "not so scary"......how fun we did that a few years back and had a ball. We spent several days at WDW before our first cruise....we have never been back. However we have cruised several times since then. DCL has won us over the parks for certain!

You all will not eat for weeks when you get home if you are doing a dining plan at WDW and then a cruise! I LOVE it.

Is anyone else going to the Halloween Party? We really enjoyed that. We thought about it this time, but the funds and the extra time are just not there.

Missy

oh Missy we will be soo overweight by the time the cruise comes...I signed us up for the dining plan today and the halloween party...Poor Heather had me calling her two times today telling her all of the ressies I had made...I am a compulsive planner when it comes to vacations....

I got a great deal on my halloween tickets I got ten percent off for being a DVC member...so that really helped out.....

Dave,
So glad to hear from you...Keep us posted about your cruise.....

Capt, How are you feeling??????

 

[captaincrash]

Capt, How are you feeling??????

Well...

I'm doing OK... thank you for your consideration. My younger daughter however seems to have bit her tounge when she fell some time in the past couple of days. SHe has a huge bruise/sore on her tounge. I've been treating it with tooth ache medication and thankfully it is not looking infected or as if it is getting any worse - but the poor thing is not herself. She's been sooo clingy and wounded these last few days.

Aside from that - I am bracing for holding down the fort alone til sunday. My spouse has a bit of business travel - she will be in Beantown for work plus a bit to visit her brother's family. As it stands this particular trip I cannot sneak around since her brother is himself holding down his Beantown fort alone as well since HIS spouse is traveling too. So rather than complicate matters by going we decided we try it with me staying back - and as such this is maybe only the 2nd time I've done this for more than a nite alone. FIVE nites with a toddler complaining of a huge tounge bite wound who is also nursing will probably be difficult at best. Frankly I'm mildly apprehensive at the prospects. But I'll have to endure as that was how we set out to do it.

Aside from that - things are quite nice 'round here. Nothing to write home about except to say we just got 2 more votes on the cabin poll. That makes for 5 new votes in the past week and a half - yet no one has posted new greetings with an introduction? Oh well... that's OK as there's plenty of time for that later if anyone is so inclined.

Oh yeah... I was checking my old cruise meet thread for something from last September - and I noticed that we were trying to work up a private character visit for one of our cruise meets. Now if we were to have the cruise meet at a CONVENIENT TIME - then we might be able to schedule it. For example, our initial meet on debarkation day would probably NOT be a good opportunity. But our Trick or treating event (conclusion) would probably have a chance. Plus - that is when we could have the ice cream speed eating contest too! ANd if we get a character to come - I bet we could get that character's signature on the award certificates I'll be donating to the event. Every participant will get a certificate unless I run out - I'll probably bring enough for all - but if not then the last place finishers may NOT get an award certificate signed by the ships captain (and potentially a character!). They gave me a tough time last time I did this because of the wording I printed onto the certificates - but now I'm a bit wiser and will choose language that is decidedly less controversial.

Aside from that - I gotta go rescue my older daughter from pre-school in 15 minutes - then it's a nite out with Dad for dinner and a movie or shopping romp for the 2 kids.... and Mom gets a free evening to relax in preparation for her business trip / travel tomorrow. So with that... I'll bid everyone a brief farewell... until next I wander by .... which will probably be after midnite tonight or 7AM tomorrow!!!! I guess it's not much of a farewell is it?

 

[kritter]

Well...

I'm doing OK... thank you for your consideration. My younger daughter however seems to have bit her tounge when she fell some time in the past couple of days. SHe has a huge bruise/sore on her tounge. I've been treating it with tooth ache medication and thankfully it is not looking infected or as if it is getting any worse - but the poor thing is not herself. She's been sooo clingy and wounded these last few days.

Aside from that - I am bracing for holding down the fort alone til sunday. My spouse has a bit of business travel - she will be in Beantown for work plus a bit to visit her brother's family. As it stands this particular trip I cannot sneak around since her brother is himself holding down his Beantown fort alone as well since HIS spouse is traveling too. So rather than complicate matters by going we decided we try it with me staying back - and as such this is maybe only the 2nd time I've done this for more than a nite alone. FIVE nites with a toddler complaining of a huge tounge bite wound who is also nursing will probably be difficult at best. Frankly I'm mildly apprehensive at the prospects. But I'll have to endure as that was how we set out to do it.

Aside from that - things are quite nice 'round here. Nothing to write home about except to say we just got 2 more votes on the cabin poll. That makes for 5 new votes in the past week and a half - yet no one has posted new greetings with an introduction? Oh well... that's OK as there's plenty of time for that later if anyone is so inclined.

Oh yeah... I was checking my old cruise meet thread for something from last September - and I noticed that we were trying to work up a private character visit for one of our cruise meets. Now if we were to have the cruise meet at a CONVENIENT TIME - then we might be able to schedule it. For example, our initial meet on debarkation day would probably NOT be a good opportunity. But our Trick or treating event (conclusion) would probably have a chance. Plus - that is when we could have the ice cream speed eating contest too! ANd if we get a character to come - I bet we could get that character's signature on the award certificates I'll be donating to the event. Every participant will get a certificate unless I run out - I'll probably bring enough for all - but if not then the last place finishers may NOT get an award certificate signed by the ships captain (and potentially a character!). They gave me a tough time last time I did this because of the wording I printed onto the certificates - but now I'm a bit wiser and will choose language that is decidedly less controversial.

Aside from that - I gotta go rescue my older daughter from pre-school in 15 minutes - then it's a nite out with Dad for dinner and a movie or shopping romp for the 2 kids.... and Mom gets a free evening to relax in preparation for her business trip / travel tomorrow. So with that... I'll bid everyone a brief farewell... until next I wander by .... which will probably be after midnite tonight or 7AM tomorrow!!!! I guess it's not much of a farewell is it?

OUCH!!! for your daughters tongue...Is she ok?????
Glad that you are up and feeling better...I do not envy you being alone for five nights...I was alone this weekend and it was crazy and I am totally exhausted...as you will be.....
I am totally up for getting a character if we can...How would we do this and who do we contact do you know????I think it would a nice finish to the trick or treating...Which I think we have yet to decide upon a day or time but we can do that asap if we need to so we can set up this character thing....what do you think>>>>/?????

 

[Tluvs2talk]

Hi Everyone!!

CaptainCrash- Sorry to hear yoo have been sick, hope you are feeling better.

Ginger- Hey Dinner sounds good, Grills? or take out by the pool? Makes no difference to me.I am glad you are booked at Radisson. I plan on playing in the pool Friday afternoon. Rick is going to go to the beach to metal detect for a few hours.

Happy Birthday Jen & Heather


Teri

 

[kritter]

Hi Everyone!!

CaptainCrash- Sorry to hear yoo have been sick, hope you are feeling better.

Ginger- Hey Dinner sounds good, Grills? or take out by the pool? Makes no difference to me.I am glad you are booked at Radisson. I plan on playing in the pool Friday afternoon. Rick is going to go to the beach to metal detect for a few hours.

Happy Birthday Jen & Heather


Teri

Terri,
Good to hear from you....Is ginger inviting all of us for dinner???

 

[Tluvs2talk]

Kristin- You and any one else is MORE than welcome to meet for Dinner in Cocoa Beach on Friday night before the cruise!!! THE MORE THE MERRIER
Teri

 

[kritter]

HI Everyone,

I just spoke with Heather and we were talking about the Halloween Trick or Treating...

Here is what we are planning.

We will do the trick or treating on Monday afternoon around three or three thirty.

Each group of trick or treaters will be broken down by ages..
Here is the breakdown of the ages:
0-4
5-8
9 and up
If you would prefer for siblings to stay together we can arrange that...

We will need you to pm or post to the ages of your children, names, and if they have any food allergies.

Also, we are looking for volunteers to escort each group.
We need volunteers to hand out candy in their cabins.If you are willing to have the children trick or treat to your cabin please send us your name and cabin numbers. (If you know it now)!!

We will have each group of trick or treaters start in different places to trick or treat then we will all end in one spot..Each cabin will be marked with a orange and green balloon and a special door sign for trick or treating...

After the trick or treating we will be having Capt crashes ice cream eating contest...So if you want to particpate in that we need to know as well..Or let the capt know...

Thanks so much,
Kristin and Heather

 

[princessh]

Hi Everyone! Hope you all are having a good week. Busy, busy, busy here. Jacob's birthday party is Sat. I have a lot to get together for that. Timmy has several baseball games. What a busy time of year

One more thing to add to Kristin's well stated message, we would also like to know if anyone is celebrating a birthday or anniversary while on board. If you could either post that info., or send it to Kirstin or myself via a pm.



Hope everyone is well and has a nice weekend!

 

[captaincrash]

Geetings folks!


As I might have mentioned previously - my DS is out of town til Sunday and that leaves me with 2 little ones alone. Well... 2 nites ago I got about 90 minuts total sleep - so I was not too cozy yesterday. And our 2 YO has been very fickle as over the past 10 days she's had an extreme evening of vomiting; and gradula rotation trough fever and now huge cold sores on her tounge. Well, 2 nites ago I had a tough time and my little girl suggested she had pain coming from her ears. I immediately thought - OK we got an ear infection now - so that HAD to send her into see the Doc. Well - on seeing our doc that morning he diagnosed that everything I described - as well as the precise symptoms observed then matched up "hand foot mouth". In all my years I have never encountered this - and stated so plainly.

So it seems - the thing runs a natural course of 10-14 days and my daughters' tounge sores looked to the doc as if they were already healing. So he said there is no medication for it - just watch for high spiking fevers and any new symptoms. Otherwise it should fade away on it's own. Oh yeah - it is highly contageous too. THAT explains how my spouse and I became ill briefly a few days ago.

This was described as a fairly low intensity illness - except the cold sore stage can be difficlut for a young one. I have 8 tubes of Orajel on hand - in 4 different versions!

So... aside from that - last nite I experienced a victory of sorts. My young one gets spoiled by her "weak" Dad - who usually will carry and walk her to sleep - especially since she has been ill these past 10 days. Well - last nite I was simply way too tired. At 2:30 she woke me and went into her routine. I complied for about 10 minutes and then decided I could NOT take several days of this routine - so I explained to her that there will be "No carrying, No walking, and please go to sleep". Well - she just cried, kicked and swatted a little at me. Tough little bugger. SOI told her I was putting her down and she was on her own. About half an hour later (or maybe 15 minutes - hard to tell when it's so late and you're truly exhausted).... she abruptly stopped crying and climbed up to the bed and pulled an ear to rotate my face to be nose to nose with her... and she asked "Daddy... No Carry???".... I abruptly notied her change in conduct and responded - "yes, no carrying, no walking, please go to sleep". She then moved closer to me and wrapped an arm around my neck and pressed her ose into my shoulder. I noted she had a slight whimper so I asked her if she wanted any medicine for her mouth. Earlier offers when she was crying went on without any reply from her. So, she looked up and nodded... so I dosed her with Orajel. Almost immediately she fell asleep after that. I got about 7 hours of sleep in 2 long runs!

Today I was in pretty good shape compared to yeaterday!

SO that's the latest news from our neIGHBORHOOD!

 

[Tluvs2talk]

I am celebrating my birthday onboard. It is October 30th. I will be 41.

You can also add us to a stateroom handing out candy, I will tell you my room number when I get my paperwork out.


Teri

 

[Tluvs2talk]

Captaincrash, Wow it seems like you have had a rough week. I hope everyone is on the mend.I am sending a group hug your way.

Teri

 

[captaincrash]

Thanks Teri...

... am I a nut or what.... one of my spouses' return flight segments was canceled and she can;t get home except on an annoying early flight with a huge layover in Denver. She was thinking since all the filghts Sunday are looking oversold since her covention is concluding - that she might get a chance to volunteer to give up her filght for compensation. If that happened could she go for it?... and I said sure... why not? It's just
MY sanity in the balance... and as most might agree there was no loss in threatening further damage to my sanity!

My dear spouse loves getting a volunteering opportunity. Once I got bumped 2x in the same day and scored 2 free 48 state round trips. On another ocassion we were rerouted as volunteers enroute LAX to London. We got business bumps, a hotel and $400 vouchers for the 8 hour delay. Plus we increased our milage earned with the rerouting.

At any route - I know how much fun and gloating she gets from bump awards... especially the juicey international bumps - so I gave her the green light. Otherwise - todays is shaping up to be a good evening. So much so that if it's good day tomorrow I may actually go to bible study with the 2 kids as i won't look like a Zombie! Let's hope for the best this evening - I need at least 6 hours sleep and no more then 1 serious interruption over nite.

Adios!

Here's a new pix for chuckles... I caught poor Cinderella off guard with this move! Unfortunately, it was not as funny as I had hoped until I saw the guard rail prop for one series of photos...

And here's anopther one of my personal favorites which I think is unlikely to have been seen before here....

 

[kritter]

Capt,
WOW is all I have to say you have been through such a time..You are a great dad and I think I can safely say you handle things better than some mothers I know..YOu are really a trooper....hang in there... I hgope your wife appreciates how much you do and have been through...


Terri,
Thanks for offering to hand out candy....And we will have a special treat for your b-day...How fun to be on the cruise for your b-day..

Well today is the BIG day here the twins have their dance recital tonight...I willpost some pictures of them...
Kristin

 

[XLT800]

YEA....we got or cruise doc's

oops.....wrong thread.....sorry I could not resist.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Kelly's gym rented out the movie theater on Saturday so we are going to see "Stick It". Then it is off to do more cruise shopping.

Dave

 

[kritter]

Dave and Fran you lucky dogs....



Here is a picture of the dancers tonight...they really had so much fun..believe it or not they were so funny and said way to much into the microphone when it was there turn everyone was laughing...enjoy!!!!

 

[captaincrash]

I had not read it all yet - but count my cabin in to help with any logistics of what-ever for the Trick or Treat thing.



It's 3:48AM here. The little one raised a stink so i gave her a fresh diaper and I gave in so she's sleeping on my nap. I just finished watching a rerun of murder at 1600... I missed the beginning so am not entirely clear why Wesley Snipes wanted to get the President to have the Commerce Secretary to do something for him. If anyone knows pls fill me in otherwise I'm gonna have to DVR another rerun of it to find out - and generally I never get to see any dramas or flics with violence or intense action anymore - so if I DVR Murder at 1600 it will push off several Winnie the Poohs and various other kid programming we're recorded. Not that we can't replace it in a day or so though...

So I was able to attend bible study tonight... as my little one seems to have had a 95% healed tounge finally... her attitude today was about 80% normal.

Saturday I'll be running a table at our daughters' preschool to provide family portraits and "creative" group shots of each class that I took (about 120 frames of the 10 classes - sample below) ... wood framed on canvas matts ... as a fund-raiser in conjunction with a silent auction and series of other things running with open house. Plus there's a local parade too... so we'll soon see how much of that I can swing alone with the two kids.

My daighter should be easy to spot in the photos - she was "fickle" because she thought her Daddy was embarassing her by being funny to get the kids to look and smile/laugh/ make faces for the camera.

My spouse comes home tomorrow evening - I got about 40 hours to go til I get relief!

 

[Tluvs2talk]

Kristin- Your Girls look ADORABLE!!!!!

CaptainCrash- Great picture's of your Daughter's class. Just remember
R-E-L-I-E-F is on the way.

Rick and I went to see "HOOT" today, it was a very cute Movie. We really enjoyed it. We also went to lots of yard sales today and bought lots of great stuff. Hope everyone is having a great Saturday.


Teri

 

[captaincrash]

Thanks Terri for the encouraging thoughts....

I got approximately 24 hours to go before my relief calvary arrives from Boston. Well, actually my spouse lands then and I plan on running down to the airport to meet her. Not really needed but whay not eh? It's not too far as she is using a regional airoport and they have a... dare I admit it... a home town buffett down there. My neighborhood does not have one of theose things around - so this is an excuse to swing by and give it a try. The kids will mostly drink soup, eat pizza and chicken, corn on the cobb if available or corn, and possibly they will try snack sized samples of a few other things. Oh yeah... they will drink tons of chocolate milk and hit the derrest options heavily.

SO... the fund raiser went well... I raised about $600 for the school. We had about $400 in photo sales which yielded about $250 in profits and the embassy suits weekend and $100 resturant gift certificate we obtained as donations netted another $350 in a silent auction. So I sort of feel like I did a decent job as a member of the advisory comittee for the school. Aside from that - the day was sort of long but tolerable. So, if my spouse manages to get a "volunteering" opportunity to give up her seat then she will porbably get what she really wanted which was a little more time with her brother in Boston - and I'll have another nite on myh own. Well... at this point the younger ones' tounge is 99% healed and I am having a normal evening with them now... so another nite would be quite survivable.

Gotta run now....

 

["Ginger"]

halloween

 

[captaincrash]

Wow....

We all got 8 hours sleep stright last nite! Who would have figured? And my spouse will be landing in 8.5 hours! Makes all the difference in the world to have a tounge that's not causing constant pain in a 2 year old - plus having had day after day of exhaustion probably helped us get so much sleep in one sitting. I can hardly believe how normal an evening it was - it's like the best round of sleep I've had in an eternity (so it seems).

So.... We're going to try for the nearest beach to fly a kite if the wind supports it and build sand castles. I'm bringing a full sized metal shovel plus a variety of kids' sized sand shovels and such too - I don't have a lot of time to waste in getting huge reults started for the kids! Heh-hee-hee. I'll snap a photo and post it later if I remember to.... well I have to snap pjotos for my spouse to see. A good dad can pull off some over the top activities even without the spouse being around is what I'm trying to do...

Ginger, is that invite open to us too? Is this for just before the cruise?


Cheers!