Cats have nine lives, so they say. So do I. I sit in that crowded CBR smoking room with DJ, amidst what looks like the aftermath of a twister, you know in comes the storm and fling flangidy ding dang the place is trashed? This is one of them. What number life is it? I dont know yet, maybe Ill be able to tell you when were through with this report. I havent figured that out. After my initial frustration when I returned to a roomful of bouncin' bumpkins and chaos, I chill, because its all good. And besides, the poor exhausted little darlings fell asleep pretty quick. Sky was still holding a pop tart, brown sugar cinnamon, my personal favorite and the boys looked so sweet and we avoided any real catastrophes, didn't have one meltdown, people told us our kids were good and we actually got to WDW 24 hours ahead of schedule and even earned some pesos like any respectable travel writer should. Oh and Kimmar, there wasnt deal or no deal, although I am glad you thought so because that post with that guy was hysterical. But they were always offering the $2000 to us, only DJ misunderstood that at first. It was $500 per person. So remember that folks, hold out for the big one as Kay7979 said hold out, $100 per person would be chicken feed.
And Momofmnm, CBR for 5, not much better than the values. There were 2 queens and this little bench. It could not possibly be the place for a 5th person that I read about somewhere, mousesavers, maybe. Well, you cold put an infant there, if you dont mind waking up to a clunk when the poor creature falls straight to the floor in the middle of the night. So we were squished, and we always have to segregate little stitch from his sibs so he slept with DJ. Good deal for them as they had plenty of room, and both snored. Bad deal for me, as sky, Carson and I were jammed into the other bed, and I couldnt move and Carson kept kicking at me, and pulling off the sheet. Now it is important that you know that I have seen the 20/20 germ reports of hotel rooms, and let me tell you, body fluid all over the place at every Plaza, Ritz and right down to a motel six. On the walls, (use your imagination), the carpets, the fixtures, and eeegads, the bed linens. See they dont change the blankets and bedspreads between guests just the sheets. So I run in and strip those and wash my hands the minute I enter the room, go blast the heat as now we have no blankies to be warm, and run to wash and PURELL my hands them fast. The kids and DJ know not to touch the beds until mommy says! So do this folks, if you dont want to have germ nightmares as you sleep or maybe come home with a stowaway friend or two, or million. Remember those high school sex ed classes with the big posters of the hideous critters magnified 8 gazillion times or those night lens shots on survivor while the people are sleeping and the snakes and other night friends are slithering all over them?
Back to the nine lives thing, so DJ and I sit quietly after being up for more than 40 hours and talk about the next day. I am so excited to share this with my hubby and my kiddos. I was a very lucky little girl who got to go to Diz in either 69 or 70 with my folks. They were, and are still great adventurers and that year we were down staying in Sanibel at my grandfathers wonderful little hotel on Gulf Drive. My folks took us out of school every year for a lot of weeks and we shelled, went to Bonita Springs, waiki watchi (sp), that croc place, the Shell factory. Tons of great places in Florida, after of course the great car rides down, where we stopped at South of the Border. Is it still there? All those signs, Pedro says Chili today hot tamale. 69 or 70? I know many of you are going fabricator, Diz wasnt opened then. Yes it was. They had a trailer in the middle of nowhere with a model of the Magic Kingdom and I think both the CR and Poly. They showed a movie and I still remember Walts face and even though I was just a little kid, it got me jazzed. It was either the next year or the one after that that we stayed at the CR. I still remember being amazed at the monorail in the hotel and the giant mural and seeing the castle from the restaurant upstairs. I remember riding dumbo, and its a small world and being absolutely captivated. That was one of my lives. Growing up in Jersey, taking the train or flying or going on road trips to Florida and all over the Eastern Seaboard, and having some very wonderful family times.
So one of my lives is now. I am wife, mother, therapist, and caretaker of many rescued animals that weren't cherished before they found me- and one of the moments in this current life is being here at the Diz with my family. Sharing time together, having thrills and getting away from the stress and sometimes monotony, of every day life. This life right now is pretty much how I hoped it would be when I was a little girl. Parenting has been a little harder than I anticipated it would be, Okay, alot tougher, and Ill tell you why about that too one time. I dont drive the mom mobile I thought suited my personality but I am okay with a minivan and we have a cute lil old 85 mustang convertible in our barn that DJ gets to sport on the nice days of spring and summer, but it doesnt fit three teeny tinys in the back. I am a few pounds heavier than I was pre-child, about as many more as Momofmnm has lost. I dont get to travel as much as I did in my 20s and 30s, which were truly exciting times for me. My work is really stressful and I feel a little claustrophobic right at this point in my life, like a lot of parents might feel when they have lots of little guys all bunched up together in age who have lots of needs. And, oh, I wear jogging suits to shop at
Walmart. This is one I never expected, really I was an Ann Taylor girl, and gap. I am just not thrilled with this part of the transformation. And my hipsters don't say M'assaslama, though they should too, MommyP, because it would just be too scary to see words on my backside these days. But I am content and I dont feel like there is anything out there I could do that will meet my needs more than being squashed into this smokey smelly room with not enough beds, with my peeps.
And I want you all to know that the Cheerleaders were wonderfully behaved that next morning. Okay they were all asleep, but really they were fun to watch at the parks and I was glad looking back that I even met the overexcited ones who had been carried away with the running and the water. After all, it was only a few of them. And they brought me back when my brain wasnt so full of worries and stresses that having lots of responsibilities brings on. And I am pretty sure I would prefer the Cheerleaders over the Popwarners.

Please no dissing the pops cause I am only having fun and really want this to be postive!
I do not want any one of you to think for a minute that I am the luckiest girl alive. I am not. I have had a bucket full of heartache and tough times, like probably most of you. No one escapes it. But for now in the words of, who was it? Loretta Lynne? Im the a happiest girl in the whole usa
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Sweet Dreams, Babies...................................