It's A Small World Afterall....Our Celebrating the Ride Report

[ambiancetc]

To skip the introductions and pre-trip stuff click this link to page two and scroll to post #29

Sometimes, I feel like my life is a continuous loop of IASW. The annoying song, the slooooowwww pace, EVERYONE is SOOOOO HAPPYYYYY all the time, like they don't have a care in the world...every single doll.... The annoying song in our lives is called Mitochondrial Disease and we're never rid of it. The slooowww pace is the two steps forward one step back dance move we seem to take in our "get ahead in life" plan. The never ending smiling and waving is all the people around us who (at least from the outside) seem to have it soo easy.

So I digress, where does Disney fit in all this? Well, it was this annoying, kill-me-now-please ride that made me realize some GREAT things about my life.
The slooowww pace of the ride, when you just stop to enjoy it for what it is and look at it as a chance to take a break, think about what is going on around you and be content is actually a good thing, hey if you are on IASW you are in DISNEY aka if you are in a home with food and clothing, your doing good!...so maybe that's not so annoying afterall. All the dolls are from all walks of life and we've learned that the people we meet are too. They also all have their own struggles and pains but many choose to just smile and wave anyway...maybe I love those dolls afterall. I should learn to smile and wave too! The song....well...that song still loops in my head and I still think it's annoying...

So this trip report is about how we're over coming IASW and all it's querks and instead CELEBRATING IT one Disney Trip at a time!

The VIP's:
DH 30ish aka J, He works for my parents as an operations manager for their alternative energy company and is a hard working, ever self sacrificing, loving, perfect husband. (Don't tell him I said the last part)

DD9 aka A, I'd discribe her as "intense". She wants to be the best at everything and just trys so hard! Our phrase for her is "relax, have patience, it will come with time and practice". (She wants to be good at it NOW and doesn't understand why she can't be) She loves art and that is something she doesn't have to try to be good at, she just is. She's my righthand helper around the house and is becoming quite the little cook and baker. Saving up for Disney money has been a real motivator for her to find new chores she can do! Overall she is amazing and I love her!

DD6 aka E. My little flighty bird. She spends her day flitting around the house singing and dancing and coming up with the most hilarious questions and phrases. Like yesterdays out of the blue statement: "Mom, it'd be bad if lightening hit our tree, fell on our house and started on fire because we don't have a fire license." Um...ok? She could care less if she was good at anything, yet masters stuff so easily without even trying. My older daughter keeps this as a bone of contention. Amazingly, they still manage to be great friends 90% of the time.

DS4 aka B He is our Mito Warrior. Our youngest who so bravely conquers life with zest and vigor. Not all the tubes in the world seem to hold him back. His laugh (which we hear often) is infectious. He's all boy. Wants everything related to cars, trains, dirt and dinosaurs. His disease has been progressive since birth. He got his first basic feeding tube at 1 year, his more involved one (that goes to his intestines because his stomach only works part of the time) at 18 months, started Oxygen at 2 and got his Port for IV fluids at 3. He's also added two new meds every year. So far (Praise God) age 4 hasn't add anything new.

Then there is me. Barely 30. I'm a travel agent by career and have owned my own agency for 10 years now focusing mainly on cruising and tours. I'm also a homeschooling mom who likes to cook, sew, craft, decorate, travel, snorkel and garden.

After B's diagnosis we had mostly stopped traveling. Then, we went on his MAW trip last May and it changed our family. We drank the FULL PITCHER of Disney Kool Aid We vowed to come back. Problem was, would we ever be able too? We took the trip when we did because B had been in such poor health the whole year prior. Well more praise to God we've been able to change some of B's care protocols and have managed to at least stablize things for now. So here we are with less than 5 weeks to go before our CELEBRATION of LIFE trip!
I'll share some of the ways we've saved for this trip and my pre-trip buying in the next post. In the meantime, a favorite pic of the family from last year:

 

[ambiancetc]

Okay, first just a couple pics from our trip last year

B was a bit overwhelmed with the heat at this point but once things cooled off talked all about it. It was a special "just for him" meet & greet!

Meeting Lightening McQueen was his actual wish. So we unhooked all the tubes so he could freely walk around and so we could get a really nice family picture.

This might not be the mother of all pictures but I loved the looks on my girls faces and how up close and personal Rapunzel was willing to get with B. Most people are afraid of his equipment and keep a distance. Afraid they might hit something or do something wrong. She was the first character we'd met and it was perfect.

[/IMG]

 

[ambiancetc]

So our trip savings started with a couple thousand dollars worth of points on one of our credit cards that we'd been letting pile up. I'd also been saving for a 10th anniversary trip that was supposed to happen this past January but who are we kidding? We can't leave B for more than 6 hours let alone take a 7 day cruise so I added that to the trip fund. It gave us a really good start. Then the more we thought about it the more we decided we wanted to do two trips. We'll let's just get two sets of tickets before the price goes up but then what if we want to do more or less while we're down there? Let's get NE just in case...well...long story short we have now talked ourselves into PAPs and taking 3 trips within the next calendar year.

Then I started reading the Dis and learned we could upgrade the tickets we had and still keep the discount. Score! Well, after several weeks on here I can honestly say...

Hello, My name is N and I am officially addicted to saving money for Disney thanks to the Disboards.

I've been on a real roll. First came the fact that you can save 5% at Target on Disney cards and that you could buy them with Target Gift Cards. I checked the paper and sure enough, diapers were buy two boxes get a $20. Diapers is something we always need and I always have coupons for. I went out and bought 4 boxes along with some toiletries and cashed in my first "free" $50 worth of Target GC for a Disney one within the hour. This was something I could get used too. This led me to giftcardgranny. Now a favorite along with Swagbucks, I just always have those two open. I am now a fond user of Ebates, as is my husband. I now have quite a collection waiting to be turned into Disney money.

The best deal so far was on a Kay Jewelers gift card. Since we couldn't do a big 10th Anniversary trip and we still weren't sure if we'd be able to pull off Disney until a few weeks ago health wise, J and I decided we'd get each other an expensive (for us) gift instead. I mean, we didn't even go out to dinner for our 10th! So he got a TV and I got a beautiful new wrap for my wedding ring with diamonds! Well this was pre-Disboards. I was crushed when just 3 weeks after my ring purchase I saw the Kay GC for 20% off in a large enough amout it could have paid for the ring! AHHHHH I hate wasted money even if it was budgeted for. Well we called Kays and they said we could come in and swap tender no problem because we were still in our return period. So I ordered the card and we saved $127!!

Tha family needed new shoes (of course) so with my new found $127 I bought a Crocs.com gift card worth $133 for $117 using a CC that repays 1% I then signed up for their emails and got the 20% off coupon, went to their website through ebates and got 7 pairs of shoes for....$14.90
2 of the pairs are missing from this photo...the girls wouldn't take off the Baya Flips. Oh and yes of course my floors are always shiny clean

 

[ambiancetc]

Grrrrr why won't my pictures show up?? Help please!

 

[ambiancetc]

Well enough about how I'm saving money for the moment and more on how I plan to spend it!

I am so excited to be making ADRs! Thanks to the combined discounts of TiW and discount Disney GCs, many TS restaurants are now within our budget.
I have redone my ADR's so many times it's not even funny. I mean, you should see my spreadsheets. I listed all the restuarants I thought we'd want to go to, looked at the menues and picked what we'd mostly likely order, then calculated the price post discount and compared it to a QS. Then compared it to my own custom crown calendar which I created pooling two different websites. Selected the day we'd most likely be in which parks and started making reservations. Then I'd change my mind and make new ones. I think I'm finally happy though.

We arrive on the 19th and since we'll have just driven straight through the night I'm planning on eating cheap fast food for lunch and throwing in a frozen pizza and blending up a fruit smoothie for dinner. MAYBE if we're excited enough we'll head to MK to watch fireworks and try our first Mickey Bar but I'm not making any promises.

Saturday will be work mixed with a lot of lounging and sleeping. Working meaning we have a lot of unpacking and organizing that I just know I won't have energy for on arrival day. B's meds and deliveries all have to be accounted for and arrangements made. We have to drive and find the Childrens Hospital so we know where it is just in case and I'll probably do the majority of the grocery shopping. Tonight though I really want to make it to Wishes! Sunday we'll likely head to Epcot in the morning and Blizzard Beach in the afternoon and then Monday is going to be the BEST day. Because that is the day J's little sister "K" arrives!! She's agreed to become our permanent Disney Travel Buddy and come with us whenever we go. Since we can't leave B for more than 6 hours we've decided it is well worth paying for her expenses to come down and give us 6 hours off every night!

So our first ADR is for Monday at Wolfgang Puck at 10pm!
We had to make it late because we want to take SIL to HS for most the afternoon after she arrives and make sure putting the kids to bed goes smoothly for her. We'll see what else we accomplish that night depending on when we actually make it out of the condo. It's going to be so amazing to be on a date with my Hubby in Disney!

Tuesday's date night will be at The Wave at 7:05
We hope to eat then take the Monorail over to MK and ride some rides together. Just the two of us. It's going to be SOO much fun! I seriously haven't been this excited about a date night in a long time. We've gotten into such a rut here at home...coffee shop...Applebees..home or Movie...coffee shop...home. This is going to be awesome

Wednesday we'll do Epcot and take the kids to their first TS at Chefs De France at noon. They love Remy in Ratatouilli so I'm really hoping we can see him as this is our "character" meal for this trip. This evening J and I will come back and dine around the world showcase. Yummy! We LOVED Illuminations last year and can't wait to see it again. Alone. Just the two of us. Maybe a spiced rum dole whip in each hand.

Since we want to make sure the SIL is well wined and dined (we'll dined anyway!) we've booked Rainforest Cafe -AK for 8:30 AM We know this probably means a bit later park arrival but originally I had booked it for lunch, before I realized that we'd have to essentially leave the park and then come back for the parade.....never mind... breakfast it is! I LOVE going out for breakfast and since I scored some really great deals on Landry's gift cards I'm looking forward to this even more.

Thursday night is our last date night as SIL has to leave the next day. Next time, we'll make sure to give her more notice so she can rearrange her uber-packed-homeschool-teen-life for a longer trip. So, Coral Reef at 8pm it is for J and I! Might hit up HS for a couple hours first, eat then over to MK even though it's a red day.

Our next ADR won't be til the 30th when we take the kids to Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch and it will also be our last for this trip. We really enjoyed a lot of the QS meals we had last time and want to repeat a few. Like the chicken & ribs at Cosmic Rays and the falafel in Morocco. Plus, I don't want to be over scheduled on our last week since it will probably be a lot of park hopping or half days. Other meals I'm looking forward to are breakfast at AOA (more or less a good excuse to walk around!) Earl of Sandwich for lunch, BOG for lunch, fish & chips at Yorkshire, anything from Flame Tree and a chili dog from Casey's! Drat.....now I'm hungry...going to raid the pantry...

 

[JWCJ]

You sound like an amazing family. I'm sorry B has been through so much. People I talk to don't understand when I say how thankful I am with Ja's diagnosis, but reading stories like yours... Well, I think about families like yours constantly. You must be so strong.
I must admit I'm envious of your date nights! The ADRs look fantastic!
Can't wait to meet you

 

[gtpoohbear]

Great PTR so far! Can't wait to hear more

Personally, I've always LOVED IASW, so I think it's awesome how you are using it as a metaphor for your life - what a great outlook!

I also have a 9yo DD too, and she sounds a LOT like yours, lol! Sometimes I get frustrated when I see other kids her age, wondering why she can't be more carefree and happy-go-lucky like they all seem to be. But maybe her perfectionism will serve her well one day.

I can see your pictures when I click the links. To get them to show up in the post - here is what I do. (if you haven't tried it this way it might work for you, but I don't use Photobucket so it may be something specific to that.) I find the picture I want (where it is hosted on the web) and right click, then select "Copy Image Location". In my post, I click the Insert Image icon in the editing bar, then paste the link in the box that pops up. It's always worked for me.

 

[ambiancetc]

You sound like an amazing family. I'm sorry B has been through so much. People I talk to don't understand when I say how thankful I am with Ja's diagnosis, but reading stories like yours... Well, I think about families like yours constantly. You must be so strong.
I must admit I'm envious of your date nights! The ADRs look fantastic!
Can't wait to meet you

HA! People can't seem to understand when I say I wish my kid had a common cancer instead of mito. Cancer = 95% remission rate, Mito = 0% there is no treatment for Mitochondrial Disease (yet!). Thank you for your kind words and recognition of that. I have friends who's kids have cancer so I know it's not an easy road to travel either! Prayers Ja travels it with success!

Great PTR so far! Can't wait to hear more

Personally, I've always LOVED IASW, so I think it's awesome how you are using it as a metaphor for your life - what a great outlook!

I also have a 9yo DD too, and she sounds a LOT like yours, lol! Sometimes I get frustrated when I see other kids her age, wondering why she can't be more carefree and happy-go-lucky like they all seem to be. But maybe her perfectionism will serve her well one day.

I can see your pictures when I click the links. To get them to show up in the post - here is what I do. (if you haven't tried it this way it might work for you, but I don't use Photobucket so it may be something specific to that.) I find the picture I want (where it is hosted on the web) and right click, then select "Copy Image Location". In my post, I click the Insert Image icon in the editing bar, then paste the link in the box that pops up. It's always worked for me.

for another reader! I'll try the suggestions you made thank you! Maybe it's a 9yo girl thing? Her aunt says she's going to be an engineer!

 

[gtpoohbear]

for another reader! I'll try the suggestions you made thank you! Maybe it's a 9yo girl thing? Her aunt says she's going to be an engineer!

Lol, DH is an engineer, and he's always saying how much she reminds him of himself when he was a kid. So her aunt may well be right!

 

[ambiancetc]

Lol, DH is an engineer, and he's always saying how much she reminds him of himself when he was a kid. So her aunt may well be right!

Haha! Well in that case I better make more effort on her college fund!
Oh and THANK YOU!!! For the Pic tips! I had to right click, select properties and then copy the url address from there but it worked! Yay for pics!

 

[ambiancetc]

My pre-trip shopping addiction has continued as new packages came in last week and I scored a find at a thrift store. I normally don't have time to go thrifting but my sister goes all the time. So when I went out with her last week to hit up the fabric store we stopped by the thrift shop too. I found a CUTE white sundress for me and a dark yellow/orange maxi dress for A. She loved that it was t-shirt material. I loved that both dresses only cost me $7.25 combined!

I also scored 3 pairs of cotton shorts per girl, a pair of linen pants and athletic T's for J at Old Navy. Cart Subtotal: $85.69 after rewards certificate, ebates cash back and 30% off entire order plus free shipping: $21 and change Of course J was ribbing me for getting him t-shirts he didn't think he needed. Of course, now that he's worn them, he's ribbing me for not knowing how comfortable and cool they were and for not getting him 4 more Last year he complained of sweating too much in his all cotton shirts so I think this will be perfect for the hottest of days. Plus the pants will be great for our date nights. Classy and cool!

Finally, last but not least this was my haul at the fabric store. I bought a discount gift card for Jo-Ann Fabric and used coupons for everything of course. $12 and change! Woot Woot! Can you guess what it's for? Here's a hint

 

[pwdebbie]

Wow! I am so impressed with your saving strategies! I just don't think I can get my brain around all that. Your middle child reminds me of my 7yo granddaughter who comes up with some amazing statements that just leave us scratching our heads and wondering where she comes up with this stuff.

I admire your upbeat attitude -- everything you wrote put a smile on my face. You and your dh have had a some tough things to deal with.

May I make one proofreading correction? Unless DD stands for something like Disney Darling instead of Dear Daughter, you might want to change the designation for your son from DD4 to DS4.

 

[scrappinggirl]

[QUOTE
Meeting Lightening McQueen was his actual wish. So we unhooked all the tubes so he could freely walk around and so we could get a really nice family picture.

[/QUOTE]

I love the hat! What a beautiful family you have.

 

[ambiancetc]

May I make one proofreading correction? Unless DD stands for something like Disney Darling instead of Dear Daughter, you might want to change the designation for your son from DD4 to DS4.

Welcome to my PTR! Thank you for noticing that, I've made the correction!

I love the hat! What a beautiful family you have.

Thank you and welcome That hat was a life saver for me! It was like walking around with my own shade tree and I didn't burn a bit. Of course, I also came home whiter than I went down

 

[ambiancetc]

Well yesterday marked our 4 week mark! 27 days! Only four more typical Thursdays to live through and then the following Thursday we'll be packing up and heading to Disney! So much to sew, SO little time!

If you hadn't guessed already, the fabric a couple posts back was for Disney outfits. So far I've finished one, and am half done with two more. Alice turned out so adorable even I was shocked. Especially because I was modifying a pattern for the dress and heavily creating/modifying a pattern for the apron. Since the peices are separate I'm also going to use the blue dress as a base for Cinderella's. I'll add a peplum skirt "apron" and pin up the sleeves higher. It won't be a dead ringer but it will be close enough.

I do feel like I've started an adventure I wasn't expecting with all this sewing. Not that I don't like sewing. Matter of fact, I sew all the time. It's just that the girl's expectations are now so high since Alice's dress turned out so well. Where I was thinking more "inspired by", the girls are thinking more "exact copy".

My oldest has drawn exactly what she expects Periwinkle's dress to be like. She's also demonstrated several times the exact angle the leaf is supposed to be at, how long the skirt is, what the point is like etc etc.... I keep telling her the sewing machine and scissors have a mind of their own and I'm just a facilitator.

On a spending money front I gave a big chunk of it to Disney Store this morning with their 25% off sale items sale. Glad I will be getting 3% back from ebates and was able to find a 10.1% off ecode gift card from giftcardzen.com
It was my first time buying an e-code gift card and I couldn't be happier. I paid for it and it was in my inbox with in 20 minutes. Saved an extra $14.00 on my purchase. I bought a bunch of Cars characters to add to DS's collection, some Toy Story flip flops for....get this...74 cents! I got two pair, one for him and one from my nephew. My nephew will be thrilled to get something he can use every day from "Disney World". I'll be thrilled I only spent pennies. I also entered the dark tunnel called pin trading WHAT HAVE I STARTED???

Okay, so here was the deal. The last time we went we got home and I realized I had not bought one single item for ME. Not that it's a crime but I actually like little momentos. I usually get an inexpensive piece of jewelry. As I was looking online I didn't really see anything I loved and could buy without a small fortune of an investment. While I love Disney, I'm not the type that will wear Mickey earrings. Sorry. Maybe after this trip. So the pins caught my eye. I liked that they had them for almost everything. I also liked the idea of trying something new...like my first time on EE could be remembered with the purchase of the pin. They will be cute to put on a beach bag or if I'm really in a Disney mood, perhaps one one my hat.
The price still got to me. Afterall, $10-$15 a pop can add up fast. So I strolled over to the collectors threads and learned you can trade for these suckers. SWEET! I bought 15 of the same two pins at Disney Store today because they only had two on sale. For $3.91 a piece (after discounts) I can trade my way to what I want and still sleep at night.
Now to see if I can stick to this and not buy more while I'm there. I also need to watch out for those little creatures that creep up on you and con you out of a pin so they can start the addiction for themselves. I'm talking about my children of course.

Well, off to sew some more....Have a magical day!

 

[JWCJ]

You did a fantastic job! What a great idea to use the blue dress as a base and make it multiuse.
I wish I could sew - my MIL owned a fabric store, so she bought me a machine and I have tons of fabric. She passed away almost 5 years ago, though, and without her to help, I'm at a loss.

So excited for your trip and the chance to meet you

 

[ambiancetc]

Thank you! I was really happy with it. I finished up A's Periwinkle dress today. It turned out cute! I'll snap a pic tomorrow.

Sewing is really not has hard as it seems. Start with a simple pattern (think of it like a 3D puzzle) and watch youtube tutorials. Expect to really mess up the first time or two. But hey the fabric's free so no loss! Before you know it you'll be a pro!

 

[JWCJ]

Thank you! I was really happy with it. I finished up A's Periwinkle dress today. It turned out cute! I'll snap a pic tomorrow.

Sewing is really not has hard as it seems. Start with a simple pattern (think of it like a 3D puzzle) and watch youtube tutorials. Expect to really mess up the first time or two. But hey the fabric's free so no loss! Before you know it you'll be a pro!

Oh man, the machine has been lugged up and my kitchen table is now covered with scraps of fabric as I attempt to remember how it actually works. Poor DH is going to have flashbacks to his childhood. I actually found a finished baby quilt top and half finished bargello quilt top (yeah, I am sooooo out of my league with that one!) that probably haven't been touched in 5 years.

Now to find a couple of cute patterns to attempt. Because I don't have enough on the go

 

[ambiancetc]

Hey way to go on the sewing endeavor! Pinterest has some cute patterns that are easy. I love the "Pillowcase Dresses" It's essentially a square. Would make a great first project.

 

[ambiancetc]

So I just realized it's been nearly two weeks since I was last on here On a good note, that means we only have 2 weeks to go!! Two weeks from right now we should be just arriving in Orlando and heading into the World! I'm SOOOOOOO excited. It's all we are talking about over here.

One of the reasons I wasn't on here is because we had house guests for nearly two weeks. A few different ones actually. DH's youngest sister is actually about 4 months younger than our oldest and while the in-laws were on vacation she came to stay with us for 10 days. She is a great girl but is WAAAYYYY more hyper than my kids all rolled into one. Add to that, over the Easter weekend DSIL K (aka Disney Travel Buddy) also came to stay. She was here to learn how to give B meds, operate his various equipment etc. She is tons of fun and we did an algae leg wrap, our nails and she did the majority of the sewing on Belle's blue dress. During this weekend we did a Disney Movie Marathon. We watched a Disney movie every night which included Aladdin, Stitch, Mulan, Mary Poppins and Tarzan. The kids really enjoyed Mary Poppins. To add to all this my brother's fiance came and spent a night the day before Easter, my parents came over for dinner and then my other sister and her family joined our growing party all day Sunday. Oh yes, and my Grandpa came too! So it was a really busy weekend and my house was bursting at the seams! It was really fun though.

I haven't gotten as many dresses done as I'd wanted to have by this point but I have been making some progess. Today I hope to finish up Mulan's dress and tomorrow start Tinkerbell. Here is the partially finished Mulan along with Belle's blue dress and the very complicated Periwinkle dress.

I may have gone a little overboard in making Periwinkle's dress but A was especially happy with it! Since I didn't have a pattern, it took hours...

The only disappointment about this dress is that after all the work and excitment over Periwinkle I just read that Peri is no longer at the parks! I haven't broken the news to the girls yet. I just don't know how to tell them. I might wait til there is something else exciting about to happen to help soften the blow. They were SOOOOOOO I mean like REALLY excited about meeting her.

In better news.....OUR TRIP IS PAID FOR!!! We are firm believers in not going into debt over anything but our house so I'm really happy to have all the money set aside and even have a nicely padded "overspent" backup fund. That said, my Disney GC has grown into quite a stack:

Then for the even BETTER news!!! SW Airlines has a sale going on right now and since DH just had his 50K miles added to his account from his Chase card I went ahead and booked 4 of the 6 tickets we need for September! For the four tickets on non-stop flights it only cost us 12,600 miles per ticket The points from my card should be depositing any day now and I'm really hoping it will be before April 11 so I can book the other 2 tickets during the sale. While we like driving, we had to shorten our trip in September due to work and decided since we have the miles, we can maximize our time in Disney by flying. I'm so excited to have the next trip partially booked. We'll make the downpayment on the resort after my next paycheck so then I'll really be excited. Having the next trip already booked before we even leave on this one really takes the bite out of the coming home part. To make this work we'll really have to be careful over the summer but I think it will be SO worth it! Now to start making those ADR's!!