January 2009. . . Calling all Snowbirds ~ Part I !!!

[sarbah77]

We went to my niece's b-day party in Ypsilanti in early February last year. The trip back was horrible! It wasn't awful over there, but the closer we got to home, the worse it got. Around Grand Rapids the police had closed I96! We had just gotten our new car (we went from a 4 wheel drive to a front wheel drive ) and it handled terribly in the snow. That is the second-to-the-most stressed I've ever seen DH. It took us almost 6 hours to get home, it should have only taken 3. So...it looks like we're going back to 4-wheel drive!

That's terrifying that SE Michigan was better than your corner. o.0 (You probably drove by my house on your way home!!!) One of my coworkers, from northeast Michigan agrees with me about the roads and the drivers over here. I think that's generally why I've given up and get a taxi/shuttle service to get me to the airport. Knew it was going to be a fun trip Thanksgiving a couple of years ago when the 10 person van slid into my driveway.

At least DTW usually gets planes off the ground. It might be a matter of WHEN we get off the ground - and since 2005 everytime I fly in the winter, we get de-iced - but we do seem to get there.

Yep - I actually went to customer service to let them know what I did, and they called the assistant manager over to talk to me. His answer - "well, this IS a self service store." NOT IN FABRIC, you goofball! I was so annoyed that I wrote a note to corporate. The manager of the store called me, apologized and asked me to come to the store and gave me a gift card.

I worked in retail for a long time, and I just can't stand to watch people need help and not get it!

Yeah, I'm the same way with regards to helping people. It takes 0 time out of my day to get people on their way... but apparently it can be too much for a select few employees. In fact, I never go into the chain I used to work for anymore because I don't want to be that "I KNOW HOW IT WORKS and UR DOIN IT WRONG!" to a cashier. But I'm glad the store manager got it!!

++++

Seventeen weeks until we head to Disney!! My friend is already building a shopping list of what I should bring back for her. My husband is building up his marathon miles.

 

[Monny2AE]

I'm starting to get a little nervous about our drive now that you are all talking snow. We didn't get much last year but I'm sure the day before our trip we'll get a blizzard this year. We didn't factor winter weather into our plans. Last time we only worried about traffic. I guess we'll just have to leave super duper early if the weather is snowy.

Oh my goodness!! I just asked my dh last week what the name of that bear was!! He is sooo funny! And the little ranger man with his little outfit!!!Love it!!And I love the 'Put it in the Bag' song!!!

My dh laughed so hard when I mentioned Humphrey Bear. He thought I was making it up.

Well I am one shocked Pennsylvanian, I didn't know the fireworks are at 7 in January I made all our dinner reservations for right around 7...guess I am gonna have to change one or two.

robin

Are they really that early? I had looked them up on the Disney.com calendar and wrote down all the hours during my stay. Illuminations still is listed at 9pm. Does that mean that the park hours and parades could be earlier than Disney has posted?

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Good morning Snowbirds!

Happy Friday to everyone!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Are they really that early? I had looked them up on the Disney.com calendar and wrote down all the hours during my stay. Illuminations still is listed at 9pm. Does that mean that the park hours and parades could be earlier than Disney has posted?

I don't remember when you are going, but the week we are going (Jan 21-27)the WDW calendar says 7:00 for Spectro and Fantasmic and 8:00 for Wishes. (unless the calendar has changed since the last time I looked) IllumiNations is always at 9 though.

 

[trixiequilts]

That's terrifying that SE Michigan was better than your corner. o.0 (You probably drove by my house on your way home!!!)

Did you ever say where you live? I can't remember. I'm in Grand Haven.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Morning Trixie!

 

[trixiequilts]

Morning Trixie!

Morning Shelly! How's everything going today? Has DS gotten any more Disney mail for you?

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Morning Shelly! How's everything going today? Has DS gotten any more Disney mail for you?

Well we are having a thunderstorm right now. Very strange for 9 am! It's dark as night out there. I'm glad the kids got off to school before this started. I thought it was strange that it was very warm when we walked to the bus stop this morning. I should have known something was up!

No more Disney mail lately. Other than the maps. After I change my room ressie to a package I'm sure I'll be getting mail again. And then at the 45 day mark they sent you a bunch of stuff!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

So... I will keep you guys posted!! I am not going anywhere til tomorrow, but I sure am thankful that God has sent me all of you to turn to and KNOW that I can talk to you about this stress-y stuff, Disney, homeschooling, and the Lord!!! Ya'll have truly been a blessing to me and I am soooo very thankful My circle of (intimate) friends has always been smallish--not many people agree with lots of our life-decisions (church/religion, ALL our Dis trips cause flak, and homeschooling that really pushed a lot of people away), so finding you has been something I really needed. Girls just HAVE to talk about it. What ever 'it' is and ya'll are great!!! So, just wanted to let ya'll know, that you are appreciated by me--if no one else and you make my day--usually several times a day!! Blessings!!

I am glad you feel you have found some real friends here. I do too. That's why I enjoy coming to the DIS to chat. Don't get me wrong, I have encountered some really nasty people on the DIS. But for the most part I have made some amazing friendships. Like you said, it is so nice to talk to people that have common interests as you - especially when it come to your faith and WDW!! I do not homeschool, although I have strongly considered it. We found an excellent public school when we moved here. We are in a small community and a lot of the teachers have strong religion. Our school still says One Nation under God in the Pledge of Allegiance and they even give the kids a moment of silence to pray every morning. We start all of our PTO (parent-teacher organization) meetings off with prayer. I think that is all very rare in a public school these days. So we are very blessed to have found this school. I stay very involved at the school. I am the PTO VP and I go on all the field trips, attend all the holiday party's & functions, and do volunteer work for the teachers. Some of our family members don't understand why I am not jumping at the chance to go back to work now that DS6 is in school all day. They don't understand some of our decisions I guess. I'm not saying that I wouldn't like to go back to work, because some days I would (and who couldn't use the extra money). But it's just our decision right now for me to be here and totally focused on our children and their religion and their schooling.

And yes, everytime we tell our family that we are going to Disney again they look at us like we have 2 heads!! That is why we have decided that since the trip is a surprise for the kids we aren't going to tell anyone else either! So we will get all the strange looks and comments on Christmas when the kids share their good news!

Wow this post got really long. I guess I just wanted to say that I totally understand what you are saying!

 

[pamouselover]

Turkey Hill is good ice cream. We dont have one near me, but Wawa has good ice cream too. But then Wawa has everything now. Gotta love Wawa's.
Ok, that could be a Pa. thing.....you know you are from Pa. when you say gotta have my Wawa!!!!!!!!!

I am seriously jonesin' for some Turkey Hill Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream! GAH! I lived across the street from a Turkey Hill before we moved here. Miss it.


And we're livin' here in Allentown. And they're closin' all the factories down. Out in Bethlehem there killing tiiiiime. Filling out forms. Standing in line...

Love me some Billy Joel!

My sister lives in Macungie. Ever heard of it? She works at Lehigh Valley Hospital and went to Allentown College (Now De Sales U). I have a little piece of my heart in Allentown. My BFF went to Muhlenburg College so I spent lots of time in Allentown.




Welcome to the party, Mark! Of course you can join! Though, I'd venture to say that gender-wise, you are in the minority! We are a crazy bunch of Disney nuts. One more nut is always welcome!

Hope the rest of you snowbirds are sleeping well! I'm up and ready to go! Today is a half day off. Sort of. Not officially, but our work load is often lighter on Fridays, especially during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. But I have to work on creating a promotional brochure for our church and relief arm. And Scot has to fix some coworker's ceiling fans. So, we'll be off and running soon! And of course, there is always this to keep me busy! With 4 kids, laundry never ends, does it?

~~Carrie

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Turkey Hill is good ice cream. We dont have one near me, but Wawa has good ice cream too. But then Wawa has everything now. Gotta love Wawa's.
Ok, that could be a Pa. thing.....you know you are from Pa. when you say gotta have my Wawa!!!!!!!!!

They sell Turkey Hill ice cream in the grocery stores here. Is it also a restaurant/dairy isle?

Okay, I have never heard of Wawa. . . Must be on the other side of the state.

 

[BellaSoleil]

Goodmorning friends! HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Hello All!!!

May I join?...I have been reading this post since August but since I had not offically booked I didnt want to chime in However...I just booked a room at AKL Jan3-11! I am still in college so Jan is really the only time I can go....went last Jan and loved it! This year I am taking my cousin who is 22 and she has never been (can you imagin?) its going to be soo much fun showing her why I keep going back every year!

Thanks,
Mark

Hello Disneyprince!! WELCOME to the DIS and to the Snowbirds!

Sounds like you are going to have a great trip! It will be so much fun introducing your cousin to WDW!

 

[CrystalCastle]

Bless your heart I am proud of you!! You did what was best for your little boys and that's the best blessing! God is soooo gonna bless you for doing the right thing! It's kinda weird how people react when you homeschool,isn't it? Kinda like you are out to get them personally or something! YIKES!! I always think of these really good come-backs, but never say them. Someday..... Don't the craziest thoughts pop into ya'll's heads when people make smarty comments to you in front of your kids. I am really tickled right now thinking of a few things I am always so tempted to say. But, that wouldn't be right, would it?...Ha!! Glad to have you on our thread Crystal Castle!!!

Aw, thank you so much for the kind words. I hear ya on the commets and those great come-backs that never get said out loud. I get comments not only because I homeschool but because of my sons' disability. But I just remember to treat them as I would like to be treated and go about my life. They are who they are.

Momof2Disneyboys, my husband's family doesn't understand our love of Disney either. When we relocated to Southern California so we could be closer to Disneyland, his family thought we'd lost our minds. Some were even down right mean about it. I'm thankful I was raised "Disney" as my mom puts it. My family lives on the east coast and they love that I'm out here and they can come visit us and Mickey at the same time!

Good morning to all Snowbirds!!!!

 

[BellaSoleil]

At least your husbands understand the Disney obessions...... I'm still in the process of training mine.

 

[peach3es]

They sell Turkey Hill ice cream in the grocery stores here. Is it also a restaurant/dairy isle?

Okay, I have never heard of Wawa. . . Must be on the other side of the state.

Turkey Hill is a convenience store that sells a little bit of everything overpriced. They often run sales on their delicious ice cream as well as milk.

Wawa is a south/eastern PA thing...and they're big in Jersey and maybe Deleware? They have good coffee.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Turkey Hill is a convenience store that sells a little bit of everything overpriced. They often run sales on their delicious ice cream as well as milk.

Wawa is a south/eastern PA thing...and they're big in Jersey and maybe Deleware? They have good coffee.

Thanks for clearing that up for me! Now I don't feel so out of the loop with my PA Snowbird friends!!

 

[coffeehousemom]

Morning Snowbirds

Humphrey the Bear Rules!!! He is our favorite cartoon we love the Ranger of Brownstone the kids & I used to sign the "bump bump" song while we picked up toys. Chuck does a perfect voice & face expression of Humphrey. I even put him on hubby's phone as wallpaper.

Chuck "gets" Disney but just not to the proper extent. He can quote from all the movies & watches the shows w/ the kids. But I cannot get him to understand Disboards yet. oh well

 

[Pluto_fan]

Wow, I see I'm going to have to check this thread several times a day to keep up!

I feel bad admitting that I don't live in Pennsylvania!
However, I did live there for a year, a while back...does that count? And my grandparents all grew up there.

DHs and Disney...my DH never went as a child, poor guy. His first trip was with me in 1996, back before kids--he couldn't understand why we needed four days at an amusement park but he went along with it. Fortunately, he caught on quickly! He's not planning-obsessed like I am, but he'll bring it up out of the blue. He's out of town for a few days, and we were talking on the phone last night and he unexpectedly asked, "How are we getting to Disney?" I expected we'd drive (~13 hrs), but a coworker of his had taken the autotrain and DH wanted more info on that. I had looked into it and thought it sounded kind of neat but expensive, but I'm going to re-investigate now! Have any of you done it?

Prayers to all in Ike's path...

 

[Mickey's Other GF]

And we're livin' here in Allentown. And they're closin' all the factories down. Out in Bethlehem there killing tiiiiime. Filling out forms. Standing in line...

Love me some Billy Joel!

My sister lives in Macungie. Ever heard of it? She works at Lehigh Valley Hospital and went to Allentown College (Now De Sales U). I have a little piece of my heart in Allentown. My BFF went to Muhlenburg College so I spent lots of time in Allentown.

I go to Cedar Crest College- Right down the street from Muhlenburg!!!
And I'm studying to be a nurse and am planning at working at LVH after I graduate!!!

Oh, and I've very familiar with Wawa! Awesome coffee!