Jumping, Dancing & Jamming Our Way Through Walt Disney World! I'm With the Band Now!

[aprilisis]

Oh, I would TOTALLY send cousin Eddie after him!! He should have let you know about your bonus in person & at least a month in advance- that's a big difference. But, like you said, having your whole family home to spend Christmas with will be just awesome!

 

[KatMark]

Lisa, sorry to hear about the bonus. I agree...the boss should have told you sooner. But, as you said, you also have to appreciate that you get one...a lot of company's don't give them anymore.

I'm really surrpised you haven't heard if you are off Friday or Monday. Monday is a LEGAL holiday and you should have it off.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh, I would TOTALLY send cousin Eddie after him!! He should have let you know about your bonus in person & at least a month in advance- that's a big difference. But, like you said, having your whole family home to spend Christmas with will be just awesome!

I am sure there's a Cousin Eddie out there somewhere that I can sic on him!

Lisa, sorry to hear about the bonus. I agree...the boss should have told you sooner. But, as you said, you also have to appreciate that you get one...a lot of company's don't give them anymore.

I'm really surrpised you haven't heard if you are off Friday or Monday. Monday is a LEGAL holiday and you should have it off.

He should have told me a lot sooner. As it is, he waits until the day we leave for the holiday to give it to me. But, I am happy that I get something.

He just came in and acts as if he didn't even know that the courthouse was going to be closed. He knows that Lacey and Jesse will be here and acts like he doesn't even care.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

That is a bummer about your bonus, but glad you are getting one. I heard a statistic a couple weeks ago that over 75% of companies were not doing bonuses this year. My bonus was lower this year too, but I don't get very much at all to begin with since we are such a small company.

Yay for Jesse and Lacey being there for Christmas! And I don't blame you for not feeling guilty about his parents. Why go out of your way for people who aren't even happy or grateful for it?

 

[aprilisis]

I am sure there's a Cousin Eddie out there somewhere that I can sic on him!



He should have told me a lot sooner. As it is, he waits until the day we leave for the holiday to give it to me. But, I am happy that I get something.

He just came in and acts as if he didn't even know that the courthouse was going to be closed. He knows that Lacey and Jesse will be here and acts like he doesn't even care.

I'll volunteer as Cousin Eddie! Now I just have to find a polyester leisure suit...

Your boss sounds A LOT like mine.

 

[mickeystoontown]

That is a bummer about your bonus, but glad you are getting one. I heard a statistic a couple weeks ago that over 75% of companies were not doing bonuses this year. My bonus was lower this year too, but I don't get very much at all to begin with since we are such a small company.

Yay for Jesse and Lacey being there for Christmas! And I don't blame you for not feeling guilty about his parents. Why go out of your way for people who aren't even happy or grateful for it?

I guess I wouldn't have felt so bad about the bonus cut if he had come to me and said something to me. Or if I knew that we had a bad year. But, he sent me an email and I know, for a fact, that the business did great this year. As I've always said, "As long as people keep getting married and having kids, they will keep getting divorced and fuss about the kids which means I will always have a job." That sounds harsh but it's a fact.

I'm excited about Lacey and Jesse getting to come home for the holidays. Lacey's been having a bit of homesickness lately and is ready to get back to her family even if it is for just a few days.

Like I said, many years ago, John and I made the decision to not bust our gut trying to get to his parents' house when we know that they don't really care if we come or not. They've never been a holiday sort of family. I can't remember the last time I even got a gift from them. They certainly don't ever remember my birthday and sometimes don't even call John for his.

I'll volunteer as Cousin Eddie! Now I just have to find a polyester leisure suit...

Your boss sounds A LOT like mine.

I bet you could find a leisure suit at Goodwill!

My boss is nice when he wants to be and then at other times, he is a big old fat grump. Lately, he's been the grump.

 

[3LittlePirates]

I have a real life cousin Eddie.....except his name is Uncle Slim! (And yes, Slim is his legal real name...he had it legally changed years ago) Your in luck...were close by so just send me the address and I will send him over!!

 

[natebenma]

I was way behind but now I have read through your fantastic updates and I am all caught up.

Thanks for sharing the Mulch, Sweat and Shears video. It was great! Spin of Death- not so much. Maybe spin of the Seriously Threatened?

It has been a couple of years since we have seen Fantasmic (we did the Mama Melrose package, too) and I agree- it is a long walk. The entrance for the people who had the dinner package used to be somewhere else (Oscar's Garage near the entrance???) several years ago.

Your pictures from the Smoky Mountains are beautiful! I especially love the series of you guys in front of the river.

I enjoyed your outing to Clingman's Dome. Too funny!

Wishing you and your family a very merry Christmas. I know you will enjoy your visit from Lacey and Jesse. Your office being open on Friday and Monday and your meager Christmas bonus reminds me of a classic, Victorian Christmas tale... Maybe there will be a Christmas miracle and Scrooge McDuck will see the error of his ways.

 

[GrammyJudy]

Lisa I am happy for you that Lacey and Jesse are coming for Christmas. My son will be coming home too. He has a new job and wasn't sure but he has Sun and Mon off so will be here for 2 or 3 days as he doesn't have to go to work Tues till 10 at night. He lives 3 hours away. My daughter, her hubby and my grandsons live near by so we will all be together also.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday! We leave for WDW in 30 days but who is counting....me!!!!

 

[TinksThree]

Holy Freakin' Cow!! We did the same thing on the same days and we still missed each other!? Madison will be deeply disappointed to discover this! Friday was a perfect day! Gorgeous weather to go through Cade's Cove! Did you stop at the Visitor Center there? They had someone making and selling molasses.....YUMMO!!!!!

Okay....backing up!!

1. We had lunch at the Tennessee Visitor Center--but on Wednesday!
2. I could have warned you about the Jurassic Park ride. Sorry you wasted your money there! Major waste of money!! So many of those touristy things are like that!
3. Friday: Cade's Cove....let me see if I can get this straight, at the visitor center the Ranger dude said that the preggo mama bears are the only ones out (I think) because they stay hibernating later into the spring. Males are the first to go and come out sooner...boy I really need to listen better! They said most sightings had been closer to the towns due to food sources. We saw tons of turkeys and deer though! We make jokes now when cars stop for deer (since they live in our backyard!) and when we see people romping in the fields we stop and take pictures of them!! "Look it is PEOPLE!!!"
4. Saturday to Clingman's Dome....it was FREEZING!!!!!!!! We did not hike to the top but we did ride up, go into the store and I threw up after attempting to enter the "pit" so we went back down to Newfound Gap to make a pit stop! We have hiked to the top enough and know how brutal it is that we chose not to go in the wind, cold, artic North Pole air! I have learned to drink water on the way up but I still have to stop to breathe!

Sorry to hi-jack with a mini-TR of my own....maybe I should do one on my TR if I ever get back? I have 1 hour of work left this YEAR!!!! So....maybe I will get some posts going but I think everyone is so swamped with real life right now anyway!!

Good luck with getting Friday and/or Monday off!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Well Mr. Grumpy Pants has finally revealed that we will be closed on Friday and on Monday. I do believe it has a little something to do with a lawyer friend of our's calling and chewing his butt out about us working. It helps that she and I have been friends forever and were pregnant at the same time, worked in the same office, etc. etc. and we chatted for a while on the phone before I put her call through to him. I believe the nail in the coffin was when friends of our's at the Clerk of Court and the Judge's office told him they couldn't believe we weren't closing since they were. So, I will be off work!

I guess that means he better write my Christmas bonus check tomorrow. Knowing him, he will forget about it. The man forgets everything so I can see him actually forgetting my bonus. There's no real nice way of reminding him either so I guess we'll just see what happens.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Well Mr. Grumpy Pants has finally revealed that we will be closed on Friday and on Monday. I do believe it has a little something to do with a lawyer friend of our's calling and chewing his butt out about us working. It helps that she and I have been friends forever and were pregnant at the same time, worked in the same office, etc. etc. and we chatted for a while on the phone before I put her call through to him. I believe the nail in the coffin was when friends of our's at the Clerk of Court and the Judge's office told him they couldn't believe we weren't closing since they were. So, I will be off work!

I guess that means he better write my Christmas bonus check tomorrow. Knowing him, he will forget about it. The man forgets everything so I can see him actually forgetting my bonus. There's no real nice way of reminding him either so I guess we'll just see what happens.

Might I suggest, via email It would serve him right anyway!

 

[Bethislucy]

We just missed you in Pigeon Forge we got there on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas!!

 

[reelmom]

I'm finally caught up. Clingman's Dome looks so neat. We may have o take a trip there, I think my boys would love it. We went on the Jurassic Boats about 5 years ago. They were awful then. I can only imagine what it would be like now. We told people walking up to it not to waste their money after we rode it. Glad that you got the holidays off. Hope he remembers your bonus.

 

[jenseib]

seriously? he sent an email? Isn't he just in the next room? Like he couldn't open the door and tell you. It's not like you are in a building with 100 offices. good grief.

 

[mickeystoontown]

seriously? he sent an email? Isn't he just in the next room? Like he couldn't open the door and tell you. It's not like you are in a building with 100 offices. good grief.

Yes, seriously! There are six rooms in our entire office and his office is right behind mine. I, personally, thought it was the coward's way out but I couldn't say that to his face.

I'm finally caught up. Clingman's Dome looks so neat. We may have o take a trip there, I think my boys would love it. We went on the Jurassic Boats about 5 years ago. They were awful then. I can only imagine what it would be like now. We told people walking up to it not to waste their money after we rode it. Glad that you got the holidays off. Hope he remembers your bonus.

Clingman's Dome was definitely worth the drive up there and then the anxiety that I put myself through worrying about it.

I can't believe that the Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride is even operating still. It's horrible!

We just missed you in Pigeon Forge we got there on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas!!

I wish we had been in town at the same time. Did ya'll have a good time?

Might I suggest, via email It would serve him right anyway!

I kinda sorta did do it by email. I sent him an email that he needed to remind me to get his gift out of my car before we left for the day.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Well, I got the Christmas bonus and it was $500 less than I had originally thought not the $1,000.00 like he said in the email. I am sure that his mother laid a guilt trip on him. Like I said before, it's not that I don't appreciate getting the bonus....because....believe me, we need it and I do appreciate it. It's just the way that he told me about the reduction that got to me.

I have missed zero days of work this year and the only time that I have taken off was to go with John to his 3:30 or 4:00 p.m. doctor's appointments. Even during those times, I had somebody fill in for me and it didn't cost him a dime. I bet there aren't a whole of employers that can say that their employees have never taken a sick day or personal day off in an entire year.

His mother also came over around 2:00 p.m. and we exchanged our Christmas gifts. Then, she looked at my boss and said "You're closing now aren't you?" which put him on the spot and he had to say "yeah". Way to go Mama! So, I left about 2:30 when we had everything shut down for the long weekend. I had to stop at Walmart and pick up John's prescriptions and it was already a madhouse. I can only imagine what it will be tomorrow and Saturday.

I'm going to try to get an update posted here in a minute. And, I think I forgot to reply to a couple of posts so I need to do that.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I left off with us having conquered Clingman's Dome and making our final pit stop before heading back down the mountain and[ to our next destination. Bye bye Clingman's Dome parking lot or pit rest area I should say:

All the way down, we tried to spot the rocks that had the ice on them but never did see the ones with the large pieces of ice on them. Just some with a little:

I'm pretty sure that these were taken at Newfoundland Gap:

The wind was still blowing a bit hard and it was chilly so we didn't linger too long and were back on the road without taking more pictures.

The streams alongside the road were so very pretty but we didn't stop again instead we took pictures as we drove along:

Our next destination was Gatlinburg. I had only driven through Gatlingburg and had never stopped so I was excited to walk along the streets. It took forever to find a parking place and it was only by sheer luck that we did find a spot. We pulled into the one parking lot that said it wasn't full and, wouldn't you know it, it was full. The parking attendant yelled over to the other lot and asked if they had a spot. He said one was leaving and she told him to hold it because I was making the block to take it. The cost was $10.00 for the day and we gladly paid it because there apparently were no more spots in the entire town.

The first place that I wanted to go was the Moonshine Museum. John had seen the advertisement when we were in Knoxville in July but we never did make it to Gatlingburg that trip. The sidewalks were teaming with people and I felt like a salmon swimming upstream no matter where we walked. Thankfully, we were not too far from the museum/distillery. My first stop, though, needed to be a potty.

The bathroom was upstairs of the complex and a Mellow Mushroom pizzaria was upstairs too. We decided to go ahead and eat before going back down to get a sample of the moonshine.

The complex:

Mellow Mushroom was able to seat us right away and this was the view from our table:

We decided to order a large cheese pizza and a salad to share. The service was really fast and soon we had this sitting in front of us:

And the salad:

We were so hungry that we left only a few bits of crust and no salad at all. Neither Hunter or Lacey wanted dessert so John and I decided to share their one of a kind banana pudding dessert. It had a moonpie on the bottom, pudding, fresh sliced bananas and drizzles of chocolate.

This was our first visit to Mellow Mushroom and, if we have any say in the matter, it won't be our last. It was super good and the price wasn't high either considering we were in a tourist town.

***Continued in next post

 

[jenseib]

those pictures of the veiws are just stunning.

And so is that pizza!!!!

 

[ronnmel]

Very happy for you that 1. You got your bonus, 2. You are off work tomorrow and Monday, and 3. Your boss's mother helped you finish early today.

Gorgeous pictures of the scenery!