Life’s too short...to never sleep in a treehouse! 8/27 TR is up! Link in siggie

[MEK]

Cynthia -

I have missed so much on your PTR. Trying to catch up at work, but now duty calls. I will check back later tonight to see what's up, since I see there are some new developments!

 

[Happydog]

Well I for one hope you get to use your super sneaky DL plan after all! but I am sure you will have lots of fun regardless! I give a second on the Getty -- it is FABULOUS.... amazing building, but like you say there is only so much time! Have never been to Knotts Berry Farm, we hope to do San Diego next Christmas and maybe Lego Land!

 

[Native NYer]

Were your boys happy to go back to school yesterday?
I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so cold.

 

[MEK]

OK...All caught up (sans pictures) and I love CP's idea of the great reveal on the plane. The jigsaw puzzle idea is brillant! Hat's off to CP for thinking of it and Cynthia, well I know that you are more than capable of pulling it off.

I love your plans. I am curious about your ticket solution and your 1/2 day at DL? Do tell more? (or did I just miss that).

It's so funny that I never dreamed your flight would be 2 1/1 hrs. I am so west coast challenged after having spent my whole life over here on the other coast.

Can't wait to see those puzzles after you wip them up!

 

[Sandy321]

Stupid Question Alert -

Cynthia - with your planning pages - how can I use them? What program can I use to use them with?

My dh says they are saved as a jpeg and you (as in I) cant add my own info with them - we dont have photo shop - I have windows XP on the PC and dh has a mac I might be able to use...

I know there is something - I've used it when I substituted at school - ask my computer genius software engineer dh - "nope cant do it"

 

[eandesmom]

Yes! Let's do talk about Knott's chicken again!!! Yummmm!

Mnn...

Mrs. Knotts Fried Chicken Dinner. This dinner includes: Fried chicken made with the original Mrs. Knott's recipe, soup or salad, home-made biscuits served with Knotts jelly and jam, mashed potatoes and gravy, kernel corn, and a slice of pie for dessert.

Prices are reasonable at Mrs. Knott's restaurant,, too! The chicken dinner (you'll receive an entire 1/2 chicken!) costs only $15.75, and that's the price of a number of dinner entrees, too. "Lite" entrees cost $12.75 (as of early 2009.)

Let me talk about the fried chicken itself. Mrs. Knotts came several decades before Colonel Sanders. (Though they were from the same era, Sanders didn't even START marketing his chicken until "retirement.") Yet, in the last few decades, Kentucky Fried Chicken has molded public opinion about what fried chicken should taste like. People are used to his spicier style of fried chicken...which wasn't a standard way to cook chicken back in 1934 when Mrs. Knotts started out. Thus, modern palates may find Mrs. Knotts chicken bland. Others ADORE the taste and the crispier coating. You'll have to find out how YOU feel about Knotts fried chicken for yourself... Just keep in mind that it's a recipe from an older era.

I can't wait!

Cynthia -

I have missed so much on your PTR. Trying to catch up at work, but now duty calls. I will check back later tonight to see what's up, since I see there are some new developments!

Darn Duty! I hear you there

Well I for one hope you get to use your super sneaky DL plan after all! but I am sure you will have lots of fun regardless! I give a second on the Getty -- it is FABULOUS.... amazing building, but like you say there is only so much time! Have never been to Knotts Berry Farm, we hope to do San Diego next Christmas and maybe Lego Land!

Definitely marking it as an option, our days will hbe half scheduled and half open to mood so it's a good option to have in there, I'd love to go!

You know how I feel about San Diego! I've never made it to Lego Land though and sadly, the boys are on the verge of too old....

I do want to take them to San Diego though. We looked at it for Spring Break but LA was cheaper thanks to the kids fly free

Were your boys happy to go back to school yesterday?
I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so cold.

Mixed feelings I think. They got up and out of the house amazingly well but poor Eric was going back to drama.

His teacher resigned over the break. That poor kid has NOT had a consistent teaching experience this fall at all and one only knows when it will settle down. He's in a hi-cap program and they had so many kids this year, they added another class. They didn't find the new teacher until 3 weeks into school and he seemed fabulous. Sadly there are a number of parents in his class that hive hi-cap parents a bad name and they were unbelievably harsh with the guy and VERY vocal and it got really ugly. Truly embarrassing to be associated with and if you ask me they should just home school their kids, it is a public school for goodness sakes, we are incredibly lucky to have even kept the program with all the budget cuts and the guy was GREAT just very different from what they'd had before. Official word is family illness back in Alabama but....

So now he has a sub for 2 weeks and they are interviewing. Poor guy burst into tears when I told him. He's rebounded but I feel like he's got wasted weeks ahead of him. These are kids who do not do well when bored and in transition.

OK...All caught up (sans pictures) and I love CP's idea of the great reveal on the plane. The jigsaw puzzle idea is brillant! Hat's off to CP for thinking of it and Cynthia, well I know that you are more than capable of pulling it off.

I love your plans. I am curious about your ticket solution and your 1/2 day at DL? Do tell more? (or did I just miss that).

It's so funny that I never dreamed your flight would be 2 1/1 hrs. I am so west coast challenged after having spent my whole life over here on the other coast.

Can't wait to see those puzzles after you wip them up!

Nope, I haven't told my secret ticket solution and sneaky 1/2 day plan. IF I pull it off, I will tell upon our return. California is a big state so it's farther away than you think!

I've got the general plan for the reveal figured out, will start putting it together over the next few weeks but it definitely includes the puzzle idea. It's sneaky without fibbing to the kids and I'm rather pleased with it!

 

[eandesmom]

Stupid Question Alert -

Cynthia - with your planning pages - how can I use them? What program can I use to use them with?

My dh says they are saved as a jpeg and you (as in I) cant add my own info with them - we dont have photo shop - I have windows XP on the PC and dh has a mac I might be able to use...

I know there is something - I've used it when I substituted at school - ask my computer genius software engineer dh - "nope cant do it"

You aren't going to be able to add directly to them, they are created in Illustrator so unless you have that, you wouldn't be able to edit directly.

However, you can paste the jpeg into PowerPoint and then just use text boxes over the images, tilting them as you need to and it should work pretty well. If you want a full letter sized page I could probably make you a deck and email it to you if you want with it as a slide background so it's embedded as the page design with text boxes where you'd need them, just let me know which pages you want..

Same thing would probably hold true on the Mac in Keynote (though I'm pretty unfamiliar with it)

 

[Sandy321]

Power point! I knew I used something to practice with!1

I think you did send me some blank ones but DH being home he uses his mac - I do have power point here on the PC...

if you have something easy to locate - with no extra trouble on your part -
angelmum3 at yahoo.com...



I'm having a friend I've never met join us (she's staying at all star ) and I wanted to give her our itinarary - but Ithought your design would bring a smile to her face! (she's nervous about her first solo trip, her dh passed away not to long ago... so I hope she'll let us adopt her this week!!)

 

[eandesmom]

Power point! I knew I used something to practice with!1

I think you did send me some blank ones but DH being home he uses his mac - I do have power point here on the PC...

if you have something easy to locate - with no extra trouble on your part -
angelmum3 at yahoo.com...



I'm having a friend I've never met join us (she's staying at all star ) and I wanted to give her our itinarary - but Ithought your design would bring a smile to her face! (she's nervous about her first solo trip, her dh passed away not to long ago... so I hope she'll let us adopt her this week!!)

I'll send over something later today. Which version of Office do you have? 03 or 07?

 

[Sandy321]

version '03!!

Thank you!!

 

[eandesmom]

version '03!!

Thank you!!

sent! Check your inbox

 

[Sandy321]

aw - Thank you so much Cynthia - I'm on the mac now and playing!!

You gave perfect instructions as well!!


2 more sleeps - and on vacation we go!

 

[eandesmom]

aw - Thank you so much Cynthia - I'm on the mac now and playing!!

You gave perfect instructions as well!!


2 more sleeps - and on vacation we go!

Oh YAY! I've never actually done an PP conversion to Keynote so am glad to hear it's working! Just email me if you want me to tweak anything in the original deck, hopefully you get the idea and it's working ok.

2 sleeps!!!! I need to get over to your PTR!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

poor Eric was going back to drama.

His teacher resigned over the break. That poor kid has NOT had a consistent teaching experience this fall at all and one only knows when it will settle down. He's in a hi-cap program and they had so many kids this year, they added another class. They didn't find the new teacher until 3 weeks into school and he seemed fabulous. Sadly there are a number of parents in his class that hive hi-cap parents a bad name and they were unbelievably harsh with the guy and VERY vocal and it got really ugly. Truly embarrassing to be associated with and if you ask me they should just home school their kids, it is a public school for goodness sakes, we are incredibly lucky to have even kept the program with all the budget cuts and the guy was GREAT just very different from what they'd had before. Official word is family illness back in Alabama but....

As a Teacher (and a parent) I know how frustrating it all is. But it could be worse. Last year my DD's teacher went on a stress leave (it was a difficult class) and the teacher just kept extending the stress leave by a week at a time. So they took months before they got a permanent replacement. Just new faces all the time. It was a wasted year for all of them. Hope it works out better for you.

 

[eandesmom]

As a Teacher (and a parent) I know how frustrating it all is. But it could be worse. Last year my DD's teacher went on a stress leave (it was a difficult class) and the teacher just kept extending the stress leave by a week at a time. So they took months before they got a permanent replacement. Just new faces all the time. It was a wasted year for all of them. Hope it works out better for you.

It could be. Evan had a wasted year last year even though there wasn't any drama! He had a perfectly sweet teacher and didn't learn a darn thing! If anything he regressed. Our entire 4th grade did and we are all seeing the impact in 5th. It is frustrating. I used to supplement with Kumon and just can't afford it anymore but I see the difference it made and it makes me sad.

 

[creativeamanda]

That is so frustrating---why would a school allow the parents to treat the teacher like that? I have always felt like my principals have always been on my side and have not allowed that to happen to me. Seems like there are more problems than just the parents there. . .

 

[eandesmom]

That is so frustrating---why would a school allow the parents to treat the teacher like that? I have always felt like my principals have always been on my side and have not allowed that to happen to me. Seems like there are more problems than just the parents there. . .

Possibly, however I think the worst of it was done in public forums and a principal can't really control that. Now, bear in mind I didn't witness anything directly but apparently certain parents were bashing the guy on facebook. Sadly, you can't kick families out of public schools!

I think he made matters worse by emailing all the parents directly with a very defensive email. Which, while it broke my heart to read, was not a very professional way to handle it and didn't help to make him look very mature.

The whole thing was just sickening. All that said, the principal was silent during this, at least from a global communication perspective. He may have met with some parents directly and tried to intercede, I have no idea. I do know that I contacted the principal directly via email after the incident to voice my support and did not receive a response. Of course I didn't get a response from the teacher either but I figured he was under gag order after his ill-timed/thought out email.

The principal is relatively new and seems ok to me but I have heard grumblings from some. The new teacher was somewhat new to teaching, basically a second career after corporate life and came to us from Alabama. I think some parents had major issues with the fact that he didn't have a background in gifted ed (despite the fact he'd made some really really impressive contributions to his school that had been recognized in the 5 years he'd been teaching). I really liked him. I loved his style, his out-of the box-ness and the way he connected with Eric. I also liked the fact of his corporate background. Hi-cap kids can be very out of touch with the real world and I felt like he was more grounded in some ways and they (or at least Eric) need that to pull them back out of their heads!

However the principal and other hi-cap teachers made a big deal during the interview process of stating they were looking for someone with gifted background. He did not and so some parents had it out for him from day one. The whole thing is ridiculous though, 2 out of 3 of the upper grade teachers for hi-cap do not have a background in it either other than they've been doing it at the school for several years but taught mainstream before that. I think the fact that he was an "outsider" really bugged some. Perhaps part of it is due to the economy and feeling like we should take care of locals? I don't know. Supposedly all the teachers in our district that were laid off at the end of the year did end up getting placed so anyone would have been "new".

It is also possible that some of those lovely Northwesterners had an issue with a Southerner teaching their child. The Pacific NW can be a really ugly cliquey place in its own way and a southern accent to some can be a real issue, it sounds "uneducated" to them. While I don't see it directly, given that Jeff is from CA and 2 of our good friends are from CA they have said this is true over and over, I know the one family still feels a little bit like outsiders and they've been here for 4 years.

Again I don't really know. It's all hearsay and I guess at this point, moot. What I do know is that maybe half of the parents in the gifted program are about the worst kind of helicopter parenting you can imagine, as bad as certain soccer mom's and football dad's with their kids. They wanted to tell him how to do his job, how to run certain units, what units to run, run special ones themselves and this was a guy not big on delegation which I respect. It's his class, he should run it how he sees fit and IF I see problems with what is coming home, then and only then would I get involved and it would be 1:1 and in private! To me, third grade is a natural time for this, I experienced it with Evan's teachers in 2nd and 3rd and it was fine with me! But not fine with many parents and that was a mainstream class. Ev's 2nd grade teacher was bashed by most parents I know at his school. I liked her but I was definitely in the minority. She was tough, but fair and had really high expectations of the kids. Which was the best thing to ever happen to Evan. In my opinion school is not supposed to be a playdate! Nor does every teacher need to be warm and fuzzy. She loved those kids in her own way, I can't blame her if she didn't want to interact with the parents. My child was happy and that's all that matters to me. I don't need to be in class everyday like some, to see that he is doing well.

I swear though, people will find something to complain about no matter what. 2nd and 3rd were "too tough" for some but 4th was "too easy" Jeesh!

At any rate, with Eric, I did not have any issues with the level and quality of work coming home. In fact, quite the opposite.

I deliberately distanced myself from it but ICK! I'd like to tell them to get a life and to home school if they think they can do better, or go pay for private!

These are parents that threw an absolute fit about the hi-cap bus potentially being eliminated. I mean really, it's a miracle the program survived and they are going to throw a fit about a bus that could save the district 300K when they needed to shave millions? Talk about entitlement.

Makes me want to put Eric somewhere else but that's not really a solution either.

And we wonder the the quality of our teachers goes down...I can't imagine putting up with this kind of stuff. Corporate politics is bad enough but..BLEH!

Evan's 2 tough teachers? Who we loved? Both took early retirement. Just what my kids need, going to school in a district that gets a rap for being hard to work in. I don't know if it's better or worse than others in the area in this respect (though heard from one Special Ed teacher that it's better than where he is at now) but it certainly concerns me about the quality of applicants we might be seeing. Supposedly 27 had applied over the break and they hope to fill it by the 19th.

Who knows. What I do know is Eric is not impressed with the long term (2 week or more if they don't find someone) sub. He called him "a go with the flow guy". His classmate, my HS BF's son (who is equally appalled...we grew UP in this district!), couldn't even remember the guys last name and told my best friend "I just want a real teacher".



Sorry for the long vent!

 

[eandesmom]

Now that I've totally bashed my own school district!

Something FUN!

I'd like to share something our rival HS came up with.

The E's will actually go to the school that this video is in response to. Apparently their future school put one out there as a challenge to this school to see who had the better lip dub video.

These guys blew them away! It's gotten some national press so you may have seen it elsewhere!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7TI-AJi2O8

Of course both HS's were my rival growing up, but it's a smaller district and my HS closed long ago...
My nephews will go here

And despite my venting above...I moved back here b/c I felt like I received a decent education and both my sister and I are raising our children in the district. I just never expected so much drama in elementary school (or in soccer or whatever lol...a sign of the times I suppose).

 

[eandesmom]

We are officially booked for our DCA trip!

Sadly, my super sneaky plan to get Jeff into DL as well as DCA, which was brilliant in concept, appears to have been thwarted by about 5 days. We will see if that changes. I’m still hoping to pull it off. When there is a will, there is a way and I do have, if nothing else, a lot of will. If not, we are seriously considering hitting the Getty (thanks PPP and Happy Dog!) which I would just adore, as would Jeff or maybe Santa Monica and the sushi place Jen recommended (don’t tell Jeff!).

Our final total for 4 nights at the Crowne Plaza, car and flights was $1187!

I LOVE the kids fly free deal!!!

I will still need to get tickets for everything (Knott’s will buy at gate to get the AAA discount, DCA need a new plan, Queen Mary will buy there) but other than that it’s paid for. I love that. Kind of funny due to the kids fly free promo when it breaks down the trip, the official cost of the kids is…
$36.00

The rest is for Jeff and I.

I found that really funny.

For the reveal I have decided the following.

I am not going to tell them anything ahead of time, I’ll have them all packed and ready to go.

Bedtime will NOT be late that Friday night and I am going to tell them the reason is that we need to be up early to go visit friends and it’s a bit of a trip.

When I wake them up, if they ask where we are going, it will just be to visit some friends who live kind of far away. I’ll give them the amount of time it will take, just going to leave out the flying part. Friends they haven’t seen since they were really little but that they wouldn’t remember so they’ll just see when they get there and the place we are meeting the friends at, they’ve never been to before.

I’m going to stick with the friend line all the way till we get on the plane and are in flight. Long Beach won’t mean a thing to them (as long as I keep Jeff from blowing it!).

On the plane they will each get a puzzle, (thank you Jackie!) the puzzles will be different and will show all the things we are going to do. I found out the airline tray dimensions and a site that will make something that will fit (8x10) without it being too easy or hard (165 pieces each).

Once the puzzles are put together they will each get a pre-made journal for the trip with some puzzles, trivia and fun facts as well as plenty of space to write in. Kind of a workbook but it will keep them entertained on the plane as well as being a keepsake.

When I get them made I will post them.

Oh and the friend?

They will ask.

Well we are going to visit Jordan of course!

And we are visiting my friend Jessica, her husband and their two kids. They are going to meet us at the Queen Mary, possibly for brunch as well as the boat tour itself. I haven’t seen Jessica since 2001 when I was last there and the boys and I drove up to her house in Bakersfield. Kind of a fun story, she is a friend from an expecting board back when I was pregnant with Evan and she was pregnant with her oldest. One of my very first, and oldest, online friends who has transferred to an IRL friend! Weird to think we’ve known each other 11 years. She’s also, in the last year, become my travel agent!

An exciting agenda item (to me lol!) is D Street! The new store open in DTD. Sounds a bit like Trend D but we will see! Check it out.

A place where urban art inspired product "intersects" with a Disney creative edge. This raw, unfinished industrial style space will showcase a mix of Disney inspired art created by local and underground artists. Also up for grabs is cutting edge apparel, pop culture novelties, vinyl figures, collectibles and more.

D Street will feature Disney vintage looks from Disney Couture, urban styles and artwork from Bloc 28, Surf and Skate inspired apparel, artwork and accessories, as well as Star WarsTM tees. Also available at this new hot spot are some of the latest offerings from jewelry designers such as Tarina Tarantino and Classic Hardware as well as fashions from labels like Mighty Fine and Harajuku Lovers. The location will also be home to the work of one of Southern California's local Artists, Noah. Noah draws his inspiration from his love of Disney as well as his love of the forgotten era that we tend to cling to, which includes old movies, classic cars and rockabilly style Kustom Kulture.

This new urban-style location will also pave the way for everything VinylmationTM. Considered one of the flagship stores for Vinylmation figures, D Street will showcase the latest releases from the various collections, including the Park Series, Urban Series, Holiday Series and more. Designed by the creative talents from our Disney Design Group, Disney Vinylmation takes on a whole new meaning in the world of collectibles. These 3" and 9" figures are often designed to represent icons, attractions and characters from Disney Parks & Resorts or have more of street feel with their urban-inspired looks.

​

In other exciting news for our August trip….Universal came out with the first of their 2010 promotions and I was able to get our HRH nights down by $228. Not much but every little bit helps, I figure that covers the town car and the stop at the grocery store (but not the GG order going to the YC!).

I’ve crunched and recrunched all the numbers in anticipation of possibly having to move our dates. Bottom line is we REALLY need Free Dining to come out as that would chop off another $650 for us (though adds a little to Sandie’s portion). Great as the 40% off room promo is, FD beats it for us.
If for some reason there really isn’t free dining (not offered, not available, whatever) I will have to tweak the dates so I get the HRH nights off of the weekend (which would save about $285) but am leaving them where they are assuming that there will in fact be free dining. I like $650 a heck of a lot more than $285! We could skip the DDP but that makes me nervous. While I don’t expect to save as much as we did last time (going with 6 Disney adults instead of 4), I loved having it prepaid for and not feeling like I spent the whole trip adding as I went. Even if it just breaks even, it's a stress remover!

Of course there could be a better Universal promo between now and then, one can only hope as that part of the trip is outrageous!

I actually looked at a split stay to see if that made more sense and from a room standpoint, it would be great BUT we’d get killed on the tickets as each of the packages require them.

Oh well!

Now I just need Sandie’s input on the ADR’s and Jeff’s on our date night and I can get ready for that too!

Giving

 

[englishrose47]

Hi Cynthia Vent away!!! Bt I dohave a ??? What is Hi Cap????