May 10, 2008 Ship of Thieves! Stealing the Magic..AGAIN!!! Panama Canal FL to CA!!!

[calmom]

Lisa and family,

Welcome aboard!!

I am so glad to see another Bay Area family. There is quite a few of us. My family is from San Ramon. I also have four children DD14, DS 12, DS 10, DD 7 (atoc).

I really do not look forward to tell our school that we will be traveling for 2 weeks. I think I will make my DH do it. Wish the staff understood how important a real-life education is!! You can not get a better eduaction of "history"or "Social Studies", then by truely being there!! A whole book can not teach you as much as you can get from one day in one Port. To truely see and meet the people, learning about their lives, culture, money system. Somedays I do miss the freedom of home schooling.

I have started a children group...Ship of Little Thieves. So, our children can get to know each other, before our big cruise. If you would like to have your children join us, send me a PM.

Thanks for the welcome! i know my 9 year old (will be 10) would love to join the group but we are waiting to tell them about it. Not sure when we will pass along the good news, but as soon as we do I'll PM you! We live in across the way in the Peninsula. Lisa

 

[disneycruising]

I have to go pick up my DD from preschool. It has been a great morning getting all my housework done without her here. NOT!!!!Darn DIS!!!

I am having the same problem....DIS or housework...DIS aways seems to win out. Good thing my youngest DD doesn't get out until 2. It give me a little more time to ...DIS. Okay, I might put in some laundry and pick up the house. I don't want Mike thinking I did nothing all day.

 

[calmom]

Welcome Lisa. With all the northern California DISers going on this cruise, we need to plan a precruise meet.

Noel

We are from the same town too! We moved from Campbell two years ago. Lisa

 

[txaggie94gigem]

i learned my lesson about rental cars and luggage on our last cruise...no one will ever call me a light packer but if anything goes wrong, i probably have something in my cabin to fix it!

anyway, in renting our cars last year i am thinking there are four of us...we can fit in a compact, NO PROBLEM! then i started looking at our luggage a couple months later and went ON NO! the luggage will not fit! we are renting a van this time!

 

[txaggie94gigem]

to those who submitted the designs for our polls....

i really like all of them (although the top one is my favorite with the "hidden mickey"....if it is alright with you, i would like to use the designs in my door signs, etc and i will give credit where it is due....if you do not have a problem sharing, will you pm me so i can provide my email address so you could email me a full size version of your design....

 

[txaggie94gigem]

i am sensing we are going to need another drink list....ibouncetoo didn't you make this last year?

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

on the pot pie issue! i also think it must be in "pie" form with a top and bottom crust!!! here is a good recipe for a casserole that tastes like chicken pot pie but much easier to make!

Cracker Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts cooked and cut up (about 2 cups)
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz container sour cream
1-2 cups mixed veggies (drained out of the can or frozen but already heated)
if you cook the frozen ones in the casserole they release
too much water and make it runny

mix all this together....

crumble up 2-3 sleeves ritz crackers and drizzle with 1/2-1 stick of melted butter depending on how good you want it to taste vs. the healthy content!

mix crackers & butter well and sprinkle 1/2 of mixture on bottom of pan, cover with creamy chicken mixture and then top with rest of crackers....bake for 1 hour at 350 and enjoy! i have made this several times at church and everyone raves about it and begs for seconds....also...my kids love it!


did any of you see Paula Deen from the food network on Oprah....Oprah asked her about using all the butter in her recipes and how that fits into the healthy lifestyle most people want today and Paula said "I'm your cook, not your doctor!!!!!" i was rolling!

This sounds so good and easy!

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

Thanks - I just looked at the thread. One post about made me cry:

"Hi,

Many great points here. I would like to offer a different perspective. My son usually misses 1 week a year of school to go on a Disney trip. He is 14. He is my youngest child and I really wanted to spend some quality time with him. After all this is it he will be grown and gone soon. I always had told people that I felt family time is just as important as school time. He has good grades and has always made up all his missed work. Now skip back to this past summer. We got devastating news that my son had Hodgkin's Lymphoma(cancer). The week we spent in the hospital we spent many an hour talking about all our past Disney trips. I am so HAPPY i chose to do what i did and spend the time with him on trips. Life is too short and you never know what will be thrown at you. Do not feel guilty about missing school. My son is cured now and just finished the end of his treatment on Friday. I know there will be more trips and more missed school. What will he remember in life-the fact that he missed school or the time we spend as a family.
School is important but so is our precious limited time with our children.

Bug and Slinkyman"

WE HAVE TO GO! I can't wait to spend 15 days without work, without cell phones, just with my kids and husband. I can't recall ever doing that. This will be the time! I can't wait. Lisa

I know I was really chocked up when I read this. I am glad everything is looking brighter for this family.

 

[ibouncetoo]

i am sensing we are going to need another drink list....ibouncetoo didn't you make this last year?

Yes, I HAVE THE DRINKS LIST!

 

[birkner]

We are from the same town too! We moved from Campbell two years ago. Lisa

I am not home much these days being an empty Nester. We will have to get together for coffee/lunch some time at Buck's.

Noel

 

[nskjerven]

I guess that means I will have to tell them...on the way to the mini meet. This way they could share all their excitement with everyone.

ok, then set the date....we should see each other early and often, same as the vote don't cha think?

 

[PrincessTToo]

I was going to use my 100th DIS post to defend fellow Minnesotan, Prince. But I decided to post a frozen pipes story instead.

Daunte Culpepper, former Minnesota Vikings quarterback, used to live close by. He lived in a huge house in a very exclusive gated community. (We live in a non-gated community on the other side of the tracks.)

Anyway, at the end of another disappointing football season, Daunte closed up his Minnesota house and went back to his home state of Florida for the off-season. And he turned off the heat in his house before leaving. His pipes froze and then burst and the water damage was so bad that his house had to be gutted and rebuilt.

Everybody felt sorry for him because he’s from Florida and didn’t know any better.

But he did the exact same thing the very next year! And his house had to be gutted and rebuilt again!

Fortunately he got traded to Miami the year after that so he doesn’t have to worry about frozen water pipes anymore.

 

[seaulater]

On the designs for the cruise, you might want to take out the word "Disney". Our friend, Ken, got the letter from the Disney Attorneys saying to cease and desist when he first posted the designs on Cafe Press. He called asking what they objected to. All they would say is maybe you should get your own attorney, we can't tell you.

He took the word Disney out of the shirt design and re-posted on Cafe Press and all has been well since.

 

[kimerinc]

OMG (oh, in Utah that would be OH MY GOSH!)

Just realized that not only will we be on the ship for Mother's Day, it will also be my birthday that same day..Sunday, May 11th. (that would be my 29th birthday...... )

Yippee, two celebrations in one!

OMH would be Oh My Heck... Just helping out a little here....

 

[aphoenix]

Note to self:

PACK MICROWAVE

Do you think we could "sell" microwave popcorn at night as a "fundraiser" to help pay for the bar bill and excursions???

Just squeeze it in next to the printer!

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

Holly,

I really enjoyed your trip report. It was great to see the differences. I may have to consider this for my DH and I to have some alone time.

 

[Ginamarie]

I was going to use my 100th DIS post to defend fellow Minnesotan, Prince. But I decided to post a frozen pipes story instead.

Daunte Culpepper, former Minnesota Vikings quarterback, used to live close by. He lived in a huge house in a very exclusive gated community. (We live in a non-gated community on the other side of the tracks.)

Anyway, at the end of another disappointing football season, Daunte closed up his Minnesota house and went back to his home state of Florida for the off-season. And he turned off the heat in his house before leaving. His pipes froze and then burst and the water damage was so bad that his house had to be gutted and rebuilt.

Everybody felt sorry for him because he’s from Florida and didn’t know any better.

But he did the exact same thing the very next year! And his house had to be gutted and rebuilt again!

Fortunately he got traded to Miami the year after that so he doesn’t have to worry about frozen water pipes anymore.

Oh that's too funny. DBro forgot to shut off the water for one of his outdoor hoses this year and it exploded a couple of weeks ago. Luckily the damage wasn't too bad. Hopefully he learned his lesson!

 

[mom_of_2_princesses]

Oh that's too funny. DBro forgot to shut off the water for one of his outdoor hoses this year and it exploded a couple of weeks ago. Luckily the damage wasn't too bad. Hopefully he learned his lesson!

When we froze this year we had so many people in the ER because of broken bones. Southern Californians don't know to turn off their sprinklers to keep the streets from turning into ice skating rinks. It was pretty funny but I felt bad for the elderly.

 

[LiserAnn]

what are SPANX?

i have to admit OK is not a fashion metropolis and i rarely go to the mall.....

Someone may have mentioned this already (I'm in catch up mode right now):

www.spanx.com

In a nutshell, they're undergarments that are slimming and smoothing to the figure.

 

[UKANGEL]

angel:



i know many of us have stopped to say special prayers for everyone over there affected by this tragedy. please hang in there....i hope they have been able to find who did this to her...please let us know if we can do anything....

elizabeth

Elizabeth, and everyone else saying prayers for us all....

The police have arrested a 54 year old woman and bailed her over this. They found the car on fire in a nearby road. So, not only did she fail to stop, it seems, but then deliberately set out to hide what she'd done....there are some very wicked people around.

Also, I just found out today that my friend was in hospital having an operation herself when her daughter was hit, and couldn't be taken to see her before she died. That made me so so sad.

Life is just so short and precious, anyone wanting to make the most of their time with their children on this cruise should go for it I think.