Mixed Marriage 2: The Conversion Continues..... now complete

[OhMari]

I'm joining Tubachick It's like reading a great series that continues by a great author.

 

[ntsammy5]

During the next few months there were a few changes in the Twinkie household that provide the proper frame of reference for our next Disney trip.

Changes on the Job Front
I graduated in May of ’99 and by that fall I have scored a full time position for my dream company. In fact I get to do exactly what I want because my team is at the very research end of the R&D spectrum. I love my job. I love my company. I love having a salary and awesome benefits (if you have any questions about chocolate, army knives or progressive healthcare…. Just ask the Swiss ). I believe I mentioned that my DH was also working in agricultural research when we met… I don’t think I mentioned that he also had a degree… In business.
In fact he had 2 college degrees… neither of which had any bearing to his job. And he is in a field where you pretty much need a PhD to ever be in charge of anything so job wise he was kind of stuck. So, I, being the wonderful wife I am say
“Hey hon… is there anything you would like to do? Would you like to go back to school… because we could live off of my salary right now and we are planning to have more children someday (remember this is 1999- just me, DH, and DS 5) so now would be a good time”
He says “No thanks, I know I will never be promoted because I don’t have an Ag degree but I am good at what I do, and I get home every day at 5 pm, I have no job related stress. I think I will just be happy with the life I lead.”
Ok. Remember this! 1999- Mrs. Twinkie- lovely new job, Mr. Twinkie happy with his job. Make a note.

Changes at Home
Also during this time we do undergo more costly and bitter legal battle-that ends strangely and suddenly. By the fall of 1999, we have a shared custody agreement whereby DS lives with us except for 2 weekends a month and alternate holidays. His mother has remarried and has a new baby. DS goes to kindergarten.

Strange Changes in DH
Shortly after our return from Florida in 1998, I noticed a distinct change in our mall wandering habits. I have this strange quirk- (I know all y'all are shocked to hear that)... I love to walk after eating a big meal. Sometimes I have to walk. I also love eating in restaurants… so in our early married days we had the habit of about once a month, when DS was at his Grandma’s house, of sharing an early bird special (appy, entrée and dessert for $9.99) at Houlihans. This wasn’t really in the budget either but as I told my DH…. It is cheaper than therapy. So after this extravagant meal I needed to walk… so being as we lived in NC (the always humid all the time state) we tended to walk through the mall… just window shopping. After our trip, the Disney Store, at which we had never browsed, became a must-do. I don’t know exactly when it was but I remember one evening we were both busy in various parts of the store when I looked up to see my DH carefully investigating a rack of Beanie baby sized Disney characters while he was singing under his breath to whatever Lion King song was being piped through the store. I was kind of shocked and then our eyes met. “They must have put something in the water.” He remarked upon catching my gaze.

AND

 

[cudcat41]

Great trip report! Thanks for taking the time to post!

 

[TwinkieMama]

hello dear readers! thank you so much again for your cheers....
IRL today my baby developed pink eye.... how I don't know as technically the twins are no longer contagious... could it be that bacteria don't read the package inserts on antibiotics?????
so I have been traumatized this morning by the delightful experience of giving eye drops to a one year old
(aside to flipflop and other mothers of multiples re the reinfection thing... I did ask my dr what I could do/could have done to prevent this and was told "you have multiples that are too little to understand about preventing the spread of germs, expect all three to get everything everytime until they are older".... however I will continue with my unofficial war on germs)

so that said: welcome to all the new folks especially OneMoreStitch! I wish I had time to say something personal to everyone but there is disinfecting to be done (again)

princesslibby: I should have known you are a saver because you were keeping track of my budget. You don't have to spend your twinkie points, you can put them into a Twinkie Growth Fund.
I am about the bathing suit issue- you have hit the nail on the head. At least they are not expensive either- I mean I spend 4 hours and I am willing to spend $80 and I still can't find anything that fits while he wanders into Wally World and 5 min and $7 later he is good to go.... btw the purple ones are from Washington, DC and the tan ones are from Savannah- we too can track our travel by the swim suit collection

DisneyDoll- thanks for your comments! I'll be looking for your trip report because I love weddings and Disney World so I am I sure that the combo is even better

UtahMama- you rock! you are too funny in every post... and right about the chicken thing... wouldn't trade it for the world though

Mortimer- thanks for the compliments! It is always nice to hear it even if you know it's true.

Now I have to go work and if I am good I'll reward myself with time to write the next chapter of Twinkie2000!

 

[BlueBayou]

Very fun trip report! Thanks for sharing.

 

[TwinkieMama]

And finally it is Saturday, June 10th, 2000 at 4:00 am. Beep! BEEP! Then 4:20. Beep! BEEP! Another great dichotomy of our marriage at the time is that I am an Early Bird and DH has doesn’t even know why anyone would want a worm. (Since I had babies however is a whole ‘nother story). But then, back in 2000, I was well rested and at my best first thing in the morning… so I didn’t even scold him for hitting the snooze button. On a normal not-going-to-Disney Saturday I was happy to let him sleep in but I still hated the snooze button. My feelings are that you should just go ahead and decide to sleep until 9 or 10 am and set the alarm accordingly . Don't kid yourself that you are getting up at 8 and annoy the rest of the household (ie me) every 20 minutes. DH is perfectly content to hit the snooze every 20 minutes for hours. But we are going to Disney and he only hit it once, so I don’t whine or scold I just scoot out of bed and get ready to go. It only takes DH a couple of minutes to get dressed and we just carry DS into the car, jammies and all. As I am strapping him in, he begins to stir and kind of opens his eyes and said “Are we going to Disney World mom?” I hesitate to answer because I am afraid the truth will wake him up and it is going to be a long day even without an over tired recent kindergarten grad. But the truth beckons and I whisper “Yes, you go back to sleep and Daddy will drive us there.” He gives a satisfied smile and in his peaceful descent back into slumber the years peel away and I can see the toddler I fell in love with years ago…
We drive away into the dawn’s very early and very little light. It is exactly 4:40 am… not quite as early as I would like but a decent start nonetheless. We stop for gas and fill up for $25 (do you remember those days? It seemed steep at the time). DS is deep asleep and pretty soon I join him.

One of the things we agree on in our marriage is that I don’t like to drive and DH doesn’t like for me to drive. (I am actually a very good driver. I like to daydream though and DH has control issues.) So he does 98% of the driving and we are both happy. Around 9 am however he asks if I am awake. I am so we pull over at the next rest stop and change places. At almost 10 am, DS wakes up. After slowly waking up and eating a pop tart, he goes into motor mouth mode. This wakes up DH which is good because we all need a rest stop. When we re-enter the car, post resting, DS is dressed and I no longer have to drive. This frees me up for more important things, like a rousing game of “I’m Thinking of Something” whereupon we learn that DH is thinking of the Haunted Mansion which leads DS to ask me what it is rated for his age group.
“Hey, did you bring that book?” DH asks. Of course I brought that book. I also brought a pocket folder with our itinerary, confirmation numbers, PS numbers and my Magic Kingdom Club card. (The MKC was a club that gave you discounts on various Disney related items. I got mine through work. The club no longer exists which figures because it was awesome and seeing that my employer belonged was one of sparks that lit this particular Disney trip fire.) Which compared to some of the people on the boards is nothing- you have your matching t-shirt cliques, the whole spreadsheet groupies, the laminators- however for my little 4 night, 3 meal stay the whole folder thing was serious overkill. I could have just memorized my PS numbers…..
So we continued south, being entertained by dramatic interpretation of the UG done by yours truly. It is important to note that only days before DH had mocked my addiction to the UG. It really bothers him that I laugh out loud while reading a travel guide. I also laugh out loud at the funny pages in the newspaper. This also bothers DH. Oh well, I know I am normal and anyway... he married me.
The only other items of note during the rest of the trip down are that we did have to buy another tank of gas in GA ($21-DH prides himself on his ability to pump in whole dollar amounts) and that we did not stop for or spend money on food on the way. Also, DS is a very good traveler, but it was still great to have about half of our driving done while he slept. I highly reccomend this if you can pull it off. I now know that some children just are not good travellers and/or very light sleepers. But then I thought I had discovered some great secret of parenting.... l
Also we both are really entertained by the billboards for South of the Border….my favorite is Pedro’s Weather Forecast-Chili Today, Hot Tamale. DH’s favorite is the one about “Keep Screaming Kids. They Will Pull Over”

Up Next: We are on property… or are we?

 

[BONITATIME]

I can't belive i have read 9 pages and we are not even there yet.
Great report.

 

[TwinkieMama]

I can't belive i have read 9 pages and we are not even there yet.
.

The next post is just for you Bonitatime

 

[TwinkieMama]

We did stop at the rest stop at the Florida border. That is a tradition. We actually always stop at rest stops at all state borders. We also collect maps. Actually the he part of the we does the collecting. He likes to collect everything. (Remember that- it comes into play later). It started out innocently enough in his childhood with baseball cards but by the time we got married it was out of control (Wheaties boxes?!?) So despite a few stops we made excellent time and we were on Disney property by 3 pm that afternoon. Which was earlier than I expected. Earlier than I expected to actually be allowed to check into our room. However we are optimistic souls so we proceeded to try to check in…. except we couldn’t even find the resort.

Now to be fair I must say that on our ’98 trip we only went to the MK and we were coming from the other direction and we both arrived and left in the dark….. so neither one of us had any experience in navigating the bazillion acres which is now the World. Also the signage was classy which is another word for uninformative and non-attention getting. Also, being a man, DH felt no need to stop and ask for directions… I mean how lost could we be… we are on property!

As we drive around we see what looks like civilization- Disney style. All sorts of interesting buildings…

“What is that?” asks DH.
“That is Downtown Disney” I replied.
“When are we going there?” he asked.
“Sweetie- that isn’t a park. It is a shopping center. It doesn’t require a ticket so I thought we could check it out on our last day.” I answered being the source of all Disney knowledge.
“Look- over there. There is a bunch of hotels. I am sure our resort is over here.” DH said with some excitement.
“But Sweetie- our resort is a ‘value’ resort which means it won’t look like that (points to a tall elegant building) and it is going to be far away from other things therefore this cannot be the right place.”
“But we are not near any of the parks right now so this could be our resort.”
“But we are near Downtown Disney.”
“Let’s just drive over there and check it out” he said as he proceeded to do just that.

After pulling into the Hilton and having someone else tell us that it was not the All Stars and was not in fact anywhere near the All Stars but eventually finding someone who could give us directions, we headed toward the All Star Sports Resort.

As we pull out of the Hilton parking lot, DH asked “Well, why aren’t we staying in one of these hotels?”
“Well, honey, first of all it would be a lot of money to stay at the Hilton and second of all I want to stay onsite to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours and the rest of these hotels really are not on property.”
“How can they be off property when we are on property?” he asked.
Sigh. Sometimes it is hard to be the source of all Disney knowledge.

 

[tubachick]

“How can they be off property when we are on property?” he asked.
Sigh. Sometimes it is hard to be the source of all Disney knowledge.

my DH says the same things!!!!

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

Twinkiemama....obviously you weren't living in Kansas at the time of this trip. It sure takes a lot longer to travel by car to wdw from Kansas! How long ago did you make the move to Kansas?

 

[ntsammy5]

As we pull out of the Hilton parking lot, DH asked “Well, why aren’t we staying in one of these hotels?”
“Well, honey, first of all it would be a lot of money to stay at the Hilton and second of all I want to stay onsite to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours and the rest of these hotels really are not on property.”
“How can they be off property when we are on property?” he asked.
Sigh. Sometimes it is hard to be the source of all Disney knowledge.

LMAO. Keep these coming!

 

[TwinkieMama]

Yes Karla- we were living in Raleigh, NC at the time of this trip... we moved to Kansas almost exactly 3 years ago.

To my darling husband- I owe an apology. He pointed out to me that, while the above discussion of the snooze alarm, is in fact true, on that particular day the snooze alarm was hit with my full consent because at that time the alarm clock was on my side of the bed (now it is on his)...
however we did leave at 4:40 am because that is in the notes in his handwriting...
and however much he does like to sleep in, he is one to get up bright and early (with minor prompting) while on a Disney type vacation... as you will soon see... and in fact while I wake up first, he is always dressed and ready to go first
(which may have something to do with the fact that it just easier for men to get dressed and that he has 20/15 vision while I can't even see my toes prior to putting in my contacts which is hard to do when you are half asleep)
My husband has found the boards and is in fact frequenting this thread....

He called me from work this afternoon and I mentioned that the baby was sick he said "So I heard." I asked him why he was reading my TR and he said "I want to see how the story ends."
Do you want to know who he is? Well, he won't admit his screen name but....
he is a big NCSU fan and he is an "old school" kind of guy so I think I know

I don't want to get in trouble so back on topic I go.... ah yes.. looking for the All Star Sports

 

[MagicMe]

Okay, I know you just posted recently but I need more....

 

[TwinkieMama]

MagicMe- ask and you shall recieve...

 

[TwinkieMama]

With our new directions courtesy of “the guy at the Hilton” we only make a few wrong turns and we end up at the All Star Sports at about 3:45 pm which is about when I expected to arrive. We walk in and we are overwhelmed that we are in a Disney Resort for which we have reservations. One reason this trip is so fun is that for all non Disney travel, DH is the man with the plan, they guy with the folio full of confirmation numbers and I am just along for the ride. So part of the vacation is that he gets to be a kid while I am Princess of Plans. So the kid gets to go watch TV with the other kid while I get in line to check in. I feel my eyes start to well. My heart beats strangely. Now I am in for a real test- prior to the DIS I had no idea that one could make room requests other than “non-smoking” or “wheelchair accessible” so this whole concept or wanting a certain view or theme or room number even is totally wild. I have, in the spirit of trying new things requested the football or baseball buildings thinking those themes would be what my guys would enjoy the most. So the CM gives me the packet and the spiel and offers to sell me park tickets and then I ask in a very Minnie voice if I am in the football building.
No. I am in the basketball building. Well, it was only a request and the guys won’t be disappointed because they don’t know you can request anything either and they like basketball too… just not as much as football or baseball. So we are in good spirits and we move the car closer to our room. Also we now have a real map of the roads on property and armed with that I am sure DH can find his way around (he really is very good at that).

I, of course, being a DIS veteran had concerns about our room. Would it be too far of a walk? Would the walls be paper thin? Would the toilet sound like a spaceship? Would we have enough room in the smallest spot on property? Would it be magical?

The fact was that the All Stars were our only option. However if you read enough threads you can be convinced that you will have a much better vacation if you could only scrape together enough for a Moderate or a Deluxe… or even a monorail Deluxe. (I know there are just as many threads about the fact that you only use your room to sleep and shower so why spend money on it… you can find people who would never do anything less than concierge or a 7 bedroom pool home… the point I am making is that if you want to worry you can find valid cons to any plan.)

The boys had no such concerns. In fact DS was enchanted with the larger than life feel as we trudged upstairs to our room. We opened the door and what we couldn’t believe was….

 

[NAB]

You like these cliff hangers...I do to

 

[Mr.BsMom]

Are you kidding me?????????????

I'm on the edge of my seat here!!!!

 

[OhMari]

a spider, snake, towel animal?

 

[tubachick]

ooooooohhhhh..... you re good!!!