No Matter How Long the Winter, Spring is Sure to Follow – A Flower & Garden PTR

[blessedmom4]

Something strange to look forward to...

DH asked me today what I'm most looking forward to about our trip, and after the usual conversation about rides and flowers and such, something a little odd popped into my head (probably because I was up half the night with a sick DS). I'm really looking forward to a Disney trip with no "protein spills".

Now for some lucky people I suppose that's just a given, but not for me. I've been to Disney World five times in my life.

On two of them, I was pregnant and dealing with morning sickness, which for me is more like all day sickness.

On another, I had such a caffeine-withdrawal migraine that I ended up tossing cookies in a trash can on the walk back to our room one night (yes, I was that much of an addict - not any more, though! One of my more successful New Years resolutions was kicking my 2ltr/day Diet Mt Dew habit).

And on our last trip, DS fell victim to the creeping crud that was going around, and in the course of taking care of him I of course picked it up too.

So there's my odd little goal for this trip - I'd like trip #6 to be the second one I get through with no protein spills. Since morning sickness and caffeine withdrawal are out of the picture now, I've just got to steer clear of any late winter nasties and I'll be in the clear!

I will certainly hope that you are able to meet that goal! Being ill is no fun and I HATE to vomit...EXCELLENT plan you have and DEFINITELY something to look forward to.!

 

[Colleen27]

I talked to my mom earlier tonight and she's not thrilled about what I had in mind for the Tiger game.

I was talking about the tickets and she tells me she doesn't want to sit on the ground. I, on the other hand, think the lawn seating is half the fun of spring training. And keeping Boo in a seat through a baseball game isn't easy; we take her to one per season at home, to ride the carousel and the ferris wheel (yes, at the ballpark ) and do the "kids run the bases" thing for the cute photo ops. But for the rest of the games we go to we leave her with my inlaws because she doesn't really appreciate the finer points of the sport just yet. Being on the lawn will give her a little more freedom to play while we watch.

So now I'm having a few thoughts of how to work this out. I could go ahead and order lawn tickets for myself and the girls, with a single seat ticket for DM. Or we could split up for the afternoon, with Boo & DM going off to do their thing at AK or the resort while I take Pocahontas to the game. Or we could leave the Tigers game for another trip and enjoy the full day at AK, since Pocahontas is asking why I didn't plan enough time for her to get her namesake's autograph.

I like option #2. I usually plan some one-on-one time with each of the older kids on our Disney trips but with Boo we didn't do that on the last one, and the game would be a fun way to revive that tradition. But I'm not sure DM would be up for 4 hours of Boo-sitting. Although they could go catch Nemo and Festival of the Lion King, since Boo loves anything and everything musical.

Pocahontas would be equally happy with any of the options. We're taking her and her best friend to a Tiger game for her birthday this year so the spring training game holds no special appeal, but she does enjoy the sport enough to enjoy any game I take her to (even the minor-league Mudhens ).

I think I'm going to leave it up to DM to decide.

 

[jenseib]

I'm not a baseball fan at all, so I would opt to go to AK for the day. But I have been to a few Mudhens games. When they built the new stadium, my workplace was right across the street, so we got to watch it daily transform..and prior to that watch the buildings come down. My boss got season tickets then, so every so often he would give them out to us.

I know all about the "protein spills" too. We have takne Claire 3 times to WDW and on the 1st 2 trips she threw up. I think it's because she wasn't getting enough sleep and over stimulation...also on the second trip she licked a poll on the bus . So I'm sure that contributed to it.

 

[Colleen27]

I'm not a baseball fan at all, so I would opt to go to AK for the day. But I have been to a few Mudhens games. When they built the new stadium, my workplace was right across the street, so we got to watch it daily transform..and prior to that watch the buildings come down. My boss got season tickets then, so every so often he would give them out to us.

We're a whole family of baseball fans here. DH actually just asked me to price out a spring break road trip to Cooperstown this year. But I haven't been to a game without DH since we met, 12 years ago, so it does feel a little odd to be planning something we always talked about doing together for a trip he's not a part of. When we retire and do the snowbird thing we plan to get a winter house in Lakeland, where the Tigers take spring training (the fact that it is less than an hour from WDW does hurt either!).

My FIL has a regular customer/friend who has Tigers season tickets, and he gives FIL 4-5 games' worth of seats every year. Since FIL isn't into sports and neither is BIL, most years we end up going to all of those games. Second row, lower level, right at first base. Makes the cheap seats we get on our own feel like we're in another zip code from the game!

We spend a weekend in Toledo almost every summer to go to the "good" zoo, which is worlds better than the Detroit zoo. So if the Mudhens are in town we get tickets. That is a really nice stadium for a minor league park!

I know all about the "protein spills" too. We have takne Claire 3 times to WDW and on the 1st 2 trips she threw up. I think it's because she wasn't getting enough sleep and over stimulation...also on the second trip she licked a poll on the bus . So I'm sure that contributed to it.

Sometimes kids are just so weird! My son did that once too, and I can't even imagine what he was thinking. Luckily he didn't get sick, but to this day I just can't figure out what would possess him to lick a bus poll...

 

[jenseib]

eveyone always says our zoo is better. LOL! We went to the Detroit zoo a few years ago and it was nice.It's just differnt. I really liked the polar bear exhibit, which I think was very new at the time. I got some great shots in the underwater tunnel thing.
We also occasionally travel to the Fort Wayne Childrens zoo and that is nice too.

 

[Colleen27]

eveyone always says our zoo is better. LOL! We went to the Detroit zoo a few years ago and it was nice.It's just differnt. I really liked the polar bear exhibit, which I think was very new at the time. I got some great shots in the underwater tunnel thing.
We also occasionally travel to the Fort Wayne Childrens zoo and that is nice too.

Our zoo is okay, the polar bear exhibit is great and so is being able to feed the giraffes, but they don't have elephants and most of the enclosures are pretty old-school. And the difference in drive time from here is minimal - 1.5hrs to the Detroit Zoo or 2hrs to Toledo - so the better zoo is worth the little extra drive.

We still go to the Detroit Zoo a couple times a year with friends/scouts/school but it is an old zoo in an established, rather pricey neighborhood, so there's no room for expansion and there's only so much they can do to modernize facilities built in the 20s and 30s. Updates tend to replace several small, outdated animal enclosures with one larger, modern, impressive display like the polar bear area, but the downside to that is that it means fewer animals and the loss of some large-habitat favorites like elephants.

 

[Colleen27]

I was playing around in PhotoShop today and came up with a couple more LGMH tags.

First, a blank I posted to the March planning thread - Mardi Gras Mickey. I haven't decided on a font I like for adding my name to this one yet:

And another Flower & Garden design I came up with, this one turned out so cute and hippie-ish that I think I'm going to print it on a magnet for our door at Pop:

 

[blessedmom4]

I was playing around in PhotoShop today and came up with a couple more LGMH tags.

First, a blank I posted to the March planning thread - Mardi Gras Mickey. I haven't decided on a font I like for adding my name to this one yet:

And another Flower & Garden design I came up with, this one turned out so cute and hippie-ish that I think I'm going to print it on a magnet for our door at Pop:

PRETTY!

 

[jenseib]

Those are great

 

[Colleen27]

In exactly 4 weeks from this moment, I will be sitting somewhere sunny at Pop with all this snow 1200 miles behind me, and it cannot come soon enough.

I'm so not in a Disney mood at the moment and I'm snowed in, reading the boards and trying to perk up enough to get sewing. This is probably going to sound nuts but since y'all are DISers you might understand...

I play World of Warcraft. For those of you who don't know it is an addictive, life-sucking online role-playing game with a player base of about 12 million people worldwide. I've been playing pretty much since the game released and with the same guild since the summer of 2006.

Over that time, you really get to know people even though you've never met them in person, you know? When we're working on raid content there are 10 of us - the same 10 people, as much as possible - working together in a team effort 4-5 nights a week for a couple hours at a stretch. On Tuesday, a friend that I've been running around in game with for the last 4 years was diagnosed with leukemia. His prognosis isn't great to begin with and is complicated by health insurance/financial issues that are delaying starting treatment.

I know it sounds a little insane - I mean, I've never met this man IRL and even in my cell phone he's programmed in as his in-game name rather than his real name - but I am so worried for him, and for his wife and daughter who I've "known" just as long, that I just can't get to that excited Disney-planning place right now.

So, there it is, my bring-down vent. Thank you for wading through it. I just had to get it out somewhere and my IRL (non-gamer, non-internet addict) friends really don't get it.

I promise my next post will be back to the usual happiness and pixie dust.

 

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Oh I'm so sorry! It doesn't matter if you've met them in person or not, friends are friends! And if one of them gets sick it hurts! Please know all of your DIS friends are here for you!! Here's to hoping he will get the treatment he needs and make a full recovery!

 

[blessedmom4]

Over that time, you really get to know people even though you've never met them in person, you know? When we're working on raid content there are 10 of us - the same 10 people, as much as possible - working together in a team effort 4-5 nights a week for a couple hours at a stretch. On Tuesday, a friend that I've been running around in game with for the last 4 years was diagnosed with leukemia. His prognosis isn't great to begin with and is complicated by health insurance/financial issues that are delaying starting treatment.

I know it sounds a little insane - I mean, I've never met this man IRL and even in my cell phone he's programmed in as his in-game name rather than his real name - but I am so worried for him, and for his wife and daughter who I've "known" just as long, that I just can't get to that excited Disney-planning place right now.

It doesn't sound insane to me, some of my most favorite people I have met as a result of the Internet. Hugs to you and to your friend and his family. I will be praying for him to have excellent medical care and that the financial problems work out. The last thing he needs is to have to do battle to get the care he deserves.

 

[Colleen27]

Thank you both for understanding. I cannot believe how our group is pulling together over this; so many people from the guild have offered to help any way they can that it will go a long way towards what he needs to get his treatment started, and it just makes me so proud (and more than a little teary) to think that all these people who have never met in person care that much about one of our own.

Now, on to my happy place because I have a few changes to report!

First of all, I decided that I don't want to check out and check back in for our last night. I was booked room only for the night I added to get the better airfare, but I called today and rolled that night into our package. So we have extra dining credits to play with and I'm looking at options for a departure day breakfast or lunch.

Second, after much waffling about how I just can't bear to cut Boo's precious curls I finally decided to book Harmony Barber Shop for the girls. I'm going to let the person cutting Boo's hair that it is a token first hair cut and that I want very little cut off! Pocahontas needs a trim too, and I made our reservation for before our CRT lunch so they'll be all pixie dusted for the photo package there.

Still no decision on what we're doing about the Tigers game. Every time I talk to my mom we get sidetracked with other things and I forget to ask! We're going to see Sesame Street Live next week, though, so I'll be sure to get her opinion then because I really want all these little details finalized!

26 more days, why does it feel like we're getting down to "last minute"?

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Hey..I am sorry to hear about your friend. Living here in Canada people don't realize the cost of medical care!! It seems like a human right issue to have to delay treatment just because of money!! It's heartwarming to hear about how your "community" of friends is pulling together to help..I hope that this will get the ball rolling medically!!!

Onto some of the happy news, I really like the idea of DD's getting pixie dusted before CRT...it should look awesome!! We are having our DD's done the first day and considering what I have read about how indestructible that colored hair gel is, it should still be in when we do the Pirate's and Pals Wishes cruise that night and look cool in the pics!

I am getting so excited..we keep ripping mickey heads off our calendar!!
27 Days

 

[BridgetR3]

I'm in for the countdown to your trip!!! I'll have to catch up on the rest later but so far it looks great!!! Glad to see I'm not the only one with changes to EVERYTHING!!!! Maybe we'll meet up at Epcot on the 5th!!! If I see a beautiful red-head wonder baby, I'll know it's you!!!

 

[MeMom]

Prayers for your friend and those who are rallying around him during this difficult time.

 

[BridgetR3]

So sorry to hear about your friend and no I don't think you are weird. We meet people in very different ways but it doesn't make them any less important to us.

 

[Colleen27]

Bridget and thank you to everyone who has offered kind words and good thoughts for my friend.

Since I'm not a football fan, I took advantage of the fact that all the kids wanted to hang with DH to get a little sewing done - no finished outfits yet so no pics - and play around in Photoshop.

Now, y'all have seen my LGMH tags (and I ordered those prints yesterday with some Snapfish credits I had sitting in my account). This tag is a little different, and has a bit of back story.

When I was pregnant with Boo, we'd long since gotten rid of all our baby gear, thinking we weren't going to have any more kids. So I was starting over at square one except for the crib, which is an heirloom and will go right back into the attic to wait for grandbabies after Boo outgrows it.

And being a DISer, of course getting the stroller on and off of Disney buses was at the front of my mind as we were shopping. We never took a stroller with the older kids, because they were 4 & 7 before their first trip, but we knew we wouldn't be waiting that long to take Boo.

After much research and reading a hundred threads on the family board, I decided I really wanted a Peg Perego P3. It reclines fully, has a huge canopy, and folds down like an umbrella stroller.

DH promptly fainted at the price. A $300 stroller just wasn't in the budget.

So I began the search, looking all over Craigslist and eBay and local mom-to-mom sales only to find that the blasted things hold their value very well. It isn't unusual to find them selling used for $150-200 around here! And DH was still having none of that. The older kids got by with a Graco from Kmart, and he just wasn't convinced that the Peg Perego was worth twice what our old stroller had cost us.

Then I was out at a mom-to-mom sale and noticed a sign for another sale I'd hadn't known about, posted on a telephone pole near the one I'd planned to go to. And on a whim, I decided to hit the second one, even though it was noonish and things are usually pretty picked over by then.

And there I found my stroller. It is an older model Peg Perego Pliko, with all the features I wanted, but the fabric bits are definitely showing wear and it didn't have the optional tray. The woman selling it had it marked $80, but it was the end of the sale and I guess she didn't want to take stuff home because she'd put a sign out that everything was half off the marked prices.

And let me tell you, that was the best $40 I ever spent!

I thought at first that I'd order replacement pads/canopy for it, because it is a charcoal gray and we knew by this point that we were having a girl, but then I came up with an even better idea. Since it isn't a great looking stroller to begin with and I couldn't care less about resale value, I decided to customize it myself.

So on the canopy in a style reminiscent of an old suitcase plastered with stickers documenting its travels are 4x6 iron-ons commemorating most of the trips we've taken with Boo (should be all, but there are a few I haven't gotten around to yet ).

For her first Disney trip I used a Fab 5 "Celebrate" graphic and added a banner with "Boo's first trip" and the dates, so for this trip I decided to do something with the Memories theme.

So here it is, the first addition to the canopy for 2011! All the park photos are mine except the castle, which is borrowed from a friend's blog.

 

[jenseib]

Great idea...and deal.
I broke down last summer and bought a Maclaren Quest. Even though Claire doesn't use a stroller a lot, I knew at Disney we would need one. She was to oheavy for the 3 others we have...so I just took the plunge. It is so nice. We have used it a few times so far, and it is so light wieght and just nice to have when needed. They seem to hold there value too, so I know I can sell it when I'm done and not feel bad about it. (I still need to list my other 3, though I'm sure I won't make much in them)
When I first took my older DD to Disney, she was almost 5 and I never would've even thought to bring a stroller. And of course we had to carry her almost everynight. She had blisters on her horrid feet, and was so tired. I wish I would've brought one back in those days too. Disney is hard on people...kids and adults alike.

I would love to see a picture of your stroller!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Ahhhh....so THAT'S what you meant when you mentioned your patchwork stroller!! I hope we run into each other so I can see it in person!!!