Now a Trip Report!!! Will We Stay or Will We Go? A Thanksgiving Pre-Trip/Trip Report

[jillyb]

It's been a quiet weekend here. SILs girls were supposed to spend the night last night but I woke up with a sore throat, coughing and no voice yesterday so I told her it might be better if she went with Plan B. I went to Urgent Care yesterday and it's just a virus. I went to the grocery store then came home and took it easy. Feeling a little better today but still feel "blech". The house really needs to be cleaned and I think I'll be cracking the whip today and getting some help. LOL

I woke up to this yesterday morning:

Clay's nephew cleaned out his room and gave Alison his LEGOS. The girls spent practically all day yesterday building things.

I need to take Alison to the Disney Store to put money on her gift card. She's been earning money this summer by taking care of a neighbors cats and she brought her money this weekend to put on her card.

I've been perusing the DISign forum for autograph cards and t-shirt designs. I've printed out Natalie's "Holidays Around the World Passport" for the girls and some of Hannah's autograph cards. Alison informed me last night that she does, in fact, want to get autorgraphs so I'm going to have to print some for her too. I've found some really cool t-shirt designs and was showing them to Alison last night. Then we spent some time checking out other t-shirt designs and she's picked out some that she likes. I think I'm going to be a t-shirt making fool!

Clay went to Open House for Alison on Friday. Open House for Hannah is tomorrow and then school starts on Wednesday.
Saturday is Alison's 13th birthday and plans are being franctically made for her surprise party. And, of course, I'll be sharing pictures of the festivities.

That's all that's going on in our household. I hope everyone has had a great weekend and that you have a great week!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Hope you feel better soon, Jill! Being sick is never fun!

Wow! The girls and Clay look like they were having a blast with the Legos! Connor loves his -- I am always finding them scattered around the house.

How fun that Alison is having a surprise party for her 13th! Can't wait to see all the pictures from it!

 

[Poolrat]

I hope you are feeling better.

 

[MeMom]

It's been a quiet weekend here. SILs girls were supposed to spend the night last night but I woke up with a sore throat, coughing and no voice yesterday so I told her it might be better if she went with Plan B. I went to Urgent Care yesterday and it's just a virus. I went to the grocery store then came home and took it easy. Feeling a little better today but still feel "blech".


I've been perusing the DISign forum for autograph cards and t-shirt designs. I've printed out Natalie's "Holidays Around the World Passport" for the girls and some of Hannah's autograph cards.


Saturday is Alison's 13th birthday and plans are being franctically made for her surprise party. And, of course, I'll be sharing pictures of the festivities.

Hope the 'blech' is short-lived.

I'd love to see a copy of your passport. Since we won't have a Christmas Disney trip this year, I was thinking of doing a Christmas Around World Showcase theme at home.

We will look forward to seeing party pictures. I remember 13 - many, many, many years ago. I felt more grown up that day, as I recall.

Wow! The girls and Clay look like they were having a blast with the Legos! Connor loves his -- I am always finding them scattered around the house.

I stepped on my share of those back in the kids' younger years. Those things can hurt!

 

[mousescrapper]

looked like some good lego fun...love how it was all color organized...that's be me....sorry you are not feeling to goo, I was like that for weeks....now I'm dog tired cause school is back in session...be glad we the kinks are run through...

J~

 

[jillyb]

Sorry no updates but things have been pretty busy at our house. I've got my pictures uploaded and just need to put them on Photobucket. Hopefully will have an update this week.

Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend. Summer is over.

 

[luvmy2babies]

I'm late, but wanted to say I have enjoyed reading this. Not sure how to subscribe, but I'll figure it out. My children and I are going the same week. I'm surprising my daughter (age 7) with her first trip. We'll be there November 21st - 27th at All Star Movies.

First my prayers for your daughter and grand-daughter. I hope they are continuing to heal. From experience it is a real process, especially with a little girl.

I feel you on dealing with the ex. I have 2 stepchildren and before they were adults...let's just say we were never bored. Then after dh died, despite the fact he left her children (age 24 and 22) a boat load of insurance money, she tried to get some benefits from his job and I didn't get them for 4 months while they decided between us.

I'm fortunate in the school situation. The teachers at my daughter's school go to a conference every year in the fall and school closes. I was planning our trip around this. This year the conference is being held the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so school is closed the entire week so we'll get 6 nights and she won't be missing any school.

I'll have to check into that $200 gift card. These boards have been a wealth of information. I can't believe there are so few days left. I'm looking forward the most to having our trip paid off. I just changed my reservation today to add a day on in the beginning. We were going down on Monday, 11/22, but our flight was at 7:40am and the more I thought about getting my daughter up at 4:30am, the more I got. So, when I saw it would only cost me $22 to change our flight to 1:40pm on Sunday, I went for it. Words cannot express how much better I felt after I did that. The CM I talked to today let me go ahead and add my flight information for ME whereas the other lady at the number you call to get them direct, told me I had to wait until the 45 day mark Glad I asked...one less thing to remember.

It is fun planning this trip and reading people's before during and after reports. I have a pre-trip report going but haven't had much to update, but should by this weekend. I wish I could tell my dd about it, but she'd drive us all nuts the next 2 months if I did including her little brother. This year in the days leading to her birthday party, I got a note every day from her teacher about how she wasn't focused and that was nothing compared to this. It is a bit difficult keeping the secret, but I can't wait to see her face. Yesterday we were in Target looking at Princess dolls and I asked her "If you had a chance to have dinner with the princesses, would you want to dress like a princess?" She said, "Yeah...why?" "Oh, look at that doll," I said. Quick change of subject was sufficient at this point. One of the few times I was glad she can be easily distracted. I have 2 princess meals scheduled because we could not get CRT and I heard Cinderella only occassionally appears at Akershus. I have 1900 Park Fare for Thanksgiving day. Found 2 amazing communion dresses on Sears' website marked down from $90 to $11 and two beautiful tiaras for a combined $21.

So much planning to do...so little time. Figured I'd take my son now while he is more likely to put up with all the princess mania. Knowing that flirt though he may get more of a kick out of the princesses than my dd. He smiles at every woman that talks to him.

I love you count down calendar. Hopefully we can do something like that for our next trip. I have to work on my planning journal and a fun book for dd from the helpful links to kid pages and journal pages posted on here. Probably do one for ds too where I can write down stuff for him to look at when he's a little older. The list is daunting. Too bad work interferes with something so important as planning a Disney Trip.

Happy Planning. Here's to low crowds, short lines, plenty of fast passes, no flight delays, car issues, monorail problems or bus problems, plenty of warm weather and no rain.

 

[Charleston Princess]

You must have had a really busy weekend -- I saw your post on FB this morning about needing another day off. Me too!

 

[jillyb]

Hope the 'blech' is short-lived.

I'd love to see a copy of your passport. Since we won't have a Christmas Disney trip this year, I was thinking of doing a Christmas Around World Showcase theme at home.

We will look forward to seeing party pictures. I remember 13 - many, many, many years ago. I felt more grown up that day, as I recall.

I ended up staying home from work one day and by the end of the week I was feeling much better.

I haven't had the passports bound yet but I'll post the pictures of them. An update is coming soon so party pictures are on their way!

looked like some good lego fun...love how it was all color organized...that's be me....sorry you are not feeling to goo, I was like that for weeks....now I'm dog tired cause school is back in session...be glad we the kinks are run through...

J~

They did have fun with those Legos! Clay is the one responsible for the color coordination but I would have done the same thing!

 

[jillyb]

I'm late, but wanted to say I have enjoyed reading this. Not sure how to subscribe, but I'll figure it out. My children and I are going the same week. I'm surprising my daughter (age 7) with her first trip. We'll be there November 21st - 27th at All Star Movies.

First my prayers for your daughter and grand-daughter. I hope they are continuing to heal. From experience it is a real process, especially with a little girl.

I feel you on dealing with the ex. I have 2 stepchildren and before they were adults...let's just say we were never bored. Then after dh died, despite the fact he left her children (age 24 and 22) a boat load of insurance money, she tried to get some benefits from his job and I didn't get them for 4 months while they decided between us.

I'm fortunate in the school situation. The teachers at my daughter's school go to a conference every year in the fall and school closes. I was planning our trip around this. This year the conference is being held the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so school is closed the entire week so we'll get 6 nights and she won't be missing any school.

I'll have to check into that $200 gift card. These boards have been a wealth of information. I can't believe there are so few days left. I'm looking forward the most to having our trip paid off. I just changed my reservation today to add a day on in the beginning. We were going down on Monday, 11/22, but our flight was at 7:40am and the more I thought about getting my daughter up at 4:30am, the more I got. So, when I saw it would only cost me $22 to change our flight to 1:40pm on Sunday, I went for it. Words cannot express how much better I felt after I did that. The CM I talked to today let me go ahead and add my flight information for ME whereas the other lady at the number you call to get them direct, told me I had to wait until the 45 day mark Glad I asked...one less thing to remember.

It is fun planning this trip and reading people's before during and after reports. I have a pre-trip report going but haven't had much to update, but should by this weekend. I wish I could tell my dd about it, but she'd drive us all nuts the next 2 months if I did including her little brother. This year in the days leading to her birthday party, I got a note every day from her teacher about how she wasn't focused and that was nothing compared to this. It is a bit difficult keeping the secret, but I can't wait to see her face. Yesterday we were in Target looking at Princess dolls and I asked her "If you had a chance to have dinner with the princesses, would you want to dress like a princess?" She said, "Yeah...why?" "Oh, look at that doll," I said. Quick change of subject was sufficient at this point. One of the few times I was glad she can be easily distracted. I have 2 princess meals scheduled because we could not get CRT and I heard Cinderella only occassionally appears at Akershus. I have 1900 Park Fare for Thanksgiving day. Found 2 amazing communion dresses on Sears' website marked down from $90 to $11 and two beautiful tiaras for a combined $21.

So much planning to do...so little time. Figured I'd take my son now while he is more likely to put up with all the princess mania. Knowing that flirt though he may get more of a kick out of the princesses than my dd. He smiles at every woman that talks to him.

I love you count down calendar. Hopefully we can do something like that for our next trip. I have to work on my planning journal and a fun book for dd from the helpful links to kid pages and journal pages posted on here. Probably do one for ds too where I can write down stuff for him to look at when he's a little older. The list is daunting. Too bad work interferes with something so important as planning a Disney Trip.

Happy Planning. Here's to low crowds, short lines, plenty of fast passes, no flight delays, car issues, monorail problems or bus problems, plenty of warm weather and no rain.

Thanks for joining in! I like your "blessing"...same to you!

Thank you for your prayers for Katie and Madison. They have good days and bad days. Right now seems to be a lot of bad. They have started grief counseling, which is good, but I think it's also causing some behavioral and other issues for Madison as she is processing the emotions. She is either crying and saying how much she misses Daddy Howard and that she wants to die so she can be with him to being unruly. On top of that, she's waking up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and will not go back to sleep. Now that school has started back, it's not good that she's waking up like this. Plus, it's wearing Katie out, especially if she's working 1st shift.

She's already on ADHD medication and her doctor has put her on Zoloft I really think she needs to be taken off the Zoloft and that it's causing some of the behavior and sleep issues. She stayed with us the weekend of Alison's birthday and she was the worst behaved she's ever been when at my house. I can't imagine having to deal with that 24/7.

On the bright side, Katie has found a house and hopefully will be moving in soon. Maybe *fingers crossed* when they have their own place, surrounded by their belongings, pictures, toys, etc. things will get back to "normal".

The countdown calendar was alot of work! A few weeks ago when it was time to take off a number Hannah said she didn't want to do it. I was doing it for a while but some days I forget so then I have to count to figure out what day we're on! I think starting at 100 days was a bit too early. LOL If I do another countdown calendar I think I'll start at 30 days!

Good luck surprising your DD and hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[jillyb]

You must have had a really busy weekend -- I saw your post on FB this morning about needing another day off. Me too!

It wasn't so much the weekend that was busy! LOL We had Clay's family over on Monday and that's what wore me out! I love 'em but I was glad to see them go!

 

[mousescrapper]

Sorry no updates but things have been pretty busy at our house. I've got my pictures uploaded and just need to put them on Photobucket. Hopefully will have an update this week.

Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend. Summer is over.

but that means Disney is getting closer

 

[jillyb]

but that means Disney is getting closer

Yeah!!!

 

[jillyb]

School is back in session and it’s been busy at our house! We’re getting back in to the morning routine and then doing homework in the evening. Homework hasn’t been too bad…yet! It’s definitely picking up though. They’re doing pre-testing for the "lovely" EOGs and benchmark testing in reading and math this week. The school Hannah is in this year is brand new. This is the first two-story elementary school I’ve ever seen! We both like her teacher and she’s happy because her friend Bailey is not only in her class but they sit at the same table together. I told Hannah’s teacher at Back to School night that Hannah wouldn’t be there the week of Thanksgiving and that I’d remind her about a week or two before our trip to remind her. When I told her where she was going she said there was another 3rd grade teacher there that went to WDW with her daughter every year. Why couldn’t Hannah have gotten that teacher??!!!

Here’s some first day of school pictures:

Clay took Tuesday off and had lunch with Hannah. That night she was telling me about a lady asking her if she wanted to sing and something about a bird. I had no idea what she was talking about! LOL The next morning, Clay sent me an e-mail from “the lady” and they have picked Hannah to be in a group of students that will sing at the School Dedication in a couple of weeks. We’ll definitely be videoing her singing debut!

This past Tuesday I took Hannah to register for Girl Scouts. So on top of school work we’ll be juggling Scout activities.

Alison’s birthday was three days after school started. I can’t believe she’s 13! She was 2 years old when Clay and I started dating. It just amazes me to look at the pictures of her from then and see how much she’s changed. When I first met her, she was this tiny little girl who was very timid and cautious around strangers. If she didn’t know you she wasn’t having a thing to do with you! Now she’s becoming this beautiful young woman with a bit more confidence than that long ago 2 year old. She is really good with young children and can come back with a sarcastic comment with the best of them!

The party wasn’t anything fancy but I think she had a good time. Several of us went swimming afterwards. It was nice at the pool because it wasn’t scorching hot like it had been. The pool water was actually cold! LOL

I don't have any younger pictures uploaded but here is Alison when she was 5 and Hannah was 2 days old!

And now :

This is the shirt I made for her to use as a bathing suit cover up:

She picked out the design and I just added her name and the color around it. I gave it to her at her party. I was hoping she’d wear it to the pool but she didn’t.

Party pics:

Last Tuesday my Mama sent me an e-mail from my cousin saying that my Aunt (my Daddy’s oldest sister) was in the hospital and things weren’t looking too good. She had some health issues for the past year or so and I think her body had finally had enough. My Aunt died later that night. The funeral was this past Saturday. We drove up to Greenville, NC on Friday night, went to the funeral Saturday morning and then came back later Saturday afternoon. Prior to the funeral, my Mama had to keep telling my Daddy that his sister had died. Due to the last stroke he had, he doesn’t really have any short term memory so every time she told him it was like he was hearing it for the first time. It just breaks my heart that he had to go through that grief afresh every time. My Mama says he hasn’t asked about his sister anymore. He’s probably forgotten about it by now. I guess that’s a blessing and a curse.

On Sunday, Hannah and I finally saw Mary Poppins! LOVED IT! This was just an awesome performance. I think my favorites were “Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious” (I’m sure I didn’t spell that right even after listening to the song! LOL) and “Step in Time”. They were just superb performances and the songs were hand-clapping, toe-tapping good! At the end of the performance, after the cast had taken their bows, they started singing “Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious” and the audience was on their feet clapping. Hannah is jumping up and down and clapping! LOL Hannah left with the double decker bus and a Mary Poppins dangle pin as her souvenirs and I bought the CD. We listened to it on the way home and I played it on Monday while getting ready for Clay’s family to arrive.

Here’s a couple cute videos of Hannah, Alison and my SILs girls:





Monday was Labor Day and all I can say is: boy was it ever! Not only was it Labor Day but it was my MILs and SILs birthdays. Clay’s oldest sister lives in Pensacola. His Mom and youngest sister bought her a ticket to come up so she and MIL could celebrate together. Since our house has the most room, the party was at our house. Clay did the majority of the cooking but I still had some cleaning and other party things to take care of. We grilled BBQ chicken on the grill, had green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, potato salad, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese and I made two loaves of beer bread. Then, of course, there was cake and ice cream later. I enjoyed having everybody there but I was sure glad when they were gone! LOL I was worn out by the time everyone left and was wishing I had the next day off.

(continued in next post)

 

[jillyb]

(continued from previous post)

Here’s some pictures of the girls making decorations for the party (could have sworn I had more than this ):

Decorations:

The birthday "girls"!

Can't tell they're related at all can you! LOL

Again, it wasn’t anything fancy, but the girls had a good time making the decorations and making cards for MIL and SIL.

On the trip planning front, I’ve changed some of our ADRs….AGAIN! LOL I canceled some, added some and changed times on some. The other day I was checking our ADRs online and saw that our lunch ADR for the Plaza Restaurant on 11/26 wasn’t there. EEK!! I was pretty sure I’d made an ADR there but thought maybe my memory was faulty. Nope…there’s the e-mail confirmation. I checked for availability and found a time 20 minutes earlier than my original ADR so I grabbed it. Later that night, I called WDW Dining and told them about the missing ADR. Since I had the confirmation number, the CM was able to look it up and saw that I had made the ADR and then, inexplicably, had canceled it 5 minutes after making it. Uhhh…noooooooo…I didn’t cancel it because there’s no e-mail confirmation for the cancelation. Not sure what happened there. I’m just glad that I was at least able to get an ADR there for the same day and at an earlier time.

Here are our ADRs now:

11/20 Rose & Crown - 5:30
11/21 Tusker House - 10:20
11/21 Yak & Yeti - 5:30
11/22 Le Cellier - 11:35
11/22 Akershus Royal Banquet Hall - 5:05
11/23 Kona - 8:00
11/23 WCC - 5:45
11/24 Sci-Fi - 1:35
11/24 Brown Derby - 7:15
11/25 Boma - 10:15
11/25 Ohana - 6:45
11/26 The Plaza Restaurant - 1:00
11/26 Liberty Tree Tavern - 6:45
11/27 Coral Reef - 1:20

I swear I'm done making changes!

Alison has helped me pick out several other t-shirt designs for our trip so looks like I’ll be busy making t-shirts. LOL We just need to sit down and pick out the ones we want because there’s no way we need all the ones we picked! We found a couple of good ones that would be good for Halloween and I’ll probably make those for Alison.

That’s about all that’s been going on in our household lately. We’ll be getting ready for Halloween soon. Hannah has decided she wants to be the Mad Hatter for Halloween. I think it suits her! LOL

Hope everyone has had a good week and hope you have a great weekend! Once we pick our designs and get the shirts made I’ll take pictures and post them.

 

[disney<333]

What a fun party! Amy's having a Polynesion party for her birthday party so I might 'borrow' some ideas.
Will you be at MK on the 23rd? That might work for a meet. We'll be at DHS in the morning and then AK for the parade and MK from about 6 until closing.
If not I have a 6 PM ADR at Kona on Thanksgiving. Let me know.

 

[jillyb]

Here's the link to the passport I made for the girls.

http://s855.photobucket.com/albums/ab118/jillbodenheimer/Holidays Around the World Passport/

These are Natalie's awesome DISigns.

 

[jillyb]

What a fun party! Amy's having a Polynesion party for her birthday party so I might 'borrow' some ideas.
Will you be at MK on the 23rd? That might work for a meet. We'll be at DHS in the morning and then AK for the parade and MK from about 6 until closing.
If not I have a 6 PM ADR at Kona on Thanksgiving. Let me know.

Thanks...feel free to steal away!

Yes...we're going to be at MK on the 23rd. Going to try to make it for RD but I'm not going to be disappointed if we don't as we have another MK day on the 26th. Not sure yet if we'll go back that evening though. If we do make it back for the evening it will just be for MSEP.

If we don't meet up at MK we could meet at the Poly on Thanksgiving. We're going to see the EWP and then watch Wishes from the beach with some people from TGM. Remind me as it gets closer so we can exchange cell phone numbers.

 

[Charleston Princess]

So sorry to hear about your aunt, Jill!

Great First Day of School pics -- Hannah is so cute! Alison's party looks like a blast! I always love Polynesian parties!

So glad you enjoyed Mary Poppins! We have the CD, too, and listen to it in the car.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Boy you have really been busy. Great pictures! We're in 2nd grade here and the pace is really picking up. Today is another spelling test. I'm sorry Katie and Madison are having a hard time. A friend who lost her husband when their daughter was 7, did counseling at the hospice center and said it really worked. We actually started counseling unofficially while my husband was still alive (he was ill for years). 3 years ago, my daughter started having unexplainable (I thought) crying spells, wanting to be carried all the time and being super clingy with her Godfather. We did art and play therapy at that time with some licensed counselors that are already friends of ours and it came out then she was afraid he was going to die. They are her youth pastors at church so we still see them.

We just passed the 6 month mark yesterday, but because of the day of the month dh passed, it isn't all I think about. My son turned 8 months old yesterday as well. I felt it when I woke up and then looked over and ds was smiling at me. He of course is oblivious for now. My daughter is anywhere from crying saying she misses him to telling me I need to take off my wedding ring if I ever expect to get another husband. In the beginning she said we needed a new daddy. Now she is concerned about me being alone.

We cry together about him and we laugh together about him. She likes to hear stories from his childhood. She found out he lived in Hawaii for 3 years (age 10 to 13) and that we went before she was born. Now she wants to visit. Told her the plane ride would take 24 Phineas and Ferb shows.

I'm so excited about surprising her. Last night I watched several youtube videos of parents springing trips on their children. HILARIOUS!!! I started working on a little poem last night that I'll probably put on a card like an invitation.

I have so much work to do yet. Memory books and t-shirts to make, ds is going to need a new carrier and oh yeah, I get to make a payment today.