Now Bring Me That Horizon ~ It Begins P115

Ahh....

Mom and Nana agreed...

Glad you didn't get knocked over by a feather! :)


I can't wait to see what new plans you come up with! :)
 
I just have one tip about eating at 'Ohana's. Well I have more, but just one for this post! You will read reviews where the poster will say that the meat is dry and others will say it was perfect. You will probably get both served to you in one meal. The meats are cooked over an open flame on shrewers so it's almost as if every shrewer is different. I only get a couple pieces of meat at a time....that way if it's dry I just ask for more when they come around again. Don't be shy in that restaurant....if you want more of something, or something is cold just ask who-ever you see to get you more. It seems to me that the waitstaff work in teams some nights.
 
I just have one tip about eating at 'Ohana's. Well I have more, but just one for this post! You will read reviews where the poster will say that the meat is dry and others will say it was perfect. You will probably get both served to you in one meal. The meats are cooked over an open flame on shrewers so it's almost as if every shrewer is different. I only get a couple pieces of meat at a time....that way if it's dry I just ask for more when they come around again. Don't be shy in that restaurant....if you want more of something, or something is cold just ask who-ever you see to get you more. It seems to me that the waitstaff work in teams some nights.

Thanks for the tip, Heidi! That's great. And if you want to tell me more, please feel free to PM me, I would appreciate it. :goodvibes
 

SO glad you guys were able to make a decision together and even better you all agreed!!

I loved Ohana's...it was so much good food!! I also really really loved the dessert but I'm a bread pudding girl so it was a slice of heaven!!!

Hope you are having a good day!
 
I just have one tip about eating at 'Ohana's. Well I have more, but just one for this post! You will read reviews where the poster will say that the meat is dry and others will say it was perfect. You will probably get both served to you in one meal. The meats are cooked over an open flame on shrewers so it's almost as if every shrewer is different. I only get a couple pieces of meat at a time....that way if it's dry I just ask for more when they come around again. Don't be shy in that restaurant....if you want more of something, or something is cold just ask who-ever you see to get you more. It seems to me that the waitstaff work in teams some nights.

Thanks for the tip, Heidi! That's great. And if you want to tell me more, please feel free to PM me, I would appreciate it. :goodvibes


Well if you don't mind I wouldn't mind hearing the tips because this is one place my dh said sounded really interesting.
 
I really do think you guys will enjoy it---it is no Brown Derby---but I think it is fun and the food is enjoyable!
 
Awesome so far! Count me in! I'm going to have to go back and read your other posts too!!
 
SO glad you guys were able to make a decision together and even better you all agreed!!

I loved Ohana's...it was so much good food!! I also really really loved the dessert but I'm a bread pudding girl so it was a slice of heaven!!!

Hope you are having a good day!

Thanks! I'm really excited about O'hanas.

Well if you don't mind I wouldn't mind hearing the tips because this is one place my dh said sounded really interesting.

Very cool! Heidi, feel free to enlighten us at will. :goodvibes

I really do think you guys will enjoy it---it is no Brown Derby---but I think it is fun and the food is enjoyable!

Thanks, hon! :goodvibes

O'Hana's sounds like so much fun!!! ::yes::

It just seems like a "family" place. ;)

Awesome so far! Count me in! I'm going to have to go back and read your other posts too!!

:welcome:

Happy to have you here! :thumbsup2
 
Pre trip reports are nothing if not personal, right?

I mean you're delving into one of the most personal things we do.

Vacation. I think vacationing says a lot about a person. It's one of the reasons that when I write my trip reports, I lay it all out there. Good, bad, ugly, I am not perfect.

That does mean, however, that when I write certain things, I fully expect people to go running and screaming away from the computer and hit unsubscribe faster than you can say "TK loves Captain Jack."

But you know what? We're human, we're all beautiful, and we're all flawed.

It's accepting those flaws within yourself and working with them that makes all the difference.

So for this post, we're delving a little bit into the personal, and I promise, it does relate to the trip.

I recently read this amazing book called The Complaint Free World. It was given to me by Tink, for Christmas, with the assured comment that she didn't think I was a complainer, but that she wanted me to read this because she thought it would really help.

Oh my word! Did it do more than help me!

It changed my outlook on everything. And I mean everything, people. Life in general and all my perceived worries.

That's what worries are you know. Perceived.

We create them. Not sure if you think about that, but it's true. And this book has taught me how to acknowledge my worries, and not discredit them, but to not...well, harp on them, so to speak.

It's taught me about putting positive energy out into the world and reaping positive rewards.

And it does work. I don't want to get too much into it, for those who may want to read it for themselves, but we're talking about basic karma here. You put out good, you get good back. I've already seen it happen in my life in a small way, and it excites me.

Living a complaint free life is harder than you think, but it's my goal. I already feel calmer, more enlightened, and when I'm going to have a lot of negative coming out of my mouth, not only do I think about it more beforehand and try to put a positive spin on it, but if I just can't, I acknowledge it's okay to blow off some steam.

The difference is that once I get it out, it's over with.

Whereas before, my Libran personality would over-analyze it from every single angle until you possibly couldn't think about it, contradicting myself millions of times in the process, and generally questioning my own self worth.

That's a horrible way to live. Horrible.

And there's no reason for it.

I am truly blessed. My husband and I, despite this shaky economy, have finally started to see better financial ground. It's not necessarily that we're rolling in it, but how we use what we have. I love my family, and have their love in return. We're happy, we're healthy, we've got a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, and some money in the bank.

Sure, there are more things I'd like to do. I mean, wouldn't I love to upgrade my whole party to say, the Wilderness Lodge for this trip?

Heck, ya! But there are other things to spend money on, and although we all love our vacations, real life comes first. I mean, I get to go to Disney once (sometimes twice) a year, but I have to live my life all year round.

Savvy?

So I've hinted at possibly cancelling this trip. I'm going to lay it all out there for you. My husband's student loan is the last piece of debt that we have to pay off. After that, we will both be debt free. I'm cheerfully ignoring the fact that we'll need new cars eventually, we will just cross that bridge when we come to it.

Now we've gotten that student loan paid down to a little over $10,000.

I don't even want to talk about how much it was originally. It would turn your hair white. ;)

My goal was to pay his loan off before I turned thirty.

Yes. I said it, people. This year I'm going to be THIRTY!!!!!!

And I'm proud of it now. I have earned every single year, some harder than others, but all I'm grateful for. They make me who I am as a person, wife, and mother, and I wouldn't trade any of my experiences for any amount of money in the world.

I've done some incredible things in these twenty-nine years, and I plan to do many more.

One of which was to pay off that loan. We are so close to making this a reality. DH has been working extra hours at his day job and weekend job to make this happen, and we've started banking my salary in an effort to just live off of his and be able to put that student loan to bed.

Which really puts something like a vacation to Disney World in perspective, don't you think?

And now I'm really running the risk of that whole unsubscribe thing.

It's hard for me to acknowledge that it's going to cost a little over $2500 for us to take this trip. But that's everything, airfare, hotel, transportation, food. You have to love free dining. And this is the last time that we'll really get to do free dining with DS, since he'll be starting public school the next year, and I really don't want to pull him out of kindergarten. Who knows, that could change, but for now, I look at this as the last hurrah in September, you know?

And I had a LOT of worries about this trip. Which also makes it harder to think about spending money on it, really. If it's not your ideal, why are you doing it?

I had such a wonderful time last year, just the three of us. That was vacation as it was meant to be. We may have had our moments...let's call them learning experiences, shall we...but all in all, that was one of the best trips I've ever taken in my life. It ranks right up there with my honeymoon, and when I went to Italy for two weeks after I graduated from college.

This trip is not that.

Much like this year is not last year. We grow, we change, we're different people.

I worried about having to wait for Mom in the morning. About all of us having to leave for the park at the same time. I worried about having to make dining reservations for everyone, orchestrating who's going to be there when and what places they'd prefer to eat at.

I worried about having a repeat of past trips with DS where we've pushed him too hard and not given him enough time to just be and just play. Pooh's Thoughtful Spot in the MK, here we come. :lmao:

I worried.

And I complained. A LOT. Mostly to Tink. God bless her, that girl can listen.

And then I read that book. And it changed my life. My perspective, and my way of thinking. And I'm so excited about it, about the weight that's been lifted off my shoulders, that I want to share it with you.

I want your burdens to be lifted too.

Because we should feel that way all year round, not just for one week in Disney World!

We should all have that kind of joy and peace that comes with knowing yourself, acknowledging your faults, and moving past them to know that you will be okay. That everything will work out fine.

That you will pay off the student loan.

That maybe you can finally afford a second child. (Who saw that one coming? ;) )

That it's okay to put two kids in one bedroom in an apartment and not worry what your family thinks. (No, I'm not pregnant, guys, just thinking out loud.)

That you can take this trip to Disney with your family and not worry about it because quite frankly, you're you, and that's all that you are. You'll do your best, try to please everyone, and it'll work some of the time and not others. And that's okay. Because for the majority of it, you'll have fun.

The kind of fun that you can only have in one place in the world.

A place where magic can live in your heart, even when your toddler is cranky and won't take a nap.

A place where you can somehow convince all of your family that you need to dress like characters from Peter Pan, and somehow they'll do it, to soften the blow of that thirtieth birthday. (God bless 'em.)

And when you look at it that way, in the grand scheme of things, $2500 just doesn't seem like that much. Even though it would be sensible to take that and put it toward the loan, I'm reminded of something else.

That loan is what it is. And life is short. Too short. And we don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we're taking this trip.

And I'm not worrying about it anymore. ;)
 
Can I get a second AMEN!!!! Hon, I am so glad that that book helped you grow in the wisdom of this greatest life lesson--instead of having to learn it the hard way!!! ENJOY YOUR LIFE DEARIE!!! It IS the only one we've got!!! I can see the worries just melting right off your sturdy shoulders as we "speak!"
 
Can I get a second AMEN!!!!

I think we should throw in a good hallelujah while we're at it. :thumbsup2

Hon, I am so glad that that book helped you grow in the wisdom of this greatest life lesson--instead of having to learn it the hard way!!! ENJOY YOUR LIFE DEARIE!!! It IS the only one we've got!!! I can see the worries just melting right off your sturdy shoulders as we "speak!"

I am so glad that Tink gave me that book. And that I got sick enough to want to read everything in the house I hadn't read. If that's what it took to have that kind of life-altering experience, I'll take it.

And you know, oddly enough, I have always been the worrier, and my husband is so not. I'm the what if, what if, and he's always said, hon, you need to stop thinking like that.

Boy was he right!

Just don't tell him. :rotfl2: :rotfl2:
 
YEA!! For everything!! I'm so excited for you. I still have to work on the worrying but since DD was dx, I've learned to really appreciate the little moments in life. :) it's so easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff and forget that this moment will never happen again. :) Glad you're still going so I can continue to read your PTR and then TR!!!!
 
YEA!! For everything!! I'm so excited for you.

Thank you very much. :goodvibes

I still have to work on the worrying but since DD was dx, I've learned to really appreciate the little moments in life. :) it's so easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff and forget that this moment will never happen again. :) Glad you're still going so I can continue to read your PTR and then TR!!!!

This may sound awful that I don't know, but does dx stand for?

I agree, not worrying is hard, but I'm learning more and more to let it go. There's just no sense. Not when for all intensive purposes, we really are doing well.

And thanks again! I'm glad we're going too. :thumbsup2
 
Thank you very much. :goodvibes



This may sound awful that I don't know, but does dx stand for?

I agree, not worrying is hard, but I'm learning more and more to let it go. There's just no sense. Not when for all intensive purposes, we really are doing well.

And thanks again! I'm glad we're going too. :thumbsup2
Oh no problem. DX is diagnoised. My first born was diagnoised with cancer, 10 days before her 4th birthday (2007).

Its so nice to see the sunshine instead of the rain, isn't it? :flower3:
 
Beautifully said, TK! You are exactly right -- life is too short -- so enjoy!

Thank you! :goodvibes

Oh no problem. DX is diagnoised. My first born was diagnoised with cancer, 10 days before her 4th birthday (2007).

Its so nice to see the sunshine instead of the rain, isn't it? :flower3:

I just started reading your pre trip report.

My goodness, you have been through the wringer! I'll save my comments for over there, but I commend your bravery, and admire you very much. :hug:
 












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