Our Grand Gathering Adventure:Surprising the Boys! 9/17 WE LEAVE TOMORROW!!!

[mommytothreeboys]

HI Heather!

I'm so glad you got a positive response from Will's teacher. If you aren't an advocate for your child, no one will be...that's your job. If things aren't sitting well with you, then you step in and get to the bottom of it! Just remember to take into account that it is very early in the year, etc. Let us know how things go.

Congrats to Matt on the new job. I hope the new shift is just what your family needs and you all adjust to the new schedule quickly!

Uh-oh...sounds like you have a little detective on your hands! I hope you are able to keep the secret as long as you want to!

The new surprise plans sound awesome! The boys will be thrilled!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Heather:

It sounds like the school problems are on their way to working out. Hunter went through a stage of "I'm dumb. Nobody likes me. I'm not good enough." I don't know where he got that because he has always had a ton of friends. We knew the teachers and knew that they'd never say anything like that at all. I think it's just a stage they all go through.

I'm so glad that your hubby was able to switch shifts. John has always said he would rather work graveyard shift than any other. We are really blessed that he has been able to be self-employed for years now and we haven't suffered from the economy.

Pray is a powerful thing!

 

[hhockman]

HI Heather!

I'm so glad you got a positive response from Will's teacher. If you aren't an advocate for your child, no one will be...that's your job. If things aren't sitting well with you, then you step in and get to the bottom of it! Just remember to take into account that it is very early in the year, etc. Let us know how things go.

Congrats to Matt on the new job. I hope the new shift is just what your family needs and you all adjust to the new schedule quickly!

Uh-oh...sounds like you have a little detective on your hands! I hope you are able to keep the secret as long as you want to!

The new surprise plans sound awesome! The boys will be thrilled!

I am really excited about the surprises. I just can't wait to see their faces (especially for the first really big surprise...). Also, I don't know if I've mentioned it or not, but we're not telling them that my parents are grandparents are coming either. We're just going to leave on Friday morning and say good-bye and then they can be surprised again when everyone shows up on Saturday!

I guess Christian isn't quite the detective I thought he was. I asked Matt about it and he said he actually said something about Disney World to Christian when the "castle" came up at the beginning of Underdog. Hopefully I've gotten him "off the scent" now.

Heather:

It sounds like the school problems are on their way to working out. Hunter went through a stage of "I'm dumb. Nobody likes me. I'm not good enough." I don't know where he got that because he has always had a ton of friends. We knew the teachers and knew that they'd never say anything like that at all. I think it's just a stage they all go through.

I'm so glad that your hubby was able to switch shifts. John has always said he would rather work graveyard shift than any other. We are really blessed that he has been able to be self-employed for years now and we haven't suffered from the economy.

Pray is a powerful thing!

I'm not sure where Will gets it either. We're always really encouraging (well, sometimes Matt isn't, but it usually has to do with baseball-which isn't right either and we "discuss" it when Matt is, uh, less-than-encouraging). My mom and I were talking about it today and we both know that sometimes he just "uses" phrases like "I'm no good" to avoid really thinking about the question I asked him in the first place. But it's hard to tell when he really means it or not.

Matt is really excited about his new shift and I'm pretty happy about it too. It won't change my life that much, but I'm happy for him that he'll be able to be there for the kids' baseball and school things now.

Prayer is definitely a very powerful thing.

 

[DisneymoonJess07]

For the whole teaching your kid before school thing, my mom deliberately didn't teach me to read before school, and so I was so ready that I learned almost immediately and was ahead of grade level very quickly. I did like that I learned with the class, and the teacher knew exactly what level I was at so she recommended books for me. My husband taught himself to read before he went to school and did fine as well, so I'm not sure it totally matters.

In terms of his being bored or distracted - I had two experiences of that. I was always one of the top of my class, but in one class all my friends sat next to me so I would talk instead of doing thigns and would come up with writing assignments that didn't make sense because of the distractions, and later on, I was in a class that went very slowly with an excruciatingly boring teacher (I called him Mr Watermelon since he was about as interesting as one - I was 8) and again, I was distracted, by daydreaming this time, and it also meant a drop in grades.

Either way, I really applaud you for working to get this taken care of, whatever it turns out to be - and remember to look into the simple things as well as things that can be diagnosed. All my best to you and your family!

 

[hhockman]

For the whole teaching your kid before school thing, my mom deliberately didn't teach me to read before school, and so I was so ready that I learned almost immediately and was ahead of grade level very quickly. I did like that I learned with the class, and the teacher knew exactly what level I was at so she recommended books for me. My husband taught himself to read before he went to school and did fine as well, so I'm not sure it totally matters.

In terms of his being bored or distracted - I had two experiences of that. I was always one of the top of my class, but in one class all my friends sat next to me so I would talk instead of doing thigns and would come up with writing assignments that didn't make sense because of the distractions, and later on, I was in a class that went very slowly with an excruciatingly boring teacher (I called him Mr Watermelon since he was about as interesting as one - I was 8) and again, I was distracted, by daydreaming this time, and it also meant a drop in grades.

Either way, I really applaud you for working to get this taken care of, whatever it turns out to be - and remember to look into the simple things as well as things that can be diagnosed. All my best to you and your family!

Thanks Jess. I apprecite that. And guess what?

YOU'RE LEAVING TOMORROW!!!!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Hey Heather! sorry I missed your problem with Will but it sounds like everything is falling into place!
I'm happy that Matt is happy with his new shift and I hope that everything is going well! and falling into the place you and Matt need it to be!

Disney time is almost here!!!!! I wish I could say the same
Have a great rest of the weekend!!!

 

[hhockman]

Hey Heather! sorry I missed your problem with Will but it sounds like everything is falling into place!
I'm happy that Matt is happy with his new shift and I hope that everything is going well! and falling into the place you and Matt need it to be!

Disney time is almost here!!!!! I wish I could say the same
Have a great rest of the weekend!!!

Thanks Connie! Things are going fairly well this weekend. I hope you are having a good weekend too!

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Look at you Heather. Getting so close. Hope you've had a great weekend. I think everything will work out for everyone. (for whatever I think is worth)

Ginny

 

[hhockman]

Look at you Heather. Getting so close. Hope you've had a great weekend. I think everything will work out for everyone. (for whatever I think is worth)

Ginny

It's been a good weekend. Thanks Ginny. I'm sure what you think is worth a lot. If you think you have any pull, I can use all the prayers I can get in the teaching job department. Now that Matt has a job he is happy with.

I hope you had a great weekend too!

 

[hhockman]

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend. We didn't do much here. Christian's practice got rained out on Friday. On Saturday we had a workday at the park. The boys went and played with their friends Caleb and Jared and Cole was there too. Cole came home with us (and ended up spending the night-Will and Christian have both been asking for him to come over). Later yesterday afternoon Matt took Will and Cole back over to the ballpark where they met Aaron and his dad (who are also on our team) and Colton and his dad (good friends of ours who have been on our team since Colton started at 6, but are on a different team this season. Colton's mom is going to be feeding our dogs and cat while we're at Disney). They were there for about 4 hours.

I went to Walmart and Publix with my mom. Christian went to Walmart with us. He did pretty good for a while, but eventually got bored (who can blame the poor boy). I picked up a Level 2 DK Readers Pokemon book for him to look through and at one point the poor thing is trying to sound out the words letter by letter. We're working on learning to read, but the poor kid wants to be able to read NOW.

This morning we went to Tony and Kelly's church (because we had Cole). I really like their church, but it's kind of a drive for us, so we don't always go there (we are members at a church here, but haven't gone to that one in a really long time. It's huge and we just got to where we felt swallowed up. We've gone to a couple of others in the meantime and Matt and I like Tony and Kelly's the best, although it's small. It's a little old-fashioned, but reminds us of the church we grew up in back in Fort Walton. There's also another church that we've gone to the most the last 6 months. It's also a bit of a drive (most of the places we've been are), but not quite as far. We really liked our Sunday School class and what they have for the kids, but we like the preaching better at Tony and Kelly's. We went so far as to take the Membership class at this church (but haven't joined yet because the Membership class made me uncomfortable). We've had a really hard time finding the church we want here because almost all the churches are either big or small and we like medium. Small enough to know everyone, big enough to have what we want for the kids. If Tony and Kelly's wasn't so far away, we would probably continue to go there. If we ever manage to get our own house, we will probably be moving over to that side of town, so it will be closer and maybe we will go more often (my parents and brother and SIL and grandparents went with us to that church at Christmas-my grandparents liked it but everyone else didn't. Of course they all didn't like the other, bigger and newer, one we've been going to at Easter either). Wow. What a long paragraph about church. Guess I feel like I can tell you guys anything.

Anyway, after the service got out and I picked Christian up from the 3-4-5 class, we went into the Fellowship Hall to get Will from Children's Church and found this:

They were singing and doing sign language to the song "Jesus Messiah" (LOVE that song). Cole was standing over to the side, not really participating, but Will was right up front in the middle of the action-remember this is not our regular church and we haven't been there in a WHILE. I'm not sure he even knows anyone besides Cole. I told you he loves music (incedentally, when they went to bed tonight they both asked to watch Baby Einstein: Meet the Orchestra. Yes, my kids both still like to watch Baby Einstein because they love the classical music. The both loved Little Einsteins too (though don't watch it much now). Will said he wanted to watch it because of the "saxophone part". I thought it was funny that we were just talking about this on Lisa's thread).

For the fun of it, here is a picture of Christian. He was looking at my mom's search-a-word book and reading the letters. Then I heard him asking himself what he needed to do to "put the check mark" (that you put in the box next to the word after you find it). Here he is looking at the book:

and then I had him look up:

Once the kids went to bed (not that they are asleep yet), I finally got a picture of the Welcome to Disney World sign:

Here are upclose pictures of the boys names that will go at the front and end of the sign:

And here are the Mickey Heads the kids will follow to find their goodies (SO love my Cricut). There are more than this, but I just took the picture of a few because they are all the same:

I think I mentioned this when I told you about Matt almost ruining the surprise with Christian (thankfully he's back to clueless), but we did get another envelope full of vouchers and luggage tags on Friday after taking Cole off the reservation. Still fun to get Mickey Mail, even when it's repeat Mickey Mail.

I'm making progress on the books. I took a 3 hour nap today (which didn't make me feel any less tired and didn't get rid of the headache I had-still have, though it's minor), so I will probably be up for a while tonight. Might finish them. I'm playing with the idea of making Matt one. He said he doesn't need one, but I would love to have his thoughts about each day too, and I think it would be a fun activity for us all to do together every night. If I do it, his will probably be Disney themed (unlike mine), but much simpler than the boys'.

Both boys were supposed to have practice today, but it rained all day so both practices got cancelled. That means Christian hasn't had a practice all week. Will has practice tomorrow, but Christian doesn't have it again until Friday. I really hope it doesn't rain.

So, a pretty low-key weekend, but decent. I spent an hour today just sitting with the boys playing Pokemon. I love spending this time with them and I am so looking forward to the 8 days we're going to have at Disney SOON.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

It is really hard to find the 'right' church that suits your needs. It is out there. Don't rush to join just to join. You will be led to the one that will be 'yours'. And you will know it when it happens. Glad you had a good weekend. We did. Drove 1 1/2 hours last night to Kansas for a place Sheri wanted to eat at. Silly girl. It was delish. Really busy day tomorrow. End of month bills need mailed and the mood the Doc has been in for the past 2 weeks he'll find something major for me to undertake I'm sure.

Have a great week. We haven't had rain in the day time here since Wednesday.

Ginny

 

[mickeystoontown]

It's really hard to find a church that feels "right" for your family. John's dad is a pastor and we used to go to their church every Sunday. It was over an hour drive there, we usually ended up eating with them and then we had to drive back. The majority of our day was on the road. Then, there were family problems and I just couldn't stand sitting in church with some members of the family. All I wanted to do was go home. I wasn't listening to anything John's Dad was saying. It was a waste of my time and I felt like I was wasting God's time. I mentioned it to John and he was feeling the same exact way. John's Dad was a little country church with about 50 to 70 people.

We decided to go to our present church which has an average "big church" attendance of 600. Wee Worship has about 50 kids and children's church has about 75 kids. Youth has 100 kids. It's a big church. But, John and I really like it.

John likes the fact that he can walk in and if he wants to participate he can, if he doesn't want to participate, he doesn't have to. He has this thing about being watched because he's a preacher's kid. Everybody was always waiting for him and his siblings to do something wrong so they could be talked about.

We haven't been to church on a regular basis in a while. Some of ya'll might remember from my prior trip report that I left my job because my boss was doing some things that weren't quite on the up-and-up. Tax evasion, putting everything he owned into his wife's name in case the IRS came after his business. And more! I found out about them and jumped ship. I also knew he was sending his grown kids money and his wife didn't know about it. That was always a big bone of contention between them. Anyway, I went to the church counselors because I just had to talk to somebody about the situation. They helped me through it all.

I thought that all was well until I hear all these things that my ex-boss is saying about me....I stole from him. I let his insurance lapse. I didn't do the work I was supposed to do. Etc. Etc. Etc. I know that he is only saying these things to cover his own behind with his wife who now owns everything (remember, the dummy put all of his assets in his wife's name). So, in other words, she has him by his **** and he has to say anything to save face and keep her happy. I spoke to the church counselors again. They told me to hold my head high and try not to let it affect me. The problem? A lot of my old boss' clients go to my church. I know for a fact that he has told them all of these false things. Even though I know that I didn't do anything that my old boss accused me of, they don't. To make a long story short, I now feel uncomfortable in my own church so I don't go regularly like I should.

I am so sorry to have posted all my "junk" but, like we say all the time, I consider all of us to be friends.

Lordy Heather, you've said that any lurkers might think you were crazy. Well, now, they think you've got a reader who is a thief and is crazy. I assure you....I am not! Well, not a thief but I sometimes think I am crazy.

On to the good stuff, I think your Welcome To Disney World sign is going to be so cute and I love all the Mickeys.

Your friend,

Lisa

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I agree, finding the right church is tricky. Remember, no church is perfect! We aren't 100% happy with ours right now, but not quite ready to leave either. It's a real balance. I love the pic of the kids singing! I'm the Director of Children's Ministries at our church so that just touches my heart!

Great sign and cool Mickey heads! That is going to be so fun for the boys!

 

[hhockman]

It's cool Lisa. It might be easier for our readers if we all had one thread (like when I started posting about Will's love of music which was a take-off of your thread). Maybe it will encourage everyone to read ALL of our TRs.

Oh, and just so you know, your church would be what we considered "medium". The church where we went when we first came here split the preschoolers up into 3-4 classes PER age (so there was a Sept-Dec birthdays class, a Jan-Mar birthdays class, an April-June birthdays class and a July-August birthdays class-or something like that). There were THAT many people there. In the thousands. Even when Will was in Kindergarten there were two classes for Kindergarten in each Sunday School hour (services at 8, 9:30, and 11:00, Sunday School at 9:30 and 11:00). Seriously. It was too big. The one we've been going to is smaller. Probably closer to the size of yours. There are still 2 or 3 Sunday School classes for 4 year olds. The have maybe 50-75 in Children's Church each hour, but the first hour is grades 3-5 and the second hour is grades K-2. The church where we were yesterday had maybe 20 kids in Christian's 3-4-5 class and maybe 40 in Children's Church grades 1-6. So MUCH smaller. What we actually want is something like your church.

And we spent most of the summer not in church too. I missed the Sunday I went to my cousin's wedding in April and didn't get back to church until the Sunday after school started in August. We missed VBS at both the huge church and at the one we've been attending. Not for any good reason but just because I didn't want to drive there every day (they are both far enough away that gas is an issue if you're going 5 days in a week). So, you're not the only one who hasn't been as often as they should. And I understand where you're coming from. It would be hard to change churches-and also not fair to you-but gossip is an awful thing. Believe me, I know.

I'm so glad we've got this group of friends here we can all talk to .

Oh, and totally on a different (Disney) topic, I think I'm moving our June trip back by a couple of days! I'm really thinking of renting DVC so we can do AKL for the Disney part of the trip, and the number of points needed go way up after the 10th. So I'm thinking we might do Disney the 6th-10th and then the other places (when we'd be staying in the Nick Hotel) the 11th-16th. The problem with that is, we want to be there for SWW and if we arrive on the 6th we won't see much, so we might have to come in on the 5th and just stay somewhere else or something so we can be there all day on the 6th. Not sure yet. Still not sure I'm going to do the renting thing. Gotta find someone we can trust that will still have points available in February (everyone says with renting you have to do it 7 months out and I don't think we'll have the money in November). We'll see. So MAYBE we'll get to see you. I can't remember if you were supposed to leave the 5th or the 6th. But even so, maybe. That would be SO cool!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I agree, finding the right church is tricky. Remember, no church is perfect! We aren't 100% happy with ours right now, but not quite ready to leave either. It's a real balance.

I totally agree with you. I think John has a kind of warped sense about churches sometimes since he was always the preacher's kid. He's seen all the ya-yaing that goes on behind the scenes. I think he said they averaged about 2 or 3 years in each church. So, that's a lot of churches from the time he was born until he was 18. One day, we'll find a church where each member of our family feels comfortable and so will you, Heather.

 

[hhockman]

I agree, finding the right church is tricky. Remember, no church is perfect! We aren't 100% happy with ours right now, but not quite ready to leave either. It's a real balance. I love the pic of the kids singing! I'm the Director of Children's Ministries at our church so that just touches my heart!

Great sign and cool Mickey heads! That is going to be so fun for the boys!

If we lived where you live we would go to YOUR church because the Children's Ministries is what I'm most interested in right now and I know yours must be a GREAT one if you're running it!

I know a lot of people probably aren't 100% happy with their church all the time. I just want to feel comfortable. The only one where we really feel comfortable is the small one. And the big problem with that one is distance. We'll figure it out eventually I'm sure.

 

[hhockman]

So I was looking over menus last night and trying to figure out if the money I'm budgeting for gratuity is enough (remember, our group is well over 6 for almost every meal, so they are going to automatically add 18%). Some of the prices were , especially on the buffets. I just couldn't believe the prices have gone up that much. Or maybe I didn't know how much they were before. I mean $28.99 at Garden Grill for an adult really just seems like a lot. Also, in looking at the menus I actually, well, LOOKED at the menus. And discovered that pretty much no one in my family is going to eat what they have available at San Angel. Even the kids. Well, maybe the quesadilla. Maybe. So, the result was that I did two things to our ADRs:

-I changed Whispering Canyon from a dinner to a lunch. The prices are much better at lunch, but more than that I like what is available at lunch better. There are a lot of sandwiches and that kind of thing as opposed to huge meals. Plus I like the idea of being at MK for 3-4 hours, riding the boat over to WL to eat lunch, then going back to to MK for 4-5 hours. Our old plan was to be at MK before rope drop (9:15 at the Pirate League, remember?), stay all day. And then leave about 5:00 for dinner at WL at 5:50. This idea is SO much better for everyone (especially the kids...and my grandparents).

-The second change is that I cancelled San Angel at 5:00 and got Planet Hollywood at 3:30. The only problem with that is that we'll have to leave Blizzard Beach a little earlier than I wanted to, but if we really feel like we didn't get enough time there, we can always go back on Friday morning. They didn't have anything in the early evening at Planet Hollywood, and I didn't want to make it too late because we need to be at Epcot in time for Illuminations (which we're not watching on Sunday because we're going over to MK for EMH). I'm actually pretty happy with this change too, because I can't even get enough of Epcot and this will get us there early enough to really do some countries again. We're staying for Epcot EMH on this night, but most of World Showcase (except Mexico and Norway) is closed. Also, both my mom and Matt had said they wanted to eat at Planet Hollywood and that they thought the kids would like it. Plus, we all have the $15 vouchers, so if we want appetizers we can get them.

The only other change is that we MIGHT drop Rainforest Cafe on Friday night. I'm not sure we'll want to pay OOP for the difference after the $25 GC I have by this point in the week, plus after doing TRex AND Planet Hollywood, I think the kids might be just about to the point of BTDT. I'm also thinking that our first night there we're probably going to do Wolfgang Puck Express because it's right across from Disney Quest so on this night (our last night-Friday, the 25th) it might be a good time to finally do Earl of Sandwich. All the pictures I've seen are making me really want to get this into the plan somewhere...and I'm pretty sure we do have one QS credit left (I was planning to use it to get food "to go" for the trip home, but I'm not sure how that would work anyway).

So, a few changes, but I'm really happy with all of them. It takes away one of Matt's "new" restaurants (but not one of mine because I did San Angel a really long time ago so I wasn't counting that as new for me-we've ALL done Planet Hollywood-but it's been a while), but that's okay. If you count EOS then I added a different new one for both of us.

Off to read and see what everyone is up to today. 17 days!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

It sounds like the changes will work out for you guys in the long run. I think we are going to stick to restaurants that are on the dining plan next year. We always save one of the credits and then combine it with another table service credit in order to see a dinner show. We've done Hoop Dee Doo twice and the luau this past trip. Mickey's Backyard BBQ just doesn't sound like something we'd want to do. Thus, there will be no need to pay out of pocket for any meal.

If it were me, I'd drop the Rainforest Cafe ADR too. Especially since you are doing Planet Hollywood and T-Rex.

I've thought about booking an ADR at San Angel but Hunter is so picky. He won't eat anything on their menu. But, it looks like a cool place to eat.

Just 17 days!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Your ADR changes look good. I think it's wise to switch to a lunch at WCC..it will break up the day nicely.

No point in going to San Angel if no one is going to enjoy it. The atmosphere is great, but not worth the hassle if no one eats!

Blizzard Beach is great...we spent the whole day there. But...it's nice that you can squeeze it back in another time if you want to.

I'd play the RFC ressie by ear. If you realize that it's just going to be overkill, cancel and do something more simple like EOS.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

I agree with Missy and Lisa...your idea and update on the ADR's seem a better fit for your family! and since you are going in June you can do T-Rex this go round and plan for RFC next time that gives you and the family something to look forward to next time!

Have a great day!!


BTW--I really like your welcome sign!!!! and the smaller mickey heads great idea... and I was not looking for the edible confetti but the ones I've seen at walmart/party city in the party section! Hope you have luck finding them. I did think of something I had purchased at walgreens sometime back. They were small shiny (mylar type) disney charcter stickers (I want to say the fab 5) that would make great confetti and than they could use them in a book or something to that sort!