Over the River and Through the Woods to Mickey's House We Go! And Grandma is in Tow!

[3princesses+aprince]

Don't feel bad about not update. That was quite an exciting update I hope everything works out well! What a mess!

 

[MHTeacher]

but what was found underneath my appliances was gross. Where does all that fuzz and grime come from?

I don't know, but it sneaks in under my appliances here in Alabama, too!

Sorry for the rotten luck, but it sounds like you got it under control. Cheers to Mama---sounds like you've got a good one! Hope it was just a fluke, and that your washer is spinning, rinsing, and DRAINING soon!

 

[Bridora]

What a horrible thing to have happen. Great idea on using blankets & throws to get the water up. You mama is great! Good thing she was right next door. And your description of the ringing phone scene was great! I'm sure it was even better in real life & just the laugh you needed. I hope it goes well when you hook it back up!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Good morning everybody! Thanks for all the kind comments about the washing machine/flood. Yes, it was a horrible thing to go through at the time but I have to tell you that watching Hunter hanging on for dear life and slipping around trying to answer the cell phone was hilarious! It was just what I needed amongst the chaos and flood.

The washing machine is all hooked up and running again! Without the need to call a repairman....I might add. I was determined to try and fix it before spending money on a repairman or a new washer. We took the face plate where the knobs are off and found one little hose had come undone. I pushed it back on and it's worked every since. The first two loads, I stood nearby to make sure it wasn't going to overflow again but it didn't.

I'm happy as a pig covered in mud lying in the sunshine!

We spent a lot of time outside this weekend because the weather was so pretty. I think our temps got up to 67. John and I have already said we need to start staying outside more so we can get acclimated to being outside for hours upon hours when at Disney. And, to the fact that there's no air conditioning surrounding us.

John's been riding his exercise bike he got for Christmas and has lost quite a few pounds. I'm thinking it's about 15. His entire family has a tendency to get a stomach and he's tired of it. I've also been walking on the treadmill so that I won't be whining when it comes time to do all the walking at Disney. I've got to get Hunter started walking too so he won't complain. My mother is a whole 'nother story. She's come over and walked on the treadmill twice. She said she feels like she is loosing her balance and doesn't like it. I guess when it starts staying light out longer, I'll get her to start walking in the evenings. Or, I could suggest that she and Hunter walk a little every day after school. He walks as slow as a turtle (and an old one at that), so he'd be a perfect walking partner for her.

I've got to get busy working on getting some paperwork off my desk. I'll be posting pictures of the shirts that I bought last weekend. I'll try to do that this afternoon.

 

[racefanof88]

Hey Lisa . I'm glad to hear that you didn't have to buy a new washer. Can't spend that Disney money on something so trivial..... When Amanda and Tyler were little I was doing laundry one day and I ran out of detergent. I decided I would use some dish washing liquid...........well, I didn't know not to put a bunch of it in the washing machine . I bet you can guess what happened . It was a BIG mess. Nowhere near as big as you had, but a mess that took me a while to clean up. OH and the stuff under the appliances, yeah it is gross. I think the heat from the appliances and the grease from cooking turns it into dustcrete......

 

[mickeystoontown]

I certainly didn't want to spend my Disney money needlessly on something so trivial as a washing machine.

Speaking of washing machines, as if I wanted to talk about washing machines or you guys want to hear about washing machines... I spent the afternoon outside yesterday because it was so pretty out. Guess what I did? Forget it, you'll never guess.

I made homemade laundry detergent. Lacey said there were many ladies at their church that do it and said it was easy. I had also seen the Duggars (on t.v.) do it. I figured what the heck, I'll try it.

Our water around here smells to high heaven. It's just got an old funky smell to it. No matter what kind of clothes washing detergent I use, my clothes still have that. I've even had my sister smell of me to make sure I don't smell funky from our water. Weird, I know but I did. We are constantly getting notices from the water company saying the water was contaminated a week ago and they had to put in certain chemicals to kill the bacteria. Don't worry, we don't drink the water at our house!

Anyway, John and I were wondering if the homemade laundry detergent would take that funky/chemically smell away. I bought all the ingredients and together they cost about $7.00. I followed the instructions and now I have a 5 gallon bucket of laundry detergent. You use half a cup of detergent to a half a cup of water and it does a full load in a top-loading washing machine. I haven't used it yet because it's supposed to set overnight before you use it. I'll let ya'll know how it turns out.

Oh and I finally got the pictures of my new shirts uploaded to photobucket. Ummmm kind of went nuts on the Mickey shirts:

This picture has a couple of the shirts in the other picture in it. I took this picture last week but didn't have it uploaded yet.

I guess that's all I've got for right now. I wrote a trip report installment earlier today and then two recaps over on my Stop Making Me Laugh report. That took up a bunch of my time. I prooooomise I'll post more Epcot information asap!

 

[racefanof88]

Love the shirts .

 

[MHTeacher]

Wow--you did good, Lisa! I think the pink shirt with Mickey and Minnie kissing is my favorite!

 

[MaryAz]

Cute shirts. Yay for making the soap!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Love the shirts .

Thanks! Now I just gotta see if they match any of my shorts. I'm thinking I'll probably buy a couple new pair of khaki shorts since anything goes with khaki.

Wow--you did good, Lisa! I think the pink shirt with Mickey and Minnie kissing is my favorite!

The pink shirt with Mickey and Minnie is my favorite too. That's the one that I bought when we were in Branson for Thanksgiving.

Cute shirts. Yay for making the soap!

I have no idea how the homemade laundry detergent is going to work. Per the instructions, I had to stir the mixture up yesterday morning. I guess I was thinking it would be thick/slick like regular laundry detergent but it wasn't. I figure if I wasn't out any more money than I was, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Great job shopping! love all the shirts but one..bet you can guess...:

I had read about homemade laundry detergent when Joe and Gwendolyn moved in...but, was leary and did not know of a soul who had tried it...so, I really can not wait to hear what you guys think! and with the heat coming soon I can't wait to hear about how it does with the ordors...

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great job shopping! love all the shirts but one..bet you can guess...:

I had read about homemade laundry detergent when Joe and Gwendolyn moved in...but, was leary and did not know of a soul who had tried it...so, I really can not wait to hear what you guys think! and with the heat coming soon I can't wait to hear about how it does with the ordors...

I usually don't wear white shirts to Disney 'cause I have a tendency to drop things on myself. Did that today when eating a hot dog for lunch. I know better!

I think I'm going to try the laundry detergent this evening and see how I like it. I'll let you know what I think about it.

 

[coteau_chick]

I love all your new Mickey Mouse t-shirts. Too cute. I was going to try making laundry detergent too so let us know if it works.

 

[mickeystoontown]

It's been so long since I posted some real plans that I don't remember what I have already posted besides us arriving at Epcot.

I hope the crowds will look something like this when we get there:

I think I said I'll probably be the Fastpass getter and will head straight to:

while everybody else trails behind. I figure once everybody catches up with me, we should just stay on that side of Future World and ride Living with the Land. For some reason, we just love this ride and were really bummed that it was closed during our August, 2009 trip.

John and I think that Mama would enjoy doing the Behind the Seeds tour. We've done it twice in the past and have used the coupon that comes in the back of Birbaum's Official Guide. Only thing is, I don't know if we want to do the tour on our first day at Epcot or our second day. Our touring is going to be so different with Mama in our group.

Once we leave The Land, we'll probably mosey on over to The Living Seas or whatever it's called now that Nemo has taken over.

I'm a little bit concerned about Mama and her depth perception problem. She sometimes has problems stepping on and off escalators because of her trifocal glasses. I usually stand beside her or behind her and tell her when to step on/off. I know we will be able to handle the escalators but I'm wondering about the rides that require you to step onto a moving conveyor belt thing in order to get to the ride vehicle (clam mobiles, doom buggies, etc.) Guess we'll figure it out.

Okay, back to pictures:

Bad Boy John breakin' the rules and going under a barrier:

Once we've explored The Living Seas, we'll probably amble on over and visit Figment:

And then get ourselves shrunk at Honey I Shrunk the Audience. I don't remember if Mama has seen the show but I'm thinking not since she is scared to death of snakes and we would have skipped it back in 2000. Since we know this is probably the last time Mama will go to Walt Disney World, I want her to see and do it all so I guess I'll just cover her eyes during the snake part.

It is my hope that by this time, we can use our Fastpasses for Soarin'. Mama went an IMAX film once and said it kind of made her feel funny. We all want her to ride Soarin' though and I don't think she'll back out.

After Soarin', we'll head to the other side of Future World but, of course, we'll make a stop at Ice Cool Station first and get us a sip or two of the Coca Cola flavors. Here's a picture of the kids jumping in front of the fountain just before we went to Ice Cool last year. Ya think they were excited?

***Gosh darn it.....gotta go. Need to do something for a client who is on the phone. At least I got some of our plans posted.

 

[Nettaboo]

So loving the shirts!! I need to go back to our Disney Store because they always have last years shirts on sale..I got Gabby 2 we went the last time.. I am also going to make her some.
I am interested to know how your laundry detergent turns out with your clothes..can you post how you did it? (or did you post and I missed it??)

 

[longing2Batdisney]

First, great sounding plans...kinda what I have in mind for our Epcot day...although we are only doing one park one day...so, I need to be sure to catch the stuff I really want to cover (like Soarin')...fun recaps with the pics...I would think to treat the flat conveyors like you would an esculator

Great job shopping! love all the shirts but one..bet you can guess...:

I usually don't wear white shirts to Disney 'cause I have a tendency to drop things on myself. Did that today when eating a hot dog for lunch. I know better!

I think I'm going to try the laundry detergent this evening and see how I like it. I'll let you know what I think about it.

I always do that when I where white or when ever I wear a new shirt and try to eat boiled crawfish...
but the shirt I was referring to was red and black with a big black dirty bird...where is your LA spirit...

 

[longing2Batdisney]

OH! BTW if you need a coupon let me know I have one and will not be using it this year

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Nice shirts! You are the shopping QUEEN!

I so love Epcot! I'd love to do that Behind the Seeds tour. I love the Living with the Land boat ride so I think I'd enjoy it.

 

[cinderella crazy]

What cute shirts! I too am anxious to hear how the homemade laundry detergent turns out. It's just ridiculous how much that and softener costs!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

LOVE the Mickey shirts!!! And the Epcot day plans!! I cannot wait to run in to Epoct and get our Soarin fast passes. I can't wait for Manny, Sam and Anthony to ride it. It was just Me, Lizzie and Emily who got the chance last trip and it was so amazing! We also love the seas with Nemo and friends.