~Snowbird Chat~

[Mndisneygirl]

Okay - I had a busy day at work, but I'll try to catch up.
Plutofan- welcome back!! I love hearing about cruises. We want to do the Med one day too! I want to know how the kids did and liked it. I think our kids are too young right now, but maybe in a few years.

Shawna - I'm going shopping tomorrow. I really don't have that many gifts to buy. My parents and brother's gifts will come from Disney as well as my boss and court reporter. I made a big long list of stuff to do before we leave and actually crossed off three things today!! Getting my hair cut tomorrow, wrote letters to school for taking the kids out, finished making the gifts for the fish extender exchange on the cruise (cute bookmarks). So I'm getting there!!

Snykymom- that's awful!! What are they building? I hope there is some further action you can take to reduce the truck traffic! You know you can come here to vent anytime!! We're here for you!

I love shopping for christmas presents, even though I rarely go on Black Friday anymore. A lot of times one of us will go early to pick up one or two special things, but DH always has to work, so since I've had kids, I've stayed home. This year I will finish any more decorating, baking and start (?) packing for the trip! We only have a week after Thanksgiving until we leave!

 

[letthewookiewin]

Plutofan, I'm glad you had a great trip. I would love to see some pics.

OK, another vent (sorry, guys!). We just found out that our town has voted to allow heavy trucks, up to 16 wheels, travel to a construction site and pass right in front of our house, on a narrow, winding road! We knew it was a possibility, but now that it's official . . . They're projecting that for about 6 months, it will average 1 truck per minute!

We're trying to figure out what to do. Our house needs a lot of work that we've put off to pay tuition, so we have to decide if we want to fix it and put it up for sale and take what we get in a lousy market, or live for 3 or more years in a construction zone!

I'm so upset right now, I can barely think. So I came here.

I can totally understand, I would be upset too. I don't mean to make you feel worse, but I would be worried about what those trucks are going to do to the road. If it is a small road I doubt it was built to hold up to that many big trucks running on it that much. With damage to the road, means possible damage to your cars. My house growing up was practically surrounded by rock crushers and those rock trucks run almost 24 hours.

ok, so I want some creative advice. I'm trying to decide what color of yarn to get for the scarves I am going to make for our trip next year. I need to figure out how much to get. I'm down to two color options and can't decide. I can either do 2 shades of green plus red or red and white. I am going to applique a Mickey head with a Santa hat on each end of the scarves.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Snkymom~ YUCK! I hate that for you!!! I would def talk to your city manager or somebody!! That just doesnt sound right.

Meghan! Glad you have a plan...I personally would NEVER do a BF!!! I would feel so rushed....and so behind before I got there!!!! But...if that is how you do it, I hope you get all you are looking for and find great deals!!!!! I have several friends that love doing that....I have never asked if I could go I don't think they would like me to go with them Ha!!!!!!!

Crzyred~ I am glad you had a good day and got to wear a Tshirt....can you believe we are still in shorts and HOT!!! Well...I say hot....I am sooooo hot natured....we had the air on last night and I kept turning it down so I could get cool......my poor kids are pretty much little heaters too!!!Poor Mike is not...we usually freeze him to death!!!! We put our tree up tonight too!!! I didn't get it decorated yet....start that tomorrow!! I will have it all done by Friday at the latest...we have lots going on tomorrow, so I know I won't finish it then for sure. Feels great getting a jump on it!!!
I might try to find the kids all matching colors of shirts tomorrow for Christmas card pics.... Last year we did blue...we might do Green this time.I had thought about using our family pic in front of the castle from our Jan trip. It's at the front of my PTR....but I don't know. It's a good picture, but they have grown soooo much this year!!! Especially ds13.....I think I want to let everybody see how much bigger he is...after all, he's soooo proud of it!!! Just one more thing to mark off that giant to do list!!

 

[snykymom]

Have you spoken to the town? Do you have a lawyer? That sort of truck has GOT to cause damage to your foundation/walls/etc. You probably didn't want to hear that, did you? But I think the town has some culpability.

I'd be absolutely beside myself, too. Right there with you. Heck, we were mad enough when our street became a cut through to a strip mall... with cars doing ~45 in a 25 zone! (We were able to convince the county to help pay for speed humps, which are being installed)

We've GOT to try and meet up when I'm in town. I'll buy you a drink for dealing with all this right now!

I can totally understand, I would be upset too. I don't mean to make you feel worse, but I would be worried about what those trucks are going to do to the road. If it is a small road I doubt it was built to hold up to that many big trucks running on it that much. With damage to the road, means possible damage to your cars. My house growing up was practically surrounded by rock crushers and those rock trucks run almost 24 hours.

Snkymom~ YUCK! I hate that for you!!! I would def talk to your city manager or somebody!! That just doesnt sound right.

Thanks for all the good wishes. Unfortunately, this decision was made, after many months of meetings and debates, by our Town Meeting (an archaic form of government here in Massachusetts), which is the appropriate legislative body to make these decisions. So there's no one to talk to anymore.

Sarah, we fully intend to have a structural engineer do an inspection of our house, so that we have proof of its condition in the "before" phase. Then we'll deal with damages as they occur. There really isn't much else we can do about this.

Kim, yes, some people in town are very upset about what the trucks will do to the roads, and in turn to their cars (can anyone say "Pothole season"?), but the majority determined that the ultimate benefits were sufficient. The whole thing passed by only about 10 votes, which makes it even more disheartening. While it may be OK for the town as a whole, it seems that my property values were just cut in half - not something we can afford at this moment!

Oh well. This too shall pass!

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

.... we would have put up our outside lights this weekend if we actually had outside lights..... Anyways....we don't put up outside lights because our house doesn't have any eaves to hang lights on. Last year, I put up a string of lights around the inside of our window.

We don't put up Christmas lights because we don't have any outdoor plug ins on our house!

We don't even start decorating for Christmas until December actually rolls around! I love Christmas, just can't handle it for 6 weeks! I think 2-3 weeks is much more sane.

We actually intend to investigate the season of Advent this year. Always do it at Church, just never at home! I believe it starts on November 29th this year!

We will be doing an artificial tree this year as my allergies have gotten to the point where I cannot handle having a real tree in the house for more than a couple of days!

The artificial trees are starting to go on sale now so we will probably start shopping for one soon! Maybe put it up the first night of Christmas vacation which is Dec 18th! Probably start decorating in a couple weeks! I have to at least wait until DH is done the Christmas Dinner Theatre at Church. The last night of that is Dec 5th!

I think the main reason I don't do too much Christmas fussing and decorating is because I HATE having to clean it all up and put it away! I love decorating, just detest cleaning up!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Kim....love fake trees!!! My allergies can't take it either...we actually put ours up last night... I started decorating it today. I don't think I am gonna finish...maybe tomorrow!!! I am super tired today...not sure why.Just took my allergy pill so maybe I will get a boost of energy here shortly....my head feels weird... I think it is allergy related...today is the first day I havent taken some meds as soon as I woke up...Lesson learned:take allergy pill with breakfast!
I used to not put our tree up till the 5th...after ds13 had his birthday..but we all looooove Christmas so much, we go ahead and do it. Of course,,, by NYE I will be soooo very sick of looking at it!! Ha!!

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Kim....love fake trees!!! My allergies can't take it either...we actually put ours up last night... I started decorating it today. I don't think I am gonna finish...maybe tomorrow!!! I am super tired today...not sure why.Just took my allergy pill so maybe I will get a boost of energy here shortly....my head feels weird... I think it is allergy related...today is the first day I havent taken some meds as soon as I woke up...Lesson learned:take allergy pill with breakfast!
I used to not put our tree up till the 5th...after ds13 had his birthday..but we all looooove Christmas so much, we go ahead and do it. Of course,,, by NYE I will be soooo very sick of looking at it!! Ha!!

See? That is EXACTLY what I mean! I find too much anticipation of Christmas to be so exhausting!

I would rather wait until a little closer to do it all up , enjoy it for a couple weeks and then be done with it!

We usually have our stuff done for the kids whole Christmas break! That's it, that's all! That's enough!

My sister is like you putting up her stuff super early and by Boxing day they are taking everything down and putting it all away cause by that point they are "tired" of Christmas!

Each to their own I guess!

 

[sarbah77]

ok, so I want some creative advice. I'm trying to decide what color of yarn to get for the scarves I am going to make for our trip next year. I need to figure out how much to get. I'm down to two color options and can't decide. I can either do 2 shades of green plus red or red and white. I am going to applique a Mickey head with a Santa hat on each end of the scarves.

I'd think it depends on the greens and how loud it would be with the red. Red and white is certainly easiest!


Also, re: trees. I'm super-allergic to the fresh ones, so plastic all the way! That said, I just don't get sick of looking at it. But it's not to be, this year. I don't blame the husband - it's too much for one person.

Alas!

Re: snykymom - well, good. That's so terrible, though, and very frustrating. I hate town politics.

 

[Monny2AE]

Stopping by to say hi and trying to catch up- don't seem to have much time these days to DIS

I can't wait to decorate for Christmas! We start decorating the weekend after Christmas and will be getting our tree the following weekend. It's my favorite time of year! We chop down a real tree. My family always has done a real tree and I love the tradition. DH and I tried a fake one a few years back but changed our minds after I read so much on the lead content of the fake ones and how much lead dust they release.

Sheree, I thought of you this morning. My DH's uncle posted on Facebook about how nice the weather was and that most of the neighborhood put up their Christmas lights. I had to laugh. (They live near Beloit, WI) Midwest practicality at it's finest!!

We usually put up our Christmas stuff at Thanksgiving. I love love love the Christmas season. I loved it when I worked retail. That said, I don't think we're going to do it this year. DH does a lot of it to humor me and this year I just won't be able to help. Being on crutches until (at least) Christmas makes helping pull stuff out of the basement a lot more difficult. Too bad.

I did ask that we "splurge" and get a real wreath for our front door and probably wreaths for the lights on the garage. At least we'll look festive outside and we'll be out of town for the actual holiday!

I hope you have a great time on your trip!!!

Just remember the wise lesson that Charlie Brown taught us- Christmas is in your heart. You can just go over the top next year to make up for it.

Hello Snowbirds!

We're home from our cruise...had a GREAT time. We had a half day in Barcelona before we left, then on the cruise had a day at sea and then visited Malta, Pompeii (from Naples), Rome, Florence and (briefly) Pisa, and Monaco (from Cannes, France). At the end I asked what everyone's favorite port was, and DS9 said, "The day at sea!" DH and DS11 really enjoyed Pompeii, which was fascinating. I enjoyed having someone else do the cooking and cleaning! Of course we all ate a ton, but did so much walking I think it all evened out. (I hope so, anyway! I'm not going near a scale!) We all enjoyed it well enough that we put down a deposit (discount!) for a future cruise so we'll definitely be taking another one sometime in the next four years. We're thinking maybe Greek Isles two years from now. I'd love to do a Disney cruise someday, but we enjoyed Norwegian. Now I'm doing lots of this .

I love all the pictures of the little Snowbirdies dressed up for Halloween!
And YEA for everyone who is getting close to their next Disney trip!

Welcome back! I'd love to see some pics...when you're all caught up on the !

Hi everyone! All this talk about Christmas is getting me so excited!!! We always decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. However, we would have put up our outside lights this weekend if we actually had outside lights. Our weather this weekend was absolutely beautiful and I wasted it by laying around inside. Anyways....we don't put up outside lights because our house doesn't have any eaves to hang lights on. Last year, I put up a string of lights around the inside of our window. That will have to wait though.

I haven't even started Christmas shopping yet. Well, I take that back. I bought Madison a sweater the other day at work! I do about 80-90% of my Christmas shopping on Black Friday. It has to be one of my favorite days of the year!!! I love getting up super early, hitting all the stores on my list and then getting back home by 9am. I usually go back to bed for a few hours and then wake up in time for a turkey sandwich for lunch. Just thinking about it gets me all excited!!

I love BF too but won't be going this year. My sister and I usually go out together just for the rush of it. This year she has to work, DH has to work and I have no one to stay with the kids even if I wanted to go it alone. It's okay though since I'm done my shopping for my kids If I went out, I'd just spend money I don't need to spend.

OK, another vent (sorry, guys!). We just found out that our town has voted to allow heavy trucks, up to 16 wheels, travel to a construction site and pass right in front of our house, on a narrow, winding road! We knew it was a possibility, but now that it's official . . . They're projecting that for about 6 months, it will average 1 truck per minute!

We're trying to figure out what to do. Our house needs a lot of work that we've put off to pay tuition, so we have to decide if we want to fix it and put it up for sale and take what we get in a lousy market, or live for 3 or more years in a construction zone!

I'm so upset right now, I can barely think. So I came here.

Oh that's horrible! I hope you can figure out how to either fight it or deal with it.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Oh Kim~!Don't tell me about toxic fake trees!! It's my only alternitive!! ha!!!!!! I would loooove a real tree...but I just can NOT do that.......the year before me and Mike got married, I was working and they brought in a real tree...I was sick the rest of the season...tremendously!! It was beautiful...and huge.....baaaaaad memories! Ha!!!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

I vote for red and white - it will go with lots of stuff and be very festive and Mickey colors!

We usually don't put our tree up until Thanksgiving weekend, but this year, we just have to since we're leaving town a week later for 10 days.
Got some shopping done today (love holidays where DH and I have off but the kids have school!)

Hope everyone is doing well - we're enjoying our October weather! We had November weather in October, so it's only right! I've got a cold/sinus thing, so I better get to bed. Have to work tomorrow and I'm so busy! I have some big files to get done before vacation and it might take me that long to do them!! The really bad part is that I don't have as much time to DIS during the day!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Hey... I am gonna PM you!!!!!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Okay, so....I was talking to Sheree about an airline question I always have.. Let me give you a backdrop..when we get airfare, they always say to be there 2 hours ahead of flight time...well, by the time we drive to the airport and find a parking place and drag out allll our luggage, we are looking at almost 2 hours there also. Now we are talking 4 hours before flight time...our flight is due to go out at 9, so that means I have to leave at 5...not get up, but leave!!!! So,....our QOTD is: How long before your flight do you get to the airport? Bear in mind that we alllllways get there and SIT for the whole 2 hours....never once have we had a flight leave earlier than scheduled...later, yes,,...earlier,no!!! So, give me your advice!!!

 

[letthewookiewin]

So,....our QOTD is: How long before your flight do you get to the airport? Bear in mind that we alllllways get there and SIT for the whole 2 hours....never once have we had a flight leave earlier than scheduled...later, yes,,...earlier,no!!! So, give me your advice!!!

We try and time it so that we are parking the car at the off site parking right at 2 to 2 1/2 hours before our flight. The parking place that we use is just barely off of airport property. The shuttles drive around the parking lot and pick you up and take you to your terminal. Then we sit down and have breakfast as soon as we get the the airport. We always fly out of DFW and they have this monorail/tram thing that circles the airport. After we are done eating the boys like to take a ride on that. Then by the time we get off that, and take potty breaks, it is almost time for our flight to board.

I like to take the first flight to MCO of the morning we leave. It's usually about 6:30 AM, so we leave the house around 4-4:30-ish. Which means we get out of bed at 3-3:30-ish (By get out of bed, I don't mean wake up. I usually lay in bed like that kid from the commecial and "I'm too excited to sleep"). If only Starbucks was open at that time of day.

I don't know what airport you fly out of, but DFW has several sit down restaurants. Maybe you can have sit down and eat as soon as you get through security. Also, since we are going to be sitting down for a couple of hours, the boys and I like to just walk around the terminal we are in and look in the shops.

 

[crzyred]

So,....our QOTD is: How long before your flight do you get to the airport? Bear in mind that we alllllways get there and SIT for the whole 2 hours....never once have we had a flight leave earlier than scheduled...later, yes,,...earlier,no!!! So, give me your advice!!!

Depends on where I'm flying out of. Local airports usually only about an hour, usually less. Never anything under a half hour though. If I'm out of Milwaukee it's usually about 1.5-2 hours. In bigger airports I don't mind because there is usually something to do there, wander around, find food, walk around gift shops. I also travel with a few books, so I never mind sitting in the airport and reading. But normally I spend my time walking around, you're going to be crunched up on that airplane for some time....

 

[Pluto_fan]

We usually get to the airport a bit later than we intended to
But I think it really depends on the airport--how big it is, how far away you have to park, how long the security lines tend to be, etc. If you are familiar with the airport and know how long it's going to take to get through all the hoops, I don't think you really need to be two hours early.

Thanks for the welcome backs! One thing I forgot to tell you that I thought you would appreciate...ALL over the ship they had motion-sensor-operated hand sanitizer machines. My kids (including the little one) just HAD to use every one they passed. If only they were that interested in being clean at home! And every time you boarded the ship after visiting a port, and every time you went into the buffet restaurant, they had a crew member at the door with a spray bottle of hand sanitizer to squirt you. I appreciated that they were so germ-conscious, because I know there have been disease outbreaks on cruise ships, with so many people in a confined space. They were really big on hand sanitizer. I really ought to learn how to post pictures here...any words of wisdom for a non-technologically-inclined DISer?

snykymom--ugh, I'm so sorry to hear about the trucks. I hope it won't be as bad as you're anticipating. Feel free to vent here any time.

Wow, so many of you are really on the ball with your Christmas decorating and shopping. I admire you! We don't decorate until after Thanksgiving. But someone is coming tomorrow to install more insulation in the attic of the house we're renting, so we have to get all the stuff out of the attic, including Christmas decorations. So I'm thinking we'll just leave the boxes in DS9's room, and we'll have a head start! We really need to get moving on the shopping, especially for the things we have to ship back to the States. I don't have much shopping to do for my extended family, just two nieces and a nephew, but DH has a lot to do, and he always waits until the last minute. I might just shop online and have it shipped directly to them. When we've been overseas before, we have liked to buy things representative of our location to send back as gifts, but so far we haven't found much that really typifies Belgium. Except the beer.

Hope you all have a happy Disney day!

 

[MindyLuvsMickey]

Hey Snowbirds! I feel awful that I'm always popping in here to give you a bunch of "me" posts. I promise I will be better when I'm not preoccupied.

Just wanted to let you know that today is our day! We are heading out for the hospital in an hour. Baby should be here about 1:00 if all goes as scheduled! I'll update you all when I can. Pictures to follow after we get home from the hosptial!.


SO excited to see all of the talk about Christmas shopping and decorating. My favorite time of year. We've started our shopping this week. Wahoo! I love to shop LOL

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Hey Snowbirds! I feel awful that I'm always popping in here to give you a bunch of "me" posts. I promise I will be better when I'm not preoccupied.

Just wanted to let you know that today is our day! We are heading out for the hospital in an hour. Baby should be here about 1:00 if all goes as scheduled! I'll update you all when I can. Pictures to follow after we get home from the hosptial!.


SO excited to see all of the talk about Christmas shopping and decorating. My favorite time of year. We've started our shopping this week. Wahoo! I love to shop LOL

Oh Mindy!!! I will be praying for you and the baby!!!! Also for dad and big brother!! ha!! I know you are just soooo excited!!!! YES!! pics!!!!!!
congratulations!!!!! I am so glad for you that you did make it this far!! And to our new little Dis-er!!!!

Plutofan~ you first have to put all your pictures on something like Photobook.After you have them loaded you can then add them into your posts here....I can do it, but it always takes me a bit to remember how!!! I will pm you if you want becuase I drag out my instructions! Ha!!!! I am sure someone here can tell you faster than me.

 

[Monny2AE]

Mindy is going to be a MOMMY again today!!!!! What a beautiful day!

Praying all goes well for you and baby!!!! Can't wait to see pics! ​

 

[sarbah77]

So,....our QOTD is: How long before your flight do you get to the airport? Bear in mind that we alllllways get there and SIT for the whole 2 hours....never once have we had a flight leave earlier than scheduled...later, yes,,...earlier,no!!! So, give me your advice!!!

Depends on time of day, if I have luggage to check, and where I'm flying from. A big airport with luggage at a peak time, I aim for two hours. I'm way less concerned about security than dealing with the lines for checking luggage. There's always a billion people in front of me who don't know that it now costs to check luggage. Or why they have to pay for oversized/overweight luggage.

A small airport with luggage, probably an hour and a half.
Any airport, no luggage, probably an hour, because I'm always always early.

You could consider getting a cheap hotel the night before. Some of them even offer discounts on parking.

Hey Snowbirds! I feel awful that I'm always popping in here to give you a bunch of "me" posts. I promise I will be better when I'm not preoccupied.

Just wanted to let you know that today is our day! We are heading out for the hospital in an hour. Baby should be here about 1:00 if all goes as scheduled! I'll update you all when I can. Pictures to follow after we get home from the hosptial!.

I have nothing else to add.