Sunburn, not windburn : WDW and Universal in September

[bumbershoot]

Padawans showed up. I came out from my shady seat and stood in the bright hot sun. The kids had the shade...

The pictures do not capture the sun. the pictures look downright overcast. It was NOT. It was sick sick sick sun.

OK I know that in December I whined about the cold, and now I'm mentioning the sun. While there, I kept saying "I'm so glad it's not cold, but that doesn't mean it isn't hot!" And other things like that.

I *loved* the Jedi Master. She was hilarious! I'm sure it's all just the same script, and any of them would be funny, but she's the one I saw. (well we saw the guy at disneyland, and he was similarly hilarious but had even more amusing lines) She made some cheesy joke, no one really laughed, and she glared at us and did the Jedi mind hand movement thing and said that we WOULD laugh at her jokes. Said the joke again and of course we all laughed.

OK he wasn't really paying attention but he rallied.

E was one of the last to go. Oh I love watching all the kids do this!

E was so intimidated.

They all pushed back at Vader.

And Vader left.

In line for his certificate.

Almost as soon as Eamon was done, the clouds covered the sun and there was relief from the searing heat.


I actually don't think we did much else, and then it started to think about raining as we were leaving. Robert made fun of me (and all the other people doing what I was doing) for taking pictures of the clouds instead of getting out of the approaching weather.

And off we went!

 

[bumbershoot]

I can't get over how well my computer is behaving! It's a trick, of course. I'll decide to NOT get a replacement, all the ones we've been looking at will be sold, and then it'll kick the bucket entirely. A trick I tell you!

Time to go to bed, though. Gotta edit for typos tomorrow, since my eyes just can't be trusted right now.

 

[bumbershoot]

This creeping crud E and I have can just GO now. We are definitely 99% better, but I'd like to be all better now. OK? OK. Was talking with someone who had it hang on for a month...omg cannot handle that.

 

[kaoden39]

Wow your computer is being really good isn't it? I love the picture of E with the wig on!! He is a real ham sometimes isn't he?



Well, it looks like I am joining the ranks of homeschooling. It ought to be interesting. I will have one in college, one in public school and one doing the homeschooling. It ought to be interesting.

 

[bumbershoot]

Back to the 21st....


Eventually after leaving DHS, we grew hungry. We also wanted to head to DownTown Disney, in order to return something and buy more stuff.

So first we went to Sweet Tomatoes, and then DTD.

Lego was important because E had a Lego VIP club-thingie $5 certificate to use. Since the closest Lego store here at home is an hour away in a city we don't particularly enjoy, it's best to use those while at Disney. E got the POTC Cannibal Escape set, which he thoroughly enjoyed during the rest of the stay.

I then scoured Arribas Brothers for a pair of dangly Mickey Head earrings. I'd seen them on disneystore.com, then I saw the red ones at the Arribas cart at MK, but didn't want to buy them then. I got the clear/white ones, instead, once I found them at the store. When at Disney, I like wearing Disney jewelry.

And then we returned the "buy this extra thing with purchase" watch that Robert had been drawn to on our first DTD visit.

And THEN we went to Once Upon a Toy, for Robert to get the lightsaber HE wanted (they didn't have the part he needed at the Star Tours shop). While there, I found out that you can buy individual Potato Head parts for $2.50 or so.

This is what E made at the table of Potato Head parts.

4 stores in a very short amount of time! We were wild shoppers that night, LOL. Oh and then we got a large, decaf, iced latte from Ghirardelli. mmmmmmm.

At last, good night.

 

[bumbershoot]

Michele!

Well, I'm excited for you, though I know this isn't the way you wanted it to go. And it means the district failed her, right? I'm so sorry. It's rotten when you come down to *having to* homeschool. Just like with my cousin, when her son was booted from the school.


Will you be doing a school-at-home sort of thing, with a curriculum like K-12, with her actually enrolled? Or is it just the two of you, no enrollment?

If it's the latter, this link *might* have good stuff for you. Might have good stuff even if you're doing an enrolled type of homeschooling! I'm not sure.

And maybe this will have something useful too (though I think it's a paid-for thing). Not sure!



Meanwhile, Eamon's been giving me such fits that I went so far as to looking up what school he would go to automatically, if I enrolled him.

And ick, he would NOT be going to the school the district map showed me...yikes! Scared me straight to think of it! And gave me more patience.

We're trying to do this week's work AND the last two weeks' worth, as neither of us was up for doing ANYTHING mind-related. So that's slightly stressful. I'll get my patience back.

 

[kaoden39]

Molly, yes they failed her badly. Kody has had problem since her freshman year when she was in and out of school first with MRI's, spinal taps, and all those very scary tests for headaches that they were never able to pin point quite what the problem was. Plus she had a case of mono during the school year too. I tried to get help from the school because she was falling so far behind. Needless to say she never got any help. In her sophomore year I tried to get her in another school because I finally realized that her headaches were stress related, but no they wouldn't help. Again last year we fought. This year starting the first week of school I started calling her councilor. Finally today after all this time I got through to the vice principal that she has got to leave that toxic environment.

The vice principal gave me the name of three different programs that are online. She told me that they might not take her blah, blah blah. Well, the first place I talked to hooked me up. She will be supplied with a laptop and that is her school. She can take Japanese as a foreign language as an example. I am thrilled.

 

[bumbershoot]

You started calling the counselor when school started, and only NOW were you able to talk with the VP? Ugh!


The laptop thing is cool, isn't it? It was one of the things that almost swayed us. We looked at K12 and Columbia, the two virtual academies I've heard of that are allowed in WA.


Poor girl...it's just not right that such headaches should be brought on by the stress of school. Hopefully she'll start feeling a lot better soon.

 

[kaoden39]

We have a fight every morning. She is convinced she is sick and she cries. You know I cannot doubt that she really believes she is sick.


The best part about this for me is that this is a public school so we don't have to worry about a huge tuition either. This is Insight. It is accredited here in California and their curriculum looks really good to me. They even offer AP course so that is a good thing. She can do AP English and not have to worry about being harassed for being smart.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh it sounds like me and my mom...I was sick to my stomach every single morning. And came home every day with hives. Not that anyone recognized them as such; I would say that I got 'blotchy'. And they were always faded by the time my mom got home from work. So... But my poor mom had her own battles to deal with; she thought she was so so so stupid, because of weird things that happened in her last two years of school. She was in the "college" program (I guess back then they had college bound programs, and then non college bound? seems awfully self fulfilling prophesy-ish to me), then her parents moved from NY to CA (where she met my father). The school there didn't know what to do with a girl from New York so put her in the basic classes. Then she begged to be moved back and stay with friends, and her parents complied, but now the NY school didn't know what to do with a year's worth of credits from the left coast, and put her in total basic classes. She went from theater and advanced classes and German, to nothing much interesting.

She never felt competent to judge my homework, or help me in measurable ways (other than not complaining the one night when I FINALLY *got* the word root thing we'd been working on for months, the night before it was due, and I was up ALL night with a manual typewriter, doing the work I literally could not figure out all that time before). So she would not have felt competent to homeschool me, and it turns out she actively kept the knowledge from me. Poor her. (poor me, but really, poor her, to feel like that)


So I'm really glad that this opportunity is available, and that you are taking it! Woo!

Honestly, to do the work without the junk is just perfect, isn't it? There are so many other ways to socialize, and didn't teachers used to say "we aren't here to socialize"?


Sorry, went off on a rant. My brother would have faded away if homeschooled. Wouldn't have liked it much at all! But he excelled despite the nonsense around him. Not as sensitive. Able to block out the crud. Lucky kid.


I'm excited for Kody!



*********

The cool thing about the virtual academies that hook up with the school districts is that they are tuition free. Which is so great. We considered K12 but it was SO expensive to do it on our own. Free tuition and the laptop really really did tempt me! Same with Columbia. They either offered a credit to buy the curriculum you and their counselor came up with, or you could just buy Calvert curriculum. And again, laptop, as it was offered through the school districts, and kids in school have access to computers that the parents don't have to buy. Can't argue with the logic!

 

[kaoden39]

Poor you and your poor mom. How sad is that? If I had any idea that this was available I would have done it in her freshman year. I feel like I failed her by not getting this done sooner.


I was looking and Insight has a Middle and High School program in Washington, so maybe when it is time for E to move into them it will be there for you. I was rather shocked to hear that they were supplying the computer. I was looking at the languages that they offer and I was amazed. They offer Mandarin, Chinese, Japanese, French, German and Spanish. It is a great curriculum.

 

[bumbershoot]

One of the nights at the 1 bedroom did involve swimming in the quiet pool. I didn't include it yet because none of us can remember which night it was, apart from the fact that it wasn't the LAST night.

We were all tired, but Eamon and I just could not resist the thought of swimming. The pool was so inviting and quiet and close by... So we decided to swim. Robert could not be persuaded. He was tired and his feet hurt (Robert and I both had blisters by this time, way under the skin so they couldn't be messed with (and before the trip I'd read two posts of people having horrid infections caused by messing with blisters while at Disney!), and I had some on the bottoms of my toes) and he just did not want to go.

So E and I went, and as we walked across the pathway, we saw a tiny bunny. Aw, tiny bunnies are so cute.

Got to the pool and it was just nirvana. And there was a lovely British family there, all having fun and being silly and using JK Rowling magic spells on each other...so fun.

We really missed Robert, and so the two of us quietly decided to think REALLY hard about Robert joining us, at the same time. We did this, thinking really really really hard, and it was nice to at least know what we wanted and to think about it. We'd already tried to get him to come with us in person...might as well let the universe help as well, right?

So we were swimming and playing and goofing, and is there anything sweeter than swimming and goofing with your kid? I know that swimming with my mom is one of the sweetest childhood memories I have. She seemed like such a good swimmer, so strong and caring, and warm when she would hug me. Sigh. Anyway, it's fun from the mom part too, it turns out.

We were having a nice time, and we looked up, and...there's Robert! He decided that even though he wasn't feeling up to it, when else was he going to get to swim there on this trip? So it was now or never, and he felt like he really needed to be with us.

He was very surprised at how happy we were with his decision!

So we had an absolutely lovely swim.

 

[kaoden39]

How wonderful that Robert decided to join you! Positive thoughts at their best.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh you didn't fail her! You trusted the school to help her. A normal person would expect them to step up! Even I was hoping they would get their heads out. And I was ignored by the CA school system to a certain degree. You didn't fail her. You helped her, you believed her, you had her back. And now you get to be an even bigger part of her education, and how neat is that?

I know that time is probably of the essence, but many people going through the transition have a time of "de-schooling". It can be as simple as "yes you CAN sleep in" or "no we don't have to start the work at 8am" or "let's do the work at the park today". But just something to really mark the transition, the change, in both of your lives. (cough, disneyland, cough, ha ha ha)

Anyway, "de-schooling" is something some people do, and if you hadn't heard of it or thought of it, well maybe it will be useful to you.

 

[bumbershoot]

September 22 dawned. It was a bittersweet day. I mean, one, we were going to Universal! But the sad part was that it was my mom's birthday, and I was missing her BIG TIME this year. 11 darned years...impossible to fathom. I say that every year, and it just doesn't change. It's just impossible.

OK but I don't want to bring myself down here, because we were going up the highway to the land of Harry Potter and the Simpsons!


Checked out, made sure there were no random charges, made sure of the same for the stay before the 1 bedroom. Shopped a little bit, and that's where I found out that the Conch Flat General Store at OKW will indeed take 5 methods of payment! Two gift cards, two disney Rewards Cards, and one debit card. Hey, I had these DISNEY cards and I had to use them up! Can't use 'em at the "dark side", as some call Universal.

We did all that at around 11:30 (yay for sleeping in a tad) and hit the road.

As usual for us, checking in was overly complicated. Not sure why we haven't worked this out, but there's just something about the car-unloading and tipping and all of where the grace eludes us. It's why we practice so much!

The interior of the Portofino Bay lobby is *beautiful*. So lovely. The front desk employee was kind and sweet, and our room was ready.

Unfortunately, having made no room requests at all, we got the wing across from the boat dock. Which meant we had to get all the way to the elevator (long walk), go down, out the door, all the way around the lagoon thing, to get to the boat. People in a room opposite from us, in the nearer wing, were a LOT closer.

There are these moped "statues" bolted down around the harbor.

Someone loved them.

We had checked in around noon, and started making our way to IOA. Impossible to keep the kidlet away.

However, it was also hard to keep these away...

But we kept going!

Augh.

Just as soon as we hit Citywalk and were heading towards the bridge to IOA, the rain hit. We were unprepared. And WWofHP is all the way in the back of the park. And heck, it was probably time for some lunch, so...Margaritaville's it was! [and the florida/keys/Buffet vibe got to me, reminding me of my mom living in Miami and taking me and two friends to the Keys over our Spring Break Freshman year, and, well, the waterworks started again dagnabit.]


The rain was serious, and took awhile to leave. We hid in the restaurant until it was just random drips. And then...Universal began!

 

[bumbershoot]

I despise insomnia.

 

[kaoden39]

Those Vespa type thing that E was playing with are a great idea. I think it's great he wanted to play with them. Silly guy. What a hammy guy!



Boy were those clouds scary looking. I don't mind a little rain but those clouds looked a lot like a lot of rain.

 

[kaoden39]

I tend to be an insomniac so I feel your pain. I think it comes from being a mom, I was bad before but once I had kids I became much worse. If I manage to go to sleep every little sound wakes me, and it's not like my kids are little enough that I need to worry about him.


I am off to San Francisco this weekend. Since we live so close we are driving in everyday. Scotty is in a three day bicycle race. They wear costumes to this silly type of racing. I have made him a Richard Simmons costume. It should be a hoot!!

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh I thought that was for Halloween! I can't wait for pictures, if you'll share them.

The insomnia, of course, is perpetuated every day. Stayed up late b/c I was sick and lonely while Robert was gone, then am drowsy in the morning. Finally get up, get my coffee way too late, which then keeps me up too late. etc.

 

[Daisybelle]

Just poppin' in to let you know I am enjoying your report! I hadn't been on the Dis in a few months and I was longing for a good trip report to read and rememered being entertained by your's in the past. I did a search and viola'! Bumbershoot has a new trip report!

We hope to make out way out to Disney World in a couple of years so it's fun (and educational!) to read about people's experiences.

Thanks for sharing!