The DIVA IS BACK & DOING WDW!!

[dsnycrzy]

Hi everyone,
I have been on the disboards for a few years now and I am detemined to finish a TR this time.
Some backround on my situation...
I'm a single mother of 3. 2 DD's 16 and 7 and a DS 13.
Last year I began writing my report until an unfortunately thing happened. I took a guy with me for the 2nd year in a row. The year before he stressed me horribly being disney personally bootie patrol, completely disrespectful. Obviously we thought we could work it out because last year he went again and that put the icing on the cake. He got ME ARRESTED. My family back home was in an uproar becuase I'm the goodie two shoes spoiled one who never gets in trouble. His mom forgot to teach him this one rule "If it is not yours...DONT TOUCH IT". He picked up what turned out to be a camera bag and when I seen him after telling him to leave it alone, I grab my backpack and the 2 smaller kids, my niece 6 and DD 6 and left the store. The witness couldnt ID the bag but saw me leave quickly with a bag in my hand and so long story short...I was given the choice of going to jail and he leave with the kids or we both go to jail and my kids and niece go into foster care. My aunt bailed me out and he apologized a million times. I didnt want to mess up the rest of my vacation so I put it aside. That relationship ended finally in April of this year (I know I am blind to the writing on the wall sometimes) But I finally got my "Diva" back.

Here is a pic:

My DD15 and my Niece 6, my ex, me and DD6 and my son12.

Fast forward to 2009...
I planned the trip and it turned out to just be my kids and I, My niece couldn't come. I booked the POP 4/3 deal and a few days at the CBR. Someone told me about the $9.99 deal at Comfort Inn LBV so I took 2 day off of CBR and booked 2 night there (bad idea but we will get to that later). We took my fun and exciting Auto Train which I love. So lets take off into my 2009 adventure

 

[dsnycrzy]

OK I'm a teacher and had all summer to do nothing but plan and browse the disboards. I decided which t-shirts I would do, I made sure my planning books were together and even got some games and activities for the Train ride
Front of shirts

Back of shirts

More shirts

Planning books and pages

Games

This was Bingo and Checkers. Also my countdown slips.
cross words and scavager hunts

Paper dolls

Next: Preparation and time to leave...

 

[dsnycrzy]

My dates of Travel were August 6 to the 19th. My last day of work was 2nd week of June so everything should be done without rusting last minute like I usually do. This was my 1st year with the luxury of having holidays and summers off so I can plan my heart away.

Ok Weekend before...
I was finishing up shirts and still packing. I had to return a camera I bought from ebay and a few other things.

While on here I picked up a few tips...
Someone posted the Baggallini at a great price... GOT IT!!!

Someone mentioned need a cheap camera and the helpful people on here offered a website. I found a nice one for cheap...GOT IT!!!

Someone posted the croc flip flops for $9.99, I jumped on that, bought the black and Khaki color GOT THOSE!!!
The last 2 items had to be express delivered due to the timing. They would have been delivered on Thursday or Friday, well we were leaving Thurday late morning and I didnt want to push it.

Time slipping away by Monday, I was plain lazy feeling but was on the task of house scrubbing. I was washing clothes pre cooking for That night, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday I'm getting excited. Had to do DD6's hair, take my son to get a hair cut do my pedicure and finish house cleaning and putting laundry away.

Wednesday Ok day before depature. My list of things is still long and my days are shrinking. I had to get cat food (OH YEAH DIDNT MENTION THAT I NOW HAVE 6 CATS, MY 2 CATS HAD 4 BABIES AND I CANT FIND ANYONE TO GIVE THEM TO AND ALL THE SHELTERS ARE FULL!!!)
had to get my hair done, my nails done, mail the camera package and gas up the car. My hair took so long because it was crowded then I was tired from running around and cleaning, that dryer will do that to ya.
I left the hair salon, went to the supermarket for the cat food and the off to the Nail Salon I go. I leave there with tons of things running threw my head left to do. I get home and my DD16 has some friends over (last goodbye's) and that quick nap I had in mind went out the window. So I started adding my disney nail decals over my fresh manicure.

My Manicure

MY Pedicure

See my new croc sandals? I love them!!!

My hair

Ok morning of next....

 

[dsnycrzy]

I wake up bright and early. I want to leave by 11a.m. Shower get dressed and open the door to do my last few things and... IT'S RAINING!!!!!!!. I can't get my hair wet and I cant do an umbrella all morning. I put on a plastic clear shower cap and started loading the car. I grabbed a bite and then made breakfast for the kids and woke them up. I let them know what needed to be done while I was out. I had to run to the supermarket again since my paycheck went into my account that morning. While cleaning last night, I noticed that I had forgotten to pack the instructions and cd for the returned camera, so off I had to stop there too. I didnt get gas yesterday so I had to stop there too.

I was getting frustrated because the lines were long and it was cold and raining and I still had things to do when I got back in. Then my mother in heaven sent me a "FUN" to lift my spirts.

I was in the line at the supermarket.
There was a gentlemen in front of me finally unloading his cart. he had about 5 2 liter pepsis, 5 2 liter root beers, some ginger ales, 2 big cans of coffee and
a case of water. Then he reachs to the very bottom of his cart and pulls out..... 2 BAGS OF DEPENDS UNDIES I said to myself "wow is that the affects of caffeine". That lifted my sprits. Ok loaded the seats of the car because the trunk was full and off I went. Pulled up took the stuff in and did a few things and we loaded the car at 11a.m.

I had to leave my kids father my spare key to feed my 6 furry kids.
I pull up at his house and we talk for about 10 minutes. I tell him I set up 4 aluminium pans and 1 gallon bag of food in a container at my house. Dump the dirty ones in the prelined trash can, place 4 down, fill the bowl with food and pull the giant water bottle spicket and fill the water bowls...Thats it, every other day. We say our good byes and off to my sisters house for more hugs goodbye. About 25 minutes after 11 we pull up, talk for a few and we were in the car and buckled up by 11:41a.m. It is now that I realize I never printed out or written down the directions to the Lorton, VA train station.
So we were ready full of gas, kids and smiles. So I crank up the music and put the petal to the metal. I needed to get to VA from DE by 2p.m.

WILL WE MAKE IT!! OR MISS THE TRAIN AND START OVER TOMORROW

 

[dsnycrzy]

Ok when we last left off we were in a race to the Amtrak's Auto Train in Lorton, VA from De. By 11:46 a.m we were on I-95 and happy. The kids have the DVD player, and MP3 players all with headphones because they dont like my "old time" music. I turned to a station once in MD to keep me awake because I was getting sleepy. I found a FM station 92.3, that had me singing and remembering my fun happy time when I was younger living in NY. Finally we are out of MD and in that DC/VA area and the time was 12:45p.m., since I had no directions, I wasnt sure how mch further we had. We see the Lorton sign and our faces light up and we start cheering. We finally pull into the car check in at 1:31p.m. and take what we need out of the car. We check ourselves in and was given the 7p.m. dinner seating because that was all that was left, I prefer 9p.m. But all is well and we put our bags on cart and go outside since it was nice now, not to hot and it was not raining here. I sat down and reading the pamphlet I noticed they had switched the arrival time to 9:30a.m. instead of 8:30a.m. I hope that means breakfast is later. I'm not in love with waking up at 7a.m. to eat and NONE of my kids are morning people.
Here is some pictures of us at the train station,

My DD6 wanted to play so I let her

By 2:30ish we were boarding. We reserved the lower level, checked through the window on the way to the play ground so we knew the seats had sockets (they all did, when we rode in 2007, only a few seats had it). We actually left at 3:41p.m. earlier then the 4p.m. scheduled time. WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO SEE MICKEY!!!!!

At dinner...me before the white wine served with your dinner...

Me after 2 cups along with my "WDW Prep" exaustion

After dinner we all grab our devices needed for sleep DD16 and I had MP3 players, DD 6 had DVD player watching The Wiz,and DS13 had the laptop watching a movie (not sure what) and that was it...

In the morning, will we be on time? Will we have the last car unloaded? Did I get the directions from Sanford Auto train to the POP?

 

[dsnycrzy]

I didnt get to sleep all night because i was awaked to my phone ringing, it's a new guy I met and since he works at night, he calls sometimes at 2a.m. when he's on break. I go right back to sleep and wake up at dawn to see the one thing that makes me feel like I'm on vacation for sure!!!! THERE ARE PALM TREES!!!! YEA!!!!. They start the call for breakfast at about 6:30a.m, they also were saying we should arrive at 8 or 8:15a.m instead of 9:30a.m. My son is up surprisingly and I wake up my DD6. The 3 of us wash our faces and brush our teeth, freshen up some. DD16 said she didnt want to go (I knew that, she wakes up at noon at home). At breakfast i have my much needed coffee with bagel and cream cheese and DS and DD have the same along with OJ.

We get back and pack everything back up and get ready to deboard the train.
We are off the train by 8:30 and walking to the lobby to the seating area. We sit down and prepare for a long wait for our car. I put on Phineus and Ferb on my phone and hand it to DD6 and DS decided he wants to watch too

My teenager is not into this early thing

We were seated no more then 10 minutes before our car was called. We reloaded the car and was on our way to the POP Century.

Next up:my long ride to the POP!