The "How Will I Survive Winter Without It" Trip That Might Be

[PoppyGirl]

I love it!! You're amazing.

Thank you! It was fun! Although last night I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open while I was cutting all those pages!

 

[Alysa]

Amazing! I LOVE the cover!!! Way to go!!!!

 

[PoppyGirl]

Amazing! I LOVE the cover!!! Way to go!!!!

Thank you!!!!!

 

[PoppyGirl]

20 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe it!

DD and I have been coloring every day in our new autograph book. There's something very relaxing about coloring.

I'm torn between
a. I can't WAIT for my vacation to get here! (Darn it was CCCCCOOOLLLLDDD this morning walking the kids up to the bus)
b. Ack! My trip is getting here way too fast!

I think I'm planned to the 407th level of pre-Disney trip planning. I lent my Disney cricut cartridges to a friend and should get them back tomorrow so that we can make our Mousekeeping tip envelopes. That's always a fun job. I'm trying to get our taxes ready before I leave. (Farmers have to have ours submitted in February). And I'm starting to plan my next scrapbooking retreat. DD told me I'm not allowed to start packing until 2 weeks before the trip.

On another note, I mentioned to DH that I'd like to go to the Epcot Food and Wine festival this year....and he was OKAY with it! Who is this man?!?!?! Of course I had also just told him that I had another travel client so maybe that is helping. Woot! So I'm looking at dates/events during F&W for the first time ever! WOOT!

 

[PoppyGirl]

I finally ordered photopass plus last night. And this morning I ordered these for me and DD

I'm thinking seriously about this backpack from Amazon too...I can't decide if I want to carry a backpack but if I do, I want it to be cute. I hate all our other ugly backpacks.

 

[PoppyGirl]

(Whiny voice): Because my DH is a dairy farmer, we have to have our taxes filed and paid in February....so my "pre-Disney torture" is that I have to compile all the numbers for our farm tax guy before I can go. So.....today I have been compiling numbers. SOOOOO boring! Next year though will be better because I finally put all our finances into quickbooks starting in September.

Anyway, I have 3 businesses....my psychotherapy practice (meeting with my accountant on Wednesday to do all that), my travel agent business (independent agent) and my Creative Memories scrapbooking consultant business (do all those taxes myself). I have to get all the paperwork and numbers together for all three of those PLUS our personal finances. DH only has to do the farm numbers. Yep. And he asked me if I would take over the farm bookkeeping for his mom this year (2013). Oh joy.

I'm almost done though. The only thing getting me through it is remembering that what comes AFTER is DISNEEEEEE!!!!

On another note....my birthday ring arrived and I LOVE it! It's so pretty and fits perfectly. It's actually prettier in person than in the photos.

And on still another note...I'm 6.5 lbs away from my goal weight with 15 days to go until our trip. The stress of crunching numbers got to me a bit today but I'll be back on track tomorrow. I've lost 36.5 lbs. And I am DETERMINED to get to my goal!!

So that's my day. DS asked me to come up and talk to him before bed so I'm heading up there now.

 

[PoppyGirl]

Two weeks from RIGHT THIS MINUTE I will be sitting in Magic Kingdom, munching on popcorn and waiting to watch Wishes!!!

I cannot WAIT! DD wants to start packing.

Our PhotoPass + arrived in the mail today.

It's really going to happen! I was able to do our online check in a couple of days ago. I didn't make any special requests for our room. I didn't really know what to ask for....so we'll just see where we end up.

 

[skater]

What's the latest on your planning?

 

[PoppyGirl]

What's the latest on your planning?

The last few days have been crazy with......(wait for it)....booking vacations for people! Seriously. I am on FIRE with booking Disney trips! Got 3 calls in the last 2 days. I booked my good friend for 2 islands in Hawaii. I tried SO hard to get them to Aulani but *sigh* they wanted other things. C'est la vie. I was hoping to book someone there so that I could learn all about it!

So yesterday and today DD and I packed. I had to try on all my summer clothes because I've lost so much weight that I wasn't sure what would even fit any more. (I am 5 lbs away from my goal )

Last year DD and I had a little journal that we wrote in each night about our trip. So today she was reading it and we were laughing about some of our adventures from last year so she wanted me to make one for this year, which was NOT on my agenda for the day. DH is sick with a bad cold and just miserable and I was tired from not sleeping well due to the increased volume of snoring.... but I obliged her.

I also started working on our Mousekeeping tip envelopes. I decided to use my cricut to cut out Mickey heads from some African themed cardstock. I'll post some photos of those when I get them done.

I'm not done packing yet but I started ironing. When you pick yourself up off the floor, I will tell you that I'm ironing because my mom bought me a new iron for Christmas (at my request, to the great amusement of DH) and I have ironed more in the last few days than in the last few years! Apparently a good iron that does not stick to all my clothes was the secret to my ironing avoidance problem.

 

[PoppyGirl]

Day 1--Arrival Day

Our flight leaves BWI at 8:00am so my friend Debbie is picking us up at 5:30 for the hour drive to the airport. (so nice! no parking!)

We arrive in Orlando at 10:30am so I'm hoping we will be at AKL by noon and maybe even checked into our room--Pool view. DD is hoping for an upgrade to bunk beds. I am hoping for a King although I didn't make any requests. Then we will decide what to do for lunch...if we go to MK, I want to eat at Columbia Harbor House. If we stay at AKL to swim, we will probably grab something at Mara. Mara is my least favorite part of staying at AKL. So I'm sort of hoping DD will want to head to MK.

Otherwise we will swim for a bit and head over to MK a little later in the day for some rides (most likely Haunted Mansion and Pirates and Buzz!) And then we have dinner at Crystal Palace with Pooh and Eeyore and Tigger and Piglet.

I think that we will head back to the resort after dinner for some much needed hot tub time (love the hot tub at AKL!!) (did I mention how much I need a vacation right now?) and early bedtime before our full day at MK tomorrow.

 

[PoppyGirl]

Day 2 --First Full Day in the World

Magic Kingdom Day

We simply must arrive early for the little welcome show before the park opens. I love it! It's not really a WDW trip unless I get to hear the "Good Morning" song!

We will be exploring the new Fantasyland all morning. I'm really looking forward to Storytime with Belle. And I want to try the new Dumbo ride. (If DD was reading over my shoulder she would be rolling her eyes right now). We will do some more of our favorites--people mover, laugh floor, and anything we missed yesterday. Lunch will most likely be at Cosmic Rays. We like to eat outside there. But then the Pièce de résistance will be dinner at Be Our Guest!! One of my fellow travel agents has a collection of framed menus from the different restaurants at Disney and told me that if I ask, they may let me keep my menu...so I'm going to try!

We will have to save room for dessert through because practically right after BoG dinner we have the Wishes Dessert party! Last time we went it was SO cold that DD and DS spent the entire time huddled under a blanket with their heads covered and didn't even SEE fireworks! I'm hoping for a better experience this time. Although I have to say that it's one of our funnier family memories how DH had to borrow DD's princess gloves in order to videotape the entire show so the kids could watch it later.....

 

[PoppyGirl]

I finished our Mousekeeping tip envelopes this morning and I must say, I am quite pleased with how they turned out!!

There's a label on the back of each one that says: "Thank you! You've made our vacation more magical!"

So....I have 3 days left to work (off today and off Friday), a hair appointment, a nail appointment (mani/pedi), and the kids are off school for the next 3 days.

DD is texting our babysitter (she's now a college student and we ADORE her) to see if she wants to go out to lunch with us today.

 

[skater]

Sounds like a great first two days! I'm jealous that you're staying at AKL . I love the hot tubs there and the whole pool area. And the smells, and Boma, and the gift shop, and the rooms, sigh.

I love your envelopes! They're amazing . I'm so excited for you.

 

[PoppyGirl]

Here's what I did today:

First ever gel manicure which Amanda matched to the color of the ruby in my birthday ring (Score!)

Minnie Toes:

Tomorrow I am getting my hair done--new color!

 

[skater]

I think we need a picture of the new hair color!!

 

[PoppyGirl]

I think we need a picture of the new hair color!!

My appointment is tonight after work. TWO MORE CLIENT HOURS and I'm DONE!!! WOOT! I love 3 day work weeks!

So I'll try and post a picture later. Amanda is excited about trying something new with my color. She's happiest when I let her change things! And it's good to have a happy stylist!

 

[PoppyGirl]

Day 3 will be our first day at Epcot. It's DD's and my favorite park.

We plan to do Future World on the first day--the new Test Track (I have purposely not watched any of the videos because I want to be surprised!) and Soarin'. We always stop in Club Cool for some Beverly...it's funny isn't it? Even though we KNOW we don't like it, we try it every single time! And we laugh at each other's "Beverly Faces." We will ride Figment and make faces at the skunk smell and sing the cute little figment song (that's for you skater). And shop at Mousegears. We LOVE Mousegears.

DD's favorite counter service is Sunshine Seasons so we will have lunch there. She also loves to visit the aquarium and I'll probably have to drag her out of there after a few hours of fish-gazing. Last year we got to watch the dolphin....shall we say "relieving" itself. "MOM!!!! THE DOLPHIN JUST PEED!!"

Then it's off to DTD to try out Splitsville, do some serious Disney shopping and have dinner at Raglan Road. DD also wants to try the Characters in Flight attraction. I'm terrified of heights, but I suppose I'll have to go along. as I can't very well send her up alone.

I'm SO looking forward to our plans!