Ryan840, so sorry to hear about your grandma. As relieving as it is to see someone you love out of pain, it's so hard to let them go too.
I love all the new photos! Makes me excited to go to the pumpkin patch!
And thanks Jill, yes, it is Cox Farms. I hope to head out there this weekend. My husband hates to take weekend days off cause those are shorter than weekdays so he feels it's a waste so maybe a weekday would be better at Cox since it can be so crowded.
Tkyes, will you be in WDW before November 10th? We'll be there 11/1-11/5 and 11/7-11/10. We leave around 6pm on the 10th I think. I noticed you said you have 4 weeks to go and we leave in 21 days so I think we might have some overlap. I'm jealous of the March mini-meet so I'm grasping at straws!
Floridafam I hope your husband can do the ironman so you don't have to just throw the money away. It's in November right? Enjoy AKL CL. We stayed there for part of our honeymoon trip and did the Sunrise Safari too and I loved it. My husband's not the biggest AKL fan, but even he enjoyed it which says a lot.
Fabumouse, you were a DOL attorney, right? Was that in NJ? I hesitate to tell you why I'm asking cause I know it's sorta the "target" of your job so you probably won't want to say yes!
Not sure what division you were in, but a story you'll appreciate anyway. At our wedding we had 2 friends who did not really "fit" at any table-the husband was in med school with mine and his wife worked for the DOL in DC. The only table with room left was my mom's work friends, all labor lawyers. We kinda got some humor out of the fact that we had "opposing sides" seated together.
Hillbeans, we'll still be home doing nothing on Christmas Eve, don't worry! My husband will be home, but we won't have any plans or any money left to go anywhere so I'll still be hanging out at home. It will just be the 4 of us so it should be a quiet night.
We will be in WDW the 18-23, much longer than I planned/wanted to. We were supposed to do the 21-23 cause I didn't want to spend more money than that, but my mom can't stay those days cause she needs to be in work and that's the 1st day Joey's off so he can't go any sooner. My mom still wanted to go somewhere though so we decided that she and I will head down on the 18th and then my husband will just meet us there. We got 2 free tickets so I was happy about that and we'll still only have to pay for 2 nights at the resort and 2 days of food (cause my mom will pay for the days I'm with her). The only thing is that she'll want to stay at a deluxe which I know we can't afford, even with the AP rate, cause we're spending so much in November. So we'll probably switch resorts when my mom leaves to save money. I think my husband has either gone crazy or has another job I don't know about cause he's trying to plan something for his February vacation and he wants to do a cruise. Either Celebrity or Disney. So adding that to his sudden decision to go back to WDW in December for a
MVMCP I decided he must have money that I haven't seen.
It's all shocking to me cause he is seriously so cheap that I can't figure out where all this is coming from. Rather than spend 50 cents on on of those mechanical rides at the grocery store he actually stood and shook the machine so that Madison thought it was moving.
Granted we're both big on vacations, but they could be much cheaper than he's making them.
We got back last night and of course I couldn't go to sleep at a decent hour so now I'm exhausted. And I really have to shower so I can't even nap while Madison is in school. Henry slept all night though!!!
I know it's just that the time change threw him off, but he went to sleep at about 9pm and woke up at 6:10am. He usually does 7 hours so I guess this was just 2 more hours, but since he went to bed later it worked out to my benefit. Madison, however, woke up and climbed in our bed, which I realized when she was hitting me with her pillow while trying to set it up where she wanted. Joey didn't know she was in the bed and felt the pillow, though "what is this doing here" and threw it on the floor. A few minutes later I hear "Mommy, Daddy took my pillow!" That made Joey jump up in shock since he didn't expect to hear her in the bed.
Here is my mini-version of a trip report. I really love sun and heat so Phoenix was very nice. And flying alone with my kids turned out pretty well, especially the way home. When we got off the plane last night everyone sitting in the rows around me complimented me on my kids behavior.
Of course I spent the flight in fear that at least one of them would bother people, but I was thrilled with both of them, especially since it was a 4 hour flight and we literally almost missed it cause security took so long so I had to run and actually drag Madison by the arm. I felt terrible cause seh was crying and saying "Mommy don't hold my hand anymore!"
but they were paging us to get to the gate or the plane would leave. Amazing cause we were there and checked in with 90 minutes to spare, but I guess we walked too slow and the security line was very long and they had to search one of my bags about 10 times before it was "clear".
The way there much smoother and both kids were good for the flight, but it took off about an hour before Henry's bedtime and he just could not get comfortable so he fussed on and off for an hour or so and then fell asleep for the night. Luckily though he was not loud or crying, just sorta whimpering.
The trip itself was good, though both my mom and I could have done without 2 of her work friends.
They're just the type of people who get in everyone's business, want to be/have the best of everything, and are insanely cheap. They'd want to split restaurant bills 50/50 when they spent more, but when we spent even like $1 more then they wanted to pay for only their share. My mom won a small prize at one of the meetings and the guy literally ran back to his room to tell his wife who then called my mom on her walk back to our room to ask what she won. It was a flash drive, so my mom had no idea what it was, so then at dinner that night they asked her no less than 4 times when I finally said "You won't know what it is. It's a flash drive." I explained it and I guess it sounded good and she was mad she didn't get one cause the wife followed up with "Well I just got a new computer and asked the man about those things and he said all they do is spread viruses and not to buy them." The whole trip was filled with snide comments from them, more so than on previous trips (they come on all the conventions). Actually, you may remember these people as the ones who came to WDW back in March and asked me the day before to get them a room at CR tower and book ADRs for their party of 5 to join our group of 4.
But putting them aside we had a good time. We drove to Sedona to see the red rocks. We had been there before and it was pretty and all, but we drove 2 hours each way to stay there 1.5 hours. And it would have been even less time there if we hadn't stopped at Taco Bell and a gift shop. That was the idea of the "friends", not us. Madison enjoyed the pool and I actually took them both myself while my mom was in meetings in the morning. While Henry slept in his stroller I took Madison in the pool and when he was up to eat she was good about just staying by the chairs playing with cups of water. There were only 2 mishaps-1st she fell in the pool. Totally unrelated to being alone with both kids, I was taking some pictures of her and turned around the put my camera back in the stroller, literally 2 feet away from the pool edge (where Madison was sitting) and I look back and she was gone and I saw her drowning in the pool. Scary part was that it was silent-I didn't hear her fall in or make any noise and neither did anyone else at the pool. She was fine, aside from being scared and luckily did not hit her head on the seat in the pool on her way in. The other thing was that she was stepping into the shower with me Sunday morning and slipped and fell, hitting her head on the edge of the marble step. Again, she was okay, mostly scared, but I was pretty scared this time cause she had a huge bump on her head and I swear I felt a crack. Joey thought I was insane and said she was fine, which she was, but I was pretty nervous for awhile.
Wow, I didn't realize how late it is. I have to shower and dress Henry and then go pick up Madison. I really need to walk to get her cause I gained back 2 of the 3 pounds I lost while I was in Phoenix but it looks like it's going to rain. Of course it's getting cold this week so I probably won't walk much so maybe I should chance it. I really have to look somewhat decent at Henry's christening and it's in less than 5 weeks.
. The house was a disaster from this morning. I never know what goes on after I leave. I just can't keep up with the house. I'm so darn tired. I feel like I come home to another job after working all day. Well, speaking of my second job, I better get dinner together.
She would have been 89 in January so she had a long life, and until 87 she was dancing three nights a week- she would ask everyone she met if they danced and give them a lesson if they said no 
I don't want to take her to the vet without a plan, because the last time I did, I spent $3000 on a cat that died on me anyhow. Do I just make an appt. with the vet and say get rid of my guinea pig??
That was very nice.
. I've written so many checks for extras this week (like field trips, band class, flute repair, etc) and now the furnace guy is coming to inspect our system before we fire it up tonight. UGH. Anyway, have a great day, ladies, and hopefully I can at least get back to read later! 
