You just lost 80 pounds! What are you Going to do next? Ending TR

[emmysmommy]

Hey there Camille! What a relief that your niece is finally back with her mom. I hope things work out well with that, Lord knows, she needs a break as much as you do with all the family drama.

Glad you were able to escape a bit for some 'away from it all' time.

No worries about the pace of the TR. It will just make the anticipation so much sweeter. I'm absent more than I would like from the Boards but if it wasn't for my crazy work stuff I'd have more of a life!

Wishing you a blessed week!

 

[MEK]

I hope you are able to deal with the fall out from your brother. It sounds endless. I also hope everything works out with your niece. :good vibes

A trip to Seaworld with the family sounds great. So glad you had a nice weekend!

 

[scottny]

Scott!! That is amazing!!! I'm still trying to get the pounds off that I gained over the holidays so I can start towards my goal of an 85 lb. loss. Getting there, but not there yet. I will be though.

Thank you. Yes you will be. My loss comes and goes. I keep on pushing.

I'm planning a trip for this Oct. to try and help me obtain my goal, but I'm not sure if it's going to work out, the trip, not the goal. We'll see.
Tyler, my son and I were talking about a trip together in May of 2015, a mother son trip. If he goes it will probably be his last trip for a while, he'll be starting out in the real world with a real job and paying off college loans. I'm thinking he won't be doing any trips for a long time to come.

I hope you get both trips.

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Sea World sounds fun!

I'm glad to hear your niece is back with her mom. I'm no stranger to dysfunctional families so know how completely draining it is.

 

[eandesmom]

She is 13 years old. She's actually staying with friends that live in the same Apts. she lived in with my brother and my mom. It's a huge mess. My brother left my niece in the hands of a literal stranger who he only knew for a few days. My brother will come home to no car, no apt., no job, and he did it all to himself. It's hard to feel sorry for him and yet at the same time feel bad he's allowed his life to be this BIG of a mess. I can't help him, no one can except himself. In the mean time I can't even imagine what my nieces life will be like from here on out because of what she's witnessed growing up.

If she can get into a healthy environment, in time she will see things as they are. At her age she just wants to help her dad, more than that is a bit beyond their "real" comprehension. I went through several years of Evan really wanting to do an intervention for his dad.

I grew up knowing that a life of substance abuse and dysfunction would never be apart of my life the way I saw it growing up.
And then to see it play out in the life of your family members when you are on the outside is very tough to watch, especially for my niece, she actually defends my brother and says he doesn't do it for the effect, he only does it because of pain.
I don't know whether to shake her or hug her. My heart breaks for her as I'm fearful she will grow up to be the same way or be with someone who is.
The statistics are very high for both probabilities.

She is at a critical age, hopefully her new environment is a healthy one and one that she can stay in, that will make all the difference, or at least give her a much better shot at it. If she can get to Alateen it would be very very good for her.

You can't listen to that and you can't enable it to continue. It is the best thing for everyone as you well know. It is hard to watch and hard to be in the middle of. I have been in your shoes and know what it feels like to be blamed for not fixing things, not taking care of someone else. Well guess what. You can't fix someone else, they have to do it. To make it easy for them...enables the situation to continue. This IS supporting him. Remind yourself of that, constantly. Everyone's rock bottom is different and some never seem to hit it. And someday, you may find that those who disparage you now, come to the realization at some point that their "support" is enabling the person to continue the behavior. They are in denial and you can't fix that either. They have to realize it on their own. And they may never do so. It is NOT your job to fix it. It has to be his. He has to want it bad enough. Only then does it have a prayer of working.

As to your mom's stuff, just go in and get that over with. On that one you really don't have a choice. The sooner it is dealt with the better and if folks take issue with it remind them they are more than welcome to do it. Or better yet toss it out there. Hey, I'm going to go clear it all out on xxx. Unless someone else wants to do it or go through things first it will all be donated to xxx in her memory. Or something like that.

Pre-emptive strike

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Been a looooong couple of weeks. But still good.

Hoping to have an update in this week.
Hang in there with me, still dealing with a bit of family drama since my mom passed. My niece is finally back with her mom, so now I feel like I can finally let out a sigh of relief for a little while.
Still not sure what the heck I'm going to do with all my mom's stuff in her Apt. since my brother isn't there to take care of it like he was suppose to.

Hubby and I went to Wichita Falls (Air Force Academy buddy of his retired) this week for a couple of days and then the kids and I went to Sea World with my son's girlfriend and her little brother (same age as Mackie) we had a good time but I'm totally whooped people!

Hope you are all blessed. I surely feel I am.

Glad you were able to get away! Sounds like you needed it desperately.

 

[jedijill]

If she can get into a healthy environment, in time she will see things as they are. At her age she just wants to help her dad, more than that is a bit beyond their "real" comprehension. I went through several years of Evan really wanting to do an intervention for his dad.



She is at a critical age, hopefully her new environment is a healthy one and one that she can stay in, that will make all the difference, or at least give her a much better shot at it. If she can get to Alateen it would be very very good for her.

You can't listen to that and you can't enable it to continue. It is the best thing for everyone as you well know. It is hard to watch and hard to be in the middle of. I have been in your shoes and know what it feels like to be blamed for not fixing things, not taking care of someone else. Well guess what. You can't fix someone else, they have to do it. To make it easy for them...enables the situation to continue. This IS supporting him. Remind yourself of that, constantly. Everyone's rock bottom is different and some never seem to hit it. And someday, you may find that those who disparage you now, come to the realization at some point that their "support" is enabling the person to continue the behavior. They are in denial and you can't fix that either. They have to realize it on their own. And they may never do so. It is NOT your job to fix it. It has to be his. He has to want it bad enough. Only then does it have a prayer of working.

As to your mom's stuff, just go in and get that over with. On that one you really don't have a choice. The sooner it is dealt with the better and if folks take issue with it remind them they are more than welcome to do it. Or better yet toss it out there. Hey, I'm going to go clear it all out on xxx. Unless someone else wants to do it or go through things first it will all be donated to xxx in her memory. Or something like that.

Pre-emptive strike

Great advice!

again for you Millie.

Jill in CO

 

[Millie12591]

A few pics of us at Sea World from last week...




He's such a goofball. And he looks half awake, I guess I caught him mind blink.


Big kids wanted to ride the little kids ride.







Enough of that, on to my never ending TR!!

We started our morning on May 8th, (4th day in WDW) with cool breezes, 61 degrees and 6 mph winds. It will warm up to a beautiful 82 degrees today. Such a perfect day for Epcot.

I'm up at 6:30 and ready to jump in the shower, I know we need to be on our game today because we have to make sure everything is packed and ready to head out to a new resort, right along with Maroo meeting us bright and early to have her things put with ours so they all get to CSR together.
That's right folks, we have a meet with another Dis'er!! And, another resort!!

I jump into the shower to get my day rolling, once I'm out I get Mackie up to do the same and I start our morning routine. Get my face on while I eat some breakfast, spray down with sunscreen and make sure everything is packed up and ready to go, at least for my side of things. Mackie has her own things to get together and I know her well enough to know she will want to do it for herself. She picks out her outfit for the day according to our trusty day guide as to which park we'll be going in.
In case you missed my PTR Mackie and I pick our outfits according to what park we'll be in for the day and sometimes according to where we'll be eating that evening. Today was Epcot day so I had my brightly colored, flower, outfit to wear since it was the Flower and Garden Festival, something I adore and love being at when in Epcot.
Last trip we took to Disney F&GF had been over by two days and it was so depressing seeing Epcot in that state. I vowed we wouldn't miss it the next trip. To say I was excited was an under-statement.

Mackenzie's outfit was a Perry the Platypus shirt and cute khaki shorts, I think very appropriate for Epcot considering they have the Phineas and Ferb's-Agent P's World Showcase adventure going on for the first time.
Okay, serious confession time.....Okay, not all that serious.
I know this will sound strange but I'm not one for buying clothes with characters on them, never have been. I was one of those rare kids (for the 80's that is) that didn't have her walls plastered with the latest Teen Beat pictures of boys or boy bands, (never bought a Teen Beat come to think of it) nor did I buy every day clothes for my kids with popular icons. PJ's and undies yes, but for some reason I've always thought they were a bit on the tacky side.
I know, I know, how can I call myself a true Dis'er feeling this way, but that's how I've been in the past.
Of course as the years go by my kids have bucked the system more and more and with every trip to Disney my resolve has dissolved if you will. It's still not easy for me to buy out and out cartoon characters on clothing unless it's something really cute and unusual, of course for trips I always make the exception.
Pretty much anything goes when it comes to the trips. For the kids that is, for me it's much harder for me to make that leap, like I said it has to be something really cute or unusual, I won't want to look like a walking advertisement.
Mickey shirts of course are always the exception to this rule, but finding one that I really love hasn't been easy. I settled for the color that I loved over the Mickey. Oh well, at least I found one!

Okay, enough about that carp. We had a day to get too!!

Once we were dressed, packed, and ready to go Maroo called to see if it was a good time to get her hiney down there, I told her heck yes and to make it snappy since the bell hop guy would be there any second to take our luggage away.
I bet you are wondering how I could talk to someone I've never met in person like that. Actually, Maroo and I have been talking on the phone over the past few years, over four years at that point, so meeting was more of a formality than anything. We already felt like old friends considering all that we had both been through during those four years, we really leaned on one another at times. I tell ya, the best friends I've ever made have been on the Dis. I love my Dis brothers and sisters.

She came up as the bell hop was counting our luggage and asking us questions, we of course had to stop everything and hug and finally see one another face to face for the first time. I introduced her to Mackie and they of course hit it off without a hitch. In fact they spent the rest of the trip riding every ride together, little stinkers. The bell hop got all our luggage and we were off!! We had a park opening to get to and by golly I did not want to be late! We all got our hiney's in gear and made our way to the front of the resort to the buses. Maroo was of course commenting along the way about the resort since she had come in late the night before, she really didn't get to see too much of it before heading to bed. Bless her heart. So the only time she saw any of it was as we were walking to the buses. I believe we were some of the first people to be in line for the buses, not too shabby.

We finally made our way to Epcot ahead of most of the crowds I might add, made our way through bag check and into the lines. We were some of the first people there, I'd say we made good time considering all that we had to get done that morning. Yeaaaay us!!

Reached my images limit, on to the next page!

Continued in the next post.......

 

[zanzibar138]

Just popping my head in to say such lovely family photos at Seaworld Glad you got to have a little fun with your family

And... it looks like I'll be in San Antonio for a couple of days in September

 

[Millie12591]

continued from the last post...

We make it to the gates and end up standing there for some time before being allowed in. It was all good we had a good time standing there and getting to know one another. Well, Maroo and Mackie any way. Maroo and I know each other pretty well after talking almost every week for the last four years.

Once we were through the gates we made a bee line straight for Soarin, naturally. We got our FP's and then got in line. It's going to be so strange not to jump in line for FP's the next time I go.
I think we already had a 10 minute wait, it was all good though. We had fun standing in line and sharing about Maroo's flight in and how excited we were about our day.

We finally made it on to our Soarin over California flight, and it was a great flight, as usual. Made me miss being in Calif., it always makes me miss Calif. I use to live there, for a couple of years after I graduated high school, and my hubby grew up in the Palm Dessert area. His sister lives in the San Fran area and his parents now live in the Sacramento area, so seeing the different parts made me miss that state.

Next up was the Sea with Nemo!!...







We had a lot a fun in there exploring, I just wish we had gotten our picture inside Bruce like we usually do, but you know how it is, you think I'll be back another day and get some then. Famous last words when it comes to doing something in the park, huh?

Once we were done with The Seas with Nemo we had a lunch ADR for Via Napoli!! We were excited to be eating here since we had never been there before. I think the trip before last I was going to make a ADR for it but for some reason I ended up choosing something else, what I have no idea.

I was so impressed with how beautiful this restaurant is, it's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. People on the Dis are right, pictures don't do it justice. We got our drink orders in right away and then we decided what we'd get to eat, I'm pretty sure we shared a pizza, and then some dessert-tiramisu, since I didn't bother to take pictures I won't bother you with them.

Bad Dis'er, bad! I think our minds were else where when it came to this restaurant, and with good reason. There was a lot of handsome Italian men running around, especially one in particular. He was so pretty and flawless looking you swore he had makeup on, but when he got up close you could tell he was all natural, here I'll show you...



Aint he pretty? And I swear, none of that is makeup, it's all genetic blessing.
He came over a couple of times to talk to us, he was very sweet, but then we find out why.... come to find out he's was very much looking for a wife to stay in the country, he was at the end of his time there and he desperately wanted to stay. So I'm pretty sure any woman who looked single was fair game to his way of thinking. I believe this was one of three advances made in Mackenzie's direction on this trip.
Maroo and Mackenzie were so taken with him that Maroo turned all kinds of red when he came over and got into the picture with them. Bless her heart.
In no way was he my type, but he sure was pretty to look at and for the life of me I could not get a good picture of him on the sly, I was really glad he finally came over and got in the picture so I could show y'all how stinkin pretty he was!
I had Mary and Mackie in stitches trying to get a picture of him on the sly, they were all kinds of red with laughter.
The meal here was very good, it was good enough to really splurge and have more than one piece of pizza and more than one or two bites of the dessert, but not too much more.



Our waiter


Once we were done here I told them I needed to get our photopass taken care of, I had purchased it with Brook before we left for the trip and for some reason I couldn't activate it until the CSR portion of the trip. Who the heck remembers why. So the girls decided they would go on to MK and I would head to the Art of Disney (I think) to pick that up and then head out to CSR to get us checked in. Then of course meet up with the girls at MK for the evening. So off I went on my voyage to get all that done, but I think the girls stuck with me for a bit because Mackie and I have some photo pass pictures taken in front of Epcot at the end of our day there.....

Oh, and notice the twit in the background photo bombing all of our pictures ...









Any who, here's one more of us at the front of MK....



For some reason we couldn't get Maroo to jump in. I think she was being a bit camera shy at the moment, later on she jumped in a few.

Well, that's where I'll have to leave it folks. Much love you all, thank you for hanging in there with me. Hopefully you'll enjoy the update and hopefully I won't have any more things getting in the way to keep me from updating more often than once a freaking month. Be blessed for you are a blessing.

 

[Millie12591]

Just popping my head in to say such lovely family photos at Seaworld Glad you got to have a little fun with your family

And... it looks like I'll be in San Antonio for a couple of days in September

Ooooh Lana, you are so sweet. Would you like to have a day at Sea World while you are here? I'd be happy to pick you up if you like. If for no other reason to ride some coasters and have a few laughs.

If no to SeaWorld I'd be happy to meet up with you if you have the time, it's a pretty fun city, and if you are anywhere near downtown I'm sure we could find a few places to get into trouble in. Let me know.

 

[zanzibar138]

Ooooh Lana, you are so sweet. Would you like to have a day at Sea World while you are here? I'd be happy to pick you up if you like. If for no other reason to ride some coasters and have a few laughs.

If no to SeaWorld I'd be happy to meet up with you if you have the time, it's a pretty fun city, and if you are anywhere near downtown I'm sure we could find a few places to get into trouble in. Let me know.

Sounds like fun! Looks like I'll be flying in on the 18th, and flying back out on the 20th (or 21st if I can swing it, looks like a nice place to visit ).

Not sure where I'll be staying yet, but I'll probably hire a car while I'm there, so getting around shouldn't be a problem.

 

[MEK]

Your shirt truly is perfect for Epcot F&G. Very pretty.

Genetic blessing? Yes, I would say he does have some good genes in the looks department. Some of those guys in there are so cute you can't help but blush. Via is one of my favs. I love the ambiance and the food. Win Win!

Yay for resort changing! do we know where you are going? I totally forget since you probably revealed it already.

Nice picture of the family at Seaworld. I just can't wait until the weather is nice enough here to wear shorts.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Super cute Epcot day outfits!

Yay for finally meeting your Dis friend in real life! I know what you mean about knowing somebody without ever even meeting them face to face. I have several Dis friends like that.

Woooey! Talk about a good looking Italian stallion! I can see why there was some blushing going on at the table. He's H-O-T!

 

[wiigirl]

Cute pics!

 

[Millie12591]

Sounds like fun! Looks like I'll be flying in on the 18th, and flying back out on the 20th (or 21st if I can swing it, looks like a nice place to visit ).

Not sure where I'll be staying yet, but I'll probably hire a car while I'm there, so getting around shouldn't be a problem.

As the time get's closer we'll figure out what you want to do. I'm up for just about anything. San Antonio is a great city, it will be pretty hot at the time so keep that in mind. I'll have to take you to my favorite Tex-Mex place to eat.

Your shirt truly is perfect for Epcot F&G. Very pretty.

Thank you Mary Ellen, I wasn't too sure about that top on me, but I loved the style and the flowers on the front.

Genetic blessing? Yes, I would say he does have some good genes in the looks department. Some of those guys in there are so cute you can't help but blush. Via is one of my favs. I love the ambiance and the food. Win Win!

I'll say!! And yes to the blushing with all the very attractive people.

Yay for resort changing! do we know where you are going? I totally forget since you probably revealed it already.

CSR, it's one of our favorite places to stay on property. Although, I think POR is giving it a good run for it's money on a couple of fronts, but in the end CSR wins out due to location, lack of crowds, and lack of sharing of the bus.

Nice picture of the family at Seaworld. I just can't wait until the weather is nice enough here to wear shorts.

That day was beautiful, perfect for short sleeves and light weight jackets at the start of the day. It's the beauty of living in Southern Texas in the Spring.

Super cute Epcot day outfits!

Thank you. We had fun putting them together. Some outfits I could make work for the day and some didn't. Oh well, as long as I was comfy and had something some what cute I was happy. There were a lot of clothes I had to find for the trip, part of losing the weight was having to find clothes to fit for the when the trip came around. Not an easy thing to do, I couldn't exactly shop a year early since I didn't really know what size I'd be during that season. The year before I still had a good 40 lbs. to go before I got to the size I was on the trip. No way to know.

Yay for finally meeting your Dis friend in real life! I know what you mean about knowing somebody without ever even meeting them face to face. I have several Dis friends like that.

It was fun, we had talked for so long it was like we had known each other forever.

Woooey! Talk about a good looking Italian stallion! I can see why there was some blushing going on at the table. He's H-O-T!

I wanted to do a Rachel from Friends and tell him he was pretty. Like I said, not my type but still perty to look at.

 

[Millie12591]

Found the rest of my pictures from that day in Epcot.

Here are the fail pictures of me trying to catch Armando on the sly...





This was the best one before he finally came over to take a picture with us.



I think he may have taken this one...



Then we must have ventured through Epcot a bit as we headed back to the front....





I like this picture a lot because I took several trying to get a good angle .....







And this one is my favorite....


I like how I caught the sky mirrored into the water. It's not perfect, the lighting was off since I didn't get the flowers in the water to be as bright as I would have liked, but I think it's a pretty good shot none the less, the only thing that would have made it more perfect would be the Monorail coming through at the time.

Now from the other side.....





Can't tell this is my favorite vista in all of Epcot, can you?



How about a Monorail or some people....








Poor Mackie and her hair that day, the wind was getting us a bit. She would not be happy I was posting these pics with her hair like this. Oh well, I think she's a cutie no matter what.



continued in the next post....

 

[Millie12591]

continued from the last post....

We had a few from the Monsters theme that was going on at the time, as you may remember the new Monsters Inc. movie was coming out in a few short weeks. ......




I love how they have this lined up perfectly to see the American Pavilion in the background. It's the little things that do it for me, probably why I love Disney so much. That and most Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers films, it's all in the details.


I don't know how long we waited for this little girls parents to realize she was standing over there while we were trying to take a picture.


Now Mackie could get into it!

These guys were brilliant, I have to say they really out did themselves this year for the F&GF......






I think she's my favorite.



Or maybe these two are...





Nope, the fuschia colored one is my fav. The purple is a close second.




It's been so long since we went, I forgot we went over to the butterfly garden as well....



Thank goodness for pictures to tell the rest of where in the world you went that day.







And that, and that, and that's all folks....

Well, until we get over to MK. I'll share the rest of that in my next installment for the TR. Bah! <---Southern Bye

 

[mickeystoontown]

I am lovin' the Flower & Garden Festival pictures! I absolutely love the first set of pictures along the water. Don't you wish that they'd keep the landscaping that way all year round? We got to see some of the Monsters University topiaries when we were there but most were gone.

 

[KatMark]

Fun updates, Camille.

Wonderful Flower and Garden pictures. I thoroughly love that time of year (not sure if I'll insert those in my TR when I'm done with it or not as an "extra day").

I love yours and Mackie's outfits...very cute.

You could see in the picture that Maroo was getting quite red from the hot Italian.

I can't wait to eat there for the first time in September with Brenda and her hubby.