You're Going AGAIN?????

Hey, Ann! I thought I'd check in over here to see how Victoria is doing. I hope she's better. Gotta love those nasty bugs that get passed around at school! Not! Fifths Disease is going around at my kids' school. Oh joy. Neither if the kids have gotten it, thank God! Knock on wood and some more stuff! Anyway, I hope she's doing better.

I also thought I'd mention, since you guys aren't big on veggies, that Garden Grill also uses the fish that is farmed on Living with the Land. Not sure if that is a selling point or not :rotfl: Actually, come to think of it, I kept that little tidbit to myself because I thought the kids might get freaked out over that. So nevermind... LOL
 
Sorry guys that I've been MIA lately. Victoria is physically doing much better. This week they have school vacation week so it's giving her a little bit of time to relax. We've just been dealing with a little bit of emotional issues with Victoria lately and she's going through counselling at school now. Mommy has just been feeling like a failure, so I haven't wanted to post anything. I'm sure everything will work out ok. She did turn 13 this past Friday and she had 2 friends over for the night and then we all headed to the mall on Saturday. I think everyone had a great time. Peter and I received our tax refund on Friday, so we paid off the credit card and had some left over for some shopping. Yeah!! :banana: Now the remaining amount will go into the Disney savings account. Oh, while I was at the Mall, I had arranged to meet someone selling off their Disney scrapbooking supplies off of Craig's list. I got one heck of a deal and I can't wait to use it!!! So that's what's going on over here.......
 
I'm glad she's doing better! We all feel like that sometimes I think Ann, I know I do! Don't be too hard on yourself, you are a great Mom, I can tell by how you talk about Victoria. :hug:
 

I agree with Karen, we all feel like that sometimes. hang in there.... teen years are always hard on everyone. I know you are just at the front end of it, but here is a saying that I took some comfort in... God gives us teens so that we will be ready for when it is time for them to leave. Maybe that sounds harsh... but for me I always felt like it made it ok for me to be frustrated with mine or even... not like them as much. :rolleyes1 My oldest is now 20 and finally, she seems less emotional...less cranky... less crazy. She is actually one of my favorite people to be with now. I have my next one about to leave in less than 2wks.... then there is my 15 year old. Yeah... I have a few more years till I stop feeling like I am a horrible failure with him. :sad2: Luckily, I have a 6 year old who is still a joy. :goodvibes

Yay on the scrappin supplies!!!!
 
Yay for scrapbooking supplies-- Craigslist is great for things like that! I also just signed us up for an August PP share on FB. This'll be my first share and I'm a bit nervous, too, but it's worth it for the price. I'll just have to be REALLY diligent and make sure we stop for every photographer!
 
Not too much going on here....I did want to share with you guys some Disney jewelry that AVON has for sale during the next campaign. If anyone is interested, just let me know or go onto my website at www.youravon.com/adoyon.

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Gee, I wonder if I'm going to purchase them.....Yeah, I think that's a definite!!!
 
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Oooooh! I LOVE those earrings!!!!!!!! MUST.RESIST. MUST.RESIST! :scared:

I'll never make it to WDW if I spend all my money on Disney stuff before going! They're so cute though! :goodvibes
 
All caught up! Wow! Victoria turned 13?!? Well, I’m glad she had a good birthday and that she is feeling better. I’m sorry to hear about the other stuff going on, but as you know, teens will be teens – no matter how wonderful their moms are :hug: I know I gave my parents a run for their money as a teen, with my smart mouth and brooding attitude – and now I am getting paid back for that already with my preteen son and my diva daughter. It is great that Victoria’s school has a counselor that she can talk to and maybe help her through whatever is going on.

Cool that you were able to go shopping and get some scrapbooking supplies! :thumbsup2 I can’t wait to see some more pages! Also, that Disney jewelry does look really nice! I got a ring from Avon years ago that looked just like an expensive engagement ring, so I really like their jewelry. Since I’m watching my pennies until the trip, I’ll have to try to hold off on that until later. But I want that necklace!
 
Hi all!!! We have a 2-parter today….one on Disney and one I just have to vent and get some stuff out of my system…

So, I left off at Day 4 on our trip. This will be spent at Magic Kingdom! :goodvibes

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We will first be eating breakfast at O’Hana’s around 9am. I found last year that 8am ADR’s were just way too early for us to make. There is also going to be EMH during the evening, so there will be plenty of time spent there! I think my favorite thing at O’hana’s was the character interaction.

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I just love Stitch! I gave him lots of hugs last year. The food was excellent and the Stitch juice they have is amazing! It’s served in a big skillet and you can have as much as you want.

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Victoria loved the Mickey waffles there. I just wish they would have Photopass photographers at the character meals. We did have our picture taken before we were seated, but it’s one of those packages where you pay for the keychain/wallets/5x7 for $29 or $39….I can’t remember which. :confused3 I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that would be a good idea. After breakfast, we will probably go on the beach there at Poly and lie on the hammocks then take the boat over to MK.



More than likely we will start out in Tomorrowland. Our must-do’s there will everything except the AstroOrbiter. Yeah, I didn’t enjoy that ride last time. Blah! I absolutely love the Laugh Floor and Carousel of Progress and I went on Buzz’s Spin for the first time last year and thought that was cute! I actually liked that more than TSMM!! :scared1: Oh, the shock of such a statement, but it’s true! We’ll have to play it by ear for Fantasyland. We didn’t really hit that hard last year at all as the construction just made it too congested, I felt. The must do’s there are only it’s a small world (it was closed last year) and Mickey’s Philharmagic. I do want to catch the show at the castle, as we didn’t do that last time, either. I think I’ve said this before that I want to do a whole lot more character interaction this year. Victoria may be too old for it, but I’m certainly NOT! :rotfl2:

At Liberty Square it’s the Haunted Mansion, baby! I love, love, love that ride!!! I think we will probably skip the Hall of Presidents but will try for the first time to go to Tom Sawyer’s Island and maybe catch a snack at Aunt Polly’s there. Has anyone ever had a snack there? We’ve never done the Liberty Belle Riverboat, either, so that will be a maybe-must do….Frontierland is next which will include BTMRR and Splash Mtn, of course!!! Off to Adventureland where I will one day hit the Enchanted Tiki Room. We will definitely do POTC and Jungle Cruise. Love those!!!

On this trip we have an extra TS dining meal that I will have to decide on. I’m not sure where I’m going to plug it in. This might be a good day as we will have had breakfast and then maybe a snack for lunch. I could insert a dinner meal so I’ll have to look over the menus. OMG!! Do you all realize that I have to make my ADR’s in 3 weeks from This Saturday!!! Wow!! Already!! :eek:

Now, I wanted to share with you the Mousekeeping tip envelopes I’ve made up. They are nothing fancy, but cute enough. I have this Disney scotch tape that I never use, so I thought it would be good for the envelopes. I still haven’t finished the dining tip envelopes, but I will get there!

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I also wanted to share that I got this PIN in my email this morning…..”FREE Disney Quick-Service Dining Plan when you purchase a non-discounted, 5-night/5-day Magic Your Way vacation package that includes Theme Park tickets and accommodations at a select Disney Value Resort or Disney Moderate Resort! For example, pay just $627 per adult (based on adult double occupancy) in a standard room at a select Disney Value Resort for stays most nights 6/3–8/13/11.” It doesn’t help me out at all as it only goes through August 13th , and I’m already booked with Free Dining, but it’s to prove that there are free dining pins coming out. I am surprised that it’s also only the QS for Moderate Resorts as well. That’s a surprise and different than previous years. Hopefully when we are there they will offer a bounceback with free dining, but who knows. I believe I’ve said it before, but when we do go back, I would like to try staying at POP and paying for a few OOP TS dinners. That is unless I absolutely fall head over heals in love with POFQ!! :love:

I am still checking the airlines daily for deals from Portland to Orlando. The cheapest I’ve found within the last month is $280 per person. Ugh! :mad: Even JetBlue is that price. I’m thinking of having us drive down to Manchester, NH to pick up a flight from there, but it’s really not much of a savings and we’d have to stay at least one night in NH, probably on the way home. So now I’m on Facebook trying to win 2 airline tickets, but that’s not looking too good. You would think with all the friends between myself, Victoria and Peter, we could get a whole mess of people to “like” my wall post on Cheapair’s FB page, but it hasn’t happened yet. Oh, don’t mind me…..I’m just whining again! :rolleyes1 I’m even thinking about applying for a credit card that you can earn travel miles, but I don’t want to pay an annual fee. And my credit is not that good, so I don’t get approved sometimes….I know Peter promised that we’d make this trip happen, but I want to make sure it doesn’t put us in the hole!!

Now onto life, NON-DISNEY related (if there is such a thing……) You may proceed to your nearest exit if you wish to stop here…..

If you’ve read my other PTR and/or my TR you know that my Victoria has had quite a few health issues in her 13 years. Well, I brought her to her PCP last Friday for her routine physical. She is 4’9” and now weighs 144lbs. That poor child has gained a total of 30 lbs per year for the last 2 years!!! Now, I know she had gained weight, but I hadn’t realized the rate at which it was happening! Her BMI is 30 and she is considered borderline obese. The doctor stated that even if she was the worst eater in the world, a person does not gain that much weight without some underlying health issues. The dr is giving her 3 months to really pay attention to her eating, write a food diary, and exercise. At her next appt in 3 months the dr doesn’t necessarily want to see a weight loss, she just wants to see Victoria not gain any more weight. She will be giving Victoria a blood workup to check A1-C (diabetes), thyroid and cholesterol levels. OMG!!! I feel so, so guilty and responsible because all those illnesses are hereditary and guess who has them ---- ME!!!! I am so very upset, you can not imagine. It’s bad enough Victoria is now in counseling for wanting to cut herself, she now feels even worse due to this latest hurdle! I swore I would never hound my child about her weight as my mother hounded me…..look how that turned out! So, I did the exact opposite and look how THAT turned out! I’m just beside myself! Ok, I’m acting like she’s already been diagnosed, so I know I need to chill out and relax a bit. We have been doing the Wii Fit nightly now and I’ve made the decision to send her to summer camp so that she will not be out front of that laptop on a daily basis….that she will actually be out in the fresh air and sunshine! I was going to just have her be home, but I don’t trust that she’ll go outside and play. So, here’s another financial hitch in the Disney train ---- camp costs $160 per week!! I just thought I’d be able to save that money for Disney and now I just don’t know. I feel good about the camp as it’s run by the local YMCA and it’s on a really nice lake. It’s funny because when I was a teen I used to go to tennis tourneys there to play, so I’m familiar with the location, lake, etc. I just know this is the best decision I could make for her.

I know I’m overreacting as there are hundreds of kids out there who have worse problems than what we are facing, but dang, this kid has been through enough! I want her to be so stress free and happy and it seems the harder I try the more it turns out the other way.

And we have yet another financial shaky situation ---- the financial state of the State. I don’t think I’ll be losing my job, but the new Governor is talking about lots and lots of changes. A 5% paycut across the board is on the table as well as having all state employees pay more for their health insurance. Now, I can understand us paying more of a percentage of our insurance, but a 5% paycut? They’ve already made us take 2 weeks of unpaid leave……Now, I know I’m lucky that there are now 2 incomes in the household, but Peter is not financially responsible for Victoria and I don’t ask him for any money. He’s put in the new shed, bought the pool, and is building his garage, so he’s added to my property plenty. I don’t ask him for anything towards the bills as he’s already done all this stuff to increase the value of my property. Oh, he did fill the oil tank for our heat this winter and that has been over $1,000. He’s the one that pays when we go out to dinner and sometimes he picks up the weekly groceries. If worse comes to worse, I will have to ask him to contribute a monthly amount and the dinners out will just have to stop. I just don’t know!!! I really feel lost at this point…..
 
Ann, I don't have any magic words, but wanted you to know I'm here for you! :hug: I hope you make it work and camp sounds great!!
 
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Twoboy[/SIZE said:
snmygirl;40160198]Ann, I don't have any magic words, but wanted you to know I'm here for you! :hug: I hope you make it work and camp sounds great!!

Thanks my friend. There are no magic words, are there? Here I sit at midnight and I can't sleep....oh the dog is sleeping quite nicely....and snoring, might I add. I'll go to bed soon, hopefully. I already tried once but Peter was snoring loudly so I couldn't sleep.
 
Hi Ann! I've missed you. I haven't been on the dis in a while, we've been so busy! And honestly when I don't have a trip in the planning, it doesnt really cross my mind to come on. I'm happy to see you've started a PTR and are going back again in September! WooHoo for you guys! I SOOOO missed you updates about dising and trip planning while you're at work. You're too funny:rotfl: I'm sorry about how you're feeling though, hope things are better for you this week. Trust me, we all go through that every now and then. You certainly seem like a wonderful mother with Victoria as your priority. My oldest is only 11 so I haven't had to deal with teenage girls yet.........but i'm preparing myself because it seems like quite the task!

I love your piggy bank, it's too cute. And the little hamster is adorable. I had hamsters when I was little. My girls had 2 when they were little. BUT...one of them bit Emily's finger real good. So neither of the kids ever wanted to pick them up and after them, they didn't want anymore. We have fish now :rotfl:

So even though I was bummed about not being able to go to Disney last September, we have a the beginnings of a trip being planned for June/July 2012. I'm super excited about it! We will be there over Emily's 13th birthday and July 4th is our wedding anniversary! I just got the position at work that i've been waiting for so....... the financial part will not be an issue for this trip:dance3: That feels good to say!!!

PM me your last name, so I can friend you on facebook!!!
 
Hi Ann! I've missed you. I haven't been on the dis in a while, we've been so busy! And honestly when I don't have a trip in the planning, it doesnt really cross my mind to come on. I'm happy to see you've started a PTR and are going back again in September! WooHoo for you guys! I SOOOO missed you updates about dising and trip planning while you're at work. You're too funny:rotfl: I'm sorry about how you're feeling though, hope things are better for you this week. Trust me, we all go through that every now and then. You certainly seem like a wonderful mother with Victoria as your priority. My oldest is only 11 so I haven't had to deal with teenage girls yet.........but i'm preparing myself because it seems like quite the task!

I love your piggy bank, it's too cute. And the little hamster is adorable. I had hamsters when I was little. My girls had 2 when they were little. BUT...one of them bit Emily's finger real good. So neither of the kids ever wanted to pick them up and after them, they didn't want anymore. We have fish now :rotfl:

So even though I was bummed about not being able to go to Disney last September, we have a the beginnings of a trip being planned for June/July 2012. I'm super excited about it! We will be there over Emily's 13th birthday and July 4th is our wedding anniversary! I just got the position at work that i've been waiting for so....... the financial part will not be an issue for this trip:dance3: That feels good to say!!!

PM me your last name, so I can friend you on facebook!!!

PAM!!!!!!!!!! So glad you are back on the DIS!!!!! :woohoo:
 
Thanks Karen! Hopefully one day all of our trips will cross and we can meet each other in person. I feel like I know you all so well!:hug:

I'll start up a PTR sometime over the summer. At more than a year out right now....i'll patiently wait!
 
Oh, Ann :hug: it sounds like you're going through a few tough things right now. I hope that the bloodwork will help the doctor get to the bottom of what's going on with Victoria's health. You're right that unfortunately there are kids out there with terrible health issues, but Victoria is your daughter and nothing is worse for a mother when they know something might be wrong with their child. At least I know how it is for me. I don't care if one of my kids just has a cold - I can't rest until I know they are better. So you are not overreacting, OK? :) Also, one of my siblings and I both had health issues when we were younger because of things we inherited from our parents. Thankfully we are both healthy now as adults, but I was a very sickly child. Never once did I blame our mom or dad for passing on their genes to us! So don't blame yourself about having health issues on your side of the family. If anything, family health issues have taught me and all of my siblings that we need to work on being as healthy as possible. But none of us understood that as teenagers, so what you are proactively doing with Victoria is fantastic! The Wii Fit is a great idea! I've been thinking about getting that or the Kinect for Xbox for our family so we can get up and move while playing video games. The summer camp idea is also very good. I know for a fact that my kids would sit in the house all summer and play video games and use the computer 24/7 if I didn't make them go outside. What's going on with kids today? I used to WANT to play outside! I guess it is the temptation of all of this technology! :laughing:

Now, on to your trip planning! I love your plan for this day! The kids and I have to go out to lay on the hammocks on the beach one day too! It sounds so peaceful and relaxing. I am also still very jealous of your beautiful handwriting! My cursive writing is barely legible! I really like those tip envelopes and the Disney tape on there. So cute! I'm still waiting to see some more of your scrapbook pages, though :rolleyes1 LOL
 
Wow….what a difference 24 hours can make!! So, I basically left you yesterday not really sure about anything….I thought maybe I would have to cancel our Disney trip due to the financial situation. Yep, poor Peter came home to a wife who was just crying :sad1: and feeling so hopeless. He, in typical man form, told me not to cry and that I would make it all work out fine. After about one hour, I decided to put my big girl panties on and start really looking into our options. First of all I looked into flights on Southwest out of NH. Now there’s was nothing good as far as prices for our already booked dates, so I had the system look for flights for the entire month. I found an online special of $77 one way per person. :jumping3: I thought well no way was I going to be able to make this work as one flight landed at Orlando at 8:40pm and I just think that’s a waste of a day!! So I kept looking and looking and trying to figure out should we stay the night in NH the night before just to take an early flight, etc. etc. Then I researched the parking garage rates vs hotel parking….blah, blah, blah. I finally decided (with the ok of Peter, but then again, he would probably say ok to ANYTHING I wanted by that point ;) ) that we would take a 9am flight out of NH on Southwest for $77 pp one way. The available date was September 8th….eeek! :scared1: A full 2 weeks before I really wanted to go, but YAY ANN!!! Whoo hoo!!! Parking at the airport garage is $10 per day so $120 for parking. The cheapest hotel I could find was $79 per night plus $5 per day in parking so that would be $134 and we would be at the mercy of their airport shuttle. :headache: Besides, I really only want to unpack/pack once during a trip so I’ve decided that we will be driving. The NH airport is 2 hours 17 minutes away from my house (per Google) so I figure if we leave by 5:30am we should be all set. I really didn’t know how close the airport in NH was to us. :confused3 Portland is one hour away, so we are just adding on an extra hour…..not too bad. Was I happy…..well, one minor issue…..could the ressie be changed? :scared: Now, the trick was to call the TA and see if our package dates could be moved up and still have our Free Dining!! So, desperate me left a message on my TA’s email, facebook and then I emailed her again from work this morning (HI Dee --- You love me, right???!!:upsidedow ). I was still not getting my hopes up because hey, it’s free dining, the rooms may be all taken, etc.



So, I’m working away, patiently (yeah, who am I kidding?? :rolleyes1 ) waiting……9:30am rolls around and I get an email from the TA stating everything is all set. I responded just to make sure it was still free dining and yep, it sure was and I had her do a new booking for me…..September 8th to September 19th…..Oh no….what if the seats on these $77 flights were taken. Holy crap!!! :sad2: And I had to wait until 10am on my “official” break to go online and book. Oh, I also had to get Peter’s permission to use his debit card. Fortunately for me, I still had his information written down from last time I had to use it…..(Hey, mama didn’t raise no fool!!! :) ) I get online, book, and here we go…..



PORT ORLEANS FRENCH QUARTER SEPTEMBER 8TH THROUGH 19TH WITH FREE DINING BOOKED. AIRFARE BOOKED AND PAID FOR. :banana: :cool1: :banana: :cool1: :banana: :cool1: :banana: :cool1: :banana:



The return flight is departing MCO at 5:15pm and landing in NH at 10:05pm so we’ll be home a little before 1am on the 20th. I just hope Peter won’t be too tired for driving. And I am excited that we will be in Disney on our actual anniversary date of September 18th. :love: For that night I have Park Fare planned. After all, that’s the dinner where Peter and I waltzed right besides Cinderella and Prince Charming…..how many people can actually say that??



Now was the rearranging of days, looking at hours, looking at Tour Guide Mike ---- just too much to do, but you know me, I loved every single minute of it…..oh, that is in between doing my actual paid-for work. I must say too that we saved a whopping $16 from the previous quote as we are all in September and not into the higher October rates! I believe I have my days pretty much nailed down, along with ADR’s. I was kind of bummed that none of our days line up with EMH’s but that’s ok. I never took advantage of them anyways……So…..I will be doing my day by day soon…..:goodvibes

And thanks for the kind words everyone.....it does help!!

 
Hi Ann! I've missed you. I haven't been on the dis in a while, we've been so busy! And honestly when I don't have a trip in the planning, it doesnt really cross my mind to come on. I'm happy to see you've started a PTR and are going back again in September! WooHoo for you guys! I SOOOO missed you updates about dising and trip planning while you're at work. You're too funny:rotfl: I'm sorry about how you're feeling though, hope things are better for you this week. Trust me, we all go through that every now and then. You certainly seem like a wonderful mother with Victoria as your priority. My oldest is only 11 so I haven't had to deal with teenage girls yet.........but i'm preparing myself because it seems like quite the task!

I love your piggy bank, it's too cute. And the little hamster is adorable. I had hamsters when I was little. My girls had 2 when they were little. BUT...one of them bit Emily's finger real good. So neither of the kids ever wanted to pick them up and after them, they didn't want anymore. We have fish now :rotfl:

So even though I was bummed about not being able to go to Disney last September, we have a the beginnings of a trip being planned for June/July 2012. I'm super excited about it! We will be there over Emily's 13th birthday and July 4th is our wedding anniversary! I just got the position at work that i've been waiting for so....... the financial part will not be an issue for this trip:dance3: That feels good to say!!!

PM me your last name, so I can friend you on facebook!!!

Oh Pam!!! I did pm you my last name (although it's in my signature under my AVON link). I'm glad to hear that you'll be starting a PTR soon. I just love having a forum to bounce ideas off of. I miss you, too!!! I miss hearing how your girls (and Anthony) are doing. We got used to reading all about their adventures and then.....no trip, so no updates. Please friend me on Facebook so I can read about updates and see pics there!! So, how is married life? I love it, myself. I hope you stick around....
 
I'm SO GLAD you got it all worked out! And your flights are booked and paid for! WOOT!!! :woohoo: How exciting!
 














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