Category Archives: Disney

Thursday Thoughts

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Lots of things are happening. Wanted to share a few thoughts with you.

  1. Our trip to Florida was different this time.  First, we drove my car instead of the Tahoe.  We chose this because of the holiday travel. I did not want to be pulling a camper on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  By driving the car, we were able to stop for gas less, make better time, eat at a drive thru and overall spent about half the amount on gas as we normally do. Next, we purchased lighten lanes to use at Disney- This was a true luxury.  We were able to watch 3 shows, ride all the rides we wanted except 1 (Rise of the Resistance) in a shorter day at Hollywood Studios.  I am not convinced that we will need this in the future but they did make things much easier and quicker.  Finally we enjoyed staying at hotels but even Zach said he preferred the campground and staying in the camper to a hotel room.  I really missed the extra luggage space as well.
  2. Both kids are on the swim teams which means 3 days a week practice with one usually a morning one. We have two meets before Christmas Zach has also started baseball workouts which are also three days a week.
  3. The weather has made a massive change with snow and wind which means extreme cold, and I DISLIKE the cold. The benefit is that we are having lots of soup this week!
  4. My friend Nancy and I are planning a Christmas Dinner party. I am excited and really do enjoy cooking when I don’t have to hurry or worry about it.  I am hopefully to have some time to sit and plan and hopefully even share how I am planning and preparing for it.
  5. Because of the party, I would like to have our house clean and super clean. I had a house cleaner come this week on Monday and another cleaning scheduled for 3 days before the party.   I also am making a short list of extra chores that just need to be done ahead of time.
  6. In preparation for the party, I want to try out a dinner roll recipe and see if I can get decent results.  I hope to accomplish this on Saturday along with making Reindeer Crack.
  7. Most of the Christmas decorating is complete.  I decided to only put up a Disney Village and one LARGE tree.  I did add a couple of decorations to the kitchen but legitimately about half of the regular decorations.  We have not decorated the outside except for Matt who has installed permanent lights.  Another Saturday goal is to pull out and get the outside decorations done.
  8.  I currently have purchased and wrapped all Christmas presents!  I am super excited and proud of this accomplishment.
  9. My work continues to be stressful.  This school year has been one of the hardest for me.
  10. My mother’s surgery is scheduled for next week. This is to finally get her heart back in a normal rhythm.  I am praying this get her back some energy.
  11. We are headed back to Florida on the Saturday after Christmas. This trip has two purposes: celebrate Christmas with Haley and David  and bring Lily home!
  12. I am in total agreement that December is just as busy if more busy than the month of May!

Five Things

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  1. This has been a better week for me. I have been able to enjoy work and am actually staying somewhat caught up.  I hope to continue this routine as the first of this school year has been rough and I am glad to not dread coming to work.
  2. We are headed to Florida for Thanksgiving. We have travel alot more years than we have stayed at home on Thanksgiving. My only disappointment is the temperature in Florida are suppose to be in the 70s , I was hoping for 80s.
  3. Thanksgiving is late this year, the last week of November so I have decided to go ahead and decorate!   I hope by the end of the weekend to have all the decorations that I am going to use both inside and outside in place.
  4. Zach has already started practice for Baseball in the Spring,  He is continuing to swim.  This means that staying at home all evenings was short lived but much enjoyed. I am glad that he finishes baseball around 4:45 instead of 5:45.
  5. I think we have settled our plans for Christmas/ New Years so now I definitely need to get my plans together for the beach next year!

5 Things Friday

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  1. Matt and Zach are planning to finish up the gazebo on our brand-new back deck tomorrow. We purchased the gazebo back in July during prime days.   When we started to assemble, we realized that. We were missing a box need to finish the top.  It has taken almost a month to get the new material needed. I am very hopeful that this project will be completed tomorrow.
  2.  One of the things that is suggested is to check to see if you can reduce any of your subscriptions/ regular bills. Our internet service has been with Spectrum for more than 10 years, I am thinking it is closer to 20. Our cost increased by $20 in the month of November. Matt was able to locate, and we should be switching to a different provider in the next week. This should save us approximately $20 a month for the next 24 months. The biggest hurdle is that we will loss access to our main email accounts. I am hoping to spend some time tomorrow while the guys are working outside and starting changing emails to a free account, we should have access to forever!
  3. We are continuing to experience the warmest November that I can remember!   The high today was 79 and the low was 64 which is the average high temperature.  I think we will be back to more average temperatures by the end of next week.
  4.  Monday is Veteran’s Day. In the past this has been the day that I start with Christmas decorating specifically my snow village.  Because of our current travel schedule, I don’t think I am going to put the village up this year. My current plan is to put out my Disney village stuff, one large Disney themed tree and the kitchen sink will hold a rod of Christmas ball ornaments.
  5. I dislike daylight saving time. The time change has been difficult for me this year!

Upcoming Adventures!

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I am catching me breath and looking forward to some upcoming adventures.

This week Matt is on a business trip to Austria.  Because of the time difference, he is six hours in the future, communication will be very limited.  It should be interesting to say the least.

I have 3 trips planned to Florida before the end of the year!  Lots of Disney fun!

Zach has three more football games and then will start swimming.

Kendall is working every Saturday and will start swimming October 30th. She has finished her first set of college classes with high A’s and is starting to think about life in the future. She also will be visiting Florida 3 times in three months!

Lily’s current plan is to return home in January and finish her degree and decide her next big adventure.

We were able to finish up several home improvement projects this weekend, but I thought I would share what is next.

First hopefully in the near future, the back deck gazebo will be complete, and we can decide on furniture and start enjoying it more.

Matt is planning to add several additional electrical outlets to add to our home renovations from the summer. After the additional outlets, hopefully permanent lighting on the outside will be the last project of the year.

We are done gardening for the year, I know that we need to fertilize beds, add a couple of arches and a major repair on one bed but that can all wait til the Spring.  I am going to do some serious planning this winter and plan to add some landscaping as well.

Matt will likely have at least one additional surgery for skin cancer and Mom has an ablation scheduled as well.

What adventures do you have planned?

 

5 Things Friday Catch up Edition!

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  1. Our Disney trip was AWESOME!  We enjoyed Easter Sunday with David and Haley at the Beach.  David and Haley also joined us and Braxton for a couple of days of Disney fun!   We were able to enjoy the campground and have discovered that Hoop De Doo Review is our favorite show!   We are also learning that sticking with what we know we like is maybe better than trying all the things.  This was our first and last trip to Steakhouse 71, burnt steak is not acceptable on any level.  Although it was suggested that we go for breakfast so maybe!
  2. I came home on Sunday feeling absolutely miserable! I walked inside, took a shower and went to bed. I had a cough that lasted for 10 days.  I still have a cough, but it is much better. I was discussing with Matt that I have been sick more and worse this year than I can ever remember.
  3. I still LOVE the camper.   Side note, it took us a full week to actually get it cleaned out this time.  However, I can say it is definitely our money pit. Each time we take it out we end up needing to replace some items.  This trip, the toilet has to be replaced.  It is leaking water both in the bowl and on the floor. Matt has already replaced the seal, so the full thing is replaced this time. We also have to replace a taillight that cracked and the latch on the screen door.  Sunday morning before leaving we discovered that a light bulb needed to be replaced!   Next up will likely be the door!
  4. Because of being so sick on the way home, it has taken almost a full two weeks for me to catch up on everything including blogging!  Now I can begin my count down to summer. Technically, we have 8 weeks left in the school year with 5 of actual treatment.
  5. I have been super busy this week, working on getting the garden planted. We or I should say Matt worked hard before we left, and the greenhouse worked like a charm!  I will be planting out all the tomatoes and green peppers in the next week depending on the weather.

5 Things Friday

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  1. Last weekend we spent some time shopping to fulfill some summer needs.  I did not realize that both Kendall and Zach needed new shoes.  I still have a small list of items that are needed but I hope to finish those up this weekend as well. This was expensive but we spent time at Goodwill and Bargains by the Bin before heading to the other stores.  Zach was able to find T-shirts at Belks for around $10 each!
  2. Another good deal last weekend was Shutterfly offered 8×8 books starting at $10.  This is an awesome deal, actually one of my favorites.  I ended up spending a great deal of time, really too much time, finishing up several projects. I ordered a total of 6 books and ended up spending $130 including shipping.  The extra cost came from using Disney themes and extra pages (anything over 20). I do have one additional book I would like to get made and printed. This week Shutterfly is offering unlimited pages so I may see what that cost would be. But this depends on my time.
  3. We are headed to Disney in a short time.  I have set a couple of goals for myself in order not to be the fat mom that slows everyone down. The first is that I spend at least 12 hours on the treadmill at the YMCA.   I did my first hour last night so 11 more to go. I also want Braxton to get used to walking as we are not planning to use a stroller on this trip.  The hope is that we can start family walks on Sundays and Lily would like to do at least one other walk during the week. The problem again is time at home.
  4. I have officially lost weight. In fact, I received a compliment on it last week!   I have lost 16 pounds since December!   I am also down one jean size which is super fun!
  5. We did not even remotely stick to the pantry challenge this month. So I have decided that we will do a strict pantry challenge with the exception of milk and water and soda until our Costco trip prior to leaving.  The challenge will begin March 1st.  We will be going to Costco before then but no other trips will be made unless something is a necessity by my standards.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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I am starting to feel better again!   I started with a new and much more fun cold last Thursday. I came home from work on Friday and literally stay in the house spending most of the time in bed until Monday morning.  Today, I have lots of congestion, but no headache and less coughing!

I am going to continue the pantry challenge into both February and March.   The rules are that we only purchase items we are out of.   So far the lack of fresh fruit has been the problem so we did purchase some last week. We are planning a trip to Costco this weekend. I am going to work hard to only purchase our drinks for a month which is 2 cases of water, 1 case of diet cokes and 1 case of Dr. Peppers. Matt is getting his tea on subscribe and save so I am going to omit the case of regular cokes.  We also need flour and rice, bacon and sour cream.   This will not be a cheap trip but my hope is this will help us hold the course.  I have also reviewed and decreased our Subscribe and Save for February as well, I know that this will be $200.  I also need to order more laundry detergent for Lily which is $70.   Along with the Costco Trip I will be doing well to keep the budget at $500 for the month.   I will also be purchasing some fruits and veggies for our Junk Food Sunday.  Again I may end up around $700 for February.   I am going to be ok with it because I am still saving money and rotating the pantry.  I am starting to see a difference in our pantry and freezers so this is all a good thing.

On a positive note, we are currently getting an average of 4 eggs a day which definitely helps with protein intake and grocery expenses

We have started with our busy Spring Season of sports. This week we have both swim and baseball practice. Which means that Friday is the only evening that we will not be running somewhere.  I have been enjoying my easier, cook or heat meals so we will continue with those which will also help with our grocery budget.

It has reached our 60 day mark for our spring Disney Trip!   I was able to get up super early and got all the reservations that I wanted!   I can’t wait!