Vacation Update Part II

Picking up where we left off... our family was gearing up for some fun in Frontierland at WDW. When we took Brooke to WDW when she was three, she was too short to ride Big Thunder Mountain RR and Splash Mountain...but now she is tall enough! We'd found videos of the rides on You-Tube so we got her a little prepared for them. She kept pulling this "I'm scared" crap but we wouldn't listen to it-- we just knew she'd love it once we actually got her on them.

I had the brilliant idea to fastpass them at the same time. Since we were having to do a baby-swap on them anyways...it worked out so great. Matt, Brooke and I got fastpasses for Splash Mountain for us, and fastpasses for his parents on Big Thunder. Then the six of us went and asked the cast member for rider-swap tickets. (They offer this for families travelling with little ones so the tall folks can take turns riding the rides without having to wait thru two long lines, etc). They sat with Hannah while we rode Splash Mountain on our Fastpass...then when we got off with Brooke they took their turn. Then we did the same thing on Big Thunder. As predicted--- Brooke LOVED both of them. (though she said she didn't want to go on them again, she enjoyed them and was laughing. Apparently it was enough excitement for the moment). She didn't want to get wet on Splash Mountain and fortunately she didn't!
While Gma and Gpa were finishing up on Big Thunder, we took off to tomorrowland to get lunch. They met us after. It was pretty crowded and we had a heck of a time finding a table. This is also where Brooke lost her mouse-ears. She'd had them all of 90 minutes, and set them down, and then about 20 minutes later Matt asked where they were. Long gone is where! Of course, Grandma bought her a new pair even though I said "Well I am NOT buying you another pair!". Geewhiz.

We decided to head back to the hotel for a few hours. Everyone was hot and tired and Hannah needed a nap and to cool off. Baby was hot being in that stroller! We were reminded why we like staying at the Contemporary-- it takes about 5 minutes to get there as opposed to about 25 minutes to the other properties via bus.

To wrap up our day at Magic Kingdom--since we still have a seven-day cruise to talk about-- We went back that evening for a little while, but found it a little too hot around the 5p.m. hour for Hannah. We'd gotten in most of the rides we wanted to, so we just decided to go back to our hotel for dinner and to relax and walk around.

Saturday May 2nd was the big day for us to get on our cruise! The girls were up about 7 a.m. The bell-guy came and got all of our cruise bags (except the carryons we were keeping with us) at 8a.m. We wandered over to a neighboring hotel (The Boardwalk, a DVC property) and ate some yummy stuff from a bakery outside on the Boardwalk. We had until about 1130 till we caught our bus.

The drive to the port was a little over an hour. Hannah finally fell asleep about the last 30 minutes (she is a wiggly fighter when she is on your lap and not wanting to go to sleep!). The EXCITEMENT we felt when the Port came into view and we could see the Disney Magic was wonderful. Ahhh it made us so happy -it'd been a year in the making! Since we had checked in at the hotel, and our bus was not one of the first ones to arrive at the Port, we were able to get right on the ship. It was so exciting to hear them announce "Welcome The Collinsworth family, on their SECOND DISNEY CRUISE!" We were just giddy. Our staterooms were ready so we ditched the carryons and went for some lunch. We had enough time to do a little exploring, tried to let Hannah relax for awhile, worry about where our bags were (two of our suitcases were quite slow in arriving outside our room, one being so late we asked our host to go look for it!).

At 4p.m. we had to report for the safety drill. This is where everyone puts on their lifevest, and reports to an assigned area on deck for roll call. All cruise lines are required to ensure that all persons participate in this drill. Thank God for pacifiers--that's the only thing that kept Hannah from having a big fit as she was wedged into a child-life-preserver and she was HOT!

Afterwards we ditched the lifevests and went up for the sail-away party. It is a jammin fun time where we all partied down, got our groove on, and listened to the only-on-Disney-cruise line horn belt out the tune to "when you wish upon a star..." as we sailed out of Port Canaveral!

We were at dinner at 545. Hannah was so tired, but she did pretty good. My last suitcase-- containing my makeup, had arrived about 30 minutes before we left for dinner- thank goodness! I don't remember what I ordered that night, but it was fabulous. I didn't eat a single thing on the ship that was less than fabulous. We put Hannah to bed shortly after dinner (since they take about an hour to get thru).

At this point, I will wrap up this post by saying, Thank God we had Matt's parents with us who had a connecting room. It would have been hard to get thru bedtimes without having their room to escape to.... we would get Brooke in her jammies and have her go to their room and relax a little bit, then we'd get Hannah tucked into her pack-n-play, pull the curtain between the girls' sleeping area and ours, and sneak into their room. After about 20 minutes, once we were sure hannah was asleep, Matt would take Brooke over and tuck her in. Then he'd chill on the balcony of his parents' room with his dad while Anne and I watched tv, chitchatted about the next day's events, or I went off to explore or do something. If we didn't have their room connecting to us, then Matt and I would have had to quietly just be in our bed too with the lights off!

I actually didn't take any pics of our stateroom this time... but I can describe it a little with this picture as a visual aid. Just past Matt and Hannah here is the door to the balcony. They are sitting on the couch in our room that converted to Brooke's twin bed. You can see in the forefront of the picture the corner of the pack-n-play. It took up a good majority of our 'sitting area' floor space. So the pack-n-play and Brooke's bed were about 2 feet apart at night, which is why we put the girls to bed in shifts. There was a curtain to pull that would separate this area from the queen sized bed. We had split bathrooms which means there was one (teeny tiny) bathroom that was the potty and a sink/mirror, and another that was the shower with a sink/mirror. Disney Cruise lines' staterooms are up to 25% larger than industry standard. I'm not sure we'd survive being in one much smaller than these! And it would have been really tough not having Anne and Gary's room to go next door to!

Coming up-- Fun on the cruise-- I'll try to start condensing the recap a bit more!

We're Back... Part I of "Our Trip"

Two weeks since my last post...things got a little crazy the last few days getting ready for our trip...and we've just been pooped since we got back! Laundry is washed but not put away- suitcases are almost emptied out (except the sand we need to go dump outside!), trying to get back to normal. I don't recall being pooped out while we were ON vacation (until the last day and then the travel day home).... is reality really this exhausting?!

SO--since we took a TEN DAY vacation I'm going to fill you in on everything thru a few posts. I'm allotting myself ten minutes of blogging time right now. So we'll see how far I get!

We flew to Orlando on April 29th. We flew on Continental...everything went great. I've never had such ON TIME flights ever. The girls did wonderful. Hannah did the same thing Brooke did at this age-- fell asleep the last 45 minutes of each leg. Other kids konk out the entire flight, not ours. But she was good. Brooke sat with grandma and grandpa, and except for some whining when we were landing because of her ears, she did great too. Mommy was a little panicked on the flight out of Wichita- we took off in a storm (and ironically, our friends were delayed because of a storm the next morning. difference in pilots I guess). It was a very turbulent first 20-30 minutes. Brooke was giggling, and I was downing the dramamine and wondering if those Catholic "Hail Marys" really got you anywhere..lol..! But we made it!

It took almost 45-stinkin-minutes to get our rental cars at the Orlando airport. I was annoyed - it threw my afternoon off kilter. You know me and schedules...or maybe you don't- But I'm a schedule person. We finally found someplace to eat (some Wendy's hidden off an exit ramp), and then were on to Sarasota to see my family. They were supposed to meet us at the hotel pool to relax for awhile that evening- and meet us at 5. We got checked in at 450. So while Matt brought in luggage, I threw the girls into their swimsuits and took off down to the pool. We got to spend a few hours with my cousin Kelly, her son Kai, hubby Scott; my aunt and uncle, and my cousin Mick and his wife and kids too. My grandma was there as well. It was great to see everyone and have some time unwinding and playing in the pool after a long day of travel.

The view from our Balcony at the Hyatt in Sarasota

Thursday morning we got up, had some breakfast (complimentary of the hotel because they messed up our reservation and did not have connecting rooms for us). Matt's parents stayed behind (they had their own rental car) and did their own thing for the day while we went to spend the day with my Grandma. We hung around at her house, went out to lunch, and hung out some more. At 3p.m.; we were on our way back to Orlando!

The girls with their great-grandma Nanny

We checked into the Dolphin side of Disney's Swan/Dolphin resort. This I think is owned by Disney but operated by Starwood...so not a complete Disney property but ON Disney property with the busses, etc. It was a gorgeous hotel. We took the girls to the pool for awhile; they had 5 different ones and it was gorgeous!!! Here we did have connecting rooms with Matt's parents; so we put Hannah to bed in the pack-n-play, then hung out in their room. We were able to see the Epcot fireworks from our windows. Brooke would not go in and go to bed without us for some reason (when we're in a hotel room with 2 double-beds, she sleeps with one of us). So we all went to bed about 930.

Friday morning was the BIG DAY. We were off to MAGIC KINDGDOM for the day. I was sooooo excited! I love MK. It was Hannah's first visit to WDW and we were pumped. We got on one of the first busses and got there about 25 minutes before the park opened. We could tell it was going to be a hot day. We started the day off with our friends; and after the little opening-show thingy- it was off thru the gates, down Main Street, thru the Castle and onto FANTASYLAND. When you have little ones, it's best to head straight to Fantasyland and ride as much as you can back there before the lines get long. Dumbo is popular with the little ones and it doesn't have a fast-pass. So we rode Dumbo first, then the Carousel twice, then It's a Small World. Hannah got to ride all of those with us. She LOVED "Small World." She was smiling, and pointing, and giggling, and clapping. It was so cute. Brooke was so excited to be there she was grinning ear to ear!



Hannah's first Disney ride!

After a potty/diaper break, we took a few minutes to regroup. We were bound and determined to get a ride on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain, but our friends weren't planning on heading that way (it was their first visit to WDW). So... Grandma and Grandpa took Brooke with the Barnes' to Peter Pan, and Matt, Hannah and I headed over with our park passes to get fast-passes for those two rides.

Well my time is up- by the time I added in the pictures I was more at 20 minutes. So much for being disciplined-- lol....off to figure out dinner so I can leave to workout when Matt gets home...

Up next....Finishing up Magic Kingdom.... "Zip-a-dee-do-dah, Zip-a-dee-yeah, my oh my what a wonderful day"....

Oink Oink

Ahhhh this SWINE FLU thing is giving me a HEADACHE! I have friends/customers flying to Mexico on Wednesday and we spent most of the morning trying to figure out if we should change their trip and if so, what their options are...! I feel for them.... We leave on Wednesday for our trip too and I keep praying, crossing fingers, all that stuff that we all stay healthy for our trip!!!! My friends decided just to "roll the dice" and keep their Mexico plans and hope that flights going into Puerto Vallarta don't get cancelled.

so far the concentration is in Mexico City, it has not been reported to reach either coast...We're supposed to be in Cozumel on May 6th but we're going on a cruise ship, so if Disney decides not to go there, that's alright; because we'll still be cruising!

Part of me feels like the media has it all hyped up. Isn't that what they do most of the time? I mean, if this was a smallpox/malaria/diptheria/some other terrible thing I'd understand. It's a form of flu. It responds to tami-flu. 1500 people in the entire country of Mexico-- there's a LOT of people in Mexico, so isn't that really a fairly small percentage?

I don't know. I'm hoping all goes well for my friends. We all plan on washing our hands like crazy of course anyways.

In the meantime, I'm trying to keep miss allergies/asthma (brooke) well rested so she doesn't get sick. She seems to have some drainage going on. Heaven forbid she take a NAP for me!! I've got so much to do between now and Wednesday morning, and that is even with having a few things "wait" till we get home! Yikes!

Pray for happy, healthy, MAGICal safe wonderful travels for us!

Sum-it-up Saturday

We've got a real fun day planned around here. Laundry.

But that's okay since it is in anticipation of finishing up packing for our trip!

Matt is off work again today--and is spending the morning running some errands.

If the weather holds off then I'll probably run some errands this afternoon.

A recent conversation--

Me "I need to go get a new swim suit cover up"

Matt "Don't you have one?"

Me "Yes but it's getting all frayed and cruddy looking"

Matt "Well you got it cheap in Nassau didn't you?"

Me "YES. that is why, since I paid $10 for it TWO YEARS AGO, I think I'm plenty deserving to go get a new one. I think I've gotten my money's worth!"

Another recent conversation, the other night when I was camera happy. Like this is something new?

Matt "Why are you taking all these pictures?"

Me - blank stare

Matt "Why are you messing with your camera so much this evening"

Me - well-duh-stare "Just because I want to! Better get used to it babe, vacations coming! And you better get it in your head to do some picture taking on this vacation so I can actually make it INTO some shots!"

The rest of our recent little WORTH-while moments--

*Hannah's 3rd tooth popped thru this week. It's on top, but weirdly enough it is one of her eye-teeth and not one of the front ones.

*I cleaned Brooke's room one day this week, and miraculously enough it is still clean. Same for our room. Now i just need to get Hannah's done.

*Saw the movie "Marley and Me" with Debbie- in the Collinsworth theatre. It was cute. People say "Wasn't it sad? Doesn't the dog die?" and to that I say "Don't all dogs die eventually?"

*We went to the art fair at Brooke's school. They had some super-cute little projects they had done. Now I need to find places to display it all!

*We did a re-fi on our house and finally got it closed yesterday. A savings of $235/month on our house payment. That'll be nice!

Some pics from my picture-happy evening:

Gardening

I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon cleaning all the dead stuff and fresh weeds out of one of the flower beds, uncovering the perennials that have poked thru. Or, the cone-flowers that have taken over the bed completely. I tried to thin them out a bit, planted some petunias, and mulched the flower bed. Only got one done.

The whole time, I was NOT enjoying myself. I thought about my grandma dean and how amazing her backyard always was when we were growing up. Gorgeous plant life, everything perfectly placed, looking great, fabulous. She must have worked so hard on that, she and grandpa. Because it is hard work just doing my stupid flower bed that is NOT great.

Apparently she has the green thumb and passion for gardening that did not get carried onto me.

I don't mind digging holes, sticking a plant in. I don't mind watering (when I remember). I love pretty flowers and I love fresh vegetables (I'm hoping still to get some small version of a vegetable garden put in somehow). But I hate weeding. I hate cleaning out the flower bed, cutting back the old stuff.

And I have a real love-hate relationship with the cone-flowers. They fill the bed, they look pretty in all their pink glory. But they have choked out some other things, and by mid July, they look like they burst into flames and are all burnt-looking! Then they are just ugly the rest of the summer. I dug up a bunch of them, gave some to the neighbors, gave some to the trash can. I'm hoping I did it right and therefore successfully weeded out some of them!

So this is what I accomplished yesterday:

And aren't the phlox in the "bearclaw" (that's the shape of the area around the tree by our driveway) looking great?

But.... this is still what I have to contend with:

And see that little bunch of color in the middle of that mess? It is these:

They pop up all over. They're like miniature pansies. I'm sure they have a real name. I wonder if I might be able to dig this bunch up? Maybe I'll stick it in that pot that is empty, by the "done" bed.

Now the thing about the flowerbed that is not done. It's in front of our porch. And in the middle of it lies the hidden beast that is our own "Little Shop of Horrors" Plant. It is a GIGANTIC hibiscus. The thing gets huge. Once it springs up, it will grow a few INCHES a DAY until it is full grown. And full grown it is almost as tall as me and about 5 feet around. We have to tie it up, and anchor it to the deck rails to help it keep from breaking in the Kansas wind, as well as help to keep at least a little of our sidewalk traversable! I'll have to try to document this for you in pictures. It's amazing. We dug it up from our old house when we moved, chopped the heck out of the roots while doing so, stuck it in a garbage bag in our garage for months when we moved. Then we planted it out there, and it's been a maniac of a plant ever since. There are two other hibiscus plants in this bed as well. They don't get nearly as big. And I try to stick some other stuff in there, but it all gets pretty well taken over by the Monster anyways. That little edge along the sidewalk that is in front of the paver stone, I usually put in petunias. I should do something else there. Not sure what. The middle section gets eaten up by the Monster anyways. I wonder if phlox would do good along there?

And we haven't even looked at the backyard, have we? Well.... not much to look at, but hoping that will change this spring/summer. I think we're going to do some work/landscaping around the playhouse/swing set area. As a matter of fact, we've come up with some extra money to pay for it, so we should get to work on it as soon as we get home from the Big Trip.

In the meantime... if there are any gardening fairies reading this post.... feel free to come get this bed done for me!

Catching up

Well since my diet-pity-party the other day, I suppose I should post something a little more entertaining. I'm going to give you what they always called in the corporate world a "high overview"... but this is of our week/life/household as opposed to charts, numbers, and sales.

Matt--

Snoozing on the couch.

Flew twice this week.

Not working tomorrow- like the 4th Saturday in a row! he's got self-proclaimed vacationitis.

Has not eaten the big Reester Bunny I got him.

Brooke--

Doing great in swimming lessons.

Slept till 740 one morning this week. I told her to do it again on Saturday. Not likely.

Going to see the Hannah Montana movie tomorrow with Mommy and cousins.

Had quite a conversation about Jesus and heaven last night- that she started!

Hannah--

Is a pacifier addict. In a serious way.

Has been cranky the last two nights.

Has renewed her interest in the stairs. Not good.

Makes this "ock" sound when you ask her to say "dog." Uses it in appropriate context.

Finally throws her own hands in the air when you ask "how big is hannah?!"

Angie--

Almost won New Kids on the Block tickets on the radio this morning.

Will be buying NKOTB tickets tomorrow morning!

Ate cookies this week.

Is slowly chipping away at all that I have to do to get ready for the trip!

Is finding packing for 2 little girls, herself, and hubby for the trip to be a daunting task!

Has not chewed on her nails for a week! Yeah me!

and a few pictures from easter. Just a week late. I'm not sure how Matt escaped the camera that day!

Failure....

...sucks. Today I feel like such a failure. Most days I have fairly decent self esteem...today it is in the shitter. (Sorry, I try not to use words like that too often!). I am just such a failure at trying to lose weight and it is ABSOLUTELY MY FAULT. It is not my thyroid. It is not because it is hard to lose weight. It is because of what I choose to put in my mouth. And I have got to stop failing!

I wanted to lose 30 lbs for our trip. I've lost 7 lbs. Our trip is in 2 weeks. This failure is because of what I eat. I work out pretty good, at least 4 times a week; and I do some pretty kick-ass (I'm on a roll with the language) workouts. I also do great at eating a low-calorie, well balanced breakfast, lunch and dinner. My problem is snacking and sweets. I just prowl the kitchen in the afternoons. I munch when I make dinner. I have a snack after dinner. This would be okay if it is one cookie...but it's often two with a nice sized glass of milk.

The Easter candy here is killing me. I love candy. And saying "get it out of the house" just isn't fair to the rest of the family.

I can do great one day. Have a major will-power day, and feel so proud of my self. Then I "Celebrate" the next day or treat myself. Counterproductive.

I am an emotional eater. Call me Oprah. I know this for a fact. I get stressed out with the kids, and I medicate with sweets. I feel like "ACK. What a day. They are down for a nap, I am going to reward myself for surviving the morning. Where's the ____?" You may think "Reward yourself with something else." Great idea. If I could walk out the door that instant and get a massage, I'd totally do that :) I have got to find myself a new form of collateral.

Because I don't want to be a failure. I don't want to be fat. Brooke told me the other day I was chubby. She's right. And it's mortifying. I look in the mirror most days and think I look okay. But I know that I don't. The scale tells me. The size of my pants tells me!

And how stupid is this failure, really? BIG TIME STUPID. I mean, I do not ENJOY working out at all. I do it because I have to. And then I sabotage all that effort by eating junk on top of my allowed calories for the day? It's sooo stupid. And here I thought I was a pretty smart girl, even if I did fail a math class at ISU.

And it's okay to have a piece of cake. A small one. It's okay to have a cookie. But I usually end up having more than one "treat" each day....several actually.... and I blow my calorie-allowance out of the water by doing so. And I know it when I am doing it. And I do it anyway. Why is that? I don't know...but I better figure it out and figure it out quick. I'm tired of being a failure. Of being a disappointment to myself and others. Of being overweight. But I'm also tired of battling it. Why can't I be one of those people who can eat whatever and be stick-thin? My dad eats CRAP all the time...and he probably weighs 100 lbs soaking wet. Why didn't I get his metabolism?

I guess the WHY's don't matter. It's the "What am I going to do about it" that does. And right now, I really don't know. I guess I'm going to have to take it one damn bite at a time. Pray for me!