Sunday - Day Two

We got up pretty early - I think we were excited 'cause we were going to the Magic Kingdom. Ate breakfast at the Roaring Fork again and were at the opening of the park at 8 am (we got in early because we were on-property). We had M wearing tennis shoes, t-shirt, and shorts. As soon as we got into the park, M wanted to wear her princess outfit. I swapped out the t-shirt with the dress and she was set. Of course, she needed a tiara!

We were able to ride the following rides (warning: some of the links has music that I don't know how to turn off)

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was too scary for M. She cried through the whole thing and started us off on the wrong foot.

Since she was so scared, we decided to try a ride she could see. We stood in line for Dumbo the Flying Elephant for about 20 minutes. M was just fine on this one, although she didn't want to go all the way to the top.

Next stop was to see her favorite princess Ariel in Ariel's Grotto. The gal who played Ariel was great and gave M plenty of time to talk to her.

M calmed down enough by this time, so we decided to try another dark ride: It's a Small World. M was terrified and cried almost the whole way. We finally got her to point out three silly things in each room, and that calmed her down quite a bit.

We got a call from J's family and they were in the park. We told them to meet us over near Cinderella's Golden Carousel. M & I rode on horses.

She was really happy with this ride.

Once the nephews joined us, M was a different kid. She still wasn't really interested in riding the "puppet" rides. We went on It's a Small World again and she had no problems with the ride this time. Then we went to go see a new attraction; Mickey's PhilHarMagic. It was a really cute 3-D movie that was really about Donald Duck. They had some jewels that looked like they hung in the air. Grandpa found some gems later on in the trip and gave them to the kids saying that he was able to grab a few from the air in the movie.

We all ran over to watch Country Bear Jamboree. This was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. I even had the record! Watching it as a 40-year old adult, though, it was just sad. The sound was bad, the lighting bad, and each bear looked just worn out. They need to update this show in a bad way.

About this time, we needed to head over to Cinderella's castle as we had a lunch date at Cinderella's Royal Table. We got into line to meet Cinderella. M got three photo's because the nephews really didn't want any.

Our name was called and M was given these:
The nephews got swords and were called Princes. M was able to meet Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, and the Fairy Godmother. MA gave her an autograph book before we left. She used up all the pages!

The food was really good and it was fun seeing my daughter so happy.

After lunch, we headed over to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin ride. M hated it. We then rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. M was fine until we went into Space Mountain. She hates the dark and loud noises.

By this time, M had had it and wasn't having any fun. We left the family and slowly headed over towards the hotel. As soon as we got into the room, M had all her clothes off and was looking for her swim suit. She wanted to go back to the pool. J & M headed out by themselves as I wanted a little down time. My down time didn't last long. I put on my swim suit and joined them. We swam until 8:30 pm ran upstairs and fell into bed. We were all out by 9:30 pm - and that's Eastern time!

After we finally understood what M would ride and be okay with, Disney became a little more fun for all of us.

Saturday - Day One

We woke up at 4:30 am on Saturday morning 'cause our flight left D/FW at 7:35 am. My dear friend MA graciously got up and took us to the airport. The flight was uneventful.

We had tagged our bags with the tags provided by Disney - we were staying on property at the Wilderness Lodge. Disney picked up the bags at the airport and delivered them to our room. Sounds good in theory. We didn't get our bags till 6:30 pm that night. I'm just glad we were smart and brought our swim suits.

We also took the Disney Magical Express. It was a bit of a mad house and we had to wait in a long line. But the lines were handled fairly quickly. We landed in Orlando at 11:30-ish and got to our hotel about an hour and a half later. They gave M this button when we checked into our hotel and she was really happy to get it. We hung out at the pool all that afternoon and had a really terrible hamburger in the Roaring Fork fast food restaurant. My in-laws had paid for the Disney Dining Meal(pdf). It was just so confusing. Somethings were on it, others weren't. Other's required two table meal tickets. After a while, we'd get our food, give the cards to the cashier and ask them what was covered. It seemed like we always owed more money. Like I said - frustrated.

The pool was a perfect pool for M. Half of it was 3.5 feet - which means she could stand up and touch. It also had a really fun water slide. It took a couple of tries, but once she slid down the slide, she was okay. "Do it again! I want to do it again!" J & I just hung out at the bottom and watched her have fun.

I insisted that we go and get a nap after a while. Do you know how hard it is to get a 5 year old to nap when there's a great swimming pool with a fabulous slide? Fortunately, she was so tired at this point, all we had to do was get her to sit still for a few minutes and she dropped off for about an hour or so.

We met up with J's family and headed over to the Wilderness Fort Campground - we had 7:15 pm reservations for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review. The nephews were disappointed because they didn't get to meet Mickey Mouse but we all still had a great time. The food was fabulous - fried chicken (so-so) and ribs (really good). They also gave us pitcher upon pitcher of beer. The show was interactive and my nephew was called "Cowboy B**". We sang and clapped and stomped our feet.

M got tired, though. About 3/4 the way through, the players said that the song they were about to sing was sad - and they kept saying that it was sad. Of course, the words were sad, but they camped it up - making it funny. Poor M had hit the wall. She started crying because the song was sad. Luckily, the song finished up and the actors were up-beat and told jokes that she understood. She left happy.

We headed back to our rooms around 9 and fell into bed. The first day in Orlando was successful!

Home again, home again

We got home last night from our trip in Florida. We had a great time, but were really ready to be home. M broke down yesterday when we went to breakfast and said she really missed being home.

I'm not sure how to document the trip, so I'll try to do it day by day.

I have to admit that it was SO nice to sleep in my own bed last night.

Happy blog anniversary to me!

Yesterday marks year two of my blog.

I must admit that I'm surprised that I'm still blogging. It's fun to do!

One more sleep

We leave for Orlando tomorrow. I'm so excited.

Kid Nation & 5 YO Fashion Sense

CBS has a new show with 40 kids who are in charge of living in an old western town. M is really intrigued and we HAD to watch it together.

She loves the show and it's fun watching the expressions on her face when things happen that trigger her emotions. She confided to me while I was tucking her in that she would be like the eight year old boy who decided to go home early. She said she would just miss us so much.

There's a bratty 15 year old - who really reminds me a lot of my 15 year old nephews.

I am really trying to savor the time I have with M now as it's such a good age. I know it'll change.

When I was at Weight Watchers, the leader mentioned that she is having a difficult time liking her 14 year old. She asked when will she like her child again, and the members joked 10 years.

Ugh.

I am *so* not looking forward to the teens. M is stubborn now as it is.

Case in point: Today is picture day for school. I helped her get dressed and let her pick out her clothes. I had to hold up every dress in front of her while she modeled it in a full length mirror. It had to pass the PEACE test. She would shoot her left hip out, flash a peace sign and said "PEACE". If the dress failed the test, she'd look up at me and shake her head "no". As you can imagine, we went through 90% of her dresses before one would work out. I don't put up with this very often and end up giving her 5 minutes to dress or I would find an outfit that she'd have to wear (this is pretty effective and gets her moving).

I also wanted her to leave her hair down, but she wanted pony tails.

I went to Weight Watchers this morning, so J had to get M to school. Apparently, she decided to wear a headband and a necklace because they "make her look pretty". I have no idea how her school picture is going to turn out. We just may have to get it so it can remind us of this period in her life.

The teachers at school get a kick out of M's fashion sense. It's almost becoming a bit of a game to see what type of outfit she can dream up next. Her favorite accessory for the past couple of months has been the green striped socks she got from softball. She'll wear them with shorts, dresses, you name it. I also love it when she decides to purposely mismatch her socks.

Reviewed:"The Harlequin" by Lauren K. Hamilton

My husband and GOAM wondered why the hell I even picked this book up to read as I've trashed the author at least three times before.

Well, Shelfari struck. I got suckered into the hype from other readers.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The other reason why I started reading it is because Ms. Hamilton is writing a companion graphic series (READ: comic) that goes back to the roots of the series. It reminded me how much I enjoyed reading the earlier stuff. She also started explaining how she met Edward in an offshoot comic series. I was hoping Ms. Hamilton would realize that it was much more fun to write story than porn.

I was wrong.

I've come to realize that Ms. Hamilton is a lazy writer. Porn is easy to write. Story is not. Unfortunately, Ms. Hamilton chooses to not write story.

The Harlequin stated off promising. Anita was in her office and it looked like there actually was going to be some action to the story. But then - da-da-dum - she went to the Circus of the Damned. Well, as soon as Anita goes there, we might as well keep turning the pages till we actually see story because the Circus of the Damned is just a big plot hole for Hamilton to just write porn.

Buh.

Never. Ever. Again.

And this time I mean it.

FO-House Slippers

Of course I forgot it was my SIL's birthday yesterday, so I quickly made some house slippers for her.

Pattern: House Slippers in Knit 2 Together

Yarn: Plymouth Outback & Lion Brand Fun Fur (basically stash stuff)

Needles: US 13

Comments: The pattern knitted up quickly. I'd say it takes about 3 hours to knit both slippers. I saw them on Ravelry and people love having them.

I bought some leather soles to help reinforce the bottoms, but the 10-inch long soles are too long. I should have stayed with the 8 3/4 inch. I'll have to go and exchange them. :(

Arwen Update

I have about 9 inches knitted on the Arwen. The pattern calls for 12-inches, but I'm going to knit this a little longer - my torso is longer than most.

It's not perfect, but you'd have to look really hard to find the flaws. I'm finally getting the zen of cabling it. I am also very happy with the yarn. It still splits, but if I slow it down a bit, then it's not so bad.

The flip cards are great until you have a 5 year old close it up and you lose your place. :) I think I need to add a paper clip to the page that I'm on so if it happens again, I know where I am.

It's funny, I just noticed that the colors in the Arwen are similar to the purse. Purple-y Blue.

TD 8 is now TD Ingrid

I have to resign myself to the fact that Disney is going to be soggy. We'll have to pack accordingly.

At least it's not a hurricane!

Man oh man

I'm watching Tropical Depression Eight right now.

Why?

Because on the 22nd we're flying out to Orlando for the time of my young 5 year old daughter's life

Yes. We're going to Disney.

So now we're going to have to plan for rain. :(

I hope it's *just* rain we have to worry about.

The Lives of Others

I rented The Lives of Others from Netflix the other day. While it is subtitled and moved a little slow, it was really good.

Basically, a Stazi officer is charged with monitoring a well-known playwrite and he gets caught up with their lives. It's a great story about how a government took listening into private citizens lives to an extreme.

With the recent bill that Congress passed in August, I think this movie should be manditory watching. FISA was good because it required court oversight. This latest bill is just awful. I hope Congress rolls this back when it comes up for review.

Identity re-framed

Have you ever rocked along in life and had your identity briefly be reworked over?

For example, on my 21st birthday, I was sitting at a bar, drinking, and mentioned that I was a preemie.

My sister did a spit take.

"Oh, my God! You bought that!" she said incredulously.

"Well, yeah."

"You can't be a seven pound preemie"

So, my folks were married on May 1st, I was born seven months later. Of course I had done the math as a kid and my folks told me that I was a preemie.

It came as a shock at 21. I felt foolish because I knew better, I just decided to hang on to the lie.

Funny, but a shock none the less. My folks had SEX before marriage!! They were pregnant when they got married!!

Anyway.

I had a similar experience just the other day.

For years I've thought my height was 5'-10 3/4" tall. I would round up and felt like I was cheating, so I'd tell folks that I round up.

I went to a physical for a study I've enrolled in last week. They measured the length of my legs, distance between joints, etc.

They also measured how tall I am.

I am 5'-11 1/4" tall!

When the heck did I grow that extra 1/2 inch? Thinking back, high school was the last time I measured.

Weird.

Now I can say that I round down a little. :)

Domestic Goddess

Okay. I am SO not domestically oriented. Not at all.

I loved having my home cleaned once a week - but we let our housekeeper go and the duties have fell to us.

It's a struggle and we're not the best at keeping the house cleaned up.

J bought a vacuum shortly after we let the housekeeper go - and the vacuum wasn't all that great. Last week, I finally figured out that the vacuum wasn't working properly.

Yesterday J & M came home from school a little later than usual - complete with a new vacuum in tow.

I love my new vacuum. Once I had it assembled, it actually sucked. Really. It was a strange feeling.

I vacuumed as much of the house as I could. It's nice to be able to vacuum the vinyl areas without having the dirt fly everywhere.

I ended up emptying the basket twice. It's mostly Mel's hair and fine dust.

Graceland Knitta

When we visited Graceland over Labor Day weekend, we came across some Knitta.

Here's a photo of M & J just before we go into the mansion. M is doing another pop star pose.

We asked M if she understood who Elvis was after we left Graceland. Elvis is Jesus.

Such is the theology of a five year old.

Bleedin' Jesus

Yesterday we were in Austin on our way home and we stopped at a Cracker Barrel. M is currently trying to read EVERYTHING she sees - but she does a lot of guessing.

J asked her what she wanted to drink and showed her the "Beverages 'n Juice" section of the menu.

"Bleedin' Jesus!" she exclaims very loudly.

I honestly don't know where she got that. We are trying to teach her to be respectful of others - really.

I'm just glad I wasn't drinking my coffee at the time - I know it would have been a spit take for sure. It's hard to not laugh when you're trying to teach her to not do such a thing.

Reviewed: "The Wheel of Darkness" by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

I like the series these two authors have created with Aloysius Pendergast, but this book was a disappointment.

The majority of the story takes place on an ocean liner. I hate ocean liner stories. It's too Poseidon Adventure. The story just didn't have the scenery their usual stories have. I also didn't like the whole "anti-Buddha" theme. It was really silly.

The other thing that I dislike is it seemed like the story line from the previous books was lost. The author's note at the end of the book was a cop out. They maintain that their books are stand alone books.

Uh, sorry. They just aren't. I think they just had trouble writing themselves out of the previous novel. That's just poor story telling and I felt ripped off.

That being said, I love the main character and his "ward" Constance Greene. I'll still read their next novel. They seem to be writing a summer novel each year, so I have another year till the next book.

Did I mention that I love the library?

Arwen Redo

Okay, so here's my second attempt at knitting the Cardigan for Arwen. I love the way the yarn feels when it's knitted up. I hate how it splits while I knit it.

In my knitting future

I just ordered the pattern. Aren't they cute?

Reviewed: "Queen of Ambition" by Fiona Buckley

Ursula is biding her time in her new digs and is called early to go on Progress with Queen Elizabeth I. Of course, there's what seems to be a plot brewing to assassinate the queen, and Ursula is pressed into service earlier than she wanted.

This was a good continuation of the Ursula Blanchard series. She actually goes undercover this time and uncovers the plot and solves a murder. Ursula is enjoying coming out of "retirement" and ends up using all her skills she's learned for spying. This time, she was able to discover a code that the royal cryptographers weren't able to solve (because she found the Rosetta stone located in the place she was working under cover).

This moved well. I am a little disappointed - my library doesn't have the next three books! I'm going to have to wait to see if they'll purchase them so they will have a complete series.

In the meantime, I'm reading the first Sherlock Holmes book and am a little shocked. Sherlock is a bit of a dick!

FO-Pi Topper Chemo Hat #5

Pattern: Pi Topper Chemo Cap

Yarn: Elann.com Esprit (6287 African Violet)

Needles: US Size 7

For: Meg. This is going to be it for chemo caps for awhile.

FO-Pi-Topper #4

Pattern: Pi Topper Chemo Cap
Yarn: Elann.com Esprit Jade(5382)
Needles: US Size 7
For: Meg. I'm working on another one and should be finished within the next couple of days.