Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Maybe I should have planned the timing better

I have been back home a week still playing catch up on work, home school, etc add to that getting ready to go out of town Friday and Saturday and it is a busy week.

Well Brae's birthday is Monday and he wants a new bedroom. A "hangout room" in his words, because we all know how many people we have over to hangout in the soon to be 9 year old boys room, but oh well that is what he wanted so I made a plan to totally redo his room this week.

Problem is his room was a dark green color and one wall was covered in camo wallpaper (which covered the first bedroom theme the animal mural that I painstakingly painted upon our move into this house). Anyway turning out to be a lot more work than I thought. Of course I couldn't find the right color large floor pillows I wanted so I am sewing them, not a huge project but just another added. Thankfully thankfully my wonderful hubby has been doing the majority of the painting and is almost done. Then I will have to get the new bookshelf in there and put the new accents (all Tony Stewart stuff), new comforters and the big birthday present (shh...he is getting a tv...he has been asking and we have been saying well not right now)..I know he is going to love it all. He only thinks we are painting in there. He has no clue the plan to change the theme. He had asked and I told him I would try to make it more of a hang out room but didn't know if I could change the army theme. So it should be a big surprise when he walks in in Monday morning.

So it should all be worth it when he loves it but right now it is making my week even nuttier and I keep thinking ugh I should not have taken this on.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Having trouble catching up

This morning doing school time with Brae and I had gotten onto him a few times to get with the program he says:

"Mom I don't think my brain knows we are back from vacation it is still in vacation mode".

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Bike Riding






Planted

The first year we moved in this house we went crazy planting flowers. After that first Summer however we basically haven't been home, Brae has had several procedures around the beginning of summer, we spent 5 weeks one Summer in Arizona so on and so forth so basically mowing and the greenery trimmed has been as good as it gets for the yard the last several summers.

This summer I am throwing caution to the wind and planting flowers. Not just a few either 3 flats so far. I want flowers, I need them. Hubby and I have been working all morning they look so pretty. May not have been the smartest move since it too looks like this summer we may end up spending some time away from home so that Brae can receive some special care but oh well it will still be worth it. Reminds me of the first year we moved in here so excited about having a house. It was also nice to work side by side with hubby all morning. So we have flowers, we are still up in the air if we will be away a good chunk of the summer or not but for right now we have flowers and they are so pretty.

Now I am thinking of doing nothing else the rest of the day...ugh except that won't work because I have a certain boy who is turning 9 in about a week who wants his room redone so wall paper stripping is next. eek.

Friday, April 25, 2008

He can find an excuse

I am determined to get Brae riding a bike. He will turn 9 in a little over a week. His doctor has said this is an important thing as the more he would ride it helps the cells in the brain act together because of the motions, etc. The problem he is so resistant always has been it seems every year we drag out the bike usually brand new and if it is outgrown we get a new one. Every year we give up. Not this year. The main reason he has never learned is during his younger years 3-6 he was at his sickest times and just couldn't. Now he can, even though it will be hard for him because of balance issues etc physically he should be able to do it. Mentally he is blocked. Britt was spending the night at my parents last night and he wanted to stay home so hubby and I pulled out the bike we bought last summer. Brae who by reading this blog you know can always come up with something picks this time to read the warning labels on the bike. "Oops can't ride at night", well that didn't work since it was only 6:30, we heard all kinds of things "the seat gives him a wedgie", "his legs hurt", "he doesn't want us to get tired"...on and on. He actually had me laughing coming up with so many things. But the bottom line is we are going to have to get this bike riding down. He even told me I didn't know how to ride so I had to get on a bike and ride to prove that once you learn you always know. He did okay but his balance is so tricky for him. Have to think of some great motivators, I thought having a friend in the neighborhood now that rides his bike would help but no Brae's response "legs are better than wheels I can just run"...lol.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Missing about the cruise

I miss leaving a messy room and coming back to it being spotless.

Reality is a hard reentry..LOL..ugh had to cook tonight, and then on top of that clean yuck. Glad I decided to wait to start back school till next week.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The cruise

I cannot say enough what a good time we had. I defintely think the cruise is most assuredly worth the money paid for it. I learned several things in planning and packing for the cruise. One thing I had heard several times was that it was cheaper to go directly through Disney rather than a travel agency. I found that to be untrue in comparing with others we received the best deal using the Your Magical Journeys agency and it is a free agency. With that said we will definiety be doing this again.

We cruised on the Disney Magic. It is apparently going into dry dock in September to get totally redone. I heard several comments about it looking worn, etc I thought it was all very nice and I can just imagine how beautiful it will be after September.

We arrived at the terminal early as we had heard this was the best way to get the most out of the vacation. We were allowed on the boat at around noon. The kids thought it was so neat the way they announce you. We ate lunch on the ship and were able to get in our room about 1:30, our luggage arrived about 2:30 this gave us some time to get things organized before the sail away party at 4:00.

We used the childrens Bonine for the kids it is chewable and worked well. Matt and I had gotten prescription patches, none of us really had any problems.

The food was amazing. So much of it too. There was a midnight dessert buffet with flowing fountains of white and dark chocolate...yum.

We visited 3 ports of call St. Marteen, St. Thomas and Disney's island Castaway Cay.

One thing Brae chose to do was called a sky jump. He did this at the island of St. Thomas.

Here is just a snap shot of the cruise ship we took it from the mountain top where Brae did his jumping.

Drive to Florida and my thoughts on the Nickelodeon resort

I have to say the ride to Florida was a lot of fun. Hubby had made Cd's with a lot of 80's and early 90's songs. Hubby kept laughing at me as I recalled my friends and I calling in certain songs to boys to a radio request line. Britt kept saying "Mom you do know this song makes no sense (songs like Walk Like an Egyptian, etc)". Brae liked bugging his sister by singing those songs and quickly learning the dance moves. It was a fun way to pass the time. The kids and I decided my taste in songs was better than their dads!

We drove really hard the first day and then the next day only had a few hours to go. We had to make a detour and go through Atlanta to pick up a part from the Sony store for our camera. Never have to worry about us wanting to go to Atlanta I still think Austin is the worse traffic city but eek Atlanta was a close close second it was not a favorite stop of ours.

I know that flying would get us places faster but I really do think I prefer the car trips. The kids are both very good travelers and I love hearing them being imaginative in the back seat.

Our first two nights of vacation were spent in Orlando at the Nickelodeon resort. I had read a lot of mixed reviews and I have to say I to am mixed on what I thought of it. Yes it was fun, but it was also over priced and over hyped. The water park was great fun, the other activities did not seem to be as well organized, staff was not helpful (a sharp contrast to the wonderfulness of Disney staff that was even more apparent as the trip went on. The kids loved it, Matt and I enjoyed our time there but I don't know that we would necessarily do it again especially at the rates (and we received a good deal and paid less than many others we spoke too and I still feel we overpaid).

Monday, April 21, 2008

A few of my fav cruise pics

These are a few of my favs. I am adding more to flickr...hubby went ahead and scanned them in for me tonight and I needed an excuse to sit down and quit unloading bags so they are getting put up tonight.



Made it home

Back at the house.
Still haven't loaded anymore pics on flickr. I have to get the ones I did put on more organized. It will be a day or two, ugh I am not looking forward to getting caught up. I am exhausted and do not want to do much of anything right now, but I know tomorrow will be catching up, unpacking, and lots of errands. I will update more in a day or so and try to get some more pics scanned in (the ones that weren't taken with the digital).

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Back on Land

We are back on land. Docked this morning. We had a just wonderful time. It was beyond words how great a time we had, how much we did, the time together, it was all wonderful! We spent today at the Space Center which deserves it's own post, still in Florida and will head towards home tomorrow.

I am dumping photos into flickr, not even labeling them yet, I will go back and do that another time. I plan on updating with lots of details of each day and stories but that will probably wait till we are back at home which should be sometime Monday, and then of course a few days to get things together again, but I will be sharing all about it. Till then check out flickr and here are a few ...



Monday, April 14, 2008

Checking In

I have over 200 pics to enter into flickr but the connection from laptop to computer wireless system is not fast enough so I may have to wait to load pics until Saturday night when we are at the hotel near the space center.

All in all it is a wonderful trip. Kids are having so much fun.

This morning was funny Braden wakes up it is only about 7:20 but he is like "oh no mom oh no, the sun is already up"...haha...he is so used to waking up at 6 or so to a dark outside. But when you are staying up late and going all day sleeping in even an hour is very good.

Matt and Britt did Karaoke last night I missed it because poor Brae got sunburnt yesterdary and he didn't feel much like partying once it got later so we watched a movie in the stateroom.

We loved the Golden Mickeys show last night, and dinners are wonderful, even though it all sounds so weird to me on the menu and I try to order the most normal sounding. Matt is being very adventerous and has tried all kinds of things including octopus...ewww. Tonight they are having escargot and he is wanting to try those the kids and I are not as adventerous.

I have taken tons of pics, pics of the foods, the kids, the awesome view. I have some really cute ones of the kids dancing at the dance party. Britt and I went to Alice's tea party yesterday. Today is bingo, a character dance party and a bunch more things.

Tomorrow we will be at our first port of call St. Marteen. The parasailing is still booked up at castaway cay so Brae and I won't be doing that. Everything else we had prebooked but that I was unsure because of his size, apparently it would have been fine but I am kinda relieved since I would have been the one that had to go up with him...but I did tell him we would do it at some point in our lives, maybe he will be lots older by then and have friends to parasail with..lol.

All in all we are having a blast and enjoying our time together immensley.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Swiper

We went to the Nick Live show tonight. Brae was picked out of the audience to help with a game. He got to be Swiper the Fox and collect coconuts (brown balloons) in a basket. He won and was so excited to have been picked.


Getting Slimed at Nickelodeon




Matt stood with the kids in the crowd to get slimed so he had the water camera so once that is developed we will have more pics of the slime. There are some in flickr showing their green eyebrows after the slime but then all cleaned off and having fun again in the pool. Hubby and I are enjoying the water slides as much as the kids. It is fun. Tonight we are off to a show here at the resort. Tomorrow morning we head for the ship!

Pics from our Nicktoons Breakfast





yoga

We are still at the Nick hotel. Kids are currently in arcade but I had to share our morning.

We noticed yesterday that they had a parents/kids yoga class. Britt has been wanting to do it so I signed all 4 of us up.

3 of us liked it. One didnt. Hmmmm yep Brae. It was so comical I could hardly do the yoga because everytime I would look over at him he was making a fist at me and saying "you will pay", "I am going to get you", etc. So needless to say he doesn't like yoga and he has threatned me if I ever make him do it again.

Off for more fun!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

In Orlando

We made it to Orlando.

Bad news from home lots of storm damage. Our house is fine as hubby checked in with his mother who is staying at the house. Unfortunately one of the wonderful families in our homeschool group lost their home, they have 6 children.
Other than feeling very bad for the awful storms at home the trip is going well.

We did some shopping in downtown disney today. We checked into the Nickelodeon resort, we played at the waterpark and ordered pizza for dinner. The kids got slimed here at the nick hotel which they LOVED, we took pics with a disposable water camera so don't have those pics yet, did take some pics with the digital but haven't even messed with getting them off the camera yet. We are all tired after driving, then sun and fun.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Allergic to pampering???

I am not a really big pamper myself girl, however in preparation for this trip I have done a few things.

First off is tanning. That didn't go well 3 minutes and I was burnt to a crisp, and not just once it didn't help when I went back no it happened again and again.

Today I had a manicure and pedicure appointment. Manicure went good, then I put my feet in the whirlpool thing and she added some kind of lotion soap, well I was sitting there thinking wow I wonder if I have a bite or something on my ankle it is stinging. She took my feet out and I noticed my right ankle was really swollen, she was starting to paint my toenails and then my left foot started tingling. It was just a few minutes from my house by the time I got home I had broke out in a rash my arms and head were itching my ankles and feet were swollen. I downed some Benedryl and hubby was preparing for an ER trip but the Benedryl got into my system and I started feeling better. Don't have a clue what I was allergic too.

So I am thinking my pampering is jinxed, or I am allergic too it. I have a massage booked on the cruise ship but not so sure I should keep the appointment with the way my luck is going..LOL

Tomorrow

We leave tomorrow. We are going to be hard pressed not to wake up and head out at 2 am we are all so excited. I told hubby if my insomnia kicks in everyone else can get in the car and sleep and I can drive!

Have the check list going. Went over stuff with MIL who will be house sitting (that may be a whole other post when I return, but hopefully it will all go smoothly there are specific reasons we are allowing it and I hope it goes okay). The suitcases are ready to be put in this evening. Going today to the errands pharmacy, banking, important things like pedicure..lol.

Tomorrow we will drive the day away stopping in Albany, GA for the night. After that it is on to the Nick Resort, Saturday we get on the Disney Cruise Ship for 7 days, back to Florida to dock and going to the space center then we will begin our way back home. I haven't decided if I am too cheap to do internet on the ship or not, may do some and post a few pics here and there. If I don't then I know the first night after we are back in port and out of the space center we will post post post.

Braden said "I love you mom and I love your plans but I am ready to do the plans instead of planning more"...LOL that is so true I am ready too!

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Crock Pot Cooking

Everyone who knows me knows I like my crock pot, I use it a lot and sometimes even have two going, I have posted recipes before. So I would have said I loved my crockpot however now I am changing myself to just really liking to use my crockpot because I found a blogger who truly loves her crock pot. Her new years resolution is to use her crockpot everyday. I just scanned through some of it but I will be checking it out again: CrockPot365

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Tidbits of this and that

Okay not anything major to post and just a few little things that really don't need there own post so here goes, bullet style:

* We leave early Wednesday morning, we have been planning for so long it seems amazing that it is finally here. A real vacation, not a doctors appointment in another state that we make as fun as we can, nope a real vacation no cell phones!

* MIL is housesitting for us, due to some issues of where she is currently staying with BIL and SIL, not sure how I feel about this one, and I am hopeful it goes okay, I think hubby and I have thought of most potential issues and came up with people to watch, do stuff, etc in regards to those.

* Today and tomorrow I am working retail. Yikes it has been years and years since I have done that (college). My friend is assistant manager at a store that is having a big sale and they have extra people to come in during the big sales. I figured it was extra money right before vacation.

* Kids spent that night at Nana and Papa's last night so hubby and I got some unwind time.

* Brae cracked me up the other night but there is no way to tell the story in such a way to convey the funninest that is Brae. He walked into our bedroom and he had a nail buffer thing. He says "mom can I use this on my feet". I was like why. He said "Mom they are getting rough like you know when you get old"...just his expression and mannerism was so funny, just can't convey. I talked him into some lotion and putting socks on. It was just funny that his dry feet were such a concern to him and the getting old part the way he said it.

* The to do lists for today and the next 3 are in place, and then we are outta here.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

World Autism Day

I almost missed posting on this today, but I had to get a post up. Today is in fact World Autism Day.

I have to say CNN has done some wonderful programing today and has wonderful facts on their site. Larry King's program was wonderful and I have to say that my level of respect was already very high for Jenny McCarthy but it is even higher. I am in agreement with her as far as I do not consider myself anti vaccine, but anti schedule.

Very moving for me to watch this, and think back to that fever that at the time of Brae's vaccination, all the things I never knew. I am so thankful that someone out there like Jenny McCarthy is in our community. I also want people to understand that people are not saying all Autism is triggered by vaccines but at this time it is the number one trigger. I really liked this site on vacinations I look at how hard Brae has worked to speak, be social, etcetera. The way Jenny McCarthy explained it her son is not cured but recovered because he had to fight back after the vaccine triggered her son's Autism. Also one of the most powerful statements she made on behalf of the Autism foundation today "You may have silenced some of our children but you will never silence us".

Fools Day Recap

The kids worried all day about what I was going to pull on them for April Fools. I think we all got each other a few times. It was fun. Dinner however was the best if I do say so myself..lol. I had told the kids we were having koolaid, taco salad and cake. And we did...except the koolaid was jello firmly set up, the cake was meatloaf, and taco salad was an ice cream sundae. They loved it all and it was fun. The first pic is of the meal the second of them trying to "drink" their drink before figuring out it wasn't going to happen.