Digging In - The Big Questions

When we set out to plan our vacation, there are several major questions to answer.

When are we going?  How are we getting there?  How long will we stay?  Where will we stay?  Will MawMaw go with us?

Let's start with that last one.

Will MawMaw go with us?  MawMaw loved going to Disney World with us and was looking forward to going again; however, my husband wanted this vacation to be just our family.  So, I had to make a very difficult phone call.  Not fun.  It was very hard to break the news and she was very disappointed that she wouldn't be going this time, but she understood.  Still.  She was very sad.

Next question, when are we going?  Even though the temperatures are sweltering, the best time for my husband is mid-September. So, we looked at the calendar and picked a week.

How are we getting there?  No question.  Flying.  My husband did not feel it necessary to drive all the way from Texas to Lake Buena Vista again.  And the good news is, flying would get us there quicker, giving us two more days than before.  Seven whole days in the parks!

As far as ground transportation, a rental car is a must for us. CB doesn't like to rely on others for his transportation which is fine by me.  Getting around WDW is very easy - I love those red and purple signs. We could be in the parking lot of any park within 10-15 minutes.  Yes, we might have to take the tram if we parked far enough away, but what's a trip to Disney World without a ride on the tram?

How long will we stay?  Our pattern is to suck all we can out of our vacation so we planned to arrive on Saturday and stay all week, leaving on the following Sunday.

Where will we stay?  We weren't quite sure.  We do have the mad love for Old Key West, but last trip we had lunch at Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge and loved the look of that resort.  Chatting with my husband, we decided to give the Villas at Wilderness Lodge a try this time.  So, I got online to price it out and it showed that the resort was booked during our week.  How could that be?

I don't know what Disney does or why they do it, but their online reservation system will sometimes show that a resort is completely booked.  If this happens to you, don't let it deter you. Call them. That's what I did, and they had rooms available. So, I had them hold an 8-night stay in a 2-bedroom villa at Wilderness Lodge. That hold required no money down and I could either call and cancel it or it would expire on its own in a week.

You may be wondering why I didn't just go ahead and book the reservation.  The advantage to simply holding a reservation is that it let us live with the idea for a few days. We could think about things like:

how far would we have to walk to get to our car?

would we enjoy the resort pool?

what about the layout of the room?

what kinds of views are available?

what are we gaining by staying here?

what are we giving up by staying here?

are we okay with spending that much money?

Ultimately, we decided not to stay at Wilderness Lodge. We felt we'd have a longer walk to and from our car each day and the additional cost just wasn't worth it. We'd rather spend it somewhere else.

So, any guesses as to where we decided to stay?

I Tell Ya!

I've had a busy/crazy week over here.

Had a fender bender which FM#1 pointed out didn't involve the fender at all. I got rear-ended with all three kids in the car along with someone else's child, too! That isn't supposed to happen! This mom was very calm about it though. Bless her heart. Although I attribute it to the fact that she's been on prescription narcotics for three weeks.

Everyone was fine, and to quote Pastor Bob I Ran Over a Chicken on my Way to Poughkeepsie, "Thanks be to God!" FM#2 was in the Way Back! No damage to my car either.

Then I had an eye appointment. Now, I must say that I have been wearing corrective lenses since 5th grade. They were the wire frames shaped like a stop sign. Cool, I tell ya!

Then I upgraded to the huge plastic frames popular in the late 70's. Cool, I tell ya!

Then I got the plastic frame/metal side variety. Again, I'm telling ya -- cool!

10th grade was the Year of the Contacts. Freedom!

But HolyChow still wouldn't let me wear mascara, only blush and lip gloss. Not cool, I tell ya. Yes, I'm still bitter.

I've always been a good contact lens wearer. The longest time between appointments for me was six years, until last week. I thought it had been eight, but they told me it was nine.

How did they know? They took my glasses to check the prescription and came back and said the prescription was nine years old. I'm convinced it is a conspiracy among the optometrical society whereby they insert a microchip into your lenses stating the date on which the prescription was given (and it probably lists things like "naps too long in her contacts" or "needs to cut fingernails").

Scoundrels!

Okay, okay, so it's been nine years. My doctor didn't chastise me or anything so he gets a repeat visit from me and maybe, just maybe, it will be less than nine years from now.

My prescription hadn't changed that much and I don't need bifocals. Hurray!

The purpose of this visit was to get new contacts and glasses. I'm taking a leap and getting disposable contacts. This guarantees I'll have to go back in a year. Although just between us (shhhh!) I'm going to try and wear them longer than a month. I'm a really good contact lens wearer, I tell ya!

I let the 24 year old assistant help me pick out frames for my glasses. I wanted to go with the rimless variety, but she insisted that would be a big mistake. She personally hates the rimless kind (something about "old lady") and said it would be "a whole lotta lens" with my prescription.

So I put my trust in her and ended up with a small rectangular frame. Quite a change from my tortoise shell frames that cover half my face and are a great source of humor for my kiddoes. My sister even laughed at them!

I'll also have to get a part-time job to pay for it all because we don't have vision insurance and - man! It was expensive, I tell ya!

Broom Sweepa Broom

If you didn't believe I was a procrastinator before, now you know. I'm back after a ridiculously long break from blogging. The pictures below are why.

It's taken me a while to get everything back in place...and clean...and then actually take the picture...and then download it. This is how our floors turned out.

The first picture doesn't do the wood floor justice. And the tile makes everything look bigger, more open, and echo-y.

The first day I swept the tile I swept all the yucky-yuck in a pile and then couldn't find the pile! It was totally camouflaged. Gotta love that!

This is the first time HolyChow has seen the floors. She should be very proud of her work.

Glad to be back. Now I can catch up on all of you!

Ice Panic of 2007

Well, it finally made it - a day late. The drizzle, barely freezing temps, kind of a let-down.

The boys think the icicles are cool and have been outside banging the ice off of everything. I'm sure the noise attracted the neighbors and CPS will be knocking at our door any minute wondering why the children are not in school. Have you never heard of recess?

"Please, can we stay outside? Besides, the icicles are melting."

"What's the temperature?"

"33.3 and rising by the second!"

"Okay, but wear real shoes, not houseshoes. And gloves."

The Tree is down, courtesy of CeanBounter. I'm glad because now I have to start getting ready for the Flooring People.

Yes! I said it! I did it! I Made A Decision!

With a TON of help from HolyChow. She came down for a week and dragged my sorry wiffle-waffling behind around to every flooring store west of the beltway! Wood in the den and tile everywhere else. The wood is scrumptious, hand-scraped, warm, yummy, golden, gooey...no, wait, I'm describing chocolate chip cookies. Anyway, it will look really nice next to that stone behemoth of a fireplace.

A friend's husband asked me about The Flooring on Sunday. I was so excited...he was the first person to ask since I made The Decision. I jumped when he asked and I might've squealed a little. I think I startled him with my excitement. Seriously, this has taken me a year and a half. I think I'll go raise a toast to myself and HolyChow.

Only family would do something like that. Gotta love that chica!

Pu-khan' or Pee'-can?

Today's the day. Can't you hear Rod Stewart singing "Tonight's the Night"? That song always creeped me out. Hey, what's the deal with us talking about the Rodster so much lately? See EuroMom's post for more.

Anyhoooo, today I will attempt to make pecan pralines. I am doing this for my husband's staff at work. No pressure, just ten boxes -- that's five batches, folks. FIVE BATCHES!!!

I figured I'd get started today so if it's a flop (HolyChow promises it's easy) I'll have the weekend to figure out something else. A couple of years ago we got them all a nice bottle of wine. I loved this option because it was one stop shopping, easy gift wrapping, and well, who doesn't love wine?

Apparently, someone on my husband's staff because they gave us a bottle of wine last year and I think it was literally The Same Wine we gave them the year before. Or maybe they thought we liked that particular wine since we gave it as a gift - in which case they'd be correct.

I'll let you know how the candy making goes. Meanwhile, if any of you have any great gift ideas that require a credit card rather than a stove stop, fess up, and save me from this chore!

Hold Please

My current cell phone has never had a call-waiting feature. When a second call comes in, my phone tells me who's calling, but it's only mocking me since it won't actually let me answer that call. I've pressed every button on that phone. Until today.

It's not that I have call-waiting that's so amazing. It's how I know I have it. I suspect something got activated when my husband added his dad to my account recently, but still, I never would've known had my mom not insisted I give it another try. She called me on her cell and then from her land line. She had me answer the land line; go back and forth between calls; hang up with one and figure out how to get back to the other one. Folks, I now have full-blown call-waiting on my cell. I'm uptown! And all because of my mama. Who else would insist as only a mom can and then walk you through the whole thing making double sure you can do it? Only a mama would.

After this and especially since tomorrow is Mother's Day do I reflect on all she's done for me. When I look at the things I do for my FM's, my mama did those things for me. When I couldn't feed myself, she fed me. When I cried, she soothed me. She picked me up from school when my mean 2nd grade teacher, Miss Black, was so mean I got sick. She bought me that first real bra the day before the 6th grade field trip. Why did my shirt have to be so clingy? She gave me volumes of advice on boys. She spent hours coaching me when I tried out for majorette and again for Flag Corps. She worried herself sick when I was out with friends. She instilled in me my affinity for neatness. She taught me well about Christ and what He did for me. She supported me through all of those hard and lonely times at A&M. She encourages me to cook more and be more patient with my children. She loves her grandchildren and thinks they're the most beautiful and intelligent children ever and she loves her son-in-law. She's always there to hear my mundane stories and my gripes. That's my mama and I love her.