Happy (day before Halloween) Friday!

1. It was a dark and stormy night, which I love so I sat outside to enjoy it.

2. They were afraid of the creepy old library at night, so I offered to take the books myself.

3. Rushing out, I totally forgot my costume.

4. Holy crap, what was that...I think I heard a howl!

5. Shhhh... don't tell the kids I took all their snickers bars.

6. I'll be coming over for dinner so you better give me something good to eat!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to relaxing at home and hoping Sweet Girl is better, tomorrow my plans include hopefully fun and excitement of trick or treating with friends and Sunday, I want to enjoy some good family time!

Sickness Invasion

Well we are starting the cold and flu season with a cold that is affecting everyone in our house but Leo (who is the alien virus carrier since he never seems to get sick).

That's all I got for this week. Sickness.

Arizona has been great for us in just about everything. I am happy to be here (yes finally), and it really was the best move for our family to make. Except we all seem to get sick more often here. I guess nothing is ever perfect!

On a happier note, today is my sisters 30th birthday. So Happy Birthday to Deanna! Love ya and welcome to your 30's... :)

I Have No Complaints About The Weather For Once

Our weather as of late has been fantastic. It's been in the mid 80's but in the later afternoon after I pick up the kids from school it has been awesome to sit outside and let the kids play in the front. We are one of the odd ones on the block that actually come outside, the rest of the block are reclusive and don't leave their house.

The kids have been playing on their scooters, and playing with the scarecrows. Sweet Girl walks around with one of them like it's her best friend. It's about as tall as she is. The other day she was singing to it and talking to it. It was really cute and funny. Hmm...maybe that's the reason people don't come outside when we're out there, they think our kids are weird because they talk to scarecrows. Actually I doubt it, I never see anyone out. And as soon as they are in the garage they immediately close the door. People here are so strange.

And tomorrow the high is only 62-64!!! I will get to wear long sleeves, socks and open my windows! Woohoo!!!

Hello cooler weather!! I've waited so long for you to get here!

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Leo and I went to the U2 concert last night. I have to admit I was disappointed. I am disappointed to be disappointed! I was expecting so much more. It lacked the energy I expected. Boo.
And first it took us TWO HOURS to get to the concert. TWO HOURS. We used a car service to get to the concert so Leo nor I was driving but OH.MY.GOODNESS. The traffic, it was bumper to bumper for a long long time. I was so tired of being in the car, I was ready to have some sort of breakdown. We left at 5:30. Obviously we should have left at 4:30. And I was STARVING.

After finally we got there, after our 2 hour car ordeal. We didn't have any interest in seeing the opener, the Black Eyed Peas for this leg of the tour. It couldn't have been one I actually like I wanted to see like The Killers or Muse. No we get the Black Eyed Peas. I really only cared to see the one song that was in my post a couple days ago. Ironically that was the last song they played as we were getting to our seats. Lucky me.

When U2 came on, it was kind of blah. No energy, people were sitting. us included. There were these people in front of us, they were like the U2 couple. They were annoying as hell. I wanted to kick them down the seats (please excuse my irrational anger towards people I don't know, but lucky me I also started my period at the concert so let's just blame those feelings on that wonderful fact.). Leo said they would probably be having sex on the seat before the concert was over. They were really into the concert. Ironically half way through the concert she was sitting down, almost deflated. I determined she must have had a pretty good buzz at the beginning of the concert and now she was crashing and feeling like crap.

I was also not looking forward to Bono's political rant and saving Africa blah blah blah. Luckily it was not as much as I expected. Since we were paying to see them perform not listen to his political ramblings.

At the end of the first set, they hadn't played what I was wanting to hear. I was pissed. And of course they did the whole encore process. And then they did it. All I really wanted to hear was 'Where The Streets Have No Name'. And with that song, the stadium had energy. That was what I was looking for the entire concert but it just wasn't there. At least I got one songs worth.

Overall, it was just OK. And I wasn't looking for just OK. I was looking for awesome.

Slave To Convenience

I have become a slave to convenience. It's just easier, obviously. And it has made me lazy. Convenience is good but not all the time. I don't think it's the best thing for our family. And with regards to dinner it's really not the best thing for our health. There are good healthy convenient foods, though. Like most fruit, apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, you get the idea. But it's the actual dinners that are a bigger pain in the ass.

I think I need a dinner kick in the pants. I need to push the laziness aside and do what's best for my family. And I think that's dinners at home together. But coming up with ideas, yet another pain. And ideas everyone will eat. Sweet Girl would be content with plain noodles EVERY night. I think I'm going to start getting input from the kids and make them help with dinner. Maybe they'll be more excited and will eat. At least that's what I've read is supposed to happen...

Convenience has it's place, just not all the time like we've become. I want to enjoy cooking for my family. I want everyone to enjoy eating the food and have good family conversation around the table with little fighting. I actually think deep down I want to be like Martha Stewart, minus the scandal and her weird outfit choices though. I want to cook good food, I want to bake wonderful things (I find baking so therapeutic, I really should do it more), I want to do crafts with the kids and enjoy it, I want to work at the kids schools and be a part of their education. I think what I want probably seems out of place in our current times. I think I want my life to be like a 50's sitcom...a weird dream to have. I have all the pieces of my dream. A wonderful, loving husband and best friend, great kids with funny senses of humor and a desire to be around us, a wonderful house with a kick ass kitchen. The only problem I have is when I'm at home I'm working, I'm not cooking or baking or crafting. And when work is done, I'm tired and worn out and ready to sit and do nothing, even though I want to do something (see the laziness is rearing it's head, it knows how to push my buttons!). [insert: sigh]. I really need to add this to the top of my 'Making a Change' list.

It's back to the balance game. Balance life/work. Balance convenience/effort. Balance Balance Balance. It's like working out on a bosu on one leg!

Why? Why? Why?

Little Man's favorite word: Why?
Little Man's favorite phrase: Why Mommy?
Usage: Constant

The kid is WEARING me out with this. I mean it's constant. It is a constant non stop barrage of 'Why Mommy?' to anything I say or he sees on TV or outside.

It's a real joy to watch a movie with him.

I try to give him meaningful answers that actually answer his questions, which then results in more Why's. And sometimes we go in a complete circle with the answers and end up right back at the original thing that caused the first Why. And he doesn't like the answer 'I don't know', but sometimes I REALLY don't know! And if I make stuff up, my luck that will be the info he'll go to school and share with all his friends and teachers.

SOMETIMES if I'm lucky I'll answer and he'll say 'OK Mommy'. But that's rare. REALLY rare!

I don't want to squash his inquisitive little mind because wow is it inquisitive, but jeez I need a break from the Whys. And I tried the trick my friend Kelly suggested by replying to his Why, with 'What do you think', that worked for about 2 days and then he caught on. Now he says 'I want you to answer'.

I will probably wish for this stage to return when the kid is a teenager.

Fill Er In

Welcome to my good friend Friday! I always love it when you come around.

1. So are we going to get this finished or what?

2. Fun times over the holidays is what's up ahead.

3. I love to hear my children laughing.

4. I can always eat sweets of some sort.

5. I walk a fine line some days.

6. Family and friends close by is the true elixir of life!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to enjoying being at home, tomorrow my plans include a birthday party and more home time and Sunday, I want to move some pictures around and enjoy being at home!!

A First: I Agreed With Oprah

Not really a big fan of Oprah, but I do have to admit I agreed when she said this was cool. Maybe not the coolest thing ever but I do agree it's cool that all these people coordinated dancing.
And the song is pretty upbeat too. I like it.

Sleepy Boy

I think it's been quite an adjustment for the kids with getting back home and back in the groove of our regular routine. They've had a difficult time this week so far with getting up and going to school. And also going to bed. Little Man is having a difficult time staying in his bed and going to sleep. Not sure if this is because of their erratic bed times while we were not at home.

Last night was no different, but at least he stayed in his room. Not in his bed, but in his room. When Leo went to open the kids doors before we went to bed, he hit Little Man. That was because Little Man was sleeping in front of the door. He had his little butt in the air and his head at a weird angle against the wall.
The best part was he also had his crocs on. I'm not really sure why he put them on.

Hopefully by this weekend everyone will be back to normal.

Bibbi Bobdi Boutique

Glitter. Oh.My.Goodness. The glitter that we had from our wonderful time at the Bibbi Bodbi Boutique, it was EVERYWHERE! For DAYS!
But it was a highlight of our Disney adventure. The kids, yes even Little Man, got to experience a day of being a princess. We arrived early at the castle for our reservation to get all done up in full on princess style. Dresses, shoes, wands, nail polish, makeup, hair cement, and glitter (x100). Our party covered most of the major princesses:
Belle
Snow White
Cinderella
Aurora

We were one good looking group!

Sweet Girl was a beautiful Belle. She looked great in her fancy yellow dress, and rainbow sparkle shoes, all her beautiful makeup and her hair cemented on her head in a pretty crown. She was really impressed when she saw herself as they turned her around to face the mirror. She was so beautiful.

Little Man made quite the handsome Snow White. He declined the hair and makeup though, and only opted for the dress (while REFUSING to take off his clothes underneath), PINK sparkle shoes, and a wand. He did end up with glitter in his hair but that was all and he was NOT pleased with it at all. We got some looks, and questions about why "SHE" didn't like to have long hair. They were surprised when I said 'HE's a boy'. Oh the looks. They didn't stop all day. Some were looks of understanding, acceptance and the occasional horrified look of that boy is IN A DRESS, WHAT KIND OF MOTHER ARE YOU? I ignored those looks. I mean the kid was outnumbered with three GIRLS. He had to fit in somehow and he was quite PROUD in his Snow White getup. He did look cute and did provide us with some wonderful blackmail pics, he will certainly not enjoying seeing when he is 16. I was fine with my Sweet Little Man in a dress.

The other two girls were very beautiful in their Cinderella and Aurora dresses. We were difficult to miss with a party of 4 decked out princesses!

We then headed over to the BEST character meal of our trip. It was at the Auckerhaus in Epcot's Norway. Where each princess visited us at the table for autographs and pictures. Snow White was the best (or so I was told since I was up getting food at the buffet line...I am disappointed I missed it), trying to get Little Man to talk or take a picture with her. We did get some shots of him being all shy though. Sweet Girl enjoyed the day meeting all the princesses and did great taking her picture with them.

The weather was LOVELY this day as well. It was cooler and not nearly as humid. And I gotta tell you, if you're in France (at Epcot anyway) you MUST stop and get the Grand Marnier frozen drink. Holy Smokes was it good. And maybe you'll also be traveling with another family and you too can enjoy the pretzel rod with cheese from Germany that results in weird and perverted comments.

And as with all our trips where someone has to get hurt or sick. Epcot was the scene of Sweet Girl falling off a ledge. Luckily she was not badly injured, a small scrape and bruise on her arm. A lot of tears and thankfully no ripping of that beautiful Belle dress.

This was by far our longest day out and about. We started at 7 AM and didn't get back to the hotel until almost 8. But overall a wonderful day. Dress up, adventure, food, fun, drinks and great friends. It was pretty much perfect.

Wonderful World of Disney

Ok, so I better get this down before I forget all our wonderful times we had at Disney. It was a great trip. And I am really really happy we traveled with another family. It really made the difference.

We arrived at Disney on Friday and checked into our hotel and got settled. We then decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom for a bit. On our way out, we ran into our friends that were just arriving, they hung out at the hotel to get settled.
We got into the park just a parade was going on, it was so cool. I think I was on the verge of tears more than the kids.
We rode some rides in Fantasyland and tried to head over to the Haunted Mansion. I loved this ride as a kid. We got in and Sweet Girl has a breakdown and we have to leave. Leo rides alone as we wait by the exit for him. One of the ushers asked if we wanted to ride by going straight to the ride, I thought Sweet Girl would go for it but no such luck. Little Man and I headed in and he enjoyed it and then we got stuck. For a good 5 mins, the ride didn't move...good times.
We headed back to the hotel then and met up with our friends for a nice evening before hitting the sack for our first "official" day at the Magic Kingdom.

Saturday at the Magic Kingdom was a little hot and very sticky - we're are not used to THAT kind of humidity. Ugh. But it was great. We were there for a while and then headed back to the hotel for a nap before we were to return to the MK for dinner in the Castle at Cinderella's Royal Table. We got a photo with Cinderella and saw the Fairy Godmother and some of the mice. It was a good meal.
The park was open until 11 that night so we headed back around after dinner, got stuck in a bit of rain which was actually fun. The stroller was drenched. We rode Pirates I think twice that night. I think we got back to the hotel at 11, only to get up the next morning at 7 again. We wore those kids out!

Sunday was Animal Kingdom day. By far my least favorite park, but ironically where we had the best meal and they had the best roller coaster. We took advantage of their rider swap program by finding a nice little loophole (oh the benefits of traveling with another family!). The safari "ride" was the best of that place. And it really did feel like we were in Africa with the heat. It was the hottest day I think.

Monday was Hollywood Studios. We got a little later start this day, and met at 9 instead of 8. The extra hour of sleep did the kids some good. I didn't think we would spend as much time here as we did. It was a GREAT park. I really liked it. Sweet Girl rode her first thrill ride by going on the Tower of Terror with me. It was really cool, basically we dropped 13 stories and shot back up. We saw Beauty and the Beast on stage and it was great as well. Some stunt shows and that completed our day at the Studios.

Tuesday was water park day. We had fun at Typhoon Lagoon. The kids enjoyed the slides and even rode by themselves on a tube slide. It was really fun. I had a moment of panic as I lost Little Man at the kiddie play area. Then there was the wave pool. The kids LOVED the 6 foot waves that were pushed out of that thing. We would go about middle of the "pool" and ride that wave. It was really fun. The pool was pretty wide and then opened wider at a certain point where the kiddie slides were at the "shore" of the pool. Even though this was far from the waves coming through it would create a little bit of force so much it knocked Sweet Girl out of my hands and pushed her so she was wrapped around some poor ladies legs. I was thankful she was there, it was kind of funny because she was just swept away. One min I had her hand the next I look down and away she is going.

Wednesday - This was Bibbi Bobdi Boutique day and this deserves it's own post. We had a beautiful Belle and a very handsome Snow White....

Thursday and Friday - We hit Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom again. It was great.

I'm sure I missed a lot of details here, I will have to do another post as I think about it some more!

Overall it was a great trip. We learned that Sweet Girl exhibits traits of being a highly sensitive child. She had a lot of crying breakdowns, I felt bad for her. And was a little embarrassed since we were traveling with others. But after some quick reviews online mid trip, I found a new tactic to handle that worked a little better. Sweet Girl loved Big Thunder Mountain at MK. We wore the kids out, had great food, great company. And spent an assload of money on souvenirs. I'm ready to go back!

Airplanes and Steroids Don't Mix

I hope you never have to fly with a kid that is coming down from a steroid high. It makes plane travel very interesting.
Little Man was coming off his high as we were flying to Tampa on the first stop of our journey. I was fearful of his behavior and while it wasn't as bad as I anticipated it wasn't his normal flight behavior.
Aside from only watching a movie for say oh 10 mins and then basically DEMANDING another movie, and the moment he screamed NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO with fists flying in the air and kicking the seat in front of him and wanting more 100 calorie packs of the Oreo thins, the flight was fine. He actually feel asleep as we were taxing for take off. And would have slept longer if the pilot hadn't talked really loud indicating we had reached our cruising altitude of 39,000 feet. I want to curse him but since he was really in control of my life at that moment I didn't say any bad things about the wonderful pilot that flew us from Phoenix to Tampa.

After arriving in Tampa we headed over to our friends Craig and Doris' house for a while. We were happy to see them and all their kids. They have cats and dogs and poor Little Man is allergic to both of them. Our friends were nice and put all the animals outside and did a vacuum run before we got there, it helped until about 2 hours in. Then it was time for us to go.

We headed to Clearwater Beach the next day with Doris. All their kids were in school so Doris, the kids and I went to the beach. It was nice, I had a wonderful time watching the kids in the sand, watching the ocean, and having good conversation with Doris. And a word of advice if you have a boy and he has a bathing suit that is prone to sag, you should apply sun screen down his pants to account for said sag. I get the good mother award (not) for failing to do this and pool Little Man ended up with a giant red stripe (I could have drank one that point) on his back. I felt horrible. He woke up the next morning complaining his back hurt and when I carried him he asked that I put my hand on his bum instead of his back. Oh the guilt!

Sweet Girl was convinced she saw two stingrays in the ocean. A mommy and a baby. She has a good imagination, as I didn't see any rays and if so I would have gone running out of the water like a nut. I did see a lot of fish though.

And then it was on to Disney, more on that tomorrow!

We Survived!

We survived our 8 days at Disney World! It was crazy, fun, tiring and worth it. I haven't posted in two weeks I think.

I will get highlights out soon. I am at work in TN right now, and am trying to play catch up.
Stay tuned for more!