Hidden Mickeys

The thing about Disney World is... they like Mickey Mouse.

I mean, they really like him. He's everywhere.

And when I say that, I mean that they really put him everywhere.

We stayed at a really nice Disney hotel, thanks to my mother. The furniture was nice, the wall paper was nice... but even then, Mickey was hiding everywhere. And a few other Disney characters, too.

I started amusing the boys while I was unpacking by having them find all the hidden Mickeys in the hotel room. Mickey's? Mickeies? What's the plural of Mickey?
Anyway, ten minutes later my mother had a frightened look on her face. "I think I'm going to throw up," she said.

I took pictures of a few from our hotel (not the theme parks.) You'll see what I mean.

hotel room wallpaper

hotel hall rug

more hotel hall rug

hotel room desk

hotel room lamp - this isn't really hidden

hotel bathroom wallpaper

hotel lobby floor

hotel lobby floor

hotel lobby floor

Florida Family

One of the best things about visiting Florida is that we get to see family.

My Aunt Myrtle lives in Florida, not too far from Daytona Beach. She lives there with my cousin Andy.

There is a little bit of a generation gap between my Florida cousins and myself. My mother's brother was much older than she was, and when she was still quite young he had married Myrtle and they had a couple of children.

My mother, on the other hand, waited longer to have a family. She was (gasp) almost 30 when she had me.

The result is that my cousins had children that were the same age as my brothers and sister. One of them, Scott, still lives there with his wife and their two kids. (Keli  lives in Paris - she's the one with that cute little baby, remember?)

I'm embarrassed to say that, even though I had my camera, I didn't take a great number of pictures during our visit. I suppose I don't want to get in the way of having comfortable conversation with relatives I rarely see, and then just forget to get out the camera. Jamie has some great group shots.

Florida 2012

I did, however, manage to take a few of the boys playing in someone's bedroom. Ah, family!

Heroes

Our trip to Disney World gave us the chance to run into some of our favorite heroes.

Such as:

Abraham Lincoln

Winnie The Pooh

Tigger

Super Nanny

Alice

The Mad Hatter

Zombie Obama (Zombama?)

Peter Pan

Daisy Duck

Goofy

Safari Mickey

This Guy

Strange Awning Animal

Phineas and Ferb

Quick - Here's Everything

We are back from Disney World.

I am exhausted. And I have a lot to say. Many of those things I have to say also have photographs to go along with them.

See, before I left, Steve very kindly got me a new SD card for my camera. It's 32GB. The last one I had was 4GB.

I took my first photo of Steve, and then my camera said I still had room for over 4000 photos left.

So I was able to take many, many photos.

Here are a few:

The Last Time...

The last time we were there...

We looked a little different.

We liked different things.

We couldn't always walk, and we napped whenever we wanted.

This time we're older, and we're even more excited!

Packing - Part 2

I make lists.

It's a thing I do. It helps me cope. If I have a grocery list, I know I can rush in and out of the store. If I know what I need at the mall, I can go right to the stores and not forget everything.

The problem is, I keep so many lists in so many places, I can't keep track. I also sometimes make multiple lists. For example - this upcoming trip to Disney World I have been looking forward to. I know I've made at least three lists of what I should pack, and at least five lists of items I need to buy at the store for that particular trip.

When it was time to go to the store I went looking for one of those lists.

I couldn't find one.

I went digging through bags, and sorting through papers. I went leafing through the notebooks in my nightstand - I often keep notes and lists in there.

And I thought, for a minute, that I had found a "what to pack" list. It was right in front of the meal plan, the schedule of dinners I'd made last week.

But then I realized that the list I was looking at was... wrong. Sip cups? Diapers?

What I was looking at was actually a list I had made for our LAST trip to Disney World. It's four years old. It was right in there with pages of which T-shirts I packed for the boys, and which crackers to put in the carry-on. And pages and pages of weekly meal menus from 2008.

Packing - part 1

I start packing for vacations early.

I could say it's because I'm a nervous person, or I could say it's because I want to make sure I have everything I need, that clothes are washed and dried etc.

But the real reason is that packing lets me think about my vacation in a constructive way. It's like a pre-vacation, a kind of anticipation. Also, I get a sick thrill out of making lists and checking things off.

It's a problem sometimes, though. Sometimes I pack so early that it messes up my clothing rotation. And by that I mean I suddenly have nothing to wear, because everything is in a suitcase except the two dirty t-shirts in the hamper.

And I admit, I'm really excited for this trip to Disney World. I've been thinking about what I'll pack for ages, already.

But the other day I was going through pictures from our last trip, the one four years ago, and I realized something...

Most of the things I was going to bring I had worn on my last trip.

Now, I'm not usually a fashion diva. I take pride in the fact that I keep my clothes for a long time, wear them to shreds.

But this would be totally unacceptable.

Because when I look at photographs from our trips, I need to be able to differentiate. I need to be able to tell the difference.

So I did something I'm a bit ashamed of. I went to Target and I purchased a handful of inexpensive, plain T-shirts. Probably made in Malaysian Sweatshops.

The only consolation I have is that I will at least feel like I look cute on this trip. And that I will at least wear the shirts to shreds.

Growing Smaller

A sure sign that clothing manufacturers are manipulating their sizes to make people think they are smaller?

When I was in college I considered myself a size 8. I was a size 8 in everything. I had size 8 pants, size 8 shirts, dresses, skirts, everything.

In college. When I was 21. And skinny without even trying. If I had a digital photo I'd post it.

I'm almost 38. And yes, I work out. But I weigh pretty much the same as when I was in college. 

I went shopping for jeans. Pants. It's tricky, because I hate shopping for pants.

I am now, apparently, a size 4. Not only a size 4, but a size 4 short. At least at Target.

I swear I'm not shrinking. 

Can't Hardly Wait

Mom. 

Very soon, I will actually set my eyes on this cool lady. And I will take her on the Tower Of Terror. She's terrified already.

To Do Something Right...

...you've sometimes got to do it yourself.

At least that's what Andy is thinking about our kitchen. As you can see, he took the painting part into his own hands. What do you think?

Andy Painting Our New Kitchen

 Actually, the painters were awesome. They really did let Andy help (they paid him a dollar!) and they did the whole kitchen AND my new improved laundry room in less than two days, including drying time. From primer to... well, to this.

Try And Try Again

The first few weeks of school are always punctuated by forgetting. Forgetting backpacks on the bus, forgetting school folders at home, forgetting thermoses at school.

How do you get a kid to remember that he needs to wear sneakers on Tuesday, or to bring his library book on Friday?

Well, if you're me, you do this:

The first Friday this was up I asked Nick if he'd looked at this chart. He said yes. I asked if he had his library book. He said yes, he thought so. I said he should double check. Cut to his school library time, where I was a volunteer. Guess who didn't have his library books.

Seriously, there is only so much one can do.

Playing With The Camera

Krazy Kitchen Komplaint

When we dove in to this kitchen project, I promised myself I would not make every single blog post about the kitchen. People get tired of hearing about updates that don't affect them, or, more likely, they get tired of hearing people complain about things tied to getting a brand new kitchen.

I am lucky. I know this.

So I tried to limit myself to one kitchen-oriented post a week.

But I feel like I just have to add a little something here. A comment. A little, teeny comment.


This was not a good time for our toaster oven to conk out, or the microwave to begin making noises like a jet plane.