My week in a nutshell

Here's your warning. This is just me rambling about nothing all that important or interesting. If you stick around to read it all thank you.. but you must have nothing else to do or are really bored. And if not, then no problem. I probably wouldn't either!
And today starts another week! Oh joy... can't wait to see what fun and excitement it will bring!
This past week was one busy day after another, but then again that's really nothing to new around here. There's always something going on!
Monday started out with an incredible migraine headache that forced me to stay home and because the gods were smiling down upon me I got to sleep in till 10:30am! Can you believe it?!?! Of course I still had the headache when I got up and it stuck with me all day. Eventually, I made it to the chiropractor and he made it all go away. I was happy. I could stand, sit, turn my head, and even blink with out major pain!
Nothing exciting must have happened Tuesday since I can't remember it! So, let's move on to Wednesday.
Wednesday is usually pretty busy because that's piano night. And I normally stick around in town after work until my daughter's lesson. But this time I couldn't. She had left her notebook at home so we had to run all the way home and back to get it. So, I dropped her off and went home (again) and I swear within 30 minutes the phone was ringing.... she was done. Ready to come home! I should mention here that the lessons are supposed to be an hour long.
Friday was a trip! Aside from work the rest of the afternoon was running to get things for my daughters birthday party that night. I know... I know... I should have gotten the stuff sooner. I didn't though.
We had a plan and were ready to get in and out of the store quickly. And then we tried to get the balloons. wow. Let me tell ya... it shouldn't take 20 minutes to blow up 5 balloons and tie a damn string to them! Especially when you don't blow them up all the way! Seriously, these were the most pathetic looking balloons I have ever seen in my entire life. They were small and the strings were all the same color and the exact same length. If the person doing the balloons were a woman then I know they would have looked a lot better!
Now as a bit of advice. Do not go to a corn maze at night with a bunch of kids. We've been to the maze before and it was great, but it was daytime. We spent more time lost and walking in circles than anyone else in that maze. The kids were all excited when they found one of the stops. It was #9. Somehow we missed the first 8! No big deal. We moved on and walked... and walked... and walked. And then there was another stop. It was #9. This happened one more time too!
I swear these kids had me totally bamboozled! They assured me they knew what they were doing. But I was pretty sure that we were never getting out of there! We were going to be spending the night in the corn maze!
Eventually, we found stops #10 & 12. And by that time I was over the whole maze thing. One of the workers was out there in the maze and helped us find our way out. My 8 yr old was very happy! She was done too and didn't want to keep walking anymore!
There was one hell of a game of Marco Polo going on too! Although I'm not sure that it was a game as opposed to all the kids in the maze just yelling Marco Polo as they ran around. But all in all the kids had a great time and that's all that matters right!
Saturday brought my husbands class reunion and Sunday was dinner with my parents. And as a warning.... do not give a baby red velvet cake. They will make a huge mess with it and turn everything in a 3 foot radius red.
And now that I write about it ... I guess my week wasn't that bad.

Nostalgia ~ My Dishes Revisted

Recently, I got this really great new dining room set! It's amazing. And the best part is that my dining room now looks like a real "adult" dining room. Ya know, the ones with the nice furniture that isn't old and crappy.

Anyway, that's not what this is all about. But it is what started it because I emptied the old hutch to make room for the new one.

I have this set of dishes that my husband bought for me and they're very special to me because they're the exact same set of dishes that my grandparents had when I was younger. And I love them.

They're the blue and white Currier & Ives set and they're the dishes that my grandparents used as their daily dishes. I have so many fond memories of my grandparents and using those exact dishes for big family dinners, for simple things like a bowl of cereal, desserts, and just about everything in between.

Every time we visited my grandparents my grandma would make this soup, it was the instant type out of a box but it was really good. Eventually I learned that it was Mrs. Grass' chicken noodle soup, you know the kind with the little egg and skinny noodles. As kids we loved this soup and I still do and so do my kids, but we always used those bowls. They weren't deep though, more big, round and shallow. And then for a snack after that she'd give us fruit with cream cheese. Have you tried it? It's really good!

Those dishes have always reminded me of my grandparents and those times so when I happened to find some at a local antique store I was so excited. I knew that I had to have them! But here's the thing, it wasn't the complete set and they were selling them by the piece which came out to a rather big total price. Sadly, I passed and didn't get them.

About a year later I was looking through some local classifieds online and happened to find the set of dishes again! This time though it was a complete set for at least 10 - 12 people. There were serving pieces, salt & pepper shakers, gravy bowl, cups, saucers, dessert plates, and even an ash tray! The best part was that they were practically giving it away! I think that we paid like maybe $100 - 150 for all of it. I couldn't believe it!

My husband went and picked up the dishes for me and from what he said the people just wanted to get rid of them. I felt like a little kid at Christmas! There were boxes and boxes of dishes and I had to go through all of them even though it was late in the evening.

I've only used these dishes a few times since getting them and it's usually when we have a large family meal. I don't use them mostly because I'm afraid of something happening to them. They hold such great memories for me that it would kill me to have one of them broken, but then again my grandma used them everyday and they survived through 9 grand kids. Maybe I should get them out and use them more often, be a bit more trusting (but watchful!), and enjoy them.

Do you have something special like that? Maybe it was handed down to you through your family or just something that you picked up along the way. Maybe it's dishes, a trinket, or a piece of jewelry. I'm not talking about a picture though because I believe that those are something different all together.

The Best Vacation We Ever Took

First of all I have to apologize for my homework being late. Yesterday was totally craptastic just read my post about it and you'll totally agree. And because of that I had a lot to get off my chest so I did that instead of my homework. Sorry.

Week two for Back to School, Back to Blogging has given me some trouble. I was able to quickly do the reading and come up with my list of 10 ideas. Then I started reading the 500 + ideas and could not figure out what one I should write about! There were so many good ones! I finally decided to tell you about the best vacation my family and I took.

In the spring of 2009 my family and I took the vacation of a lifetime! We all went to Disney World, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom for a week. It was the first time that I had ever been there as well!
Now, some wouldn't say that Disney is the vacation of a lifetime, some visit there on a regular basis, and then there are others who would agree with me and have never been there. And to those who haven't been there it's a damn expensive trip! But worth every last penny and I'd do it again.

Us & our ride for the week

Upon arrival in Orlando we gathered our luggage and quickly made our way to where our car was waiting to take us to the Sheraton Vistana Resort where we were staying for the week.

As you can see we had a limo for the entire week! We had the same car & driver while we were there to take us where ever we wanted.

View of the resort from our patio

The resort was huge and we had something close to an apartment with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, living room, dining, kitchen, and laundry. Of course there was all the regular stuff there like a pool & activities, but we didn't hang out there to much!







Our entire week was planned with various parks, dinner shows, and all the fun stuff that the Disney parks have to offer.

To say that I was just as excited as the kids is probably a very true statement! And for a few reasons I suppose. Like I said before I had never been there and neither had my kids and being able to share that with them was great. To see the awe & wonder, the excitement, their eyes and expressions on their face as we made our way to the Magic Kingdom for the first time was the best thing ever. It's just so hard to describe it.

I wanted to see every inch of the park, meet all the characters, and ride all of the rides! I mean it was incredible and a once in a life time thing... I think that maybe the kids felt the same way! For my husband this wasn't the first time that he'd been here. He and his family had been several times before this.

The first characters that we met while there were the wicked step-mother and sisters from Cinderella. The costumes, they way they looked, and the way that they acted was EXACTLY like in the movie! They were in full character too!

 

One of the best things that we did while there was taking a boat out on the lake around the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks over Cinderella's Castle. The evening was cool, the sky was clear, and we had the absolute best view of the fireworks available. The boat floated around until it was close to the time the fireworks were to start and then parked in full view of the castle which was lit up with ever changing colors.

It was a fantastic week!  I'll finish up with some highlight for fear that this could on for ever!

Dinner at Capones
Visted Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Disney Studios, and Downtown Disney
Went to see the Hoop De Do Review dinner show

Here are a few of the pics from our trip.

Wordless Wednesday - September 21st

Niagara Falls - September 2010

View from our hotel room

The girls after the Maid of the Mist boat ride

Probably the best shot of the falls I got!

My kids!

I Finally Get It

Recently I was looking for someone to do a guest post for me, found someone, and it went really well! So well that I sent out a tweet and was able to get another person to do a guest blog post! It's great! It helps me in growing my blog but it also lets others write about something different, grow their blog, and best of all it helps build friendships!

This week Jessica from The Unemployed Mom is my guest blogger! Her blog is one the first ones that I started reading and from there I went on to finally start my own blog. I guess you could say she helped inspire me!

Family stuff, our mom's being right, and teaching our kids something valuable! Read on!!

I remember hearing my mom say things like "this is what life is all about" and I used to scratch my head thinking she was crazy. Was life really about sitting around with family doing nothing? I could have thought of a million things that seemed like more fun, instead I was dragged along to family
functions. To me, those things were boring and I never understood why she got so excited about them. Why did we always have to do family stuff?

There were a lot of things that my mom thrived on that I just didn't get. She was always about being in her comfort zone and never thought about stepping outside of it. She worried about my brother and me all the time, something that drove me nuts! She used to always say "someday you'll understand" or "just wait until you have kids".

Fast forward 20 years later and I am blown away at how smart my mom was! I finally get it! Life is all about those precious moments shared with loved ones. I never quite comprehended that until having a child of my own. In our child free years, my husband and I enjoyed a non-stop lifestyle. We were
always on the go, whether it was traveling, going shopping or walking around Disney to get out of the house. We hated just sitting around doing "nothing".

Don't get me wrong, we still enjoy getting out and about but it is much more difficult with a kid. Even a quick trip to the market takes planning (diapers, snacks, toys, extra clothing, etc.). I keep reminding my husband how our life is more enriched with our little one, but sometimes he has a hard time seeing it (he'd prefer to be sipping Mai Tai's in Hawaii or shopping in the Big Apple without worrying about a tantrum). Our son brings us so much joy, he is truly a blessing. Even on days when he shows his true
2-year old spirit, I can envision my mom telling me to savor the moments because "you'll miss these days when they are gone".

I just find it amazing that she was right on all accounts! NEVER would I admit that to her of course, but wow! It seem like yesterday my son was this helpless little bundle that needed me for everything. Now, he's so independent and growing up right before my eyes! I hope I can teach him the same valuable lessons and morals that my mom taught me!