Stationery card

Crayon Christmas Wishes Christmas Card

Click here to browse Shutterfly Christmas card designs.

View the entire collection of cards.

WDW Food--part 1 of several...Non-reservation meals

SNACKS

• Boulangerie Patisserie
 in France – Do not come home and tell me you missed this--this is an epic right of passage to go eat dessert at France (EPCOT)  My personal favorite has always been the chocolate mousse.

• Frozen Lemonade
 (in all parks) – really good

• Churros
 at sorcerer's hat kiosk (HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS)

• Main Street Bakery
 –great breakfast spot or our favorite is to buy some stuff there on the way out at night at closing to have to eat in the room later or the next morning (MAGIC KINGDOM)

• Sleep Hollow--
nutella waffles…need I say more?!? (MAGIC KINGDOM)

Counter Service:

• Pecos Bill
 in Frontierland near Splash Mountain - BBQ sandwiches, wraps, burgers, salad bar – large portions & LOTS of indoor seating! (MAGIC KINGDOM)  burgers are really good.

• Pinocchio Village
 in Fantasyland near It’s a Small World – personal pizzas with salad side – large portions (MAGIC KINGDOM) our favorite CS in all of MK

• Backlot by Star Tours
 burgers, turkey sandwich, salad - FREE drink refills (HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS) air conditioned seating--this one ties with ABC Commissary but we usually end up at Backlot

• Toy Story Pizza Planet
 – Pizza & salad– large portions (HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS)  IMHO the BEST CS in Hollywood Studios--we ate here twice at the kids' insistence last time--including our last meal at Disney before we left for airport--they love it--the Chocolate Cappuccino Cupcake is fantastic and huge which makes it a great value as your dessert on the dining plan AND (biggest plus in my book) upstairs at Pizza Planet is my favorite cell phone charging spot in all of WDW–get a table along the brick wall side and you will find ample outlets to charge your phone while you eat.

• Cosmic Rays
 –  1/2 chicken, BBQ, wraps, or burgers in Tomorrowland – large portions & LOTS of seating! (MAGIC KINGDOM)--if it's a busy time or park is crowded, head to cosmic rays--tons of INDOOR seating and lots of food options

• Flame Tree BBQ
 – BBQ (ANIMAL KINGDOM)  DO NOT MISS--best CS in all of WDW--the food is EXCELLENT

• Epcot--any of the worlds have decent CS options and Seasons at the Land is really good too--don't eat Electric Umbrella--I thought in the 10 years since I had last been to Disney that the food would have gotten better there…it hadn't.  Don't be coerced by its convenience.  It's not good.

Most Magical Place on Earth--Tips part 1 Animal Kingdom

Synopsis: AK is an easy park if you're short on time--there's really only 5 or 6 must-do attractions.  The rest you could miss and you wouldn't regret not seeing/doing any of them especially if your kids have been to a major zoo before (St. Louis, New Orleans, Memphis, etc,)

ANIMAL KINGDOM…If you only have a few hours…

DO NOT MISS:

·      Kilimanjaro Safaris® Expedition: FIRST-- DO 1^ST --ASAP IN MORNING

·      DINOSAUR: Super fun ride!  Line rarely is longer than 20mins plus the interactive queue is very entertaining while you wait.

·      It's Tough to be a Bug!®:  DO NOT MISS (8min movie inside of Tree of Life)  Some say it's scary.  I thought it was awesome.  Full of surprises!

·      Festival of the Lion King: DO NOT MISS—CHECK SCHEDULE OF SHOWS—30mins long—AMAZING--BEAUTIFUL--I can't think of enough good things to say about this show--not a bad seat in the theater so don’t worry about being the first ones into the theater.  BUT try to get out of the theater FAST so you can get in line to see the characters who are located directly outside of the exit of the theater.  Have your child decide before FOLK which character is her #1 priority to see so you can rush to that line as soon as the show is over.

·      Kali River Rapids®: You will get drenched.  I recommend saving it for last so you don’t walk around park wet all day.  Take a poncho so you don't look like a wet tshirt contestant.  Also, Hubby can attest that khaki shorts become see-through when wet.

FLAME TREE BBQ: I'm adding a restaurant here because it's probably the best quick service meal in all of WDW as far as quality of food.  I'm not saying it's better than Memphis bar-b-que but the meat is extremely good.  Plus I just love the irony of eating meat at the Animal Kingdom which is all about conservation of animals.  

IN BETWEEN:

·      Pangani Forest Exploration Trail®: If you have time.  It’s a walk through zoo part.  We liked it much better than Maharajah if you have to choose between the two.  It can be as long or as fast as you want it to be depending on how fast you walk through it.  The reason I put it a little higher is because it’s in a very convenient location at the exit to the Safari.  So it’s convenient as soon as you get off the safari to make a hard left into the Pangani Trail.  I guess technically then I’m recommending you do this 2^nd after the safari.  This one has the gorillas & monkeys (and other African animals) who are a lot of fun to watch. 

ONLY IF YOU HAVE TIME:

·      Wildlife Express Train: This is a huge time-eater but our girls enjoyed going out to Conservation Station® and Affection Section—afffection section is just a petting zoo with goats, sheep, and an occasional donkey.  Rafiki does a meet & greet at Conservation Station. And it's neat seeing the vets working on the animals.

·      Finding Nemo – The Musical: Supposedly good but distant 2^nd best to FOLK.  We skipped this because we’ve seen Nemo on Ice 3 times now and everyone said it’s almost exactly the same.  It’s 30 mins.

·      Maharajah Jungle Trek®: If you have time.  It’s a walk through zoo part with tigers (this is Asian animals.)

SKIP

·      Expedition Everest®:  SKIP--ok don't skip if your kids are tall enough & brave enough...but my my kids would not do it.  Disclosure: my brother-in-law says this is his second fav ride in all of WDW (behind Rock n Roller Coaster.)

·      Flights of Wonder: SKIP—it’s a bird show.  Sorry birds don't do it for me.

·      Primeval Whirl®:  SKIP—it strangely has a high height requirement.  This is the same “roller coaster” as is at our state fair each year so I felt no need to stand in line to do it.

·      The Boneyard®: SKIP—it’s a big sandbox.  Could be fun if you have hours to just hang out and let the kids play & get dirty—otherwise it’s a huge time-waster with no rewarding value.  They can play in the sand box digging for bones at our local zoo or even in the backyard when the dogs bury their bones in the kids' sandbox.  It has a playground with some slides attached.   We skip this section all together. 

·      Fossil Fun Games: SKIP—walk very fast through this section—stupid carny fair games which you have to PAY extra for. 

·      TriceraTop Spin: SKIP—dumbo but with dinosaurs instead

Christmas card

Joy Wreath Holiday 5x7 folded card

Shop hundreds of holiday photo cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Here's the fantastic card I made on Shutterfly.  Of course it took me forever to make.  Not because the site is hard to use at all--in fact it's super easy--but because it was so difficult to narrow down which card design was my favorite.  I could have spent hours looking through all the card options.  There are literally hundreds of cards to choose from and then you can customize them a dozen different ways to further personalize them.  I am thrilled with the card I made and hope it looks as great in person as it does on the computer.

Have you borrowed money lately

We last bought a house in 2008.  Due to being relocated we are once again buying a house just a little over 2 years later.  This time is NOTHING like any of the times we've bought a house before.  The new lending and banking guidelines are un-freakin-believeable.  They are nearly impossible to satisfy.  The government has freaked out and gone the extreme opposite direction from where they were 2 years ago when they were encouraging anyone and everyone to borrow money to the exact opposite where now it's amazingly hard to borrow money.  Just to get mortgage rates run you have to fill out a 19 page loan application, submit to credit check, and give the lender permission to pull your last 2 years tax returns--all of that JUST to get rates run!  Once you get past that then you have to keep detailed paper trails of everything, be able to explain every last dollar in your bank account, can't spend any large amounts of money prior to closing, and on and on and on.  I keep thinking they are going to ask us to submit to DNA tests next.

A house is not a home without love (and paint, carpet, new AC units...)

Ok don’t fall over from shock but after 5 months we finally put an offer on a house.  We found out we were being relocated back to MS the last week of July right before school was to start.  By that time, all the houses in our prefered area had been snatched up by people just wanting mailboxes to get their kids into our great school system so we were left with little or no inventory from which to choose.  We knew all along we really wanted to be back in our old neighborhood.  In the mean time we've been bunking at my parents house (which is also in our old neighborhood.) 

So this week it finally happened--well, rather hubby convinced me/ talked me into putting an offer on a house.  No, I’m not jumping up and down because frankly it's not my favorite—it’s a real fixer-upper—as in major fixin’ to be done.  It definitely needs serious work in areas--it's VERY outdated and has been vacant for over a year, but it’s a heck of a deal and hubby's trying to convince me that we could go in and redo everything the way we want it done. We'll see what comes of it but we did go ahead and make an offer and now are just waiting to hear back from the sellers. 

Shuttering at the diminishing days til Christmas

On your mark,

Get set,

GO!

The Christmas countdown is on! 

At the time that I am starting this post there are 58 days 2 hours and 56 minutes until Christmas....But who's counting?

              That means if you are going to get Christmas cards made, addressed, and actually mailed so that friends and family get them PRIOR to Christmas day then it's time to start planning.

I'm a bit of a Christmas card freak and not only do (make, address, and mail) our cards but my parents' cards as well and keep extensive mailing label databases for each.  This year I am already planning on using Shutterfly for our cards.  We always send out photo cards because let's be honest that Christmas cards are a competition to see who has the cutest kids.  A competition which we dominate with our two beautiful girls of course!

We have used Shutterfly 2 or 3 times for our Christmas cards, but I'm going to admit that we did not use Shutterfly last year.  I thought I had found a good deal on photo cards on another site and, sure, they were cheap....but price ended up not being the only way in which they were cheap.  They looked ok.  Nothing spectacular.  They looked like I had printed them out using my home printer.  The quality was as poor as the price was cheap.  I was disappointed but it was too late to get new cards made. 

So after a lackluster year, I'm going for major pizazz this year with our cards.  Right now, the front runner choice for our card is the Classic Red Square Christmas Card 5x5 Flat Stationery Card by Stacy Claire Boyd.  You can put 8 photos on it and customize the message in the red square.  I love being able to personalize the greeting.  Our family has a signature quote from Gladys in the Best Christmas Pagent Ever that we always put on our Christmas cards and I think it will look awesome in the middle red square in this card. 

While browsing Shutterfly's site I also found two new obsessions: personalized Christmas gift tags and personalized Christmas address labels.  Shutterfly has really branched out to be a one-stop-shop for all your Christmas needs.  I especially love the Retro Wheel Bright gift tag because it's very vintage looking but also while it is festive and perfect for Christmas, it could also be used year-round for all your gift giving occasions.  It also has corresponding address labels which are super cute and again could be used year-round but especially at Christmas. 

Hurry to order your Christmas cards while Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards!  Time is ticking......after writing this post there are only 58 days 2 hours and 25 minutes left!

My favorite obsession

I love Glee.  I am not ashamed to admit that I look forward to it every week with total giddyness all day on Tuesdays.  My husband who is a total tough guy, man's man, beer and football kind of guy, even loves Glee too.  It's the ONE show (besides football) that we watch together every week.  So I have been extra excited today about the RHPS episode coming on tonight.  We have an elegant theatre in town where Gone with the Wind first debuted which does a midnight screening of RHPS without fail each Halloween.  I adore RHPS.  I do get that many many people don't support RHPS and it's "message" but there is no denying it is one genius piece of musical theatre.  So you know where to find me tonight at 7pm....

Weather freak out

I am a weather freak.  I check the weather dozens of times a day.  If it storms at night I stay up all night until the storm passes.  I have a plate signed by the man who was the local weatherman from my childhood on display in my kitchen.  I'm over obsessive about the weather.  I like to be in control of my surroundings and the weather is one thing that I have no control over whatsoever and it makes me feel very vunerable and uneasy.  I was 8mons preggo on bed rest when Katrina hit (we lived in South Mississippi at the time) so I have extensive history with bad storms but tornadoes are a whole other variable.  We knew Katrina was coming.  We had time to prepare (although no one was prepared for the 8days without power and gas shortages.)  We saw it coming.  With tornadoes you have no clue where they will hit and it is strictly the fickle finger of nature as to who/what gets hit and what is left untouched.  We have been forecasted for severe storms here this weekend so I'm drinking my Coke Zero and getting ready for a long night ahead of me.

BABIES

I'm a BzzAgent (fantastic program I love contributing to) and as such have been given the opportunity to be a BABIES Ambassador and learn extra about the new film BABIES.  My understanding is that it follows the first year of life of four children from Mongolia, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Namibia.  It's release date is May 7, 2010.  Be sure to watch the trailer below first and then become a fan of the movie on Facebook:


The film looks amazing and reminds me how amzing children are, how amazing people are, how amazing humanity is.  It will make you want to live a more joyful (meaning FULL OF JOY) life.   Look at this picture--pure JOY!


And just for fun, check out the hilarious Jimmy Kimmel spoof here:

Just doing my job

Our 4 year old just asked me to get her a cup of “icy cold water” to go with her snack of Cheez-its.
I said “Sure.”
To which she said “I love you so much that’s why I let you work for me.”

We definitely know who's the boss at our house!

Snow in the South

We had 9 inches of snow last weekend.  The kids were out of school for 3 days plus the weekend--that made for 5 very long days!  Last year we had what the weatherman called (at the time) a "freak" snow of 14 inches.  Hmmm....We've lived here 2 years and year 1 we have 14 inches and year 2 we get 9 inches.  Somehow I think snow is becoming an expected thing and not so much a "freak" thing (Al Gore anyone?!?)  Or maybe it's just God's way of punishing this Southern Mississippi girl who's used to wearing flip flops year round!

When hubby lowered the tailgate on the truck we had a perfect batch of snow to measure.  Note the quarter inch layer of ice on top.  We had ice/sleet/freezing rain come through first, then heavy snow for an entire day, and then another night of freezing rain/ice on top of the snow.  Needless to say hubby banned me from going anywhere.  You know us 'Sippi folk don't know how to handle the white stuff. I can ride out any hurricane but don’t have a clue what to do with snow!  The pan was in the back of the truck to catch clean snow for snow cream.

Our snow dogs!  The big one loves snow but the beagle hates it, but it was over her legs up past her belly so she had a really hard time walking in it.  The big dog would bound through the snow like Tigger on Winnie the Poo just hopping everywhere.

Titles/Groups/Cliques

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.    Tommy Lee Jones as K in Men in Black (1997)

Here's my confession: as a general rule I don't really like people.  I like individuals but not people as a group.  I believe in the general goodness of mankind but I also believe that generally mankind is pretty darn stupid. 

I also hate labels.  I hate being put into a group with a title.  I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat but that's not ok with people so they gave a label of Independent to the leftover voters.  Nope, I'm not one of those either.  I tend to be a Republican in financial matters, a Democrat in social matters, and neither in environmental and health care issues.  I am extremely against big government but I realize that a certain minimum level of government involvement is needed.  So what does that make me?  Probably part of the growing majority in the US right now--the group called "unhappy-with-all-policy-makers-who-no-longer-drive-their-own-cars-or-haven't-paid-for-lunch-in-10years."

The Biggest Baby I Have

Sorry I’ve been so long without writing! Been a crazy holidays. I was so behind in Christmas shopping between the 10 days I was down with the flu back at Thanksgiving to spending all my free time looking at different schools (we withdrew our oldest from the school she had been in and put her at a new school--very long story behind it all) that as soon as the girls got out of school I did nothing but shop and decorate. We had some of hubby's family come in town the Monday after school let out so I was frantic trying to get everything together. Then hubby and I had planned an adult vacay for the week after Christmas as our Christmas present to ourselves while the girls went to Mississippi to spend a week with my parents—but instead he started with fever the day after Christmas and ended up with the flu so I’ve spent the past few days playing nurse to one BIG 34 year old BABY! Thankfully the girls were in MS nearly the entire time he was sick so they weren’t exposed.
I have birthed two children, two c-sections, 3 months of pre-term labor, 3 months of bed rest (including 10 days from hell during Katrina--was so hot I might as well have been in hell), suffered mastistis both times, and on and on and on but my goodness he gets the freakin flu and he thought he was going to die (unfortunately I wasn't that lucky!)  He couldn't (of course he could but he wouldn't) even get out of bed to get his own Sprite.  Why do grown men become the world's biggest whiners when sick?  I finally got smart and started drugging him with nighttime meds in the middle of the day so he'd hush!

Christmas shopping...or the lack thereof

I really hope other people are as behind on Christmas shopping as I am this year.  I know it's tacky of me to wish that on others but it really would make me feel better about myself if others could be as far behind as I am.  I so sluggish this year!
I've been browsing through some blogs and found some really great deals and giveaways.  I'd never heard of ShopAtHome.com before but it's a neat concept.  Check out their home site for a twitter giveaway and also check out Mrs. Moneysaver for another giveaway.
Will update post more later hear dogs whining outside.  It is 20-something degrees guess I should let them in.

Sick Angel Baby

Angel Baby has had a cold off and on for a couple of weeks now.  She's been so stopped up this week that she couldn't sleep.  When she'd lay down to try to sleep the coughing and hacking would start.  She needed to get some sleep.  I needed to get some sleep. 

Our oldest always has loved Johnson's Baby Soothing Vapor Cream.  I can slather it all over her chest and back and she will sleep like a baby.  Well of course Angel Baby can't stand the cream.  She says it makes her sticky and just pitches a fit when I try to put it on her.  I was at Walgreens buying some more refills for the Vicks vapor plug-ins (LOVE those!  I think I have 8--one for every room!) and I happened upon these TheraFlu vapor patches.

They stick to your clothes and last about 6 hrs (it claims 8hrs but I haven't noticed it working that long.) It works long enough to allow her to fall good and asleep at night before it wears off. She's worn one the past 3 nights and it's really helped. She asked for her patch before bed tonight!  (Hubby told me it sounds like I'm putting one of those stop-smoking patches on her.)  I think the packaging technically says for ages 6 and up and Angel Baby is 4 but when dealing with a sick child you have to improvise and try anything.  She may not be their target demographic but all I know is it works.  It helps her breathe so she can sleep and as a by product I get sleep too! yea!  I saw online that they make Puffs Plus with Vicks in them too but I haven't found them in any stores yet. 

IRL? huh?

Have I walked into an alternate universe in the blog world?  I know I'm brand new at all this but I really don't understand what a "Mommy Blogger" or "Mom Blog" means?  Is that some sort of official title you get by joining some club or group or does it just mean any mom with a blog?  I'm beginning to see that there are cliques/sororities/associations online that are well organized and (in some cases) very controlling.  Isn't the point of having a blog being able to have your OWN say about things?  I just don't get it, but I never was the sorority type of girl.  I sure as hell wasn't going to have someone bossing me around just so I could be allowed (dripping with sarcasm) to be their friend.  And I LOVE (note the saracasm here too) when people write "IRL" such as "I've met her IRL" as though there is a seperation between the blog world and in real life.  I thought that's what blogs were supposed to be--an extension of our thoughts and ideas and just whatever we want to write about--isn't that real life?  Shouldn't everything that you put on your blog be IRL if it's the truth?

The Black Friday letdown

Hubby and I tried to do a little shopping yesterday.  Crowds don't bother me as I'm from a much bigger city than the town we currently live in but I had not expected the level of hoarding that we witnessed yesterday.  From toys at Toy R Us to little things like grabbing 20 of the $.99 poinsettas at Home Depot (even though there was a limit of 10) people were just grabbing everything and keeping it in their buggies whether they intended to get it or not.  Why would you want to prevent others from getting them?  Makes no sense to me. 

The things we were looking for were not any of the doorbusters but were still "gone."  Although one of the stock boys at Toys R Us said it's probable that they still had them somewhere in the store but that people were taking buggies full of items such as Barbies and then leaving them in other sections of the store.  I hate greed.  It makes people so ugly.  So I'm still on the look out for Barbie Candy Glam Styling Head and any Harumika kits for the oldest.  I still have hope that I might win one of the Harumika sets from Santa's Picks but I'm running out of hope on the Barbie head.  I found the last Bath Magic Ariel at Walmart last night for the youngest.  Unfortunately she was with me at the time but there was no way I was going to risk not getting it.  I tried to hide it under some stuff and upside down in the buggy but of course she eventually saw it.  Darn it!  So since she's seen it and it can no longer be a Santa gift, we're using it to bribe her for good behavior from now until Christmas.  Hey you gotta do, what you gotta do this time of year! :)

I have nothing for the husband yet and I have no clue what to get him.  I've always worked up until our move last year so I've never had to worry about spending money for presents for him until now.  It's difficult to surprise him with a gift without him already knowing what it is and how much it cost because I've either had to take cash out or used the debit card.  I found this awesome Timex Compass watch giveaway on Energizer Bunny's Mommy Reports site and it would be great to give him something totally unexpected for a change.  Any other ideas???

...and while I'm at it...I want these too please...they will be perfect for the over indulgence needed to get through the holidays and dealing with my mother-in-law.  Can't you just picture me finally having a relaxing holiday with not a care in the world as I'm drinking from my new Lenox wine glasses thanks to EBMR... shameless I know!  :)

Dear Lord please send me patience, and lots of it...

My mother-in-law is coming tomorrow. 
That is all.  That is more than enough.

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

God grant me the control
to bite my tongue until it bleeds if necessary...

Here turkey turkey

I am not a fan of turkey.  It's just not my favorite.  In the interest of full disclosure, I shot and killed my first turkey when I was 9yrs old and quickly decided thereafter that being in the woods at 3am to hunt turkeys was not at all appealing. 

I'm a red meat kind of girl and I love ham.  My hubby and oldest truly love turkey though.  So while they have turkey on Thanksgiving, I always cook a brown sugar glazed ham as well (mainly for me.)  Our youngest doesn't eat much of anything so it really doesn't matter to her if we have McDonald's for Thanksgiving.  In fact she'd probably be much happier with McD's.

So while I'm not a fan of turkey, I am a fan of good deals and saving money and was thrilled to score a 16lb turkey for a little over $6 at Wal-mart a couple of weeks ago when they announced their $.40/lb turkey deal.  That's pretty darn good.  If we had an extra freezer I'd be tempted to buy 5 or 6 birds and stock pile them.  Now that I have the turkey taken care of I'm on the look out for a good deal on a ham.  I sure hope hams go on sale at Christmas because they are just not marked down very much right now.  So until Wal-mart announces $.40/lb for hams I'm going to hope I win Mommy Mandy's giveaway so that I can use the gift card to Wal-mart to buy myself a ham.

Now I have to share a cute personal story.  I had a sack of turkey feathers that I took to use as quills at my oldest's class today for her Thanksgiving party.  After sending all the kids in the class home with a feather, I had about 8 left over.  When we got home I left the sack on the kitchen floor and let the dogs in because it was so cold.  The beagle went straight for the sack and started attacking it.  She got about half her body into the sack before emerging with a mouth full of turkey feathers.  She carried those feathers around in her mouth and paraded through the kitchen like "Look what I got!"  She was so cute.  She was so proud of herself for killing an already dead turkey!  (And while we were distracted watching the Beagle, our opportunistic big dog snuck half a loaf of homemade sour dough bread off the counter!)