Happy New Year and some Disney pics

Wilderness Lodge Tree-each hotel and park has a themed tree they are so beautiful.

Chris wore the I am grumpy because you're dopey hat and Kev had the matching shirt and they did not even plan it.


Here is Christina at the restaurant. Now remember we left the house at 5 am to catch our 7 am flight.
Side note: This reminds me of us our flight we checked our bags at the airport and we were going to the security check. Well the electric went out in that section so we were routed to another area. That area had a super long line so we waited patiently. The clock approached 7 am as we were retrieving our belongings from the conveyor belt and we thought well they have to hold the flight everyone has been delayed. Right? No, we RAN to our flight as the closed the doors behind us at 7:03 am. WHEW! We just made it!

This is Rachel in front of Pop century's Christmas Tree.



We stayed at the Disney value resort Pop Century. This us walking to our room which was in front of the bowling pin pool. I love Pop Century the best it is the newest and the cafeteria is the biggest and it offers slushies (coke and blue raspberry) Rachel is pushing Kevin and Tammy's grand daughter Jeana-Marie. She was such a good baby.


I am going to blog over a few postings on our trip to split it up. Our first day we arrived early and met up with family to eat at the whispering cove found at the Wilderness Lodge. It was a nice meal of all you care to eat lunch of chicken, ribs, mashed potatoes, slaw, and beans for $18. I would have liked a dessert to have been included, but that is just me. I would not go out of my way to eat here again.


We were on in the Disney dining plan which you pay for ahead of time and it gives you a table service meal, counter service meal, and a snack. Depending on where you go it saves you quite a bit a money and you can only get that option if you are staying on site in a Disney resort and have a park package. They offer so many great deals through out the year it is very affordable to visit Disney with hotel, parks, and food included especially for a family of four.


I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I have been home for several days. I am just now feeling back to a normal schedule. We came home late on the 27th. We had family over on the 28th, church on the 29th, more family over on the 30th, some lazy days, and my nieces over on the 1st. I have lots of ideas in my head and so many things I want to do. I don't know what to do first. I am looking forward to the kids going back to school only because that will open my schedule up during the day. They do not drive crazy they are too old. It is nice being home with them over the holidays. (Especially because I do not have to drive them to school and we can sleep in late. lol !)

Okay we had a great time in Disney. It is always a great time to visit during Christmas. I will say that it was not as exciting because we had just been there not too long ago. Do not get me wrong we had an awesome time it was just familiar. We did so many things that we had never done before. We had always left by December 21st so this was the first time to stay until after Christmas. It is their most busiest and expensive time of year to visit that is why we only stayed through the 26th. The parks were crowded but not too bad only Christmas Day. (If we ever did this again we would stay back at the hotel with family and maybe eat at one of the hotel restaurants on Christmas Day.) So anyway it was busy but we did not wait long for any ride. The fast passes are a great way to go on the popular rides without waiting. I am not sure why anyone would wait. Usually we would arrive in a park around 10:30 am (we are not early risers). Christina would take all of our park cards and get us a fast pass for the most popular ride. That gives you a come back time for the ride you just go through the line without waiting long at all. Within two hours you can go get a fast pass for another ride and so on every two hours from there. Now the only thing is you might be way on the other side of the park so it is a pain, but my oldest was happy to go get them. She knew exactly where she was going and we both a phone to keep in contact during her short travel. Okay I had promised to take photos but I was good only on the first day and thankfully my kids took some from there. I am just terrible getting photos. We really need to get a video camera both my husband and his side kick Rachel love to take them. We had forgotten the flip video, but that has limited abilities.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas. I closed up my store just in time. Yesterday evening I completed and packed up my last order for 2008. I am so thankful to all my wonderful customers. I really appreciate you and I am really looking forward to a wonderful new year. I am taking this week to enjoy time with my family in Disney. We are so excited. I will return refreshed and to an empty order list so that always gives me time to come up with some new designs. I would really looking forward to taking some time to finish my ebook. I have a few different ebooks in the works. Oh about Disney we are so blessed to able to go and visit with family. We are meeting them in Disney and staying through Christmas. It will be our first time in Disney on Christmas Day. We know it will be busy but we are not stressed about seeing everything. We have our favorite rides, shows, and parades so we will do them. We love eating at the different restaurants and since we already have reservation that is guaranteed fun. I am going to try take photos throughtout the vacation so I can blog about how wonderful Disney is especially during the holidays. I am not the best at taking out the camera, but I will try. I will not have access to the internet during our time away, but as soon as I get home I will return any emails.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May God be with each of you during this holiday season.

Santa came to my town early

There it is all shiny and new and WAY better than my last over the stove microwave. My dear sweet mom and her wonderful microwave carrier Ray stopped over my house to deliver an early Christmas present to me and my family. Why so early you ask I suppose a two week storage and a new delivery day was not as easy as giving it to me now. I am so THANKFUL. It is wonderful so many buttons, a shelf, cooked my oatmeal perfectly this morning, and even has a brand name. We had another microwave ever so long ago from Home Depot with a corny name Ewave. Which means I am going to break 3 days after the in store year warranty. And that is exactly what it did. It would only heat for 2 minutes at a time so that is what we have been doing for over a year I think. No popcorn, no mutliple heatings of food. I know we were so deprived, but not anymore. Thank you MOM and RAY. We love it!

A side note: You can see my lovely tree in the microwave's reflection. That tree was up two weeks before Thanksgiving. Chris and Rachel put the tree up early. They were so excited they went out at 9:30 at night to get lights. I use to have a tree with red balls, crystal ornaments, and white lights. Well not anymore my husband has been trying to get multi colored lights on it for years. Well they won this year and it is a hodge podge tree with child made decorations. It is beautiful but not a show room tree like my other one. LOL!( That attitude came from years of helping my mom. She professionally decorated tons of trees with a million lights and perfectly selected ornaments for a garden center) Maybe I will take a photo of the front of my house with another hodge podge of lights inspired from Chris and Rachel watching HGTV. They are two peas in a pod. Me and Christina were warm and grinchy inside. LOL!

Thanksgiving is just a Memory

But not a memory forgotten. Thanks to my wonderful and talented 13 year old daughter Christina. Okay this is not a photo of out dinner and no we did not eat outside. I did not take a photo. I know I am a terrible mom. Well my daughter loves to cook and be in charge. LOL! So she wanted to do it ALL by herself. Really I asked if she wanted help. It was just our family for dinner, but we had plenty for more. She baked fresh peanut butter and Hershey kiss cookies the night before. She was planning ahead knowing the oven would have a turkey in it. So I woke up in the morning and was drinking coffee and preparing to fill some custom orders before dinner at 4pm. Well the next thing I see is 2 pots full of peeled and cut potatoes. Wow, she doesn't mess around. Well it came time to put the turkey on and I started working in my area off the family room. I warned her that she had to clean out the turkey before cooking it. At first she was like no way, but I took too long to come and she had that turkey seasoned and in the oven all by herself. Well I will take you right to the dinner table. My husband helped a little cleaning some pots so she could reuse them. So this was the line up Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Corn, Cranberry Sauce, and Croissants all on the table HOT! I can't even do that. I told her most women cook their first turkey dinner after marriage and kids. So HOORAY Christina she is an excellent cook. Food Network has made a star.

LBC Cheerleading FIRST PLACE

We are having a great season of cheerleading. My 8 year old competed yesterday 11/23 and won first place. My oldest is on the unlimited squad and they did great. They have a fabulous routine this year and they look so good. They won second and only lost by 2 points to a great team. I will get a video of them next competition. We have most of it but a whole group of girls walked in front of my husband as he taped. All the coaches, board members and team moms are volunteer. It is wonderful to be a part of an organization that competes so well and everyone does a great job of giving their time for the sport. I am proud of my youngest in this video she has been working on her round off back hand spring for awhile. She did it very well for this performance so I am happy for her. She finally has the confidence to do it without any hesitation. Thank you Courtney. She is her tumbling instructor who has been practicing with her each week.

I said I would do it!

My sister was hosting a baby shower for a friend. She asked me to make her something for the soon to be mommy. I have been very busy with holiday orders and cheerleading. I take all names from orders and copy and paste them on to my order list to prevent any typos. I promised my sister I would do it and now it was Saturday night and I still had not made her anything. I had my nieces over, a friend, and I was rolling my youngest hair in curlers for the big competition on Sunday morning. Okay and the theme of the baby shower was butterflies and rainbows. Soon to be mommy likes butterflies and my sister's joke with her was life is not rainbows and butterflies. The time was 11:59 pm Saturday evening and still no gift has been created. I could not think of what to make. This is no time for a designer's block. I thought a butterlfy cutout or a butterfly soldered on with the baby's name. Well I came up with a butterfly shaped pendant. Right before I stamped I thought was it Lily instead of Lilly??? Well I looked at what I typed when I was on the phone with my sister no Lilly is what it said. I called my sister at 1:20 am right before I stamped it. Can you believe she did NOT answer? Well there I went and stamped it oh so proudly with Lilly Grace. I loved how it turned out. Ok I think you know where I am going with this. I called my sister in the morning and it was Lily. UGH! can you believe it. Thankfully, I can fix it, but darn it. LOL!

Crazy Cheer Season

I do not why I agreed to make all the bows for each team this year, but I did. LOL! How many bows are you wondering, it is 160 bows. I had some help and thank you to those that helped. I ordered the wrong size ribbon so that set me back a little. Well more than a little like 3 weeks. So I was freaking out a little as the deadline approached. It has been hard to fit into my schedule, but I am almost done. I have them all made for our first competition (11/9) except for trimming some ends and attaching ponytails, but for the most they are done. I have 24 more to do next week, but I do not need them until 11/16. YEAH! So here is a yucky photo I just snapped of some of the bows. I have 4 full bags of them 134 in all. My daughter is wearing one of the bows with the original thinner ribbon, but I sent that back to get the wider ribbon. So back to making some new jewelry designs instead of bows.