Old Key West resort in Disney

Okay a few weeks back I got the best email ever. A little background: We all booked a trip to Disney, but my brother had to cancel due to money. My mom paid the upfront cost to reschedule the trip with us but one thing all the Disney value resort were full the best we could do was get them in the moderate resort, Caribbean beach closest to Pop Century where the rest of us would be. We called so many times to try to see if anyone cancelled. Everyday my brother's friend who works for Disney checked the reservation to see if anyone cancelled. It was totally full. Well I opened my email to find an offer for free upgrade to a deluxe villa resort. WOW! I could not believe it, but gosh I could not leave my family. But I did a quick research and the value resorts are $82 a night compared to a deluxe villa at $249 a night. I could never justify that cost, cause I do love the value resort price. Well I called and after a few holding times she said.... she would transfer all three of our rooms. What we all be together I couldn't believe it!!! I was so excited I had to hold in a scream until I got off the phone. On top of it all my brother's room received a $500 credit cause they had to downgrade him to a value before transferring him. So Free dining, upgrade for all three of our rooms, and a credit back. Who could ask for more? (Okay one more thing that would make it perfect. We only hope we can eat all together once we get to Disney, because sometimes they can squeeze more people in. We were not able to get my brother's four into our dining reservations because he booked so late.)
So as much as my husband does not want to hear it. I will miss Pop Century. It is my kind of place especially for the price. He loves to go to different places. So you can imagine he is getting a little tired of going to Disney. We enticed him with everyone going this year, we are going to the waterparks which we never did, and now a fancy deluxe villa.
The differences between the value room are we will get queen size beds, 150 sq ft more in our room, a patio, kitchenette(with fridge, microwave, toaster, and paper products), slide at the pool, restaurant at the hotel, and a boat to downtown Disney. We can't wait to have lots of fun. MICKEY MOUSE C YOU REAL SOON! I will be back with photos.

3 more days until Disney!!!

We are getting ready to go back to Disney. We are all very excited!!! It is 11 of us going again. My family of four, my brother's family of 4, my mom, my sister, and Ray. Last year we had special shirts made and it was really fun to all wear the same shirt. It was easy to find each other and people just had fun seeing us all together. Well we did not plan too well this year. I thought we would just make our own shirts and I had an idea of using a Disney map and taking a Mickey Mouse selection. Well I thought it would be too much work so we made crystal Minnie head shirts for the little girls and me and my sister will have one as well. We recently had a pre Disney BBQ and everyone voted for the Mickey map shirts. I though great I never will have enough time and my brother came up with idea of each of us having a letter on our backs and when we are all together it will spell MICKEY MOUSE in the Disney font. LOL! So anyway this is the photo I came up with using the Old Key West area of the map for the middle, Magic kingdom for the left ear, and Epcot for the right. I will definitely follow up with a photo of all of us. Also I might have made the photo and printed all of the iron ons but my sister has done all the cutting and ironing. THANK YOU VANESSA!

Stores Closed for Two Weeks.

Cheerleading Season is starting tomorrow

Check Rachel out in a coach's magazine called CheerBiz from American Cheerleader. (she is doing the scorpion) It is an advertisement for next year's competition. I signed a paper to enter this competition and they take lots of photos. So it gave them permission to use photos even though I had no idea that a photo would be used for a competition ad. I was surprised they picked this one out of the hundreds that were taken, but excited! She is making a real cheer face so maybe that is what grabbed them. This was from a competition in April with the satellite (part time all star) team she was involved in. Tomorrow starts the rec local town team. My oldest is doing cheerleading for that older rec team as well as the junior varsity for the high school team. I am a little nervous she will not have enough time for school work, but she assures me that she will be alright. We will see. Anyway we are excited. We think we picked out the bows for the competition already so hopefully we can order the ribbon and get them started. I get help doing them but last year we waited until the last minute so that was stressful. Rachel is doing well in tumbling has her tuck on the floor with a spot. We are offering classes to the girls so more of them will be tumbling hopefully this year at competition. YEAH LBC!

This is a bow that did not make the cut.

Summer is almost over!

So the jeep days will wind down. We just love going down the shore in the jeep with the top down. We pulled over to climb up on a jetty to watch the waves and looked back so we took a photo of the our jeep.




But back to school means my schedule will be more open to create new things. I am so excited I have a few new creations lined up to do. I have all the materials, drawn designs, and have practiced in my mind how to accomplish each piece. So hopefully September will be bring new things for the holidays. And best of all I will have my third ebook complete. I am so excited. I have written most of the words, planned out the project, and organized the helpful tips and tables. The ebook will do one complete project but in three stages. You can have a completed piece of jewelry at each stage so three different looks and three different skills to learn. I am super excited and have scheduled time to do it in September. Alot of times in the past year I have let my schedule run around my orders, but sometimes you just have to take the day off to create new things. So after September 8th I will be on a mission. A scheduled mission.

Look at this YUMMY appetizer

This was made by my daughter Christina. She loves to cook and to cook alot. It was so delicous. It was a version of an appetizer we had recently out at a restaurant. Chef Christina's version: Fresh Jersey Tomatoes-they were so yummy with reduced balsamic vinegar topped with cilantro(we could not find basil) served with a garlic infused whole wheat Italian bread with melted fresh mozzarella. I seriously could have eaten the whole thing, but thankfully I had restraint.

Well we took a day trip to Cape May, New Jersey. My husband had a quick job down there and we traveled with him. My younger daughter went to the Jonas Brothers concert in a LIMO, but more about that when I get photos. Anyway we missed going to the Mad Batter on Wednesday when we just my husband and I went to Cape May. (He had the same job but the computer did not work so he had to go back-lucky me) So if you are ever in Cape May you gotta go to this restaurant called the Mad Batter. We usually visit for brunch and went there for Easter one year, but this was our first time for dinner. It isn't cheap, but we found out everyday if you arrive between 5 to 5:30 you will receive half off the second meal. Well we enjoyed our waitress, we enjoyed hearing the specials and they even told us the prices. I find it so annoying when a restaurant does not not tell you the prices for specials. What if it is some unique thing that cost $150? Anyway we loved the food. I think it may have been my best dinner ever.
My husband had salmon topped with lump crabmeat over mashed sweet potatoes.
I had petite filet Mignon with a crab cake with sweet potato hash and roasted tomatoes. I don't usually like sweet potatoes, but these were delicous.
My daughter had a Caesar salad with Thai buffalo wings.(2 appetizers her choice.)
Everything was wonderful my only complaint was my daughter's soda was not a free refill and the waitress asked her if she wanted a refill. First of all I am paying a decent price for my plate of food give me a free soda it is pennies. Second of all if it is not free refills ask me if she can have it than I will realize it is not free don't ask her I know she is old but I am sure she is not paying for dinner. Just a pet peeve. I will definitely go back again and again but drink water.

Okay seriously what took me so long??? Really

Okay I am going to put in writing that my 14 year old daughter was right. (even though her reason was different than mine) She had been telling me to get an upgrade. I was a free agent so to speak. I was not in contract to AT&T, but I had an ANCIENT phone. Gosh if you saw it you would chuckle, but it worked and I could easily fit it in my pocket. I turned my house phone into a telephone and received a free phone for the house and it was newer than my phone, but so NOT user friendly. I still can't stand it. Yeah it has more gadgets like a camera but who cares. So I was talking to the phone agent and she was telling me about some different phones and I said well I am going to the mall today which I never do and I will go into the AT&T store and check them out. Well I was looking at this one phone that she and my daughter recommended for me, but they were out of stock. So I said well I really need a phone that I could check my email. He said well you should get an iphone. I remember when they first came out and they were so expensive and than you had to upgrade your service and I pay way TOO much money already for my phone. It feels like a car payment. Well he said it would cost me $105 for the phone with my upgrade and very little money to upgrade to the unlimited media plan. So I said okay that is easy. I paid my money and found out that AT&T does not insure the iphones. I thought great I going to break in the first week. (since than I bought a 2 year $70 protection plan) Well out the door I went and my life has changed forever. I know dramatic, but seriously. I LOVE it! I can check my email all the time, I need to be available to answer question, relist store items, email ebooks, and before when I could not check my email it gave me stress. Now no stress. Okay other fun things super user friendly I never even needed to look at the book. I can look up my map location, directions, check weather anywhere, and solve life's marital disagreements with one click to google. Like what length is the Pocono raceway?(my husband was right 2.5 miles)
Okay so my new best friend goes with me everywhere and keeps me available even on a day trip, weekends, and my upcoming Florida trip. 2 weeks long would nearly kill me with limited internet access. So yea I have the old 3G iphone but I got it at great price and I am beyond thrilled even after I got my first bill.