The cat's out of the bag

We have been working on a big surprise for Cooper.  We  had planned on telling him the closer we got to the actual week but we felt so bad for him last week when we was sick.  He had to miss his school Easter Party and spending the night with his grandparents.  So we caved and told him the news... We're going to Disney World!!!!

 

 

Our original plans were to go next October.   After talking to a friend from Bible Study who is a travel agent and hearing about Star Wars Weekends, I talked Steve into taking a long weekend trip.  Cooper loves Star Wars, he will die!

 

 

We will only be down there for 3 full days, which is probably plenty for us.  This is going to be our test trip to see if we can go back next year or wait another year to do a full week with the whole extended family.  I am beyond excited!   It's been 6 years since we've been on vacation.  To makes things even more exciting, I only have about 2 months to plan.  I can't wait!

Take that Influenza B

Cooper has been great all week after his low grade fever on Sunday.  We resumed normal activities on Tuesday, gave him some Claritin for allergies and went about our week.  I picked him up after Bible Study on Thursday and his teacher remarked about how quiet he was.  Once we got home I realized his fever was back and he laid on the couch all afternoon.  He fell asleep on Steve at 4:30 in the afternoon. 

 

 

 I called the doctor earlier on and they didn't have any openings, I left a message for our pediatrician and they called me back asking if I could come in at 5:15.  Dr. Howell took one look at him and said it was the flu.  The test took all of about 30 seconds to turn positive.  We discussed getting some Tamiflu, she suggested if it was a reasonable price to get some for both Cooper and Cameron.  If it was something crazy like $200, she said she wouldn't even get it for her kids.  I spent the next hour on the phone back and forth with the pharmacy trying to figure this out, had to drop by a new insurance card, they had to call insurance, blah blah blah.   Told me it was going be $38/each, but wouldn't have it until the morning, made it home just after 7:30, Cooper was a trooper considering he could barley stand up.  By this time his fever had come back, gave him some Tylenol and put him to bed.  Tried to give him Advil when I went to bed but he couldn't keep his head up long enough to drink it.  I set my alarm for 2:30 to check on him, he has warm but not hot so I let it go.  He woke up with just a slight fever, gave him more medicine, and I kid you not he has been great all day.  Playing and running around like it was nothing.  He was showing the flu who was boss.  We got the Tamiflu for Cameron but skipped out on Cooper.  There was another problem and it was going to be $76/each.  I am mind blown that he fought this off so quick and so well.  That take Influenza!!!

 

 

Weekend in iPhone pics

If I'm gonna talk about the weekend I need to start with Bon Jovi.  Back in JBJ's glory days of the 80's, my mom took my sisters and I along with some friends of hers to see him concert.  It was only fitting that my mom and I went back with her friend and her friend's daughter.  Probably not the most ideal situation to go with my mom, but it meant a free ticket.

 

 I did stay on high alert before the concert, I couldn't let a night go by without a photo op with Gretchen.

 It was a good concert.  I wish we could have heard less new and more old stuff, but I understand, he's proud of his work and wants to showcase his new material.

 

Friday was an ordinary day, not much going on.  I let the boys eat lunch while watching IU.  Too bad Saturday didn't go as well as Friday did.  Boo!!  They blew a chance at playing in Lexington and Indianapolis.  However, if they can make it the Sweet 16, they will be playing in Victor Oladipo's hometown. 

 I started Saturday morning off with some tasty cholesterol medicine, let's see if what the box says is really true.

 Steve had to work the morning so I took the boys to the mall to play for a bit.  I had to make a return and get a new watch battery.  It made our morning fly by.

 After lunch I met up with Gretchen and Tracey for a huge highlight of the weekend, to see Borden play in the semi-state!!!  Gretchen had her kids and Tracey had Levi, my kids aren't into watching sports yet so I left them at home, I'm not gonna lie it felt nice not to worry about snacks and potty time.

 

We were like a walking Toms advertisement.

 By the looks of it one would think we more consumed with taking pictures of each other instead of the game, really we had about an hour wait before the game started.  We were just excited and nervous.

 These two were especially nervous!  Can you imagine watching your son for a chance to play in the state title game?  The game started off great, Borden came out on fire.  By the second half they were cold and nerves got the best of them.  They couldn't hit anything, kept missing free throws.  We were getting nervous!!

 However, they played great defense.  They were up by 3 with just a few seconds left and the other team had the ball, before they could get a shot off Borden stole the ball and won the game.  Seriously, Borden is going to state!!!  I would love to be able to go up there to cheer on Cody and support Gretchen again, I just can't get away again.  We plan to go to my in-laws, since we don't have Insight, to watch the game. 

 

Sunday we woke up to a sick little boy.  It was just a low grade fever and he has been fine most of the day, but we just couldn't risk going to church.  Steve had a class to teach and a small group to lead so the rest of us just relaxed at home.

 Well some of us relaxed, others ransacked the kitchen.

One more week till Spring Break, we can do this!!!

Favorite Vacation Spot

I decided to link up again with Kelly's Korner for Show us your Life Friday.  Today's topic is Favorite Vacation Spot.  I've been on 3 vacations in the past 14 years and they've all been to the same spot- Walt Disney World.

 

 

 We went there on our honeymoon in Sept 2004, our one year anniversary in Sept 2005, and again in February 2007. 

 

 One of things I always hear people ask is on property or off.  I love staying on property.  We flew down there all three times so by staying on property we were limited to Disney only.  If you drive and want to visit other Orlando attractions as well, then off property is probably best and you will save money too.  We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside, a moderate resort, twice and the Polynesian Resort, a deluxe, once.  The Polynesian was our last trip there and worth every penny.  We hope to go on fall break in a year or two and our whole family is going, we will most likely stay at one of the value resorts.  There are two that have family suites which will gives us more room for our money.

 

 

The thing I always hear others say is that they didn't plan enough.  I'm not saying you should have every minute of every day scheduled, but you do need some sort of plan of attack and you need to do some research.  Disney has special parties certain times of the year at the Magic Kingdom, usually during the fall and Christmas.  They close the park early and you must purchase an additional ticket to get back in.  Can you imagine spending all that money not even realizing the park is going to close at 4:00.

 

This website is fantastic.  You can search all the restaurants located in every park and resort, it has menus and prices.  It's a great tool to use if you are deciding on purchasing the dining plan or not.  Disney has some amazing restaurants and it usually is worthwhile to purchase some sort of plan.  Plus it's pre-paid and you don't have to worry about carrying additional cash.  Character meals alone will cost a family of 4 a $100 or more.  It's also almost impossible to get into some restaurants without a reservation. 



 

I can't really say much about taking kids to Disney since it's always just been Steve and myself, hopefully one day I'll be able to give some input on that.  Of course Steve is pretty much a kid himself.

 

I think a dream job of mine would be a Disney travel agent.  I could go on all day long.  I know quite a few people planning trips, if you have any questions please ask.  I would love to help.

Catching Up

I really have no idea where to begin on catching up with this blog. 

 

These are random but cute.  Cameron had some toast with Nutella last week for breakfast.  He pretty much just tries to eat through the middle.

 I headed out to get Cooper after school on Friday and when I got into the car Cameron asked for his drink.  I ran back in to get it and got back in the car and realized I had locked my house and car keys back in the house.  I had to be at the school in 10 minutes.  Luckily my in-laws where home and ran a spare key over to me and I was able to get ahold of the teachers.  I ended up being about 25 minutes late, he was just looking through some books like it was no big deal.  He likes to give me a hard time about it and show his mad face.

 

The boys have been sleeping in with the time change but we've also had to be up and about so it's been a little rushed.  We had nothing to do today, they slept until almost 8, laid around in bed for another half hour or so, it was after 9 by the time we got around to breakfast. 

 We didn't have anywhere to be until after lunch so the boys got right to work on building a playhouse on the couch.  Please disregard the food.

 I always feel like a hippie when we play Headbanz.

Snuggle time!

 This is always a sign of a good morning.

 I found a copycat Chick-fil-A recipe on Pinterest, it doesn't taste exactly like them but they are still very good.  One of the key ingredients is pickle juice, which gives it that Chick-fil-A taste.  It's also fried in olive oil to make it not so unhealthy. 

 

Right now our life is pretty much school, Jazzercise, speech, school, Jazzercise, Community Bible Study, school, and Jazzercise.  I'm really looking forward to Spring Break to have a little more freedom.

 

A Day in the Life

I realize I did a link up earlier today but this one was completely by accident.  I had planned on doing  a Day in the Life post today, then I was reading Kelly Korner's blog and that just so happened to be her Show us your Life Friday topic.  I have been reading her blog for a few years so I figured it was about time I participated. 

 

This was a typical Friday for us.  I got to sleep in till the whooping 6:45.  I was going to Jazzercise so I didn't have to take a shower, giving me an additional 15 minutes of sleep.  Both my kids are usually up by 7:30-7:45.  Cooper is almost always up first.  He will come into our room and lay in bed with my phone while I finish getting myself ready or start on breakfast.  Cameron wants to do whatever Cooper is doing.  He's just too pitiful looking with his bedtime loot.

 

 Friday is a school day so there is no playing around.  I get the boys their breakfast and while they are eating I eat and do some odds and ends that need to be done.  I started some laundry this morning and emptied the dishwasher.  I also got a start on some new medicine I'm on.  At the tender age of 33 I am now on Lipitor.  Remember our routine insurance required blood work?  Well I have high cholesterol.  I've had it tested before and it was high so it wasn't a big surprise.  This is all hereditary so there isn't much diet or exercise is going to do.  I go back in three months for a re-check, until then it's a pill everyday.

 My kids will make up a game for just about anything.  This morning it was dragging one another around with my scarf, this afternoon is throwing diapers at one another.  Luckily they were clean diapers.

 I dropped Cooper off at 9:00 and hightailed to Jeff for Jazzercise at 9:15.  I think half my workout is trying to get there on time.  After class I had about an hour to spare before picking Cooper up, it's not a whole lot of time to go home so we headed to Kohl's, we needed some new sheets.   I think I've mentioned this before but Cameron loves to play around in the front seat.  It's sometimes easier to let him play instead of fighting it.

 We got Cooper at 11:30 and all the kids came out wearing a Dr Seuss hat.  Love it!  They also had green eggs and ham today which Cooper said he liked.

I usually get right to work on lunch when we get home.  Today was peanut butter and jelly.  This is totally random but I love the smell and look of a fresh newly opened jar of peanut butter.  I could seriously eat the whole thing.

 

We had lunch and the boys played while I cleaned up and changed the clothes from the washer to the dryer.  I got Cameron down for a nap around 1:30 and set Cooper up with a show while I took a much needed shower. 

 

Since I have no shame I tried on the hat.

While Cameron was napping I also helped Cooper pack for his big night.  Him and Scott have been planning on an overnight stay for at least a month now.  He has been pumped.

 I also want to give a bit shout out to Cooper and his patch.  Steve & I have both noticed that it's working.  I tried it on for a few minutes and it's super annoying.  The fact he is wearing this for two hours a day just blows my mind. 

 

Cameron got up around 3:30 and I can't even begin to tell you what we did besides snack and fold clothes before Steve got home and Scott got here around 5:00 to get Cooper. 

 

Scott told Cooper he would take him out to dinner and Cooper chose Logan's.  Steve, Cameron, and myself chose Texas Roadhouse.  We got home around 7 and let Cameron watch the first part of Polar Express.  He is obsessed with that movie so it was a special treat for him.   He went to bed around 8:30 and I got a text from Scott that Cooper fell asleep around 9. 

 

I love doing these type of posts.  The last time I did one of these was almost two years ago.  It's always fun to go back and read how things have changed. 

A Pinterest Creation

I've never done a post like this before but I was quite proud of myself for pulling this off so why not.  Plus, there is a cute little blog out there, Pinterest told me to, where a girl posts her Pinterest inspired outfits.  Once a month you can link up your blog post, so here goes.

 

A couple weeks ago I was strolling through Pinterest and found this cute little outfit.  I've had that necklace for months but haven't worn it often because I couldn't figure out what to wear with it.  I found this and realized I have everything in my closet to pull that off.

 

 

The next day was Sunday, here was my outfit!  Plus a cute little photo bomber.

 

I'll definitely be putting this together again, many times over.