Summer fun list

This is what my happy dance looks like right now:

Why am I doing the happy dance? Because I only have 8 days of school left!! I can barely contain myself, it makes me want to do the Elaine Benes dance. 

Because summer is so close I have decided to make a list of fun things to do with the kids. I have read many lists but Xander is 13 and some of them won't appeal to him so came up with my own.

My summer fun list:

Learn 3 words in Spanish

Farmer's market

Pick berries

Water balloons

Make S'mores

Concert in the park

Go hiking

Go to the zoo

Go to a theme park

Bike ride

Bake cookies

Decorate cupcakes

Go on a scavenger hunt

Go on a picnic

Walk to the library

Tie Dye

Frisbee

How about some randomness from Pinterest...

Saw this funny Pin on Pinterest:

The tag line was that you can leave notes on the washer in dry erase marker to say what doesn't go in the dryer. Quick question... Who am I leaving the notes for? Myself? Cuz you know no one else is going to get clothes out of the washer but me!!

Now for a random student pic that I saw in a classroom today. It said To Mrs.____ and then from ____.

When I first looked at it I instantly thought it was an upside down Star Trek symbol. How nerdy am I?

It's supposed to be a heart, I think.

See what happens when I flip it and put it next to the symbol?

Well, I'm pretty sure you have had enough of my randomness. Have a good weekend!!

It's Soap Box Day

It's time for me to climb up on my soap box. I don't get up there very often but I feel today is a great day to discuss it.

As I have mentioned several times, I am a huge Disney fan and I can't stand it when people senselessly judge Disney.

This weekend (Saturday) marked the coronation of Disney's eleventh princess, Merida from Brave. I wish I could have been present for this ceremony. How exciting, although I have read that the press area pretty much blocked off everyone else (and kids) having a good view of the princesses.

I read this blog post and was upset. At first I thought Disney had completely changed Merida. This is the pic that she shows:

I can see what is being said that she is a little thinner, and looks a little different but it is still Merida. Here is a pic released from the ceremony:

Chest covered? Yep. Got her bow? Yep Crazy red hair? Yep

I'm pretty sure little girls are not going to notice anything different about Merida unless their parent points it out. Her breasts are not popping out of the top of her dress like a video game or comic book character. Remember the controversy with Jasmine? Her belly shows and she wears a bra top. People freaked out that it was going to make our little girls dress like her (slutty?). And guess what? It didn't!! I have been a Disney fan since the first time I went to Walt Disney World at age 5 and I am not a slut. I never dressed slutty. My parents had already taught me right from wrong, they did their job, they didn't expect me to learn things from others. I knew wearing those clothes was not something I would wear in everyday life. 

My fav princess is Ariel and, good god, she has clam shells covering her boobs. I never wore clam shells on my boobs!!

Here is some free advice people: WE are the parents, WE mold our children, WE influence our children.

Remind your child what Merida stood for and he/she won't find anything different. 

All this controversy makes me want to stand in line to meet Merida when we go to Disney in the fall just to support her (even though I loathe waiting in line to meet characters).

Thank you Disney for creating a strong character! I still believe.

Post Secret

A little something that you don't know about me is that I read Post Secret every Sunday. No matter where I am or what I am doing I take a few minutes to read other peoples secrets. If you haven't been to the site, I recommend it.

I'm sure the whole world knows about it but just in case you have lived under a rock, Post Secret is where you can mail a postcard with a secret on it. They then post new secrets every Sunday on the site. I think it helps some people to be free of their secret and some people are helped by reading other peoples secrets.

So, this Sunday was some Mother's Day secrets. Here are a couple that I liked.

This one must makes me sad. I am not going to say whether I support abortion or not but my problem here is that this poor woman thought her church family would disown her. If anyone ever asks why I don't go to church my reasoning is usually not with the religion itself, it is with the church. I have a problem giving money to a church. I have a problem feeling judged by my clothing and/or lifestyle. When Xander was young I decided to start going to church, and since my moms church is all people over the age of 80, I thought I would tour some churches and you would be amazed as to what I experienced. One church called me every day for 2 weeks after I visited there. Every time I talked to them they wanted to come to my house and have a chat, get to know each other. Sorry, not happening!! I didn't know them people. Another church said I wasn't invited because I had tattoos (the sign even said so outside). This one was shocking. I was a young, married mother with tattoos but I couldn't attend their church, I'm pretty sure God wants us to love everyone and he doesn't care what we look like as long as we are there to praise him. The last church I visited expected me to take Xander (then 18 months) to the nursery right from the very beginning. I couldn't do that to him, he was so young and didn't know any of the people there. So, we left. I know this is a huge soap box issue but I am sad for this woman. She shouldn't have had to make this choice. Her church family should be loving and not judgmental. 

This one makes me happy. Happy that this mother found love with her baby. Babies can bring joy if we just let them. 

So, check out Post Secret. Reading secrets is almost like reading someones diary, you get the deep, dark secrets that they don't tell anyone else. 

Mother's day gift ideas

I thought I would make a list of Mother's day gift ideas for my people to shop from which range from crazy to extravagant to Walmart budget. 

1.  Cash. No explanation should be needed!!

2.  Random Gift Cards.

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Tom's

3.  A 32" Samsung flat scree TV (or bigger) for my bedroom. My 31" tube TV needs to retire ASAP!!

4.  A weeks vacation at Disney's Beach Club Resort. I realize that I'm going to Disney in October but I would like to stay at the Beach Club, especially if I could get an Epcot view room!

See Epcot over there calling my name?

5.  Mazda 6. I know it's impractical so, I would also settle for my VW Beetle to be fixed.

I prefer black please.

6.  Minnie Mouse bow ring. I never usually wear different rings but this is just fab!!

7.  The Great Gatsby Kate Spade Clutch. It's on sale, so it must be right.

Why I choose to go to Walt Disney World...

As I mentioned here, I have started the planning process for my Walt Disney World vacation on our fall break.

Usually when I tell people that I am planning again I usually get the same questions/statements. "Didn't you just go last year?" "Don't you get tired of going to the same place every year?" "Disney is for babies."

I don't know what makes people think that it's OK to ask people these questions. I would never ask someone that about their vacation plans. I would probably ask for recommendations if I ever decide to visit that place myself.

 "Didn't you just go last year?" This is usually asked by someone who stays in the same condo, on the same beach, and eat at the same restaurants every spring break but can't seem to understand how I could go to Disney every year. I try to be polite when people ask this question and I usually say "yes, my kids like to go every year." This is only half truth though, my mom and I like going, as well. There are so many different things to do that makes us love it. My parents took my cousin and I almost every summer to WDW. It feels like home and I tell people this. 

The next question is "Don't you get tired of going to the same place every year?" No, I don't. I attempt to make every vacation different for us, whether it be different resorts or different restaurants, we experience something new each and every time. One year, we went with our cousins. The next year we ate at different restaurants than the year before. Last year, we took my niece and added some different parks and restaurants. This year, we are going to a water park and adding Universal Studios to our theme park list. To me this is much better than looking at the same beach for 5 days (I do think we will take a beach vacation next year just so the kids can have that experience). These people need to understand that I value my Disney experience as much as they value their beach experience

When someone says, "Disney is for babies," I usually follow it up with "my 13 year old son loves it." This is where "Disney magic" comes into play. Disney magic allows you go make your vacation "your personal vacation." There are so many choices, you can travel at the same time as a friend and never do the same thing. No, Magic Kingdom might not be for all ages but have you ever been to Epcot or Animal Kingdom? My 13 y/o son loves Epcot (like his mother). There is so much science, learning, and hands on stuff, it's almost like an extra large children's museum. We usually only spend 1/2 a day at MK. We ride all of our favorite rides and then move on, in contrast we spend open to close at Epcot. Animal Kingdom is also a good one that has activities not targeted to "babies." Although, we only make AK a half day park because there are a lot of shows and Eve doesn't do shows.

Whatever the reason is, I sometimes run into negativity when planning for Disney but I am not concerned. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to go every year and make memories with my babies. Isn't that the what it's all about anyway, making memories with our babies?

Outside Yacht/Beach Club 2010

Chef Mickey 2012

Chef Mickey 2012

What I'm doing today

What I'm eating/drinking:

Chips + salsa + Dr. Pepper = yumtastic. Got the cute bowl recently on the Target dollar rack. I bought them for veggies and dip but salsa was calling my name.

What I'm watching:

Xander is playing games. I HATE watching video games. Luckily he is leaving soon to go mow some yards to earn some cash.

What I'm reading:

I highly recommend Jessica Sorensen. Her books are quick, good reads. 

Weekend update

Another weekend update.

Saturday brought Eve's first softball game. She has been so excited. She last played softball when she was 6 years old. That year was so bad with her crying before every game and asking to quit but this year she is happy to go to practice and games. I love her enthusiasm  As you can probably guess she doesn't have a natural baseball talent, she hasn't played in 4 years, but she is working hard at everything she learns. I didn't take her to her first practice game and asked her when she returned what position she played. She told me "backup." My husband then informed me that she is in right field. If you know anything about baseball, you know what kids they put in right field but she doesn't know that. She thinks its important to be behind 1st base. At her age if I would have been told that I was going to play right field, I probably would have thrown a fit. The difference being that I had played for 6 years at that point. Whether it is right or wrong, I am not going to tell her any different. I don't want to crush her excitement. 

My Cinco de Mayo celebration was Saturday night when the hubs and I ate at a local Mexican restaurant. It is an awesome place where most everyone goes at least once a week. I get the same thing every time I go (chicken chimichanga) and it is so good. We love that it is cheap, both of us ate for $18 (before tip). You can't beat awesome food, good service, and cheap prices!!

Sunday brought Xander's soccer game and household chores!! We then decided to have BBQ chicken on the grill, yummy!!

We have a busy week coming up. Some nights we have 2 sports. I am hoping that I have time to blog this week. 

This week (Tuesday) brings the release of the final Sookie Stackhouse novel. I will miss this series but I do have them all on my Nook so I can reread them whenever I want. This is my warning: there better be lots of Eric Northman in there and the series better not have a lame ending!! Book review will follow as soon as I am finished reading it.

Also, this week brings the release of new The Great Gatsby movie. I reread the book back in the fall when the movie was supposed to be released in December but the movie got pushed back. At the time I watched the Robert Redford version of the movie to fill the need. Since it is such a quick read, I might try to squeeze it in this week. The hubs better take me to see the movie on Saturday or he will be in trouble!! The trailers for the movie make it look awesome and I am a huge fan of Leonardo DiCaprio and Baz Luhrmann. 

I like this movie poster, it has the Dr. Eckleburg eyes!