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!

I made this

Lame post alert:

I made this cool vase and love how it turned out. So, why not blog it?

I had an old white metal vase that I didn't want to use in my bathroom anymore.  Why not paint it and use it in the dining room? So, that's what I did.

Step 1: Forget to take a pic of the "before" of the vase cuz you are a craptastic blogger.

Step 2: Shame hubby into painting vase for you.

Step 3: Put some Styrofoam inside to hold the flowers.

Step 4:  Take random pic of the flowers.

Cute flowers 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

Step 5:  Cut flowers to length you want (measure twice, cut once).

Step 6:  Arrange in vase.

Step 7: Take some "after" pics.

Still working on the display. I painted the lamp the same color a few months ago.

Random student quote (age 9):  My mom is sending me to private school next year because she doesn't want me to use iPad's. She wants me to use paper for everything. (I call this "stellar parenting," why would you NOT want your kid to be exposed to technology?)

How was your weekend?

Not much exciting going on this weekend at our house.

Xander had soccer out of town on Saturday and in town on Sunday but he couldn't play on Sunday due to a stomach bug.

This week is the start of our Indiana standardized testing (ISTEP) so I decided to get me some candy to keep in my pocket to keep me entertained during the test. I will be in a computer lab Monday - NEXT Tuesday 8:30-2:45 monitoring testing. Because of this I figured I might as well eat some candy. I was craving Runts bananas last week so that explains those, the Gobstoppers are just an old fav.

We did some shopping this weekend and, of course, being the mom means that I didn't get much for myself. I did get this awesome pack of erasers to help fill my students appetite for erasers, haha.  Winner winner chicken dinner!

I spent most of my time on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday catching up on laundry from last weekend while we were away.

On a good note, I got to start making our Disney dining reservations for our trip to Disney World on fall break. We have decided to do a "best of" restaurant theme this time. I chose 1 new restaurant and the kids told me their favorites and we are eating at those. These include O'Hana, Chef Mickey, ESPN, Whispering Canyon, and Coral Reef. I am so excited. My phone says we have 175 days left!!

Friday was our big excitement. We had Xander's 13th birthday party in Buffalo Wild Wing's party room. If you have a BWW in your area I highly recommend this room. We have had parties here before, the best part about it is that it is free to use this room, you only pay for any food/drinks you order. There are several big screen TV's in there to watch. We took 2 of our PS3's and hooked them up so the kids could play video games with each other. Being an awesome parent means that I didn't bother the kids with an abundant of pics (meaning NONE) but oh well we had fun and that's all that matters :)

Sadly, Eve's hermit crab died. Unfortunately for Mr. Krabs, no tears were shed in this house. R.I.P. Mr. Krabs, you probably won't be missed!

How did you spend your weekend?

Dear Friday,

Dear co-worker,

I can almost hear you secretly judging me because of my tattoos so let me clear up a few things for you. I am a good parent, I am married (and only have been once), I have never been arrested, I do not do drugs, I am a good employee, and I am not on welfare (nor do I receive any government assistance). Please stop with the stink eye already!

Dear Mother Nature,

Spring would be great!! Please allow it to stop by permanently. I am tired of 66 degrees then 35 degrees.

Dear Justice,

Thank you for your service but my daughter has grown up and no longer wants to wear your clothes. Sorry, I am thankful, but I just think your clothes are expensive and not of the best quality. If you want to charge me a lot please make better quality childrens clothing (see Gymboree, Janie and Jack, Hanna Andersson).

Dear co-worker #2,

Thanks for the laughs. I mentioned you here (bell choir) and now you have topped yourself. You admitted that when you were a freshman in college you took an art class. You flipped through the pages of your textbook and saw the Statue of David. You said that it scared you and that you censored it with a Post-it!! I could understand if you were in jr. high but you WERE AN ADULT!! If you decide share this level of info again please make sure that someone else is there to hear it so I can laugh with them later. Thanks for considering my feelings in the future!