Why does everything happen at once?

I don't do so well with stress, and certain situations cause me to have a nervous stomach.

I remember a date I had my freshman year of high school. His name was Rick. We were going to see a movie and I was sooooo nervous. I was in the bathroom a couple times before he came to pick me up (and by saying he came to pick me up, I mean his parents drove him over to pick me up, so it's no wonder I was nervous!). Thankfully my stomach generally calms down once it doesn't have anymore time to fret over the upcoming situation.

In the last few weeks, there has been more and more added to my plate and I'm starting to feel my mind spinning, and my stomach turning itself in knots.

My sister went into surgery Wednesday morning to have the hysterectomy done. At 11am my cell phone rang and my mom let me know that the doctor came out to speak with them, and told them everything went great, there were no problems with bleeding and that my sister was in recovery. I let out a sigh of relief.

That night I learned that Mike's mom is not doing well. The family was looking into hospice. While Mike doesn't have the best relationship with his mother, it's hard to digest the thought of losing a parent at only 29 years old.

And then there's things less serious like the fact that we need a windshield in my car and that an indicator light came on last night and we can only imagine what those things are going to end up setting us back.

One thing always seems to hold true --- when it rains, it really does pour.

Tomorrow is the Day, Please Pray

Tomorrow my sister will be having the hysterectomy done. I ask all my fellow readers to please keep her in your thoughts & prayers that it all goes smoothly, and that her recovery is quick.

She needs to check into the hospital at midnight tonight to get settled, and the surgery is early in the morning.

I am planning on going straight to the hospital from work (hopefully getting out of there a bit earlier than normal) to visit her.

Your thoughts & prayers are appreciated as always.

Message from Heaven

We are nearing the 1 year anniversary of my Grams' passing. Today I was going back and re-reading my posts when she passed away, and a few weeks later.

I came across this one and I got chills when I read it. I had forgotten about that mysterious piece of mail that arrived. Four months later I won the trip to Disney World. And we booked, not even thinking about it, to where our trip fell over my Grams' birthday.

The night of her birthday, I had one of her favorite treats, in her honor; a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar.

On the Great Movie ride, I teared up and nearly lost it when we got to the Wizard of Oz part (her name was Dorothy, she used to have a dog named Toto and she just loved that movie).

She was with me on that trip, I just know it.

Buying Stock in Antibiotics

I feel like I should be buying stock in a pharmaceutical company.

Both my kids have ear infections. Two separate trips to urgent care, just a day apart, to find the infection in the same ear in each child. Fun!

They are each on a different antibiotic. Hopefully the rest of the household members with colds don't end up with ear infections, too.

It's just so ironic that a non-contagious ear infection presented itself in both my children, in the same ear, practically at the same time.

My Firstborn Goes to School!

My first child ... my son ... goes to school. It's only preschool, and it's only 3 days a week, but it's school.

Monday was his first day. I was excited for him, because I figured he was just going to love having other kids to play and interact with. He went back and forth on the idea of going to school, one day telling me he was already a smart boy and didn't need to go, and the next would talk about playing with his new friends.

His first day, we all piled into the van (me, Mike, B, K, and my folks) and took him to school. We waited inside in the lobby, and B started to cry. I held him, and started crying, too. It was an emotional day in the first place, and he was making me feel worse.

So, a teacher came out to check in each child, and then sent him/her back to the classroom where 2 other teachers waited to help them find their coat/bag hook and take them over to wash their hands. When it was Braeden's turn, he pretty much turned to stone, put on the brakes and would NOT move. They let me go back with him.

He still was having no part in it, no matter what I said, how I begged, or what I bribed (and yes, I did bribe him). He even ran out of the classroom, back up to the lobby where the rest of the family was waiting.

Finally, it came down to this: either we take him home, or we just go. We opted to just go. I felt like the most horrible mother on the planet. There was my son, out in the hallway with the teacher, screaming and crying, and we just left him.

That's all I thought about, and we were checking our cell phones to make sure we didn't miss any calls, and calling the home phone as well to check voicemail. Finally, about 30 minutes later, Mike's cell phone rings. It's the teacher.

She says that Braeden is doing fine. They moved the chair they were sitting in, closer and closer to the classroom until B could see in. When he saw the kids playing with puzzles, he said "Excuse me, I'll be right back" and off he went. He ended up having a good first day.

His second day, Grandpa took him in, and he wanted to be held for a minute, so Grandpa obliged and then put him down and said "Okay buddy, it's time to go catch up with your friends." and off B went, only to turn right around and come back with his hand up. He wanted Grandpa to give him a High 5. He had a great day, and the next day seemed to go even better.

He seems to be really liking school so far. I just can't believe he's already starting his schooling, and that in less than 3 months, my little boy will be turning F I V E!!!!

Disney Trip Report (Warning: Long!)

I finally have some time ..... so here goes:

Thursday night I finished up the packing, made sure we had all our travel documents, confirmation numbers, etc, and attempted to get the kids to bed early since we needed to be up very early.

Friday the alarm went off at 5am, we got up, got ready and my parents got up as well to help get the kids going. I was already having stomach issues (I'm a nervous traveler, especially being that we were flying and it had been 6 years since being on a plane), and Braeden was crying that he didn't want to go. He had been telling me he didn't want to sleep in a hotel, that he wanted to come back and sleep in his bed, in his own room. I think he was apprehensive about sleeping away from home, poor guy.

The limo came shortly before 6, we got in, Braeden was still crying, but he sat on my lap and I managed to get him calmed down by looking out the window. I was still having stomach issues, so it was a long ride to the airport. :(

Once getting to the airport, there was a long line to get checked in. It didn't take too long, but it passed some time before the flight. Got our luggage checked, got checked in, got through security, and got the kids a bite to eat.

Then it was time to get to the gate, and get in line to pre-board (since traveling with small children). I was still feeling very yucky, but composed myself so that Braeden wouldn't get too scared (B sat with me in 1 row, K sat with Mike in the row behind us). The beginning of the flight was uneventful, although I couldn't wait to land because my stomach was doing flip-flops the entire time. I tried to doze, since that made me feel a bit better, but it's hard to do with kids.

We arrived ahead of schedule, but because of storms in Orlando (I'm assuming the tail end of Ernesto), we were being held out until it cleared before we could land. So we were circling, and I could not wait to get on the ground. The weather was not clearing, so we ended up needing to go to Jacksonville, so that we could refuel. Upon the landing in Jax, I got airsick for the very first time. :( We landed, refueled, and taxied back out, only for the pilot to tell us we had to taxi back to the gate because there was some sort of problem with the plane. GREAT!!!! So, there I am, feeling horrible, in Jacksonville, and all I want to do is just GET OFF the plane. Mechanic comes, checks the plane, some sort of electrical issue, everything is good to go - so we taxi back out, and we were on our way to Orlando again. Weather was clear, we landed right away, and luckily this time my stomach faired better.

Once we got to the Disney counter to check in for the Magical Express, it was a little after 4pm, Orlando time -- we were supposed to land at 1:10pm there. Traveling took 3 HOURS longer than anticipated. I called my mom while standing in line because I knew they'd be worried as I told them I'd call when we got in Orlando. They were worried about me anyway, and as I talked to her on the phone, I had to fight back the tears. At that point, I wanted to be HOME. I was tired, still woozy and a bit frazzled.

Finally got on the bus, and headed off to the resort. Since we had dinner reservations for 6:40 at Le Cellier in Epcot, we called and cancelled since it didn't appear we'd be able to make it in time (it was already after 5pm and we were still on the bus). We stayed at the All Star Movies, so the bus stopped at all the All Star resorts, and we were the last stop. Finally got to our resort, and stood in line for AGES waiting to be checked-in. They were having computer problems, so their system was locking up and they'd have to reboot which delayed the entire check-in process for everyone.

Finally got to our room, relaxed a few minutes and decided to head over to Epcot anyway to just check it out.



Walked around there for a little bit, and decided we were much too tired & hungry, so we went back to our resort and got pizza & drinks from the food court there, and then headed to bed since we knew we needed to be up early the next morning.

Saturday morning we got up early, and it was off to Magic Kingdom.



We had reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table for breakfast (restaurant inside the castle), so we got in the park before it opened, and headed to the castle. Took a few pictures and then went inside. Kaelynn LOVED meeting Cinderella and having her photo taken with her. And both kids (Kaelynn moreso, though) loved eating breakfast in the castle and seeing the characters. The food was good, the service was astounding, Kaelynn got a wand, Braeden got a sword and we met Fairy Godmother, Belle, Aurora, and Snow White.



After breakfast we hit the park, the kids went on some rides, we walked around and just enjoyed the sights, sounds and sunny weather.



We managed to catch Cinderellabration while we were there, and watched that as well.

I think we went back to the resort for a nap this day since we wanted to see the parade and fireworks later that night, but I can't remember now (I knew I should have written everything down) if this was the nap day, or if it was Sunday. :)

That night, though, the rain was teasing us, but it stopped for a while so we got all situated for the parade, and it rained again. Hard. We started to head out of the park, and it slowed up quite a bit, so we relocated to another spot at the front of the park, to wait for the parade to begin. It started raining again, and this time we just headed out and got back to the resort, SOAKED. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the parade or fireworks (it was 2 things I really wanted to do), but hoped we'd find time another evening.

Sunday morning we got up, bought ponchos, and headed to MGM.





Now that I'm thinking about it, we may have stayed in the park all day this day.....I honestly can't remember. We had dinner reservations here at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, and dealt with rain again. Thankfully we had the ponchos this time. :) We ate dinner, and the rain stopped in time to see Fantasmic (GREAT show!!).

Monday morning it was off to Animal Kingdom.



Checked out the park, went on the safari, and left to go back to the resort for some swimming. AK was probably my least favorite of the parks. After swimming, it was back to our room to get ready to head to a park, to connect to the Contemporary Resort, where we had reservations for Chef Mickey's.





They brought us special cupcakes for our anniversary and we got a special visit from Minnie Mouse as well.



The kids met Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Chip & Dale. After dinner, we took the monorail over to MK again, and got ready to see the Spectromagic parade (LOVED it!) and the fireworks (amazing!).





I LOVED Magic Kingdom, and we spent the most time there.

Tuesday morning we got up and headed back to MGM for breakfast reservations at Hollywood & Vine for character dining with JoJo & Goliath and Leo & Annie from Little Einsteins. After breakfast we headed to MK once again, then back to the resort to rest, and then hit Epcot one last time that night (caught a bit of Illuminations and was not impressed).

The kids were exhausted ....



Wednesday morning we got up, showered, packed and checked out of the hotel. The bus was scheduled to take us to the airport at 12:45, and our flight was leaving Orlando at 3:35 that afternoon. I really wanted to go home, so we called the airline to see if we could get an earlier flight, and hightailed it out of the resort. We debated on taking a taxi, but the Magical Express bus was taking another round of guests to the airport, so we got on that bus and headed to the airport. Got there about 45 minutes before the flight, the line to check in was moving slow, and when we got up the counter, the customer service guy walked away, saying he'd be back in a moment. Finally gets back (we had about 25-30 minutes at this point), and tells us there's no way our luggage will make it on that flight, it would go on the next, and that, in fact, we probably wouldn't make the flight either. So we ended up on our original flight anyway. We got to the terminal and could see the plane we were supposed to be on taxi-ing away from the gate. We probably *could* have made it if that guy had helped us right away when it was our turn, and if we really moved quickly over to the terminal rather than taking our time once we knew we were just going to be on the next flight anyway. Oh well. We left on time (I made it through the flight without getting airsick, but felt queasy and yucky the whole time), arrived back in Chicago a little ahead of schedule, we had our luggage by 5:15, the limo picked us up and we got home just before 7pm.

Aside from flying, I had a really good time. The kids seemed to have a blast, and for the most part, they did well with not having much of a set schedule, going to be no earlier than 10:30 every night, and being up and ready to go by 8:00 every morning. They met tons of characters, got pictures & autographs, went on rides, and took part in the magic of Disney.

My Sister

While in Disney, I found out that my sister received bad news from her doctor. I'm sure you remember me requesting thoughts & prayers for her.

She had an abnormal pap, and it was found to be pre-cancerous cells. She went in for a procedure to remove them, but unfortunately it was not successful.

While it is not yet cancer, the doctor recommends that she have a complete hysterectomy. If she does not do this, she will be "playing with fire", to quote the doctor.

At this time, it looks like it'll be done on the 20th. So again, I ask for your thoughts & prayers.

We're back!

We arrived back home around 7ish on Wednesday, and have been fairly busy since, so this was my first chance at getting around to blogging.

I'll do a trip report later, but I have some bad news we received while at Disney to share first.