* Attended a homeschool used-curriculum sale where I scored the Science texts I've been wanting for half the new price. Also found the Latin program I've been thinking of using, also half-price. This will only be a great deal, however, if I actually use the program. Hmmm.
* Asked Brother for the answer to Peanut's question - "What comes after a trillion?" and then turned to the Internet when she wanted to know what came after a quadrillion. Found a list of really big numbers and their names. Finally found out what a googol is ( the number 1 followed by 100 0's), as well as a googolplex (the number 1 followed by a googol of 0's). Tried to explain to Peanut the difference between the two. Deflected Peanut questions about infinity X infinity. Took 800mg Ibuprofen. Did NOT remember learning this stuff in school.
* Read with the girls about the rise of the opium trade in 18th century China. Discussed opium and some of its uses and abuses. Can say without a doubt I did not learn this stuff in school.
* Early in the week, decided on the name Elvis for the cute mockingbird who recently began hanging out in our crabapple tree, and serenading us with an ever-changing melody all day.
* Yesterday, contemplated ways to kill Elvis.
* Made the girls assemble together in one room, all the baby dolls and stuffed animals in the house. Told them each to pick five dolls and five animals to keep and say good-bye to the rest.
Sweetened the deal with the promise of new Legos.
Scolded myself for resorting to bribery, and reminded myself that buying new toys will only defeat the purpose of decluttering the old toys.
Retorted to myself that one box of Legos takes up a fraction of the space all these dolls and plush toys take, and told myself to can the sermon and take a hike.
Secretly stashed a few dolls that didn't make the cut.
* Went without water most of today while Keith worked on some plumbing. Tried not to think about the laundry I wasn't doing, or the bathrooms that weren't getting cleaned. Ran the vacuum instead.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
We Survived Disney World
Not only did we survive, I can honestly say we had a great time. I can also honestly say it was without question the most physically exhausting vacation we have ever taken.
By my calculations we spent 60 hours of last week in theme parks. I'm still amazed at how well the girls held up, especially considering daytime temperatures hovering in the mid-90's.
They really hung in there, kept up with me and Keith (or did we keep up with them?), and only complained about the heat once and that was on Day 6.
A detailed account of our trip is just too overhwelming too think about right now, but I do want to record some things before I forget them, so in no particular order, here are a few Disney memories:
1. Day 1 - Peanut is beside herself with excitement .... about riding a bus. Disney buses transport resort guests from their hotels to and from the parks. We are on our way to the Magic Kingdom in one of them now, and Peanut keeps looking around and giddily whispering, "I can't believe we're riding a real BUS!"
2. Day 5 - En route back to the hotel, Peanut announces, "I hate these buses. They're no fun any more".
3. Riding Splash Mountain in Magic Kingdom ... while slowly being chain-cranked up a steep hill, you see nothing but sky until at the very top of the hill, the Cinderella Castle comes into view. You have .5 seconds to reflect on its beauty before the bottom drops out from under you and you are sent screaming down the other side. Coolest view in the whole park.
4. There are people in this world who will flatten you with a stroller on their way to meet Mickey. And they won't even think twice about it (shudder).
5. Heaven is a cold, wet bandanna around your neck on a 95-degree day in a concrete jungle.
6. I heard the phrase "That was SO AWESOME!!!" about 1000 times during the week.
7. After riding Rock n' Rollercoaster with Sissy, I was saying it too. That baby goes zero to sixty in less than 3 seconds!
8. We saw child after tired, overstimulated child in various stages of emotional meltdown .... almost all appeared to be under six or so. We watched parents struggle to quickly fold and unfold contrary strollers as they were boarding the buses. And it made us SOOO thankful that we waited until the girls were older before trying this. At 9 and 8, they were old enough to go on their own power and take last minute changes in plans in stride, but still young enough to get into meeting the characters and riding Dumbo.
9. If heaven is a wet bandanna, the pineapple ice cream floats in Adventureland are the next closest thing.
10. When walking through crowds I still instinctively reach for my daughters' hands. At Disneyworld though, it was so hot we held pinkies instead.
11. Speaking of hands, if my daughter's learned only one thing last week it was how to wash theirs. Three females means several bathroom trips per day. With swine flu and other nasty bugs making the news, I taught a course in Handwashing with every bathroom trip. We would have contests to see who could scrub up the most suds on their hands. Then we would rinse , dry, and leave, avoiding door handles like the plague -- and board the next ride, holding onto a lapbar that thousands of other hands had already touched that day. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.
There should be no more to that place than you can see and do in three days. After which, you could use the remainder of a week's vacation to go lie on a beach and recover.
We made it home in one day --- 12 hours and 15 minutes to be exact. The girls did so well traveling, that I wonder if in a year they might be ready for that Northwest trip we've always wanted to take .... Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons ..... but that's too much to think about right now.
It's good to be home.
By my calculations we spent 60 hours of last week in theme parks. I'm still amazed at how well the girls held up, especially considering daytime temperatures hovering in the mid-90's.
They really hung in there, kept up with me and Keith (or did we keep up with them?), and only complained about the heat once and that was on Day 6.
A detailed account of our trip is just too overhwelming too think about right now, but I do want to record some things before I forget them, so in no particular order, here are a few Disney memories:
1. Day 1 - Peanut is beside herself with excitement .... about riding a bus. Disney buses transport resort guests from their hotels to and from the parks. We are on our way to the Magic Kingdom in one of them now, and Peanut keeps looking around and giddily whispering, "I can't believe we're riding a real BUS!"
2. Day 5 - En route back to the hotel, Peanut announces, "I hate these buses. They're no fun any more".
3. Riding Splash Mountain in Magic Kingdom ... while slowly being chain-cranked up a steep hill, you see nothing but sky until at the very top of the hill, the Cinderella Castle comes into view. You have .5 seconds to reflect on its beauty before the bottom drops out from under you and you are sent screaming down the other side. Coolest view in the whole park.
4. There are people in this world who will flatten you with a stroller on their way to meet Mickey. And they won't even think twice about it (shudder).
5. Heaven is a cold, wet bandanna around your neck on a 95-degree day in a concrete jungle.
6. I heard the phrase "That was SO AWESOME!!!" about 1000 times during the week.
7. After riding Rock n' Rollercoaster with Sissy, I was saying it too. That baby goes zero to sixty in less than 3 seconds!
8. We saw child after tired, overstimulated child in various stages of emotional meltdown .... almost all appeared to be under six or so. We watched parents struggle to quickly fold and unfold contrary strollers as they were boarding the buses. And it made us SOOO thankful that we waited until the girls were older before trying this. At 9 and 8, they were old enough to go on their own power and take last minute changes in plans in stride, but still young enough to get into meeting the characters and riding Dumbo.
9. If heaven is a wet bandanna, the pineapple ice cream floats in Adventureland are the next closest thing.
10. When walking through crowds I still instinctively reach for my daughters' hands. At Disneyworld though, it was so hot we held pinkies instead.
11. Speaking of hands, if my daughter's learned only one thing last week it was how to wash theirs. Three females means several bathroom trips per day. With swine flu and other nasty bugs making the news, I taught a course in Handwashing with every bathroom trip. We would have contests to see who could scrub up the most suds on their hands. Then we would rinse , dry, and leave, avoiding door handles like the plague -- and board the next ride, holding onto a lapbar that thousands of other hands had already touched that day. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer.
There should be no more to that place than you can see and do in three days. After which, you could use the remainder of a week's vacation to go lie on a beach and recover.
We made it home in one day --- 12 hours and 15 minutes to be exact. The girls did so well traveling, that I wonder if in a year they might be ready for that Northwest trip we've always wanted to take .... Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons ..... but that's too much to think about right now.
It's good to be home.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
A Postcard From the Road
Greetings from Daytona Beach, Florida! After 12 1/2 hours on the road yesterday we stopped here about 10:30 last night.
The girls traveled so much better than I expected. We brought books on CD, music, and books to read, and they were content the whole way here, except when they really, really had to go to the bathroom.
We're leaving now for Orlando .....yee-ha!
The girls traveled so much better than I expected. We brought books on CD, music, and books to read, and they were content the whole way here, except when they really, really had to go to the bathroom.
We're leaving now for Orlando .....yee-ha!
Friday, May 1, 2009
We're Going To See The Mouse
Tomorrow we make our pilgrimage to the American mecca that is Walt Disney World. Keith and I are alternately excited and apprehensive about it.
We're excited for the girls because they've never been and we remember how much fun it was for Brother when we took him .
We're apprehensive for a few reasons:
1. We remember something else about our Disney trip with Brother , and that is, we walked the ever-loving soles of our feet off every day for seven days and came home dog-tired. Coming home dog-tired from a vacation just isn't right. We much prefer lying on a beach and listening to ocean waves to pounding hot pavement all day. And we're twelve years older now than on our first Disney trip. We're really just hoping we don't flag out before the kids.
2. The amount of pre-trip information you have to wade through and make decisions about is very intimidating. I'm not sure, but I think small countries have been taken over with less strategic planning than we have done for this vacation. I checked out the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World from the library, and the kicker for me, was the chapter on making meal reservations. I am not kidding when I say that FOUR PAGES of this book were used to give detailed instruction on the split-second speed-dialing and verbal shorthand needed to have any hope at all of scoring a reservation for a meal with Cinderella in her castle. You're supposed to interrupt the customer service rep when they've just answered the line and are in the middle of a friendly greeting, to blurt out your reservation request and date. You're even instructed not to waste time saying "please" and "thank you". All this so that precious nanoseconds are not lost. After all, reservations with Cinderella could fill up in the time it takes to say "Please".
Those four pages alone were almost enough to make me change my mind about going. And I don't even WANT a dinner with Cinderella. We're having breakfast with Mary Poppins, and reservations for that meal were easily made and did NOT necessitate being rude to anybody :)
3. It's so stinking expensive. And if you stay inside the resort, it's like you're locked into a money-sucking vortex. If you need something and you didn't bring it with you, they'll probably have it..... but oh baby, are you going to pay for it. That's why I have packed everything I can possibly think of that we will need while we're there. I'm even thinking of washing our clothes out in our hotel room bathtub because I don't want to pay to use the laundromat. Keith thinks I'm carrying it too far. We'll see what I feel like after pounding pavement all day.
4. Crazy people go there. People who use split-second speed dialing and rude dialogue to get reservations with Cinderella. People who spend $40 on a "makeover" for their daughters at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. They put on some sparkly makeup and put the girls' hair up in buns.
They spray some more sparkly stuff. And that's the $40 makeover. For $50 you get all that plus a manicure. See what I mean? Crayyy-zee.
On the whole, we're really looking forward to it though. I just have a feeling we're going to come home dog-tired and flat broke. Oh well, you can't say we're not doing our part for the economy :)
We're excited for the girls because they've never been and we remember how much fun it was for Brother when we took him .
We're apprehensive for a few reasons:
1. We remember something else about our Disney trip with Brother , and that is, we walked the ever-loving soles of our feet off every day for seven days and came home dog-tired. Coming home dog-tired from a vacation just isn't right. We much prefer lying on a beach and listening to ocean waves to pounding hot pavement all day. And we're twelve years older now than on our first Disney trip. We're really just hoping we don't flag out before the kids.
2. The amount of pre-trip information you have to wade through and make decisions about is very intimidating. I'm not sure, but I think small countries have been taken over with less strategic planning than we have done for this vacation. I checked out the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World from the library, and the kicker for me, was the chapter on making meal reservations. I am not kidding when I say that FOUR PAGES of this book were used to give detailed instruction on the split-second speed-dialing and verbal shorthand needed to have any hope at all of scoring a reservation for a meal with Cinderella in her castle. You're supposed to interrupt the customer service rep when they've just answered the line and are in the middle of a friendly greeting, to blurt out your reservation request and date. You're even instructed not to waste time saying "please" and "thank you". All this so that precious nanoseconds are not lost. After all, reservations with Cinderella could fill up in the time it takes to say "Please".
Those four pages alone were almost enough to make me change my mind about going. And I don't even WANT a dinner with Cinderella. We're having breakfast with Mary Poppins, and reservations for that meal were easily made and did NOT necessitate being rude to anybody :)
3. It's so stinking expensive. And if you stay inside the resort, it's like you're locked into a money-sucking vortex. If you need something and you didn't bring it with you, they'll probably have it..... but oh baby, are you going to pay for it. That's why I have packed everything I can possibly think of that we will need while we're there. I'm even thinking of washing our clothes out in our hotel room bathtub because I don't want to pay to use the laundromat. Keith thinks I'm carrying it too far. We'll see what I feel like after pounding pavement all day.
4. Crazy people go there. People who use split-second speed dialing and rude dialogue to get reservations with Cinderella. People who spend $40 on a "makeover" for their daughters at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. They put on some sparkly makeup and put the girls' hair up in buns.
They spray some more sparkly stuff. And that's the $40 makeover. For $50 you get all that plus a manicure. See what I mean? Crayyy-zee.
On the whole, we're really looking forward to it though. I just have a feeling we're going to come home dog-tired and flat broke. Oh well, you can't say we're not doing our part for the economy :)
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