I leave you with this...

"This is you're world. Shape it or someone else will."

XOXO

Sooo...do you like it...

I had to get a new look. I loved the one I had, but the site I got it from changed their server host and revoked them all and yadda, yadda, yadda. So I saw this one and loved it. Changed my Blinkies too. What do you think?

Thursday was my Birthday. It was a pretty OK day. But didn't get to do anything fun or exciting. Didn't have any presents to open. No Cake. No singing. No Cards.

I am officially on Vacation right now!! 10 days off! We're going camping for a lot of it. A big family trip. So have been getting ready for it all week. So much work. To plan food, buy food, pack food, pack dishes to make food, pack camping gear, do laundry, Pack for 4 people, load it all up...I'm exhausted already.

I'm getting too old for this. My vacations are now going to require a Hotel from here on out.

So no blogging from me while I am gone. I will finish up the Disneyland pics and stories (hopefully before we go) but if not then when we get back.

Will miss you all...

But I won't miss the housework.

Or the Bills.

XOXO

Disneyland Part 3.5...

There was too many pictures and stories to tell about this day to be able to post it all. So this is 1/2 a post to finish the day out. :o)

So after switching kids with Melinda and her taking off to ride, Emily and I headed for Toontown. The whole trip she kept asking to see Mickey and Minnie, but when we would see them, she would take off running. So the next best thing for her was going into their houses and seeing where they live. This was our 3-4 time doing this, but it kept her happy.

Emily in Mickey Mouses house. His Phone and Answering machine that plays messages.

Emily sitting at Minnie Mouses Kitchen table eating her pretzel. In the center of the table is a looking glass. All the things in the house move. The dishwasher washes dishes, theres a cake in the oven baking and then falls flat. It's fun.

Big Kids in line for Monsters, Inc. ride...being silly!

Emily at the maingate of Disneyland in front of the Mickey Mouse flowers Disneyland Fireworks over the Golden Gate Bridge in California Adventure. Waiting in line for an hour for the World of Color show to start. We even had a fast pass for it. They do it over water, fire, the street lights change colors, movie in the water, it's really cool! And you get sprayed. Emily and I stood in the very back and we could feel the heat from the fire. The others stood up front on the rail and got soaked. They have 3 shows they do it, we had the 11:15pm showing. The front of that huge Mickey's fun wheel I showed you pics of yesterday. The water in front of it is where the World of Color is shown. So worth it! I couldn't get any pictures because it is really loud and water spraying everywhere, and Emily took off running full steam through the crowd of 3000 people. So I took off after her and caught her at the very back. I had to keep a hand on her and an eye the whole show. I missed a lot of parts of it, but saw enough to know it was awesome.

It was 12:30am when it was over and we left. The little ones were falling asleep, so i offered (my footsies hurt) to ride the tram back to the parking garage with them, while the big kids walked back with Melinda. They beat us...and had to take a pic to show off! Brats! :o)

XOXO

Disneyland Part 3...

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on my stories of Disneyland. I felt so negative in the last one and you all showed me love and support.

So this part picks up with Monday getting back to California Adventure/Disneyland for our 2nd day of play. On this day, My friend and her kids joined us. Melinda, my BFF from way back in High School days, took pity on me and offered to take Emily for the day so I could go ride some rides with the bigger kids. I did not even blink when she offered and was running in the other direction before she dotted her sentence. :o)

This is the Mickey Fun Wheel. It is a GIANT Ferris wheel that has moving parts. On the outside, there are stationary cars where you can sit. Now do you see the bars zigzagging in the middle? Yes, those cars MOVE side to side, swinging back and forth, every time the Ferris wheel goes up and around. So not only are you going up and around in a circular motion, you then slide down these bars and swing, and then slide back the other way when the wheel goes around. Needless to say, I did not ride this one. I sat it out. But the kids went.This is the car the kids were in. They texted me and said "we're in the blue car, can you see us?" Now you can see up close the bar those cars are hanging from. They slide all over on those.

The Blue Car...you can see their heads.

It's at this point of watching them go around and around and swinging nonstop I was so thankful I stayed on the ground.

Then we headed off to see the Aladdin Show. We needed to cool off from the heat and rest our footsies. The show was GREAT! It was so funny! They had so much comedy in there, jokes of modern celebrities, events and even Jon & Kate! They did a great reenactment of the movie.

This huge Elephant came through the audience doors and paraded around with Aladdin on it. They even had the flying carpet through the air over the audience!

The Genie trying to persuade the Princess Jasmine to accept Aladdin's proposal.

The Wedding...

Afterwards we ran back to the Disneyland side of the park and Emily was so excited. She had a GREAT day with Melinda. She got her to eat, they watched 2 or 3 Princess shows in the Princess theatre, rode on the Chevron Autopia Cars and by the time we met up with them for Aladdin, Emily was all smiles.

Melinda & Emily on Cars.

By now it was getting late in they day and the kids from lack of hunger and sugar, started getting goofy. Austin grabbed Melinda's sunglasses and put them on.

The big kids and I got one last ride before we switched with Melinda, so we ran for the Matterhorn. Poor Travis in the middle, I think they were hungry enough, he was afraid they were going to turn on him next. :o)

There are lot's more pictures from this day, but will break it up into another post.

Overall - this was the BEST day of the trip! I loved getting to act like one of the kids, riding rides, eating junk with them, running from ride to ride, being goofy and overall laughing. The best part, was watching my son's eyes light up with delight. Well, that and having them fight over who got to ride with me on each ride. :o)

XOXO

Disneyland Part 2...

Sunday Morning we got up and hit Disneyland by 9am looking for fun.

What I got was a huge headache and sore feet.

Sunday was just my kids and me. My friend had a family reunion at Disneyland on this day, so she took off with her kids and I went my way with mine. It started off okay enough that I began to think I could do this. I had prepared myself (or so i thought) knowing that today would be a tough day. Knowing that my patience, strength, love and understanding would be tested to the very limit of sanity. Knowing that I was on my own. DH was not here to assist, take over, switch off too. And DH is the one with the most patience. So I needed to be more patient then normal.

My daughter is "Special". I don't really like labels. So I won't go into them much here. She is full of love and smiles. If you were to look at her, she appears "Normal". As good as that is, it is also hard when in a public place she has one of her moments and people do not understand. My daughter struggles with Stimulation. Her senses are on overdrive. So what we hear as "normal" is very loud to her. Same with Texture being rough when it's smooth, flavors tasting different, seeing more when we learn to block them out. So being anywhere in a group or public place as Disneyland, tests each and every sense she has. Literally.

The last time we took her to Disneyland, she was still in a stroller. She could hide there behind her blanket. Now, she can talk, scream and RUN from me. That's how my day went. Everything terrified her. Every sight was scary, every sound made her jump, every vibration of people and rides made her jittery. The whole day I spent chasing her after she would run off. Talking her down from her fear and anxiety. Getting her to not scream but use her words. Trying to get her to eat or drink in the heat, to try something new. To hold my hand. To anticipate her reactions so I was ready.

All the while trying to act normal so Austin could have a good time. Standing for hours at a time entertaining her so he could wait in line for rides. Rides he had to ride alone because I was with her. Trying to listen to him as he excitedly shared the experience of the ride, with one eye on his sister, and hiding my disappointment that it was painfully clear I was not going to ride any rides on this trip.

As the day wore on, the more exhausted I became. Trying to be everything, do it all, go everywhere, stretched to the limit, patience running out and just plain tired. Austin could sense it. He so kindly offered to stand with his sister so I could ride two rides. But I was a worried mess on them. Was she running from him? Would they be there when I got off?

Frustration hit me by evening, and I texted my friend there and asked where they were? Could I leave Austin with her and her family so he could ride some rides and have fun? I was hoping to Salvage something out of this trip for him. Just because it was ruined for me, did not mean it had to be for him. She said yes of course and so we set off to meet her. On the way, it was time for the Fireworks show Disneyland puts on each evening. I had heard that Tinkerbell makes an appearance, so with promises of seeing her, Emily agreed to stand there and watch them. We got a spot among the 5,000 or so people, right in front of the castle to watch. She only ran and screamed once. When the "boom" of the the fireworks going off scared her. But once Tinkerbell and Dumbo appeared, she was mesmerized. They fly them on a cable over the castle. The whole show is to Music. It was a great show.

After meeting friends and dropping Austin off with them, Emily and I took off. I was making my way to the front to go get the car and head back home. She wasn't having fun, I was exhausted and we had been there for 13 hours already. But on our way, we came upon another show about to start. It was over the water. It was a light show & movie being played in the water they spray up to make a screen. Mickey Mouse stands on an island in the water directing it. They tell a story. And characters come out on the island, on little boats and act it out. Fire erupts. Big Huge pirate ships come out for Peter Pan. The Finale is the Steam Boat coming through with all the princess' and characters. Emily loved it, until they fired the canon from the Pirate ship. After cleaning the blood from my arms where she clawed me to get away, she settled back down and loved the show.

By now it's 11:30pm, and we head back to the parking garage to get the car to meet up with the others. As I pull around to the meeting spot, and park, Emily passes out. I look at the clock and it's 12:30am. (Yes, it took an hour to get to the parking garage). Friends showed up at 1:30am and we arrived home around 2:30am. It was a really long day!

We all stumbled into bed hoping morning would not come too soon, where we would have to start all over another day there. Sleep could not come soon enough.

XOXO

DISNEYLAND...

We're back and slowly getting back into the swing of things. It was a VERY long trip. One that had a few good points to it, but it was made up largely of Stress and Strain. I will try and focus on the good. But Blogging is my time to whine and vent, so it may revert back. Sorry. :o)

Friday night after working 8+ hours, had to run errands till 7pm, then come home and pack for 3 people, load the food up, finish laundry, and eat dinner. So after 2-1/2 hours of sleep, it was time to get up Saturday morning to get ready to hit the road. We were loaded and on the road by 4am. But then we stopped for gas, and remembered my Disneyland tickets sitting on my desk, and after turning around for those, we finally hit the road at 5am.

Everyone was excited, talking, watching movies and giggling about visions of Disneyland. After the first hour, the car got really quiet with scenes of this:And this...
Oh and this...
We made it there by 12:30pm and unloaded the car and sorted out rooms. Our original plan was to head to the beach/Ocean 15 minutes away and spend the day there. But the kids WHINED about having to get back in the car again and talked us into staying there and swimming. So we ordered a pizza and sat around the pool for a few hours unwinding and relaxing.

Then we all headed in to shower and get dressed and drove to Downtown Disney for the evening. I love Downtown Disney! It is so peaceful, relaxing and the live music is always great. They have the neatest shops you stroll along looking at. And some Original restaurants.

Picture of DD from the balconey - DD is located outside Disneyland for those of you who don't know. It's a street that seperates all the Disney Hotels from Disneyland.

So the kids and I set off strolling along. But they were tired (who am I kidding? I was exhausted too), and as hard as I tried to buy them something like a toy, build-a-bear, clothes, I got shut down each time. We made our way to a Mexican restaurant and ate dinner up on the patio outside overlooking DD below!

After about an hour of walking around, Emily started to relax and enjoy a little of the music and lights. The entire district is lined with trees, fountains and everything is covered in white Christmas lights, so at night the look totally changes. Every 100 feet or so was a different band set up playing a different type of music. Jazz, Blues, Celtic, you name it.

After dinner, we strolled farther down the district and came upon ESPN Zone. Outside they had a DJ set up with disco lights and were playing music with a dance area set up for kids. They were playing all the new pop music, so we sat and enjoyed the music for awhile. All of a sudden a song came on Emily knew and she jumped up and started dancing right along! I was cracking up! She's yelling on top of her lungs the words to the song (even though she didn't know them all).

We then headed back to the house as it was 8:30pm already and the kids were whining they were tired. My friend and her kids met up with us (they had family they met for dinner) and announced they had gotten the room key to their families Disney Hotel they were staying at and they could use the Hotel pool with water slides, neon lights and fun scenes. So we headed back to the house to change.

Once there, Emily could barely keep her eyes open, so I stayed at the house with her, and Melinda took all the kids (Austin included) back Disneyland to swim.

Emily and I had a snack, turned a movie on in bed, and cuddled in for the night. We shared a room/bed, so after about 15 minutes of laying there, I looked over and Emily was out! I was yawning so turned off the movie and that was all she wrote!

The next day was a Whole different matter...

XOXO

Blogger so does not like me...

Is anyone else having trouble posting videos to Blogger? It doesn't like me. I'm pretty sure. Always had trouble. Takes forever. Freezes. Won't move. Doesn't budge. Says it's "loading" but never does.


And I really have some cute videos! eerrr....

This was our Quad. Notice I said "Was". We sold it this week. I'm really upset and had a minor anxiety attack when the new buyer was loading it up. Tried convincing DH to not sell it. Even though I'm the one who listed it.

It's part of our past and we are stepping into the future. Just hard to let go. ♥

XOXO

Hip, Hip, Hooray...

Happy 4th of July!!!

XOXO

Perfect...

A friend posted this on Facebook and I just had to steal it. Perfectly said.

Choices

Some people sit, some people try;
Some people laugh, some people cry;
Some people will, some people won't;
Some people do, some people don't.

Some people believe, and develope a plan;
Some people doubt, never think that they can;
Some people face hurdles and give it their best;
Some people back down when faced with a test.

Some people complain of their miserable lot;
Some people are thankful for all that they've got;
And when it's all over, when it comes to an end;
Some people lose out, and some people win.

We all have a choice, we all have a say;
We are spectators in life, or we get in and play;
Whichever we choose, how we handle life's game;
The choices are our's, no one else is to blame.

XOXO