Twiddling My Thumbs

I hate waiting. I'm too impatient to wait. I can't stand suspense because I can't stand to wait to find out what's going to happen. I'm ready to hit that fast-forward button!

I'm waiting for vacation to hurry up and get here. I'm done with the preparations (with a few minor details). I have bags of stuff I've bought in the past few weeks waiting to be packed up. I have my reservations made, my directions printed, and my packing list ready. I'm waiting for the weekend when I can do the laundry and start some of that packing.

I'm waiting for our up-in-the-air church decisions to be made. I'm waiting for Sunday to come so I can complete my job at FHBC and prepare to move on to where God is directing our family. I'm waiting for vacation to end (well - kind of) so that we can start visiting the new church we're more than likely going to end up at. I'm waiting to find out if this is where God is leading us and if this church will provide the answers to the prayers that I've starting praying over the past couple years for friendships and fellowships for our family that have been sorely lacking in our lives.

I'm waiting for the school year to get started. The school supplies have been gathered (mostly) and now we're just waiting to find out who will be Ann Catherine's new teacher, and where her room is, and which of her friends will be following her in the new room.

I feel like I have so many new stages in our family's life (or minor events in some cases) that are laid out before me and there's nothing I can do but wait. And I hate it. I'm fidgety at work. I'm restless at home. I know I have some loose ends to finish up but I'm out of energy because the anticipation is starting to wear thin.

Right now, time is not my friend. I have too much of it in front of me and it's moving too slowly. It's weird to know that in a couple months, I'll feel like I need time to slow down. I'll need time to catch my breath and more time to finish the jobs I have to do. I guess, in a way, I'm waiting for that too!

it's a small world after all!

Just so everyone knows - I have had this song stuck in my head for the past 24 hours. Do you know what it's like to try to sit at your desk and do work and try to answer phones and try to create marketing materials, etc, and ALL YOU CAN HEAR in your head is "It's a small world after all" again and again?!?!

At least I don't have the psychedelic 80's song for the Main Street Electrical Parade rattling around in there!

Spritzer Fans & Wedding Bubbles

Has it really been so long since I last posted? I'm getting really bad at this whole blogging thing. I think it's because I feel lots of pressure (self-applied of course!) to make sure I post a picture with whatever I have to say and we have a tendency to intend to take the camera with us to work and forget about it in the rush to get out the door. I think we keep forgetting that we actually have a computer at home now and we could download pictures from home!

Anyway, part of the craziness keeping me so busy is vacation! I have NEVER prepared more for a vacation in my life than I have this year. I love my vacations where the only planning I have to do is make a packing list, make Simon's kennel reservations, and make sure the oil is changed in the car. This year, though, I have spent HOURS preparing and organizing. I'm exhausted and need a vacation from my planning! But, in a way, I'm never enjoyed myself more and have never been so excited about a vacation before.

I have now made a little planner book that has pictures, descriptions, and other useful info of all the rides/shows we want to see in each park (thanks to my friend Stephanie's suggestion). I have created and ordered customized maps of each of the parks from Disney's website. Our tickets have arrived and our budget has been refigured. We discovered the joys of street-level views from Google Maps (where you can actually SEE the place you're going to) and have found out that the hotel we're supposed to stay at coming and going is in a NASTY area of town across from a NASTY truck stop so we're now looking for another hotel. We've located Brian's classic Disney CDs to play non-stop in the car for the next three weeks so the kids will know all the songs before we get to Disney. We've even started renting classic Disney movies so the kids will know all the characters and stories (can you believe they have never seen the Lion King, Sleeping Beauty, or Beauty and the Beast?!?! What kind of Mom am I?).

But the latest (and most fun) has been my shopping list! Two weeks in a row I have worked on my shopping list. I have bought shorts for me (yes, I finally broke down and bought myself some clothes) and Ann Catherine (who has shot up ANOTHER size suddenly). I have bought ponchos and little hand-held fans which spritz water at you (a HUGE recommendation from other Disney frequent-travellers). I've bought water bottles to keep filled with ice water at Disney and have bought a special little backpack to carry around with all our necessities. I'm working on buying little travel games/toys to put in a special backpack for each child for the car trip. My favorite so far, though, has been the wedding bubbles I bought this weekend! I read somewhere where a mom had gotten a whole bunch of the little plastic bottles of bubbles used for weddings and gave them to her toddler son to keep him occupied while waiting in line. What a great idea! So I have 24 bottles of wedding bubbles just waiting for those lines. I can't wait!

Now if only I could find my plastic stroller cover, autograph books for the kids, a poncho for Ann Catherine....

We're Officially Committed!

According to Brian, we need to be committed. Actually, he said I needed to be committed. He's probably right (but don't tell him I said that).

Anyway, I didn't want to post to argue about who's going to be institutionalized! Nope, I just wanted to make the announcement that it's now official that we HAVE to go to Disney World! Up until now, I've made a thousand plans, purchased and read two Disney books (one of which I found for 99 cents! WhooHoo!), reserved two hotel rooms, reserved a rental van, made my packing list (three pages long), printed off a memory booklet for Ann Catherine to work on every day we're on vacation, and have done lots of online research on finding great deals and insider tips for visiting Disney with kids. However, up until now, we haven't actually committed any money yet (with the exception of my two travel books). Yesterday, we made it official - we bought our tickets. They are on their way to my house. I told Brian NOT to call me until he had finalized the purchased - my heart fluttered every time I thought about how much money we were spending just for DISNEY tickets!!! I could almost make a mortgage payment with that! How do people do this annually or even a couple times a year?!?!

So, anyway, enough with the buyer's remorse. Yesterday it scared me to death. Today, it just makes me even more excited and ready to go! Today, while listening to my kids list the Disney characters they most wanted to see and hearing Ann Catherine proclaim that she was definitely going to be brave enough to hug Minnie Mouse and talk to Mickey Mouse, I am reminded that it's not about the money I'm spending. It's about the memories I am helping my children create. I've done all this planning to help ensure that my children are going to go to the happiest place on earth and enjoy their childhoods. They're going to play and ride rides to their hearts' content. I refuse to let the heat and frustrations from standing in line and having to entertain a 2 year old get the better of my vacation. Even more so, I refuse to let my money concerns engulf me at all on this trip. I have carried enough money concerns for the past ten years to carry me through a lifetime. I absolutely refuse to take any of those concerns with me. From the moment I leave my house to the moment I return, I am going to let go of any fears and concerns and frustrations and will ONLY focus on enjoying my children and the rest of my family, enjoying the excitement and magic of Disney, and enjoying watching my children enjoy their childhood and making beautiful memories filled with a million Disney characters and rides.

I am so ready to go! Now if only I could figure out what else I can do to plan/prepare/keep myself busy and occupied until the time finally gets here!!!

Correction

OK - Ann Catherine has read our blog and became very upset that I put in there that she was holding hands with a boy. She strongly proclaims (with tears and lots of drama) that she WAS NOT holding hands with him and that I have to trust her! So, I trust her and she made me promise to write a retraction to my blog earlier and proclaim for all to hear that she WAS NOT holding hands with that boy. So, sweetie, here you go! For everyone out there, I apologize and apparently she was NOT holding hands with a boy. I must have been seeing things.

I just love it that my daughter is out on summer break and checking up on my blog posts!

Ann Catherine Chopped Off Her Hair!

Ann Catherine decided she wanted a shorter haircut for the summer. To celebrate the end of the school year, Nanny took her to see Ms. Penny and get her new hair style. Here is the result!

One comment - she still has all her curls and the haircut is even more adorable when you can see them! BRIAN is the one who blew-dry all the curls out. I'll try to remember to post an updated photo when her hair is curly again.

Summer's Here!

Oh my - has it seriously been a month since I last posted? I'm so sorry. Of course, pretty much only my family reads this so I'm sure you understand.

This month has been nuts with all of the end-of-the-school-year craziness! We've had end-of-the-year Girl Scout parties. We've had end-of-the-year Children's Choir and GA parties. We've had end-of-the-year Children's Choir concerts. (And Ann Catherine even got to play a musical instrument on one song!) We've had numerous end-of-the-year school parties, including a Family Day picnic, PJ & Movie party, Game Day, etc. It's been nuts. On top of it all, we've had illnesses so we've missed a lot of work and have had to crazily try to cram all the make-up work into our normal work. Needless to say, we're tired.

The good news is that SUMMER'S OFFICIALLY HERE!! All the church stuff is done so our Wednesday nights are free. Today's the last day of school so I won't have to hightail it down to Spring Hill every day to pick up Ann Catherine. I am definitely going to enjoy my little extra moments of downtime now that I don't have to worry about homework. We even had fun last night! Brian worked a little late, Will got to spend a couple hours with Nanny & Pappy and Ann Catherine and I had Girl's Night. Actually, we were supposed to have a Girl's Night. We got our dinner ready, picked out our movie, turned the movie on and ate a couple of bites of our food and someone knocked at the door! And that someone was a BOY!! And he wanted Ann Catherine to come out and play!!! She was all grins as she ditched me and walked off with this little boy who lives down the street from us and is in her class at school. I was so shaken that I even forgot to find out where they were going and to tell her what time to come home!! We had to walk up and down our street to figure out which house he lived in (Brian found her by hearing her giggles and watching her hair fly in the air behind a fenced in yard where she was bouncing on a trampoline!). We even caught them HOLDING HANDS as they walked back home last night! Of course, Brian was a nervous wreck the whole time she was gone so he decided it was a good night to go on a walk with Will and then to do some yardwork while he made me walk around with Will! He can't stand to have her out of eyesight and playing outside with her friends. He's convinced someone will run off with her. So, anyway, we had fun working out in the yard while we waited for her to return home.

Something tells me that I've lost my little girl's free nights to backyard romps through the neighborhood and playing on tramploines and swingsets of her friends. And, even though I get twinges of nervousness too and give her long lists of safety reminders before she leaves, I'm so happy and excited for her. What a fun stage of life to be in!

Now if I can just hold on to my little boy a little bit longer...