Just keep planning, just keep planning, planning planning

So I really had to think about where to start with this whole Disney thing I really I still don’t know where I’m starting with this! I think this post will just hit some highlights and then I will continue from there. I will just make the next month of blogging all about Disney and hopefully I cover it all. If there is something you are wondering about don’t be shy ask away and if I don’t know the answer I will try my best to find it or point you in the right direction to find your answer!

                When planning a Disney trip the key is to PLAN! There is no such thing as over planning and its never too soon to start planning! PLEASE DON’T DO WHAT I DID LAST YEAR AND THINK A FEW WEEKS IS SUFFICIENT TIME TO PLAN A MAGICAL DISNEY VACATION BECAUSE IT WILL BE A WHOLE LOT OF HEADACHE AND TEARS AND NOT SO MUCH MAGIC!  I am dead serious about this planning thing, you are going to think it’s a bit excessive but really its not. Here are some of the key things you will want to think about when planning:

·         Disney World consists of 4 theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studio and Epcot. (there are also water parks but I won’t be covering them since I know nothing about them) you will need to think about how much time (days) you want to spend at each park and what you want to see and do at each park each day. Take the time to look on Disney World’s web page and look and the maps and the lists of attractions and figure out what you want to see and do for sure. You can see and do most everything if you plan it out down to bathroom breaks! You’ll need a week or more but it can be done!

·         FOOD! You really want to think about when and where you want to eat each day. Disney has table service meals which are sit down order from a menu meal and they cost more and they also have quick service meals which are a lot like fast food they typically have between 8-10 menu items and that’s it. You can bring outside food into the park so pack snacks! I will go into all of this further in a future post.

·         Hotel. You have to think about whether or not you want to stay on site or not. We did not stay on site when we went last year and we regretted it the whole time. Parking got expensive and we didn’t research our resort well enough and ended up wasting a whole day because we found out the hard way it was a timeshare property! We also couldn’t take advantage of a Disney dinning plan.

·         When should you go? There are some times throughout the year that you will defiantly want to avoid Disney world because of heat and the crowd. We went at the end of March (2 weeks after spring break) beginning of April and the heat was just starting to creep up as were the prices!

·         Disney characters. We went last year I was under the impression (thanks to commercials and TV shows) that the characters just roamed the park and it would be a magical moment when my kids could just run up to Mickey Mouse….WRONG!!!  Each character is located in a specific area of the park and a specific time and you have to stand in line! L  So if you are looking to meet one of the characters you will need to….PLAN.

·         What to bring and what to leave behind. I have seen list after list of things to remember to bring and some things I never thought about bringing but wish that I had thought about it last time!

I think those are the main points (I’m sure there are more but my kids have interrupted me so many times I have kinda lost my train of thought).  My next post I will start with when to go and were to stay! I hope this beginning post has enlightened you to start planning you trip today!  See you soon! Then next post will probably be super long so it will take me a few days to get it up!

Disney bound again!

  This time last year I was planning our first trip to Disney world, I thought for sure that 3 months was enough time to plan it all....NOT!!! This year I will learn from my rookie mistakes and start planning now 11 months in advance! I thought I would blog about my planning so I could help other moms not make the same mistakes I made last year share some other blogger's wisdom I have found thanks to Pintrest. I'm going to spread this planning through out the otherwise this will be on super long blog post and most would give up reading it.
 I have already started on the first blog post and will be posting it later today/tonight! Hoping I can help some that are afraid that Disney cost too much or its too crazy and hectic for toddlers and younger kids but its SO not and its worth every penny (you can make Disney affordable it just takes a little work)!

 

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.”  ~Walt Disney

I'm BACK!

Wow my last post was over 2 years ago!! I have a lot to fill in huh?  So a few days after my last post I found out I was PREGNANT!!! I kept wondering why the workouts weren't getting easier....then it dawned on me IM PREGNANT! It was a relatively easy pregnancy until the end when my heart went a little crazy and started beating too fast but some meds and I was fine again until week 36 and it started happening again and they took the baby a week later! We welcomed Sarah Grace into our family on May 23, 2011!
  We still knew something was still off with Isaiah since he was 2 and still not talking at all and going backwards with a lot of things! We finally found a doctor that would listen to us and he referred us to the speech department at the Children's hospital and a psychologist. We got an evaluation quickly with the speech department and they recommended speech twice a week but we were put on a waiting list because there were no openings. I finally heard back from the psychologist and we were on a waiting list for that too. I waited 4 months (this all began in Aug 2011) and still we were on a waiting list for both! Finally just before Christmas 2011 I called Katy ISD to see if they could help and they set us up with an evaluation in Jan 2012. Shortly before the evaluation I found out we were EXPECTING AGAIN! Sarah was only 8 months old! Yes we are a little crazy! Back to Isaiah, we went in for the evaluation and they confirmed what I had known for a long time....Isaiah is Autistic...I cried. I'm crying now! They set up for a meeting with the school that he would be attending so that he could start school on his 3rd birthday! They moved quickly!
 In the middle of all of this I was still trying to wrap my head around another baby and plan a trip to Florida....yes the SEALES were going to DISNEYWORLD! ALL 8 OF US! Yes I said 8 our little family, grandma and Michael's brother's family! We were renting a 12 passenger van and driving to Orlando staying for a week then heading to Miami for 4 days so the guys could go to Wrestlemainia! We all had a blast and were planning our next trip before we even left!
 We got back from Florida a few days before Isaiah's birthday and his first day of school! But we had to postpone school for about a week because he got sick! But he started school none the less and he loved/hated it! It eventually grew on him and he loved his teacher! School was coming to a close and we found out that his teacher wasn't going to be back the next year I had a break down Isaiah had made so much progress with her and I was terrified he would go backwards! Wrong! School started in the fall and it was like he never missed a beat! He LOVES his teacher Mrs. H and hes made even more progress, still not talking but he is communicating with little pictures now and he is so close to talking I can feel it!
 We welcomed Evan Samuel into the family Spet 18th 2012 again a few weeks earlier than expected because the little turkey was sitting in a funny spot and the pain was killing me! I ended up being put to sleep for this Csection so I don't remember much of his birth or the first day or 2 since was was pretty drugged up. My OB put me on the 3 year plan (his words no mine) so no surprise babies for at least 3 years (unless the big man upstairs has something else to say about that).
  We had a great Christmas and are rolling with the New Year. Hoping this year holds potty training and talking for Isaiah (and potty training for Sarah...shes already talking and wont shut up!) . We are already planning our next Disney trip and birthdays. Cannot wait to see what else this year holds for us!

"Unless You Puke, Faint or Die, Keep Going!" ~Jillian Michaels

That quote is what I plan to live by for the next 30 days (and beyond if I don't die! lol) Tomorrow I start the 30 day shred with Jillian Michaels! I'm excited but scared at the same time...I don't want to fail! I've been saying for months now I'll start tomorrow or next month is defiantly it I don't know why I've put it off til now, no more excuses I WILL LOSE WEIGHT! I'm finally sick of feeling run down and in pain because of the extra weight I am carrying around...No I don't know how much I currently weigh (I don't have a scale but going to get one) but I will say I'm in a size 18 jeans and they are beginning to get uncomfortable. I am ashamed that I let myself get this big again yes I said again! At my biggest point was a size 22 and 250ish pounds (I'm 5ft tall so thats almost 150 too much I should weigh around 100-120lbs max) and I managed to shed 100lbs in a year but since having Isaiah I have put about 50-75lbs of it back on....I hate to admit it but I'm bigger now than when I was 9months pregnant! This is not only something I want to do but I have to, I am so unhappy with myself I can't stand it...I have no energy to do anything any more all  I want to do is sleep and its the weight its stressing my body out and I'm literally  exhausted from it. I'm not looking for anything dramatic I just want to feel human again and have the energy to chase my little boy around with out feeling exhausted in 10mins! 
well I hate only being able to do short blogs but then again I have a 1yr old who has turned into a monster this last week and I can hear him getting into things so I must say good-bye! I'll try to blog from my phone tomorrow after my workout to let everyone know I'm still alive! 

my before Picture

hello my name is Jamie and I have a cloth diaper addiction!

I have officially turned into a cloth diaper junkie! I want them all!!! we ordered some Happy Heinys  Thursday and we received them on Saturday!  I was so excited to try them out! And we love them!!!! The inside is soooo soft! Like butta! Blowing all my fluff allowance on those 3 diapers was soooo worth it! lol I get more fluff allowance this Friday and its way more than I was given last week so I'm excited to get a few more diapers! I'm taking suggestions! we have used Fuzzi bunz, Tiny Tush fitted, Bum Genius, and Tweedle bugs. Im thinking more fitted diapers cause I love how they fit Isaiah and they (well some) cost less than the pockets or AIOs so I can get more for my money I really want a Nifty Nappy fitted in the ogga booga print!but eeks $24 is a bit much for a fitted....but its really really cute and he could match his cousin Bethy! 
shh don't tell anyone but I secretly want another baby just so I can buy more cloth! :o well thats not the only reason but like I said I have an addiction! 
Now do you think I could convince Michael to put up a Clothes line for me?hmmmm....Oh I'm also crocheting Isaiah a pair wool soaker pants (I'll take a pic and post it when I'm done with it).
I'm actually quite surprised that Michael is on board with this whole cloth diapering thing! and and he actually is changing them! :o he even did a poopie and cleaned out the diaper even though I told him he could leave it for me! He wants to get a sprayer so he can help out more too! wow! 
So anyway I guess its official I'm a "crunchy momma" I co-slept (well hes still in our bed half the time) a baby wore and now we cloth. I always resisted the cloth but now I love it! Don't know what I was ever thinking! well I see my post is all over the place now my mind is kinda foggy the last few days and I've been super ancy latly and I dont know why so I'll end on that  note...

Angels

So my what to expect ladies did it to me again...they made me cry! Not in a bad way but in a good...a few of them thought wouldn't it be awesome if there was a way for all of us to finally meet? Well there is only one women on earth that could do that...the all powerful Oprah! *insert angelic type music* So we all decided to write to Oprah about our "angel" heres my letter to her:


My angel is not a single person but a group of Mothers better know as my April 2008 What to Expect Mommas! I could not choose just one of these women to call my angel because they are all my angels..my best friends! These women supported my throughout my pregnancy with my son and the (almost) 2years since then. we share everything, the highs the lows the joys and sorrows we even share things normal people wouldn't even share with anyone else! These women are my sisters and I don't know where I'd be without then! Funny thing is I've never met a single one of them! I have never "met" a more amazing group of women before and probably never will! 

Of course there's such a thing as angels. Only sometimes they don't have wings... and we call them mothers. -Unknown

Ridding the world of ignorance one idiot at a time!

Yesterday (Wednesday) I took Isaiah to have lunch with Daddy then we went and hung out at the mall til he got off....we were originally going to check out the Lego store but it was lame...so we walked around and found a fantastic indoor playground! Isaiah had so much fun and I was having a blast too until it was  time to find a bathroom to change a diaper...As many of you may already know we made the switch to cloth diapers about 3 or so months ago. Well lately I've been brave enough to go out clothing and decided yesterday we would go all cloth all day no matter what! So here we are in the bathroom cleaning up a poopie and some ignorant lady chimes in "thats disgusting!" I ignored her and continued cleaning Isaiah up and as I placed the dirty diaper in the wet bag she said "I can't believe your just going to put that in there how disgusting!" at first I was just going to ignore her and keep my mouth shut because she was just ignorant and didn't know what she was talking about, but she kept going on and on. Finally I had enough! I asked her was so soooo disgusting about changing my son's diaper? " you're going to carry a poopie diapers around with you! you should use these(a disposable) and just throw it away thats what you're suppose to do with it... you're going to smell...your house must stink!"   I then got on my soap box (tried super hard to remember all the things Jennifer had told me about disposables)... actually no you're not SUPPOSE TO THROW POOP IN THE TRASH!!! it belongs in the toilet so that it can be treated properly so it doesn't contaminate our drinking water! Are you aware of how long it takes a diaper to break down in a landfill? It is guessed it will take around 200-500 years for a diaper to decompose but you and I will never know because we will be dead and gone before even 1of them is gone! No I do not smell nor does my house! I have this bag (shoved it in her face to prove I don't stink) it keeps the moisture and smell in and I have a cotton ball with lavender oil on it in-case some smell may seep out! And at home I have a container with a lid and  a liner with oil and baking soda and i was every other day! By this time I think she was baffled and didn't know what to say.... I then admitted to her that I hadn't always used cloth diapers and that I still on occasion used a disposable because cloth diapering is hard even on good days *sings, its not easy being green*. Its a decision that I and Michael made for our family and its not always right for everyone but please keep your mouth shut if you don't know what you're talking about. I asked her to cure her ignorance (or stupidity depends on how you look at it) and google cloth diapering so that next time when she sees a mother changing her child's CLOTH DIAPER she will be well informed and could maybe say thank you to her for not contribution to the 18+ billion disposables thrown away every year! I've added a link so that you too can inform yourself about cloth! *steps off soap box* http://www.realdiaperassociation.org/diaperfacts.php