Ten Things Thursday

Before and after houses. Which is your favorite?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. 

6. 

7.

8.

9.

10.

I love all of these. The landscaping has a lot to do with it. But my most favorite is #1!!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

I’m making this a Words of Wisdom Wednesday post—even though I wrote this about a year or so ago. Some things have changed, but it’s mostly correct today. I have made a few updates.

Let me start by saying that forevermore, Disney shall remain our family’s most favorite vacation destination. We’ve gone at least 10 times—including when our girls were little! 

I’ve heard people say they hate Disney. Well, that’s their own fault. You either love it or hate it. I don’t think there’s an in-between. 

There’s only one way to love it. You MUST do the work! You cannot just roll up to the park and think you will have a good experience. Disney requires hours of pre-planning, learning and studying to know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it. It’s complicated and super-frustrating until you know what you are doing. And even then, you’ll make mistakes. 

My girls are darn near experts now. I love that they handle it all. Here’s a step-by-step that we’ve come up with for an incredible and memorable Disney experience:

1. Decide your dates. 

Forget about trying to avoid the crowds. There’s really no such thing—only tips to get around them.

2. Pick your resort. 

There are three levels: Deluxe, Value and Economy. Things they all have in common are: beauty and cleanliness. The perks are what differentiate them from each other. I’m not going to go in to all of that because I don’t really know all the differences. We’ve always done Deluxe resorts—Old Key West and The Beach Club. The Beach Club is our favorite because you can walk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios from there.

Going from top to bottom was a bit of a shock. We did Economy (the Animation resort) this trip for the simple reason of cost. We’re doing 5 days at about the same cost as what 7 days used to cost at the Deluxe level. Disney is definitely expensive.

3. Book your airline flights.

We like to go as early as possible. Sandy came up with the idea of going to Disney Springs the first day because you don’t need a park pass for this. We shop and have lunch. Also, you can enjoy the pool at your resort.

4. Decide which type of passes you want to get. 

We always get the “Park Hopper” passes. That allows you to go to more than one park a day. 

When you stay on Disney property, you are allowed to go to whatever park is opening early. And by that I mean—one park opens earlier than usual every day. You also need to know that if the stated early time is 8 a.m.—that park “might” actually open at 7:15 or 7:30. I’m not even sure they open for the extra “magic hours” anymore. We always get there for “rope drop” which allows you to get at least one or two rides in before there is a long wait.

By being able to “park hop,” you can go to another park to pick up the late hours—often until midnight or after—if they even still do that. But, it sued to be that you could only stay for late hours if you were staying at a Deluxe resort. 

Rookie mistake by us as we took that for granted. Since we weren’t at a Deluxe resort on one of our trips we didn’t know this was a perk exclusively for them. But in reality, our days of opening the early park and closing the late park are over. We could probably get by without “Park Hoppers.”

5. You need to know how to get “magic bands.” Okay, you can forget the magic bands. I think they are obsolete. Now everything is on the app. Your resort reservations, dining reservations, lightning passes, dining plans, and any extra things you sign up for are on the app. You make just about all of your plans months in advance—requiring getting up at 5 a.m. to get in the queue to make your plans.

6. You need to know how to “link” all the people in your group. If you don’t, then you can’t get all reservations together—food, lightning lanes, etc. I’m not even sure what everything is called now. This was a bit tricky and took ALL 8 of us being in the same room to get them linked. 

7. You need to know how far out you can reserve your dining reservations and be on the phone as soon as they open up. Sandy, Stephanie and Mindy—“tag teamed” it by dividing up the jobs. Even by being online at 5 a.m. the day of opening, we were not able to get our first choice of restaurants for Disney Springs. You need advance reservations for EVERYTHING including bars! Otherwise you will wait hours for anything. 

8. You need to know how the lightning passes work. 

The girls handle this, so I’m not even 100% sure. The gist is this—first of all, you can book a certain number of lightning passes per day about a week out from your trip. You have to pay extra (what? This is insane, but true) for the most “in demand” rides and they aren’t cheap! When one of the girls mentioned $27 for a particular ride I about lost it. The park passes themselves are very expensive and then you have to pay extra? Well, only if you don’t want to stand in line for hours (and yes, I mean hours). One person books for ALL. Once you check in to the first ride of the day, you can book another lightning pass for later in the day. But here’s the thing—each person has to check in for each ride in order for the group to be eligible for more lightning passes. Like I said, tricky.

9. Plan your strategy for each park.

Take in to account what are the most favorites for each

person and try to accommodate them. 

10. Just because I need to have a “#10” to complete the list, here are some practical things to remember:

*If you go in summer, it’s going to be hot. If you have a mister, bring it or, you can buy one there. 

*Bring sunscreen.

*Wear a hat.

*Share every meal or snack. The size is usually pretty big.

*Wear comfortable shoes. This is imperative. We log a lot of miles on our Disney trips. Standing on concrete is the worst! At nearly 75, it bothers my back.

So, as you can see that if you do not put in the work to pre-plan, your trip to Disney will be a very expensive waste of time. 

Travel Tuesday

So. Two weeks ago, we went west. Butch and I had planned to finish up our trip along Route 66. We wanted to do that this year since it was the 100th anniversary of "The Mother Road." But then, I got sick. By the time I recovered, I was pretty weak and could barely think about traveling. So, we nixed that part of the trip. Butch said that the part we had left really didn't have much to see anyway. Still, I'm a very goal oriented person. It's not my style to leave something "unfinished." I almost always complete anything I take on. 

Instead, we went straight to Los Angeles to meet up with the family. We had a delicious dinner at Musso & Frank. The next morning we went to Jordan and Robbie's condo. I'm glad we had a chance to see it since they are planning a move this year. 

From there, we went to Santa Monica Pier. We wanted this photo--although we didn't finish the last little bit, I do plan to do the layout and just tell the story of our change of plans.

We had lunch here--not exactly the Tex-Mex we're used to. 

Jordan and I shared the nachos--it was a huge platter!

That evening, we all went to The Comedy Club. Well, everyone except Butch. He doesn't like to be stuck anywhere for 2 hours!

The next morning, we checked in to our hotel across the street from Disneyland. It was so convenient to be that close. We started at Disney Springs--or was it Downtown Disney? I don't remember which is was. We had paid to go to "Mickey's Boo Bash" but that didn't allow us to enter the park until 4 p.m. 

The Halloween decorations are really good which is part of the reason we wanted to go. We've been to Disney World a few years ago, so now we're happy to have been to both. This family LOVES Disney. 

We kept our costumes simple--although everyone wore other costumes on the other days. 

I love Jordan's "slinky dog" head band.

The Neon Boneyard was an interesting place. It's full of all the old signs going back to the beginning of Las Vegas. It was fun to browse around and recognize some of those old signs.

I did not know anything about the Sphere. I thought it was a live stage performance. Instead it's the movie set with all kinds of special effects. If you've ever done Soarin' in Disney, it's like that--except of steroids! 

And then there was this. Mindy was going to breakfast in our hotel when she heard someone call her name.

What are the odds? This is one of Mindy's friends--from childhood. Lauren and her family--the Blacks were our back door neighbors. We are all still friends today, even traveling together now and then. Lauren and her family were there on fall break! We had no idea. Seriously--what a small world.

One day, we rented those 3-wheelers and went to the Red Rocks Park (not to be confused with the Red Rocks concert venue in Colorado--as Butch kept reminding me in an irritated way)! 

Any way you look at it, it's still "brown" to me.

Even the red rocks are more brownish. I've already said that I'm done with brown states. 

It's just not my kind of beauty.

We went to a "Rat Pack" show. It was fun listening to the old tunes with a few impersonators. They were pretty good.

The show was about an hour and fifteen minutes--a perfect amount of time.

We ended our trip with one of the last performances of The New Kids on the Block--ending their residency. The girls wore their vintage t-shirts. We've had a long relationship with the "kids"--even camping our for tickets when Stephanie was 12 and Mindy was 4!

I had planned to go, but by the end of the week, I was just tired. I was done walking so much. I just wanted to relax for the evening and that's just what I did. Butch watched football, so we were both happy!

We had an 8:50 flight the next morning and for once, the airline surprised us in a good way! We have never had a good surprise when it comes to airlines. 

About a half hour before we were to board, they make an announcement that the flight crew was all "here and ready to go" so they were going to board early. We had about a half hour earlier start. We got to Nashville about 20 minutes early. We got our luggage and Uber. And then, that was it!! We were stuck in traffic. Turns out, we got home about the time we were supposed to! At least we weren't late! I cannot remember the last time we actually arrived when we were supposed to! Still, I'm sick of traveling and ready for a break. 

Oh wait, and then we weren't even home a week before we made the drive to St. Louis. It was a fun trip, but I'm ready to stay home for awhile!

Me on Monday

I bought this Kurt Geiger purse a couple weeks ago. I used it for the first time when we went to Los Angeles. The second day I used it, there were some little black spots on the top. I thought a bird might have dropped it's business on it. 

When I got back to the hotel, I took a damp cloth and rubbed it to get it off. Then this happened!

OMGosh! It rubbed the finish off. I contacted the place where I bought the purse--Kurt Geiger through Amazon. I'll be getting a full refund! I don't even want a replacement. If this happened on the second day of using it, can you imagine how trashy it's going to look pretty soon? Luckily, it's so easy to return things through Amazon. You don't need the box or packaging. All I have to do is drop it off at Whole Foods with a sheet I printed out. So easy! 

Well, I do have to go to Whole Foods! It's not too far, but the parking there is a pain! I guess it's not so easy after all.

Something for Sunday

Well, hello! 

Let me introduce myself. It’s been awhile. Over a month. Let’s just suffice it to say, I’ve had some health issues. Nothing serious, but I was knocked down for a bit. Now I’m back!!

But, where to begin! Hmmm. Let me see. I think I’ll start by just listing recent activities in a nutshell:

*I took my Queen Mary cruise with  my friends. Although for me it was a bit “iffy”—I did manage to have some fun. 

*Pretty much, the rest of September was a “wash”! 

*Morgan came in town with precious Cassidy twice. 

*Butch and I nixed our final leg of Route 66. 

*We met the girls and boys in Los Angeles and spent time with Jordan and Robbie. 

*We spent three days at Disneyland, then flew to Las Vegas. We saw The Wizard of Oz at the Sphere. I didn’t know anything about that, so it was all very surprising. 

*We saw a Rat Pack show and rode three-wheeled vehicles in the Red Rocks Park (FYI—it was all brown—maybe a little red). 

*This past weekend, we were in St. Louis where I spent time with my sisters, Jeanne and Jennifer visiting Janice in the nursing home. 

*We stayed with my brother, Matt and sil Sharon and had dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants—Donatelli’s—followed by an evening around the fire pit. 

*We visited Walter and Chris and even managed a dinner out with them at Syberg’s. 

*We went to the interment for my brother, Ronnie and sister-in-law, Janet where their ashes were buried. I didn’t even know people did that. We’re used to a columbarium. Anyway, it was a very nice service. 

*We saw my nephew, Sami and wife, Zina and met their two adopted daughters, Destiny (12) and Eilleen (7). 

*I had my 60th—8th grade reunion—which was so much fun. There were 25 classmates out of 57 there from the class of 1966. Most likely my last reunion!

*We left St. Louis at 3:30 a.m. and were back to Nashville by 9 a.m.

So here I am—car unpacked, everything put away,  with the laundry done and trying to get back to my blog! 

We’ll see how it goes.

Travel Tuesday

So today, I am on my Queen Mary II TransAtlantic Crossing. I had planned to blog along the way. But, we're so busy, I don't have the time right now! This morning I left my cabin at 8 a.m. and didn't get back until 5:30 to change and get ready for happy hour and dinner. It's now 10:00 and I just got back. I'm tired, but thought I would pop on to say--I might have to wait until next week to give you a full report!!

Oh, and good news! I won $80 playing British Bingo today. I did it in only 6 numbers!!! The guy was surprised--said it was a record. Even I thought it could have been a mistake. I'll explain all about it later!!

Last thing! Happy Birthday to our darling Elizabeth!!! She's finally legal!!! 21 is a "biggie!"

Something for Sunday

Today I'm sharing the results of a project I've been working on for over a month. 

I decided I wanted all of my scrapbooks in one place rather than scattered all over the house. After all, these books are my legacy to my family! I am under no illusion that the books might wind up in some dusty antique store somewhere, but I just don't want them to wind up in the trash! I think even Good Will would throw them away. 

I was re-locating them to the library (what better place for books). Which meant I had to get rid of over 100 books. That was a little sad, but the truth is, I do not read actual books anymore (well, once in a while when someone hands me a book and says I have to read it!). I love my Kindle! 

I cleaned out and Butch hauled it all away. Something as simple as carrying the scrapbooks from around the house was a pretty slow process as I can only carry two at a time. They are pretty heavy. Butch did a lot of the heavy lifting too. I had to adjust all the shelves, but when it came to the higher ones, Butch had to do it. I will not get up on a step stool—taking no chances!

Here's a rundown of the albums I have. 

AYM—A Year of Memories—2009—18 albums

I’ve had this group going for 18 years now. The numbers have dwindled from 39 in 3 locations to just 6 now. Considering these last few are family and friends, they do want to keep going. I’m glad. 

I came up with this idea after teaching photo organization at the scrapbook stores and retreats. I wanted to prove to the “attendees” that if they followed my system, they would be able to put their hands on ANY photo within a minute! I also was a story-based scrapbooker and emphasized the journaling. 

The premise: Every month, I gave the girls a topic and a kit of supplies. Luckily, the scrapbook stores gave me a good discount. Then, the next month, we’d get together and share our layouts and stories. My proudest moment of these 18 years is that everyone has become a better writer and storyteller.

Barbara—26

These albums are all about me—from childhood to now!

Christmas—9

Zimmermann’s—6 plus 2 on loan which I don’t expect to get back.

Family—14 plus my three girls and 5 grandchildren each have several albums of their own.

Travel—13--either family trips or trips that Butch and I took together. Any trips we do on our own go into our own albums.

Butch—6

9/11—1—I did this one right after 9/11. I’m hoping that it will wind up in a school library somewhere.

Memories by the Year—4—I did these before I started Memories by the Month. They were made of individual events throughout a particular year.

Memories by the Month—2--just a quick double-page spread for each month of the year, hitting the highlights.

The Pandemic—2—Like the 9/11 album, I just had to devote the time to such catastrophic events! These are not necessarily historical recounts--but rather what we did during the Pandemic.

Home and Garden—6—I love flowers, gardens, nature and home. These albums are a mix of all.

Total:  109

I had plans to index each album by listing the titles of each page like my sister, Jeanne did. But then, I thought, "Do I really need to take the time to do that?" I do have most of the albums labeled on the spine. And, if I was trying to find a particular layout, it will take me forever. I made a "table of contents" in the majority of these albums, but not all. Plus, I'd have to remember what the title referred to. I have a lot of quirky titles in my books. So, I didn't do it. 

Okay, let's get to it.

Voila'!

So now that I've shared the pictures, I realize I should have waited until I actually "re-styled" the upper shelves. It's going to be hard with me standing below Butch on the ladder with me telling him what to do--not to mention that he loves that!!

You can see my Christmas wrapping paper in the corner. What you don't see is all of the rest of the wrapping material, ribbon, bows and bags for Christmas. I've left it back there for years now--just so I didn't have to haul it up and down the stairs. This year, I'm going to get it cleaned up and out of there. 

Okay, I guess that's about it from here. As you are reading this, I am on my trip with 3 friends--Queen Mary II Crossing. We started from New York on Saturday. This next Saturday we'll arrive in Southampton, England.

Oh and another thing. The Queen Mary has the largest library at sea--8,000 hard back books, 500 paperbacks and 200 audiobooks. I need to remember to take some pictures.

PS I have no idea when this post will publish due to the time change.