So, what have I been doing with my summer? Since we've been back from Up North, we've been slowly purging Stuff. I have a huge bag of clothes for Vietnam Vets, a bag of books to take to work, a box of stuff for garage sale next spring, a bag of stuff waiting to be picked up by a freecycler and I'm not done yet!
Probably won't get more purging done today, since we will be busy with Festivities, but there will be more!

About 3 hours into the drive, "this takes longer than going to Disney World".

Upon seeing me with a glass of wine, "Yep, that's the girl kind of wine. The boy kind is brown."

Can't quite write how she pronounced "Petosky stone", but it sure was cute.

Upon seeing the kids next-door playing at the beach, "I need my bathing suit! I have to go into the sea!"

At the grocery, picking up supplies for the week, "Mom? This isn't very exciting, you know."

At Mackinac, when we saw the horses, she gagged from the smell and announced, "I think I'm allergic to horses. They make me throw up." Poor baby!

Upon enjoying her first Tootsie Pop:
"I think it's called a Tootsie Pop because you eat it, and the Tootsie Roll pops right out!"

Friday - Ice Cream Social, one garage sale, watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
Saturday- more garage sales, cousin's birthday party, more garage sales, watched "The Business of Being Born"
Sunday - "Start Trek", a few more garage sales.
All we bought were a few toys, but it was nice walking.
And, woah, a movie a day? Unheard of around here!!

And now I have to go to work.

Coral said she wanted to go for a walk after dinner. Al said it was a genius idea. Then came the following conversation.

Al: Genius! You must be a genius!
Coral: I'm NOT a genius.
Al: you're not?
Coral NO. A genius is a blue ghost!
Me:???????
Al: Really? A blue ghost?
Coral: yep. With a beard.
Me:??????
Al(catching on): OH, you mean a genie!
Me: Oh, of course! Duh!

So, WHO'S GOING TO MARCON!!???
We are!

This day, we had to get up early to make it to breakfast with JoJo and Little Einsteins. Coral was a little sleepy, and wouldn't go dance with the entertainment until after she finally got some breakfast into her. Then all was well! There were mostly shows at this one, and we hit the important ones first. Little Mermaid, High School Musical and Beauty and The Beast. We enjoyed all of these!! Muppet Vision 3D was great, of course. Coral didn't care as much for the Studio Backlot Tour or the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. Never did the Toy Story ride, as the wait was 2 hours (yikes!). We did like the Great Movie Ride. Playhouse Disney was cute, and nice and cool inside! We finished the day by staying up late for Fantasmic! Lasers, lights, dancing, special effects! Super cool! Yes, Coral had a meltdown after this, but it had been a very long day. There was a lot of "But I don't want to leave Disney! I don't want to go home!" Frankly??? Neither did I!!!!

The next day, we got up, wandered around the resort, took a short boat ride, used up our meal plan, and got back on the bus to the airport.

I'm ready to go back!

Okay, if you go here, you must go to Turtle Talk with Crush (from Nemo). So cool. I mean, dude. It's Crush, and he really talks and answers questions, dude! The Nemo ride was nice, too. We didn't stay too long there, because we've done aquariums and there was so much more to see!!! Spaceship Earth was really cool, the Imagination! section was all good (except C got a little worried in Honey I Shrunk The Audience). I do wish we had rented a stroller for going between the Worlds. We zoomed over to Norway for Princess Lunch - saw Snow White, Belle, Cinderella and Ariel (who called everyone Starfish!). Yummy lunch, too. Coral spoke Chinese with a lady in China, and decorated a mask. The mask had a die-cut of a kite from China, and at every country the kids could add another die-cut, get a stamp, and have their name written in the language of the country! That was fun for C, but it was hot and we were tired, so we took many breaks that day to sit in the shade. She also had her picture taken with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald ("he was soft"). We had a late dinner after Ellen's Energy Adventure, then headed back to our room because we had to get up early the next day for character breakfast!!

It rained - no, it stormed- the day we went here! Bonus: hardly any lines. But, no outdoor shows, Ariel didn't come out for autographs until late (by the time we got there, the wait was over an hour!), and we ended up buying some of those sexy plastic ponchos. Everyone else was wearing them, too, so at least we didn't feel dorky! They did do a parade at 3, so that was fun. Much was different since Al and I had been there ages ago. The Tiki Room featured Iago and Zazu. And, of course, Captain Jack in the Pirates ride. Like I'd mentioned, Coral loved "The Little World" aka It's A Small World, because it was the one ride without bad guys. She did get through the Haunted Mansion without too much trouble, though! Helps to be between the parental units. She had her picture taken with Minnie and Mickey, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine and Ariel. We never really did too much in Tomorrowland, since most of it was for older kids. The Hall of Presidents was closed, presumably to add Obama. As mentioned before, lunch at Tony's was delish (yay for tiramisu for me and gf pasta for my sweethearts!!). We left around 8 on the bus back to the hotel. I do kind of wish we'd sprung for the Bibbibty Bobbity Bootique, every other girl there seemed to have the bun and tiara combo from there, which would have looked sweet on the little one! Next time, right???

The Disney Resorts are extremely accommodating!! They pick you up from the airport, take you everywhere, bring you back. Al and Coral ate wonderfully well, Tony's at Magic Kingdom had gf spagetti and meatballs for them! Princess lunch in Norway at EPCOT had a lovely chicken and veggie dish, and Coral had some BBQ pork with carrots and corn. The breakfast with Little Einsteins and Jojo and Goliath at Hollywood had gf waffles and pancakes, but not quite enough, so now we know to do the character dinners or lunches rather than bfast.

Last week was busy, including both conferences for Coral and then my conferences. And Easter Egg Hunt. And signing Coral up for K!

Took today off since C had the day off, and we had an excellent day! Off to Priya with friends for a delish buffet lunch, then we all went to see Monsters Vs Aliens. In 3D. Supposedly in Imax, but it didn't really seem so very huge of a screen. Still fun, though! Now to get through the rest of this busy week, then VACA!!

I have something to do after work every day this week! Ahhh!

It was a nice weekend, though, went out to dinner Friday night at the Pei Wei in Warren (would've been really quick and easy, except for the Mound exit being closed!!), shopped and hung out at home Saturday, had company Sunday and went for Thai food and Oberweis ice cream. Coral was an excellent "big sister" to Kaylie while she was over! Kept her away from the garbage, taught her how to color, and generally tried to boss her around!

We bought Coral This clock. Wow, do we wish we had found it 2 years ago! So far, so good.

Have a good Monday, everyone!!

albogdan. Click on it.

Went to a fun Princess Pirate themed birthday party yesterday! I got Cinderella's card, so if anyone needs her for a party, I'll pass on the info. They did a fashion show when all the girls got in their princess costumes, and the announcer told everyone the princess' names, their fave colors and fave songs. Twinkle Twinkle was pretty much everyone's fave song except C's best friend said ABCs, one boy said "Move It, Move It", and Coral said "I Feel Connected". That is the song her Barbie sings. I was hoping she'd say "What's New Pussycat", since that's her dance recital song, and we've been singing it a lot lately! There was tea, face painting, balloon animals, a pinata...what fun!

Then it was off to Grandma's for Aunt Pam's birthday. What a full-of-cake kind of day, and adding in a Priya lunch, I def ate too much. The WII will yell at me tomorrow, I'm sure.

Now I am busy looking into where we can eat at Disney World. I am so thrilled at all the options! I think we'll be adding a character breakfast, since there are gf Mickey pancakes.... Yay!

Yay for warm weather!! Al took Coral to the park, we walked to the library, a very pleasant day.

My facebook friends already know, but the big news around here is that I am an auntie again, as my brother and his wife had a baby boy yesterday, yay!
Coral is fine. Work is busy. We are all sick of cold weather.
And that's the update!

Well, Coral's eyes are much better, but there was still a little gunk this morning. Now that we've threatened her with the stronger eye drops (we were told they burn a bit), she's being slightly more cooperative with getting the first prescription actually into her eye.

We caught up on Dr Who last night with the XMas special "The Next Doctor". Full of awesome, as usual! I will miss David Tennant...sigh.

After Coral went to bed, Al and I stayed up and watched The House Bunny. Did not expect to laugh So Much! The very last word of the movie made both of us laugh until we cried!!!

So, I got a call from Coral's school about 10 minutes after I dropped her off. Yay, pinkeye. So my awesome husband went and got her and took her to the pediatrician, and took care of her all day instead of actually getting his own stuff done. And, naturally, this has to be on a day when I'm stuck at school til 6:30 because of a (really good, actually) science fair. One that Al and Coral were going to come to, and that they both really would have enjoyed. Sigh.

When the darling child wakes up, I must check her eyes. If clear, hurray for school! If not, home again.

Went to work, picked up Coral early and hopped over to Grammy and Grampy's to see DL and Shterna from Chicago (2 of the Chicago 12)! Nuri and Tracy were there, too, bonus!!! It was nice to see everyone. Then, back in the car and off to pick up Al and go to his parents' house for dinner. Then, off to Cranbrook to the art museum with Al's dad, Andie, Steve and Alex.

We wandered through the exhibit on Masculinity in Sports (very...interesting!). There was an extremely realistic statue of a guy finishing a workout. He was eerie, we kept expecting him to blink. Coral decided he was a real guy who had been magicked into a statue.

We watched a few short movies, saw more exhibits and then got to where the multi-media show was set up. It was very cool. First I thought it was similar to a laser light show, where the music controlled the shapes on the screen. Actually, there were 2 Lego trucks being passed around that controlled the music and the tilt of the images. How did Legos do that? Well, with WII controllers, you can do anything! Coral did great, but towards the end, both of us were getting tired. Neither of us had been home since we left for school that morning! But it was so fun, I didn't mind.