Being Thankful...

I just received my first End of the year, Christmas/Holiday, What's been going on in our life LETTER...

I think it is fun to receive the early bird letter and what fun to receive it around Thanksgiving and read about the many blessings of my one friend and her family.

Today I got a jump start on Christmas decorating w/ packing up my fall decorations from around the house. I personally love the colors of fall: orange, red's, crisp brown and bright yellows...but now the end of the Autumn season is upon us as the Holiday twinkling lights, greens and red's and silver and gold begin to shine everywhere. In the process of putting away 1 season to prepare for the next...I tend to sit and begin to think back on what has occurred over the last year. This process helps me to write our Christmas Newsletter.


While thinking back on planning a last minute surprise trip to Disney in March, my first chairing of Exploremore Day (school event at the children's school) come off w/out hardly a hitch in May, celebrating a decade of being a Mom as the twins turned 10 in may as well. My thoughts turn toward summer swim lessons, un seasonably cool weather, the kids camps, trips to Michigan w/ family and friends and then most recently celebrating my in-laws 50th Wedding Anniversary, being on the news on Halloween night and wishing Mae a happy 7th and Margaret a happy 3rd...


I am happily reminded of what I am THANKFUL for:

my husband and 4 children



my parents and extended family


my home


my close group of friends and my extended friend-family through our church


my husband's job


my Disney/Autistic support group of friends


the ability to share, create and make memories


my children's schools and their teachers....


and so much more!


I hope the end of 2009 finds you thinking back on more good than bad and your Thanksgiving Day is filled w/ not just a full belly of great food but a full heart of joy and blessings....


Julie

One Year Away....

Can you really get excited for something 1 year away?

Some plan for a wedding 12 months away or planning for a baby 10-9 months away or plan for graduating High School and starting College over a yr away....so why not PLAN for a Disney Vacation.....

And with any good well thought out plan you need a list, goals, things to accomplish and do over this long planning period....not just to fill the time but help make a great trip and well frankly...I am one who agrees Planning for Disney trips is half the fun!

Scrappie's 1-year away to a WDW trip PLAN

* Decide on a Date: check Nov. 2010

* Reason for Going: Girls Birthdays and Thanksgiving

* Choose a Theme: Let's Give Thanks and Celebrate...Disney Style

* Choose where to Stay: check DVC Bay Lake Tower at Contemporary Resort

* Clean out planning Binder and prepare new Planning pages (passport prices, ADR wish list and planning sheet, daily itinerary sheets, park must do sheets, etc): check and in progress

* Start compiling planning data (menus, special events, last yr's park hours and entertainment schedules to use as reference for later, crowd calendars, etc): in progress

* Start preliminary LISTS, also includes updates to old lists (packing, food for room/kitchen, clothes & items already bought for trip, things to buy for trip, every one's TOP 5 picks, etc): in progress

* Make room RESSIE:

* Research and Decide Park Passes: research in progress should purchase before 8-10

* Research and Decide on Dinning Plan: research in progress can purchase up to week before trip for DVC stay

* Prepare a Trip Budget how much money it will cost: check on guesstimate plan

* Research Airfare (cost, flights, carrier): haven't done much here yet, though know like to fly SouthWest again

* Make ADR's (180 days out): 5-10

* Book/Buy any special ticket events or children's programs (i.e. Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, Bibbidi, Bibbidi Boutique, Pirate's League, etc):

* Do a Pre-Trip Planning Report (on Disboards):

* Make a master and daily itineraries:

*Start on any special projects/crafts for trip (i.e. countdown calendar, autograph books, Michael special guidebook, etc):

* Finalize above lists:

* Pack:

* GO!!!!!!!

Ok I'm sure there are some more miscellaneous details I have not mentioned....but it's fun to see my ticker counting down to get ready for allot of FUN planning to be done for our next Wonderful Disney Adventure...hope you will join me!

Julie

Monday's update for 11-9-09 Disney on the Brain

Last week I shared my "To-Do" List and yes it got longer as the days passed, but I accomplished just about everything on there before our couples weekend away! Minus the WDW-NYC custom book....it's back on the list for this week.

No much going on in the land of Disney Memory Making...but hopefully that will be remedied in this coming week!

But what true Disney fan would go for days w/out at least once thinking of Disney or being teased for my vast Disney knowledge by my non-Disney friends...huh?

Over the weekend, several games were played and Disney came up quite often....

What would I associate with "delicious" in a game of Apples to Apples...of the 9 choices someone played the card Walt Disney...now I may not think of Walt his self as "delicious" but he has inspired some pretty delicious and YUM Fun things at his parks.

In another game of Loaded Questions...I wrote down Disney as my answer to the question what is my addiction. I wrote down Walt Disney World as my answer to what place would I most like to vacation at...duh! and I also referenced my Disboard nickname Scrappie-Do for another question.

And in one other game...I was lead to answer naming the 7 drawfs or drawves?....Sleepy, Sneezey, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful, Dopey, and Doc.

Oh you can even say I saw some Disney outside...when "Bambi" and two of his friends walked out of the woods.

Have a great Disney week!

Julie

A Monday update on a Monday....

can it be so.....

Wow I'm even impressed w/myself. So it is back to waking up w/ the sun and dinner in the dark (well at least that is the way it is here in the central time zone) and it's also back to my weekly to do list.

Want a peek?

* organize bill/receipts on desk and pay bills

* put away Halloween things and downstairs items in hallway

* do my Bible Study, BLOG, and Dis

* send Picassa Halloween Album to family

* pack for weekend (my husband Matt and I are going away w/ 4 other couples no kids except for 2 nursing babies of 2 fiends to MI)

* laundry

* last minute and forget's grocery run

* clean

* make sitting lists for my Mom and MIL (they are taking the kids Mom here w/ Michael and Margaret and Aldine and Mae staying at Matt's parents)

* try to work on NY WDW book

* On Friday: clean my bathroom, finish packing, strip and re-make my bed. pack girls things

Whew...sounds like a busy week ahead but the reward ahead is going to be WONDERFUL!!!!!

but before I get to ahead of myself has any fun memory making or Disney fun stuff been in the works?

* sorry no pictures to share, still need to take but the twins (Michael and Aldine) both had this same assignment from their teachers (different 5th grade rooms) they had a profile face front view of a person they were to decorate and design to look like a job/career they would like when "they grow-up" Can you just guess what my kids picked?

Michael- wants to work at WDW as a Character Performer. We dressed up his paper person as Donald Duck.

Aldine- wants to work at WDW as an Imagineer

and in other Disney fun...little Margaret had a split personality of 2 Disney characters for this Halloween. On Friday she dressed up as Princess Aurora for the kids school parties and on Saturday actual Halloween it was quite cold here she dressed up Jo-Jo the clown (btw why did Playhouse Disney cancel that show...sad) Here are a couple pictures:







Oh and there was this pumpkin carving/decorating contest at the kids school (we didn't enter one) but you got to love this design:




thanks,

Julie

Past Due Monday's Update and Paper Purses...

Ok, I am very bad w/ keeping up w/ these Monday updates....

So what exciting stuff has been happening in the Disney Memory-Making World of Julie's Head during last week?

Most of last week was full of doctor and special appointments for my children, so my week was pretty full w/ all of that and my Scrapbooking/Memory-making table was neglected. A few fun moments in the week (October 19-25th) were:

* I had a ladies night-out w/ 4 of my girlfriends we chatted over tea and coffee and very delicious chocolate caramel cheesecake in front of the fire at one ladies house for almost 3 hrs...till her husband arrived home late from a business trip. It was nice to just rest and chat about life, food, our kids, an upcoming couples weekend and God.

* Our weekend was packed as well w/ having that same group of ladies and their families over for our monthly small group. I made a delicious, very fall pumpkin cobbler and festive orange rice krispie treats for the children. On Saturday, my husband helped the twins make mud-bricks for a school assignment (they are studying the ancient Mesopotamian culture) and we baked them in disposable bread pans in our oven...I also made meat loaf that night...no we didn't get them confused. And then later that night, we went to a Scouts event at a local Forest Preserve/Equestian Center for a horse drawn hayride in the dark and a bonfire w/ a marshmallow roast. During our hayride, Michael kept his eyes out for a possible floating pumpkin head and the Headless Horseman....

On Sunday, Aldine sang in the church choir and the twins went to a roller skating party in the afternoon....whew!

At lastly to share today, back in September was my future SIL's birthday and as an on-going email joke about what to get her...purses were not requested by my brother. I was having a conversation w/ my Mom about what should I do for her for her b-day? I was low on funds and didn't know what I could buy her. My Mom suggested I make her something and that is how Paper-Purses came to be....

Who knew huh?

Apparently there are how blogs and sites devoted to making Paper-Purses. Well I found 2 cute patterns from this one BLOG: Mel Stampz http://melstampz.blogspot.com/2008/03/purse-templates-galore-little-handbag.html and also from her site I made a mini scrapbook purse that she used the template from bfcraftclub.com designed by Joyce Jensen.

See my pictures below:

The mini scrapbook purse closed:



and it opened:



the middle is a 12 x 12 piece of paper cut in thirds then attached together to make one long strip and folded accordion style...it didn't quite turn out as the direction said...so in the future I will modify the instructions on this. As well I added some extra paper pieces inside to cover up the inside folds and make it look a little more presentable.

This is such a clever idea utilizing really 2 pieces of paper and some embellishments....I may try to make a Disney version of it...it would be cute for a little girl, yes?

and here is a very mini purse that I used as a card:



Enjoy....

Julie

The ZURG Years...

in keeping w/ the Recent Toy Story Theme, I thought I would share another JMM creation...

Do you recall how I told you all about Michael's fondness for all things Toy Story? Well that also includes any rides or attractions and characters at WDW that tie in to Toy Story. Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster ride in the Magic Kingdom to name one! It turned out to be a pleasant surprise to me, a un-planned delight when I found 2 specific pictures of Michael from his previous two trips to Walt Disney World. I was working on my Pre-Trip Report on the Disboards and posting some pictures of Michael from our '05 and '08 trips and discovered I had a picture of him in front of the statue of Zurg as you come off the Buzz Lightyear ride from both trips...

I had already started a collection of timeline pictures of my children together from each trip and planning for future ones in front of the Animal Kingdom sign and added in front of Mickey's house. Of course, we always take a picture w/ the Big Mouse himself each trip and my husband and I take a picture on the NYC back-drop too...we have 3 pictures from 6 of our trips.

So it was a very nice surprise that I had these 2 pictures and took #3 just this past March. These timeline pictures and memories inspired me to capture these pictures not just w/ all our vacation photos but to create special custom memory books that can be added to for many trips to come.

And why not share this idea in a Julie's Mickey Memories and More project...I can take your pictures from several trips or a handful of favorite pictures from a single trip and put together a custom book!

Here is one example:

Michael's Zurg book



Materials to get started (and what luck all the papers and stickers I already had):



One of the inside pages (his picture from 2005):



I since added his age and a small sticker to add a little more detail. As well the page proceeding this is a journal space to tell the story behind these pictures and book. Right now it just has the 3 picture pages and he looks mostly the same from the June '08 trip to the March '09 trip...but what fun it will be to add a picture from say a future Disney trip 5 yrs down the road...let's hope he's willing to play along still.

I'm working on the NYC book as I stated before and YES I will post pictures soon.

Julie

Back to the Monday Updates...on a Tuesday

I still have some catching up to do w/ some special things to share, but I didn't want another week to go by w/out getting back to my Monday's Updates:

* Potty-Training successes- after my initial post several weeks back, we went backwards w/ our training and on Sunday I declared "that's it!" I decided it was time for some hard-core training here...out goes the on the potty-every hour thing and wondering when is this going to happen, when is Margaret going to be ready or wanting to do her peeps and poops in her little potty-seat? After chatting w/ a girlfriend I just decided let's do the underwear and put some control in Margaret's hands...if it is disastrous, we can take a break and try again. Trying to just be more relxed and let it happen....Yes we've had a bunch of accidents and reluctance to sit on the potty, but yesterday 1 success and today 2! It even warranted a call to Daddy at work...by golly she may be getting it. Still diapers for nap and bed and UGH! wouldn't you know it I just bought two new boxes of diapers and already opened them...

* Disney on the Brain again- One of my special friends and followers is making plans to head back to Disney and her fun has actually enticed me out of this in-between Disney-funk I have been in. So YAY! We are getting closer to 1 the 1 year mark for our next family trip and that means even closer to when I can call and make our first DVC ressie request!

* No go on the Mom's Panel- no worries, it was fun to enter and it was fun to wait and see...but I'll still keep planning and helping anyone who likes my advice.

* Another JMM book in progress- over the weekend I started another custom Memory book of my husband Matt and I from 3 of our last 6 trips: pictures of us posing in front of the NYC backdrop at the Studios.

* Other what-not's- reading a great little book called Shopping for Time: How to Do It All and NOT Be Overwhelmed by Carolyn Mahaney and her 3 daughters. It is about managing your time w/ a Biblical and God-honoring/Eternal perspective. My first task...is to start waking up earlier and fill myself up in His Word and Prayer. They call it it the 5 AM Club...I'm shooting for the 6:30 AM club for now...

Julie