Its time!

It's time for me to share about the weight loss journey and healthy living plan that we started about 12 days ago. Yes, only 12 days.

After the 8 day detox...
I lost 8 lbs.
My husband lost 8.5.

From there we had two days trying to figure out what was going to groove with our bodies and staying healthy. My husband is working to maintain his loss, and I am hoping to lose more!
(My goal is 50+ lbs by August 19th, which is Laurens wedding day.)

Since the detox my total is now up to just under 10 lbs.

10 lbs in 12 days is pretty stinking phenomenal let me tell ya.
(patting myself on the back for this one)

I am publicly sharing the details of my weight loss because I want to let you know about me. I want to share that its been a struggle to get my weight under control for most of my adult life. Its been definitely a lot easier for me to implement exercise into my life than it has for me to control my eating. I like to eat carbs and I have been eating far too much for far too long. I desperately want to get healthy not only for myself but for my family. I have lofty plans for my new body and the adventures it will soon be able to go on!

One thing about the detox that I want to share is that my husband and I DID NOT do our normal working out during the detox. We did light work outs, going for walks etc. So that 8 and 8.5 lbs was primarily from changing our eating habits and following the program.

Most people lose between 6-15lbs during the 8 day detox.

I haven't been able to stick to an eating plan for a really long time. I was on weight watchers and motivated at one point and lost about 30 lbs. Which I put back on, with an additional 20 lbs. Then I eventually went on prescription medication to help lose weight. There is a very popular diet doctor here in town that gives folks medication, supplements and a LOW cal (like 800 cals per day) diet. I wasn't even able to stick to that low calorie intake during the weight loss medication. I did lose 30 lbs with eating less and lots of exercise.... then I got pregnant. Gained it back. Had gestational diabetes, lost weight while pregnant. Had the baby, lost a ton of weight, had the crisis going on, then emotionally ate and gained again. Ok, can you see an unhealthy pattern here?

My weight stops me from being the out going person that I really am inside. It stops me from doing the things that I love- adventure and hiking, climbing mountains, learning new sports etc. It keeps me from being whole. I am not saying that I have lacked living a lot of life. Because I have had an amazing amount of life experiences that I appreciate. I just wonder how much more I could have done had I not let this weight hold me back?

I am this skinny girl.... (with the dark hair and the smile)
and I am trapped inside this body I don't want anymore!

Me and my dear friend Brooke

Enough about me.
Let me tell you what motivated me to try the program that I am on. I read and watched and waited for a long time before buying anything. I am miss completely frugal and not spend any money taking care of HERSELF or her health. That is like the last thing on my list of things I should be spending money on at this point! But after watching, reading, waiting- I saw some pretty amazing things happening to some other Moms.

Cala went from size 22 to size 8 in SIX MONTHS.
No way, right?
I know... I thought it was some kind of BS infomercial. Then I read more and this Cala woman, she is really a real person. And she has SEVEN kids. Now she works for the company that invented and sells the products and she has made $90,000 in the past six months to top off her weight loss joys! Because once people in her life saw her losing and saw her success they wanted a part of it too. The company is fairly new and the products haven't been around for long so the word is now spreading like wild fire.

Especially since Jennifer got on board!

Everyone knows Mckmama right? And with everything MckMama has had going on, she still managed to lose 55lbs so far! I have joined her team and am now a distributor.

I only hope that someday I can share my progress pictures with you all and be as successful as these women. I haven't found a plan that I can stick to and I have tried most all of them. Nutri*system, J*enny craig, diet pills, etc. Nothing has been able to stop my food addiction, my CARB issues. I actually think I have not only lost 10 lbs. But I haven't felt so well in a long time. Despite having terrible seasonal allergies right now, I feel so darn good. I had been taking ibuprofen like it was candy, I was always getting headaches. I haven't needed it once in 12 days.

It was never our intention when we started this lifestyle change that we would jump on the bandwagon and sell the products. Actually I am horrible at Sales. I used to work for Es*tee Lauder and nearly cried when I worked because I hated selling the expensive things to women whose skin was like a babies bottom after 30 years of using Dove soap- why would they want to pay so much money? I am just far too frugal! I also hate high pressure sales and pushing product on people. That is why this blog WILL NOT be turning into a sales pitch every chance I get... however...
I can't NOT share this with you all and with everyone that I love. I truly believe in these products. They are high quality. This plan encompasses all forms of health and weight loss. Not only is it good for people with a lot of weight to lose or a little, but even just for the health benefits- some of the products are outstanding for your health alone.

I bet you might already know what it is if you read Mckmama!

Check it out here... and let me know if you have questions!
sisters3designs@aol.com (email me!)
Or leave a message on the blog!
The website is fairly confusing in my humble opinion but I would be happy to talk and walk you through the options and programs. Or even if you just want to try a product, let me know!

Long weekend

I am so thankful for the long weekend with everyone home. My husband kicked things into high gear and in the past few days has managed to:

Moss treat the roof
change out and repair broken screen doors
install shelves inside cupboard
put a/c unit in window
grill out three times
move storage shed
organize the entire thing
weed treated back patio

and with the help of the rest of us...

We have cleaned and prepared our tiny back yard for a new play area for our small children- this way we have a fenced in place to take them over the summer complete with outdoor play kitchen, mini basketball hoop, sand box and a water table. (Plus a small pool for when its warmer out.) These are all things that we already had but it made more sense to have them all be together outside where messes can readily be made during the summer. We cleaned up an old patio set, freshened it up with new cushions, hubby build a little fence to block off bikes from Izzy... and we planted some flowers.  I am excited!

I had a long standing "honey do" list going that had to be completed without delay because my hubby got a new job, with a new company, and will be going out of town- for the summer... possibly tomorrow. (Welcome back to the world of construction where no one has a plan until the last minute!)

I am sad. But happy.
I am so thankful for the past six months of my husband being home.
So many wounds were healed between him and Sophie. And the six months he was able to participate in her counseling were exactly what was needed for them both. (I secretly look forward to the next time we can have him home for an extended stay!!)

Yes things are financially really tight when he isn't working. But seriously- we manage- and live frugally, and ENJOY one another as much as possible because we know that when work starts- we won't see him often!

He will be home on weekends or we will drive the 4.5 hours to meet him out of town on some weekends. So at least we know we have Friday night late until Sunday evenings together! This job is set to last 11 weeks. In construction lingo that means 11-15 weeks. Then they will start on a job within driving distance from home. (Still 100+ miles each way, eeek... the gas costs!!)

I am also very thankful for my children. They helped out all weekend long and I only heard one of them complain. Grace had a car wash with friends over the weekend at a local gas station and they made $320 towards the Mexico mission trip. Now each of the girls only needs $40 plus spending money for the trip. I am very impressed with how resourceful each one of them has been!

In other employment news...
David, Cole, Grace and Sophie have all been offered jobs at a local Berry farm for a month this summer. They all will be accepting the positions and we have asked that they work the same shift to make the driving a little easier on me. Grace has both the mission trip and cheerleading camp this summer... AND high school soccer practice, cheer practice AND she DID make the select soccer team so she will have practice and tournaments for that so I am not really sure how she thinks she will have time to work at the berry farm. She might have to just have some babysitting jobs but needs some convincing that she "can't do it all!"

I hope that you had a good long weekend too!

Snorty faced girls

I had wondered where Izzy got this silly face.

My Mom said it was FROM ME.

When going through some pictures today...

I found this one of me, my Mom and Grandpa.

My smile... definitely snorty faced.

I guess my Mom was right!

A detailed post about my new found weight lost best friend is coming soon!!

Detox Update 2

We are starting day 6 of our detox.
So far...
I have lost 7 lbs.
My husband has lost 7.1 lbs.

We are pretty happy about that. Today is a long day and we are hoping that we can stick to the plan and make it through. This was the one day where we were worried about slipping up... ugh Tuesdays!

Still no firm plan for my husbands return to work.
Company 1: Has a job starting in a few months and a small job that will be starting soon. The job in the a few months is out of town. They won a bid for a job in Seattle last week that we thought would take us through summer until the out of town job in fall. This company my husband has worked for throughout the years and its a good fit for our family. However- that winning bid got pulled yesterday and now they are fighting to get it back. Ugh! (So it might not mean much work till fall.)

Company 2: Was going to hire my husband for out of town summer work then decided that they would try one of there already employed guys in his position first. Bummer.

Company 3: Has a HUGE job right here in our town that will last at least a year if not longer. We are hoping for an interview!

Company 4: My husbands "official" employer... still has no work. This is not typical for this company this time of the year. They had to actually lay off more people.


That is where we are as far as the return to work goes. We are praying for answers soon!!

Alyssa had try outs over the past two weeks for a developmental select soccer team for 10 and 11 year old in our county. There were over 200 girls that tried out and she was NOT chosen as one of the 78 players that got selected. She was pretty upset. That's a hard "pill to swallow" at age 10, not getting picked. She will try again next year as we know that they mostly take "older" girls.

Grace had select soccer try outs over the weekend. We are supposed to hear in the next 48 hours if she has been picked for a team. We are praying! She can be so negative and hard on herself. Last night they put her on defense at one of the try outs and she completely missed a ball. Like went to kick it and missed! She was definitely out of her element on defense! But of course she won't take a minute to look at all the GOOD things that she did during try outs. She once again doesn't want to play keeper (as she did her first year in select soccer) even though she has mad skills as goal keeper- she hates it. Of all the girls in her age group trying out there was only ONE girl trying out for keeper and we know there are going to be TWO teams. Grace still was not willing to try out for keeper. (Although she will happily be a back up keeper if needed... she likes the action on the field best of all.)

The drama trauma got a bit worse. We found out that things were worse than we originally thought and that our child had been lying to make things seem not so bad. Actually they lied initially, then when confronted, then even further and then again. I am over lying kids. SO over it. I am going to be double checking basically everything my kids say from now on because I don't feel like I can ever believe anything!

This issue was further complicated by one of our adult kids lying and then Dominick coming home from school yesterday and saying that they ran out of food at lunch and he was starving! I didn't think this sounded right but the way that he was eating his bagel sandwich I knew he hadn't eaten all day. This morning I got a call from the school and they said that Dominick typically won't eat if they run out of his favorite items- but that they always offer to make him a sandwich and he refuses the sandwich. Ugh. More lying kids.

Maybe what I should do is reward the honest kids by taking them on a big vacation without the lying kids sometime? How do you handle your kids lying? Why does this seem to be a constant issue within my family and with my children? I.Am.Over.IT.

Thus- why I continue the detox.
Staying well in control of the things that I can be in control of.
It does provide some relief from the rest of life!

Detox update

How cute is my Sophie Mo?
I know this picture is old and its been posted before. But I love this picture of her. (Jude was in the hospital bed behind her.)

Detox is going very well.

We are starting the morning of Day Three.
So far I am down 5.4lbs
My husband is down 6lbs

I was really thankful that he wanted to detox with me. Its much easier to stay on track and motivated when you have someone to walk along side you. I think that this program is easier for me at this point in my life because its the one thing that I have control over. I plan to look good by August for Laurens wedding and get fit and healthy and maybe even do a half marathon later this year. Lofty goals? Yes. Gotta have em!

If I continue to be successful through this process I will share the secrets to my success later on. :)
It was important to me to compare how the program works for someone like me who does love to exercise but has definite food issues compared to my husband who runs 6-10 miles daily and eats far too much junk. I have a lot of weight to lose and my husband only has 12 lbs. (Now he only has SIX lbs!) I wanted to be sure that this program will work as well for someone with very little weight compared to someone with a lot of weight. This week I have been walking 1-2 miles a day. And my husband has been running less miles. Through the detox we are taking the work outs easy!

As far as detoxing the rest of my life...
Also going well.

I don't spend a lot of time on face book. But I do check in there at least twice a day just to read status updates and check in on family and friends. I have noticed that I can actually become agitated by some of the people who were my friends. There are certain things that just make me bonkers.

I defriended or blocked people who:

1. Lower brain cells.
Seriously. I had so called friends who have horrible foul language and talk a lot about smoking pot/drinking, partying, pictures of them at the bar etc.. These are adult friends. I don't have time for these types of people. Grow up.

2. Are self righteous
Look at me on vacation again! Look at me the expert at parenting my kids! Look at me the best Mom in the world! Watch me give you advice! Watch me and my perfect life! Blah blah blah. Annoying.
I am not talking about people who give a status update every so often and brag about the kids and share pictures. These are the posts that I love. I love to hear when its someones child's birthday and see cute pictures. Or hear that they won a football game or made a cute picture for Mom etc. I have some friends who status update self righteous updates 4-10 times per day. Really? And another friend who vacations non stop and takes photos of all the food that they eat out. Who has time for that?

3. The constant updater
Blocked them.
"Going to the mall"
"Having dinner"
"Attending picnic on Saturday"
"Bathroom again, too much water!"
"At theatre watching a movie."
"Warm today, oh yea!"

I am not able to understand why someone would think that people really care to know what your doing every second of the day.

4. Drama Kings and Queens
"SOOOO much laundry to do, going to die!!" (2 kids, family of 4)
"Hate my life, hate my job."
"Worst day ever. I hate hate hate hate hate my ex."

I have seen people declare misery and threaten suicide. Say things like "its all over for me". Its always the same handful of people that whine and complain non stop and have nothing good to say ever but horrible bitching and complaining. Ugh. I couldn't take it anymore.

I have read about people who are so annoyed by their children that they talk about doing something horrible to them.
"The baby cried all day long I just want him to shut his mouth!"

Yes, people really post this kind of thing? Detox it all folks!

5. I don't get it.
Then there is the group of folks that have like 1000 friends and talk about specific things all the time without enough detail to really have any clue what the heck they are talking about.

"Saw Tony at Bridge Park. So hilarious."

Huh?
What the hell are you talking about?
Who's Tony?
Where's Bridge Park?
What was so funny?

Perhaps the detox is going to my head?
I am off to detox the bathroom now.
Cleaning out cupboards, drawers and disinfecting life.
Love it!

Faces

 Not sure why I even wondered

where Izzy gets her silly faces.

Looking at these pictures-

I would guess its from seeing all

the faces of the people around her!

 These pictures are from the Starlight Prom.

Sophie, Grace and Cole are in front

with friends Cheyenne and Natalie in back

They had far too much fun.

Things here at home are still rough.

Finding the harmony again has been

a work in progress.

Lets just say that justice is being served

for things that went terribly wrong

and the child is on the way to healing.

(Its going to take time and therapy and prayers!) 

 I started a DETOX today.

Not only am I detoxing my body.

But I am detoxing my life and

clearing from it all the junk.

The food junk, the stuff junk and the people junk.

 My body

My home

My heart

and

My spirit

will be filled with goodness only

No more Junk.

 That goes for Social Media too.

I am cleaning house.

 Life is far too short

to waste anymore time

with pipe dreams

and time suckers

 And it feels darn good!

Thankful

 Today I am trying to take my stress

and spend a little more time being thankful.

I finished up the Thank You notes

this evening from the MAW trip.

I have a hand cramp!

I think we had 30 thank yous to write.

We are forever grateful for that

special time away all together.

 These cute pictures are from

Angelina and Isaac's very first school concert.

They did an amazing job.

The elementary school is blessed with

a phenomenal music teacher.

She loves her job.

All of the kids love her!

 Can you spot my kids in this picture?

Isaac is starting to notice that he is brown.

And that there are a lot of white people.

He keeps saying things like

"There sure are a lot of white people here!"

This happens when we go places.

Like practically every place where we live.

He doesn't see there are a lot of

Hispanic people, or Native people or other people

He groups them all together as

"White".

Hmpf.

This is Izzy's new favorite face to make. I am not sure why she makes this face all the time. At first she started making it when she would watch TV. I thought perhaps she had some kind of vision issue. But not sure just makes it all the time. I think with the camera she was thinking that the flash was coming. Isn't it attractive? lol. It does make me laugh each time. Probably just encouraging her to make it more often!

Please continue to pray for my stressed house. We are definitely still on lock down mode, just trying to function and keep it together. The kids don't know what happened or what is going on, they only know that Mom and Dad are more tense than normal.

My husband has an interview tomorrow for a job over an hour away. Not sure that its the right fit for us or not. (Income wise it pays considerably less but there is a prospect of more work than his typical field, which would be a good thing.) Since the jobs are 1 to 2 hours away he would drive each day instead of staying out of town with the other position he is considering. At any rate- he will be going back to work soon! Just wondering what is meant to be THE job. We do know that its not likely to be one of the two companies he normally works for- both have ZERO work still!

Mothers rant

Happy Mothers Day beautiful Moms!

What a wonderful and challenging roll that we have been given. There was one completely moving blog post that I read this week that I wanted to be sure to mention just in case your one of the few people that might not read this blog. Check it out. Its a MUST read.

I admit that I spent a great deal of time on Saturday wondering if I was really cut out for this life. Was I really prepared to parent this many children? Ok, I take that back. Was I really cut out to parent this many challenging children? Well, not really the little ones. Was I really cut out to parent this many teenagers? All at one time? Really God?

The events of the week have really thrown me for a loop. I mean basically my children have two full time at home parents and have had them for most every week for the past six months. We shouldn't be missing a beat here even though we are significantly outnumbered. After the event- the crisis that happened- and then another teen telling yet another lie to me... I was over it. I was ready to run away. I wouldn't actually run away but I did really want to just zone out and forget the troubles. I was absolutely in denial about the serious significance of what happened. Other than tearing up a few times here and there when things would remind me of the event, I wasn't able to really breathe and process the whole thing. I had done something wrong as a mother. Because if I hadn't then this bad thing wouldn't have happened to one of my kids right under my nose.

On Friday just in the midst of the tail end of the crisis (that might not be over for quite sometime officially), my husband got a phone call about a company looking to possibly hire him for the summer for some out of town work. Yea!

Yea Work! Yea decent Income! Yea back to normal! Nay I don't want to be home alone without him! Nay, I don't want to be here all summer without him! Nay, I don't want to deal with the crisis without him here! Nay, I don't want to do this anymore! Yea, I feel sorry for myself!

It's not official. But I might be single parenting it for most of the summer. I am sure that this really tipped the stress scales. My husband is excited about getting back to work. I am excited about him working. But when in the moment I feel so overwhelmed it was just the worst time possible to hear this news. We will know something official before the end of the month.

Just pray. Just pray that whatever is meant to happen will.

We do know that there is a company with a MASSIVE job starting soon right here in our town that he is trying to get on with. We are hoping for a phone call before he takes the out of town job. (Oh pray!)

But should he be leaving us...

I am really tempted to pile the kids in the van and take off for the summer back to family in Ohio. But then again, we are working really hard in therapy at the moment with Sophie. Things are going really well. I can't just give that up and pull her out for an extended time away. Not to mention we have a solid week in hospital planned for Jude and Angelina mid summer. And my Lauren gets married in August! She needs me here to help with planning and prepping.

My pity party is almost over, I promise.

I had a great mothers day. I met with some other Mom friends and families at the beach for a cookout and lots of running around for the kids. The dads and kids handled most of the cooking and cleaning up and it was a blessing.

Saturday stuff

After I wrote the last post I never imagined the hard stuff getting harder. Well yet again, it has! Each time as a parent that I have walked through tough things, I imagine that "this is as hard as it gets", and that once I make it through, I won't be faced with something more difficult the next time around.

Without going into details for the privacy of our child, please let it be known that you must heed my advice. Please do not feel badly about invading your children's privacy. I don't necessarily mean going through things in their room and reading journals and diaries! But if your child has a cell phone, face book account, computer etc. Please insist that you have access to passwords and you look at the history cache of where your child has been. Don't hesitate getting software and spy ware. I know this seems extreme but this is now the third time as a parent we have been faced with one of our children putting themselves in serious harms way.

And two of the three children we would have never in a million years expected that they would ever "fall" victim to something like this, or do something like this, or LIE about doing things like this! The children who we have seen get involved in this sort of thing HAVE NOT been our tough kids. Its been our MOST trustworthy children who truly knew better!

The situation that one of our children is in at this point is very serious. We are basically in "lock down" mode. I don't ever want to trust my kids again with stuff like this. Trusting too much is what allowed them to get into this sort of bad situation! I don't blame myself but I do feel horrible and wish that my child wasn't going through this right now.

Please also remember that on a cell phone you can basically do everything you can do online. Skype. Chat rooms. Meet strangers. Apps for meeting strangers. Text message. Take pictures. Send pictures. Receive pictures. (Not that all of these things have happened, I just want you to be aware of the possibilities!)

Please also know that on most handheld gaming systems like Nintendo DS- you can get on the Internet with. Same deal, pictures, text messages etc. The same goes for Ipod touch!

Keep your children safe. Don't be a trusting fool like me!

If you paid for your child's phone or you pay the monthly payment, that phone is YOURS and you have every right to look at it!

(Please note that I respect my children's right to privacy, however, keeping them safe is far more vital!)

One of them days

 The pictures in the post don't really go with the post, sorry. I will take a moment and let you know about last weekend. It was the Starlight Foundation Prom. Robert and I took Sophie, Grace, Cole and two friends down to Seattle for the weekend. Grace and Sophie were able to visit the Ruby Room where they were taken on a "shopping" spree of sorts for a gently used prom dress and heels. Then we headed for the hotel. At the hotel the girls got their make up done professionally, their hair, and nails too. They also had jewelry from Claire*s for each of the girls to pick out what they would like.

They had a Cinco de Mayo themed dinner and dance- with a DJ and tons of fabulous decorations. They had a photo booth and face painting. The kids all had way too much fun. They even gave them all flowers and goodie bags! (Miss Teen Washington was there and put on Coles boutineer!) We love being a part of the Starlight Foundation here in Washington state. They do such an amazing job and what a fun blessing for our teens!

Now on to the nitty gritty... (after the pictures of my beautiful children!)

 Today was one of them days.
The kind of days where you just wish you could go back to bed and have a do over. Izzy slept horribly last night. Recently, she has been sleeping through most nights so it was so out of character for her. She would wake up and just cry and cry for me to hold her. It should have been my hint that things were not going to go well today.

There are lots of drama things going on with several of the kids. Things that I don't want to talk about, so please don't call me and ask! Things that are BIG and HEAVY and that are a lot to process. Things that are changing the course of life for my children and I just want things to be a bit easier for them. Why do they always have to go the hard road? Or why can't things just be easier for them when so much of life has been so hard already? It just seems tragically unfair.

If you see me tearing up a little every now and then, please know, I am OK. We are OK. We just love our children so much and its hard to see them struggle. I know you get it. Please pray for them. To question things like faith, direction, who they are, what they want out of life, what the future holds etc. its a lot. And its several of them all at one time which makes it even more overwhelming!

And if you find my magic wand to erase all their drama, please send it back soon!
Thank you for listening. (As always)

Maw- Day FOUR

 The morning of Day Four of Angelina Magical Make a Wish trip was splendid. We started the day (all 18 of us) going to Ohana at the Polynesian resort for a character breakfast. We got to meet Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. Everyone was thrilled... but especially Izzy. She loves the characters!
It was really cute to watch her kiss them and touch her nose to theirs.

 Needless to say for the price- I don't think much eating went on! The food was pretty good to those of us who did manage to eat. :)

 I love this picture of Isaac and Stitch. My kids love Lilo and Stitch- such a good message.
Ohana means family and family is forever!

Then we left breakfast and headed to the Animal Kingdom for the first half of the day. We met a few characters before we went in.

 Dominick was so excited about Goofy. :)
He is Dom's favorite character.

 Angelina blowing Goofy some kisses!

Angelina loved trading pins. Well she didn't actually want to trade any of her pins. But she loved stopping by the pin stations where typically someone would just give her a pin. She was quite accustomed to it once we met up with Bill at Animal Kingdom. Angelina actually gave away one of her pins to Bill and she read his name tag all on her own so I wanted to take a picture to remember the moment. He was so sweet and wanted to GIVE all the kids a pin. *Until I told him how many there were! Then I told him to just keep his pins! LOL

Angelina had two very special moments during the day time. At breakfast Lilo grabbed her hand and had Angelina help lead everyone in a dance around the room. And while we were watching the Lion King- Angelina was picked to come up with Dominick and some other children to dance around the stage area. She was so happy to get to have these special moments.

The Lion King show was really good! Expedition Everest ride is NOT to be missed at AK.

It was a very fun day! We rode on the water ride several times. They actually let us stay on it again and again. Angelina was thrilled by the screaming that everyone did when they got wet. I can't believe she wasn't too scared to ride most anything.

We didn't let the kids eat much after breakfast. We had brought some fruit and snacks along but we wanted to be sure that they were plenty hungry for dinner at Epcot. We left Animal Kingdom around five and took the bus over to Epcot. We had mapped out a game plan based on what country everyone wanted to eat dinner. We then split group by Moms going to Morocco with kids that wanted "American" food and "French". And the guys took the kids who wanted "Mexican" and "Chinese" because they were going for "Germany". Everyone was starving... but Amy and I couldn't resist stopping when we entered France and saw Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) in the garden. There was a small line of children waiting and it was obvious that she was about done for the appearance time. The cast member saw Angelina coming and we had told her that Angelina just had a makeover into Princess Aurora two days before. That was actually HER WISH.

It was such a blessing that the cast member had us wait until the line was done so that Angelina could have a long visit with Aurora. It was so sweet to watch them together. Princess Aurora was just stunning and did an amazing job at getting down on AJ's level and taking her time, talking to her, hugging her, and we got awesome pictures! (These are the ones I took, the Disney folks took a bunch too!)

 And then I cried.
All of our "group" of kids had ran off over to France to the bakery. It wasn't fair making them wait any longer for something to eat! (I could see them in the distance covered in chocolate croissants!)

Angelina's wish came true. Her many wishes came true!
Tears of joy.
It was so great that the Buddy was with me to share this moment.

Shortly later we were sitting in Morocco eating fabulous food and my husband called to let me know that Epcot had a HAITI! They had a little area with a garden and shop and a counter restaurant with Haitian food. We all sat there for quite a while and let the kids color pictures of Tap Taps.

Then we headed out to find a good spot to watch the night show and fireworks. Robert and I waited there with Izzy and Jude while Amy and Mike ran off with the kids to get a few rides in while we held out prime spot. They never made it back for the fireworks but did watch them from the other side of the park. We all met up afterwards for one late night last ride on Soarin. What a fabulous ride!

It was an amazing day. A long, amazing day. The next morning we knew that Nana, Amy and her crew and the other Aunties were leaving and we decided to sleep in and take it slow. Day five update soon!

 

MAW- Day 3

 I'm Baaaaack!

It's time for the Make a Wish trip... DAY THREE!
Aren't you so excited?

On Day three I had a special day planned for Alyssa and Dominick. Being that they are the "middles" of the family, sometimes they really get the short end of the stick. Amy (by best Buddy) and her family, were up for a special day too. We planned long ago a day at Discovery Cove for the elementary crew and my dear husband took everyone else for a day of Sea World Fun! (Sea World by the way, ended up being the favorite park of many of my children. They had the best roller coaster for the big kids and the shows were amazing. The food prices were better than the other parks and they got to eat all you can eat pasta for lunch- which was a fav.)

My husband dropped off Dominick, Alyssa and I early at Discovery Cove. We got checked in there- which is a lovely process. Because they only allow 1000 people per day it never seems too crowded or busy. We walked down the tropical paths and got our picture taken. Ok, the kids got their pictures taken, and we went for breakfast. (Discovery Cove is one price for all you care to eat and drink ALL DAY LONG. This was probably the most exciting part for Dominick and Alyssa. lol)

I should mention here that I bought a single year long membership to Sea World for myself which gave me a HUGE discount on everyones discovery cove tickets this trip, and from the day we spent here back in March at ETAAM. It saved me well over HALF what it normally costs, or else this day definitely wouldn't have been in the budget. Dominick and I opted not to pay the extra fee for the dolphin swim, but Alyssa really wanted to do it.

At breakfast my two children were WOUND up. I knew that Dominick had skipped out on his medication that morning. I was thinking it might be because we were rushing but he fully admitted that it was intentional so that he could EAT MORE. Since his medication makes him not too hungry in the morning he wanted to be sure to be able to eat his weights worth of food apparently.

We ate far too many french toast sticks. They were better than I ever remember them being. We waited for the buddy to arrive and my two children started to play in the sand. Not the sand that's along the beach, nope. The sand that is around the palm trees. The sand that serves as nothing more than decoration. My kids love sand.

 we ate.

 Ava ate. (above)
Maria ate. (below)

Everyone got to wear fabulous wet suits.

We swam the long winding lazy river. (So many times.)
We found where all the hot, heated water is pumped in.
It was a brisk 70F day in Orlando.
Lots of sunshine. But a bit chilly!
We were thankful for the heated water.

And we snorkeled with sting rays and tropical fish.
(It was really scary for the kids at first.) Some of the rays are bigger than you. And there is a glass window at one point of the experience that is filled with sharks. They can't get you, but it feels like your swimming with them. We watched them getting fed under the water. So cool.

 The amount of food consumed and slushy drank by the kids was out of control. Dominick lazed around on the hammock while we waited for the group to get out into the water with the dolphins. They were going through a training first.

 Alyssa was a bit more shy with the dolphin than she had planned on being. She didn't want to kiss or ride the dolphin but did learn a lot and spend time petting the dolphin.

 Here is Ava riding the dolphin.

Next thing I knew it was time to head home. We got a call from Nana that she was at the "village" with Aunt Barb and Aunt Ann and they were waiting for us. They came for dinner and to spend the evening at "Halloween" with us. It was SO much fun.

There was trick or treating for everyone. Face painting, crafts, dancing in the streets!

 

Everyone got a sun burn at Sea World and Daddy forgot to get the sunscreen on them all. Even though it didn't feel HOT it was a strong SUN day.

The kids at Sea World were treated to center first row seats for the Shamu show and they got SPLASHED. Actually they got drenched! It was fun hearing all about the day that they had.
They also got to feed dolphins and other sea animals.

what a blessing of  a day