animal kingdom park

this park was less crowded, more relaxing, and the most superbly art directed of the parks. strolling through africa and dancing with an african troupe were highlights. the kids loved the dinosaur ride, but s was terrified by the bugs' life movie in the tree of life.

disneyworld--animal kingdom lodge

where to start? and where to end?

what a whirlwind of a week. what a busy vacation. in a nutshell, i don't think we've ever been as busy or as relaxed, and none of us wanted to come home.

disney is no longer a theme park, it's an experience. not just rides, but cultures, art, learning, exploring. we all took something different away from it.

the animal kingdom lodge where we stayed is phenomenal. the lobby, restaurants, pool, art direction (african) are unparalleled. the rooms leave something to be desired. small and un-kid-friendly. the best thing about the room was the balcony which overlooked a savanna filled with african animals.

the smartest thing we did? buy two mugs for $12 each at the snack bar that could be refilled with beverage of choice for the rest of the stay. hot coffee in the morning! soda for the kids! hot coffee in the afternoon! hot coffee in the evening! wahoo! and luckily there wa a fridge in the room so we saved $$ on food, too.

there was a great playground for the kids, too, and 'simba's cubhouse' where you can leave your kids for $10 an hour. totally worth it. all around are safari animals, waterfalls, hot tubs, etc.

veterans day

a day without school CAN be a fun day. REALLY!! take for instance my last post from halloween. the day off was fun filled, adventurous, happy. today was miserable, stress-filled and yucky. i did have a ton to do with company coming this weekend, but the majority of the stress was caused by my usually type B (but sleepdeprived) son. he was just crabby and ill all day. s was her usual contrary self, and jane was chewing the walls, just begging for a walk.

once i got the lion's share of the cleaning done, t and h went to get our friend joel (from london) at the airport. things calmed considerably, and i was able to squeeze in a shower and a walk. s wanted to sit in the stroller (at nearly 4 1/2 she's WAY too old) and i relented as it gives me a better workout. jane has been a much happier dog the rest of the day.

i took out a turkey breast to thaw this morning, planning on a pseudo-thanksgiving. t is on a low-carb diet, so all he would be able to eat is turkey. when he came back with joel, he informed me that joel is a vegetarian. ah, the best laid plans. one is all meat, the other is no meat. i can't win. they inform me that they're going out tonight anyways. c'est la vie, and i don't have to cook after a long long day of cleaning and fighting children. wahoooo!

after spongebob the kids are going straight to bed and i'm going to soak in a hot hot hot tub and read a book with a big cold glass of chardonnay by my side. now doesn't THAT sound nice???

Blogger for word

I’m trying blogger for word today in the hopes that it is more accessible than online blogger. Maybe I will write more if I can publish more easily, and LOOK! It’s capitalizing all of my bad lowercase typing. Does that take any of the ambiance away from my work? Also I’ll bet I can do a word count on each and every post and know how many words I write, say, per YEAR. I’m trying, really, I’m trying, to write more. That pesky old thing called life just keeps getting in the way. Have you ever noticed that too much living gets in the way of life? By that I mean, you spend all week running and running, doing a million gazillion things, both tedious and fun, but in a month you sit back and think… ‘what did I do last month? Where did the time go…?’ and it totally escapes you.

Okay, I need to do a quick note on Halloween as I am a parent to two small children and Halloween happens to be one of their two favorite days of the year. (now i'm back on regular old blogger. can you tell?) first, both kids had halloween parties at school last week. on saturday, dance class was halloween themed, and they could dance in costume. Sunday was long-overdue cleaning day, and t took the kids to target so I could toil all day at home. It was worth it… a weight was lifted from my shoulders.

Monday, Halloween, was also a teacher workday. Since the house was sparkly and the laundry was done, I decided to take the kids on an adventure. The paint-it-yourself pottery place was closed, so we went to the planetarium. Neither one of my kids had ever been before, so it was a brand new experience for them. h though it magical, s was a little fidgety. we walked around campus after that, and took time to eat pizza, then ben and jerry's. forgot to mention that in the spirit of halloween i had a blue wig with cat ears on. all day. there is a photo of me (and the kids) on www.chapelhillcomics.com from our stop there on the way home.

the kids got in their costumes after dinner... batman begins and the cat princess. they went on a hay ride first around the neighborhood and gathered some goodies door-to-door. then the neighborhood had a gathering at the community area with a bonfire and hot cocoa with s'mores. it was dark, confusing and smoky, but the kids were elated.

now the candy sits, uneaten, on the kitchen counter.... staring me in the face every time i walk by. 'resistance is futile!' screams the chocolate.

the rest of the week is a blur now, as i'm writing this on veteran's day. shows how far behind i am.