January, 2009 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives January 2009

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Grilling Goodness – take 3

Posted on January 31, 2009 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

1. Do you and your spouse still celebrate Valentine’s Day? Before kids we used to go out to dinner and get each other a little something. Now we buy cards and save money for other items that we need.

2. When’s the last time you licked a stamp? Probably for my wedding invitations eight years ago.

3. How many clocks are in your home? Let’s see: 2 in bedroom (alarm clock and cable box), 1 in living room (DVR box), 2 in kitchen (stove and microwave) = 5

4. What holiday is closest to your birthday? There are some years that Chanukah is on my birthday. Not counting that it would probably be Thanksgiving.

5. Do you cook anything the same way your mother made it when you were growing up? I wish I could make chicken soup the way my mother does.

6. Do you pay bills online? Yes, love the convenience and not needing stamps.

7. Will you be gathering to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday? No, football is the only sport I have never really been into. I may head to pick JL up at the airport during the game.

8. Have you treated yourself to something this week? No, unless you count the obscene amount of money I spent today to have some ice removed from our roof. The best part, I found out we have major work that needs to be repaired this spring. Fun, fun, fun!

Head over to Golden Goodness to play along!

Categories:
Grilling Goodness me moments survey web fun

Suitcase solutions

Posted on January 30, 2009 9:01 am by TheAngelForever

When we were married we had a lot of items on our registry. Thanks to keeping a kosher kitchen, we needed two of most cooking items (meat and dairy). With this in mind, we did not register for luggage. JL had a few small pieces and we were given a large one from my grandmother to use for our honeymoon. When we went to Las Vegas Aunt S and Uncle M gave us another piece to use for taking dress clothing.

It has been over six years since our last big trip. When we travel to Disney World we will have to pack for four people for an entire week. Clearly, the few small bags we own will not cut it. So we need to research luggage brands, acceptable sizes for airlines and all of the rest that goes along with serious suitcase studies.

Back in December, on my birthday, I received an e-mail that I had won a Lands’ End rolling duffel bag from Did You See That? I was so excited because it was something we needed very badly. Last night, I packed it for the first time. There is so much room in it thanks to well defined compartments. I was able to put winter clothing for an entire weekend for the two boys and myself. Here are photos of it all packed and ready to go.

Now I wonder if we should take this with us and maybe get more of the larger ones for Disney and beyond. So my question this week:

Do you have any suggestions on what type of luggage to look for? What have you had success with that is durable and good for family travel?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating. Th

Aloha #33

Categories:
Aloha Friday decisions photos travel Web business web fun

100 days to go

Posted on January 29, 2009 9:31 am by TheAngelForever

Starting tomorrow, there will no longer be a three digit number standing between us and Disney World. The magic number is 100 today and it seems quite surreal. Of course, part of that could be the snow and ice that was left on our lawn yesterday turning our front porch into a hockey rink.

Since I last wrote about our family Disney trip some things have changed. My parents, otherwise known as Nana and Papa on my blog, will be joining us. They were not sure about it at first, but eventually were excited to jump at the opportunity. JL and I think it will be fabulous to have them there to see the boys on their first trip to see the magic of Disney. My parents are the ones that started this "illness" with me so many years ago. We will be going down on the same flight, staying at the same hotel and making some dinner reservations together.

We have a little over a week to go until we can make our advanced dining reservations (ADRs) with Disney. This means that we are in the final preparations of making our list for dinner sit down restaurants. Some of this is complicated right now thanks to the calendars for May still not being available at the parks. We would like to know which nights certain events will be at locations so we can be there. It obviously makes sense to have dinner at those parks, or nearby so we can get to them.

One other little item, we need restaurants that are vegetarian friendly. JL and I have a kosher kitchen at home. When dining out JL prefers to eat vegetarian or fish (like salmon, mahi mahi, tuna…. not seafood) to make things easier for him. This has certainly nixed going to some restaurants that barely had any food options for him.

At this point we know that we will make the following reservations:

Chef Mickey – the evening that we arrive. Perhaps this will become an arrival day tradition. This reservation is already made since it can be done 180 days out.
Crystal Palace – likely for JSL’s 2nd birthday. He knows Winnie the Pooh and friends and should have a blast there (assuming the characters do not freak him out).
Boma – at the Animal Kingdom Lodge this restaurant has a buffet that has African specialities that look amazing.
50’s Prime Time Cafe – fun restuarant that has really expanded more options to JL since our honeymoon. We did not go there 8 years ago, but I loved the antics there when I was a kid.

With the four choices above, it only leaves us with three sit down meals that need to be covered. Of course we also need to figure out if we want to do a more leisurely breakfast and make reservations for that.

Places that are on the likely list for dinner:

Le Cellier – JL and I ate here twice on our honeymoon. It is an amazing restaurant that is now quite difficult to get into. Who knew it would become so popular over the years?!
Coral Reef – although it has mixed reviews we think the boys will love watching the fish. My parents and I also have fond memories of eating there years ago. Nothing like watching a waiter teach your little brother how to eat a lobster!

Still debating:

Spoodles – JL and I also ate here twice on our honeymoon. It was on the Boardwalk right near our hotel and had amazing food. Not too sure how the boys and my father will do here thanks to the limited menu that is online.
Marrakesh – The restaurant at Morocco in EPCOT looks fabulous, but I have read that the quick service Tangierine Cafe is great, so that may just hit the mediterranean fix we need.
Sci Fi Drive In – A really neat restaurant with decent food. JL and I went there on our honeymoon and think that the seating with the boys may be hard to deal with. This is probably a place we will leave to do when they are older and will appreciate the fun movies more.

That is the short list of places that we came up with using the restaurant information here, in the DIS discussion forums, and in books. There are so many options and everything sounds so amazing. This week we hope to have more information on park hours and night events so we can make our plans. With any luck, we will be able to get our reservations with no issue on the 90 day mark. I know my alarm will be set on that morning.

If you have been to Disney lately any dining suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Categories:
decisions Disney family travel vacation

My how he has grown

Posted on January 28, 2009 10:04 am by TheAngelForever

Categories:
jsl looking back Wordless Wednesday

The trouble with word families

Posted on January 27, 2009 9:12 am by TheAngelForever

All of my years of teaching and being in a classroom have taught me that no child is always an angel. My kids are no exception to the rule. The only real angels here are those made in the snow.

NHL makes a great snow angel, but he still know how to get into plenty of mischief.

So why am I bringing this up?

Yesterday, when I was picking NHL up from school his teacher pulled him aside and told him to wait since she wanted to talk to me. Of course like every parent, my heart immediately went to my toes and I wondered what had happened. After all of the other kids were gone she explained things to me.

The class was working on some more word families. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, word families are group of rhyming words that have a common ending to them. An example: the "at" family: hat, cat, sat, mat. . . and so on.

The word family that the class was working on yesterday was the "it" family. Can you see where this is going?! As soon as she said it, I knew what NHL had done.

Apparently, NHL was excited to rhyme and went ahead of the class. He added words to the family and sure as, well the word in question, he added the sh to the end sound and formed a familiar adult word. NHL’s teachers said he wrote it on the board when he was told not to. He was so excited to share.

You may think, wow why didn’t he stop? The thing is he was not trying to be disrespectful, he really was naive and had no clue about said word. Sure he probably has heard it coming from a mouth or two in the family (not hubby’s), but he has never used it or said anything. Once the teachers talked with him about why the word was not acceptable he stopped. Since they realized he had no clue, they did not give him a warning for his so called actions.

The parent in me laughed and thought it was funny. At the same time, the teacher in me knew that other kids were probably howling and laughing at the word my naive child had created. It immediately made me recall when I was student teaching in first grade and doing short u words with the kids. I was being observed and was using the word "duck" to rhyme. You best believe that I carefully selected kids to answer so I did not get the wrong -uck word! Of course nobody could have prepared me for little Z who came up with his own short u word. He said "butt" and would not stop. He was chanting "butt" and made up a little "butt" song. From that moment on Z was forever known as "butt boy" in my eyes. Ah, the joys of kids and teaching!

This has taught me that I need to cherish these moments. Before I know it, my naive kindergarten kid is going to be gone and he will soon learn more street smart items from his classmates and world.