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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

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.

Categories:
interesting laughs looking back milestone nhl photos school winter

Nalgene my H2O queen

Posted on January 16, 2009 9:33 am by TheAngelForever

Most people would probably find it strange that my beverage of choice is water. Sure, I like an occasional Crystal Light Peach Ice Tea, but I am not a soda person. In fact, about ten years ago I gave up drinking items that contain caffeine. I did it cold turkey, but it was the best thing I ever did.

In recent weeks, I have not been as good about drinking water. Sure, I may have had one of my smaller containers during the day, but not much more. When I joined Weight Watchers online, I was reminded about the 64 ounces of water that you should consume in a day. My reusable water container only held about 20 ounces.

While out on Saturday I went to the store with my brother and sister-in-law and bought myself this:

Pretty isn’t she? This is my new 32 ounce Nalgene water bottle. Nalgene is made in the USA and is PBA free (says it right on the bottom now). I had a hard time finding Nalgene products, but thanks to JL’s coworker I knew the store that carried them locally. I love that I can fill it up to 32 ounces and chug away the water my body needs and fill it one more time during the day to get my daily water intake.

Of course I learned a hard lesson. Do not drink 32 ounces of water right before heading out into the freezing cold temperatures. What can I say, my teacher bladder is not up to that after having two children.

So my question to you:

How much water do you drink? Do you make a conscious effort to concume 64 ounces each day?

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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 #31

Categories:
Aloha Friday me moments photos shopping

Cold is an understatement

Posted on January 15, 2009 10:41 am by TheAngelForever

How sad is it that I am looking forward to 20 degree weather next week? Seriously, compared to the weather right now, that is going to be down right balmy.

The snow on Saturday into Sunday was beautiful, although a pain to shovel and drive on. Still, even with the snow, the temperature was not extreme for winter in our parts.

Today, the high will struggle to get to 8 degrees and that does not factor in the wind chill. Tonight, we will get actual readings well below zero. Tomorrow, the high may be a record (low of course) – one I would rather not hit.

So what is the weather like by you?

I know that parts in the north west are a lot worse than us with wind chill values reading -50 degrees or more. I can not understand that. When temperatures are this low it is impossible to breathe when you go outside, parts hurt within seconds. Yesterday when I picked NHL up from kindergarten JSL actually cried since the wind hurt so bad. I actually worried about the tears on his face freezing!

One thing that keeps me going is the fact that our Disney World vacation in the warmth is just around the corner. So for now I will cherish the sweet memories of our last trip and look forward to making memories there with our kids.

Categories:
Disney photos vent weather winter

The sickies jinx

Posted on January 12, 2009 9:19 am by TheAngelForever

When you have kids, you learn to expect pretty much anything can happen. Of course, after certain events happen over and ove,r under the same circumstances, you start to believe they are doomed.

For some reason my boys always seem to get sick just before, on the way to, or during a visit to see Uncle I, Aunt M and Cousin S. NHL started this tradition even before the wedding. Favorites to show up are pink eye, ear infections, and unexplained fevers. Driving to Uncle I and Aunt M’s wedding we noticed NHL had pinkeye. We managed to get treatment for that. Then the night before the wedding he opted to really scare all of us with a 103 fever. We were quite the medication police that weekend.

In recent years, the sickie jinx seems to not only be when we travel to their house, but also when they come here. JSL had a horrible case of pink eye last February when Aunt M and Cousin S came to visit. Of course that was the start of an illness that ended in a four day hospital stay after a febrile seizure.

This weekend we may have stopped this in it’s tracks. Aunt M is a PA and brought her medical equipment with her. Nothing scares illness away like having a medical professional with her tools in the vacinity. NHL even allowed Aunt M to check him.