Friday, May 28, 2010

My May 2010 Disney Trip!!!!

As I type I'm sitting on my couch, ipad in lap, typing on my blue tooth keyboard also in my lap. I'm wondering if I should bring my keyboard with on vacation....if I'm going to do a good job keeping a detailed travel log of my trip I probably should...it is tiny....

Anyway...its hard to believe its time already. If feels like its been months and months...but really..looking back at my "May 2010 Disney Vacation" folder in my email the planning for this particular trip just started in January. Quite a switch from our Disney Dream Cruise next year which we booked last November to sail in February 2011!

Anyway....the excitement has been building and building. I think part of it is all our new friends through the WDW Radio Show Dream Cruise. We've had so much fun talking Disney with all of them that it just helps build up the excitement even more.

Anyway, I decided a few months back I wanted to get back to my scrap-booking which has been nonexistent since I started knitting back around 2004. This trip was a good excuse to really start looking into this again. To get me in the mood, I decided to make a door sign for mom's friend Donna, who is traveling with us. This is her FIRST time on the Disney Cruise Line and I thought it would be fun for her to be able to partake in door decorations. Plus we get to board the ship before her since we are Castaway Club members so I'm hoping we can get it on her door before she even gets on board. Making up this door sign, which I did basically as a 12 x 12 scrapbook page figuring she could put it in her book later (she's an avid scrap-booker), got me itching to do more. Over the past two weeks I've been scouring craft stores looking for Disney scrapbook supplies. At the same time, I recently saw a Cricut presentation on HSN. I was intrigued by the idea of the Cricut machine (seemed WAY easier and way more versatile than my clunky Sizzix machine). As I started looking into it more I found all the Disney themed Cricut cartridges. All the sudden I knew I had to have it. My Cricut arrived Tuesday (thank you Amazon prime $4 one day shipping!). I proceeded to spend Tuesday and Wednesday nights playing with it. Tuesday night I made up a 12 x 12 sign for mom and my own cabin. I also made up cute little Mickey's for all three of us with our names on them. Wednesday I just decided I wanted to play some more - to explore the capabilities of the Cricut (I got the expression model) which I'm sure are far more advanced than I've figured out so far. I cut out like 6 12 x 12 pages of various shapes trying out the different features. Then as I sat there looking at them I figured why not create a few pages for my scrapbook for this trip! So...I pulled together four "starter" pages so far that I can use in this trips scrapbook.

Now...to remember to take lots of pictures FOR my scrapbook and not just stuff I think my Dream Cruise neighbors might like!

My other activity this week has been deciding how and what to pack. I got my 21inch vera bradley blue rhapsody wheel aboard packed earlier in the week. Thats the bag I plan to check and its been sitting by the front door with my Magical Express tag on it for 4 days already. I knew that I was taking my Vera Blue Rhapsody rolling duffle on the plane with me, and have been trying to decide what personal item to carry on. I know that I have a habit of coming back from vacation with more then when I left....so I have my Blue Rhapsody Get Carried Away and my Daisy Daisy Small Duffle packed away in my 21 inch suitcase already. This week Vera Bradley retired the Large Backpack...so I was really hoping to find a Blue Rhapsody backpack on sale this week (why oh why did I not just by the Frill Blue Rhapsody backpack when I was at the outlet sale in Fort Wayne last month??????). No luck. I have a Blue Rhapsody tote that I got at the outlet sale that I thought might work as my personal item. But I was worried it would be too small for the items I wanted to bring on the plane with me. So, although I didn't find a Blue Rhapsody large backpack I DID find a Blue Rhapsody Vera. And lets face it...the Vera is a great bag...so I got that.... But now that I'm all packed...I think I can actually get away with just using the Blue Rhapsody tote after all (assuming my keyboard fits too since I really think I do want to take it...though that would fit in my rolling duffle for sure ... there's still loads of room in there....

Anyway...thats my pre departure portion of my trip report! Gonna snuggle Miss Elphaba for a little bit longer before taking her to the PetHotel tonight. Then (assuming I'm not too excited) it will be early to bed for me so I can leave nice and early for the airport...I'm thinking the airport could be jammed tomorrow due to the holiday weekend. Hope you enjoyed!

Stay tuned for more!

Friday, May 07, 2010

I'm a Connecticut Resident!

It has been a LONG, drawn out, relocation full of challenges. I'm too tired to recount the tales here just yet. But my closing that was supposed to be Monday May 3 - ended up not happening until Wednesday May 5. My movers arrived just about the same time as the wire transfers FINALLY came through from the bank.

I've been super lucky to have some amazing help through this move. My best friend Mandy and I made a whole trip of the move itself. The annual Vera Bradley Outlet Sale in Fort Wayne Indiana was last week. With our newfound love of Vera....we had to make that a part of the drive from IL to CT. It did not dissapoint! But in addition to the fun of the sale, and spending lots of quality time together. Dear Mandy also put up with my cranky, crying, nocturnal, climbing all over her in bed, animals for 5 days. I know I love my animals, but it takes one special person to love them like I do, and Mandy does. You are a great friend sweetie and I love you!

My next helper was my friend Mark from our Harrisburg office. Mark drove up late the night of the 4th so that he was here to help me on move in day. He patiently checked off the inventory worksheet while I directed the movers on where to put things. He tracked down lunch for us. And he helped me start unpacking boxes. He gave me explicit orders to boss him around, and he took my direction really well. There's no way so much of this house would be unpacked (and the boxes in my outside storage area!) if not for Mark. He also kept track of my Lowe's list and helped me get started on some of the little things that need to be taken care of. Thursday I sent him home to be with his family. But he's promised to spend more time up here on subsequent trips to help fix up little things here and there that I need done.

Finally, though she hasn't arrived yet - my mommy. My mom is not able to take any time off work right now between our vacation later this month and my brothers wedding in November in Mexico. But she's flying out after work tonight and home on Sunday night. Mom wants to make sure I'm properly settled into my new place so I can start enjoying life out here. So she's flying in JUST to help me unpack and organize more. I'm hoping maybe we can sneak in a showing of Iron Man 2 on a break at some point. And how exciting it is that she'll be here on Mothers Day! I hope she likes the goodies I have picked out for her!