"Chill out Dear...we are going to your Happy Place"

[jmmelvin]

Finally! After a week and a half of working overtime, and months of out-of-control hormones and work overload, I made it to my happy place! Oh the memories of childhood and the joy of leaving all of your worries behind!

Cast

Your's Truly, jmmelvin (Jaime) - 29 year old woman (I will be 30 Dec. 9, 2006) My mood swings have my husband walking on tiptoes around me. I absolutely love Walt Disney World and wish I could live there. My favorite Disney Character is . I have become obsessed with the color lime green. My family, friends, and coworkers call me the Disney freak.


Randy/DH (nrmelvin) - 31 year old man who thinks his wife (me) has lost her mind and joined a cult and does not share my enthusiasm for all things Disney.

Marie/DD - Our only child. She is also the only grandchild of Randy's parents and the only neice of Randy's sister Teresa (who can't have children), therefore spoiled beyond all comprehesion (which drive us ). She is also one of two grandchildren to my parents. She just had her 4th birthday on Nov. 15, 2006.

Melvin/Granddad/DF (That's right, Melvin, the same as my married last name) - My father. The only one I have to count on for a thrill ride partner. A real wise guy. He is also my husband's supervisor at work.

Becky/DM - My mother. My mentor, confidant, and friend.

Now that I have introduced everyone, let's get started.

(Warning: The following is just the beginning of a 10 day long trip. Please proceed with caution until the green light is given. Once the green light is lit, hang on tight and prepare for a rough ride as the rest of our journey is continued.)

 

[jmmelvin]

We were originally going to Walt Disney World from Nov. 27 - Dec. 3 and staying at the All Star Movies Resort. After a week and a half of working overtime, we decided to go ahead and leave on Friday. Randy went to the bank Friday morning while I stayed at home and tended to Marie and packed. I know, I know! Pack! That should have been done a week ago! Trust me. I would have had everything done if it wasn't for the fact that I had twice as much work to do at work due to an Engineering Intern leaving 3 months ago. I am the only drafter for Carr Engineering and Construction, Inc. now. I also now do all of the civil designs, mobile home inspections, and stormwater inspections. I have put in some late hours to make sure I didn't leave the company with a truck load of work and no one to do it. My husband was also rushing me Friday.

A brief background:

I am the Acteen's (missions' group for girls grades 7-12) leader for our church. As a result, I have to make sure I have a teacher for the Sunday nights that I am gone. My helper is a newlywed who is studying to be a missionary with her husband. They live a good 2 hours from the church and only get to come every other weekend. They stay with us at our house on some of those weekends. I decide to let them stay the whole weekend and house sit for us. They will go back home Sunday night after church.

Krys and John (the newlyweds), arrive at the house while Randy is gone and entertain my daughter while I try to get the van ready. In the middle of my confusion on where to put all of our stuff and still allow room for Mom and Dad's stuff, Randy comes home. He begins to rush me to get finished packing and load up the van. We end up throwing everything in the van and promising to rearrange it when we get to Mom and Dad's (a mile and a half up the road). We get Marie in her booster seat, hop in the van and head to DM and DF's.

At DM and DF's, I run in and check on Mom's progress. She starts putting their luggage at the door while Dad grabs them and takes them out to the van. I go outside to check on Dad and Randy to see if they need any help and DH starts handing me stuff asking me if we really need it. I get aggrivated at him and go inside to visit with my sister-in-law and my niece, Teda (means angel in Khmer, my sister-in-law is Cambodian). I play with Teda and ask her if she would like me to bring her anything back from WDW. (No, I didn't expect an answer from her.) My sister-in-law, Sivvy, replies: "She wants a Stitch Plushie." I look at her and say, "Okay, what size, like a little one?" (I expected the size of a beanie baby would be okay. Obviously not considering her response.) Sivvy says, "Weeeelllllll, more like this." (She points to the 12" Stuffed Teddy Bear that Teda is clinging to.) I look at her kind of shocked but say okay and I will see what I can find. I go back outside to the van and everyone is ready to load up and head to Orlando.

The ride was pretty uneventful so I will skip to the arrival in Orlando.

 

[awesomepinktink]

Ok, I am ready for more please!

 

[jmmelvin]

I appologize about the next bit, but it is late, and we move on to ASMo tomorrow, so I really need to get some sleep or I will really be cranky. I am going to condense the weekend down, and fill ya'll in on the details later.

A quick summary of the weekend's activities and our first magical moment!

Friday night was filled with sleep, DISboards, and the realization that we were missing a few key items. (Like my swimsuit, for one!)

Saturday we get up and head over to EPCOT. We arrive at EPCOT and get our season passes. While at the counter, Dad has to go back to the van to get our phones, camera, and something else he forgot, I am not sure what. Randy and I get to the counter and Mom decides to take Marie to a bench to sit down. As we are being checked in, the lady says that she notices Marie just had a birthday. We say that she just turned four. She asks if Marie can talk pretty well. We laugh and say yes and she reaches for the phone. It dawns on me what she is doing, and tell her hang on a sec. I run to the bench and grab Marie by the hand and tell her and Mom that Marie has a phone call. My mom looks at me like I am nuts and I mouth that goofy is calling her. My mom jumps into action and helps me run Marie over to the counter where her Daddy holds her up and the lady gives her the phone. Marie smiles shyly as she listens to goofy wish her a happy birthday. The lady fills out a Magical moments certificate and birthday button and hands them over to us. We head over to the guest relations desk to get my temporary DDE card. Marie is grinning from ear to ear. She tells her Granddad when he shows up while I am at the desk.
We enter the gates and start walking toward the Nemo ride when my Mom notices we are passing the character connection. We walk through the doors and get into line. I start panicking, grumbling, and moaning about the autograph book that we left in the van and DH begins to tells me not to worry about it, we have a whole week to get those autographs. I calm down and Randy looks at me and says "you're in your happy place, you can't be mad here." I start to relax and then it hit me. Lightbulb!!!! She just had a magical moment, which means she has a magical moments certificate! We dug out a good sized pen, and we had all of the characters (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip, Dale, and Alice) sign the cerificate! Alice was great by the way. She saw Marie's button and ran over to her and started talking to her. That made my daughter's day. (A little side note that comes into play later. I had an old Minnie ear headband that I spray painted lime green and wrote "Do you DIS?" "www.disboards.com" on the front and back of the ears. I wore those that day, except for the pictures that day with the characters. Those were for my daughter.) Alice happened to see them hanging on the stroller and commented on the green ears and asked where we got them. I was with Chip and Dale at the time with Marie when she asked my Mom, so she never really got an answer.
We head over to the Nemo ride and get into a very long line just to find out that it was broken. While they are trying to get it working again, we take Marie to see crush. It was so cool! We laughed and laughed. The only thing I found disturbing was the rude man who would not move over to let a couple sit next to him. He said he was saving a seat for his wife. After a little "discussion" about how much room he really needed, he let them sit down. There was still enough room for an average sized person to sit down next to him. His wife comes in and she sits down with room to spare. The woman is on her cell phone even!!!! She then gets up about 3 minutes later and stands against the wall where she stays the whole show with the phone growing out of her ear. The husband never moves over and the couple that asked politely if he could slide down a little bit was stuck sitting halfway on the end of the bench while the rude guy sat in a space big enough for two people!!!
Anyway, we looked through the living seas for a while and then went to find Randy, who had went outside to have a cigarette, and went on the Nemo ride which was now open. The cue line is awesome! If you have the Little mermaid DVD and have seen the ride on the extras, it reminds me alot of the part where you go next to the boat and under water. Lights around the piles and boat above your head that look like water ripples. Mom and I rode together, Dad rode by himself, and Marie rode with Randy. We went to the electric umbrella and had lunch. (pg. 2 #20) Randy and I went to get me and Marie a pin trading lanyard and one or two pins. (pg. 2 #21) We all got on the monorail and rode to the TTC and then took the ferry to the Magic Kingdom (Marie's choice). We got there right as the flag ceremony was about to begin. We watched that and went upstairs to get on the train. While standing at one of the gates, one of the cast members says to me "I've been there!" I look at him funny and realize that he is talking about my Minnie Mouse ears! He has been to the DISboards!!!!!! My first DIS sighting and a cast member at that! I then got kind of aggrivated and said I didn't have my paint chips because they were in the van. My mom said "So your a member of the cult too?" and grins. Raymond, the cast member, says, "yep!" I give him a high five, say, "Allright!" and tell him that my husband thinks I am crazy. He laughs and goes back to work.
The train gets there and they start to let everyone onto the back. the back fills up by then time we get to it, and they open the gates where we had been and let the people load from there. We haven't found a seat yet, and one of the cast members asks if we were coming or going, and we say that we haven't been able to find a seat yet. He ended up splitting us up and Randy couldn't sit next to anyone, so he went to wait while we rode. Well, I suddeenly lost my happy feeling. By the next stop, I had taken a few breaths and recited, "I am in my happy place. I am in my happy place." and was calmed down. We moved to an empty row where Mom, Dad, Marie, and I could all sit together.
We rode the rest of the way, and got off at the main street station and found Randy at the town square. He said that we would have all week to ride together on the train and that it was okay. He said that we need to be glad we didn't get to witness what he did. He said that one set of parents were pushing a toddler in a stroller and didn't notice the curb, and dumped there toddler onto the road. He said that the kid must have had good legs, because he actually landed on his feet. He said that one father wasn't so lucky though. He was pushing his handicapped teenage son in a wheel chair when he did the same thing. His son landed in the street and turned around and looked at his dad like "What were you thinking?". Randy said that by the time he started to react, there was already a few people helping the Dad get his son back into the wheelchair. He felt so bad for the dad who had this horrified look on his face. He obviously felt bad for dumping his kid onto the road. We got back on the ferry and rode across to the TTC and hopped a monorail back to EPCOT. We left and went back to our motel.

 

[jmmelvin]

Ok, I am ready for more please!

Yay! I have my first reader!!!!

 

[Lauralee131]

Sounds great Jaime! Maybe we'll see you there...we'll be there from the 1st thru the 10th...Look forward to reading more of your TR!!

 

[jmmelvin]

I had finished up Sunday when there was an error! I lost all of it! So here it goes. Maybe I should break it up a bit.

 

[jmmelvin]

All of us got up and got dressed to go to church with my Dad's mom, who lives in Orlando. Randy decides that he doesn't really want to go and says that he will stay at the hotel. This actually turns out to be a good thing. While we are at church, he packs our hip pouches! All right! Isn't he great? One less thing for me to do. The first night we were at Days Inn Convention Center, they left us Orlando welcome baggies. They bagies had things like coupon books, lotion samples, shampoo samples, listerine breathe spray, and individual koolaide packs. He packed some of this stuff in our pouches.
After church and checking in on Randy, who said it was fine to leave him there for a while, we went to Golden Corral with my Grandmother. After eating there, we went back to her house and visited for a while. We left there and went to Wal-mart to pick up a few things.
I got a few things for the gift that Tink will be bringing Marie from herself and Cinderella and the souvenier shopping box. I got a Tink Fairy doll ($5.88), a Tink mini deck of cards ($0.97), a Tink Souvenier bag (to put her Tink gift in), a Tink T-shirt that Marie said she wanted ($6.94), and a lime green Tink shirt for myself (I wanted to have one by the end of the trip) ($9.98). We left Wal-mart and went back to the hotel.

 

[jmmelvin]

Mom decides to stay behind with Marie while Randy, Dad, and I go to DTD. None of us have ever been to DTD, so this was a treat. We started at the West side and walked to the other end, stopping in the stores along the way. We mostly window shopped until getting to the pin shop. Randy wanted a lanyard and he had been online and found out that they had a special passholders pin. When we asked to look at the passholder's pin, they asked if we knew about the special they had going. When you buy 4 pins, you get a pirate pin trading pin for $1. We got 2 passholder's pins, I got a mystery pin collecting tins that held 2 pins (counts as one), and Randy got a pirate pin and a WDW where dreams come true pin. Now we each had 4 pins on a lanyard. Dad bought a lanyard, and I had convinced him that Marie needed a birthday pin. I will let you know how much it all added up to later after asking Randy.
After that, we browsed a few stores until we got to the scrapbooking store. There, I bought a Cinderella notecard to write a invitation to CRT for Marie ($2) and a thing of Mickey confetti ($5).
We then we into the Mickey Market where they had a special of mix and match 4 items for $10 (as long as they had a green X on the tag). I scored some big values here. I got a Tink bath mit puppet (orig. $10), a Tink Christmas ornament (orig. $10), a cruella dog toy (My dog was with my brother) (orig. $8), and the best of all, a Stitch plushie (orig. $13)!!!!! I had bought my first Souvie gift!
We left DTD and went to the McDonald's across the street from the hotel, and went back to the hotel. The rest is DIS and packing to go check in at the ASMo.

 

[jmmelvin]

Well, we are leaving the
Days Inn and complementary WiFi to go to ASMo, so I probably won't get to write anymore until after vacation. Keep DISsing and maybe I will see some of you there.

 

[rer1972]

Great TR Jaime Man I so really really do with I was there now. Okay, in February I need to hang out with you when you go shopping cause you are THE Deal Finder!!! Your like a professional shopper.

Can't wait for the rest.

 

[wyoears]

Have a magical time. I'll be looking forward to the complete TR when you return home.

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

Wow Jaime, great tr so far! I need to go shopping with you too! Have a great time! Waiting for more....

 

[dwheatl]

Sleepy but subbing. I'll come back tomorrow.

 

[jmmelvin]

For those of you that have been waiting, I am back! It was definitely a learning experience. It may be a day or two before I can really get back to my trippie. I have a full day tomorrow with work and a meeting afterwards, but I may get to it Tuesday evening. Until then, let me wet your appetite.

 

[jmmelvin]

1) I lost my money pouch!!!!!! (It had my debit card, driver's license, $60, Sears Card, Certified Stormwater Inspector Card, work cell phone numbers for my co-workers, some change, and possibly a Dillard's Card.)

2) My daughter got a phone call from Goofy and Magical Moments Certificate.

3) My van took on a fish stench.

4) My unofficial guide got left at home!

5) We got an unexpected anniversary gift from CRT!

6) My Dad dove in the living seas!

7) I sobbed during Illuminations!

8) My daughter was visited by the Dream Team!

9) My van's battery died!

10) I met about 6 DISers, some of which I did not get a name!

Now that I have wetted your appetite, I will have to leave you hanging for a day or two. I wil be online for a few more minutes if you want to chat about it.

 

[Princess89]

Great start to the TR. Cant wait to read more

 

[kaw1218]

great start!! I can't wait for more.

 

[plgrn]

subbing....Hope your money pouch back!!

 

[jmmelvin]

We went to the electric umbrella and had lunch. (More on this later)

The food was pretty good. My dad got "blessed" by the birds flying around over our heads. Another bird swooped down, snached a fry from my daughter's tray and nearly nocked me out in the process. When I screamed, a cast member said, "That's why you're not supposed to feed the birds."

Well Duh!!!!!!