Just me, Br, and Fay

So for 4 years I've been saying that we never really got a honeymoon. I think Br hates it because we did sort of have one and then he's taken me on trips since but it wasn't until our trip last week that I finally feel fulfilled. E has been at JoJo's house for a week and a half now and so we decided to take a quick trip to Orlando (sorry to family in Florida that we still haven't visited... we really didn't think that we were going to make it there until our plaen took off.) Tropical storm Fay also decided to visit Florida just before we set off and liked it so much that when she got to the Atlantic ocean, she turned back around and decided to head across FL again while we were there. Fortunately she left one day before we did so we had a sunny ride to the airport.

I'm not complaining though since we've been to Orlando a couple times all at different seasons and it's poured down rain on us every time. So to me Florida=rain, not quite in harmony with their nickname of the sunshine state. Tip to anyone who plans on doing a theme park in the rain-- Ponchos while wearing shorts is the way to go. They are lighter and worked way better than the rain jackets we have previously tried. Also make sure your shoes are waterproof or just wear crocs so the water can flow back out of your shoes. And if the wind picks up while it's raining take cover. There's nothing that can help you then.

Here are my top ten favorite things about the trip:

10. Truffle cream sauce- We ate a the steak house in the Canadian pavilion at Epcot. They had the best pretzel bread sticks ever. YUMMY. My entree came with mushroom risotto with a truffle cream sauce. I forgot there was a truffle sauce on it. I watch a lot of iron chef America and I've always wondered if I would like truffles. Turns out I think I do. YUMMY YUMMY. Since this was sort of our anniversary dinner the waitress brought us a celebratory chocolate mouse. mmmmm.

9. Animal Kingdom - My two favorites at animal kingdom happen to be right next to each other-- Finding Nemo the musical and Expedition Everest. Everest is like the Matterhorn at Disneyland on steroids. You go up. You go down. You go backwards into the dark and then have no idea what you are doing only to find yourself up against a huge Yeti. I love conquering the Yeti. Nemo is a really really fun show. The only down side is that the benches that you have to sit on are SO uncomfortable. I feel silly because I cried a bit at the end when Nemo realized how much he loves his dad and then bubble fell from the ceiling. It made me miss E a lot. I know he would have LOVED the bubbles.

8. Toy story mania- This is a new ride at Hollywood studios. Most of you know how much I love Toy Story (Evident by E's first birthday party where I decorated my house like Andy's room, Wood's roundup, pizza planet, and Al's Toy barn. It's good this ride was not open before I threw the party or I think I might have killed myself trying to duplicate it. We had to wait in like for an hour and 45 minutes but luckily the line wrapped around in Andy's room. Everything was sized as if we were toys. My favorite was the Mr. Potato head there that talked to the crowd and told jokes. It was awesome. He is my favorite character and inspiration for E's party last year. Oh, and the ride itself was really fun too.

7. Our room-Br traveling all the time has finally paid back just a little. His hotel point status got us upgraded from a normal room to a huge jr. suite that overlooked Downtown Disney. We could also see Hollywood studios and Epcot. Luckily on the last night we were there it stopped raining long enough to see the fireworks from Epcot. The other awesome thing was that the closest Downtown Disney building from us was Earl of Sandwich (one of my favorite places to eat and it is making me sad that there isn't one by me anymore.) All American sandwich. MMMMMMMMM.

6. World Showcase- So every time we've been to Epcot we've sort of zoomed through the World showcase. This time we actually went into every country. Wow, it was amazing. That is one thing that I can applaud Disney on-- the details. Everything is perfect and in character.

5. The segway tour- Br has been wanting to do this but you have to be at least 16 to do it so E has limited our opportunity in the past. We went for it this time though. The normal tour consists of indoor training and then a tour through the world's showcase before it is open. Unfortunately it was raining so we didn't get to do the actual tour part. It was fun anyway.

4. Being a movie star- We got asked to play rolls in an action sequence that is part of the "backlot tour" attraction. Br wasn't too trilled but went along with it since he knew I was really really really excited about it. I played the captain and he was the deck hand that provided the comic relief. The only bummer is that we didn't get a picture of us doing the show but did get a picture on the tour train after the show.

3. Dole whip-I discovered this last trip. There is a little shack in Magic Kingdom right across from the Swiss Family tree house. It's a little pricey but oh so tasty. I get the Dole whip float which is Pineapple soft serve in pineapple juice. MMMMMMMM.

2. Rock'n roller coaster- This ride is by far my favorite of all time. It is soooo fun and I could ride it over and over and over again. I only rode it three time this trip though. It was fun because for the first time I got to ride with Br since we typically have to take turns watching E. This roller coaster launches you from 0 to 60 in 2.4 seconds then goes super fast in the dark through neon landmarks of LA. There are loops, turns, drops, corkscrews all while you are jammin to Aerosmith. I LOVE IT!

1. Spending time with Br- I love my E but it was great to spend some time away from him, away from work, in a fantasy land for a few day with the man I love. I'm so glad we decided to go!

You'll be missed LeRoi

I was saddened at the news that LeRoi (mentioned in the post about the concert) passed away due to complications related to his ATV accident at the beginning of the summer. He was a FANTASTIC musician. Truly gifted. I will missing hearing him play.

It's official I'm....

...a coupon shopper. I actually tested the waters last week after Stephanie inspired me during nursery and Lisa gave me a pep talk during play group. I didn't feel like a real coupon shopper until this week though when I've now passed the official test... I got stuff for free. Next week, if my plan goes, well, as planned, I will be the ultimate coupon shopper when I attempt, and hopefully succeed in purchasing something and actually making money on the purchase. That achievement is hanging on a shipment of pert plus (which I traditionally don't use but am willing to try for the great achievement of making two dollars on something that costs three). As my many coupon Jedi masters have taught me, their bargain padawan learner, is taking the time to match the coupons to the specials. Last week my savings averaged around 35%. This week my savings have risen to 56%. That is more than half off. Those that have ever been shopping with me knows that I'm a sucker for half off. In any event, my goal is to get to 75-80%. My coupon arsenal is pretty small right now, and I'm still having a hard time figuring out what is a good deal (I'll be honest- I've been blindly shopping for a couple years now), so I figure after i work on those two things I should definitely hit my goal.

The downside of coupon shopping... It only really works if you actually cook the food you get... Hmmmm we'll see if I can keep that up.

E and his buds

It makes me happy when E is so happy with his buddies.

I'm never going to make it as a paparazzo (Brace yourself. This one has a lot of rambling)

What is this picture of... We'll one of my most exciting moments ever. Last night Br and I went to go see the Dave Matthews Band. It was awesome. We had to exit on the opposite side of the amphitheater from where we parked. On our journey around the back of the place we walked past all of the tour buses and trucks. In a joking tone, yet very serious about it, I asked Br is he thought if we waited around long enough we would see the band walk to the buses. Br just kept walking until...we were stopped. And why were we stopped? To let some buses pull out of an enclosure. It took me a second but I realized that the person sitting in the front of the bus next to the driver was Carter Beauford the drummer. Impulsively I shrieked like a little girl "It's Carter!". The next bus had the (newish) big trumpet player. Once again, but in with an even higher pitch "Trumpet dude!" Then the pinnacle. In the third and final bus I saw Dave himself, up close and personal. I'd like to think he waved at me. By this point I was so excited I was speechless and snapped the above horrible shot above. This was my ninth time seeing Dave in my 7th location so just minutes before I was thinking that next time I go (#10) should be something special. I don't care about that anymore because there is very little that can top this.

Now for my concert report.

The band was joined by their friend Tim Reynolds who added electric guitar to the mix. That kicked the show up a notch and gave it a little harder rock edge. The play list was mostly the new songs from their last album, some classic fan favorites (most of them with a cool twist) as well as a few really fun covers.

Set list: (3 hours of playing)

Pantala Naga Pampa and Rapunzel ( Classic opening songs)

Proudest Monkey

Satellite

So D*** Lucky (Usually a mellow song but they rocked it out. Also, this is from Dave's solo album but they played it. It gives me hope that one day he'll play Br and my song ("Oh") which is from the same album)

Eh Hee (not a huge fan)

Water Into Wine (LOVED this song)

Corn Bread (Don't love)

Stolen Away On 55th & 3rd (Love)

You Might Die Trying (awesome jam session)

Burning down the house (Best ever! It was hard to say who was the lead singer on this one since Dave and trumpet dude sang the whole thing in unison with Carter singing back up. Before the concert I made a wish for the "lovely ladies" (the backup singers on their DVDs) to be there but who needs them when you have trumpet dude backing you up on this song!)

Old Dirt Hill (this one had a spin. I like it a lot)

Lover Lay Down

Money (very fun cover)

Jimi Thing (Another classic jam session song)

Everyday (Mixed with the "honey honey" song and they played the video in the background which is one of my favorite videos ever)

Anyone Seen The Bridge

Too Much Intro

Halloween (really not a fan at all but I forgive you Dave for playing it)

Ants Marching

Stay (Wasting Time)

Encore:

Sledgehammer

Two Step (the last song at the last three concerts I've been to. I thought I'd be mad but it's so good live I couldn't be.)

Finally. My props to the band.

Dave- you are amazing! Stefan - I think we have a special bond since we have a similar "non dance" dance style. Trumpet guy- Wow!

Boyd- You really know how to rock the fiddle. You inspired me to try to learn how to play my mandolin again. LeRoi --(not pictured because he was seriously hurt in June and isn't finishing the tour) I hope you get better.

Carter- You have got to have more than two hands to be able to play like that. Wow. And you smile the whole time. How do you do it? It makes me happy to watch you play.

Lastly, Tim- Thanks for adding something extra this time around!

4 years

It was the day after the opening ceremonies of the last summer Olympics that Br and I got hitched. That makes today our 4 year anniversary. Br, thanks for putting up with me this long!

The fourth year anniversary is supposed to be celebrated with chocolate, right?

E decided that he wanted to add some finishing touches before we had a chance to eat some.

Then Duchess had to leave her mark while we ran to the store.

Brushing my teeth is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do

A long time ago when E first started getting teeth I got him a tooth brush that played music so that he'd think it was fun to brush. It worked and I got a video like this the very first time he ever tried it. Well, that was short lived and the novelty soon wore off... until tonight. The enthusiasm has be reignited!

Mr. Independent

Yes this make three posts in one day. I must be bored.

In any event E's search for new parents continues. He's tried out every friend we have here and his latest candidates were a lady at the park and one at the shoe store. He just walks up and gives this look that says "Please pick me up". I feel bad because more often than not his nose is runny or his pants are stinky.

Today I think he was testing his theory that he doesn't need parents at all. I took him to the pool and for the majority of the time he screamed if I tried to hold on to him. He just walked around the pool on his tippy toes with a huge smile on his face until he would wander where the water would go over his head. At that point he would "swim" until I lifted him up -- still with a big smile on him face. Then I would have approximately 2.5 seconds to get him back to where he could stand so he could repeat the process. By the end of the day he did snuggle in my arms on the way out. I guess his experiment has ended-- for now.

My Apologies

I have to apologize for deleting lots of comments wonderful people have left on my blog. I love when people comment so I feel a little bad deleting people's kind comments. Tonight I decided that I wanted my blog to be a little more generic so I tried to take out names and such which included some people's posts. Once again. I really am sorry. I hope you can forgive me. Please keep reading and posting.

The flood gates are opened

I think suburbia is having a weird effect on me... I have a strange compulsion to be crafting. I honestly have no idea what is wrong with me. I've even started a little slide show (over to the right) dedicated to the random flow of creative juices since I moved.

Among a few other things, Br gave me a fantastic sewing machine for my birthday. The flood gates are now open. I don't think he realized that the main thing holding me back was the fact that hand sewing takes so long. In any event in the last few days I took a stab at making some appliques to put on onsies to match the last two pairs of shoes I made.



That was followed by an attempt to learn how to embroider with a french knot. Baby steps.