How exciting that you are heading off on anther adventure with your girls! I am sure you will have an incredible time and I can't wait to hear all about your plans!
Welcome - happy to have you here!
We are very excited! We have plans to do things a little bit differently this time - we'll see if we can stick to it? LOL
Wow! First of all, can we start calling you Joanna? Your remodels are fantastic! I love what you did with your room & closet. It's great to hear both girls are doing so well. You have a lot to be proud of. Your trips sound so exciting. You have worked and saved and sacrificed over the years; you all deserve to enjoy as much of life as you can! Yay for booking the resort! Sounds like the girls' trip is coming together. Have a great weekend!
Hahahaha - honestly - I stole all of these ideas from Joanna, soooooo... LOL We are very happy with how it turned out, and I am so happy that I should never have to organize or clean my closet much again (unless I am donating) - everything has a place.
Yes - I am so proud of the girls... I see so many people their age struggling with life, and I still wonder to myself how I got so lucky? They are good and respectful adults - who work hard.
And thank you - I am trying not to feel too guilty about all of these trips... Josh is even happy that we are taking this trip - which is almost a first. I think he knows how much it means to me to spend this time with them - it won't be long now and they'll be married with families of their own (potentially) and this won't happen anymore - breaks my heart... but then I'll just start taking grandchildren. LOL
How about you Brandi??? How are you and how is the family? I think of your girls often, and wonder how they are doing.
So excited to see you are headed to Aruba! You will love it. I've not been there, but have been to Bonaire and Curacao and they are such wonderful islands. Hope you get to do some snorkeling because their reefs are amazing! Another trip to Europe is amazing too!
I have to confess to some decadent WDW. We bought AP's for myself, DH and younger DS because of the planned trip next August with the grands. Well, that AP is burning a hole in DS's pocket. He is on winter break. So we have just booked a last minute trip for 4 days & 3 nights next week!
Mother/son last minute trip! We were able to find RT airfare for $125 each and DS had Hilton points to pay for the hotel! Woot. We need to break it to DH, who will be like "What???". Hotel has free breakfast, free shuttle to parks, and weeknight happy hour with appetizers if we get back in time (which I doubt). Makes for a really inexpensive splurge! I really can't believe we're headed back so soon, but he wanted company and I'm game!
Well - if I am to be totally honest - I have never once snorkeled in my life.
I am not even sure I could figure it out? LOL I am not a fantastic swimmer (Josh is - or was - in high school)... I am just super excited to go sit on a beach in the middle of winter (in MN). I know that Josh and his dad are going out fishing one day... And I know that we rented a boat for a "3 hour tour"
~~~~ The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was sunk....~~~~ Kidding, kidding... but if I don't come back....
Anyways - if you have any pointers - I'd love to give it a try.
Awwwwh - I think that sounds like a great trip! And a great airfare price! I am dabbling with getting an AP for this upcoming trip - just because of all the discounts, and I know we will be back in April. It's so hard now to make that decision though - because of the Salute tickets - they are nice and the cost difference between those and an AP - it takes a bit longer to "break even".
Enjoy your time with DS - it will be a great trip! I love that you are doing this with him - it gives me hope that I'll be able to take trips with my girls when they are more grown.
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It's strange to be back here and updating about my life - though I did it for years - I feel like it's just the same ol' same ol' and quite boring.
I had my business taxes done (mostly) yesterday - this is something I dread doing every year - and even though I keep pretty organized records, I'd much rather be sewing... I am just waiting for my December numbers to come in and then we will be done. It's a HUGE relief to have them finished so early in the year. It was my goal to have them done before we left for Aruba, so I could enjoy our time there and not worry about it.
Then I met up with the girls at Target... Allison was off of work yesterday because this is her weekend to work, and V got off work early and had to go in to the college to get some things ironed out... So, after, we met up for Starbucks and a loop around the store. This is probably my "next" favorite store - after my store closed last year - as this is where many of my former co-workers transferred to... Different building - many of the same people.
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Anyways - the point to the above, is that we were able to hash out a few more
Disney trip plans...
As soon as we booked our airfare - like first thing... We don't book our resort... Noooooooo.... We book our dining plans.
Immediately, on Thursday night, I went on
MDE and booked everything we could possibly want (I was suprised at how much was open). While we were sitting in Starbucks yesterday - we were able to have a nice Disney trip meeting. First and foremost - the girls are very concerned about the trip budget. The both want to keep this trip as economical as possible - even moreso than in past years. We've decided - as a group, we want to do this trip a little differently - many of our "must do" ADRs are changing, or getting the axe completely.
Here's the run down...
Crystal Palace - PPO breakfast - axed
Tusker House - PPO breakfast - this will just be Allison and I.
'Ohana - breakfast - this will just be V and I
The Wave - breakfast - this will be the 3 of us + Cindy... It's my birthday after all.
Via Napoli - lunch - Ahhh - we love this so much and it's actually pretty economical split 3 ways if we only order water.
And that's it! Can you believe it? Allison decided that she really doesn't "love" 'Ohana enough to pay for it - and V loves it... So, I am kinda excited to have a 1 on 1 meal with V.
The same thing happened with Tusker House... V doesn't love it enough to pay for it... I am excited to have a 1 on 1 meal with A.
We've never done anything like this during our trips - and I think it will be a good break for the girls to be apart for a bit. Considering they no longer live together - they do get along much better these days anyways.
We are also very excited to not have so many ADRs this time. In all of our previous trips - we
always have a PPO CP breakfast - and we walk out of there SO STUFFED for the remainder of the day... We miss out on so many fun snacks and other (food) things we want to eat, but we just can't. We are pretty excited to be able to try out some great snacks and counter service places that we've never been able to try before.
If you are so inclined - I would LOVE to hear some of your favorite snacks and counter service restaurants from around WDW.
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After our mini-Disney meeting, V and I came home...
Now that Josh and I are *almost* empty nesters - we plan our meals a little bit differently... We've been buying a few more meals "pre-packaged"... Like those salads that come with all the stuff in one bag and you just mix them up... They work out SO NICELY for us. We are only two people and we can only eat so much. Well, once a week (or so) - I also splurge and buy a meal that is a little more than what I normally make - last night we had eggplant parmesan... It was delicious and just something different. For dessert - I got us 2 slices of turtle cheesecake - just two slices and not a whole cake - then I can't overeat it. It was a really nice and super RARE treat.
(Warning: really long healthy living paragraphs ahead) I should talk a little bit about my latest eating strategy as of late... Because - as you see above - I am eating a bit differently these days. While I still try to be VERY mindful of what I put into my body... I have rediscovered Intermittent Fasting. I did it pretty religiously back in 2014 (a 16/8 pattern = 16 hours fasted, with an 8 hour eating window) - when I'd made my biggest strides in size loss. Once I found Whole 30 (at the beginning of 2015) - I kinda forgot about IF and started eating the W30 way (3 meals per day - B, L, D - plus a mini-meal or two, if necessary), and though I didn't realize it at the time - it was causing me to overeat. Then, in 2017 - I recommitted - and again started weaving IF into my eating style - again at a 16/8 - and this worked really well for me - mingled with my Primal style eating ways - I lost size nicely... And I maintained that loss nicely for a while. But after all of our trips this year - I started this terrible snacking during my open eating window... It became almost a "binge eating" session... I'd stand at the back corner of our kitchen and just eat whatever I could find - maybe not quite that drastic, but almost. Sugar is my enemy - I know this - and once I have it for the day, it's very difficult for me to stop. And that time, between 2 and 4 was just crazy - I was starting to gain size so rapidly. In November, I discovered "clean fasting" - though I've done IF for years - it was never a "clean fast" - I didn't even know what that was. I read a book (Delay Don't Deny) and it made so much sense to me - it really did. It's exactly what it says it is, basically, have what you want, but delay it until your eating window... Well, that's what I was doing - but it wasn't working well for me at all. I had to adjust my window, make it smaller, because I was out of control. Easily - without thinking - I can go to 12:30 - 1pm every day and not be hungry... I wonder what would happen if I pushed my window back to about 2-3pm??? I could open my window with a healthy meal, then have dinner with the family (Josh), and dessert later - if I chose - or a snack. I told myself I'd try it for a week or two, to see how I did and if it worked for me. And it did - it was amazing!!!! I switched to a perfectly clean fast (the only allowed items are strictly black coffee, black or green tea, plain water or plain sparkling water... No additives to any of these - not stevia, not a lemon squeezed in... nada, zero, zilch) - and you all know me... I used to have coffee with honey and half n' half every morning, 2 to 3 cups of it... and flavored sparkling water. During my clean fast - I have NONE of that. I have been drinking my coffee black for a couple months now (and I didn't die) and have plain sparkling water during the day. When I open my window - almost always with a nice sized salad (with ALL the fixings) and a side of 2 boiled eggs or cheese or something like that, at that time I also have my flavored sparkling water (my new rule - I am NOT ALLOWED to eat anything in the back corner of the kitchen, I must sit down at the table to eat)... I have a normal dinner with Josh - these days, I do allow myself to have a small amount of bread, noodles or rice with this meal (it's so nice to be able to have some of the things I've denied myself for years!!!!), and then a little later I have a snack - most often it's a yogurt with nuts, but sometimes I'll have a bowl of fruit with half n' half, or last night - I had a piece of turtle cheesecake. My window now is more like a 19/5 - and it's totally helped me control my overeating in those afternoon hours - I really LOVE it a lot. And because I am "clean fasting" - I don't get that ravenous hunger pain that I used to get when I'd be eating 3 meals a day + snacks. Love, love, love IF and the fact that I truly can eat anything I want during my window! I also love that my life isn't consumed by food prepping all day long, and cooking all day long, and cleaning up all day long... It really is awesome!
Side note... If you want any more information, please read Delay Don't Deny by Gin Stevens or The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung...
The whole "breakfast is the most important meal in your day" and "your metabolism will combust if you don't eat 3 meals + 2 snacks every day" and "your body will go into starvation mode if you don't eat every 2 hours" was just a ploy by our food manufacturing companies to get us to eat more (aka, make them profitable)... Think back 100 or 200 years ago and beyond... Do you really think our ancestors ate 6 times per day??? Momma would never leave the kitchen, if that were the case... No, they had maybe 1 or 2 large meals... They couldn't run to the grocery store to get endless snacks in convenient serving sizes... Thought provoking right?
OK - done with that for today.
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Josh and I have also discovered "binge-watching Netflix series" - over the summer (we started it in Europe) we watched Reign (highly recommend)... and now we are watching Frontier - it's a bit gruesome in spots (I literally have to turn away from the screen - so does Josh), but it's an interesting show... 3 seasons, but only 6 - 1 hour episodes, so we've been able to move through it pretty quickly. And Declan Harp isn't bad to look at either.
So, that's what we did last night.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!!!!
D~