"I could care less about Disney" she said.....until she went once!

[All7OfUs]

I'm sad for you that you did not ingest a choco, but pretty stoked taht you are working on your credit and want it cleaned up!! And buying a house is always such a fun process- hard, but fun. ENJOY!!!

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

I'm sad for you that you did not ingest a choco, but pretty stoked taht you are working on your credit and want it cleaned up!! And buying a house is always such a fun process- hard, but fun. ENJOY!!!

As hard as the process is we want it so bad! We want to be able to paint the walls and mark our kids growth on the walls. We are just ready to start making memories in a house!

 

[All7OfUs]

As hard as the process is we want it so bad! We want to be able to paint the walls and mark our kids growth on the walls. We are just ready to start making memories in a house!

And you shall, with hefty doses of patience and persistence- you shall!!

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

Hey guys....Sorry I've been M.I.A. lately. Things have been crazy around here. Between maintanence coming over and still NOT fixing my A/C and Mario Cart online I've been pretty occupied. I saw yesterday that they have free dining out through October....I really hope they extend it through December. That would help A TON! We haven't done much on the Disney front lately. Everyone has been doing their own things and we really haven't had a chance to get together. I left my copies of all of the menus at my moms house so everyone can look at them. We made ADRS in 28 days! We are doing a majority rules for dining. We know the places that we are 100% going. Whispering Canyon is number 1 on our lists.....We are fascinated by the Skillet! We are probably not doing MVMCP. That's alot of extra cash for a group of 12!!! We have talked about the possibility of getting rid of tickets for a day and getting MVMCP tickets but IDK if we will do that......So thats it for now. Have fun homies!

 

[All7OfUs]

Personally, I would ditch the tix for a day, and do the party. Instead you could use the morning to swim or resort hop, then hit the party at 4:00. It opens then for ticket holders, I think.

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

Thats an Idea that we are floating around. I am trying to sell it to the group but they think that we lost too much park time for it. We are supposed to have dinner together one night this week so I think I'll bring it back up then when I have a chance to get a pro/con list together.

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

Ok so......... With the free dining being released through October 2nd we might be changing our plans. Free dining saves us $800 freakin bucks In the begining we had been looking into the end of September but changed it for the Christmas decorations. I brought it up to the rest of the family today and here were their reactions:
DH~ Holy crap $800??? Call and change it NOW!
my mom~ (who saves $550) Well, the kids wouldnt be missing anything but review work anyways. I think it makes more sense to go in Sept.
my older sister~ (Saves $700) Hmmm, I dont know if I want to go then. Wont it be too hot...what about school.....what about the Christmas stuff?!
my brother~(saves about 200) Well what the heck? Im not saving hardley anything but losing time to pay it off. I dont want to do it......ugh (hangs up the phone on me while whining like a freakin baby)
Little sister (saves 200) doesnt care...just wants to go!

So, it seems like more of us are OK with moving the dates. Yes I would love to see the decorations but we are talking about alot of money! If we do this then I will be so much closer to paying it off!

Here are my pros and cons to switching
Pros:
Later park hours
Savings
trip in 145 days instead of 208
can use the pools with no fear of chilly weather
did I mention the cost?
the kids won't miss anything important in school and have more time to catch back up




Cons:
Christmas
Toni, Terry, Bill and Tracy
cooler weather
no chance for a hurricane
less time to save money

Im sure there are more pros and cons but those are the ones I can think of. If you think of any let me know! I need all the help I can get with this!

 

[oregonmommyof2]

Okay, as somebody who has booked December for the last 2 years then switched once Free Dining was announced...

I say go for it...

Yes that means we don't get to meet, but Disney World will always be there and there is always another year...

$800 is not chump change....

If I could say one thing, it would be take that 800 savings and buy you, your DH and your kids tickets to the MNSSHP... It is a blast, my kids still talk about it and want to know when we can do it again... I know its a lot of money for 12, but the rest of your family doesn't have to go with you if they do not want to... It was just under 200 for my family of 4... That still leaves you a savings of 600...

Yes, it's hot, but arn't you in the south anyway?? Is it going to be that different??

You are working hard at getting ready to buy a house, so I am sure the money saved will come in handy!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Sadly, I agree with Toni. That is a lot of money to save. I also agree, take your immediate family to the MNSSHP if the others come great, but take your family it was a blast!

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

What do you guys know about the Cabins? We are now looking into switching to September and switching to the Cabins as well. I just need a lil input before we make the swap!

 

[oregonmommyof2]

What do you guys know about the Cabins? We are now looking into switching to September and switching to the Cabins as well. I just need a lil input before we make the swap!

I have never stayed at the cabins but have seen pics online...

My only question is are you going to end up all sharing the cabins or each get your own??

I only ask because people can get tired of each other and that isn't fun on vacation... If I was facing either my own room at Pop or sharing a cabin, I would stick with Pop... But that is just me...

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

I have never stayed at the cabins but have seen pics online...

My only question is are you going to end up all sharing the cabins or each get your own??

I only ask because people can get tired of each other and that isn't fun on vacation... If I was facing either my own room at Pop or sharing a cabin, I would stick with Pop... But that is just me...

We are going to divide up into 2 cabins. itll be my family of 4 plus my sister in one and my sisters family of 3, parents and brother in the other.

For us it wont be a big deal. Samantha is pretty easy to deal with and she gets along with the kids.

For the other cabin it'll be just like being at home. My older sister, her hubby and their son moved back in with my mom and dad about a year ago. My brother is living there because of what happened with him. If they can do it at home all the time, they can do it on vacation!

 

[mrsksomeday]

1 dedicated bedroom + 1 bathroom + 5/6 people = Freaking disaster

Scares me badly just thinking about it, good luck to you. I had my son in the next room at Pop and I thought we would kill each other a couple of times.

I will be praying for you .

 

[All7OfUs]

I've heard from lots of folks that the cabins are really a wonderful option for groups! There is LOTS of room to take walks, a wooden deck, all that fun stuff. What I'm saying here, is that if someone needs to escape for a while, there's places to do it.

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

So, as you all know we are a military family. 4 years ago we made the decision to move into base housing. We had been apartment dwellers before then but, decided to give the kids a back yard. We got a crappy house on a wonderful court with very few crappy neighbors. We made some great friends on our court. That made up for the horrible house we lived in and the obnoxious amount we paid to live there. Katarina thrived. Aj was born into that court. Katarina was lucky enough to start school while we lived there. She started at the #7 school in the state. Great school. About 2.5 years ago we were told that we had to move. Base housing had been bought out by a private company and they were tearing down our houses to rebuild them. We moved to the other side......Base housing is split by a public road so there are 2 "sides" if you will. We were told when we made the move that our children would be able to remain in their schools. I guess it also helps to explain that both "sides" had seperate schools. We were in the good school and decided to remain there. They said that during our school careers we would be able to stay so that's what we did. Some parents opted to make the switch and most of those parents regret that decision. School #2 is overcrowded, has a bus shortage, and the teachers arent the best. They have also had criminal type problems at that school. We were happy in our choice to stay at school #1.

Yesterday I recieved a letter stating that we now have to transfer to school #2. That this was never to be a permanent stay even though we were all told that it was. So..............After 3 years in a school, making friends and thriving Katarina must now be downgraded. After all of the work that we have now done with Aj, he must now re-start the process and hope to get a slot in the already full crappy school #2.

They have told us that we can apply for an out-of-zone request and that we might be able to stay based on circumstanses. We will be responsible for all transportation. The problem with this is that they will have no friends at home that they go to school with. We are literally between a rock and a hard place.

We are still looking at buying a house. We just don't know when we can do it. Living in housing is hard. We get a housing allowance for being military. Housing takes 100% of that. We live day to day off of Erics base pay and it isnt a whole lot. With me not being able to work for almost 4 years we have nothing saved up. Just moving out is hard. You have to have deposits, moving vans, and other move related cash. We hope to get approved for 0 down payment. We know that with the work we have done to his credit that we can get it using his VA Loan. We just need to make sure that we can save up other money so that is why I am going back to work after all these years.

We are so frustrated with this school issue. The 6 parents I have spoken to since last night are all going to the school board about this move. ARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

I am sorry that I have been AWOL for the past few days. Chaos has returned to my life once again. I feel like you guys are a little too invested in my world for me not to let you know. I don't feel like re-typing everything so I am going to copy and paste from "T"'s PTR.

~So, I went from the thought of switching our dates to being 90% sure we are going to cancel the whole thing. This has been a crap-tastic week for sure!

~Well, things in life have just gone downhill fast. We have of course been working on the financial end of the trip. No matter what discounts we get it's still a ton of money for most people. We have been working it out though. Skrimping and saving where we can and making cut backs. No big deal. We can live without things!

We found out last week that my mom went to the hospital. She didn't tell anyone and still hasn't. She is keeping secrets from her children and everything that we now know, we have overheard and read her mail to find out.

She had her urine tested and the found "m" protein. This is commonly attributed to Multiple Myeloma. Basically it is cancer of the cells inside of the bone marrow. She is seeing an Oncologist on Wednesday. They have "rushed" her out of our military network and sent her to an "outside" doctor.

She has been acting weird around us. When asked about disney she said that she isnt sure if she even wants to go. She has no idea that we know anything. With all of this, we decided that until we find out whats going on we are not proceeding with the planning. This was supposed to be a "family" trip and we don't want to go without her.

I am sure that she will tell us what is going on when she officially knows. At that point I think we can bring back up the possibility of everything. It's been rough to say the least. I'm not sure how long it takes an Oncoligist to do their jobs and figure out whats going on so I have no idea when we will know. I have no idea if we would even be able to make either of the dates we were looking at.

We haven't canceled yet. We also haven't made this paydays payment though either. Its just a tough situation to be in. I wish we could talk to her about all of this but she doesn't want us to know!


~ I am in lurk mode for now though. My mom finally "filled" us in about some of the results. She didn't go into detail though. We all told her that we will be right here with her through everything. She doesn't want to hear us right now though. I understand that. She told me this morning that she is worried and that she wants space from us all until she has answers. I told her that we will do anything she wants but to remember that we are here for her.

I am keeping up with everyones reports but, Im laying low right now. You guys can't get rid of me that easily! Love ya!!!!!!!!


~-~-~-
So, I went out with my mom tonight and she really started talking to me. She is in a low that I have never seen before. She asked me about how she was as a mother when we were growing up and if I have any regrets. Of course I told her the truth. She was the best mother a kid could ask for and that I have no regrets in my life. It was a rough conversation.

She has my dad going with her on Wednesday to the Oncologist. I will be at the hospital with Eric. He is finally getting the tests he needs done for his heart. With everything they have to do to him, he can't be alone. We should find out what is going on and if he can keep his career. It has been CHAOTIC to say the least.

As of this moment as I write this, We are 100% unsure about a Disney trip for 2010. As much as we don't want to disappoint the kids, we just have alot going on right now. We haven't cancelled the trip yet though. We won't do that until we know what's going on with my mom.

Thank you all so much for your support. I promise that I am still reading. I am a jealous person so reading about the plans is kind of heart-breaking to be and to be honest, I might be a little bitter! I am still on Facebook. If you want to catch up with me thats where I am. http://www.facebook.com/rswerock

I am not going to have them close this out yet and when I find anything out, I will let you all know ASAP. I am still hopeful that things come together.

 

[All7OfUs]

Just left you a message on T's report, but will say once again here, that our Good Father knows and loves your mom more than life itself. Sounds like you have a wonderfully close and supportive family that will make all the difference in the world! Keep up the good fight!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Rebecca, I have you, your hubby, your Mom, and your family in my prayers.

 

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

So it's official.....No trip for me this year I spoke with my mom tonight and she is still a few weeks away from an official diagnosis. With that, there won't be any time to try to catch up and pay the trip off for any of us. In T minus 12 hours I will be calling to cancel. As devestating as this is, I have to think that we will have other chances to go. It just sucks that this is the 2nd time we have had to tell the kids that we aren't going. Next time, I'm not even going to tell them until we are on the road.

They are in the process of "ruling everything out" for my mom. They are holding off on the bone marrow tests until everything else has been tested. Basically though, if everything else is negative then it is cancer. The entire family is having a rough time with all of this. The siblings (Me, older sis, brother and younger sis) are at each others throats. We can't even sit at the table for dinner without someone turning into Norman Bates. The kids are blissfully unaware right now but, I think they know something is wrong. When Kat asks why I'm stressed out I've just been telling her that its just all the appointments that we have had lately. It's been a weird time around here.

We went strawberry pickin on Sunday. It was My family, My older sister, her son and my mom. We had some random friends there too but they aren't important to this story. Me and my kids got just over 20lbs of strawberries! AJ ate about 20lbs of berries too! He only picked a total of 4, the rest were picked out of my basket! My mom had a blast with the kids. We used to go strawberry pickin when I was younger. We went every year. Around here they have the Pungo Strawberry Fest every year and it is insane! If it can be made with strawberries.....IT IS! This was the first time we have gone since the kids procreated. it was wonderful! It was hot and WET! It had stormed the night before so I didn't get any pics....I know. Bad mommy! Oh well, it is what it is!

So thats it. My sad little update. We will make it to Disney. Sometime. Disney is something that my mom always wanted to do. If we are looking at the worst case senario here then I can tell you that within the next year, we will be at Disney. It just wont be a happy type of trip.

Until next time......Peace out homies!

 

[oregonmommyof2]

Oh Rebecca...

I am so so sorry that you guys have had to make this decision...

I hope things start looking up for your family and your mother makes a speedy recovery with whatever this ailment turns out to be...

Take care of your family, we will be here when you are ready!!