That Cool Park Map Art All Over Pinterest

 I pinned it too.  I was patiently waiting for someone to head down to the World and bring me back a stack of maps so I could make one for myself.  Then my sister went to Florida at the end of the summer and brought back the stash I needed... but I had no time to work on it.

Then finally I had the time!  I went to Pinterest to find whatever blog that photo was attached to and I got a big fat nothing. Apparently that blog has disappeared from the internet and I had to wing it.

Luckily, I've been scrapbooking and paper crafting since my first son was born a million years ago a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, so I had tools and some ideas on how I was going to approach this.

Weigh In Wednesday #12

I am as sick as a dog and fairly miserable but I have added motivation in the weight management category. Prince Charming and I are about to book our honeymoon!

My Hubbs (his newish nickname!) wanted turquoise waters and somewhere tropical for our honeymoon.  We looked at resorts and locations and have decided we're going to try cruising!  I've been scouring all of the websites and reading the reviews and checking our bank account and we've narrowed down some times and trips and locations.  We're pretty decided on a Carnival cruise, as their prices are really good and seem like the atmosphere we want for our trip.  Plus they're mostly inclusive; alcohol is out of pocket.

Can you hear me squee from where you are?

But the idea of a tropical vacation means appearing in public in a swimsuit.  Yikes!  So I weighed myself this morning.  271 pounds.  About where I was when the Prince and I got together.  Still waaaaaaay more than is really good for me.

I have two major issues:
1.  I am really sedentary.  I just am.  I hate exercise.
2.  My 10 pm snack.

A lot of the junk is out of the house.  We've tried to stock up on healthier stuff.  I'm trying to move more.  Also, I've been very good with my soda intake.  I haven't knocked it out completely, but it's way, way, way down.

I need to stay inspired!

I will continue the wedding trip recap, I swear it!!!

It's trite, but still...

Everyone says it.  I know... still things have gotten out of control again and we're getting older and metabolism is slowing down.  Blah. Blah. Blah.  Still, here it is January second and the Hubs and I (is he King Charming now?) are recommitting to improving our health, which includes some hefty weight loss.

I am trying to kick my soda habit.  Soda and I have a longstanding love affair.  Especially Coke.  I LOOOOOOOVEE my Coke but I know how bad it is for me and I'm going to give it my best shot to say goodbye.  In discussing this commitment with my mister, we agreed that club soda is still "legal" because it's just carbonated water.  So... yikes.  I put it out there publically, I guess I really have to stick to it, right?

One of the munchkins got this.
It's totally me, right?

And in equally sucktastic publically declared resolution: we gotta exercise.  Ugh.  I am not a workout girl.  I can't do 100 sit-ups and then lunges and planks and all that crap just because.  I need something more goal oriented that seems like an activity or a game.  And not just "see if you can do X."  The munchkins received a few cool dance games for the Kinect for Christmas.  Those are fun.  Maybe I'll start running/walking with my iPod.  Something needs to be done and  I just haven't found a something that I love yet.  I am open to suggestion, y'all.

So I'm looking at my pantry and thinking that lots of stuff needs to go-- the bagged snacks and all the candy that seems to be laying around.  All of the holiday cookies are almost gone.  I bought a nifty new non-stick griddle/grill pan that I can use to cook protein with the addition of minimal fat. 

I know I lose tons of weight when I actually eat throughout the day.  It's so weird that when I'm at home I forget to eat!  When I had to follow a 6-meal-per-day diet with gestational diabetes, I was losing weight while pregnant.  Who does that?  Me, apparently, so I am going to try to eat that way again, now.

So there it is folks.  Wish us luck!

Trip Recap: Our First Day in the World

The best sight ever.  The tears well up every single time.

After not sleeping very well on the floor of the hotel inside the Orlando airport, I was the first one up on Monday morning. I know that's shocking given the relative comfort of hotel room floors and all, right? We all showered and dressed and ate a selection of pop tarts and granola bars I'd brought along with us. We checked out of the Hyatt and were off to the Magical Express area.

It was lucky that there was no wait for us.  We navigated the rope lines (good practice for the parks!) and  we got right on a bus and then sat for 15 minutes before we were taken to the Art of Animation Resort. We were the only people on the bus so my gown had her own seat!

Hey Hey, it's the Lobby!

We were so excited to stay at AoA. Our travel agent, Wendy, noted that this was a family-wedding-moon trip and we knew we were going to be assigned to a great room in a great location.  And we were!


We decided to poke around and take some pictures with the sketches on the wall and be silly touristy people, just like all the other touristy people there. And then we walked around the resort and took even more silly pictures.

Trip Recap: Leaving PA

And it's time to do the recap!


Day 1: October 28th

Things all started to go crazy early in the week before the wedding when there were some rumblings about a storm named Sandy. I kept watching the news and posting about it on Facebook in between doing the last minute wedding projects and packing.



There was some talk she'd hit Florida and then do some wacky S-curve thing and hit the northeast where all of my family lives. Combined with it was the full moon and another storm coming in from the northwest that would make this the weather event of the century. Just my luck, right? And it was. New Jersey is utterly destroyed along the coast.  It's so incredibly sad.

Mrs. Charming... that's me!

We are back from Florida and arrived to find no storm damage to our house or neighborhood, just cold, Autumn weather.  But the chill couldn't eliminate our smiles.  We had an amazing vacation with our posse of four and the fairy tale wedding of our dreams. 

And just a little teaser from the ceremony...

All of our vendors were fantastic.  Maxine, our planner from Disney Fairy Tale Weddings and all of her assistants, the cast members, everyone made us feel like royalty for the day.  I can't wait to see more photos.

The Last Thing to Stress Over: Updated!

The first I heard about her was on Tuesday, just a small storm somewhere in the islands off the coast.  There was potential, some said, that she could hit Florida and then a few days later loop back west as it moved northward up the coast.  One scenario, at that point, had her headed straight for the NY metropolitan area, potentially affecting my travel plans and those of my family.  Just one.

Today, they're all fairly certain Sandy is headed back east, that combined with a full moon and a low pressure system coming from the northwest, this *itch has the potential to be a historic storm causing mass destruction and knocking out power for millions of people.  They just don't know where exactly she's going to loop back east and hit land.  It's a one-in-a-million combination of atmospheric circumstances that has never been seen before!

Just my luck.  Just FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!

Our flight is scheduled to leave at 6:50 on Monday morning, out of Philadelphia.  It looks like our flight should be okay, depending on how the storm moves over the weekend.

My family, on the other hand, my parents, my sister, her husband and kids, all of them are scheduled to leave on a flight early Tuesday morning.

So we're all talking about heading out earlier than planned in cars and just driving down.  My sister has already reserved a minivan from a rental company.  I own a minivan but it's got like 110,000 miles on it.  I don't know if it would make it.  Plus there's the expense of the plane tickets.  Will the airlines refund the cost?

It would take, at least, seventeen hours to get to Florida in the car, not counting numerous potty breaks and food.  I don't know that either Wayne or myself has the stamina to do this drive straight through but it could be an incredible family adventure, right?  According to Google Maps, we're skirt around DC and potentially see some monuments and stuff.  We'd pass close to Raleigh, where we have a good friend.  We'd drive through Savannah, somewhere I've always wanted to go.

It could be a good thing, right?  Right?  RIGHT?!?!??!?!?

Okay, so USAirways is now allowing people to change their flights without a fee so I was able to switch our flight to Sunday night instead of Monday morning.  Now I just need to sort out a hotel room.