DAY 3..... MEETING BONITA AT THE BEACH

I was sooooo excited about this chance to meet Bonita, after being online friends for almost 2 years now, we could finally meet in person.  You see she has lived in North Dakota and moved to Flordia last fall which was perfect for me knowing our Disney trip would be happening this year. If she hadn't moved here we still wouldn't have met, thank you Bonita for moving and thank you GOD for making the timing work on this also. I was excited and nervous of course but as soon as we pulled in, all the nervousness was gone and my heart just filled up with JOY and LOVE for this awesome lady. She has such a huge heart for  everyone, looks out for her loved ones, brings strength and hope to others, she is a sweetheart. Her life has been hard and filled with heartaches but she keeps going, staying focused and postive and isn't afraid to be who she wants to be.

 

My husband said her house is filled with postive energy, he liked that. My girls want to move there and live there, they loved her house. It is the perfect beach house, filled with all beachy and pretty things. They went around touching and looking at everything, reading all her signs and loving her inspriation boards, even Renee got excited about her little rocks in the bathroom. I felt all this and more too, can't wait to go back and just sit and take it all in again. How awesome that she is right on the beach and windows that overlook at that beauty, we all felt relaxed and at home there.

 

Bonita and I met thru the Sept. 2011 30 days of Lists class, I loved her amazing and powerful collages/ lists from day one. She was so kind to reply back to my questions and help me learn more about collage/art/myself and to just jump in and do whatever makes ME happy. We have shared a lot of our life stories and cheered and prayed for one another, celebrated bdays, holidays, happy mail and more with each other. She also started doing Project Life and does some awesome pages!!

 

Bonita is married to a sweetie just like herself, Greg was so good to us, cooked a wonderful lunch and helped Sam dig in the sand with his tools. Greg, Sam enjoyed being with you so much, thanks for making it a great day for him. He still talks about it and insists he's coming back and wants to stay. They had a dream of living on the beach and worked hard to make it happen. I am proud of them both and have enjoyed reading and witnessing this dream happen. She knows that I and others want her to write a book on this, making your dreams happen and I want the first copy when it's printed!! They both give me hopes that dreams can happen and that you have to believe and stay postive.

 

Our day there was magical and just as fun as the Disney parks themselves. We talked, went and got some taffy, ate a yummy lunch, brought home lots of shells, borrowed Bonita bathing suit for Summer so she could swim, applied lots of suntan lotion but still got sunburned, ha! Felt the love and care of a wonderful couple who opened up their home, hearts to me and my family. I couldn't have asked for a better day except that it went by too fast and wanted to stay there. Oh and I can't forget about their cute dog Angel who was so good with the kids, helped us not miss Lucky so much that day. The kids would have kept her too, she is loving her new beach life also.

 

Thanks again Bonita and Greg for all you did for us, such a great memory we will have now from our Disney trip. So thankful to have you in my life and for meeting you finally. I'm sure we or at least I will be back for another (longer) visit. Enjoy your new gorgeous beach home and life.

 

You can visit Bonita's blog to see more of her house, beach, gorgeous pictures and more at http://www. bonitarose.com or click on my Bonita badge to the right of my blog.

 

Thanks again for reading my long Disney/beach posts and for your comments. Next up on our trip was our last day which was at Magic Kingdom. I will also be sharing another story after that about a little favorite place of ours there too, OLD TOWN and then pictures from our drive down adn back. Still working on PL and hoping to post them next week. Have some journaling to do on them first. Hope everyone has a great day!! HUGS!

DAY 2 AT EPCOT

Here was Day 2 at EPCOT,  it was so pretty with flowers everywhere. This park felt so much like spring and that was what I needed and was hoping to bring back with me. It was another HOT day and we were feeling it by the afternoon, took that time to see some shows so we could be inside with the cool air. The only problem was that Rich and I would fall asleep during these, haha all we have to do is sit and we fall asleep. That's why we don't sit too much at home, like keeping busy and doing things. The shows we saw were the NEMO"S Musical, kinda boring for the kids but Rich and I napped for the 40mts. Then we went to the gift store and the kids bought new stuffed charcters with the Disney cards my sister got them, THANKS ANNIE!! That kept us cool for 40mts too. We also saw the Ellen Degenres show, Renee loves her. This was ok, was about sceince and I kinda dozed thru it. Felt like between these 3 things it took most of our morning, along with some photos which I LOVE. We also saw a group of men playing music with their garbage cans, THIS WAS SOOOO AWESOME AND FUN!! They were so talented and funny and was one of our top favorites of the day.
The rides we rode on were SOARIN, which was cool except for mine and Summer's fear of heights. It was like sitting in a sing up high and you traveled the world and made you feel like you were flying thru mountains, soarin above water and smells from the trees were nice and other fun stuff. We were lucky to get right in line for this ride with about a 15mt wait which isn't too bad.
The next ride was the COOLEST!! It's called TEST TRACK and you get to build and design your own car to race in. The kids designed theirs and Rich and I did ours, glad I could take some photos of the cars in process. The riding/race part was pretty fun and better then I thought it would be. Sam wanted to keep racing and sad we only got to do one lap. By the way it wasn't a real car or race of couse, just made you think/feel like it was. This ride took about 20mts to wait for, not bad.
We also took a boat ride in NORWAY, per teachers request for extra bonus points for Renee and Sam. We had to find this ride and got there just in time for the ride. This was ok, Rich and I were together and we can dozed thru it. haha sorry folks I guess we are old and get tired quickly. Blame it on the heat and lack of sleeping good in the hotel beds.
Was fun to get some character photos, the kids had mixed feelings about these and that started some arguements. Some of us wanted to wait in lines for them and others wanted to keep going.
The other ride was one for the FUTUREWORLD and pick what kinda of future you'd like to have. Rich and I were in this car and picked one that was earth friendly, they take your picture and use these to show you doing things in your story. Sooooo funny to see Rich and mine's heads bopping around on the screen. Rich rode his bike to work and I was home planting and watering the flowers. Our meals came from the garden and our house was made of all natural products and had a solar panels, soooo cool. There was different items we could have chosen but this was so perfect for us.
The other big ride we had to keep checking on to open, due to some issues they opened late. The write up for this one said it will make you sick and they give you barf bags, well Sam decided not to ride on it and sat out with me. Rich and the girls came back saying it was pretty cool and they had a mild ride if you didn't want to do the more extreme one. Well the line was too long to wait in so Sam missed out on that one and was bummed about it.
I would say this was our least favorite parks, didn't have much the kids were interested in and spent most of the day in lines/shows which kept us cool but wasn't that exciting. Not complaining, just stating how we felt and how the day went. I still say it was BEAUTIFUL everywhere and that alone made me happy. The kids thought there would be a lot more rides like the amusement parks back at home, these rides at Disney are not all like that.
Thanks so much for reading my ANIMAL KINGDOM post before, love sharing these with you and reading your comments. If you didn't see that post, scroll down to the one before this one. It was my favorite park that we went to.
Our next outing was meeting Bonita and Greg at their GORGEOUS beach house. I'm not kidding, the kids still talk about this and how fun it was and they want to live there. I was soooo thrilled to finally meet her and had the best time. Wish it could have lasted longer but I will go back on my own one day. I will post these pictures in a couple days.

HUGS AND PRAYERS going out to all those suffering in the tragedy's in this past week. Still shocked by these and wishing for no more of these tragedy's.

On a better note though, HAPPY EARTH DAY EVERYONE!!

OUR FIRST DISNEY PARK...ANIMAL KINGDOM...PHOTO/WORD HEAVY!!

FIRST COLLAGE PAGES FROM DISNEY...LOVE THIS!!

HOME FROM FLORIDA!!

Hello, we are back from Disney!! Had a great trip with awesome hot hot sunny weather, we needed and wanted it so much. Sadly it didn't follow us home and while we were gone it was rainy and cool at home still. Looks like decent temps will be starting this week but I'm reallllllly ready for SPRING WEATHER and FLOWERS AND GREEN!! We saw were people had already been mowing already and trees were green and flowers everywhere, this was just below our state. Some of my blog friends even got more snow again, feel so bad for you. Come on spring we are still waiting for you to really arrive and STAY!!

It was so good to come home to see Lucky, wasn't quite sure what the reaction would be, thankfully we are still loved and forgiven for leaving. The house was clean and sparkly,thanks Annie for all you did for us while gone. I've already got the laundry done and everything unpacked and started collaging about our trip.  I haven't uploaded my pictures yet, kinda nervous and overwhelmed at the same time. Want to keep PL simple as possible for that week, hope to have it done sometime next week, no rush. I do plan on sharing about our trip before even showing the PL pages, will be more fun and easier to tell the story.

I have to say that Disney is still as magical as it was 9 years ago when we went and will always be magical to me. It was so different going with older kids this time around, no diaper changes, naps, strollers and little kiddie rides. We had a good time with a few bumps thrown in which is to be expected and thanks to the pep talk I had with Sonja before the trip it helped me keep my patience and letting go of "perfect". 

We actually talked with a worker there and she was from our hometown. I have to say the whole way down not one car did we see from Ohio, not even at the parks. So it was pretty cool that we ran into this lady. She and her hubby were tired of the cold, snow and long winters of Ohio and knew they always loved Disney. So they packed their bags and moved down there and got jobs at the Disney parks. They are beyond happy there and love their jobs and the great weather. This is what I've always said too, working there would be a dream and make me happy too. Keeping it in our future plans after Rich retires.
We also heard a young man of 20 tell a family he's planning on working at Disney till he's old and can't work anymore. He loved the job and the community and meeting folks from all over the world. Isn't it great what this magical place can do for people. LOVE IT!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!! Thanks so much for reading and for your comments. Oh and thanks for keeping Lucky in your prayers for us last week, means a lot to all of us.  HUGS!!

AROUND HERE IN PICTURES

RANDOM WORDS ONLY POST!!!

Happy April everyone, a little late but still much awaited and excited for! I'm sharing a random post today since my PL isn't quite done yet. I am trying to fit some pictures in the little pockets and it's not working. So rethinking my plan for them and will post later on. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter, ours was pretty nice despite the cold temps and gray sky. I will be hopfully sharing a picture only post with you on Friday, it's been awhile since I've done that. So today it will be words only.

sam had his first soccer practice last night, bundled in winter coat/gloves/hat and still cold but he LOVED it and his coach has been wanting him on his team, YEA!  Looking forward to another soccer season.

Rich and I celebrated our anniversary on Monday, YEA!! I LOVE LOVE THIS MAN MORE THEN WORDS CAN SAY!! I'm thankful each day for all he does and has done for us. We went out for a quick Subway dinner that night. I'm planning on doing a post about how we met and our story sometime later this month.

It's been cold here again, haven't even made it to the track again this week, go away cold windy weather!

We are on spring break and enjoying the relaxed days and no schedules and packing lunches!

The kids have finished most of their make up work for when we will be gone, Sam had tons to do but did it with a happy attitude.

LOVE LOVE that Kristin was home for Easter this year, it's been a long time since the last one. So nice to share this holiday. A day filled with Church and two family gatherings was just what we needed. We had a nice talk about her new gorgeous bible and GOD. She is starting this journey too just as I am and so it was nice to talk to her about this.

Happy that Kristin found a side job that she loves already!!

Little purple blooms growing my the front door, YEA!!! SPRING!!

Shopping for new shorts/bathing suits/sunscreen for our Disney trip

Excited doesn't express how we are feeling about our Disney trip, seriously CAN'T WAIT!!

I will be meeting my blog friend Bonita for the first time, it's going to be so awesome to finally talk to her face to face. She is living out her dream on the beach and I can't wait to see her new home and walk the beach with her. It's going to be such a lovely day with her, so happy she lives nearby Disney so we can make this meeting happen. Thank you Bonita and Greg for having us over!!

We have a month of birthdays in our family this month. Need to get busy thinking of gifts and making cards.

Looking forward to my funny shows that are on tonight, Wednesday nights are my favorite for tv

Enjoying these last months of Sam in elementary, can't believe he will be in middle school in the fall. Time is going so fast, he is my baby you know. Not ready for him to grow up just yet.

The sky has been blue and filled with big white clouds the last 2 days!! LOVE LOVE THIS!!

We/the kids are hooked on their new Family Fued app on their ipods. I've always loved that game show.

Looking forward to our Taylor Swift concert when we get back from Disney!! It will be the first concert for the girls, excited to share this with them. Poor Sam didn't get to come and he really likes her new RED CD and sings them pretty well.

To my friend Nancy who reads my blog, while I'm gone just read my April 2012 posts. Hope this will keep you entertained and not miss my posting to much. I'm thankful each day for you and the wonderful friend you are for me. So happy that you love reading my blog and it makes you happy. Will miss you while we are gone, take care and hope the weather warms so you can enjoy the outdoors more. Just relax and enjoy your new freedom of retirement. HUGS!

Dear friends please keep Lucky in your thoughts/prayers for us. This is the only sad/hard part of us going to Disney, is that we will miss Lucky sooooo very much. He's been so happy having the kids home this week and it will break our hearts even more when we leave. I know my sister Annie will take good care of him but he will miss us greatly too. It will be our first time of all of us leaving him so please keep him in your thoughts. Thanks so much!!

Thank you Annie for helping out while we are gone. Enjoy the best dog ever and my big backyard sky for me. I will miss my walks everyday out there no matter the weather so take a picture of it and send it to me. THANKS!!! HUGS!!

Sorry for the long list, kinda got carried away. Thanks for reading and for being the best readers a girl could ask for. Take care and enjoy your week. Come back Friday to enjoy some photos! HUGS!!