Another day at sea! And so much to do!

Because we have cruised with Disney before, we are members of their Castaway Club. Which entitles us to a free gift in our state room (this time it was a really nice bag, some water bottles, stationery products and a mesh bag), and a party with the officers staff, just for us. Last cruise we didn't get a chance to go because Hubby and I had booked brunch at Palo, the adults only restaurant on board. There are special treats available at this party, my favorite....chocolate dipped Mickey Rice Krispie Bars!

This is the chandelier in the Atrium. It is all handblown glass. It's absolutely incredible.

Tonight's dinner was in Animator's Palate. The restaurant changes color with the courses of your dinner. At the end of the night as special guest makes an appearance!
Our assistant server used his origami skills and made a rose for Genius! The servers on board are so attentive and willing to make your dining experience enjoyable.
Another fun filled day has come to an end....

Sunday December 7th - A whole day at sea! This is why we prefer Disney's Eastern route to their Western one. More sea days! For us, cruising is all about the ship. While we enjoy the ports, we like the ship more.

Deck 4, is our favorite place to hang out on the ship. They have the most comfortable teak lounge chairs, and you will find us there most days, with books. (Sometimes the books are closed on our laps, because we're sleeping....) This is also their "walking track". You can walk around the whole ship on this deck, 3 times = a mile. While walking you go through where they keep the anchors and all that mechanical stuff, that keeps us from floating away when we're in port.
While the ship is extremely clean, they seem to have a bit of a mice infestation.
This was the evening of the formal dinner, and we were actually going to skip it and just eat up by the pools. Our waiter Denzak, told us to come anyway, even though we didn't pack any formal attire for the cruise. So we put on the best clothes we did bring, and hit Lumiere's for dinner. (We weren't out of place even not having formal attire, it's amazing what some people will wear for dinner.....) Some of the light fixtures in Lumiere's have a rose inside them, as it is all decorated around the theme of Beauty and the Beast (hence the name Lumiere's). The evening's show in the Walt Disney Theater, was The Golden Mickeys. Another great production. They even had a dessert for it. Hubby assured me it was quite yummy! Read the full story

So many other things have come up in bloggy world that I left my trip update behind! I'll try and catch up a bit more frequently, but be warned, there are some more reviews (and giveaways) planned for the near future!

Day 5 of our Disney Vacation, was Saturday December 6th. We said good-bye to the parks and hello to our home for a week the beautiful Disney Magic!

In the terminal area where you board the ship, they have a mini of the ship, with a cut out on one side so you can see the inside of it as well.




It's always fun to take pictures of the life boat drill. Really, everybody is walking out with their cameras to take pictures of themselves, and their families. We are preparing for the event of an emergency in which we'll have to abandon ship!!! See everything is happy with Disney.

Dinner is always a major event. The food on the ship is terrific. Lots to choose from. Genius wanted a Shirley Temple each night at dinner, and our assistant server Denis obligingly brought Genius one out every evening, with many many maraschino cherries!

The only thing I don't like on the ship is their coffee. They use Nescafe coffee from giant dispensers. It is not very tasty. However, you can't have dessert without a cup of coffee. That just wouldn't be right.

After dinner, we hit the opening variety show. There is always great entertainment, that is family friendly on the Disney ships, which is why we keep returning. Genius went to make some friends in the kids club, and then we called it a night. There is something about a full belly and the rocking of the ship, that just makes you sleepy.....
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Love Dare - Day 10

Do something out of the ordinary today for your spouse.
Romans 5:8

Today's Destination Disney is all about Souvenirs. What is your favorite?

I had a hard time deciding (as it is whenever I need to do one of these memes that is all about "our favorites").

I just bought a t-shirt at Disney Hollywood Studios when we were there in December that quickly has become one of my favorites in my wardrobe. It has "Judge Me By My Size Do You?" on the front - and a picture of Yoda on the back with a Mickey Mouse hat on, holding a Mickey Ice Cream Bar in his hand, standing at a "you must be taller than this line to ride" sign, and he doesn't make it!! lol!!

I am only 4'9" tall, and this shirt was so perfect I had to have it. I am often confused for a child, given a children's menu in a restaurant, or mistaken for Genius's sister. The only one that truly can guess my age is my hairdresser.....

But that is not my favorite souvenir (although it's a close race). My ultimate favorites are my candle toppers. I started collecting candle toppers about 10 years ago. Every time we go away somewhere new purchase one to remember the vacation. I have a bunch from Disney now, but these are my two favorites.

The second one wasn't actually a candle topper to begin with. Hubby found it in the gift shop on the ship (it's a mini snow globe), and made it for me by gluing it on some wood, and voila a candle topper!


Show us your favorite Disney Souvenirs and play along at Destination Disney located at Reviews by Heidi! Read the full story

Love Dare - Day 9

Think of a way to greet your spouse today to reflect your love for them, and then do it with a smile and enthusiasm.
I Peter 5:14

FamilyLife

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When I encountered Surf Sweets on the web. I was so impressed with their ingredients and their commitment to healthy, natural snacks for families, I needed to contact them. Bert Cohen, (the president himself *blush*) generously sent me some of their products to try. (Thank you so much!)

Folks the truth is, unless you look at the ingredient label on these sweet treats, you would NEVER be the wiser that they are all natural and organic. I would put these up against, the sugar, corn syrup and hydrogenated palm kernel oil, in the candy most Americans let their kids eat any day. (Ick, did you read that list....can you believe we eat that, and say we enjoy it?)

I love buying vinyl tablecloths for a number of reasons. One I can co-ordinate them to the current season or holiday, two they're inexpensive and three they're easy to clean.

But...I HATE the strong creases they have in them when you take them out of the package and the strong plastic"y" scent they have when they are new too.

Do you dislike that too? If so here's my Tuesday Tip:

Put the tablecloth in the dryer on low heat for a couple of minutes with a damp bath towel. Take the tablecloth out, and while it is still warm, smooth out the wrinkles. If they are really pesky, and are still there, throw it back in. Be careful that you check it every minute or so though, because it can get really hot, even on low heat. The damp towels must help with the scent too, because I find it is not a strong after doing this.

Visit BlogMommas for more Tuesday Tips.
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Love Dare - Day 7

On a sheet of paper, write out positive things about your spouse. At some point during the day, pick a positive attribute from the list and thank your spouse for having the characteristic.

I Corinthians 13:7

FamilyLife
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Perhaps you've seen the commercials for it? $9.99 for a one topping pepperoni pizza on a multi-grain crust. But I know what you're thinking...yeah, but how does it taste?

My family can not be bought off with bad pizza. (If I don't have to cook, I might be persuaded...) They know good pizza. They won't touch frozen pizza (unless I make them....). So when I was approached to try the new Natural Pizza from Pizza Hut, I think they were more excited than I was. Well all except Genius, you know she's 12. Hearing "Natural" pizza + 12 year old = expression of distaste.

It was astonishing to me, to put the pizza on the table, turn around to get a drink from the fridge and come back to this: (that's my pizza on the right, it was a complete piece before I turned around)



Another sign of how "natural" ingredients can still taste good, and your children are never the wiser that they are eating something healthy! (Check out the nutrition facts here).

In their Natural line of pizzas, Pizza Hut is committed to all natural meats, tomatoes and cheese to provide only the best for your family. The crust is made from multi-grains too, which we know is so much better for us than processed white flour.

As for the taste, there is no lack of it. Along with the Natural Pizzas we ordered a regular hand tossed pizza from Pizza Hut at the same time, just to compare, and you know, we all liked the Natural one better. The crust was perfect, a little chewier than a regular crust (but we liked that!), the sauce was not as tangy and the cheese and pepperoni was delicious.

This picture proves it : You can see the smile right through the pizza! It gets Genius's "Stamp of Pepperoni Pizza Approval". Now that's an award!

Pepperoni is only one of the options that Pizza Hut offers on the new line, sausage, beef and a variety of vegetable options (all natural) are also available. Or of course, just plain cheese!

So if you are committed to eating healthier this year, like my family is, you don't have to give up pizza, just go Natural!

Thank you to Pizza Hut and their marketing group for allowing our family the tasty pleasure of trying this out. Our local carry out location will see us often!
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I all things Disney. Of course if you already read my blog, and subscribe or follow, you know that! Jamie's Precious Peas blog is having a "Disney Celebrations" theme, where she is featuring homemade sellers wonderful Disney creations.

Elizabeth's Attic has the most awesomest of Disney totes, and you can pick up Auto Trash bags at 4 Girls Designs in (my favorite) Tinkerbelle fabric!!

The Innovative Life has Disney Picture Frames. There are blankies and pillowcases at Auntie Mac's.

She has even more sites featured on her blog. Many of them even have giveaways!!!

So if you "heart" Disney like I do, you probably want to check out Jamie's blog!
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Family Life is boosting up your anticipation of Valentine's Day! They started on January 5th and each day until February 13th, they will be posting a new Love Dare for you.

Today's Love Dare is:

Ask your spouse to tell you three things that cause him or her to be uncomfortable or irritated with you. You must do so without attacking them.
Proverbs 27:14

Whoa -- that's a dare alright. Not sure I'm up to that myself; (although after almost 15 years of marriage, I probably know what they are anyway, so it really shouldn't be much of a surprise!).

Take the dare, and let me know if you do it, there's strengths in numbers!

With a transatlantic cruise on the horizon, a few extra goodies, for that 24 hour trip home from Barcelona, will likely be needed.

Tara's View of the World; has a great giveaway going on at their blog, that I would love to win. They are giving away one of the new Zenses games for the Nintendo DS, targeted not for kids but for women over 25 (yes, that would be me!).

I think that would help whittle away the hours tediously waiting in airports and on planes!

If you too would like a chance to win, head on over to Tara's View of the World for your chance, the giveaway ends next Thursday January 15th. Read the full story

There are SOOOO many wonderful photo opportunities at Disney, that it took me a long time, and a few "tours" through our many pictures to decide, what my favorite one was. I finally decided though, my favorite opps are the ones that chronicle Genius's growth.

We have visited so many times, that we really don't take as many pictures any more as we used to. But when we do tend to take pictures we end up taking them in the same spots, which is really neat, because that way we can see the way Genius has grown and matured over the years.

Here are three pictures chronicling Genius growth. They were taken on Disney's Castaway Cay by "Mount Rustmore" (which is another reason why it is one of my favorite opps....we live in South Dakota....). The pictures were taken in April of 2004, January of 2007, and December of 2008.


Share your favorite Disney Photo Opps with us at Destination Disney hosted at Reviews by Heidi.
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Genius has three ideas for career opportunities that she would like to explore for her future.

The first one is engineering. She is interested in getting a degree to be able to use that to design roller coasters, and if that fun job doesn't pan out, maybe just bridges (lol!). She will be attending a one day seminar at the state college in March to get a better idea of what an engineer actually does. That should be fun!

The second is to be adept at computer networking. That hardly surprised me. Hubby has had three computers networked and running since she was old enough to walk and talk (meaning she has had her own, since the day she was able to use it). Watching Daddy disassemble, insert memory/hard drives/dvd drives etc, and reassemble the computer is a daily activity around here.

The third one is to become a graphic designer. Again this didn't shock us. If she isn't drawing with paper and pencils, she's drawing on the computer. Last year I bought myself Photoshop Elements to do digital scrapbooking with, and Genius promptly absconded with the discs to load them on her computer so she could draw with it.

She designed the above book cover, for a language arts assignment, after we read the book Frindle. She was tasked with drawing an alternate cover that would explain the book. If you've ever read it, I think she did a great job, how about you?

In any case, I'm too cheap to look for any other programs for her to fiddle with at the moment. They can be very expensive, and some aren't user friendly. We've checked out some of the downloadable free ware programs, but again, either they're not easy to learn or don't have the options she's looking for.

Core Learning (who incidentally was a part of the TOS Crew Marketing Campaign, but I never received a product from them to review), has a program called Corefx Level 3, that looks perfect for what Genius aspires to do with her graphic designing.

A fellow TOS Crewer, has a giveaway on her blog for this software, courtesy of Core Learning, the deadline to enter is Friday, January 9th at Midnight CST. If you are interested in winning, head on over to Freely Educate!
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I found a new meme at Blog Mommas called Tuesday's Tip Jar. Blogger's participate by leaving a helpful tip! I don't know about you but I can always use an extra tip or two!

My tip for the day has to do with cooking. When you have a recipe that calls for one pound of ground beef that needs to be cooked (like spaghetti sauce, or lasagna, hamburger helper etc.), buy two pounds right off the bat and brown it. Now put one pound in a container, and freeze it. The next time you make that recipe or a different one that calls for cooked ground beef, you just need to pull it out of the freezer to thaw, making the meal that much easier!

Do you have a tip you'd like to share - check out Tuesday's Tip Jar at Blog Mommas.
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My bloggy friend Nikowa is having a giveaway on her blog. She is giving away a book entitled "Good Things" authored by Mia King.

Nikowa writes for Heart of the Matter, and she informs us on her blog that there are "giveaways galore" there in celebration of their one year anniversary, and she provides a link to check it out.

So if your goal is to enrich your life in 2009, go ahead and check out Nikowa's blog, and HOTM, for I assure you, you will be one step closer to that goal, by doing so!

I ran across this, at A Little Bit Nutty's Blog this morning, and thought I'd give it a whirl.

Here's what you do, Google Your Name with Needs; Here is what it says

Tammy needs:

Your Prayers and Good Wishes - Of course, I'll never turn down prayer for me, that's the first one, and boy is it true! Specifically, you can pray that I would not get angry so quickly, one of my worst habits.

a Baby - ummm......I don't think so......

Constant Care - I really didn't think I was that irresponsible

Clothes - Always!!!

Your Help - With the dishes, my dishwasher is broken, I'm waiting for some gift cards for Lowes to come in the mail so I can order a new one.

to Know - Yes I need to know a lot. Sometimes things that I shouldn't want to!!

Lol - that was fun -- how about you? If you do it, comment and link to your blog, I'd love to see what YOU need!
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Every lady has them. I know I do. There are certain ones I'm not that picky about, but certain ones that I just can't live without.

I love H20 Marine Shampoo (which has now been discontinued, insert sad face here), and Matrix Conditioner, Venus Razors and Carmex Lip Balm are at the top of my list too.

Jessica at the Russo Corner is giving away her favorite beauty products, and let me tell you, it's a large package too! You'll want to head on over there and make a comment, and post about it on your blogs, so all your friends can enter too.




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I am scent product obsessed. Most recently I won a blog giveaway where there was included in the prize a lotion scented like vanilla caramel. I have been slathering this stuff on daily, just because it smells so good, the moisturizing is just an added benefit in my opinion.

We have two Bath & Body Works stores in our small mall, which must mean the stuff sells pretty good! I know it smells pretty good! I love their Clean Cotton scent.

April Showers has A New Year's Giveaway, where one random entrant will get a $25.00 gift card to Bath & Body Works if you enter following the rules. She is also adding a $$ gift card to Mark by Avon (which she sells), in the amount of how many comments she gets for this contest, it's already up to $16.00 before I make my posting.

If you are in need of some pampering for yourself after this busy holiday season, go check out her blog, follow the instructions, and cross your fingers. It ends January 3rd at 8pm (not sure what time zone, think Eastern just to be safe!). Read the full story

As some of you may know, Genius received a Fuji Digital Camera last April for her 12th birthday. We bought it at Wal-Mart for a fantastic price in a bundled pack for $71.00 on clearance. It was purchased with money from all three of the grandparents. She was so excited to receive it.

In November when we went to the Mall Of America with the girl scouts, out of the blue, the lcd screen went all scrambled. She was in tears over it. We packaged it up and sent it off to Fuji to get fixed under warranty. They informed us that it would cost us $62.00 to fix it (plus we had paid $8.00 to FedEx it to them), because the lcd screen was cracked. Yes, and we replied so, you won't fix it under warranty? Nope, because it won't break unless undue force was placed upon the screen, and that is not covered. ARGH. No undue force was placed upon the screen it wasn't dropped or anything it just broke (most likely due to shoddy manufacturing). So they wanted us to pay as much to fix it, as we originally paid for the camera! So we told them no thank you. This all happened December 30th.

New Year's Eve, a FedEx overnight package arrives on our doorstep. It's the broken camera returned to us. Fuji OVERNIGHTED it to us. At their expense. What? How ridiculous. That probably cost them almost as much as just having fixed it, and keeping a customer happy. NO MORE FUJI products in this home.

Anyway now Genius needs a new camera, and I've been looking at one of those Flip Ultra Video Camcorder things for her. What would even be nicer for me, would be if I could snag one on sale, or free! I Never Grew Up blog has one up for grabs, if you comment on the blog. If you want to try and win one too, head on over to I Never Grew Up and enter.

Good luck! Read the full story

From the website: KinderBach is preschool piano lessons, music for young children at their level of understanding. KinderBach presents music using the piano keyboard as the base instrument to maximize the beneficial effects on the growth and development of young kids. Children should love to learn an instrument and KinderBach makes the learning fun.

KinderBach was interested in having the whole TOSCrew review their product. I did not quite fit into the category of reviewing this, as I don't have a preschool child at home, and I don't have access to a keyboard either. So I e-mailed my sister who has a little guy at home that just loves music, and told her to try it out. So she did and this is what she had to say:

KinderBach is broken into levels. Each level has a number of weeks and each week has four sessions. My son is two, and he is definitely not ready for this, probably he would not even be ready at age three. He would never sit through the four sessions each week (even if we broke them up to one a night) he would be bored. It is just a lot of watching a video and "maybe" doing an activity sheet. Honestly, I wouldn't use this program at all. Although we know repetition is how we learn, this was overkill. I got up to week 24 and we still were not really using a piano or keyboard yet (maybe twice, three times over the 24 weeks were the kids asked to play notes on the piano).

I think kids who really do want to learn piano would get frustrated with the fact that they are not "playing" the piano.

A really good thing about this program is that if focuses a lot on the theory end of music. However, I feel you need to get the kids excited about playing and need to work the theory in with the playing, which I find this program does not do.

For some reason I was also unable to view any of the lessons in Level 4 and up.

Based on what I viewed I would not recommend this to parents interested in teaching their children piano.

Thanks Sis, for taking the time to review this for me.

Perhaps this program is better suited for an ages 4 and up (which then I would not describe it as being "preschool" that says to me anything from ages 2 onward). In any case, we all have different opinions on products and that is the beauty that is the TOSCrew. Please go check out that site, and read up what other homeschool families have said about this program, perhaps you will find it up your alley after all! The first sessions can be obtained at no cost at the Kinderbach website, so you can try it out for yourself too. Read the full story

One of my New Year's Resolutions is that we as a family eat healthier this year. I started this out last week when I went shopping by buying lots of fruit and vegetables.

I stopped by Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls blog earlier today and saw a posting about Funky Monkey Snacks. She is hosting a contest where one random commenter will win a variety of these healthy freeze dried snacks. What a great way to snack healthy, with flavors like Bananamon and Purple Funk, your sure to get your kids to try them.

If you would like a chance to win also, head on over to Frugal Mommy's blog the contest ends today at 9:00 pm est.
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I am a planner by nature - lists overtake my desk area and kitchen. I make sure I go over them once, twice and then again. Every detail, whether or not I have any control over it!

My vacation planning is really no different. Besides trips up to Canada to visit family (which I don't count!), our last 7 vacations all had to do with Disney, so I feel I am pretty versed in it!

One of our biggest planning strategies, is to take a vacation during off season. The prices for hotels are cheaper, and you can often get perks if you plan right through Disney. This past trip we took, was the only one where we have ever stayed on property. Usually we are too cheap to do that, but since we didn't want to rent a car, we explored the option. Since we were going during low season, and used a AAA discount we ended up getting the hotel for 20% off, we felt that was worth it. I found a lot of the dates and savings at MouseSavers.

We book far in advance -- as far out as we can. Usually you need to leave a deposit, but both with hotel rooms, and staterooms on the Disney Cruise Line, the earlier you book, the better the prices and selection. You can always cancel it if your plans change, usually at least 30 - 60 days out, with no penalty and your deposit back in full.

Breakfasts are usually cheaper than lunches or dinners, so even if you are staying in the park, eat a bigger breakfast, grab a snack at lunch, and then get counter service for supper if you want to save money. Surprisingly to us, the food at the hotel (we stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter), was less expensive than in the park, you did not have to tip because it is also cafeteria style, but the portions were huge, and it was tasty too. They offered all kinds of things, from Chicken Parmesan to Pot Roast.

After all the initial booking is done, until closer to the vacation date, there is not much to do but wait. Which is usually the most difficult of all! So this is how I do my waiting:

Put a wallpaper on my computer that is reminiscent of Disney (currently I have a picture of Castaway Cay their private island in the Bahamas)

Have a Disney postcard on my fridge.

Put a ticker on your blog, so each day you can see how much closer you're getting!

Visit the DisBoards for ideas and general chat about all things Disney.

Use the Disney toiletries I brought home from the ship and hotel room as sparingly as possible until it is all gone! (they are made by H20).

This year as I await our Transatlantic Cruise in 2010 on the Disney Magic - I will be playing along with the Destination Disney Meme.

What are your planning strategies? I'd love to hear them, post at Reviews By Heidi on the Destination Disney Meme. TTFN!
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