Mickey and friends

Tomorrow we get to go see the mouse, you know Mickey Mouse and all of his friends. The kids are really excited. All Buddy has talked about today is, “when are we going to the Toy Story Mania?” That is a new ride that they have at Hollywood studios, which is the park that we will be visiting tomorrow. Thanks to a friend that works at the House of Mouse we will not be spending big bucks to get into the park tomorrow.

Yesterday we went over to one of the other resorts run by Westgate to play mini-golf and have lunch. Lunch was really yummy!!(Free didn’t hurt either…lol) We had chicken wings, rice and pinto beans, fried plantains and all the soda you could drink. We have really been enjoying our vacation. It could not have come at a better time.

This morning we had breakfast (free again) by the pool before heading over to visit the IKEA store. I have been to the IKEA store in Chicago and it is something else. So I decided that Steve really needed to experience it too. The store in Orlando is nice, not as big as the one in Chicago but it has FREE childcare!! Yes, you read that right. There is a play area at the front of the store where there are IKEA workers that will watch your children while you shop in the store. You can shop for up to an hour child free. We didn’t leave the kids today but I thought that was a GREAT idea.

The other thing I wanted to tell you about is if you have a science museum anywhere near you, you need to look into getting a membership. My friend Cyndi has had a family membership to her local science museum for a couple of years now. Her family is coming up to visit us here in Orlando on Thursday and they were planning on going to visit the museum here. A lot of the science museums around the country are part of a network and if you are a member of your local museum then when you are out of town you can visit other museums with your membership. So as a gift my friend bought our family a year membership to a museum close to where we live for get this, $35 for all five of us for a whole year. So on Saturday our two families are going to visit the museum here in Orlando together. Then when we are back home we can go to Nashville or Knoxville and visit the museums there. I was looking at the list of museums that participate in the program and we can even go to museums in Australia!  If you want to check it out here is a link of the museums that are in the program.

Well I am headed to bed. I need to get my rest so I can be ready to walk, walk, walk, walk tomorrow!!

On my mind

I have been sitting here at my kitchen table making up snack bags of different things for us to take with us on our trip to Indianapolis that is coming up. I am really looking forward to our trip for a number of reasons. I don’t have to cook, clean or do any laundry are very high on my list. But this will be my first opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (I know for some of you, you may prefer a root canal instead…lol) But I am hoping to see some old friends from IL and maybe even meet some of my online friends at one of the lunches. Speaking of lunches, Dr. Gary Smalley (the Love Languages guy) is the guest speaker at the Minister’s Wives lunch this year and I am really looking forward to hearing him speak.

But sitting here measuring out Cheez-Its, Cheerios. M & M’s and other goodies for our trip gave my mind time to think (could be a dangerous thing, I know). We decided to buy larger packages of the stuff we like to snack on and make up snack bags instead of buying the snack bags. Although convenient, these items add up in cost quickly and we are trying very hard to watch every penny as we make this trip. While this will be like a vacation for me and the kids it is a working trip for Steve. So we are doing everything that we can to save so that when we do take are actual vacation in July we have money for that trip (Mickey Mouse we are coming to visit you).

But I was thinking about being good stewards of things, not just money, but time, talent, even the words that we say. I witnessed today someone not being a very good steward with the words coming out of her mouth. And the one being hurt by it was her child, not directly by the words because the lady was talking on her cell phone but indirectly because the child could hear what was being said. I know the child could hear because I could hear. It just made me sad because I happen to know the child personally and the child is so sweet and and is put between adults that sometimes don’t act the way they should.

Well we had friends over last night for kind of thrown together cookout. But sometimes those are the best fun aren’t they. Steve’s parents were here for a visit this week, cut short because Steve’s dad just was not feeling well (I pray you are feeling better soon!!) His dad bought us some really nice steaks and I had a whole bag of potatoes so as the kids and I were leaving play group I invited L and her clan(I say clan cuz she has 5 kiddos) over for a late dinner. We ate, the kids played. And the adults bowled a couple of games on the Wii before calling it a night. It was fun to have L & E over and all of their kids. And L if you read this Buddy was up at 6 am this morning asking if he could play the Wii. I did not think it was funny….