I MISS MY SIS....

How do you entertain a five year old, who is desperately missing his big sister, and who still has two weeks left before his preschool starts?? You let him watch Charlie bit my finger, the remix, from YouTube over and over!!

10 reasons why.....

Don't get me wrong. We loved most of the things about our trip to Disney however after visiting both Disney and Adventureland within 2 months of each other I feel qualified to make the following declaration.

TOP TEN REASONS WHY ADVENTURELAND IS BETTER THAN DISNEY WORLD

10. Even though neither the seniors running the rides at Adventureland nor the people running the rides at Disney seem happy in their jobs, at least the seniors occasionally will give you a smile.

9. At Adventureland you can bend over to tie your shoes laces without the fear of being trampled by thousands of crazed Mickey fans, many of whom are driving motorized carts and pushing strollers.

8. You don't have to take out a second mortgage to buy a meal at Adventureland.

7. After feeding your kids frozen lemonade and soft pretzels for 3 days at Disney (due to huge crowds at all the real food stands), they don't even ask to have either at Adventureland. In fact, I believe I saw a look of terror cross their faces when we passed the frozen lemonade stand.

6. At Adventureland the longest line we stood in was 10 minutes. At Disney World it was 2 hours.

5. At Disney World walking was like swimming upstream. (It reminded me of when my parents and I were at the Mall of America the day it opened....with 1 million other people!) At Adventureland we didn't have to worry about rubbing up against and sweating on strangers all day. We could actually move freely about. Even wave our arms if we wanted to!!

4. At Adventureland we could actually get a picture taken with a character. (Never mind that it was a mangy dog.)

3. Disney World 96 degrees, 100% humidity. Adventureland 80 degrees, 100% humidity.

2. At Adventureland I didn't have to worry about Sam getting into any fights with Europeans who, at Disney, were constantly cutting in the front of every line.

And the number one difference why Adventureland is better than Disney World.......

About $3,000 big ones!!

IS SHE WAVING??

Today we were driving home from our afternoon's activity. I was kind of spacing off thinking about what I was going to cook for dinner and thinking about calling Sam. We came up to a stoplight and I had to push on the brakes a little harder than usual to stop in time. It was not a big deal, I was just going a little faster than I thought. I didn't think anything of it and continued daydreaming. Meanwhile the car in front of me pulled up a little and I pulled up a little too. They did it again and I (totally subconsciously) did it again too. That's when I saw it. A little birdie waving to me from the lady's hand in the little white car in front of me. WHAT? Sometimes you receive the three finger salute because of something you know you have done but when it comes unexpected as this was, I found it SHOCKING. (Claremarie said, "Look mommy she's giving you the peace sign." Not sure why she thinks that but very thankful I didn't have to explain it to her!) Being the recovering people pleaser that I am I really just wanted to chase after her and ask her why she was so upset with me. For two obvious reasons I didn't but I will probably be obsessing about it all night wondering why!!

A SURREAL EXPERIENCE

Do you remember that scene in Steel Magnolias where M'Lynn (Sally Field) says it was her highest honor to be there when her daughter was born and it was her highest honor to be there when she died? Well, that didn't happen to me (thank goodness) but an experience I had tonight reminded me of that scene.

We stopped in to see my Grandma tonight. Last weekend was her big 90th birthday celebration/family reunion. It was a busy time with so many people around complete with the fire alarms going off in the nursing home when the candles were lighted. (Yes there were 90 and no we didn't think that was cruel. It is called FUN people!!) We just wanted to check in and see if she had recuperated from the big event. We got there about 7:45 pm and she was already in bed. (Seriously?! Don't even get me started on that!) I asked her if she was recovered from the party and she said, "I could go for another one! That was fun!" Too cute.

Get to the point you say....OK. As we were talking to Grandma she untucked herself so she could hold our hands and such, so as we were leaving I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and as the last one left in the room I told her I would tuck her back in. (I know her children have done this but I never have.) It was just such an odd experience that I'm not sure how to even describe it. (If I were a real writer I would develop this thought into some deep life application. Oh well....) Here I am, the granddaughter that was tucked in lovingly, many times by her grandmother, now having the privilege of gently tucking her in. So awesome that I get to do this for her and yet so bittersweet.......