Our Week – The One with All the Disney Prep and Girls Night

We had a busy week trying to get everything done before our trip, and I’m recapping it all today!

Monday, March 28

Monday morning, I dropped the kids and headed to Publix to do some shopping.  I didn’t have to get much since we’ll be out of town, so the trip was short and sweet.  The rest of the day was spent working on blog stuff and getting lots of things done that I wanted to have finished before our trip.  I always like to do a big deep clean at home before we leave for a trip (as if I don’t already have a million other things to do – haha) so we can get home to a clean and tidy house.  I started the deep clean on Monday, too, getting all of the surfaces in the house dusted and cleaning all of the toilets.

After school, we headed to Olivia’s dance school and dropped her off, and then Jacob and I went home so he could get his homework done.  While he worked on that, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, made lunches for Tuesday, and started prepping everything I could for dinner.

He and I headed back out around 5 to pick Olivia up.  B no longer works from home most days, so Jacob has to get dragged along to dance now, so he brought his new Lego magazine that had arrived in the mail so he’d have some entertainment while we waited in the car.  However, when we pulled up at the dance studio, B surprised us and was waiting in the parking lot to take him home.  Best Daddy ever!

I spent the next 30 minutes catching up on emails and reading my book until Olivia got out, and then she and I headed home to make dinner.  Since we were only a few days away from vacay, it was clean out the fridge and freezer time, so I pulled out vodka sausage pasta leftovers from the freezer, I made fresh noodles, steamed some broccoli, and warmed some bread to go along with it, and we had a super-fast, easy dinner that was ready in 20 minutes.  Those are the best kind!

By the time dinner was done, it was time for the kiddos to get showered, and then afterward, we watched about 15 minutes of America’s Got Talent: Extreme and 15 minutes of American Idol before sending them to bed.  At the rate we’re going, we’ll never finish these shows.  Haha.

B and I finished The Oscars that we’d started Sunday night, mostly because we wanted to see the Will Smith / Chris Rock face slap incident.  I’d already seen it a few times on social media throughout the day, but I wanted to see the version that we would have seen had we been watching live.  I also wanted to see Will Smith’s entire speech after winning his award. 

I still don’t know what to make of the whole situation.  Chris Rock’s joke was in very poor taste, and Will Smith’s reaction was even worse, but it just seems so out of character for Will Smith to have behaved that way.  I have always adored him, and I sure hope he does the right thing to make amends for his mistake.  It was such a disappointment.

Tuesday, March 29

Tuesday morning, I had an appointment first thing at the glass shop to repair a few chips in my windshield.  Sigh.  Last week, the kids and I were driving down the highway to school as we always do, and some dummy didn’t yield into the oncoming traffic like they were supposed to, so they ended up getting run off the road by the car in the slow lane next to us, and right as they ran off the road, a rock flew across two lanes of the highway (we were in the middle lane the whole time) and hit my windshield.  I’ve had rocks hit my windshield numerous times, but I’ve never had one make such a loud cracking sound as that one did. 

It scared me so bad that I automatically threw one hand up to protect my face while keeping the other one on the wheel because I thought for sure it was going to come through the windshield and hit me.  It scared the kids and me to death.  All was fine, but of course, I had a nice big chip in the windshield right in front of my driver’s seat.  Later that day, I realized there was another smaller one, and then two days later, B noticed that there was a third one.  Face palm. 

Anyway, our insurance covers windshield repairs (trust me, I know, because this happens to me all. the. time.  I have the worst luck with windshield cracks… this was probably the 5th or 6th repair I’ve had to have done in the last 7 or 8 years), and normally, the glass shop will come repair it at our house for free, so I don’t have to go anywhere.  However, their mobile appointments were completely booked until after our trip, and I wanted to get it all repaired before our long drive to Disney World, so I had to go to the place and wait while they repaired it.

Upon initial inspection, the guy who was doing the repair also pointed out a FOURTH chip down at the base of the windshield, and it was, by far, the worst one.  I just couldn’t see it from inside my vehicle, so I didn’t even know it was there.  Sigh. 

So anyhoo, I spent the next hour waiting in the shop while he repaired all four chips.  Thank goodness our car insurance covers it!  Hopefully we won’t have any more for a while. 

After that, I headed home to work on blog stuff and get some more things done around the house. 

After school, the kiddos did homework, and then we headed to the dance studio for Olivia’s class.  Jacob and I read in the car with the windows rolled down because it was another gorgeous day, and I finished Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover.  I loved it so much, y’all, but bring the tissues!

By the time we got home, B was home from work, so he and I whipped up some breakfast for dinner, and then we spent the whole evening outside.  It was just perfect outside, and we didn’t want to waste a second in the house.  The kids played some basketball, we took Maui for a walk around the neighborhood, and then the kids played with sidewalk chalk.  We pretty much had to drag them in the house to get showered and ready for bed. 

While they showered, I got in a quick stair stepper workout, and then after they were done, we squeezed in about 20 minutes of American Idol.  I don’t think we’re ever going to get caught up! 

After the kiddos went to bed, B and I watched This is Us, and then we headed to bed.

Wednesday, March 30

Wednesday morning, I dropped the kids at school and then I buckled down at home and worked on a ton of blog posts.  I had to get ahead before our trip, and I’m also trying to get ahead for summer, so it’s been nonstop blog work for a while now.  I had a suuuuper successful morning, and then I spent the afternoon deep cleaning the floors and finishing up the house-cleaning.  I always try to clean and tidy the entire house before we leave for a trip so we come home to peacefulness instead of chaos.  Haha.

We had nothing on the agenda all evening, so after school, the kids and I came home, and they got homework done while I tidied the kitchen and prepped for Thursday.  I got in a 30-minute HIIT workout after that while they watched some Minecraft videos on YouTube, and then they headed outside for the rest of the afternoon and evening besides coming in to eat dinner.

After dinner was done and the kitchen was clean, the four of us went for another walk around the neighborhood, and then we sat outside while the kids did sidewalk chalk.  We had major storms expected to blow in overnight, but the weather was perfection on Wednesday evening, although, it was crazy windy. 

The bad weather was expected to hit our area into the wee hours of the morning, so all of the local public and private schools (including ours) announced Wednesday afternoon that they were delaying the start of school by two hours on Thursday morning.  Because of that, we let the kids stay up a bit later so we could watch a good 45-minute chunk of American Idol, and then we let them have a slumber party on Olivia’s floor. 

Olivia is terrified of bad weather, and she ends up in our bed any time she’s awakened by thunder or wind, or even hard rain.  We figured that if we let Jacob sleep with her, that maybe his presence would comfort her enough to keep her in her own room.  It ended up working like a charm, because she did, indeed, stay in her own room when the storms blew through.  Thankfully, there were no tornadoes in our area as originally predicted, so we never had to get out of bed to take shelter.  The storms were loud, though, so I didn’t sleep well for part of the night, and I was thankful to be able to sleep in Thursday morning. 

Thursday, March 31

Thursday morning, we got out of bed around 7:30 which was a nice treat, and then B headed off to work while I got the kids ready for school.  Since they didn’t have to be there until 10, we had a leisurely morning, and they were able to watch some cartoons before we headed out.  We literally never turn on the TV on school mornings, so this was a huge treat for the kiddos, and they were excited about it.

Once I dropped them, I headed straight home to do all the things.  I had planned out a pretty long to do list for Thursday prior to the school system announcing the delay, but I decided to stick with it and see if I could still get it all done.  It mostly consisted of blog work, because as I’ve said a million times, I had to get way ahead before our trip, plus I’m trying to get ahead for summer.  I had another successful day… it’s amazing how much I can squeeze into a short amount of time now that I actually have a computer that works!! 

At 3, I picked up the kiddos, and then we headed home.  We did the whole homework, prep for the next day routine, and then the kids watched some videos on YouTube before heading outside for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  It was another beautiful day, and we didn’t want to waste it. 

Thursday, they got creative with the sidewalk chalk, and they drew all of the lines to make a basketball court for our basketball hoop.  Haha. 

When B got home from work, I headed out because it was girls night!  Six of us met downtown at one of our favorite local restaurants, and it the food was incredible.  There were so many options on the menu that looked amazing, and it was so hard to choose.  I typically get a filet at this place, but I decided to eat a little lighter since we’re about to be on vacation and I’ll be eating all the junk food.

We all had a round of drinks to start, and I opted for the Uptown Girl.  It was vodka, fresh strawberries, and basil and it was so crisp and delicious.  I need to try to figure out how to make that one at home... it seems pretty simple so I don’t think it would be that hard.

For dinner, I went with the grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and roasted brussels sprouts with the Argentinian Chimichurri sauce per my friend Heather’s recommendation.  Oh. my. gosh.  That chimichurri sauce was amazing.  It just completely made the meal, and it was definitely one of the best meals I’ve had at any restaurant here in our city.

Several of the girls opted for dessert afterward, but I opted out because I was just too stuffed.  They’re known for their desserts there, and it was reeeeally hard to turn down Limoncello cake and Banana Pudding Cheesecake, but I did.  Sigh.  Next time!

By the time we’d finished with everything, it was dark outside, but we took a detour to the courtyard behind the restaurant and had our waitress snap a picture anyway.  We were just missing my friend Jen… we just can’t seem to get everyone together at the same time because at least one person always has something come up at the last minute.  Hopefully one of these days we’ll have all seven of us there! 

By the time I got home, it was nearly 9 o’clock, so the kids were already showered and waiting for me to get home so I could help tuck them in.  After they were all snug in their beds, B and I watched an episode of The Other Two and then we went to bed.

Friday, April 1

Friday morning, I had a couple of last-minute errands before our trip, so after I dropped the kids, I did those.  First up, was UPS to drop a couple of Amazon returns, and then I went to Target to grab a few things for our trip, including some more children’s Claritin for Olivia.  Bless her heart, she has been really struggling with allergies this spring.  She’s never had them this bad before, so we may need to take her to the allergist and get her tested again. 

Mine have been acting up a good bit this spring, too, and that’s really odd because usually mine only act up in June when the grass pollen starts and then in the fall when the ragweed comes out.  I’m hoping we’ll all get a reprieve in Florida this week.  Probably not, though.  Haha.

B and I happened to see that our phones were eligible for free upgrades for a limited time on Wednesday, so we’d ordered new ones immediately.  I haven’t been able to talk on my phone for a while unless it’s connected to my car, because the speakers in the phone have been going in and out, and I’d also been having a few other issues with mine, so we couldn’t jump on the free deal fast enough.

Both phones arrived Friday morning, so B and I got down to business getting everything moved from the old phones to the new ones.  I synced my old phone with my computer first to make sure it was fully backed up before making the switch, and when I synced my phone, I lost ALL of my music playlists (it was an issue that we hadn’t yet found from moving to a new computer the week before).  If y’all know me, you know that I LOVE music, and I have a playlist for absolutely everything – every mood, every event, every era of my life, etc.  Therefore, I had over 50 different playlists on my phone… it was my life’s work, y’all.        

Fortunately, B was working from home since it was Friday, so he came upstairs and tinkered with it for a bit, and we were able to recover everything from my OLD computer.  THANK GOODNESS I had saved the old computer, because if it wasn’t for that backup stored on it, my playlists would have been gone forever… unless maybe they’re stored somewhere in the cloud??   

After I got home from picking up the kids, we got everything restored, synced again to store the playlists on my new computer, and then I had to get the new phone restored and switched over from my backup of my old phone.  Fortunately, that all went smoothly for me, and then it was just a matter of logging back into all of my dozens and dozens of apps since the passwords weren’t stored on the new phone.  Whew. 

And y’all, my Instagram filters are fiiiinnnnaaaallllyyyy back after almost a year of being gone!  And my Kia app finally started working again for my Telluride!!  I’m telling y’all, my phone was old and it was causing all kinds of problems.

Y’all, between migrating to a new laptop and then a new phone over the last couple of weeks, and aaaallll 84 million glitches we’ve run into + a couple of scares thinking I’d lost all of my data, I’ve had enough of technology to last me a while. 

First world problems, I know, though.  I am truly grateful that we can afford laptops and phones and nice things, but my goodness, it just seems like it would be much easier to get everything moved over since it’s 2022!!

Getting the new phone set up took up the rest of the afternoon and early evening, and by the time I did all of that and packed a couple of things, it was time for dinner.  We almost always get takeout on Friday nights, but since we were about to be eating out a ton at Disney, I just made grilled cheese sandwiches at home, and B and I whipped up some Moscow Mules to go along with them.

After dinner, B and I did a bit of packing while the kids got showered, and then we all watched some of America’s Got Talent: Extreme and American Idol.  After the kiddos were in bed, B and I watched a few episodes of The Other Two and then we headed off to bed as well.

Saturday, April 2

Saturday was B-U-S-Y.  We slept in since the next seven days were going to be early wake-up calls, and then I made homemade waffles for breakfast.  After that, the rest of the day was spent working out, packing, tidying, and getting everything ready for our trip.  B had been having major trouble getting his phone switched over, but he finally found a workaround Saturday morning and he was able to make the switch just in time for our trip.  Whew.

While we packed, we blasted our Disney playlist to get everyone hyped up for our trip (good thing I recovered my playlists!!!!).  I wrapped up some blog work after lunch, and then we all got ready and went to 5:30 Mass.  My friend, Jeannine, gave us a bag full of goodies for our trip while we were there, and the kids were so excited!  After Mass, we had Mexican with my parents at our favorite spot, and then we headed home to get in bed because Sunday we were leaving for Disney!!!!

And since Sunday was part of our trip, it’ll be recapped later on.  Happy Monday, y’all!  Be sure to follow along with us on Instagram… today is our first day in the parks!  EEK!

Happy Monday, y’all!