Kids are keeping my busy

Happy Thursday everyone! Hope all is going well. I didn't mean to go MIA, but life has a way of doing that. I still need to do the last posts about my Disney chaperoning trip, but first I thought I'd hop on here and just do a general life update. 

The kids have been keeping me hopping!

The last month has been consumed with track for Jacob. He joined the middle school track team this year and that means daily practices and several meets. He has participated in the throwing events of shot put and discus. He also runs the 100-meter dash. He has improved his shot-put throws from 15 feet 11 inches in his first meet to 23 feet and 1/4 inches in his last meet yesterday. He also improved his discus throw from 43 feet 8 inches in his first meet to his personal record of 52 feet at the meet before last night. I am so proud of him for trying out a new sport and having a blast. He is planning on keeping up with practice over the summer and then participating in track and field again next year. The only bad part of his participating in track is that several of his meets are almost an hour away. He had 2 meets this past week and both were between 50 minutes and an hour away. I will go to everyone that I can, to support him! 

This last month has been consumed with CINDERELLA play practice and performance for Rebecca! She was in her high school musical production of Roger and Hammerstein's Cinderella. She was in the ensemble and was also the understudy to Cinderella and the stepsisters. That involved a lot of daily practices, usually in the evening, and lots of late nights. The performances were last weekend, and the musical was so good. I ended up going to all 3 performances and am so proud of Rebecca and the rest of the cast for a great play! 

Ben has also been keeping me busy. He has had state testing at school and that has caused his anxiety to skyrocket. That means he is clingier and whinier and so I have needed to be available for more cuddles and hugs. We are also entering the last month of school for him, and he is anxious about moving to the Middle School next year. He has had some fun though, as his dad took him and Jacob to WWE Smackdown event in Columbus last week. Once he got over the pyrotechnics and the noise, he had fun.

 

As for me... well, I in between driving kids all over and supporting them, I have also had a few doctor's appointments. I finally had an MRI done on my knee and found out that I have a small tear in my meniscus, cartilage that is pulling away in 2 different places and the start of a stress fracture where my knee meets my tibia. Ugh. My orthopedic wants to do arthroscopic surgery with a recovery of 4-6 weeks. Thankfully, he said that I could wait until the end of May so that I wouldn't miss too much pay for work. I only have 2 sick days and 1 personal day left for this school year. I had a pre-surgery screening last week and am just waiting for them to call and give me a date. They said that they might need to get cardiology clearance due to my myocardial bridge. I am hoping to hear tomorrow or early next week with a date. Hopefully. 

Well, I should wrap this up and go flip laundry or do something else productive. I'm not going to promise that I will be posting every day, but I am going to try to post more often than I have been. Rebecca has been yelling at me to post more! LOL 

I hope everyone has a great rest of today and a good weekend coming up! 

I chaperoned a Disney trip--- Day 3: Universal Studios

 Happy Friday everyone! This has been the longest week ever. I don't know what it is, but this week has just dragged on. The weather has been drop-dead gorgeous, work hasn't been horrible, so I don't know what it is. Maybe I am still getting over my Disney trip. LOL Speaking of... let's get to day 3. Our 1st day at Universal Studios. 

Day 3 dawned really early. It was Saturday and we were heading to Universal Studios for the day. If you have never been to Universal, then you should know that there are 2 parks...the original Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. They are connected by a large dining/shopping/outdoor area called City Walk. We had tickets for both parks so that was fun. 

I decided to spend my time Saturday at the original Universal side, as we would again be at Universal the next day for the band, choir and orchestra performances and then the rest of the day at the parks. I am so glad that I did this, because I could really take in the different areas that Universal had. 

I met some favorite characters, including Squidward and Patrick from "Spongebob Squarepants" and Scooby-Doo and Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo franchise. 

I enjoyed walking around the Diagon Alley from the "Harry Potter" series. It was totally immersive. I even had a Butter Beer, which was a goal of mine. It was yummy... cream soda with like a butterscotch whipped topping. 

I enjoyed walking through "The Simpsons" area, as this is a favorite tv show of Bill's. I had a yummy taco lunch at "Bumblebee Man's Taco."

It was fun just walking around taking in all the different sights and sounds. 

We had to meet up with our kids at 5 for a check-in and most of the kids were ready to be done for the day. It was hot, they were still tired. But we carried on until our departure time of 10pm. 

After checking in with my girls, I decided to treat myself to a nice sit-down dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe. It was a lovely treat just for me. 

After dinner, I headed over to the main street area for their Mardi Gras parade. They were doing a Mardi Gras of Flavors festival while we were there (including having food trucks featuring cuisine from around the world.) Each evening they had a Mardi Gras themed parade. Honestly, I think that was my favorite part of the day. It was so much fun seeing the spectacle that was the parade, and getting beads thrown at us (without having to lift our shirts!) 

After the parade, I headed back over to our meeting up point for the evening and enjoyed the lights and sounds of City Walk at night.

 

It was another exhausting day, but a good day, nonetheless. We got back to the hotel for showers and bed, ready to go back for the performances the next morning! 

Have you ever been to Universal Studios? Have you ever had Butterbeer? Have you ever been to a Mardi Gras parade? 

I chaperoned a Disney trip--- Day 1 and 2: the drive there and Hollywood Studios

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today has been a gorgeous day here in Ohio with temperatures in the low 70s and bright sunshine. Just a perfect Spring Day. It was also our first day back to school/work after Spring Break. It wasn't too bad of a day! 

I thought I would hop on her to start the recap of my adventures at Disney/Universal Studios last weekend. 

As I mentioned I signed up to be a parent chaperone for the High School Band, Choir and Orchestra trip to Florida. Rebecca asked me if I would go and while it was a stretch financially, we made it happen. 

Last Thursday at 12:05PM, 4 charter buses full of students, the band-choir and orchestra directors, and the parent chaperones headed out for a 20+ hour bus ride to Florida. Thankfully, I had a double seat to myself as a chaperone. 

Me, Rebecca and her 3 roommates for the trip on the bus ready to go

I will say that one of the funnier moments came when we entered Kentucky, and our bus (which was most of the choir kids) broke out in song for the high school alma mater, but in a very country Kentucky accent. 

The ride down wasn't horrible. I read a book on the route. We stopped for dinner and a gas stop at Buc-ees. We had never been there and it was an experience. Rebecca said that it freaked her out. LOL 

Yes, I made Rebecca take a picture with the Buc-ees mascot. LOL

Back on the bus, it was lights out around 11. Sleeping was next to impossible. However, it was nice to have some quiet. 

We got to see the sunrise in Florida. And we arrived at The Rainforest Cafe around 7:30ish to meet our tour directors. We went through security and had a lovely buffet breakfast at Rainforest Cafe, where we were also able to change clothes and freshen up as we were spending the day at Hollywood Studios! 

We headed to Hollywood Studios and the first character that I saw in my 1st trip ever to Disney was Daisy Duck! 

I spent the morning with Rebecca and her friends where we rode a couple of rides including Mickey's railway ride and a Toy Story themed ride. 

After that I then decided to let them go off and have fun and I walked around by myself and just enjoyed being there. 

I had a lot of fun going through the different areas. I really enjoyed the Star Wars area and even had "Blue Milk" to drink. It was a yummy fruity, coconutty concoction. Super Yummy. I saw storm troopers and Chewbacca and Rey. I also got to meet Chewbacca and Darth Vader.

I also got to meet Pluto! It was a load of fun just walking around people watching and character watching. I had dinner at Dockside Diner, where I had a yummy hot dog with avocado and slaw and some other things on it. I also had a lemonade slushie, which was super yummy on the hot day. 

Towards the end of the night, we all met up again to watch Fantasmic!, which is a light and sound extravaganza featuring Mickey and all of his friends. It was amazing! Truly a show to see! 

Our High School choir, band and orchestra group waiting for Fantasmic to start. 

Then it was back to the bus and head to the hotel for check in. This is where things got a little crazy. We had to wait for Hollywood Studios parking people to allow the buses to come through, so we stood around in one area of the parking lot for almost an hour waiting. Then when we got to the hotel, there had been a mix-up and where we were supposed to be staying, they only had rooms for the boys. The girls were staying in another hotel across the courtyard. When some of the girls went to their rooms, their key cards wouldn't work. One set of girls had 2 different room numbers on their cards and neither worked. One set of girls' key cards worked, but there were other people's things in their rooms. It was crazy. Thankfully, for Rebecca and her roommates and for my other 4 girls I was in charge of their rooms were fine and their cards worked out. 

Let me tell you, my shower that night and that hotel bed felt SO good after being on the bus all the night before and being in Hollywood Studios all day. We finally got to bed around 1am, and our call time for breakfast the next day was 7am before a full day at Universal Studios! 

Have you ever been to Hollywood Studios? Who is your favorite Disney character? Do you think I was insane agreeing to chaperone, especially with my bum knee?