Check out this rockin’ contest from Hampton Hotels! It’s the Hampton Chain of Friends Sweepstakes. How awesome would that be?  Getting an entire hotel for you and 100 of your closest friends?  Cool.  Makes my head dream a bit…(insert the boo-da-doo-da-doo from Wayne’s World)

First, it’s not hard for us to get 100 people together.  Christmas Eve dinner is 30-40 people, and that’s just immediate family!  Where would I take 100 of my closest friends, and what would we do?  Let’s see…

I would have to pick a place that everybody could drive.  Not everybody can afford airfare.  So, at first I thought Cleveland.  Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, some bar hopping in The Flats, some nice dinners…but what about the kids?  Not everybody could get sitters for the weekend (including myself!)  So, then I thought it would be cool to have 100 people go to Williamsburg.  We could take the kids to Busch Gardens.  And Colonial Williamsburg.  The grown ups AND the kids could have fun.  The Hampton Inn & Suites in Williamsburg has an indoor pool AND an outdoor pool.  The kids can swim, the adults can relax.  And we’d be with 100 people that we like.

I’m gonna put it out there to the universe….that’s what I’d love.  OR, you can all enter and invite me for the weekend if you win!  Where would you go?  Let me know…’cuz I’ll need to know what to pack.  Oh, and if it’s a kid-free weekend, I’ll start recruiting babysitters early!

Next?  Hair cuts for the girls.  Then we were off to neighborhood happy hour.  Beer and snacks for me, and lots of kids, swings and a trampoline for the kids.  We had a great time, and we didn’t leave until midnight.  I must say, I have a great bunch of neighbors.  The only thing missing on Friday were mani/pedis

Saturday I got to see my brother and his family, and enjoy the AWESOME EASTER BREAD that my Dad makes.  He ships it up to us from Florida.  Yummy.  I thought for sure that the girls would be sooooo tired that they would have fallen asleep by 8:00.  notsomuch.  I think the bath (that I couldn’t skip, because they were absolutely filthy) woke them up.  Easter involved another egg hunt (in which both of my kids won prizes – THANK GOD!) and dinner with family.  Beautiful weather all weekend.

Today they spent the day at my sister-in-law’s while I went to work.  Another beautiful day.

I’ll end the update with a couple of things that Chloe said.  Last night she asked me if, when you go into the hospital to get your baby taken out, do they give you a tattoo?  I explained that no, that’s not how it works.  When she asked for more info, I told her that, WHEN I WAS A GROWN UP, I paid a tattoo artist to give me a tattoo.  She told me that she wants a star tattoo.  Then I told her how much it hurts.

She’s weighing all the facts.

At my sister-in-law’s today, while Chloe was inside and my SIL was outside, she opened the door and asked “Aunt Missy, is skin meat?”

Uh….OK.

And I’ll leave you with that.

I’m actually looking forward to it.  (Keep in mind, however, that today IS day one).  We have a bunch of stuff planned.  Today we went to the park with a bunch of friends.  There is a huge hill at the back of this park.  Perfect for “King of the Hill.”  My kids haven’t quite figured out that game yet, but they did figure out how to roll down the hill.  Right into the mud.  They came home filthy, but happy.  Nothing like an afternoon bath after a morning at the park!

Our plans include dying eggs with the extended family, trip to the outlet mall tomorrow, haircuts, some time with my brother and his family, Easter Egg hunt, Easter dinner, and school conferences.  The weather is FANTASTIC!!!!!!  The temperature inside my car today read 77 degrees.

Aaaahhhhh, now THAT feels better.  The girls have been getting along FAIRLY well.  I mean, they are still sisters.  They have their moments.  But they’ve really been depending on each other, protecting each other, and entertaining each other.  They are starting to act older, and I’m OK with that.  In fact, we went to see “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” on Monday.  They were SO well behaved.  I mean, the chair still swallows Chloe a bit.  And she doesn’t like the booster seat.  So she ended up on a lap for most of the time.  But they were good.  Quiet.  Attentive.  Awesome.

And the movie?  Loved it.

So, I hope you enjoy YOUR time with your kids.  Let’s hope they all get along.  And don’t trash the house TOO much.

I have this small part of me that really feels like a kid when I go to Disney. But that’s not really the hook for me. I REALLY love seeing peoples’ faces when they experience Disney for the first time. I’ve only been there four or five times, but the last couple of times I went were awesome.

:::again, imagine the wavy lines taking you back in time:::

Tony and I had just gotten back together after being apart for a year. In that year, I had started making a decent (well, decent for my age) amount of money and had moved into my own apartment. Tony had moved to West Virginia. And we were doing the whole ‘long distance’ thing until the school year was over at the end of April. In December, I decided we were going to Disney World. I didn’t have much cash, especially seeing that I had just moved out on my own. But I did have some. I purchased some two-bit package from AAA. I was getting the airfare, tickets, and a room at a past-its-prime motel about a half an hour away.

The trip was great. We had fun just being together. The look on Tony’s face when he a) got on a plane for the first time and 2) walked on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom was awesome. We got to spend an entire week together, and I was thrilled to show him all this stuff for the first time. (But the most memorable thing of the whole trip was the beam falling down from the ceiling in our motel room. And the fact that the water in the pool was only 70 degrees and Tony INSISTED that if he was in Florida, he was going to go swimming.)

::::OK, wavy lines again. Back to the present::::

So, it’s not like I have some crazy obsession with Disney. I don’t. But I am UBER excited to see my kids experience this place for the first time. They have absolutely no idea. And you know, they’re not really into princesses, or Mickey Mouse, or anything Disney. They DO like Toy Story. And I’ve talked up the Tower of Terror enough, so now they’re excited about that. But even though they’re not so into Disney, I know it will blow them away.

Not to mention, it will be awesome for the four of us to be together for eight days. (We’re going to drive over to Cape Coral and visit with my folks for a few days before we come home.) I think the fact that we won’t exactly be RELAXING will be good, too. You see, Tony has a little bit of a problem leaving the restaurant. He is constantly thinking about what is going on, and worrying if everything is OK. I figure, if we’re in Florida, he can’t really do anything. And if we’re running around from park to park and swimming and such, he may not HAVE TIME to think about the restaurant.

That’s my evil plan, anyway. Let’s hope it works.

Well, I guess everybody is basically caught up to speed. I did start smoking again in December (I lasted an entire month without smoking). I WILL quit again. Soon. I have been very good about going to the gym, and I’ve actually lost about seven pounds. And I’m working on setting up some e-commerce websites. More to come on that. And I’m sure I’ll have another story about something that one of the kids said. Just give them a few days

Wednesday night we went to see Ice Age 3 in 3D.  It wasn’t a cheap evening, though!  $30.50 just to get in (at 5:00, too!).  Seventeen dollars at the concession stand ($6.50 for each kid – popcorn, drink and fruit snacks and a $4 bottle of water for me).  But, the kids liked the movie, and sat through it well.  That was my first attempt at taking the girls to the movies on my own (aside from the drive in, but it’s OK if they’re restless and loud there).

Friday we had ice cream for dinner.  I throw that at them every once in a while.  Usually when I’m craving some fried ice cream with honey.  Yummmmmmmmm.  Later that night, we went to see some fireworks.  The kids really enjoyed them, and it was worth waking Chloe up from her deep slumber on the couch

Saturday we went to my Sister-in law’s camp in Pymatuming.  We did the regular gig – head out on the p0ntoon boat, do some fishing, feed the fish at the spillway, eat some more ice cream, cook out and have a camp fire.  Oh, and Becca got her first burn from a sparkler.  I told her that it was a right of passage.  She could cross ‘get burned by a sparkler’ off her list of things to do while she’s a kid.  Here’s a little ditty they did for their Aunt Kimmie:

Yesterday we got to hang out with Tony.  We had a pizza picnic outside and played some kick ball.  I was a little upset that there wasn’t a new episode of True Blood on last night, but I guess I’ll survive.  It was nice to have some chickie bonding over the last few days.  I’m trying to take everybody else’s advice and ‘enjoy them while they’re young.’  I think I managed to do that this weekend.  I will admit, however, that some days it’s hard to just ‘enjoy’ them.

I guess I’ll just continue to walk on both sides of that line.  You know, the line between ‘I’m your buddy’ and ‘I’m the authority figure.’  I’m guessing that as long as I spend equal amounts of time on each side, my kids should turn out OK and not hate me in the process.

I hope.

When Tony and I were dating (well, when we got back together after being apart for a year), I planned a trip to Disney World.  Tony had never been on an airplane (and thus, never been to Disney World.  Or Florida).  We didn’t have a lot of cash back then, so we stayed in a hotel sort of far away, which was falling apart.  We had a great time, but do you know what my favorite part was?  Seeing Tony’s face light up like a little kid when we entered the Magic Kingdom!  Even though he was ‘cool’ and not exactly a huge Disney fan, you can’t help but feel like a kid when you walk through those gates.

We had a blast.  I rushed him to all of my favorites from when I was a kid.  We hit the Haunted Mansion, which was (is) my absolute favorite.  We went to Space Mountain.  Hell, we even rode the tea cups.  We went to all of the parks that year (Animal Kingdom wasn’t open yet).  We ate and drank our way through Epcot.  We loved the Tower of Terror. I think the only thing we missed was buying our own classic Mickey Mouse ears.

Now that I’m planning the vacation for the kids, I’ve got to scrape a bit.  It costs a lot to go to Disney! Especially for four people!  But I’m sure every penny will be worth it just to see the excitement on the kids’ faces.  I’m sure they’ll be blown away! There are some less expensive ways to get to Disney, and you can get Disney Tickets from places other than Disney.  One place is orlandofuntickets.com. I figure, I’m gonna give enough of my cash to Disney, I may as well try to find some deals!

So, the planning continues.  The kids and I have already talked about the Haunted Mansion. Sometimes the build up is just as good as riding the actual ride!

BTW, the wine made it better. More later!

If you don’t know much about the law of attraction, I’ll give you the nutshell version (since I’m not writing a blog to teach this stuff). Basically, it says that whatever you put out there, you get back. You put out good vibes, you get good things back. It really gets a lot more complicated than that, like being grateful for what you have, and making room in your life to get the things that you want. I’ll include some books at the end of this post that I like. Why am I telling you all of this stuff? Well, it’s sort of the intro to a story I remembered the other day. And here it is:

Almost two years ago, we were planning a trip to the Outer Banks, NC. This is a place where we go every couple of years with the Downey family. We were excited about going, and really looking forward to spending some ‘quality’ family time together. There was one thing that Tony had always wanted to do on these trips. He always wanted to go deep sea fishing. He wanted that feeling of being strapped into a chair with that huge fishing rod, reeling in the ‘big one.’ A couple of months before the trip, we were chatting about this in our kitchen before he left for work. He said “I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m going deep sea fishing this year. I’ve decided.”

I thought “Ummmm, OK. I don’t know how we’re going to pay for one big huge fishing trip.” He had attempted to get a fishing trip together about 4 or 5 years prior. The trip that he booked didn’t exactly live up to his expectations. There was a group of maybe 6 guys, and they went out on a boat, but there wasn’t really any ‘deep sea’ involved. They went fishing. Pretty much, regular old fishing out in the ocean. When the first guy started reeling in a fish, he got ready for a big fight. As he pulled back on the rod and started reeling his catch in, the fish literally skipped across the top of the water.

Well, here’s what happened a few days after that kitchen conversation. At this time, Tony worked at a hotel bar at the airport. He was chatting with his guests, and mentioned his upcoming trip to the Outer Banks. One of his semi-regular guests said that he was also going to be in the Outer Banks around the same time. He started to tell Tony about how they charter a million dollar boat every year to go deep sea fishing. Tony, seeing this as his golden opportunity, asked if they had room for an extra guy. He said that he’d definitely pay his way. Matt (his guest) said that yes, he might have room for an extra guy. But they would have to figure out if they were going to be there the same week (Note: Why do guys NEVER know when things are happening. Tony was only semi-sure of the dates we would be there, and same with Matt. Women have to deal with all of the details!).

The next day, Tony told me about what had happened. He was super pumped, and that day we got an email saying that yes, we would all be there the same week. We went on vacation, Tony caught a 65 pound Tuna, and he had one of the best days of his life. (OK, next to marrying me and having the kids–I hope.) The day of his trip, the rest of our extended family had gone out to dinner, and the girls and I waited at the cottage for Tony’s return. He walked in the door with a gigantic smile and a radiant glow. He just looked so farkin’ happy!

The point? Tony decided that the deep sea fishing was happening. He concentrated on it, and put it out there. And sure enough, it happened. I can say this for many things in our lives, incuding the opening of our restaurant. If you want to read up on any of this, check out the books below.

If you think I’m a crackpot, that’s OK, too.

Sometimes I think I’m a crackpot.

Then, it was back to reality. At least the weather in Pittsburgh has been OK. We’ve actually gotten to spend some time outside. I’ve been trying to get all of the t’s crossed and i’s dotted for Downey’s House, but there really is a lot I can’t do yet. We’ve been getting applications. More now because I posted an ad on Craigslist. I’ll be going to Jabby Joe’s on Monday and hanging out to see how everything is running now. Tony is convinced that everything will go through on the anniversary of his parents’ deaths (April 28th and 29th, I think). Hey, we’ll take whatever divine intervention we can get.

On a lighter note, I am SO EXCITED TO SEE A NEW EPISODE OF THE OFFICE TONIGHT. I so love that show. In fact, I think that there’s all new stuff on tonight, so I may sit on the couch with the laptop and just indulge in the tv.

Well, have a great weekend. Even though the weather is supposed to be cold and yucky on Sunday, it will still be the weekend.