Grand Canyon or Bust!

Tiki Travelers is gearing up for the "Grisswald Family Vacation." Starting this Saturday we are climbing in Buddy the RV and heading out west. The ultimate destination is the Grand Canyon. But we are going to see as many other parks, sites, tourist traps, great restaurants, etc. that we can before we return.

We scheduled a whopping 2 weeks for this adventure. We are going to be working on some of our "bucket list" items. Donna's never seen the GC. I've never seen Vegas. I have never ordered a 72oz steak and tried to eat it in one hour. We've never ridden in a helicopter or on a mule. Don't know if we will get the last one or not.

For trip preparation we went on AAA website and planned the route, picking out the various places to see on the way out. We worked on Buddy the RV last weekend getting all the little fix-it things taken care of. We caulked the shower, tried out the water heater, added a bunch of hooks and hangers to take advantage of unused space, and made several minor repairs. Amy and Will worked on dirty spots in the carpet and got Buddy all spic and span. (whatever that means)

Our first destination is Dallas and the Texas Book Depository. I am going to get my picture taken on the grassy knoll. (Why is this called a knoll, why not a hill or spot or exit ramp??? we don't call anything else a knoll that I am aware of ~ just something to ponder).

NEW CAR (TRUCK) FEVER!

I admit it. I have it. I have a case of new truck fever. Ever since Andy drove off in MY truck, I've NEEDED to get a new one. Not just any old new one. I want a Ford F-150 King Ranch Crew Cab. If you are going to pray for a new vehicle, it aught to be a good one. (That could go on a T-shirt.)

So what to do? How am I going to get over this new truck fever? Thankfully I have the self control not to raid the kids college fund or our retirement fund to go get one. I haven't had a car note since I finished paying for the truck Andy stole from (got) me. I don't want to borrow money, and I don't have enough laying around. I did check under the sofa, no luck there.

I came across a cure. At least it seems to be working for me. I found this on livecheap.com. They recommend making a list of everything that is currently wrong with your car. Stuff that you have been living with cause it was worrysome, but not enough of a burden to fix. Make that list, and start spending on ALL of those repairs. Fix every single thing you can think of that is wrong.

I have two cars to deal with. One is my Harley (convertible). The other is my truck (small SUV). On the car my list includes: brake job; trunk lift supports; new radio with jack for ipod; new ipod; fix the window control; fog light busted; heater is not working; dead battery cell; very dirty finish; windshield wipers.

I put a new battery in it last week. Allen washed it this week. I am buying trunk lift supports on the way home from work today.

When you think about it, we really do some goofy stuff in order to get buy instead of going ahead and fixing stuff that is broken. I have been driving around for 2 years with a large paint stick in my trunk to hold open the trunk lid instead of going to autozone and buying the part that I need to fix it.

When I get done with the car, I am going to start on the SUV. It has major repairs like a new A/C and electrical issues with the transmission and seat controls. But that is another list for later.

I can honestly say that this cure is working. I am over my truck fever. I have good goals to study on car repairs. I am still fervently praying for my King Ranch F-150. And tonight I will have a used paint stirring stick to put on ebay.

Dip Makin and Dry Rub Creation

We found some new spices this week at Rainbow Grocery. Rainbow is where all the hip people in Jackson go to get their groceries, incense, and tofu burgers. They let the rest of us shop there too.

I found some organic adobo spice. I thought it was going to be like the adobo sauce that the chipotole peppers are stored in. Turns out it is pepper, salt, oregano, garlic, onion, and turmeric. I have to be honest, I used it as the only spice this weekend on our steaks. It wasn't right. The steaks were just ok. They needed salt. So, my views on adobo seasoning is, "Ah, it's ok, just remember to use some salt too."

I found roasted garlic granules. These are wonderful. All the flavor of roasted garlic, and none of the work or squishy finger mess. These puppies are very powerful. I mixed them one to one with my other find, chipotole powder to make a spice for chip dip.

The dip was 1 cup of sour cream with 1 tea spoon of garlic granules and 1 tea spoon of chipotole powder. It was way to garlic. I added 1/2 a tea spoon of Cayenne pepper and balanced it out. This dip was good. It grabs the back of your throat on the way down with that good pepper feeling.

My dry rub consist of turbindeno sugar 1/2 cup(I know I misspelled that), cayenne pepper 1 TBs, chipotole pepper 1 TBs, salt 1/2 cup, black pepper 1/2 cup, dry mustard 3 TBs, and paprika 1/2 cup. I chopped it all in a spice grinder to blend. Going to try it on the next batch of ribs.

Snow Update

Yes, I believe it now. Most snow in Mississippi in February since 1960. We had 5 inches on the patio table.

The funny thing that happened today was when Mack went outside to take care of business, he stole the nose off the kids snowman and ate it.

"Funny, that guys nose tasted like a carrot!"

Grilling in the snow

Yes, it is one of those wonderful times of the decade when Mississippi gets a real snowfall. It was suppose to be here by 5:00 p.m. and it hasn't started yet 6 hours later. So when we wake up, we should have a white cover of 5 to 8 inches of snow.

I've been in Mississippi 19 years. I'll believe it when I see it.

That sets the stage for my blog. My lovely best friend chimed in when I got home that we needed to grill pork chops tonight. I reminded her that it was cold outside, suppose to snow, etc.. She grinned, and said, we need to grill pork chops tonight. They are already thawed and we need to grill them. Grin Grin.

So it wasn't snowing just yet, I made my way out to the new grill, uncovered it and cranked her up. 15 minutes later we were sitting down to some of the best pork chops ever. Yes, it was that quick. I put some mesquite grill rub on them and put them on a 600 degree grill. Flipped them at 5 minutes and waited for the finish. Then took them off close to 10 minutes.

Here is the trick. Eddie and Sabrina gave us "the coolest gift ever" for Christmas this year. It is a temperature probe with a timer and a remote beeper. When the meat gets to the temperature you want it at in the middle, the unit goes off and makes the remote go off in your pocket if you happen to be inside washing dishes or refilling your favorite adult beverage. So no more burned dried out meat from the grill because you were up to your elbows in Joy suds.

While it is true that I "technically" didn't grill in the snow today, my lovely best friend informed me that we have a shoulder thawing in the fridge, and it has a date with destiny on Saturday ~ in the snow!

BBQ Chicken Speghetti

On the first night in Honduras we fixed speghetti. And as always, we fixed too much. We had a fridge this year and we were able to save two gallons of the mix. It was routine speghetti using Ragu and browned ground beef along with noodles.

As a side note, we fixed 7.5 lbs of meat with 2 large cans and 3 small cans of sause and 6 pounds of dry noodles to feed 50 people. With that, we had two gallons left over.

Back to the story.

Someone suggested we make BBQ Chicken Speghetti. We said, "great idea". Not knowing how to do it, we just winged it. (pun intended). We purchased two chickens that had been roasted and pulled the meat off of them. And for those that know me, yes I did pull the meat off of the birds, amazing! We cut the big chunks of breast meat into bite sizes and mixed the chicken meat in with the speghetti along with a bottle and a half of BBQ sause. We used a local Honduran BBQ sause that was a vinegar based sause like you would find in North Carolina. We stirred it all up and put it in the oven to warm.

Chipotle Dip

My favorite appetizer we made this past week in Honduras was the Chipotle Dip. Mix one box of cream cheese and one cup of mayonnaise with 1/2 cup ranch dip. Stir this together until it is smooth. If you want a mild good flavored dip, use one can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. If you want to kick it up 3 notches, use 2 cans. First open the can and dump all of the peppers onto a cutting board. Slice up the peppers in very small pieces and stir into the cheese mayo mixture. Be sure to get all of the sauce out of the can and off the cutting board. There is a lot of good flavor in the sauce. You are using smoked jalapeno peppers, so be careful not to get them in your eyes or other sensitive areas.

We served this dip with crackers, corn chips, or potato chips.

Crowd Pleasing Appetizers

I am looking for some crowd pleasing appetizers for Honduras next week. I am going to try to have a small special something ready for the hungry crowd when they get in off the bus. Last time I made jalapeno poppers one night roasting whole peppers on the griddle and filling them with cheese. They were a hit with the eaters, but I gagged the cooks when the capsaicum hit the small kitchen. We were coughing and gagging like when we had to take a note into the teacher's lounge back in high school (you could still smoke indoors back then.) I've thought about cheese trays or stuffed eggs. I'd like to do something Asian or Mexican too.

So if you have any ideas, please send me a comment. All I have to cook with is hot water or a griddle. I suppose I could do sushi, but one of my firm rules when traveling is don't eat raw meat.

I have to come up with 5.

Here are some other considerations:
Queso Dia
Egg Rolls (if we can find wonton wrappers)
jalapeno poppers
Chips and salsa
Sesame Chicken Skewers
Potato Skins
Fruit-k-bobs
Candied Ginger
Fresh french fries with cheese and/or gravy
Shrimp and Grits (gonna get fancy one night)

Cool contest I found to win free groceries for a year

Hey, I just entered this contest on Cozi.com to win free groceries for a year. All you have to do is put in your email address.

Even if you don’t enter, please click the link to help me win. (I get an extra entry for telling you.) Thanks!

View >>

Top Ten things to do at work when you are alone

For those not in the know, the City of Jackson does not have water to drink or flush in Downtown. Ever since the deep freeze the past 14 days, pipes have been bursting all over, and the city is struggling to repair them and get the pressure back up.

The Gov closed all of the state buildings and sent the workers home. But as portable toilets were set up, we've been slowly coming back to work. Management and supervisors were suppose to be here yesterday and continue working all week. And it makes sense, there are lots of inspections and trips that could be done away from the office.

But it wound up being just me on my floor. OK, there are some other folks here, but I don't hear them or see them. So Donna and I were coming up with the top ten things to do at the office when you are the only one working. Here goes:

10. Spider Man crawling across the tops of the cubicles.
9. Making a luge out of a two wheeler and setting up a course in the stairwell.
8. Riding the floor polisher in the lobby.
7. Fax relay races. Send a fax from the 6th floor to the 1st floor and see if you can run down stairs and beat the fax machine.
6. Get a library cart and a mop and go white water rafting down the cubicle rows.
5. Go reset the height and lumbar support on all of the chairs on the 3rd floor.
4. Hook the Wii up to the big presentation flat screen in the executive suite and play super mario cart while reclining on the oak conference table.
3. Replace all of the dry erase markers with permanent markers in the conference rooms.
2. Write "Jerry eats Worms" on the executive marker board and close the door so the next time someone needs it and opens it, they will get a big laugh.
1. Pants are optional!

Environmental Work Day

Today was another stay at home day from work because the City of Jackson has really old water pipes and lax leadership with a poor maintenance record. That may be harsh, but so be it. That's the way I see it. Who needs water when you got good scotch?

So to make it a productive day, and because it was in the upper 40's we did some green projects around the house we have been wanting to do. For Christmas we bought a rain barrel. I put it together and rearranged the downspout by the chimney in the backyard. This barrel will hold about 50 gallons of free water that we can use for grill fire suppression and flower watering. I want to get another one put in the front courtyard to help dry up our front yard some. There are some places that stay wet that I want to get rid of. This barrel has an overflow drain that will pull the water away from the foundation and a garden hose connection to fill watering buckets. It also has mosquito mesh to keep little critters from developing in the water. It seems very well made. We got it at Northern Tool and Supply on sale for about $50.

We also installed a huge rain gauge on the fence in the backyard and did some repair work on the fence. It had a couple of warped boards that are now screwed on strait. Will and I also figured out how to change the headlight in the Blazer. It took us longer to go online and get the answer to how to do it easily than it did to actually change it. Ask.com came to the rescue again with the trick on how to get to the backside of the headlight assembly.

1135 work days to go. My master's course this semester is on data analysis. One of the text books is the excel bible. I was flipping through it and found out how to build a retirement clock and take out all of the holidays and weekends between now and my planned retirement day. Having this day off in the middle of the week unplanned gave me a good idea of what retirement will be like. I want you to know that I did get up from my nap to go with Donna to pick up the girls from dance. She said I didn't have to, but I'm glad I did.

Now that is a grill!

We got it done. The last grill we will ever need. They measure the grill surface in acres. It will smoke, grill, bbq, baste, roast, fry, skewer, shish-k-bob, and cook. This cast iron behemoth took about 5 good hours of work and study to put together. We had to do some hammering and drilling to make it all work, but overall I was very impressed with the craftsmanship of the Chairbroil Professional Grill. Every hole lined up as it was intended. We did have to pop out some of the metal because we added the smoke box to the side, but that wasn't too difficult once you overcome the thought of knocking a huge whole in the side of your new grill.

It has a gas grill section, a charcoal grill section, the aforementioned smoke box, and a side gas fired eye that doubles as an eye for cooking and a starter for a charcoal chimney. I think I could easily smoke 4 slabs of ribs for dinner and cook a case of burgers for lunch all at the same time.

The funniest instruction was "Do not consume alcohol or recreational drugs while putting this grill together." That's funny because they have obviously been sued by some poor rednecks widow whose last words were, "Here, hold my beer while I light this baby up!"

Hijacking someone's Blog is Wrong

I feel bad about hijacking my sister's blog. I did it to encourage her to get back in the habit of blogging. Then we have the whole kettle black pot thing to go through. It was misguided to allow the public to assume that she is 45 years old.

So, I am sorry Sabrina. It was wrong of me to get into your account and post a blog about how you don't blog when I have also been lax. You see, my sweet wife has taken to blogging like a toddler to cheerios. She can do more stuff than I can, fancy stuff like advertising and backgrounds and whatnot. Her new blog is Mississippi Momma. It is really good. Tiki Travelers has fallen to my responsibility.

So in the spirit of doing a blog that is worthy of your time to read, I will tell you what we did to save money this past week. First off, it is cold cold cold! I like to say it is colder than a witches bosom in a brass brassier. We went shopping for the insulation cones to protect the outdoor faucets. None were to be found, so we improvised. 3 old towels and some duct tape sealed the deal. The boys wrapped up the faucets and secured them for the winter, so we won't have to call the plumber for that fix this spring and no leaking water in between.

The big money saver this week was the rejection of the landline telephone. I called AT&T (dreading it by the way) cause they always want to argue with you about spending your money. We don't ever use our home phone, so we decided to cut it off. AT&T was real nice about it and helpful. She then told me about the new fiber optic cable in our neighborhood and ended up getting me to switch from Directv to AT&T for television. We are going to end up with the same level of TV service, double our internet speed, put DVRs on all of our TVs and save $70 a month. And that $70 is going on the mortgage (baby step 6 as it were).

So, I hope you enjoyed my return to blogging. Next up will be the construction of my new grill I got for Christmas. We are cranking up the fire place on Saturday and building the grill and smoker inside the house. Here's hoping it will fit going back through the door when I am finished!

Christmas Cookie Rules

CHRISTMAS COOKIE RULES

If you eat a Christmas cookie fresh out of the oven, it has no calories because everyone knows that the first cookies is the test & thus calorie free.

If you eat a Christmas cookie while drinking a diet soda, the cookie has no calories because the diet soda cancel out the cookie calories.
If a friend comes over while you're making your Christmas cookies and needs to sample, you must sample with your friend. Its calorie free...goes back to rule 1. It would be rude to let your friend sample alone and, being the friend that you are, that makes your cookie calorie free also.
Any cookie calories consumed while walking around will fall to your feet and eventually fall off as you move. this is due to gravity and the density of the caloric mass.
Any calories consumed during the frosting of the cookies will be used up because it takes many calories to lick excess frosting from a knife without cutting your tongue.
Cookies colored red or green have very few calories. Red ones have 3 and green ones have 5 ~ one calorie for each letter. Make more red ones!
Cookies eaten while watching "Miracle on 34th Street" have no calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.
As always, cookie pieces contain no calories because the process of breaking causes calorie leakage.
Any cookies consumed from someone else's plate have no calories since the calories rightfully belong to the other person and will cling to their plate.
AND we all know how calories like to CLING.
Any cookies consumed while feeling stressed have no calories because cookies used for medicinal purposes NEVER have calories. Its a rule.
So, go out and enjoy those Christmas Cookies ~ we only get them this time of year!

I can't claim credit for that brilliant piece of dietary rules...I copied it from an email my sister sent to me this morning.

However, let me reiterate and clarify a few things, just in case it didn't sink in..cookies have no calories if you eat during a movie, right out of the oven, with a friend, steal from anothers plate, are stressed, lick the icing knife, are broken or drink a diet drink.

This sounds like the beginning of a great new Christmas tradition to me...invite all your friends over to bake, decorate and consume. You eat off everyone else plate and no calories! And just to be safe...watch "Miracle on 34th Street"...better safe than sorry.

Changing from red to green was stressful...time to go find some Christmas cookies!

Happy Munching!!!!!

9 more Days

Its only NINE (9) more days till Christmas.

Are you ready?

Are you wishing everyone you see a "Merry Christmas"? I don't know why happy holidays is getting spoken so much but we are saying Merry CHRISTmas.

I absolutely, positively, undoubtedly love this holiday more than all the others combined. I love the music, decorations, shopping, movies, wrapping, special food, church programs, and all the kids being home. Then there are the secrets, surprises and smiles.

I marvel at the fact that the Lord loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus to this earth. I think about Mary & Joseph and their reactions to the news the angel brought about the birth of the Messiah. I think about King Herod & his jealous, hatefilled heart. I think about the shepherds tending their flocks in the field when the heavenly hosts of angels appeared to them with the news of Jesus birth. And the Magi who traveled over long distances to bring gifts & worship the new King. The kids and I love to watch the "Nativity Story" in December. It is a great depiction of the story of Jesus birth. And even though it is a movie, it seems to closely follow the scriptures telling of the birth of the Messiah.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas & a very Happy New Year.

And as Tiny Tim says in "A Christmas Carol", God bless us everyone!

Traveling back to Mississippi & Black Friday Thoughts

The children and I have been in Georgia for the past 2 + weeks, helping Mom after her knee replacement surgery. We can all hook her up into the CPM (continously moves her knee to help with flexiblity & keep it limber), help with therapy, & the biggie...keep the floor clear of any junk that could trip her up. Sounds like a nursing course to me! They also brought their school books and finished math & our history course till Jan. Their last co-op till Jan. is next Friday, then school is officially out till after the New Year. Yeah...hooray...balloons & streamers falling!!!!!!!!!!

We have gotten lots of quilt piecing done and watched movies every night. Mom got out a couple of times during the 2 weeks and we got a little Christmas shopping done. Tonight we brought up her Christmas stuff from the basement since she is not stair climbing, and actually if she could, she couldn't tote anything up!

Yesterday we totally and thoroughly enjoyed too much food at my sisters house for Thanksgiving. It sure was good. And I didn't go back for seconds...too stuffed. Last nights dinner was "Fix your own" and I warmed up a piece of dressing, yum!

Greg and I got up really, really early this morning to go shopping. Did you believe that? Actually, we got up at 7:15. First stop was Target...not a creature was stirring, because they were standing in lines that wrapped around the inside of the store to get to the registers in the front. We put down the 2 things we had picked up and departed. That was insane. Next we went into Belks, got something Mom had pre-purchased (to get the door buster price) & left. Then Old Navy, they had a queue line set up, I wasn't standing in that either, did enough of that at Disney last month! We found a couple of things at Staples and then breakfast at Chick Fil A. Yummy chicken biscuit and sweet tea! Then we hit Greg's "toy" store, Northern Tool & Supply. My dearest found some tools, a rain barrel, blue jeans, work gloves, and some goodies for the kids. Then my "toy" store, JoAnn's. Fabric for the back of my quilt, flannel for gowns for the girls, and quilt batting for all our projects. Then I got an early Christmas gift, a sewing machine bag on wheels! It is wonderful, no more toting that bag to a class or to GA. I can wheel it to the car! And just for your info, we spent more at Northern Tool than at JoAnn's...Greg was shocked.

Shopping today made me very, very thankful that I do not work retail. Everyone I encountered today was nice & patient, but I know they were tired. I hope the restaraunts were busy too, cause the waiters need to make some money too! Especially Allen. Ya'll don't forget to tip your waiters in this recession, seems like folks are eating out but not tipping well. (Just my little "sermonette" as the Mom of a waiter!)

Tomorrow we are headed back to Mississippi. Next week starts the busiest week of our year. Its our churchs annual Living Christmas Tree. Greg & I will help with the tree lights, James is running one of the spotlights, Andy, Katie, Will & Amy are singing and Rob is playing the bass, I think Allen is working. We will be at the church Sunday, Wed, Thurs, & Friday nights and Sat & Sun afternoon & night. Busy, busy, busy!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving........now onto Christmas~! HoHoHo!

48 more days

Wow! 48 more days till Christmas Day! Actually, though, Christmas starts here the day after Thanksgiving. Since we will be in GA. with Mom that day, it will start at our home Sunday after Thanksgiving! I love to get down my zillions of boxes of Christmas decorations and start decorating. Zillions is probably a slight exaggeration but not much...just ask my box totters. They will tell you I've got alot.

The panicky, I've got to get busy feeling is slowly subsiding. I've gotten busy and made almost everything that needs to get made. We have been on a number of shopping trips and found some goodies. I have hit the big "let's get rid of this halloween candy and put out the christmas candy sales". (Come on, they are just wrapped in different colored foil...my kids won't complain! They will inhale) So the Christmas Stocking Stuffers are pretty much complete. But, now my closet looks like a war zone!

Tonight we are going on a family date night and seeing the new Disney 3D "A Christmas Carol" and out to eat dinner. It will be fun, we really like the 3D movies at the theme parks. And we will probably take some of that candy I just bought! Going to the movies is not a frugal activity and when the popcorn cost more than the movie ticket...there is just something wrong with that!

Tomorrow, we are going to our dr.'s office to help separate and pack pills for our Honduras Mission Trip in Jan. They are going to ship everything down early, since the airlines now charge for each suitcase you take. I think there are 236,000 pills to get done tomorrow! I've never done this, so it should be a challenge. We will also need to discuss all of our cooking utensils. We've always taken them before but with the airline charges, it will probably be cheaper to buy new ones down there and store them at the farm there. Then we can just use the same ones every year. I know that will be easier than toting those large rubbermaid containers into and out of the airport! Gotta work on the menu's too!

The picture at the top is our house during the snow last year (2 weeks before Christmas)! It was pretty while it lasted. We don't get much snow here in Miss.!
And, when you build a snowman (or 2) in your backyard beside the pool, they need the proper clothing...straw hat and sunglasses or life jacket and goggles! I have got some creative children! And a backyard with alot of leaves! They just helped hold the snow together!

60 Days

Wow! Its just 60 days till Christmas. I am already getting that "panicky, I am not ready" feeling in the pit of my tummy.

These months are so busy for us with homeschool, dance classes, church activities and just life! We also took a week off from reality and went to Disney.

Now, we have found out that my Mom is going to have knee replacement surgery. The kids and I will be packing up the schoolbooks and probably sewing machine (gotta work on gifts) and going to GA to help nurse! She was wanting to wait till the beginning of Feb. for the surgery but its just not going to work, knees have a mind of their own sometimes.

I know that everything will get done in the next 2 months and if it doesn't I am the only one who will ever know.

Its beginning to look alot like Christmas....everywhere you go.....well at least at Hobby Lobby!

Tiki Travelers at Epcot's Food & Wine Festival

Tuna Roll-- Greg and Will liked

Beef Roll that all the girls loved. This was sweet and yummy!

Creme Brulee from France...Greg didn't know us girls were eating eclairs and mousse when he bought this!

Samuel Adams Beer from the USA. Lets just say, we wanted the cup. They would not have wanted my personal evaluation of this beer.

Funnel Cake from the USA pavilion. Powdered sugary goodness.

Amy's pasta dish from Italy.

This dish was from Marakesh and good but spicy...I don't remember the name of it.

This beef on the stick was served on Mashed Potatoes, really good.

Beef & Sweet Potato dish from Africa...this was my personal favorite!

The snails from France (to each his own)

We ate our way around the world at Epcot's Annual International Food & Wine Festival...not once but twice (different days).

Besides the usual food stands and restaurants that are in the countries all the time, Epcot brought in more countries with lots and lots of good food.

This looks like alot of food, but we usually ordered one plate and split it 6 ways. That way we could taste more and keep the cost more affordable. We did not split the Escargot...Greg & Will ate it. And Will wanted it the 2nd day too (he liked it and he liked the gross factor of eating snails!)

We don't have pictures of the chocolate eclair and the chocolate mousse that Mom, Amy, Katie and I found in France at a Bakery. It was absolutely delicious!

We also ate Fish & Chips in the UK, Nacho's & quesidilla's in Mexico and Potato Pierogi's in Poland (I had never had a pierogi before but I really liked it.)

Epcot is one of my 2 favorite parks at Disney (Magic Kingdom is the other). We spent 3 lovely days at Epcot and honestly, we went the third day just to eat more of our favorites. The last day, Greg gave us the option of picking 2 yummies that we didn't have to share. Oh my, those were hard decisions. The beef dish from Africa was my very favorite, followed by the beef roll from Japan, and the bakery delicacies from France.

And a commercial for the Food & Wine festival...its during the month of October every year. The dishes cost between $4 - $7 each (thats why we shared)!!!

Finally, the 2008 Christmas Gift

On Christmas morning last year, my children unwrapped a Minnie Mouse ornament. The attached note said..."Minnie says, see you in October!" Katie, Will and Amy were so excited. Amy has been to Disney several times, Katie and Will have never been. The time has come....we drive to Orlando on Friday!

We are staying in a timeshare in Kississimee about 10 minutes away from the front gates of Walt Disney World Resort. The clothes are packed, the food we are taking is prepared and frozen, we've got projects to work on in the car and books to read.

My Mom is going with us!

We are ready to roll.

There are just 2 little hitches in our plans but they aren't stopping us. My Mom has developed arthritis in her knee and has now gotten 2 cortisone shots to help with the pain...so we are taking Katie's wheelchair for Mom to ride in. This will be the first time I have been to Disney in 25 years and not had a stroller, but we have a wheelchair! And Amy got a runny nose yesterday and we went to the dr. this morning, she has an ear infection and upper resperitory infection. She also has an antibiotic shot in her hip and 2 prescriptions.

Walt Disney World here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!