D2

some other things that are important to note:

1) just because your child meets the height requirement for a ride doesn't mean they should be riding it.  there were no tears, but a look of "what the hell did you just do that to me for?" when we took jack on the matterhorn.

2) if you have to vomit, please find an appropriate corner to do so in.  puking every six feet as you walk through a crowded theme park is super uncool.  even more uncool when you're like 55 years old and not 5.  (please note that this was a traumatizing experience for me to witness as i was wearing flip flops and narrowly missed what the woman was sharing with the d-land public).

3) in an elbow to elbow place for 3 days you'll eavesdrop and you'll learn, among other things, that the big D is a true test to how strong one's marriage is (as well as one's parenting skills).

4) lastly, i learned that kids don't really need to sleep ... as long as you don't mind a little biting, pinching, poking, screaming and tantrum throwing in the double stroller.

the big "D"

things i've learned from my visit to mickey's hood:


1) in your haste, excitement and over-stimulation you may forget to feed your children at regular intervals and with any sort of balance of food products ... you may actually just forget to feed them at all.  also, suckers are a food group here.


2) strollers have locking belts for many very good reasons.


3) mickey is very popular during spring break.


4) if you're 2 and contained in a stroller the various characters are much less scary to high five (i'm not sure why).  buzz is now a personal friend if anyone needs anything.


5) overall, humanity is pretty awesome in the happiest place.  in an area with wall to wall people and hot weather everyone was patient, happy and kind ... especially the thoughtful woman that watched jack in the stroller (right) outside the bathroom stall while i peed.


more to come ...

new pictures

here are some new photos of boy 1 & boy 2 ... i borrowed my mom's camera again and used a new lens.  i've learned something else.  if your swag is better, your pictures are sometimes presentable enough not to edit.  as i may have mentioned here before, i'm a little slow.  so very happy with my discovery though (thanks to those that helped me along).  a lot of these photos involve food and a box.  only a few things keep their attention for longer than 3.4 seconds.

it's 7:00, where are your kids?

thank you god (or whomever) for inventing black out shades, especially for these first days following the time change.  as he mows the lawn without worrying about children running around the house still awake, my husband thanks you too.

love, amy

p.s.  if you could do something about my laundry, i would appreciate it.  the dishes too.  xx.

i borrowed my mom's camera yesterday

it was life changing. my birthday is in june.

snow visit!

poor jack was sick and had a black eye from a little incident the day before we left

the snowman also caused him some tension (i think he was wondering why we didn't just let him sleep in peace in the car at this point)

when you're not sick, the snow is awesome, especially playgrounds

at the sled park...notice we're all as white as the snow

julie again

here are some more pictures of julie from before christmas. they're a little fuzzy, i'm a work in progress, but we're hoping that she'll get at least three decent enough shots for 1) the awesome 2x3s (or whatever size) that you hand out to all your friends, to the creepers that ask that aren't your friends, to a few teachers and to whomever else is left when you are down to your last 4 pictures 2) the enormous whatever size to adorn the walls of the parentals and 3) the in between sizes for grandparents, priests, etc. happy saturday.

new year's

there is no way i'll get another post up here tomorrow or the next day, so to finish out the year i present a loose roadmap for the next year. a lofty proposition and i can assure you it will be a work in progress for the next 10 years: the happiness project.

my 3 big goals:
* spend less (um, or make more)
* cook a wee bit more often (and the meals cannot be 12 different variations of tacos-as an aside, you would really be amazed at what i can do with mexican)
* lastly, avoid the computer during non-allotted hours (hours still TBD, but they surely won't be all 16 waking hours)

the end.