heyMamas

The foodie gourmet, or not so much

We've been to Disney three times with the girls since 2004 and have always stayed in a two bed, two bath condo with a full kitchen. On our prior trips, as we would leave the park at the end of the day and make our trek towards the parking lot, we would always wonder where everyone else was disappearing to.

I wonder where they are staying? I wonder what their hotels are like? And by staying in a hotel on the Disney property, does that heighten the level of your vacation?  These are questions that we would ponder on the drive back to the condo.

I have the answer to those questions now and when I bring myself to book another Disney vacation, we will resort to our old tried and true and stay at a condo complete with a full kitchen.  And this would be for one reason and one reason only, and that reason is not because we did not thoroughly enjoy the hotel. 

I mean when you stay in a two bed, two bath condo, you would miss out on going to bed at the same time as your five and eight year old children.  You would miss being able to NOT watch television after the lights have been turned out for the fifth time that night.  You would miss out on the ability to drop a pin and to have it not be heard, by ANYONE.  I mean who would even want that when you are on vacation? 

We stayed at the Port Orleans Resort and not only did our hotel resemble the French Quarter, our hotel became the French Quarter for us in that particular time and space. It was magical, relaxing and everything we could have hoped it to be. The lilting romantic trees were everywhere as was the jazz music which played throughout the resort. 

Our prior two trips provided us with a working knowledge of the quality and choices of the Disney cuisine. Based on these observations, we would usually limit ourselves to just the Mickey Mouse ice cream. We would eat breakfast at the condo and then pack a lunch for the day and then head home for dinner.

I should probably preface this by saying, we are a particularly healthy bunch who follow a vegetarian diet so that GIANT turkey leg wasn't exactly going to cut it for us. A typical meal for me and my girls is fruit, veggies, yogurts, bread and cheese. They have been known to put a major dent in a Nasoya tofu package in one sitting. 

So for those of you that have in fact stayed at a Disney resort, I am sure you can imagine our pain when we would try to eat a meal that had less than 2000 calories AND provided some sort of nutritional value.  I knew it was going to be an issue which is why I did stress about it for a couple of weeks before our departure.  And it turns out my stress was justified as the food situation was actually worse than I had even anticipated, insert here another quick nod to that GIANT turkey leg. 

I am sure there are those of you reading this that are saying to yourselves, "what is she talking about?, I didn't think the food was so bad."  And if you are saying that, please leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite place to eat was, or where you did in fact have a pleasurable dining experience and maybe I will try that on my next visit.

We did spend one day at Universal Studios and that at least had a Starbucks.   Besides treating ourselves to a decent cup of coffee, this visit also spawned a love affair with Moe's, which I suppose is a sort of Mexican fast food chain.  I alone practically devoured an entire order of nachos with the voraciousness of a person with the mind set that edible food may not appear again for a few days so you better stock up.   

I will never take a kiwi for granted again.  I will never carelessly toss strawberries that have small imperfections into the garbage again.  I will cherish each bite that I take of my fruit and veggies and know that one place I will not have access to them is in Disney World.   

Rub a dub dub

I am not sure if it was simply a case of the house being unusually quiet as Drew had taken the girls to get our special extra light cheese pizza* for the third night in a row, or if it was the lights being off in the bathroom, but I just had one of the most peaceful and relaxing showers I have ever experienced. 

We had just returned from the park and had begun our evening showers in anticipation of our Sunday Night Snuggle.  Drew helped the girls with their showers while I colored my hair which is an evil necessity and something I absolutely hate to do.  But the resulting shower was a glorious one.   

Drew helps the girls with their showers with the lights off, in an effort I believe as we have never actually discussed it, to have a calming effect on our otherwise adorably cute but very rambunctious children.  As Belle finished up and I got in, I didn't realize that the lights were off as I am the type of person that always wants ALL of the lights on, no matter what time of day or night it is, and upon the realization of them being off would have promptly turned them on.

But halfway through this shower I did in fact realize that the lights were out and the bathroom had taken on a very calming and peaceful personality.  I am however, a tad bit suspicious of my Duane Reade Blackhead Clearing Scrub and think the minty tingling effect of it somehow added to this peaceful calm.

As I have briefly mentioned, we are buying a house and my discretionary income for things that result in advanced stages of relaxation (massages, facials, etc.) will be greatly diminished in the coming months/years, although I didn't really indulge in those things anyway, which I guess now is really going to come in handy. 

So I may just start turning out the lights while I shower in the hopes of recreating the peacefulness that I experienced this evening.  It was peaceful enough for me to feel compelled to share this experience here where usually most of my ideas that once seemed bright turn stupid before I even have a chance to log into Typepad.  My computer runs on Vista after all. 

 

*  We eat pizza ALOT and we have found that when you order a large pie with extra light cheese you have less fat, grease and cholesterol entering your body and the bodies of your loved ones thus allowing you to eat pizza three times as much per week while having the same effect of a normal cheese pizza.  These facts makes us very happy.

The jig may just about be up..

We got back from our Disney hell adventure yesterday (please note this comment only relates to our eating experiences at Disney, everything else was wonderful) and I will be detailing the events of that trip very soon, believe me, starting with how VERY wrong the food is at DisneyWorld, how VERY, VERY wrong. 

But while I am off working on that, I wanted to share with you a conversation that we had Easter morning.  I suppose I could file this one under Roundtable Discussions along with this one. 

 

Lily:  "Who even is the Easter Bunny?  Is it a person in a costume or a real big bunny?"

Belle:  "Yeah, I really always wanted to know that too."

Lily:  "We should ask Great Grandma Helen because she is 100 years old and she would know."

Belle:  "I am not sure about that because her brain is so old."

Lily:  "Yeah brains that old might not work so good anymore."

Belle: "I actually think Mom's brain would know more than an old brain."

Lily:  "So who is in that bunny costume anyway?"

Not just any old bags

The last few days have been a whirlwind of events that was kicked off with a bonus work-free day on Good Friday.  Some of the events worth mentioning as I will spare you the boring ones, were my birthday, my Mom's birthday, Easter Sunday and the many egg hunts, buying a house and a dinner out with one of my very best friends and THAT does not happen often. 

I suppose I did sort of gloss over the buying a house part...more on that one later.

Those other events, happy and great fun but today I am here solely to talk about the art or fart if you hate it as much as I, of packing.  For some reason this time around, the packing for our Disney trip that we will be embarking on tomorrow morning, early...was not at all pleasant.

Being a working Mom and spending so many hours out of the house does not allow me the luxury of packing without massive amounts of pressure. When we go on a vacation that involves packing and preparing multiple pieces of luggage with our belongings in it, I start with my Master List.

This Master List is created about one and a half weeks prior to the actual travel day.  Off-shoots off this Master List range in the ten to twenties and I sometimes feel as if I will seriously lose my freaking mind with all of the details that I am forcing it to remember in addition to trying to hold down a job.  I also seem to accumulate hundreds of post it notes in every conceivable place that spell out further instructions and amendments to the Master List.

What I learned most this time around is that in addition to my Master List, I also need a great deal of quiet when I am packing for a seven day jaunt. I need to think and not have lots of jump roping children running all around me.

This trip proved to be more of a challenge than our normal trips because we are traveling first for a one night stay in Tampa at my parents new condo and will then travel on to Disney,Thursday morning. So I tried and we will have to see if it actually pans out, to pack all of the pertinent things for that one night stay into one bag of which I plan to carry with me on board.

SO if we were to lose our luggage, we would still be able to go about our merry way, minus all of our toiletries that we were not allowed to bring on the plane of course. I did find a small bit of peace in knowing that those things could be easily replaced should we find ourselves in that most unfortunate position.

I also learned that successful packing requires a strict strategy. The pressure of, have I forgotten something?, will we have everything we need?, and undoubtedly as it happens every time, the ONE thing that I will forget will be the ONE thing that we needed most and the entire family when we figure out that Mommy indeed has forgotten that ONE thing, will all look at me in complete disbelief and knowingly glance at one another as if I am just the biggest moron on the planet.

And these knowing glances will then require me to enact my cardinal rule of, if you didn't help me plan, pack or prepare for any part of this vacation than you better just shut you mouth before I shut it for you. Mostly that rule just applies to Drew who likes to be the Johnny come lately with the helpful comments and for those of you that don't know what I mean by Johnny come lately, I mean the one who makes the helpful, insightful comments AFTER the bad thing has already happened and it is apparent to everyone involved that there could have been a better way.

Anyway, I am extremely excited to be done packing and look forward to walking around the Magic Kingdom in 85 degree weather, standing in lines, carrying backpacks, having sweat roll down the side of my face as I listen to the chorus of how tired we are until that brief moment that we get to thrill on that one ride that we have just waited in line for the last hour to experience. I love Disney, it is truly magical.

No, contrary to the tiny bitch fest in that last paragraph, I really am excited to once again see the magic of Disney through the eyes of my little angels.  There exists nothing better....I am quite sure of it.

We all scream for ice cream

There will be those of you that love this and those of you that hate it, but my hope is that no matter which side you are on, you at least get a good chuckle because you have to admit it is kinda funny.

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In honor of the 44th President of the United States, Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream has introduced a new flavor; Barocky Road."

Barocky Road is a blend of half Vanilla, half Chocolate, and surrounded by Nuts and Flakes. 

The Vanilla portion of the mix is not openly advertised and usually denied as an ingredient. 

The Nuts and Flakes are all very bitter and hard to swallow. 

The cost is $100.00 per scoop. 

When purchased it will be presented to you in a large beautiful cone, but then the Ice Cream is taken away and given to the person in line behind you. 

Thus you are left with an empty wallet, no change, holding an empty cone, with no hope of getting any Ice Cream. 

Are you feeling stimulated?

 

Brought to you by the lovely Jenny!