Greetings from Pocahontas, MS home of the tacky teepee

Well, we are all moved into our bedroom at Trevor's parents house... where we will be staying for a little while. I am torn between unpacking everything and making it homey and leaving everything in boxes. I don't know how long we will be here or where we are going next, so it makes things difficult. I would hate to get everything all set up just to pack all up and leave again.

We are both registered for school with classes starting Monday. We go back to Hinds to talk to the Financial Aid office about aid for the semester. We weren't expecting to get anything since we filed our FAFSA so late but today the F.A. lady told me that if I get them marriage and tax verification papers I should be receiving my awards letter. I am assuming this means we will get money for this semester, which would be such a blessing! But I am waiting to get really excited until I see it in writing.

I have been spending a lot of time with my 2-ish niece(daughter of Trevor's eldest brother), Josie, whom I've always called Monkey. We've tried to get her to say "Ashley" but either she doesn't like it or she is struggling with it. Day before yesterday when I woke up and walked into the living room she was sitting on the couch and jumped up to say, "Moh-nin Monkey!" She has since called me Monkey. I have gotten several good pictures and am working on scrapbooking some pages which will be posted as soon as I complete them. She's precious!

I will not scare you with another to-do list. The last one was overwhelming enough. :) But I can guarantee there will be more in the future. It's the best way for me to keep things organized... and maybe by airing all the things I need to do on the World Wide Web I will feel incentive to completely follow through. I love lists in all areas of life and usually I get everything done on them. But lately I seem to just be doing enough to get by...

As I type the train is speeding by the house. Despite how loud it is Trevor is sleeping soundly. I still haven't gotten used to it coming through every hour or so.

Since we have gotten home I feel like I have done nothing but sleep constantly. I was sick before we left but just kept pushing to work and get everything done. So by the time we got home and I was finally able to slow down, my immune system and body were completely taxed and just got out on me for a while. Hopefully I will start to feel better soon.

Goodnight and sweet dreams from Indian-land!

Yes, I should be asleep

I know. But I am not one bit tired. Today I have(and in some cases we)...
- slept in late =)
- packed up the rest of our apartment,
- loaded Trevor's dad's truck,
- compiled all of the things going in the rental car with us tomorrow,
- throw away and donated more stuff than I knew we even had,
- scrubbed the kitchen and bathroom from top to bottom leaving it cleaner than it has probably been in years... (I wanted to leave it cleaner than we found it)
- downloaded some digital scrapbooking kits (my slight obsession)
- stayed up until almost 2am knowing I have to get up at 6 to shower and get ready to go pick up our rental car.

Tomorrow:
- pick up rental car at 8am
- Use coupons for free chicken biscuits at Chickfila
- move everything out of the apartment
- vacuum and do final cleaning
- check out of the apartment by 11am
- sign over my pathfinder to karsforkids.org between 10 and 10:30am
- hit the road for HOME
- Eat McAlister's somewhere along the way - we have missed this SOOO much. Orlando has nothing even remotely close to a McAlister's.
- Get to my parent's house
- kiss all the little guys goodnight
- Use the Echo to take rental car to the airport
- Get some sleep :)

As you can see, a lot has been accomplished...
But much is left to be done.

Now I am going to try my best to get some sleep.
Goodnight!

6 Days til Christmas!

I am counting down. Obviously. ;)

Because of some really bizarre mix-up, it looks like I will be working 7 days next week. Which is fine, to an extent. Trevor and I both put in a request to give away our Christmas Day shift. His went through but unfortunately, mine was not approved. So he has the day off, and I don't. I am hoping that in the next couple of days something will work out. Until then, I work at Sunset tomorrow, Magic Kingdom Sunday and Monday and the rest of the week at Sunset. 62 hours and 45 minutes in all. Even without my Christmas shift(8hr45m) I will have a great amount of hours. The paycheck will really be helpful because it comes in right before we move home.

Speaking of home, we will be moving back to Mississippi in 15 days. =) So much excitement.
I have SO much packing to do. Where am I going to fit that in during the next several days? Ha, I really have NO idea.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that our Patty(Pathfinder) broke down yesterday? I went with several of my friends from work(Amanda, Daniela, and Stephan) to tour the resorts and look at all of the Christmas decorations. On the way back to our apartment, the car just stopped working. Trevor was working and still had about 2 hours left in his shift. Daniela hopped out of the car and started walking(Yes, she is crazy haha). We walked from where the car broke down(past the entrance to Wide World of Sports) all the way to Pop Century resort. This earned us some hilarious looks from the gate guard when we walked up to his kiosk, all flashing our Disney IDs. After explaining the story to him, he told us it would be fine if we caught the bus from Pop Century to Hollywood Studios. We caught the last bus taking guests into Studios for the night. Everyone else caught the CP bus back to the apartments after we waited for Trevor to get off of work. One of the guys that we work with drove Trevor and I to the car where they tried to figure out what is wrong with it. Long story short(well, too late) - they couldn't fix it, we got it towed to the apartment this morning, and we will be waiting a week until Trevor's dad gets here to see if it is worth fixing. The car is old and lately it seems that we keep putting money into it. After we figure out exactly what is wrong, we will decide if it is really worth investing more money into it. It is a matter which we will continue to pray about.

By the way, check out http://shelsscraps.blogspot.com/. That is where I got my new layout from. She does really great work! She has a lot of free stuff but she also does custom layouts for a very reasonable rate.

Well, I need to get some sleep. But first - a to do list.
-Christmas shopping needs to get finished in the next few days. Trevor is the only person I have left and VERY important in my books ;)
-Buy groceries for Christmas day and enough to last until we leave here.
- Try to find someone to take my Christmas shift
- Pack, Pack, Pack!
- Give out the Christmas presents I made for the girls at work
- etc, etc, etc. haha. There is so much more I could add to this, but I think I will leave it at that for now.

Goodnight!

Christmas Time is here!

Some Christmas pictures just to tide curious onlookers over until I can write a blog with actual substance. ;) Haha.

Partial picture of stocking, Christmas tree and presents.



Christmas presents. All from me and Trevor to our families.



Our little Christmas tree with it's fiber optic lights. It's 3' and the picture does not do it justice. I L.O.V.E. my little Christmas tree! =) Note the "Merry Christmas" hanger near the top of the tree. It matches the "Jingle" hanger in my kitchen - see photo farther below.



Trevor using his Christmas stocking happy from Honey.



A close up of our stockings from Honey!



Pictures of my Christmas towels and mits in the kitchen... along with the ever glamorous fire extinguisher sticker. Gorgeous, right?




My cute little "Jingle" hanger that I bought for $2 at the Disney Cast Member SALSA(Spend A Little Save Alot) Sale.



And since we don't have a mantle, I decided to use the greenery and pine cones on our bar, which I think we might have used once in the time we have lived here. I bought everything from Joann's after walking the front door and being overwhelmed by the amazing aroma of cinnamon scented pinecones. MMHMMM. Yes ma'am!



That is all for tonight. To come: possibly some pictures of the Christmas cards I made. =)

Day 106 of 1001

5. Play putt-putt at both of the Disney courses, no complaints(2/2)

We played at both and, surprisingly, I loved it! We have several free tickets to go again and hopefully we'll have time to use them before we leave here Jan 2.

1.Go on a date with my husband once a month (4/33)
2. Take an us picture every month (2/33)
9. Take a walk at least once a month (3/33)

Numbers 1 & 9 haven't been that hard so far. But sadly, it is hard to get Trevor to agree to be in a good picture anymore. However, I did snag one from November when Hayley was here. And I got one for this month when we were at Mickey's Very Merry Party(which is now my facebook profile picture). Hopefully I'll get better about it.

10. Find a place in FL that can be our Bellingrath this Christmas since we can’t go to the real one

We're actually to two things other than Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We are going to Gaylord Palms Hotel and Resort's ICE and to Light Up UCF to go Ice skating. I am excited about both and Trevor is really looking forward to Gaylord. :)

11. Bring him breakfast in bed at least once a month (4/33)

I LOVE doing this one. It still catches him by surprise =)

26. Try 10 new recipes (5/10)

31. Make new starter for friendship bread and share

Well, I stopped adding on to my starter when I was sick 2 weeks ago. I am not going to start it back up again until we move back home and then I can become more consistent.

32. Complete a Cross Stitch

34. Design/create our first family Christmas card and not procrastinate sending them out
I am working on this one right now actually. A little later than planned because of technical difficulty but they will be going out tomorrow! =) And pictures will be posted.

79. Read for pleasure once a day (100/1001)

80. Buy 10 Disney movies, old and new (4/10)

82. Buy a classic movie or musical every month (4/33)

93. Actually use our Disney water park annual tickets at least 2 times a month while the weather is still good. (6/?)

Giving thanks

Some things I am thankful for/what makes me happy:

- A sister who is nosy enough to be asking me for an update ;) I love you, Honey!

- A family that loves me whom I regard with equal love and adoration.. I miss my parents and siblings so much. And it is a bittersweet holiday season for me because I am excited to be experiencing a full length Christmas at Disney... but it is so hard not being home with my family. It is both of our first time spending a holiday away from our families. *sigh*

- Christmas music! It love it. It is so soothing. And it makes me happy no matter what my mood might have previously been

- Being crafty and making Christmas cards and ornaments.

- The people I have met and the friends I have made over the past several months while we have been here in Orlando.

While I am looking forward to heading home to Mississippi, getting back to school, and settling down, leaving here is going to be hard. I am going to miss the amazing people that I have met. I have learned so much from this experience, grown so much and met people who I know I will stay in contact with. Words cannot fully express all that I have gotten out of this experience. I just know that Trevor and I will be making quite a few road trips and even a trip to Europe and Asia in the next couple of years.
I am going to miss playing at Disney was much as I want to. Working at Disney is... an adventure to say the least. Honestly, the guests we had today were some of the rudest I have ever encountered. Including a young man who called me a very unsavory name and told me I should be fired because we don't carry salsa on the condiment bar. If only you could see me rolling my eyes right now. It was quite ridiculous.
To sum it up, I will miss living down here(to an extent), playing down here, and the people I have met down here. But knowing that very few people who I am here with now will be here after I leave makes it a little easier.

Well, there is somewhat of a blog update. More like a scattered list. I will try to do better about updating, Honey. But I lack motivation knowing that no one really reads this. Sad I know. :)

Christmas Shopping, Amish Friendship Bread and anything in between

I picked up an extra shift for yesterday, so today was my only day off this week. I started the morning with an hour long frustrating phone call with Capital One. Trevor and I opened up a Money Market Savings Account with them several months ago but have never received our checks or debit card for the account. Since we will be moving home in two months we will need access to that money for school and housing needs. The first thing the man told me was our account had been frozen and we would not be able to access the account. For how long, they wouldn't stay. This really upset me. They have thousands of our money but we can't use it? That is completely not ok with me.
I asked them what we needed to do to get access to it and they said Trevor would have to go through an hour long conference call to authenticate his identity and social security. His name is only on the account as the co-owner. They said after that process they could send us our checks and debit card in the next month. Rather than go through that process and risk yet another thing going wrong, we closed our account. They should be mailing a check to Mom and Dad's in the next few days for them to deposit into our account. Hopefully nothing else will go wrong.

Trevor and I went to Magic Kingdom after lunch for Christmas shopping. Right now we have 50% cast discount on merchandise through the 16th of November. We thought it would be a good time to get some of our Christmas presents knocked out of the way. :) We bought presents for D'Lynn, Josh, Heather & BJ, and Trevor's mom at MK. We visited in Tomorrowland with some of the people I used to work with before we headed out. Paula, one of the managers of Tomorrowland Merchandise, asked me to e-mail her with my days off so that she can send it to the other managers in T-land and the scheduler so they can schedule me for some extra shifts during the holidays. I am BEYOND excited about this. I loved working in merchandise and I loved the people I worked with in Tomorrowland. The only reason I left was to have the same days off as Trevor and closer shifts. I am pretty excited about the prospect of spending some of my time in T-land during Christmas.

After MK we went to Cast Connection. We bought presents for Trevor's brother Adam and his girlfriend, and Trevor's dad. Trevor bought a bag for me and I bought a kit for making Christmas gift tags.

I am working on making part of the present for my parents. I already know what we are buying for Rachel, Winnie and Caleb. It is just a matter of picking it up. Trevor hasn't decided what to get for his other brothers, Estus and Eli. I would love to have all of the Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving even though none of our family will receive their presents until after New Years when we move home.

I am having trouble dealing with the fact that we won't be with our family's for Christmas. It will be the first time for me to be away from family for Christmas. I know that Trevor and I are now our own family but it is still difficult to adjust to it being just us for the holidays. I don't think we will have stockings this year. And most likely we won't have a tree in order to save money and space when we move home. I just hope that it still feels like Christmas. I would hate for our first Christmas to not even seem like Christmas. It would seem like such a disappointment, especially since it is my favorite time of the year...

On a different note, I used my first batch of bread from my Amish Friendship bread starter. Trevor helped me prepare it and we had a blast cooking. :) It smells so good and is now done baking. I can't wait to taste some of the cinnamon-y goodness!