A New Chapter Begins...

A new chapter begins today. We moved Sean out of McClintock. He got his letter yesterday, saying he was released from his contract. It was brought to the D.O. of TD3 one day shy of being given the dreaded 1-year contract *whew*! He is officially a Middle School teacher! Scary! We went over to Connolly today so Sean could meet the math coach and get a tour of the school and some new teaching materials to look at. I tagged along so I could see my room.

I think the school will be fairly easy to navigate after I get used to it. It's a completely indoor campus- something I am not at ALL used to. The campus seems pretty small for the probable 1200 kids that will be there. It sounds like it's going to be a year where EVERYONE is just holding on for dear life and surviving. This is a huge building year for the district as a whole.

I'm pretty nervous about my schedule. I'm teaching SIX classes for the first time (I'm used to THREE!). Somewhere in there, I'll need to fit, testing and IEP prep. It's going to be ugly, but I got the feeling that the "people who matter" agree that sped teachers need to have someone to put down some regulations and they too feel like we're getting the shaft. It's going to be interesting this year with a new special education director. I'm excited that he's been a middle school principal and sees what it's like to be a middle school special ed teacher. Things can only go up from where they left off.

Moving Sean out of his classroom was HOT HOT HOT!! But, it's done. We went to YCs for lunch. I always forget how much I LOVE that place! To my surprise, I ran into a teaching friend who has worked there since high school. She filled me in on her search for a job- she'll be a first year teacher this year. Sounds like she's going to be in for a ride of her own teaching at an EXTREMELY low income high school (English). She'll be great though! I told her she can write the next "Freedom Writers". Haha. AND, she gave us a card for two free entrees. SWEET!!!

Didn't do much this afternoon besides RELAX which was MUCH needed! Sean played XBox, I laid on the couch. Great afternoon! Ran errands this evening and went to Cold Stone. Got home from that, and Skyped with the boys up in CWood. I can't wait to see them tomorrow!!!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I'm looking forward to pool party day!!!

*~*Jenni*~*

Whew! We Made it!

We made it home. After everything we saw today, I can barely believe it!

World of Color last night was soooo amazing. I love that show SO much! DCA still hasn't quite figured out a good way to get people into the show since so many get there so early to "stake claim" in "line" and I use the term "line" loosely seeing as it was just a scary, swarm of people. Anyways, we made it in and got AWESOME seats. It's amazing how much easier it is to wait for things when you aren't trying to entertain two toddlers. We soon realized we were stationed right at one of the fountains in the audience! Awesome!! :) What I love about World of Color is that they change it up and every time we've seen the show it's been a TOUCH different- the "best" parts are always still there, but they change up the smaller scenes and characters, which is pretty sweet. At this performance, we got to see a ton of Pirates stuff, which was so cool! I told Sean though, we have to stop seeing it on the last night of our trip because it makes me SOOO depressed to have to leave in the morning :(

We got up early and went to Magic Mornings at Disneyland. We got on Star Tours one last time- saw another one of the 54 combinations of scenes. Sean keeps shaking his head at me when I refer to parts of the ride as, "the snowy place" and "Space Japan"... BUT, I know NOTHING about Star Wars, so, it will do! Ha! After, we did AstroBlasters since there was no one in line. We realized how much we missed the boys getting on that ride. I always sit with Morgan and Sean always sits with Toby. We realized we'd never been on the ride and sat TOGETHER before. After those two rides, we went to Carnation for breakfast and watched the crazy crowd gather in Main Street for park opening. After breakfast, we went to get our PhotoPass CD (YAY!!). When we got there, we got to see all of our amazing pictures that got taken throughout the Parks and then, we bought our package- When we got home I played with them a bit (adding borders and stuff) and ordered our CD! I hope they get here soon!!

The drive home was scary!! I guess there were a bunch of accidents on the freeway- none of which I knew about, but all of which, I came across AFTER the wreck was gone (except for the overturned watermelon truck). All was going smoothly until about 30 minutes out of Buckeye when Sean fell asleep. Not more than 30 minutes after he was out, the semi in the lane next to me (and about 4-5 car lengths ahead), blew a tire. It sent smoke (or something!) billowing, and the next thing I know (as I try to steer through), a HUGE shred of the tire blasts my windshield! I screamed SO loud. The tire hit the windshield and flew over the top of the car. I didn't see it hit another vehicle, and from what it looked like, the truck didn't even seem to slow down! I watched it in my rearview (while making sure I didn't pee my pants-lol) for about a mile or two, before I lost sight of it. Sean slept through the giant thud of the blow, the tire hitting the windshield AND my scream! I couldn't believe it. And THEN?! Another semi blew a tire (but MUCH further ahead of me) about 5 miles later!

Sean eventually woke up, but by then we were only about 10 miles from home. Ha!

Anyways, we're home... just went for sushi since it's hard to eat it with the kids. Sean is doing a final walk-through with our renter. We're sad to see him go, he's been great. We have a great couple moving in tomorrow (while our cleaning guy cleans) so I'm looking forward to the following year!

I'm catching up with the DV-R while Sean's gone. I can have SYTYCD on as loud as I want since the boys aren't here and sleeping. Woohooo!!

*~*Jenni*~*

Disney Day 3

What did we do before PhotoPass? I've always said, I love how the Disney photographers don't bombard you like they do at the Phoenix Zoo, and then make you feel terrible for saying "no thank you". Sean and I decided that instead of bringing a camera along, we would just do the PhotoPass route this trip. Wow, am I ever glad we did! We just give our card to any of the photographers (stationed at high-photo areas around each park) and they take AWESOME pictures for you. If you get a good photographer, they will take like five or six, in different positions and stuff, telling you exactly how to pose. It's been awesome. There are even some "Magic Shots" where you put your hands in certain places, or make certain faces/poses and when the photos are made, there will be different Disney characters/scenes in your pictures. Then, at the end of the trip, after you've taken as many pictures as you want, you can buy specific prints, or, for about $50, you can buy a CD with ALL of the pictures so you can do what you want with them! We got a little preview of our pictures today and they are soooooooo friggin' awesome!! I think it's going to be our new "thing" we do when we come- we don't have to lug a camera along, and everyone can be in ALL the pictures and we know they will come out AWESOME! I'm super excited to have my hands on those, soon!

Sean is feeling a lot better today- I got up early to go downstairs and get World of Color Fast Passes for tonight. Since we're at our resort, we get them earlier than everyone else, and a little more of a "priority seating" area. The line was super long, and I was hoping and praying, Sean would be up for it. He wasn't too awake (or, I didn't think so anyway) when I left. I just hoped for the best. I went over and also got Soarin' FPs while I was down there- I guess this summer they open up Soarin' and the new, Little Mermaid ride to DGC (Grand Californian) residents from 9:15 to 9:30. I grabbed a couple fast passes, and then went back up to check on Sean.

He was dressed and ready to go!! Phew!! He said he felt pretty good. We went to Soarin', ate a small breakfast and waited in line for Midway Mania (one of my favorites). We decided to take the day easy- I'd rather go on the slower, less thrilly rides anyway... We shopped and walked and vowed not to eat anymore Disney chowder or Mexican food. LOL. We took a few more pictures, and headed to Disneyland. Took it slow- rode Pirates, Star Tours (AMAZING!!!!!), Jungle Cruise and then took the train to the monorail station and the monorail to the Downtown Disney exit, which, by the way, is a lot closer to the resort than Sean always said. I think I'll be taking THAT to the Park from now on... there is a little ticket booth and everything. WAY closer than how we've been getting in! *sticks out tongue*

Anyways, we went to Build A Bear in DTD- they have some adorable Disney stuff for the boys. When we come back in October with them, maybe we'll take them to get their bears/dogs a Mickey shirt with matching light-up ears :)

We're up in the room- Sean is taking a nap and here I sit. We're going to go grab a pizza downstairs at Naples (I cancelled our reservations at Napa Rose this morning because I didn't know what the day would have in store for us *ahem, I mean, Sean* and I wasn't super excited about the menu. If it was going to be a $150 dinner, I want to be excited for the menu!! So, pizza it is... Grab some ice cream on our way to World of Color- where we hope to get early, so we can stake out an awesome spot :)

*~*Jenni*~*

Disney Day 2

Well, today didn't go quite as planned. As soon as we had lunch, Sean started not feeling well. That was around 10:30 this morning. It is now 4:30 and we are still up in the hotel room. Poor Sean has it pretty bad- we think it was most likely because of lunch, or SOMETHING he ate.

On a ligher note- we went on Splash Mountain this morning. I have a total love-hate relationship with that ride. I HATE getting soaked but I love the ride. I always freak out because I really don't like dropping, but by the time I'm all the way down (and normally, soaked) I want to go on again. Thankfully, the workers perfectly balanced out our log and I managed to only get a wet butt. I'm ok with that! The cameras weren't working though, so we weren't able to see our picture.

We went on the new Little Mermaid ride at DCA after lunch... It was a pretty long wait and a cute ride, but I probably won't go on it again. It was Haunted Mansion style, where people are constantly getting on and off, without having to stop the ride, but short like Winnie the Pooh. We waited for 45 minutes for a 1 minute ride. Oh well. It was cute though.

So, here I sit... in the hotel room. Sean is in the other bed. I'm twiddling my thumbs. I feel bad to leave and go do something, although, going on rides by yourself isn't really that fun. I could venture out and go shopping, but since we come so often, there is really nothing to buy, and that isn't too much fun on your own either. I should enjoy the silence, but it's been too much already. Being stuck in a hotel room kinda sucks. I have no DVR :( Haha

*~*Jenni*~*

Waiting on Fantasmic

Disneyland is super busy! There is a huge volleyball tourney and giant groups of teenage girls EVERYWHERE! We were lucky enough to get a group of middle school ones on our boat on Pirates. Yippee. Haha. We went on the new Star Tours and it was pretty awesome! There are 54 combinations of scenes on the ride so I'm sure we'll be going on it a few more times! I'm expecting the Park to be a lot slower tmrw, as many will check out.  We're both pretty tired so we're just chillin', waiting on Fantasmic. We've got two hours to go. :)
~*~**Jenni*~*~

Disneyland!

We made it to Disneyland! We brought the boys up to Cottonwood last night, for a vacay of their own with Grandma and Grandpa.

The drive was really easy- the more often we drive it, the more I can auto-pilot and the faster we seem to get here! We had a bit of a rocky start- I hit a bird, or rather the bird hit ME on our block- that was sad. LOL. Had to turn around because we forgot to check the mail before we left- since we live in one of those little communities, we have one of those teeny tiny mail boxes that barely will hold the 4 days mail while we're gone. Went to Dunkin' Donuts for a quick breakfast and realized we forgot the cooler. Sigh. Back home. But, we were on the road by 9! There was a huge accident on I-10 that shut a bunch of lanes, but still, we made the trip quicker than ever before; probably because we had about half the stops we do when we do the drive with the boys :)

We just checked in to our "Home Away From Home" and as soon as Sean is done doing an assignment for a class, we're hitting the Parks! It sounds like we're going to do the Fireworks tonight. We got two FPs each which will be used on the new Star Tours ride, which Sean has informed me, we will be riding a multitude of times. Haha.

It's been so long since we've been out on our own- I feel kinda guilty being here without the boys but it's not like THEY never get to come- haha! We decided not to bring a camera into the Parks- we're going to go the PhotoPass route. We've never done it, and it could be fun. It's been a really long time since we've had nice pictures taken together. It will be our little treat to each other. Well, I'll be back!

~*~*Jenni*~*~

Finally!

Alright, so.... here it is. My blog. My hopes for this, is to keep it mainly family based- new thing the boys are up to, what we're up to, yadda yadda, but we'll see how that goes.

As soon as the boys get up, we're headed to Cottonwood to drop the boys off at Grandma and Grandpa's, while Sean and I go to Disneyland for a few days by OURSELVES. We need a break! We'll drive them up, drive home, sleep and leave in the morning. It's going to be hectic, but, at this time tomorrow, we'll be at the Happiest Place on Earth! Woooooohooooo!!!