Better Late Than Never

I know I have been neglecting my blog lately (as my mother so kindly told me) and even though I had the best of intentions to update much sooner than today, I guess it's better late than never.

When I last left, I had planned on updating pictures from our Disney trip.  Meeting the Princesses was Kaci's favorite part of the whole entire trip and Jim was so great to wait in line for many of them while we wandered around the park.  So here is a run-down of everyone we met.

Cinderella, the first princess she got to meet inside the castle.

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty, Kaci's all-time favorite.

Ariel

Belle (Kaci wished she had been wearing her yellow dress)

Daddy waited in line a long time so she could meet Rapunzel.

Jasmin and Aladin (she kept looking everywhere for Abu)

Tiana and Prince Naveen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting Some Characters

The first day we went into the Magic Kingdom, we had gotten there just in time to see the big parade.  Kaci was absolutely taken by this because she was seeing all of her favorite characters in one place.  She didn't move and didn't make a sound as she was taking it all in.

But them came the time to actually start meeting the characters...and then we had entered a whole new level of fear.  She didn't like them...nope...not at all.  I'm not sure if she was afraid or unsure of it all, but she absolutely did not want to stop for an autograph, let alone a picture. 

The next day, I convinced her to stop and see Daisy Duck and amazingly she DID! 

I think her fear was the costume, because she had no problems talking to the human characters.

She really wasn't a big fan of Goofy

She and Alice became close friends that day...They talked for well over 5 minutes.  

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for Kaci's favorite part of the trip - Meeting the Princesses!

Disney 2011

Can you guess who is major behind in the blogging world?  This lady right here!

So, we've been back from Disney for a couple of weeks now and things have finally started to settle down (meaning: caught up on graduate work, caught up on school work, not caught up on housework-oh well, you win some, you lose some). 

We told Kaci about Disney the night before we left with a scavenger hunt through the house.  I told her Tinker Bell had come in and left her surprises which scared her half to death.  After a great deal of persuasion (and carrying up the steps) she became very excited to find all of the prizes left for her.  The biggest surprise was a wrapped package complete with a new princess dress, balloon, and poem written by yours truly.  The poem was how we actually told her where we were going.  Of course, in true 4 year old fashion, she didn't react with the happy tears and joyful screams I was envisioning in my mind.  In fact, my child was more concerned with the balloons and trying to figure out how Tinker Bell got into our house in the first place.  At least I got it all caught on camera!

And Then There Was One

Tomorrow, we depart for Disney World!  This is by far one of the hardest secrets I have ever kept from anyone and in just a matter of hours I will finally be able to tell Kaci she is going to "The Place Where Dreams Come True."  I hope she is as surprised as I am envisioning! 

Getting ready was not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination.  I am back in school and am taking 2 classes (which means double the work).  For the past week, I have been working until midnight trying to get papers written, chapters read, and not go crazy in the process.  Plus, I had lesson plans to write and papers to grade for the school that actually pays me to be there.  I am now finished with all of my work due this week and next week so I can leave home with much less stress on my plate.  My mom was also kind enough to keep Kaci for me last night so I could get the packing finished.  Each step is falling into place.  Now we just have to wait for Jim to get off of work so we can let the cat out of the bag.

I am planning of getting video of her learning the surprise and once I learn how to upload I will post it here for all to see (just don't judge any messes in the background).  Here's hoping for one happy little girl (and the ability to fall asleep tonight)!

10 Days

Only 10 more days until we leave for Disney.  I think I have finally figured out how I am going to tell Kaci we are going.  Since our flight is early in the morning, I decided to tell her Sunday night (of course, now I won't be able to get her to fall asleep).  I bought her a new Cinderella dress (Sleeping Beauty is her favorite princess, but I didn't like the off-the-shoulder number they had, plus we're eating at Cinderella's castle so I thought it would be appropriate), I wrote a little poem full of clues about where we are going, and I'm going to get her a princess balloon.  I'm going to put it all inside of a large box wrapped in princess paper.  That way, when she opens it the balloon will float up and reveal the poem and dress.  There will also be a trail of new princess items (tiara, bracelets, necklace) leading her to the box to hopefully build some suspense.

Now I'm just hoping she'll react the way I envision.

17 Days

17 days...yep...just 17 more days and I am finding it harder and harder not to tell Kaci we are going to the place where dreams come true.  Now off to research how I exactly I am going to surprise her.

A to Z

I saw this on my friend's cousin's blog (makes me think of that scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off...My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid...you get the point) and thought it was a cute idea, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

A {age} 32

B {bed size} queen

C {chore you hate} cleaning floors

D {dogs} 1 shih tzu named Bella

E {essential start to your day} shower

F {favorite color} black is my favorite to wear

G {gold or silver} white gold

H {height} 5'1

I {instrument you play} I played the flute and piccolo in middle/high school

J {job title} I get paid to be a teacher, but I'm also a mom, wife, chef, chauffeur, maid...you get the point

K {kids} 4-Kaci, Kelsey, Jordan, Justin

L {live} Northern Kentucky

M {maiden name} Zacharias

N {nickname} don't really have any

O {overnight hospital stays} when I had a c-section

P {pet peeve} when people leave the lights on and they aren't in the room, when they burp and don't say excuse me

Q {quote} God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference

R {righty or lefty} righty

S {siblings} little sister, Becky

T {time you wake up} Ugh, I hate waking up!  On school days, I wake up at 6:45

U {universities} Miami University (undergrad), Northern Kentucky University (grad)

V {vegetable you hate} cooked spinach

W {what makes you run late} not wanting to wake up and Kaci moving slowly

X {x-rays you've had} teeth (at the dentist), ankle (high school injury)

Y {yummy food} tacos, pizza, Coke-a-Cola

Z {zoo animal favorites} monkeys

Beware of the Little White Pill

See this pill?

Know what it is?  Does this help?

Please beware of this little white pill.  This stupid sleeping pill resulted in a 911 call from my home this weekend.

Jim was prescribed this medication months ago and he was very leery to take it because of all the side effects associated with it.  I even have a friend who had suffered from hallucinations while taking it.  Well, his Advil PM wasn't cutting it so he decided to give it a try Sunday night.  Bad idea...Terrible idea...Horrible idea...100% the wrong decision.

At 2:00 AM, Jim came down the stairs with his shirt on backwards, shoes on his feet, and was carrying a baseball bat.  I myself have been suffering from terrible insomnia so I was still awake on the couch working on schoolwork.  He gave me the blankest stare when I asked him what he was doing.  Next thing I know, he's out the front door and began roaming the streets.  I tried to chase him down, but he had no clue who I was and kept swinging his bat talking about the 'people' he had to get.  I ran back in the house, checked on Kaci and woke up Kelsey.  We proceeded to try to drag him back to the house and when he still wasn't coherent, I sent Kelsey back to call 911.  Six minutes later, an officer (whom Jim knows) showed up and managed to get the bat away from him.  Next came the life squad and took him away on a stretcher.

At some point in the squad, he began to come back to himself but had no clue how he got there and what had happened.  Lab work at the hospital showed nothing, so the prognosis was a bad reaction to the medication and at 7:00 AM he was finally discharged.  The little white pills were disposed of at the hospital.  No way were they coming back into my house.

So, let this be a lesson to you all.  The little white pills are bad, bad news.

Back to School (for everyone)

Well, it looks like we are ALL back in school.  Kelsey started her senior year, Jordan started his freshman year, Kaci started preschool, and Mommy started graduate school for another degree.  Yep, school life is back into full swing and the stress is working it's way back into our house.  Now, if I could just find the time to get the house cleaned, papers graded, lessons written, all while giving Kaci the attention she needs and deserves, we'd be great.  Life's little balancing act...stay tuned.

Happy Birthday Baby Sophie!

I would like to send out a very special Happy First Birthday greeting to our dear, sweet, not to mention tiny, Baby Sophie.

My little sister, Becky.

Notice the shirts...Sophie was supposed to be a September baby but the doctor's had other plans for her.

Me getting to hold Sophie the day she was born.

Kaci was so excited to finally meet her new cousin.

One year later...and yes, my daughter has a princess dress on over her jammies (we are obsessed).

Happy First Birthday Sophie!  We love you!

Back To School

It's my last official day of rest without students but if you ask my husband summer for a teacher definitely is not all about total relaxation.  From tweaking plans from the previous year, creating new projects for the upcoming year, to meetings, reading professional books, and everything in between I seemed to always be doing something school related.  Since I've had Kaci I've never felt that I did enough with her during the summer.  As I was mentioning this to Jim the other night, he reminded me of all the fun things we did do this summer.  We began with a trip to Montana to visit Justin and his new son Landon.

Kaci holding her new nephew, Landon

 

 

 

 

 

 

A month later, we got to go on a trip to Coldwater, Michigan with my family and Kaci got to hang out with her favorite second cousin, Malena.  She loved being at the lake and started to greatly overcome her fear of water/swimming.

Kaci and Malena looking at the full moon

Catching fish with Daddy

We also participated in the library's summer reading program and the weekly story time/craft sessions.  She also kept up with her weekly gymnastics classes.  Amazingly, after we got back from Michigan she totally got over her fear of swimming (as long as she's wearing her vest) so we wound up spending almost everyday at Grandma's pool.  A massive heat wave took over our area during July, so the only time we spent outside was at the pool, but we still managed to play lots of indoor games, read lots of books, and discovered new found loves for old Disney classic moves (namely Peter Pan).

All in all, it was a great summer and I need to quit feeling guilty about not doing enough.  I guess the lesson to learn is that it doesn't matter how many trips you take, how many programs you participate it, what really matters is that you are spending time with the ones you love.

Disney World

Kaci loves everything Disney Princess.  She is often dressed up as her favorite princess (which often changes), singing songs from the movies, and acting out her favorite movie scenes.  Not too long ago she received a package in the mail from Malena (her favorite second cousin) and inside was a pair of Cinderella glass slippers.  You would have thought she had just received a check for a million dollars!  Those shoes were on her feet the minute she pulled them out of the box and for the next few days Cinderella was all we played.  I got to play the part of the Grand Duke who got to put the slipper on her foot to prove that she was the prince's true love, that is when I wasn't playing the part of the prince running after her at midnight as she dropped a shoe for me to find. 
The truth is that I love that she enjoys watching my old Disney movies.  It gives me a chance to relive a part of my youth and, let's be honest, the movies are entertaining.  She's even branched out to other movies that don't have princesses in them, like Peter Pan, Fox and the Hound, 101 Dalmatians, and so on.

Let's rewind back to when Kaci had just turned 3.  It was around then that she started asking me to take her to Disney World.  The very first time she asked we were driving in the car and the question caught me totally off guard.  I asked her to repeat herself because I didn't think she could have possibly just asked me to take her to Disney World, I didn't even know she knew that place existed.  But that was exactly what she asked and that's what she kept asking every few days for months (along with "Who lives in Disney World?  Does Sleeping Beauty live at Disney World? You get the picture).  In my quest to find out who taught my little girl about Disney World I discovered that I, inadvertently, was the culprit with all the Disney movies I allowed her to watch.  You see, Disney movies put commercials in the previews for their oh so popular theme parks and my daughter decided that Disney World was the place for her.  Right now, we have Finding Nemo on the DVR and even during a showing on the television there's a commercial for, you guessed it, Disney World.  But this commercial talks about Disney World being the place where dreams come true so now Kaci informs me that she needs to go to the place where dreams come true. 

Well, in less than 60 days my baby will be going to "The Place Where Dreams Come True" and she has no clue!  We've told her that we would take her when she was 8 years old and she seems to be fine with that, of course she doesn't realize how far away that really is.   It's because of that lack of understanding of elapsed time I decided to keep this a secret.  We booked our trip back months back and I couldn't imagine fielding the daily "Are we going today?" questions.  Too much for this momma to handle. 

We'll spend 5 full days at the most magical place on Earth.  I've booked a breakfast date at Chef Mickey and a dinner date at Cinderella's Royal Table, complete with a princess makeover right before dinner begins.  Goodness...I can't WAIT to see the look on her face when she catches her first glimpse of the castle and sees her first princess! (Her daddy is pretty excited too because he always wanted to go there)

So now I'm faced with the dilemma of how I tell her her dream is coming true.  I am intrigued by all the videos you can see on TV where parents tape their child's reaction to the news and I would definitely like to have my camera running.  But I don't know if I should wait until the night before, the morning of, or just tell her we're going on a trip and not tell her where until we get off the plane.  Decisions, decisions.  The only thing I'm sure of is that I am going to make my little princess that happiest girl in the world in less than 2 months. 

My Future

Have I ever told you how much I love my daughter?  I absolutely adore her!  I know I'm pretty partial, but I think she is the most beautiful, intelligent, and funny little girl I've ever met.  Her personality is one of the best things about her because she can make you laugh, melt your heart, and take away any bad mood in a 5 second time span.  However, I think I'm in for a rough future

Kaci is definitely a mommy's girl and emulates my actions.  If I'm getting ready in the bathroom, here comes Kaci with her 'makeup' putting it on just like me.  If I'm wearing jewelry, so does Kaci.  When I spray perfume, so does Kaci.  I think you get the point, but it goes beyond her just wanting to do everything like me because, you have to understand that my daughter really, truly is a mini-me.  Her mannerisms are just like mine, from hand gestures, facial expressions, down to the way we sit on the floor.  And then there's the hair color, eyes, chin, nose (you get the point).  But the one thing that really makes her a carbon copy is her personality.  She acts just like me!

One day before school (when she was just 3, mind you), she stood on her stool in the bathroom brushing her hair, putting on 'makeup', and jewelry.  I kept trying to rush her because we were right at the point that if we didn't get out the door we were going to be late.  That little stinker looked right at me and with all seriousness (and a hint of attitude) said (more like yelled), "I can't go yet, I'm trying to do my hair and makeup and I still need to put on my jewelry!"  In a flash, I was able to visualize her middle school years but then cringed because I knew that those exact words had probably (OK, most definitely) come out of my mouth many moons ago.

Fast forward to tonight when I'm trying to get Kaci into the bathroom to brush her teeth.  She was not cooperating and I was starting to get frustrated, then she started to get frustrated, and Jim just sat there taking it all in.  It was at that moment that she and I both threw our arms down, fists clenched and let out a moan in identical fashion leaving my husband near hysterical tears as he saw us as a mirror image (or maybe it was that he saw a glimpse into what his wife was like as a 4 year old).  The rest of the production at the bathroom sink had him in further stitches and his only words were that he wished my mother were here to see this because he could guarantee that she had experienced this once before in the exact same manner.  That's when it hit me...Kaci is me in a tiny package.  Now I know what my future will hold and all I can say is, "Sorry, Mom.  I will definitely get my paybacks."

Welcome to Our Crazy Little Life

I guess it's about time I begin blogging!  This is something I've thought about doing for quite some time now, I've just never sat down and taken the time to set it all up (odd, considering I love being on the computer).  This year, my class will be blogging so I decided I had better start getting the hang of it first. 

Sitting with a blank page ahead of you can be slightly overwhelming.  Nothing like Facebook where you can type a short sentence and consider yourself finished.  Nope.  This involves much more time and thought.  Oh well, I'm guessing it will all get easier as time goes on.

This blog will give everyone short glimples into the lives of the Wallace Clan (all of us, pets included) as we continue this journey through "Our Crazy Little Life".