While visions of mickey mouse ears dance in their heads...

I hope while Jerry and I are up late packing and organizing before our early flight to Orlando tomorrow morning, that our little ones are being greeted by princesses and mice in their dreams.

Aren't these shirts cute? Thanks, Heidi, for the sweet E-bay tip. We didn't just inherit a little boy...the one in the middle is for our nephew, Eli, who will be turning three while we are at Disney World. I'm trying to figure out how his mommy will top this birthday party. Hong Kong for his fourth maybe?

Anyway, I must sign off before my husband discovers me blogging instead of packing the toiletries bag. We aren't taking our laptop with us, but I did figure out how to post pictures to my blog via my cell phone. I'm sure that isn't new news to most of you, but I'm thrilled. The titles will show up as "Multimedia Message"...and I haven't figured out how to change that yet.

Well, I don't have a Cinderella here to finish all this packing, so I must get on with it. Good night.

And one quick P.S., I signed up to do the Siesta Ornament exchange on Monday, but I think my ornament will come after we've left tomorrow...so I'll link up when we return.

Fit Friday

This has been a decent week for me. I totally enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner...on two separate occasions (complete with a sampling of desserts), so I knew I had to get my rear in gear.

I only worked out once, but I have been seriously eating very good. Lean proteins and lots of veggies. Something about having a camera in my face at Disney World for the next five days has really motivated me. Jerry even offered to take me to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants this week and I declined. He was shocked. I just knew I couldn't avoid eating their great chips and salsa. So we compromised and went to Chipotle, where the chips are also wonderful, but where you have to buy them separately. I love their veggie bowls. It is so hard to believe they are owned by McDonalds. The two places couldn't be more different.

My weight hasn't changed that much...it is only down a couple of pounds, but if you remember two weeks ago...I think it was up a couple or more. I am mainly excited because my favorite pair of size 8 jeans is getting packed for Disney. And I will be wearing them. Because they fit now.

Woo Hoo. Now I'm sure all the Cinderellas and Belles are size 2s, but size 8? It has been so long since I've seen you...I'll keep you any day!

To check out the how the other Fit Friday sisters are doing, check out It's Almost Naptime.

"Ice" Skating

Waxahachie, Texas. I'm sure I've mentioned it before. My mom lives there now, but even before she did, it was one of our all time favorite towns. We love old houses and it happens to have Texas' largest concentration of houses with the designation of being on the national historic register.

It has a wonderful downtown, with this beautiful courthouse, many fun lunch spots, and antique stores. A few of them are the crafty type of stores, but most of them are the true, junky, antique stores...my favorite kind.

This weekend we were already half way to Waxahachie after celebrating a second Thanksgiving at one of Jerry's aunt's houses, so we decided to push our non-napped children to their limits and trudge on towards Waxahachie.

They had a little Victorian festival going on complete with carriage rides, pony rides and a petting zoo.

Lily chose to ride a pony while Jade got acquainted with the smaller animals.


We were most excited to go ice skating though. We had heard that the town was putting up a little ice skating rink between Thanksgiving and Christmas and it seemed worth checking out. Lily was especially interested after watching Caillou learn how to ice skate on a recent episode.

We walked a couple of blocks and saw the rink from a distance. So picturesque. And it was actually cold that day...in the 40s...so it just seemed perfect.

Then we got closer and saw this.

What?

It isn't ICE?

It was a bunch of "slippery" boards nailed together. Have you ever heard of such a thing?

I guess it makes perfect sense seeing that Texas can see some 70 and 80 degree days during the winter, but please.

The city's website did describe it as an "E-Z Glide ice rink", am I the only idiot that didn't realize that E-Z Glide meant wooden boards and not ice? I did check the skate rental booth and indeed they were renting ice skates...not roller ones.

Lily wanted to try anyway, but we decided we'd take her for a real experience at the mall's rink at a later time. With a few tears and explanations about how this was not the kind of skating that Caillou did, she was finally okay with it.

You gotta love Caillou. Something about seeing his mommy in her same frumpy clothes day in and day out just makes me feel good about myself. At least I have a variety of frumpy clothes.

WFMW E-Mealz Menu Planning

Meal planning used to be a fun little task for me. But then when a couple of kiddos, in addition to the husband got thrown in the mix, plus a tighter budget, it suddenly became more of a chore. Then I realized I just wasn’t doing it right. Sitting down with 2 or 3 cookbooks, picking out recipes that sounded good, choosing side dishes that paired well, making a long list of ingredients, going to my cabinet to see what I could cross off...it took forever.

Then about 6 weeks ago I learned about E-Mealz. It is a great meal planning website. Basically you can pick whatever type of meal plan you want...low fat, low carb, regular type, ww points, vegetarian, whatever...then choose what store you shop at and how many people you are feeding. It then plans 7 dinners for you each week...including side dishes.

The best part is that it prints out an aisle-by-aisle, detailed shopping list for you, complete with prices so you know exactly what you'll be spending. The meals also follow the weekly store ads/coupons so it is definitely budget friendly. The list is broken down by meal #, so if a particular meal doesn't appeal to you, it is easy to cross those items off the list.

It’s also easy on the budget by incorporating the same ingredients throughout the week. No more wasting half a tub of cream cheese…it will be used for a later recipe. It occasionally incorporates leftovers into the meal plan as well.

Are you hosting Christmas dinner? Check out their holiday meal-planning guide. I recently noticed they are offering holiday gift certificates too.

Anyway, we have found the meals to be great, even for our girls, so click the link above if you want to try it out. Dave Ramsey is an advocate of it, so if you sign up, use the coupon code "Dave" to save $2.50...that will make it $2.50/month. I figure after 3 months I’ll have enough recipes for a lifetime.

E-mealz is currently paying new members $3.75 for each friend they refer…so sign up and spread the word!

For more Works For Me Wednesday tips, visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Tiny Talk Tuesday ***Updated w/Video***

***See update below***

Lily's mouth never stops, so I should have more than this to post, but here are just two little tidbits that stayed with me this week.

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While watching Obama being interviewed on TV:

M-Lily, that guy is our new President. Soon he will be the most powerful guy in the whole country.

L-Is he God?

M-No, although some people probably think he is. Thankfully, God is even more powerful than him.

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While Lily was watching me swat at an elusive housefly.

L-Mom, it's like you're trying to give that fly a spanking.

M-Really? Have I missed your behind this many times?

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Have the tiny talkers in your house said anything memorable lately? Join in the fun over at Not Before 7!

***Updated to add video***
Lily has recently become aware of her pictures and video clips being on the computer. Now whenever she sees the Flip video camera, she wants to perform. I forgot to upload this earlier.

My girl can spell. Or sing, at least.