November Photo Dump

labeling the old electrical panel so we can sell

1603: SOLD - Bittersweet

Thanksgiving

While some have opted to post their daily thanksgivings on Facebook I have been building a list all month here.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Nov 1: for a day of rest- to get caught up on laundry, house cleaning and to be able to get rolling on packing up our house

Nov 2: for a day with Marc - we packed up the entire upstairs of our house and got it moved to the storage unit along with the rest of our furniture ( we saved our mattress to sleep on but the rest is gone) & for a date night to one of our favorite places in town, Black Bear

Nov 3: for a wonderful remembrance of all the Saints, for a fun afternoon hiking around a local park with Marc and Dakota, for warm coffee cake, and a clean kitchen

Nov 4: for a call/job I love and for carpet shampooers

Nov 5: for my colleagues who I love and adore - for conversations which challenge and enlighten - for small children (2-5) who are eager to learn to swim

Nov 6: for children and youth who ask big questions - for families who take an active role in raising their kids in the faith - for a church that pays me to do full time ministry

Nov 7: for vacation - for Walt Disney World and the magic it holds

Nov 8: for friends to travel with

Nov 9: for runDisney - LOVE all of there events

Nov 10: for sleep - after last night's late night I am thankful for the chance to sleep in

Nov 11: for delicious food and people who are able to create delicious recipes, for wait staff and dishwashers, for clean plates and too much to eat

Nov 12: for fireworks and relaxation

Nov 13: for phones with the ability to talk to people all over the world, for text messages and photo messages, for twitter, for instagram, for blogs, for social media, for facebook

Nov 14: for laughter, for honesty, for fun, for adventures, for travel, for the sense of all things magical, for the ability to dream big

Nov 15: for my husband, my sweet puppy dog, and for my own bed

Nov 16: for Saturdays with nothing on the calendar

Nov 17: for the congregation I serve alongside - for the 134 years of ministry and mission they have been involved in

Nov 18: for plenty of food to eat

Nov 19: for youth who ask big questions

Nov 20: for outdoor ministries

Nov 21: for the freedom to worship and pray openly

Nov 22: for great books and movies, for movie theater popcorn, for diet coke

Nov 23: for a synod who truly invests in their youth, for a congregation who assembled many thanksgiving baskets (baskets full of food for Thanksgiving) to be shared with out neighbors

Nov 24: for shutterfly, for photography, for my Nikon D300, for the gift of memory

Nov 25: for the ability to run

Nov 26: for colleagues who I love to work alongside

Nov 27: for the opportunity to be home for Thanksgiving, for a dog who travels well, for a husband who loves to drive

Nov 28: I am ridiculously thankful for sooooo much, it was wonderful to wake up this morning in my parents (new to them) house, surrounded by my husband, Dakota, my brother, Nala (my brother's semi nutso dog), and my parents. And soon, my grandparents (who I adore), my Aunt and Uncle and a couple of my cousins, along with another uncle, will be at the house for a feast fit for royalty. I love holidays and the ways in which it pulls together family.


Okay, so looking back I probably should have broken this up into several posts - good on ya if you actually read this all. I am off to hang out with my family.

Thanksgiving blessings to you all!


What are you doing this Thanksgiving day?
What are your Thanksgiving traditions?
What is your favorite Thanksgiving food? pumpkin pie, homemade whip cream for me

Animal Kingdom

I love Animal Kingdom. I love their commitment to the animals, the commitment to help teach the people about the world around us and how we can better live in it, I love their commitment to animals who are endangered and their attempts at helping to increase the population of certain animals due to their limited number. I love the ways in which it is laid out. I love the huge tree in the middle with all the animals carved into it. Ahhh soooo much fun (and this is why I can't pick a favorite park at WDW, I LOVE THEM ALL). This is going to be the quickest fly through of Animal Kingdom ever. I am hoping to come back and do a post on the Jingle Jungle Parade, the Nemo show, and the Festival of the Lion King (which they are planning on moving to another location and have already started the construction on that - it will be interesting to see how long it takes them to get it done and moved - such a great show).

Kilimanjaro Safaris is ALWAYS a highlight for me. This trip we were able to ride several times (which I highly encourage every does because it is ALWAYS different due to the ways in which the animals move around and some are in hiding and some you can see). When we first arrived in the park we went straight back there and walked right onto the ride, which was amazing, it was early in the morning and all of the animals were out and moving about. We even got to see the lions moving around and what not. My favorite favorite favorite is the giraffes (I LOVE them and am fascinated by them - I am seriously going to paint my guest bedroom with giraffe spots on it. I am jazzed to move and start painting, thanks for volunteering to come help mom). This time they even had a baby giraffe. Soooooooo cute. The other crazy thing to see was a couple animals that WDW is working fervently to keep off of the extinct list. They have several endangered animals that they are trying to breed and hopefully be able to release populations of them back into the wild. I am thankful for organizations who work hard on things like this.

     The other fun around the park is obviously The Festival of the Lion King which is about a half hour mini broadway show of sorts, the flying gymnastic monkeys are my favorite! I am always impressed at what they are able to do with only setting up a minimal amount of gear. The fire twirler is also fairly impressive, I know he is trained in how to be able to do that kind of stuff but it always slightly scares me to see someone playing with fire like that, I fear there isn't much of a margin for error and it would really hurt to get burned (part of this goes back to my summer working as a hospital chaplain and I remember hearing people talk about the pain of being burned, the smell, and the pain they experienced every day as their bandages were changed). The music is fun as well and I love that they really work to get the audience involved. We did see the building that they are planning on moving the festival of the lion king into, and then transforming that space into avatar land (which I am not 100% sold on yet).

     There are also several other things which I really enjoy including: It's Tough to be a Bug, Mahara Jungle Trek, Expedition Everest, Pangani Forest, and Rafiki's Planet Watch. I feel that Rafiki's Planet Watch often gets over looked, a couple things I really enjoy about it is: there is always a couple characters to meet out there with little to no wait, the view inside the vet clinic (one time we saw a Zebra having surgery, which was ridiculously cool), the train ride out where you get to see where all the animals bunk down at night, and the small animals/reptiles/bugs that they have. In my opinion it is totally worth the trip out there (some complain it is too far out and not worth it - I totally disagree). Expedition Everest is always fun, I am not certain that I would ever want to wait an hour or anything for it, we fast pass it or ride when the wait is twenty minutes or less. True story: I have been spoiled by being able to travel in the "off season" to Disney when the crowds are generally fairly low, I seriously can't imagine traveling during the peek seasons any more. I have been spoiled without a doubt.

    The Jingle Jungle Parade, the Festival of the Lion King, and the Finding Nemo shows are always on my must do list as well. (Obviously, not the Jingle Jungle parade when it isn't the holiday season, in non holiday season it is just the Jungle parade, of which I love to see as well) I am impressed at the high quality of the shows that they do repeatedly throughout the day (the parade is only once though). I am impressed by the actors and actresses and how fun it is. There really isn't a bad seat in the Festival of the Lion King or the Finding Nemo show, they all are good really. 

   Other things to note about Animal Kingdom, there are some fun "magic photos" available, one where you get to pose like you are holding Simba like a baby, tinkerbell in your hand (this one is available at every park), stitch in the ground, and a couple of others, but baby Simba is my favorite. There are also usually some pretty good photopass options - around the tree of life, with expedition Everest in the background, and many around the different areas. I will have a post coming on the photo pass - who knows when, I guess you will have to keep reading to discover my opinions and thoughts regarding the photopass. 

Do you enjoy Animal Kingdom?

What is your favorite thing/attraction at Animal Kingdom?

What is your favorite Animal?

Magic Kingdom

I have decided that you all are just going to have to deal with a plethora of Disney in the next while, mostly because I have literally over 3,000 photos to sort through, and while yes, I know they are not all amazing, I want to be able to share a good ton of them with you. Also, in this post I will only be doing some highlights of different things not my review of everything. And please note I do promise there will be one on each park coming as well as one on: Wine & Dine Half Marathon, Wine & Dine Food and Wine Festival, Mickey's Very Merry Magical Christmas Party, Character meet and greets, photopass, magic bands, and I am guess one on yummy meal places. Soooooo much to write about and soooooo many (yes, probably excessive, but it is what it is) pictures to sort through. I will try to not overwhelm you all with all pictures and try to include some text. 

   Anyways, without further adieu here we gooooooooo......  The new fantasyland is now opened and wonderful. The new expansion is fairly wonderful, however they do not yet have the new minecart ride up and running, I imagine it will be open in the not too distant future because they were working on it like CRAZY while we were there and it has some serious structure to it and it appears they are working around the clock (or nearly). It looks like it will be awesome.

   Be Our Guest is now open (and amazing, review to come) as is Gaston's Tavern. Gaston's features all sorts of food from: pork shanks, to cinnamon rolls, and LeFou's Brew - which is a sugary frozen apple drink. The pork shank deeply resembled the turkey leg in my opinion, I wasn't brave enough to try it (due to the millions of other amazing options at Magic Kingdom) but one of my party did try it and he said it was very similar in taste to a turkey leg. The LeFou's Brew, was tasty but way to sweet for my liking, however another member of our party thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

      I always, always, ALWAYS, love the electrical light parade, I have a ton of pictures of it. I love the music with lots of lights. SOoooooooo fun, and I remember watching this parade when I a kid. There is something ridiculously magical about this parade for me. Love it! 

     While normally I am anti-Christmas until after Thanksgiving however, it was fabulous to see mainstreet all lit up for Christmas. It was great to hear the Christmas carols and feel the festivities. I will post more about Mickey's Very Merry Magical Christmas Party in another post, in short, it was AWESOME. 

       The ride lines were short, we really didn't have to wait more than about ten minutes for anything so we got to ride things over and over again and then combined with our magic bands we were set to go. I will post more on the magic bands in another post. We also got to visit all the characters we wanted, while I am not huge into visiting the characters, I do think it is fun to stop by and get my picture with some of them from time to time. 

The jungle cruise was converted to the jingle cruise

Can't go wrong with the stage shows

wishes

What is your favorite part of Magic Kingdom?

Do you have a favorite Disney character?

A totally random post....

I feel like I am in a weird season of life right now. The highlights:

• We are moving on December 5, originally it was suppose to be this week Thursday, but due to the governemental shut down we were pushed back. Sooooo due to the move supposed to be happening this week literally the only things in our house are: our matress & box spring, the TV, wii, a laundry hamper of clothes a piece, 2 spoons, 2 forks, 2 knives, 2 plates, 2 bowls, 1 pan, 1 spatula, Dakota's crate, Dakota's dog bowls, an empty dresser in the front room (the storage unit is PACKED), a mostly empty refrigerator, and a hodgepodge box of dried food. While this will make moving easy on the 5th, it is slightly annoying right now and it totally isn't worth it to unpack the unit to get to the useful things. (Seriously packed and I am afraid if we take anything out it won't go back in)
• I am overjoyed we are moving - just annoyed at the interum
• I don't have another race on the calendar until the Fargo Half Marathon in mid-May. I also don't have the vacation (or the cash) to spend to go somewhere warm to run in the winter months (plus this means I don't have to put ridiculous amounts of miles in on the treadmill midwinter, which I am thankful for). I need to work on some serious training goals over the winter months.
• Work is going amazingly well, we are currently massively ramping up for the advent season. However, it feels like we were already going at a sprint. This past weekend we celebrated 50 years in our current location and 134 years in ministry and mission. It was awesome, and a ton of work.
• I am loving twitter, blogging, and instagram. I seem to go in phases where I use these a lot and hardly at all. Currently in a season of plenty.
• I am annoyed all of my yarn and needles accidentally got packed up (refer to the first bullet point)
• See previous bullet point, which has lead me to do a lot of reading (not a bad thing) - anyone have any book suggestions, or even better a series suggestion
• I am thrilled about moving houses, and annoyed with it at the same time (see bullet point number 1)
• I love pinterest. end story.
• I have several shutterfly projects I need to work on: update 2013, finish my coast to coast book, and make my wedding book. I love shutterfly.

What is going on in your neck of the woods?

Any book series you would like to recommend?

HOME Again Home again Jiggity Jig

Ahhhhhhhhh glorious sleep in my own bed. Thankful for vacation but also thankful to be home.


Things on my to-do list asap:

• laundry 
• vacation laundry and whatever laundry I had left before I went on vacation
• pick up all the dog poop in the yard (gross tmi probably)
• I don't want the new owners of our house to have to find nasty poop in their new yard
• upload my pictures to my computer and then to shutterfly
• I ALWAYS fear that something will happen to my memory cards - I would be sad, very very sad
• snuggle my sweet puppy and hang out with Marc
• enjoy the last day off before I have to actually work
• I am in favor of coming back home a day before I actually have to work - coming home and having to work the next day is less than ideal for me, I need some down time to recover from vacation
• go grocery shopping - it appears Marc is a rockstar at eating what we have in the cupboards and fridge without having to buy groceries - he has mad skills in this arena- time to restock on some of the staples: milk, fruit, veggies, cheese
• slowly get my mind back in the game of working
• finish packing up my house - ready or not it is coming

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane

Oh, my bags are packed, I am ready to go.......

Okay, so I can't resist a little John Denver every once in a while.
But it is true, my bags are packed, and I am ready to go. We are on our way back home today. The Mears shuttle will pick us up and take us to the airport and then I am one direct flight away from MSP, where I will take another shuttle to town, and my husband will eventually pick me up.

I am thankful I opted for the shuttle both from home to the airport (2.5ish hour drive depending on traffic) and from the Orlando airport to the hotel. I am thankful that I can sleep on the shuttle if I want, which really on the way down here sleeping on the shuttle was key, since I had to board my first shuttle at 1:15 am. Plus I didn't have to worry about/ pay for parking and what not. Today I give thanks for shuttle drivers.

It will be wonderful to be home to:

• See Marc and Dakota
• sleep in my own bed
• to go back to a routine
• to look at all of our pictures on photopass
• plus I enjoy being able to edit them and add borders and what not
• and let me not forget MAGIC pictures - sooooooooo fun - I always make it my goal to get a bunch of those
• to upload all of my pictures and be able to spend time editing the
• and to finally finish off my Coast to Coast shutterfly book - I have the first half completed and it is now just waiting for the second half of the book
• be able to wash my clothes
• stinky race clothes get even stinkier if not washed immediately, I am thankful for my wetbag which contains most of the smell
• to go back to work 
• I actually really enjoy my colleagues, the people who I get to walk alongside, I miss my youth, and this weekend is a huge 50th anniversary celebration at church which should be wonderful 

Walt Disney World - Epcot and Magic Kingdom

Today we have early dinner reservations at the Coral Reef. I LOVE this place, I love sitting and watching all the fish, sharks, and what not swim by while we eat. I am fascinated by it and there is a little bit of a freaky factor when you start to think about how much water must be in that tank and what could happen if the glass were to break. However, I realize that the glass is crazy thick and all will be well - and really it only freaks me out for a few seconds and then I am back to eating my delightfulness.

Tonight we have tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. LOVE THIS, I have been to this party before, I think I was there two years ago, and LOVED IT! This will be a marvelous end to our vacation. Yes, this will be another opportunity to take 12,000 photos. I am curious to know how many photo pass pictures we will have by the time we get home, I am thankful they are unlimited in the number we can have.

Thoughts on the photopass: we love getting it and when we split it between the 6 people in our party it is totally worth it. We then get the cd and have it mailed to one of us but then we all get the pictures eventually. It is really wonderful when I am wandering the parks by myself and want a picture of just me. It is also great for when we want a whole group picture and then we don't have to have all 6 of our cameras out for the picture, we know we will get a copy of it.

Walt Disney World - Magic Kingdom

Today we have reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch.

I am excited to see the fireworks show, Wishes, tonight. I love watching fireworks at Walt Disney World. They do such a beautiful job of orchestrating them all and weaving them together with music and really there are very few bad places to view them from.

I will definitely be writing up a review of the Magic Bands, since this is my first time using them - but I will do that when I actually have a computer in front of me rather than on my iPhone.


Today, hardly seems like a Wednesday, traditionally I should be getting ready for all of my Wednesday night madness, however, I am on vacation, but those routines and things don't seem far from my mind even though I am on vacation. However, I do know it is all in good hands and everything is covered.

Walt Disney World - Hollywood Studios

Today we are off to Hollywood Studios.

We have lunch reservations at Mama Melrose Ristorante Italiano. YUMMY, I love this place as well, okay so perhaps you are catching onto the fact that really I just love eating out while down here, I don't have to cook or clean up and my kitchen isn't a mess from my cooking. Wonderful. But really I do love this place as well.

Our magic band reservations are at:

• Toy Story Mania - I could ride this ride all day - (random side note: a couple of Christmas' ago my brother got me the wii game that is very similar to this ride and I love it because it makes me think of this ride) now if only there wasn't always a line for this ride - goal - ride it as many times as I possibly can
• Rockin Roller Coaster - soooooo fun - I always laugh hysterically at the pictures afterwards, people's faces are sooooooooo funny on this ride
• Fantasmic - love this show

What I am really Missing From Home:

• Marc - dang him (not really) - wrecked my ability to travel and have little desire to head home
• Dakota - I miss running with my sweet puppy and snuggling her
• My own bed - with four of us in the room up until now I have been sleeping on my thermarest on the floor (which is wonderful but not quite the same as a bed) - today we are down to three people in our room so I am back in a bed 
• My sweats - I seriously love wearing sweats and some how I apparently forgot to pack them (#fail)

Walt Disney World - Animal Kingdom

Today we are off to Animal Kingdom (LOVE this park, wait, I love all the parks)

We have fast pass reservations at:

• Expedition Everest - fun fun fun
• Kilimanjaro Safaris - Hoping the animals are out so I can take 12,000 pictures in less than 20 minutes
• Festival of the Lion King - sooooo wonderful - I greatly enjoy this show!

We have a dinner reservation at Artist Point, I haven't ever been to this restaurant, although I have heard nothing but AMAZING things about it, so I am pretty jazzed. My mouth is salivating just thinking about it.

Walt Disney World - Epcot

Today we are going to play it real easy - we were uncertain of how we would feel after last nights most excellent race! I can't wait to type a serious review of it and my reactions plus the after party. The short of it is - SOOOOOO WONDERFUL, seriously. Everyone should run the Wine and Dine and earn their Coast to Coast medal at some point. More on all of this when I get home and can lace a post with 12,000 pictures. Check this off my bucket list!

Today we have reservations to eat at Chip N' Dale's Harvest Feast Dinner. I am excited about this one, really let's be honest I am excited about all of these, I have eaten here before but it has been several years. A couple of people in our party have not ever eaten here, so it will be fun to have a new experience for them. Plus the food is sooooooooooooooooo yummy.

We also have fast passes reserved at:

• Test Track (LOVE the updates to it)
• the character meet and greet spot (yes, I will be hauling my medals around the park so I can have pictures taken with my medals and the characters around the park - yes, I did haul my Tinkerbell medal from January down here with me so that I can have pictures taken with all three medals - yes they do weigh a ton - yes, it is worth it - yes, you will be stuck seeing all the pictures)
• Soarin (can't go wrong here). 

Also you can guarantee that I will ride the land at least two or three times. LOVE IT!

I am feeling pretty good after last night's race, thank God for adrenaline. Seriously, I am not a night owl, however for a runDisney race I can fake it for a night :)

RACE DAY

Ahhhhhhh today is the day!!! I am going to earn my coast to coast medal!!! I am totally nervous about the evening run. Our plans are to lay low until early this evening. We do have late brunch reservations for Chef Mickeys today.

We'll see how the rest of the day plays out! We are going to attempt to figure out some sort of a great balance between not doing anything and overdoing ourselves so that at 10:30 tonight we are exhausted. I am much more of an early riser than a stay up late kind of a person. Here's hoping adrenaline kicks in and carries me through lots of the race!

I seriously never thought I would actually be able to pull it off where I would earn my Coast to Coast medal. I can't believe that it is playing out like it is. I am thankful that last January my continuing education timed perfectly with the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. I even packed my Tinkerbell Half Marathon medal so that sometime early this week I can take my Tinkerbell Half Marathon Medal, my Wine and Dine Half Marathon Medal, and my Coast to Coast Medal to the parks with me (talk about carrying around excess weight) and take pictures with them all over the parks. (Yes, I am indeed that person.) We do have a photopass, so that helps a ton.

I have already taken a TON of photos on my real camera (read over a few hundred) so you can bank on a ton of photos when I return home and have the chance to download them all to computer. I will upload a few best of posts for you all.

I can't wait for the run tonight, I am jazzed already, now to not tire myself out before late tonight. I have the wine and dine half marathon to run and an after party to attend!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooooooooo excited!

Walt Disney Plans for today - Epcot

Today we have fast pass reservations on our magic bands for:

• Test track - sooooo fun - I know this ride is pretty simple but I really do enjoy it and it always makes me think a bit about how they seriously test cars
• Mission Space - not my favorite ride - however my friends are pretty jazzed so I will go along for the ride
• Soarin - love love love this ride - I think it would be sweet if they would do this ride to other states as well - add in all the locations where there is a Disney location - Florida, Paris, etc

Our dinner reservations are at: Tokyo Dining(super excited about this)


Other highlights for me at Epcot include:

• The land - seriously love, love, love this ride.
• Wandering through the countries - sooooo much to explore.
• Food & Wine festival - this is the first time I have been here for it!Illuminations - ahhhhhh this show does my soul good

I am jazzed to be on vacation - despite being a little sad I am away from home. It feels wonderful to disconnect from work a little, it always takes a few days to unwind from work before I can completely relax.


Follow me on instagram for more pictures: sathomson
Really, I am taking most of my photos on my Nikon point and shoot and on my Nikon D300.
[Post trip there will be some serious photo dumping]

Follow me on twitter - no promises on how much I will tweet but as I noted in an earlier post - It seems to be a season of tweeting for me. Follow me at: sarahathomson

Five Months as a Mrs.

We celebrate five months with Marc in Minnesota and I am in Florida.

The Wonderful Things:

• WE SOLD OUR HOUSE
• REJOICE, we got an offer we could accept and we jumped on it. WHOOP WHOOP and we couldn't be more excited -- we close hopefully November 21 - however there is a chance it will be pushed back a week
• The house has lots of memories and is the first house I have ever owned and there are lots of things I love about that house - note to self - take a ton of photos before you move out
• I love that it is only five minutes from work
• WE BOUGHT A HOUSE
• we offered and they ACCEPTED it without countering! 
• seriously overjoyed and can't wait to show you pictures
• best part: we close November 21 -- however if our current house gets pushed back a week so will this house - we managed to pull off a simultaneous close
• I can't wait to finish the basement and paint and have 2.5 acres of land that butts up to a state park. GLORIOUS.
• We will now be driving 15 minutes to work 
• We will be in the new house by Christmas - I can't wait to show our families the new house
• I am totally getting chickens ASAP (I fear they won't ship them to Minnesota in the dead of winter)
• It has an attached garage which is much bigger and more stable than our current garage that I have been praying that the neighbors large tree would fall on

The Things No One Warns You About:

• Potlucks at the other person's work are lame - Marc's work loves potlucks and they do them all the time which is awesome for him - not so awesome for me who ends up preparing food and never getting to eat it
• we also have begun a 72 hour warning required for all potlucks if you want to bring something other than doritos or whatever I can pull out of the cupboards - I don't make brownies on a Wednesday night after getting home from a long day 
• Moving is stressful and takes ridiculous amounts of communication - don't accidentally pack something up that you shouldn't (like assuming that all playstation 3 remotes are created equal - there is a beloved remote - and if you leave one out and assume it is the same as the others and it is the wrong one - you will get to dig to the back of the storage unit to find the beloved remote)

The Miscellaneous Things:

• I am in Walt Disney World currently (Whoop Whoop) and jazzed about running the Wine and Dine Half Marathon to earn my Coast to Coast medal.
• Marc is at home working (and hopefully finishing packing)
• I am caught up on my shutterfly books other than our wedding (and this trip obviously, I am only taking about 12,000 photos an hour)
• I LOVE fall and all things pumpkin flavored, I have already started stashing cans of libbies pumpkin stuff so I can eat pumpkin flavored stuff all year - such delights shouldn't be limited to a month or two out of the year

Pack-a-Palooza

In less than 24 hours I will be on a plane headed to Orlando. I actually get on a shuttle to the airport tomorrow morning at 1:15 am. (Yes, I know it is ridiculously early, however this way I can sleep the whole way there and then function the rest of the day.)

I am attempting to focus on packing up my house (hopefully we will close on our house less than 5 days after my return from WDW)  - however my mind is beginning the transition to vacation. Whoop whoop.

I also am trying to figure out what things I have forgotten to throw in my suitcase. I always pack a few random things that I am often thankful I have such as:

• a couple of rain ponchos 
• the super cheap ones from target that work perfectly for one time use, are super easy to throw in my bag to have for when the Florida rains occur
•  a power strip
• When sharing a room with three other people there never seem to be enough outlets a night when we all want to charge: our phones, cameras, and who knows what else
• a box of granola bars
• I like to throw one in my bag each morning so that when we have a late meal I can snack on one and not have to buy an actual snack, plus it is easy to eat while in line for thing, and a box of granola bars are much cheaper than having to buy something in the parks every time
• extra sd cards for my cameras
• I would rather pack a couple more than I actually think I will need than to run out and have to buy one in the parks
• a copy of all my travel documents and a copy of my drivers license
• crap happens - enough said
• advil
• you just never know when you will need it

PLUS I need to:

• preach tonight
• teach catechism (which I actually love)
• finish cleaning off my desk
• it always feels sooooooo good to leave for vacation with a (mostly) clean desk - despite the fact that often when I return there is a whole new pile of things that have grown on my desk
• hang out with my youth group kids
• love these kids
• hide my notes and surprises all over my house for my husband
• give some extra snuggles to my favorite puppy (I seriously don't know how I existed without her in my life, I love my dog, I have become that crazy lady).

I will board the shuttle here in town at 1:15 am( totally ridiculous but I sleep well in motion). It was the only option to make my flight on time if I didn't want to drive myself.

My flight out of MSP is at 8, I am hoping I maybe able to catch the earlier flight because I will be at the airport so early. I have a direct flight to Orlando. We'll see how this plays out.

I have reservations on the Mears shuttle to take me to our hotel where I plan on meeting up with the rest of our crew.

We have reservations at Tony's for dinner.


Sooooooooo excited!!!


Anything random that you always pack when you are going to Disney that I should throw in my bag?

Freezer Crockpot Meals

I seriously don't know how people actually get dinner on the table if they don't use a crock pot. I work crazy ridiculous hours some days and my hours are unpredictable at best and I LOVE IT. Seriously love my call, however, I also love a good home cooked meal. I am so thankful for pinterest and people who have WAY more time on their hands than I do and come up with brilliant lists of Freezer Meals that you can assemble and then in the morning when you want one of the meals you just take it out of the freezer and pop it in the crock pot. I like to make up sets of 5-10 meals at a time and it takes me about an hour to prepare the meals. I label them all and throw them in the freezer and then in the morning I think through my day and what it will entail and often times walk to the freezer and drop a meal in the crock pot.


Do you make freezer meals?
Do you have any favorites you want to share with me? I am always looking for new recipes.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

I am not certain how working women pulled off having dinner ready at any sort of a reasonable time (read before 9:00 pm) before the invention of the crock pot. Seriously, I cook in a crock pot at least three times a week. Why, because I never know what time I will get home and when I do get home the last thing I want to do is cook over the stove, I just want yummy food ready to go when I walk in the door, hence my obsession love of the crock pot.

Now that fall is definitely upon us I have gotten back into soups (LOVE soup during the colder months, which in northern Minnesota is October through April May). My most recent soup is from THIS PIN on pinterest. I also LOVE pinterest and actually cook and make things off of there weekly.

Here is the soup I made this week:

Add everything except the cheese and cilantro and cook on high for 3 to 4 hours.  Add the cheese and sprinkle with cilantro just before serving

Chicken Enchilada Soup

3 cups chicken stock
2 skinless, taw chicken breasts diced into small pieces
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp  chili powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 jalapeno peppers, minced
2 green bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups frozen corn
1/2 cup tomato paste
8 oz colbyjack cheese, shredded (because this is what I had in the house)
8 oz pepperjack cheese, divided
1 cup cilantro, chopped
Tortillas

Dump everything, except the cheese and tortillas, into the crock pot, reserve some of the cilantro to be spread over the top. Add most of the cheese with about fifteen minutes left in cooking. I also added strips of tortillas at this point. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the bowls of soup as they are served. I also had some tortilla chips sitting around that I crushed and put a few on the top of the bowls of soup as well.

I am sure there are 12,000 things you could do to this soup to change it up a bit. We loved it and enjoyed eating it for a few days.


Do you have any great crock pot recipes you want to share?
Do you like soup season?
What are your go-to meals?