The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Sunday morning the girls and I woke bright and early to go to Universal to spend the day at Hogwarts!  I love love love love Harry Potter!  I have read all the books multiple times and am amazed every time I think of how J.K. Rowling created this whole other world, so to speak.  What an imagination!  As you enter Hogsmeade, the train and train station are directly to the right.  Then it is the village which is like being in the movie.  I have to admit... I totally teared up!  It was awesome and the Hogwarts School rises up from the back and is beyond amazing!  I was a total geek!  The first thing we did was ride the Dueling Dragon rides.  Both of them!  Awesome!

Then we ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks.  I had a traditional fish and chips and butterbeer!  For all you Muggles, this is what they drink in Hogsmeade.  If you don't know what a Muggle is... well... I can't help you!  :-)  We then went to the school.  They said it was a 45 minute wait and I swear the biggest chunk of time is walking through the rat maze to get to the ride!  We seriously didn't wait that long and the next thing I knew... we were in the school!  It had the floating candles, Dumbledore's office, the Potions room... oh, it was all beyond words!!!  Then you get on the ride.  This was the best ride I have ever been on.  It goes through and a lot of it is virtual reality where you feel like you are flying along with Harry and then it will pop into a scene and the Whomping Willow is about to hit you, then back to a virtual screen.  It was absolutely amazing.  If you know anyone there that weekend and said some crazy girl got off yelling "This was the best ride ever!!!"... it wasn't me... I'm just sayin'...

Many of the pictures moved and talked

The Sorting Hat

 Dumbledore's office

Then went to Dervish and Banges and to visit Olivander in his wand shop.  He does a little show and it is just like the movie where Harry gets his wand!  I cried.  I admit it.  Olivander came down the stairs and picked a little girl from the audience.  When the wand "picked" her with a light shining on her and her hair blowing, I cried.  It was fan-flipping-tastic!  They give each child the wand that "picked" them.  I thought that was so nice.  Not that they aren't making enough money off people who are silly enough to buy a $30 Gryffindor t-shirt or anything like that... I am just saying...  I do want to go on record and say that I did not buy the Gryffindor robe for $99.  I was tempted, but resisted.  Go me!

That will so be Jemma when we take her!  I know where to go and what to do to get picked!  Oh yeah!!!

We then hit the rest of the park where we saw the Poseidon show and rode the Hulk roller coaster, Spider-Man ride, the Cat and the Hat ride and trolley, and Doctor Doom's Fearfall.  We had so much fun!  Suessville is so fun and over the top!  The teacher in me was in love with it all and wished my classroom could look like that!

He loved my shirt!

The Hulk.  This one was rough!  

Then we went back to Hogsmeade to see the school lit up at night and ride one more time.  We had no wait at all.  I wanted to go again, but got outvoted and they were about to close.  Seeing it all lit up was magical!

 We ended the night with a dinner on the City Walk at Pastamore.  It was fantastic!  We got to eat outside because the weather was fabulous.  A darn palmetto bug (aka giant roach) freaked us all out for a few minutes, but then it was good and we all finished our meal with our feet up on the table legs!

This is a view of the City Walk.  There are so many restaurants and shops there.

The next day, Chris and Julie headed off to the airport.  Chris's flight left at 8:30 and Julie had an 11 1/2 hour drive ahead of her.  Dreama had accidentally booked the 8:30 p.m. flight, so we went to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping before I took her to the airport.  I stocked up on Princess gear and we had a great lunch and lovely talk!  I dropped her off and hit the road for home.  I was so sad to leave my friends, but sooooo happy to be on my way to see my main girl!  She was in our bed when I got home sound asleep.  I leaned over and whispered, "Mommy is home."  She never opened her eyes, but said in the sweetest little voice, "Mommy" and just wrapped her arms around my neck and didn't let go.  Yes, that brought tears to my eyes!

I am blessed to have such great friends and had the best weekend.  I am also blessed to have a sweet husband who lets me go on a spending spree and have these weekends with my buddies.  I am a lucky woman!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am recuperating from a visit from our best friends from college, my BIL, SIL, twin nieces and nephew!  On top of that, I have been sick the last two days, but I did want to say Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We are planning a trip to Ireland in June and I can't wait!  I love Ireland and would move there in a heartbeat.  The first time we went, I walked off the plane and told the hubby that I was home.  I had never had such a feeling of home and being somewhere other than driving up the driveway of my childhood home.  I don't know how to republish a post, but you can check out our last trip to Ireland HERE.

May love and laughter light your days,

and warm your heart and home.

May good and faithful friends be yours,

wherever you may roam.

May peace and plenty bless your world

with joy that long endures.

May all life's passing seasons

bring the best to you and yours!

Cliffs of Moher

Lord Mountbatten's Castle

 Just a few rainbows we saw on our last trip

Wishing you a Happy  St. Patrick's Day!

The Race!

We awoke bright and early on Saturday morning and decked out in tiaras and all for the Disney 5K.  The theme was Beauty and the Beast this year.  There were over 2, 000 people and there is such an air of energy and excitement!  We took off and beat our time from last year by 3 minutes!  It was much warmer this year which was nice.  I love to see all the costumes and shirts that people wear.  There was a guy dressed as Snow White and his wife was Cinderella!  A mom was Maleficient and her two kids were knights.  People are very creative!  My favorite was a shirt and on the back it said, "Dear God, Please let there be someone behind me to read this."  That is a hoot and I am going to have to get me one of those!  Here are a few shots from the race.  I am to also add that Jemma graciously provided all the tiaras for us!

On the way to the race.  I just smiled for the picture.  I didn't take it as I was driving!  I swear!

Belle and the Beast waved to us as we started!

I love this picture as you can see all the runners going around.  Those people at the front are actually running for the most part.  I just stay back to get neat pictures!  You believe that, right?!?

There characters are there for photo ops as you go through the park.  I didn't stop this year, but Cinderella was coming out as we went by Snow White.  I would have waited for her had I known!  Yes, the woman dressed as Donald was a runner!

This is one of my favorite pictures during the race.  I loved all the flowers and that you could see the sphere behind us!

Here we are after the race with our medals!  Chris's aunt and her daughter also ran the race!

I am threatening to send this one to our hometown newspaper!

After the race, we went back to the condo and hit the bed for a quick nap and then spent the afternoon and evening at the pool!  I heard splashing and screaming, but I didn't care.  I knew my child wasn't there and I wasn't even going to open my eyes!  Oh the life of luxury!

That evening we went to a Japanese steak house and sat with a group of ladies who were running the half marathon.  We had a fun time where Dreama, who is allergic to shellfish, was called Picky Picky all night by the chef!  Then it was back to the hot tub until we got kicked out of it and to bed at 1:00 this night!  

Have I mentioned that I was having a blast?!?

Girls Weekend Day 1

Last weekend, I went to Disney to run (actually I do more of a wog... walk/jog) in the Disney Princess 5K.  This was the second time I went and I was blessed to have three of my best friends from childhood to go with me.  Chris and I have known each other forever!  You can read more about her and our first 5K here.  Julie and I were best buddies from 6th  grade on.  Our houses were behind each other.  At one point, we tried to create our own morse code with flashlights and signal to each other at night from our windows!  When I moved to Sparta as a sophomore, Dreama was best buds with Chris and they just took me right in.  We were known as the Three Amigos!  They were both a grade ahead of me in school and I actually had kids ask me my senior year if I had failed!  Everyone thought I was in their grade!  Julie and I reunited as an awesome duo when she came to the same college I did for a semester.  That was the best!!!  We didn't get into any trouble at all.  No sirree!  :-)  These are the girls that know me inside and out.  We all arrived at the condo on Thursday night and talked.   There was a lot of making fun of our first kisses, first boyfriends and all the silly stuff!  We stayed up until 2:30!

The next day, we picked up our race packets and then hit Margaritaville for lunch.  Coconut shrimp and a margarita for me!  Yummy!  The others had a drink called the Pink Cadillac.  If you ever need a yummy sweet drink, go for this!  It was awesome!

Me, Chris, Dreama, and Julie

Pay no attention to the bite already taken out of the shrimp before I remember to take a picture for my blog!!  

Right above our heads was the booth where the DJ plays music and the Margaritaville channel on Sirius is broadcast.  

We then went to Universal Studios where we rode all the rides we could get in.   We hit the Simpson's ride which was really neat.  They use a lot of virtual screens and technology.  You felt like you were racing around and doing loops, but you never really moved!  Then on to Men in Black where we zapped aliens, and rode Jaws.  Jaws was a little on the cheesy side, but a must do.  We went to see Twister,  and I am sad to say that I was very disappointed.   All was made up though when we rode the Revenge of the Mummy and the Rip Ride Rockit!!  The Rip Ride Rockit was awesome!  You pick your own music to play while you ride.  I got my roller coaster groove on with the Black Eyed Peas song Pump It.  I love coasters, but I was tad bit nervous as we were about to get on.  Oh my word!!!!  It was killer!!!  Thank goodness we all loved coasters and everyone had a ride buddy!

Yeah, baby!!  I rode it!!!  This isn't even the whole coaster!  There is a lot more to the right side of the picture!

We headed back to the condo and ate gyros in the hot tub.  It was an early-ish night for all of us as we had a race to run the next day!

I'm Back!!!

I have been MIA due to the fact that I have been in Florida!!!  I ran the 5K at Disney again with my girlfriends and went to Hogwarts!  I don't know that I have ever told you that I am a complete and total Harry Potter geek.  I am.  I admit.  I own it!  Pictures and details coming soon!  I have a 5 year old to smooch on!

I am not afraid anymore...

Of all my canned goods crashing down on everything!  The house came with the wire racks in the pantry.  Our pantry is narrow and deep so some of those bad boys were holding up a good bit of weight.  I kept telling the BHW that if we heard a huge crash one night, we would know what it was!  He (being the sweetie that he is!) decided to build me some wooden shelves!  Here is the pantry before.

I know it doesn't look very organized, but I promise it kind of was.  At least it was about a year ago when I cleaned it all out, purged old things and organized it.  You can still see some of my very fancy labels I made!   That would be paper taped to the shelf. That was my tutorial for you!

First, we took everything out of the pantry.  I don't have any idea how I get all this stuff into that little pantry, but I did!  I went through everything and threw away anything expired.  

Hi, my name is Kathryn and I used to have a Longaberger addiction...

There is my happy little worker bee!  He even came home early on Valentine's Day to work on my pantry!  He sort of had to as he started the project on Sunday and it took a bit longer than he planned.  All this stuff was out on my counters and I had to get it off!  Baking cookies and making pizzas were interesting with no available space to work on!  

He had already cut the shelves and we had primed and painted them.  Bless his heart, he was coming down with the flu and we didn't know it.  He didn't feel great, but kept on working!

Here she is now all done and organized (for the most part!)  There is a lot to be desired in my organizational skills, but it works for me!  It just seems that I have more room and I don't worry about stacking cans toward the front or back so they won't collapse in the middle!  He did such a good job!

He also made my spice shelves that are in here.  You can see that post here.  I am a pretty lucky lady to have a handy husband!  Thank you sweetheart!  You really are the BHW!

And I had to just add this picture of my old girl, Murphy!  You can read all about her here.  I have been playing with my new lens and I just loved this picture of her!  Isn't she beautiful?  I love her!  

I am linking up to Kim's Wow Us Wednesday party at Savvy Southern Style!