This Mad Tea Party.

Let me begin by saying that when I began writing this post last night, I was sitting on the couch with the movie "Twister" playing on the TV. This was a terrible idea considering the fact that this movie scares me to no end, I was home alone, Michael was working until 5 AM, I really needed to bed, and there was a tornado in the Orlando area earlier that day. Yikes. I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares.

On that happy note, my family came to visit a couple weeks ago. I really enjoyed having them here. I'm always glad to have them visit. This time was different because my aunt, uncle, and their three daughters came with. I really liked experiencing the parks with kids. It is a completely different adventure. We were able to visit all four parks, and I feel like they saw everything they should have! I sure hope they all had a nice time. I definitely did!

Before everyone came to visit, I told my aunt, Sarah, that if the girls were ever bored, they should make pictures or letters for characters they wanted to meet. Faith, the 10-year-old, put a lot of effort into this. She drew and colored pictures with letters on the back for Rapunzel, Flynn Ryder, and Pascal, the characters of her favorite movie, "Tangled". She then drew pictures of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, and Goofy. When it was time to meet Rapunzel, I told her she should give Rapunzel the pictures for Flynn and Pascal also because she would be able to pass them along. (You can't meet Flynn or Pascal in the parks at this time.) Rapunzel was so excited to receive Faith's gifts. She ran around showing everyone the pictures saying, "Look! She got his nose right! She got his nose right!" For those of you who have not seen the movie "Tangled," Flynn is a wanted thief and on all of the Wanted posters, his nose is drawn incorrectly, which upsets him throughout the movie. About a week ago, I saw Rapunzel again. I asked her if she remembered Faith giving her the pictures. Her response made me laugh. "Oh my gosh! I am obsessed with those letters and pictures!" She also told me that one of Rapunzel's friends took pictures of all of them to share with everyone on Facebook and then made copies of them to hand out to Rapunzel's other friends. Too cute, right? I thought it was super sweet.

On the day my family arrived, my mom handed me an envelope. Inside was a card. It had notes from my drill team director and all of the ladies that I worked with in the office at McKinney North during my Junior and Senior years of high school. I had one hour everyday built into my schedule where I would go work in the office and perform little tasks for the office ladies. That was honestly one of my favorite parts about high school. Every person that signed that card has made a huge difference in my life. They were always there for me when I was in school. It makes me happy that they still think of me because I certainly think of them and everything they have done for me. They are definitely some of the nicest people I have ever met.



The entire time my family was here, they paid for my food. Once they left, I didn't know what to eat. I ended up stopping on the way home at Wendy's for a Chicken Caesar Salad. At Wendy's, the chicken that comes with the salad is spicy chicken, so I had to take a little extra time ordering. While I was placing my order at the drive-thru speaker, I could hear the man taking my order laughing. I figured it had nothing to do with me until I pulled up to the window and he was still laughing. I asked him what was so funny, to which he replied, "I was sure it was a BABY ordering!" Umm... Rude. I sarcastically said something along the lines of, "Sure, whatever," and pulled up to the next window. About a week later, I went back to Wendy's, this time only for a large Coke. I really wanted some fries, but thought it would be best to just eat at home. When I got to the first window, the man looked at me and said, "You seem familiar to me, but I'm not sure why." So I told him, "You laughed at me last week because you thought I sounded like a baby." He burst out with laughter and said, "I knew your voice was familiar! I'm sorry for laughing. It isn't nice." I told him it was okay and that I realized I had made his night." I pulled forward a bit, but had to wait before I could get to the next window. Some woman had confused the drive-thru window with a "walk-up-and-ask-for-a-manager-so-you-can-complain-while-people-in-their-cars-wait" window. When I finally made it to the second window, the employee asked me what I had ordered. I told him just a large Coke. When he turned around to make the drink, the guy who had been laughing at me stuck half of his body out the window toward he. He was holding an order of french fries. I was confused, thinking, "I didn't order fries. They know this," but then he said, "Thanks for making my night!" I thought it was so nice. I really enjoyed those fries. They were super good.

While my family was visiting, some of my blog readers were also at Disney! A couple from Rockwall found my blog after it was posted on the Kidd's Kids Facebook page and have been reading my entries ever since. I think it is so crazy and exciting that people I have never met read the things I write. It also makes me feel bad because I feel like a let down when it takes me a month to write a new post. But anyway. I actually met the family while we were in Epcot, and then they came to meet my friend Minnie Mouse when she and I were hanging out with Goofy at the Disney Visa location. This is a special VIP meet and greet only available to guests with the Disney Chase Visa card. It was so nice to meet their family. They were very friendly and had nothing but nice things to say about my adventures here!

Now, it is time to talk about work. In my particular role, I typically have a lot of down time. What better way to spend down time than by coloring?! I have a box of 120 crayons that I bought at Target for about $7 and several coloring books. Right now I take the Tinkerbell book to work. On my breaks, I sit there and color. This does not elicit the type of reaction you would expect. You would think that a bunch of adults would see this girl coloring on her breaks and be like, "Wow... You're coloring?" But instead, the response I get 90% of the time is, "Oh my gosh! WHERE DID YOU GET THAT BIG BOX OF CRAYONS???" When I answer them, they don't ever believe I only paid $7 for it. It makes me laugh. They are also fascinated by my Tinkerbell coloring book. If I am in the spare break room with the face spares, they all take turns asking if their certain fairy friends are in the book. It is very amusing.

Due to the heightened amount of park and resort attendance, most of the character dining locations have extended hours. Weird things happen during extended hours. The things I have experienced in the last couple days are the guests just behave very strangely, the restaurant is expected to be especially busy and then 50% of the guests cancel their reservations at the last minute, van drivers don't show up in the morning to take the entertainment cast to the resorts, break rooms are locked when we arrive, and Goofy goes out for his last set wearing his friend's shoes instead of his own. Oops! Donald was the first to finish, so he and I were sitting in the break room with the captain. Then Goofy walked in. After standing their for a moment, the captain looked down and said, "Did you really wear those shoes on set?" I looked down and realized Goofy was wearing his friend's black running shoes instead of his own black kitchen shoes. Silly Goofy!

I have one last thing to add. I was riding the Monorail the other day with my friend Hayden. We started talking to a family sitting next to us. When the wife asked us where we were staying, I informed her that we weren't actually resort guests, but instead we work here. She turned to her husband because he had been talking to us longer and said, "Did you know this?" He replied, "Of course. We go way back. She dresses up as Mickey Mouse and Snow White. And he dresses up as Gaston." I nearly lost it trying to hold in my laughter. Oh sir, if you only knew my life! Hayden covered it up by saying, "Oh no, I'm too short to be Gaston!" They never did ask us where we work. I thought it was so funny though.

I am so excited to have the next two days off! I am very much looking forward to sleeping in after 5 AM. Such luxury! I shouldn't complain. Yes I have to get up at 5 every morning, but at least I'm not working until 4 or 5 every morning like Michael. He now has to sleep during the day because he usually doesn't work until 6 or 7 at night and then he is there until 3, 4 or 5 AM! It's so crazy. I am hoping we will be able to go to the parks tomorrow or something. Who knows though? The parks have been super crowded lately. Regardless, we both have a day off! Everyone have a magical evening!