Birthday Boy

Did I ever mention that J's birthday is on the 4th of July? So every year we have a difficult time planning a party, since his friends are all out of town. We always manage to do something special, but not many come. I guess he has gotten used to this, since when I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he simply stated that he wanted to "go to T & M's place to play with T's Wii (which is video console for those of you who do not know)" and "do you think maybe we can build lego's too?" "Uh...sure son...but don't you want to do anything else?" "Maybe we can go swimming too?"
Talk about easy to please. As far as what he wants for his birthday, it is a repeat of what he has wanted for the last 4 years: Bionicles, Legos, Pokemon stuff, and cash. He did mention that he wanted his own Wii or Nintendo ds, but that "that is just a crazy idea, mom". He knows how much they cost and believes that we would never spend that much on his gift. However, probably will get one for him, since he isn't haven't a "party" which would normally run us more than what they cost.

There is a vast world of work out there in this country, where at least 111 million people are employed in this country alone - many of whom are bored out of their minds. All day long.

Richard Nelson Bolles

I got a promotion at work and now everyone is commenting on how happy I seem. It's not that I'm happy for no reason, I'm happy because I get to learn something new, I get to challenge my brain a bit....it could also be because my new work area is in an area with piped in music, and I like to move with the music during the day. Whatever, at least there is a smile on my face.

Waking up

There are morning people and there are night people. I am a morning person - I love the newness of the day and I feel like I can get so much done when I get a head start on the day. This is good, since my job has me come in earlier in the summer.

The boy, on the other hand, is a night owl. He would rather not see daylight until at least 10am (unless it is Saturday, then he miraculously wakes up before dawn to watch his cartoons). This does not do us any good when I trying to get out of the house before 7 am. Today would be a good example of this - look at the time I post this.
He is a grouch too.

Pearls

The first night we got to Disneyworld, we decided to go to downtown Disney, which is mostly shops with varying themes, all which are destined to separate the tourist from his money. My dear boy J was swayed by many a store or booth, 2 catching his eyes the most. The first was the Lego shop. In fact, we were visiting downtown to specifically go to this shop; since when I was making the vacation plans I shot down the idea of going to Legoland in CA and substituted Disneyworld with the promise of the Lego store visit.
Being that this was the first day of vacation, we warned J not to spend all his money, since we could always come back another day. Plus, he might see something in one of the other parks that he could only get at Disneyworld, so he should save his money "just in case". Well, he did get a limited edition Lego toy that we have never seen in the stores around here, but he also wanted to go to another shop - the pearl shop. He insists that we return to it, that it has to be today, that we can not wait another day, risking not coming back.
There is a reason for this: on Mother's Day he wanted to give me a single pearl necklace, but due to circumstances beyond his control, he was unable to do this. So, when we passed the booth that had people shucking oysters to look for a pearl, he was intrigued. When I told him that they could set the pearl into a piece of jewelry, his eyes lit up. He insisted that we stop back at this booth so that he could get a pearl - he "just had to do it". I explained to him that this would come out of his souvenir money, but he was OK with that, he wanted to get me my pearl necklace.
Who am I to argue with the sweet thoughts of my son - I planned on letting him "buy" me the pearl and setting, but not actually take it out of his trip money.
So, we go through the whole process of picking an oyster, having the women give the story behind how the pearl is formed, picking the pearl out of the meat, cleaning it in salt, measuring it...now it is time to pick a setting for it. I look at J and ask him if he wants to put it in a necklace setting. He looks at me while rolling the pearl in his hand, asking if he has to or if he can keep it separate.

"Sure you can keep it separate, but I thought you wanted to make a necklace with it?" I say.
Looking at me with his sweet, open face, he says, "Hmm, I think I want to think about it, I might want to keep the pearl for myself."

Hmmprh...I guess little boys can't stay sweet for too long at a time...you better believe that money came out of his vacation spending money!

We stayed in the '90's, home of computer diskettes and laptops:

There were three pools at the hotel - we had no desire to use any of them, since our days were so full of adventure, by the time we came back we ready for bed.

The hotel itself was nothing great - hubby referred to it as "Disney's version of Motel 6". The room had two beds and a little table at which to sit. However, it served our purposes: clean with free transportation to all the parks. Plus, the maid service was willing to be silly. Each day we came back, we found J-man's collection of toys rearranged in some interesting manner or another:

"All hail Super Pokey"

Disneyworld

What a great trip we had to Disneyworld. We decided to fly down and stay at one of the resorts located in the area, so we chose the Pop Century resort. It is a themed hotel, based on the last century. The buildings were designed to look like "themes" from each decade. The 50's had the jukebox:

Back

We're back from vacationing at Disneyworld and boy, do I have stories to share -which will have to wait until tomorrow - I'm beat! Now if only the luggage would come back from its vacation!