About Us
Sometimes silver linings come from the biggest falls...
We lost everything and had to start over again, but we decided to do it with magic and style here in the most magical place on earth. We were scared to death. The destroyed economy made my "vanilla frosting" biz fall apart. You might ask what a vanilla frosting biz is. It is one defined as something people would love to do and should do bc it helps their kids to have a better future, but when the basics became hard to afford, the frosting was not attainable. We tried to use credit cards as a temporary fix to keep the only thing I knew how to do and had trained for my whole life floating, but the overhead was unsustainable and then the credit cards also became that way and so we fell. Lost it all. The house, the office, our lifestyle, which in retrospect now, we realize that although we were always happy together, we had gotten used to an unhealthy and boring lifestyle. That was all about to change thanks to our fall and amazing silver linings that you just don't expect. The fall felt like I was letting go. Couldn't control anything anymore so I allowed myself, although terrified, to truly fall and see where G-d, life and fate wanted me/us to go. I allowed fate to see us through! I prayed a lot everyday that this fate would be a happy one. We ended up in a happier place, with far lower expenses and were able to go an adventure we would have never thought possible!
On my site I want to share with you our stories bc they can help you to find your silver lining where you might not see one that exists like we didn't at first and to help you know that sometimes at your darkest hour, that is when the right thing for your life presents itself the brightest.
Oh and also, lots of things you'll learn about the nooks and crannies of Walt Disney World that we did not know before and that you may or may not have known before. We only go a couple hours each day and never spend a full day. We r very thankful for our life here, but it does not come with a dining plan! We go lots of places and always pay for something when we go. We r not on a large budget, but we get snacks, desserts and sometimes share meals. We don't feel it is right to go to these places without actually supporting them. We are annual passholders now, which we were able to do through letting go of some things and lowering expenses, but this seems important to do anyway.
This site is a work in progress and I will be gathering and sharing our experiences as they happen and ones that have happened in the past to share on here. True Disney fans will love it all as we do! As I do this, I will post them on my Pinterest and my facebook, so the best way to know when new things get posted is to follow those.
Excited to have you along for our adventures!
On my site I want to share with you our stories bc they can help you to find your silver lining where you might not see one that exists like we didn't at first and to help you know that sometimes at your darkest hour, that is when the right thing for your life presents itself the brightest.
Oh and also, lots of things you'll learn about the nooks and crannies of Walt Disney World that we did not know before and that you may or may not have known before. We only go a couple hours each day and never spend a full day. We r very thankful for our life here, but it does not come with a dining plan! We go lots of places and always pay for something when we go. We r not on a large budget, but we get snacks, desserts and sometimes share meals. We don't feel it is right to go to these places without actually supporting them. We are annual passholders now, which we were able to do through letting go of some things and lowering expenses, but this seems important to do anyway.
This site is a work in progress and I will be gathering and sharing our experiences as they happen and ones that have happened in the past to share on here. True Disney fans will love it all as we do! As I do this, I will post them on my Pinterest and my facebook, so the best way to know when new things get posted is to follow those.
Excited to have you along for our adventures!
We gave it all up to start again and stop "The Cat's In the Cradle" forever!
We didn't like what we were becoming! Forever in search of the bigger business deal, elusive financial security and debt way too big, We were sinking. All while trying to do family things, more often than not, pushing off the family things for the business and the day to day living things. Running the forever treadmill to get to the next level. For me, decades of schooling to reach the Doctorate and always striving for the next thing that should get me closer to the life I wanted for our family, but not realizing that all the hours I was trying to get to that level, I was loosing all that was in front of me, that I had wanted so badly!
One sad day, after being on the PC all day long, I had to get up and go to the bathroom. As I tried to get up, I once again had to do it slowly and in stages because the almost 24/7 sitting working on my website and business to make it to a place of actually making money, which was very rare for me, was just that step away or at least I told myself that all the time. I am great at helping families and working with processing skills, but I stink at marketing and getting my info out there. I didn't go to school to do that but am a small biz that doesn't have the budget for someone else to do it. So my biz has been the typical drip and drab small, small, small with large hours. When it took me a long while to straighten up, it alarmed me. I looked behind me into the other room and saw our 3 kids hovered around their PC playing their games and my stomach twisted. Suddenly I remembered a song from when I was in 6th grade, that I despised and promised myself then, that I would never become. It was Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle". It made me cry every time I heard it, and suddenly in that moment, I was sickened to realize that I was living that song. That our kids were growing up faster than the speed of light and I talked to them mostly with my face pasted to a screen and promised them we would do things later and later hardly ever came. The next level of getting solid in my business would never come either and I just kept wasting the hours trying to support the giant debt that was our life, while missing theirs.
I also worried that because we were older when we had our kids, that living in Illinois with 9 months out of the sun and no real ability to get good, meaningful exercise for the whole winter, was going to inevitably shorten our lifespans and potentially give us health problems that our young kids would have to deal with and that just wasn't fair to them. I do a lot of reading on the sun and how it's natural vitamin D helps to keep you healthier. I felt frustrated all the time because I knew that the things I wanted and needed were not in Illinois anymore.
Through a sudden and sad death in the family, and then a gift from a family member related to that death, we were able to pay some bills and get to take our first family vacation to Disney World in October 2011. Although saddened by the way it happened, we were shocked by the gift and very happy to be able to take the kids there for the first time and with the way life was then, we thought with the horrid economy, the last time. I am a Disney regular during my own childhood and was actually there the first and 3rd years they were open when I was 9 and 11. I have been there 9 times and Chris has been a few as well as an adult. But our kids had only gotten to read about it and see it in videos. That was what Chris had in his childhood as well and he and I were worried they would never get to see it. We went and had the most wonderful, idyllic week ever. No PCs, no computer games, no screens. Just us, the outdoors, a mouse and a castle! The best time ever!
We came back to reality hard. A cold, dark, sleety October night in Illinois and a cold stale meal of McDonalds because our fridge was empty and unplugged and it was too late to go anywhere to get food. That began the mopefest! The next 2 years were a never ending struggle to try and figure out a way to save enough money amid all kinds of financial problems and serious hardships, to get back for a week at Disney. It became a quest. a diversion from reality. From the moment we got back and all went back to our normal, screen driven, bad economy lives, we moped. It seemed like that scene at the beginning of The Wizard of Oz where she starts out in a sepia brown world and then suddenly has brilliant color only to go back to sepia brown. We always found a way to have fun together, but being surrounded by all of the things dragging us down, it was tough to see the color.
One day the light bulb happened. Why was I looking at the seriously flawed and destructive home modification facing us, which would have been impossible to follow as doing what page 3 said would violate page 1, and beating my brains in to try and come up with money for a week at Disney, when we were not happy at all where we lived, and trying to afford it there was what was killing us? Why not do some research on how to use the money we had, to move there permanently so we could live better within our means and enjoy something Disney often and as a part of our everyday lives? We were living way above our means which was what caused the stress and lack of time together and it seemed logical so I started doing research. Found lots of bad things about the area and was saddened. Overwhelming amounts of bad things. We had almost given up when I came across someone who had himself moved from South Carolina to the Celebration area 12 years before. He spent a lot of time on the phone with me that wasn't going to make him money and wasn't going to benefit him in any way, but he did it anyway. He gave me all kinds of other information that ultimately got us to where we now live and have loved every minute of. Do you believe in angels? We do now! We met MANY of them along the way including this man and many others who spent time with us online and and on the phone to help lead us to our happily ever after. Will never forget it! This man who happened to be a realtor and knew everything about the area from a personal and professional standpoint, kept us from the bank, while on the phone answering questions, and stopped us inadvertently from making a deal that would have sunk us and kept us in a place we did not like forever. I was so confused and it was a huge life changing decision for all of us. It meant giving up a lot, but the thought of a lot more family time and having the color in our lives like that week, was too hard to resist and this man helped us find our way.
So, 9 months later, here we are (written in 2013). We love our lives. Screens are still there for a small portion of the day and for working. Now every day is exercise, sun, learning, happiness, and together time. Every day has at least 20 OMG moments for things we have not seen or didn't know before. We downsized greatly and gave up some things that in the old days might have seemed important, but now looking back, they didn't make a damn bit of difference. We used to think that having the biggest everything and the most of everything made life worth it. We were wrong. Now we have the smallest of everything and love life more than ever before. Thus the genesis of this website. Lots of magic in the nooks and crannies, and lots of life lessons that people may not get to see if they are not looking.
As for what we left behind, by coming here, we lowered expenses astronomically, left behind a horrible winter and replaced it with green, lush, flowering beauty. Ok, yes, it is hot and humid for part of the year, but we don't notice it much. We moved in July and were dreading that time of year to do it, but circumstances were what they were and we had to go then. We were not effected by it at all. Fun has a way of blocking it out.
Leaving family was brutal and will always be hard, but we had only 1 good choice and chance and had to take it. Thankful our family is generous and so full of love for us that they knew it was best for us and while very hard knew it had to happen. Another way we are blessed.
So, I was able to finally get The Cat's in the Cradle to stop playing in my life. I guess you could say that the vow I made in 6th grade did end up coming true after all!
While I was confused and didn't know what to do, we had all kinds of signs along the way. The weirdest of which is below in video. I asked for a sign on what to do because I didn't know what the right thing was to do. I was frustrated because I could not make the decision and was scared. So I yelled out, "I just want a sign...anything to tell me what we should do." I believed in magic before, but after this, I have no doubt! Take a peek...
One sad day, after being on the PC all day long, I had to get up and go to the bathroom. As I tried to get up, I once again had to do it slowly and in stages because the almost 24/7 sitting working on my website and business to make it to a place of actually making money, which was very rare for me, was just that step away or at least I told myself that all the time. I am great at helping families and working with processing skills, but I stink at marketing and getting my info out there. I didn't go to school to do that but am a small biz that doesn't have the budget for someone else to do it. So my biz has been the typical drip and drab small, small, small with large hours. When it took me a long while to straighten up, it alarmed me. I looked behind me into the other room and saw our 3 kids hovered around their PC playing their games and my stomach twisted. Suddenly I remembered a song from when I was in 6th grade, that I despised and promised myself then, that I would never become. It was Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle". It made me cry every time I heard it, and suddenly in that moment, I was sickened to realize that I was living that song. That our kids were growing up faster than the speed of light and I talked to them mostly with my face pasted to a screen and promised them we would do things later and later hardly ever came. The next level of getting solid in my business would never come either and I just kept wasting the hours trying to support the giant debt that was our life, while missing theirs.
I also worried that because we were older when we had our kids, that living in Illinois with 9 months out of the sun and no real ability to get good, meaningful exercise for the whole winter, was going to inevitably shorten our lifespans and potentially give us health problems that our young kids would have to deal with and that just wasn't fair to them. I do a lot of reading on the sun and how it's natural vitamin D helps to keep you healthier. I felt frustrated all the time because I knew that the things I wanted and needed were not in Illinois anymore.
Through a sudden and sad death in the family, and then a gift from a family member related to that death, we were able to pay some bills and get to take our first family vacation to Disney World in October 2011. Although saddened by the way it happened, we were shocked by the gift and very happy to be able to take the kids there for the first time and with the way life was then, we thought with the horrid economy, the last time. I am a Disney regular during my own childhood and was actually there the first and 3rd years they were open when I was 9 and 11. I have been there 9 times and Chris has been a few as well as an adult. But our kids had only gotten to read about it and see it in videos. That was what Chris had in his childhood as well and he and I were worried they would never get to see it. We went and had the most wonderful, idyllic week ever. No PCs, no computer games, no screens. Just us, the outdoors, a mouse and a castle! The best time ever!
We came back to reality hard. A cold, dark, sleety October night in Illinois and a cold stale meal of McDonalds because our fridge was empty and unplugged and it was too late to go anywhere to get food. That began the mopefest! The next 2 years were a never ending struggle to try and figure out a way to save enough money amid all kinds of financial problems and serious hardships, to get back for a week at Disney. It became a quest. a diversion from reality. From the moment we got back and all went back to our normal, screen driven, bad economy lives, we moped. It seemed like that scene at the beginning of The Wizard of Oz where she starts out in a sepia brown world and then suddenly has brilliant color only to go back to sepia brown. We always found a way to have fun together, but being surrounded by all of the things dragging us down, it was tough to see the color.
One day the light bulb happened. Why was I looking at the seriously flawed and destructive home modification facing us, which would have been impossible to follow as doing what page 3 said would violate page 1, and beating my brains in to try and come up with money for a week at Disney, when we were not happy at all where we lived, and trying to afford it there was what was killing us? Why not do some research on how to use the money we had, to move there permanently so we could live better within our means and enjoy something Disney often and as a part of our everyday lives? We were living way above our means which was what caused the stress and lack of time together and it seemed logical so I started doing research. Found lots of bad things about the area and was saddened. Overwhelming amounts of bad things. We had almost given up when I came across someone who had himself moved from South Carolina to the Celebration area 12 years before. He spent a lot of time on the phone with me that wasn't going to make him money and wasn't going to benefit him in any way, but he did it anyway. He gave me all kinds of other information that ultimately got us to where we now live and have loved every minute of. Do you believe in angels? We do now! We met MANY of them along the way including this man and many others who spent time with us online and and on the phone to help lead us to our happily ever after. Will never forget it! This man who happened to be a realtor and knew everything about the area from a personal and professional standpoint, kept us from the bank, while on the phone answering questions, and stopped us inadvertently from making a deal that would have sunk us and kept us in a place we did not like forever. I was so confused and it was a huge life changing decision for all of us. It meant giving up a lot, but the thought of a lot more family time and having the color in our lives like that week, was too hard to resist and this man helped us find our way.
So, 9 months later, here we are (written in 2013). We love our lives. Screens are still there for a small portion of the day and for working. Now every day is exercise, sun, learning, happiness, and together time. Every day has at least 20 OMG moments for things we have not seen or didn't know before. We downsized greatly and gave up some things that in the old days might have seemed important, but now looking back, they didn't make a damn bit of difference. We used to think that having the biggest everything and the most of everything made life worth it. We were wrong. Now we have the smallest of everything and love life more than ever before. Thus the genesis of this website. Lots of magic in the nooks and crannies, and lots of life lessons that people may not get to see if they are not looking.
As for what we left behind, by coming here, we lowered expenses astronomically, left behind a horrible winter and replaced it with green, lush, flowering beauty. Ok, yes, it is hot and humid for part of the year, but we don't notice it much. We moved in July and were dreading that time of year to do it, but circumstances were what they were and we had to go then. We were not effected by it at all. Fun has a way of blocking it out.
Leaving family was brutal and will always be hard, but we had only 1 good choice and chance and had to take it. Thankful our family is generous and so full of love for us that they knew it was best for us and while very hard knew it had to happen. Another way we are blessed.
So, I was able to finally get The Cat's in the Cradle to stop playing in my life. I guess you could say that the vow I made in 6th grade did end up coming true after all!
While I was confused and didn't know what to do, we had all kinds of signs along the way. The weirdest of which is below in video. I asked for a sign on what to do because I didn't know what the right thing was to do. I was frustrated because I could not make the decision and was scared. So I yelled out, "I just want a sign...anything to tell me what we should do." I believed in magic before, but after this, I have no doubt! Take a peek...