~~~~~~ Sew, I was the silent partner! ~~~~~~ DLP May 2018 (Updated 8-25)

DMGeurts

Never open texts with the "Hand Sewn Button" attac
Joined
Feb 25, 2008
Welcome! For those of you that don’t know me – I am Dorine - but I go by "D~" on The Dis... I subsidize all of our trips to Disney with my sewing of custom items, I love what I do, and I love that I am able to add magic to many trips to WDW - including our own.

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Most of my days are spent here - in my sewing room (currently under refurbishment)... Everything I make and do is done by vintage machine - the newest sewing machine I own is from 1963... I am very adamant about keeping all of my items One Of A Kind (OOAK) – I love what I do, and I love that it adds magic to so many lives! :lovestruc

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This was an amazing trip for me – to a place I never once dreamed I would see… Disneyland Paris!

With my fabulous ~ and adorable ~ Sister-in-law… Myrthe (pronounced Meer-ta).
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Myrthe is not only my SIL – but over the years, she has become a very good friend to me… Even though we are an ocean apart, we chat almost daily. We are married to two brothers, after all. :rolleyes: And we share a mutual love of Disney. It was so much fun to experience Myrthe’s “home park” with her. ::yes::

Members of my family, who you will often hear about, but will not be participating in this TR much…
Many of you know them quite well by now, :lovestruc the girls and I are well known for our “girls trips” to Disney. I am very proud of both of them for the wonderful young adults that they are becoming. I enjoy spending my time with them, and I believe it shows in every post I write and every photo we take. They are my entire world, their smiles and laughter brighten every single day, I am so very lucky!

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My DH is Josh… He normally doesn’t play a role in our trips, other than me finding ways to get his blessing for another girls trip… For once – he might play an unknown (and active) roll in one of my TRs. :lmao: Sort of. :scratchin

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Then there is Max… Often referred to in my TRs/PTRs as “MM” which stands for many things… Maxy-Moo-Moo, Maxy-Moose, or Maxy-Moosie… He comes to all of those names – which is sad and sometimes funny. He is a “crazy man” – he is often told, and has definitely earned that title… He does some of the craziest things! But we all love him, and our family wouldn’t be nearly as interesting without him in it.

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And the newest addition to our family - Cooper... Or Sooper Cooper, if you prefer. When a friend of mine from HS had a litter of puppies in the Spring of 2015, I jumped on it and begged her to let us have one of them... She chose us to be one of the lucky new puppy parents. Our family waited anxiously for Cooper Adam to grow up enough so we could take him home - stalking my friend on FB for any and all puppy pictures we could find. It was a LONG 8 weeks! But, finally, Cooper came home to live with us. He loves his big brother and picks on him constantly... His big brother loves him and allows him to do this. It's been wonderful for our family to add Cooper... and he is just the most adorable boy. :lovestruc

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D~​
 
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This trip has been in the planning for several years. Well, not the DLP part… Just the Europe part.

For those of you who have followed my TRs and PTRs for a while, know that both of our girls were able to spend the summer in Europe, living with Brian and Myrthe (and family)…

In 2016, Allison spent 10 weeks in Europe, touring Rome, the Netherlands and France – including her very own visit to DLP.

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In 2017, Victoria spent 8 weeks in Europe, touring Rome, the Netherlands, France (including DLP) and London…

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In 2018, it was finally our turn… Josh and I flew over to visit Brian, Myrthe, Thomas & Lara (often referred to as BMTL)… Spending 3 weeks in the Netherlands, staying in their beautiful new home and also visiting the Normandie area of France … And a few day trips to towns near their home. Overall, it was an amazing trip!

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The DLP ticket portion of the trip was actually gifted to us by my good friend Lynn… Visiting Disneyland Paris was a true highlight of this trip, and having the park tickets gifted to us was a truly generous and thoughtful gift… One that both of us are grateful for! I honestly cannot express that enough here. So, Lynn – from Myrthe and I – THANK YOU! :lovestruc :hug: :grouphug:

This TR will focus on the DLP portion of this trip – however – I have heard that my friends want to hear about the rest of it too… So at the end, I may throw in a few posts about the highlights. ::yes::

Join me, for our next epic adventure…

D~
 
Healthy living updates…


Ahhh – it just wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t talk about the food I eat and the work outs I do… ::yes::


This has been such a long and winding path for me. I am not going to go through it all with you – as I know that most of you have already read it (and heard me agonize over it) a bazillion times over. I will give a brief synopsis though, for any new readers I may have… If you really want an in-depth look, you can read the links in my siggy.


In March of 2012, I had just returned from our first girls Disney trip… I was miserable that entire trip – none of my clothes fit me, and I could barely walk the necessary steps needed to tackle the parks. I knew something needed to change, and I gave it my all for several months – eventually giving up and gaining back more than I had lost.

It wasn’t until Spring of 2013, right after I’d had my gallbladder removed, and my recovery was terrible. I knew this was solely due to my lethargic lifestyle, and my terrible diet. Once again, in my life, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired… and this time was different. I concentrated on one change at a time, working hard – though never over working myself… Slowing giving up things in my life that were bad for me, and eventually evolving into a Paleo (and occasionally dipping into Primal) lifestyle… It felt good. I felt good. Suddenly – all of my ailments, things I just assumed were due to age, were just gone. And my health was the best it had ever been – including when I was in my teens and 20’s! It was shocking! Also, in the fall of 2013, I started my Olympic weight lifting – which I still do to this day.

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Last year… Life got the best of me. Everything I had worked so hard for just wasn’t as important as it once was. Suddenly, I found myself in the midst of a kitchen remodel… My oldest child was graduating and leaving home for 10 weeks abroad… My youngest child was starting her Senior year of high school… And many other things were going on – most of which are too personal to share here. What this resulted in is me taking a back seat to life… And even though I continued to “try” – the oomph wasn’t there… My heart wasn’t in it… And I was tired. And I felt like a failure – as all of the size I had lost came creeping back. Plain and simple, I was lost.

Finally – May 2017 – The mirror and I had a “come to Jesus moment”… Oh yah – we had it out. Like, it was brutal. And I won.


I told myself that I just needed to start over… I had to stop looking at how far I had come – which resulted in me looking at how far I had slid. Instead – I ignored the path I had once followed and just started from where I was. I committed to changing one thing at a time… No cheating myself… Again – I tend to be a perfectionist, an “all or nothing” type person – sometimes I am chomping so hard at the bitt, I just have to breathe and slow myself down – this is often harder than the actual task at hand. One thing at a time – not as slowly as I had done it before – but still, just one change every few days… And here I am, 3 months later – very close to my smallest size. Had you asked me, 4 months ago, I never would have imagined that I could start this journey again. I had almost, almost given up. For any of you who know me – you know that this is not me. I don’t give up.

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So, any of you who followed my journey before – you know that I never officially made it to my goal. I was very close – but just didn’t get there. This time… Well – as I said above, I don’t give up.

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D~
 


Hi! Following along on another trip report. Also for the healthy living updates.
 


I've been waiting for you to start this report. I can't wait to read all about it.
Liz
 
I’m here! I’m excited to hear about your trip!!! You continue to inspire me - you are awesome!

Hi! Following along on another trip report. Also for the healthy living updates.

Yay! I've been waiting for this report to pop up. I can't wait to read about your adventures.

I've been waiting for you to start this report. I can't wait to read all about it.
Liz

I’m here! And I was able to log in. :love:

Good morning everyone and welcome! I am super excited to have you all here and following along!

As usual, life has been incredibly busy... I always thought that when the girls grew up - I'd have all of this extra time on my hands. I feel like I am more busy now than ever!

I thought I would take some time this morning to do a quick update. :)

We were in Europe for 3 weeks, we both came home and went right to work... Three days later Josh left to go fishing with his Dad for 5 days... And then I decided that my Sewing room needed and update - so we have been crazy busy with that. Thankfully, we are almost done. Quite honestly - between doing the actual work and researching what I want to do - that has consumed most of my time. It's definitely a process!

It all started with the "I would like to purchase a coverstitch machine"... Then, that turned into "where am I going to put it?"... Then "I better clean this place so I can make room"... Then "I have no where to put anything"... You see where this is going don't you??? LOL In the end, it turned into a massive sewing room reorganization and purge. Honestly - it was well overdue. With the addition to sewing more knits lately, my sewing room had turned into a disaster, because I had no place to put that extra fabric. Ikea to the rescue... We went and purchased several new shelves... A Kallax 4x4 and a 4x1 to stack (I really wanted a 5x5, but it just wouldn't fit) to hold all of my fabric (hopefully)... A bunch of photo frame rails in various sizes to hold my thread and ribbon... And several other organizing options. I've never been real big on Ikea - but I have to say, this worked perfectly for me!

Of course - I have pictures... I know many of you have seen these on FB already...

This is my Kallax unit... If you look closely, you can see the 1x4 stacked on the 4x4... All of the top Droma bins hold all of our Disney trip stuff... Our bags and our Ears/head gear. All of the open shelves have my quilting cottons. And the bottom bins hold all of my knit fabric... I will say that it just fit... Like, I cannot buy anymore knit fabric at all - it was a chore to get it all in as it was.
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Here's what's in a few of those bins...
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On the very top of the cabinet are the black polka-dot bins... I have various miscellaneous items in there... Mostly incomplete projects (UFOs). Honestly - I just needed black/white dot bins and I would have found a use for them. :lmao:

Overall, I am super happy to finally have this storage! I've been planning this exact thing in my sewing room for 7 years now, but I always put it off.

Then, over at my machine corner... We purchased a bunch of 48" photo rails. These work excellent for me to display all of my fun stuff + all of my embroidery threads. My old picture rails, I had outgrown them years ago... I had my thread stacked 2 deep and the rails themselves were warping. When I had originally purchased them - I purchased really cheap ones, because I wasn't sure if they would work for what I wanted. They were perfect! So, this time - I invested the $$ and got better quality... It looks a bit cluttered now though - so I may take some of the greeting cards off and put them in a little basket or something. But for now - it's much better!
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Oh and I got a new chair too... I didn't spend a lot on it. I was having a sore back all the time, so I decided to swap out my chair to see if that would help. And it did. Quite honestly - I plan to ask for a much nicer one for Christmas... I just wanted to see if my chair was the issue, and it seems that it was. ::yes::

Anyways - here's the overview of the entire wall on that side... V was sure to tell me, to tell you all, it was no easy feat for her to crawl up on to my counter top on the other side of the room to get (mostly) the whole wall in one picture. LOL
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I also plan to make new curtains, machine covers, and possibly some other fun sewing accessories to match my updated space. I didn't want to paint though - I love my stripes still... so I kept the aqua.
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So, that's it for now... My coverstitch machine has been ordered, it should be here next week. It was my goal to have all of this done before it arrives and I look to be right on schedule. I think I may save up for an upgraded serger next? I was going to sell my current one - as there is nothing wrong with it and it has been perfectly maintained... However, then I remembered that V loves to sew too... When she moves out, she already has her own machine to go with her. So, if I upgrade my serger, I will give my current one to her - and then she will be well on her way to having her own sewing space too. :lovestruc

We still have a bit of shelving , some organizing rails and new light fixtures to hang on my other wall. I did a bit of rearranging on that other counter top too (no photos of that wall yet)... Trying to see if this new set up flows well for me. I did take my embroidery machine off of my counter top - I wasn't using it enough to warrant the space it was taking up there. For the time being, it's on the floor under - however - I would like to find a small shelf to put it on, as I don't really like it sitting directly on the floor. I also plan to donate my giant ironing board - it was just taking up too much space in my tiny sewing room... I purchased a counter top one - but I am still not sure if this will work how I want it? For the time being it's working - but I still may make my own that is much more size friendly for what I need... :scratchin Aside from these last 2 things - this side of the room *should* be done by the end of today... I hope. ::yes::

The girls...

They are doing fantastic! I couldn't be more proud as a mom!

Allison has been busy working and saving. It looks like her and Gus will be moving out together in the coming months... Not super thrilled about that, but at the same time, I am not upset either. I am excited to see her going off on her own. She has worked hard and I know that she is incredibly financially responsible - she will do well. While Josh and I were in Europe, she took all of her placement tests and enrolled in college. She starts in the fall, no major declared. :woohoo: I was so happy that she did it on her own! It was a big step for her. :lovestruc

Victoria is still working at the daycare, and she loves it so much. She has decided to go into Early Childhood Development, and is researching schools for the fall. :woohoo: She is picking up hours at the pizza restaurant as she can... Her car is a piece of crap - so she is saving madly for a new one... Her's will be going up for sale CHEAP just to get rid of it... There may be a period of time in the near future where we are sharing a car, while she is in between cars. She is still dating Carter, and they seem to be very happy. No real plans to move out yet, but I do see it coming.
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Josh is doing well... busy... Between trying to stay caught up at work, home and take all of his scheduled vacation time... He is just a busy guy. LOL And I am also keeping his "honey-do" list quite long with hanging and building shelving for my sewing room... I know he will be thrilled when that project is finished. LOL

Dad is doing OK... Honestly, he hasn't been the nicest person lately. He has been mostly fine with me, but incredibly grumpy when the girls visit... To the point where they don't really enjoy visiting him anymore. :( Since we have been home - he has had some dental issues pop up.... So, I've had to make several trips with him to the dentist - an hour away - which is a feat unto itself, to get all of this work done. It looks like we only have one more appointment to do, and we will be done for a while. Otherwise he has been mostly good and stable.
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I have also been very busy with my brother... I've been working on paperwork for the last year to become his "co-guardian" along side of Dad - as he isn't ready to give up guardianship yet... Last week, I had my final court appearance for that, and I am now my brother's co-guardian. This is a monumental step in this situation, as inevitably, when Dad passes, it will be much easier for me to slide in as Jonathan's sole guardian - it's a matter of a bit of paperwork, but no court appearances, when the time comes. It's a relief to have this over, as it has been causing a LOT of anxiety in my life, and a lot of worry that it wouldn't get done on time. In the end, we ended up hiring an attorney - as I was just lost. It was $$ well spent. :lovestruc

Puppies... They are doing very well. They didn't enjoy having Josh and I gone for so long, but they did good and the girls did very well taking care of them. They were happy to have us home though. :lovestruc And we missed them so much.

As you all noticed, I've been off of the Dis for quite some time, and it has taken me a while to start this TR... My apologies for that... As you see above - we have been quite busy. On top of that, I was having issues choosing a photo hosting site. I used to subscribe to Photobucket's premium service to host my photos for $29/year... Well, last fall, Photobucket made a very large error - taking everyone's photos hostage (except for those of us who subscribed to their premium service - as we were "grandfathered in") and charging and exorbitant $400/year for image hosting with the availability to hot link (what's needed to see pictures here)!!!! It was insanity, and a VERY stupid business move on their part. I *get* prices going up and I have no problem with that, but this was insanity at it's best. Because I was grandfathered in - my photos were fine until December 2018... I decided to wait it out. The issue is, if I didn't pay PB the $400/yearly - I would lose all of my PTRs and TRs here - after all - what good is a TR without pictures? I was pretty gutted about it (as were many others in the same situation). Over the last few weeks - I have been agonizing on whether to start this TR, as what good is it to have a TR where photos would only be good for a few months? That's a lot of work for me to put in for very little enjoyment by others. ::yes:: Many of my readers have contacted me and begged me to write this TR... So I began researching other photo hosting sites and options... In that research - I discovered that PB has realized their error... Done away with the $400/year debacle... and come back with a much more reasonable price increase - while it's still more than double of what I was paying at $79/year - in my eyes - that is worth it (for me) to keep all of my past PTRs and TRs intact. I talked it over with Josh last night - and he agreed... We understand - especially in Josh's line of work - storage is not free, it is expensive to maintain and there is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into keeping it operational... I had been paying the $29/yearly for YEARS now, without a price increase - so I *get* it. I will be paying it. And you all will continue to enjoy my PTRs and TRs, past - present - future. :lovestruc After-all - my friendships here mean the world to me... and I was truly heartbroken to lose you all. :grouphug:

Anyways... Sending you all prayers and Pixie Dust... I missed you all and I am happy to be back! :grouphug:

D~
 
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Your sewing room looks great.

How great that Allison is starting college this fall. I hope she will like the subjects she's chosen. I hope the move in with Gus goes well.

How sad that Victoria's car isn't good. I hope she will find a better car soon.
How great that Victoria loves her work at the daycare. I'm crossing my fingers that V finds a school she likes.

I'm so sorry to hear that your dad has been grumpy when the girls has visited him. I can understand that they don't want to go and see him.

I'm so glad you decided to pay for photobucket so you can continue to make great trip reports here on the DIS. I love hearing about your trips and daily life.


I'm finally back home from my Germany trip. It didn't end well. About 1 week into the vacation I got an ear infection. At the time we where in Leipzig. Liquid where coming out of my ear and wouldn't stop, so I had to go to the doctor. I got some eardrops and the doctor told me to go back to see a doctor in a week if it didn't get any better. I couldn't hear on the ear that was infected. We continued our vacation, finding the geocaches we had planned to find even if my ear hurt really badly. After one week of ear infection we came to Berlin and my ear was still not better and it started to come liquid out of my other ear and I now almost couldn't hear anything on that ear either. So I went back to the doctor on a Thursday. Got some new medicine with the message that I can't fly and that I had to come back to the doctor in a week. We were supposed to fly back home on Monday. Well we couldn't do that since my ears wasn't good. The whole time I had contact with my insurance company. At first they didn't believe me that I wouldn't be able to fly back home on Monday, but as the weekend went by they had to realize that I couldn't fly. So our options was to stay in Berlin for as long as it would take for my ears to get well or take trains back to Narvik in Norway and the bus back home from there. There is no railway north from Narvik. We decided to take the train. So on Monday this week we checked out of our hotel and started our long journey home by train. We had to change trains 4 times. When we got to Copenhagen our train to Stockholm was canceled :( So we missed our train from Stockholm to Narvik and had to be booked to another train from Stockholm the next day. We were taking the night train from Stockholm to Narvik. We got to Stockholm at midnight on Monday and booked a hotel room for the night. The next day we did some geocaching in Stockholm because our train wasn't leaving until 6.10PM We finally got on the night train to Narvik and slept on the train. When we woke up we were in northern Sweeden. We only had a 2 hour stop in Narvik until our bus to Tromsø was leaving. Luckily our train wasn't more than 5 minutes late. So we managed to get on the bus to Tromsø without a problem. We got to Tromsø at 7.50PM on Wednesday. My mother picked us up at the bus station. On Thursday I went back to the doctor. This time it was my doctor. He gave me some new medicine and told me that it would take 4 weeks to get my hearing back. I'm supposed to fly to Oslo in late August. So now I'm crossing my fingers that my ears will be OK for that. If they're not I will have to cancel my trip. I won't ever take a train again. It was too stressful. The trip from Berlin to Tromsø by train and bus took us 62 hours :eek: If we could have taken the plane as planned it would take us 7 hours to get from Berlin to Tromsø with a few hours stop at Oslo airport.
 
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I figured that you'd been busy. You and Josh were gone so long that things probably piled up. I love your storage unit. Maybe your dad was just not feeling well because of his dental problems.
Now, I want to rip apart my sewing room. I love your storage units. I had the same problem when i got my quilting machine. It's one my kitchen table right now. Luckily I live alone.
I'm glad to hear that your girls are going back to school. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I'm not sure about living with your boyfriend. My daughter and husband married because neither one believed in living together before marriage and they wanted to be together.
I've been busy at work and with wedding and baby showers. It seems like everyone around here is getting married or having a baby. Tomorrow we're having a family cookout at the beach.
Have a good weekend
Liz
 
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Joining in! I am so happy that you got your photo storage issue sorted out, that would be heartbreaking to lose your TR’s...
Wow, there is a lot going on with your girls! They are growing up :grouphug: so quickly. Hopefully after your Dad’s dental issues are resolved he will feel better, therefore not be as grumpy! And happy for you to have the guardianship issue resolved, legal paperwork can be quite trying :eek:.

Your sewing room is looking great, I love the fabrics you picked out and can’t wait to see how you use them :artist:
I am amazed at how much you have gotten done, it seems like you just got back!

Have a great weekend,
Monica
 
I'm so excited to hear about your trip! Your sewing room is amazing as well, I really need to start organizing my craft room!
 
she has decided to go into Early Childhood Development, and is researching schools for the fall. :woohoo:

She is making a great choice! I am an Early Childhood special education teacher. I truly love my job. My bachelor's is in Elementary Education and Master's degree is in Early Childhood Development. I wish her well on her journey to finding a school and getting her degree.
 
Following along! It’s too bad our schedules didn’t align to meet up at DLP!

I need to get started on my TR too!
 
Your sewing room looks great.

How great that Allison is starting college this fall. I hope she will like the subjects she's chosen. I hope the move in with Gus goes well.

How sad that Victoria's car isn't good. I hope she will find a better car soon.
How great that Victoria loves her work at the daycare. I'm crossing my fingers that V finds a school she likes.

I'm so sorry to hear that your dad has been grumpy when the girls has visited him. I can understand that they don't want to go and see him.

I'm so glad you decided to pay for photobucket so you can continue to make great trip reports here on the DIS. I love hearing about your trips and daily life.


I'm finally back home from my Germany trip. It didn't end well. About 1 week into the vacation I got an ear infection. At the time we where in Leipzig. Liquid where coming out of my ear and wouldn't stop, so I had to go to the doctor. I got some eardrops and the doctor told me to go back to see a doctor in a week if it didn't get any better. I couldn't hear on the ear that was infected. We continued our vacation, finding the geocaches we had planned to find even if my ear hurt really badly. After one week of ear infection we came to Berlin and my ear was still not better and it started to come liquid out of my other ear and I now almost couldn't hear anything on that ear either. So I went back to the doctor on a Thursday. Got some new medicine with the message that I can't fly and that I had to come back to the doctor in a week. We were supposed to fly back home on Monday. Well we couldn't do that since my ears wasn't good. The whole time I had contact with my insurance company. At first they didn't believe me that I wouldn't be able to fly back home on Monday, but as the weekend went by they had to realize that I couldn't fly. So our options was to stay in Berlin for as long as it would take for my ears to get well or take trains back to Narvik in Norway and the bus back home from there. There is no railway north from Narvik. We decided to take the train. So on Monday this week we checked out of our hotel and started our long journey home by train. We had to change trains 4 times. When we got to Copenhagen our train to Stockholm was canceled :( So we missed our train from Stockholm to Narvik and had to be booked to another train from Stockholm the next day. We were taking the night train from Stockholm to Narvik. We got to Stockholm at midnight on Monday and booked a hotel room for the night. The next day we did some geocaching in Stockholm because our train wasn't leaving until 6.10PM We finally got on the night train to Narvik and slept on the train. When we woke up we were in northern Sweeden. We only had a 2 hour stop in Narvik until our bus to Tromsø was leaving. Luckily our train wasn't more than 5 minutes late. So we managed to get on the bus to Tromsø without a problem. We got to Tromsø at 7.50PM on Wednesday. My mother picked us up at the bus station. On Thursday I went back to the doctor. This time it was my doctor. He gave me some new medicine and told me that it would take 4 weeks to get my hearing back. I'm supposed to fly to Oslo in late August. So now I'm crossing my fingers that my ears will be OK for that. If they're not I will have to cancel my trip. I won't ever take a train again. It was too stressful. The trip from Berlin to Tromsø by train and bus took us 62 hours :eek: If we could have taken the plane as planned it would take us 7 hours to get from Berlin to Tromsø with a few hours stop at Oslo airport.

Thanks!!! Life has such been crazy - but I am happy to be back!

Oh my gosh Lillian! That is so terrible! And scary! To be in a totally different country and to have something like that happen... I am thankful you are home and on the way to getting well, but wow... what a terrible experience, and on your trip too - I know how much you were looking forward to it. :hug: Was it a regular ear infection? Or was it something more? I've never heard of liquid coming out of the ears. :hug:

I figured that you'd been busy. You and Josh were gone so long that things probably piled up. I love your storage unit. Maybe your dad was just not feeling well because of his dental problems.
Now, I want to rip apart my sewing room. I love your storage units. I had the same problem when i got my quilting machine. It's one my kitchen table right now. Luckily I live alone.
I'm glad to hear that your girls are going back to school. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I'm not sure about living with your boyfriend. My daughter and husband married because neither one believed in living together before marriage and they wanted to be together.
I've been busy at work and with wedding and baby showers. It seems like everyone around here is getting married or having a baby. Tomorrow we're having a family cookout at the beach.
Have a good weekend
Liz

Yes - we are still trying to catch up on yard work... We've never trusted the girls on our lawnmower - it's a big rider and we have a lot of hills in our yard, we never taught them because it's so easy to flip it over. For that matter - I won't do it either. So, our house looked pretty vacant and desolate by the time we got home. LOL

I understand... I am a bit old fashioned too... But I keep telling myself that things are different now and it's her life to lead... As long as she works hard, and is a good conscientious human being... Not doing drugs and not breaking any laws, I will support her. :lovestruc For the record, Josh and I did live together for a short time before we were married - leases ended and it just worked out that way... :)

Your family cook out sounds fabulous! Enjoy!!! :) Josh did bratwurst on the grill last night... I had mine with no bun and a salad on the side. It was fantastic! I think he is planning burgers tonight. ::yes:: Yum! :woohoo:

Joining in! I am so happy that you got your photo storage issue sorted out, that would be heartbreaking to lose your TR’s...
Wow, there is a lot going on with your girls! They are growing up :grouphug: so quickly. Hopefully after your Dad’s dental issues are resolved he will feel better, therefore not be as grumpy! And happy for you to have the guardianship issue resolved, legal paperwork can be quite trying :eek:.

Your sewing room is looking great, I love the fabrics you picked out and can’t wait to see how you use them
I am amazed at how much you have gotten done, it seems like you just got back!

Have a great weekend,
Monica

Same!!! I had kind of hoped if I waited it out, Photobucket would realize the error of their ways.

Yes they are!

Hopefully! I hope that's all it is and he isn't turning into a grumpy old man.

Thanks - yes, it was such a relief to have that over with.

Thanks! I love being up there and seeing it all coming together! :lovestruc This coming Tuesday, we will be home for 3 weeks... It honestly took us a week to get back on a normal sleeping schedule... My sleep schedule over there was crazy - and for the most part I was on their time, but there were many nights that I didn't fall asleep until 2 am... Which is not even close to my normal schedule at home. LOL

Thanks Monica! Same to you!

I'm so excited to hear about your trip! Your sewing room is amazing as well, I really need to start organizing my craft room!

Thanks!!! We had a great time!

Thank you - it's coming together nicely... It will never be as fabulous as some of them I have seen... But it's a great space and now it's very well organized - so life will be so much easier for me now! For a while there, work was getting to be such a chore because the room was getting so cluttered. I wish I would have purchased these items years ago, instead of making due with what I had. ::yes::

She is making a great choice! I am an Early Childhood special education teacher. I truly love my job. My bachelor's is in Elementary Education and Master's degree is in Early Childhood Development. I wish her well on her journey to finding a school and getting her degree.

Thanks!!! I am excited for her... Out of both of my girls - I honestly thought that V would never choose to go to college, as she HATED school so much... I was super shocked when she came to me on her own with this idea! LOL And grateful! She loves kids so much though - and always has - I couldn't ever visualize her doing anything other than this. ::yes::

Following along! It’s too bad our schedules didn’t align to meet up at DLP!

I need to get started on my TR too!

Yay welcome!!! It would have been so much fun to do a Dismeet over there! Oh well! LMK if you start a TR too! I'd love to try and follow along! ::yes::

**************************************************************************************************************

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day for us... Despite my high hopes of finishing up my sewing room. :scratchin

My new shelf was much more trying than I ever thought it would be, and by the time that Josh had it hung - his patience was fried and he was done. I am happy to have my shelf though. ::yes::

As we go along in this project, my sewing room gets more and more clean and organized. It's so nice! ::yes::

Here's a few pics from yesterday - please don't mind the mess. ::yes::

Josh taking down my old sewing room light... We had put this one up 7 years ago, with the intention of upgrading it to a better light... Ahhh - but then life got away from us and it worked just fine, so it stayed.

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My new shelf is up! Also, one of my essential upgrades this time around is new lighting. I only purchased one new light for now, because I wasn't sure if it would be what I wanted? Now that I know it is, I plan to go back and get one more like this, and also a smaller 18" light for over by my main machines. :woohoo: All of these lights can be hooked together with a short cord, so I can run the new one right next to this one. It's supposed to rain today - I am hoping we can make a trip to Home Depot to get them... Josh has never turned down a trip to HD. :lmao:

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And here it is all set up.... I have my Recycle-Ears displayed (which were a gift from a good friend and customer)... My Donald Duck Butt planter (which was a gift from Allison a few years ago)... My scrap jars (organized by color)... And some other random and important things, which I will talk about in another photo... ::yes:: Also shown, my serger... And the blank spot for my new cover stitch machine, which is on it's way! :woohoo:

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Over the years, many of the women in my life have inspired my creativity... I have a few great ladies to add eventually, but I have a good start for now. :lovestruc As some of you know - my maternal Grandmother died recently - she was 98 and led a very full and happy life. She was a very creative lady, and creating right up until the weeks before her death. I have many rugs from her, but I wanted something a little smaller for my sewing room - so I framed one of her coloring pages. :lovestruc My paternal Grandmother was also very creative... When I was a girl, her and my aunt made hundreds of these babies in the mid-80's (during the CPK craze) and while I no longer have the one she made specifically for me (long and sad story) - I have this one, which was a gift from my cousin when he heard the story that I had lost mine. :lovestruc And finally... One of my first and favorite AG outfits... To remind me where I started.

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Also, something else of high importance in my sewing room... My mom did a lot of hand embroidery... Tons of it - all beautiful... Many towels, many pillow cases... Considering her handicap and the difficulty of this work - these pieces are amazing and cherished. I wanted to display something of her's in my room... So, I framed my favorite embroidery (which happens to be a dish towel - and quite difficult to get into a frame) of her's and it's right where I can see it while I am working. :lovestruc

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It's supposed to be a bit rainy here later today... So, I am hoping I can beg Josh to finish hanging the rest of the stuff in my sewing room... I'd really like to get it all put back together before I have to go back to work tomorrow. ::yes::

I also snapped a pic of Allison from yesterday... She got this adorable dress, as she was hired to take pictures at one of her good friend's grad parties - this dress just looked so nice on her and since I didn't post a recent pic for you all yesterday, you get one today. ::yes::

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I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! It has been so nice to catch up with all of my old friends! And it's been so nice to meet some new ones too!

Sending you all prayers and pixie dust today and always! :lovestruc

D~
 
How great that you got a embroidery that your mom made framed to have in your sewing room. Your sewing room looks great.


First the eardrum in my right ear broke. It got a hole in it. It hurt like hell when it happened. When the eardrum gets a hole in it it's normal to have fluid running from your ear. Normally the fluid stops after 24 hours, but since it didn't stop I had to go to the doctor and get some medicine. It was supposed to stop a day or to later with the medicine, but the fluid kept coming for almost a week. After 6 day suddenly fluid came from my left ear. This ear didn't hurt half as much as the right one did when the eardrum broke. I went back to a doctor and the doctor said my right eardrum was no OK, but my left eardrum had a tear in it. I got some new medicine and the fluid from the left ear stopped after 2 days. I have a middle ear infection. The reason I can't hear very well now is because my eardrums can't vibrate as they should because there is fluid / bacteria behind the eardrum in the canal from the ear to the mouth. I have medicine now that is supposed to get rid of the fluid in the canal from the ear to the mouth. According to my doctor it will take 4 weeks for the fluid to go away and my ears to get back to normal.

Luckily we managed to do the things in Germany we wanted to do despite my ear infection. My next trip with a plane is in late August and in the middle of September. I really hope my ears are back to normal so I'm allowed to fly again for those trips.
 
Your sewing room looks great! It's inspiring me to do something with my craft/chill out room.

I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. I've been missing all of your updates.
 
I was looking forward to the stories to go with your decorations. I’m also super happy for your trip report! The non Disney parts too. :teeth:
 

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