I Swear my Friends are Real!

This post is kind of a primer for my next post...not that I have many readers who will read this though...;)

Being part of an online community is sometimes hard to explain. People look at me as if I've suddenly sprouted 6 heads or something when I try to explain that these people, who I call my friends, are people I've actually either never met or have only met face to face a handful of times. And I consider quite a few of them to be among some of my very best friends...

I've been a part of an online community since 2002. I was planning my wedding/honeymoon trip and decided to search for some suggestions of romantic things to do at Walt Disney World. I stumbled upon a community known as the DIS. I was immediately intrigued and found myself on the forums constantly! I wasn't particularly taken with most of the folks who posted at the time, but I loved reading what they had to say. It fascinated me to see these people who could be anyone out there posting so much about their lives to complete strangers. I read the posts more than I posted for the first few years as I just didn't have much to say. But all of that changed when the DIS Unplugged podcast forum arrived...

The DIS began to offer a weekly podcast that I enjoyed very much. I have listened to every episode since the podcast began. The podcast was presented in a roundtable format with the folks on the podcast reporting on something related to Disney or other Orlando theme parks and happenings. It has evolved over the years and is better than ever, in my opinion.

The DIS folks decided that there needed to be a forum dedicated to the listeners of the podcast. Again...I wandered in there and participated just a little at first. And then something changed...one of the podcasters, Bob, passed away. I have never been so devastated over the death of someone I had never met before. And that's when the podcast forum changed...

What started as a place to post about the podcast became a community. We banded together to get through Bob's death and genuine friendships were born. Never before would I have considered booking a cruise to meet 300 other people interested in the same thing that I was. But I did. And the idea of traveling alone to Walt Disney World to meet a group of complete strangers was never something that I would have done before. But I did. And the people that I have met are pretty amazing people.

My first experience with my friends was a bit surreal. We all knew each other by screen names, but we did not know what the others looked like or how they were in person. Let's face it...people online aren't always who they portray themselves to be. That's pretty common knowledge. But meeting these people in person...they are exactly what they portray online. We had an absolute blast that weekend and couldn't wait to see each other again...it was very hard to say goodbye even after just a few days...

Matthew and I participated in the big podcast cruise that they had in May. By the time the Disney Wonder set sail, there were 300 podcast fans aboard that ship...we all felt sorry for the non-DIS folks on board! But that was one of the BEST trips that I've ever had! I was reunited with a few of the folks that I had met back in December and got to meet many more of my new found friends in person...my BFF being one of them. Jen and I had bonded over posting on the DIS and through Facebook. We spoke pretty much daily either through phone calls or Facebook chat. But we had never met as she lives in Delaware and I am in Indy. After spending the week with her on the cruise...she really is my BFF. We still talk daily and are planning to room together for the next trip to Disney World in December. It will be another whirlwind weekend with everyone, but it's going to be so much fun!!

And let's not forget that we've booked the next podcast cruise as well...

But back to the point of this blog entry...these folks have become my real-life friends. We have quite an amazing support group...and we all get each other. We all share a common interest that brought us together and now we're real-life, honest to goodness friends and not just a screen name...

New Nephew!

If you saw my post a few weeks ago, you know that my brother and his wife were expecting a baby. Well, Ethan Michael has arrived! After a very long day, Ethan made his debut on Tuesday, August 18th at 11:47pm. He weighed in at 6lbs 9.4oz and was 20 inches long. My poor sister in law tried to deliver him naturally, but after 3 hours of pushing with absolutely no progress, Ethan was delivered via c-section.

Sunshine Rewards

My latest attempt to earn some extra spending money for a trip to Walt Disney World in December is through Sunshine Rewards. This program is pretty easy and I've already earned $7! All you do is take surveys, sign up for various offers, or shop through their vendors and you will earn credit for each transaction that you complete. They have all kinds of vendors that you would recognize like Walmart, ShoeBuy, or one of my favorites, A Cherry on Top Scrapbooking supplies! The nice thing is that I will be able to cash my earnings out as Disney gift cards that I can use at the theme parks! You can also opt for PayPal payouts if you would prefer...

If you would like to sign up, click on the Sunshine Rewards link in the sidebar! My referral number is 15409. Please use me as a referral! I earn credit for each referral once that referral reaches $5 in earnings!

My Disney habit thanks you...:)

Baby Shower Madness

My Mom, sister, and I hosted a baby shower for my brother and his wife over the weekend. It was a lot of work to pull together, but it was fun! We worked for several weeks on invitations, thank you cards, and miscellaneous projects. If you know us, you know that we just can't run out to the store and buy pre-made baby invitations and stuff. I made two kinds of cupcakes for the shower, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate filling, and chocolate icing and French Vanilla cupcakes, strawberry filling, and vanilla icing. Tried a new icing recipe for both cupcakes, but didn't care much for the vanilla recipe. The chocolate recipe was wonderful though!


We played some of the usual baby shower games like guess the mess in the diaper (random chocolate candy melted and put into a diaper), baby shower bingo (fill out a bingo card with gifts that you think the couple will receive), and guess the size of both mom and dad with a strand of yarn. But the best game that was played was played by the dads. My brother, brother in law, and husband had to pack a diaper bag, fix a bottle, diaper (cloth diaper!) and dress the baby, strap the baby into the stroller and run through the pylons to the finish line. My brother won, of course, but the hilarity that ensued was classic. My brother and brother in law are very competitive people. My husband is too, but he was just out to mess with the other two. So the rules are given and the madness began...my brother and brother in law went for the throat right away. They were tackling each other and throwing the supplies needed for the diaper bag every which way...while those two were beating each other up, my husband grabbed the baby dolls and hid them...then hid the strollers...then hid the water that was needed for the formula. It was the most fun that we've had in awhile...the boys did exactly what we had expected them to do...

Here's a digi-scrap page that I created with the pics from the Daddy Diaper Derby...I used embellishments and papers created by Jeanelle Paige. I downloaded the kit from A Cherry on Top.

The mom and dad to be received tons of stuff that will be needed once Ethan makes his debut!

Symphony on the Prairie

We tried something new tonight. We've wanted to go to one of the Symphony on the Prairie shows for years and just never made it. We finally took the plunge and went tonight!

We have a living history museum here in town...we've never been there before, but have been to something similar in the past while living in Des Moines. Anyway, each summer, they do a series called Symphony on the Prairie. People hang out for a few hours before the Indianapolis Symphony takes the stage for a couple hours of music. Some folks bring a picnic or just hang out until the show begins. We opted to have dinner before we got there and arrived just before the show began.

Tonight's show was The Music of Billy Joel. The singer was Michael Cavanaugh, who was in the Broadway production of Movin' Out. He was accompanied by the ISO and it was a great show! He performed many songs by Billy Joel, Elton John, and several others. We had a great time and look forward to attending many more!