It’s an interesting week in the Slidell Johnston’s house. First, we’re at the end of the month, which means we are operating on what is left in our envelopes. (More month than money!) We went grocery shopping on Saturday armed with $45 cash and determined to get everything we would need for the week with just that. We did it. We even bought dog food! (Lucy is thrilled!)

Second of all, I have a new employment status as of Friday. I resigned from my job today in order to spend more time doing some other things. More on that in the future. Just be praying for us during this transition. I heard a quote this morning that I love and is especially applicable for me today: “A year from now, you may wish you started today.” -Karen Lamb.

Sunday – Jarrod had a bowl of cereal and I had a corn muffin. We both had crazy busy days and when we finally got home, we crashed.

Monday – Baked potatoes and salad. I’m putting salsa on my potato because I love the wal-mart brand corn and black bean salsa. I can go through a large jar alone in a week! Jarrod has cheese, sour cream, and bacon for his potatoes.  Our current dressing of choice is wal-mart’s salsa ranch.

Tuesday – Left-overs. Maybe black bean nachos from Sunday night.

Wednesday – Leftovers. Probably black beans and quinoa with salsa.

Thursday – Pasta (gluten-free for Jarrod) with alfredo sauce. We buy the cheap jar of alfredo and then doctor it up. We saute garlic in olive oil, add spinach and simmer the sauce. Jarrod wants to add bacon… We’ll see about that. :-) We’ll eat that with salad or broccoli, whichever I can get Jarrod to eat…

Friday – Jarrod’s mom and grandma are coming into town for the weekend, so I’m thinking we’re going to take them somewhere good for dinner!!

Saturday – Probably the same as Friday night… We have to show them a good time!

 

Sorry this week’s not very interesting… Hopefully next week, when our envelopes are full, we’ll have more interesting recipes!

There are tons of pictures and lots to read! Here’s the table of contents so you don’t get lost.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

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We woke up on Friday morning and began packing to leave. Our flight didn’t leave until 7pm, but we needed to check out of the hotel by 11am. We packed, ate breakfast, and left our bags at the front desk before heading to the Magic Kingdom. We hadn’t been to the park in several days and wanted to check things out to be sure we didn’t miss anything. We went on Thunder Mountain and then decided to go back to Epcot. J At Epcot we went to the world again and ate sushi in Japan. We watched a movie in China, Fife and Drum Corps in America, and enjoyed checking out the food and drinks throughout the world. DSCN0611Then we decided to do the more extreme version of a simulator ride we’d done earlier in the week. The less extreme version was very mild, so Jarrod and I assumed we could handle the more extreme ride. I was pretty nervous because the warnings were pretty intense. I get motion sickness and do not like spinning rides. This ride really did me in. I tried to compose myself after the ride, but could not and we ended up leaving. We were fine, just feeling pretty awful. We went back to the hotel and relaxed in the lobby until it was time to board our airport shuttle.

DSCN0613The journey from the couch in the lobby to the airport gate was about 2.5 hours long. The airport is not very far away, but we had to wait for the bus, stop at several other hotels, drive to the airport, unload, wait in line to check in, went through the most insane security line ever, took another shuttle to the gate, and walked the length of the terminal. The flight was delayed, but we’d made it and were thankful. While we were very sad to leave, we were ready to be home.

Now we’re on the plane on our way to New Orleans. I’m sure that’s more than enough information about our vacation. It was delightful. We had an incredible time together and really liked getting away from everything for a little while. I’m glad we got to catch up with Katy and Emily while we were here. Our hotel was beautiful, Disney was magical, the wine and food festival was great, and sharing time with Jarrod was very special.DSCN0614

DSCN0535DSCN0560We woke up early on Thursday with plans to go straight to the Animal Kingdom for breakfast and fun. We arrived at the park shortly after it opened, grabbed a quick breakfast and went straight to the Mt. Everest experience. The ride looks like a tall, scary rollercoaster…and it is! It was very fun, but definitely scary. After that, we went over to a Dinosaur ride that Jarrod described as a slow movie-type ride. He was unintentionally lying. This ride might have been even scarier than any other ride we’d been on at any of the parks!! It was an awesome trip back in time in a jeep to capture a dinosaur before a meteor hit the earth. It was dark, scary, and very realistic. At one point Jarrod even grabbed me and told me to get down. The dinosaurs were really close to the car! It was a GREAT ride, but as we exited, Jarrod said we’d not bring kids on that one! We got through both of those rides very quickly, so we decided it was time to hit the African safari. This ride is unlike any other Disney ride because it actually has very real elements. The animals are all real and live in an environment created intentionally to resemble the African countryside. We saw elephants, rhinos, giraffes, and gazelles. It was awesome and absolutely gorgeous. Jarrod worked the video camera and I took still shots.

After the safari we tried to do a couple of other things but they were either closed or were between shows. We decided to call it a day and go back to the hotel for lunch. After a short bus ride, we grabbed lunch downstairs in our hotel and went up to the room for a break. I worked on our wedding album (I’ll share soon!) and Jarrod called his folks. We began packing and waited for my Gamma Phi big sister and her sweet little boy to come over.

DSCN0582My sorority sister, Emily, lives near Orlando and volunteered to drive with her sweet 10 month old boy to meet up with us. We had hoped the weather would cooperate so that we could take Liam swimming in our hotel pool. Sadly, lightning, thunder, and rain prevented us from doing that. We did have a really nice time together; Liam was so well-behaved! We played in our hotel room for a while, went downstairs for a snack, and came back to the room to clean up. Liam didn’t fuss at all, even though he was so excited to swim.

After Emily and Liam left, Jarrod and I showered up and got dressed for our dinner reservations at California Grill, a really nice restaurant on the top floor of our hotel. We heard that the restaurant was the best in all ofDSCN0584DSCN0594 Disney world. We rode the hotel elevator to the top floor; the view was incredible as the sun set over the Magic Kingdom. The food was absolutely incredible and the atmosphere was sophisticated. We enjoyed wine, sushi, pork chops with polenta, grouper with rice, lemon cheese cake, and chocolate ice cream. Of course everything had very fancy names, but there’s my version.  After a delicious dinner, we went out on the observation deck to watch the fireworks. The California Grill is on the 15th floor of the Contemporary Resort, one of the closest hotel to the Magic Kingdom. Watching the fireworks from such an ideal location was magical. Jarrod and I loved seeing them from so close. Disney does an incredible job coordinating the fireworks with music, which makes the show seamless. (Same goes for the fountains at Epcot!)DSCN0596DSCN0599

When the fireworks were over, we headed down to the room to relax. It was just before 9pm, an early night! Before changing into pjs, we danced to our first dance song from our wedding, “Day Before You” by Rascal Flatts. It was romantic and beautiful. We’re not big dancers, so it was very special to listen to the words and dance together. After the song, we changed into our pjs and got into bed to watch Private Practice. After so many days of being completely disconnected from our normal lives, it was nice to watch one of our favorite shows.

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On Wednesday morning we woke up, ate breakfast downstairs in our hotel, and got on the monorail for Epcot. We decided to spend the morning doing some things we didn’t have time for yesterday and the afternoon walking around the world enjoying lots of great food and drinks. We went to Test Drive first. I was a little bit scared as it is the longest and fastest ride in Disney history. The whole ride is based on test driving cars. We got in a car, went over bumpy roads, hairpin turns, went quickly through a wall, tested brakes, and went really fast all around the building. Totally freaking awesome!! It was an incredible experience, definitely more than a ride. After that, we went to Ellen’s ride about energy. It was a really cool ride/movie experience with Ellen and Bill Nye (the science guy). It was all about renewable sources of energy. Totally awesome.

DSCN0517After the rides, we walked over to the other side of the park to journey around the world. We went on a silly Donald Duck ride in Mexico, got some fruity drinks (I got a delicious adult raspberry DSCN0510chiller and Jarrod got a mango iced tea). We ate chicken and rice pancakes from China and sushi in Japan again. We just enjoyed walking slowly through the different cultures, checking out the different food and drink options. It was fun to relax and not worry about rushing through to get to something else. When we were ready, we walked back to the monorail and went back to the hotel. We weren’t too terribly tired, so we spent our afternoon break checking out the hotel, buying stamps, and getting maps for the Animal Kingdom. After a quick rest, we showered up and headed to Downtown Disney.

DSCN0524Downtown Disney has several incredible and very popular restaurants including a few Wolfgang Puck restaurants, House of Blues, Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Café and T-Rex, a restaurant dedicated exclusively to dinosaurs. We had reservations at Planet Hollywood at 8:30pm and got down there at 6pm or so to wander, shop and check things out. There is an indoor amusement park called Quest at Downtown Disney that can be added on to the park hopper or purchased individually. We opted not to add this, figuring we’d have plenty to keep us occupied. While we were shopping, I received a call from a college sorority sister who lives in Orlando and works at Disney. We made plans for her and her boyfriend to meet up with Jarrod and I. While we waited for them to head over, we shopped for some souvenirs. We hadn’t purchased anything except postcards and had a few gifts to buy. We also stopped by the photo shop and picked up our free 5×7 picture that we had taken at Disney a few days prior. It will look great in the new Disney frame we picked up at the shop.

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We didn't write this, but we love the L&J!

DSCN0528Soon our friends were there and we sat down for a drink and to catch up. I didn’t have my ID, so I got a Shirley Temple. ;-) It was delightful to talk about college and hear everything going on with the Florida Gamma Phis. Soon it was time for our dinner reservations. We invited Katy and Ney to join us for dinner so that we could continue our delightful conversations. We had a loud, but very fun dinner. Katy drove us to the front gate at Epcot and we were off. Epcot had extended hours that night so we were able to ride the rides without much competition. We went straight for Test Drive again and it was AWESOME. Even more awesome than in the morning. After that, it was getting close to 11pm, so we took the monorails back to the hotel to get some rest.

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DSCN0498Tuesday morning we woke up and I hit the gym. We’ve been walking a lot here, but I wanted to get in a few extra miles and some stretching before the day really began. After the gym, I brought breakfast up for Jarrod and I to enjoy in our room. We watched Regis and Kelly while enjoying eggs, juice, and a breakfast burrito. After breakfast we showered up and hit the monorail for Epcot. We weren’t sure what to expect, neither of us had been to Epcot in decades, but it was incredible. We started by getting a fast pass for Soarin’, a ride we’d heard was incredible. After that, we went on a tour about sustainable living that included a trip through Epcot’s gardens. They are coming some really revolutionary things like growing plants without soil. Jarrod and I loved the gardens. From there, we went to the Finding Nemo under sea adventure. Jarrod was so excited to get there because of his love for aquariums. It was a short trip searching for Nemo that ended in an aquarium. We wandered through looking at fish, manatees, and dolphins. Very cool and not at all what I expected from a ride! After Nemo, we went back to the front of the park and rode the classic Spaceship Earth, the ride that is inside the Epcot “ball”. This ride was even cooler than I remembered. They take your picture at the very beginning of the ride. Then you journey through the technological advances in communication. Jarrod and I are nerdy, so we thought it was very interesting. On the trip back down we got to play on the screen in our car. We made a few choices on the screen about what we would want in our home in the future. After a few minutes, we got to see a video with stick figures with our heads on them riding bikes and eating food from our sustainable garden. Totally awesome.

DSCN0500Epcot is celebrating a wine and food festival in the area of Epcot dedicated to celebrating different cultures. After we finished with Spaceship Earth, we headed to check out food and wine from around the world! I remember visiting this section of Epcot as a kid, but thought it was so boring… Today I was very interested. In addition to the typical cultural restaurants, shops and rides, there were small food and wine carts stationed all around each of the countries. We were on a mission to Japan, so we didn’t get to taste any of the other food or wines. We went on a short ride in Norway before we landed in Japan. We ordered to small plates of sushi from a cart in Japan. The carts in every country are only serving small appetizer plates, apparently to encourage people to go from cart to cart, country to country ordering small plates of food and small cups of wine. We decided as we rushed through the countries that we would have to come back tomorrow and eat our way through the world.

After seeing the world in Epcot, we went back to Soarin’ to use our quick pass. Soarin’ is a glider trip across California’s countryside. It is multi-sensory and is a very cool simulation. We got through the short line is about 10 minutes, thanks to our planning ahead. The line at 3pm was 65 minutes long. We enjoyed it and had fun, but were very thankful that we didn’t have to wait in such a long line! After Soarin’ we headed to pick up wristbands at the Magic Kingdom. We had reservations at Cinderella’s Castle but Mickey’s Not-So-Scary party was going on. This party required a ticket, so we had to get wristbands that would allow us to get to our reservations at 7:30pm.

DSCN0502After picking up our wristbands we went back to the hotel to relax and clean up. We both made some phone calls and enjoyed the air conditioning and quiet. After cleaning up and changing clothes, we took the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom. The park was absolutely nuts. It was almost 7pm, time for the park to close to those without tickets. Children and adults were dressed in costumes, ready to trick or treat throughout the park. We made our way to Cinderella’s Castle in the rain in plenty of time for our reservations. Cinderella’s Castle came highly recommended but we had no idea what to suspect. After we arrived, we got our picture taken with Cinderella. Shortly after, we were taken upstairs to a large room buzzing with families. We ordered a three-course meal and watched the merry go round out the window. After eating our delicious dinner, we were delighted to see characters come out to dance and sing. Cinderella’s mice and Fairy Godmother entertained the crowd and celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and marriages. All those celebrating received a delicious cake BEFORE dessert came out. Amazing.

Jarrod and I left the park and walked down to the water by our hotel. We enjoyed the hammock on the beach, watching ducks and a heron. After wandering the docks, pools, and beach, we grabbed a bottle of wine from the convenience store and went back up to our room. It was so nice to just relax on the balcony before going to sleep.

ODSCN0471DSCN0472n Monday we woke up to the sun shining in our huge windows. We cleaned up and went downstairs to breakfast. We ordered from a menu at a touch-screen kiosk and received our food quickly. Jarrod had a meal of eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, and a biscuit. (which he, of course, gave to me.) I had oatmeal and turkey sausage. After breakfast, we loaded on the monorail and went to the Magic Kingdom. The park was much less overwhelming in the daylight. We got to see the park all decorated for Halloween! Our day started with a show (Mickey’s Philharmagic Orchestra) before we hit the classics: it’s a small world and Peter Pan’s flying ride. We also discovered how powerful Disney buttons are. We wore our Just Married button and people congratulated us all day. We saw other people celebrating birthdays, engagements, and anniversaries. Very magical!

DSCN0477DSCN0478When we were done at Disney, we decided to go over to Hollywood Studios for lunch and play. We took the monorail to the bus station and a bus to Hollywood Studios. We were starving so we went straight to the first place we found that had salads. Jarrod is gluten-free and while he does have pills he can take before eating gluten, we’re trying to avoid it at any cost. The salads were delicious and we were on our way!

From lunch we went to Star Wars, Muppets in 3-D, Prince Caspian, and the Great Movie Ride. Star Wars was a fun simulator ride that Jarrod insisted on.  The muppet show was very cute, especially if you like Kermit. DSCN0479DSCN0483Prince Caspian was a waste of time and wasn’t really a ride at all. It was the trailer to the movie, which we’d already seen. The Great Movie ride was a tour through the movies of all time. Very cool, especially if you really like movies.

We left the park to shower up back at the hotel room. One of the best parts about staying at a Disney property is going back to the room between the daytime fun and the evening activities.

DSCN0487DSCN0490Thankfully we made a reservation at Hollywood Studios because when we arrived, everything was all booked up. We ate at a delightful buffet before walking to the amphitheatre for Fantasmic, the most amazing show ever! The amphitheatre is HUGE and the “stage” is a large mountain surrounded by a river. The show included pyrotechnics, boats, climbing, fireworks, music, and characters. Fountains were used as screens to project more action. Jarrod and I both agreed that it was the highlight of the day.

Sunday started like any other Sunday, but it didn’t end that way! Sunday afternoon started our honeymoon adventure. Jarrod and I woke up and did the church thing like any other Sunday. (He conducted, I sang, he played the guitar, I taught Senior High Sunday School, and we ate potluck casseroles.) After lunch, we headed back to the house to get I the car that was already packed with luggage. Courtney drove us to the airport and we were off!

DSCN0469The flight to Orlando was uneventful and quick, as Southwest flights usually are. We got to the Orlando airport and followed the signs to our Disney transportation. We had already registered our luggage so we didn’t even need to stop at baggage claim. After a short wait in line, we were off to our hotel! In true Disney style, we watched a video explaining check-in, tickets, and other amazing features on the trip to our hotel. After a few stops at other hotels, we finally arrived at the Contemporary. We checked in at about 8pm and received our room key/meal plan/park ticket all-in-one card. We also received buttons proclaiming that we were just married. We went up to our room on the 11th floor, dropped our carry on bags, and headed straight for the monorail. The monorail stops right in our hotel, so getting to Disney (and everywhere else we could imagine!) is very easy.DSCN0470

We arrived at Disney and were starving. The parade was about to start and people were EVERYWHERE. Disney was magically overwhelming. We stopped for a quick hot dog and starting running around the park. We started at Thunder Mountain and even got to ride in the front row. After that we saw some of the parade, went on Tomorrow Land’s people mover ride, road Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, watched fire works, and headed back to the room. The park had extended hours for everyone staying in Disney Hotels providing us the ability to stay at the park until 2am. We had plans to stay that late, but were so tired that we went back early and were in bed by 11pm.

Our hotel room is beautiful and has a gorgeous balcony over the water. Our flat screen TV is built into a shelf and we have a wrap around desk with a funky desk chair. We have two queen-sized beds and a very large bathroom. The room isn’t all Disney-ed out and we kind of like it like that. It’s appropriately contemporary.

Shortly after we got engaged, Jarrod and I decided to delay our honeymoon. We planned on getting married on July 4th from the day we got engaged. July is not the best time of year for a vacation because it is so dang hot and because kids are out of school, so places are busier. We decided almost immediately to go to Disney World in October. We figured that it wouldn’t be as crowded (true) and it would be cooler (not so true). It is hard to believe that October is finally here and we are finally enjoying our honeymoon, just 3 months belated.

I am so thankful that we decided to wait to celebrate our honeymoon. We are much more relaxed than we were in July. While there are certainly children everywhere, I do not think that the parks are nearly as crowded as they would have been in July. Orlando is experiencing incredible heat this week. The highs are in the 90s all week. Not to worry, the weather will get cooler the day we leave. It hasn’t been unbearable, but it has been very hot.

Here are a couple of details about our trip:

-       Our hotel – Disney’s Contemporary resort, very close to the Magic Kingdom

-       meal plan (more on that in a minute)

-       park hopper – We can go from park to park anytime we want to for the entirety of our stay

Let me take a moment and tell you about the Disney meal plan. We opted for the meal plan several months ago when we booked our vacation. I think we’re paying something like $40/day for each of us. This sounded incredibly expensive to me when we were booking our trip, but now that I’m here, I’m very glad we did this. We’ve already had several VERY expensive meals that have pretty much paid for the meal plan. The plan offers us one snack, one quick service meal, and one sit down dinner per day. A snack is anything from a bottle of diet coke to a small plate of sushi. The meal plan is accepted throughout Disney including at the snack carts, hotel restaurants, and at the parks. It takes some keeping track and isn’t always the best deal, but it is definitely convenient. Instead of worrying about how much breakfast costs, we just add it to the plan. Breakfast includes a meal, juice, and a drink…essentially a meal and two drinks. A quick service meal includes a meal, drink, and dessert. A sit down meal includes dinner, a drink, and dessert. Alcohol is not included, but can be added as an option. We opted to purchase our adult beverages separately.

Jarrod and I are working on getting back into the real world from our honeymoon. Several things have thwarted our attempts (more on that later) but we are working on it. Here’s our weekly menu. It’s a light week and pretty boring, so don’t expect anything spectacular. :-)

Saturday – We made Chicken Enchilada Soup and it was delicious! We made our own chicken broth from a rotisserie chicken and used the dark and some light meat in the soup. I am a terrible recipe follower, so here’s my version of the recipe!

3 cups of chicken broth

1 can of cream of chicken soup

3.5 cups of water

1 can of Rotel – I use the real deal, but the mild or just stewed tomatoes would also be appropriate for kids with sensitive taste buds.

2 T worchestershire sauce

1 chopped onion

1 small brick of 2% velveeta

Chicken – You can use 2 cans of canned chicken, 3 breasts of grilled chicken, 2 packages of fajita meat chicken, etc… I used most of the meat on a rotisserie chicken, but I’ve also grilled chicken breasts on the George Forman in taco seasoning and cut that up for the soup.

1 corn tortillas.

In a large pot add the water, chicken broth, soup, rotel, worchestershire sauce, and onions. Bring to a low boil for 15 minutes. Add chicken and cubed velveeta. Be sure to turn the stove down to medium or low after adding the cheese and stir until it is all mixed in. Cut tortillas into strips and add to the soup. Simmer. You can add more tortillas on top if you’d like. I serve this soup with corn muffins. Delicious!

Sunday – We had black bean nachos. Just black beans, chips, salsa and cheese. Nothing fancy. We made black beans before we left for vacation in the crock pot with rotel, cilantro, and garlic. We froze most of the beans for after the trip.

Monday – Quinoa and black beans. We already have the beans, I just need to make the quinoa. I’ll probably put salsa on mine. Jarrod will add cheese, of course.

Tuesday – Corn Polenta. Jarrod’s making something, I’ll post if there’s any important recipes to be shared.

Wednesday – Leftovers – Choir night.

Thursday – Leftovers. I imagine we will still have leftover soup to be eaten. We don’t like leftovers to go bad, so we like to eat them everyday so they don’t… Well, I do at least…

Friday – Breakfast for dinner.

I am going to work on my honeymoon blog right now. I haven’t even uploaded pictures to the computer yet!

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