Just for you.

I first woke up this morning at about 11:30 when Mom told me to wake up. I ended up falling back asleep and woke up just before 2…Mom evidently hadn’t tried to wake me again. Oh well.

The four of us got our stuff together and drove out to Poppa and Granna’s house, where we hung out until some old family friends came over for dinner. We had hamburgers, and after I had finished eating, my 9-year-old cousin Carson and I played chess with each other; he just learned not too long ago and now he’s really into it. He’s actually pretty good, too: of the three games we played, he beat me once and we stalemated twice. Him wanting to play me has also re-sparked my interest in the game; I downloaded a chess app on my phone and played it a bit tonight.

Anyway, after we had played chess, everybody sat down at the dining table and played Apples to Apples. Let me tell you, playing Apples to Apples with family is completely different than playing with friends; whereas my friends would aim to win by making the judge laugh with their answer, my family would be as literal as possible in choosing their answers. For example, my grandfather was judge and the word was “cool”. Since he’s a retired firefighter, I thought it would be amusing to play “my job”, but he didn’t think it was as funny as I did. There were a couple of other similar turns, but all-in-all it was lots of fun.

Now, I’m back home, about to go to sleep. Church in the morning, and back to Granna and Poppa’s house afterward. I’m really enjoying having my uncle and cousins in town, though I wish my aunt could have made the trip as well. Still left on our agenda while they’re in town: take my uncle to see Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 (he also wants to see Captain America), and take the three of them to Chipotle so that they can try it for the first time.

Well, that’s all for tonight. Goodnight!

Chad

I don’t forget often.

But yesterday was one of the few days where I legitimately forgot to type up a blog (as opposed to times when I purposefully neglected it due to studying or exhaustion). Sorry about that, but I feel it was justified; after all, how many times do you sit in the very front row for a professional baseball game? Thanks to my uncle, that’s exactly where we sat at the Rangers game last night: first row of the bottom level, just past third base. It was awesome. We were hoping that at least one foul ball would head our way, but we only had a couple fly over us. No big deal because the game was completely worth it…go Rangers!

Today was the first day of Poteet’s summer band camp. Since I’m the horn teacher this year, I had to be at the school with the students at 8am. I got out of bed at around 7:15 and took a shower before getting dressed, eating a package of Poptarts, and preparing my morning coffee. When it came time for Mr. Newman to introduce all the staff to the students, he introduced my friend Alex (graduated with me, helping with saxes) as a 2011 graduate, my friend Aaron (also graduated with me, helping with trumpets) as a 2009 graduate…he got my introduction right, though.

As far as actually teaching the students, we got a lot done today. I’m not as “fun” as the previous teacher was, I suppose, but we definitely got a LOT of work done, finishing more than half of part 1. I was pretty proud of their progress, and I’m hoping that the rest of band camp will run just as smoothly.

When I got home, I watched a couple of shows that I had recorded from the ’90s Are All That! programming on Nickelodeon, which is really cool: it’s a bunch of shows that Nickelodeon used to play in the ’90s, back when I was growing up. Awesome. Anyway, I watched All That (a kids’ sketch comedy show similar to SNL) and Kenan & Kel (sort of a spin-off; both Kenan and Kel were All That cast members). Later, I took a two-hour nap, which was great, and then I resumed watching TV, switching to Criminal Minds with my Mom, which I watched the rest of the day. We ate Hamburger Helper for dinner.

Now, I’m watching more ’90s Are All That, and I’m about to either go to bed, but I may read a little of The Two Towers before I actually sleep…we’ll see. Tomorrow, we’re going to Granna and Poppa’s house and eating with my uncle and cousins and some old family friends. Lots of fun!

Anyway, that’s all for now. Goodnight.

Chad

Prematurely tired.

I don’t know what it is, but the past two days have left me very tired far earlier than I normally am. Go figure.

We woke up early again this morning, starting with washing both Granna’s car and my car. When we had done that, we went back inside for a short break and stayed inside for the rest of the day, removing the rest of the wallpaper in their bathroom. That took all of the day, and we only stopped for lunch (an orange today!) and for a break here and there; during one of the breaks I had an apple. Definitely trying this whole “eating healthier” thing…we’ll see how it goes. I’m working on it!

Granna had gone into Mesquite earlier today for a dermatologist appointment, and she returned to Terrell with Mom too. When all the work for the day had been done, we loaded our stuff up and went back home, with Poppa driving his old grill ahead of us to give to Dad. The reason why we came home tonight instead of staying an extra day is because my Uncle Craig and my two cousins, Summer and Carson, are coming in from Alabama in the morning, and they’re staying until Wednesday. I’m really excited to see them because I haven’t seen them since Christmas. The first item of business is to go to the Rangers game tomorrow night; Carson has never been to a professional baseball game before (I’m not sure if Summer has either…), so it’ll be cool to go with him for his first time. It’ll be my third game of the summer…lovin’ me some Rangers! Let’s hope they pull out a win.

Anyway, we had chili cheese dogs for supper and watched three episodes of Criminal Minds. Now, it’s time for bed because, as I mentioned, I’m exhausted. Goodnight, everyone.

Chad

Accidental nap.

Today was a long day. I first woke up at 7:40 or so, eating a bowl of Cap’n Crunch for breakfast. We got started with work pretty soon afterward; today’s job was to destroy a couple of large mounds of dirt in the lot and distribute the dirt in areas where the ground had sunk below the concrete around the driveway and such. I think we filled in all of the spots in the concrete, and the next step is to start filling in dips on their property. We’ve still got plenty of dirt to move! Thank goodness for Poppa’s tractor!

We came inside for lunch at about 12:15 and stayed inside for the rest of the day. Once we had eaten (you should be proud; I had an apple for lunch), we commenced on our next project: ripping up the wallpaper in Granna and Poppa’s back bathroom. We did this for quite a while, at least until six, if not maybe a bit later. We got a lot of work done, but it’s pretty tedious: lots of the time only the top layer of wallpaper will tear off, the part with the actual design on it, and then we’d have to soak the second layer with water in order to scrape it off cleanly.

We had burgers for dinner, and I had a Swiss bacon burger for the first time. Honestly, I didn’t taste much of the cheese since Swiss doesn’t have as much of a sharpness to it like American and Cheddar do, but it was still really good. Granna, Blake, and I watched Tangled while we ate (after finishing up watching Groundhog Day, which had been playing on the TV), which I had convinced Granna to buy for us to watch last night at Walmart…thank you Granna! She really liked it a lot, and so did I…it was only my third time to see it, which is a low view count for me.

After the movie, we went to the special features and picked the deleted scenes, which I had never seen before since I hadn’t owned it before now. They were more like storyboards with voice overlay than “scenes”, and I would call them “replaced scenes” over “deleted scenes”. They were more like initial ideas for the film that were scrapped and replaced with what we saw in the final product. It was during the third of these so-called “deleted” scenes that I think I fell asleep, not waking up until quite a while later. I’m not entirely sure what time I initially fell asleep, but it was pretty soon after 10, and it was nearly midnight by the time I woke. It was a nice nap, and now I think I’m going to sleep pretty soon before this tired feeling wears off.

That being said, goodnight, all.

Chad

Star light, star bright…

Listening to the Wishes soundtrack (the music for the Magic Kingdom’s nightly fireworks show).

Today was a pretty do-nothing kinda day. I slept until about noon or whenever it was that my mom woke me to move my car from in front of the garage door so that she could go to her doctor’s appointment. From then until she returned, I just stayed in bed and read stuff on my phone and listened to KEOM, moving my car once again when she had gotten back home.

I watched some TV in the living room for a couple of hours (including both Phineas & Ferb and The Princess Bride) before leaving the house with Blake at around 7 to meet Granna and Poppa in Terrell for dinner at Cici’s. We went to Walmart afterward before heading to their house; unless I go down during the weekend or for an afternoon sometime, this will probably be the last time I work for them this summer. We’ll see for sure though; I’m definitely open to any opportunity I can get.

At their house, I just watched some Criminal Minds, Phineas & Ferb, and Family Guy (though not much of this last one since it’s not very family-friendly). I uploaded the few pictures from the Disney trip I had taken on my phone to Facebook before shutting down my computer and getting ready for bed.

Now, I’m laying in my room on the bed with my Recently Added playlist going and Perry the Platypus sitting next to me on a pillow. I’ve been having lots of fun with Perry; he rode on the dashboard of my car on the way to Terrell, and I’ve been taking pictures of him in weird places (i.e. on top of my cat, on a blade of the ceiling fan, etc.) and tweeting them with “Oh, there you are, Perry.” It’s amusing, or at least I think so.

Anyway, it’s time for sleep. I’m going to type up a quick letter to one of my two awesome pen pals before hitting the hay; we’re waking up early in the morning in an attempt to beat the heat.

Goodnight!

Chad

Still tired.

This is another short post. I’ll resume normal posting tomorrow night! So sorry.

The flight(s) today went well…we boarded at 6:40ish, and I fell asleep before takeoff. I didn’t wake up until about 5 minutes before we landed in Houston, and then I fell asleep before we took off for Dallas and woke up after we had landed then. Lots of sleep, but, once the Grants had dropped me off back at home, I crawled in bed and slept another 5 hours, though it’s still not enough to completely catch me up.

We all ate dinner with Granna and Poppa at Chili’s and then I added all of my new music from the three CDs I bought (Phineas and Ferb, Wishes [the Magic Kingdom fireworks show music], and the official Disney World complete soundtrack) to my laptop.

Now, I’m off to bed. Goodnight, everyone! Glad to be home.

Chad

Goodbyes in Disney World are always the most difficult.

It is 4am on Sunday morning, and we’re sitting around waiting for the express bus that will take us to the airport for our 7am flight. We woke up at 3:15ish after having gone to bed about two hours previously, and we (as in Regan, Andrew, and I) only got three hours of sleep the night before. I’m feeling pretty okay, and the others are all awake, but all on varying levels.

This has been quite the trip…I’ve had a blast. I’m so glad that we were able to make this work out the way it did. I can’t wait to come again…hey family, let’s go when the new Fantasyland area in Magic Kingdom is up and running!

Anyway, we leave the resort at 4:15, in about ten minutes, and our flight leaves for Dallas at 7; we arrive at 10. Im going to get home, say hey to Mom and Dad, and crash for a few hours…most likely.

For now, I say goodnight to those normal people out there who are sleeping, and to everyone else, have a great day!

Chad

Extra magic hours.

It’s 1:30. And we’re at Magic Kingdom.

Today was awesome, but you’ll have to wait for a detailed post.

For now, goodnight.

Chad

Hot tubs from Heaven.

This won’t be as detailed as yesterday’s; I’m really tired and tomorrow we go to my favorite park in Disney World, Hollywood Studios.

We did everything we really wanted to do today in EPCOT, including Soarin’, Mission: Space, Test Track, and Captain EO, all of which were very fun.

Mission: Space was especially cool today because that’s the ride that Megan works on, so she showed us the control room and took us to the front of the line; it’s great knowing the right people! Ha. Captain EO was cool too because I had never done it before. For those who don’t know, Captain EO was an attraction created by Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Michael Jackson, and it’s a sort of 4-D movie; the movie is in 3D and the seats move around just a bit. It opened in 1986, but closed quite a while ago until it was ought back last year as a tribute to Michael Jackson after his death. It was lots of fun.

Oh, I almost forgot Sum of App Thrills, an attraction Innoventions where you design your own rollercoaster or jet plane flight and then you sit in a simulator to ride what you just created. It was SO cool, and we did it twice. We also got to ride Segways (however briefly).

In the World Showcase is an opportunity called Kim Possible’s World Showcase, and it was awesome. It’s based on a TV show we grew up with, in case you didn’t know; you’re given a “Kimminicator”, which, via videos and pictures on the phone-like device, takes you through missions in the countries of the showcase, and different things interact with it. For example, our first mission had us raise a flag with the click of a button…very cool.

We stayed until the park closed, making sure to see the Illuminations show. When we had gotten back, the “kids” made our way over to the big pool on the resort, where we stayed until half past midnight. We had a blast there too.

And now, sleep. Goodnight!

Chad

Wet feet.

I’ve got extremely sore feet, a slight limp, and lower back pains, but today was tons of fun.

We woke up to our first alarm at 6:45 but didn’t get out of bed until just after 7. Once we had gotten dressed, we met up with Megan and Regan for breakfast downstairs, where we saw the Clarks for the first time.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom just under an hour after it opened, and we made sure to grab Fast Passes for Expedition: Everest first thing. Once we had secured those, we headed over to Dinosaur, our first ride of the day; what a great start! The rest of the day consisted of a stroll through a zoo-like area, the Kali River Rapids (which got us soaking wet, resulting in wet feet and almost-blisters), the Kilimanjaro Jungle Safari, the Festival of the Lion King, and, of course, Expedition: Everest…twice!

Our dinner reservation was scheduled for 5:45, but we didn’t show up until about 6 due to bus delays. We ate at a restaurant in the Animal Kingdom Lodge called Boma, which is an African-style buffer; it was SO good! I had a large plateful of barbecue ribs (sweet barbecue sauce, but spicy aftertaste; my favorite dinner item), baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and lots more. The dessert was excellent too, with items like Chocolate-Cinnamon Mousse, Caramel Cheesecake, and other small yummy things. I had pomegranate lemonade to drink; everything was fantastic.

When we had finished eating, we headed to Downtown Disney for a while; once we had fought through our fair share of crowds, we hopped on a bus and went to Magic Kingdom, riding The Peoplemover and the Carousel of Progress, as well as going to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and watching a new laser/projection show, which is projected directly onto the castle. It’s an incredible thing to watch, and, since we only caught the last half, I can wait to see the ending.

We got back to the room at 1-ish or so, with Andrew and I taking showers (his parents had come back earlier). Now, I’m lying in bed finishing this while the Grants snore around me…goody. Haha, nothing I can’t handle.

Anyway, EPCOT tomorrow, though thankfully not as early, so it’s time to take advantage of that extra sleep. Goodnight!

Chad