Shadow Puppets: How we kept calm during a crisis

During our trip to Shanghai, we encountered a little situation with my daughter that had us worried.  

One morning during breakfast my daughter stated that she needed to use the bath. She went to utilize the bathroom and after 8 minutes I realized that she was in the bathroom rather long. I asked her brother did he see his sister and he stated no, so I went to see if she went back to grab something else to eat.  When I noticed that she was not by the breakfast area and she had not returned to the table I immediately went to the bathroom to check on her. When I arrive at the bathroom I yelled out to my daughter and she responded and then I asked her, "are you okay", she stated that she couldn't get out of the bathroom so I inquired a little more as to what she was stating, she said that the lock was stuck so I attempted to coach her to unlock the door, however as she kept turning the lock, it was only turning halfway.  At this point I became a little nervous because the bathroom stalls we're not the type of stalls in which you can crawl under or over because the walls were marble and the doors were floor-to-ceiling high hardwood doors. 

A woman that was in the bathroom when it first started already alerted staff from the hotel .  Several staff members attempted to unlock the door to no avail, including the maintenance personnel which could not unlock the door.  They called another maintenance  personnel  to assist with unlocking the door. During this time I was talking to my daughter trying to keep her calm all at the same time trying to keep myself calm. It wasn't until a person in the middle stall hang out that I  noticed that the middle stall on the left side has a temper frosted glass that had a 3 foot passage at the top. I immediately ran in and tried to climb on top of the toilet bowl to climb over and the asked me to wait for a ladder. When I saw my daughter laying up against the glass I noticed I saw her shadow so I decided to play shadow puppets with her. I asked her, hey do you know what this is and she said "YES! It's a bunny rabbit" then I did another one and she said oh yes that's a bird and we continued to play this game until the maintenance were able to bring over two ladders, one ladder to climb over to get to the other side and another ladder to return.  

My daughter was able to come out safely and she remained calm the entire time. One of the managers at the hotel commended my daughter for being so brave and I must say I was proud of her as well!

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A Fatherless Day….. A Daughter’s Loss

For the last 3 years, Father’s Day has been very hard for me because I loss a very awesome man in my life…. My dad!!!!  He was loving, funny, supportive, and one of the most difficult person you might have ever encountered; but he was the BEST DARN Father anyone could ask for in the world.

I always tell people that my father was the nurturer between the two parents.  He would stay up with me ALL night long to finish my homework in elementary school and he taught me valuable life lessons about the importance of having some verbal filtration (he made me read up on Socrates at 13 years old!).  One of the most important life lessons my father taught me was “ensure that you find a mate that can treat you better than I treated you!”  Now I must admit, that’s a rather tall order!!!  I must admit that comparing your potential mate to your dad can be a relationship disaster.  Because I don’t think that anyone could treat me better than my father since he was there during fundamental years in my life that groomed me to be the woman I am today.  However, I totally understood where my father was coming from.

 As parents, we want the best for our children and so did my dad.  I know that I’ve haven’t always made the best relationship decisions but I’ve always demanded that the person treated me with respect.  And with that, I can say, Thank You Daddy for instilling great fundamentals skills in me and making me demand more out of people in life and of myself.

 Your smile and charismatic ways lives on in your granddaughter as my looks and mannerisms of your mother resonates in me.

#FathersDay
#themomgician
#momgician

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My Disney Experience

I am what one might call a Disney Fanatic...  However, I like to call myself an avid traveler that enjoys the magical touches that Disney adds to my vacations. My Disney adventures started about 28 or 29 years ago when I was about 8 or 9 years old and I went to Walt Disney World with my mother (her friend and daughter), older sister (along with her best friend) and little brother.   This trip was exciting because this was our very first Disney vacation.  We saw Disney through the eyes of my sister's best friend because her mother brought her to Disney World the previous year.  I must admit that I was a little annoyed because I wanted to experience the adventure MINUS the narration from my sister's friend.

After this trip, we returned to Disney World the following year with my father in tow and the year after that as a family getaway that included about 20+ family members.  I must admit that after these first 3 Disney World trips I can't remember our various Disney vacations but there were A LOT!!!

However, my love for the Disney Magic seemed to really unfold in 2003 when I traveled to Tokyo Disneyland with my significant other  and college roommate. This was my first international Disney vacation and it still holds a special place in my heart as my all time favorite Disney experience to date (I'll review and rate each park in a separate blog entry). 

I've had the luxury of traveling all around the world and what has been the most exciting thing I've recently checked off my bucket list was going to EVERY Disney Park in the world!!!

This might not be the most exciting thing for many people because they hate crowds, the price of the parks, or just Disney in general, but for me, I've shared some of my most happiest life moments at these parks with my family and loved ones.

When I learned several years ago that they would be opening a Shanghai Disneyland, I knew I had to add that to my bucket list.  Now with 5 parks under my belt, I'm now looking forward to our trip to Shanghai this summer!!!   That's right, my trip is booked, park tickets are purchased and I'm also looking forward to seeing the Lion King in Mandarin. 

To ensure that we've got our parks covered, I added Tokyo to our trip itinerary after we leave Shanghai. Stay tuned for my blog entries regarding our trip....   

#wdw
#shanghaidisneyland
#tokyodisneyland

  








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A day with Michael Strahan & Meta

On 6/14/16, I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful event hosted by Meta at the Gramercy Park Hotel's Gramercy Terrace.  The day started off with a workout session by celebrity personal trainer Latreal (La) Mitchell.  This workout session was followed by mixed berry yogurt smoothies developed by dietary nutritionist Jessica Fishman.

 

Jessica Fishman facilitated a Q&A session with GMA host Michael Strahan and Latreal Mitchell.

 

The panel shared their workout routines, eating habits and ways to incorporate people in your life to help you maintain a healthier lifestyle. 

 

Michael discussed how he utilizes Meta Appetite Control and nutritional bars to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle. 

 

The panel was very candid about their obstacles of staying fit but stressed the importance of staying consistent and utilizing all of your resources (dancing with your kids, swimming, utilize hotel gyms while traveling) to work out on a regular basis. 

 

The day ended with photo opportunities with Michael and Q&A's with Jessica and Latreal.  All in all, it was a great start to my day!

 

#Crushcravings

#Metawellness

#MichaelStrahan

#Latreal_Mitchell

#Gramercyhotel

#GramercyTerrace

#themomgician

#momgician   

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Flying Tiger Haul

Flying Tiger Haul

 

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My Next Disney Destination..... #ShanghaiDisneyland

For those of you that don't know me and my family, we LOVE traveling to Disney theme parks!!!!  As a matter of fact, as of August 2015, I've been to EVERY Disney theme park in the world.  For the past 8 years, I've gone to a least one Disney park a year.  Within the past year, my family has gone to Walt Disney World, Florida (January 2015), Disneyland, California (February 2015),  Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong (August 2015), and Disneyland Paris,  Paris (February 2016) [Full review of all the parks coming soon].  Initially, when I planned to go to Hong Kong Disneyland,  I was hoping that Disneyland Shanghai would have been open by that time, but unfortunately it was not. Which meant I would have to wait a little longer to experience Shanghai Disneyland.

  

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding the biggest Disney Castle which is currently being built at Shanghai Disneyland, and that has me really excited!!!  I have a hard time passing up a Disney adventure and I look forward to adding this to my bucket list.  Hey, I might even squeeze going to Hong Kong Disneyland during that time as well (it's been over 10 years since I've gone there).

I do hope and pray that the staff at this Disneyland park is much friendlier than at Hong Kong Disneyland (my experience at Hong Kong Disneyland was the worst Disneyland park experience I've ever had in my life, I'll share that in a future post)....    

I have high hopes for Shanghai Disneyland and I'm looking forward to the Disney magic but Shanghai style!!!!  

#ShanghaiDisneyland 
#waltdisney 
#disneyworld

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