Our Gluten Free Disney World Experience

Last weekend was our first time at Disney World. We've been to Disney Land several times, so we knew basically what to expect, but as everyone warned, DW is huge!

The Parks

We ended up with one day for each of the DW parks, and for the most part, that was enough. A lot of the rides are similar (if not the same) as rides at DL, so we knew right off which ones we weren't going to do (the teacups, for one). We did some of the shows- some were good, some were beyond cheesy. We could have spent more time watching shows and riding rides that we've ridden at DL and standing in line to meet characters, but since we didn't have time to spare we skipped over those.

We took LMS on several roller coaster type rides, and she loved them all! We always kept a tight grip on her, but every time we looked over to make sure she was ok, she had a great big grin on her face.

The Hotels

Our days were pretty long, which is a pity, since we didn't get to enjoy our hotels. We weren't able to make our reservations as early as I would have liked because we had to resolve some schedule issues, so a lot of rooms were already filled. We wanted to stay at a resort hotel for at least Friday night so we could catch the shuttle directly to the start line. Other hotels also ran shuttles, but they weren't as close to the resort.

We ended up staying the last three nights of our stay at Shades of Green, which is for military personnel, and our first two nights at the Yacht Club, because SoG didn't have any openings the first two nights.

Both hotels were very nice, but our room at SoG was bigger than the one at the YC and was half the price. Oh well. If we do this again we'll make sure we make our reservations further in advance. We did get to try out the pool at SofG, which LMS loved, but missed the pools at the YC.

The Food

I was a bit nervous about eating without getting glutened, but we didn't have any problems. I had several pages saved on my iphone and I referred to them at mealtimes- which restaurants had gluten free offerings, as well as which specific gluten free foods could be found in which restaurants.

We ate breakfast in our hotel room (gluten free cereal and coconut milk), then had lunch and dinner at the park (or Chili's restaurant outside the park). We only worried about staying gluten free and didn't focus on all the food sensitivities. While we reacted to the foods we ate, it wasn't horrible.

We only ate at counter service restaurants. Apparently you have to make reservations for all the sit down places, but I wasn't willing to mess with that since I didn't know where we were going to be at any given day/time. We also skipped the buffets because I don't trust them. People use tongs to get food and then touch the tongs to the bun or whatever on their plate, then put the tongs back in the container of food. That's more than enough to cause me massive amounts of discomfort and pain.

We ended up eating hamburgers on gluten free buns (no lettuce because it was in a buffet line), french fries, chicken strips, a salad with chicken, and gluten free cheese pizza. Not a ton of variety, but our meals were prepared by the manager each time, and dedicated fryers were used for the fried items. We got enough to eat, and we didn't get glutened. Definitely a success!

We also stopped in Downtown Disney so we could go to the Babycakes NYC bakery. I was curious to see if their products were any good. We got a pumpkin cupcake, a lemon cupcake, a chocolate frosted donut, and a slice of pumpkin chocolate chip loaf. It was ridiculously expensive (seriously, even for gluten free baked goods, it was expensive), but tasted very good and had great texture. Like hard-to-believe-it's-gluten-free-and-vegan-good.

Unfortunately, while the products are vegan, they do use potato starch, corn starch, tapioca starch, and sorghum flour. I can handle the first three within reason, but sorghum flour does not agree with my body at all. Even so, it's a good thing we don't have one of these nearby, or I would be tempted to spend way more than I should getting gluten free treats :)

We had a lot of fun on our vacation!

Guest Room Nightstand

While I was painting this dresser, I decided to go ahead and finally paint this nightstand. I bought it at Goodwill a year and a half ago for $3, but then let it sit around looking ugly.

Since it was also destined for the guest room, I gave it a matching coat of chalk paint. I also switched out the outdated, not-retro-enough-to-be-cool drawer pulls-- unlike the ones on the dresser, which are retro enough to be cool :). I got the replacements at Hobby Lobby for half off, but they were a silver/pewter color so I spray painted them white to match the knobs on the dresser.

It really is amazing what a difference a coat of paint makes. It looks so much better!

I'm not embarassed to have people stay in the guest room anymore :)

And one of these days I'll get the board and batten up and paint the room and it'll look even better.

Guest Room Dresser

About a year ago I bought this dresser on craigslist, with the intent to paint it and make it look nicer. I finally got around to it just before Christmas. Here it is in all it's glory- I'd already taken the knobs off when I remembered I needed a before picture. The white paint on the top is from resting shelves I was painting on top of the dresser.

I sanded the white paint off the top, then mixed up some chalk paint. I'd heard good things about it, and decided to give it a try. I used blue paint leftover from painting the front door and added some white paint to tone the color down a bit. I spray painted the knobs white and then reattached them.

I love the result!

The dresser is in our guest room, but since I haven't done anything else in the guest room yet, there's nothing else to show.

LMS' first Disney race

Saturday morning after the half marathon, LMS ran a 200 meter kids race.

It was held on an actual track, but was very low key (parents could pace their kids, which I did), and she had a much better experience with this race than with the Turkey Trot half mile kids race in November.

The best part for her was getting her own race shirt (like mommy gets at her races) and her vinyl Mickey Mouse finishers medallion at the finish.

Half marathon recap (it's a long post)

Last Saturday I ran my third half marathon. Yay me!

We were up at 3 am in order to catch the 4 am shuttle to the start. It was colder than we were expecting, but the temp was great for running, though not great for walking 20 minutes to the start line and waiting another 30 minutes for my wave to start.

The first half of the race I felt good, strong even. My knees and shins didn't bother me. However, the lone 6 mile long run in my training showed when I hit the second half of the race. I was able to still keep my splits up (even with a potty break at the half way mark), but I had to work harder at it. The balls of my feet were pretty sore- the unfamiliar pounding? my plantar fasciatis not being happy? not sure what exactly the issue is, but I've had problems with it before, so I need to figure out the source of the problem. I'm hoping it was just having my shoes tied too tightly (a possibility, from what I can determine).

I got my knee taped Thursday before we left and I left it on till Tuesday night. There was no pain while the tape was on, but Wednesday my knee wasn't super happy. After the race my knees and thighs and hips were stiff and a bit sore, but I brought my foam roller and did some stretching and that helped a lot.

The course itself is a good one. It's pretty flat with a few moderate hills- not too long, and not too steep. Several marching bands, some djs, Disney music on loudspeakers, various Disney characters, and cheering crowds lined the way. The placement of a drill sergeant-esque toy soldier from Toy Story at the crest of the last hill (the longest one) at mile 11.something was particularly apropo. He was talented too- he managed to keep shouting encouragement at runners while posing for photo-ops. I didn't do any of the available photo-ops along the course because there was always a line and I wasn't about to screw up my pace.

I finally got a Garmin GPS-enabled watch not too long ago, but I've only used it a couple times, and I'm still not totally comfortable using it, so despite my best efforts while crossing the start line I couldn't get it to do what I wanted and it ended up being just a bulky watch. Even so, I was able to keep track of my mile splits fairly accurately, and knew I was keeping a pretty consistent 12 minute per mile pace, which was faster than I expected, given my training pace on the treadmill. When I checked my stats after the race I saw that I actually managed to run a bit faster than 12 minutes per mile.

Miles run ------- Time -----Average Pace

3.1                36:43     11.50 min/mile

6.2             1:12:50     11.44 min/mile

9.3             1:51:33     11.59 min/mile

13.1           2:37:27     12.01 min/mile

I ran the first 6 miles without stopping, then walked about 30-45 seconds of each 12 minute mile after that, except for the last mile. The last mile I did a lot of walking/running/walking/running because I was tired and losing steam fast.

I ate 2 shot blocks every couple of miles, for a total of 8, I think. I chased them with water and powerade from the water stations. They stayed down without any problems. In the past I've eaten a larabar before the race, but they don't sit well once I get running, and I knew I'd end up puking if I ate one that morning, so I ran the race on a banana and 8 shot blocks. Not what I had planned, but it worked.

I had two belt pockets- one with my iphone so Mr M could call and see when I'd be hitting the first viewing point and so we could reconnect at the end, the other with my shotblocks, chapstick, bodyglide, and wipes in case of intestinal problems. I didn't need the wipes or the bodyglide (I lubed up very well before leaving the hotel), but better safe than sorry. Mr M and LMS were waiting to cheer me as I came out of Cinderella's castle, and then again at the finish line. LMS was a real trooper- she got up at 3:30 am and kept going the whole day.

 LMS asking Daddy "when will mommy come by?" Note the less-than-thrilled-to-be-waiting-around frown on her face :)

After running through Cinderella's castle

 Oh yes, and since it was a Disney race, I dressed up. Nothing too fancy, just an understated Rapunzel costume. I used this tutorial for the tank top sleeves, and then sewed my own sparkly skirt. You can buy them, but I decided to make my own, which turned out longer than the ones you can buy, which I liked. However, I don't know that I'll make another one. The sparklies are glued to the fabric and sewing through them causes adhesive to gum up the needle, which then causes the thread to break. I had to keep wiping my needle down with a cleaning solution every couple inches to keep my thread from breaking. I also followed this tutorial for a Rapunzel wig, which turned out very nice, but the reality is that I have a very hard time wearing hats, headbands, and the like because they give me headaches within minutes of putting them on. Just putting it on to see how it fit gave me a headache, so I ditched my plans to wear it in the race and gave it to LMS to wear for dress up, which made her happy. A pity to not be able to use it myself, but that's the way it goes.

I was quite apprehensive about the food issue - I really started to regret the decision to fly and stay in a hotel instead of driving the trailer down, but it worked out for the most part. Thursday I got glutened at lunch by accident, so I wasn't feeling great, but I did my pasta carb loading Thursday night before we left. I hadn't found a source of gluten free pasta that looked reliable, and supposedly it's ok to carb load more than a day in advance. Friday morning we flew to Florida and had lunch at Chipotle after we arrived, where I got glutened again :(  Dinner was at Outback since they're fairly knowledgeable and aware of food allergies and are quite gluten free friendly. No issues there, thank goodness. 

Two days in a row of getting glutened had me very worried about how my intestines and stomach were going to do during the race. The nausea was bad enough that I almost puked while eating a banana for breakfast as I dressed. I managed to keep it down and empty my intestines before we left the hotel, so I counted myself fairly lucky. My intestines were still a bit painful, but not gotta-run-to-the-potty-painful, so it was manageable. I sipped some water before the race, which wasn't the smartest thing since I have a nervous bladder before races. Despite two potty stops on the way to the start line I had to go again by the time my wave started. I knew there would be porta potties along the way, but I didn't actually find some that didn't have long lines till the halfway point. I didn't want to spend time waiting in line since I was doing so good keeping a consistent pace.

 Mr M's brother and me- this was his first half marathon

Me and my cheering section. LMS is wearing the jacket I brought to wear before the race. Since it was so cold we put it on her when I took it off.

 My last half marathon, almost 3.5 years ago, was 2:29:46. It was a fast course, so I'm pretty happy about only being 7:41 minutes slower this time around, especially given my under-training, knee injury, and getting glutened the day before. And 2:37:27 is waaay faster than the 3 hours I was conservatively hoping for :) I'm encouraged to go and sign up for a few more half marathons this year.

The time on the clock is the clock time. Since I didn't start in the first wave, it's not my true finishing time.

 After the race, we spent time at the parks, thanks to discounted tickets for military personnel, and did lots of walking.

Saturday- 6.15 miles walked (after the half marathon!)
Sunday- 6.14 miles walked
Monday- 5.32 miles walked
Tuesday- 7.28 miles walked

Total mileage for the weekend:  24.89 miles walked plus 13.1 miles ran equals 37.99 miles, which is almost a marathon and a half! (that would be 39.3 miles)

My half marathons:

1st- Disneyland Half (Sept 2007)   2:59:18

2nd- Top of Utah Half (Aug 2008)  2:29:46

3rd- Disney World Half (Jan 2012)   2:37:27

Conversations with LMS

We went to Disney World last weekend so I could run a half marathon (more on that later), and the experience spawned several Little Miss Sunshine-isms.

When are we going to ride the roller poster? I want to ride the roller poster!

roller poster= roller coaster

And the one thunder guy said 'let's go this way' and the other thunder guy said 'let's not go this way' and....

thunder guy= stormtrooper

What was your favorite ride?

Water mountain!

water mountain= splash mountain

To Mr M's brother as we went through the lines to Tower of Terror:

Don't worry, it's just pretend.

we'd made sure to explain that the ride was just pretend, and she didn't need to be scared, and she wanted to reassure him (and herself) that it would be ok.

Discipline

I wrote this at the beginning of the month, but forgot to post it.

One of the blogs I read was talking about 'discipline' as a goal for the year. She talked about applying discipline to various parts of her life. I liked this and have been thinking about it for a few days now.

I'm pretty good about making goals and following up on them or altering them to fit my changing circumstances. However, there's always room to improve, and being more disciplined is a good way to start.

How am I going to apply discipline to my life this year?

1. I will be more disciplined in my sleep schedule (get to bed on time, wake up earlier)
2. I will be more disciplined in my workout schedule (more consistent)
3. I will be more disciplined in my eating habits (no more "fudging" and eating things I shouldn't)
4. I will be more disciplined in my daily schedule (scriptures, homeschooling, housework, etc each get the attention needed)

What are your goal(s) for this year?

Conversations with LMS

Friday night was our ward Christmas party.

Mr. M came home from work, we ate a quick dinner, then headed to the church.

Since we didn't have a chance to talk much during dinner Mr. M and I were talking about what had happened during the day. LMS kept asking us to turn up the radio and stop talking because she wanted to listen to the Christmas music playing.

As we pulled into the parking lot, she said "do what this song says mommy and daddy".

We stopped talking and heard "Silent Night" playing.

:)

at the ward activity

Forced down time

I had a nasty cold the last two weeks and it really knocked me out. I've had to force myself not to run around doing my usual activities. 10 years of feeling like crap got me in the habit of getting stuff done, even when I wasn't feeling good. A week of not feeling good and several more days of feeling horrible made me realize I have to stop and take it easy.

This is not easy for me to do: Christmas is rapidly approaching, I have church responsibilities (our RS Christmas activity was Tuesday night and the ward activity was Friday night), there is so much I "need" to be doing.

Late Tuesday morning I made the call to one of my counselors and told her I was too sick to go to our RS Christmas Get-To-Know-You activity (bringing together sisters from 3 wards means we had to plan an activity for December, even though we didn't have much time to do so).  I felt especially bad about calling in sick since my other counselor and my secretary were both out sick on Sunday (and I should have been too). But I felt so much better after making that call- just getting rid of the stress. I'm very grateful I have great counselors who took care of everything so I didn't have to worry about it (they're feeling better, at least).  It was also a good exercise in letting go and not being a control freak, like I tend to be.

I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday laying on the couch, catching up on some tv shows. I also got to organize all my bookmarked webpages and update my recipes in Plan to Eat, which I've been meaning to do for awhile now.

This morning I managed to go for a short run, which went really well. My knee didn't hurt (the physical therapy is helping!) and I didn't cough up a lung, despite the cold temps. I was really surprised that my throat and lungs reacted as well as they did. I'm encouraged at my prospects for the half marathon (3 weeks from this morning!).

Now that I'm finally feeling better, I'm actually being quite productive- I'll have some projects to share soon.

Messy squirrels

I've mentioned before that we have lots of oak trees on our property, and therefore we also have lots of squirrels. Several of the squirrels like sitting on the porch rail to eat the acorns.

The favored spot:

(notice the newly cleaned and stained wood)

The squirrels sure are messy though:

And I think they're fattening up for winter. The debris they leave is increasing every day.

Do you have messy critters around?

Decorated Front Door

Not too long ago I saw a super-cute front door here, and once I accepted that I was done working on the porch and door till spring, I created my own version.

Cheri used a bright red wreath from Target, but I was afraid it would clash too much with the blue door, so I bought the natural version (on sale!) and a star tree topper. After removing the spring thing from the bottom, I carefully wedged the star into the wreath, hung it on a wreath hanger, and hung that on the front door.

To finish off the look, I cut the phrase (from Matthew 2:2) with my Silhouette and stuck it to the door. I usually buy my vinyl from ExpressionsVinyl.com, but if they don't have what I'm looking for I'll buy from SilhouetteAmerica.com. When I did our Happy Camper shirts half the vinyl came from Expressions and half from Silhouette because of color availability and price.

I also installed our flag pole and hung Christmas lights.

I love it!

My upcoming half marathon

won't be quite what I hoped.

I had hoped for a decent time after training properly for it.

Unfortunately, I hurt my knee before I even got a chance to start my official training plan. I finally started physical therapy last week and my physical therapist is confident I can complete the race.

Last week I was able to do some running and walking without too many problems, but this week I've got a nasty cold and can barely keep from hacking up a lung, let alone spend time on the treadmill.

With the race three and a half weeks away, I guess I'm going with the "better to under-train than over-train" school of thought. My goal is to not get picked up for going too slow- if you can't keep up a certain pace, they won't let you finish.

New life for a tired front door

  Here's our front door. The natural wood color just doesn't go with the rest of the house. It stands out, and not in a good way.

If you look closer you can see that not only does the door not match the rest of the house, but the varnish is worn off and the wood is not in great shape.

 Can you see the fuzzing of the exposed wood fibers? Wood is not supposed to do that. Apparently the previous owners were a little too enthusiastic with the powerwasher.

One of the projects on our list of things to do before it got too cold was to make the door look a lot nicer.

The first thing I did was sand all the fuzzies off. So much better! 

Then I primed all that exposed wood.

I had originally planned on painting the side window panels a dark blue/black to match the shutters. Once I primed it though, I really liked the white look and changed my plan. I also realized that board under the door needs to be primed and painted as well. Not sure how I missed that one...

I painted the door blue. I LOVE the color, but I'm not convinced it works with the slightly pinkish siding. I'm leaving it for now, though.  

Then I painted the side panels white, and since I had the paint out I went ahead and painted the columns and the rest of the wood trim on the porch.  The rails are vinyl, but the columns are wood. I'm thinking the previous owners did a quick and dirty fix on the porch railings before putting the house on the market. I was only able to do one coat of paint before the cold weather moved in for good. I kept hoping the weather would warm up enough for me to get a second coat on, but it never did, so I just peeled off my frog tape and put out my Christmas decorations.

In the process of painting the columns, I pulled off the navy trim pieces. For some odd reason, woodpeckers LOVE the navy wood trim and pecked holes in two of the columns, one of them repeatedly. I bought some PVC trim (maybe the woodpeckers won't like it?) and will try out some plastic fusion spray paint on it before attaching the trim to the columns in the spring.

I also stained the decking after Mr M powerwashed it.

And sometime this winter, if I have nothing else to do (hah!), I'll bring in the porch swing and paint it.

Before:

After:

What do you think of the door color?

Conversations with LMS

Little Miss Sunshine was doing her usual "delay fish" routine tonight. After another trip downstairs to pee (which she has to do downstairs, not upstairs), she slowly headed back upstairs.

After a minute, I said, "get in bed".

We heard her say "uuuhhh" from her spot on the stairs.

As she finished climbing the stairs she asked, "Mommy, how do you know these things?"

"Because mommies just know these things".

Hee hee. Little does she know that I did the very same thing when I was young. Amazing how we think our parents don't notice anything....