Where was I

Moms Panel, Day 3...forever ago.

It's been awhile. I know. There has been so much going on in Moms Panel land lately, but I just don't quite feel right about filling you in on it until I complete the story of our training.

It was Sunday, December 7, 2008 and this was the day we actually had to "work" if you could call it that. However any "work" environment that can make me teary by the decor can't be work at all.

Let me explain.

Today is training, we had a beautiful convention room at Coronado Springs resort. In the "working" section of the room (as opposed to the dining section), there was this grand display to show off the "What will you Celebrate" promotion. They had a bunch of their poster boards with their promotional pictures, with very touching sentiments about celebrations. Just looking and reading them of course makes you think of all the celebrations in your life, and all the celebrations to come...and it just got to me. I missed my kids, my husband, my home, my family. However, I was here as a part of the 2009 Walt Disney World Moms Panel. WALT DISNEY WORLD, I was a part of the magic they are making. How lucky am I?! Overall I was blown away by the promotion, and I wish I had captured a picture of each one of their boards. This is the only one I got.It still makes me teary.

Rewind a bit now...I jumped right over the morning. This was our first dose of the media. Disney had invited online bloggers to come sit with us at breakfast and give informal interviews. I was nervous as heck, I won't lie. We'd gotten a little "pep" talk the evening before and it made me more nervous than pepped. Are reporters ruthless? Are they going to try to find dirt on the moms for a story? Are they calling my ex-high school principal right now trying to get my "permanent record"? No, not at all...much to my delight. It really was more conversational than anything. My highlight was getting to chat with Deb Wills from allearsnet. She even wrote about us on her blog.

The training part lasted a few hours, and was interesting to say the least. It was fun and informative, and I felt so privileged to have various cast members come in to speak to US about their promotions. They gave us the nitty gritty on what is to come for 2009 at Walt Disney World. We all got our first look at the website, which thankfully appears to be very user friendly.

Now, the moment we've all been waiting for/dreading...we're off to Epcot to take our first run at filming. I don't think any of us had any experience in front of a camera, so we were all nervous, giddy, and just wanted to get it over with. Little did we know it doesn't "get over with" very quickly! If you've seen the video - we all did well, and I think collectively we are happy with the way it came out, but man the price you pay to be on camera! We had to stand on a crazy angle, sun directly in our eyes, perma-smiles that made our faces hurt and silly things like planes and distant birds impacting the sound enough to delay "getting it over with" longer than we thought it would.

After a little shopping and a quick trip on Test Track, we were headed back to the resort to get ready for dinner.

Now, I'll be honest I was a little nervous about our dining location this evening. We are scheduled to eat at Jiko, The Cooking Place at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. I'm not a very adventurous eater, so I was expecting it to be very ethnic-spicy-unpleasentformypallette. Well, I was waaaaay wrong. I can honestly tell you that this is now my favorite restaurant in the whole wide world! The food, the atmosphere, the service was all 110% spectacular...and the company was even better. We spent hours here, in our own private room working our way through course after course. For the first time I actually pictured my husband and I, here at Disney World, without our children, wining & dining for hours.....of course we were both in our 50's because we probably won't take that opportunity until then.

It wasn't long before Cinderella's coach arrived to whisk away the 6 lucky moms that would be spending the night in the Cinderella Castle Suite in the Magic Kingdom. I don't think I mentioned it before, but we were surprised with the opportunity to draw a name out of a hat for one lucky mom to spend the night in the suite. Cathy was that lucky mom, and she in turn made 5 more moms very happy by drawing five more names out of a hat to join her. Initially I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't be joining the party....however now that the night was here, I was grateful to be headed back to my own quiet room and my own big bed. Our individual video shoots were looming in the near future, so I was hoping to get some good beauty sleep.

We arrived back at the resort just before midnight, and as in nights prior there were new and amazing goodies waiting for us. Once again I grabbed my camera....and again was too excited to sleep.