Like Mother Like Daughter....mostly

As many of you know, my mother and I are very similar. We look alike, we have some very similar gestures, we sound alike, and we often say the same thing (something that sort of freaks Sean out).   There is no question what-so-ever that we are related.   However the older I get, the more I realize that I have quite a bit in common with my father.   While he may not have given me his looks, I did get some of his personality quirks, some I am thankful for and others I am not so happy about.

One that I wish he didn't pass on was his "focus" on finances.  My father is the type of person who has a strict budget and adds weekly expenses every weekend and frequently worries about the bottom line.  As he says every month often ends "in a train wreck".  While I may not be as religious about updating my budget, I definitely feel my blood pressure rise when money becomes tight and we have expenses to pay for.   When our savings drops below the level I want it to be at, I normally can't stop the overreaction that will definitely come.  As much as this is a pain, it is helpful.   Even with the difficult last few years, we have never missed a bill and have still had money to vacation every year of marriage, so I guess it is not so bad after all.

What are the traits that I am thankful for?   His love of Disney and vacation planning.   As much as I don't want to admit it, I spend way too much time on Disney vacation sites.    Since starting IF treatments, I have had some difficulty fully believing that Sean and I will be able to have a biological child; however, this hasn't stopped me from planning future trips for our family.  Like I said before, we will have a family even if it doesn't come the natural way.  Since this child is coming (hopefully from this next IVF cycle I am starting), we might as well begin planning, right?  This is exactly what we did this weekend.

I spent Saturday afternoon sitting with both of my parents on the deck.   It wasn't long until the talk turned to Disney.   Not long after my father brought out the laptop and loaded up with Disney website.   We then spent the next hour or so looking at general prices for a family trip which would include 5 adults (my parents, brother, Sean and I) and two infants (my Dad is convinced we will have twin girls).  We got prices for all sorts of hotels, except for the value since my father would never stay there.   In addition to the plans, we, of course, talked about how to finance this trip.     After a couple hours of talking, the trip was planned.   We will hopefully be spending Christmas break 2013 in Florida. The half we spend on the park will most likely be at the Caribbean Beach Resort, but could be upgraded to one of the folowing:  Animal Kingdom Lodge (Sean's choice), Polynesian (Dad's choice), Contemporary (Stephen's choice since he could talk), Wilderness Lodge (my choice and surprisingly most affordable of the deluxes), or the Grand Floridian (Mom's choice and not so surprisingly the most expensive). 

I guess the future planning speaks volumes about how I feel about all my IF treatments.  Though I may be down, I am not so sure that I am out.   Hopefully this next cycle works and then I would be able to bring an 18 month old child to Disney.  Even if it doesn't work, I still have a feeling that we would be going to Disney with a much younger child.  So I am asking for all your help, please send lots of thoughts and prayers that there will be a reason to have a large Penzone/DiScipio family trip to Disney to celebrate the new members of the Penzone family.

I just can't wait to bring my children to Disney and see their faces as they walk under the train station and down Main Street (skipping and singing "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" of course) and seeing this: