in a happy nest: Spring Break

After securing that at least one of our children will go to Auburn, we headed further south to Bart's conference in Orlando. This was our first trip to Disney that we were not fully contained in the Disney bubble. We stayed off property (the horrors!). Actually, it was fine. The Spring Hill Suites treated us well.

My favorite hang-out at the hotel - the coin operated laundry room. I hadn't done laundry with quarters since college so I was looking forward to putting all of my quarters in the slots and hearing that ca-chunk when you push them in the machine. I decided to do one quick load of laundry while Bart ran out to the grocery store. The laundry room was on our floor so I could leave the kiddos sleeping while I put in the clothes - but it was a LONG walk.

Here are the bullet points for the one "quick" load of laundry:

1. Load laundry
2. Ca-chunked my $2
3. Made a laundry room friend from North Carolina
4. Hiked back to room
5. Watched My Strange Addiction on TLC, barely audible because children are sleeping in next bed
6. Hiked back to laundry room
7. Switched laundry to dryer
8. Ca-chunked 2 more dollars
9. Hiked back to room
10. Watched more of My Strange Addiction
11. Hiked back to laundry room
12. Greet laundry friend from North Carolina
13. Take clothes out of dryer only to discover that William had put four crayons from Macaroni Grill in his pocket.
14. Identify that ALL clothes are covered in crayon dots.
15. Consult with new laundry friend
16. Put clothes back in washer
17. Ca-chunk 2 more dollars
18. Realize I need to go back to room for detergent pod
19. Hike back to room
20. Hike back to laundry room with detergent
21. Hike back to room
22. Realize that My Strange Addiction is a marathon
23. Greet Bart and gasp in delight as he appears with Pepsi and a People magazine (how did he know I was in crisis?)
24. Send Bart to front desk for more quarters because while I will go out on the floor in my mismatched pajamas, I won't go to the lobby (I have my standards!)
25. Hike back to laundry room
26. Survey clothes and decide they need one more wash
27. Ca-chunk 2 more dollars
28. Hike back to room
29. More Pepsi, more People, more Strange Addiction
30. Hike back to laundry room
31. Switch clothes to dryer
32. Mourn loss of cute new shirt from White House/Black Market - only true casuality of the crayons
33. Ca-chunk 2 more dollars
34. Hike back to room
35. More People, more TLC
36. Hike back to laundry room
37. Complete quick load of laundry
Elapsed time: 3 hours 40 minutes Cost: $10 (just in ca-chunking, not including deceased shirt)

I saw my laundry room friend the next day in the hotel. She looked at my clothes and said "the dots are gone!" And with our clean clothes, we were ready to take on Disney: