My husband?s been hired by Disney, now what?
People, we are playing a very serious game of ?Where in the World is Jamie?? right now! ?Coming from a girl who LOVES to go, from a girl who prides herself on spending a month out of town each summer, I am TIRED of going! ?Please, just let me stay home, except for I?m kinda even confused about where home is anymore!
I have been to Orlando more times in the last month, than I think I have in my entire life, and that?s ok, except it?s kinda not. ?I am tired! ?Since Jeremy was hired by Disney in early October, this is what our lives have looked like! ?Let me just throw out this little disclaimer before I get started? I AM NOT complaining! ?I started this hefty adventure, and I am still very much excited! ?But I AM tired! ?At this point though, I?m just running the marathon? I?ll reach the finish line eventually! ?Let?s just say, I?m a slow runner, and I must take walking breaks! ?You?ll know I?ve finally reached the finish line when I arrive at Magic Kingdom (without kids, crazy I know) wearing my ?best day ever shirt?! ?Wait for it?
The week after Jeremy accepted the job at Disney, we went on our first?Disney cruise! (thus all of the pics you?ve seen on Facebook). ?We had booked this trip the past January, so it wasn’t a celebratory cruise per se, but then he was hired and it seemed very appropriate to celebrate Jeremy’s new job at Disney, on the Disney cruise! ?We touched down in Orlando, and I had on completely different eyes. ?This was the first time I landed knowing this would be my new home. ?Trips prior, I had the ?it could be my new home? eyes, but those eyes are very different from ?this IS happening?! ?Luckily my bff Kristin was with us, she too was going on the cruise, so we could analyze this place together! ?Our first order of business was taking Jeremy to the Cast Member building to be fingerprinted. ?Odd? just odd. ?We waited in the parking lot and I just sat there and thought ?this is really happening?! ?As we left, we took the obligatory picture out front of the building. ?I am sure the people running security has surely never seen this happening!
After the cruise, we headed back to Denver, knowing our house would be going on the market within a week. ?Which meant moving out, but not really moving out, if you know what I mean? ?It?s a severe make you sweat kind of clean up and clean out. ?It?s looking through a magnifying glass and seeing just how much crap you?ve collected over the years. ?Let?s just say, we had a lot of uncrapping to do! ?Jeremy finally realized I was right; that he is in fact a pack rat! ?And then finally, we were ready to put the house up for sale. The pictures came back from the professional photographer and for once, I could actually say ?yes? to people when they asked if my house looked like a model home (remember I am a model home interior designer in my ?real? life). ?It?s funny, because I have always laughed at that question. ?My response has always been, ?No, I don?t live in a model home, because I actually live in my home. ?You cannot live in a model home!? ?Well, now we do, and let?s just say this place is gorgeous, but I am exhausted from trying to keep it this way! ?And my kids are pretty tired of hearing they can?t play with their toys? ?Mom, that?s just weird!?
On October 29th at 6 am we boarded another flight to Orlando. ?Flights at 6 am should be against the law, just sayin.? Not even two weeks had passed since we were just there. ?This was our ?pre-move? trip to see the area and look at homes? We spent the following day with our realtor, and I think we wore her out! ?She was surprised that we (kids included) could look at houses for 10 hours! ?But we were on a mission! ?We found a maybe neighborhood, and a maybe house, but will need to wait for our current house to go under contract before putting in an offer on a new one.?Surprisingly, I am very unstressed about this. This is so not typical of me. ?You see, as a designer, I will be the first to admit I am a house snob. ?I have looked at, decorated, and viewed more floor plans that I can possibly even count, over the years. ?I know exactly what I want, and what will work for me, and?this pickiness typically causes a lot of stress! I have been known to tell my poor husband, ?that?s the house I want, don?t lose it?! ?He is a good man, and does what he can to keep me happy. ?His mantra, ?happy wife, happy life?. ?It is true, he shouldn?t forget that! ?But this time it?s different. ?I?ve found a house I?d really like to have, but I?m more along the lines of ?whatever, it will work out, or it won?t?. ?I think he?s very confused! ?Nothing wrong with keeping him on his toes! ?We spent Thursday through Sunday in Orlando. ?Trick or Treating in our ?maybe? neighborhood. ?It was the first time I cried. ?As we walked around, I explored a neighborhood pretty similar to my own, and I cried. ?Not because I though, ?oh yeah, I?ve found a new great neighborhood?, but because I wanted my own neighborhood. ?My own people. ?I knew that, back home, our yearly Halloween traditions were taking place, and it wasn?t going to be the only time we missed them. ?Or the only tradition we were going to be missing either. ?That?s hard. ?Missing your people, before you?re really gone,? it?s hard. ?I love my Fuller Bluff family. ?I hope we love our new family just as much. ?The kids had a great time trick-or-treating in our ?maybe neighborhood? and I found a new friend along the way to talk to. ?She was nice and told me I would love it there. ?I?m hoping she?s right. ?After trick-or-treating we ate dinner in Downtown Winter Garden. ?All I can say is, ADORABLE. ?My heart was happy, even without my people, it kinda felt like home. ?It has a very similar feeling to Downtown Castle Rock (where we currently live) and the best part, it was still shorts weather on the last day of October! ?I could get used to this!
Sunday was back to Denver day. ?For time frame reference, this was exactly 2 weeks since we had flown home from Orlando after the cruise. ?Whirlwind, that?s all I can say. ?Except, I didn?t get to go home, my mom called and asked me to come to Austin. ?And when your mom asks, you say ?yes, mam?!
After arriving home from the cruise, my mom had called to let me know that my grandmother had been diagnosed with lung cancer. ?It was stage 4, tumor the size of a baseball in her right lung. ?Sad, very, but I knew that I had spent many great years with her. ?As a kid, my brother and I visited during the summer, on the ranch outside of Austin, TX, helping feed the cows and emus, riding go karts and tractors through the fields, playing in the trailer full of corn kernels with our cousins, and mostly just driving her up the wall! ?You see she is very stubborn, but so am I! ?I get it from her 🙂 ?It?s an art you know! ?One summer, while my brother and I were there, she sat us down for dinner and told us to eat. ?We didn?t like it, so we did what kids did, complained. ?She said ?sit there until it?s gone?. ?So we sat. ?Not eating. ?We were assholes. ?I have no idea how long we sat there, or who ?won?. ?But I do remember that stubborn and stubborn had met their match. ?I don?t know why that story is funny now, but it often gets retold by my brother and me. ?It just was how things were at Mimi?s. ?Some of my favorite memories of the summers were crafting with Mimi and her teaching me to sew. ?After I grew up and had my own kids, I have made a point of going back to Mimi?s and Granddaddy?s each summer. ?It?s kind of like a rite of passage, taking your own kids back to where you spent your childhood summers, so they can experience some of the same. ?So, each summer, I load them up in the car and drive them to Austin. ?We call it our ?Texas Tour? and stop along the way to see friends and family. ?It?s a summer tradition I love, and plan to continue from Florida. ?Only now, I think it will be a Texas into Colorado tour. ?See, not all of my travel has to be by plane. ?I truly love a great car ride too. ?My kids do fine. ?I?ve been torturing them like this since they were barely 6 months old! ?But I digress…
The first dress I sewed with my Mimi. 4th grade ish.
Me, my Mom, my girls and my Mimi.
Anyway, back to my mom calling. ?She asked me to fly from Orlando to Austin to see my grandmother. ?She had been admitted to the hospital. ?I was tired and I did not want to go, but I was asked, which is really told when it?s your mom. ?So I changed my flight and headed to Austin, while Jeremy and kids flew back to Denver. ?My flight was delayed 2 hours and then threatened to be cancelled about the same time Jeremy and the kids took off. ?I wanted to cry. ?I was tired. ?Self admittedly, I am a bit of a cry baby. ?I can pull myself together and get it all taken care of, but first, I must cry about it. ?It just is.
I spent the next two days in Austin, helping to care for my Mimi in the hospital, and drive my Granddaddy up to see her. ?I stayed overnight in the hospital so that my own mom could go home and sleep. ?It was tough. ?I grew up more in those few days that I had anticipated, an ?adulted? more than I wanted. ?But I got through it. ?After meeting with the oncologist Tuesday evening, alongside my mom and Granddaddy, I boarded yet another plane home, to Denver. ?I landed in Denver wearing the same clothes I left Orlando in 3 evenings prior and had yet to even brush my teeth. ?Seriously gross, and seriously, that was all that could be managed. ?Funny thing is, God provides what you need. ?Just enough sleep to not completely fall off your rocker (but very close) and an unbrushed mouth that somehow doesn?t taste terrible or smell even worse. ?And that?s not just what I?m telling myself! ?I asked my Kristin when I got in the car. ?Do I smell? ?Do I have terrible breath? ?Lucky, isn?t she!? Best friends are the best! ?She agreed, miraculously I didn’t smell like a homeless person!
I slept for two days after returning home, not lying, and then got together with friends on Friday night, to celebrate ?Jeremy?s last Friday night?. ?Somehow the time has already come. ?When we planned for him to start with Disney on November 16th, it seemed so far away, and yet somehow it crept up quick. ?A reservation for 30 at our favorite Castle Rock Mexican restaurant, and margarita?s all around, we were surrounded by friends that are really more like family. ?We call them “Framily”! ?It was fun and surreal. ?We?re moving. To Orlando. ?My husband is working for Disney. ?I did this. Funny. Sort of?
Our Framily
On Saturday evening, I texted my mom to check in on my Mimi, Mom immediately called me back and said, ?Jamie, Mimi passed away 5 minutes ago?. ?How did I know? ?Well, life can be funny like that.
Before leaving Austin, I had a short conversation with my Mimi. ?Her pain meds had worn off, and although she was in a lot of pain, I could see it in her face, she wouldn?t admit it. ?We had a nice ?real? conversation. ?I told her that she had been the best grandmother ever, and that I did not want her to hang on and suffer for all of us. ?That it was OK for her to go when she was ready. ?And when she was gone, would she please watch over my family and keep us safe on all of my crazy adventures! ?She of course, obliged. ?And then I left.
I am sure I knew my Mimi was gone, because my Mimi told me,??its OK, I?m no longer suffering.? ?See, she?s already watching over me.? After spending a few days in the hospital with her and truly seeing her suffer, what suffering really looks like, I was happy to know she was gone. ?Pain free, no longer scared, and of course, watching over my family and our crazy adventures. ?I am not saying she popped into my head and said? ?That?s it?, nor am I saying that I had some great overwhelming feeling. ?I didn?t. ?I had nothing more that the though, text mom and see how she is. ?Life is weird people. ?Just weird.
So, back to Austin we go. ?Plane ride #… I have no idea because I can?t even keep up! ?All I know is I have been on more planes since May than I even have the energy to count. ?Self-induced of course, mostly fun, and I am definitely still counting my many blessings?. but people, I. AM. TIRED! ?At this point, feel like I could pilot that plane myself. ?Not really, but just sayin.
On Thursday, my girls and I will fly to Austin, and on Friday Jeremy will move to Orlando. ?It is weird to say that, weird to think that, weird to know that is our reality. ?Disney here we come! ?But hold on just a minute please, I need to catch my breath! ?Friday my girls and I will attend a mini family reunion in Austin, only at weddings and funerals do you get to see everyone at once, and bury my Mimi. ?My heart hurts. ?It hurts bad. ?But not for her. ?She?s laughing at me for all of this crying, I know! ?My heart hurts for my Granddaddy. ?A man so stubborn, and wanting to fix everything, that it can be comical and frustrating all at the same time. ?My heart hurts to know that he is now suffering, in a way I cannot imagine. ?He?s been married to my Mimi since she was 18, God help her!? She died at 82. ?That is math I can?t do right now, I?m too tired. ?But I know it?s a long damn time. ?A long time of loving, fighting, living, raising children, entertaining stubborn asshole grandchildren, and just straight putting up with each other! ?But I know she is looking down on him, watching over him too, and of course still turning her back and rolling her eyes at him, like she so often did. So for him, I am sad. ?For him, I cry. ?Well, and maybe for myself a little (OK a lot) too.
After the funeral Friday, we will spend the evening in my Mimi?s house. ?You see it has always been ?Mimi?s house?, so it will be weird to gather there, without her, at Granddaddy?s house, although, I may still call it Mimi?s house, just because I can. ?Stubborn, remember. ?And then, on Saturday, we will fly back home. ?To Denver. ?Home; for now.
I have the rest of the ?moving line up? planned and worked out in my head. ?And Jeremy and I have discussed how this will all go. ?But it?s almost funny to even write it down, to tell you, because life just does what it wants. ?Life? it?s funny. ?It?s tough. ?And mine, it is oh so blessed. ?God only hands out what you can handle. ?I?m saying Uncle, but I know he?s laughing. ?He will dole it out how he sees fit. ?And I will ride the ride, and continue to count my many blessings along the way. ?But let me tell you, I just see Main Street in my future (without kids remember), and I am running slowly towards the finish line. ?When I get there I may cry. ?Hell, I will totally cry. ?It may even be an ugly cry, but I will know I?ve made it, made it to the finish line, so that I can then start my next life marathon.
So, here?s the rest of the path to Disney, as I plan for it to unfold? we?ll see?
- Jeremy starts with Disney November 16
- Our CA friends come to Denver for Thanksgiving on November 20
- We head to Orlando for Thanksgiving November 23 at 4 am (remember I hate mornings? and I love sleep, should be an interesting combo)
- We go to Hollywood Studios on November 23rd to see the Osborne Family Lights. ?Believe it or not, but I?ve never seen them! ?I can?t wait to go and feel totally lucky to get to see them this year since it?s the last year they will be up!
- Thanksgiving lunch at Disney Springs at Fulton’s and then Epcot to see the Candlelight Processional!
- Mickey?s Very Merry Christmas Party on November 29th. ?Jeremy and I are still currently in debate over this one. ?Someone please remind him, ?Happy wife, happy life!? ?Thank you in advance!
- Back home, I mean to Denver, hell, I don?t know where home is at this point! on November 30th.
- December 18th, girls last day of school.
- December 18th, Jeremy comes back to Denver for our official ?Going away party?. ?It?s a surprise. ?Don?t tell anyone I know. I promised Kristin I would forget. ?It should be fun and mildly torturous in a going away party kind of way.
- December 19th, back to Orlando, I mean home?. well, we?re getting on another plane anyway. ?It will be funny and stressful and totally weird! ?Picture this, me, my girls, all of the crap that didn?t go on the moving truck, my girls car seats, my two 70 pound dogs, their XL dog crates, me trying to convince my dogs, who up until this point have been acting crazy because they actually get to ?go?, and then realize I am going to stuff them into these overly large crates and put them on the bottom of an airplane, by themselves, who are now all like ?4 legs locked and not budging, oh hell no lady this isn?t happening have you lost your ever living mind? kinda not moving.? ?And by this point, I am SURE; I will have lost my mind and of course cried about it! ?Interesting picture right??? ?I know, I know, you so badly wish it was you! ?Thank goodness Kristin insisted Jeremy come home for the night. ?I think I?ll let him deal with all of that while I go board the plane and get a drink. ?Better plan, don?t you think?
For the parts I can?t plan, I?m just going to hang out and wait. ?Somewhere in there my house will sell. ?It will get packed and moved by the moving company. ?I may or may not be semi-homeless for a few weeks. ?That all depends on timing. ?And I assume, (funny assuming makes an ass out of both you and me, this will be interesting) we will buy the next perfect house. ?Perfect for us anyway. ?Maybe or maybe not in my ?maybe neighborhood?. ?We?ll just see.
So I say, ?see ya real soon? on this ?Road to Disney?, ?Where in the World is Jamie? ride were taking!
With Love,
This Crazy Rumph Family
Just a few updates: 11/17/2015 – My pictures are out of order… I couldn’t make it cooperate…?
- My girls and I went to Austin and had a great mini reunion at “Mimi’s house” ?All of my aunts, uncles, and cousins were there. ?It was great, in a sad kinda way. ?My cousins and I have decided we are going to have a “cousin’s reunion” soon. ?Place to be determined. ?My vote is Disney World of course! ?For a number of reasons, it’s Disney, duh! ?And I won’t have to get on a plane! ?I’m kinda over that whole plane thing right now!
- Jeremy’s truck got picked up and shipped to Orlando. ?Not really anything to exciting, just makes it all that much more real. ?This real thing, it just keeps happening! ?I told him I wished I had been home to see it. ?(I was in Austin) ?He politely reminded me, that they would come back for my car and I could see it then. ?Good point…but still…
- I love the picture with my Grandaddy. ?I take these with my grandparents every time we visit, and of course with my Mimi’s passing, I’m happy I did. ?The best part about this picture is that at the time of taking it, someone said “Grandaddy smile”, he responded, “I’m sorry, my smiler is broken today”. ?But kids can do the darnedest things and Emmy took one look at him, and got his smiler fixed for him for a moment. ?It’s those one little smiles at a time that get you through the hard stuff!
- Jeremy started at Disney! ?November 16th at 9 am arrived. ?I’d say finally, but it doesn’t feel like a “finally”! ?It feels like a complete whirlwind! ?He got his name tag, told me about his first day, and what did I do? ?I cried! ?My husband works for Disney. ?I did this…
- On November 17th, he attended Disney University, and earned his ears. ?”You have ears to fill now” they said. ?I’m pretty sure he will do an amazing job. ?But I may be biased. ?Then the group was asked how and why they were working at Disney. ?Did anyone have a great story? ?Jeremy replied (and I’m sure told a long winded story, that’s just him)… “my wife did this”. ?See, maybe it’s our new mantra! ?Either way, it’s been a great ride, and it’s only getting started!
