Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Last year by late June, the #DisneyMP twitter tag enjoyed a workout as all of the #2015Hopefuls proceeded to begin the annual process of waiting and hoping for pixie dust emails know as the Disney Parks Moms Panel Search. The aura of mystery around the selection process keeps us hopefuls coming back each year to wish on a star for this year to be "our year" on the panel. Just keep writing. Just keep writing. What do we do? Somehow last year, I *did* manage to make the final round(s) so I feel well equipped to tell you roughly the proper process to make it through to the finals. 1.) Notice round 1 dates are announced on the Disney Parks Blog, Twitter and/or other forms of social media. (Approximately end of August)  2.) Apply as soon as applications open. (Around Labor Day week.) 3.) Read over your essays. Spellcheck. More than once. Be mindful of proper nomenclature. (I'm embarrassed to say that this takes me an hour or two depending how much "assistance...

Less than a week after finding out that I made round 3 for the Disney Parks Moms Panel, I found myself dropping my kids off at a friends and pacing all over my house. In less than ten minutes I would be talking to Gary.   Do you want to build a snowman? It kills time while you're waiting.   My daughter gave me serious Disney cred for talking to "the dragon jammies guy" and finally my interview would start in five minutes. I finally felt nervous.  T-minus 15 minutes until my magical interview! Not nervous about talking to Gary in front of the selection committee, because he is as approachable and welcoming as they come. Nervous because I was on a callback for my dream job. And possibly another surprise... The fifteen minutes on the phone flew by in a blink until finally, we came to a (surprise) timed essay. Discussing the essay and interview later through the haze of pixie-dusted memory, I loved most of my answers during the interview and tho...

I woke up early, taught spelling and history in record time, and even had time to hit the gym. That should do it. I should have my email by now. Do I want to pull my phone out of sleep mode and check? Dozens of Facebook messages and tweets confirmed what Gary promised. It was pixie dust day. My kids finished up their math while the first messages popped up on Facebook. Still nothing. Refresh, refresh, refresh...   I refreshed a couple of times then turned off notifications on my phone after fifteen minutes passed and the only news so far were of the "not my year" variety. As the emails slowly pulsed out over the hour, I periodically checked my email and peeked in on the waiting room between correcting arithmetic. Tons of conciliation, and still no yeses. Then an hour and five minutes in, I checked my email. The email sat there and rather than puzzling over the "Disney Parks Moms Panel 2015 missive for another instant, I clicked and opened my email. Ky...

Here's one of my new favorite blog hops today: Three Things Thursday!  (Be sure to link up on her blog !) Since I already have a blog (and three blogs preceding this one) what haven't I already shared? Once Upon a Time There Was a Princess Who Hit the Submit Button on Round 2 of the Disney Parks Moms Panel Application and then...   1.) Sighed a deep sigh of relief!  And done! After a long afternoon of editing, homeschooling, and proofreading, Chris ended up with an upset stomach. Rather than wait to see if I also got sick, I ran outside to take advantage of the last bit of daylight and shoot my application video (after cleaning up the floor and taking care of my kiddo, of course). Once the children were nestled all snug in their beds, I uploaded, copied, and compressed my video. Then I took out my trusty application and prepared to copy it word for word, comma for comma, into the online application. ( No copying and pasting! ) Aft...

Hang onto your pixie dust! In case you don't follow the hullaballoo on either twitter (via #DisneyMP ), Facebook ( Amazing Adventures of the DisneyMP 2014 Search and others), or discussion boards (like the DIS  Moms Panel Search thread), the last six weeks slowly melted away. 2015 Disney Parks Moms Panel Search | R2, is that you? We submitted our round one applications, featuring such puzzlers as " How many "frozen fractals" do you think Queen Elsa had all around?" before the end of Friday, September 5th.   Then we waited, visited, and wondered about rice and the number 71. We debated the virtues of the Oxford comma, spellcheck, and generally hung out having fun. After all the mystery clues and spectacular fun of waiting in round 1 , last Friday, my email exploded with pixie dust! That's about how much I read, before I forwarded it to my husband, dropped the phone, and started bouncing around the house. I spent most of the weekend gri...

I'll be the first to admit: I do NOT know how to successfully apply for the #DisneyMP. Sure, I made round two last year, which is both an honor and an incredible way to make friends with a great big beautiful group of Disney fans, but that's not quite the same as serving on the panel. I did pick up a few different ways to NOT make it onto the panel. Here's hoping I've learned from these mistakes and that they might help you in your application adventure! Ignore Social Media My peaceful, lazy Labor Day weekend is about to give way to the exciting adventures of the #DisneyMP search. If you've caught the Disney Parks Blog last Thursday, you noticed that Leanne's lovely article  finally let us peek behind the scenes. Yes, it's that time of year again. Disney Park Moms Panel Search 2015 begins next Tuesday the second of September at 10am EST and runs through Friday the fifth of September at noon EST. Let the spell ch...

Time to stock up on Mickey Bars, Oxford commas, and patience. The best guess, based on rather cryptic Seinfeld tweets from the Jedi Master himself, is that next Tuesday morning the applications for the 2015 Disney Parks Moms Panel will open. I'm excited, yet calm. (Which is a good thing considering that review of round one often stretches over a month.) Will there be multiple choice questions? A lightning round? Videos? Skype? It's really wide open as the panel application process continues to evolve under Gary Buchannan's leadership. I plan to dream pixie dust dreams and enjoy every minute of this year meeting the most magical ladies (and men) in the world. Who else is applying?  

As a child walking into Disneyland I seriously considered running away from home and hiding out in Fantasyland for the rest of their life. I figured Aurora wouldn't mind if I slept in the castle. In this magical wonderful place that inexplicably smelt of hot buttered popcorn and ice cream cones and hope, everyone feels welcome and at home. Sharing the magic of family togetherness and memory-making with other people is a real treat. Nothing comes quite so close to the idea of living everyday in Walt Disney World or onboard the Disney Magic. Nothing is quite so fun as meeting for coffee with a friend to discuss port adventures, kids clubs, and amazing destinations. Then, I applied for the panel last year. Everything changed. I belonged to a few different Disney discussion forums, but somehow, meeting fellow super fans among the Disney Parks Moms Panel hopefuls made the whole community come to life for me. Maybe it was the mystery of f...

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Disney Parks Moms Panel applications should open sometime in the next fifty-five days. Everyone is full of hope and pixie dust. And everyone is already having fun driving themselves crazy over twitter. Specifically over the twitter account of Gary Buchanan. Gary, also known as the Jedi Master of the Moms Panel and the Social Media Manager of Disney Parks,  rallies the hopeful guests during application season (which is fast approaching.) He tirelessly puts a face and a smile on the search team. He made getting the world's most magical rejection letter easier to bear. Kuleen wrote an perfect blog post about Gary the other day. His unbridled enthusiasm leads to fun and hijinks often characterized by late night, Red Bull fueled twitter-fests. While a normal person would look at Gary's tweet about the munchkin coroner visiting The Great Movie Ride as an interesting bit of trivia, #DisneyMP hopefuls...

Is it really Disney Parks Moms Panel application time??? Well, maybe, maybe not just yet. Although Gary posted some tweets about upcoming possible changes to the Disney Parks Moms Panel search...so that got everyone chatting on Facebook and the DIS for a little while I get to hang out in wait and see mode. Which means it must be time for me to rearrange some song lyrics again to some of my favorite Frozen songs until the application process begins again. Do You Wanna Ask Moms Panel Adapted by Me (to the tune of "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" from #Frozen) [First Year Applicant:] Disney? [knocks] Do you wanna ask Moms Panel? Come on, let's go and plan! I want to spread some pixie dust, Disney Cruise or bust! I'm like the perfect fan! My friends thought I was a shoe-in, And now I'm not I wish you could tell me why! Do you wanna ask Moms Panel?  It doesn't have to be me this year... [Disney:] Not this year. [First Year Applicant:] ...

Welcome Wordless Wednesday Blog Hoppers!  #DisneyMP #2015Hopefuls Thank you to Focused on the Magic for hosting!   

Not only is this an excellent time of year to look back at all the wonderful memories of the previous year, but to look forward and dream new Disney dreams! I enjoy keeping things fresh and changing up what we do each year. Girls Only trip to Walt Disney World So with all the love and talking I do about Disney, finding out that one of my long term friends hasn't been to Disney since early childhood is a major revelation. One that needs lots of coffee and conversation and immediate attention so that we can rectify this tragedy as soon as possible. Ahem. So I find myself in the throws of planning my first "Girls Only" weekend at to the Most Magical Place on Earth. Her preschool recollection of her trip involves only one clear memory involving meeting Dreamfinder and Figment at the newly opened Epcot. You could say it's been a while. Since it's been so long, it's a bit like planning an adults only first trip to Walt Disney World. Condensed into two days. ...

Welcome Foodie Friday Blog Hoppers! The Taste of Defeat Location: Disney Parks Moms Panel Former Hopefuls, The Internet Cost: Putting Yourself Out There This week is going to be a little different...brought to you by the following scene from Mary Poppins, since she is practically perfect in every way. Bert: Uncle Albert, I got a jolly joke I saved for just such an occasion. Would you like to hear it?   Uncle Albert: [sobbing] I'd be so grateful.   Bert: Well it's about me granddad, see, and one night he has a nightmare. He was so scared, he chewed his pillow to bits. Bits. In the morning, I says, "How you feel, Granddad?" He says, "Oh, not bad. A little down in the mouth." [Bert laughs, Uncle Albert sobs harder]    Bert: I always say there's nothing like a good joke.   Uncle Albert: [sobbing] No, and that was nothing like a good joke. Down in the Mouth is not technically a food, but at least it's a bad pun an...

Or maybe a few so I could share with my new #DisneyMP hopeful friends. Just a few hours left!

Now that the round three emails for the 2014 Disney Parks Moms Panel search will be going out any minute:   I thought it was a good time to look back at the dawn of the panel. Back in September of 2007, a search for ten to twelve helpful Disney experts began. The 10,000 who applied during the month long application window answered three essays, one hundred word each. One introducing essay introduced yourself, one introduced your family and one last essay explained why you would be an excellent match for the panel. The reward for the lucky panelists? The joy of spreading their help to guests, a seat on the first panel and a very desired pink jacket. Easier Said Than Done. Six years later, the panel has included over forty moms (and dads). Rechristened in January of 2013 as the Disney Parks Moms Panel, the panelists now specialize to cover not only Walt Disney World, but Disneyland, DVC, ABD, runDisney, DCL and ESPN WWoS. Phew! That's a lot of pixie dus...

Welcome Tiggerific Tuesday Blog Hoppers! Thanks again to Jodi from  +Magical Mouse Schoolhouse , Heidi from  +Heidi's Head , and  +Mike Ellis  for co-hosting! On to the trivia!   The odds of becoming a lightning victim in the U.S. in any one year is 1 in 700,000. T he odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 3,000. Odds of dying (in the event you are struck by lightning) reduce to 1 in 10. What are the odds of making it onto the Disney Parks Moms Panel in any given year? Almost all adult guests are eligible to apply for the following year's panel (some restrictions apply). A published average 47,000 Magic Kingdom park guests daily , (source here ).  This doesn't include the guests visiting Epcot, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disneyland or Disney California Adventure. They're eligible as well.  That is quite an applicant pool.  I think I'll stick with Han Solo on this one. The ...

I received some pixie dusted email this afternoon! I am moving on to the second round of applications for the Disney Parks Moms Panel as a Disney Cruise Line specialist!  My Survivor inspired Moms Panel Applicant Logo... For all those not moving on, trust me, I know how you all feel! I got the rejection and sadness and "what did I do wrong?" when I logged on Monday morning. I may yet feel that rejection again as I move onto the future rounds of the search. There are many AMAZING applicants on the DISboards group, the Mickey Moms Club Super Group and of course my blogging Disney buds! To paraphrase Doug Ingersoll from his interview on the Passporter Moms, to claim any of us who get through the applications know more or love Disney more is patently false. All each of us can do is be ourselves and show who we are to the best of our ability. If that is what they are looking for, great! If not, well, we keep moving forward and loving Disney like the pixie dust nuts we c...

I think the waiting is getting to us Disney Parks Moms Panel Applicants. On a discussion board I follow many of us recently admitted to parodying various Disney songs to express this "I want more" moment in our application adventures. We hover on the edge of finding out whether our dreams come true or whether they need to point us forward down another path. "Be a Mom" Adapted by Me (to the tune of "Be a Man" from Mulan) Let's apply for panel and defeat the odds, Following  on twitter, hoping for their lauds. You're the Disney-est bunch I've ever spied, but you applied, you're in round two. Somehow I'll make a mom out of you. Tranquil? Isn't likely. Pixie dust within. A hundred words or less You are sure to win.  We're a peerless, glad, impatient lot And we haven't got a clue. Somehow we'll make it in to round two! Various: I'm never gonna make round two. Say goodbye to hop...

So the Disney Parks Mom Panel application process is currently underway, if I haven't mentioned that already. And I'm stuck pondering the following: Other than being an excellent song, am I as a person more of a gadget and gizmo gal or a whozits and whatzits woman? I love my iPhone, iPad, kindle and laptop and wouldn't dream of leaving home without them. Clearly all fall safely in the gadget and gizmo realm. I also love my books, pins, mugs,  crafts and hoodies.  With how I craft those definitely stay in the whatzits category. But who cares? No big deal. I (really) want more. If you think that I'm just focusing on this rather than the days weeks I have left until hearing if I will continue through round two, you're probably right on the money.

Between Disney Parks Mom Panel applications , kids' pediatric appointments, starting back in on teaching Bible study, some rather unsavory rodents invading our home (a possum and squirrels, for those who are curious) and start of the semester curriculum nights all since Monday, I've been a teeny tiny bit stressed out, frayed and exhausted. Or actually massively exhausted. Tired like this, but far less cute. My dear husband in his infinite wisdom noticed that I've been seeming a bit frayed, let me stay home during first grade curriculum night, went and met with the teachers by himself and brought home some beautiful roses. After crying and muttering incoherently for a bit, he pointed out it wasn't just flowers. I asked tearfully, "you mean a vacation?" Then he produced this: Disney SquareEnix Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix? I will try not to neglect my blog. It's a higher quality graphics remake of one of my favorite games from once upon a time b...