Where I've Been

I had not planned on writing anything on my lack of posts in over two months, but I have had a lot of views on my blog lately from my pins for posts on Pinterest. So I decided I should probably explain why it seems I just dropped off the edge of the Earth, blog wise.

So I was accepted into the Fall 2014 Disney College Program in the lifeguard role and was set to check-in on August 4. However, the week before my check-in date I developed a really bad respiratory infection. I went to the doctor for it and found out that on top of the respiratory infection I have hypothyroidism, which is nothing too serious just a problem with my thyroid not regulating my metabolism correctly and working like it should. Because of this I had to drop out and forgo the Fall 2014 Walt Disney World program of the DCP so that I could stay in town for blood test to monitor my thyroid and get over my respiratory infection. Even though my program ended before I had the chance to experience it, I am absolutely certain that I will participate in a Disney College Program. Knowing that still have plenty of time still to participate in a DCP has made the hard decision to change my fall plans and continue on with school this semester a little easier. 

If you came to my blog looking for advice on being a DCP lifeguard I am sorry that I can only be of so much help, but here are some other places that can. Courtney from My Adventure Book was a lifeguard during the first part of her program and while she swapped roles her blog has a lot of post from her time as a lifeguard, is well written, and she updates it regularly!! There is also a YouTube video on being a DCP lifeguard that is really helpful by Roxanne LeBlanc that can be found here!!

Thanks for visiting my blog!! I hope to continue it when I get a chance again to participate in the DCP or if any related things pop up that would fit with this blog. If you are in the DCP right now I hope you are having a blast, and if you are about to participate in the upcoming program I hope you enjoy it!!!

Best Wishes to you all,

Jordon :)

Less Than A Month!!!!

So I have less than 1 Month till my Disney College Program Check-In!!!! I cannot believe it is almost here!! Time for me has just been flying by this summer with both my swim team assistant coaching job and lifeguarding. There is so much I have to do before my check-in. The biggest being packing! I am a horrible at packing so it is going to take me the rest of my time at home to pack!!

Tutorial on how I made this countdown calendar can be found here! :)

In other non-Disney things, I went to Warped Tour this last week in St. Louis and it was AMAZING!!! I got to see and meet my favorite band The Summer Set!! Funny story I have seen them three times now and met them twice but never in Tennessee where I am from. I have seen them in Florida, Wisconsin, and now Missouri. They have played shows in Nashville before I have just never been able to make it to them, but I am hoping to eventually make it to a Tennessee show. So anyway here are some photos that I took during We The Kings's set and The Summer Set's set!!

Disney College Program Course Registration

The course registration for the fall classes during the Disney College Program opened tonight at midnight eastern time. I however totally forgot about it, even though I had been reminding myself about it all day today in order to not forget. Tonight I was finishing up my assignments for one of the summer online courses I am currently taking to offset taking this fall semester off when the registration opened. Not thinking anything remotely about registering for my DCP classes, I got onto blogger to see if any of the blogs on my reading list had a new post. At the top of my list was a post by the blog Hannah's DCP about how she registered for classes and everyone on the Facebook group was freaking out when the registration opened due to the site being overloaded with traffic and not loading. As soon as I saw her post I panicked and quickly signed onto the on-boarding sight to register afraid that all of the classes would be full. Unfortunately Disney Heritage was wait-list only. However, that was not the only class I had in mind of taking. The class that I registered up for was my first choice, Creativity and Innovation. It cost only $24 to take and I believe I will have to buy/rent a book for the course as well. Compared to all of the cost of college courses this is a steal, and I have no problem with paying that amount.

You can take two classes during the fall, but I could not decide if I wanted to take any of the other courses. I am a Sociology major and a Psychology minor so a lot of the courses have no relation to my degree. The one that did in a way was the Security Professional Studies course, but I am not going into that area so it would serve no real purpose to me. I would LOVE to take the Engineering Professional Studies course!!! I almost majored in engineering and wanted/would love to be an Imagineer, but you have to be a engineering major to take the course. So I just opted to wait-list the Disney Heritage class, and if I don't get in it is cool and I will take just one class :)

So a big Thank You! goes out to Hannah for reminding me with your post tonight to register for classes!! On another note, I am even more excited now (if that's even possible!) after registering for classes to start my Disney College Program!!!! 43 Days!!!

Lifeguard Re-Certification

                                   

So Saturday I got re-certified as a lifeguard through the American Red Cross. I decided that I wanted to re-certify for several reasons. The biggest is to have a little extra income this summer (other than what I am already making as an Assistant Swim Team Coach) to save for my Disney College Program this fall!! Another is so that I get some more experience as a lifeguard before I am one this fall during my DCP. Also, it helped me know that I am prepared to be a lifeguard for Disney.

Going into the re-certification class I was really nervous about remembering everything and how to properly do it. I knew deep down I would be just fine and everything would go smoothly, but that didn't help calm my irrational nerves. However, despite my nerves everything went great like I knew it really would! I was able to breeze through the re-certification requirements.

For the American Red Cross swim tests I had to do:

•a 300 yard swim test- 100 freestyle/American crawl, 100 breast stroke, 100 freestyle/American crawl in that order without stopping

•the brick test- swim 20 yards, retrieve a 10 pound brick-equivalent to a hundred pound person in the water- from 10 ft deep water, and swimming the brick back carrying it with both hands on your chest while on your back within a minute and forty seconds(which is way more than enough time to do it in)

•a two minute no hands water treading

I also was able to successfully and effectively demonstrate all of the proper techniques for lifeguard saves/rescues, CPR, AED, and First Aid without any trouble. Plus I passed the written test without missing a single question.

So I re-certified through  American Red Cross, but for Disney we have to certify through another group called Ellis. The swim tests that you take the night of check-in consists of (from what I have gathered from others) is:

•a 200 yard swim- 100 less than the American Red Cross!

•a brick test- retrieving a brick from about 8ft using a feet first surface dive (basically the same as the American Red Cross only I am not sure if Ellis has a time limit for this like the Red Cross does)

•a two minute tread- exactly what I did Saturday

I am not sure what all of the training sessions will be like in regards of comparison to the American Red Cross ones, but I do know Ellis will be more thorough due to there being water parks, slides, and other added risks to worry about when on duty as a lifeguard at Disney. Even though there are some differences between the two processes, I believe that I will be just fine! :) I finally feel like I will be able to do my DCP role to the best of my ability this fall, and it feels awesome knowing that I am prepared for it!! I am super excited to start my DCP!!!!! Too bad I have 47 days till my check in. It's a good thing my summer is going great and time is flying by! :)

Oh and if any of the information about the swim tests for Ellis is wrong feel free to leave a comment and I will correct it :)

"And, it's also my birthday, just so you know"

So today was my 20th birthday!!!!! Well yesterday was, because this most likely will not be uploaded till the 2nd, haha! If you don't know where the quote in the title is from, it is from Tangled! I love that one and this one:

Rapunzel: So mother, earlier I was saying tomorrow is a really big day, and you didn't really respond, so I'm just gonna tell you: IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! Tada!

Mother Gothel: No no no, can't be. I distinctly remember, your birthday was last year.

Rapunzel: That's the funny thing about birthdays, they're kind of an annual thing. 

I went around saying them and the lines around them with my sister all last week and today! :)

                     I couldn't decide if I liked the picture or the full quote better so I put them both :)                    

One of the best things that happened on my birthday was after asking for a long time, I FINALLY got the Buzz Lightyear to my Woody!!!

                              

One of the coolest things about him is the fact that he came with ANDY written on the bottom of his foot!!! Also that he has the Star Command access panel communication spot, his laser works, and he has karate chop action!!!! 

   

              


I also got Anna and Elsa Disney Infinity characters! I will have to make a post one day about the Disney Infinity collection that my family and I have gathered over time. When I do I will link it here. Along with Anna and Elsa, I got two Frozen Posters that are Awesome!!! Plus they are only $5 each at Walmart and there are five different posters to choose from!!! These are the ones my family got me and I am in LOVE with them!!!

            

My cake this year was also Disney themed, it was a Disney Fairies cake with Tinker Bell and her sister Periwinkle on it. However, it still does not top the cake my sister made me for my 18th birthday. So while I do not have a picture of my cake from this year, I do have a picture of the AMAZING cake my sister made me for my 18th birthday so here it is:

Toy Story will always be my favorite movie ever, but Finding Nemo is sooo close they are almost tied at first. To have them both on my cake that year and tied in to each other the way they were on this cake thanks to the Hawaii Vacation Toy Story short was just perfectly amazing!!!!

I got other non-Disney items for my birthday too, my favorite being a new camera that I am really excited about from my parents!!! I am going to try out vlogging with it, because I really love the idea of vlogging and LOVE watching DCP vlogs!! So I hope to make my first vlog/youtube video sometime this week/weekend, and if I do I will link it on here. Fingers crossed that I like doing them!!

Disney College Program Up Themed Countdown!!!

So I decided that I really wanted to do a count down calendar for my Disney College Program. Finally after weeks of wanting to make one I finally buckled down and made one. I looked to Pinterest for ideas and came across a lot of great ones but none that I really loved until I came across this idea by Kawaii Jess. You can find her pin here and if you want to pin my idea there is a button at the bottom of this post that allows you to or you can find the pin I have for it here.

Everyday her boys would pop balloons and inside would be a paper that had a different activity on the inside for them to do. I LOVED the Up theme of the countdown but I HATE to pop balloons. I decided that instead of popping balloons to count down I would add balloons to Mr. Fredricksen's house to help me fly away to my destination. So each day I will attach a new balloon to Mr. Fredricksen's house and reveal how many days I have left before I have enough balloons to "take off" to my Disney College Program!!!

The countdown calendar took me about a day to complete, mainly due to all the balloons I had to make. It was actually easier than I ever thought it was going to be. The supplies I used was very minimal and cheap due to having everything at my house. All I used was colored copy paper, white printer paper, sharpie, scissors, stick glue, tape, and a number/alphabet stencil I had around my house.

For the house I based my design off of the original pin that I found, because I liked how simplistic it was and how it still resembles Mr. Fredricken's house. For someone like me who is not the most artistic person in the world this house was very easy to do.

As for the balloons I made them by tracing a balloon shape from a post-it-note type paper in a balloon shape and making a paper stencil to use. I then folded each piece of paper in half and traced the balloon shape on one side. I then would cut two balloons out at once. For the numbers I traced them using stencils I had around the house, and after tracing the numbers I filled them in using sharpie.  For the strings I just cut strips of the paper.

 

  For the balloon holder that tells me how many days I have to go, I just took two sheets of paper and taped them together in an envelope fashion. Then I used the same stencils that I used for the numbers to do the letters on the balloon holder.

*I am really excited to see the balloons grow and grow as my DCP grows nearer!!! This countdown calendar can be reused for future countdowns, but I think that I am going to keep mine all together when I am done with the countdown and turn it into a mural type wall art. Also I can finally say that I marked one thing off my DCP bucketlist so far!!!