Twas The Night Before Disney!

Twas the night before Disney and craziness was through the house
All because of that magical mouse!

The suitcases are packed and the cars full of gas
We came from PA, only four more states to pass.

It's time for bed, we are done with the hassle
Next stop is that beautiful castle!!!

- hope you enjoyed our Disney poem, yes I know we (meaning rusty and myself are dorks!)
- we are excited to be heading to Disney. check out my Disney blog for more updates!!!

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Ahhhh!

I got on vacation in 6 days and I am sick!!!!! I have a bad cold and I am not a very happy camper!!!! I am just hoping and praying that it goes away before next Thursday when we leave for Disney.
Until then- I am going to over indulge in sleep/rest, orange juice, vitamin C, kiwi's (I heard they help), and some more rest!!!!

Sleepover Fun!

Our nephew, Luke, had a sleepover at our house for the first time this weekend. Rusty picked him up after work on Saturday and we took him back home on Sunday morning. I am not sure who was more excited about the adventure.... us or Luke, haha!
Saturday we went to the park to play (poor Luke sat in some water on the slide, but still had fun) then we headed to Chick-Fil-A for dinner (boy can he eat- 5 chicken nuggets and he is only 3.5yrs old). We then headed to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and juice boxes and then headed home to make our fort!
We ended up setting up a fort in our family room (pretty easy to make thanks to the couch cushions, dining room chairs, and bed sheets!)Luke loved the fort, he kept forgetting the word "fort" and would call it a cliff- ha!
We watched 1/2 of Toy Story from inside the fort until Luke told us that he was tired. We were not sure how well he would sleep, but after we turned off the movie he turned on his side and closed his eyes. He never woke up again until 6am the next morning (a little early for me, but he did great!) He loved sleeping in the fort and the pups loved having him around, especially Sophia! She didn't let him out of her sight the whole time he was over.
The next morning we watched spiderman cartoons from the fort, ate breakfast, and played with the pups.....then it was time for him to head back home. We had a great time and are looking forward to more sleepover dates!!
Enjoy the pictures fror our adventure!!!

Delightful Treat!

My friend Julie got this little treat the other day while we were out and ever since then I have not been able to get it out of my mind!!!
I finally caved and got one tonight.....its a double chocolate cake donut from Dunkin Donuts!! Talk about yummy.......oh my!
It was worth the 220 calories! I have lost about 67 pounds and I guess every now and again you have to treat yourself!!!!
Try it at your own risk, the taste will stay with you for a long time and cause some serious cravings!!!!

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9/11

I think we all remember exactly where we were when the world changed that September morning. For me, I was in Greek mythology class when someone from the office came into our room and whispered to our teacher. The look on his face told me that something was very, very wrong.
I was 16 when all the events took place, I don't think that I fully understood everything that was happening but I knew it was not good and that things would never be the same....
A local town near us put together a memorial for 9/11 called "The Healing Field". It was absolutely amazing..... one flag for every person who passed away on that day. A note card was attached to each flag providing information on the person including their name, age, location, and information about the person. They also included cards of local service men/women who have died in war.
There were people of every age, race, culture, etc. The stories were so touching.... I was not able to read every card but read many of them. All the stories were touching, but some stuck out and really pulled at your heart strings.
- A mother and father which were on their way to their son's wedding when the plane crashed
- A set of parents who just adopted their 3 year old boy and were on the plane bringing him home for the first time
- A 80 year old lady who was making a major life change- moving across the country with her daughter to spend more time with her during her last years
- A man who booked an early flight when he found out his wife was in labor with their first child, he never got to meet his child
- A 24 year old girl just landed her dream job in the world trade center on the 105Th floor. She reported for her first day which was 9/11
- A man on one of the plane's was on the way to claim his son's body who died in a head on collision on his honeymoon

I could go on and on.... there were so many touching stories. All of them were.... very sad and I know something no one will ever forget.
The sight of all the flags was simply amazing.... hard to believe that the flags that just seemed to go on and on forever should have been faces standing there as people.... not flags.

Wow... What A Savings!!!

As some of you might know, I have troubled by car troubles the past couple of months!
It went a little something like this:
1. New Breaks (not really trouble, just routine work but still a cost)- about $500
2. New Tires- about $600
3. Broken Fuel Relay (which was causing my car to sometimes not start...not fun!)- $500
4. Broken Temperature Cage- $220
5. Transmission slipping.... not exactly sure of the cause at this time, my car is still in the shop- cost to fix this problem is going to range from $280-4,000 (please pray for the lower cost!!!)

All of these repairs have occurred within the past several month. Numbers 3,4 and 5 have occurred within the past 2 months. Needles to say, I have been a little stressed about my car and the amount of money we are pouring into it.

I was really stressed out yesterday when I heard the news that my current problem might be because my whole transmission is going up.... I cried and cried. I love my car, but just not sure if I am ready to pour that amount of money into it!!!
My wonderful husband assured me that everything was going to be OK and we would just have to wait and see what happens.... after all, besides praying and hoping there is little that we can do to control the situation. Gosh.... sometimes he is so right ;)

I decided today to look into our monthly bills to see if it was possible to save a little money, after all it never hurts to save! I am proud to announce that I was able to save about $165 each month just by doing the following simple tasks:

1. I merged out auto insurance policies together (something that I should have done right after we got married but just kept putting it off). This saved us about $90 each month- yes!!!
2. I contacted our cable provider (Direct TV) which we have been with since 2008 and talked to them about lowering our monthly payment for being a loyal customer. They were actually very nice about it (it also helped that our contract was up for renewal this month). We received $30 off each month plus the best part.... the hubby got his NFL Sunday ticket back..... for FREE! Double YES!!
3. Changed our Internet provider from Comcast (who was charging us $69 a month for high speed Internet, a total rip off because we don't have any of their other services) to Verizon for $45 less a month (same Internet speed)

Who would have thought that these simple phone calls could give you that much savings each month??!!
Try it for yourself, you never know what you could be saving! Keep me posted if you get any good "deal"!

Stress!!!

I can't stand stress.... and I stress often!!! I have been having a lot of car troubles over the past couple of months and my car went back into the shop this morning. I thought it was going to need a new valve body (which is like the brain of the transmission, per my mechanic) but I got a phone call today from my mechanic who shared that my car might need a WHOLE new transmission!!!! Ahhhhhhh, could this come at a worse time????? 23 days before we go on vacation.... not exactly how I wanted to spend the money we have saving for our vacation!!!
For now, the mechanic is going to try to change my transmission filter and fluid and see if that will actually fix the problem (please pray for me that this will do the trick!) If not, it sounds like we will have to replace the whole transmission.....
it hurts my stomach to even type that!
I love my little Volkswagen beetle but today she is not behaving and she needs to readjust herself!!!

Please say a prayer (or two) that changing the transmission fluid will fix the problem!!!
Thanks for listening to my vent, it has been a bad day :(