NOOOOO I WANT the change

Ok now that I dumped my piggybank for my Disney trip, I've begun to save again. Only now that my husband has a job that actually pays him we can dump what I call "out of sight out of mind" money in there.

We used to drop $20 a week in there and then every 6 or 8 weeks take that to the bank and put it into a separate savings account. We have a joint savings that I can transfer money online from there to our checking and vice versa. This separate checking account isn't available online and I have no ATM card attached to it. I literally have to go to the bank to deposit or withdraw anything.

I set it up that way because if I have to think about driving to the bank to take it out, usually I think about what I need it for and whether we can survive without it.

We haven't deposited to that account in a long time and it was practically empty. What little we did have in there...well we withdrew most of that for Disney minus the minimum balance to keep the account open.

Now we're starting fresh with the attempt for us each to drop $10-$15 a week in there, plus ANY and ALL change.

So of course I run out at lunch today and while grabbing a sandwich it's $4.01. I hand the girl a $5 bill super excited that I'm about to get 99 cents to add to the piggy. Then she handed me one single dollar bill back.

"Oh no, it's ok. I want the 99 cents back."

"No, here." *shoving the bill at me*

"Really, I don't mind, I save change."

"Well you're just going to screw up my register now."

"Why? Technically you owe me 99 cents. If you give me a dollar you'll be short."

So you know what she does then...she grabs a penny from one of those "leave a penny" cups in front of the register and then hands me my dollar.

Wanna know what I did? I took the dollar and put it in my purse.

I then grabbed 2 Andes Mint by the register...for (you guessed it) a dime and THEN I handed her another $5 dollar bill.

She huffs and glares at me and starts counting aloud but to herself and I can tell she mixes up dimes and nickels.

She says "$4.90 IS YOUR CHANGE".

So she's supposed to give me $4.90 right?

I stood in the front of the store and counted. She gave me....


$4 in bills

and

$1.10 in change

So now not only do I have 2 Andes mints but I have $5.10 to throw in my piggy because if you think I walked back and told her she counted incorrectly.

SORRY wrong answer.

Am evil or what?

"Welcome Class of 2011"

That is what I heard about 7 times last night.


See last night was "8th Grade Parents Night" at the high school. The NEW high school, that's almost 90 mins from where we live now.



So there I go driving all the way there to drop Casey off to my sister. Then Jeff and I arrive 10 minutes late. We apparently missed our "English" class.



They had you run through a selected schedule where you go to every department for 10 or 15 minutes where the chairperson talks about the freshman classes. They discuss the State of Illinois graduation requirements, Geneva High School's graduation requirements and most 4 year university entry requirements...and what does all this mean?



This means that Kyle has to think long and hard about COLLEGE before he's even in high school. Cuz he only needs 2 years of math to graduate but 3 to get into most colleges. He doesn't need any foreign languages to graduate but he'll need 2 years to get into college. SEE the problems?



It was fairly informative considering this is my first one in high school but they kept referring to everyone as though ALL the kids were already in the district. When I raised my hand and said "We're moving to the district." I got a lot of stares from parents and teachers and a few "You haven't moved YET, why are you here?"



WHY AM I HERE?



Uh...






This is why.....he's going to be a Freshmen and he's MY son...why do you think I'm here? I'm not a pushy parent..but I am very involved.


When I asked for a copy of the class descriptions that all the other 8 graders were provided yesterday I was informed that since I wasn't technically in the district yet I could get one at a later date.


Wait...you're telling me that my son has these big major decisions to make and everyone else has this book to decide by May 4th but you won't let him pick his classes or read that book til June after he's graduated from his other district and will give him about 2.2 minutes to decide his entire high school career. (Well not really but these people WERE INTENSE let me tell you).


Ok fine. I don't need a book.


On our way to the next class 2 Mothers walked up to Jeff and I and said "We don't think it's fair they won't give you a book. That's not very welcoming." My husband made a crack of course "Yeah...so far you 2 are our favorite people we've met."


Really people seemed very welcoming but I realized 4 things.


A) Kyle will live in the more "middle class" part of town that gets bused to this higher class school so I hope he doesn't experience any real backlash from that. I hope he won't since he's a pretty easy kid to like that plays sports but we'll see.


B) I don't really care if he does because just sitting through listening to the caliber of the education and the choices he gets to make, this play is heads and shoulders above the school he would attend if we decided not to move. The opportunity being presented to him is AMAZING.


C) My little boy is growing up. The Class of 2011 sounded so odd. 4 years is going to fly by.


D) I haven't felt it in a long time and I know it's going to be one of the largest classes in a while (which the Principal pointed out later 1992 and 1993 was an influx in births because of Desert Storm- who knew?) but again........Jeff and I are probably the youngest parents of a freshman at 34. I felt SO young at this thing. Now I realize it's a large class and what was represented last night might be 100 students..but still I was feeling way young. Maybe by the time Casey's in school other parents will be close to our age since I was 32 when I had her.


In any case....it was a long night driving back and forth...but so worth it. It also reinforced that this move, as hard as it will be...is the right one.

So what's YOUR word?

I posted somewhere down there that dear husband and I had a fight and he dropped the "F" bomb on me.

CPA Mom says he's a poo-poo for that and he is. However, we drop the "F" bomb (in general) the way that most people say "hello" so it's not a - "OMG YOU JUST SAID FUCK" thing....it does still sting a bit when your spouse says "Fuck you" in a serious way to your face.

In reality it was one of those extremely tense, end of your rope, ready to kill anyone in your path kind of arguments and truthfully, I deserved something thrown at me I just wasn't expecting it to be the "F" bomb.

Another reason it wasn't all that "shock jock" for me was that my entire family has vocabulary like broken down sewage dump trucks. It's usually dirty and foul and from the gutter and like a broken dump truck usually what comes up, comes out. We try really hard to act right and be appropriate in the company of others or around the children...but anyone that knows someone in the military...they do a lot of "Yes Ma am" but a whole lot more "MF'ing" if you know what I mean. Every other word is M-fer this, M-fer that. When you grow up around that..your vocabulary ain't the best (see?)

So for those of you that don't like swearing...you should exit stage left now.

I'm gonna ask everyone..what's THAT word for you?

That word that if every flung in your direction makes you see red, makes your earlobes hot, makes you want to rip some one's face off.

For me...

If someone ever called me a C (See) U (you) N (next) T (Tuesday).

Someone ever called me a cunt to my face...they would more than likely lose a testicle...a testicle you ask? Yes..because if someone ever called me a cunt to my face you can bet it's probably a man. Most women are very bothered by that word.

Swearing in general doesn't bother me that much. Mostly cuz like I said my family can be vastly inappropriate. Thankfully my youngest sister's boyfriends haven't gone running scared from our family after family functions. She always makes us promise "to be good" whatever that means.

So what's that word for you?

"It All Started with a Mouse"

That's my favorite quote/poster I saw in Disney. It was a photo of young Walt Disney walking over the land when they were building and Cinderella's Castle is almost a hologram on the top of the page with Mickey Mouse.

"It All Started with a Mouse"

Yes it did. It clearly is the most magical place on Earth. I'm a Mickey fan. Not a die hard "must.visit.Mickey and spend a small fortune EVERY year" but I love a good trip to Disney.

This wasn't the "AWWWW aren't the boys and girls cute all dressed up as Pirates or a Princess" because CLEARLY my 14 year old wasn't much interested in dressing up like Pirates of the Caribbean. That trip with the AWWW factor will more than likely come in 4 years when Kyle is about to graduate from high school and go off to college and Casey will be 6 and can ya know remember the small fortune her Dad and I shell out for the trip.

A few things come to mind for my NEXT trip.

A) I will never go and stay in the same room with other family members for a whole week.

It isn't that I don't like my family, I just need some privacy. I need to get out of the shower naked, I need my own "sitting" area when I can have control over the TV, where no one else is sleeping and I feel as though I'm intruding on their space.

For this trip it was a 2 bedroom suite that had a pullout in the "living room" area. So my parents had the king and big bathroom, my sister stayed on the pull out bed in the living room and other room with 2 queens was for me, my husband, my son and his friend, Cody. Leaving us to share a regular sized bathroom with no separate quarters for the toilet vs. the shower. So if I was in the shower and someone needed the toilet they either had to wait or use my Dad's. I just need more space.

B) Considering this was my 3rd visit, my sister's 4th and my parents 9th and 11th respectively....we did not need to go 14 hours a day.

We had a "day off" on Tuesday. Really a Day off you ask? We still walked almost 4 miles that day.This was the day my sister and husband each got a massage, people got to sleep in, we didn't go to any theme parks but still went to the Boardwalk to visit ESPN Zone and rent a surrey. Then we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and walked around some more. Whatever we needed to see...we covered plenty and then some in just about 4 to 4 1/2 days. My husband and I would much rather go a little later in the year like early Spring for a week with a 4 or 5 day park hopper pass. Visit 2 or 3 parks in 2 days, take a day off by the pool, visit 2 or 3 parks over 2 days and take a day and go to one of the water parks. Going full blast from start to finish is too exhausting and my Dad didn't get a nap on Monday when he did and he was really crabby, admittedly but SERIOUSLY we don't need to go at that pace the next time.

NOW A & B lead me to C (which is quite a sad but necessary realization)

C) My father can NOT pay for 90% of the trip. I feel as though any suggestion to deviate from his itinerary comes as an insult to him and he feels like we're ungrateful. Even my sister pointed it out.

So I will save save save.....ask my Dad to purchase extra vacation club points for 2011 and have our own suite. Where the kids and I be away from our family. We will only purchase 4 or 5 day passes for Jeff, Casey and I. If Kyle wants to go all 7 days..he can...but I'm not doing it. If my Dad wants to go non-stop, more power to him. I want pool time, I want nap time, I want down time.

That said, here are the highlights of the trip:

Saturday

We arrived and went straight to Magic Kingdom for a lunch reservation at Crystal Palace, which was a FANTASTIC buffet with the characters. We then hit most of the good rides but Splash Mountain, which was closed and Space Mountain because the line was long and we wanted to get a good spot for the parade and fireworks at 8pm.

Rides: Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Sunday:

We went to Epcot in the morning and afternoon. We hit Mission Space, Test Track and Soaring before heading back to our room for a short nap. Then we went back to Magic Kingdom for dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern an all u can eat chosen menu with characters. Then we hit Big Thunder Mt. Railroad again and Space Mountain a gazillion times.

Monday was a 14 hour day. We left at 7:30 and arrived back at 9:42pm.

In the morning we went to Animal Kingdom and hit Expedition Everest, the Safari, Dinosaur, the Expedition Trail, Primeval Whirl and the show "It's Tough to be a Bug". We had some lunch then left there and went to MGM Studios. At MGM we hit Tower of Terror and RockN' Roller Coaster about 3 times each, we did the back lot tour and Great Movie Ride before having dinner at Sci-Fi Movie Theater in cars watching old cheesy sci-fi flicks. VERY COOL! Then we hit the big rides 2 more times and headed home. My Dad wore his very expensive pedometer the whole week and this day we did close to 12 miles.

Tuesday was our "day off".

I slept in til 8am. Kelly had a massage at 10, Jeff was 11. We had a nice breakfast. Then around lunch time we headed to downtown Disney to eat and catch a bus to the "Boardwalk". There we walked around, hit a brewery, ESPN Zone, rented a 3 bench surrey and rode around the lagoon twice. From there we headed back to our room for a short nap and I actually read. Then we headed to Downtown Disney to Raglan Road (this amazing little Irish Pub) for dinner. Have I mentioned how AMAZING the Disney Dining plan is? IT's great. We walked around and kind of shopped and then headed back.

Wednesday

This was by far my FAVORITE DAY. We had a tour with Dolphins in the Depth at Epcot. You get a private tour of "The Seas" and you get to interact with the dolphins. Greatest things...all the money goes to their conservatory to take care of them and they only take tours up to 14 a day...so with our group of 7....we were the only ones. This was an amazing thing and I managed to get into the wetsuit without much trouble. (I'll post pictures below) Then we had lunch at The Land, another ride on Soaring and Test Track then off to the World Showcase. After that long walk we had dinner in "Mexico" and waited for the fireworks there at 9pm.

Thursday was our warmest day at 78 degrees or so.

This was a "split" day. We headed to Animal Kingdom to hit Everest and the safari again. Then we did the Rapids ride and got pretty wet. Actually Jeff was SOAKED. From there we headed back to Magic Kingdom to ride Splash Mountain, walk through the Castle and Space Mountain again. My Dad decided not to stay in favor of a nap so the boys stayed and came back on their own. From there we headed to the very elite restaurant on the 15th floor of the Contemporary Resort, California Grille. Very upscale, good food but not much for a beer selection and they didn't enforce their dress code so it took something away from it. In my opinion. The best thing by far was that we were still there when Magic Kingdom started their "Pirates and Princess" private party fireworks. So for the 3rd time in a week we saw the most magical fireworks. This time from the observation desk outside. It was fabu.

Friday was our last full day there

We headed to MGM to attempt to see the Stunt Show since it was closed all week. Despite some rain they performed. We also hit Tower of Terror and RockN' Roller Coaster about 3-4 more times EACH. We also saw the Indiana Jones Stunt Show and rode on Star Tours. From there we headed to Downtown Disney to SHOP. Considering my laundry list of people I wanted to buy for...I didn't spend all that much. Then we gave the boys some money and cut them loose. They went to Wolfgang Puck's Express for pizza and then headed to DisneyQuest. There they met 2 girls from Boston. The adults headed to Captain Jack's restaurant and ate, drank and were merry for Jeff's b-day. Since we were out of meal plans at this point we paid cash for this dinner. We spent on ONE dinner MORE than we paid for ONE full 7 day meal plan. UNREAL....but oh so good and worth it. We tried to go back to the room and have some fun but everyone was really tired and not so jolly anymore, especially ME.

Sat we had to check out by 11am and our bus didn't come til 3pm.

We had a nice breakfast, packed and headed to downtown Disney to just kind of chill out. Kyle and Cody met up with their friends again, rented little sprite speedboats for a 1/2 hour and hung out til we had to leave.

Considering we left the gate at the airport 45 minutes late we still arrived in Chicago on time.

Funniest thing that happened: Kyle tried to get a security guy to get Jeff and I to stop kissing in line on Space Mountain. After much grilling of Kyle the guy said "they're your parents, they are the boss so I'm gonna give them this switch pass and they can go in the express line and ride OVER AND OVER AGAIN without you so you don't have to watch them kiss ok?" So we did..once and then I let Kyle and Cody ride a few times.

Best Memory....

Right Here:

Random Other things....

I'm not sure how this "stew" of things is going to spill from my head..so here it goes:

• Jeff and I were together 5 years on January 26th. See a few posts down that I'm just too lazy to link everyone to. We spent the day driving to Green Bay, WI to drop off our daughter. Only to find out once we arrived BACK in Chicago at 5pm that Jeff had managed to give our overnight bag to his parents. This shouldn't seem like such a big deal right? Except that in total there was about $40 worth of toiletries for the trip AND our camera. Now we don't have a back up and I certainly didn't have $200 to go shell out for another crap digital...
• Which leads me to the next fact....we have no "us" pictures from our trip because I got tired of asking my sister to take pictures of other things for me.
• This was also the worst "anniversary" of my life because once I remembered that the camera was in "the bag that ended up in your folks van" I had a meltdown. The sobbing triggered a "HOW MANY TIMES CAN I SAY I'M SORRY?" conversation from my husband, which lead to a very heated argument, which lead to a "this is your fault" from my mouth and a "fuck you" from his...it was NOT one of our finer moments.
• However, the lost camera realization came just a 1/2 hour after I was told that during a 2002 surgery my sister had on her neck the doctor probably damaged one of her vocal chords because she only has one that it is working. She was also told it is more than likely she has thyroid cancer and is now scheduled for surgery on 2/22. So far they can tell that it doesn't look as if it's spread so if all goes well with the surgery she should be fine. They just want to take it out and be sure it hasn't spread to her OTHER ONLY working vocal chord.
• Have I mentioned being the oldest and worrying about the others is a full time job that drains me....I feel like I worry about them like I worry about my kids..because while ON the trip my other sister calls to tell us that during her collegiate cheerleading practice...they dropped a girl on her FOUR TIMES and she may have a broken nose and a concussion. Jeez Louise, can someone cut me a tiny break?
• Luckily we managed to get positive about the trip and move on.
• In non-trip related news, my oldest friend called me last night to tell me that at 34 weeks pregnant she's having contractions about 8 minutes apart and they aren't stopping so her doctor feels as though she'll deliver in the next couple of days. This sparked a horrible night sleep because all I did was think of Casey and her troubled birth. I believe this scar will follow me to the ends of my days.
• Jeff turned 34 while we were on our trip. Feb 2, Groundhog Day is my husband's birthday and although our trip had it's ups and downs we attempted to celebrate at dinner. Just the adults. This went over well until a 2nd heated argument between my husband and I broke out back at our hotel room...again not one of our finer moments.
• We spent the ride BACK to Green Bay, WI on Sunday to pick up Casey discussing our apparent lack of communication...thankfully that talk went over very well..and we've both got some work to do.
• My son is NOW taller than my 5'10" frame. We noticed this while walking through Epcot at Disney. He's only a smidgen taller than me..but he's 14. He's bound to be 6 foot 2 or 3 by the time he's down growing.
• Our apartment is a pit. I mean to the point where I'm considering calling a maid/cleaning service and asking "I have dusting, cleaning, floors, cabinets, bathroom scrubbing and laundry. How much to send someone over to help me while I'm home?" and getting a quote because it's just THAT scary right now.
• We also arrived home to a fun tidbit. My sitter is considering getting a job. Well wait..she's meeting with HR at the hospital TODAY to see about hours and such. This means I may have about 10 days to figure out day care. Jeff wants me to quit working now and just take care of her and figure it out once we make the move in July. I crunched the numbers..and it's doable but not smart. We'd have enough to pay the bills and put practically nothing into savings over the next few months but we wouldn't be in the red. It's something to consider. I've been working for 16 years, I've been a working Mom for 14+ years..I'm not sure I'm capable of just "quitting" a job. Being "let go" and collecting unemployment, sure. Hell even being "fired" and collecting unemployment, maybe...once my self-esteem recovered from the direct hit..but just quitting to stay home and "do nothing", which would so NOT be nothing with Casey and the house and chauffeuring Kyle...but you know what I mean.

So that's me...right now.

I will bring you the Disney 411 shortly.

My January 2007 Goal Update

Well I'm back from Disney. I will say this for a trip....I forgot what it's like to get away for a full week. Relaxing and exhausting all at the same time.

I will update later when I have more time to write it all out.

First thing is a "One Month Marker" showing how I'm doing on my 2007 goals. To refresh, they were:


1) Spend more time with my family actually BEING with them-rather than observing something we are involved in.
Really working on this considering I didn't think I'd make much progress on this one with the January I had planned.

2) Try and be more patient with my husband. -

Well I worked on it...I succeeded about 70% of the time. Disney and a week in close quarters with NO FREE TIME AWAY from him? Well not so much.

3) Lose the weight- This was more like a start February kind of goal with my trip and all.

4) Drink more water- 110% I went from drinking very little to hitting 64oz a day about 6 out of 7 days for the whole month. That's great for me.

5) Get the finances in shape- Totally fell through on the "get more organized" aspect of it. Will move this to to the top of the list for this month. As for the rest...we were in DISNEY it's kinda hard..but I'm working on it.

6) Continue to keep a good mindset regarding my in laws and their indifference to my husband and our children-Still completely insecure about them but they did have Casey for a whole 8 days..and seemed to really enjoy her. Mom asked if they could have her again this summer. Jeff and I are considering it.

7) Carve out more time for myself- Working on it...success about 40% of the time. This is moving up to #2 for February.

The last one I never posted was get more organized about b-day, anniversary cards, etc. For January I was at about 70%. Feb is off to a good start and I've even purchased some of the cards I would need for March...so this is good.