This and That

 I love my hubby, I love my hubby, I love my hubby. I keep saying that when he does nutty stuff!! We have had a cold spell here in the south since last weekend, LOVE IT however..... When you have bread rising the last thing you need is the kitchen window wide open letting that COLD wind in. grrr

 He is lucky the bread did rise :) The loaf that was close to the window didn't rise as well as it should have but it was still OK. I shall let him live another day.

 Meals on wheels for our Harley buddy was roast, taters, and carrots. Of course I shared a loaf of bread as well.

 And cake

 I was determined to get some me time in this week!!! While I didn't get a single page done in Kara's album I did at least get some RAK Project Life inserts done. On today's list is to do at least 4 pages for Kara's album if I have to stay up all night!!!!

It's hard to get much done with Tater Tot putting on such a show. He refuses to be left on his own to play. As soon as I walk out of the room he lets out a blood curling scream, real tears, the works. As soon as you peek back in he is all smiles.

Busy, busy, busy, all day long...with no end in site. While I like,... no need to stay busy this is nuts! I hope to tackle condiments in the fridge today as I am sure there will be some outdated salad dressings and such stuck in there. Our desk is another biggy. I haven't filed in a long, long, time :) Someday I need to get our budget back in order. Now that hubby is home everything needs to be reworked.

One area of our budget I did finally get addressed was our 401K. Hubby's company no longer sends payroll stubs in the mail, the only way to see it is on line with his secured PC. I have been bugging the snoot out of him for over a month that I need to find out what his YTD contribution to 401K is. I had a feeling we had maxed it out or were at least close :) Sure enough we have overpaid what the IRS will allow. At the end of the year his company will send us an overpayment check which is nice but....the payments needed to stop! That extra money needs to go in our EF fund for the rest of the year as we have hit that account hard this year.

Another financial decision that was made this week was to cancel our BIG fall family vacation. Hubby decided last Christmas that rather than go on our yearly family MT. trip in November we would take everyone to Disney. Ouch!!!! So I have saved and saved all year, having hubby on OT helped a whole lot but...We have been hammered in unexpected expenses. When I started running the real bottom line costs of the trip and was getting ready to rent a house for the family I just got sick at the amount. Tickets alone for all us for 3 days was $3,800.00. A place big enough for us all $1,500.00. Figure 2 meals a day at the house for 12 wasn't going to be cheap. At least one meal a day in the park and snacks, holy cow. Hubby has never seen a stuffed animal he doesn't fall in love with. Stuffed animals times 5 grands = a chunk of change.

The grands were unaware of our plans, just the big kids were in on the secret. While I know they are a bit disappointed they are old enough to realize $6,000.00 to $7,000.00 is just a CRAZY amount to spend to hang out with a mouse and a few Princesses. Instead we will revert back to our family Mt trip :) For a change we are going to do "Dollywood".  In all the years we have vacationed in cabins we have never taken the time out to do the park. Savings....$4,000.00 to $5,000.00. Someday we will hit the happiest place on earth but until the economy turns around we just can't swallow that big pill!!

I can tell you once we made the decision, told the big kids, then rented the cabin I slept like a baby that night :) Better get this day started or I will never catch up!