2011/2012 Reunion Cruise?

[Pooh_Girl]

It will work out in your favor. I always say "It's only money." How exciting to be planning a new home. Will there be a Mickey room?

I'm sure there will be a Mickey/Disney themed room in there somewhere!!!

 

[brack]

I'm sure there will be a Mickey/Disney themed room in there somewhere!!!

If you need anything in particular just ask me. We are getting ready to put a bunch of our "Disney Museum" on EBay. When we move (it will happen one day) we do not want to move all of the things we currently have.

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

Happy (or unhappy if you had to pay the Taxman) Tax Day 2009!

Jennifer

 

[RBennett]

I'm sure there will be a Mickey/Disney themed room in there somewhere!!!

DON'T BE SO SURE!! I'm sure we'll have a spare bedroom in case anyone stays with us for a couple nights, but then the other room I'm sure will be an office/scrapbooking/photography room. However, with the house SHE wants, we won't be able to afford scrapbooking!!

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

I'm sure there will be a Mickey/Disney themed room in there somewhere!!!

I thought we were the only ones. Our home office has turned into our "Disney Room".

Brack - Please let us know too before you put anything up on Ebay. Also, if anyone ever has any pins to sell, we'd love to purchase them. Our kids don't trade their pins. They have really got into pin "collecting". I have their lanyards hanging in their rooms on display. I need to break down and buy them an additional lanyard to hold all the pins.

Jennifer

 

[brack]

Happy (or unhappy if you had to pay the Taxman) Tax Day 2009!

Jennifer

I mailed mine off at 7PM last night. That is about 24 hours ahead of when I normally send them. I do not send them before I have to and I will not (so far) file them electronically. I want them to suffer like I do. I believe that everyone should pay 10% of everything they make and not have to file. We would save so much money in just printing the tax laws and paperwork!

 

[brack]

I thought we were the only ones. Our home office has turned into our "Disney Room".

Brack - Please let us know too before you put anything up on Ebay. Also, if anyone ever has any pins to sell, we'd love to purchase them. Our kids don't trade their pins. They have really got into pin "collecting". I have their lanyards hanging in their rooms on display. I need to break down and buy them an additional lanyard to hold all the pins.

Jennifer

I have hundred's of pins that will definitely go up for sale. I have some from the cruise where they played the game show on stage as a panelist. If you have any in mind let me know and I will look to see if I have it. Make me an offer I can't refuse which could be almost anything.

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

II believe that everyone should pay 10% of everything they make and not have to file. We would save so much money in just printing the tax laws and paperwork!

That's the smartest thing I've read in awhile. I honestly don't know why the government tries to make things so difficult at times.

Bill used Turbo Tax and E-filed ours back in February. The refund (phew! we got a refund.) was directly put into our account about two weeks later. Technology is great! That money is now long gone. Thanks to our Disneyland trip.

That's another thing about buying a house Robby and Tina, you can deduct the interest paid. We always, always ended up paying the IRS come tax time when we lived in an apartment/rental property. Ever since we purchased our first house, we have always got a refund. With a few audits thrown in there. In the end though, the IRS was wrong and owed us more money. They should know NOT to mess with a Mathematician (Bill is my math whiz).

Jennifer

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

I have hundred's of pins that will definitely go up for sale. I have some from the cruise where they played the game show on stage as a panelist. If you have any in mind let me know and I will look to see if I have it. Make me an offer I can't refuse which could be almost anything.

I honestly don't have any specific pins in mind. "How many" pins would $50 (+ shipping) buy? You can pick and choose and surprise us.

Jennifer

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

Bill and some buddies took a motorcycle roadtrip to Arkansas and Oklahoma last Saturday (day trip).

Tina and Robby (Being in Arkansas) - Did y'all hear anything about the tornado that hit Mena, AR? Bill and his buddies didn't know about it until they drove through and saw the devastation. I guess it happened a few days before they arrived. Bill said there were buildings with the roof ripped off. I guess the clean-up effort had started. Because, he saw "piles" of mobile homes and up-rooted trees (HUGE trees). He said it was very eerie.

Jennifer

 

[RBennett]

Bill and some buddies took a motorcycle roadtrip to Arkansas and Oklahoma last Saturday (day trip).

Tina and Robby (Being in Arkansas) - Did y'all hear anything about the tornado that hit Mena, AR? Bill and his buddies didn't know about it until they drove through and saw the devastation. I guess it happened a few days before they arrived. Bill said there were buildings with the roof ripped off. I guess the clean-up effort had started. Because, he saw "piles" of mobile homes and up-rooted trees (HUGE trees). He said it was very eerie.

Jennifer

Yeah, it was bad. Being in the claims department of an insurance company, we are aware of any bad weather hours before it hits us so that we can get prepared and be ready to be there for people. Also, one of our assistants here in the office went through Mena the day after it hit and reported back how bad it was. I feel so sorry for people that have to go through that. There's not anything you can do to your house to make it tornado-proof.

 

[Pooh_Girl]

DON'T BE SO SURE!! I'm sure we'll have a spare bedroom in case anyone stays with us for a couple nights, but then the other room I'm sure will be an office/scrapbooking/photography room. However, with the house SHE wants, we won't be able to afford scrapbooking!!

We'll see about that!!! I won't be scrapbooking as often because we won't be going on as many trips, but I will scrapbook!!!

 

[RBennett]

Ok, so let me ask everyone here something. Tina and I have NO idea what to do about where to live. We have been looking for the past week or two into moving to the Vero Beach/Melbourne, FL area. We're getting really close I think to selling our house and know that we will have to find a place to rent regardless of what we do. On one hand, we have stable, secure jobs here in AR and we can build a new house with around 1800 sq/ft I think. On the other hand, we can move to Melbourne and be one hour from Disney or 20 minutes from DCL. If we do that, we can find a house for a cheaper price and maybe more sq/ft. The only problem is, finding a job in FL. We might be able to find a job and then be let go in 6 months and not be able to stay down there. There's also one more factor: I have a DB/DSIL/DNeice that may possibly move down there as well. They are absolutely the closest family members I have and would be heartbroken not to get to see my neice grow up. So we have the prospect of going to Disney once a month (if we can find/keep jobs) or stay here and build a house and go to Disney once a year. WHAT DO WE DO????

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

Happy 9th Birthday Will!

My "baby" turns 9 today. He's halfway out of the house and on his way to college. Where does the time go?

Jennifer

 

[TheTXTaylors5]

WHAT DO WE DO????

Last year I might have said "Go for it!". But, today is a different story. Job security is very scarce and I assume the housing market in Florida is more expensive than Arkansas (Have you priced the houses?) You wrote your family "may" move to Florida. Are they only going if you go? If so, what happens if they can't find a job or don't like it? Personally, I wouldn't want to have that responsibility on my shoulders. It may affect your relationship in the long run. JMO I thought y'all were thinking of having a house built in Arkansas? You sounded so excited. If you don't mind me asking ... What prompted the idea of moving to Florida again?

Bill and I (like most Disney fans) have talked about the Disney/Florida move. After numerous discussions, we decided to nix any future plans of working for Disney. We love all the magic and know working for Disney would ruin it for us. Happily, our children plan to apply for the College Program when the time comes.

Bill and I recently started pricing land further north for investment for the future. We have NO desire to move anytime soon. But, it seems a lot of farmers are selling off parts of their land for a profit. If we strike while the iron is hot, we may be able to find a good deal. Then in a few years when the housing market is better and we can make a better profit on our current house, we can move and have our dream house built on our acres and acres of land. We're looking at five to ten acres. That's the plan. We'll see how it works out.

Jennifer

 

[RBennett]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL!!!!!

Well, as it so happens we've been looking at the houses in Florida and they are AWESOME prices!! We're talking more square footage (or the same) as here in Arkansas but for about $20k-$40k cheaper!! The reason for that is there have been some foreclosures, but also people have been building houses faster than others can move in and now they're stuck with them. Back when the housing market first went down, people tried to buy 2 or 3 houses to flip them real quick and make a profit but couldn't sell them. Now they're just trying to get out from underneath them.

As for the family bit, my brother and his family are looking to move down there as long as he can sell his house, transfer within his company down there, get his daughter into one of the private schools, and his wife can find a job meeting their criteria. They were talking about all of this and that is what prompted us to look into it and we saw what a great buyers market it is down there, so we started thinking about it again. It's not a "touristy" area, but still close to Disney and they may move down there even if we don't. So we can buy a house for more money here and have secure jobs and go to Disney once a year, or we can take the gamble and get a house cheaper there hopefully finding jobs that won't lay us off and go to Disney once a month. I don't know. I'm sure Tina will be on here later to chime in. (By the way, you just made me break my promise to her not to think about Florida today! )

 

[BethC1952]

Robbie and Tina:

It's a hard decision. Jim and I made the decision not to move to Florida when our DS was 4 (he'll be 34 on Monday!), and we still regret it. My brother moved down there 20 years ago (he retired from Merrill Lynch two years ago and now works for the city of Jacksonville, doing EXACTLY the same job I do here!).

You have to do what will make you happiest in the long run. Do you want to live in AR for the rest of your lives, or do you want to make the change now while you still can? Unlike many of the others here, I would say go for it. The economy is shaky everywhere, even in AR I imagine. You're both young enough to find some kind of jobs. Of course, I'm much more of a risk-taker than most people, but have rarely regretted my rather strange choices!

Remember, too, that if you move to FL, you may have lots of visitors--just PM me your new address! I know that when we moved to the Jersey Shore we suddenly saw relatives that we hadn't seen in years!

Beth

Edited to add: I forgot--lots of new pictures of the grandkids here! I had to buy a new camera and tried it out the other day!

 

[Pooh_Girl]

Beth-The babies are so darn cute!!!! They are growing so fast!! Lovin the pictures!!

As Robby told you guys we are looking at moving to FL again. I don't know. I have mixed feelings about everything. Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely LOVE to move down there!!! I'm just so scared of the whole job situation. I mean, what if we do find jobs, get this awesomely cheap beautiful house, and then 6 mo down the line, we lose our jobs and now we are stuck. We really just don't know what to do and it's driving us crazy!!! (insert smiley pulling it's hair out) I have been talking with a friend from the wedding boards that lives in FL, and she said that the area we were looking at was once the booming part of FL, but now it's starting to become a ghost area. She said that the jobs and the more stable part of FL is further south. I really don't want to move further south. I really don't want to live in Palm Beach or Miami. I know that DBIL is way more optimistic (for once) than we are, but if he can transfer within his company, he will have a job, whereas we can't just transfer, we will have to find brand new jobs. I really don't want to have to work 60-70 hours a week at the local McD just to be able to pay my bills. I mean what's the benefit of moving to FL with all the perks it has if we can't afford the gas money to enjoy it?? Whereas if we stay here, we can have a brand new house, and get to take a vacation once a year?? When you look at it that way, it sounds kinda stupid doesn't it??

 

[Pooh_Girl]

I almost forgot...
Happy Birthday Will!!!!

 

[brack]

WHAT DO WE DO????

Listen to a couple of Jimmy Buffett songs like "He Went to Paris", "Son of a Son of a Sailor" or "One Particular Harbor" .... you'll know what to do!

If I were your age it wouldn't be a very difficult decision for me.