DDA Chapter 17

[my3princes]

45 days people!


Kyle and I love this mark. For whatever reason, the trip starts to feel close at this point. I think it stems back to our May 2007 trip when we were SO overwhelmed with work, etc and moaned about having 45 days to go, how long it would be, how much we desperately needed that vacation... Somehow, we both remember exactly where we were (in our respective workplaces) during that conversation, and then remember leaving for that trip recalling how quickly 45 days really went! Every trip since, it starts to feel real from here!

Aack! Which means I need to get my butt in gear to figure out how to pack (considering I max out our checked baggage with just the 2 of us, and can't do that anymore (hush Elizabeth!)), how to get through the airport, make a final decision on carseats (gate checking (ridiculous pain in the butt x2) vs renting (extra money, giving up the ease of Emerald Aisle)), etc. Maybe it's a good thing Kyle's on call tonight.... I can start getting my act together!

I'm just going to wish you good luck. I remember packing for an infant and a toddler with a double stroller and all the diapers etc. It was not an easy task. At least we had room for souveniers once the diapers were used up. Thankfully I breast fed so we didn't have to deal with formula and bottles.

So the weekend did have one downfall...

Sunday morning I get a phone call...our hot water heater died and bled 20+ gallons of water in the basement before it was caught. She was able to get the water and gas turned off ok. So I head down to the hotel lobby and hopped online to see what a new water heater would run and installation. So I'm looking at $400 for a 40 gallon water heater and installation of $289 from Home Depot. From a local plumber, installation started at $650.
So on a whim, I call my neighbor...a retired pipefitter. Just to make sure that it's really broke and maybe see if I could buy a hot water heater Monday and leave him my keys so he could install it at his convenience during the week. He said no problem - I'll go look now.
He called one more time saying he recommended a certain water heater that ran $450...this was around 12:30pm.
Around 6:30pm I get a phone call. We have a hot water. Apparently he BOUGHT the water heater, brought it home with him from Home Depot, and installed it. He said he'd let me know when he gets the bill for his CC.

Talk about neighborly!

Wow, What a nice neighbor That must have been a big load off your mind.

 

[bear74]

So the weekend did have one downfall...

Sunday morning I get a phone call...our hot water heater died and bled 20+ gallons of water in the basement before it was caught. She was able to get the water and gas turned off ok. So I head down to the hotel lobby and hopped online to see what a new water heater would run and installation. So I'm looking at $400 for a 40 gallon water heater and installation of $289 from Home Depot. From a local plumber, installation started at $650.
So on a whim, I call my neighbor...a retired pipefitter. Just to make sure that it's really broke and maybe see if I could buy a hot water heater Monday and leave him my keys so he could install it at his convenience during the week. He said no problem - I'll go look now.
He called one more time saying he recommended a certain water heater that ran $450...this was around 12:30pm.
Around 6:30pm I get a phone call. We have a hot water. Apparently he BOUGHT the water heater, brought it home with him from Home Depot, and installed it. He said he'd let me know when he gets the bill for his CC.

Talk about neighborly!

wow Chanon,
that was very nice of your neighbor. Check with your utilities company as I know some of them are giving rebates for new furnaces, water heaters etc. Also I think remember last year reading somethng about getting a rebate on your taxes for energy efficiant appliances that you bought.

 

[tinknme]

Talk about neighborly!

He is a keeper

 

[my3princes]

We can't tour the aquatic center today. Apparently they are staining the floors so tours have been suspended until the construction crew finishes up. By then it will probably be open. I guess I should get going. I need to get myself ready and run out to get my little ones. My mother wants to clean her house and that won't happen with kids underfoot.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Anne Marie - lots of your way, for Daniel, Katie and the house!!!

And congrats on the weight loss! Excellent!

I hope Daniel's appointment goes well!
Yay for a potential offer (or two) on the house!!
Great job on the weight loss!

Chanon - Sorry about the water heater, but I am glad your neighbor was able to help you out with the new one!

Jennifer - Yay for 45 days! I have no advice for traveling with infants. Good luck getting all the details worked out!

 

[Glynis]

Chris and I both struggle with weight loss, but having Hunter running around certainly makes it challenging. It is hard to buy diet friendly foods for us and jelly donuts for Hunter

This is our problem, as well. Jacob and the twins are so seriously underweight, that the doctor has told us to feed them ice cream daily. Katie finds it totally unfair, and to be truthful, I'd enjoy a dish of ice cream nightly, too.

Luckily, Katie has found the Wii fit a fun thing, and the younger kids are not allowed to use it. That makes it "her" thing like the ice cream is theirs.

 

[PNO4TE]

Good morning, DDA!

 

[MinnieMouseMom]

Hi, Kelli! It's been a long time, but it sounds like you have had enough to keep you quite busy!

How did you like DL? I wish I'd known that you were going. I would have tried to get down there. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to ride my favorites due to being pregnant. Now that the baby's here, I'm looking forward to Indiana Jones, and California Screamin!

We like DL but it's no WDW. I love Indiana Jones, but can't handle California Screamin'. LOL It leaves me dizzy for 2 days. LOL Congrats on the baby, I obviously have been gone a while, I didn't know you were pregnant.

Good morning!

Congratulations on everyone losing weight & especially exercising!!!

Today is my weigh in (WW's) & I am down 11.5lbs so far.

Now if I could just exercise things would be great.

We are off to the pediatric cardiologist for Daniel. He has been having chest pains & I want to have him checked out. He had them years ago & the Dr's said it was nothing but now he is complaining about them again & with more occurance.

Then off to the eye Dr for Katie so she can get new glasses & or contacts.

We have 2 people who saw our house yesterday that were reshows (one lady came 3 times & brought her kids) One is coming again this afternoon. The realtor thinks they will both be making offers which would be nice.

Hope you all have a great day & stay warm.

on the weight loss! Hope things go well with Daniel. Fingers crossed for offers on the house.

So the weekend did have one downfall...

Sunday morning I get a phone call...our hot water heater died and bled 20+ gallons of water in the basement before it was caught. She was able to get the water and gas turned off ok. So I head down to the hotel lobby and hopped online to see what a new water heater would run and installation. So I'm looking at $400 for a 40 gallon water heater and installation of $289 from Home Depot. From a local plumber, installation started at $650.
So on a whim, I call my neighbor...a retired pipefitter. Just to make sure that it's really broke and maybe see if I could buy a hot water heater Monday and leave him my keys so he could install it at his convenience during the week. He said no problem - I'll go look now.
He called one more time saying he recommended a certain water heater that ran $450...this was around 12:30pm.
Around 6:30pm I get a phone call. We have a hot water. Apparently he BOUGHT the water heater, brought it home with him from Home Depot, and installed it. He said he'd let me know when he gets the bill for his CC.

Talk about neighborly!

Great neighbor!!

 

[tink2020]

So the weekend did have one downfall...

Sunday morning I get a phone call...our hot water heater died and bled 20+ gallons of water in the basement before it was caught. She was able to get the water and gas turned off ok. So I head down to the hotel lobby and hopped online to see what a new water heater would run and installation. So I'm looking at $400 for a 40 gallon water heater and installation of $289 from Home Depot. From a local plumber, installation started at $650.
So on a whim, I call my neighbor...a retired pipefitter. Just to make sure that it's really broke and maybe see if I could buy a hot water heater Monday and leave him my keys so he could install it at his convenience during the week. He said no problem - I'll go look now.
He called one more time saying he recommended a certain water heater that ran $450...this was around 12:30pm.
Around 6:30pm I get a phone call. We have a hot water. Apparently he BOUGHT the water heater, brought it home with him from Home Depot, and installed it. He said he'd let me know when he gets the bill for his CC.

Talk about neighborly!

That IS neighborly! I'm so impressed, and glad it's done at least!

Unless you have a pool in your living room I think a membership is in order You all know that my children are little fishies. I know that they will love swimming year round and it is great exercise. Chris is looking forward to the gym and I'm hoping to use it all. My 40th is coming up in Sept and I'm hoping to be in the best shape of my life by then Heck I'm already in better shape than I was at 30.

Nope, no indoor pool. The girls can't take swim lessons for a little while anyway though, so we're ok for now! Maybe when Kyle starts making actual money

 

[tink2020]

I'm just going to wish you good luck. I remember packing for an infant and a toddler with a double stroller and all the diapers etc. It was not an easy task. At least we had room for souveniers once the diapers were used up. Thankfully I breast fed so we didn't have to deal with formula and bottles.

We're going to buy diapers, food, etc down there instead of packing them, since we rent a car. That should help! At this point, we aren't planning on bringing our stroller either (renting from ABBF). It would just be too difficult to get all of that through the airport! We'll have 24 hours worth of formula, etc in case of emergency but otherwise we'll strap the girls on and still have hands free for luggage. That is, unless we try the carseats.....

 

[bear74]

We're going to buy diapers, food, etc down there instead of packing them, since we rent a car. That should help! At this point, we aren't planning on bringing our stroller either (renting from ABBF). It would just be too difficult to get all of that through the airport! We'll have 24 hours worth of formula, etc in case of emergency but otherwise we'll strap the girls on and still have hands free for luggage. That is, unless we try the carseats.....

I saw some people pulling their car seats through the airports. They had wheels on them.

 

[tink2020]

I saw some people pulling their car seats through the airports. They had wheels on them.

You can get these cool carriers:

but only for upright seats, and the girls are too small for theirs still.

The other issue is that they are lap babies for the plane, without their own seats, so we'd have to gate-check whatever we bring.... and I'm not very comfortable with that.

I imagine when they require their own seat, we'll use something like this!

 

[Steffy]

So the weekend did have one downfall...

Sunday morning I get a phone call...our hot water heater died and bled 20+ gallons of water in the basement before it was caught. She was able to get the water and gas turned off ok. So I head down to the hotel lobby and hopped online to see what a new water heater would run and installation. So I'm looking at $400 for a 40 gallon water heater and installation of $289 from Home Depot. From a local plumber, installation started at $650.
So on a whim, I call my neighbor...a retired pipefitter. Just to make sure that it's really broke and maybe see if I could buy a hot water heater Monday and leave him my keys so he could install it at his convenience during the week. He said no problem - I'll go look now.
He called one more time saying he recommended a certain water heater that ran $450...this was around 12:30pm.
Around 6:30pm I get a phone call. We have a hot water. Apparently he BOUGHT the water heater, brought it home with him from Home Depot, and installed it. He said he'd let me know when he gets the bill for his CC.

Talk about neighborly!

Wow Chanon. I didn't think they made neighbors like that anymore.

 

[my3princes]

We're going to buy diapers, food, etc down there instead of packing them, since we rent a car. That should help! At this point, we aren't planning on bringing our stroller either (renting from ABBF). It would just be too difficult to get all of that through the airport! We'll have 24 hours worth of formula, etc in case of emergency but otherwise we'll strap the girls on and still have hands free for luggage. That is, unless we try the carseats.....

We didn't realize the importance of a rental car back in the early days of our WDW travel. We used Mears the first few times then tiffany car, then we found the wonderous world of rental cars. I don't think we'd ever go back. Of course short trips for just Chris and I are fine without a car, but not with the boys. We've never taken car seats with us when flying. We did like having the stroller to get through the airport.

 

[bear74]

You can get these cool carriers:

but only for upright seats, and the girls are too small for theirs still.

The other issue is that they are lap babies for the plane, without their own seats, so we'd have to gate-check whatever we bring.... and I'm not very comfortable with that.

I imagine when they require their own seat, we'll use something like this!

okay I knew I had seen something

 

[my3princes]

The truck is warming up. I need to take Nick to Kohls as they are having the inauguration ball tomorrow afternoon which means he needs a shirt and tie. My Mom has a 30% off coupon so that will help

 

[tink2020]

We didn't realize the importance of a rental car back in the early days of our WDW travel. We used Mears the first few times then tiffany car, then we found the wonderous world of rental cars. I don't think we'd ever go back. Of course short trips for just Chris and I are fine without a car, but not with the boys. We've never taken car seats with us when flying. We did like having the stroller to get through the airport.

We've never not had a car, other than my solo trip last year (and only because I was too young to rent one). I can't stand doing things on someone else's time table!

okay I knew I had seen something

We've never seen them in person, but - if they work well - they seem super cool!

 

[bear74]

We've never not had a car, other than my solo trip last year (and only because I was too young to rent one). I can't stand doing things on someone else's time table!



We've never seen them in person, but - if they work well - they seem super cool!

i have done 3 trips without a car. next time I am for sure renting a car as we will still have a stroller.

 

[marcij]

So the weekend did have one downfall...

Sunday morning I get a phone call...our hot water heater died and bled 20+ gallons of water in the basement before it was caught. She was able to get the water and gas turned off ok. So I head down to the hotel lobby and hopped online to see what a new water heater would run and installation. So I'm looking at $400 for a 40 gallon water heater and installation of $289 from Home Depot. From a local plumber, installation started at $650.
So on a whim, I call my neighbor...a retired pipefitter. Just to make sure that it's really broke and maybe see if I could buy a hot water heater Monday and leave him my keys so he could install it at his convenience during the week. He said no problem - I'll go look now.
He called one more time saying he recommended a certain water heater that ran $450...this was around 12:30pm.
Around 6:30pm I get a phone call. We have a hot water. Apparently he BOUGHT the water heater, brought it home with him from Home Depot, and installed it. He said he'd let me know when he gets the bill for his CC.

Talk about neighborly!

What a nice neighbor! I'm glad you had a good trip.

Anne Marie -- Great news on the weight loss! I hope you get a great offer on the house. PD for the appt. for Daniel.

This is our problem, as well. Jacob and the twins are so seriously underweight, that the doctor has told us to feed them ice cream daily. Katie finds it totally unfair, and to be truthful, I'd enjoy a dish of ice cream nightly, too.

Luckily, Katie has found the Wii fit a fun thing, and the younger kids are not allowed to use it. That makes it "her" thing like the ice cream is theirs.

We have the same problem as well. Sherbert is always a good option for a small treat if they want something similar. Of course, Andrew loves Sherbert and has always preferred it, but he's lately found the Vanilla Bean ice cream Randy has in the fridge and has decided he likes it, thank goodness!

Not sure what we are doing today. We were supposed to go to the movies, but I don't know that I feel driving to the next town over to take them. I'm thinking of bribing them with a pizza party for their friends, since the weather will be half way decent today.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Marci - Good luck with the bribe!

I need to put Princess in the tub, but she is so happy playing with her toys I think I will just let her play for awhile.

DH already picked up DS, so DS isn't pestering me to take him somewhere.