PCC Todd.0 or BUST! My adventure in climbing out of debt! 10/13 T-Minus 29 hours!

[A.Mickey]

Ok....so here is the reason why I have been away....Jason's father and stepmom were in town last Thursday night until Tuesday morning. We had not seen them in over 2 years!!

Jason took Thursday night through Tuesday night off of work!
This means lots of time with Jason! Since we usually only see each other for about 15 minutes each weekday morning and on the weekends. Hence lots of free time at night to write TR and work on my designs...and of course Facebook .

On Thursday night we went to eat at Home Run Inn for the Pizza! Jason's Dad (lets just call him Grandpa Joe) loves to eat here. Grandpa Joe grew up in Chicago so every time he is in town we must eat at Home Run Inn. It has become a tradition.

Friday we wake up and head out to the Wisconsin State Fair. (I took Friday and Monday off of work)

Upon arriving I spot this booth, look Deep Fried and On a stick are in Disney writing! This has to be good!!

Deep Fried Smores!! We have an obsession with trying things that are deep fried. So far my favorite thing is a deep fried Reeses PB Cup! We never did get to try a deep fried smore, on the way in it was too early...

But it is never too early for a Wisconsin State Fair Cream Puff!

Aaron Loved it!!

Who wants to play Farmville?!?

Three little....ur um....BIG PIGS!

Stop for the cut out animals! Aaron loves these.

We got some Rootbeer Milk, Banana Milk, and Cherry Vanilla Milk! Total= 75 (wow I can't find the cents symbol!)

We rested with our milk....

(Hey look! Jason and I are wearing matching shirts! It never fails!)

On to the midway!!

(I soooo wanted to go in one of these tents but Jason wouldn't let me! Some tents were 1.00 and some were only 50 cents....he wanted to keep it to my imagination.)

The Death Trap

(Jason and I rode this back in 2006....do not attempt to ride this ride...you have been warned!)

Jason stops for Dinner?!?!?!

(Don't you remember what happened when you try exotic things?!)

I wish my friends were here!!

We head out of the Fair around 4pm and head to Culver's back near home for dinner. Grandpa Joe and Grandma Peggy have never ate here before. They really enjoyed it!

Saturday we head downtown by Metra to show Grandpa Joe and Grandma Peggy the sites. Grandma Peggy has never actually been downtown before. Nana (Jason's mother) is taking care of Aaron for the day and night.

We head over to the water tower place for lunch at our favorite spot, foodlife! Oh but wait...chocolate is wafting through the air...

(that is one heavy chocolate bar!)

We tour the American Girl doll store, makes me glad that I have a boy.

Time for lunch.....Eek...no food porn! What a Bad DISer am I?!?

We walk down Michigan Ave to show them Millennium Park

Cloudgate....aka the Bean

Gotta get our pic in the Bean.

We decide to go dip our feet in the water..

Reason #1 why I NEED A STEEEEEK!

A Fun day in the city!

We part ways....Jason and I have a musical to see at 2pm.
It is Spring Awakening....I just have to say that it is my all time favorite musical that I have ever seen. I have seen quite a few! I am getting tickets tomorrow for when they are in Milwaukee for my mom and my sister to come with .

The show gets out and it is 4:30 we decide to take an express train back....but the 1st stop it makes is 2 miles past our stop. We knew this, but we figured we would take a cab or walk back! When we get off the train we decide to walk back. It is now 5:45 and we have an ADR at P.F. Chang's for 7!

 

[A.Mickey]

We make it back to our car 8 minutes before the train we were going to take pulls into the station!! Yes! We shaved some time off. I have to pick up some pictures for the D2D meet before we meet Todd, Jaime and Robin at P.F. Chang's!

6:45 we make it to Woodfield and see Famous and Celebrity!!
We sit down and Robin comes in shortly! Love the hair!

Lettuce Wraps

Dynamite Shrimp!

Soups
uh...Jaime has got me covered!

Poor Todd, Jason and I ordered both of his dishes! He quickly has to look over the menu!

We did this like family style...so we all get a little of everyone's...

unless you are Jaime....she stayed away from the bad stuff......until the cake showed up!

Fun desserts in glasses! We love desserts in glasses, I am having Palo flashbacks .

I think Robin is too

I have to pause here.....Can you believe that Robin flew out from Virginia just for the weekend!! And Todd drove from Detroit!! ::HUGS::

You know we love you guys, we gotta get Robin next time!!

Sunday
Jason and his family are going to Portillo's and the Children's museum....I love their expressions in this pic.

(ah hem)

While I go to the DIS meet at D2D!
I beat Todd and Jaime!!
I chat with Lori (Briarrosie)? and Jen (Jen3003) and daughter.

Soon I hear someone screaming and running with his arms in the air! It is Todd! He runs to give me a gigantic HUG!! I <3 U!
We are standing chatting, and Natale1980 shows up with her sister? sisinlaw? I go and talk to her! I have been watching her vlogs! She is a celebrity too . Turns out she has been reading my TR! Wow! Small world .
Jaime covered this very well....and I didn't have my camera with me, since Jason had it at the Children's museum.

I did Pin trade with a castmember and got a Mo pin from Wall-E! Later on I was chatting with Linda (Quirty30) and her kids. Her son kept saying how he wishes he could pin trade. So I told him he could trade with me. I had a steamboat willie pin and he was very happy and took that one. He gave me a character spot pin. So it all works out!

I got to see some fun pictures of Todd through the years!!

And now we bring to you a little flashback....I don't know whose pictures these are....but I have been going to the D2D meets every time now. Looking at these they seem sooo old. Even though it was only May of 2008 I believe? I know that day was the day we booked PCC 1.0. The day we first met anyone from the DIS, and also the day we met AskTracy! Enjoy!

Look who I am standing next to!!! And who woulda thunk it that I would pin that shirt just a year later . Btw...I thought that was your DATW shirt

Calling the Podcast!

Gosh it is sooo weird to look back at these pics! So much of my life has changed since the PCC! I am soo thankful for all the great friendships I have made, and continue to make through the DIS!!

 

[A.Mickey]

Monday we head out to Brookfield Zoo.

Remember when I said that Aaron likes these...

I think I found someone that likes them more!

Too Cute!

I Love PIGS!

The piglets were pretty disappointing though, they were pretty big already!

A great weekend had by all!

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.....

 

[A.Mickey]

Ok, so I cheated and took that little mini TR from my actual TR.

But now you get the jist of the weekend I splurged!

Last weekend we went to a Ren Faire with Jaime AKA Tiggerbell...so we ended up spending close to $100 to do that. It was a ton of fun though!
Would do it again in a heartbeat!

The good news is we are still really busy at work and I was asked to work on Saturday again! While, I won't get as much overtime as last time I went in I should get some. And some is better than none .

So yeah I still have 3 cards to pay off.....but the one is under $500 . I almost did the Cash for Clunkers too....which would have given me a car payment again of 250 at least, per month! I almost have no car payment! Just have a little over $400 left on the car, but then I will have to spend $500 more to get it fixed. One day I will be out of this debt with two working automobiles .

And the Indy DIS meet is one week from tomorrow!!

 

[A.Mickey]

Jason and I currently in Indy and as some of you are probably aware Jaime is in WDW (can't wait for her next TR to begin)! I am sure she is having a grand time, but she is also having a grand time with mu-ah!

Flattie Jaime's adventures in Indy
I get up and say to myself...I am going to Indy!! I cannot wait to see all of my old friends and meet new ones!!

Jason and Shanan are still puttsin around their apartment packing things up. I decide to go drink my coffee.

I get dressed

Ok, so they finally have their bags packed! Ooohh I like the choice of bags

Aaron isn't here so I will sit in his seat for the ride.

Shanan decided that she wants to take us to her old stomping ground. So we drive down to Kankakee...I guess this is close to where the Chicago Bears have their summer camp. So we do a mall tour, come on everybody let's go to the mall.

Wow! This mall must have really been hurt by the recession...anybody wanna check out a book at the mall?

We stop for gas and are back on the road...now we are taking back roads to get from Kankakee to I-65
What do we see on the way there.....
lots and lots of
CORN!

Shanan and I goofing off...

Jason was so excited taking the previous pictures of me that he somehow lost the Ipod touch! This has all of our directions for the next two days! So we actually had to pull over and stop. Luckily Jason found it and it was all the way underneath the seat.

I got amusement out of that one!

Now we are on I-65 and we see a HUGE wind farm! I don't know if you can see them off in the distance, but that was pretty neat!

We stop in West Lafayette because Shanan was on the website Roadfood.com and found an interesting little place to go to.

I have to say this was a pretty awesome find!
http://www.triplexxxfamilyrestaurant.com/index.html

This rootbeer was delish! There is a whole history behind it here:http://www.triplexxxfamilyrestaurant.com/rootbeer.html

It uses only 100 percent unfrozen sirloin, ground on site and grilled with real cheese.

YUM!

This waitress was very fond of me. She asked me alot of questions and was wondering why I was 2-D. I had to let her know that while I am here in 2-D my friends (in 3-D) are at the World in 2-D. She thought that was really nifty and wanted to take a pic with me!

Jason decided that he wanted to go check out Perdue's campus.

Oh look! Round table discussion?

Tippecanoe Battlefield is near here so we decide to pay it a visit.

Shanan doesn't really care for this land (she felt it was sad that the Native Americans lost the midwest land here) Maybe we should take some more time to explore it next time. It was close to 4 by now and the D&B meet is at 7:30, we still have an hour more to drive!

We did want to stop in to see Prophetstown but it was six dollars are car and like I said it was getting late.

So we hopped back on the road on our way to Indy!

 

[A.Mickey]

So we make it to Indy a little before 5 and the hotel we booked was a Raddison but it must have been bought out because when we showed up it is a Four Points by Sheraton.

The room is really nice and spacious, it reminds us alot of the room at the Dolphin. Free internet and free bottles of water!

Gotta slip into my evening attire

Ohhh...we are ready to go to another mall before the D&B meet!

No one told me there would be a photo-op with Mickey here!

Hmmmm.....

I think they might herd cattle into this mall? I never saw doors this BIG before!

We had some more time to spare before the meet so we decide what better place to burn off some time then!

Jason made me wait in the car...I think Shanan was having to much fun taking pictures of me in the Disney Store.

7:15 time to meet some DISers for D&B

We were greeted by Aaron, Kim and Anna! And soon Shanan got her hug from Brandie! The rest of the gang congregated from the bar on over and hugs were received and given. Then we waited as our tables were getting set up! We had a private room!! At first they had the 6 tables set up all separated, but then they decided to move 3 of them (since that was all that was needed for our group) into an L shape. This worked out very well! Although, it is pretty hard to converse with 13 people at the same time!

Yum a ummy peachy drink.

Chicken dish.....forgot the name...too busy talking! Tonya ordered it, it sounded good so I followed!

Jason ordered the Teriyaki Steak

Now it was time to play some games!

We had to leave pretty quick, Jason had been up for 45 of the last 48 hours.

Can't wait for tomorrow!

Goodnight!

 

[A.Mickey]

Saturday we woke up and lounged around facebooking and reading the DIS.

Shanan and Jason's version of the steeeeeeek!

Shanan looked for another burger joint for lunch. She musta been in a burger mood while she was planning this trip. This time she used Urbanspoon.com and the number 2 rated Indy restaurant is Bub's Burgers & Ice Cream. So we head over to downtown Carmel.

We arrived at 11:10 AM the place opens at 11:00 AM and by 11:30 AM the place had a wait!!
See all the people waiting behind me?

Hmmm....what size burger shall we order?

Well, since Shanan is sharing with me let's order the 11 oz.

Jason and I relaxing and waiting for our food on the outside patio.

Yum a chocolate milkshake...this was Shanan's 2nd favorite shake she has ever had. Number 1 being Schoop's.

YUM!

This burger is HUGE!

Shanan and I couldn't even finish the whole thing!

Another fabulous find! Now we were on our way to the DISmeet! On the way there we stopped at a Meijer to pick up a cheese tray and some crackers.

We get there a little before 1pm and immediatley see...

(that stinker tricked us!)

I head over to check out the silent auction items and look around at the various things to do.

Ooooo...I want this

and this (Bob's homemade keychains)

Kids Korner

We go up to the front table and fill out name tags and get our tickets for the raffle drawing that will be held at the top of every hour.
We also get our scavenger hunt sheets...and start walking around the room and meeting fellow DIS enthusiasts!

After we filled out our scavenger hunt sheet we turned it in for another raffle. We also bought some tickets for the 50/50 raffle. We like raffles!!

Ok, first things first, gotta get a Dole Whip!

Hanging out with some of the gang...

The 1st drawing at 2:00 pm.

Jason started in on Brandie's cupcakes...it wasn't until the 5th one he discovered that there were other flavors.

Kids playing hot potato.

Shanan and I were wanting some more food...

 

[A.Mickey]

Shanan brought her pins and pin traded a bit and talked to some other DISers about pins.

Now it was time for some kid activities! How to draw a character.
Like Disney's Art of Animation class...so Tonya, Shanan and I decide to attend.

She was a very good teacher!

Shanan and I played Bingo next. That was fun! We liked the Bingo cards.

Shanan's number was drawn for a lovely Dunkin Donuts gift basket that was put together by Aaron's mother. It was lovely and I even came home with a prize.

What number cupcake is this!?!?

Shanan wants to try the fondant and get to the center where the Rice Krispies are .

It is close to 5pm and there is a mad dash for the snipes to come in and steal the items away from the high bidders!
We won the Bob key-chains, a Club 33 key-chain, and Disney's Christmas Carol plush dolls. Since there were 3 key-chains and Tracey, Tonya and Shanan wanted them we split them up.

Tonya won the restaurant review with Kevin and John and Tracey won the signed shirt!

Gotta have our Dole Whips for Bawb!

The end of a great meet! It just was over too fast. Thanks for all the work Aaron, Kim and Anna!! We can't wait for next year!

 

[A.Mickey]

So it is only 6pm and we have the place cleaned up. None of us go to bed at 7pm...so a few of us that don't have any plans for the evening head over to where else....Houlihan's

Wow, those tiles are going to hurt later.

These are some BIG drinks!

Shanan and Jaime Martini tasting part 2!

We all order appetizers or something small...
Jason goes with the Asian Chicken Noodle Bowl

Shanan orders the lettuce wraps

We have a good time chatting away then we walk down to some of the shops to burn off some of our meal and alcohol.

We stop into a doggie shop. Are these thongs for your dog?

Next we head into Borders Tonya and Brandie want to check out the Twilight section. Someone has a crush on Edward

Borders is closing and we still don't want to leave each other so we decide to hang out in the hotel lobby and have a DATL/Twilight tutorial/Legally Blonde sing-a-long.
Before:

After:

(anyone want to go swimming)

Tracy and Bill joined us for a little bit and we had a fun time talking and exchanging 's. Shanan, Jason and Tracey learned alot about the Cullen's. We left to go home at 2 am. We had to rest up for the last meet we have a brunch scheduled for 10:30 am at Stone Creek.

We made it! Shanan wasn't feeling to well though.

These pictures are Tracey's

Our group for Brunch.

Food

Our group from DATL

Now it's time to say goodbye to all our company....

See you real soon! But not soon enough!
We had a great weekend!! Hanging with DISers is the best!

Jaime wanted some ice cream and a shake on the way home.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

 

[A.Mickey]

I haven't updated this in a while, so much so that it ended up being closed!!....I have been stuck in a bit of a rut....but luckily for October I have 3 paydays and Jason has 5!

Our Indy trip set us back 500 but it was sooo worth it!

Jason was also talking to his brother last weekend and he said we could stay at his place Friday night and Saturday night and then Sunday night we will be staying at the Resort where he is getting married for only 60 dollars for the room. It is a 200/night room. So, Aaron and I are going to Jason's brothers wedding in Arizona in November! It is only going to cost 600.

Good thing is my cars are now both paid off! I still have 3 credit cards that I am working on, but I hope to have that stubborn one paid off by the end of October....if not sooner!

 

[A.Mickey]

Well, I did something I probably shouldn't have...but I couldn't help myself! I bought DVC! I know, I know, I probably shouldn't have...but it is getting more and more costlier for DVC and we have wanted DVC for the past 3 years!

I justified the purchase, that we will have it until Aaron is 50 years old! Until I am 77 and Jason is 82!! Jason's mom is also helping paying 100 a month for the next 5 years! And then after that it will be paid off, so maybe I should think about getting a house when Aaron is 7? I don't know! But I think I made a wise decision with how much we like to vacation at Disney!

My stubborn credit card will be paid off by the end of this month, and we are not going to stay at Jason's brothers house now. Instead we are staying for two nights at a Motel 6 in Scottsdale came out to $100! And then the wedding night at the resort..at least we will be out of their hair! I saved 12 dollars on the room using a coupon discount code and going through my sunshine rewards account! I am always looking!

 

[A.Mickey]

WOO HOO!! The stubborn card is paid off as of today!

So, now that we are DVC owners we have a few more trips in the mix! Hopefully we will be going down in October of next year of a week during Food and Wine as my cousin is getting married in Tampa. We would buy an annual pass with our DVC discount and then go in December for the PCC 2.0 and then take one more trip for the 40th anniversary of the MK in October of 2011!

 

[A.Mickey]

So thanks to the Podcast I joined the No Buy group on the budget board! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2321066

This is really, really, really helping me curb my spending! Should have another credit card paid off by the end of the year and half of the last one paid off by the end of Feb with our tax return!

 

[natale1980]

I don't know how I didn't see this... Very Entertaining!
I really hope you get your CC's paid! Congrats on getting rid of the first one. I really need to get my butt in gear and get debt free... but it's so hard when there are so many nice shiny things to buy.
Really though - your awesome for paying off your debt! Good for you! Maybe you'll be my inspiration... After we get back from Disney of course!!

-nat

 

[A.Mickey]

I don't know how I didn't see this... Very Entertaining!
I really hope you get your CC's paid! Congrats on getting rid of the first one. I really need to get my butt in gear and get debt free... but it's so hard when there are so many nice shiny things to buy.
Really though - your awesome for paying off your debt! Good for you! Maybe you'll be my inspiration... After we get back from Disney of course!!

-nat

Well, at first I was kinda ashamed of this PTR....but then I am like....I don't care I will let it be known! So I advertised it in my signature.

I am only able to get rid of my cc debt, because earlier this year my father asked me if I was thinking of getting a house now that they are getting cheaper and cheaper....and I was like I would love too....but I first have to get out of this CC debt! Then when I told him how much I had....he told me no more vacations until you are out of credit card debt! I have to be on PCC 2.0! So this is what I needed to hear to make me get rid of this debt one and all! Although he doesn't know that I just bought DVC. Oh well, it will be done with soon enough....I got the 5 year loan so Jan 2015 . Gosh Aaron will almost be 8 then!

The No Buy thread is really helping me too!

 

[A.Mickey]

In January we can book for our 11 months out! We are at least going to book a savanna view room for Nana (Jason's mother) hopefully we will be coming too! Will know better about our finances once March rolls around! I am really trying to get our head above water, it sure takes a long time though!

This just reminds me that I got a D23 membership a while back, in the middle of October, I wonder when I can be expecting my 1st magazine.

 

[A.Mickey]

I started doing the C25K program! I figured why not get in shape and out of debt at the same time! That way by the time my debt is paid off I will have a new body to go with it and I will be feeling good!


Update on the money front! Working on the 2nd card still. I put 400 towards that card last Friday and hopefully I will have the remainder paid on it by the end of the year! Then I will have the last major credit card that I want to get rid of! I big scary discover card that has 6000 on it! Luckily, all of our tax return will go to the card and that will be about 3000-4000. After the discover I have a lil chase card that currently has just under 3000 on it, but the interest rate is holding out at 5% until it is paid off....so I am not really worried about this one. It comes out to about $12 a month in interest.

Unfortunately, the car that is still out of commission has to have an emissions test on it before February so I guess we will be having a car fixing bill sometime in January....I hope it won't be too much

 

[TyRy]

Hi Shanan,

Just wanted to say I think it's great that your doing the whole CC payoff thing and even posting about it! I know what you mean about things popping up (like the car!) as it seems every time we get close too, something else happens (like needing a new roof soon!) But we just keep plugging away and it sounds like you guys will be there in no time!

And congratulations for buying DVC! I think we met a year or two ago at a Doorway event and I know you guys were thinking about it. It really will be the best thing you've done. I know it's been that way for us and we LOVE having AKL as our home resort.

Off to try and catch up on your cruise report.

 

[A.Mickey]

Hi Shanan,

Just wanted to say I think it's great that your doing the whole CC payoff thing and even posting about it! I know what you mean about things popping up (like the car!) as it seems every time we get close too, something else happens (like needing a new roof soon!) But we just keep plugging away and it sounds like you guys will be there in no time!

And congratulations for buying DVC! I think we met a year or two ago at a Doorway event and I know you guys were thinking about it. It really will be the best thing you've done. I know it's been that way for us and we LOVE having AKL as our home resort.

Off to try and catch up on your cruise report.

Thanks! Posting about it is holding me accountable and helping me pay it off, plus having my dad telling me that I can't go anywhere until my credit cards are paid off seems to help too! Yeah, cars stink sometimes! At least we don't have a car payment anymore.

Hmmm...I don't remember meeting you at a Doorway event, but we will be meeting you again, or for the first time at Jaime's in a week, right? Yeah, it will definitely be a good thing as Aaron will be able to go to Disney or anywhere for that matter til he is over 50! I just can't even think that far into the future it is crazy!

 

[A.Mickey]

So, last month I got a change in terms from my stubborn card that I just paid off last month and they are getting rid of the rewards program and adding an annual fee. Last night I called and asked them to close my account! I don't need to pay an annual fee!!

Boy, did that feel good!!