Toystoryduo's Journal....Moving Forward From Here

[Amy&Dan]

Tracy, my Benjamin has been gone for almost three years and to this day, I still expect to see him greeting me when I walk in. Nothing is as faithful and constant as a good family dog. Give yourself plenty of time, its a big loss . And I know its early, but maybe you can get a new dog one of these days. After we lost two of our dogs within four months of each other in 2006, I swore I was done, but alas, Daisy found her way into our homes and hearts. But I still miss Ben and Lacey!

I am so glad your husband had a safe trip to MI. It sounds like he has lots of work which is hard in some ways but nice in others!

That is awful about the hardware store but as you say, thank God nobody was hurt.

And after all my griping about snow, its going to be 60 today! And 70 on Friday. Then it will probably snow again!

Have a great day.

 

[lovinaz]

I agree with Amy, it will take a while to get over Peanut. Hang in there!

 

[toystoryduo]

Thanks ladies. We are very blessed to have had Peanut in our lives as long as we did, but we still miss her a lot. We will probably get another dog at some point, but not for awhile.

I've got a lot of things I'd like to get done today, but TOM is here and my DD7 isn't feeling well right now so I'm not sure how much will actually get done. Here's the to do list anyway:

* Homeschooling

* Laundry

* Library

* Work on de-cluttering

* Finish planning DD8's birthday party

* Christmas shopping

Our budget for Christmas this year is $400. I'm going to try as hard as I can to stick to that amount. We decided a couple of years ago to limit gift giving to our girls to 3 gifts each + stockings. (Disney is a part of their gift as well.) I already have 1 gift for each of them. So that brings the total amount to be spent down to $350.

I also have gifts for 6 people that I didn't include in that $400 amount because they were purchased much earlier this year. As it stands right now, I have 13 people to buy for + my DDs and my DH. (That number may increase if we do the exchange for the adults on my DH's side of the family. We won't know until Thanksgiving.) I think I can do this. I think I can...I think I can...I think I can.

Well, that's about all from here. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Hi Tracy,

I bet you can stick to your budget. With the deals you find, you'll probably come in under that! That is about what I plan to spend this year too. Its just gotten to be too much money at the holidays for us, which is not the point of Christmas and not smart on our check book!

It does take time to get over the loss of a dog. Each time in my life I have lost a pet, it varied when the time was right to get a new one, but each time, it happened, it was just one of those "this is the right time" moments when it felt right. You'll have one of those too and you'll know when it gets there!

What kind of dog was Peanut? And I can't even remember the name of your other dog. Its just so hard to lose two so quickly together.

I hope you start to feel better. TOM is always such a pain. And I am sorry your dd isn't feel well either. Take it easy today and take some time to rest and recoup!

 

[lovinaz]

I know you will make that Christmas budget stretch, you are so good at bargain hunting! I need to be more disciplined when it comes to that kind of thing...

I hope your DD is feeling better soon. 'Tis the season!

 

[toystoryduo]

Thanks ladies.

Yesterday was such a tiring day....Did I clean? Nope not at all. We went Christmas shopping! I am happy to report that I only have the following to buy for:

* 1 gift each for my DDs

* my niece

* a DVD for my DBro

* my MIL

* stocking stuffers for my DH (We're only doing stockings this year.)

* lottery tickets for lottery exchange (dad's side of family)

I still have about $189 in the Christmas budget so I think I can do this. Now, if my DH's family decides that all adults will exchange gifts, then it will be a bit more difficult. I may eBay or put some things on Craigslist to earn some extra money to add to the Christmas fund just in case. We'll see what happens....

Today's Plan:

* Homeschooling

* If MIL will watch the girls for a bit, DH and I will go look for their last Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers today.

* Rewards Programs

* eBay/Craigslist? (I'll see what DH thinks.)

That's about all from here...Have a great day everyone!

 

[lovinaz]

You are doing great getting prepared for Christmas!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Tracy,

You remind me of my mom! She always had her shopping done by the first week of November at the latest! I didn't inherit that trait.

You are on track for the holidays, hope your mil can watch the kids for you so you can get more done!

Have a super day.

 

[traceycooper]

wow tracy im super impressed with your xmas organisation!!
well done you

 

[toystoryduo]

Thanks ladies. I like to get done with my Christmas shopping early, especially since we will be in WDW right before Christmas.

Speaking of WDW, I plugged in some discount codes on our car rental this morning and saved us another $20!!! When the last minute car rental rates come out in a few weeks, I'm hoping that we can get a good enough deal that we can have the car for a full two weeks instead of just 10 days. We'll just have to wait and see.....

Today, we are going to a mall outside of Columbus. It's a place that has an indoor mall and an outdoor mall. There are lots of restaurants in the area as well. We probably won't do much in the way of Christmas shopping, but it's fun to look around and see what's out there and since we have the rental car, we figured, "Why not?" It will give everyone a nice break from the stress of the week.

Tomorrow, our high school football team plays their first playoff game of the season. We may go since it's here at home. We went to the Pee Wee Football Championships a few weeks ago and the girls had a blast. If the weather is good and the price is right, we may end up going.

I'm hoping my Disney gift card comes in from SR today. There was a post on their forum that the owner sent out gift cards last weekend. Hopefully, mine was one of them!

I weighed in this morning. I haven't weighed in since the end of September so I wasn't sure what to expect. TOM is here too so I figured that the number would be high. I was surprised to find that I am up 1.6 pounds from my last weigh in. I thought it would be more so I am a bit happy with that. However, the number is still way too high. I need to make a serious effort to do much better with eating and working out. One day at a time though...Anything else and I'll get overwhelmed.

Sorry for the novel length post this morning. Guess I had a lot to say!

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

[Amy&Dan]

That post wasn't that long (did you see all my novels yesterday? I think I wrote 3!)

I think its great you were only up 1.6 which in all reality is most likely TOM only. Sometimes its good to take time off from weighing and that can actually be a good thing for the scale since stress about weighing too much causes more weight issues!

That mall sounds sort of similar to one we have here. I love the outdoor part and in the winter when it gets dark early, its a great place to walk. I hope you have a fun day.

It really pays to keep checking on the rental car rates. They go down almost always but of course its up to you to check on that! Wouldn't it be nice if they just applied the savings automatically? Yeah right!

Have a great day!

 

[goldcupmom]

I'm FINALLY getting a bit caught up here!

sorry to hear about Peanut....alway really, really hard!

Christmas budget looks good & VERY doable for you! You ROCK!!!

Hope you have a good weekend. don't worry about the weight. TOM 'SUCKS'!

 

[lovinaz]

I think with all the stress you've had lately, 1.6 up from 5 or 6 weeks ago is pretty darn good! I can gain that in 1 weekend!

Have fun at the football game if you decide to go!

 

[toystoryduo]

Thanks ladies.

We had a good time yesterday. We did a lot of walking and a lot of window shopping.

I'm not 100% sure what our plans are for today. My DDs complained about not feeling well on the way home yesterday. If they're still not feeling well when they get up, we'll skip the football game tonight.

Today's Plan:

* Mom Time

* Clean and de-clutter (DD8's birthday party is next week!)

* DO some Christmas shopping?

* Football game?

I got my $100 Disney gift card from SR yesterday!!! I'm still waiting on the Landry's cards as well....

That's about all from here...Have a great weekend!

 

[lovinaz]

I hope everyone is feeling well enough for the football game tonight.

Cool, how fun to get gift cards in the mail!

 

[Amy&Dan]

Tell me again how to do this SR Stuff? $100 in Disney gift cards is amazing!

Good job walking, its amazing how much more fun it is to walk when you can window shop in the process!

Hope your dd's feel better today. Hopefully they were just tired. Hope you get to go to the football game tonight!

 

[toystoryduo]

Thanks ladies. Amy~ I sent you a PM....

Yesterday was a good day even though we were all feeling kind of punky. We stayed home most of the day, but we did do some walking last night. We decided to skip church today since none of us were feeling well yesterday. My DD8 and I are feeling better. DH and DD7 are still sleeping.

Today, we need to return the rental car. I'll may do some Christmas shopping online as well. I have $179 left in my Christmas budget and I only have my DBro, my MIL, my DDs' third gift, and stocking stuffers left.

That's about all from here. Have a great day everyone!

 

[Lesli54]

It's great to hear that you are almost finished Christmas shopping. Do you want to do mine? Enjoy being done early and staying on budget. As for exchanging with all the adults in your DH's family, consider just having the kids help you bake cookies or candy. The kids can even decorate the boxes the food will go in. Everyone loves food and the cost is resonable. Or you could start digging up old photos of the family that you could reprint and pass out. You would be amazed at how many people are excited to have "that picture of grandma" or will say that they "never saw a picture of great aunt Mable". I started going the picture route and it takes off a lot of pressure as well as allows for much wonderful story telling as everyone reminices.

Hope the rest of your weekend goes well.

 

[toystoryduo]

Thanks for the suggestions, Lesli. I just need to wait and see what my DH's family will want to do as far as the exchange goes.

We've got a lot going on today...Cleaning for DD's party, putting up Christmas lights outside, homeschooling, list making, library, walking, e.t.c. I wish I could stay on top of this stuff better.

I really need to come up with some kind of program for losing weight. My clothes are getting tighter and day to day activities are getting a bit harder. I hate feeling like this. The thing is that I am the only one who can change this so if I want change to happen, I have to just do it. Easier said than done though.

That's about all from here...Have a great Monday everyone!

P.S. We are doing the 30 day dance here!!!!

 

[solar]

if you're not ready to do a full on food program, what about just watching portions...have half of what a normal day to day serving is for you-- that way you're cutting calories, without having to make a huge change right now

Have fun on your trip...I go down around Thanksgiving...can't wait!