We went from 5people to 14 to 10, 9, 8??!?! PTR 1 WEEK TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[starann]

Subscribing to your PTR. We are also headed down in Sept, but the week before.

I understand your anxiety about flying SW. We are looking at them as well for cheap flights and it causes me some anxiety. The cheapest flights have only a 25 minute connection and that's not happening with an almost 3 yr old.

Thanks for following along...are you doing a PTR? Let me know the link of so!

 

[starann]

Not much to report here. We are busy getting ready for a yard sale on Saturday (the community is having one, so we figured it was a good time to get rid of junk and make some money for WDW!). Then Sunday after work I head to Philly to pick up Ma from the airport. She is coming in for my DNi graduation and is staying for a week, so my house has to be clean for that too!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course this week my dryer would break as would my steam mop, so my hubby put up a clothes line (nope, didn't have one before) and I will just have to go back to a regular mop (gah!) to clean the floors. Thankfully the weather is supposed to be decent most of the week, so I can do laundry the old fashioned way until we replace our old dryer.

I picked up 3 patients at holiday pay today. We had no plans as far as a picnic or anything goes, so I was able to see my patients, go to the grocery store, prep dinner (grilled chicken, Asian pasta salad) and stain 2 crates I got at Michael's (a Pinterest project, I need 4 of them to make a coffee table!).

Now my FIL is over helping hubby with the firetruck to get it ready for parade/show season while Casey and I hang out inside. I really should be cleaning SOMETHING, but checking out the DIS is WAY more fun!

 

[JoanneDisFan]

Thanks for following along...are you doing a PTR? Let me know the link of so!

my ptr is found here. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=48515338&posted=1#post48515338

 

[starann]

I almost forgot about this PTR. Although there really hasn;'t been any changes to the trip, other than BBB at DTD for my DNi.

Ma was here for a week, in which we shopped will we dropped (I dropped). And she drove me CRAZY...like to the point of tears, and not in a good way. Mom had us all 7+ years apart, so she has never had 3 littles in the house at once, and the mess of 3 littles. She got on my case about the house, at the end of a bad day after a bad weekend at work, after the baseball game we had planned to go to (and for which I spend $135 for tickets thru work) got rained out on the night before my big boys were leaving for 3 weeks. And I ended up in tears, not really sure if I even wanted to go to Disney.

I am feeling better about it now, but it also made me realize that we HAVE to spend time apart during the vacation, or I will be in a mental ward by the time we are done. Please don't take this as me complaining or not being grateful for this awesome gift....I'm just being honest.

The boys went to LV with her on Tuesday, and I miss them like CRAZY, but they are having a blast with her and PePa and that is all that matters. Them being gone has allowed me to hire a sitter (for Casey) and I have picked up a crazy amount of hours at the hospital and have a meeting tomorrow for work and an 8 hour conference (LOVE free CEUs) on Friday, which means some Disney money.

Oh, speaking of extra money. We were at a truck show (see the picts of DH's firetruck) on Friday night and DH got tickets for the raffle. Ok, I wasn't thrilled cause we NEVER EVER win ever...I mean EVER. Did I mention EVER?>?! Well They announced the ticket number to the $100 cash prize, then the $250 cash prize, then announced that they had a $500 cash prize. I lean over to hubby and say, "This is ours" And by golly, they picked our number!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was shocked. Like I said we never win anything (not even on scratch off tickets). So we were saying the ways we could spend it (like bills and such) and I said, "Disney Jar" Not sure if that is what we will end up doing with it, but in a way it is extra money we really weren't planning on so yay!

 

[starann]

It seems as if the money gods love me right now....We are not getting a raise this year (again...this makes year 4), so they gave us a 2% taxed bonus that was in my paycheck this past week. SWEET! Then this Sat DH took a friend with him to a firetruck show in Harrisburg and his friend handed him a $50 bill 'for gas' which was unnecessary but he insisted so that went right in the 'jug.' I also have things at a kids consignment sale and so far I have made about $75 by selling some baby clothes, maternity clothes and so on. They extended the sale thru this week (it was only supposed to be this weekend, but they had so much to sell they extended it). I already told DH that it's going in the jar!

I just brought a $50 WDW gc and plan to each pay, so by the time we go we will have $250 in GC (maybe more if I can budget it in). I have a target redcard and have a pharmacy reward due to come any day now, so I hope to buy a few more when that comes. And we have the 'jug' of change and bills. I'll be so excited to see how much we saved in there. DH empties his change daily into there (I don't, but I will right before our trip)

For all the long hours I have been working, I treated myself to a kindlefire HD. We do not have an i-pad (nor that kind of money), so this was a nice substitute. I plan on bringing it with me on the trip to occupy the kids on the plane.

Speaking of the plane, SW called me to ask me if it was ok if they bumped our flight home up by 15 minutes. I laughed and said it was fine, but really if it wasn't would they not change it? LOL! It puts us in Philly at 9pm which is fine since I have to be at work the next morning and we still have to drive the 1.5hours home.


I priced out limo services to drive us all down to the airport and home from the airport. This was my reaction to their price quotes
about $500 round trip for the 7 of us!!!! I guess we are driving my mini van down, cramming the 7 of us plus 2 strollers and luggage into the car. Not sure it will be a comfy ride but we will make do. We will do a stay/park/fly package at one of the hotels near the airport. The room + parking are about $130 for the 1 room, so I imagine it will be less than the car service for the 2 rooms plus parking. Even if DH drives his truck down and I drive the van down it will still be 1/2 the price of the car service.

I was thinking of booking a dessert party, but I am still on the fence. Same with MNSSHP. We have everything pretty nicely planned and I'm not sure if I want to mess with the plan. I may save it for our next trip, but in doing so we would have to pay for Casey. Just not sure!


A friend at work is going in Nov and LOVES Disney, so it is nice to have someone to talk...errr...obsess with!

I think that is it for now.

 

[starann]

I figure if I make a need to do list and put it here, I won't lose it! LOL!

Once I do it, I will change the color to green


Get Rain Cover for my stroller
Get rain cover for stroller for Willow
Get shoe organizer for door
Get Memory card for camera
Get Stroller fan for Casey
Get batteries for fan
Contact Photopass to see if a pre purchased PP CD can be exchanged for a PP+ (I can upgrade, now I jsut have to!)
Make list/index cards of tour plan
order Casey duck outfit
remind Paulene to make Casey's Jon Jon
get ponchos
Order shirts for the other kids

Of course packing and all that jazz...but this is stuff I need/can do now or in the coming weeks. 54 days!

 

[starann]

I have some work to be doing for the trip, but I am sitting on the laptop (which doesn't have Word) watching tv in the living room.

I had been looking for planning sheets I had used for last trip. I, of course, didn't have the links saved (and even if I did, I don't think the account is active anymore) and didn't keep spares of the sheets. So I made my own!!!! I am quite proud of myself. They look similar to the ones I had used, but now I have my own copies.

I want to work on a packing list. That is my next task. DH is going to be counting the 'jar' this weekend (cause, you, know, we have nothing else for him to do in our house ). I think he should save some time and have the coin counter at the bank count it! But I guess that makes too much sense!

A busy weekend of work awaits me, of course I would rather be at home, doing nothing but planning my trip!

 

[starann]

Getting a lot checked off my list lately. And of course getting deals on them. The stroller fan and covers I got at BBB and used a 20% off your TOTAL (and a 5/15 on the fan!) so I scored there!

I have ordered some special stuff for Casey to wear. I debate about ordering tshirts for the big boys, and most likely won't, just due to money issues. We had to take our 5yo greyhound to the vet this week, $120 later he is fine, but that was not money we were planning to spend.

My stepsister will hopefully be bale to house/dog sit for us. She's going to let me know on Monday. If she doesn't I don't know what we will do...I guess I will let DH figure that all out!

We had thought about getting a hotel room the night before we leave, as we have an 8am flight and have to travel about 1.5 hours to Philly, but since my DNi and DNe are going with us, we need 2 hotel rooms, which in the end for the 2 room and parking, it would cost us an additional $300. The pros of getting a room is we are already down there so if any last minute issues we are already there. The cons is the cost. Pretty sure we are going to drive down early in the morning.

I managed to get a 32gb SD card for the camera for $14!!!! I had some Plink points rewards and it was on sale, so that should be coming any day now. I also just cashed out for paypal with SR and Mypoints and cashed out for a Walgreens $50 GC from Mypoints. I had more than enough to cash out for $100 in Walgreens, but am not 100% sure my store will let me buy a gc with a gc, so I figure $50 is enough to try. And if not I can use it for whatever last minute things we need for travel.

We are up to $265 in WDW Gift Cards that I have managed to sock away. I try to buy 1 a pay. We also have cashed out our change jar for $105!!! Plus the bills we have been putting in there $391. I also have money in my Paypal and money due into my paypal. I think we will have a nice amount for our trip!

I am also doing a consignment sale in Oct, just after we get back, but that money will be for Xmas.

I have slacked off working so much, but next week will be one of the last with my sitter before she goes back to school, so I plan on working as much as I can. I may have a sitter the following week as well, just have to see if she wants some hours.