May. 14, 2008 - Giveaway postponed...
I had started a giveaway Monday and unfortunatly I have to postpone it until this upcoming Sunday. The weather down here has been horrible the past couple of days - with tornado warnings, very high winds, and thunderstorms. Along with that, the internet connection here is very slow - it took me over 2 hours to upload some of the pictures I took to the server I keep them on!
So the giveaway will start this upcoming Sunday in full force. I don't know if anyone will even participate, but I thought I would just let those of you who do read this know.
I will try to get on here later to post about our vacation thus far - it has been a very wierd one indeed!
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May. 8, 2008 - The Drive is Part of the Journey!
YES - that is a picture of a Sonic Menu/Ordering Board.... I know it sounds ridiculous, but this is one of the things I am looking forward to hitting on our little trip. As a child my parents used to get us Slushes as a special treat on weekends. We don't have any where I live now, so having one again will be a special treat for me. I tell you, it's the simple things that God gave us that I enjoy the most! I really enjoy the drive of the trip just as much as I enjoy the location we are headed to. My husband is more the "let's leave before the sun rises and stop only once" kind of person - which makes long car trips interesting for us.
We go up to Vermont every year during the summer and stay at my husband's family's cabin during our stay. He usually traveled up with his brother a few days early and help set everything up. They woke up and left by 6am, stopped once for a combined gas/potty/food break, and arrived between 12 and 1 o'clock in the afternoon. My daughter and I would finish taking care of things at home and leave a few days later. Our trip was broken up into two days! The first day's drive would consist of about 5 hours of driving and about 3 hours of stopping. We stop at a rest stop in Conneticut for my daughter to get out and stretch her legs (I bring bubbles to blow at these locations to help get her runnig around), stop at our favorite restaurant for a late lunch in Massachusetts, check into the hotel around 5pm, unpack, take a swim, and head over to the Cracker Barrel for a late dinner. The next morning we eat breakfast, pack up, and continue the rest of our drive stopping at a few more places along the way. So different than my husband's ideal travel!
So, yes I am excited to stop at Sonic and to get a Slush, I am excited to take pictures of trees and structures (bridges and such), and I am excited to simply sit back and enjoy the long drive down to OBX. I see the drive as part of the trip - not just the means to getting to a destination...
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May. 6, 2008 - Prep for Vacation
I disappeared from the blogging world there for a couple of days because life got so busy. We are preparing for our vacation and trying to get things together before we leave - our house, our new home, schoolwork, etc...
Our realtor was able to work out the details in the extra fee that the sellers were holding off on telling us about. Everything worked out in our favor! We will have to face some of the extra fee but the sellers agreed to pay a larger portion of it! Thank God for his grace and thank all of you who had prayed about the situation for us!
Yesterday we had the inspection for the house. The man doing the inspection said that it was in wonderful condition - there were a few minor things that need to be repaired, but not much. There were also no insect problems and apparently the house had never been treated for any problems in the past, which the inspector said was a really good sign! All in all the house is in great condition - Thank God! We are now out of attorney review and I think the next step is for the sellers to go over what has to be fixed in the house - after that, I honestly don't know what happens.
We are leaving for vacation to the Outer Banks on Saturday morning. Leading up to the vacation every year I tell myself that I don't need to start getting things settled until about a week before - and every year I make myself crazy for a week before vacation. This week happens to also be filled with things outside the house that have to be taken care of and I just feel so overwhelmed. I need to shift my focus though to be grateful that God has given us the ability to go on vacation instead of feeling weighed down by the tasks that need to be completed.
I came up with the brilliant idea that it would be better if we came home from vacation to a very cleaned house. Why I create extra work for myself, I am just unsure of! The first task I am currently in the process of is emptying the closets of all winter items and putting them in vacuum storage bags to save some space and make it easier for the move. This turned out to be a bigger task than I first assumed though as I had worked most of the morning and some of the evening hours on it. I know that it will make things easier for when we return, so I will drudge on and finish it up tomorrow. I was surprised to see how much fit into the space saver bags. I am seriously contemplating opening one up and taking a picture of it before and after the air is vacuumed out - we'll see if I get the gumption to do it tomorrow and post the pictures here.
Well, I'm off to plan schoolwork for my little one... I'll try to contain myself from the excitement of it all 
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May. 3, 2008 - Making CVS Work for Me!!
Please head over to Money Saving Mommy and check out her posts for making CVS work for you! She has a side tab to start with entitled "CVS 101" - and I found out today what I had been missing!!
1st Trip:
2 All Concentrate Laundry Detergent = $6.49 (BOGO)
2 Aquafresh Advance Whitening Toothpastes = $5.98 ($2.99 each)
Total = $15.46
- $1/1 Aquafresh Toothpaste Coupon
- $1/1 Aquafresh Toothpaste Coupon
- $1/1 Aquafresh Toothpaste Coupon
- $1.50/2 All Liquid Detergent Coupon
- $3/$15 CVS Coupon
- $2 Store Credit (given to me by MIL)
=$5.96
+ Total of $5.98 Earned ECB!
2nd Trip:
2 All Concentrate Laundry Detergent = $6.49 (BOGO)
3 CVS Allergy Tablets = $11.37 ($3.79 each)
=$17.86
- $1/1 All Liquid Detergent Coupon
- $3/$15 CVS Coupon
- $5.98 ECB
= $7.88
+ Total of $11.37 ECB Earned!
3rd Trip:
1 Aquafresh Advanced Whitening Toothpaste = $2.99
= $2.99
- $1/1 Aquafresh Toothpaste Coupon
= $1.99
+ Total of $2.99 ECB Earned
So in the end I paid $15.83 out of pocket and was left with a total of $14.36 ECB!! So I ended up with only $1.46 difference! Over $46.50 in groceries was only $1.46 in the end with the store weekly specials, ECBs, and coupons clipped and found on the web.
Now run over to Money Saving Mommy's sight so you can play the CVS game too!!!
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Apr. 30, 2008 - Really Stinky People....
I just have to make this short because it is getting pretty late and we have had such a long day that I am exhausted. Well, if you have read any of my previous posts, we just started the process of purchasing our first home. To make a long story as short, we have been in limbo with attorney review for the past week waiting on further information on any known future assessment payments on the house. We are purchasing a condo and there are regular condo fees, but they are renovating the community and there is an extra charge for the next two years. This was previously known to us and ok because the renovations would help raise the selling price when we go to sell the property.
Today though, I called the Condo Management group to ask a few questions (I'm a researcher at heart) and came out of the conversation with a shock... apparently they have accepted a proposal that would charge the homeowners another set of fees, starting in 2 years. These aren't just fees though - it's robbery... They are charging each homeowner approximately $13,000. They expect it in one payment or financed over the course of 10 years (about $2000 in interest fees)!!
After I called my realtor in a panic - she did her work with the attorney and research on her end. After we got off the phone, oddly enough, the seller's realtor called ours and asked why we were holding up the attorney review! Our realtor explained to her that we were actually awaiting the sellers to fill out the paperwork for any known future assessments - to which the seller's realtor said there was no way that they could know what was coming in the future.
At the end of the day the other realtor lied to us about not knowing about the huge fee being implement - and evaded the truth when asked directly. So we gave them two scenarios - 1) They pay the $13,000 and we purchase the house or 2) We cancel our contract and keep looking for another house.
I can't say how disappointed I am - I loved this condo... LOVED! I also can't say how upset I am that people would avidly avoid the truth and lie about something so major. It is above (or below) my comprehension. I know and fully trust that we will end up where God wants us - but sometimes that understanding doesn't completely ease the feeling of loosing something you really liked.
We shall see if they choose to pay the amount for the sale of their house. To be honest - if it were me, I wouldn't pay it - so I'm not expecting the process of purchasing it to continue. But if it were me I would also have been honest from the start... To put it in my daughter's words "They're just really stinky"!!
Thank for reading this ranting post... I just needed to get it all out 
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