Me: 1, Disney: 99

Everything at Disneyland is expensive.  They don’t make their money from the admission price.  They make their money on the food and the souvenirs.  I should know.  I bought some food there, and way too many souvenirs.  Including glass ornaments for the Christmas tree so we remember our trip.  They were so cute!

When we went on our trip to Disneyland, we were introduced to the PhotoPass card.  There are photographers everywhere and when they take your picture, they scan the bar code on your PhotoPass card.  We were trying to pass on letting them take our pictures, and we told them it’s because the pictures are so expensive.  He told us that you can buy a CD with all the pictures on it for $60.  Honestly, I thought that was a pretty good deal because I knew they charged around $15 for an 8x10.  So we just let them take whatever pictures they wanted.

When we got home, one of the first things I did was get on the internet and look at all the pictures.  They were all so cute!  But when I went to order the CD, it was $120, not $60.  I was shocked, and actually a little peeved.  After a couple of days, I went back on the site and looked through the pictures.  I narrowed it down to 2 that I had to have.  I put them in my shopping cart, one as an 8x10 and the other as a 5x7. There was a tab with special offers, but only for generic stuff, nothing that I was interested in.

I then started searching for coupon codes to try and make it cheaper.  I always do this when I buy things online.  I never buy until I have searched for ways to make it cheaper.  And it’s amazing how many coupons are out there!  Anyway, I found several people that said not to buy anything until you are close to the expiration date of the pictures (they only keep them on their site for 30 days, then they disappear forever).  Disney will keep sending you emails reminding you they are expiring and will give you coupon codes to make them cheaper.  So I waited.

3 days ago, I received an email reminding me that the pictures expired today.  So yesterday I logged in and looked at my shopping cart.  I then went to look at the photo cd again and guess what?  It was down to $60!  Obviously, it was more expensive at the beginning to try to get you while you are still super pumped about your trip!  But it gets better! I then went to the special offers tab and it offered $15 off the photo cd.  So for almost the same price of the 2 pictures that I was going to order, instead I got the cd with all the pictures.  I love it when I get a good deal, and I love it even more when I know I got the best deal possible.  I am so glad I waited.  Patience is a good thing!

I really am alive!

I am going crazy.  I have so much to say, but I feel like I am almost caught up. 

I finally got my journal done.  Our 8 day vacation took 9 pages in Word!  Yeah, I might be a little obsessive, but I wanted to remember everything.  I have a voice recorder on my phone, so while we were standing in lines for the rides, I would pull it out and talk about what we had done so far.  So I had to listen to them and add more detail.  It was fun to relive it all. 

Now I need to scrapbook it.  I am about 5 years behind in my scrapbooking and I scrapbook chronologically, but I want to do this vacation now while it is still fresh in my mind.  I am going to make one set, and then make color copies for the kids.  That way it's not quite so overwhelming to me.

I also had to dump all the videos off my camcorder and phones and get them edited and put onto DVD's.  That took a while too.  Then I had Father's Day to do, along with getting caught up with work, and just general stuff around the house.

5 days after we got home from our vacation, we went to The Doctor's hometown for his family reunion.  That was another night in a hotel, when I just wanted to be at home!  And then next weekend, we are going to my family reunion for 3 days.  I think I will be all vacationed out for the summer! 

My hope is that next week, I will be able to get back to regular blogging.  I miss you all!

Vacation pictures

I posted pictures on my private blog with our vacation pictures.  I also sent a bunch of invites out.  If you didn't get an invitation and want to see the pictures, just reply to this and I will send you an invite.  Mom, you already can read it.  Just log in.  Love you all!

I am so overwhelmed!

I am so sorry!  I am trying to get caught up.  Between work and housework, I have so much to do.  I haven't even gotten my journal written in for my trip.  I did get my pictures dumped onto the computer, and sorted through.  I deleted a bunch of pictures, going from 1,354 to 519.  Much more manageable!

But we are going out of town tomorrow and Saturday again.  And then Sunday is Father's Day.  So hopefully next week I can get the pictures put on and give you more details about our trip.  Hang in there.  I will be back!

Home

I'm home.  We survived.  I want to go back.  I am trying to make my way through the mountain of laundry.  I want to take a nap.  I don't want to go back to real life.  I'll blog more later.  But let me leave you with this picture.  It is a picture of what happens when two people are too happy!

I think I am going to throw up!

I am so excited!  3 more days!  I am not going to sleep a wink!  I can't wait to share with you all.  I will be posting pictures on my personal blog, so if you want to see them, email me and I will send you an invite.  And this is cryptic on purpose in case there are any stalkers out there!