I have been talked into taking a family trip with friends to Florida. We depart November 8th in the evening.  There are 17 people going and we are renting a house for a week. I’m from Ontario, so the drive will take us 24 hours, not including stops. We do plan to stop at a hotel on the way though. 

I never have been a fan of the disney empire, except for enjoying a few movies. My kids are like me, they have never been overly interested in going to the Disney parks. But my husband and his family used to own a small home in florida and woild travel there frequently. So for him this is an opportunity to share apart of his childhood with his kids. This is basically the only reason I agreed to go. 

He is set upon attending Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios, epoxy, gatorland and a NASA event while we are there. I’m already exhausted just going over his itinerary.  The kids and I will finally meet his step mom, who he has bot seen himself in over 25 years. Since his mom suddenly passed away 3 years ago, this reunion means a lot to him. 

So all in all this trip is set to cost us $8000.  To me this is absolutely insane. I am on the cheapskate side of things 90% of the time. I don’t even know how we are going to pull this off fully. I want to make the best of this trip, but I can already see the small extra expenses that we didn’t account for adding up. 

My help question is: do you have any ideas or leads on the best way to go about purchasing park tickets and some cheaper things to do that may be needed to fill up some time. Not that I think there will be much time left after my husband’s done planning. I just can’t believe how much this is going cost. I know a big part of the cost is attending Universal Studios instead of just sticking with the disney parks option, but I have 3 Harry Potter fanatics and know they wouldn’t see anything like that anywhere else. 

Please comment if you have any tips or tricks to help me save on this trip.
Thank You 🙂

So not that I am lucky enough to find a good free thing every Friday, but today I did just that.  

It’s raining and its cold outside. Heat isn’t turned on yet, so the comfort and warmth of my bed doesn’t have me planning on moving anytime soon.  Then I get the call. My husband, while on his way to work spots a hot tub cover at the end of someone’s driveway in town.  

He calls and says it’s just what my dad has been looking for and it looks brand new and had the easy opening bar attachments. He pushes me to go.

Is it worth it? A $500.00 or more cover system, or an hour extra in bed bundled up? Nope. No more bed now. He played on my cheapskate strings. I have to go. It’s already eating at me that I may miss out. 

Quick, wake the kids. Not the baby, but leave one in charge of baby and one with me to lift and transport my hopeful find.

On the car we go. It’s raining harder now and I swear its ice water falling from the sky. The people giving it away see us admire our find and confirm its brand new, never even made it onto the hot tub. 

Okay doesn’t fit properly in the car. It’s 8 feet by 4 feet and I take the back road home with it barely tied in. 

Soaking wet and frozen. Was it worth it? Yes. It’s perfect condition and just what we’ve been looking for. Add this to my list of incredible finds. Now do I pass on the good fortune or charge dear old dad for my triumph ? Just kidding, dad is awesome he gets this for free. 

What an amazing September! This birthday month of mine has been pretty awesome. I’ve had health complications from a c-section that took 5 months to overcome, so having a summer make up month has made up for it for sure. September 24th and we went to a beach area about 45 mins from home and swam in a beautiful rock bottom lake and jumped off a pier into some of the clearest water I’ve seen. We didn’t even take the air conditioners out this year. Almost did last night. Officially fall and I’d I could have dug them out myself they would have been running. Did you have any fall firsts? I’ve never gone swimming in a lake this late into fall. My parents pool even hit 84 degrees without a heater on yesterday. It’s much cooler today, so hoping for a backyard fire for the first time in a couple weeks as it’s been so hot I haven’t really wanted to spark one up.  Or will it be a hike tonight through a path that leads to some amazing forest water falls? Let’s hope for good moods and see what the night brings.

Do you suffer from or experience anxiety? Do you feel like it is a term overused? You see all these posts on social media about people “suffering” from anxiety and your like ” but you can go grocery shopping, make dinner nightly, leave your house daily, what the hell is your anxiety exactly? I get that everyone has their own story. Everyone experiences and reacts to things in life differently. But I feel that this is so common a word used to describe not wanting to do something that it is taking away from the people who are 34 years old and breaking down uncontrollably in a no frills because they did what everyone was suggesting and tried to get over it. I have lived in my current home for 4 years now and have just gotten up the nerve to speak to neighbours across the street from me. And the funny thing is, is that I don’t feel like an anti social person. I like people and am very accepting. But even when people come into my home I feel my heart rate increase, the restlessness or completely lack of motivation sets and I avoid them at all costs. Thank god for an outgoing, confident husband who takes over and takes the attention off my odd behaviour. He makes me feel so normal……most times. Even starting this blog has me scattered. I’ve wanted to do this for so long but every time I try I panic that I will suck so bad and just give it up. So I am going to give it a real go this time and be terrible. And hopefully I will get better and maybe reach out to some who think they are odd as hell. You’re not alone in this I’m odd as hell too.