Boy oh boy this time of year is tough. Just got through one kids birthday on Oct 31 and another is right around the corner on Dec 5. Plus my brother has 2 soon to be step kids who's birthdays were in the last 2 weeks too. Lots of present buying and money spending. Then we have Christmas right away. Plus hockey. Jeepers.
The biggest thing happening with us lately is that since buying the cabin and spending as much time as we can out there, we're realizing we just don't need such a big and expensive house anymore. We've met with our realtor and will start the search to downsize to a smaller home, likely by Spring. We're tired of the 2 story, so we want a bungalow and we want a smaller space. The kids aren't around nearly as much anymore, and when they are, they're mostly in their own rooms hanging out anyway. Lots of change coming to us, but with that comes the added stress of course.
We have a hockey trip to Wisconsin at the end of January for our daughter's hockey and then a week later, me and the hubby are headed to Mexico for my brother's wedding.
I feel like we just have a lot going on right now... especially money wise.
I have been back to working out in the mornings, which is definitely making me feel much better. Shawn has also gotten into the groove of working out again as well.
Tonight we have our daughter's team's parent party and then our son's is next Friday. Jeez.. I'm tired just typing it all lol

K just a quick check in while at work. I'll come back to read everyone's posts too.

LW 219.6
TW 220.1
Totally anticipated with what we've had going on. And today it's back to 218.6 so yeah. Inside of the house is done - enough. There's still more to do, but it's enough before we leave. Saturday my two sisters did indeed stop to visit for a couple of hours on their way to my brothers. After they left, instead of focusing on the deer to be assembled to be placed out front, we extracted all of the Disney related stuff from my office and kinda organized it. Dang I've gone crazy - sh I don't think he noticed. And we got most of outside done yesterday. I get frustrated at how long it takes to get it done...I don't know if it's hubby goes slower or what. But I got antsy and frustrated. I typically do all of the net stuff and he got in my way trying to help. And the simple "is it to the ground" comment/question frustrated me to no end. I told him to tend to the six deer that needed to be placed and staked down.... come on buddy...I wanna go inside and pack. But it looks nice when it's all lit up. Lights are off again until Friday evening.

So busy with work. I logged in at 630 and got a jump on stuff...my out of office is populating that I'll be out, so no one can say they didn't know...lol. My DocuSign is being delegated tomorrow afternoon and I have a 515 hair appt for my 3 hour tour! Wednesday finish packing while hubby does his morning class, afternoon - finish cleaning the house so it's clean when we come home (I'm really missing my friend's help with this - hahaha). Load the car before hubby goes to his evening class. Leave for son's house when hubby gets home, so we can head to Disneyland super early on Thursday. Checked in at hotel, prepaid for parking, confirmed scooter to be delivered at hotel and our tickets were emailed to us yesterday. I set up my MagicBand+. I'm ready...well once I get packed. LOL.. Rhea is clipping her chain to the countdown and super excited.

Oh and I decorated the back of the van where Rhea will sit. She's got lights, ornaments and window clings decorating. I've bought and downloaded some of the Christmas classics on my iPad so the back seat passengers get in the Christmas spirit. Oh and hubby and I hit the dollartree store after gassing up the cars - for $20 we bought trees, garland and stuff to decorate the hotel suite. We're upgrading to Club Level when we get there, so that took my $$ for the in-room decoration package I wanted to get. The tree is hideous, but once I add the new ornaments I buy on site - it will look adorable. We'll leave it in the ice area for someone else to take once we leave.

Sarah - your car issues would drive me insane. I would probably trade the thing in at this point. I get frustrated to easily... Keep up the good work and focus.

Sheesh - love your family visit plans. So exciting. And I was behind on gifts until yesterday. The other grands added some stuff to their Amazon list so I was able to get their stuff ordered and now done!!! Whew. I like to be done in October or early November so I can enjoy the rest of the season. Then if I see something to add..peaches. If not, I 'm not stressing. I've been this way since my kids were little. I think the stress of my daughter's second Christmas and I changed the way I shopped after that. I'm sure your daughter is thankful the remodel is complete!!

Kelly - so glad you guys are enjoying the cabin. Like Sheesh says, don't go too small but I like the single level living....we have a two story.

Ok...back to work - Happy Thanksgiving to all if I don't check back this week! I'll be thinking of you!

Oh my gosh! All that decorating (car, house, yard, hotel) you've accomplished, Lois. How wonderful but how tiring! All I do is put up and decorate a tree inside, put lights on the evergreen outside, and put a wreath on the front door. And that seems like a lot. We used to put a huge wreath with poinsettias that was made entirely of lights between two upstairs windows in the front of the house. But we could not plug it into the outside receptacle and had to leave a window open a crack, bring the cord in, and then stuff between the window and the sill with foam. And despite our best efforts to make it airtight, it still made the sitting room very chilly and I'm sure it made the power company very happy. Hubby suggested that we look for a big wreath with battery-powered lights, but since we are away over Christmas, I really don't care to add more to the outside. So my hat's off to you and your hubby.

And the car saga continues. The IT team came out and said there's a motor in the headlight housing that still needs to be replaced. It's on order and should be in around November 28 or 29. It allows the headlights to automatically move when they sense an oncoming car (it's like auto-dimming) and I suspect it also affects other things. Hubby is still planning to drive that car up to his cousin's on Friday. It has lights and he can manually dim them. I will be so happy when he's finally on the road up there. It's all he has thought about since September!

Our trip to Longwood Gardens went well. We had great weather. All we needed was a light jacket. My weight is up a little, but I think that's more from food choices since I've been home than from the trip. The day before we left, I was cleaning and our Shark vacuum shut down. I think a day or two before that I sucked up something and although we checked everywhere we could and found nothing, it seems something started causing it to overheat. So let's see: car, bathroom faucet, HVAC system, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner. That's 5. I do hope the old adage bad things go in 3's is not true! Took the vacuum to the shop yesterday and hope it can be repaired. We paid something like $350 for that puppy. All these extra expenses right before the holidays is just getting to be too much. (And I know. It's not affecting my breathing!)

Well, the day is speeding by. Kelly, it was good to hear from you. Lois, if you don't get a chance to check in again, just know that I'm wishing you a safe and wonderful holiday trip. Sheesh, don't envy me too much. I know I won't stay this low through the holidays, and I would trade a few pounds for your nice arm muscles any day! :-)