More from Disney

More pics from the day at Disney parks... not so bad looking back at it.  I only go to these parks for the kids anyway -- so they go and have a good time, I sit on the porch with coffee and write about it -- not a bad gig.  Relaxing for me, kids are happy and I save on ticket.  I do plan on going to Kennedy Space Center, I still am a geek believe it or not -- going to book that trip now.

Maddie holding in her lunch

Twins

Mom enjoying the ride!

The group, minus me of course!

Disney Stop

Kids hit up Disney today while I hobbled about with my Mom.  Destinations thus far included Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, they made it to all the good rides.  My entertainment --  motoring around in scooter at local grocery store -- got to see a bunch of people either laugh at me or feel sorry for me, have to say it's only good times when you're zipping about a grocery store at 1mph.

Pimpin' ain't easy, but grocery shopping is!

Christmas in MI & FL

Celebrated last day of school at Melting Pot, then Christmas in MI on 23rd and then Christmas in FL on 25th.  Dylan was blown away by all the wrapped gifts in his stocking!  Note to self on that one, will be taking advantage of that as a cost savings opportunity going forward.

Another Thanksgiving down

I think we've gone down to AZ about 10 years straight now for Thanksgiving, even pre-kids!  This year certainly was a memorable one, as I came home with broken foot (which required surgery here in MI 3 weeks later) -- good stuff.  We always have a good time when we're out there, plenty to do and the kids entertain themselves (with only a couple small disputes amongst them all... at least that I recall).

Hard to believe these two actually do sleep!

um, yeah -- this was taken about 5 hours after I broke my foot!  The medicine in hand helped...

...and the foot!

This was right before surgery, the anesthesiologist had just told me they added some meds to IV in order to "relax" before heading to surgery room.

   

Full fledged parents

I think it's safe to say we've hit that point where the kids have something going on every day of the week.  Girl scouts, piano, soccer, hockey, glee club, playing w/friends, homework... I guess no different than any other family that has a 9 and 7 y/o.  I'm actually very entertained by the parent conversations when I attend various events -- I naturally gravitate to those that share similar interests as my own, however I can't help to listen in (and sometimes jab) when I hear about certain topics.  My favorite, is the common parent grievance that kids get too much homework!!  That is certainly entertaining.  Between winter break1 and winter break2, half days, late starts, class parties, recess, snack time (don't get me started on that one), substitutes -- school couldn't be easier!  I'd be willing to bet, if I were to quit work, I could have both my kids at 8th grade levels in 1 year.  That's neither here nor there, although I do feel it my part to accelerate their learning outside of the robotic US educational system -- and teach them how to learn.  Between both of my kids since they started school, only 1 teacher knew how to teach!  To top it off, we are supposedly in one of the upper percentile school districts in MI -- I know every parent says that, but I mean it, statistically speaking.  Crazy.

We're doomed

I usually scroll through personal finance headlines as part of my daily routine... and if one happens to peak my interest for the day, I will of course scan the article for more.  I barely made it past the first sentence of this dud:  Average Credit Card Debt

"American families are taking on increasing amounts of debt as incomes fail to keep pace."

This article, written by a journalist with Masters from Columbia University, clearly highlights the fact that a Masters is no more than a sheet of paper.

The fact of the matter is, income is not keeping up with what people want!  ie.  buying the latest iPhone the second it comes out, TVs, cars, oversized homes... the list goes on.  Here's more from this gem of an article:

"Indebted households today have credit card balances averaging $16,061 — just shy of 2008's high, according to a new NerdWallet report, based on data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Census Bureau.

And total household debt, including mortgages, has ballooned to $132,529, up from $88,063 in 2002, when NerdWallet started tracking the data. While household income has grown by 28 percent in the past 13 years, it lags the the cost of living, which increased 30 percent during the period."

Gee, I wonder if mortgages are a factor here??  I was happy to see at least this article did not dive into minimum wage hikes and tax reform.

There's a simple fix to all of this, and no it's not reducing our medical expenses, or skyrocketing tuition enabling you to churn out beauts similar to this article, or reducing cost of food -- simply live within your means and stop worrying about what people think about you, or worse yet, worrying about what other kids/families think about your kids!  If you are worried, you're by default teaching everybody that succumbing to peer pressure is the right thing!

Catch up

Lot has gone on the past 7 months!  While I sit here with my broken foot, thought my time would be best spent getting caught up.  Too many pics to share between April and now -- between Dylan's emergency room visits (yes two), girls scouts, soccer, vacations, hockey, school, art classes, baseball, glee club... and the list goes on.  So while I sit here on the couch, with limited walking ability and at high gluttonous risk -- here are some pics to catch you up.