I wish they would announce 2013!!!!!

My dh eats low-carb. I still cook "normal" foods for our family and dh just skips the carb. So, if we do burgers, he skips the buns, but will have more of a salad with the burger on top. I do roast chicken about once/week. I usually have a side of rice or potatoes. Dh skips those. Maybe your family would like that kind of cooking better?

We do. My kids start out trying a lot of different things and have chosen the following activities to focus on: Ds16: Karate, rowing, work (he has a parttime job) Ds14: Karate, rowing, baseball, piano Ds12: karate, baseball, archery, violin Dd6: Gymnastics, karate These don't overlap a whole lot. Karate is year-round, but their instructor understands if my kids have to take time off in the fall for rowing or in the spring for baseball. It helps that their karate studio is a mile from our house. Gymnastics is by FAR the biggest commitment. My dd is really good (I'm not just a proud mom!) and I cannot imagine not letting her do it. Dd wants to try soccer this fall. It's once a week and the practices/games are across the street from our house! It doesn't interfere with her other activities, so we'll let her. She also wants to try swim team next summer. It's just a couple months, but she has been going to the pool every night with friends just to practice!

I'm going to do today's menu. The last two days we've been living off of leftovers from a potluck dinner we threw on Saturday. Breakfast: 12 eggs ($3) mixed veggies scrambled in eggs (free! from a garden) dd had oatmeal that I buy in bulk (maybe 0.25 when you add in milk) potatoes (ds 16 fries some up) ($0.50) Lunch: Always leftovers with an added veggie ($1) Dinner: Roasted chicken ($12) Rice with onions and mushrooms (I buy rice in bulk - so it's VERY cheap - maybe $1?) Cornbread (homemade $0.50) Salad (veggies from garden - FREE!!! Steamed broccoli ($2 - I love Aldi's frozen veggies!) Total for the day for meals: $20.25. Add to that the cost of snacks: Fruit, carrot sticks, hummus, homemade bread, peanut butter, yogurt, etc. I bet I spend $7/day on these extras. So, total: $27.25 Not bad - right?

I TOTALLY agree!!!! The people who work there are always SO wonderful. I have SO many stories of the cast members spreading magic to my kids. I swear someday we will go to Disney and do ONLY the tours! They look so good and we've not done any yet! Is there a website that lists the promos offered for annual passholders in the past? I will work the math and see if it makes sense to get one. What if my brother or SIL buys the annual pass (they live in FL)? Can they get us the FL discount? Or do we actually have to be residents? (I think I know the answer, but it's worth asking!) Every time we go to Disney my brother meets us there and I'm SOOOO jealous that he can just walk in! I want to be an annual passholder too!!!! If I can get a 40% off room rate, that would certainly save money, but I'm not sure if it would save enough over the FD to make it worth it. I can't wait to do the math though!!!

We have two of those cards! But they aren't our main cards. We have one card that gives us cash back where we get more back. So, we cash it in before a trip and use it. But, my Disney card is used for on-line purchases. So, we usually go with $200 on a card. It pays for a lot of tips during free dining!

This is a BIG deal! My poor dd STILL HATES those toilets. We just checked out the annual passes and are they really $600 each? Is there any way to get a discount? For my family, that would be $3600 just for the passes. Now, I understand that we can then get room discounts and all. But, we usually spend less than $2000 each time we go (during free dining). Even if we go twice a year, that just doesn't justify it for our family. I'd love to buy them though - so please convince me! Actually, I think I would add a third trip if we had those passes. But, we live in MI. We rarely buy souvenirs. Maybe a pin or two. That's it. We like to eat a really nice restaurants. Would there be a benefit for us to have one of us buy an annual pass? How would that help us? What are the benefits? Can our entire family take advantage of the discounts if only one is a member? Do you have to be an annual pass holder for this? We would love any excuse to visit more often! If I have ONE annual pass for one of my family members and can take advantage of the room discount with that. Buy tickets for the rest of my family and maybe stay during free dining? (Fairymom did that!!) Can I still use this card for meals if we don't get free dining?

I do see the difference! Thank you! And you are super cute and that cut really flatters you! I'm going to call the salon near me to see if I can't get in with one of their people. Thank you. I finally have some hope for my hair!

My dd "trains" her hair like that when she wears it down. Poor thing has hair like mine. Absolutely gorgeous for a little girl. Curly at first. Then, BIG!!!! Like mine. DD curls her finger in her hair constantly and has gorgeous curls afterward! Hmmmmm .. . I JUST saw the salons near me that do curly girl cuts!!! There's one near me. I may cancel my cut on friday to see about getting in with this place! :nervous!: A friend of mine got one. It was $200 for 6 weeks? Right? I can't justify that when I also color every 8 weeks or so! Yikes! Off to look up L'Anza! Looking these things up too!!!! Well, that picture was taken an hour after we got to that wedding. It got MUCH worse. And, it wasn't curly. It was fuzzy/frizzy/horrible. That's why I never pictured myself as a curly girl! You should look at their website. There's a style called SWAVY that is ME exactly!!!! Take a look at their after pictures!!! You might like it!

Seriously thank you. My face certainly is strong!!! Off to order product!!!!

How do you train it? When I don't blow it dry, it looks like picture number 2! But, I do use a brush. I definitely don't have spiral curls. But, I have a lot of wave. And, what do you mean by a curly girl cut? How do I get one? I have a cut scheduled next Friday . . . .

You got it!!!!

Awww. Thanks. Really. I think I have a "boy" jaw. If I got short hair, I'd look like a boy. That's why I don't like my hair pulled back. Maybe I should get plastic surgery?! LOL I'm going to order the curly girl stuff tonight. I SOOOOO hope it works and that my hair can look like it did in the 80s! Silly, I know, considering I had a light perm then. But, I think it was just working with my natural out of control curls to keep them in control!

LOL about PERM being a swear word! Seriously - the 80s were where my hair fit in! BIG curls. My hair looked great!! Okay. I'm ordering Diva Curl tonight. Off to figure it out . . . Awesome!!! I'll look for that too! And, thank you for the compliment. Really. That first picture? I like the way I look. And, I think it's the hair that does it. Not my face. That second picture? That's what I've looked like this summer. I straighten my hair in air conditioning and it looks perfect. I walk out the door and I look horrible. The difference in my good days and bad days is my hair. And, I hate that!!!

Thank you. Really. That's what my hairdresser uses after she layers the hair. I'm a bit nervous to do it myself! But it really works? Maybe I'll try it! See - those are the same cuts!!! That first picture is when the weather was perfect. No humidity. Nada. My hair cooperated. That second picture? Same cut. See all the layers sticking out? It was hot and humid that day. And, we were INSIDE in air conditioning at the time it started poofing! Ugh. Maybe I'll go with my 80s perm again. And, thank you so much for the compliment.

AW. Seriously. Thanks. I wasn't looking for sympathy. But, I feel like my hair should be a defining feature because of its thickness. My face really isn't a cute kind of face though. It needs hair to frame it. I desperately want a pixie cut so I don't have to deal with it. Ugh. But, thank you.

Thank you. Really. So much. I fight so much with my hair that I feel ugly most of the time. You brought me to tears. Would you believe I have layers? Lots of them. It's just SO stinking thick. If I go even 6 weeks between cuts, I'm sorry. What is a smoothing conditioner? And, yes. I blow dry my hair. I just watched the Curly Girl video on straight hair to curls. It reminds me of what I looked like in the 80s. I had a light perm and absolutely LOVED my hair!! It was so easy! My dh just said I should get a perm!

But, I don't have curly hair either! I just have poofy hair! I will look up the curly girl method though and see if it might work.

Wavy when long. When short, just yucky except right after I style it in the morning. Off to look up Diva Curl . . . I SOOOOO want a pixie!

I think you should figure this out and let me know! LOL sometimes I love my hair. Most days, especially this summer, I don't! I've done that. But, I really don't like my face without hair around it. When I grew it long, I pulled it back every day because it just looked BIG and frizzy when it was down. And I hated it every day. I actually like it chin length and straight. Frizz, I hate!

I want it straight and pretty!!!! It starts out the day that way. Then it gets horrible an poofy. So, I need more product? I'm good with that! What does she use? Honestly, I have a wonderful stylist. She never sees it poofy. Maybe I need to take in a picture! I use shampoo and a leave-in conditioner. I use a pre-straightening spray too. But, the second I step out into the heat, it poofs up! My stylist recommended an oil. I used it a few times, but it just looked like I hadn't washed my hair in a week! My dd has the same issue. But, for now, as long as I french braid it every day, she's good! But we joke that she looks like a lion at the end of the day!

Okay. This is before I got hot. I like this. That's e on the far right. It was, obviously HOT!!! See what I mean? HELP!

Help me please? I have extremely thick hair. When I get hot at ALL, it just gets bigger and bigger. (Have any of you seen that Friends episode where Monica goes to the Caribbean? Yeah. THAT!) I need help. I straighten my hair nearly every day. The SECOND I get hot, it gets big. Is there a hairstyle that would work for me? I currently have it in a short bob. Every time I go in (every 6 weeks), I get it thinned a LOT! Seriously, with all the hair on the floor, you'd never know I have any left on my head! I'd love a very short cut, but I don't have a pretty face. I'm not looking for sympathy here - really. I love the really short cuts, but those only look good on cute girls! I'll look for a picture of me and post it in a little bit. But, I could use ideas/pictures NOW?!?!

GASP. HOLDING CHEST. FALLING DOWN! Seriously???? You plan fewer than 70 days out????? What is WRONG with you woman?!?! (Actually someday I dream of doing this. But, every time we try to take a trip that I haven't planned out to the last detail, we get burned. Don't even ask about last weekend!!!!! Ugh) Hmmmm . . . Sounds like we need annual passes. Sooner rather than later. . . .

Hmmmm . . . I subscribe to Mousesavers! So, you are annual passholders and you can get free dining at Deluxe Hotels PLUS a 40% discount on room. Apparently I need to pay better attention to the MS newsletter!!!! I'm so glad you get it!!! We just booked our January trip and I'm itching to plan our meals so I can plan our park days. But I need to find out about this new restaurant first!!!! Ugh. Maybe there should be a discount for Disney-a-holic therapy?! :001_smile: Mine doesn't even try changing it anymore!!! :lol: