I find no matter where you go in life, online, etc the biggest dream vacation desires are to have Orlando vacations. I think it’s the lure of going to the theme parks because I really can’t find any other lure. It’s hot, the threat of hurricanes is almost year round, and there is no beach without having to drive at least an hour either east or west. Orlando is completely landlocked. But as you have read I am a huge Disney fan so I definitely can see the strong desire to go. Unfortunately, not everything there is cheap so let’s talk on how you can cheapen up your vacation to a budget friendlier destination. Here are my tips and tricks that I have learned over the years from my Disney vacations:

• You don’t have to stay on site to go to Disney. In fact many people do not. It is much cheaper to stay slightly off property and drive in each day or stay at a hotel that offers free shuttles to the parks. Last time my family and I went we stayed at a timeshare not too far away and were able to have a real breakfast, pack sandwiches for lunch as well as a few snacks for during the day, and just eat one meal at the parks. We felt so much healthier and happier doing this.
• You know those stupid glow sticks they sell at Disney and other theme parks and Mardi Gras parades? You can pick them up from the Dollar Tree or at Academy (yes the sports store) for $1 or less each! It is much cheaper than the marked up park prices. Buy ahead and pack them in your backpack.
• Souvenirs: No matter what you tell yourself you are going to want to buy some or your kiddos will want them. Why not think ahead and prebuy “presents from Tinkerbell or Mickey”? If you are going to Disney watch Disneyshopping.com or the Disney Store and buy things on sale. Then you can leave “gifts” each night for your kiddo to find when they wake up. They will be so excited over what Tink and Mickey leave that they will be less likely to bug you at the parks since they won’t know what they are getting next!

We have a rain prediction in Houston for later this afternoon. I hope it either rains real fast and gets over or it doesn’t rain at all. The Freedom Over Texas concert and fireworks display looks really good and I’d love to be able to watch it on tv tonight. I’m not sure what they will do if it starts to rain as I think it would be nearly impossible to do fireworks in the rain.

Hope you are having a happy and relaxing 4th of July. If you are doing fireworks at your house please remember to be safe and cautious.

It is never too early to start thinking ahead to the next important event in your life: holidays, birthdays, weddings, back to school shopping, etc. Most of the time if you can shop ahead and out of season you can find some real bargains and save a chunk of change. One of the most expensive things you may need for back to school shopping is a computer for your student. I find that more and more schools and teachers are trying to incorporate computer usage into the curriculum at younger ages and thus increases the importance of having an up-to-date computer at home with up-to-date software. It always drives me batty when I purchase a new computer and it is missing key software.

If you are in the market for software due to your computer not meeting your specs check out CostCaptain.com. Cost Captain is an authorized Microsoft retailer and offers Office and Windows Vista upgrades at discounted rates for students (including home schoolers!), researchers, professors, teachers, and other academians. All you must do is provide proof of eligibility when you order and the product is yours! All products are guaranteed to be 100% authentic Microsoft licensed software. I’m not sure if you have priced Office 2007 or the Vista upgrade lately but it is outrageous. Cost Captain offers Office 2007 for $129 and the Vista upgrade for just $89. I don’t think you will be able to beat those prices anywhere! If you aren’t sure what you need or what your student will need Cost Captain has friendly customer support agents to guide you in the right direction to help you get Back to school with Microsoft Office 2007 and if that doesn’t work you can pick up gift cards to give your student. It sounds like an A+ type plan to me!

So at the end of the day, the man got to keep his own leg but had to pay the other guy $5k but I honestly can’t remember what for. Tomorrow should be another good day. It’s part two of who is my baby daddy on Maury (ie the results show). Can’t wait!

One of the first things I suggest is hosting your own blog/website over using a free site like blogger or blogspot. My main reason is that I am a former techie geek who likes coding and prefers to have free rein over my creations online. With a free site you can’t really change it up too much like you can with a self-hosted site.

Another reason I prefer this method is that I can use Word Press as my blogging software so to speak. Word Press is completely free and there are so many different page themes and plugins that you can install to really make your blog your own and customize it to do exactly what you want.

The good thing is that self-hosting really will not break the bank. Many sites are less than $100 a year for your own personal domain as well as storage space to hold the files that make up your blog. If you aren’t quite sure who to go with for a host the geeks at WebHostingGeeks.com have set up a site to rank the top hosts in various categories such as: best budget hosts, best blog hosts, and best forum hosts to name a few. You can easily compare ratings between hosts as well as features and prices before you decide who to go with to get your site going strong. I would definitely use this as a good starting point. Happy Blogging!

I have a feeling I’ll be moving towards a hybrid method of scrapping - digital with traditional embellishments which will be fine. I just am hoping to cut my page creation time down from 1 hour per page to maybe 30 minutes per page and this is just for getting the color scheme going and layouts. So I will give a full report tomorrow after I run through installing the program (hope I can do that on 2 computers!) and making my first page. The next task will be finding a service to print my 12×12 pages. I hope that won’t be too hard or break the budget.

Well, today in my quest to continue to gather some info to use on the message board where the mods have gone wild I came across some cute halloween costumes from Halloweenadventures.com. The website has everything categorized into easy to use/understand so that you can find the costume you are looking for quickly and can have it in time for Halloween or your event that requires a costume. I found my adorable 50s diner girl costume under the sexy costumes category but luckily it looks appropriate for any occasion which requires a costume. No worries about looking too inappropriate! I also found some cute pet costumes so that I can get Murphf dressed up for the holidays this year to match the rest of us. Just way too cute!

So my plans include hanging around the apartment cleaning out, going to the gym, and vegging out while Mike studies. Oh there is also that tiny, unimportant UFC fight on Saturday night We already have our crew in motion and a table reserved with our favorite waiter so we are good to go. I just need to figure out what I’m going to wear now since our TapouT shirts won’t be getting here in time. Kinda makes me mad because I so would have paid for 2nd/priority shipping had they even offered it. That’s another rant for another day I guess.

So hopefully I’ll get to try out some new recipes or recipe ideas during these next few days off and I can share with yall next week. If nothing else maybe I can review the fridge keg we pick up at Specs tomorrow.

Have a great 4th!