Mystic Dunes Resort--Beware!!!

We decided to use our Mystic Dunes Resort visit this summer. We had paid $1350.00 for the use of a two bedroom condo at the resort in Kissimmee, Florida. Each time my husband called to make the arrangements and check on our reservations, he asked if we would have to attend any kind of presentation or anything that had to do with the sales of their condominiums. Each time he was told "no, you have already done that, this is just your chance to see the facility again, and buy if you want." We foolishly believed them, but you should not, if you are planning to do anything like this, please be aware that they will do anything and say anything to steal your time, wear you down, and try to wrangle a sale from you. When we got down there and tried to check in, they told us that we would have to take a "survey." I thought my husband's head was going to pop off! He was so angry and told them that he wanted to talk to a manager, but the guy they got to talk to us didn't say anything different. I calmed my husband down, and convinced him to just say we'll do whatever and then we would figure it out later. They assigned us a guide to "help us plan our activities"--hell we were there for one reason and one reason only--Disney World. We weren't interested in dinners at their club house, their market days, their karaoke nights or any other the other activities they touted. We did use the pool one day, but that was all we were interested in that had anything to do with the resort. We ended up scheduling a "meeting" with our guide on our last day there so that we would not have to give up any Disney time. My husband was seething, and told them that they were liars and that he was very disappointed in our stay. The great time we had on our vacation had nothing to do with the Mystic Dunes Resort--it had everything to do with seeing my sister and her family and our family having fun together. It didn't matter where we slept, really. The resort stay was just to fulfill the obligation we had imposed on ourselves two years ago. So, as it turned out, we spent 90 minutes with our guide, then they sent another guy over to offer us a condo for $198.oo a month, and we could have the title to the land that day. We declined the offer, asked that our credit card number (which they demanded of us when we got there, in case we rented bikes or ordered drinks at the pool or something--we didn't of course)be removed from their records. Finally, they sent over a vulture of a woman, who was quite rude to us, who told us we might have met our obligation, but we had to turn in this green paper when we checked out. At the check-out desk we were told we didn't have any charges on our credit card (no kidding!) and we were free.
I have to say that we learned our lesson and will never do that again. If we go back to Disney, we will definitely stay in one of the resorts on the park grounds where there is ample transportation, food and no smarmy sales people drooling over the prospect of getting you to spend your money on their "product." If you get any calls or mailings (e-mail or otherwise) that have the name Mystic Dunes or Tempus Resort on it, my advice is to delete it, don't answer the call, or throw it away. A few free Disney tickets aren't worth the pressure they put you under.

The Timeshare Trap

A few years ago I received a telephone call from a telemarketer who said that I could get four free tickets to Disney World in Orlando, Florida and a week's stay at a five-star resort for only $250.00. I was skeptical, but still interested. We had wanted to go to Disney, and our daughters were getting old enough to handle a trip like that. I told the person to call back after I had discussed the idea with my husband. We checked out the company and looked at what they had offered. It all seemed okay except that we have six in our family, not four, but we thought we could still afford it since the price was so low, we could buy two other tickets for Disney World at the regular price. We waited for the call back from the company, and sure enough, they called. We said we were interested; they said all we would have to do is go to a "presentation" about their resort. Both our parents had done the free trip from a timeshare when we were kids, and they didn't seem harmed by it, so we thought: "How bad can it be?" We took the trip 2 1/2 years ago at Christmas time. We had a nice condo that had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a family room and a small kitchen. It was as nice as those things tend to be. We went to Disney a few times, and then we went to the dreaded "presentation" It consisted of separating us from our three youngest children, and having us sit through a high pressure sales pitch about how we need to take more vacations, and how we "deserve" to take trips, and "don't you love your family enough to take them to new places?" It was awful! The thing lasted six (yes six!) hours. We were so exhausted and upset that we finally agreed to plan another trip to be taken at a later date to "try the product" again. They promised us that we would not have to go through the "presentation" again, and if we changed our minds, we could purchase a condo at the prices we were quoted on that day. Okay. . . Fast-forward to this year. . . please see next post for the conclusion.

Back From Disney; On To Indiana

We had a great week in Orlando where we spent four days hopping around the Disney parks and one evening we went to the Medieval Times dinner show. There were storms on three of the days, but the rain didn't seem to matter much. The girls and my husband and I did just about everything there is to do at Disney. We all got a little (too much maybe) sun and had lots of laughs and thrills thanks to the genius of the FastPass at the Disney rides. Now it is down time for two days and then the girls and I leave for Indiana where we will be spending the better part of July visiting family and friends. The girls have only been out of school for a week and a half and already the summer feels like it is nearly over. When we get back from our visits it will be August and only a few weeks until the new school year starts. My how time flies when you are having fun!

Off We Go!

Flying to Disney today with four kids in tow. Dog is in the kennel; hope she behaves. Kids are packed and jazzed; hope they behave. I'm ready to go; hope I can keep my cool.

Disney, Here We Come!

We are getting all packed up for our trip to Disney World later this week. It takes several days to get all six of us ready to go. We went to Disney World a couple of years ago during the Christmas holiday. We had fun even though it was crowded. This time everyone is a little older, and taller, and the prospect of being "big enough" is really charging up my two youngest daughters. My youngest one will still be too little to ride some of the rides, but hopefully she won't have to be stuck riding only the spinning teacups (I refuse to do that one!) and the Dumbo ride and all the other similar ones that just go around in a large circle. The other thing that is different about this trip is that we are flying. The thought of herding four children into a plane for a two hour flight was much more attractive to me than packing us all into the car and driving for thirteen hours. Since our oldest is fifteen, this would have been almost as bad as being held hostage for thirteen hours. Only our oldest daughter has flown, so the flying thing is super exciting to the girls. The other thing, and best part about the trip is that we will be meeting up with my sister and her family while we are there. They are flying down from Indiana and we are flying from Virginia. I have not seen my sister in almost a year! It has been a very long and lonely year for me so this will be the cherry on the top of this vacation. My girls miss their cousin so much that my youngest daughter said she is "just gonna tackle him" when she sees him. He's sixteen years old, I'm sure he'll enjoy that! The girls really love their aunt, uncle and cousin that much! Even though this kind of vacation holds no rest and relaxation for me, I think it will rejuvenate me enough to get through one more year of being away from my family. Onward to Disney!

We're Taking the 'Journey'

Okay, so I have been whining and complaining and worrying about the high cost of fuel for our Chevy Suburban. I have been worrying that the eight year old, 150,000+ car might not last until we can "afford" a new more fuel efficient car. Well, yesterday, we decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and trade in our old faithful Suburban named Silvi (why, I don't know--one of the girls started calling it that), and are leasing the new 2009 Dodge Journey for three years. Our thinking is simple: we will lease this more fuel efficient crossover that we can squeeze all six of us in for three years, then hopefully at the end of the lease, some car company will have figured out a vehicle that runs on hydrogen, or corn oil, or used baby diapers, or something, and we can trade our outdated Journey in for something that is the wave of the future. I'm feeling pretty good about our decision. I think in the long run, we will save money. We decided to go all out, and opted for the $2.99 gasoline price guarantee (www.letsrefuelamerica.com) instead of the meager $1000.00 rebate, since we are expecting the gas pricing to continue rising from now until who knows when. I think we will save more than $1000 using that option. The dealership told us that we were only one of two customers so far who have chosen the gas option because a large portion of their products have huge refunds--but not the Journey--so I'm satisfied with our decision. At any rate, I am sure I will be blogging about the car in the future, so just stay tuned!

Squish the Rocks and Get the Oil!

This "oil crisis" is really bugging me, but like some other folks that have been blogging about it lately, I'm beginning to think this problem might be just a tiny bit good. For too long we have been coast on foreign oil, going along our merry way, but now with prices climbing and the future looking gloomier, we Americans need to put on our thinking caps and the old castoff coats of ingenuity that have been hanging on rusty nails for decades now, get busy, and find a way to use our own natural resources. We need to push ourselves away from the Middle Eastern oil banquet table, and start taking care of our own needs. There is some hope that a few people have found in the sandstone in Utah and some other western states. There are some ideas flowing about how to squish the oil out or heat it up underground and extract the oil. Hey, I think this is great, but let's get going on it--the sooner the better! I predict that in the next year or eighteen months lots of new ideas for oil, alternative fuels, and innovative cars will be popping up all over. I love American will power and ingenuity! Let's Go!

Earning Money with CashCrate--It's Real

I am always on the lookout for ways to make a little extra money. I thought that anyone reading my blog might want to too. I joined CashCrate and what is so good about it is that all you have to do is earn $10.00 and they will pay you. Depending on how much time you have to waste. . . er spend on answering survey questions or completing forms, you can make at least the $10.00 in one sitting. There are some other things on the site like opportunities to spend points you also earn to get gifts. So, if you don't have anything better to do, go check it out! Please scroll down to the very bottom of my blog and click on the pencil banner to get there.

Happy Father's Day

So, I've been thinking about fathers and Father's Day. I remember thinking that my dad was a giant when I was a kid. He is, in reality 5'2"--a rather small guy. I also remember thinking that sometimes he was the meanest most unreasonable person to ever walk the earth. It seemed like I couldn't do anything right in his eyes. I also remember how brave I thought he was because he was a lay-leader in our church and would get up and speak in front of the whole church without so much as a flicker of nervousness. He would pray at dinner every night, he was good at improvising things like putting blocks on our tricycle pedals so we could reach. He still comes up with funny little ideas to improvise if he doesn't have a particular tool to fit the job. He was an elementary school principal, so he demanded excellence in school from my sister and brother and I. My father always seemed to be able to give of himself. He left me with a strong sense of the importance of serving others. He also left me with a good sense of humor and a quick wit, and the idea that if you are going to go anything (even seemingly unimportant things like yardwork) do it right and do it well, and completely. Today at age 74, my dad is still working to improve himself. He is studying to become a certified playground safetly inspector--kids are his passion. He still stays current on public education issues and politics--we do not agree about politics, but that's okay. He is a terrific grandfather known to my girls as "Poppy" and loves to joke around and play with them. He still demands obedience and my girls know better than to argue and fight around him because he could still yank a knot in their tails, if he wanted to! I think my dad gave me so much that I cannot begin to thank him. I am who I am because of so much of what he showed me through example and I hope I can pass on his firm resolve to continually better himself to my girls. Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Truth-telling & Snopes.com

I guess my dad is easily duped into believing every e-mail he receives. This morning he sent me some trash about how Barack Obama is a Muslim and how he won't put his hand over his heart for the pledge of allegiance or sing the national anthem. All of those things are easily refuted by simply typing Barack Obama into the http://www.snopes.com/ search engine. My dad knows about snopes.com and uses it, so I don't understand why he insists on sending out these crazy e-mails that intend to spread lies. My dad is above all that. I take it that he is against Obama and for McCain, because at the same time he sent me the old story about John McCain's son being deployed to Iraq. Okay, so he is serving in Iraq. It had to be expected if you are in the military, and I think it is not surprising to Senator McCain--he knows better than anyone, and he continues to be all gung-ho war. I'm not moved in anyway to change my mind about which candidate I am going to support by my dad's little trick of juxtaposing those e-mails. Nice try, Dad, but you know better!

Whew! It's Hot!

We are having an early heatwave here. Today it is supposed to be 99 degrees with a heat index of 105. I think the whole heat index thing is as useless as the wind chill factor; to me, hot is hot, and cold is cold, there's no reason to make it seem worse than it needs to be. Anyway, I'm not going to mow today like I had planned. I am surprised that no weatherman (ie Sam Champion0 has said that this heatwave is due to global warming. It seems everything abnormal that happens in the world, that guy blames on global warming. I remember a few years ago when all the bad stuff that happened weather-wise was blamed on "el nino." Do you remember that? I got so tired of hearing about it. Now the new thing to blame is men's foolishness and global warming. Hot is hot, weather is weather; it is what it is, and we need to get through it the best we can.

2009 Dodge Journey-Battle of Wills

I have always been a car person. I enjoy looking at cars, sitting in cars, riding in cars, knowing makes and models of cars, etc. It is a rather strange thing for a forty-something mother of four to enjoy doing, but it is something I have done my whole life. I remember when I was a kid, my dad kept getting these small toy cars as premium gifts from a gas station. I loved them, and would always entertain myself on car trips trying to name the makes and models of cars that I saw passing by. My husband, who is an engineer, is the opposite. He doesn't seem to find any kind of pleasure in cars. He doesn't know makes or models, he doesn't care about how they look or feel. They are simply a tool for him to use, and he considers them somewhat of a painful way of spending money. With all that being said, I have to say in the eighteen+ years we have been married, the only time we have bought at car is when he deems it necessary or when we have a vehicle crisis and are forced to buy whatever "will do" that is on the car lot. My husband is perfectly happy to pump thousands of dollars into an old car, rather than look at the bigger picture and get rid of a money pit and put the money toward something that is newer and more efficient. Another part of the money/car game we play is that he says "yes, let's go look" or "get the old Taurus ready to trade and we'll drive it to the car dealer and see what kind of deal we can get." I do all the research, do the preliminary testing of the new car, and then the real battle begins, present arguments, with supporting evidence, as to why we should buy/lease a new vehicle get all ready to go make a deal, and he changes his mind and says we can't afford it or it's not a good time, or whatever. This pattern has been followed our entire time together, and in the end, I'm the one who loses. We currently have a 2000 Chevy Suburban with 150,000+ miles on it that I drive, a new 2007 Hyundai Santa Fe that he drives (which was an emergency purchase when the Suburban didn't work) and a 1997 Ford Taurus station wagon with 147,000+ miles on it and currently doesn't start. My thought was that since the Suburban is running well now, but seems to have expensive crises every few months, we should keep it as a supplemental vehicle, and trade the old Taurus, and get something that gets better gas mileage, would be easier for me to get around in, and has more current safety features. I could ask him to look at the new Volvo crossover vehicles that are running a cool $40,000, but even though I would love to have one, I started looking at the new, more affordable, 2009 Dodge Journey. The $2.99 gas deal was just as enticing as the car. At any rate, have done all the footwork for this thing, and my husband remains unconvinced. I believe that in the long run, the Journey, if we lease it for three years, would save us money. He sees it as another one of my silly notions and maneuvers to "get my way" and spend more money. This is an eighteen year battle that is never ending and this warrior is growing weary. My husband hasn't said anything about the car since the stupid run-around he put me through by saying we could do it and then, pulling out of it at the last minute, but I will do more footwork and find out how much insurance will be, how much gas would be, how much a license would be, and then see if we would come out ahead. I know in the end, he will win; that's how it has been and until I become independently wealthy, that's how it will remain.

Living Through a 3-day Power Outage With a 15 Year Old

I'm surprised we survived. Three days ago, my six year old and I were driving home from a grocery store run (in the next town, of course), and were caught in some nasty weather that resulted in downed trees and powerlines--3 days without power. Thankfully, we made it home safely. Thankfully, last year I insisted that my husband purchase a generator, and thankfully, the power is back on and things will get back to normal. I would have to say that the worst part of being without power was how my 15-year-old coped (or didn't) with the inconvenience. For her, it was an emotional rollercoaster. One minute, she would be patient and would do the little things that the other girls were doing to pass the time; reading, playing games, watching shadows from candles on the wall--all that sort of stuff. The next minute, she would be railing on and on about how stupid the whole thing was; how stupid the power company is; "I hate Virginia" rants. It was difficult to live through for me because I always seem to take those sorts of things personally and think that I have to do something to "fix" it. Obviously, there is nothing to do about a power outage except wait (patiently) for it to come on. I have to remind myself that a teenager looks at her/himself as the sun and all the other planets revolve around her. That is just how they are wired, but it gets awfully tiresome and sometimes I just want to scream: "Would you just GROW UP!!!!" but of course, that's exactly what she is doing, and very normally, I might add.

KidZui Internet for Kids Available Today-Free!

Just out today is a great way for kids aged 3-12 to "surf the net" safely. Since I have three children who fall into that age range, it sounds like a really great site for them. The online service is free and has been reviewed by professionals and parents so that parents who have an account can feel confident that the sites their children are visiting are kid-friendly. My youngest daughter has tried to follow her fifteen-year-old sister's trips into the internet by logging onto www.YouTube.com by herself. I enjoy a funny video on YouTube now and then, but I certainly don't want my six-year-old venturing into that area without restrictions and supervision. It sounds like KidZui will be just what I need for my younger children. If you are interested in checking out what the site has to offer, you can visit at www.kidzui.com. Have fun!

Hillary Clinton to Concede

The most recent news I have seen is that Senator Hillary Clinton will concede the Democratic Party Nomination for President to Barack Obama this evening. I hope she will be gracious and open to a run with him on his presidential ticket, so that this whole thing can be put behind us and we can move on to bigger and better things in the Fall. I think an Obama/Clinton ticket would be just the thing to heal the hurt feelings and get down to the business of the country. More on this, I am sure, to come later.

Not Much to Blog About

I have sort of hit a dry spell for things to write about. The school year is coming to a close, so there are lots of end-of-the-year activities like Field Day, Carnival Day, field trips and finals, so that has been what has been filling the girls' days. The weather is finally warming up, my garden is planted and showing signs of sprouts, I hired a guy (I think he was an illegal immigrant) who did some mighty fine work to help the drainage problem in our backyard and basement, and the softball season is coming to a close. All is (almost) right with the world, which means there isn't much other than the usual price of gasoline to gripe about, so my blogging has not been very active. At any rate, things are okay and there are only 425 days 11 hours 52 minutes and 46 seconds before we are free to move back to Indiana. I think I can wait that long