She likes it!! She made new friends on it. The bus goes right past our street ( well ok the street 2 streets from our but its like less then a block total) and turns around and goes up a hill where the stop is. She texts us when they pass the Taco Shop right before the street and we hop in the car and head over there just as they are pulling up. The timing is perfect! It is saving us loads of time and GAS!!  We made a tank last over a week!! For the first time in forever.

We replied to an add on Craigslist and we now have about 3 cords of dry cedar wood for this winter. If I can get 2 more cords we will be set!! I am so happy!! We are close to heat. The add was for free. We had to cut up the trees that were down and haul it all over here and then split and stack but its so worth it!!

Things work out to those who need. It really does. Things are coming together in a weird way. The kid who was renting a room who had a truck we could use moved out. S has a friend whose parents have a truck they are giving away. We need a truck. They gave us one. We hauled all the wood in it. It works prefect for us. Its an old 81 Toyota truck. Fits our need. They bought a business that came with several new huge trucks and had no need for this one. It runs. Its in fair condition. It's drivable. We are very grateful for this gift. We hauled debri from the bathroom to the dump. We moved wood. We are very happy to have our own. And it came at a perfect time. My mom's car which I have needs some repairs. We currently cannot drive it.  We have no monies to fix it.

The bus worked out perfect!! She made friends on it too. We have an agreement that she will try it for the week and we will evaluate it then.  I hope it works.

We have had many twits and turns in the school saga for the over 18 set in our house. SO the Va paid for Dh's classes but not his book stipend yet or living allowance. Hopefully it comes in before classes start. J and I have no financing so no clue what we are going to do.  Since the Gov't is involved in this we shall see how this all plays out.

Said the parent!!!  to the now very unhappy teen!! I found out that a bus to her school goes right past our house. There is a stop within walk distance of us. We will still drive here there because it is about half a mile on a really busy street but its way closer then the trip to town. It takes almost an hour to drive her and we now have a bus. Come Monday she is on it!! It makes life way easier.

Aren't they ever so adorable???




One leaves at 6:30 am and the other leaves at 7:15. Amazing how light it gets in 45 min...

And yes M's pants are neon yellow. And S is neon pink. They are into crazy loud clothes this year.

My funding for collage isn't going to come in on time. So I don't get to go. This makes me so mad!!! We applied back in early June and they wait till now to say oh sorry not going to happen we are to overloads on apps your didn't get processed?? The VA GI bill is another point of contention with me right now. It's a whole separate headache for me. So thats what I am up to. TO see a person at financial aid you have to be there by 10:30 am ish for a noon opening then you still wait for almost an hour after they open. So its an all day affair.

Hotel next to us has cool fountains. Ours is not so nice. So here is a hotel review. It was a NOT so super 8. We booked it through Orbitz. The website said fridge and microwave available. To me this says its there. NO this means for $8 a night per item you can get one. SO we lugged in our cooler and used all the hotel ice to keep our food/drinks cool. When we booked online we specifically requests ground floor by pool. Umm yeah.. So did not happen. We were second floor on backside way away from it. I was not happy. We were told that he put us there because of the blizzcon peeps there. Umm hello!!! 4 of the 7 of us there were going to it!! We wanted by the pool. We actually plan on spending a lot of time at it. So needless to say I am super not happy with the notsosuper 8. Rooms had a musty odor to them. We did not have enough towels and had to go to office to get more. The breakfast was real suckish. The lady was rude and gave the kids a rough time. If they were not hungry they wouldn't be eating stale nasty doughnuts. It was impossible to get more then one tiny 6 oz cup of milk out of the woman. It was like on lock down. I was like hello there are 3 of us. We would like at least one for each. And someplace to eat it would of been nice. Maybe a table and some chairs? We were all the way across the hotel on the backside and they expect an 11 yo to carry a cup of milk, a cup of juice, a bowl of cereal and a doughnut with out a tray? Yeah there were no trays to use. We could not get internet connections out back where we were. The boys were going insane without it. They were there for a gaming convention. NO internet = bad time.  The pool was clean enough. The hotel was clean on the surface but grimy in a way. Hard to explain.

Final decision is we did not enjoy it. We would not ever stay here again. Staff was nice enough but the hotel itself was not what we expected.

We got up this morning and kept on our trek home. We saw some incredible sights. Including a FLOCK of cows. Yep I said a FLOCK of cows. Well, actually M said it. We have spent a lot of time in the car on this trip and lots of talking talking. And of course with my kids you never know what will be said.


The beaches are incredible there!!! I never wanted to leave. It makes me hate Washington state even more.


We saw seals and birds and and and ... It was just awesome!!!



The view is just awe inspiring. The kids were so speechless.. Then I looked and they were sound asleep.



LOL!! Seriously he is not asleep but we were messing around like usual and I couldn't resist. But imagine a 6"2' son crammed in the back seat of a Chevy Cobalt. He was cramped. There was also a cooler and both sisters!!!!



We used GPs to our advantage. We could find lowest gas prices to our location. We found several Costcos and Aarcos this way. When we pulled out of Costco in Someplace Ca this was across the street!! J was like please stop I am hungry. I was like I am out of monies. He was like my treat!! I was like oh heck yeah!! So we ate there too. The food is so freakin cheap!!! A full on meal for under $5.. And hte funniest thing I found was they only serve like hamburger or cheeseburger. We have 3 peeps in our family who don't eat beef. So we ate fries and had milkshakes. It was a nice break for the rest of the trip home.




We drove for way more hours and then watched the sunset. We woke up in an Oregon Rest area then finishd up our drive and had lunch at home.

All in all a really good trip. Gas was less then $130 each way. I did pay for the car we were in. I did not have to pay for hotel. The boys here did. We just stole some space in their rooms.  We very rarely ate out. We did splurge and get a Gumbo bowl in Disney.  Surprisingly it was only $9!!! That could not be passed up.We ate continental breakfast in hotel. Made sandwiches for lunch from home. We brought cases of water and case of soda. It did not cost me that much.  It was worth every penny we spent though. I wish we had more and could of done legoland. I wish we could of afforded to eat out too. It got old real fast to eat a sandwich and cup o noodles. We made those in the hotel too with the coffee maker. This is how we did Disney for 3 People for less then $500 out of my pocket.

We have decided we want to try and go back for Christmas break. M really wants to see the Nightmare before Christmas stuff. She is an addict. We are sewing and selling dresses on ebay right now trying ot fund it. We would drive down again and just stay at another cheap motel. We would have to buy tickets this time and we want to be able to afford to eat there. So if anyone wants to contribute to the take my kids to Disney fund we would accept. If you or someone you know have a timeshare there for that time and wont us it let me know!! We really want to go back. M has has some tough times in her life at her young age. She has had 4 years of really crappy birthday's and this has been her one thing she wants. This would be my kids one and only Christmas present and they are cool with it. We have figured a budget of $3000 this time.  I am guessing Hotel would be around $75 a night. I have been searching several trip sites. We would figure $150 for gas each way. I figure $100 a day for food this time. Tickets are $100 a person on base. We would also use the legoland tickets so that is another hotel for 3 days. Also we want to stay in a hotel each way instead of sleeping in the car. So since thats what we want to do lets see how close I can come to this goal. It will be most interesting.

Our last day at Disney. The girls wish we could stay longer. Today was a nightmarish day. We went to disney for most of the day. The boys had nothing to do so they hung out by the pool waiting for us.  We did more rides and each girl got a momento.



We had not done this part of the park yet.




Its a nightmare before Christmas Jack pillow wearing jack Mickey ears. Make sense? Its really cute if you see what she did in real life.  S got a necklace with her name and a Mickey symbol. Its hard to take a pic of it. 

So we got all loaded up and trust me no small feat since the other car left and left things behind. We headed down to Carlsbad. We wanted to go to Legoland. Notice I said wanted. We got there and there was another hotel issue. We didn't have one. We made reservations on line and it was all messed up. They wanted more money then we booked for and we prepaid and they said we didn't. I pulled out emailed etc and they would not honor it. And since I had no more money we are in a touch spot. If I pay for hotel and stay we wont have gas money to make it home. What makes me mad is we prepaid for tickets and cannot get a refund. So we headed back North. We were 30 miles from San Diego. So not happy and now we have 3 very sad kids. So as we are going along we are trying to think of ways to save this. We decided to stop in Hollywood and check it out. We had never been there. It was pretty dang fun!!!
 
We saw the sign briefly but were unable to take a pic. Sadly it has a peek a boo  sighting of it.



We did see a palm tree with a beard as S put it.




And the show peeps put on outside of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. It was a blast!! We saw the walk of stars. Of course my camera battery died!! SO sad!! SO we used the cell phone and now I cannot figure out how to get all my pics off it. And the n that battery died. Way more sadness. So in the end we had a good time. Then we all piled back in the car and kept driving, We did decide to drice up the Pacific Coast Highway. We also searched all our pockets and found $70 so we decided to get a hotel and sleep. After the disappointment at Legoland we all needed a break. 

He is enjoying Blizzcon somewhat. He said last year was way better. He did not enjoy the Ozzie concert. SO sorry.. We are having a blast at DL though!!!  M smiled!! She is having a good time!

We went to California Adventures today. It was ok.. We went back over to the Disney side. Way more fun over there.We took and smelled the flowers today too.



We took a picture in every letter I think...



We saw Mickey and Minnie there.



The parade had green army men.



See M smiles!!!! It worked for a time.

After we spent the day there we went back to the hotel and played in the pool. We watched the night parade last night. It was really cool!! I wished the girls were up to it today but they are pretty tired.



Jon got this Murlock at Blizzcon. We all took a turn wearing it on our heads. This has to be one of my all time fav pics of S. She is blooming so freakin adorable!!!It looks like its holding on M's glasses too. We had a lot of fun playing with this little guy.

Need I say more???



Jungle cruise ride

  

Pooh Bear ride. We were one of the first people to ride this when it opened in 03!! Still one of S's fav all time rides.



Had to see Pooh too!!!!



And It's a Small World.



And of course the Castle!!! I did not know you can actually go up in it!! There is a while story thing in it. We had quite a good time in it.



And we went in here too. But do you know where this leads too??