Good news!

We feel very blessed...

The long story version is kind of boring and unnecessary, but the gist of it is:

•We are refinancing our home at a super low fixed rate of 4.25% (almost 2 points lower than our current rate)

•We still qualify for no PMI (We haven't been paying PMI because our home value was much higher than the loan... the value is still higher than the loan, but not nearly as much, however since we weren't paying PMI before, we don't have to pay it this time, either.)

•We didn't even need an appraisal - saving us $400 (The annual - or is it semi-annual? - city's estimate was high enough, and usually those are lower than actual appraisals, so if that's high enough, they don't bother spending the money on another one.)

•Basically, we're saving $200/month.

We had been thinking about refinancing for awhile, as we've watched the rates drop lower and lower. With the rates being where they are now, and with our renewed determination to save as much money as we can, we decided to act. It went so smoothly! We are so grateful! :)

Still hasn't quite sunk in.

A couple of days ago, Sami came to play. *Oh, btw, I learned a week ago that Sami has a blog! And she calls her's "Sami Says". lol So now I'm linked to her in my sidebar, under family. :)* I was taking her home and she asked if we would be going by Cadi's school. I told her no, we would be going down a different street. She asked if Cadi's school was the one that looked really nice, like a college campus. No... it's just a brick building. Then she asked if Cadi's school was the one right next to the high school. Nope, that's the middle school.

Oh wait.

Wait, that is Cadi's school! Oh yeah! I still think of her grade school as her school. Oops. Yes, we would be going by her school, yes it is really nice and is the one Sami thought looked like it was a college, and yes it is right next to the high school. Yes, that is Cadi's school now. Jr. High.

I wonder when it will really sink in?

Not giving up.

The day after we found out about the scam I went into fix-it mode. I crunched numbers, researched, revised plans, and came to the conclusion that we are still going to DisneyWorld next year. Infact, we'll probably still go to DisneyLand for just a couple days too, since we'll be in Southern California with family already next spring. We're really trying to save money from now until then, though. I even told the girls that they'll likely get Disney gift cards for gifts for the next year - and that will be their spending money when we go. I didn't go to the football game I wanted to go to on Friday night, and instead of suggesting that my friends and I go out to a restaurant after the cheap theater movie we went to on Saturday, I invited them to our house and we fired up the fire pit and roasted marshmallows instead. I don't think I'll be going for manis and pedis again until our DW trip. I might even forego getting my hair colored. Ryan and I really want to get a new camcorder, so we've decided that we'll forego Christmas presents to each other and then get one during the after-Christmas sales. That way we'll still get it (and can use it on our trips), but we won't be spending extra money. The rest of our gifts to each other will be money put towards the trip. I feel pretty good about it. I hope we remember in a few months that we really do want to save money, and don't start slipping back into our old spending habits. lol

In other news... it's a 3 day weekend! Woohoo!!! No alarm clocks this morning. :) We worked in the yard on Saturday and helped our neighbors "labor" as we helped them move a ton of wood from their trailer into their backyard. I counted that as a workout. ;) Today we're hoping Sami can come play. We want to have a movie marathon. Unfortunately, she's got some shoulder troubles going on this weekend so it's kind of up in the air until we see how she's feeling today. Which, we should know pretty soon. :)

Acadia starts piano lessons today! Well, for this year, at least. She always has fun choosing what songs she'll work on for the term and perform during the recital. She's been changing her mind, switching back and forth for the last couple of weeks, so today's the day to make a decision. I'm interested to hear what she settles on, of course with her teacher's approval.

We're going to Disney World!!! ... Or not.

Four years ago, we converted our home to gas and installed central heat and air. We have LOVED it!!! At the time, we shopped around, getting bids from different companies. We decided to go with Miller's Heat and Air (I think that was what it was called back then, now it is called Miller's One-Hour Heat and Air.) which was a little more expensive than the others, but also offered a rebate program on the energy efficient units it sold. The rebate program was funded through a seperate agency, so they gave us all of the info/forms we would need and we've kept it all in a safe place so we could turn it all in later this year for our refund.

That was the plan.

Then, last night Ryan checked the mail and found a notice of a lawsuit against this rebate agency. It was a scam. Now, instead of getting $4,000 in a few months, we'll be getting $320.

Since we planned to use the rebate money to fund about half of our Disney trip next year, our vacation is now in serious jeapardy. $320 won't even buy one of our plane tickets.

I was fuming last night! I am so upset. It kept me up, trying to think of how we can still make our trip work. I've come to the conclusion that we can do it... if. If we seriously tighten our belts. We've been fortunate to have such a great job and a stable income. We take it for granted sometimes. We don't think twice about going to the movies or going shopping, within reason. If we want a huge dream vacation in just over a year, then we need to think twice now. We need to make the decision to forego most of those kinds of things for a year so we can save up for our trip. I'll also need to find the most cost-effective way to take the trip. Which, I thought I already had but even this summer was enlightened on another way to save more money, so I'll start working that out, too. At least we found out now, with enough time to try to adjust our plans and still make it.
I really, really want to go to Disney World. It was such an amazing vacation when we took Cadi after she turned 5. If at all possible, I want to do it for Rori, too.

And even though I'm mad about the scam, I'm so grateful that we have been scammed out of money that we planned to use as an extra, not money we were relying on for essentials. I'm grateful that we still have a great job, stable income, all of our needs met, good health, etc. We're okay and we'll be okay. And if we plan and spend smartly, our vacation may still be okay, too. I hope!

Downside to school being back in session.

Actually, two downsides.

1. The alarm. It goes off WAY too early! lol Starting this year, the whole family is getting up by 6am to read scriptures before Ryan goes to work. In the past, none of us were up that early, but now that Cadi has to be ready for the bus by 7:30, it doesn't hurt for us to be up and going that early. And since nights can be hit and miss for Ryan and will be getting more busy for Cadi as she gets older, it works better to have scriptures in the morning. It's working well... but it is a lot earlier than we were getting up last week! lol

2. No more chores. It's all on me! Boo. I almost called out, "Cadi, the dishwasher needs to be emptied," but then remembered she was already out the door. Rats. I have to clean now? ;) She'll still have to keep her room clean and do her laundry, and occasionally I'll ask her to help with other housework, but during the school year, I don't assign regular chores. She gets to focus on school work, piano, violin, and reading instead. Especially now that she's in middle school ... and in Excel. It will be a much heavier load than she's had before.

But other than that, I'm excited for school to be back. Cadi loves to learn. We have a great school district and Cadi gets lots of different opportunities at school. I'm so glad she is learning violin - for free! ;) And we tend to prefer having a routine. If there's no routine, little gets done, but with a routine, it's easier to be efficient and consistent. Even if that means I have to do my own chores now. :P

First day of middle school.

Acadia headed off to middle school today. I refrained from taking any pictures of her getting on the bus like I have in years past, didn't think that would help her win any "coolness" points. ;) I did anxiously await her arrival home, though. I was excited, and even a little nervous, to hear how her day had gone.

She came home super excited! She liked how her day went, especially since she won't have P.E. this trimester. ;) (She's in leadership instead. She'll have art for one of the next trimesters and P.E. for the other.) And she was thrilled to find out she will be playing Lord of the Rings in Orchestra!!! (Orchestra is all three trimesters and she has class everyday.)

I was pleased to see the school had placed Acadia in Excel classes for her academics. (Advanced) It means she is expected to study more and perform higher, but she's up for the challenge. If she remains in Excel classes, her 8th grade classes will earn high school credit! She wants to do it, she's excited for the opportunity to be challenged more.

Now that the first day is under her belt, I'm sure Cadi is going to do great in middle school! She'll settle right into the swing of things, quickly get used to moving from one class to another, meet new friends, etc. We're looking forward to the rest of the school year! :)

The last day of summer break...

Sami came over on Monday night to sleep over so we could have one final "hurrah" of summer.  Things rarely ever make sense when Sami's here... as shown in the first pic in this collage...



The rest of the pics are from our mani and pedi trip yesterday.  We had fun getting pampered and love our cute nails!  Then we grabbed Rori and headed to the cheap theaters to see "How to Train Your Dragon", which was SUPER CUTE!!!  I think Santa may have to bring us that one.  :)

We had a great time with Sami, even if she did label me as the headless Ken on her FB page. :P  We dropped her off back home and came home ourselves so we could get to bed at a decent time since the alarm was set for 6am this morning.  :(  Good-bye summer!  Good-bye sleeping in!  Hello new school year!