I started a long entry and it didn't stick - I think yesterday. Bummer, was too tired to try again.

In the meantime I probably forgot half of it. But some of it is coming back to me...

I think on our trip we will be gone 4 full days. 2 days spent driving, which will be expensive on the eating out as well.

Anyway, on the way out we were going to stop for a picnic. Today we were told by the fam that we are expected to stop and visit Auntie Nun (the family nun) a good hour north of Disneyland.

At first I Was annoyed. We see her all the time and dh is planning to visit a friend too, which has been a gigantic PITA. So much for the relaxing vacation! As it keeps getting bogged down with "appointments."

Well, today I woke up in a better mood about it and asked dh how far out of the way it was. He feels the same way but thought I might be happy we would get a free meal out of it. The place I worked last actually audited a lot of religious organizations and I have to say I remember they always had good spreads for their priests and nuns. So anyway, today I asked him how far out of the way it was. Since we were considering taking a long cut to avoid some of the traffic (if need be) this was actually more on the way than not. Not far off our long cut. We figured regardless it only added about 40 minutes to our drive. Not so bad. So we decided on our way down we will stop for a picnic lunch and for dinner we will stop for free dinner service with the nuns. She said we could also pick some fresh fruit from the grounds. & don't get me wrong, it will certainly be nice to see where she lives. The kids LOVE her, so all will be well there.

Beyond all that, dh has started loading up on snacks on sale at the store, and got me some bottled water, for the trip.

He also wants to go to the grocery store the night we get there to get some milk for the fridge. Maybe some other perishables.

& sounds like we will have fresh fruit (free) too. We don't plan to eat many meals in the hotel. Since we'll be out so much. But breakfast, certainly. & the snacks are covered.

We also picked up his parent's GPS this weekend, to borrow, since we saw them. Dh went to Florida with them last fall and is now GPS crazy. Every time we go anywhere now and are not 1000% where we are I always say, come on, it's an adventure. He always gripes we need GPS. He got so spoiled on that one short trip. We have talked of getting one around Christmas. What we are planning - one for driving and hiking. But this will be my first time test driving one. I did wonder if it would be fair to get one and how we would fight over it. But he made the point that I probably wouldn't need it for my commute to work every day. Either of us can use it whenever we need it. So yeah - that will be our Christmas gift to each other. Though we may buy sooner if we see a good sale.

Yesterday I took the kids to an art & wine festival and spent way too much money. But we did have fun! I'll have to take a picture of the solar powered art we bought - because there is no describing it.

While walking into the festival a woman walked passed me in the other direction and dropped a wad of cash. IT took me a few seconds to react (both kids in tow) but dh came up from behind, spotted it (of course - he would never miss cash on the ground) and stopped to pick him up. I pointed to the woman just as another lady started to say - "that cash is hers." He handed it back to her. I joked if we were a little slower maybe we would have found $20+. (Not sure how much was in the wad, but was a $20 on the outside). Then again I have the feeling that wouldn't have gone long at all, unnoticed. Particularly since so many people saw her drop it - lucky for her!!

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In other news, I had an overdraft!!!!!!! Ugh!

In the end it wasn't so bad.

My system is to run checking to $0 and to keep around $1k in my linked savings account (overdraft protection).

This system has always been fine, and even better since using Quicken. This way I don't worry about math errors.

Anyway, for years dh had much of our money in another credit union, and though we had tens of thousands in his linked checking, and he had some sort of "overdraft protection" he couldn't keep track that his checking account had a large minimum. So every time he went under the minimum they charged him $50 overdraft. No kidding. After 2 or 3 of those I had had enough. !!

Which incidentally is one of our biggest fights to this day. HE does not understand in the least why our checking account has no interest. Every time he brings it up I have to roll my eyes. I say, "yeah, that really worked out well for you in the past." LOL. We seem to have this conversation over and over and it drives me nuts. I just don't want to worry about minimums to earn 1%. I like that my checking account minimum is $0. & likewise, any money that is not immediately spent goes into our high yield savings accounts. Considering that this system is simple, and yields no fees, I am much happier with this.

So anyway. I logged onto Quicken and downloaded my data yesterday and was shocked to see the word "overdraft" pop up. Wha?????????

I was relieved to see that my CU charged a mere $3. A small price to pay for my stupidity.

I actually hadn't slept well at all Friday night and was absolutely exhausted. Therefore, it took a long while for my very tired brain to figure it out. I finally realized I had dated a transfer into checking, about a week too early in Quicken. Ugh.

So I made a stupid mistake, but the price was small. Thank goodness for that. They pulled $200 over to cover the overdraft. Since that was going to be my transfer anyway, then it's all even steven.

Well, except down $3. Bummer.

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Besides all that, today was Mother's Day, of course!

We went to a nice luncheon at dh's grandmother's retirement village.

Oh yes, and last night my parents treated us to dinner at one of my favorite mexican restaurants in the Bay.

Oh yes, I think Friday night I asked BM what his favorite thing of the whole week was. He told me it was "making my Mother's Day present." That was the highlight of my week. How sweet is that?

I also saw something else in Quicken that peeved me Saturday morning. I saw a $3 charge to Trader Joe's. My first thought, was, since when did dh go there???? I made a mental note to ask him about it. But I soon remembered I had heard great things a while back about their frozen gyozas. I had been wanting to try them, but now we got this all-you-can eat Japanese buffet we have been frequenting more. So I have been getting plenty of my share of gyoza!

Anyway, I realized then that was my Mother's Day gift. I often feel bad that dh can sneak little past me since I control all thing finances (just our choice, though this is the one downside). But then I thought about it. $3? Like dh couldn't scrounge $3. Hell, he could have borrowed $3 from the kids' piggy banks and put it back after Mother's Day. But since I had just gone to the ATM for him last week, I knew he had $3.

So, bah!

So we got home around dinner time and I had my gyoza appetizers. & yes, they were actually pretty good. He tried a new dipping sauce, which was okay. I think we will try again though.

I thought this was a GREAT gift. Though I told him this would lead to a bad habit. Though at least not a terribly expensive one. It's just one of those things where you can't eat just one, though.

The kids also wrote me a story. LM's story was about the day I got to meet his friend "Wormy." From my last narrative on wormy, you know how cool this is. That was very sweet. I got to meet him on a flying card ride and sleep in his bed.

BM's story, well not sure what his story was. A lot of nonsense, but about a Crazy Boy and some things he did with his mother. But, he drew a lovely picture of me standing on my head. Now that is priceless!

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My mom also sent dh $100 for the work he is doing on a relative's wedding (since it is my family and he is doing it as favor to my parents and them, more than anything). More than just a favor now. BEst part was he had discussed it with my mom but didn't bother to tell me. Figured I'd see the check in the mail when it arrived. (I say that sarcastically. Sometimes I stress so much about the budget, I can't believe he didn't tell me about this windfall before it arrived).

Of course, today his mother gave me $100 & his grandma gave me $50. For Mother's Day, though clear it was for our upcoming Disney trip as well. His fam is always way too generous. I am thinking of applying it all to vacation. We'll just see where all this windfall lands. Will save us a trip to the ATM, but we'll deposit the rest into the bank when we get back, and I will probably apply to vacation. Heck this could go a long way to our Yosemite trip.

I know, I keep thinking one of these days that every windfall will just go to retirement. Or more long-term savings. Just, not there yet. Getting there. But not quite yet...