Back home......yes!

We got back from our beach vacation yesterday. Had a lot of fun, but I was ready to be home!

Here's some snaps from our trip:

Funny story on this first one. Steve had downloaded some driving directions with "hints" for the trip. One hint said that Meridian, MS had a neat store if you needed to stretch your legs and find a bargain. We were ready to do both, so we lucked out by taking the right exit (out of four to choose from) and finding "Hudson's Treasure Hunt" store. It's a huge store full of almost everything under the sun. Everything was at least 60% off the ticketed price. We got a few deals, including an 8-pack of my Venus razor refills for less than $6 (anywhere else they would be at least $15-16), and a couple of nice water bottles in insulated carriers for a little over $2 apiece (perfect for the beach).

Anyway, we arrive at about 9:50 am, and there's a LINE in the parking lot leading up to the door (they opened at 10:00). I mean, these people were SERIOUS -- they had their shopping carts and were ready to go. I had no idea what Hudson's even was, so we're standing in this line. I told Steve, "It feels really weird that we're in a line and we don't even know what for..." To which Steve replied that he better get a shopping cart (which he did). Anyway, here's a picture of the line:



Here's a shot from our balcony. We were on the 8th floor. This was taken the day we arrived, and it had been raining. The beach was pretty much deserted, which we loved...




Here's one of my sweet hubby on our balcony. If you look closely, you can see a rainbow over his shoulder!




This is Steve during our dolphin cruise. And yes, we saw lots of dolphins!




This was taken our last evening (decided we had to have at least ONE picture of us together!)




Here's one of me at the restaurant Friday night:




Anyway, a good time was had by all.

More later --

kissie kissie!

They do this all the time. I finally just got a picture of it.


Also, Boots enjoyed the Sunday paper today. He's quite the literary type.

Farkle, anyone?

I've got to admit, I was a slow convert to Facebook. My friend Brenda had been bugging me about signing up forEVER, and I just ... resisted. I just felt like my plate was full enough, and I did not need another place to have to check in.

But.

Now I am a Facebooker and have only this week discovered the game of Farkle. O.M.G. I am addicted. This is not good. I find myself logging in just to play the game and see if I can beat my best score. Wondering what the really big winners' strategy is... Yes, I'm expending way too much time and energy on this!

Oh well, as far as vices go, this one is pretty tame.

More later --

The beach beckons ...

We’re counting down to our vacation, and we are so ready! We’re going back to Gulf Shores, Alabama. We went there a few years ago and really enjoyed it. We’re even renting the same condo. It’s right on the beach and close to some great restaurants.

I’ve found a blog that I really like. I haven’t gotten to spend a huge amount of time there, but I have really enjoyed what I’ve read. Check it out if you have time. It's called The Simple Dollar. Here's one of my favorite posts so far, on creating a CD ladder for your savings. It's something I've never done, but would like to start doing, to build up our savings account.

More later --