The Magic of Christmas

Since little kids don't quite grasp the concept of what Christmas is actually about, it's nice to have a symbol like Santa Claus that embodies the gift of our Savior.

There is nothing quite so magical as watching two little girls get giddy and squealy over seeing santa claus when they see him. Right now, our girls are watching "The Polar Express." What a fantastic movie. They get so excited and start dancing, clapping, squealing ... it's just adorable. "DADDY! LOOK! SANTA!"

Weef and I have a tradition of giving each other an ornament for our tree. I know exactly what I'm getting her next year. I can't wait!

Though there is something so bizarrely disturbing about seeing a CGI version of Steven Tyler belting out whatever song that is at the end of the movie. Just ... creepy. How funny.

A Beautiful Sight

Weef is sitting on the couch directly behind me playing Mario Kart Wii. She's doing really well, too. Here in a little bit, we're gonna race. She is now a worthy opponent. ;)

As we're sitting here, she's playing the Wii, I'm blogging, A Perfect Circle's "The Noose" comes on. What does she say? "Wow ... I really miss this song."

*sigh*

I picked a super winner. We may have our moments of frustration with life, each other, whatever ... it can't touch us long-term, though.

Yah. It's time to play. Later. :)

Chronic Suffering and Agony

So, as many--if not all--of you know, I suffer from chronic headaches. I've been getting debilitating headaches since I was 20. That's a long time to suffer with literally no explanation of why.

Well, now there's a why. I have arthritis in my neck. Specifically, on the second and third vertebrae. For years, I've been going to doctors, getting MRIs, CT scans and x-rays. They've always been focused on my head--not my neck. FInally, I went to a chiropractor last week. He showed me exactly where and why I've been getting these headaches.

So now that we know WHAT the problem is, there has to be a solution for treating it. If nothing else, at least find out if something can be done. Fortunately for me, I live really close to a world-class medical facility. I have an appointment scheduled for next Thursday for an initial consultation.

I'm so glad that I'm FINALLY making some progress headache thing! Consequently, I know that weef and the girls will be glad to have me "whole," as it were. I constantly feel broken--not 100%. And I *want* to be 100%. I want to let my daughters play on my back, or give them horsie rides and not worry about whether I'm going to require a muscle relaxant for a week straight after. I want to stay at work all day and not have to leave because "If I don't leave now, I won't make it home." I'm tired of having this problem, and I am SO excited to be on the road to recovery. It's beautiful.

Now THIS Is Excellent!

I called our old auto insurance broker company today. We've been paying a ridiculous amount for coverage. Granted, we had a $100 deductible, but that's proven to be a bust since we're safe drivers. I'd rather save more and go with another carrier than worry about the deductible.

So I called them. They told me they could save us almost $1400 a year in auto insurance with the EXACT same coverage. Only difference is we would have a $500 deductible instead of a $100, but considering we've never had an accident, and we're extremely cautious drivers (mostly), paying that much more on the chance we'd need to spend money on a deductible is kind of silly.

Then the agent asked me about home owner's insurance. They're going to save us another $203 by bundling auto with the home insurance. All told, we'll be saving about $1600 a year. I don't know about y'all, but that's pretty dang exciting news in our book!

We're dropping our cell phones since my company provides me with a cell phone, and we're picking up a new carrier for weef with a cheaper plan, so that'll save us a bundle.

All told, by the end of the day, I believe we're going to be saving over $2000 a year. That's good stuff, right there. We have stuff around the house that we're looking to sell as well.

It's amazing what this economic crunch can cause as far as thoughts and planning goes. I mean, honestly, the things we're looking at selling are things that are extraneous around the house that we just don't use, like the little TV and DVD player we barely use; the chair in the spare room that's just sitting there, unused; stuff. Things we don't need/want, or things we just don't use ... all going away.

In their place, we'll buy things that we know we'll use or need. Nice!