Disney World Here We Come...in 21 days!

Grace is getting so excited to visit Nanny and Papa at their home in Florida. In just 21 days we will not only be visiting Nanny and Papa, but also Cinderella, Mickey, Ariel, Minnie, Snow White, etc. To help her understand we made a chain representing the days until we leave...let the countdown begin!

So How Much is a Trillion Really?

As we all know, the government is getting ready to spend one trillion dollars to stimulate the economy. We hear the number thrown around all the time now and it barely raises an eyebrow. This morning I heard an economist on TV say, somewhat frustratedly, that the vast majority of people don't understand and frankly can't comprehend how enormous that number is. I was curious, so I googled it.

Obviously I knew a trillion was a huge number, but I still found myself to be quite interested and even astonished by some of the stats.

A trillion = A thousand billion = A million million

A 1 with 12 zeros (1,000,000,000,000)

Some examples I found used time to explain how big the number is.

• A million seconds is about 12 days
• A billion seconds is about 32 years
• A trillion seconds is about 32,000 years

Some examples use stacks of dollar bills.

• A thousand $1 bills stacked, not laid end to end, measures 4.3 inches tall
• A million = 358 feet (35 stories)
• A billion = 358,500 feet (68 miles - well into the atmosphere)
• A trillion = 67,866 MILES (1/4 of the way to the moon)

And what about end-to-end? This Site claims it would take a military jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out dollar bills behind it end-to-end, 14 years before it reeled out a trillion dollars.

And finally, here are some of the best examples to help explain a trillion in terms of spending.

• If you spent $1 million every day since the birth of Christ, you still wouldn't have spend $1 trillion (You'd be at roughly $725 billion and have some 734 years to go) - AMAZING!
• You could pave the entire US interstate highway system in 24 karat gold according to this site.
• And how would you raise $1 trillion? If every man, woman, and child in the US (300 million) each chipped in, they would each pay $3,400. For those of you following the new octupulet babies, that would be $51,000 from their mother who now has 14 children.
• If just tax payers chipped in (138 million), they would pay $7,300 each or $14,600 per married couple. Better start saving up! I think the bills go out next year.

www.MINT.com - Try it!

http://www.mint.com/

We've only been using this site for a couple of weeks, but so far it is one of the easiest and best financial management tools we've used and we love it! It literally takes only a few minutes to set up, and is far less involved than Quicken or Money. Essentially you link your online accounts (bank, credit cards, investments, etc...) and mint brings all your details into one location and automatically assigns your purchases to categories based on the place of purchase.

Once your accounts are linked, you can easily trend your spending, your investments, and set up budgets and goals. You can even compare yourself against national, state, or city averages.

And best of all, it's free! They make their money by suggesting ways for you to save (To lower your mortgage, refinance with...)

Thanks to our friends Corey and Wendy for recommending the site!

Global.....What?

As usual, Micki and I awoke this morning to two hungry dogs eagerly awaiting their trip outside before breakfast. I threw on a sweatshirt and as I stepped outside with the dogs still half asleep, I was smacked in the face with -19 degree temps. As I stood there freezing and pleading with the dogs to hurry up, I wondered what happened to global warming?

Come on Al Gore, where are the milder winters and gloriously longer and warmer summers you promised? Today, every state in the nation will experience below freezing temperatures and many will shatter all time record lows. Clearly all of our efforts to warm the globe are not working!

Now some experts are warning of Global Cooling. What?

I’m no expert, but it seems pretty clear to me that Mother Nature has proven time and time again that we can’t accurately predict what the weather will be like next month, let alone years from now.

A Very Merry Christmas

We have now returned from Tell City and had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Grace especially enjoyed time spent with Grandma and Pop, Uncle Matthew, Aunt Vanessa, Great Grandma, Great Grandpa, John, Trevor, Trent, Grandma Mary, Bob, the Hartz family (especially Mason!), and the LeClere family! We are very thankful for such wonderful family and friends. Here are some photos of the Christmas celebrations. There are lots...but I will post separate pictures of our afternoon with the Hartz family and our Tacky Black-Tie Fondue Night!

We hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's Eve and is able to ring in the new year with family and friends!

Grace's Gift for Santa

Merry Christmas Everyone! Here are some videos of Grace wrapping and then putting out her gift to Santa.

Wrapping the gift...


Putting out the Gift, Milk, and Cookies...


Tomorrow we'll post a video of her waking up.

Merry Christmas!!

We hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas holiday!

Welcome Jackson and Ellie!

Congratulations to the Nickoloff family!!! They were blessed late Friday evening (birthday of December 12) with the birth of their two beautiful twins...Jackson and Ellie. We visited with them today and all are doing well. Both of the babies are absolutely beautiful, and Sarah and Chris are on cloud 9!! We are so happy for their family and can't wait to share many memories with them in the future. Click here for a few photos of the twins, along with some from the weekend.

We also really enjoyed the rest of the weekend in Chicago. We did a lot of shopping and enjoyed a few nights on the town!! Thanks to Shane, Nicole, Mike, Steve and Becky for a wonderful weekend!!

New Beginnings!!!

It's been a while since we posted (our apologies...the holiday season seems to have been more hectic than usual!). However, we have exciting news to post today...we are on our way to Chicago to visit with the Nickoloff family! Sarah has been in labor since this morning, and we are hoping for the arrival of the babies this evening. We are so happy for Sarah and Chris and can't wait to meet their little bundles of joy!

Tomorrow Shane, Nicole and Mike will be joining us in Chicago for a fun weekend! We are going to do lots of shopping, eating and enjoying of the holiday season!

Gracie is spending the weekend with Papa Tuff, Grandma Alys, and Buddy. She was SO excited to see them, and will have so much fun! Grace has really been enjoying the holiday season, and especially liked her visit with Santa. She sat on his lap and told him just what she wanted for Christmas. It was too cute!

Another recent and favorite past time has been gymnastics. Grace LOVES it, and it has been a wonderful bonding experience for her and a little friend, Lily. The coach, "Mr. Andy" is fantastic too...here are some additional pictures to enjoy of our little gymnast!

Our Little Princess!!

Gracie has just recently been interested in princesses and "girly" items. Boy though, now that it's here there is NO stopping her! She just loves dressing up now and playing Cinderella!! Here are a few photos in her dress up clothes...courtesy of Keegan! Very sassy, don't you think?!