I had a long awful dream last night. (I could tell it was long because I'd wake up out of it, go back to sleep and get right back into the same dream.) I dreamt that AS suddenly revealed/remembered/discovered that she had more student loans from her first college she went to. $400,000 more, in fact.

It was the worst dream, and it just went on and on. I kept going over calculations in my head and trying to figure out how we were going to be able to do any of the other things we wanted. I also kept questioning whether it was a mistake, but the answer always came back that it was real.

I was SO relieved to wake up for good, and realize it was not only not true, but also impossible for one college to cost that much for 2 years of attendance in the 1990s! :P

***

I saw MonkeyMama's update and realized I hadn't written about our CC rewards schemes in a while.

I'm annoyed with my cards too. The Amex that I'm supposed to get $100 reward on, plus 6% on groceries, we've been using for almost a month, and there's still only one transaction showing up online! Do you think I should call?

The Mastercard that we'll get $150 reward from has posted all of our transactions, but the reward hasn't come through. At least I feel like their online account site is functional!

We've gotten $1540 from Chase Sapphire so far and AS just finished spending her $3000, so we'll get another $530 once the billing cycle ends! I wrote back to them that I was slightly mollified and would only close 2 of the 3 Chase cards I have. I kept the one I wanted to keep anyway!

So now I have open a Chase Visa, an Amex and a Discover card, all joint w/NT. I also have a Citi Mastercard joint w/AS. AS has her Chase Sapphire that she'll close as soon as she gets the rewards check. Makes me realize I should add AS to another card, since the Mastercard doesn't have a very high limit! I should also close another card or two, but I'm waiting to see if the Amex grocery rewards are worth the annoying delay on their website. Chase and Discover have about the same rewards; Mastercard has only decent rewards after the bonus, so I'll probably close that one. Even more reason to get AS on another card, because once that and Chase Sapphire are gone she wouldn't have any!

***

Had an irritating session with Comcast yesterday. I'd recently downgraded and expected to save about $20, so when a bill came for $50 less I was pleased and surprised. Then I realized I'd manually paid at the beginning of the month forgetting I'd signed up for autopay with my credit card. The autopay had taken $62 in addition to my full $88 payment, so the $35 they were charging me would take this coming month's payment up to $97, almost $10 more than before I downgraded!

Since my condo assocation pays part of the cable bill, it was super confusing for the rep to go through all the transactions and try to figure out why I was getting charged more. But he told me the prorated bill I was supposed to get for the end of this month was about $71, so I said look, I've paid $62 already with my autopay, that means I should only owe $9. Can't you just make my account reflect that? So he said he would; I just have to check today and make sure it's reflected in my account.

He said my regular bill should be about $62 or $63, so that means we'll save about $25 compared with our old rate. Better than I hoped!

***

I keep forgetting to mention this, but AS was going to be on TV! Well, she probably still will, a bit, but today her best friend is getting ambushed by "What Not to Wear," a style makeover show. AS was supposed to go, but it would be an hour bus ride each way, and the filming was meant to end at 1:30, but her first real doctor's appointment starts at 2 today. So she backed out. They did a taped interview with her a couple weeks ago where she talked about how terrible her best friend dresses, so she'll probably still show up on the episode. I think it'll air this fall or winter; I'll be sure to let you all know!

AS has been hit with the morning sickness pretty hard. Today she couldn't come into daycare because they were cooking breakfast and the smells were too much. Then she spit up a bit (not much to vomit) in the gutter on the way to the bus stop. So she was extra glad she didn't have to go for 4 hours of preparation and filming!

***

Vacation is coming up and we couldn't be more pleased! AS obviously needs to get away from the daily grind, and NT has a cough/cold that's been dragging on for weeks, and I'm just really sick of work. My job had summer hours, but as a one-person department, I only got to take it once or twice, and I got attitude from the project managers even for that.

We fly to St. Louis next Wednesday night. We're staying Wednesday and Thursday night at a really nice hotel and will relax and maybe do a bit of sightseeing on Thursday. We really just flew down there so we could take a train trip to Chicago on Friday. We'll be in Chicago Friday, Saturday and Sunday, leaving Monday around noon on another train back to the Twin Cities.

Usually NT and I plan a ton of activities for our vacations, but this time we're really trying to resist, because we know we're all exhausted, and that AS especially needs a lot of downtime. We've even agreed to have a somewhat "unplugged" vacation and only check the internet if we need directions or other travel info. We'll bring lots of books and try to be as lazy as possible. (Of course we'll need to entertain AA, but she's not much bother at this age; she just likes you to be around while she runs around doing her own thing.)

***

Speaking of AA, I crossed a couple things off the wish list related to her. I ordered some toys that should be good for traveling, and I applied for a Pax World Balanced mutual fund for her! I opened it with $500, but I may add to it if I like it.

I wasn't sure the toys would get here in time, so I signed up for a one-month free trial of Amazon Prime, where you get free 2-day shipping on everything. I put a line item in my budget spreadsheet to cancel it a month from now so I don't get charged! I ordered a cute little critter with a variety of plastic buckles that she can practice opening and closing, and a puzzle where the pieces are attached to the board with ribbons so they won't get lost, and a magnetic tablet with a stylus so she can practice doodling without making a mess.

If today is slow at work, I'm going to look up clip art to print out and make flash cards with. I want to do a deck of various educational cards, laminate them and put them on a metal ring so AA has another fun thing to do on the trip. If I don't get a chance to finish, I may just bring a deck of playing cards, because a friend of ours said that kept his son occupied on trips when we was younger.

***

I think that's it! I'm still keeping up on my diet and exercise; I missed working out yesterday, but today was going to be a day off, so if I work out today it will balance out. I made an amazingly delicious corn soup with roasted corn-avocado guacamole last night; I'll post the recipe link if anyone is interested.

EDIT: Found the recipe link! I followed this to a T except I mashed the avocado instead of chopping because it was overripe. I'm sure it would be great chopped as well, but mashing worked great.