Vegas baby!

The news this month is that we survived our travels to and from Vegas! We had a good time. The weather was nice (by our standards it felt like spring), but the locals would tell you it was cold. Highs were in the 60s, lows in the 40s. “Cold” was written across the 5 day forecast while we were there! I guess hot and cold are all relative, especially when they are 100+ for a lot of the summer.

We managed to haul all of our luggage to the check counter. You should have seen us, it was comical! I was pulling a big suitcase, had a backpack on my back and was carrying Shaun. Bill was pulling a big suitcase, wearing Shaun’s backpack & DVD player and pushing the stroller that had the play yard (crib) sitting in it with the car seat laying over the top of it! We concocted this scenario at home and figured we could manage the distance we had to go. We put the play yard in the stroller because it is easier to carry Shaun than the play yard because it is so heavy. We checked the two suitcases and the play yard, so after we checked them in, we just had the backpacks, DVD player, car seat and stroller for Shaun to sit in; much easier!

The plane ride there went fine. Shaun did okay, he could have been better, but also could have been much worse, so I was satisfied. We kept him busy reading books, playing with the doodle pad, snacking on crackers, and finally watching an Elmo DVD. He kept kicking the seat in front of him though. At least the lady was nice about it. We laid his chair back and took off his shoes, so it was not so bad, but he could still kind of reach and kept messing with the tray table because he could unhook it with his foot. The flight was about 2 hours and Shaun was ready to get out of his seat by the time we were there. Yes, we got him his own seat because there was no way that we would be able to keep him sitting on our laps! My busy boy would have been much fussier, I think out of his seat because he would want to go. The extra money was definitely worth it.

Ready to go on the plane!

We spent some good time with family and saw some sights too. We went to the aquarium at the Mandalay Bay, saw the lions at the MGM Grand, went to Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden (dolphins, lions, tigers, etc), and went to Circus Circus to see the trapeze show and ride the carousal. We stayed with Bill’s dad and step mom so saw them everyday and also had a dinner gathering with Bill’s aunt Diane, cousin Becky and daughter Megan. We also went over and saw Bill’s Grandparents on his mom’s side and went out to a buffet with them and his uncle Duane. We were glad to see everybody and I’m sure they were glad to see us and meet Shaun!

Grandpa & Step Grandma!
Shaun's Great Grandparents & Great Uncle Duane
Lions at the MGM Grand

The trip back was unexpectedly extended by about 5 hours. We arrived at the airport at 1pm, 2 hours before our plane was supposed to take off at 3. They started boarding the plane for the early people, including us with a child. However, after we had Shaun all strapped in I noticed that no one else was getting on the plane. Then they announced over the loudspeaker that the plane’s windshield had just cracked and so we needed to all get off until they knew what the status was. The plane was unusable that day because the fixing process for a plane’s windshield takes at least 24 hours or so. We went on standby for 2 flights, didn’t make them though. Luckily our flight was still going to be able to leave that day because there is a plane that comes in and stays overnight at Vegas, so they could use that plane to take us to Seattle. However, that plane wasn’t schedule to arrive until 7:44pm, so the earliest we would leave would be 8:30pm! And, that is what happened. I’m just glad that we were able to leave and didn’t have to stay overnight.

So for the extra 5 hours: we stayed around the gate area until we knew what was happening and until about 6pm when we found out that we didn’t make it on either of the earlier flights. Then, Bill had scoped out a play area not too far away that we let Shaun run around in for a while, then went and ate dinner, then went back to the play area. Shaun finally fell asleep about 15 minutes before we boarded. Then, he was wide awake after we were on the plane. However he was much calmer because he was sleepy, so we didn’t really even have to get out any toys or distractions, just a couple crackers and water. He did fall asleep for the last half hour of the plane ride though. That was at about 10pm; way past his bedtime and with no regular nap.

Bill then decided to try and carry Shaun in his car seat down to baggage claim so he could sleep longer; all 26 pounds of Shaun + car seat weight held out at an odd angle. He made it with a few stops along the way and Shaun stayed asleep until we had to get him out so we could load everything back up to take to the shuttle, to take us to our car. We finally walked in our door at home at 12:45am! We had left Bill’s dad’s house at noon. One long day! I stayed home that next day to catch up on sleep and do some chores like grocery shopping, picking up Abby, and laundry, but then it was back to reality on Thursday.

On our infertility note: We have pretty much decided to go ahead and try one last time and do a full round of in vitro fertilization again. My Grandma left me a little bit of money, and I’m sure she would be happy that we would use it in this way. We haven’t gone back to the clinic yet but have been in contact with them. We will be starting the process in either December or January, and it takes 2 months. I will post an IVF update on the blog whenever there is something to say. Thanks for your prayers ahead of time!

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving, and Happy Holidays! I consider it officially the holiday season starting the day after Thanksgiving. That is when I start to get in the holiday spirit and don’t mind listening to Christmas music and seeing Christmas decorations in stores and on people’s houses. Remember the reason for the season: Jesus’ birthday!

To Gift Card or Not to Gift Card?......That is the Question!

Gift Cards Are Useful; Give Me Cash
By NEAL TEMPLIN, Wall Street Journal
NOVEMBER 19, 2009, 12:07 A.M. ET

Suppose someone invented a gift card so versatile it could be used almost anywhere to buy almost anything.

This gift card would be good forever and would be accepted in many foreign countries. It would be available in multiple denominations and sold in multiple locations. You could bend it in half—or even leave it in the pocket of your trunks when you went for a swim—and it would still work fine.

Wait a minute. Somebody already invented that go-anywhere gift card. It's called cash.

Cash has huge advantages over gift cards. There's been a big flap over gift-card fees with Congress eventually stepping in to limit them. And a sizable chunk of gift-card value—estimates range between 5% and 10%—never gets fully redeemed. These aren't issues that come with cash.

So why have gift cards grown in popularity when we already have something better sitting in our wallets? The answer is a combination of consumer psychology and opportunistic retailers and card issuers. Consumers see giving cash as crass, and retailers have taken advantage of that to push gift cards.

Roughly $95 billion worth of gift cards will be sold in the U.S. this year, up about 10% from the previous year, according to Mercator Advisory Group, a market-research firm. The two main types are "closed loop" cards, which are store gift cards issued by a variety of retailers, and "open loop" cards, preloaded debit cards from the likes of Visa or American Express.

Each has its pluses and minuses. The preloaded debit cards can be used anywhere. But you have to pay a fee, typically $3 to $7, to buy them. Card makers have also charged monthly dormancy fees if you don't use them up by a certain date. However, a new federal law limits these fees beginning in August 2010, and American Express just announced it was dumping them entirely.

Most store cards don't have fees anymore. They have a different problem. You're committed to use the card at a designated store. If you're really hankering for a new sweater, owning a Barnes & Noble gift card won't do you any good. Sales of these gift cards have been flat. And a new National Retail Federation survey finds that shoppers expect to spend a bit less on holiday gift cards this year.

Given their limitations, I figured that economists and other academics would see gift cards as wasteful. I figured wrong.

They see gift-giving as an inefficient transfer of wealth and say that gift cards actually make the whole system work better. "Having the choice of gift cards ... is a value-preserving choice," meaning it's less-wasteful than an unwanted gift, says Wharton School economist Joel Waldfogel, author of "Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays."

Well, there's no contesting that gift-giving is inefficient. How many gifts are basically a waste of money? A lot. Either the recipient hates them or they're the wrong size.

A gift card is particularly popular when the giver doesn't know the recipient well enough to pick out a gift. My wife, Clarissa, uses them for buying presents for teachers. "It's easy," she says. "You just give them a gift card to a book store."

Of course, Clarissa didn't stop there. She said it takes "gall to criticize gift cards when you are not even the one that takes care of the gift-giving."

OK, I can understand it would seem crass to give cash to your kid's teacher. But how about giving cash to your kid? That doesn't seem crass.

It turns out that many gift-card purchasers still want some control over the present.

"The problem with the cash is not with the recipients—the recipients like to get cash," says Dan Horne, a marketing professor at Providence College who has studied gift cards. "The problem is that givers don't like to give you cash, and then have you buy gas for the car, or beer or cigarettes."

The gift-card industry knows it has built-in demand for its products, but it's not sitting pat. You can now buy gift cards that play songs. Gift cards with tiny flashlights. Gift cards that feature pictures of family members. There are even ringtone gift cards so that people can download different tones for their cellphones.

"When you get a gift card, you're not just buying an inert piece of plastic" anymore, says Tim Sloane of Mercator, the market-research firm.

Blackhawk Network, which maintains those gift-card racks you see in places like drugstores, says it and retailers keep changing the "skins," or outsides, of cards to keep them trendy and relevant for whatever occasion.

"If they're giving a gift for a wedding, they want a wedding on it," explains Teri Llach, Blackhawk's group vice president.

The full-court press to popularize gift cards has worked. When the National Retail Federation polls shoppers on their favorite holiday present, gift cards were No. 1 again. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed wanted to receive one.

Well, I'm still not sure what I'll get Clarissa for Christmas this year. But it won't be a gift card.


From me, Suzanne ~ In Washington, gift cards to specific stores cannot have expiration dates or fees for dominancy, etc.

A moment captured....

at the pumpkin patch..... Thanks Molly!

And, I thought the background on the blog was getting a little boring; we are in November, so.....