I got a ping, but I don't see anything on your post. I know the forums have been having some cache issues, so I'll check later. Edit: I see it now, just had to refresh the page. Fingers crossed you get a spot!

I've never ridden the train at Omaha, but I did ride the train at Gator Land in Florida. Chris and I did ride the Sky Tram (or whatever its called) at the Omaha zoo the first time we went. I enjoyed it even though I was concerned about the possibility of my phone falling out of my pocket and into a pen. I like all the animals too, but I love petting the sting rays. We've always gone to the zoo in the summer, but I honestly don't know why we don't go earlier or later in the year. I guess Chris and I are still used to planning our trips around when we had off from school. With how this winter is, I would really enjoy going somewhere with a warmer climate! Well she knows I make really good deviled eggs and a really good caramel apple pie, so therefor I can bake and cook. She knows I like horses and own a horse but anything horse related that could be useful to me is expensive. She knows I sew when I have the time and she's seen one of my projects that I'm hand sewing. I know that I'm a really shy, quiet person and it takes me a while to open up to people, but she can easily ask Chris for ideas. I mean Chris has told me that she's told him she doesn't know what to get for me and doesn't want to get me the wrong thing......she sews and does embroidery, I'd love a handmade gift. That would be so much better than something that was bought online. Actually, I wouldn't have a problem with stopping a lot. I broke my tailbone (I assume I did, never got it checked) over 10 years ago, so sitting in a slightly padded seat for too long is painful. When my mom and I travel, we have snacks packed because she wants to make as few stops as possible so we can make the 14 hour drive as short as possible. Chris doesn't make many stops either, mainly snack and bathroom breaks when needed. I doubt I'll ever get the achievement either, unless the people ahead of me all go on a spending spree, but I've made progress because last year I was ranked in the 2000's. A few years ago, I gifts everyone on my friend's list and tried to give them the same number of gifts (I think it was around 10 or 15), but then when we were able to get our gifts from our trees, I barely had any gifts. Last year I gifted those on my friends list who were active and this year I think I'm just going to gift a select few and maybe check out the empty trees board if I still have time. This year is just really hard since it won't be a normal Christmas. Maybe I need to take a large note on the door that says 'Did you grab the coupons?' and place it at eye level. Something I see every time I go out the door. Sometimes, when I'm really organized, I'll get everything ready the night before and have my list and coupons stuffed in my purse. Maybe i'll get that ach. this year! 😄 I only need to catch 3 more faeries to get 'catching faeries' achievement, but they've been so elusive. I've only found one faerie tonight. I'm so sorry you're getting the runaround with Emily's records. I can understand how frustrating that must be. When I worked as a para, there were some case managers who put so little information about the student on their IEPs that it was evident they didn't care too much about the job, and when asked to provide more info they couldn't provide it because they didn't know. With one student, the English teacher and I had to come up with our own plan on what specific thing we would focus on to help the student and how we would help her, because her IEP was so vague and non-specific. For example, one thing one her IEP was to improve reading comprehension, fluency or retention but didn't go any more specific than that in the details section.

The train at the DZ only goes along one side and only goes to from the front to the back and then back again. I wish it went all the around the zoo, They are cute trains though.

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Then she should know enough to get you something you will like and enjoy receiving! Even if it is just sewing supplies, or a sewing project. Anything is better than socks and slippers. That is for someone you work with or barely know. Ouch! I know that is not comfortable at all :( I could not ride with someone who doesn't want to stop. Driving for me is just bleh, so I don't do it often. Spending sprees or quit! Although I notice that even after an account is frozen they are still on high score lists, Not sure if it works the same for that ach, Same, There are some people on my friends list that I can't even remember why they are on there. I never talk with them or hear from them. I just tossed on or two gifts under their trees. I hate to skip them, but I don't go all crazy over them either. Some people I actually took off my friends list because it looked like they weren't really around anymore. With the exception of Starless of course. I should do that too! At least you still have plenty of time to get it! Yay you :D Yeah it is a total pain. Especially since I can't go in and bug anyone. It all has to be done over the phone. Emily's IEPs were always done online. We would meet in an online Blackboard room (similar to her actual classes) and we would all be on a conference call. sometimes it would be confusing because there were so many people (social worker, speech therapist, regular therapist, a teacher or two and the special education lady). I always got nervous because I never knew what to say. Most of hers centered around ways to make classroom time easier. Like giving her extra time to finish work, and not forcing her to talk on the mic. state testing being done one on one instead of a big group. Things like that. Thankfully they were willing to work with her.

Thank you to whomever sent me the anonymous gift this morning, possibly my Secret Santa Shark? The message made me cry because Christmas hasn't been the same since my grandmother passed away 2 years ago and this year will be much harder with my hubby deployed, but I loved the gifts. :)

The train at Omaha doesn't go all the way around the zoo either, but the one at Gator Land did, which I think helps people find places they want to walk back to. That train is beautiful! Chris and I have been together for 6 years, so I think that's plenty of time for her to figure out what I like. I'd love to get sewing supplies or a little sewing project, even if that sewing project was squares of fabric, a template, and anything else needed to make a small project. I agree, socks, slippers or even a coffee mug with a drink mix is reserved for coworkers or when you sign up to give gifts to someone in a nursing home. An injured tailbone is the worst. I fell twice while skating with a friend. I'm quite tall and the skates only made me taller, so that increased the distance between my bum and the ground, 😢 I don't like driving long distances all in one go because it makes me tired. And with being tall, I get tired of being stuck in one position for too long. I'll sit with my legs crossed for a while, then switch to having my feet resting on the bottom of the door, then I'll try curling up in the seat. I want to go on spending sprees, so I do mini spending sprees with a set amount of sP, typically buying plushies or beanbags off my wishlist. I managed to go up the rankings list yesterday while I was gone from home and had only made a few sales in my shop. I need to go through my friends list and remove the inactive ones to slim it down some because last year I ended up writing down lists of who to not gift because they were inactive. I really need to get started on my Lumi shopping since there's not much time left. Starless will always be on my friends list! I have sticky notes that have a completely sticky back and they now make sticky notes that are supposed to stick to rough surfaces, so I just need to make a note on those and stick it to the door and hope that's it works as a reminder. I do have plenty of time but those dang faeries have continued to be elusive. I only found 2 last night. I may have to raid my minion zoo and pull out the 5 faeries I have in there. That has to be frustrating to not be able to go to a physical location to make sure the fulfill your request. Things like that were rarely on the IEPs of the students I worked with. Sometimes they would include that the student had the option to take their test in a different room. They would include if they could have additional time to work on a test or assignment. The weirdest one I saw was improving their use of a calculator, but it didn't have any further explanation. I typically found out about them going to a separate room for State Testing the day of, and I was always a moderator in the separate room. I helped with the PSAT (or one of those similar tests), the last year I worked at the school. I stayed in the same room all day with the same student (who I had never assisted before and didn't really know much about her), keeping track of time and breaks, and reading everything aloud to the student. I've never been on a conference call, but I have been in a group voice chat in an online game and its confusing to figure out who is talking and keep people straight. A video conference call with numerous people would remind me too much of some of the job interviews I've had where I've had 6 to 8 people in the same room asking me questions.I would be nervous too because I'm terrible at talking to people I don't know and I'm not that good at describing problems I have, or things that need improvement to other people....which could be why I don't like going to the doctor....

OMG I started writing and then I got distracted by a Gordon Ramsay video. He was making Christmas beef wellington. It looked so good but sooooo expensive! We would either take the train to the back and then walk to the front or walk to the back and take the train to front. Seeing the animals along the way of course :D The last time we went to the zoo the lions were hilarious. Every time we go the male and female are laying around on their big rock. This time the female was walking around a little bit, but then she decided it was nap time. She went up to the male and growled at him a little bit. He lifted up his head and looked at her for a sec and then he got up and moved over and laid back down. Then she laid down. I guess he was in her spot lmao! After 6 years she should deff know what to buy. She should know to get you something that can be distracting to keep you busy and creative to make it fun. My driving limit is about an hour 1/2. I used to be able to drive further, but since I have to do all the driving now that is just out of the question. Unless I was going somewhere super exciting like DW. I need to do some WL shopping after the holidays are over. That thing is getting out of control lol. I put a whole bunch of stuff in my shop that I never wear or use and of course they are still sitting there collecting dust! Where are all the holiday shoppers?!?!? :( Playing the slots game is a good way to get floating items. How many fairies do you need now? The lady from the school finally called me today (at 8 in the morning after being up until after 6 taking care of Emily and her ear infection). All she said was that she sent the paperwork on to someone else to take care of. Thanks for taking over a week to let me know! Emily had a few things for her state testing. It was very difficult to get her out of the house to go to the testing sites. She wanted to stay home where she felt comfortable and safe. I don't blame her there. She was able to test by herself with one person in the room to oversee it, and she could take Simba to comfort her. The first time the lady made her put Simba on the floor and she still talks about that to this day. She was so upset. It isn't like Simba was giving her the answers! She was able to take extra breaks so she could walk around use the bathroom (she would never ask so I had to make sure she went when needed) and get some fresh air. Since Emily's school was online we always had to drive out to a different location to take the tests. Total pain in the butt most of the time. I never liked the conference calls either. Most of the time I had no clue what to say.

I got distracted by questing and trying to make my laptop run faster....and I watched the British Bake Off Holiday specials on Netflix. I hate when things that look yummy to make are expensive...it's rather disappointing. Then I watched 2 episodes of The Fix on Netflix....not a bad show but the second episode got a little more political than I would have liked. When Chris and I took the Sky Tram for the first time, we rode to the back of the zoo, walked around and looked at everything (and watched baby sea lions napping), then rode it back to the front. Every time we go the lions are napping are hiding somewhere where we can't easily see them...same with the tigers :( That's so funny! I guess she has her favorite spot on the rock and no one else can have it. The day we got engaged we went to a wildlife park and the snow leopard (they're my favorite!) was sitting on a hill holding its tail in its mouth. 😆 Yes. I actually worry every year what I'm going to get from her, because my face is extremely expressive without me realizing it, so I have to make sure I don't look as disappointed as I feel. Yes, that's one reason why I've been buying fabric lately, so I can work on a holiday hexagon table runner or lap quilt. I don't know how big it will be yet, I'll make hexis until I run out of holiday fabric. That's also why I asked Chris to pass along my suggestions to his mom about things she could do besides the monthly check-in message, like sending a card or sending me a little care package full of things I can use to distract myself from the fact that Chris is gone over the holidays. I should ask Chris tonight if he passed those suggestions along. My limit is about the same. I went to college 2 hours away from home and it was always the hour and a half mark that I was getting tired, tired of driving and just tired in general. The days following my first allergic reaction, my driving limit was reduced to about 20 minutes, half an hour tops because they had me taking prednisone and it made my legs and hips hurt to the point it hurt to sit or stand. Even if I'm heading somewhere exciting, I'd rather be the passenger, but that's because I don't like driving places I've never been because I don't always trust google maps to get me where I need to go. I do too. I ended up making a wishlist for every holiday and moved things around, but I have way to many wishlists now and some of them are huge. I need to snoop in the CW pawn shop some more and see if there's anything else I really want to buy before it closes, but I'll probably have to buy CSC because the Morty cards are still rare for me. I have things that have been sitting in my shop for quite a while too. Every now and then, I go through and drop the prices to the current lowest price to try and get things moving, but I don't reduce higher priced items as much because I don't want to help deflate their value. I've had pieces of the Lost Boy (Narnia) collection in my shop since the beginning of the month and I finally sold one of the items o.O I may just take a loss and see if anyone on my friends list has the items on their wishlist and put them under their tree. I did that a lot last year with some things that weren't selling in my shop, found it on a friend's wishlist and put it under their tree. I wonder if a lot of people haven't done much Lumi shopping due to the amount of lag and issues the site has been having lately? I got the catching faeries achievement earlier today, the faeries seem to have come out of hiding this afternoon. I've released 716/1000. Geez 😠 that's really makes it seem like she doesn't care and should maybe find a different profession! I get that the holidays are coming up and some people don't really want to be at work (one of my coworkers wants to take three additional days off for Christmas), but until next week, there are still people to be helped. I can understand that, I've been in the same classroom with students who had a hard time entering the room without someone they knew due to high anxiety. And tests are not fun....at all. From one standpoint I can understand why Emily couldn't keep Simba in her lap (state testing requires a desk cleared of everything but paper and pencil), but at the same time being in that room was probably stressful for Emily and Simba was essentially a tool to help her feel safe enough to take the test. I took one online class in college because I refused to take it from the professor who taught it on campus. I lived just off campus as the time and had to go to my professors office to take the tests, but if I had lived in another town I would of had to find someone who could sit and watch me take the test to make sure I didn't cheat, sign a paper saying I didn't cheat and then mail everything to the professor....pain in the butt. I feel like that would be me during a conference call....I need time to think about what I'm going to say and you can't really do that on the phone, whoever is at the other end expects an answer immediately.

Unrelated note, ordered 3 books from Amazon last week, I get free 2 day shipping with Prime. Monday my package left Kansas and went to Oklahoma and sat there until the next morning when it was sent back to Kansas. 😠 I was very upset. I got the package today, but I have to return one of the books because Chris already ordered it for me (without telling me). I ordered 2 Christmas gifts off Amazon this morning for my parents that are supposed to arrive Christmas Eve....I hope UPS doesn't screw up again.

I love watching baking and cooking shows. Even though they usually make me hungry lol. At the Detroit Zoo they come right up to the glass so you get a really good look at them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlAe4oy-MfU Awe we love seeing baby animals :) they are so sweet! The kangaroo exhibit is amazing because you can walk through it and they are right there!

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Nothing worse then trying to smile and act like "oh yay just what I wanted" when you just want to toss it in the trash! Then you have to say thank you and try to mean it lol. Hopefully she will follow the suggestions. I hate relying on google maps. It can be such a pain some times. I am not having too much luck with the cards either. Most of my WL items are already gone :( I wish they would keep it open until after Christmas. So many people have spent their money on Black Friday stuff and real life shopping :( I have been dropping prices like crazy this month. I figure if no one is buying it at 75mil then it isn't really worth 75mil. I just want the sp! Not sure, but I need people to start shopping :( I know! When she called and woke me up I was kinda dazed. That did not help. I just don't see how it can take that long! Just send the files. Emily just doesn't like to interact with people at all. Especially if they expect her to talk. I always have to be with her to help her and talk for her. Simba is always with her. I don;t think she would even leave the house withou him. Oh geeze that sounds like a royal pain. I would just take the test in person too! I hate when packages have to take a long vacation around the country before it gets to me. More chances for it to get lost or damaged.

I love watching those shows too, until they become too cutthroat competitive and they bad mouth each other. I like British Bake Off and Worst Cooks in America, they get a little competitive but they keep it lowkey. The only time you really get to see any of the animals up close is if you watch the trainers work with them or watch them getting fed (which was a letdown w/ the sharks and bears at Omaha, especially the Polar Bear). Actually you can get pretty close to the penguins because can look right at them and probably pet one if you tried. I love petting the stingrays (the cow nose rays not the evil, I'll kill you rays that hang out at the bottom of the pool) because they are so soft and velvety and the ones at Omaha love attention. I'm pretty sure Chris and I made people jealous because the stingrays just made laps near us for attention. I love seeing the baby animals too, they're so cute when they're little. 😊 At the wildlife park Chris took me to (it's called Tangyanika), you can walk through the kangaroos and you can pet them if they are laying down (their sign is very specific about that). You can also feed giraffes and the rhino and feed birds and let them sit on you. I guess you used to be able to sit with the lemurs and let them crawl all over you, but when Chris and I went, we were only allowed to stand on their island, look at them and feed them if we had paid for food. Chris was disappointed because he was going to propose on the lemur island. Yeah....and I have a really hard time forcing a smile if I don't like something. I think I just kept a blank, expressionless face last year....or at least tried to. I was disappointed with the slippers because I knew I was getting memory foam slippers from Chris, which were a lot better than the 'am I a thick sock or am I a slipper' things I got from my MIL, the horse socks are in the back of a drawer still in the packaging because I know they'll be too small. I told Chris last night I'm not getting my hopes up about getting great gifts from his parents this year since last year wasn't that great, at least I won't be there to know if I got the same thing as my sister-in-law again. I asked Chris if he had passed along my suggestions to his mom and he said he did, so hopefully she takes them into consideration....I have my doubts since nothing's been done yet. I do too, Google Maps has left me feeling lost a few times. I went to a wedding this summer, Google maps said 'you have arrived' and didn't tell me anything else. It left me on the street! I drove up and down the road before I noticed the sign for the venue covered by bushes. Gee, thanks Google, couldn't have said my destination was on the left...I also hate when it doesn't keep up with where you currently are on the road, and by the time it does, you've already missed your turn and you get to listen to 'recalculating' or 'please make a u-turn' We fired Google Maps multiple times a day on our honeymoon. I got three yesterday, but that didn't get me enough to what I want from the pawn shop. I think half of my WL items are gone from the shop, but a few of the items I really want are still there. Or at least wait until after Christmas or maybe the beginning of the new year to open the CW pawn shop. I've still got some money left, but I don't want to go too crazy with spending around Christmas, and I already spent close to $50 buying CSC to do Black Friday shopping at the beginning of this month. My shop is mainly filled with what I get from doing quests, so it's mostly cheap stuff. I think I have about 5 items priced above 1 mil and none of them have sold but I don't really want to drop the prices down too much. I have quite a few sales every day, but it's just cheap stuff that's asked for during quests and any amulets I have in there. I guess it's nice that she called, but she needs to be considerate that early in the morning isn't always the best time for everyone. And it really shouldn't take that long to find the files, make copies of them if necessary and send them on...that's a pretty simple request. I've found that nowadays most people don't want to work, they'd rather sit around and do whatever they want (like play games on their phone) and get paid to do that. I wonder how many people there are that still don't understand the broad spectrum of autism and how it differs for every individual, because I think some people just lump them all together as being the same. I have to mentally prepare myself to interact with people I don't know, like I go through what I'm going to say and hope that I don't stumble over my words or stutter, and if I'm with someone else, I make them talk to the person. I've got a stuffed animal that I take everyone with me to help me sleep at night, even when I was in college. I read over the test taking procedures before I took my first test and just thought 'well I'm glad I live in town.' I actually had to prove why I needed to take that class online, because the college I went to doesn't like to allow students to take classes online if they are also taking classes on campus and live in town. I had to email the professor my potential class schedule to prove that I couldn't fit the regular class in and then wait to find out if it was approved and I could enroll. Which honestly that's a policy that needs to change because that then makes it harder for someone who struggles with social interaction to take classes. I never really spoke up in class because I was always worried about what everyone else would think, and speaking in front of the class was a nightmare (public speaking and giving a presentation). My A&P class had a verbal final, but you had the option to take a paper test if you wanted to. I choose the paper test and did better than I would have with the verbal final. Yeah, mine seem to do that a lot lately. My first package sent with two day shipping did fine, this last one not so much. The Christmas presents I ordered yesterday appear to still be sitting in TN, so I might not be getting them by Christmas Eve. I need to return one of the books I bought, but it's going to cost me over $5 to return the book, leaving me with a $0.68 refund......that's almost not worth returning the book.

edit: sorry it's so long......I get a little too wordy...

Yeah I never like the fighting. I just love seeing how creative people can be with food :D We have a couple of polar bears, but most of the time it is really hard to see them. You have to be lucky enough to be see one swim by here:

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I have never been that lucky! Oh wow that park sounds exciting.We love lemurs. Awe that would have been so sweet :)

I tried watching Chopped once when Chris and I stayed at a hotel. They got so catty I told Chris to change the channel. Yes! Especially on British Bake Off, some of those show stoppers are amazing, and I would never try to make them myself because my kitchen would look like a disaster zone. 😀 Omaha has one polar bear and you can only watch him from in front of his enclosure or from a walkway above. When we watched them getting fed, they fed the polar bear fruit. I think they chucked a watermelon down into the water and Chris just asked me 'where is a polar bear going to find that in its natural habitat?' Omaha does have the underwater walkway in their aquarium and you can watch sharks, rays and a sea turtle swim over you along with other fish. I considered myself lucky with the Morty cards yesterday, maybe it's because I took a break from questing for a day or maybe the Subeta gods felt bad....I don't know. I won't get many quests done tonight so I doubt I'll find many/if any cards, so I may have to buy some CSC to pick a few more things from the pawn shop. The wildlife park was fairly exciting. It would have been more exciting if we hadn't been there on a cold, windy day. I love lemurs too (I watched Zaboomafoo everyday when I was younger), and it would have been so cool to have a lemur crawl into my lap or onto my shoulder. You could tell the lemurs weren't happy with the changes to how people interact with them because they would walk up to you and just star, or they would jump on their post (the only place you could feed them) and reach out to you. But if you touched them, you were kicked off the island. We were there in October and the park was also doing a Halloween event at night in the park, so we went to that too....it was even colder and windier shiver. It would have been pretty sweet. Instead Chris proposed in the parking lot of the diner we ate supper at and I feel really bad about it because I feel like I forced him to do it early. But I just had a feeling that whole weekend that he was going to propose and every perfect moment for it passed by. I thought he was going to propose during my favorite song at a concert, but he didn't (he didn't know how to get the ring through security without me seeing it), then I thought he would at the wildlife park. Chris told me not to feel bad because he was disappointed that his two plans had failed and he said he was going to try and propose at the park when we went back for the Halloween event.

From the first post: I took a few high priced items (over 25mill) out of wardrobe that I never wear, and no luck selling them at all. I guess people are more interested in buying cheaper presents. I can get one more thing, but now that I can only get one I have no idea what to get lol. Nothing is jumping out at me and screaming "this is it!!!!". Now that I need to be picky I am getting nervous about what to get, I hate to waste it on something I don't really love, She said she wanted to make sure she got a hold of me :( lame reason. I thought it would be pretty simple. I didn't know it would take two people and how many weeks we have been waiting. What amazes me is how no one wants to answer their phone!!! Emily's grandma (her dad's mother) has another granddaughter that is mentally delayed (not sure what the "PC" thing to say is because I know the R word is bad) and she thinks Emily's autism is the same thing. She has never even tried to understand it. Thankfully she has not seen or heard from her since she was 4. I am just glad Emily's school was willing to work with her. She never had to make presentations or videos and thankfully she never had to speak on the mic. I think all of the presents I ordered for emily have been delivered. Right now we are just waiting on a package that my friend in Cali sent her. It said on the site it was supposed to be delivered 2 hours ago, so she is sitting here waiting for it. I tried to tell her it probably wont be until tomorow since it is already after 10 here. Any way that you can call them and ask for a prepaid return label? I did that with some videos from Disney. I was not going to pay for return costs. Second post: One Easter I tried to make an Easter basket cake. It was disaster. I tried everything I could to make the dang handle, but that was not happening. The cake was ok, but it deff was not a basket. Yeah I kinda doubt they get many watermelons in the wild lol. I love the underwater walkway. Poor Emily is less then thrilled with it :( I think it makes her nervous. I only got one card from quests yesterday. Not a good day. I am guessing that one of the little cuties got hurt somehow or someone did something stupid to get themselves hurt and blamed the park. Some people always have to ruin things. Awe any of those would have been really nice.

I have some more trades set up for you :)

I'll admit, I bought some cheaper presents for Lumi this year, but if I bought cheaper presents for someone, I bought a lot of gifts for them, or I also bought some higher priced items as well. If I ever get all the tiers of the filled wardrobe ach., I'll go through and remove a lot of the items I never use or don't like. I know I have some things in there that went up in value but I'll never use them. Whenever I do the wardrobe purge, I'll probably have stuff just sit in my shop. I did not realize that twilight potions were so expensive....I got one as a quest reward, I'll see how long it sits in my shop. I got 3 morty cards today, so I now have enough to get one item. There are few dresses that I've been looking at but I now have to figure out which one I want the most....and then decide if I want to buy CSC. That's a very lame reason 😢 Asking for records sounds like a very simple request that should take no more than a day to do. I'd hope that the reason they are dragging it out and not answers their phones is due to them not knowing/having the records. When I went through training to work at the group homes I was told to use the terms developmental and intellectual disabilities, which pretty much lumps a lot of things together into two categories. Thankfully I've never run into a person who just assumes that different disabilities are the same, I don't think I'd really know what to say to them. There's a youtube channel that I follow called Special Books by Special Kids. It's a former SpEd teacher who travels all over the US and to other countries to conduct interviews with individuals with disabilities to help inform people about various disabilities, try to get them to change their viewpoint on people with disabilities and let those individuals have their voices heard. I hated making and preparing for presentations and I hated having to record my voice for a project, but there was never any other option (downside of going to a small school that's never had to deal with anything outside the norm). Something about listening to my voice play back was just very weird and didn't sound right. I actually made myself sick and gave myself a fever by stressing over a presentation I had to do before an interview. I'm waiting on the order from Amazon, which if it doesn't move tomorrow, I've got a problem. Then there's a gift from Chris that he sent in a package to his aunt. He mailed it a few weeks ago and had hoped it would be here last weekend. I'm just hoping customs didn't open the package and help themselves (I've heard and seen some horror stories about that). I hate sitting around waiting for a package to arrive, it's the worst. I think tomorrow, if I remember, I'll start another chat with Amazon CS and ask them if i can get a prepaid label that won't cost me a thing since UPS handed the package off to USPS instead of delivering it themselves. Right now, I'm being told to ship the return via UPS. I didn't have to pay for shipping to get the item, why should I have to fork over money to send it back?

I stick to making pies and cookies. The most intricate I'll get with a pie is doing lattice work on the top, cutting out pie crust with cookie cutters to decorate the top or cutting out a design in the top crust. I made my own wedding cake, I was going to decorate them, but after baking over 500 mini cupcakes (I think...) I was tired of looking at cake. The polar bear enjoyed it, but I think he also would have enjoyed some meat too lol. I love the underwater walkway too, but it's always crowded with small children when I go and it makes their screaming and crying louder. I was nervous the first time I walked through one because I was worried about the glass breaking and water crashing down. I wonder just how thick the glass is? I got three yesterday and three today.....sort of makes up for the days I only got one. I got one from Ian today and I only have 10 more of his quests left before I get the Dungarde tree topper and then I won't touch his quests again (unless they add more tiers with decent prizes). If I ever got swamped with morty cards, I'd send some your way, but they're about as elusive as the faeries. That's a possibility, or someone/a kid got bit or scratched by one because they antagonized it or it slipped while climbing them. It only takes a few people to ruin something good for everyone. Yeah, any of those would have been nice. Instead of crying from the proposal, I was crying because I felt like I had forced him to do it somewhere he hadn't planned to. I actually thought he was going to propose outside of the wildlife park, because he went to the trunk of his car to get something out, and he gave me a gift bag that had a black widow jacket in it....a ruse so that he could get the ring out of the trunk.

Nothing wrong with cheaper presents. Unless you are buying from me :P (jk)! I gave away some of the items from my shop that weren't selling, but were on WLs. It seems like some potions wont sell until they release or revamp a pet in that color. It is like people foget about the colors. Woohoo! Congrats. I am hoping I have better luck tomorrow. They better have the records. She did very well in school (with a lot of help). She gradutated magna cum laude. Unfortunately I could not get her to go to the graduation. She would have been miserable, I hate that she does not have her Grandma in her life, but at the same time she is not the brightest and thinks everything she says is hilarious. Especially when it comes to her drunk husband. We had Emily's first bday party in Jackson where they live. It is an hour drive for us, but my family mananaged to be there (we got a hotel room for the party) but they didn't show up until 2 in the morning after the bar closed. They woke us up (including Emily) and then her husband (he is the stepdad) was holding Emily and trying to force her to walk and laughing that she was not walking yet like there was something wrong with her. I got so mad that I just got her away from him and tossed them out! Ugh I hate dealing with drunks! Oh geeze I would hate to have to deal with customs! Sounds like it would be a total pain. Yeah you really shouldn't have to pay for it. I love baking and cooking, but the problem is that I love eating way too much. 500 mini cupcakes??? I would have gone bonkers lol. Same! The glass always looks so thin! I got the ach and the tree topper so I am done with him. His quests just are not worth it to me. I don't want those crystals. Yes it does :( everyone suffers for one or two people. Awe hugs I can understand that.

I tried restricting myself to spending just the sP I had on hand, and then I ran out and had to get more sP out of my vault while I still had 7 shop tabs open to buy from. I checked wishlists for the lost schoolboy items in my shop, 3 of them are on a friend's WL but they haven't been online for over a month. I need to check some of the other items. That's possible, I was just shocked because most potions I get from quests top out at 70k. I think I still have a cherry potion and a silver potion in my vault because I haven't figure out which pet to use them on. Thanks 😊 I didn't think I was going to get all my quests done yesterday, but I managed to zip through them, not sure about tonight though since I was gone for most of the day. I hope they have the records as well. I just always run through possible scenarios for situations. No longer having the records would be the worst scenario. I was miserable at my high school graduation....I had an ingrown toenail and a migraine. I only really had one grandma in my life because my other grandma lived in Minnesota and I only saw her about one week a year. That's ridiculous, I don't get how some adults never seem to grow up and become more mature. And how can they think that it's okay to force a one-year old, who had been sleeping, to walk when they aren't ready. I don't like dealing with customs either. My biggest worry is that their going to make up a concern about one of my care packages so that they can open it. I've heard that packages can sit in customs from anywhere to a few days to months. I got home much later than I planned tonight, so I'll start the CS chat with Amazon on Monday, I did cancel an order that I made back in August or September (it was a pre-order), and the release date keeps getting moved back. I love eating too, but after Chris left for his deployment I've slowly transitioned to eating one big meal and a small meal and I try to eat them early....but then I can also forget to eat if I'm not feeling hungry. I think it was around that many. I sat down and did the math before I made them to make sure I had enough for everyone. I think I had decided everyone could have at least 3 so then I multiplied that by the number of guests. I ended up with left over cupcakes after the wedding. I did feel bonkers after I finally finished baking the last tray. It does, but I imagine that glass is pretty to thick to hold however many gallons of water are in the tank. I did my math wrong......I have 13 of his quests left 😢 Hopefully I can get those done tonight. The crystals are nice but they're just getting added to my stockpile because I don't know what to buy from the crystal shop. The sP reward would have to increase to make it worth it for me. It sucks 😢 Chris and I will have to go back again and see if they kept the interaction with the lemurs that way or they went back to what they used to do. If they haven't changed back, I'll just have to snuggle with my stuffed lemur to make up for it. Chris told me it wasn't a big deal and not to worry because he would have proposed later that night anyway, but it didn't make me feel any better about it.

I just keep spending it as I get it lol. I love shopping this time of year :D I did my quests for today and ended up with 2 cards. Better then yesterday at least! A part of me wishes she would have gone, but I would rather have her feel safe and comfortable. The memories would have been for me and not her since she was not into it at all :( Yeah I could not believe it. I could have just had her bday at party and saved the money and driving time. My family drove an hour to be there and they couldn't be bothered to show up on time (and sober). I never made that mistake again! My poor baby was not happy at all and I felt so bad about it. Oh geeze that would be awful. I imagine some people actually make it home before their packages ever get to them. That would stink! We usually eat one big meal a day and then have a couple of snacks. We are not big on breakfast or lunch. I like to bake but that is way too much for me. Plus I probably would have eaten too many of them myself. You have to taste test stuff! 13 left? Ouch :( I am giving up on his quests. I doubt they are going to make any more changes to it and I hate losing sp. Is there a website or something that you can check to see if they changed it back?

I have more trades for you :D

Another thank you to my secret Santa shark for another gift 😊 You are extremely generous!

I used to love spending during this time of year, but I think I burnt myself out when I was really generous and then ended up with an empty tree myself. I might try to do a little last minute shopping tomorrow or Monday. I just started my quests tonight, I think I'll just do the quests that give items for rewards, saggi's and the weekend quest, then hopefully finish up Ian's quests so I can stop losing sP. Maybe I'll be lucky and get another 3 morty cards. That's great! Glad you are finally getting more of them, though it would be better if you got more than 2 a day. It would have been a great memory for you, but if you had any photos, you'd be able to visibly tell she wasn't comfortable. I walked across the stage for my college graduation mainly so my parents, husband and in-laws could watch. Luckily I ended up next to someone I had a class with that last semester, so I didn't feel so out of place. Quite possibly, and that's pretty disappointing for the family members that spent time and money on the package. I've been pretty lucky with my previous 3 packages, they only took 2 to 3 weeks to get to Chris. After seeing the care package horror story on facebook, I'm now worried that my husband won't get his two Christmas care packages. I taped the heck out of the boxes, mainly to make it harder to open if someone wanted to peek. I eat a big lunch around 11:30 if I can, then I'll have a small supper around 5:30 or 6. I can't really eat food directly after I wake up, I have to wait about an hour otherwise I'll have terrible stomach pain. It was too much baking for me too. My bridesmaid helped me with the baking. I also made my wedding cake and a small cake for each person in the wedding party, so I ended up with 6 mini cakes and a small 6 inch cake. By the time everything was baked, I lost all interest in doing the cake decorating I had planned to do, so I just covered the wedding cake with purple fondant and called it a night. I had made a practice batch about two weeks earlier to determine how many batches I'd have to make and if they tasted any good. The first recipe I tried was no good, the second one was better. Yeah, I don't know how I did the math to get 10 facepalm I think I was just tired of doing quests. Once I get the tree topper, I'm done with his quests. One day I only lost 30k, but every day since then I've lost more. There is, I never thought to check that. I just checked, they haven't changed it back and it was changed thanks to pressure from animal rights groups

Thanks, I'll check them out and make offers. Last night I just had under 300 faeries left to release. 😀 There's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you Secret Santa Shark! Happy Lumi! Yeah that happens to me some times too. I know what you mean. I will probably do mine after midnight again. Every time they reset a quest during the day I kick myself for not having done them already. Now I am trying to get in to the habit of doing them before I go to bed. Hopefully I can lucky. I would love to get more than 2! I still remember her preschool graduation. She had to walk across this little stage and they were asking the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up (like any of them really understood what that meant) she said "Mommy" and the lady thought she wanted to be a mommy but she was really asking for me. I went and got her the second she was done. Poor baby so nervous. Wow that is a lot of work. I don't blame you for giving up at the end. i would gave up half way through lol. fingers crossed that his packages get to him safe and sound hugs I never could eat right after getting up. I need time to relax and become human lol. Even after giving away all those ornament boxes in the donation center the prices are still crazy for so many items that he asks for, Ugh people always have to ruin things for everyone else :( Yay you are getting there! I will keep making trades!

holy SNAPPLE who ever my SSS is, that cw has been on ym WL for years now and im actually in tears?? i'd send a thousand souls to the astral plane for you just say the WORD

Last year I didn't gift many people either and I had meant to send them gifts after Lumi (the ones who gifted me, but I hadn't gifted them), but I was too stressed and worried in RL. Right now, I've hit a wall. I love Christmas but this year I'm ready for that day to come and go because I'll spend most of the day alone. It doesn't help that Chris hasn't really talked to me for the past two nights. I try to get mine done in the afternoon but lately I've been working on them at night. I got one card yesterday, then I got two when I only had 3 quests left. I've lost out on the quest resets too, it's always done when I'm gone in the morning. I don't think I had a preschool graduation, at least I've never seen pictures for one. I would think most preschoolers are going to say they want to do whatever job their parents do, because that's what they sort of know about. I had an 8th grade graduation and I wasn't really too excited for that one. It had just been a long day of baking. I started after lunch and didn't get done until 10:30 or 11 p.m. That was two days before the wedding. The next day we had to decorate for the reception and that was when I had some people frosting the cupcakes. I wanted to help with the cupcakes that day but I had to delegate decorating and tell my MIL that tables needed to get put in place we didn't have the time to make sure they were perfectly lined up. hugs Thanks! I hope his package gets to him safely and in the same condition as when I sent it. I'd hate for him to end up getting a box full of junk. I used to be able to eat breakfast within 15 minutes of waking up, but now I have to wait about an hour or more and I can't eat anything sweet. I've made the mistake of eating breakfast right after getting up and I end up with the worst stomach pain and extra trips to the bathroom. Also, I hate turning on lights after waking up because it's too bright. I used to keep a tall book at the table as a kid to block out the light while I ate breakfast. I finished his quests yesterday, took all 15 to get the 13 I needed left. He asked me for an item that no one was selling, and then he asked me for an ornament priced over 1 mil. I'm just glad I'm finally done with them, the extra crystals were nice but nowhere near what I can get in a day from fragging. I know 😢 But I guess now, they aren't as stict about not letting the lemurs touch you. When I was there, we were told to not let them touch us, which has to be hard for the lemurs when they are used to interacting more with people. Maybe I'll get the ach. before the end of Lumi! I did find a few faeries yesterday, maybe 5 which is more than I've found before. You'd think I'd be finding more when I'm doing all my quests and moving things out of my inventory. Thanks!

Are we going to find out who our Secret Santa Sharks are?

Hey and Hi waves Happy Merry Luminairy!

I can understand that and I am sure they understood too hugs I wish you lived close to me. You could come over and veg out with a Harry Potter marathon with us! I ended up not doing my quests last night. I was distracted with the DC and shopping. I know I didn't have one. I just had the regular high school one. I got one card when I had one quest left lol. Had to hold onto it until the next day. What the heck did you do with all those cupcakes for 2 days?!?!? I am terrible at staying away from cupcakes lol. I am less of a breakfast person and more of a brunch person. That is when I eat anything that early. I used to love taking Emily to our local diner for a weekend breakfast bar, but it went downhill like most things these days. Prices go up and quality goes down :( I loved being able to have a little bit of everything. Yeah the crystals are not worth the prices! I would rather just vend/frag. Poor lemurs probably feel rejected :( that sux. I am still collecting them for you :D You can do it!!! I think we find out on Christmas or the next day. Not sure how it will work this time.

How can you gift someone who's profile does not show the tree (or the option to put a gift under it)? Should I just gift through the gift center?

                                                             
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