Feeling Better with MonaVie

Like a lot of others, we got started with Mona Vie because a friend introduced it to us - and friends do what friends do - so we tried it. We were very skeptical, having often said that we would never get involved in another network marketing business, but we checked It out for our friend.
What was so amazing with this product was that I began feeling noticeable results within just a few days. I have been troubled with arthritis, particularly in my hands, for a few years now. My doctor won't allow me to take any over the counter pain killers generally used for arthritis because of my heart problems. Within a few days of starting on this "juice" my hands felt so much better and I noticed a definite increase in my energy levels.
The benefits continue to show up. We had an extended stay with relatives over the holidays. We were all exposed to a nasty little cold, but noticed that the only ones that didn't get sick were those of us that had been using Mona Vie consistently. I am convinced that the nutritional benefits of Mona Vie had boosted our immune systems and consequently we were able to avoid the illness.
With all of this going on how could we not get involved and share this blessing called Mona Vie with everyone we care about? Please click on the links in this post, or on our favorite links for more information. If you are asked for an ID use 106197.
Here's to Your Health!

2006 - another great year for rentals

I have to admit that I have neglected this blog, but I have vowed to do better this year. We've been renting our own cabin in Gatlinburg for 3 years now, without the help of a rental agent or property manager.
We managed to rent it for a total of 234 nights in 2005 - and thought that was fantastic. 2006 turned out to be better yet, with a total of 241 nights rented.
This just goes to show that you can do it yourself, and eliminate the middle man. It also eliminates a lot of headaches - even when we live 10 hours away!
Too bad that there has been so little snow in Gatlinburg this year. The temperatures have been unseasonably high also, preventing Ober Gatlinburg from making as much snow as they would like. Consequently, our rentals were way down in January. Now, however, February is a different story as we are nearly booked up. March is looking good too.

A Senior Moment

This was reported as a "true account" as recorded in the Police Log of Sarasota, Florida...

An elderly Florida lady did her shopping and, upon returning to her car,
found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at the top of her voice, "I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car" !

The four men didn't wait for a second invitation. They got out and ran
like mad. The lady, somewhat shaken, then proceeded to load her shopping bags into
the back of the car and got into the driver's seat.
She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition. She
tried and tried, and then it dawned on her why...

For the same reason she did not understand why there was a football, a
Frisbee and two 12 packs of beer in the front seat!

A few minutes later, she found her own car parked four or five spaces
farther down.

She loaded her bags into the car and drove to the police station to report
her mistake. The sergeant to whom she told the story couldn't stop
laughing.
He pointed to the other end of the counter, where four pale men were
reporting a car jacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less
than five feet tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large
handgun.

No charges were filed.

If you're going to have a Senior Moment, make it a memorable one!

Southwest Airlines Specials Oct 25th

This Week's Specials We are accepting air reservations through February 3, 2006.

southwest.com Systemwide Sale! Fly for $39 to $149 one-way in select markets with 14-day advance purchase! (Additional taxes, fees, and conditions apply.)


The Midwest for Less! Travel between select Midwest cities for $39 one-way with 14-day advance purchase! (Additional taxes, fees, and conditions apply.)


Featured Destination: San Antonio, TX - Get air fare specials for $49 to $114 one-way with 21-day advance purchase, plus great deals on rental cars and hotels! (Additional taxes, fees, and conditions apply.)


Deals on Wheels: Celebrate Southwest Airlines service to Ft. Myers, FL with a great rate of $145 per week on a mid-size car from Budget! Check out this and other rental car specials across the country!


Spotlight Hotel: The Marriott Grand Residence Club offers the comforts of home at the base of the Heavenly® Resort Gondola in South Lake Tahoe from $125 per night. Check out this and other hotel specials nationwide!


Cruise of the Week: Depart on a quick 3-night getaway to the Bahamas - oceanviews are only $279 per person!


Southwest Airlines Vacations: Complete air/hotel packages to Reno/Lake Tahoe on sale!


Movielink: 99¢ Movie Sale at Movielink - 3 DAYS ONLY!


SkyMall: Save $20 off a purchase of $60 or more through November 3, 2005!
Go directly to southwest.com/hotfares to get complete details on this week's specials, or see below to get more information on each offer.


1. southwest.com Systemwide Sale

Every Southwest Airlines market in the contiguous U.S. (excluding Orange County, CA) is on sale for $39 to $149 one-way with 14-day advance purchase! There is so much on sale, we couldn't possibly list it all in one e-mail. Visit southwest.com for more details and to book your reservation today!

Terms and Conditions:

Available only on southwest.com.
14-day advance purchase required.
Purchase through October 31, 2005, midnight Pacific Time.
Travel November 4, 2005 through end of schedule. (We are currently accepting reservations through February 3, 2006.)
Available on published service only. Some flights operated by ATA Airlines.
Federal tax of $3.20 per takeoff and landing, airport taxes of up to $9, and government-imposed September 11th Security Fee of up to $5 not included.
Fares are one-way.
Fare may be combined with other combinable fares.
Fare is not combinable with Senior Fares.
When combining fares, all rules and restrictions apply.
Fares are nonrefundable, but (except for tickets purchased through our Group Tickets Program) may be applied toward future travel on Southwest Airlines.
Seats are limited.
Orange County, CA is not included in this sale.
Additional terms and conditions apply.
See Complete Details

Southwest Airline Specials Oct 11th 2005

This Week's Specials We are accepting air reservations through February 3, 2006.

Click 'n Save® Internet Specials: Fly for $29 to $114 one-way in select markets with 21-day advance purchase! (Additional taxes, fees, and conditions apply.)


Featured Destination: Greater Fort Lauderdale, FL - Get air fare specials for $34 to $99 one-way with 21-day advance purchase, plus great deals on rental cars and hotels! (Additional taxes, fees, and conditions apply.)


Deals on Wheels: Dollar is offering fantastic weekly rates starting at $99.99 per week in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ontario, Phoenix, and San Diego. Check out this and other rental car specials across the country!


Spotlight Hotel: The Quality Inn Dallas Market Center offers 100% satisfaction guarantee, free high-speed Internet, and free deluxe continental breakfast with rates from $60 per night. Check out this and other hotel specials nationwide!


Cruise of the Week: Depart from San Diego on an 11-night cruise through the Mexican Riviera from only $800, plus a complimentary shore excursion or spa treatment!


La Quinta Inns & Suites is proud to offer southwest.com Customers a 10% discount nationwide!


Don't miss the fun, frights, and sights this Fall at one of the Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks!


Need a promotion? Remember Bosses' Day on October 16 and get $10 off great gifts from FTD.COM!
Go directly to southwest.com/hotfares to get complete details on this week's specials, or see below to get more information on each offer.


1. Click 'n Save Internet Specials

Fly Southwest Airlines for $29 to $114 one-way in select markets with 21-day advance purchase!
Available only on southwest.com.
21-day advance purchase required.
Purchase through October 13, 2005, midnight Pacific Time.
Travel November 1, 2005 through February 3, 2006.
Federal tax of $3.20 per takeoff and landing, airport taxes of up to $9, and government-imposed September 11th Security Fee of up to $5 not included.
Available on published service only. Some flights operated by ATA Airlines.
Fares are one-way.
Fare may be combined with other combinable fares.
Fare is not combinable with Senior Fares.
When combining fares, all rules and restrictions apply.
Fares are nonrefundable, but (except for tickets purchased through our Group Tickets Program) may be applied toward future travel on Southwest Airlines.
Seats are limited.
Orange County, CA is not included in this sale.
Additional terms and conditions apply.
See Complete Details

My Favorite Airline

Now don't laugh, but my favorite airline, hand's down, is Southwest Airlines. OK, go ahead and laugh if you like. Seriously, though, where else can you get one-way airfare between Chicago and Orlando for $59 ? That is hard to beat!

Sure it's a no frills airline, but I don't think that you'll ever have to worry about your reservations because of a chapter 11 filing either! They know how to take care of their customers and make money for their stockholders at the same time. That's a rare combination in this day and age!

Anyway, I think they're great and I fly with them every chance I get. You won't always get their best rates through most of the online services like Expedia or Orbitz. Instead, you will need to go to Southwest.com and book it there. You can also book rental cars and hotels there too.

So, I get their internet specials via email every week or two. I will post the basics of each of their specials here as often as I can. If you see something of interest you can go to their site and investigate further. Here are the specials from Sept 20th:

1. Click 'n Save Internet Specials
Fly Southwest Airlines for $34 to $134 one-way in select markets with 21-day advance purchase! Available only on southwest.com. 21-day advance purchase required. Purchase through September 22, 2005, midnight Pacific Time. Travel October 11, 2005 through January 9, 2006. Fares are one-way. Available in select markets. Federal tax of $3.20 per takeoff and landing, airport taxes of up to $9, and government-imposed September 11th Security Fee of up to $5 not included. Fares are nonrefundable, but (except for tickets purchased through our Group Tickets Program) may be applied toward future travel on Southwest Airlines. Fare may be combined with other combinable fares. Fare is not combinable with Senior Fares. When combining fares, all rules and restrictions apply. Available on published service only. Some flights operated by ATA Airlines. Seats are limited. Hawaii and Orange County, CA are not included in this sale. Additional terms and conditions apply. See Complete Details

Quickbooks for Vacation Rentals

I have often been asked about which software or service I use for the accounting aspect of my Vacation Rental properties. On line services for managing your Vacation Rental property accounting are starting to make appearances. Some look good and are relatively inexpensive. For my properties though, I plan to stick with Intuit's Quickbooks software.

I first began using Quickbooks several years ago for my wife's business, so the transition to Vacation Rental property was relatively easy for me. It was just a matter of setting up the business profile, accounts, taxes, etc. In just a couple of hours I was ready to go with the "new" business.

There are so many features in Quickbooks that I will not attempt to describe them all here. One of the most important to me is the ability to link with Intuit's Turbo Tax software at tax time. This makes my least favorite time of the year a little more bearable because I don't have to manually enter any of my VR data into my tax forms.

Another feature I use extensively is the ability to email invoices as .pdf attachments through the Intuit server without ever exiting Quickbooks. I customized one of the Quickbooks invoice templates to make a reservation invoice which includes check-in/check-out dates and times. I can take a reservation by phone and have the confirmation email, with the reservation invoice attached, in my customer's mailbox before I get off the phone!

You can even write checks with Quickbooks. If you own multiple properties and have a lot of checks to write each month, the check printing feature may be of benefit to you. Computing Sales Tax and Hotel tax is also a breeze - just a few mouse clicks and you are ready to write the check...or let Quickbooks print it for you.

Sorry if this sounds like an advertisement for Intuit, but this software has really helped us. With the price for the basic version below $100, it is also less expensive than most of the online services!

First Vacation Rental Post

Our first experience with Vacation Rentals came about 21 years ago on a family trip to the Smoky Mountains. We had always stayed in hotels when traveling. I had noticed
signs for chalet rentals on our previous trip and decided to break with tradition and rent a chalet in Gatlinburg - not even fully understanding what a chalet was.

We were hooked! There was, of course, no comparison with the cramped quarters of the standard hotel room. Our 2 daughters were "discovering" everything, from circular stairs to squirrels on the large deck. We never darkened the doorway of a hotel in the area again.

Fifteen years - and dozens of trips to Gatlinburg - later, we purchased our first chalet. Our second chalet came a little over a year later. We used property managers to handle our rentals for the first few years, then struck out on our own a couple of years ago.

The popularity of Vacation rentals has seen quite an explosion in the past few years, with no hint of slowing down. Many more owners are managing their own properties with the help of the internet. Vacation Rental web pages number in the millions.

I would like to use this blog to share information between Owners and Guests, issues and concerns of importance to all of us and, most of all, the really great family experiences that make it all worthwhile!