Yeah, that's me full tilt on the Disney sauce. It's been almost two weeks since I posed for my wife here (she rolled her eyes as soon as I posed). Although it's only been a short time I feel like I've been gone for centuries. Each day the "magic" fades just a bit more than it did the day before. Of course I am thankful I have the gift of life and I'm gainfully employed but I'm no longer waking up to the sound of the ferry that shipped patrons to Epcot. There are no more smiles that greet me in a ginormous lobby. The traffic I'm in now isn't headed to happy-land. No one is asking me if I'm enjoying myself or if I need anything. I'm not powering up at 9 pm in anticipation of a fireworks show that is better than the one that happened the night before. I'm back to my usual station --- the wonderfully exhilarating but thankless job of being Dad. Dad who isn't buying everything he's being asked for. Dad who is saying, "no" and "go to bed" and "throw out the trash."

By my pic you might think it was my first time there and not my daughter's. She went full tilt on the Princess sauce and didn't have a care in the world. Neither did I and that's a good thing at a place like Disney World where you can wind up spending the equivalent of half a year's worth of mortgage payments or more once the smoke clears. In the eyes of a storyteller (myself) Disney is a monster storytelling machine, selling narratives at every turn from the time you wake up until you return back to your hotel or resort wishing you could do more before morning and excited to get going the next day.  Stories, whether written or visual, create the canvas for the mind to imagine and dream. I wasn't about to let something like money get in the way of my daughter's, and to some extent my own, desire to plunge as far down the rabbit hole as possible.

So how did I and how can you experience the Disney Vacation YOU want to have without being left in the poorhouse upon your return to reality?

As a man there are bills you simply don't want to pay. You don't believe they deserve to be paid. They are a waste of time, money (the point in the first place) and usually brain cells.

If I'm on-time with anything in my life it's bill-paying. Yet month after month I forget to pay my infernal cable bill until one day the television is no longer working. I never want to pay to have it turned back on. NEVER.

But...

If the TV were to ever stay off for more than 24 hours, then the kids that live here might begin to wonder, Why is the TV no longer working? What is wrong? They don't even watch that much television but to have something and then make the leap that something isn't operating due to an error on my part... Then wife will be standing somewhere nearby with her arms folded glaring at me with a look on her face that screams, What are you doing to my kids?

As a father I have no desire to shield my kids from the uglier truths that life occasionally shares, but in my home I want them to be as secure as is physically, emotionally and financially manageable. And so I pay, so that the above question will never be raised. That is, until the day we have a family meeting and announce that we are doing away with television.

A man can dream, right?

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Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter at @EPayneTheDad.

This article first appeared at Black And Married With Kids.

As a young man I struggled with the management of my finances. This was due in part to my father’s control and silence over the money I made from my neighborhood lawn-mowing gig. He would leave me with a couple dollars, take the bulk of the money I made, deposit it into a credit union account and that was that. No explanation and no conversation. And he almost dared me to suggest otherwise.

Then when I went to college he made a huge deposit into a checking account he set up for me. Pretty admirable…until I spent it all over the course of maybe two months. Then I moved on to the seductive lure of credit cards. There were signups everywhere I could see offering hundreds of dollars of credit for free! And I just had to have one of those Frisbees or squeegee bottles with some bank’s ugly logo on it. If I could go back in time I would slap myself silly, for being so silly.

It's that time of the month again...time to talk about eBay. For those of you in the know as an eBay Parent Panel member it is my job to evangelize the eBay effect as much as possible. What do I mean by "eBay Effect"? Simple the process of selling and buying and succeeding financially (from either side of the transaction) with eBay.

But where do you begin?

eBay recently launched its ‘Selling Inspiration House,’ a website designed to help sellers see what kinds of items they could be listing on eBay from around their home. It's designed to help potential and new sellers to answer the question, "What should I sell?" The items were selected with the help of data analysts to represent high-demand items sold successfully on eBay, many of which earn sellers top dollar. Each popup contains a link to the prices of recent completed listings in that category.

Check out the site and test it out. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email via my contact page or use the comments below.

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Thanks for reading! To learn more about me, you can read my story.

Since last month's post on all thing's eBay I've come up with a goal:

To generate a "Fun" Money income stream of $500 via eBay sales.

When I was first contacted by eBay to be a member of their Parent Panel my first question was "Why?"

I was satisfied with the answer I received so I accepted. But that didn't quell my primary question: "What the hell do eBay and I have in common (besides the fact that I sell on eBay) and what am I supposed to be telling other parents who don't sell there or sell anything for that matter?"

At the beginning of September I was shipped off to Orlando, Florida for eBay's biannual eBay On Location convention. While there I was immersed in all things eBay and surprisingly I learned many new things about blogging and social media. Lesson learned: you're never to seasoned to learn a thing or two or three from someone new. All you have to do is be open to learn  And now hopefully you will be open to learn these 5 reasons for buying and selling on on eBay.:

I love my husband. He is the most caring, loving man I have ever met. I have a hard time leaving him, even if it is just for a weekend. We are excepting our second baby (I'm due in September!). I don't have to beg for him to take the trash out, he works everyday, he loves me fiercely. It all sounds good, right?

My husband is 15 years older than me. Some say I got myself another daddy. One thing I do know is my husband loves me. He works 50-60 hours a week to make sure he provides for his family. Since I have not been in the workforce in what seems like forever, I'm not very understanding when it comes to needing my time. I used to expect him to work 10 hours a day and then still come home and do everything I had on my to-do list for him.

I was tired of him not listening to me about our money problems. I was tired of him not listening about my schoolwork. I felt like he was ignoring me. I'm the one at home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of his kids. He was raised in a household where his grandfather worked outside of the home and his grandmother was at home. My hubby wanted the same for me. I decided to stay at home for him. I felt the least he could do was listen to me when I had something to say. It wasn't until our son brought it to my attention that there was a problem.

I realized that my husband was not the problem. It was me. I complained about how he worked too much, did not take enough time out for the kids, how we didn't have any money, but I never told him thank you. I know going to work at 5 am and not getting off until 5 pm is not easy. I never said thank you for all you do for this family. I was taking him for granted.

What do I do differently now?

• I get up from whatever I am doing to greet him when he gets off work.
• I ask him when he gets home if he would like his plate now.
• give him 45 minutes to an hour to relax after a long day. I keep the kids out of his way as well.
• I am sure to ask him about his day. If he says he is tired, I know it was a long day. If he says it was okay, it's okay to ask him to do what I need him to do.
• We have a weekly family meeting--this is my time to let it all out!

Sometimes you are the problem. You have to take control to change what you don't like. He is my husband and I want this to work. I changed what wasn't working into something that worked.

About the Author:

Kanesha Vance lives in Oklahoma with her husband and one-year-old son. She loves to speak on parenting, marriage, school, but most of all MONEY. She is a full-time stay at home mom, who blogs about her journey through life. Please check her out and read her at MoneyMattersMama.com