A learning experience for all of us...

August 5th 2017 I was induced about 3 days early due to my baby being large and me not being able to go past my due date because I had been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes.  While pregnant I researched everything I could find about labor and delivery.  I had no birth plan minus I wanted my husband in the room and I didn't want an epidural.  I felt prepared for labor, but realized after that all the research in the world didn't prepare me for my OWN experience.

The only part of my "plan" was I went into labor on a Saturday, because I was induced, I then had a 26.5 hour labor.  Yes i know other women had gone longer, but due to the placement of my baby's umbilical cord, I had an emergency C-section when I went, "IM DONE" after they couldn't keep his heart rate steady and I wasn't 10 centimetes,  I was barely 7.  He wasn't going to fit, even though the poor little guy did try to come out naturally, so I had to have a c-section, and I had to be knocked out because I wasn't allowed an epidural.

The 10 Things I learned during my first baby labor experience.

1. Induction = Bed Rest
They tell you when you go into labor that they want you up and walking and moving.  THIS does not apply when you are induced.  They actually get kind of annoyed if you want to get up and move around away from the monitor depending on your nurse because they have to unplug you each time.  We had one nurse who was like, "yea just page me when you get done and I'll hook you back up" and another who was NOT happy each time I had to pee... So try that natural induction stuff at home to get labor going because if they induce you, you're pretty much stuck to the bed...

2. The Water Breaking GUSH
They aren't joking about that GUSH of water when your water breaks.  Mine was broken by my midwife and it just kept coming, and apparently it smelled really bad.  My husband informed me of this recently.  I was too busy with labor pains to notice the smell.  My husband has a very sensitive nose though so I'm not surprised he smelled it.
3. Internal Monitors
If they have difficulty finding your baby's heart beat with an EXTERNAL monitor, they will give you an internal one.  Be very careful with this, it is attached to your baby.  They drape it around your neck when your go to the bathroom, and my husband would help me in the bathroom each time I went so I wasn't tugging on anything.  He also accompanied me to make sure I didn't trip or anything.
4. Talk to your specialty Doctors, not just the pregnancy ones
 If you want an epidural, you should probably talk to the anesthesia team BEFORE you go into labor, especially if you bruise easily and are short, and get things in writing from your OWN doctors too.  I decided at 3 in the morning to get an epidural after our nurse (who wasn't our favorite person...) kept telling me "the pain will lessen in you get an epidural" and "you'll stop thrashing around in bed if you have an epidural".  She called the Anesthesia team, got me all hooked up and turns out I COULDN'T have one.  I have Ehlers Danlos and bruise easily.  At 4:30 in the morning I was informed by the Anesthesiologist that I had a high probability of being paralyzed if she gave me an epidural due to my EDS and how short I am, which my genetisist had told me wouldnt happen, but they refused to give me one.
5. Ask about pain management and drugs, Even if you don't want them
DISCUSS IT with your midwife or doctor beforehand.  I had not wanted drugs and I didn't know my options besides an Epidural, and was dead set on I didn't want anything.  I was given an IV med to start, and when I couldn't have the epidural, my midwife called the doctor she is associated with and was given Morphine so that I could sleep because I was having contractions every 2 minutes but wasn't dilating any further.  Also, the Demi (I forget the full name) doens't work as well the SECOND time they give it to you, thus why I had morphine..
6. TEAM WORK!
If your baby is in distress, EVERYONE gets on board.  My baby's heart rate started dropping because his umbilical cord was going from his belly button up over his one shoulder and down the other.  While he was trying to get out of me and I would have a contraction, it would put pressure on his cord and he wouldn't get an oxygen.  No joke, 4 people rushed in my room, and my husband noticed it before they were in the room yelling for me to get on my hands and knees and shoving an oxygen mask in my face because he was watching the monitor, even though they told us not to... My midwife in the morning turned it for us saying, "I know you like to watch it"
7.  Things go quick
An emergency c-section is the quickest surgery I have ever experienced.   Due to my inability to have an Epidural, I had to be unconscious for my cesarean, and my poor husband who had wanted to cut the cord and was excited to do skin to skin while I was recovering, wasn't even allowed in the room because I was unconscious.  SO, no cord cutting, no skin to skin.  BUT he got to watch his first bath, and hold him before me.  My husband claims it felt like 15 minutes from the moment they took me to the moment the doctor said, "you have a son!".  I could have sworn it was a half hour... but that may be from the moment they all came running in to his birth time.
8. If your mother wants to be there, let her be there.
 My mom asked constantly, "do you want me to come over?" and we were like, "everything is fine, you'd just be sitting here..." and about 20 minutes before I went in for my cesarean, she texts me again, and I said the same thing.  Looking back, I wish I had said, "sure, come on over and hang out with us, given hubs a break from rubbing my back" because she would have been there by the time everything happend and hubs wouldn't have been alone when I went into surgery.  Everything went so quick, that if the rolls were switched, I wouldn't have known what was going on if I was him... thus I yelled to the nurse to explain it again to him.
9. Stay calm, and breathe
 Lots of people try to tell you alot of information at the same time.  Try to stay calm because you won't hear any of it.  I literally told my midwife, "I don't care what the risks are, lets just get him out", as she tried telling me what was going on half way through me having another contraction and trying to keep an oxygen mask on my face.
10. You need that birth partner
Finally, you don't realize how much you need your spouse, or birthing partner until you are in it.  I could not have gone through that alone, and my husband really pushed through it.  He doesn't function well on little sleep, and by the time we had the baby, we had that contraction relief down to a science.  He'd hear me groan, and immediately sit up and start rubbing my back.

They tell you that you forget the pain when its all over.  Frankly I am not forgetting ANY of that first birth experience, but I did learn alot from it.  Especially the hour and a half wait to find out I couldn't have an epidural, my new found hatred for pitocin, and a new found love for pain killers in a pinch.  That said, it was all completely worth it for my little handsome guy

The Great Coupon Debate

So with this upcoming baby, hubs and I have been discussing the fact that we need to start really buckling down and using coupons, especially because we just added ANOTHER monthly bill to our outgoing income because we had to buy me a new car (check back here for article on car buying later!)  So on this beautiful Sunday morning, when the humidity hasn't hit the part of PA we are just yet, I decided to do some legitimate research about extreme couponing with the plans to give it a serious try.  While doing this, I came up with some pros and cons, so if any of you are possibly trying to be frugal and save money, here's my own findings.
***I do actually plan to try out couponing to see how much we may save, but I also see some major negatives with it, so don't just assume I'm saying screw couponing***

The Pros of Couponing

1. When done correctly, couponing has promised to save me money on my monthly grocery bill every time I go shopping, to the point I may get free toilet paper and paper towels.  If it will also get me free diapers for this baby that I can also possibly donate to a women's shelter or something, I consider that a win-win.  Who doesn't love free stuff?

2. By doing a "stock pile" I will run out items less frequently, and will be able to save money on further shopping trips because I'll be able to say, "Ok, we have enough toilet paper to last til next week, when I can buy MORE toilet paper on sale, and with a coupon" rather than going, "shoot.. we're out of toilet paper" and having to pay full price.  I don't mind paying sale price, but if I can get it for even cheaper, AWESOME.  Having a small stock pile for certain every day items my husband and I use will also help me not have to take as long of grocery trips, or as frequently when the baby comes, and that will be very helpful.

3. You can possibly write off your couponing on your taxes IF AND ONLY IF you donate enough of your items to charity.  Like I said above, if I can get a bunch of diapers free and donate them to a local women's shelter than may have mothers with babies, that's a win-win.  I'm getting free diapers, AND I'm helping someone else who is having a more difficult time getting diapers for their baby get diapers.  Same goes for canned goods, and other items that you can take to a food bank or homless shelter.

That was literally all the pro's I came up with for using coupons.  The cons apply to people in general, not just myself.

The Coupon Con's

1. While doing my research, several articles suggested researching different stores sales, and NOT doing your shopping like on the TLC show "Extreme Couponing" where you see a mom with about 4 kids walking the store with her, each having a cart, then they get the register and your biting your nails for whether she's going to get her $300 bill down to $25 using her giant binder sized stack of coupons.  Successful couponers are suggesting you go to various stores for your stock pile.
       FOR EXAMPLE:
          If you get your weekly newspaper ads and find Walmart has toilet paper on sale, and you've got coupons that will drop that price even more, BUT tooth paste isn't on sale there, BUT IT IS at Acme, you should go to Walmart, get your toilet paper, then go to Acme and get your toothpaste.

This is all fine for someone who has the time to go to separate stores for various items, but now you are having to take into account the gas mileage you are using to get these items, just to save money, and if you haven't done your research right, you just drove to another store for nothing.

2. Many of the successful couponers warn that couponing requires a good chunk of your time just to keep yourself organized so you can save money, and you need to be focused.  Someone who doesn't work, and has children who are angels may possibly be able to do the organizational portion of this easily.  Put on a nice long film for your kids, and do your coupons while they're entertained by Mickey Mouse, or the Octonauts.  Someone who doesn't work, that may be doing night classes and is couponing to save for college may be able to easily coupon.  HOWEVER, someone with four kids under the age of 6 that is a single parent, might find it more difficult to fit this and shopping at different stores into their daily schedule.

3. Purchasing JUST the inserts is possibly the worst "money saving" tactic I read.  Hubs and I live just outside Philadelphia, SO we can get the Philadelphia Inquirer each Sunday from our local Newsstand, or have it delivered.  When I started looking for insert subscriptions so I could get JUST the coupons, the different venues for that were priced at 9-20 dollars depending on how many different inserts you got in a week.  When we did the math, it was still the same price IF NOT CHEAPER to simply buy the Newspaper, rather than have it delivered.  One had shipping costs at almost 7 dollars to send me JUST 8 inserts of coupons, PLUS the price they were charging for the coupons.  Another site wanted 11 dollars for shipping but claimed the coupons were free.  I'd rather just walk to Wawa and buy an Inquirer... get some sunshine and exercise while I save money.

4.  You can't be loyal to brand names.  Brand names go on sale less often than store brands apparently... and you also will get less coupons (so I've been told...).  This means that if you have special diet needs, then your coupon usage starts being restricted, or if you are someone who is stuck on your brand names, it won't work for you.


NOW with all that said, you can use "coupons.com" and other printable coupon websites on top of buying the newspaper, or getting coupons from family and friends (I will take all coupons family and friends are willing to give by the way...) so that you can try couponing yourself.  It's something to try if you want to start stocking up on laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc, but foods that are going to expire, my husband and I have found that doesn't work well with coupons, since there is only 2 of us.

I still plan to give coupons an actual try, but I don't expect to be on Extreme Couponing anytime soon, or that it will be saving it me thousands and thousands of dollars each year.

Pregnancy Posts

Well, its official, I have finally had to go through all of my clothing so I am not digging through laundry each day trying to find an outfit for work.  I've had to buy 4 shirts, 2 skirts and 2 pairs of jeans so that I can go to work each day and I'm pretty sure I'll need to buy more shirts as the bump continues to grow.  I'm proud of myself that from a change in my diet so I am as healthy as can be for this baby, and slightly increased exercise (you know not just sitting on the cough each day...) I've been able to wear most of my clothes because I have lost fat as I've gotten more pregnant, gained weight, but definitely lost fat.
But DUDE buying maternity clothes is tough!  Even having gone down slightly in my jean size, it was very difficult finding pants that fit.  Basically the rule for buying clothes when you are pregnant is to simply buy the same size you were BEFORE you became pregnant.  For example: you were a 2 when you got pregnant, despite the large round belly on the front of you now, you are still a 2.  I wear a 16 currently, but apparently pregnancy clothes manufactures and myself have different view on what a 16 really is... thus it was very difficult for me to find clothes for myself,  I went to Motherhood Maternity and the girl (who was very nice and helpful) said, "maybe you need a bigger size.." and it was in reference to the seam of the pants not coming up as high as I wanted them to.  They fit everywhere else, but typical maternity clothes hit BELOW your waist because your waist is now holding an incubator for a tiny human, so no one in their right mind makes pants that the seam is at your waist and I felt like they weren't sitting where I needed them to, thus I bought everything else but pants on that first trip...  Now I finally can't wear my leggings, jeans, sweats, basically anything that't not pajama pants on a regular basis, and I've become one of those people who have to drive with their pants unbuttoned because I feel like I'm squishing my poor baby!
BUT! THE OTHER DAY after going to Macy's, Marshalls, Kohls AND Target in search of jeans to wear to work (I can't wear the same like 4 outfits to work each week...) I went to Old Navy after a search online told me they might have something and I lucked out!  Not only did I find multiple styles of clothing to buy but I found multiple pairs in my size, in the multiple styles, AND they actually fit.  I ended up actually going DOWN a size in the one pair I bought, and if I hadn't thought about the fact that my belly is going to keep growing, I would have bought the second pair in a size lower than I typically would buy.  It was a win win kind of day for me!  Baby is happy he isn't being squished all the time, I'm happy to wear something other than skirts to work, AND I'm thrilled that I am possibly a pants size down since I got pregnant.  Now to just keep this healthy eating thing up and get myself down 2 sizes after I have the baby.

I did, in my search for clothes for bigger pregnant ladies, find a website called "Yours Clothing" and its a plus size clothing site, that has MATERNITY CLOTHES, and like, CUTE maternity clothes for curvier mommas.  It goes from 12-34 and has everything from shirts to underwear.  Their website does carry bathing suits, but not in their pregnancy line, which was slightly disappointing, BUT I now know when I've had the baby I can buy a bathing suit top from them that might actually fit my chest and be supportive, so I've got that going for me!

https://www.yoursclothing.com/maternity

there is their website for everyone out there, specifically their maternity section.  Check it out.  They're not a US based company though so everyone in America will have to pay more for shipping, sorry...

Thats my rant about pregnancy clothing... now onto my next adventure, finding a pregnancy bathing suit that will fit, and won't cost tons of money.  HERE WE GO!

Happy Mothers Day

taxikab

Each park has its perks....

So now to tips and comparisons of my awesome trip to Florida with Hubs.

1. Disney's water park was MUCH MUCH better than the one Universal Associates with.  WetnWild was a nice park, the people were friendly, but if you can manage it, go to Typhoon Lagoon.  The wave pool was amazing.  Hubs lost his hat in the water, and atleast 4 people tried to help us find it.  There was basically more personable people at Disney, and the "magic" was there.

2. Universal's park hopper was much cooler!  Hogwarts express to go between parks was AWESOME.  Disney has its bus system, because theres so many parks and so many hotels, and they're spread out, I get that.  But every time we wanted to go to a new park, we had to leave the park, walk to the busses, or wait for the Monorail, and you still had to walk like 10 minutes just to get to the bus, then if there were alot of people going back to their hotels or to a new park, you either didn't get a seat or you were waiting for the next one.  It was just nuts...

3. The magic.   I only had ONE person be annoyed about something at Disney, and seem slightly frustrated with their job.  Every single solitary person we encountered at Disney was extremely kind and into the fact that they were supposed to be the happiest people, and act like freaking cartoon characters.  Universal had a couple people who were really into their job, but most of them were like, "raise your arms for the bar.... please don't step out of line" monotone voice.  Disney people were like, 'HEY! you should be smiling!!!"  it was crazy.

4. Rides.  Universal's rides were NUTS.  We got on the Dr. Doom ride first second in on Wednesday and OMG it was AWESOME.  But then we got on the Simpson ride and frankly they could do without that stupid thing.  We waited in line for EVER and it was basically a short ride with alot of videos... it was the Line Ride from South Park...   HOWEVER it made up for it with stuff like Escape from Gringotts, and Jurassic Park, the Mummy, Popeye, etc.  Their rides were GREAT and the ones they had that were "meh" were still good.   As previously stated, they have MANY a ride with videos... I get motion sick easily when I have to focus on one thing, so videos and the whipping around motion of the coasters made me sick to the point I could not bring myself to get on spiderman again.
Disney had some good rides, and you had to wait a long time to get on them.  Their GREAT rides were awesome, but their "meh" rides were still "meh..."  The Space Invaders Toy Story ride actually broke down while we were on it, which was really weird.  My sister and her family were with us for that one and I could hear my nephew going "what happened?"

5. Food!!  We had the Disney dining plan which I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE if you enjoy trying new foods.  You still have to tip everyone, BUT you don't have to worry about the huge bill cost.  We got breakfast each morning, and a snack around lunch, then we had a big sit down dinner each night but Friday, where we had Wawa Hoagies which was AWESOME.  I love a little taste of home.  We didn't really eat in Universal so theres no contest here on that one.  I just wanted to encourage the Dining plan because it really worked well for us.  I had not done it when I was there with my friends back in 2006, and I preferred it this time.  We also plan on going back to the Biergarten next time too.  Hubs and me are both German and enjoy German foods and OMG WAS IT DELICIOUS.  You have to sit with other people, but still, its a buffet so its not family style, but it is...?


Complaints:
Don't stay at the lower cost hotels at Disney is you don't have to.  My husband and I were really annoyed that they hadn't changed the sheets more than once when we were.  We noticed because one of us had gotten something on the sheets, and stained it slightly, and it was still there 3 days later...  We also had an empty bag of chips under the bed at the end of the trip that was not placed there by either of us...
Finally on the first day we were there, house keeping knocked on our door super early and asked if we'd be wanting house keeping, when I said, "not right now... " seeing as it was 8am... she gave me an attitude and told me I need to use the "do not disturb" sign.  I'm sorry I was not expecting house keeping at 8am seeing as my hotel room wasn't even ready until 6pm the night before... and was supposed to be ready at 3pm....
Universals employees could use some pep in their step... a good portion of them were very blah about work.  I get it, its a job, but atleast PRETEND you enjoy working there like some of your coworkers... like the 5 we encountered....

Tips!!!

• Use the Disney Dining plan.  100%, I loved it.  We got a cup, we used them every day, it was great.
• Do the Disney park hopper and water park option.  We wished we had paid for that instead of WetnWild because we paid extra when we got there for Typhoon Lagoon (it was a mix up on my part...) and we loved Typhoon lagoon SO MUCH MORE.
• Stay at one of the pricier Disney hotels if you can.  We weren't thrilled in the end with PopCentury's employees.  
• Stay at the Disney hotels if you're going to Disney.  We watched people trying to park each day and it was NUTS.  You stay at the parks and you get transportation to every park, and you can go for "magic hours" they're special times they're open early or late for only their guests.
• Check your Disney Transportation and that they'll get your bags.  Somewhere their was a mix up with ours and we had to real quick get everything sorted before getting on the bus because somehow we weren't on the list for that... still had transportation, just they weren't getting our bags until we changed it AT the airport.
• Eat at Biergarten.  It was DELICIOUS.  And do atleast one disney character experience
• Check 6 months before your trip for doing Reservations of stuff.  I checked what I thought was advanced and I was a month late so it was harder for us to get the stuff we wanted, like Dinner at Be Our Guest.  Though we had breakfast and Lunch there so it worked out

All in all, Hubs and I agreed, Universal's rides were AMAZING and we loved them, BUT it lacked the magic that was going on at Disney.  Disney's ride were okay, but it was truly Magical being there.  The atmosphere was just amazing, and it was great seeing Disney and the "magic" from my nephews reactions.

Florida Part 2

So some people write 2 and 3 blog posts a week, I apparently write 2 or 3 a year... Its been slightly hectic in our house since we went to Florida and I haven't had any time to actually update the blog due to health reasons for my husband and sheer exhaustion on my part.
To start, Hubs had a seizure the week before Christmas and has been unable to drive since then.  It made last minute shopping slightly more difficult... but it all got done.  The past 6 months I have been his driver, and since he works 40 minutes in one direction from our place, and I work 40 minutes in the other direction, we had to get creative.  Basically I have been dropping him at a bus stop every morning to get to work, and then once his bus comes, driving myself to work.
We (and his boss) are very happy to say that he now has his license back and is getting used to driving again, not being the passenger.  Then we had some hectic stuff going on at my work, with new employees, yearly inspections, new clients, it was nuts.
SO! HERE I AM! Back again! to finish what I started with Disney, because we went to Universal and I never did the Universal post NOR did I give all my crazy tips for Disney.  Here we go!

Universal:
I am going to jump around with this, not like Disney because we just walked back and forth around the parks for this one.
So I have never been there and my husband had been there once with his mother.  We purchased Park Hopper tickets and I am SO HAPPY WE DID.  Let me tell you why!
If you purchase the park hopper ticket option for your Universal Studios Orlando vacation, you get to ride..... THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS.   That's right people!  Rather than walking all the way around Islands of Adventure to get back to Universal Studios, you can get on the Hogwarts Express and it drops you at Kings Cross Station in Universal Studios.


For those of you who have never been there, (like myself before I went in November) there are two portions of Harry Potter-ness to Universal.  There are 3 roller coasters in "Hogsmede" and some shops.  Hogsmede is part of Islands of Adventure, right by Jurassic Park (I'll get back to that awesomeness later!) but Diagon Alley is part of Universal Studios, and you have to have a park hopper to go back and forth between them.

Diagon Alley has more shops than rides, and unless you know here to look it was difficult for us to find.  Legit, we stumbled upon it.  I kept saying to my husband "I KNOW THERES MORE" and while looking for a bathroom in the rain, saw all these people standing by the entrance and went, "I wonder whats around these... OMG ITS DIAGON ALLEY!! WE FOUND IT!" lol.
You will never believe from the OUTSIDE how big it is once your there.  Diagon Alley is huge compared to what you think when you first walk up.

Now apparently you can go through the Leaky Cauldron to get in too, but I couldn't find it... until we were IN Diagon Alley.   I would have liked to have eaten there, but there was always this HUGE wait to get a table, and hubs and me were like "Meh... the food choices are okay..."  So we would snack on stuff instead.

I DID have Butterbeer while there.  I'm not a cream soda person, so it was okay... hubs loved it.  


My brother wanted me to bring him some back but they don't bottle it... I tried to bring him Pumpkin Juice, but couldn't find the store at the airport that sells it to get it (yes, they apparently have a store at the Orlando Airport that sells the same Merchandise as in Universal)
I got a chocolate frog too... Rowena Ravenclaw was my card on the inside.  The Frog is freaking HUGE!!!








We went on every ride that was Harry Potter themed... the two indoor rides have screens and special effects.  I get motion sick easily... so they weren't amazing for me... made me want to vomit a few times, and you had to wait awhile to get on.

TIP!!! If you are like my husband and above the normal average person height (he's 6'4") TELL THEM AHEAD OF TIME for the Gringotts Ride.  We waited in line, then had to get OUT of line because my husband needed a special seat for the ride, and so we had to wait in the Handicap line because he needed to be in a specific spot.  There are like 3 rows that are meant for tall and large people.  Hubs just needed a little more room for his feet.  The rides are very much designed for the average height individual...


Onto more!!! Now that I've ranted about Harry Potter for awhile...
I LOVE the Jurassic Park ride.  I had seen the commercial for Universal Studios on television SO MUCH as a kid, and I went to Disney when I was 18 so I was very curious about this giant T-Rex jumping out at people at Universal.  IT WAS AWESOME.  Universal better never get rid of that ride or I will lose it.  I will never return.  I will also never return if they get rid of the Popeye Ride.
Due to us going on a Thursday... and in the rain, hubs and me got to ride the Popeye water ride like 6 times in a row.  There was no one in line and we just went, "can we just stay on?" and we did... until we were soaking wet and it was time to go home.  Ponchos helped with keeping our heads wet slightly.  Did not help with keeping the rest of me dry... it was great.
I must say I loved many a ride at Universal.  Next post I will compare the two parks, because thats a post in and of itself.  As well as more tips.

While at Universal, we had scheduled our Disney Dining plan accordingly so we had enough to last the week, and got to eat regularly, lol.  HOWEVER on Friday we went to Wet n Wild.  Hubs loves water parks...
We decided in the end, we both would have rather had the water park option for Disney instead of going to Wet n Wild.  We loved Typhoon Lagoon at disney and we were like, "meh..." about Wet n Wild.  If we go back we plan to not get this option from Universal.  It had some nice rides, but I wouldn't go back.  Sorry WetnWild....

On our way TO Universal, we spotted a WAWA!!!!  I'm from the part of PA where we have Wawa's EVERYWHERE.  Hubs and me are trying to buy a house, and distance to a Wawa is crucial... we can't really function without it...
SO we ended up A. making friends with an employee there because we were amazed by the Beer Cooler (we don't have that in PA, you have to go to Wine and Spirits or a Beer Distributor for that stuff...) and B.  We ended up getting Hoagies and taking them back to our hotel at Disney for dinner because we had scheduled lunch in Epcot for the next day.

But seriously if you're from PA CHECK OUT THIS WAWA.  Beer Cooler, SEATS OUTSIDE.  We were like kids in a candy shop...

Friday Night after Wawa, we did some laundry because the Laundromat at Disney was next to the pool (thanks for that Disney!) and swam in their "Hippy Dippy Pool" at Pop Century.  It was nice to not have to do Laundry when we came home (we pay for laundry at our apartment so it was the same as doing it at home...)

Packed up everything, and was ready for check out the next day.  While packing up I was not happy about the fact that I found a pack of potato chips under our bed... seeing as I didn't eat any chips while there in the hotel room... nor did I bring them back... and they MAYBE changed the sheets once in the week...  See next post for more on that!

Saturday we went to Epcot for rides and lunch.  We had loved the Biergarten SO MUCH that we ended up finishing our trip with Lunch there.  Disney held our bags while we went to the parks, and we just gave them to the bus driver when it was time to go home.  We hit up some more rides in the parks, and spent maybe half the day there before going home.

All in all it was a good trip.  I'm glad hubs and me got to be there together without children, so we could experience it together and then later take any future children with us.  Now we have a better idea of what to splurge on and what to say "forget that one..." like, we might not do Universal Studios next time, just do Islands of Adventure, though I really enjoyed that Hogwarts express... :)

Happy Living!
taxikab

"Dreams come true!"

Hi Everyone!  I am back and mainly unpacked (its been a week I should be 100% unpacked but whatever...) from my lovely vacation with the hubs to Florida.  I miss Florida already, but we are back in PA and happy, cold, slightly sick, and stuffed with turkey because it was Thanksgiving about 2 days ago.

So I have lots to update on, lets start!

Disney!  So much fun.  We stayed at Disney and rented a car to go to Universal three days.  I'm making the trip a two part post, first Disney, then Universal and conclusion.  Sound good?  OKAY! Lets go!

As previously stated, Hubs and I stayed at Pop Century on the Disney property and rented a car for going to Universal.  People consistently were saying "save money, stay off ground, etc" but frankly, after you factor in parking and gas, etc, it was worth it, for hubs and me to stay at Disney.  Disney has their own transportation system that will transport you to and from the parks if you are staying at their resort.  Also if you know someone staying at another Disney resort, you can get a bus to one of the parks, then a bus from the park to that hotel and meet up with family or friends staying there, or take the monorail, which we did ride at one point... You can also use this to go to breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever at the other resorts.

Magic Bands: Your magic bands have your name on them, and then are your ticket to the park, your key for your room, your connection for charging things to your room, and your dining plan swiper.  I think Disney has some bugs to work out still, because I had an issue with my band a few times, and so did multiple other people I saw and talked to.  Bands not working at their room, not matching with your finger print at the park gate, sometimes just not working.  They finally had to take my picture because I could not get  it to work at the parks for a fourth time on one of our last days.

You basically wear the band, and scan your finger so that they know it isn't being used by other people.  Simple enough, but slight pain when one keeps glitching.  You also have the option in the parks to purchase MORE magic bands, with fun stuff on them.  I stuck with my orange one.

Now you have the basics, lets move on, taking this one day at a time….Sorry.  I’ll try to be brief, but no promises.

Saturday: EARLY EARLY EARLY!

My mother in law drove us to the airport at 4:30 in the morning…. no joke.  I was exhausted.  We apparently love to torture ourselves because Hubs and I did the same thing for Jamaica, like 4 hours of sleep then a day of awesome!  Got to Disney around lunch time, had lunch at Pop Century, got our cups (dining plan gives you cups) then off to Magic Kingdom we went!  It was the first time my husband had been to any of the Disney parks, as he had only ever been to Universal a long time ago... PEOPLE if you ever get the chance to take someone to Magic Kingdom for their first time, DO IT.  He was amazed because we got there in the middle of one of their parades and Oh my gosh, Hubs could not stop staring at everything.  He said to me atleast three times "What is this place?" lol.  It was pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie.

We got to meet Gaston, get on the tea cups, we only did like 3 rides at Magic Kingdom Saturday because there was an insane amount of people there.  So we left and went to Epcot because we had dinner reservations at Biergarten which was AMAZING.  Omg, best food.  My husband and I are both German descent and have a small love of German food.  Its in Oktoberfest, and its a buffet.  If you want like drinks and an appetizer, go to Summerfest because thats not a buffet and we met a couple who made that mistake.  Tried to be a beer crawl of Epcot, and went to Biergarten as a short stop… no.  You don’t do that.

Best like everything I have ever eaten, dessert was amazing, vegetables were amazing, sauerkraut was amazing, just omg.  The family we sat with were great too, very nice people from near where Hubs and I live now so.

Our room wasn’t ready until like WELL after 3pm (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t ready till 6 o clock… I may be wrong but I’m going to check it)

Sunday: We got super lucky and got Lunch Reservations at Be Our Guest.  Apparently dinner is much harder to come by, but frankly we just wanted to go in there…  Again, Food was amazing.  When you do breakfast and lunch you go through a line and order at a touch screen, then you pick a seat, and MAGICALLY your food finds you.  I asked how they find you and the girl looked at me so just done and goes “…Magic…”   Okay lady, good enough for me…  I got a roast beef sandwich, that came with fries, AND a cupcake with “Grey Stuff” on it.  It was icing, lol.  It was good.  

Got on some rides, got to ride Dumbo, because frankly everyone should go on the Dumbo ride at least once.  Because of the long lines we didn’t get on many rides at Magic Kingdom.  We did get on the Splash Mountain ride, which was great because Hubs loves log flumes, and it was HOT!!  Again, went to Epcot after magic kingdom, BUT! We ate the Akershus which was awesome too.  This was character dining, where the Princesses come around and take pictures and say hi.  Ariel was fascinated by my shirt because it had “bubbles” on it, and asked if I had been swimming.  It was a polka dot shirt lol.  Again food was amazing.  Missed the fire works for Epcot because we were in dinner, but we caught them Monday.

Christmas Tea Pot!

Monday: Typhoon Lagoon.  Kudos Disney for your wave pool.  Those waves came and people SCREAMED.  It was great.  Water slides were good.  I am not a fan of slides where I have to go down without a tube because my shoulder blades always hurt afterwards, don’t know why but they do.  This day we got to meet up with my sister and her family after we had finished at the water park.  So we left a bit before closing, went back got showers, and met up with my sister after dinner for fire works.  We ate at the coral reef which was SO COOL.  Everyone has a view of the fish tank which is awesome.  They give you a list of what all the fish are too so you can see as they come past the glass.  Also they had this black sea salt on their butter with the bread, OMG So delicious.  I’m a salt person, who I lost my mind over this one food lol.  

Fire works with my sisters family was great.  My husband had my nephew on his shoulders so he could see better, and apparently the Monorail was in the way because he insisted my husband move closer.

Tuesday: Magic Kingdom again, but this time with my sisters family. We got lucky and SOMEHOW got to eat at Be Our Guest AGAIN but for breakfast this time.  Hubs was like, “lets try it” and no joke, we were in and out in half the time as lunch on Sunday.  Met up with my sister after breakfast and frankly we really got in more rides with them than we did on our own which we didn’t expect.  My sister would go, “this fast pass” and i’d switch us to it and then we’d head over because on Tuesday this was less people and most of the rides we could take her kids on, had like NO waits.  It was good.  My nephew likes the Aladdin magic carpet ride, which is basically Dumbo, but with carpets and camels that spit at you, lol.

DOLE WHIP   Hubs insisted he have pineapple dole whip.

We went to Hollywood Studios after Magic Kingdom, and I insisted Hubs ride Tower of Terror.  I love it, its my favorite.  We tried to get fast passes for different stuff but basically ended up canceling some of them and using them for Epcot later.  We also got on rocking roller coaster and walked around just getting on different stuff.  We did NOT ride Soarin’ as there was an hour and a half wait basically every day we checked it.

Dinner was at Epcot again… I KNOW I KNOW but it was so good.  This time at Tokyo Dining which was again AMAZING.  I was not disappointed at any meal in Disney.  We got cloths before the meal to wipe our hands and we got to eat with chopsticks, which we love.  They were very nice too.

We didn’t go to Disney again until Saturday when we left, and this post is long enough already!!!  See part 2 for Universal, last day in Disney, and tips and such.  

Happy Living!!

taxikab

ps.  Happy belated Thanksgiving!

NYX soft matte lip cream review

Ok, so I don't usually write about reviews, and I tend to be very cautious when buying lipsticks, lipgloss, etc, BUT, I had a target gift card and had heard from really good reviews about the NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream, so I went, I'm going to try it!
Target only had like 4 colors... which was upsetting, but I also bought them, today...and I think most stores stock their shelves for things in the beginning of the week.  I got Addis Ababa and San Paulo today, and I'm contemplating checking other stores for some other colors because I'm obsessed with this cream.
NOW! I REVIEW!  Here goes.

Firstly, it is not a gloss.  It's a cream and it feels like baby powder on my lips.  Its nuts.  I love it.  It really feels like mousse if you touch it, and like I said, I love it.  If you let it dry, its not transferring.  You can kiss everyone and it won't come off.  I kissed my hand like 12 times testing it, and the longer I had it on, the more it dried, the less it transferred, until it just didn't anymore and the color was still just as vibrant and pigmented.  Like I said, I love it.  The color San Paulo looked mauve-ish when looking at the bottle, was reddish when I put it on my lips, but on the website looks like a rose color...  All in all, its kinda red...  I still like it, but was not what I was expecting when I bought it.  Addis Ababa is like magenta, hot pink, very awesome color, I love it.  Its similar to Clinique's Pudgy Peony Chubby Stick color.  I love wearing that when I go out, so this may be a new staple for me too.
I LOVE the smell.  I put it on and immediately went, "oh! it smells like vanilla!  Thats awesome!"  and was losing my mind telling the hubs about this stuff.  I had to take a couple minutes and freak out over this lip cream when talking to him.  Basically it was love at first sight.  It goes on very easily and with only a small amount.

Cons (aka I didn't like this...)
Its not very forgiving when putting it on.  It glides on very easily, as I said, BUT! You need a mirror to put it on, or you end up looking like you let a child do you lipstick...  I actually put it on however I felt like, then used my makeup remover to clean up around my mouth.  As I said previously, the San Paulo color was confusing.  I bought it expecting a mauve-ish color, put it on and its almost a dark red... Had I purchased it straight from their website, I would have bought a different color simply because it looks pinkish, like a dusty rose, I can't even describe it.  It just doesn't look like what I bought in the store... (I double checked to see if it was the right color too...)

I DO recommend this to people.  I only had to problems with it, and my good feelings about it REALLY outweigh my bad feelings about it so...  Basically I love it.  I do plan on going to buy more of them as I previous stated.

If you want some as well, go HERE!

All for now!
taxikab

sorry everyone, no pictures this post...

Good morning, good morning....its coupon clipping time...

Good Morning readers!  Its Saturday, its before noon, it looks like the weather is going to be nice today, so here I sit typing to all of you, with my coffee in my new mug.   I went to the Poconos over the summer and they had out all there Halloween stuff in September, and I got this super cute Halloween mug.
This is the link for the Mug and Coffee set but I just bought the little blue mug.

ARENT THEY CUTE!

I'm big on Halloween and have been waiting and waiting to use this mug because it was September when I got it and was like, "way to early for spooky Halloween mug... must wait until after my birthday..." SO I DID.

I half miss getting up super early and getting things done... I've actually tried getting my groceries done this early because theres sometimes less people at my store.  This thought inspired todays post because, I've decided my next "life project" is going to be couponing.  I like cutting coupons, I just end up not using them or go, "well thats a waste of money!" when I do use some... BUT my tiny stock pile of items has dwindled on certain everyday items and I want to get more!  I don't know about you guys, but I HATE having to constantly go to the grocery store and buy things like toothpaste, shampoo, soap, stuff like that.  So I usually check the sales during my regular grocery trip and if its a good sale, I stock up!  I do the same thing with yogurt, but end up having to really clear my fridge for that one because I have to clear a whole shelf.

Anyway OFF TO PINTEREST I WENT and found a nice blog talking about coupons, and a reader commented saying there was a website you can BUY the coupon ads they put in your newspaper each week.  So you can spend like $1.00-$17.00 and get all these different ads and coupons, and they tell you what coupons are in there.

Here is the original website, its a craft blog too apparently, which is awesome.  Its Katie's Crochet Goodies and Crafts.

The coupon purchasing website i had to search "whole coupon inserts" and its literally "wholecouponinserts.com"

This should be a fun new venture, and hopefully will save me money.  Hubs and me are trying to eat healthier and since fruits and vegetables don't keep very long, I see myself shopping more often, or buying more frozen foods... which I'm not too excited about.  I'm also not very excited about having to clean out some closet space for the stuff... but! ADVENTURE!

Pumpkin and Apple picking today! Yay!  Seriously, I love fall.  Best time of the year.

til next time! Happy Crafting! Happy fall!

taxikab

p.s. working on another Right Brain Bunch article, so check here soon for a new update there too!

winter coats to spring coats...

...and all that in between.

So here in PA we literally went from crazy snow storm where we all had to be cooped up in our homes and it being like 10 degrees outside to 50-60 degrees and sweat shirts... I'm ready for picnics and there is snow on the ground... nuts.

During this lovely cooped up in our home weekend, my hubs had a birthday, which he and I originally planned to go away for the weekend, but thanks to the snow, that didn't happen so we ended up sledding with my sisters and my nephew instead.  Note to self, nephew is not the biggest fan of snow.  He did not enjoy the snow flying up in his face.  I think I'm safe in saying my family is a family of beach people... we like warm weather and sand beneath our toes, and the occasional 70 degree breeze that requires me to wear a light jacket... why we all live in the northern middle east coast of the US baffles me...
BUT! we took baby bear (who is now 2 by the way.  Crazy right? I did a whole entry on my sisters baby shower for him and now he's 2!) sledding and he preferred making snow balls.  Hubs tried to get him to throw a snow ball at me going, "here, I'll make  you a snowball to throw at your Aunt Kelly."   Smarty pants that baby bear is turns to me and goes, "Aunt Kelly, make me a snowball to throw at Uncle Dylan"  love it.  I am severely out of shape and the boots I was wearing were not good for ice.  I ended up having a hard time walking up the hill after sledding down the long hill, then even had a hard time walking up the "baby hill" because it was so packed down from us sledding on it with the baby bear.  One little girl tried walking up a certain spot and baby bear goes, "YOU CAN DO IT!'  to the little girl, lol.  My sister (not his mother) goes sledding down one long hill by herself and he continues to shout at her, "WATCH THE TREES!!! WATCH THE WOODS!!!" from the top of the hill.  When baby bear said, "Mommy, I don't want to walk up this hill anymore" I immediately went, ME TOO! and we all went home.  To prevent him falling on the ice, I was asked to carry him, big mistake.  My slipper boots slipped on the ice and I went tumbling down taking baby bear with me.  Thankfully I like tugged my head down trying to keep my nephew from smacking his head, and we were both ok.  Two like teenage girls shrieked and the one went, 'OMG ARE YOU OKAY!"  My sister immediately said the same thing, whereupon my husband picked up my nephew from me (who appeared unharmed) and went, "more important, are you okay bud?"  He was and is fine by the way.

Got to knit during the cold too.  Nothing is more comfortable than some hot chocolate and a little yarn while you watch the snow fall.  Working on a baby blanket for someone.  Not me, I also apologize again to the friend I showed it to who thought it was my way of going HEY IM PREGNANT!  Little Lohkempers are coming!  Nope, no baby yet!

Change of topic! Hubs and Me are Catholic, so we've been limiting how much meat we are taking in and since its Lent and we can't eat meat on Friday's anyhow we just decided we wouldn't include meat in the grocery list, at least until Lent is over.  We had bacon in the freezer from before Ash Wednesday and knew it was going to go bad, so we cooked that for breakfast on the Thursday snow day thanks to Winter Storm Thor.  This lead to me making soup for dinner that night as I had already cooked the veggies meant to go in it.  I had potatoes I needed to use, so I made loaded potato soup, and just kind of added carrots and broccoli... it was pretty good.  I had the remainder of it for lunch today.  I feel a piece of Italian bread would have gone well with it.  Ironically, my mother made soup tonight, and I ended up with soup as two meals today.  I had to stop there to pick up stuff and she was like, 'take soup!'  I didn't mind, I got to relax for some time before the hubs got home from work so.  yay!

Thats all for now people!  Enjoy the coming spring!
taxikab