The Place I Call Home

While I've been planning, prepping, and purchasing stuff for Baby, my other half has been planning, prepping, and purchasing stuff for GETTING RIPPED 2012. Just kidding. Well, kind of.

Chad has been getting in shape for the Tough Mudder this December. So while I am large and in charge, also known as eight months pregnant, he will be a muscular machine running, jumping, and hopefully avoiding those electrical wires in this crazy event.

I have to say I'm really proud of him for what he has accomplished over the last few months. Chad has completed a Savage Race, and the American Mud Run. This is also in addition to his weekly workout schedules which include running, swimming, biking, and lifting weights.

With a baby on the way, all these events, and activities can be expensive but DEAL is my middle name. Okay, so it's really Lyn, but it should be. We've had a really good luck with Craigslist too. Chad found a schwanging deal on a really awesome bike, and a bike rack. We play Good Cop/ Bad Cop or what I like to call "Husband wants to buy something, but Wifey has all the money". Actually, in real life it's Wifey wants to buy everything, but Husband has all the money.

So with his bike in tow, purchased for like 80% off retail, we headed off to pick up the slightly used bike rack. I was sitting in the car waiting for Chad when all of a sudden I see this ...

Why, Hello Mister Ed.

For all our you readers who don't know, we live in Orlando. Everyone always assumes that Orlando = Disney/ Theme Parks/ Tourists. We actually don't live on that side of town. But our Central Florida area is very electric. Obviously. Hello, horsey. 

Knock, knock, mofo.

Give me a carrot!

It's no big metal chicken, but it will do. This is my town, my home, my people, and their pets. I love it here.

Here and There

I'm back! Although it wasn't like I was ever really gone. Just MIA. I was busy. Very, very busy.

So how can I wrap up the last 6 months?

Well, I worked ... a lot. I did some household projects. Hubberoos and I did did a lot of couponing; the toned down version of Extreme Couponing. We went skiing at Lake Tahoe in April, although it was more like slushing since most of the snow had melted by then. Chad and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary this past May, and we went to Europe on a Mediterranean Cruise. It was lovely. But, the biggest "thing" we did is made a baby ... yikes. We're in trouble now.

The 80's Called. They Want Their Hair Back.

Yes, I did the unthinkable. I permed my hair. But the more important question is how many hair stylists does it take to perm one's hair?

I had a body wave put in my hair about a year ago and I really loved it so I was ready to graduate to a real perm this time. Unfortunately I had to plead my case to my hair stylist and give her moral support. Seriously the girl thought she was going to make my hair fall out.

I know you must wonder why I would stay with a stylist who wouldn't do want I wanted. The first answer is that I am loyal to my peeps and secondly because she knows my hair. I have baby fine hair and a lot of stylists don't know how to deal with it so they pretend and then I end up with no so great looking hair.

Although Lissette has a ton of experience, knowledge and uses bomb diggity products, this didn't seem to give her the boost of confidence she needed. That probably is also due to the fact that she hasn't permed someone's hair since beauty school which was like eons ago.

See, last time when I got the body wave she, ever so slyly, pawned me off to another stylist. Well, this time around she wasn't as lucky. She started with the first row of curlers with help/instruction/moral support from another stylist in the salon. Just when I thought she was about to give up and throw in the towel, another stylist came in and saved the day by wrapping the rest of my hair in curlers. Yes, it took not one, not two, but three stylists to perm my hair.

Apparently perming is not something ladies, or gents (you never know), request that often since none of the three had done perms since beauty school. I'm just glad that it all worked out and I got me my Jheri Curl back.

So in conclusion, if you find that your hair stylists is a wee timid about perming, don't fret. They probably haven't done it since beauty school. And stylists, brush up on those skillz. The perm is making a come back, one head at a time or just one head, period.

The end result. (Just kidding)

The Clampetts Came to Visit

I've never had the ability to fit two cars into our two car garage. I could blame the lack of space due to the fact that Florida garages aren't really made to fit the number of cars they say it does. Northerners have basements and we have "Florida basements" a.k.a., the garage. But the reality is that my husband is a mild pack-rat although that isn't the only reason. The man is a natural born salesman and loves making money. Our garage is usually filled with junk for garage sales. It's not always our junk though. My Dear Ol' Maw & Pa love the garage sales too and since we do them together at our home, our garage has become their quasi-storage.

Pa is a dumpster diver and a trash picker Really, I kid you not. Last time they were leaving our house, they did a u-turn at the end of the street and came back to our house to drop off a suitcase and shop vac someone had put out for trash pick up. Although quite embarrassing to admit, your trash may be our treasure.

So the Clampetts packed up the Dodge Dakota and headed to our neck of the woods.

 
Pa doesn't usually shock me with either the load or the items but this time it was a double whammy. A trundle bed, rubber maid drawers, dishes, chotchkies, and ....

The Amigo TravelMate Mobility Scooter.

I don't allow myself to participate in the selling because I would more than likely give the junk away so I usually just clean and organize the garage. But, since it was a community garage sale, I did my duty of trying to lure potential buyers to our sale. Mi Amigo and I hauled a$$ up and down street with our directional garage sale sign. I don't know if it worked but we sure had a lot of fun.

In the end we had a successful day. We sold some stuff, made some dough, and then moved whatever was left into my nice, clean, organized, could fit two cars in it now, garage.

Stop Touching Me!

Last week the Mister and I traveled across the country to Seattle for an Alaskan cruise to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. Our trip started in Orlando with a small layover in Houston and then a Four Hour Flight (sung to the tune of Gilligan's Island) to Seattle.

We are experienced travelers. We know what to wear, bring, how to pack it, and how to stow it. Most importantly, we know proper air-traveler etiquette. For those whom are inexperienced, please take note as this will further assist you in having an enjoyable experience in your future air travels, especially if you are traveling with me.

• You cannot check your bags more than 4 hours prior to your flight so, please don't stand in line in hopes they will take your bag and then proceed to act all put out when they won't take it. That doesn't work.
• 3-1-1 Rule: 3 ounces, 1 quart size bag, 1 bag per traveler for carry on bags. No, the wine bottle is over 3.4 oz and therefore cannot be carried on.
• When your flight starts boarding, there is no need to stand and crowd near the gate when they haven't called your seat or area yet. This isn't Noah's Ark. Ya'll are getting a seat. 
• Stow small carry on items underneath your seat. 
• The overhead bins are for larger items that cannot be stowed under your seat such as suitcases, not jackets. When stowing your suitcase in the overhead bin, try to remember Ray Finkle from Ace Ventura; Laces Out! This means your wheels on your luggage are to face out. Why? It doesn't fit the other way since the bins slope inwards and secondly, your bag isn't special. Other bags need to get in there too.
• Hear that ringing? Yeah, it's your phone. If you don't, get a hearing aid.
• When getting in and out of your seat, please be aware of the seat back you're grabbing for leverage. Often times the seat likes to strike back like Star Wars when you're tray table is down. It is the weirdest thing.
• Most importantly, whether you are in your seat or in a line, please be mindful of your "personal space". This includes but is not limited to your arms, hands, legs, feet, and head. your body. Use the Chicken Dance as a guideline. If you can flap your wings and hit someone, you are too close. Adults might give you the stank eye, a vengeful sigh or children like me might tell their flight attendants that you need to Stop Touching Me!

I'm BORED! Or Am I?

A thought occurred to me yesterday afternoon as I was being a good wife and washing the husband's car.

For the past few weeks I've been struggling with a lot of free time on my hands and not much to do. This week I not only cleaned Chad's car, I did mine, cleaned the house, touched up paint, ironed a mound of clothing, and even cleaned the baseboards. I've also been reading quite a lot since there isn't much on television at night. I finished two books just last week and this week I am simultaneously reading Twilight and the fourth book in the Sookie Stackhouse Series (True Blood) for the second time.

I chalked it up to not having a lot of work but apparently I was wrong. Compared to last year I am doing almost the same amount of work so what is different? And then it "donged" on me. Wedding planning! I've somehow learned to multi-task a lot in the last year and I've become more efficient. Whoops.

Milking the Honeymoon Experience

This past weekend we went on a vacation to Chicago which turned out to be more of an adventure as we suit-cased it through the Windy City.

We planned to stay in the heart of Chicago at The Palmer House. When we tried to check in they notified us that our reservation had been canceled due to non-payment. We had booked with 1800Hotels.com which apparently took our money, canceled our reservation and filed for bankruptcy earlier that day. To make matters even worse, The Palmer House was totally booked for the next two nights and so were most of the hotels in the area. We were homeless.

I only knew one person who lived in Chicago so I called in a favor. We were suppose to have dinner with them while we were there but that turned into dinner and a night on their couch. THANKS AMBER, KENNY & MISS MOLLY!

We were able to find a hotel to stay at the next night. We checked in early at Hotel 71, grabbed some lunch, walked around a little, took a nap and then we were off to my first baseball game at Wrigley Field. The Cubs were playing the Phillies and they totally kicked their butt. My hubby is a Phillies fan so it was a sad to watch this ass whooping, especially from the great seats we had.

The next day we trekked back to the Palmer House, checked in, and then were off to "Eat More Monuments." We did all the normal touristy things ... Field Museum, Navy Pier, Millennium Park, the Skydeck at Willis Tower, the Shedd Aquarium, and of course Gino's Deep Dish Pizza!

It was celebrity central this past week in Chicago as well. We bumped (unfortunately not literally) into Bill Rancic outside his apartment. We were with feet of him and all I could do was stand there in utter shock and hit Chad in the arm. They were also filming Transformers 3 directly across the street from our first hotel (Hotel 71). I was determined to find another famous person, and get a picture this time, but all I found was their trashed cars.

We ended our trip on a good note though ... since it was our "honeymoon", the Palmer House surprised us with Champagne, strawberries and chocolate on our last night there. Now that's what I'm talking about!

Here's Hoping I Picked A Winner!

I can't believe we've been married one month already. It went by so fast and it's been a little difficult adjusting to life minus wedding planning. I had a couple of weeks after our big day to indulge myself in any last minute wedding stuff since my best friend was getting married two weeks after me. It was nice to go to a wedding and have fun. Ours was phenomenal but it totally flew by. I made up for all the drinking and dancing I wasn't able to do at our own wedding at hers. I even made it into her wedding video clip where it appears I was karate chopping something. Oh, dear. Dang those dirty martinis!


So after "Marriage May" we headed out on our honeymoon to Aruba! It was just what I needed. An entire week of sitting on the beach with no phones, texts, emails or even Facebook! I thought not having a wedding to plan was hard adjusting to! I made it 3 days before I caved in and bought some internet minutes to check my email. I find it funny that even though my out of office reply was on, people kept replying to it! My favorite one was "Erica, I see that you are out of town on vacation until next week and won't be checking your email. Please let me know if you can help me in the next two days." Hmmmm, let's think about that. You know I'm out of town until next week not only because I told you, but you got the out of office reply message and yet you want me to put my vacation on hold so I can do work. Um, no thanks. I think I'll finish out the rest of the week with some fruity alcoholic beverage on the beach with my husband.

Now I'm back at work, and life, minus the wedding planning and on the hunt for a new hobby.