Thursday, August 3, 2017
Website Changes!
Hello Y'all!
The Review HQ is going to be undergoing a lot of changes over the next several months. We are busy behind the scenes working to update our graphics, layouts and content! Please pardon our dust while we work on getting all of this more streamlined and work to correct many of the errors currently on the site.
In the meantime, please check out the links on the right hand column get $10 credits for Ebates.com and Ibotta!
We are also posting more on our YouTube channel so be sure to check us out there as well as Instagram and Twitter!
Thanks for your patience!
Friday, June 23, 2017
Bliss Beauty Essential Oil Review
Hi Everyone!
We were recently contacted by Bliss Beauty to review some of their essential oils and we were thrilled by the opportunity.
If you have never heard of Bliss Beauty oils, they are a USDA Organic essential oil line. They have so many different oils, all of which are not only available on Amazon, but are also very well priced.
We usually use the brand NOW for all of our oils just because they had decent reviews and the prices were good. I have to say though after finding Bliss Oils, I think we will be sticking with them! The scents are wonderful and I just love that they are organic. Even if its through a diffuser through the air or on your skin, you are "ingesting/absorbing" the oils you use so organic is always great!
We are not hard core oil users. My favorite way to use them is in our diffusers. We do occasionally use them topically with a carrier oil (coconut oil) but mostly the diffuser. Bliss sent us 2 oils to try out. The first (and my all time favorite) was lavender oil. I suffer from mild anxiety (and Postpartum Anxiety at the moment) so I love having lavender in the diffusers. I have also noticed the kids seem to calm down a bit when it is diffusing.
We also received a bottle of orange oil. I've always found orange oil to be too sweet smelling for my taste so even though the Bliss orange oil was the least sweet I have used, it was still too sweet for me to diffuse. So I've been adding it to things like homemade cleaners, hand soaps and other "cleaning" things.
These oils are available on the Bliss website as well as Amazon prime!! Bliss is currently offering a 30% off code for new email subscribers.
Happy Oiling!!
**This is a sponsored post however all opinions are my own and my review is 100% honest.**
We were recently contacted by Bliss Beauty to review some of their essential oils and we were thrilled by the opportunity.
If you have never heard of Bliss Beauty oils, they are a USDA Organic essential oil line. They have so many different oils, all of which are not only available on Amazon, but are also very well priced.
We usually use the brand NOW for all of our oils just because they had decent reviews and the prices were good. I have to say though after finding Bliss Oils, I think we will be sticking with them! The scents are wonderful and I just love that they are organic. Even if its through a diffuser through the air or on your skin, you are "ingesting/absorbing" the oils you use so organic is always great!
We are not hard core oil users. My favorite way to use them is in our diffusers. We do occasionally use them topically with a carrier oil (coconut oil) but mostly the diffuser. Bliss sent us 2 oils to try out. The first (and my all time favorite) was lavender oil. I suffer from mild anxiety (and Postpartum Anxiety at the moment) so I love having lavender in the diffusers. I have also noticed the kids seem to calm down a bit when it is diffusing.
We also received a bottle of orange oil. I've always found orange oil to be too sweet smelling for my taste so even though the Bliss orange oil was the least sweet I have used, it was still too sweet for me to diffuse. So I've been adding it to things like homemade cleaners, hand soaps and other "cleaning" things.
These oils are available on the Bliss website as well as Amazon prime!! Bliss is currently offering a 30% off code for new email subscribers.
Happy Oiling!!
**This is a sponsored post however all opinions are my own and my review is 100% honest.**
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Tucker's Cast Removal Video!!
Tucker's cast removal video is finally finished!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0BmLyqc_PE&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0BmLyqc_PE&feature=youtu.be
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Tucker's First Surgery
Tucker had his first surgery on Wednesday the 28th of December at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia with Dr Chang of the Plastics & Orthopedics Departments and it went amazingly well.
For anyone who doesn't know, our 6 month old Tucker was born with a congenital hand defect known as Complex Complete Syndactyly which means, in his case at least, that his middle, ring and pinky fingers were fused together.
I'll have our previous updates linked down below if you need to catch up.
We drove up from our home in Central Virginia to my aunt's house just outside of Philadelphia on Tuesday for the surgery on Wednesday. You don't get your surgery time until the day before so we called while we were driving and were told that our arrival time was scheduled for 6am Wednesday morning.
We got up crazy early and headed into the city and made it to the hospital by 530am. The orthopedic surgical center is in the Woods Center building of CHOP and it has its own parking garage but something to bear in mind is the clearance is very, very low. We parked our Honda Odyssey there when we came for our consult with no problem but for this trip we drove Beau's 2016 Toyota Tundra Pro and it was too tall. When you go to pull in, you have to stop at a guard shack and they have a sensor on it that goes off if your car is too tall and that allows you to turn around rather than finding out the hard way that your car doesn't fit. We parked across the street and had to walk through the the Buerger Center building and across the walkway into the Woods Center. We didn't have any issues but we were very glad we had allotted extra time and had gotten there early.
We checked in with surgery reception and after about 20 minutes we were called by his nurse and taken back to his pre op room. They had us change him into a gown and they took all his vitals. While we were there we also saw the surgeon Dr Chang, the anesthesiologist as well as his student/resident and a surgical nurse. Everyone was absolutely wonderful. They were very patient with our questions and explained everything well. After everyone had left, Tucker decided that he had had enough with being awake and fussed until Beau got him to fall asleep. Right after that the surgical nurse came back to get him. Beau was able to hand Tucker off without waking him off so he went straight from sleep to being under anesthesia which was great. I was concerned about him getting upset when he went back but it worked out great.
We were taken back to the surgical waiting room where we sat up shop and waited. Dr Chang had originally put down that the surgery would only take 2 1/2 hours but he decided that morning to go ahead and separate the tips of his middle and ring fingers rather than just the pinkies so the surgery actually ended up taking about 5 hours. There were a couple of nurses who handled regular updates for all the families in the waiting room. Ours came to give us updates every hour so we felt very in the loop while he was in the OR. They also had a large screen in the waiting room that had each child's initials and date of birth as well where the child was. So it would say in pre op, waiting for OR, in OR, in Recovery, etc.
Once he was out of surgery our wonderful anesthesiologist Dr Schwartz came and found us. He said everything went great, that Tucker was fine and that he would come back in about 20 minutes to take us back. When we went back, Tucker had woken up from the drugs but had fallen back asleep on the nurse. She handed him over to me and we rocked for a bit while he debated waking up. He woke up enough to nurse a little bit then woke all the way up when Beau started getting him dressed and into his carseat. Dr Chang came by again before we left and let us know what all he did and what we should expect with the next surgery.
Once he was completely discharged, we loaded him up in his carseat and set out for home. We had debated for awhile on whether we should go back to my aunt's house after the surgery but we eventually decided to try and get home while he was still sleepy from the anesthesia. We left the hospital around 330pm and ended up getting stuck in some traffic so we didn't get home until 1130pm. He slept almost the entire way. He woke up a few times crying but was happy with a bottle and his pain medication.
That night at home was rough but he seemed to be feeling better the next morning and went right back into his normal schedule, taking his naps normally and was ready to go to bed at the normal time. I do think the pain medication they gave us (liquid Oxycodone) made him a little uncomfortable. He would settle down like he was drowsy but he would fidget a lot. He would fall asleep then wake himself up not too long afterwards. His post op nurse said that he shouldn't' need much of the oxy and we could use Motrin after that. So after a couple of days, we tried the Motrin and he was happy as a clam after that and slept like a champ. After another couple of days, we went down to a dose of Motrin right before bed for a few nights before he didn't need it anymore.
We are now 2 weeks post op and he is doing fantastic. The casts are interesting to say the least. He figured out how to roll over on the floor with them within a day but rolling over in bed was a bit harder for him to manage. We put him down to sleep on his back but since he's learned to roll over, he's been a side or tummy sleeper. It took him several days to figure out how to get onto his tummy without getting tangled in his blanket and he still has trouble getting back onto his back.
He is able to scoot around on the floor about as well as he could before his casts which is great. The biggest difference is that instead of doing his "inchworm" scoot across the room to more of an army crawl. He can get to the toy he wants then either just whacks it with his casts or pins it down against the floor and tries to chew on it. It seemed to frustrate him a bit at first but he's gotten used to them and just figured how how to get what he wants. Food has also been a little tricky. He had started Baby Lead Weaning about a month before his surgery and he couldn't understand why he couldn't get the food he wanted to his mouth. We have ended up just spoon feeding him or letting him suck what he wants off of our finger. Not really ideal but its only 3 weeks in the casts so.
The casts he has have his little thumbs poking out so that we can check that he isn't having any circulation issues. The problem with this was that he decided to start sucking on them. We also quickly noticed that the cast was typical hard cast material which is hard and rough. He was scratching himself with them (as well as us) so we've ended up keeping socks over them to keep him away from his thumbs and so he can't scratch himself and so far that's been working great. He's also managed to somehow get his hand either twisted or slid down inside the cast and one of his thumbs isn't poking out anymore. We can see it in the cast but haven't been able to get it back out yet. It doesn't seem to be bothering him though so we aren't too worried about it.
A part of his surgery was a skin graft. They took the skin from his groin area so he has an incision from his right hip to his lower groin. The incision has internal stitches and a layer of surgical glue over top of that. It doesn't seem to make him uncomfortable at all but we have found its a little difficult to keep clean. They told us it would take about a week for the glue to fall off (which most of it did although there are still a few spots where its hanging on) and until it did, we couldn't put any cream or ointment on it. So because he spends almost all of his time on his belly, any time he would poo, it would all go towards the front of the diaper and onto that incision. We are very careful and change his diaper as soon as we notice its dirty or wet but the incision is in the crease of his leg and it was tricky to clean without disturbing the glue. Now that the glue is about gone, we've been keeping Aquaphor on it which helps keep it clean.
We go back up in about a week for the cast removal then we are done until July when he will have his next surgery, this one to finish separating his middle and ring fingers. This could possibly be his last surgery but there is a decent chance he will have one or possibly even two more hand surgeries. Dr Chang said as he gets older, the skin between his fingers could start growing up between his fingers again so depending on how that goes, he may need to have a procedure to correct that. He will also have the option when he is at least 7 years old to explore having his right index finger operated on to attempt to straighten it out a bit. I had a surgery done to try to straighten mine when I was 12 (we have the same index fingers) but it didn't really work. But once he is old enough, he can make the decision for himself if that is something he wants to explore.
Thanks for following his journey through this first surgery! I will be post a ton of pictures of his hands once we get the casts off. We haven't seen them at all so we are very excited to see what the end result is! I'll also leave the links to our surgery video as well as previous posts below!
Thanks guys!!!
Tucker's Hands:
http://www.thereviewhq.com/2016/08/tuckers-hands.html
Tucker's Syndactyly Update:
http://www.thereviewhq.com/2016/09/tuckers-syndactyly-update.html
Tucker's Surgery Update:
http://www.thereviewhq.com/2016/12/tuckers-surgery-update.html
Tucker's First Surgery Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44xtPm5V6Xk&t=2s
For anyone who doesn't know, our 6 month old Tucker was born with a congenital hand defect known as Complex Complete Syndactyly which means, in his case at least, that his middle, ring and pinky fingers were fused together.
I'll have our previous updates linked down below if you need to catch up.
We drove up from our home in Central Virginia to my aunt's house just outside of Philadelphia on Tuesday for the surgery on Wednesday. You don't get your surgery time until the day before so we called while we were driving and were told that our arrival time was scheduled for 6am Wednesday morning.
We got up crazy early and headed into the city and made it to the hospital by 530am. The orthopedic surgical center is in the Woods Center building of CHOP and it has its own parking garage but something to bear in mind is the clearance is very, very low. We parked our Honda Odyssey there when we came for our consult with no problem but for this trip we drove Beau's 2016 Toyota Tundra Pro and it was too tall. When you go to pull in, you have to stop at a guard shack and they have a sensor on it that goes off if your car is too tall and that allows you to turn around rather than finding out the hard way that your car doesn't fit. We parked across the street and had to walk through the the Buerger Center building and across the walkway into the Woods Center. We didn't have any issues but we were very glad we had allotted extra time and had gotten there early.
We checked in with surgery reception and after about 20 minutes we were called by his nurse and taken back to his pre op room. They had us change him into a gown and they took all his vitals. While we were there we also saw the surgeon Dr Chang, the anesthesiologist as well as his student/resident and a surgical nurse. Everyone was absolutely wonderful. They were very patient with our questions and explained everything well. After everyone had left, Tucker decided that he had had enough with being awake and fussed until Beau got him to fall asleep. Right after that the surgical nurse came back to get him. Beau was able to hand Tucker off without waking him off so he went straight from sleep to being under anesthesia which was great. I was concerned about him getting upset when he went back but it worked out great.
We were taken back to the surgical waiting room where we sat up shop and waited. Dr Chang had originally put down that the surgery would only take 2 1/2 hours but he decided that morning to go ahead and separate the tips of his middle and ring fingers rather than just the pinkies so the surgery actually ended up taking about 5 hours. There were a couple of nurses who handled regular updates for all the families in the waiting room. Ours came to give us updates every hour so we felt very in the loop while he was in the OR. They also had a large screen in the waiting room that had each child's initials and date of birth as well where the child was. So it would say in pre op, waiting for OR, in OR, in Recovery, etc.
Once he was out of surgery our wonderful anesthesiologist Dr Schwartz came and found us. He said everything went great, that Tucker was fine and that he would come back in about 20 minutes to take us back. When we went back, Tucker had woken up from the drugs but had fallen back asleep on the nurse. She handed him over to me and we rocked for a bit while he debated waking up. He woke up enough to nurse a little bit then woke all the way up when Beau started getting him dressed and into his carseat. Dr Chang came by again before we left and let us know what all he did and what we should expect with the next surgery.
Once he was completely discharged, we loaded him up in his carseat and set out for home. We had debated for awhile on whether we should go back to my aunt's house after the surgery but we eventually decided to try and get home while he was still sleepy from the anesthesia. We left the hospital around 330pm and ended up getting stuck in some traffic so we didn't get home until 1130pm. He slept almost the entire way. He woke up a few times crying but was happy with a bottle and his pain medication.
That night at home was rough but he seemed to be feeling better the next morning and went right back into his normal schedule, taking his naps normally and was ready to go to bed at the normal time. I do think the pain medication they gave us (liquid Oxycodone) made him a little uncomfortable. He would settle down like he was drowsy but he would fidget a lot. He would fall asleep then wake himself up not too long afterwards. His post op nurse said that he shouldn't' need much of the oxy and we could use Motrin after that. So after a couple of days, we tried the Motrin and he was happy as a clam after that and slept like a champ. After another couple of days, we went down to a dose of Motrin right before bed for a few nights before he didn't need it anymore.
We are now 2 weeks post op and he is doing fantastic. The casts are interesting to say the least. He figured out how to roll over on the floor with them within a day but rolling over in bed was a bit harder for him to manage. We put him down to sleep on his back but since he's learned to roll over, he's been a side or tummy sleeper. It took him several days to figure out how to get onto his tummy without getting tangled in his blanket and he still has trouble getting back onto his back.
He is able to scoot around on the floor about as well as he could before his casts which is great. The biggest difference is that instead of doing his "inchworm" scoot across the room to more of an army crawl. He can get to the toy he wants then either just whacks it with his casts or pins it down against the floor and tries to chew on it. It seemed to frustrate him a bit at first but he's gotten used to them and just figured how how to get what he wants. Food has also been a little tricky. He had started Baby Lead Weaning about a month before his surgery and he couldn't understand why he couldn't get the food he wanted to his mouth. We have ended up just spoon feeding him or letting him suck what he wants off of our finger. Not really ideal but its only 3 weeks in the casts so.
The casts he has have his little thumbs poking out so that we can check that he isn't having any circulation issues. The problem with this was that he decided to start sucking on them. We also quickly noticed that the cast was typical hard cast material which is hard and rough. He was scratching himself with them (as well as us) so we've ended up keeping socks over them to keep him away from his thumbs and so he can't scratch himself and so far that's been working great. He's also managed to somehow get his hand either twisted or slid down inside the cast and one of his thumbs isn't poking out anymore. We can see it in the cast but haven't been able to get it back out yet. It doesn't seem to be bothering him though so we aren't too worried about it.
A part of his surgery was a skin graft. They took the skin from his groin area so he has an incision from his right hip to his lower groin. The incision has internal stitches and a layer of surgical glue over top of that. It doesn't seem to make him uncomfortable at all but we have found its a little difficult to keep clean. They told us it would take about a week for the glue to fall off (which most of it did although there are still a few spots where its hanging on) and until it did, we couldn't put any cream or ointment on it. So because he spends almost all of his time on his belly, any time he would poo, it would all go towards the front of the diaper and onto that incision. We are very careful and change his diaper as soon as we notice its dirty or wet but the incision is in the crease of his leg and it was tricky to clean without disturbing the glue. Now that the glue is about gone, we've been keeping Aquaphor on it which helps keep it clean.
We go back up in about a week for the cast removal then we are done until July when he will have his next surgery, this one to finish separating his middle and ring fingers. This could possibly be his last surgery but there is a decent chance he will have one or possibly even two more hand surgeries. Dr Chang said as he gets older, the skin between his fingers could start growing up between his fingers again so depending on how that goes, he may need to have a procedure to correct that. He will also have the option when he is at least 7 years old to explore having his right index finger operated on to attempt to straighten it out a bit. I had a surgery done to try to straighten mine when I was 12 (we have the same index fingers) but it didn't really work. But once he is old enough, he can make the decision for himself if that is something he wants to explore.
Thanks for following his journey through this first surgery! I will be post a ton of pictures of his hands once we get the casts off. We haven't seen them at all so we are very excited to see what the end result is! I'll also leave the links to our surgery video as well as previous posts below!
Thanks guys!!!
Tucker's Hands:
http://www.thereviewhq.com/2016/08/tuckers-hands.html
Tucker's Syndactyly Update:
http://www.thereviewhq.com/2016/09/tuckers-syndactyly-update.html
Tucker's Surgery Update:
http://www.thereviewhq.com/2016/12/tuckers-surgery-update.html
Tucker's First Surgery Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44xtPm5V6Xk&t=2s
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Tucker's Surgery Video!!
Tucker's first surgery is done and he is recovering well! A full post will but up soon but here is a video of the day!
Thanks guys!!!
Thanks guys!!!
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Tucker's Surgery Update
Hi Everyone!!
Tucker had his second echo done back in November and got clearance from the anesthesiology team at CHOP so he is officially on the books for surgery on December 28th.
Right now we are planning on leaving our house after breakfast on the 27th and driving 6 hours to my aunt's house which is about 30-45 minutes outside the city where we will be staying the night. We won't find out until the afternoon of the 27th what time we actually need to be at the hospital. They have a phone number that we are to call between 330pm-6pm to find out what slot we got and what time we need to check in.
I got a call from a lady from the anesthesiology department on Wednesday and she went over all of our pre op instructions and what not. He can't eat any solid food after 11pm the night before and has to stop nursing 3 hours before we are scheduled to check in.
We are hoping, assuming he does well coming off the anesthesia, to head back home as soon as he is discharged. We would like to make it home while he is still sleepy from the medications rather than waiting until the next day when he will be more awake and possibly in pain.
Check out our social media as well as our YouTube page and here of course for updates.
Tucker had his second echo done back in November and got clearance from the anesthesiology team at CHOP so he is officially on the books for surgery on December 28th.
Right now we are planning on leaving our house after breakfast on the 27th and driving 6 hours to my aunt's house which is about 30-45 minutes outside the city where we will be staying the night. We won't find out until the afternoon of the 27th what time we actually need to be at the hospital. They have a phone number that we are to call between 330pm-6pm to find out what slot we got and what time we need to check in.
I got a call from a lady from the anesthesiology department on Wednesday and she went over all of our pre op instructions and what not. He can't eat any solid food after 11pm the night before and has to stop nursing 3 hours before we are scheduled to check in.
We are hoping, assuming he does well coming off the anesthesia, to head back home as soon as he is discharged. We would like to make it home while he is still sleepy from the medications rather than waiting until the next day when he will be more awake and possibly in pain.
Check out our social media as well as our YouTube page and here of course for updates.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
40 Hour Road Trip with 2 Kids, 2 and Under Overview and a Tucker Hand Update
We survived over 40 total hours on the road with our 2 kids, 2 and under!! Its taken us several days to completely recover but we are back in our normal routine and starting to prepare for the holidays!! (Like seriously though, wasn't it just June?!? WTH??!!)
So yes we drove from our house in Virginia to my parent's house in Dallas and back again which was a grand total of about 40 hours with our 25 month old and 4 month old. We left our house at 4am on a Wednesday morning and arrived at our hotel for the night at around 4pm in Mississippi. We let Jordyn run around and jump all over the hotel like a crazy monkey, ordered some dinner and went to bed early.
We left the hotel at 6am and drove to my grandparent's apartment near Waco, TX. We got there around 5pm. We were planning on staying at a hotel in Waco but we changed our minds and opted to drive the additional 2 1/2 hours to my parents house which we got to at about 11pm.
We stayed for almost 2 weeks, visited with family, went to the Texas State Fair and just enjoyed hanging out at my parents house and chilling.
Beau and I left the kids with Nonna and Papa J (my parents) and got to go out to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary!
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| So tasty!! |
We left their house at about 6am on a Tuesday morning and headed out to a friend's house near Memphis. We then drove a few more hours from their house after stopping to visit for a bit and stayed at a hotel near Nashville. We got up at about 730am the next morning and were able to get home at about 5pm.
The kids did fantastic and were such troopers!!
They were very tired and both just desperately wanted out of their car seats so it was hard but we kept pushing and everyone was beyond thrilled when we made it home.
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| Took her less than 15 minutes to destroy the entire main level. |
We made the drive in our 2015 Honda Odyssey minivan with a Rocket Box mounted on the top. Our kids are both still rear facing so they both rode in the captain's chairs right behind us and the far back seat was used for bags. They rode in their normal spots which is Jordyn behind the driver's seat and Tucker behind the passenger seat. This worked out well as I could turn around in my seat (Beau drove most of the way) and put the pacifier back in his mouth or hold his hand if he was having a meltdown. I was also able to reach Jordyn pretty easily.
We had all the bags I mentioned in our Packing Our Bags post although I did have to use our larger suitcase instead of the carry on size. We also had a large Pelican case, 2 Pack n Plays, our double stroller, a snack box and Tucker's swim raft and play mat. And toys...so...many...toys...
We learned a lot from our trip last year and this trip so I thought I would share some of the things we've learned!
Here are some random products and tips that helped make our trip so much easier!
Snack and drink cup leashes!! Jordyn is at that age where throwing things around the car is fun... So rather than me having to contort myself into strange positions to grab things more than I already have to, I took the little velcro straps off of her stroller and hooked them to her car seat. This kept her snack and drink cups attached to her seat so she could reel them back when she threw them. Big help for sure. We had a paci strap for each of them as well and those were great too! Tucker has learned to bite and shoot his so the strap helped keep it hooked to him. The sippy cup straps we have are the Bogginhead SippiGrip and the paci straps are the Little Loved Ones Pacifier Clips both from Amazon.
iPads with extra long charger cords! Jordyn loves her iPad so as much as I hate for her to have it that long, it was the one thing that kept her happy on the drive. The battery is great but it doesn't last forever so we made sure we had some, I think, 8 foot charger cords that could reach from our charging station in the front to her seat in the back.
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| Stock Photo from Amazon |
Energizer car charging station!! This little thing fits perfectly into a cup holder so it isn't sliding around and it has 3 USB ports as well as an outlet. Our Odyssey only has one USB port built in and Beau's phone is usually plugged into that since he uses it as the GPS. This station gives us 3 more so thats one for my phone, one for Jordyn's iPad and one for Tucker's Kindle Fire plus the outlet which I could use for my breast pump if I needed to. Again from Amazon!
Smart Works Pop-Up Hamper. We got this hamper off of Amazon and I usually use keep it in the car for groceries or other shopping but for the trip we used it as a catch all for the kids toys and what not. The pockets on the outside were great for keeping track of things like Lysol wipes, trash bags and the kid's change of clothes. We kept it between their seats and it worked well for toys, books and what not. It was very handy as well that the top is open so that Jordyn could just toss things in from her seat rather than them getting thrown all over the floor.
Refillable drink cups from Pilot or another gas station. Pilot gas stations are chain of full service gas stations (like Sheetz, Wawa and Luves) that are common along our drive so we keep our plastic refillable Pilot cups (which are big, have handles and have rubber bottoms that fit great into the cup holders) along with our Pilot rewards card. This allows us to get cheap sodas, coffees or other drinks like lemonade for cheap and keeps the van from filling up with a bunch of disposable cups and we are usually stopping for gas anyway.
Food Basket. We brought a little plastic basket for Jordyn to eat out of in the car. We stopped a couple of times for (nasty) fast food and the basket helped keep her from spilling fries all over herself and her car seat.
Tip, clean out at every stop. Keep a box of smaller trash bags or grocery bags in your car and/or park right by a trash can and throw away all the trash in the car every time you stop. That will keep it from getting out of hand and being a huge mess to deal with when you stop for the night. I had planned on bringing my little Dirt Devil to keep on top of the crumbs at stops but the darn thing died on me since I used it last so that was a bummer.
Pick stops with a play place. We were trying to save as much money as possible this time since we were paying for 2 nights in a hotel instead of one so we brought most of our own food from home but we did prefer to stop at Chick Fil A for our breaks. We would usually get a large fry and drink for the 3 of us to split for a treat then Jordyn would run around the play place to get some energy out. Tucker loves to watch her so that gave them both something to do rather than sit still in a restaurant or tear apart a convenience store.
Set up a changing station in your car! We didn't do this last time and trying to wrestle with a squirmy toddler (or baby) on the floorboard of the car is difficult and they don't like it! This is what we did.
We put a blanket and a spare changing pad on top of the seat that folded down and we had diapers and wipes in a box on the seat next it. This way we could back into a parking spot and change the kids easily. Made things a lot easier than trying to drag them and the diaper bag into truck stop restrooms, half of which don't even have changing tables, every time we stopped.
Doggie pads. Put a doggie pad in the carseat under your babies! Tucker blew out his diaper a few times during the trip and that car seat is a pain in the butt to take apart and wash. I had packed some for the trip but forgot to put them in the car seat before we left.
Pick family friendly hotels with a pool and/or playground to get your kids tired. I recommend Drury Inn and Suites (see my full hotel review here). They have been stuck in those car seats all day and the more energy they can get off before bed, the better everyone will sleep.
Tips/Products for The House
Our Roomba. Our trip up to Philly for Tucker's hand appointment was the first time we have been gone since we purchased a Roomba for our house and as luck would have it, one of our dogs decided it would be a good idea to take a nice poo in the dining room floor rather than go when the house sitter had let them out and the Roomba ran over it... Luckily, it didn't ruin the Roomba and know I know to schedule it to run at 11am which is AFTER she stops by for her morning visit. Other than th learning curve on that, we have LOVED having the Roomba and it is great when we are gone! We would come home from trips to mountains of dog hair, dirt and dust everywhere but the Roomba takes care of everything on the floor and we have noticed that makes a big difference in the amount of dust around the house.
Air Fresheners. We've noticed that our house never smells right after we get back from a trip, usually stale and stinky dog smell. So I've learned to put out some nice smelling things right before we leave and that seems to help a lot. I like things like reed diffusers, Air Wick Plug Ins, potpourri, that kind of thing. And I have noticed the Roomba helps a ton with the dog smell. When we came home before, the first thing I would do was run the vacuum because our hardwoods would just be covered in dirt and dog hair and made the whole house reek of dog. Now our house sitter empties it once a day and it keeps the hair and smell at bay.
A Lock Box. On the suggestion of the cleaning lady we had hired while I was pregnant, we purchased a MasterLock lock box for our house. It's similar to the boxes that realtors use for houses they are showing that fit on the door handle except this one bolts to a wall or fence post or whatever. It's a small box with a combination on it and you leave a house key inside. This came in so so handy when Tucker was born. My mother got into town right after he was born and rather than take a cab to the hospital to get the house key, then one back to our house, she was able to get a ride straight to our house, get Jordyn from our neighbor and let herself into the house. It was also good that our neighbors watching Jordyn would have been able to get into the house to let the dogs out if she hadn't been able to make it as fast as she did. All we would have to do is text someone the code and they could access the house key. Great for emergencies and kept our house sitter from having to keep up with the key. She just saved the code on her phone and used it to let herself in every time. We are old fashioned. We prefer plain old deadbolt locks instead of the new key pad or remote entry ones. If the batteries died or something like that then no one could get into the house and to our dogs. This way, no one is relying on any batteries or anything electrical to get in.
Home Security Cameras and Home Automation. We have very much enjoyed having our new Arlo Camera System this time as well. We have 4 external cameras and are waiting to see if they go on sale over the holidays to purchase a 5th. It was very nice to be able to look in on things from our phones as well as get alerts every time the house sitter came and went. They are on motion sensors so we would get alerts whenever they would trip. We also have a smoke detector and thermostats that we can monitor and control from our phones via the Smart Things app which we love! I will do a full review on both systems later on as we are still learning the apps and adding things to it. We usually set our thermostats hotter or colder than we normally would while we are gone but this time while we were in Texas, our area had a cold front. We were able to turn the AC off and turn the furnace on one night when it got too cold. That helped us save money on our power bill and make sure that the dogs didn't get too hot or cold. We also enjoyed having the smoke detectors this time as well. We receive alerts to our phones and tablets if they are tripped which is great in case something happened and no one was around to hear them go off.
The last big tip that I can't recommend enough is to order groceries for when you get home! Usually we have to either stop and shop on the way home or go the next day which SUCKS! I've always hated having to do that. This time though we had the option of ClickList with Kroger! They started this service at our local Kroger just a few weeks before we left so we tried it out and LOVE it. I use it every week for our regular groceries but it was so, so handy for when we got home. I knew we would be home that evening but I wasn't sure what time so I selected their latest pick up time of the day which was between 8pm and 9pm. We got home around 5pm and completely unloaded the car before we sat down for dinner which we had grabbed on the way into town. We got the kids in bed and I headed out to Kroger, got my order and was back home in less than 35 minutes. And I didn't have to get out of my car!
Things I Wished we Had or Had Done
I wish we had a mobile hotspot. We have "unlimited" data on our phones with AT&T but they do put a cap on the amount of data you can use before you get bumped down to slower speeds and Jordyn's iPad is Wifi only and it would be nice for her to be able to use the YouTube Kids app instead of just being limited to what is downloaded onto the ipad itself.
If you haven't seen our pumpkin carving video, be sure to check it out here! Jordyn is very proud of it!
**Random Tucker Update**
I've been getting some questions about what is happening next with Tucker's hand surgeries. He has an ECHO scheduled for November 11th to make sure the little hole in his heart has closed properly. We do get to see the cardiologist while we are there so we will know if everything is good before we leave the appointment. We will then send everything up to CHOP in Philly for anesthesiology to clear him. He is tentatively on the schedule for Wednesday December 28th for his first surgery. This one will be separating his pinky fingers from his ring fingers. We will be driving up to PA sometime on the 27th and are hoping that we will be able to drive back home after his surgery while he is still sleepy from the medications rather than trying to drive the next day when he is more awake and possibly hurting. We will update once we have the surgery scheduled for sure and we will be posting regular updates on social media throughout the procedure.
Be sure to follow us on our social media pages for updates on Tucker and notifications of new blog posts!!
Thanks guys!!
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
La Quinta Inn & Suites Lebanon, TN Review
Hi Everyone!
One last hotel review from our Texas trip!
We changed our plans on our drive home slightly and stopped at a hotel for the night in Lebanon, TN, just outside of Nashville. We decided last minute so we picked La Quinta. We would have stayed at the Drury Inn in Nashville but because it is in the city, it was a lot more expensive than the one we stayed in in Mississippi so we opted for a La Quinta. We stayed at one in Texas when we were moving from California and loved it so we didn't hesitate.
We pulled in at about 11pm and the hotel looked very nice from the outside but was very crowded. We got the next to last parking spot in the lot and the lady at the front desk was very concerned that we didn't have a reservation when Beau went in (thankfully we had thought to call ahead). Check in was easy so we loaded up our cart and went upstairs. We had called a booked a basic room with 2 queen beds but when we got upstairs we were very pleasantly surprised to see that she had given us a 1 bedroom (with a door) suite with 2 king beds. It was very similar to the room we had at the Drury but instead of a "living room" area with a pull out sofa, that room had a second bed.
We noticed that the hallway on the way to our room smelled a little musty but we weren't too concerned about it because our room smelled fine. However, we noticed that the bathroom had mold on the ceiling.
Let me apologize in advance for the crummy photos. We got in at 11pm and left at 7am so the lighting wasn't great and we didn't have a lot of time.
It wasn't a ton of mold but but it concerned us for sure. We also noticed that the bathroom did not have a working exhaust fan. There was a vent cover on the wall that we assumed was a vent (see the top photo) but there was no switch to turn it on so we made sure to shower with the door open then slept with the door closed.
We also opted not to bathe the kids as the tub didn't appear to be very clean.
The rest of the room seemed ok although we did make an extra effort to keep both kids off the carpet as much as possible and I was very glad we brought our own pack n plays so I didn't have to worry about how clean the hotel's one was.
It did appear that there had been some recent effort to upgrade the room however they weren't very good. The bathroom tiles were not installed well and were chipping which was again a water/mold concern. The paint wasn't done well and the "new" furniture was a bit beat up and chipped. We also noticed that there was no desk chair which we thought was odd. The wifi was good though and the TVs appeared to be brand new although we didn't use them.
Beau said the breakfast options were good and tasty. He mentioned that he actually preferred their breakfast to the Drury Inn options.
At the end of the day, we would not stay here again. The quality of the upgrades plus the surface mold on the ceiling in the bathroom made us concerned that there could have been a lot more mold that we couldn't see. We had expected a lot more from the La Quinta brand. It does have 4 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor so maybe we just got a bad room but with so many other hotel options, we wouldn't stay there again.
This hotel was the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Lebanon, TN.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to be notified of new posts!
Thanks guys!
One last hotel review from our Texas trip!
We changed our plans on our drive home slightly and stopped at a hotel for the night in Lebanon, TN, just outside of Nashville. We decided last minute so we picked La Quinta. We would have stayed at the Drury Inn in Nashville but because it is in the city, it was a lot more expensive than the one we stayed in in Mississippi so we opted for a La Quinta. We stayed at one in Texas when we were moving from California and loved it so we didn't hesitate.
We pulled in at about 11pm and the hotel looked very nice from the outside but was very crowded. We got the next to last parking spot in the lot and the lady at the front desk was very concerned that we didn't have a reservation when Beau went in (thankfully we had thought to call ahead). Check in was easy so we loaded up our cart and went upstairs. We had called a booked a basic room with 2 queen beds but when we got upstairs we were very pleasantly surprised to see that she had given us a 1 bedroom (with a door) suite with 2 king beds. It was very similar to the room we had at the Drury but instead of a "living room" area with a pull out sofa, that room had a second bed.
We noticed that the hallway on the way to our room smelled a little musty but we weren't too concerned about it because our room smelled fine. However, we noticed that the bathroom had mold on the ceiling.
Let me apologize in advance for the crummy photos. We got in at 11pm and left at 7am so the lighting wasn't great and we didn't have a lot of time.
It wasn't a ton of mold but but it concerned us for sure. We also noticed that the bathroom did not have a working exhaust fan. There was a vent cover on the wall that we assumed was a vent (see the top photo) but there was no switch to turn it on so we made sure to shower with the door open then slept with the door closed.
 |
| Just a light switch. |
We also opted not to bathe the kids as the tub didn't appear to be very clean.
The rest of the room seemed ok although we did make an extra effort to keep both kids off the carpet as much as possible and I was very glad we brought our own pack n plays so I didn't have to worry about how clean the hotel's one was.
It did appear that there had been some recent effort to upgrade the room however they weren't very good. The bathroom tiles were not installed well and were chipping which was again a water/mold concern. The paint wasn't done well and the "new" furniture was a bit beat up and chipped. We also noticed that there was no desk chair which we thought was odd. The wifi was good though and the TVs appeared to be brand new although we didn't use them.
 |
| "Bedroom" with King bed |
 |
| "Living Room" |
 |
| View from Door |
 |
| No desk chair... |
 |
| Across from bathroom |
 |
| 2 very tired kids |
Beau said the breakfast options were good and tasty. He mentioned that he actually preferred their breakfast to the Drury Inn options.
At the end of the day, we would not stay here again. The quality of the upgrades plus the surface mold on the ceiling in the bathroom made us concerned that there could have been a lot more mold that we couldn't see. We had expected a lot more from the La Quinta brand. It does have 4 out of 5 stars on Trip Advisor so maybe we just got a bad room but with so many other hotel options, we wouldn't stay there again.
This hotel was the La Quinta Inn & Suites in Lebanon, TN.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to be notified of new posts!
Thanks guys!
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Drury Inn & Suites, Meridian, MS Review
Hi All!!
We are back from our 2 week trip to Texas! We had a great time but are happy to be home and back in our routine.
We broke our drive from Virginia to Texas into two days. We had originally planned to do three days but rather than stay our second night in a hotel, we just opted to drive the extra hours to my parents house where we were staying for the rest of the trip. It was a lot harder getting unloaded, settled then having to repack everything up the first night we stayed at a hotel than we had expected and we figured it would be better to just get settled rather than do another night in a hotel.
Our overnight stop was at the Drury Inn & Suites in Meridian, MS, link on the image above. My parents and Beau had stayed at a few other Drury's when we were moving to Virginia from San Diego and loved them so when we were looking for somewhere to stay this time, they were definitely our first choice.
**Although we didn't have our dogs with us this trip, I do want to mention that they have a great pet policy (which is how we found them in the first place) that we took advantage of during our move.**
We checked in at about 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon. I had made our reservation a few weeks before and had booked us a 1 bedroom suite. We chose a suite because Tucker still wakes up a few times a night to eat and we were afraid that he would wake up Jordyn so we wanted a room with an actual door.
Check in was very quick and the lobby and dining room were newly renovated and very nice. It wasn't too crowded so we were able to use a luggage cart which was nice because we ended up with so much stuff we had to lug up to the third floor.
Our first order of business once we got to our room was to test out the bed!
Our plan was then to then hit up the pool but apparently there had been some kind of "accident" and they had to close to pool down for the night to shock it so we decided to check out what else the hotel had to offer.
We wondered downstairs to snag some popcorn which they have available from 3-10pm in the lobby and to see what was on the menu for their 530 Kick Back. The Kick Back is included in the cost of your room and includes a hot food, beer, wine, mixed drinks and cold sodas every night at 530pm. The night we were there was grilled chicken and baked potatoes which we decided to skip in lieu of Chili's take away but we did take advantage of the drinks. The lady at the front desk said it was 3 drinks (alcoholic or not) per person.
They also have a guest pantry at this location. It is a little room by the front desk where you can purchase anything from personal care items to frozen dinners and snacks. The prices were a bit steep for what they were but if you didn't have a car, it would be very handy.
The room itself was very nice! It consisted of a living room with a little "kitchen" which was a couple of cabinets with mini fridge, microwave and a coffee maker on top.
The little kitchen was in the living room which included a 2nd flat screen TV and a sofa that folds out into a queen bed I believe.
Down the hall was the bathroom and bedroom.
The bathroom was awesome!! Brand new, clean and very nice fixtures.
The tub was very clean and I had no problem giving the kids a bath in it. (I HATE hotel bathtubs! Yuck!)
The one feature that really stood out to me in this bathroom was the soap dispenser. There was a shampoo, conditioner and body wash dispenser mounted on the wall and I love this idea. There is never enough soap in the tiny bottles, especially for multiple people and this also means there aren't tons of little bottles ending up in the trash which is nice.
And lastly, the bedroom.
We did take advantage of the hot breakfast the next morning but we were in a hurry to get back on the road so we took it to go. The food was awesome compared to other hotel breakfasts I've had. Everything was hot and fresh (ie actual scrambled eggs and not those egg slabs some places do) and Beau said there was a nice selection. Jordyn enjoyed a sausage and a muffin while I had eggs, biscuits and gravy.
Overall, a great, great hotel and for less than $100, cannot be beat. We will definitely be staying here again on our future trips to Texas. Everyone was very very nice and we would have loved to have stayed longer. I should mention they do offer porta cribs free of charge but they are on a first come first serve basis. We already had to bring both of ours for the rest of the trip so we opted to just use those rather than risk not being able to get two. The Wifi was great and the channel selection on the TVs was good as well.
The rest of the trip posts will be up very soon as well as a Tucker hand update and a Christmas budgeting post!!
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and
Thanks y'all!
We are back from our 2 week trip to Texas! We had a great time but are happy to be home and back in our routine.
We broke our drive from Virginia to Texas into two days. We had originally planned to do three days but rather than stay our second night in a hotel, we just opted to drive the extra hours to my parents house where we were staying for the rest of the trip. It was a lot harder getting unloaded, settled then having to repack everything up the first night we stayed at a hotel than we had expected and we figured it would be better to just get settled rather than do another night in a hotel.
Our overnight stop was at the Drury Inn & Suites in Meridian, MS, link on the image above. My parents and Beau had stayed at a few other Drury's when we were moving to Virginia from San Diego and loved them so when we were looking for somewhere to stay this time, they were definitely our first choice.
**Although we didn't have our dogs with us this trip, I do want to mention that they have a great pet policy (which is how we found them in the first place) that we took advantage of during our move.**
We checked in at about 4pm on a Wednesday afternoon. I had made our reservation a few weeks before and had booked us a 1 bedroom suite. We chose a suite because Tucker still wakes up a few times a night to eat and we were afraid that he would wake up Jordyn so we wanted a room with an actual door.
Check in was very quick and the lobby and dining room were newly renovated and very nice. It wasn't too crowded so we were able to use a luggage cart which was nice because we ended up with so much stuff we had to lug up to the third floor.
Our first order of business once we got to our room was to test out the bed!
Our plan was then to then hit up the pool but apparently there had been some kind of "accident" and they had to close to pool down for the night to shock it so we decided to check out what else the hotel had to offer.
We wondered downstairs to snag some popcorn which they have available from 3-10pm in the lobby and to see what was on the menu for their 530 Kick Back. The Kick Back is included in the cost of your room and includes a hot food, beer, wine, mixed drinks and cold sodas every night at 530pm. The night we were there was grilled chicken and baked potatoes which we decided to skip in lieu of Chili's take away but we did take advantage of the drinks. The lady at the front desk said it was 3 drinks (alcoholic or not) per person.
They also have a guest pantry at this location. It is a little room by the front desk where you can purchase anything from personal care items to frozen dinners and snacks. The prices were a bit steep for what they were but if you didn't have a car, it would be very handy.
The room itself was very nice! It consisted of a living room with a little "kitchen" which was a couple of cabinets with mini fridge, microwave and a coffee maker on top.
 |
| Pardon our mess! We forgot to take photos before Jordyn settled in and destroyed the place. |
The little kitchen was in the living room which included a 2nd flat screen TV and a sofa that folds out into a queen bed I believe.
 |
| Can you tell we brought a toddler?! |
Down the hall was the bathroom and bedroom.
The bathroom was awesome!! Brand new, clean and very nice fixtures.
The tub was very clean and I had no problem giving the kids a bath in it. (I HATE hotel bathtubs! Yuck!)
The one feature that really stood out to me in this bathroom was the soap dispenser. There was a shampoo, conditioner and body wash dispenser mounted on the wall and I love this idea. There is never enough soap in the tiny bottles, especially for multiple people and this also means there aren't tons of little bottles ending up in the trash which is nice.
And lastly, the bedroom.
We did take advantage of the hot breakfast the next morning but we were in a hurry to get back on the road so we took it to go. The food was awesome compared to other hotel breakfasts I've had. Everything was hot and fresh (ie actual scrambled eggs and not those egg slabs some places do) and Beau said there was a nice selection. Jordyn enjoyed a sausage and a muffin while I had eggs, biscuits and gravy.
Overall, a great, great hotel and for less than $100, cannot be beat. We will definitely be staying here again on our future trips to Texas. Everyone was very very nice and we would have loved to have stayed longer. I should mention they do offer porta cribs free of charge but they are on a first come first serve basis. We already had to bring both of ours for the rest of the trip so we opted to just use those rather than risk not being able to get two. The Wifi was great and the channel selection on the TVs was good as well.
The rest of the trip posts will be up very soon as well as a Tucker hand update and a Christmas budgeting post!!
Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and
Thanks y'all!
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