Christmas

Real Talk: I despise the stomach bug.

November 7, 2017 by Rachel 10 Comments

Real Talk: Every single time I have a good grasp on life, a plan of action, and a mission, something goes terribly, terribly, and unexpectedly, wrong. I know that this phenomenon is not something that I, alone, suffer from. I mean, I know it’s just life. But, damn!, the stomach bug has the worst way of (temporarily) ruining our lives.

And last week it did exactly that — it wrecked havoc on our lives. In fact, in the last two weeks alone, I’ve missed nearly 8 days of work. Between Remy getting croup, both kids coming down with the stomach bug, and then catching it myself, we’ve seen our fair share of illness.

It almost just flatout knocked me down. I’ll admit, I did have a couple of breakdowns. Thankfully, my husband saved the day and took great care of all of us! That is, until he came down with it as well.

But perhaps this was the universe’s way of telling me to slow the eff down. Honestly, we needed to. We’re always, always, busy and on-the-go. This kind of halted all of that in a super sudden, super inconvenient way.

I’m just so glad we (fingers crossed) have made it to the other side of the stomach bug.

That being said, I’ve had an awful lot of time to clean my house and I’ve caught a couple of really great deals over the last week!

Did you know that now through November 11th you will get 25% off any toy from Target!?! Just text TOY to 827438 and a mobile coupon will be sent to you! It can be used in-store or online!

Oh! And the Target Black Friday ad is already out, so you can plan ahead. Check it out here.

So yeah. I may have gotten an early jump on Christmas shopping this year!

Have you started any shopping for the holidays yet??

Here’s to a new week! Hopefully one filled with happiness, laughs, and possibility — and definitely NOT the stomach bug! 😉 xo

“Christmas just doesn’t work out for me.”

December 27, 2016 by Rachel 1 Comment

This, my friends, is a tale of Christmas. While I watched joyous friends and acquaintances posting pictures of their Christmases on Facebook, we were knee-deep in cleaning. I mean that quite literally, as I decided to wash the carpets in our house on Christmas Day.

Because, well, our Christmas didn’t work. Heck, it never seems to work out. Someone is always sick. This year it was Ari. He started throwing up again overnight on Friday. Yep, just a week and a half out of getting over the stomach bug, he started vomiting yet again. And he wouldn’t stop.

He hasn’t stopped, yet, actually. And it’s now Tuesday. (Yes, we are taking him to the doctor today).

But late Saturday night we decided to go ahead and celebrate Christmas on Sunday anyways.

Ari and Chad were passed out on the living room floor and I managed to wake up in the middle of the night with enough time to set all of the presents up around our tree.

Sunday morning Ari awoke and didn’t even notice at first. Once he saw his stocking, he was so excited. Unfortunately, that was short-lived. We ended up making it through gifts, but with lackluster results. His much-anticipated Hatchimal has yet to be hatched; no Hot Wheel cars have been played with; and absolutely zero candy has been eaten. The only thing he wanted to do was watch movies and sleep.

After deep-cleaning the house while they all rested, I decided I just needed to get out for a bit. There’s only so much sickness and cleaning a mama can take. So Remy and I headed to Starbucks — her in PJs, me without an ounce of makeup. I just didn’t have it in me to care.

Heck, I still don’t have it in me to care!

Remy loved people watching on our little outing. And Mama loved sipping on hot coffee — and the break from cleaning!

At the end of the day, Chad and I half-jokingly quoted an infamous line from The Polar Express when little Billy says “Christmas just doesn’t work out for me. Never has.” I believe that it’s our new holiday Mantra. Sure, maybe someday we’ll look back on botched Christmases and laugh; but for now I’ll be wallowing in my sorrows as I drink from the Guzzle Buddy my husband so graciously bought for me.

And I’ll wonder, for the next 363 days, if we will ever have our picture-perfect Christmas. Only time will tell, I suppose.

Life Lately + A Last Minute Gift Guide //

December 22, 2016 by Rachel Leave a Comment

I’ve had grand plans of all of these amazing things I want to share with you before the holidays. But, realistically, my time management has not been great lately. Combine that with a sleep regression (thanks, Remy Bea) and the stomach bug? Well, that’s a recipe for dirty dishes and takeout every night.

So many-a posts have gone neglected.

That being said, there are a few things I want to share with you before we all get completely overwhelmed with the holidays.

Ari had his first Christmas program at school and it was every bit as adorable as you might imagine. He knew we were taking video and photos, so instead of singing, he was saying “cheese!”
Melt my cold as stone heart!

If you’re frantically looking for last-minute gift ideas, I leave you with these:
- Book of the Month. A subscription book service that ships amazing hardcover books straight to your door.
- Wine of the Month club subscription — or, a few bottles for the wine-lover in your life.
- ABC Mouse. Ari used this over the Summer and it was the perfect learning tool!
We were given a #JustBecauseCard at Chick-fil-A the other day. It was an awesome experience. And I still have butterflies from the whole experience! It turns out the movement was started by a local church. Even though we are not church people (at all), I’ve already had mega respect for this church. And this just elevated them even more.

After Ari’s Christmas program at preschool, Chad + I took the kiddos to lunch at Chick-fil-A. When we sat down and got the kids all settled, an employee hesitantly walked over to us and said “Someone asked me to come give this to you.” #justbecausecard • • It says “I hope this random act of kindness reminds you that someone notices and cares about you. It’s not because of anything you did or didn’t do, it’s just because you were created with incredible value and worth.” • • What an amazing message. ❤️

A photo posted by Rachel (@itsahero) on Dec 20, 2016 at 11:01am PST

For those of you trying to find the perfect wine to bring to your upcoming holiday party, run — fast — to Aldi. You heard me right. Aldi. Grab a bottle of their Flirty Bird Red Blend. It is incredible. No joke. And it’s less than $6 a bottle. Yep. You read that right. Less than $6 a bottle and an amazing wine!

I’m still totally okay with cancelling Christmas obligations. Right now the only thing on my radar is getting through the next two work days, shopping for last minute gifts, and taking Ari to the movies Saturday morning. From there? We’re staying in. That’s it. Nothing else. Nada.

Kringle’s Inventionasium // Christmas in Cleveland

December 13, 2016 by Rachel 6 Comments

itsahero_kringlesinventionasium_cleveland

A couple of months ago, at Ari’s fourth birthday party, my aunt brought up a local Christmas event she likes to take her kiddos to — Kringle’s Inventionasium! And she invited us to join them. I wasn’t quite sure what this whole thing was about, but we were promised a fun, and memorable, time!

Located at Tower City Center in Downtown Cleveland, Kringle’s Inventionasium is a crack house of fun. I kid (kind of!)! Even though none of us were feeling particularly well, we made the trek from Akron to Cleveland to meet up with loads of my family!

My mom’s side of the family is very, very, close. So there were 16 of us in all that met up! And that means we took up an entire appointment time slot. That’s right — your advanced-purchase tickets are for a very specific time slot! So you’re not just walking through this crazy maze with a bunch of random people! — Plus, that means one-on-one (group) time with The Big Man himself!

So, anyways, Kringle’s Inventionasium. The idea is that Mr. Kringle needs help building toys from little boys and girls with big imaginations. So there is a big ‘set up’ introduction about why you’re there, before entering through an actual wardrobe to start inventing!

[ Ari was wearing ‘magic’ glasses so he could sing things that the ‘big people’ couldn’t! Too cute! ]

Each room included a different invention station: “Build something that flies” in the balloon room; build as many puppets as possible; use science to make snow that won’t melt; and write ‘secret notes’ for Santa with magic ink.

Guys – I’m not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but there were so many bright colors everywhere! And even though we spent less than an hour in the inventionasium, it was still the perfect amount of time.

Our very last stop was to visit Mr. Kringle himself! It was honestly the perfect ending. I let Remy down and she crawled right up to Santa as the older kids were standing around the big guy.

Since Ari and Remy Bea were the youngest in the group, it seemed like the magic was brightest for them. Well, for Ari especially.

He had such magic in his eyes the whole time. He didn’t even get overly excited — I think he was in too much awe for even that!

By the time we got home and got the kiddos asleep, it was well past 10:30pm. But I have to say, it was absolutely worth it. And I don’t say that frequently about staying out past bedtime — we are sticklers for routine!

Honestly, if there’s one event that’s going to be on our Holiday event list every year, it will be this! It was such a great way to kick off the holiday season.

If you’re local, what’s your favorite CLE Holiday Tradition?

Shop Savvy With Groupon Coupons

November 17, 2016 by Rachel 5 Comments

Well, with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, it’s clear we are officially entering into the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. And, for my family, this year will be different from every previous Christmas. See, every other year, I’ve had full-time employment. This is the very first year that I have been a half-SAHM and half-working mom.

In previous years I have worried less about how to save money on Christmas presents, but this year, I’m pinching pennies like crazy! And Groupon Coupons has helped me find discounts on products I have already been looking to purchase!

Searching for coupons is super easy. Once you find a Groupon Coupon you want to use, a simple click brings up the code to use and the website for the store. Completely hassle-free!

I recently used a Groupon Coupons for Wine.com and Express to shop for my sister and my mom (Hi, Mom! Pretend like you didn’t read that — it’s a surprise! ;))

Wine.com is currently offering $20 off your order of $250 or more. We always do a wine exchange with family, so buying in bulk is definitely the way to go this time of year! And I don’t even have to leave the house to pick it up! It’s shipped directly to our house!

And Express has a Groupon Coupon exclusive code — 15% off both in-store and online. Let’s be honest — most of my shopping is done online (because dragging to children through the mall just isn’t ideal), so this was a perfect way for me to pick up a new sweater for my mom (act surprised, Mom!).

So before you start your online Christmas shopping check to see how you can save money using Groupon Coupons!

What are your favorite ways to save money during the holidays?

Easy Gift-Giving with #GrouponGoods

October 30, 2016 by Rachel 18 Comments

Back before having children I felt like my gift-giving game was on-point! I mean, I had energy to plan and prepare for birthdays, Christmas, and everything in between. Now? Now my life is full of uncertainty. I was barely able to plan and prep for my own kids birthday this year, let alone anyone else’s!

And nowadays I have countless nieces and nephews to buy for, but, quite frankly, little clue what to actually get for them! (Having kids that are four and under means I’m totally and utterly clueless what is fun and popular for older kids!).

Over the last year I’ve purchased nearly every birthday gift from Groupon.

The options for gift-giving are endless on the Groupon Goods section of the site! From books, to dolls, to baby gates! And don’t you worry, there are plenty of gifts for adults, too! The ever-so-popular adult coloring books and, my personal favorite, wine shipments!

It’s a great way to shop for all of the special people in your life, from babies to adults! Even my very hard to buy for husband has enjoyed goodies courtesy of my purchases on Groupon Goods, especially on the electronics section!

So for once I’m not concerned about the holidays coming up. My gift-giving needs are completely covered — and I don’t even have to leave the house while I’m saving money! I call that a major win.

What’s your favorite thing to shop for on Groupon?