Disclaimer

Just to put myself on the safe side while I do reviews and post my opinion here on my blog, I'm just gonna write a disclaimer here.


Disclosure Statement:
This is a blog, credits are given to those when it is due. My blog contains views, opinions and reviews based on my own thoughts and either I was given a free sample or bought it myself to review it, the businesses, companies and products shown here and reviewed are in no way shape or form connected to my opinions posted on this blog. Blog content is dynamic, my opinions may change in the future, that is what a blog is for.

Disclosure Policy:
This is a review/personal blog where I will post my own opinion on whatever I see fit and whatever I feel is appropriate to post, again my opinions are my own. I am very willing to accept free products to review or any services anyone has to offer per my discretion. Currently I have no influence from any outside business or anything connected to any of the products or things I review/talk about on my blog, if I may have any influence I will be sure to post it as I see fit, but that is not something I am looking to do. I would like to have a non-biased opinion when I review things, to keep it fair to the people reading my blog for honest reviews on things they are interested in.

Merry After Christmas!

   Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! I barely touched the computer yesterday, just so I could spend time with my hubby and our little girl. We went to my mother's house in the morning after my little one opened all her presents from us at our house, then she opened gifts from my side of the family. After that we headed back home, put her down for a nap while I cooked the yummy ham and scalloped corn (The corn I will more than likely post the recipe on here. It's so super easy, toss together and bake.. and it's done!). My in-laws showed up around 3 pm and helped me finish up the rest of the food that needed to be fixed, then my dad and step-mom came over after that. It was a super crowded house, that's for sure! The dinner was amazing and it didn't take too long to clean up afterwards.. after opening gifts from everyone, my little girl got everything she wanted for Christmas (of course it was everything her parents wanted for her, for Christmas, since she really has no idea what she wants right now.. or does she?).

  It was a very busy day, but at the end I was very sad for it to be over. Other than it being incredibly exhausting, it was nice to have a lot of family in one home at the same time..

  Do you have any New Years resolutions? The only thing I have is to watch my daughter enjoy her 2nd year, and for my husband and I to purchase a home.

  Are you sad to see Christmas come and go so fast? I'm already planning for my daughter's birthday in May and for Christmas next year, hopefully it doesn't pile on top of us too fast!!

Ye' Old Renaissance Festival

      To lose your muse is never a good thing. I promised I was going to post about a few things a couple days ago and my muse seems to have run off with all my ideas, and desire to even open up a web browser and start typing. Thankfully I found that silly little muse and stuffed it in a cage so it never can get out again (although it will.. eventually).. sadly, I found my muse at 10o'clock at night. Never good.

       Just to let everyone know, every photo posted here in this thread were taken by my husband and I, they weren't professional pictures from anywhere else or bought from anywhere else.. just taken from my husband's camera. Not even a professional camera but a nice one just the same.

       Almost every year we like to go to the Renaissance Festival in Sterling, and it's always fun no matter how many times we go. In fact, this past year we took my daughter.. who at the time was only about 3 months old. It was pretty typical of everyone to pass by and go 'awww', of course when you had the people wanting to touch and grab at her was when being a mother really turns to into an evil queen 'b'. Just kidding, it wasn't that bad actually. I just kindly said I needed to catch up with family and moved on my merry way. It was nice to get the attention, being an only mother and her being my first child of course, but it made me nervous all the same having complete strangers grabbing my baby's hands and trying to tickle her feet. I understand she's absolutely adorable and you wanna just cuddle her right up, but not a stranger's baby.

 

 

 

 

 

     Okay, ranting done! This past year in August we attended the Festival, this being possibly my 5th time being up there.. tickets are decently priced, not overbearing, just enough to have fun. The food however can be overly priced but decent enough to where you aren't breaking your bank, since they give you plenty of a heaping of food when you order something. The turkey legs are bigger than my head, and that's putting it lightly (haha).

      As you can see in the above pictures, the jousting tournament is pretty nifty to watch. Although it's not at all like it was way back in the days, but back then you could have been killed just passing by your opponent one time. These guys are just actors.. ahem.

   They also had a duck there. Yes. They did.

    Aww moment!! This is my little love bug with my sister. Super happy of course with her Auntie! She enjoyed the show just as much as all of us adults did. The fresh air was nice, it was warm and she was nice and cozy and very easy to carry if she decided the stroller wasn't good enough. Then that turned into something that held all of our stuff we either bought or decided we just didn't want to carry (I had half a mind to hop in it and let them push me around for a little bit, why not?)

    My little one with daddy in the above photo and then with me. Such a happy little one.. and I never really realized how incredibly happy she was as a little infant until now, and she still has a bubbly little personality!

     Of course, not to bombard the whole post with pictures of my daughter, but I just can't help it! Makes me wish she was little like that again, but I am SO enjoying the days of her being a toddler going on 20. Hehe. Again, above, my daughter and I and second photo is of my daughter and I with the Queen Elizabeth. Such a nice lady, and a wonderful actress who definitely played the part very, very well.

    There were many things to do, activities such as Gypsy tents.. you could purchase gowns and dress up clothing, or even rent it for the day. Leather wear, armor, all kinds of food you can shake a stick at.. and all through the village you had actors clamoring away at one another, acting out skits and possibly involving you. In fact.. I remember holding my daughter while eating and having a Duchess come right up to me asking to have someone beheaded. I of course knew it was a play but had no idea she would involve me with one of the freelance soldiers, asking me to speak to him since of course I said I had seen the wrong doings of this so called person who was supposed to be 'beheaded'.

     They went on their merry way when I refused to find the person.. so they went on to the person next to me and so on, until they could find a young group of teens willing to play in their skit. Holding a little one and eating while finding someone who was fiction wasn't really my idea of fun, but I amused them. It was nice to actually be involved in something when you know it was all fake.. it just made you want to live in the past that much more.

    So although I didn't have too many photos of the little Renaissance Village, I'm hoping to go again next year when my ltitle girl is 2 1/2 years old so she understands really what's going on. Of course I will blog about that when the time comes!  For now I'm about to head off and watch my show then crawl into my warm comfy bed. It's Christmas Eve tomorrow and time has flown by so fast. I'll be posting a thread on here when I get the chance before New Years about my year in 2012. Important things that happened, and not so important things that happened, as long as it doesn't bore you!

   Thank you for reading!

Just a thought.

So I've been thinking. I know I have alot of things to add to this blog, such as  buttons.. affiliates, all that yummy eye candy and clickable things. I've been very busy these past few days, but don't get me wrong.. that doesn't keep me from wanting to blog, at all! This is my first time owning a blog. I've hosted many websites for many different things, but over the years those things just fizzled over popularity, my decisions in life have changed drastically and now that I have a little girl it feels as though I have so many things to talk about. Sadly, I'm not entirely sure how to word everything on here.

All I know is, you don't have to worry about controversy on here as far as politics goes. I'm a very avid debater in public but online is not the place to have those conversations, especially not if this is to be a family oriented blog, so forgive me if this is what you have come here for. Secondly, I won't post anything non-family oriented. Things that might not be good for little eyes to see, that won't be here. My daughter might read this one day, and I don't want her reading things that just aren't good.

Thirdly, I'm looking for someone to kind of give me some ideas, some "rule of the road' kind of thing. If you are willing to, please email me.. I'm also looking to get to know some other stay at home moms, other women in the same boat as me that wouldn't mind letting another one into the 'group'.

So yeah, that's my blog for the day. I've kept a little notebook with things I plan on reviewing, other things I plan on talking about.. These are only a couple things I plan on plastering on my blog here in the next day or so..

   1.  Renaissance Festival
   2.  Taco Night!
   3.  The Birth of Izabella (Nothing graphic, promise!! Maybe alot of worded detail so be warned!)

I also plan on making the button so any one can snag it if you don't mind.. and like my blog, no matter how tiny and boring it might be. Hehe.

And last but not least.. I will not be talking about things that are all over the news. Nothing drastic. I don't mind reading them on other blogs, but I'm a very emotional person when it comes to things like that and I make sure people know my side of things and how I feel.. I kind of don't know how to stop ranting, so that I won't be spreading all over on here either.

Again, totally don't mind it on other sites, I just want this blog to be friendly to even my own daughter when she can read in the future.

Thanks so much for understanding.. Oh! And of course, any ideas on what I should blog about? Suggestions that YOU may be interested, coming from a stay at home mom living in a small town in New York? Comments always appreciated, thank you so much!

Sincerely,
 Me!

iPad Giveaway!

Okay so it's not my own, but I've entered it and for anyone reading.. it'd be awesome to see you guys enter it as well! I'm sure everyone out there wants an iPad, I know I do!

Win a 16 GB 4th Generation iPad in this awesome giveaway! Rafflecopter entries are required. This will run from  December 2 until Sunday, December 30, so you have an entire month to complete the entries and earn points with daily entries too. It’s open to everyone - worldwide - 1 winner will receive an iPad with retina display, or the cash equivalent of $499 via Paypal whichever is preferred!  To join in click on this link here

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My amazing weight loss

So I have quite an interesting story to share with everyone.. Not sure if there is anyone out there struggling with a weight issue, or not. If you are, I hope this helps you somewhat.. I was there, I kind of still am but I'm very happy with where I am now and wouldn't change it for the world. After I had my daughter in May of 2011 I weighed 240 pounds. Even my own Doctor told me it was a very unhealthy weight, and I knew it was myself. I mean, come on.. I'm not stupid. My labor was very difficult, something I will more than likely post about here in the future of my little ol' blog. For now, I think I would rather stick to the story without boring you guys to death, ya know?

Here's a photo of the day after I had my little bundle of joy. (Mind you, 240 pounds. Possibly a little less due to the loss in water weight)

Here is a picture of me in August of 2011, so about 3 months after I had my daughter.. I was about the same size as when I had her, possibly a little less than when I did. This picture was taken in Sterling, NY at the Renaissance Festival, which BTW... I go to almost every year with family, and as of lately my husband and my little one! She loved it, obviously!

 

 

Once April came around I weighed myself for the first time in almost a year.. And I couldn't believe my eyes, I weighed 228 pounds. Okay so having the baby and breastfeeding for at least 4 months helped suck some of the weight off, but just sitting around wasn't going to help me drop those pounds like I wanted to. It seemed like everyone around me that was a mother looked like a drop dead gorgeous model, and I looked like a blob. It was depressing, definitely not the best times of my life and it made it difficult to enjoy looking like a mother. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE being a mother and I definitely loved it when my little one was born, I just wasn't happy about myself. I couldn't come to grasp that I was over 200 pounds and although I didn't really look like I weighed that much, I felt like I did. That and fitting into size 18 pants was not the best highlights of my life.. I wanted to be back into a size 12, a size 10.. anything less than a 16. So I did it.

 

I started counting calories. If you have never heard of My Calorie Counter, (check it out at you guys are so totally missing out! I thankfully have an IPhone 4S so I downloaded that onto my phone and off I went. I started out with working out a few times a week, going on walks with my daughter (Which we still do!).. and then the working out just wasn't cutting it because no matter what, my daughter was in the room and I didn't want her getting hurt just because I needed to work out.

 

The first week I lost 8 pounds, mostly water weight of course and I was only eating about 1600 calories a day, per my counter. The nice thing about it is, you enter your weight, your height.. your goal weight (Be reasonable with yourself!), how many times you would like to work out.. any other optional things you can fill in and you're on your way! It's a simple app.. if you have a UPC code on the box of food that you are eating, you simply scan it with the special scanning button on your diary.. it pops up how many calories for how many servings and the measurement (A cup, half cup.. quater cup, 1 tbsp, so on and so forth). Enter and you're done! I was super SUPER strict my first 5 months. By the time the first month went by I had lost over 15 pounds. It was easy, I didn't even have to work out.

 

It hit around August and I had dropped down to 185 pounds. And a couple weeks after that I was down to 180. Of course I have slipped from my counting but I am maintaining my weight and I'm still in the range of 185. Which is totally fine with me.. (To be brutally honest it's the top part of me that has all the weight.. the bottom part is slimmed out with almost nothing there)

 

Here is a photo of me at Thanksgiving with my closest and best friends who lives in Mass.

 

 

 

I'm on the left, my best friend is on the right. This is me after losing 55 pounds. Amazing huh? I'm very happy with how far I have come, even though it only took me 5 months to lose all that weight, about 10 pounds a month.. and I lost it eating healthy and watching what I eat. Of course, I ate whatever I wanted but counting calories forces you to eat the healthy things. Less sugar, less salt, if it has a small amount of calories or none, it's probably good for you. As far as my diet went, I had to check the nutrition bar before even picking out what I wanted to eat. If you don't have it in your head that you're going to lose the weight, that you WILL get there, it won't happen.

 

I am more than willing to help people out with the Calorie Counter, to be your coach. If you want me to send you emails (If you check them..), and get updates on you every day, please email me. (the swarthouts @ live . com) I would love to see others have the change that I had.

 

If you recently went through a major weight loss as well, please comment and let us all know! I know I'm proud, and I'm sure you are too! Comments are VERY very much appreciated!

 

 

 



Breaking Dawn.. (Spoilers!)

Went and saw Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 on Wednesday with my husband's grandfather. Let's just say I was an avid reader of the books and although I'm kind of partial to the personalities in the books, I'm not too wild about Kristen Stewart playing the part.. especially not after the first movie. I won't spoil anything, but the last movie is probably the best one out of every one they put out there. I loved the way she portrayed Bella Swan, in fact, that was the perfect personality for the character all along.. but where was the fierce acting in the first couple movies? I guess she just had to develop the character over time.. which is sad. Oh, and Edward? Breaking Dawn Part 2 had the best portrayal of his character and his personality of all time. I understand he was going through a very troubling time resisting the urge to eat Bella alive in the first couple movies, but.. they really developed both of their characters in the very last movie. Must say, I'm very impressed with it!



So of course, I will review it.. briefly, since I'm prone to giving away details that others may not be happy about, so just a small warning.. SPOILER ALERT! For anyone who has never read the books, or have not gotten past the first few movies..

Bella looks like an amazing vampire, the make up of course was definitely well done, the make up on everyone in the movie was very well done. They weren't TOO pale like in the first couple movies, instead they were just right and it was very well put together this time around. I do understand it's difficult to have a baby act the way you want it to, such as the one in the movie.. but the one thing that bothered me just a little was the CG animation that they did with the baby's face. It was very good CG, don't get me wrong.. but it was so easy to tell and slightly annoying that it didn't fit in at all with the others in the movie. As the child grew older, fast of course, the CG got much better until she was fully grown towards the end of the movie. That was the only thing that looked half decent. Thankfully. Now the skipping around at first when Bella is improving her vampire skills was slightly irritating, moving from trying to arm wrestle, to breaking the huge log.. and then running off to step into the sunlight just to see her glittering skin.. it was a little too fast for me. They never truly developed and looked into her character enough as a vampire, especially when she took off after the hiker. It went from one thing to the next and never really flowed the way it should have.

Other than those minor things (Not at all minor to me, but it's what's in the details that counts!), this movie has out done the other ones and if someone were to watch any of the Twilight movies from the beginning.. it would be stupid to show them this one first, but it would probably make them want to watch all of the movies from the beginning. This movie developed the characters more so than any of the other movies, and the actors portrayed their personalities the way they should have in this one.. so yes, I'm very impressed. VERY impressed.

So in turn I have a question for you guys, who is your favorite character out of this movie.. that has developed their character the most? And, what about the movie did you like/dislike? Feel free to write a story, I don't mind. I love responses!