Friday Five: Ready for the Weekend!

(one)

I am so ready to visit the pumpkin patch tomorrow. It's become an annual tradition for our family and I can't wait to watch the pig races and take the hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out that perfect pumpkin! It's so much fun and we always look forward to going.

To read about our visit last year you can click here.

(two)

Tomorrow night Tarl and I are officially celebrating my birthday even though it was on Tuesday. We're staying the night in Savannah and going to my favorite restaurant, The Melting Pot.I have been looking forward to this little getaway all week and the best part is we are staying at the Westin for free! #score

On Tuesday however as I was walking outside to leave work Tarl and Cadence were standing there waiting to take me to dinner. I was completely surprised and it was very unexpected. We went to a little restaurant downtown, enjoyed the scenery and it was nice to not have to cook dinner or clean up afterwards. 

(three)

Now that we are officially in Halloween mode, I know it's not too long before my favorite holiday will arrive, Christmas. I love Christmas. The smells, sights, that warm fuzzy feeling, but it's never too early to start buying Christmas presents. I started mid-August and only have a few more things left to buy for Cadence. 

This year we're also doing the book a night starting December 1st and ending on Christmas Eve, well I purchased her Christmas Eve present yesterday and it also ties in to the book countdown. 

Lost My Name books takes your childs name and turns it into a story. Cadence loves books and I think this is the perfect Christmas Eve gift for her. For $30 your child gets an actual book about their name - how neat is that?!



For more Christmas inspiration, ideas, recipes and fun - follow my Christmas Pinterest board below!

Follow Miranda • Life in the Lowcountry's board Christmas <3 data-blogger-escaped-a="" data-blogger-escaped-on="" data-blogger-escaped-pinterest.="">

(four)

I get four commission checks each year. I make a pretty decent salary but those commission checks are the bomb dot com - not gonna lie! Well each commission check there is always something unexpected. Whether it be a bill or something for school or car taxes. Needless to say I've never really got to enjoy them, but that's OK. Well Tarl and I were discussing those checks this morning and he asked when my next one would be. I told him the first of the year and his reply, "good, you should definitely save that check for spending money just in case we go somewhere."

Um...what?! Was that another New York hint? 

To see this in person - wow!

That's St. Patricks Cathedral by the way, just in case you were wondering. How beautiful!

(five)

It's Friday - have a great weekend everyone!

Because Sometimes You Have to Talk About It (Woman Issues - You've Been Warned!)

Let me preface this post by stating that this is about woman issues, so if you don't want a TMI post, then stop reading now and go search for cute things on Pinterest...

Ever since I was young I've had recurring bladder infections. Too much pepsi and not enough water will do that to you. I've been checked over and over and never had anything serious wrong, just bladder issues that have run in my family and I inherited them from my Grandma. (lucky me!)

I've been really great about drinking water and seeing my Urologist when necessary for annual checkups and what not, but I have been slacking in the water department the past few months and as of last week it caught up with me.

Major lower back pain, not a pleasant peeing experience and the constant feeling like I have to go pee and then just a few drops come out. I know how sexy this sounds, but you were forewarned to stop reading :)

Anyways. I took my medication and the lower back pain went away along with the painful urination, but I still feel like I have to pee so I went to see my urologist this morning and come to find out I have something called Cystitis which is basically where my bladder is constantly inflamed due to the things I eat or drink. One tiny little thing can trigger it and "wham" I have that feeling like I need to pee even though I don't have to. 

She put me on a strict diet and basically every thing I love is on that list.

Things that you think would be healthy for you like grapefruits, strawberries, watermelon...think again. I have to stay away from them. No more sweet tea, pepsi, just nothing but water. Fun fun!

The only scary thing is the blood in my urine. I've always had a trace of blood in my urine. It's not something you can visibly see, it's only seen underneath their microscope. I would never know there was blood if they didn't tell me. It's not like I'm peeing a red stream just to be clear. 

Praise the Lord for that!

Every single time I've had my urine tested there is always traces of blood. 

This is a red flag for bladder cancer. It can be several other things and I have faith that all will be okay, but it is still scary none the less when your doctor throws out that awful C word. 

I have to be strict with what I eat and drink nothing but water for the next month, then I go back to get to pee in that sterile little cup all over again. If all is well and clean then I'm good to go, however if there is a trace of blood I have to have a Cystoscopy done to make sure there are no underlying issues. I have faith in God that all will be OK. If it happens to be something worse than I will do what I need to do to get better. 

I ask that you keep me in your prayers because prayers are key when someone is going through a struggle. Prayers are key whether you're going through something or not. The best part about praying is that you can do it anytime, anywhere and God will always listen to you. Isn't that amazing? That we have a Father who is there for us regardless. What an amazing God we have!

By the way, if any of you have ever had any similar issues please email me. Any reassurance would sure put my mind at ease...I did the worst and googled things when I know better than to google "Bladder Cancer Symptoms" and "Blood in Urine"...tsk tsk (I knew better but my typing fingers got the best of me!)

Thanks for the prayers!

weekend

As usual the weekend went by in a blink of an eye.

Not too much was on our agenda this weekend, but still a fun (pictureless) one.

Cadence cheered at her school on Friday night during the half time show. It was so much fun and her and all the other little ones did a fabulous job!

I have a ton of videos but no pictures. I'm not tech savvy so I have no idea how to get a video on here...oh well, you'll just have to trust me that it was precious to see all those little gals cheer on their team. 

Saturday we had lunch in town, roasted marshmallows that night and hung out in the new tent Tarl purchased. We didn't stay the night in it, but we spent a good hour just the three of us snuggled telling age appropriate ghost stories to Cadence. We all had a blast, laughing and spending time together.

Yesterday we cooked out with my parents and later on that evening we rented The Other Woman & Scooby Doo and Franken Weird. The Other Woman was an alright movie. One I'm glad I watched but wouldn't watch it again. Scooby Doo was great. A good movie to get you all excited for Halloween.

ABC's 13 nights of Halloween starts this Sunday, can't wait!

Also, The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown airs this week as well! 

Love this time of year.

Next weekend we have big plans for my birthday and I can't wait.

Hurry up Friday!

Our Last Day in Disney

Our final day in Disney was very bittersweet. 

We were ready to get back into our own bed, but it was definitely one of those vacations where we were not ready to go home. Most of the time you're always ready to go home, but not this one.

I honestly thought that even Tarl would be ready to go home, but even he wanted to stay longer.

We knew it was our last day in Disney and of course we would spend the entire day in Magic Kingdom soaking up every last bit of magic and pixie dust that we could. Unfortunately Magic Kingdom closed early that day at 7pm due to the Halloween Party which is a completely separate ticket and not cheap might I add. 

We decided to splurge on the Halloween tickets as a final surprise for Cadence. We were all excited about seeing the villains which you normally do not see on an average day in the kingdom.

We got up first thing and headed to MK. We used our snack credits for breakfast at Gastons Tavern and got their world famous (HUGE) cinnamon rolls. We also let Cadence get the souvenir Belle cup.

Frozen apple juice with a mango whipped cream - good not great, but she sure did love the cup!

After breakfast we went and met some characters and then rode some rides.

Later on that afternoon we went back to our resort to change into our Halloween costumes. I wore a Minnie shirt and curly pig tails with red bows, Tarl wore his Grumpy shirt and Cadence was of course, Princess Belle.

We took the monorail to Chef Mickey's to check in for our dinner reservation.

Chef Mickey's is located in the Contemporary Resort where the monorail runs right through the middle. It is so neat to see and actual ride through it, stop and eat. The food and atmosphere along with the characters at Chef Mickeys was great and Minnie was our favorite, she also loved my shirt :)

The food was delicious but those desserts were phenomenal.

After dinner we took the monorail directly to Magic Kingdom where we checked in for the Halloween Party. The decorations they put out for the party were so pretty! Cast Members dress up in their Halloween gear and they even have special pamphlets just for the party itself.

I took a lot of pictures of the castle because I knew it was the last time I was going to see it for a while :(

Since it was our final day Cadence got spoiled with more than one treat. We let her get a Belle music box, a Belle Christmas ornament and she also got light up Minnie ears at the Halloween parade.

At night the castle lit up with a haunting glow.

It got too hot in that Belle dress - good thing I packed an extra pair of clothes!

The halloween parade and hallowishes (the special fireworks show) was amazing. I'm so glad that we went and got to see it as they limit the number of tickets they sell for each party. We rode a few more rides before we went back to our resort at around 10pm that night.

Our experience at Disneyworld was truly magical as they say. 

I wouldn't trade those memories for anything in the world.

The planning was worth every minute I spent on it, but to be honest it's a lot of fun to plan it, for me it was anyways. I loved picking out restaurants and things to do for us.

All in all it was the greatest vacation we could have hoped for or dreamed of.

We are going to try our best to go again next year, but if not definitely in 2016!

Disney Day 5: Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is so much fun. 

The animals. The detail. The environment, it's just great!

Each park has a center staple, the castle in Magic Kingdom, the Epcot ball, Mickey's hat in Hollywood Studios and this huge detailed carved out tree in AK.

Cadence wore her Zebra Minnie outfit, with matching zebra bows of course. I wore my Lion King shirt and Tarl wore an AE shirt. He said it had an animal on it...he had me there :)

The first thing we did was go to the Safari ride. It's amazing. You get to see so many animals and it lasts a long time. It gives your feet a rest and it was wonderful to see Cadence's face light up with all the animals wandering around.

Cadence and I have an equal love for giraffes and they came so close to the safari truck!

The lions were roaring and that was so amazing to hear. Scary, but amazing none-the-less.

I honestly never knew that a gorilla actually beat their chest like King Kong. I just always thought that was something made up. Let me tell you, when they feel threatened they seriously beat their chest! A baby gorilla was just born at the beginning of September and although an adult gorilla may not be the prettiest thing a baby one is the cutest thing you ever did see. 

Well daddy gorilla did not like having all the people around his baby and sure enough he beat on his chest. It was very cool to see and Tarl, Cadence and I mimicked him the rest of the day making each other laugh. It's something we'll never forget.

After the safari we went and met some characters.

For lunch we had reservations at Rainforest Cafe in Animal Kingdom. 

There are two locations, one in Downtown Disney and one in Animal Kingdom. I originally had Downtown Disney Rainforest Cafe planned but they were in the process of refurbishing it so the experience wouldn't have been as fun so I changed it last minute and am so glad I did b/c the one in AK is awesome!

There are elephants, snakes and tigers (all fake) inside. They move just as if they were real. It also mimicks a thunderstorm inside as if you were in the rainforest. 

Her prize for the day was this plush Nemo. We watched the Nemo play and she loved it, as soon as we walked out she saw a Nemo stand with big and small sizes and she couldn't resist.

Afterwards we rode two scary rides, the dinosaur ride and Expedition Everest. 

The dinosaur ride is scary just for the fact that the dinosaurs roaring look so realistic.

It has always scared me even though I know they aren't real so I kept Cadence's face covered with my body the entire time so she wouldn't freak out. Tarl was dying laughing at us.

She was tall enough to ride Everest but it is a huge coaster, fun but big.

She rode it like a champ, but she hated it!

We had so much fun at Animal Kingdom but it got so hot midday that we decided to call it a day and head back to our resort, one last picture before we go!

Once we rested I told Tarl we still had not watched the Electrical Parade in Magic Kingdom.

It's a parade they do at night with glistening lights and dances - so spectacular.

So we headed to MK and it was amazing!

This time we took the bus to MK. It's free to Disney Resort guests and we wanted to make sure we used all forms of transportation. A quick photo by our little photographer, Cades.

...and a family selfie :)

FYI - it's so humid and my hair frizzes instantly, so I pretty much wore my hair up the entire time we were there. I straightened it twice and it frizzed up into an afro as soon as I walked out the door...a top knot bun from then on!

After the parade we headed back to our resort to get ready for our last day in Disney :(

Come back tomorrow as I recap the end of our trip, but one last big surprise for Cadence!