All posts by sambel203

About sambel203

I am a Wife, Mother, daughter, Aunt and loyal friend. I have always dreamed of being an Author. I wrote a couple short books. 4 are mine, 1 is a story my daughter made up and another one I am about to publish is a story my son made up and illustrated. I am currently working on my next book. Check them out in the links. I am blogging because I love writing and it helps keep me sane. I have challenged myself to write one blog every day I have to work for a year. If you follow my blog, I will follow yours! Thank you for taking the time to check out my stuff. Feel free to send me an email if there is something you would like me to write about. J.acosta08@yahoo.com View all posts by sambel203 →

Ring Doorbell – Review

February 25, 2020Uncategorized#review #ring #doorbell #homesambel203

We recently bought the Ring doorbell.

I honestly never even thought about buying something like this but my husband pointed it out a couple weeks ago at the new Amazon 4 star store in the mall. That store is pretty cool.

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It was packed though and I got a little antsy with so many people around. Anyway, he pointed it out and said he wanted it and I told him sure. He bought one and installed it this past weekend.

It’s actually pretty cool. It sends a notification when there is movement in the camera and then you can see, hear and talk out of it. Today I saw the garbage men and the mail man. Weird, but kind of cool too.

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Now we are looking into the other things that they have. We want to replace the floodlights and a couple other things. I totally recommend this product. The only issue I have is that when I was talking to my husband through it while he was installing, I could hear an echo a little bit. It’s nothing that would prevent me from buying it but it was a little annoying. My husband researched and said this is a common problem and he reset it but I could still hear the echo. I am really happy we bought this and I really look forward to upgrading a few other things around the house.

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Would you use something like this? Do you have something like this? What do you think?

RTR- Week 12&13

February 24, 2020Uncategorized#fashion #rental #clothes, #review #renttherunway #clothes #monthly #subscriptionsambel203

I’m back with more. Although I think this is my last installment like this. I’m not sure. I think it might be getting a little boring. Both for me to write it and for you to read it. Or I have to figure out a new way to write this.

Trina Turk - Kailee Top

Retail $228.00. I can buy for $136.80. I actually really love this. It’s super comfortable. I think I might wear it to my interview on Thursday. I have a job interview and I’m not nervous cause I don’t know if I want it. I love it but not enough to justify spending that much on it. (I didn’t get the job).

I am wearing this to work on a monday. So far lots of compliments including one saying it reminds them of a shirt their mom would wear. I’ll take that as a compliment.But really, I feel good in it. And it’s really comfortable. The only think I didn’t love about this is that my hair is to my shoulders so either it was popping up in the back or like tucked in to the collar, which felt a little weird to me.

Caslon - Spacedye Cardigan

Retail for $99.00. I can buy for $59.40. I really like this too. It’s got pockets! I love this sweater. I wore it over the weekend taking my kids out to the mall and then to work one day. I am almost thinking about buying it. It’s just that it’s a very loose knit and it’s very easy to pull. I’m going to keep it for another weekend and then send it back on Monday. It’s just goes with everything and it’s very easy to throw on. I didn’t even use the pockets but I liked that they were there and I liked the length.

STINE GOYA - Makayla Top

Retail for $270.00. I can buy for $81.00 . There are matching pant to go with this too. If I love the top I might rent the pants too. This hits right at the hip. I usually like my shirts a little longer. I will not be buying this but I will wear it to work one day.

I am wearing this today. It’s silk, so it’s very light. I have a feeling I am just going to feel cold most of the day. I do like it though and I like the way it fits. I might rent this again in the spring with the matching pants.

Ronny Kobo - Viola Cardigan

Retail $388.00. I can buy for $213.40. I rented this because I liked the colors and I thought it would be perfect for work for valentines day. It fits like a blazer and it’s pretty big, I am not sure if it would look better in a smaller size. I will wear it with Black pants and boots.

I am glad it’s Valentines day today because I feel like a Valentine. I do like the colors but this is definitely not something I would ordinarily wear. But that’s the whole point of this, right?

Amanda Uprichard - Green Finch Top

Retail $170.00. I can buy for $59.50. This shirt is alright. Nothing special. It feels nice on, not to tight, not to baggy. The only thing I am not to fond of is that it seems hard to wear a tank top under it so it very much shows where your pants end. Also, there are high slits on the sides.. It’s fine because I am wearing kind of high pants. I wouldn’t wear pants that hit on the hip with this shirt.

Fifteen Twenty - Blue Button Up Blouse

Retail $176.00. I can buy for $140.80. I wore this with black pants and boots. I like it. Not for $140.80, but it’s nice and I really like the color. The sides have slits so it hides any belly and I needed that today after indulging all weekend.

Fifteen Twenty - Grey Draped Duster

Retails for $143.00. I can buy for $100.10. I wore this all weekend and I really liked it. It was warm and looked nice and it has pockets! I did like it but I had to send something back so I could get something else for later in the week, so back this goes today.

kate spade new york - Heartbeat Smocked Top

Retails for $228.00. I can buy for $205.20. I will wear this tomorrow. I like it though. I like the look of it. And it fits well. I will not buy it for that price but I will wear it to work.

I might keep this going a little longer but I think I am going to stop the weekly or biweekly reviews. Maybe do a monthly review of the things I loved. I don’t know. I feel like this is getting a little repetitive and boring. The entire point of all this was to try a new service and see if it was really worth it and honestly, I think it is. I am happy to try new clothes. I love having a never ending closet.

It’s been a few months now and as much as I wanted to hate it, the only con I can really think of is that sometimes they don’t have the thing I want in my size when I want it AND I wish I had more spaces so I can get accessories too. Also, sometimes I try to time if so I have 2 shipments a week and for some reason sometimes it takes 2 days to get to me. That’s not a deal breaker in my opinion. I love having something new in my closet every week. I love getting new colors and prints. I will definitely recommend this service to anyone and I will keep this service for a while.

If you would like to try it out please consider using my referral code: https://rtr.app.link/e/7JN5XRXfl4

All thoughts on this service are mine. I pay for my membership.

Sonic The Hedgehog – A Family Review

February 19, 2020Uncategorized#family #movie #review #sonicsambel203

I don’t know much about this except for the whole teeth drama when it was first supposed to come out. I don’t know the plot or anything so I am pretty open to anything.

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I thought: I really liked it. I had no idea what it would be about but it was really good. I did play sonic a lot growing up. I liked the back story of the rings. I was really surprised with how much I enjoyed this movie.

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My son (10 year old): 30 out of 10 and 10 extra points for tails. I liked the song. My fav character is a hard one cause I like Dr. Robotnik when he was dancing. I also like the police officer and sonic. And now I really want a tails movie.

My daughter (8 year old): I’m tired. (she did like it but she did fall asleep.)

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Husband:I liked it a lot. I think it was the best video game movie ever made. Jim Carey was great. He did great and had a lot of fun. Sonic had a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. I would definitely go see it in the movie theater. It was well written and face paced and cheesy when you wanted it to be. And the jokes were pretty good. They could have been really bad but they were well done. Also, the mushroom planet, I think they were making fun of the mushroom kingdom.

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Would we recommend you see it? Yes! Would we recommend you see it in the theaters? Yes. Would we go see a Sonic and Tails 2? Absolutely.

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I don’t like me today.

February 18, 2020Uncategorized#personal #day #scarymovies #longweekendsambel203

That’s how I feel right now. Just mad and like I hate everything and everyone. I hate when I feel like this. It just makes me want to go home and sleep until tomorrow so I don’t say or do something that’s dumb.

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I had a dream last night about an ex-boyfriend and he told me I was worthless and I woke up in the middle of the night so sad. I thought about getting up to write it down, but I didn’t and now I don’t really remember what happen, but I do remember the sadness that I felt.

Also it’s Tuesday and back to work and school after a long weekend. So it feels like a Monday even though it’s not.

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The weekend was really good. Saturday we went out to dinner with friends and then Sunday I had book club brunch. The next book is ‘Ask Again, Yes’ By Mary Beth Keane.

Yesterday we had friends over and I fried everything. We went for a walk and hung out. My daughter has been into scary movies lately so we watched Friday the 13th. I remember when that was so scary to me and now it feels not that scary at all. What scary movies did you watch growing up?

I don’t know. I think I am just having a day. I just don’t feel like I like me today.

Do you have days like this? Is there anything you do that makes you feel better?

President’s day

February 17, 2020Uncategorized#family #friends #food #presidentsday #2020sambel203

I’m not really sure what President’s day is or why it’s a holiday, but I’ll take it.

Today is the last day of the kids February break from school. I love when they have time off but I also feel like they start to go a little stir crazy on the last day. Or maybe it’s me? Probably both.

Today we’re having some friends over and we’re going to drink good bourbon and I am going to fry a lot of things.

First I am making some wings. One batch of Epic Dry Rub wings, I got the recipe from here.

https://www.thechunkychef.com/epic-dry-rubbed-baked-chicken-wings/

This recipe is good. I actually use the dry rub on a lot of things but wings and pork chops are my fav.

I am also going to make a batch of just plain fried chicken wings for the kids. I’m going to try out this recipe:

https://iheartrecipes.com/crispy-southern-fried-chicken-wings-easy-old-fashioned/

It sounds good and I like the addition of corn starch to fried chicken recipes. I think it makes it crunchier.

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My friends husband makes a really good spicy BBQ sauce so I’m going to ask him to make a batch (After I give him some bourbon.)

Yes, I ask my guests to cook sometimes. Especially if they have delicious recipes.

I also have raviolis out to fry. We dunk them in eggs and coat them with bread crumbs and then deep fried. I am also making fried dough.

I let the kids top those with whatever they want. I put out powdered sugar and tomato sauce and shredded parm and let people top anyway they want. I personally like a lot of sauce, a little parm AND a little powdered sugar. Yum…

I also have a greek salad and Tzatziki with pita.

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My friend and I will go for a walk and my daughter wants to ride her bike a little. Then it’s time to get ready for school and work tomorrow.

And that’s our president’s day. What are your plans for the day?

What’s your managing style?

February 15, 2020Uncategorized#personal #manager #style #leader #bosssambel203

This was a question thrown at me on a recent interview and I was stumped because I haven’t really managed anyone in over 5 years now.

I was like, Wow. Well, my goal as a manager is developing a team who will work well together and also I want to help my employees develop themselves. I have no idea if this was a good answer or not but that is the way I see myself when I have been a manager.

I always believed in cross training and I always met with my employees to see how they were doing, how the work flow was, if they needed help, if they could help someone else out, if they were interested in learning something new from someone else and who. That way when it’s crunch time, we can all work together to accomplish our task.

I think as a manager, it’s really important to listen to your employees and make sure they feel supported and appreciated. I want people to grow and be happy and learn, and I want to help you get there! That’s what I would want from my manager.

I don’t know… What type of manager would you be?

Applying for a new job.

February 14, 2020Uncategorized#life #personal #jobsambel203

What are your thoughts on joining a company that is restructuring?

Recently I was minding my business on my lunch hour and I got a email from a recruiter. I am on linked in twice. One is an author page and one is my actual paying job at the moment (Insurance and Billing Admin). There was a job opportunity that paid a little more and has bonus and it’s not that much farther away.

Image result for woman minding her business

My current job. I get awesome holiday’s, time off, and vacation. I’m 5 years in, fully vested and get a 2% match to my 401K … That’s pretty cool. This recruiter reached out to me with this opportunity and I thought, why not just send in my resume? The job sounded exactly like what I am doing right now but it’s in marketing and that’s sort of where I am failing as an author right now. It’s so hard to promote yourself when you have zero money to invest in advertising. Maybe working there, I would learn a thing or two about that.

The only issue with my current job is that it’s a non profit. We operate on a skeleton crew 100% of the time. There is zero room for growth because you are already doing 10 people’s jobs. That’s just the way it is. On the flip side of that, we get summer Fridays and lots of vacation, holiday’s and sick time. The work/ life balance is there. When I leave work, I don’t take it home with me.

So I went on an interview yesterday. They are restructuring and are offering like 5k more and a 8% bonus (as opposed to a maybe bonus at my current job). They are about to be bought and the HR director seemed a little sad when I asked about the direction of the company. I am not even sure a move would make any sense at all.

I will go to the follow up interview because I feel like this is just something I should see though because it fell in my lap… but.. but… My thought is no. I don’t think it would be worth it to jump at the moment. I will go to the other interview next week if they call, but seriously, there would have to be some amazing sign on package to make me consider it. Who knows though, maybe there is?

What would you do?

When the husband’s away.

February 12, 2020Uncategorized#family #travel #husband #children #worksambel203

It feels so weird.

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My husband has never had a job where he had to travel until this one. Last year he was in California for a trade show and it sucked. The kids were miserable and crying because they missed him so much and the time difference made it really hard to face time. When we we leaving for school and work, it was 5 AM over there.

When I was getting them ready for bed, my husband was just getting off the trade show floor. It just sucked. The only good thing that came from it was that I decided we should all go to California and I booked a trip to San Diego for the 4 of us and it was amazing.

This year the trade show was in Orlando.

At least it was in the same time zone so talking in the morning, or after work, or before bed was much easier. But we were all still missing him like crazy and we just function better when he’s here.

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The kids were fine for me. Actually, they were better than fine. Besides the occasional crying because they missed their dad, they didn’t give me a hard time about anything I asked them to do or help me with.

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I talked to a few of my coworkers and some of the kids friends parents at school and I was surprised to get a lot of positive reactions when I told them that my husband was away for a few days.

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Like “Yea! You get to chill.” Or “So relaxing! Enjoy it! ” Or “I love when my husband goes away for work because I can watch whatever I want.”

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None of that really makes any sense to me. I’m not chilling or relaxing, I am picking up all his chores on top of mine and I don’t find it relaxing when my child is crying in my arms because they want to hug their dad goodnight.

In fact, it’s really hard for me to relax unless we are all together. I always tend to think of worst case scenario and I don’t feel at ease unless we are in the same area. Is there something wrong with me? As for the TV watching, I don’t watch much TV as it is.

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He’s on his way home now so I am feeling much better today but I won’t feel normal until we’re all in the house together later.

What about you? How do you feel when a spouse is traveling?

Family Games!

February 10, 2020Uncategorized#family #games #scattergories #fun #craftssambel203

This past weekend I took my children to this new toy store in our local mall called CAMP. I love this store.

I think it’s so cool how they have all these things for kids to do and play with there. It makes it a fun trip. I needed to get out of the house yesterday so I told the kids we should go check it out and they could each get something.

Sam picked out a rock’em sock’em game.

Isabel picked out a arts and crafts bin.

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And I picked out Scattergories. I LOOOOVE this game. I loved it growing up and I still love it. I was so excited to get it home and teach my kids how to play.

We set up Sam’s game and played a few rounds. I found the sweet spot that with make the other guys head pop up in one punch. Then I told the kids about it so they could try. We laughed and played for a bit.

My daughter and I made a craft.

Then we got to play Scattergories. We had such a blast playing it. We laughed and came up with stupid answers and it was awesome. I think we played 3 games in a row. Tonight we plan on playing again over dinner.

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Now I want to refresh our family games. What are some games you and your family love to play?

One time in New York City…

February 8, 2020Uncategorized#encounter #strange, #friends #newyork #story #crazy #smilesambel203

I was 19. Walking in the city. I think I thought I looked good that day. I may have tried on clothes in some place on fifth ave. I worked in Greenwich, CT as a waitress/ shift manager. I had my first day off in like a month. My bff and I went to New York to explore and be city girls that day. And we were.

We had just left a store. I think it was Armani Exchange. I fit in their medium. I was living my life.

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I was walking down the street and this man walked up in front of me and just stood there. And I stopped. We stared at each other… And I looked at him wondering what to say. My friend came back and grabbed my hand and pulled me away. It’s a weird thing to do to someone. Just stand in front of them. So this story still pops up in my mind occasionally.

I’m not sure what it meant. Maybe I am amazing and beautiful and that guy needed to meet me. Or my friend saved me from getting kidnapped or attacked by a crazy man.

Another time I was in New York and my boyfriend/ future husband was on a job interview so I walked across the street to the out door market and poked around. While I was walking I made eye contact with some guy and I smiled and kept walking.

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I was really surprised when someone tapped me on my shoulder while I was looking at some apples. I turned around and it was the guy I smiled at.

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I was like “Hi!” He said “Why did you smile at me?” I said “We made eye contact. I don’t know. I am happy.” He said “you should be careful who you smile at and you shouldn’t just smile at random people.” And he walked away.

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I thought, weird…. and then I went to get a manicure. I think about this encounter too. usually when I smile at people. What a weird thing to say to someone. Why not smile at people when you’re happy?

Do you have any stories of strange encounters?

Moving forward

Blogging my journey