Travelers beware

stay provieded by my Godmother's condo :)

Before I begin with all the wonderful stories about our trip I want to start with the WORST part of it. I want to make sure everyone is aware how awful this airline is. Seriously, you want cheap you get cheap; our fault I guess. We unfortunately traveled with SPIRIT AIRLINES, first and last time.

At first their rates look great but:

1) You pay for any piece of luggage ($19 if is ahead or $25 at he airport)
2) You will ALSO pay for any carry on as of August 2010
3) They charge for everything including refreshments on the flight (not even water) most things where about $3 each, can of soda, M&M's, water, etc. Drinks are $8 plus.
4) No entertainment at all during flights. Yeah.
5) horrible service and customer service

This was an international flight so I guess these days Airlines think you should just travel with the clothes on your back. But none the less, these are things I could overlooked if I had another experience.

Our adventure starting early Sunday Morning (12:30 am to be exact since our flight was leaving at 3am) when we get to the airport for our flight. The counter girl checks us in and walks away without telling us what is going on or what the problem is. She comes back half and hour later to tell us there is a problem with my check in, Hubs and oldest kid are ok. Then it results that they are having trouble with my reservation which makes no sense since all of them where done under mine name.

Off she walks again and leaves us waiting again, the other girl tell us is ok, that we wont miss the flight. At this point everyone is at the gate except for us and another family.

They told us that their system had an upgrade that deleted the baby and wont allow him to be added, so our oldest and the Hubs could fly but I had to wait till next day. Not an option to take a layover flight with baby in tow, bags, strollers, etc.

Hubs would have told her to take a flying leap but I gave a much more diplomatic answer. (the other family had the same issue) so we where all set up for the next day @ 3am AGAIN. They claim they would compensate us $100 in vouchers for each of us.

The next day we show up and get checked in. There is a small delay on the flight which causes us to get too late to catch our connecting flight . BTW, during the flight while we are on the plane I noticed that the oldest got booked to a different flight than ours without us being told anything.

AWESOME.

Well when we go to recheck our bags the counter girl who looks horrified at this point tells us that our 2nd plane has left, to stand to the side but to leave our bags with her.

We waited a while and finally another girl comes in and ask where we are going, then told us ALL flights where booked and the best she could do was to put us on stand by. Is already 8am and we have been up and around since 12am so I said fine. Then she asks for our bags, we tell her the other girl took them, the other girl gets a horrified look. While we where waiting, the baggage handler placed the bags on the conveyor belt without any tickets to destinations being in placed.

So they had to hurry up and call people to track our bags. Again, AWESOME.

After they realized they sent our bags to lala land and chased them around to tag them we where placed on stand by ( stand by was for 1:30pm) so we hang in the airport with our poor baby so restless. At 1:30pm they told us the plane was full; I had to go to the so call Customer service and use all my charm to get us re-booked for Tuesday at 7am. At this point I though the hubs was going to jump over the counter and hurt someone. we where not the only ones having issues and everyone was cursing, so I opted the classy way and got them to give us a hotel room. We arrived at the Hotel after 4pm. Are you counting hours? We had been in airports for 2 days!!! That day alone was16 hours. We all crashed at the hotel, the voucher for food was for $9 p/p and the menu had nothing under $12 so that was another added expense to us.

We where finally able to leave Tuesday on a 7am flight, arriving at 9:30am and then the drive home. The kicker is that I got written up at work for not being here on Monday as I was supposed to, even though I had emailed the Managers all along. Fabulous.

This was just not the kind of experience we want to remember…our poor kids where exhausted. I was tired and overwhelmed, husband was beyond frustrated. I have yet to see those vouchers by the way. We will be sending them a letter along with complaints to the BBB.

So glad to be back.The pictures and story about our trip will be posted tomorrow.

Over & out

Because Stupid doesnt like riding alone or the other NYC

So off we went to NYC and at what time we arrived home last night? Well let's just say if I was Cinderella I would have been riding a pumpkin, ok?

Oh but I loved it. Even when we where dating the hubs and I enjoyed our little road trips. It gives us time to talk about what's really important: life, religion, raising kids, where we wanna be, should Paula Abdul go back to American Idol.

Above-Seriously the best picture of me yet!

I love the long conversations we have during these times. They usually start with me asking him "tell me a story" and so he does. He tells me about his days in a Private Catholic All boys school, his days growing up in the city, playing around the buildings, the dating, the girls, what they enjoyed. He also tells me about the life he had with his parents, how his father would take him to the park to play ball every weekend. How his little brother , who is 15 years his junior, was so prone to accidents.

I tell him some of my adventures in dating, and what happened in between our 12 yrs hiatus.

I got a tell you though, even though I love me some New York on any give holiday or weekend, living there would never be an option. All the glamour of being in Central Park, walking on 5th Avenue, shopping on 42nd street, going to Chinatown, all that is the things you do on holiday there. Living there is a much different Story. Believe me, only Carrie can afford her place. And that's cause she got no kids.

First of all, the apartments are expensive and tiny. FIL is lucky to have a rent control apartment so he is able to manage an almost decent 2 bdr. His building is old (I believe from the 20-30's) so they have tons of character like molding in the walls and crown molding, glass knobs and things of the sort. They also have no elevator. Did I mention they live in the 5th floor?

I don't have pictures of the place because SIL came and basically is redoing the entire place and she is not done yet. But is looking nice. Poor guys are trying to get a new washer and dryer and have been informed they need to change to 220 electricity which they would need to pay themselves. Fun times.

Parking is a nightmare, seriously. You might as well wait for the tooth fairy to come offering cash. Hubs usually leaves me and he goes parking. Lucky for us we've been able to snag parking right in front of his building. (yeah, cause the hubs got mad skilzz- I'm trying my nuwyok accent here)

Also, there is no much green around, but I'm sure you guys knew that. Yes, they are parks...around..., but there is no grass for you to go and let the kids play, again, unless you live in front of Central Park, which means you wont be taking the kids, the nanny will. So guess where you are gonna have your family BBQ's?


This trip was basically to spend with family and with his Dad. We hang around the house, we ate -hellllluuuuuuu Spanish food and Chimichurris!- we talk, we laugh, we hang around, we went to bed around 4am (well, they did anyways).

I went out with the girls for a bit in the afternoon and found all the daddyos sitting outside with the kids, like they did in the good old days, drinking and talking. Just hanging all together. But the hubs had a blast, and so did the little guy who got a chance to start walking in a floor with no carpet.

This time, I had such a nice time, I really didn't want to come home. Even if there was no AC in the living room.

Over & out

'cause I'm BAAAAD, I'm bad, you know it...

And to answer your question-yes, that was sang in true Michael Jackson style. I WUW HIM.

shut it- he is the best! (yeah, I'm aware it should be past tense but I refuse...I'll start crying...sniff...new subject please).

oh- so you kept reading, huh? Masochist.

So I've been super dupper busy with the kids and the hubs and traveling. NYC was AWESOME and even though my boots died in the process, walking around NYC in the middle of the pouring rain while a certain teenager took photos of everything in sight was totally worth it. Our trip there took us the entire day of the 24th...we left the house at around 10:30am, stopped for an hour to shop for some last minute things (because I love to procrastinate) and also to eat something...we didn't arrive till 9pm! DARN NJ TURNPIKE TOLLS. Good thing is that I was able to put on some fake nails in the car while the baby slept. yeah...I'm cool like that.

I had this plan to get there early afternoon, rest, shower, get fabulous. but noooooooooo. We got there and tons of people where at the house already. So rushed pass 11,000 relatives trying to take my baby from me (shooo, shooo) and me bathing that same baby in the bathroom sink so he can freshen up. We shower in a flash (stand in front of mirror-splash water at it-get out) and started to party on.

The hubs family loves to party and this time they did not disappoint. Tons of food and drinks and (oh-my) desserts. I got a chance to dance with the hubby since everyone took turns to hold the little man. We went to bed after 4am!!! Talk about exhausted. Over the next couple of days with hang in Manhattan and took in everything it has too offer. We didn't get a chance to do everything we wanted because it was raining so bad (sorry Central Park) but we'll be back soon enough. Here are some pics of the trip:

THE FAM (me in red)

My Boys and I
Raining on 42nd
John Travolta's M&M double

A wall of M&M

The line here was ridiculous!

Musical Snowflakes to the tune of my Fav: "Carol of the Bells"

The Tree

Inside St. Patrick's Cathedral

My Ruined boots...yes, that's watter!

At the Park

So that's it for now. I'm going to go back to reading my new favorite blog: Calling People Names because she is freaking fantastic and hilarious.

Over & Out

P.S

This year I'm against new year's resolution. I'm going to enjoy life more, do less and be happy. I'm not going to worry about weight, or cleaning or anything that's not really important. If 2009 tough me something it was that material things come and go. Is who you have next to you and with you that matter. Pass the pork.