If I hit the sales right, I can find a good majority of their clothing for the following year for next to nothing. Today my bargains included Carter’s pajamas for $2.99 and pant outfits at $6.00. Then you add the coupon savings and it’s amazing. I have not found any other store to have better sales than Macy’s. Online shopping is the best as long as you spend the free shipping amount you cannot lose.

Happy Shopping,
Mama Bell

About 4 months ago, my daughter and I decided upon a NYC hotel for her wedding guests. I had spent weeks conversing, emailing and negotiating until the perfect West Village area hotel was chosen. We picked the Sheraton Tribeca for convenience, location , amenities and friendly cooperation. Working with the sales manager we locked in the wedding block price, room selections and costs. All set for August I thought. Not so. I found out last week through a guest that the room selections were down to only kings and there weren’t many rooms available. The invites had just gone out two weeks ago, so you understand my panic. According to plan I was to be notified when numbers were filling up to add more rooms to the block. I was not notified by the hotel. I later found out that there was a changing of the guard at the Sheraton without notification and our conversations were lost in oblivion. After numerous emails, phone calls and frustrations I was awarded additional rooms for the quoted price. I had to fight for what I thought were my rights   and, I suggest that anyone in the same boat planning a wedding and securing hotel space get everything in writing should there be a changing of the guard.

-Mama Bell

Father’s Day has been bittersweet for me. Celebrating Father’s Day with my kids is always a happy, fun time, but then there’s the sadness I feel that goes with the loss of my dad and grandfather. They were both great example of what Fathers should be and they left a positive, lasting effect on my life. When I look out my window on Father’s Day, I always think  of them. My dad because he went with me to dig pine trees at a local tree farm to transplant in my yard when I first moved in, and my grandfather who planted the maple tree seedlings that now tower overhead. The trees that had to be planted precisely so many feet apart according to his direction. Nothing crazy, just little things we did together as I knew their help and guidance was always there. On this post-Father’s Day blog, I want to thank not only these two men in my life but also my husband. He has lived up to their example of what a father should be and I’m so thankful to have chosen him as the father of my children.