2 Little Rosebuds

Making dad proud, one free diaper at a time.

If someone were to ask me “What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from your father?”, I wouldn’t have to give it a second thought. One phrase would immediately pop into my head and I’d proudly echo the words I’ve heard my dad proclaim many times throughout my life.

Was it some hokey Ward Cleaver-esque gem about always doing the right thing? Nope. Perhaps a famous quote about following your dreams? Not so much. The one piece of (not quite) fatherly advice that will stick with me forever?

“If it’s free, take it!”

Ah, yes, my father has instilled in me the gift of thrift.
The flair for frugality.
The craving for the saving.

So it’s only fitting that once I found out I was having twins, I was determined to get all the “multiples” discounts/freebies/coupons that I could dig up. Babies are NOT cheap. And twins? Pffft. I knew I’d need all the help I could get.

I scoured the internet for baby-related companies and dropped them emails asking if they offered any special discounts for multiples. Some companies requested actual proof of the twin births, some didn’t. Some offers were generous, some not so much. I kept a list of the companies I contacted, what they required from me, and what I ended up receiving. (Yeah, I kinda got really into this.)

So without further ado, I present to you…

Wendy’s Super Fantastic, Totally Tubular List O’ Freebies for Us Crazy Awesome Twin Moms

Pampers (requested proof of birth) – Received coupons: one for a free pack of diapers (up to $13.99), one for $5.00 off, two for $2.00 off, and one for $1.00 off wipes.
Luvs (requested proof of birth) – Received coupons: one for a free pack of diapers (up to $9.00), one for $4.00 off, two for $2.00 off, and one for $1.00 off wipes.
Gerber (no proof needed) – Received coupons: one for $10 off any Gerber food items, two $3.00 coupons for formula.
Tomy (requested proof of birth) – Received: 2 soft rattles, 2 sets of 4 colorful sippy cups with travel caps.

Sprout (no proof needed) – Received: four coupons for $1.00 off.
Ocean Spray (requested proof of birth) – Received: one coupon for a free product (up to $5.99) and one for 55 cents off.
Enfamil (no proof needed) – Received: one coupon for $5.00 off formula. I also asked our pediatrician to enroll us in the Enfamil multiples program & received a case of free formula delivered to our door (12 cans!).
Beechnut (no proof needed) – Received: various coupons, feeding guide.
Seventh Generation (no proof needed) – Received: 12 diaper samples (3 different sizes), four coupons for 75 cents off any product, 3 sample packs of wipes, 2 samples of laundry detergent, 3 samples dish soap, and 2 samples of hand wash.

Johnson & Johnson (no proof needed) – Received: three coupons for $1.00 off any of their products. (I used them for baby cotton swabs that were $1.49, so I only paid 49 cents. Not bad.)
Earth’s Best (no proof needed) – Received: six coupons for wipes, diapers, baby food.
Huggies (requested proof of birth) – Received: two coupons for $3.00 off, two coupons for $2.00 off. (I had to re-email them months after my request because I didn’t receive anything from them. They ended up sending me two separate mailings with the coupons mentioned above. Kind of disappointed though, as Pampers & Luvs offered MUCH better savings. Eh, Huggies are kinda shitty anyway… Their wipes tear too easily. But I digress…)

So there it is. My big list ‘o savings for us moms of twins (or more!). If anyone has any additions to the list, please send them my way & I’ll gladly add (and use!) them.

Happy Saving!

Way off, Target.

Random

I’ve always been a fan of Target. I even tried to work there back in the day. Three separate times. I never did get hired though, mainly because I was too punk rock to take out my lip/nose/eyebrow rings. Ah, youth.

Anywhooooo… It was only natural that when I found out I was pregnant, I opted to open a Baby Registry at Target.

My baby showers came & went, and we received a lot of the things I had registered for. Awesome. All we had to do was order a few more things that we hadn’t gotten. My mom offered to buy the changing table and Mike’s dad said he’d get the second crib. Again, awesome.

So we order the items & wait for them to arrive. First, we get the changing table/dresser. Mike puts it together the same day. About 2 hours into building it, he realizes that there’s a huge gouge in the top of the dresser — right in front, on the biggest piece. Ugh. Since it was pretty much all assembled, we decided to just live with it. Luckily the paint is still intact, but the gouge is definitely noticeable. Later, we noticed that the box was damaged too. Figures. That’s what you get for $30 shipping charges?

Then there’s the crib. All of the other packages were shipped via UPS, but for whatever reason the crib came in a big Enterprise truck. When I got up yesterday morning, I heard the truck & looked out my bedroom window. I watched the guy put it on a dolly & start wheeling it towards the house. I expected him to walk up the driveway to put it on the back porch, as all of the delivery dudes do. Oh, but not this guy… He wheeled it to my FRONT porch, carried it up the stairs and leaned it against the house for all the world to see. Nice.

So the huge box sat on the porch from 9am until 5pm when Mike got home from work. He brought it inside to open it up and shortly thereafter, I hear some very salty language. Turns out, the box looked like it had been attacked (and bitten) by a grizzly bear and the crib inside was damaged. The whole back/headboard thingy was cracked in half. Wonderful. Again, $30 in shipping well spent.

Today, after reading through the Target return policy online, I called customer service. I nicely explained the situation to a brain-dead rep who didn’t want to be bothered. He told me to return it to the store and they would replace it. I explained that it was an online-only item and he seemed confused. I then told him it was out of stock now, and there was a long pause… And then the call ended. Um… awesome customer service there, Target!

So now my father-in-law is stuck having to help Mike take the cumbersome crib back to Target, and we’ll have to order a replacement elsewhere. I just hope we can find the same one (and receive it intact) soon, since we already have one & it would be super lame to have mismatched cribs. Eff that!

Needless to say, I just sent Target a nice little complaint email. I think my frustration and inconvenience deserves a free gift card, no? 😉

Edit: WTF? Now it looks like shipping is free on orders over $75?? I hate you, Target.

It’s true: I’m the laziest vegan ever.

Random

I have a confession to make:

I’m a lazy cook.

Like, super lazy.

Sure, like any card-carrying herbivore, I have a nice little collection of vegan cookbooks propped up on a shelf above my stove. I even have a binder full of recipes that I’ve clipped out of magazines over the years. And copies of vegweb recipes scattered here and there.

Yes, I’m fully armed with the resources & inspiration to create a plethora of yummy, cooked-from-scratch vegan delicacies.

The problem? Recipes scare me. More specifically, crazy long lists of ingredients: A cup of this, a teaspoon of that, a dash of some random spice I’ve never heard of, a tablespoon of the juice of an exotic fruit that you can only buy in Chinatown during a lunar eclipse…

So it goes without saying that the first thing I do when I consider trying out a new recipe is jump down to the ingredient list. If there’s more than, say, 10 or so components, it’s a no-go.

With that said, I bring you one of my favorite, super easy go-to “recipes” for Yummy Vegan Pasta Salad. I used quotes because it’s really not much of a recipe, per say… More of a common sense list of ingredients that can be easily swapped for other things — perfect for the lazy cook!

I make this for summer gatherings & my (non-veg) family seems to dig it. I whipped up a batch for Memorial Day & I’ve been enjoying the leftovers all week. So good!

pasta salad vegan — Not the prettiest picture, but yummy nonetheless!

Wendy’s Super-Easy Vegan Pasta Salad

1 box of your favorite pasta (I used some kind of spinach/zucchini blend)
1 lb of carrots (7-8 medium sized), sliced
1 small can of garbanzo beans
1 red pepper, diced
a few fork-fulls (real technical here, guys) of sliced green olives
your preferred dressing of choice (I used Wegmans brand sub oil – sooo good!)

Boil the pasta, chop the veggies, run cold water over the pasta to cool it down before draining it & mixing all the veggies in. Add as much dressing as you like. Mix. Let it chill in the fridge for a bit, and enjoy! Bam! So easy!

Obviously you can throw in any other ingredients you’d like, and omit anything you don’t — except the pasta — that’s kind of important. 😉

Happy Birthday, Jerk

Random

My dear husband is 33 today. (He finally caught up with me!)

When we met face to face for the first time on a super awkward coffee date at Barnes N’ Noble, I would never have guessed that we’d be married — & expecting twins— a mere 4 years later.

istoleyourhoodie — 2008, when we started dating. We look so young!

It’s been a bumpy road at times, and we’ve certainly mastered the art of “bickering like an old married couple”, but I can’t imagine being with anyone else. Sorry Michael, but unless you have other plans, I’m afraid we have many, many more years of driving each other crazy ahead of us. Till death do us part, right? Mwahahahaha

My experiences with Lice, obscene poetry, and French stitches

Random

Oh, snap! People like me!

I’ve been given two nifty little blog awards by luminousvegans. And here they be:

I guess there are a bunch of rules & junk that I have to abide by in order to accept these, but ya know, rules are for chumps. haha. However, I suppose I should do something to justify posting these, right? Right.

Part of the requirement for the “One Lovely Blog Award” is to list 7 facts about yourself & then nominate 15 other blogs for the award. Well, being that I don’t even follow 15 other blogs at the moment (and the ones that I do follow probably already have these awards), I’m just going to do the “7 facts” thing. The “Illuminating Blogger Award” also asks for something similar. So here goes…

7 super random facts about Wendy (hey that’s me!)

1. I’ve met the majority of my boyfriends on the internet. Including my husband. What can I say? I’m socially awkward & super shy when I meet new people. The interwebz saved me from being a lonely, crazy turtle lady (I hate cats).

2. I think onions are the devil. If I’m served anything with onions in it, as tiny as they might be, you can be sure I’m gunna pick out every last little speck of ’em. EVIL.

3. In high school I got sent to the principal’s office for writing an obscene poem about my substitute teacher pleasuring himself. I don’t remember anything about it, except that it rhymed & my friend thought it was hilarious. I wish I had a copy…

4. I have French stitches in my chin. Well, had. I was with one of my exes at the Socre Coeur when my camera started to tumble down the hill we were sitting upon… I ran down the hill at full speed, trying to catch it… No luck. The camera won the race and once I got to the bottom, still going at full speed, I tripped over a wire that separated the grass from the cement — and SPLAT! — I went face-first into the concrete. I immediately started screaming, and a crowd of people gathered, talking to me in languages I couldn’t understand… Scariest thing ever. I think I’ll do a separate post about this at some point…

5. I hate musicals. Or any movie/show with excessive singing/dancing. You couldn’t pay me to watch an episode of Glee.

6. I wrote a zine in high school called “Lice”. It was mostly about my life, punk rock, and the random musings of an awkward 16-year old. I only did 3 issues, but I loved writing them. I actually got a positive review in Maximumrocknroll & sold them on consignment in my local indie record shops. I loved trading zines with people in other countries & getting lots of fun stuff in the mail. I still have a little suitcase full of the zines I’ve collected over the years & I treasure every one. (Hmm… this might require its own post at some point too.)

7. I’ve been working on this post for like an hour(!), so you’re not getting a 7th fact. 😉

Best friends, bad hairstyles & the burning of couches

Random

Last weekend I went for Thai food with an old friend whom I hadn’t seen in ten years. We sat in the quiet restaurant for about two hours, laughing and reminiscing about all of the stupid things we did together when we were younger. At some point we must have gotten a little, um… loud, as the waitress seemed to keep her distance and the other tables cleared out pretty soon after we arrived. Haha! Just like old times…

Mai-Ling and I met way back in 5th grade, in Mr. Flory’s class at City Honors School (we were big smartypants-es!). Our unlikely friendship was initiated when I decided to shoot spit balls at her in the middle of class. How this disgusting act led to us being friends is beyond me… But nonetheless, a friendship was formed and we were inseparable throughout the rest of our adolescence.

Over the course of our friendship there was one common theme that continued to pop up: We did really STUPID shit together. Like, really, really stupid shit.

The first time Mai-Ling came over to my house, we conjured up a brilliant idea to go in my swimming pool. Now, this wouldn’t be considered “stupid”, except for the fact that it was the middle of WINTER. The pool was covered in a sheet of ice and we took it upon ourselves to climb up onto the deck and proceed to walk on the frozen water. Brilliant! Lucky for us, my mom soon spotted us from the kitchen window & yelled at us to get the hell out of the pool. Good thing she caught us before our friendship/lives came to a cold, abrupt end. Thanks mom!

As we got older, our hi-jinx got even dumber.

graduates — Believe it or not, we *did* graduate high school!

Like most teenagers, we spent a good deal of time at the mall. In particular, the mall arcade. On one occasion, while playing air hockey, we decided it would be fun(?!) to steal the air hockey puck. Um…? Yeah. So we did just that. We smuggled the yellow plastic disc out of the arcade and walked across the hall (aisle? – other side of the mall) to kick the puck around. Oh, but not before writing “We stole this puck ?/?/94” (unsure of the date) in black marker ON THE PUCK. (Again, brilliant!) So there we were, kicking the stolen disc around — which was loud — clink, clink, clank… Until a security guard strolled up to us and we got *busted* (despite me oh-so-cleverly trying to hide the puck under my foot). Our guilt was literally written all over the puck, so we were thenceforth banned from the arcade for life. Ugh. Only us.

The absolute STUPIDEST THING of all the stupid things that we did can be summed up in two little words: The couch.

Ah, the couch. Imagine if you will, an old, beat-up couch perched on the side of a road. Its thick, tweed-ish fabric, a lovely plaid mix of green, brown, and white. A relic of the 60’s or 70’s, its glory days were long gone and it was destined to be taken away by the city trash collectors. Orrrr was it? — Enter Wendy & Mai-Ling, two young girls with time to kill and pastel lighters in their pockets — a dangerous combination.

When we first came upon the couch, I began jumping on it like Billie Joe in Green Day’s “Longview” video. I think I was stabbing it with a knife as well. (Hey, I told you we were stupid.) Once I got my fill of jumping & stabbing, we did what any teenage girls would do(!), we lit a tissue on fire & threw it on the couch to see if it would burn. To our dismay, the tissue quickly incinerated, but the couch remained in tact. We picked up a cushion and discovered a tag that read “inflammable”, which we assumed meant “cannot be burned”. (Ugh!) So we lit another tissue for giggles, threw it on the couch, and walked away. We got about 20 feet, turned around, and saw them — the FLAMES! The couch — the inflammable couch — was engulfed in flames! We freaked the hell out and began running away… We ran and ran, ending up in my grandmother’s back yard. We took refuge behind her shed, afraid to move. We sat there motionless, on a dirty wooden plank, as the sirens approached. Police cars and fire engines whizzed by on the streets surrounding us. We threw our lighters over my grandmother’s fence & prepared for a lifetime in jail.

After about a half hour, once the smoke had cleared (har har), we ventured out from our hiding place and went back to my parent’s house. When it was time to take Mai-Ling home, my mom drove us right past the scene of the crime. The couch was no longer a couch. It was a charred, blackened frame. My mom noticed it and said something like “Wow, someone burned that couch!”… Yeeeah… someone.

A few days later, we went back to pay respects to our dear, charred friend. We managed to find a scrap of fabric that somehow hadn’t been burned & took it home as a souvenir. And yeah, I still have it:

As dumb as we were back then, I don’t regret any of it. We had fun and (hopefully) didn’t hurt anyone else in the process. Today, we’re both responsible adults who have yet to spend a day in jail. We live in houses with inflammable couches and they’re safe. We don’t walk on frozen water and we’ve outgrown the urge to steal air hockey pucks. Yep, we turned out pretty damn awesome.

nerds — Probably the most recent (and sadly, blurry) photo of us, circa 1999 or so.

Now that we’ve rekindled our friendship, I truly hope that we never lose touch again. I want my two little rosebuds to know Auntie Mai-Ling and hear all about the silly things that she & mommy did when they were young. (And to know that I’ll kick their little asses if they ever try to repeat them!) 🙂

An eggs-tra special, super sappy, vegan-friendly Easter love story

Random, Twins

I’ve never been a follower of any particular religion. I was baptized as a baby, but that’s as far as I got. With that said, Easter has never been much of a big deal for me.

Sure, when I was a wee lil’ whippersnapper, I took much delight in hunting for my basket full of pastel-wrapped goodies & rainbow-colored jelly beans… What kid didn’t? But once I learned that the whole “Easter bunny” thing was a big sham, the holiday just kind of lost its appeal. It went downhill even more once I hit my teenage years & went vegetarian. Easter ham? No thanks!

It wasn’t until two years ago, in 2010, that Easter once again meant something to me. But it had nothing to do with God, or the Easter bunny… or ham.

Mike & I go to his mother’s house every Easter to enjoy a late-morning homemade breakfast. That Easter morning started off as per usual: Mike was up & showered by 9; I was still in bed, catching as many z’s as he’d allow.

The night before, Mike had mentioned something along the lines of “Maybe if you’re lucky, the Easter bunny will leave you some treats in the morning”. I didn’t think anything of it until he came to wake me up the next day, telling me I had some egg hunting to do. Huh?

So I decided to play along and went downstairs to begin the hunt. He handed me a plastic egg that housed a little slip of paper with a clue on it. (I honestly don’t remember what it said – I have all of the clues saved, but no idea what order they were in. Sorry, Mike.) Each clue led me to a specific object or location in the house, where another plastic egg was hidden. I found eggs in sugar jars… on dusty treadmills… in my old Nintendo system… until finally I reached the last clue & found a basket hanging from the showerhead.

I brought the basket into the kitchen to check out what the “Easter bunny” left me. It was full of vegan chocolate bars & a tin of custom-blended Adagio tea. Mike told me to open the tea & give it a sniff. I immediately spotted the tiny slip of paper inside before I even got the clear lid off. My heart kind of skipped a beat when I thought of what might be on that paper… So I opened the lid, pulled out the “last clue” & read it: “Better turn around now. Michael has something very important he wants to ask you…”

I turned around and Mike was on his knee, holding a diamond ring. I was speechless. He is (well, was) the most unromantic person I have ever known, so I couldn’t believe what was happening… He asked me to marry him, and being my classy self, I blurted out “Are you fucking serious?!”. Yeah, I’m not proud of that part. Haha. I was laughing/shaking and finally managed to say “Yes“.

We were married on October 2nd of that same year, in a small family reception at the Roycroft Inn in East Aurora, New York.

Now here we are, two Easters later, patiently awaiting the arrival of our 2 little rosebuds. 🙂

(Oh, Mike recently wrote his own version of this on his blog too!)

Avocado confessions.

Pregnancy

Today I am 16 weeks pregnant. My babies are the size of avocados!

AVOCADOS!!

Now, being a vegan, you’d think I’d be a big avocado fan… Natural, healthy, plant-based “good” fat – a perfect vegan staple, right? Right? Um… Okay, confession time:

I, Wendy Rose, long-time vegan & even longer-time vegetarian, have never tasted an avocado. Ever.

There. I said it. I have no excuses… no legit reasons for my avocado ignorance. Sure, I’ve had opportunities to try it. Whenever I go to Moe’s, they ask me if I’d like guacamole on my burrito. Each time I respond with a polite, but firm, “No thank you”.

I honestly don’t know what my fear is. The color? Texture? Some creepy, repressed avocado-related memory from childhood? (The only thing I can recall about avocados from my childhood is the fact that “Alf” had an avocado tree in his yard… Unless I’m making that up… Anyone wanna Google that for me?)

I think it’s time to give Mr. Avocado a chance… What harm can really be done?

In order to change my anti-avocado ways, I have added “Try an avocado” to my list of “101 Things in 1001 Days” goal list. So, along with “Get my photo taken with Santa” and “Be called ‘mommy'”, I WILL try a goddamned avocado!*

*Would a tiny dollop of guacamole count? – I’m scared!

Behold, the beauty of bean curd!

Random

Ever since I made the switch from vegetarian to vegan, I’ve come to embrace the yummy-ness that is ethnic food. At the top of my list would be Thai (tofu curry! veggie tempura!) and Middle Eastern (FALAFEL!). Sadly, my husband doesn’t quite accept the notion that non-American cuisine is anything but, well, weird. He’s definitely the ever-cliched “meat & potatoes” type of guy. I’ve tried to sway him in the other direction, and he has made some progress in the time that we’ve been together (he actually enjoys seitan wings now!), but he’s still a work in progress.

Luckily for me, Mike does like to indulge in Chinese food. Yeah, I know, what normal American man doesn’t? But still… It’s something.

Over the last year or so, we’ve found ourselves in a routine where we have it about once a week. We go to the same little Chinese/Vietnamese place every time – Red Pepper. They have reasonably priced lunch specials & bring you a complimentary hot pot of tea after you’re seated. (I love little “extras” like that!)

I usually get the same dish every time – mixed vegetables with bean curd or sesame bean curd. They have other vegan-friendly options, but I’m boring & like to stick with what I know is good. I guess I’m more like Mike than I thought… Dammit!

I crave pain, colorful tattooed pain

Random

With warmer weather comes less clothing. Less clothing results in more bared skin. And for me, bared skin means the urge to cover it up… with colorful tattoos.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been super pale. I mean PALE. Ghost-like. I’d like to blame it on my Welsh heritage, but really, I’m just not a big fan of the sun. I can’t remember a time when I’ve actually had an actual tan. It’s either brutal, lobster-like sunburns, or nothing. Thanks, sun. [read more…]

Hello, summer! Er, spring.

Random

It’s March 21st and the temperature here in my little suburb of Buffalo, NY is… 81 degrees!!! (Sup, global warming?)

I’m absolutely loving the fact that I can wear dresses sans cardigans & tights… BUT… I truly hope this isn’t a sign of things to come for the summer. My lil’ rosebuds are due September 11th (yeah, I know…) and I am most definitely NOT looking forward to being the size of a beluga whale in 90-degree weather. No sir. And humidity… Don’t even get me started on humidity… Arrrghhhh!

But I digress…

I always feel guilty (foolish?) for staying indoors on days like these. I should be out taking in the sunshine, strolling through a park, hugging on some trees. Instead, I sleep super late, clean up the house, and veg on the sofa. Sad. But really, who wants to go out alone? Not this girl.

So today’s feeble attempt at enjoying the weather was to go sit on the porch in my bare feet, cold glass of water by my side, and blog away. I got as far as the front door, felt the heat pouring in through the glass, and said “eff that noise”. Yeah, I’m a wuss.

Now here i sit, on my comfy couch, watching Maury prove that Jordan is NOT THE BABY’S FATHER! (I know, I use my time very wisely!) But as everyone keeps reminding me, I need to cherish lazy days like this. Come the end of summer, they will be few and far between. (So fear not, Judge Judy, I’m not leaving you yet…)

“If it’s free, take it!”

Wendy’s Super Fantastic, Totally Tubular List O’ Freebies for Us Crazy Awesome Twin Moms

Happy Saving!

Wendy’s Super-Easy Vegan Pasta Salad

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