Traci Hardin Massage Clinic Festus, MO - YES

I had heard of Reflexology before, but never experienced it. For a few days I had been dealing with Vertigo, so I made an appointment with Mandi Foster to get reflexology. In the first 5 minutes, the vertigo was gone. I was completely SOLD on reflexology from that point on. I absolutely LOVE reflexology.

Sweet N’ Sassy, St. Louis, MO - YES

Sweet N' Sassy is every little girl's paradise. A spa just for Girls! Sweet N' Sassy was having a special day where they allowed girls to come in and get their hair done and ride in the pink limo for free. The girls had a great time, but they wanted to try the pedicures and makeup. The ladies at Sweet N' Sassy were great and treated my girls like princesses. Well worth the $68.50 for 2 little girls to have so much fun.

VPG Marketing - YES

So typically when telemarketers call trying to sell short trips, I say no. But this time they just happened to be calling to offer us a couple of days in Branson and we were planning to go there in a couple months anyway. They started out asking somewhere around $250 for the package, which included 2 nights hotel and 2 tickets to a local show. By the time we were done negotiating we paid $119. The sales person told us that we could pick from a list of local hotels, but when we went to book the room the booking agent told us that we were not allowed to pick, we had to take what was available.

When we got there we were booked at the Stone Castle Hotel; it was a beautiful place. When we went to the sales presentation, we were seated in a large room with about 10 other couples. Each couple has their own small table. The presentation was different that all the timeshare presentations we have been to. This one is to buy into a vacation club that gives you wholesale prices on all aspects of vacation: hotels, resorts, airfare, cruises, rental cars, etc. After the presentation, a salesperson sits down with each couple and discusses price and financing options. The price for the program was somewhere around $12,000. After telling the salesperson No, they bring the price down to around $10,000 and offer financing. After they hear No again, they bring the price down again and again and again. When we left our final price was $999. For that $999 we get 10 weeks of resort stay, unlimited hotel bookings at wholesale rates, unlimited airfare at wholesale rates, etc. The only thing we excluded was the RV package. Another perk: all of our family gets to use it too.

Top Nails, St. Louis, MO - NO

My daughter's and I decided that we wanted to get pedicures, so we went to Top Nails 375 S County Center Way, St Louis, MO 63129. They put both of my girls in the kid chairs with DVD screens and they absolutely loved it. However, the man who did my pedicure was very rough; I was in pain multiple times. On top of the pain, I couldn't understand what the gentleman was saying and apparently I "agreed" to extra services. By the time we were done I paid to $90.00!

Legoland Discovery Center Schaumburg, Illinois - Yes

Legoland Disovery Center is fun for kids and adults.; well, if you are an adult that loved Legos as a kid. The kids loved every inch of the place. I really like the 4d movies with moving seats. The only real complaint I had about the place is when you get to the top floor there is a classroom where kids are able to build a specific lego kit, but it's an additional cost if they want to take what they build home. It's $5 extra. Be prepared to spend a few hours though because after all is done in the lego areas then there are rides to ride. Kids never want to leave! We paid $71.40 for 2 adults and 2 kids a single visit pass.

Rainforest Café, Chicago, Illinois- Maybe

If you have never been to a Rainforest Café you should check out the link below and find one near you. We absolutely love Rain Forest Café! With that being said, Chicago's Rainforest Café is kind of difficult to get into because of the parking issues. As you may know traffic in Chicago is STUPID! Parking is ridiculously expensive. It's actually cheaper to use valet parking than to park! Other than the traffic and parking issues the Chicago Rainforest is just as good as all the others. They service was great and the kids really enjoyed it. So, IF you are up for the challenges of getting in the door, then go for it.

http://www.rainforestcafe.com/

Straight Talk mobile phone service- YES!

When our contract with Verizon ran out we started looking at alternative cell phone providers. It seemed like no matter who we went with we were going to be spending around $150/ month for 2 cell phones with unlimited data. We tried Tmobile and they sucked! Then we decided to give Straight Talk a try. It was really simple to get started. We bought our own phones; must be ATT phone to work on Straight Talk. Then we got on the internet and ordered our sim cards with unlimited monthly plans. Everything is UNLIMITED! We have been using Straight Talk for about 9 months now and it works great. The only issue I have with them is if you have to call them for any reason, you will get a foreign person that is hard to understand. However, for $50.00 a month of UNLIMITED calls, texts, and data I think it's a pretty good deal.

Hampton Inn, Branson, MO & Hilton, Branson, MO. NO

I was on a mission to find a bed. My husband and I had stayed at a Hampton Inn back in 2005 that had the most comfortable bed that either of us had ever slept on. It was Amazing! So when we finally decided to buy a new bed this past year we called Hampton Inn and found out that it is possible to buy those beds. The problem is Hampton sells 2 kinds of mattresses so we decided to stay at two different Hampton brand hotels and try both mattresses out before buying.

We stayed at the Hilton first. The bed was not anything close to what we had experienced before. They had very comfortable pillows, but the mattress was not it. It was actually rather hard, in my opinion, for a $156 a night room. The room and the service were o.k., but nothing spectacular. You can get the same level of comfort for much less expensive in Branson, MO.

Next we tried the Hampton Inn. Again very disappointed in the bed and their pillows were not even that comfortable. While the price was lower at $109 a night, it still wasn't worth it, in my opinion.

Ridemakerz - NO

We recently ran across a store called Ridemakerz. It's like Build A Bear, but instead of making bears you build remote controlled cars. We have girls and they insisted that they wanted to build these remote controlled cars. We spent over an hour customizing these things. First you pick the body. They have just about anything you can imagine and they even have several of the cars from the movie "Cars" After you pick a body, you pick the engine, tires, decals, etc. Then you pay! We paid $50.50 for 1 remote controlled car. They played with their cars all of one day after that they were put up never to be seen again. While it was fun for them for an hour to make them, it was really a waste of money; at least for my girls. We should have just gone to Build a Bear; they play with their Build a Bears for years.

http://ridemakerz.com/

Olympus Digital Audio Recorder WS600- Yes

I recently needed to purchase a Digital Audio Recorder and I made the mistake of purchase a $30.00 recorder that really didn't have any easy function of transferring the audio from the recording device to the computer. So, I took it back and purchased the Olympus WS600 for $43.34. This recorder is great! It has a built in USB so that as soon as I am done recording I can plug it right into my computer. It also has great battery life. I have no complaints at all about this recorder

Animal Emergency Clinic, St. Louis, MO. Jones Animal Clinic Crystal City, MO. Yes/NO

We have a small, 7 year old Yorkshire Terrier named, Zoey and for the most part she gets walked on a leash, but last Friday night we were all busy and put her on the run in the backyard for about 5 minutes. In that 5 minutes something happened, I still don't know what. When we brought her back in she was bleeding from a wound in her belly. We cleaned it and bandaged it, but she was bleeding quite a lot. I really have no idea how much is too much blood for a dog to lose, ya know. Of course, the vet's office was closed, so our only option was the Animal Emergency Clinic in St. Louis, MO. After we arrived they took Zoey to the back and came back out to tell me that they wanted to do exploratory surgery because they didn't know what caused the injury. Exploratory surgery was going to be over $1200.00! I don't have $1200.00!!! I asked them if the amount of blood she had lost was life threatening and they said No. At this point, I'm thinking well, I will just take her to my Vet the next day and see what his recommendation is. So, the clinic cleaned the wound and bandaged it, gave her some antibiotics and charged me $184.08.

The next day, I went to Jones Animal Clinic in the small town of Crystal City, MO. and had Zoey looked at. Dr. Jones was very nice and reassured us that Zoey was just fine. He felt around for internal injuries and seemed confident that there was no internal damage. He told us to just keep her bandaged and keep the bandage dry. He said to bring her back in every 3 days for a couple of weeks to have the bandage changed. I was charged $25.00 for the 1^st visit and $0 for every bandage change thereafter. That is what I call Great Service. I will be going back to Jones Animal Clinic!

Omnitrition – Yes

I recently ordered omni drops and Nite lite. I should preface this post with the fact that I have severe Acid Reflux. It was November 2011 when I began to experience the most excruciating pain I had ever felt. After over a year of test and treatments for many different things, we finally figured out it was Acid Reflux. I also realized that the reflux is much worse when I am on HCG drops. This was pretty bad news to me because I had lost 42 pounds on HCG drops and I needed to lose another 40 before I quit. Alas, I could not take them. After a 6 month hiatus from HCG drops, A friend suggested I try Omnitrition's drops. So, I ordered and I took them for 6 days before the pain began. I also took the Nite lite. The drops do work, but I could not continue because the pain was too severe. The good thing about Omni is that they will let you return the drops for a full refund. The Nite lite has a horrible taste, but it works. I could take the Nite Lite at 1:00a.m. and get up at 5 a.m. for work and feel like I slept 8 hours. I wasn't groggy or pushing the snooze button. That's amazing for me! Nite lite did not cause any acid reflux pains. Other than the test, it was great. I didn't notice it putting me to sleep any faster than usual, but the quality of sleep was great.

If I didn't have acid reflux, I would definitely try the drops again.

Painting Paw- Chesterfield, MO - Maybe

I decided to take my kids to the Painting Paw in Chesterfield, MO for a day of fun. We spent about 2 hours picking out an item and painting it. They had a lot of fun. It was a little aggravating that it takes 2 weeks after finishing your item for them to fire it and return it to you. For me Chesterfield is a long drive and I was under the impression that they fire it the same day you go. May have been naïve on my part, but it is what it is. The only other complaint is that the items are pretty pricey. All in all if you don't live to far from the Painting Paw it is worth doing at least once. Painting Paw is located at 140 Chesterfield Valley Dr  Chesterfield, MO 63005. (636) 530-9559.