Tag Archives: epic fail

Mar20

Travel Turmoil In New Orleans

Posted on March 20, 2026 by lifewithlilred

Hello! My sister, Kristen, and I spent an amazing weekend in New Orleans for our cousin’s wedding. It has been a very long time since either of us have traveled by plane and we were both pretty nervous. Our flight from Cleveland to New Orleans went without a hitch and it was so exciting to be greeted by the warm weather when we landed as we reveled in our success. As our weekend went by, we were two gals on the go and were enjoying our sister’s trip so much… Until it all came to a crashing halt on Sunday afternoon:

On Sunday night we were supposed to take a late flight back home. It was going to be rough as the plane took off at nine twenty to go to Orlando. We then would have to spend a five hour layover there until we could go back to Cleveland. It was okay, though, because we were so ready to go home! At around four in the afternoon, I got a notification that our flight would be delayed. While this was a buzzkill, we were still going to leave that night so it was all good. We decided to go grab a coffee and sit outside and read for a while to kill time before we needed to be back at the airport. An hour later, a notification came that literally felt like a punch to the gut – our flight had been cancelled.

In this moment, all I wanted to do was throw an adult temper tantrum lol. We were absolutely exhausted and the rug had been completely pulled out from under us. Rather than cry as much as I wanted to, we handled our business and I am so proud of us. After some deep breaths, I gave us each a task. Kristen was going to find a cheap hotel in the area that we could stay for the night and I would find us a flight home. With every passing second trying to find a flight back to Cleveland, my heart sank further and further. The cheapest tickets were roughly six hundred dollars. Can you say ouch?! Then, I had a brain blast…

What if we flew into the Akron Canton airport instead? I altered my search and blessedly found a semi affordable option that would get us home. In fact, flying into Akron Canton was even better as it was closer to both of our houses. With that, we gathered our luggage and made the mile trek to our new hotel with suitcases in tow. It was honestly the longest mile of our lives and when we finally got to our hotel room, we sunk into the bed and it felt like laying on a cloud! Surely, after all of this we would have a good night’s sleep – right?

WRONG! We were so stressed out about the flight home due to the TSA strikes that we couldn’t sleep a wink. Could you imagine missing the plane due to the long lines and bag checks after already changing plans once? We sure couldn’t! We arrived at the New Orleans airport with over three hours to spare and we didn’t even need it. Everything was running as smooth as silk and by eight forty-five we were in the air to get to our layover in Raleigh, North Carolina. We anticipated a two hour wait to get back to Akron until we weren’t. The delays just kept coming and coming. It. Was. Awful.

We spent a solid six hours at the Raleigh airport waiting for our plane. Six hours filled with dread that our flight would be cancelled and we would have to rinse and repeat the same situation. During this time, we had lunch, finished our books, and watched some TV on my phone. And, finally, the plane we were waiting on from Florida landed. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard! The wait was grueling but at least we were going home. #blessed

The flight back to Akron took around an hour and I have never been so happy to be in the A-K-Rowdy. We landed in New Orleans to sunshine and returned home to snow and that was more than okay with both of us. After all of that, we had finally made it. There really is no place like home!

Have you ever had a rough travel experience like ours? What is your favorite airline to fly on? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Sep9

Pajama Party OOTD

Posted on September 9, 2025 by lifewithlilred

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Hello! While I love clothes of all kinds, there is one aspect of dressing that I’m pretty negligent to and that would have to be pajamas. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the idea of cute pajama sets and have seen countless ones at TJMaxx that I would buy happily. I actually bought one cute shorts and cami PJ set that I got for our sweltering summer and that was even a stretch. Regardless of that one time purchase, I would rather spend my money on pretty pieces that everyone can see me in which is why I resort to old sweatpants to sleep in lol. I am pleased to report that my pajama collection has grown to TWO cute pajama sets because I simply couldn’t resist this darling pair that I got at 5 Below for a whole twelve bucks! Check it out:

Who? What? Wear?

Bite Me Pajama Set: 5 Below

Halloween was in full swing at 5 Below and it’s safe to say I went a little bit crazy lol. But, hey, Halloween is my time to shine AND shop and it has turned into a yearly tradition. At a store like 5 Below, it’s so easy to just grab whatever and add it to your cart because you are getting it on the cheap. This was how I felt when I snagged my new PJ set. They are perfectly spooky, totes adorbs, and I knew damn well I was not going to find a set like it at a lower price. I couldn’t wait to wear it over the long Labor Day weekend to curl up, watch scary movies, and veg out!

I proudly donned my pajamas on Saturday and felt like a little Halloween star. The fleece shorts and oversized tee were the epitome of comfort and felt so good to snuggle up in. In fact, I was wishing I had bought a few more of the sets at 5 Below for myself! Sadly, I made a major uh-oh when I had my new set on and I suppose I will chalk it up to being too comfortable. Johnny and I ordered Papa John’s and it couldn’t have come a moment too soon because I was verging on hanger.

With a loaded plate of pizza and garlic dipping sauce, I made my way back to my recliner, got myself cuddled up, and dug in. In my awkward sitting state that is great for lounging and not eating, my leg knocked my plate and the garlic sauce got ALL over my PJs that I was so proud of. Blessedly, it came out in the wash but it took a while to get the scent of garlic off of my legs or lingering in my nose. SMH!!!!

Like the true vampire I am, this garlic spill REALLY stung. I’m so glad these pajamas were good as new after a wash!!

What is a type of clothing that you rarely buy? Have you wrecked any of your clothing before? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Oct24

A Night At The Theater OOTD Bloopers

Posted on October 24, 2023 by lifewithlilred

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Hello everyone and welcome to the blooper reel from my Night At The Theater OOTD! Yesterday, you saw the look I created for an evening at Playhouse Square to see The Wiz. The show was absolutely wonderful, but the picture taking experience? Yeah… Not so much. Yesterday, I told you to stay tuned to find out why the amount of OOTD pictures was severely lacking and that is what we’re going to discuss today. Not until we look at these blurry yikes shots, of course! Let’s get to it:

Closing my eyes to block out the haters

This picture cracks me up because I literally blend into the wall and rug lol

I LOOK BLURRY!!! I MEAN… GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😉

My hands were clearly moving faster than the speed of light

This is such a “duhhh” face lol

Drawing everyone in with my seductive gaze

Normally when Johnny and I go to a Playhouse Square show, we make a whole event of it. We’ll go out to dinner, get a drink at our favorite bar in the area, then head to the main attraction. Having this time out before we’re even at the theater gives the perfect opportunity to take pictures away from a huge crowd. And, of course, it’s so much fun! Seeing The Wiz, however, was different because Johnny and I felt like taking it easy for the day and going straight to the show.

This was totally fine with me because we were both wiped out from a long work week. However, I had forgotten how difficult it is to take pictures at Playhouse Square! It basically sucks. We arrived at the theater with about forty-five minutes to spare to hit up the bathroom, take pictures, and get drinks. Had I planned better, we would have taken pictures at any old place beforehand. But, alas, I didn’t and it was a mad dash because everyone was arriving at the theater when we were.

Taking pictures at Playhouse Square is a delicate dance. You have to stake out a spot and pray that you have thirty or so seconds without anyone walking by. Much easier said than done! Not only is it hard to take the pictures to begin with, but they never turn out good anyways. The lighting outside of the Connor Palace is so low and yellowy and it isn’t what is needed for a quality shot. Not to mention that every single picture turns out blurry AF and I’m not sure why. I was lucky to get three pics that I was somewhat happy with!

Next time Johnny and I don’t have a pre-date before the actual date of seeing a show, I know better than to think we will be able to take pictures at the theater. This was a massive, epic failure for OOTD shots. A huge win for bloopers, though! 😀

Where is your favorite place to take pictures? How early do you arrive for an event you are attending? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Aug8

Willie Nelson Chia Pet Epic Fail

Posted on August 8, 2023 by lifewithlilred

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Hello!! Johnny and I are huge Willie Nelson fans and this past Christmas, his mom and dad gifted us with our very own Willie Nelson Chia Pet. After watching the Red Headed Stranger (Which was freaking AWESOME!) this past Saturday, we decided to finally bring our Chia Pet to life. I don’t know why we waited so long to do it, but it just felt right after watching a Willie Nelson movie. I guess we should have waited longer, though, because it was a failure of epic proportions. Check it out:

^^^ Lol at the picture of Willie in the water because you can see Johnny’s reflection in it and it cracks me up!!

The directions for our Chia Pet were very straight forward: Soak the clay for a half hour, put the seeds on, water it, and done. We filled up my spaghetti pot with water and let Willie Nelson soak while we played Diablo IV and, of course, listened to Willie Nelson. Once the clay was prepped, all that was left to do was apply the seeds. But, this is when things went so horribly wrong. I guess we didn’t realize that you should “plant” the seeds using your hands and not just dumping it on top! *Face palm*

So, Chia seeds went everywhere after Johnny so helpfully poured them all out and we were left scrambling to put them back onto the clay. It was an absolute mess and Chia Pet definitely didn’t cover this uh-oh in their commercials! Once we did our due diligence of cleaning up the scattered seeds, we both decided that Chia Pets suck. But that’s okay! We scraped the seeds off of Willie Nelson and now we have a great piece for our knick knack shelf! In fact, we both like it better that way so who’s the real winner in this situation?

Our Chia Pet experience was a total bust, but now we have a bust of Willie Nelson! Maybe Johnny was onto something with his faux pas all along?! 😀

Have you ever grew a Chia Pet? Do you currently have the commercial stuck in your head? (I do!) I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Aug13

My Attempt At Making Spaghetti Squash

Posted on August 13, 2020 by lifewithlilred

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Hello! When I’m at work, I am constantly being handed bagfuls of goodies from the gardens of whichever home I’m at for the day. During my produce haul last week, I was given a gigantic squash that I had absolutely no idea what to do with. My client’s mom suggested spaghetti squash and I have always wanted to try it so I thought I would give it a shot over the weekend.

Unfortunately, my attempt at making spaghetti squash was not very successful and, after a quick Google, I learned that the squash I used definitely did not look like traditional spaghetti squashes. WHOOPS! Lol, oh well. I tried something new and now I know differently for the next time! Take a look at some pics and let’s discuss:

To learn how to prepare my “spaghetti squash”, I visited the blog Cookie + Kate. This is one of my mom’s favorite sites to get vegetarian recipes from and, as her spiel goes, “Cookie is the dog and Kate is the human”. Lol, I consulted Kate’s recipe while making my squash and it was so easy to follow because it was just like learning how to make it from a friend. No unknown cooking terms and no long stories of how she found God while making this dish, haha.

To prepare my spaghetti squash, I cut it in half from the middle and then halved the pieces again. Afterwards, I scooped out all of the squash guts… AKA the seeds! It was actually pretty fun. Once the squash halves were seedless, I drizzled olive oil onto each of them and then seasoned with salt and pepper. All that was left to do was bake them and I kept my squash in the oven for a little under an hour at four hundred degrees.

I was eager to take my squash out of the oven but, sadly, there was nothing really “spaghetti” about it. I tried to fluff the insides into a spaghetti like texture as Kate had mentioned but there was hardly even any squash to work with on the interior. What I was originally hoping was going to be a noodle shape ended up being a few forkfuls of the squash and the texture definitely looked more like pulp. Although, I must say, it still tasted really good!

Sadly, my attempt at making spaghetti squash didn’t go too hot. However, I feel confident that if I ever get the right ingredients to make it with, it will turn out delicious with the help from Cookie + Kate! 😀

What is your favorite vegetarian recipe? What do you top your spaghetti squash with? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Aug11

Escape Room Game EPIC FAIL

Posted on August 11, 2020 by lifewithlilred

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Hello! For my birthday this past June, my brother and his family treated me to a bunch of goodies including this here room escape game for me and Johnny to play:

I have been eager to play this since it was gifted to me because I have always wanted to go to a real life room escape game. I used to LOVE playing the escape room computer games back in the day and I’d like to think that I would do pretty well for myself. In fact, that’s what I thought about this at home escape room too. Johnny and I are smart cookies and I was confident that we could solve the puzzles and escape the secret lab. Unfortunately, I was dead wrong.

Johnny and I finally decided to attempt this game when we were dogsitting for the weekend because the house we were in was way bigger than our apartment and we needed room to spread things out. The basic gist? Solve ten consecutive riddles with the help of hints if you need and escape the secret lab.

We initially started out strongly in our attempt to escape the lab. Of course, we had to use ALL of the hints to solve the first three or four riddles we completed but we solved them, lol. All of this took us at least an hour but, then, things started getting more complicated.

After our small successes with the “easier” riddles, they became more and more difficult to solve. We were getting hints that we had no idea what to do with and, after a few drinks, let’s just say things got very murky. Johnny and I puzzled over the last clue that we attempted for forty-five minutes bare minimum and then gave up to go watch Impractical Jokers.

I’m not going to lie, I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t solve the game but we completely lost all of our momentum and there was no way we were getting it back. Honestly, I was impressed at how much we even accomplished because it was really hard – the level three and a half difficulty wasn’t lying!

I don’t know how inclined I am to play another at home room escape game again. After two hours of working through the riddles, we were still so far away from solving it that it kind of lost its fun. I think we will stick to our preferred Trivial Pursuit from now on but if you’re feeling adventurous and have a knack for riddle solving, then an Escape Room game might be right for you! 😀

What have been your experiences with room escape games? What is your favorite game to play at home? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

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