Saturday, July 23, 2011

Product Overload

Ever wondered what products I use to keep my skin and hair so radiantly beautiful?

No?

Well Shut Up! because Imma tell you anyway.

So.

You know I love me a good bath. I find bath salts to be essential nowadays and recently I've been loving EO Bath Salt in both coconut & vanilla and Chamomile and Lavendar. I get it at Whole Foods and LOVE IT.

While bath salts are a luxury, and not something I indulge in every day, moisturizing is essential and I DO "splurge" and moisturize daily. I use Cera-Ve Moisturizing Cream from head to toe. It's perfect for face, elbows, legs, whatever. Perfect combination of light and creamy. No scent, either, which I actually like.

For soap, I like to use bar soap. Loofahs creep me out. I feel like they harbor way too much bacteria. (I don't use sponges for dishes or housework for the same reason. Eew.) Right now I'm actually using Caress, because I can't buy expensive *everything* and it was on sale. And I really, really like it. Will buy again when I'm out. It's not filmy at all and is just barely scented.

For my hair I have two different products, depending on whether I'm air drying or blow drying. When air drying, I use Shu Uemura Liquid Fabric Texture Spray. While I *like* it, I can't honestly say that I love it. I haven't found anything I LOVE when air drying, unfortunately. This is the best I've found. When blow drying, I use Redken Smooth Down Heat Glide, and I DO love this product. Not greasy at all, but does a great job of keeping the hair smooth.

Make-up. Put together the facts that a) I've been driving Mike's car lately because my inspection is due on my car, b) my make-up bag is in my car, c) I'm a combination of lazy and forgetful, which leads to my not getting the stupid make-up bag out of the stupid car, and you'll get the fact that d) I haven't been wearing make-up lately. But the products I WAS wearing regularly, I was very happy with.

For "powder" I use LORAC perfectly lit luminizing powder in luminous. I put "powder" in quotations because it really doesn't look or feel like a powder. It just kind of highlights and gives a slight shimmer to your face. I really, really love this stuff.

For my eyes, I use Clinique color surge eye shadows in purple. Every Christmas my mom gives us Clinique make-up bags, and this was in last Christmas' bag and I LOVE it. I also use a white shimmer right under my eyebrows, no specific brand- whatever is cheap. I think it's covergirl right now.

I always curl my eyelashes and use mascara, and I have no idea what kind of curler I use, or what kind of mascara I use. Whatever mascara is pink with a green top, that's what I use.

When going out and actually DOING my make-up, I always darken my eyebrows. I just find that it finishes the look. I recently found Revlon Colorstay Brow Enhancer and am loving it.

So, there you have it. Fire up the google and get to looking for these fabulous products. You won't be disappointed, I promise.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

ch-ch-ch-changes

Mike has been a full time stay at home dad this summer, and I've been working what feels like all the time. This has brought about many changes in our household, including but not limited to: a major change in interests for Addison. No more Barbies and Princesses for this girl. She's all about SUPER HEROES. Mike has introduced her to the following cartoons and/or movies, and she has seen each more times than I'd like to admit:

The Avengers- she sings the theme song ALL THE TIME. Avengers Assemble!
Batman- she's way into all of the villains- Two Face, The Joker, Poison Ivy, the list goes on and on... (She hasn't seen any of the Batman movies, only the cartoon)
Superman
Spiderman
Green Lantern- she pronounces it Green Lanterin for some reason, which makes me giggle

I know there are more, but to be honest with you, I don't really pay much attention. All I know is that she LOVES superheroes and pretends to be one most of the time.

She calls herself "The Wasp". And her superpower is her "shooters". Not exactly sure what the shooters do, but they come from her arms and she swings her arms around and makes a "peew peew peew" sound as she does it.

I knew Mike was going to introduce these things to Aiden in good time, I mean let's face it: Mike's "office" is a storage room and place to display his comic book and figurine collections. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, it's a sight to behold. But never in a million years would I have thought that Addison would give a rat's ass about this stuff. (a rat's ass? what a gross saying).

BUT. She loves it. And it's added a whole new dimension to her character and personality, which is actually pretty cool. AND she fights off the bad guys with her superpowers, so our family is always protected... which is pretty cool too.

Friday, July 15, 2011

josh

Our close friend josh just found out he has non hodgkins lymphoma. He's starting his fight in a couple of weeks. Tonight he came over to play with us. We played some wii, watched a movie, and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We love josh and hope and pray and KNOW that he will beat this. Love love love joshie.
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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Down One Man

Wo-Man. The studio is down one instructor.

Once of my teachers (Addison's teacher) emailed me on Sunday night to tell me that Monday would be her last day. She'd told me that she was looking for another job- as side job- to make more money. And she told me she'd give me plenty of time to replace her, if needed. Less than a day is not "plenty of time". So, I'm hustling. I put an ad on craigslist and am interviewing all week. Because she might not have had many summer hours, but she sure had a lot of fall hours: 25.

Ugh.

I want to scream. But I'm not screaming. I'm just trucking along filling in for all of her summer classes and trying to find a qualified person to fill her fall classes.

Anyone wanna give dance teaching a try? Let me know!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Accents

I don't know why... but I have an, what some might call, "obsession" with british accents. I'm trying to acquire one (not to use permanently, of course, because that would just be weird). No, no... I only want it to be used for fun. Remember, what's fun for you is probably different from what's fun for me. You may have noticed this in previous posts. You probably did, actually.

Accents. Yes. I try to use them when we're at home, having normal conversations. "What, Addison? You want more juice? Of course, hang on just a minute, mommy will have your juice after she finishes the dishes. Oh, I forgot to tell you that we have plans to go have dinner with some friends tonight. Yes, won't that be fun!"

I like it! It's fun!!! Maybe we'll get to have a conversation while I'm speaking with a british accent. Wouldn't THAT be fun?!?!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

My Hero

Addison had her first swim lesson yesterday. More on that later.

Before leaving, I had to stop by the front desk to ask a question. There was some sort of confrontation on the other side of the desk, I noticed it right away. At first it was just words, but then I saw a "boy" (he was maybe 16 or 17 years old?) slap a woman (she was probably 50?) I tried to tell Mike, sort of under my breath, so as to not cause a scene or draw more attention to it, and bless him, he was very "Mike" about it. Huh? What? Then the boy punched the woman in the face, calling her every curse word under the sun. I then loudly told Mike what was going on, and when we both looked back over, he had her under his arm and was pulling his hair with all his might. I told Mike to go and help her! She was all alone over there and was being attacked!

So, Mike ran over and immediately utilized his hold training he'd learned back from his Region 13 days. This boy was STRONG. Finally the YMCA staff woke up and called for back-up. A few men ran over to help. There were literally 4 men trying to pry this boy off of the woman. As soon as he could free an arm, he used it to either punch the woman, or whichever man he could reach. Luckily, Mike never got hit.

While this is happening, I'm trying to keep Addison and Aiden away from the scene. The YMCA had finally called 911 and were trying to re-route the people coming in the front doors. They put the most incompetent staff members on this job, I swear. So I started doing their job, making sure no one came near the commotion.

By this point, they've got the boy on the floor, but all 4 men were still required to hold him down. He was bleeding from his mouth and was still VERY strong and aggressive. Shouting profanities and trying his hardest to hit whoever he could.

The woman behind the desk told me that he was "special needs" and the woman was his "job trainer". It was his first day. They had called his mom, and she showed up within minutes. It seemed like when she showed up, he calmed down a bit, but still all 4 men were on top of him. She was on the brink of tears- almost like this was new to her, like she'd not dealt with this before.

The police showed up, and then the paramedics. Once he was able to, Mike left the situation.

It was CRAZY. If Mike hadn't intervened when he did, I wonder how much longer the boy would have attacked the woman, how much harm he could have done? I don't like to think about it.

On the way home, I said something to Mike about using his old Region 13 moves. He told me he had one student last year who he had to hold down like that many times over the year. He said his student wasn't quite as strong as this YMCA kid, but close. And that he was just as violent, except most of the time self-inflicting- banging his head on the floor, etc. I can't even imagine seeing this! And then coming home, cool as a cucumber.

He is my hero. My husband, my hero.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Click here to see some photos from my Grandmother's party.

And for a photo session starring my sister and her family.

Wish there was more of ME! (No I don't)

Wish there was more of my kids! This much is true.

So Much To Post...

So little time.

Or, really, so little energy.

I still need to get to Aiden's birthday. And Mike's birthday.

But first... (spoken in my best Julie Chen, host of Big Brother, voice. If you didn't get that joke you're most definitely cooler than I am.)

Grandma's 90th birthday.

Key words to summarize last night's celebration:

Hummer Limos. Hot. Malfunctioning A/C. CRAZY HAPPY KIDS. The County Line. Drunk Aunt Susan. Free drinks. All you can eat meat. British accents. Hai Le.

Friday, July 1, 2011

How Do I Waste My Time? Well...

The Bachelorette is SO STUPID. The stupid girl, the stupid guys, the stupid staging of "moments", it's ALL SO STUPID. Why do I watch it? I don't really, actually. I record it and then "watch" it while working (returning emails and such). But ugh. I still hate myself. (i also suspect at least 3 of the bachelors are gay. so that's fun to watch. so uncomfortable.)

I still love The Real Housewives of Anything. And Watch What Happens Live. And anything on Bravo. It's a love/hate relationship and I LOVE it.

So You Think You Can Dance? YES. Melanie? YES. This show is a total crock (as if they really draw the dances "randomly" from a hat each week. Puh-leeze.) But I still love it. It's clear they want Melanie and her partner (Marko?) to make it far and I'm totally on board with that.

Did you know that I record Days of Our Lives every day? And delete it every night without watching it? I just read the 2 sentence synopsis and delete it. So I feel like I'm still in tune with the story lines but I haven't actually watched an episode in months. It's pretty awesome.

Oh.

Have you seen Bridesmaids?

GO SEE IT! It is LAUGH OUT LOUD, PEE YOUR PANTS, LAUGH TIL YOU CRY, DOUBLE OVER IN A GOOD WAY FUNNY.

And thus concludes my report on my television and movie watching as of late.