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EUREKA!!!

  • Posted on March 31, 2010 at 6:27 pm

not the show. i am going to miss the show terribly now that we don’t have cable, but that’s a post for another day.

my son won’t shut up about earning his Wii. he got a whole lot closer today when his Thomas the Train ebay auction sold for WAY more than i could ever have hoped for (yay!) but he still has a little farther to go , since we divided his ebay earnings into his “car”, “save” and “spend” envelopes. yes, my 7 year old is already saving for a car. anyways.

he won’t quit jabbering about the Wii, and he keeps talking about about Mario Brothers. he loves Mario Brothers… before we had the PS3, we had a Gamecube. when he was admitted to the hospital for a kidney infection many, many years ago he played one of the first “Mario Party” games. he loved it, and when he finally got discharged, we bought him Mario Party 4 for being such a good boy in the hospital. since then he’s played a few other games, and to this day one of his favorite things to chat about is all the Mario characters, and his notebooks are full of Mario doodles.

just yesterday, he told me that he really wants to buy Mario Party 8 for his Wii when he gets it.

then it hit me.

MARIO PARTY 8!

he’s gonna be 8 this year….

how perfect!

for my son’s 8th birthday, we’re gonna throw Mario Party 8! i can already see the banner….

*whew* now i just have to figure out everything else.

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Proactiv Acne Solution… My Experience

  • Posted on March 30, 2010 at 7:32 am

2.10- today, i finally gave in and ordered the Proactive Solution.

2.14- i finally received notice that my Proactive starter pack has shipped.

2.18- it came in the mail today around lunchtime! i opened my package to reveal the 3 step solution, plus a travel pack of the same thing. there was also a spf-15 lotion, a regular oil-free moisturizer, and a rejuvinating mask. all the bottles are pretty small… i hope it lasts the 30 days!

when i opened each bottle, some of them had leaked just a little bit. it wasn’t enough for alarm, though. just an oily sheen on the outside of the bottles that was easily rinsed off. it does have me a little concerned for the safety of future orders, but i’ll worry about that when i get there.

i tried the 3-step solution for the first time that night. for some reason, i just assumed that the cleanser would be a foaming cleanser, so the first thing i did was load it onto my facial loofah pad. it definitely didn’t foam, and i couldn’t even feel it when i applied it, so i put a dab on my fingers… and lo and behold, it has those nifty little micro-exfoliating scrubbies already in it. it felt like washing my face with slimy sand. not too bad, though. i scrubbed and rinsed, then applied the next two steps.

i can already tell i’m going to have to splurge on some sort of moisturizer for a 4th step to my acne solution. this morning, my face is dry as parchment paper. in a way, it’s comforting because i know that it means the oil on my face is being controlled. i can’t continue to have my face this dry on a daily basis, though, so i’m going to implement one of the moisturizers they provided each time i wash my face.

3.13- so far, the Proactiv has helped clear up my acne a little bit, but not nearly enough for me to take an “after” picture. i am going to wait until next month. regardless of how well it works, i will post my “before” and “after” pictures then. if it doesn’t work a little better at the end of 60 days, i am going to discontinue the product. so far all it’s done is clear up a couple old zits and dry the shit out of my face. i’m still breaking out like crazy.

3.29- i just took my “after” pictures. i was a little disappointed in the fact that i still have a substantial amount of red acne spots, but once i examined my “before” pictures, the disappointment completely vanished. i’m also in the midst of a pre-menstrual break out, so i wasn’t too thrilled with taking the pictures… but i knew if i didn’t take them today while i was motivated, it might be another few weeks before i got around to it.

i only used the 3-step program. i tried the “oil control” stuff, but it just made my face burn unpleasantly. i never did get around to the mask either… by the time i’m washing my face at night, i just want to get it over with and go to bed. the spf lotion didn’t do well on my face either. it felt heavy and thick, so i ended up using my Oil of Olay moisturizing spf lotion instead. it worked out well… i noticed that if i kept my face moisturized during the day, i broke out less over night.

here’s the before and after pictures, 5 1/2 weeks into the Proactiv Acne Solution. sorry they’re so small, it’s a little embarassing to post suck intimate pictures of myself. i’d almost rather post a farther-away picture of me in a bathing suit. you can’t tell too much, but there really is a huge difference. i’d say it cut my acne down to a little less than half it’s former self and the redness on my face isn’t quite as harsh as it used to be. overall, i’m not blown away by the results- but i am very pleased with them. i AM, however, having some issues with the cost of the Proactiv Solution. it’s expensive as hell, and i don’t like the “automatic shipment” thing. i cancelled my auto shipments, and asked them to delete my card number from the system (which they did without complaint) and figure that i might try to find an acceptable, affordable alternative. i’m hoping to match the ingredients as much as i can, and go from there. i’ll give a grocery-store brand a try, and if in a couple months my face is back to being full of angry, red acne, i’ll suck it up and spend my monthly “fun money” allowance on it if i have to.

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Another Year…

  • Posted on March 29, 2010 at 7:01 am

along with the changing of the digits in the year, my internal “birthday alarm” has also reset. i don’t think about my kid’s birthday’s at the end of the year, but the farther into the year we get, all our birthdays are stuffed into the months of July, August, and September, so i have to plan carefully when it comes to party planning and gift giving so that nobody misses out.

i still have no idea what i’m going to do for the kids this year… oh, it will still be simple, but i like to throw  some sort of special theme in there, even if the only people here to see it are immediate family members.

-the first birthday in the household is….  my daughter. she will be 2 years old. i’ve already used my Tinkerbell party pass with the Tink party plates and napkins, but i think i’ll be doing it again this year anyways. i ordered her first birthday cake from Walmart, and was very pleased with the results. i’ll probably flip through the book this year and pick out a Tink cake. i’ll be getting Tink napkins, plates and maybe i’ll even go all out this year with a Tink tablecloth. ;) if we have any other kids over, maybe i’ll even make some little wings for them all to wear. i won’t go all out with the wire, this time. some flexible crafting foamboard and a few elastic straps oughta do the trick. i swear, i’m not just trying to re-live my own childhood fantasy… (even though it’s pretty cool that i get to!) my daughter LOVES Tinkerbell. she has Tinkerbell bedsheets, blankets and a toddler couch. all this was bought because the only movie she’ll actually sit down for an hour and a half just to watch is…. Tinkerbell I & II. i hope they come out with a III.

- the second birthday in the house is my husband. unfortunately for the grownups in the family, we never do anything special for our birthdays. every once in a while one of us will get a gift that requires spending, and we’ll all go on a fun shopping trip, but for the most part we just get a verbal “Happy Birthday” on the special morning, and leave it at that. this year, however is my husband’s big 3-0. i’d like to do something a little special for him, but since we don’t have more than 1 or 2 friends around here, a surprise party with all the trimmings is out of the question. i’ll probably end up stocking up on steak and salad and we’ll have a nice family grill out in the yard. i still haven’t figured out what i’m going to get for him, but everything that comes to mind that he’d really love is all X rated and for me, not him. that’s okay, right???? ;) i’m sure he’d really like it. :P

- birthday #3 of the year goes to me. :) i have a passionate dislike of holidays; my birthday included. i almost always come down with a major case of the holiday blues, and i don’t like all the standards i feel i have to meet to make the day good. i’d rather just ignore my birthday. besides, the people who should really get the credit for my birthday live in Virginia. my birthday just isn’t the same without my mom, dad, brother and sister. all of whom i probably won’t see at all this year. the best birthday ever would consist of nothing more than a sweet, thoughtful gift from my husband and a homemade card from my kids. the only way you could convince me to have a party, is if it featured this cake… (courtesy of Mike’s Amazing Cakes, in Redmond, Washington. if i lived there, i’d make it happen…) …and all my friends and family.

minus the corn dogs and the gaming dice, of course.

-birthday #4, last but not least is my son. he’ll be 8 years old! i know. OMG he’s getting so big. in year’s past he’s had a Thomas the Train cake, Wall-E, Curious George, even just regular old cupcakes- but last year he asked me to make his cake. the cake tasted great, but kind of looked like a big pile of poop and was so rich and chocolatey, i ended up throwing most of it away… so this year i’m hoping he’ll agree to pick a theme so i can get a cake from Walmart. if he decides to pick another one from my Hershey’s Chocolate Cookbook, then i’ll suck it up and go through the process of a test run and the real thing, but i don’t like the idea that the magic of the 8th birthday cake would be completely in my mediocre baker’s hands. whatever makes him happy i guess… that’s what matters. i really have no idea what kind of theme i’d incorporate into his party…  all of his character likes are growing and changing every day. since we got rid of our cable TV, a Clone Wars birthday (the obvious choice) is kind of out… hmmmm… unless of course, i decide to get him the movie as one of his gifts. i dunno. i also saw this really adorable Milk and Cookies themed 1st birthday party… it shouldn’t be too difficult to ramp it up for an 8 year old. that kid just loves my chocolate chip cookies. :) although i bet he would really love the Star Wars party too.

regardless of what i decide to do, at the moment i have plenty of time to plan it out, so i’m not in panic mode yet. of course, we all know what will really end up happening… i’ll buy the necessary stuff one week before the party, and randomly throw it all together while scrambling to wrap gifts and coerce my MIL to leave her bedroom long enough to make an appearance for more than 30 minutes.

what themes or special things have you done for your kids birthday’s in the past? what do you plan on doing this year?

my son's 4th Birthday Cake

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Sunday Seven 3-28-10

  • Posted on March 28, 2010 at 8:16 pm

once again, i’ve had the itch to revisit Patrick’s Place, and nab the Sunday Seven. :) here’s an interesting article about 10 whole different ways you can use facebook to transform your life. (in a positive way, of course)

Name seven benefits you think you’d most likely get or are already getting from Facebook.

  1. through facebook i have been able to connect with two groups of ladies i met through a message board 3 years ago who have at least one child the age as my youngest. we’ve all been through quite a lot together over the past 3 years, and i consider some of them the best friends i have. if not for facebook, we would never have been able to form a more personal bond.
  2. i am staying connected with my own family. we are scattered to all four corners of the wind- California, Connecticut, Florida, Virgina, to name a few. through facebook they can see up to date pictures of my children and chat with me on a daily basis.
  3. yes, it does provide some relief from boredom. i don’t use any of the available apps, but if i wanted to i could. ;)
  4. fast, on-the-go updates. whens someone is traveling, it’s nice to be able to see their little mobile updates, and know that they’re doing well or having a good time. it’s a lot easier than calling to check in.
  5. it’s a handy place to store the best of my pictures in the event that something happens to the ones on my computer.
  6. it has allowed me to stay connected with old friends who i’ve moved away from. i have a serious dislike for talking on the phone (not to mention it’s all but impossible with the crappy signal at my house) so this is an extra plus.
  7. through facebook’s many business sites, i’ve been able to get a number free samples of good products as well as valuable coupons, just by becoming a fan. :D

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Seriously? Sunday.

  • Posted on at 7:01 am

it’s Sunday, and for Sunday i thought i’d say something serious. very serious.

what could be so serious?

i take my coffee seriously.

very seriously.

if you visit me, you will get coffee.

and probably a cookie.

no matter what time of day it is.

you’ve already seen my morning drink of choice.

here’s my afternoon drink of choice.

no, there’s no booze in it despite the Irish coffee cup. actually it’s the same thing as my morning drink, my usual cups are just in the dishwasher. it’s two pumps of Monin Hazelnut syrup, 2 shots of medium roasted espresso, and skim milk frothed as frothy as i could get it.

i don’t drink coffee from coffee shops, because i have yet to find one who has espresso that is up to my standards. (since ANR decided to close its doors) if you think you can find an espresso better than All Nite Roaster’s Espresso Giovanna, send it to me. i’ll let you know. ;P just a warning? it will probably fail. either way, i need to find a new roast soon, since my reserve stores of EG are almost gone forever. :( *sob*

mmmmm coffee……..

Continue reading Seriously? Sunday.

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