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December 30, 2013

I have no catchy title

I'm not sure how long this will be as it's a pseduo update and rambling post.  We are back home and settled now.  We got back last week actually but in all of the confusion and emotional upheaval it didn't really seem like a good time to post.  My buddy, Baxter the pug, ran away the morning we left.  He was safely returned the night after we left but everyone was very upset in the interim.  Let me not say everyone.  The grownups were all kinds of upset.  The six and three year old were more upset that their aunt was leaving.  I really appreciated that more than they will ever know because it made me smile a lot to be with them.  However, it also made me think of some other things too.  Another birthday has passed for me.  I'm not sure if I mentioned that or not because we were busy packing, shopping, shipping and all that good stuff for my nieces.  So as of 2 weeks and 6 hours or so ago I am now another year older.  And for most of the last few years I've resigned myself to the babies were probably not on my agenda between the whole being single, taking care of mom, trying to get myself sorted out as an adult stuff I had going on.  But as I was woken up almost every morning by small faces who were just excited to see me I started second guessing that.  And as I was leaving with cranky grown ups and sad little people something hit me.  At some point they won't be little people excited to see me anymore.  I have other nieces and nephews and the I'm bored and all grown ups are stupid phase is on the horizon.  Not to mention that well before that phase their parents just may have other plans for their holidays.  So all the hugs and face crawling and giggling and playing that I get in abundance now will likely disappear sooner as opposed to later.  But I really don't want it to.  I love munchkins.  I am actually the friend that volunteers to babysit or stay home while the adults go out drinking or just seeing a movie that isn't PG4 lol.  Plus I have been well stocked in kiddie movies and books for quite some time.  After we get through the early year projects I think I am going to at least attempt to go through the training in order to either be a foster parent or adoptive parent.  There are three or four major projects ahead of that but it's mostly house stuff that would actually help that out more than not.

Ok moving on.  I need to squeeze in one more workout this month and I will have done 52 for the year.  That averages out to one a week even though I know the vast majority of them happened from mid September to now.  Regardless the Lone Star Pinup experience got me back to working out for me because I need to and the health benefits and bit of weight loss have been great.  I have been fleshing out my bucket list again.  I don't know if I readded pinup photos but I should.  I did add visiting family more and will adhere to that but I do need to work on developing my tiny branch of family because well it may just be me on some holidays and I need to not be a loser sad and mopey when or if that occurs.  So partially to escape from too much alone time with mom I ran out to take care of a few thing. I started at Midas to get the check engine light cleared up cause it was freaking me out.  Minor fix needed.  I went to the library to get a cd on hold after I went by the local Y to sign up for swimming lessons.  I haven't gone swimming since I was a child but, and you'll laugh, I've taught other people to swim since then.  I swam like a fish before my parents got divorced but something about being under the water when I knew what water could really do just messed with my head.  Well I found a class for the grown folks and will be there in a few weeks to try to get through the six week class.  I figure if nothing else I have for sure exercise for an hour once a week.  Now that isn't replacing a gym day as far as I'm concerned it will be an add to the work out weeks.  I will tell you how freaked out I get of course.  However, this is also a bucket list item and I want to be able to really enjoy any of those foreign countries I may get to with lovely sandy beaches.  Now to find a suit that doesn't make me look like Danny Devito from Batman Returns.

As for my hair, yeah I said if I didn't make it to the gym today I'd wash it but I did and now I want to get one more in and then I'll wash it and do not a whole lot else besides wash clothes and sleep until I cook on New Year's Day.  We'll be having duck and not sure yet.  I made a bunch of new salads and I grabbed a bunch of random things we can have as sides.  I will b the last day to eat any old thing and then it's back to healthier options at all times.  Not the healthiest cause seriously I don't love veggies enough to do that but I have added quite a few to my well that's tasty list over the last two years so I will keep experimenting.

I haven't made any resolutions yet and may not.  I'm in the middle of a mental overhaul about my life and what I want and that seems to be guiding me well.  Who knows?  I need to finish my good thoughts jar for the year and get ready for the next year.  I have to redo a few of them because my jar apparently got lost in the move even though I pretty much know what was on them.  Oh and because one photo is done from the shoot I will share it.

December 28, 2013

Completely Not a Post--Message to Spammers

Hi random bots and strange people who somehow think my blog is popular or getting enough traffic for your spam posts to help you in the slightest.  One let me tell you I don't think it is and secondly, short of getting the notifications about your posts--which is kind of annoying, no one is seeing said posts--not even me.  I have a fantastic spam filter so they are in a holding cell until I delete them all.  While I am pretty sure this won't deter you at all, just wanted to give you a heads up so you can direct all that energy elsewhere.

December 22, 2013

Holidays Update

Hey everyone

I have been busy as all get out for the last few days so I apologize for disappearing a little.  Our travel day turned out to be a little longer than it needed to after getting to the airport in what I considered a reasonable amount of time considering it takes usually ten minutes at most to check in.  Oh not on Thursday morning with Southwest.  While every other carrier was virtually empty at check in, Southwest had a line around the corner for all of their departures.  We missed our flight and ended up going standby the rest of the morning.  After slipping on to the first flight by the skin of our teeth the second flight has us booked before we deplaned and we arrived about an hour later than scheduled.  We got here in time to go see small humans at gymnastics and then came home and crashed eventually.  The next morning I was woken up by small humans checking on me which was followed by a grocery store run and finally a shower before an almost 3 hour drive to the best two hours ever.  Well the best two hours without a really pretty man, good food and a sturdy...well let's just move on from that thought.

I was able to check off another item from my bucket list, actually two since visiting family was on there too, and had my first set of pinup photos taken.  I have to say it was a blast and I have never felt less self conscious in my life doing something girly and out of my norm.  Loved it and I highly recommend doing it yourself if you are so inclined.  Lone Star Pinup was the best.  Whenever I get them back I'll share my favorite one or two with you but seriously it was oodles of fun.  And I will definitely be repeating the experience sometime next year after I spend the next full year getting my sweat on lol.

And now I am just recovering from kid time.  They are super funny and smart and full of energy and I am not at all sure I could do the parent thing but they make me think about it more.  Doing it "alone" creeps me out but who knows what's in store for me now.  I put alone in quotes because mom is around for sure but there's not another parent to chip in and do the things I suck at or pick up the slack when I am tied up.  Going to do some more thinking on that and then last minute Christmas shopping later this afternoon.

Here are a couple of quick snapshots I took of myself after another 3 hours in the car home and a few hours of family time.  I had taken off the fake lashes at that stage--big congrats to those who wear them all the time that was an experience for sure--to show my nieces but otherwise everything was basically as it was when I was made up and styled.  I tried to do close ups on the eye makeup but they looked disturbed in every shot I took and then I noticed you could see them in the side shots of my hair lol.  Anyhoo, here goes.



December 12, 2013

Goodies from Influenster

This may not be a REAL post because it's going to be sharing goodies from my new gift box which normally has nothing to do with hair but in this box actually does and in one of the best ways too. While not the box I was anticipating initially, too much demand not enough boxes it happens, this is a pretty cool VoxBox as well.

 This photo is of the entire unboxed package of goodies.  I always seem to end up with random nail polish colors but hey the polish is nice lol.

 This is a new clay infused fabric masque from Montagne Jeunnesse.  I really love them.  The masques are usually nice and purifying without being super perfume laced and creepy.  This sample is called Crushed Artic Cloudberries.  It will be my present to myself after I'm done with the grading.

 This is the only miss in the box for me.  I love a good healthy treat and have been turned on to some good snacks through Influenster but the Soyjoy did not make me remotely happy.  I don't really like fruit in my chocolate.  It should offend the chocolate Gods on some level to be so muddled up.  The bar itself was fine, the fruit not so much.

This polish is very vibrant green.  Sally Hensen makes fantastic polish and it coats well even if it's not my best shade lol.  It's okay I'll play with it when I see my nieces who will think it's Ninja Turtle green and be fascinated.

The two best items for me in this box are the Dry Shampoo from Not Your Mother's Clean Freak brand.  I haven't needed to use it YET because I'm so freshly out of the beauty show but seriously this may refresh the funk that the sweat can create when I'm working out.  I'll update you on that progress.

But absolutely the best part of the box has been the Goody Quik Style Dry Fit head band.  One of the things I hate about working out is how much the sweat pours from my head down into my eyes and just makes me a great big old mess.  I've used this band three times now and so far my face sweats yes but there's no downpour from my scalp.  It also keeps the sweat off my neck as much too.  And while I was original a little shocked at the bright pink trim I noticed it matched my sneakers and made me feel more coordinated.  I know there's that Keep Your Do head scarf but that feels like I should be tying my hair down for bed even if it works great it's not the aesthetic I'm going for when I get sweaty.  Plus I'm pretty sure when I look like it's time for bed I am more likely to go to bed.  Anyway if you wanted my best endorsement for anything in this box it would definitely be this head band.

There you go.  Updates from the newest cute little purple box of goodies.

All of the products reviewed were provided by Influenster for the purpose of giving honest feedback.

December 7, 2013

We have achieved Creamy Crack & Other things

The time has flown by this year.  It has seen major improvements, some bad habits returning, a job loss, a new job, and some random maturing in ways that were not anticipated in January.  All of which is good.  Really good because I am finding out that achieving some goals aren't impossible and that other things are more important to me than I would have though.

Let's get down to it.  I have been back in the gym again which is great, I need to update the total again because I forgot that we are into a new month.  And I'm sure I didn't update the total for the year.  Be right back.  All right, that's all updated now.  I would have gone more this week but fun with mom has prevented one trip and Thursday was creamy crack day and Friday was dinner with some advisees (is that spelled right?).  Today I am in a wee bit of pain but am going to try to get out of here at some point today or tomorrow to get back on my hustle.  I clearly am not focused but here goes.  I kept holding on another week and another week because I really didn't want to go back to the other woman that relaxed my hair shortly after I got here.  Between the billion and one texts about her specials to my general feeling that she was basically ignoring my wants in order to get me back into the shop more often were causing some extreme resistance about caving in to see her.  Plus after texting my former hairdresser I found out the perm that my hair actually likes and realized it definitely wasn't what was pulled out of the giant pink tub and applied directly to my hair after using same tub and comb on someone else.  I went hunting for someone in town that used the same perm and confirmed that Ulta locally did and after several days of forgetting to make an appointment I stopped by on Wednesday and lucked into an appointment on Thursday.  My appointment, as seems usual with stylists late night was overbooked at best and I never actually met with the girl I was supposed to see.  Someone else volunteered because that stylist was so backed up and I have to say despite not being a short brown woman she did a great job.  My hair feels great, she was attentive and funny and just let me be quiet sometimes as the best thing ever to make you relax is someone playing in your hair.  Plus at some point during my wash out she lathered on a big dose of heaven and it felt and smelled great.  Turns out it's a Mizani product that left my hair so easy to comb through it was like butter.   And my hair had done an amazing growth turn around in three months.  I was super worried since I have been in the gym so much but it seemed to help along with potentially the inversion as well.  Either way I need to keep it up and we'll see what my hair is looking like come my official 10th line anniversary in February.  I also got my eyebrows done and everything is on schedule to go be a pinup later in the month.  I'm definitely thinking about doing it again in 2014 after some more time in the gym.

My last two gym trips included 30 minute express and 12 minute abs which isn't a full hour of working out but my body feels great when I'm done.  Planet Fitness is going to get me sexy again if I let it lol.  I need to find a scarf that I used to have that I assumed I packed but really I did not which is frustrating as hell cause it works so much better with wrapping my hair and tying it down for bed each night.  And I can't find the Elasta QP Mango Butter and Olive Oil that I packed but thanks to Wal-greens I didn't have to but it from Amazon again and overpay by leaps and bounds.  Four bucks a bottle got my original formula and I'm happy again.  I think I'm on course for great things in the new year.  I need to finish adding to my good thoughts jar because I've slipped on that but there are so many things to write.  Making new friends, reconnecting to old ones, my students are clamoring to take more of my courses.  I am loving my life right now.  And in a few weeks I get to see my family woot woot plus have another birthday that will push me even closer to 40 lol.

Here are some photos full of gray in all its glory.




November 28, 2013

Midweek update/Happy Thanksgiving

For those in the Eastern Time Zone it is now Thursday so Happy Thanksgiving.  This will be short but I may update it again later as the day goes on.  I did manage to get another work out in before the overeating commences.  I have made some cupcakes and a pecan pie even though I'm not totally loving the cupcakes appearance.  They smell good but we'll see how they taste.  The turkey is enjoying it's marinade and will be fried all delicious like tomorrow.  I'm going to make some biscuits and some rice to go with it.  Mom will make too much dressing that only she will eat lol and we'll make another neutral side dish to go with her ham.  I'm not a big ham girl but it should be fine.  I need to book my ticket for Christmas but that's all the major activity I need to accomplish.  I am on day four of inversion (Thursday would be five but it's barely Thursday) and so far so good.  How is everyone doing?

November 24, 2013

Recap, Reboot, Redo

I went a little MIA again but this time I promise I have a good excuse.  Last week I was getting ready to do my weekly wash day recap and I started getting weather alerts.  Lots and lots of weather alerts.  Thunderstorms, high wind and then the big one--potential tornadoes.  We lost power as I was roller setting my hair and that began the long painful odyssey of being in a house with a cranky 61 year old.  That's right folks mom came back on Saturday.  I won't bore you with details but just know it required two BIG BIG margaritas to get through the day.  Anyhoo, back to the storms.  I finally got to experience a storm event significant enough that it broke through on your cell phone to tell you to cover your ass.  Ok so it said that in much more polite language but it happened.  Thankfully we came though the storm perfectly fine.  The trees limbs/tree we had removed probably helped that because the wind did tear up the aging fence a bit but save that we were unharmed. Without cable and internet and telephone service for several days but you know by the end of day two I was adapting--save missing seeing the sexiest man alive in his lovely new sweater line oh Adam Levine is so pretty--and watched some of my favorite old movies and remembered why I didn't watch one movie more.  Mom on the other hand had to be frequently reminded that we had a house, power and were both fine while others were not.  So it is no surprise she was the first one that noticed the cable had returned and spent the rest of the evening engaged in as much tube time as possible.  I finished watching Up and then flipped it on so I could see recovery stuff before going to bed.

I finally got back to the gym on Friday after being off nearly a full two weeks.  The first week I just was feeling like crap and couldn't drag myself there even if I wanted to and let's face it I didn't want to.  The second week well yeah there was that tornado thing.  The workouts felt great and I found myself creating exercises in the car and waiting on dinner to cook.  No gym today because it's wash day and I was feeling lazy but will try to make it a few times before they rightfully close for the holidays.  I will also be dodging all Black Friday shopping guilt from my mother because I am NOT getting out in that madness.

Wash day went mostly fine.  Lost about the same amount of hair as the last photo and then I decided to try the inversion method again since I still haven't found a new stylist.  I could go back to the old one but yeah she's annoying the crap out of me with random text messages about specials and her travel plans.  After I put on my leave ins, I added oils to my scalp and rubbed it in well before bending over and trying to play a game of spades to kill the four minutes.  I stopped the game when I started to get dizzy and realized I had been hanging my head for six minutes.  Another roller set which should make it through the actual two days of work I have this week and then it's time for eats and sleeping to bringing in the holiday.

I will be roaming your pages and catching up over the break as well.  For my American friends what will you be doing to enjoy/celebrate Thanksgiving?  For those outside the US, any big plans coming up?  Or any good recipes I should try while I am enjoying a stove with even cooking temperature?

P.S. I knew I was forgetting something.  I am typing all of this on my new laptop lol.  Toshiba was having a sale and instead of stalling for another six months or a year I went ahead and treated myself.  1 terabyte of hard drive space, blu ray player, 8 gigs of memory (will probably update that soon) with all the standard bells and whistles along with a ten key pad to punch in the numbers easier.  Yeah new laptop.

November 10, 2013

Wash Day & Inversion Updates

This may or may not be that long.  I have been suffering the worst cramps in recent memory but I have to concede that thanks to the depo shot (even though I've been off it for about a year) I haven't had anything resembling a regular cycle.  I slept most of yesterday though, in between doses of pain killers, and chats with my brother and mother but that's a long story.  I have been keeping up the gym visits and need to update the stats to the side.

Wash day went about as smoothly as it can considering I'm about 10 weeks post now and I slept hard with no concern for my hair yesterday.  I got up earlier than I wanted and did the inversion before starting my prepoo.  I can't claim it worked or not because I missed another day so really I need to just start all over and see how it goes.  My hair feels great I will say that much but since I'm in bushy having with new growth I may wait until my next relaxer to start over. I will also add the hot oil felt great on my scalp though.

The only major differences this wash day were hair loss (of course I'm ten weeks post) and I switched up conditioner order so the last one that hit my hair before the deep conditioner was my Moroccan Oil.  I air dried a little before doing the deep conditioner for about an hour, not intentionally tennis was on and I got distracted.  I rinsed that out and got rolled up before 4 today which was a goal.  My hair is taking longer and longer to dry on the longer parts.  I put the front on more rollers and am just praying that I don't have to come up with a funky comb over tomorrow morning.  I also need to get up early and call a mechanic so they can check on this error code that my check engine light is giving off.  Thanks to the nice folks at AutoZone I know what it means and didn't just spend money aimlessly and allegedly it should be a simple fix based on the stuff I saw online.  Keep your fingers crossed.

It's time to fix some dinner and watch some more tv.  What's up in the world?  I feel so out of the loop.  Oh and here's a photo of the hair that left my scalp and loved my comb.

November 3, 2013

Wash Day While Home Alone

I haven't written in a while and it's totally because I'm being a lazy something or other.  Mom left a week ago or so and I haven't been very productive at all since then.  I think the lack of stress caused by inane conversations is letting my brain go mushy.   Couple that with the time change and I'm tired but not so tired if that makes sense.

Today was wash day.  I woke up, grabbed a bite and then started prepooing my hair around 9/10.  I washed it out around 3 I think.  Standard wash day routine.  Actually new standard wash day routine I need to update that.  To keep my gray hair from getting brassy and yellow again I have been using the Shiny Silver shampoo before my other shampoos.  So technically my hair is getting washed three times right now.  It's all white no so I may skip the Shiny Silver for a while.  After that I did my Moroccan Oil conditioner followed by the Aphogee 2 minute treatment and the Aussie Moist 3 minute treatment.  That got left on longer than 3 minutes today because I opted to shave my legs all over a sudden.  Why may you ask was I worried about that as the weather begins to change?  Well because I want to get another pedicure and they always look at you so oddly when your legs have hair on them.  I say another pedicure as well because after lucking upon a sale at Kate Spade and Lane Bryant I spent much of last week collecting boxes from my front porch.  One day I had some more time to play with after one such collection so I went to get my air pressure checked on my tires and then because of a crappy location went the opposite direction of home which took me by a nail salon.  Beyond the fact that I just kind of wanted someone to rub my feet it's been a while since I got a pedicure and they were in need of some TLC.  After the save, and the post shower shave for the inevitable hair that was left, my initial wash phase was done.

I air dried for a while as I played on the computer and then went to deep condition.  I skipped this step last week and my hair reminded me of that.  It was super dry.  After washing that out I started making dinner and then combed through which was back to being like butter lol and was getting ready to roller set my hair before it dawned on me I wanted to try something new.  The whole inversion thing that is making the rounds sounds intriguing but I always forget to do it.  After warming my oil and massaging my scalp, I set the timer on the stove and hung over the edge of the sink for my required four minutes. My scalp was nice and tingly but that could have been from the peppermint oil lol.  I thankfully didn't feel dizzy though so a I grabbed my flexi rods, set my hair and ate my delicious fajitas in my favoritest new thing, stand and stuff flour tortillas.  I'll see how my hair is looking after the end of this week.  I think you are supposed to do a week on and week off at most so that your hair doesn't get accustomed to it.

What is going on with you?

October 20, 2013

Yes I'm very sorry for disappearing

Juggling more free time is actually making me less productive in some realms.  Grading papers is taking up more time than I anticipated but I do have 140 ish students so that could have been me underestimating MIGHTILY how much time that would take.  I also had to go do something else homeowner like and had to purchase the liens on the land next to my house so that hopefully sometime in the next year I can either negotiate with the original owner to purchase them or in the event he is unable to be found yet again that it becomes my land officially and gets linked to my home.  That was a really long sentence.  Anyhoo, mom really wants to build a garage and I don't mind that either.  There's actually a storage area that could be a great pass through to the garage if we can keep it right next to the house.  If not it's not a huge deal cause really any place that there is to park my car out of the impending snowy winters will be appreciated.  I also sent off my first mortgage payment and trying to make sure that I stay on top of the very minimal bills we have right now.  For the moment I am relaxing, washing clothes and hoping my fantasy football teams hold on and win their respective matchups.

Today was wash day too and instead of being sick--which is why I was MIA most of last week--I was able to make it to the gym and do cardio rotating exercises for at least 45 minutes.  Can I say whomever designed the elliptical machine is an evil genius.  I covered the same distance on it that I did on the treadmill but was feeling exhausted and sweating like I had been jogging instead of briskly walking.  I have no idea how much I weigh now because I still haven't found the scale in the boxes that are yet to be unpacked but I feel a tiny bit smaller, clothes are a little loser or bigger than it feels like they were before and best of all my lower back hasn't been hurting much if at all.  The back exercises totally rock.

My hair is doing okay.  Today was not a buttery smooth detangle but my hair was curled most of the week and while I skipped the gym the first half of the week, I made it on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and today.  For sweaty moments between wash days on top of sleeping like a semi dead human thanks to the cold medicine.  I figured I'd include photos of the hair loss and my freshly detangled hair for a change.  Nothing stellar and it may actually be a little darker than I want because I didn't have the lights fully on when I was moving around today.  How has life been treating everyone?


October 6, 2013

Another Busy Wash Day and I Ain't Got Nobody...

Forgive me.  For some reason Another Saturday Night by Sam Cooke just popped into my head.  I love Sam Cooke but really me and single hood are okay with each other right now.  Anyhoo, wash day went pretty smoothly today.  I got up and did a bunch of nothing.  Then ran to the gym.  45 minutes of good sweating and then I grabbed dinner for mom and I, well lunch and dinner, and then came home.  My body is fighting my brain sometimes with the working out.  Sometimes not, like today I was really tired and just wanted to go home.  It felt like a shin splint was flaring up and I really just wanted to hop off.  Then all of a sudden a wave of good feeling hit and then the right music came on the Zune and it was on a popping.  Before I know it 20 of the 30 minutes I had set on the treadmill were done.  I did the full thirty and contemplated doing the back workout again but opted to believe the trainer and put a day between muscle sessions.  I then hopped on the bike and did 15 minutes on that before calling it a workout day.  I feel great when I leave the gym, even when I get rained on trying to get in and out.  Good thing I was coming home to do my hair.

Wash day consisted of:

Strong Roots Red Pimento Oil on scalp
Two deep conditioners on the length of my hair
All left under a cap for about 2 hours
Wash like normal with the spin of the Shiny Silver to remove any more yellow tinting on the gray
Quick post wash deep conditioner
About 40 minutes of air drying before adding leave ins and oil to trap the moisture
Wrapped on flexi rods and under my bonnet now

I finished about four hours ago so I SHOULD be dry when I wake up in the morning.  And another minimal hair loss day.

September 29, 2013

Hair Post Woo Woo

Howdy everyone,

I managed to finish all of my hectic stuff yesterday and short of a minor detour with mom's brand of cheap crazy today went pretty well.  I decided not to skip or rush wash day and started as soon as I sent out this week's study guide for the exam on Friday.  And for a change I remembered to use my Hair Therapy wrap and slapped it on after I had the soup of prepoo things on my hair and under my plastic cap.  Didn't think much of it but let it sit for about 40 minutes and then went into the normal wash routine with the added step o the Shiny Silver shampoo to make sure there is no more tinge of yellow in my gray.  I did an abbreviated post wash deep conditioning and then waited for about 40 minutes post shower for my hair to lose some water.

I was ready to fight with my hair since it's been a few weeks since the perm and my hair did not get super straight like it normally does.  Imagine my shock and awe as the big rake went through my hair like it was butter.  The next two combs did the same thing and the net hair loss was amazingly limited.  See the photo below if you're up for a surprise.  Not bad for four weeks post especially after the last few weeks of what seemed like shocking loss post relaxer.  I know my hair is getting adjusted to the weather, water and my new schedule but lots of shed hair is not sexy.



I was able to meet with the trainer and figure out how to use the equipment beyond the treadmill.  Thanks to a skin condition flare up I haven't been back but I should be back to it tomorrow.  And surprisingly save last night I have been eating pretty healthy and avoiding all the feel good foods just cause.  I even abandoned my lovely big philly cheese steak sub at Subway in favor of a plain chicken strip sub (the teriyaki looks weird to me lol) and have been pleasantly surprised at how tasty it is.  I even made this last night so as not to give in to my super lazy must eat now routine.  And after finding some of the lettuce soggy remembered to check how to layer it properly so the next batch will be delicious and crispy.


How does things in your parts of the world?  Short of students not being equipped in all aspects of young adulthood, things are good here.  Inching closer to my license, mom's vacation and being financial again with my sorority.  Oh the delays of processing dues.  I could have paid them before I moved but I didn't want to have them transferred.  Oh well back to the grindstone.

September 18, 2013

And now in much better news

I've been holding off on updating you on what's going on because I was annoyed and tired and blah blah blah.  Well ladies and gentlemen as of 9AM yesterday I am officially a homeowner.  Took way too much freaking time considering how long we had to do everything but it's over, the for sale sign is out of the yard and I actually slept great knowing whatever happens from here on out is my decision.  So things will be painted, floors will be changed and blissfully so I never have to hear about it again, very soon new AC units will be installed.

After I knew the house closing was close at hand I also said enough of laying on my tushie and went ahead and joined the gym closest to my house.  For the low low cost of 20 bucks a month I have full run of a 24 hour gym, massage tables, a tanning bed if for some reason I want to get even more chocolate, showers and the like.  I don't need the showers really because I can get home in nearly record time from the gym if I need to shower and go elsewhere.  Today marked workout two for the week and month.  I am seriously loving the treadmill even though I think I did too much the first time and my back sort of tweaked almost 24 hours later. So I shaved 15 minutes of treadmill time and spent on one of the stationery bikes.  I'm not sure how accurate the step counter is because it tracked my total steps at 4 miles for the day.  The treadmill said 1.5 when I stopped and the bike said 3.14 miles after I hopped off.

Next time I need to start stretching a bit more but it's so much fun when I'm there.  I'm also scheduled to meet with the trainer to figure out the best way to get pinup fresh lol.  Session is booked and I can't wait to get it done.

September 8, 2013

Wash Day, Exams, Tennis, Gym Time and Ex-Boyfriend Season

I'm sure you are wondering what any of those things have to do with each other but please let me enlighten you.  So last Saturday was much needed relaxer day and that warranted a cut and for several days all was well in my world.  By the end of the week of humid classes and really hard sleeping my hair was feeling kinda funky.  So instead of utilizing my normal "my hair feels great I'll wash it in two weeks" fresh relaxer pass I had to wash it today.  I prepooed for about two hours and then altered my wash routine slightly.  Instead of starting with my Organix shampoo I used the Shiny Silver shampoo I bought from Sally's the other day.  I'm sure some of you are wondering why I bought Shiny Silver shampoo but remember that some of my gray was tinting yellow which isn't attractive and since I hadn't yet decided if I wanted to see the stylist again I figured I should try to take care of it myself.  Turns out this is pretty common and there are tons of shampoos for silver and blond hair to remove "brassiness" and the unfortunate yellow tinting.  Ok moving on from the aside.  I then followed my normal wash routine and just added the Shiny Silver conditioner to the mix.  I deep conditioned twice after letting my hair air dry a bit.  I first used the protein deep conditioner from Tropic Isle Living (Coconut) and after letting that sit for 20 ish minutes I did my normal As I Am deep conditioner for about the same amount of time.  I air dried a bit again and then put on my As I Am leave in and the Great Detangler leave in.  There was surprisingly more hair than I'm used to being in my comb right after a relaxer as well so that didn't make it me happy.  I opted to wrap it since my freshly relaxed hair tends to behave in a wrap and because really I don't have to go in very long tomorrow and can get it together before or after that if I need to.

August 31, 2013

And in extra stupendous randomness

Okay the move and working are getting me back to feeling like a grown up.  The house closing is hopefully less than a week away so I will officially be a homeowner type person.  In October there's a piece of land next to the house we are buying coming up for sale that we want to purchase to build a one or two car garage on so I can quit parking on gravel and mom can quit freaking out about me stepping out into the empty yard.  She wants to enclose the front porch and have that connect to the new garage.  I truly don't care truth be told.  It would be nice to have a place to pull the car out of the snow but that's about it for my concerns about it.  There are some other minor things that we want to do that will basically be pick a project every few months or once a year kind of thing.  I kinda hate the wood laminate floors in the kitchen.  They look nice but really don't like them under my feet.

All of that is well and good and some things that I expected to be more expensive are actually cheaper.  Waiting to see what the utilities end up looking like, especially the gas bill in the winter but other than that so far I'm enjoying the move.  What I'm not enjoying is all this extra alone time with mom cause she's making me remember all the alcoholic beverages I love to enjoy.  Like for real I'm experimenting with new things and keep buying things that I just have to open and enjoy because she is seriously killing my desire to take things and mix them up.

Beyond the empty calories I have been enjoying a WHOLE lot of tennis.  I swear in a past life I must have been a tennis champion because I can really watch tennis for hours on end as long as it's not Nadal or Federer on my screen.  And I will even tolerate Fed depending on who is is playing (and hopefully it's beating Nadal and his ass mining shorts crap).  So in my final poll for the day I am asking you about sports and your consumption.

Have a great weekend all

Fresh Relaxer, Shorter Hair, New Stylist?

Okay I barely made it to 12 weeks because my hair and I were fighting something awful the last few weeks.  My hair was feeling really brittle no matter what I did to it a few days post wash.  I think I mentioned a few weeks, possibly months at this stage, my ends were looking a little funky and that was confirmed today after my hair was good and straight.  The hair at the back of my head hasn't really suffered much but my sides were supporting my lazy and were wilting as a result.  So I lost a good three inches on each side but my hair looks full and feels better right now.  I really like the woman who did my hair she's funny, prompt and was pretty affordable.  However, she was a bit pushy and her shop is in definite need of an upgrade.  The chair was busted a bit, worked but it has seen better days.  There was exactly one sink, two dryers, and limited chairs.  Mom went with me and had a blast chatting with the random women in the shop but after seven years of being kinda spoiled in a different kind of environment this was definitely a new experience.  Plus as I said she was kind of pushy.  My old stylist knew I wanted to take care of as much on my own as possible and this woman wants to see me again pronto.  She says it's to remove some of the yellow tint to my gray but eh not sure.  So that leads me to my first poll for the fall about how to decide on finding a new stylist.  The woman I saw today came highly recommended so I don't discount that and really I am a bit of a passive client which may not be the best for anyone lol.  So I'm open for suggestions and anything else you want to share in the poll or on this post.

I did take a photo so you can see what my hair is looking like now.  It's a shorter version of my last cut in June.  I tried to take it with my new Samsung Galaxy 4 but my fingers and the touch screen not loving each other yet for that anyway.  Surprisingly adapting to that lack of keyboard option pretty well.  The hair in the back is still on my neck and driving me slightly crazy.  The hair on the sides when stretched hits my collarbone.  All that slightly lighter hair on the top is JUST GRAY.  I mean it will happen in its own time man that's a lot of gray isn't it?  I'll make a separate post for all of my other randomness.  This is really just for the hair kids lol.

August 25, 2013

For REAL Wash Day

Hey everyone,

life has finally settled down enough that I had a full fledged mostly normal wash day.  After running around and getting my passport application done (check one more thing off the bucket list) as well as letting mom do normal mom running around, I came home and added my Strong Roots Red Pimento Oil to my scalp and the Organix conditioning masque to my length.  Time kept ticking and my lazy overwhelmed me.  I washed everything out this morning and was impressed that with a few less products my hair still felt really good and maintained some slickness longer than normal--my hair can dry out quickly.  It is MUCH more humid here than where we just moved from so I am having to get used to that and based on the amount of hair that shed this morning I think I have two weeks tops to get a relaxer on this hair or embrace going natural and chop it all off.  I'll give you a moment to stop laughing cause we all know that's not happening.

I opted for a flexi set since I've already used a heat pass for this stretch and still kinda don't know where my flat iron is because it's in a box in the room of no return--or where all the boxes are and I can't quite get to my boxes because of all of mom's boxes that are in the way.  I did find a few more products and used our shiny new washer and dryer.  It's amazing how quickly new appliances work.  Anyhoo, I probably only used about 12 flexirods and most of those are in the back of my hair because the length is the most different back there.  I feel like the routine is more stable now so I'm doing a better job of moisturizing when it feels dry and taking my vitamins when I remember--it's not back to being a habit yet which I know is bad.  My hair will have about 20 hours to get good and dry before I leave for work in the morning so I'm happy about that.  If it's not dry then I know the humidity will continue to be an issue and have to work around it.  No classes tomorrow but a few meetings and office hours for students.  I will be grading papers and looking over assignments for the week since none of that happened this weekend lol.

How is everyone doing?  Where should I go first with my first official passport?  I was on my mother's as a child because we were military and I was 2 ish so I wasn't old enough (at that time many moons ago) to have one of my own.

P.S. I made my first pseudo button.  If you ever get bored and want to see my bucket list click on the overly festive bucket and it will take you to my bucketlist.org page.

August 18, 2013

Long Overdue Update

Hey everyone,

not sure when I posted last but it's not when I wanted to for sure.  There's lot to get to so if you don't have a lot of time then you may want to head on to something else and come back later lol.  Well the last two weeks has been jammed pack.  After moving in, finally getting our stuff and unpacking slowly but surely I had things on my agenda almost immediately.  Lots of trainings and planning meetings and then last week was prepping three brand new courses, not completely alone I have gotten a lot of help from the current staff as well as the new staff, and getting things set up, tweaking calendars and trying to plan things out to fill 16 weeks of teaching instead of five.  I mostly finished that on Friday and had minor things to tweak yesterday and today and while it doesn't feel perfect I am ready for the semester.

August 2, 2013

Life Could Be a Dream, Provided One Doesn't Get Kicked in Their Sleep

Not sure if anyone was looking for me or not but I apologize for not posting in the last week.  We were packing and tossing and packing and tossing things until the movers arrived.  Then what I predicted would happen--that is we would have way more ish than quoted (thanks Mom) did happen and mom nearly canceled the move like we would be able to find cheaper ones to move across country before I needed to start work.  They loaded and we passed out that evening.  We woke up on Saturday and cleaned everything within an inch of it's life, loaded my car for the driver--wasn't driving 12 hours with mom after the last few days--and donated more stuff to neighbors and strangers.  We flew out that afternoon after getting a ride from one of my former coworkers and honestly flight went great, rental car was fine, staff was good and one night at sketchy hotel aside before moving into much better digs and I was feeling good about life.  That is until we WENT to the house that mom decided she wanted and didn't make it in the door five feet before she threw LITERALLY the mother of all tantrums--no pun there it was just fucking epic.  Because of the supposed delivery date from the movers (I saw supposedly because yeah it hasn't happened yet but I didn't know that on Sunday) we had exactly 48-72 hours to get out of the contract with house from hell, find another one and someone willing to let us move in early.  Well let me say that God is good because we found a nicer house that was MUCH cheaper, nicely renovated and bigger so mom's stuff should all fit and what doesn't she has allegedly decided to sell.  It doesn't have a full driveway or a garage but considering what we are saving on the house that did have a garage and not much else I am willing to find builders and finance a garage.  Plus what I can tell from all sites regarding building a garage we would get a significant chunk of that back upon selling the house.  It doesn't seem to have central ac but the fan from the heating unit made this place kinda nippy the other day so we'll see how that works later.  Neighbors all seem friendly as well and it's far enough from my job that it feels like I have to drive (it's like 7 to 10 minutes lol) but seriously walking distance from a church, hairdresser, school, two grocery stores, a big box store and a nail shop--among other things.  Let me just say we saw a lot of houses in two days and was sad by one that was so freaking cute on the outside it was ridiculous only to go inside and wonder if munchkins had lived there and how they could possibly have seen the tiny area next to the kitchen as a bedroom--it was barely big enough to turn around in.

I have been by my office, gotten my id, parking pass, met with the folks who helped hire me, talked to a lot of people and have a very busy week next week but I am very excited about this opportunity.  I will be more excited when the furniture is here and the security system is installed so mom can quit jumping every time it sounds like something is brushing against the house and she can quit waking me up at every single solitary noise she hears.  Last night was the worst.  I got kicked in my lower leg cause she swore she saw something on the ground crawling.  She can't describe it and didn't want to look for it but fell back asleep within minutes of injuring me.

In other news my hair and I are fighting.  Not sure if it's getting adjusted to the temperature or water differences here or what but I feel like a puff ball.  It's super soft but is not holding in any moisture at all right now.  Trying to take care of my hair without all of my products is a pain too.  Hoping desperately that the movers come tomorrow so we can have beds and some privacy even though I'm pretty sure we'll be sleeping in the front until we get the house secured more than it is right now.  Just wanted to give a shout to say I'm okay.  Still a bit tired but okay.

How's things for all of you?

July 24, 2013

Pre Move Update

Hey everyone,

looks like everything is finally on track for us to relocate now.  Movers will be here Friday morning.  As soon as I can confirm the car transport then we will fly out on Saturday.  Stay in a hotel until either late Sunday or Monday morning.  Do some running around to process my information so I can get paid.  Set up the cable--hopefully get the car delivered that day, finish negotiating some things that have come up from the home inspection provided that hasn't been done already.  Nothing major but things of concern for me.  And then a few days later start work.

I've had my last wash day in this house.  Or at least my last planned wash day.  I have closed up the big pump bottles and figured out I need to replace my conditioner.  I always run through that so much faster than my shampoo.  I did a flexi set and need to figure out how to get it to dry faster.  It's taking forever even when I let it mostly dry completely before adding my leave ins and detangling.  Unfortunately since I was being a lazy bum I did lose a lot of hair this wash day (which was actually Monday after an overnight prepoo).  I'm going to donate some more hair products to my hair dresser who is coming to look at a set of china momma is finally parting with before the move.  Even though nothing major has left the house it's feeling somewhat emptier with the things we have donated, given to the neighbor for their help, sold at the garage sale or flat out trashed.  I still haven't worn my giveaway prize but when I'm up and moving it's packing time and I don't want to break it.

And I just saw something on FB that makes me know I did the right thing a few months back when I finally broke things off instead of letting them drag on and on.  He seems to be happy and things aren't complicated for him any longer.  I'm feeling a little lonely but not for that relationship or even the promise of what might have been.  Things move on because they have to.  I've talked to a few friends and my brother and really it's time for this chapter of my life to close.  And that's a good thing honestly.  I'm looking forward to developing a new routine, learning a new city and just engaging life in a different way.  What's up with you guys?

See ya maybe before the move but probably not until after we get situated at least at the hotel.

July 16, 2013

Today has been hectic but good

So this morning I woke up nervous because we were still waiting to hear back on the offer we made on the house.  After our counter to their counter, they accepted early this morning and I was ready to do a dance of joy and run some errands and then sort through again what needs to be moved and what doesn't.  I called the movers to push things back because we can't move into the new house until the end of the month and then I got a panicked call back from them that yeah that wouldn't work.  I alerted mom and we went into packing overdrive for the few things that were left and was ready to get back to that when the phone started ringing again.  It twas the movers again and at that point turns out they would prefer if we moved as well cause they already have three moves in the area this weekend.  So with a little cushion to spare I'm taking a break and telling you the other good news.  Between the offer acceptance (yeah) and momentary stress from movers (boo but then yeah) I got a knock at the door.  It was the FedEx guy who never stays long enough to make sure you are home, just leaves things and takes off.  Problem was I wasn't expecting anything from FedEx and I didn't see a box when I peeped through the keyhole.  Well that would be because the box was TINY and it was from Origami Owl.  I was a little confused at first because everything was in separate bags and let me just say my fingers are not super delicate.  Anyhoo after I figured out how to open the locket and assemble everything I took some photos.  Then I decided to flip the family plate around because my motley crew was completely blocking it out on the front.  Without further adieu here are the photos and thanks to Lauren and Lauren again for the giveaway and the cuteness that ensued.




July 14, 2013

Today had been such a good day

I haven't talked about George Zimmerman or Trayvon Martin on this blog at all I think.  I've mentioned elsewhere that I think what he did, Mr Zimmerman that is, was beyond the pale and could have been easily avoided.  However, given what was known of the crime, and no matter what the jury said tonight a crime was committed, I was pretty sure that he would have to face the music for what he did.  I was wrong in one sense.  There will be no jail term, no long days spent wishing he had made a different decision in a tiny cell amongst the other murderers and felons.  And I can't comment to how he feels about what he's done but what his family has shared on their own about the case makes me doubtful remorse of any kind will be publicly forthcoming.  That thought alone has kept me somewhat paralyzed for the last few hours.  Not just because of what happened to Trayvon, the grief the must be feeling as there will be no punishment for their son's death, or yet another shattering of the trust I place in the justice system.

July 11, 2013

Revisiting Bucket Lists

Okay ladies (and the few gents that stop by) a few weeks ago I posted a guest blog about bucket lists.  I may or may not have mentioned that I was creating one of my own but eh it doesn't matter cause here we go with my own list.  Because I'm horrible about creating inspiration boards and lose them in random things until I'm packing to move (yes this has happened recently) I decided to see if there was a way to do this online and let me check things off from time to time.  Turns out yes there is.  There's a site called bucketlist.org that lets you create your own list, borrow things from other lists on the site, add photos, and revisit them to edit and tell the world when you have completed them.  Yeah for my lazy factor but also yeah because randomly if people add things to their own list from yours it reminds you that your list is there lol.  So here's my LIST and feel free to add your own, tell me about your updates, and share on your own sites.

Toodles!

July 9, 2013

Hey People

Sorry I've been in the wind lately.  I'm trying to finish packing, move money out of savings and into my primary account for the movers and oh yeah find a place to live.  Things were so much easier when I moved her cause it was just me with the possibility of my mother moving in.  Eight years later I happened to stumble upon the last moving contract I signed--for less than 1600 pounds of stuff.  They are projecting this move to be around 6400 pounds.  Guess how much of that is mine now?  Still around 1600 pounds.  Probably less than that because for once I'm letting go of things especially if I don't use them or they are so old there's no point in keeping them.  Clothes, books, letters, old bills and taxes (I tended to hold on to those under the premise that I would eventually shred them and didn't want anyone stealing my identity).  One more round of purging and I will just have a few clothes, books and collectibles to pack.

I've missed updating you on two wash days but nothing major happened.  I think the Great Detangler is working wonders but I'll give it a few more weeks.  I guess I have to pack up the hair stuff too but I may ship that just to make sure it doesn't explode in the back of the truck.  I'm almost done with the Origami Owl necklace creation process and I will share it with you when I get it.  I'm having a family piece created that I'm excited about.

I'm finding lots of other random things too and those are making me smile.  I pushed the movers back to see if the nice realtor mother found can close the deal on the house otherwise back to apartment living we go.  That will be a straight pain in the ass but I'm tired and need to get moved.  I'll update more when I get a chance.  What's going on in your world ladies and gents?

June 26, 2013

Summer VoxBox LOVE!!

Okay everyone this is a semi sponsored review in that everything I was given was free for me to use thanks to Influenster.com whom I heart more than they know right now.  For a bit of your time after you get a box you get products to use, keep and be honest about.  Since I just got it yesterday I'm mostly going to show you photos of what the box contained and will do more detailed reviews later on each product.

 This card always means I get goodies

 The other shades available in the nail polish I was given

 Goody's Hair Ties

 BB Cream in Light to Medium from Olay,
Love the smell and it blends well with my skin

 Yeah for teacher lady who will be on her feet

My actual shade of polish, I love reds




June 25, 2013

Guest Blogger: Michelle Pino

Hey everyone.  I was recently contacted by someone interested in sharing some ideas about creating your very own bucket list with everyone here.  I figured what they hey it would give everyone something new and interesting to look at other than my babble.  And it was written by someone who is shares a few of my favorite hobbies--check her byline at the end of this piece to figure out which ones.  So without further adieu here's our very first guest piece. 


Bucket Lists: This Summer and Beyond

Remember when you were younger and the carefree summers seemed to last forever?  As we get older, it's far too easy to get bogged down by the responsibilities of everyday life-- our jobs, our kids, and our car payments. Now the summers seem to fly by; we forget to relax, take time for ourselves, and slow down to enjoy life.  But just because you're a grownup now with grownup responsibilities doesn't mean this can't be a memorable summer you'll always cherish.  Sit down, brainstorm some of those things you've always wanted to do, select the few that are actually feasible, and do them! Once you have a list created you can mark each one down as you do it. Here are a few of the things on my list and hopefully they can get you started on your own!  

Get Hooked On A New Hobby


When all your mental energy goes to the things you have to do, it can be hard to unwind in your free time. Keep in touch with yourself and your own needs by picking up an old hobby or finding a new one. Join a runner's club to get back in shape and make some new friends. If you enjoy the outdoors, find local hiking trails or start gardening. MIT offers free access to materials for many of its courses on its website now; you might try learning the basics of a new field.  Find something that you like and jump into it! Having a hobby is a great way to spend some free time and also a great outlet for energy and creativity.

Focus On Your Fitness


Maybe you were on the varsity sports team in high school. Maybe you used your bike to get around everywhere in college. Maybe you used to go on distance runs in your city's greenbelt. Remember how good it felt to go on a run back when you were in shape? If you've gotten out of the routine, it can be hard to get started again, but now's the time to get back in shape. You'll be glad you did. Keep your eyes on the reward: that exhilarating feeling of meeting a new workout goal, the rush of endorphins, and, of course, having a better body and feeling healthy.  To stay motivated, recruit a friend or family member to exercise with you-- working out can be a great way to strengthen your bond as well! Use this summer to get your fitness train rolling and by fall you won’t be able to go 3 days without exercising. Think about how far you have come since the beginning of the summer, then think about how far you can go before next summer starts. It’s all about setting goals for yourself and that starts now!

Plan A Weekend Getaway With Your Significant Other


With all of life's responsibilities, it can be easy to fill your calendar without setting aside time for yourself. Look at your day planner, find one weekend in the near future you have no commitment, and boldly write in "romantic weekend getaway" before another activity finds its way there. Research nearby resorts and reserve a room. Most modern resorts offer packages for couples that cater to both of their interests. You can lounge by the pool drinking margaritas and pamper yourself in the spa while your husband plays golf and hits the poker tables. At night you can rekindle the spark and meet up in the bar for a round of drinks and dancing. Getting away for a weekend can do wonders for your stress level and general peace of mind. With summer here now is the time to get away, YOU DESERVE IT!



Rekindle an old friendship


We form ties with hundreds of important people in a lifetime. It can be hard to set aside time for the important ones. Is there someone you used to talk to every day but nowadays only send a Christmas card to once a year?  Call them up, get coffee, and catch up. There’s a saying that old friends are the best kind of friends. I believe this to be true, you might be surprised at just how easy it is to fall into your old routine when you reconnect with someone you haven’t seen in a long time. Staying in touch with people you love is one of the best ways you can invest your time. I know for me “remember whens” are some of my favorite conversations.

The older we get the faster time seems to go, and no one is getting younger. I have my list on my mirror so it is one of the first things I see when I wake up in the morning. This way I am reminded of all the things I said I would do and cannot make excuses for not doing them. Take advantage of everything you can this summer. There is no reason you can’t look back on this summer the same way you do on those summer’s from what seems so long ago.


More information on Michelle and how to contact her if you're interested:

Michelle Pino has contributed this piece based on the knowledge she has learned while working as spa manager at Skana, one of New York’s finest spas. When Michelle isn’t working you will find her baking, crafting, reading a magazine or catching up on her favorite TV shows. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact Michelle via email at michellepino@turningstone.com

June 23, 2013

And now it's time for a hair post

I know finally right?  You know I get super lazy after a relaxer because my hair is so well behaved for a while.  Today was wash day and I started early for a change.  My prepoo started around 9:30.  I put the Strong Roots Red Pimento Oil on my scalp and my Organix and Moroccan Oil masques on the length of my hair.  The only problem with starting early is I get super lazy when I have more time on my hands.  I didn't start washing until like 1:30.  I took a photo of my edges too so that will be amongst the photos from today.  I tried to do a better job of documenting what happened today.  Wash routine went pretty easy.  At only two weeks post it's hard for there to be major surprises right now.  I let my hair air dry for about an hour and then put in the deep conditioner.

June 20, 2013

I Can Control The Universe with My Mind

Well not at all really and I'm sorry if you're now disappointed by my whole fake out mind control thing.  Not really though cause if you think a short brown woman has the power to rearrange the world with her mind you should probably be looking for Oprah and not me.  Anyhoo, I was hoping to hear from the realtor today and I did so we're going to keep pushing on the two most reasonably priced houses for now and see what our options are.  She's been fantastic and I will have to give her a gift and/or recommend her to everyone looking for a place to live.

Then I found out through my normal blog hopping that I won a giveaway that Lauren at Filing Jointly and Lauren of Origami Owl hosted a few weeks ago.  I went exploring on the site and think I have found an adorable collection of charms and things to put together.  I may have to pay a little extra but that's because I'm including everyone in my family in the piece (mom, dad, brother, sis in law and nieces plus me of course).  It may depend on how big the charm needs to be in order to hold all of those smaller charms.  Totally rocks to win stuff unexpectedly especially when it's so pretty.  Part of my brain is saying but what if you get married and have babies?  Well I guess I can make one for that new family too.  But right now my family is pretty set.

Boo hiss looks like the Heat won another championship but as the NBA is fading in my line of sight more and more each year I guess it really doesn't matter.

Hair updates coming this weekend when I stop being lazy and wash it instead of just moisturizing it.

Book Review: Becoming Princess Charming

A few weeks ago I was contacted about potentially reviewing a book that seemed to about empowering women to achieve their goals through self-reflection.  Of course I said yes because I love reading and any book that actually helps one reach their goals is a win.  Not to mention I've been struggling with being stuck in a few areas of my own life and this book's description was all about getting unstuck in a few major areas.  Just to make sure I don't misquote it here's the synopsis that was provided in the initial email:

Do you ever feel “stuck” or like you’re going through life as some kind of pseudo version of yourself? Are you ready to realize your greater potential - and live like a princess in your very own fairy tale? 
In this engaging, easy-to-read book, intuitive healer and spiritual mentor, Morgan McKean, takes you through a journey of self-discovery, so that you can create your life the way you want it to be. Each chapter represents a personal strategy session that can be used alone, or in conjunction with the other chapters, as a way to expand your mind, while setting the mental and emotional foundation for creating your happily ever after. 
Covering topics like Fun, Food, Fitness, Men, Money, and Meaning, Morgan shares her spiritual insights and real world techniques for making you the princess of your very own fairytale, called LIFE.


Because there's a little part in each of us that wants to Become Princess Charming, Morgan is offering you this unique opportunity to create your very own fairytale. 

The book was written by Morgan McKean (click here for more details) and even though it's around 300 pages it's a relatively quick read, I covered it during an insomnia fit one night, that provides you with a variety of things in each chapter.  It focuses on women she's already worked with by giving you examples of how some of us arrive in our stuck state with each of the categories, explores how to make our view of the world more productive for us as well as encourages exploration of what it would take to get there for you.  A lot of the book's focus is really about changing how we see the world and our potential in it.  Yes the good old power of positive thinking.  That's easier to achieve when we are feeling great about the world but this gets into trying to do it when things aren't working as well as we would like and how to move beyond that.

Some sections worked better for me than others, namely food, fun and money.  I have an awkward relationship with food sometimes.  I rarely eat to excess but when I do it's normally because I'm stressed or disappointed and that just starts a nasty cycle until I break through it.  And I have known for quite sometime that I have blocked my own avenues to have fun because of fear about the expense of the things that I really like to do.  Even though a flight to Vegas to catch a Prince show wouldn't have broken the bank.  The timing of it, near Christmas, in my brain meant I would be short changing relatives for gifts and the timing of our checks being off said no nice lady you have responsibilities.  And I do but all that's meant is me being frustrated because the people I'm responsible for don't seem to cut back on what they see as fun to help me out if that makes sense.  Which leads to me being resentful and continuing the stuckness.  My money and fun are linked together too but the other aspect of that is investing in myself to potentially make more income so the fun things aren't distant ideas and can come to fruition easier.

All of that is not to say the fitness, men and meaning sections are not relevant they just weren't as applicable to where I am stuck at the moment.  I enjoyed the exercises at the end of each chapter but my therapist brain, since that's what I do for a living till I start my new job ha, wanted a bit more of them--possibly a section to revisit after you made the changes to compare how you thought it would look and what it actually manifested itself as in your life.  I like exercises as they get your mind in the thought process it needs to approach in order to see if something can actually be different.

Many of you know I'm in the process of house hunting long distance and have been frustrated repeatedly by people not getting back to me and getting moved before the job officially starts so I can at least be unpacked.  It was driving me nuts and ratcheting up my contacts wasn't doing much to make a dent in getting help.  Well this will seem unrelated but as part of the moving I've been storing the DVDs in a large storage case so we weren't packing all of these cases that at this stage no one really needs and take up a ton more room than a case that can hold 320 dvds.  After hunting online I found out that Best Buy had one on sale and appeared to still have some in stock at a local store.  I ran out to get it among other things for the nice lady that lives with me and drives me slightly crazy, known as mom, and was quite frustrated when no one in the store could find it and figured it would just add to the craptastic luck I've had with realtors as I had called one that morning and hadn't heard a thing at by noon when I left for the store.  I was almost out of the store when I said let's just try to make this trip not wasted if possible.  The Geek Squad guy was able to order it for me and get it shipped to my house for free.  He rang it up and to my amazement the total price was less than what I had seen online when I left home.  Well that's because the store had marked it down 5 bucks less than the online price and that's what I paid.  I figured if nothing else that was a win for the day and I was going to believe that my luck would change with the housing front soon.  When I got back home after errands, a house I saw last week was marked down 15K so I said screw it and put in a contact request with the realtor.  I hadn't heard from her by the close of business but they were an hour ahead of me so a morning call would be fine.  Nope she called mid pizza preparation and asked me what I was looking for, what I would be willing to pay, deadlines and preferences and unlike her counterparts didn't seem freaked out by me being out of state and trying to relocate.  She told me she'd be in touch soon and I hung up feeling fantastic.  I ate my pizza, got cranky with the Voice results and went to bed on time for the first time in a long time because I wasn't as stressed about this house hunting thing and started to put more positive energy out there that all would come to fruition.  Turns out after I went to bed she sent me like 20 houses that mostly hit on all of our discussion that I showed to mom the next day and we agreed on about 5 to look further into.

I'm not saying that the results would have been different if my brain hadn't switched over to this can and will happen because I want and need it do.  The fact that they were different and that I quit thinking this person isn't going to call me back could totally be a coincidence but as a lifelong pessimist to my exes, realist to me lol, it felt better to not be in a negative head space about my goals.  That's a really dumbed down synopsis of what I felt the book was about but really the book makes an overall good point.  How can you be your own princess if you don't believe in your fairy tale?  If you discount, dissuade, dismiss all of the things you want in your life best believe they probably won't happen for no other reason than your energy won't allow them to do so.  

If you are intrigued go ahead and head over to Morgan's SITE and you can purchase the book, sign up for other services and learn how to host a Princess Party for us big girls if you are so inclined.  For you new era princess in training you'll be thrilled to see the book in kindle format.  For an older era princess to be like myself I did miss flipping through physical pages but I totally recognize I'm a bit of throwback in that regard.  I do still love a good bookstore and library--ahh book smell lol.  Final thoughts, if you are stuck in area and don't know why or how to get unstuck I think this can be a great tool to help you along provided you are willing to learn how to refocus your thinking to make the changes you want in your life.  I think it would be great in a therapy setting if I just remembered to print off the pages in time which yeah can be a problem sometimes ha.  Okay enough of my babbling, I'll be back later with another post.

Selected questions from the Q&A with Morgan:



Question :: What inspired you to write Becoming Princess Charming?

McKean :: Well, after a couple of false starts in my twenties, and a lot of resistance to writing anything longer than a blog post or magazine article in my early thirties, last Summer, as I was contemplating how I could best share my spiritual ideas for fabulous living, as I believe that when we understand how magnificent we really are, we can create our life the way we want it to be, I received over eight requests, and two demands, from clients and friends, in less than a two week period, to write a book.

Then, as I finally sat down to write, and the book was essentially pouring out of me, I began to see that I was finally at a place in my own life, where I could allow myself to be the catalyst or messenger to deliver these ideas.  And, when the book was completed in less than fourteen weeks, having very little to do with me personally, I really got the message, it was time.


Question :: What can people expect from this six-session guidebook?

McKean :: I believe that living the life of “Princess Charming,” is first about learning to love and accept yourself, and then, being able to create your fairy tale, or life, the way you want it to be.  Accordingly, I’ve broken this guidebook down into six sessions, including; fun, food, and fitness, and men, money, and meaning, so that you can see who you are being in each of these areas of your life.

In each “session” with me, you’ll go on a trip of self-discovery as you learn more about your fear-based ideas and thinking, and develop the ability to identify old programing and limited beliefs that are currently holding you back from living your life the way you want to be.  Additionally, through out each chapter, and at the end of the session, you will have access to real-world exercises and new ideas that will help you shift your perspective, or expand your awareness so that you can create your happily ever after.

My dedication to embarking on this journey of self-discovery and spirituality, as well as doing the work daily, has transformed every area of my life for the better.  I’ve learned to have more compassion, love, understanding, and appreciation for who I am, what I’m capable of, and how what I really believe about myself and the world around me influences how I experience our physical reality.