Princess Loves: Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector

This is what their website says: Dermatologist-developed to be safe, comfortable. Yet in clinical trials our serum was comparable to a leading prescription ingredient in creating a more even skin tone. A verified 53% improvement in skin tone. For all ethnicities: See results starting in as little as 4 weeks. At 12 weeks, see a visible reduction in dark spots, age spots, and traces of acne past.

My results: I have used it 4 times in about 10 days (I know, I know, I keep forgetting to use it before bed). I LOVE IT. My skin is more glowing, and I believe more evenly toned - even with constantly being out in the sun acquiring a tan (and the face skin of a woman of my young age does NOT tan evenly!). I had been using Philosophy's Save Me, and I thought that was great, well, THIS IS EVEN better! My skin feels better and it feels fabulous when I run my hands over it (when I'm washing my face) - so soft and smooth!

(This is NOT a paid promotion - just a product I had read about and then found in the Cancun airport for 15% off AND with no tax. I couldn't resist trying it at a discount!)

Today...

6 a.m. 50 minutes run on treadmill
7-8 shower and do hair
8-9 a.m. feed kids
10 a.m. - at pool store w/sample, get more chemicals.
10:30 Benjamin Moore store for three gallons of HEAVY ASS PAINT
11:00 head home - put first batch (6 buckets, heavy buckets) into pool. Brush pool. Feed kids lunch, dress them for party. Wrap presents. Eat leftover pasta.
1-4 p.m. chase kids around birthday party for nephew.
4 - head to home depot. Purchase 10 16-foot base mouldings. Load into car - this is surprisingly hard work.
5 p.m. Put 6 more buckets of heavy ass chemicals in pool. Brush pool again. Empty skimmer and baskets.
6 - feed kids. Forget to feed self. Wash 4 pool filters, resoak as they STILL look nasty. Brush pool. Discover rotting weeds in bin I thought had drain holes. Carry 10 16 foot mouldings into garage and stack. They are still surprisingly heavy and a pain in the butt.
8 p.m. Fight Jessie into bed (she had no nap). Get boys down after changing boys' sheets. Clean kitchen. Start laundry.

Gosh, no idea WHY I AM SO TIRED. Do you know???

Why I Hate: Thursday

4:45 a.m. Turn off alarm.
5:45 a.m. Turn off alarm.
6:10 a.m. Get up, too late for my shower. Get Son up and ready for school. Sneak in fastest shower ever.
7:15 a.m. Son leaves - prep other 2 for preschool.

Today we have 2 Mother's Day Teas. Which are the highlight of my day. BUT I've missed the LAST 2 days of work dealing w/the stomach bug, now I'm missing most of today.

1 p.m. Arrive at work
2:30 p.m. Leave work to pick up kids
3:50 p.m. Pick up Son from School.
4:15 arrive home. HURRY and pack picnic dinner for FOUR.
5:00 leave for soccer.
5:30 - 6:30 soccer
7:00 arrive home. Shower three kids and get them in bed.
Then make cookies for Teacher Appreciation.

Thursdays make me want to poke myself in the eye. Repeatedly.

What's In It: Premade Gravy

Almost all brands except Heinz contain hydrolized oils and corn syrup. Funny, when I make gravy from scratch it takes 3 ingredients: meat drippings, meat broth, and flour. So - corn syrup?

What's In It: Coldstone Creamery

UGH!!! You cannot escape the HCFS and the hydrogenated oils. Not all the flavors but a good number of them. DARN IT ALL.

What's In It? Combos!

UGH!  Does it never end??  Partially Hydrogenated Palm oil AND Corn Syrup. 

What's In It? Amours' Original Meatballs

Partially Hydrogenated Soy Bean Oil. Now WHY???

What's In It? Planter's Dry Roasted Peanuts

Corn Syrup powder. WHY? The ingredients should say: Peanuts, salt. RIGHT? Why corn syrup too?

No more purchasing these peanuts for us, they are off the healthy list. The shame is that I bought them when I was trying to find some more protein, healthy snacks for myself, and ended up with EXACTLY THE SUGAR I WAS TRYING TO AVOID. SHEEEESH Planter's - Shame on you.

Food Revolution

Ok - the stuff we feed our kids is crap. Well - I AM trying and I didn't KNOW chicken nuggets you get in the store were that NASTY.

So - stay tuned! Big changes are afoot! Can I get my kids to change?

I will not purchase McDonalds for my kids anymore.
I will try very hard not to buy items w/high fructose corn syrup - I already TRY to do this, but it's hard - I am going to make more of an effort to hit Trader Joe's for stuff instead of Harris Teeter.
LESS SUGAR - well - after Easter. With their daddy gone, I cannot give them an Easter basket that disappoints. I can't do it.

Other suggestions??? They usually hit 4 servings of fruit a day + adequate organic milk and adequate protein.

HELP ME! What else is lurking in my pantry that is bad (aka. Chicken nuggets!!) that I need to know about? How does one know these things?

How am I supposed to do that?

Ok - Thursdays around here SUCK.

I get off work at 3:30. Drive from Reston to Ashburn to get my son from school.
3:35 - leave Ashburn to drive to TYSONS to get the little kids.
4:10 - head back to Dulles (which is near Ashburn), getting there around 4:50. WELL - now soccer practice will be on the FAR side of Ashburn at 6. Exactly when are we supposed to EAT, HANG OUT, get anything done (like HOMEWORK)? And bedtime is 7:30 - we will be just walking in the door if we are LUCKY? HOW HOW HOW?

Why I am crying and overwhelmed right now.

5:15 a.m. - wake up and get ready for work.
6 a.m. - wake up older son and get him showered and fed for school.
6:30 a.m. - wake up other 2 kids and change their clothes.
6:50 a.m. - Tyler has HUGE meltdown that I bought shoes for the older child but none for him because HIS STILL FIT.
7:10 a.m. bus comes
7:15 am. - we leave late - see: tyler throwing fit about shoes STILL.
7:40 a.m. drive BY my office to drop little kids off.
8 a.m. drop little kids off. Drive BACK the way I came.
8:30 arrive at work
3:30 leave work
4 arrive home - realize can run to store before the sitter leaves, dash to store.
4:30 arrive home. Put away groceries among 3 kids vying for my attention because they haven't seen me all day (mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom).
4:45 fight A LOT with older son about homework. Puzzled by his amazing whininess and flat out refusal to do homework? Every time I start talking with Son, the other 2 start their own fight.
5 p.m. find Son hiding in living room, FAST ASLEEP.
5:15 work on feeding kids fruit, starting dinner.
6 - struggle to wake older child. Feed kids. Burned my own dinner, sneak some of theirs.
7:00 start putting them in bed.
7:30 lights out.

Now all I have left to do is fold SEVEN loads of laundry, prep for tomorrow, work on my mom's taxes, pay bills, wash at least 2 more loads.

Notice there is not ONE MINUTE for me to do any of my stuff or GET SOME FREAKING exercise, which is why I feel gross, which isn't helping MY attitude.

only 53 more days until hubby comes home. Someone shoot me.

apology

I want to apologize for my harsh generalization in my last post - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound like that or even say that.  I just don't want to pay for insurance for people who flat out refuse to buy it for themselves.  I'm not talking about people working their way to a better life and need a hand - I'm talking about people who just don't want to use their money for it (until of course, they get really sick and realize what a good idea it would have been) - like some relatives of mine who'd rather use it for car payments because their locality covers their kids for free.

Reading up on it, there is no public option in this bill it seems, just subsidy to help those in lower brackets.  I think they should find a way to make insurers lower costs, not pass out money to meet the high costs.

HELLO?! well...

what a neglected place this is!! We've been swamped - we went on a vacation to Snomass, CO where the kids skied their hearts out (the oldest got the fastest time on the race course OUT OF ALL THE KIDS!) and the other two made great strides. As did I - this is the FIRST year I got a full week of skiing in! And it did cost us a pretty penny, but a week on vacation w/our kids and the grandparents is priceless.

Then hubby left Wednesday for an 8 week tour. Well, double crap. But him being gone might give me more time to update! I will try!! First up, I need to find out what's going on w/healthcare. I hope I'm not now paying for the healthcare of lots of other people. I get off my fat ass and goto work to afford the coverage we need, all other people can too. So we'll see - I'll read some links and hopefully the bill, but I'm pretty sure it won't please me.

WOW - I SUCK

Hello? Anyone out there? Doubt it! I'm west coasting it this week! I had a Hibernate training class in San Fran and then one of my bestest friends picked me up for 4 days of fun with her in San Jose. Look for some crazy upcoming pictures - y'all have been warned! We were up until 4:45 this morning, chatting, goofing, drinking and re-watching Twilight (yes, we apparently are quite fascinating I know) -but all of those things are QUITE THE LUXURY when you have a job and 3 kids, so I'm really enjoying just doing what we want to do for once!

Will check in later, after I score some more diet coke!

Happy New Year!!

OK, so I'm early on this one - but I've missed SO MUCH! I've got a ton to do (hence skipping out on work today) Son turns EIGHT tomorrow!! Do you believe it? I need to recap Nov and Dec.

I've got a plan, I really do for a weekly feature to have here starting next week (well, the first entry will be about something I did THIS week)...but I'm trying!

Happy New Year to you and yours and no matter how good or bad 2009 is/was, may 2010 be BETTER!!!

Oscar Meyer Bologna

Now, I do not expect this to be a healthy food product... but why does it have HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP in it?  Shoudn't it be only ears, lips and toes of some animal? 

A rainy weekend...

instead of going to the Homecoming Parade today and the Harvest Festival tomorrow, we are STUCK inside. Wandering thru a parking lot w/a double stroller and Son in the pouring rain IS NOT going to happen. I was going to venture out when it was a drizzle, but as soon as I got done w/my shower this morning, it was pouring. Sucky.

So now T is sleeping and BabyJ is protesting STILL in her crib that she doesn't want to take her nap. She's been complaining for 2 hours. UGH.

This weekend sucks so far. I was also going to grab stuff for Halloween cupcakes, but now all I have cupcakes and icing I could turn orange, IF i had the energy to bake it all from scratch (I was going to buy the mix as I am EXHAUSTED). Probably not. It'll probably be chocolate chip cookies though, from scratch, as they are easy.

Sept. 1991 - Dietrick store - MY BIGGEST DISCOVERY

Setting: 1991. I had arrived at VA Tech only a few weeks earlier and LOVED EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF MY EXISTENCE. College life, with out parents, was FOR ME! I loved it. I did not, however, love the food. In the first 3 weeks of school, I LOST 15 pounds. The food at the dining hall sucked - so I had cheerios for breakfast and a ham&cheese for lunch and a ham&cheese for dinner. No snacks and I was even drinking full calorie PEPSI, for goodness sake. AND A LOT OF BEER. And I lost 15 pounds if that tells you anything about how little I was eating.

So, out of desperation, I goto the little store under the dining hall and am desperately searching for something, anything to eat. I spy COOKIE DOUGH. Darn, I don't have an oven, so I can't make cookies. BUT! There is no "adult" around to STOP ME FROM EATING THE DOUGH RIGHT OUT OF THE PACKAGE! OMG - now THIS is a revelation. And really, a pivotal point. NO ONE AROUND to monitor my food choices! What a discovery is this?! I can eat WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT. And buy that dough I did. AND EAT THE ENTIRE PACKAGE!

(now, I wasn't dumb enough to assume I could eat like that every day - but it was a treat, as was entire bags of Ruffles and dip as well as 7-11 nachos and Velveeta Mac & cheese. Also RAMEN NOODLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I was officially a grown up!

Lane closed in rush hour

Morons!!

Shopping for tops...

and i've found the most ridiculous tops EVER.

there are ruffles
there are mid-driffs still showing
there are shoulders showing (this isn't so bad, just not anything I have anywhere to wear something like this)
THEY ARE SEE THROUGH!









No wonder I can't find anything I like - all the vendors are busy creating CRAP.