Beauty Product and the Beast: a review/rant of zero importance.

Disclaimer: The following post is guaranteed to put you to sleep so it is not recommend to readers who are driving or operating any type of industrial equipment. Reading blogs and being on the Internet in general is not recommended for drivers or industrial workers while on the job. Neither is reading books or texting or anything else that may increase your odds of having a accident that could result in the loss of limbs.

I don't know what's happened to me. I have, for the most part, never been loyal to a beauty product. I've used the same brand of CG mascara since I was 12 except for maybe a handful of times that a new product looked promising. But even when CG mascara changed their brush I wasn't mad. I loved it. No, I am not weird about beauty product loyalty.

My hair is just ok. My PCOS has severely thinned it out in the front and my hair has gone from thick and beautiful to thin and frizzy in the last 15 years but I've manage with some very limited styling skills to make do. When I got to Georgia I knew I was going to have to look for a product to tame it in the humidity. My hair is so long that I sweat even in 45 degree weather  if I'm out and about and that's when the frizz /poofy problem starts up. I didn't want to pay 20+ bucks for 2 ounces of a professional product that might not work so I decided to start trying out some products from the hair care isle in Walmart first. I saw a small bottle of a Dove product that described on it's bottle exactly what I was looking for (smoothing creme that controls up to 100% frizz for 24 hours) and at less than 5 bucks for a 4 ounce bottle I thought it was worth a try. I loved it immediately.

My hair has started doing something really bizarre in the last 5 years. Straight out of the shower, if I tried to put a product in my hair it would soak it up like a sponge and even after blow drying it would look clumpy-greasy. Like I hadn't washed it in weeks. It has baffled many a hair stylist that I warned only to be reassured and then 10 minutes later have my head back in the sink, re-washing the product out. So, when I misread the instructions, put the product in my hair from root to ends and THEN re read to see I was suppose to avoid my roots I was pissed that I was going to have to get back in the shower and re wash my hair. I decided to just blow dry my hair anyway and was pleasantly surprised that my hair didn't look greasy. Just very shiny. Sure, I was definitely going to have to wash it the next day but I was still really happy. Not only that but if I find that I didn't put enough in my hair before I blow dried it I can put it in my dry hair and in ten minutes it looks dry again and even smoother. I even use it and then let my hair air dry wavy. I mean really, the true testament is that I can sweat like those overweight cowboys on Texas Storage Wars and my hair stays tame, smooth and luxurious.

This all being said, last week my Dove leave in smoothing creme ran out. I went to Walmart and they were out. I went to Target and they were out. I thought immediately how I joked with Andrew, "Watch, this is going to work great for me and then they will discontinue it."

Yes I actually said those exact words. I freaking jinxed myself. I knew something was up if both major stores were out so I went online to their pages. All local Walmarts and Targets were out of stock and not selling through their web page. I checked the local Walgreens and CVS websites, they were also out of stock and not selling online. Next stop, Amazon. Some one, some A-hole was selling a 4 pack for over 80 dollars. This was when I realized that I was REALLY right. They must have discontinued it. But why? A professional haircare product company had rated it 4.5 stars out of 5. My guess now is that maybe it was such a great product that Dove sold it to a company who will sell it for 3 times as much as a salon product. Or maybe I'm just the last person in the US to know about it and it flies off the shelves all the time.

Today I decided to check Walmarts site to see if other locations farther away had the product in stock. A store just across the border in South Carolina said they did but when I got there it was not on the shelf and the ladies who worked there said there was none in the back, even though they didn't use their little scanners to check. They insisted that my hair looked great. LIARS! It was a a freaking mess. The hair product that I bought to try and replace the Dove creme actually made my hair more frizzy. How does that even happen?

ANYWAAAAYY, long and excruciating beauty related post short, (or not) I decided to stop at the Walgreens across from Walmart of LIARS, South Carolina and see if by some miracle they had any and by the beard of Thor they did!!!! 3 bottle and none left in stock (of course I asked). I bought all 3. I had a huge smile on my face, the smile of a true victor. This was the freaking Hunger Games of beauty products and I beat everyone to the Cornucopia and was willing to take lives to make it out of the store with the last of it!

Tomorrow my hair will be soft and smooth and manageable and all will be right with the world again.

How to train a stubborn and strong willed 2.5 year old.

If this were the title of a book, and it probably is , the pages should be blank. In fact I have come to the conclusion that potty training books are like any of the newest diet fad books you see in the bookstore. They may work for a few people but most likely they will end up on the bookshelves at the nearest Goodwill.

If I have learned anything in the last few months and especially in the last few weeks, it is that I am not potty training my kid. I have only an ounce of control over this situation AND, the most important thing I've learned is to be ok with that. We have had a lot of success in the last few days. Or he has rather. But it is because he gets to decide just how much he cares about using the toilet. Some days he tolerates using the potty because of the cool underwear with his favorite Disney characters on them and the candy he knows he will be rewarded with but then there are days that he's just over it and could care less what the reward will be.

It's a hassle for him to potty train. It takes more time out of his play to sit and use the toilet than it does for me to change him. Even though he didn't pee his pants yesterday, he only peed once on the toilet and that was after a major melt down and a lot of bribery. He held his pee for hours out of sheer stubbornness.

 It just didn't feel quite right to pressure my son to use the toilet to the point that he was so irritated that he threw a fit. If my son is anything like my husband and I, he will resent with a passion anything that anyone pushes on him, including potty training. This morning when we woke up I brought Henry a pair of his favorite underwear and a diaper and asked him what he wanted to wear. I asked twice. Both times he decided on his diaper. So I've accepted that today, or at least this morning, we will not be doing much other than talking about sitting on the toilet.

At this point I realize that my job is to gently remind him about all of the rewards of potty training, to often ask him if he would like to use the potty and to cheer him on in any success.

With all of the ways to connect with other parents via facebook, pregnancy and parenting forums, play groups, etc., it becomes easy to compare yourselves to other mothers and compare your child to other kids. There are days where I worry that I am letting Henry down by allowing him to have his binky and continue to be in diaper. Worse than that, there are days that I worry what other's think of Henry and I because I allow him to continue to do those things. Ultimately it doesn't matter because the chances that my son will become a 25 year old binky sucking, diaper wearing member of society are extremely slim.

Knock Off Ocean Water

I'm a fan of Sonic drive in. I knew when we got to Georgia that I was going to have to be careful with how much I indulge myself on their delicious burgers and drinks. So far so good. But the other day as I'm sipping on my favorite drink, Ocean Water, I realize that the coconut flavor isn't as strong and that it tastes just like Sprite. And then I realized it was Sprite. With blue dye and coconut flavoring. Maybe I should have been disappointed at the lack of magic but instead I was thrilled. And even more thrilling was learning that Sonic sells their little rabbit turd shaped ice by the bag. Super fun to crunch on.

 So today I went to Walmart for the ingredients, stopped by Sonic for a bag of ice (Just 1.99 a bag btw) and as I type this I am sipping on my very own and much less expensive Ocean Water. I even added some blue food coloring for authenticity. I like mine better because I can add as much coconut flavoring as I want. And I want mine super coconutty!

PS.I realize that I am probably the last person in the world to discover this simple recipe but thought I might share anyway.

Settling In

The boxes are almost all emptied. Just a few mirror packs that need to be hidden away in the closet remain and empty boxes that need to be taken to the trash. Henry is loving his new room and our worthless cat Charlie is extremely content and comfortable.

The new apartment is smaller than our last place and doing without our things for nearly 5 months made me see things a little clearer when our stuff arrived. We have taken 2 large car loads of STUFF to the local Goodwill.

Today we took a drive over to SC and walked around a lake, soaking up the sun. I felt the last of my seasonal depression evaporate into the air and leave me, hopefully for good. We've only been here a few weeks but I know I'll be happy here. I like new places. Fresh starts.

The only trouble is making new friends. It's difficult for me. Depression gone or not, the anxiety is always there making me paranoid and overly cautious. I was so blessed to meet Margaret, Desiree and Meghann in California. They were, and still are, each a necessary element in my life. The perfect balance of happiness in friendship. I still haven't come to terms with how long it might be before I see them all again.

I may or may not be screening other women for possible friendships. -____-

Do you think it's appropriate to write an open letter on a military spouses facebook page advertising for 3 friends that are as charming,open minded, hilarious and kind as Triple MD? Yeah...I didn't think so either. Even If I did sing it like those kids from Mary Poppin's looking for a new nanny...

The Trip, The House, The Area

Well hello. It's been over a month since my last obtuse post and since then I've come a long way. Literally. Last Thursday we left Washington state drove nearly 3000 miles across the US to Augusta, Georgia. We traveled through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah,Wyoming, Nebraska,  a little Illinois,  a little Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and finally arrived in Georgia Yesterday afternoon. Henry was unbelievably amazing for the entire trip. Like clock work he got fussy and exclaimed he wanted out of the car within 30 minutes of our planned stop for the night. He played, watched movies, got excited at every train that we passed, (which were many) and snacked until we arrived. He deserves a medal.

I, however, was not such a happy traveler. At least not for the first day. That morning we woke up and headed out at 4:30am. After saying a very groggy goodbye to my family we headed out and within an hour I was having a full blown panic attack. It was painful. All I could think about was the trip ahead, the family behind us and the strangeness that comes with moving to a new place without seeing it first. These thoughts combined with a large cup of coffee on an empty stomach and not much to do other than sit in my seat and stare forward caused the anxiety to continue for nearly three hours, until I fell asleep. When I woke up the panic was gone but replaced by horrible car sickness. That lasted the rest of the day.

Thankfully we reached Ogden Utah at a decent hour, got a hotel fast and went to sleep. The next day started out later than the first but with good time. We were all in good spirits, I was feeling fine and when more than half the day was over I took over driving. I had a hard time immediately. We had just eaten a large and satisfying meal at Sonic and I was lethargic and the long roads of nothing were making me sleepy. But then Andrew got a phone call from the hotel we stayed at the night before. The manager was claiming that our cat clawed at the carpet in the middle of the living room and they were going to charge us $200 for the damage. When Andrew told them that,

#1 OUR CAT DOESNT HAVE CLAWS
#2  he was in a kennel the entire time
# 3 he was not located in the center of the living room

well, the woman told him that she was going to regroup and call him back. 10 minutes later she calls back saying the pulls in the carpet were in another location. Andrew again, said our cat does have claws, was in his kennel the whole time and also added that he was sedated the whole night as well and that he does not approve any charges to his card. She said she would email us pictures of the damage and discuss it further but she never did. If they end up charging us we are filing it as fraudulent and I will be writing many letters and bad reviews.LOL!

The irritating call made me so mad that combined with Sonic's super yummy ice, I was wide awake and ready for hotel number two which was nicer, less expensive and had an amazing breakfast. I was sad that we got in too late to eat at the Texas Road House though.

 Day three started out great thanks to our stay at the second hotel and even though at times it felt like we were driving in place due to the complete lack of change in the scenery, we blew through Nebraska and the little bit of Illinois and Kentucky and right through Missiouri. St. Louis was a very run down city and yet it was still so beautiful. I wish we could have spent more time there but soon were making our way through Tennessee and by 9pm on day three were in our hotel in Murfreesboro, TN. It was a harder nights sleep mostly because I think were were all so excited to get into Augusta the next day.

By 1:15pm we arrived at our new apartment complex. We checked in, signed the lease, got our keys, had some issues with our locks, then more issues with our keys and locks and finally got the right keys and locks. I was thankful to see that the apartment was updated, clean and a good size. Our bedrooms here are bigger than the ones at our house in Monterey and the walk in closets are going to allow me to have a small craft desk inside of our closet. We are turning Henry's closet into a secret space with lights and his DVD player, for him to play in.The living and dining rooms are good sizes as are the bathrooms. The kitchen is micro tiny but since there is a laundry room next to it with pantry space I'm more than pleased. We also had more than enough good spaces to choose to put our cats litter box which is always something I have to worry about a little when we go to a new place.

Our first night in the new place was good. Henry slept alone in his room for almost 15 hours. That kids was TIRED! We are sleeping on an air mattress that Andrew borrowed from a friend who is already settled in. We thought our stuff wasn't going to arrive until February 6th but I just got a call saying it could come between the 26th of this month and the 1st of February so I'm excited. We have almost everything we need here to live. We went grocery shopping last night and today we are going to get some cheapo pans and knives, etc to manage until everything gets delivered.

I'm excited to get to know the area and you know I've already enquired as to where the best BBQ is! Also I need to find the best sushi in town so I've been reading lots of reviews and found a place to try. The thing about BBQ and sushi is that Northerners can come to the south and eat at a BBQ chain with mediocre BBQ and think it's amazing because they dont' know any better, and so I'm a little concerned that Southerners might be eating sushi here and thinking it's awesome and that it will end up being disappointing to me. I guess we will find out. In other food related news. There is a Sonic a mile down the road. I've promised myself that I wont eat it unless I'm walking there and back. Then it will be like it never happen.

As far as recreational activities go, well, I've been looking into that as well. I found several parks, and even a zipline place and a bouncy house place. And I googled the local zoo which is in South Carolina just 45 minutes from us.

 We drove down the main business roads yesterday and I have everything I'm going to need here. That being, a Joanns and a Barnes and Noble. Andrew and I are excited to drive around and see where we would like to puchase a house next year. I love thinking about the possibilities.

For today though, the plan is laundry and a little shopping for household items.

I'm still here. Still dedicated to this blog. I've written a half dozen posts since my last, none of which I published because they were just too personal. It's been a long and hard 3 months away from my home, friends and mostly my husband. Henry has been having fun and staying busy with his cousins but I could only focus on the days left until Andrew got home. Now there are just 7 days left and in the last week I've started to get some of my spunk back.

I've got a lot of great things planned for me and my family in the next few months. I'm eager to get settled into our new home and get to the know the area we will be living. I'm hoping that I will continue to grow and improve in Georgia as I did in Monterey but this time I want to focus more on learning to not let others opinions and negativity affect me. I want to learn how to stay positive in less than ideal situations and enviroments and I also want to learn how to better appreciate and use the opportunites that I have.

The last day in October

Today is the last day of October and it's been a whirl wind of a month. To me, this month has always gone by at a snails pace but this time it's like life was in fast forward motion. My sister, who never sits down, was always suggesting things to do and we had a lot of exciting firsts happen!




Millie lost her first tooth! And then her second a few days later.



Granddad built a fire and cooked smores for the kids!



We went to the Kid's Museum on Bainbridge Island

 



We baked goodies!





The cousins came to visit!



Henry used the potty for the first time!!!

Henry used water colors for the first time.



Henry completed NASA training. THAT was a big day.



We took the kids to a corn maze/pumpkin patch.



Granddad spent .50 on a whoopee cushion that the kids thought was priceless.



We went to Raab park and enjoyed the good weather and pretty leaves.



We took the kids to see Puss and Boots and it's the first time Henry sat through an entire movie.

Finally, we went trick or treating with our cousins, Millie, Chase and Taylor.

Not pictured is Henry's first time swimming which he ended up really enjoying and a "hike" through the new-ish Fish Park here in Poulsbo. It was a busy month but a good month and I'm sure November will be no different. While there are some days that I just want to sit and do nothing, I really do feel thankful for a family who keeps me on my feet to help me keep from thinking about how sad I am without Andrew here. We are into week seven of this separation and he has 7 more weeks of training that will hopefully fly by just as fast. I am just thankful that he will be finished with training in time to spend Christmas with us.