make up

Ok, so I don't remember what I wanted to say about make up but I thought I would just put down my thoughts....nothing original, so feel free to move on now.

I enjoy make up and nail polish and jeweled adornments.  I enjoy make up for the art of it.  I like that you can look completely different with just a different style of make up.  I do not see make up as a daily requirement.  I didn't like it that at my old job, I had to dress up for work and then felt somewhat unfinished if I didn't have at least a little bit of make up on.  I like make up because the colors are pretty.  Make up is pretty.  I don't think it is needed to make me pretty.  I don't feel naked without it.  I often forget whether or not I have even have it on unless I look in the mirror.  Most of the time I can only tell by my eyes if I have it on.  I have more frustrations and troubles trying to get foundation to match my real skin color, that I question why I even wear it at all.  If I just want it to look like regular skin, then shouldn't I just show my regular skin????  Lets face it.  Make up isn't good for your skin.  You are adding stuff
to your face to even out your skin tone, but for me, it is often
causing the problems that cause my skin tone to look uneven in the
first place.  I don't need to "put my face on".  I already have a face.  I will never be late going somewhere, just to do my make up.  I had friends that would do that in high school and it drove me insane.  I have gone to weddings, putting make up on in the car.  For me getting ready to run out the door usually involves just getting clothes on.  Prior to Ava, for work I would shower at night, and get up ten minutes before I had to be out the door.  How long does it take to brush your teeth and hair and put some clothes on?

The question in magazines: what is the one piece of make up  you would have to have if you were stranded on a desert island?  The answer is none.  I am either going to be beautifully tanned or burnt to a crisp, neither of which will work well with make up.  Also, I am stranded.  Who am I going to impress?

My hair, it is pointless.  It pretty much usually looks the same whether I do it or not, unless I spend a lot of time on it, which usually bores me, so I don't bother.

update

Rhys has relieved himself. He didn't blow up though, it was close, but his fresh size 1 contained it. It did; however, stink like no other. I heard him toot and thought he might have actually taken care of business, but then I smelled a horrible smell. I assumed that the cat had just dropped one in the litter box, so I shut the door to block out the smell. The smell didn't go away. It was in Rhys' pants! He is a stinky boy. The sinky boy is in his bouncy yelling at the bug rattle hanging in front of him right now. I think he is offended by the lack of response.

It is warm today!!!!!!!!!!! Warm... a wopping 56 degrees, but for us with winter blubber intact, it is toasty. Time to put on the shorts.

The S-Bomb

It finally happened. Ava swore. She dropped a piece of her cereal this morning and completely casually said, "Oh shit." I asked her what she had said. She looked right at me and said it again.

I told her it isn't a nice word and if someone says it, she should tell them that it isn't a nice word, even Mommy or Daddy.

recharged

I have made the decision to cut the other blog out. It was dragging me down, plus it is insane to pay for it when I don't need to. It was getting really annoying to copy paste things too. I realized that in 3 years I had 30 posts with pictures of the kiddies, so that was really no reason to keep paying, especially when I figured out how to transfer them over to this blog. So the archives will still be there. I am backed up for the last year. I will do more later. I am probably the only one who cares about the archives, but oh well. I feel like this will recharge me. I will be motivated to post. Poor Rhys gets ripped off with the lack of pictures. Granted, I am not sure what I will do with all of the pictures of Ava in a bouncy or boppy, but at least I had a pretty regular record of her growing. I don't want him to get ripped off in the blog posting too.

So now Rhys. He hasn't pooped since Saturday. He is going to explode and it won't be pretty. I think he is ready too. He is a little cranky and I would be too if I hadn't pooped in 5 days. He keeps trying to laugh and it just comes out as a little huh, huh.

I hit my overwhelmed wall this week. I think it was a combination of stress at work and in life, a lack of sleep, the household stuff building to the out of hand point (I can only take so much clutter), and multiple things I am trying to do in my "free" time. I mostly blame the lack of sleep. I had my day of frustration and now I seem to be ok with it. I just have to have a release of rage and I am good. Relatively, it was a pretty calm release, for me.

I have been debating starting school when Justin is done with his master's. I think I miss learning. I know I miss feeling good at something, and school was generally something I could do well. I am not sure why I would want to do this, since I don't see myself wanting to change "careers". I am more than ok with staying home and have no real desire to go back to work full time at all.

I am ready for warmer weather. It is supposed to be int eh 50's tomorrow and if it isn't pouring down rain, I will bust out the double stroller and go for a walk. I figure pushing the 50 pound stroller with 40 pounds of kids in it, is considered a pretty decent work out. I am solidly in between pant sizes, or at least the pants that I own, so since getting bigger isn't an option for me, I need to work my butt off, literally.

While archiving my older posts, it is so clear that my blog is just for me. It really is the super baby book for my kids. The day to day stuff that they do. And then we will apparently have an external hard drive full of pictures.

Is it possible to have guitar hero/rockband tunnel?  I think i have it.  My left fore arm is insanely sore and it is no longer obeying all of my commands. 

Our den smells like dog pee. :(

Proposition 4-17, Date #1

A few weeks ago, I sent Justin the following email:

"Proposition 4-17

Date day/night.

Once a month, on a designated day, we take turns planning a date for us. This is a date with the focus of having a good time, spending time together, and getting to do fun things. Movies are out as options due to the cop out quality and lack of communication.

Each date will have a $xx budget. The planner can use all of the money or save it for their next date.

The planner will be in charge of arranging childcare for the date. If childcare needs to be paid for, it will come out of the date's budget.

Day dates are preferred to increase variety of available activities. Calendar dates can be changed to allow for specific activities to be done, if necessary.

The writer of this proposition will plan the first date, unless requested otherwise."

Justin accepted the proposition and yesterday was our first date. I was in charge of the planning. In the fall I had won a gift certificate for studio time at a pottery studio. I intended for us to use it as a date, so I figured this would be a good time to start. At the auction (so I didn't "win" so much as was the highest bidder) the gift certificate was advertised with a pottery wheel and clay and said we could make our creations. I took pottery in high school and really liked it and have been wanting to get back to it, so this was a perfect date for us. There aren't many art mediums that Justin and I can actually do together since I can barely draw a stick figure. Friday I went online to make sure I didn't need to book studio time or have a reservation or anything like that. I had actually meant to do this a couple weeks ago, but I am apparently running behind at life right now. I see that this "pottery" place is more like The Painted Penguin in the mall. Here is a pre-made mold thingy, and you can paint it. As previously mentioned, I can't draw a stick figure so this would turn out to be a completely frustrating date for me and it would have just moved over to the lame category for Justin. It really would be like giving the artist a paint by number.

So we had to brainstorm. Turns out there were a few things we needed to shop for so we actually decided to go shopping for our date. We first went to lunch. We ate at Kona Grill in Oak Brook (I think) and it was excellent. I had never been there before. Justin often gets to go to restaurants for work and always talks about taking me, so when suddenly we were left with no plans I told him to just pick a place. It is Hawaiian style dining. Here is a bonus for the lunch date. Monday through Saturday if you eat in the lounge, they have half price appetizers, pizzas, and some sushi rolls. There are also pretty decently priced drink specials ($4 martinis and wine). We had avocado egg rolls for our appetizer. So, so, so, so good. It was good fat fried in bad fat. What could be better? Justin was enticed by the 1/2 price sushi rolls and ordered way too much. A picture of his plate will be posted if it ever shows up in my inbox. I had the Thai peanut chicken noodles. Loved it. We took our time eating and brainstormed for future date ideas. This was an excellent use of our time because it has made us both excited for future dates. We have a list of ideas that will pretty much last us for the next year. I am personally a little sad that we only get to do stuff like this once a month. Obviously we could go out more often, it just really isn't in the either the time or financial budgets. **The picture showed up at 1:30am.



The shopping purchases weren't included in our date budget. They were things that we planned to buy no matter what. We went shoe shopping for Justin. It is much easier to do this without Ava wanting to play with all the shoes she sees. We then went make up shopping for me. I needed new mascara after the whole pink eye situation. I love Justin because he doesn't mind looking at 50 different lipsticks to find the right color. We went to Ulta, MAC, and Sephora. It was an excellent time and I love just looking at pretty things.

Total cost: $50

So that was our date. I have mentioned this new plan to a few people. I am thinking about posting the dates on a different blog and having others post their "date reviews" to help share ideas on what worked and what didn't. I think it is important to not be stuck in a rut. It is fun to just get out there and do things that you can't or don't do with your kids. Have hobbies and interests. Get out there and do things. Let me know if you would be interested in sharing your date reviews and taking part in Proposition 4/17.

randomness

1. Why is Revlon acting like their pedicure tool is something new? It is currently sold at Walgreens as the Pediegg. It isn't "timeless" anything either.

2. I am getting a pedicure next weekend at a spa as part of a bachelorette party. My feet (I originally typed teeth right there...whoa Nelly!) are pretty gross right now and I am constantly tempted to do something about it but I resist. I am going to let them get as ugly step-sister-ish as possible to get my money's worth...but do I do a little maintainance first so I am not embarressed?

3. It is about time to renew my typepad subscription for the password protected blog. I don't think I post pictures there that often, now that there is facebook. Lame, but true. I don't really want to pay for it anymore. I haven't figured out what I am going to do. I want to copy paste all the past entries and have them in one spot, but there was a lot of pictures. I wonder if I can downgrade without losing my info. What to do??? Advice is welcome.

4. I am hopefully going to be doing a post about our date this weekend shortly. Not sure when I will get to it, but don't let me forget.

5. I am feeling behind in tasks. LOTS of tasks. Does that mean I am over committed, unorganized, lazy, or all of the above?