Favorite Things: Beauty Edition

I haven't done a "favorite things" post in forever. The other day, I read this post on one of my favorite blogs, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it! I soooo want to have one of these little parties. I'm just wondering if any of my local friends would want to do this. Hello? Anyone local reading? Hello??

Anyway, this edition of Favorite Things will be about beauty products. If you are Steve, or anyone that knows me the least little bit, you will know that I have a bit of a "product" problem. I can't help it, I am a major girly-girl, and I love lotions, potions, makeup, etc. So, in no particular order, here are some of my must-haves:

Tresemme Dry Shampoo Spray. For the first time in my adult life, I have long hair, and it is at a length now that I do not have the time to wash it every day (nor do I want to). I discovered this a few months back, and I just love it. I've noticed that it doesn't get the best reviews online, but I've found that if you follow the directions, it works great. Just a few quick spurts of it, and it refreshes your hair. Love it.

Philosophy Butterscotch Bliss Shampoo/Shower Gel/Bubble Bath. Last year, my sister-in-law gave me some of this in Pink Layer Cake scent, and I made that bottle last for months, I loved it so much. It costs more than I am willing to spend on shampoo, but I've found that if you check TJ Maxx, they frequently have bottles of various scents for about $6 less than what you would pay at a department store. When I was out on my Birthdaypalooza shopping spree last week, I treated myself to a bottle at TJ's, and I am so glad I did. It smells sooooo good.




L'Oreal Elnet aerosol hairspray. Best hairspray ever. It costs more than your standard drug store hairspray, but it works so much better, doesn't give you 'helmet hair', and I find that I use it a lot more sparingly than the average spray, so one can lasts me 2-3 times as long.




L'Oreal Voluminous Mascara. I have used this for years and I really hope it never gets discontinued because I don't know what I'll do.

Alpha Hydrox Lotion. I use this under my daily moisturizer. I would like to think it is slowly working miracles on my turkey neck, but I do know that it has evened out the tone of my skin quite a bit.

What are your must-have products?

On the Road to Health

Finally...I think we may be on our way to a healthy household. I don't want to jinx myself, but I think we have more than paid our dues in the past four weeks. The body count as of today is: Steve ~ healthy. Heather ~ healthy. Camden ~ fighting a cold, but seems to be on the upswing as of this morning. Griffin ~ Finally, FINALLY on the mend. When he wasn't getting any better, after 4 WEEKS of illness, we headed back to the pediatrician (for the third time). I don't enjoy medicating my children, but I had my fingers crossed that the doctor would prescribe something that would get this kid on the mend. With the addition of wheezing and some chest pain, the doctor prescribed an oral steroid for post-infections lung inflammation. I can already see a difference in him, and I am hoping that this will put an end to the scourge that has plagued this household since early January!

More Birthday Musings

I wanted to take the time to write down what I did on my birthday, because it really was a perfect day, all the way around. Steve really outdid himself and I will never forget how much fun I had on my 40th birthday.

I got up in the morning and had some coffee with Steve, and then enjoyed a lovely breakfast (toad in the hole and turkey bacon) that he made for me. Steve had taken the day off from work so that I could have the "day off" and do whatever I wanted. After breakfast, I headed out on my morning walk, which felt great.

Steve took Camden to school, and I got ready to head to Boise for a day of shopping. All of you mothers know that if you have little kids, shopping isn't exactly fun, and it is a rare occurance to get out BY YOURSELF, to shop FOR YOURSELF. So, this is what I was wanting to do on my birthday. Try on clothes to my heart's content, browse, wander, window shop, and drink coffee! I was determined to go to all the stores I steer clear of when I have the boys in tow, and that is exactly what I did. As luck would have it, there were some crazy sales going on last Friday, and I still cannot believe the treasures I found. I spent nearly the entire day, but soon had to head back home to get ready for dinner. I think I had 30 minutes to come in the door, freshen up, change, and then get back in the truck and head back to Boise, but this time with all three of my boys.

Steve wouldn't tell me where we were going but said it was somewhere that I'd always wanted to have dinner. A little bit before we reached our destination, he told me we were all going to Le Cafe de Paris. He and I have been there many times for dessert, but never for dinner. I have a bit of an obsession with all things French, so I was really excited to say the least. The boys are really well-behaved when we take them out to eat, but I will admit I was a little nervous about taking them to this particular restaurant. I'm happy to say that wasn't necessary - - they were extra-excited to go to a "fancy" restaurant and were perfect gentleman for the entire hour and a half that we were there. Anyway, I enjoyed escargot, chicken cordon bleu, and a couple of glasses of Les Graines chardonnay...probably the best chardonnay I have ever tasted. Yum.

We got home late so we held off on cake until the next night so that my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew could join us. My boys made me a delicious cake, and I was completely spoiled by Rex, Kasey, and Banzer, who gave me a deluxe camp kitchen. I can tell you that thing is going to see a lot of use this coming camp season - - I cannot wait to use it.

So it was a wonderful birthday weekend. I also had a huge surprise on my birthday, but that will need a post all its own. More on that later.

Forty

I celebrated my 40th birthday this past Friday. I can already tell you that 40 is way better than 39. I really and truly have not been dreading turning 40, but there is something about 39 that packs some sort of unspoken anticipation that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Come to find out, it was almost a relief to just get it over with and embrace 40 already.

I would be lying if I said that I haven't been thinking a lot about aging lately. Mostly I think about mortality, and how I keep forgetting that as I age, so do all of the people in my life. I wish I could get to a place where I could be okay with that, but it is something that weighs heavily on my mind from time to time.

As for my own aging, I am happy to say that I am quite content. Over the past year I think I have done a pretty good job at realizing that I have to 'put in the work to see the results'. This holds true for so many areas in life. My health is better than it has been in a long time, and it makes me feel great, knowing that it is a direct result of my hard work. I am getting better at taking time for myself...another great feeling. Plain and simple: Life is good.

Smokey Goes to Preschool

Today, the Show & Tell letter of the week was "C". Griffin wanted to take his brother for Show & Tell, but since he had school, Smokey got the job. Smokey is truly the Best Cat Ever. Mind you, she has some bad habits that we continue to try and break her of (*ahem*, climbing on the counter tops), but she is affectionate, is full of personality, and is laid-back as all get out.

I was told to show up at Griff's school at 10:15, and when I got there, all the kids were sitting in a circle. Griffin was very official about the whole thing, and didn't waste any time letting everyone know that they needed to be quiet so they wouldn't scare his kitty. I removed her from her cat carrier and she didn't look the least bit scared, but gave everyone a once-over and jumped back into her carrier. Griff wasn't having any of that, so he reached in, lifted her out, and took her for a spin around the circle so everyone could get a closer look. As you can see, she just sort of 'hung out' and didn't protest in the least.

Soon we were told that Cookie the Dog had arrived for Show & Tell, so Smokey and I packed up and made a hasty retreat.

More of the Same

I last blogged 15 days ago, and not much has changed around here, unfortunately. After Griff's bout with the upper-respiratory junk, I caught it (no surprise there), and right about the time I started to feel human again, he started feeling poorly. It was off to the doctor yesterday to make sure his nasty cough wasn't something more serious (it wasn't), and now we are back in the juice-drinking, forced-resting mode in hopes of kicking this sickness to the curb. Poor Griff. He is a good little patient, but really, enough is enough.

As you can see from the quality of my pictures, I am still phone-blogging, which is why I haven't been blogging. Yesterday I decided to just chalk January up as one of those months that seems to evaporate before your eyes, and if someone asked you, you couldn't really tell them what you'd done all month. All of the days seemed to blur together and mostly I am just very happy that today is February 1st. It gives me that "clean slate" feeling, and the hope that health will be restored to this house. Pronto.

We have been experiencing an extremely mild winter here in Idaho. One would think that this would alleviate the 'winter blahs', and while it does help somewhat, I find myself extremely impatient for spring to just get here already. These mild days are a tease and I am just ready for the children to be playing outside and to just chalk this winter up as a bust and get on with it.

Steve's office has relocated, away from the military base he's always worked on, so this has added a good 45 minutes to his already one hour (each way) commute time every day. This means some adjusting and some changes for all of us, but mostly I just feel for Steve because really, who wants to spend 3.5 hours in a car every day? He's a trooper, that's for sure.

We have not broken the news to Smokey yet, but tomorrow is "Letter C" day at preschool, and so she will be going to visit a gaggle of hyperactive 4-year olds.