Pray.

I've written a few posts and erased them. One word is enough.

Pray.

The people of Haiti need us to pray for them. I can't imagine.

Because 34 F feels like an absolute heat wave.

I have my windows and doors open and all of the ceiling fans on. I NEED FRESH AIR! I NEED FRESH AIR!

Just thought you'd like to know. Now be a nice internet friend and please read my other post for today. Thanks! :)

Bzz Agent Product Review: L'Oreal Lash Boosting Mascara and Serum

I was contacted by Bzz Agent to a product review of the L'Oreal Paris(R) Lash Boosting Regimen. It was a 4-week challenge.

What did they send me?
- A tube of L'Oreal Double Extend Mascara with lash boosting serum to use during the day.
- A tube of Lash boosting serum to use under mascara during the day and on bare lashes at night before I go to bed.

I'll start by saying that I'm always cautious about make-up. I have very sensitive skin. My eyes? They are important to me, too!

From the Bzz Agent Bzz Guide:
What are women already saying? After 4 weeks of Double Extend Lash Boosting Serum use?
71% say, "It seems I have more lashes."
75% say, "My lashes seem thicker."
78% say, "I have less lash loss during makeup removal."
81% say, "My lashes seem to be in better condition."

So what are my eyelashes like? They are full, long and dark. When they are wet, they hang like mops on my eyes. I use mascara sometimes, but it can make me look like Raggedy Ann if I'm not careful.

I decided that I was going to do a bit of an allergy test before running into this full steam. First, it arrived somewhere when the holidays fell, perhaps right after, but at a time that I wasn't willing to risk a potential allergic reaction, so I held off a little while.

The first day I tried the product, I wore the mascara only. Good news! No allergic reaction. The mascara wasn't very plumpy though. It wasn't the fault of the mascara. I didn't put the serum underneath. I was trying one layer at a time. So, mascara was fine.

The second day, I tried the lash boosting side of the mascara, then put the mascara on top. Wow! Did that make my eyelashes look like they spanned across my face. I don't know what is in that magical serum, but if you are looking for plumpness, that'll take you where you need to go. There was one thing though, I noticed lash loss. In fact, my best friend was around to witness the plumpness and the loss. The plumpness? "WOW!" The loss, "Oh." I told her that I was doing a product review for Bzz Agent. I said that I'd still give it another try.

Day three came. I decided to repeat day two, since I had noticed lash loss and wanted to see if it was just a weird coincidence. Y'all, eyelashes kept falling out as I was trying to pay attention to Pastor and his sermon. Hmm.

I should add that losing lashes is not something that I have a problem with. They stay put. Rarely will one decide to jump ship. I provide a happy eye home for them. They like staying where God intended them to be, around my eyeball and not in it.

After church, I talked to Hubs about my lash dilemma. Of course, he looked at me cross-eyed.

I talked to my mom about the product review, the mascara, what it designed to do and that my lashes were falling out. I said that I would give it a few more days. She said not to. She said that she suffered from something similar and ended up with a half naked eye.

No thank you.

With that, I discontinued use of the mascara and decided not to use the additional lash boosting serum at all. The lashes weren't falling out with just the mascara, so I believe that the serum may have been the issue for me.

So, my personal take on the L'Oreal Double Extend Mascara with Lash Boosting Serum? It might work for you. I give it a thumbs up on plumpness. I give it a thumbs down on lash loss, as it claims that after 4 weeks reports were 78% had less lash loss during makeup removal. I wasn't even removing my makeup and my lashes were falling out. The price would probably be a bit of a hold back to me, but if you feel like you have skimpy lashes and it is important to you to plump them up, the price-point may be something not so bad.

More information to note:
- The L'Oreal Paris(R) Double Extend Lash Boosting Mascara is available in Black and Blackest Black at a suggested retail price of $12.95.
- There is a 24-Hour Lash Boosting Power System which includes both items I received (mascara in black) for the suggested retail price of $24.95.
- It is Ophthalmologist and allergy tested, safe for sensitive eyes and contact lens wearers.
- It is available at Wa*lmart, Target, CV*S and Walg*reens beginning this month.

I received these products from Bzz Agent to do an honest review. Other than sending me the Double Extend Mascara with Lash Boosting Serum and the additional Lash Boosting Serum, I received no payment. The opinions included in this review, including loss of lashes, was completely my own.

Smiles in my day:
- My last day of inventory is done.
- The snowplow came down the street before I arrived home and while I had to baja into the driveway, I was given the opportunity to shovel the very heavy road snow out of the end of the drive to make way for Hubs' little Tercel. This exercise hopefully worked off some of the massive caloric intake that I have been partaking of during said boring inventory week.

Prayer list updated with some pretty big stuff. If you will, take a minute to run through the sidebar listing. Thanks!

Works for Me Wednesday: A Child's Thank You Notes

I've been very religious about writing thank yous since Hubs and I were engaged. I guess that I grew up enough then to realize that I needed to hand write a note of thankfulness. I've thought it was important enough to pass on to my daughter.

A few weeks back, I was reading this post from JMom at Lots of Scotts. I thought it was an excellent idea to type all the thank yous out, then hand them off to K- to hand write into the cards themselves.

So, during the Friday snowstorm that wasn't, K- and I went over the thank you list. I typed word for word what she wanted to say. Here are some of K-'s thank you statements:

Dear Aunt Holly, [and sibs],

Thank you for my clock and my tree necklace. I love my clock and I do a pattern. Planets, man on the moon, the moon and the world. I love my family!

Dear Beth,

Thank you! My daddy wanted to trade me something else for R2D2 and I said NO! I love it!

Shelley, K- and W-,

Thank you for my books and thank you for my Barbie thing. I colored it a little bit. I love you!

Do you still have the owl barf?

[They chose one of our White Elephant gifts. My husband, the naturalist, put owl pellets in as his White Elephant. The funny thing is that my cousin is always the one that puts the odd gifts in.]

Jenny, Jacob and B-,

I love my Polly Pocket set. I was sick [on Christmas] and I was playing with my Polly. I’m feeling better. I love you!

Dear E-,

I like you and American Girl Doll blue dress and the Barbie with the mask. I hope you come back home safely [she is moving back in June] and I miss you. I love you!

And finally, the heartbreaking thank you to friends that will soon be moving--

Dear E-, L- and C-,

I don’t want you to leave. I’m going to miss you. Thank you for my Barbies. I like my new shirt. I like to play with you and we’re going to come again.

Not only teaching thankfulness, but teaching our daughter to express it in her own words on a nice little note.

Works for us!

Smiles in my day:
- Having a shifted schedule this week allowed me to attend the PTA meeting at K-'s school. There were only 7 of us in attendance, which was kind of sad. We had a very laid back meeting and found out some wonderful things.
- First, K-'s teacher has been voted as TEACHER OF THE YEAR! I'm so happy for Mrs. H-. We love her!!!
- K- will be getting a new building. The tentative date of start of construction will be Fall 2011. It should be done in a year and a half - 2 years time. It will still give her a few years to enjoy it.
- The best news of that is that her elementary school students will not be temporarily relocated downtown. "Oh thank God!" is what came out of my mouth and the principal agreed. Since the present school has to be torn down to give the space for the new building, the children will be relocated to the middle school building which is 11 blocks up the opposite direction. We'll still be able to walk to school, though it will be a little longer walk. That's okay. The new middle school is being built now, so those kids will have moved next door to their new building before our kids get there.
- K-'s school ranks 10th out of 300 participating schools in the ENTIRE United States for the reading program they do with the children. Each grading period, each child is expected to have 100 reading steps (15 minutes per step) accomplished. If they are behind, the kids are assigned to participate in the principal's Recess Reader's Club. Mr. B- sits and reads to the kids to bring them back on track with the school goals. Once they are back to the goal, they can leave the Recess Reader's Club. Notes are sent home to the parents and they are fully aware.
- Our principal is such an involved guy. I mean really. I don't recall anything like it in all the years I attended school.
- K- counted to 100 for her teacher today and only forgot number 22. Poor kid! We told her that she did well. I believe that Wednesday is counting by 5's and 10's. K- has the 10's. 5's are a little trickier for her. She's a great student and is always sad if she misses something. We go over the problem with her and let it go. We don't want her beating herself up.

Have a great day!

Tales from the Trenches: The love and hate of winter

I should start this by saying that I love each and every season for the wonderfulness that each bring to our little plot of earth. Each season, however, brings good and bad things. Here is my list of love and hate for winter. It probably isn't an exhaustive list, but it's a good chunk.

Love:
The glistening snow. It looks like a glitter shaker has spilled on the ground.

Hate:
Car stalactites.

Love:
Warm sweaters.

Hate:
Parking lot sludge that stains the back of your pants.

Love:
Snow falling.

Hate:
Me falling.

Love:
Snow by the half foot at a time.

Hate:
Stale house air. Unless we want to nearly freeze to death, the windows stay closed.

Love:
Candles burning.

Hate:
Frozen windshield wipers. My wipers were frozen into solid blocks of ice (both front and back wipers). Kind of defeats the purpose when all you are doing is swipping big icicles across your windows.

Love:
To see my child rolling around in the snow, throwing it up in the air and playing out on the sidewalk with the sled.

Hate:
Pushing a cart through the snow.

Love:
Snowshoe-ing.

Hate:
Running out of windshield washer fluid in the midst of a storm. Don't worry, I have a gallon and a half in my car to make certain that doesn't happen.

Love:
Comfort foods that come along with the snow.

Hate:
That my waistline is expanding because of the comfort foods along with the snow and the not being able to walk K- to school because sidewalks aren't cleared because if they are cleared and someone falls, that is considered negligence on the part of the homeowner. But! If someone falls on an unclean sidewalk, that is an act of God. Go figure. (Sorry about the big run-on sentence.)

Love:
Slippers.

Hate:
Walking in stocking feet through snow puddles that escape from the entry rug. (Not that my stocking feet escaped from the rug, but that the wetness did!)

So what about you?

Smiles in my day:
- Though I hate inventory (I don't use the word hate, but today it appears several times, so why not keep with the theme, eh?), I was assigned to the toy room as opposed to the extremely cold upstairs that is not heated. Y'all, it was 17 F this AM, so I can only imagine that it was probably hovering around 30 F all day up there. (It is where we keep backstock.)
- Starting a new-to-me book and really getting into it. That really doesn't happen for me and while it is out as a movie now, I'm perfectly content to read it first. (My Sister's Keeper.) I admit that I read The Devil Wears Prada, then bought the movie at the Wal on Black Friday for the bargain price of $2.00. Sadly, the movie and the book varied wildly. They missed so much in the movie!
- Antiques Roadshow, which is on right now as I type. A $12.00 auction doll appraised at $3000.?! Wow! A 1985 Andrew Wyeth watercolor painting, framed by the artist and originally purchased for $75,000 appraised at $450,000.00?! EEEEEE! (The $75,000.00 alone blew me away. I can admit that Hubs and I don't make even close to that in a year!) What a cool thing to have hang on your wall. And no, I don't say that because of the worth, I really did like it!

:still shaking my head:

Have a great day!

It makes a mommy want to poke someone in the eye.

You've all read that my daughter has a bit of a speech issue. It isn't severe, but bad enough to qualify for school speech therapy twice a week. She is blossoming and doing quite well. That is not my issue.

When we were at Kohl's on Saturday, K- was speaking with the lady who was ahead of us in line. The lady commented on how tall K- was and asked her age. She said that she was 6 and just had a birthday.

"Oh! You had a burfday?" :insert old lady cuteness smile:

When a child has a speech issue, please don't repeat back to them what they said to you in the mispronunciation that they said it in. They realize that you are speaking to them in English that isn't proper and therefore think that you are making fun of them. (I'll say that each child pronounces things funny for a while, but K- is obviously old enough to be getting out of that.)

Did K- notice? This time, I don't believe she did. As we were walking back to the car, I did bring it up to my shopping sidekick April. She said that she had noticed it.

There have been times that K- has noticed.

Her cubby-mate at school is a girl that she went to preschool for 2 years with. This is their 3rd year of school together in the same class. One day, she asked K- if she spoke Polish. K- came home crying. The next day, she asked K- if she could speak English. Again, K- came home crying.

When we were breaking down the tables after the Christmas Tea, the kids were playing as the adults were working. One of the 8 year olds was playing with K- calling her "Baby K-," over and over again. As we were pulling out of the church parking lot, I asked K-, "K-, did you notice what A- was saying to you." "Yes mommy. I knew that she was calling me 'Baby K-,' but don't worry, she didn't hurt my feelings."

I may have posted about this before, but I can't recall. It just breaks my heart. I spoke to the speech therapist about it and her resolution was to have K- tell the kids that "they aren't perfect either." As a Christian, telling someone that they aren't perfect either kind of comes across as judgmental (which I'm sure is how it is intended, but out of the mouth of a 6 year old?!) I told her that I didn't quite think that was going to resolve it, but I did speak with K-. I told her that if her friends were having a difficult time understanding her, to go ahead and tell them what she needs to say in a different way, using different words.

Back to my original issue, do we ignore the nice, kindly old lady and consider that she means nothing by kind of not meaning to mock my child's speech problem? I don't want to be snippy (or snarky as I suppose the word would be now) and call her on it, but wow. If she only knew how to a kid who is fully aware of her speech problems and is working on them that speaking back to her in improper English is just twisting the knife slowly.

What are your suggestions?

Smiles in my day:
- Laundry completely caught up and hanging to dry.
- Uniforms all washed, ironed (even the extra shirts), hung in K-'s closet with matched necklaces and tights, ready to be pulled for wearing.
- My neighbor calling so excitedly last night at 10:10 PM. He had just seen a fox run down our street. We live on city blocks with no where for a fox to live. The poor guy is a little displaced!
- Eating on the homemade chicken pot pie for now the third day. Who would have known it would take me and K- that long to gobble it up? No bother! We love it and are happy to have it for the reheating.
- Shopping with April! She was my purchase approver. She found a sweater that she made me try on and if it hadn't been for that sweater that I wore to the 7th grade change-of-school orientation. It was white, long sleeved and covered in quarter-sized rainbow colored hearts. I thought I was so cool. As April put it, that was when everything started going downhill in school. (You see, our town wasn't large, but was split in half until you got to Junior high. They decided to combine the grades one year early, which meant we had to go to the school across town and know that it wasn't our school. Add to the fact that it was the year that both April and I were put in remedial math by our mothers who never bothered to tell us that we were going to be put in remedial math. It was a funky, yucky time and all at the ripe age of 12 when life just starts kind of going out of control anyhow.) She said that if the sweater was going to remind me of that, it had to go back on the rack. I appreciated her understanding!
- Managing to pull together an entire Rubbermaid Tote full of clothes (yes, it was already started) full of clothes to try to sell to the consignment store. Next on the consignment list are games that we don't play. I have to do that when K- isn't home or I hear, "But mommy! I love that!"
- Making a counting to 100 game for K- and she loves it. While she can count to 100 (and beyond, actually), she needs some more help on identifying the numbers that she can rattle off. I printed this off, went through my sewing basket and pulled out a variety of small, colored buttons. I put the chart in a page protector, then backed it with some recycled cereal box weight board. I put the buttons in a ziploc snack baggie and we keep those tucked in the back of the page protector. I'll call off a number for K- to find and she puts a button on it. She loves it. She made me play it with her Sunday morning at 7:30 AM. It is simple, but it takes her where she needs to go.
- Getting many different deals at Kohl's on Saturday. I managed to buy a $30.00 corduroy skirt for $3.00, a $35.00 denim skirt for $13.60, a $34.00 pair of jeans for $10.49, a two pack of cute cotton tights for K- for 96 cents (their original ticket price was $8.00- DEAL!) and a $7.00 Valentine table runner. My in-law's gave me a gift card to buy some pants, but I was able to get lots more with it!

Have a wonderful week!