Help! I have major under eye wrinkles!

I know that my under eye wrinkles are due to wearing contacts for 26 (!!) years, and to all those years of sunning my face, both outside and in tanning booth (I'd even search out the booths with the "extra face tanner"). But that doesn't make it any easier to look at and accept!

I ran across a really good deal for the new Aveeno Active Naturals Ageless Vitality Elasticity Recharging System, Eyes, so I am currently testing it out and shall report back.

It's a two-step system- the first is a serum and the second a cream. I've been using it for close to a week and I like it so far, although that's not really enough time to decide if my wrinkles are reduced. It doesn't sting or have an odor, and my makeup goes on nicely over it. So as far as I'm concerned, it's a win so far.

If you purchase it from www.walmart.com for $40.97 (that includes shipping, but not tax) you'll get a bonus $15 eGift Card to use later at www.walmart.com.

Then you submit your receipt along with this rebate form (must be purchased before 7-15-10) and get $20 back from Aveeno.

Net price:
$40.97 plus tax
less 15 gift card
less 20 rebate
Final price $6 plus tax

Not too shabby.

And although I myself forgot, you can go through ebates for an additional 1% off.

This little girl

hopes you have a great day!

(Notice what's in her hand? Nail polish! She takes after her momma!)

It's shaping up to be a great day. Already got my workout in (Week 1 Day 3 of Jay Johnson's Boot Camp- yes, I fell off that wagon during the Spring, but am back on track) and am fixin' to get ready for work. The fam is still sleeping by will be up soon.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

My Son, the Comedian

P spied this statue at a local museum and couldn't resist pretending to be stepped on....

Love the tongue sticking out!

Show Us Your Life: China Patterns

This week's topic at Kelly's Korner is China Patterns. The Mr. and I got married in 1999 and I had so much fun picking out my dishes.


It's a tradition on my mom's side of the family to use a Denby pattern for everyday dishes. My mom and her two sisters all have Denby. Denby is fabulous just for the fact that it is oven, microwave, and dishwasher safe. And I love the stoneware look.

I chose the Juice pattern, which, sadly, has been discontinued. Luckily I have all the pieces I need for 12 place settings. I love the mix-and-match pattern and in each piece I got 4 pieces of each of the three colors.

For my "fancy" dishes, I chose Villeroy & Boch French Garden. These are also mix-and-match, but I chose to pick a pattern for each type of plate and stick with that pattern for all 8.

Sadly, we don't entertain much and these only get used on special occasions like Christmas Eve dinner. Maybe when the kids are older we will use them more.
I'd love to see what dishes you chose. Leave me a comment if you join in on Kelly's Show Us Your Life this week.

Give

What are you doing next Monday, the 14th of June?

Would you join me in giving blood on World Blood Donor Day? My father-in-law will be entering the hospital soon to prepare for his stem cell transplant to treat his leukemia. Over the past few months, his illness has caused him to need a number of blood transfusions. I'll be giving in his name next week to help offset those costs. If you are local and would like to do the same, please email me for info about how to designate your donation specifically for him.

ABOUT THE “GIVE” DONATION INITIATIVE:

Many Americans consider giving blood to be an important act of community service, however, less than 10 percent donate on an annual basis. Incredibly, if just one percent more donated–less than four million Americans–the nation’s blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future. To help close this gap, Nexcare Brand and America ’s Blood Centers are partnering on the second annual give program, a nationwide blood donation initiative kicking off on World Blood Donor Day, Monday, June 14th, and extending through Sunday, June 20th.
With the support of hundreds of participating local blood centers, the give program inspires Americans with a message of hope, and helps them to spread the word by distributing limited-edition Nexcare Bandages marked with the word give.

World Blood Donor Day comes at an important time each year. As local blood centers face “summer shortages,” the nation’s blood supply comes under strain due to less donations because of increased vacation schedules and other seasonal distractions that tend to take place in the summer months. World Blood Donor Day reminds Americans to donate and enables them to help make a impact in reducing these shortages.

The 2010 give Bandages are inspired by both the patriotic act of giving blood as well as Flag Day, which will also be recognized on June 14, 2010. This collection of three Nexcare bandages are designed to represent the American flag signify the everyday hero in each American who commits to saving lives by donating blood.

Additionally, there’s a dedicated website, http://www.nexcaregive.com/, where visitors can share their story, get directions to our local blood center and register to receive coupons and a free sampling of bandages.

Did You Know? Facts About Blood Donation
· One pint of blood can save up to three lives
· Every two seconds, someone needs blood
· Most Americans will require a blood transfusion at some point in their lives
· Less than 10% of Americans donate blood on an annual basis
· If one percent more Americans gave blood, all national blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future
· There is no substitute for human blood
· Donors can give whole blood up to six times a year

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

These are a few of my favorite things.....

Right now I am using Dove Damage Therapy Intensive Repair Daily Treatment Conditioner on WC's hair and am LOVING it. Poor thing has hair just like me- super fine- and it gets so tangly just walking around. But this conditioner is wonderful and I truly think it's made her hair smoother and much less tangled in the evenings. Her hair looks shiner and so much healthier as well. Disclosure: I received this product for free from BzzAgent.

I had heard a lot about "skunk" brushes and have heard these give a great "light" application of blush or bronzer. I purchased this Sonia Kashuk Highlighting brush at Target for about $12 and I absolutely love it. I'm pretty pale, and a regular blush brush sometimes applies too much color for me, so this works great. (For some reason, this brush is not offered or pictures online at Target's site, but it is available in stores.)

I also needed a new powder brush. I apply a finishing powder over my foundation, and the brush I was using was past it's prime. When I was shopping Avon recently, I found this Mark powder brush for only $8 and I am so glad I ordered it. The handle is high-quality and nice and heavy and the brush itself it so soft. Great purchase. Here's a recent post I did on how to get free shipping on Avon products when you order thru my rep, Valeri.

I've been using Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle for years and love it, but am such a product junkie I can't be satisfied with that. I have to keep trying different products and see how they work in comparison!

I purchased Instant Artificials at Sally's a few weeks ago (about $7-8 I think) and I've already been recommending it to friends! I had a crazy busy week last week and didn't have the opportunity to paint color on my nails, and usually when this happens, I lose a few nails to breakage since they don't have the protection of a million coats of polish. However, I painted two coats of Instant Artificials on my nails and not only did my nails stay intact, the clear polish lasted for 6 days with absolutely no peeling or chipping and my nails seemed even stronger at the end of that week. I am sold!

What products are you loving these days?

Music Monday: 6-7-10

Ah, summer! We spent two days by the pool this weekend, drinks in hand, and it was delightful! Summertime music always gets me in the mood. Right now I'm loving Katy Perry's California Gurls.

Listen with me on blip.fm!

What are you listening to today? Head over to Hair Bows & Guitar Picks and join in Music Monday!

It's a Good Thing We Don't Have Any Real Pets

The kids have been wanting a puppy, but I don't think that would be a wise move, animal-cruelty-wise, because I've managed to kill 4 Sea Monkeys over the last few days.

The whole sea money thing was sketchy from the get-go, because only five of the damn things appeared rather than the millions I was expecting. I decided I was OK with that, because they were pretty cool and although the kids weren't too jazzed, *I* was. Pretty cool that these living things came out of a a package not too different from a Splenda pack.

But as of yesterday there is only one lone sea monkey swimming around..... and a bunch of dead ones at the bottom.

This $7 hobby is much more complicated than I expected. What do I do now? Get more? Call it a day? Boycott the whole shebang and spread the word?

Thirsty Thursday/Friday: Sweet Tea Vodka

Hair Bows & Guitar Picks is hosting Thirsty Thursday today, and I of course am joining in, although I'm a bit late this week!

Have you gotten into the Sweet Tea Vodka craze? It's all I'm hearing about so I had to join in. Last weekend we went to a pool party, so I took a gallon of Red Diamond Sugar Free Sweet Tea and a bottle of Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka. It was a hit! So refreshing on a hot day by the pool.

Tip: Keep your vodka in the freezer.

What are your go-to summer drinks for days by the pool?

Father's Day Gifts on Rue La La

Mr. Sasha just scored himself some $90 golf shoes for $59 from Rue La La... looks like they are having great deals for men all week.

Disclosure: This post contains a referral link.

Avon Nail Polish

I know not everyone is as nail-polish crazy as I am, but just in case you are.... thought I'd share a recent Avon order. I just placed an Avon order for some of their new colors- Avon is such an affordable brand- I love trying their new products.

Right now their polish is "Buy one for $5, get one for $0.99", so it's basically $3 per polish. I chose the two new green shades, Jade and Olive Green. Green is really hot right now, and if we know one thing, it's that I'm totally up with current trends (kidding, but I do think these look pretty).

I also ordered the three new Color Trend Ice Sheers Nail Enamels shown below- these are only $3 and they are scented. Fun!

My Avon rep, Valeri, is always so nice to let my readers use a free shipping code! Please follow these steps so you can use the code and give Valeri credit.

1. Visit Valeri's site to make her your default rep
2. Log into ebates to get 5% back and go through them to get to the Avon site
3. Once the Avon site pulls up again, you should see Valeri's name near the top of the site
4. Choose your products and then use code FSANY or REPFS to get free shipping

Happy Shopping!

Disclosure: This post contains an ebates referral link, but readers will also get at least $5 credit if they use this link.

She Who Is Afraid of NOTHING

This is The Wild Child, loving on a snake found in the yard last night... notice all the other legs, many feet away.

She was even playing with his tongue.... and letting it crawl all over her arm.

Although I love having a little country girl who likes to get dirty and is brave, I am worried about what the future holds for someone who has no natural fear. Seriously.

Fresh Sugar Plum Lip Treatment

(photo from Sephora)

One of my favorite lip balms, Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment, is now available in Plum and of course I just ordered it because I am absolutely obsessed with all things plum. It's a bit pricy at $22.50, but it's a worthwhile luxury to me. I also have the Rose and Clear and have repurchased several times.

Sephora has a code for 10% off for their VIBers good through June 7th... V436CB

And good Lord, don't forget to go thru ebates.... 4% back.

Disclosure: This post contains an ebates referral link.

Review: Clean & Clear Pore Perfecting Moisturizer

This photo was taken in the car.... right before I returned this product to CVS. So nice that they have such a good guarantee on their health/beauty items, because I was allergic to this product.

I thought it would be a great product- an oil free moisturizer with SPF that acts as a primer. And I figured if it was by Clearn & Clear, it certainly wouldn't break me out.

And it seemed fine in the morning. My makeup went on nicely. I was shine free at lunch. But by mid-afternoon, it was getting warmer outside (and in my office, sucky A/C), and I started itching. Very bad. I need to take a look at the ingredients, because the itching was similar to the effect that Bare Minerals has on me, and I've been told that it could be bismuth.

So this was a no-go. What moisturizer with SPF are you using right now? I'm testing out one from Kate Sommerville and so far so good- more on that later.

TGIF

I'm just not sure we could take another day this week. The Wild Child had been doing so well at therapy and in school recently. In fact, our behavior therapist suggested we take a break since she was doing so well- she thought we had it under control. It's probably been about 6-8 weeks since we have had an appointment for WC. We are still doing maintenance listening therapy for her Sensory Processing Disorder, doing 10 minutes per day of a Samoas CD in an effort to minimize what her OT thinks is Central Auditory Processing Disorder.
And in what I thought was an unrelated note, I was just thinking that I hadn't done a "Notes from School" post in quite a while. But *this* is not the post I wanted to do.
5-18 WC was loud and restless at nap. While Miss C was talking to a parent in the room, WC rolled over and kicked her multiple times.
5-19 WC had a very hard time listening to teachers today. At lunch she was asked many time to get her knees off the table, and she continued to put them up there on purpose, so she ate in the office.
5-20 WC had a hard time listening again today. She got mad at one of her friends and scratched them on the face. We talked about using our words and telling the teacher instead of hurting others. She did very good at nap today!
And when I went in her classroom today and saw a cookie in a baggie on her hook, I knew that was a bad sign- that meant she didn't get to participate in a birthday snack.
5-21 WC still had a hard time listening and following directions. She shoved her friend in line instead of using words.
I am so full of sad right now....... I figured we would need to go back to behavior therapy at some point, I just didn't think it would be so soon. That's 4 days in a row! I can't put my hands on Monday's sheet right now, but I bet there was something on there as well...........................

Thirsty Thursday: 5-20-10

Hair Bows & Guitar Picks is hosting Thirsty Thursday today, and I of course am joining in.

On Monday, Hungry Girl told me about Sinless Margarita Mix, and I am intrigued! I think I may place an order but wondered if anyone has tried it?
Here's what Hungry Girl said:

Sinless Margarita Mix - We tend to be a tad skeptical of stevia-sweetened products until we taste them. Well, this all-natural, non-alcoholic mix is REALLY GOOD. No bitter aftertaste. Really. A 3-oz. serving has only 5 calories, 2g carbs, and nothing else (POINTS® value 0*). Just combine 2 - 3 parts mix with 1 part tequila, and you're good to go! Click to find (if you live in Georgia) or buy online.

A shot of tequila has about 100 calories in it, so it looks like you could have a very-low calorie margarita using this mix. The Sashas are getting a new back patio poured and will hopefully get to spend many an evening outside enjoying the summer while the kids play. In my vision, I am drinking a margarita... should it be a Sinless one?

Attn: Girls of the 70s

Don't you think we need this Hello Kitty fragrance set from Demeter?

Music Monday: Smashing Pumpkins "Today"

One of my friend just tweeted that she was listening to Smashing Pumpkins "Today". Wow- the 90s came rushing back to me and I had to listen to it myself!

Join me!

What are you listening to today? Head over to Hair Bows & Guitar Picks and join in!

Amazon Anonymous

My friend Beth posted last week about her recent purchases from Amazon and I got scared. That's right, scared! I know that having a Prime membership has seriously spoiled me... I can get things at my door so quickly I often impulse shop.

I do have an Amazon Visa credit card that gives Amazon credit as a reward (sign up now and get an instant $40 Amazon reward!), and I do make a very small percentage on my Amazon referral links, so it's not all out-of-pocket, but still, seeing this list makes me look like a shopaholic!

So here we go.....

For me

• Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers (Deluxe)
• Rolling Stone (12 issues auto-renewal) (had a reward of some sort- got this for $1)
• Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna
• The Summer Before (Babysitters Club) (yes, for me- I have fond memories of this series)
• Five Love Languages, Small Group Study Edition (multiple copies to use for a Sunday School study)
• Five Love Languages, Leader Kit, UPDATED (again, for Sunday School)
• Hillbilly Bone Blake Shelton's new CD
• Wii Nunchuk Controller
• The New Adventures of Old Christine: The Complete Second Season (birthday present for my mom)
• Golf Magazine (2-year) (for the hubby)
• Good Housekeeping (2-year)
• Camwear Polycarbonate Round Food Storage Containers (for bread making)
• Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
• Not Just Spirited: A Mom's Sensational Journey With Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)
• Arnie and His School Tools: Simple Sensory Solutions That Build Success
• Jay Johnson's Boot Camp Fitness: Ultimate 3x30
• Dance with Julianne: Cardio Ballroom
• Order Up! (wii game for me- and it's so much fun!)

for the kiddos....

• Fancy Nancy and the Late, Late, LATE Night
• Fancy Nancy and the Sensational Babysitter
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (Single-Disc Version) (1 for the kids, 1 for a gift)
• Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey
• Disney Bedtime Favorites (Disney Storybook Collections) (1 for the kids, 1 for a gift)
• Fancy Nancy: The 100th Day of School (I Can Read Book 1)
• Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire! (gee, can you tell my kids loves Fancy Nancy?)
• Day by Day Kid's Bible: The Bible for Young Readers (Tyndale Kids) (for The Politician

Are you embarrassed to be my friend?

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon referral links, upon which I earn a very small percentage....

Dear Honda,

If you want to make the Honda Odyssey version of this, just holler.... the Sashas are glad to oblige.



BTW, the whispered "I gotta go potty" kills me every time.....

Lylas,
Sasha