Am I Annoying?

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foto courtesy blippitt.com

Now I don't mean in general, but I mean in relation to this here world. The natural & organic world that I have nestled into. Do you know what I mean? Let me explain my train of thought.

You know those people that are all about something and they just have to have everyone else know about it, and not just know about it, but be annoying about it? Like for instance, there are some people that swear by some weight loss programs. Not naming any names, they say that this program has changed their lives and you MUST try it. Not that you should just look into it and see if it's for you, but rather that you just HAVE TO TRY THIS AND THE NEXT TIME THAT I HAVE A MEETING I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE EVERYONE THERE AND THEY ARE RUNNING A SPECIAL RIGHT NOW WHERE ALL THE MEALS AND DRINKS ARE HALF OFF AND THE CAR IS RUNNING RIGHT NOW AND YOU LOOK FINE THE WAY YOU ARE DRESSED NOW AND DO YOU HAVE 5 DOLLARS? NO? THAT'S OKAY CAUSE I'LL SPOT YOU THE MONEY AND YOU'LL MAKE IT BACK JUST BY THE SAVINGS ALONE AND.............

You catch what I'm layin' down here? You know people like that? Thankfully I don't. But lately I was wondering if I am my friends "annoying friend who pushes her natural lifestyle on me whenever she gets the chance". That would not be good. Because I try really hard not to be that person. Sometimes it's physically painful for me not to open my mouth when I see someone or hear someone making a bad decision when it comes to food or personal hygiene choices. The fact that I cringe whenever my mom tries to buy something from QVC because she says "Ooooo I bet it smells really great, plus it won't be at this 70 dollar price forever!" and I know she can't get the same product effect on her skin for 1/4 of the price is just something that I deal with on a daily basis.

When I started learning more about the cosmetics and food industry and started changing my purchasing habits I'll be the first to admit that I wanted to shout out all my findings at the top of the nearest and highest building with a bullhorn. But then I realized that I can't single handedly change or save the world and also that not everyone wants to change their habits. Some people live by the creed of 'Ignorance is Bliss' and who am I to shatter that blissdom? Yesterday I was having a play date with a couple of my mama friends when we were watching a commercial on TV and they were showing on The Dr.s something about something and they were showing a series of greasy fast foods (pizza, triple cheeseburgers, chili cheese fries) and faceless people eating them. It made me sick to my stomach because I was thinking how horrible that stuff is for us and just as I was about to say 'ewww' one of the moms goes 'mmmm why does everything that's so greasy look so yummy?'....now since I was raised with the saying "if you you nothing good to say...." I just sat back and didn't say a word.

I try and give advice when advice is warranted (no I'm pretty sure you shouldn't put your baby to sleep with fruit punch soda in it's bottle for bedtime) or solicited (what do I think of the new Sierra Mist Natural soda? While it's great they use real sugar instead of High Fruc Corn Syrup it still has 62 grams of sugar in one 20 oz. bottle and the recommended daily allowance is 40 grams). And I try really hard not to walk up to random citizens and just slap shampoos, lip glosses and lotions out of their hands while screaming "It's all poison, do you realize what you are doing to yourself?!? Stop the insanity!!!"

Because that would just be crazy...and annoying...aaaand I'm pretty sure illegal in every state. So I will continue to try my best to avoid that. I like people. And friends are nice to have.

Have you ever come across someone like that? Just tells you what you don't want to hear when you never asked them in the first place? Share a story here if you have one. Best one wins a pat on the back.

My best,

I'd Buy That For a Dollar

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Or more. I would most definitely buy this lotion here for more than a dollar. And since the season of skin-baring is upon us - well for most of us - the time has come for me to pull out the summery smelling smell goods.

Enter my go to lotion that I reviewed awhile back here...

I love it and nothing will get in the way of my tropical smelling paradise in a bottle. It's like if a field of butterflies all flew into this one bottle....no wait. It's like, if a thousand tropical fruits died for the sake of one womans ashy elbow. Yeah that's it. If that did indeed happen, then you would get this powerhouse of a jar of lotion. And you would be happy. And in the end everyone would embrace each other as Will Smith held up the bottle to the sky and said "That's what I'm talking about!" while the credits rolled.

Either way, guess what I'm buying today from my local Walgreens? If you guessed Independence Day I wouldn't blame you, but you would still be way off. The question of the day is: When do you switch your vanilla-cinnamon scented winter things over to your fun, summery, light, citrus notes things? I think first day of spring. What say you?

My best,

Song of the Week: I have been humming the tune to this song all weekend. Seriously though, who plays the guitar like that? This band...once in a lifetime for sure! "I Want It All" by Queen.

*foto credit goes to parispresents.com

What Charlie Sheen Needs

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Okay it's time. I swore to myself that I was not going to mention his name on this here blog o mine. I try and only keep it real above board on here and talk about things that I wouldn't mind my mom reading over my shoulder. I know that if my mom kept up with pop culture though, she would definitely have an opinion about Mr. Sheen's antics as of late. And the things that I am going to suggest that Charlie Sheen needs would most likely come highly endorsed with my moms stamp of approval as well.

I honestly think that he can benefit from the following things:

1) A coffee enema. This should help purge his body of alot of the creepy toxins that are obviously poisoning his system at this time.

2) A cold shower. It is beneficial to help him regain his focus. In the mornings, this should be his pick me up.

3) A new job. Cause I heard he's unemployed right now. But then again, who isn't? Maybe he could be a de-motivational speaker. I'm sorry, that's just harsh. Maybe he can do a Scared Straight program though, for reals.

4) New friends. Or even some friends. Real ones though. No fake looking for a few minutes of "fame"(?) just by being pictured near him on some TMZ website friends either. But some real salt of the earth people that really care. Sadly, I don't know if there are such people for him in his world.

5) Parenting classes. I saw an interview where the reporter asked him if he was embarrassed that his kids will one day see all this, and he said "No." just as quickly as she had gotten the words out of her mouth. His reality is off kilter when it comes to how to raise kids in a responsible environment where they need to feel secure and loved. I don't know him or how he treats his children, but if I walk around town with dried ice cream on my shirt from lunch when I get home and realize it I tell ya what - that makes me embarrassed for my kid that I walked around like that all day. (Meanwhile my kid would probably pick her nose in front of the Queen on national television and not think twice.) So yes, parenting classes are a must.

6) Get hydrated. He seems to look a little jaunt in the face and malnourished in some photos and videos. Water would help with his complexion.

7) Get some sun...while drinking some water. Give that body a 1,2 punch. The sun will help him get in a better mood and the water will help him sweat out any toxins the enema may have missed.

8) Try a few memory aids to maintain mental strength. The same guy that said "Chivalry is not dead and I show it by my actions." or something along those lines...said just a few seconds later "Well if she shows up to the party and OD's it's not my fault. I'm not responsible for that." Yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh....umm could someone rewind that beautiful bean footage for Mr. Sheen please?

and last but not least,

9) Some sleep. Seriously when does he sleep? He does his dealings it seems like at all different hours of the day. His brain might be getting deprived its fair portion of oxygen hence the mindless ramblings at times. A steady dose of zzzzz's could help clear up most if not all of his problems.

But that's probably not true. Somewhat, but not totally.

See? He's seen better days...

To say that Charlie Sheen needs something different in his life is an understatement. He needs a fresh start. If ever there was a meltdown publicly this is it. He is the only one at this point that can brink himself back from the ledge that his life is teetering on. My list is not conclusive, but I think it's a pretty good start. What do you think?

My best,

Juicing 10Whaaa??....

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Many of you have been wondering where my husband and I are right now on our juicing journey (kadzooks I think I've got it! You'll know what I mean in a minute). Through many of your well wishes we were sent off to the trenches to see what we could learn.

It has been a few weeks now since we've started and minus a day here and there, we have been pretty consistent. Here are a few things we have learned along the way...

* Naming a juicing blog is harder than we thought it would be. All our good ideas have been snatched up by people the world over. The most frustrating thing is that alot of great blog names have been taken and the blogs are just sitting there dormant since '09 or '08 just collecting dust. But if it was just not used or given back then we could be squeezing the juice out of that domain name right now!

* Some fruits and vegetables just don't go good together. I'd tell you which ones, but I have forever erased them from my memory banks.

* Some fruits and vegetables were just made for each other. i.e. carrots and apples in my humble opinion. My husband doesn't like it as much but I think it's a quick and delicious mix.

* Plan on kinda breaking the bank while doing this lifestyle change. You go through fruits like no ones business. We like to add a kick of sweet to every cup so we use fruit on a daily basis.

* Buy in bulk when you can!!!! We cannot emphasize this enough. You will save tons of $$$ that way, trust me. We just spent $14 dollars on a 25 lb. bag of organic juicing carrots. They should last us weeks. The carrots are so big that even Bugs Bunny would be green with envy.

* Always switch it up. Don't fall into a rut of the same combo every time. There are so many great fruits and vegetables that have been created for our enjoyment that it would be a shame to limit yourself.

Well that's all I have for today I guess. It's a gloriously beautiful day out so I'm in my office with all the windows open listening to the birds chirping, catching some rays and all the free Vitamin D my body can stand. Today I will jump back into the blog pond and try to create our ultimate juicing information super website. I am going to try out that one name that I mentioned earlier - Juicing Journey - has a nice ring to it, right? Here's to hoping it's not a Siberian news blog already.

My best,

Hi there. Just was wondering if any of you have any suggestions on a blog name? I love how creative my readers are and I know you are thinking of a few good diddies yourself. Feel free to leave them in the comments below and next week or so I'll tell you which one worked out.

To Tweeze or Not To Tweeze

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Did You Know...

...in ancient India, a band of hair in the middle of a woman’s chest was considered a sign of great beauty? - hormonehelpny.com

I think that I can pinpoint the actual moment that I found my first facial hair on my chin. Oh I forgot to tell you that this post is going to be very revealing but I'm willing to go there for all you loyal readers. So...you owe me and preferably in chocolate please.

Okay so back to my chinny chin chin. Yep I remember the first time. I was sitting in my best friends car waiting for my husband (then boyfriend) because we were going out on a date. My friend says to me "What's that?" and points to my chin.

"What's what? What's on your face? You know, when you point a finger at others you have 3 pointing right back at you."

"Are you done? Because you have a huge something on your face and unless you want this guy to take one look at it and bolt leaving nothing but a puff of cartoon smoke behind, I suggest that you take care of it. Here."

She handed me a mirror and I pulled on what I thought was a piece of lint or thread left over from my sweater. It wasn't. Instead it was a hair yaaaaaaaay long and as I was pulling on it it kept on unraveling like a sick opposite twisted version of Rapunzel. If Rapunzel was the bearded lady perhaps? Which led to both of us screaming our heads off like I was transforming into some kind of alien right before our very eyes. We were very dramatic at the age of 20. Thankfully, she had a pair of tweezers in her car and we vanquished that sucker before my Prince Charming hopped in the backseat. (Kids on vacation all last week has left me with a few Disney terms too many still on my brain!)

Fast forward many years, I still get strays here and there, but the freak out phase has passed. I get unpleasantly surprised don't get me wrong, but I now know how to deal with it. I have been wondering alot lately what causes this in women so I looked into this website hormonehelpny.com and the awesome article by Dr. Geoffrey Redmond states that basically hormones like testosterone and androgens are what come into play. Excess hair can sometimes be hereditary, but sometimes it can just be a hormonal imbalance. As we get older, sometimes these hormones can get out of wack. Either way you can use different remedies to take care of that.

All these years tweezers have been my hair removal system of choice. But Dr. Redmond suggests not to do that because it pulls from the root and can leave pitting. Instead he recommends actually cutting the hair with scissors. Who knew?! Now, it doesn't come out by the root so it will grow back quicker, but it leaves less chance for ingrown hairs to occur.

I will be trying this method the next time that one of my rogue hairs make an appearance. What about you ladies? What is your preferred method of hair removal? Tweeze, wax, cut, threading? Let me know if I'm missing out on something here.

Here's a link to more hair facts...click here to enrich your mind

*Not so funny story.....I was standing next to my friends mom recently and said to her "Oh you've got something on your face." and went to wipe it away and realized far too late that it was a bunch of tiny hairs all clumped together!!!!! Aaaaccckkk!!!! She was embarrassed, I was embarrassed, the dog even gave me a dirty look and huffed out of the room. So now I don't tell anybody anything. Except yous guys..... :o)

My best,

Leave it to Salma Hayek to make facial hair look good still. Now I want a full beard! No I don't... anyway I got the photo (which was photoshopped) from freakingnews.com

New Car Seat Regulations

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Todays post is about the bebes...

Did You Know...

...crashes are the leading cause of death for children from 3 to 14 years old? - NHTSA.GOV

Naturally, we all want to care for our little ones, and with that desire comes the need to stay up-to-date with all the state and federal regulations for carseat safety.

On the Today Show this morning Matt Lauer spoke with the American Academy of Pediatrics spokesperson Dr. Ilana Levine about the new guidelines they have just put out. Some are what we have all done for years, and some are very new changes. Here they are:

Infant Seats: No new changes. It needs to always be a rear facing seat. They can stay in it until they reach the size limit of the seat.

Convertible Seats: NEW NEWS!!! Children need to be rear facing until AGE 2 in order to protect their head, neck, and back in a collision. Also as long as they fit into the size recommendations of that seat.

Booster Seats: NEW NEWS!!! Keep them in the booster seat until the child reaches 4'9" which usually happens around the ages of 8-12 years old. Otherwise the seatbelt can come up near their neck and make them uncomfortable which could make them sneakily move that chest strap over and behind themselves which is a HUGE NO NO!

Some other things to keep in mind:

• Always keep your child in the correct seat up to the allotted time frame stated on the seat (there should be a clearly marked label somewhere on the seat).
• Guage how large your child is to make sure that they will be able to sit in a regular seat. If you have a larger child that won't fit in any kind of booster seat, then you know that a regular seat is what they are ready for.

Remember safety first on these roadways. I once was driving down the highway and saw a woman with a toddler girl sitting on her lap in the passenger seat fixing her hair! You don't want to be that mom....so let's all try and follow these new guidelines.*

Now does anyone have a good way to break it to my two kids that they will now have to go back to booster seats after we held a whole big family "event" ceremoniously upgrading the two of them to adult seat status only ONE week ago!? This might not end well...

My best,

*these were guideline changes made by the AAP and I'm not sure if they will be state enforced. Go to your states website and check up on that to make sure you're covered. Here's a link to the NHTSA for more information.

Song of the Week: If you have kids in the house or are a big kid yourself, please enjoy the lyrical sounds of Hakuna Matata from The Lion King.

A Quick Rule to Shop By

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I have been radio silent on here for a few days because I have been catching up on other work around my house and since it's Spring Break with school here, I have been shuttling my kids all over creation on play dates and hopefully life-enriching excursions.

But today you have my full attention. I will be making my shopping list today for the upcoming week. Now this is going to be a mega shopping trip because I have not had a chance to do a real stockpile kind of trip in a few weeks and we are now down to the mistakenly bought can of diced tomatoes with green chilies and 2 super ripe plantains. Yes, a bare kitchen a meal does not make. So off to the store I go this afternoon.

While there I will be loading up on more fruits and veggies and that made me think about sharing this quick rule that I have adopted to shop by from now on. You know how there are all these lists about what fruits and vegetables to buy organic and what ones shouldn't matter if they are organic or not? There are a whole slew of them, and I can't get my brain for some reason to remember them all when I am at the store and the time to choose presents itself.

So here's the quick rule:

*Buy organic when it's an edible skin or peel. Don't buy organic when it's a peelable....umm, peel.

Simple ay? Easy peasy! Take that with you the next time you are staring down those bunches of bananas.

My best,

And the Winner Is...

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ALL OF YOU!!!!

Just me and the kiddos

What?!? I know right? I am UN-PRE-DICTABLE! (go watch Despicable Me and you'll hear how I say that word now)

But yes, I have decided to award all you lovely entrants into this giveaway with the said desired lip balms of your choice. And here's the reason why....

Usually in the past when I have hosted a giveaway, I tell the Hubs "okay I need Monday to hit up the Interweb and get the news out of this awesome giveaway I'm doing" which really means "keep the kids out of the computer room for a few hours". Because if I don't do that, then nobody knows about the giveaway, and I would end up with free products orphaned and with no home to go to by the end of the week. Shampoo bottles get so weepy. But this time around I had absolutely no time whatsoever to really get on that bandwagon. Other than posting it here and there in the midst of other mondo giveaways during the week, I didn't really go all out on this campaign. Mamas gettin' old.... ;o) Pssshhh yeah right! No, but I really had no time. Umm....Japan actually moved, so to say I had other things on my mind is an understatement. I'm sure the same was going on in your own households.

So my lack of time and commitment to rally the world behind coming here and trying to win free lip balm has resulted in a bounty of gifts for 6 of you lovely readers. Congrats!

Over the course of this week look in your inboxes for the good news email. The subject will be "You REALLY won free lip balm!" (I don't know about you but I have deleted that email claiming I won a free Dell notebook sooooo many times - that's why I added the REALLY)

Again, congratulations to you all! Pat yourselves on the back.

My best,

Song of the Week: Of course it's Queen and "We Are the Champions"...click here to be taken to YouTube to view the video or just click on a video in the right hand column.

eos lip balm review and GIVEAWAY...Pucker Up!

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Note: This giveaway post will remain the post for the week but next weeks posts will start rolling in at a crazy break neck pace after this ends. I promise, I've got alot to share.

Let's get this started...

foto courtesy eos online

I live in the warm and balmy South. Sorry to all you still stuck in snow (is anyone?) but our temperatures have been in a steady 70-80 degree range for the last few weeks. Now if you have never been down South, let me warn you of something - the sun is unforgiving. That's why when we had bebe numero dos we opted for the minivan with the most cup holders and tinted windows!

Our family has learned to wear sunscreen at the beach and during any prolonged periods outdoors. Even though I have dark skin that doesn't negate the fact that skin cancer can't find me too. In fact, people with darker skin pigments are more at risk to contract some form of skin cancer due to sun exposure than people of a lighter hue! Poor me! But with the right measures taken, we can avoid that at all costs.

When you apply sunscreen you get all the major parts right? The neck, face, ears, torso, back, legs....yada, yada, yada.... But do you always remember the lips? Yep, those smackers need some love too. Otherwise you could be left with some cracked, sore, blistered flounder looking lips.

eos lip balm is my answer for my lip balm and sunscreen remedy this sunny time of year. I use it on cloudy days too, because I know that the sun is still lurking up there with barely any ozone cloak to cover it. I am currently sporting the eos SPF 15 Lip Balm in Lemon Drop "flavor". It smells wonderful and really works great. Because of this, I am always prying it out of my kids hands. It doesn't hurt that it comes in this cool futuristic egg shaped shell either. Also, the bright colors they come in makes it a dream to locate in those ever-increasing-in-size purses.

It's not tested on animals and full disclosure, the SPF version is not all natural due to the 2 sunscreen ingredients. If you have sensitive skin, you might want to steer clear and stick to the other hues. Those are all natural. Totally and for real.

I went out and bought mine and I love it so much that I want to share. I grew up in a large family and I am used to that whole "share your goods with the room" kind of thing. So here it is, the lip balm giveaway....

Rules and Regulations and so on and so forth....and such as these....(poor girl)

* visit the eos website and pick which "flavor" you would like the most.

*Come back here and leave one comment telling me what you chose and how to reach you - if you live in Timbuktu let me know, you don't want your mail being forwarded to Constantinople!

* Leave another comment if you twitter it, blog it, or follow me - but only one comment, you just pick which style is your favorite and run with it.

* This is open for one week. So next Monday on 3/14/11 I will announce the winner.....or winners.... ;o)

So tell ya mama and ya friends what Lynn's got going on over here this week!

My best,

Song of the Week: This weeks song is taken from one Mr. Steven "Lips" Tyler's band Aerosmith. "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing". Remember that movie Armageddon? I don't think I ever cried as hard for any movie when Bruce Willis...wait. I don't want to do spoilers. Go watch it. I wonder if Steven Tyler uses eos? Hmmm.... :oD - either click here to be taken to YouTube or click on one of the videos to the right for 4 different versions that will play on this here page.

*winner(s) determined by some random thingamabob, don't worry it'll be fair.

Breastmilk Ice Cream?!

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Yep. That's what I read earlier this week in a bit of weird news online. Apparently, a shop in London is selling this "premo creamo" to the masses. I bet not the masses though, because founder Matt O'Connor is selling this stuff at a whopping $23 a serving! You know how much I have to justify a $4.50 purchase of my beloved Breyers each time I go food shopping? So I don't know who is exactly coughing up the dough for this particular ice cream.

Now yes, we all know how wonderful and miraculous breastmilk can be, but really Matt? Really? You really expect me to walk up to your counter and ask for a scoop of "Sarah's Batch"?!

Everyone's gotta have a gimmick I guess. He's marketing it as..... "Baby Gaga". (Now if I did have a mouthful of milk in my mouth when I read this, believe you me that it would have gotten spit out all over my computer keys.) I'll admit that I did laugh at the name though because that's pretty clever.

The milk comes from 15 women donors that responded to an online classified ad. He mixes their milk with Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest and then churns it into the ice cream.

Did I ever tell you that I once tried to sell my breastmilk online? Yep. It was many moons ago, because I thought to myself "Wait a second, not all mothers could do this, but I'm sure they wish they could still give their kids breastmilk. I wonder if there is a market for this stuff." Turns out there was, but just in the form of weird and creepy old men with weird things on their minds. Eeek! I retracted my ad within the day, and never looked down that rabbit hole again. Until today. How come it's okay to sell breastmilk ice cream, but not okay to give it away to babies in need?

Or is it? Come on ladies, sound off on this HOT TOPIC. I know we all have an opinion on this one. What do you say - gross or genius?

My best,

P.S. This will close out this week of posts. Come back on Monday when we will be hosting a GREAT GIVEAWAY!!!!! (remember those?) So Monday it is then.

Allergies Much?

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Did You Know...

...that asthma and allergies affect 1 out of 4 Americans? And it's the 5th leading chronic disease in adults. - AAFA.ORG

Because allergies are so prevalent in adults and children, it plays a major role in why people miss school and work during high allergens season.

I am a perfect example. Last year, I was "out sick" almost every other month. Now when I say out sick I mean that as a stay-at-home-but-still-work-my-butt-off mom I would be at home laid up and all my appointments and responsibilities would all get majorly backlogged until I could pull myself off the bed or couch and be on the road to recovery.

However, for this years seasonal change, I have a plan!

I just found this awesome tip over on the Thread Banger Decor it Yourself podcast. Meg recommends that we hang a fresh bunch of eucalyptus from the shower head. The steam from the shower will relieve your clogged sinuses and soothe your respiratory system.

Now I just need to take a trip to my local florist. Hope you all enjoy this little tip here.

My best,

*eucalyptus photo from driedflowersdirect.com