I Like To Surprise Myself

Today I went to get my hair done, which was nothing out of the ordinary.  Except I came home looking like this:

Can you tell I love posing by myself?

I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go dark with my hair!  I was really nervous about it once I committed, but I am loving it so far!  I have had a lot of different cuts from long to super short, but this is the first time I have done any color other than blond.  This is something I have wanted to do for a while, but honestly the thought had not crossed my mind any time recently until about half a second before it came out of my mouth.  We'll see how it goes!

Reality...Blech

Hi, my name is Christie, and this is my blog...

It's been a while, but I have my reasons.  Last week, Brad and I were on a fabulous vacation with 500 of my closest family members (or 34, the number is fuzzy) minus the kids, and the week before that I was a big bundle of stress getting ready for vacation. 

Why is it that getting ready for vacation is so stressful?
But, now we are back and trying to get back into the routine of real life.  Reality has been fun.  Fun, fun, fun.  Clemson lost to the dang Gamecocks.  For the third year in a row.  Duke the Dang Dog tore all of the insulation out from under our house while we were away.  It rained all day Monday.  It rained especially hard while I was putting groceries in the car.  Our cabinet guy has still not even built some of our cabinets, and I really wanted to be in the house by Christmas -- and he's known about these cabinets and has not had another job in front of ours. 

I liked vacation much better.  I would even let the kids come visit sometime!

Anyway, I have lots to blog about...vacation, house, Christmas...so I will be back soon!

For now, I leave you with the view from our room at Peter Island:

Ahhhh....

Birchbox: Super Fun!

Margaret knows that I am a total sucker for anything that has to do with beauty products -- she is, too -- so she knew that when she signed up for this new (or new to her) program called Birchbox, that I would be all about it, too.

Birchbox is a program where you pay $10 and receive a box of beauty samples each month.  It is always something different, and you never know what you will get.  You just fill out a little survey when you sign up about your skin condition, hair color, eye color, and what type of beauty products you buy most -- and then you just wait for your first box!

This is so fun because it combines two of my favorite things -- getting a package in the mail and beauty products!

My first box came the other day:

Inside it has a list of all of your samples for the month and how much they would cost should you want to buy the full size (which I guess is the idea behind sending the samples):

My goodies for the month:

Here is what I got:

1. Lavanila: The Healthy Body Butter in Vanilla Blossom + Lavanilla: The Healthy Baby Lotion

2. Mama Mio Skincare: Boob Tube Bust & Neck Firmer (It says "Don't be fooled by the cheeky name -- this award winning cream uses collagen-boosting CoQ10 and nourishing shea butter to keep skin youthful."  Who doesn't want youthful skin?  Especially as we (I) are getting into our 30s?!?)

3. Tay: Cucumber Day Moisturizer with Mango Butter

4. Zoya: Nail Polish in Izzy (a really pretty hot pink sparkly color)

Treat: Chuao Chocolatier: Firecracker Chocopod

Margaret and I compared our boxes, and we got totally different stuff -- she got a mud mask, a lip gloss, and I can't remember what else.  I think it is fun to know that they pack different boxes for different people.  It is nice to know that we don't all get the same products each month since we don't all have the same skin and hair.

If you would like to join Birchbox, you can go straight to their website, OR you can leave your email address in the comments, and I will send you an invite!

 

It's The Most Wonderful Time...

I know not everyone shares my love of Christmas music or Michael Buble, but these are two of my favorite things -- and now they are combined!!

image

If you haven't heard this new Christmas cd -- and, no, I do not think it's too early to listen to Christmas music, thank you very much -- then I have to say it's a must!  Really -- go get it!

Future Farmers...and a Watermelon

We are all still coughing at our house -- and by all, I mean all.  Brad and I are now coughing, too.  The kids feel okay enough to go back to school -- or at least Tyler and Gibson did last week, Sanders did not, and they were off today -- but this illness, whatever it is, has really thrown us for a loop.  Our house has been a whiny, tired, un-fun place for the last week and a half.   So, I haven't felt much like blogging!

But, I wanted to share these funny pictures with y'all tonight.  We took these a while ago -- before the PMA.  My sister-in-law, Angela, did a calendar to hand out to people at the trade show, and she put pictures of the kids in it.  She came over to our house one afternoon, and we staged some "summer" shots and then some "fall" shots for the calendar.  My favorites are the ones with my niece in the watermelon costume.  She looked absolutely hilarious!

Sick-or-Treating

We were supposed to go trunk-or-treating with some friends last night, but we couldn't be around other people, so that was out.  The kids were really disappointed, so we decided to make our own fun...

I got pictures of everyone in their costumes before we went to the doctor:

We went to Ya-Ya's house to trick-or-treat.  Ty decided against dressing up -- she wasn't feeling that great when is was time to go, so she went as herself.

After going to Ya-Ya's, we went to the housing on the farm and passed out candy to all of the men who work for Brad.  I don't think Halloween is a big holiday in Mexico, so I think they were all a bit confused, but they enjoyed getting some candy from our dressed-up gang!  And our kids actually enjoyed giving out candy more than they missed getting candy -- they decided that next year they want to go hand out candy at the nursing home.  I am not sure that they will go for that at the nursing home (and who knows if the kids will even remember when it gets to be that time), but Brad and I were proud of them for coming up with the idea.

It turned out to be a pretty fun Halloween when we thought it was going to be a disaster -- and we even got in the bed at a decent hour!  Happy Halloween!

Mommy Is Going Crazy, Thank You For Asking...

I have sick kids -- three of them.

Tyler and Gibson have been sick since Friday, and Sanders has been sick since yesterday.  Ty has double ear infections, chest congestion, headaches, cough, sore throat.  Gib has chest congestion, cough, sore throat, headaches, and tummy aches.  Sanders has just started with the chest congestion, cough, and has an ear infection.  So we are now on three different antibiotics and facing constant whining.

These are fun times around our house.

But my favorite part of the day yesterday was when we got stuck at the CVS -- yes, stuck.  Gibson managed to lose the car key in the store.

We got to the store to get our prescriptions filled and were told that it would take fifteen minutes max to fill everything.  Since we weren't going to get to go trick-or-treating, we picked out candy for our own little Halloween party, got some other little toiletry things that we needed, and then went to wait in the pharmacy area for our medications.  After what seemed like forever and a million "When are they going to be ready?" questions, they had our prescriptions filled, and it was time to go -- or so we thought.

I remembered that Sanders had wanted to hold the key when we got to CVS, and for some dumb reason, I allowed her to hold it.  I asked her for the key, and she didn't have it -- Gibson had snatched it from her earlier.  Of course, Gibson didn't have it either.

It had disappeared into thin air.

I made the kids take me back to where they were when they last remembered having the key, and we looked around for it, and it wasn't there, so I marched them back to the pharmacy waiting area and told them to sit there while I went searching for the key.  I looked up and down every aisle we had been down on my hands and knees multiple times, moving things, looking in between things -- no key.  I asked the people at the cash register and at the pharmacy if anyone had turned in a key -- no key.  I even looked outside to see if the car was still there -- it was.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes or so, I resigned myself to the fact that the key was gone, and I called Brad to go by the house and get the spare key.  While we waited for him, I continued to look for the key, all the while my blood pressure was rising higher and higher.  However, the Lord was looking out for my children, because about five minutes later, they called me to the pharmacy, and someone had found my key!

I have never gotten out of there so fast in my life (after thanking them profusely)!

On the car ride home, I was trying to take deep breaths and remember that the kids weren't feeling good, that I shouldn't have given them the key in the first place, and that I didn't need to yell and scream at them.  But, it was hard to stay mad when I got home and got a note from Sanders:

She melted my hard heart.

Today we are still stuck in the house and back to driving each other crazy, and if we don't get out of here soon, it isn't going to be pretty...  Hopefully everyone will be all better tomorrow!