Oh WOW I'm a Bad girl!!

Hi guys!  So so sorry about the year's absence!!  :(  Honestly I just forgot!  Well lets get everyone caught up on our life, K?, K!

  Nope, still no human children.  Yep at this point it is mostly from stubbornness! We will try when WE are ready and NOT when EVERYONE else thinks we are!  (sorry, bit of a touchy subject, Can ya tell?)
  We have our four beagles, one inside kitty & one outside kitty.  Monsters the lot of 'em!!  heehee
  Ummm.....honestly guys nothing exciting has happened with us.  Well Neal did get moved to a different department so now he has a lot more stability in the fact we don't have to worry about him being laid off anytime soon.  Me on the other hand, well my time could be coming soon, but we are not going to dwell on that!

I am going to try to get some reviews up soon as well as a couple of recipes!!  Hope everyone out there in cyber-land is doing quite well!

Love ya'll!!

Chandra

Macaylah Rose Carver, over a year old and will be a perpetual
kitten.  Seriously, she looks like she is about 4 months old now!!

Mr. Stumpy, our outside kitty!  He is a bobtail
hence the name!

Miss Madee in her favorite perch, she Loves to look out the window & bark at pretty much Anything that may amble by!

August 2012, may be the worst ever!

As you can gather from the title, I'm not really grooving on the month of August this year.  Why you may ask?  Well, my lovelies I will tell you...I turn 30 on the 23rd!!!  AHHHHHH! (imagine a bloodcurdling horror movie scream there)  Now I know many will say "Who cares, its only 30!"  BUT this symbolizes something for me that I do not want to happen.  Let me explain, K?

1. I will be 30 & have yet to find a good job that I see myself working at for years to come.  Yes, I have a job now & God yes I am thankful, but I do not want to stay here for very much longer.  Circumstances being what they are I am not going to go into all the reasons as to why I don't want to stay here, lets just say its about that time.
2.  (This is probably the biggest reason I am freaking out) I will be 30 & do not have any human children.  Yes I know again many will say "who cares?"  But I have an entire family who constantly is pummeling me with questions as to why I have not yet blessed them with an offspring.  Now do Neal & I want children (a child) yes we do.  But you see we have a house that is literally 102 yrs old, needs a new roof, a second floor that is Not complete enough to live in & only 1 bathroom.  (yep that's right girls almost 7 yrs with only 1 bathroom, not fun!)  Just a few reasons as to why I just can't bring myself to tell the hubs "OK huney, lets make a baby!"  Also my mom is a breast cancer survivor, which in turn makes me a "1st generation risk patient".  Now I may be mistaken but this is information that my doctor has given me, so please do not go off on me, k?  But because my mom was diagnosed at relatively early age (41) this puts me a higher risk of possibly developing cancer in my early 30s.  Now I will admit I am the crazy person who worries about virtually everything to the point that I have had 2 different ulcers already, but this is something that weighs heavily on me.  I have a sister-in-law who has had 4 children in the last 5 yrs, which should have held off the pressure on me right?  Well it should except they live in Colorado, & we all live in Georgia.  So if anything the pressure has been mounting.  But also my current employer will not pay me for maternity leave, so if I was to get pregnant I would have to literally work until the day before my scheduled c-section (I will not be able to deliver naturally for medical reasons) & would have to be back to work as soon as the Dr said I could drive. So just lovely huh?

I know that I am just rambling on, but hey this is my dang blog, so I'm sorry but if you do not like what I am writing, please move your cursor to the top right corner & click that little red X.  So these are a few reasons as to why I do believe that this August will be the worst ever for me.  Now who the heck knows I could have an amazing job offered to me randomly in the next month that could change my life ever.  But that is life right?  Things are always changing in our lives whether we want or like them to.  So I guess the moral of my little rant is - You DO NOT have to be Uncontrollably happy just because your freaking birthday is around the corner!  Thank you & that is all!

Discourgaged

Yes the word of the day/week is "Discouraged".  This one word can describe my attitude, feelings & thoughts of this week.  Now I won't go into the entire long lament so that you (whoever you may be) can roll your eyes & say "Get over it!"  That isn't the purpose of this post.  My purpose to hopefully help someone else out there who may themselves be feeling discouraged this week.  I pray that God will shine a light on your dark days & lift what burdens are pressing you down until you feel as if you may never stand upright again.  I say this because I believe it is better to pray for your brother or sister before you pray for yourself.  Many of us know people who have no problem praying for others, but never feel worthy enough to pray for themselves, so hopefully my little prayer for you before praying for myself will ENCOURAGE you!  I also pray that God will show me his purpose 'cause I know he has one or I wouldn't be going thru this much stuff at once.  I pray that he will lift my burdens away & fill me peace that only he can give.  I truly hopes this brings a spot of light to your day & please know that even though you don't feel worthy of love & prayers, there is someone out there who thinks you are worthy & I do love you even if I do not know you, nor will ever know you. 

Thanksgiving...& why I'm NOT a fan

Hello, Good Morning, whatever you use as a early day greeting. I thought I would share a few things so that if you are maybe in the same situation you will know that its OK to NOT like a holiday.
First of all, YES I am VERY freaking thankful for all that I have! Uh, DUH! But sometimes things happen & it really just ruins things for you. Example: I am NOT a fan of Thanksgiving. Why? You may ask. Well Thanksgiving was the first HOLIDAY that we had AFTER my grandmother passed away as well as the first holiday after my grandfather passed away. Now you may be asking yourself, Why in the hell should that matter? Well you see I never saw my grandmother on my dad's side & never met my paternal grandfather (he died before I was born). So my maternal grandmother was the ultimate Matriarch of our family. Every Thanksgiving she would start cooking everything on the Monday of that week. And 8 times out of 10 I was there simply because school was out & I was relegated to my grandparents house almost anytime school was out. Now yea at the time I hated not being able to see friends, but now I'm very grateful for those times making pies & cookies & cakes. So you see because EVERY SINGLE THANKSGIVING up until 1997 I was with MY GRANDMOTHER! Therefore every blasted year I am reminded of that first thanksgiving without her & how no matter how great of a cook ANYONE else is, NO ONE is EVER going to measure up, myself especially. So that is MY reason as to why I just don't like Thanksgiving (we won't even begin to go into how EVERYONE generally makes me feel like a fool for my own thoughts & feelings).

Now you may be saying, OK that is a plausible reason, well I'm about to hit you with another...I'm not really a fan of Christmas anymore either. Now STOP before you grab your bible & come running in to try & exorcise the demon that has most definitely taken me over (already had someone try to "exorcise" me when I was younger & NO unfortunately I'm not joking AT ALL), I have a very good & plausible reason for this as well. In 1995 my family moved to the area I live in now, very tough stuff for a 13 yr old, believe me. Well exactly 6 months to the day (Dec 30th) after we moved, my dad passed away. So you know what that means? Yes Christmas was the last holiday that I spent with him. And you see my dad was one of those crazy rednecks everyone always makes fun of for having a million lights strung everywhere all over their house & yard! Seriously I think he would have put lights on my dog if he could have. So the entire holiday (& I'm talking about the commercial side of it, decorating & getting everyone together whether they want to or not & all that crap) just doesn't hold any joy for me anymore, simply because I'm reminded that I no longer have him here.
So there is my personal reasoning as to why I'm NOT a nice or happy person during this time of the year (we will not talk about the stress of money & trying to buy nice gifts for people & trying to pay bills). Now I can say I don't care if you think I'm crazy or whatever else, you know my reasoning & I think if I'm supposed to accept you & your weirdness (whatever that may be) then you should have to accept mine at least I have a plausible reason for my gloominess.

Nutra-Nail Gel polish!

Review time loves! Now first off, SORRY no pictures! My camera, which I have loved since the day I bought it, has finally decided to die. Well...partially, half the time it will not turn on & others the flash will not work, its just crazy. So I know that this is kinda a sucky post without pictures, but I'll try to give you the info you need anyway! K? K!

I purchased the Nutra Nail Gel polish in Moonstone & tried it out that night. Now what is it? Its a "gel polish" that you DO NOT have to "cure" with a UV light. Supposed to dry pretty much immediately, dry Very shiny, and last up to 10 days (I believe).

First the color: Moonstone-Beautiful dusty blue with small micro shimmer glitter. (best way I know to describe it lol) Put it this way, its Purrty ya'll! lol

From what I could tell & going off my previous experience of trying to do my on nails at home with acrylic kits, this essentially is the "gel" from those kits that you paint on the color while this is still wet, and Voila! your "uv-free gel polish". Problems-I could not get a nice opaticity built up for this, but luckily it was a beautiful color on the slightly sheer side. I did end up with "globs" of extra gel along the edges of my nails (total application error on my part). Did it dry immediately? Yes! I love that part of it seriously! It was very shiny & only a slight gritty texture felt even with three coats.

Now on to the lasting part- this did not last very long on me, BUT I also put it thru its paces! Long story short: my house is over 100 yrs old LITERALLY & with winter coming on, we had some mice, as I know everyone else gets as well. Cleaned out the ENTIRE pantry & kitchen & put Everything back nice and organized. I noticed a chip Sunday morning while fixing breakfast & by about 1:30 that afternoon I had peeled it almost all the way off of all my fingers. Now to remove this they say either buy their little remover packs (basically a sponge with acetone in a little pouch) or soak a cotton pad in pure acetone wrap around fingernail & top with foil. I'm impatient so I just held the pad on my fingers, but it worked ok.

Final thoughts: Did I like this? Yes! I think this would be perfect if you had something to do "fancy" for the night & wanted a fast easy good-looking mani. Its comes in about 12 or so colors, ranging from very sheer pink to dark vampy burgundy purple ( very pretty shade by the way). BUT...THE PRICE!!! $11.99 @ my local Rite-Aid is a little too much even if there is a $1.50 off coupon on the display. $10.49 is still too much for me to spend on a polish at a drugstore. $8.00 for Essie hurts my heart sometimes, but lets face it we can't live without Essie can we? lol So overall I think this would work for someone who needed a quick fix good mani for a fancy evening, but for everyday, just not sure.

I am a woman, I'm Not happy about my weight...

As per the title, lets get real, ALL of us are Not happy about Something in association with our body. This applies for men as well as women. *Remember that the man in your life could be just as unhappy with the way he looks too.* Now this is just me and what I am trying to do to make myself healthier (& of course look better!lol). Let us look back to high school...wow over 10 years for me! lol Anywho, I was I guess what you would call "skinny" in high school. I'm a bit above average height for a woman & in HS I was a size 0/3. Now this is not taking into account the fact that the Bootie was there even then, (seriously I was know as "the girl with the best Ass!" no lie! lol) but my abs were a completely toned six pack, my arms all nice & chiseled & my legs while being a little bigger than others (soccer, biking, roller skating & horse back riding will give you AWESOME legs TRUST me!) they were very toned & looked HOT! lol ok maybe not HOT but they looked good. Now you may ask "what did you do to stay in shape?" NOT work out that I can tell you! lol You see I HATE to work out. If it seems remotely like it may be a "workout" I ain't doing it my dear! But there was something else I did ALL the time that I have now concluded kept me looking good. Dancing! Not ballet, but I do throw that in sometimes, but I'm talking dancing around the kitchen, living room, bedroom like a fool & loving it! You see I love music of all kinds and genres; example: I have right now in my kitchen on top of the radio
1. 2 Celtic Woman cds
2. Evanescense
3. Elvis
4. Several Old school rap cds from my HS days
5. 1 of my Disturbed cds (I have them ALL)
6. Muse
7. Several of those "variety" classical cds that you can find @ Target near the greeting cards

So you see I have to have music around me. I have proven to my boss that with music playing in my office or the back room where I reign I get at least 50% more work done in a shorter amount of time. But anyway back to dancing & me losing weight. I do not eat super healthy, but I'm not munching on crazy fried foods all the time either. I would say I'm an average person who likes my bad stuff with the good stuff thrown in. I've recently cut out a LARGE portion of pepsis that was my go to drink. & by just doing that I noticed a difference within 3 wks. But to help it along I've decided to get back to doing what I love to do & will get me looking sexy again. lol There is no rhyme or reason, just MOVE!!! Do this to start & I promise you will feel something: Get a Michael Jackson cd or download it to your mp3 player of choice. Lets face it, you HAVE to dance when you hear his music, right? Now if you have carpet in your house set it up to vacuum, seriously stay w/me now. I personally pop that cd into the surround sound system, crank it up & LET. IT. GO!!!! You see if you are dancing around your house like you think you are going to be the next broadway star or video star WHILE vacuuming, you are getting 2 things done at once plus when you switch arms pushing the vacuum, along with swinging your arms like a monkey, you are working those as well! Plus almost anyone can do this no matter your age. Put on some old Elvis, & baby swing those hips! Good Luck to ya & I'll see around the next turn!! XXOO

Review!!!

Good morning ya'll!! I hope that everyone had a superb Fourth of July! As always ours was great (its also my father-in-love's birthday!) the parade on Saturday was so much fun, but it was INCREDIBLY HOT!! lol Anyway on to my review!

Ok, so some of you may know that I have what you would call "wavy/almost curly hair". Most of the time they come out looking very "beachy" (which is great!), but the problem I have is finding products that work properly. You see my hair is VERY fine but I have a lot of it, plus it is LONG, we're talking below the bra strap long. I know many of you have used those "curly" products that while yes your hair looks amazing, feels like you dunked your head in a vat of hairspray. Yick!! I literally have tried almost every product in the drugstores for this & have only found a few that I liked. Well I ran out of what I've been using for about 2 months now (studio FX curl serum I think is the name, found it at CVS) & so decided to try a new product. Enter my review (sorry about the long way to get here lol)...Cristophe Curl Defining contour creme. Today is my first time trying it so I thought I'd take ya'll with me!

First impressions...Nice! The smell isn't icky, which some of you know can be a problem with some curl creams. The texture is great, not sticky & best of all doesn't weigh my hair down or make it look like I haven't bothered to wash it. I only used this after washing my hair with John Frieda Luxurious Volume shampoo & conditioner. So far so good, I'm loving it! Now its only 10 am here in GA, but the humidity is already pretty high & no crazy frizzies happening! And the BIG sticking point...my hair ISN'T "CRISPY"!!!! *CHEERS* I will update the post later on today & add some pictures! I hope ya'll have a Wonderful & COOL day!!