Magnets are Magic

I am the stingiest person on the planet when it comes to my face products.  I have been blessed with fairly decent skin and have never seen the point in spending that much.  I would rather take my mediocre skin to an island in the Caribbean than slather myself with a tiny jar that costs as much as a plane ticket.

But if those products magically show up in my house as a gift, I am not above a little indulgence...after all I am a girl at heart.  In order to share in the fun, my sweet friend Sarah (or Sarita as N calls her) came over for a mini spa night.  It might have been the limoncello talking, but we decided that photo documenting our night was the best idea ever.

Here's us straight from work with our regular makeup on before we started any of the mask

 We removed our makeup and washed our faces before we put on the mask. 

After waiting the allotted time we used the magnet bar that came with the mask to remove it.  The bar literally sucked the mask off our faces pulling a ridiculous amount of nastiness out of our pores with it.  After it was all done, we massaged the rest of the oils into our skin and voila!  We were shiny and new with baby soft skin.

This stuff is AMAZING.  There is absolutely no way that I would have ever bought into the Dead Sea Mud Mask before trying it this time, but I think if I try really hard I can justify it.  Or buy it and forget the new boots I wanted this fall.  Who am I kidding? We all know I'll just buy them both.

I Didn't Know

I didn't know it was going to be this hard.

There are so many things about being a mama that are harder than I thought they were going to be, but this takes the cake.

When I got divorced I knew that we would both move on to new relationships.  I was truly happy when he got remarried to a lovely woman who makes him happy.  I expected it to be hard, but it never was.  It felt like setting each other free.  It was a little odd to see my daughter being taken care of by another woman, but I found peace to let it go eventually.

Or so I thought.

Today was my baby girl's first day of kindergarten.  We all went this morning to take pictures and drop her off.  I was totally fine with sharing that moment.  We all hugged Alaina and sent her into the classroom peacefully.  But it's not my weekend with Alaina so her stepmomma was the one to pick her up from school today.  In my heart of hearts, I am so happy that Alaina has so many people to love and protect her.  But not being the one to pick her up from her first day of school was brutal. 

From the time I found out I was having a girl, I dreamed of this day.  I pictured every detail from curling her hair and walking her in to scooping her up in the afternoon to hear about how her day was.  I imagined us, hand in hand, going to get ice cream as she told me all about her new teacher and all the friends she made.  This day has been years in the making.  And yet, here I sit, without my girl, tears streaming.  I am truly grateful that Amy had her call to tell me about her day; I know that she didn't have to do that and I loved hearing her excited little voice.

It should have been me.  I carried her.  I breathed for her and gave up coffee for her.  I panted through hours of contractions as she tried to make her way into the world.  I bear the stretch marks and the c-section scar where they pulled her out of my belly.  I pumped gallons of milk when she was in the NICU and cried the first time I nursed her at my breast.  I sat up with her in the middle of the night and rocked her back to sleep when she was fussy.  It was supposed to be me picking her up from her first day of school.  I know that sounds so selfish, I do, but it was supposed to be me.

Someone please tell me it gets easier with time.  My heart can't bear much more.  I didn't know it would be. This. Hard.

I didn't know.

Random Acts of Kindness

I have been wanting to get a post written about Disney for weeks, but just haven't quite found the time to put all the pictures together and actually sit down and write it.  I would like to blame this on the unpacking, etc that has been happening since we got home but that would be a lie as my suitcase is still sitting in the office completely full.  I promise that eventually I will get the pictures up and tell you how amazing it was.

This morning however, I have to talk about random acts of kindness.  This morning the car in front of me paid for my order at Starbucks.  I was pleasantly surprised and drove away feeling as if my entire morning had been transformed.  This instance alone would be enough to tell you about, but this is not the first time this has happened.  Last week, at the very same Starbucks, someone else also paid for my coffee!  As I was telling N about it, she mentioned that it happens to her often at the Starbucks near her office.  Listening to her, I remembered reading something about a line where each person paid for the car behind them that lasted for something like 1000 cars, also at a Starbucks.  

It got me thinking about positive energy and how like attracts like.  I don't know what it is about Starbucks, but something that they are doing to make the world a kinder, more generous place, is rubbing off on their patrons.  What if we all started doing things to make the world a better place?  I'm not saying that you need to adopt an orphanage in Africa, unless that's you're thing, in which case go for it.  I'm saying that here, in our cities we could make such a difference if we all committed to going out of our way to be kind on a more regular basis.  It can be money, unexpected forgiveness, holding a door open for someone that's just a little farther behind us than we normally would wait for, whatever moves you.  At least once a week, commit to doing something to make one person's day better.

If you do, and you write about your experience, please let me know or link back - I would love to hear about it!

Wishing you happiness and peace on this lovely Wednesday,

Stephanie

P.S. - I started p90x yesterday and I think I might die.  Please carry on your kindness without me if I do.

Counting Down

We are in full-on vacation planning mode around our house.  I have finally realized that I need to stop purchasing things on Etsy (read: I'm out of time to have them shipped before we leave) and my bank account thanks me for it.  Just today I got the last thing I need and thanks to my sweet friend CC I have both an awesome bag to take into the park with me and a collapsing duffle to throw in the car for things that we buy and need to bring home.  It's as if she knows me or something.

There are approximately 25 "To-Do before we leave" lists floating around the house that all of the same thing on them.  I keep misplacing one and then making a new one.  I feel like I should have it committed to memory at this point, but no such luck.

I haven't finished one of the projects that I need to before we leave, but I have found time to look up new Disney projects on Pinterest.  Because clearly, I'm a girl who knows her priorities.

I mean, it was far more important last night to make these than it was to do laundry:

Doesn't everyone make chocolate covered strawberries that are Disney themed to prepare for their trip?

No, just me?

Well you're missing out.  Alaina and I had so much fun making them and they sure were delicious to eat last night while I was packing sitting on the couch watching television.

Tonight I am hoping to cross at least a few more things off the list...or bake some chocolate chip cookies for the car trip.

Five Years

My baby girl is five.  Five.  I swear it was just yesterday that I was going into labor and looked like this...

You don't have to tell me how radiant I am.  It's not pregnancy glow, it's nine months worth of built up sweat.  All things considered, it's not as bad as it could be for a woman who is less than 24 hours away from giving birth.

But alas it wasn't yesterday because this grinning face stares back at me every morning from the backseat.

And in school pictures cheesing for the camera as usual.

She really was the happiest baby ever and has turned into the happiest little girl, always smiling and laughing at the tiniest things.  Right now she is EXTRA happy because we told her that we are taking her to Disney World!  If I aimed a little higher I would have those pictures uploaded, but let's be real here.  Taking a 3 hour nap on Sunday when all our company left was far more important than staring at a laptop.  I'll get around to it before we leave.  Mostly because my friend CC took most of the pictures and at some point she is going to want her camera back.  

So for today I will just say Happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl.  I am so, so lucky to be your mama.  

All Roads Lead to Disney

Next month we are taking a trip to Disney World.  This may not seem like a major announcement or revelation and a month ago I would have agreed with you.  It's a vacation like any other, right?

Wrong.  Very, very, VERY wrong.

People, I am out of control.

When I say out of control, I mean OUT of control.  To quote Joey, "You're so far past the line, you can't even see the line!  The line is a dot to you!"  You know I can't pass up an opportunity to throw in a Friends reference when it's applicable (as if it's ever not applicable).

Prior to two weeks ago I had made maybe one purchase from Etsy in my history.  I now have 6 orders pending that have not shipped yet.  In case you were concerned about my bank account, don't be.  All Disney things I purchase before we go is less I am going to be gouged on at the Magic Kingdom, right?  Because I will get it out of my system prior to arrival there and won't need to purchase things there.

That's a lie and we all know it.  But the silver lining is that I get Skymiles from my card so at least I'll be able to rack up some extra airline points.  Of course I won't be able to afford to go anywhere, but that is entirely beside the point.  

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time booking a character dinner, looking at fast passes, and crafting all manner of cute things to wear while we are there.  The rest of the time has been spent trying to figure out what shoes are going to kill me feet the least while walking approximately 254 miles a day, give or take.  Normally I would wear tennis shoes, but we're talking Florida in July, surrounded by 60,000 people which I am pretty sure is exactly the same as standing directly on the equator.  There has got to be a better option that allows my feet to breathe.  Any suggestions are welcome.  If you tell me not to go to Disney in July I swear I will wish for a swarm of mosquitos to infiltrate your bedroom.  It was not my idea.

So I apologize because I promised to blog more but it is going to be Disney centered for at least the next month.  If you geek out on the Mouse the way I do, stick around.  If not, come back the beginning of August.  You'll be just in time to see me curl up in the fetal position because my baby is starting kindergarten.

You can thank me later.

Weirdest Birthday Request Ever

One of my favorite parts of the day is driving to and from school with Alaina.  She is generally a chatty cathy anyway, but something about being in the car really revs her up!  Her favorite topic as of late is anything related to 'Frozen' (while singing at the top of her lungs) and her upcoming birthday.  Yesterday I asked her what presents she would like expecting something about a new doll or sparkly earrings.

I was not prepared for her response.

After asking for a Nerf Gun (already done), things got weird.  Next on her list was a crystal ball to find things that she lost but, "it has to have magic in it or it won't work, okay?"  Aight.  I'm not sure what exactly she has lost that she's looking for but I'd love to have one of those too.  Anyone know where I can find one?  Last time I checked Target and TJ Maxx don't carry crystal balls.  

Then it got weirder.

The next item on her list was bottles.  When pressed for why she would need a baby bottle since she is a big girl, she stated that they were for her baby brother or sister.

Say WHAT???

"But sweetie, I am not having a baby so we don't need any bottles."

"But you're going to and when you do we are going to need bottles so let's go ahead and get some."  I sputtered some sort of response and quickly changed the subject.  I am not sure exactly what my sweet daughter is seeing in that crystal ball of hers but last time I checked there was nothing growing in my uterus.

But I might have to swing by the store on the way home...just in case.  After all, the Magic Eight Ball hasn't let me down yet.