All About Lily

Lily had her 15 month appointment yesterday. Doctor Arnold said she's doing really well. One of the questions the nurse asked this month was if Lily could say 5 or more words, I had to stop and think for a minute. Made me feel like a bad mom to not know how many words Lily can use.

So here's her list: Hi, mama, dada, no no no, bye, beep beep, oh!, pretty (that's what she says when I'm putting on makeup, or if we put lotion on her), chicken, yum yum, and she used to say "spider" but hasn't in a while.

Lily loves clothing and will play dress up with all her clothes if she can get to them. She puts as many items as she can around her neck and on her head and walks around, or comes to show me.

She's a good walker, and can almost run. If she's trying to get into something she shouldn't (like dog food), or if she's running away from you, she can go really fast.

She thinks it's funny when I tell her "no no!" And she usually shakes her finger and says it back to me.

She loves to climb up onto the couch and play with the thermostat.

She loves to be chased.

She always notices when I paint my nails - even if they were painted before and I changed the color.

If you ask her where her ears, nose, and bellybutton are, she can show you.

When I go in her room to get her in the morning, she likes to lay down and say "shoo shoo" like she's snoring. So I lay on the floor and do it too.

She folds her arms when we say "lets have a prayer!"

She thinks the dogs are hilarious, especially when she throws her food at them.

She screams for joy when dada comes home from work.

If you ask her for a kiss she'll pucker up and say, "mmmm" until you kiss her.

She loves going for walks and people watching.

She loves to count fingers and toes. It sounds like "ba, ba, ba" as she points to each one, but sometimes you can hear "bee bo bie" for 3, 4, and 5.

Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is her favorite show, but she only pays attention to the theme song, then moves on to playing with something else. If she's sad, I just have to sing the theme song to her. I like Daniel Tiger too, it's the new version of Mr. Rogers. ("It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...")

She loves baths and loves swimming.

She loves food and will eat most things.


I love my sweet little girl. She makes us so happy!  She is constantly making us laugh or smile. I love being her mom.

ipsy July Glam Bag - Sneak Peeks

June 21st:

ipsy has already released the first look at July's glam bag.

We are for sure getting benetint by Benefit!  I wasn't sure what this product was, so I had to do a little bit of research on it. I don't know if we'll get a trial size or a full size, but the full size is $30 at Sephora.

It is a lip and cheek stain in a rose color. They say it is flattering for all skin tones. I'm hesitant when people say things flatter all skin tones, because it's never true.  However, this will flatter my skin tone, and that's good enough for me. :-P

Here are some pictures I found of people using/wearing benetint:

I can see that it is really sheer, and it gives a very natural look, which I love. So I think I'm going to love this product.


Here's my referral link if you're interested in trying ipsy!

http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-hh1dhitczm8r4e9

June 28th :

Here's a sneak peek ipsy posted on their Facebook page:

I'd be happy with any of these colors. They are cute!  Because of the word "pop" and because Pop Beauty is on ipsy's site, people are thinking these might be the Pouty Pop Crayon by POP Beauty.

July 1st:

Another sneak peek today!

Sunscreen was my first thought!  Some people have guessed a specific type and brand. I have no idea how they do it! Most people think this will be Coola Sunscreen. Coola has many sunscreens, so exactly which one is up for debate.  I also believe it will be a deluxe sample size, and not full size.


Also, since today is the 1st, today is the day the money gets taken out! Only 2-3 more weeks until our bags come!  Mine will be delivered to my parents' doorstep!  It will be a lovely present to welcome me to my new home.

July 2nd:

Another sneak peek!

I had no idea what this was. But, there are tons of makeup lovers out there who guessed it: BH Cosmetics California Eye Collection.

July 3rd:

 

Salt hair and beachy hair?   All I can think of is beach spray for your hair. Like this one from Sexy Hair. We shall see!

July 5th:

Looks like roll on perfume, an orange-ish colored nail polish, a facial scrub, and I'm not sure about the last one, but the packaging sort of looks like a tiny bottle of some kind of Sexy Hair product.

My favorite thing about this picture is Melissa Flemmer's comment below the spoiler picture. I cropped the photo today so that you all could see it! So many people complain about what they get in their ipsy bag, it's so annoying!  The whole point is to try new things.  If you want to pick your own products from a selection they show you, then go to Beauty Army.  Sit down, and shut up!

I'm excited!  If I could pick 1 item out of those 4 items, I would pick the facial scrub because I currently don't have one.  If I don't get the facial scrub, I will be happy with whatever I get.

ipsy June Glam Bag!

It finally came!

Ever since I joined a month ago, I've been so excited and impatient for this glam bag to come. Shortly after I joined, they started sending out "sneak peeks."  As if I wasn't excited already!

It came today, and I am not disappointed!

Note: I took all these pictures myself. I have little, if any, photography talent. I didn't feel right stealing pictures from other people.

It ships in this adorable shiny pink envelope!  I love it!

Here is a picture of the bag, with my 5 items.

• Cailyn Line-Fix Gel Eyeliner in Iron.  Full size. $21 if you buy it from Cailyn's site.

This is so awesome for many reasons, but also because comes with its own brush applicator in the lid! It is water proof and smudge proof. I have one gel eyeliner from Victoria's Secret that I absolutely love, but this one is much higher quality. I used it today, and it is wonderful! I love that it is waterproof, especially for the summer time. I feel really naked without eyeliner, because I have extremely thin eyelashes. So, to be able to go swimming and still look like I have a little bit of makeup on is a wonderful thing!  Also, I am moving to a place with a more humid climate, so it's nice to know it won't melt off my face.  I have really dry skin, and currently don't have an issue with makeup melting, but who knows what will happen in the south.

• J.cat Sparkling Cream Palette in Suzie. Full size. $4.49 if you buy it from J. cat's site.  

This is not to be used as eyeshadow, but body glitter. Some creative ipsy subscribers have used it on their nails, underneath a clear coat.  I personally do not like these colors, so I will probably only use this for Halloween, somehow or another. I also have two younger sisters who are welcome to use it any time and any way they'd like! :-)

• Starlooks Lip Pencil in Tipsy. Full size. $12 if you buy it from Starlooks' site.

This color is a very bright pinkish-orange color. I felt like it was too bright at first, but I put it on underneath a sheer-pink gloss and it's kind of growing on me. I feel like it has really good staying power, and I'll be happy to use it underneath my lipsticks.

• NYX Rouge Cream Blush in Boho Chic. Full size. $6 if you buy it from NYX's site.

NYX blush is on the left, MAC mineral blush is on the right.

 I'm so excited for this blush!  I've had one cream blush before from MAC, but it was too orange for my skin tone, so I ended up giving it to Elise just a week ago.  However, this shade is perfect! I took the picture of it next to the blush I currently use every day. They are really close in color!  It's a blue-based pink, and it is absolutely lovely. I used it today, and it gives a very nice, natural looking glow to my skin. It goes on a lot more sheer than the MAC cream blush I used to have, and I really like that. One thing I don't like very much is really obvious blush.

• Psssst! Instant Dry Shampoo. Travel size. $2.99 if you buy it from Freeman Beauty.

I'm really excited about this dry shampoo!  I love dry shampoo, especially since I have extremely dry hair. I try to only wash my hair 2 or 3 times a week so that I can get as much natural oil going on in there as possible. Dry shampoo helps a lot with that.  If your hair is greasy and you don't want to wash it, spray some dry shampoo on the roots, spread it around evenly, and you've got yourself a fresher hairdo!

I haven't tried this yet because I washed my hair this morning.  However I sprayed some on my arm, and it smells like coconut!  Such a fun, summery scent!  Really excited about this.

I didn't get a picture of the bag on its own - oh well!

Ipsy always sends the items inside a cute little bag.  Lots of people were excited about this cheetah print bag, but I'm not really a huge fan. It looks very similar to the bag I gave Elise just last week!  Looks like someone will be getting this one too, any takers?  I would have loved a zebra print bag... oh yeah!  I'm looking forward to the future ipsy bag designs, maybe I'll end up keeping them. If not, well, then I hope my mom, or my sisters are in need of some cute little bags. :)


Total value of ipsy bag: $46.48.  (That's if I don't include what it would cost for tax and shipping on all these items!) I paid $10, tax and shipping included.  However, when I move to North Carolina I will have to pay tax on it, since they are based there.

ipsy is totally worth it. Here's my referral link if you want to try it out!

http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-hh1dhitczm8r4e9

If you subscribe to ipsy, what did you get this month?  Did you like your items and the colors they came in?

Abs of Flab

Abs after birth... Flabby, saggy, separated and stretched out.

Insanity's cardio abs made me feel like death. It probably doesn't help that my abs were already sore after doing the entire pure cardio workout. Which by the way, I probably spent more time resting than running. Owey!

Half tempted to do cardio abs 3 times a week instead of one time, to speed up this process a bit. It's only 15 minutes long,  so it'd be easy to tack on to the end of my other workouts.

Silly Things

Silly things that I geek out about, that is.

Modest T-shirts
T-shirts that fit nicely (not too tight, not too loose), that have a cute neck line (boat, V, square, etc.) that do not require an undershirt to be modest.  Especially in the summertime.

Eyeshadow
New eyeshadow.  Cheap eyeshadow. Cute eyeshadow.  Eyeshadow in general!

I just discovered that Wet n Wild eyeshadow trios are ama-za-zing!  I fell in love with Sin by Urban Decay, but found out that a dupe for it is on the Wet n Wild Walking on Eggshells trio.  The two colors are nearly identical on me, and they also have a similar texture. $18 vs $3, um, I'm sold.  Oh, and I get two other colors with the $3 Wet n Wild one!  No brainer!!  So today I went and bought another Wet n Wild trio in Sweet as Candy.  Gorgeous!

Walking on Eggshells - Picture is from a Google search.

The bottom color in the Walking on Eggshells trio is the dupe for Sin.  I just love it. 

Sweet as Candy - Picture from a Google search.

I wore the Sweet as Candy colors today and I love them. My eyelids freak out when I try to wear pink eyeshadow, but I always love to try new brands, and I hope this one is a winner in that sense.  So far, so good, but I won't get my hopes up.


Wet n Wild trios, try them!! There are 12 different trios... surely one will strike your fancy.

Changing My Hair
 That's a shocker. :)

I've always thought it would be fun to make a collage of all the different hair colors and cuts I've had over the years.  But I don't know how to make collages, and finding pictures would take too long.  So let's just say I've had my hair every color of the rainbow, and more.  Mostly I switch from blonde, to red, to red with blonde, back to blonde.  I'm probably a hair stylist's nightmare.  Good thing I have a great one!  I'm going to be so sad to leave Kellyanne. :(

I'm currently trying to go platinum.  I'm easing into a platinum pixie, if I ever get the guts to get the pixie part.

Heart Attack

We went to Vegas last weekend.

It was kind of a last minute decision on Thursday afternoon.  We didn't even book the hotel until Friday morning.

We stayed at the Monte Carlo.  The room was average, the bed wasn't the most comfortable, but I've been in worse.  The pool was amazing!  They have three pools and a hot tub at the Monte Carlo. There is a "lagoon" which is a basic pool.  They have a "lazy river" which is pretty awesome. If you've been to Seven Peaks, it's just like that. It's water that goes around and around and around the same course over and over again.  They also have a wave pool, which is also like Seven Peaks' wave pool.  We went in each pool, and I had the most fun in the wave pool with Lily.  She liked it too.  After being in the deep part for a while, we went out to the shallow part, and I stood her up where the water reached her feet.  She had a good time walking and splashing around.

This is not my photo, but it shows the four pools.

Monte Carlo's location is really good.  It was a short walk to get to the Coke store and the M&M store, which is something Lance and I always do when we visit Vegas. The stores were literally right across the street. In fact we could see the stores from our "strip view" room.  By the way, "strip view" isn't very cool. I'd rather see a vast blanket of sparkling lights, rather than the construction and crowds on the strip. So note to self, ask for pool view or city view.  Anyway, the location was nice.  At the Coke store we did the ice cream float variety where they put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in eight different types of soda.  My favorite this time was Fanta Strawberry.  It just hit the spot.  I also like Mello Yellow with ice cream, and just plain ol' Coke with ice cream is good too.

Included in our hotel reservation were two free buffets.  We could choose from several different hotels' buffets, but we chose to eat at the one at the Monte Carlo. It was really delicious!  I had some sushi that was amazing... I think it had cilantro on it.  I'm not sure about that, but it was really, really good.  I also had the most amazing dessert I've ever had at a buffet.  It was a small portion of chocolate pudding, inside a chocolate shell, with a little bit of whipped cream and a chocolate decoration on top.  I don't normally go for the chocolate desserts; I prefer fruity ones.  However, this chocolate pudding was so delicious! It had a real, rich, decadent, dark chocolate taste to it.  I can't even describe it well enough, it was just amazing.

We visited Fremont Street.  Lily had fun staring at all the weirdos. Hinder was in town giving a free concert, but neither of us are fans so we didn't stick around. We ate at the Heart Attack Grill. We had heard about the Heart Attack Grill a while back when a guy suffered a heart attack while eating there.  Kind of ironic, no?  This place kind of has a sick sense of humor, which I believe was how it was decorated before the heart attacks and deaths were associated with this restaurant.

This is also not my photo, but you should eat here.

You have to pay with cash.  There is a sign saying, "Cash only, you might die before the card clears!"  When you walk in, you are greeted by a "nurse", she puts an arm band on you that says, "I had a bypass at the Heart Attack Grill!" Then they put a hospital gown on you.  I'm not kidding. All customers have to wear a hospital gown.  I felt a little ridiculous, but everyone in there was dressed the same so it wasn't really a big deal. Bonus - if you get messy, your clothes aren't ruined! :-D

If you weigh 350 pounds or more you eat for free.

How was the food?  I loved it.  Absolutely delicious. I got a Single Bypass, with no chilli, and no bacon.  I finished just a little over half of it.  I'm pretty sure they try to make everything as unhealthy as possible.  Here's their menu:

These burgers are huge. Each patty is a 1/2 pound of beef, I think.  The fries had a really good flavor, but I didn't eat much of them. Lily chowed down though!

I don't know about you, but a butterfat milkshake sounds wonderful.

Lance got a Double Bypass, with chili and bacon.  Both of us underestimated the size of these burgers, we should have shared the Single Bypass, and that would have been a normal sized burger.  If you add bacon, they add 5 slices of bacon for each patty.  So there are 5 slices on the single, 10 on the double, 15 on the triple, etc.  Holy cow!

If you're curious about the deaths associated with this restaurant, just do a search and you'll find all you need to know.  Obviously this food is unhealthy. I didn't go here to order a salad, I came here to have a delicious, juicy, fattening burger.  I would eat here again.

If you eat here, I recommend walking the entire length of the strip afterwards. That way, you might burn off half of the calories you will consume.

After Heart Attack, we walked half of the strip. We wanted Lily to see the Bellagio fountains and the Mirage volcano.  She liked the fountains. I think it's so cute when things catch her attention... not many things do. She is a busy girl!  The Mirage volcano never erupted, so that was lame.  2 hours of walking for a little 3 minute fountain show?  Worth it.  Mostly because of the calories we needed to burn off from dinner.

This is probably our last visit to Vegas. It makes me a little sad.

No Change

Monday morning came and the scale hasn't budged.

But, I decided I don't particularly care.  It's nice to have a visual of progress, but other than that,my weight doesn't mean much.

I can run longer and harder, so I know I'm improving.

Exercise

I've been doing really well with my (low) exercise goals.  I've been working out every night after work for 30 minutes.  I'm still only doing the Insanity warm-ups.  I'm improving!  But I'm not yet ready to commit to the entire workout.  I'm not sure I'll ever be ready... However, next week I'm going to do the warm up, stretching, and the first circuit from all of the workouts.  My idea looks like this:

Weeks 1 & 2
Monday: Plyometric Cardio Circuit warm up & stretching
Tuesday: Cardio Power & Resistance warm up & stretching
Wednesday: Cardio Recovery (entire workout)
Thursday: Pure Cardio warm up & stretching
Friday: Cardio Abs (entire workout)

Today was Tuesday of Week # 2. 

The following is my goal for the next two weeks:

Weeks 3 & 4
Monday: Plyometric Cardio Circuit warm up,  stretching & first circuit
Tuesday: Cardio Power & Resistance warm up, stretching & first circuit
Wednesday: Cardio Recovery (entire workout)
Thursday: Pure Cardio (entire workout) (this workout doesn't have circuits after the warmup, it's non-stop cardio!)
Friday: Cardio Abs

I'll figure out where to go from there after I see how I'm feeling on week 4.

Since I typically gain wait when I first start exercising, I won't be weighing myself again until next Monday morning, and then I'll weigh myself every other week from there.  Watching the scale go up makes me not want to work out.

At first I was going to work out on Saturdays also, for a total of 6 days a week, however, with working at night, working out after work, and then having 9am church, it just wasn't going to happen.  So, 5 days for now.  When I start Insanity for real, that will have to change, because I have this OCD thing where I have to be on a schedule that matches the one that comes with the program.  I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

FAQs

Recognize that skyline?  I don't.  Apparently, that's the skyline of where we're moving.  When I visited in the past, I never noticed a skyline.  There are so many trees!  I love this city.  I love this place.  I love that we're moving!

We're moving!  Ahhh!

Lance put in his notice at work, so I can finally scream it to everyone that we are leaving Utah!

So... some FAQs from the few people (mostly family) who we've already told:

Where?
Raleigh, North Carolina.

Why?/To be closer to your parents?
Sort of.  When Lance's mom was really sick, Lance said to me, "When she passes away, I don't want to be in Utah anymore."
 
What really pushed us happened while we were out there visiting my family back in December/early January. Our house sold the first day we were there. We both felt like we should just stay there.  "Let's move here!  This place feels right. We love it here. My parents are here. We've always wanted to leave Utah. Why not?!"

The first idea we had was to have me not come back from that vacation, and have Lance take care of everything, rent a big truck, and move us here by himself.  That didn't feel right, so we decided to come home, find the shortest lease we could, get everything in order (sell and donate most of our belongings), and then come out here after our lease was up.

So, my friends, that is why we came to San Moritz. It had the shortest lease we could find which was six months. It's up July 14th. We've already given our 60 days notice.  That is also why we found an apartment half the size of our house, so we could get rid of a ton of stuff beforehand.  We're still getting rid of a lot more (another couch, kitchen table, dressers, bed, etc.).

Did Lance find a job?
No. He's applied here and there, but he's not really in a field where they hire out of state people. He's in warehousing, and they don't really care that much about finding the perfect person for their job.  So, we're hoping he'll have more luck when we're out there.

Will you (Jenn) still be able to work for your company?
Yes!  My employers have been extremely generous.  They have already allowed me to work from home following the birth of Lily, and they have also agreed to allow me to continue working from home from another state.

Will you be living with your parents?
Yes, until we can afford to live somewhere else. Which means, until Lance finds a job.

Are you getting a U-Haul?
No. We thought about it.  We've tossed around tons of ideas.  For now, the plan is to sell our Dodge and keep our Ford.  We'll each have a suitcase, and we'll also bring my computer/work stuff, stuff for the dogs, and Lily's pack and play. We'll hire a moving company for the rest of our stuff, which will basically be appliances, decorations, clothing, Lily's crib and her changing table/dresser thing, and our futon.

When are you leaving?
July 11th. It's a Thursday. We can't afford for me to take time off of work, so I'll have to take off that Thursday and Saturday the 13th, then be back to work on Monday the 15th.  So, drive Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, about 9 hours each day. Luckily I can spend most of Monday re-cooping, since I don't work until 5pm.  The drive is 32 hours.  We'll be stopping a lot since Lily hates the car and we have dogs that need to be let out.  We'll probably end up with 12 hours of traveling each day.  I'm excited and nervous.

So, it's pretty much this unknown exciting adventure!  I've started setting aside more stuff to donate.  I've whittled away about 20 pairs of shoes so far, and I think I still have more to go.  Basically, if I haven't worn it since we've lived here, it goes. I just went through my makeup and gave a ton to Elise.  It's not that I didn't want that makeup, it's just that I have so much (more than I realized) and I really need to whittle every possible thing down that I can.

Just for fun, here's a picture of what I gave Elise:

Two make up bags, two lipsticks, two blushes, a pencil sharpener, foundation, powder, bronzer, 8 eyeshadows, eye primer and I added two eyeliners after taking the picture.

I took the picture to show her what I wanted to get rid of to see if she wanted it.

Elise is also taking our kitchen table and chairs, our bed, my Grandma Billington's china that my mother inherited, and a dresser that I inherited from my Grandma Keele.

My work desk is going in the dumpster.  It's been put together and taken apart so many times that it is trash.

This is all so exciting until we get a new place, have nothing, and have no money to get anything.

Video

Well, Lance posted a video I'd like you to check out.  See it here.

It's a little cheesy and outside of my comfort zone, and I'm not sure anyone who doesn't already know will care.  But, there it is.

More details to follow.