ipsy July Glam Bag

My July glam bag arrived at my parents' house the day after I did. It was a wonderful welcome present.

What is ipsy?

Each month, subscribers will receive a beautiful Glam Bag with deluxe samples and full-sized beauty products. Members can watch and play along with the stylists with the same products that they are using. All for only $10 a month.  (From ipsy's site.)

This month the theme was "Beach Beauty" and the bag included items that would help us get ready for the beach.

I apologize for the photos you are about to see. They looked better on my phone's screen than they do now... but whatever.

The bag was adorable this month!

 It's waterproof, and hot pink. Definitely a keeper!

• Pop Beauty Pouty Pop Crayon in Coral Crush. Full size. 6 crayons for $25 if you buy it from Pop Beauty's website. Estimated value: $4.17

I was excited to get this product, but I'm kind of disappointed with it. This coral color is really wrong for me, and the product gets patchy after not too long and makes my lips flaky.  I haven't decided yet if I want to keep it or see if one of my sisters want it.

• Sexy Hair Soy Renewal Beach Spray Conditioning and Texturizing Spray. Travel size. $2.70 if you by it from Amazon.

I used this for the first time today. The smell reminded me of a hotel I've stayed at. I can't remember exactly which hotel, but I want to say it was Venetian in Vegas. This spray is supposed to give your hair texture, like the texture you'd get from playing in salty beach water and then letting your hair air dry.  To be honest, my hair dries like that anyway, and using this instead of letting my hair dry without product actually tamed my hair down a little bit so it wasn't quite as wavy and wild. I am absolutely in love with the bottle! The spray nozzle is very high quality, and I honestly can't wait to reuse it for something else that is yet to be determined (but mostly likely water, since that's what I use to style Lily's hair).

• Coola Mineral Face SPF 20 Unscented Moisturizer. Trial size. Full size is $36 on Coola's site. Estimated value: $4.87

This sample is teeny tiny. I use a lot of sunscreen every single day: I cover my face, neck and chest in it because I'm embracing my porcelain skin and trying to keep it healthy. I used this once, and I probably only have enough to use it once more. I didn't notice anything super special about it.

• BH Cosmetics California Collection Eyeshadow Sample. Complete collections are $8.95 on BH Cosmetics' site. Estimated value:  $2.94

 

This sample includes one color from three separate collections: Hollywood, San Francisco and Malibu.

I swatched them on the inside of my arm.

As you can see, the color payoff isn't very good, and the yellow Malibu color makes me look like a corpse. (The yellow tint from the artificial light isn't helping much either.) Hollywood is my favorite color, but I have to use a lot to get it to show up. Overall I do like this sample, though. I was in need of a new purple eyeshadow, and Hollywood does look pretty good as an eyeliner. I also like the San Francisco color, and I like how it doesn't show up really dark.

• Nailtini Straight Up Nail Lacquer in Mai Tai. Full size. $13 if you buy it from Tini Beauty's website.

This is Emilee's hand modeling the polish. :)

At one point in time orange was my favorite color. Shocking, I know. It is a horrible color for me, being cool toned. Emilee is also cool toned, but it looks better on her than it does on me. The formula for this polish is lovely though. It doesn't streak, and only one coat is practically opaque. It's a fun color for summer, so I might try it on my toenails soon.



Overall this bag was a good bag, just the coral/orange color of the lip crayon and the nail polish were misses. I'm a little sad I didn't get Benetint, but I'll get over it. I'm already looking forward to the next bag! I wonder when the first sneak peek will be...

Total value of ipsy bag:  $27.68

Not as good as last month, but good enough to continue my subscription. Besides, it's fun getting new things in the mail to try.


If you're interested, here's my referral link for ipsy: http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-hh1dhitczm8r4e9

Photos of My Surroundings

Layla modeling the deck. Bug spray (on the table) is a must... there are lots of mosquitoes because of all the moisture. My dad called the Mosquito Authority a couple days after we arrived and I haven't seen any since they came and sprayed.

Their driveway is very long. That's our car sitting there...  Notice they have two green trash cans, and one blue trash can. Recycling is required here, so you must separate recyclables from trash. I think that is awesome!

This is the backyard. It is enormous! That dog is Carita. She is such a sweet heart. My dad's car is down by the shed because he was giving it an oil change when I took this picture. My "office" is in the room at the top of the stairs.  Also... lots of trees!  It feels like camping.

Another view of the shed.

This is the backyard from next to the shed.

Photos From the Trip East

Lily lived in her car seat for four days. She was so good!

I asked him to take pictures of St. Louis while I drove, and he took this....

He also took this. It was a gorgeous city.

After being in the car for four days you go kind of crazy, and take weird pictures. You are also amused by silly things. For example, I have never seen a street sign so large before!  Look at it! It looks like a semi could hit it because it hangs down so far.  It's probably hard to tell how large it is without a size comparison, but trust me, it's huge.

This is right outside of Raleigh. You would never guess that we were in a big city. Where is it?  It's hiding behind the trees!

Da Hood

I want to start by saying that I am not racist. I strongly believe in looking at people's desires and attitudes rather than their skin color. I feel like some people think that not being racist means bending to any whine by someone not of your race. For example, they think that if you don't hire someone who happens to be the race of a minority, you are racist.

False. You're the racist, for thinking that I won't hire you because of your race. I didn't hire you because you're not right for the job.  Quit bringing race into everything!

Anyway... today Lance, Lily and I had an adventure! We decided to explore the city a little bit, and went downtown. It's hard to know what direction downtown is because you can't really see any buildings with all the tall trees that are around, but we did it!

We stopped at a gas station and filled up, then went over to Bojangles that was across the street.

We were the only white people in there.

Not even exaggerating. It was really, really weird.

The food was good though!

The plain biscuits, and boberry biscuits are delicious. They also have some kind of hash brown thing that I had when I came out a year and a half ago, but I'm not sure what it's called. Their fried chicken is also delicious. Very crispy!

After Bojangles we decided to drive over to the kids' museum that we saw earlier. We were stopped at a red light and a large group of people were walking by with picket signs.

"WHAT DO WE WANT?"

"JUSTICE"

"FOR WHO?"

"TREYVON"

"WHEN DO WE WANT IT?"

"RIGHT NOW!"

I have to be honest... For a second I thought I might get shot just so they could send a message. If you're unfamiliar with the Treyvon Martin/George Zimmerman case, I don't want to go too much into it, but basically Zimmerman, a half Hispanic neighborhood watch guy, followed a Treyvon Martin, who was black. They got into a fight that ended in Treyvon Martin's death.

Anyhow, that was exciting.

Then we went to the kids' museum, and Lily had a blast!  She just wanted to run and run and run. I was glad they had a couple of rooms for really young kids that were closed off so I could let her run and not worry about her getting lost, or going out of my sight.

It was a fun day.

Foggy Windows, and a New "Office"

Foggy windows.

In July.

From the humidity.

It's weird.

I moved from working in my parents' front room to working in the room above their shed/garage thing in their backyard.  It's nice to have my own space, and some peace and quiet. It's nice to know I'm not keeping anyone awake, or in anyone's way.

DataWise sent me a new printer (HOORAY!), along with toner and a box of paper.  I finally told Donni how horrible my old DataWise printer was, and how I didn't think it was worth it to move it with us. She shipped a new one to my parents' front door.  What service!

Lance bought me (or us) a new computer screen. My old one was probably 12 inches. This one is 22 inches, or something. I feel like it's huge! And bright!  Lance also bought a new wireless mouse, since my old one died.  My dad's friend gave him a few keyboards he wasn't using, so I've switched to one of those as well. I wasn't going to switch, because I'm picky about my keyboards.

You know how Home, Delete, End, Page Up, and Page Down are rearranged on pretty much every keyboard?  Mine is the least popular way (at least, that's what it feels like), where Home is above an extra large Delete key, then next to those are the End key, with Page Up under that and Page Down under that.

Not that you care. But I care!

So yeah, I've basically got a whole new set up going on here.

There is a window A/C unit that keeps the humidity out here in check, but it's FREEZING cold!!  Just when I start to feel an OK temperature, it switches on again to freeze me out. So I'm wearing a sweater.

If I turn it off, it gets too humid, so then it's humid and cold.

I'm a little lonely out here. I don't get to hear my baby babbling or playing, and and I have to walk across the yard and into the house to use the potty. Extra exercise doesn't bother me. Being away from my child is also not necessarily a bad thing, as long as I'm notified when it's bedtime and can come in and say prayers.

Another thing about this room was that it was practically untouched for a couple of years, and so it has grown mold on the walls.  My parents bleached the shiz out of it a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday my dad vacuumed up the dead mold, but it still smells pretty musty. I've been periodically spraying it with Lysol spray and Spic and Span.  It's getting better.

Good times!

Humidity Wasn't What I Thought

My mom and I decided to go for a stroll to TJ Maxx yesterday morning. I got myself and Lily all slathered in sunscreen (as usual), strapped Lily into the stroller, and we started walking.

TJ Maxx is about a mile away from my parents' house. There are tons of trees so the walk was in the shade most of the time, so I didn't think it would be a big deal.  At San Moritz I would walk around the complex with Lily and my two dogs, Layla and Bentley, without shade, and it wasn't ever very strenuous so I didn't think this would be very difficult either.

I soon realized how wrong I was, when I was covered in sweat by the time we got to the end of their driveway.  Was it hot? Not really. Humidity.  Humidity is disgusting. When I'm outside I feel like I'm constantly sweating, even if I'm not sweating. It's simply the moisture in the air clinging to me, making my face a drippy mess, and making my clothes stick to me.

I had originally planned to just come along while my mom bought a new can opener, but I wanted to stay in the store longer since it was so nasty outside, so I did a little dress shopping.

You see, most of my clothes got sent with the shipping company, so I didn't have anything to wear to church on Sunday.  I bought two very cute dresses (I couldn't decide which one I liked better), and then we called Emilee to come pick us up so we didn't have to walk back.

I think I will stay inside for the rest of the summer.

By the way, Emilee drives? How weird is that?!

And also, I need to figure out how to make makeup stay beautiful when my face is dripping wet.

Sidney, NE to Kansas City, MO & Kansas City, MO to Lexington, KY & Lexington, KY to Raleigh, NC

I've been really tired, and trying to adjust to my new time zone, surroundings, and schedule.  It's going really well so far.

The drive from Nebraska to Missouri was uneventful, which is a good thing. Lily had some difficult moments, but that was to be expected. The dogs didn't have a single accident. I got along with my mom just fine.  When we got to our hotel in Missouri, our room smelled like cigarette smoke. Yuck. We tried to switch rooms at the front desk, but they had no other rooms with two beds. We had paid extra money so we could have 2 queen sized beds, and didn't want to get sore throats from the smoke, so the guy at the front desk gave us a second room for free. Having separate rooms was nice, I think we all got more rest that way.

The drive from Missouri to Kentucky was a pretty one. This day I got to see the St. Louis arch, which was cool. St. Louis is a beautiful city!  I was driving at the time, and the roads were busy and under construction, so I didn't get to see much, but I enjoyed what I did see.

I completely missed the Mississippi River. I swear we never crossed it.  I crossed it before as a child on a vacation to Branson, Missouri to see my grandpa get baptized. That time, I swear it lasted for 5 miles. This time, it must have been a thinner area or something. We crossed several rivers, but I never saw a sign saying it was the Mississippi.

We got to drive through Missouri,  Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky this day. Pretty cool!  When we got to our hotel in Lexington we basically all passed out.  We watched the jury's decision on the Trayvon Martin case, and went to bed.

It's strange how exhausting traveling can be, considering that we're seated practically the entire time.

From Kentucky to North Carolina was a beautiful drive. We drove through Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina. At one point we were not on a freeway and I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by drivers who didn't have common sense (or teeth, probably). The roads were curvy, the speed limit was S-L-O-W. The scenery on the other hand was gorgeous. I've never seen such vivid green surrounding me in the middle of summer.

We met my dad and sister, Jessica, in a small town that is about 2 hours outside of Raleigh. It was called Mount Airy. Mount Airy is the town where the Andy Griffith show was filmed. We were too exhausted to care at the time, but perhaps we will go back when we're ready to spend time exploring. Instead, we ate at Golden Corral and then got back on the road. My mom had switched cars and was riding with my dad, while Jessica rode with us. Our A/C stopped working.  Thank goodness it was the last day! We think it froze over from being used so much over the past 4 days, because it has been fine ever since, so it probably just needed a rest.

By the way, we got a new car!  We traded in our Ford Edge and Dodge Avenger for a Kia Sorento. I absolutely love it! It gets better gas mileage and has more space than our Ford Edge. It was a comfortable ride, for sure.

Yesterday, I realized that I left my makeup at our hotel in Lexington.  I almost cried. I love makeup. I have lots of makeup. I probably care too much about makeup. I had thousands of dollars of makeup in that bag.... I called the hotel and the housekeeping manager was off that day so I had to call back today.  They have it!  I gave them my address so they could ship it to me, and I also paid for the shipping expenses.  Even if the shipping is $100, that's cheaper than replacing all of my stuff.

My makeup bag is huge.  And no, normally I don't bring all of it with me to a hotel.  However, I'm moving. So I brought it all with me, instead of giving it to the company that is moving the rest of our stuff.  Good move too, because our belongings won't be here for another week or two.

My ipsy bag came yesterday! I'm not sure if I will write an official blog post about it, but I got some good stuff.

Lily is having a great time playing with Grandma, Grandpa, Carita (the dog), Emilee, and Jessica. She gets really tired and is back to taking two naps during the day.

I'm adjusting to my new schedule. Last night was the first time I worked from here and it went OK. It's kind of hard to stay up until 1 or 2 AM right now, but that's probably because I'm still jet lagged.  Before the move, I stayed up until 2 or 3 AM on a consistent basis, and that would be 4 or 5 AM in Eastern time zone.  My new work schedule is 7pm to 1am (possibly 2 or 3), which really isn't different from what I worked before, I'm just in a new time zone.  So far, I really like it. I get to have dinner with the family, and then work afterwards.

It's humid here.  I would describe it as feeling like it's about to rain, or it just barely finished raining, but it didn't or won't rain.  It's just really moist air. It doesn't bother me so far, but I haven't really gone outside and stood in it.

I threw up yesterday. Lance and I snuck away to go to lunch by ourselves, and I ate a few bites of my burger before I felt horrible. I thought I could keep it under control, but a few blocks down the road I lost it.  I haven't thrown up in over 2 years. I hardly ever throw up!  It was really strange. But I feel fine now, so I'm not sure what caused it.  I'm glad it was yesterday, and not on a day while we were traveling. Blegh.

Midvale, UT to Sidney, NE

We wanted to leave this morning at 7am, but that was impossible. Yesterday we found out that someone from maintenance had to inspect our apartment before we left and they don't make appointments.

Both Lance and I cleaned like crazy yesterday, only to have the inspector come in this morning at 10am and tell us how crappy everything looked. He said we'd need a full cleaning and it would be $200 unless we did more deep cleaning ourselves.

It was humiliating and I wished I hadn't cleaned a thing. I cried. Whatever.

We got on the road at 10:30am. We made 2 stops then arrived at Sidney, Nebraska at about 7pm today. We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant next to our hotel and now we're going to bed.

The drive hasn't been bad so far, although Lily is wearing down my patience. We all take turns sitting by her and attempting to keep her happy. Having my mom with us has been great, she helps a lot.

Tomorrow we stay in Kansas City, MO.

Repentance

I've had a busy couple of weeks, and I'd like to write about them, but I feel the need to write about something else right now.
I've been reading the Book of Mormon and I'm in Alma. Alma 34:33-35 talks about not procrastinating repentance. This life is the time we need to prepare to meet God.
I know this is true. I procrastinated repentance for nearly 10 years. I was stubborn, I was in denial. I told myself I'll repent when I'm old or even in the next life. That is not ok! My testimony is far behind what it could be had I repented sooner. Blessings I could have enjoyed all this time have been withheld.
I took so long to repent because I feared man more than I feared God. I worried too much about what my family would think, what my parents would think, and what my friends and neighbors would think. One day I realized that while I've lied to myself and everyone around me, I could never hide from or lie to God. And His opinion of me matters more than anyone else's.
When we decided to move to North Carolina I had the thought that I'm going to be surrounded by people of other faiths and I need to be firm in my own beliefs. Did I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true? Yes. Did I act like it and live it? No. So I changed that very day, right then and there. I was semi-inactive (only went to Sacrament once a month to pay tithing), so I started going to all 3 meetings every Sunday I possibly could. I started saying personal prayers, something I've always struggled with, and quite frankly was afraid to do. I started reading the scriptures. This path led me to my bishop, who has helped me with the rest.
I'm not done with my journey. I never will be. The path of a sinner is a long difficult one. One who is righteous need only walk a block to gain a testimony, while the sinner has to jog a mile for the same testimony. However, I wouldn't change the decision I made to finally fully repent. I'm finally back on the right path. I'm finally able to let go of past grudges. I'm finally digging out of this deep hole I've made. I'm finally becoming the person I've pretended to be for years.
I'm grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and the gift he gave me, the atonement, so that I can change. I can be forgiven. I can be in the Celestial Kingdom with him and my Father forever.