Herbal Essences Body Wash

Yup, you read the title right! It's Herbal Essences Body Wash! It is pretty amazing!

Short Backstory:
I belong to a website called Crowdtap. I answer questions, share things, and test products. I'm sure everyone on my Facebook page has seen me share links for things I've completed or read about! Well I got to try out a sample of Herbal Essences Body Wash on behalf of Herbal Essences and Crowdtap! Thank you for the sample. It's amazing. It smells great. My skin is soft and smooth and feels amazing! I've always been a Bath and Body Works gal but I'm sure I could be convinced to convert.

You can see a picture of the sample below, but I assure there won't be one of me actually USING the product! You understand, yea?

Disclaimer: I have received this product free and clear from Crowdtap in exchange for sharing information and my personal opinions about said product.

Things I'm Proud of Myself For

Today was actually another book topic which I said I wasn’t going to type up however this one really means a lot to me. The original topic asks “what are you proud of yourself for?” My list is of some things that I am proud of, things I have accomplished and what makes my life worth it. 

• I have my Masters degree.
• My son loves me.
• I know how to budget better than my mother ever did.
• I always put my son first.
• I might not practice it but I’ve learned who is good for me and who isn’t.
• I made it to 30 and I’ve only been to jail once!!!
• I was maid of honor in my best friend’s wedding.
• I take care of my dad and have for four years now.
• I lived through the loss of my mother.
• I have learned what family is. It isn’t always about blood...
• I’ve survived a car wreck and a four wheeler flipping with me on it.
• I’ve had my heart broken and had the courage to go through it again.
• I have become highly organized over the years.

Important lessons I learned from my parents…

This entry was a journal prompt but I choose to type it up because it’s part of who I am. (There will be a few of these, even if I don’t type all the journal prompts.)

Important lessons I learned from my parents…

• Always say I love you before bed and before leaving someone, even if only for a matter of hours. It could be your last time seeing them.
• Never go to bed angry (I clearly didn’t pay attention to this one).
• Every woman should learn to drive a stick shift (I think men too).
• Don’t grow up believing that you have to have a man to take care of you.
• Always look both ways.
• Always wear a seatbelt (this one’s saved my life a few times).
• Judge not (I have trouble with this one).
• Live for yourself and no one else.
• Normal is over-rated.

Whoah! I'm the dirty 30!

Today, I turn 30. The big 3-0. Without my mom. Yes, it hurts but I suppose life goes on. I have discovered a pattern in my life, I start journals and I never finish. I have a pile of unfinished ones. Journals are generally pointless for me because I never go back and read them. If I even skim them, I feel even more like a loser and I get depressed. I have decided to burn them all. I'm going to try to burn away the past and live for the future. I started a 365 Days journal but honestly I suck at writing. I did one of the story prompts and realized I don't have that type of imagination. I'm good with sexual stories! Seriously! I decided that I would like to try to write something every day. It's more for me to get my feelings out instead of lashing out on those that I love. I did/do like some of the prompts, so if one of the prompts, photography prompts, or quotes moves me to do so, I'll write about it. There are always thoughts swimming in my head, I can just never manage to get them out. I guess we'll see what happens. I threw out an activity to my friends to see what they thought of me. Most of the people who answered have known me for 10 or more years. I told them to use my name and give me words for each letter to describe me. Some were... interesting! lol.

My Words

Rambunctious
Obnoxious
Bitchy
Intense
Neurotic


The words of others!
Respected
Optimistic
Beautiful
Inspirational
Naughty

Real
Obvious
Beautiful
Immersing
Nice

Rude
Obese
Beguiling
Intuitive
Naughty

Rebellious
Obstinate
Brassy
Inquisitive
Nice

Rebellious
Ostentatious
Beautiful
Insightful
Negative

Rough
Overboard
Beautiful
Instinct-able
Nympho

Real
Optimistic
Beautiful
Intelligent
Nice

100 Books to Read in a Lifetime

So, quite some time ago while going through my daily feeds, I came across an article in one of the many blogs that I follow (and idolize) regarding “100 Books to Read in a Lifetime.” I love reading and I’m always looking for suggestions, although my tastes are generally limited to mystery novels, S&M novels as of late and romantic novels, mostly the ones that take place in like the 1800s because back then women were treated with respect and men actually proved themselves worthy of the women. On this particular list, I was actually quite surprised to find that I have read quite a few of them, however, out of those that I have read, I plan to re-read simply because most of them were forced upon us in high school and I only read them because I had to. I honestly couldn’t tell you what in the world they are about! My tastes have changed the older I’ve gotten and a lot of the books I detested in school now intrigue me and I fully intend to finish this list. Again, it’s a “lifetime” list but I hope to have them all read before I’m 40. This is my pledge for my birthday (today). Yes, I am giving myself a full 10 years which is clearly shorter than a lifetime (I hope) so I’m actually testing myself here. This is an average of 10 books a year. I read relatively fast when I’m interested and I’m usually able to keep up with about three books at once so if I plan to read 10 of these a year, then if I get bored, I can still enjoy some other books while coming back to that particular one I’m working on at the time. Plus, there’s life, hopefully a job, homeschooling mini-me, and possibly another baby in the future that will take away time from reading. I’m also aspiring to get this blog going more and actually giving you guys something to read (see above where I said I “idolize” those blogs). I’m also ahead since I read a few of these books recently! So, yay!!! The list of books is below along with the ones I have read so far, underlined. I hope to also write a book review for each one as I read it, but again, that’s an “I hope.” I have the tendency to get distracted easily and I always have 100 things going on at once! Wish me luck readers! Oh, and if you decide to join me, watching the movie doesn’t count!!!! That’s cheating! Plus, you miss so many details that come up in the book, which you can’t witness on the big screen.

1.       Crime and Punishment (Dover Thrift Editions) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett

2.       Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

3.       From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

4.       The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Jules Feiffer

5.       Helen Keller: The Story of My Life (Dover Thrift Editions) by Helen Keller, Candace Ward

6.       Beloved by Toni Morrison

7.       Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, Hilda Rosner

8.       The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky

9.       Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

10.   The Road by Cormac McCarthy

11.   The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

12.   The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

13.   The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

14.   The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

15.   And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

16.   A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

17.   Celebrating Silence: Excerpts from Five Years of Weekly Knowledge 1995-2000 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Bill Hayden, Anne Elixhauser

18.   The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) by Homer, Bernard Knox, Robert Fagles

19.   The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

20.   The Good Earth (Oprah's Book Club) by Pearl S. Buck

21.   The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver

22.   One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

23.   Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

24.   The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

25.   The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

26.   Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen

27.   Dracula (Norton Critical Editions) by Bram Stoker, Nina Auerbach, David J. Skal

28.   The Scarlet Letter (Dover Thrift Editions) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

29.   Les Miserables (Signet Classics) by Victor Hugo, Lee Fahnestock, Norman MacAfee

30.   The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

31.   Life of Pi by Yann Martel

32.   Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake

33.   The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman

34.   The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

35.   The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Dover Thrift Editions) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

36.   Memoirs of a Geisha: A Novel by Arthur Golden

37.   Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

38.   Great Expectations (Dover Thrift Editions) by Charles Dickens

39.   Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet) by Orson Scott Card

40.   To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

41.   Pride and Prejudice (Modern Library Classics) by Jane Austen, Anna Quindlen

42.   Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, B.M. Mooyaart, Eleanor Roosevelt

43.   Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky

44.   Watership Down: A Novel by Richard Adams

45.   Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & T​hrough the Looking-Glass (Bantam Classics) by Lewis Carroll

46.   The Stand by Stephen King

47.   In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

48.   Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition by Joseph Heller, Christopher Buckley

49.   A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) by Betty Smith

50.   East of Eden (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) by John Steinbeck

51.   The Color Purple by Alice Walker

52.   The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

53.   The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics) by Alexandre Dumas père, Robin Buss

54.   The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium Trilogy) by Stieg Larsson, Reg Keeland

55.   The Holy Bible: New King James Version (NKJV) by Thomas Nelson

56.   Frankenstein (Penguin Classics) by Mary Shelley, Maurice Hindle

57.   The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Dover Thrift Editions) by Mark Twain

58.   Macbeth (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare

59.   Anne of Green Gables (Signet Classics) by L. M. Montgomery, Jennifer Lee Carroll

60.   The Giver by Lois Lowry

61.   Wuthering Heights (Norton Critical Editions) by Emily Brontë, Richard J. Dunn

62.   Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein

63.   Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

64.   The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Richard Howard

65.   The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

66.   Romeo and Juliet (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare

67.   The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Sandra M. Gilbert

68.   Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck

69.   A Christmas Carol (Dover Thrift Editions) by Charles Dickens

70.   A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet) by Madeleine L'Engle

71.   A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens, Richard Maxwell

72.   Hamlet ( Folger Library Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare

73.   Night by Elie Wiesel, Marion Wiesel

74.   The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

75.   Lord of the Flies by William Golding, E. L. Epstein

76.   The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

77.   The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, Book 1) by Suzanne Collins

78.   Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, Book 2) by Suzanne Collins

79.   Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins

80.   The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 2) by C. S. Lewis, Pauline Baynes

81.   The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott

82.   The Help by Kathryn Stockett

83.   The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Penguin Classics) by Mark Twain, Guy Cardwell, John Seelye

84.   The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

85.   Animal Farm: Centennial Edition by George Orwell, Ann Patchett

86.   Gone with the Wind, 75th Anniversary Edition by Margaret Mitchell, Pat Conroy

87.   Jane Eyre (Norton Critical Editions) by Charlotte Brontë, Richard J. Dunn

88.   Fahrenheit 451: A Novel by Ray Bradbury

89.   The Hobbit (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Pre-Lord of the Rings) by J.R.R. Tolkien

90.   Little Women (Bantam Classics) by Louisa May Alcott

91.   Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, Garth Williams, Rosemary Wells

92.   The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

93.   The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition by J.R.R. Tolkien

94.   1984 (Signet Classics) by George Orwell, Erich Fromm  

95.   A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) by George R.R. Martin  

96.   The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

97.   Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) by J.K. Rowling, Mary GrandPré

98.   Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, Mary GrandPré

99.   Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling, Mary GrandPré

100.      Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J.K. Rowling, Mary GrandPre

March 30 Days of Lists: Finished!

So yesterday wrapped up March's 30 Days of Lists! I used an app called Rhonna Designs to create these cool pictures (I think they're cool so :-p). Anyway, I ended up printing them and making a little booklet out of them, but these are the finished pictures/lists.

Mazola® Blog Part 2: The Food!!!!

In an earlier blog, I posted about March's amazing AllStars sponsor: Mazola®. They sent us corn oil, a nifty little measuring spoon with 4 different measurements (I originally posted it had 2 and someone corrected me so thank you, I missed those other two), and an awesome pan that arrived yesterday! Check out the pan below. It's beautiful and heavy duty too!

On to the goodies! We had to use the Mazola® corn oil to create two specific recipes. These can be found here: Sweet and Spicy Salmon with Grapefruit Salsa and here: Pork Carnitas with Cilantro Tomatillo Sauce. Let's discuss the recipes.

Sweet and Spicy Salmon with Grapefruit Salsa

This was my favorite out of the two. I will have to say that I only gave it 4 stars on the website instead of 5 because of the grapefruit. We're not grapefruit people. I honestly don't personally know many people that are grapefruit eaters. Many of them eat it because they must. The flavoring on this salmon however, setting aside the grapefruit was really tasty. It had a smoky sort of flavor to it which you obviously usually don't get unless you smoke it or use liquid smoke. This merely consists of a dry rub and baking it. It would also be great on chicken. Something else about this rub that surprised me is how it covered the fish taste. I don't care what kind of fish you cook, there's always a fish taste if you don't know how to disguise it. Well this does the trick. If anyone is looking for a healthy option but you don't like fish, this will definitely work for you because you can't even tell you're eating fish. However, as I was discussing earlier, the grapefruit didn't really work. It gives it a bitter taste with every bite. I pretty much tried it with the grapefruit and then flicked the grapefruit off. The rest of the salsa however was tasty on the salmon and it paired really well with yellow rice. Next time we eat this I might try pineapples or some other fruit that has a sweet but not over-powering taste. Then again I might just leave the fruit out of it. The rest of the salsa was good.

Pork Carnitas with Cilantro Tomatillo Sauce

Oh how I did not like this recipe, let me count the ways. I'm not really sure about the seasonings to begin with. chipotle chile powder, chili powder and garlic powder? That didn't sound appetizing to begin with but alas we are a family of experimenters (in the kitchen anyway). I will also say that corn tortillas are the devil! Unless you decide to bake them and turn them into friggin' taco shells, they break! I broke like 8 soft shells before getting them to just curl without breaking. Flavor: well... personally, biting into it and having flavor, there was none until I swallowed. Then it felt like I was breathing fire and I still got no flavor! The sauce or what I would consider salsa in this case also wasn't for me. I don't really care for tomatillo. It much like the grapefruit from the first recipe also has a bitter flavor. It was the only thing with flavor. This is probably a recipe I won't repeat. None of the family cared for it too much.

These were interesting recipes to say the least and nothing we would have tried our own. However, as stated, we did enjoy the salmon so that'll be a repeat at some point in the future. I would like to thank Mazola® for the opportunity to try these recipes though and for the goodies they sent!

Disclaimer:

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Mazola® Blog Part 1: The Goodies and Facts

The AllStars are back in action! Oh how I have missed having a preset list of things to cook. Since the AllStars program slowed down and school picked up and my boyfriend ripped my kitchen apart for renovations, I haven’t really been into cooking lately and I basically stopped meal planning. I do indeed miss this. I miss knowing what’s on the menu for dinner every night as well as what I need to be purchasing for said dinner menu. We’ve been eating out a lot! This is made me realize quite a few things. First off, it’s incredibly expensive to dine out, even when eating at the CHEAP joints. I mean, a family of four, even if we all ate the $1 menu from McDonald’s, comes to $12 a day for ONE MEAL or around $360 a month! I can get $600 worth of groceries at the store for that much with coupons and sales, and feed my family for 3 months!!! That’s including breakfast, lunch and dinner!!! It’s also lead me to realize that all of that eating out, even if we eat salads, is unhealthy. Cooking is way better because you can control what goes in the food. You KNOW what you’re putting into it. For those of you going “oh but if you’re buying oils, and canned goods, and food from companies, how do you know it’s healthy still?” READ YOUR LABELS PEOPLE. DO YOUR RESEARCH. If you’re just self-conscience about what you’re buying, you CAN eat healthy.

This month, for ALL of the AllStars, our sponsor was Mazola®. They sent us a 40oz. bottle of Corn Oil and a pretty nifty two sided measuring spoon with two of the most common measurements, 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon. I like it because you don’t have to dirty two spoons or hunt for two spoons if you have a less than perfect kitchen (raising my hand here).

Moving right along to the healthy part of this post!

Being healthy is something that we seriously need in my family. I’m overweight. My boyfriend is overweight. I have a 10-year-old son that I don’t want to be overweight and my father has suffered serious heart attacks and a stroke so clearly, it’s important that we eat healthy. I do try to cook a little healthier these days. I grill or bake more than I used to and I have recently been experimenting with various health conscience foods such as organic, fat free, cholesterol free. Don’t get me wrong. We haven’t gone to eating strictly cardboard, and we do still eat some foods considered unhealthy. I’m trying to promote a more healthy and HAPPY lifestyle in my home. This means eating things we like. What’s the point of eating if we hate the way it tastes??? We can eat healthier and still enjoy the taste of our food. Most cooking oil labels say the same thing. My mom always used canola oil because she said it was better for you but then after my boyfriend moved in he was partial to vegetable oil and after reading the label, there wasn’t much difference so we switched. He claims it tastes better. I can’t tell the difference. However, after receiving this Corn Oil from Mazola®, I read some more labels and did some more research and maybe just maybe I can get my boyfriend to switch to corn oil now. Research has shown that Mazola® Corn Oil lowers cholesterol more than Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO). My father is on pills for cholesterol so this could be a step in reducing some of the meds he has to take. Healthier lifestyle equals less artificial lifestyle (that’s what I think of medication). Corn oil has shown to lower LDL cholesterol by 10.9% compared to EVOOs 3.5%. Mazola® Corn Oil is cholesterol free and 100% pure. Seriously! This is the factoid label!!!

More about the study Mazola® conducted as well as health benefits can be found at Mazola.com (http://www.mazola.com/) and you can also check them out on Facebook here (https://www.facebook.com/MazolaBrand).

For our Mazola® assignments, we had to create, rate, and review two recipes which I have regrettably not been able to do yet, however, they will be done shortly! So stay tuned for Mazola® Blog Post #2 to see all the deliciousness of the recipes!

Disclaimer:

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Plant Pot Makeover

So I have an obsession with making something new out of something old. I also tend to change my mind a lot so I either never finish a project, or if I do finish a project, by the time I’m done, I’ve changed my mind and moved on never utilizing the finished project. That’s why this post comes at least 6 months after the completion of what I’m calling a “plant pot makeover.”

For Mother’s Day 2013, my amazing fiancé bought me an orchid. These are my favorite flowers and are often hard to find as they are seasonal and must be searched and scoured for where we reside. For some reason, someone decided it would be a great idea for Wal-Mart to sell these single potted plants for Mother’s Day (they did the same thing this year for Valentine’s Day). Anyway, he bought me one because he knew I’d love it. I unfortunately do NOT have a green thumb at all. It’s more black and crusted over. I can’t keep anything alive. It’s seriously a wonder my son is still kickin’. It’s probably a good thing he can bathe and feed himself! I am totally kidding but you understand. Anyway, sadly orchids also require specific light, watering, etc. so… it kind of died. It’s a good thing that he realized, that I realized, that it was the thought that counts and I really did love my present. I have pictures of it and I even pressed a petal and laminated it so it would never be completely gone! Yea, I’m sentimental like that. I loved the size of the pot though and didn’t want to throw a perfectly good pot so, I decided to give it a makeover. This was trial and error and while it took forever and so much work for something so simple, I’m still very happy with the outcome.

This was the outside of the pot before I started and the inside after I painted it silver. The inside was already rough so it didn’t require sanding. That’s tape across the top because I didn’t want the inside and the outside the same color. Barriers!

So I didn’t sand it to begin with. I figured I could use the paint that allows you to paint over something without roughing it up. Yea. Didn’t work so well. Paint was runny and drippy and while that can be a cool look, it wasn’t what I was going for. So…alas I had to sand.

and sand some more… don’t hate on my sexy mask and sunglasses. I didn’t have goggles so my shades were the next best thing.

I suppose it paid off though because after I got the outside VERY WELL SANDED, I spray painted it black and one thin coat at a time (that’s the key) and voila. We have this beautiful coat of black paint on the outside.

and the inside again…

Then I took my trusty silver paint pen and drew awesome designs on it. After that, I spray painted it with clear coat, inside and outside and BAM, I have a new pen/pencil cup! I also have a thing for black/white and black/silver. Can't ya tell?

I constantly change my mind about things I want to use but this one’s been going strong since I made it over 6 months ago and I have to say, I STILL LOVE IT! I really do. I change my pens out occasionally to suit whatever I’m feeling (I have a pen box bigger than my boot shoe boxes). This drives my fiancé crazy but oh well!

March 30 Days of Lists: Intro

So I was originally going to create an entirely new blog for 30 Days of Lists since this is my first time blogging it, however since this particular blog is for sharing with the world all of my food stuff, recipes, goodies, and fun, I figured I'd go ahead and just post it here for the world to see (even though I have no followers! lol). This year I said I wanted to be a better writer or at least a more active one. Last year I participated in the 30 Days of List twice, once in September and once in December (yes, December has 31 days but it was quite of an impromptu thing, so I added in a list of my own at the end). I have fallen in love with doing the 30 Days of Lists! The problem is, I find myself lagging in completing it and getting a journal or book together so starting off 2014, I have decided that this year I’m going to blog them. I actually finish the lists, I just like to embellish the pages and make them creative, however, that seems to take forever! After all, I JUST finished all the touches on my December book on February 10! I figure if I do the blog, I’ll get it finished, no embellishments and I can also add in pictures if I want to without having to print, cut and paste them. The beauty of this is that I can also turn it into a Blurb book or I can print it myself and get all creative later. At least this way I can get it done daily! Well here goes nothing!

Update - 3/3/14 - So one of the girls in the listing group posted what I thought was the neatest thing! I asked her about it and apparently it was an app on the phone. So..... I went and downloaded it. What I love about this app is that no matter what you do, you will never perfectly copy someone else's so there's no chance of us posting anything similar. I love that I can take pictures of ANYTHING, put words over it and BAM. Now I know where all those Facebook posts of pretty pictures and words are coming from! lol. Anyway, I decided to use that as the basis for my lists now. PLUS, once I'm done, I can actually take THOSE pictures and make my book. It'll be so much better than a plain book! Here's my cover!!!!