This month's Love With Food box theme is "Baby, it's cold outside." Overall, I am very impressed with this month's box. There seems to be more snacks than usual. And it included a small Rachael Ray Recipe book. Here's a pic of the box.
Fruit Bliss Dried Mini Figs: They are actually pretty big, despite the name. All natural, preservative free, no sugar added. These are delicious!
Jers Chocolates Milk Chocolate Peanut Clusters: These are great, but I love chocolate peanut clusters.
Whole Spice All Purpose Seasoning Salt: Ingredients: Sea Salt, Sugar, Celery, Chili, Citric Acid, Onion, Turmeric, Garlic, Black Pepper, and Oregano. Will probably try this on chicken or hamburger.
Marlo's Midnight Soft Baked Biscotti: This is definitely softer than other biscotti's I've tried before. This one is Double Chocolate Espresso flavored. Very good!
Guylian Truffles: One is Milk Chocolate and one is Dark Praline. These have a very rich, chocolaty flavor.
Dick and Jane Baking Company States and Capitals Educational Snacks: These are vanilla cookies with a picture of a state on them with the capital. Cute concept, good cookie.
Grains of Health Laiki Red Rice Chips: Plain and simple. Three ingredients: red rice, oil, and sea salt. These are better than I expected.They taste similar to Original Bugles to me, and I love me some Bugles! I'd definitely buy these if I saw them in the store.
Chipz Happen Cinnful Sweet Heat Tortilla Chips: I liked the flavor, cinnamon with a hint of cayenne pepper. The only thing I didn't like about these is how hard they were. Harder than normal tortilla chips.
I think Love With Food is still running a 1st month free promotion. To get your Love With Food subscription, go to Lovewithfood.com
Here is my Ipsy Glam Bag for this month.
This month's theme is "Girl Meets Glitter." It included the following:
Marc Anthony Oil of Morocco Hairspray. Sulfate free. Infused with Keratin.
SeaRx Birchsap Moisturizing Lotion. This has a sweet, grapefruit-like smell. Might have to buy some of this. Also says it's for preventative aging.
it Cosmetics Bye Bye Under Eye Concealer in neutral medium. Says it is as award-winning anti-aging formula. Clinically proven to give you younger looking skin.
Starlooks Eye Pencil in Ultra Olive. It is a very sparkly green that I think will go great with my hazel colored eyes. Looking forward to trying this out.
Wonder Lip Paint in red
Of course it was all in the awesome silver sparkly makeup bag.
Update on last month's bag: I bought the Indie Lee brightening cleanser. Love that stuff! I'm alternating it with my Olay Reginerist cleanser I already use.
For your own Ipsy Glam Bag, visit Ipsy.com
Here is my KitNip Box for October 2014.
KitNip is a subscription box service for cats. And we all know, I love love love my cats! This box came with some toys and treats and my cats loved them.
Toys: Loopies Mushroom, Catnip Apple Slice, and an Imperial Cat Dangly Door Bouncer. All the toys had catnip, so Molly and Meow both went crazy over them.
Treats: Smart N Tasty in Salmon Flavor.
Here is Meow playing with the Dangly Door Bouncer.
Can't wait to see what comes next month!
Here is my Ipsy Glam Bag for October.
This month's bag contains the following:
Nicole by OPI gold colored nail polish: This is very fast drying and has a matte look rather than shiny.
Noyah lipstick in Mauve: A very pretty mauve color. It looks darker than it actually turns out when applied. I actually like the way it looks on my lips. This is "all-natural, synthetics-free, and never-tested-on-animals"
Ayres Body Butter: Has a faint smell of jasmine and rosemary. Very nice!
Indie Lee Brightening Cleanser: Nice fruity smell. Can't wait to try it!
Tattooed Waterproof Eyeliner: It is a black liquid liner. I've never used a liquid liner, so we will see how this turns out.
And of course it all came in the cute little green bag!
For your own Ipsy Glam bag, visit Ipsy.com.
Today I received my 2nd box in my Love with Food subscription. Love with Food is a subscription food box service that arrives once a month. There are several options of boxes; I get the tasting box which consists of 8-10 snacks. The best thing about Love With Food is that with each box they sell, they donate a meal to a food bank. To get your own Love with Food box, go to lovewithfood.com.
This month's theme is Monster Mash.
Here are my thoughts on the products in this month's box.
Surf Sweets Organic Jelly Beans: These things are wonderful! The best flavored jelly beans I've ever had!
Justin's Honey Almond Nut Butter and Chocolate Almond Nut Butter: These are pretty good. I have bought these before. The only thing I don't like about these is the grindy feel it leaves in my mouth. Flavor is good though.
Flamous Organic Falafel Chips: I think these are really good. And even better if you put the almond butter on them. :)
Clairsquares Buttery Shortbread Squares: Another great product! Has a great buttery flavor.
J&M Original Cheese Straws: To me these taste like eating really think Cheeze-Its. I'm not a Cheeze-Its fan, but if you like them then you may like these.
Calbee Snapea Crisps: These had absolutely no flavor at all. But I'm not too sure how I expected them to taste.
Nutyvitta Cinnamon and Sugar Bananinha Banana Bar: This had a very nice flavor and it is definitely something I would buy if I seen it in the store.
So there you have it: This month's Love with Food box. If I have time, I plan to post these each month.
Now that my daughter is in high school, I'm riding the bus with the band to the out of town football games. Most parents don't want to do this. They seem to want away from the teenagers. I on the other hand, actually enjoy being around them, most of the time anyway. Most of the kids are well behaved most of the time. And usually the more adult eyes on them, the more likely they are to behave. Of course there are a few that you have to remind them to behave, but that is to be expected.
I'm a pretty goofy person and like to just sit in the bus and socialize and be goofy with the kids. I guess this means that I'm young at heart or maybe just a big dork. LOL Oh, I do use my "mom voice" when I have to. This does straighten them out. I have also found that distraction works well. If a kid is being a little unruly, I just distract them with a story of when I was a teenager or something. Maybe say something like, "Oh man, I remember when my brothers used to do that! They got in sooooo much trouble!" Then the kid wants to find out more about what happened. Distraction successful!!!
I will admit. I do miss playing my horn. I played trumpet and baritone. Sadly the only thing I can remember how to play is the Bflat scale. Can't even really remember how to read music. So, I will just enjoy watching my daughter and her band play and maybe reminisce the good times of playing.
I received my 1st Ipsy Glam Bag this month. Ipsy is a subscription service where you pay $10 a month and they send you 4 or 5 beauty products in a cool little bag. This month's theme is "Street Style."
The products I received are Cailyn Art Touch Tinted Lip Gloss in Basic Instinct, Mitchell and Peach Luxury Hand Cream, Smooth Criminal Powder, Pacifica 100% Vegan Nail Polish in Red Red Wine, Avon Big & Daring Mascara in Blackest Black, and this cute silver bag for it all.
Go to Ipsy.com to subscribe and get yourself a Glam Bag each month.
I started to write this a long time ago, but for some reason only wrote the title. So I sat down this morning and began again. This is just a bunch of random things I've been thinking about pertaining to self-confidence, so the writing probably won't flow too well.
Self confidence: a feeling of trust in one's abilities, qualities, and judgment. Easy to define, but not always an easy thing to possess. Am I self-confident?? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We all doubt ourselves from time to time, so even the most self-confident people are not always confident.
I'm usually pretty confident at work. Haven't always been, but after passing my ASCP Microbiology certification exam I had quite the boost of confidence in myself and my abilities as a Medical Technologist in Microbiology. Although we have specifics and guidelines we go by, we must make a lot of judgement calls as to what organisms to work up and what not to work up. Work up too little and the patient doesn't get the needed treatment. Work up too much and the patient gets unneeded treatment. Unneeded treatment can actually lead to more problems and even severe infections. So the right decision is critical and having confidence in that decision is critical, because sometimes you have to explain yourself to doctors and nurses. And we don't actually see the patients, so if the doctor wants a normally non-pathogenic organism worked up we go ahead and do it. Does this mean we made the wrong decision? No, we made our decision based on the information we had available.
Ok, on to the good stuff: Body Confidence!!! Even the beautiful Britany Spears struggles with this one!!!!! Me: I have been overweight, obese, and even morbidly obese (EEEKKK!!) since I was probably 10 years old. Body confidence is something I have struggled with for a long time. There is such conflicting messages out there. "Be confident! Lose Weight to look Great! Everybody is beautiful! Use this cream/makeup/pill to look better and cover your flaws!" Oh my! It is no wonder we all struggle. I have soooo many flaws: one ear sticks out more than the other, one nostril is bigger, I have scars on my face from my traumatic birth, not to mention I carry extra weight in my belly area.....you get the picture. The key to confidence is not to concentrate on what we perceive as "flaws," but to concentrate on what we like about ourselves. For example, I have very muscular calves. I loooooove my calves. When I'm having a down day I can just look at my sexy legs. LOL Also, I like my arms. I think I have great looking biceps! And my eyes are a nice hazel shade. I don't wear makeup much, but when I do it's to emphasize my eyes. Does everyone I come in contact with like my legs or arms, um no! Screw them!! I like what I like about myself and that is what matters!
Oh, my weight....I weigh about 275 right now. Yes, I said it...275. I am what you would call "morbidly obese." Am I proud of this? Um, not really. But I am so tired of my body confidence depending on what the number on the scale says. I have tried to lose weight. I have succeeded. I have failed. I have gained. People (myself included) are proud when I lose weight and disappointed in me when I gain. It is very difficult on me emotionally to be going through this all the time. I realize that the reason I struggle with weight is that I really enjoy eating/over-eating. I enjoy it! Am I "sick" for feeling this way? Maybe. Do I have a problem that needs to be dealt with? Maybe. Am I in denial of my health? No. For the time being, I will be content with my weight the way it is, and when I am ready, I will try again. Not right now.
Oh, just wanted to say that at 245 lbs I walked a half-marathon. Not many people can say that, even people who are more physically fit or weigh less than me. This is something I am particularly proud of. :)
I realize I'm 39 years old but don't act like it. What does a 39 year old act like? What should they act like? There are lots of "39" year olds on TV and in movies I should be acting like. But I am not an actress. I have found that I can't "act" a certain way and be true to who I am. There is a certain level of maturity that one must emulate, but I'm not always being that way. I feel like I'm hiding my true self while trying to act more adult. I hate feeling like I am hiding and not being me, but sometimes it is better to hide. Sometimes I let my true self out, but mostly I feel hidden from the world. I want to be me, but the way I am is not always an "acceptable" way to be. Things I consider a vital part of myself......Things I want to scream to the world.....So many wonderful things about myself will remain...............hidden.
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