Shaving Tips...A PSA from me to you

I don't usually get too personal here because well, it's personal. But today I decided to share something I haven't told many people.

I have sensitive skin. It's getting better, but I used to have to use baby laundry detergent on my own clothes. I would itch and get red and well, you know, it ain't pretty.

I hated shaving my legs because they would get bumpy and red and itchy. Then I started using Nair. Smells yummy (NOT!). After one of my girls had some other sort of rash, I found .Gold Bond Medicated Powder This stuff is a freaking life saver! I would sprinkle it on after I shaved my legs and never get the itchies or the bumpies or the redness. Life was good. Until it turn summer. Who wants to walk around with white, powdery legs.

One day, in a lazy moment when I didn't have any ladies shave gel handy, I used conditioner. Yes, that's right. The same stuff you put on your hair to keep it soft and silky. Works Wonders! Now it's all I used. A nice thin-ish layer of conditioner on your legs and then shave as normal. No itching, no bumps, no redness. Seriously! I'm not making this up. I've used all kinds of conditioner with the same wonderful results, so you don't need to spend a fortune, just grab the cheap stuff and go. And the good news: it's actually less expensive than the shave gel anyway! (well, some of it is)

If you have ever had the above mentioned issues, try the conditioner thing and let me know how it works out for you.

And by the way, what's up with razors that have scented handles?? I picked up a pack last night and was surprised to open it and smell lemons! WTF?

Pay It 40 update...and 40 things about me

The pay it 40 campaign dates have been extended....November 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010. Tell everybody! I should have the website/blog up within the next week or so. In the mean time, here's 40 things about me (that you may or may not already know)

1. I work at a hospital
2. I have 2 daughters
3. I had two miscarriages before the girls were born
4. I've been married "twice" but to the same man (civil and religious ceremonies)
5. I have two half brothers, a step brother and two half sisters
6. I'm a huge Rick Springfield fan
7. I love to write fiction
8. I hate operas
9. I love soap operas
10. I've never been outside the US
11. I've always wanted to travel to Australia
12. I've always wanted to write Rick Springfield's biography
13. I've met some of my best friends through the internet
14. my favorite color changes frequently
15. Fall is my favorite season
16. Christmas is my favorite holiday
17. I love singing
18. I have a horrible singing voice
19. My girls can sing (must be some recessive gene!)
20. My mom rocks!
21. I start nursing school in January just a few days before I turn 40
21. I can't start my day without coffee
22. I didn't start drinking coffee until I was 29
23. I would love to own a Corvette
24. or a Chevy Impala
25. I would love to have more kids, as long as I didn't have to be pregnant
26. I would consider adoption
27. I used to be a packrat (albeit an organized one)
28. Lyric is carrying on the packrat tradition
29. I would love to be self employed
30. My dream job would be Rick Springfield's personal assistant (think he's hiring??)
31. I turn maps in the direction I'm going
32. I hate following people (in the car) when they know where we are going and I don't
33. I love to play online games
34. I've been a girl scout leader for 10 years
35. I've never broken a bone
36. I will probably break something now that I said that
37. I've wanted to be a writer since I was 12
38. Both of my girls like to write...and are very good at it
39. I love the smell of burning leaves
40. I think turning 40 is going to be FUN!

Pay It 40...a birthday gift to your favorite charity

Some of you may know that next year I will turn 40. I don't feel 40 and I don't think I look 40, but the calendar tells me it's true. I wanted to do something that wasn't about me. I wanted to figure out a way to give back. I wanted to make a difference, even if it's just a little one. I have a few friends that will be turning 40 soon as well. In order to make it less traumatic for us and a definite plus for somebody else, we came up with the "Pay It 40" campaign. Sort of a play on the "pay it forward". I will create a new blog/website with links for all the charities.

In the spirit of giving, I'd like to open up the Pay It 40 campaign to anybody who is turning 40 from November 1, 2009 to October 21, 2010. What you have to do is: 1) leave a comment here with your name and birthday, 2) chose your favorite charity (if you know a link, post that as well) and then when the new blog is up and running you can tell all your friends.

Let me know if you have any questions. Please feel free to share this information with others. I would LOVE to have 40 people participate.

Reminders

Hello, everybody! Old friends and new. Here's a few link to some highlights of what's going on right now. I don't want anybody to miss out on the good stuff!

Hanbag giveaway

followers showcase

Mom Pen pals

Check out the links and leave a note.

My Sister's Boyfriend

(New story idea/starter)


When you are five and you like a boy, you chase him around the playground, but what happens when you are 25 and you like a boy? And he’s engaged to your sister? That would be my life.
I’ve always been a bit on the independent side. I never felt like I needed a boyfriend to fit in. I dated in high school, but most of the guys were more into sports or cars to just looking cool. I went to prom by myself. When I went to college, I met lots of great people, but never had a spark with anybody. Lots of dates, but no serious relationships.
When my sister walked into the house last week with Brad, I felt as if my whole body woke up for the first time. Our eyes connected as my sister introduced us. Everything in my body felt electric and light and on. Dinner was rough because I had to sit across from him. I was so taken in. All I wanted to do was look at him for hours. I kept trying to steal glances but after he caught me looking (or was he looking at me the same way?) I made a very conscious effort to look at everybody else but him.
When my mom brought out the desert, Brad stood up and said, “This would probably be a good time to tell you that I asked Julia to marry me.” He smiled down at her (yes I was looking) and she grinned from ear to ear as she flashed a nice diamond. It had to be at least 2 carats. Flashy and it fit my sister’s style perfectly.
I thought my dad was going to jump out of his chair, he was so happy. My sister had been a bit of a, well, geek and I think my parents were afraid that she would never get married. They knew I was a bit of a free spirit and hoping for me to get married was a bit of crap shoot so they pull all their “I want my daughter to get married” eggs in that basket.
My mom was thrilled with the news, hugging Julia and Brad and almost crying. Seriously? Crying? What the hell was she going to be like at the wedding?

Handbag Giveaway

No, i'm not giving one away, but Esther is. Click on her name and go check out the cute cute super cute handbags she made.

Random Follower Showcase

I'm going to start something new (again). Periodically, (Like when I can't think of what to blog about), I'm going to randomly chose one of my followers to highlight. I know we can all see who my followers are, but most people don't have the time to look into it any further than that. So, I will do it for you. If you absolutely do not want me to feature you (for whatever reason) let me know, otherwise, you are all fair game.

I was going to pick somebody right away, but I'll give everybody a little bit of time to decide. So within the next week or so I should have somebody featured.

The Mailman Cometh...

When I was a stay at home mom, the most exciting part of my day (next to naptime) was when the mail would come. I loved running to the mailbox to see if there was anything "good". Usually it was bills or junk mail but occassionally it would be a new magazine, or a letter from a friend. In this high tech, instant gratification world, we rarely send letters/cards/notes to anybody via the mail anymore. I'd like to help change that just a little, for a few of us anyway.

If you would be willing to be a pen pal to another blogger/mom, please leave a note in the comments. I will then randomly pair people up. The only requirements are:
1) no emailing! That defeats the purpose the mail man excitement!
2) you must be willing to mail a card/letter/post card at least once a month. Seriously, people, you don't have to tell your pen pal your deepest, darkest fears, but a nice "thinking of you" or "have a great day" card once in awhile would be great
3) you must come back to me within two months and let me know if you want to continue, how it's going, etc. Just a little feedback on the experiment.

I will have a little goody giveaway to go with this. I will giveaway a set of my favorite pens (which is constantly changing) and a pack of note cards to get you start to one lucky participant. So, leave a note in the comments that you want to participate. Just your name and that you are "in". I'll get addresses from everybody later. I'll take names from today until October 14. Then everybody's names will go into the hat for the goodies and I will start pairing.

Questions?? Comments?? You know what to do!

A, B, C, or D

It's mid term time for most of the Random House. My kids get mid term, quarter, mid term and semester grades. I don't know why we need grade reports every month, but that's what we get. Lyric is having a little trouble with AP algebra. It's the class giving her the most trouble, so it's also the class she is giving the least effort to. Should be the most effort, but when you're 14 and know everything, that's what you get. She's getting A's and B's in all of her other classes. Getting a C in Algebra. Since she has all AP classes, everything is weighted and that C actually is a 3.0 so she could still end up with a very nice GPA for the semester. it's still early so we'll see how it all pans out. As long as I can get her to keep turning in the homework, we are on the right path. I told her it doesn't have to be perfect, but she needs to make the effort to complete it and then turn it in on time. Seems she was too busy with other things at the beginning of the year to turn in homework. Boys maybe?!?

Jazz is loving school and is thinking she might not want to try out for Fine Arts for next year. This is a complete turn around from last year. She's really getting into her groove. Nothing has completely challenged her/stressed her out so far. YAY! She's reading well, doing good in math, and getting concepts in English/Spelling/vocab that she used to struggle with.

I got my first block grade yesterday in my Lit class. Wait,did I even tell you what classes I have this semester?? I have Chemisty (again!) but it's a newer, better, revamped version of the class I had last spring. This class is geared towards allied health majors. It's a step above HS chem, and not as advanced as chem for say, a science major. Anyway, the teacher is great. Knows his stuff but not too informal. Allows time to ask questions and takes the time to explain things a different way if needed. I also have Microbes and Society. This is basically a review/continuation of Microbiology. This class is all online. And finally, I have Non Western Literature since 1900. Sounds lovely, doesn't it. This class is reading books and writing papers. All online. Right up my alley.

So, back to my grades. For the first book in Lit we had to do 4 papers. One about the author, one about the country and two about different aspects of the book. I didn't do so good on the first one of these, but I ended up with a B for this block. Each book is a "block". I'll take a B! In Microbes, we get our grades by unit, so every two weeks she emails us the grade we received on each section (questions, quizzes, discussion, projects). I've been tallying the grade (because I'm like that) and as of the end of unit 2, I have an 89%. That's almost an A! Yay, me! We are half way through unit 3 so I'll have an update on that in a week or so. Going into last night's chem test, I had like and 84%. I'm hoping to maintain that B. I don't think I can pull an A (But I'm trying) but a B will be just fine. I know it's still early. We have 2 plus months left of the semester, but a lot for me is riding on these classes. I wil continue to keep you posted!

Zhu Zhu Pets Winner

Thanks for all the entries. I assigned everybody a number based on comments (first comment, #1, etc) and then went to Random.org to pick a winner.

The Zhu Zhu Pets winner is Anitra and she has been notified.

Look for more fun stuff coming soon!

Text A Thon

Electrolux and Kelly Ripa remain committed to raising money and awareness to support a worthy cause. Together, they are launching another exciting campaign that utilizes a form of communication that many of us use every day - texting! During September, Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, Electrolux and Kelly are holding a "Text-a-Thon for a Cause" to help raise support for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund whose mission is to fund research to find a method of early detection and ultimately a cure for ovarian cancer.


Throughout September, you can donate $5 to the cause by texting "KELLY" to 85944 from your mobile phones (standard text messaging rates apply) - or logging on to www.kelly-confidential.com. Also, every time you log on to the Web site, you'll be entered for a chance to win an amazing contribution to your home - a luxury front load washer and dryer from Electrolux in Turquoise Sky, the color inspired by the teal ribbon of ovarian cancer awareness.Also during September, visitors to Kelly Confidential can help spread awareness for this important cause by sending a virtual T-shirt to a friend. For every virtual t-shirt sent, Electrolux will donate $1 to the OCRF. Fashion-forward Moms can also purchase a limited edition T-shirt designed by Ripa; 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts will go to OCRF.

There is a PSA as well, that I will be adding to this post once I get to a computer that will allow youtube. This is a great cause and it truly is a silent killer. Let's do our part to wipe it out.

A little teaser....

This has been running through my head regularly for the past few days. let me know what you think.....

I'm standing in the rain. Kissing my high school sweetheart. Two decades after I kissed him for the first time. With his kids staring at us. With my kids staring at us. Did I mention the rain?? How could I have possibly gotten to this point.

What do you think?? How do you think they got here?!?

And don't forget about the Zhu Zhu pets giveaway . There's still time to comment and get your name in the running.

Zhu Zhu Pets Giveaway

(disclaimer- I wanted to post some photos, but couldn't cut and paste. To check out the items go to www.zhuzhupets.com)

I had the fortune of being chosen for a Zhu Zhu Pets Focus Group. 11 zhu zhu pets and their equipment showed up at my door a couple of weeks ago. Let me tell you, these toys are a hit with kids of all ages. Even my 14 year old wanted one. I took the bulk of them to the daycare where my youngest goes after school, but I gave one to each of my girls and, my lucky readers, I have one to give away. Not only will you get a super cool Zhu Zhu pet, you will also get a super cool hamster ball for it to run around your house in. That's right. And there's more. Since these are such a hit with the kiddos, the batteries run down fairly quickly. You will also get one set of replacement batteries in your package. I haven't priced it out at the store, but I'm guess this is about a $20 prize package. And I know you know you want it.

What do you have to do, you may be asking yourself- well, you know I dislike giveaways where you have to do five things, stand on your head, twirl in a circle and invited 10 friends to dance in the street. All you have to do for a chance to win this prize - comment to this post. Yup. That's it. Super easy. Even a baby could do it, almost anyway. To make it easy for me to contact the winner, feel free to put your email in the comment. If you are uncomfortable with that, just be sure that your email is on your profile somewhere so I can get ahold of you if you win.

This is not limited to just my regular readers/followers, so if you want to share the chance at this cool prize with a friend, send them on over.

The contest starts today - 9/9/09 and ends 9/18/09 at midnight. Then I will put all commenters names in a really cute basket I found and have one of the kids draw one out.

Good luck to everybody!

Casting for the Movie

I had a quick thought about writing a book before I fell asleep last night, and then dreamed that I was casting the movie version of that story. The basic concept is a Cinderella story but from the male perspective. There's the guy who wants to do theater and drama, but dad forces him to do sports (or tries), the step mom who loves him and tries to udnerstand but has her own sons (twins). And of course, there's the girl who also loves drama and tried to help him persue his goal. Okay, got it?!? So, you wanna know who was cast??

Main male lead, high school, handsome (duh): Zac Efron (this is probably because i watched "17 Again" over the weekend.)
Dad: Rick Springfield
Mom: Susan Sarrandon
Twin #1: Sterling Knight (probably couldn't pick him out of a crowd but my girls say he looks like Lucas Till)
Twin #2: Lucas Till (couldn't pick him out of a crowd either, but see above note)
Girl "friend": Kelsey from HSM (I have no idea what her real name is but she looked great, hair down, no glasses, cute!)

That's really all I got. There was no filming going on, the whole dream was about finalizing casting and all the actors had to come in and read for me and the director (I have no idea who it was), and I remember when Rick and Zac were doing a reading I was thinking "Kelley would kill me if she knew I was in a room with these two and didn't call her" so I called her.

Then I woke up.

Analyze that!

It's Finally Friday...

Oh, wait, I did that already. Last week. Sorry I haven't had much to update about this week. It's not that I've been so busy, it's just that things have been pretty status quo and there haven't been a lot of "highlights". What are ya gonna do?!?

School's going good for me, good for Lyric and good for Jazz. Except for the bus not picking up Jazz twice this week, it's going okay.

Maybe something wonderful and exciting will happen this weekend and I'll have something to blog about!

I will be having a giveaway next week - not sure what day yet, so stop back for the details!

It's Finally Friday

Hey, all my loyal readers (and guests!) thanks for stopping by on this rainy-ish Friday. This week was a busy one around the Random House. I started back to school on Monday with my Chemistry class. it's sort of a do over but more of a do different. It's the chem I need for nursing school, but they have revamped all the Chem classes and renamed them. This one is more basic and geared directly towards those going into an Allied Health field. Should make it a bit easier (for me anyway). The teacher seems cool. I'll keep you posted.

I also have Microbes and Society. Or is it Microbes IN Society? either way, it's kind of like a continuation of Microbiology, which I loved (let's not talk about having to take it twice) so it should be pretty cool as well.

And to round things out, I have Non Western Literature. The first book we have to read is "Red Sorgum" by Mo Yan. I haven't started it yet (shh, don't tell the teacher) because I'm currently reading "The 19th Wife" but I plan to start it this weekend.

All in all, the classes are going smooth and slow. I'm sure in a few weeks I'll be freaking out about something, but right now it's all good.

My kids start backto school on Monday. Jazz is in 5th grade, Lyric is 9th. High school that is. I'm feeling a little better about it. I can't stop time so I figured I better just jump in with both feet and enjoy it. Jazz is in the band and Lyric is planning to be in the fresh/soph fall play. They are both in Girl Scouts and dance. And that's about enough on my (our) plate for this fall.

I put the "New Moon" trailer up at the top of the page. I also tried to put up the "Californication" trailer/teaser, but I don't know that it is working right.

For those of you that don't know- Rick Springfield will be doing a guest appearance (4 episodes) on "Californication" this season. It's on Showtime, so I won't get to see it right away, but I will for sure be buying the DVD next summer.

That's all I got for now...stay tuned for more fun stuff.

My Wisconsin State Fair Experience

Yes I went to the Wisconsin State Fair. Yes I went with hubby and the girls. Yes my mom and best friend meet us there. Yes I got to see Rick Springfield. Yes I had two semi serious meltdowns. yup, me, meltdown. Hard to believe right?!? here's what went down.

We got to the fair in decent time. We headed in. About the same time we got there, Lynn and her mom got there. I needed to find them to get the extra ticket for the show. We found Fisher's brother fairly quickly. The boys headed off to do whatever it was they wanted to do. The girls and I headed off to find Lynn.


That was actually pretty quick. we hung out and talked for a few minutes and then Lynn headed in while I went to get something to eat. Kelley called to let me know that they were there and at gate 8. The girls and I started walking in the direction I thought we should go (I did have a map afterall) and got to a gate. It was the wrong one. I called Kelley and she gave me some more directions to where they were. It seems we had gone too far.


I called Kelley again and told her I had absolutely no idea where they were. She then asked the guy working there for some help. After a few non helpful directions, he finally said "the tunnel exit". AHA! that sign I had seen. We finally found them about the time that Tyler Hilton was starting his show.


Everybody took a quick potty break and then we headed to the grandstand. Since my girls were going to sit in the grandstand and the rest of us were on the ground, I wanted to make sure that both girls had their phones. I couldn't find Jazz's in my purse, so I threw a little hissy fit by turning my purse upside down and shaking everything out. Then she proceeded to tell me that she had taken it while I was in the bathroom. Nice! Anyway, my mom and Kelley picked everything up for me (thanks!), asked me if I was ok (not really!) and we headed into the show.


Tyler did a great job and I will be looking him up on itunes soon. Rick did a great job as well. My mom's camera batteries were dead and it was killing her that she couldn't take photos so she kept taking my camera and Kelley's camera and going up front.


Later in the show, Rick came out for Human Touch and ended up walking right behind us on our seats. He used my mom's shoulder to steady himself and after the show she said, "How much you wanna pay to touch my shirt?" LOL I love my mom.

Anyway, we had a nice time. Fisher had a great visit with his brother. And Jazz said after "I forgot how much I like Rick concerts!"


Here's a few of the better photos from my camera.

Pocketville

I signed up to be a tester for this site, and they are allowing me to share the code so you can check it out as well.

By visiting Pocketville, http://www.jungleinmypocket.com/, and entering the voucher code below, your child can purchase items for their virtual pet at the Pocketville Pet Supplies Store:

Voucher Code: B9GX8NUDYS
Valid for 250 Pocketville Tokens

Please note that the voucher code expires on September 30th, 2009 so make sure to take advantage of this fun offer while it lasts!

If you do try this out, please come back and let me know what you think. Jazz won't get to try it for a few days yet due to a busy schedule, but I'll be posting about her thoughts soon. Also, feel free to share the code above with friends you think may be interested.

photos of NYC

Here's a few photos to start you off....

Lyric and AW in Times Square

View from the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Plaza)

Lyric and her future husband, Kevin Jonas

This was our first stop in the city, a backstage tour of Radio City Music Hall

Lyric in front of The Dakota

Don't worry, I've got lots more photos to share. I took about 250 and Lyric took about 50... so you better stay tuned

NYC - actually mostly Manhattan...

We got back bright and early Saturday morning from our wonderful week in New York. We saw and did so much, I had to make a list so I wouldn't forget anything. I'll have photos to share soon, but here's the quick once over of what we did:


Radio City Music Hall
Rockefeller Center
Ellen's Stardust Diner
St Patrick's Cathedral
Time Square
Central Park
The Dakota
Columbia Univeristy
Grant's Tomb
The only free standing House left in Manhattan
Apollo Theatre (Lyric sang on the stage)
Grand Central Station
Harlem Market
Planet Hollywood
Madame Toussauds
Build a Bear (got Jazz an I heart NY bear)
Top of the Rock
United Nations (International territory!)
St Paul's Chapel
Ground Zero
South Streeet Seaport
"In The Heights" (broadway show)
Strawberry Fiels
Drew Barrymore and Justin Long filming their new movie
NBC Studio Tour
Tiffany's
Trump Tower for Lunch
Prada
John's Pizzeria
Ellis Island
Statue of Liberty
and lots of Shopping!

More details and photos to come soon.