About Me

I am a stay at home mom of two fabulous kids and a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. I love my home, family and friends, serving my community, and am always an Auburn Tiger.
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Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Spiderman and my Ballerina Butterfly are now safely tucked in their beds and mama is glad Halloween is behind us for one more year.  On to Thanksgiving!!  The kids had a fantastic day filled with CCB's preschool Halloween party, trick or treating and all sorts of Halloween fun. 

CCB's preschool class  
My cute Spiderman.  Don't think I'm supposed to call Spiderman cute though. 
The kid candy haul.  We may need to buy stock in toothpaste.
My getting bigger by the minute Butterfly Ballerina.

We  had CCB's 4 month post-medication start date checkup with Dr. Potter at Vanderbilt last week and it was a great appointment!  Dr. Potter was very pleased on how well she was doing on the medication and told us to "keep on keeping on" as my grandfather would say.  She has gained about 3 pounds and 3.5 inches!  Hurrah!  She is still in the first percentile for weight at 30 pounds, but she is now in the 2nd percentile for height at 38.5 inches.  Very proud of how well she is growing and eating.  We are gearing up for the big 0-5 on Friday! 

I'm also gearing up for Mary Kay Fall Retreat the weekend!  I'm looking forward to being back in the pink bubble for a bit and getting some great training and inspiration!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

I am so excited!  I have my first team member!  Mary Kay is offering our starter kit for $75 this month so I have been doing several interviews hoping to start building my team this month.  A friend of mine was interested and decided to take the opportunity and join my team.  I have been smiling all day and can't believe it.  I am so excited that I get the opportunity to "do life" (as Linda Toupin would say) with her.  She is a fantastic person and is going to be fabulous.  I am on my way!

In celebration of my first team member I am having a 1 week special!  I am taking 10% off anything in our new fall redefining elegance collection.

Try out our new lip suede - a matte look that feels lighter than lipstick.  Regularly $14, in plum and pink

The new filigree eye and cheek colors are fantastic as well!  They come in splendid and stunning and are regularly $20.
And who doesn't love the Mary Kay nail polishes?!  They are regularly priced at $8 and come in gold, plum and suede. 
There is much more on my website, but this is just a quick look at the collection!  It's a great time to get a jump on those Christmas gifts!  Check out my Mary Kay website!  Sale ends October 31st!




Thursday, October 20, 2011

6 Most Important Things


I had a Mt Everest moment the other day.

You know those moments we have has women and moms where what we need tp do seems completely insurmountable? And we don't know how we are going to get it all done?  Even better, where to start?  Do you know what I did when I was having a moment the other day?

Went to the paint store and bought paint.

Yes, I started another project to avoid doing all of the tasks that I knew I needed to do.

Painting gives you a great opportunity to think.  I thought about all of these other tasks I needed to get done and why I was feeling overwhelmed.  And then I had my light bulb moment.  I needed to write it down.

Mary Kay believed in the "6 Most Important Things to Do" list.  At the beginning of every day, she would write down the 6 things she wanted to do during the day and when she accomplished these tasks, she would call that day a success.  Clearly, I was not doing this.  This lover of lists was not creating a list.   

For the past couple of evenings, I have been coming up with my :"6 most important things to do list" for my home and family and then another list for my Mary Kay business.  I try and be realistic in what I can accomplish in a day.  I'm not going to put "paint entire house" and "re landscape the yard" in one day, but I can get "call 5 customers" and "clean out the refrigerator" done in one day.   I am slowly climbing my Mt Everest.  And, not freezing my tail off.

By the way, the paint color looks good.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

CCB needs a new pair of shoes

In the past couple of months, I have gotten to experience something that most parents consider "normal".  I have gotten to purchase 2 different sizes of shoes in about 2 months for CCB.  Her foot was a size 7 in July and we are now up to a size 9!  My child's foot has never grown so fast in her life!

You see, CCB was diagnosed with human growth hormone deficiency this past spring.  She has always been a little girl, and Philip and I haven't been concerned until recently.  Our old pediatrician told us not to worry because "we need to have some fat kids and some skinny kids to balance out the normal kids".  I just assumed our kid was one of those "skinny" kids that didn't make the growth chart.

As she got older, her weight didn't change much and she grew very slowly. Thanks to a very good family friend who is also a doctor, he encouraged us to get her tested once she turned 4.  After several rounds of blood work, a MRI and some extended testing at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, CCB was diagnosed with Human Growth Hormone Deficiency.  Her body does not produce the amount of growth hormone it needs to produce to grow.  Many just assume that if you don't produce growth hormone, you will just be short.  Not so my friend.  Growth hormone effects every organ in the body.  Without her diagnosis, CCB's lung and heart function could have been affected, puberty could have been drastically delayed, and she still would have been very short.

So, we have been giving CCB daily hormone injections since July and we have seen some growth.  Kids are apparently like puppies and their feet grow first, so we have the feet growth covered.  She has also grown about 2 inches.  No weight gain, but height is a good thing.  Her appetite has improved, but she is still my picky little girl!


I'll be sharing about our journey as the days, weeks and months go on, but if you want to know more about growth hormone deficiency, check out the The Magic Foundation.  It is a fantastic organization with a wealth of information.  We are so blessed to have some answers about her growth issues and the ability to help her body do what it needs to do.  Daily injections were no fun to get used to but, they quickly became routine. I am just so thankful she is going to continue to grow up our happy girl.

Lookin like a Mannequin

I love love love Sarah Mae's Blog - Like A Warm Cup of Coffee.  She is such a fabulous writer and often makes me think after I read her blog.  She is also the author of a fabulous cleaning book as well - 31 Days to Clean. 

Well, Ms Sarah has started a new challenge to encourage all of us to start dressing from frumptastic to cute and stylish.  She says that many women can end up in their pjs all day doing things around the house and chasing after the children.  Her goal this 31 days is to challenge all of us to get dressed, look great and feel great about ourselves.  And, who doesn't love a challenge about clothes and cute shoes?!  And in this challenge, I don't have to clean my house!  Just get dressed!

While I do end up getting dressed every day, but I want to look like the mannequins at the store. 

No, not the hard plastic look.  I admit, I can be pretty white in the winter though.  But you know how polished, accessorized and classic mannequins can look?  That is how I want to try and look on a regular basis.  Put together and stylish and not just pants and a sweater.  My goal in this challenge is to remember the necklace, the scarf or the sweater.  
Do you know the best part of the challenge?!  I do believe a little shopping may be in order.

Especially for shoes.

And cute ones.

Sarah's challenge today was to get dressed and to try a new eye makeup look.  You know this Mary Kay consultant was all over that one.  

The Get Dressed Challenge!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Meow!

CCB got her face painted at the Hadi Clown Booth
 It is no secret that us Southerners love fried food.  If you can grow it, farm it or make it, we can find a way to fry it.  And, I would guess that most Southerners were taught how to fry chicken from childhood.  If they don't, they were told where to get the best fried chicken and how to invite yourself to that house.  Or, how to purchase it and pass it off as your own. 

Any Southerner would feel quite at home on Franklin Street during Fall Festival.  For those not "in the know" the Fall Festival is put on by the West Side Nut Club and is the 2nd largest street festival in the United States (Mardi Gras being the first).  Non-profits set up food stalls all along the sides of the streets selling all sorts of fried goodness. 

I've been several times this year and have a new favorite.  I'm a big fan of the fried coke.  Yes, fried coke.  Somehow they put coke in donuts and fry it up and pour cherry syrup on it and top it with whip cream.  No, it is not healthy for you but calories don't exist at the Fall Festival.  Loving the fried pickles as well.  I didn't get a chance to eat the Donut Bank donut burgers or a brain sandwich this year... maybe next year. 

One of VAB just cause he is cute

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Off to Mimi's house we go!

I am such a lucky girl to have so many special women in my life.  One of these such women just became a Mimi yesterday afternoon.  Because Melissa is one of Lisa a mine's favorite people, we wanted to honor her and her new grandbaby boy.


We unfortunately didn't get to many photos of the event (fancy schmancy camera's battery died), but it was a lovely, intimate affair with some fabulous food and women.  Cucumber sandwiches, salmon mousse, fruit (cause you have to attempt to be healthy at a party), truffles, key lime pie, and other tiny desserts.  We had a great time laughing and being with each other.  The theme was "off to Grandmother's house we go" and we had cars on the invitations and decorated with gerber daisies and bright colors.  We wanted to honor the baby boy, but still wanted everything to be feminine.  And, how often do you really get to go to a tea?!  Not that often at my house!

One of my favorite parts (cause I made them myself) were our favors - Rocky Road Fudge (get it?!).
 
  I used Paula Deen's Dummy Fudge recipe because I discovered that I really am a dummy and can't make fudge the "real" way.  So, here is her recipe and it is so darn easy and it tastes so good!

Paula Deen's Dummy Fudge

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz bag)
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup of mini marshmellows
1/2 cup pecans

Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave or double boiler.  Once chocolate is melted, add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 tsp of vanilla.  Once that is well blended, add in your mix-ins and in my case they were marshmellows and pecans.  Put in an 8 by 8 brownie pan and put it in the freezer until firm. 

I put mine in the freezer first for about 10 minutes and then I let it really cool off in the fridge, but that is not necessary.  I brought to slightly below room temperature for cutting.  I packaged them up in little cello bags and hung them from everyone's chair in these cute cones.  Easy peasy!  They taste fantastic and are super quick to make.


Lisa, Melissa and Me