I'm Back, Y'all, Halfway Back

OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!  OMGZ!!!:

Guy Winston Churchill Larkin-Federer Wilson is SIX!!!  

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I'll be reading him our copy that stems from my mother and her siblings and is approximately 6x10 years old this evening.

I had to skip Xtend Barre today because I was still completely wiped out, even after 12 hours of sleep.  Also, I wanted to make sure I had time to do birthday shopping for my baby boy at Ma and Paw's Bakery.  We really got a great assortment of home cooked delights: chicken liver biscuits, turkey dinner biscuits, doggie tacos, lamb something-or-other... a lovely little menagerie.  And a lobster.  A big, bright lobster chew toy.  I even showered and did my make-up!  This was actually a precautionary measure because I was on-call for work at Anthro, but they didn't need me, per usual (insert sad face emoticon).  It was ok because I was already halfway into Guy's birthday hike:

He trotted, pranced, and bounded the whole 2 miles.  I REALLY need to get him out more.  I, on the other hand, was completely WIPED OUT as I seem to be these days.  And this is a really easy hike.  My body is just out to get me these last few weeks.  So, we came home and I started planning dinner for the week, which was so utterly exhausting that we ended up taking a birthday nap:

Yep.  We sleep mouth-to-mouth.  We're gross.  Or romantical.  All depends on how you look at it.

At any rate, I am so discouraged with my health right now.  I know that we have had a drastic change of weather here in the S to the L to the C.  Daylight savings really messes with me as well.  It gets dark so EARLY and psychologically my body thinks it's time to shut down.  Shut down it has.  

In more exciting body news, I got to go to the gastroenterologist last week!  Woohoo!  Now that we are  married (read: I am insured) and less tight on funds (we had a rough summer), I am starting my rounds of going through specialists again to see if we can get this "machine" of mine working.  My dad is a specialist, an OB/GYN who spent his career specialising in high-risk pregnancies.  His abilities, care, and true professionalism have earned him many an award, but much more so, the love and respect of his patients.  in over 30 years of practice, he never had a single malpractice suit against him... working in HIGH-RISK.  I could totally go off on this tangent about my pops forever.  Suffice it to say that my GI doc loves him so much that my possibly pending stomach scope/colonoscopy will be free!!!  Can I get a whoot whoot?  Honestly though, I couldn't be more grateful.  We are in no position to be paying our deductible.  Such a generous man, that doc of mine.  Speaking of gratitude, check out The Pickled Bean for Ashley's month of gratitude posts.  

I was diagnosed with CFS 16 years ago.  I still have the hardest time managing it, and by that I mean, keeping it consistent and getting more use out of these old bones.  Do you or someone you know suffer from this total BS?  Do you have anything you do or take that is helping?  'Cause I could sure use your help.  I generally do pretty well, but when I crash it is brutal.  I'd like to just be done with crashing altogether.  Advise away!

Did y'all notice that my make-up (what you can see of it) in the nap pic is looking better?  It is.  So, my review of this so far is glowing (literally AND figuratively):

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I'm glad I've had some time to remember some old techniques and implement some new ones before this arrived today:

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It is gonna get colourful up in this piece!  I have a feeling that my new eyeshadow set is going to "adhere" to my face better.  It seems like I really have to apply a lot of the shadow from the first set to make it pop.  I'll report my findings.  Either way, I am thrilled with the first Sephora set.  Bronzer and highlighter have opened up a whole new face for me!

In reporting, I should let you know that I am more and more happy with the retinols each day:

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I've mostly been using my nose as a barometer when I should be looking over my whole face, but nose-wise my pores are really starting to clear up and shrink.  My skin feels great.  My husband has even made unsolicited compliments.  I'm buying the full set this week and I hope to use them more frequently than I have the samples, but I will probably not use them everyday just for financial purposes.

And since I was feeble and pathetic yesterday, let's get in THIS (LAST) WEEK FOR DINNER:

Monday: Spinach and artichoke pasta.

Tuesday: Slow cooker french dip sandwiches... these were insanely delicious.  Go to my Pinterest.  Make them.  I cannot emphasize enough their deiciosity.  It was so good I forgot to take photos.

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Spinach linguine with chicken, pesto sauce (made with my homemade pesto!), and peas.

Friday:  Bombay House.  Oh how I have missed thee!  We got my usual of lamb saag, husband's usual of tikka masala (I INSISTED), naan, a rose lassi for the DD husband, and a glass of vino for myself.  It was DIVINE... I had forgotten how flavourful and different their food is as we've been eating more nepalese lately.

Saturday: Baked "fried" chicken, green beans, pureed cauliflower (sub for mashed potatoes), and chicken gravy.

Sunday: It was quite a smögåsbord at my mother's house and I contributed a sausage and spinach quiche.

This week our dinner list might be pretty sad unless I start feeling better in a hurry!

Happy birthday to my child, to the love of my life, to the light in the dark, to Guy!  The dreamiest Olde English Bulldogge you ever had the chance of seeing on a blog (or anywhere)!!!

xoxox

Postponed

Hey, y'all...

That little dreamboat turns six tomorrow!  It will be a glorious day.  Unfortunately, I'm not feeling so glorious today and the weekly wrap up is going to be delayed until tomorrow.  For now I'm going back to my CFS coma.  You can check out my Pinterest in the meantime :)  

Sweet dreams!

xoxox

"It's so late in the season..."

Last night started out a lot like this:

We had Guy's cousin Cooper over for a sleepover:

Because, quite frankly, I just don't get enough Coop in my life:

Ahhhhh... more Coop.  When we woke up I was all:

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Because it was snowing really hard.  Check out Grumpy Cat... you get new grump on a daily basis.  It is the only thing that gets me going in the mornings.  I HATE MORNINGS!!!  Eventually I got over the morning and took the nerds out to play in the snow.  How I wish I had remembered my camera!  Guy was all over the place and Cooper was plowing tunnels through the snow like a great, fat mole.  The snow was pretty deep and, despite how big he appears, Coop is a bit on the small side.  I was in bulldog heaven x 10!!!  The unadulterated joy on a bulldog's face when he poops in the first snow of the year... well, kids on Christmas morning got nothing on that!

And then I decided we needed to take a photo of this:

To send to someone beautiful because it looks so damn beautiful.  Can you believe there are houses like this scattered all over my neighborhood?  Few are as nicely restored as this baby though.

And then I was a little sad because I can't have this:

OMGZ!!! "Is that a white IRIDESCENT tree?!?!?", you ask.  Yes.  Yes it is.  And it costs THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS... what the what?!  I mean, I guess over time it would be worth it since we wouldn't need to buy a tree every year AND it comes with all the lights, which are strung oh so perfectly.  At any rate, I went to another store and I found another white tree (not iridescent, but still a real dreamboat) for SIGNIFICANTLY less.  I asked a man at the store if they had more in stock.  He said no, so I went on that they would certainly be getting more in.  Ummmmm... that's when he said, "I doubt it since it's so late in the season."  Dead. Serious.  Also, it was November 8th.  Ree-dick-a-lous.

My husband, who spoils me to death, was willing to buy me the less pricey tree to make me happy, but then I thought, "Screw it.  If they don't have another one in a few weeks, we'll get a regular tree that will make our house smell like heaven.  Woe is me!".  And then I made a bigger donation to the Red Cross. Because Hurricane Sandy was a total dick and there is still a lot to be done.  I mean seriously, I'm still going to get a tree no matter what, so I decided not to be a dick as well.  DONATE Y'ALL!!!

And Merry Christmas or whatever.  

xoxox

I've Got a Serious Learning Curve

2 years ago, right about this time, we were on our first little family (read: me, husband, and Guy) vacation at my father's cabin:

I wish we were there right now!  

So, today has been a bit of a learning day for me.  I spent about a trillion hours getting my new iPhone set up because we had to remove its temporary number and port in my old number.  Verizon's customer service was pretty out of this world (fingers crossed that it is always so).  

Let's face it (oh, I totally went there), my skin is still in need of help:

The photo on the left is on a regular day, face routine (no retinols) with new iPhone and awesome iPhone case.  I think my skin tone is really starting to even out, but it's slow going.  If you enlarge this, the photo on the right is kind of frightening.  I took it right as I finished showering today with a full face routine including retinols in place.  You can see that I have some bumps and uneveness that need to be worked out, but I really have faith in the retinols.  My skin is a little red after application.  I had to buy a 5 pack sample that was a total rip off from Sephora because they were being all stingy about free samples.  I mean, I get it.  It's not a cheap product, but I AM going to buy Dr. Dennis Gross's Alpha Beta Daily Facial Peel next payday.  I was a little tight on money because I had just purchased this to protect my skin when using the retinols:

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And my love affair with La Mer only makes Sephora seem more stingy.  Whenever I go in and buy something, they give me TONS of samples of other products (I always ask for the Crème de la Mer because it's the most expensive and I'm scared to run out).  The girls at Nordstrom load me up because they know that I save up for these purchases.  Then they give me samples of tons of other La Mer products.  Go see them at City Creek Center, y'all.  They are the cat's pajamas!  

I tried out my new Sephora palette today as well:

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I REALLY love the shimmer of these products, but I have always been a fan of sparkle over matte.  It was my first go at bronzer and highlighter.  I really had to buff out the first side of bronzer with my powder brush.  It gets on there!  And I am ghostly pale.  I'm not sure the highlighter was even either.  I still need practice, but I think I'll be adding bronzer and highlighter to my routine.  I also used the highlighter softly down my nose and in the divot above my upper lip.  Then I tried the shadows.  I'm not totally sold on them yet, but they deserve some serious testing.  I used them dry.  I couldn't get a very good photo, so this will have to do:

This is truly a terrible shot and you can barely see what I did, but it's the best I could get from three different devices.  I nee to figure out my photography to make this blog better.

To finish off my experiment with looks today I decided to try out the "sock bun" in my hair.  These tutorials are all over Pinterest:

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I used two panty hose socks that were black to roll up.  I wanted a smaller sock so it looks more believable that I just made a regular big bun.  I also chose black because I want something close to my (dyed) hair colour so it won't show through and look crappy.  It turned out so cute!  It was so easy!  Mine turned out messy, which is totally fine by me.  I just tucked all the loose ends into the bun at the very end:

Seriously, how cute is that?  And that was my first try.  Having long hair really helps.  I can fudge it a lot more.  I think I'm going to get a sock for Xtend Barre to catch sweat and help me look a little more put together when I run errands afterwards.  Seriously, how gross is that?  I have no shame.

Finally, I am waiting for this to come in the mail:

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It went on sale for $17!!!!!

This is what Miloberry was able to do with it (she bought at full cost):

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I need her to come teach me make-up application.  You must check out her blog!

I can't wait to keep learning how to have fun looking pretty!!!  Any tips for me?  Spill 'em.  I need all the help I can get.

xoxox

Walrusses and Weather

It is a truly glorious day today in lil' Salt Lake City, Utah.  It feels like Spring:

It's not going to last, but I am enjoying it for the time being.  I'm supposed to tell you to vote, but everyone on facebook has already jumped down your throat about it and I hate politics, so I'll move on to something significantly more important: The Walrus.  Being married to a walrus has created an even greater fondness for the beast than I had had previous to meeting my husband:

The portrait on the left was my first birthday gift to my walrus (featured on the right).  He really IS an accomplished swimmer.  But now I need more walrus in my life.  I need a BABY walrus:

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I have been following these adorable schlubs for a while now.  They are being cared for at the Alaska SeaLife Center before one is transferred to the Indianapolis Zoo and the other to the New York Aquarium on Coney Island.  Unless I get to them first, of course.  I just need a big house with a giant walrus/Mrs. Roger Federer/Guy Winston Churchill Larkin-Federer Wilson habitat.  I would totally not be stingy with my walrus either because it just wouldn't be fair to keep such a treasure to myself.  I would let the general public into the house once or twice a week and they (this means you, dear reader) could make a donation to keep my little walrus chitlin all safe and healthy.  Speaking of weather and donations.... I've had something on my mind.

I've been wanting to donate to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  And this is where I am going to boss you.  There are so many awesome places to donate, but I've decided to go with the Red Cross because I know that ALL of my donation will go to repair the damage we inherited... whoa!  I totally Troy Dire-ed you there.  SCREW YOU TROY DIRE!!! I SPENT 20 YEARS DATING TOTAL A-HOLES BECAUSE OF YOU!.  Geeze, Lainey, you couldn't have just picked Michael and spared me all that grief?!  Sorry if this whole diatribe was from a reference you're not familiar with.  And I'm even more sorry that you've never seen "Reality Bites".  Who are you?!?!?

Ok, so here are a bunch of places that were suggested to me for donating besides the Red Cross (I decided to plunk all my money in one spot, but if I had more, I would spread it around).  Remember to check that ALL of your donation is going to the cause:

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/1Nh35?psid=bc2c189addfa47f3993a5548cbbb6c76&ref=nf

This particular campaign is near and dear to my girl and fellow Vassar alumnus, Kavs, of D.S. & Durga, whom I will be interviewing for this blog soon.  I'm super excited about it!

http://caaav.org/

http://www.goodwill.org/

http://www.newyorkcares.org/

http://www.nyc.gov/html/sbs/nycbiz/html/home/home.shtml

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2012/11/where_to_eat_out_for_sandy_relief_and_where_to_donate.php

http://www.thebrooklynkitchen.com/7982/hurricane-sandy-update/

And these were recommended to me by the lovely and brilliant designer of my wedding dress, fellow Vassar alumnus, Mary Ping!  I will also be doing a piece on Mary for the blog.  Get thee HENCE!

I truly wish I were still living back east and could also donate my time.  Maybe there is a way I can do it from Paris, er, Utah?  Please advise if there is.  At any rate, I'm not going to pressure you to vote because everyone else has, but I sure as hell am going to pressure you to help/donate to a cause because that's what I do.  I pimp out the stuff I care about.

In other news, I got this yesterday:

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I'm pretty interested in giving it a shot.  These are wet/dry eye shadows, which I am not familiar with.  Basically they go on softer with a dry brush and thicker with a wet one.  We'll see how they look.

Also, a personal shopper position is opening at Anthro and I want it SOOOOOOO bad.  Pray for me, cross your fingers, wish on eyelashes or stars.  Just send some positive stuff out there for me because this could be a really great thing!

xoxox

So, This Week Happened...

We went to the aquarium yesterday with my handicapped brother:

The dog was not amused by my new shark mask.  At any rate, Utah's Living Planet Aquarium is really rather impressive... and they have otters!!! And sharks, a sea turtle, rays, penguins, fish of all sorts and sizes, a giant octopus I named George, and a really amazing Amazon wing.  The anaconda used to be just a little nugget and he's gotten so big!  For as long as I can remember they had rays in their "petting zoo", but they've switched it up.  Now they have starfish, leopard sharks, and two types of smaller rays to pet.  We had a blast with until we had a major flat on the way home.  We were driving my mother's car.  Her spare was even flatter than our flat, which we learned after changing the tire.  So, we changed it back and drove slowly until the 5th gas station we reached.  The prior four didn't even have an air pump- well one was out of service- but, seriously?!  

That evening we left my brother home alone for the evening- he likes to have the house to himself on Saturday nights and the dogs are there to protect him- and headed out to the season opener for Ballet West where we had spectacular seats.  The ballet makes my soul sing!  We've seen "Bolero" before and it was fabulous to see it again.  "The Lottery" was superb and I was on the verge of tears (joyful tears) during most of "But Never Doubt I Love".  

In college I was considered a good dancer.  But not a GREAT dancer.  The one thing everyone could agree on, however, was that I had "amazing" feet.  This has been both a blessing and a curse.  It left me incapable of watching the ballet without obsessing over the dancers' feet.  I have to give props to Xtend Barre.  I've been working so hard on my overall form that I actually watched the dancers overall this time.  And it was glorious.

Whenever we stay with my brother, I stock up on this at their neighborhood grocery store (for some reason mine doesn't carry it):

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When it comes to my skin allergies, my legs often get it the worst.  This stuff is a Godsend!!!  I had been using Johnson's Baby Lotion prior to this, but it just isn't that hydrating.  Also, I had only been using it for a couple of years.  Previously it contained a preservative that I am deadly allergic to, but they got their act together and stopped putting any quaternium compounds in their products.  The point is, that this is super moisturizing, smells like heaven, and it's super cheap.  I am concerned about my hands though.  I've read that you should follow your facial routine on your hands because they really show signs of aging.  Ummmm... I cannot afford to be wiping Crème de la Mer on my hands, people!  I can't really afford to use it on my face either, but I have a way of making things happen when I need to.  I know my Johnson's Baby Cream is helping, but I wonder if there is something better.  I have to be extra careful with what I put on my hands because they are the most prone to giant allergy induced eczema breakouts.  And I am incredibly prone to scratching them open until they're bloody.  How gross is that? Is there a hand treatment that you swear by?  

And now we've reached THIS WEEK FOR DINNER:

Monday: Kale, Sausage, and mushroom stew with garlic bread.  Next time I would leave out the kale stems and use ground sausage, but it was delicious.

Tuesday: Baked chicken chimichangas and spiced black beans.

Wednesday:  Southwestern chopped chicken salad with jalepeño tortilla chips.

Thursday:  Onion, bacon, and gruyere quiche with lemon green beans.

Friday:  I threw my first dinner party!  Roasted beet and chèvre salad with balsalmic vinegar, roasted red pepper soup, and stuffed shells with lemon zest and chives.  

Saturday: Leftovers

Sunday: Pizza *hangs head in shame*

My husband has told me I need to cut back on the cooking because we have so many leftovers.  Cooking for two is so much easier than cooking for one, but there really are a lot of leftovers.  I think he should just take them to his coworkers.  What do you do when you have a surplus of leftovers?

xoxox

The Skinny on My Favourite Workout (I hate myself for typing that)

So, one year and approximately one month ago we were here for my dad and my birthdays:

The king of all he surveys!  This photo is in Snow Canyon, Utah near St. George, which is a small city where my dad owns a condo.

My little Guy is so dreamy it just makes me barf!  At any rate, my parents are currently staying at said condo while we are babysitting their dog and my handicapped brother:

It turns out you can't really blog on an iPad if you want to use photos, my MacBook Pro (laptop) is in for surgery, and my iMac (desktop) is at home.  Man alive, I'm spoiled!  I'm also incredibly grateful!!!  And the iPhone my husband bought for my birthday just shipped out today!  For the time being, I am relearning how to use a PC.  I happen to prefer Macs because I know them best (I still have our Apple 2E from 1982), but whatever.  Relocating for the week and not having access to my files has left me a little discombobulated as well as the fact that I'm recovering from a rather nasty bout of fatigue, which caused me to miss several Xtend Barre classes.  I HATE missing Xtend. 

What is Xtend Barre you ask?  I would describe it as a combo of ballet and pilates that speaks to the 14 years of ballet in my background and has helped me drop over 2 and 1/2 inches in my toosh and hips so far... so far.  I'm addicted.  Check. It. Out.  Since it's franchised, there is likely a studio near you.  I happen to love the Salt Lake City staff.  They all teach at an advanced level and they all help me force my way through one of the most rigorous, grueling, and cardio intensive workouts you can get.  I have to say that I am incredibly lucky to have my dance background because I can fake my way into looking coordinated/graceful, but you need no dance background. 

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You must check out the Ballerina Project from whence the photo above was borrowed.

This workout is for anyone and everyone.  I really debated posting about this because I don't want the studio to become more crowded than it already is, but who am I to be selfish when I have so much?  Go take a free class, y'all. 

I love it so much that my goal is to become an instructor.  I actually auditioned recently.  I've taken about 150 classes, but I have no teaching experience whatsoever... in anything.  I haven't tried out for ANYTHING since I was 14 (OMGZ!  20 years... this is why I so desperately need retinols).  I had a ridiculous, and apparently very traumatic, experience running for class president of my middle school at a prep school I had started that year.  Let's just say that my mother convinced me to dress as such:

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This can't have been legal!  I was 14.  I had BIG boobs (I was the only 8th grader with boobs).  There was a speech full of cat puns.  I forgot all of them and just started spewing lines at random.  It's a wonder I still like puns.  Also, I lost.

So, yeah, I tried out to represent this:

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And I lost again.  There were only 2 positions opening up and there were A LOT of fitness professionals trying out.  But *I* lost because I am not in touch with my "inner cheerleader".  At first I was furious.  Then I thought it was laughable.  Inside I was sad that I had never been a cheerleader.  But I kept going to class because I like watching my toosh shrink and I love the work out.  They were totally right.  I often find myself relying on the energy of my instructors to get through one routine, let alone an entire class.  So, I don't know... any advice on finding your inner cheerleader?

Also, you should totally take it easy your first class.  I do not care how good of shape you think you're in.  I went full throttle my first class because I didn't want to look stupid.  I didn't look stupid.  My instructor complimented my ballet background because it was obvious to her.  Then I got home and I looked REALLY stupid.  My legs had relaxed driving home.  When I stepped out of my car, they gave out.  Literally.  I was lying on the dirty ground of my carport sucking up a big hunk of humility.  And then I never stopped going.

What is your favourite way to stay in shape?  If you are from Salt Lake, how do you keep active with the inversion in the valley during the winter?  I have a goal to become a better runner and eventually run a marathon.  I'm finding that the inversion, my hatred of treadmills, and time commitment have been my worst enemies.  ADVISE ME!!!

xoxox