Oh boy!

(It would be 2014 for us - which THANK GOODNESS that's the case, because I don't like odd numbers!)

I was trying to get a free trial for something for school the other day and needed to create a new email for it

So, I figured why not? I'm going to have a new last name next year, so why not go ahead and make an email address with the new name?

I know it's so silly, but seeing the new last name in my email address is so exciting!

I made sure to email Dan asking him if it was weird to see my first name and his last name together.  He said he did a double take when he first saw the email.

Although I'm sad to see my last name go, I'm excited for what having a new name means.  It means we will officially be family and that when we have kids one day we will all be connected by name.  It's a merging of our families into one.

Corny, I know.  But so exciting! 

:)

Favorite Beauty Tips

My favorite beauty tips:

*If you use acne medication like I do, or just have dry skin, I’m sure you’re familiar with having your skin on your face get flaky.  Although the initial response is to just scratch of the little pieces of skin, I’ve found a better way! I read this somewhere and now do it all the time.  So you put a little bit of lotion (non-scented) on a washcloth and then use that to scrub gently on the part of your face that is flaky.  It takes off the pieces of skin that are flaking off, and puts moisture back into the skin at the same time! Because you’re basically exfoliating, it might be a little pink right after but it usually goes away within five minutes.

*I have really oily skin so I love using those oil-blotting sheets. But if you don’t have any nearby, the brown napkins that Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have work just as well! They blot away oil from your face without ruining your makeup! It’s easy! And you didn’t pay for them. Score!

*Always use eyeshadow primer! It makes a huge difference! Your eyeshadow lasts longer, it doesn’t crease, and the color looks way better.  When I first tried this, I used the too faced version but found that my eye lids were still oily.  Now I use the Urban Decay one (it’s called eyeshadow primer potion) and I absolutely love it.  I use it even when I don’t wear eyeshadow because it helps soak up any oil on my eyes so well, which helps keep eye liner smudging down to a minimum.

*Wash or clean your makeup brushes.  I know this might sound silly, but think about it…if you’re using those brushes to put makeup on skin with acne, bacteria, oil, and dirt on it, than you’re basically re-applying all of that onto your skin the next time you use them.  Since I’ve started cleaning my brushes, I’ve noticed a difference in the amount of acne I have.  I also notice a difference in how well the brush picks up powders.  I use a brush spray from Sephora that works really well.  I don’t do it every day, but maybe once every two weeks or so.  It’s really

easy and completely worth it.

*Drink a ton of water! The weeks that I’m really good with drinking water all day are the times when my skin looks the best!  Also changing the pillow cases often helps too.

*If you have hair that gets tangled a lot, try using Itsa10 with keratin.  This stuff works wonders! It makes your hair super soft, de-tangled, and less frizzy! I use it almost every day.

*If you ever run out of shaving cream and need something to shave with try using aloe vera gel (the kind that you use for sunburns) or conditioner.  They work just as well and leave your skin soft.  Just make sure you don’t shave right away.  Let the steam open up your pores a little bit first before shaving.  That will help prevent razor burn.

 What are your favorite beauty tips and tricks?

We're Engaged!

Wooooooohooo! He put a ring on it!

So here's the story...

Thursday, May 2nd - I was a bit suspicious because I knew we had our bed and breakfast weekend coming up in a few days, and thought it was intriguing that Dan and my Dad hung out for several hours that night. Hmm...

Friday, May 3rd - We both left work in the middle of the day and drove down to Virginia for our trip.  This had been our Christmas gift to each other this past Winter.  It included a two night stay in a bed and breakfast and a wine tasting and tour at one of our favorite wineries in Virginia.  We got there late, met the owner of the bed and breakfast, found a spot to eat dinner, and went to bed.

Saturday, May 4th - We woke up and had a delicious Southern-style home cooked breakfast!  It was fantastic! We chatted with the other tenants for a while.  We went to the winery and spent a good amount of time there.  We also stopped off at a really cool water mill on the way.  We had a yummy tasting (we tried over 14 wines! this is why Virginia wineries are better! They don't stiff you on the amount of wine!).  We drove around for a while, found a place to eat lunch and made a quick stop at Walmart for some necessities.  We went to a really neat pizzeria in town and paid a whopping $17.00 total for a dinner for both of us! Oh my gosh! If you have ever lived in the Columbia or DC Metro Area, you can understand our excitement when the bill came.  Unbelievable! 

Sunday, May 5th - I started thinking ok, well so much for getting engaged. It's not going to happen.  Just another weekend... Siiggghh.  (Something like that).  We chat with the other tenants and the owners for a while and then get on the road.  Before we left, the owners told us that we should stop off at the Natural Bridge on the way home since we would be passing it anyways.  Well this was awesome, because Dan and I have been talking about going there for years!  So we stopped there and had a great time walking around.  I'll admit, I was still in a bit of a bad mood because I figured we weren't getting engaged this weekend.  I know that Dan could tell I wasn't feeling like myself.  When we started walking back towards the bridge (by the way this thing was over 21 stories high! incredible!) Dan started talking about how he was sorry I was in a bad mood and that he loved me a lot...well we say that kind of stuff to each other all the time so I was only really half listening because I was in a bad mood.  Dan had to physically grab my arm and pull me back towards him so that he had my full attention.  After that it was a bit of a blur and all of a sudden he was holding a ring in his hand and asking me to marry him!! He didn't get on one knee, but the way he asked was very him...and it was perfect for us! He said that I turned bright red and jumped back in shock! Haha.  He put the ring on and then we went to go sit down to process it all.  Then of course I started asking him over and over about whether I had said yes or not, because I really couldn't remember! Haha!

On the way back home, I called everyone and their mom and then of course facebooked it :)

See below for some pictures of our special weekend.

I am SO excited!

Workin on my fitness

Oh, so the cinnamon honey thing? Yeah eventually it started making me gag...so I didn't continue. :(

BUT I have been sticking to the 30 day squat challenge! My whole bottom half hates me, but I think it's the good kind of pain! Woo!

Tomorrow is day 8 for me!

Busy Bee

**Stupid blogger won't take off the white highlight behind my text! Sorry if it hurts your eyes to read this!

Yep.

I have been a bit MIA lately because I have been so flippin' busy!

List time! 

Why I've been such a busy bee:

*Work-- Spring time is the busiest time for 5th grade teachers! We have field trips galore, the simulated congressional hearings (which we study and work on for a month and a half), articulation with two different middle schools, the moving up ceremony and preparation for it, puberty education, and trying to get the rest of the curriculum taught in the meantime.  It's crazytown!  At least puberty education is entertaining!  One of the boys asked how long and big "it" actually gets to be (they used the term "maximum height and length"! Haha.  I guess the fascination with their genitalia starts young!

*Grad School -- Groooooaaann! My research class is kicking my butt and it sucks!! It's a lot of work, and every stinkin' little point counts! I have an 89% in the class.  How annoying! I would rather have a solid B, or a solid A. Not a freakin' B+! What a tease! I still have one more assignment left and an extra credit assignment too.  I'm hoping they can help me out with getting that A.

*Thirty-One -- I have been working SO hard to make my goals.  The first goal was to get the Ready, Set, Sell incentive.  I set my sights on the $500 goal (if you sell $500 in the first two weeks of April you get some free products).  BUT somehow I managed to pull off the $1,000 goal which got me more products for free! BAM! I also wanted to make it to the silver level for the National Conference incentive.  I am currently at the bronze level which means that I had a good chunk of the conference fees paid for and I also get a special kit of free products.  That level was for if you sold $4,000 from January to April.  Well, if you sell $8,000 in that time frame you can get to the silver level which gets you an additional $100 cash card to spend at the conference on whatever you want as well as special "perks."  Well after having two parties re-schedule last minute, I didn't think I'd make it. But I wanted it so badly, so I started offering lots of incentives to my customers and it worked!  I offered free shipping for two weeks.  I also offered an additional deal all day yesterday - a different one each hour...and I got 4 orders from it! SCORE!  So with those orders I was able to help out one of my hostesses...our goal was to get her party to at least $600 which we weren't sure we could do.  Well now it's at $850! Yeah baby! I freakin' love this job.

Why is it that I always find my energy late at night? I've been tired alllll day and now all of a sudden I want to stay up late and get more things done! Ugh! Figures!

Have a great night!

Sunday Scoop

Ha! Some of my favorite shows are on Sunday nights, and I am always willing to stay up late to watch them!

Recap of this weekend in list form (my favorite kind of form!):

• I had to buy new tires RIGHT after I had just paid a big bill for my credit card that I was excited about.  I'm pretty sure that my bank account tells the universe when there's money in there so that I can have yet another expense! AND this is during the most expensive month of my life...car insurance time (I pay twice a year so they are big payments), moving time (helloooo security deposit and first month's rent at the same time), target trips to get stuff for moving (cleaning supplies, curtain for the kitchen, extension cords, etc.) Oh and get this! I only need two tires, but since Costco's policy is that I can only buy 4 at a time because of the type of car I have, I had to buy 4! I know you're probably wondering why I didn't just go somewhere else...it's for peace of mind.  They have a 90,000 warranty on their tires! You can get them rotated for free at ANY time you want and they're really good about replacing them.   I've never had any trouble with them with tires; they are very reliable.
•  Procrastination at its best! I am procrastinating right now as I type, actually! I have a paper to write and studying to do for my research grad class tomorrow and haven't done anything for them yet! I'm not normally this late with it, but I just refused to spend my Spring Break doing grad work on TOP of moving, unpacking, and getting everything settled at the house.  So I don't feel very bad about it.  I'll regret losing most of today for it, but let's be real...our professor told us this paper is worth ONE point.  So if we turn something in at all, we get it.  Um, hello?! She might as well have told me to BS it even more than I was going to. Ha!
• Last night Dan and I made breakfast for dinner and then I made pumpkin bread for dessert just because I felt like it.  I happen to love both of those things so the combination in one night was glorious!
• I started this cinnamon/honey drink thing last night.  I have been doing a lot of reading on it and also saw some interesting doctor articles about it, so I thought I would give it a try.  It's supposed to be mainly for weight loss, but the two ingredients on their own have a lot of nutritional benefits on their own as well.  This includes maintaining a healthy immune system, help with acne, having antioxidants, reducing cholesterol, indigestion, energy, and the list goes on! I figured even if I don't lose weight with this, it's great for me otherwise! AND I happen to love anything that tastes like cinnamon and I also love honey (although this is my first time with raw honey) so it's a win-win.  So far, I like it.  I wish I could drink it warm though, drinking it luke warm or cold is not as pleasant.  But from what I've read, it's better that way because if it's hot than the honey loses its nutrients faster. Here's the link if you're interested: http://www.thedoctorstv.com/melissaw72/posts/4475-Weight-Loss

• I got my hair done on Saturday.  I was really excited about it because I had decided to save some money and instead of get a haircut that I don't really need or highlights/low lights, I would just get one all over color which is cheaper.  WELL it turns out that I didn't factor in that my stylist is apparently more highly trained and can charge higher than others (not sure how I missed that one - I've been going to her for a while now) and the blow-dry charge of $25 which is absolutely ridiculous.  So in order to save, I would need to leave the salon with wet hair, not knowing how my hair turned out?! Well, anyways long story short...my hair looks great.  My wallet does not.

I'm going to try and work on getting some grad work done now...

maybe.

Or maybe I'll go finish my closet upstairs! It's the last thing I have to unpack.  Normally it's the first thing, but I guess since I haven't had to worry about where my work clothes are this past week, it was not my immediate venture.

Happy Weekend!

Link Up Part 2!

1. If calories didn't count, I would eat... French fries! I would probably eat them every single day. God, I love those things!

2. On my Prom night... I went with a guy who supposedly really liked me even though he spent most of the night dancing with his ex instead of me. Awesome! I had a great dress, got my nails done for the first time (acrylics), and did my own hair.  I looked great and he didn’t even notice! Jerk! 

3. When I go to the store, I always buy... lean cuisines.  They are a life saver to this teacher in the mornings when I realized I was up too late the night before on the computer and didn’t make my lunch for work.  Lean cuisines are delicious, supposedly healthy, and don’t require work on my part. Score!

4. Family functions typically... include a butt load of people! We have a big family.  My mom has 5 brothers and sisters and then there are cousins, family friends that we call “aunt” or “uncle” even though biologically they are not, etc.  There’s also a LOT of food. Ooooooh yeah.

5. I think my blog readers... are probably the people I tell all of this stuff too anyways, but read it anyways because it comes to their email or iphone, so why not? J

6. I'd much rather be... a classroom decorator.  No, it’s not a real thing but I wish it was! I love getting the classroom ready in the beginning of the year and I would love to help other teachers do it and get paid lots of money. Just sayin

7. I have an obsession with... Target, my Thirty-One business, fun office supplies such as hot pink post-it notes or purple ink pens, watching any of the Housewives reality shows, and anything with polka dots on it. OH! Also wearing flip flops, which I get to do soon hopefully! Come onnnnnnn warm weather!

8. My work friends... and I have highly inappropriate jokes and conversations at lunch time.  Seriously, we have to check the area all the time to make sure parents or students aren’t around while we’re at lunch. I won’t go into the details but let’s just say a lot of it is R rated and requires the constant use of “That’s What She Said.”

9. When I created my Facebook account...  I thought I was going to get rid of it after college since that was when it was only for college kids.  I figured I would be more loyal to MySpace.  I thought wrong!

10. My least favorite word is... moist and the word that starts with a p to describe lady parts.  I don’t ever say either out loud. What’s even worse is the combination of the two! Gross! I’m shuddering right now just thinking about it.

11. I really don't remember... some of the names of my past students.  Most of the time I do, but there are some faces that I know really well and I can randomly come up with the letter that their name starts with, but if it's been years it's hard to remember sometimes!

12. Justin Bieber... kind-of reminds me of my brother! Not exactly like him, but some of their facial expressions look alike to me.  See below. Do you see it? Or am I crazy?

Thanks for the link-up! I know I’m too late to be in the raffle, but I have so much fun filling out these sentence starters! Thanks to Jake and Holly!