Monday, January 30, 2017

Makeup Monday



  Hey y'all! It's been a hot minute since I've shared any of my favorite Avon products. Here's just a few of the best products I personally use from Avon.

1. Avon True Color Multi Eyeshadow Quad- Naked Truth





 I'm not always the best at coordinating eyeshadow shades together, so I like using easy to follow sets. This is one of my favorites. It's perfect for everyday wear, not too harsh, with just the right amount of simmer. They have about 12 other palettes in this style, and then about 5 in matte.

2. Ultra Color Lipstick- Blush Nude


I love a good lipstick. This is not only a pretty shade of nude, but it's creamy and not drying. It's infused with vitamin E, omega-3 oil, and shea butter. It's a full coverage lipstick, and has true color technology so the color you see is the color you get on your lips. There's about 40 shade, in either shimmer or satin finishes, but this is my favorite. Bonus: lipsticks are 2 for $12 right now!

3. Big & Daring Volume Mascara


  This mascara does exactly what it says. It make your lashes big and gives them much needed volume. It's suitable for sensitive eyes and contact lens wearers. It's clump-free, smudge-free, and flake-free. It can last for up to 24 hours. It come in black (what I use), blackest black, and brown black, and also black in waterproof.
  If you've used Avon makeup before what are some of your favorite products?

Friday, January 27, 2017

5 Reasons You Get Sick After The New Year

 
  Good morning y'all! As I had mentioned in an earlier post we all had colds right after Christmas and into the new year, so fun right?! Well thankfully we're all better now, but it got me thinking. We get sick almost every year right around the new year. We're pretty healthy around the rest of the year and we don't get many major illnesses, so I can't really complain. Instead I'll just walk you through 5 reasons I believe we get sick every new year. Now I must forewarn y'all I am NOT a doctor, I just play one on Google, so enjoy my personal commentary on our "new year, new colds".

1. Cold Weather
   Some of you are probably thinking "well duh!", but seriously it's true that cold weather is just another reason you find yourself more susceptible to that pesky cold going around. There was a study at Yale a couple years ago that finally confirmed suspicions that cold weather can weaken the immune system. It also probably doesn't help that we live in Virginia and our weather is more all over place than a toddler on a sugar high. One minute it's 60 degrees, and the next day it's 18 degrees and snowing. Welcome to Virginia.

2. The Holiday High
   With Christmas comes excitement and good feelings about family and friends, and maybe even a few people you don't normally like haha. Christmas truly puts a little more peace in the air. Well it does for me. They even say people are more likely to be looking for love right after Thanksgiving up until Valentine's Day. My point is that Christmas brings happiness, it's the high point of the year for so many families and individuals. Everyone knows that endorphins are the chemical explanation for happiness, and most people start to feel a little low once it's over. When your endorphins are a little lower it weakens your immune system leaving you open to whatever germs and bugs are going around. Merry Christmas ya filthy animals.

3. Crowds/ Family Gatherings
    Now I love family/friend gatherings around Christmas. God wants us to not only honor the birth of His son, but to be thankful for our brothers and sisters, and cousins, and uncles, and that one person that you're not really sure how you're related to but you love just the same. With all that said OF COURSE we're all going to be sick after Christmas we all just came in from the cold and are in someone's living room with sometimes 30 other people you haven't seen since last year. You don't know if so and so washed their hands, and they don't know if they're about to fall sick the next day. Oh the suspense haha! Hey at least everyone is all sick together.

4. Poor Diet
   At that family gathering you probably had at least 2 of your favorite foods, which I would dare to guess are riddled with fat. That's why they're delicious, duh! Not gonna lie, I love any food that I know I'm going to hate myself for eating in just a few hours because I'm so full. But I'm usually too full to even eat dinner so I call it even. Then I eat leftovers for breakfast. I say all this to say we all know that keeping up good dietary habits is good for our overall health. So when we veer off that track our immune system turns against us. Which really makes no sense to me, like you would think it would be happy with all that mac 'n' cheese!

5. The Christmas Rush
    My final reason I believe we get sick right after the new year is basically all the different things we're doing right around Christmas time. We're going to this family gathering, we have to bring a casserole to this get together, we still have to wrap so and so's presents, oh yeah we have to get that person a present. We're staying up later, and getting up earlier. Every weekend is more jam packed than the next. When you're stretched too thin your immune system gets even thinner. We love Christmas, and all the memories made, but we're maybe just a little glad once we can catch our breath. Then comes the colds.
  Nevertheless, the good news is this: when we look back on Christmases of the past we don't think about how sick we were right after. No, we instead remember our family and friends, and all the funny/sentimental/weird memories we made. Then we get a cold.

Linking up with April


Monday, January 23, 2017

BBQ Ranch Chicken Casserole

      Good morning readers! I hope everyone's week is off to the best of starts. Whether you're having a good week, or a week you already wish was over you still have to eat. So here's something quick and delicious you can make for dinner! Most people love BBQ sauce and ranch dressing, so why not combine them and put them in a casserole?! My whole family loved this casserole, and I was not a bit disappointed to eat the leftovers the next day for lunch. By the way BBQ ranch is a great condiment to just keep in the fridge for sandwiches, or burgers and fries. Here's the simple recipe:

    • 1 12.5 oz. can of chicken breast
    • 1 can of yellow corn
    • 1 can of diced tomatoes
    • 1/2 lb. Rotini pasta
    • 2 cups Colby jack cheese (1 cup to mix, 1 cup to top)
    • 1 1/2 cups ranch dressing
    • 3/4 cup BBQ sauce
    1. Cook pasta until done. Be careful not to overcook as you'll be cooking it further in the oven.
    2. Drain the can of chicken and flake the chicken a part.
    3. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease your casserole dish ( I used butter).
    4. Drain corn and tomatoes and mix all together with chicken and pasta. Salt and pepper.
    5. Whisk together ranch dressing and BBQ sauce. Pour over pasta mixture and mix evenly.
    6. Mix 1 cup of cheese into mixture. Then top the whole casserole with the remaining cup of cheese.
    7. Bake for 20 minutes.

    Wednesday, January 18, 2017

    This Will Be Our Year


      Hey y'all! I hope everyone's year is off to a great start. As you can see I'm a little behind on blogging. First it was an unfortunate reaction Miller had to some new formula. Warning to all parents, but especially parents of children with g-tubes, Pediasure is NOT always the best formula. It can sometimes be too harsh for little bellies. So don't be afraid to keep things like they are formula wise. Miller was almost instantly better once we switched back to his original formula.
        Then came the holidays. We had wonderful, memorable celebrations with family. Lots of food, lots of thoughtful gifts exchanged, lots of laughter, and lots of reminiscing. Miller was very spoiled, not just by presents but by affectionate relatives too. He of course was more than happy to oblige. I have to say this Christmas felt extra magical.

    Miller's 1st visit with Santa Claus

    Ugly sweater Christmas cookie decorating

    Miller (well actually me haha) opening his Christmas presents

    I saw this shirt at Target and thought it was too cute!

    Mommy forgot milk so Santa got eggnog this year...oops!


    Happy new year!

        Once all the festivities had ended and the happy chaos had died down, then came the colds. UGH. Seriously though each week someone new had the cold. I just did my week. Thankfully Miller didn't get one. So now I think (or hope) life will start to get back to a routine.
         With the new year comes new goals, new hopes, new beginnings. I'm actually one of those dorks that loves making new year resolutions. I probably just love the chance to make a list. All the same resolutions get made. Most years it's about reading more, or exercising more. The basic new year resolutions. Well this year I made the basic ones, but I also made a more general resolution. Not really a resolution, but more a mantra. 'Always believe that something wonderful is about to happen'.



      My mom always says that to me. She says it so much she actually gave me a necklace ( a gold fortune cookie no less, can't get a more optimistic symbol than that) because it came with a card that had that saying. The last few years have taken a bit of my optimism I'm a little ashamed to admit. It can be difficult to keep the kind of attitude that good things are headed your way when you've been delivered a few low blows. So that's why this year that's my mantra. And I have to say this year I actually believe it.
       What are your new year resolutions? Did you make any? Are you an optimistic person at heart?
     

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