Burt's Bees Natural Solutions for Sensistive Skin

I'm a BzzAgent and you should become one too. Here's why: You get to try new stuff for free! How cool is that?
So the latest Buzz Campaign I was able to participate in was the Burt's Bees Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin.

My skin is pretty fair and I get a lot of redness and sometimes get tight and itchy from certain harsh products. I was super excited to get to try this new line for several reasons:
1. Burt's Bees Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin is 99% natural and since I am pregnant I've been being a lot more mindful of what I put on my skin.
2. I already love the Burt's Bees brand and I'm addicted to their chap stick.
3. I was looking for a moisturizer since winter is quickly approaching.

As part of the campaign I was sent a full size cleanser and Daily moisturizing lotion to try. Do you like the kind of cleanser that is very creamy? Then I suggest you give this cleanser a try. It left my face feeling soft and moisturized - no tight cheeks for me! It was also effective at removing my makeup, but not all of my eye makeup. I typically need to use an additional product for this anyway, so it was not a deal breaker for me. Let's face it, eyeliner and waterproof mascara can be a pain to get off.

What I liked most about the cleanser was the consistency. What I disliked about it was it did not really help clear my skin any more than any other product I had been trying. But again, I am pregnant so my skin has been doing things it has never done before! I think for someone with normal skin and some sensitivity this product would work great.

As for the moisturizer, it comes in a cute little pump. I feel that it gave me just a bit too much product in one pump, but then I started using it on my dry spots and on my neck, so if you do that, its practically the perfect amount. Again, since I am pregnant, I think this was even a little too much moisture for me. My skin has been more oily than its ever been. Normally my skin is combination. Now that the weather is changing though I notice that my skin is getting less oily. So I think under normal circumstances this moisturizer would be perfect for me.

Have you heard of this new skin care line from Burt's Bees? Let me know if you've tried it and what you thought about it. If you are curious and want to try something from the new Natural Skincare Solutions Sensitive Skin line, go here and print a coupon to save $2.

Now that you've got a glimpse of what it is like to be a BzzAgent, why not sign up yourself? Just go to BzzAgent.com and check it out!

Trick or Treat!

The Muffin Man and His Oven - baking up a little Blueberry muffin that will be ready in February! Why a blueberry muffin you ask? Because baby is a boy!!

And I would like to note that white has never been a flattering color on me. I should have gone with gray and done a stainless steel oven OR better yet, black!

Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!!

Oh hi!

So I kind of have a big announcement to make...
And I've been debating on whether or not to share this on my blog, but I figured what the heck.
Yep, that's a cheesy self baby bump portrait! My baby bump at 15 weeks and 3 days. I'm umm *slightly* bigger than that now at 17 weeks and 5 days. You could say I really "popped" over the last week, but alas, I don't have a pic for this week. Hopefully I will get dressed in some real clothes and take a nice photo - er - have someone else take a nice photo of me and Photoshop it so I look cute.
So to recap - I'm having a baby in February and I take really bad pictures of myself. :)

Pictures in paradise

I know. I know. I am the most inconsistent blogger on the blogosphere! But I hope you'll forgive me! I just wanted to share some photos from my long awaited vacation to Hawaii. We went there on our honeymoon and made a pact to go back in 5 years to celebrate our anniversary. Well, we made it happen. And by we I mean my husband because I wasn't willing to spend the money, though I had NO problem spending some when we got there. Anyway without further ado, I give you beautiful Maui:

Humuhumunukunukuapua'a (aka reef trigger fish)

This is me jumping in the clouds at 10,023 feet in elevation on top of Haleakala. I know, I'm a dork but I couldn't pass up the fun photo op.

We loved snorkeling and this honu (turtle) swam right by us, IT is was really cool! Actually we had two turtle encounters, but hubby had the camera for the other one and therefore there are no pictures of it.

Best sunsets ever!!

Update

Just dropping in to leave a brief update. Sorry I've been MIA for a while. Life gets in the way of this blog a lot hahaha.

So on Friday I am getting my kidney stone removed. Doesn't sound like a ton of fun and it is four days before hubby and I leave on our big vacation. The doctor assured me that all would be fine, so I am confident in his abilities. They use a laser which makes me instantly picture a scene from Star Wars going on inside my bladder. Weird.

So as for this awesome vacation - stay tunes next month for pics! I plan to take a ton. And maybe even a video? We are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary and this is probably our last vacation just the two of us. So this is a special one and the first vacation we've really done just the two of us since our honeymoon. I am so excited!!!

Baby making isn't so easy for all of us

Today I feel bummed out.
I haven't told any of you this yet but we have begun the process of starting a family. Sounds odd saying things that way, right? I mean under the perfect circumstances there wouldn't really be a process. Just a bit of planning. Well, from the events of the last six months, this is definitely a process. I didn't know how much I'd want to share here on my blog, but writing about my feelings and experiences is just so therapeutic, I can't afford not to share. Plus, maybe some of you will have some advice.

If you are not into gross woman talk, you can (and should) stop here. You've been warned.

So the most obvious step in starting a family was for me to stop taking the pill, so I did in October. I did not get a period after I stopped. So I went to the doctor thinking, it can't really be this easy, can it? Nope. I had to take a dose of Provera to bring it on (this was December). Then I had to wait and see if I got my period on my own after that time. No luck. The doctor determined from this (and a few ultrasounds) that I am not ovulating on my own. So he prescribed me another dose of Provera (early March) and the lowest dose of Clomid. I was told to test for ovulation using ovulation predictor strips. Today is my cycle day 19. They told me if I did not ovulate by day 18 to call. So I will be calling today and probably getting the higher dose of Clomid, in hopes it will work. I wish there were some natural way to get my body functioning. And I also just wish it would hurry up and function already! In the big picture, six months is not that long and everything takes time. And actually I have made some really good changes in my life in that time - I've reduced my caffeine intake, I have lost a couple of pounds (don't get too excited its literally a couple of pounds haha), I have increased my exercise and I've increased the amount of water I drink everyday. So I guess all this waiting hasn't been in vain, it has all been a chance for me to grow.
Have any of you used Clomid? Any luck? Any advice? Please share!! And thanks for reading!

Drugstore FAIL

Anyone else caught a cold this winter? I'm suffering through one now. Bleh! I've been drinking tons of fluid and taking vitamin D on top of my normal multi-vitamin. I sent my hubby to the drugstore. It was a major fail. He bought the wrong kind of Advil, which I can totally get over, but he also bought lemon-scented Vick's. I didn't even know there was such a thing! I think I'll be taking it back for the normal version. Unless someone out there has tried it and thinks it smells good? I just have this idea of it smelling like furniture polish. Not so good. Sad too because I love slathering myself in it when I'm sick. Guess the best way to get what you want is to do it yourself. *sigh* Even if it means exposing the CVS employees to my cold and myself to whatever the rest of the sick people in CVS have. Ooooh but on a good note I can get the Covergirl lipstick I've been wanting with my coupon from the PG insert! Don't worry I won't use it until I am germ free. :)

What do you do to feel better when you are sick? Any tricks I should try?

Pretty Profound

I got a new cell phone over the holidays, but that is not what this post is all about. With my phone (which was free!) I was able to download all of Taylor Swift's albums (also free!). And I have been listening to them like crazy.
I knew all of her songs that were on the radio, but while listening to her new album I found a new song that I feel is pretty profound (well part of the lyric is anyway).

From her song Never Grow Up:
Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room
Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home
Remember the footsteps, remember the words said
And all your little brother's favorite songs
I just realized everything I have
Is someday gonna be gone

Does that resonate with anyone else right now? Is anyone ever ready to "grow up"? I feel like with all the things my family has been going though lately it just really spoke to me. I am so blessed to have three of my grandparents and both my parents and my in-laws around me. With my mother-in-laws surgery and her soon-to-start cancer treatment, it gave me a big dose of reality - Everything changes and everyone that surrounds me right now with love will someday be gone from this world. It lightens the burden though to know that someday I will see them all again. There will be many tears and a lot of patience until that day (and patience is NOT one of my virtues) but it will come!

And as for growing up, it might be inevitable that things get complicated and that you get hurt by others, but you also get to experience love and kindness from others as well as being able to share your own love and kindness! So be sure to live today and hug your loved ones a few extra times. Appreciate what you do have and what you will have one day!

I'm a meanie :o/

Today I am irritated. At myself mostly. I just want to be a better version of myself and yet I am feeling like there are so many things I need to change that I don't even know where to begin.
And I'm also irritated at myself being irritated. I had a friend call today and complain about some things that are so minor. This happens a lot. I don't mind listening to her problems, but there are days, like today, when I want to stop her and say "Is it my turn now?" I know everyone is dealing with something. We are all just trying to live life, right? We all have day-to-day struggles. But not this girl, she thinks she has minute-to-minute struggles. And if she could step back and look at the big picture, she would see that everything she worries about is small stuff. And little to none of it warrants a phone call or conversation about whether this person should worry about it. And yet it happens over and over and over again. And I'm irritated that I feel like a bad friend for finding this behavior so annoying lately. I guess its just because I have so many more responsibilities lately. And the fact that I want to surround myself with people who help me be the best version of me. And I'm starting to doubt that she is really one of those people.

The year ahead for me

If you asked me today, which you didn't, but I'm going to answer anyway, 2011 feels like it will be one of the hardest years I've ever had.

My mother in law has to have chemo for ovarian cancer. She is scared but putting on a brave face. I am also scared and want to be the best daughter I can be. We have one of those unheard of close relationships. I have no doubt that she will get through this, but it is difficult to deal with the heavy realities that dealing with any major illness brings on. Her surgery was very successful. They removed a volleyball sized mass from her ovary (they did a complete hysterectomy) and feel they got everything. So the chemo is pretty much a preventative measure they are taking. We are blessed to have such a wonderful prognosis. But the bottom line here is that she still has to go through the fight of her life and we have to stay strong and support her through it all. I just hope I am able to keep it together for her and for my husband. Right now I'm not so sure I can.

On a more positive note, I've made a few goals for this year. I think I will leave them to another post - there is much to get finished today and if I keep typing it will never get done!