Sunday, May 29, 2011

Mommy's Night Out!

 
Sooo....my girlfriends and I, all of which are mamas to little babies ages 4 mos. - 8 yrs old, had a BLAST and a long overdue night out on the town! Sometimes its so nice to be with your girls that have the same sarcastic humor, teeheehee. There is nothing like letting your hair down, jammin' and drinkin!' Oh....and of course learning some "because mommy said so" tips! I can't wait until our next Mommy's Night Out when we hit up a reggae spot instead of the same old hip hop spot.

Unfotunately, I don't have any pictures to post. When you're having as much fun as we had.....who has time to pull out a camera?!?

Hope you all had a much needed night out!

Now, Cinderella has to go clean.... *grumble, grumble, grumble*

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Styling Without Heat

I usually do medium-sized twists for my twist-outs. They take me approximately 3 hours, when I'm tending to babies, 2 hours if I'm not. I don't part my hair with a comb, but instead I make sections with my finger and when I'm out, I wear cute hats to cover my sloppy, finger parts.
I only wear the twists for 3 days max. and then I take them down for the twist-out. This is my look when I want a very defined look for my curls and waves, but it does get big and less defined on its own when slept on for a few days.




After being slept on for a few days, it gets big!

Products used for twists:
Cantu Leave-In Conditioning Repair Cream
Castor Oil
Nubian Heritage Shea Butter

I oil and massage my scalp with castor oil everyday, when rocking my twist-outs. I don't put any product on my actual hair strands though. Not sure if I should or how I should without messing up the style. 
 
 
Got any ideas?

Baseball Game No Go

Last night we were supposed to take the boys to the baseball game. Its been cloudy humid, and raining for the past two weeks. We got these tickets for free so we were excited to use them of course! Oh, and there was a threat of a thunderstorm and tornado watch, but we hadn't seen any signs of it, so we still head to the stadium.

When we get there it becomes extremely windy, almost to the point of pushing you in the direction the wind is blowing. Okay, well literally pushing me, but I'm pretty tiny. :-)  Anyway, it was still not TOO bad, so we keep walking in the direction of the stadium, after we've already paid and parked. At first, we take time to think about whether we should even get out of the car, then once we're out of the car, whether we should even walk to the stadium or not. I mean, the wind decided to pick up more and more with each passing minute. Finally, I say, "if we're gonna go, then lets just start walking and if not lets just get back in the car and leave." So, we take off walking with my hubs carrying our youngest boy on his chest in a carrier and the oldest boy on his shoulders. :-) He likes to be superdad!

So we make it into the stadium, away from the wind and we get to our seats. The hubs thought that the seats were under an awning, but they were actually the row that was covered under the awning. So, when we get to these middle level seats, the wind returns just a little bigger than before and we sat down for all of 5 minutes before we leave. As we decided to leave, a nice baseball fan took a picture for us, and security told us that she would be evacuating everyone with babies because of the strong winds. Well, that was all we needed to hear before we decided to walk alllllll the way back to the car. Of course my hubby, the guy was like, "Do you wanna wait it out? Its probably gonna pass in a little while." My answer, "Hell no!" I didn't want to be bumped in a crowd of [evacuated] people with our two babies. So, back to the car we went. This time when we got outside, the wind was a completely different animal and was stronger than we had ever experienced anywhere! Yeah, superdad went out of the window. He was trying to cover the youngest baby's face with his hand so he could catch his breath. My motherly instincts kicked in and I wrapped and tied his thin blanket around him, covering his head and then we took off.....but, why did I have the 28 lb. boy and my much taller and stronger hubby have the 16 lb. boy?!? The wind was sooooo strong that when got to the car it blew leaves, sticks and sand in our car! I just really liked how we worked together and listenend to each other....especially my hubby listening to me. Sometimes he likes to be sooo 'super' that he doesn't listen and just whips out his cape, but ends up taking the long way and not the shortcut.

We leave the stadium and head home taking the long way, on purpose ;-), and end up sitting in a gas station until the marble-sized hail passed. I fed both babies in the backseat, so they were content and none-the-wiser as to what was going on. We waited for 30 minutes before we headed home. At first, when we were walking in the parking lot, back to the car, I was disappointed in myself for not listening to my spirit tell me not to go to the stadium...but the more I thought about it while we were waiting it out at the gas station, I did listen to my spirit! Yayyyy! This is a quest that I continually try and work on. We were led to the stadium because the storm was actually at our house when we probably reached the stadium. We saw the tennis ball-sized hail, neighbors were showing on the news when we got home. Then, the spirit directed us away from the stadium, because as soon as we left and while we were at the gas station listening to the weather updates, the baseball game was delayed due to strong winds, large hail and possible tornadic activity! Thank God, we listened when he directed us! Thank God FOR directing us! When you have babies/kids, there is nothing more important than their happiness and safety, no matter the looming storm.

Like the author of "Eat Pray Love" Elizabeth Gilbert said in the first few chapters, "If you don't believe in God, believe in something."

I can't wait until tornado season is over.

In the Middle of Difficulty, Lies Opportunity


We all hate difficult situations. They put us in a more than uncomfortable emotional state and make us question ourselves. Questions like.....Am I right? Am I wrong? Am I strong enough to handle this? I've been in this situation waaaayyyyy more than I would've liked, with family, controlling in-laws and my former employer! Yikes! Typically, whenever we experience a hiccup or speed bump in the road, we're supposed to deal with it and move on.....but that's always easier said than done. When the other person or persons are uncompromising to help make the situation better, then what do you do next?

I was in this very situation for 3 years with my former job. I HATED working there! The work I was given was not challenging at all. When I asked for more challenging work, I was reassured to receive more, but there was never any follow-through. I worked for a small company in which there were only 3 female employees: me, a foreigner, and the boss's daughter. She and her dad were never nice to me, which is crazy since he is the boss and bosses should appear neutral to everyone. Anyway, I definitely feel like their treatment towards me was interconnected to the challenging projects, or lack thereof, that I was given day in and day out. Like I said, the company was very small, and now I know smaller companies don't always equal a wider variety of work and responsibilites, but can also equal more time for petty bs.

I wish that I would've listened to that inner voice I had, when I wanted to stand up for myself or when I wanted to quit and had another and much larger company trying to recruit me; but for some reason I thought that staying quiet and hopeful, while hanging in there, would give me more character and teach me how to navigate similar difficult situations. Uh....boy was I wrong! Another year and then another went by, and I just watched my career come to a long-standing, 3-yr halt! I prayed for another company to have an opening or get pregnant.....and a few weeks later, I found myself pregnant! My initial thoughts were "Thank you God!" followed by "sooo, I have to be here for another 9 months?!?" Needless to say....I am now a SAHM! :-)

The opportunities that I couldn't see, while in the middle of my difficult situation, were becoming a SAHM and realizing that the career I went to school for, is not the one that was actually destined for me. I never thought that I would want to be a SAHM, but now I am sooooo grateful that I am and have the opportunity to watch my boys go from babies to toddlers, develop their personalities and watch all of their big 'firsts.' During the time that I plan to be at home and raise my boys, I am going to be finding my true passions and then, switching over into doing something that I love. Right now, I am considering doing activity/program/fundraising planning for a non-profit organization. That way, I can give back while using my technical skills. My new career discoveries are still in the research and planning phase, but I'm definitely excited about the new opportunities! But I'll be at home with my precious little ones for a while longer. :-)

What, if any difficult situations have you had, that ended up working out surprisingly in your favor? How did you handle the difficult situation while you were in the middle of it?

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Operation 'Flab To Abs' in Full Effect

New plan --- get these abs back visible or close to it, by July 4th. Our family vacay to Myrtle Beach is the following week and I need to be fabulous! :-)
I visited my doctor recently and she basically told me that my extra stomach will never go away.
::turns head::
:::cups ear:::
"Say what now?!?", "Come again?!?" 
She said that me being so small (I know she wanted to say short), and carrying a big ole baby, my skin stretched more than it would've had for a taller person, with a longer torso, having a baby my boys' sizes or if I were to have had a smaller baby. She said that it will go down, but never back to 6-packin' it.

Well, I'll show her! Hmph!

Check out my new exercises, no crunches necessary (most are self explanatory).








Start in the push-up position and rotate body.
What's your fitness plan(s) for the summer or anytime afterwards?

Monday, May 23, 2011

Weekend Hair - Do It Big



So, normally my twist out are extremely defined to the point where they lay flat on my head at the top. Sometimes it even looks like my hair is relaxed and I think its because of that good ole' castor oil.
I usually set my twist outs on wet hair using Cantu Conditioning Cream and castor oil behind it, and make my twists small-sized, resulting in a not so big but cute and defined twist out.
For this twist out, which was done on dry hair after I detangled my raggedy and tangled bun, I used Shea Moisture Hair Smoothie, castor oil and pure shea butter on the ends.
Instead of drenching each piece of hair before I twisted it, this time I twisted my whole head in medium-sized twists and drenched a handful at a time.
I wore them for a few days before taking them down.
I definitely think it was a success and the hubby LOVED it! Next I will try this with braids instead of twists. A few more times and I will have my big hair look perfected!

My True Loves....Family Fun

 Weekend Roundup - Family Fun!

His helmet kept slipping off and I thought it was toooo cute!

Though the humidity made 87 degrees feel like 95 degrees, we had a ton of fun playing at the park! Our oldest boy went horseback riding (with Daddy) and we just plain old had a good time. I can't wait for summer to finally get here, for us to go swimming and AND for some of these rainy days to go away!


 

I absolutely LOVE this picture of the two of them cracking up. Kids can be soooo funny sometimes, especially boys! :-)


There I am with my pumpkin! The humidity helped me achieve my big hair, along with bigger twists! Woohoo!

Hope your weekend was great, relaxing and fun too!


Sunday, May 22, 2011

My Newest Guilty Pleasure.....

So, we all know cell phone games can be totally addictive! My old games of choice were Dominoes and Hearts, but that's because I'm a cards player....well a Bid Whist player mainly, but I can wreck a little shop and perform lockouts on dominoes if I need to. :-)
Anyway, I decided to try a new game recommended by the hubs....Mouse Trap. Its completely addictive though. The object is to move the blocks in a way so that you are able to move the mouse straight out. The mouse only goes forward and back not up and down. The blocks that are longer horizontally, ONLY move horizontally and the blocks that are longer vertically, ONLY move vertically. This makes it very difficult. At the top, is the game's suggested # of moves and time in seconds that it takes to solve the solution. For example, 12 moves in 00:12s. I can get that down in just under 00:30s. Right now, I'm stuck on board 2-58 (44 moves in 00:44s and I'm at 10+min) and I reFUSE to watch the solution. Soooo, I guess I'll remain stuck for a while. I don't wanna have the hubby solve it for me either (slightly competitive much? lol).

 
 
 

What is your favorite cell phone game?

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

My Big Tangle Of the Day....Literally!



Soooooo, what was I thinking?!? I washed my hair on Sunday and threw it back into a protective style bun. I kinda rushed through my wash routine and basically didn't comb through it(but finger-combed). ::sigh:: I guess I was hoping it would just be okay. Ummm, no! I just spent the past TWO days detangling my ginormously matted mess and putting in twists so I can rock a twist-out this weekend. I was very careful but still ended up cutting out some knots here and there, so we'll see how that affected my length next week.

Needless to say I drenched it with Shea Moisture Hair Smoothie, pure shea butter and a little bit of castor oil. I even sprayed some S-Curl moisturizer on it after putting the twists into a bun. Smh, no more shortcuts for me.

:-/

Monday, May 16, 2011

And the winner is.....

Boston Rob from Survivor - Redemption Island

Ok I must admit, this is my very first season watching Survivor and I think the hubs and I are hooked. The season was pretty good but did 'Boston' Rob really just mentally bully the crap out of everyone?!? I mean, no one used their own brain at all. Except for maybe craaaaazy Phillip, but he was toooo crazy, lol. The most annoying person ever on this season to me was Natalie. She didn't do anything, didn't win anything and acted like Rob's puppet. Everything she did, she ran it by Rob or just never ever voiced her own opinion. Wtf?!? On the reunion special, she basically said she didn't care what people thought and at least she made it to the final three. I agree in part because she shouldn't care what people think, but what did SHE think of herself after watching the season? At 19, I wasn't that gullible and naive and I don't know any other friends of mine that were to that extent. Let's be honest here, this competition was about winning money, so making it to the final 3 doesn't mean anything if you aren't the final 1!
If Phillip had ANY sense, he would've apologized to everyone he offended and said that he strategically wanted to be the villain because everyone would want to take him to the end with the assumption of him, the villain, losing. He could've talked himself into winning more votes, but his never failing crazy side stepped in and told someone "The hell with you!" and another person "Well, don't vote for me then!" Lol....uh what? <sarcasm> Way to try and win the money Phillip, way to go!
Rob kicked everyone's hiney mentally and deserved to win the million $! Its just a shame everyone assumed Rob would go to the finals and played submissively to him instead of having enough courage and [common] sense to blindside him, vote him out and make it more of an individually thinking game.

Can't wait for next season of Redemption Island!

:-)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

My Tangle For the Day....Neutrogena Review


Ingredients:
Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Behentrimonium Chloride, Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Cetearyl Alcohol, Ethylhexyl Isononanoate, Behenyl Alcohol, Meadowfoam Seed Oil (limnanthes alba), Cyclohexasiloxane, Olive Fruit Oil (olea europaea), Sweet Almond Oil (prunus amygdalus dulcis), Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, Behentrimonium Methylsulfate, Amodimethicone, Panthenol, Glycol Stearate, Ceteth 2, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Citric Acid, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxide, Fragrance


The Neutrogena Triple Moisture Mask is okay. Nothing to write home about, besides maybe the three oils: olive, meadowfoam seed and sweet almond. It has a nice light scented fragrance, but no slip. For me, it was hard to determine how much of a difference it actually made. I just couldn't tell how moisturizing it was to my head of tangles. Right now, I have enough left for one more use. I'd say the 6 oz. container gave me 4 good uses out of it. Possibly because I don't slather it on. After my first time using it and seeing that it had no slip, I started using a "shot glass" amount of along with a different deep conditioner.

I decided to try the Neutrogena Triple Moisture Mask because sometimes when I'm grocery shopping or buying diapers at Target or Walmart, I'd like to just grab my hair products as well. When you have two babies, sometimes its all about convenience and unfortunately, the Target near the suburbs I live in don't carry one of my favorite products, Giovanni, so it looks like I just need to make that extra trip to Vitamin Shoppe or Ulta. Maybe I'll just buy a few months worth at one time!

Don't you hate it when you buy a product and you don't like it that much, but something inside of you just can't waste it?!?

:-)

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Dog-Sitting

Getting Dog-gone Played.....

So this is or was my first baby, I mean dog. I got him at the beginning of my super-senior year in college. FYI...a super senior year in college is your last year past the standard 4-yr mark. My duration was five years, thanks to my engineering curriculum and....*cough* partying.

Anywho, he is now 6 years old and no longer MY dog. Having two babies, back-to-back, does a wonder on your body AND your nerves. He is actually the best dog I could have ever asked and prayed for....but he is NEEEDDDDDYYYYY! I mean, sure I kinda helped him get that way, but he was born with a high maintenance personality. Fetch was never in his vocabulary, lol.

So, we move to another state, while preggo, and his constant whining and desire to be petted (which used to be cute) was wearing itself out quickly. Being a newbie SAHM, singing songs and having one-sided conversations all day is more tiresome than plugging math formlas! Fast forward a few months...boy #2 is born and all dog walking has vanished. He was clearly just as fed up from going from the center of attention to being nonexistent, as we were with his whining.  Sooooo, we found a buyer for him on craigslist and we sold him. :-(
For a few months, I was really torn up about it. His new owner kept in touch by sending pictures and updates, which was really nice. Then, last week, the new owner had an emergency and asked us to keep him for awhile. Since we missed him, we were like "Sure!" Well, now its been a week and a couple days and he gots ta go!!!! He's still sweet, but spoiled and probably moreso now! He follows you and stares at you in your eyes until you move and then when you do, he jumps up like he's going on a walk. Uh....did I mention that I had TWO babies?!? Stroller-walking is far different from dog-walking and stopping to pick up dog poop with a plastic bag every few steps. And no, you cannot sit on my lap with the baby. Cute...kinda, but no. 
Me to the dog: "Play with the oldest!"

The new owner was worried we wouldn't give him back, but now we're worried he won't come and take him back! Lol. Oh, did I mention he didn't give us any dog food and we had to buy a bag for the week? And he actually sort of was expecting us to make a 40 min. drive to drop him off like we did to pick him up?
As the week went by I said, "Yeah, we definitely got played.....'dog'-gone played!"

I'm Stepping Into The Bloggy World....

I'm a 20-something well, almost 30, SAHM and I plan to document my journey of motherhood, healthy hair and other ramblings that interest me. I probably should've started this blog around my first pregnancy, which is also when I decided to transition from relaxed hair to natural hair, but I had no idea that a second pregnancy and lots of other discoveries lied ahead. I hope to share the knowledge and sources of information I have learned, up to this point, in some kind of organized fashion......still trying to figure out how to do that.
Anyway, I'm excited to see what this blog will turn into, from my creative side and the responses from others.
Oh, did I mention that I will have some rambles and rants here and there?

xo,
Deia