I have been ill the last few days, with some nasty sore throat and cold combo. I don’t have sick time at work for like 80-something more days, so I sucked it up and went it. Today, I started my first postpartum period with the most ferocious cramps of my life. Then? I was reaching into a high cabinet in the kitchen and suddenly my c-section scar felt like someone stabbed me. I stumbled back and pulled my groin. What?! Yes, being short caused me injury. Nice.

I am loving our homeschooling journey so far, but there is so much to figure out and learn! The hardest thing for me right now is finding a homeschooling group that is not only local to me, but also secular. We are not homeschooling for religious reasons and certainly don’t have Bible-based learning. We are oddballs where we live in that regard. Luckily, I have found a small group of a few families here who are like us. They meet up and do art class together and creative writing! I love that, but it doesn’t really fit with our schedule. We are going to have to find a way to be more flexible and take advantage of these kinds of opportunities.

Along those lines, I think it will be nice to move to a larger city where there are more people and more opportunities. Our entire family needs some new friends!

I need a blog makeover to go along with some new exciting things I’m about to bring to the table. Remember how I hinted before here and on Twitter that I was starting a new blog this year? Yeah? Well, I lied. I didn’t mean to lie, it just happened. I realized I’m already spreading myself too thin, so instead, I’m going to be merging that blog idea with this blog and it will appear in the form of either a page or a weekly feature. Hopefully, I can get that going soon!

I need a new wardrobe. Nothing fits and I didn’t want to buy anything until I lose weight. Unfortunately, that’s going slower than I’d like, so I’m going to have to buy a few things to get me through. I could probably make it with 1 pair of jeans, 2 dresses, a pair of black or gray pants, and top or 2. I definitely need new work shoes and will be purchasing some as soon as this budget balances out a little.

Dustin’s work hours will be changing beginning February 20. We have hoped and prayed for daytime hours since he first started his job almost 2 year ago. He works 3:15 pm until 11:15 pm currently and will be moving to 11 am until 7 pm. While I’m so glad my prayers have been answered and I’ll see more of him, it’s still going to be a major adjustment for us. He gets paid less in daytime hours, but because our schedules won’t overlap anymore, we’ll be paying a sitter for more time. We thought the budget issues were the only problem until our current sitter decided she can’t work with the new schedule. We’ll sadly be saying goodbye to her on February 16. I want to cry just thinking about it. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecc. 3:1)

We have an interview with a new babysitter on Friday morning. If she’s as wonderful in person as she is over email, we’re all going to be okay! She even agreed to start out at what we pay our current sitter, even though she’ll be working more hours. Pray for us that this works out!

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1. Favorite beauty product of all time

2. What do you use on your hair

3. Complete skin care routine

4. Favorite handbag

5. One thing you would change about yourself

6. One thing you like about yourself

7. Most memorable outfit of all time

8. Which celeb closet you would like to raid

9. Describe your style in one word

10. How/why did you start blogging

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I invite you to join my wonderful team! My best friend Nicole signed up last week and she already has customers. Just this morning, she won our yet-to-be-released HOT HOT HOT fragrance Night Iris in a raffle. It really is tons of fun to be part of our family!

If you are at least 18 years of age, live in the United States, love fashion and beauty, and like getting DISCOUNTS… You have NOTHING to lose. 

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Do Sundays make anyone else go on a frantic cleaning spree? I have 3-day weekends (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) and can never seem to get time or motivation to do it until Sunday afternoon. Then, it’s like, “Oh no, I’m almost out of time to do anything substantial!” So I load up on coffee and go nuts!

Y’all see, I work 10-hour days, 4 days a week. While I’m grateful for a full-time job, I also have a household of 5 to clean up after. It’s completely draining to even think about sometimes.

I have a mark. party at my house on February 18 and I’m already feeling the need to start some deep cleaning so I’m not quite as frantic the night before!

My house is cluttered beyond belief and it is horrifying.  There is unfolded clean laundry all over our bedroom floor.  I have new, old nightstands to put in there and can’t because of all the mess!  Our island in the kitchen is overrun with…. crap.  You can forget finding an “important” piece of mail that got buried under there.  And the office/playroom?  Ugh.  We’re planning to move a couple of things out of there and change it to an office/schoolroom… but…. there’s so much crap to weed through first.

Anyone want to pull a truck up to my front door?  I’ll chuck stuff out and you can keep it all!  While you’re at it, bring a maid.  I pay in yummy food.

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<center>

</center>You can get any of these mark. products at my eBoutique HERE: http://rchristian.mymarkstore.com

Wanna be a rep?  Sign up with referral code 9698262 and choose Paula Martinez from the “mentor” drop-down.  You’ll get AT LEAST 30% off all the wonderful mark. products!  Just sign up HERE: http://meetmark.com/yes

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Speaking of makeup, YouTube has changed my life where skills and secrets are concerned. Marlena from Makeup Geek is a fellow round-faced gal and taught me how to contour my face and look slimmer. Praise God for that, right?! Then there’s Kandee Johnson, who is totally adorable and is also changing my life one video at a time. I love her undereye concealer technique! I tried it this morning and I can’t believe how amazing it is.

Every night, I get home from work fully expecting to go to bed early. And every night, something holds me up. Last night, it was watching YouTube makeup videos.

I have at least 15 ongoing projects in my house at any given time. I need to start doing one thing at at a time until it’s done. Otherwise, I take like 5 steps back. For example, I started cleaning and organizing our room weeks ago. Then I started jumping around the house and now our room looks like it did before I first started on it and was never finished in the first place.

Today I have on squeaky shoes. You know how some heels you wear, the tops of your toenails rub on the inside of your shoes and they make noise? It’s usually with pointy toed shoes. I hope I’m not the only one.

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If you want to make this bag YOURS, order up here: http://rchristian.mymarkstore.com

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I have battled with weight issues all through my adult life. Since having Nick six years ago, I have been “trying” to get rid of a lot of extra weight. I never lost all that weight because I never tried hard for more than a week at a time. It’s so much more fun to have lots of adult beverages, eat chips and salsa late at night, and lounge on the couch watching Bravo in your spare time. Right?!

My weight has instead fluctuated through the years. Now, my family is complete. I’m having no more kids. I’m still holding onto lots of baby weight that HAS TO GO. There are no more excuses. Now is the best time to lose it for good. I mean, even my allergic-to-diet-and-exercise husband is shedding pounds. He looks great and I’m so amazed at his diligence. He tracks what he eats and works out pretty much every day!

In order to keep myself a bit more accountable, I’m going embarrassingly public with this journey.

In the past two weeks, I’ve given things a decent run, but hit a few roadblocks. Roadblock #1 was somehow injuring my knee on like Day 4 of Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred. I have taken a few days for it to feel better and in those days came Nick’s 6th birthday party. Oh, hello brownies and cookie cake, toffee dip and sixlets. Ugh.

So here we go. Party is over, knee is feeling better. Time to get to business. To help keep myself accountable, I’m getting back to MyFitnessPal as well as tracking my progress here.

Time to get embarrassingly public. Here are the “before” pictures. This is today. Sure, I kinda started a few weeks ago, but I’m considering myself to be starting over.

The lighting and picture quality is horrible, but I kinda like it that way. As it is, you can see the stretch marks that start at my bikini line and radiate outward. Ew.

Anyway, so here it is. ~150 lbs. (Wii Fit says 153, my mom’s scale says 146. So I’m splitting the difference until I get a scale for our house.) I hope to update this weekly, but probably not pictures weekly. Maybe every 3 weeks?

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You may or may not noticed that my blog was down for a couple of weeks. I won’t get into the details, but I was working some things out with my hosting and domain and messed some stuff up. Anyway, I’m back now and have so much to post about.

Be sure to stay in touch, because I have lots of good stuff coming your way!

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Jane Iredale pencil eyeliners

A couple of years ago, I discovered that I can’t wear pencil eyeliners. I tried brand after brand, even those meant for sensitive eyes, and no matter what, my eyelid would blister where it was applied. I used strictly liquids and gels for awhile and then I asked my friend Shasta (expert in all things skincare and makeup!) what brand I should try next for pencils. Sometimes you just need a pencil liner and I’m too stubborn to accept that I can never wear one again. She recommended Jane Iredale liners, so I spent $11 on one. That may not seem like much money to anyone else, but I’m used to spending way less on my mark. liners. Once my Jane Iredale liner came in, I ran to the bathroom to apply it, then sat back and waited for the itching and blistering. It never came. I slept in the liner just to see what would happen. No negative consequences! I will admit I like the application and staying power of my mark liners better, but that doesn’t matter because I can’t wear them! I’m so happy to have discovered Jane Iredale, thanks to Shasta!

Spornette Little Wonder

I have never EVER been able to tease my hair and get it to stay that way… until now. I was introduced to this TRUE little wonder by Pink Lou Lou. The girl always has a hot little pouf going on and now I can too!! Look, my first pouf’d ponytail!

I definitely still need some practice, but I love the difference it makes in my hair! I can make bedhead look intentional with this thing!

Lysine ointment + supplements

I have always suffered from having damn cold sores. Many times I have called in sick to work or skipped school because of them… mine grow into HUGE clusters in the center of my upper lip. It’s horrifying. Well, that’s all over. A couple of years ago, someone told me about L-Lysine supplements, found in the vitamin section of pretty much any store. I was told if I take one daily, I’ll never have another cold sore. So far, so good! For whatever reason, I don’t get them when I’m pregnant, so I stopped taking them during this most recent pregnancy. 6 weeks after giving birth, I got a damn cold sore. I took 2 vitamin c tablets and 2 L-Lysine and ran to the store for a surface treatment. I found Lysine ointment and it was SO MUCH CHEAPER than the usual treatments. The cold sore went away quickly and you can bet I haven’t missed another L-Lysine dose!

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