Monthly Archives: August 2011

1. I have read a couple of blogs that do this but I have never done it. So here goes. The blog hosting this, Conversion Diary, is really a good one. Go check it out. I would put her cute graphic of 7 Quick Takes here but it is too hard and my head hurts.
2. I saw the movie “The Help” today. It was so good! I had already read the book which I also thought was so good. It made me laugh and cry several times. I used a gift card to a Movie Tavern given to me by students years ago. I went to a matinee so I had money left over to eat a kids meal there. So fun! This was my first time to see a movie by myself. I was really fine with it because you don’t talk anyway. If I am going to hang out with someone, I would rather do something other than a movie so we can talk.
3. We went on a date last night to Buffalo Grille and then wandered around Whole Foods. There are some interesting things in there. We got some snacks from the bins. Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzels. Why yes. I believe I will.
4. I made a birthday banner for E’s birthday. I want it to be our family tradition to put it up on everyone’s birthday. It is still up a week later. Wonder if I should take it down or just leave it up another month til C’s birthday?
5. My page down button my keyboard doesn’t seem to work right anymore. And I love that button! I always use it when I am reading blogs. Suggestions anyone??
6. I went to Target today to return something and then remembered it is tax free weekend and was afraid I had just made a dire mistake. But it wasn’t that bad.
7. I love the clearance racks at Target. I always find something good there. Jean crops for $9ish. Nice.

I just wanted to give a little shout out to my friend Claire Mummert and her baking business, Claire’s Confections.

She made these two awesome cakes for E’s birthday party!

And the best part is what was inside the big one:

Oh yes, its a rainbow cake!

E quite liked her little smash cake too:

So if you need something baked for an occasion, and you live in our area, check out Claire’s Confections facebook page , email her at claire.mummert@gmail.com or let me know if you want her phone number. Yum!

Here is a slideshow of our pictures from Flickr of E’s first birthday weekend!

We took her to Chick-Fil-A for lunch on Friday, her actual birthday, and then went to the outlet mall to buy Daddy some Crocs. Then later we took her to Toys R Us to pick out a toy. That night C and I went to an event at church so E got to play with her friends in the nursery. Then the next day (Saturday) we had her party and it was great fun!

One year milestones:

• Baby E is such a fast walker! She gets in a hurry and pumps those arms as she goes.
• She can stand up on her own when she falls. If you walk off, she will follow you, or you can tell her to come on and she will.
• She understands so much! Go put the ball in the block. Go get your bear. Bring me a book. Brush your hair.
• She can sign “all done” and “more”.
• When you ask her to say “mama” she smiles real big at you and then says “dada”.
• She knows and can say Gracie’s name in some form or another. Usually Grace or Gasie.
• She LOVES books right now. She is constantly bringing a book to climb up into your lap to have you read it to her. Her favorites: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Why I Love My Mommy, 100 Words, First Numbers, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Little Quack, and Little Quack’s Opposites. She can say Br Br for the book “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”.
  
  She just yesterday tried to say “moo” when we were pointing to and talking about a cow picture. When you ask her what a dog says, she says ru, ru.
• She sleeps all night and takes two naps. The past couple of days have been a 2.5 hour nap in the morning and then a 45 minute nap in the afternoon.
• She loves to carry around her snack cup of cheerios and goldfish and munch. She loves to drink out of a straw.
• She likes it when her daddy chases her. She also likes to hear him play guitar. He gives her one of his picks and she carries it around.
  
• She has been carrying around her Baylor bear toy a lot lately. Call it indoctrination if you will…

• Just yesterday, she showed me some new tricks. We were listening to some music (Doorpost Songs) and she was moving her mouth to the words, like she was lip syncing! And dancing of course. All while carrying my phone around like her own little boom box.
• We were playing in her room and she brought me her shoes to put on her. Then her leg warmers. So I figured we should complete the outfit and I put down three hats for her to choose from. She picked the Baylor hat.

I can hardly believe that one year ago, my sweet Emily was born. I love her so much. She is so very precious and delightful.

From this:

to this:

in one short year.

We love you sweet girl! Happy Birthday!

11. Reece’s Peanut butter ice cream

12. watching old Cosbys with my sweet hubby

13. the sound of sprinklers on the window

14. a clean house

15. not cooking dinner

16. a stack of magazines to read

17. a nice purring cat

18. a sweet friend who was very helpful today

19. friends

20. finishing a project

Reunited with my Pantene Pro-V,  that is.

Yes, I am done with the “No ‘Poo Experiment”. I am sorry to say that I couldn’t take it any more. I went 10 days. It was just the feeling. It felt so thick and coated. And it was still so oily in the back, even without using ACV and using double the baking soda.

I found that it was better the days I blow dried it. I don’t know if it was that it the blow drying got rid of some of the oiliness, or what, but that did seem to help. And it looked okay. But the blow drying process takes wayyy longer than it normally does because the hair is so thick and you can’t tell if it is still wet or not. And it is hard to straighten too because it feels so thick and coated. Yesterday I let it air dry. And it was SO oily in the back. So I braided it because then you couldn’t tell. Which resulted in a headache from wearing a braid all day that I am not used to wearing. So today I gave in. I figured that two more days wouldn’t cure it and so I wasn’t going to wait.

Oh the loveliness of a head full of smell-good suds! My hair feels so soft and clean and fine now! I am a little disappointed because I wanted to find this great cheap healthy way to have nice hair. Maybe I will try to find a healthier product that I can use. I could have been doing something wrong, or maybe it works better for other hair types, so if someone else tries it, let me know how it goes.

If you need me, I will be researching green shampoos and throwing away my bottle of ACV.

Day six of the shampoo experiment:

I don’t know about this. I increased the amount of baking soda to 2 Tbsp to 1 cup of water like Emily suggested in the previous post’s comments and I think that helped cut down the oil. Also, the day it felt most oily was also a day I let it air dry so maybe that was part of the problem. I cut out the ACV rince for the time being too because some people said that resulted in more oil.

Today I woke up and washed my hair and then blow dried it and I think it looks okay. But the issue I have is with how it FEELS. It feels like it is coated with something. Now, I am a person who really doesn’t use any styling products. I normally just shampoo and condition with Pantene daily and then blow dry and straighten lightly. But it feels like there is something in my hair like moose or gel or hair spray or something. I don’t know if this is oil or baking soda or just how normal hair really feels when you don’t use commercial shampoo and conditioner. Also it feels much thicker! My hair felt plenty thick before! And when I blow dry it, it is hard to tell when it is dry. Is that oil or water or is it really dry already, just so thick I can’t feel the inside hairs?

So at this point, I am going to go another week and give it my full two weeks, but if on my daughter’s first birthday (the 12th) I still don’t like the way it feels, I am going to go back to regular shampoo and conditioner.

As to the homemade deodorant update, I still like it, but my applicator (a used deoderant dispenser with the stuff smashed down inside so I could theoretically still roll it up to apply) broke. It won’t twist. And I had a couple of unopened sticks of normal deodorant laying around, so I use that most days. When one of those empties, I will try again to put the homemade deo in one of those. Sometimes I swipe some homemade deo out of the container and apply it, but right now it is just not an easy application method.