Exfoliation

Hey all! This is just going to be a quick post on skin care. Specifically--exfoliation. Before about a month ago, I never really thought too much about exfoliation. I figured washing my face twice a day, moisturizing, and using acne treatment was enough. My when my skin wasn't getting any better I started looking for other things I could without having to see a dermatologist. Now, my skin has never really been that bad. But, I'm a perfectionist, and when my skin isn't perfect, it bugs me. Add stress in top of that, and my skin got even worse. So, I thought I'd look into exfoliation to see if that helped at all.

Exfoliation is getting rid of the dead skin on your face. You can either do this by hand with scuba, or by an actual exfoliator. Well, I didn't feel like spending $100+ on something for my face, and I didn't feeling like doing it by hand either, so I found another option. Use a battery-powered toothbrush. I got a Spinbrush for $3 at Walmart, and it works great. It's gentle enough to use every night. It works really well at loosening up my skin, and bring the dirt deep in my skin to the surface. Sounds gross, I know, but it's true. It only takes about five minutes every night. My skin had cleared up within a few days, and it's soo soft! Of course I still use my regular face soap, and acne treatment, but the real improvement came from the exfoliating. I just wanted to put that out there, so no one thinks that they have to spend $100 on like a Neutrosonic or something, when a $3 Spinbrush works just as well.

MY SKIN CARE ROUTINE
-I wash my face twice with homemade tee tree oil soap that we buy for about $7/bar. Yes I use it twice. The first time to get all the dirt and makeup off, and the second time to really deep clean my face.
-then I use Cetaphil cleanser. I put some on my face and some on the brush. I work in one section at a time, really focusing on cleaning that area?
-when I finish with that a use Cetaphil moisturizer. Doing this as soon as I finish exfoliating ensures that my face is really getting moisturized, not just the top layer. After it has time to soak in, I use my acne treatment. Right now I'm using Oil Free Stress Control Cleansing Pads by Neutrogena. They work really fast on my skin, and a $6 container lasts me about two months.

Alright well I think thats all for now. I hope all my fellow Missourians are staying warm in the 'blizzard' ;) peace and love! xo

Finally!!

I finally have my baby!!! I got my iPad this morning! He's 32gb. His name is Braedyn, and he's perfect! I'm so excited! I've been messing around with it all day trying to figure everything out. As of now, there's really nothing that I don't like about it. I've heard a lot of complaining about the typing, but I haven't had any more trouble with it than a regular keyboard. I'm going to be buying the Zagg keyboard/case for it though, just so it'll be easier for writing papers and whatnot. One thing I wasn't too happy about was that it didn't even come with anything as a means of protecting the screen. Regular iPods come with that sleeve thing to protect the screen. So I don't know if I'll be taking out of the house before my case thing comes.

I've been crazy busy the past few weeks. Sorry I haven't been around. Blogging is kind of my stress-reliever. Maybe that's why I've been so cranky lately. my boss thought would be a good idea to give me over thirty hours this week. It's not really a bad thing. I definitely need the money. I just don't have time to work full-time. I'm a student. I can't do it all. I need a vacation. Since I'm not going to Europe now, I'll have to settle for somewhere a teensy bit closer. Is Ireland closer than France? My mom keeps promising that we'll go to Ireland with the tax return. I have a feeling that's not going to happen. Which is fine. At this point I'd settle for a good massage, ya know?

I'm just rambling now. Sorry. I'm really out of it. I keep thing about the double I'm working tomorrow, and I'm really not looking forward to it. I haven't worked a double in almost a year. Anyhoo, I'm not going to make you suffer through my randomness anymore. Have a good week, my loves! Peace and love! xo

Why can't I just Graduate?

Who would've guessed that graduating would be so complicated. Oh yes, it's so much more then just walking across a stage and taking your diploma. Especially when you're homeschooled. There's meetings, and photos, and voting, and activites. There's no year book commitee. Each person gets their own "memory page" and it's their responsibility to get it sorted and sent in on time. And each class has to vote on their own class color, verse, hymn etc. I thought that was the difficult part, but we knocked that out within a few hours at the first meeting. Now, I have to find at least a dozen photos of me with family/friends, doing activities I participate in (which is pretty much nothing--I really don't do anything like sports, or band, or dance, or anything like that). As if that's not bad enough, all my pictures are on my computer...that died. So now I have to find a way to get my pictures off of Facebook, which is proving to be impossible. So I don't know what I'm going to do. Oh and I have to fill out this sheet that has my favorite color, Scripture, song, artist, author, drink, food group etc. Honestly, who can actually pick a favorite song? Oh and by artist it means actual art. That wasn't too hard. I love impressionism so obviously I went with Monet. But other things like favorite pastime? Or Dream job/career? I can't even figure out what I want to do next week. There's no way I can pick a dream job! *sigh* Oh well...

Anyhoo...so that's what I've been doing today. My mom told me today that if I want to take the ACT in February, I'm going to have to pay for it...$75. I don't have $75! I have to buy a passport. And find $1300 by February or I can kiss France goodbye...I haven't even kissed it hello! Which means I'm going to be working every chance I get.

Despite that, I have high hopes for 2011. I've been waiting for this year for at least 4 years. It promises to be the best year of my life thus far. It better not let me down.

Well, my break's over. Back I go. yay.

Hello my Loves! I hope you all had extremely wonderful holidays! Mine were quiet, but good. Relaxing. I'm sorry I haven't been around much. I could say I've been insanely busy. That's what it feels like. But thinking back to the past few weeks I haven't done anything. I've been busy with...going to Walmart. Doing Laundry. Reading. Things that are so mundane, but things that I just don't really have time for during school.

Okay, okay, I've been doing lots of other stuff too. I got to spend time shopping (the first time I bought myself new clothes in at least six months) with my best friend. I hadn't seen her in a while so it was good catching up and goofing off. I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time at Starbucks. See, I got $35 worth of Starbucks Gift Cards for Christmas, so now I don't really have an excuse not to go, right? Let's see...oh! I've been reading this really good book! It's The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I only have about a hundred pages left. It's just starting to get good. Unfortunately, we all know Nicholas Sparks, am I right? I mean just look at The Last Song, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, and  Message in a Bottle. Those didn't exactly have a happy ending. What is his deal? Whatever happened to "happily ever after"? So, I'm a little worried about the ending. But who knows? Maybe Sparks will redeem himself. Fingers crossed.

My computer officially bit the dust. I was using it the other day and it randomly shut off. I figured the battery died, so I got up and plugged it in. I turned it back on, and the lights came on for a few seconds, then it shut off. I tried several times. It's like it was mocking me, "yeah, I'll work for you. wait JUST KIDDING! Mwahahahaaha!!" That's what I get for not naming it...c'est la vie. On the bright side, I know have a legitimate excuse to buy my iPad, right?? I'll have enough for it in a couple weeks...but then there's the whole.. what about a car? and you're still going to Europe, right? You need to save your money! Sigh...I'm thinking about time travelling back to 2001...anyone wanna join me?

That's about all I've got for you. I'll be back. Ciao! <3

I Will Never...

I will never EVER go Christmas shopping 4 days before Christmas EVER again! o.O OK, that's not true...I do that every year. hehe but I won't do it by myself anymore...boooooring!!! However, I managed to get all my Christmas shopping done! Woot! I just have to buy my dad's birthday present (his b-day's Christmas Eve). Am I the only one who thinks dad's are insanely difficult to shop for? It's impossible! I mean, there's only so many years you buy him shirts/ties before it just gets redundant, right?

I will never again burn myself at work...another one that's not true. I burnt my hand really badly on one of the grills yesterday now it's all ugly and nasty. And painful! My gosh!

I will never stay out past 1am when I have to work the next morning...OK this one...I'm not sure about...I'll probably end up being stupid like that again. Last night was the last Bible study for 2 weeks because our leader (Jason) is going to L.A. for 2 weeks. So...I decided to stay out and hang out with everyone. I usually leave early because I have school the next morning. Anyhoo, we went to Waffle House. I'm not gonna lie. This place is dodgy. It's one tiny room divided up into smoking and non-smoking (ha. right). I sat at a booth with two smokers. Several of my friends smoke. I love them all dearly, but I just can't handle the smoke. I got such a bad headache. I couldn't eat because the smoke made me sick to my stomach. I doubt I'll go back. Other than that it was pretty fun. It was good being able to hang out with these people since I won't see them 'til after New Year's.

La dee da--that's all I can think of right now. I feel like I'm forgetting something I wanted to say...darnit oh well...I'm off to wrap Christmas presents!

peace and love! xo

*Squeal*

OK so I just figured out how to change my blog layout. I mean the high-tech advanced stuff like color changes and background images...AWESOME! Unfortunately, I am just about the most indecisive person on the planet so it took over an hour. And I still don't know if I'm happy with it. We'll see how it goes.

Since traveling is one of my biggest passions, I felt that my blog should reflect that. Thus, the picture of the gorgeous Irish cliffs. *sigh* is there anything more beautiful? That's very high on my list of "Places I *will* go before I die". The first thing I do when I turn the TV on is check to see if there's any travel shows on. Rick Steve's is my best friend. I asked for a passport for Christmas. And, best of all....*drumroll*...I'm actually going to get to travel! Next summer (about a week after graduation)  I'm going to be spending 12 days in France and Italy! I am so stoked! My French teacher planned the trip knowing that those were the two top places on my list (well, France and Ireland are at the top...but beggars can't be choosers ;)).

Anyhoo...this is a really random post. It's almost midnight, and I'm so tired. But I'm trying to stay awake 'til at least midnight so I'll sleep past 7am. It's been such a long week. Every year my church puts on "A Christmas Carol" at a local high school. This was the second year I helped backstage. It's so much fun, but everyone is super stressed out the whole week. We had a really good turnout considering we had to cancel the first performance because of ice. I heard there was about 1200 people who saw it.

i really don't have anything else to say. So I'll leave you with some pictures from this week. ciao! xo
p.s. if anyone out there is actually reading this--feel free to creep on me even more and follow me on twitter. xx

trying to get a pic for the Christmas card

me, Emily, and Bekah (beaker)

it was a veeery long day ;)

Sickies!

I know I promised another post this week, but I had a good excuse... I've been sick :( It started Thursday with just a scratchy throat, but Friday morning I woke up and couldn't open my eyes, I was coughing, and had a bad sore throat. yep. Definitely sick. Pink Eye, to be exact. Ok, well I don't know for sure, 'cause I didn't go to the doctor, but only one eye was "pink" and super swollen. It was pretty bad.

So, I was in bed all weekend. Went nowhere. Did nothing (except watch movies). Ate nothing. And slept maybe a total of 6 hours the whole weekend. Mis-er-a-ble! The worst part about being sick is missing out on everything.  I had to miss the thing Friday night with my youth group, and my choir concert yesterday morning, and church. I really don't like missing church. Oh well...
So this morning I woke up feeling MUCH better. I can actually open my eyes now. And I slept all the way through the night (first time in a LONG time! Not just from being sick. I've been dealing with insomnia for a while, too). But do you know what the best part is? I woke up this morning, looked out the window, and saw SNOW!!!!! Yep! first snow of the season!! :D It looks like there's about 3" or so, and it's still coming. Awesome. I love snow. Hopefully the roads will all be clear and everything by tomorrow. My family couldn't get out this morning to go to Church.

Ok, I think that's about it for now. I have a bunch of homework to get done today. And a paper to write on the effects and benefits of Spiritual health. shouldn't be too difficult. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. :)

Peace and Love! Have a great Sunday :)

 I tried uploading pictures of the snow, but blogger is being lazy today, understandably...;)