Sunday Funday!

It is really hard to wait on mail order items to get here.  I have an order from sephora.com, jcpenney.com, and my VIP FabFitFun box on the way and let me tell you - I want it all NOW!!  I wish there was a mall close to me where I could purchase what I did online in store, but alas there is not.

I shall pass the time by cleaning my house and hopefully starting the remodel on our teeny tiny (and only) bathroom.  It has a 1980's plastic surround on the walls, which covers up a window, why would anyone want to do that??  I have tile for the walls and also new tile for the floor.  I can't wait to get it all done!!  Right now it is beige and purple, but my new colors are aqua and grey.  I have new towels, rugs and a shower curtain already, just need to go find the perfect shade of light gray for the walls!  I will need to figure out a way to keep the walls dry after the tile goes up while I wait for it to dry then grout and wait some more...  I was thinking of just duct taping up some of the thick plastic painters cloths to protect it while we shower....

I will put up some before and after pics on another post that I will dedicate completely to the remodel.

So far today, I have deep cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, cleaned and vacuumed the living room and put a pistachio cake in the oven.  Now on to the laundry - which is my least favorite chore to do....and while that is running, I'll organize a few shelves in the living room.  Told you it was Sunday Funday!

Hope everyone had a great weekend....ta ta for now!

Organ Donation

Good Morning!  Just wanted to type a real quick post about organ donation.  This is a topic near and dear to my heart.  My dad is in End Stage Renal Disease and is in need of a Kidney Transplant.  He is on the list and they said it could take up to 5 years for a match to be found.  We are in the process of seeing if I am a match for a live donation (which is best), but being his daughter does not guarantee that we are a tissue match.  They have a "donation chain", where they take a group of live donors and their family/friend that they are donating to, but can't because of tissue typing, and try to match them to other recipients.  If they can find a "crossmatch" between a group of people, they do a mass transplant session on the same day.  I don't know if this makes any sense, so here's a quote from the Alliance for Paired Donation:

"The Alliance for Paired Donation can help. Kidney paired donation matches one incompatible donor/recipient pair to another pair in the same situation, so that the donor of the first pair gives to the recipient of the second, and vice versa. In other words, the two pairs swap kidneys . APD has also pioneered a new way of using altruistic, or good Samaritan, donors, so that the transplants no longer have to be performed simultaneously. Non-simultaneous Extended Altruistic Donor Chains (NEAD Chains ) allow donors to “pay it forward” after their loved one receives a transplant."

You can check out their website here for more information.  

Please Please Please, if you are not an organ donor, become one!  You won't need the organs once you are deceased - seriously.  Think of all of the lives YOU could save with your organs - lungs, eyes, kidneys, liver, heart.  There are so many people waiting for organs, from newborns to parents, and grandparents.  All you need to do is check a box on your drivers license to save lives - it's that easy!!  If you don't want to donate certain organs - that's fine too!  Just make sure your wishes are known to your family - they can make them known if the time comes.  

I have two Kidneys and only one Dad, the choice for me is easy - put yourself in that situation with anyone you love, What would you do?

Julep Maven Subscription Box - June

Guess what came in the mail?  I am super excited for my Maven box this month because I added on a couple of things and I was happy with the colors for my profile.  Lets get right to it......

The first thing I see are some pixi stix - how fun! They were yanked out of my hand I handed those over to my son....

 

Next is the Boho Glam Selections........

Harlow on the left and Natalia on the right

Harlow is a gorgeous gold shimmer that changes from a pale gold to a deep gold with the light.  Harlow is a gorgeous copper/rose gold with a silver shimmer in it.  You can see the Swatch Me stickers below....  We also got an Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat.  I normally use the Orly Bonder but I'll give this a shot!  I can not wait to try these on, I love a good metallic polish!

Harlow on the right and Natalia on the left

 Now for my add ons!  I added two colors and a "Mystery" bombshell color

Left is Kayla, Middle is Mae (mystery color), Right is Phoebe

 I love all three of these colors.  The swatch for Kayla does not do it justice at all.  It is a duochrome purple/electric blue (see my previous blog here to see the swatch from Julep's website).  Mae was my mystery color, it is a Satin Finish which I am interested to try, it's not quite Matte, but definitely not shiny.  I've never worn a polish without some type of topcoat, but I'll give it a whirl!

Left is Kayla, Top Middle is Mae (mystery color), Right is Phoebe

 Now for the real surprise,  I also received these two colors in my box.  Not sure if everyone got some extra colors or if this was some type of mistake, either way - I'll take it!

Left is Marjorie and Right is Veronica

Marjorie is a bright orange with a sheen, not glittery, but a sheen, ya know?  It will be a nice accent color or maybe for fall on all my nails.  Veronica is a creamy salmony mauvey pink.  It's a good neutral if you have somewhere business like to go.

Well...that wraps up this month's maven box!  I am really happy with what I got.  I can't wait to start experimenting with these new colors!

Want to join?  Click here!!!

School's out for the summer......ADHD Update

Well, Cayden is finally on summer break, and excited to say the least.  He is a typical 8 year old boy who moans and groans about going to school.  This was our first year on medication for his ADHD and I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of good days vs bad days we had.  We finally have him on a medication regime that seems to be working, and that definitely contributed to the good vs. bad.

I am also a proud momma....not only has he adjusted very well to a new ADHD diagnosis, new medications, new school, new kids, new teacher,\ he has also earned the "Cool Kid Award" in his class twice - once at the beginning of the year and once just this past April.  The class votes on this and then each student writes a compliment on a post it and hands it in (anonymously of course lol).  He has received so many nice compliments that it is almost overwhelming.  He also made Honor Roll every single 9 weeks this year, earning straight A's for his final grades; except handwriting which he was given a U in (Unsatisfactory).  But he's a boy that thinks way faster than he can write, so what does the teacher expect?  Anyways, I'm totally ok with that, maybe he will become a doctor....  

Since we got straight A's, I told him he could pick some colors to dye his "Faux-Hawk".  We used Manic Panic temporary colors and put a few in, they should wash out within a month.  He already has light blonde hair, so no bleaching is required and it won't damage his hair because it's a natural temporary dye.  He is so pumped by such a little thing and that makes me so happy.  It is his reward for the Straight A's

Dealing with ADHD has definitely been a struggle for our family.  We yell, scream, argue, probably more so than other families.  We just take it one day at a time.  If we have a bad day, I put him to bed and tell him it is ok - we can start again tomorrow and have a clean slate.  When we wake up, I tell him it's going to be a good day, the past is the past. We try to set some short term goals for attitude, listening, following directions etc. and assign rewards for what we can complete.  I use the word We to describe our days, because it's not just his bad day, we all have one and it's not necessarily because of his actions/words/tone/attitude etc.  I have noticed that if hubs has a bad day at work or I have a bad day at the hospital, he picks up on it and it kind of takes him over as well.  It's something we all have to work on and will do it together.

I have instituted a few different reward/consequence programs over the past year to try to help out with our behavior issues, some have worked and some haven't.  The one we are sticking to is the token program.  We have a set of poker chips and we made a list together of all of his responsibilities. We assigned token values to each one and also made a list of "rewards" he can cash his tokens in for.  It ranges from 5 tokens for an hour of video games to 20 tokens to pick a night out for dinner and choose the restaurant, to 50 for a new video game.  This seems to work out well and also teaches him the principle of saving.  We tried a chart with stickers for completion of tasks and rewards for getting a full weeks worth of stars, but it isn't something tangible that he can keep with him and see and feel in his hand.

Since we are entering summer months and focus isn't really needed, I might discuss a small drug holiday for him to cleanse his system and see how he is doing without medication.  I feel like summer break might be a good time to try some natural fixes like no food dye, no sugar or artificial flavors, and see if this has any impact on his focus and impulsiveness.

I think that is all for now, everyone is in bed and I think I am heading that way too.