BirchBox

I finally got another subscription to BirchBox.  It has been far too long since I have received those awesome little boxes in the mail each month full of goodies.  

I was so happy to see this cardboard beauty in my mailbox.

  The first product I tried was the Divine Legs by Caudalie. The full size version of this product retails for $38. It's a tinted lotion that "imparts firmness, moisture, and a beachy glow-plus it won't rub off."

 First of all, this stuff does not smell good AT ALL! I'm super pasty white so even with all the "circular motions" that is tell you to use while applying, it did not "blend in seamlessly." It also rubbed off in chunks. Not a product I would recommend for pasty girls like me but maybe someone a little darker it could work on. As for the smell...maybe spray some body mist on after you use it. 

Purminerals CC Cream Broad Spectrum SPF 40 retails full size for $38

 I'm pale and this stuff actually worked great with my skin color in the light shade. It wasn't too thick for me which is usually a problem. I don't like feeling like I'm caked in makeup and this stuff is really super light. I might consider buying this in the full size version soon. 

Classic Face SPF 30 Cucumber Moisturizer for Face by Coola retails for $32 in a full size.

The BirchBox Bobby Pins come in a set of six for $5. 

This CC Cream I have yet to try out but it smells amazing! The Bobby Pins are an awesome park this month. They're a lot bigger than regular bobby pins which is nice for all the hair that I have now a days. They're pretty too so that is a perk. They're really light and show up great in my dark hair. 

 Number 4 Super Comb Prep & Protect retails for $32 in a full sized bottle.

 It's been a while since I have actually used a hair dryer so I have yet to try this product out just yet. 

Under the Weather

I have been sick... I mean like laid in bed for five days straight sick. It has sucked and today I am finally feeling somewhat human again. I have had this horrible cough and a terrible head cold for the last two weeks. I has been awful. Today is the first day that I have been out of the house for more than 30 min in 7 days. It has been completely miserable.

This week the animals have not left my side at all. 

I've been in the bathroom a lot trying to create a mini sauna at home with the steam from the shower and I've been laying the the tub a lot trying to get my muscles to quit hurting.  I also wore in the couch and my side of the bed.

Zoe was a little sweety and slept next to the tub while I bathed. 

 Groucho joined the next day when I started using my cough meds. I laid in the tub and watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I love that movie. Groucho couldn't help but watch too.

 This is one of my favorite quotes from the movie "Too weird to live, to rare to  die."

Derek makes fun of me because I always use the subtitles when I watch movies by myself.

 I was coughing so hard that it was giving me a horrible headache. I've been trying not to do the cough medicine very much so I made a mini sauna in the bathroom with Groucho on Sunday. He must have been cold because he jumped up in my lap and sat there for a good 30 minuets with me.

 I love how dignified he looks.

 This picture was from yesterday. I felt so defeated. I tried to go to work but it just wasn't happening. I drove myself but wound up having to pull over because I got light headed. Groucho is such a good cat. He's always by my side.

Last week while I was still only mildly not feeling well we went to Home Comers. We went and ate Chinese food at Golden Gate and then headed up to Main Street.

 Stratton had a blast, as always, on the motor cars. He is such a ladies man...he saw the bike that had the girls on it and went straight for that one.

 I saw a friend of mine there with her little girl Kendall so Stratton of course had to ride around a few times with her. She has grown up so much in the last couple of years!

 I didn't feel great but I'm so glad we all went when we did. It rained another night and then I started feeling crappy the next few days. Even here I look like I don't feel that great.

 Stratton liked sitting in the army truck. He saluted me of course.

 He asked the guys that were there in uniform where the machine guns were.

 I was so proud of Stratton for going down this slide. He is scared to death of heights and the stairs were pretty freakin scary even for me. He went down it three times though! The first two he did by himself and the third time I went down with him. It was so much fun! Even for a 26 year old!

 This was one ride I did not think he was going to like since it was one that went up high. But he loved it. He thought it was so much fun.

 He did the spinning apple ride by himself and Derek and I thought for sure he was not going to like it because there were some older kids in the apple with him. They started spinning it pretty fast so Derek and I got a little worried but every turn that it made we could see him and he had a huge smile on his face. He loved it!

The water boat ride was super disappointing for Stratton. He was mad because the gun on the front of it didn't work. Haha. Of course!

 Before we left we had to get a corn dog of course. Those things are SO good. I can't wait until the SEMO fair to come now so I can get some more fried goodies!

For the last year I have been working on a website for a Christian clothing company called LilyWhite. Designs. The two girls that run it are simply amazing people. Jordan is the main owner and operator of the company and has been so patient with me trying to get everything up and going for her. As a thank you for finally getting the site up and going she sent me a thank you box. It was full of the most awesome smelling and tasting stuff. The bad is one that she made! How cool is that? She also sent me some home made preservative, home made chapstick, some body butter, home made soap, and B&N gift card. All of which are perfect for me. I love the bag so much that I dumped all the contents from my old purse into this one. Thank you so much Jordan for being such a great friend and for letting me make this beautiful website for you. 

Check out the website HERE!

Stratton and I made a trip to Kaleidoscoop last week too. They have new owners now. The owners may be new but the ice cream is still just as good! 

Angel Food Cake

This weekend I set out to make my very first angel food cake from scratch...by myself....no help from any of the women in my family. Just me, alone, with my mixer and a couple ingredients. Just a little news flash for those of you who may not know me: I don't cook, or bake, or make stuff in the kitchen without it coming out of a box. I'm just not Susie homemaker like my Grandma Marge and my sister Casey. I didn't get that gene. I'm trying to learn how to make stuff in the kitchen now a days because that's what wives/mommys are supposed to do...right? I have been told that I make a pretty mean pot roast in the slow cooker (which is about the easiest thing you can make) and I've even got my Grandma B's homemade chocolate chip cookies down pat.

I did a photoshoot with my grandma Marge and all the women in my family about a month ago and we all made the "Famous Angel Food Cake."  We made two of them and they turned out amazing of course.They were super light and fluffy and the crust was just falling off of it. It was amazing.

So here is my attempt at making the infamous cake. 

This is all you need to make an angel food cake. Who would have thought?

Sugar, All Purpose Flour, Vanilla, Cream of Tartar, and a shi... poop ton of eggs

You're supped to start with the eggs at room temperature but I'm really impatient and didn't want to wait the few hours is was going to take for them to warm up so I stuck them in some warm water.

I didn't have an angel food cake pan so I had to use Grandma Marges cake pan. This thing has made many a delicious angle food cake it in so I'm hoping that some of that will rub off on my cake.

I got this mixer for Christmas a few years back and I rarely get the opportunity to use it. Derek was laughing at my because I had to dust it before I used it. That's how much a bake or cook. Don't judge me. I scrubbed down the whole thing and got it clean again and got the right mixer attachment on it.

The next part was the egg white separating part. When we were doing the photo shoot we made a mess of separating the egg whites from the yolk by using the two halves of the egg shell. I especially sucked at separating the two so I googled easier ways to do the job. 

This was by far the easiest way I found to do it. I had to of course video it for my family members to see because I was pretty freakin excited about this. 

I used one bowl to hold the egg while I got the yolk out and a water bottle that I recycled after I drank all the water out of it. Don't worry I rinsed it before I used it. 

All those wonderful egg yolks and no egg white. I felt pretty awesome after doing this.

Here's all that egg white in the mixer starting to froth up.

This was about half way into the egg beating. Haha. I just picture in my head some defenseless egg in a headlock getting beat up on. I'm a dork.

What kitchen is complete without this bad boy?

Once the egg white was all frothed up I added the sugar/flour/cream of tartar mixture. I think this is where I went wrong. I think I folded it too much and made it go flat.

Then I forgot to put the vanilla in so I had to do that last minute and messed it up even worse.

You have to put this thing in the oven for 70 minuets!! Seventy! 

It seems like forever when you're hoping that the recipe that you're working on turned out.

So, this is how it turned out. It was pretty not so tasty if you ask me. The vanilla didn't get mixed in enough and it tasted more like egg than angel food cake.

It looked a lot better than it tasted.

So, the next morning after feeling completely defeated. I woke up and tried again. With 14 more eggs, 2 more cups of sugar, 2 more cups of flour, 2 more teaspoons of cream of tartar and two more teaspoons of vanilla....I finally got something that tasted almost like Grandma's. 

I tried a few things differently this time. I put the vanilla in when I was beating the eggs and I also tried a different spoon when folding in the dry ingredients. 

So, there you have it. The famous angel food cake as made by me. 

I Put my Gi Pants Back On

Last night I finally went back to jiu jitsu. It has been almost two months since I put my gi on; and let me tell you if felt amazing to get back in there. I needed to get in the gym and focus on something other than work or whatever else has been going on this week. It's been so long since I had been in the gym that I didn't stay to roll with anyone. I still remember a lot but I just didn't feel comfortable rolling last night. It felt good to be physical and work with one of the new girls named Bobbi Jo and a guy that has been there for a while named Justin. Justin is great. He's about as tall as I am and he's really good about not being too rough when we practice different moves. We worked on getting out of butterfly guard last night. It seemed ridiculously easy when we were practicing but I'm sure that actually trying to use it during a match will prove to be a bit more difficult.

After this hellacious week I needed some me time at the gym. The thing I love most about going to jiu jitsu is that once you walk in the door you're greeted by the nicest people around. They all greet you with a smile or a hug and they really do care so much about you. Even the new people are so eager to ask how you've been and always willing to talk to you about pretty much anything. I go in there and everything that I was stressed out about or sad about or angry about just gets left at the door.

I'm really starting to get out of shape from not going to the gym religiously like I used to. My face after practice pretty much summed up how I felt after I got done with practice.

Tonight I plan on going to the gym and doing my triathlon workout. Three miles on the treadmill, 10k on the bike and swim for 30 min. It sucks but I feel so much better after I get done doing it. Sunday will be filled with Tabata workouts and more running. YAY!

Oswald and Dilly Bars at the Park

My sister and her fiance Marcus have the sweetest dog you could ever meet. (Apart from Zoe of course.) Oswald is such a funny dog. He's a big goof ball to say the least.

 Casey and Marcus were packing to leave on their trip the other day and Oswald just didn't know what to do with himself. I was checking off items from Casey's list while Casey was grabbing random items. Oswald decided he was human and sat next to me on the stairs.

 He kept trying to find just the right position to sit comfortably. He just couldn't quite get it right. 

 Look at how cute that is!

   Such a pretty puppy.

 He did not want to leave the stairs but he was starting to get tired so this was the next position that he decided to try out.

 He even had his knee up on the step to hold himself up. Hah.

 Look at that face.

The other day I actually put some makeup on and decided to send Derek and pretty picture of myself. I thought it turned out kind of neat. 

Yesterday Stratton, Mom, Aunty Pam, Grandma Marge, John and I all went to the Cape Municipal Band concert. They were handing out Dilly Bars! Score! 

 Oswald joined us of course. He wined so much because he wanted to go say hi to the other puppies in the park.

 Stratton loves his Aunty Pam. She always tells him "huggy huggy kiss kiss"

 I love that big ol smile of his. He makes the best chessy face. Strat was getting so mad because his dilly bar kept melting and dripping on his pants.  

 Oswald just had to make his rounds and give everyone kisses...including me.

 My mom and I inhaled out Dilly Bars. You can't tell we like ice cream at all can you?

 Oh Oswald.

The theme for the music was Christmas music. There was also a steel drum band that played. It was so neat to hear all the different kinds of music.