My review of Pantene Pro-V style series Level 4 hairspray

I received my Pantene VoxBox in the mail. There was no bubble wrap or anything it was just tossing around in the box. It arrived safely and undamaged thankfully.

As a member of Influenster I received this product complimentary for testing purposes. What I received was a 8.5 FL OZ bottle of Pantene Pro-V Style Series Level 4 Hairspray.

The first thing I noticed was that it is in a non-aerosol container. That benefit to the environment is something I always look for when purchasing hairspray. 

I wanted to give this hairspray so I did a simple style before heading out for the day. It was a hippie braid style I saw on pinterest. My hair is so thin though that it really didn't turn out how I had hoped. 

So here are close up before and after pictures. I was out and about shopping and the after photo was taken about 12 hours after I created the style. 

I was skeptical before I tried this that it would actually work very well. I figured by the end of the day my hair would be all fly aways and frizz. As you can see in the photo where I sprayed the hair with the hairspray on the braid and the wrapped part it held up really well the entire day. It was very light weight and my hair felt touchable soft unlike so many hairsprays that leave your hair hard and unmovable. 

My review of L'Oreal Paris Advanced Haircare Extraordinary Oil

As a member on Crowdtap I got chosen to do this amazing L'Oreal Paris Advanced Haircare Extraordinary Oil sampling mission.

I was sent 3 free full size products as shown in the photo above.

• L’Oreal Paris Advanced Haircare Extraordinary Oil Curls Shampoo
• L’Oreal Paris Advanced Haircare Extraordinary Oil Curls Conditioner
• L’Oreal Paris Advanced Haircare Extraordinary Oil Curls Re-Nourish Mask

My hair was shiny, silk and soft. This is how my hair looked after using the shampoo and conditioner for only two days. The results were amazing. I have not seen my hair look this nice in many years. 

I read the directions on the back of the Re-Nourish Mask and followed them exactly. I hung my head over the tub for 5 minutes letting it soak into my hair before rinsing out. 

I wasn't happy with the results. So on the 11th day of using the shampoo and conditioner I decided to do what it said on crowdtap for best results. I applied this to my hair when dry and tied it up in a bun for 20 minutes. I hopped in the shower and rinsed the mask out and shampooed and conditioned my hair. 

Again I really don't like the results from the mask. I think it makes my hair weighed down and gunked up. It does not look nearly as nice as the days when I used only the shampoo and conditioner. 

Watched Big Hero 6 and ate at Little Caesars

Last Saturday I took my two children to the Cinema Saver which is a theater that has discounted pricing. It was $2 a ticket for each of us. It was my daughter's turn to pick out a movie and she chose Big Hero 6. It has been in the theater for a long time so I expected to have the place to ourselves. Good thing we got there early because the theater was packed. We sat in the very front row so my son could see and not have to be behind anyone taller then him. The theater was dirty unfortunately and had something spilled all over the floor in the front. My son thought it was blood but I doubt it.

I had heard from a friend that this was not a very good movie but the kids and I both loved it. My son asked me to buy it when it comes out on DVD. The only thing I did not like about the movie is what seems to happen in so many movies someone dies. His parents had died prior to the movie and his older brother dies during the movie. Being a widow I just hate thinking about death when I am out to have fun with my kids.

After the movie we were going to go to McDonald's but I happened to see a Little Caesars pizza place and pulled in. I have not been to a Little Caesars in about 10 years. I thought my kids would be super excited but my son threw a fit and said he wanted a chicken patty. My daughter was excited to try the pizza but then didn't like either kind I bought. I was in heaven! The pizza was so inexpensive and yummy. I got a large plain Stuffed Crust pizza and a large plain Soft Pretzel Crust pizza. The only bad thing was there was no tables to sit at so you had to stand and wait for your order to be ready then we had to take it out in my van in the cold and eat it.

After this we drove to McDonald's and got my son his darn chicken patty he wanted and then went and got groceries and went home and I put the kids to bed.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on January 23, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

This week has not gone as I had planned

I had intended on Monday to get the first coat of Polyurethane on my daughters floor that I had sanded and stained. I opened the can that hadn't been used in years since my husband was alive and used it last. The lid was all dented up and not closed properly. The polyurethane was hardened solid :(

My daughter has been out of school for 5 days sick. I took her to the doctor on Tuesday and the doctor said he thought she has a sinus infection. Her temperature was at 102 but not much else symptoms besides a light phlegmy cough. It's Friday now and with her cough the way it is I'm not really sure she has a sinus infection. She has felt awful so I kept her home all week and gave her the antibiotic she was prescribed. I am hoping that she will feel better this weekend and be well enough to go back on Monday.

Yesterday I nearly got done washing down my kitchen ceiling but am just about out of dish soap. My dishes need to be washed more importantly then the ceiling so that's going to have to wait to get done.

Hopefully the kids and I can get out shopping tomorrow. I need to pick up some fresh polyurethane, paint thinner and dish soap among other things.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on January 23, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Had a scare with my sick daughter this morning

My 10 year old daughter woke up this morning a bit later then usual at 7:30 am. She went down to use the bathroom and then said she had bumps all over her legs that itched really bad. I looked at it and said we would have to go to the doctor because I had no idea what it was. She kept starting to faint every time she stood up so I had her lay down until she felt steady enough to go to the doctor. I looked online trying to figure out what it could be.

The rash was nothing I had ever seen before. Just raised skin colored spots all over her leg and a bit up her side. By 9 am she had some pretty bad looking red hives along her cheek and was extremely itchy. I looked and she had the raised skin colored spots all down her arms legs and stomach and sides. I said we couldn't wait any longer we needed to get her up to the doctor. I quick grabbed the keflex she was prescribed on Tuesday, some benedryl, and a ziplock bag in case she got sick and we rushed up the street to the hospital.

We got checked in and no sooner had she sat down on the exam table she started gasping for air. I was scared to death. I quick poured her some of the benedryl and had her drink it.

The doctor came in and looked her all over. He said that it is an allergic reaction to the keflex. She hadn't had a dose in 12 hours. Thankfully when I saw the hives this morning I didn't give her the medicine in case that was the problem. I'm so scared to think what would have happened if I had given her it this morning.

The doctor wanted to quick give her a shot of prednizone but she started crying she didn't want a shot. So they called the er and ran down and grabbed some liquid prednizone to give her as well as a tablet of hydroxyzine. They kept her an additional 15 minutes to make sure she didn't have a reaction to either of these medications. Within that amount of time her color returned to normal and almost all of the hives went away. I was so relieved. She had me read her baby sitters book to her while we waited the 15 minutes.

We went to the store and filled her prescription for prednizone and hydroxyzine. She requested some flavored sparkling water as a treat so we grabbed that at the store next to the drug store. We are home now and shes relaxing on the couch like she has been the rest of the week and playing on her tablet. Most of the week she was to sick to even do that. I've read her at least 10 chapter books since shes been sick. I love it though. I love spending time with my kids and reading to them.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on January 24, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

I took my daughter to the ER tonight her rash changed and got bad

If you've read my other posts you know my daughter has been having health issues. Last night at 5 pm I gave her a dose of the hydroxyzine with her dinner. At 6 pm she broke out with the weirdest rash I have ever seen. It was mostly on her stomach and back and was literally glowing like neon pink.

Seeing this rash I quick drove her up to the ER to have it looked at. The nurse didn't bother to call the doctor she said that it will come and go and to just keep giving her the hydroxyzine and sent us home as if I was a hypochondriac. I felt like it could be a reaction from the hydroxyzine so I just stopped giving it to her anyway and continued to give her benedryl and the prednisone.

This morning I gave her Prednisone and an allergy medicine. It didn't seem to help much. At dinner time I gave her her second dose of Prednisone and a benedryl tablet. Within an hour she had gotten worse. The rash was really bad on her face. Inside her ears was itching. Her eye was itching and the eyeball itself was pink. I posted a picture on facebook of what it looked like and a friend mentioned Granuloma Annulare.

I ran her up to the ER again tonight and this time was determined to have her seen by a doctor and not be brushed off again. The nurse took our information and soon after a doctor came in who I could barely understand for starters. The nurse had to tell me what he was saying. I thought he asked if my daughter had been golfing but it was coughing haha.

Just in the few minutes from my house until he saw her the rash had spread to large areas on her arms and looked pretty awful. The doctor said it looked like a typical allergic reaction. WHAT? Both of my kids have had a lot of allergic reactions to food and medicines over the years. This was NOT a typical reaction. I have never seen anything like this in my life! So I told him a friend said it looked like Granuloma Annulare. He looked it up on the computer and said that it does look like that and if its not better in a few days to take her to see the local dermatologist.

I felt like the doctor didn't know what he was doing and we weren't in very good hands. I am a nervous wreck. She had a shot in her arm to help get the hives to go away. He told me to keep giving her the prednisone and benedryl and also wrote her a prescription for Betamethasone Dipropionate cream to put on the rash except not on her face.

I am hoping she wakes up tomorrow and looks and feels a lot better. This is just so scary for me.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on January 25, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

I am finally seeing a bit of improvement with my daughters hives

Last night every 4 hours I had my alarm going off and giving my daughter Benedryl. It helped. It also made her extremely tired though so she slept the majority of the day away today. The Benedryl was basically taming the hives enough that they weren't causing her to itch as bad as she had been. She still had them all over her body today though.

After she finally woke up fully for the day I had her take a bath then we wiped the steroid ointment all over the hives which she said made it itch worse as it was initially applied. I then tried giving her another hydroxyzine tablet and was worried it was going to make the hives worse. It did seem to help a lot as she barely has any hives on her skin now. I will be giving her another dose every 6 hours. The next dose is going to be around 1 am.

Around 4 pm I received a text from my daughters friends mother asking if it was okay for her daughter to bring a card for my daughter since my daughter has been out of school over a week now. My daughters friend got up early today and made her a card from construction paper. She took it to school and got teachers and classmates signatures and get well wishes. She also got my daughter a large wonka pixie stick and a mad libs activity pad. I thought it was such a thoughtful thing for her to do. My daughters face lit up. She was so happy to see her friend and to see all the signatures. Her friend said my daughter better be really happy because she even got her crush's signature for here. They are 10 how cute :)

My daughter is still extremely pale and not eating much. I have forced her to eat a bit more today even though she doesn't feel hungry. I got her to have an apple with peanut butter to dip them in. She also ate a few mozzarella sticks. I cannot remember what else I got her to eat. It wasn't much though but better then she has been eating while she hasn't been feeling well. Most likely the hives will appear more in the morning after sweating while sleeping. Hopefully they are starting to ease up and go away soon. The poor kid has been suffering with this.

I have talked to two of my late husbands relatives who have had hives like this. One has been battling with them for 3 years. The other had them three different times in his life and each time they lasted about a year. He told me that one of his sisters and 3 of his brothers (which would be my daughters great aunts and great uncles) have battled with this in the past as well. So I guess it is some type of auto immune reaction that is genetic. I dread if my daughter has to keep going through this for months or years.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on January 27, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Today was the Valentine's Day party at my children's school

Today was the Valentine's Day party at my children's school. I am so glad that our school does this with the children and allows the parents to come in for it. My kids had such a fun time even though they were not allowed (by me) to have any candy or food with dyes in it. They were very good about it and so I took them to the store in town after school was over and let them buy a candy bar of their choice which of course was free of dyes. They both chose a Gertrude Hawk candy bar.

I brought my son his clothes this morning. The only red shirt he had was one with a football design on it. He said that instead he wanted to wear his suit. I was happily surprised and went up to his room to get it for him. Two of his friends wore suits as well today. They all looked so cute. My son said that they pretended they were presidents since they were all dressed up.

I was shocked at how much some of the students have grown and changed. My daughter is 10 and one of the boys in her class I did not recognize at all!

A boy behind me in the hall on the way back to the classroom vomited and just missed me. I am so thankful that it did not get on anything or anyone but the floor. Yuck.

I gave a friend and her daughter a ride home after the party. She has a lot of chickens and turkeys that greeted us as we pulled up to her house. My kids got to get out and pet them and feed them. They loved it! She even send us home with a bunch of fresh brown eggs. My daughter had scrambled eggs for dinner tonight and I had an omelet.

The picture I posted is of the gift bag I am giving to my parents tomorrow for Valentine's day. It has a bunch of candy in it for my parents, my sister and her three children.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on February 13, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

How I spent Valentine's day 2015

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. For the second year in a row I didn't get to spend it with a guy so it was a bummer. I did get to spend it with my kids and my niece and nephews. I had planned to take my kids in the morning to the movies, to an ice cream shop and then Chuck E Cheese but the weather forecast was quite bad so I decided for us to stay home.

My kids had me up all through the night asking for water and what time it was etc. Finally a little after 6 am I let them get up and go downstairs where I gave them their presents. The image I attached is of the gift bag I gave my daughter her presents in. It was was a regifted bag I got from my mother years ago. I love Giant Pandas.

I bought my son a new video game that he had picked out on Amazon. I got him some crazy cube toys and some candy. My daughter I gave her some books that she had picked out on. Amazon I also bought her a few other books at Ollie's Bargain Outlet and gave her some candy as well. They both loved their gifts.

My daughter spent most of her morning on the computer watching Bratz videos on youtube. My son spent the whole day playing his new video game.

At 6 pm my kids and I went over and babysat my 12 year old nephew, 10 year old niece, and 2 year old nephew. My parents had gone out to dinner and my sister had gone to her friends house.

It got bad while they were gone so they were a bit late getting home. It was just after midnight. My 2 year old nephew fell asleep next to me on the couch about 20 minutes before they arrived home and my son fell asleep sitting up next to me on the other side of the couch about 5 minutes before they came home. They thought it was so cute and took pictures. I went into the living room to tell my daughter it was time to go home and both her and my niece had fallen asleep laying on the bed reading. The only one still awake was my 12 year old nephew.

We live across the street so I woke my kids up and we walked home. My dad shoveled a path for us through the snow. It was brutally cold. The wind chill made it seem even worse. I was too tired to do anything myself but put the kids to bed then climb in bed myself.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on February 15, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Friday was a good day

Friday morning I ran around picking up a few friends who don't have vehicles so they could come to the Breakfast Club. I made cupcakes for one of the girls whose birthday was on Wednesday. She turned 23. It is my exes sister. Her favorite cake is chocolate cake with chocolate frosting so I made those. I hate them so I made white chocolate oatmeal raisin cookies as well. I had 6 women (including me) and 2 children at my house. It started at 9:30 am and lasted until about 12:30. I teased my sister about how awful the bright lipstick was that she was wearing. So she teased me about how worn out my slippers are.

After my kids got home from school we had pizza for dinner. At 6:30 pm I took my niece and my two children to a church a few miles out of town for a Kids Night Out. The theme was Despicable Me. The last one we went to was the first time and my son was nervous so I stayed there with him. He had such a great time that I was able to leave this time and they stayed there until 9:30 pm when it was over. All three of them left with smiles on their faces after having a great time. I added a picture of the bananas they had for snack time that were decorated like minions. My daughter brought hers home so I was able to see it. It is adorable. I think I will be putting it in her lunch for school tomorrow.

While my kids were at the Kids Night Out I went to my ex's house which for the sake of not confusing things I should refer to him by the first letter in his name "G". We had been together for a year before and I had never been to his apartment. Since he is moving out at the end of the month he wanted me to come over and see it. He had been sick and his son was up so I had not seen him for a few weeks. It was nice seeing him again. Hopefully I will get to see him again soon.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on February 22, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

My friend's baby shower

Today was my friend Stephanie's baby shower. I have been looking forward to this for quite some time. Since I was so excited for it you think I would have gotten things ready ahead of time but nope I waited until the last minute and spent over 9 hours straight last night finishing a diaper cake that I was making for her. I had worked on it for 3 hours the night before making it a total of 12 hours it took me to do it all. As soon as it was done I showered and went to bed.

I attached a picture of the diaper cake that I made her. I had to make all the flowers out of tissue paper and hot glue them to toothpicks to stick down in the diapers. There was a lot of tape used to create this diaper cake. I do not think I will ever want to make another one as time consuming as it was but I am really with how it turned out. I also gave her three little outfits.

There was a good amount of food at her shower. A gorgeous cake being the biggest attraction. 

They also had pizza, chips, tuna fish sandwiches, and two different kinds of egg salad sandwiches. They had a separate table set up for soda, lemonade and coffee. I was excited when I saw the egg salad sandwiches. I love them and hardly ever have them as I am the only one in my house who eats them I don't bother to make them just for me.

After leaving the shower at 2:30 I have been babysitting my niece and nephew. I will be watching them until my children go to bed at 7:30. I'm exhausted. I can't wait to just sit and relax and read a book later.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on February 28, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

A birthday party and Penguins of Madagascar movie this weekend

This weekend was a pretty good weekend. It was quite late notice but my friend posted to our Breakfast Club group on facebook that her father was having a birthday party on Saturday for her sister who is turning 11. The kids and I only planned to stay for an hour because I had a guy coming to work on my daughters room but we wound up staying for about 2 hours.

I used to be really good friends with the birthday girls mother. My daughter and her used to play a lot when they were little. She moved to a different town and school so I rarely see her anymore. She is 2 months older then my daughter but about 5 inches shorter at least. She is such a sweet and beautiful little girl.

Sunday I took my kids out shopping and we went to the Cinema Saver and finally got to watch the movie " Penguins of Madagascar ". 

I found the first half of the movie to be kind of boring but the second half was pretty cute. Both my kids enjoyed the movie though. We got a free bag of popcorn for signing up for their newsletter emails so my kids were really excited about that as well since I usually will not buy anything extra.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on March 9, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Everything that could go wrong on Wednesday did go wrong what a day

Wednesday I spent the day/night getting ready for the Breakfast Club / baby shower I was hosting for my friend Stephanie. Every single thing that could go wrong that day did go wrong. It was not a good day.

The day started out with a very low tire. I managed to get it full of air with my small air pump but just barely because it kept trying to quit. I think there is a short somewhere that is causing the fuse to the cigarette lighter to blow. I dropped the cord in a puddle of water since my driveway is like a pond right now after the ice melting.

The next problem was my water filter got plugged with rust from not being changed in awhile so we were running low on water. The pressure was so low we could not take showers and it took forever just to get a few inches of water in the tub to bathe in plus the water was a bit rusty colored yuck.

The wood around my bedroom door is old and rotted a bit so the one piece of metal screwed in fell off awhile back. I threw it away as the door would still say shut anyway. Well the wood wore out more so the door now wouldn't stay shut at all. So I had to take a metal part off our closet to temporarily use on my door to keep it shut until I buy a new doorknob. It doesn't fit perfectly the temporary one so it still doesn't close well but it works for now.

My sister found a seal puzzle in storage and my daughter loves seals so she sent it over for my daughter to do. I asked her if the pieces were missing and she said no. Of about 30 puzzles she has sent over during the years maybe 4 have had all the pieces that's it. I was going to say no I don't want it but seeing it was a harp seal puzzle I knew my daughter would be excited. She spent two days off and on working on this the whole time saying there is missing pieces. In the end I wound up helping her finish it and there were 19 missing pieces. I was like oh my god I am never ever accepting another used puzzle as long as I live. I had my daughter make a sad face looking at the puzzle and posted it to facebook to joke around with my sister.

The last and worst disaster of the day was when I went to finish the plague I was working on for my friends present. I had it all painted pretty and it was dry and ready for polyurethane. I put a coat on it and instead of drying clear it dried with a yellowish tint so I had to repaint the darn thing. 

It doesn't look as good as the first time I painted it but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on March 13, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Breakfast Club baby shower and school movie night

Thursday was the Breakfast Club / baby shower for my friend Stephanie. My mother, my sister and another friend came. Even though there weren't a lot of people it was fun and it was not an official shower since her aunt had given her one. It was just something extra to celebrate how excited we are for her.

My son had woken me up at 3 am to fix his blankets and after that I kept thinking about all the things I needed to do so in an effort to go back to sleep I got up wrote a to do list and laid back down. By 5 am I decided that there was no getting any sleep so I got up and started cleaning and decorating and getting things ready for the day.

My friends were here most of the day. I gave her the deer antler plague that I had made and another friend gave her some adorable things she crocheted for the baby. She decorated onesies as well with cute designs and sayings and we all got to sign one.

After my kids got home from school we had dinner and then at 5:30 we went to the school for a family movie night. We had already seen Big Hero 6 in the theater not long ago but my kids still wanted to go see it at the school. It is an adorable movie but I hate watching movies more then once so I was bored stiff. My kids loved it though!

Even after only getting that 3 hours of sleep from midnight to 3 am I wound up staying awake until about 11 pm and then going to bed. For once I did sleep the full way through the night though. Usually I barely sleep at all at night.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on March 14, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

My daughter is finally back in her own room again after 10 months

On May 18, 2014 I started gutting my daughters room. The guy who did the sheetrock and trim for me did it out of generosity in his free time which is rare for him so it took along time but was worth the wait. Then I had to paint the walls and sand and varnish the floor. He just did the trim around the floor last weekend. Tonight I finally got my daughter moved back into her own room.

I started working on moving all her stuff back in last night but hanging up her clothes in the closet and putting her sheets and blankets in there.

Today around 10 am my father in law came up and fixed the outlets. After that I started moving all her things back in like her dresser, bed, toys etc. It took all day. By 7 pm I had finally got it all completed and we hung up some of her posters.

She was so excited to finally sleep in her room again. I got the whole upstairs cleaned now. I am so glad to have all the free areas to move around in my room and my sons room again.

The trim around the ceiling still needs to be finished as well as her two windows will be replaced in the spring but at least she is able to be back in her own room now. I attached a photo of her as she climbed in to bed tonight to go to sleep.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on March 15, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

My daughters first dance at school

Friday around noon my son come home from school with a fever so we decided to stay home this weekend so he could rest. He is still running an almost 103 fever. It comes down with Ibuprofin but goes back up when it wears off. I assume it is a sinus infection based on other symptoms he has. If he is not better by Monday I will take him to the doctor so he will be excused from school. Today we just cuddled on the couch mostly.

My daughter who is in 5th grade is off to her very first school dance. It is being held in the high school for students 5th - 8th grade. Makes me kind of nervous her being there with those older kids. Her friend called her yesterday asking her if she was going and she has been very excited since then.

The dance is from 6-9. They get a bottle of water and a piece of pizza with the $5 they pay to get in.

4 years ago on this day I was at the hospital all day with my husband while he was dying. This is a very difficult weekend for me so the anxiety is worse then usual. I am glad that my daughter is out having a good time! I did not tell my children that this was the anniversary weekend of their fathers death.

I attached a photo of my daughters hair before the dance. I quick did it in about 5 minutes. She never lets me do her hair so I was happy and surprised.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on March 21, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

I had a great weekend but can't wait to prop my feet up and rest

Friday morning was the usual get together with friends over coffee and sweets. After my kids got home from school we drove an hour away to pick up my daughters new glasses. She got tested at the eye doctor during the week and her vision is only 20/200. She is so glad to be able to see better now with her glasses. She loves how she looks in them so that helps a lot as well. Her vision will never be able to be corrected with glasses better then 20/40 due to the eye condition she was born with called nystagmus.

Saturday morning at 11 am there was an Extended Easter Eggstravaganza. It was nice but really not something I would take my kids to again. It was a very slow paced event where we did a lot of sitting around waiting to do something and my kids were very bored.

At 4 pm I dropped my kids off at my father in laws house so he could watch them while I went to a friends party. I took the kids inside then started my van put my food on the brake to put it in reverse and the brake line broke. Thankfully my father in law let me borrow his van to drive to where I was meeting my friend and she drove the rest of the way which was about an hour to our friends house.

The party was for a guy I went to school with who is home for two weeks on break from Afghanistan. The party was a lot of fun I'm really glad I was able to go. I got to see some people I have not seen in many years who were friends with my husband when he was alive.

Today (Sunday) was a pretty relaxing day. The weather was beautiful so around 3 pm I took my kids and my niece for a long walk over town. We took the railroad tracks on the way over and then the streets on the way back. Well on the way back half way up a very steep hill I realized my son forgot his sunglasses on the railroad tracks and the kids were to tired to turn around and walk back to get them. I took the kids home fed them dinner and then walked about a half mile down the tracks to get them and then the half mile back home again. I'm exhausted. I'm going to go take a shower and lay down on the couch and hopefully finish the book I have been reading for a few weeks.

I attached a photo of the water tower in town that we sat near on the tracks to rest.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on April 12, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Our visit to the Dutch Hill Creamery and Aukemia-Dairy Farm

On Saturday May 2nd I took the kids to the Dutch Hill Creamery / Aukema-Dairy Farm. They were participating in an event called the Broome County Farm Trail. The gps gave us the wrong directions but thankfully we were only a few minutes later then we had planned and had a wonderful time at the Creamery to make up for it.

Most of the events were free but this one had a $1 charge per person for the tour. You could pet the animals and play in the sandbox and corn table for free. I thought the tour was low cost and would be more of a donation then anything so I didn't mind paying and helping them out since they were kind enough to put on this event.

They sell their own fresh milk, eggs, cheese and yogurt. We got to sample a bunch of varieties of each but we really didn't care for the bold flavors. 

On a display table they sold little cartons of powdered egg nog mix. I thought it would be something neat for my daughter to try. It was quite expensive though at $5. Again its to help a local business thrive so I didn't mind as much as if I went to Walmart and had to pay that price.

The dairy farm tour was done once and hour. Thankfully we got there when we did and only had to wait about 15 minutes. The tour guide is the son of the owner of the farm and works there. He was very friendly and knowledgeable. My son asked lots of questions. 

The one question I asked was why one of the cows had a scar down its right side. He explained that sometimes very rarely after a cow gives birth if she doesn't eat a lot her stomach fills with gas where the calf was and the stomach twists so a veterinarian has to do surgery to fix the stomach.

They had a little petting zoo for the kids and that to me was the best part of the visit. They had a very small pony, rabbit, and goats. The day before a baby goat was born and orphaned at a nearby farm and they are taking care of the goat. My children got to help bottle feed it.

Each child got to take home a pencil, cow eraser and activity book. They were selling shirts for $15 with their logo on them but we didn't purchase any.

I hope that my children retain some of the information they learned on the tour. I know that I learned some new things and really enjoyed my time spent at Dutch Hill Creamery.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on May 3, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

Our visit to Nyala Alpaca Farm

On Saturday May 2nd I took my kids to Nyala Alpaca Farm. They were participating in an event called Broome County Farm Trail. We had gone to another event right before this one that lasted longer then I had expected so we arrived at Nyala Alpaca Farm with only about a half hour to go before it was over for the day. Due to that we missed the Alpaca Fiber spinning wheel demonstration and getting to watch them sheer the fur off an alpaca.

They had two alpacas with harnesses on that the kids could lead around with rope. They had little cups of grains and carrots you could buy for 25 cents to feed the animals.

They had two rabbits, a mother goat and her two babies, a black sheep and lots of alpacas.

I don't know much about alpacas but everyone I have ever seen seem to be very friendly and these were no exception!

They had a bake sale and usually I will not buy from bake sales but I figured the money raised would go towards the animals so I let my kids each buy something even though I felt $1 was too expensive for a small brownie that was hard around the edges.

They had a table set up for kids to make wet-felted beads. They also had a large set up of things they made from the alpaca hair. They had amazing things made out of it I was shocked at how detailed the things were. Little pumpkins, a monster, a hot covered with eyes, mermaids etc. My daughter spent $2 on 12 felted beads. I really don't know what she will ever do with them but it was her money so I let her spend it.

Here is a short video of son feeding an alpaca: 

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on May 3, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.

The Berry Best Cafe & Frozen Dessert

Today I had planned to take my kids to a nature area for hiking and geocaching. My daughter had a really sore throat and did not feel up to going. She kept saying she was bored and asking what she could do. I asked if her and her brother wanted to go swim at the YMCA and go for ice cream after. Both of them cheered at the idea.

My children swam at the YMCA for about 45 minutes. By the end my daughter was crying that her throat was sore and it was hard to breath in the pool room. I completely agreed with her. While I sat there doing crossword puzzles I got dizzy from the humidity and my eyes were burning from all the chlorine fumes.

At the Healthy Kids Day event the YMCA put on a few weeks back there was a vendor there giving out samples of frozen yogurt and $1 off coupons. This ice cream shop was about 3 miles down the road so that is where we decided to go today since it was back on our way home.

The Berry Best Cafe & Frozen Dessert is more then just an ice cream shop. There are so many ice cream places popping up all over from Sweet Frog to FroYo to Hoopla but they are all pretty much the same. This ice cream shop was the same in that sense BUT they had a huge menu of Breakfast and lunch items. The prices looked a bit high to me. They also sold pints of ice cream as well as decorated frozen yogurt cakes.

My son got chocolate frozen yogurt (there is 15 flavors to choose from) and put chocolate sprinkles on top and chocolate cups with raspberry. My daughter got cake flavor mixed with strawberry cheesecake. She put a few different toppings on hers (there is over 60 to choose from) such as cotton candy sprinkles. She had a pretty large amount so she couldn't finish hers and I got to eat the rest. It was really tasty.

This is something I would only take my children to do once in awhile as it is pretty pricey. The frozen yogurt is 39 cents an ounce. Even with $1 off coupon on both my kids ice creams the total came to $6.35. I did not receive a receipt and when I asked for one the cashier said it was to late that the screen was already gone. The girl was young and never smiled once and didn't greet us or ask us if we needed help or anything.

I originally wrote this post on personapaper.com on May 9, 2015. The site is shutting down and I never earned any payment. I have transferred this post here on this awesome new blog site and deleted the article on personapaper.