Go Saints :)

Well...I haven't been here(blog) for quite a while so I thought I would share New Orleans. I have been staying in New Orleans for two weeks now and I had forgotten how rottingly charming it is. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. Living in Mississippi only a few hours from La. I hear such horrid things about it especially since Katrina blew through. It is such a diverse dirty city with loads of beauty, quaintness and charm. I use to drive down all the time when I was young(about 22 years ago) and party in the French Quarter. Now that I have returned with mature eyes I see so much more than beer and skanky women! I revisited the French Quarter along with Downtown New Orleans this weekend and the buildings could be taken right out of a painting. The architecture structure of the French Quarter leaves me in awe. The ongoing shops and resturants filled with so many different cultures of people is amazing to be a part of. Each little building be it a bar, a hotel, a store of some sort, a hole in the wall or a resturant has it's quirks and old style structure with neat passages and turns you wouldn't expect. I love walking along further past the business part of the French Quarter and examining the houses all connected with there neat doorways and side gates with long secretive passage ways! I am in love....

<3 Vaseline!

My mom has been yackin on and off for a week about home made lotion! Apparently she heard it from my favorite Sis in-law but she didn't understand how to make it. I thought I would surprise my mother with a batch so I called up my Sis and got the scoop! It goes like this....

All of these items can be found at Family Dollar, very cheap to make!

It's suggested that you use :
Vaseline
Vitamin e cream
Johnson baby lotion

What I learned after researching this in my handy google is that you can use basically whatever lotion you want just keep the vaseline and vitamin e cream. Some people do not want to smell like a baby's butt! This is what I did...

I bought : (first kind of lotion)
2 small jars of vaseline (or petroleum jelly)
1 jar (pretty big) of Vitamin E cream
1 8.8 oz container of Mango body butter :P

seeing as I was making some for me and my mother I also bought : (2nd kind of lotion)
2 more small jars of vaseline
1 container of Vitamin E cream
1 large bottle of Aloe Vera lotion

First batch:
All I did was get a huge mixing bowl and scooped out the 2 jars of vaseline, the entire container of Vitamin E cream and the container of Mango Body Butter.
After getting it all in the bowl (vaseline was challenging) I used a hand held mixer (don't be scared, it comes clean in the diswasher!!) and mixed it all up.
That was the first try and it is my favorite actually....I call it my Mango Lotion :) It's very vaseliniiii and I love me some vaseline!

Then I tried the second batch but opted to not use all the vaseline and vitamin E cream this time around :

1 jar of vaseline
1/2 container of Vitamin E cream
entire bottle of aloe vera lotion

Again I mixed it all up with a mixer and POOF! Lotion!

The Aloe vera batch was a bit thinner than the Mango because I used less vaseline. It's whatever your preference is and you can play around with different lotions and scents. Some people use Coco butter with the vaseline and vitamin e cream. I also read people putting in drops of different oils for scents and added moisture.

If you have dry skin or your a tanner this is great! With the vaseline/vitamin e cream added it's so much better than just lotion alone.

Just experiment with your measurements and enjoy! I had a blast making it, the vaseline was gooey and fun! You can reuse the vaseline and vitamin e containers to house your new lotion or grab some tupperware! My mother was pleasantly surprised! I made it Saturday night and have been lubing up ever since!

Ok so I have mentioned before that I am the only female at work. On occasion (like all the time) I will leave on my hour lunch break and just grab something and find a nice place to park, eat in my car and then relax. Today I got Taco Bell because who doesn't love Taco Bell! I ate and as I ate I of course dripped Baja sauce all down the side of my face. I pulled down the rear view mirror, tilted it towards my face, wiped off my mouth and continued to eat. OK...BAD IDEA! Leaving a mirror pointed at the face of a almost 40 year old female! So as I ate...I starred. Then after I ate I starred. What is it with wrinkles? I don't have laugh lines cause I don't smile alot (I'm mean :P ) but WOW...somewhere between 38 and now I acquired some changes! I continued to analyze my face, then my hands and my feet and ended up snapping some pics! Anyone know how to get rid of those deep lines down under your eyes (bags?). My hands are wrinkly and so are my feet!!! Don't get my wrong...I'm not being emo, I like myself...I guess It's shocking to see how much your features can change even overnight! -sighs and crinkles up her nose-

So other than getting sleep which I haven't done in 16 years...how do you get rid of that deep line running down under your eyes?

Belize

I have 7 years to go! When my youngest turns 18 and get's out of high school, I'm leaving. I have thought about it since I was 19 years old. Yeah ok I should have gone then but then I may not have the two beautiful boys I have now. So I am being a parent first as always and then I will offer for either or both of them to come and I'm gone, gone to Belize. Will I come back? -giggles- hopefully not :)

Musca domestica!

Ahhhhh summertime in the South. I love the weather in the South even down to the unbearable heat but there are two things associated with this heat that drive me nuts!! Fleas and Flies! Fleas because I have dogs and it's a constant financial battle to keep them free of fleas but FLIES!! My youngest and his friends can't seem to understand "SHUT THE DOOR" when going in and out of the house. Wintertime no problem but when the heat comes the flies come with it. He, being Andy my youngest, left the door open yesterday for a minute until he couldn't stand my screams of horror any longer and when I walked into the living room I saw about six flies on the window! Mice I can handle....snakes I can handle, roaches...no way....fleas aren't on me just my Ellie, the love bugs all huddled in my car having wild sex as they fly around, I can handle but Flies? No no no no no! Unprepared as I always am (no fly swatter) I began to spray the window down with Clorox Cleanup! It worked but I was defeated as I walked into my bedroom to find two more on my bedroom window!

Facts about flies :
Flies have over 4,000 facets for sight in each eye. ( WOW)
Flies are attracted by movement more than color.
Flies have a smelling distance of over 750 yards.
A fly's feeding range is usually limited to two miles.
A single garbage can, if not emptied, can be the breeding ground for 30,000 flies.
During warm weather, a fly can produce a family generation in less than two weeks.

House Fly -
~The housefly, Musca domestica, is one of the most common of all insects.It is a worldwide pest in homes, barns, poultry houses, food-processing plants, recreation areas, etc.
~House fly eggs are laid in almost any type of warm organic material.Animal or poultry manure is an excellent breeding medium. Decaying vegetation such as grass clippings and garbage can also provide for optimum breeding conditions.
~Houseflies are strong fliers and can become widely distributed by flying, wind currents, vehicles and animals. Generally, though, flies are abundant in the immediate vicinity of their breeding site.
THE BEST WAY to get rid of flies is simple and fun.
Open a fruity alcoholic beverage like Smirnoff or mikes hard lemonade, drink half of it, and let the other half sit outside. Flies will find it irresistible as they die by the dozen. Last summer it filled to the top with dead flies.

OR :

Take an orange and "juice it" (just take out the middle) and fill it with salt. Place this
anywhere in your home that you want to get rid of flies. They disappear!
The oranges last for a couple of months, then you just get new ones.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! EWWWW! -begins to swat the air around her-

Boo!

I am a huge scary movie gal! I have been noticing that the scary movies out in the 20th century are just not scary at all! Although the Saw movies were not scary, I did enjoy them alot so I will count those as the best in 2000 so far. What has happened to the edge in scariness? Seems like every movie out is completely predictable. Some of my favorites from the past are:
Thirteen Ghost
Rosemary's Baby
The Shinning
Seven
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Exorcist
Jaws
The Others
Hellraiser
The Omen
and of course Psycho :)

I do go and see most of the ones that come out in anticipation and hope that I will once again have that tight feeling in my gut and the excitement in my heart....but excluding Saw It has been one let down after the other. How many versions of "The Ring" and "The Grudge" can we get? It's all the same.....Give me something GOOD HOLLYWOOD!
I need a Tales from the Crypt and Twilight Zone marathon weekend!

Ugghhh.....

So I have been fixated on this one particular scar on my desk at work...by scar I mean a deep cut that has been here since I have and I'm sure by the looks of it much much longer. Why have I been noticing it so much? It's an old desk, been used over and over, it doesn't get much love in the decoration or cleaning department and it harbors things that in the end really are not important. The only time I have ever liked this desk is when Ellie was perched upon it but that hasn't been recent because my boss apparently thinks he should be here! -rolls her eyes- I think I am scared of being like the gauge in my desk. I get up and go to the bathroom, even though my job is not hard in the least it's completely boring, and I look at myself in the mirror....Everyday it seems like my face is showing scars just like that desk! I have bags and lines under my eyes and apparent older skin and it's different every time I look again! What am I scared of...if anything....to just get up off my old ass and go! It's definitely not the pay that has me here and it's not the city. Quite frankly it's not even the people. Yet another day passes and another mark has crept upon my face. I ammmm so feeling like my desk.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! -slams her stappler down on the crack in her desk-