Defying Gravity

So several months ago I was really noticing the sun damage on my skin and some brand new wrinkles.  arghh!  My mom and sisters have great skin. Even my mother-in-law does.  So I thought I just would too.  But it wasn't happening.  I started looking around at skin care products, bought a few, kept using them even though they were nothing special.  I have been worried for awhile b/c I am in the sun all the time with the kids, but almost every kind of sunscreen makes me break out so I rarely wear it on my face. 

Anyway, my good friend here told me about some products made by the docs who created  Proactive.  They started a new company called Rodan &Fields and are targeting the anti-age industry.  The products are amazeballs!  I noticed a difference almost immediately.  My skin looks brighter and more even.  A huge bonus is that the daily cream (with spf) doesn't bother my skin AT ALL!!  yea! And it's so light- I seriously look forward to putting it on.  The little daily regimen feels awesome!!  And everyone knows that I'm super low maintenance... so that's sayin' somthin'!

So why didn't I just become a happy customer and leave it at that?  I mean between homeschool, regular school for the other boys and trying to make sure Lucy isn't raised by Dora... I'm pretty swamped.  Being a Cub Den Leader and running several times a week and that part about eating and laundry- there's more but you all know the drill.  Life is busy!!

But when I heard that this company just went direct (it was the #1 clinical skincare @ Nordstroms) in 2009- right after the worst economic times our country has seen in decades and that they are now doing more business in a month than in a year at Nordstrom.... I was interested.  And they haven't even hit their business momentum yet.  And then when I heard that there were only 15-20K reps in the USA as opposed to 2 million Mary Kay or 1 million Arbonne... well then I was really interested because I have read that with direct marketing timing is critical.  I mean as long as you have a good product with good financial backing (Hello? Proactive- $8 billion company!!) then getting into the biz early is an incredible opportunity.

I was still not sold though- because I'm not a salesy person.  At. All.  Although I do admit to selling pest control for a summer during college.  But seriously here was my door approach: "Hi, we have  deal going on for our service.  If you're interested I could send someone by.  If not (already off the porch) have a good one."  I was the suckiest suck that ever sucked.  But I actually didn't do badly.  Because it was a product that many people wanted.  And I'm seeing the same for this company.  People are interested b/c the biz model works and the products are awesome


When I heard that all the Rodan &Fields products are backed with a 60 day empty bottle guarantee and the same goes for consulting I thought, what the heck?  I'll give it a go for 60 days and if I hate it I'll get my $$ back.  So I jumped in.  My two months is almost up.  And I've earned back my inital investment (bought one of each product just to have them to loan out and show) and I won an ipad.  sa-weet!  The ipad incentive goes on through the end of this year.

Anyway, now that I have the biz basics down, the time for doing the job is very reasonable.  And all the women I'm working with are having the same success, some lots more!  It's not just these super lucky people way above me that are doing well- it's my peeps!  They're paying off student loans, covering the grocery bill and even the mortgage.  In part time from home with hours they choose.  Oh and it's not a party company (you do one launch at the beginning to get the word out- this event is actually super fun) but really you rely on word of mouth.  And that's what's working for people.  And you don't stock inventory so you'll never be stuck with a bunch of stuff you don't want. 

I mean, really I think these docs just took direct marketing and tried to remove everything people hate about it.  And the products rock: anti-age, sun damage, adult acne and soothe (for irritated skin).  So there it is.  That's why I haven't sewed anything new in 2 months, it's why my blog has been neglected and it's why I can't tell you about any recent celebrity gossip!!!  I don't know if K-Stew and R-Patz have worked things out but I can tell you that this month the anti age serum comes free with the purchase of the anti-age regimen.  And that serum is like butta.  :)  If you read to the end of this post- thanks for listening to me go on and on!  I'm just pretty dang excited about it all! 

                                           (Don't I look all serious and professional??)

Color

Sometimes I think I'm still 10. I love to color and I love good games. My fav Christmas giftst this year were:

Colorku: Everytime I have a little free time or when I'm just feeling grumpy I play this (alone or with a couple of kids) and I feel better!

Color Me Your Way: Found this awesome coloring book at Costco. I only wish I had bought a bunch. Now I can only seem to find them online for twice the price. arghh! We passed these out to the cousins on Christmas Day and everyone was working on them over the break. I finished another one this week- loved working on it.

Oh and I got a speed Rubick's cube. Not that I'm speedy, my best time is just over 2 minutes, a far cry from Curt's record of 30 seconds (when he was a studly 7th grader). But this cube is so smooth and fun to play with. I'll keep working on that time. Oh and a friend recommended kenken puzzles to me and they are really cool. I'm not very good at them but they're fun to work on with a kid.

So yeah, I'm 10, maybe 12.

Want to Learn Geography?

Geography has never been my gift. Really the only Geography class I've ever taken was in 7th grade and 1) it was pretty much coloring 101 and 2) our teacher was really cute (Mr. Coe for any other Clifford Smart grads) and he was frankly distracting!

Anyway, I've always been sort of embarrassed when people start talking about places in the world. I've tried studying maps but it just didn't seem to stick. When I was a new mom my girlfriends and I even planned to get together and learn geography while the kiddies played. But... we only got to Africa (which was where we started... and we pretty much ended up talking about other stuff).

As my boys have gotten older I have been on the lookout for games/tools to help them learn about continents and countries... and my search is over. After a bit of research I ended up with the Leap Frog Globe from Amazon. I've read reviews from people who found them at Sams or Costco for a steal. I bought this one over a year ago and I LOVE it! It has a fun game that you can play by yourself or with others. Within a couple of weeks I could locate places like New Caledonia, Georgia, French Guyana... My kids really like the music feature. You touch a country and a song from that land is played. Our favorites are mostly the African countries but we also love Oman and Scotland. One day I was quizzing Daniel (without the globe) and asked him to name the country between China and Russia. I was looking for Mongolia but he hesitated and said "Well, it could be Mongolia or Kazakhstan." I checked the globe and he was right!! So worth the purchase right there!

As Lucy enters her toddler phase I find that I can play with the globe less and less (she is obsessed with turning it on and off and on and off... and yanks on the pen- yeah that's her hand in the picture). So if you have a toddler you may want to hold up but seriously this globe rocks! The bad news: I got mine for $90 and read about people who found them for $50 at Sams but this year's model is $180! What gives?!

Best Bike for Kids Who Don't Want to Ride

Jonah and Isaac were both very early bikers- taking their training wheels off when they were barely 4 years old. I wondered how it would go for Daniel. He was much more timid and did NOT like the wobbling of the little bike with training wheels.

I started to notice that Daniel was running behind all the neighborhood boys as they rode their bikes. It seemed so sad. I really put a lot of effort into teaching Daniel to ride. But he hated it and my back hated it. I wasn searching around online one day and came across a product called a Balance Bike. Long story short- it's the greatest invention ever! I wish I had discovered these when he was 3! They are quite small and have no pedals. The point is that kids can push with their feet and place their feet on pegs as they get better at balancing! A bonus for someone Daniel's age (he'll be 6 in a few months) is that he doesn't have the stigma of training wheels. We have just started riding bikes again (in Texas we don't ride in the summer or fall- too HOT) and he is doing great! Miles ahead of where we were last year when he completely refused to get on a bike. I'm hoping he'll transition to a bike with pedals in the next few months and then I will have the balance bike for Lucy!

FYI I chose the PV Mini glider, found here. A little pricey but I think they resell well and if you have more kids on the way they can be passed down!

PS: My good buddy Heidi reminded me that you can make your own balance bike too. There are instructions online for building a wooden bike if you're inclined or, you could just remove the pedals and chain from a small child's bike.

Addicted. To. Baby Legs.

I found baby legs online while searching for comfy baby tights. They seemed they best idea! Easy on and off and no hassles while diaper changing. I'm not a big fan of baby shoes so that worked out too. I bought a couple of pair online and they are very cute but I wanted some other patterns and while searching around discovered a great tutortial on how to make your own. I saw these socks on sale at Target and had to have them! Added bonus: padding on Lucy's knees while she crawls around on the tile floor. Fashion and function!


http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2008/01/21/make-your-own-baby-leg-warmers/
Sorry, can't be bothered to figure out how to make that a link. I'll work on it later!!