This is a very personal subject matter for me and it hurts to even write about it right now but I must in order to bring awareness and raise money. In June of this year I lost my Uncle to suicide, it shocked me to the core never ever in a million years did I think he would do something like that. Not only was he my uncle he was my godfather, we even share a birthday. My uncle Carlos was crazy, you never knew what he was going to say but did he have a heart of gold.
I wish he would have told someone how he was feeling, maybe he was too ashamed. I know old school people think being depressed or having suicidal thoughts make you " crazy " not in the way I not used the word in the paragraph above but as in straight jacket crazy. Older people think it's wrong to need antidepressants or a therapist to talk too. Some people are ashamed of needing either pills or someone to talk too. At one point I was ashamed because I was told I was going to see the crazy doctor when I was going to see my therapist...that's not right. If it helps clear your mind then go for it. That is why we need this awareness. We need to make people aware that it's okay to need someone to talk too or it's okay to need an antidepressant or anxiety medication.
On September 20th there will be a walk on the North Shore to help raise this much needed awareness. I am walking in my uncle's honor "The Lourenco Team " we will be wearing blue ! If you want to join in with us that would be awesome or if you would like to donate that would be great too. I would hate to see other families lose members to suicide, if there is anything we can do to prevent it lets do it. It's harder than you can imagine. I miss Carlos a lot, we were not extremely close but we were close enough, I think about him daily and know he watches over us now. Please follow this link if you are interested in walking or donating. Also here is a picture of Carlos and my daughter, this was Christmas of 2012.
http://afsp.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=600823
Once again I was lucky enough to have some goodies sent to me to try out and review out my little monkey Gina.This times around I got Walgreens' new line of Baby Care products called Well Beginnings, I was sent diapers, wipes, baby wash and Oral Electrolyte. The products are reasonably priced and are well made in my opinion.
First let's talk about the diapers; they are adorable, although looks are not important but when you are trying to get a wiggle toddler to stay still it helps when they are admiring the new elephant on their diaper ! I normally purchase Pampers Swaddlers so I kept comparing the Well Beginnings brand to the Swaddlers. They were soft enough, and the tabs were easy enough to maneuver, nice stretch on the wast line and the fit her nicely. We had no leakage !!! That is always a strong feat and an A+ in my book. They were not bulky at all however a little on the thin side, great for the day but I would not use them over night, that is just me personally. Overall great value for your dollar. I am not going to talk about rashes with the diaper because Gina has super sensitive skin and gets rashes all the time, it would be unfair to say the diaper caused one because she gets them with ALL diapers even the beloved Swaddlers.
Moving onto the wipes....I LOVE them. I normally use the Pampers Sensitive wipes which is what I compared these wipes too. These wipes are the most durable wipes ever, I swear. I tried pulling them apart and they did not give easily, it was just a test I do not normally go around tearing apart wipes for entertainment purposes. They cleaned up a lot of mess in one swipe. They did not irritate the skin at all and I have made the switch. They are not too wet either even when you get to the bottom of the package like other brands.
As for the baby wash I was not blown away by it really, do not get me wrong it did it's intended job; get baby clean with a gentle formula but I am a person who longs for the baby smell and it was not there. No smell was there really. Like I said it cleaned Miss Gina, did not cause her to break out at all and that was that ! We normally use Johnson & Johnson Lavender Body and Hair Wash which is what I compared it too..guess that was not fair.
I have not had the chance to try the oral Electrolyte drink thank goodness because that would mean Gigi were sick ! I have a feeling will be just as good if not better than Pedialyte just cheaper, lol ! I like having a bottle on hand for when the inevitable does hit our household.
I would like to thank Walgreens and Green Moms Meet for offering me this wonderful opportunity. I was not compensated in anyway and all opinions were my own. I was sent all the reviewed products for free.
Yup it's true ! I was recently offered an opportunity to try our a service called esalon by bzzagent for free. It came at the perfect time, I swear the bzz agent bees saw the state of my hair and threw this campaign at me, lol.
I logged onto https://www.esalon.com/ and filled out my profile which included uploading a photo and choosing a color. I actually had a good time doing this, maybe I do not get out enough ( shrugging ...) I went with Mahogany Red, after choosing my color I got to choose some extra goodies, up to $60 worth as part as my campaign; I went with Shampoo, Conditioner, Clips, bowl and brush so I can feel like hair dresser while coloring my hair. Shipping was super quick, took a matter of days and it was tracked.
To my surprise when I opened my box, which was so nicely packaged inside I got a free bottle of hair color, stuff to put around my hairline and ears (essentially Vaseline ) and stain remover for the places I missed, whoop whoop ! After I got my tot to sleep I busted out the old towels and slipped on the rubber gloves...I did the usual mixing like a mad scientist and then for the first time ever I clipped my hair into sections and used the hair dresser bowl and brush to paint my hair, well that did not go so well it's so much harder than it looks doing it to yourself especially the back of your own head. I ended up just using my hands like I normally would with a box from Target or someplace similar. I hate to say anything negative but I must be honest, the smell of the dye was horrible it made my eyes water for the whole 30 minutes it was in my hair, I could not wait to rinse this stuff out. After rinsing and conditioning the smell was gone thank goodness.
The color was more mahogany than red until the sunlight hit my hair THEN it was red, red, red ...I LOVE it. With esalon you never have to worry about running to the store to buy more dye they will deliver every 4,6 or 8 weeks and charge your card accordingly and you can cancel anytime or just order here and there. It's all up to you. It's all reasonably priced as well. Please check out my before and After pictures as well as my box of goods.
Boring disclaimer: I received esalon products for free, I was not compensated in any way. All opinions are mine :-)
I noticed that I have not written in a month, I feel guilty ! But in all honesty it has been such an emotionally exhausting month, if it were not so personal I would indulge everyone as to what has been going on but it's still fresh, raw and again too personal. Please accept my apologies for my absence and be rest assured I am back and fingers crossed I will not I have go through that ordeal again.
I have missed writing now that I am on here. I do have some exciting reviews coming up soon so stay tuned my friends.
Right before I left for my travel to Pennsylvania I was sent some Emile Noel Artisan Oil for free to taste and review, I had received the Toasted Sesame Oil. I never worked with toasted sesame oil before so I did what any other person would do...I went to Pinterest.
I found a ton of things to make with this, I started with sesame seasoned spinach which was oh so good and of course good for you, it was a win win. I also used it to make a dressing for a simple salad and to get a feel for the flavor I simply dressed some zucchini and squash with it. The taste is amazing, I was quite pleased with it really. Next time I go to the grocery store I will be sure to pick up some salmon, I came across a recipe for toasted sesame and ginger salmon...that just made my tummy growl. Such a versatile product and if you know me I am ALL about a versatile product.
What else do I like about you ask ? Well it is organic and Fair Trade, obviously since it USDA Organic its free of GMOs which is a biggie with me. The company has been around since 1985 and in case you were wondering the oil is a product of France...oh la la ;-)
All in all it's a nice light tasting oil, very nice and easy to work with. Cannot wait to make that salmon !
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
I just got back from my first visit to Pennsylvania and I must say I absolutely fell in love there ! The hotel we stayed in was in Ephrata which is not too far from Lancaster and the Amish.
Now I have watched Amish Mafia and Breaking Amish and thought to myself I would never want to live like that and then I saw what it is really like. I love the simplicity of it, do not get me wrong I know it is a hard life but there was something about it that drew me to it. The Amish I interacted with were polite and kind as well as their children, I always got shy little smiles.
We stopped at a farm stand where I bought the most delicious cantaloupe nothing like what you get in the store. Fresh onions and white peppers,and green beans. I felt good buying this produce knowing it was fresh and local and the money was going to this family, not some big super market.
While there I also got to experience a horse and buggy ride. It was nice and relaxing, would I want to travel like that all the time ? Probably not. While on the ride we went through a " drive thru " which consisted of stopping at an Amish families home and the kids came out with home made bottled root beer, lemonade ( which I had and was the best lemonade I have had to date ) whoopie pies, cookies, popcorn and zucchini bread. I tried it all with the exception to the popcorn and root beer, it was all so flipping good and the kids were so thankful for the sale. Also while on the ride we saw about 100 or so Amish men building a barn, come to find out the barn had burnt down a couple days prior and these men all gathered together and rebuilt it, it touched my heart to see them all come together for one another.
We also did the usual touristy things such as Chocolate World which was yumalicous and a good time, Turkey Hill, Intercourse Canning ( got some yummy home made treats ) and Kettle Village for some shopping. Oh yes let's not forget Philly...we went there for the zoo which was amazing, great selection of animals of which seemed happy for animals in confinement especially the polar bears and monkeys. After the zoo we went looking for the infamous Geno's for a steak and cheese, the rest of my family was disappointed with the sandwich but I really liked it ! Normally I am not a fan of onions but the onions were a nice addition to the sandwich, next time I will try Pat's for comparison. I am not a fan of Philly though...sorry !!
I would absolutely love to go back to Pennsylvania, maybe next time stay in a Mennonite Amish place, great a real feel for it. I cannot tell you enough how much I fell in love. Keep life simple, live simple and be happy...those are my parting words for tonight. Hope you enjoy some of the pics I took !
I got a surprise in the mail this month from Influenster, it was the TLC VoxBox for Moms ! How excited was I ? Yup super excited, I love getting mail especially when it's not bills. I love packages even more.
Want to know what was inside, of course you do otherwise you would not be reading this. I got the following;
Neosporin to go- Anyone that has a child needs this in their purse, diaper bag, car, bicycle basket, you catch my drift you just need it. Kids fall and you need to clean their scrapes, give it a little squirt of this, slap a band aid on and call it a day.
A coupon for Breyers Gelato Indulgences- The coupon was to get any flavor of my choose, I went with tiramisu and oh my word this is the BEST gelato I have had in a long time. It was the perfect texture, the flavor was spot on. I am hooked. It was just as good at the stuff you can get in the North End of Boston ( aka Little Italy )
Ivory Bar Soap- Personally I am not a bar of soap user so I used it on my toddler. It was gentle enough for her and she loved the fact that it floated. She actually thought it was a boat ! It was cute. And she does have real toy boats in the tub, I do not want you thinking I make her play with soap only or something !!
Avon Anew Reversalist Express Wrinkle Soother- Hmmm I do not have much to say about this. I really with I loved it but I am indifferent about it really. I tried it a couple times but did not notice a difference really.
Puffs to go with Lotion- Great tissues to have in your purse. They do not break and can take a beating. They do not leave your nose raw, trust me they were put through the ultimate test at a wake/funeral.
Shell Fuel Rewards Card- This little card is going to come in handy when we go on our road trip. You use it at Shell gas stations to save money at the pump however you can also rack up points while dining and shopping online, how many other gas reward cards do you know of like that ?!
Overall I am VERY happy with this VoxBox and so glad to be part of Influenster Nation !
Disclosure: I received all of these products for free and all opinions are mine.
