Category: Home Life

Nadia is 23 months old today. She has grown an inch in the last 2 weeks and is now 33″ and 22 pounds 2 ounces. This actually moved her to 5% on the weight chart for the first time ever!

In honor of today I offer 23 funny things Nadia says or does right now that make us smile.

• “Take care you” – she says this when she wants to hear “God will take care of you” in the car. The Plumb version is her favorite song.
• “Monkey” – she says this anytime she knows she has been funny or silly. We call her this all the time.
• “uh mah nuh” this is how she says I love you
• “Welcome” this immediately follows uh mah nuh, like “you’re welcome that I said I love you”
• “Coo coo bird” this is a request to watch her favorite episode of Jack’s Big Music show. I really want to get her saying it on video because it’s so cute.
• “Shuga peas” this is her request for raw sugar peas fresh out of the fridge. It’s a favorite snack of hers.
• When I go in the closet to get ready in the morning Nadia closes the door and says, “Close you in!”
• “Dink” – this is how she says drink and she has great hand motions for it.
• When she hears any form of hip hop type music she says, “Eddie” and does the hand motions he taught her when they came to visit.
• “Crash!” – what she says to Mike when she wants to play the airplane game.
• “Shuh luh luh luh” – what she says when she wants Mike to put her on his shoulders. This is generally said while spinning in a circle at his feet.
• “Pony!” – what she says when she wants me to put her hair in a pony tail.
• She sometimes wants to pick out her outfits. Pink is the favorite color choice of this week.
• “Mama funny” – I hear this all the time when we are going about our day. So super cute!
• “Come and sit, peeeease!”
• Since starting her weekly music class almost anything is turned into a drum. She is also teaching her stuffed chicken how to drum, but he has a little trouble with loud beats since he only has wings.
• The other day Mike asked her if she wanted to get down and she said, “I love down!”
• When she thinks something is pretty or exciting she gives a super animated, “Ohhhh or Ahhhh!!!”
• She now feeds and changes all her stuffed animals. They all need to eat mac and cheese and nuggets and have their diapers changed.
• Her favorite food is black olives.
• “Song, song!”
• “Careful Mama” – the first time she said this was when I almost ran into a broom handle sticking out of our cart at Lowes. That little voice was so sweet.
• She notices trash on the ground or floor everywhere and always says, “UH OH!!”

I am part of a program called Bzzz Agent. They send out products for everyday people to test out and if possible share with others. Then as an agent you tell people about the product/spread the buzzzzzz. The campaign I am a part of now is for Max Factor Make up. The photo above shows what came in my test kit. I will be honest and say that in the past I didn’t purchased Max Factor products very often. But recently I started to notice their coupons in the Sunday paper with the super colorful ads with their new spokes-model Gisele (gotta love it when you can go by your first name only right?).

So here is my review of the products that they sent.

A) The Volume Couture Mascara. This has tiny little brushes instead of the big ones on some other brands. I am not a big mascara girl, but I like the light feel that this one has and it doesn’t clump up on my eyelashes. PRO TIP: blink while putting on mascara to get maximum coverage.

B) ColorGenius Blush in #110 Peaches. They also sent a blush brush for application. I really like this blush because you can blend the colors together and get a lighter or darker look as you need it. The blush itself feels nice on my skin. And I have to admit that I like that you just get a big thing of blush and use your own brush. I honestly hate the little tiny brushes that usually come with blush. They are totally impractical and a waste of space. PRO TIP: Use a swirling motion when applying instead of the traditional upward sweep and you will get a natural, flushed look.

C) The Lipfinity Lipstick. I have to say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!! I am not going to buy any other brand of lipstick again as long as this is on the market. First you apply to color and let it set for 60 seconds. Then you cover with the clear gloss and go. I have been trying this for 2 weeks now and it says it can last up to 12 hours – you just add more clear gloss as the day goes on. The longest it has stayed on for me is 9 hours which is pretty impressive since I ate 2 meals in that time period. PRO TIP: touch up with the moisturizing gloss throughout the day to keep you color fresh and shining.

What I really like about it is that it doesn’t burn when you put the base coat on (this happened when I tried the Cover Girl one) and it doesn’t smell like anything! I hate the smell of most lipsticks and that is why I tend to wear colored gloss. It also doesn’t have the waxy feel of a typical lipstick. And the stuff really stays on a long time without making my lips dried out. Once again I LOVE this product.

So there you have it, I am very impressed with the Max Factor products that I was sent to try. I have coupons to share for my local friends who would like to try it, just let me know and I will give one to you.

Now blog readers – I ask you to post a comment and let me know what you think so I can report my “bzzzzzzz” Thanks.

So here is what happened to the first set of trees we bought:

The people at Native Shade were either dishonest or ignorant, and so we lost the money. They refused to give us a warranty once the trees were in place – claiming our soil was the problem. After talking to an arborist and other gardening type people, we found the truth was you don’t transplant Red Oaks in the middle of the summer! Either way we were taken advantage of because we knew nothing about trees or gardening.

From this we learned about the pH of the water in our part of town, all about our soil, the types of trees that will thrive and when the best time of year to plant is. Thank you Arborist Sandy Rose at Shade Masters. So now I present the new trees – from Treeland Nursery tree farm! (Complete with a warranty)

We replaced the dead Red Oak in the front yard with a nice, large Bald Cypress. We replaced the dead Red Oak in the back with another Red Oak, but moved it over about eight feet to match the contour of our new patio. We also added two beautiful Autumn Blaze Maples along the fence. We expect to enjoy all of them greatly.