Go Team Dane!!!

This weekend was a humbling one for me. There are a handful of kids that I love just as dearly as my own and Dane certainly has a very special place in my heart. His mom Tara does too. I'll never be half the parent she is. To deal with all that is on her plate as calm as she's been (although she has had her moments too) and to be on top of everything that the doctor's and nurses do to make sure that he doesn't take any unnecessary backward steps is something I'm not sure that I could do. She's pretty damn amazing in my very humble opinion. To find out why I say this keep reading....


Dane has been up at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford for a month now. He has been battling a serious case of pneumonia. I saw first hand just what he has to go through every day to get better and it was heartbreaking. It really made me appreciate that I have healthy children. I'm really glad that I made the trip up there to see them. It definitely helped to understand just what goes on on a daily basis.

With Dane being up where he is and for as long as he has it has been seriously taxing financially for Tara. She's been lucky and has had donations from some amazing people to give her a helping hand. There is even an auction going on as well to give her some financial assistance.(Here's the link if you are into horses and are interested. http://www.32auctions.com/organizations/5304/auctions/5887?page=1) Between parking fee's to be at the hospital all day ( I was there for about 6 hours and it cost me $12!!), food, gas and having a place to sleep it gets to be ridiculously expensive. For the most part she is up there with him every day by herself but her family is able to go up and hang out with them also and give her a bit of a reprieve. I will be heading back up there in a few weeks as well if they are still up there. 

She's had some "Go Team Dane!" bracelets made so people can show their support for Dane. If you are interested, let me know and I'll get you the information to order one. 

Dane also has Muscular Dystrophy and is the MDA ambassador for the SLO area. He loves fire and police men. Some of the guys from stations around the area  have gone by to say hello and visit with him for a few minutes which is really fantastic of them. It really does make his day!

 I was not prepared at all to see some of the other children and see them hooked up to machines with tubes and wires everywhere. It was really overwhelming. Seeing the photos and videos of Dane hooked up to all that didn't even prepare me seeing it in person. It was really hard to keep it together.

 The thing I've taken away from all of this is life is too short and there are bigger things happening in the world than any of our petty complaints. 

 Dane and I watching a cartoon before I left.

 If you are interested in helping out leave a comment and I'll get you in touch with Tara or get you the information.

My apologies if this is a little rambling..  I'm sure there is far more that I could add but I just really don't have the words to express the right way. I'll post an update in a few weeks. 

Till next time...

The Hair Blog!

Since I haven't blogged in a while I thought that this would be a great opportunity to do so. Maybe some of you who know me wonder why the HELL I cut off my hair.. So I'll tell you why.. I needed a CHANGE (and to be totally honest some sense of control. That week had been a cluster fuck of EPIC proportions). And since my hair is one of the few things in my world that is totally under my control that's just what I did. Chopped. It. Off.

I had been contemplating a minor change for a while.. At first I was thinking well maybe I'll change the color and just add some bangs but as it got closer to going to see Arlan (Who is the BEST by the way!! When Jen moved to LA I was worried I'd never find someone as good as her and I'm really glad that Todd (her fiance who I've known for a million years) posted a link to her hair page on the book of face. Here's the link so go check it out and if you are in the area seriously go see her! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Passion-for-Hair/181075972029795)I didn't really decide to cut it all off until probably about 5 minutes before I showed up at Todd and Arlan's house (I had only decided to cut it to just below the collar bone). While I LOVED my long hair it was starting to break a lot and it was really dry at the ends and super unmanageable. It was driving me crazy. I had started to make a few changes to help out my hair but I'm one of those instant gratification kinds of people and it wasn't enough. 

Here's what I had started doing: I kept seeing pins on pinterest about Biotin and how it helps your hair, skin and nails. So I thought what the hell and picked some up to try. I've been taking it for about a month and I can see a difference. My nails are stronger and grow a little faster and my skin feels a little better too. I hadn't noticed much change in my hair but that's probably because it was so wrecked that it would be impossible to detect any changes. I've also started to use coconut oil as a mask in my hair about once or twice a week. I have really course, thick hair and I've noticed that its not quite as frizzy but again the change wasn't that noticeable. I'll keep up this particular regime and give you an update along with how much my hair has grown in a few months. Lets see if this actually helps make your hair grow faster as people claim... 

OK! Back to Arlans house. When I got there we chatted for a minute about what I wanted to do and I told her I didn't want it any shorter than just above my collar bone. So after we washed my hair and made our way back into the bathroom she got it all pulled up except for the first bit she was going to cut. I hemmed and hawed for a few seconds and then just told her to cut it before I changed my mind.. After she cut it all and added some straight across bangs (I've always had textured bangs before so this was a HUGE change for me.. hadn't had straight across bangs since I was 3.) I felt better. I got home and jumped in the shower and washed all the little hairs off and I started to second guess my decision to chop the bangs like we did. Seriously took me about a week to get used to it. LOL here are the before and afters... You can see it was a pretty dramatic change. 

Here's the before

and the after! 

 

I'm going to grow it out and donate it to locks of love. I won't cut it as short next time thought.. I have noticed after going through some old pictures from the last 10 years or more that I tend to go back to this style or similar about every 5 years.. Last time I cut it about this short was a year or so after my dad passed away. Before that it was just after the birth of my oldest Monster.. 

 

I'm pretty happy with it over all and the comments have been mostly positive.. Although I don't think anyone is going to tell me to my face that they hate it. LOL I'll blog again in a few months with an update on how the Biotin and coconut oil are working and post a new picture of my hair to see how long it has gotten. I have a few other blogs to write as well once I get enough time to do them all. 

 

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! I'm thinking after I donate to locks of love I may try out a totally new color!! 

 

Till next time kids!!  

Well this is awkward...

Upon reading my dear friend Sars latest blog I realized that I haven't written anything in AGES.. I'm fucking fired.. I don't really have a good reason to be honest. Laziness is a bitch and I'm kind of an expert. I have plenty to blog about.. I have possibly a dozen pairs of shoes to review and several new make up additions as well as just a few life things but I just haven't found the time and/or energy to do it. Sigh. 

I promise I'll start blogging again even if its just to bemoan my inability to get shit done or complain about how the people I talk to at work every day can't seem to get my name right! (seriously.. customers botch it up at least once a day. I've been called STEVE for pity's sake.. I don't SOUND like a Steve.. W.T.F) Its a source of amusement with my coworkers along with giving me shit about my shortness which, honestly, is pretty funny.

All in all, life hasn't been too bad. One or two pretty important people have found their way either into or BACK into my life and I'm pretty happy about that. I forgot how good it feels to be content and happy. I can say with complete confidence that I can't remember when I felt THIS good about certain aspects of my life. Really, its a great feeling. Maybe.... JUST maybe there will be more on that some other time. For now I don't want to jinx shit too much. LOL 

Look for something new within the next week or so. I've gotten some new stuff from Urban Decay that I can't wait to gush about. 

Till next time kids! 

JustFab review #3

After my debacle with JustFab's customer service and getting a credit for my trouble and giving them another try I ordered this beautiful red shoe they call Alex. I have a couple of other red shoes but this is by far my favorite. The color is amazing and the suede like material its made from is really nice. 

 Alex taken at work the day I got her

I had been wearing a pair of patent leatherish blue heels that I had bought at Forever 21 the day before. If you ever buy shoes from there I suggest going up a size. I'm normally an 8 but they run snug so I should have bought a 9. By the time I had received these my toes felt a little cramped so when I put these on and wore them around the office I was pretty sure my toes were going to be not so happy with me by the end of the day but I'm pleased to say that they weren't. At around 5 inches these are pretty comfy. 

I'm pretty excited about these and can't wait to wear them again!

While I'm here I also got a bag (also purchased with a store credit) called Hoover Dam. I'm kind of meh about the bag but I'm going to keep it. I don't have a picture of it but here's the photo that they have up on the site.

  Hoover Dam. Hopefully they don't mind me borrowing this pic!!

The bag is pretty roomy which is nice but its darker in color than shown in the picture. When the zipper is closed the are holes big enough for me to fit my hands in at either end of the bag. I would definitely preferred if the bag didn't have openings when it was zipped closed. That's my only big complaint really. It sits comfortably on your shoulder and isn't bulky even with a crap ton of stuff in there.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with what I got. Thanks again to Natasha for convincing me to give them another try.

A lash expirement completed.

Its been about 30 days or so since I started using the L'Oreal 24 hour lash boosting serum and the accompanying mascara. I have to say I don't think I noticed a difference. Here's the link to the first blog and a picture of what my lashes looked like before I started using the serum http://morethanashoewhore.blogspot.com/2012/04/lash-experiment.html and here's a picture of my lashes as of this morning. I don't really see a difference but that's just me and someone else might.

 anyone notice a difference?

 I put the serum on my lashes and a long the lash line every night after I washed my face as the instructions indicated. I know I was supposed to check back in after a week but I thought I'd give it a good 30 dayish try and see how it went. I definitely did not notice a difference after a week.

I'm really glad that I didn't spend $25 on this little system and had gotten it on sale. The mascara that comes with this is ok. The coverage of it is pretty good and it does make your lashes look a little fuller and longer. The only thing I don't like about it is that it clumps up at the top of the bottle because some of the mascara comes off as you pull the wand out. It also seems to dry up quickly. 

I personally would not recommend this product. If you are looking for something that will help your lashes grow a little I would try Revlon's Grow Luscious mascara or Rimmel London's 30 day accelerator mascara ( I think that's the name) I've used both and really liked them. 

 

How do you like your Customer Service?

I am not normally one to get really pissy about things. I work in the customer service field myself and know full well just how much of an asshole customer's can be. Sometimes I find myself starting to sound a little snippy if a customer is being particularly difficult. Recently, as in yesterday, I had to do a live chat with a customer service rep from JustFab.com. WORST. CUSTOMER. SERVICE. EVER!!!

 I ordered this amazing coral colored bag from them in November and have used it since. The seam where the zipper meets with the bag has started to come apart and the zipper is off the track so I can't even zip the bag closed. I left a message on their Facebook wall and they said I needed to call in or use the live chat to talk with a rep. Ok fine.. super. So I used the live chat and after waiting for someone to get to me for almost 10 minutes I finally got in touch with a rep. She said that there wasn't anything that they could do as they didn't have anymore bags in stock. So she gave me some extra reward points to get me to 350 which would equal out to a credit. I asked her if she could put some similar styles and colors into my show room so I could choose a new bag and she said I had to go to the facebook page and look through all the pictures and find one I liked then I could search for it on the website to see if it was still available. I read that and thought "are you fricking kidding me??" The ONE good experience I have had with Justfab consisted of the service rep I talked putting a bunch of bags in my wish list for me to choose from. 

So I went to their page and scrolled through all the damn photo's and finally settled on a bag that was already in my showroom. I went to go and order it but my points weren't converted into a credit. I must have had a blond moment because I just couldn't figure it out and usually I'm pretty good at that. So I went back to the live chat and got another rep to talk to. Suffice to say she was pretty worthless and left me hanging for a few minutes midway through our chat. I posted a comment today on JustFab's wall expressing my displeasure and finally someone from the company said they would get in touch with me sometime tomorrow. I'm pretty sure nothing they can say will convince me to continue to spend my money there. They now go on the list of customer service fail along with Ulta, MAC and Charter. 

Some of the best customer service places: 

Sephora: Seriously every time I go in there I have a good experience. I think I've only had one frustrating experience there. The girls that work there are all knowledgeable and really nice. It makes a huge difference. 

Shoedazzle: For those of you who know me almost all of my heels are from there given a few exceptions. I've  had to call their customer service people a few times and every single time they were pleasant and went above and beyond. 

Urban Decay and Bare Minerals counters at Macy's: I've gone to both places when I was in Santa Maria and they are great! Now I usually buy urban decay stuff at sephora but I needed something and went in. Bare Minerals was great when the girl at the MAC counter ignored me and told her coworker she wouldn't help me because I "wasn't pretty enough to help". TOTALLY RIDICULOUS! I haven't been back to the MAC counter at Macy's since then. 

I'll stop ranting now. The point of all of this is even though a company has some great products you have to have good customer service too. I have absolutely no expectations as far as what the person that's supposed to contact me will say or do to try and keep me as a customer but I'll at least hear them out. I don't really think they'll be able to change my mind at this point. 

I'll let you know what they had to say for themselves.. LOL

Till next time! 

UPDATE 5/28/12:

So the next day on the 16th by the end of the day I hadn't heard from Justfab's Member Services like I was told. So I posted on their wall and said I was disappointed and would be canceling my membership immediately. I went to the website to cancel and it turns out I had to call in. SIGH.. I called the customer service number and spoke with Natasha in the east coast office. She was REALLY nice and I explained what happened and that I wanted to cancel my membership with them. She put me on hold to go speak with her supervisor and when she came back offered me a store credit to stay and give them one more try. I have to say if it wasn't for Natasha and her efforts to make it right I would not have stayed. So I'll give them another try and we'll see what happens. 

 

Sephora haul and makeover

On Wednesday (5/9) I made a little trip over to Sephora to pick up a new concealer and some more of the Urban Decay De-Slick face spray (that stuff is AMAZING!! I've ranted about it before). I had been using the Boing concealer from Benefit, now while this is a pretty good concealer I started to notice that it was creasing under my eyes and it wasn't lasting all day like it had before so I decided it was time to try something new. I went into Sephora and a blond girl (I THINK her name is Katie but I can't swear to it) asked if I needed some help with anything so I told her what I was looking for and what I had been previously using. She suggested the Dior concealer (I got it the color Honey). She took a little and put some on under my eyes to make sure the color was correct and I could immediately see the difference. Now its a little on the expensive side, and by expensive I'm talking $30 for a little tube but a little dot under each eye actually goes a long damn way. This stuff is awesome! It lasted all day and didn't crease. I recommend it if you are in need of a new concealer this is the one to get. 

I also picked up a red lip liner and red lipstick from Makeup Forever and the Super Saturated Lip Gloss in F-Bomb (totally dig the name) from Urban Decay. The liner I got is in 8c and the red lipstick is in N45. I LOVE the color of this lipstick. Its a little glossy without being sticky as some lipsticks like that tend to be. The color is pretty long lasting as well. The Lip Gloss from Urban Decay is amazing also. Great coverage and no need for a liner. It lasts quite awhile but like any lip gloss or lip stick you have to reapply. 

I got an email from Sephora as I'm sure other people did about the Makeover Event going on until May 22nd. While I was in on Wednesday I also made an appointment to use my free make over. I made the appointment for 230 but when I got there I had to wait about 15 minutes. Apparently there were several proms going on that day so there were a bunch of teenage girls running around the store getting their faces done. I actually ended up getting the girl who helped me on Wednesday to do my makeup. She did a really great job. I ended up with a really cool smokey blue eye and nude lips. I was super pleased with the blue. I was a bit skeptical about it but it turned out beautiful. She used a Dior foundation and 3 Urban Decay shadows as well as a Yves St. Laurent lipstick and a Nars lip gloss. I wish I had gotten the names of them now but I'm pretty sure I have similar colors of everything that she used. I love going in there when I need help with something make up related.. And not to mention its kind of nice to go in and have someone else make me look pretty. LOL 

 me and my wedding date Darci 

 I absolutely love Sephora (I bet you couldn't tell could you?) and I'll find just about any excuse to go in there. Even if it is just to look around. 

Till next time!