Healthcare Costs and Crazy Mommy (In All Seriousness Though)

OK, so you already know how much I love our pediatrician.  As a frantic first-time (and now soon to be frantic second-time) parent, he is the perfect doctor for us.  We've certainly been to the office several more times than just our usual "well" visits, fortunately for reasons related more to Mommy's anxiety-over-being-a-bad-parent-and-overlooking-something than serious illness.  But with healthcare costs being what they are, I wonder if we would be able to visit him so often if it weren't for the fact we have amazing health insurance through my husbands job at a large hospital system.  

Here is a great blog post he has written about the healthcare system.   The Problem With Being Told What To Do. It really is something to ponder. Please go read it!

Amazing Youtube Makeup Video- DiamondsandHeels14

I am so impressed with this young lady.  Cassandra Bankson has shown the world her makeup techniques that successfully cover severe acne as well as baring her makeup free face.

I am so impressed with how brave she has been to show the world her skin without makeup.  How often do you see a model strip of her makeup and show you that she is really not perfect!  I'm sure it gives a lot of people hope!  While I have never had such severe acne, each time I have been pregnant my skin goes completely nuts.  I always just resigned myself to the fact that when my skin was bad, no amount of makeup could adequately cover it up.  From watching her videos, I have been able to use her techniques for applying makeup and it lasts all day long!  I thought I knew what I was doing, but before using  Cassandra Bankson's techniques my makeup would be gone after a few hours and I never really got any blemishes covered up.

I must sound like an infomercial or something, but I am just so impressed and pleased!  It is VERY important as a mom (or dad!) to feel good about yourself and the way you look.  I had really not been putting much effort into my appearance lately.  I had been so tired! After watching this and some of her other videos I have  been trying to make a really effort into looking nice, putting on some makeup, and wearing comfortable yet nice clothes.  I have to say- I do feel better about my appearance and myself!


Check out her blog as well http://diamondsandheels14.blogspot.com/

Mysterious Disappearing Tree Ornaments

Notice the empty spots on the front of the tree?  Okay, not so mysterious. One guess who is taking them?

I learned my lesson about 4 years ago when Munchkin thought the beautiful ornaments were balls. Needless to say the ornament I bought the first year my husband and I started dating did not survive. Mr L tried to piece it back together for me, but it was beyond saving. He did manage to save the other ornament that a friend had given me. A lot of patience, crazy glue, and probably some cursing was involved.

This year I took no chances.  While Munchkin has no interest in removing ornaments from the tree, Pumpkin seems to have inherited some "hoarding" tendencies?  I keep finding him with six or seven ornaments clutched in his little hands.  After a while he figured out he could hold onto more if he strung them on his fingers.  I made sure  My lovely sister-in-law made sure that only the unbreakable ones were within Pumpkin's reach and all of my special glass or breakables were at the top of the tree.

I actually don't mind because he is counting them and sorting them by color-  I'll take this as an educational opportunity.  Or maybe I'm just too tired (lazy) to try and keep him from pulling them down.    Not to worry, I did make sure that the tree was securely anchored to the wall!  Despite the fact that there are "bare" spots on the tree, I actually prefer this to gating the tree off.  I did that one year and I thought it kind of took away from that Christmas-y feeling.

By the way, please excuse our crooked tree topper.  I kind of just tossed it up there and told myself I would get a step stool and fix it right away.  A week later...yeah it might still be crooked at Christmas!  But doesn't that make it  all the more special  ;)