Monday, April 18, 2011

SAmuri Pizza FAce! I'm 32 and still getting pimples..agh!!!!

When I was about 14 or so there was a cartoon on ABC (I think) called Samuri Pizza Cats. It was about cats who knew karate and would use it to save the day. They also ate Pizza alot, kinda like Ninja Turtles I suppose. But the theme song was rather catchy and me and my older brother and younger sister would sing this song all the time and one day when our older sister was being particularly mean, my brother called out to her, " Samuri Pizza FAce"! This hit her hard because she had pimples in a pretty bad way ( I did too but it was my sister on the receiving end, so I was happy!!) as most teenagers do. From then on it was the nasty catch phrase so to speak of our family and as we all had pimples at some point in our teens we would yell it out to each other when we wanted to hurt the other persons feelings, I know it sounds bad but being 1 of 5 kids it happened!
Anyway, the reason why I bring it up today is because I am now 32 and I still get these stinkin pimples! I can't stand getting them. They look so gross and I feel like I should have got over the getting pimples a good 10 years ago, at least! The only time I have really great skin is when I am pregnant. So whatever hormones I am producing then is what keeps me clean and clear and I loved it!!  But as much as I love my kids, I am not so desperate that I feel like getting pregnant again to have clear skin, i don't want it that bad!!!  I did try Proactiv and that actually did work for me but it costs quite a bit to maintain that routine. I am currently using Neutrogena Cleansing Foam. It isn't doing a good job at all. I still use it, in vain I think because I spent money on it and I don't want it to go to waist.I think my other problem is I can't resist not squeezing my pimples. I don't squeeze all of them, but it they have a white head, it has to go. I can't stand seeing a white headed pimple on my face, I think its gross, so I can only assume others would too. So naturally for the ones that I do squeeze I get a scab and then its the scab that is just as obvious. So its the vicious cycle that I thought as a teenager would leave me be when I hit my twenties. Maybe its stress? I'm a wife, have 4 kids, work part time and tend to a house hold. I think that's a good reason. But how to combat that? Maybe I should just suck it up and get the Proactiv again. Yes, it is pricey but if it clears up my skin, then I know I will feel better about 'me'. Any of my hundreds of loyal readers out there have any suggestions?? Anyone??

Boy, I crack me up!!!

I HATE YOU!!!

I have heard this a good 10 times today, at least! My daughter is only 9, well closer to 10 really. I shudder to think what I have install for me in the future! I don't care that she hates me, because I know she doesn;t really mean it. She first told me she hated me when she started going to primary school. I should be grateful I suppose that she was 5 when she said it and not any earlier. I remember feeling like crap when she said it. I always thought I would be a cool mum, the kind of mum that would never be hated!! But I soon realised that most mums would be hated at some point in their lives, little did I know I would be hated a lot more than once!!

It was about 6 months or so after I first heard her say she hated me that I realised something that has really kept me going and I'm always more than happy to share this pearl of wisdom with anyone who cares to listen. I figured that if she tells me she hates me, then we have a pretty good relationship. I would be really worried I think if we never fought(is that a word and was it spelt right?) and if I heard she hated me when she was like 12 or 13 I think it would have hit me harder and I would have a harder time dealing with  it. So in a weird kind of way I don't mind so much that she started this at younger age, my skin is thicker and it doesn't affect me. We have a good relationship and while I have no idea what she will be like when she hits those horrid teenage years, I can deal with the nonsense she yells at me . I just really hope she gets better, is that wishful thinking? Some teenage girls are nice to their mums aren't they???

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Confessions of a ZipLoc Bag Addict

Ok, I am new to this, so please do not laugh. This is a serious matter that needs some serious attention. Ahem {clear throat}. My name is Courtney and I am a Zip Loc Bag Aholic!! I'm absolutely serious here, this is a problem that really should be taken on. I realised I had a problem when I couldn't find my box of Ziploc bags. I was absolutely frantic because I didn't know what I was going to do with my half onion and my new bag of spices and my just opened bag of lollies!! What do I do with these things if I don't have a Ziploc bag? I searched everywhere until I finally found some old ones that I realised I could wash out and reuse.Then it hit me, why have I been throwing out so many bags when I could have been washing and reusing? Childhood memories of my grandma's clothes line came to me. She used to wash and resue as many freezer bags as she could. She even washed and reused gladwrap when she could. We used to make fun of it, but now the genius of the idea makes sense! I am sure somewhere in this all I could throw more salt to the wound be guilting myself further by all the ziploc bags I have touched that I now sitting in land fill. {breath}

When you open my pantry cupboards there are ziploc bags scattered throughout holding all types of edible and even non- edible items. I even use ziploc bags to hold toothbrushes, laundry powder, salt, sugar, milo  when we go camping (all in seperate bags of course!) I use and abuse those bags and i think I have got to a point where i need to stop. I rely so heavily on them its gettting embarassing!  So my reason for this post is a kinda like an intervention, except i am organising it!I need some ideas on how to get over this addiction but still have good organisation and storing ideas. C'mon fellow bloggers I need your help, if bloggers can't help me than who can??!!!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

MILEY CYRUS UPSET

My daugther came to me a little upset a couple of weeks ago. She said she found something out at school that she can't work out if its true or not. I was worried and a hundred different things rushed through my head at once as to what she was going to ask me! She said:
"Someone at school told me that Miley Cyrus drinks, smokes and takes drugs"

My daughter is a big fan of hers and the show Hannah Montanna, so to hear that the girl she admires on those shows , was now doing the above things, she was really perplexed. I could have told her no, but I have seen the youtube videos online and seen other footage in the media, so I knew it was true. She is almost 10 so I figured, she needed to know that teenagers, even the famous ones make these choices in life. I told her it was true and I could tell she was instantly disappointed. I told her that Miley was no longer a young girl, and I would say she has decided to do these things to show to others she is more grown up. I also told her that I don't think she is making good choices and doing these things doesn't mean you are grown up, it means you aren't good at making some choices!! Hopefully she will realise this soon and realise she has made a mistake. My daughter said, she will still listen to her music but is sad that she does those types of things.

I personally am upset with Miley. I know she is growing up, but really she needs to be aware and accept that her fans are young girls and like it or not, she is a role model to these girls. Her fans got her to where she is, so she needs to be respectful of that. Why does she feel that these types of activities will show her as "grown up"? I hope she realises sometime soon that you can grow up and show you are no longer a young girl without doing these types of activities.

That's my mummy rant for the day!!!

Friday, April 1, 2011

I'M CRAZY ABOUT CRAZY 8

I am a big Gymboree fan and I finally purchased onlieg back in December and then again in Janurary. The dollar is so good at the moment and the sales were too good to miss. So I decided to give it a go. It was very easy and straight forward and all I needed was my credit card to purchase. The first purchase took exactly 2 weeks to arrive as I paid for standard postage which cost me $35USD. It gets delievered via DHL which is great because it gets dropped off to your local post office/delivery centre and its delieved by them and if you aren't home to get it, you just have to go pick up it up at your local post office.
I earnt some Gymbucks from my first purchase, I think it was about $40 worth which meant that on my next purchase of $80USD or more I would get $40 off! There is a time frame that you have to spend the Gymbucks in, but I got some amazing bargains and I think I ended up getting about 12 items for less than $8AUD each!! Including an amazing puffer jacket for one of my sons, that is so amazingly warm, anything like that here in Australia would cost a minimum of $60AUD. So that was an awesome purchase! I also ended up choosing Express postage which only cost me $30AUD and this is delievered by Fed Ex and the order arrived 3 days after I paid for it. You get a tracking number which gives you estimated delivery which for me was on time and was great because I knew when I needed to be home.
So this is all cool, but what is Crazy8? Well Crazy8 I would personally describe as a sister store perhaps? Kinda like the connection between Gap and Old Navy. I checked it out and I was happy with what I saw. I also have a friend living in Utah at the moment and she told me Crazy8 is good quality. So I decided to trial Crazy8 too as I was finding that I could get more for my money compared to Gymboree and I was liking more at Crazy8 for my daughter in particular this time round compared to Gymboree. This time round the promotion was 25% off my total order  in addition to other sales that happening as well. The 25% off  basically meant my postage was for FREE and instead of Gymbucks they have Crazy Cash so I scored $40 worth of Crazy Cash to go towards my next purchase. My other bonus came when I purchased. The AUD was stronger than the USD so instead of costing $122USD it came to $119AUD, but the downside was the bank charges for an international transaction which meant what I saved was added back in fees:o( But I still got 17 items of clothing for around $7.15 a piece! So I am happy about that:) The items are yet to arrive, so I will post again when they do.

My overall experience with these two companies prompted me to tell others, espeically Aussies, how awesome it is. You get good quality items sent to you for reasonable postage rates and with our dollar being so strong right now, its really a good time to stock up and save.

I grabbed some pics from the site to show you some of what I purchased:



The PJs are actually for me! They had adults sizes for this style.