Everybody needs a little TLC (and I'm not talking about The Learning Channel)

So after all of my facial fiasco's, I've decided to pamper it a little bit.  I'm not normally the type to get my nails done, or get a facial, etc (although I would love to more...cough).

When my mom and step-dad went to Israel for solar business a little while ago, my mom brought back for me a facial mask direct from the Dead Sea.  If you don't know much about the Dead Sea, well, there's nothing living living in it!  The shores are hundreds of meters below sea level...the lowest point on earth on dry land and it is considered a hypersaline body of water with salt levels reaching almost 34%!  That's over 8 times the salinity in the ocean!  So no, you would not want to swallow this water.

Basically, my facial mask is made from Dead Sea stuff (good stuff) and I decided to plaster the good stuff onto my face for a little tender loving care that it so desperately needed.

Ahh, this is the face of rejuvenation!

Coupon clipping

Lucky you!  Two posts in one day!!

I recently watched this show on TLC about extreme coupon clippers.  These people give a whole new look to frugal!  Now there are the average coupon clippers who may dream of aspiring to extreme coupon clippers and save maybe 10-20% of their shopping.  Not this breed of extreme coupon clippers.  No, they save on average between 70-95% of their shopping!!!!  Helloooo!?  Why haven't I been introduced to this concept of not paying for stuff I need??

So a couple Sunday's ago, I've started my coupon collection.  Nothing serious, just clippings out of the Sunday paper.  I am what you call a beginner coupon clipper.  But I have organized them in a way that makes sense to me (see picture below).  I'm very organized.  I may even have to get my own coupon binder!

.  So I've been clipping what I see as necessary food items and I check the grocery store website for weekly specials to see if I can combine my coupons and save mega bucks!  Btw, shopping in the middle of the week is the best time since that's when most stores put out their weekly specials.  Now, I don't know how those people save that much, because Harris Teeter won't let you use more than one coupon for a single item (poo), but I will try my luck on other stores in a couple weeks.  But, during my last shopping trip (I shop for about 2.5 weeks in advance) I really spent $120, but after serious coupon and weekly special savings, I spent only $90!!  Heck yeah!!  I will become a spectacular coupon-er yet!!

My eyes are numb...

Seems like I've had a lot of work recently done to my face.  First off, a couple weeks ago, I had some extreme dental cleaning that required two face-numbing sessions that (thank God) are over with now.  Miserable, miserable, miserable.

The last tooth session was a couple weeks ago and I also had an eye appointment the same day.  If you've never had an eye appointment for contacts (lucky you) then you probably don't know that one must get their eyes dilated in order for the eye doctor to make sure the eyes are healthy.  I don't like getting my eyes dilated.

I politely asked that due to my "facial condition" of already having part of my face numb, I would like to skip the eyeball treatment for another date.  That date was this morning.

So I'm siting in my eyeball examination chair and the doc leans over and says, "Okay, open your eyes wide" and proceeds to take out my contacts himself.  Whoa!!  Never before has any other person besides myself reached into my eye and taken out my contact.  I've decided that I don't really like that either.  But that's neither here nor there.

He drops in the dilation drops and I get to sit patiently whilst my pupils enlarge.  Over the years you get wise to these treatments.  I brought my sunglasses and therefore did not have to wear those hideous wrap-around things.  I had to put my contacts back in and this was when I realized that my eyes were in fact numb.  Such a weird feeling trying to put in your contacts when you can't feel your eyes!  After my eyes were fully dilated, he checked them and informed me that they were healthy.  Yay!

So here I am at home (still wearing my sunglasses) counting down the dilation duration: 3 hrs. 24 min. left.  Sigh.  I took a picture so you could see just how dilated my pupils are (and remind you that this is about 45 minutes after dilation).

The eyes of Catwoman!

Shower me with..ice?

Dear reader,

I thought I would share with you how North Carolinians (primarily those that live in Charlotte) experience an icy winter.  Oh, we got snow.  And it was fabulous.  A white winter sprinkling over every object and slowly covering it to reveal an amorphous white blob.  Well, if your a science person, amorphous isn't the correct word here...but I couldn't think of anything else.

Anyway, back to my win'er.  And here in the south, we pronounce winter with a soft 't', as though it's non-existent.  Our Charlotte snow was extremely persistent!  It covered highways, which is a pretty extreme feat considering they had been salted and re-salted the previous day.  (btw NC hasn't really found a productive and efficient way to handle the meager amounts of snow we occasionally get every other year, so yes, this was HUGE).  Either way, weather forcasters were correct and the snow turned to sleet yesterday afternoon which froze over our beautiful snow.  Ice.  Taylor and I ventured out of our little apartment with our snow, er, ice booties, gloves and scarves and took some pictures.

First comes last night:

The snow that had slowly accrued a layer of sleet on top.

Ice does not taste as good as snow :(

Mushy mushy :) 

It is extremely hard making ice angels; you have to do it in sections, slamming your arms and legs into the ground, otherwise you just slide over top of the ice.

The best I could do :)

Yes, that is ice on the windows, and yes, it took a lot of effort to get off.

So the next day I was supposed to go to work at the Y...but I do not think it was humanly possible to get my Subaru out of my parking space safely (after much de-icing), much less out of our complex...

Yes, I fell.  A few times.

Taylor attempting to de-ice his car.  It took shear strength...and army boots.

So after all of this work, we decided to make the treacherous trip to Target across the streets for doughnuts.  Besides Target, Home Depot, and the gas stations, every store was closed and the streets were pretty bare.  Luckily we just had our doughnuts to carry :)  

This is us walking into Target, slowly.

Pot O' Mush

I've been feeling a little under the weather lately...and I found out where that statement came from because I never really knew what it meant (although it is still disputed).  The main correlation comes from nautical days when sea-sick sea-men would head under the deck to escape the weather.

I, however, am not sea-sick, but I wouldn't mind escaping from this nasty weather we seem to have.  Luckily, I didn't have to work today which is prime opportunity to go to the dentist and take pictures of the amazingly cute slippers Taylor got me for Christmas. :)

Oh yes, back to the pot 'o mush.  Luckily I prepared for my 'under the weather' spell; A few days ago I bought a rotisserie chicken which is actually a pretty good deal for the amount of food you get!  Well, we polished most of it off, so yesterday I placed the remains into my crock-pot, added some chicken stock, veggies, and spices and wal-lah!  8 hours later, I have homemade chicken soup!  I added some rice for texture...and sadly, overnight, the rice kept expanding and has now evolved to a pot o' mush.  So much for soup!  My mush will have to suffice.

My face is numb :(

Not going to the dentist has its repercussions...most notably the build-up of dreaded plaque and tarter.  It's not that I hate going, or have poor oral hygiene, no no; it's the money issue.  I just simply could not afford insurance nor a $300 dentist appointment after graduating college.  However, I am now back on insurance (thanks new health care plan!) and currently numb from the bottom of my right eye to the top of my neck.

Why, you ask?  To do an extensive, haven't been to the dentist in 2 years, cleaning, would be very painful.  So they numb you, er me, up.  Only half my mouth though...if they did my whole mouth, I'm afraid the dentist would have a rough time getting my face to cooperate during the procedure.  So the teeth on the right side are clean, and next week I will have the left side done.  :(

I would say I feel most like Two-face in Batman...you know, the guy who's lip drags on half his face.  I wonder if he has to wipe the slobber off too.  Sorry, no pictures...Two Face will have to do.  In a few long hours my face will again be symmetrical and functional.

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