Xpressing Myself...

 

I can't believe I'm doing this.  I had sworn off direct sales companies.  Mostly because it's so darn hard to keep up with the monthly/yearly quotas.  I actually loved the last one I was in, loved the products, loved the company, but I couldn't stay with it.  When you are a 10 month employee for a school district, you don't get paid over the summer.  Oh, you can pick up little jobs like working summer school, or something like that, but trust me when I saw, the paycheck is nowhere near what the school year paycheck is.

Anyway, I got off track there for a second.  I have found Endless Xpressions.  Have you heard of it?  No?  Well, let me tell you the important thing about the company: NO QUOTAS!  WHAT??  Yep, you read it right....they have no monthly or yearly sales quota!  In fact, they have NO sales quota.  I thought, this is too good to be true, right?  Guess what?  No sales quota.  They do have another quota though, you must sign in to your back office once every Day, Week, Month, 90 DAYS!  Did you read that right?  Yep!  You sure did!  The only quota is that you have to sign in to the back office once every 90 days.

Well, the products must not be quality products then, right?  NOPE!  Now, I haven't tried everything, in fact, I never bought from this company, until I signed up and ordered my kit.  Sidebar: I got the basic kit, it was $20, the full starter kit is $69.  But you can join for FREE!  I didn't have the money for the full kit, so I got the basic kit, it comes with a pair of leggings and a handmade soap.  You get a FREE website when you join too.  There is never any charge at all for the website, so it's not like some other DS companies that give you the website for free for a couple of months or even 6 months and then you have to pay for it after that.  It's always free.  But what about the products?

The leggings that I got were VERY soft, like the Lula Roe leggings, but the material is thinner.  But, not so thin that you can see through them, and are nice and elastic, they have a lot of stretch in them.  The handmade soap I got, smelled HEAVENLY!  I love the smell of oranges, and this soap  is Orange-Hibiscus.  Oh. My. Goodness!  I couldn't get enough of it.  I used it right away and it made my skin feel so soft. Here are some pictures:

So the quality of the products is great.  I think I'm going to really like this company!  There is a large variety of products, it's like one stop shopping.  We've got Totes and bags, Candles, Bath and Body products, Cosmetics, Leggings, Food mixes, Jewelry and more.  They are continually updating their product list, adding some, doing away with others.  You must take a look at what we have!  You can do that by clicking on this link.  http://www.endlessxpressions.com/rep/?a_aid=justrambling

Smiley360

How many of us LOVE to get free samples?  I know I love it when I see boxes and packages come through my snail mail with goodies that I ordered for free.  I feel like they are little gifts I give to myself.  :)  Recently, my niece, Victoria told me about Smiley360.  She told me that sometimes she gets FULL-SIZE product samples.  Now THAT'S my kind of sample!  I immediately signed up last week and completed my profile and my "practice posts" today.  It doesn't cost anything to join, and the sign up is relatively painless, no crazy surveys that take 3 hours to go through like some websites that make you answer the same questions over and over and over for each sample you sign up for....I'm a busy girl, I don't have time for that nonsense.

They have all kinds of trial products, household, make-up, skincare, pet products, food, and more!   If you are interested in getting in on this action, check it out HERE  I think you will be pleasantly surprised. 

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Chloe's Legacy

So, I guess it's time to make a post that I've been putting off for a couple of months now.  Recently we had to put my sweet baby girl, Chloe to sleep.  It was Feb. 23, 2013.  She was only 9-1/2 years old.  Chloe was my very much beloved boxer dog.  She was the family dog, but was especially my companion.  You can see her picture below:

If you are a dog person at all, you will understand when I say that she was THE perfect dog for me.  She was my "heart dog".  We had a very special connection, I was very much in tune to her feelings, moods, etc, as she was also to mine.  My family LOVED her so much, and doted on her all the time, but I don't think they could "read" her like I could.  I'm not sure I am explaining this exactly right, but suffice it to say, when I had to put her to sleep, she took a HUGE chunk of my heart, and I felt like a large part of me had died too.  I suddenly didn't care about anything, I had no emotions, no feelings, except when I thought of her, then I was feeling devastated. 

Chloe was not always the perfect dog.  When we first got her as a puppy, we struggled a lot with potty training.  It's a good thing she was so darn cute!

There were many, many times when I thought we weren't going to be able to keep her because she just didn't seem to "get" the potty training down.  Two years later.....I think we FINALLY got it down.  Part of the problem is that she was so subtle in her "cues" that she had to go...she would just come and sit next to us and lean on our leg, or sit on our foot, with her back to us.  We didn't figure that out for a very long time.  The other thing is that she was such a timid dog, that loud voices scared her, and she was very much...well, not necessarily afraid, but she was nervous when my husband would come home....and she would show submission by peeing on the floor when he'd walk in the door from work.  As you can imagine, that did not set the poor girl up for success, because then she'd know he was mad because she peed on the floor....she was confused.  But once we got a schedule down, where we would take her out about 10-15 minutes before he got home, and of course anytime she ate, played or when we got home, everything straightened out.  I even taught her to pee on command...I'd take her in the backyard where we wanted her to do her business, and as soon as she was start to squat to pee, I would say, "Go Pee", then praise her when she was done.  I did the same thing when she had to go potty.  I would say, "Go Potty" as soon as she would start to go into that well-known doggy stance.

Everyone that met Chloe LOVED her.  They would always comment about how sweet and well-mannered she was.  It always made me feel proud of her.

She was my little hiking pal when I would go walking or hiking.  My family weren't into taking walks or hiking too much, but it's something I really enjoy, especially when I'm Letterboxing .  I used to call her the Letterboxing Boxer. =)  We really formed a bond during these times...one I really can't explain, but she was always willing and ready to go whenever I was.

I miss my sweet girl terribly, and wish that we could turn back the clock so we could still have her here with us.  But we are all looking forward to getting another puppy.  This time a Lab.  Because of how "perfect" Chloe was to me, I am not expecting our next dog to be a perfect dog, or to do any of the cute things that Chloe used to do.  That would not be fair to the dog.  I've been watching A LOT of Cesar Millan's Dog Whisperer shows and I've read 2 of his books, I really love his style, and a lot of what he says makes sense to me.  I don't like the harsh training methods of the past, so I am determined to train our future dog using his methods.  I want to have a balanced dog, one that has manners and one that we can be proud of.  I want to do this in honor of Chloe.  It's funny, that when I was training her, there were so many things I did wrong....but there were SO many things I did completely right...without even knowing about Cesar's methods, I was practicing some of them with Chloe, just because they worked....I had never heard of Cesar....so apparently I was doing something right.  I will always have Chloe in my memory, but I am looking ahead and looking forward to training a new little girl, not to take Chloe's place, but to enhance our lives once again as Chloe did when she was here.  

Couch to 5K.....Will it Stick?

So, I'm not really sure if I'm going to post this blog post on Facebook yet....I may wait awhile.  You'll see why later.

After seeing a co-worker post about her progress with the Couch to 5K program, and then hearing/reading others mention it as well, I was inspired to check this program out.  You can check it out for yourself at http://www.c25k.com.  Yesterday I decided to get started with it.

I did have to do some modifying.  Per doctors instructions, I am not supposed to run, I can walk, no problem, but running is out because it's too high impact for my hip joint. (probably all the other leg joints too.)  So if anybody is familiar with the Walk at Home program by Leslie Sansone, that's sort of how I tailored it.  Instead of the actual walking/running outside, I downloaded the Podrunner Intervals: First Day to 5K podcasts and used that to know when to run and walk.  But I did download the Robert Ullrey's podcast (on the c25k page) just to have a variety, but I did the walking/running in the same style as the Walk at Home program.  I was able to do the running part because the livingroom floor has more give to it, and the way that you jog in place like that is easier on your joints.  Amazingly, I was able to make it through without feeling like I was going to die!  That's something for me!  LOL!

For all you Pooch lovers there is also another website listed on the C25K page called "Pooch to 5K"  that helps you to condition your dog as well.  I was very happy to see that because my baby girl (not so much a baby as a senior) really needs to get into shape as well.  Even though I'm not supposed to, I tried today to do the routine outside this morning....long story short, we only got through the first part of it because it was SOOO humid outside (both my dog and I have asthma which gets worse in humidity) and lets just say that on a very foggy morning when nobody is around...a graveyard is not a place I want to be when I've forgotten to take my cell phone along with me...CREEPY!  Every single murder mystery book I've read was playing out in my head!  Anyway, even with just that little bit of exercise, she (my dog, Chloe) was POOPED!  This is her after that walk outside:

The only thing she would move was her eyelids.  LOL!   Poor ol' girl!

I did do the entire routine in my livingroom when I got home, so all is well.  My cousin Mae told me I should take "before" pics so I can see my progress, herein lies the reason I'm not sure I'll post this on Facebook....I HATE taking pictures of myself, I don't like to look at them because I am disgusted with what I see.  But, maybe that will help with my motivation, so.....be sure you're sitting down and you don't have any food....here are my before pics:

I especially hate the last picture...ick!  Oh, and we are in the middle of repainting here, so don't look at the icky walls and door.  It's DEFINITELY time to get moving and get into shape!  So here's the beginning of my journey.  Maybe I'll take another picture in a month or two....hopefully I'll stick with this.  I tend to start up an exercise program and after awhile end up stopping because I get busy or something.  But this just goes to show you, that if I can do it....ANYBODY can do it!

Ok, Let's "Focus" now...

My husbands car is a Nissan Sentra, and it has been acting kind of weird.  It isn't very old.  I think it's a 2009 model  We bought it new, but after 1 year it already needed a new engine. (and he doesn't drive crazy with it either)  The company (Nissan) even extended our warranty on it because there were quite a few issues with it.   We were trying to hang on to it, so that when he was ready to get another car, we could give it to our oldest, Justin, to use.

Well, life always has to throw a wrench in our plans, doesn't it?  Both Chris (hubby) and I have lost faith in this vehicle.  Sometimes I would have to drive it and I HATED driving it.  Over the past weekend we actually went to a dealership that was closed and looked at some Ford Focus's....and of COURSE we had to check out the Mustangs, how can you NOT look at those....so beautiful!  Anyway, I digress.

On Monday, we made up our minds that we were going to our FAVORITE dealership, Columbia Ford/Kia to look at one Ford Focus in particular.  Our salesman (Ed Carpenter) who also sold us our Ford Escape (My car) had the car pulled up, ready and waiting for us when we got there.  (If anybody local goes there, tell them we sent you and we could each get I think $50.)   The boys decided to come with us, so he let all 4 of us go out and take a ride in the car and test drive it.  (well, only Chris drove it.)  Long story short, we ended up trading in the Nissan plus getting a $1,500 rebate AND another $100 off because we had a Ford Ranger, and got a really great deal....AND lowered our monthly car payment.  Pretty good deal if you ask me. 

I LOVE the women's bathroom at this dealership, it's SO elegant!

I especially enjoy the sign on the wall. ;)

So we ended up getting a "Sonic Blue" 2012 Ford Focus.  Hubby wanted it to be manual transmission because he missed driving a standard.  I think it's great that we have one so that our kids can learn how to drive one.  Everybody should have the opportunity to learn how to drive a standard, it can be so much fun once you get it down.   Here are some pictures of the car:

I think this cute little car looks kind of sporty.

I love the color

Chloe, (our boxer) had to "meet" the new car and check it out.  You can see our Escape in the back too.

And it even has a little spoiler on the back. =)

I didn't take pictures of the inside, so I used the ones from the dealership.  This is the backseat.

Here's the front....it's REALLY cool at night when everything is lit up blue and white!

And 2 words for you........HEATED SEATS!  That works for me!  When I had the Nissan Frontier I had heated seats and I really miss that in the winter.

Easy Fabreezy

I'm on a roll here.  I checked my Pinterest board entitled "Cleaning" and found yet another homemade solution I wanted to try.  Homemade Fabreeze.  ( See Original post here: Homemade Fabreeze ) I always WANT to have Fabreeze in the house, especially with 2 teenage boys, 2 cats and a dog in a small house.  But, it always seemed like there was never enough money to get it and keep it in the house.  After all, it's not a necessity, and at this point in this economy, we have to choose what we splurge on. 

In comes the experiment, I'm calling it Easy Fabreezy.

This is SO easy to make and VERY inexpensive!

2 TBS. Fabric softener (I used Downy April Fresh because that's what I had on hand)
2 TBS. Baking Soda
Hot Tap Water

Just use a funnel and put the baking soda in, then the fabric softener.  Add hot tap water (to dissolve baking soda) to fill the bottle.  I used a SHOUT bottle because I didn't have a Fabreeze bottle to use.  I shook the bottle a bit to mix, then just spray whatever you want to spray.

I decided the cover to the old dog bed was a good victim, even after being washed yesterday, it still had old, stale, dog smell.  So I sprayed it, then sprayed all the carpets in the house, the couch and some old pillows....well...you know, I have to play with my new "toy".  LOL!   

The old dog bed cover.....well, it smells better after a couple of applications, but still not great, it might be hopeless.  But everything else I sprayed....mmmmm!  It smells so good in my house!  Obviously I can't show a picture of results, you'll just have to try it for yourself.  But in my opinion, this was also a good experiment and something I will probably continue to make.