Saturday Blast to Easter Fun

After a busy day at the Lafayette Jockey Lot doing nails, I was ready to unwind and relax. My friend Natalia invited me to come over and have a few drinks. I had a coupon for a Mexican restaurant I knew Michael wouldn't enjoy so I invited Nat to come along after work. The food was overpriced but the margaritas were delicious. Mango and cranberry divine.

From dinner we spent to the rest of the evening drinking a few drinks and doing karaoke and Just Dance. I had a really awesome time. I stayed til 3am. The latest I have ever stayed up for about a year. I gave myself an hour  to sober up before I drove home. Two drinks wasn't too bad though. All the sweating from dancing and singing worked that off. Nat's husband Aaron even got in on the show which was pretty interesting to watch.

(Aaron with his mini mic kneeling on shoes losing balance)

(Hey man I am a "dorf")

("Its called "dwarf" Aaron")

(Just Dance)

I must say this was a much needed break from the recent stress I have had. When I came home I had to wrap my poor fingers though. The skin is cracking and flaking away leaving nothing but red and bruised skin beneath it. I am having trouble as I type now since 4 of my fingers are wrapped up. I am scared to say that I might have to give up my job that I love which is doing nails every weekend. I plan to schedule an appointment with a dermatologist this week and see what I can do to heal them and prevent this from happening again. I have put it off long enough and hopefully I can avoid putting away my passion.

(My sucky bandaging job. Do you know how hard it is to function with my hands like this?)

Ahh Sunday! I got to sleep in. Which was very nice considering I am usually up at 7:30 or 8am every morning with Ava. I woke up groggy from drinking and oversleeping. I had to meet with a client of mine at the Jockey Lot to fix a nail and look for a belt for my husband. Unfortunately the leather store was closed. It was a ghost town because of the holiday.

After a little trip to Rayne, LA, I had my little girl from the babysitter and we went to what my friends like to call the Simcoe Compound (an apartment complex where a few of my friends live). Ava got to see her best friend Moxie. Nat had prepared the girls Easter baskets and eggs to play with. Which all but lasted a few minutes. Silly girls. Miss Bekki (you can call her the momma of the compound) and Nat had prepared a feast of brisket, beans, potato salad, rice dressing, broccoli and cheese, deviled eggs, rolls, cookies and pie. You can say before the end of the day I was stuffed. Absolutely delicious.

(Ava "borrowing" Moxie's shades)

(Moxie the little cutie)

(The girls not so excited about overly colorful things in baskets)

(Ava throwing Easter eggs and Moxie enjoying the show)

(Girl I want that cookie)

We took the girls to the pool. Which yes in Louisiana it is already pool weather. It was a little cold at first but the girls took it like pros. After about an hour they both seemed to be getting sleepy. Since Ava was out of little swimmers (I forgot to buy new ones for this year) she came out with a water butt. Totally made me jealous. Wish I had a butt like that.

(Water butt)

(Stripped and freezing but still willing to play)

Stripped and changed, we had to sadly say our goodbyes. Ava and I had one last stop of the day to visit Nanny K. She just moved into her awesome new house and we had to go check out her new digs. I am so proud of her. She has made an awesome decision that I can see is truly making her happy. I look forward to coming visit a lot. I am really excited for her. Now if only some of that excitement would wear off on me about my own moving situation...

Afternoon out

Woke up groggy again today. Something is wrong with me in the mornings. I did manage to get Ava fed and dressed. When I did get her out of bed I noticed she has 10 "bug bites" on her face and 2 on her wrist. I am hoping this is because she did an Easter egg hunt outside at daycare yesterday. I put a little hydrocortizone  cream on it to bring down the redness. Which as of 9pm tonight has not helped.

Finally at 3pm I decided I had enough of moping around the house and decided to take Ava out for a bit. I planned already to go by McDonald's where my mother in law works to pick up boxes to start packing. I got Ava a happy meal because who can't get their kid a happy meal when they are at McDonald's. For once, she ate every single thing. From the chicken nuggets to even the little apple slices. Made mommy very happy to see her eat real food. When we got ready to leave I asked one of the employees to help me with the boxes to which they acted like I asked them to move a building... Finally I had to ask my mother in law to help me move the 4 boxes to my car. I mean I am a woman carrying a purse, diaper bag and a kid. Could you not take a minute to bring these boxes to my car parked right by the door?

(Ava with her apple slice and poor little bug bites)

(Me and Ava)

(Dancing trying to get the attention of the kids sitting across from us)

Initially after our trip to McDonald's I planned to take Ava to the park. After looking at the thermometer in the car which read 85 degrees, I decided to call my friend Natalia and see if a play date was in order. She happily obliged to have us over. The kids had a blast watching Super Why and fighting over toys and milk and goldfish. Us ladies discussed the goings on in our lives while occasionally laughing or yelling at our crazy kids. I did most of the yelling since Ava tends to be a little bit of a bully to poor Moxie. I did get Ava to say Moxie's name a few times it was so cute. The night ended with JPop playing on the TV and the girls playing with the disco ball light up toy designed for the pool. Had a little bite to eat of Natalia's always awesome cooking. She can turn anything edible I swear. Ava still full from her happy meal was having none of it.

(Kids playing horsey together)

Now finally home. The little one is in bed. I am hoping when she wakes up the bites will be gone and not multiplying. I am off to bed myself seeing as I have work tomorrow at the Lafayette Jockey Lot. Lets hope the heat doesn't kill me.

Olive Oil and Sugar Hand Scrub - Tested

So I read on pinterest that you could use a simple mixture of olive oil and sugar for a scrub to make your hands softer and healthier. I tested this theory. I am going to try it once a week on my poor dry and scaly ezcema hands. So here is the basis of what you need.

(About a table spoon of sugar and equal parts olive oil of any variety)

Pour the tablespoon of sugar into the palm of your hand and the same with the olive oil. Scrub hands. I went all the way up to my elbows. For someone who has hand ezcema this feels like heaven. My hands are very itchy after dealing with chemicals at work. I got home and had the idea to do this, PERFECT solution for a long hard day. It seriously did make my hands 50% softer and during the time that I was scrubbing, my hands were in ecstasy. Rubbing my hands now they are really smooth. But the itching has come back. Now this might not be the case for those of you without ezcema. It says in the post for using hand scrubs to make sure you moisturize frequently after a scrub to protect your new layer of skin. I have since added a layer of lotion and plan to add more before the night is over. 

Overall I think this is a really cheap and easy solution to making your hands softer. I would recommend it and continue to test it further to see if prolonged use is either helpful or more damaging to my dry skin.

Glow Stick Party

Cheap, easy and fun. Things you will need.

1. Glow stick (I got an awesome pink heart glow wand from the Dollar Tree $1)
2. A closet or dark room
3. Your phone (Play some great music and I put a toddler lock game on my phone so she could play with it while the music was playing)

Bam! Perfect for kids around 2 years. Ava absolutely loved the idea. She danced to the music and swung her wand for about an hour. Hey cheaper than going out somewhere.

A Modge Inspiration

So my friend Amy says "Let's have a craft day." To which I say "Yay!" We begin looking on pinterest for ideas and came out with a pretty awesome piece of artwork.

First we started with blank canvas. We made our own modge podge (FYI all it is one part Elmer's glue one part water). Cut lots of leaves from scrapbook paper and threw it all together. We both did it a little different.

(Our inspiration)

 I decided to change the colors up a bit. Teal background. Amy thought I should just leave the canvas like this that it looked just fine to hang :)

Purple and green leaves/petals.

Our homemade modge podge seemed to work perfectly on this project even though I have seen some comments saying otherwise. I guess its all in the technique. Remember half water half glue and to use a roller of some sort rather than a paint brush. Let dry after you apply your petals for about 20 minutes then apply another coat over all petals to hold them in place forever. I'll post pics of Amy's once she has them up on her blog.