Thursday Thoughts

                                                   It's that time again! Thursday Thoughts.

 ~ The absolute main thought I have had on my mind all week is Marriage Equality. I have been with my girlfriend for two years. She is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. We have talked about moving into something that is more like a house, getting a dog, picking kids' names, etc. However, there is one main issue that causes a bit of tension in our relationship. I am not out to my family. I have only come out to my mom and it was full of tears and her voicing her fears of me losing all of my family. Because that is pretty much what will happen. As much as my co-workers, friends, etc support me here in a big city of Oklahoma. Back in the deep south where I come from, there is no acceptance. It has been such an emotion week for me, seeing half of my facebook light up with red equal signs as the other half yells about gays ruining the world. This fine line wears thin most days. However, it is the overwhelming support that I have seen for equality that has made the bad days seem good in the long run.

 ~ I have been saying I am going to cancel cable for nearly 3 months but still haven't done it. Now, it is telling me that they are having a free weekend of HBO for the Game of Thrones season premiere. Curse you!

 ~ We are going to a Easter Party at a Pet Store this weekend because they are having a petting zoo. We won't look strange not having a dog and just showing up right? Oh well, we are gonna do it anyway. Strangeness be damned.

 ~ Katie has been working so hard with school work and her teaching internship that I am trying to plan something really, really nice for her after all this.

~Which reminds me, we are going to see The Lion King musical in Tulsa in July! So excited. My mom and I have seen it before but Katie hasn't so hopefully she enjoys it.

Julep Spring Mystery Box 2013

After many days of anticipation, my Julep Mystery Box for Spring finally arrived! For those who don't know, Julep gives Mavens (the people who subscribe to the Julep monthly box, see my review for the low-down on those) the option to buy an additionally mystery box every couple of months. It costs $24.99 (and since you're a Maven, there's no shipping charge) and promises anywhere from $75-200 worth of product. 

It comes in a slightly larger-than-average (for Julep) black box. 

Julep always wraps their boxes so nicely (ignore it looking so disheveled-- that's my fault). 

First look-- looks pretty full to me. 

I got a little card, a sample of Rock Star hand cream (I got a full size of this last time, it's nice stuff) and a set of 10 one-step nail polish remover pads, which goes for $9.99 (or $7.99 for Mavens). 

I also got four different polishes and a cute bag that they went in. 

Left to right the polishes are:

Sienna: a gold-brown shimmer polish.

Camille: a sparkly overcoat

Sarah: a pink color with sparkles.

Marie: a pretty purplish color. Apparently this is one of their new "Rock Candy Nail Glaze". I haven't tried this out to see how it's different, but as soon as I do-- I'll come back and edit this to tell everyone what I think. 

Each one of these is $14 (MP: $11.20).

This is the Pomegranate Body Scrub, and let me tell you-- it smells fantastic. It's price is $18 (MP $14.40). 

Three tie elastic hairbands also came with it. I found these on sale at Cyndibands for $10 a six pack. I'm not exactly sure if that's the same brand as these, but I went ahead and based my price off of that: $5 for all three. 

Okay, so I needed an emery board desperately and Julep answered. However, this cannot possibly be a top dollar item. While Julep does have a glass nail file on their site, they don't have a plain one like this. I have never seen one cost over 2 dollars, so I'm going to place it at $1, and call it good. 

They also sent three chocolate Easter egg candies, which were tasty, but worth very little if anything at all-- I'm counting these as a freebie. 

This box added up to be worth $89.99, which makes it definitely worth the money. I would suggest going ahead a looking at my other Julep reviews to see if you'd like to become a maven and sign up for the monthly description-- which is not nearly as impressive as the mystery boxes, but they're also $4.99 cheaper. 

What's The Matzo With You? or Seder 2013

For those of you who don't know-- Monday the 25th was Erev Pesach-- or the first night of Passover. Passover is a Jewish holiday celebrating the exodus of Jews from Egypt, escaping the despotic rule of Pharaoh and ensuring  the freedom of the Jewish people.

It's a fun holiday full of symbolism and delicious food. And the first night of Passover is also called the Seder.

The Seder is a big meal where you invite friends and family over in order to share the joyous occasion. As a plus, people hosting a Seder can request the day off of classes and work without penalty. Sounds like a vacation-- but it can be really back breaking work.

Last night, Andy and I hosted a Seder. And here's the breakdown!

I was super nervous for about two weeks, but everything went well.

Let's start with the menu:

Even though I was off of work, I woke up at the same time and started working on this masterpiece. This is a delicious, slow-roasted brisket. I started it around 9 that morning and finished it near 1, and reheated it around 6 that evening until 7.

These are "Passover popovers". I just call them "matzo rolls". These are important because Jews can't eat leavened bread during Passover-- making it nearly impossible to eat any bread for the entire week. These however are made without flour-- making them entirely kosher for Passover.

Okay, so this is supposed to be a berry crisp. I know what you're thinking: "where's the crisp?" Well... it didn't brown on top-- so I just mixed the matzo in with the berries and called it good. It tasted amazing-- probably would have been even better over top of vanilla ice cream.

This is Andy's masterpiece. It's a tomato, cucumber and onion salad. It's was pretty delicious. 

This was my mixture that stood in charoset. Charoset is a traditional Passover food. Typically involving nuts, apples and honey. This one was an apple, peanut butter and honey mixture. And let me tell you-- it was delicious on celery. I'm pretty sure Cody nearly devoured it. 

Our table set up was pretty simple. The fancy glass is for Elijah-- a tradition for Jews during Passover is to set a glass of wine for Elijah. The "crackers" in the middle are Matzo-- if you've never seen it before. It tastes like cardboard. Like Jon Stewart said-- complimenting Matzo is a "goy tell". If you compliment the host's Matzo instead of barely swallowing it down-- then you're a gentile, and everyone knows it. 

After the boring religious part (pictured above), we watched the "A Rugrats Passover". Which is by far one of the best cartoon representations of Jewish people in the media, despite the sheer amount of stereotyping. 

This is where the party picked up-- it probably would have picked up a long time ago if we had been forced to drink the traditional four glasses of wine instead of the four classes of grape juice. 

We had three lovely ladies over and here they are clearly not living in fear or forced to stay:

All told it was a wondrous Seder. Party Hard! Have a Happy Passover, Everybody!

Ipsy "My Glam Bag" for March 2013

During the hoopla of the last few weeks, my Ipsy bag arrived. Rejoice! Respite! 

In case you don't know, Ipsy has a "Glam Bag" that you can get for $10 a month. It sends you 4-5 products and a cute makeup bag. It's a great deal, you usually get anywhere from $30 and up of merchandise. And it gives you a chance to try new products and for someone like me who needs to minimize makeup purchases-- this helps me feel like I'm working on my collection and improving it without really spending that much.

It comes in this adorable pink bag every month.

So colorful! Always a plus!

This month's theme was The Great Escape. And judging from the info cards, it's got a nautical theme, but before you weather the storm of my joy-- let's get the info cards out of the way.

Ipsy also offers discounts on the brands included in their bags each month. This month, as the card says, there is are discounts off of juicebeauty, La Fresh, yaby, and GLAM RX. 

Let's get this review on the road!

So first off we got juicebeauty's hydrating mist. 

Andy, my reluctant Vana White. Also, sorry about the dark pictures.

Apparently, it's organic. Apparently, it's supposed to tone and refresh your face. Apparently, it's supposed to provide "exhilarating refreshment". I believe that it's organic. I doubt the second one. And I know the third's a flat out lie. I heard a lot of people complaining about the scent. So I sprayed it on my face another time (the first was couple of days of spraying were to see if I felt any "exhilaration" or "refreshment" or "toning feelings", I've already addressed how that went).

It smells like roses. But like the kind of roses that creepy old ladies smell like. Creepy old ladies that do questionable things behind closed doors. (On a related note-- have any of you read "The Landlady?" by Roald Dahl. It's a short story, do it now.) I asked Andy how it smelled, and she said it smelled like her grandma-- oops. Sorry, Andy.

This mist of evil costs $22 dollars at juicebeauty's website for 6.75 oz. In the bag we got 1 oz. of death juice.  The math comes out to about 3 dollars.

Next we have La Fresh's travel-lite Makeup Remover Wipes.

Okay, I used these. And they were fine, honestly. We get 8 wipes in the packet, which costs $1.99 on La Fresh's website. This equals out to about 25 cents a wipe. Compared to my Neutrogena makeup wipes, which equal out to 20 cents a wipe-- it's not even worth getting upset about the price (which I was at first). My main issue, is that I don't feel these get my makeup off as well as my current wipes. And while it's all nice that it's a small little pack that I can use for travel, if I'm going somewhere, and I'm bothering to take my makeup collection-- adding the full packet of wipes won't hurt.

I was, however, amazed that La Fresh has appeared to make an entire company out of wipes. Feminine Hygiene wipes, Lotion wipes, Nail Polish remover wipes, face wipes. Wipes, wipes and more wipes. 

The next item Ipsy sent out were two individual eyeshadow refills from yaby cosmetics.

These were the two that I got. Sand Dune, a nice neutral color and So Vein, a vibrant blue. A lot of people have been ticked at getting the blue, because they can't use it. But also angry about getting the Sand Dune, because it's so boring. Well, I agree that the blue is hard to use, but under the right circumstances it can look good. It's like bright red lipstick. You can't just slap it on with every eye shadow (all though I try. Hard.) You have to tone down the rest of the face so that you don't look like a five-year-old that got into lipstick and ate it. They are valued at $3.15 a piece at yaby's site. 

Another complaint has been-- what on earth am I supposed to do with two loose cakes of eye shadow. Gurl, Ipsy has you and you don't even know it. And it all starts with the last item Ipsy sent out: the Glam RX  Touch Up Palette. 

And I know some of you are thinking, what I'm gonna stick them in there and let them slide around? 

Nope. 

It's magnetic. And the makeup comes in metal tins. It's pretty neat and costs roughly $16.50 at their website. It's a tough call though, because the mirror usually includes some stuff that can be removed with it. But I'm going to go ahead and make it an even $10 to account for that. 

Anyone who knows me, knows I love nautical themed things. I have an untold amount of dresses, bags, pins, necklaces. I love sailors and skippers and captains and sails. I love everything about it. And this bag, in case you haven't noticed, has anchors and comes in navy blue with white stripes. If I could scream in joy over the internet I would. This is by far the cutest bag I've gotten in my three months of Ipsy. 

Last time I valued the bag at 8 dollars, well I'm going to keep that price. This bag is roomier than the last one, so it can definitely carry more. 

All told this bag is totaled up to $29.29, which is good considering you payed 10 dollars for it. Overall though, I was a bit disappointed with some of the products (death juice), I was overall pleased and to be honest-- even without that awful product-- it would still pay for itself. 

If you want one-- head on over and get in line. When I signed up there wasn't a waiting list, but sometimes there is, but the only way to reserve your place is to jump in line.

Thursday Thoughts

~It's that time again. Thursday Thoughts, linking up with Ramblings as usual. Just click the logo to head over to her blog.

~ In Apartment News, We have found the one we want. Katie and I headed over to the open house yesterday after work. It is a place called Garden Cottages and they are like adorable duplexes. It fits our list perfectly: No upstairs neighbor, dogs are allowed, washer and drying included, patio, fireplace, etc, etc. Pretty much, we fell in love. Our current problem is that is available in May and our lease isn't up until the end of July. However, we filled out an application and I sent them an email that pretty much said "please, please, please, we will do anything we can to get this cottage....please." So fingers crossed everyone! Here are some of the photos we took!

~ We have a very busy next few days. Both Katie and I have worked the entire Spring Break but are off Friday. However, we are going to be getting groceries for Seder Monday night. We are inviting friends over and it should be a really good time. When we get done with all the shopping, we will be heading to Katie's Mom's house. It was her birthday yesterday so we are driving the three hours to stay a few nights. Then it is back home Sunday to get everything ready for Monday night. Busy bees.

Honestly, we should all be able to just trust our dog food retailers.

~ I am a planner. Therefore, even though we haven't gotten our puppy yet, I am already planning everything we need for it. My biggest problem is dog food. I worked at Petsmart for a year and a half of nightmarish hell so I am very schooled on recalls, all the varieties of dog food, what ingredients honestly mean, etc. It's just since I have been working away from the pet industry, there have been so many recalls that all the dog food I thought would be best, seem to be getting bad reviews now. Sigh. If you have pets, what are you feeding them?

My favorite magazines <3

~I am going to start submitting my writing/essays to various World War II magazines. We shall see how it goes but if I could make a career out of that, I would die happy.

Oh, How It's Been So Long

It's been awhile since my last post. But with all the drama going on recently in the Andy/Katie household, it's no surprise.

Andy badly bruised her foot. And while she's putting on a brave face (and refusing to stay off of it), the doctor did say that another couple of ounces of pressure would have fractured it in multiple places.

We also have been on the lookout for a new apartment. Our requests are a tad picky, but to be honest-- in a college town there should be no shortage of apartments. The last one we thought would be perfect was so small. Over 200 square feet smaller than our current apartment and 200 dollars more expensive. There were no door except to the bathroom and my shoulders are wider across than the stove was. If you look up tiny apartment in Google Images-- it's still larger than what we were working with.

Home Sweet Crevice

Luckily we think we've found a good option for an apartment. Although the email we received was vague at best and made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Perhaps we'll put it to a vote. If you asked "You say your community is 'an adult living community', does that mean you are a retirement community or one that doesn't encourage student rentals?" And they reply with "not retirement, not for students and not multi-family" quickly followed by "just call me at this number and we'll talk about setting up a viewing". Would that make you feel slightly uncomfortable and slightly like you were walking into a trap?

It's a trap, Phil!

As if that weren't enough, I was at my observation post at a middle school in the area and was waiting for the  bus when I realized the bus wasn't coming, and I had ten minutes to get to campus before my class started. Normally, I would be like-- No Big Deal, I'll just wait until the bus runs-- I'll just miss class today. No dice, my midterm was on this day. Time to call Andy to come get me. Nada, my phone's dead. Time to start walking. So I start my trek back to campus, iPod blaring my angriest playlist in my ears for motivation. Little did I know it's a 1.8 mile walk back to campus from there. And in my pencil skirt, sailor top and tiny flats (I'm not dumb enough to not bring back up shoes with me), it was a difficult trek indeed. I was about 1.5 miles in, and already 10 minutes late, when I fell and ripped my pantyhose. A frat boy on a balcony above the street where I fell laughed. I got up dusted myself off, put my shoe back on, dusted my bag and got ready to tell him off, when my savior drove up.

A sweet old lady in car gave me a ride back to campus and told me she wished me luck on my test while offering me a bottle of water. A happy end to a terrible story.

But now that everything has been (mostly) resolved, back to your regularly scheduled blogging.

--Katie

Thursday Thoughts

~Even though our weekend was pretty much cancelled due to me falling down the stairs at work (and I accuse Katie of being clumsy). We tried to make the most of it with my nearly broke toes and horrifically bruised ankle.

 

~This was our weekend instead. Kid's movies and cupcakes! I had never seen Brave but had been told by everyone that I looked/acted like her so I had to check it out. It was very good. We also got Hotel Transylvania because I had heard it was pretty funny. I preferred it to Brave actually. It was Adam Sandler back to his best. It was so my type of movie. 

~I am glad I remained an optimist because I was right (and I do love being right). Everything did turn around for us. Got a payment plan for my loans that isn't half of my paycheck, our neighbor made an appearance at our door to apologize for any noise that was coming from upstairs, and when we move we are getting a puppy! 

Miniature Schnauzer like this one!

~So to celebrate I bought myself this. And I bought Katie this.

Thursday Thoughts

I am linking up with Ramblings (as we call her around the house) today. She was actually the person who pushed us to create a blog and make it our own. We thought how neat it was that she was sharing her life so we wanted to share ours.

 So here are my Thursday Thoughts:

~ This has been one of the worst weeks on record in our household. We were both sick this weekend. She was sick Saturday and I was sick Sunday. Money has been short with my old student loans pounding at the door and her current financial aid causing her fits. Then Tuesday we learned our hamsters were found by our maintenance people so we had to give them up. (It was truly heartbreaking.)

She made me these biscuits Sunday to cheer me up.

 ~ However, I am ever the optimist.

Toddlers and Tiaras also helps.

~ So I have a date planned for us this weekend. England Inspired. We are going to eat at a Gastropub in town, watch the second season of Downton Abbey, and I will make her various British treats. (and make a trip to Dunkin Donuts because she loves that place, maybe I will put a union jack on it so it goes with the theme.)

~ We are in serious apartment hunting mode. We aren't picky. Just somewhere that we can have a puppy and our upstairs neighbor doesn't play advance mode on his Dance Dance Revolution game at 2 a.m. in the morning. That's not asking too much, I don't think. ;)

~  Mostly, as usual, my thoughts are on my girlfriend. She is doing her student observations today. I know she is going to be brightening the minds of numerous young kiddos. I mean who wouldn't want to be taught by the prettiest girl in the world?

Guys, this is my favorite human being.

Who wouldn't fall instantly in love with her?

This girl, I swear.

~ I hope everyone else has a wonderful Thursday. I know we are definitely going to try and do our best with it.