I just might be getting old?!?

Ok, really, I'm not that old. Early thirties, but I look in the mirror and I see the fine lines appearing, starting right around my eyes, and I don't like it one bit! So shortly after I begin seeing these small signs that I am getting older, I get a text message. It reads something like this...

Hi, My name is Kendal. I am a friend of Angie's and she gave me your name. I am a Mary Kay consultant and I am trying to earn my directorship. I am trying to do one hundred facials in 30 days and I am about 20 faces short so I am resorting to contacting complete strangers. Would you be willing to help me out?

I think, humm..... Mary Kay? The last thing I need is overpriced make-up. I seldom wear makeup as it is. But wait! Don't they have some of the best wrinkle creams? So I agree to a facial. But I took my 11 year old daughter along for moral support! (Am I the worst mother ever, or what?!?)

It's a Saturday afternoon and my little girl and I set out to get ourselves a facial! We show up to this really cute gals house and get started. It involved all your regular objectives... cleanse, exfoliate and moisturize. It was great for little Ladybug. She learned alot about taking care of her complexion. Then came a surprise. Mary Kay calls it Satin Lips, I call it oddly wonderful! It's exfoliation for your lips followed by a luxurious lip balm. My lips were all sorts of tingly afterwards. Ladybug didn't know what to think.

Then we started with the makeup. Kendal sorts through her sample size makeup and hands Ladybug and I each a set. I start with a mineral foundation, followed by a creme eyeshadow, lip liner and gloss and finish it off with a bronzer. Needless to say, I LOVED IT! It was exactly the look I have been looking for. Ladybug was a little more hit and miss. I loved the clear gloss lipgloss and light pink lip liner, but the mascara was too much for her.

I walked out of that house with a new friend, a lighter wallet and lots of new product to play with. I have since called her back and placed 2 more orders (this was a month ago!) and Ladybug is doing a great job of taking care of her skin everyday. Over all, I'm glad that those little lines showed up and made me try something new.

I went to the gym!

As sad as it is, that really is an amazing thing. While I struggle to keep weight on I am not exempt from getting flabby and lazy and way, way out of shape. I have always been pretty active and with 5 kids I stay pretty busy. I have never really had a need for a gym membership. But then my doctor diagnosed me with a chronic illness and that all changed. First, I knew why I felt crappy all the time but second, I was "allowed" to feel crappy, I had a reason.... and so I did. I felt yucky every day. I would sleep in late, go to bed early and sit on the couch all day.

It finally culminated one day when I could not get out of bed at all. It was after noon, my preschooler was hungry and had been entertaining herself all morning and I was still in bed. My whole body ached, I was tired and I just could not bring myself to get out of bed. Finally, those teary little blue eyes, peering over the edge of my bed were enough to motivate me. I rolled myself out of bed and on to the floor and I laid there until I was so cold that I had to go get in the shower to get warm. That was the day I decided "enough was enough". I was not going to let this control me!

The problem was, I had lived with it for so many years that I didn't know how to change it. I had been through 3 jobs in the interim, all of which were desk jobs. Long gone were the days of trying to keep up with the guys and hauling large boxes and hitches around. My job now consisted of getting to work and sitting in a chair for 6+ hours per day, snacking on whatever treats I had in my desk (and believe me! I had plenty!). I am still very thin, almost sickly looking most of the time, but the muscle I did have has long since turned to fat and that "baby muffin top" that I acquired after numerous rounds of childbirth, had just not gone away.

I have since changed my thinking. I will not let my illness control me. I get up every morning and I go to work and now I am getting myself to the gym. I am by no means ready to win any sport trophies or anything, but I am taking back my life, taking back my body! So today, for the second time this month, I went to the gym!