What part of No do you not understand??`

A couple of weeks ago I received a call on my cellphone from a number I didn't recognize.  Usually I don't answer those, but I was bored, so thought why not.  Turns out it was some company trying to sell me a remodeling estimate because somewhere I had signed up for it.  Now, I may very well have done so, but I NEVER give out my cellphone number, so I was skeptical to begin with.  Then they gave me a p.o. box address and it was then that the red lights went off.  I politely said no thank you, I'm not interested and ended the call.

Now, most normal people would think that would be the end of it...right??  Well, you would be mistaken with this company.  Not only did they call me back, they called me back every day, sometimes twice a day, for a week.  Oh, but they were sneaky, because they used a different number every time and when I didn't answer they would call back on yet another number.  The other problem I had was they didn't speak very good English, so that was yet another strike against them.

Every time they called I went through the same speil: I'm not interested, I didn't sign up, remove my number and stop calling me.  It was frustrating and towards the end of the week I didn't even wait for them to say anything, as soon as they said my name I gave them the speil, the volume level of my voice raising each time.  Now,  I'm not a confrontational person but they were trying my last nerve!

After a week of no calls I figured I had finally gotten through to them.....I would be wrong.  I got one last call trying to sell me a remodeling estimate and I lost it.  I all but yelled at them the same speil and emphasized that they were calling my cellphone and using up my minutes.  I didn't even let the poor person speak, as soon as he asked my name with that now VERY familiar accent I interrupted him and when I was done hung up.  I guess they finally got the message because it's been several weeks now and no more calls.

But if they do call back.....I'm ready for them!

Aveeno Positively Radiant Intensive Night Cream Review

I was picked for another VoxBox from Influenster a few weeks ago, this time it was for Aveeno's Positively Radiant Intensive Night Cream(phew, that's mouthful!).  Now I'm pretty much a less is more kind of gal and was never raised as a girly-girl, so all these beauty products I get to try for free are fun for me to try.

The only thing I knew about night cream is what I saw on tv. You know the shows where they lather it on their face and their spouse is afraid of them.  And I'll admit when I first opened the box and saw what was included that thought hadn't changed.  Included in the box was a sleep mask along with the cream.  I just hoped I wouldn't get the gunk all over my pillow case.

Their claim is that it;

Contains a proven concentration of ACTIVE NATURALS® Total Soy Complex boosted with vitamin B3 to help visibly diminish the appearance of dullness, blotchiness and brown spots • Oil-free, hydrating formula penetrates deep within skin’s surface while you sleep revealing an even, more radiant complexion • In a clinical study, women saw improvement in tone and discoloration • Gentle enough for everyday use

Fearlessly, I jumped in and scrubbed my face clean, dried it and then began applying the night cream.  The first thing I noticed.....a little goes a long way....but it does rub in.  It's not a heavy cream at all.  The other thing I noticed....a slight stinging sensation.  That part I wasn't expecting.  It didn't hurt, just stung and it didn't last for long, only a few minutes at best.  It did give me a slight rash from stinging sensation, but it too went away in about 5 mins. 

Once the cream was absorbed, my face did feel smooth, a little greasy, but not bad.  I did notice too that  it has made my skin softer and less dry which was a definite plus.  Another thing I noticed, and I don't know if it's due to the Aveeno or not, but I had recently gotten a mole on the end of my nose.  

I know, I know I shouldn't admit to that, but I have my reason.  Anyway I noticed that after a week the mole had become less visible, it's still there, but at least I don't look like the old hag from the commercials:

Wonder if it would work on the rest of my moles?!?!  Anyway, I have to say that overall I liked the product and plan to continue using it because I really did like the way my face felt in the morning.  Also, the dark spots that were starting to appear due to age are actually fading a little.

For fun I made a video on my phone on the vine app showing my nightly routine.  You can check it out here:  My Nightly routine  It's the first time I used that app, but I had fun making it.  

So, my dream....my radiant dream for 2013 would be that this cream would actually be good at removing moles, as well as dark spots and wrinkles, and not just ones on the end of noses!!

*Disclaimer: I received this product free from Influenster to review and the opinions are strictly my own*

Now THAT is customer service!

I enter for a lot of freebies, giveaways, contests, etc on Facebook....just ask my friends.  Recently,mi-March, I came across a giveaway by Johnsonville Sausage for a Cajun Celebration Kit.  It was  only supposed to be available for the first 1,000 entries.  Honestly, I don't remember seeing that and I thought it was 10,000, but I could easily have been wrong.  The only problem was that people were being allowed to enter WELL past the first 1,000.  They actually had over 10,000 entries!  I'm sure you can see the quandary they were in.

Now at first they said that they only had enough for the original 1,000 kits and they were sorry.  Of course, I'm sure you can understand the uproar that ensued.  After all, you don't want to mess with people and their freebies!  Needless to say, it wasn't too long before they said they would send something to everyone, but couldn't do anything about the original number of kits.  The masses were appeased.

So the time passed and I honestly forgot all about it until a package showed up on my porch yesterday from them.  Now honestly, I was expecting maybe a coupon or two and I would have been more than happy with that.  Surprisingly, it was more, MUCH more.  Just look at what they sent:

Like I said, I was surprised to see all that was in there.  In their letter they addressed the problem and as they put it they "strive to do the right thing by all our customers who are important to us" and worked with their partners to supply the additional kits.  Did we get the same kit? No, but again according to their letter this one "is of equal value........ and nearly identical" to the first 1,000 kits.

As you can tell I got more than just 1 or 2 coupons.  There is a bottle of Louisiana Hot Sauce, a can of Red Gold tomatoes/green chilies, two $1 off coupons for Klondike Brands potatoes, $1.00 off Pompeian olive oil, BOGO coupon for Gourmet Garden Herbs & Spices,  FREE Uncle Ben's Ready Rice coupon, FREE Red Gold tomato product coupon, FREE package of Johnsonville Premium Cooking Sausage coupon, and recipe cards for 1)Hearty Italian Salad, 2)Cheesy Ham/Tomato Rice Supper, 3) Orange Scented Pork/Veggie Stew and 4)Red Gold Cajun Queso Dip.  

But wait there's more:

3 Mardi Gras Masks(and not everyone got the same ones!) and colored beads, because what is Mardi Gras without the beads!











5 recipe booklets to share with friends

A measuring spoon

A shopping list

Fridge Magnet

And last but certainly NOT least:

A nice apron

to cook in

and

A nice size tote bag

to carry everything in

Not pictured: A cutting board.  I was so excited to see everything I just put it right in the dishwasher so I can start using it!

So, I'm sure you can see why I was PLEASANTLY surprised by this.  It is VERY rare to find customer service that goes above and beyond as Johnsonville did.  I liked them and their products before this and this has only enforced my positive opinion about them.  I look forward to using the coupons and cooking up a delicious meal.

A great big shout out to the Johnsonville company and their employees!

It's funny how a blog works.

My husband read my blog today and he said something to me that I didn't realize I was doing.  He told me I'm a completely different person in this blog than in real life, that I was more transparent and open.  The funny thing is I didn't think that I was because I know there is still so much more that I don't write about.  There is still that part of me that wonders what people would think if I really wrote what I was thinking and/or going through.  Would they still love me??  Accept me???  Like me??

What would they think if they found out that I'm not this happy go lucky person that always has a smile on her face or a positive spin to put on things?  That there are days I just want to scream and not participate anymore, just run away.  But I don't feel like I have that right to do that.   I'm not taking care of a parent/child that can't take care of themselves.   I'm not a single mom trying to start my life over with a passel of kids to take care of.  I don't even have a passel of kids TO take care of.  I don't have to worry about what bills I can pay or where my next meal is coming from. I'm fairly healthy, could lose some weight...okay more than just some I suppose.   My problems, and I don't even know that they are problems, seem so petty compared to just about everybody else.  What right do I have to complain?

But you see there is one thing I have come to learn and that is that we all struggle one way or another.  We all have good days and bad days.  But I've also learned that fretting over the bad things doesn't make them any better.  It doesn't change anything either.  The only thing that does is a change of attitude, a change of perspective.  Now don't get me wrong, changing the attitude or perspective is not an easy thing to do.  It's a heck of alot easier not to.   But you see if we don't then we may find that one day we may not be able to.

That doesn't mean I don't, or won't, still struggle with that smile. And it doesn't mean I still won't have those days I want to scream or to not participate or run away.  I'm sure there will still be plenty of those days ahead of me.  I'm just going to try to learn how to deal with them better.

It's funny how a blog works.

Time to dust off the blog again

Wow! Has it really been over a month since I last blogged?  Where has the time gone?  Actually it has more to do with me just not being in the mood.  Really, I haven't been in the mood to do much the last month.  I've just really been in a funk more than anything else.  What I've been lacking is motivation.  The only thing that I've been motivated to do the last month is to make my goals at my earning sites, but that's it.  I've had reviews to do for products, but couldn't even get myself to do those and those are usually fairly easy to do.

But I've decided to pull myself up out of this funk and get motivated.  So what did I do you ask?  Well, I made some jewelry.  I got a bunch of new stuff and finally last week organized it so that I could actually make something with it.  So that's what I did.  Okay, I did cheat a little bit.  I also recently signed up for a bead kit club of the month, where they send you a new kit with ideas to make.  I decided to make it easy on myself and do one of those because I didn't want to lose what motivation I had.   The best part about this club is that there are videos online in case you have any problems.  Not the best video, but it does help.....especially when it's been awhile since you've made anything....like me.  So, you ready to see what I made???  Here it is,  turquois anyone:

Not bad if I do say so myself.  However I did realize that I used the wrong size bead on the earrings after I finished them, but I'm not taking them apart to fix it.  So because of that I had to then adapt the necklace and bracelet for the change.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out...what do you think?

My newest guilty pleasure: The Taste, Tuesday at 8|7c on ABC

I have found a new guilty pleasure reality show to watch.  It's called The Taste and can be seen on Tuesday nights on ABC.  It began with chefs, professional and amateur, competing for 16 spots.  They all had to make a dish they felt would "wow" the 4 judges and get them on one of the teams of 4 and they had to do it with one spoonful....one taste.  The judges, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, Brian Malarkey and Ludo Lefebvre, get to leave any preconceived notions and expectations they might have about a person's experience, or lack thereof, because they know nothing about the contestants except for the food put in front of them.

It was fun to watch them in the audition episodes as they tried to guess whether it was a professional chef or an amateur that just cooks really well.  They would then cast a yes or no vote based only on what they tasted.  More often than not they could pick the professionals from the amateurs, but that didn't mean the professionals had it easy and were an automatic shoe-in.  In fact in the first audition episode I think more amateurs went through than professionals.  Often times the judges would regret the "no" vote that they cast, realizing that the more they thought about the taste the more they liked it.  Unfortunately, that isn't much of a consolation if you weren't chosen for a team.  When all the auditions were done, they were left with 16 chefs.....4 for each judge.

As the competition goes on they will compete, both as teams and individuals, in different challenges.  As always the tastes are blind tastes.  As the viewer, we know who is making what dish, but the judges never do and it is fun to watch the judges banter back and forth with each other over why they like or don't like a dish and hoping that the dish they don't like, and ultimately send home, doesn't belong to one of their own team members.  So it's not only a competition among the 16 contestants, it's also a competition between the judges.

Another part I find funny, and this is probably just me, is watching them doing the taste.  All the dishes are served on the same size spoon, which looks about the size of a tablespoon, a fancy looking one.  Sometimes those "tastes" are quite the mouthful not only for the guys, but also for the only woman judge, Nigella.  But you can always tell when Nigella likes a dish because she will lick the spoon, like she is wanting more.

If you haven't had a chance to catch an episode go to http://abc.tv/Z3jimp to catch the latest episode and I'll think you'll find you will make it one of your guilty pleasures as well.  Don't forget to tune in every Tuesday night on ABC at 8/7c pm.

Casualties of War

As I've posted before I have a problem with rats here in Arizona.  They've gotten the wires on my car twice, my husbands once and now my son's car once as well just in the past year alone.  So we bit the bullet and got a pest service to help "control" the situation as best as possible.   The main problem we have is that we have 3 strikes against us:

     1)We live next to a vacant lot

     

     2) We live across from a wash(where the water goes during a monsoon to avoid flooding, but is filled with trees and bushes and critters!)

     

     3) We have an unpaved driveway

So, it's almost like fighting a losing battle.  I'm more than willing to leave the critters be....as long as they leave our stuff alone.  But after two airconditioning units and three cars, the gloves have come off and it's now war.  There is no more Mrs. Nice Guy or would that be Gal? Anyway.......

The last time the pest guy came out (last week) he gave us a rat trap, only one as that is all he had at the time.  So last night I put some peanut butter in the little hole, place the trap under my car and hoped to find a warning sign for other the varmints in the area the next day.  When I checked the trap this morning I saw that is had been tripped, but there was nothing in it. So I left it there when I had to leave this morning figuring I would take care of it when I came back.  But as I backed out of the driveway I noticed that I in fact had "gotten" something......but it wasn't a rat or a mouse....it was a bunny!!!  I killed a bunny!!!  I'm a bunny-killer!!!   The bunny looked so peaceful just lying there, which gave me hope that it didn't suffer.  Needless to say this time I put the trap back, but put it in my engine, so as long as the bunnies stay away from my engine they should be okay. 

Oh and before you say anything, we are keeping mothballs in our engines, alternating with drying sheets. I'll also be investing in some Peppermint oils and rubber snakes.  Yes, I said rubber snakes...rats don't like snakes and will stay away or so they say.  I'll also get a couple more traps for the other cars.  The only step after that is to some how rig my car so they get "shocked" if they touch it or hire a hit man!  I tried to play nice with them, but no more.

I am sorry my bunny friend that you had to be a casualty of war.  Blame the rats, they started it, I just have to finish it.