Momma got an iPhone! (Part 1)

So Momma got a new iPhone today.  She went from a flip phone to an iPhone & was always "this person" when it came to iPhones:

In the first hour of teaching from the ground up all about iPhones, I got the following funny quotes/scenarios from my mom:

• "What is this watery stuff? Why is it there?" (Referring to the generic background)
• "Why are these buttons jiggling?"
• Me: "Mom, they're asking for your security code."
  Mom: "Why?!?! That is my personal information! It's ****."
  Me: "OMG Mom! Not your Pin Number!!"
•  "Does IMDB have to be capitalized?"
• "It says I have six 'inboxes'."
• "What is that sound?"
•  Then she focused for a really long time on her new alarm sound.
  Me: "Mom, can we move on?"
  (She picks the alarm that sounds like a nuclear bomb is headed our way. That'll sound nice in the mornings.)
• I told Mom to search for the BB&T app.
  [5 minutes later...] Mom: "Dream car??"
  Me: "What??"
  Mom: "It's asking me what my dream car is."
  Me: "I don't know what your dream car is, Mom!!"

Then she ended it with a, "This is fun!!" 

It's so funny and a little frustrating to teach "the older generation" current technology but I admire her for trying! She'll get the hang of it soon, hopefully. I just warned her that she can not text and drive using her iPhone.  ;) 

I'm sure I'll be updating this in the future.  :) Until then....

My Current Favorites

Oh, you know.... took a nap after work & am up at 2:00 AM for the first time in forever.  That nap was much needed but now I'm realizing it may not have been my *best* idea.

So, why not share with you some of my current favorite things?? :-)

::: My new Thirty-One bag :::

 I lucked out & got this yellow monogramming before they retired that color. Why in the world they would retire this pretty gold color is beyond me. And I think they retired this print too!! Crazy!! But, this is 31's Retro Metro bag, and it is the best for carrying all my books and folders and crap to work & back every day!! The ONLY thing it lacks is a sturdy bottom. But, I'm going to carry this thing until it falls apart...and so far, it's handling this heavy load PRETTY darn well if I do say so myself.

::: Mary Kay Lash Love Mascara :::

mypinkchic

I {still} LOVE this mascara.  When I began selling Mary Kay, I began using their Ultimate Mascara.  It was my new favorite mascara. Then Mary Kay came out with Lash Love Mascara, and I have not used their Ultimate Mascara since! {No offense, Ultimate!} This stuff gets the exact effect I was looking for in a mascara.  My lashes are darker, thicker, longer looking, and not clumpy! I'll be honest... I would absolutely not recommend the I♥BROWNshade because it is the lightest brown shade of mascara I've ever seen! I would only recommend that if your eyelashes are whiteish blonde & you're not looking for the blacker than black mascara look. BUT- if you want a fabulous mascara, the I♥BLACK of Mary Kay's Lash Love Mascara is a win!!!

::: My Caboodles Neat Freak Grande Train Case :::

 The black faux leather case has just enough room for now to hold my cosmetics! I got it at Ulta and it was on sale for $36 instead of $48! I love me a sale, especially on things I searched EVERYWHERE for!

::: Special K Caramel Chocolate Protein Meal Bars :::

Enough said.

 ::: New Girl on Fox :::

This seriously is one of the funniest shows on TV right now! I love watching it & haven't missed an episode. Alex tries to act all big & bad, acting like he doesn't love the show, but he sure does "LOL" right beside me every week. And Schmidt and Jess are SO going to be TV's favorite couple in the future. Who's with me???

::: K-Love Radio :::

94.1 from Charlotte, NC is such a... "positive and encouraging" radio station (no really, it is).  Some of the DJs are a little corny, but what are ya gonna do/say on a Christian radio station?? I love hearing the stories about how K-Love has helped bring people to Jesus!! And I am always loving their song choice!! Check out the channel on your I Heart Radio app if you aren't in the Charlotte, NC area, plus it doesn't have all the commercials.

Alright, I think those are random enough for ya! Just a few of my current favorites! Nothing totally original, off the wall, or super interesting, but- that's me. :-)

Bible Verse Love on Pinterest

I am house-sitting for a friend's family & watching American Idol.
I need to
u-n-w-i-n-d
& how better to do that than share some Pinterest love with y'all?? :-)

Tonight's Pinterest sharing theme:

Bible Verse Love ♥

Follow me on Pinterest :-)

Mary Kay Expiration Dates

Hey hey! I'm back with another completely random blog post! This one's especially for y'all who purchase beloved Mary Kay products & wonder when the heck they expire!

We all hear about products expiring after a certain amount of time, or know we're told not to use certain types of products after certain time periods, but not really knowing how long is too long and what the exceptions are. Well if that's you, then this blog post is for you! Also, consider reading this if this is NOT you but you have to admit you've noticed that your friend's Mary Kay products come in different packaging than the Mary Kay products you're currently using. ;)

I was wondering about a certain Mary Kay product I had purchased a long time ago. I was thinking it was too old to continue using, but wasn't too sure, so I did some investigating.  I went on the Mary Kay InTouch website {for consultants} and found the following information. Hopefully it'll be as helpful to you as it was to me!

NOTE:  this system only applies to Mary Kay products. I have no idea how other companies note their expiration dates, or in this case, the date of manufacture.

I'm going to re-cap the info I found for you:::

Every Mary Kay product is labeled with an "easy to read" code right on the packaging. Yes, it's on the packaging, yes you can read it, but without these helpful hints, you won't know what you're looking at. Every product has it's product name on it, including the shade name, a six-digit part number (that you won't need), and here it is- a four-digit code.

That four-digit code is the product's date of manufacture. You can interpret the day code using the following legend:

Character 1: Letter representing the year in the decade in which the product was produced.

• R = 2008
• T = 2009
• V = 2010
• 1 = 2011
• 2 = 2012
• and for future reference... 3 = 2013, 4 = 2014, and 5 = 2015.

Character 2: Letter representing the month of year in alpha order, as follows (please note that the code skips some letters to avoid confusion and mistaken identification):

• A = January 
• B = February 
• C = March
• D = April 
• F = May
• H = June
• K = July 
• M = August
• R = September
• T = October
• V = November
• X = December  

Characters 3 and 4: Numbers representing day of month. For example, 01 = the first day of the month, 15 = the 15th day of the month, 31 = the 31st day of the month.

So, if you can put 1 + 2  + 3 together, you can figure out when your product was born!!

Most Mary Kay® products are produced to have a shelf life of three years from the date of manufacture. This is the standard for the cosmetic industry, not a regulation. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the shelf life of over-the-counter (OTC) drug products such as sunscreens, antiperspirants, etc., as follows:

• If the shelf life is less than three years, then the expiration date of the product must be clearly indicated on the package. This is not required if the shelf life is greater than three years.

So, some Mary Kay® products may have an expiration date because they have a shelf life of less than three years. For these products, it is particularly important to check the expiration date before using them. These products are: 

• TimeWise® Day Solution Sunscreen SPF 25†
• TimeWise® Age-Fighting Moisturizer Sunscreen SPF 15†
• Acne Treatment Gel†
• TimeWise® Even Complexion Essence
• MKMen® Moisturizer Sunscreen SPF 25†\
• Mary Kay® Lip Protector Sunscreen SPF 15†
• Mary Kay® SPF 30 Sunscreen†
• Subtle Tanning Lotion
• Mary Kay® Tinted Moisturizer With Sunscreen SPF 20†
• Mary Kay® Tinted Lip Balm Sunscreen SPF 15†
• TimeWise Body™ Hand and Décolleté Cream Sunscreen SPF 15†
• Mary Kay® Cream Eye Color
• Mary Kay® Foundation Primer

† Products indicated with a single dagger identify over-the-counter drug products. Customers should carefully read and observe all warnings, indications and directions for use on the labels of these products.

So, UNLESS there is a blatant expiration date on the product, you can assume the product has a shelf-life of three years. It'll say something like: "EXP 4/12" if it does, and in that case, the product should be thrown away in (for this example) April 2012.

Unfortunately not all Mary Kay products have the dummy version of when to discard your products, so, this info will be good info to know so you can crack the code & see if it's been three years or not!! Lord, I hope not!! ;) Mary Kay products are great & always improving! New products are coming out & things change so so much in three YEARS so if it's been that long, find your consultant & get an updated facial! It'll be worth your time to pamper yourself & see what fabulous new products the company has come out with!

Side note: Someone remind me to blog about their new products & products I'm loving right now!! ;) I know I need to keep a list of things I need to blog about. Otherwise I'll just get distracted & make false promises! And I don't have time right now this second or I would blog all night!! :)

I hope this is helpful to someone out there. I know it was helpful to me! :)

PS: If you're a Mary Kay consultant & looking for this information yourself, here it is. And the info given in this blog is up-to-date as of today.  If you're viewing this five years from now, things may or may not have changed. Just sayin'...

My Week

Warning: This is not going to be a depressing post, but it may be long. :)

So, as you know, I had been having a pretty tough time lately.

Work has definitely been stressing me out lately.  I don't like being behind, but I don't want to commit to begin working all day, all night, and all weekend.  I know if I start doing that, I won't stop.  I've learned from my co-workers and quickly! Burn-out is all too much of a real thing in my profession and while it seems like you're just being lazy or not being a "team-player," I would like to call it actively attempting to avoid burn-out.  So, with that being said, when I'm scheduled for evaluation after evaluation, and left with little time in between each one, they quickly begin to stack up! There's supposed to be a two day turn-around for these evaluations, but if I get them scheduled one after another day after day, then that leaves a stack of them pending and deadlines out the window. And I hate that. But I think I would hate working 24/7 a little bit more.

SO- with that being said.... my sweet boy decided that I was a bit too stressed out lately and said the one thing that probably could have helped me the most. He said, "I'm going to pray for you." and then he did. He prayed that God would find a way to release some of my stress and find a way for some of my upcoming scheduled appointments to cancel, or no-show, or reschedule, or SOMEthing so I could have some time to actually sit and get caught up on work, at work. 

Let me tell you that God is still in the blessing business!!
Tuesday I don't remember what happened. But I know my 1:00 appointment didn't happen and my 3:00 did. I thought, "No biggie. I've had some time today to work. What's one more added to my list?" I was attempting to do something I've had a hard time doing lately. I was being positive! It probably helped that I woke up to a really nice text message from a friend (at 5:45 AM, mind you) and did a little work out in my living room before I got ready for work, felt like wearing a dress and fixing my hair & attempted The Double Bun from The Small Things Blog. I got lots of compliments on my hair-do & even got a tweet from Kate! :) Good sleep and good hair days really do help lift a girl's spirits!! Thanks Kate!!

Happy Tuesday!! 

Now Wednesday. Wednesday I had 3 appointments scheduled.  These appointments are a 2-hour time slot, so between that time, a lunch break, and the little things that need to be done or come up throughout the day, that didn't leave much time to catch up on my stack of evals pending, not to mention the three that were supposed to be added to that stack. (Now mind you: these evals get two hours of productivity, but are never finished in a two-hour time period.)
Well, on Wednesday my appointment times were at 10:00, 2:00, and 3:00.
Due to billing issues, it made more sense for me to switch my 3:00 appt with my co-worker's 4:00 appointment.
Then my 10:00 canceled.
Then my 2:00 came and I thought "Crap, I thought I was going to catch a break."
THEN my 2:00 got sick. All over the hallway.
Luckily I got to dodge witnessing that, and she rescheduled!! (Get well soon, 2:00!)
Then I kept working away until my now 4:00 appointment time...
Meanwhile, the 3:00 showed up! Phew! Dodged that bullet!! ;) (No offense, 3:00!)
Then my 4:00 no-showed.
I was 0 for 3 which is typically unheard of!!!
When I left at 5:00 I wasn't caught up, but I was closer to being caught up and I immediately called Alex and thanked him for his prayer, which was definitely being answered!!

Then Thursday I was scheduled for a 9:00 appointment in one city, and a 1:00 in another city.  This is frustrating when I want to get work done, but I don't mind the 30-minute drive listening to COSMO Radio!
Well, to make a long story a little bit shorter, both appointments no-showed, I took the afternoon off, and then made myself work on evals that evening while I watched American Idol.

It was a BEAUTIFUL 80 degrees on March 1st in North Carolina and I was taking 100% full advantage of it! After I waited for my 1:00 to show up late, and they didn't, I had to go run a work errand. Then two of my co-workers told me they wanted to meet for ice cream later, so, y'all know I didn't deny that. In between, I stopped by Gastonia's new Plato's Closet and found a couple little gems!

Candie's brand sheer tank for $5

Purple New York & Co. cami (goes great with my tank!) ~ $5

Another silky "work" tank ~ $5

Dana Buchman capris ~ $15

I need hours of free time to go back there & browse the aisles & try on everything. They have a TON of jeans there which I am determined to buy, but with the different brands there, I have to try on everything, which stinks! Amazing deals are worth it!! & I definitely needed some retail therapy ;)

After I headed back home I took advantage of the beautiful weather & walked a couple miles around my neighborhood. Oh and got a mani/pedi. :) It had been way too long & I am loving my dark purple shellac nail polish & bright pink toes!

Good sleep, good hair days, and mani/pedis....yep, that's the key to lifting a girl's spirits!!

Friday will be recapped with bullets because I realize how long this post is getting.

• It was an amazing work day. Caught up on work, more, but not definitely. Helped two clients and may blog about this at a later time. My clients melt my heart sometimes. ♥ 
• Alex & I double dated with Phil & Tashah to Outback to have our my usual... 6 oz. sirloin, sweet potato, and green beans. One of my most favorite meals!
• And I practiced two more hairstyles of Kate's:::

Day look

Then before we went to dinner I attempted the Double Bun again. This time I didn't get a good FRONT picture. I'll get better at this hairstyle sharing one day!!

Disclaimer: I can see how this appears to look like a messy bun.

I should have tucked that piece behind my ear so I didn't look gross. But you see here how it's a TALLER version of the messy bun, which paired with the curled bang looked halfway fancy.

So there you go! My fabulous week was definitely an answered prayer!! I am so so glad I could be more positive, get out & exercise and enjoy the beautiful days and be productive!! THANK YOU to those of you who read my previous posts & lifted me up. Y'all are angels and I love you! ♥