Brown paper packages tied up with strings

The sun has finally decided to shine on Puget Sound, Everett, and ME :)
I’m happy as a clam. Loving the time with my little family, wonderful husband and fascinating kiddo! If you don’t get to spend times with kids, I’m pretty sure you have some unclassified deficiency; perhaps it’s like the vitamin D deficiency so many people don’t believe in/understand until we are in the middle of June and its still raining and their lives are miserable for no good reason. You don’t know what you’re missing until you’ve experienced it.
Don’t worry, you can always hang out with us and the Mack man to get your fix! Speaking of whom: that little monkey is bound to be in the spotlight for something in his grown up life. Whatever it ends up to be, he is just such an audience pleaser, and pleased by the audience as well. Cracks me up.

Anyway, that was my mommy rant. Moving on. I started reading The Girl Who Played With Fire. I am very excited because its been put in my path in so many random ways: first a recommendation by Amazon, second a friends recommendation, then, it being placed front and center on the shelf of the five day old coffee/book shop I’ve since become a frequenter of. Its meant to be for me to read this book! Since then, I’ve had countless people tell me how I need to read, “oh you already are, oh, you will love it” etc. Basically, if I end up not liking this book, I better not tell a single soul.

Work is going well, have I mentioned lately that I love my job? I really do. We’ve had some crazy stuff happen lately, but I think its only re-enforced the strong team ethic we have here. With some exceptions.

I thought I’d take a minute to be super girly and share some of my current favorite things. Other than my book which I’ve already mentioned.

The first thing, I stole from miss Stephanie. Covergirl (who I’m not a big fan of…) has these new little marker looking things that are lip stain. No gloss, no sticky, just color. It lasts really well and doesn’t get on my coffee cup (I HATE that!)!! Its called CG outlast lip stain and I got #415, whatever that means, I think it said plum.
Next up is John Frieda’s Root Awakening Smoothing Crème. Kennis, you need this. It smells like eucalyptus and peppermint and when you put it in your hair it sort of numbs/cools your scalp. I put it on before I straighten my hair even though you are supposed to use it in wet hair.
I’m also really enjoying fitness magazine. I used to get this sent to the condo and when we moved, something got messed up and I started getting some other women’s workout mag which was just trash. I just started getting Fitness delivered again, and it really inspires me to get off my butt (seriously, I usually can’t finish the magazine because I want to try something out or at least get out of the house).
I’m also loving water aerobics. If I could, I would put a pool in my backyard and get some of those foam weights and do the exercises every morning before work. I really feel the difference in my core and my legs, both of which are things I need to be working on -- hey Mackenzie.
Finally, this is a favorite that I’ve had for a while and should have shared long ago. If you go into Aveda and ask to have your chakras defined they will sit you down in a chair and have you close your eyes. Then, they will pass seven different scents in front of you, while coaching you through a few different breathing exercises. After that you tell them which two scents stood out to you the most, or were the most appealing. Then you can open your eyes and they will tell you which scents you chose and which chakra they correspond with. When I did it, the one I ended up getting is for the root chakra and smells very earthy (think patchouli...). Anyway, I got the spray and then they teach you a breathing exercise to do each time you use the spray. It’s an aromatherapy, and unspoken mantra. Very cool. It was really interesting to me because I don’t generally like that type of smell but at the time, I was working at Starbucks downtown still (Christmas time) and my life was incredibly hectic with the ever changing schedule and the frustration of commuting for a job so purposeless. The root chakra, and in effect the need to be grounded, was really identified in my choosing that Chakra 1 scent.
The funny thing is that if I get it out now, I am totally turned off by the scent and can’t stand the smell. My life is much more established, and grounded. The root chakra is not needing that focus as much these days. I’d really like to go back to Aveda and see what scent I pick out this time. I’ll keep you posted.
I hope you can enjoy at least some of my favorite things. They make me happy in the littlest of ways and I hope they do the same for you.