Hard @ Work

I'm growing an intellectual. Yeah me!

Literary Conference

So that conference I attended a few weeks ago? Totally mind blowing. It rocked. Besides all the freebies I got (like a million books), I also brought back a lot of info for my colleagues. Mainly that the message is: Just because you don't teach reading and writing, doesn't mean you don't teach readers and writers. It's a problem that we all need to tackle. We'll see how that goes.

BUT - while there....I got to meet Mr. Gary Paulson. Yes, THE Gary Paulson who wrote Hatchet. Maybe that isn't that big of a deal to you, but I grew up reading his books when I was in elementary and he's still writing folks! It was a profound moment for me.

Besides books I brough back for myself (and there is a stack next to the bed and downloaded on the nook, I brought back a variable library for Wyatt. He enjoys them....in more ways than one.

Busy Month

OMG, between chasing around my little peanut who isn't quite so little anymore, attending conferences for school and beginning a Retrouvaille program with my husband in Albuquerque, I'm not sure what day it is anymore. I never would have thought the last month would be so busy.

At the start of the winter I decided to make a few changes in my life and the first was to quit biting my nails. I spent some money on nail care, but its been worth it. No more waking up with throbbing finger tips because I bit them so short. The next thing I did was start Proactive. Things have just gotten better since the last post. I have the clearest skin I've every had in my entire life.

Both of those changes have lowered my stress and let me hold my head a little higher.

Towards the end of January Nate bought me Zumba for my Wii. I love it. As a former dancer who can never get to the studio, this is an awesome alternative. I also got a smartphone about this time and started using fitness pal, and counting calories. I still eat what I want, but watch how much. Its crazy how many calories we put away in a day. To mix it up I also do Wii fit, and just bought a belly dancing dvd which I love. I'm also going to try Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. So basically I'm doing something new every day. I feel awesome. I'm totally in shape for riding season getting going again and riding everyday this summer as a full time Wrangler for The Zapata.

Oh yeah...and bathingsuit season, which is coming early for me this year...because Nate, Wyatt and I are going on a cruise for Springbreak.

And more on that later !

Proactive

Two weeks ago I received a Proactive starter kit. I've always fought with less than perfect skin and even though I found a few good items, namely Cetaphil and tree tea oil, that tree tea oil was really harsh and my husband hates the smell. So I decided to try something else. I figured it had a money back policy so what could it hurt?

Because there are so many mixed reviews out there, and because there is no easy to filter out which are real and which are advertising one way our another, I thought I'd give my 60 day version (since I figure I'd better know before than if it's working for me.

Day 1-14
Smaller pore size and smoother skin texture immediatly. No sign of dryness the first week, which was a concern since I have such sensitive skin. Using the 3 step program twice a day and refining mask for spot treatment at night. Still using my moisturizer (straight aloe), but using less of it-so I figure this is less drying than what I was doing.

By the end of the second week my skin is a little dryer than it was, but nothing that isn't smoothed out with the slow. Also used the sample of the green tea moisturizer that was sent. Is very light and I like it as it doesn't feel greasy or make my skin oily.

Pore size is really small, skin is really smooth, little to no breakouts in my trouble spots. So far so good.