Normally, doing a review for flavored water wouldn’t be something I would consider but recently there have been some changes in my life and I need water more than ever.

Again and again, I tell everyone about the medical issues I’ve been having.  Well, I just don’t have it in me to talk about them again.  What I will say is that I was put on a very strict regimen of medication that I am to take three times a day-every day- at the exact same time.

Besides having to deal with the side effects of weight gain from all the meds combined, one of the medications prescribed causes dehydration.   There’s only so much water a person can drink without getting bored, and I’m a water drinker.

Did I mention the weight gain?  I know I did, but UGH.  I’m one of the founders of the fabulously popular Wii Mommies Community and it really is my job to be thin.  I lost a tremendous amount of weight and there is NO WAY I’m going through the humiliation I felt when I was heavier. (It gets better. Click to continue reading…)

No matter how much I’ve weighed or how I felt about my body, I always knew I had good hair.  I think good hair makes all the difference in the world and when you feel down, it’s reassuring to know you have one thing you can look at that makes you feel beautiful.

I Wanted To Go Super Short And Dark When I Met Sara After Having My First Child

I get more compliments on my hair than anything else.  Every time I change a profile picture on any of my Social Networking sites, the first reply I get is always about how great my hair is.  I have a need for constant change and want to give my stylist some credit in this post.

I Wanted Something Saucy & Flirty For A While Between Kids

I met Sara years back when she started dating a friend my husband went to college with.  We became friends and I decided I’d take a chance on her.  I loved her personality and she had fantastic hair herself, so I made an appointment.   I used to have a great stylist in Upstate NY and when I moved down here eight years ago, every stylist I tried out here  just didn’t make the cut (HA.  Get it?  Cut?  I slay me).  In fact, I actually flew to NY every six weeks to get my hair done until Sara came into my life because I had nowhere else to turn (I flew free, people.  Airline employee).

A Little Darker Blonde Last Year After Losing My First 20 Pounds

Then came the day I decided to have Sara do my hair.  In my mind, I wouldn’t tell a Brain Surgeon how he needs to operate, so why should I tell a stylist how to do her job?   If they’re good at their job, they should be able to look at you and know exactly what needs to be done.   I ALWAYS want a fairly different look (typically color but sometimes cut) but can’t ever decide what I want it to be.

My Hair Back In July - Blond As Blond Can Be (My Summer Look)

Every time I go visit Sara at the salon (that’s a list of every location they have – she’s at the Highland Creek as well as The Grand Promenade location for all my Charlotte readers), I simply sit down and tell her that I trust whatever it is she wants to do.  I always want a color change but with my pin straight hair, we both agreed the short hair worked best for me and just make slight changes there.

In October, Between The Platinum Blond & Now

When she’s finished, I feel beautiful.  My hair is styled and silky and Sara always gives a scalp massage when she shampoos.   I always leave my hair in her hands (literally).  I have her choose the cut and color and I wish my camera could take the proper pictures so you could see the various cuts and styles I’ve had.

My Most Recent Style, Just Got It Done This Week!

As a tribute to Sara and my hair, I’ve been putting the various styles I’ve had over the years throughout this post.  I wish I had more, because I’ve had A LOT of styles (I change it up every 3 months) but I don’t even own a digital camera so I use my cell now and before that, relied on my friends to take pictures when we were out.   The picture directly below this paragraph where I’m tan and it’s super long in a ponytail isn’t actually a style I had done, it’s a clip on hair thing I got at the mall because I got sick and lost some hair, so I had to keep it back for a few weeks.  I looked super hot in that picture though,  so I wanted to put it up here.

Totally unrelated but I look saucy

So if you live in the Charlotte area (I actually live about 40 minutes away and it’s absolutely worth the drive), be sure to call  Hair Color Xperts and schedule an appointment with my good (and extremely talented) friend, Sara Reed Garber.  She takes both male and female clients and when you book, just tell them Julie sent you.  I’m curious to see if this post made a difference.

When I was a child, we would always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and on Christmas day we always took a five hour drive to West Hartford, CT to visit my Grandmother.  We didn’t celebrate it like most families would.  Instead, my father, 3 siblings and I would make the holiday special by putting on various skits for my Grandparents each year.

Every year it was different.  Sometimes we’d dress up like characters from Saturday Night Live (I remember once one brother was the “Church Lady” played by Dana Carvey and another dressed up like Ed Grimley”).  My family always loved that show and watched it together every night.  I’ve even started collecting the various DVD collections with the “Best Of” and complete season DVD’s available at Target. (It gets better. Click to continue reading…)

….and other random shit.

I really love Random Tuesday Thoughts (brought to you each and every Tuesday by The Un Mom).  Remember how I was “attacked” two RTT’s ago for calling myself a retard?  Man, that was the best thing I ever did.  Not only did my one nasty comment on here for that but I got a FOLLOW UP anonymous comment on a completely different website!  WOOT!

Shit, yeah!

So I don’t wanth Nick Jr. if I can help it, but a few months ago I came across a Ni How Ki Lan than had me rolling.  The other night when we were flipping through channels I saw it again, freaked out and turned it into the best YouTube video EVER MADE.

(It gets better. Click to continue reading…)

Years back, when I had my first son, I decided to try Scrapbooking.  I bought every decorative sticker, border and paper I could find and paid a fortune printing out all the digital photos I took.  As my newborn got older, I had less time to scrapbook and by baby number two, I was done completely.

I hated the fact that I didn’t have the drive to create scrapbooks, because I always found them to be a wonderful gift to my parents around the holidays.

Then I found Scrapblog.

Scrapblog is free and signup is quick and easy. Creating an account grants you access to a ton of cool features!

• Save, publish, and share your scrapblogs
• Leave comments on other’s scrablogs
• Create your own personal profile to display all your creations
• Bookmark your favorite scrapblogs and view them at any time
• Add other scrapbloggers to your friends list and find them easily

After registering with the site, I managed to make a great Scrapblog Photo Book in just minutes.  It’s literally all done in three easy steps.   After registering, I clicked on the “Start Creating” button and was taken to the area where your Scrapblog book can be created.  You have a few choices, you can start with a blank page and Build your own scrapblog from the ground up, start with a theme that is predesigned scrapblogs from our designers or use the option I went for and select to stat with Quick Mixx, which allows you to pick a kit and add your photos and Quick Mixx will layout all the pages for you. (It gets better. Click to continue reading…)