Class Reunion

Filed Under Friends, Me, Thoughts | 4 Comments

Bailey JUST woke up in the next room but I want to get my thoughts out about this. In the meantime, I can hear her yelling Neener Neener Neener, which is her new favorite sound.

Anyway. My ten year high school class reunion was last weekend. At first I thought about going. I mean, high school was fine. All I really did was party and hang out with my friends and I did enough schoolwork to get by, but not enough to get in the way of my life… overall I have good memories… so anyway I was like, “Oooh a reunion! I’ll get to see all my old friends! They will all have babies and we can be mommy friends!” Then I started realizing this wasn’t so realistic. If ten years have passed and we haven’t talked, there is probably a reason.

I drifted apart from a lot of my high school friends while I was away at college. I got really involved with my sorority and life on campus and all that stuff. I was only three hours away but I only came home like twice a semester a lot of the time. I mean seriously, what 19-year-old wants to miss a weekend filled with barhopping and happy hours and take out food and sleeping late and hanging out at the gym, just to go sit at their parents house? Not me. I am bad about letting friendships fall apart. If I don’t talk to someone or see them regularly, I don’t really try to put effort into the friendship. I figure if it was worth staying friends, it wouldn’t take so much work.

Now that I am older, I see that most friendships do require work. A lot of them are “easy” as far as being friends, but hard as far as finding time to spend together. Now I am more mature about it and plan ahead and try to make those difficult “I know I haven’t seen you in nine months” type phone calls. (For example, I went out to lunch with Paige today, and literally I haven’t seen her since last Thanksgiving. But it was good catching up and I hope this time it’s not so long in between.) Back then, I didn’t bother.

SO all this to say, I really have one friend from high school. Yeah, I know I talk about her a lot so I am not even mentioning her name in this post. There was another girl who we weren’t really good friends with in high school but became friends with later… then once again became not-friends… Then there’s another girl who I see at stuff like baby showers and she’s fun to talk to for like an hour, but after that time there’s really nothing left to say for either of us and we both go our own ways again. Then there is one girl who I just recently got in touch with again and we are tentatively making plans to get together.

None of these girls wanted to go to the reunion, so I decided I didn’t really want to go by myself. I didn’t want to try to figure out who to talk to, only to find out that we had nothing in common. As far as curiosity- well I catch up with most of them on Facebook and we message two or three times and that is all taken care of. I’ve seen pictures of their boyfriend or kids, we’ve talked about careers… or my lack of career… i have gained weight since high school (although judging by the reunion pictures, oh Lord, some people have REALLY gained weight even in the last year or so! HELLO Leptovox…) and I try to dress somewhat cute but really I’m not into fashion all that much now… I wasn’t up for the competition or the dress up game at the reunion. My husband didn’t know anyone who would be there and it would be boring for him. So we never registered. At a few moments I thought “maybe I should…” but knew I didn’t really want to.

This week, I saw pictures on Facebook. Some people look the same. Some people look great. Others look like a fat, sloppy, tired, or trashy version of their former self. There was a weird guy in the background who kept flicking off the camera. Looking at these people, I felt a few fond memories. I saw girls I used to be close to, who I haven’t talked to in like eight years. It made me smile, seeing their faces. And at that moment, I realized that was all I wanted. Just a few memories. I have those. I didn’t feel a connection to those girls. I could have chatted for an evening, gone my own way, and not looked back. Just like I didn’t look back ten years ago when I moved away to school. I guess that’s just me. So I saved $100 or so, and didn’t bore Jonathon for an evening. And I got to show Jonathon the pictures and comment and laugh and smile and tell stories, which is all I would have done that evening.

I hope that I have stronger friendships now, that I wouldn’t just turn away and not care. I think adult friendships ARE stronger, because they require more work. You get deeper than just surface, boy, school, party talk. More than “the three b’s of a good party.” I had a few friends who were more than that but most were just that. I hope my friends now would keep me accountable and try to stay in touch with me, but you never know.

If you made it this far, I am impressed. I know this was rambly but I wanted to get these thoughts down. Now, I am going to get my kid. She is in her crib, “spelling” her name. There are letters above her bed and she points to them and says “E, I, A, E, A…” because I always spell her name out for her when we look at the letters.

Skin Care Product Reviews

Filed Under Avon, Me, This Rocks | Leave a Comment

I finally decided to be an adult, and I have started actually washing my face at night, and using a night cream and an eye cream. I can already tell the difference in my skin. It kind of makes me wonder why I didn’t do this all along. The stuff I have been using, is the Avon Anew Retroactive line. The products are all very affordable, especially compared to other department store skincare products or other home sales companies such as Arb*nne and M@ry K@y.

Here is what I do at night:
1. I use the Anew Retroactive 2 in 1 Cleanser to wash my face.
2. I put the Anew Rejuvenate Eye Cream (night) on my eyes.
3. I put the Anew Retroactive Youth Extending Night Cream on the rest of my face.

In the morning, all I do is use the Anew Rejuvenate Eye Cream (day) on my eyes before my makeup. I don’t use a day cream on the rest of my face because I use a primer instead.

I never thought I would be a skin care junkie, but I enjoy using this stuff. It makes me feel great about my skin, and I like that i can actually tell the difference. So I know it’s not a waste of my time, or my money.

Another thing I discovered recently is Clearskin Immediate Response Spot Treatment. If you are looking for an acne treatment, this is a topical cream that you can use as prevention or after you feel a zit coming up. My friend Faith says that it works better than any other stuff she has tried. I also have to tell you, she used to use Arb*nne. The reason I am posting about it again right now is because it’s on sale for 99 cents with the purchase of any other Clearskin product.

Check out my website for more info, and use the code REPFS for free shipping!

Self Portrait- Mommy and Bailey

Filed Under Into Everything, Me, Play, Thirteen Months | 3 Comments

Today Bailey and I did not go anywhere! I know, shocker. We very rarely stay home all day. But I have been feeling overwhelmed about the house being messy and having lots of things to catch up on around here. I am addressing invitations for two different weddings right now and I am a little behind on Avon stuff as well. Plus, I know tomorrow we are going to see my friend Sarah and her little baby, and on Wednesday we have plans with my mom.

I tried to put away laundry and do stuff in my office but Bailey kept getting into everything. We call her Destructo. So we ended up just playing in the living room most of the day. Here are some pictures I took of both of us- I know I have no makeup on but the point is that I have a picture with my daughter, which doesn’t happen too often because usually I am the one behind the camera!

Just a few of her while she was playing- you can kind of tell that she is walking on her tiptoes in this first picture. She does that every once in a while now and I think it’s so cute. I guess she just discovered it but she mostly does it when she’s really excited or being silly about something.

(By the way the summer attire of choice for around the house is a shirt and a diaper, yep, we’re classy like that). Hey, sometimes it’s even just a diaper. Whatever’s cool and comfortable.

And her new favorite activity- trying on Mommy’s shoes!

After

Filed Under Me | 11 Comments

I love it. It is so nice feeling like a girl and not a mom. That probably sounds bad but I don’t want to look like a mom! I am really happy with both the cut and color. If you are looking for a new hairstylist in the Manchester/Ballwin area I’d be glad to hook you up with Olivia’s contact info. Or obviously you can check out her blog. Let her know I sent you

Here is the after shot. Never mind the fact that I am in my pajamas… I look better anyway!

Then we just started being silly, and because I haven’t really posted any other embarrassing shots of myself lately, I might as well include these.

Updated to add: I just told Jonathon “My hair got fleas!” but he said the weird fuzzy look is from the flash reflecting off the shine in my hair. I must have had really dull hair before, because that has never happened!

Making some changes

Filed Under Blogging, Me | 2 Comments

To the look of my blog and also to me. I have got to find a better theme for this blog. Also I thought I was pretty smooth adding some pictures down the sidebar but they’re all funky. I need to get them all resized to the same size and then have Jonathon put line breaks in between them. Stupid HTML… or should I say Stupid Tara…

Tonight I am going to get my hair cut and highlighted. I am going to the girl who cuts my friend Nicole’s hair. Nicole always has good hair, so hopefully I can benefit from this. A while back, this girl gave away free haircuts to some bloggers and I was a winner, so I figured it was worth a try at least!

Here is my before picture. Don’t mind the horrible-ness of it. My hair really did look better this morning when I fixed it, but the problem is, it looks like crap after about an hour and I end up pulling it into a ponytail. It just gets flat and scraggly. Pray for a miracle.

Something exciting-

Filed Under Me, Milestones, Weight | 1 Comment

My wedding rings fit again! It’s been way too long. I was able to get them on a few times just here and there since B was born, but for about the last two weeks I have worn them consistently, every day. They are still a little snug but I love being able to have them on again, and not wearing the random sapphire ring on my wedding finger anymore. I feel married again

Also, I am so glad that I didn’t end up getting them resized. They even fit those few warmer days so I don’t think it’s just because of cold weather. If I had resized I would have lost the engraving, so that would have been a last resort.

Just For Kelli

Filed Under Avon, Me | 10 Comments

I was telling my friend Kelli the other day about my new Avon mascara that I love. I told her about how when I first put it on, I just had it on one eye and I was like, “Wow, this stuff is amazing! I actually look like I have eyelashes now!” So before putting the mascara on the other eye, I went in the kitchen to see if Jonathon noticed. He was like, “Um, something’s wrong with your eye makeup. I think you only have it on one side.” LOL

Kelli and I both laughed about that story, and then she was like, “You should put it on just one eye and then take a picture!” So I did. Here it is.

See, I’m not kidding about having no eyelashes without mascara. I look like a boy without it, but this stuff rocks! I didn’t use an eyelash curler or any eyeliner for that picture, just “Shell” shimmer eyeshadow and the mascara.

It’s $8.50 regularly, but right now there is a special where you can mix and match, two mascaras for $7.99 TOTAL! So it’s really good mascara for only $4.