Rodan + Fields

Well they said I would want to go back to work eventually.  They were wrong!  But I do miss my paycheck and talking to other adults.  One of my neighbors started selling Rodan + Fields skincare products.  I started using the products and was really impressed with how well they worked.  So I decided to start my own business as a Rodan + Fields consultant.  

I have always had problems with my skin.  I had terrible acne as a teen, and saw a dermatologist on a regular basis. But I always washed my face. Now as an adult I still wash my face but my main concerns are sun damage, wrinkles, dryness and dullness.  I use the Redefine skin care system from Rodan + Fields.  It takes literally 5 minutes in the morning and 5 at night.  

Since starting this I have had several friends tell me that they don't wash their face at night, or they use bar soap, or they use multiple lines of cleansers and moisturizers.  We are all aging all the time. Your skin is totally worth 5 minutes.  This can be the easiest thing in the world, especially if you become a Preferred customer. Then your skincare system will ship to your door (for free) every 2 months.  No trip to the mall beauty counter with kids in tow.  And you will have multi med products that work together to give you the best skin of your life.

Click this link and check out the solutions tool on my website and see which line is right for you:  Laraine's R+F Solutions tool  There is one for acne, one for redness, one for sun damage, and one for fine lines and wrinkles.  60 day empty bottle guarantee on all products!  I hope you'll try it!

Summer vacation problems

Sarah and friends at our neighborhood pool

It's been a casual topic of conversation among the mommies at the pool.  "Where are you going on vacation this year?" My new found mommy friends responses vary: a cruise to the Bahamas! visiting relatives in  Florida! the beach in  Georgia!  My response this year: nowhere.  After moving across the country 6 months ago from Omaha back to North Carolina, we have decided not to take a big vacation this summer for financial reasons.  This kills me, because I love to travel.  In past summers we have gone to Mexico, Paris, and Florida. Maybe next year.

Unfortunately for us, this week EVERYONE we know has left town on vacation.  My husband even mentioned that his 25 mile commute seems lighter than usual.  And of course this week my girls have no camps scheduled, and swim team is over.  To go from bad to worse it has been raining all week.  We didn't even leave the house yesterday.  Today we went to a $1 movie at 10 am.  Both girls wanted popcorn.  I told them we didn't need snacks to see a movie.  That did not go over well.  Although we all did enjoy seeing Madagascar 3. 

So it's been a slow week.  But it has made me realize how many friends the girls and I have made since moving back here.  When I was a working Mom I hardly knew anyone in our neighborhood.  Now it's nice to see our neighbors and know more than just their names.  Please y'all come back from vacation!  The girls and I will be at the pool, if it ever stops raining!

Summer swim team 1977 vs 2014

I have always loved swimming. My sister and I swam on swim teams in the summers in the 70's and 80's, and we also swam year round when we lived in Virginia.  My best stroke was backstroke.  My sister's was breaststroke.  The smell of chlorine always reminds me of fun times at swim meets and practices.  Our Moms let us eat Jell-O powder (with sugar) right out of the box for "energy" during swim meets.  In the summer our hair turned to straw and we had the best tans ever.  Our nylon swim team suits had white stripes down the sides and we would get tan through the white stripes. 


1977:
I am the blonde girl standing right in the middle

2014: Crazy pose with my 2 girls in the mix

I have always hoped that my kids would love swimming as much as I do.  When we lived in Omaha, my girls learned to swim at the YMCA through swim lessons and summer camp.  I convinced them that summer swim team would be fun.  And since I am now a stay at home mom here in NC, I have plenty of time to take them back and forth to the pool.  Swim team is a pretty big time commitment for the parents as well, and I had to agree to volunteer at several swim meets. 

We are now midway through our first season, and I have noticed several differences between summer swim team in the 1970's and summer swim teams today. 

1. 2014: EVERYONE gets to swim, even if they can barely make it across the pool. Some events have up to 30 swimmers! There are up to 7 heats so that everyone gets to swim freestyle.  1977: There is 1 heat.  The best 6 swimmers compete.  If you aren't the fastest in your age group, you don't swim. 

2. 2014: Goggles.  They are everywhere. Children won't swim without them. They fall off when they dive in at the meets and kids will stop mid pool to adjust them. 
1977: No goggles allowed in meets, only in practice.  Actually I don't even think we practiced with them most of the time because we lost them at the beginning of the season, and our Mom told us,  "Too bad."

3. 2014: For backstroke, parents hold kickboards against the side of the pool, so their kid won't hit their head on the side of the pool at the end of the race.  1977: We had to count the strokes from the flags to the end of the pool.  No one "caught" our heads; I banged the crap out of my head on more than one occasion swimming backstroke.  I quickly learned it took me 8-10 strokes from the flags to the end of the pool. 

4. 2014: Swim meets take up to 4 hours to complete, ending around 10pm, due to the number of swimmers (see #1).
1977: We were done by 8pm  and got to go out for pizza afterwards at The Mad Italian Pizza place.

5. 2014: Everyone (just about) gets a ribbon.  Places 1-6 get ribbons, heat winners get ribbons, and kids also get ribbons stating their personal best times. 
1977: places 1-3 get ribbons. That's it.

6. 2014: parents must write on their kids' arms with a Sharpie stating their event numbers.  Parents volunteer to be "child gatherers" and tell kids when it is time to line up for their events. 
1977: Kids had to watch for their event and line up.  If you missed your event, you got in big trouble. 

My kids aren't the fastest swimmers, but I think they are having fun in spite of all of the helicopter moms (including me) spraying them with sunscreen, taking their picture, and keeping up with 6 pairs of goggles.  I sure do love watching them swim!  Go Marlins!

Things I learned at Field Day

The only field day I remember from my childhood was in the 4th grade when we lived in Texas.  There were sack races, a 50 yard dash, and maybe a relay race.  Very basic, no Moms to help, just teachers. 

Last week my girls had field day at their elementary school.  When the call went out for volunteers, of course I volunteered to help.  There were probably 30 Moms there running the games. There was a morning shift and an afternoon shift.  I had to volunteer for both, since one of my girls had field day in the morning, and the other one had it in the afternoon.  The game that I was in charge of was the pizza delivery man race.  It figured that my game would have something to do with food!This consisted of empty pizza boxes being carried back and forth by the kids in a relay type race.  I ran this game probably 50 times the entire day, with every group from Kindergarten up to 5th grade.


Sarah and friends
 

Here are the top questions asked by the students:
1. Are there pizzas in there?
2. Are we going to get to eat pizza?
3. Can I go first?
4. Do we sit down when we are done?
5. Where do I put my water bottle?

Best class Tshirts



Olivia and friends

The need to "go first" was especially strong in 1st and 2nd graders.  The need to win was especially strong in 3rd and 4th graders (mainly boys). Some of the boys like to throw the boxes on the ground and jump on them.  The 5th graders were the best at following directions and sitting down nicely when their team was done.  The Kindergarteners were of course the cutest and just wandered around looking at stuff. 

My poor pizza boxes were trash by the end of the day.  I think the kids all had fun. My throat is still sore from yelling directions!

Weight Watchers and the stay at home Mom

Anyone who has been to Weight Watchers knows that once you get to your goal weight, and maintain it, then you become a Lifetime Member.  I like to joke and say that although I have been attending Weight Watchers for my entire lifetime, I have never gotten to my goal weight.  I first joined Weight Watchers in high school.  Then again in college (lost 36 pounds),  then again after my 3rd child was born (lost 52 pounds). All of those with varying stops and starts in between.  I have joined several times and lost 10 pounds, 5 pounds, or even lost nothing at all. 

About 5 weeks ago I joined Weight Watchers again.  As of yesterday, I was down 9.6 pounds.  Hooray!  I know that Weight Watchers is a very slow process.  When I lost those 52 pounds last time it took me 2 years.  During that time I was also a working Mom.  I packed my breakfast, lunch and snacks to eat at my desk.  However I could get easily derailed by a birthday cake for a co worker, or by an offer to go out for lunch.  Now that I am a stay at home Mom, I have different ways to get derailed, like ice cream in the freezer or skipping my workout to watch Kathie Lee and Hoda. 

Me and my Mom.  I'll use this as my "before" picture.  My Mom is also a WW person --- she made Lifetime!

If you are interested in finding a meeting near you, click here  You can also join online, but I've found going to a meeting with other people more helpful.  You don't have to say anything if you don't want to.  And you might pick up some good tips from someone else. I have done every diet known to man.  Weight Watchers is a plan you can live on.

I think that the key to success is persistence.  It is easy to quit.  It is much harder to crawl along and feel like you aren't going anywhere.  When I quit WW last time after 2 years and 52 pounds, I still had 35 pounds left to get to my goal.  Looking back, I was so close! But I was having major setbacks at work, the meeting leader that I really loved moved away, and after 2 years I just couldn't do it anymore. 

I would like to think that THIS time is different.  I would like to think that THIS time I will finally lose those last 40 pounds and get to my goal.  I will just take it one day at a time, one workout at a time, and one meal at a time.  I know I will have setbacks, but I will keep going.

School lunches are gross

Yesterday I went to the elementary school to have lunch with my daughters.  This is something that I never made time for / had time for as a working mom.  The girls had been asking if I could come for lunch for awhile, so I decided to go.  I had packed my younger daughter's lunch: crackers, laughing cow cheese, and popcorn.  My older daughter wanted to buy her lunch, which was chicken nuggets. 

I met up with my older daughter, Olivia, as she was going through the lunch line.  There was a huge basket of a dozen different kinds of chips.  There was also a freezer full of ice cream sandwiches and assorted ice cream bars.  Right at the cash register was a basket of cookies.  Impulse items for the 12 and under set, I guess.  Now what child is going to pass these up?  Heck, I could barely pass these up.

We sat down and I looked at her tray: 5 chicken nuggets, a cup of grapes, a bag of baked chips, and a chocolate milk.  It was a sad looking lunch.  Where was the vegetable?  Olivia said that there was broccoli and a baked potato on the line, but those looked "gross" so she didn't get them.  The chips didn't come with the lunch, and cost extra.  A school lunch is $2.25 here.  The chips were $1.00 extra, for a total lunch cost of $3.25.  In Omaha the school lunch costs $1.65, with no extras for sale.  I can look up her extra purchases online, and have told her this.  I see her buying an extra cookie or cupcake just about every day, even though I ask her to limit it to once a week.  I guess my alternative is to take the money out of her account and send her a packed lunch every day. 

Whatever happened to the school lunch tray that you were just handed?  When I was a kid the only choice you could make was whether you wanted white milk or chocolate milk.  There was no option to skip the vegetable.  There was no freezer full of ice cream. 

Today's school lunch is Salisbury steak.  Both daughters agree that sounds gross.  So I packed lunches for both of them.  After I took them to school, I came home and noticed that Olivia's lunchbox was sitting on the counter.  Sigh.  So like a good stay at home mom, I took her lunch to school on my way to the gym. 

Bike to school day / Help a Mom Out Day

Today was national Bike to School Day.  My girls' school participated by having all the kids gather near the neighborhood pool, and then some police officers led the pack of elementary school kids the half mile to school.  My older daughter, Olivia, loved it.  She loves to ride her bike and zips all over the neighborhood.  My younger daughter, Sarah, wanted no part of this event.  She has told me in no uncertain terms that she "will never ride a bike."  She has had bikes all of her life, but has always been afraid to ride without training wheels.  So Sarah and I walked and watched the other kids ride.  I mentioned to Sarah that maybe she could practice riding her bike, and that next year she could ride too.  She then reminded me that she was "never going to ride a bike".  Sigh. 

Olivia on her bike

I dropped the girls off at school and then set off to walk home.  I passed a few stragglers that had missed the main pack of kids.  One Mom in particular was pushing a baby in a stroller, while her school age kid was riding his bike down the sidewalk up ahead.  Her 3 year old son was walking way behind her.  He was wearing a bike helmet (no bike), and crying.  The Mom was yelling at him to catch up with her.  I could see that she was worried about the older son on the bike crossing the street by himself.  I knew exactly how this Mom felt, as I have been there myself! I went over to the 3 year old and said, "Is that your Mom up there?"  He nodded yes.  I said, "Take my hand and let's catch up to her, ok?"  We walked up to the Mom, who looked a little frazzled, but glad for my help.  We introduced ourselves and I peeked at the baby in the stroller.  It was another boy.  "Wow, 3 boys!  God Bless!"  I said.  She thanked me and I walked home. Sometimes it takes a village, you know?  Now I just have to remember to go back to the school at 3p to escort my girls home!