Product Review: Zerlar Silicone Breastfeeding Manual Breast Pumps Milk Pump Suction

So some moms in one of the breastfeeding groups I am in were raving about this product. I decided I had to try it because I just hate pumping, so the idea of just attaching this while nursing and letting it collect milk seemed too good to be true. Because of this I bought this cheaper "knock off" version to try it out. This version and the more expensive one are both sold on Amazon. 

I purchased this item for $12.99 with free Amazon prime shipping. 

The link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EMXN28M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

With my previous 3 kids I struggled to breastfeed, but have been blessed that this 4th time it has been a breeze. I attribute that to situation, support, and education. However those struggles of nursing, pumping, supplementing, etc over and over again left a bad taste in my mouth for pumping. 

Amazingly this product worked wonderfully! I have used it three times now and it is such a simple way to collect breastmilk.

Of special note.. I have not had pain while using this product, but if you are having pain I would stop using it. 

Product Review: Fragrant Jewels Bath Bomb

So again I saw an ad and though, "Ohhh that look's fun." So, of course, I decided to try it out and write a fun little review about it.  The bath bomb alone was $14.95 and I did receive a free ring because I used a code. It cost a total of $22.95 and I did feel that the shipping was a bit on the pricey side at $7.95. 

From the site: https://www.fragrantjewels.com/collections/bath-bombs

I chose to order the Watermelon Bath Bomb. I must say that its presentation was pretty darn cute. It would make an adorable addition to a gift basket in my opinion. The opposite side of the packaging. 

The bath bomb is wrapped in plastic; I assume for extra stability during shipping. It smelled pretty good as well. 

The "free gift" ring was meh in my opinion, but hey...it's just not my style. 

It did some awesome rotations and fizzing after adding to water. 

Of course I have to have my Starbucks with my relaxing bath ;) 

Kind of looked cool towards the end of its life and you can see the surprise ring in the middle. Definitely has a fun factor to it. 

The ring. 

I totally dig the style of this ring. 

I wore it for a week, but unfortunately it turned my finger green at the end of the week. Super cute for a once in a while ring though. 

The jewelry comes with a tag that you enter a code and it tells you what your ring is worth. My rings were "worth" $10. I don't actually believe they are worth that, but maybe you would pay that in store to buy something similar. They also tell you that there is a chance you could get a ring worth much more, but I don't like to take chances on gimmicks like that. 

However after all was said and done I had a mild reaction to the bath bomb. I do have sensitive skin so I would be wary of buying this for yourself if you have sensitive skin. 

In summary, its a cute idea and has some interesting/fun gimmicks. I definitely think it was worth the one time experience, but I don't think I plan to purchase it again. 

Long Overdue Introduction

So in January I announced we were expecting a new little one. He arrived on 2/4/2016. So here is our little guy, William. He has been a true joy in our life and his siblings have been so adorable interacting with him. I never jotted down a long birth story, so here is a blerb I posted on facebook after the fact. 

 I was induced on 2/4 and I started at 1-2 cm. I labored for 6 hours without pain meds. The nurses kept coming in and saying that I "labored beautifully" and I was amazing lol. They kept coming in to adjust my pitocin up and down because they felt I was having too strong of contractions. I must say I felt like super woman up until I hit 6-7cm. I agreed to pain meds because they had informed me this was my last opportunity. In hindsight.. I don't think I needed them. I labored another hour... gained little progress but was in a lot of pain. Ready to be done. I remember telling Richard that I was "Ready to be done now" in a very pitiful tone. The nurse came in and had me flip to my right side, then my left. I needed to push! I had gone from 7cm to 10 cm in 5 to 10 minutes! They made me HOLD HIM IN while I waited for the doctor... Doctor arrived, told me to push. I pushed his head out and a few seconds later his body. Literally he came out in under a minute! Richard told me after the fact the doctor almost dropped baby William because he didn't expect him to come out so fast! During labor Richard was AMAZING! Rubbing my back, holding my hand, and just being there to support me through it. I sat on the ball, I rocked back and forth, I listened to music... etc Richard also snapped some pics..  

and a recent picture of baby William

Product Review: Elizavecca Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask

So I saw a video for this product and was interested in the fact that it bubbled up instead of dried. It seemed fun so I thought I would give it a try. I ordered it from Amazon for $10.64 with free 2 day prime shipping. 

From the amazon page 

http://www.amazon.com/Elizavecca-carbonate-bubble-Clay-Mask/dp/B00KFLE2UI

Ingredients

green tea extract, aloe vera leaf extract, matcha powder, charcoal powder, pomegranate extract, fermented soy extract, alantoin, peony root extract, oregano leaf extract, white willow peel extract, portulaca extract, cinnamon extract

Directions

1. Spread evenly the carbonated bubble clay mask pack all over the face 2. let it lay for 5 minutes to generate the bubbles itself. 3. to maximize the pore cleansing and exfoliating and make-up cleansing, add some water to skin and massages two more minutes 4. wash off the bubbles foams generated during the pore cleansing with warm water

They claim it is a "Pore cleaning black head removal bubble bomb mud pack." 

So I started out looking like this: 

As you can see I have some acne issues right now and I look like a mom who was up until 4 am studying for her Physics final. 

I applied the mask (with a cute little spatula that it came with) and it immediately started bubbling up. I ended up applying a little more to the left side of my face than the right. In the end I would say that side ended up turning out better than the other side. 

Some fun bubble shots during my 5 minute wait. Its a fun feeling and sounds sort of like pop rocks or rice krispies lol. 

Here I am at the end of the five minute point and I began to gently rub in the mask. 

End Product after washing in warm water.. All clean

As soon as I finished washing with water my face was very soft. Likely from the soapy residue left behind that I just couldn't seem to scrub off. As it dried my face did feel a mild tightening feeling that it often does after masks. It also felt very clean. 

All in all it was a fun product. Their blackhead removal claim may have some validity to it as I felt like my nose looked better at the end. My nose is blackhead central on my face. I can't say whether it had any true benefit to my skin in the long run, but I plan to use it again. I will update with more info on long term use. 

It's been awhile

I guess I ought to give some updates since it has been quite some time. 

First off, we finally have a lawn mower that WORKS! In the long run we returned a second defective mower before we upgraded our purchased to a John Deere. It works wonderfully and we have not had any real problems ever since. 

Secondly Getzy is gone, but not in a bad way. Ross and Getzy moved out on the first into their very own place! So far the two seem to be doing well together :)

However the biggest change by far is the face that we are expecting a new little one in less than 4 weeks! So apparently my going silent for so many months was a side effect of being so busy. Richard and I are ecstatic to be expecting a baby boy due Feb 4th. 

Here are some images of our little guy via ultrasound. 

So we have been rather busy with school, life, and prepping for the little boy. 

I finished up Chemistry: Quantitative Analysis, Calculus III, and my first semester of research at the Cyclotron. Research was by far the best part! 

Richard left his research group and has another lined up to start after he finishes his grad classes. He should be done with all but one or two classes by the end of this spring semester. It was a transition for him but so far it has been the best move for him and our family. The previous situation was not a healthy one for him. 

Aurora, Johnny, and Scarlett all continue to excel and love school. They all had birthdays over the course of our missing blog months. Aurora turned 8, Johnny 7, and Scarlett 5. They are excited for their new baby brother. 

The kids attended the Monster Bash at their school during Halloween that our family won the award for best family costume. I helped to plan and decorate the event with my friend Megan. I did photography on the night of and Richard was our "Mad Scientist" :) John nor Dwight wore a costume on the day of so they are not in the pictures. 

Of course there was also Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Years. Too much to post all at one time, so this update will have to do for now. 

What we will do to mow a lawn

So as we were moving away from our home in California we gave our lawn mower away. On one hand it was practically new and quite dependable, but would never have been anywhere near good enough to mow the yard we have in Texas.

So we moved here and decided to hire someone on. However to mow our 2.25 acres people wanted a small fortune. We went through three individuals who all decided to flake on us at some point. They would stop showing up and we would have to rush to find someone new while the rains caused the grass to grow at an amazing speed.

After the third individual stood us up we decided we had enough. We would mow it ourselves, so off we went to Lowes. Lowes has always been my fave home improvement store and I had purchased many items from them in the past with minimal issues. Here is the first place I faltered. I did not research my purchase beforehand. Normally when spending such a large amount of money on something I like to do a little reading on reviews, but this time I just wanted to get it over with. Our lawn was growing quickly and neighbors were asking questions lol.

So after looking at all the models and discussing it with the lowes employee and my father, we decided to go with a Troy Bilt Horse ride on mower. We also purchased an attachment to catch all the grass being cut. The two things were scheduled for delivery on a Sunday.

Sunday came and the attachment showed up, but no lawn mower. I was pretty upset as I  had intended to spend the rest of the day mowing. I called Lowes and after speaking with the manager we found out that the cashier had put the ride on mower as a carry out. So they said the best they could do was deliver the mower the next day. I accepted.

Monday the mower arrived. Enter the large paper weight.

I read the quick start guide and the instruction manual. I checked the oil and added fuel then I went to start it up. Nothing. Actually the only thing that did happen was the battery wire melting from coils under the seat. 

I called Lowes again. They apologized and told us they could bring another out on Wed. Later that day it rained (its Texas....sunny to rain then sunny again is normal). It continued to rain on and off the next few days. 

Wednesday came and they swapped out for the same exact model (as we had requested). We had to let the ever growing grass dry before I could mow. The next day we added gas then ran through all the start up procedures. It started! We were in business! I mowed about half of our front lawn which happened to be our priority at the time. It died unexpectedly and would not restart. Richard was at work, but thankfully John works from home. He pushed the mower back into the garage. I tinkered with it for a bit but nothing. Richard came home and spent the evening and part of the next day trying to trouble shoot it. However it seemed the issue was going to take more intensive work and I wasn't keeping this mower around as I had just bought it. 

So again we called Lowes. This time we made it clear we no longer wished to own this model or brand. They asked us to come down and pick out the other model then they would arrange for the swap. We picked a John Deere model that had great reviews and was a bit more money. Again I spoke with the manager who took down all our information and went to set up the delivery for the following Thursday. 

Thursday came and nothing arrived. Midday I called lowes and spoke with someone named Sherry at 2:39 pm on 7/9. Well she said she would look into it and call me back. True to her word, she did. Turns out they had no clue what I was talking about. The swap had never been set up and because I couldn't recall the managers name (apparently there is quite a few) she was unable to figure out what happened. 

Sherry asked us to pay the difference, fine. She then told me they could deliver next Wed. I explained that my HOA was getting antsy about our grass. That I was leaving to go out of town and needed this mower ASAP. She was then able to somehow get it out on Saturdays delivery date. 

Today is Saturday, 7/12. The John Deere was delivered and the Troy Bilt from hell removed. Richard proceeded to mow most of the front lawn, but we still have quite a bit of lawn to go. So far the Deere has preformed like a champ. Fingers crossed it continues to do so. 

Oh and all throughout this experience I was never once asked if I wished to buy a protection plan on any of these lawn mowers.... Lowe's in Bryan Tx really seemed to drop the ball. It makes me wish to shop at Home Depot in the future. 

And it continues!

So last I checked in Getzy was back. The old "owner" took 24 hours to actually come by and pick up the dog...even then he didn't do it, his brother did. At the time he told my husband that "he is sorry, it's just a bad situation over there." The guy told me that the dog was going to his parents and would be kenneled. To be honest this made everyone in the house sad as we knew it meant we would never see him again, but it was over! We started looking at rescues to get a new playmate for Magellan/furbaby for ross. This was four or five days ago.

Yesterday we were on our way to target and Ross yells across the living room to me from the entry way. Asking me to guess who is here. He opens the front door and there Getzy sits waiting patiently to be let in.

UM....Parents house? Kennel? I don't think so. We are done. We are keeping the dog. Bring on the war (UGH).

As per usual the guy didn't contact me until midday today wondering if I had "his" dog. I assured him that we had the dog but we will be keeping him. He went into this sob story about the dog in broken grammar and then backtracked on his story about the parents and the kennel. These people have been constantly lying to us. It is ridiculous.

He then said his best friends mom is a lawyer and he will do what is necessary to get the dog back. I said that's nice. I have family members in the profession as well and can attain an attorney. HUGE change of tune then. Oh we don't need to go through any legal actions. I called his bluff.

Then he tried to tell us our dogs live a sad life in our "tiny" back yard. That dogs aren't meant to be kept like that. Wandering is in their nature! Getzy isn't fixed and that is why. Yes that is part of the reason, but I have an intact dog that has NEVER wandered off like this, even if the gate got left accidentally unlatched.

Furthermore we have 2.25 acres. Our dogs get expensive dog food, trips places, and expensive dog training. They get trips to dog parks and petsmart. We groom them and care for them.

I told him we are keeping him. He hasn't responded in quite some time now. I feel bad for having to seem like the "bad" guy, but our family took this dog in and formed an attachment. We can not keep having him come into our lives and then back out again. He clearly wants to be here. He has never once tried to leave our yard. I just hate having issues with this guy...even his girlfriend realized last time that the dog wants to be here, he needs to freaking get it in his head