Tag: Personal Care

Challenge Accepted Day 20

Well, another day in paradise……. Ok, we’re still waiting for it to turn into paradise, but another day in beautiful South Korea! 😊 Last night was interesting at the Hail and Farewell, it was a long night, much longer than either of us expected it to be, that’s for sure. It was ok though. It’s always weird in the military world because you meet people (spouses in particular) and think are you going to be one of those people who’s all about the rank or are you just going to be a really nice, down to earth kind of person or are you just going to be someone so very different from me that we don’t have anything in common? It’s weird. It’s like a little world unto itself being a military spouse. For the most part, military spouses are awesome. They are some of the most incredible, strong, resilient people you will ever meet. They are Jills of all trades and masters of many too! They are educated (maybe not all of them in terms of University degrees – but a lot are) but they have pulled through situations most people can only begin to imagine. And most of the time, they are pretty down to earth people! We know we are moving constantly, we know we have no idea where we’ll be in five years. We know that most of us don’t give a damn about the rank of someone else’s husband/wife, it’s not about that, it’s about connecting with people who know what sort of life you lead. It’s about connecting with people who understand the challenges we all go through. And even when we meet a young spouse who is just starting off this crazy journey, you want to connect with them because you want to help them deal with the craziness ahead and give them the tools and resilience to make it, in this world of its own. 
When I first met my husband, I had no idea what this world was all about. In fact, my sister and I were throwing a party at our house in Bahrain (a small island just off the coast of Saudi Arabia for those of you who aren’t familiar) and we invited a number of American Navy guys we had met (having no idea of their ranks or what that meant). A number of them arrived and left shortly after, explaining to us they couldn’t stay because they were Officers and their immediate subordinates (enlisted) were at the party and it was unacceptable for them to stay. The Navy was very strict when it came to fraternization (socializing with an enlisted soldier that falls under your command). My hubby was enlisted and wasn’t concerned about any of that, he was an E3 at the time, meaning he was pretty low on the totem pole. Anyway, my sis and I were upset they left but had a great night nonetheless. It was only years later after living in Sicily with hubby, I began to understand just how serious fraternization was; the girls who organized my baby shower both worked at a bank together and were great friends. They both came to my shower (which was a ‘hubby’s invited’ party) but one of them couldn’t have her husband there because every other person there was enlisted and he was an Officer!  How crazy is that? 
Years later, my hubby is now an Officer and I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love it because he worked hard to get here, we both did actually. He gave up the Navy, got out. Went to a Fire Academy in San Antonio and became a firefighter only to be told there wouldn’t be a job for at least 2 years. He then put himself through University whilst supporting his Aussie wife (who couldn’t work legally to begin with then couldn’t find a job that covered the cost of childcare making it worthwhile to leave her baby) and his daughter. He joined an ROTC program and became an Officer in the Army. I am still so proud of all he accomplished! Yet I hate it because I am immediately judged as being an Officer’s wife. Like I give a damn about that crap! If you’re awesome, then I like you, I don’t really give a crap where your hubby falls on the totem pole. I’ve been there. If you’re not so awesome, again, don’t care what rank your hubby is, it truly doesn’t matter! The only other thing that really bothers me is we can’t hang out as a couple with other couples who fall under my husband. I’ve met some amazing people that I really liked, both wife and hubby, but one of them has been one of hubby’s soldiers meaning it was a no-go as far as couple friendship goes. 😕 Boo. But, here we are in South Korea, just getting to know people, so I’m hopeful the people I meet aren’t going to judge, are just going to be themselves, and so far, so good. I actually even made a mistake. Yes me. Sometimes we have to admit when we are wrong and I am admitting I was wrong right now. Last Friday, I went to the local market with a couple of new acquaintances (hopefully on their way to being friends) and I said I was concerned these women wanted to have lunch with me just because of my husband’s rank. I was wrong. Actually, it was in very poor character for me to say that. So I formally take it back. They weren’t out to do that. I know this because I couldn’t go and I saw them the next day talking to every new spouse who had arrived and they all went out to lunch. Yay for them and boo to me. I am really glad I was wrong and I shall never make such poor assumptions again! 
So back to last night. I actually knew a couple of people! I’m not a super social person. My Mum is. She’s the most sociable person I know. My Dad has this saying that goes something like this: “The pope stands up at St Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican and he looks out at the crowded mass of people with my Mum standing beside him and the people say, G’day Lyn, how are you?” Something like that anyway. We can be anywhere and my Mum will find someone she knows, it’s crazy. She is just this amazing person when it comes to interacting with other people! I am more like my Dad. I pretend to be social but I’m a bit of an introvert. I’m not good in big groups. I get uncomfortable and awkward. I wish I didn’t and I try to go against it when I can, in fact my husband was fooled for a couple of years after we married that I was and extrovert. Don’t get me wrong, I love having big groups of people over to my house (he doesn’t), we throw amazing Halloween parties, I just don’t talk to a big group of people all at once, I’m more of a one-on-one kind of person, one-on-two at most. Unless I know you all well. Then it’s a different story. So I really pushed myself out of my comfort level last night and went and said hello to a girl we knew in Hawaii. Hubby was like, “well do you know her that well?” I said, “she came to our house, I know her well enough to go and say hi!” Anyway, she immediately gave me a hug and was so welcoming, knew exactly who I was. Yay. The next one was a bit of a failure. I recognized this woman from Hawaii, I used to sit in meetings with her at least once a month. I walked up to her and said hi, she put her arms out to hug me, so I immediately thought she recognized me, I hugged her back, she said welcome to Korea it’s very nice to meet you, I thought, oh crap, she doesn’t remember me (I’m not a stranger hugger) and I said how are you, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other in Hawaii, she said, “oh, you were in Hawaii?” I felt mortified inside and said, “yes!” And named a few names of mutual friends and what not. Then she calls her husband over and tells him we were in Hawaii and he’s like yes, I know, not helping his wife at all! Then I felt embarrassed for both of us, so made small talk and said good bye! Talk about being in a terrible level of uncomfortableness! Other than that social mishap, there were some nice, seemingly genuine people there and although a long night, where my children were very much done by the end of it (halfway through to be honest), it was ok.
Today we attended the ‘Eggstravaganza’ on the base (or Post if you’re a true Army person) and it was ok. There was only one food tent, not acceptable in my books and an opportunity missed by many, but I don’t know the reason behind it so I shall not judge too much until I know more reasons behind why there wasn’t more diversity and why FRGs weren’t there fundraising by selling food. Anyway, other than lack of food choices, it was good. Kids had a blast. We even ran into people we knew. We only stayed for an hour or so because we were all starving. 
  

I really screwed up all our plans for this weekend too! I wanted to visit a friend I made on our way over here to South Korea (that’s a story unto itself that I shall share on here another day)! She lives in an area that has blossoms blooming now and I said we would come. Problem is we have a curfew. Then I read the cherry blossom thing happened on this Sunday (a school night), so I thought no, it’s Easter Sunday, that won’t work. Then she and I messaged each other back and she said it was at night and I thought that definitely wouldn’t work, being a Sunday night and all. Then we messaged each other again and she said no it’s Saturday that this festival is on and I said we had plans, at least I thought we did. Hubby did have a meeting this morning, but at first there was supposed to be an egg hunt in my little neighbourhood (at 0630 this morning, I realised that wasn’t going to happen) then I thought we were having dinner with a couple tonight; hard to explain, we are looking after their cats whilst they go away, again a neighbourhood thing, we went to meet her and she seemed like a really awesome person and my kids and I really liked her from the minute we met, and we are having dinner together so we can meet her hubby, she can meet mine. She also lived in Australia for a number of years and just seems like my cup of tea! Anyway, I got the dates wrong and it’s next weekend we’re doing that! Silly me. So then I message my friend and say I screwed up, maybe we can come now, but she’s got all sorts of things going on there and it’s a no-go! So, we end up at the little festival, where there’s no food, followed by lunch in the food court, followed by wondering around the Ville that is outside of the post. It was suggested by another acquaintance (on her way also to being friend) that we travel to a place called Asan, but by the time we finished eating, hubby was done and wanted to wonder around close by rather than drive anywhere. 
We had fun in the Ville, he ordered a tailor-made suit, (I know right) and we enjoyed ourselves as a family. There were a couple of stores that made us laugh including the local ‘Hooters’. We came home and watched ‘Hotel Transylvania 2’ and now it’s card night in our house, so I am being called as I write this!

  
I did T25 TBC. It was hard but I am certainly doing much better. I was even able to fast forward before the DVD froze so that worked out as well. My back is a tad sore though as I write this so I may have done one of the exercises not quite right. I weighed myself this morning and I was down over 2 lbs or about 1kg! Yay! Unfortunately, I haven’t eaten as well as I could have today. But I’m really happy it’s at least showing on the scales finally! I did my Redefine regimen also this morning, using the Microdermabrasion paste whilst I was in the shower and it felt great! I really wish I was using Reverse too, it makes a huge difference for sun damage from what I’ve seen. I’m thinking that will be my follow-up challenge. By the way, there are going to be some modifications in this challenge as I’ve realised the Rodan + Fields is a 60 day challenge and T25 is a 70 day challenge. It may just be a continuous thing with the Reverse regimen continuing on from where the Redefine left. I’ll keep you posted. 
So I’m being called again and must say adieu! I did start the day with a homemade cappuccino too (as per the photo) & realised I didn’t miss coffee as much as I thought I did. Also, note to self, in a humid environment, keep your turmeric latte mix in the refrigerator otherwise it will get mouldy! Yuck! Well, the Easter Bunny should make an appearance tonight so here’s hoping he, or she comes to your neck of the woods! 

Happy Easter!

Challenge Accepted Day 19

Good Friday morning to you! It has been a lovely day in our house so far today (fingers are crossed, double crossed and triple crossed as I write that). Ally’s friend came over and she is a lovely young lady. They had a lot of fun together. It was our first time meeting her so it’s always nice when you like your daughter’s friends. What is weird when you become a parent is the awkward conversations you have with strangers because your kids are friends. It’s like you’re now forced to phone this strange person and organize to have a child, that in a lot of instances, is also a stranger, come into your house and stay the night! The stilted phone conversations can become even more stilted when the parent stranger comes to your door and wants to check out your house (to make sure you’re not some crazy, hoarding, lunatic, slob and what not of course) then you stand there and make chit chat for a while until they’ve realised you’re not crazy and it’s ok to leave their child with you! It’s really quite bizarre but I’m pretty good with Mums, it’s Dads that bring a whole new dimension to the equation, which is what it was in this case. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about right? When you are happily married, you don’t really give the opposite sex much thought and in most instances your friends are female and there’s no need to think about what you say or do, you are just yourself, but when it’s a Dad, you think about everything a little more. A Mum, I would invite in for coffee, a Dad, I’m not going to, because that’s just weird. Even coming into my home, I’m like “ok, let’s not move too far from the door because that’s just what feels comfortable.” I don’t know how to explain it further, you just don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea and it’s just plain awkward. Just me? It’s different if it’s a couple and you’ve met both of them and you’re on your way to being friends, but when you don’t know either one of them, well it’s just a tad strange. And he wanted to keep chatting! Seems like a very nice guy but I was at the point where I thought, it’s time for you to go now, I wish your wife had come. 😉 oh and there was absolutely no sexual tension there either in case you’re thinking that, I think he’s just a talker and I was just wishing the wife had picked her daughter up today. 
I went for another run with Luna through the rice paddies today – bit of a disaster actually! We started running and I want to say we got about 30 seconds away from the house when my iPod died. I tried to connect to Pandora on my phone, which I happened to bring just so I could take a photo (main picture) for you and Pandora isn’t supported here. So I was holding extra stuff whilst my dog, who is the winner of the worst dog on a leash award, was yanking my arm off! On top of that, I forgot to wear gloves and it was bloody freezing! Seriously! I thought my hands were going to fall off when I got back, ok I’m exaggerating a tad, I thought my thumbs we’re going to fall off at least. It was painful. It took about 20 minutes of sitting on them for them to stop hurting. Can’t even begin to imagine the pain of frostbite. Back to the dog, she sees her friendly neighbourhood ducks who skedaddle upon her approach and yanks me so hard, I drop my phone! Luckily there wasn’t any damage to it. So, that was my run! To run is fun! Well sometimes! 😊 
Once I could use my hands again, I had a hot green tea, cleaned and pretty much found anything to do to procrastinate doing T25! Not sure why I felt so against it, but I did. Eventually though it was time and I went upstairs and did abs. Holy wow! I cannot wait until the day I don’t have to modify at all for abs. I did make it almost through the entire pyramid move at the end though when I made it to 6! You’ll have to do it to really know what I’m talking about and I can’t remember all the technical terms but basically Shaun T gets you to finish with this ab pyramid. You go down into plank then quickly bring wide legs up as close to your arms as possible then jump up, then back but do wide in and out 2 times, and so on and so forth until you get to 7 wide in and out abs! It’s a killer! I got to six and time was called and I thanked God like you wouldn’t believe! I couldn’t do a second workout though, I had run out of time and needed to shower and get Madison from the bus stop as she was only on the half day. Too bad (not sure if my sarcasm comes across when you read that, but it’s definitely there 😝)! 
As far as the Rodan + Fields Redefine regimen, I’ve taken to using my Amp MD in the morning followed by the serum, then the am cream. It just works better for me that way and I know I’ll get it done whereas I can’t guarantee it’s going to happen at night. It’s all about making things work within your routine though isn’t it. My skin feels wonderful. Everyday I say to hubby how soft it feels but he’s one of those guys who doesn’t really notice that sort of thing. He tells me I’m beautiful just as I am so anything is just going to make it better, so I guess I can’t ask for more than that can I? For me though, as I said yesterday, I am starting to see a difference. One other thing I’m doing is drinking lots of water. At least 2 litres a day. It feels good. I feel fresh. At this point in time, that’s enough for me, oh and I took another butt photo (sorry still not sharing on here) and hubby could see a real difference! Yay!
A mango smuice was the drink of juice today (another made up word, a mixture of juice and smoothie- I like it). Mango chunks, kiwi, chia seeds & cranberry juice. My darling daughter ate all the strawberries last night so I shall have to wait until we can go to the market on Monday to get some more. It was yummy. For lunch, I broke my drinking smuice promise again and had the Chinese salad. It is yummy! The recipe is on the back of these Australian noodles I stock up on every time I go home. I love it, so does hubby. Basically you get Chinese cabbage & green onions, then you get noodles and toasted almond slivers, keep them separate until you’re ready to eat. Make up the sauce with olive oil, sugar, soy sauce and vinegar, you can add sesame oil too but I never do. If you refrigerate the sauce, the oil will go hard and separate but when you’re ready to use it just get it out and leave to reach room temperature and give it a good shake and it will be good to go. I’m putting a photo of the recipe that’s on the back of the noodle packet below, but I use about half the amount of sugar they recommend. For my American friends, sorry, I’ve really not found anything that tastes as good as these do but you can experiment with different fried noodles until you find something you like. 

  
I followed my lunch with another green tea as I’m a bit chilly and trying to avoid coffee at least until tomorrow morning, nothing drastic! So I did forget that we have a do to go to tonight. In the Army, when you hit a certain length of time (aka rank) you get hailed and farewelled. Tonight is hubby’s and in turn, the rest of the families’, hail or Army speak for welcome. There are speeches, a bit of fun and basically we get introduced to everyone and we see who will be working alongside of him. Everywhere I’ve been these have been different and you really never know what to expect until you go to your first one, so that’s happening tonight. It’s all going to be different once again because it’s being held at a gym (??) so we’ll see. I may have a glass of vino before we go (it’s been a week now 😉) that way, I’m ready to take on anything my kids throw at me and any surprises in store throughout the evening. No, not really, but I may just have a glass anyway! My afternoon is going to be quiet and dull and I’ll figure out what I should wear to a ‘do’ at a gym (does anyone really know?) I may just go and hang out with the kiddos too. So I’m going to say adieu for today and talk to you all tomorrow.
By the way, I loved getting comments yesterday on both WordPress and on my Facebook page. Please share my blog if you’re enjoying reading it and like me on Facebook: aussiemumsadventures. And comment! Give me insight into you. Let me know what you think. 
Ciao! 

Challenge Accepted Day 18

Hello Thursday! The Thursday before Good Friday too! It always surprises me that Americans aren’t more into Easter. I’m not overly religious or anything either but in Australia, Easter weekend is a big weekend. We have Easter holidays normally and everyone has at least a 4 day weekend. When I was growing up, shops weren’t open on Good Friday, it was like Christmas Day, everything shut down. I know it’s not quite as strict nowadays but it’s pretty close and it’s still a public holiday and a lot of people use their 4 day weekend to go camping or visit relatives, it’s a huge weekend on the roads in Australia! Yet in America everyone goes to school on Good Friday, there’s no Easter Monday. Just different. Now in saying that, my eldest daughter actually does have the day off but her little sister doesn’t! How crazy is that? Two schools run by the same people yet they can’t agree on their days off! Madison has a half day at least, but Spring break for them begins on April 11th (not sure how the blog’s going to go during that crazy week!
Ok, so last night I went to the dentist. My jaw aches on a regular basis and I’ve been told I have what was originally called mandibular jaw dysfunction but is now known as Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ). I thought that was why my teeth started hurting so much the other day but unfortunately it isn’t. The dentist took an X-ray of one side of my mouth only, “Let’s start there,” he said, and sure enough there was something there. He removed my amalgam filling (I had been to him before and he suspected something was going on underneath the amalgam fillings in all my double teeth) and sure enough there was a huge cavity! Let me give you some background information; when I was about 12 or so, my family’s then dentist told my parents I had very deep grooves in my double teeth (also known as pits and fissures) and he wanted to go ahead and fill them to protect them from cavities – obviously sealants weren’t being widely used in Australia at that time. Sure enough, he filled every molar tooth with amalgam (silver) filling. Now, here I am however many years later and it looks like cavities have gotten under all of those amalgam fillings! He put a temporary filling in this one and thinks it’s safe from needing a root canal but only just because it’s been caught in time. Who knows what hellish nightmare all the others are hiding underneath the amalgam fillings put in their to prevent cavities! Right now I’m not allowed to chew on my left side until I can get back to see him next Friday to put in the permanent inlay. And that’s the plan for all of my double teeth – remove the amalgam, hope nothing any more sinister is hiding in there, replace with inlays. I just want it all to be done! I’m not a huge fan of the dentist, I’m a bit cranky no dentist has mentioned this could be a possibility to me before now and I am not looking forward to this treatment over the next couple of months! Boo! 
The chewing though has reinforced the juicing thing today. I thought that it was s sign that this is what I’m meant to do. But I am a tad hungry and I will be eating dinner tonight. Sorry. Juice all day but dinner with the family tonight. Ally is having her first friend over for a sleepover and she is so excited. But it does mean I’m going to actually have to cook and not just give my kids some crappy food because Mummy’s only doing liquids! 😜 the plan is for a yummy Chinese noodle salad, a fresh salad as well as chicken, probably done in a light breadcrumb. My kids love it when I make homemade breaded chicken so it’ll be good I’m sure. Nonetheless, I’m not strong enough to cook that and not eat it! 
Since I have written this, we have had dinner and I am feeling very full and very blah! I was hungry and I ate too much! But I will say this, my exercise routine this morning was great! I took my dog for our first run through the rice paddies. It was great! She loved it and I much prefer to run outside instead of on the ‘dreadmill’. When I first heard talk of rice paddies, I wasn’t quite sure of what to expect, but we are talking paved paths that are better than most of the roads here in South Korea. It was a really nice run except when Luna ripped my arm off trying to get to some ducks, but otherwise, all good. I got back, had my juice/smoothie, said goodbye to the husband then started T25 Cardio. It went reasonably well, basically there are two boxes you can check after each workout: 

Barely made it

Nailed it

I was somewhere in between the two whereas last week, I was definitely in the ‘barely made it’ category. It feels good to be finally getting somewhere even from a fitness point of view, though I do feel like my body is changing, I know, yesterday I was all negative, but today it feels like things have changed.
I looked at my skin this morning and I honestly started seeing a difference! Yay! I’m not sure if you can see it yet in the photo but I could see it in the mirror and it was like a breathe of fresh air! At last my skin is starting to look better. I have really been consistent with using the Redefine regimen combined with Amp MD, the Macro Exfoliator once a week and Acute care as per directions. It is actually starting to show so I cannot wait to see the results in 42 days! 
  

Now onto the juicing side of it, I used whatever I had in the cupboard, there was no diet that I followed and I used my Magic Bullet to combine it all rather than a juicer. My first juice was a mix of strawberries, kiwi, a lady finger type banana (grown locally and wonderful), some honey, chia seeds and cranberry juice. It was lovely after my run but before my T25 workout! Not filling yet enough to ensure I had energy to do it. 
  

The second drink I had, I guess these are more like smoothies than juice, but the second one was really interesting. A little chunky but still good. I just threw pieces of carrot, celery, strawberry, banana and kiwi into the bullet and mixed it all together with OJ and some chia seeds. It was filling and a good lunchtime drink, not too sweet but sweet enough.  
  
Well, today has been interesting, rewarding, somewhat eye opening when it comes to observing adults and their interactions (I know I haven’t shared any of that but the mystery shall have to remain)! Anyway, the best thing today though has to be that it’s my nephew’s 10th birthday! He is such a trooper and I love him to pieces. Happy birthday Taylor and I hope you all have a sensational day or night! 

Challenge accepted Day 16

Today, is hubby’s birthday. He’s not feeling well unfortunately but he’s one of those people who won’t just rest when he can and has never had a sick day in his life! Today he did rest a little though because I forced him to! What are wives for, right? 😉
We also went out for an early, quick dinner with the family because that’s a tradition in our house, not necessarily the early & quick part, but the birthday person gets to choose where they want to go for dinner. We went to an American restaurant on the Air Force base – Chilis – the kids were good, the food was decent, the service great, all in all, a nice meal out and sometimes, you just don’t get that when you have three fussy kiddos! Or just when you have three kids in general! I had a Southwest chicken salad and water. I also ate quite a few chips and salsa, it was all very nice though and I could only eat half of my salad but it had lots of tortilla strips so it definitely wasn’t healthy!

I feel like all I’ve done is eat today! I worked out this morning (Speed 1.0) luckily that workout isn’t yet affected by the big scratch that has taken the last few minutes of Total Body Circuit, so here’s hoping with some special love and affection, I can maintain that DVD for at least a little while yet! I ran for just over a mile afterwards but I didn’t want to overdo it either after not feeling so great last night. My workout was followed by some cake making (hubby had requested chocolate cake and chocolate marble cake with triple chocolate icing (blught- yes I made that word up and tried to spell it exactly the way I say it)! That’s a little too much for my liking but hubby loves this on his birthday! I can make beautiful, fancy cakes and this is what he wants! 🙂 There was no pavlova today. I think just given general unwellness, he was thankful to have a cake at all! By the way, I opted not to have cake for dessert, instead I had some local strawberries with some vanilla Greek yoghurt on top- not necessarily low in calories but it was yummy and good for you! 
  
Going back to food from earlier in the day, I had the most amazing lunch! Local lettuce combined with local tomatoes, organic spinach, a little bit of pre-mixed salad, carrots, a little bit of avocado, some of the Costco chicken from the can heated up in a little bit of balsamic vinegarette all with some grilled haloumi! Yum! What is haloumi I hear some of you ask? It is a cheese you can actually grill directly. It originated in Cypress and has become a key element in many Mediterranean & Middle Eastern cooking recipes. I haven’t had it for years but saw it at Costco on Sunday and got so excited! I was a bit concerned it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered it, but I wasn’t disappointed. This is the best salad I’ve had in years- it could definitely compete with some of the salads from ‘Aloha Salads’ in Hawaii! Definitely! 
  
Whatever it was that was going on with my jaw and teeth last night, well, I’ve got no idea. Hubby has been fighting off whatever has gotten to him for a while and I think it finally won the battle. He’s all heady. Lots of congestion, headache, you know. Just blah! As for me, I felt like anything I was feeling was all being felt in my jaw and in all of my teeth. Really bizarre! Then I made the mistake of going to Google Doc and got told I was having a heart attack! Ha! I think I’m going to make it! 😉 I do however have an appointment with my dentist tomorrow night to check on everything so we’ll just hope for the best. 
A funny thing that did happen today (well today and every time we go anywhere in Korea using our Korean/English GPS) our Korean lady GPS tells us about school zones, speed cameras, parking infringement regulations, sharp curves. She’s very helpful and annoying. Apparently there are huge fines for speeding in Korea and cameras everywhere- Australia, you thought you had it bad! She also says this thing, and we’re not sure why because it doesn’t look that bad to us, but she says, “Warning, danger zone!” Every time she says it, hubby and I immediately start singing: “Highway to the danger zone!” The kids at first just thought we were weird, then I told them it was a song, then they found it amusing, now they normally just ignore us, until today when Hunter asked if he could sing that song too. We laughed and assured him he could but I don’t think he’s hearing her cues or registering that the cues come from the GPS. It was funny to hear him sing it though and next time, well who knows.
Back to the Challenge:

So I just had a long talk with my sister tonight and realised that perhaps I needed to explain the 60 day challenge a little better. That will require a little bit of insight into me. I am a bull at the gate kind of person. I guess being Taurus doesn’t help if you believe all that. Anyway, I have little to no patience and am terrible at following through for the long term when it comes to some things. This 60 day challenge was the concept of my husband months ago, when I first became a Rodan & Fields Consultant. As you can imagine, I jumped in head first without really knowing the products but feeling like my skin had come alive within just a few days! I could only begin to imagine how great it would look if I stuck with this amazing regimen. Hubby said to write a blog about my journey. But I didn’t do either (stick to my regimen or write the blog that is). I used it inconsistently, I didn’t follow all directions. I tried to cut corners. I used a mishmash of products and the results didn’t continue to happen. I lost heart. I lost my oomph! I wasn’t so sure I believed in the products anymore and I’m not a sales-type person. I have a really hard time selling anything. I just wanted the products to speak for themselves and at first they did. Then they didn’t. My friend who got me started was disappointed, I know. Life got in the way too. It just wasn’t working out. When our household goods finally arrived here in South Korea, I realised I had to make a decision, believe in the products once again and let my skin do the talking or walk away from it all, once again. Obviously, I chose to take on Rodan + Field’s 60 day challenge (try the product and if you’re not happy within 60 days you will get a refund, empty jars and all). I needed to commit for 60 days and so I did. 
Today, I looked at my skin after my workout and wondered if there had been any changes yet and I really couldn’t see any and I started to once again feel disheartened, disillusioned, ready to quit, but no! I’m sharing this challenge with all of you so I have to be accountable. I can’t quit. Just like I can’t ‘not’ workout. I have made a promise to you. I’m not going to let you down! I’ve even gone on an AFW! That’s an Alcohol Free Week for those of you don’t know 😜 we (my Aussie family) have AFD’s (Day) & AFW’s & this is an AFW. The exercise is a whole different story that also got me down today! And the weight thing, but we’ll talk more on that another day. 
I think the main thing I have to remember is to ensure I consistently follow directions and to remember that the damage to my skin didn’t happen overnight so I can’t expect change to happen overnight either! It is just frustrating and I really want to turn back the hands of time! One other thing I need to remember is that I am only using one of the regimens. I should be using Redefine in the morning and Reverse at night. Reverse is what is going to get rid of or at least decrease the sun damage, melasma, that sort of thing. But I don’t have any Reverse regimen left and I can’t invest anything more until I believe in the products again. I can’t ask anyone else to invest anything more until I start seeing those results I saw in the first few weeks when I first started using the products! So here I am. Day 16. Not seeing miracles, but knowing it’s a process. It’s going to take time. Just like the exercise will take time and consistency & I’m going to need every ounce of patience I can get! 
  
(This photo was taken straight after my workout this morning). 

Challenge Accepted Day 9

Well, what a day! It all started with a message from my brother-in-law this morning upon waking; “call me asap!” Ok, what is going on? This cannot be good. So hubby calls him, asap! The news isn’t good. Parts of Texas are expecting massive flooding by Wednesday, they’re expecting to have to evacuate. He is raising everything in the house to ensure it stays as dry as possible, and he won’t leave until the last possible minute in case there’s looters, but it’s not looking good. He has hubby’s truck, so will drive that out of there but will leave behind his own car (shit)! Hubby offered to pay for him to drive his car somewhere to high ground just in case, but I think he said no (I’m not really sure to be honest, I’m hoping he has got a plan for it)! The other thing is he’s got some boxes of ours filled with some crap plus three or four special bottles of wine I’ve been collecting over the years, plus he has two paintings of ours, that were only just delivered to him last week after months of bullshit going back and forth between us and the stupid gallery! More about that in a minute. So the plan is to put those on besser blocks as high as he can, if he does have to evacuate. The worst part about it is that he’s got his own stuff to look after as well as ensuring he and his daughter fair safely through the next couple of days and we are nowhere near him to be able to help! Shit! 

Alright, back to the paintings: Hubby and I picked up a beautiful oil painting at an art auction in Hawaii, we got it for so cheap and it’s stunning! Since then we’ve had it valued and it’s worth a lot more than we paid for it, and we feel like we appreciate paintings a little more. In the meantime, I started painting with acrylics, not oils unfortunately, and I’m not great, but I really enjoy it when I have free time. Whilst we were on our cruise, we purchased two more paintings and we feel like we got a great deal, unfortunately though, the art director, Boris, blatantly lied to us when he told us they would deliver it to an APO address (we were mid move, so didn’t actually have our new address at the time). The minute we got an address here, we called the bastards at Park West Gallery who did nothing but give us the runaround for the last 6 weeks! Finally, I said to hubby to ask his brother if we could just send them to him and the paintings arrived there last Wednesday! Timing couldn’t be worse as it now seems, just one more thing for him to worry about that doesn’t belong to him. To say we are frustrated is an understatement, to say we are concerned about his and our nieces safety, is to put it mildly, all in all, not good. To the people of Texas and Louisiana who are already enduring or are about to endure flooding and more devastation, my heart goes out to you! We lived in Texas during Katrina, in San Antonio, so well away from it, but we saw the devastation close enough and had family in Southeastrn Texas who were effected by hurricane’s Rita and Humberto. One of whom was my brother in law! It’s like enough is enough! Let these people be would you! 

Alright, I know I’ve said this is more than a blog about an exercise and skincare product challenge, it’s about all the craziness that goes on in our lives at any given time! But getting back to the exercise side of it. Total Body Circuit was a killer again today! When will it get easier my body keeps asking!  But I did manage to the run a mile with a 5 minute warmup and 6 minute cooldown afterwards, so I felt like I pushed myself beyond this morning!  Here is a photo I took just having completed today’s work out but before doing the cooldown part of it then jumping on the treadmill:

  
It’s the only selfie that’s happening today! I took another one after I had showered and thought I was ok, but my face was still so red in it from the work out, then I had to go out so threw on just a little bit of loose powder but didn’t want a photo like that and here I am, have to go and pick hubby up shortly, dinner is on (it’s spaghetti night, we alternate from taco Tuesday to spaghetti Tuesday and tonight’s the latter) I was planning on having a nice healthy chicken salad once again for lunch today but my little man asked for a cheeseburger when we were out and both girls were having school lunch – something that happens once a fortnight (every two weeks) so I said yes and he didn’t eat half of it because they piled it with mustard and I was hungry so I ate it. Big mistake for us Mummy’s! We seem to do that a lot. Then we wonder where the extra calories came from, so even though I wasn’t satisfied with my half of a kid’s cheeseburger, I knew that the calorie count would be high and thought I probably shouldn’t eat anything else but some fruit until dinner. Needless to say, we shall be having an early dinner tonight because I’m hungry! 

As far as my skin and skincare regimen is concerned, I wanted to let you know that I did start one other thing last night and it was very last minute  (literally as I was lying in bed, I spotted my brand new box that I had found during my big cleanup yesterday) Redefine Acute Care. 

  
Now I’ve used these before but never properly (if I’m totally honest, I cut them in half and tried to skimp and save but never got the results that I did even just this morning – obviously because I wasn’t following directions) so if I’m adamant about removing the line that runs vertically between my brows then I should probably throw everything at it I’ve got, right? Anyway, these patches are Rodan + Fields’ solution to injectable fillers. With people reporting similar results to using injectables without having to worry about any of the other side effects. They erase lines whilst you sleep and the results last for about the same time as Botox. So let’s give it a try and you can experience this with me too. I am really excited about sharing this experience with you.

On the up side weather wise here, it was actually quite a lovely day in South Korea, with the temperature gauge hitting 10C! That’s huge! I actually took off my big coat and walked around for a little while with just a long sleeved shirt on! The sun was shining, the birds were singing, it was like Mother Nature was saying, well, I’m shitting on other people, but you should be happy because I’ve finally brought my winter wrath to an end here! 

I guess today has ended on a note of impending unsuredness. The only thing that matters at the end of the day are human lives and we especially favour my husband’s brother and our niece and our other family members in the area. May everyone in the region get out safely or, even better, let’s just hope those flood waters dissipate somehow! My challenge, our paintings, every other material possession, all mean nothing when compared to loss of human life but I am hopeful all can be saved including (selfish me) stuff! 

Keep them in your thoughts….

Challenge Accepted Day 8

Well today has been a little bit odd and I haven’t taken a closeup bare naked photo of my face for you to compare with last week (hopefully you’re not looking for a miracle, just a realistic product that works to assist in the defying of revealing our true age right?) that’s all I’m looking for, though on some days a miracle would be lovely too! 😜 anyway, the maintenance guy turned up with someone else this morning and they spent the next 5 hours jack hammering my balcony and in the process ensured my shower rod and curtain fell off, rendering my shower disabled until the hubby comes home, ergo, no shower for mwa! And I’ve had to put up with my own stinkiness after doing T25 cardio this morning, so I’m certainly not going to assist in further torture to myself by taking a selfie (& I hate those on a good day so it doesn’t take much to turn them down when I have no make up on and am doing a challenge with myself revealing every flaw I dislike about me! 😉). 

Anyway, the workout was a little better this morning, though that little voice in my head did keep wanting me to stop and do nada! Strong will prevailed and I kept going! I will be in shape! Something has to give! Just saw some photos from our cruise and I definitely have a belly in those too. Probably from drinking too much wine as well as doing nothing for the last few months. 

Alright, so I do have some good before and after photos to show you of bits of my bedroom! Every morning, I have gotten up in this little tiny room and been miserable because there has been too much stuff! I can’t even get out of my side of the bed because we have to have our bed against the wall in order for it to fit (yes we have a big bed in a little room). Anyway it has meant that I have learnt to catapault myself out of the end of the bed if ever I have to go for a midnight toilet break and I’ve gotten so good at it over the last two weeks that hubby no longer hears me, well until I trip over one of the numerous items on the floor that just keep piling up because I am yet to find a home for them!

  
  
Oh and here’s a before one of the main blog photo:

  
  
Looks and feels wonderful! I may wake up happy tomorrow morning and not all grumpy! It’s amazing what one’s surrounding can do to one’s mood! Speaking of mood, I have to share another funny story but this time from my 7yr old daughter, Madison; we were putting our shoes on ready to walk out the door to go to the bus stop to get my eldest DD when she started singing a song something like this:

One day Max and Ruby’s parents got on a bus and they told their kids they would be going away for a day, 

But they never came back! Max and Ruby didn’t know why, but their parents never came back! 

Now, I know it doesn’t sound funny like it is, but if you’ve ever seen the show ‘Max and Ruby’ you would know that the parents are never seen! Only the Grandma and the Bunny Scout Leader. Now I’m not purposely being un-PC, I just find it weird that there’s never any mention of anyone other than those two grown ups and they don’t live with their Grandma, and my daughter has obviously picked up on the same thing. Please don’t look at this in a tragic way, it is purely the innocent mind of a 7 year old, and it’s funny in this instance. Don’t get too deep and meaningful will you! 

Ok, it’s noodle Monday, which means the kids get ramen noodles (aka two minute noodles, aka one of the unhealthiest foods known to man but one that all kids love), I try to mix it up a tad so that it’s not just plain noodles and tonight it’s beef stroganoff and noodles. One of the easiest, but most delicious meals I’ve ever made. I would always get so excited when my Mum or oldest sister would make beef stroganoff! Here’s our way of doing it and I can’t give you quantities because I really don’t do quantities in recipes, I just guesstimate:

  • Whatever beef you’re using, in this case today, I’ve got a family pack or 2.21lbs of top loin steak – but it looks like it has a lot of fat on it, so I’ll trim it down and see how much I’ve got left!
  • Olive oil to cook beef in or coconut oil or butter, I actually used a little bit of coconut oil and olive oil missed tonight.
  • 1 small can tomato paste (6oz or 170gms or thereabouts, it’s ok if you have a little more or a little less)
  • Some onion, because my eldest daughter is really fussy about onion, I like to use the  Kirkland chopped onion flakes and just sprinkle them in after I’ve browned the beef.
  • Beef stock also, more rather than less, if that makes sense. 

 So when I say more rather than less, I mean that for every cup full of water you have a bit more than what the container recipe calls for you to have, per cup of water. 

  • Corn flour (aka corn starch in the States)
  • Water to mix with your beef stock. 
  • Sour cream
  • And I think that’s about all.  

I’m terrible at recipe writing obviously, but I’ll get better especially if I find you are slightly interested in reading this sort of stuff! I must also share a little side victory about my success with all three children over the last seven days and them all eating every single dinner I’ve made and actually really liking 6/7! Ok back to the next step:

  • Cube and brown beef
  • Add onion
  • Add tomato paste
  • Add beef stock mixed with boiling water (1 big heaped teaspoon per US cup water as per photo)
  • Let simmer for at least 20 minutes until beef tender, then add a couple of teaspoons of cornflour mixed in with cold water and add to beef until thicker. Add sour cream. My mum used to make her own by mixing regular cream with vinegar but for some reason in the States, regular cream is really expensive and sour cream isn’t. Anyway, if you can afford, I’d go organic, if not then I use Daisy light sour cream  1lb (454gms) + one half so if I was in Australia or NZ or UK, I’d use a 750gm tub if there is such a thing or about 1/4 less than Costco’s kilo tub.
  •  Add sour cream. My mum used to make her own by mixing regular cream with vinegar but for some reason in the States, regular cream is really expensive and sour cream isn’t. Anyway, if you can afford, I’d go organic, if not then I use Daisy light sour cream 1lb (454gms) + one half so if I was in Australia or NZ or UK, I’d use a 750gm tub if there is such a thing or about 1/4 less than Costco’s kilo tub….And wallah! Cook your two minute noodles and strain, then pour this amazing sauce over the top or have your noodles on the side and have this as a side or do whatever you like! Hubby prefers this with pasta but I mix it up every now and then and throw it into noodle night so the kids are getting more than all the crap that make ramen (2 minute) noodles, what they are!

  

  
The final product was magnificent as usual! And one of the easiest weekday meals to make! Let me know if you try it and enjoy it and if you want more from me. Otherwise, happy Monday, it’s not as bad as you think, it’s just the beginning of another week we get to celebrate being here! 

    Challenge Accepted Day 7

    Good Sunday to you! How is it Sunday night already? Feels like my weekend flew by as per usual! I hope you have made the most of yours. I’ve been doing quite a few different things this weekend, trying to really get into my new life here as well as my want to treat my body somewhat better, nonetheless, I have an Aussie friend who lives in England and has been drinking a turmeric hot drink for a very long time, she has told me about it before and I’ve thought about making it but never actually gotten there, until today. I made the base for it late last night then drank the turmeric latte this morning. It was actually quite lovely. I can assure you, I was very skeptical given the ingredients and I over compensated on the honey, try it with only one teaspoon full of honey before you add a second. I also used regular ground turmeric (that was all I had) but I did have organic coconut oil so used that. No non-dairy milk either, so regular cows milk it was. I’m going to look next weekend at Costco to see if they have any cashew milk so I can just drink it with this drink, but I wasn’t too concerned, it was really the health benefits of the turmeric I was looking for. It is also known as golden milk or turmeric tea and you can find a great recipe for it here:

    http://kellybroganmd.com/so-long-coffee-hello-turmeric-latte/

    And here’s my cup this morning:

      
    There are plenty of recipes out there though and as I was searching for my cardamom this morning, I came across ginger and thought oh I bet that would be a lovely addition to it also, I think the key thing is to get the incredible benefits of the polyphenol antioxidant curcumin that is known to help many different ailments and what is also the key factor in giving turmeric its golden colour. 

    Whilst on my turmeric kick, another recipe came across my newsfeed for turmeric toothpaste (isn’t it weird when Facebook reads your mind like that). Apparently Indian dentists swear by it so I thought why not give that a try too? Here’s a link to that recipe:

    Turmeric toothpaste
      
    It doesn’t look pretty, but it didn’t taste too bad when I used it this morning, I followed it with my regular toothpaste brushing as I didn’t see the harm in using both methods either, so we’ll wait and see. I will take my 1 week photo tomorrow smiling so we can look at how my teeth are in another week after using this method. 

    Okay, let’s get to talking about my favourite thing I’ve done today, macro exfoliation! Rodan + Fields have this amazing tool called the Redefine Macro Exfoliator and I LOVE it! It is honestly the best 5 minutes of my skincare regimen all week, especially when I haven’t done it in over two months! Anyway, I think last Monday I had mentioned that I had found the empty box but not the tool, well I found the tool a couple of days later and had to charge it up so I decided Sunday night was going to be my macro night. 

    How does it work? Well it’s this handheld personal tool (it’s the main photo for this article) that works using some great patent-pending technology called DOC-SMART, where the level  and length of time varies depending on which part of your face you are exfoliating. It is basically like your at-home microdermabrasion but with med spa quality results and all for a fraction of the price. It is a big investment to start with, retailing for $279 + tax & shipping but it is so worth it in my humble opinion. I seriously love this product. I used it tonight and my face feels amazing, I almost took a photo of all the yucky dead skin and crap that came off my face into the filter but I couldn’t bring myself to, it really wasn’t a pretty site! Instead I took a couple of close ups for you of the diamond tip head and the little picture on it that shows you how the DOC-SMART technology works, she literally shows you where to go next with the force of the exfoliation adjusted to the sensitivity of that area of your face and neck. I do go against her recommendation when it comes to the neck and I go with upwards strokes rather than downward and then I switch it to manual to use on the back of my hands every now and again, and it really shows when I do.  Everything just feels much softer and lighter and happier! 
     
      
    Now onto the T25 side of the challenge, I must say that both hubby and I really enjoyed the stretching today! It was amazing how it felt to relieve some of the tension in your body after working it so hard! I have never done that side of it before and I should have, it definitely gives you hope that the week to come will not be anywhere near as hellish as last week! I did want to do more exercise today as I felt I was slacking off a little but I also knew my body had worked hard all week and it was ok to give it some rest today. Our original plan was that the  family would bike ride through the rice paddies but it was overcast and cold and hubby hurt his back last night so it just seemed like the best idea was to hang out with each other and watch movies (well the kids and hubby did this afternoon whilst I pottered about). We had a really nice pot roast beef for dinner tonight but I’m feeling a bit blah right now as I definitely ate too much! And I have to do a personal weigh-in in the morning 😩 oh well, them’s the breaks right?

    Have an amazing day/night, no matter where in the world you are and I’ll see you on Monday for another great week of challenge fun! 

    Challenge Accepted Day 6

    Super short and sweet today. My skin felt amazing this morning when I did my morning regimen, so my break from the Amp MD roller did me the world of good, it also felt quite lovely and velvety, so I’m definitely happy with how it’s feeling. I’m also looking forward to doing the macro exfoliation tomorrow night, more on that to come.

    It warmed up here to a balmy 3C so it was actually warm enough to go for a quick run with my darling eldest daughter (who did nothing but complain the entire time) & my crazy, lovable puppy dog, you know the ‘golden doodle’, who thinks that anything short of a three minute mile is slow, therefore pretty much ripped my arm out of its socket throughout the run! Anyway it was a short but sweet run, maybe 3/4 mile, I’ll have to borrow hubby’s Fitbit equivalent and see what it says as far as distance goes. It was a day off from T25 (YES) so my body has been thanking me all day! 😜

    I went out with the family and did some grocery shopping and finally got some potting mix so I could repot some plants we bought when first got here. Cannot wait until it starts really warming up and we can spend some more time outside. I also started a little project I saw on Pinterest, spray painting any tin cans we use so we can line them all up on the railing interspersed with spaghetti sauce mason jars with tea candles in them so we can give a little bit of colour and life to our little patio (photos to come when that project is finished). I think it will look really cute and if it means I can upcycle and stop the copious amounts of waste we seem to be putting out along with everyone else here in South Korea, then that will be something. I’m not going to be taking any of it with me when we leave but I can always just try to give them to someone else can’t I. It’ll be really nice to see it all come together. 

      
    Alright, it’s pizza night tonight, I told you guys I wasn’t dieting right? I’m too old for that, but I do need to get into shape again so that’s the whole point of this. Normally our pizza night is Sunday night, but we didn’t have a roast in the freezer so we did a swap (I bought a roast today) so I can get the roast on early tomorrow in the crock pot so it literally melts in your mouth. We’ll do a salad with pizza I think too. Otherwise, it’s all about trying to put this never-ending mess of a house together. I feel like we take two steps forward and three steps back on some days! I just want everything to have a place and I have done such an amazing job of throwing so many things out and still the crap seems to be everywhere! Yes, my hoarding problem has had to come to an end and I’m pretty sure I’ve already gotten rid of at least 400 pounds of extra stuff and I have at least another 200 pounds ready to sell at a garage sale in the near future! So everything is a big thumbs up from my hubby at the moment. Again, we’ll have a deep & meaningful (D&M) about my real hoarding problem that I’ve had to deal with over these past few weeks on another day. 

    We are going to go for a family bike ride tomorrow through the rice paddies, so that will be really fun! I’ll make sure to take some photos so you can get an idea of what I’m seeing. Have a great night/morning, whatever the time may be in your neck of the woods! 

    Challenge Accepted Day 5

    I am smoked! Today’s workout has been a killer. Not one but two! Legs and cardio! Seriously! I’m not sure which one should be done first, today I did lower focus followed by cardio but when good old Shawn T asked me to do some outrageous squats in the cardio routine, my legs started screaming in pain! So next Friday, I shall switch it around and let you know how that goes. I even managed to do a mile run afterwards, there wasn’t much of a warm-up or cool-down for the run, but I was already pretty warm so I didn’t feel too badly. 😜

    As for the regimen, well my neck is feeling great but I think I’ve pushed it too soon by using the Amp MP daily so quickly, I should have heeded the Doctor’s advice (Dr Katie Rodan & Dr Kathy Fields) and started out a little slower, so tonight I’m going to give the roller a miss and go back to it tomorrow night. I’m still not seeing any radical changes but I’ll do a photo on Monday side by side with my first photo and we can have a looksy, I really want to share this journey with you, so let’s see if we can find any difference already & if not, then that’s ok too, I’m not expecting anything radical just yet.

    I did realize that I should have had my eyebrows done before I took my first ‘before’ photo but I’ve had such a hard time finding somewhere that does threading (something I fell in love with in the Middle East and have managed to find in Italy, Texas, Hawaii and Colorado Springs, but not here in South Korea (apparently there was a spa at the first hotel that we stayed in upon arrival in Seoul that did it, but I was jet-lagged, concerned about my animals, absolutely freezing – the temperature ranged from -28 to -32C when we first arrived here, that’s -18.4F to -25.6F! Aka: hell freezing over! So I didn’t do a whole lot). Anyway, I gave up yesterday after searching and ended up having my brows waxed at a little salon outside of Osan AFB. It was ok, my brows looked wonderful, but then again any grooming they had would have been marvelous and my mono brow – after 2 months of no grooming, was definitely asking to see a professional! My apologies for the shock brow photo, they will look a tad better upon Monday’s photo release, I promise.

    I also have to tell you about another area I dilly dally in, and that is being a Bzz Agent. What is a Bzz Agent I hear you ask? Well, it’s this fantastic job where you get to test products for free or almost free and share your opinions online and in person. So I just got my first product, Covergirl Lashblast Volume mascara in very black. My first impression when opening the packaging was a little disappointing because they use a plastic bottle cap that is to be disposed of as soon as you open it, the environmentalist in me, doesn’t like such waste when the brush has worked just fine thus far for so many previous products. I do like the thickness of the mascara though as it goes on smoothly without clumping. And the color is a nice black, black, sounds weird I know, but it’s not a blue-black, or a brown-black, it’s exactly what it says it is. The brush is possibly not quite pointy enough for my liking, I have sort of squinty eyes and found when nearing the end of my eyes where they meet my nose, I ended up with a little dollop of mascara on my nose, so I had to be more careful on the other side. I really like the texture of the mascara though and all in all would have to say that it goes on nicely, doesn’t clump and makes my lashes look a little more voluminous.

    Ok, funny thing for the day and once again it is my son who just cracked me up; his favourite movie is Pixels and the character Ludlow gets the girl, Lady Lisa, in the end. Hunter has just finished watching it for the umpteenth time and came over to me very seriously and said, “She’s a lovely girl, I want to be Ludlow so I get the girl!” Three and a half years old! There’s probably going to be a lot of Hunterisms throughout this blog as he cracks me up daily! You have to watch the movie to understand why that’s hilarious! 

    So my afternoon has been interesting, my new neighbor came over and asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her through the rice paddies (everyone has told me that it’s a great walk with the kids and dog) unfortunately, given my double work out earlier this morning, the last thing I could think about was doing more walking! As I was heading to the bus stop a couple of hours later though, I decided to call in there and see if she wanted to come over for a glass of wine and yay, she did. It was really nice to have some female conversation, she seems like my sort of person too, sadly, she’s leaving in May, but that’s ok, I’ll enjoy her company whilst I can and she has a lot of knowledge about local things so we’re going shopping next week to a local market where I can finally get some nice fresh fruit and vegetables, I was starting to wonder where the good, fresh produce was hiding, as it certainly isn’t at the commissary, or even Costco, or Emart. Anyway, to say I’m excited is a little bit of an understatement, we’re going to get lunch at a local Korean restaurant she knows and just enjoy getting out of the house. I don’t get to do that very often now given the one car situation, so it will be really nice! 

    Alright, well it’s  Friday night here, the family have all started watching The Good Dinosaur – let me just digress a little about that movie; not what I was expecting at all! Hubby bought it when he went back to the States a couple of weeks ago thinking it was going to be this great feel good movie for us all (& there might be a spoiler alert here if you haven’t seen it) but wow! Not what I was expecting at all! I like the different take on the human, just wasn’t quite ready for it, but I wasn’t expecting so much sadness, nor the tripping out on whatever those berries were! Anyway, can’t wait to see Finding Dory, that one will definitely be worth it’s wait! 

    Ok, I’m going to say sayonara. Have a great day or night depending on where you are and don’t forget to share your thoughts with me on my blog. I’ll give you details next week on my website if you’re looking to take the Rodan + Fields challenge with me, there is a 60 day money back guarantee, so spend your weekend giving it some serious thought, oh and my Aussie friends, I know a few of you loved Proactiv and these products were created by those same two doctors who created those amazing products, they just decided to move to an age group reflecting their own ages, ie, anyone over the age of 20! 😉 nonetheless, they are launching the Rodan and Fields line in Australia, so if you’re interested, it will soon be there.

     Happy travels