I love make-up. I love to test make-up. I love to buy make-up. I LOVE make-up. It always fits and makes me feel better. Even on "fat days" I can put on make-up and feel better about myself. When I recently got a chance to try the new line of skin care from Burt’s Bees I was so excited. BzzAgent sent me a full size trial of the Natural Skin Solutions Facial Cleanser and the Daily Moisturizer.

I have been a long time user of one particular brand so getting me to change skin care products is no easy task. I gave up my usual products for 5 days and used only these two products. I have to say that I love that these products are 99% natural. When you read the ingredient list you will recognize most if not all of the products. The Facial Cleanser I found to be a good product. It wasn’t drying like some of the other products I have used in the past. It felt smooth and silky both while on my face and after being rinsed off. It felt heavy like it was doing its job. My skin didn’t feel tight after washing. In contrast, the Daily Moisturizer was not at all heavy. It went on smooth and light and absorbed quickly. I didn’t feel greasy or oily at all. There was no shine to my skin after applying the moisturizer. These are both non-fragrance products and this appealed to me because I hate to smell the products on my face all day long. However, there is an odor to this product. It is a smell that reminds me of the facial products my mom or grandma used when I was little. It wasn’t unpleasant just different. The odor in the moisturizer disappeared almost immediately after applying. I didn’t notice the smell throughout the day only upon first application.

Overall I would say that these are both exceptional products. I think the greatest advantage of this line over other lines is that they are 99% natural. You know exactly what is going on your face. I have long been a fan of Burt’s Bees lip balms and I have no qualms at all about adding some of the facial products to my regimen.

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I came across a great deal this morning through the rewards site I use, Sunshine Rewards. They have a merchant named Tanga who is having a deal each day this week on select magazines. The deal is as follows:

This week Tanga is offering great magazine subscription deals. Each magazine deal listed will run on one specific day of this week. The deals will run from PM PST(PM EST) the day of to to 6:59 PST (9:59 EST) the following day. Below you will find the list of magazines, the day they are on special as well as our link to Tanga!

Monday, September 26th at PM PST (PM EST)
Weight Watchers Magazine Subscription, $3.99 with Coupon Code: WEIGHT

Tuesday, September 27th at PM PST (PM EST)
Garden & Gun Magazine Subscription, $3.50 with Coupon Code: GARDEN

Wednesday, September 28Th at PM PST (PM EST)
Disney Family Fun Magazine Subscription, $3.50 with Coupon Code: DISNEY

Thursday, September 29th at PM PST (PM EST)
Bridal Guide Magazine Subscription, $3.99 with Coupon Code: BRIDAL

Friday, September 30th at PM PST (PM EST)
Rolling Stone Magazine Subscription, $3.99 with Coupon Code: STONE

Saturday, October 1st at PM PST (PM EST)
Men’s Fitness Magazine Subscription, $3.99 with Coupon Code: FITNESS

Sunday, October 2nd at PM PST (PM EST)
Tennis Magazine Subscription, $2.99 with Coupon Code: TENNIS

These are amazing prices on these magazine subscriptions. I am personally interested in the Weight Watchers and Family Fun. I have had a subscription to Family Fun before and it is such a great magazine. They have fun articles and great ideas for recipes, crafts and "Family Fun". At 3.99 it is worth checking it. You would pay that much for one magazine on the newsstand. Let me know which ones you order!!

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Most of my friends are in full training mode right now for different marathons. Most of them are even in training for the Disney World marathons that are coming up starting in October and running through the beginning of the year. I am in training also. My training is to make sure I am healthy enough to make it through 9 days of WDW with my family. I have had a tough summer with dieting and exercise and I realized yesterday that I felt something like a blueberry waiting to be juiced, Jabba the Hut on a bad day, the Goodyear blimp at full capacity. I decided it was time to start getting back in to the swing of things with my health and wellness.

The first place I went was to read a bunch of diet pill reviews because I have no will power and I am lazy. There I said it! I have issues with doing the work it takes to get and stay healthy. As a matter of fact if I could just take a pill whenever I was hungry instead of eating…I would! Then I thought about it and I realized that diet pills are not the answer to getting healthy or losing weight. They are a tool to be used to aid in your quest to get healthy and lose weight. They have to be combined with exercise and a change in eating habits or they won’t work either.

Now that I have resigned myself to the fact that I am not going to go to sleep tonight and wake up 40 pounds lighter tomorrow I have to create a plan. I am a planner, you guys know this, and it works for me. If I write it down then I am 90% assured I will achieve it. So, today is going to be dedicated to figuring out my plan for getting healthy. What do you guys do? What works and what doesn’t? One stipulation is that I KNOW I need to avoid artificial sweeteners, processed foods as much as possible and preservatives. I also happen to live in Louisiana where the devil often visits and finds unbearably hot and humid. Walking or exercising outdoors at this time of year could end in an untimely death! Wish me luck! Leave me comments to spur me on! Tell me to put down the pop tarts! Thanks!

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This time of year always gets me thinking about my kids and their health. We have birthdays in July and August so we have our yearly check ups and this gets me thinking about all the things we do as parents to keep our kids healthy and all of the things we can do.

From the moment I first found out I was pregnant I began taking those one a day prenatal vitamins in an effort to assure the healthiest babies I could. Since their birth we have been doing one form or another of vitamins everyday. When they were babies we gave them the vitamin drops and then as they got older we have been giving them prescription vitamins everyday. I think this has helped to keep them healthier than most kids.

Another thing we have done is to make sure they got their yearly check ups and also their yearly flu shots. We have been very blessed to have had no major sicknesses in the 8 years we have been parents.

Now that they are getting older we are starting to wonder what else we can do to keep them healthy. Some of the things we have changed recently is to remove the majority of the processed foods from our diet. We don’t give them artificial sweeteners. We feed them wheat grains instead of white. We also use a raw sugar that has been minimally processed.

Exercise is one of the key activities in our family. My children spend a lot of time outside and at activities that keep them in shape and active. We spend very little time on the computer, watching television or playing video games. The kids have to spend some time everyday playing in a physical way.

It is so hard to be a parent when there are so many things in the world that can harm our children. It is my most important task to make sure that they are the healthiest they can be. What types of things do you do to keep your children healthy and try to avoid illnesses?

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It has been a tough week around here this week. I have been dealing a family member with health issues and it hasn’t been easy. I never imagined all of the issues that people with cancer deal with once they come home from the hospital. Not only do they need to try to recuperate from the surgery but the also have to change so much of what is familiar to them. We have been trying to figure out how to raise the mattress on her bed so that it will be easier for her to get in and out of bed without having to bend over too far. We also have to change out all of her sheets with allergy bedding because the chemotherapy is going to cause her to have a lower immune system. We had to figure out how she was going to get in and out of her vehicle which now has to be driven by someone else. Not to mention getting her from the car to the doctor’s office for her checkups. Who designs these places with ramps that slope up??? How do you walk or push a wheelchair up these ramps? It has been such a life changing experience that I realized I need to make some plans for if the time ever comes that I need this kind of care. It isn’t something anyone wants to have to face but I am a firm believer that planning ahead of time will make things easier to deal with. Do any of you know of any good books or reference materials for helping care for cancer patients at home? I haven’t found what I am looking for and since I am a reader and researcher by nature I would love your input. Thanks!

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Living in Louisiana can be tough on the allergies for kids and adults alike. We have all these pine trees and cypress trees and mold and spanish moss and so many other things that just set off the sneezes. When you add to that the fact that it is October 13th and still 90 degrees outside and we get a "cold front" every two days with the rains and my family as been miserable. I have all three kids home today with head colds due to allergies. They have runny noses and itchy eyes and headaches and are sneezing like crazy. I know it isn’t the flu because they don’t have fever and it is all in their head and not in the chest at all.

Lucky for me though because I am a member of BzzAgent and my campaign that just arrived in the mail is Children’s Zyrtec! That means they send me free samples of the product and let me try it as well as sharing it with my friends. I then report back to the company what the reactions of people are. I love these campaigns usually and this time it is SO timely.

I have used Zyrtec for the kids allergies for quite some time. As a matter of fact we started using it when you still needed a prescription from the doctor to use it. That Zyrtec used to taste awful and I would have to mix it with other liquids to get my kids to take it. Zyrtec is a very effective medication for allergies though so I never wanted to switch to one that tsted better. Well thank goodness they listen to thier customers because now Zyrtec comes in flavors. The product I got from them is the Grape and it came in "perfect measure" form. These are super for on the go moms. It is a little plastic premeasured "spoon" that you twist the top off of and then dispense the medication. I love this! No searching for measuring spoons or cups. Best of all is that I can run up to the school and give the kids some medication when they start to show signs of allergy attacks. I can carry these with me in my vehicle for when we are out and one of them starts to show signs.

I love it when an already amazing product goes the extra step to make things easy too!

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Lately I have been reading a lot of information and articles about people who are periodically cleansing their colons. There are products on the market such as colovox for people who feel that colon cleansing is necessary. I decided that I needed to find out if this is just another fad or if this is something that people need to do. I did a search of the Internet and basically got some mixed reviews on the necessity of doing this. I certainly can seen the problems that a bowel full of waste can cause for the body. I can see how it would cause a person to be tired and bloated and of course constipated. I wondered though if cleansing the colon could lead to dehydration or any of the other issues associated with having a bowel that is too active. The majority of the information I have found says that if the cleansing is done in a safe, slow and natural manner it would cause no side effects. People who use chemicals to clean their system could end up with even greater issues. There are many products made with all natural ingredients that help get rid of the waste that causes up to be uncomfortable in our own bodies. I think I would be interested in perhaps trying this system once and seeing how it turned out. I would love to know if any of you have ever tried a colon cleansing system and how well it worked for you.

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There is something about August that always gets me in the mood to lose weight and get in shape. I have begun to do some research to see if I can find the best diet supplement, work out program and diet for me. I have found that I need a combination of all three. I need a balanced diet so that the foods that I take in all the best for my metabolism. I also need a diet supplement to help me with those late afternoon snack habits I have established. It is so hard to get over those habits once they are established. Finally I need to come up with a workout program that works for me. I need variety and I need something that keeps me interested, I think I will try a combination of outdoor walking with working out using my game console and one of the new workout games. This should give me variety and allow for days when the weather is bad and I can’t walk outdoors. Best of all my kids are all in regular school this year so I can drop them off and go about finishing what I need to do. What do you change in your routine when Back To School comes?

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I don’t know why I always seem to get focused on Cancer each summer. Maybe it is because spend so much time in the sun and I just keep thinking that we could be creating major health issues for ourselves. I think this year it is because of all of the talk about  Phil Mickelson’s wife and mother being diagnosed with breast cancer. My own family has not been without being affected by breast cancer. Luckily the outcome for our family was a positive one.

One of the things I have noticed a lot lately are the commercials in our area seeking people who have been diagnosed with Mesothelioma cancer. This cancer seems to prevalent in the Greater New Orleans area. One of the reasons seems to be that asbestos exposure is a major contributor to this cancer. We have so many old buildings in our area. Many of the buildings were destroyed in Katrina or at least needed remodeling. This left so many people in our area exposed to asbestos and most of them didn’t even know what was happening. It is heart breaking to think that people could become very sick and possibly die from something totally preventable. This is not like most cancers that just pop up without warning and through no action of the victim. This cancer is because of exposure to asbestos. No exposure means no cancer.

I am hoping that this post will make people aware of the importance of testing in old homes for asbestos before any renovations are done. Asbestos can be in floor tile, ceiling tiles and walls. It is harmless if it is not disturbed but once it has been disturbed the dust is inhaled and leads to cancer. It is vitally important that any renovations in older homes are postponed until asbestos testing can be done. Hopefully this type of preventative measures will help to lessen the number of cases of Mesothelioma each year.

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I told you guys about the new Take Care Clinics at Walgreen’s a few weeks ago but at the time I said we hadn’t had the chance to use one of them. Well today the chance came and I am very glad I had taken the time to research it ahead of time.

My middle child had been running fever for a few days last week and the doctor had told us we just had a virus running through our family and to give them Motrin and Tylenol and wait it out. We had been doing that for about a week with my oldest and 2 days with my middle child. On Friday evening she told me that her ear was hurting. Of course it was after 5 and the doctors were gone from the office. I grabbed some ear numbing drops from the store and figured I would bring her in on Monday morning.

That night she had a very tough night with a lot of ear pain and high fevers but we made it through and she woke up feeling much better. We moved on with our day and at around 2:00 my oldest child noticed that my middle child had a bloody discharged coming from her ear that had been hurting. I freaked out. Of course there is no one in the doctors office. My options were to go to the ER, an urgent care place or the Walgreen’s Clinic. The ER would mean a $200 deductible. The UC would be $50 and I just always felt they were geared more towards adults from visiting them for myself. I decided I would go to the Walgreen’s Clinic and if I wasn’t satisfied when I left I could always head straight to the ER.

I have to say I had a VERY good experience. When we arrived we checked in via computer and answered all the questions they needed answered. There was no endless clipboard of papers to sign. We waited about 10 minutes because the person was with another patient. She took us in. Did all of the right diagnostics, asked questions and listened to my child. She was a nurse practitioner and was able to tell me right off that my child had an ear infection. Then we discussed my child’s past health issues. She decided on an oral antibiotic and discussed which ones have worked or not worked for my child. I had to sign a paper saying she could treat my child. She took my insurance card and ran it through and told me my co-pay was $20!!!! I was shocked! I thought for sure it would be the same as urgent care visits. She then asked if I wanted a written prescription or if I wanted her to run it through their pharmacy. She sent it through. Helped me with choosing other items I should have for my child while she is on antibiotics (yogurt to prevent yeast infections, Motrin and Tylenol for fever, etc.) I left there feeling like I had been personally taken care of. I wasn’t one of 30 people waiting to be seen.

I have to say I will use this service again in the future. They also send a report to my child’s doctor to let them know she was there. They assured me they would call in 2 days to check on my daughter. They gave me a printed out report of the diagnosis and the treatment plan so there is no mistake about what she has and what my responsibilities are. The pharmacist was involved in the discussion of the antibiotic to choose. They also helped my daughter choose the flavoring that would work best with the antibiotic based on is natural taste. They sent me home with extra syringes for administering the medication. It was one stop shopping, fast and easy and I felt it was totally professional and I trusted that she was diagnosing my child correctly. I highly recommend this for anyone who has one in their area.

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