Something to LOVE and Something to AVOID

Several months ago when I started my diet I learned about the Stevia plant and all it's natural goodness in making my tea sweet. Well, I was lead to the product called "Truvia". Love it, love it. You can now get it in a scoop-able container and not have to mess with the mess that all those little packets cause.





Well I thought if Stevia products are good then other brands should be good also. Not so!!! I bought this other brand at Walmart called "Skoopz". This I would recommened staying away from. A glass that would take 2 Truvia packets to make sweet, wasn't sweet enough with 6 of the Skoopz. When I opened a packet and tasted just the product it tasted like some manufactuing dust with a touch of sugar added in for good measure. Here is a picture so you can avoid it.




So from now on I will stick with straight Stevia (that I buy at Whole Foods) or Truvia.

You Get What You Pay For!

If it's one thing I have learned in my years the old saying "you get what you pay for" is so true. Especially when it comes to hair care! I've known for a long time to stay away from the cheaper shampoos and conditioners or the "grocery store" types. They contain waxy products that coat your hair and weight it down. I use Biologe products for shampoos.

But recently I came across a wonderful hairspray!! L'oreal Elnett in the gold can. I bought it at Target. Wow oh wow. I never knew a hairspray cold hold like this, without being a helmet head. It runs about $12 a can, but you know it will last for months. This holds everything in place. It also disappears with a brush stroke.

When God Sighed

I'm so glad I serve the God that groans with injustice. He feels my pain. This one word has to be up there with the words - BUT GOD....

When God Sighed
by Max Lucado

Two days ago I read a word in the Bible that has since taken up residence in my heart.

To be honest, I didn't quite know what to do with it. It's only one word, and not a very big one at that. When I ran across the word, (which, by the way, is exactly what happened; I was running through the passage and this word came out of nowhere and bounced me like a speed bump) I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't have any hook to hang it on or category to file it under.

It was an enigmatic word in an enigmatic passage. But now, forty-eight hours later, I have found a place for it, a place all its own. My, what a word it is. Don't read it unless you don't mind changing your mind, because this little word might move your spiritual furniture around a bit.

Look at the passage with me.

Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. There some people brought a man to him who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man.

After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him,"Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!"). At this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. (Mark 7:31-35)

Quite a passage, isn't it?

Jesus is presented with a man who is deaf and has a speech impediment. Perhaps he stammered. Maybe he spoke with a lisp. Perhaps, because of his deafness, he never learned to articulate words properly.

Jesus, refusing to exploit the situation, took the man aside. He looked him in the face. Knowing it would be useless to talk, he explained what he was about to do through gestures. He spat and touched the man's tongue, telling him that whatever restricted his speech was about to be removed. He touched his ears. They, for the first time, were about to hear.

But before the man said a word or heard a sound, Jesus did something I never would have anticipated.

He sighed.

I might have expected a clap or a song or a prayer. Even a "Hallelujah!" or a brief lesson might have been appropriate. But the Son of God did none of these. Instead, he paused, looked into heaven, and sighed. From the depths of his being came a rush of emotion that said more than words.

Sigh. The word seemed out of place.

I'd never thought of God as one who sighs. I'd thought of God as one who commands. I'd thought of God as one who weeps. I'd thought of God as one who called forth the dead with a command or created the universe with a word ... but a God who sighs?

Perhaps this phrase caught my eye because I do my share of sighing.

I sighed yesterday when I visited a lady whose invalid husband had deteriorated so much he didn't recognize me. He thought I was trying to sell him something.

I sighed when the dirty-faced, scantily dressed, six-year-old girl in the grocery store asked me for some change.

And I sighed today listening to a husband tell how his wife won't forgive him.

No doubt you've done your share of sighing.

If you have teenagers, you've probably sighed. If you've tried to resist temptation, you've probably sighed. If you've had your motives questioned or your best acts of love rejected, you have been forced to take a deep breath and let escape a painful sigh.

I realize there exists a sigh of relief, a sigh of expectancy, and even a sigh of joy. But that isn't the sigh described in Mark 7. The sigh described is a hybrid of frustration and sadness. It lies somewhere between a fit of anger and a burst of tears.

The apostle Paul spoke of this sighing. Twice he said that Christians will sigh as long as we are on earth and long for heaven. The creation sighs as if she were giving birth. Even the Spirit sighs as he interprets our prayers. (Romans 8:22-27)

All these sighs come from the same anxiety; a recognition of pain that was never intended, or of hope deferred.

Man was not created to be separated from his creator; hence he sighs, longing for home. The creation was never intended to be inhabited by evil; hence she sighs, yearning for the Garden. And conversations with God were never intended to depend on a translator; hence the Spirit groans on our behalf, looking to a day when humans will see God face to face.

And when Jesus looked into the eyes of Satan's victim, the only appropriate thing to do was sigh. "It was never intended to be this way," the sigh said. "Your ears weren't made to be deaf, your tongue wasn't made to stumble." The imbalance of it all caused the Master to languish.

So, I found a place for the word. You might think it strange, but I placed it beside the word comfort, for in an indirect way, God's pain is our comfort.

And in the agony of Jesus lies our hope. Had he not sighed, had he not felt the burden for what was not intended, we would be in a pitiful condition. Had he simply chalked it all up to the inevitable or washed his hands of the whole stinking mess, what hope would we have?

But he didn't. That holy sigh assures us that God still groans for his people. He groans for the day when all sighs will cease, when what was intended to be will be.

Not knowing whether to sprint or be still.

On Sunday afternoon, my wife sent me to Costco to “buy a mattress,” with my brother Will. That is exactly what we did. We bought a mattress. Hours later, back at the house, she said, “Where’s the box springs?” I, having not been told to purchase box springs, said, “What box springs?”

This discussion went round and round, finally settling on the decision that no adult in their early 30s could possibly believe that a bed could be complete without a box springs. Although I tried to tell my wife if she asked me to make her a “peanut butter” sandwich and then complained about the lack of jelly, she would have no leg to stand on, she did not buy it. We ended up being forced to return the mattress since they don’t sell box springs separately in some sort of “dumb husband” section of Costco and had to start the whole thing over again.

That’s why I told the company that moved us their motto should be:

“Signature Moving, stay married.”

Next to hanging up wallpaper in a guest bathroom that initially appears small but is actually inexplicably acres wide, moving tends to be a pretty easy way to get divorced. It’s stressful. It’s intense. And if you do it in August, it’s blazing hot.

Fortunately, the whole thing has been a complete God send and has been incredibly clear and there’s no doubt and God hand delivered a piece of paper that had the next ten years detailed so there’s no concern on that end. As far as being able to accurately list out the exact things we should be doing and the exact timeframe during which we should do it we’ve got that covered. When it comes to accurately discerning the minute details of God’s plan for our lives, all I do is win.

That’s clearly not true.

Despite prayers and hopes, plans and confirmations, life is never so simple that all the pieces line up, giving you a 100-year road map to the future. Sometimes, there is risk involved in moving. Sometimes, if you’re single, you have to stretch outside your comfort zone to start a new relationship. Sometimes, a job you didn’t expect takes you to extraordinarily unexpected places.

And in those moments we often turn to God. But what does he say? We often come to him with two buttons, “Run” and “Wait.” We want him to take his gigantic God fist and pound one cleanly. No hanging chad, we want to know instantly and without any doubt what he would have us do. But often, it doesn’t work that way for you and me, and I am encouraged by a moment when it didn’t for Moses.

The setting is the shore of the Red Sea. Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt. They are excited, but just as freedom seems possible, they look up and see the Egyptian army marching down on them. In what I’ve mentioned before is the Bible’s first known example of sarcasm, they yell at Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?” What punks, but Moses isn’t phased.

With wisdom that sounds like it was said by a man with a legit beard, he replies in Exodus 14, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.” He continues later, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Hooray you think! Moses got it right finally. His early track record isn’t wicked awesome. He murdered someone. He fled home. He told the Lord he wasn’t qualified to be a leader, but here, here in this moment he relies on God! He gets it. God clearly wants them to wait. Great plan.

How does God respond to that in the very next verse? God says, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.”

I love that. Moses thought he had a plan. He thought he had a next step. He thought the wait button had been pressed and so he advised everyone to wait. And what did God say to that? “Run! Right now, run!”

That to me is a beautiful example of how crazy an adventure with God can feel. You want answers and they just don’t seem clear sometimes. You know in your heart of hearts that you’re supposed to move to Nashville and that God is in this adventure in big ways, but having your daughter change first grade a week before it starts isn’t easy. Your wife leaving the Community Bible Study she’s led for years isn’t easy. Changing a job you’ve had for years isn’t easy. And you wish, you wish there was a roadmap that could tell you it would all work out fine.

But as I’ve said before, we don’t get an itemized solution, we get a savior.

We don’t get a roadmap, we get a relationship.

We don’t get a mission statement, we get a Messiah.

And relationships are daily. Relationships are built on time and closeness. And every time we come just seeking actionable answers. Every time we come for the next ten steps. Every time we come for adventure insurance from God, I think he simply thinks, “come. Come be where I am. Stop making me press the wait or the run button, just come.” Because the truth is, in your life and my life too, on every journey we go on,

God’s presence matters more than a plan.

Copied from: http://stuffchristianslike.net

Jesus Where Are You?!

Mark 1:35 is one of those verses that bugs me, because I just can't live up to it. You know the verse, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." Jesus was a busy man! He was out teaching and doing miracles and serving God, and yet, even HE knew that He needed to spend time with His heavenly Father. At least I can find some comfort in the fact that the disciples were all looking for Him, so perhaps this wasn't a daily habit. Before an extra busy day, He knew He needed some focused time with His Father.For me, the killer here is the "very early in the morning" part, but the key is spending time with God. Regardless of the time of day, Jesus "got up, and got out!"
In this short verse we see that if you want to spend some quality time with God, you need to have the discipline to:
a) Get Up
b) Get Away and
c) Get Alone
If Jesus needed focused time during a busy season to spend with His Father, we do too! As you gear up for the busy fall, perhaps you need to pull away - even if it means everyone will be looking for you!

Beauti Must Haves

This is one of the best comprehensive list of Beauti product, must haves and how they benefit your skin. #1 Sunscreen!!!!!!! I went to the Dr the other day and asked why I was getting an age spot/sunspot on my face. After all I have worn sunscreen faithfully for 18 years??!! She simply responded "what did you do before that"? It takes years for sun damage to manifest it's self. So be proactive now with it!!
Copied from http://beauticontrol.typepad.com/gary/

Anti-Aging Must Haves!

I am always being asked, “Gary, what are your favorite products and why?”. Well, the answer is not really that easy. I love all of our products, so that would be a difficult call. Each product has a very specific purpose. I don’t really think of it in terms of which is my favorite…I think of it in terms of what does my skin need to stay young! So…let me tell you what I consider to be the top anti-aging must haves that no one should be without.

Sunscreen

It is estimated that 85 – 90% of the signs of aging are caused by sun damage, so it makes sense that sunscreen would be at the top of the list of things you need to stave off the aging process. While we all love the glow of a summer tan, the sun can cause some pretty extreme damage to our skin’s DNA that can result in both reversible and irreversible damage. There are 2 types of UV rays that are emitted by the sun:

• UVB rays – these are the ones that cause the skin to burn
• UVA rays – these are the ones that cause the skin to age

The UVB rays cause our skin to burn or tan. They penetrate just under the skin’s surface and the damage can be seen pretty easily. UVA rays, on the other hand, penetrate all the way through the skin and their damage is not obvious to the naked eye. UVA rays are the ones that are responsible for the long-term damage that will manifest itself down the road in the form of sagging skin, lines and wrinkles and age spots.

It is crucial that your sunscreen contain both UVA and UVB protection. Simply keeping the skin from burning does not ensure healthy skin.

Antioxidants

Damage to the skin that is not the result of the sun is caused by oxidation. To put it in very simple terms, think of it like this. Each skin cell is like an apple. The outer coating of the skin cell is pretty durable and will help maintain cellular moisturization and normal cell growth. UV rays act like a knife, jabbing into the apple’s skin. What happens to an apple when the skin is broken? It turns brown! This is the result of oxidation. The same thing happens to your skin. When the UV rays break the outer protection of each skin cell, it causes the skin cell to oxidize and become defective. Antioxidants prevent the process of oxidation and allow the skin cells to “heal” as well as ensure that the damage caused by the sun does not affect the skin’s DNA, resulting in long-term skin damage.

While vitamin C is the most recognizable antioxidant ingredient, it is far from the most effective. It is crucial that your products contain a comprehensive blend of anti-oxidants to ensure that your skin is protected…preventing oxidation AND helping the skin recover from UV exposure.

Chemical AND Physical Exfoliation

The process of repair requires exfoliation…both chemical and physical exfoliation! One, without the other is not as effective.

The skin’s turnover slows as we age. The ONLY way to help make the skin act as it did when we were younger is through the process of exfoliation…both chemical and physical exfoliation. Only when we get rid of surface cells will the body force the production of new skin cells.

Think of it this way…have you ever removed wallpaper from a wall? If you have, you know that it is no easy chore, but, if you are going to do anything to the wall underneath, you have to remove that paper first. You could use sandpaper, but it really just smooths the surface, it really doesn’t get below the surface of the wallpaper. You could use a scraper, but you will only get the loose, flakey bits and pieces of the wallpaper removed and it takes FOREVER! Luckily, they have this really great stuff that you can spray on top of the wallpaper that kind of melts the paper and causes it to bubble up. After it has done its work, then you can take your scraper and quickly and easily remove that layer of wallpaper to reveal a pristine surface underneath. Are you with me?

Ok, think of your skin the same way. Think of your surface skin cells as a layer of wallpaper. You can use a scraper (Microdermabrasion), but you are only removing what is loose and flaky. Now when you use your chemical exfoliant (either AHAs or PHAs), they loosen the skin’s dead surface and allow you to exfoliate more deeply that you could have without it. Your daily skin care scrub (polyethylene beads) is like the “sandpaper” we talked about above. It smooths the surface and makes it feel baby smooth, but to really get in there and remove the surface, you need to use something more aggressive such as Microdermabrasion which is designed to shave the skin’s surface for maximum benefits.

Retinol

Retinol is the whole vitamin A molecule, which can be broken down into thousands of smaller components, including “retinoic acid” (also called tretinoin, the active ingredient in Renova and Retin-A). Essentially retinol is just a fancy name for vitamin A; however, it is perhaps the most important vitamin for the appearance of the skin. It is one of the few substances with a small enough molecular structure to penetrate the outer layers of the skin and work to repair the lower layers where collagen and elastin reside. Retinol is vitamin A in its purest and most active form. It penetrates deep into the skin, where it becomes fully operative. Wrinkles and lines are gradually smoothed, moisture and elasticity increase, the complexion glows and the appearance of damage is diminished.

The skin cells have a receptor site that is very accepting of retinoic acid. This relationship between retinoic acid and skin cells allows a type of communication in which the cell is encouraged to function normally and continue regular cell renewal— as opposed to the often misshapen and altered cells associated with the natural aging process.
It now seems clears that retinol is a beneficial cell-communicating ingredient, as well as an antioxidant. In other words, it assists in creating stronger, healthier skin cells and increases the amount of skin-support substances. Retinol has also been shown to help stimulate new collagen production, which is critical in the battle against aging. Thus it has become clear that retinol is a vital component of high quality skincare products, providing visible, long-lasting results.

Peptides

Peptides are bioengineered molecules formed by linking chains of amino acids, the body’s building blocks. These ingredients are readily recognized by the skin and have the ability to be manipulated to penetrate to multiple layers of the skin, and be designed to serve a variety of purposes. Some peptides are engineered to reduce the depth of wrinkles on the face caused by the contraction of muscles of facial expression, especially in the forehead and around the eyes (muscle relaxing). Some are designed to help expedite the production of collagen and elastin in the skin. Some peptides are engineered to help repair the cohesion of the dermis to the epidermis, helping with sagging skin by increasing skin firmness.

Hyaluronic Acid

This ingredient has been called the key to the “fountain of youth”. Hyaluronic acid is a natural component of young, healthy skin, but dramatically diminishes with age and skin damage. The loss of hylauronic acid in the skin can result in skin sagging and loss of elasticity. Because hyaluronic acid is a natural component of the skin, it is easily absorbed and readily accepted into the skin when used as a topical treatment. There are various ways that hyaluronic acid can be used in skin care treatments:

• As a stand-alone ingredient to help increase moisturization and skin firmness
• Hyaluronic Filling Spheres: Hyaluronic Filling Spheres are made of pure hyaluronic acid, the leading product used by dermatologists, plastic surgeons and practitioners of aesthetic medicine to penetrate and fill deep wrinkles that usually appear on foreheads, between eyebrows, on the corners of the mouth and on the cheeks of people who have spent considerable time in the sun.

This anti-wrinkle delivery system is a truly breakthrough alternative to painful injections. Our exclusive filling spheres harness the industry's most natural active ingredient, hyaluronic acid, for high-intensity and rapid action skin smoothing and softening results.

Unlike widely used injection treatments, Hyaluronic Filling Spheres are applied topically to the skin in either emulsion or gel form to smooth away heavy wrinkles. The spheres are initially dehydrated, then fill with water present in the skin itself. This hydration process causes an increase in volume proportional to the microspheres' moisture-retaining capacity, which results in reduced wrinkles.

• Hyala-sponge: Hyala-sponge technology is one of the newest and most effective ways to deliver highly effective key ingredients into the skin in a sustained release delivery. The process of sustained delivery keeps the key ingredients active on the skin for a longer period of time, maximizing their effectiveness. Hyala-sponges are created through a highly technical new process:

• The hyaluronic acid molecule, a key component of youthful skin, is cross-linked to create “pockets”, much like a sponge, to hold key ingredients. The process of cross-linking creates the hyala-sponge. Each microscopic “sponge” is then filled with the key ingredients that are required to achieve the desired results.

So, with all of that being said…it is pretty obvious what my skin care regimen looks like. These are the products that I absolutely cannot live without:

• Cell Block C: This amazing product prevents damage to the skin by offering complete UVA and UVB protection, skin firming peptides and a comprehensive blend of antioxidants to help stop damage before it occurs and help speed skin recovery and immune response.
• Regeneration Overnight: I love this product. In addition to a potent concentration of retinol, this formula contains a combination of eleven key ingredients to protect skin from free radicals, glycation and protein breakdown – in turn preventing further aging. Together, all of these ingredients provide your skin with the best defense system so it can function properly.
• Platinum Regeneration: This product contains Poly Hydroxy Acids to help turn over the skin cells more quickly, while adding skin firming peptides to help keep the skin tight and young.
• Regeneration Platinum Plus Eye Cream: I love a very rich eye cream. This product contains heavy duty moisturizers in addition to a concentrated blend of skin firming peptides and bioactive ingredients to help supplement the skin with the components of youth that are lost as we age.
• Regeneration Tight Firm and Fill: This product contains 3 peptides that relax the expression lines, firm the skin and increase the cohesion of the dermis and epidermis to immediately firm and tighten. This product also contains hyaluronic filling spheres that instantly plump to reduce lines and wrinkles
• Regeneration Tight Firm and Fill Eye Firming Serum: This product contains all the active ingredients of the Tight Firm and Fill face serum , using hyala-sponge technology to ensure that the ingredients are absorbed into the skin and time released for sustained delivery throughout the day.
• BC Spa Resurfacing Peel: I use this product at least 3 times a week. This product contains a 30% acid blend that helps to break down the bonds that hold dry, dead skin cells to the surface of the skin. I have never used a more gentle, yet more effective chemical peel product…and I have tried them all. I always follow my Resurfacing Peel treatment with…
• BC Spa Microdermabrasion: This product utilized the same aluminum oxide crystals used by dermatologists to remove dead skin and resurface the skin’s texture without the high price tag! I can’t imagine anyone being without this product.

Project Runway

Well another season of Project Runway has come and gone. This one was pretty good! They got rid of the loonies early on. I can't remember was space girl this season or last! You remember her, she didn't know how to sketch and stood on her hands after she finished her diaper dress.

Well, I for one was very happy with the turn out! Yea Seth Aaron! Great designs, fabulous sewing and tailoring talent!

This is the only reality show I watch. Because well if you know me you know how I love to sew. And this show inspires me to sew more ofter..... for ME!!!

And with my new figure, well I need some new stuff to show it off!!! hehehehehe