Mom always said, "Moisturize!"

I am admittedly not a high maintenance person when it comes to daily skin routines. I don't fuss with make-up, opting instead to stick with tinted lip balms and maybe the occasional eye-liner and/or mascara. But one thing that has stuck with me is the advice my Mom gave me, "Moisturize your skin.". So, the only thing I do religiously is apply moisturizer on my face daily and lotion the rest of my body occasionally.

I was sent a couple of sample sizes of  Jergens Wet Skin Moisturizer through Sweet Free Stuff and Target and was excited about giving them a try. You have to apply the product right out of the shower before you dry yourself. (This is outside of my norm so I found myself having to deliberately remind myself not to grab the towel first). The product glides on smoothly and with a wetter consistency than regular body lotion. And the directions tell you not to wipe it off. Just let it dry. It absorbs into the skin and leaves a shiny glow (not the radio active kind, but the supple skin kind ☺). I was given two scents to sample: With Refreshing Coconut Oil and With Nourishing Manoi Oil.  Both had very pleasant scents but I loved the way the Manoi Oil smelled. It reminded me of the Sampaguita Flower of the Philippines.

Give the products a try if you want to change up your moisturizing routine. ☺

I Don't Want To Live in a World Without Bees!

What Happens If All the Bees Died?

• Bees are directly responsible for the production of 70% of fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts we consume.
• Since 2006, bees have been mysteriously disappearing.
• Insecticides called neonicotinoids have been looked at as one of the possible causes of the bee die off.
• If bees continue to die off, entire food chains and webs may be at risk.
• Without bees, our diets would consist of mostly corn, wheat and rice.  

 Resource: If All the Bees in the World Die, What Would Happen to Humans?

10 Simple You Can Do to Save the Bees : If you're a gardener, create a great habitat for bees. Plant simple and old fashioned plants and flowers and consider planting wildflowers not only to beautify your garden but to give bees a home. Avoid the use of pesticides.

Create nest sites for bees. Bees rarely sting unless provoked. Spread the word...awareness is key. Try to buy honey from local bee keepers. Get involved and join "Save the Bees" campaigns. And whenever you can, eat organic.

Tomato Soup Teams Up with Bunnies

I've always been a fan of Annie's Homegrown products because of their commitment to organic products and clean eating.

My growing boys enjoy good food!

Let's eat!

Annie's Creamy Tomato and Bunny Pasta Soup is themed in a cute way with bunny shaped pastas.  It has a strong tomato sauce flavor and because it's a soup has a watery  consistency. I found myself wanting a bit more pasta to make it thicker but this product is a soup, so of course, it has to be "soupy".

Cracker in my soup? Why, thank you!

If you pair it with Cheddar Bunnies, it gives it a thicker consistency which my kids enjoyed.  My oldest son said putting the crackers in it makes it seem like there's more pasta in his soup. And then he whispered, "Can you give me some more of those crackers on their own later?" Why, of course, my son. ♥

Cheddar Bunnies are great on their own or paired with the pasta soup.

I have friends with very busy lives and sometimes cooking from scratch is just too much of a challenge.  There's nothing wrong with feeding our families a pre-made food product as long as it's of high quality & free of preservatives. I would wholeheartedly recommend this organic product to all my busy friends.

I tried Annie's Creamy Tomato and Bunny Pasta free from Influenster, but my experience is genuine and my opinions are fully my own. 

Cute Products from P.S. I Adore You

**A portion of every sale is donated to a child and his/her family fighting the courageous battle against cancer**

Please check out P.S. I Adore You  to see all the amazing things they are doing, and shop for a  great cause!

Navy Dress

Comfortable and stylish. Only $16.

Deluxe Princess Dresses

Make any dress-up day even more magical with silky soft outfits. Encourage kids to get away from the TV or computer and let their imaginations run wild.  Or, stock up for Halloween. Don't forget to re-stock your dress up trunk too! Choose from lots of familiar styles and characters.   $14.99

Dress Up Capes 
  
Whether they're channeling a Bat superhero, looking for buried treasure, or turning themselves into a new and unique superhero with special powers, with Character Dress Up Capes kids will enjoy tons of imaginative play.   $9.99

 

Sip for a Cause

My family and I are more than happy to team up with Jamba Juice to help support the National Breast Cancer Foundation to raise awareness and help fight breast cancer.

Donate just $1.00 and you get a small page of discounts for delicious Jamba Juice products.  And since we're frequent customers, it was a no-brainer for us.

October, along with being National Breast Cancer Awareness month, marks the beginning of Pumpkin Smash season so the boys thoroughly enjoy their sips while helping out a great cause.

Stay healthy!

Facts about Breast Cancer in the United States

• One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
• Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women.
• Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women.
• Each year it is estimated that over 220,000 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 will die.
• Although breast cancer in men is rare, an estimated 2,150 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 410 will die each year.

Resource: National Breast Cancer Foundation

A Gamer's Review: Lego Dimensions

Today is an especially exciting day for me as I'm introducing a guest blogger...my other half...A Husband, A Dad & More! He is a true & very authentic AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) & an avid gamer. Find & follow him on Twitter.

Here is his (honest and passionate) review of the newest game released by The Lego Group and Traveler's Tales. 

To be clear I want to start off by saying that Lego Dimensions is a fun family game.  Just go online and read all the wonderful reviews and you will see why this game is highly recommended.  I just want to point out some of the things that I believe TTGames got wrong and if implemented could have made this an even better game.  

My point of view:

Here is a little background on me.  I have always been a fan of Lego.  I got my first set back in 1980-something and have been collecting sets ever since.  From the digital standpoint I have played mostly all the Lego Video games including Lego Universe.  Back then I always thought they should sell toys from the game.  One of the biggest draws to Lego Universe was my ability to make things on their properties but I always wanted to export this into Digital Designer and purchase it.  I even wrote to Lego at one point suggesting that they start selling sets with Lego Universe codes so we can play with the sets both in real life and in the game.  I found a way to multiply myself (who says cloning doesn't exist ☺) by having two sons and now we are a whole Lego loving family.

Voice casting got it totally wrong in some spots:

Enter Lego Dimensions.  When I first saw the trailer about Lego Dimensions I was super excited.  The possibilities were endless in my mind.  I imagined all the great themes that Lego made throughout the years and thought the possibilities were endless--predicting that this game was going to be epic!  As the months went by and the trailers released,  I grew even more excited.  They announced Portal 2, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters and other franchises that blew my mind.  All this in one video game.

Before the game came out I had campaigned on Twitter for TTGames to address a couple of concerns I had.  I begged as nicely as I could (☺)  that Lego Dimensions would voice the original cast of Chima and Ninjago.  I didn’t think this was an outrageous request since Lego owns the rights to these shows.  Another reason I was hopeful was because as we grew closer to the game release they revealed that some of the original voices of The Lego Movie, Back to the Future, Portal and others were returning.

Tweets: 

TT Games ‏@TTGames Sep 14

We have some absolutely amazing voice actors on @LEGODimensions. Check out who's involved here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avEGqe4Crbo … #breaktherules

They also teased that other voices will return:

LEGO Dimensions ‏@LEGODimensions Sep 25

There are even more voices and actors that we haven't revealed. We sense lots of fandom squeals once discovered. 

Armed with this information I was really hoping they would fix this flaw but unfortunately they did not.  The voices were so far from the original characters it made it impossible for me to enjoy the cut scenes because I didn’t believe the people talking were them.  I know that this is a production of Warner Brothers but ultimately it is still Lego.  How hard is it to get their cast?  I can understand Chima since they stopped filming, but Ninjago?  They are still filming.  Now every time I hear Jay talk I can’t shake the feeling that he is an imposter and it takes away from the overall game experience.

Character disconnection:

From the moment the story unfolded in the first level I felt disappointment.  The game pack starts off with three characters, Batman, Gandolf, and Wyldstyle but offers a wide variety of others from the 14 various themes that are included.  I was super excited to see how Homer would interact with them and when I put him on the portal it was as if he didn’t exist.  The characters almost never interacted with him and it felt like he didn’t belong.  In fact for some characters like Eris from Chima and Owen from Jurassic World you wouldn’t even have a clue where they came from because it is never mentioned in the game.

This may seem trivial to most but just imagine how much better this could have been if there was more interaction.  For example, I put Homer on the toy pad for the first time and there is a mini move of Homer sitting around at his power plant pressing a bunch of buttons trying to look busy when a portal opens up.  He tries to run away but eventually gets sucked in.  He then appears in the level with the other characters and he asks what he is doing there.  Then the others say some canned responses like "you got sucked in" and "we are fighting to save all the dimensions".  Introductions are made (all while still fighting) and the story continues.  Each character can have their own unique introduction that will help tie the story together and give incentive to the consumer to go out and buy them all.

Another thing that would be even better is if they found a way to include the other characters in the cut scenes.  A good example of this it the Skylanders series by Activision.  From the moment you place a new character on the screen they come to life on the screen and are included in every cut scene as long as there are in play.  I realize this is a bit harder to do because their cut scenes are mostly game play instead of CGI movies but it really helps to feel like every toy is just as special as the next.  In Lego Dimensions, there are clear favorites.

Exclusion of game worlds in story:

Lego Dimensions does a good job of including many of the 14 themes into their character story but I was sad to see that two of them were left out.  They were instead substituted with unrelated levels relevant to the story but not the themed worlds.  Their inclusions only consisted of themed mini kits.  Again this goes with the theme that some characters are just not as important as others.

Expansion levels are too small:

The expansion levels go too quickly.  In some instances they seem rushed and skip a lot of content to retell a story in a short amount of time.  I only hope that this will be expanded in the days to come but I am skeptical.  After all, this is the same company that brought us The Lego Hobbit with two of the three movies story and never finishing the saga.

Conclusion:

Again I will state that I still enjoyed this game. But I feel there is loads of room for improvement.  My hopes are that the developers will somehow stumble upon this review and maybe rethink how they can improve this and/or future Lego Dimension games.

Three Contemporary Novels I've Read and Enjoyed

**Minimal Spoilers**

Unethical: (Entangled Embrace) by Jennifer Blackwood: This is the love story of Payton Daniel and Blake Hiller, a couple of med students who fell in love and lost each other years before reconnecting again at University.  Payton is running away from her past. And Blake is confused & hurt by what he views as Payton’s rejection.  Will they be able to find a way to tell each other how they truly feel, forgive, and forge a life together?  In this novel, the topic of assisted suicide is gently touched upon. There are two (maybe even three) sides to every story and some issues are not so cut and dry. This is a wonderful loving story. 

Before You Go by Clare James:   Tabitha suffered a terrible trauma that caused a big scandal at her college campus. She decides to move to another city to conquer her troubles and start fresh. She encounters Noah and expects that a one-night stand with this handsome man will solve her problems. But nothing goes according to her plan. Both broken and holding in secrets, the two begin to forge a connection with one another that is undeniable. And just like with most things, the truths inevitably come out. Will they learn to trust each other & give in to love?

Reckless Longing by Gina Robinson:  Ellie decides to have her belly button pierced and Logan offers to hold her hand so she doesn’t chicken out. So begins the non-traditional love story of Ellie and Logan.  They have this adorable banter, with great conversations getting to know one another (although still managing to keep some very deep secrets) . The mother-daughter relationship Ellie has with her mother is one that most would never wish on their enemy…and her father? Well, you have to read the book to find out what’s happening there. And Logan has his own parental issues—not to mention demons of his own he needs to conquer.   It’s the first book in the Reckless Series.