Wait...It's already Friday?

This past week has been such a rush! We have moved out of the rental home and are crammed liked sardines into our camper until we can move into our new home on the 1st! I can't wait! So I sit here at Starbucks quietly enjoying my drink and being thankful for a few minutes without kiddos asking for anything and everything! 

So very excited to say that Army Wife, Mommy Life as won the Mia Mariu giveaway! Once I get over to the post office and mail her the items then we can see her review on their makeup line! 

The BEST thing about today by far is that my baby i 1!!! I can't believe it has been a year already since I was waking up and driving to the hospital to bring her into this world. It is crazy how fast time goes? In honor of her birthday I'll update you on a few things about her. 

1. Little Miss Priss knows how to snap her fingers...yes I know I am in trouble! I get snapped at all the time when she wants something.

2. She has 11 teeth. Her nickname (other than Miss Priss) is Jaws because of them all.

3. She is almost walking...She will walk like crazy around the furniture and occasionally let go of the furniture only to realize she is standing alone and then grabs the furniture quickly.

4. She does NOT like to be told no. Obviously no kid likes that but seriously I get a face and she quickly lets me know she is not pleased.

5. She loves to terrorize the dogs. Our little dog can get away from her and will come near her every once in a while but for the most part keeps her distance in order to keep her fur. Our older dog doesn't care either way really.

Also I want to put a plug in for a fun exciting event that is happening nationwide tomorrow! Graco and Babies R Us have teamed up and are hosting an event to learn all about the Graco® SnugRide® Click Connect™ 40 Car Seat, play some fun party games, and mingle with other bloggers. 

Check out this link and see if there is one going on in your area- Graco/Babies R Us Store Event

But I Want to Craft!

So I am in a dilemma...
Well there isn't really much choice I have so I will just pout instead. We close on our home on the 1st of November (yay!) but we have to be out of the rental on the 15th. So...that leaves me two weeks in limbo where I can't really craft because we are going to be crammed with two kids and two dogs. And I know my crafting is the last thing that the hubby wants scattered everywhere!
I do have one more craft to do before we move and it is for a prop for Olivia's 1 year pictures.
This pin I found on pinterest to do looks easy enough...well unless my OCD kicks in and I don't get it just right...then it will not be so fun.

Birthday Photo Shoot Idea

So until I move this is the last craft to do :(

Mia Mariu Review....AND GIVEAWAY!

Before I delve into this fun review I must say that life is finally settled back down now that my plus one is back from deployment! It is wonderful to have someone to help chase the baby around since she is into everything!

A few weeks ago I received a package from Mia Mariu to test some of their products and let me just say...I LOVE!

I am one of those people that doesn't like to feel like I have 20 layers of makeup/moisturizer, cream, etc on my face because then it is just scarier when you take it off! But seriously I think a more natural look fits me. So one of my products to test was their Mineral Foundation Primer.

You put it on after your moisturizer but before the foundation. It is so light and smooth and very easy to apply. It is rich in all things healthy for your skin and antioxidants. Antioxidants are extremely important to me because it reduces environmental effects on your skin and also lessens the effects of wrinkles too! While (thankfully at times) I am often told I look a lot younger than my age; at some point I am sure it will catch up with me so it is nice to treat my skin to these antioxidants now and help it out a little. 

Another important facial product is moisturizer. I think of moisturizer as a nice tall glass of water for my face. It is important to keep your skin hydrated so it looks revitalized and healthy. AND moisturizer helps fight the aging process on your skin! I'm sold! This moisturizer goes on so flawlessly and I don't feel like it is sitting on my face all day. I feel like my face looks fresh and healthy and that is something that I look for in a moisturizer.
The last product I tested was the RestauraCel Thermal Microdermabrasion Set. I like microdermabrasion because it isn't as invasive as a chemical peel (I think of the episode from SATC where Samantha got one EVERY TIME I think of a chemical peel!). It works wonders for clearing up acne, shrink those pores and what else but aging! I think of a microdermabrasion as a vacuum picking up all the dirt on my face by taking off a few tops layers of dead skin cells to rejuvenate my skin. You want to do this because then it will help your skin soak in your moisturizer or foundation primer better. One of best things about Mia Mariu Microdermabrasion Set is that I don't feel like I am peeling off my whole face, it is quick and easy and I just feel so fresh afterwards!
I can't tell you enough how much I enjoyed doing this review because who doesn't like trying out new facial products AND it turns out great!

So here is where the giveaway begins...
I have TWO other products that I am giving away; Hydrating Stick Gloss (Caricia) and Anti-Aging Brightening Serum.
But like any giveaway there is a catch:
1. Go like Mia Mariu on FB and tell them Reporting for Duty sent you. Then let me know you did it by commenting below.
2. By winning this giveaway you are agreeing to write a review of the products and I will post it on here for the rest of us to hear about!
Hurry because this giveaway ends on the 10 of October!

I am so very excited because I really like their products and hope you will too!

Give Em Inch an They'll Take a Mile!

So awhile back I had read that Mayor Bloomberg had wanted to pass a law banning restaurants, bars, etc of serving anything over 16oz or face a fine. Well today that just passed.

While I am sure the intentions behind this new law are good I definitely feel the government is overstepping their boundaries. Yes I realize carbonated and alcoholic beverages are bad and can lead to obesity but at the same time YOU should be able to decide if you want to drink it NOT the government. Next they may decide that chips are the next thing to be banned! What about meat that isn't organic?!?! It has all those hormones and antibiotics that they load the animals with that is passed into the meat we eat...why not ban that? Seriously at what point is the government overstepping their boundaries? 

Thankfully I do not live in NYC so therefore if I decide to have a random (and rare for me) slurpee that is MORE than 16oz I can...why because I am allowed to and not being told by the government otherwise. If I want the government to tell me what to do every step of the way maybe I'll move to Russia!

Just a shout out to the Governor of Arkansas for letting me drink my 22oz slurpee! I feel like such a rebel!

When to be the Bigger Person

My heart is broken, crushed and totally confused. A week ago everything that I thought was is now not. As the Fresh Prince of Bel Air would say, "Now this is the story all about how 

My life got flipped, turned upside down."

I had my suspicions lately about a close friend of mine and her true intentions when it came to being my friend. She seemed genuine and was always nice but lately it seemed that she was more concerned with herself than being a true friend. Let me put it a little in perspective for ya. She is a single mom (tough job!!!) and has before come to me and ask me to help from time to time so she could quickly go do something. I didn't mind helping out a friend because that is what friends do. But lately when she and I would talk I would tell her how stressed I have been lately with going on 4 months of Justin gone and then when he was home (for a whopping 3 months) between deployments he was on the evening shift so I was still doing everything on my own during the week. Now with a mobile baby who gets into everything, school starting up for Taylor, keeping up with the housework, mounds of work AND work stress I have been at my wits end and I am counting down til Justin gets home (16 days!). I get the usual response "Girl I don't know how you do it...I can barely do this with one kid let alone two." Yet lately it has been "Can you watch my kid for a few hours?" every weekend. Seriously did you just hear how stressed I am getting and you want me to do what.....AND you don't offer to reciprocate?!? The icing on the cake came when she asked me to watch her kid for 12 hours on Saturday AND Sunday because she had to go into work. I seriously wanted to scream but I initially said yes. Then I thought to myself, "April you don't have to help ALL the time." Little did she remember she had told me a few days before that the kid's father had offered to watch him but because he had made her mad she didn't want him to. Not cool to try to throw this on me. 

So I ask a coworker of hers and come to find out this is her MO. Befriends someone and slowly become good friends and then in a way begin to "cling" to them to help with everything. Like I said before I can totally understand how hard it is to be a single parent. I give props because my 4 month period is really wearing me thin! BUT to then find out that my apparently "close" friend is also gossiping about me negatively behind my back really made it sting. 

Maybe I am one of those hopeless "good friend" who really believes that you treat someone the way you want to be treated. Especially when this person has called you one of their closest friends and then to find out they do this. At first I was sad and then of course...I was pissed. I wanted to scream at her and tell her what I thought of her. But if I did then I would be no better than her. Stooping to her level of meaness and shallowness is not in me. So I thought of what everyone has heard before, "If you don't have anything nice, don't say anything at all." If I said something then she would know someone told me and then it would make it awkward at work since we work in offices next to one another. BUT also what good would it do in the long run? So instead I have slowly pulled away and just sat back and felt sorry for her. Sorry that she doesn't see how lost a person she is to act like this. Sad that she thinks we all don't know how deceitful a person she is. 

But at the end of the day I know that I am a better and bigger person by continuing to be me and that it wasn't me that made her like that. I can only hope for her that one day she can realize that it isn't worth it to be like that.

Empowering Your Kids

So let me start off saying that my oldest daughter Taylor is the sweetest most kindest child ever. BUT she is a chatty cathy and can't pay attention for the life of her. She has been diagnosed with mild ADHD and counseling has been helping but I have been trying different ways to help her remember on her own her daily chores she needs to do. Because at 545 in the morning as I am getting Olivia ready and myself ready the last thing I need to try to remember is to remind her of which chores she has to do. It can be frustrating at time but I think I have found my perfect solution!

When I was at a counseling session with her recently her counselor was talking to her about rewarding for remembering things and how that could help her. While I tend to disagree because these daily chores are something that she does outside of her allowance. Meaning that if she wants to dust she can earn some allowance money and these other chores are her responsibility regardless. So it made me think...

Being in the military as a supervisor one of the things you can do to boost morale and make someone feel important and needed is to empower them! So I made Taylor an "I Can" chart because that tells her that she can do these things and she can mark it off everyday that she does it. With kids being able to use stickers or mark it off makes them feel so important! I didn't want to call it a chore chart or anything like that so I thought that the title of "I Can" makes her also fee important!

Repetition of doing it over and over on her own will eventually allow her to remember to do it without the chart but for now we use the chart!

So it was really simple and I took it to work and laminated it!

So far so good let's hope this continues to work!!

Baby Sign Language

So I have been thinking about teaching Olivia sign language for the past few weeks as Olivia has become more verbal and has started to wave bye bye and clap.So I went onto Baby Sign Language and started to look into what all I needed to know about teaching Olivia to sign. They have flash cards, language charts, and a dictionary of all sorts of sign language stuff! So much information...I love it!

At first I was cautious because I naturally thought that if I taught her to sign that it would delay her talking but actually that is the opposite. Not only do they typically talk first but also even later on in their child years their IQ is higher too!

So my question to you all is did you try baby sign language? If so what is some advice you might have for me? I know I am probably in for some frustration at the beginning but the big point I am going to make is to keep it fun and not let it get to me!