Dieting Update

Like I said I got too busy last week to post on the blog, but here is my 17 Day Diet update:



I will say that this is not an easy diet to follow if you are not already eating healthy. I don't know that I would recommend it for most people, because it does not address cravings in your system, which I would imagine creates a very high failure rate. I mean, if it was that easy to beat your cravings, we would all be a lot thinner and healthier, right?

That being said, I am not giving up on "dieting" I just think I need to get the idea of a diet out of the picture. A diet is a temporary routine to help you lose weight, but the real key to long term success and weight loss is to change your eating habits permanently. It's not easy to break your cycles, but I am not giving up yet!

I'm going back to my old system of eating that worked very well for me in the past, but then I decided that all of these media hyped books and strategies on weight loss were surely a lot better and smarter than what I was coming up with. The problem is, none of these experts have found anything that works for me, and I've found these diet plans too difficult to stick with. So, I am initiating the "65 Gram Diet" which is really a lifestyle, and I'll post up a video with more details on that shortly.

Thanks so much for reading!

Loris' Lovables Customized Hats Review

I have gotten so busy sending my kids to school this past week, and gearing up to start grad school, I forgot to make this a public video!

This is my review of my order from Loris' Lovables, a super cute hat making place where this lady makes them all by hand and out of yarn. She has tons and tons of samples on her Facebook page that you can get to by clicking HERE.




I've also decided that I will start doing more reviews on a more regular basis from smaller companies and home businesses. So, if anyone out there would like me to review your product, get in touch with me and I will give you more details on that. I will note that, at this point, I won't be reviewing items from direct sells companies like Avon or Scentsy, because there are usually compliance issues with me doing that. So small companies and businesses making their own products, I'm looking for you! :)

A Bit More on Sorority Recruitment

Since college season is coming up for thousands of people, and a lot of ladies will rush sororities, I thought I'd get these videos up (hopefully) in time for that season.

As a little disclaimer, I am speaking primarily from the perspective of the NPC sorority organization, but I am not endorsed, paid, or in any other way affiliated to any college or sorority (other than being a member of one, of course). I also catch myself using some terminology that's not really accurate any longer, like "rush" which is now preferred to be called "recruitment," and "pledge" versus "new member," "pledge sister," or other terms. I have studied Greek organizations for years, and those are the terms that are sort of stuck in my head, and also the same terms a lot of people still use and think of outside of the Greek system. However, I mean no disrespect to any organization, this is just my way of speaking combined with my own experiences.

So take care and I hope these are helpful to someone out there. There are a lot of misconceptions about what Greek life is, how recruitment works, and what's important, so please do your homework on the different groups.

How Formal Recruitment Works at Some Sororities:


Thinking about what sororities to look into, recommendations, and other bits:

^ It's in a roller coaster background because that's how recruitment can feel, lol!

17 Day Deit - Day 4 w/Cheats and Changes

My last blog for the day I promise! lol

I'm a little behind with posting these 17 Day Diet updates, but this is where I was on day 4. I'm going to try to catch up tomorrow and have it all current. But I made the decision to add in some changes to the diet plan, because it just wasn't working for me. Is it an excuse? Yes. Is it genuinely difficult to reprogram your body and not get any cheese, carbs, sugar, and other foods that were staples in your body? YES!

So, I'm trying to find a happy medium where I'm not starving and unhappy, but also working towards a goal. Honestly, I think if the 17 Day Diet was formatted in reverse, so that you did the third cycle first, then worked food out of your diet (instead of starting on a very restricted plan and adding things in every 17 days) it would be much easier for a lot of people to follow. But not getting any carbs or very many sugars doesn't feel like a realistic plan for me at this point. And without further excuses, here are my cheats and changes to the 17 Day Diet:

What Do I Wear to Sorority Recruitment?

Just as a general disclaimer - this is my own impressions/opinions/etc on Greek life, this is not endorsed by any organization. Also please overlook any place where I say things like "pledge," "rush," or other terms that many sororities do not like to use any longer.

But, if you are going into college and plan on going through a sorority recruitment process, here is my personal advice on how to dress and what not to wear:

Any Renters?

My friend said that I should upload a video like this to my blog/vlog because I've had a really long run of getting 100% of my security deposits back over the years from video recording/uploading my houses. The only time I didn't get a full return was on the first apartment I rented, where the landlord nickel and dimed me for everything (even light bulb replacement for WORKING light bulbs!). Damages already in the house became my fault because I didn't know to document them and the landlord didn't tell me to, suddenly my professional carpet cleaning wasn't good enough so I had to pay for someone else to do it again, and a lot of other things. I didn't have enough proof to take it to court, because I trusted the landlord.

What I learned from that was that you never trust someone trying to make money off of you. So, ever since then, I have taken a video of all of the house before I unloaded the moving truck, posted the video on YouTube within a few days of moving in, and then did the same thing after I had all the boxes on a moving truck a year or so later. Ever since doing that, I have not lost one penny to landlords!

So, this is an extremely boring video, but if you are renting, it is a good example to have. I believe I even cut this video short and didn't include the outside or a few of the areas in the house because it was already running long. Another tip too - this video was done in a hurry as a sample, so it's not in HD. If you can upload an HD video, that is even better for you!

This is really important for college students to do as well, because the worst landlords I ever experienced were ones who primarily rented to college kids! There are many who will try to bully, intimidate, and push you around because they expect you not to know the laws (or even tell you that their "lawyer" says this or that, when they are making it all up as they go along). In their defense though, these landlords also get so many irresponsible kids renting that they treat you all like morons that will wreck their property or stop paying the rent. My last landlord like that went so far as to tell us that we couldn't break our lease with a military PCS, and that we were trying to con him. He even tried to call the recruiter's office to say that we trashed his house when this landlord had never once even showed up to mow the lawn as our lease said he would!

Also please note that the house in this video is NOT military housing. This is the house we left military housing for (foolishly left in hindsight, as we couldn't see the house we're in now before we moved in, and it is a cracker box, filthy, broken down nightmare!). I don't want to mislead anyone, and if you are military, I would strongly recommend to try renting off base if it's a realistic option for you. They charge us a lot of money here to live in a slum-like neighborhood.

Rebel T2i and Movie Mode Issues

I think I've mentioned before that I consider myself a professional photographer at this stage of my progress (9 years of study/training/work).

I recently got a Canon Rebel T2i, which I love working with. However, the Movie Function wasn't working right. First I had trouble figuring out how to record, then when I could record the movie would stop after a few seconds. So here is how you can fix those issues:

Foster Care Nothing

I'm highly annoyed. Has anyone else dealt with CPS to share their own stories on how this nightmare works? I would love some honesty at this point. :P

Are You Dieting?

I feel so bloated with weight since leaving vacation that I wanted to do something. So, here goes nothing I guess!

Direct Marketing Upline Blow Up

This is a video I recorded prior to going on vacation and didn't have the time to upload. To update, there has been no progress, and I'm no longer in contact with my crazy upline as she continually got more and more nasty at me. She began to send me unprovoked, mean little messages about how she wanted to throw me out of her group, so we exchanged some very intense words and blocked her ability to contact me again.

I LOVE Crabby Candle Co. Just Sayin' :)

Let me clarify a few things in the video. I realized I kept saying "former military spouse" when a better choice of words would have been "wife of a veteran." Sorry about that, it didn't occur to me that it sounded weird until hours after I uploaded the video.

CrabbyCandleCo.com also has other products, so if you like good scents and not so much tarts, they still have some goodies you'll love, I'm sure. I just personally love the tarts. <3 And I apologize for the lighting and background for this next series of videos. My husband packed everything up while I was away, and I can't quite get to most of it on my own with the way he stored it. :-/

I have a big stock pile of videos to get uploaded, so I'll have a ton of new posts, and then probably nothing for a while once school starts, lol.

Color Jamz Hair Dye Review

I really wanted to have some fun hair for the Summer and to celebrate my acceptance into art school, so I thought I would try out this hair coloring on a whim.



As promised here is my hair during dying:


I loved how vibrant the colors were, and my hair is very light due to constant bleaching, so I really hoped it would stick to my hair with colors as poppy. However, the dye stuck to my skin a lot better than my hair, and the end result was this:


Even my daughter tried it out to get pink bangs (and of course I didn't bleach her hair first because she's too little), and not a drop of color stuck except for on her forehead.


I reapplied the dye a few days later and it was somewhat thicker. My buddy J Walker took some neat photos where the colors looked amazing, but sadly, that was mostly a lighting and photo editing trick over the dye looking that good on its own.

Love, Sex, and the IRS

Here's some fun for the day (if you have a LOT of time to kill). This is a piece of community theatre that I was a part of back in 2002. I'm the blond one in the show, which was many, many pounds ago, haha. There are so many things I would change about my performance today (like the volume!), but it was my first show so cut me a little bit of slack, okay? :)


This is about an hour and a half long, and has the oldie situation comedy feel to it. Basically, one roommate does the taxes for both himself and his male friend, but he's been lying to the government to get special tax breaks. They get audited and comedy breaks out!

So sorry for the abrupt transition cuts between the videos, I've never worked with VOB files before and they were unfriendly!