How to Tuesday: you too can have fabulous eyelashes!

Or an alternate title: how to be vain like me!

I've been racking my brain for weeks now, trying to think of something I could do to join in the how-to Tuesday fun with that darling and fabulous Stie.

It finally hit me - I'll tell everyone how I was able to get fabulous eyelashes in just a few months (oh and for just a little bit of money.)

Okay, last Thanksgiving, I asked my niece if she was wearing fake eyelashes because she had the most amazingly long and beautiful lashes.  She said she wasn't but that she had been using Latisse for the past few months.  I decided to give it a try and started up myself the first week of December.

Here's a terrible and slightly scary self-pic of my eyes just so you can get an idea of how incredibly this stuff works.

I know, right?

My lashes before Latisse were normal - short, straight, etc.  My lashes now are still fairly straight but they are longer and thicker too. I do a quick squeeze of an eyelash curler on the tips, apply a little mascara and they look perfect.

It's kind of amazing.  Okay, let's get into the how-to...

Latisse is a prescription medicine.  When you bring the box home and open it up, you'll find a teensy tiny little bottle (appearing much larger here) and a supply of little brushes for you to use to apply the stuff to your eyelids.

Friends, my advice to you is do NOT use the included brushes.  Seriously, do not.  These are cheap brushes that soak up the liquid before you can really get it on your eyelids.  Because this stuff is like liquid gold, you want it to last a long time and not just be soaked up in a throw-away brush.

Instead, buy this $11 brush from your nearest Sephora store.

It's the professional pointed liner/eyeliner brush #17.  After applying, rinse the brush out and set it aside to dry until the next day and that's it.

So every night, wash your face, remove your makeup, apply eye cream, whatever you have to do.  Once you're ready for bed and done doing stuff to your eyes, grab your tiny brush and drop a tiny drop of Latisse on it.  If it starts to drip off the brush because it's such a tiny little thing and doesn't soak up a lot of liquid (and you don't want to lose even a drop of this stuff) then you just let the excess drop back onto the Latisse bottle top.  This way you can use every last drop without it dropping onto your sink or whatever.

Use your tiny little brush to paint the liquid on your upper eyelid, as close to the lash line as possible (use one drop on the brush for each eye.)  I used my cute little Sephora brush and my first Latisse bottle lasted more than four months. 

So I know you're dying to know how much this stuff really costs, right?  Well, one bottle is roughly $100, depending on your pharmacy.  If you use the tiny Sephora brush, you'll feel better about spending all of that money on something so trivial as your eyelashes.  I mean, it works for me, anyway.

I saw results after about six weeks of treatment and you achieve your full lash potential after sixteen weeks of daily application.  I'm now on maintenance and apply Latisse three times a week.

Side effects?  I haven't noticed any.  The two I heard about the most are darker pigment on your eyelids (which I already had) and darker irises (hello, I have dark brown eyes anyway.)  I had one eyelash grow in white, which was a little weird but other than that, nothing but long and lush lashes that make me feel pretty.

And who doesn't want to feel pretty???

Trek prep

Our stake is doing a Pioneer Trek this summer and I was lucky enough to be put in charge of activities with my good friend Lisa. Normally, the people who get to go on treks are married couples so I see this opportunity for me to get to go as a fantastic blessing.  Yes it will be hard work. Yes it will be awful to not shower for 3 days.  Yes I will hate going without makeup.  Yes I will miss things like chairs and my bed.  Yes I will quickly grow tired of wearing hiking boots instead of flip flops in the 100 degree weather.  But the spiritual blessings are worth so much more to me than those worldly things.

I was out the door at 6:30 AM on a Saturday so that I could ride four hours to our trek site yesterday.  The visit was more for the trail bosses and logistics people than it was for the activities committee but it was still helpful to see where we're going to be doing this thing come June.

I had a very real confirmation as we drove onto the site that this is where we're supposed to have our trek.  It's been a challenge because the distance between where we live and the trek site is great.  We have budget challenges and the distance also makes it difficult to staff things because people who come to help us have to be there the entire time.  But I know the "plains" like terrain will make our trek that much more realistic for our youth. It's gonna be amazing.

Me, Lisa & Alberta fighting the wind of SE Washington

There are service missionaries who work on this property and I cannot communicate to you how hilarious Elder Poe was.  Seriously, I am in love with this (elderly & married) man.  We made a list of some of his funnier comments:

"There's so much dust on my dashboard that I could plant corn in here"
"The only thing I know dumber than a cow is a sheep."
"In the summer, this place looks like hell with the fires put out."

And my personal favorite...

"Let's make like a sewer and get the crap out of here."

You love him too, right?  He put his arm around me as we were leaving.  Swoon.  I should have taken his picture - I'll get one in June for sure. 

Alberta, Lisa and I had to take advantage of some alone time and hiked up a big hill away from the men...can you guess what I'm about to do in the picture below?  Yeah, first time in forever that I had to do that...not my favorite thing.  I'm not an outdoorsy girl but you have to take matters into your own hands once in awhile...especially when you've been riding in a car around a 70,000 acre ranch that only has porta-potties at the end of the trail.

We finally got back on the road to head home around 4:30 PM.  We stopped in Yakima at a place called Miners.  Anyone ever been there?  I splurged and had a hamburger that was so gigantic that I couldn't finish it.  But seriously?  Yum.  Lisa let me share her fries.  Someday I want to go back for a milkshake.

We might have to stop here on our way home from the Trek...they have a drive through so I won't have to go inside in my dirty trek garb.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's gone on a trek before...what do you remember most about it?  Any suggestions for me re: activities?  I struggle with planning too much because I really think activities are not nearly as important as the experience of the trek itself.  But I know we need to have fun things planned too for the down time...so share your trek memories, if you have them.  Thanks!

Thoughts in my head

I'm still reveling in the greatness that was last weekend's General Conference. I took a bunch of notes of things that mattered to me at this point in my life and was surprised at some of the things that I was ready to hear and take in (instead of just thinking "that applies to someone else" as I have done in the past.)  My BFF Kim texted me and quoted Matthew 13:23 and said my heart has fertile soil for planting.  I hope that's true!  My favorite talks were by Elder Bednar (The Spirit of Revelation) and Elder Scott (The Eternal Blessings of Marriage.)

Oh and speaking of that BFF of mine...she's moving far, far away.  Like, far.  Like, I will need to finally get a passport, far.  I can hardly think about it without getting sad and even worse are the countless people who are (kindly) asking me "whatever will you do without Kim?"  Kim came up with the best response so the next person who (kindly) asks me that question will hear me (kindly) say "whatever will Kim do without me?"

This past Sunday was simply wonderful because a whole bunch of kids I love are home from BYU-I.  I couldn't stop smiling because every time I turned around, another cute boy or girl was coming up to say hi and give me a hug.  Love love love the fabulous youth I've met through church service. LOVE!

I'm a terrible visiting teacher (yes, Kellie, this is a public apology.)  I used to be good only because I had a fabulous partner who took the initiative to make the appointments.  Now I have a new partner who is much like me - super busy and not a good appointment maker.  Why oh why is it so hard for me to make the appointments? 

I've got Shirley MacLaine on Oprah going in the background.  Um...I have no idea what to say about that.

We did interviews last week for an opening in our office and seriously, I thought the last one would kill me.  I'd love to get into more detail but if I told you, well, you know what I'd have to do.

Um, oh yeah.  I bought a new car.  I posted it on Facebook (and yes, Lindsey, Facebook makes me a lazy blogger too!) so that made me forget to blog about it.  It's a 2008 Honda CR-V and it has all of the cool features I never knew I needed but am totally loving now.  I can now change my radio station without lifting a finger off of my steering wheel!  I have heated seats!  I can have my heat up to 85 but the person sitting in the passenger seat can have it on 68 (yeah, Krysta, I'm talking to you.)  I love it. It's cute and Kim says I look very cute while driving it so it must be true.

I just finished my taxes.  Every year, I have good intentions to get them done as soon as I get my W2 but no. And the worst thing is, I get a refund every year so it's not even like I'm waiting to send them money. I'm just lazy.

I've got a fun bridal shower coming up at the end of the month for darling Jamie.  Boni helped me make super cute invitations.  We have a great menu planned but I'm struggling with a game or activity.  At previous showers, we've done the ask the fiance questions and then the fiancee has to guess what he said and hilarity ensues.  I've done the match the wedding terms and get a candy bar game.  I'm tired of those.  I need a new game!  Ideas, anyone???  Not a long drawn out game, please...this is a weeknight shower and people need to go to bed.  Please send me your good ideas!

My words of wisdom

This September, I will have worked for my company for 24 years. Yes, I was only 10 when I started working there. Okay, okay, I was 12.  Anyway, rather than calling attention to the fact that I’m indeed, old, I tell you this because with experience (and years on this earth) comes knowledge.

Basically what I’m trying to tell you is this: I know stuff.

There’s a guy in my office who realizes that I do in fact, know stuff, so he comes over every Wednesday to get words of wisdom from me. These vary between work related advice (i.e. if you have to choose between working solely from home vs. working in an office, choose the office if you want to ever get promoted) to items that are more personal (if you’re a female high school teacher, it might not be a good idea to exchange cell numbers and then text with a male student 800 times over a period of a month. See here.)

I know it’s not yet Wednesday but I thought I’d share a few items of wisdom with you because I know a handful of you miss the blogger Jeanelle. I miss her too. She needs to blog more often (yes, I just dropped 3rd person!)

1. If you’re dating (or thinking about dating) multiple people at once, try to keep the facts straight about each person. If that involves creating an Excel spreadsheet for yourself, just do it. It’s totally okay to date more than one person at a time. Just make sure you know the basic facts about the person you happen to be talking to instead of asking ridiculous questions that don’t apply to them (i.e. thinking you have a roommate or that you live in a city not remotely close to the one you actually do live in – both topics covered at length during previous phone calls.)

2. If someone offers you a piece of that super dark whatever percentage cacao chocolate, just don’t eat it. It will not taste good. At all.

3. Every so often friends can turn into beloveds (i.e. my darling Callie & her sweetheart Andrew.) More often than not, however, if you fall in love with a guy who is already your very good friend, he will probably only be able to see you as a friend. It hardly ever happens like it does in the movies and books where the guy is smart enough to see that the girl he is BFF’s with would also make a totally awesome girlfriend. Yes, it stinks and yes it’s totally unfair. But don’t give up hope – there are lots of cute fish in the sea! (And secret message to another sweet girl whom I adore and love having late-night text-fests with: I’m totally blogging about you…again! Why? Because I love you!)

4. If you ever get asked to work with the youth of the church, whether it’s chaperoning a dance, teaching a skill at a Mutual activity, going to YW camp or youth conference, etc. just say yes. Don’t even hesitate. Serving the youth of the church, while it can at times be sucks-the-life-out-of-you hard, is truly the greatest thing I’ve ever done. Ever. I cannot even begin to count all of the ways my church service with the youth has blessed my life.

5. When you’re at a day-long youth activity like the YW general broadcast followed by a dinner followed by a stake dance (or basically you're on your feet from 3:00-11:30 PM) bring slippers to wear when your feet start to hurt. Because trust me, they will start to hurt, no matter how comfy your shoes were at 2:45 PM.

Success is...

Finally figuring out how to get your iTunes playlists off your old and dying computer and onto your new and healthy computer without having to recreate them.

Using a long knife to stab and withdraw the half a bagel thin I dropped in the space between the cupboard and the fridge before it stayed there and grew moldy and forgotten.

Getting to stay home an entire day, wearing sweats and comfy socks but no makeup because it snowed the night before.

Nothing in the laundry basket.

Discovering a great dinner (a lighter version of a BBQ chicken chopped salad) and eating it three nights in a row.

Doing something great at work that made me look like a superstar.  Earlier in the week, I was accused of "slipping" by my beloved boss and he threatened to replace me with Minka Kelly (aka Lila Gerrity from Friday Night Lights.  No, she is not going to be an exec assistant anytime soon - but he can dream.) But today, I was awesome and I reclaimed my title as queen of everything and poor Minka goes back on his laminated list.

Blogging two days in a row!

Things I love

To try and break the bloggers block...

I love days where it's a blizzard one second and sunny the next and then more blizzarding followed by more sun.  A day where I get to leave work early.  A day like today.

I love going to my friends, the Allens for a sleepover.  Why?  Their kids love me plus we do nothing except talk, relax, eat and go to Costco.  Oh and we also watched Social Network which I really enjoyed for the most part.  Oh and we never take pictures of all of the fun we have.  Why?  Because we are too busy talking, eating, relaxing and shopping at Costco.

I love ice cream cones.  Yes, even in the winter time.  Sugar cone, please, with slow churned cookie dough ice cream.  It's the only time I stay within (or close to it) the recommended serving size.  But seriously, who eats half a cup of ice cream at a time? 

I love spiritual growth.  I've loved attending two wards most Sundays (yes, I know that sounds a little crazy) for ward conferences.  It's been a much welcomed spiritual boost and I just feel great.

And speaking of, I love ward conferences.  Besides the spiritual growth, I love seeing so many friends and I love the program we are doing for the youth of our stake.  We only have two more - I'm almost a little bit sad about that (but going to my ward again will be nice too.)

I love my hair (please forgive the vanity.)  I'm growing the length and I like it but I promise not to let it get to "that" length.  (You know - when it's too long for my age.)  Plus I just got the color done (yes, two months since the last time and yes, I hate that.)  But really, I'm grateful I just have hair.

I love water.  It seriously is the best beverage.

I love sweet messages from lovely people on my Facebook wall (you know who you are.)  I have such great people in my life.

And, I think that's it.  What do YOU love?

Q&A: An interview with me by me

Q: Why on EARTH have you not blogged in weeks?
A: Well, it's a combination of the following things: nothing that exciting to report, some kind of interesting things that I don't feel comfortable sharing and some spiritual things that are kind of personal and I'm unsure HOW to share them.  So I just haven't blogged. 

Q: Is it true you went to Target today for tissues and gum and spent $80?
A: Yes, alas that is true.  Having a Target a block away from my office is painful to my bank account.

Q: What do you think of the Bachelor this season?

A: I like it but obviously not as passionately as in previous seasons.  Thus, no blogs about it.  But I'm guessing I hate the same girl you hate (Michelle - ugh.)  I like Brad more than I did at the beginning of the season.  I still hate the way he talks but LOVE the way he hates drama and takes care of it by quickly getting rid of the drama-causers (except stupid Michelle.)

Q: How's the calling going?

A: WAY better.  We sort of hit a major rough spot in December but things have been working better ever since then.  I'm also feeling more comfortable speaking up in our committee meetings, which makes this calling more bearable (I despise feeling like I don't have a voice or don't get to vote.)

Q: What are your latest food obsessions?

A: Vanilla yogurt with granola and celery with a little peanut butter.  (Yes I'm trying to be healthier this year and it's feeling really great.)

Q: How many unread items in your Google Reader?

A: 788

Q: Well, if you're not reading blogs regularly, what are you reading?

A: Um, nothing.  I haven't read a book since December.  That's very sad, I know.

Q: What play are you seeing this week?

A: Rock of Ages.  I think Constantine from American Idol is in it too. My early 20's self is really excited to rock out for a couple of hours.  It will be difficult to not sing out loud.

Q: What restaurant are you going to for the first time ever this week?

A: Ruth's Chris.  KMZT and I are going before the play.  I'm not sure how it will play into my healthy eating pledge but I'll figure out a way to make it work.

Q: Is there anything else you want to share?

A: Have I mentioned that I'm helping with our stake's Trek this summer?  Well, I am.  I'm still Pa-less so obviously I won't be pulling a handcart but I get to be in charge of activities with my dear friend Lisa.  I'm very excited but a little bit overwhelmed thinking about all that my assignment entails.  But it will be wonderful - I know it.

And with that...nighty night!