Just Keep Swimming

Today (tomorrow really because I'm writing this on the 9th) I will have my 31st eye injection. I feel like this is some kind of milestone for me. I don't know why it seems that way to be honest. I do know that I would like them to stop - laugh. They do work very well and are worth the twice monthly pain (two eyes). I mean it's that or be blind. So it was pretty easy to make the choice to have needles jabbed in my eyes (seems pretty anti-vision to me actually).

Why am I posting this? Well, I'm glad you asked! I wanted to let everyone know that even though I have Multiple Sclerosis, I've battled cancer, and I have needles jabbed into my eyes monthly - I still love my life. I love every stinking minute of it. I've made great friends (have great friends) have great family and continue to enjoy my life. 

Am I the same as a year and a half ago? Not by a long shot, but changing is part of life. Change is exciting and scary all at the same time. 

I want to say that things get tough; things can suck so badly that you don't know if you can handle it. I get it. I've lived it, but I'm here to say that you can handle it. You can laugh. You can have fun. You can just keep swimming - smile.  

November 2014 Birchbox Unboxing and Review (spoilers)

First off, I have to say that this box was much better then my last. This time I did opt for the special box this one was The Happy Holiday Hacks Featured box. Now, I hope (maybe) that next month I won't be tempted to get a special box and I'll actually give you a review on the general box (but if it's to good to pass up - I'm apologizing now). Now, if you haven't opened your box and don't want to know what's in it don't continue reading (smile). 

The first product out of the box is the amkia Nourishing Mask. Full sized cost - $28. This is a paraben-free treatment that conditions and repairs your hair with see buckthorn berry. The smell is very fresh and not to over powering, and we know that’s an issue for me. At first I was not sure what this was. I thought it was a face mask and I was thinking “Oh no, something my face won’t be able to handle” but I was happy to note that the card said it was a deep treatment for your hair. THIS I need. My hair and I are at odds all the time. Now I will say I don’t treat it very well (did you see the running photo from last post?) and since I’ve been trying to be more proactive about treatment (angry face) and my hair (I have thin hair but that’s for another post) I really am looking forward to see if this helps my dry hair.

The next sample that excitedly pulled out of the box was Not Soap, Radio Joy Inducing Body Wash (seriously read the bottle). Full sized cost - $16. Not Soap, Radio is lemon-scented cleanser which will brighten your outlook while you later (according to the lovely card Birchbox includes). It is also paraben-free. I love the smell of this. It’s not to strong (so it does not smell like floor cleaner) but still gives a nice fresh smell of lemon. I love citrus smells (Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue!) and I can’t wait to use this with my Lush Ocean Scrub.

Now we come to the dr. brandt pores no more vacuum cleaner. Full sized cost - $45. I’m not opening this product because I won’t be using it. I am lucky that I do not have black heads (yay for something not on ma face). I will be gifting this to a friend and will let you know how it works for her.

I did not notice this product until after I opened the pillow box but I’m going to mention it before I talk about the pillow box. This is MAKE Silk Cream Lipstick & Lip Primer. Full-sized cost - $36. I am 100% going to try this. Since I opened this box late in the day I will put it on tomorrow and give you an update in a future post. I’m not sure about the lip primer because I’ve never used one before. So, I will look it up and see what it’s supposed to do and tell you guys if it works (yes I know the basics behind it – laugh).  I am severely lacking in the lipstick department (I will rectify this soon – Sephora is having their 20% VIB sale right now). So, this MAKE sample is perfect timing for me.

Now onto the pillow box contents which included a RUFFIAN Nail Lacquer in RUFFIAN Naked. Full sized cost - $10 and a bonus! The bonus is a Firecracker ChocoPod. First let me talk about the chocolate. This is so funny to me. I was just looking at this at World Market (a store with lots of chocolate and other things from around the world). It has pop-rocks in it people! It’s great!

The RUFFIAN Nail Lacquer is a great nude color. It’s very opaque and looks like it will be a one coat application. I just did my nails before I opened this box, so I will show you a swatch on my nail as soon as I change my color.

Overall this box, to me, is amazing. I love every product in it (even the dr. brandt). I can’t wait to try my products and to tell you all how much I liked or hated them (smile). 

OK Eyeballs, You Need to Chill

If you've been reading my blog then you'll know that I've been having issues with my eyes since my cancer diagnosis. It started the second or third day of my lovely hospital stay at then MD Anderson (now UFHealth Cancer Center). As a side note, the room next door to me was haunted. My mother and I would hear someone dragging one of those heavy hospital chairs at night around 10:00pm (bedtimish) only to be told by the staff that no one had been in that room for a month. So...yeah...but back to my eyes (creepy music). 

My vision started to slowly get blurry from starting from the peripheral (my temple or side of my face) vision. It was slowly creeping along my vision towards my nose and I started to complain loudly about the fact that "HEY, I like my VISION check me". Since I also have MS they decided that I might have optic-neuritis, which is when your optic (vision thingy) nerve gets swollen (this can also happen with diabetics). So, sick me who can't breathe well, cause I was having a reaction to the medication no one knew of yet, with a mask on, because I had one gimpy white blood cell trying not to kill itself left, had to get shoved into a tube the size of a toilet paper roll for am MRI. 

MRIs don't bother me usually but as the table slowly started to slide in I had to stop them. Something about the mask on my face threw me over the edge. So, risking my one depressed gimpy white blood cell, I took the mask off. We find out it's not ON and the nothing else is done for six weeks until I get to see an eye doctor when I'm released from the hospital. 

First eye doctor says I have diabetic retinopathy and my vision is 20/200 which means I'm legally blind. I argue that I don't have retinopathy. Why you ask? Because I have MS and I have a Neuro-Ophthalmologist that checks my eyes out. I also wear glasses and have yearly exams. See look glasses. 

This is me looking psycho before a run. I had been up since 4am and was feeling a bit loopy.

My hematologist (he's a hematologist who specializes in blood cancers) says he doesn't think it is (yay someone else that agrees with me). Diabetic retinopathy is when the blood vessels in your eyes leak due to damage from blood sugar issues. My leukemia was causing all my blood vessels to burst (hence coughing up blood) and he thinks my eyes were also affected by the leukemia. 

Wanna know what the treatment is? Having needles jabbed into your eye once a month to treat them. YAY I'M SO EXCITED (blink blink). It does work. I'm now seeing about 20/20 to 20/30 depending on the eye but I still have monthly injections. 

My November injection is next week but for some reason my left eye is spazzing out. It's blurry, I can't read small text, and I won't even attempt to drive. WTF IS GOING ON!? I even called my ophthalmologist but he's not that worried. I really enjoy the nonchalant attitude about MY vision but I need him to be a little more proactive with this. 

So, my eyes and I are having a come to Jesus talk. I really want the horrible injections to stop and I think they would also enjoy that. I promised them the best eye-drops money can buy if they just chill out. Think it will work? 

(Spoilers) October Horror Block Unboxing and Review

If you have not received your October Horror Block you should stop reading this post now. 

OK, for the rest of you this is my first Horror Block and it's the October box! For those of you who don't know Horror Block is a monthly subscription service that includes a t-shirt (you set the size when you subscribe) and 4-6 horror related toys, collectibles, or something else epic! The price is $19.99 for the horror block plus shipping. They are associated with Nerd Block and there are different subscriptions you can choose from if Horror is not your thing. Also, this is my own personal subscription which means I pay for it with my own money (smile). 

Check out Nerd Block here:  https://www.nerdblock.com/

Horror Block: https://www.nerdblock.com/horror

I was so excited to receive this box and my expectations were super high. I stumbled upon this service watching unboxing videos on YouTube. More specifically I was watching Subscriptionboxmom12. She has a ton of unboxing videos and I love that she gets to the point and doesn't ramble on for 40 minutes about how pretty the box is. Check her out on her YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/Subscriptionboxmom12.  

If you haven't seen the Horror Block Box before this is what it looks like when it's shipped (carefully paced thumb to hide address). 

This is the contents of the box. I have to say as SOON as I opened it I was excited. I could not contain myself. I am such a horror fan and just looking at the t-shirt drove me over the edge. I love this t-shirt with Jason on it. I cannot wait to rock this. 

The second item I pulled out was this Build Your Own Zombie box. I love this so much. One I cannot wait to put a zombie together. I love to do artsy fartsy things so I'm really excited to tear into this. 

It includes two tubs of clay. One is green (left) and the second has all the other colors you would need to make your zombie (red, white and black). I'll make mine soon and show all of you how it came out!

The next item in the box I was confused about at first. I thought it was some kind of snack product. Then I realized no weirdo they're Cereal Killers stickers from Wax Eye. These are the two sides of the box the stickers came in. 

The artwork is great! They remind me of garbage pail kids. The box had two packs of the stickers and I think this is a great item. I'm going to have fun with these too!

THEN I saw this and I was absolutely blown away. It was a Blu-ray DVD of The Puppet Master movie. A BLU-RAY. Being a horror fan I've seen this movie more than once, but I haven't seen it for years and tonight I will watch it again. 

This alone was worth the box. A movie, can you believe it? And, we're not done yet. Have you guys seen the movie Trick 'r Treat? If not you really should. It's a collection of various short horror stories that all tie in together. I own it I love it that much.You can imagine my excitement when the next item was this - a toy from the movie!

 I am so ridiculously happy I received Sam. I won't ruin the movie for you but if you have seen it then you all know who Sam is. Sam probably haunts your dreams.

The last item in my box was a Fangoria magazine. I use to read this magazine a lot when I was younger but I haven't picked it up in a while. I am really looking forward to reading this and rekindling my love affair with the magazine.

I cannot believe how much I like this box. They blew it out of the water for October and I cannot wait to see what is going to be in my November box. 

Girls Rule and I Am So Excited!

Ok, FIRST the reason I am so excited. I am getting my first Boxycharm! Boxycharm is just like Birchbox but a little more expensive (I have to pay tax here in Florida so it works out to just over $22.00 for me) but the higher price tag includes more full sized products. This means I will have a Boxycharm review up soon. Yay for subscription boxes! 

Actually, I'll have more Birchbox, Ipsy, MemeBox, and Boxycharm reviews as I start receiving them. I HAD to get MemeBox...it's Korean... (laugh).

Now on to why girls rock (other than the obvious reasons). My lovely dining room table has been wobbly and by wobbly I mean it's going to fall apart. It's been like that for at least a year but I've been to sick (chemo) to do much about it. I'm having a party today (late Halloween/Birthday Party for my friend) and I got a wild hair up my ass and decided "I'm going to see why the table is shaking". Now, I'm feeling better but I still have crappy stamina and get sore easy, but here I am thinking it's a good idea to crawl on the floor. 

Well, I figure out that the table legs, which are screwed to a piece of wood which then attaches to the table, are loose. And then...I took them apart. Oh yes, took them apart with the help of my 73 year old Korean Oma (mother - well mommy actually but I like calling her Oma instead of Oma-ne). 

And this, my friends, is what a table leg looks like when you take it off the table. 

You can see how loose the screws are. Hell, they're over 1/4 of an inch off of the wood! 

This is what a flipped over table without one leg looks like. 

After tightening both legs, installing them back onto the table, and putting the table back upright this is what we have, 

TADA! 

I'm very proud that we could do this! Women Rock! 

And...this is my dog Kobe trying to help. 

He looks like the devil...because he is... (laughing). 

Friday Funday!: This is Exactly What I Would Do - Happy Halloween!

Yves Saint Laurent Fusion Ink Foundation SPF18 Review and First Impressions

You guys are going to get to see my really pissed off rosacea face today. Don't you feel lucky? Since my cancer diagnosis I haven't used much makeup. At first I spent 6 weeks in the hospital and then another 9 months of treatment. I had no desire to put on makeup. I know that for some, putting on the makeup and doing the little things helps them along with treatment. For me, it just made me tired thinking about it. Also, my eyes were affected by the Leukemia so I was all blurry anyway and looked perfect! 

Now that I'm a few months removed from treatment I've started playing with my makeup again. First my makeup bag was MIA. Korean Tiger mom likes to put things away when no one is using them. This means that you might be able to find it later but probably not. Luckily we found it! Sad to say though that some of the makeup was bad, dried out, or melted (I have no idea how). I've replaced many of my staples, Hourglass Mineral Veil, UrbanDecay Eye Primer, and Make Up Forever Aqua eyeliner in navy blue, but my foundations (Smashbox hydrating powder and Cargo HD) were a lost cause. 

I went on the hunt for a new foundation and as we all know, my face has been crazy lately. I tried a few (I'll post about those later) but I have to talk about the YSL Fusion Ink Foundation. This foundation comes in 16 shades and retails for $60.00. Now let's pause here. I had no intention of spending $60.00 on a foundation. It's pricey and I realize that for most it might be too pricey. However, sometimes you get what you pay for and this is one of those times. 

I was color matched as Ivory which is not the color I would have picked for myself. If you're a little iffy on your color I highly recommend you go into a retailer and get color matched. My original intention was to get color matched at Sephora and then take advantage of Sephora's VIB and VIB Rogue free deluxe sample, but I was so blown away by the product that I purchased it on the spot. 

These are the only products I used - Hourglass Primer (travel size), Shiseido foundation brush, and my YSL Fusion Ink Foundation.

This is a very close-up picture (egads) of my face before I applied the foundation. I applied one layer of foundation by placing the foundation on my hand, and then, using my foundation brush, I picked up the product a little at a time applying all over my face. Remember, a little goes a long way. If I were to compare it to drops I would say about 5 drops of the foundation. Fusion Ink is a wet foundation but it dries to a powder-like finish which is very soft.

And this is after. 

This is a comparison of both the right and left side of my face before and after the foundation application. 

These are very close shots of my face and as you can see the red spots, broken capillaries and rosacea redness are gone. If you notice, I got closer to take the after photos. It also does not look like I have any foundation on. There is no caking or buildup, and it is not holding onto any of the dry patches on my cheeks or emphasizing any wrinkles. It is silky smooth, goes on very easy, and literally vanishes. It really just looks like perfect skin. 

I am just amazed by the Yves Saint Laurent Fusion Ink Foundation. Even with my rosacea and very dry skin it leaves a perfect finish. YSL Fusion Ink foundation is now my all-time favorite foundation and well worth the higher end price tag.