Water Fight Fun

With one nice day while we were away on the weekend we couldn't fight the urge to break out the water hose and water guns. The kids had a blast soaking each other down and occasionally hitting a parent/adult that wandered into the line of fire.

Jay, Kohl, Blake and cousins Connor and Lannie getting soaked,

notice Trin is no where to be seen, she was hiding inside.

Kohl taking aim on his next target

Blake taking matters into his own hands with the hose and sprayer, watch out guys

Baby Wishes

I love babies, if I could have 20 of them I'm sure I would but I have had my 4 children and now turn my love of babies unto other peoples babies. I always loved getting personalized baby gifts for my babies, it was a great memory maker that I could save and pack away for the kids baby boxes. I always think of creating these type of memories anytime I am looking for a baby shower or birthday gift. It is so much fun spreading love to these beautiful little people with so much potential. There is a website dedicated to everything you can imagine for babies, take the time to visit at babynest.com.

Traveling home for a visit

We decided to travel home for a weekend visit, it's about a 5 hour drive and can be difficult at times. The kids must have been a bit tired this trip and the drive for the most part was quiet. They watched a couple of movies on the Van's DVD Player, August Rush which was a fantastic story that I would recommend to everyone. It's a story about a young boy that was seperated from his mother at birth and his journey to bring the family back together through his music. The story a bit far fetched maybe but it was an awesome story.

Grading Day Treats

On grading day as part of the kids gifts was a little bag of treats. Matt takes the kids over to the store around the corner some evenings while I am at work and buys them some penny candies. He found these pre-bagged gummy candies at work one day and brought them home for their Grading day treat. The kids were excited to see these as normally they only get about 10 pieces of candy from the store and these bags must have had 100 or more in it. They were on a sugar high for a couple of days.

Jay came home late as he was away at a friends, I'm not sure what this pose is but I got a laugh out of it.

Here's our sugar baby, she is always on the hunt for sugar

Looks like Kohl had too much candy already, two missing teeth

Blake didn't go to school this year but how could you leave this face out?

You can do it

Education doesn't have to be a hold up to your life anymore. It used to be that you would have a hard time to work a career around your education but now with a fully accredited online university you can get the education you have always wanted while maintaining your current career and family commitments. You don't have to try to juggle your classes around anything else, you complete the work at your convienence. An online degree from Cappella University is a way to move to the next level in your education. Take time to visit their website at Capella.edu to get more information about their programs and how they can help you on your quest for higher education.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Improving Self Image

Appearance is such an important part of acceptance in today's society. The push to have your body fit into a certain body image that is portrayed can be overpowering. There are many different reasons why people will chose to have Cosmetic Surgery performed. For some it is reconstructive to recover from an accident or health crisis, for others it is simply to improve their appearance to boost self esteam. Most people consider having some sort of surgury at some point in their life. Typically the most common proceedures would be liposuction and breast augmentation. When searching for a cosmetic surgeon it is important to be sure you have someone with experience and has a good reputation in performing similar proceedures to what you are wanting. If that means travelling to find the best available you should consider the options to achieve the best results possible. The team at MYA Cosmetic Surgery has offered a hand picked team of experts from all around the world. Make Yourself Amazing prides itself providing affordable proceedures with flexible financing options available to their clients. Cosmetic improvement proceedures have become a very acceptable form of self improvement in recent times and have allowed many people feel more comfortable about themselves on a daily basis.

Blue Monday : Glow bowling

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On the weekend we went Glo Bowling, it would be the first time we went bowling in a couple of years and Grandma wanted to take the kids while we were visiting. It was cool to have the disco ball and music going while everything had the Blue Glow to it. We played the adults vs. the kids and the kids were lucky enough to get the bumpers up and they beat us, I think the way we played we needed the bumpers, but everyone had a great time.

Here I am giving it a go, the floors were a bit sticky but the kids found some powder along the side to loosen things up a bit.


Grandma giving Kohl some tips on his form

Blake tossing it for all he was worth.

Family Vacation Plans

Where would you travel to for a vacation with your family if you had the choice. If your family loves the beach and would love to enjoy time in an all inclusive beach resort you should check out the family vacation options available from the Karisma Hotels Chain. They offer a variety of vacation destinations along the Riveria Maya in Mexico. These beaches feature beautiful white sand beaches with all kinds of activities to entertain your family. Fine dining is available to keep your bellies full and happy. They also offer Adult only accomadation in some of their resorts so you can spend a romantic vacation away with that special someone and leave the kiddies at home

Making space to entertain

With our transformation of our bedroom into a Family room almost complete we have begun to look for furniture to finish off the look and functionability of the room. The main purpose of this room is to give the kids a place to hang out with their friends now that we are starting to hit the "teenage" years we would much rather have the kids here than wondering the streets or at whomever's house. We would also like to create a spot to entertain when Family or friends come over to visit. We truly want to make this room a multi-purpose room with all kinds of space. I went shopping online last night at work thinking it would be cool to have a Poker Table that could also be used for dining and with just a little searching I was able to find just the table, its a combination of a dining table and a Card Table with storage space for us to keep our chips, cards and everything else that we need for our games nights. The table we are looking at is made of solid black finish with Cherry accents that match perfectly with the other furniture we are using in the games room. The buy poker tables online website offers free shipping and significant discounts on all their tables, the one we are looking at is discounted 28% off the normal sale price and overall all tables are listed at 30 - 65% off the suggested list price from the manufactures. They have a great assortment of poker tables that will match any decor you already have. Having a great place to entertain will be a lot of fun and it is just as important to have the space you need to make it all happen. Take a few minutes to take a look through all the different choices there are out their and the great savings to take advantage off, shopping online can save you money.

Creating new Space

We are having so much fun renovating our home and making it so much more functional. Our most recent change was moving our master bedroom onto the main floor of the house from the garage. This allowed us to make a family room for the kids to enjoy and create a more intimate and comfy room for us. We are making do with our bedroom furniture for now but when Trinity and I get our trip to New York behind us I will be saving up for some new furniture. I love to create storage space and I am especially looking for an option to use to store the out of season clothes. I found this type of bed that gives me storage at a finger tip. I can get into this bed and get my clothing in and out so much easier than the bed we have now. We have to lift the box spring and mattress off it and I have to have someone to help me get it done. The site I found offering these types of beds also have a great selection of other styles as well. They are currently offering free shipping on most orders and even next day delivery where available. I can't wait for the fall when I get to finish up the bedroom and start to enjoy it.

Online shopping made easier

Taking time to shop is becoming harder and harder as everyone seems to be completely time starved. We are no different and find it easier to shop online than to take the time and shop from store to store. I found a great home medical equipment and supply store that can really offer a great assortment of products. They offer everything you can imagine from diabetic and blood pressure supplies. Other offerings include sexual well being products and maternity products. Allegro Medical is now serving over 1 million customers and offers over 50,000 products on their site. The site is a secure shopping environment allowing you to shop by category, brand or condition to further help you save time on your shopping.

Puppy Traveling

We had a hilarious experience with our pup on a trip home to visit the grandparents this weekend. About an hour into the trip the dog started to act crazy and was sniffing at the air vents and travelling back and forth in the van. We finally decided to stop and let her take a nature call before heading back on our journey. This didn't work for her, after we were back on the road for a bit she started acting up again, going at the vents. We finally figured it out the ac compressor was sucking the smell from an open bag of dog treats at my feet up through the vents and filling the van with bacon goodness. Poor Breigh she was trying desperately to figure out where the smell of her favorite treats were coming from and finally she got them. Then to make it even more fun we went bowling last night with the kids and Grandpa sat in my seat, he picked up the bag of treats in the dark and Matt was telling him how great they were and cheap too thinking he could see the bag was dog treats, oops, Grandpa tried one and wasn't long spitting it out.

Creating the "Hangout"

For anyone that follows my blogs regularly you all know I am constantly re-arranging and renovating my house as fits our growing families needs. Last year we renovated our garage and turned it into a bedroom for my husband and I and it was a lot of fun to do and turned out good at the time. Our oldest son turned 13 this year and with him growing up and being in Junior High he is starting to hang around more with friends. I don't really like him out roaming the neighborhood, especially since girls have started hanging around. We decided we would be better off making a cool place to have him hang with his friends here so we know where he is. With that we moved our bedroom up to the old computer room, that's a whole other story but we really love the new bedroom. Then we turned our old bedroom into a family/hangout room. We used an old tv stand to set up the kids entertainment centre, TV, DVD player, Wii and PS2 but I would really like to look for new Entertainment Center Furniture that will make the room look even better. To hold all the kids movies and games it would take more than what traditional TV Stands would hold so we had to look online to find the best assortment of furniture and find something that would allow me to really organize things out. The selection we found at "buy entertainment centers online" were fantastic and they are offering great discounts of 30 - 65% on there entire assortment of entertainment centers a long with free shipping to make it a great deal. The assortment they offer online is so much more than you would find at the local furniture store. It will be so comforting to have the cool hangout for the neighborhood kids and be the "cool" parents so the kids feel comfortable hanging out at are house.

Stock Options

When investing your money it is important to be careful and do your homework before investing. The team from Power Options has developed SmartSearch XL which is a patented deciosion support technology that is designed to help assist in the identification of the highest return stocks. The option screener software will automatically filter, sort and analyze over 3000 different stock options to create a list of the best options for your investment needs. The program comes with a 14 day free trial featuring an online user guide and toll free support from qualified technicians. Remember it's your money so you owe it to yourself and your financial security to make sure you are maximizing your returns.

Working on the next project

We have been planning on remodelling our kitchen since we moved in 2 years ago, we had to make some modifications to fit in our fridge and freezer as it was too big to fit in the space we had. We took out some pantry cabinets and made them fit in but it left the kitchen a little unfinished looking. We have been so focused on completing all the other changes we left the biggest job until everything else was done. My husband will be building the cabinets themselves and already has a start on them. He is on vacation next week so we will likely see a lot of progress then. We will be also replacing the fronts on all the cabinets and staining them a darker color. The home renovation industry has taken a real big swing lately with people trying to improve the value of their homes. If you are in the market for a renovation but are not sure how to get the job done on your own you might what to take advantage of the many great Minneapolis Remodeling specialists that are available to offer you affordable and reliable renovation projects. The team at Minneapolis Remodeling Construction, LLC have many years of experience helping people unlock the value and potential of their homes. There is no job too big or too small to have a consultation to see what they can do for you. Our homes are our biggest investment and it pays to have work done but you definetly want quality work or you could make a headache for yourself. I can't wait to have our project done, it really is exciting to see work in progress and of course the final results.

Camera Critter : New Puppy!

We got an exciting call a couple of weeks ago from my Father in Law, our dog's mother had a new batch of puppies and he was wondering if we wanted a new sibling for Breigh. We thought about it for a few days and decided to go ahead and get a new one. We are heading down this weekend to pick out our new little guy, for now I have a picture of the whole litter. Next week I will be posting about our new little guy so stay tuned. We think it will be great for Breigh to have a companion around the house when we aren't around and it will be easier for our 4 kids to share 2 dogs instead of just one. We are getting pretty excited, the kids don't know yet that we are getting one we will be surprising them when we get there, we will see which one they like best and then tell them it's there new puppy!



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Enjoying my Garden

Finally after a couple of summers in my new house I am finally making some progress on the outside. There was so much to do inside we just couldn't spend the time or money on doing anything outside. This year I was able to start my decorative garden just outside my bedroom window. It is such a pretty spot and with the added decorations it is even more beautiful. There are often birds flying around and one thing I really wanted to see was some Humming Birds, I remember sitting out with my Grandmother as a child watching the humming birds fly up to her feeders. I saw a few around last summer but they didn't stay around long. I really didn't know much about hummingbirds as a child but taking the time to learn about them they are a migratory bird that travels seasonally from Central America. They began as a tropical species of bird but when the Ice Age ended they took the opportunity to travel to new fruitful spaces and have made the trip each Spring, and returning in the fall to their home. One thing I didn't know was that the humming bird is a solitary bird and they don't migrate in flocks but all on their own and they will migrate on their own agenda over a few weeks, with Males leaving first and the females leaving later. They really are spectacular birds so if you would like to attract these little birds to your yard take the time to get the best hummingbird feeders and fill them with delicious nectar to keep the little guys humming. I can't wait until next year as I am going to be building a deck around my garden and I will be able to sit out and watch them buzz around with the kids.

Getting Protected

It's so important to be able to carry sufficient insurance to look after our needs. One of our biggest investments in our lives is in our Home and it is surprising the amount of people that do not carry adequate insurance on their home to cover the costs of replacing their homes if anything happens. I was shopping around our insurance because our policy was up and decided to take a look around at different options. I was totally shocked to find out that not only was my old insurance policy costing it more than it should (about 10%) it also didn't cover replacement value. When you think about that it could easily happen that the house could burn down and we wouldn't have enough insurance to cover the expense of building a home. If you are looking to get a free quote on your Chicago Home Insurance you can take a few minutes to speak to online representative. They will listen to what you have and what you need. Once you submit your question and contact information you will receive information back for the team to run. They specialize in providing you with the guidance to make the best decision for you and your family.

Finding Quality Representation

It can be something that people want to avoid in life but it should be very important to everyone to have a relationship with a reputable law office. There are many events in life that requires the services of a Lawyer. With the divorce rate in North America over 50% it is more than likely most of us will require the services of a divorce lawyer west palm beach at some time in our life. It is an unfortunate statistic but an accurate one. The divorce process can be very difficult with the dispertion of assests to the care and custody of any children it can be a hard sittuation to deal with in the best of scenerio's but the nature of divorce makes it a tricky situation.
Another hard situation that normally takes people by surprise would be the cases that involve personal injuries. These type of injuries normally happen very fast and without expectations and can leave you devestated, with injury expenses and lost time from work. Trying to find a personal injury lawyer west palm beach to take your case can be very easy by going online. It is important to have the bestwest palm beach lawyer available to take your case when you need support. Needing a lawyer is such an important part of our existance it's important to have a law office you can trust to have your best interest at heart.

Combating personal insecurities

Personal insecurities seem to just be a way of life, I don't think it would matter if you were a super model you would still find some part of your body that is not what you would like it to be. With the booming plastic surgery industry growing in popularity and acceptance it is a realistic option to anyone wanting to make improvements in their appearance. Some of the most common procedures would be Breast Implants and Liposuction. If you are interested in finding out more information about either of these procedures or to find a Denver Plastic Surgeons take a little time to research the website, lookingyourbest.com.

Fighting the Gas Price

My husband is tired of the gas bill for the van and has decided to find a more economical way to get around. Since I bought my truck he uses the Van and basically travels back and forth to work, which is only a 10 minute drive away. He's right that it's too big a vehical for one person to travel back and forth in but we are stuck in a lease with it for another year. He recently came up with the idea of buying an Electric Bicycle to get himself back and forth to work. I was skeptical at first but the more we talked about it really started to make scence. The line of Electric Bikes that he is looking at are from Premium Electric Bikes the exclusive online dealer of the Green Cruiser electric bike. The use of electric bikes is becoming a very popular alternative to gas guzzling vehicals for people who have short commutes. This line of bikes can travel 25-30 miles per charge and take only about 7 hours to get a full charge. They are light, less than 50lbs and have a sleek stylish shape to them. The bikes come in a variety of sizes to match just about anyone, my husband's favorite is the "Storm", pictured above in the Red/Silver finish. It can be operated with the electric motor or by using old fashion peddle power for those days he is feeling like a little exercise. Premium Electric Bikes offers free shipping and great discounted prices on all their bikes. He's hoping to start and electric bike craze at his work place and get everyone into saving energy and money and being more healthy. He has even created a spot that his staff can securely store their bikes while they are at work to protect them.

2nd time around Tuesday Cookie Magic

After a fair day and yard sale at the kids school Kohl came home with a tresure a easy bake oven. He was ready to bake that night as it came with a couple of pizza mixes but when he and his father opened up the box the pans were missing. Kohl was very disapointed and asked everyday if we could buy him a new pan for his oven. Finally after a week or so Matt went out to find a pan, after some searching and not finding anything that would work he thought of using tin foil and folding it into a pan. We were back in business....right????



As you can see here, the boys are really happy but they aren't making Pizza they are making cookies. When they went to start the Pizza mixes were missing, and we still don't know where they went, perhaps it's for the best as we didn't know how old the kits were. Anyway Matt decided to try cookie mix so we didn't have a disapointed boy again.

Here's the proof that we did ok, the boys had a blast and now are looking forward to many more baking adventures with the mini oven.

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Camera Critter : Movie Night

The situations my dog will get herself into always amazes me, the other day Jay caught her picking out her own movie to watch. She crawled up on the movie cabinet to see what was good to watch. Her favorite movie right now is a toss up between Bolt and Hotel for Dogs. She will soon get a new surprise as her mother recently had new puppies and we were offered a new little brother for Breigh, the days of being the only puppy are coming to an end for Breigh, good luck hunny I hope you can handle someone else pawing in on your territory.



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Video Game Fun

With a big family saving money is one of the biggest focuses we have, anything that can be passed down from one sibling to the other will certainly be done. This includes their toys and video games. My oldest got a new Gameboy DSI for his birthday and decided to pass down his old Gameboy down to his little brother (4). It's really all he needs for now and he thinks he's pretty cool to be able to play video games like the kids. It's harder to find games for these older systems, especially for a little fella so we turned online to video game distributers like www.naugames.com they offer new and used games for almost any system at great prices. With this we should be able to buy a year or two with him on this unit until he get's a DS passed down from one of the siblings.

Making Changes

This was my dream couch that I wanted for our family room, we recently made some changes to our home to better accomadate our teenage son and his friends. When you first entered our home you were at our bedroom and Jay would take his friends through the whole house to get to his room. We decided that we would change our bedroom (which was huge) to a family room with all the kids game systems and movies etc set up so they can have a hang out. We would much prefer the kids have their friends over here than roaming around the neighborhood. Anyway we needed a new couch for the family room and I fell in love with this suede hide a bed. It served 2 purposes as it filled the furniture void and allows us to have an extra bed for sleepovers. Now for our new bedroom we took over a unused room off our dining room and living room. It basically had a computer in it so out it came and I went looking for new furniture I fell in love with a rustic furniture collection I found on a furniture website, I will try to make it through the summer with the furniture we have than for the fall we will swich out the old bedroom furniture for some new exciting bedroom furniture

Finding a new career

Having just entered the workforce after a 10 year assignment to raising my children. It was pretty intimidating considering starting a career outside of the house. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I had to look around and see what jobs were out there and what kind of salary expectations and education requirements I would need. I found a site (mypursuit.com) that gives Career Descriptions, what type of background and education you might expect employers to require. They also offer a salary expectations you should go in the position with. You can quickly link to jobs in your area by selecting the field of work and the zip code. For me I was planning on going to work at a local call centre so I could work around my husbands schedule and be here for the kids after school. Using the information available I had a good idea what it would take to be a Call Center Representative before I even applied and went to the interview. I am shocked it has been 6 months back to work and I am having a great time with my new career.

My little ladies man

The kids had a school dance at their elementary school this weekend, everyone wasn't sure how it would go over being open to all the kids at the school so many parents and myself hung around for a while snapping pictures and seeing what would happen. To my surprise the kids got out and danced, almost all the kids, it wasn't like a Jnr. High dance when most people are hanging on the wall. The kids had a blast and here's my little ladies man dancing with a girl friend. I eventually got kicked out but when I came back I caught him dancing with another little girl from his class. Both he and Trinity had a blast, the school is considering doing another dance in the fall after the kids go back to school.




Here Kohl is consoling his little girlfriend after Trinity upset by telling her Kohl couldn't have a girlfriend until he was 16. Big sister is apparently very protective of her little brother but it upset this little girl so Kohl had to man up and go make her feel better, they were soon back out on the floor boogieing it up!

Father's Day is coming fast.

Fathers Day is fast approaching and with only about a week left what would you get that special Father or husband in your life if money wasn't a concern. My husband has a professional career and is very business orientated with many meetings part of his daily duties. A classic symbol of status in the business world has long been considered the Rolex Watch. I was thinking what a cool surprise it would be to hook him up with a beautiful watch from www.bestoftime.com to show him how much he means to me and the kids everyday. Our lives are so busy trying to both work full time jobs and still find time to raise our 4 kids too often we are just getting by the day and forget to show each other appreciation. The best of time website offers a great selection of Rolex watches at greatly reduced prices because they are an independant dealer they pass the savings directly on to the customer. Their watches come with a full 3 year warranty and a certificate of authenticity to make sure you are getting what you paid for. The site offers free expediated shipping thourgh Fed Ex so you can still make it in time for the big day. They also offer pre-owned Rolex's that have gone through stringent testing and cleaning to ensure they look just as good as a new watch at a fraction of the price for the budget conscious shopper.

Camera Critter : U can't see me!

While I was at work the other night Matt and Jay were having a late night snack Matt walked in on Jay with Breigh desperatly trying to find a way to get a bite of his snack. She went around from one side to the other trying to figure out a way to get a bite off of him. It is really funny to watch her try to sneak around sometimes but this is a bad habit for her to start. Matt managed to get this shot before he had to pull her off him. She can be a little handfull and very sneaky when it comes to feeding her belly.

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A golden opportunity

In a hard economy when many stocks are bottoming out it can be hard to decide what to invest in to protect your finances. One way to invest in a secure way is to invest in precious metals. Gold and silver has historically held its value very well through any time and condition. Gold and silver has over historically always provided good returns on the investments. Investing in silver has never been smarter as the supply of available silver continues to dwindle. If you are looking for an opportunity to buy gold coins you should investigate the industry leader in Monex, they have been helping people to invest in gold and silver for over 30 years. They can help you find exactly what it is you want to invest in and hold you deposits securely.

2nd time around Tuesday Chopper Bike

We were looking for a new ride on for our son and he fell in love with this chopper bike that we found for $300. With so many things on the go we couldn't afford to put this kind of money into it. A couple of weeks ago we found one on a local buy and sell website and the super thing it was only $30. We weren't long checking this one out and getting it for our young fella to tour around with. What a 2nd hand treasure to find, we were surprised it actually works so good all the kids can use it and I have to admit that I snuck a little ride on it too. If you would like to join in on the 2nd Time Around Tuesday fun click here

Blue Monday (Swimming Fun)

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What could be a better sign for a BLUE Monday than 2 of my boys in BLUE bathing suits inside their new BLUE pool as we were getting it set up last week. They are having a blast inside the pool and the water is finally starting to warm up.

Celebrating Special Moments

My daughter and I are going on a special trip this summer to New York and I really want to give her something to remember the trip by. She always wants to feel just like a princess so I decided to get her some ear rings and costume jewelry rings to give to her while we are on our trip. I found a great company on line called Holsted Jewelers that provides an excellant collection of costumer jewelry that will fit any budget. Their product line really provides great quality that everyone would be excited to receive as a gift. The site even offered free shipping on orders over $85 so I had to get a couple of treasures for myself too. We are going to be going on some cool outings including find dining and broadway shows while we are away so I will have a few opportunites to break out our new gifts while we are away to make the trip that much more special.

Camera Critter: Sign of Spring

Spring is finally starting to arrive and with that the kids are back onto the Trampoline, the other day while home for lunch my oldest decided to take Breigh to the back yard to play. Knowing they were up to no good I followed out with my camera, when I got outside I found them on the Trampoline of course. Breigh wasn't too sure what to make of it as you can tell by her bark but being Breigh she also go distracted by the allure of someones sock that had been left on the Trampoline. She loves socks and I think she single handedly keeps HANES in business. To participate in camera critters click HERE!

Managing Life

Nursing can certainly be a very demanding line of work, it is challanging to balance a regular life and the demands put on the Nursing profession. The hours tend to be long and shift work is very common. Being under demanding conditions you might as well be comfortable and express yourself a bit. Gone are the days of plain green Scrubs. There are so many types of scrubs available now on the market that everyone can certainly express themselves and even match their mood by their scrubs. I recently found a great site that had all kinds of great lifestyle tips to help us get through the day and try to balance all our needs. I find sometimes after a long week I can sure see and feel the effects of the long hours and lack of sleep. A great article I found gave tips on how to make yourself feel and look better with just a few simple tips. I had a terrible habit of going to bed as soon as I get home, it's hard at 2 am to think of anything but sleep but after reading throught this article I realize that I have to take the time to remove my make up to keep my pores from clogging. The site also has all sorts of helpful lifestyle tips like how to avoid back pain, deal with stress and nutrition. Life can be hard, work can be tough and the combination of the two can be overpowering in this busy age it is important to use every resource available to make your life more manageable.