Merle Norman Cosmetics Advice, Please!

I have been dabbling in make-up more and more, but I got gift certificates for Merle Norman Cosmetics and can't even recall hearing of them!

If you have heard of them and can give me advice on products, good ones or ones to maybe stay away from, that would be Great. I have been trying to do some research but don't seem to be getting very far!

All Comments Welcome! LOL! I'll share pictures of what I get after I spend the gift certificates. Then hopefully I can share with you guys how they work for me!

~ *S*

Parent-Teacher Conferences

...so much more information than a report card

I know they can't post all their details of your kids' progress on the online account, but it sure would be nice! They have the records. We could benefit from the records, but its not shown on there. I'm not talking about having every detail added online, but it would be nice to know what progress my child has made with sight words, or other specific skills that they are tested on (like phoneme deletion etc). My son made it through all of the sight words on the list we were given for his grade MONTHS ago. I just found out that he is part the way through another list that the teacher decided to test him on. Learning this I asked for the list of the next level words. Two things come to mind. One, why did it take months for them to test him on his sight words. Two, had they tested him sooner they could have posted it online (or something) so that I would know where he stood.

Its not shown on report cards. It would kind of be nice to see it, besides at parent-teacher conferences where we need to jot notes of our children's progress and what they have achieved or should work on next. Has anyone else experienced this??? Maybe I am just trying to know more about what my child's levels are, and what he is working on than normal, but it seems normal to me. He was above level when he started and he WANTED to learn more. So, initially I was worried his levels were dropping because they don't allow for going off schedule or lesson plans for the class. Really though, anymore I just want to know where he is at so if he wants to work on things in his time at home I can help him. Let me know below if you have any ideas on this. I don't want to push him too hard, but he WANTS to learn more. At parent-teacher conferences they go over some of the tests they've done and I try to take notes as quickly and efficiently as I can. Sometimes as they are rushing us through the conference I feel like I missed something I should have written. Any tips on that part?? Does anyone else even do that, lol?!

I feel like report cards are copy and paste. Your kid is on par, above, or below, with the range to be in any section being pretty broad. This would allow for most kids to land in the on par range. I could be wrong, that might just be how it seems (but there really is a choice of 4 options and those are 3 of them. The other, I'm thinking, is "not applicable" or something along those lines). If its right, I get that it makes the school look better because it would allow the school to look like its students are primarily where they should be. At a glance that system looks normal. But, I have been told by several teachers that my child is above grade level in certain areas, yet on his report card he is "at grade level" still. So in this particular school I guess the qualifications to be put at above grade level on the report card are different. I don't feel like this benefits the students or the parents. (It might not benefit others, but I don't have those persepectives, so I don't know) As parents, knowing where our children stand would be a good thing! If my child is (and has been) reading at the next grade level and his reading and writing skills for the quarter say on par then I am going to consider it inaccurate. Luckily, because I talked to the teacher, I know where my child stands. But, if I were to just go by the report card I would think my child was at a much lower level. From the students point of view, not now obviously but in the future, they would look back and not have accurate information. I guess if other teachers review the information it would mislead them as to what level to teach the student unless they had access to the in depth information. I am thankful that the teachers have the info and go over it with us at conferences! I want to make sure that's out there! It would just be nice to see what our kids have achieved and what the next things they will be (or should be) learning are.

Thank for reading my little rant, lol! If you have any advice, please share it below! I would love to hear from you!

~ * S *

Click Comment below to share your thoughts!

Follow on Facebook, now that you can!

     Sorry guys! I made a Facebook page for this site back around when I created it. Apparently all the posts were only visible to the person managing it. Oops! I fixed it though just this morning. Sooo follow there to stay up to date! I try to post there each time I make a new post here!

     Thanks for reading! And, don't forget to comment, I like to hear from you guys!

     I wonder who will be the first to comment on the Facebook page...now that its visible to you guys LOL!

NYC Lipstick!!

Oh Creamy Caramel!

     It's so perfect, so natural looking...at least on me. Its a shade of their ExpertLast Lipsticks, and well I love it! I tried a few other colors after seeing such a cheap lipstick so highly reviewed, but was quickly turned off. The shade I bought swatched more red than I thought it would. Then, while wearing they would kind of come out at the corners of my mouth and run where they shouldn't.

     Well... then I saw them in a few DT (Dollar Tree) hauls on YouTube and got curious yet again. Luckily they showed up in my DT and I had the courage to try them again! I got 2 shades, one was a worse fail than before. The other, was one of the best lipsticks ever! Ok maybe not ever, but its one of my favorites. I can put it on so easily, it dries pretty quick and doesn't smear. It looks natural, but better lol! I love it!

**Pictures will be added soon, including a swatch of this perfect color!**

Here is a link to it on amazon:  http://amzn.com/B00F63JWIW

Cold Weather Experiment, Decor, Fun?

Giant Lawn Marbles? Lawn Ornaments? I don't know what to call them, but we made an attempt at making them...whatever they are!

Here's what you need: Balloons, food coloring, water, and a couple of REALLY cold days.

We started close to 8 pm. I wanted to do it earlier, but you know how it is being a mom. Timelines don't always playout like we plan. I thought if we were able to do them the night before they might be frozen by morning and we could all see how they look before school the next day. The next morning however they were sloshy

...is that a word, sloshy?

Here are the balloons on the lawn waiting to freeze.
The extra colors are other balloons that popped when they were set down. Lol we had a little trouble.

Anyway, one of them seemed to have a slow leak. I didn't want one of us to not have a balloon out there when we popped them, so I put it in a bowl. I figured it would still freeze. No. The next morning 3 of them were frozen, 1 was not. Can you guess which one? Yeah I don't know what happened. We weren't all together so we didn't pop them and by this afternoon they were sloshy again.

...I think I have decided it is a word.

Here is the sad one in the bowl.

They did eventually freeze. Then you pop them and peel the balloon off.

They look like this until you flip them over...

Then some of them look like this...

Overall it kind of worked, but when we have another run of cold days I want to try again and so a few thing differently