I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and received at least one special gift from a special person.
I had to say in this dismal economy I felt extremely blessed this Christmas. Instead of gifts of abundance everyone in my family put a little extra thought into their gifts to make their one present a little more special and memorable. My husband was no exception to this and, I must brag, every Christmas he surprises me even more with the special touches he puts into what he gives me. However, like any man, he does ask for direction. I try to make things easier for him by giving him a specific list that includes model numbers and store locations or websites otherwise my "thoughtful gift" would come from The Colony Wal Mart every year.
This year I asked for my mascara to be replenished. I've recently developed a taste for Lancome Mascara. The lash definition is amazing and the biggest selling feature is, while it will not smudge through the most severe tear fests, and being 7 months pregnant I should know as I cry often, it washes off with little to no effort with soap and water. If you've ever fought with greasy eye make up remover to get rid of your waterproof mascara, you know how awesome this feature is! Well I was about out and at $25-$30 per tube, did I mention this was a two step mascara, I could not justify buying it for myself, so I asked for it as a Christmas Present. Knowing my passion for this product, my precious and very manly husband ventured bravely to the Lancome Counter at the mall on Christmas Eve with the names of my requests in order to please his wife.
If you know my husband you will know what an incredible sacrifice this trip is for him. First of all, he hates malls any time of year and to go on the most frantic shopping day of the year and to fight a parking lot full other panicked husbands buying their wives gifts makes for pure insanity. My thought is, while it serves him right to wait til Christmas Eve to venture out, at least is was in empathetic company. Also, and the biggest sacrifice is this trip really put a dent into his machismo. When I asked him to buy mascara I may as well have asked him to go buy tampons or some other feminine hygiene product. However, my husband swallowed his pride and set out to please the woman carrying his child. If you ask him, though, he did it out of fear of the consequences of not pleasing the hormonal, hungry and crazy monster that could easily kill him just by sitting on him if not happy. I still prefer to see it my way, though.
OK, back to my husband at the Lancome counter at the mall on Christmas Eve. The Make Up counter was fairly quiet considering most normal ladies don't ask for mascara for Christmas, so my inquisitive husband starts to talk to the lady behind the counter to find out why I need two tubes of mascara. In the conversation he proceeds to learn everything there is to know about all the mascara that Lancome carries and why each one is so great. I wish I had a tape recording of that conversation as my husband tries to wrap his head around the ways women augment their eyelashes. A big light bulb must have went off in his head when he was able to equate the base coat to paint primer as my husband knows all things related to tools and construction. With all his new found knowledge you can just imagine how his eyes lit up when the sales girl brought out the battery powered vibrating wand that applies the mascara even better than regular manually operated mascara. High Tech Mascara! Now if a guy is forced to buy mascara shouldn't it be as cool of a gadget as possible! He plopped down his credit card for the now $40 dollar mascara tube, the $25 primer and the $35 regular tube I originally asked for just to cover his basis. He accomplished his mission with gusto! I could just hear a Tim The Tool Man Taylor grunt of approval as Michael proudly recanted this story upon my opening of his gift and then to make things even funnier he had to tell me how to put it on!
I thought it was the greatest gift he could have gotten me! Researching and buying me the best mascara was amazing. He really put effort into something he didn't have to. My pregnant emotions took over, I cried, and then I had to call all my family members and brag how great he was for buying me vibrating mascara!
Now for the ironic twist. A few days later, we went to see Marley and Me with my family in Lubbock. This movie is such a tear fest. Not a single one of our group had a dry eye, but my mascara still looked great! Towards the end of the movie I reached in my makeup bag to get some lip gloss to minimize the blotchy, puffy, I've been crying for the last hour look.
Little did I know that my prized vibrating mascara fell to the dark ground to be lost forever.
The next day when I realized it was gone the water works started all over again. You would have thought I lost my Great Grandmothers Heirloom Wedding Ring. Michael drove me to the movie theater to search lost and found. You should have seen the look the manager give me as I waddled my 7 month pregnant self up to him and asked if anyone has found my vibrating mascara. I guess he doesn't find too many vibrating mascara tubes, and why would he because most women who know how awesome this stuff is keep it under lock in key in the safety of their bathrooms not carelessly carrying it around with them in their purses. I was a mess. In fact it has been 10 days since and I am just now able to bring my self to tell this story with out crying.
It was just too good to be true. My wonderful husband wanted to return the regular tube he bought me and exchange it for the vibrating kind again, but my practical self said no. If you know me just slightly well you will know that I'm Practical with a capital P. If I cannot afford to loose something I should not use it, and being the type to always put my mascara on while flying down the interstate and not in the security of my bathroom the chance of another loss was too real. I asked him to return all the mascara he so lovingly bought me and I went back to my Loreal "It'll Do" mascara found at glorious Wal Mart. I still grieve every time I wash my face and have to struggle to remove my mascara, but the money we "saved" has gone to a Wii Fit and has given me more to write about. One day I will be able to buy expensive "Mall" makeup again. Although I highly doubt that Michael will ever buy it for me.
Come back soon and read about what it is like being pregnant on the Wii Fit!
I had to say in this dismal economy I felt extremely blessed this Christmas. Instead of gifts of abundance everyone in my family put a little extra thought into their gifts to make their one present a little more special and memorable. My husband was no exception to this and, I must brag, every Christmas he surprises me even more with the special touches he puts into what he gives me. However, like any man, he does ask for direction. I try to make things easier for him by giving him a specific list that includes model numbers and store locations or websites otherwise my "thoughtful gift" would come from The Colony Wal Mart every year.
This year I asked for my mascara to be replenished. I've recently developed a taste for Lancome Mascara. The lash definition is amazing and the biggest selling feature is, while it will not smudge through the most severe tear fests, and being 7 months pregnant I should know as I cry often, it washes off with little to no effort with soap and water. If you've ever fought with greasy eye make up remover to get rid of your waterproof mascara, you know how awesome this feature is! Well I was about out and at $25-$30 per tube, did I mention this was a two step mascara, I could not justify buying it for myself, so I asked for it as a Christmas Present. Knowing my passion for this product, my precious and very manly husband ventured bravely to the Lancome Counter at the mall on Christmas Eve with the names of my requests in order to please his wife.
If you know my husband you will know what an incredible sacrifice this trip is for him. First of all, he hates malls any time of year and to go on the most frantic shopping day of the year and to fight a parking lot full other panicked husbands buying their wives gifts makes for pure insanity. My thought is, while it serves him right to wait til Christmas Eve to venture out, at least is was in empathetic company. Also, and the biggest sacrifice is this trip really put a dent into his machismo. When I asked him to buy mascara I may as well have asked him to go buy tampons or some other feminine hygiene product. However, my husband swallowed his pride and set out to please the woman carrying his child. If you ask him, though, he did it out of fear of the consequences of not pleasing the hormonal, hungry and crazy monster that could easily kill him just by sitting on him if not happy. I still prefer to see it my way, though.
OK, back to my husband at the Lancome counter at the mall on Christmas Eve. The Make Up counter was fairly quiet considering most normal ladies don't ask for mascara for Christmas, so my inquisitive husband starts to talk to the lady behind the counter to find out why I need two tubes of mascara. In the conversation he proceeds to learn everything there is to know about all the mascara that Lancome carries and why each one is so great. I wish I had a tape recording of that conversation as my husband tries to wrap his head around the ways women augment their eyelashes. A big light bulb must have went off in his head when he was able to equate the base coat to paint primer as my husband knows all things related to tools and construction. With all his new found knowledge you can just imagine how his eyes lit up when the sales girl brought out the battery powered vibrating wand that applies the mascara even better than regular manually operated mascara. High Tech Mascara! Now if a guy is forced to buy mascara shouldn't it be as cool of a gadget as possible! He plopped down his credit card for the now $40 dollar mascara tube, the $25 primer and the $35 regular tube I originally asked for just to cover his basis. He accomplished his mission with gusto! I could just hear a Tim The Tool Man Taylor grunt of approval as Michael proudly recanted this story upon my opening of his gift and then to make things even funnier he had to tell me how to put it on!
I thought it was the greatest gift he could have gotten me! Researching and buying me the best mascara was amazing. He really put effort into something he didn't have to. My pregnant emotions took over, I cried, and then I had to call all my family members and brag how great he was for buying me vibrating mascara!
Now for the ironic twist. A few days later, we went to see Marley and Me with my family in Lubbock. This movie is such a tear fest. Not a single one of our group had a dry eye, but my mascara still looked great! Towards the end of the movie I reached in my makeup bag to get some lip gloss to minimize the blotchy, puffy, I've been crying for the last hour look.
Little did I know that my prized vibrating mascara fell to the dark ground to be lost forever.
The next day when I realized it was gone the water works started all over again. You would have thought I lost my Great Grandmothers Heirloom Wedding Ring. Michael drove me to the movie theater to search lost and found. You should have seen the look the manager give me as I waddled my 7 month pregnant self up to him and asked if anyone has found my vibrating mascara. I guess he doesn't find too many vibrating mascara tubes, and why would he because most women who know how awesome this stuff is keep it under lock in key in the safety of their bathrooms not carelessly carrying it around with them in their purses. I was a mess. In fact it has been 10 days since and I am just now able to bring my self to tell this story with out crying.
It was just too good to be true. My wonderful husband wanted to return the regular tube he bought me and exchange it for the vibrating kind again, but my practical self said no. If you know me just slightly well you will know that I'm Practical with a capital P. If I cannot afford to loose something I should not use it, and being the type to always put my mascara on while flying down the interstate and not in the security of my bathroom the chance of another loss was too real. I asked him to return all the mascara he so lovingly bought me and I went back to my Loreal "It'll Do" mascara found at glorious Wal Mart. I still grieve every time I wash my face and have to struggle to remove my mascara, but the money we "saved" has gone to a Wii Fit and has given me more to write about. One day I will be able to buy expensive "Mall" makeup again. Although I highly doubt that Michael will ever buy it for me.
Come back soon and read about what it is like being pregnant on the Wii Fit!
