Insect Phobia At It's Worst!

I can't stress enough how much I HATE BUGS!

Since moving to Florida and into the home of my in-laws, I've had to overcome the fact that I'm going to be living with two very large dogs. I don't even know what kinds of dogs they are, but they're huge. They've gotta be part horse or something. These dogs bark constantly, they jump on me as if they're only 5 pounds and they stick their gross wet noses all over me. Yuck! The worst part...THEY HAVE TICKS.

These tiny little critters are everywhere. My mother-in-law said she found them in her bed. I found them in the kitchen, the car seat (ahhh!), Jason's clean baby bottles, and my bedroom floors (even though we do everything we can to keep the dogs out of my room).

These ticks have been a noticeable problem for about two weeks now and its only getting worse. We brought the dogs to the vet and put them on Frontline. So far, I don't see any ticks on the dogs, but I still see them all over the house! What the heck!?!?!

Is this normal? Will they eventually die off if we keep using Frontline on the dogs? Has anyone had tick-killing success stories?

Please Help!


*ps: I'm not trying to diss my in-laws or anything. I love them, and I know they are stressed about the bugs too. I just seem overly stressed about it because I'm a big wuss when it comes to bugs!

Random Things That I'm Currently Craving

Hey Ladies! I just wanted to share with you the things I've been currently craving lately. Not everything is beauty-related though! Enjoy!


1) White mukluk pom pom boots. I'm sure NOBODY in Florida wears these during anytime of the year but I am and always will be a Cali girl at heart, so I want these boots even if I'll be the only girl wearing them in the south! (picture from barefoottess.com)


2) "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga. I've been playing this song over and over again. I'm not even a Lady Gaga fan, but this song's pretty catchy! I need to download it into my ipod so I can really listen to it everywhere! (picture from zimbio.com)


3) Victoria's Secret PINK sweatpants. Although I'm not a fan of their lingerie, VS makes pretty cute sweatpants in their PINK collection. Now that I'm a Florida resident, I really want a Gators pair of sweatpants or a NY Mets one. These things are so adorable & super comfortable. I hope going out in my sweatpants never goes out of style :-) (picture from victoriassecret.com)

4) A great workout. I'm so obsessed with Crossfit. Not only does it work, but it's great for people who don't have much time to spend hours and hours at the gym. It uses high intensity workouts with minimal time and minimal equipment. My husband and I have been Crossfitters for awhile and we're hooked for life. There's nothing better than a great morning workout that makes you feel like your body's been thrashed. I love Crossfit and I'm depending on it to help me get my postnatal body back in shape!


5) White leather jacket. Whether it's fake leather or real, what does it matter? White leather/faux leather jackets are so hot! (picture from ardenb.com)


6) Romantic war movies. Maybe it's because I'm married to a marine or maybe I'm just a wuss when it comes to crying in movies. Who knows. Romantic war movies will never bore me. My current favorites are "Atonement" and "Australia". (movie from tvtropes.org)


7) Shopping for baby clothes. So even though my son has enough clothes to last him until he's two years old, thank God for friends who have babies right? I just love browsing Babies R Us and getting little outfits for my friends' babies. Someone needs to have a girl soon because I'm dying to buy a ton of PINK!


8) A good mascara. Why is it so hard to find a mascara that is good and actually does what it promises to do? Yes, I'm on the hunt for a good mascara still. I want volume, length, non smudging but not waterproof, affordable, and all the good stuff! (pic is from beautifulmakeupsearch.com)

9) Online shopping. It's seriously addicting! Possibly more addicting than real shopping! That's kind of scary. My current fave sites to shop: amiclubwear.com, ardenb.com, amazon.com

10) Skype. Skype and my webcam have made this time away from my husband so much easier. Even though he's 13 hours in advance, we've worked out a schedule where we can chat thru webcam and see each other. I'm happy to say that he's still the first person I talk to when I get up and the last person I talk to before I go to sleep. Thank God for high technology, huh? Or else you'd all be reading about me bitching about how much I miss my hubby and how much I hate the government.

Hope you ladies had a good read! Take care!

Goodies From CCO (Tampa, FL)

I really HATE the word "haul" so I refuse to use that word on this post.

Anyways, since I've moved to Florida, I haven't done anything much to explore my new town. All I really do is take care of my son, go work out and and wait for my husband to call. I did dedicated ONE day to shopping though and that felt AMAZING! While my husband was still here, he took me to Tampa's outlets and the first store I went to was CCO, of course. The CCO's in Florida (and every other state, I'm sure) are sooo much better than the ones in California. What's up with that?

I spent just a little under $100 on these goodies:

1. MAC amplified lipstick in Up Note--a peachy nude color. It reminds me of L'oreal's Colour Riche in Tawny.

2. MAC Shadowy Lady quad--OMG, I'm sooo glad I finally found this. After watching so many makeup tutorials on YouTube with this quad, I searched the CCO stores in South California and Las Vegas. Now I have it :D :D I'm deciding on whether I should go back and get the Tempting quad...

3. MAC Hello Kitty beauty powder in Pretty Baby--This is also hard to find in California so I snatched it right up!

4. MAC MSF Blush in Nuance--I don't know why this is in a CCO already. It's gorgeous. It looks very shimmery but when applied, it's very pretty on. I love the coral color. I like this better than my MSF Petticoat.

5. MAC Pearlglide eyeliner in Fly-by-blu--I haven't tried this but I know it's a really pretty deep blue. I kinda wish I had gotten the purple (Rave) one though.

6. MAC eyeshadow in Mink & Sable (Starflash collection)--Very pretty olive green color. I've been wanting an eyeshadow color like this for awhile and I wish CCO sold pan eyeshadows; it would save me so much time from depotting these eyeshadows!

Well, I definitely plan on going back to get more MAC goodies. I just wish hurrican season was over because I hate driving in the rain. And if you think California rain is bad, you'll hate Florida rain. It's the kind of rain where you can't even see anything on the road. Not even the car in front of you. So of course, being from California, I'm driving half the speed limit and pissing everyone off!! HAHA!

Okay have an awesome week, ladies! XOXO

Review on AMIClubwear.com

I've been hearing SO MUCH about this fashion site called amiclubwear.com & at first, I was very hesitant to buy anything even though the trendy clothing and affordable prices were very tempting! Plus, I've never been an online shopper...If I can't try it on and pay cash for it, then forget. However, being married to an online shopping addict, I caved in. After seeing so many reviews about this site on YouTube, I decided to try it out.

I like so many things on that site! But I didn't want to get everything I wanted all at once in case they decided to scam me. I picked out two "2-fer" tank dresses and that was it. These types of dresses are very popular and very cute on! Here are the two dresses I got (pictures are straight from the site):

$29.99

$25.99
I LOVE my new dresses and I can't wait to purchase more items from this site. The material isn't super high quality but it's just as good as the material from Forever 21, Charlotte Russe, etc. In my opinion, their sizes run kind of big but maybe it's because I don't have big boobs like the model HAHA! Shipping was free since it was over $50 and the best part is, there's NO SALES TAX!! I love that! One thing I love about Florida is that sales tax is next to nothing compared to California. Whoo Hoooo! Well I hope you ladies all find something for you at amiclubwear.com and share about what you think! Have a good week! xoxo

Products I'm Using Right Now

I saw this tag on Miss Natty's Beauty Diary & just wanted to do it too to share the things I'm currently using. I am currently trying to step away from expensive brand name products because I find that some of them don't work. And I am happy to have found cheaper drugstore products that worked better for me! I wanted to take pictures of everything but I just moved, the bathroom is a mess and I'm running out of memory space on my camera (thats what happens when you have a baby haha he takes up everything!) I'm sure you can look up pictures for these products. Anyways here are my products:

Shampoo: Enjoy sulfate-free (with cleanse sensor) & Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar volumizing shampoo for extra clarifying.
Conditioner: Pantene Pro-V Full & Thick
Treatments Enjoy Leave-in Conditioner Spray
Styling Products: Got 2 B Guardian Angel flat iron heat protector spray, Enjoy Shine n Smooth serum, GVP volume booster spray (dupe for CHI volume boost) from Sally's, Enjoy Extra Firm Hold hairspray
Styling Tools: Conair Pro Gold series hair dryer, Corioliss leopard flat iron, and my curling iron has no brand.

Shower Gel: Dove Beauty Body Wash
Body Moisturizer: St. Ives Vitamin E Moisturizer
Deodorant: Lady Speed Stick in Orchid Blossom
Fake Tan: Tanwise Self-tanning Mousse from Sally's
Facial Cleanser: Mario Badescu Acne Facial Cleanser, Olay Deep Cleansing Foam wash to remove make-up

Primer: Boots No. 7 Mattifying Base
Foundation: Revlon Colorstay Mineral Mousse in light/medium
Concealer: Revlon Colorstay Blemish Concealer in light (for my under eyes) and Revlon Age Defying Spa concealer for blemishes and red spots
Powder: MAC MSF Natural in Medium Plus
Blush: MAC Pink Swoon and MAC Fleur Power
Bronzer: MAC Golden bronzer
Highlighter: MAC Iridescent Powder in Verve-Vacious from the Fafi Collection

Eyeshadow Base: Urban Decay Primer Potion
Eyeshadows: MAC Sable, MAC Satin Taupe
Eyeliner: Max Factor Crayon Traceur in Night Club (does not smudge!)
Eyelash Curler: Shu Umera
Mascara: L'oreal Extra Volume mascara
Brows: MAC brow set in Mink and Ardell brow powder in Taupe

Lip Conditioner: Lypsyl lip moisturizer stick (the best!)
Lipstick: MAC Way to Love, MAC Plink & Victoria's Secret Perfect Lipstick in Satin Sheets
Lipgloss: NYX Mega Shine in Beige, Clinique Kitten Pink lipgloss

Nail Color: China Glaze Shocking Pink Neon (very bright neon pink)

I would love to read about what everyone else is using!

Update & Upcoming Posts

Okay so I haven't been on here since I moved to Florida. I've been busy settling in and just spending time with my husband before he leaves to Japan. He leaves tomorrow and I've obviously been a weepy mess just thinking about it. I'm sad that he will miss out so much during Jason's first year. And it's just hard, in general, to be apart from my husband. He's my everything.

Well, other than that, I'm just loving life in Florida. The weather is very hot and humid. It's hurricane season so it's been raining hard everyday but there's something about the rain that's very calming to me. This place is very different from Orange County California...people are soo much nicer, it's quieter here and very simple. I've spent a few hours at the pool with my little baby boy and he's even gone into the pool for a little splash.

I did go shopping with my husband in Tampa and Orlando and bought a few things from CCO & Arden B so I'll be doing a post on that. Then I ordered a few items from AMIclubwear.com--my new favorite online store! They have a really cute trendy selection of clothing and the prices are fairly cheap. I'll post some of those pics up too. I've also started getting back into the gym. Before I got pregnant, I started doing CrossFit in California and of course, as soon as I lost weight and got my bikini body, I got pregnant. Well I'm back in action at Crossfit Lakeland and it's been going great. I'll definitely be blogging more about fitness.

Well I hope everyone is having a better week than I am. I'm going to savor every minute with my husband before the Marine Corps takes him away. Good night, ladies!



*picture is from http://www.theodoresworld.net/pcfreezone/MarineImage2.jpg *

Good Bye California

Memoirs of a U.S. Marine Wife

Well, my bags are packed and I'm ready to go...

My husband is driving his car to Florida tomorrow, so he can leave it there while he's in Japan. And the baby & I are flying to Florida too. I'm so nervous. I've heard many horror stories about bringing newborns on planes. I just hate how people give you dirty looks as if the baby is crying 'cause it's your fault. Whatever...

I'm going to say this once and once only. I hate the Marine Corps!! They really do try to screw families over. They only gave us a month and a half notice that my husband's leaving so we had to try and sell all our furniture. Some things we didn't even get a chance to sell so we just gave it away. What a waste of money.

And what's with check-in baggage fees? Sheesh! Here I am trying to save money by cramming all my clothes into 2 bags. And the baby's stuff is in my carry-on. Plus, I had to ship the rest of my stuff by UPS. That costed a good $300.

I hope this year goes by fast, because after that, we'll be Marine Corps free! Well, good bye California...Florida, here we come!