How To Cover Bad Skin With Make-up

Our beautiful daughter, Bethany, was troubled by really quite bad skin as a middle to late teenager.  I used to feel awful for her, and frankly, I sometimes wondered how she might feel about going out in public at times when most of her face was so very red and inflamed.  (I never said that to her of course.)  But then Bethy would appear on her way out the door, looking like the gorgeous young girl she was, and you couldn't see a pimple or spot in sight!  We all knew that her self-worked-out routine required some mysterious time factor, because Bethy always worked her days around the time that she needed to begin applying her face, but the truth is that I don't think any of us ever really asked her for the actual details of her routine.  We were just all in awe at the incredible result!

I thought that it's finally time for us to find out Bethy's secret.  Thank you Bethany! :)

I have added a couple of photos of Bethy from that time period.  I know that looking at these photos, you will probably not believe that she was suffering from acne.  That was the magic of her routine!   She was actually so good at covering her bad skin that when Bethy looks at these photos now, even she thinks that she couldn't have had a too big a problem back then after-all - but she really did :)  

I have included the photo below, not only because it was a bit hilarious, but because if anything shows Bethy's awesome face-saving make-up skills, this is it.  Not only was Bethy in the middle of a break-out, but she had just returned from a trip to the Great Barrier Reef in time to be a bridesmaid at her sister's wedding.  Of course she had thought that it would be great to have a suntanned glow for the big day, so had managed to burn her face to a crisp a few days earlier.  It didn't look too bad the day before, but on by the morning of the big day her skin began to turn a very dark brown (think multiple layers of dying skin), and begun to peel.  By midday she had thick, bark-like layers practically dripping off - and later spent half an hour in the bathroom removing her nose, forehead and upper cheeks, after which things looked slightly better.   (This photo was taken heading in to the drippy stage.)  Yet she still managed to look completely beautiful!   She is a bit of a make-up genius, our Bethany :)

Bethany:

I've always had the bad skin in the family (yay for me :S) and I remember all through my teenage years hating my skin and thinking it was awful. I hit the lovely age of 20 however, and that's when my skin decided to show me what awful really was!! What?? I thought when I finished teens my skin was meant to get BETTER, not WORSE! I thought I was meant to feel MORE confident in myself, not LESS!
*sigh* So not fair :(

Now I look back on photos of that clear, lovely skinned 17, 18, 19 year old girl that I was and am jealous. Didn't know how good I had it!
Now, even though I know that my skin was way better back then, mum says I still struggled with it, it's just that I can't see it in the photos because I covered it up so well (woohoo :))

So anyway, mum asked me to write a post about how I apply my make-up.
I'm really not in any way a beauty artist. I can only seem to cover the make-up basics on my own face and would be horrible at even attempting to apply somebody else's make-up.
But for some reason my mum and sisters have always talked with admiration and wonder about my foundation-applying abilities. Maybe it's just because none of them have ever suffered the self-loathing phenomenon of bad skin (blessed things! :P) and so they've just never had to try that hard to look good. But they seem amazed that one minute there's an ugly red blemish, and the next minute it's gone! Viola! :D
I just figured that's the whole point of foundation. But apparently, I "do it well"  :) (go me!).

If I have to stop and think about it, there is something I do a little differently to the other females in my family. It's a little technique that has earned me the nickname 'Spotty' from my siblings throughout the years :) I don't know if others out there do it, I'm sure they do, but this is what I do:

I cover my face in spots.

See, I have this theory about letting foundation 'soak in'. Let me explain...

• I start out by using liquid foundation on my face to give it a bit more of an even tone all over. 
• Then I get my concealer stick, and dot all my pimples or blemishes with spots of concealer.
• I then leave it there and continue with my day, letting the make-up kind of 'soak' into the skin a bit. 
• A little while later, I might come back and lightly pat my finger over the spots or around the edges so it blends in with the rest of my face a bit better, but not too much, and then go about my business again. Still soaking.
• Every now and then I'll repeat this, until it's time for me to actually get ready. Then I'll lightly pat around the edge of my concealer spots so that they blend in completely with the rest of my face.
• After that I brush my face lightly with foundation powder. Done!

I don't know if this makes any sense at all. But this is how I do my make-up.
The more time I have to do it, the better the end result! So the nicer I care to look, the earlier I start my spotting routine :)
If I only have 10 mins to get ready and do all my make-up, then there's less time for the 'soak' to happen and it won't look as good. If I want to look nice for, say, a formal or something then the initial make-up and 'spotting' applications begin in the afternoon so it can sit and soak for a lovely length of time :)
(I'm sure letting make-up really soak into your skin is probably not good for your pores and stuff (probably contributes to the whole 'bad skin' thing)...but hey, at least I wash it off every night before bed! :))

This morning I only had about 15 mins to do my make-up for church, so it's not the best job, but I took a couple of photos. Now I'm really wishing I had stopped to check them because they are not in the least bit flattering!! But hey, we're all women here....maybe...so what the heck. No shame.

After the foundation I put my first concealer spots on. Not sure if you can really see them from this angle. Yes....I really do need to deal with my eyebrows...   And I don't know what sort of expression I was trying to pull :

After the mid-way pat. The spots are a little less obvious now (at least that's the idea! :P) Normally it's best to have time to do this a few times. Still don't know what's up with that expression :

Finished. Did a bit of a final smooth of the spots and put powder on. At least this time my smile isn't so creepy.. :

I guess the fact that I had earrings in and was dressed in real clothes instead of daggies in this photo helps also :)

I know I didn't show you a before photo of my skin. I'm willing to put some hideous photos up here, but not that hideous :)

Anywho, so that's that. Happy pimple covering :)

Why I Loved Living In Sydney

(Guest post by Bethany.  Thank you Bethy! :)

In our first year of marriage, 2011, my husband and I lived in Sydney. He was in the Navy and posted there at the beginning of the year.

I did not want to move to Sydney. I am very close to my family, and I had lived in the same house for as long as I could remember, been to the same school from Pre-school to year 12, ordered the same thing every time from Subway or KFC or Kebabs or any other kind of take out food.

I didn't like change. I wasn't used to change and I had no interest in building a relationship with it.  And to move to the enemy state!?  Where everything would be blue come State of Origin series?  Incomprehensible.  Add to that that at the time we didn't know we would be there just for a year (thought it would be for at least several) so I was a little dreading it.

But move I did. And you know what? I loved our year there! Yes, I missed my family and the goings on and I got so excited at the chance to see them, but I really am grateful that we got to have that experience. We made some awesome friends, I had a job that I loved, and we had a lovely apartment.

I think what made the difference between our time there being amazing or possibly not so, was the location where we were living.

Thanks to the navy (Robbie was posted at Balmoral base) we had an apartment in Mosman, which is a suburb about 10 mins from the city, and about 3 mins from several different bays. It  was also about 10 mins from my work, 3 mins from Robbie's work, and 5 mins to church. It was a massive blessing that we got to live in Mosman. Very limited defense housing in that area (it's extremely expensive!) and even his friends in the Navy envied Robbie for being able to live there.

Some of my favourite places -

1. Balmoral Bay

My favourite place to go while we were in Sydney was Balmoral Bay. Bamoral was only a few minutes from us and it is beautiful. We would go there a lot. Robbie's base was right on the bay so sometimes I'd drop him off at work and just sit and read there for a while. Sooo relaxing and sweet :)

My absolute favourite view of the bay was driving down the road to it, which is a very steep hill, and suddenly the scene opens up and you can see the blue, blue water, with a headland on one side and a cliff with a lighthouse on the other. This photo doesn't do it justice but I just loved it:

Balmoral is a really family friendly beach and has a lot of great parkland too. It was a perfect place to go for a swim during summer, go for a walk along the sand, or sit on the rocks and enjoy the late afternoon sun. 

This is a picnic spot Robbie and I liked on one of the hills:

I loved this gorgeous gazebo at Balmoral Bay. Sometimes they'd have plays there and people would put their towels down and eat fish and chips. We were there when a theatre group performed 'Shakespeare by the Sea', which we got bored of quickly so we left (after we'd finished out fish and chips) but it was a cool concept and felt really cool to be a part of!

2. Georges Head. 

Georges Head is a gorgeous lookout with about a 250 degree uninterrupted view of Sydney Harbour. You can see the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, Sydney Tower, Balmoral and other bays, and nearby Manly. Absolutely gorgeous on a sunny day with dozens of sailboats on the water. No photos can do it justice. It's also cool because it's the site of the old Georges Head Battery which was built in 1871 and was one of the three forts in the area that were built for the purpose of defending the outer harbour.

I couldn't find a suitable photo of us at this lookout so I've put up one of some friends (hope they don't mind! :P) 

3. Bradleys Head. 

Bradleys Head has this fabulous amphitheater that we happened to stumble across one day. It has large grass spaces and a jetty and you can literally walk into the water of Sydney Harbour. The Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are so close you almost feel like you can touch them. You can also see Sydney Tower and the city. It's such an awesome place to have a picnic! It's enclosed by trees so it feels  like you're in your own private little piece of paradise :)

Please excuse this photo (I was pregnant, a legitimate excuse! Not a good looking time I'm afraid...) but don't you just feel like you're practically in the water?? I remember Robbie did try to push me in.....

And what a cool place to have a wedding!!

4. Being on the Harbour


I went on two Harbour cruises while I was in Sydney, both courtesy of Tammy :)  And though I only have photos of one of them, which was unfortunately a rainy day, the harbour is incredible magical when the sun is out. This is something I would recommend!

SO, if you're ever visiting Sydney, these are some gorgeous places if you love views and the water :)

Why I Love Living On The Gold Coast

(This guest post is by Bethany :)

I grew up in Logan and when I got married we moved to Sydney for my husband's work. After a year in Sydney, we moved back to QLD. We now live on the Gold Coast.

Growing up we'd come to the Gold Coast to visit the beach and everything, but it wasn't a part of our day-to-day lives. When I realised that we'd be living in Robina, my first thought was "What? That's so far away!!" Being further south, I hadn't spent much time in this area growing up and it just seemed like Woop Woop, lol. But I l have to tell you, I love where we live!

Besides being super close to awesome shops, the highway, Uni, hospital, church, beach - anything we could possibly need! - it's a beautiful area. One of the things I love the most though, is being so close to the beach.  Let me list just a few of the reasons for you:



Views

I love the views! I just love the blue of the ocean against the light sand and the green grass and trees, and the clear sky. Combine that with a beautiful breeze and I'm in my happy place :)

These are the exact views I get to see and love:

Place to exercise/walk/swim

To be honest, if we lived somewhere else I probably wouldn't take Hallie for many walks or go for any runs or anything, because I see no appeal in doing that sort of thing around normal streets etc. But all I do is jump in the car, and we go for a walk or run along the beach. Now, I'm not a runner. So for me to do that speaks volumes about the attraction I feel toward running in a beautiful place. I don't even feel as gross and sweaty as I would because the gorgeous sea breezes keep me cool :)

Often, we want to get out as a family but not spend money. So we go for a long stroll along the sand. When Hallie was younger she was quite fussy (sore tummy) and wouldn't settle easily anywhere; she'd just scream the whole time. But when we'd walk along the beach she'd be asleep in her Daddy's arms in 2 seconds. Hallie loves the beach! It's also nice to just be able to spend time together in a beautiful, relaxing setting, chatting while participating in light exercise.

And of course, it's also lovely to swim in the summer :)

I love pushing Hallie on the swings, she just loves it. There are also so many parks along the beach, it's fabulous!

Community Atmosphere

Living here, I'm really loving the lifestyle and the sense of community. Walking along the beach path you see so many different people participating in a range of activities. I see men and women of all ages and sizes walking or running. I see a mother and young daughter riding together on bikes. I see children, even younger than 2, racing along on their scooters while their dad rides a skateboard and keeps an eye on them. I see boyfriends and girlfriends riding bikes or skateboards together. I see old couples walking along with their bright coloured visors. I see people selling strawberries at a stall in the park. I see aged couples, who must live close by, sitting side by side in deck chairs on the grassy hill with coffee mugs and working on a crossword each.

And there are so many organised groups that are free or only cost a few dollars. There are pram groups where all the mums are working out next to their babies in prams, or a couple of the mums stay and look after all the children while the rest all go on a run together etc. Several mornings a week there is free Tai chi. Often I see it when I'm walking along - a man standing on a picnic table with seriously heaps of people following him and learning Tai chi. Even as I watch I notice some people just randomly move off the path, park their bikes and join in. I haven't yet tried it but it's just so cool to see!!

All of these things just fill me with a real sense of community spirit. I really feel like I'm part of something when I'm there. It's a happy atmosphere - nobody walks along with a frown or looking moody, everybody is enjoying themselves - and it lifts me for the day :)

This is the guy doing the Tai chi:

Free "Yoga by the Sea" on Saturday mornings:

Anyway, they are just a few of the reasons I love the Gold Coast and love living here. It really is beautiful and I think you should all come visit! :P You'll feel part of the friendly community and love the sun on your face :)

Budgeting

(This guest-post is written by Bethany.  Thank you Bethy! :)

Budgeting - some people have a good relationship with it, others not so good. I, myself, have a bit of a love/hate thing going on.

I've always grown up hearing about the importance of budgeting, I know and understand and value the importance on budgeting, I know how to budget and the principles involved etc, but still I've managed to let a budget run away from me while I'm left desperately trying to chase it.

So I guess this post is just sharing a little bit about how to budget, and why it's so important from the perspective of someone who has seen both the light and the dark side :)

How to/Basic Principles:

This is how I make my budget:
- Add up all of your income. Any money you receive from work or parenting payments or anything.

- I draw up a table (a lot of people use excel spreadsheets but I like to use a pen and paper) and list all of my bills starting with the most important or 'set in stone' ones. So for me, tithing always comes first (in our church we pay tithing which is an offering we make) followed by rent, car repayments, electricity, internet etc.

- Then I list the expenses such as petrol or mobile phones or car emergency money. You have to list any expenses you might have for the year: car insurance, car registration, birthday presents, Christmas, school fees etc. Everything.

- Then I allocate all of the money needed for each of these. Obviously I know how much rent is each week, and for things like electricity, I estimate how much I think my quarterly bill might be (also exaggerate it) and then divide that by the 12-13 weeks in each quarter to calculate how much I need to set aside each week.

- Sometimes you have to rework how much you pay for things. For example, maybe it's wise to shop around for a cheaper internet plan, or we just have to figure out a way to use less petrol, or birthdays have to be made much simpler.

- After all my bills and expenses have been allocated, I see how much money I have left over and that's my food allowance each week/fortnight.

- Obviously it's good to have savings. I like to allocate money to a savings fund, but depending on what kind of income you have at the time tends to dictate whether you have anything left over for savings. Sometimes it comes right down to the last dollar and unfortunately, savings have to wait.



A couple of Rules

1. Every dollar of your income should be allocated to some category. That means if you have money left over after budgeting, it should go into savings (or somewhere). If we don't allocate our money to some sort of category, it disappears into the 'meaningless spending' void!  Ahh, that void knows me too well....

2. My mother always told me "If you always spend $1 more than you earn each week, you'll always be in trouble. If you spend $1 less than you earn, then you'll always be ok".  And it's so true!

Your outgoings must never exceed your income.

3. Avoid debt like the plague! We're told time and time again that we should never go into debt for anything except a home, education and if need be, a car. I hate that we have a car repayment, it's such a pain :S.   If we want something, we should save up for it to buy it. Credit cards are evil! lol

4. Stick to your budget!

Personal Experience

Take it from me, it's sooo not fun to be behind on your budget or your bills! I always paid my bills on time, in full as soon as I received them. I had the money set aside so it wouldn't be a problem. Occasionally, I had to borrow some money out of another 'fund' but it all worked out because I would take it from something like 'Petrol' because that wasn't a bill and I could always work around it or maybe even had excess money set aside for petrol that I hadn't used. That was only if my bill ended up being much more than I had anticipated (darn electricity rate increases!).

Anyway, around Christmas time my husband and I got a little bit extravagant and spent waaay more than we should have! I don't know what came over me. I just wanted to make it nice for him and he wanted to do the same for me, but I guess neither of us knew what the other was doing either! 

I mean, yes, we had a lovely Christmas! But ever since Christmas, we've been behind. Suddenly we had bills but our reserve money to pay them was no longer there! Also, our car registration was up and I don't know how or why I was this silly but I had COMPLETELY forgotten to put it in the budget! Totally accounted for car insurance etc but registration slipped my mind completely. Wow, major blunder.

So I had a $550 electricity bill and $800 car registration and was trying to pay them while keeping up with the weekly rent and car payments and smaller bills.  It was a horrible, horrible feeling. For the first time ever I couldn't pay a bill on time and in full. I had to call the electricity company and ask for more time. I was so embarrassed and just kept apologising profusely (they were super nice and said that they could see I was normally very good so stop stressing). 

I know that compared to other people our situation was not dire. We're extremely blessed to have an income and nice home and a car and everything we need. It was just horrible especially because I knew it was completely brought about by our own actions and lack of budgeting. 

I'm happy to say that we've been super blessed and even though we were silly to get into that mess, we're back on track now. Yay! Woohoo! Good feelings :)

So yes, budgeting is important! :) Oh, and actually STICKING to your budget is important!! :)

Debt Snowball

I don't really have any debts except for a car repayment, but if I did have multiple debts I would definitely use this!  It's a method called the Debt Snowball method. I won't go into too much detail and if you want to read up on it there's lots of information.

In a nutshell, you make a table of all your debts starting from smallest to largest. You pay the minimum amount on each debt, but with any money left over from your income, you add all of that onto your smallest debt.

So say your smallest debt was a minimum payment of $40 a week, and you have $150 left over in your budget. Then you pay $190 on that debt until it is paid off completely.  Once that's paid off, you move onto your next smallest debt and add what you've previously been paying. So if your next debt was $60 a week, you'd pay that plus the $190 and you'd be paying $250 a week.

This way, you work through your debts super quickly and you get to completely eliminate a lot of them! Even if $5 is all that's left in the budget, that's $5 more than you'd otherwise be paying and $5 a week or fortnight can definitely had up over time :)

The below picture follows the same principle and is from lds.org and there are a lot of resources on this church website to help with managing finances.

Happy Budgeting! :)

A Long and Crazy Day for Beth..

I know there's the whole stereotype about women being excessively emotional but I had never really put myself in that category. I always hated crying, especially with anyone else knowing about it. Apparently that changed when I got pregnant. Fair enough -  extra hormones.

It kept going after I had a baby - fair enough, still got hormones racing around.

...My baby is now 6 months old but I'm not so sure my emotional-ness has dampened at all.

Huh? How did that happen? Wasn't I meant to go back to normal?

Most days I'm fine and normal (don't ask my husband, he might say something contrary..) but other days I find that for some reason, I feel those stupid crazy emotions running around and everything is heightened.

Last week I had one of those kinds of days............

A few weeks ago in Relief Society I was handed the missionary roster. My first thought was to just pass it on but then I realised that I was just being lazy and uncharitable and I should definitely do my part to help the missionaries by feeding them. I found a date when I knew Robbie didn't have uni classes and I was free. After church I ran the date past Robbie to make sure it was ok and then wrote it in my calendar when I got home. Felt good about that.

http://pinterest.com/agnesk/products-i-love/

Last Wednesday I realised that that Thursday was the day we had invited the missionaries. I reminded Robbie and then started thinking about what I could cook.

I don't know if other mothers find this or if I'm just not as naturally with-it or organised as everyone else (that is definitely a probable conclusion), but since having a baby I have found that I really need to plan my days if there are particular things I need or want to do. I have to plan around her feed and nap times and anything else. Dinnertime is the hardest time to plan around because Hallie is especially fussy come 4:30-5.00pm and onwards. So I really needed to plan what I would make for the missionaries to ensure there wasn't a lot to do last minute. I figured maybe I could see if the missionaries were willing to eat earlier at 5:30 because that would free me up to feed and get Hallie ready for bed afterwards. Easy.

After thinking of and then discarding lots of elaborate dinner ideas I decided to simply make a slow-cooked chicken curry with rice, vegies and breadrolls. I was more than happy with this idea because, a) I had most of the ingredients and wouldn't have to spend money buying extra things and b) it meant that all I had to do last minute was the vegies (they would be pre-cut earlier in the day - see? impressive organisation) and heat the rolls. Simple! I had my plan.

Feeling pretty good about that, I decided I would let Robbie pick whatever he wanted for dessert. Dessert can easily be made earlier in the day so no dramas there :) Robbie decided to go for brandy snap baskets with custard cream and fruit salad. Sure, done, I replied.

Now, I planned, I needed to buy some ingredients for the dessert so I could easily do that with Hallie on Thursday after her morning nap, and then make and prepare it all during and after her afternoon nap. The house I could tidy throughout the day whenever Hallie was happy playing on her own for a bit.

It would be cruisy :)

Still feeling good at this point.

Wednesday night I realised two things.

1. Robbie's uni group for a big presentation called and said they wanted to meet at 4:30 the next day to work on it.

2. I had offered to babysit my 6 year old nephew on Thursday because my sister-in-law had uni and her previous plans had fallen through.

Hm. Ok. Well we called the missionaries that night to remind them of our address and invited them for dinner at 6:30. Robbie would have liked to stay with his group and help for as long as he could (not all of them were meeting, just a couple to work on some aspects and Robbie wanted to be one of the 'helpers' in the group, not one of the coasters) and 6:30 gave Robbie longer to work at Uni before having to come home.:

I would give Hallie her milk feed before 6:30 and could feed her her real food while I ate dinner. Simple.

I would be looking after my nephew from 9-2. Ok, I thought, I'll just dedicate those 5 hours to him and do everything around those times. Should be easy.

Thursday:

I woke up with Hallie at about 6. I figured I could vacuum and scrub the bathroom etc then so I wouldn't have to do it later, but decided against it knowing that after having my nephew here (he's quite a messy child) I would most likely just have to do it again.

I fed Hallie at 7 and then left her with Robbie so that I could run out to the shops as soon as they opened at 8am and get the things I needed for dinner.

I even ran to three different stores just to find a half-decent mango because I wanted one for my fruit salad (SO excited it's getting into mango season!!! :) :))

I rushed home as fast as I could because I had gotten a message from my sister-in-law saying they were running a bit early and would that be ok to come earlier? When I got home at 8:45 they were already there.

What we're eating

My nephew was very excited for the day. He absolutely loves Hallie and I had also told him to bring his togs if he wanted to have a swim as we have a pool in our complex that so far I hadn't even looked at properly. We had a good day together. We went for a swim, made some cupcakes and played Uno and Monolpoly. I had secretly hoped that maybe he would like to watch a movie at some point and that would also give me some free time to make dessert. Sadly, he's one of the few 6 year olds I know who doesn't really care for that. He only watched some of the movie Madagascar 2 while he was forced to wait for me while I fed Hallie :P

After his mum came to pick him up at 2:30 I thought, 'Alright. It's time to get in the zone!' I had everything I needed to do written out on a piece with time frames - like I said, I was quite obsessive about getting everything done.

I made the mix for the brandy snaps and started to bake them. Brandy snaps are super easy but it's kind of a long process. On the tray I was using I could only fit two in the oven at once. You need to bake them for 5 mins, let them rest for 1 min, and then put them on your mould to set for at least another minute. If you let them rest for more than 1 minute they will harden and then you can't mould them. If they're in the oven for too little or too long they don't really work too well either I've found.

goodtoknow.co.uk

It wouldn't have been hard except that for some reason Hallie was especially fussy that day. Unless I was holding her, she was screaming her cute, little red-faced head off. So I started trying to do one batch of brandy snaps at a time between playing with her. I didn't need many with only four people eating dinner (even though I'd made a double batch. I can't help myself when it comes to desserts, I always end up making an excessive amount for leftovers :)), but because I was distracted I kept burning them or letting them rest for too long and they would harden.

Grrr, I was way over the time I had budgeted for this!

I decided to strap Hallie onto me using the Baby Bjorn and I do the vacuuming and mopping instead (very good decision to wait until my nephew had gone. I have no idea how some crumbs managed to spread so far!) hoping that maybe then she'd be settled enough and I could put her down again to cook.

Alas, while she was happy during the cleaning of the floors, she was definitely not happy about being put down afterwards.

I tried everything - putting her in the bumbo seat on the bench and chatting to her while I was working, laying her the bouncer on the kitchen floor and bouncing her while I chatted and worked. I couldn't put her in the bjorn again because I was using the oven.

By this point I was getting a little stressed.

My carefully planned afternoon was unravelling.

I had no idea why Hallie was so fussy -  I had checked everything and I was feeling absolutely wretched for not giving her more attention and cuddle time.

It was a stinking hot day and with the slow-cooker and oven on all day it was extra hot and I was gross and sweaty and disgusting.

I still had brandy snaps to make, custard cream to whip and make, fruit salad to chop up, vegies to prepare, the bathroom to clean, Hallie to bath, and myself to shower and make look human; and I only had about an hour and a half to do it all in before I had to then feed Hallie again just before they came.

makes u think

Around this time I got a message from Robbie saying, "Beth the missionaries messaged, can they come at 6? If not no worries."

I was in the middle of feeding Hallie when I got that and I replied with "Um, I'm crazy busy and I won't have time. Plus I'll be breastfeeding Hallie at 6 so if it's ok either way then 6:30 is best."

I finished feeding Hallie and went back to the kitchen to try and not burn any more brandy snaps while I left her to cry helplessly. I was feeling so terrible about leaving her when she was so upset. I had finally just successfully made four of them (woohoo!!) and I was just whipping the cream when Robbie called. He told me that the missionaries wouldn't be able to come to dinner anymore because they had a late appointment and they'd just have to pick it up.

....

WHAT!?

EXCUSE me? What does he mean "Not coming to dinner"?! Don't they know that that's totally rude?!?! And why say "It's ok either way" if it's actually not!?

Robbie didn't understand my reaction. He said that things like that come up when you're a missionary and the main thing is that we provide them with a meal whether they eat it at our house or pick it up.

He also thought I shouldn't be shooting the messenger.

"don't shoot the messenger" earrings

I felt frustrated and angry and hurt. I realise now that I completely overreacted but at the time, I felt totally justified in my feelings! I just wanted to cry. I was half crying on the phone while I tried to explain to Robbie that I would have done things completely differently if I had known they wouldn't be staying. For example: brandy snap baskets for dessert. They are the kind of thing you assemble right before you serve and then eat them straight away. They were not the kind of thing you carried home! I also tried to explain that basically I had been stressing all day and slaving away for nothing.

I said 'fine', tried not to take it out on Robbie anymore on the phone, hung up and started sobbing.

Sobbed like something much more than dinner plans had fallen through. 

Sob!

The only thing I can possibly say in my defense (perhaps a very thin defense) is that I must have been more hormonal than usual that day because obviously sobbing was a bit over the top (just a tad? :P).

I had to stop sobbing after a minute though (darn it - I just wanted to wallow) because Hallie was definitely in need of saving from herself and her own cries with some love from me.

Then I just walked around for a while feeling despondent. I knew I was wasting time but I felt just a little bit like sooking some more.

What was the point of continuing making the brandy snaps? I know that technically I could have given them all the different components in various containers and they could have made them themselves, but I was a little too bitter at that point to bother.

Stuff that makes me smile......

Instead I decided I'd whip up a cake mix and give them that. Ha! Take that! A cake mix instead of beautiful, made-from-scratch brandy snaps with premium mango in the fruit salad. That'd learn them.

I took a little bit of sadistic satisfaction in my cake-mix rebellion.

I also decided that I wouldn't bother scrubbing the bathroom just in case they happened to need to use it when they dropped by; instead they'd have to do with mediocre cleanliness. And I wasn't going to shower before hand (what was the point of being presentable anyway?).

Having made these decisions I was actually feeling a lot better. Hmm, who wants dinner guests anyway. I can just relax tonight....my feet were very sore...

I whipped up some cake mix, put it in the oven, cleaned off the bench and sat down to play with Hallie to play and watch some pointless television.

All in all, I was actually feeling quite relaxed. I had plenty of time to chill. And chill I did - again with a satisfying, almost rebellious, feeling.

Interior Ideas

Also, in harmony with Murphy's law, Hallie was relaxed and happy for the rest of the afternoon and even had a nap.

By the time 6:30 came I had iced the cake and put it on a plate for the missionaries (I had cut it into pieces and though I gave them a generous amount I also kept some for us. Once again - Ha! Take that), had the vegies made and were keeping warm in a container, had dinner rolls in bags for them and have their rice and curry in a large container, all on the bench ready for them to grab and run.

By this point I was feeling more generous. They arrived at the same time as Robbie. I immediately started giving them their food (they were in a hurry weren't they?) but they seemed inclined to chat so we all had a nice little catch up for 20-30 mins (totally enough time to scoff down some dinner and brandy snaps...I'm just saying) but like I said, I was feeling a lot more generous and sorry for my earlier emotional display by this point so I didn't mind. After all, you can't really be bitter at missionaries for finding investigators can you.

After they left, Robbie and I enjoyed our dinner and I finished feeding Hallie and put her to bed.

I watched more pointless TV and Robbie, bless him, gave me a foot massage :) :)

So there you go. That was my day. Do you understand the injustice of it all? Do you understand the stress? Do you understand the anguish? No?   Probably because it was all in my head. Me and my emotions running wild.

So I'm wondering: Am I the only loony in the world or are there other women who experience stereotypical-crazy-emotional-lady days?

I'm sure sometimes it's not in our heads though - surely some things are genuinely upsetting and sob worthy. Like when my bottom just doesn't look good in my jeans :(