Things I've been using in Arkansas:

And no I don't mean drugs.

When I moved to Arkansas my skin went haywire. Something with the water, something with the stress... I don't know. But it was out. of. control. I thought when you got in your twenties you didn't run in to NEW skin problems. That's a lie.

So when I got here and went to Dillard's to do some shopping I hit up the cosmetic section. Dillard's sends their cosmetic people to classes so they know what they're talking about. Basically I had to start from scratch.

I was using the Clinique three step system and the rinse off to remove make up. Apparently that's really bad for my skin. It was drying and my skin was reacting, which I kind of knew after reading Reddit's Skin Addiction board... but other than knowing that my stuff wasn't working, I didn't really know where to go from there.

So, Dillard's set me up (no one is paying me to say these things, all opinions are my own.) with some new skin care... starting from scratch people.

First thing I had to change was my make up remover. Clinique's Rinse Off was pretty drying, even after I used a separate second cleanser and piled on moisturizer, my skin still felt "squeaky" which as all skin aficionados know is not a good word to describe skin. So I switched to Bliss Makeup Melt gel/oil make up remover. I'm seriously obsessed. I think next time I'm going to try just an oil, but this is uhhhhhmazing. My skin doesn't feel dry, it just removes all the make up. Including eye make up, which is a big plus for me because I'm the laziest person ever and using two make up removers isn't something I look forward to.

Second the Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cleanser for all skin types. At first I was a little hesitant since it says for ALL skin types and that kind of stuff doesn't usually float my skin's boat, but I tried using it just as a second cleanse at night for a while. I honestly couldn't tell you if the fact that it's Kiehl's or all natural makes a difference... but I do like this cleanser. It doesn't get too lathery and it doesn't have a strong smell.

When I was in the two week gap that I was staying with my parents, I got some crazy cystic acne on my chin. I read that that kind of acne can be more irritated by microderm. So I stopped using my clairsonic and any scrubs, and it went away. But I was told that if you don't do some kind of exfoliation the moisturizer can't get into the skin.. it can't do it's job if all your dead skin cells are sitting on top of the skin. Origins Modern Friction has larger rice grains in it so it doesn't scratch the skin. Guys, this stuff makes my skin feel so soft. But I've learned I have a real exfoliation problem. You're only supposed to do it once a week.. and I just love how soft it makes my skin so I end up doing it..... way more than I should. Which is the problem I'm running into now.. I do it too often and I end up getting texture on my skin..

Last but not least, the creme de la creme, Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Serum. Guys, this. is. the. bomb. My skin feels so soft after I use this at night. SO. SOFT. And if I use this AFTER I use the exfoliation.... guys....... softest skin ever, like a babies bottom. Like a new born babies bottom on my face. It's getting weird but you guys get the point. You need this in your life.


 So that is my new Arkansas skin care.... What products are y'all using?

Calling all Nail-painters.

We have officially been living in Arkansas for a month. We have officially been living in a one bedroom apartment for a month. I have officially been not working for a month. (although I started training last week.. our clinic doesn't open until the end of May so we don't have set hours everyday yet). I am officially addicted to binge watching Criminal Minds on Netflix. Seriously that's what I do during the day. I get up.. make the bed.. turn on Criminal Minds.. clean the kitchen.. I'm currently watching Criminal Minds right now actually.

I've even started having dreams about Criminal Minds. It's becoming a problem. I think if I profile someone one more time, Roland is going to cut me off.

Another thing I've started doing is painting my nails... while I'm watching Criminal Minds obviously. But one thing I hate about painting my nails is that I either chip them within an hour of them drying or I ding them on something and it smears or I get sheet marks.. (isn't texture the new thing?) So we went to Target the other night and I was browsing through the quick dry nail polish options because I seriously have been painting them twice a week... and I came across a holy grail for nail painters. (I'm probably late to the party but I figured I would spread the word) I am a huge skeptical of gimmicky items.. nine times out of ten when you buy something that promises you the moon it doesn't even give you a star. BUT, Essie has never let me down so when I came across the "Quicke" Quick Dry Drops I couldn't just not get it. Let me tell you guys, I'm glad I did. I obviously went home that night and painted my nails to see if my $9 was well spent. It was. I used the drops and 2 minutes later I washed my hands and went to bed.

GUYS - NO SHEET MARKS. IT'S REAL.

I'm still in awe. And I'm considering painting my nails now even though Roland will be home in a couple hours to go look at houses.

Which is a whole other can 'o' worms. And I have a whole post prepared for house hunting in a new area. It's a disaster.

Seriously though, go buy Essie Quicke quick drops. They're life for all nail painters.

What? I'm alive?

Hello my people! I'm alive and well and in Arkansas!

Things have been so crazy. Like cray cray to the cray-est. I wish there were more words to describe it, but there aren't. But, I have pictures, and pictures are worth a thousand words, so I guess in a way... these are words.

The movers came and packed up all of our stuff! Thank goodness Roland works for an awesome company that has literally bent over backwards to make this move as smooth as possible.

Before I had to really get to work, we had dinner with this little cutie and I, Aunt Sarah, taught him how to drink out of a straw. That's my claim to fame and no one can have it.

Then I cleaned.. and cleaned.. and cleaned..... We're currently looking into buying a house, but if we end up renting I told Roland we're paying someone to clean it next time. Cause it's just ridiculous how long my hands smelled like bleach.

The next day I drove.. and drove. 6 hours isn't bad and it's not the longest drive I've made... but that last hour when you've passed Fort Smith and there's nothing but trees... it's a stretch.

I finally made it to Little Rock and my awesome husband took me to my favorite restaurant ever! I love Newk's, but we've never lived near one, NOW I LIVE NEAR TWO! Could it get better???? THE ANSWER IS YES. 

We also live near a Dunkin Donuts! My waste line is hating all these new foods, but it'll get over it. Hashtag give me all the new foods.

One thing I don't like about Little Rock compared to Lawton is the traffic jams. In Lawton there's maybe 10 people on the road at one time (slight exaggeration) but here..... guys.. there are TRAFFIC JAMS. Like you see on television traffic jam.

Also, it's slightly Jurassic Park-esque.

Tell me that doesn't look like I'm driving into a giant bird cage....... TELL ME.

And of course my parents sent me this the day after I left... Poor Toby. He's fine now but how sad does he look about that cone? My mom said he hasn't quite figured out how to jump on furniture or even Macy's bed without it getting caught and doing a face plant.....






That's all for now.. maybe this week I'll have some real posts up.. that aren't just recaps and  pictures of my life.
It feels good to be back and blogging!

Arkansasians?

I know I've been pretty MIA here lately, and for that I do not apologize. Things have been stressful around the Rios household, and we've learned that we're some of the most impatient people in the world. But everything's been signed and the notices have been put in, so I can finally put it on the internet for everyone to see.

That's right! Roland was offered a promotion in an Arkansas store! We're both so excited for this change. Words can't express how proud I am of Roland, working so hard to get to where he is today.

Mush alert, but there's honestly no one I'd rather do this with, move across the country over a state with.

So calling all Arkansasians (is that how you say it?), we're going to be looking for a house near North Little Rock. Also, if any of my blogging friends know other bloggers in Arkansas send me their links because surprisingly, they're hard to find....

Happy Tuesday!

Forever Plus One.

My favorite part of the month. Letter time. The prompt for this month is on dates and the like.

Roland,

Dating has always been something different for us. Starting out with a relationship on the DL due to work conflicts never makes "dating" easy. For awhile it was something that caused anxiety and stress. For those first 6 months dating became movies on the couch and take out. And I was ok with that. It was us, homebodies.

After I moved jobs and dating in the outside world became acceptable, it was harder. Where to eat.. well now that our options were pretty much limitless, WHERE DO WE EAT? Looking back we probably should have started a system a list of places we liked and put them in a hat, or some sort of order to eat at. Still to this day, it's a huge debacle for us to pick a place to eat and we usually end up falling into our same routine of take out and movies on the couch, and I'm ok with that. It's very us.

Dating has become something different entirely. When you're dating and you read articles about "dating after your married" you think surely things won't change that much. But everything changes, we get busy, we get tired, we miss each other and instead of wasting time deciding where to eat and spending our evening surrounded by other people's days, it's easier to do it our own way. And I'm ok with that.

We find dates in our daily schedules. Dating has become breakfast with my parents, talking about our impending future, and lunch dates at Guadalajara talking about our work mornings, and picking up Chick-fil-a on your way home and flipping a coin to see what movie we're watching tonight, or on your weekends off going to the track. Dating has become picking the everyday moments of our together lives. And I'm, more ok with that.

Listening to my single friends talk about how crazy guys are and how hard dating is, I don't envy them not even a little. There isn't anything I want more than to date you for the rest of my life.


Your forever +1

Surprise! Kate Spade Edt.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, although how cool would that be, all opinions are my own. 

Kate Spade is having a surprise sale that ends tomorrow night.... and even though I begged and pleaded and made promises about clean houses and freshly prepared dinners for years to come (aka wedding vows) Roland won't give into my desire for another Kate Spade bag. With good reason, of course (which makes it sting even more). I did just get my first Kate Spade in October, AND a Michael Kors Hamilton for Christmas. So do I REALLY need a new handbag? YES No.... So instead I'm just going to pretend shop, all the things I would be buying today to take advantage of this sale, if money were no obstacle. Then you can take my opinions and shop for yourself and I will live vicariously through you!

You should know that I'm a black handbag girl. If it comes in black, chances are that's the color I'm going to purchase. I've seen people carrying light colored bags, and if you carry them often they get less and less white the longer you carry them. Even though I take care of my babies bags, it's REALLY hard and A LOT of upkeep to keep a white bag white.

But 3 black handbags is probably enough for now, so I'm trying to branch out.

Brighton Park Small Sloan in darkroast: Roland actually picked this one out, and I love it. It's my favorite. This bag is life guys. Look at that color. Look at that size. Look at the stripes! This is such a staple bag, and this brown makes me wish all my black bags were this color. To. Die. For. AND it wouldn't get dirty! The perfect non-black handbag.

Parker Street Allena in warm putty: Who's in charge of coming up with the names of these colors? I need to know, and they should probably be fired. "warm putty"? Gross. I'm obsessed with this color combo though. Generally, I don't like this style of bag (almost bowling bag-ish) but these colors change the whole look of it. Come home to me Allena, I have a spot for you. Side Note: This one wasn't part of the surprise sale, I found this one in the general sale section. You're welcome. #overachiever

Highland Place Travel Leslie in french navy: My loophole bag. I sent a picture of this to Roland and he said "it's black" I maturely responded with, "HAHA IT'S NOT BLACK IT'S NAVY! LOOPHOLE." You can also fit everything in this bag, including the kitchen sink. I like big bags and I cannot lie.

Claremont Drive Marcella in cashew: I have a love hate relationship with this bag. I love the style. It's not too tall, and the inside is large enough to fit a small country. But that color. is. so. yellow. It's not tan, but it's not yellow... it's in-between... and I don't think I can handle it on myself.

Union Square Carmen in black: I KNOW I KNOW. It's black. I'm aware! But I couldn't write a post about handbags and NOT add a black one. But you better believe if they had this in dark roast or french navy, it'd be mine.

Cedar Street Ombre Patent Leather in blue and Southport Avenue Stacy (wallet): Not in that order, obviously. If you're thinking "I'm just gonna skip this one because I have a wallet, I don't need a new wallet." You're wrong. You always could use another wallet. I was going to go into detail about how I switch my wallet's out when I change purses, but that's a lie. I hate switching my wallet... there's receipts and gum wrappers, and gift cards that you keep even though you can't remember if there's anything left on them.... BUT that doesn't mean you don't need more than one.. if you switch them out on a regular semi-regular basis they last you longer.. and you won't forced to buy one because your current wallet is falling apart so you end up buying one you don't like and it's just down hill from there.... Also, I love wallets that open up like these, I HATE having to dig into dark crevices looking for anything. That's just dangerous.

source for all photos

Which one is your favorite?

Renter's Life: Crack in the tub

Today I was trying to decide what to blog about, usually Friday is a crap shoot and if there's something that I really want out there in the world, it'll happen. Otherwise I try to just make it to 5 o' clock without physically harming anyone.

But today I felt the need to put my words out there, pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, is that enough analogies?

So I brainstormed, what can I write about, WHAT DO THE PEOPLE WANT TO READ? Then I remembered we live in a townhouse and awful landlord stories are ALWAYS FUN FOR OTHER PEOPLE. And the whole point of this blog to keep up with all our adventures.

So.... Yesterday morning Roland hopped out of the shower ran down the stairs and proceeded to bang around, then he carried Toby's kennel up the stairs and put it back in his room (Toby's room, not Roland's). Of course I was curious of all the commotion, but I was running late and was at least 6 minutes behind in the makeup applying process.

So while I was getting dressed Roland came in with the tragic words that would rock our world for the next 24 ours.. "Sarah, there's a crack in the tub" a what? A crack? That's right, ladies and gent (Roland), a crack. in. our. tub. Since the crack hadn't been noticed until after said shower, the water had leaked into our downstairs area, soaking the carpet and kitchen floor. Awe.Some.

So of course, as any apartment renter would do, I called the office, but our office is really terrible about calling back, or doing things the first time you ask, SO I called and called and called until someone answered (yes, I'm that person and I blame the healthcare industry for making me so). Finally I talked to someone and she said she would put a work order in and send someone out. "GREAT," I told her, "because we can't shower until it's fixed." That was that.

When I went home for lunch, it hadn't been fixed. But I'm not one to rush people, I realize that I have no idea how to fix a tub, maybe they went on a supply run.

Roland gets home at 3:00 ish, still not fixed, okay, now I'm a little worried. It's not like I have to wash my hair or anything but I do have to shower.

I get home at 5:00 and it still hadn't been fixed. At this point I knew they weren't doing it today. (I knew this because over the summer our air went out and even though it was supposed to be 90º until 7:30 at night, they said they wouldn't bring us a temporary unit because it was already time for them to go home.) So now we start brainstorming, how are we going to shower, should we just go to our parents house, no because that would be a cop out, and my parents re-did their shower a couple months ago and it's just not the same anymore. So we decide duct tape (yes, we live in Oklahoma. The land where duct tape fixes everything) but of course, WE don't have duct tape, so we go to my parents house, but their not home.

So eventually we find some things that will work and we go home, watch Scandal, bicker about our taxes, and then it's time to shower.

This is about to get really ghetto, we Jerry-rigged the crap out of that tub, but it didn't leak, and I don't care what they have to do to get it off because if they had just come to fix it YESTERDAY we wouldn't have had to temporarily fix it ourselves.

We had found this foam stripping in my dad's shed, and "Rhino Tape" or carpet tape. That's right. The paper on top and glue on the bottom.

So we put the foam stripping over the crack, and then taped the carpet tape over it and pulled off the paper. Then I showered, and what do you know it. worked. Granted, it looks tacky, and that glue will probably be a bitch to get off, but again, IF THEY HAD FIXED IT YESTERDAY, it wouldn't have been an issue.

I will update you after lunch. We're all in this together.