Out with the old and in with the new

As my holiday vacation comes to an end, I have had a chance to reflect just a little. The year 2009 wasn't spectacular, but did have a few high points. The biggest being, Jeff and I finally got married. It was a lot of work planning a wedding on a budget, but it was beautiful and our honeymoon in Florida was the highlight of my entire year. Loved every minute of it and wish we could go back. I also started taking classes at VCU and was accepted into their M.Ed. in Early Childhood Special Education program. I hope that 2010 will be even better. I don't typically do resolutions...okay well I have, and I always fail. This year I just want to focus on getting healthier, being happy, and face new challenges with a positive outlook.

I always feel like the new year gives me a clean slate to work with so after reading a friend's blog, I was inspired to try the Master Cleanse. I am planning to start next weekend after I've pulled back on all the junk I've been consuming over the holidays. We took a trip to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's yesterday and I stocked up on some healthy kitchen staples. I'm even going to try my hand at making my own gluten free sandwich bread. If it works out, we can stop buying store bought stuff. Jeff isn't a big fan of healthy foods or dieting, but I figure if I can make just one healthy meal a day for my family, that's better than nothing. I personally have no problem eating salad multiple times a day, so the only real challenge is when I have to cook for both of us at dinner.

I'm also trying to get myself on a better routine. It's always important to take care of ourselves on the outside as well as the inside, and for me, that's been challenging as well because I'm always rushed or at work or in class. I don't do much with makeup very often and even though I don't have horrible skin, it's not great either. I have mild Rosacea and haven't really found anything over the counter that does much for it. My mother-in-law bought me a redness relief kit from Clinique, but it made my skin feel really oily. Yesterday I went out and bought the AcneFree Redness Relief kit. I used it this morning for the first time and it made my skin feel really smooth, but it has a horrible sulfur smell due to it being an ingredient in the facial cleanser that lingered with me all day. I had Jeff come close to my face to see if he could smell it and he could if he was REALLY close to my face, but I've been smelling it all day. I guess I'll try to stick it out for a week and see if it really does anything for my skin, but if I don't see any improvement, I'm not going to continue walking around smelling like a natural gas leak!

Speaking of smells, I picked up a bottle of DKNY Be Delicious Fresh Blossom perfume yesterday too at Ulta. I got a sample of it with their catalog in the mail and fell in love with it. It smells SO GOOD. I had been looking for a new perfume for a while too, so it worked out great. I'll make sure to spray it good on my neck tomorrow morning so no one will notice my sulfur face!