--------

Nicole is currently undergoing a few changes and updates, and so is this blog!

She will be back in action very soon, thank you for your patience.

One thing I do not love

Last night, I took Abby (my boxer) out to go potty around 12:30am. It’s around our usual last trip out; I’ve been a night owl lately. As always, when we come back inside I always give a quick glance at the floor inside the door for any leave or bugs that don’t belong there. Always seems to be something that sneaks in under the door. We have a small linoleum area when you first walk in before the stairs lead right up to out apartment to catch those things. As I shut the door, scoot the dog up the stairs, I turn around and see this big black thing. Hrmm, that looks like a big spider. But nahhh, it can’t be. I have not seen anything like that but maybe once in my life here in Upstate, New York. I step up the stairs and look again, it’s not moving but heck yea that’s a huge effing spider!

I probably gave my poor husband a heart attack. He had just gone to bed and I yelled Brrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! It barely came out as by now I was in shock/shake mode. I could barely walk or talk. This isn’t all because of the spider but part of Cataplexy too(caused by Narcolepsy- we’ll talk more about that later). He came running down the hallway and I said Huge… ass… spider… kill…. it. So he looks over the balcony and says ok and walks down the stairs with a paper towel. Sorry dude that sure isn’t going to kill that thing! He realized that as he got closer and was like WOA that’s a huge spider. Really? No crap why do you think I freaked?! Luckily, he saved the day and killed it after a few smacks with a shoe.

See, I’m not normally afraid of spiders at all. This spider was the mother of all spiders. Seriously. Big, fat, hair and nasty! I believe it was a Wolf Spider, something common in the Northeast. It’s a spider that normally dwells outside and low spaces so you don’t see them too often inside. I hope to never see one again! And I’ll spare you all a picture. But I just realized something else….

A friend of mine who lives down near the city had mentioned oh I don’t know a month or 2 ago about a spider she killed. The thing about that spider was that it was big and gross, but when she killed it all these little baby spiders went running. I think it may have been one of these spiders! I just saw a title to a video about female wolf spiders carry their babies on their back! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! I have the heebie geebies now!

Holy Sweet Jesus this is so disgusting I need to share…

Very Jane

Have you heard of Very Jane yet?

I like to look at it as mix between Etsy and Groupon. You have to register with an e-mail address to utilize the site. Once registered, you then will receive email notifications when there is a new deal available, similar to Groupon. Each "deal" is something that has been handmade, similar to Etsy. These items are available for a limited time at a discount. Even better!

I'm not really sure how I came upon Very Jane. I'm sure it was from someone's blog or a Facebook page. Since July I've made 7 purchases. Not as bad as I thought. Though 4 of them were in July and within 2 weeks of each other, ooops. I thank you whomever you are that introduced me to this fun site. On the other hand, my wallet (and my husband) does not!

If you have yet to check it out, I highly recommend it!

What should NOT happen when you color your hair

*Update*

This post was from about 2 months ago on my old blog. My scalp still itches a bit here and there but I think my scalp is extra extra dry now due to what it went through. I’ve been paying extra attention to my hair and scalp. Treating it to deep conditioners and oil treatments and only washing it every 2-3 days. I’m hoping to do a “patch test” in the next few weeks just to make sure I don’t have another reaction as I did below. It’s still blows my mind that happened. Fingers crossed I can get these gray’s covered soon!

Oh and fyi….. I no longer resemble Sloth. Thank you baby Jesus! 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Epic fail!!

This is what I looked like a week ago, no joke.

The first picture is from Monday morning. The temple area of my face to back towards my ears was starting to swell. I woke up and washed my face and thought,"is my face/head really this fat all the time?" Then it kept growing....

The second picture is from late Monday night into Tuesday morning. I already went straight to the doctors in the morning so remind you I had Prednisone,Claritin and Benedryl in my system. You can see here how the swelling is favoring one side of my face over the other and still growing.

The third picture is what I looked like when I woke up Tuesday morning. So not cool! A few of my friends on Facebook said I should have told everyone I was in a cage fight and kicked some girl ass. Must remember that for next time (if) I have a half swollen face again!

The fourth picture is what my husband told others what I looked like, Sloth from The Goonies. Nice uh? Finally by Wednesday morning, much of the swelling subsided and my eye was slightly puffy.This all was from getting my hair colored and highlighted on FRIDAY NIGHT! Yes, I went to my normal girl at my normal salon- an Aveda salon which is really a great product. Back track a few months to May. I went and had my hair done before I went to a college reunion to see many of my girlfriends I have not seen in years. Besides my normal all over color, I opted for some highlights also. So pretty. I noticed over the weekend though my head really itched and I figured my scalp was just really dry due to the weather changing and the hair coloring, etc. No biggie, it went away. That Friday. Went to have the same thing done, this time with a few more highlights since it is summer and it's fun! Plus, the following Friday, hubby and I were leaving to head across the country to Washington to visit my brother-in-law and family so I wanted to be prettied up! All done, cut, colored, highlighted and pretty, I went home Friday night happy. As Saturday went on, I noticed, grrr my head is starting to itch. Call hair girl and she said come in on Sunday so she can look. Sunday now, head really itches. She looks, see's no redness, no swelling, no bumps (though I swear I could feel) and decides it must be just sensitive/dry scalp. She gives me some shampoo samples to try and sends me on my way. Sunday night I wash good, get any leftover dye out and then BAM! you can see what happened come Monday....

Needless to say, I had an allergic reaction. To what? We are not exactly sure. I did a lot of research and it seems some people can form a random allergy to a chemical in most hair dye's out of the blue. I don't think it's that though. With more research hair girl found out that the salon had recently(within a few months, um Hello May!) the developer they use. Hrmmmm interesting.

Hair girl though thinks it could be also the higher volume she had to use due to color and the highlights. Makes sense. But now I need to be extra careful next time I get my hair colored. So annoying! I am only allergic to one medication that I know of and now this!?
In the end the manager of the salon refunded me all my money for the color and highlights. It was $$$$ so that was the least she could do. I'm pretty easy and laid back but I could have been a real pain in the ass about it all, but that's really not who I am. I am slightly annoyed though that the manager said to me on the way out "Good luck hun (I hate that) finding someplace to get your hair colored." Really? I just finished getting a manicure and already said i'd let hair girl still cut me but now you are pretty much shunning me from coming back? I would have hoped she would have said let's try some different developer next time and do a patch test? Let's see if we can make it work...... but all I got a was a "hun" and a boot out the door.

I sit here 2 weeks later still scratching my head as I write this…..

 

 

Picture 1                                 Picture 2                                      Picture 3                                     Picture 4- Sloth

                                                        

 

How Many Times

I can't tell you how many times......... i've tried to blog. How many times i've started a blog, then forgot about it. How many times I can never think of a blog name. How many times I've tried to layout my blog myself. How many time's i've hired someone else to do it for me.

Well here I am again. Guess what? Blog name, that was easy. This is my first post; let's hope I remember to come back and post again! This is my first attempt at this blog at a (simple & clean) layout. Who needs something fancy shmancy anyways?