It was certainly disappointing that Alicia got gamed by the officials just before her balance beam routine. You know how sometimes an NFL coach will let the opposing team's field goal unit go out onto the field and then just before the ball is snapped call a time out? Well evidently that is what happened to Alicia last night. But in the NFL, most of the time at least, the kicker remains calm cool and collected. In Alicia's case, it looks like it really threw her for a loop.

I can only imagine her wanting to left hook the officials that gamed her, just like she did with this guy!

So what compelled me to volunteer to organize a garage sale that also happens to be our La Leche League group's BIGGEST fundraiser of the year . . .  I have no idea!  I've never planned my own garage sale let alone an important one for a whole group of people depending on what ever funds come from it.

Anyway, this week will be busy getting ready for it.  If you are in the chicagoland area please stop by!  It's in Mt. Prospect.  I know some of our friends liver there or are close enough to come by for it!

Also we will have three raffle items that I am selling tickets for.  the are $5 a piece or 6 for $20.  Again I know it seems pricey but it is a fund raiser and you may win!

The items are like totes or baskets that will have several things in them (donated by business or moms from our group).

They are themed for a Night out (could be guys/dad's night out or even a date night), Mom's Day Off, and Kiddo's Fun.  They include things like movie tickets, gift cards for restaurants, spa treatments, shopping gift cards, little gifts (like flowers I think), breakfast and and outing for the kids and some toys for the kids.  All in all each one is worth the donation!

Once again California leads us by example. Stephanie and I have a bunch of reusable shopping bags (now if I could just remember to bring them in the store more often!). But those plastic bags won't go away until they are banned. I can't tell you how many times I see them blowing and swirling in the wind or floating in a pond or lake somewhere.

There is a section of the Pacific that is literally clogged with our plastic and garbage. Much of it coming from the west coast. It is killing the marine life there and is a terrible eyesore. I commend California for banning these horrible things. Now what about Illinois? I hope we aren't too far behind.

Rather than just bitch on my blog, I thought I would try and do something useful. So I'm going to write my state legislator and ask that something more be done. Below is my email that I'm sending to a bunch of state politicians. I'm also going to send this to our federal representatives.

This was a story Pastor Bonnie from the church we are starting to attend more shared on her e-newsletter.  She send's out a weekly blog-like sermonlette and this was so striking to me I wanted share it.  I do not know who to credit the story to. . .but it is poinangt.

A pastor was teaching a group of children, when a soap-maker in town attempted to
embarrass him. "How can you claim that your faith is good and valid when there
is so much suffering, evil and misery in the world? What good are all the books
you've written and the sermons you've preached?

Teaching children the stories of our faith is really important. But the loudest sermon
they'll ever hear is the way we live our lives. Are we using our faith to make
a difference in the world?

Annonymous   

How can this be?  Yes it is possible.  And I don't have to wash it every day.  I have been doing the no shamPOO routine since June 26th ish so not a full month yet.  Some of the experts say that the yucky hair phase lasted that long, however I have been rather happy the last two weeks.

There are days when I really like to have squeekier clean feeling hair so I will use my no poo shampoo stuff more than usuall.  But that is usally becuase I have been doing something muddy in the yard and feel the need to get really clean.  The only really big deal that I found my hair needs is some conditioning treatment because I have not been using gels or hairspray.  The first day after washing with baking soda (either with honey or cinnamin added to it for fun and yummie scents) I noticed that it is a little more fly away or frizzie.

So I had already purchased a conditioner bar from LUSH called Jungle.  I rub it on my ends, after I used my vinegar and water mixture, and a little over the top to get tangles out.  I leave it on while I finish my shower routine and then comb through and rinse.  Then it stays a little smoother.

Othewise by day two it is a smooth as if I curled it or styled it with a round brush.  Its fabulous!  I am totally a no Poo girl from this point on.  I have several LUSH shampoo bars left that make great hand soap!  So I am still being green by using everything and not having things with containers making more waste.  Go me!  Woo hoo!

Okay first the recap from the results of day two:  It had a lot more body and bounce.  It was curly but like I had hot rolled it.  NOt my regular tight more spiral curl.  I kept in in a pony tail cause it was really windy when we were walking around the Heritage Fest on our way to go see Spider Man & Hulk!

DAY THREE

Before going to the Heritage Fest I did take a shower however . . .

For hair care:  I brushed it out before hoping in (I've decided that brushing my hair thoroughly is going to help stimulate my scalp.  I'm sure some of you dare I say 'old' folks remember the brady bunch episode where Marsha is brushing her hair 100 time on each side???  There must be something too it).

Then rinsed with water and did a nice little massage with the warm water just before putting 3-4 table spoons of white vinegar on it.  I massaged that all in combed through all the hair added about 1 table spoon vinegar to the ends and let it sit on my hair while I washed all my other bits.

Rinsed with warm water to make sure all the vinegar was out then rinsed with coldwater.  No styling products.

DAY FOUR

Massage with warm water and White Vinegar Rinse.

Rinse with warm water and then again with cold.

No styling products.

RESULTS

The Regime

After combining what was left of a box of baking powder and 1/3 cup of cinnamin in a clean old yogurt carton (mixing well with a wisk of course) I used this mixture as my 'Poo for today.  And it looked quite literally like it!

I did some research online to find some suggestions for going without shampoo and how to begin this process and the first suggestion was to use baking soda.  I later discovered that I had mixed the wrong thing.  So I'm going to see what happens.  The purpose was to clean and stimulate the scalp which I felt the powder was doing.

You're supposed to leave it on for a minute.  I was talking to Chad about something so it end up staying on for longer (probably about 7 minutes).  Then you rub it in your scalp circularly really well.  The whole point being to get the blood flowing in your head.

Did that then rinsed it all out.  I combined the cinnamin because someone from LUSH told me that the cinnamin in one of their shampoo bars stimulates the scalp and makes your hair grow faster.  It's probably a load of hooey but it made everything smell really good and now Chad says my head smells like an oatmeal cookie.  So that has to be good right!?

Anyway, after that I rinse with 3-4 table spoons of white vinegar brushed everything through and rinsed it all out.  And once again no styling products afterward.

Chad says I'm his LUSH though.  Thanks for all your votes!  I am so grateful for all your support.  And trully the best part of entering the contest was really beginning to see and understand how much we do DO as a family to be greener and conscious of our decisious effecting the environment and the world (/people too) around us.

Besides if you do go to the lush site to see the grand prize winner . . . she looks like she'd fit the role of Elle from "Legally Blonde" and I guess that's the most polite way to put it!  At least the winnings go to a good cause.  Anyway thank you all again for taking time to vote online.

Now for my newest endeavor  . . . going No 'Poo.  What?  Yes, I said Poo.  As in no ShamPOO.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy my LUSH shampoo bars.  But Chad was looking into some stuff on line about Vinegar Hair Care.  Pretty much the idea is that we build up a whole lot of bad junk into and onto our hair causing it to be dull, and simply not soft and beautiful with our chemically shampoos.  Then we try to cover that all up with conditioners to make it shiney and soft.  Then we have to (at least us ladies in the house) use all kinds of styling products to make our hair do what we'd like it to.

Clinton and her entire campaign make me crazy. Their dumb little talking point: "We're ahead in the popular vote" is complete and utter nonesense. I guess they believe that there are a lot of incredibly stupid voters out there. At least as stupid as Clinton's campaign workers have been. Evertying they have said or done since after Super Tuesday when everyone knew the math did not add up for Clinton has been totally insane and an insult to the voters of this nation.

This comes down to the Clinton's rather interesting definitions of words and concepts. Just as Bill had issues when the entire rest of the world's definition of sex included oral sex with White House interns, Hillary has issues with the phrase "winning the nomination".  In her mind that means she should win if she gets the most votes in the states that "matter", which in her case are all the states that she won. 

Her campaign was so horribly mis-managed that they couldn't hope to overcome the on the ground organiszation that Obama had in all the states that ran caucuses. When Hillary says "We're ahead in the popular vote", what she really means is that if you just count straight up votes and ignore caucus states, that she has more than Obama. For some awesome insight on this check out this article at dailykos.com.