Every year I get to experience another birthday I am awed at the fact that at 16 I never expected to live to see 20 and here I am 36, a wife and a mother. I never really take notice or consider it but I am highly blessed and fortunate to have made it out of those dark days and experienced so many things that seem fantastical.
My birthdays are never really good days for me, I’ve spent so many years depressed and feeling ignored on a day others are celebrated. I don’t always get a cake or gifts, but if I get birthday greetings it always feels like an obligation, if people didn’t know my birthday they absolutely wouldn’t go out of their way to say Happy Birthday, I just wanted to feel special, for someone to be happy that on this day I was born. It seems egotistical but who doesn’t want to feel like they matter?
I could write for hours about the birthdays I felt like the dirt on the floor but I want to talk about this one, this birthday that I felt so happy for the first time in a very long time.
What made this birthday so different?
Well, I got to talk to my mother, I know you probably don’t understand why this has such an impact on me but my mother is my everything, and living in different countries with a time zone difference means that we don’t always get to talk, sometimes several months pass before I hear from her and it wasn’t like I could call her, she was always busy, didn’t have a smartphone just a basic flip phone and I didn’t have a long-distance calling phone plan. So just the fact that I got to talk to her on my birthday made me very happy.
I was expecting to stay home and do nothing, you know the same thing we did every year since I don’t even remember but my husband asked if I wanted to go out and I said yes, so we went out as a family for my birthday. We went to a restaurant I’d never been to before and I had a meal I’d never had before, it was nice all I really ever want is to do things as a family and have good memories. I know it’s directly related to how I grew up, we didn’t really do things as a family and I want different for my children.
Here’s my birthday meal, a beef tataki, I also had a mojito, I was feeling adventurous knowing that I would be drunk before I even finished that one glass.
I took some pictures of the children but none of me, not at the dinner anyway, I came home in such a good mood, this had already been one of the best days I’ve had for the year but it was about to get even better.
My husband gave me my birthday present, a bottle of my favorite perfume. L’Interdit Rouge by Givenchy, I was lucky to receive samples before and fell in love with the scent but as you guys know those perfumes are not cheap and I just kept finding reasons why I didn’t have the funds to buy it even though I loved it. I even told my husband he could buy the cheapest smallest bottle and I would be fine with it but he got me a 50ml bottle and it means so much to me. It’s not so much the perfume but the thought behind it, the knowledge that he could have gotten the cheapest option but he got me a bigger bottle because he knew I loved it. I immediately pushed aside my Alien Goddess Intense perfume that I wore every day to put my L’Interdit Rouge at the very front of my shelf so it would be the first perfume I reach for and the first anyone would see.
The time had come at last for Oyanie to go to Crèche, we visited on Monday to have a little tour and for Oyanie to meet some of the staff.
It’s not a big crèche which I find suits my personality, smaller and more intimate makes it not as anxiety provoking.
As usual I’m only following half of the conversation because I still have trouble with spoken French, from what I gathered I was to bring her on Tuesday for a little trial run. I was immediately drenched in despair, we’ve only walked to the crèche once and that was months ago, I didn’t remember how to get there. I looked at Google maps but the route was unfamiliar and I don’t do well in unfamiliar places. I get lost easily even in my own neighborhood if I don’t see familiar buildings. Another thing that bothered me is that my husband didn’t tell the staff that I was situationally non verbal, telling people I don’t speak French makes them assume I can speak which unfortunately isn’t always the case. I can manage a bonjour but that’s it.
I went to sleep wracked with anxiety and dread, we had agreed that I would take her in the afternoon since mornings are not so good good me. I barely slept, I woke up extremely tired and shaking, my hands trembled even though I was in my own home alone with my child, I didn’t eat anything, I couldn’t, I fed Oyanie, got her ready and I sat and tried to find a route to the crèche from home that would be familiar to me. I spent hours looking at the map using the steps feature, I left my house virtually at least 20 times and thought maybe, I can do this. I was not confident but I was going to try.
This isn’t a picture from yesterday, I forgot to take one but I love this picture and feel it portrays how she acted.
It was time, we left home and walked down our route but looking at Google and actually walking are two completely different things, I ended up lost and far away from where we should be. I didn’t recognize the area at all and to be honest, I was friggin scared, I had no one to ask and even if there was someone I couldn’t ask them anything. I just stood there looking at my Google map and trying to figure out how to get to the crèche or how to get back home. I tried to turn around and retrace my steps but that was difficult given that I didn’t even know where I was. I was fighting back tears and pushing the stroller hoping to see something familiar. Finally I got to a street I recognized and as quickly as I could went back home.
I broke down, I cried and I cried, I felt like a complete failure, I’m 35 years old and I can’t even do this, I forgot to mention that I did text my husband and told him I was lost and he asked me to show him where I was but I couldn’t do anything other than get back home at that moment. I didn’t feel safe, I was overwhelmed and lost and too many things and emotions were swirling at that moment. I replied once I was no longer crying and told him I was home. He tried to help me find the crèche but telling me something is on the right is like telling me a mathematical equation, I don’t know what right and left is, I can’t give or follow directions. I don’t know what south, east, north, or west is. I know my limitations and I know that feeling me to turn right here and then left there is just going to be me getting lost again.
I only take one route to school because it’s the only route I know, I don’t go an adventures alone because I know I will get lost, I need reliable routes that I recognize so I can stick to my routine otherwise nothing makes sense to me.
I know most people won’t get it and that’s fine because I know there are those who will get it and will understand.
So today, I might not have made it to my destination but I wasn’t a failure, I attempted something I never did before, I made it out of the house and I put myself into a position that I should have never had to be in but I survived.
At the end we decided to try again tomorrow, my husband told me an easier route, my son would be home with me, and I felt a little better about the situation.
I didn’t look at the map this time, there was no need, my husband explained it and I knew what I had to do, I had a new routine and I felt comfortable, we left the house and this time we made it to the crèche.
We’re not supposed to arrive early which is something I always do because I hate getting somewhere late. We had to wait until they opened the gate which was aggravating for me because that meant I was losing time that I hadn’t accounted for. Once they opened the gate and let us in I took Oyanie out of her stroller and brought her inside the building. We took off her coat, gave her her doudou and said goodbye.
She didn’t even look back, didn’t cry, didn’t make a fuss, just left to go play with her new friends.
Naveen and I started the walk back home and it takes us about 29 minutes so we had only a few minutes to sit before we had to go pick up Oyanie again.
This time she did cry, she screamed and threw a fit because she didn’t want to leave, she wanted to stay and play with her new friends. I was happy for her, she always want to play with the little kids at the school and now she has her own friends to play with.
They asked her if she wanted to come back the next day and stay for longer and she said yes. So now I’m going to take her back on Thursday to stay for two hours.
Summer has come and gone so quickly, I thought I was going to accomplish more but life showed me that I shouldn’t make plans for the future.
I meant to post this in early September when the school year had just started but we’re now heading into the fifth week of school and it’s almost October. I’ve been very behind on my blogging, but I’m here to share my update now.
My daughter is two and a half years old and she could have gone to school this September if only she was potty trained, I said to myself that I was going to potty train her over the summer break but she’s just not ready. She won’t sit on the potty, she doesn’t really say when needs to pee or poop, and she doesn’t say that she has a dirty diaper. If I don’t smell it or change her frequently she would be fine to just sit in her dirty diaper all day.
People told me that girls were easier to potty train than boys but I’m not seeing any truth in this, my son would at least sit on the potty my daughter just refuses, she will cry and scream if you even suggest it so I don’t.
I bought her some underwear to wear but she goes through them so fast that I’m beginning to see that I need much more than 20.
Slowly but surely we’ll get there so I’ll be trying not to stress too much about this.
Other than potty training woes we didn’t really do much or go anywhere.
The Village
We’ve been to The Village before, several times in fact but not frequently so we took the kids there so they could run around in the play area and have some summer fun.
After the children played we visited The Waffle Factory which is a restaurant that serves only waffles. I got waffles covered in white chocolate and Naveen got waffles and whipped cream. My husband had waffles covered in milk chocolate. Oyanie refused to eat any of the waffles and choose to drink all the lemon water instead. The waffles were a bit difficult to cut especially with the flimsy wooden fork and knife they gave us. Marvin was in the middle of cutting his waffle when his fork snapped. I joked and said he used all his muscles on it.
The Aquarium
Going to the aquarium has been a dream of mine since moving here and we finally got to go.
We decided to go in the afternoon, the drive there probably took us half an hour and we spent two hours vising all that tanks and watching short movies, Naveen and Oyanie seemed to have really enjoyed themselves and Naveen made sure to tell me all about the fishes he saw and the sharks were one of his favorites to see.
Naveen was really excited when he saw a Blue Tang, he told me he saw Dory but no Neemo, a couple of tanks over I spotted a clownfish swimming in and out of an anemone and pointed it out to him when he yelled out Mami look Neemo! it made me really happy that he could see these fish in person.
Pool time
Since we are not near to any beaches and were not planning of traveling to one this year we made do with going to my in-laws and enjoying their pool.
Both of my children love the water and do not want to leave the pool anytime they get in it. Naveen definitely got a sun tan with all his sun exposure while swimming around with my husband’s cousins as well as their own cousins.
Back to School
Back to School for us was on September 1st. Naveen is in CM1 which is the French equivalent to 4th grade. Oyanie and I had to wake up early to take him to school, pick him up for lunch, drop him back after lunch, and pick him up after school.
It was the worst experience of my life, there were so many people jammed in front of the gate all trying to force their way in to drop their children off. I felt very uneasy with people stepping over the stroller or standing right up against my back, someone even touched my butt and I hated every second I had to spend waiting in that crowd of bodies.
The second day I decided I would leave the stroller home and we’d just walk until it was lunchtime Oyanie said her feet were “fatigués” which sounded like fatigee to my ears. I thought that if she was so tired I’ll just use the stroller next time but she refused so we walked again after school she was really tired and I got the stroller out which she did not like at all. Oyanie, when she doesn’t get a chance to nap, is a monster, she screamed, she cried, she threw things, I thought for sure she would sleep in the stroller but she did not and I don’t know how to include a nap into our busy schedule. If I let her nap after we drop Naveen off after lunch I’ll have to wake her up during her nap and she hates that just as much.
I really hope I won’t have such a busy schedule next week because we both need her to have her afternoon nap.
The 2nd week
The 2nd week went by much more smoothly, we don’t use the stroller at all anymore but sometimes I wish we did, when Oyanie’s little legs get tired of walking or she stumbles and falls she wants me to pick her up and carry her on my hips and walk is a workout, when we finally reach home my whole body is sore, my shoulders ache, my back ache, my legs ache, I know she won’t go in the stroller even if I bring it though. I have also gotten used to not having to try to find space to push the stroller through.
My baby absolutely loves picking up her brother at school, she gets to walk on her own, she points out all the airplanes she sees, they are her favorites, she gets really excited when she sees one in the sky and will scream with joy and point at it. She also likes stopping to smell the flowers and picks one every chance she gets, she almost always ends up dropping it before we reach the school when Naveen finally walks out the gate she runs up to him and hugs him saying “Vee-veen!”.
I am unimportant from that point forward, she wants to hold her brother’s hand, run with him, follow him, play with him, she wants to do everything with him, unfortunately, Naveen is hitting pre-teen years which means he doesn’t always want to be with his baby sister. He will ignore her, not hold her hand or tell her to leave him alone and it breaks her heart. She cries so much when does that and then she finally remembers me and comes to me for comfort.
I remember those days so well from my own youth, my sisters frequently pushed me to the side and made me feel unwanted, I had my brothers though and I made sure never to make them feel like I didn’t want them around. I can’t force Naveen to play with his sister though, he will be nine and I recognize and understand that he needs his personal space. Still, I also recognize that with only two children they are pretty much the only close family either one will have and Oyanie just wants to spend time with her brother. I have not yet figured out a way to navigate this turbulent sea. My mother never forced my siblings and me to play together but sometimes I wished she had, maybe it wouldn’t have taken us so long to finally get along.
I am or used to be an avid reader, I used to read about 100 books a year and always wanted a Kindle so that I could bring all my books with me instead of trying to bring several physical books.
Since I found out about ebooks I would read on my phone usually with the Kindle app or an E-reader app like Moon+Reader but I wanted an actual e-reader because it was better for your eyes and I would get terrible eye strains reading on my phone for hours.
It was actually a gift request I had for years and my husband bought me a really cheap off brand e-reader that couldn’t even load my books or Kindle app. He tried his best but a Prestigio is not a Kindle. This Prestigio would frequently freeze or not load and I would get so frustrated with it, when buying an E-reader that’s inexpensive go for the inexpensive not cheap because cheap is always lost money even if it was just 40€.
So after years and years of wanting a Kindle in June 2021 I finally bought one when it was on sale!
I was so happy, a dream that finally came through, I immediately side loaded my books from Google play and other epubs I had gotten over the years and synced my Kindle library, over 100 books and not even a dent in the memory!
But my happiness was not to be…
My daughter was one at the time and I foolishly left the Kindle on the bed side table where she could reach it. I had only received the Kindle two days before this post.
I looked everywhere for the Kindle, in the dirty clothes hamper, behind the bed side table, under the bed, under her crib, I did not look in the bag of dirty diapers before I threw it away and after the fact I was so scared she had put it in there.
Almost a year went by and I had given up hope that I would ever find the Kindle, I was trying to figure out if I should just buy a new one but I’d have to wait for it to go on sale again and I had no idea when that would be. I tried to go back to reading on my phone but it just wasn’t the same.
And then it happened.
When they say you find something when you least expect it they are not lying, I was going through some of my daughter’s old clothes to see what to get rid off and there my Kindle was in the bag, I don’t even remember this bag of clothes being in the bedroom where she could reach.
Needless to say I don’t leave my Kindle where she can reach, most of the time, sometimes I forget but I always remember at the least minute because it takes one time for your Kindle to be abducted and hidden.
Bra shopping used to be one of my favorite things to do when I was younger, I was a 32A from the time I hit puberty right up until I had my son at 26. I don’t normally care for shopping in general but I would browse the Junior bra section for hours finding new bras, I easily had over 10 pairs of bras, one of my biggest problems was that I thought I was too small (thanks society) all the bras I had were more aimed towards younger girls who were just getting their first bras, nothing in the women’s section was in my size. I had never even heard of Sister sizes, if you don’t know what that is stay tuned because I will talk about it further down in this post. I’ll never forget that singular day in school when I overheard two boys talking about girls’ bodies and when one asked about mine the other said “She doesn’t have a body”. That point was later solidified when I was in my mid-twenties and surfing Blackplanet, one of the most popular groups among the men was one where it said something like guys preferred “Bad Grades C, D, E, F”. There was no mistaking that they were talking about breasts and what they considered to be bigger sizes. There I was being bombarded with the idea that men didn’t care for slim women with small breasts and I had no breasts to speak of so they obviously didn’t care for me. I want to say it didn’t bother me but I would be lying, I didn’t care about attracting anyone but the thought that I was unattractive was troubling. I often wished for bigger breasts (silly, silly goose) just to be thought of as feminine. I should explain that I was very much a tomboy before this hyper-awareness of my “lack of body”, I frequently wore baggy jeans, big shirts, backward caps, I hanged out with my brothers and cousins all the time so I was essentially one of the guys, I didn’t care for skirts and dresses and all those girly things my parents said was for girls. I was happy as I was even though people often asked me what I was…
Despite the occasional wishful thought for bigger breasts, I was fine, I began wearing dresses and skirts and cultivating a feminine side that isn’t hyper-feminine. I wore make-up but not a full face, I still don’t know how to blend eyeshadow or know what half those toners and cc creams, and serums are for but I’m fine with who I am.
When I was pregnant with my son, I joined a few Birth Boards and one common theme was women’s breasts growing and leaking milk, I didn’t experience any of this, I guess my body was too busy trying to provide nourishment for my baby. I didn’t think it would happen to me but it did.
One day I had my baby and the next I had my breasts. I remember it so vividly, I woke up with HUGE (in my eyes) breasts, my milk had come in and I began to leak like crazy, it’s a good thing my son was exclusively breastfed because this was crazy. It’s funny the things you learn about your body after having a baby. No one ever told me about Letdowns but up to this day, I can still remember the tingle I’d get, and then the leaking would begin. My usual 32A bras were not going to do so we quickly went shopping and I ended up with a C cup, I don’t really remember what band size it was but it was probably wrong.
My son nursed for one and a half years, I originally wanted to do baby-led weaning but I ended up pregnant and in the hospital for 4 days and after that, he just lost interest in nursing. There I was fresh from the hospital without another baby and my first baby didn’t want to nurse anymore. I was sad we wouldn’t have that bond anymore and fine with it at the same time because I wouldn’t have to be nursing him all hours of the day and night.
With the end of nursing, I found that I needed to buy new bras once again. Here was a new problem though French bras don’t use the same system as the US bras, both the cup and band sizes seem to be bigger letters and numbers, what should be a C is actually a D, and what is a 34 is actually a 90! Imagine my shock when I go from a 34D to a 95E but they are the same exact size. I think everything about the sizing system over here made me think I was bigger, fatter than I actually am. To find a good bra my husband and I looked up international size conversion charts and then I just tried on different bras until I found one that fit.
I was content with my bras, they mostly fit but it seemed I kept having to buy a new one as soon as I got used to my newer bigger size. Sometimes I ended up with a really good fitting bra and buy two different colors but one of them doesn’t fit, right? I don’t understand how that happens but it did several times. Some of my biggest bra issues in the last year were falling straps, too tight band, and gaps at the top of the bra where it should have been flush against my skin. I thought I was at the biggest reasonable size but boy was I wrong. One day in my mom group one of the other moms posted about a Reddit group called A Bra That Fits and there was a calculator you could use to find the right-sized bra for your body. You can find the Calculator here. I don’t remember what the calculator said was the ideal size for me but I remember thinking they were joking because it was a smaller band than I was currently wearing but a bigger cup, I decided to do some more reading on the group and learned all kinds of interesting things. Your size it seems isn’t the most important aspect of finding a bra that fits it’s the shape of your breasts. It’s a lot to get into and if you want to read more I suggest heading over to the subreddit and reading the beginners guide. This is my most recent results from the calculator: 28FF/G in the UK, 75H in French sizes, and 28F in the US.
These are not full charts they are aimed mostly at showing how I found my French and European size from the US or UK size. If you are interested in seeing a full chart I suggest Googling International Size charts, there are lots of different charts available.
75H is not a very common size to find here in France, most if not all the common stores only go up to Cup size E, and if you’re lucky you can find band size 110. Here is where knowing your Sister sizes come in handy. A sister size is a bra that is either a larger or smaller band but the same cup volume, for instance, I can’t find a 75H here but I can usually find a 90E, 95D, or 100C, these are all Sister sizes meaning they might fit me just as well or better than my original size. You’ll notice I omitted 80G and 85F, well that’s because they are not readily available which I had the pleasure of finding out when I needed a new bra after starting to breastfeed my daughter and I couldn’t go into the store to try on any bras during the pandemic so my poor husband had to go in and try to find one of the numbers I tell him. I sent him to find a 75H, no, 80G? no, 85F? no, what about 90F? it looks like it would fit. Fine, and it was for like a few months until I looked at the calculator again and realized it was not the correct size!
This is not a full chart, I focused mostly on the Sister sizes of my own results, to find a chart suitable for you I recommend Googling Sister Sizes with your Country name on the end. I also limited the sizes to what I found was mostly available at the sites I frequent.
Now I have the right Sister sizes I ordered bras more suitable for my shape and fullness, I’m hopeful that I have finally found my bra that fits!
The month of both Naveen and his father’s birthday as well as several other family members. The month of Halloween which I have to admit I don’t really pay attention to. We’ve never celebrated it when I was growing up but Naveen has been big on doing the whole dressing up and trick or treating but not this year for obvious reasons.
Since the 25th of September, I’ve been using the Multi-Restore Gel Cream and Multi-Restore Facial Sleeping Oil from Garnier Bio. I spoke a bit about it here. This was my first time using a Gel Cream and a Facial Sleeping Oil, normally I wash my face and apply a cream then go to sleep so this really was a new experience for me, here are my thoughts on the products:
Multi-Restore Gel Cream
First of all, what is a Gel Cream?
A Gel Cream is water-based, it has a lighter and more fluid texture compared to regular creams which is why they provide better hydration without leaving your skin feeling heavy or greasy. They are aimed towards people with oily skin.
The first thing I noticed about the Gel Cream was how light and easy it was to spread it on my face and neck, the second thing I noticed was the scent, I really don’t like the smell of hemp and this was no exception, whenever I get a whiff of hemp it reminds me of some kind of musty old thing you’d find in the back of your grandmother’s house. Disgusting.
Thankfully the scent does not linger at all.
Once the Gel Cream is applied it absorbs into the skin rapidly and you forget all about that terrible scent and are left with a very moisturized face.
Multi-Restore Facial Sleeping Oil
Facial Sleeping Oils or Night Oils are oils designed to be used before you go to bed. They are usually too heavy to wear during the day or under makeup.
When using a Facial oil a little goes a long way, trust me, when I first applied the oil I used it like I would a cream and it left my face feeling very very greasy, the next day I applied less and it was much better. Once again the scent is terrible but doesn’t last long. I never remember that I applied anything with Hemp let alone two products which in my opinion is great.
Reactions
I can’t say for certain that the products were behind my lack of PMS pimples, PMS is the only time I get pimples, and this month I had 0 pimples! If it was because of the products then great but it could easily have been just a coincidence. I will only have to keep using it for a couple more months to see if I skip the pimples for the next two or three months to see.
Voxbox Update
Now onto my Voxbox or should I say lack of Voxbox…
I know, it’s been 4 weeks since my last post and I’m still without my Opi Rainbow Voxbox…
A lot of people in the UK as well as some in France for their boxes but I’m among the unlucky few who have still not received their boxes. The campaign ended earlier this week and literally disappeared off my dashboard, I was pretty anxious, to say the least. If you don’t complete your missions for a campaign you can be excluded from ever receiving one again and I really didn’t want that to happen. Two days later the campaign reappeared and has been extended again! It should last until November but to be honest I’m losing hope that I will ever receive this box. I’ve been a member of the site for 6 years and this is the first time I’ve ever had this kind of problem. I don’t know if Covid is to blame for the terrible shipping or if this will be the norm now.
So, you remember those false nails I bought to use with the Voxbox?
I already started using them. I have painted my nails a few times thinking “Oh no! What if my box comes now?” It never does though so I’ll continue to use the nails and color my nails something new every few weeks.
The nails are very long in my opinion, I can’t leave them too long or I start to feel like I can’t do anything so I trimmed them down to the perfect length for me.
Nailfies 💅
Cien in 15 Nude BrownSpartoo Glossy Nail Polish in Red BeautyOpi Tokyo Collection – I’m on a Sushi Roll
I guess we’ll see if I get my box next week or if I never get it…
So it’s been almost three weeks since I posted about looking forward to September, usually, I would have had my OPI Rainbow Voxbox at least two days after receiving the You’re In! email but…Covid.
The days were passing without a box and everyone was getting worried because Influenster doesn’t provide International tracking so the tracker never moved past this:
This campaign is active in the US, UK, and France and it seems the US got their boxes but the UK and French boxes were nowhere to be seen. I sent a message asking if the boxes had been shipped yet since no one in the UK or France received their boxes and afterward I received this email:
Basically, the email is saying they just learned that I hadn’t received my box yet and they were experiencing shipping delays and I should expect my Voxbox in one to two weeks.
My nails are jacked and I said I would look for some falsies to do the campaign. I honestly didn’t know what brand to get so I searched Amazon France for one with the best reviews. I found these by a brand called Vixi.
This set includes 600 nails of 10 different sizes. My hands are small, size 2.5 ring! With all these different sizes I know I will find a good match (I hope so anyway).
The set comes with a little tube of glue but I’m not overly fond of the glues that come with false nails, they have a habit of being very weak. My nails will pop off the very next day if I don’t continuously reapply glue.
I decided to buy a pack of glue made especially for false nails.
The pack includes 5 bottles of glue and a nail file. The set of nails also comes with a nail file and I have a few of my own already. You can never have enough nail files.
It’s been about 5 days since the email about the delays so now it’s just a waiting game. I’m guessing I’ll get it around the same time as the package from Le Lab.
Maybe I should say “What’s up, October?” or maybe not. I might jinx it again.
September is looking like it will be a very interesting month for me. I have a lot of new products coming my way to test out and I am excited!
On August 6, I received a survey about a Voxbox from Influenster, I’ve spoken about them before, it’s a review site where you have the chance of getting a box of products to review. There’s a wide range of things you might be chosen for, food, clothing, beauty products, I haven’t seen any for books, video games, or toys but you never know. I’ve been with the site since 2014 and to my knowledge, they never sent boxes to the Virgin Islands but when I moved here to France I forgot about the site. They didn’t ship here and I had other things on my mind but I decided to go back to it and review stuff just because. In 2018 they sent their first VoxBox to France and I got it!
The Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara Volume Spectaculaire VoxBox was my very first Voxbox and I really enjoyed the product. You can read my review about it here Finding happiness in the little things. When you complete the campaign you earn a neat little badge that you can display on your profile.
In 2019 I got into another VoxBox, I got into the OPI Tokyo Collection VoxBox, I spoke about it here New Voxbox! and here New OPI Tokyo Collection Voxbox. I wasn’t really expecting to get this box because France seems to get two surveys a year and I hadn’t gotten into the last one for 2018 or the first one for 2019. I really loved this box because I almost always seem to pick up purple nail polish and this allowed me to venture out a bit.
If the trend stays the same the survey I got from Influenster on August 6 is either the first or last survey of the year. I’m unsure because I received a survey on April 14 about Rexona deodorant but nobody even mentioned receiving it on Instagram or online anywhere. Usually, you can see what everyone has received if you follow the right hashtag on Instagram but there has been no real activity on the French Influenster hashtag since last year.
This survey that I received was about a product from OPI, I’m going to be really honest even though I opted in I kind of hoped I wouldn’t get it because my nails are really terrible right now. I picked and peeled them until there is nothing. I’m going to have to get some falsies to do this campaign. While I was hoping not to and hoping to get the VoxBox, it showed up on my profile but I haven’t received a You’re In! email yet. I’ve heard of this happening to people before but this was the first time it has happened to me. With my first campaign, I got the email and it took a while for it to show up on my profile and I was worried it had been a mistake.
The other products I’m waiting for are from Le Lab by Doctissimo. On August 5, I received an invite to apply for their Garnier Bio à l’huile de Chanvre Bio (Hemp Oil) campaign. I’ve never been accepted to any of the previous campaigns I applied to so I wasn’t really hopeful but on August 14, I was accepted!
I will be receiving the Hemp Multi-Restore Gel Cream and the Hemp Multi-Restore Facial Sleeping Oil. I was supposed to receive the package very soon but there were unforeseen delays and I won’t get it until late September. I’m not really a fan of the Hemp smell but Garnier makes really good products so I’ll just have to wait and see about it.
There’s one other thing I’m hoping to hear about but I can’t say whether or not I’ll be reviewing it yet. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t so I’ll wait until I hear if I’m actually getting it before I say “I’m going to be reviewing this!”
So, yeah, I’m really looking forward to September.
I’ll obviously be reviewing these products so keep an eye out for those posts next month. Since I’m supposed to receive the Garnier one in late September it will probably end up being posted in October.
Welcome back or if you’re visiting for the first time hello.
The last time I posted “The Last of them” my grandfather had just passed away and I was not in a good frame of mind. I’m doing better now, not 100% but I don’t feel like closing myself up in a deep dark hole, I got the space I needed to grieve and I’m thankful for that.
One of my nieces went on vacation to the beach and my son wanted so badly to join her but the closest beach to us is almost 5 hours away! There’s no way we’d travel that far to go to the beach. Or so I thought…
On Monday, all smug like, my son said to me “we’re going to the beach tomorrow”, Yeah right, I thought, we’re not going anywhere but his father didn’t say anything to me, then again his father waits until the very last minute to tell me anything. I’m sitting there contemplating this information and whether or not I can trust it when Marvin comes home and asks Naveen if he told me.
Told me?
Told me what?
Naveen said “yes, I tell Mama”, you mean it’s true? We’re going to the beach tomorrow?
Apparently.
I had a rough night, Oyanie kept waking up even though she was sleeping for a good six hours, this night she decided four hours was good enough. So there I was on Tuesday morning, tired as hell and have to get up to start packing and making sure we don’t forget anything.
Everything checked and double-checked, we were on our way, on our to where? I didn’t know. I just knew we were going to the beach. I mentioned before that my husband doesn’t tell me anything until the last minute? Well for trips he doesn’t tell me where we are going at all… I think he works under the misinformation that I like surprises, nothing could be further from the truth, after 10 years I’ve just accepted that he likes surprising me. I’ve never hated any of his surprises so I’ll allow it.
First, we stopped to get gas, can’t drive for so long on an empty tank eh, that done we started our long drive to the beach, at first I was admiring the scenery as we drove but that quickly turned to fatigue as we continued driving, we’d been driving for almost two hours when I felt the car slowing down, I didn’t see it ok, I fell asleep, it was a very long drive. We took a little break so we could stretch our legs, eat and drink, and just rest for a bit. We still had about two hours left of driving to go. I was curious about what kind of hotel we would be staying in this time and anticipating just dropping onto the bed and staying there for however long I would need. Sitting in the car for so long had made my back ache like there was no tomorrow.
With our little break over we were back on the road again, this passed by like a blur, I remember a lot of trees and buildings and then water, some of the water was greenish colored but the closer we got to our destination the bluer the color became.
Finally, we arrived at our destination, this wasn’t like any hotel I’d ever seen before because it wasn’t, we were staying in someone’s air b&b?
It was an apartment of sorts, the door was one of those really old European doors, an ancient wooden panel with a round knob that looks like it might fall off at any moment, it didn’t though, these doors are pretty strong despite their appearance. Inside was a kitchen slash dining slash living area. Kind of like what we have at home, there’s no definition of space in the homes I’ve visited here in France. There was an upstairs, where I assume were the bedrooms and bathroom but there was one problem.
The stairs looked like something out of my worst nightmare…
Apparently, Naveen felt the same because he refused to climb the stairs, we had no choice though, the beds were upstairs and the toilet which we would need sooner or later. His father helped him climb the ladder, I refuse to call it stairs, I followed behind gingerly placing my feet on each rung and holding onto the railing as my life depended on it. If you think going up that monstrosity was bad, going down it was worse, each rung was so narrow I had to try to climb down sideways so my feet could find purchase on each slender step. The worse thing about this was when I had to go up or down with Oyanie in my arms, There I was with my tiny baby held tightly in one arm and the other wrapped around the railing and trying to gauge how far down each step was from the other.
Naveen became a pro at the stairs, he went up and down like they were nothing, me? No such thing, I took the stairs only if I really needed to otherwise I was fine to stay upstairs or downstairs wherever I was at the moment.
We didn’t end up going to the beach the first day because it would take another hour and we had reacher too late to go to the beach. We did visit an old wash station where there was a river flowing through. Naveen told his father he didn’t want to go to the beach anymore, he was content to stay here and enjoy the river, we didn’t come all this way for the river though. We were going to drive to the beach the next day.
A semi-good night’s sleep, Ms. Oyanie was up every four hours again, we had breakfast and relaxed a bit before heading to the beach around noon. The drive was interesting, we followed a canal of water along a very small road, you literally had to ride the wall to let another car pass, at the end of the canal was the beach.
I’ll be completely honest, being from the Caribbean I grew up with white sand, blue waters, literally beaches of your dreams, this, was not it. First things first, the sand, more like dirt was speckled with something gold that felt like dust on your skin if it touched you. The water was not beckoning at all, add in that there were so many people there, my anxiety went sky high and I was content to stay on the bench we scored under the very shady tree. Marvin asked me if I wanted to go in the water and it was a big no. I’m fine love.
We spent about two hours there, Naveen enjoyed himself immensely, Oyanie stayed with me most, and Marvin went in the water with Naveen, everybody enjoyed themself and it was time to drive back to the apartment.
Had an okay night, it was time to head back home which meant another long drive, strangely, going up and down those horrifying stairs gave me muscle aches in my legs, I will not miss them at all. And because I completely forgot that Oyanie made five months yesterday I decided to take some pictures, she was not cooperating at all so I got many many very similar pictures lol. I thought I had settled on the best picture but I felt like the background was too busy and you couldn’t see her face well enough so I moved locations and voilà, the month 5 picture.
This drive I did better, I didn’t fall asleep so I saw some cool things like this church? on top of the hill, not sure you can really see it in the picture.
Also saw this really cute tiny castle on a roundabout.
Finally, we were back home!
This trip wasn’t the only thing I was up to, I also found this really interesting app on the app store, you upload a picture and people try to guess where you are from, it said to input the furthest back your ancestry went so I entered France and Nigeria. Trying out the app I realized that I really can’t tell where people are from, I get lucky sometimes but for the most part, I guess very wrongly.
Here’s what people guessed for me:
The last interesting thing I have to talk about is a secret campaign I was selected for. I can’t say what I’m supposed to review yet but when the package arrived I’ll write a post about it. Stay tuned for that!
Annecy, a city found in the Haute-Savoie department of France. It’s located in the southeastern part of France, where Lake Annecy feeds into the Thiou River, this city has been on my bucket list for a few years.
I especially wanted to see Lake Annecy, La Vieille Ville, Pont des Amours, and Palais de l’Ile.
We left on Saturday around 12 pm, the drive took around 2hrs, the weather was not the best, it was overcast and pretty chilly, yes, chilly in June! We’ve been having temperatures in the 50s which are about 12° Celsius.
As we were driving my son would get really excited seeing the clouds covering the mountains and driving through mist.
The most exciting thing though was driving through the mountains! I don’t mean over the mountains either, we drive through tunnels that went through the belly of the mountains, twice, and each time it was crazy.
Yeah, yeah, you might have don’t this before, probably many times, for us especially coming from an island without any mountains it was something really special to see and experience. I only wish I had taken a picture.
We reached the hotel about 2:55 or so, it was raining a bit and my husband realized we had forgotten the baby carrier, so there we were sans stroller and carrier so my husband had to heft the bag with our stuff and the little miss.
We hurried into the hotel and quickly got our room key, strangely enough, there was only one key so we either had to all go out at the same time or some go and others stay behind. It was an ok hotel from the little I saw on our way to the room, there was a game room where Naveen wanted to spend some time. The elevator ride was terrible, it was so jerky, and I got bad motion sickness.
When we arrived at the room I noticed it was kind of small, there were two full-size beds, one fairly close to the door and the other closer to the opposite wall, Naveen was only too happy to have such a big bed all to himself. I think miss lady believed the other one was for her.
We took a little rest, change Oyanie’s diaper and feed her then we were off!
First, we stopped at Burger King so that the bigger people could eat then we visited the lake, the rain was still coming down because we were closer to the lake the wind was really strong and those two things made it pretty cold.
Without the carrier, Oyanie ended up wrapped in her father’s coat, we tried to keep her as warm as possible while taking in the sights.
The Pont des Amours wasn’t far from the lake, just had to keep walking and there we were, a little ways from the bridge I spotted a giant bow and arrow. I haven’t been able to find any information on it yet but I probably am not searching for the right terms.
Pont des AmoursGiant Bow and Arrow
Naveen was only too happy to have space to run around and explore. He wanted to keep walking but it was still raining and Oyanie was getting tired. We decided to head back to the hotel.
For dinner we had pizza from Domino’s, it’s been many years since I’ve had a pizza from there, I found the pizzas to be pretty small, we ordered two and had really tiny containers of ice cream and some kind of dessert with chocolate. I didn’t eat the chocolate dessert. The ice cream was enough for me.
It was a bit difficult to get Oyanie to sleep and after trying and trying she finally went to sleep but I ended up not being able to fall asleep, I don’t know if I was too hot or if I was just too wired to sleep, whatever it was I ended up just laying there twisting and turning the whole night.
My phone was charging in Marvin’s side of the bed and I didn’t want to wake anyone up trying to reach so I tried to wait patiently until everyone woke up. Thankfully Marvin woke up long enough to hand me my phone.
Finally, everyone was up and it was time to check out of the hotel but first Oyanie got a bottle.
I hadn’t noticed it before when we arrived but downstairs in the lobby, there’s a statue of a red cow.
Everyone was hungry so we decided to go to the bakery, unfortunately, the bakery had a long line as they only allowed one customer in at a time, we were too hungry to wait in line so we took a walk looking for other places to eat.
Every so often Marvin would stop to look at menus or Naveen would watch stalls with people selling toys.
Finally, after walking for what seemed like forever, we went intoFrench Coffee Shop, Marvin asked me what I wanted and I looked over the offerings. There were lots of muffins and some other things but what caught my attention was the cheesecake. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it before but I love cheesecake, if I see it I will always want it, so when Marvin asked me again what I wanted without hesitation I said cheesecake.
Now, things could have gone either good or bad because not everyone can make cheesecake.
Thankfully, this was not the case, nope, this cheesecake was delicious, it was utterly divine like if anyone would have tried to ask me to taste some I’d stuff the whole thing in my mouth or lick it.
I had to restrain myself from licking the cardboard but I sure did lick the spoon. Breakfast over with, we walked back to the car and began the drive to go home.
Now, we’re home, I’m very tired so will probably end this here.
Crucianize 