If you even know CC County a tiny bit... You'll love this.

And you'll be able to heavily relate. This is my life. 

Got my first Cara Box!

Well, I came home today to a cute little Cara Box package from my girl Ashley over at Dashing Tales. :) She was assigned to me this month and it was so fun getting to know a bit about her while she learned all about me. She sent me the best stuff! I love it all!

She even sent a little treat for my pups.

And they definitely enjoyed this month's box. Lol

Here is a little summary she included of everything in the box :

The only bummer is USPS isn't always as gentle with everything as we hope they will be...

But all in all, Cara Box is a great program and you should totally check it out if you're into this sort of thing!

Xoxo,
Tor

NatureBox & ipsy Reveals

Hey all!

I've been glued to CNN since waking up with all of the Boston craziness so I'm blogging to put my mind elsewhere... while CNN continues to air in the background, lol. That being said, this is my first "Box Reveal"! Haha! I'm so excited!

First, the yummies. I found NatureBox somehow via the inter webs and signed up for it. Essentially, it's a monthly box of healthy & all natural snacks that you can try, and if you love, you can purchase from the website. Each month they send 5 full sized snacks for $19.95... A pretty cool deal if you ask me! Check them out HERE.

Onto the food!

So they come in these super sturdy boxes - which are great because you don't want your snacks squashed by the not-always-gentle USPS.

I was actually pretty surprised that those bags are all of decent size. They give you a pretty good amount of the snacks in each little Eco-friendly bag. It looks to be recycled paper and whatnot which also goes with the "NatureBox" thing.

They also included these little cards with info on each snack item and a little recipe for some chicken salad using one of the snack mixes. Kinda cool.

First, I tried the "Taj Mahal Snack Mix". Similar to a trail mix with nuts and raisins and such but it had a wonderful Indian flare to it with some curry seasoning. I would definitely recommend it. You wouldn't think that raisins and curry go together but they're amazing in this mix. There are these little crouton looking crunchies that were my fav part of the mix. Nutritional info is on the back.

Next was the "Banana Bread Granola". This came in pretty big hunks, which isn't usually how I prefer my granola, but it wasn't bad since I was trying it by itself. It was delish. The banana flavor wasn't overwhelming but it was still semi sweet and super crunchy. And it's vegan for those Of you who also are. I think it would be amazing in yogurt!

Thennnn there are the "Lemon Meringue Waffles". Super good! Crunchy, lemony, sweet, but not overwhelming. I think though that the lemon flavor isn't baked in but that the waffles were dipped after the fact because the flavor hits you immediately and then sort of dissipates. Also vegan.

Onto the "Whole Wheat Raspberry Figgy Bars". Pretty standard fig newton type bar. Sweet, soft, yummy. If you're into fig bars, to is a good healthier & natural option. Also vegan.

Now this one was my favorite... The "Italian Bistro Pretzels". Hoooollllly cow they're good. Super seasoned, tastes kinda like garlic bread or some type of basil, tomato, pizza cracker. So good. There is A LOT of flavor packed in though, so the taste really stays with you. Be sure to chew on some gum afterwards. Lol

Now for the ipsy April Glam Bag.

If you have never heard of ipsy, you can check them out HERE. For $10 a month they send you a cute little makeup bag full of beauty products. Once I dumped my Birchbox subscription because they started sending weird tea and power bars that had nothing to do with beauty, I switched to ipsy and Beauty Army.

So fun! The theme was "pink" so everything included was either in pink packaging or pink in color and came in a cute little white and pink makeup bag and the signature metallic pink ipsy shipping envelope.

The first thing I looked at was the "Love at First Byte" nail lacquer color from Sation’s Miss Antoinette Spring 2013 nail lacquer collection. They recently paired with ipsy from Miss Professional Nail. My shellac mani was still holding strong so I didn't try it on my nails, but on my mom's. it's a great thickness and such a cute color! A pretty Barbie pink. <3

Next I gave the Bombshell brand blush in "Sweet Cheeks" color a try. I'm so in love! It's a gorgeous pink color and I've replaced my old blush with this one. The is a bit of iridescence to it which I adore. A little goes a long way with this one though, so it should last me quite a while.

Onto the .07 oz container if Big Sexy Hair's "POW! powder Play" hair volume zed & texturizing. You can see what the powder itself looks like in my hand.

It reminds me of a dry shampoo. Gives that same volumizing quality as a dry shampoo but has no odor which I really like. Seems to do its job. I'm an instant fan.

Lastly, there's the MICA Beauty Cosmetics Shimmer Powder in "Earth" color - a beautiful light rose pink. It's VERY shimmery so if you are looking for a glitter quality, you found it. It works well with my super pale skin tone because it's not an overwhelming color on my skin. I have pink undertones so it totally works for me. I put a little on my thumb so you could Kline of see it in the photo. Still doesn't do it much justice. I need to figure out how to take better quality photos on my iPad... Or just buy a new fancy shmancey camera. Yes!

Overall, super stoked about my boxes this month. I definitely have an addiction as I subscribed to like 3 additional boxes this month, haha! So get ready for those reveals in the future.

Xoxo,
Tor

Prayers for Boston

I feel like my mind has really been set to the senseless and tragic incident in Boston lately. Like... My mind goes nowhere else. Maybe it's because I'm just starting out as a baby runner or that I long to be a part of something like the Boston, SF, or NY marathons, or that I'm running my first half marathon this fall. Regardless of the reason, my heart is broken. I found a photo with a little saying on Instagram that seems to sum up my thoughts and feelings not just on Boston, but on the world as a whole right now. It's wonderful to see so many people in support of the victims and those who were there. To see so many willing to help and do what they can to bring goodness and light into a terrible situation. But it's also equally disheartening to know that there are a lot of people out there who embody evil. And that seems to prevail all too often. I'm praying for the runners, the spectators, their family & friends who where there... The family and friends of runners who weren't there and had to experience such a panic when hearing the news. Hopefully senseless acts like this will see an end soon. We can hope, right?

The Stamos Incident

I'm going to start this off with an apology to poor sweet Boyfriend. Honey, I love you. And we weren't dating when "the incident" occurred... so don't be bitter when I tell this story. Again. Love you. Not Stamos. No bitterness. Love love. We good? Maybe? Okay great. Onward!!

I'm constantly headed back and forth to Southern California. I love the drive there, I love the scene all over LA and its surrounding areas, I love the weather, my friends and family there... just overall love for the whole place in general. Therefore, basically any time I find a reason to make a trek down that way from up here in the Bay Area, I take it. I used to be going about once or twice a month (thank goodness the Civic gets good mileage), so when I got notice that one of my favorite cousins was turning the big 5-0 and having a party down in Tustin, I decided I definitely had to make a trip! C'mon, when the Facebook invite was filled with fun pictures like this...

.

...you know it's going to be a good time. 

So off I drove, into the sunset - not really... I left in the morning so that I wasn't driving the boring I-5 at night... but I totally did get a speeding ticket in Kern County by a jerkface CHP officer who was certainly more rude than he needed to be. Sure, I deserved the speeding ticket - I don't argue that, and I didn't with him either... but he was still a total buttmunch. 

ANYWAYYYYY, I finally get in to my buddy Dan's sweet little apartment in Santa Monica where I was invited to stay for the weekend and promptly ate some dinner and went to sleep. It was a long drive.  The next morning... I honestly don't remember much. Dan had stuff to do during the day, so I set out to find some little summery wedge heels to wear with one of the million outfits I brought with me to wear to the party, since - of course - I hated all of the shoes I brought with me. I figured it would be best to drive to Tustin where the party was, and look for shoes there... closest to the party. I was stoked to find these darling little tan strappy hiiiiigh heeled wedges at a Marshalls up the street and I actually had time to paint my nails before the party! Ha! I think I looked pretty cute and put together when I got there. See? 

That's me and the birthday boy! 

As soon as I get there, I'm ushered back to their uh-may-zing backyard where my younger cousins are swimming amongst the pool with the waterfall and there is a full bar set up with bartender included - hello Mai Tais all night long. The food all looked incredible and everyone involved with the setup did a wonderful job on everything down to the Hawaiian photoshopped post card pictures of the birthday boy hanging all around the house. So stinkin cute.

Haha! I can't get enough of these! Every time I look at them I laugh.

Fast forwarding because I feel like this is a lot longer than it needs to be -- I'm sitting with my aunt (birthday boy's mom) chit-chatting away and suddenly... what do I see? This flash of button up white shirt and sunglasses.

Wait... is that? No... no way. Yes. Yes it is. Uncle Jesse. In the flesh. WHAT THE HOLY FLAMING CRAP. IT'S JOHN FREAKING STAMOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Now, I'm sure most of you that read this (if there are any of you) are close to my age and we are all - men included - screaming fangirls when it comes to Uncle Jesse. Every episode of Full House was full of dreams about how my life would be if I was Rebecca. I know I wasn't the only one. Please. He was mentioned in Step Brothers for goodness sakes. This man is a Greek (no lie) God. But, you know, me being me, I didn't want to act like I gave two shits that my cousin is friends with John and so I did what I know how to do. ignore him while taking sneaky paparazzi pictures of him on my cell phone and sending them to my mother, sister, and all of my girlfriends. They all swooned. It was amazing. 

Don't try to tell me that I don't have a career as a paparazzo at some point in the future. It was epic.

So he walks in and says hello to my aunt that I was chatting with and then... he turns to me. Hazel eyes locked on. Hand outstretched to shake mine. His incredible full head of hair perfectly in place... "Hi, I don't think I've met you.... I'm John". Uhm, really? No shit. I melted internally and instantly. But I somehow came out of my shock to shake his hand and introduce myself as "Toree... Donny's cousin". He the proceeded to SIT DOWN NEXT TO ME and carry on a 10 MINUTE conversation. Now I do not remember what was said as the only thing happening in my head was "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOO WAYYYYYYYYYYYY. JOHN STAMOS. ITS FREAKING JOHN FREAKING STAMOS. TALKING TO ME. HE KNOWS MY NAAAAAAAAME. THIS ISNT HAPPENING. PLEASE SING A JESSE AND THE RIPPERS SONG TO ME. SHIRTLESS. SING 'FOREVER' WHILE I RUN MY HANDS THROUGH YOUR HAIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR". Yeah. That was how it started. 

Fast forward to me ignoring him after that because I totally didn't want it to seem like I cared, but at the same time I wanted to get a photo with him so that people knew this really happened. Plus, every 8 seconds my phone buzzed with a new text from one of my girlfriends demanding more photos. I'm in the kitchen talking to my cousin Connor, and I feel something poke my butt. JOHN STAMOS. Yeah. he walked by with his camera and jabbed it into my ass to try to be cute. He then jutted in the middle of my cousin and I and created conversation. It was borderline awkward, but hell if I cared. Connor said, "He's so weird. I don't get it". You never will, sweetheart. You are a boy and are too young to know the glory of growing up watching Full House. As the night went on, I did in fact approach John to get a photo, and he obliged, even though my phone was out of memory so it took like 5 minutes to take these pictures and he kept trying to crack these borderline inappropriate jokes and it was all very awkward. But again, I didn't care because I got the pictures. YES!

Now, what happened next is what we refer to as "The Stamos Incident" and I was completely unprepared for this. Justin, now is when you may want to turn away. 

I walk by the stairway and John calls me up there. Next thing I know, I'm in the spare bedroom MAKING OUT WITH JOHN STAMOS. I thought I was dreaming too, girls. I know. But I come to my senses and go, "wait, wait wait... turn on the lights and look around. My family is staying in this room and all their bags are everywhere. Someone is going to come up here!" Almost on cue, I hear my uncle walking up the stairs. I don't know if he pulled this from his many years in sit-coms or what, but he HIDES IN THE CLOSET. Yep. My uncle walks on in - none the wiser - with John Stamos hiding in the closet. I almost died. So hilarious. After Uncle leaves, John decides it's a better idea to make out in the bathroom. I GOT TO TOUCH HIS HAIIIRRRRR. It was amazing. 

But you know... I like to play hard to get - even with Uncle Jesse. So I don't stay long, but he said I could give him his email and he would send me the pictures he took from the party (with his fancy camera that he poked me with) so I handed him a card with my email address and (obviously) my cell number. I stay for cupcakes, start the goodbye tour, and decide to head back to Santa Monica. It's 11 or so and I've had a long and eventful day. But oh no. It's not over yet. 

As I hop back on the 405 and am talking to my mother, giving her a complete rundown of the evening's festivities (she may have been as excited as I was about Stamos), my phone beeps with a text. Shut the front door. It's an LA number I don't recognize. 

"Toree! Where are you? JS"

WHAT?! 

"MOM!!! JOHN STAMOS TEXTED ME!"

While simultaneously having a panic attack, we text back and forth and he asks me to meet him at his mother's house (so weird, right?) since it's closer to Tustin than his house. OBVIOUSLY I go. My mother, being her overprotective self, is somehow concerned that John is a mass murderer and I shouldn't be going to his mothers house at midnight. Well, I did anyway. Sorry Mom!

I'm not going to drag this on as nothing INCREDIBLY exciting happened other than sitting in the backyard chit chatting with JOHN STAMOS while drinking wine and eating his mother's Easter candy as he told me that *I* had amazing hair. ME! The man with the most perfect head of hair on the planet told me that MINE was amazing. HAHA!! YESSSSS! Matrix Biolage, you did it again. The highlight of my night was when we texted John Mayer. Apparently being famous in LA means you know freaking everyone under the sun and can text them at 2am for normal chatter. As soon as I left his mom's I get this text:

The texting continued on until about 5am and spilled over into the next week with an email sprinkled in here and there. I don't see or hear from John much anymore, but whenever I am in the neighborhood, I shoot him a message to say hello and see if he is in town.

Of course, I still have friends that send me pictures, emails, website links, texts, etc of anything Stamos related... from tabloid articles, to TV shows he is on right now to wonderful items like this:

John Stamos' Guide to Cuddling 

and the matching tee shirts:

It's a really funny story and gave me some serious insight as to how strange a person can get after being famous for their entire adult life. He certainly was an odd duck. I could make this blog post 5,000 pages if I told you all about his quirks and the conversations from that night in detail, but I'll spare you and answer questions individually if you really really feel the need to hear how he carried Easter candy around in his pockets. Definitely an evening I won't forget and a great connection to have in my list of contacts. LOL. That concludes this episode of "The Stamos Incident".

Why are Mondays always so... Monday?

Hey hey all!

Today's post may be a little TMI but it's kind of fun. So if you aren't super interested in the little details in my life like trips to the gynecologist and my girlfriends being afraid to poop when their boyfriends(?... I actually don't know if they are an official item) are over at the apartment, then go ahead and turn away. It's too much for you. Though to be honest - I'm not really sure who reads my blog anyway... aside from my BFF Broph. Hey girl hey!

Anyway, so Monday morning I wake up and the only plan I have for the day is to have a girls night dinner with aforementioned BFF and her bridesmaids before she up and moves to Fresno. Ew. Yes. We know. FresNO. Moving on. As I step out of the shower and begin my regular face product application routine, I think to myself: "Well, obviously I want to be cute to hang with the girls tonight so maybe I'll throw some self tanner on my legs and wear a dress or skirt." {Sidebar: Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs is the most amazing thing ever if you are in a tanning pinch. Great & fast DIY spray tan and it washes off with soap and water. Get to it.} So... back to the story. In light of the tanning epiphany, I sprawl out on top of the bathroom counter (bc that's how I roll to fake tan myself) and go to work. Then I realize, "crap. I need to call my veej doctor because I had a Mirena inserted 6 weeks ago and they need to check it". So I call.

Uhmmmmm... since when do they have openings on the same day?! I was in such a panic that I picked the only time slot I remembered out of the several choices she gave me. Seriously, what is the deal? These fools are always booked at least 3 days out. But I didn't argue. I made a 2:40 appointment. Then... I realized... CRAP BALLS. She is gonna be setting up camp down there so I cant just tan PART of my legs. I have to do all of them. AND I was due for my bi-annual exam... so I REALLY had to tan all of me. Clearly, I did not think this through. It's fine. Really. Don't panic. Just apply self-tanner everywhere. Sounds easy enough, yes? No. Do you know how hard it is to reach every inch of your back? Even with the monkey arms I inherited from my father.

Dear sweet tap-dancing Jesus. The results were bearable, but not pretty. See how I look beaten and bruised along the bottom? Yeah. That's what my whole upper back looked like when I finished. I had to make the decision to wear a little denim jacket and my hair down to try to mask the botched tan on my back. If you have any pointers for me here, please... share.

I should have known the day was going to be bonkers from the get-go because as soon as Justin leaves for work I get a text message. Now, let me back up just a tick. Justin and I were chit-chatting the night before and I don't recall how, but my ex was brought up in conversation. And that never really happens. But anyway, Justin asked a question or two about him so we talked a bit and that was it. Just sort of out of the blue and funny. Well... can we guess who the previously mentioned text was from? Yeah.  Nailed it. Seriously? Out of the blue? Right after he was mentioned less than 12 hours prior? I feel like it had to have been a full moon because 2 crazies of mine that I had thought I was able to rid myself of previously had also reached out Sunday evening. I just thought it best to not respond to those. Why I chose to respond to this one was beyond me, especially because he texted me with a picture and some cockamamie excuse about it reminding him of my dog. Anyway, the conversation was short and civil but he definitely was just texting me to see if I was still dating Justin. So smooth to ask, "How is relationship life treating you?". Well, sir... much better than you did. HA! I crack myself up.  He follows up with something along the lines of 'he can't get a girl to stick because he is too nice'. Yeah. Alright. You just keep living in that dream world, little friend. Good day.

What a lovely start to the day, don't you think? I told Justin about it and he laughed at the poor effort made by Ex Boyfriend. What a pitiful thing. On to the rest of my day!

This is a good part. So I get to the doctor and after waiting an amazingly long time to bee seen, pee in a cup, and answer my entire medical history from the womb until now, I am shuffled into a quaint little room and ask to strip. I comply and am sitting awkwardly in my oh so fashionable paper vest, texting BFF; who - ironically - is ALSO at HER veej doctor getting her bi-annual. *Bonding*. We each send each other adorbs photos that are almost identical... Don't you love that?

Though I will tell you, I think the female reproductive chart in the background of mine really classes the photo up.

So the doc comes in, we exchange pleasantries, and get right down to business. Here is the best part of my whole afternoon... She gets all situated down there, turns on the light, stops, and says, "Oh! Do you use some kind of glitter lotion or something down here?"... What?! Shit, shit... MY SELF TANNER HAS GLITTER IN IT!!

I DIED. DIED. A THOUSAND DEATHS. I start cracking up and say "Oh, no no... It's my spray tan". And she bursts into laughter and says "I thought you were just fancyin' it up for me down here". I literally remember nothing else from this appointment as I just kept replaying this lovely exchange over and over in my head. I IMMEDIATELY texted BFF to tell her the story. By the time I got to girls' night dinner at Courtney's, they had all heard about it. So amazing. Welcome to my life. This is how I live.

The night ended on an amazing note with 3 wonderful ladies by my side talking about being afraid to poop if their gentleman caller is in the apartment at the time, drinking some kind of Freixenet Cordon "Negro" champagne in a black bottle, inappropriate comments, and lots of laughs. Courtney made some killer tacos (fish & shrimp for the girls, veggie for me) with delish rice, Jaime brought the wine, BFF brought a BOMB.COM strawberry cake dessert, and I made a mexican salad with spicy dressing. The dressing can totally fool your friends into thinking you can chef it up too, by the way. Just mix half ranch dressing (I use Hidden Valley fat free) and half salsa of your choice (I prefer medium spicy chunky Pace). Thank you dear, sweet, and chef genius sister, Terrin for that one. Voila!

How was your Monday?

Funky funk

Hey y'all!

Happy Thursday to you! I've had a really weird day and I'm not sure how to feel about it so far.

On the plus side: I got my screwy iPhone replaced at the Apple store today, was able to finish my seemingly never-ending laundry pile (huzzah!), had my nearest and dearest friend do me a HUGE favor by purchasing my OSL Music Festival tickets for me while I was at Apple (and we realized in our 10 years of friendship, we've never been in a fight - crazy), made a little lunch, was able to see Justin in the middle of the day, etc etc. It's not much, but it's the little things, right?

'

On the not so plus side: my iPhone 5 had never been backed up so I lost all of my texts, apps, and photos, poor Justin hurt his back playing softball last night so he has been in pain literally since 7pm and I feel terrible, I may have unintentionally pissed him off royally with a social media post, aaaand I did not go on a run today. I mean, the run thing is nothing new. I don't go more often than I actually get it together and go but I'm hoping since I'm "training" for a half marathon in September that I will get my butt in gear soon. However, whenever I seem to think about running... this happens instead:

And that kind of ruins my mojo.You can't tell in that picture (mostly because it's not actually me) but I am usually watching episodes of The Walking Dead, Criminal Minds, or SVU.

So how does one get themselves out of a crazy funk that really has no business being there? I was productive today kinda. There is nothing more on my "to-do" list that needs to get checked off... Except maybe running to a drugstore to get Justin some Salonpas patches or something. I've always wondered if those actually worked, so why not try them on my poor injured guinea pig boyfriend?! Haha! Yesssssss.

That seemed to help the funk a little bit. :) That and the fact that I just got my very first Cara Box matches for this month. Thanks for the 411 on this cool program, Chel. I suggest you check it out if you are a monthly box subscription junkie like myself. I just signed up for 3 more new boxes as of yesterday as well. Maybe I'll get them all at the same time and do one really big & confusing reveal. Haha! Jk. I think that would hurt everyone's brain too much. Including my own.

So back to getting yourself out of the funk. I think you can change your entire life with a simple change of the way you think. If you start to act like and believe that you are a positive person, guess what? You become one. At Justin's softball games yesterday we walked into the park and I saw this written on the pathway:

Pretty cool, right? I then immediately realized that my long time friend, Amanda was the keeper of this particular park for a living and this was her doing from earlier in the day. During a break she went around with some chalk and wrote positive messages all over the place to brighten park-goers' day and bring a smile to their face. It certainly worked for me when I saw it, and I texted her immediately and she stopped by to say hi and watch some of the game. But really, you can instantly change your mood just by thinking positive thoughts and knowing there are tons of positive people out there like my Amanda just trying to bring smiles to faces.

That seems to help me. :)

What do you do to get out of weird & funky moods?

Xoxo,
Tor