Photo Dump Wednesday

Another week, another Wednesday photo dump.

I didn't take a lot of pictures in the last week but here are a few.

Hubby looked so fresh and clean one morning and his hair made me chuckle so I took this. No particular reason. Just admiring my hubby.

We went on our weekly family walk last weekend when JOE asked to hold her daddy's hand. It melted my heart so I took a picture.

And there is this picture. JOE knows no iPad once we are ready for bed but little girl wasn't having it and when I said no, she looked at me like "yeah? What are you going to do?" I did what any hard working mom who wakes up at 4:30am to get ready for work would do. I took away the iPad ☺.

The best compliment of my cooking is my baby girl happily eating my food ☺.

And here is my princess pushing her stuffed toy around in her "car". So nice of her ☺. She was talking to Mini (aka Mia) before the ride. It was too cute.

Hope you're having an awesome week so far.

A hair update: Product Review: Manetabolism Hair vitamins

I finished the 30-day supply of the manetabolism hair vitamins. I am not a pill popper and really don't like taking pills except they are absolutely necessary for my health. With that said, I do take biotin, prenatal vitamins (never stopped after having JOE) and fish oil (on advise from my doctor).

Before I go into the pros and cons of this vitamin, I have to tell you that I really did not think these vitamins would work. I figured it was a fad and likely was only successful due to a good marketing/advertising campaign. However, even with all that, I was willing to give it a try them because as low key as my transition to natural hair has been, I am eager to just have all one texture. Granted, I am one of the lucky ones that hasn't had a lot of issues with my transition.

Anyways, here is my personal review review of the product.
PROS:
1. They were easy to take. Since they are in capsule form and not tablet.
2. They didn't give me any gas or burping issues after taking them.
3. I didn't experience any headaches or acne. Translation, I experienced no side effects.
4. I did experience 1-inch of growth!

CONS:
1. It required me to take 2 capsules every day. I took them both at once cause otherwise, I would forget if I had to take it separately.
2. It cost just under $25 for a 30-day supply versus what it would cost to take biotin and MSM supplements (the main ingredients) for 60-days.

Overall, I have more pros than cons and I consider that a win.

So on to my results.

This is what the container looks like.

The ingredients listed. Sorry for the blurry pic. I kept trying and this was the best one. The flash and black background didn't mix so I tried without the camera flash and still no dice.

Where I started on 6/27/14. Just about 4-inches of new growth. 

My results as of 7/24/14. Just about 5-inches. Yes, I am 2-days shy of the full 30-days supply but I figured it would be a busy weekend and I didn't want to forget to take the picture.

I cut a piece off the front of my hair so I could accurately measure. Thankfully, it still fits in the buns I often wear. This piece is now fully natural.

I already cut the back of my hair a while back. Not a noticeable difference since it now blends but enough to be able to see my curl pattern back there.

Here are my side by side results after taking manetabolism for a little less than a month.

Verdicts??? 

It DOES work! I am surprised because if you read my last hair update post, you'll know that my hair only grows about 1/2-inch per month. 

So there you have it. It lived up to the hype and my expectations. Will I take it again in the future? Only if I got a free supply of the vitamins. At this point, I don't plan on investing more in hair vitamins. I'll just stick with what I used to take which is a lot cheaper.

PS:

My above comments/experience are MINE ALONE! I am not a medical doctor and am not advocating use or avoidance of this vitamin. 

Up next, I am thinking about trying the "inversion method" thing. Have you heard about or tried it? If so, do share your results. 

Randoms...

Happy Friday! Its been another one of those weeks. So much to do and so little time.

I figured I'll make it a day of randoms since I haven't really had a chance to coordinate my pictures in the last few weeks.

Enjoy!

JOE was watching the iPAD last weekend and she was clearly tired. I took the iPAD away and she got upset with me. She decided to go all the way to the other side of the bed to sleep because she didn't want to be close to me. Hubby snapped this picture. I thought it was too cute. She was trying to be grown but look at her with her binky looking all innocent :-). Melts my heart.

I was looking through old pictures my sister in law sent me a while back and I saw this. It was from their wedding celebration 11-years ago. I was dancing with my dad at the reception. Happily enough, the sister in red right behind me will be getting married in 5-weeks. Woohoo!!! I love family weddings!!!

A few weeks ago, we took JOE to the community pool. But the water was still a little too cold. Thankfully, there was a playground not too far from there so we decided to just go there with her. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Here's JOE going down the slide.

Last Friday, J got me some "just because" flowers. Yellow roses are my favorite and it totally made my day. I love me some him :-).

And this one was just too funny! JOE was feeding her rattle bear some milk. I guess everyone needs calcium right? According to JOE, they do :-).

And this was just the best picture of the week. I had a rough day earlier this week and JOE asked to video chat with her cousin C. The smile my niece gave me made the stress of the day melt away! Love her!!!

Hope you've had a good week. Regardless of how it went, its Friday so let it all go and make it an awesome (and safe) weekend!

Have a blessed one and remember to be kind to strangers!

Hair update: 9.5 months and counting

I am now 40-weeks post texlax. For the first time 2-weekends ago, I washed my hair and actually liked my texture! FINALLY!!!

I am starting to embrace this journey. I wasn't sure if it was for me but I am starting to see that it really is a lot more low maintenance than when I used to relax/texlax my hair. Considering I only texlaxed/relaxed every 16+ weeks, that should tell you how much time and money I now spend on my hair. Going natural has proven to be way cheaper and less time consuming for me. SCORE!!!

Anyways, 3-weeks ago, I decided to try out these new hair vitamins called Manetabolism made by The Mane Choice. I figured it'll help me move up the date for doing my big chop to the end of this year as opposed to next February. 

I had seen pictures posted all over Instagram of people who had amazing results with this vitamin. Some posted results of 1+ inch per month. Normal human hair grows about 1/4 to 3/4 of an inch every month.

My hair on average, grows about a 1/2 inch each month so I decided to give these a try to see if it'll get me to the 5-inch mark by 10-months. Note: The middle of my hair has the slowest growth so for this purpose, I am using it as my yard stick.

I figured I'll have about 7-inches altogether of new growth by the end of the year and will have no problems doing a big chop. Truth be told, I care more about being able to put my hair in a comfortable bun than I do the inches of hair I have. So the primary goal here is a comfortable bun without losing my edges in the process.

Here's a picture of my starting point as of 6/26/14. I am just a smidgen over 4-inches. And yes, I cut a small patch in the middle for this effort. J shakes his head whenever he sees me with a pair of scissors "doing my hair" :-).

Here is what I am currently working with as far as shrinkage. This was a wash and go with the ends and back tucked in at the back.

How I often wear my hair just about every day of the week. It is either in a full bun (with my faux hair attachment) or a bun with a side twist.

Last weekend, I decided to attempt a faux "fro-puff". My natural hair wouldn't fit in a bun right now but it just about reaches it  (hope I am not confusing you). So I pulled it back with a hair band and just tucked in the rest of my texlaxed hair around the hair band.

I can't wait to be able to do this with my all natural hair. That's my end of year goal. If I can do that, I'll be doing the big chop come 12/31/14. If not, I guess I'll be waiting until February 2015 to do my final big chop.

DISCLAIMER: I purchased a 30-day supply of the manetabolism vitamins with my own funds ($24.95). I did not receive ANY compensation for mentioning it in this blog. 

This is just my fancy way of telling you that when I update you (by 7/28/2014) on how much my hair grew while taking the vitamins, it'll be an honest review :-). Also, I don't plan on taking it past the 30-day supply. I'll be going back to my regular biotin vitamins after the supply runs out.

Have you tried anything different to make your hair grow? If so, do share. I'd love to hear from texlaxed, relaxed and natural haired readers.

Have an awesome weekend and remember to be kind to strangers!

Photo Dump Wednesday: Our anniversary pictures

We're half way through the week. YAY!!!

So, back in May, J and I had our pictures taken as an anniversary gift to ourselves. We had a fabulous time. Our photog was amazing and she made us very relaxed.

I promised to post pictures so here they are. We already have one on our mantle and will be putting up another one on our "Family Wall". Kinda like a reverse family tree with J & I being the main players and then the rest will be of us as a family with JOE.

I love this picture :-).

When I was a little girl, I once climbed up a tree. I ended up falling down and got a pretty bad injury on the back of my right calf. The scar is still there till this day. Thankfully, I didn't fall this time :-).

It was our leather anniversary so of course, we both wore leather jackets :-D.

Hope you're having a good week so far. 

Have a fabulous day!

Vacation 2014...Cancun, Mexico - BEWARE: Picture heavy!!!

If you read my post 3 weeks ago about our vacation, you now know we went to Cancun, Mexico.
It feels like that was forever ago. Work and life in general have been so busy! I am already looking forward to some time off at the end of August. Summer months seem to go by so quickly! I can't even believe it is already the middle of July!

Anyways, back to vacation...Did you know Cancun means "Snake's nest"? Considering I am COMPLETELY afraid of snakes, I don't think we would have chosen that location if I knew the name. THANKFULLY, we did NOT encounter any snakes during our stay.

JOE travels well. She wasn't too fussy on the flight there and back. She was however a handful while we were there. She wanted to spend ALL DAY in the pool and needless to say, J and I came back with sunburns. She just got tanned. Nice huh?

Anyways, on to the pictures from our vacation. I initially planned on doing a 2-part post but I got lazy and am just going to do it all in one so hope you don't mind the picture overload :-).

Our welcoming committee

The room was HUGE! And the window you see to the right there faces the shower room. I guess you better be coming with close family if you get one of these rooms :-).

Sitting room

Much needed snacks. We discovered JOE's love for Oreos and M&Ms while on this trip. We didn't even know she knew how to say "chocolate" until this trip. Ummmm...

Yummy drinks. 

JOE and her dad. We didn't think she'd like the water. Little did we know.

It's JOE's world and we live in it. It was certainly her vacation :-).

Daddy and his baby girl walking along the beach at our resort.

They had different family oriented events at the resort. This was the fire show they had on the first night there.

And so it begins. JOE discovered the pool and didn't want to leave.

But we had to have lunch sometime. So here we are...check out the view.

View from our room. It said "ocean view" in the room description. Not quite but pretty close.

There was an area to lounge on the balcony in our room. 

My very handsome hubby. I love me some him :-D

Why am I taking pictures while JOE and her dad are sleeping? I guess I was too tired to sleep :-).

Digging for shells. She actually enjoyed walking bare feet on the beach. Last year, she REFUSED to walk on the sand. Signs of my baby growing up...

We were in room 123. Check out the sign and our room number. Notice anything?

Part of the shower room. This is my dream shower room. LOVED IT! This is the sitting area

The shower area

"Rainfall" shower head.

Check it out. The room even came with a scale! I guess it was their nice way of saying "yes, it is all inclusive but try not to eat too much!" For the most part, we were good with our food choices.

My heart!

JOE was KNOCKED OUT! :-). She just sat there after getting a shower and promptly fell asleep :-).

We visited the Tulum ruins while there.

JOE enjoyed being pushed around in her umbrella stroller. Can't blame her. It was HOT HOT HOT!!!

Having a good time!

Do you see the face on the corner of this building? These people were very talented! And they had no modern tools to work with.

Us :-).

Beautiful view!

They were everywhere!!! JOE kept saying "hi!"

Beautiful hibiscus flowers. The Mayans used it for painting.

My African friends, what is the name of this fruit? I couldn't remember the name and still can't! The last time I saw this was in Nigeria.

She found some shells. YAY!!!

Why is this child cheesing it for the camera when she should be sleeping?

At last...she settled down enough to get some rest.

Ready to head back to the States. Here is JOE checking all the cabinets for us to make sure we didn't leave anything behind.

"All done!" Good to go :-)

Shoes off and ready for the flight.

Say cheeseeeeee!!! We had a fabulous time!

So much so that she slept through the flight!

Well, there you have it folks. We had an awesome vacation! We are very much looking forward to time with family in August when we get to celebrate another family wedding. YAY!!!

Hope you're having an awesome summer so far!