See Your Family Over The Holidays Without Leaving Your Home: Why I finally broke down and did the web cam thing

Finally a year and half since I moved 1500 miles across country, I can see my family again on a regular basis. After months of pestering and threats of being disowned if I didn't hook up the web cam to the computer, I felt the pressure and weakness set in. I did it and.... I love it!

For awhile I was unsure of allowing the family to call me at any moment's notice and peer into my life. It seemed a little invasive. But as time wore on and the big family Christmas reunion was being held, I felt lonely. For the past twenty eight years, I was there. Growing up in a family that tops a hundred people during holiday festivities, excitement is definitely felt. With the loudness that is inevitable when that amount of mouths are in one space, there is a sense of greatness. How could there not be? Looking around and realizing you are a part of something as grand as having at least a hundred relatives in one space at one time... it is quite phenomenal. I never realized it until I was gone.

This year being out on my East Coast Peninsula and my family down in Cajun Country, I wanted to see my cousins who where pregnant with their first baby's. I wanted to see my mom and grandparents; I hadn't seen them in three months. I wanted to see all of the kids running around, screaming in delight of what the holidays bring.

I wanted to see what I was missing.

Who was arguing this year? Who was speaking to each other and who was not? What arguments would break out?

You must love the family dynamics... you MUST.

So, I broke down and figured out how to use that thing that would allow my family to peer into my little world. After downloading software and hooking up to a free web cam network provider, there they were. I on my side of the country and they on theirs all together for the holidays.

The wave of future communications, the web cam is going to be the next way we can all communicate and see one another because there is really nothing better than seeing eye to eye or face to face.

Happy Holidays to All!!

Time to Stock Up and Save: Bath and Body Works Semi Annual Sale Begins Today!!

You can save today online at BathandBodyWorks.com or you can wait until after the holidays (December 27th) to stock up on your favorite scents.

You know you want to!

Keeping Up With the Kardashians Means Keeping Family Together In Black Lingerie

If the new promo is any indication of what is in store for the new season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, you can certain there will be no holding back.

Who says after babies and weddings the fun has to stop? The new promo sure makes living a "Kardashian Life" one for the books!

The sisters in black lingerie and seductive poses screams family values, right? The E! promo poster teases "What a difference a year makes." With Khloe showing off her new wedding sparkler, Kourtney showing off her baby rump and Kim of course showing off her booty, the ad leaves little to the imagination and hopes to bring in big ratings.

What is your take on the Family Photo? Does E! take it too far?

Redken's Body Full Line Is Not For Everyone

As a consumer of hair care brands you can pick up while shopping for dish detergent and tampons, receiving Redken's Body Full line was a real treat. I haven't had the luxury of treating my hair to a salon brand since my grandmother decided I was old enough to pay for my own hair care needs.

With packaging that screams "I'm cooler than what you use," and a scent reminiscent of $100 hair cuts, Redken's allure has it's place but when the hair that grows from your head is not what your hair care line treats, some mishaps can occur.

Redken's Body Full shampoo promises volume for baby fine hair and the conditioner claims to be weightless and a detangler. A fan of the shampoo but without the help of a strong conditioner to hold down the coarseness of my hair, it seemed to get lost. After washing you can apply the Body Full Instant Bodifer evenly into your strands. The mousse claims to provide volume for thin hair. The problem occurred when the combing process of hair care began.

My comb became lodged into my hair. As much as I tried to free the comb, my hair reacted in an ugly manner. Ripping sounds and a neck that bore most of the brunt, the result was torn hair and a pulled muscle. Imagine telling your coworkers you have a crick in your neck from combing your hair.

Needless to say, I'm not completely sworn off of Redken but next time, I don't need "body" for my hair. I need freedom from tangles and a conditioner that's not weightless but more like butter in a bottle.

Child Too Small For Health Insurance: What Next? You're Too Tall, Too Short, Too Skinny, Too Fat?

As a mother of an eight year who often gets confused as a kindergartner, reading the news released today of a two year old insurance has denied to cover because she is too small is rather frightening.

Wednesday morning "The Today Show" covered the story of 2-year-old Aislin Bates. With a weight of 22 pounds and in the 3rd percentile of children her age, United Health Care has decided to deny this child insurance. They claim she doesn't meet height and weight requirements of others her age. Her doctor has described her as perfectly healthy; never having been sick with anything more than a cold. [via Yahoo News]

NBC's medical expert Dr. Nancy Snyderman was more pointed in her criticism: “This is just so bogus. A pre-existing condition for a child this age is birth, let’s be real..... This is why things have to change."

Just last month my daughter and I went for her yearly well check up and learned she is in the 5th percentile of her age group. She's always been small and our doctor's have said this is due to us, her parents, being small also. Could she be denied on our next re-up with these companies (and that's what they are: for profit companies)? Will her premium be raised due to this newest addition to what is thought of as a pre-existing condition?

This is enough of health care and their bogus claims of pre-existing conditions. This is the way they get around having to pay for much at all. They can charge astronomical amounts of money a month for coverage and when it's time for them to pay the bill for coverage of routine check ups and doctor's visits because of a colds, they wimp out. In turn, you are denied because of some new addendum to their insurance policy handbook.

So many people are against a universal health care system but the need for legitimate reasons behind the denying of coverage needs to be addressed.

I would love to hear some feedback from those in the insurance industry. Why are these reasons the way they are and do they change on a case by case basis or does it just seem this way?

Amy Winehouse's Present As Single Amy: New Boobs!

After breaking up with the one you believed you would love for the rest of your life is a difficult spot to be in.

For Amy Winehouse, who after being forced to divorce her junkie, ex-husband Blake Fielder, she suffered like many put in a tough spot--though probably more taking into account her addiction to heroin that came to light while being married to this wonderful man. After spending months in St. Lucia while trying to breaking free from her old partying ways, she has reawakened again in a hospital room but this time instead of waking from her normal heroin induced comas, she is coming to light with a new bustier chest.

One patient told The Sun: "She was wandering around in a daze, humming under her breath. She had tubes hanging out of her bust so I asked what she'd had done.

"She started rambling and said, 'I've had a boob job. I 'ad 'em done for Strictly. I wanted to look my best and I'm sick of stuffing hankies down my bra'. [via The Sun]

While participating in her married lifestyle of crack and heroin binges, the once voluptuous Back to Black singer was left with an emaciated and skeletal frame.

Her father has said, "As far as we were concerned, she wasn't an offender... she was someone who was sick and who has not been sick now for a year."

"(She's) fantastic. Her boobs are great as well! She looks absolutely fantastic. I didn't have to pay for it (boob job), that's all I know. I didn't have to pay for the boobs. There is no total recovery, it's a recovery and if you look back to where we were a year ago, we are on a different planet. We are in a different space and a different time and (Amy is) a different person." [via UK News Yahoo]

In terms of breaking up, what's the craziest present you have given yourself?

Blondes Don't Have More Fun Looking Like This: Lindsay Lohan's Cry For Hair Help

For years and years, I was a bleach blonde babe. I loved it; it was the signature statement of who I was and who I wanted to be. I always "knew" blondes had more fun and I wanted to experience all the excitement I could handle. The more and more I began looking at pictures taken of me in certain social situations, the vision of who I was and wanted to be begin to change. With the super blonde hair my features where being washed out; I looked pale and plain. When did being a blonde become plain I asked myself? For me this was my cry for help in terms of hair intervention.

Lindsay Lohan helps show how bleach blond hair can wash you out and really begin to show your age. Remember when she was the cute redhead? With a true defining color in her hair, she could play up her features the way nature intended. With blonde at her roots, the eye shadow becomes harsh and the lip color becomes blah. Instead of Wow, she becomes wow...