April Arbonne Specials

Hello Wonderful Arbonne Shoppers!

It's April, and that means it's the time when Arbonne has its biggest product launch of the entire year! I can't wait for you to be able to "sea" what the new products are! I just wanted to let you know that they will be launching April 11th, so you can go online beginning then to check them out and see what's new.

In the meantime, below are the awesome Purchase with Purchase Specials that are available to you in April. These are some great deals.

Finally, Arbonne is mailing the "UpCLOSE" (which is the neat booklet you get each month in the mail if you have a Consultant ID) after April 11th to include the new products, so be looking for that! It's coming a little later, but it is still coming.

As always, thank you for your business.

Best,

Lauren

	PWP | PURCHASE WITH PURCHASE Qualify to purchase a different product or set at a special discount each month. PwP @ $50 SRP f.y.i. Arbonne With every $50 f.y.i. Arbonne SRP order increment, enjoy the option to purchase one of the BodyBetter Body Creams for $7, regularly $18. Mysterious #7306P; Flirtatious #7308P; Ambitious #7307P

PwP @ $75 SRP CHOOSE ONE OF THESE GREAT PwPs With every $75 SRP order increment, enjoy the option to purchase either the Mandarin Cashmere® Merely Sensational set plus complementing candle for $34, regularly $118.20. #6328P OR the Luxurious Almond Always Almond set plus complementing candle for $32, regularly $107.40. #6329P While supplies last.

--
Lauren Benesh
Independent Consultant
Arbonne International
laurenbenesh.myarbonne.com
www.arbonne.com

This is a First

So Noah and I went to church without Nathan today (he is on his way back from Mark's wedding in Houston this weekend), and this was my first time to go by myself with the baby. I sat in the very back row, just in case Noah got fussy. He didn't really fuss, but he did start making little noises, so I got up and stood in the back, just in case I needed to step out for a while.

I noticed that there were a few groups of people who came in very late and were really casually dressed. They'd stay for a few minutes then leave. Pretty soon, I realized that they were tourists. Our church, Park Street Church, is on the Freedom Trail in Boston, so we get a lot of tourist traffic. But I didn't realize that people came in during the service just to take a look around. And that's precisely what they'd do; come in, step into the back of the sanctuary, stay for a few minutes, then leave.

I like that Park Street just welcomes them and doesn't make a big deal out of it interrupting the worship or anything. I think that's a good witness, and most visitors are quiet and respectful.

Well, this one Asian couple walked in, smiled really big at Noah (who I was holding in the sling), and found a spot to stand in the back of the sanctuary. I looked over at them a few minutes later, and they were taking pictures! Seriously! The girl was snapping photos of the worship service, and the guy was filming it! It seems like such a foreign concept to me to want to do that. I was tempted to be offended that they were turning our worship service into entertainment, but I decided that was ridiculous. At least they were inside a church.

Anyhow, they stayed for a few minutes, and on their way out, the girl came to take a closer look at Noah. She thought he was really cute. And then, y'all, she asked if she could take his picture. Yes, she did. What was I going to say? I couldn't say no. So here I am in the back of the sanctuary having my picture taken by tourists while the offering is being taken. Is that hilarious or what?! The guy even stuck his head into the picture, just like you'd do if you were getting a picture of a statue or something! A picture with a real, live American Christian and an American baby! It was so awkward and funny!

Thought of the Day

I've decided that the reason I like to cook is that it's pretty much like making a craft, only with food.

Seven Things About Me

Michelle tagged me for a meme. Doesn't it just make your day to be tagged? It's like, "Oh, someone remembered me and thinks I'm interesting." Thanks, Michelle!

And now you all get to read some things that may or may not be of interest:

The Rules:
Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
Tag 7 people.
Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I am going to follow Michelle's lead and talk about the same topics, more or less.

My Seven Things:
1. Important things I've learned from my friends:
- Nathan: humility; how to loosen up sometimes
- Sarah F.: generosity
- April: joy

2. My favorite TV shows by category:
Comedy: The Office. I also like Chuck.
Morning Show: Today and Martha Stewart (sometimes Martha can be boring or a little too into herself, though).
Drama: Lost.
Reality: Currently, My Big Redneck Wedding. You have to watch it just for the commentary. The best comment thus far was when a couple rode their horses to the local convenience store. The host (Tom Arnold), said, "Take THAT, Al Gore!" Too funny.
Guilty Pleasure: America's Next Top Model. Nathan can't stand it. :)
And I have one word to say about Game Shows: I hate shows like Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader and Deal or No Deal because first of all, the content is pretty bland, and secondly, they do in 15 minutes what I could do in 3. They are so dragged out that I get really bored.

3. My latest purchases on iTunes: Wow, I haven't bought anything on iTunes in forever. I think the last thing was Lazlo's "Open" (the lead singer is a friend--I would recommend them. I think they might have won Houston's battle of the bands at some point). I think I also bought some Christmas music around the holidays (classical--Biebl's Ave Maria, Mendelssohn, etc.). Nathan and I actually tried to find the song from the credits in "Stardust," which is called "Rule the World," but apparently it's only available in the UK.
*Update* I went back and downloaded a bunch of fun show tunes to burn a CD for Noah and me to listen to. Yay! I got some songs from "Enchanted" and a lot of Julie Andrews' stuff. Then I got inspired to watch "The Sound of Music" and didn't go to bed until 2am because I got sucked in.

4. Foods I really hate: canned asparagus, sauteed spinach, sauerkraut. I'm not crazy about black-eyed peas, either. My mom always tries to get me to eat sauerkraut and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day, and I always take like two bites and call it a day. :)

5. I was choir president in high school. This was not an uncool thing, since our choir was really good and had won the same private school state competition like 15 years in a row by the time I got there. I also took voice lessons and thought I'd be a vocal performance major for quite a while. I competed in vocal competitions each year, the most notable being TMEA (the big one in Texas, and the most competitive--thousands of students audition). I was ranked highly through all the advancing levels my senior year but actually missed making the all-state choir as a Soprano II by like three seats. I think I was ranked eighth, and you had to be in the top five. The sight-reading was a new thing that year, and it killed my score, I think. I was exposed to some amazing music and some fantastic musicians, though. Those years were quite an experience. Singing was my favorite thing about high school.

6. I've never had braces but probably could have used them. Maybe someday I'll do invisalign or something. I'm not too concerned about it. I do whiten my teeth about once a year, though. And one day I'd like to get lasik surgery. I'm extremely nearsighted.

7. I was painfully shy growing up. The best advice I ever got about this was from my mom, who told me this while in middle school: "Stop worrying. What makes you think they're looking at you, anyway?" Sounds harsh, but it really helped! I mean, the typical, "Everyone else feels exactly the same way" thing didn't work for me. No way cute Jennifer Todoroff felt as awkward as I did (hi Jenn!). But after my mom said that, it struck me that maybe she was right. Maybe I was way more worried about the way I looked (or walked or talked or dressed or . . .) than anyone else was. The experience that really made me come out of my shell was college. I can still be a little reserved sometimes, but overall, I'm much more friendly and outgoing than I used to be.

---

I am going to break the rules and not tag people for this, simply because I just tagged people for one about a month ago, and I only have so many blogging friends. Don't want to wear them out! But if you want to do this meme, go for it. Just leave a comment and let us know.

A Doofus

Three stories about how I can be a doofus sometimes:

1. I am jealous of Amanda because she gets to go to work one day a week. Not because she is working, but because she probably gets to wear cute office clothes. And when I had lunch with Courtney, she had cute office clothes on, too. I realized I no longer have an excuse to buy them.

2. Yesterday, as I was in the kitchen mopping (more on that below), I heard a thud, followed by Noah's crying. You better believe I dropped that mop and went running into the other room. I discovered that Noah had squirmed his way out of his bouncy chair onto the floor. That kid has recently discovered how to move (vigorously) his legs and torso. He is super squirmy sometimes and squirmed his way downward until he just slipped out onto the floor. He was fine, but it gave me a bit of a scare. He's definitely going to be buckled into that thing from now on.

3. So I have a confession: I've never mopped before yesterday. Now, I am not saying I've never cleaned my floors. I've just never mopped. I've always Swiffered. I guess I always figured it was just easier and, well, less wet. But I am all into spring cleaning mode, and I thought a mop would clean certain areas better. So I bought a mop, a bucket, and some cleaner, and I went to town on my bathroom and kitchen floors. However, in my mop naivete, I didn't wring the mop out after dipping it into the bucket every time. So I ended up with floors covered--covered--with suds. At the time, I was thinking, "Oh, my floors will be so clean!" Until I finished scrubbing and looked over my soapy, watery (but clean) kitchen floor. Then I was thinking, "Okay, . . . what now? What do people do now? I think maybe I did something wrong. . . ." I called my dad to find out, and he just laughed at me. Per his suggestion, I ended up mopping up the suds with nearly an entire roll of paper towels, then using a clean, non-soapy mop (wrung out, of course), to de-soap the floor. After I told Nathan what happened, he told me I had no choice but to blog about this fiasco so you could all see what a doofus I am sometimes. Like you didn't know.

:)

12 Weeks Old

Today is Noah's 12-week birthday, and guess what he did! He rolled over for the first time! And guess what else! I actually caught it on video!!! I saw him as he was halfway there and quickly grabbed the camera!



Okay, I actually annoy myself with my high-pitched enthusiasm. Feel free to mute.

Lauren's New Mom Survival Kit

Lauren's New Mom Survival Kit:

1. Sling. These are great because they allow you to be hands free for a while. You can check email, do the dishes, grocery shop, etc. The baby is happy because he is right up against your body, can feel you breathing, hear your heartbeat, etc., which is all soothing to a kid who just came out of there, anyway. Noah usually falls asleep in the sling, and it's usually a good, deep sleep, so that I can then take him out and put him down without waking him up. Be sure you get a good one that doesn't hurt your back. I like Hotslings.
   
2. iPod. Apparently there's a hormone that's released in your body when you hear a baby cry. It's designed to stress you out. Great. Like you need more stress. Well, since new babies go through periods when they cry A LOT, this can get kind of overwhelming, especially when you are rocking the baby for 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes, trying to get him to go to sleep, all while he's crying his little head off. I found that one way to keep my sanity was to listen to my iPod while I was trying to put Noah to sleep. You can still hear the baby, but it is enough of a distraction to keep the blood pressure in check.
3. Paper Cups and Plates. A nice stock of them, to keep you from having to do dishes for a few weeks.
   
4. Bible! To keep your spiritual sustenance up!
   

If nursing:

1. Boppy Pillow. I know that generations and generations of women have nursed their babies without boppies, but I do have to say that it is definitely helpful, especially at night, because I could rest my arms on it. Basically, it saves me some energy.
   
2. Nursing Bras. Really important! I like Bravado.
   
3. Nursing Nightgowns. My mom got me a couple of nursing nightgowns, for which I am very thankful. They really make things easier when you are half asleep!

To all moms out there: What would be in your new mom survival kit?