Prom On A Budget

With Prom season in full swing I can’t help but see many news stories both online and on the local tv channels about how expensive prom has gotten and how much money parents are willing to pay to make their kids happy.  In some cases parents are spending just as much for the prom dress as they will their daughter’s wedding dress!  Seriously?  That’s just ridiculous.  It’s a high school dance. It’s one night.  With the economy as bad as it is right now you would think parents would be looking for more ways to save money instead of spending so extravagantly!

As I was discussing this with my sister-in-law who will be attending her first prom this weekend I thought back to my own proms.  It doesn’t seem like my proms were over a decade ago, but I admit they were.  Even then there was the crowd of kids who spent extravagantly because they could and the crowd who did prom on a budget.  I, of course, was a budget kid, and I had a great time at both of my proms.  I didn’t need a ton of money and an outrageously priced dress or fancy limo to make it a fun night. 

There are many ways to avoid spending an arm and a leg on prom attire. 

We had a “dress rotation”.

I had a few friends who graduated a year or two before me or who went to other schools.  We were all relatively the same size, so we rotated dresses.  Even in a school with small class sizes (back then) there was no “oh my gosh isn’t that ****’s dress from last year?”  Trust me.  Everyone is too worried about how they look to care if you recycled a dress!

Buy at a discount.

Out of 3 military balls and 2 proms I only purchased 1 dress, my junior prom dress.  Even that dress was purchased off the rack at a discount because of one minor flaw.  The straps were beaded, and one tiny bead was missing at the very bottom of one of the straps in the back.  That discounted the over $100 dress to $30, and was just right for me.  Was my whole night ruined because of a missing bead?  Of course not!  Even if I’d worn the dress as is it wouldn’t have been noticeable, but the straps needed to be taken up a bit for the dress to fit, and that part of the strap actually ended up being removed from the dress entirely. 

Rent a dress.

Personally I never rented any of my dresses, but some of my friends did.  If you’re looking for a designer gown this is a good way to go.  You can rent the dress for less than half the cost of buying it, and since you’re only going to need it for one night you don’t have to worry about that dress hanging in your closet with no where to wear it.

Thrift stores are prom dress gold mines.

When prom season is over thrift stores are flooded with prom dresses.  This is a great way to pick up a beautiful dress on a tight budget.  Many stores save these dresses until the beginning of the next prom season and put them on display then giving you plenty to choose from.  Others will place them on the floor at the end of prom season, and you can pick up your dress for the next year.

Buy online to save money.

There are tons of prom dress boutiques online that offer dresses much cheaper than you’ll find in your local stores, and you have a much wider selection to choose from.  When shopping online keep in mind you must know your exact measurements before ordering.  Many of these online stores will charge a restocking fee if you have to send the dress back because it doesn’t fit. 

I’m thoroughly enjoying the fact that I get to help my sister-in-law get ready for her prom tomorrow night, and I admit as I’m doing her hair and makeup I will probably be reliving a bit of my own prom through her.  She’s saving even more by asking for my help instead of going to some overpriced salon for some curls and a pretty style that I can just as easily give her.   I did bring in some backup in the form of my teenage cousin  who specializes in having her hair just right and in all kind of funky styles, someone who did her own hair for 3 proms and will definitely make sure SIL leaves happy.  It’s going to be an afternoon of girly fun while the men head to the shooting range, so I think we’re going to have a lot of fun!

Red Dye & HyperActivity: My Own Findings

Last night I made my list of things to do today, and it was a rather long one, but today hasn’t gone as planned at all.  Let me back track to yesterday and maybe even a little beyond that.

Actually we’ve been having some issues with Ellie for awhile when it comes to hyperactivity (beyond the normal toddler stuff) and extreme tantrums.  She doesn’t cause herself bodily harm, but she will definitely try to cause harm to other things around her.  When she’s pitching one of these “mega tantrums” she will kick, punch, and throw things at whomever or whatever is in her path.

She’s always on the go, but some days she’s much worse than normal.  If she’s a 5 on most days she’s more like a 30 on these extreme days.  When it first began happening she was taking Zyrtec, and the fits were happening in the middle of the night.  It was like she was having night terrors, but according to most “experts” she would’ve been too young to have night terrors yet.  Still, the doctor took her off the Zyrtec and switched her to Children’s Dye Free Benadryl after a few other prescription trial and errors, and the night time fits seemed to come to an end for the most part.

As she grew older and more foods were introduced to her diet we slowly watched the fits and extreme hyperactivity return.  It was obvious to both of us her moods changed drastically based on certain foods.  Even though the doctor claimed taking away red food dye was an “old wives tale” I did it anyway.  The improvement was drastic.  Ellie has been on a *mostly* red dye free diet for a few months, and we haven’t had any extreme temper tantrums. 

Until yesterday.

I was on the phone with my Dad, and Ellie got on the phone and said “Papa Clyde bring me ICEE! I want green ICEE!”  He laughed and told her he didn’t know where to find a green ICEE, but he would bring her an ICEE. He stopped by Burger King and got her a small Cherry ICEE, and against my better judgment I let her drink it. 

And now I really regret that decision.  Let me note that I normally let her have a small amount of Coke ICEE as a reward for using the potty, or we’ll use our snow cone maker at home to make her a slushie with syrups I have puchased without red dye. If we buy a slushie at a gas station I always choose a flavor that is least likely to have red dye (although you’d be surprised what contains red dye), and she’s ok.  We can rule out the sugar overload as being the culprit because the only thing that changed is the red dye.  Drinking that small Cherry ICEE was red dye overload for her, and she turned into a totally different kid. 

She wasn’t just bouncing off the walls.  She was mean.  She pitched multiple extreme tantrums where she threw things, screamed until she lost her voice, banged her head on the floor, and tried to kick holes in the wall behind her bed.  She bit, slapped, and kicked at me when I would attempt to pick her up.  She pulled the arms off one of her hard plastic baby dolls, and threw them at my head.  I’ve had to take the arms off those dolls before to drain water when she’s put them in the tub, and it takes a lot of strength from me to pop an arm out!  When she finally went to sleep well after midnight she woke up every 45 minutes or so in a screaming rage. 

Today has been better, but we’ve both been so absolutely exhausted.  My Nana wanted to see her this morning, so I let her go to Nana’s house mostly because I was too mentally exhausted to argue.  Bubba had been hiding in the utility room most of the night, so he finally came out and curled up on his pet bed to get some uninterrupted sleep, and I knew I needed to do the same. After I napped away a bit of the exhaustion I headed next door to pick Ellie up from Nana’s, and we discussed last night’s events.  She told me how things had gone at her house, and although better Ellie was still acting out and pitching tantrums over a few things.  Then she refused to use the potty at all and would purposely pee her pants (after informing my Nana she was going to do so).  We don’t know if that’s connected or not…you never know with a potty training toddler although she’s been daytime trained for awhile now. 

The bottom line is we both agreed red dye is a no no!  I don’t care what the doctor said.  I grew up with kids who had reactions to red dye.  I know other parents, especially with children with ADHD, who have told me red dye made a big difference, and now I’ve seen it first hand in my own child.  Ellie’s diet will now be completely red dye free if I can help it!

Quiet Morning & Vacation PLanning

Ellie spent the night with her Grandma last night, and Ben had a side job to finish this morning.  That meant I had the house all to myself until Ben picked Ellie up on his way home this afternoon. On Sunday mornings Ellie is usually my alarm.  Sometimes she’s equipped with a snooze button if I let her crawl up in bed with me for 30 minutes or so, but most of the time she’s ready to get up bright and early. 

I took advantage of the morning without the fam and slept away.  I had 10 uninterrupted hours of sleep, and it was almost noon before I crawled out of bed.  I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I woke up without feeling like I needed to stumble straight to the coffee maker.  I didn’t have any coffee at all this morning.

Ben and Ellie made it home around 3pm, and she was so worn out from all the playing she did at MomMom’s that she went straight to bed for a nap. Ben and I took advantage of that to sit down and talk about planning the Orlando vacation we’re wanting to take at the end of the Summer. We think Ellie is big enough now to take on a family vacation and enjoy it. She’s still too young for a lot of the things we’d like to do, but I’ve been checking out things she can do with us. I’d really like to take her to Sea World. I’ve been to Disneyworld multiple times, but I’ve never been to Sea World. I think it would be a great experience for both of us, and if I’m lucky enough to find myself pregnant again by the end of the Summer I think I’d have an easier time there than at Disneyworld.

I still have a lot of things to look into before we make any final arrangements, but I know I need to get our plans figured out so I can get things booked before too long.

Funny Words

After a week of being little Miss Cranky Pants I’m so glad Ellie is in a great mood today.  We visited my grandparents this morning, and she thought everything my Papa had to say was absolutely hilarious.  When we came home it all continued.  We were watching tv, and if she heard a word she thought was funny she repeated it and laughed.  I’m sure Ben will probably wonder why in the world she’s been running around the house saying turnbuckles and laughing, but it seems to be her new favorite word right now. Nevermind that she has no clue what a turnbuckle actually is. It’s just funny to say.

Naked Butter CocoaLotion Lotion & Massage Bar Is To Die For

Oh my goodness my legs are so in love right now.  What’s this new romance?  They’ve fallen for Naked Butter CocoaLotion Lotion & Massage Bar.  This pretty little lotion bar has been sitting in my drawer for a couple months taunting me, so with shorts season in full swing I finally decided to give it a try.

il_570xN.315022277

I rubbed the bar all over my legs after I showered last night, and I must say my legs have never felt so good.  I suffer from really dry skin on my knees and ankles (yep, I’m that white girl with the ash that won’t go away), and this is by far the best my cracked and dry skin has looked and felt in a long time.  When I crawled in bed Ben remarked on how smooth my legs were, and said whatever I did I needed to keep doing it!  I’m definitely going to be sad if I don’t have more ordered before this bar runs out, so I need to put an order in soon. 

The cocoa scent is nice.  It’s a light and natural, just how I like it.  I’m not big on heavily scented lotions and creams because it makes it hard to pair a strongly scented lotion with a favorite perfume.  There are absolutely no worries with this lotion bar.  It smells absolutely chocolaty divine!

Cocoa Butter, Bees Wax, Coconut Oil, and Jojoba Oil make up the ingredients list, so I also don’t have to worry about irritating my sensitive skin.  That’s the beauty of raw ingredients. They’re good for your skin, and if you do happen to have a reaction to something in the lotion it’s very easy to pinpoint which ingredient may be causing the problem when there are so few of them.

I also love how the lotion and massage bar is smooth on one side but has a nice rippled type pattern on the other.  The smooth side was great for rubbing over my legs, but the patterned side is going to feel very nice during a massage, and I think that’s exactly what I want right now.  After the week I’ve had a nice relaxing massage is just what I need to release some tension, so I’m going to jump in the shower and hopefully convince Ben to finish off my night with a nice massage before I drift off to sleep!

I highly recommend picking up one of these little lotion bars for yourself.  At $3 each or 4 for $10 you really can’t beat the price for the little bit of heaven you’ll get from this bar.  Stop by the Naked Butter Etsy store and pick one up for yourself, or check out the other products available.  I definitely see a large order in my future!  Now, I think I should get back to that massage idea!

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Free Web Hosting | Thanks to Credit Union Rates, MMOs and Audio Store