 Hey guys, thank you so much for joining me. It's me Monica. I know it may sound a little different, but I've lost my voice, so it's been One massive thing after another and so I'm gonna share with you a few of my favorites And then just kind of give you an update on what's been going on. So if you're curious, I hope you stay tuned I feel really terrible because my last video was before Easter and I can think and I've got it to a video, but I've been like sick and As you can tell my voice is gone. It's it's actually this is the best. It's been in a couple of days and It's just I don't know. I have a head cold. I Strain my voice teaching talking, you know too much in class, etc So I'm kind of suffering with my voice. It may go in and out or Hopefully maybe after I've talked for this whole video, it might be a little smoother Anyways, what's been happening? Since gosh my last video was right before Easter It a lot's been happening actually and a lot of it has to do with my mom who's not doing well So she Jay and I picked her up for Easter and I have a video of her in the car I'm not going to play it here because she was taught. It's a real long video when she was just talking about What Easter was like when we were in Germany when we lived there? And so it's a really awesome video, but it's probably something more that just family would enjoy but anyways, we we brought it to my sisters and You know a bunch of the family was there not everybody and I'll superimpose a couple of photos in here But my mom hasn't been feeling really well and she a lot of this started when my dad died she stopped eating healthy because she didn't have to cook for my dad anymore and You know one thing led to another and then my brother died a year later And I think in the last two years for her to have just had so many Traumatic events really affected her health She started to not be able to eat a whole lot and we thought well, you know, she's lost a lot of weight We didn't know but this last couple of weeks. She's had no energy. She's been cold all the time She's very anemic. So we brought it to the doctor She had cat scan took a cat scan my sister brought it to the doctor. So my sister and I and Jay have been really Running down there checking on her or bringing her food. So I've been so busy with mom stuff and work stuff and then also Being sick myself that I just I didn't have anything much to talk about on a video and And that's pretty sad because I really wanted to get back into a consistent pattern of shooting videos So I kept saying, well, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna talk about a little bit of my favorites but give you that update about my mom because I may not be as consistent as we're going through some some issues because My mom lives independently When my dad was sick my mom was there to help, you know, take care of him and do things with him And my sister and I would fill in and go down there and do as much as we could but there was always someone there Not with my mom. There's no one there. So it's much more time Consuming and I and I'm so thankful that I live close enough that I can do that, you know So thankful that I I can spend that time with her and help her But it is time-consuming and so therefore it impacts my work a little bit and it certainly impacts my YouTube videos But I'm hoping that she pulls Through meaning that her, you know, she's on iron pills. We're bringing her to a GI doctor on Tuesday So I'm hoping that everything gets ironed out ironed out and she starts to Rebound, you know starts to find her spunk or mojo and and all of that because she really hasn't Been herself in a while and that weighs heavily on us all So I thought it she had that as you know, so that you guys know because I know some of you've reached out to me directly Asking what's going on and it's mainly family issues and then my air my recovery on my air was a little bit more difficult my throat For right after my surgery, I couldn't swallow I couldn't talk of course that went away And now I'm having a throat issue, but that's for a completely different thing But I had my stitches out I think I talked about that in my last video and that was kind of like really freaked me out in I'm on three weeks of light duty, which I told Jay included no dishes no cooking no laundry Do that was hysterical in reality. It's just I'm not supposed to lift I'm just supposed to take it easy. So my air is doing good. I'm still I had my plastic surgeon consult For my Mohs surgery and I'm hoping that the beginning Monday or Tuesday We get that scheduled. I don't know when it's gonna be I don't know if I'm looking at a month out two months out three months. I don't know but so that's in the works but With my mom and everything that's happened with her it makes me appreciate my health all the more and a Friend of mine is going through some real joint issues and all that and I'm like going. Oh my gosh, you know all the tests I've had yes, I'm overweight, but everything has come back really good on myself Except for of course my Mohs and my ear and all that But I think a lot of it has to do with some of the things that I've been doing So we just ordered another bag of this. I mentioned this in my favorites all a lot and We have we've been doing this consistently since 2016 I think it's made a huge difference on us and Like anything you have to be super consistent You can't just take it one day and then take it the next week. This is a daily thing I take it in the morning and I take it at night So you have to get into that pattern of consistency now They've come out with a bunch of different flavors on this. I haven't tried any of them This particular package was bought 12 26 20 21. We date the packages So we know how long it's gonna last us and we're getting ready to place Or maybe he's already placed another order of this, but I wouldn't be without my collagen So repeatedly that has been a consistent favorite of mine The other thing that's a favorite and I just reordered this this is the apple cider vinegar and these are I mean these are gummies These are really good for my gut health. I think it it I can't say it's made me lose weight I think some people said it helps them with their diet and But me I think it's helped with my gut My gut, you know the health of my gut. I feel fuller. I like it a lot and I've been using it Consistently as well. I think it was Sheila. I can't remember when Sheila first mentioned this Sheila I think gosh, it might have been a year ago now, but I just ordered four more bottles of it So this to me and I get it on Amazon. This to me makes me feel full Jay loves it We both feel full. We both have a lot of energy. We both believe our gut health benefits from this so I've been on a Sunblock quest and the Sunblock quest is because There was a study that and here I'm going to mention Sheila again. She had brought it to my attention There was a study on an ingredient in Sunblocks tying in potentially potentially I'm not not a scientist I'm not anything just as potentially anyways the study Concerned me enough that I'm on a quest to try to get Sunblock without titanium dioxide. I don't know if I'm saying that right So Sheila did a bunch of investigation and we found super goop. Let me show you Super goop Unseen Sunscreen and this is a 40 SPF. It comes on Claire. It's almost like in both Marlene Both Marlene and Sheila had said that it was almost like a primer now My skin is very different than their skin. My skin is super dry I put this on after I do my skincare in the morning and I've been putting this on and it is very much like a primer It kind of smooths out. It's it's clear You don't see it you can put a quarter-sized thing on your hand and you can put it on and then you just you just let it dry and Then once it's dried I think I wait about maybe 15 or 20 minutes and once it's dried Then I go in and I take a little bit of my primer put a little bit of my putty primer on my nose And then I do my makeup and then during the day during the course of the day I have not yet Reapplied this on top of my makeup. I still have some other sunblocks that I use that I can powder on or put on I'm just not happy with the full ingredient deck On it. I think I think the more you read about that titanium Dioxide that one ingredient that most of your sunblocks have and that there is starting to be a correlation between hair thinning and men and women That have high levels of that in their bloodstream and it's it is hugely popular ingredient in sunblock So I'm saying that not to to have you all go crazy and say oh, no, I can't use sunblock No, you have to use sunblock, but I am just on a quest to try to find a sunblock That doesn't contain that so that I I feel that Because my hair is thinning right and I use a lot of sunblock So maybe maybe I'm jumping the gun too soon. I don't know but I'm gonna play around with it I'm gonna keep looking for more sunblocks that don't have it So right now the super goop the unseen is perfect. It works really well with my skin I love it the other thing and I eyes right my my eyes, so I've been on the wrist aces this is a It is a prescription. It is quite pricey And I can't find it and reliable Rx or it seems to be the only thing that is helping my eye my eye has been so Good since I've been using this but again like everything else. This is super consistent. I use a drop every morning I use a drop every night Consistently and it made a difference, but I didn't really start to notice that difference till I don't maybe six weeks in So this stuff for me pricey, but it's the only thing that has helped my eyes So far with my dry eye. I really really love it. So Facial patches because I've been going through so much stress I don't think my frownies are helping my 11s right now. I wake up I take my frownie off my my 11 seems somewhat smooth and then I'm up an hour and they're there these big ruts right there I don't know whether I need to have some sort of treatment, which Jay freaks out about but I can see that my 11s And I think it's the stress and it's the worry of everything that's going on right now. I think that's really Causing it. I've placed another order because this particular one is empty And I have a few in my other box But I placed another order I'm going to keep using it And I'm just going to hope that my stress level gets contained so that it isn't So through the roof basically through the roof Mascara, yeah, I love mascara a while back and this is going to be a Sheila video I think because I mentioned Sheila left and right But a while back Sheila had talked about this mascara that she found that did an amazing job on her lashes And she said it was a kids mascara. I'm like, all right. Yeah, okay so it's petite pretty and it is a kids mascara and So I I bought it. It's a small little tube and It's kind of gunky right now because I've been using it, right? But it's a small little tube and what I've been doing is I've been putting my my essence lash princess on and then this is the Topper and it's really made a difference. I think it's really made a difference So I think this is pretty cool for a kid's mascara. Why is a kid's mascara better than an adult's mascara? I don't get it, but I'm loving it. I'm using it. Thank you, Sheila I keep meaning to mention it and I think I just keep forgetting it But I do love this. So this is a great mascara and I think if you it's pricey though, I think but My lashes love it My lashes love it. So anyways, I can tell my throat is getting really raw right now Hopefully I'm gonna be able to superimpose some of the photos that we've had for our, you know, Easter and all of that I'm just gonna ask you all to keep my mother in your prayers And I will update as much as I can. I will come back. I have a whole stash of empties I want to do. I also have a week reviewer that I want to do and I have not done anything. I'm like so Bad right now, and I just think I'm torn in too many different directions. So hopefully Hopefully so thank you so much for watching and one of my other favorites are always all your comments I may be very slow in responding right now because of everything, but I read them and I will get to commenting back I just want you all to know that I appreciate them all. I appreciate all your support and Yeah, and if you have it already, you know, stop taking the collagen and I think that Long term you can be better, especially as we age. I mean I always say into Babs Take control of beauty. It was like saying senior. It seems so weird to say that I keep forgetting to ask for a senior citizen's discount I don't feel like a senior But I am a senior and you know that brings me to my Apple watch because my Apple watch is probably my all-time favorite I've been trying to get back into a routine of exercising of walking you to see what I did this morning It's awfully cold out there. I'm still very very slow, but you know, I'm only a few weeks post-surgery So I'm very very slow, but I'm hoping I can increase that and go out on a consistent level But my Apple watch records my walks even in general and it'll analyze my gait my my thread of falling How healthy my my heart is at the time that I'm working out and exercising There's a ton you might have to activate some of those health benefits in your Apple watch if you haven't if you have a watch And you haven't done it. There's a ton There's a ton of of health benefits that you can read Granted like anything else you could probably go crazy, right? It's not to be a doctor analyzing yourself You don't want to do that but being aware of your body and being able to compare today to last week to last month And you can start to see trends, you know and all that so to me Probably my all-time favorite my Apple watch and the health benefits So Yeah, and I oh and I also ordered a bunch of glasses off of Amazon And I also got a new pair of eyeglasses. I got my eyes checked and finally got my new glasses But I did order a bunch of glasses because I was looking for glasses that would Function so they're ugly is all anything right? I have several in the car But to function as a way to block the wind When I'm riding my bike so I looked at safety lenses, and then I decided I was gonna order a few off of Amazon Which I did And I'll let you know how I like them, but I need something that's gonna block the wind because the wind will dry out my red eye my dry eye Red eye it'll dry it out. So that's not really good. So anyways, I'm gonna stop gabbing now because I can feel this and Thank you all so much for your support. I'll see you in my next video. Hopefully it won't be so long You