 Hey guys, it's Monica. I'm going to share with you a couple of things that I've been doing to try to manage some stress while you know, still maintaining my schedule, visiting my dad in the hospital and in the rehabilitation center working full-time trying to take care of myself. Do you realize that it's something like a hundred and ten million people in the United States die each year from stress-related issues and like when I read that I was like going holy cow and also they call stress the silent killer. I think most of you know that but the thing is that you don't even recognize when your body is under an extreme amount of stress and sometimes especially if you are you know, a very busy person you have a lot of things on your plate. Sometimes you don't stop to do the things for you that you should be doing. You're taking care of everyone else. You're doing everything for everyone else but that number one person, which is you, if you fall apart, if you break down you're not going to be any good for anyone else. So I really think that during a highly stressed time that women especially we kind of like take you know, a backseat to everyone else because we're caregivers in so many ways. So you know, the woman, the mother, the nucleus of the family, you know, all of that. I'm a classic middle child and as a classic middle child, I am really the peacekeeper. I've always been that in my family. So and also I have that syndrome of I have to not only keep the peace, I have to take care of everyone. So one of the things and I'm going to try to keep this really super shot because so many of you have asked me how my dad is doing, how are things going and so just quick update on my dad. He is still at the time of this filming in a rehabilitation center. I'm very, very optimistic. I hope that we get some answers. I hope that he gets strong and I hope he gets to come home soon because the whole month of October has been horrible. When I came back from visiting life with Lily, now simply Sheila, Sheila at her beach house and Marlene and her husband met up with us and we came home from that girls with the hubby's weekend. The you know, the October was just starting. And I came home in October 1st. My dad went in the hospital. So the entire month has been crazy. This is the view out my window. I took when we came home. I was like mesmerized because the leaves were coming down and I couldn't believe that in the week that I was gone to South Carolina when I came home. All of these changes out my bathroom window. Well, this is my view today out my bathroom window. Yes, you can see the leaves are down. It's bare and and the thing that it brings home to me is that life continues on. It continues on no matter what. It is a cycle and I want to be here. My baby grandson. I know many of you have known that he was born in October. I'm going to start some pictures. He is he is adorable. He's adorable. I want to be here to watch him grow. I want to be here to see him go to school, to college, to get married one day. I don't know if I'll be here when he has children, but I want to see as much of him as all my grandchildren growing. So I need to stop and take care of me. So one of the things that I do to de-stress and you need to really recognize the stress when you have it. But one of the major things that I do to de-stress is something called skin care. And yes, in October it kind of like went by the wayside. It was sort of slap happy. I just kind of put this on that on. I didn't spend a lot of time indulging myself like I should have like I was doing. I was just stretched too thin. I was going all over the place just going crazy. But one of the things that I want to talk about because this was sent to me and you guys know that I'm a trophy skin lover, this was sent to me complimentary from Trophy Skin. I have the Trophy Skin Label. I have the Trophy Skin Microderm Abrasion. I love those devices. I bought those devices. I use those devices. The Label, the spatula, I think I use about maybe three or four times a week and the Microderm Abrasion. I'm probably about once, maybe twice a month now because I'm also still using Retin-A. I'm also still trying to do some derma rolling, things of that nature. So this was sent to me and I, I'll tell you, I absolutely love it. When Trophy Skin reached out to me and they said, would you be interested? I said yes. And this is sort of like what it looks like put together. It comes on a base. This you screw in nice and tight and then you clip on. There's like a little little squeezy thing here and you clip on the light and the beauty of this is that you can shape this any way you want. I'm going to show you what I look like lying on my couch getting ready to turn this on. I put myself in position and then I just reach back and I turn this on. Once I turn it on everything, I mean, I've got goggles on, safety goggles on, but everything is red and my eyes are closed and I'm usually listening to a podcast or a book or I'm sometimes even listening to one of the videos that I like to listen to all the time or watch. But I'm lying there and it's five minutes. It times you. So I got my goggles on and I'm listening. I'm relaxing. I'm working on breathing and I'm working on breathing and then five minutes are up and boom, it's done. I love it. I love it. So I want to get into a real habit of trying to do it twice a day. I haven't been super successful twice a day, but typically I get up fairly early. I wash my face. I just do sort of a light wash because I'm usually okay from the night before and then on bare skin and I will sit under this and it could be while the coffee's brewing or it just could be whatever. I'm sitting here on my couch. I lie on my couch and I have it on. I just twist it, turn it on and let it go. I love how it feels. I want to do it at night. I've done it a couple of times at night. I have to be super careful of my timing because sometimes I come home late and I'm stripping all my makeup off and sometimes I'm doing my skin care, my Retin-A, my CBD oil and all of that. So what I like to do at night when I've done it is I wash my face and I typically will try. I'm trying to go through. This is the color science pep up. This was sent to me quite a while ago. I really like this. There's this is collagen induction. I like to put this on right after this. Now, when you use the Dewey Juvalite MD sometimes after use, that you might feel a little bit of a dryness, not much, just a little. This really makes it feel really good. I let that soak in and I wait. I do whatever. And then as I'm going to bed, what I've been doing lately is as I go to bed, I will apply my Retin-A. I've been trying to do the Retin-A first and then the CBD oil right after it. And that's how that's how my nighttime routine has been for probably about a week or so. I did go to the dermatologist, removed a spot here and I did do that. I mean, I had I had in October, I had my mammogram. I've had major dental stuff visits and I've had this removed as well as everything else that's going on. So I talked to the dermatologist about the CBD, about my skin. He was super, super impressed with the condition of my skin. You know, he kept saying, wow, for your age. And I'm like, oh, wow, yeah, for my age. I don't want my age to define me. How does my skin look? And of course, it's always wow for your age. But he was very, very impressed. I told him how sometimes I do the CBD oil before the Retin-A, sometimes after the Retin-A. I haven't found that magic thing. And he said, you know, if you do it before or after, it really, it doesn't matter. The CBD oil, depending on the complex, of course, is going to enhance whatever products you're putting on. So that's what I'm doing now. I'm using the Rejuvalite every morning and then I do my normal morning routine. And then at night, when I can, I'd like to do it every day at night. I want to do clean my skin, use the Rejuvenate, use the PEP up, try to finish this up. This was sent to me complimentary from Color Science quite a while ago via the Octoly Network. And I really like this a lot. Have I noticed a super difference when I use this? No, but I know that I I know it's doing good things for my skin. And I know that I like the way it feels on my skin. So this has been this has been really nice. But the trophy skin, this this base is pretty heavy. So it's pretty balanced. My only drawback on this is I wish there was a travel size because I'm going on a trip very soon. And while I'm gone, I can't bring this. I mean, I could, I suppose, but I won't because I don't want to jostling around a plane and it's heavy and it could and it's bulky. Even though I can take it apart, fold it up, put it in the box. I'm not I'm not going to do that. So one of these things, these are very sturdy and however you do it, whether you're on the bed or you're on a couch or whatever, it's very sturdy. They always recommend you pick it up by the base, never the handle, because it could loosen the connection point between the elements. So always by the base and then there's no way you can overdo it because it is timed. It's going to shut off in five minutes. So anyways, one other thing I got this week, I got a PR package from Blink and, you know, they have been so, so super good with me because I have used their product, their eyelash serum. I've talked about it. I love it. And they sent me a number of of the serums. So I am going to give away and I'm not going to answer any comments in this video. I'm going to give away four bottles of Blink to two of you. So I'm going to draw two winners in this video. All you have to do is in the comments, tell me you want to be, you want to, you want to be entered into the Blink giveaway. One of you will, I'll draw the first name gets four, then I'll draw a second name gets four. So I'm going to give away eight in total divided for each to two of you. So I am so excited. I love this eyelash serum. It's worked great for me. It may not work for everyone. And I haven't really, actually I've heard really nothing negative. Um, like anything else when you're doing any kind of an eyelash serum or anything on your skin, you should carefully investigate because there can be side effects from anything that you use. So if you're interested, knowing there could be side effects, you want to grow some long luscious lashes and you want to try for the four free things of Blink, make sure you subscribe to the channel, make sure you leave me a comment and make sure you say in that comment, you want to be entered into the giveaway. I'm probably going to let it run for about a week. We'll see that anyways. So make sure you leave a comment, make sure you tell me you want to be entered and make sure you subscribe to the channel and um, and I'll leave all the information for the redruble light, but I'll tell you I really, really have been enjoying that de-stressing process and making sure that I've taken the time to spend on me with skin care. That's really super important. You all know I'm an Apple watch wearer. The Apple watch has a ton of benefits as far as health. It tells me when I'm stressed. It tells me to take deep breaths. It makes me do a breathing exercise. It tells me to stand and walk around. So I'm loving my Apple watch guys. So I'm doing everything I can to stay as stress-free as possible, stress-free as possible. Keep my dad in your prayers and continue to send good wishes to him, to my mom. I know many of you have asked about her. She's doing great. We have, you know, everyone in the family is really trying to come together, help out and, and do all sorts of different things with mom, go to dad, go, you know, we're hoping dad can come home, especially with Thanksgiving right around the corner. We're really hoping that he can make it home soon. So that's it guys. Thank you all so much. Bye bye.