CharleeWith2Es

'They' say that people buy direct sales products (anything your friends are selling on Facebook) from people they know and trust. 'They' also say that to create a sustainable direct sales career you need to push beyond the people who know you and trust you. You can't and shouldn't expect your friends and family to build your success. I agree! Network marketing seems to be the new "thing to do." This generations Avon lady, except instead of going door to door you sit on your couch or in your car using your phone and Facebook to run your empire.  I started out with one direct sales business and a few months later joined another. Not because I'm a greedy opportunist - I seriously worried that everyone would assume this, and yes, I know I shouldn't worry about what anyone thinks, but I'm human, it happens. The first two reasons, which are on equal levels, for why I signed up with these two businesses were because: 1. I LOVE the product...

Not a day goes by where a person, stranger or not, asks me, "So are you going to try for a girl?" I think it has become more of a small talk topic than actual curiosity. Kind of like, "So, do you think the rain will hold off today?" Maybe it's a welcome change to the constant weather talk. At least that's what it's like where I live. "It's so cold today! It's so hot today!" We as a community have chronic 'chit chat about the weather syndrome'. But when someone sees a family coming with more than two children of the same gender it's as if the weather thoughts escape their mind and THE QUESTION becomes the only question they have for us. And I totally get it. I do the exact same thing to other people and I even wonder the same thing about myself. Curiosity is a part of human nature. This type of curiosity should have a filter on it but I wouldn't be writing this blog if it did:) And in the end, life is a mystery, regar...

Wow! It has been way too long since I've been here. Life kind of got away on me. One baby, then another, then another....the days, then months, then years turn into a big giant blur of awesomeness mixed with extreme sleep deprivation. But the great news is that I'm back. Maybe not regularly, but I'll definitely pop in more frequently. Let's see, last time we talked I was a young and naive twenty something with too much free time. Haha, I laugh at myself. I'm grateful to have had those days, it makes me be okay with being who I am now. I had loads of me time...loads of it. I don't think I fully realized how much of myself would be given to my children....there's a tiny spec of me left each day, from about 9:30 pm - 11:00 pm, but I'll take it. The good days, the bad days, the snotty nosed, tantrum filled days, I'll take them all :) Instead of watching movies and finding new music, I'm organizing play dates, driving to activities, help...

Hello long lost friends. It has been awhile and that’s my fault. My only excuse is that there are lots of things going on in my world. Whenever I write/rant about music it typically involves an indie band or an unknown singer/group. I love mainstream too, I just don’t tend to write about it because you should already know about it. How can you not when radio stations, TV shows and music channels inundate you with top hits and chart breakers. But…..this artist is making a comeback and deserves some talk about. Eminem. His new album 'Recovery' is receiving rave reviews and even entered the charts at number one and might I say, well deserved. The lyrics in these songs are more than just words. They are deeply personal to the point that you feel like you are intruding on someone’s private thoughts or as if you are eavesdropping on a therapy session. Bravo to him for putting it all out there. Music is always better when it comes from truth, passion, experience….Life. I don't ten...

I watched this video today and literally started a waterworks display. The kind where you laugh so hard you cry, your stomach hurts, you gasp for air then comes the phlegm cough. I had a serious case of phlegm cough after I watched this video. I should have stopped after watching it once but it was impossible. I watched it over and over again. It's just too good to watch once. This is a video of Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph and Maria Bello at a press junket for their upcoming film Grown Ups. Watch Salma, then listen to the screams, then watch her climb Maya Rudolph. This my friends is viral video gold. Warning, you just might pee you pants. http://vodpod.com/watch/3803153-snake-on-a-set-watch-salma-hayek-freak-out In case you weren’t sure what she was freaking out over….it was a snake. Watching Salma climb Maya was AMAZING. I break out into a fit every time I even think of it. Enjoy!

Hey Friends. I came across this Australian brother/sister group, Angus and Julia Stone on a gossip blog today then went to their MySpace page to check them out. I love MySpace for this reason. I love how easy it has become to share your talents with the world. This is how it should be. I think we would all be surprised to learn how many talents were discovered from their MySpace pages. I can spend hours/days on MySpace searching out new music. It’s not a waste of time; it’s a passion because music just makes life better. They have nine songs on their MySpace music player with a considerable amount of views. After listening to the full gamut I think Paper Aeroplane and Big Jet Plane are my favorites so far. There is an ethereal charm to some of the lyrics that bring back nostalgic thoughts of your youthful days while others help you ponder the soon to be great moments of your future. It's one of those musical bridges from what has been to what is to become. Julia and Angus share l...

It’s no secret that I have a bit of an obsessive disorder. Not obsessive compulsive. I don’t need to turn the light switch on and off ten times to makes sure it’s off and I don’t wash my hands five times in a row to make sure they are clean. I just obsess over things. Like new favorite foods, music, movies. I develop a very fast comfort zone and I very much enjoy my comfort zone. Over the weekend I saw the trailer for Matt Damon and Emily Blunt’s new film called The Adjustment Bureau. Oh. My. God. I can’t stop watching it. The emotional build up of the music is so intense. And their chemistry….I never pictured them together but now that I see them it makes perfect sense. Check out the trailer here http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/adjustmentbureau/ then we’ll talk about it. Okay, did you watch it? Because we can’t talk about it if you didn’t watch it. It won’t make sense. First we need to talk about Emily Blunt. I’ve decided that she’s my new favorite actress of the late ...

Over the weekend we spent some much needed time catching up with two of our best friends. They are busy, we are busy, life gets in the way – you know how it is. Pretty soon half a year has gone by and you’re left wondering where the hell time went. Anyway, a new restaurant/club opened up in the downtown core and we decided to venture out of suburbiaville to try something new. This place was a twenty five and older type of joint. This is a good thing. My friend is a teacher and the last thing you want is to run into your students trying to get into a bar with a fake ID, then witness you letting loose. Oh God the embarrassment. No, you should never actually see that your teachers have a life. There’s just something so wrong about that. Anyway, as we ate, laughed and told stories about what has been going on in our lives, we all performed the ‘seat dance’ at our table. The music in this place was awesome. Think Dance Mix 94. I’m not kidding. Each time a new song came on, we’d all stop f...

There hasn’t been a whole lot of exciting stuff on the go lately however there are a bunch of things coming up very soon that are setting me on the verge of a clappy jump frenzy. It all started last week when Oprah interviewed those Twilight kids in preparation for the June 30th release of Eclipse. For the past few months I have been happily living my life without the need to call upon my Twilight friends. (Don’t worry; I completely realize that I’m a total geek, you don’t need to remind me). I was patiently waiting for June 30th to arrive but then I watched Oprah. It wasn’t so much the interview that got me excited it was the clips they showed. Boys oh boys, it looks good. Better than the first and second installments. I think the cheese factor has been considerably reduced…let’s hope. That night, after the vision of those clips had been stewing in my mind, I decided to grab my copy of Eclipse from the book shelf and begin reading. Problem…the reading didn’t stop. I finished the book...

Wow, it’s been awhile. Apologies. I have been rather lazy lately, but then this little gem came along and naturally I had this great urge to share it with you. Yes, that’s me, compulsive sharer. Have you ever heard of the band My Morning Jacket? My music pimp had played them from time to time and I always liked what I heard, but it wasn’t until this weekend that I fell in love. We picked up three of their albums and listened to them all. My favorite is their live album, Okonokos. In the words of Barney Stinson… Legendary. I’m not kidding, I sent one of the songs to my brother and the only thing I said in the email was: “Be prepared to have your life changed!!” As a side note: Isn’t it great when the person you share your life with enjoys the same kind of music you do? It’s this thing that bonds us together even more than we already are. We have this great passion for great music. I couldn’t imagine it if we didn’t have the same taste when it came to musical artists. There’s nothing be...

Surprise, surprise, I watched a movie this weekend. I had wanted to see this one for months now. First it premiered in London under the title Pirate Radio and it seemed like it took forever to get a North American distribution date and once it finally did it only played in select theaters. Boo! Well, it finally came out on DVD under the title The Boat That Rocked and it sure did rock. The first thing I want to make note of is Tom Sturridge. Where have you been and when can we see more of you? My God – how can you not fall for Young Carl? He’s just the cutest. This movie is a comedy which takes place in London during the 60’s when rock music defined a generation. At a time when the government tried to control what the people listened to and instead of listening to the government, a group of rogue DJ’s took to the sea’s to give the people what they couldn’t live without…Rock Music. Can you imagine how different the world would be without The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elvis ...

It’s kind of ridiculous how much I LOVED this movie. I watched it twice…in the same day. It’s no secret that I love the British Royal family. I love the monarchy. I love being part of the commonwealth. I love it all. In fact – When Will and Kate get married I plan on taking the day off to watch the ceremony. Of course my dream would be to physically attend the wedding…but I doubt that would ever happen. Anyway…when the movie ended for the first time, I ran downstairs in a frenzy to find my Will to tell him all about it. I was tripping over my own words with the excitement of it all. I wanted someone else to watch it so I could talk to them about it. Eventually I, without too much persuasion, convinced one of my co-workers to watch it…AND….she LOVED it also. Now I have a partner in crime to talk to about it. The Young Victoria stars Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria and Rupert Friend as Prince Albert and it really focuses on the love story between these two and honestly, it’s epic. The sto...

Today’s blog is rather random and comes on the heels of learning some disappointing news and it’s Friday so what the hell. I’ve mentioned my love for Kate Hudson before. One of the biggest draws I had to her was the fact that she had no boobs and didn’t seem to care. She wore skimpy bikinis and tank tops sans bra all the time and she looked great. Her beauty, charm, confidence and ability to wrangle any man she wanted always overshadowed her lack of boobies. She gave all of us no-boob girls hope. She made us feel like we were all silly over having boob insecurities. Yesterday I read that Kate Hudson got a boob job. No! Why? Kate, you can’t do this to us. You are the no-boob poster girl. Why are you leaving our boobless club? Was it something we said? What made you fall to the pressure of having boobs? I’m not saying they look bad. Actually they look great. They look like real boobies. Very natural and perfect for her shape. I’m happy to say she didn’t go for the Heidi Montague special...

On my constant quest for new to me music I came across the artist known as Lissie. Um, Wow. I’ve been missing out and if you haven’t heard of her yet, then so have you. But fear not, this is why I’m here. Now we both know about her. When you listen to her tracks there is one thing you will pick up on. The simplicity of her sound and the roughness to her voice makes her perfectly imperfect. Her deeply endearing lyrics float effortlessly from her lips transferring every emotion of the song straight to your core, fueling your soul with certainty and your mind with clarity. It would be impossible not to be moved from the sound of her voice. It’s chilling yet beautiful if that makes sense. As I roamed from track to track, each song showcased her phenomenal voice and song writing ability. There is something so completely natural about her. Nothing showy or over the top…only truth. She’s got a country/rock/blues/folk thing going on, reminiscent of Stevie Nicks and maybe a hint of Janis Joplin...

Do you ever have moments when you look back on your personal fashion history and cringe? Of course you do. Come on. We lived through the eighties and nineties. There is a time in my fashion history that I look back on and shrivel up with embarrassment. I’m happy we didn’t take as many pictures back then as we do today. I’m happy the only evidence of this fashion faux pas resides in my memory. Remember when all us girls wore little plaid skirts with socks that went up over our knees? Remember when sometimes those socks were crazy colors or they had so called ‘funky’ designs on them? Don’t get me wrong, they looked great on some girls. Not so great on me. But, since I was big on ‘must fit in,’ I just had to have these over the knee socks and I just had to wear them like all the other girls. Problem. My legs were like twigs. Seriously. There were times when some people actually called me Olive Oil, you know, Popeye’s wife. They called me that because of my sticks for legs and arms. They ...

I went to my hair stylist this weekend for the usual cut and color. I have been going to the same stylist for almost six years. It’s part of my control freak nature. I know her. I know she’s good at what she does. I trust her. I know she’s not going to let me walk out of the salon looking like a poodle or a super freak. On top of that, she’s one of the coolest people I know. Not cool like the popular kids in high school. Cool as in she’s 100% completely and totally her own person. Just the sight of her radiates an aura of coolness. If you didn’t know her you would be intimidated by her cool factor. Yes, she’s that cool. I must at least get some points on the cool-o-meter just for knowing her. Every time I check in with her I learn something new in the world of music, literature, fashion. She’s one of those ‘go to guides’ for upcoming trends in anything and everything. And it’s not like she goes looking for this stuff, she’s part of it. She lives it therefore it surrounds her. We were c...

I had the chance to hang out with one of my younger cousins this weekend. I always love catching up with him. He was an old soul even at the age of three. I can remember having a conversation with him when I was twenty three and he was thirteen. Here’s the kicker. He was giving me advice on life. Advice that made perfect sense. And it wasn’t the kind of stuff he simply regurgitated after hearing it somewhere else, it was deep seeded wisdom. I don’t know where he gets it, but he’s got it. Anyway, he’s nineteen now. At an age that makes me jealous of him…in a way. Jealous because he’s so young and he has so much ‘time’ and opportunity to figure out what he wants. But then I’m not jealous of him because I was that age once and I had the ‘time’ to figure it all out and now I must say I have a great life. Not to brag or anything, but I feel very happy…very satisfied. Then you turn around and look at this nineteen year old again and say to yourself “Wait, am I satisfied? Am I happy with all ...

I don’t often go to the theater to watch movies. I would say I average around six theater movies a year. I prefer to enjoy films in the comfort of my home. I love to lie on the couch, wrapped in my favorite quilted blanket with a snack – guaranteed to be better and cheaper than anything you can find at a movie theater. I like to be able to press pause if I need a bathroom break. I’m one of those people who will not leave the theater. I don’t care if my bladder is about to explode. I can’t stand missing a part of the movie, especially when I paid $15 to see it. Instead I will squirm in my seat, re-positioning myself a dozen times and when the movie ends I practically stampede my way out of the doors and to the nearest washroom. That doesn’t sound like fun does it? You’re exactly right. It’s not. So I usually wait until the movie comes out on DVD and I watch it at home, that is unless it’s a movie I have been aching to see or it has great effects (i.e. Avatar). Some movies are just bett...

This is my latest obsession. It’s a good obsession. THE PACIFIC is a ten part miniseries airing on HBO on Sunday nights brought to you by the same production team who gave you Band of Brothers. I’m talking about Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman. Already three episodes in, I can honestly say this miniseries is more than epic. This miniseries is story telling at its best. I often find that people of my generation think of the world wars and remember stories their grandparents would tell them. And when you look at your grandparents telling these stories you forget they were once young too. You forget how tough they must to have been to go through this time and survive. I feel so privileged to say that not only I could I not ever even imagine going through what they did but I’ve never even had to consider it and this is all because of the sacrifices they made whether they consciously decided to or were forced to. When you watch this show you will see how these soldiers or rat...

All aboard Jamie’s train. Next stop, Healthyville. I can’t tell you how happy I am that this movement is in place. I think many people for many years now have been trying to get ‘the system’ on board with healthy eating to promote healthy lifestyles to combat the HUGE problem of obesity in America. Sometimes it takes a little glam and celebrity pomp and circumstance to make a difference. Think of all the celebrity telethons over the years to raise funds for those in need. Or how about Oprah’s book club? Think of how many people read because she told them to. There is no doubt that Influential people have the power to not only make people listen but to make them act. Well, it’s HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!! Yes we can, Yes we can, Yes we can. On Friday night I sat down to watch the first two episodes of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which aired on ABC. This show serves up a heaping pile of rude awakening and I really hope the viewers don’t leave the table until that pile has been digested. For ...