A blog named BETTY

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Consumer Alert

We went to Seven Peaks--one of those water parks on steroids--this week, and it was fun! But let's not dwell on the positive. I had bought a can of spray-on sunscreen, because that extra effort of having to RUB on the stuff had gotten to be just too much for me. So I sprayed, and I sprayed, and I sprayed my little heart out. The girls were covered. (And by girls I mean the real, little human girls--not "THE GIRLS" like they mean on Oxygen T.V. Although, those ones were covered too, and the world thanks me.) I sprayed some shots on me in what I like to call the 'a sunburn here makes me incredibly grouchy' spots. Mainly, these spots are the very top of my legs, the bendy area just next to the armpits, and my back and shoulders. All of these are areas that hurt like the dickens when trying to sleep, move or breathe. On top of that, they are NEVER exposed unless I'm at the pool, and then I just pretend I'm invisible anyway. So why have them tan? This is my reasoning for just hitting them with sunscreen from the get-go. (I have many rituals, er routines, when it comes to sun exposure, but let's save that for another time. Can't wait.)

After we'd been at the park a couple of hours, I started to notice the girls (again...real little humans) getting a tad pink. So I reapplied. I know you're always supposed to do that with any sunscreen, but I usually don't and have never had trouble with it. But this time I DID. On them, mind you--not on me, because I can't SEE me nor the lobsterish transformation beginning to take place.

Soooo, you might have guessed by now that my new spray sunscreen did not work all that well. A half hour after leaving the park, we were in pain. The girls (again...) weren't terribly red, but they're little girls and felt for sure that they were going to die of pain. Since I'd used it only on the above-mentioned never exposed parts, I couldn't see the red, but I sure began to feel it. It's 3 days later, and I finally can wear clothing again (not that I am, but I could if I wanted to. hee).

In case you missed it, I set out to protect the tenderest parts from sun damage, and by so doing, ended up burning them and only them. That, my folks, is what people like to call irony.

But here's the public service part: DO NOT BUY BANANA BOAT KIDS SPF 30 SPRAY SUNSCREEN.

Learn from my mistakes. Now that I think about it, that could be the theme of my blog. "Learn From My Mistakes."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Erin, I feel for you. I as you know have also been unblessed with paper skin and I have had so many burns in my life that I am sure to die of one someday. Remember when you fell alseep in your back yard in Salem reading a book and had a half a book sunburn across your face...he heheheh....I am sure you do.
Malinda

Jeni said...

The Williams skin strikes again! Man, it's been rough having to grow up as a sun-phobic. Sounds like you and your girls (the humans of course...) know what I'm talking about!

Alaina said...

I like that spray stuff! BUT I've never had to use it when (or where) it counts. Hmm. Thanks for the warning.

The Andrew Family said...

How funny, I wake up everyday saying, "I could wear clothing again, if I want to."