Relay for Life

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in the Fall of 2007. Thank God, she is still here with us today, fully recovered! We are so proud of her! No one doubted her strength, though I am sure it's been tested, I love my mommy :) She is now working for the American Cancer Society down in southern California. Cancer affects everyone, so please join a great cause and Relay for Life!! This is an event that my mom is planning down their area, and my sister is heading up a team. You can form your own team, or join an existing one, but it sounds like a ton of fun! I am sad that the only one in my area I would be able to attend is on my son's birthday, so I won't be joining this year. But I am really looking forward to Race for the Cure in September...

Spring Time!!

Well, my week of vacation is finally coming to end, tomorrow is Sunday :( But, it was really a fantastic week with my family, even though my husband still had to work. It was so nice to feel like a normal family not having to go to work at night. We were also blessed with beautiful weather, so the kids and I were able to play outside a lot! Ethan even learned to ride his bike sans training wheels, and he's already cruisin' like a pro. It's made me even more anxious for our California vacation in July. I can't wait to see my family and the sun and heat and the beach... Disneyland!! :)

So, updates... I did give up on the primal diet after a handful of weeks. I stopped any progress as far as weight loss after a couple weeks and I got discouraged. I still would like to pick it back up and see what I can do to be successful with it. I figure it's worth trying since it really is just always in the back of my mind, and no diet ever stays in the back of my mind, ha ha!

I did get all of my FUN pretty things for Amber's Victorian style room I just need to take pictures of them. My best friend Rachel is currently working on her cute project for Amber's room and she sent me a sneak peek picture last week, I can't wait to get it!

Summer is SOOOO close, the air is pollen filled and sun shining, flowers blooming, can you feel it?! I really can't wait for the kids to be out of school.

Hope you all are enjoying your spring!!!!

Already hitting a stall...

I am at the end of week two of eating primally. I lost six pounds in the first 4 or 5 days, and have lost nothing since then. I am starting to get irritated, eating no grains with no result is a little maddening. I find it hard to keep going when I feel like there is no point, but for now I am pushing on with it. We'll see what happens.

It's almost spring break and next month I have a week off of work. Man am I ready for that! It will be nice to see my husband for a week. It's getting so, so old to never see him and never get any alone time. I am ready to move to California. He keeps saying he has absolutely no interest but I think we'd have more opportunities there. Not that we don't have support here. We love our family here. But, everyone here is so busy with their own stuff... it's just not how I imagined my kids growing up I guess. Everyone says that California life moves fast... Oregon is really no different honestly. Growing up, my sister, brother and I spent all of our extra time at my grandparents house. We could walk over there any time we wanted to play and hang out. We spent the weekends over there. I miss waking up Saturday mornings at my grandparents and hearing my grandma flip through the newspaper in the living room with the TV on and eating breakfast.

Oh well, it's Friday!! Gotta love the weekends.

Here we go... primal

I had dinner with my friend, Debi, on Friday night after work. I had not seen her for a few months, and she looks fantastic!! She and her husband are pretty darn good in my opinion about eating organic, eating well and exercising. I very much admire them. She informed me that they had started a new diet, the Primal Diet, about two months ago. Two months! I still can't get over how great she looks.

Shortly after the new year, my husband and I decided that we needed to start eating better and taking care of ourselves, and we did great... for a few weeks. Man, once you cheat a couple times, it is so hard to get back on track.

I have spent the weekend researching going primal, and I am taking the plunge! The main concept is that you cut out grains altogether, and even cut way back (or out) on dairy. Agriculture did not exist in the time of our primal ancestors, and so the belief is that our genes are not any different now than they were then, so we are not designed to digest grains or dairy.

I love me some bread and pasta. I am worried about how much I will crave not having a sandwich with bread, or ravioli or a cookie or a cracker even. Not that I will never have a cookie again, but I really want to be committed to changing the way I eat. I have already had the notion for quite some time that my body does not metabolize grain carbohydrates well anyway, I have just never had the intention of giving them up.

So, after having read a ton of articles and information on Mark's Daily Apple, I feel confident that there is plenty to eat while cutting out grains. Lots, and I mean lots, of veggies, meat, eggs, good fats... nuts, seeds, etc. and fruit (berries). It really makes a lot of sense to me, so I am excited to see what happens.

I am the heaviest right now that I have ever been, except that I have lost about five pounds so far already before the Primal Diet that I will start tomorrow. The picture isn't a great one of me, because obviously I avoid pictures at all costs. But it is at Thanksgiving. Just a frame of reference because hopefully in a few months I will have a much better one to post!! :)

Renovations and Whimsy

I have had this blog set up, even the background, for such a long time and have done nothing with it! I decided I should probably make use of it. Especially since our lives seem to be getting busier and busier as the kids get older.

This spring (which is right around the corner!) we will be ripping out the carpet in the living and dining rooms, and possibly Amber's room, and putting down new flooring. We are super excited about that! We'll be buying a new corner sofa and rocking chair shortly, and painting every single room in the house. I am NOT excited about the amount of work involved in all of these projects, but I am really looking forward to it all being finished.

I had originally planned to decorate Amber's room in fairies, because, if you know me, you know I am a sucker for them. I have changed my mind however to do a tea garden theme. Yes I know that antique and vintage is another love of mine, but it will grow with her better than the fairies I think. And it's been a fun preoccupation for me lately while we are getting ready to do a lot of hard work! I ordered a bunch of pretty little things for her room from Garden Party Teas and I should be getting most of them tomorrow. I got the white lace parasol today, yay! If you have a little girl that would love a tea party for a birthday, they have a ton of cute stuff and their prices are super cheap! I will be posting pictures of all the projects I'm sure as they are coming along. In the meantime, Victorian Trading Company is also keeping me preoccupied, if I only had infinite money to spend. The picture of the roses I have posted are rose light covers that they sell which I would love to drape over the top of a window treatment or something but I am bummed that they haven't been available for a while on their site. There are several other things I love, hmmm.


Anyway, we are currently just plugging away, working too many hours and not sleeping enough. I will be deciding on my school plans very soon, and my plate will be back to overflowing. Our trip to southern California in July can't come soon enough! Bring on the sunshine!