Life

Hello. Is there anybody out there??

I've neglected my blogs for so long, I'm sure I'm just talking to myself. Which is fine. There's so many things going on in our lives, in my head, that it'll just be good to write. They say writing can be therapeutic. I'm counting on it.

Here we are, the middle of May. It's hard to believe we are almost half way through 2018.

What's even harder to believe...we are literally weeks away from Hannah graduating High School. Two weeks from tonight to be exact! Three weeks and our baby will have promoted from middle school and will embark on her adventures of High School come the first part of August.

We're so proud of both our girls, they are most excellent students and generally pretty good people. LOL. We've gone to about half a dozen award ceremonies in the last 3 weeks for Hannah, Rachel's award ceremonies start next week. It's been busy, busy, busy. That's what you get for having children that are smart and accomplished.

Speaking of which, Hannah was accepted to ten colleges!! In January, we took a weekend to go out to Arizona to tour two of the colleges she'd been accepted to. One was in Phoenix, Grand Canyon University, and the other was in Flagstaff, Northern Arizona University. Steven and I both loved GCU - beautiful campus, pretty new, Christian. We came home from that weekend and Hannah had already purposed in her mind she wasn't choosing either of those schools as they were simply too far from home. They were the only school's she'd applied to outside of California. She had her heart set on the local Cal State University, where she basically received a full ride to. We'd already told her she could live on campus. It was twenty minutes from home. It was going to be the best of both worlds - she'd be off at college, but close enough she could come home for dinner one night or for the weekend, etc. Going to CSUSB was pretty much set in her thoughts. And then...

A teacher encouraged her to step out of her comfort zone. Go away to college where she could recreate herself and make new friends, etc. Hannah starting thinking. And then she did it. She committed to Grand Canyon University.

For a week and a half leading up to her official committal, there wasn't a single day that I didn't shed some tears. The day we knew she'd be calling the college recruiter after school, I had tears in my eyes the entire drive to taking Rachel to school. I couldn't get her to school fast enough, drive up the street a bit and pull into a parking lot and just cry. It was one of those times where you just needed a really good cry. I can't remember the last time I just had a really good cry up until that point. I sat in that parking lot for half an hour! And while it's gotten a little easier, there are still times when tears fill my eyes. I think to myself, if we can just get through the first "goodbye", it'll be easier as she comes and goes on breaks, holidays, or long weekends.

Enough about that.

So school will be ending. We have a huge graduation party planned for Hannah. And then the following weekend, we'll celebrate Rachel's accomplishment of promoting from middle school. The week after that is two nights of VBS, which I'm in charge of, the morning after the second night of VBS, we are off to Florida!! We're going to Walt Disney World!!!!!! And then we'll spend two days at Orlando at their Universal Studios. We have Comic Con in July, and then it's off to GCU for Orientation the end of July. And in mid August it's back to GCU to move Hannah into the dorm! There's so much going on, lots of adventures, lots of memories to make, lots of life to be living!

20th Wedding Anniversary

Six months ago on this date, Steven and I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary.

Twenty Years. I can't believe it's been twenty years.

On one hand, it hardly seems possible for it to have been that long, and yet on the other hand, it feels like that day was an entirely different lifetime.

The last couple of years we kept saying we were going to go to Hawaii for our 20th anniversary. But as our anniversary got closer, we knew Hawaii wasn't going to happen. But we wanted to do something extra special for our big anniversary.

So we stayed at The Hotel del Coronado!!! It was absolutely wonderful!! While it would have been the icing on the cake to have a room with a full ocean view, this was the view from our room....

On our actual anniversary, we dressed up and had dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. It was on the patio and we had an amazing view of the sunset and had an amazing evening celebrating. 

March 23, 2016 ~ Our 20th Anniversary

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood!

One of the big events here in Southern California this past weekend was the return of Garth Brooks touring. It's been 20 years since he last toured and he was in Anaheim for the last 3 nights. My Facebook newsfeed had several friends posting pictures of themselves at the concert on Saturday night.

Yesterday morning before church started my friend texted, said she had a ticket to that night's concert, her husband did not want to go, the ticket was mine if I wanted to go with her. Um, yeah!!!!

This is Garth Brooks returning World Tour after not touring for 20 years. What a concert!!! One things for sure, Garth puts on an amazing concert! Once he finally graced the stage at 9:20pm, he sang until midnight!!! With the exception of 4 songs by Trisha Yearwood in the middle of his set.

I cannot remember the last time I went to a Country Concert. I'm thinking before Hannah was born. I've seen Randy Travis a couple of times at our old church, but that wasn't a true concert. I had a GREAT time and I forgot how much fun a country concert can be and how much I enjoy the good old country music of years past!!! 

Work for Hire

The girls are getting older and there are opportunities arising for them to be more social, go places, do things. Translation: money is usually needed.

Last month, we let Hannah drive to a friends house on a Friday afternoon. Because her friend is always treating her to Starbucks, Hannah wanted to reciprocate. Thus, a $10 stop off at Starbucks. There's a possibility she could have her own car in the next few months, thus she'll need gas money.

Last week, on the day Rachel get's out for minimum day, she wanted to go to the local yogurt shop because that's where all the kids go on minimum day. I dropped her off and ran to the grocery store just a block away. But her yogurt cost money. I see more opportunities arising for her to be social as well.

We've never given our kids an allowance. There are just certain things you do when you're part of a family (dishes, cleaning rooms, cleaning their bathroom, things like that).

Our kids also lack for nothing. They each have a working iPhone (Rachel's is a hand me down), they each have an iPad and/or laptop, we buy things for them. We go places together, go to the movies, out to eat, treats here and there, etc.

But I got to thinking with all these opportunities arising to be social, why not make them work a little bit. Therefore I created a "Work for Hire" Board.

I'd see the idea on Pinterest and made ours to fit our family. I first wrote out a list of jobs I wanted done, and then attached a monetary value to it. I made a list of jobs not eligible for pay (their normal everyday/weekly chores), as well as even included an extra advertisement in the corner of someone else with "work for hire" jobs (Gramma!!) and then I printed it all out. And finally I went to the bank and got enough cash to cover the jobs so that the girls could be paid upon completion. With Hannah, she has the option of taking the cash, or I can transfer funds to her debit card.

I put it all together yesterday and it hangs in our laundry room. Hannah spotted it. I don't know if Rachel has yet. With the weekend upon us, perhaps there might be some little worker bees about our home!! 

Las Vegas!!!

Our family are big time reality television junkies and one of our family's favorite shows is American Ninja Warrior. In April, Steven, Hannah, and I went to the Los Angeles taping and loved it. So when the tickets became available for the National Finals in Las Vegas, I jumped at the chance for tickets!! 

I have lived my entire life in Southern California, about 3 1/2 hours from Las Vegas, and HAD never been until this last June!! I've half jokingly suggested Vegas as a get away for Steven and I over the years and he's never liked that idea because he hates Vegas, or he did over 20 years ago when he last went. I've always wanted to go.

It happened that Steven would be in London for business the week of the Finals and would not be able to go, but that didn't stop us girls! I love road trips and had no problem going just the three of us.

Our tickets were for 8:00pm on a Thursday night. Because I wanted to make the most of our time and see all I could see, we left our house at 6:00am. We made it to Vegas by 9:30am and for the next 6 hours, we walked half the strip, in and out of all the big hotels and shops and malls.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!!! I love Vegas, I love the glitz, the lights, the big hotels, the big gaming tables in the casinos, all of it. I would go back in a heart beat!!!

Mind you, I know that this is "Sin City" and there is a lot of improper stuff going on around there. I was warned about literature that we'd see or try to be handed and I was warned of the street walkers. But I gave my girls the lecture ahead of time about staying close, not accepting ANYTHING from anyone, and to listen to me. And let me tell you, our experience was absolutely pleasant!! We saw nothing inappropriate, was given nothing, and were not bothered in any shape or form. It might have helped that we did not walk The Strip after dark, but we had no problems in broad daylight. 

We checked into our hotel about 4:00 and freshened up before heading out to where we needed to be for American Ninja Warrior. The ANW experience itself wasn't successful, we stood in a line for over two hours before obtaining a wristband that sat us where we absolutely could not see anything. And because so few of people had made it past Stage 1 (the night before) there was a slim chance that anyone would even make it to where we were seated (Stage 4). So we left shortly after 11:00pm. We went back to our hotel and got Starbucks at one of the three locations in our hotel, and then went for a drive down The Strip to see the lights and glitz of the night!

The next day we got up and did the other half of The Strip, exploring some more hotels and shops, etc. before heading for home mid afternoon. While I wouldn't try for tickets for ANW Finals again, I would definitely go back to Vegas without any hesitation! It was a great start to our summer vacation adventures for the girls and I!

Hellllooooo from Disneyland!!!

The girls have been in school 3 weeks now and with a longer time frame between dropping them off and picking them up, today was a perfect day for working out of my Anaheim office! 

It's a beautiful day! Crowds aren't too bad, nice breeze, but really, I'm just happy to be here! And yes, I am here alone. 

As I was walking through the parking structure to get to the tram, there were so many moms strapping their kids into the stroller, loading it up for a fun Disney day ahead, just as I did for many years! I was never afraid to come to Disneyland by myself with the girls like so many moms I do know. It's hard to believe that one of those girls could technically and legally drive herself to Disneyland!! 

Today, there are a lot of summer day camps in the park. I imagine the majority of these kids are in summer camp as a result of both parents working. How neat that they get to have such Dave tired during the summer break! And at the same time, I am so very grateful to be a Stay at Home mom who is able to take her girls on summer time adventures! 

A New Way of Eating

For years, I've suffered from chronic headaches. It wasn't uncommon for me to have a headache 6-7 days out of the week, ranging from migraines, to sinus headaches, to hormonal headaches.  Over the counter medicines absolutely did nothing for my headaches and I did not want to go to the doctor and get put on some heavy medication.

Wanting to try the homeopathic route,  I went to to an essential oils party last Fall. I learned which oils worked for headaches, and I purchased some outside of that party at a local health food store. They worked a little, but not a whole lot.

For months a friend kept telling me I should go see her chiropractor for my headaches. And for months, I kept saying I was going to go, I should go, etc. The first week in February I did it. I saw this chiropractor who also specialized in wellness and nutrition. My life has been forever changed since seeing Dr. Brian.

The first month, I was put on a special diet, whereas I ate foods off an approved food list. It was free of sugars, preservatives, artificial foods, processed foods, etc, etc. I was clean / whole eating, taking a variety of supplements as well. Dr. Brian diagnosed me with a fungus (candida) in my intestines and the new diet and supplements would ail that from my body. A month later, I was fungus free, but most importantly..... I was HEADACHE FREE!!!!!

Through my new way of eating, and with Dr. Brian's help, it was discovered that I have a sensitivity to soy!!!! I also have a dairy sensitivity, which I kinda new I had.

From there, I did a 10 day liver detox and had other supplements added. I lost 25lbs in about 7 weeks!!

From the start, I became an avid label reader! I never knew how much crap was in our food. All the preservatives, added fillers, etc, are not good for our bodies! I am astonished at how much better I feel and I didn't even realize how crappy I felt!!

It was sometime during the second month of my new way of eating, that I took away all the breakfast processed foods my girls ate. Our mornings are crazy and early and convenience foods (frozen waffles, frozen pancakes, french toast sticks, breakfast corn dogs, etc) were always readily available in the mornings. I stopped buying it all together, and now the girls have Cheerios, egg burritos, homemade waffles, homemade french toast. Since then, I've also slowly started getting away from the processed lunchbox snacks and replacing them with homemade cookies, although it's been hard the last month with it being so hot and not wanting to turn the oven on!


It was also at the end of February, that Steven and I started working out on our Bowflex three times a week for strength training. When I started out, my total weight volume was 3,900 lbs spreadout in 7 exercises.  And now, my total weight volume is 21,300 lbs!! Tonights workout is my 75th workout! I'm stronger, I can feel definition in my biceps and triceps.

I continue to clean/whole eat with very little refined sugar in my diet. Once a Milk Chocolate Girl, I am now a lover of dark chocolate!!!! I also stay away from processed foods.

Unfortunately, I've been experiencing a plateau in my weight loss for the last 4 months. But Dr. Brian keeps giving me tips and advice and I'm currently working on getting in 10 servings of vegetables a day and really boosting up my protein intake. It is a challenge to say nonetheless!!

But I feel better, I only suffer from headaches if I accidentally eat something with soy in it (soy is literally in EVERYTHING!!! Soybean oil, protein, etc). Choosing and watching what I eat now a days isn't only about wanting to loose weight, but it boils down to not wanting to feel crappy as a result of eating certain foods!