Action Shots

We got some fun action shots when Jake was snowboarding in our driveway during one of our big snowfalls a couple weeks ago. He was so excited that it was snowing so much that it took some of the ickiness out of it for me. He loves sledding, snowboarding, etc. He gets creative thinking of things to use for sliding down the hills. We have skateboards without wheels covered in tinfoil, plastic, wax, etc. He's nothing if not imaginative. This is actually a plastic snowboard that we found at Toys R Us. We used the burst option on my camera so that I didn't only catch the picture right before or after he caught air!

He gets a little blurry.


Ok now he's just a phantom snowboarder. Which is kind of awesome.


There he is.

He had fun!

Go Ahead, Make My Day

I haven't blogged forever, but I was sitting here unashamedly and at the top of my lungs, singing "A Little Fall of Rain" from Les Miserables on repeat in my Itunes, and was thinking about the best moment earlier today and had to share it.

I read my horoscope out loud to Jake in kind of a silly announcer voice. It said:

"Feel free to take charge today, Natalie. You are able to win people over with your smile. Talk with the people and get a feel for their wants and needs before you proceed with your plans. Realize that your actions will have a profound effect on the people around you. This is your opportunity to shine. Take advantage of your tremendous communication skills and your ability to relate to others."

And then he said - Wow that is perfect for you. That is you in a nutshell. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I about died. 1: That he would say something so amazingly wonderful. and 2: That he thinks that. Totally made my day, week and year. I couldn't believe it. I am hoping to gain a more positive self-image, and I'm really working on self-love. I just can be so super hard on myself, and of course I had the negative commentary running through my mind "yeah I express myself well when I'm not stumbling over every word like an idiot," etc.......) so that is why this meant the world to me. Happy day. :) My son is a sweetheart.

Healthy and Tasty Greens

For my birthday, I received one of the best gifts ever! This beauty:

A Vitamix! We found her second hand on Craigslist and I am in love. It is a blender with 2 peak horsepower and makes beautiful green smoothies. It is such a great way to get veggies in our diets and I am so excited to quadruple my veggie intake! (Or more.) I have known for a long time that I needed to increase the amount of vegetables I eat, but usually could only bring myself to get 1 or 2 in per day at most.

Right now I have 6 jars in my fridge. A couple for my mom, a couple for Jake, and a couple for me. I make Jake's with a lot more fruit, some yogurt and less veggies so that he will drink them. You can barely taste the greens! I could make them with a little less, and you wouldn't be able to taste them at all. Really! Hopefully, he will get used to the taste and I'll be able to add even more greens.

Aren't these pretty?

The bright green one was the first one I've made where I felt like I had to write the recipe down. I have just been throwing in whatever sounded good together, including kale, parsley, spinach, carrots and carrot tops, strawberries, blueberries, apples, etc. They have all been good, but this one is my favorite so far. If you are going to make green smoothies, you can tailor them to your own tastes - you can use lots of fruit, you can make savory smoothies with only veggies and maybe a tomato... whatever your heart desires. I don't like it too sweet - smoothies that are all fruit are way too sweet for me, but adding some fruit in with the greens makes it delicious.

Pretty Bright Green Smoothie

1 to 1 1/2 C. water

1/2 small to medium head of romaine

2 large stalks of celery

3 large handfuls of spinach

1 frozen banana

About 12 oz pineapple chunks (I used canned because it was all I had, but fresh would be fantastic.)

Dropping In

I have some pictures to post, but I don't know how to get the printer to download them from our memory card, and too tired/lazy to figure it out right now. So I am just going to stop in and say hi, I'm still alive, and will put up some posts with pictures soon. Jake has started 9th grade. I'm so glad he has a fun class - percussion - because it makes the whole day better for him. I am struggling with getting up with him at 7 am, because for some reason morning hours are the only hours I ever really feel like I sleep. I don't want to miss the time with him though. He is just growing up too fast.

We had a really fun last bit of Summer. My brother and his wife visited my sister in PA and brought my nephew Sam back with them, so we got to spend lots of time up at Gram and Pa's house watching the kids swim, jump on the trampoline, etc. Kids are such a miracle of life and are my favorite kind of people to be with. They are filled with unconditional love, fascination with almost everything, joy, purity, and beauty. I am so grateful for them and the happiness they bring us. I love how my parents have taught me to appreciate kids and babies. They delight in every little action and movement, and I have definitely inherited/learned that from them.

8/9/10

I'm just dropping in to say "Hi" since it has been so long! I thought it was such a cool day to have a birthday... 8/9/10, so I had to post it!! I think that means it will be a great year! I'll try to post some updates soon.

Cake Wrecks!

I took a break from my sleeping/resting/sleeping schedule that NAET has so kindly required of me to do something super fun! The people behind the hilarious Cake Wrecks blog came to our town and my sister Suzanne, her friends and I love the blog, so we signed up to go! John and Jen are the married couple behind the blog and are both so funny. They shared a slideshow of some really crazy (and some creepy) cakes and then we stood in a long line so that Suz, Kara and Jana could get their books signed. John came around and talked to us in line so that was cool. He took this picture of the crowd while they were doing the slideshow. (This picture is from their blog - I just cropped it so you could see us a little bit.)

See those faintly circled partial heads? From left to right, the circles show me, my sister Suz, Kara's forehead and Jana. It only looks like there are people sitting in between us because there were a ton of people there. We are straining to see the screen because it was kind of low and the place was packed to the gills. We had so much fun!

Updates

Thanks SO much for all the kind words and prayers for my dad.

He is in the hospital with shingles. He is in a lot of pain. But anti-viral and fluid IVs are helping him get better. Ironically, the cancer drugs didn't make him sick (yet... crossing fingers) but the anti-viral pills he was on sure did. He is off the cancer meds for now so his immune system can fight the shingles.

Just so you know, if you ever get shingles (and now that I have seen pictures of my poor dad, I sincerely hope you don't), apple cider vinegar can really reduce the pain, and possibly even shorten the time you have the virus. I found this link and my dad said that before the acv, his pain level was very literally at an 11 on a scale of 1-10. And he has a high threshold for pain. After a few treatments of letting gauze soaked in acv sit on his face, the pain went down to a 5. I am so glad he had some relief and that he is now getting good care at the hospital. (He was too sick to even make it up there the first couple of days.)

I am finding things to eat again and am not quite as frustrated. That's good. Because I need to eat.

I have a tiny bit of energy back, and am not in bed 24/7. Yay.

Jake is enjoying Summer!!! I LOVE how relaxed and happy he is during the Summer. We are friends, instead of me having to drive him all the time to finish homework, etc. etc. He does chores with hardly any complaints because he wants to earn allowance.

I loved the Little Dorrit series that just played on PBS. SO GOOD. Did anyone else catch it? Their Oliver Twist was amazing last year too. I'm so mad I missed the airing of Emma earlier this year!