Gettin' Our Healthy On

 I've always been into a healthy lifestyle (except in college, there was nothing healthy going on) because my parents were very active and into alternative medicine and health.  My dad played professional football and came in 4th or 5th place in the Worlds Strongest Man Contest then went on to get his black belt in Jiu Jitsu and just when I thought he couldn't get anymore insane, he got into the ring with Butterbean (but we don't talk about that, he's still won in my heart and if I ever saw that animal again, I'd kick him in the face for that sucker punch!) just because he's always bettering himself and seeing how far he could push his limits.  My step mom was a world champion kick boxer and trainer and with my dad they opened their own gym and have been setting the standard in training in many different fields.  And my mom, she was always beautiful, skinny with glowing skin and she taught me how to take care of myself.  To this day, she has amazing skin with no Botox!  It's really impressive.  I'm still looking for Botox in a bottle, if you have suggestions, send them my way!

Yesterday I finally went into this little store that I have been wanting to get to for a while now in Bossier City called Sunshine Health Foods and Cafe.  The woman who helped me was so nice and knowledgeable and got me exactly what I was looking for quickly.  (With a wiggly toddler in your arms, you know how appreciated that is!)  I used to drink Shakeology and I really liked it.  I need a meal in a glass, it's just the way it is.  But I got pregnant this past spring and I started to do research on it and I realized it wasn't what I should be taking into my body.  It wasn't natural and the vitamins and minerals it had in it probably weren't absorbing into my body like it should.  Along with the chemicals that I couldn't pronounce, there were just too many things I didn't like about it once I did my research.  I also don't need to lose weight, so if you take it to lose weight then good for you!  I just am maintaining.  Everyone likes different things, I'm not judging.  Unfortunately, I lost the pregnancy and it was a pretty traumatic experience (2 surgeries, just awful).  So I have been really adamant about trying to keep my family and myself as close to the Paleo-ISH (hence the ISH) lifestyle as possible.  Sometimes, it's not working, it's life, but I really try to make it a point to eat as natural and whole as I can.

As most of us normal people know (no not you, crazy health fanatics, you're a different breed, but just know I am jealous) it's not easy to be healthy every day, 24/7.  So I started looking for a multivitamin to start us off and a natural shake we could drink in the mornings.  The woman who helped me at the store showed me the Garden of Life Kind Organics Women's Multivitamin and the men's version.  If you do your research you'll see it has:

Clean, Right Down to Our Patent-Pending Tablet Technology: Where many other vitamin "tablets" use unrecognizable things such as magnesium stearate, stearic acid and lac-beetle resin (shellac) to bind and fill the tablet, Kind Organics are uniquely formed using ORGANIC, WHOLE FOODS.

• Certified Vegan, Gluten Free and NO Synthetic Binders or Fillers
• 16 Vitamins & Minerals with Greater than 100% Daily Value
• Certified Vegan D3 from Lichen for Immune Support^†
• 10mg of Iron for Blood Support^†
• 500% Daily Value of Vitamin B12 (Methylcobalamin) for Extra Energy^†
• Targeted Levels of B Vitamins, (from Organic Guava & Organic Holy Basil) for Radiant Skin & Nails^†

 So I really liked how it sounded so I bought them for my husband and I and I also picked up their Perfect Food Raw veggie juice powder and I loved what I read about it:

Capture the power of the sun with Perfect Food RAW, packed with the power of 34 nutrient-dense, RAW, organically grown greens, sprouts and vegetable juices for the RAW ENERGY you need every day.^† Just think of it as RAW organic veggie juice in a bottle.

Perfect Food RAW is RAW, whole food nutrition providing naturally occurring antioxidants, enzymes, amino acids, essential fatty acids, and dozens of phytonutrients. Bursting with prebiotics, probiotics, and enzymes to support healthy digestion and nutrient absorption,^† Perfect Food RAW is the convenient and sensible way to get your veggie juice every day.

Perfect Food RAW provides foundational nutrition your body craves to support:

• RAW Energy^†
• Immune System Health^†
• Healthy Detoxification^†
• Healthy Digestion and Elimination^†
• Healthy Blood Sugar Levels^†1

We started on the vitamins and shake yesterday and I really like it so far, only time will tell when it comes to natural ways but considering its vital nutrients that we are getting, I can't wait to see what differences it's going to make!  

I have been making the shakes with Silk Dark Chocolate Almond Milk and today added a scoop of organic peanut butter and although the taste isn't terrible by any means, it made it better!  Anyway you can get the nutrients you need, I say go for it!  I also looked up the powder online and it got great reviews and ratings.  As with anything, do your research and find out for yourself!  Cheers to your health!  

Megan

Venturing Out... (to the mall)

I had a very mom moment this morning:  I got Averie and I all ready to go to our Gymboree class this morning and just as I was getting in the car, I realized, its Thursday.  Averie had just moved up to the next class and it is actually on Wednesdays now.  I blew it.  I actually got a parents.com email in my inbox around this time asking for readers' #parentingfails.  I should've just tweeted them on the spot.  I started to get the princess out of her seat when she started another epic meltdown.  We are having many of those recently.  So I figured I had to take her somewhere.  My husband's birthday is coming up next week and I had to get shopping so I decided to go to a place I have only been very few times here in Bossier City, Louisiana: the mall (play dramatic music).

In Pittsburgh, everyone goes to the mall.  There are many malls.  You go there just to get out of the house, you don't even go for shopping some of the time.  It was a way of life for me.  But down here its a little different.  Nobody goes to the malls!  There are only a few stores in our mall that is closest to us that I actually shop in.  I have actually fallen in love with boutique shopping that dots main roads through this little city.  Of course there are the big box stores, and Target, even a Super Target on Youree Drive!  My husband hates it, but if you know me, you know my love for a good Target!

But boutique shopping is extremely hard for me.  I want to look in every corner and shelf lined with beautiful fabrics and accessories and try everything on, all at once!  I have just one little, precious problem... an almost 2 year old named Averie.  See, she will be an awesome shopping partner when she grows up because she has already proven that she, like me, wants to try everything on all at once!  She throws herself from the sturdy seat belts of her strollers and leaps into stacks of cotton shirts, naming all the colors she knows and dragging them around to show everyone she can find.  She pulls the scarves from their hangers and drapes them around her neck like she does with mine and starts to sing "Let It Go" from Frozen.  Between the sunglasses on display and the dreaded moment when the cuteness turns to destruction as she pulls a necklace from the top of a table, there I stand.  Praying I don't have to follow the "you break, you buy" rule once again.  It really amazes me how she can go from 1 to 100 in 5 seconds flat.  

So there I am at Pierre Bossier Mall promptly at 10 am when stores open hoping to find something for my husband.  "I just want to get one thing, just one to start," I think to myself as I hear it: that whine that precedes her escape plan.  And we aren't even 50 feet from the entrance!  I swore by our iPad for the past several months as a means of keeping her occupied with educational games and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so I could get my errands done as quickly as possible, but now, it's not working.  As I make a mad dash past the children's play area (I would return to that after one store) and past the blinking lights of the arcade, the cookie shop, Gelato stand, I finally make my exit with only a few shrieks from the peanut into Sephora in JC Penny.  Cologne, yes!  I'll get him a new bottle of cologne for a starter gift!  The sweet gentleman working commented on how cute she was as she screamed and struggled her way out of the stroller and made a bee line for the Philosophy section.  (What can I say, the girl has good taste!)  I once again promised she wouldn't wreck the store... I need to stop making promises I can't keep and just say "she might tear this apart, but you'll forgive us, right?".  As I quickly make exchanges with the attendant on colognes and perfumes, I hear her grabbing sample picks and bottles.  And then it happens.  I tell her no and to put it down and she puts it down alright.  She throws handfuls of stuff onto the ground then throws herself on top of it, kicking and screaming.  I gather her and her mess up and fight her back into the stroller where I once again try to get her attention with the iPad so I can check out.  And then she does it.... I hear that iPad hit the hard ground and I don't want to look to see if it took anything else out with it.  I thank the Lord that screen didn't break, again, and I pay and get out of there.  I know he was glad to see me go.

This is now my sweet little princess.  The terror of her reign scares us all.  I am not a pushover mom, or at least I hope not.  But I do believe there is a time and place for discipline and I am trying to figure out when Averie will understand.  She will be 2 in a month and I am already seeing my future outgoings becoming in-home stayings.  Averie was colic from 6 weeks to 8 months (and that's another future posting) and I can honestly say that was the darkest time of my life.  When she hit her 1 year birthday she was this vibrant, excited, happy, sweet baby girl.  The one I dreamed of!  And now, she's reverting back.  Oh, I pray everyday, please Lord remind me this too shall pass!  But it is hard.  And I hate keeping her home, it's just become so hard to take her out!  As I chatted with my girlfriend on the phone on our way home, she asked if she is getting her 2 year molars?  MOLARS?!!  Oh yes!! Maybe that's it!! Oh my poor baby!!  I think to myself as I am trying to get her lunch before her nap, "she just needs mommy to make her feel better!" Then we sit for lunch and she's happy!  For just a moment she smiles!  She lays her head on my shoulder and then tries her best to scoop up the little shells onto her blue spoon (she tries so hard) and then they fall before reaching her mouth...  with one swipe of her chubby little arm she sends the bowl off the table and into the window before falling into my lap weak with frustration and failure.  Oh my poor baby.  WELP! That's enough of that, nap time!



So I really didn't intend for this posting to be about THE TERRIBLE TWOS but I guess that's the way it's going to go.  I really wanted to talk about this awesome perfume I picked up!  Of course I got one for my husband, but he may read this so I can't say which one yet!  But I needed a new one too, so I got a small bottle to try and I am IN LOVE!!!  Omigosh it's the perfect light summer scent!  I keep smelling my wrists because it smells that good!!  Anyway, I highly recommend it!  It's Escada Born In Paradise.  Amazing!!  It's not too fruity, fresh with a hint of coconut.  I'm hooked!

Anyway, nap time is almost over and I have a mountain of laundry to do!  Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my misery and delights of the day!  Wine sounds good right now...

Megan

Update:  Aves woke up right as I wrote my name and I was able to take this sweet cuddle picture...  I hope this lasts for at least 30 minutes!!

Dressin' Up My Landscaping

When we drove into our neighborhood for the first time, I just was in awe of how beautiful every house was.  And the landscaping in the south is just a dream for me!  I am just in love with the front porches, hanging plants, palm trees, magnolias, hydrangeas, and on and on!! I was so happy that the house we chose had everything I wanted, especially a big beautiful yard and a front porch!  

I am spending lots of time researching southern landscaping and since I'm an amateur gardener and pretty much know nothing, I'm looking for trees, plants and shrubs that will be easy to maintain.  I am going to keep the rose bushes and add some of my favorites.  These are what I am considering now:

The Windmill Palm

Frost Proof Gardenia

Endless Summer Hydrangea

Debutante Camellia

And Mosquito Grass

My husband has apparently encountered 2 rattlesnakes in the past few days and one happened to be near our house!  Oh my goodness has this sent me into a researching frenzy about these horrible creatures and found some remedies that I am going to try to keep them AWAY from my yard.  So I will be trying moth balls and powdered sulfur.  I will be spreading that around the perimeter of my property like they spread salt around the little girl in Hocus Pocus.  Or garlic to keep away vampires.  You get the idea.  If anyone else has any tips to keep away uninvited pests, PLEASE let me know!

Southern Way of Life - Makeup

I have been dying to write about all that has been going on with our big move!  But I will write a post about that later.  It all happened so fast, in literally a week, but we have officially moved to Bossier City, Louisiana!  We are loving it and I am absolutely in love with the little town we moved into and the amazing house we found!  I am chomping at the bit to get my hands into landscaping our amazing yard and arranging my front porch!  But in the meantime, I have discovered another thing that I need to work on:  my makeup!

It is something that I had forgotten since my days at the University of South Carolina, the humidity.  It is sweltering!  But I love that big 'ol sun that shines down on us all day!  Cloudy, overcast skies were the norm in the northeast, causing the worst of moods to come out of everyone.  But down here, I feel happy and excited when I open all my curtains to the beautiful view out of our windows.  It makes me so grateful for this opportunity my husband has received to move us down here.  It Pittsburgh, we didn't have beautiful neighborhoods with sidewalks and NO HILLS!!  It glorious to me!

Anyway, I realized that my makeup was running off my face when I was outside and I started to do some research on the southern belle face.  I'm loving these tips and tricks of all of these gorgeous women who love where they live and adapt to the weather.  I love that they are always made up to a T and I'm dying to get my hands on a few products!  I don't wear liquid foundation, I wear BB cream and Bare Minerals as my foundation.  But in a recent trip to Sephora, I found this GORGEOUS makeup palette that was not only all natural by Tarte, but it was WATERPROOF!!  I could barely contain my excitement!  What was even better was how beautiful the case was!

                       

It has 6 eyeshadows, blush, bronzer and highlighter inside and they are so perfectly summery and natural!  They stay on my face all day and I only have to reapply once or twice throughout the day (if I'm outside a lot!)  They have more in the Aqualillies line including eyeliner, mascara and lipstick.  I will definitely be picking these up the next time I stop in!

Aqualillies for Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Makeup