Life with George!

This boy is the life of the house! We started potty training the first of the year. He is doing very well for only being 2. He now likes to run around with only a shirt on. I have to dress a wild monkey every time we need to leave the house. 

He has decided his tool kit is also a medical kit. The nail needs to go in my ear and the screws in my eyes. He laughs so much when he is doing all this to me. 

Our entire neighborhood recently had mice in their houses. The rain drove those buggers into our houses. It was awful. Everyone was complaining. I was threatening to move out. I asked my dad if I could come stay with him, but the problem is he gets mice. I could tell some crazy mouse killing stories from the farm. 

Anyhow we caught those awful things. When Art would go to throw them out I would scream my head off. George just thought it was hysterical. He would laugh so hard. The other day I was doing laundry in the garage. I hear in the kitchen George yelling MOUSE MOUSE. I ran in there and said where is the mouse? He just started laughing. I asked him is there a mouse? He said nope. Crazy kid just wanted me to scream. 

Fixing his car with his drill and tools. He likes to help us fix things. He will come walking with his tools saying fix fix. 

He wanted to take a funny picture with our eye closed. 

He was having a grand time jumping on his new horse. He likes to get on there and fall off the sides. 

He loves to hide! He will get behind the couch cushions or under a blanket. You will hear all this laughing as he hides. Or he will tell us momma hide. I love how toddlers don't think you can see them if they can't see you. 

Him and his buddy threw all the animals out of the toy box, climbed inside and had a fun time playing. 

If I start to put the silverware away George will come running saying help help. He puts them all away in their correct place. Also if I am using the blender he pushes the chair up to the counter to do his job. He doesn't think anyone knows how to use the blender as good as he does. 

OOTD

I am all about comfort these days! Lularoe leggings are some of my favorite things to wear. They are just so soft and comfortable. It is like wearing pjs all day long, but I can leave the house. It is really dangerous when you have about 5 friends and 2 cousins who sell Lularoe. I think there is a Facebook party daily going on by one of the reps. I left all the groups at some point last year. I have slowly been added back to the groups, but I unfollowed them. Since I can't see all the posts it helps me not shop. Yeah right who I am kidding? I still end up buying stuff.  I have been trying to stick to a budget with my spending. My budget is about out for the month.....eeeks. I might be staying at home, with my internet turned off just so I stay on track. lol

Tee & Leggings: Lularoe

Cardigan: Old Navy

Cardigan & Shirt: Old Navy

Skirt: Lularoe

Boots: So old I can't remember

Tee & Cardigan: Nordstroms

Jeans: Old Navy

Sandals: Target

Wordless Wednesday

Family Fun

Last weekend we took G to Tilden Park. We had so much fun riding the carousel and visiting the farm! He loves animals. He was so happy to see the cows. Immediately when he saw them he said PA! He knows Pa has cows. When we went on the carousel he wanted to sit on the bench seats. He is not a fan of riding the animals. So we happily sat on the bench seats and waved to Da Da every time we passed him. 

I think I should print this out, put it in G book and pull it out in 13 years when he is acting ridiculous. Real life folks real life! 

Leave in Conditioner

Are you trying to use safer products for you and your family? The kids conditioner works great for adults too! I use it and love it! You can also make a leave in conditioner very easily by following the instructions below! 

#switchtosafer

http://www.beautycounter.com/arthurpost

It's Cake Day!

It is hard to believe today is 4 years since my surgery! Two days I relive each year. The day I went in for surgery and the 3 days it took to birth a baby. lol Surgery day is a shorter day for me to relive because 11 hours of it I was asleep. My life changed that day. I say a lot for the better, but reality is it changed for the worse too. A new things happened for me that I didn't experience in the past - anxiety. The unknown with having a cancer. 

Each year I celebrate January 18 with cake. Last year I struggled with the day. I didn't really even acknowledge the day. Last year was really hard dealing with it all. This year I went out to Whole Foods to find a gluten free cake. I took G with me which was probably not a good idea. He was pointing and yelling about all the cakes he wanted me to buy. I finally found him a box of crackers, so I could pick out something. I found some chocolate cake bites. 

Now listen I didn't even eat cake or ice cream on my birthday last year. Unheard of! Well I am not going to let another year go by where I don't celebrate another year of my life WITH cake! lol

I decided 2017 was going to be a year where we don't live waiting for a health crisis. I am not going to a million doctor appointments. I am not going to stress about test results every few months. I am just going to let cancer become a blip on my radar a couple times a year. 

I am thankful I don't have to wake up at 4:30am tomorrow to head to the hospital. I am thankful I won't wake up at 9:30pm tomorrow in the worst pain of my life. Childbirth didn't even compare to that pain. Maybe because I knew with childbirth I could get drugs that would numb it all AND I would have a sweet baby in the end. I am thankful for right now my cancer is stable. I am thankful my little miracle boy came after all this cancer ruckus! 

This year I am going to eat all the cake bites I bought with my little George, laugh and soak in the minutes of another amazing year with cancer! 

Water Tip!

I made this water a couple days ago! Sometimes I actually struggle to get in all my water. It's a rare thing, but it happens. My family always comments how much water they go through when I visit. My dad said a 5 gallon jug of water will last him 2-3 weeks. When I am visiting it lasts a couple days. 

If you struggle to drink water try throwing some fruit in. I sliced up 1 lemon, sliced 3-4 strawberries and a couple junks of pineapple. I put all the fruit in a pitcher, filled it with filtered water and put it in the fridge over night. The next day the water was ready to go. I will up my 30 ounce container 3-4 times a day. The goal is to get in 60 ounces of water by lunch time. The rest of the day I just sip on water. 

Let me know if you try this and how you like it. You can use any fruit you like or have on hand. 

No More Excuses!

I love using the app TimeHop. I love seeing pictures and comments on Social Media from 1-8 years back. The pictures of G always make me smile. I was looking at the pictures as I was walking on the treadmill the other day. I was shocked to see the picture on the left pop up. Holy cow! At times I don't feel I have lost that much weight or changed that much until I see some pictures. 

I took the picture on the left for a weight loss challenge I was doing 2 years ago. At the time I felt I looked pretty good. I had lost 25 pounds after having G. I felt like garbage though! There were times I wasn't sure how I was going to make it. My body felt seriously awful! I recently wrote some blog posts about how awful I was. I wasn't even sure I wanted to join that challenge because I was returning to work full time with a baby, I was exhausted, and who had time to add in trying to lose weight. I did it anyhow. I am glad I joined because it really helped push me to get back to being healthier. 

After I finished walking on the treadmill I decided I should take a picture of now. Seeing the pictures side by side really made me see the difference in how much weight I have lost in 2 years. I have lost 45 pounds and 38 inches. I no longer feel like garbage and my skin is so clear. I would say my skin hasn't ever been this clear since childhood. I have struggled with acne for 20+ years. I feel it has cleared up because I eat clean and use safe products. 

I have all the excuses in the world to not exercise and eat healthy. I could use my cancer or MS as an excuse. There are days I would rather just order take out food because I don't feel like cooking; Instead they are all reasons to exercise and eat healthy because I want to see G grow up! 

I started with taking small steps to getting healthier. Over the past 2 years it has really shown. Each day is a new beginning for you to take steps to become a healthier you! 

Disney on Ice

Would you like discounted tickets to see Disney on Ice?

You have the chance to get 25% off your tickets by using the code MOM

Here is the link to make reservations. 

Disney on Ice will be in San Jose, CA February 22-26

and in Oakland, CA March 1-5.

If you would like tickets to other cities check out the schedule HERE to see if they will be near you. 

I can't wait to take George again. He has loved Disney on Ice since he was a few months old. I think he will like it a lot more this year, since he is really into Mickey Mouse. 

Pranksters!

These two are so silly! They love to watch bloopers on YouTube, Facebook or anywhere they can find them. G refers to them as "oh no's". When people fall he will say oh no! If Art asks him do you want to watch "oh no's" he runs over to see what is happening. 

The problem is both of them love to pull pranks on me. I get scared by both of them when I walk into a dark room. One of them usually jumps out yelling. Thankfully there is a flashlight on my phone, so I have been using it to avoid jumping out of my skin. Art bought a bunch of fake mice and rats. He loves to leave them around. The other day he left one under the sink. I opened the cupboard and gasp. Then I realized it was one of those stupid fake rats. 

G got his little friend the other day with his fake spider. He threw it on her back as they were playing. He was cracking up laughing as she was screaming her head off. 

Wordless Wednesday

Widmer World A Must See!!!

If you live in Nor Cal next year add Widmer World in Pleasanton to your list of places to visit! It is adorable! We went to visit Widmer World on December 23 with our friends. George loved it! He is so good about waiting in line to get into places. They also had Santa, so George was so excited to see Ho one more time. The line to tour the back yard was about a 15 minute wait. It was well worth the wait. 

This place has their entire backyard set up with numerous Christmas displays. One display had Dept 56 houses, another had all Disney characters, santas, snowmen etc. It was a huge backyard for California standards and it was jam packed! The owners said it takes them at least 2 months to set up the entire backyard. 

Put your Health 1st in 2017!

My life was changed in May 2016 when I was encouraged to start eating Paleo by my doctor. I was having so many health issues. I honestly thought within a couple years I would need a cane or wheel chair. I felt horrible! I could barely go for a walk without needing to rest for a couple days. I was barely able to get the normal daily tasks done. Chasing a toddler was extremely exhausting. 

The thought of never eating bread or dairy again was very overwhelming. I am German and Italian....seriously no pasta or bread? Do you know how I was raised? I was raised on flour based foods. Then I remembered when I did the HCG diet. I lost 80 pounds not eating foods with flour. I felt really great when I was doing certain stages of that diet which didn't have gluten or dairy. If I was able to do it before, so I could do it again. 

I had my entire grocery list made out on a Thursday when I was encouraged to change my diet. I told my doctor ok well I guess I will go home and make a whole new grocery list. And I did! I totally changed what I fed myself and my family. I am not going to make different meals for George or Art. If it wasn't healthy for me to be eating all these things then my toddler maybe shouldn't be eating those things either. 

During this time I came across Dr. Wahls. Another life changing event. I started following the Wahls Protocol. As I would read her book I just couldn't imagine how my body would even start to heal with just foods. I was willing to take the chance. If it worked for her then it might help me. She was a lot worse off then I was, but I felt my health was headed to a bad place like Dr. Wahls experienced. 

Fast forward to the present. Eating the Paleo diet has not changed my cancer at all. I have actually had additional growth on some of the cancer spots. My MS has changed drastically. If you have read previous posts and new posts that will be coming out you will see my fitness level has greatly improved. Right now I can see my life not needing a cane or wheel chair. 

Over Christmas I ate some non-Paleo food items. Oh boy! Usually I am SUPER careful about what I eat. I decided to allow myself to eat somethings I liked in the past. Lesson learned it isn't worth it. My body was achy, stomach hurt, bloating, and just feeling like garbage. I can't do dairy period! 

If you have any health issues I HIGHLY recommend you try eating the Paleo diet! It really has been life changing for me. I will say the first 4-6 weeks were super hard. It got boring trying to figure out what I could eat and getting sick of the same things. I felt I wouldn't be able to ever eat out at a restaurant. Over the past few months I have been able to change recipes to make them Paleo friendly. When a recipe calls for milk I use coconut milk. When it calls for butter I use ghee. Flour - I use tapioca starch or almond flour. You slowly start to learn what substitutes for things. You also learn to look ahead at menus and pick items you can eat when you eat out. You can ask them to hold certain ingredients and let them know your food allergies. 

Some people are able to add cheese and rice back into their diets without experiencing any problems. I think it all depends on your health and body. I can't add those things back in. I tried and it didn't work for me. I don't think you can expect to see a huge difference in how you feel within a couple days. When I look back to how I felt in April of 2016 to how I feel in December 2016 it is night and day. 

Getting to a healthy place isn't a sprint. You have to take it like a marathon. Slow and steady. 

1. Start to get some sleep! Your body needs sleep badly! So many people don't sleep properly. You need 7-9 hours of sleep each night. If you aren't able to sleep at night try to get a little nap. A 20 minute nap for me really helped heal my body. I use to nap 4-6 days a week for about 20-30 minutes. Now I rarely nap. I still love my Sunday afternoon nap while listening to a football game. Something so calming about those naps. 

2. Change the foods you eat! If you are eating processed food and feel terrible...shocker it's probably because it is processed. How can you expect your body to process these foods? If it has a package of dry ingredients did that come from a field? That is going to sit in your body for who knows how long trying to figure out how to process it. I could go on and on about this. 

3. Exercise! Even if it's for 20 minutes a few times a week. Find something you like. Take your kids for a walk to feed the ducks that crappy bread you shouldn't be eating. lol YouTube has a lot of free workouts. I love Chris Freytag workouts. You can find a lot of them on YouTube. 

4. Start reading the labels of the products you use. Look up ingredients on products to figure out exactly what is in the product. If your lotion has some strange things listed on it google those words. You will probably find out you are putting harmful chemicals on your body. 

You can't jump into this all head first. I did things slowly. I did the food, sleep, exercise and then products. I still struggle with sleep. It is midnight and here I am writing a blog post. Tomorrow I will probably need a nap. MS is a killer for messing with your sleep. Sometimes sleep aids work and something they don't. 

BeautyCounter Cream Blusher!

The winter sale is going on through this week! Don't miss out on stocking up on some of your favorite products for a discounted price. If you are a Band of Beauty Member you can also receive a free cream blusher with a purchase of $100 or more. I love these blushers! I have ran three miles with the cream blusher on and it stayed put! 

Garbage Man!

One of our friends uncles works for WM. He was so kind to get G a vest, hat and a couple other WM items. G was in HEAVEN! He just thought it was the greatest stuff. He had to wear it all when he helped Art take out the garbage. My mom was in the guest room. He comes out of our room pulling a big bag of garbage from the bathroom. He yells No No Wook. It was so cute! He was so proud to show my mom he is able to take the trash out. 

Wordless Wednesday

New Year Cleaner Products!

In October 2016 I decided to make additional changes for my family health and start using safe beauty and skin care products. Earlier in the year I had changed the way me and my family ate. I slowly made changes for us. I was really overwhelmed by all the chemicals that are in our foods, cleaning products, beauty products, skin care, etc. I had to make changes slowly to avoid being completely overwhelmed. 

Consider making changes to your lifestyle by changing the products you use on your skin. BeautyCounter offers amazing products that are safe for you and your family.

Fitness

I had been telling the family all week on Christmas Eve I just wanted to go for a run. It was on my list of things that I wanted to do. I woke up early that day, did a few things around the house and headed out for a run. At first I was just going to go for 2 miles, but then I decided to do 3 at the end. 

The first mile was fine, but then I wanted to just stop after that. I started thinking of the tamales my mother-in-law was bringing over in a couple hours. That kept me going. I am not sure if that is good or bad. lol 

I ate some non-Paleo foods on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Ugh! I am not sure I will do that again in the future. I was so sick. Dairy just is awful for me. I can do sugar and gluten once in awhile, but dairy is a no go for me period! I didn't eat any gluten. I did eat corn which is something I do allow myself to have once in awhile. 

I found a paper where I had wrote down my measurements from January 1, 2015. I decided to take my measurements the other day to see how I had done. I have lost 45 pounds and 38 inches in the past 2 years. The inches is what got to me. George was only 32 inches at his last appointment. I have lost 6 additional inches than the height of George. That is just craziness!

Getting in shape is not a sprint. You have to take it one day at a time. There have been days I haven't been able to exercise. I just do what I can do each day.