Life, Love, and Veggies

Monday, October 20, 2008

Happy World Vegetarian Awareness Month!

I'm a little late on this but every year, October 1st kicks off World Vegetarian Awareness Month. This month let's celebrate life, health, and compassion!!! The simple act of choosing vegetarian meals is a powerful force for positive change — impacting ourselves, other people, animals and our Earth. Celebrating this month will be a fun way to help everyone learn about the benefits of vegetarianism, which include (taken from http://worldvegetarianday.org/index.htm):

• reducing the risk of major killers like heart disease, stroke and cancers while cutting exposure to food borne pathogens;
• offering a viable answer to feeding the world's hungry, through more efficient use of grains and other crops;
• saving animals from suffering in factory farm conditions and from painful slaughter;
• conserving vital, but limited freshwater, fertile topsoil and other precious resources;
• preserving irreplaceable ecosystems, such as rainforests and other wildlife habitats;
• mitigating the ever-expanding environmental pollution of animal agriculture; and the list goes on.

So, have a great October! Experiment with a new meatless meal and eat A LOT of veggies!!! Yeah, veggies!

FYI: The picture above is of our CSA share, this week. I love fall!

Sunday, October 5, 2008

When You Wish Upon A Star...

When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires will come to you

If your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme

When you wish upon a star as dreamers do

(Fate is kind, she brings to those who love

The sweet fulfillment of their secret longing)

Like a bolt out of the blue, fate steps in and sees you thru

When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.

Our wish (and prayer) was for our family to come together safely and have a marvelous time at Disney. Our wish definitely came true! We were all healthy and got there and back safely. It was amazing!

Here are a few of my most "magical" moments from the vacation:

1. Seeing our family for the first time and getting a huge round of hugs. (We like to hug in our family.) :-)

2. Watching Olivia (dressed as Belle on formal night) tap a little boy (dressed in a shorts suit) on the shoulder and ask him to dance. He accepted and they spun around a few times holding hands. It was soooo cute!

3. Seeing fireworks shot out of the smokestack of the Disney Wonder. It's the only ship that has a fireworks show.

4. Listening to the horn and chime on the ship. It was the first 7 notes of "When you wish upon a star."

5. Watching Olivia meet Belle for the first time and have her picture made with her.

6. Watching Mary Poppins outside on the cruise ship in the middle of the ocean with a nice breeze...and enjoying it with Jess, Mom, Dad, Olivia and Stephen. That was magic!

7. After the last production on the ship (called Dreams), Tinker Bell showered the ship with pixie dust (they showed it on a video screen), then the ceiling of the theatre began to sparkle spreading from the front to the back. That was a WOW moment!

8. Running into Shelly in the bathroom at the Magic Kingdom and giving her a big squeeze! Also, seeing Olivia and Kalei play together, again. They were so happy!!! Seeing Alice so shy about her Aunt Julie. I'll get a hug from you next time, Alice.

9. Watching Olivia throw down on the dance floor in Germany with her cousin Patrick. They held hands and frequently embraced. Those embraces often ended up with them on the ground. They were into hugging and falling together. :-)

10. Watching Stephen LOVE Epcot. He was just giddy after riding in the front of the Monorail!!! He loved every bit of Epcot. Well, except the Universe of Energy. :-)

11. Riding Soarin' with the family including Olivia. That was the coolest ride! Flying above California was awesome!!!!

12. Riding bikes together on Castaway Cay.

13. Seeing Olivia light up when every "Cast Member" called her Princess.

14. Eating a ton of awesome Vegetarian food that I didn't have to prepare!!

I'm sure I forgot a few. The whole trip was absolute Magic. Being with our family is what we loved the most! Enjoy the Disney tunes while you check out our pictures.

P.S.- When you are ready to book your Disney vacation just give me a call. I can book it for you! :-)

Monday, September 22, 2008

Belle

Thank goodness I didn't order that Mermaid costume a few weeks, ago. Man, Olivia's tastes can change at the blink of an eye. For about a year, Olivia has been totally enthralled with everything mermaids. She didn't want to be a chef or a dancer or a softball player when she grew up. Those things were nice but not as cool as being a mermaid. I read her The Little Mermaid about 50 times and kept re-checking it out from the library. Well, all of that is out the window. I kept seeing pictures of little girls at formal night on the cruise wearing Princess dresses. I just knew there would be a lot of tears, if Olivia wasn't wearing one, also. So, we walked into the Disney Store....look it's Ariel's dress, and Cinderella's dress, and Snow White's. She passed all those by and went straight for the Belle dress. I kept asking if she was SURE she wanted Belle and not Ariel. I was soooooo confused. Apparently, Olivia and Kalei have a connection more than we thought because Kalei also got a Belle dress. I promise I didn't tell Olivia that Kalei was going to be Belle, too. All Stephen has been hearing is "Daddy, will you be the Beef?" That makes me laugh every time. We worked on pronunciation of Beast, last night. haha. I snapped a few shots of "Belle" in her new ball gown. It was Olivia's idea to pose with a book and the empty VCR case. haha. The more I see her in the dress, the more I just love it. I think it is the most beautiful of all the Princess dresses or maybe I'm just biased because I've seen it on my Olivia.
We'll be on vacation for a while, so this is a preview of Disney pictures to come.

From New Album 9/22/08 3:36 PM

Twisties and Gems, Please.

In preparation for our trip to Disney, Olivia and I got haircuts. It had only been 4 1/2 mos!!! We needed a little pampering. :-) Olivia had a new hairstylist, this time. Same salon but new stylist. She did an awesome job. She gave Olivia the choice of how she wanted her hair styled. Braids, pulled back, twisties, bows, butterflies, and gems. After a few seconds of thought, Olivia said "Twisties and gems, please." I had no idea what twisties were. I was a little scared. I think she made a great choice. It was nice to have her hair completely out of her face. I could see those big brown eyes and that beautiful smile. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She has become quite the photographer, so she insisted that I needed a picture of my haircut. She makes me feel so special.

From New Album 9/17/08 2:32 PM

Friday, September 19, 2008

Grandaddy Myron

My Grandaddy was sick, last week, and had to go into the hospital for some tests. He's feeling better, now, though still low on energy. He gave us all a good scare! Olivia and I decided we should send him something to make him smile. So, we e-mailed him a special card. Well, Mom told me yesterday that he never got the pictures. I decided to post them on our Blog. I heard that he has viewed the Blog. So, Grandaddy...this is for you!

From New Album 9/17/08 2:32 PM

Monday, September 15, 2008

A Day In The Life of Olivia...

I decided to do a picture journal of one of Olivia's typical days. Just looking at the pictures makes me feel so blessed. I love being a mom and getting to be at home with Olivia. I'm pretty sure Olivia loves it, too. I think I might have to take pictures of her doing her chores everyday. You wouldn't believe how easy it was to get her to brush her teeth and comb her hair!!!! She is not one to shy away from a picture and that extra incentive just really got her moving through her duties.

A must for every morning is dressing up. Today, she was a ballerina!

We covered most of the day but forgot to take the camera into Spinning class at the Gym. Olivia accompanies me and is my personal trainer. "Faster, Mommy! Faster, Mommy!" She will often point out how fast other people's wheels are spinning and if I'm pedaling really fast, she'll give me a thumbs up! Watching her while I work out, really does make me work harder. I want to set a good example for her.

Here is A Day in the Life of Olivia...

Friday, September 12, 2008

Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

Olivia and I decided to make some cookies after dinner, last night. To encourage her to cook/bake with me...I tell her the best thing about cooking is that you get to taste what you make before anyone else. Olivia enjoyed the perks of baking last night. The picture says it all...I love chocolate! The cookies were yummy. I subbed Stevia for half the sugar and subbed applesauce for half the oil. They weren't perfect but they were baked with love by Olivia and I, so that's all that matters. I love my little sidekick! Don't you just wanta pinch those cute cheeks!